How to START Making MONEY With Your SIDE HUSTLE! | Chris Guillebeau Interview

What's up, Believe Nation? Welcome to another Google Hangout. Super excited to be here with my friend Chris Guillebeau. He is a— I don't know how many times— best-selling author. The guy's traveled all over the world multiple times, an awesome dude, and he's got a new book that just came out called Side Hustle: From Idea to Income in 27 Days. Chris, welcome back, man.

Hey, man. Thanks for having me back.

So quickly, for the people who don't know, That much about you yet. The people live under the rock, give us like the quick intro to Chris Guillebeau.

Awesome, man. Uh, well, thanks. I'm an author, traveler, entrepreneur. I'm fortunate to have an amazing community of folks all over the world. Um, I had a project where I visited every country in the world, uh, for about 11 years. And out of that project, I started my blog, The Art of Nonconformity. Uh, I did a book tour to all 50 states, and that led to a book called The $100 Startup. And, uh, latest book is called Side Hustle. So great folks out there. I love to connect with people and help however I can.

And so the premise behind Side Hustle is you don't need to quit your job to start your own thing on the side.

Yes.

And I think I've heard you say everybody should have their own side hustle. Is that right?

Everybody should have a side hustle, even if you're an entrepreneur. I think everyone should have more than one source of income. And I wrote this book because I kept hearing from people who maybe weren't ready to be entrepreneurs right away, or they actually liked their job, you know, they were happy working for the right company or organization or working for an entrepreneur, but they wanted to have more than one source of income because that's good for all sorts of reasons. So wanted to just basically create a process that people could follow, like a 27-day process, uh, that just shows the, just shows the essentials. Like not a bunch of stuff that you don't need, but here's what you just need to do to create an asset for yourself. Not a part-time job, not driving for Uber, but something that actually pays you real money.

Right. And one of the things I love about your books is it's always, it's always chock full of practical tips. Like every chapter is stuff you can actually use. It's not just talking in theory. It's like, here's exactly what you can do to get to the goal that you have.

That's the goal.

I mean, that's the goal.

I mean, I don't want to just be like, follow your dreams, you know? Like, I feel like people have their own dreams. Like, you don't need me or anybody else to tell you what your dream is, but I think people need like a stepping stone. They need a path. They need like, okay, here's what I can do next to get closer to freedom, which is ultimately I think what everybody wants, uh, you know, whatever career path you're on, to have options, to have choice, to be able to do what's important to you. Uh, so yes, if I can help practically, logistically get people to that point to where they can make their own decisions, then that's, that's my goal.

I love it. So, so what are some, what are some of those practical steps? I want to start a side hustle. Maybe I'm an entrepreneur, I mean, I'm in a job and I want to I want to start my business or my side hustle. What are some of the things I have to think about?

Sure, sure. Well, I've got it broken down into like a 5-week process, basically. So the first week is all about ideas, about how to generate ideas. Now, a lot of your folks who are watching, maybe they're like really good at that already. They have plenty of ideas. Um, but I've noticed that when people are getting started, sometimes they're like, well, I hear this idea for somebody else, but I don't know like what I'm good at. I don't know what skill I have that I could apply in this entrepreneurial world. So I'm trying to help people like learn the power of observation. Uh, and then in the second week, it's all about selecting the best idea. Okay, you got like 5 ideas. How do you know which one is best for you right now? So there's an intuitive process called the Side Hustle Selector. Takes about 10 minutes, really quick and easy to go through. Uh, week 3 is all about logistics and preparing to launch and like, what do you need? What are the deliverables? How do you make the website you need? All that kind of stuff. Week 4 is about launch and debut, like probably before you feel ready. Like your validation comes through experimentation with the marketplace, not through some advanced kind of thing you do. You know, far in advance. Uh, and then week 5 is all about regroup and refine. Like, once it's out there, what happens next? Like, is it a big success? Is it a big failure? Most likely— and this has been my experience, I'd be curious about yours— most likely there's like a third option where you put something out and it's not a huge success, but it's also not a huge failure. It kind of works, sort of. And so then how do you know what to do next? Like, how do you tweak it? How do you change something about it so that it can become more successful? That's the general process.

People are picking up on the Uber comment you made about Uber is not a side hustle. So how would you define the side hustle and why is Uber not a side hustle?

Great. Great. Yeah, no, I'm happy to talk about that. So, um, it's not a, it's not an attack on Uber. It's just, um, I think driving for Uber or Lyft or any of that kind of, kind of thing, it's a, it's a good part-time job. All right. Like we've all had part-time jobs in our life. Nothing wrong with that. Um, but ultimately those companies, they control everything about that ecosystem. They can, they can cap your compensation. They can control the amount of competition. They set all the rules. If they don't like you, they can kick you off, etc. So basically, as I said, it's a good part-time job. What I'm trying to, trying to help people do is create assets. I'm trying to help them create something that can earn money for them potentially while they're doing something else. You know, I get emails from people who are like, you know, I set up this little product or this little service even though I never thought about being an entrepreneur, and then I'm going about my day job and I get like a little ping on my phone and it's like a sale. Like, I'm doing something totally different, but somebody has just sent me money via PayPal. Or I go to bed at night and I wake up and I can log into a website and see like money has come in. So that's what I'm trying to help people do.

Got it, I love it. Well, the chat is blowing up, guys. If you have questions for Chris, then the time we have, leave in the chat. It's easier for me to see if you tag me so it stands out from all the other comments. Uh, Arm the Creative is asking about Amazon. Okay, if you consider Amazon to be a side hustle, it's like, where do we— because you don't own anything but you're buying and selling, what do you Yeah, I need to define the line here.

Yeah, I know I've got some folks out there. I've got a bunch of people that I profiled in the book, and I also have a daily podcast, Side Hustle School. Every day I'm telling a different story of, you know, somebody who is an employee who goes out and creates one of these kind of projects. So some people are doing like a Fulfilled by Amazon model or a Merch by Amazon. I profiled somebody last year who made something like $18,000 in a month selling t-shirt designs using Merch by Amazon, which which is really interesting because she doesn't actually have to have any inventory. So basically she doesn't take any risks. She's just uploading designs and she figured out a way to kind of game the formula to make $18,000 or whatever in a month. So yes, I mean, that is somebody else's platform. Ultimately they can take it away, but still, you know, $18,000 a month is a bit different than what you're gonna get driving for Uber.

Right, and I guess the idea is you're still building a system, where Uber, you're just taking orders. You get to go when you want, but it is more like a part-time job.

Right, exactly.

I like that. Uh, Ray Espinoza is asking, I want my side hustle to be my main hustle. Do you have any tips and advice for that?

Great. Yeah, of course. Um, I've got a lot of people in that category as well. Um, I always encourage people, you know, start where you are, right? You want your side hustle to be your main hustle. That's fine. Um, do whatever you can to actually build a foundation so that you are able to take that risk. So I never tell people to like leap without a net. You know, what I tell them to do is build a net. Like, let's build a safety net wherever you are, whatever situation you are in life, so that you have options, right? And so I think the time to consider, you know, when to go from side hustle to main hustle is, is when you're at that point where you can kind of safely predict you're going to have a certain amount of income, you know, for the next 3 to 6 months or whatever. Maybe it's not going to go on forever, you don't know all your assumptions, but you feel comfortable in being able to say like, okay, for the next 3 to 6 months, you know, this is going to work for me. And also, if I spent more time on this side hustle, could I make more money? You know what I mean?

I love all the people asking clarifying questions around what side hustle is. You sparked the chord here. So, so the next line of question people coming up with is around investing. Like, is investing a side hustle? Well, how do you define that?

Well, I mean, I guess it could be. I guess the challenge is— so let's go back to my model. My model is like, start where you are with the skills you have, um, without spending a ton of time or a ton of money. So can investing be a side hustle? Sure. And just like real estate investing is like the classic, you know, multiple streams of income thing. The problem is, like, to be an investor, you have to have capital, right? And I know there's probably somebody's going to say, oh, there's a way to invest without capital, but for the most part, those are things that either require a lot of capital or require a lot of risk, one of those two things. So if you can, you know, start something without capital or risk, wouldn't that be better? That's kind of my perspective. Got it.

Uh, Joanne is going off topic, but she says that she loves the color of your eyes.

Oh, thank you, Joanne. I love you too. I can't see Joanne's eyes, but I'm sure your eyes are beautiful too.

I love it. Um, Mohammed is asking about motivation. So how do you— I mean, it's got to be hard. You, you have a full-time job, you've got other responsibilities. How do you find the motivation to every day put in that time to do your side hustle?

Sure, yeah. I think first you need to choose a side hustle that you are excited about. So it's not so much like follow your passion, but I, I do believe like, you know, we all have things we have to do in life. We have stuff, stuff you have to do for your job, and that's fine. But when it comes to this, like, you want to be something that you're actually like actively looking forward to and like, okay, I'm going to get home from work and might be tired, but instead of watching that show on Netflix or whatever, I am going to spend like 30 minutes making a little bit of progress on that. So I think that's important.

Do you have a recommendation for how long they should be spending? Like, you say you should check the box every day, spend at least 15 minutes, half an hour, or—

Yeah, I think it kind of depends on the person and the project, but I do tend to think that, you know, consistent action Over time is better than trying to like front load everything, you know, 2 days a month or something like that. Uh, and I also encourage people to, to identify what they're going to do before they start doing it. Uh, cause if you're a busy person, you don't have much time, like you got 20 minutes a day or whatever. That's why I have the 27-step plan. It's like, okay, day 1, do this day 2, do this. Uh, because if you don't have that goal identified, like before you sit down to work for half an hour or whatever time you have, like you can waste half an hour very easily doing all kinds of stuff. Right.

So people are liking the Amazon example you shared earlier. Are there other examples? I mean, guys, pick up the book, which we probably linked it up in the description below, but any other like quick examples you have of what a side hustle looks like?

Yeah. Okay. So Amazon specifically or different stuff or what?

No, in general, like people just kind of still curious around what do you mean by side hustle? What does that mean?

All right. Let me give two, let me give two examples. So the book actually begins with a story of this British guy and he's really into fish. Like fish and fish tanks, that's his thing. So 3 years ago, he creates a little blog, like super simple WordPress blog with reviews of fish tanks, which kind of makes sense because if you're gonna buy a fish tank, like you're gonna type, you know, fish tank reviews, you're gonna figure out which one is the best one. So he makes this site in a weekend and he actually does connect this to Amazon's affiliate program. Just, you know, if people click through, he gets a commission. So there's a whole story, but the short version or the end of that story is, you know, 3 years have gone by, he hasn't done anything else for that website, but every month he's getting a check for about $700. So $700, you know, you can't live off of that, but if it's $700 a month that you're not doing anything for, that's pretty amazing, right? You can pay a lot of bills with that. So that is, that is a side hustle in my opinion, because he's built an asset. Second story, there's a woman who's a marketing director for a company in Florida, and she wanted to give her, her clients personalized candy hearts one year. Like these, you know, candy hearts that say like, "Be mine," or "I love you," or whatever. She wanted to personalize them with her clients' names. So she went searching and didn't find a lot of great options. There was like one company on page 6 of Google or something. So the long story short for her is she decided, I'm gonna figure out how to do this myself. So over the course of the next year and a half, she starts this side hustle. She's a marketing director, so she figures out how to actually present her offer and get listed on the first page of Google and all that stuff. And now 2 years in, this side hustle is actually making 6 figures. That's making $100,000 a year or more. And it's a seasonal side hustle because all the orders come in like between January and mid-February, basically. And in her case, she's actually decided to keep her job because she's like, I like my job, I like the people I work with, but I also have this incredible security plan. So if something ever changed in my job, well, you know, now I've got something else that I can do. So I think people do this for all kinds of different reasons, but those examples and the Amazon example, it's, it's about creating an asset for yourself.

Got it. And so if you then decide that this side hustle is a thing you want to, you know, quit your job and go all in on, do you then start another side hustle afterwards?

I tend to think everybody needs a side hustle, man, because it's, it's not just about the money. Like, I hear over and over just how empowering it is for people. It's like, it's empowering to just start a project and to get paid for it. Like, if anybody watching has never experienced that, would really encourage you. It's not about the specific amount of money. If you've never been paid apart from your paycheck You need to start something so that, you know, within a month somebody sends you $40 or something. It just feels really good. So I think, I think the empowerment is important. I think a lot of people do this for a different creative process, or like, I do one thing for my job, but then there's something else I do that I'm excited about, and it's not just a hobby, it's something that also pays me money. So I think everybody needs a side hustle.

Do you think we should ever even have a main thing, or should we just be a collection of constant evolving 4 to 5 side hustles?

Yeah, that's great. Um, I, I— here's how I see it, you know, in your life, if you have, if you have a mission, if you have a vision, like if you have identified that one thing that you're supposed to do, then go and do that and don't let me or anybody else distract you from it, right? I think that's, I think that's important. I think though there's a lot of people that don't really fit that category. There's a lot of people who like to do a bunch of different stuff, or maybe we're on a journey and eventually we're going to find the one single thing we're going to do. So in the meantime, why not mix it up? Why not try, you know, do some different projects? So I think in the entrepreneurial world, there's a lot of focus on like, you know, making sure your idea is sustainable, making sure your idea is scalable, all that kind of stuff. The side hustle perspective, at least mine, is like, if you see money lying under a rock, you should pick it up. You don't have to ask too many questions about it, right? Like, if it's there, why not do it? It's going to give you more options. And then later, if you have that incredible vision for your life to go to Mars or whatever, then focus on that and don't do anything else. Got it.

So Christian is asking if you can talk about some of your side hustles present and what your first side hustle was.

Okay. Okay. So, um, yeah, like you were just saying, Evan, my life is actually a collection of side hustles and has always been, you know, for better or worse. Um, I realized about, you know, 20 years ago, I'm almost 40. I realized that, uh, I was basically unemployable and I had to find a way to like, you know, make a living somehow, ethically, legally. So my first side hustle, uh, was selling on eBay and other online auctions, which had just come out. And at the time, it was really interesting because online auctions were like totally new. And nobody— it was like they had value just because they were online auctions. It was weird. You could go and buy stuff at the store and then sell it on eBay and people would pay more for it because it was like fun or unique or something. So I figured that out a little bit. I imported coffee from Jamaica, I resold it. Did a bunch of stuff like that for a couple of years. And that led to a lot of other things. I did stuff with Google AdWords, AdSense. I learned about affiliate marketing. Information products, all that kind of stuff. And the thing is, I used that to, to support my lifestyle. So I wasn't like building a huge company, but I was living debt-free. I was able to do things I believed in. I was an aid worker for about 4 years in West Africa. All that was supported by side hustling. Then I began the project to go to every country in the world, which I've written about on my blog and in a book. All that was supported by different kinds of side hustles. And then, you know, now I have this career as an author, but I I kind of have, you know, a few different careers. So I have my author career, I have the daily podcast, you know, 7 days a week, like every single day this year producing that. So that takes, that takes some time. Um, I'm in the middle of a big tour. I'm doing about a 100-city tour right now, so I'm home at the moment but gonna go back on the road right after the holidays. Um, I do a few other things. I mean, I like to, I just like to start projects.

Would you consider your writing to be a side hustle for you now?

I would consider that to be my main thing, actually. If I had to pick one thing, I would say I'm an author, but I wouldn't want to pick one thing because I like to do more than one thing.

Right. And how much are you writing?

I am— that's a fair question. I'm actually writing less than I was a couple of years ago because of the podcast and because of some other stuff. So I mean, I still have a book out every year and a half to 2 years, but I'm definitely writing a lot less on my blog.

Right. Okay. That's a lot of hustle to get a book out every year and a half, 2 years. Is it time?

Oh man, I love it. It's fun. You know how it goes. You know how— I mean, you've had a lot of experience.

Yeah, yeah, I like it. It's interesting. I'm just curious how you, uh, see the side hustles evolving in your life, in your career.

Yeah, but see, I mean, I've watched all your— I've seen all your videos. Like, I always wonder, like, how do you do all that stuff? I mean, you hustle so much, but that's, that's obviously— that's your thing, right? It's your passion. It's what you've chosen to invest in. It's not your— not just your passion, it's also your skill. Like, that's, that's how you're kind of changing the world. So I think when you find that thing where you feel like you're changing the world and you have impact, then you're just motivated to do it more, right?

Yeah, I'm just curious how I would define it for myself. Like, I, I do YouTube one full day a week and, and then another filming day per month.

Okay.

Uh, and then it's on my, on my mind and brain.

All the rest is like editing and stuff.

Well, I have my team to do that, but the rest is— I have another two businesses that I'm invested in and running and helping operations and mentoring. And, and then I have a whole day of just doing this kind of stuff, interviews. And I guess it falls under YouTube, but when I'm on somebody else's show, it's just more brand building. So I don't know, is YouTube my side hustle?

Or I don't know, it doesn't matter. You know, do you have to categorize everything in your life? Basically, I think like if you're doing something you love and it's, it's working and it matters to people, do more of that.

Yeah, I like it. I like it. Um, Michael is asking, Chris, how is your work different than the 4-Hour Workweek? Is it different or complementary?

Um, I would say it's somewhat different, somewhat complementary. I mean, Tim is a friend of mine. We spent some time together. But I haven't been really influenced by his work. I don't read a lot of other business books, so it's no disrespect to him or anyone else. I mostly read kind of outside my own space just so I can make sure I have a bit of an original voice. So I guess I can only speak from my experience and then like the 10 years that I've spent like traveling the world, interviewing lots of people, starting different projects.

Yeah, I think, I think that he's seen the tie-in there of the idea of working 4 hours a week and creating a passive income kind of business was the premise of that book.

Sure.

But, um, Interesting. Okay, The Lot is writing in to say, what if your idea requires knowledge that you don't yet have?

Generally speaking, I think it's best to choose an idea that you already do have the knowledge in. Generally speaking, like there's some exceptions, but I would say like I go on the road a lot and I ask people like, what's your idea? And people are like, hey, I want to make an app. And I'm like, you know, why do you want to make an app? They're like, because I heard apps are good. I'm like, okay, are you a coder? Are you a programmer? Like, nope. Like, maybe you should do something else. Like, maybe there's actually something else that you're really good at, that you have a skill that's, you know, instead of going down that road. So I guess that's the first thing. Um, but if you do have, you know, but I don't have the knowledge, then, you know, then you've got a couple of choices. Like, is there a rudimentary amount of knowledge that you can acquire that will allow you to, you know, move forward? Do you need to hire somebody or partner with somebody to do that? But I guess generally speaking, why not play to your strengths?

Right. Kimberly is saying, uh, Chris, for stay-at-home mom side hustles with limited time to spare, do you have suggestions on what I should do?

Yeah, I mean, I feature a lot of stay-at-home moms and stay-at-home dads on the show. There's one I'm thinking of, I think her name is Heather from California. She, uh, she started this, uh, private label, um, brand of wine called Stressed Mommy. So, which is kind of self-explanatory, right? She's like, I'm a stressed mom, and you know, private labeling wine. She doesn't have to have her own vineyard. Basically, there's just— all she has to do is get the labels, and there's a company that does the fulfillment and all that. So she was able to create a brand, um, you know, with a short amount of time and without spending a lot of money. So I think there's, there's things that you can do. Yeah.

And, and somebody's full-time hustle might be a parent. Doesn't have to mean they have a job, right?

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. For sure.

Um, Shana Marie— I hope I pronounced that okay— is asking about Should you do a side hustle by yourself, or is it better to do it with a team or a partner?

I'd be curious to know what your answer to that is. Um, I would say people do it in different ways. Um, I do feature some partnership stories, but I would say it's kind of like the app thing and the knowledge thing. Like, unless you have a really good reason for why it should be a partnership, I think you should do it on your own. Because I also hear a lot of stories about partnerships that get formed, and then inevitably, like, one person is more invested, more, you know, emotionally excited, motivated about the project. And so that kind of creates an imbalance as you go, go along. So I would say, you know, get help from people, get advice from people, but unless you have a really good reason to partner, do it yourself.

Yeah, I think, uh, I think people jump into partnerships too quickly just based off of skills and not realizing that it's much more values fit that you have to identify, right? It's just like getting married. Like, you're gonna spend a lot of time with this person, right? You want to make sure you're marrying the right person, that you have good values together, and not just Do they check the box of these things? Right. Um, so I don't think people spend enough time. I think, I think the way that I give advice around partnerships is you start a tiny little one, a tiny little side hustle or project together, right? Like before launching into a business, do one small thing together and see, can you work it out?

Yep.

That's good. You have a good vibe with each other. Did you enjoy that process? And then you can keep moving on to the next one. So you side hustle your way into partnerships.

That's good. I like it.

I like that. I might use that more often. Um, Salima is saying, Chris, what is the most interesting side hustle you've come across?

The most interesting side hustle. So, so I started this project on January 1st. I was like, I'm going to do a daily podcast, and again, every single day, different story of somebody who does this, you know, in less than 10 minutes. And I'm going to case study model it. I'm going to break down where they get their idea, you know, how they make it happen, what's the outcome, etc. I was a little bit worried myself because like people ask, like, did you have all 365 episodes like planned out? I'm like, no, I had like the first 20, you know, and I kind of hoped that the audience itself would basically generate all these stories. So fortunately that has happened, and I have just been amazed at like all the stuff that comes through. I mean, let's, let's go for 2 stories, um, just really quickly. There's this guy who's like dropshipping live crickets to reptile owners So, you know, basically he doesn't have to handle the crickets himself, but like he's placing, like people order crickets and like they go out across North America and et cetera. And he learned a lesson because he did actually do a little test shipment to himself and that he included instructions, but then no instructions arrived. And he learned that you can't send paper because the crickets will eat the instructions. So now he has to email the instructions, right? So that's a whole crazy thing. Then second story. See, the whole point is I'm not talking about life coaches. I'm not talking about life coaches or business strategists. Like, people just doing like interesting stuff. So the other story, this guy actually makes some serious money. This guy is also doing a dropshipping model, and he set out to like identify like what is the— what's the most unique product that can be profitable that doesn't have a lot of competition, etc. And by the way, if anybody doesn't know, dropshipping is where another company is going to basically be sending out your stuff. Like you take the orders on your website, but then somebody else does the fulfillment. Anyway, he just— he decided that bouncy castles, like bounce houses, for adults are like the niche he should go into, basically. So he did that and he created like, you know, this great bounce castle, you know, website with all these resources and stuff. He went to all the distributors and manufacturers, of which there's actually like a whole bunch of them, and partnered with them. And in about a year, this year in fact, there's a whole story on the website, he's made $300,000. So I call it the $300,000 Bouncy Castle Empire. I thought that was a pretty good story.

And now is this podcast daily still going for you?

Every single day, yep. Side Hustle School.

Wow. And how long are you committed to this?

I, we actually renewed for 2018, so I'm coming up on, you know, whatever today is, day 355 or something of the year, but we're gonna do it again every single day in 2018.

Wow, that's a ton of work.

Yeah, it's fun. It is a ton of work, but I like it.

How long is the podcast?

10 minutes or less.

Okay, okay, that's not so bad. And then every day you're featuring a different person who has a side hustle? Yep.

So I've designed it for busy people. Like, my goal is like, most people don't have time to listen to 90-minute interviews, you know, like here's all about somebody's life story and what their favorite ice cream is. Like, what do people really need to know about this? And so that's that. I make it for busy people who don't have a ton of time but want to invest in themselves.

And someone's asking what the name was. Is it Side Hustle School?

Side Hustle School. So you can go to sidehustleschool.com or just search in Apple Podcasts, iTunes for Side Hustle School.

Cool, man. That's awesome. And you started that this year?

Yep.

Nice.

Yeah, it's been really good. It's actually been interesting because it's broadened my community in a way that I really didn't expect. Like, I've been doing this for a while, my books and other stuff, but the podcast thing really has helped me reach a lot of different folks.

So, I mean, you have your authorship, you're awesome at doing that. You do a lot on Facebook, you travel like a beast. And like, every time I talk to you, I'm surprised you're home because I was expecting some hotel room. You're always in a different city promoting books and more just like meeting up with the people. You love meeting up with people in different cities. And then you started the podcast. I wonder how you rank the different activities in terms of just personal fulfillment and satisfaction of connecting with people.

I think a big part of it is the range of activities. I think I wouldn't be satisfied if I just did only one thing, you know, like I actually, like, I am super introverted. I don't mind spending a lot of time by myself. When I write my books, I kind of go into a cave and like, I just do that, you know, for weeks on end. Don't do a lot of social stuff. But then when I have the book out, you know, like I've done 40 cities, you know, in the past, uh, 2 and a half months, like different events every night, media stuff every day usually. So I like that too, but I wouldn't want to choose one or the other because I feel like I would be missing something.

You need to have multiple side hustles always.

I like it. I don't like to relax. Relaxing is what stresses me out. If I'm— if I, if I like feel like I don't have something in front of me, that bothers me.

Your new Twitter bio: relax is what stresses me out.

I like it.

Uh, Michael has a question. I think this ties in well to your podcast. He's talking about, are there any active resources that you can, uh, steer people to, to help them stay motivated on building their, their passive income and side hustle dreams?

Yeah, I mean, there's all kinds of stuff. So I mean, they should subscribe to this YouTube channel, of course, you know, uh, check out your stuff. I mean, every day you're pretty much sharing all kinds of resources. Uh, I don't know if there's a single one thing I'd point people to. Uh, on the sidehustleschool.com site, there's a resources page you can go and look, and I refer a bunch of my friends and other tools and things.

Yeah, and I think too, for anybody watching, if you find someone who you resonate with, like if you love Chris's message— this guy's been on tons of different interviews, you can go watch all his different interviews on different channels and subscribe to the podcast, and then you got a daily hit. Is it, is it 7 days a week or 5 days?

7 days.

You got 10 minutes of inspiration of a new side hustle every single day. Like, that's, that's some great motivation. And so you find the person that you really fit along well with and just consume more of them.

Exactly. And also, if you're looking for a side hustle to follow, like if you're looking for a model, you know, again, I'm featuring like regular people. They're not celebrities. They don't have like big social media followings usually, or big email lists. They do this like using the skills they already have. And so, you know, if you don't like one story, if you don't relate to one person, maybe you'll relate to the next one. That's, that's the whole idea.

Is there, is there somebody that you go to, a creator or an author or Somebody from history that when you need some inspiration or low, you go to?

Yeah, I don't know if there's a single person. Two friends of mine, I think you know Jonathan Fields. He's a good friend of mine.

Yeah, Good Life Project.

Yeah, Good Life Project, also a wonderful podcast on iTunes or everywhere else. And Gretchen Rubin's another good friend of mine, The Happiness Project and her new book, The Four Tendencies. She's also got a great podcast. So those are two of my really good friends that I talk to about stuff. As for inspiration, I tend to look more— it's not like I'm looking at some famous person or whatever. I'm more— it's more like, who's in front of me? Like, who's in my community? And I do these events, these events that I do, like the meetups and stuff, that, that really changed my life more than anything else, you know, 7 years ago when I started writing books and doing the blog and stuff. Because I would go out like across, you know, across America, across Canada, and I would, I would, you know, each night I'm meeting, meeting a different group of people. And they always had interesting stories. And that informed like everything I did after that. So I would say like Side Hustle comes— the book Side Hustle comes from, you know, a book and a tour I did a previous year called Born for This. And I went out on tour and I gave like this 30-minute talk. And maybe like for 30 minutes, I talked about side hustles for like 2 minutes. It was like an aside, a little like side point. And then afterwards, I noticed that 50% of the questions were about Side Hustle. And I was like, everybody wants to know about that. So basically all my work is informed by the community.

Right. I love it. How many days of the year are you on the road?

Uh, I don't know. I don't have a, I don't have like a number. Say it's roughly weeks off, but not really like in that fashion. Huh.

Interesting. I like it. Um, okay. This is an interesting question. Mate Rodriguez is asking if when your side hustle starts to make a lot of money and you might be making more than your parents, how to deal with that, uh, feeling of feeling bad. So it's basically feeling bad to make more money than their parents at a young age from a side hustle. And I don't know, do you have advice on that? How do you overcome that? How do you deal with that?

Yeah, I mean, it's a good problem to have. I mean, it's kind of in the category of like, how do I pay taxes on all the money I've made, you know?

Right.

Um, but I understand, I understand the concern about that, like, you know, being concerned about your parents and stuff. I guess I would try to maybe, maybe you could like, you know, show them that they're part of this. Like, like you were able to start this business because of what you learned from them and the values that they instilled in you. So Yeah, it's successful, um, but they're as much a part of the story as you are, perhaps.

That's interesting. Yeah, I think I had to make a big shift in my entrepreneurial career too to involve my wife and my son in the business, and even just them knowing what's going on so they feel connected to what's happening, whether they're in front of the camera or not. Um, that's cool. Uh, okay, so a bunch of people are asking about specific industries. So the two that keep coming up are around Do you have any examples for side hustles from athletic coaches and/or doctors? I don't know if anything comes to mind.

Okay, okay. Um, athletic coaches, I believe I did an episode about a PE coach, you know, like physical education. This dude was a full— I think he still is, I forget if he was or still is, but he's a full-time PE teacher and he created like a membership site and all these resources for other PE teachers, right? You need different exercises, activities, you know, all kinds of stuff. So he created that, and I forget how much money he's making. I don't think it's like it's a huge amount of money, but I think it's like $1,500 or $2,000 a month, which again, you know, as a side hustle is great. Um, doctors, let me think about that. I do have some, they're not coming to mind immediately, so let's keep going. I'll think of a doctor story.

All right, cool. I like it. Um, somebody's asking how many side hustles is enough.

I think it's different for different people. I think, uh, I mean, there's obviously like you cap out at some point, right? And I think it's good to, if you have a bunch of different projects, to pay attention to which ones are working and like, you know, generally spend more time on those instead of trying to bring everything up to the same, same level. But I mean, the main thing is to know yourself, and you're not going to really figure that out until you start doing different things.

Yeah, how do you— I think a lot of entrepreneurs also have entrepreneur ADD, like they just start a bunch of stuff and then never finish anything, and you don't get it to the point where they're making any money off of it.

Sure, that's a problem.

So how do you avoid that? How do you go down that road and say, oh, I'm not, I'm not into this anymore, I'm going to start this, and we're just like lighting fires everywhere but nothing ever becomes anything?

Right, right. Well, if you're in that situation, I mean, there's a couple things you could do. I think maybe, you know, committing to something for a set time period is good. You know, like, I'm not saying commit to something for the rest of your life or even a year or something, but you know, if you do find yourself constantly jumping around, maybe say, okay, you know what, for the next 45 to 60 days This is going to be my project and I'm not going to get diverted or distracted by something else. If at the end of that time period, whatever it turns out to be, then I want to do something else, okay, I'll give myself permission to do that. But I really want to give this one project a chance to succeed.

Is there a time? So you have 27 days to the book. Is that enough time?

Yeah. I mean, so 27 days, like to be clear, I'm not promising people they're going to make six figures in 27 days, but I do think it's possible, you know, to kind of start from zero and get a project up and running. And, you know, make your first sale in that time. And, and my goal with the book is, you know, anybody who follows the process or listens to the podcast, you know, they're going to be able to start a project that makes at least $500 a month, you know, consistently. And again, you can't live off of $500 a month, but you can pay a lot of bills with that, and hopefully it can go on to be much more. So I don't know that there's a specific time period. Like, people are going through the book and the process in more than 27 days or less, you know, it's up to them. But I'm just trying to provide a model and people can adapt it however they want.

What do you say? So for people who read the book and they go through it and you go week by week, 27 days, okay, great. I'm, I have my opportunity to hopefully make $500 a month extra or more. What's next? Like, what do I take it afterwards? What's the next year or 2 years look like? Is it just constant recycling of the 27 cycle or is it?

No, I think, you know, so the last part of the cycle is like refining, you know, and, you know, tweaking and growing and expanding. And if this is, if this is your thing and it is taking off, and there's so much more you can do with it. It's usually much easier to make more money with an existing business than it is to start a new one. So if you have a business that's making— the reason why that $500 a month is significant is I don't think it's that hard. I don't think it's like twice as hard to go to $1,000 a month, you know, as it is to get to the first $500 or to $2,000 or like whatever the number is. I think it's much easier to grow once you're at that basic point. So no, the next part is all about growth and then doing what you want and maybe at a certain point choosing something different, but Yeah.

Nice. Uh, Saba's writing in, could you tell us about your morning rituals or routines? Are you consistent? You're traveling so much. I mean, it's interesting to see what you do every day, right?

It is a little bit different depending on whether I'm home or traveling, but I am a morning person as much as possible. Um, I do like to get up early. I do tend to do my best work in the morning. Um, so I tend to try to like reserve much of my morning for myself and like you know, I'm on my own. I'm just doing like my projects, my stuff. And then usually later in the day, I tend to have more meetings and interviews and things. And it's a little bit different when I am on tour because then I have the events every night. And so I can't really be a morning person the way I would like to, so I have to make some adjustments that way.

So, so an ideal morning, what does that look like? Are you, are you working? Are you reading? Are you writing?

An ideal morning, I would be up at like, I don't know, 5:30, 6:00, and I would be I would be working from basically from 7 o'clock on, from 7 to noon more or less, with a couple of breaks in there. I would basically be doing different stuff. I'd be working on the podcast, working on the writing, other projects, responding to people and stuff. And then the afternoon would be more flex.

Well, it's, uh, it's what, 8:30 in the morning for you right now?

It is, it is.

Thank you, thank you for spending your morning time with us here.

Of course, of course.

Appreciate it. Um, Paramvir is asking, what are some of the side hustles you failed at?

Okay, side hustles I failed at. Um, most of the ones I failed at haven't gotten very far because again, I'm in the— I'm kind of in the mindset of not taking a lot of risk and not investing a lot. Like, if something is succeeding, then I want to put more time and resource and money toward it, but if it's not, then I just tend to stop doing it. Let's see, what did not work so well? Um, one time I had this idea to do a golf membership site, and I don't even like golf, which may have been one of the problems in the beginning. But also, I had no real business model for it. And the funny thing— this is my funny story about it— I was working with the designer, I was sitting next to him, and he was designing the site. And basically, the membership was going to be sold for like a dollar, and there was like some sort of backend offer to it, but the backend offer wasn't really developed. And so he's like making the site and he's like, I just have a question, how are you going to make money on a dollar a customer? And I was like, man, just make the website, like you just do you, I'll do me, you know. And I was like, yeah, damn, how am I going to make money on a dollar customer? So basically I didn't, you know, basically that didn't work.

Got it, I like it. Um, it's interesting, I think this is a whole other book, is it interesting how many people are asking questions around industry-specific side hustles and then also just the wacky one. So, so someone else is writing, what's your most fun side hustle? So like, we've had failures, we've had crazy, we've had fun. So before we get to more specific, what's your most fun side hustle?

I mean, I did a story in the beginning of the year on this woman who sells chicken saddles. So apparently if you raise chickens, which I live in Portland, Oregon, everybody has a chicken in their yard, like a chicken coop. Okay. Um, you know, chickens are in, are in danger of like being harmed during molting or mating or something. So So you actually put these vests around the chickens. It's a true story. I'm not making this up. And there's a small industry of people selling chicken saddles, but apparently like all of the chicken saddles that existed previously, there was some problem with them. I forget what it was, you know? And so she came along and invented a better chicken saddle. And so now she, I think she lives in Colorado. She's doing like $2,500 a month selling, selling saddles for pet chickens. So I thought that was pretty cool.

And this, this helps them in the mating process.

Yeah.

Okay. When you first said chicken saddle, I thought like for a kid to ride on a chicken.

Oh, exactly. It's like a chicken vest.

Okay. That's right. You can make money in every business.

That's the thing. That's the point.

I love it. I love it. Chicken saddles. Okay. Two other specific industries people are asking about. One, music-related side hustles, and two, cryptocurrencies. I don't know if that falls under investing that we kind of talked about before, but— What do you think?

Yeah, cryptocurrency. I just recorded a story about— so, so investing is interesting because not just investing, or not just like cryptocurrency, if you look at the periphery of these things, whenever there's a new industry, especially an industry like that's, that's so hard to understand, like cryptocurrency, right? Like I was saying the other day on Twitter, I don't actually understand it that well. I mean, I get the basics, but I really don't know a lot about it. You know, there's always room for experts to come in and kind of decipher things and explain things. So I just featured this guy from, from the Netherlands who started, I think, a YouTube channel in Dutch called Bitcoin Update, and he's basically educating people, you know, there about the whole process. And he's— he has an affiliate model where he's linking to different tools and resources, um, you know, and he gets paid a commission when people buy that. So I don't know as much about investing directly, but, but, you know, in terms of supporting that. And in terms of musicians, uh, I did a story about a guy who has a six-figure podcast. He's a drummer And he created this like resource for drummers basically. And he went out and interviewed like every famous drummer and, uh, connected people with like the best lessons, the best curriculum, all that kind of stuff. And it took a few years, but now that's his full-time job. Now it's a six-figure project.

Got it. And it's interesting in that if you don't have the money to put into investing, you could create a business around it.

Yes. Yes, exactly. Right. And the same is true for any kind of investing. Same is true for any kind of financial investing or real estate or whatever else. There's always something around that topic that you can probably do.

Right. Or if you love supercars, you may not be able to build one yet, but you can create a business around it. Sure. Right. Cool. Yeah, I like that. Uh, and all of these episodes are, are available. People can go download them.

Yeah, it's all free.

Everything's— yeah. And do you have them categorized?

Yep. If you look at sidehustleschool.com, you click like episodes at the top, you can see them categorized by like product, by service, by blog, by affiliate model, um, etc. We're trying to work— now that we have so many episodes out, we're trying to come up with some more advanced, you know, categorization, but there's also tags you can search by, right?

Awesome, that's cool. Um, Birdie Jordan wants to know, do you have a YouTube channel?

I do not. I just come on Evan's show.

Well, he goes on a lot of shows, but, uh, you can find him everywhere. Have you thought about it? You have a podcast, why not film it with video, man?

I got— there's only so many things I can do.

Yeah, you love side hustles.

I know, I know.

Not on, not on your radar, eh? No, got it. Okay, well, listen, uh, Birdie Jordan, there's tons all the way back. Like, how long you've been doing YouTube interviews for?

I don't know, not that long. I don't know.

No, who was it? Like, I remember Chase Jarvis from years ago.

Yeah, yeah, I don't know, a few years, I guess.

Yeah, there's a few years. And Chris works hard. There's a few years of content. You guys can get lost in amazing discussions.

Uh, if you just— probably my best videos have actually been made by you. You know, you do all these compilation things which are amazing. I think my speakers bureau at Penguin Random House uses that one of the compilation videos that you made, like when they're sending it out.

That's awesome. Oh, the top 10 rules of success.

Yeah.

Yeah, that was good. So Chris was actually in town in my city, Toronto, doing a book tour and came in into my dance studio to film. And you were still the most polished person to do the intro lines that we've ever had on the show. I think you made one mistake in like the entire day. That's Chris, man. This guy knows what he's doing.

Sure luck.

We've had some big name people on too, and they're always messing up and sweating, so that was good.

You ever do an outtakes? Do you do like a bloopers compilation?

Uh, for me, sometimes.

Yeah.

For my guests, you know, it depends on the personality. A lot of them do not want to show them messing up on lines, right?

So I wouldn't mind.

So yeah, but you don't make mistakes, so I don't know about that. Yeah, so we may have done one or two, but it's not consistent because, you know, we don't want to make them look bad. Okay, some music we talked about, no YouTube channel. Atul writing in, I've read the book and it helped me launch my side hustle in just 10 days and have 7 paying clients within 27 days. The book is amazing.

Amazing. Thank you.

Wow.

There you go.

You got a super fan.

I need to pay that person off later.

Yeah, Atul, if you have a question for Chris, leave it here. I love it.

Thank you.

Okay, Arturis is asking, I've tried dropshipping. I think I took out too much of myself. Then a couple days, I took a couple days off and my passion just died. What are the ways to reignite it?

Hmm, took a couple days off and your passion just died. I wonder if it was, I don't know, I wonder if it was the right idea in the first place. You know, sometimes what I think about ideas is like we all have ideas like all the time. And some ideas stick and some don't, you know. So even if I think about like a really big idea, like my idea to go to every country in the world, I had that idea for like 3 months and it just wouldn't go away. Like, it kind of— like, I would think about it at night, I would think about in the morning, kind of realize like there's something to it, right? But if— but I might have lots of ideas that today I think are great and then tomorrow I'm like, that's dumb, you know. So like, how long does your idea stick with you? And if, if you're not passionate about one, like, there's probably something else out there you can do.

Is there some kind of test? Like, do you go over that, I guess, a bit in the book of how to pick your side hustle? You get 5 ideas, how do you pick the right one?

Yeah, exactly. It's called the Side Hustle Selector. It's this process I created that uses both left brain and right brain thinking, which I think is important because like your side hustle has to make sense logically, it has to make analytical sense, there has to be a revenue model for sure. So sometimes creative people get stuck on that, but then I also think it's important that you have some creativity and then like you are motivated and excited and passionate about your side hustle. So that process basically helps people make sure they have both of those things.

Got it. Um, another industry-specific one.

Uh, people are really specific.

I think it's a whole new book, man. It's the next book, the examples for each industry. Uh, side hustle on the IT security or information technology field.

Yeah, I think I know a guy who made a monitoring service basically like to help parents like monitor their kids' internet activity. Which of course there's some other services out there doing that, but he had some interesting twist on it or whatever. And he started that without spending a lot of money. Like, he actually was a coder, um, and that's what he did. Yeah.

Well, listen, uh, in modeling Tim Ferriss, he just took his podcast guests and turned that into a book. You could take all these examples from your podcast, that's the next book, right? You can do, you can do one every 6 months instead of a year and a half.

I don't have time for my YouTube channel.

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. I love it. You kill it on YouTube. Uh, Birdie Jordan writing back, Chris, did you remember any side hustles for doctors?

Oh, sorry, I'm kind of, I'm kind of in the flow here, so it's hard to think, you know, let me present. Doctors, tell that person to email me. What's her name?

Uh, Birdie Jordan.

Birdie, if you go to sidehustleschool.com and send me an email from there, I will write you back with an example. I'll think of something.

Well, do you also have it like, can they go to the website and look for a tag?

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, they can.

Yeah, cool.

I think I remember like, uh, I think I remember— well, I'm not going to tell this story well. If I start telling this story, I'm going to get it wrong. So send me an email.

Got it. Uh, Alicia's writing in. What's the name of the book, Alicia? Side Hustle: From Idea to Income in 27 Days, Chris Guilbeault. Check it out if you missed, I guess, the beginning of this, uh, hangout, then Now you know what it's all about. Uh, Monica writing in to say, I've been wanting to do a side hustle and I have no idea what to do. I like organization, cleaning tips, and homemade cleaners. Any suggestions on a side hustle?

Interesting. Uh, just had an episode last week, uh, about a yoga teacher in Seattle and she started a decluttering home organizing business and she had a really interesting model to it because it wasn't just about the physical stuff. She was actually looking at people's lives and like their whole process and like how to really focus on what's important to you, which includes like, you know, clearing out a lot of your stuff. And in her case, so first of all, it was a really successful side hustle. Within 6 months, she's making $3,000 a month from it. But then also she's got this great social good component to it because she's partnering with a refugee organization in Seattle. And all of the stuff that's like being decluttered, like she donates to this refugee organization. So people that are coming like from Syria and Iran and Afghanistan, like being resettled after difficult lives, they get like all this stuff basically, like to help set up their life. And the client, you know, is having like a better, more organized life. So maybe look at that.

You got the examples just, just falling in. Let me ask you, this is a personal question. You know, I've profiled so many different famous entrepreneurs over the past couple of years. I have a hard time remembering examples too when they come up. Like, can you tell me about this person?

Like, ah, you know what, you know what, you know what's why it's working, I think is because lots of times I'm on interviews and they're like, tell me a story. And I'm like, I have no idea what to say. But I think because your people are so specific and they're actually giving like examples and like industries, I think that that's what's making it, making it work.

Got it. Okay. I have a hard time remembering all the people we profiled.

Yeah.

Um, it was it, so yesterday was the anniversary of Elvis, uh, being drafted.

Okay. And so I didn't have that on my calendar.

Yeah. Okay. So YouTube has a new community tab that you can share stuff with your community through like a blog post kind of format. And like, did I do a video on Elvis? I must have done something on Elvis. And I found this thing from 3 years ago. 2 days ago was Jake Gyllenhaal's 37th birthday. And like, did we do him? I don't remember. Did we do a top 10? And we did. So we put it— I just don't remember all the things that we've done. But you're doing a good job, man. You're pulling it. You're pulling those episodes back.

Win some, lose some.

Another question specific. Any side hustle examples in the pizza delivery business?

Pizza delivery business? Uh, I used to deliver pizza myself and then I stopped doing it. That was my side. Like, I— yeah, that was it. I, I was a pizza delivery person when I was 16. It's one of my last jobs that I had. Uh, I don't know if I have a side hustle example of somebody in the pizza delivery business.

Got it. But, but pizza delivery itself is not a side hustle, that's just a part-time job.

Yeah, yeah.

How we started.

Exactly.

Um, Aisha is writing in. Thank you, Chris, just ordered the book. Great reviews.

Awesome, thank you.

Thank you, Aisha. And she has a follow-up question. Uh, I'm passionate about empowering people. I'm working in university empowering students for the world of work. What side hustle would you suggest?

Well, it sounds like she's going to pursue some kind of coaching model, uh, coaching or mentoring or Anything that helps equip people. There's lots of different ways to do that. Since she's gonna get the book, she'll look at some, you know, different approaches and tips. I would just say my general recommendation would be, you know, stick with that vision. Try to find a way to get a little bit more specific and strategic about how you do that, just so it's really clear and you can say in one sentence, like, you know, I'm doing this to help people do that.

Got it. Get more specifics to see what you got, Chris. Next up. Uh, Oluwa is asking if you have any side hustle examples from an accountant.

An accountant? Yes. Um, and I have a general rule is I think your side hustle should be different from your day job. So I don't think an accountant should be doing other people's taxes at night. I think that's a way to get burned out basically. And that's what people often think, like, this is what I do for my day job, therefore How can I do this, you know, in a different way at night? Um, so I have— I profiled an accountant in Dubai who is also a poet, and like, that's his passion, his creative passion. So he's a managerial accountant by day, and he put together a series of poetry workshops and actually gets paid for them, which as a poet is a pretty big thing on its own, you know, to get paid as a poet. Um, so he makes like an extra $1,000 a month or something doing these workshops, and he's an accountant by day.

And you did, uh, that was one of the podcast episodes?

Yep.

Very cool, man. I love— how do you find these guys? Like, an accountant poet from Dubai, how does he end up on your podcast?

Yeah, so a lot of them come to us now. Like, um, we have an intake form, which, by the way, if anybody out there, entrepreneurs, anybody else has a side hustle, on that website, sidehustleschool.com, if you look at the About page, you like scroll down, there's a little link that says Submit Your Side Hustle Story. So that's our basic intake form. Um, and then my assistant, my team, we do some interviews with the people to kind of get all the facts and stuff and write the story. And they go out from there. So sometimes we actually solicit stories, but then a lot of them just come to us directly.

Got it. Pranav is asking, Chris, are there delivery charges for the free book that you have giveaways for? Is that some offer that you have going on?

I'm not sure what he's referring to.

All right, give us more details, Pranav, and maybe we can answer that while we're on. Mihivel is asking, what if a web developer is side hustling to become a game developer? Is that too similar?

Yeah, no, so I'm just giving a general principle with that. I just want to be careful about people getting burned out, which is what I see happen. So yes, I mean, if that's, if that's your skill and that's your, your passion as well, obviously you can do that, you know, that's, that's, that's up to you. Got it.

Oh, this is interesting. Okay, so not that the other ones aren't, but should you disclose your side hustle when applying for day jobs? Put it on your resumes to show skills or talk about it in an interview?

Yeah, I guess it depends on what kind of day job you're applying for. Um, a lot of companies these days are, you know, forward-thinking and they, they understand that their, their, their employees, like, you know, do different stuff and they actually encourage that. I do also hear from people, you know, who are in jobs where they're like, I have to keep my side hustle a secret. And I think that's sad because like, if it's not, if it's not a competing thing, then your employer doesn't have anything to say about that. Like, I think it's okay to— you can be a loyal employee, you can be a good productive employee and like you know, work well for your boss and also keep something for yourself. Like, keep part of your creative energy, you know, to invest in yourself. So as to whether you put it on your resume or not, I guess it depends on what the job is and what your side hustle is and how you feel about it and all that.

Yeah, I think it— I think you have to do your homework on the company too, do some research. We have Stephen Kelly on once a month on the channel. He's the CEO of Sage. They do accounting software, like multi-billion dollar company, and he loves hiring entrepreneurs who have a side hustle.

That's great.

So for them, that would be a plus if you had that. But other companies would be like, nah, I don't— you know, you're going to be working over your lunch period, or you're going to be right.

But that also might— right, but that also might be a good sign of like what job is best for you, right? Because do you want to go and work for a company like that? Like, if you want to also have a side hustle and invest in yourself, do you want to have to like go work for a company where it's a complete secret?

How important do you think it is to have a full-time job where you're learning skills to apply to your side hustle?

I, I think it's important to look at where you are in life, you know, whether you're 20, 30, 40, whatever, and say, what are the skills I have acquired to this point? And what is the life experience I've had? What education have I had? You know, so it's not so much about learning new skills as it is taking an inventory of what you already know. And I'm a big believer that everyone's an expert in something. Like, everyone is an expert in something, even if you never went to university, even if you never like had a full-time job. There's something that your friends probably ask you about. There's something that like is easy for you that's hard for other people. So I want to help people figure out what that is. That to me is more important than learning new skills.

Got it. You know what I love? I just need to show a little bit of appreciation because you, you are so on point with your answers and like so quick on the replies. We're able to plow through like 2 to 3 times as many questions as I normally get. Oh good, good. On point.

I love the good questions. I mean, people are asking smart things, you know. Most of the time people are like, what's your favorite country? So this is better.

All right, good. Nice. Believe Nation standing up. Um, Devon, do you have, uh, oh, how can I create a side hustle as a video editor? So do you have examples from video editing?

Uh, you probably would answer that question better than me, right? Like this is your, your field. I guess I would just say, well, if you have these skills, like who needs help with that? Right? Like what problem are you trying to solve? Like who could benefit from those skills? And also think about not just the technical aspect, but always in all your side hustles, right? Don't just think about like the technical thing of what you're doing. Think about how it changes somebody's life and always try to position your product or your service like with this emotional benefit. You know, I guess I would say like in terms of video, both in terms of the actual like, you know, making a production of it and the editing. If I have a great video, then I will be able to do what? Reach more people. I will be able to share my message more effectively. So whatever it is that you tend to do, it tend up, sorry, whatever it is you end up doing with your side hustle, try to frame it in a way that's helping people emotionally. What do you think? What answer would you say?

Um, yeah, I agree. And I also agree with your other advice around like maybe it's not something even related to video. Maybe it's just something you love doing, like you love Smurfs and you end up doing a whole thing around Smurfs.

There you go.

Yeah. Um, so here's one from Pranav, and he's asking about what's your advice for a teenager who wants to start a side hustle? So we've covered kind of working at a job, we've covered moms at home, now your full-time hustle is school.

Yep.

How do you start a side hustle on the side?

This is Purnav, right? Purnav.

Purnav.

Yeah, Purnav. Purnav, awesome. Yeah, that's great. I've definitely had a number of teenagers on the show. We actually had somebody who is like an 8-year-old who started a side hustle with his mom and like ended up growing it. It's actually a real project. It's not like just like, oh, so-and-so learns about entrepreneurship. Like he's actually, you know, He and his family are making several thousand dollars a month. And when you're a teenager, like, if you're doing stuff online, nobody cares how old you are, right? Nobody cares. Like, it doesn't matter. You know, I was selling stuff on eBay when I was— I wasn't like 14, but I was 19 at the time. And like, it doesn't matter. Like, you still have something to offer to the world. So a lot of the same advice applies. A lot of the same advice about like, where do ideas come from? You know, what— how can you make that idea a reality? How can you reach the right people? And so on. I did have a teenager who is, um, selling autographed baseballs. And he actually got into like this arbitrage thing where he would learn to buy them from one source and then sell them to another source. And he was 16 and making, you know, a couple thousand dollars a month, which is huge. Like, if I was 16 and making a couple thousand dollars a month, I would have felt like I was rich, you know? Yeah, I would have been, basically. You know, I had— I mean, my income when I was 16 was like, you know, $100 a month or something.

So, $100 startup. Yeah, getting it going. Uh, that's a reference to one of his other books. That's an awesome book too, guys. Go check that one out. Thanks. Um, when did you start doing side hustles, or at least getting the bug?

Um, I mean, basically from young adulthood, you know, from age— from age 18, 19, you know, when I was doing that stuff online. And then it wasn't like— it wasn't very strategic for a long time, which I think is also okay. Like, I don't think you have to have a grand strategy for your life when you're 20. I think we put a lot of pressure on people to figure out, like, how What are you, what are you going to do with your life? It's like you don't know because you haven't tried stuff. So for a long time, my motivation was, it wasn't like I want to change the world, it was like, how can I pay the bills, you know? How can I pay the bills so I can do what's important to me? Um, that was, that, that went on for, you know, probably 5 years or so. Then I had the overseas experience of living in Sierra Leone and Liberia for a while. Um, and then when I was like turning 30, that's when I started to think, okay, like, what's, what's next? Like, what am I going to do? Like, I do feel fortunate that I've been able to travel and can start these little businesses, you know, what's next? And that's when I started the blog, The Art of Nonconformity, which kind of led to all the stuff I'm doing now.

Got it. I, I was always curious. So I mean, I started when I was 5 years old. I was selling stuff to my neighbors, little pictures that I drew myself. But not everybody has it like super early, and it's great to see it get developed over time because I'll often get asked like, do you have to be a born entrepreneur? You know, born entrepreneur.

No such thing, right?

Yeah, exactly.

Except for you, apparently.

Nah, well, no, I just, you know, whatever. I think your environment plays a big role. Like, my parents really encouraged me to do that kind of stuff, so it worked out. Chanel is asking, I have a question for Chris. There's so many side hustles that are similar to each other. What's the best way to approach competition to make your side hustle stand out?

Yeah, great question. First of all, just because somebody else is doing your idea doesn't mean that you shouldn't pursue that project. This is something I hear from people all the time. They're worried, they're like, I had this idea, I thought, I thought it was really original, then I went on Google and I saw that somebody else, you know, somewhere else is doing the same thing. That's actually a good sign. It can be a very good sign because it shows that there's demand for that, right? Just think about if you live in a city, how many coffee shops are in your city, right? And how many coffee shops can actually succeed and stay in business, you know, over time. So I do think you should think about differentiation like she's asking about. I do think you should think like, what am I going to do different? What's unique about what I'm offering? But you shouldn't run away from, from doing something just because somebody else is doing it.

Yeah. There's always room for quality at the top.

Yeah.

There's always room for quality.

Yeah. Or differentiation in general. Cause like you can't, you might not be better than at, you might not be better at everything than somebody else, but there's probably like one thing at least.

Yeah. Just like I think Chris should be on YouTube. You know, YouTube has been around for so long and a lot of people think, well, now I can't get started on YouTube because it's too difficult. There's so many people. Chris could come in and crush it if you wanted to.

Probably a lot of people watching could come in and crush it, so I hope they do.

Yeah, I love it. Uh, man, it's crazy how quickly an hour goes by. Thank you so much for the love. For everybody watching, go pick up Side Hustle: From Idea to Income in 27 Days. It's linked up in the description. Where's the best place? Oh, there it is. You got to say something to be on screen though.

What's that?

You got to hold the book up and say something because the camera's on me.

Sorry, I think I like— I broke up for one second. There we go. This is the book, Side Hustle. It's available in all formats, you know, Audible, ebook, whatever you want. I prefer the print version myself, but up to you.

And Amazon, Barnes Noble, all the usual places.

Yep, everywhere.

Got it. Chris, one final message to kind of wrap all this up. How do you want to leave everybody today?

Man, uh, it's been such a great conversation. Wonderful questions. I love the specificity of it. Uh, like we said, I will just conclude with, um, this is the message that I've been sharing in different ways for 10 years. The message is you don't have to live your life the way others expect. And as you go through life, you're going to encounter all kinds of expectations and assumptions, and you can do what's important to you. You can do what's important to you and make the world a better place at the same time. So good luck.

I love it, Chris. Thanks for the time. Thank you guys for watching. Continue to believe, and we'll see you soon.