Episode 6: Acres of Diamonds: Turning Life's Setbacks into Side Hustles with Bart Merrell, The Side Hustle Samurai

You're listening to The Potentializer, the show where small apartment investors learn how to grow wealth faster with less effort, more credibility, and real impact. Hosted by bestselling author and platform builder Lance Edwards, this podcast is your inside track to smarter models, collaborative deals, and overlooked opportunities that create true freedom. Whether you're just getting started or ready to scale with partners, platforms, and purpose, This is your Launch Pad.

Hello everyone. Hi, this is Lance Edwards and welcome to this edition of the Potentializer Podcast. This is where we come potentialize all the resources you have available to you, potentialize your mindset, which actually is going to be part of our conversation today because I've got a special guest. And I want to lead off, are you prepared for what happens when what happens happens? For example, what if it's cancer? What if it's Christmas? I'm gonna throw in one of my own. What if it's a hurricane strikes your home like it's happened to me 3 times in the last 2 years in Florida, and you're knocked out of your house for months at a time? Even worse, people are totally displaced. Either constrain your finances unless you're prepared before it happens. So this is a real-life topic for everyone. I'm gonna introduce my guest speaker today, Mr. Bart Merrill. He's an international entrepreneur. Author, presenter. He's known as— you're going to love this— the Side Hustle Samurai. He's here to get us thinking about creating financial security by monetizing what we already know. That's cool. So we have the resources to deal with whatever happens when it happens, because it will happen. And if anything proves that the last few years, black swan events between COVID, The hurricanes, the increased intensity of weather disasters, health. I don't know. I feel like this is increasing. So this is very appropriate for everyone. And to guard against that is becoming self-sufficient, financially secure, regardless of the economy. It's a global problem, but here's the good news. It's a personal mindset solution. And that's what everything we all control. The author of the book, Monetize Your Mindset, which we'll be talking about today. He believes everyone needs a side hustle or 2 or 3. And how to create financial security by monetizing what you already know, what you already do. If you just pay attention to the opportunities that exist all around you and act upon them. So Bart, very much welcome to the Potentializer Podcast.

Thank you. Glad to be here. Thanks for having me on.

I think this is such an appropriate topic for all the reasons we just talked about. You know, this, I think everybody needs to pay attention to this. I wanna start off here, Bart, if it's okay. You have a book, Monetize Your Mindset. So what is a monetized Mindset?

For me, anything that comes across my life, good, bad, or ugly, I think, can I monetize it? I don't monetize everything, but I think about that with everything. I'm going to give you one quick drastic example. Last year, March 25th, 2024, I had to have my lower left leg amputated.

Hmm.

When I found out this was going to happen in October of 2023, after the shock and awe was over, I was sitting there and I'm thinking, okay, this is going to happen. There's nothing I can do about it. It needs to happen. How can I monetize it? 6 months post-op, 6 months after my leg was cut off. I contracted with my prosthetist to assist people who are going to have to go through what it is I have to go through. And then I help him with marketing some of his prosthetic items that he personally has developed. And so within 6 months, I have monetized getting my leg cut off. Now, I won't suggest anybody else go do that. When life gives you lemons, Make lemonade. Well, if you're gonna make lemonade, build a lemonade stand and sell the stuff. And so that's part of the thinking. Anything good, bad, or ugly that comes across my desk, I always think, can I monetize it?

I love that example. I love what you did with that. And It very much fits with us because this is the Potentializer Podcast where we get the full potential out of every opportunity. Great example.

It's not just with bad things. I ask 3 questions. What do you like to do? What do you need to do? What are you already doing? Can you monetize 1, 2, or 3 of those things? Because time is finite. We don't have a whole lot of time during the day. We're busy. So what about monetizing the stuff that you're already doing? One that goes right along with what you do. I bought my first house right out of college. I took the best room, the room that I wanted, and I rented out the other ones and paid my mortgage and then some. Then when I got married, we lived upstairs, we rented out the basement. When I moved to my new house, I looked for a house with an accessory apartment so that I could rent out portion of my house. I have never owned a home where at least half my mortgage wasn't paid by someone else.

Beautiful. All right. So let's, let's, let's drill down because that opens up a lot of doors for me. That opens a lot of doors. And how were you born with this mindset, Bart, or do you have to develop this mindset? How'd you get to this point?

I grew up with a good dad. My dad was a pig farmer, but he wasn't just a pig farmer. He was a businessman. And he always had his hands in multiple streams of income. They were all in the agricultural industry, which is what he loved. He was part owner in a dairy in Idaho. We lived in southern New Mexico, right on the border of Mexico. And he had his hand in a mushroom warehouse in Utah. Part owner in a produce warehouse in Phoenix, Arizona. It's where Diamondback Stadium now stands. When Diamondback Stadium wanted that property, he made a good chunk of change. And so he did that. And, and he never sat me down and talked to me about the birds and the bees of business. All he did was lead by example. And then when I had a desire to do things, he encouraged me. My first side hustle, I started when I was 15. I bought my first stereo when I was 11 years old. I'd love to listen to music. I worked all summer on the pig farm to buy this all-in-one Sanyo system. It was $285. It had a cassette deck over here. What do you think was on the other side? It was an 8-track player. That was my first stereo. Little did I know I just bought myself a liability because every time we went to town, I had to buy the new tunes. And as an 11-year-old kid, that was pretty spendy. When I got my driver's license at age 15, I became a mobile disco person. I called myself Illusion. I was 15 years old in a small farming community. Nobody was hiring 15-year-old DJs. So I had to create my own opportunity. On Friday nights when there was a football game, a basketball game, or nothing to do, I would rent the community center. I hired an off-duty cop for security. Mom and dad took money at the door. I spun records. Everybody danced, had a great time. It was great. I mean, $500, $600 a night for a young kid was really good.

Wow.

And it took— wow, 4 hours. And I did that through college. My dad not only showed me the way by his example, when I had ideas, he encouraged me.

What a fortunate family situation you had.

And then I was kind of forced into it. After my life's dream was to get in the FBI and go chase serial killers. We had a family friend who was an ex-FBI agent and he says, well, the easiest way in the FBI is through an accounting degree. Now I'm going to tell you right off the bat, I'm an adrenaline junkie. I don't like accounting. I did not like accounting. I was not good at accounting, but that was a means to an end. And so I went into college. I studied accounting. That was my major. I graduated in accounting. About a semester before I graduated, I went back to the pig farm to help my dad and improve my Spanish, cuz Spanish was something that the FBI was interested in. And then I got back up to school. While I was down there, I was making money in this podunk town, no place to spend it. I had— Friends in the law enforcement industry, Customs, Border Patrol, and regular cops getting this RK surgery done on their eyes. It was a surgery before LASIK to correct your vision. So I had money and I'm like, okay. I mean, back then it was like $1,500 an eye. I'm like, okay, let's do it. Corrected my vision. I didn't have glasses. I didn't have these things from about age 24 to 50, 51.

Wow.

But I got back up to school, started the application process to the FBI, and I found out that that automatically disqualifies you from the FBI because it was still considered— it was considered experimental, and the FBI didn't want to put tons of money into training you and then have you go blind.

Oh.

I was devastated. I actually applied for some accounting jobs. And I just didn't want to do it. I couldn't do it. I thought I had one and it fell through. And I was doing landscaping, my part-time job during college up in Utah. And I was just like, what am I going to do? Then things fell into place. I fell back on what I learned from my dad. A friend of mine who worked for a bungee jump company, a bungee— they built bungee towers and sold them all over the world. He came to me and he says, "Would you like to go back to Japan?" I'd spent a couple years in Japan, so I spoke Japanese fairly fluently. He said, "Do you want to go back to Japan?" And he was kidding. I was sitting there thinking, and he didn't know I was an adrenaline junkie. And he said, "It's a bungee jump." Like, yeah, I'll do it. So I was the go-between between the American company and the Japanese company. I would build the tower. Train the staff, and then I worked with that Japanese company on several other projects. My life's dream kind of got blown up, and I just fell back on what I had watched my dad do his whole life.

So, and that has really continued throughout your whole life to today.

I have never, never done the real job thing.

Really?

All I've done is my— if I look back on my life, I sometimes think, well, I was just lucky. But what does Seneca say that luck is? Luck is when preparedness meets opportunity. And I take it one step further. You have to take action. So when preparedness meets opportunity and you take action, Something's gonna happen.

All right. So you've been, God, from what would you say, age 15? Since age 15, you've been had this this mindset monetize every opportunity. So now you're out sharing your story. When did you decide to start helping others with their mindset?

I was volunteering at a drug rehab center. It was a 90-day in-house drug program. I was teaching speaking. Are you familiar with Toastmasters, the speaking club?

Of course.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I was doing a similar type club at this, at this 90-day in-house drug treatment program. And I was sitting there and I was listening to Jen tell her story. Jen was talking about how when her and her family went out in public, they were normal. It wasn't until they went home That the abuse and the neglect happened. And it wasn't until she went to college and had roommates that she realized that other people didn't go home to the same thing. She thought everybody else went home and was getting the neglect and the abuse until she went to college. And so I'm sitting there and I'm thinking, it's the same way when people think about making money. If you didn't grow up with my dad or someone like my dad, you don't think like I do. So I'm here to help those people that didn't grow up with my dad or someone like my dad. And that's when I decided to write my book, Monetize Your Mindset. I was just thinking, I have something that other people don't have unless they grew up with someone like my dad. I need to share. These stories that you've heard so far are just a handful of the things that I personally have done. But then I've interviewed people. The founder of a company called Jamberry started in 2010. They are the nail wrap company for women to make their nails pretty without going to the salon. It's a do-it-yourself nail wrap company. These 2 sisters would go to the salon. And get their nails done. And it was like $50 a pop. They walked out one time and one said to the other, huh, I wonder if we could do these ourselves at home for cheaper. They did some research. No one else was doing that. So they got their hands on some product. They made some prototypes. They went to a home show. Came home with a stack of orders. All they had was a prototype at the home show. Came home with a stack of orders in, in grandma's garage. The family got together and got these products out. They went to another home show, did another one. Once again, they're in grandma's garage as a family doing these things. All they wanted was a small business to make extra money and build closeness as a family. Once they found out they had something, they turned it into a network marketing style company, a direct sales company, turned into almost a trillion dollars a year in business. In 2015, they sold 50% of the company for a multimillion dollar deal, all because one sister asked the other, I wonder if we could do these at home for cheaper. And so it's not— I mean, I'm not touting just my own horn. There's many people out there that have these garage-to-great companies like Microsoft and Apple. We just don't hear about them and don't understand that they think different like I do. And I'm not saying— I'm not here to create millionaires. I want to help people create financial security. By monetizing the things that they already know and do so that when life happens, like you talked about, and like I know, you know, as terrifying as getting my leg cut off was, second to the fear of the pain and how's this all going to happen was, can I afford this? You know, how long am I going to be off my feet when life happens? You have the worry about what's happening, but right up there close to the top is the worry about money. If you can create that cushion, that breathing room, by having side hustles, stuff that you're already doing, there's not a learning curve because you're already doing it. I'm here to help people to start thinking about that.

That's the part I really love. So let's take it from there, Bart. So So you're, you're helping others fabulous way, important way. How do you help others get a monetized mindset? How do you do that?

So I take them down a process and we're going to think about what do you like to do? What do you need to do? What are you already doing? Then we're going to make lists. I am telling them, you go home and you make a list, and then you're going to take it one step further. What would I like to learn? What do I need to learn? What have I already learned that I could get compensated for by helping someone else? I'm getting compensated by helping people through the process of amputation because I had to go through it. I had to learn it myself. What are some things I need to do? He says, you need to get a grief counselor and have the grief counselor help you through saying goodbye to your leg. I had a friend who was a grief counselor, Nina Lee. I contacted Nina and she walked me through this process because I'm writing letters and saying goodbye to my ankle or my leg to help me get through that process. Now she is a grief counselor because she lost her son when he was 15 years old. She had to learn that she could help other people through She is now monetizing that event. And so I've hit some bad ones. Love and music, adrenaline junkie, and taking the first bungee jump to Japan. That snowballed into, okay, Japan, this company that I was contracting with, they bought 12 more bungee towers.

Hmm.

And so I helped go do that. And then they called me up once and they said, hey, we saw this thing right around Christmas time. It's in Germany. It's a complete unattached freefall into a net from about 150 feet in the air. We want you to go try it. I'm just like, 150 feet in the air into a net? That's gotta hurt. Their exact words were, in Japanese of course, yeah, that's why we want you to go try it. I called the German company. It's just for stunt people right now. We'll contact you when it's ready for the public. I thought I never would've got another call. About 2 months later, they called me and said, okay, we're ready for you. I was on a plane to Germany. I tried it 3 times and then I was on a plane to Japan. We sold 3 in Japan. Then I worked for the German company to build 2 of those in the United States. There's one in Texas and one in Wisconsin Dells. They contracted with me to help build those. To run the crew whenever they were building those here in the States. These things continue if you keep your eyes open, if you're aware of the things around you, and when the opportunity comes, you're willing to take action. Good things can happen. To get you started thinking about that, I ask those questions and we make 6 lists, and then we funnel those lists. Into 2 more lists. What do you like to do the most? And what do you think could be turned into a stream of income the quickest? And you're gonna be wrong on this one. Okay? Because I thought— so another story, a few years ago, my wife came to me and she said, I'm getting more than I bargained for, and I would like to see a little less of you. It was a nice way of her saying, it's time for you to lose weight. You've been working on your before picture long enough. And so when I finally agreed, my monetized mindset says, okay, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to get paid for it. My wife wants me to give her what she bargained for. So I want to get back to my wedding weight. That's a goal that a lot of people have. I went to GoDaddy, I looked up backtomymyweddingweight.com. It was available. I bought it. I didn't even have a way to lose weight. I didn't even know if I could. I bought it. I figured I would turn that into a stream of income in 3 months. I held onto that domain for 7 and a half years. Because I couldn't find any. Everything that was out there was the 90-day program of you dieting and getting your butt to the gym. And I had enough motivation to get to the gym that first day, pay for a 3-year membership, and never go back. I just didn't find anything that works for me. Finally, my friend from California, Beth, calls me up and says, Bart, I found it. It's great. You need to try it. If you try it and you don't like it and you don't get the results, You get to return your stuff and you get your money back. And I'm like, Beth, calm down. What is it? She's like, Bart, it's the 10-day celebrity transformation cleanse. I paused for a second. I said, Beth, I want to do a 10-day cleanse like I want a colonoscopy. Now, Beth, I was trying to embarrass her, but she was pretty quick on her feet. She paused for a second. She says, Bart, at your age, you probably need both. I tried it. She, she got, she convinced me. I think she probably pushed me for like a year, year and a half, and I finally tried it. I lost 18 and a half pounds in 10 days. And this wasn't a juice cleanse or a water cleanse. It was a vegan cleanse. So you still ate lots of vegetables and stuff. Good, healthy stuff. 18 and a half pounds in 10 days. I did not step one foot inside a gym. In fact, they told you don't exercise because it will cause your body to not let your pounds go. Like, okay, I'm good with that. I, I was excited. I took a few days off. I did another one. 11 pounds gone in 10 days. In less than a month, I am down almost 30 pounds. I did 4 cleanses in 2 months and 5 days. I was back to my wedding weight. I lost almost 50 pounds. Now it's not about the program. What it is is I turned back to my waitingweight.com into an income stream. I am making $50,000, $60,000 a month, you know, $50, $60 to $1,000 a month depending on how many people want to buy the product I'm an affiliate for off of doing something I wasn't excited about doing. I just try and get people to think like that.

So, and it seems to me, it seems to me that, that you're— big part of what you're talking about is just being open to the possibilities, how they can be aware and that just even having the brain search for these opportunities. So what causes people to, to not do it? What causes people to not even get started or to hesitate?

They don't realize what they have. So it's getting those ideas. And so the giveaway I have for you is a memory jogger. It's 25 Successful side hustle ideas for 2025. Your listeners may— their side hustle may not be on that list, but they can go through the list and it's going to start to get their juices flowing and they're going to start to think, well, what if I kind of just did this? And it'll get them to think and then they'll need to make their list. Like I said, make those 6 lists, then you're refining it, refining them. And the reason I told the weight loss story is because I thought that I would be able to turn weight loss into a side hustle within 3 months. It took me 7 and a half years. I didn't think bungee jump was on my radar, but whenever the idea came, I thought it was gonna be 6, 8 months, maybe next year that I'm in Japan. 3 months later, I am in Japan, literally assisting. We won't say pushing, assisting little Japanese people off the top of an 8-story bungee tower. And so I was wrong. You're gonna be wrong, and that's okay. It's trial and error. You try something, if it doesn't work or if it takes longer, that's okay. But you have these lists. Once you get these lists put together and they bubble up, now you have a handful of ideas that you can try. And then I help people once they get their ideas. We take that idea We put it on the road to get it to a stream of income. I may not have all the answers. I'm not a Google guy, but I have a good Google guy and I can point you in the right direction. I'm not a Facebook ads guy, but I can point you in the right direction. I was sitting with one of my clients the other day. We were talking about building this. He came to me and says, I want to build a water pump and I need to know how to start. Where do I start? I says, well, do you have the ability to build this pump yourself?

No.

Like, yeah, then you need to build the prototype and then we go find who's going to build it for you. I'm not the guy that's going to build that pump. I can't even build the prototype. I can't manufacture it, but I can find the guy who can help you with that. And so I don't know it all. I don't claim to know it all, but I know people or can get you in touch with the right people as you're going down that path of turning this into a stream of income.

Let's make sure and give out— people, you got a gift for everyone. You just mentioned 25 successful side hustle ideas for 2025, uh, and give the URL out for that. How do they get their hands on that, Bart?

So it's offer1, O-F-F-E-R number 1, .bartmerrell.com. And Merrell is spelled M-E-R-R-E-L-L, like the boot or the shoe. And then forward slash 25 for 25.

All right, so everyone, author the number one dot bartmerrill.com slash 25 for 25. Of course, we'll put this on the show notes, the links there so you guys can get it. But 25 successful side hustle ideas for 2025. Bart, going back to kind of drilling down into how people can embrace— what do you call this? This is a mindset, basically embrace this strategy. This mindset, what would you say is the number one pitfall that people need to look out for when they're starting a side hustle? Because by the way, none of us taught this in school. And so it's like, this is going against all of our programming. What's the number one thing they need to keep an eye out for?

The number one thing is picking the wrong side hustle, picking something that you're not excited about or that you're not knowledgeable enough about. If you went through this side hustle list of mine and you're picking because of money, obviously you want to make money, but oh, this one I think I can make the most money at, but you don't have the desire to do the extra stuff you're going to have to do, you're going to fail. And so if you don't pick the right side hustle for your lifestyle, and that's one of the things about me that I am proud to say, I don't have an agenda for you. When you come to me, I'm not saying, okay, I want you to come sell my stuff. Do I have something you can sell? If you want to get on my weight loss program and lose some pounds, you can sell for me on my weight loss program. That's not why I have you here. That is just an example I use. We take your unique lifestyle, your unique abilities, your unique hobbies and skills. And we figure out how to turn that into a stream of income so that you're picking the right side hustle. I've been spending the past 3 days in an AI workshop. The founder and CEO of Lindy, a company that, that gives you a, a virtual assistant per se, it automates your workflow and takes care of a lot of stuff for you. I was watching him talk about what he does and how excited He's like, I get up at 7 in the morning every day and I am so excited to go work because this is what I get to do. He loves what he gets to figure out how to make these AI bots do stuff for people. And he says, I love what I do. More than anything he was talking about on his program, what caught my attention was his fire and his excitement. For what he does, and he's excited. He's like, "I never would have guessed I would get to do something I love so much every day," and that's what stuck out to me in his presentation. That's the same thing for your listeners and people who want to start a side hustle. If we can find that thing that you now we talked about my leg amputation and how it was tragic. I took that and I turned it into something. So I hope you understand that I love to talk. I hope you can see that in this. I love to talk to people and I love to listen to what they need. And so working with my prostatists and helping people through what I went through, because it's not easy. One of the main things I was worried about is like, I can handle it. I can handle it. I know I can handle it once I get my prosthetic. But there's a time between getting your leg cut off and no prosthetic. And I'm just like, oh, I'm just gonna sit in my recliner and do nothing for 6 weeks, 8 weeks, however long. I'm not gonna move. I don't wanna go outside. I don't want people to see me without a leg. I got home from the hospital 13 days post-op and I was on crutches going to the store and I couldn't stay in, but I was worried about what people were gonna think. And so I went out and I bought some pajamas and they were lazy ass pajamas. They had donkeys all over the pajamas. I wore those because that way, if someone was staring at me, they're not staring at my leg. They're staring at my funny pajamas. And that helped me get through that. I was worried about how I was gonna feel with other people looking at my leg. And so that's just one thing that I worried about amongst How much is it going to hurt? What's the pain going to be like? All these things. And I love to listen to people and help encourage people. And so that fits me. I'm excited to go talk to people. If I'm going into a doctor's office and talking about my prostatist products, I am a better talker about his products than he is because I'm excited that he can give people their life back. He can give people their balance back. They helped them do things they wanted to do. So the same thing with being excited about that, you need to be that much excited about your side hustle because you're gonna be doing hard things, working hours that you may wanna be sleeping, doing research on stuff you may not want to.

Mm-hmm.

After being in this AI conference this week, my life just got a whole lot easier because there's so many things you can use To make your life— make it just so much easier to do business.

Well, I think what you're saying, I 100% agree with, is focus on what you were born to do, which is your unique ability, the thing that gives you energy. Delegate the rest or automate the rest, which has now become capable with the technology. And you'll never work again if you're doing that. You'll never work again. You'll just never be worked. So how do you describe yourself? Are you a business coach? Are you a side hustle coach? And what makes you unique? Would you say in, in what, in what you, the way you help people and what you're doing, Bart?

So I'm a side hustle strategist, not to poo-poo on other people's stuff, but I hate the word coach. I, I love coach for a football coach. Hey, I love that life coaching out there. There's so many coaches out there that haven't been through what it is that they're coaching. And so I didn't want to be a coach. And so I pulled out of the internet side hustle strategist, and we have a strategy call, not a coaching call. And what do I do? What sets me apart is, once again, I have no agenda. I don't want you to come on my team and sell my stuff. I am taking you through a process to find side hustles that are unique to you and your life experiences. Good, bad, or ugly, you know, because people often overlook the stuff that they don't want to do. Losing a child, you don't want to lose a child, but if you did, you can help somebody that's going to be going through that. I didn't want to diet and weight loss. I just didn't want to diet and do the stuff. And so when I found something that worked for me, I was willing to share it. If I was going to do that, I'm going to get paid for it. And so don't overlook the stuff that you have to go through that life has given you, because if you take that to the step of helping people go through that, you're going to get some fulfillment that is going to make that exciting for you as well. And so I, I have no agenda when I'm talking to you other than finding what side hustle is unique to you and your life experiences. Yes, I put together a list. That's just a memory jogger of what people are doing right now and being successful at it. That's to get your mind started thinking and get it going. Like I said, I don't know everything and I admit it, but if I don't know it, I can get you to a person who does. That's my unique selling ability. I've side hustled all my life. I've never done the real job thing. I don't know that I could do the real job thing.

I suspect you're unemployable, which is entrepreneurs. Basically, that's a classic entrepreneur. I think all I want to say to that comment about Side Hustle Strategies and what you're helping people to do, if I can paraphrase, is help them identify their unique ability. I think it's at the core of what you're doing. Figuring that out by itself is empowering because once you, each of us understand that, you'll never work again. If you can design your income stream around that God-given capability, I think that's a huge gift you're giving people.

Well, and it's not me. I just take them down a path to where they find it themselves. Of a school bus driver, she came to me and we went through, we went down this road of What do you like to do? What do you need to do?

What?

And we went through it.

Mm-hmm.

And she wanted to do a limousine party bus style thing where she would take people to concerts, jazz games, where they can go and have a party and have fun, and then they don't have to worry about driving and all that. She was working on that and she was excited about it. And then she fell asleep and woke up the next morning and calls me, I got it. If I have a, my own bus. I can give driving tests to people who are going after their CDLs. And she'd already done the homework. I didn't put that idea in her head. She came up with that in her sleep because we got her juices flowing. She's like, all I have to do is take a test. It's like $400. And I don't even have to advertise because the DMV does it for me. They make a list of all the people that do the driving test. They hand that to everybody that comes in. And takes their written CDL. And I'm the only one down in this area. She was excited that she found this new income stream and I didn't find it for her. She did it. And that's all I do. I have a psychologist friend of mine and he says, all I do is point out the obvious to people. I help people start to think and it's obvious to them once they see it. But they just have a hard time seeing it.

That's the key part. Don't discount it because we're all blind to it. We discount it. Even if a lot of times we discount it, that's what you're unique to this. That, I think that's huge in what you're doing is people not only recognizing but placing the value on it so they realize how they can really reshape their lives. This is outstanding. So how do they get ahold of you? The best way to do it through This great gift you're giving away, how do people avail themselves of you, Bart? What's the best way?

Well, I'm, I'm most active on Facebook and I have my YouTube channel. It's Bart Merrill, the Side Hustle Samurai. I just started it about 6 weeks ago and I'm just giving people different steps, answering questions. One of the questions I had was, do I need to pay taxes on my side hustle? Yes, you do. Unless you want a visit from the po-po, you better pay your taxes. You can find me there. And if you get that gift, you'll get on my email list. I'll be sending out newsletters once a week. I'll be doing events both live, like virtual live, and then also an event next month in Utah. It's an Identify Your Ideal Side Hustle workshop. When I go to events, there is so much fluff. And so on my registration page, I put on there, this is not a get in touch with your feelings event. Bring your laptop. We're doing research. We're making lists. We're rolling up our sleeves and getting to work. When you leave the workshop, you will have a handful of ideas that you're going to try and you'll have a path to get started down to turning those into a stream of income. And so, I am so about not— I understand the need for doing stuff to get your mental status up. You know, I call it fluff or woo-woo. I understand the need for that. But if I'm going to an Identify Your Ideal Side Hustle workshop, I don't want to spend That's not what you're there for. I want you to leave with the action already started. So, you're already down that path. You already got the momentum going, and now you just got to keep going. And so, that's what that event's about. I am a big proponent of personal development and stuff like that. Don't get me wrong. It's just, this is not that event.

All right, everyone. So, a couple of ways that Bart's given here for you to connect with this man right here. And I want to encourage that. So understanding your unique ability is huge. Whatever you're going to do, whatever you're going to do, he's given one of them is 25 Successful Side Hustle Ideas for 2025. I love that title, by the way. 25 Successful Side Hustle Ideas for 2025. Here's the URL, and I promise I'll put this on the show notes. offer1.bartmerrell.com. .com/25for25. Put it on the show notes. And he has a YouTube channel. Help him out. Go there, subscribe to it, help him build up his audience. And Bart, make sure I say this right— Bart Merrill, the Side Hustle Samurai. Is that what they're searching for?

Yes, exactly.

Bart Merrill, the Side Hustle Samurai. Get plugged into his YouTube channel, subscribe, follow it, do all those things to help him build what he's doing. He's doing a great thing here. Bart, this has been fantastic. I really applaud what you're doing and your story, and the mindset is so critical for every everything that you're doing. You have any final words, final bits of wisdom you want to share in addition to everything you've been doing for us here today?

My dad, even in death, taught me a huge story. Have you heard the story Acres of Diamonds? So for those who haven't, it's an old story, and it's a true story. It's about a Persian farmer. His name was Ali Afed. He sold his farm. He went into search of diamonds. He never found his riches. He died broke, alone in a foreign land. The owner of his farm was watering his camel in, in the brook that ran through the property. He saw this rock, picked it up. It was diamonds, literally acres of diamonds in what was Ali Afed's backyard. My dad, my family, I should say, we have a similar story. Instead of acres of diamonds, it's acres of pig poop. So Dad was a pig farmer. I grew up in this small town in southern New Mexico. There were more pigs than people in my town. At any one time on our farm, we probably had somewhere around 19,000 pigs. We had 2,000 sows. Do you know what a sow is?

Of course, female pig. Yeah.

Yeah. For those who don't, it's a mama pig. And a mama pig can give birth 2.5 times a year. On our farm, we averaged 9.97 pigs per litter. If you do the math, that equals a lot of pig poop. We had 3 manmade settling ponds that we would divert the stuff into. One year over here, the next year here, the next year here. And so we would just rotate them every year. Well, Dad, he decided in his mid-60s it was time to shut down the pig operation. He was going to go in search of his next. Acres of Diamonds, his next big, big opportunity. He died at age 81. He never found his riches. He never found his next big opportunity. We sold the farm 2 years later after his death for $235,000. The owner, about 6 months after that, was leveling those man-made ponds that we had. We called them the lagoons. They had been dry on top for years. But as the heavy grader was grading across the middle of the pond, it broke through the crust and sunk up to this belly in this black muck. They called in experts to see what it was, see if it was bad or good or indifferent. Right there on the spot, they offered the new owners of our farm $2,000 a ton for the Stuff. That's a dollar a pound for old pig poop. The farm that we sold for $235,000 was now worth over $1 million. 500 tons of old pig poop was acres of diamonds right under my dad's nose. So I just want to add, ask your listeners. What about you? Where are your acres of diamonds? Are you right on the, the cusp of discovering them, or are you overlooking them like Ali Afed and my dad? They're right in your own backyard, right within your grasp, right there under your nose, and they may even look like a pile of pig poop. So find them. Don't overlook What is right there all around you? Pay attention. Be aware of your opportunities. That's my final thought. And I wish your listeners the best of luck in their search for their acres of diamonds or acres of pig poop.

Or poop, as the case may be. All right, everyone, get plugged in with this gentleman right here. A couple of ways you can do it. Go to his YouTube channel. Bart Merrill, the Side Hustle Samurai. Subscribe, follow, do all the things you can do there and get his gift here. 25 Successful Side Hustle Ideas for 2025. Offer the number 1, bartmerrill.com/25for25. Go do it right now and get yourself plugged in. Work with this man, help you identify your unique ability and your side hustle. Bart, thank you so much.

For what you're doing.

Thank you much for sharing it today.

It's a pleasure.

Our pleasure. For everyone, this has been the Potentializer Podcast. If we've helped potentialize you, give you an idea, a new way to expand what you're doing, maybe an idea for a side hustle or a new resource to potentialize what you're doing in your life, do me a favor, subscribe to this channel. From— leave us a great review, leave us a great review, and listen to the show notes at thepotentializerpodcast.com. The URLs to the great gifts That Bart is sharing with you. Be there at that site, thepotentializerpodcast.com. Until next time, look forward to seeing you back here on The Potentializer. Take care, everybody.

Thanks for tuning in to The Potentializer, where we unlock the true potential in people, properties, and partnerships through small apartment real estate. If today's episode helped you see a smarter path to wealth, authority, or impact, be sure to subscribe. Leave Leave a review and share the show with someone ready to grow. To plug into the platform, join the mastermind, or discover how to potentialize what you already have, visit wealthmastermindnetwork.com.