The Side Hustle Show

Freelancing or selling some useful service is one of the fastest ways to earn more money. It may not be as sexy as "passive income" but it does come with instant gratification. Make deals, deliver awesome work, and get paid. In today's show, I'm excited to welcome back Daniel DiPiazza from Rich20Something.com. You may remember Daniel from Episode 35, where he talked about how his "marsupial method" took his tutoring business from $18 an hour to $1000 an hour.

On this week's show, I'm joined by Steph Halligan, who runs ArtToSelf.com. She's a talented cartoonist who began a daily blog and email newsletter with inspirational and affirmational art -- all created by her. The site is 100% supported by donations from her followers, and even though it's very early in the journey, I think there's enough validation to say she's on the path her 1000 true fans doing work she loves.

I was very excited to sit down with Mark Podolsky, The Land Geek, to talk about his side-hustle-turned-full-time-biz of investing in raw land. In fact, he was able to replace his day job income and quit his job only 18 months after starting. Mark calls it the best passive income model because you don't have to worry about building a website, building a product, dealing with tenants, dealing with repairs, or selling a service.

Dorie's latest book is called Stand Out: How to Find Your Breakthrough Idea and Build a Following Around It, and it is the perfect companion to anyone trying to build a personal brand, an authority website, or an audience-based business. This episode is a little different from other Side Hustle Show episodes because we actually don't talk much about Dorie's personal story or experience at all, but rather dive into the research and examples that went into Stand Out. Listen in to learn how you can generate your next killer idea, get people to pay attention to you, and find a way to monetize it.

I've been medium-obsessed with the idea of early retirement ever since I discovered this little blog called Mr. Money Mustache a couple years ago. The basic formula goes like this: once you have 25x your annual spending in invested net worth, you can theoretically live off growth/interest/dividends in perpetuity. On today's episode you'll meet Jeremy Jacobson, who retired at 37 and now spends his days traveling with his wife and soaking up new cultures and experiences -- and blogging about financial independence.

Four months ago, Andy Slamans gave us a detailed look at Amazon FBA product selection, working with manufacturers, and bringing those products to market. But the most common question I get from listeners is how to find that first product to import. How do I find a profitable product? How do I measure the competition? How do I validate the demand and the pricing? In today's episode, I sit down with Will Mitchell from StartupBros.com to dive into those exact questions.

Dan Faggella sent me an email last month that essentially said, "Hey Nick, I'm a fan of the show. I have some expertise in email marketing, and I know many of your listeners are working to build their online presence and their email lists. Would it make sense to do an episode on some list building and email best practices?" And then he added the kicker: "I'm making $50k/mo selling martial arts training videos right now, and I have other businesses as well..." OK, I'm listening!

This week my friend Alex Barker co-hosts and interviews me on my entrepreneurial beginnings, my first side hustle, and the origins and future of Side Hustle Nation. We also go through a few listener questions as well. I realized I've told some of these stories only in bits and pieces on the show and on the Side Hustle Nation blog before, despite having mentioned them on several other podcasts. This episode is admittedly a little "fluffy" -- so I promise a return to the hard-hitting tactical stuff next week!

Nate and his brother earned $300,000 in passive income by licensing one of their ideas to Mattel. They didn't have to design it, produce it, or sell it. But they found someone who could, and they cashed the checks. And to be fair, Nate will be the first to tell you these kind of results aren't typical -- but he's proof they ARE possible. Nate's actually a dentist by day, but a pretty serious side hustler by night, and on this call we take a deep dive into the world of product licensing.

John Corcoran is well-known in online business circles for being "the connections guy," but I was more curious in how he's built his own online business than networking tips. Today he sells his own premium course on Connecting with Influencers, plus earns money as an affiliate for other high-dollar, high-value online products. In January, he earned $30,000 in one month, through sales of his own product and as an affiliate for others. In this call we get into building and selling a course of your own, the best ways to get it done, and maybe a little bit about building the partnerships to make a powerful impact.

In Hawaii and on the plane home I read two books with very similar themes: The ONE Thing by Gary Keller Essentialism by Greg McKeown Both titles share the common message of FOCUS -- de-cluttering your day, your work, your mind, and your life. They came at a good time because I was starting to feel overwhelmed with projects and wanting to pursue new ideas and opportunities as they came up.

Twenty months and 90 episodes ago, I was introduced to the incredible story of AnarchoFighter, the Top-Rated Fiverr seller who earned enough cash on the platform to buy a house. That episode convinced me to give Fiverr a shot as a seller myself, and it's turned into a fun side hustle income stream. Since we last spoke, Fiverr has implemented a bunch of changes, including the option to create custom quotes up to $10,000. And Mark was the first to make that $10k deal, taking a buyer from $5 to 5-figures:

It's tax season, and I think it would be foolish to give Uncle Sam more than you're legally required to. This week I'm joined by Joshua Sheats from RadicalPersonalFinance.com and the host of the Radical Personal Finance podcast. He explains there are 2 tax codes: the personal tax code and the business tax code. As a business owner, even as a side hustler, there are a number of distinct tax advantages available to you. Listen in and keep your hard-earned dollars!

Dayne Shuda runs GhostBlogWriters.com, a done-for-you blogging service that commands premium prices, and oversees a team of 20 part-time writers to deliver the work for clients around the country. But like most businesses, Ghost Blog Writers came from some pretty humble beginnings. In fact, Dayne started it as a side hustle with $0 upfront investment.

Here's a guy who built an online business, and had the courage to up and move to Cozumel, Mexico -- with his wife and 3 young daughters. It's not your typical single-23-year-old-dude digital nomad type of story, though Sean's business itself is simple enough to be replicated. This is a fun chat about hustling for business and building a lifestyle on your own terms. I think you're going to like it, even if you have no desire to move abroad.

This may surprise people, but I'm a pretty slow writer. I have a challenging time writing in "rough draft" mode. You know, where you just brain dump onto the page and clean it up later. That's one reason I wanted to have Chandler Bolt back on the show; because he's got a cure for that I'm anxious to try out. In this episode, we talk about his 3-step writing process to quickly create a new book project, along with Kindle launch tactics for new and aspiring authors.

You want traffic? You want readers? You want customers? You'll want to listen to this episode. Your free book is essentially your epic "guest post" -- only a MUCH bigger site than you could ever hope to publish on regularly. Like a good guest post, it leads readers back to more of your content, where they opt-in with their email to continue their relationship with you. This works for authors and non-authors alike. In fact, Nick pretty much convinced me I need to be doing this as well!

I'm thrilled to welcome Benny Hsu back to The Side Hustle Show! Remember Benny from way back in episode 17, when we talked about dominating the app store? In 2014, his app business took a backseat to a new side hustle: selling t-shirts through Teespring. I ran into Benny at Podcast Movement last summer, where I was proudly rocking my "Every day I'm hustling" tee, and we got to chatting about his new Teespring business.

If you're not already following Bryan Harris, I recommend you do. The guy is super smart and has a unique way of breaking things down so that they're easy to understand and implement. He doesn't mess around, and gives super-detailed actionable advice with some awesome examples, but gives the caveat that it takes real work. This is not a 4-hour workweek passive income system -- at least not at first. But that's OK, because we're hustlers and ready to make something happen in 2015, right?

Scott Oldford sent me a proposal for a podcast episode about part-time podcasting, and included the hook, "I've made $1900 in revenue from my first episode." OK, I'm listening! In this episode we discuss how a podcast can be a very part-time venture but still reach a wide audience and begin to earn revenue on its own.

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you're having an amazing holiday with friends and family, and taking a moment to reflect and recharge. Even though it's an American holiday, the idea behind giving thanks for what we have is universal. What's your Turkey Day tradition? I'm behind the mic solo this week, talking about 6 habits I believe have made me a better entrepreneur, and how you can implement them in your own life.

When I asked listeners last month who they'd like to hear on the show, Rob Cubbon is a name that came up from a couple different people. Rob's been crushing it lately between is online teaching efforts and his Kindle publishing business, and as luck would have it, is a Side Hustle Show listener himself. I've been following Rob's blog for some time myself, and have been really impressed with his journey. In fact, it's pretty inspiring and eye-opening to see some his quarterly income reports, with much of the money coming from Udemy.

J. Massey discovered real estate as a business out of necessity. He and his wife were both in poor health, and as he explains, had a 398 credit score and $75 to their name. Then, introduced to real estate wholesaling, the picture began to turn around. This strategy allowed J. to develop some cash flow without risking his own limited assets, and he says he got started by dedicating just 2 hours a day, or 10 hours a week to this new side hustle.

Today, Alexis Grant runs a social media, content marketing, and blog management agency and manages a team of 10 people to get it all done. But like many of us, she started off as a side hustler, working her way up and adding clients until it was time to make the leap. She took some very strategic steps along the way, including setting up clients on a retainer model instead of a one-off project basis, and building a "personal brand" and audience of her own through her blog.

One of the surprising bright spots in my side hustle portfolio (my strategy of building multiple income streams) has been Fiverr. After hearing the incredible story of AnarchoFighter last year, I knew I had to give the platform a shot! While I haven't exactly earned house-buying money, it has turned into a nice little revenue source. I'm up $7490 through 14 months, or a little over $500 a month on average.

Everybody's an expert in something, right? Well this week's guest, Matt Giovanisci, is an expert in pool care. He describes it as the most boring industry that serves such a fun product. He's taken an innovative approach to rank his site, SwimUniversity.com, in Google and monetize it with affiliate relationships and private advertising. I feel like Matt's process is proven and repeatable -- but takes real work.

Ryan Finlay from ReCraigslist.com makes a full-time living (and supports his family of 7) buying and selling items on Craigslist. In fact, he used this business to pull himself out from $25,000 in debt and now teaches others to do the same. This is really one of the most fascinating side hustle stories I've come across because there's a Craigslist for your city that is probably teeming with "inventory" for you to run a similar business.

One of my favorite questions to ask guests on The Side Hustle Show is how they got their first customer. Because that's an empowering moment! So today, I'll take you through how I got my first customers in a half dozen different business ventures. This show covers some formative moments in my journey, my struggles with sales, and some of my biggest takeaways from these businesses.

It's been quite a while since our last discussion of a software business here on the show. Even though we touched briefly on Long Tail Pro with Spencer Haws, I really have to go all the way back to Josh Isaak in episode 12 to find an in-depth breakdown of a Software as a service business. So that means today's conversation with Garrett Moon from CoSchedule is long overdue! After all, the low incremental cost and recurring revenue potential of the SaaS model is such a trendy holy grail of business right now.

Corrina Gordon-Barnes is a sought-after coach and mentor, and today she shares with Side Hustle Nation exactly how she built her business from the ground up. There are some surprising turns and some eye-opening responses in this one, as I ask Corrina about how she prices her services, how she landed her first clients, how she's scaling her business, and how she made blogging work as an effective marketing channel.

I'm excited to welcome Scott Britton from Life-LongLearner.com and The Competitive Edge podcast to The Side Hustle Show. In this chat, we talk about how he built up a passive income stream from online courses on Udemy, which gave him the freedom to travel and live in South America for several months. He's a super smart guy and really delivers a ton of excellent tips in this episode. I think you'll like it! Full Show Notes: How to Make Money on Udemy

It's a special Friday edition of The Side Hustle Show, and I'm flying solo on this one discussing the 8 income streams I'm working on right now. Add a little diversity to your revenue sources to protect yourself if any one of them gets cut off suddenly (been there!). You'll hear what's working well for me, as well as some challenges, opportunities, and plans going forward.

Jesse Krieger is THE Lifestyle Entrepreneur, and author of the book of the same name, subtitled Live Your Dreams, Ignite Your Passions and Run Your Business From Anywhere in The World. Today we're chatting about how aspiring side hustlers can come up with new business ideas, validate them quickly, and begin earning money outside of their day job. It's a fun session with a lot of brainstorming out loud on various ideas and methodologies of going to market.

In this edition of The Side Hustle Show I'm joined by Ryan Grant, founder of OnlineSellingExperiment.com, and a guy who turned his online selling side hustle into a full time gig. Ryan and I connected on Twitter after I published a post from Travis Scott on how he earns $500 per month with Amazon's FBA program. I'm pretty fascinated by this opportunity, but by how smart Amazon is to crowdsource their inventory, and by how real people are making real money with this side hustle.

Through his best-selling books, Jon Acuff may be one of the most prominent advocates for the side hustle "brand" of entrepreneurship. Jon's a sought-after author, speaker, and consultant, with a share of side hustle stories to tell. While some flopped, one was almost an overnight success: his Stuff Christians Like blog. We talk about all that and more during our call.

Consulting can be a beautiful business model because it transitions you from selling what you do to selling what you know. So what do you know that other businesses might pay for? What could you consult on? We cover all that and more with Kai Davis this week on The Side Hustle Show. We talk everything from landing more clients, increasing your rates, getting paid to do work you used to do for free, how to get clients on a monthly retainer agreement, and if you stick around to the end of the show -- Kai lays out his exact one-hour-at-a-time plan on how he would get a new consulting business off the ground.

I've been anxious to share the results of my Work Smarter Kindle launch with you, including all the behind-the-scenes work and strategy that went into it. In this special edition of The Side Hustle Show, I break down start-to-finish everything I did to create the book, market it, and set it up for success on Amazon after the free promotional period ended.

What do you do when your side hustle demands being available (and even traveling) during normal business hours? It's a challenge that a lot of us are facing and this week on The Side Hustle Show my guest shares is unique way to get around it and build a successful business. Grant Baldwin is a youth motivational speaker and host of the "How Did You Get Into That?" podcast. We talk about how entrepreneurs can hustle their way into new income streams while working day jobs following Grant's formula.

In this edition of The Side Hustle Show, I'm joined by Cameron Rambert all the way from Melbourne Australia! He's a freelance marketing strategist and the founder of DigitalMined.com, a growing resource for struggling freelancers. We talk about how aspiring side hustlers can get started earning their first dollars outside of their day job as freelancers -- and I agree -- freelancing is one of the fastest ways to make more money.

Nick Reese is an accomplished entrepreneur and sought-after business coach. We set out to record an episode on the mindset necessary to succeed as an entrepreneur, and I think we reached that goal, but along the way, Nick shared a fascinating way to build a lucrative side hustle by starting out freelancing. And on top of that, he shares why he started taking cold showers 2 years ago, and why he's actually got me hooked on the cold shower thing in the couple of months since we recorded the episode.

I'm excited to welcome Alex Genadinik back to The Side Hustle Show as the first-ever repeat guest. Alex reached out and told me how he'd applied many of the strategies and tactics discussed on the show over the past year, and I thought it would be fun to highlight some of those along with his progress. Alex's "year of hustle" has created at least 4 new income streams, including a couple more "passive" channels. This episode illustrates the power of starting today, so you can look back a year from now and see how far you've come.

The best thing about starting a podcast is the excuse to talk to awesome and inspiring people on a weekly basis. I've learned so much from The Side Hustle Show guests over the past year, I thought it would be an appropriate time to recap some of their shared wisdom, how I've applied it to my own projects, and how you can apply it to yours. This is episode 50 -- the big 5-0, and it's also my first-ever attempt at a solo show.

In episode 46 of The Side Hustle show, we get to hear the incredible story of Lindsay and Bjork Ostrom, who built PinchofYum.com up to a massive audience all while working a day job. In fact, they spent a full year volunteering in the Philippines but still managed to keep the site growing and thriving! In January, the site generated more than a million pageviews and earned over $17,000! In this interview we dive into how they got started, how the readership grew, and how they monetize the site.

In Episode 43 of The Side Hustle Show, I'm joined by Pat Flynn from ChroniclesOfStrength.com, one of the leading sites on "fitness minimalism." Pat is a kettlebell enthusiast who shares exactly how he built his blog from a side hustle hobby in college into a thriving business with multiple revenue streams. We talk how to generate traffic and email subscribers, how to craft viral facebook posts, and how to sell products, services, and subscriptions through your site.

I'm Nick and I have a confession. When I recorded this episode with Alex Barker from AlexBarker.org (The Leadership Dojo podcast), I had never been in any sort of formal mastermind group. Listen to the collective gasp in my blogger/podcaster/entrepreneur-type circles, that information is blasphemy! It's totally my fault. Masterminds are something I see huge value in but just never made a priority -- until now. In this episode, we talk all the details of what a mastermind is and why they're important for side hustlers. Alex knows a thing or two about the topic, having written the book on the subject: Hangout and Grow Rich: How to Build Your Virtual Mastermind in 30 Days (which he generously offered for free to Side Hustle Nation if you visit his site and send him a message). Subscribe to The Side Hustle Show on iTunes! Subscribe to The Side Hustle Show on Stitcher! Learn: What a mastermind is. ("Your personal board of directors.") What I picture when I hear the word "mastermind." Why you should have one. How to set it up (where to find potential members). The technology to run the meetings. The 4-part structure/format of the meetings so everyone benefits. Alex's #1 tip for Side Hustle Nation. Links: AlexBarker.org Dan Miller | 48 Days to the Work You Love Hangout and Grow Rich on Facebook Fire Nation Elite Mike Kawula Alex's Udemy course (Use code SIDEHUSTLE for 50% off!) Have you ever been in a mastermind group? Did you get value from it? Let me know in the comments below, and I'm especially curious if you'd be interested in joining an upcoming group specifically for side hustlers. Ready to get your hustle on? Check out the details here and fill out an application.

In Episode 39 of The Side Hustle Show, I'm joined by Mike Newton from HackingPhotography.com. We discuss how to make a name for yourself in any business, how to score corporate clients (and why you'd want to), and how to generate passive income streams from a service business.

Melissa Witmer runs UltyResults.com, a strength and conditioning membership site for ultimate frisbee players that generates a full-time income. In episode 36 of The Side Hustle Show, learn how she took the concept from idea to side hustle to full-time business and how can replicate her success. A big thank you to David from ThePowerofPartTime.tv for the introduction!

In episode 34 of The Side Hustle Show, fellow side hustler Ryan Cote from WPAmplify.com discusses how he's built his part-time service business into a high-value recurring-revenue machine. We talk scoring customers, pricing, delivering the goods, retention, and much more.

In episode 33 of The Side Hustle Show, I'm joined by Virginia Roberts from TheHeartographer.com. Virginia shares an awesome story of side hustle success, turning a personal skill into a hobby, then into a part-time coaching business, eventually quitting her job to be a full-time entrepreneur.

A subscription-based business is a beautiful thing, because you have a predictable recurring revenue stream you can grow over time. Online, one of the most popular subscription business models is a membership site, where customers pay for exclusive content, exclusive networking, and exclusive access to you, the site owner.