The Side Hustle Show

Rob Pettingalo, founder of Trip Hacks DC and ShadedSeats.com, navigated the pandemic by pivoting his tour guide business to an online venture. He discovered unexpected opportunities in his YouTube stats, leading to a new website about shaded seating at baseball parks. The conversation dives into smart affiliate marketing strategies in the sports sector, the importance of long-tail keywords, and the necessity of flexibility and persistence in side hustles. Rob's journey showcases how adaptation and audience engagement can spark innovative ideas.

There’s profit out there, you just have to learn how to find it.On this week’s show, I’m joined by a pair of Side Hustle Show listeners who’ve been learning that skill and have translated it into tens of thousands of dollars in sales over the last 16 months.Jack and Joan Ferrell of SecondTimeSellers.com are resellers. They find used items at flea markets, yard sales, online auctions, and flip those items for anywhere up to 10x what they paid for them.Inspired to start reselling after listening to episode 406 with Stacy Gallego, they’ve hit the floor running and have set themselves the goal of turning over $250,000 in the next 12 months.Tune in to The Side Hustle Show interview to hear: the creative ways Jack and Joan source inventory how they handle the shipping and logistics the most effective ways they’ve found to grow their business Full Show Notes: Building a Reselling BusinessFree Flipping Training  

Discover the speaker's latest online business experiments, diving into innovative email strategies and YouTube growth techniques. Learn about optimizing content for SEO while navigating keyword competition. Explore the speaker's mindfulness journey with meditation and the impact of lifestyle upgrades. Hear about family adventures, from skiing to Legoland, alongside overcoming business challenges. Finally, gain insights into harnessing motivation to enhance productivity and align personal values with actions.

From being a “bored stay at home mom” to running a multi 6-figure business in just a few short years.That’s the story for this week’s guest, Jayne Havens of TheSnoozeFest.com who decided to take a sleep certification course “on a whim.”This is a 2-for-1 episode where we’re going to learn about starting a service business from scratch — in Jayne’s case that’s coaching parents how to help their babies and toddlers sleep through the night.Jayne started earning thousands of dollars a month doing the coaching, before deciding to add the addition of an online course component teaching other people how to do what she did.Tune in to The Side Hustle Show interview to hear: how Jayne got started coaching parents on how to get their babies and toddlers to sleep better why she decided to start the online course component of her business the methods she’s used to grow both sides of her business Full Show Notes: How to Start a Sleep Consulting BusinessDownload Your Free Bonus: 101 Service Business Ideas

“How I bootstrapped a 6-figure e-commerce brand in its first year with zero ad spend.”That was the subject line that Side Hustle Show Connor Meakin sent me that grabbed my attention and earned him a spot on this week’s show.The brand Connor is talking about is BluebirdProvisions.co, an organic bone broth, and bone broth powder company.Connor started Bluebird Provisions after suffering a devastating foot injury that doctors said he would never fully recover from and be able to run again.Searching for alternative, holistic ways to heal his foot, Connor decided to try drinking bone broth.He accredits healing his foot injury, in part, to the healing properties in bone broth and decided to manufacture his own line of bone broth products.Connor now sells his products through retail stores like Whole Foods, on Amazon, and through his own e-commerce site, and saw a 225% growth last year.Tune in to The Side Hustle Show interview to hear: how Connor came up with the idea to sell bone broth how he’s turned it into a reality for a relatively low startup cost the creative and effective ways he’s driving sales on and off of Amazon today Full Show Notes: How I Bootstrapped a 6-Figure E-Commerce Brand in 1 Year

Today we’re geeking out on the awareness problem — how to spread the word about your business. And how to do it in a way that aligns with your style and your budget. To help me out with this is long-time Side Hustle Show listener, Larry Towner. He’s a real estate investor, a handyman, and co-host of the Handyman Pros Radio Show podcast. Larry runs a local handyman service in the North Atlanta area and always has his work calendar booked up months in advance. He uses a wide range of free and low-cost ways to get his business in front of the right customers, so there’s going to be more than enough ideas you can use for your own business. Tune in to this episode of The Side Hustle Show to hear 16 free and low-cost marketing ideas, including: how you can use your website and business cards as an “electronic brochure” why it’s so important for local businesses to use Google My Business how Larry gets so much business through referrals both online and offline Full Show Notes: 16 Free and Low Cost Marketing Ideas Download Your Free Bonus: 10 Proven Local Marketing Ideas

"Changing the world with chess" and making $100,000 per year on the side.That’s the story of today’s guest, Jeff DiOrio from EliteChess.net.Jeff went from working in summer camp chess programs teaching kids how to play chess, to running his own summer camps and earning five times as much.He then transitioned to an online recurring membership model, in part due to the pandemic, while also keeping the in-person coaching side of his business alive.Jeff’s approach to growing his student numbers so rapidly?Organic growth through giving to charities and delivering a value-driven service. All while doing something he loves -- teaching chess.Tune in to The Side Hustle Show interview to hear: how Jeff built his minimum viable audience the methods he used to set up the business for recurring revenue how you can borrow some of these same tactics in your business Full Show Notes: From $17/hr to 6-Figure Side HustleDownload Your Free Bonus: 20 Hobbies to Monetize with an Online Business 

How does risk-free profit sound?That’s the promise and of the consignment business — getting paid to sell other people’s stuff.To help school me on how it all works I’ve invited Megan Church from PineappleConsignment.com onto this week’s show.Megan experimented with her first popup consignment event in October 2018 with the goal of breaking even and to do something creative with her time.Megan did a little better than break even with that first show, and more importantly, validated her business idea and had a lot of fun doing it.She has since broadened her business into online sales, estate sales, and now has her own warehouse and storefront open to the public.Tune in to The Side Hustle Show interview to hear: how you can get started throwing popup consignment events right away how Megan sources and manages her inventory the creative ways she’s found to market and grow the business Full Show Notes: Get Paid to Sell Other People's Stuff: Building a Successful Consignment Business

Camron Stover, the owner of HuntingGearDeals.com, shares his journey of transforming a hunting niche blog into a $90k revenue powerhouse. He discusses the art of curating daily deals and effective strategies for audience engagement. Camron reveals how he sources free content and builds trust through honest reviews. He emphasizes the importance of collaborating with brands rather than relying solely on platforms like Amazon, and the innovative use of social media to boost visibility and drive traffic. A true inspiration for aspiring side hustlers!

Today’s guest, Matt Bochnak of HowToMotorcycleRepair.com, is one of my favorite examples of how you can dedicate part of your week to generating time-leveraged income.This is Matt’s third time on The Side Hustle Show, and every time we speak he’s made huge leaps forward with his business.Matt first appeared on the show back in 2016 when he was making around $1,000 a month recording himself performing motorcycle repairs in his garage and selling digital products.When Matt appeared on the show for a second time in 2019 he was making $4,000-5,000 a month from a combination of digital product sales, YouTube ad income, affiliate commissions, Patreon, and sponsored content.As you’ll discover in this episode, Matt is now making almost $20,000 a month in revenue. He’s completely shut down the service side of his business, expanded into physical products, and more.Tune in to The Side Hustle Show interview to hear: how Matt’s business has changed since we last spoke in 2019 where the idea for a physical product came from and how he validated it the various revenue streams ringing the cash register for Matt right now Full Show Notes: Turning a Service Business into a Passive Income Stream - Part 3