Chris Green is one of the foremost advocates for the side hustle lifestyle. He has 10+ years’ experience as an Amazon seller, author, software provider to others involved in the Amazon ecosystem, and most recently as a t-shirt designer selling shirts on the Merch by Amazon platform.Chris calls Merch by Amazon “the best side hustle out there right now.” With no upfront capital, no shipping or returns, no customer service, and no risk, it’s certainly one of the easiest side hustles to get started with.If you’re just getting started with Merch, Elaine Heney (who made $50k selling shirts last year) shared how to sign up and get your first t-shirts for sale on the Merch platform back on episode 216.Chris picks up where Elaine left off and goes into detail sharing some of his best tips for optimizing your listing, where he finds ideas for t-shirt designs and a few of the methods he uses to market his shirts.Tune in to hear some the unique and interesting ways Chris comes up with t-shirt designs ideas, as well as how he markets them through paid ads and organic outreach.You can find out more at merch.life, and pick up a free copy of Chris’ book Merch Resources (just pay shipping).Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: Merch by Amazon Marketing: How to Drive Traffic and Sales to Your T-Shirt Designs

Sarah Miller is still in college (and plays soccer for her school) but that hasn't stopped her from starting a pretty cool side hustle: painting custom pet portraits.She's done 300 paintings so far!But the business isn't without its challenges. She'd like to raise her rates, expand her marketing efforts to land new clients, and figure out how to make her work less of a time-for-money tradeoff.To help me brainstorm some ideas for Sarah, I invited Don the Idea Guy back on the program to join us on a call.As you might remember, Don is a creative genius and in this episode he definitely doesn't disappoint. Together we walk through a dozen different ways Sarah could take her operation to the next level and open up new income streams.Even if your business has nothing to do with painting wiener dogs, I think this conversation will get your gears turning because the broader strategies can apply to lots of different business models.Among the suggestions: Raise prices for the custom work. Create off-the-shelf prints for the most popular breeds (from the library of work Sarah's already done). Use print-on-demand marketplaces to instantly expand inventory and sales options. Her various upsell and cross-sell opportunities. Partner with influential pet bloggers and Facebook group administrators. Partner with pet-related stores w/ a low-tech coupon code-based affiliate program. Partner with other pet-related Etsy sellers to cross-promote each other's products. Tap into your database of existing customers for upsells and referrals. Turn the preliminary pencil sketches into other product offerings and maybe even adult coloring book templates. Teach others the skill of painting on Udemy. I think you'll like it!Full Show Notes: Side Hustle Coaching: I've Got Some Traction, Now What?Here's an example of Sarah's work:

Over the last decade, Cathy Heller has earned hundreds of thousands of dollars from her music and helping other musicians license their songs.In fact, you've probably heard some of her music without realizing it. Songs of hers have been featured in ads for huge brands, like McDonald’s, Walmart, Kellogg’s, as well as many popular TV shows.Today, the mother of 3 balances family, her art, her agency, her online course, and her new Don't Keep Your Day Job podcast, where she interviews other entrepreneurs, artists, and influencers.Cathy's story is an inspiring one, and it follows a familiar trajectory: freelancer to agency to product.When she moved to LA to be a rockstar, she didn't know where it would lead. That didn't pan out, but she landed at something perhaps even more fulfilling. She called it reverse engineering her dream job, and thinks other people can do the same.Tune in to hear how Cathy walked The Hustler's Path from freelancer to agency to product, and how you can apply her ideas and tactics to find your dream job.Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: Reverse Engineer your Dream Job: How a Struggling Songwriter Built a Multiple 6-Figure Business Doing What She Loves

Teresa Greenway is a mother of 10 who went from working part-time in a bakery to making $5k a month doing what she loves – baking and teaching others how to bake.More specifically, she teaches how to bake perfect sourdough bread.Teresa has built a really cool business around this niche at NorthwestSourdough.com.In the past couple of years, her main revenue driver has been Udemy courses, to the tune of several thousand dollars a month.The main driving force behind this? It turns out Teresa's secret weapon is a huge Facebook group of engaged followers, fans, and fellow bakers.With almost 35,000 members, it's one of the largest baking groups on Facebook, and Teresa said it all started “by accident” back in 2013.Since then her business and revenue have grown faster than a loaf of her sourdough bread. Teresa earned $1k in the month she released her first Udemy course in April 2015, and it was a life-changing moment. She went on to earn $20k in her first year, and now consistently brings in $4-5k a month.Teresa did all of this will little to no promotion or marketing. Tune in to hear how she grew her Facebook group so fast, why she decided to start selling courses on Udemy, and how she also uses YouTube and ebooks to drive traffic to her courses and group.Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: Why a Facebook Group Should be Part of Your Marketing Strategy

You can be a creator or a consumer, but it’s the creators that get paid.I’ve argued before that creativity is the most important skill for entrepreneurs because before you can sell anything, you have to create that value proposition.But what if you’re not creative?I believe we all have that innate creative spirit in us somewhere, it’s just a matter of flexing that creative muscle.In this episode, I talk with Carol "Stash" Stanley of StashSports.com, and David Fedewa who is an inventor mentor at InventRight.com.Stash holds six patents related to products in the baseball and softball world, as well as footwear safety. She’s worked on these products as a side hustle while working full-time at the University of Virginia.David Fedewa is a serial inventor who has taken the product licensing route as described by Stephen Key in episode 173 to earn passive income from his product ideas.Tune in to hear how they come with ideas, how to unleash the creativity in your own head, and what to do with those ideas once you have them.Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: How to Cultivate Creativity Like an Inventor

As the author of more than 70 books, Steve "S.J." Scott is one of the most productive and disciplined people I know.His latest title, Habit Stacking, became a Wall Street Journal Bestseller and served as the inspiration for this episode.(Long-time listeners might remember Steve from WAY back in the archives; he was my guest in episode 9 where we discussed how to earn money as a side hustling author.)This time though we're diving into a few of the habits that allow Steve to continually drive his business forward, and lead a healthier and happier life. Plus, you'll learn why we think they're important and how you can apply them in your own life.The 10 habits we cover are: Tracking your time Reviewing your goals daily Writing down the tasks you got done Fixing your "broken windows" Wearing a step-tracking device Keeping a food diary Researching one side hustle Breaking down a big project into actionable steps Following an evening shutdown routine Practicing mindfulness As you can see, they're not all directly business-related, but most take 5 minutes or less and are designed to increase your productivity, reduce stress, prioritize your workload, and help you find a healthy work-life balance.Tune in to hear how Steve and I incorporate these habits into our daily routines (or plan to, in my case). As you'll see in the links section below, there are a lot of books, apps, and resources mentioned.Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: 10 Foundational Hustle Habits to Improve Your Health, Wealth, and Happiness

Learn how Noah Kagan quickly brainstorms and validates business ideas, embracing failures as part of the process. Discover unique ways to identify market opportunities from daily annoyances and seize business opportunities like Airbnb hosting. Get insights on productivity tips, consistent promotion, and navigating business evolution in entrepreneurship.

The best advice from my last 49 guests.At the end of nearly every episode of The Side Hustle Show, I ask my guests for their #1 tip for Side Hustle Nation. There’s always a great variety of responses, and I wanted to take some time today to go through some of my favorites from the past 50-ish interviews.I first did this for episode 50, which was my first-ever solo podcast recording, and then again in episode 124 and episode 177. If you like this short-and-sweet meta-style show, be sure to check out those ones from the archives as well.And even though my primary motivation is to extract helpful tactics for you, the listener, I can't help but learn from my guests as well. You never know when inspiration will strike or where you'll hear the one insight that has a huge impact.These episodes are a lot of fun to put together, and give me an excuse to revisit some of my favorite moments and wise words from the show.From the last 49 guests, the 3 most common #1 tips I heard were: Get started. Take action. Build your audience. While those might sound overly generic, don't be quick to dismiss them. If all these really smart and successful people keep saying these episode after episode as their “#1 tip,” I think they’re worth paying attention to.What action can you take today to apply those tips?My #1 Tip? Find your WHY.Why side hustle? What are you trying to build? What will that afford you?At the end of this episode, I share a new #1-ish tip: if success is owning your calendar and being free to spend your time how you like, start doing it today in some small but meaningful way.Full Show Notes: What I've Learned and Applied from 49 Awesome Entrepreneurs - Part 4

As one of several side hustles, Ryan Dowd runs HomelessLibrary.com, a training program that teaches librarians how to confidently and compassionately deal with their homeless patrons.It’s something a little different from the business-to-consumer model we usually see with online course sales and comes with some advantages over the B2C market — namely potentially higher prices and the ability to perform direct outreach.By day Ryan is the executive director for a homeless shelter in Illinois, but on the side he’s also an adjunct professor, a practicing attorney, and he’s writing a book — in addition to the 3-15 hours a week he spends on HomelessLibrary.com.(And he’s married with a couple kids, so it’s fair to say he’s a busy guy.)Ryan was working at the homeless shelter when a friend asked if he would speak at a local conference about homelessness to a group of librarian executive directors.His talk went so well he started receiving offers to deliver training in person at libraries. Not having the time to travel to different locations, Ryan recorded a 30-minute video, posted it on YouTube, and sent people the link.Now with over 13,000 views, his video has become a staple training tool for librarians across the country and there was a demand for more.Ryan capitalized on this by recording a longer, more in-depth training. He broke it up into modules and began selling it to libraries across the US.Tune in to hear how that first conference speaking gig Ryan did for a friend turned into a successful side hustle selling B2B online courses and started what he calls, “A crazy wild ride with a completely accidental start.”Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: Selling Digital Products to Business or Government Clients: An Online Business Success Story with a Twist

Listen in on a real-life side hustle coaching call with customer acquisition and retention strategist David Hutcherson (he's the client), and sales pro Brendan Alan Barrett (he and I share the coaching duties).On the heels of last week's sales-themed episode, I invited Brendan on because of his sales background both with companies large and small.We're joined by our "client" David, who's seeking to grow his freelance/consulting side hustle and build on his decade of experience in customer service.We dive into where David is at in his business today, how he got his first few clients, and where he'd like to go from here.The good news is he's not starting from scratch. He's had a handful of clients for community management and customer market research gigs, including the world famous improv theater Second City, but nothing recurring and not much in the pipeline at the moment.We do our best to point him in the right direction and get him to try and figure out what exactly is the service he offers and who he offers it to. And we just might have a breakthrough on that front about 20 minutes in.Tune in to hear the types of questions you'll have to ask yourself in a service-based side hustle. Put yourself in David's shoes as you listen and think about what you'd do in his position -- and your own.Full Show Notes: Side Hustle Sales Coaching: What Do I Do and Who Do I Do it For?