I’ve been listening to a great podcast, Side Hustle School. It’s all about side hustles, something you do in your free time to bring in extra money. The host, Chris Guillebeau, is a huge proponent of finding a way to get income on the side that isn’t dependent on your day job. He urges people to build products and deliver services that don’t require a lot of maintenance. In this case, Uber doesn’t count because you have to be working to make money. Instead, he focuses on small business, products, and services. Mobile yoga studios, cricket drop-shipping, and tutoring web products are among the many topics he covers.
The show has a great format, the daily episodes each focus on a single effort. They get into the story behind the work, a few failures, then the tweaks that lead to success. Unlike a lot of “get rich quick” solutions, he’s not offering a cookie-cutter plan. Instead, he’s doing something much more useful. He’s trying to build up your toolset for identifying and capitalizing on opportunities. We all have our own strengths and weaknesses and a one size fits all solution won’t work. We can however, use the tools that resonate with us on the problems we’re best suited to solve.
I’ve talked about how I’m tired of the radio and I utilize commuting time and the time I’m working on chores and other mundane activities to continue my goal of life-long learning. So what are you listening to? What Hustle are you working on?
Image Credits: Soozie Bea
