Setting out on the path to discover a satisfying side venture demands more than a mere spark of inspiration. Susan and Annie unravel the essence of side hustles through the lens of Simon Sinek's Golden Circle theory, anchoring their discussion in the powerful concept of starting with your 'why', illustrating its significance with real-life stories of individuals who have transformed their side gigs into fulfilling careers. Whether you're looking to build a financial safety net, pursue a passion, or simply satisfy your curiosity, side hustles offer a world of possibilities.
Roots and Rewards of Starting Your Own Side Project
You must have clarity of purpose to face the inevitable challenges of side hustling.
The opportunity to learn new skills and turn them into side hustles is more accessible than ever.
Surrounding yourself with a network of peers can accelerate learning and open doors to monetization opportunities.
Determination, adaptability, and resilience play a significant role in the pursuit of a rewarding side venture.
The Essence of Successful Side Ventures
[00:02:18] If a tree didn't have strong roots in the ground and the wind swayed, the tree would fall over. The why is your root into the ground, to make sure that you know why you're doing this, so whatever wind comes, whatever storm comes, you can hold true to that.
[00:08:13] It makes such a big difference when you have to do something versus when you choose to do something, because none of us wants to be faced with that decision of having to create this side hustle when you have to do it.
[00:31:27] Something happens when you step outside of this box, of your W-2 job, and what society has told you is the thing, the path. And something happens. It's just like a little crack in your brain opens up and you're like wait a second, if I can make money doing this, what else can I do?
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Thanks for listening, and until next time, keep investing for good!
Susan Elliott: [00:00:00] Always ask yourself, and how do other people monetize this kind of thing? And then start surrounding yourself with those people who are doing that, because you're going to start to find ways, I think, that it comes more naturally to monetize things. If you're putting yourself in a community of people who are also thinking along that same line.
Annie Dickerson: Well, hello, everyone. I'm Annie Dickerson. And on behalf of the entire Good Egg Investments team, I wanted to welcome you to this segment. Episode of the life and money show the show, where we talk about everything from investing to financial freedom, to parenting, traveling, creating a life by design, side hustles, and everything in between.
Annie Dickerson: I'm here with my amazing cohost, Susan Elliott. Susan, share with everyone a little bit about what we're going to be talking about today.
Susan Elliott: Today's a great follow up from last week's episode. So last week we talked a lot about our specific journeys into side hustles and why we think it's valuable and how some really cool strategies to think about side hustles [00:01:00] as optimizing your life or just bettering your life.
Susan Elliott: And it doesn't always have to be the hustle in the side hustle. It can actually be like pursuing dreams and passions that, you know, you never know where we'll take you. So today we're going to look a little bit deeper into the process of going about getting yourself a side hustle. And we're going to look a little bit inside the framework of Simon Sinek.
Susan Elliott: He's one of our favorite authors in Start With Why. He's got great TED Talks, but he has this theory called the golden circle. And inside, if you imagine a bullseye, inside is the why. And then the next circle going outward is the how, and the last circle out is the what. And he says the fault of most people is that they start with the outside.
Susan Elliott: They start with the what, and then they say the how, and then, oh yeah, this is why. Whereas he's saying you start with that why on the inside, that his work with the most successful people in the world, leaders of giant companies, of just really happy people in general, start with that why and they build out.
Susan Elliott: So that's what we're going to do today when we think about how to help guide you in thinking about which side hustle might be right for you.
Annie Dickerson: Yeah, absolutely. I [00:02:00] think starting with why is such a good anchor point. It creates such a solid foundation because inevitably when you get into a new venture, a new side hustle, even a new project at work, inevitably you're going to run up against obstacles and roadblocks.
Annie Dickerson: And if you don't have that strong wide anchor, anchor you in. It's like a tree. Somebody was giving me this analogy. It's like a tree. If a tree didn't have strong roots in the ground and the wind swayed, the tree would fall over. So the why is your root into the ground to make sure that you know why you're doing this.
Annie Dickerson: So whatever wind comes, whatever storm comes, you can hold true to that. So I love that we're following that framework today. Why, how, what?
Susan Elliott: Yeah. And I'll give you a really great example. I'm actually part of this wonderful coaching program to be able to learn the craft of YouTubing. I'm growing the Good Egg Investments YouTube channel.
Susan Elliott: It's super fun. I love doing it. I love speaking. I love creating, getting to do a little bit of all these new things. But to be a part of a program, this is a big tip in [00:03:00] creating your side hustle. Maybe think about joining a coaching program, joining a mentorship program to kind of fast track it. But there's an individual in this program, he's getting close to retirement age.
Susan Elliott: He started a YouTube channel about a year ago because he saw the signs that his industry was soon probably going to be replaced. His job was likely going to be replaced by new technologies, whether that's AI anything. And at his age, he just. Solve the writing on the wall of how difficult it might be to find another job in that same industry.
Susan Elliott: And so he started a YouTube channel and just at the other day in our Slack channel for this program, he expressed deep gratitude because he did in fact get laid off. And his YouTube channel is just starting to be monetized. And so he's like, I am just so glad that I started this a year ago that I had this hunch and I followed it.
Susan Elliott: He had probably a why, like, I want to do this because it's bringing me meaning and it's also going to serve very vital purpose in my life. So a great example. It can happen to anybody.
Annie Dickerson: Yeah, [00:04:00] and that's such a, oh my goodness. I cannot even imagine when you're almost at that finish line, right? Or people talk about, you know, you work all this time and then you're almost at retirement and he's almost there.
Annie Dickerson: He's worked so hard all these years and he's almost there and he gets laid off. But because he's. Put in the time to create this side hustle and to just play really, he's been playing. He's been trying this. He's been testing it out. He didn't think when he started it that he would need it as a potentially a sole source of income.
Susan Elliott: Exactly. That pressure to remove that pressure from the beginning of a side hustle is super important to start it when you don't necessarily need it to you're really grounding in your why do I love doing this? Can I consider doing this? Full time. There's all kinds of things you can learn if you just start with a playful mindset.
Annie Dickerson: Yes. Oh, I love this. This is going to be so good. I'm so excited to get into this. It's going to be such a juicy episode. But first for all of our listeners, just a quick reminder. If you ever [00:05:00] want to talk with us directly, us and our team, you are more than welcome to attend our weekly good egg podcast.
Annie Dickerson: popover session. And a popover is just a drop in session. Think of it as office hours. It's where we and our team make ourselves available to all of you for any questions you might have, whether it's related to real estate investing or side hustles or something else, or maybe you don't even have a question and you just want to be a fly on the wall.
Annie Dickerson: And you want to just come and meet other people, see what other people are asking. You are more than welcome to attend. Our good egg popovers are every Tuesday at 11 a. m. Pacific time. And to register for that, you can go to good egg investments. com slash popover. And we look forward to seeing you at the next one.
Annie Dickerson: All right. Well, with that, let's start with the why we touched a little bit on it with that example of the person who was laid off. But, you know, talking about AI, I mean, you know, I was [00:06:00] hearing somebody talk about this recently, how the history of technology it's really, we're at this critical juncture in human history where for hundreds of thousands of years prior, I mean, what it was like the wheel and then the axe and then maybe some swords and stuff came along, but it was like hundreds of years in between those innovations, right?
Annie Dickerson: And so life day to day, year to year, even generation to generation was pretty much The same. They had the books and then maybe the printing press came along. Little innovations that change things here and there, but certainly not at the pace that we're seeing now. We're at the exponential curve and we're in many ways, we're just at the beginning.
Susan Elliott: Exactly. And
Annie Dickerson: so I think even the best of the best experts haven't been able to predict exactly how AI and technology is going to completely change the landscape of our lives as we know it.
Susan Elliott: I mean, my parents, especially my grandparents, but my parents still can [00:07:00] barely email. It's like, that's, that is their frontier of computing.
Susan Elliott: And you think about what's coming down the pipeline and that change in generation is so, so rapid. So there's an element of resiliency in the why. Maybe your why is grounded in like, I'm not, Sure, no one is sure what these changes are, but perhaps my industry will shift. What's something else I can do to just sort of like shore up my resiliency to some of these big changes or start learning about those changes so that you are more valuable going down the road and it's less, you know, you're staying at the front of that curve.
Susan Elliott: Your side hustle could in fact be learning and researching that and starting some sort of AI business on the side just to teach yourself what's going on, just to force yourself to educate yourself what's going on.
Annie Dickerson: Yeah. And I love what you said earlier about it makes such a big difference when you have to do something versus when you choose to do something because, you know, none of us wants to be faced with that decision of having to create this side [00:08:00] hustle when you have to do it.
Annie Dickerson: So do it now when you're playing, when the stakes are low, when you don't necessarily need that extra stream of income. But here's what it does is let's take the YouTube example or AI, you know, either one Where maybe that's not core to your work at your job. So you might not have a project or an occasion to create videos.
Annie Dickerson: Even if you asked, it might take some time to get you assigned to the right department and to be able to do a project like that. But maybe you have this internal. Itch to try something or to get to know AI or YouTube or podcasting or anything else like that. And you're like, you know, I have this idea and I just want to try it.
Annie Dickerson: And maybe the purpose isn't money at the beginning. Maybe it's more just you want to try something. You want to learn it. You want to see if you can do something with it. I mean, this reminds me of Mark Rober. He's one of the premier YouTubers. He creates all these science videos for kids.
Susan Elliott: Oh, one of my favorites, especially as a parent.
Susan Elliott: Oh my [00:09:00] God.
Annie Dickerson: Oh. He's so fun! Yeah, but talk about a great example of this, right? Like he started creating these videos back when he was working at NASA and then Apple and he was just doing this on the side just for fun. He started out creating videos about how to create these, um, fun Halloween costumes and he didn't think anything of it, but his videos Some of them went viral, and then he got interviewed on some good morning so and so, I don't know which one, but he got some press around it, right?
Annie Dickerson: And then it told him, hm, maybe I should keep doing this, but he wasn't making any money around it. But look at him now, he's got a huge YouTube presence and his own company, which is a spinoff of that. So lots of things can come from it. If you just follow that passion, as we talked about in our last episode, follow that passion and just play, just try something.
Susan Elliott: And if it is the income that's your why, like I want to be able to do this fun thing with my family, I [00:10:00] want. To be able to save 10, 000 this year. I just created a video that actually used the golden circle framework to be able to talk a little bit more about how you can think about saving an additional 10, 000 really easily this year.
Susan Elliott: We'll link to that in the show notes below, but that is totally fine. And maybe consider. Joining a community or just as you develop that passion and the things that you're doing to just explore, always ask yourself, like, and how do other people monetize this kind of thing and then start surrounding yourself with those people who are doing that because you're going to start to find ways.
Susan Elliott: I think that it comes more naturally to monetize things if you're putting yourself in a community of people who are also thinking along that same line.
Annie Dickerson: Yeah. And that's exactly what you're doing with the YouTube program that you're a part of. Tell us a little bit about it just for anybody who might be curious about whether it's YouTube or something else.
Annie Dickerson: What is a community or in a program like that like?
Susan Elliott: Yeah. This one's called the Part Time YouTuber Academy. It's through Ali Abdaal. I really love it. It's really comprehensive in terms [00:11:00] of. Growing a YouTube channel, but also sort of like helping everybody think about the business around their YouTube channel.
Susan Elliott: So it's not just a hundred percent, this is how you monetize on YouTube. This is how you get AdSense to be able to give you like little bits of pennies with every click, every watch that you do. But this is how to kind of think about it in terms of the type of lifestyle business that you want to move forward with.
Susan Elliott: And it's very much in the framework of like, everyone here is a part-timer . Everyone here has something else going on. Because the luxury of saying, I'm gonna quit my job to start YouTube. It's really rare, right? And it's also really vulnerable for most people to make that leap. We don't all have this big runway of finances saved up to be able to jump into these passion projects.
Susan Elliott: But with the side hustle, maybe you build up that runway so that one day you can make that jump and you have a little bit more cushion. But this community is great. It just is giving me so much knowledge. And I love surrounding myself with the beginners because everybody here is starting. And I'm also seeing people who are a year or two years into it.
Susan Elliott: [00:12:00] And who have reached these big goals and these successes. And they're real people that I get to talk to. So it's less sort of this big blank slate of like, I'm going to monetize on YouTube. Yet you have no connection with anyone who is on that journey as well. It just doesn't make sense to you. You're kind of just beating yourself against the wall.
Susan Elliott: So again, if income is really a big part of your goal and most side hustles, that is the goal is typically to have a little bit of extra income, then find some sort of group, even if you create it with a Facebook online to learn the craft. I've been asked a little bit faster, but to learn how to monetize it too.
Annie Dickerson: Yeah. That's so good. And that's exactly what we did when we launched creating investments is, you know, before we did, we joined both Julia and I joined separate programs and communities before we partnered up. Because it's so critical to surround yourself with that network of people who can be your sounding board, whom you can get ideas from, encouragement from, accountability from, that you might not be able to get, which actually would be really hard to get [00:13:00] with just your friends and your neighbors and other mom friends that you might have who might not have.
Annie Dickerson: Similar interests or expertise? Mm-Hmm. . Okay. So with that, I know that's getting a little bit into the how, and actually we shouldn't add that in, is surround yourself with a community. But let's talk about, you know, let's say that you're at a point where you're like, okay, I'm committed. I wanna find a side hustle.
Annie Dickerson: I don't yet know what it is, but I know I have my why. I've grounded in my why, and now I wanna get started. So. Where do I start? So what would you say, Susan, what are some of the things that you might do to get started with a side hustle?
Susan Elliott: Yeah. Well, again, you started with your why already. You've written out why you want this.
Susan Elliott: You've written out some of your goals, your long term goals with this. Is it to monetize? Is it to get a certain amount of money in a certain number of years? I would say the next thing is kind of do an audit of the things that you love to do. The things you are already passionate about. Because there are things that you're [00:14:00] doing that other people need and want, and you do just naturally likely.
Susan Elliott: So kind of take a big audit of just things you love to do and make a big list. And I
Annie Dickerson: would say if you get stuck, I always go back to what did you want to be when you were a little kid? And. Because as you grow, there's all these society pressures and demands and what your parents wanted you to become and all that stuff, but think back to the core of in those days of innocence before you had all those pressures and burdens, what did you want to be?
Annie Dickerson: And there's probably maybe it's not that Being exactly, but there's some elements of that that are still within you that are at the core of you. And as an example, when I was a little girl, I wanted to be a teacher. I know a lot of kids want to be teachers cause that's the most common employee that they see every day is their teacher, their own teacher.
Annie Dickerson: So they're like, okay, they're thinking that's work that I could do someday, but I really had this. Like I would sit in my room and I would pretend to read a book to my [00:15:00] stuffed animals. Like there was like something in me from an early age that I always wanted to be a teacher. And so I did, I became a teacher out of college, but you know, with every job that I had after that, there was some element of teaching that I kept with me.
Annie Dickerson: And I still consider it one of my superpowers to this day, which is a big part of how we were able to get good egg investments off the ground was. It wasn't really about the real estate or about the deals. We've never proclaimed to have the best deals or the best returns, but we have the most welcoming community and we have the most comprehensive educational platform to equip people with the knowledge.
Annie Dickerson: And so all that to say is if you're stuck. Go back to some of the core things that you may have loved even as a kid.
Susan Elliott: Another idea to generate that list just quick is to ask your friends, what am I good at? What do you see that I like to do? And ask your family to say, like, when you think of me, what are three words that come to mind?
Susan Elliott: What are the things you [00:16:00] see me doing that. You find really helpful or valuable, just kind of have these general conversations. They might be like, well, you're really great at talking to people. I love the way you always show up in the carpool line to help the kids. And there's a quality about you there, like a guiding aspect, perhaps that you can elicit from that sort of thing that you love to do that you may not even think about.
Susan Elliott: think of. So really go broad here when you're thinking about this list of ideas and then start to explore different side hustles around those ideas. After you've talked to your friends and your families, think about the communities that are out there. Join one of those to be able to think about what could you do every day that you could potentially monetize or just like we mentioned earlier, just start to learn about it.
Susan Elliott: Maybe it is starting a blog or a YouTube channel or writing a book or an online course, but explore different things that other people are doing around those ideas.
Annie Dickerson: And I think that's so key is that, you know, you might like, let's say somebody told you you're really good at talking to people and you're thinking, well, what do I do with [00:17:00] that?
Annie Dickerson: I don't, I don't know, like what kind of side hustle could that be? I just, I like talking to people, I guess. We all
Susan Elliott: talk to people.
Annie Dickerson: Yeah. But then you start to dig in, you start to research, you start listening to podcasts or watching YouTube videos and seeing the common threads of other people who might be really good at talking to people and you say, Oh, this is what they've done, or this is what they're working on.
Annie Dickerson: Could I see myself doing that? How could I do that? And it's just this area of just play and exploration. And it's really as much as it is starting a side hustle. It's a process of self discovery. As well. All right. And then finally, before you actually jump into it, this is probably the most logistical aspect of the process is you got to create that container for yourself.
Annie Dickerson: So you got to figure out what is the timeline? How much time are you going to be? put toward this venture and you know, how much seed money or what is the budget that you have that you want to invest [00:18:00] into this venture and keeping in mind that as with anything, what you put in is what you're going to get out.
Annie Dickerson: And so, you know, maybe if you don't have a lot of money right now to invest into a side hustle, to join a program or to take a course, maybe you lean on the free resources, but that might take more time. To explore. So maybe your scale balances in favor of more time, less money versus if you're really busy with your job, but you want to have a little bit of a side hustle on the side, then maybe you shortcut it by investing in a program or a community that can get you this fast track, this head start.
Annie Dickerson: And then you spend less time on the front end researching and trying to find the tools to get started. So those are kind of the levers to pull to figure out the time and the money that you want to invest. And then of course is to figure out the idea for the side hustle. So that's what we're going to dive into next.
Annie Dickerson: So we've covered the why. The [00:19:00] how, and now we're going to dive into the what. All right, Susan, do you want to kick us off?
Susan Elliott: Well, I think a really quick one that most people think of is starting the blog, starting the YouTube, creating an online community or an online course to be able to offer a piece of knowledge that you have to other people.
Susan Elliott: You might even start a podcast and learn about what are the ways that I'm going to be able to monetize this podcast by sharing that passion, that knowledge that you have with the community of people that are out there. This might also be coaching. So these are all. a lot of the common ways to teach about things in different formats, different learning formats, and you can monetize any one of those.
Susan Elliott: So a lot of people start with that. I love that we moved in this direction though, because I think a lot of people would be like, well, I'll just start a blog. And then they realize they don't actually like writing every day, or they don't actually care about how to learn how to monetize that blog to do that.
Susan Elliott: So if you started with your what, it may not actually lead you to something you want to be doing here, but that's a good way. What about you? What would you think of as side hustle ideas that. People can jump in. [00:20:00] Yeah.
Annie Dickerson: I mean, to tag on to that, I think there's so many different ways now online. I tell my kids all the time, it's not about, you know, memorizing dates and facts anymore.
Annie Dickerson: Like when we were kids, it's not even about being the fastest with the times table because Google can beat you to that every time. But it's about really knowing what you're passionate about. Honestly, there's YouTube videos, there's blogs, there's podcasts about anything under the sun. I bought a drum last year.
Annie Dickerson: It's called a cajon and it's a box drum. So it's like from South America and it's got like all the drum sounds in one box. So it's a very economical device. And I went onto YouTube to learn the basics of how to drum with this cajon and lo and behold, There's a whole YouTube channel, multiple, about how to play the cajon.
Annie Dickerson: And then of course from there, then I bought into a membership program, this group, where there were more paid videos that would go, you know, step by step by step and go deeper. [00:21:00] And so really anything that you're passionate about, even if you're not yet a beginner, An expert about that thing, but you want to learn more about it, then that's something to like, even if you reflect and you're like, I'm really good at talking to people, but I don't know a lot about side hustles, but I'm interested in side hustles.
Annie Dickerson: Maybe I'll start a podcast about talking to other people about their side hustles. Boom. You've got one right there. Right? So it just takes some creativity and some thinking outside the box and just playing.
Susan Elliott: I have a great tip for that because I think we can get caught in limiting beliefs when we look at what other people are doing out there and we can say, well, there's already a hundred podcasts about side hustles.
Susan Elliott: There's already all the videos about this. crazy little drum that you just bought, but instead say, Oh, Oh, wait, I'm already limiting my potential here. Reframe that belief. This is a great designing your life principle of reframing your limiting beliefs, getting the practice of catching them and rewriting them and instead say like, wow, they've [00:22:00] already proven that there is a need for this belief.
Susan Elliott: topic that this is a topic that people are interested and I am going to do something similar without having to guess if this is, you know, something people are even going to want to listen to. And I'm going to show up to my group of people that are ready to listen to my perspective on it. Maybe that is the beginner perspective.
Susan Elliott: Maybe it's someone. With a little bit of maybe your busy mom, for instance. I mean, that's a lot of the videos that I'm creating. I'm like, here's real estate investing, and I'm a busy mom. And I don't see a lot of that being talked about out there. So there's always something that you can show up and you can do and look at everything that's been done before and say, this is great.
Susan Elliott: This is such good information for me to be able to move forward here because they've proven that this is a valuable topic.
Annie Dickerson: Oh, I love that so much. So much because it's such a trap that you can get caught in thinking, Oh, I don't have anything worthwhile to contribute. It's all already been done, but each of [00:23:00] you who are listening, each of you has your own unique voice, your own unique experiences.
Annie Dickerson: And so I love that. Take that and turn it on its head and say, This is my proof of concept. It's already out there, which means it works, which means other people are investing their time and energy into it. And so it's proof that I should too. Love that.
Susan Elliott: Yeah. Well, so some other side hustle ideas that I've come across over the years, I really like that people jump into being a virtual assistant.
Susan Elliott: And I think that you can learn so much about Everybody's different businesses, especially if you kind of cater to smaller, you know, one person, a solopreneur who just needs 20 hours a week, who just needs 10 hours a week, you're learning the insides of those businesses. So becoming a virtual assistant is a really great way, really flexible, often remote positions, that sort of thing.
Annie Dickerson: And I know somebody who started out as a virtual assistant, just working on the side for other businesses. And she loved it so much that, and she gave so much to it that the [00:24:00] businesses she was working with gave her more and more work. So then she had to then hire additional virtual assistants. And now she has her own virtual assistant business.
Annie Dickerson: And so you never know where it's going to take you. That's
Susan Elliott: cool. Another one that you have experience with is selling your creations. You chose to go the online route at Etsy. Check out last week's podcast to learn how that went for Annie when she sold, what was it called? Uncanny creations. Did I get that right?
Susan Elliott: That's right. Live on in our hearts and minds. There you
Annie Dickerson: go. There you go. But yeah, if you're crafty or even, you know, I was talking to a fellow real estate investor at a conference recently and he's a mushroom farmer, not Uh, magic mushrooms, just plain old normal every day, like your lion's mane and your shiitake and all, all the, you know, the cooking mushrooms.
Annie Dickerson: And, uh, I told him he should expand, but anyway, so he Yeah. Yeah. There's some
Susan Elliott: markets there he could go into for sure.
Annie Dickerson: So he's a mushroom farmer. He started with like just growing a little bit and he [00:25:00] realized he loved it. And so he started growing all these mushrooms. He's re outfitted his entire basement.
Annie Dickerson: So it's basically like this greenhouse for growing mushrooms. And he harvests I think something like a hundred pounds of mushrooms a week, something wild like that. And now he goes to these farmer's markets and he sells these mushrooms. And so you never know whatever that seed of that passion is. It could be that you're crafty and you like creating things like scarves or bracelets or knitting or whatever, and you could sell those.
Annie Dickerson: Maybe it's farming or you're growing things. Maybe it's that avenue. Maybe you're really handy and maybe you like creating, I don't know, I had a friend who he had a. Jigsaw, something, I don't know tools very well, but he was able to carve these wooden plaques and things. So he did that for people. So there's all kinds of ways, not only to make money by selling these products, but also to have fun by creating these things that you wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to.
Susan Elliott: Oh my gosh, you reminded me of my aunt [00:26:00] and uncle used to own a gift shop right on I 70 outside of Denver, Colorado, like up in the mountains. So about, not even an hour outside of Denver. So everybody kind of stopped there in this little town and they had all the t shirts, you know, all the funky t shirts, just funky gift shops, but they had a laser engraver in the back and they had invested in this big machine and, um, they eventually sold the gift shop, but they kept these big machines and they no longer use them.
Susan Elliott: But they were sort of begging me to be like, you need to start doing this, Susan. This is a great side business. And I'm like, do people really want like little pieces of wood with a camel engraved on it? I'm not sure, but I think that they knew more about the market than I did. Right. And I think that they could see that there was a huge need for it in different capacities.
Susan Elliott: And then I had an understanding of, so maybe I'll look into that.
Annie Dickerson: Maybe I'll see. Yeah, there you go. There you go. See if there's a community you can join, a program you can join around wood carving and
Susan Elliott: I'm sure you'll get there is. If not, there's an idea for someone's side hustle. There [00:27:00] you go. Laser engraving community.
Susan Elliott: That's right. Oh, well then there's sort of like the gig economy types of side hustles. I think that you could kind of quickly jump into being a Lyft or an Uber driver or delivering food for DoorDash. Especially if your goal is to get. income as soon as possible, you can kind of plug yourself into these other already established sort of side income streams like those.
Susan Elliott: Um, you might even rent out your own car via a car share program. I'm really interested in doing this because mostly because we need a new car and I'm like, well, if we buy a new car, could I factor in like two weekends of renting it out every year? Yeah,
Annie Dickerson: there you go.
Susan Elliott: Be my payment. So if you rent your car out, please reach out to me.
Susan Elliott: I'd love to learn more about that, how that's gone for you. My I'm Susan at goodeggvents. com. But you know, very similarly, we have created a side hustle where we rent our own house out on Airbnb. And I've talked about that in lots of recent episodes as well.
Annie Dickerson: Yeah. And you know what I love about all these [00:28:00] ideas is it's not even about like, if you become a Lyft driver, that's your thing and that's what you're going to do forever as your side hustle.
Annie Dickerson: And it's not even about that. It's about this. Something happens when you step outside of this norm. box of your W 2 job. And what society has told you is the thing, the path. And something happens. It's just like a little crack in your brain opens up and you're like, wait a second, if I can make money doing this, what else can I do?
Annie Dickerson: And it's almost like your brain starts to fill in the gaps for you and starts to think of other ideas. And I would say that that's Um, even more valuable than, you know, the 20, 30, 50 bucks that you might make doing Lyft for actually don't know how much Lyft drivers make. So that might be one ride or 10 rides.
Annie Dickerson: I have no idea, but yeah, it's about this practice of just stepping out and trying something, getting outside of your comfort zone. These are all mindset things that, you know, as entrepreneurs, we've kind of had to [00:29:00] pick up along the way. And so it's just a beginning. It might open the door to a lot more than you think.
Susan Elliott: Oh, that's such an essential tip, because we can get stuck in saying, oh, that failed, or that didn't work. But if you're looking at it as a different measure of success, that like, I just did this new thing, and I realized that people are willing to pay for this, and they're willing to pay for this, they might be willing to pay for this other thing.
Susan Elliott: And that's eventually where you go.
Annie Dickerson: Yes. I definitely want to get into the real estate because that's a great side hustle and lots of different ways to get into real estate. But one other one I wanted to add was around pet sitting, dog walking, and house sitting. And the reason I wanted to highlight this one is because one, it can be fairly easy to get something like a pet sitting.
Annie Dickerson: Dog walking service in your neighborhood off the ground. You might post it in, you know, a neighborhood forum or something like that, and immediately you'd have some clients, right? But it might lead to more than you think. So I know somebody who actually, she's a full time digital nomad. She has a remote job [00:30:00] and through her house sitting and pet sitting, she now house sits full time.
Annie Dickerson: And so she travels around and she lives for free because now she's house sitting and pet sitting at each of these locations. And so even though that side hustle isn't necessarily making her money, cause she does this through a service called trusted house sitters and So she gets the housing for free.
Annie Dickerson: And so even though she doesn't get paid for the pet sitting, that's a huge bill that she otherwise would have to pay, you know, a couple thousand dollars a month to live here in the Bay area, at least. And, you know, she's living for free. So there's lots of different ways to go about it and to be creative around your side hustles.
Annie Dickerson: Okay. But with that, I definitely want to get into real estate. Cause this is. Our favorites by far is using real estate to create a separate stream of income or multiple. And so Susan, just give us the basics. If somebody who's listening wants [00:31:00] to start with Airbnb, do they just go to the website and sign up or what's that process look like at a high level?
Susan Elliott: Yeah. I think that starting with Airbnb website is great. They're going to give you a lot of sort of like guiding you through those first steps. But I would also think about like what about your house could you offer to other people? Do you travel frequently? What is your travel schedule? Do you have, most people start Airbnb ing by renting out sort of a side bedroom or a different unit within their own home.
Susan Elliott: Maybe it's an ADU. Maybe it's a bedroom above a garage. It doesn't even have to have a kitchen these days. You can rent out just a bed and a kitchen. bathroom, and that's it. As long as you, of course, tell your renters about all of that. Other people even continue to do the very house sharing model where they welcome someone into their home with them.
Susan Elliott: They give them one of the bedrooms. They say, you can use the kitchen or not use the kitchen, whatever your preference is. So do kind of a home audit. And that's it. For us, we don't really have a great space that we could share with anyone else. Um, we have a pretty small home, so, but we do like to travel.
Susan Elliott: We go stay [00:32:00] with grandparents often when we travel or we're doing camping and rafting trips. So we're not exactly paying for like expensive Airbnbs when we travel. So to be able to rent our home out while we go is a great way. For an annual declutter fest, let me tell you, getting it set up to Airbnb takes about a weekend of like locking our personal belongings into closets.
Susan Elliott: There's all kinds of little tips that you can have along the way and setting it up to be like a really nice, lovely home that people can stay in. We've got the kids supplies, we've got all the notes and we've got the guides. You know, I, I really enjoy that. Providing that service to someone, the town that I live in is extraordinary and I love facilitating someone else exploring that town.
Susan Elliott: So think about what parts of your home you could offer if you think that Airbnb might be a good fit for you.
Annie Dickerson: Yeah. And that's another key point is, you know, you live in a place where lots of people just naturally come, but even if you live somewhere out in the middle of nowhere or in suburbs where you think nobody's going to want to come here, there's Always somebody if somebody lives in the middle of a [00:33:00] busy city, they're going to want to take a vacation somewhere in the middle of nowhere where they can't even see the next door neighbor or somebody who might be visiting their kids or grandchildren in that suburban area where you're living.
Annie Dickerson: They might want to be nearby. So there's always, Always a reason. It comes back to that proof of concept you were talking about earlier. If there's other Airbnbs in your area, in your neighborhood, chances are there's a need for it. And so that's a great way to start a real estate side hustle. The other is house hacking.
Annie Dickerson: You know, if you have an extra space permanently in your house, not just for a weekend or short period of time, but you have an extra bedroom. This is actually how Julie got started in house hacking. She realized she and her husband had in their house, I think they had bought a three bedroom house, but they only needed one bedroom.
Annie Dickerson: So they rented out two bedrooms through house hacking. And similarly, we started out with a duplex. So we had a separate unit, which we rented out, but that can be a great way to create that separate stream. of income. And of [00:34:00] course you can go from there into full on rental properties, either in your same neighborhood or your same market or long distance as well.
Annie Dickerson: And you learn something with all of those ventures, I would say, as with any of these side hustles, you learn things along the way for sure.
Susan Elliott: What you like, what you don't like, maybe which one cool thing with real estate. I went that route too of, you know, I'm doing Airbnb, and I even managed other people's Airbnbs to test it out even further if this was a business I wanted to build.
Susan Elliott: Different types of real estate. We have a rental property. And nowadays, I just really invest in syndications because it is easier for me and my family in this stage of our life to do that. But I treat it like a side business. And I think that because I've done different types of real estate investing. I give it a little bit more respect.
Susan Elliott: It's not just like something that I have to get to, but like, this is a side business I have that is making money passively, is building our family's wealth in phenomenal ways. It is real estate. And so I'm able to tune into it and give it a little bit more attention that it deserves. And I'm [00:35:00] probably doing a little bit better in it because of that.
Susan Elliott: It's not just like set it and forget it a hundred percent investing, which I think is a good thing because I'm top of mind. I'm listening to what's going on in the markets. I'm making decisions based on what our family needs and, you know, our, our longterm goals.
Annie Dickerson: Yeah. And that's such a good reminder that a side hustle doesn't always need to be a hustle and a grind and require a lot of your time and attention.
Annie Dickerson: It comes all the way back where we've now come full circle. It comes back to that why, why are you getting into this in the first place? And if your why is I don't want to do a lot of work, but I want to create a separate stream of income to supplement my income or to create a safety nest, build my nest egg.
Annie Dickerson: Yeah. So it all comes back to your why. And if that's it for you, you want that separate stream of income, but you don't want to do a lot of work. Maybe something like passive investing might be a good fit for you, but hopefully across all these different ideas, everything from delivering groceries or [00:36:00] delivering food to selling your digital products, to creating your own online course, or doing some coaching, being a virtual assistant.
Annie Dickerson: Assistant pet sitting or real estate. Hopefully this sparks some ideas for you to just, you know, get out there and figure out what might work for you. And the most important thing is to just give it a try. I've had way more side hustles that have failed than I've had side hustles that have stuck. So if you try one and it doesn't work.
Annie Dickerson: Don't be disheartened. Just know that there's never failure. There's only feedback. And then you move on to the next one and you get closer and closer.
Susan Elliott: It's so important to think of failure that way and everything we do.
Annie Dickerson: Yes. Absolutely. All right. Well, with that, Susan, any last thoughts before we wrap?
Susan Elliott: Oh, share your side hustles with us.
Susan Elliott: Tell us what you're doing and your big goals. Reach out anytime. We'd love to hear more about what the community is doing to be able to reach their goals.
Annie Dickerson: Absolutely. And if you do decide that [00:37:00] passive investing might be a good fit for you and your goals, then you can always go to good egg investments.
Annie Dickerson: com slash invest to get started and potentially invest alongside us. All right. With that, that's our show for today. Thank you so much for listening to the life of money show the show all about helping you to create a meaningful and intentional life for yourself. by design. If you want some of the links that we mentioned, they're going to be in the show notes.
Annie Dickerson: Or if you want to listen to previous episodes, please go to life and money show. com. All right. And if you enjoyed this episode, we'd love to ask a huge favor of you. It would mean the world to us. If you would subscribe, share this podcast with a friend and leave us a five star review so we can continue to bring you incredible new conversations all about life and money.
Annie Dickerson: Life and money till next time. Remember that your financial journey is a lifelong adventure, and we're here with you every step of the way. Thanks for listening and good luck with those side [00:38:00] hustles.