567: Why Everyone Needs a Side Hustle in 2025 – And the Best Ones to Start Today

00:00
Welcome back to the podcast, the show where I cover all of the latest strategies and current events related to e-commerce and online business. Today, Tony and I are going to discuss why you need to have a side hustle today and what your best options are. But before we begin, I wanted to let you know that tickets are now on sale for Seller Summit 2025 over at sellersummit.com. The Seller Summit is the conference that I hold every year that specifically targets e-commerce entrepreneurs selling physical products online.

00:28
Unlike other events that focus on inspirational stories and high-level advice, mine is a curriculum-based conference where you will leave with practical and actionable strategies specifically for an e-commerce business. Every speaker I invite is deep in the trenches of their e-commerce business, entrepreneurs who are importing large quantities of physical goods, and not some high-level guys who are overseeing their companies at 50,000 feet. I personally hate large events, so the Seller’s Summit is always small and intimate.

00:57
Every year we cut off ticket sales at around 200 people, so tickets sell out fast, and we’ve sold out every single year for the past eight years. If you are an e-commerce entrepreneur making more than $250,000 or $1 million per year, we also offer an exclusive mastermind experience with other top sellers. The Seller’s Summit is going to be held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida from May 6th to May 8th. Right now, this is the cheapest the tickets will ever be. So head on over to SellersSummit.com and grab your ticket.

01:26
Now onto the show.

01:34
Welcome to the My Wife Quitter Job Podcast. Today, we’re going to talk about side hustles. And the reason why I think this episode is so important is because in this economy and in this generation, I really think that you need a side hustle in order to achieve financial freedom and actually make some money and save some money. So you know what’s funny is I think you put out a YouTube video about

02:01
a topic similar to this, basically about using a side hustle to help fund, you know, retirement type thing. And I had to laugh because as I was like looking, you know, just kind of glancing at it, I thought, well, my side hustle is my full time job. Well, no, goal is do I need another side hustle? That was my first it to become your full time job, obviously. So, yes. But yeah, I thought, oh, I turned all my side hustles into full time jobs.

02:31
So now I need to find the next one. I must admit, I’m a little paranoid about what’s going to happen in this world just because AI and robots and all that stuff is creeping in. And really, it’s right around the corner. Yeah. So when I was in, I think when I was in Europe, you know, there was someone on Zoom running the cash register. What? Yeah, instead of a real person. And yeah, right. then OK.

03:00
The place next door had a Zoom greeter and guess where they were all from? The Philippines. Yes, they’re so friendly. That was the first wave. Then I just did a little research on this for my YouTube video. There’s actually places in New York doing this already. Similar to this, I do not remember what airport I was in and you know me, it could have been any airport.

03:24
But was one of the larger, it was either international or one of the big international airports in the US where there was an Amazon store. Have you seen these? And you literally just walk out with your stuff? Yeah, that was all fake. What do mean was all fake? There was one right by us. It was all fake. Actually, it was run by 1,000 Indian people. It was all a hoax in the end. It was semi-automated. But yeah, you walk out with the stuff and yeah.

03:53
You don’t even check out anymore. It just scans your stuff when you leave. Right. So Amazon led everyone to believe that it was automated. But in fact, there was a thousand people from India actually with cameras. cameras? Yeah. Well, I just OK. So well, thanks for ruining that little moment that I had. Well, what I thought was so interesting about it was that like they’ve removed people from. So you probably good or bad, you probably can.

04:22
pay 1,000 people in India to do what you’re paying the people in a big metropolitan area to work cash register in a big metropolitan airport. The cost is probably the same. You have no theft because you’re literally 1,000 cameras watching you walk out with your diet soda and your bag of Pringles for the flight. I don’t know what your airport is like because I haven’t been to Orlando in a while, but they have

04:50
these robotic coffee makers now. There’s literally no one behind the thing. You just swipe your credit card and the robot makes the coffee for you. Yeah, I don’t know if they have them in Orlando, but I have seen those at other airports. And then there’s literally unmanned snack bars now. You go and you grab what you want and you check out. There’s no human around at all. I’ve seen we have those. So this has always bothered me. OK, like just to do a little side note before we talk about side hustles.

05:20
Like I have do you remember like 30 years ago there was like this restaurant chain that opened where it was like you grilled your own steak at your table? Like you picked out your cut of meat. Oh, they still have those. That’s like every Korean restaurant in California. Right. Oh, that’s why I hate those places because I’m like I’m like so this costs the same amount as if I were to go to Fleming’s and buy a steak that they cooked correctly for me or you’re going to make me

05:45
Hold meat up, like if I’m eating here, I don’t wanna touch the food until it’s presented on a plate. Just like I don’t wanna do self-checkout. I don’t get a discount for self-checkout. I don’t get to go through self-checkout and save 5 % for the cost of the cashier that I don’t use, right? I’m still paying the exact same amount of money. Like all that stuff to me, I understand it. I understand the automation. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing, but like if I have a choice,

06:14
and I’m not saving any money, I’m not bagging my own stuff. Like you’re gonna, like absolutely, it’s like when you get to a hotel, right, you can choose to have them valet your car or you can park your own car and walk a mile. I’ll walk a mile to save that $30, right? But like if I don’t get to save any money, then like what’s the point? Anyway, that’s my rant for the day. Okay, so the other thing that’s going on also is like there are these robots that can be controlled remotely and.

06:40
People, stores in Japan have been doing this for a while. It’s literally some guy with his like VR setup, manipulating a robot and stocking shelves and stuff. Okay. Yet, and I don’t, we never get political, but yet why do our voting machines look like they were invented by Thomas Edison and never updated? Like why do we have robots doing stuff, but yet we can’t like get voting machines to work properly. Like that was one thing that absolutely blows my mind. Like let’s put technology to good use.

07:11
Yeah. So bottom line, think we’re going to, I mean, when AI comes, I think there’s just going be a lot of unemployment. so previously I used to feel that, you know, if you were in a job that required, you know, manual labor that you wouldn’t get replaced, but I think everything’s on the table now. Here in the Silicon Valley, graduates in computer science majors are having lots of problems finding jobs because AI can write code now.

07:41
So computer science actually is not a desirable major. There’s tons of people unemployed here in Silicon Valley, whereas in the past, it wasn’t like that. I agree with you. I don’t necessarily think the construction type jobs, yes, I mean, there will be more machinery and things that improve what can be done, but I think at the end of the day, a lot of those jobs are not gonna get phased out. I wasn’t thinking construction. I was just thinking just your everyday retail worker.

08:09
Yes, everyday retail worker. Do you remember when McDonald’s went to the ordering where you went to the kiosk and you punched in your order and removed the need for cashiers? First of all, good. I’ve never met a nice McDonald’s cashier. I’ve never met a McDonald’s cashier that I thought was actually punching in my order correctly. I also think there’s a reason why everyone goes to Chick-fil-A.

08:37
Right? Because they’ve got the two people in the brightly colored vest standing outside asking your name, giving you a high five, you know, making you feel like an amazing person. And like I just I think that, yes, technology is going to continue to and AI is going to continue to replace jobs. But people crave that like interaction. That’s why Chick-fil-A blows everybody else out of the water. That’s why their line literally they have to do city.

09:02
city planning when they put a Chick-fil-A in because of the amount of traffic it backs up. Do the roads have the ability to have a Chick-fil-A? There’s a reason for that because when people go to Chick-fil-A, they feel good about themselves. I don’t think you can get that from the kiosk at McDonald’s. Where I live, there’s all these promo tea places, boba tea places where the line’s out the door. There literally is no one manning it. No, I think it works for sure.

09:31
Yeah. And one time the guy was right there and I had a question. He just ignored me. Cause he was busy preparing orders. And I think efficiency matters. So you can actually have like six iPads out taking orders as opposed to six people. Uh, I, I personally would actually prefer efficiency. Like I’d rather just order on my phone. You can order on your phone and scan and then pick it up. But there’s still that lovely smiling.

10:00
teenager comes to your car with your chicken nuggets. And Chick-fil-A and In-N-Out actually hire really good people too. Yes. So same thing with there’s there’s several restaurants that on the culvers is like there’s like several places. In fact, sometimes we’ll go to like if we’re traveling and we’ll drive through a place that we maybe aren’t familiar with, like in our area, we’re always like, oh, do they like take the Chick-fil-A training manual or are they on the Burger King training manual? Right. Like which one are they on? Anyway, all that to say, I do think the jobs

10:30
jobs market is going to radically change over the next 10 No job is safe. Blue collar, white collar, nothing is safe. I’ve been a huge proponent of just, what’s the right word? Mitigate your risk. Therapy. Because more people are going to need it. No, there’s AI therapists. Yes, that’s a joke.

10:58
But yeah, anyway, you’re right. Everything’s gonna change. And so I think that’s one of the reasons why finding your side hustle becomes really critical as time goes on. Yeah. And I know you’ve been helping your daughter-in-law, is it? Mm-hmm, yeah. With certain things. So I’m curious, I’ve been doing this with my daughter, but she’s still in high school. I’m just curious what you’ve come up with.

11:27
Yeah, so my daughter-in-law, has a regular job working as a procurement officer for hospital. So she has her nine to five. But before she did that, she had several, she did the typical, she worked at Chick-fil-A actually. She ended up becoming an assistant manager at Chick-fil-A. She worked at a massage therapy place as the sales rep booking agent.

11:52
She’s had a lot of different type of jobs, but then she went and got her dog grooming license and she loves, she’s like an animal person, right? So she’s the type of person that you want. She’s not doing this for the money. She does it because she absolutely loves in a way that I cannot comprehend. So when she got this job at the hospital, which was a nice pay raise for her as well as benefits and things like that, which are really important. They have a family.

12:17
She didn’t want to give up the dog grooming and she realized that the dog grooming was like their path to owning a home. Right? So, you know, they want to buy a house and obviously the housing, it’s not a great time to buy a house if you, if you don’t have like a large income, I would say. Right. Yeah. So this is a way for them to build a down payment, right? With continuing on the dog grooming on the weekends. So, um,

12:40
She did work as a groomer for a while, so she had some clients that she could take with her basically when she moved it from full-time to a side hustle. She’s basically grown her business fully on word of mouth, which I think is honestly one of the best ways to grow a business that’s in the service space.

13:03
Because think about it, how many times have you gone on Facebook and seen someone post like, hey, I need my driveway re-poured, right? Like I’ve cracked my driveway. Or hey, I need a good sprinkler company. hey, who has a good babysitter, right? All these, most people would much rather know that their friends are using somebody versus even reviews, right? Reviews are very effective.

13:29
But if I tell you, you’ve got to try this new restaurant. We went there. We absolutely loved it. The staff’s amazing. Get this dish. That means more than a Yelp review to somebody who knows me. I think if you’re thinking about starting a side hustle, especially in the service space, getting that word of mouth out. And then she’s built her entire business on Instagram. Really? OK, I can see that.

13:56
which normally we say like, you got to have a website, you got to have a home base. And I still fundamentally believe that. But I know my daughter-in-law, she’s not like, she understands technology, but she’s not what I would call like, she’s not one of these like my 18 and 20 year olds who are like super tech, can do everything, know how to edit video. They’re all like, that’s their life, right? She’s like your standard edge of millennial. I know how to post on Instagram.

14:25
And I’m like, great, then let’s use Instagram. And she’s basically used Instagram. She created an account for the group. She has her personal account where she posts pictures of their daughter and things like that. But then she has an account that’s completely dedicated to she does dog sitting and dog grooming. So she has an account that’s completely dedicated to that. And she basically posts pictures before and after of all the dog grooms. And the way to get in touch with her is to DM her.

14:55
So she can manage everything through a DM on Instagram. And here’s the thing that I think why this works on any social platform, but I Instagram especially is that one, you can do local searches on Instagram. people can find her and based on her location. So it’s like if you’re in the central Florida area, her stuff could appear in your feed. The other thing is like when she grooms my dogs,

15:21
then I share that on Instagram. So everybody that knows me now sees her as a… So I oftentimes when I share stuff that she’s done, I will have local friends message me like, oh, I need a dog groomer. Where do I contact her? So I really think that Instagram is super effective. And it’s interesting because she contacted me earlier this week and said, hey, she’s doing like an expo basically. She got invited to like have a table.

15:51
And she’s like, most people sell products at these, like it’s craft fair kind of thing. And I said, well, most people have pets, right? Like, mean, like huge majority people have pets and most people want, and she’s like grooms in her home. So it’s like, you’re not dropping your dog off at this like kennel and you know, it’s definitely like a personalized experience. And I said, you need to just make a, like basically flyer with your services and where people can contact you.

16:18
And honestly, I think once people talk to her, like she’ll sell herself. Right. So we’re doing a flyer with basically this, like basically one flyer that says why you should have your dog groomed. So basically giving people if they’re not in the like, because like I had a lab for a long time and I never took him to the groomer. I’m like, he’s fine. We give him a bath. But there are reasons to get your dog professionally groomed. It’s good for your dog. Right. And now I have two dogs that are like super high maintenance coats. Right. So they have to get groomed once a month.

16:47
And so just educating people on like, hey, here’s why this is a good experience for your pet. And then on the of that, a flyer where it shows her services. said, because people always want to know like what you offer and can they just go and get their dog’s toenails clipped or can they just go or do you do full service or like, how does all that work? I was like, let’s get it all so people can walk by your table and just get all the information at once and then talk to you about specifics. And at first I was like, maybe I should throw up a webpage for her.

17:17
Like, because I have all this free time this week. then I was like, no, she’s successfully done this with Instagram. Let’s like DM her. Let’s do is she using Instagram lists? She isn’t yet. Yes, we’re still we’re still in the new. OK. And I also didn’t want to go like she texted me and I immediately sent her back like a 42 page marketing plan. And I was like, OK, I need to like calm down.

17:40
Because she is a mom, she does work full time and she only has the ability to groom so many dogs on the weekends, right? Like it’s not like she can take a hundred dogs. But just seeing like how that one, you know, just one strategy, right? Getting on Instagram, posting your befores and afters. Like if you do, I have a friend that does like custom finishes. So like if you want like a faux wall, right? It looks like it’s a certain.

18:08
You know, he literally posts before and after pictures on Instagram, gets all of his business from Instagram and word of mouth referrals. People just need to see what you’re doing and know that you’re out there and have an easy way to communicate with you. And what easier way to communicate with people than a DM on Instagram, right? Like so non-threatening, so not a sales call. So I actually think that this is a pretty good strategy, especially if you’re just getting started and…

18:35
you don’t want to have all the technology hurdles of setting up a website. It’s just very complicated. And I think people that could do something don’t because they get stuck in the weeds on these sorts of things. I just wanted to take a moment to tell you about a free resource that I offer on my website that you may not be aware of. If you are interested in starting your own online store, I put together a comprehensive six day mini course on how to get started in e-commerce that you should all check out.

19:04
It contains both video and text-based tutorials that go over the entire process of finding products to sell all the way to getting your first sales online. Now this course is free and can be attained at mywifequitterjob.com slash free. Just sign up right there on the front page via email and I’ll send you the course right away. Once again, that’s mywifequitterjob.com slash free. Now back to the show.

19:29
Actually walk me through how she got started. So she probably just had some initial clients that were friends and then she just started posting the photos on Instagram. And then her friends would share those posts of their dogs and that’s how it all started, right? Yeah, so she would groom a dog and she would post like, so excited to see little, you know, she groomed Penny, my dog this weekend. So she’s like, so excited to see Penny. She let me put bows in her hair at this time, which by the way, all my whole family is like, why did you let her put bows in her hair? I was like, she looks cute, leave it alone.

19:57
So then I haven’t had a chance to share it yet, but I will share this post. And then I am 100 % positive because every time I share it happens, someone will message me and go, oh, who’s your dog groomer? And then I’ll say, hey, here’s her Instagram. And obviously she’s tagged in the share as well. lots of people, since people love sharing their pets, this is great for anything where people like to show off. So yards, right? You get landscaping done.

20:22
something in your house, right? Anything like that. People love to show pictures of their remodeled bathroom, things like that. So anything in the service-based industry, I think is very effective to use this with because you get the shares without asking for them, right? And then she, so she started that way and then basically once she got a client, which I think this is just a genius marketing thing, is she put people on a monthly plan, right? Because I mean, in theory,

20:50
pets need to be groomed monthly, right? Or six weeks. So now she has a monthly plan or I don’t know what the frequency is. Since she’s related to me, I just call her and be like, can you pick up the dog? She looks really mangy. But then you get people who like they’re paying per month who are getting their pets. So now you have guaranteed income, right? Or at least more consistent income. My brother who has a ranch, they do trail rides, put people on a monthly ride program. So people who love to ride horses.

21:20
they can ride on this monthly plan for a discounted price because what they do is if you’re on the monthly ride plan, when they have a ride and they don’t have all the horses booked, they’re like, hey, you can come Tuesday or Wednesday at 4 p.m. and get your ride, right? So they’re basically getting a, like a substantial discount, right? But in reality, like if they didn’t fill that, it would be $0, right? So.

21:48
Getting people on that recurring revenue, if you have anything that you can do with recurring revenue, is the next level for doing that side hustle. I just thought of an idea that I can use for Bumblebee. OK, what is chatting A recurring crying plan? No, no, no. It’s about asking people for their Instagram handle at checkout. And then photographing the products that they’ve personalized for themselves and just tagging them. Yes. I think I would need to ask for permission, though, right?

22:18
Would I need to? I don’t think if you tag them, because the people that don’t allow tagging, I’ll just won’t let you tag them. Yeah. And then there’s nothing really super personal about these personalized things anyway. But people like to get tagged and maybe they’ll share it. Yes. OK, so I am going to try that because social has always been a struggle for me because I don’t want to do the work for social. But this probably will work with TikTok, too. I don’t think I’ve.

22:47
seen very many stores ask for people’s Instagram handles. Have you ever checked out? I’ve seen it very, very rarely. So I would say probably once or twice. But it’s really easy to do. Yeah. And here’s the thing. I think you can do the same exact thing with a Facebook page. Right. So once again, remove all the technology hurdles. Right. So if you have a service or a product that, you know,

23:16
you want to get out there, you can do the exact same thing with Facebook. And I cannot tell you, the people that I feel like do this the best are dog, what are they, dog breeders, right? Like if you’ve ever been to like a dog breeder site, they all use the same exact template from the same company. It’s terrible. It doesn’t ever load correctly. But their Facebook pages are amazing, right? Because when they have a litter of puppies,

23:43
they post that or when the dogs get pregnant, right? And they’re like, well, we had miles Turner, you know, breed with Sophia, whatever, like, you know, they’ve got these fancy dogs and it’s like, you know, this is the size of the litter. This is what we’re expecting. And these, sell out the litters before they’re even like born, right? Because everyone’s sharing and tagging. Like I think that that part of the internet still works.

24:06
That hasn’t changed. The virality of sharing and tagging people. When you post a picture of a puppy, everybody comments, everybody tags. It’s just like… It doesn’t work with everything. Obviously, dogs and animals are really great use case for this. I’ve seen it all the time with home stuff, like renovations where it’s like…

24:30
everyone’s sharing it because they’re sending it to the other person in their family. It’s like, oh, can we do this with the fireplace? Oh, can we do this with the pantry? Oh, can we get this refrigerator? Right. Like, like there’s lots of different spaces that still work on that, tag and share. And you don’t even have to ask people to do it. They’re doing it because they want someone else to see it. Right. Yeah. No, that’s a, that’s a great strategy. And then Instagram list, which I mentioned earlier, now you can actually ask people to subscribe to you.

24:58
And then you’re allowed to send them one broadcast per day. So it’s kind of like a poor man’s email list. Yeah. I would say. Which I think if technology is your hurdle, like to get started, this is the perfect way to do it. And there’s going to come a time where you’re going to be too big or too busy, where you’re just going to pay someone to set everything else up for you. And that’s fine. Right. And then you move over. But while you’re just getting started in the hustle, why not remove all your barriers?

25:28
Yeah, and then once you get a little bit more advanced, you can actually start taking transactions directly on Instagram, where you list your products and then you check out directly on Instagram. And if you have a Shopify store, it automatically ties back to your store. I think we talked about this on one of the last podcasts. So my nephews worked for that plant nursery, the exotic plant nursery. They do all their transactions on Instagram. They literally post a picture of a rare plant and be like, we have 16 of these. And they’re sold out in five minutes.

25:58
So yeah, they still have a physical nursery that you can, I mean, they still do business other ways, but like great side hustle and augmentation to like, they basically doubled the business of this nursery just from doing that on Instagram. Yeah. Yeah. So it’s powerful. Like I often get asked the question, Hey Steve, do I really need a website, Shopify store right away? And my answer almost always is yes, I think you should just get something up so you can collect emails and that sort of thing. But

26:26
You know, every now and then I do have someone who just like, I don’t even know how to go through the wizard in Shopify, right? But I do know social, like I have an Instagram account. So just doing what you described is completely viable. Setting up the store is a little bit more technical. Like arguably it’s easier just to get a Shopify store and link it to Instagram, I think, than it is to get that hooked up. But yeah, completely viable. Actually, I have several students in the class, they get,

26:54
all their business through Instagram. Yeah. the most part. Yeah. Which is, to me, that’s exciting, right? Because I feel like it’s still not too late to utilize some of these platforms where it feels like, it’s so saturated. Oh, everybody’s. It’s like, no, not really. If you have an interesting spin on something, I think you can still monetize it. No, mean, word of mouth is just extremely powerful, even when it comes to e-commerce as well.

27:24
Yeah. Right. Because I mean, that’s that’s in a way how we started. We weren’t running like ads. I mean, we were running ads, but they weren’t like the bulk of our business. Like, but after year one, a lot of it was referral business. Yeah. And I remember we got our first wedding planners or event planners, and that was huge because they all talked to each other. Yes. And then all of sudden we were getting hotels and yeah. Don’t don’t estimate word of mouth. Yeah, I think that’s the thing to think about is that

27:55
in all these industries, right? So you and I live in the e-commerce online marketing industry, right? So when one of us needs something, right? Or needs an expert or needs help, we all talk to each other, right? Well, who are you using? Who are you talking to? And then usually there’s a consensus like, this person is the best or this person highly recommend, right? And then…

28:18
That person, like lot of people we know have built their whole business in the online space because other people have recommended them, right? Like look at Grayson Bell, right? Perfect example of this. Has a WordPress business, basically helping people with debug WordPress sites, basically. I don’t think he builds them anymore or ever did. But you know, he got his business by, he was a blogger and then he realized he really liked fixing WordPress stuff and…

28:45
started doing it for a couple other bloggers and then a couple other bloggers. And then between word of mouth and another strategy that’s great for side hustles, he went in blogger groups. And when someone’s like, hey, I think this plugin is broken. It’s showing this error on my site. He would come in and in the comments say, oh, have you tried doing one of these three things? And Grayson’s a great explainer. He’s a great teacher.

29:11
So he would basically walk people through in a comment, like how they could fix it themselves. And by doing, and never selling his services, ever. Never saying like, oh, and by the way, I do this too, not once, right? And so then after a while, it’s like someone would post in like the AdThrive group, right? Oh, I need someone to make this change or I want this plugin to set up a shopping cart on my site or I want, you know, to do X, Y, Z. 16 people in the comments are like,

29:39
Oh, well, have you talked to Grayson? Have you talked to Grayson? Because he put himself out there as the WordPress expert and gave all this free advice and free help. And so he built his business on two rails, right? The first one being the word of mouth, the second one being proving yourself an expert in these groups, which is still also effective, and then just getting business that way. I mean, it reminds me of Carson, a fuel mate. He designed Shopify websites.

30:05
He is like the de facto website designer for like ECF. Yes. Mainly because he was active in a community and word of mouth through that community. And this is a bad side hustle example, but another example of that is our friend Stephen Wigler, the attorney. You can’t really be an attorney as a side hustle. But same concept of when we always get asked legal questions.

30:32
Right. Always like, should I have an LLC? Should I do this? What do know? And you and I are not attorneys and we never want to give anyone legal advice because it will probably be incorrect. But we constantly refer people to Steve because he’s proven himself time in and time out that he is one, really great to work with and two, a very much like when you talk to him, you don’t feel like you walked away with bunch of legal jargon that you don’t understand. Like very basic.

30:59
explanations of why you should do something or why you shouldn’t do something. And so I think that you don’t understand how much people network with each other that, you know, just meeting one right person can change your business. And we don’t make any money off these referrals. I mean, we just refer them because we use him. So, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I think that that’s really important when you’re thinking about doing something on the side. I mean, whatever it is, just leverage something that.

31:27
you’re talented at or that you have knowledge with. So one thing that my daughter is working on, has been a hell of a lot of work, is… The never ending story is what I feel like this is. Well, we’re actually close to the finish line now, but she’s been really into print on demand. So she started a class for her kids and she started this entrepreneurship club at her high school. And so those are going to be her first guinea pigs. And then she’s going to start selling the class.

31:57
But this is something that any teenager can do with no money. I mean, she has a laptop. She has her phone with a camera. We bought her a mic and she’s just been filming videos for a class. She put together the curriculum and we’re working on the sales page right now and that’s gonna be her side hustle. So she can drink more boba drinks and buy clothing, which she’s really into. Yeah. Right? It’s nuts. So interesting.

32:27
So one of my daughters is she’s gonna be in cosmetology school soon, but she’s always been really good with hair and makeup. And so I think I told this on a podcast a million years ago. So when she was in the sixth grade, she used to ask me to drop her off at school really early. And I will say my kids are not Asian, so they are not always the best students. And so I was always confused as to why she wanted to go to school early, because most of time you go to school early for tutoring, right? And I knew for a fact she was not getting any tutoring.

32:55
I was like, sure, I’ll drop you off early. don’t really care. It doesn’t matter to me when you get dropped off. Well, what she was doing, I found out down the road is she could do… Remember when those Dutch braids got really popular by the Kardashians where the braids were sitting on top of your head? Okay, you don’t know. People listening, do you know? It was a really popular hairstyle, but it’s actually kind of hard to do on your own head and she can do them really, really well. She was getting to school early to braid people’s hair for money.

33:23
So she would charge like, I don’t know what the dog, but you know, in sixth grade, like if you’re making five bucks a day, like you’re rich, right? And so she would get to school early to braid people’s hair, you know, so the, once you braid it, the style stays in for a couple of days. So you’re, you know, you’re getting a little longevity out of things. So these kids are probably using their lunch money. I’m not even joking to pay to get their hair braided, but like, that’s the thing with side hustles is that you never, and obviously for her, it’s turned into like she does.

33:51
cosplay, she does makeup, she does hair, does other, I mean, she’s doing side hustle hair right now without her cosmetology license, right? So, you know, eventually she’ll, she’s going to school for that and she will get, you know, she’ll be a licensed hairdresser. But in the meantime, she’s been side hustling, right? All these years doing these little things here and there. And so I never underestimate like what you can do as a side hustle and also don’t think that, this is the other big one, you don’t have the time to do it because you do.

34:19
You do. mean, you know, it’s funny the other day. We I asked my daughter, like, didn’t she film the next video? And she’s like, Oh, I was busy. I didn’t have any time. I’m like, OK, so I pulled up like the traffic logs in my router and I was like, OK, you were you’re on whatever, you know, YouTube or whatever for several hours doing what? Probably wasting time. So everyone has time. I waste a ton of time every day also. Yeah. So think everybody.

34:49
I think everybody wastes time. Sometimes wasting time is fine. I think everyone needs some downtime and some time to decompress from their day. I also think if you are in a position where you’re like, I’m not sure about retirement. I’m not sure if this is something that I can achieve in a comfortable way. Or if the side hustle is just so you can get ahead.

35:15
Right, like you wanna buy a house or you wanna be able to pay off your cars or whatever that financial need is, you have time to do it. You just have to make it, you have to decide if it’s a priority and how much you want whatever it is that you, do you really wanna pay off your house? Do you really wanna save for a down payment? Do you really wanna fund your 401k? Like how badly do you want that? Because everybody that I know that wants it, that wants it, wants it is able to achieve it.

35:45
I find very few people that are like, well, I just tried so hard and it just didn’t work out. I just don’t hear that from many people if they’re taking all the right steps. Yeah, and I can’t emphasize how important it is today. It’s weird. A bunch of my friends have come up to me wanting to do side hustles right now because the job market is tough. Yeah. I’ve never seen this happen before where tech people

36:14
were losing their jobs because they were getting replaced by machines. Right? mean, back when I was working, like a bunch of us got outsourced to India, but then those prices kind of evened up and then, you know, there were a bunch of hurdles there. So eventually that, that kind of worked itself out, but I don’t necessarily see that working out with AI. Yeah. And I actually don’t use writers anymore. And I used to love coding my own stuff, but now like I can code anything with AI.

36:44
And I don’t, need to hire anyone. It’s really scary what, can be done. So one engineer and that that’s my space. So that’s what I’m, I feel qualified to talk about. One engineer can do the work of like five engineers now. Yeah. Right. And in the retail space, I’m seeing automation and, outsourcing all over the place now. And pretty soon with the self-driving cars, like they’ve been testing it in SF for a long time, basically humanless Ubers. They’re not Ubers. It’s terrifying. Yeah.

37:14
So all these jobs are going to go away. Yeah. And you have to have something to protect yourself. Yes. And I think so think about this. Let’s just say that you work at Nordstrom, right? And you’ve worked at Nordstrom for 15 years, right? And you love the apparel industry and you realize that you’re going to get phased out from Nordstrom because they’re going to self checkouts and, you know, more technology, less humans. Right. So what do you do?

37:44
Well, if you have 15 years at Nordstrom, I think about our friend Kelly Snyder from Adore Your Wardrobe. She created a course teaching people how to dress based on their body shape using math and science. So it’s a fantastic program. If you wanna look into it, it’s called Adore Your Wardrobe. Shout out to Kelly. But she’s basically, but she’s in the business of giving women their confidence back, which cannot be done by AI right now, right? So what if there’s something, you you take your…

38:11
love of working at Nordstrom, your clothing, whatever it is, right? And you turn that into a side hustle, which then becomes your full-time hustle. Kelly makes more than anyone, probably than half the people that are in the administration of Nordstrom, right? Right. Or you think about, I saw this trailer being pulled the other day. It said, we hang Christmas lights. Right. Who likes to Christmas lights? Literally no one. It’s the worst thing, right? You’re on your roof. You’re hoping you don’t fall. Half the lights don’t work. Like, it’s a huge pain, right?

38:40
Genius business idea, right? So many people I know have their Christmas lights, their houses decorated, because people want to decorate for Christmas, but they don’t want to go through all the pain and suffering of the Christmas lights. So you start a side business of decorating houses with Christmas lights, right? Well, then you do that for 10 years, then monetize your knowledge. Monetize your knowledge of how to get in that business or how to get in the seasonal business and sell that as a course or.

39:08
coaching or sell your company, right? Sell your Christmas light decorating company to somebody else. Like most of these things, even if they’re in the service space, have a path to larger abilities to monetize in the future. So the perfect example of this is my first employee at Bumble Bee Linens that we ever hired. He started delivering stuff for Amazon just kind of as a side hustle when he was working for us, which is fine. He did it at night. We didn’t have any problems with it.

39:37
And then took all that money and he bought his own truck before he was renting. And today he owns a bunch of trucks and has a delivery business for Amazon and other places. And so he’s a business owner now. What started out as a side hustle while working for Bumbley Linens has turned into a lot more. And I think you can’t underestimate like the ability to make money from these things over time.

40:06
and how you can leverage your knowledge and expertise over time. I had to laugh. I’m having a septic tank moved, right? It’s this huge ordeal. My whole yard is torn up. But the owner of the septic, which septic tank seems like the absolute worst job, right? Like I cannot imagine having to pump out a, it seems absolutely terrible. The owner of that company drives $170,000 pickup truck.

40:32
It is the nicest pickup truck I’ve ever seen. It has the Bentley tires where the tire rotates, but the logo of the septic company stays still, whatever the heck that thing is. I’m like, this dude’s not doing bad, right? Because he’s not pumping tanks anymore. That’s where I also think, I’m not sure if my daughter-in-law will ever want to do grooming full-time again just because of the healthcare. Unless healthcare changes,

41:00
Less healthcare changes. If you have a job with health insurance, it’s hard to walk away from that. But you get to the point where you’re not grooming dogs anymore, or you’re only grooming the dogs you want to groom. You’re owning the grooming business. And now you own Wolfgang Puck. Or what’s the Wolfgang Puck? The dog grooming business with franchise locations. I was about to that. I was like, it’s something. But now you own the franchises. And now you’re

41:27
You have 16 stores, and you’re not grooming a dog. You’re managing a business. And maybe that’s never what you want to do, but those options are available, and that’s what can become of your side hustle. And don’t underestimate where it can go. Bumble Bee Linens, our goal was only $50,000, and then it’s turned into so much more. My blog, actually, I was just planning on having it pay my mortgage, and I would have been happy, and it turned into so much more.

41:55
The key is to start something. if it’s paying your mortgage now. Well, know, houses in California are quite expensive. That’s true. That’s true. It’s actually probably right on par. So yeah, I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way, at least not publicly on the podcast before, but things are going to change drastically in the next just two to three years. And I really think you need to protect yourself and diversify however you’re making money.

42:26
Hope you enjoyed this episode. 17 years ago, a small side hustle selling handkerchiefs completely transformed my life. The key is to start something now. Give it time, nurture it, and you never know how far it could grow. For more information and resources, go to mywifequitterjob.com slash episode 567. Once again, tickets to the Seller Summit 2025 are now on sale over at sellersummit.com. If you want to hang out in person in a small intimate setting,

42:53
develop real relationships with like-minded entrepreneurs and learn a ton, then come to my event. Go to SellersSummit.com and if you’re interested in starting your own e-commerce store, head on over to my wife, QuitHerJob.com and sign up for my free six-day mini course. Just type in your email and I’ll send the course right away via email.