
730: $1,000 a Month with Passive Digital ProductsA guest early on in the Side Hustle Show said this: "Why am I more excited to make $5 passively than I am to make $5,000 actively?" And whether or not that is true in your case, it is a line that stuck with me because that $5 can scale. The $5,000 usually can’t. Chelsea Shelton is a former elementary school teacher, a mom of three, and a digital products coach at Gold City Ventures, the same program co-founded by Cody Berman, who previously shared how he built a $1,000/month Etsy shop from scratch in Episode 665. She took the Gold City Ventures course during maternity leave, decided to stay home, and threw herself into selling digital products on Etsy. Within 3 months, she hit 1,000 sales. Today, her shop brings in $1,000 to $1,200 a month largely on autopilot, and she spends much of her time coaching other sellers through the same process. (Learn how to start your own Etsy digital products business with Gold City Ventures.) Tune in to Episode 730 of the Side Hustle Show to learn: * how to find products people are already searching for before you ever open Canva * what listing best practices drive clicks and sales on Etsy * how Chelsea earns passive income across multiple platforms with the same products Full Show Notes: $1,000 a Month with Passive Digital Products New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here! Sponsors: * Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post! * Quo (formerly OpenPhone) — Get 20% off of your first 6 months! * Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial! * Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses! About The Side Hustle Show This is the entrepreneurship podcast you can actually apply! The award-winning small business show covers the best side hustles and side hustle ideas. We share how to start a business and make money online and offline, including online business, side gigs, freelancing, marketing, sales funnels, investing, and much more. Join 100,000+ listeners and get legit business ideas and passive income strategies straight to your earbuds. No BS, just actionable tips on how to start and grow your side hustle. Hosted by Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation.
Etsy Printables: $10,000 a Month Selling Digital Products on Etsy (Greatest Hits)Creating assets you can sell over and over again — that’s the passive income dream, right? This is exactly what Rachel Jones has done by creating and selling downloadable printables on Etsy. This year she’s averaging over $10,000 a month in sales, all while balancing a full-time job and two young kids. Rachel started in 2018, and took her Etsy business full-time in 2021. Note: I call this the Buy Buttons strategy. To kickstart your business, find the marketplaces your target customers are already shopping. Go where the cash is already flowing! Tune in to The Side Hustle Show interview to learn: * how to find profitable niches to sell digital products in on Etsy * some of the categories Rachel likes * the tools and technology she uses to get it all done Here's a free guide to the best-selling digital products month-by-month to get your creative juices flowing. Full Show Notes: Etsy Printables: $10,000 a Month Selling Digital Products on Etsy New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here! Sponsors: * Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post! * Quo (formerly OpenPhone) — Get 20% off of your first 6 months! * Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial! * Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses! About The Side Hustle Show This is the entrepreneurship podcast you can actually apply! The award-winning small business show covers the best side hustles and side hustle ideas. We share how to start a business and make money online and offline, including online business, side gigs, freelancing, marketing, sales funnels, investing, and much more. Join 100,000+ listeners and get legit business ideas and passive income strategies straight to your earbuds. No BS, just actionable tips on how to start and grow your side hustle. Hosted by Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation.
729: $500,000 in Hamster Ball Sales? How a College Student Brought a New Product to LifeHalf a million dollars in hamster balls. What if you spotted a gap in a market that hadn’t changed in 50 years and turned it into a fast-growing product business while still in college? That’s exactly what Ethan Haber did with Happy Habitats, a small pet products company he started as a sophomore at Wake Forest University. While watching his hamster Mooksy roll around in a standard hamster ball on campus, Ethan looked over and saw someone walking a dog. The thought hit him: why can’t I walk my hamster? That simple question launched a product line now heading into 1,500 stores nationwide through a major big-box retail deal. Ethan’s story covers everything from cold-emailing a design firm and navigating COVID shipping delays, to cracking Amazon and landing a mentorship with the founder of PetSmart — all from a niche that most people overlook. Tune in to Episode 729 of the Side Hustle Show to learn: * how to take an existing product and improve upon it to create a defensible business * what it really takes to get your product into retail stores and online marketplaces * why patents, packaging, and the right partners matter more than most first-time founders realize Full Show Notes: $500,000 in Hamster Ball Sales? How a College Student Brought a New Product to Life New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here! Sponsors: * Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post! * Quo (formerly OpenPhone) — Get 20% off of your first 6 months! * Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial! * Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses! About The Side Hustle Show This is the entrepreneurship podcast you can actually apply! The award-winning small business show covers the best side hustles and side hustle ideas. We share how to start a business and make money online and offline, including online business, side gigs, freelancing, marketing, sales funnels, investing, and much more. Join 100,000+ listeners and get legit business ideas and passive income strategies straight to your earbuds. No BS, just actionable tips on how to start and grow your side hustle. Hosted by Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation.
728: $28k Hanging Balloons, $115k/mo Selling Spreadsheets, the 6-Figure AI Monk, and MoreIn This Week In Side Hustles, I'm bringing you some of the unique side hustles that have come across my desk this week. There are so many creative ways to make serious money, from local, in-person services to completely AI-created online side hustles. If you'd like to read more about the individual side hustles, check out the resources below. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/30/bay-area-kids-rentals-silicon-valley-parents-built-lucrative-side-hustle.html https://www.the-sun.com/money/15971252/flight-attendant-party-rental-ballon-business-side-hustle/ https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/21/how-this-29-year-old-brought-in-789k-in-2025-selling-landline-phones.html https://www.reddit.com/r/passive_income/comments/1r9f0xs/this_google_sheets_seller_is_making_115kmonth_and/https://spotlight.ebu.ch/p/yang-mun-ai-influencer-scam New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here! Sponsors: * Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post! * Quo (formerly OpenPhone) — Get 20% off of your first 6 months! * Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial! About The Side Hustle Show This is the entrepreneurship podcast you can actually apply! The award-winning small business show covers the best side hustles and side hustle ideas. We share how to start a business and make money online and offline, including online business, side gigs, freelancing, marketing, sales funnels, investing, and much more. Join 100,000+ listeners and get legit business ideas and passive income strategies straight to your earbuds. No BS, just actionable tips on how to start and grow your side hustle. Hosted by Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation.
727: $250/hr by Productizing Your ExpertiseWhat if you could earn $250-$300 an hour solving a problem most people would rather avoid? Jim Lashbaugh did exactly that, and last year, it added about $40,000 in extra income. Jim is a retired firefighter who spent nearly three decades on the job. On the side, he flipped houses. And as part of that, he had to wrestle with one of the most annoying parts of real estate development: building permits. He got good at it, but he never planned to do it for anyone else. Then a friend asked for help. Then a stranger called. And SynergyPermits.com was born. Jim joined the show to share how he turned a very specific, very unglamorous skill into a flexible side hustle without cold calling, without ads, and without any formal credentials. Tune in to Episode 727 of the Side Hustle Show to learn: * how to find the niche skill hiding in your own experience * a simple pricing shift that can double or triple your effective hourly rate * the one-question close that converts almost every prospect into a paying client Full Show Notes: $250/hr by Productizing Your Expertise New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here! Sponsors: * Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post! * Quo (formerly OpenPhone) — Get 20% off of your first 6 months! * Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial! About The Side Hustle Show This is the entrepreneurship podcast you can actually apply! The award-winning small business show covers the best side hustles and side hustle ideas. We share how to start a business and make money online and offline, including online business, side gigs, freelancing, marketing, sales funnels, investing, and much more. Join 100,000+ listeners and get legit business ideas and passive income strategies straight to your earbuds. No BS, just actionable tips on how to start and grow your side hustle. Hosted by Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation.
The 6-Figure Side Hustle Cleaning Up Parking Lots (Greatest Hits)This week’s guest started his side hustle with the goal of earning an extra $1,000 a month. Four summers later and it’s now a 6-figure business! Blademir Hernandez is a Side Hustle Show listener who was inspired by Brian Winch’s story in episode 266 to start his business. Brian built a $650k a year operation picking up litter and cleaning parking lots — something Blademir felt confident he could do, too. Blademir reached out to Brian and ran the idea past him, before going out and finding property managers in his area to pitch his litter picking service to. This story is a perfect example of what can happen when you take inspiration from a proven business model and execute your own game plan. Tune in to The Side Hustle Show interview to hear how: * he found his first customers * to price and sell a local lot sweeping service * Blademir has scaled his business Full Show Notes: The 6-Figure Side Hustle Cleaning Up Parking Lots New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here! Sponsors: * Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post! * Quo (formerly OpenPhone) — Get 20% off of your first 6 months! * Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial! * Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses!
726: The $300/day Marketing Funnel: From Content to Cash FlowWhat if you could turn your social media following into a $300/day marketing machine without relying on ads or platform algorithms to pay you? That's exactly what financial educator Brian Feroldi has built at LongTermMindset.co. He started by sharing investing content on Twitter back in 2019 and gradually built a funnel that now generates consistent daily revenue from digital products without a huge team or a big ad budget. Brian is the bestselling author of Why Does the Stock Market Go Up? and has grown audiences of over 650k on Twitter/X and 200k+ on LinkedIn. But the real magic isn't the follower count — it's what he does with the attention once he has it. Tune in to Episode 726 of the Side Hustle Show to learn: * how to build a simple content-to-cash funnel that works on autopilot * why a $7 tripwire offer is the secret to identifying your best future customers * the exact email sequence and webinar strategy Brian uses to sell a $200 course Full Show Notes: The $300/day Marketing Funnel: From Content to Cash Flow New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here! Sponsors: * Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post! * Quo (formerly OpenPhone) — Get 20% off of your first 6 months! * Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial! * Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses!
725: How One Mom’s Laundry Side Hustle Turned into an $12M BusinessWhat if the pile of laundry sitting in your spare room was actually a business idea in disguise? That’s more or less how Susan Toft tells it. She was a new mom with a full-time corporate job, staring at a mountain of unfolded clothes and thinking: someone should offer this as a service. So she decided to be that someone. Susan is the founder of LaundryLady.com, Australia’s number one mobile laundry service. She started solo in 2012, doing pickups in her van with her toddler in the backseat. Thirteen years later, she’s running a $12 million business with 450+ contractors across Australia, a presence in New Zealand, a new launch in Canada, and expansion into the UK on the way. Along the way, she landed a $1 million investment on Shark Tank Australia. Tune in to Episode 725 of the Side Hustle Show to learn: * how Susan validated her idea using a personal pain point and turned it into a scalable service * what the contractor model looks like and how much laundry ladies and lads actually earn * how Shark Tank changed her business trajectory and what she did with the exposure Full Show Notes: How One Mom’s Laundry Side Hustle Turned into an $12M Business New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here! Sponsors: * Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post! * Quo (formerly OpenPhone) — Get 20% off of your first 6 months! * Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial! * Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses!
724: The Path to $250k+ Per Year: The State of Solopreneurship in 2026What does it actually take to build a $250,000 a year independent income stream, and how long will it really take you to get there? Adriana Tica is a self-described reluctant entrepreneur who now runs two digital marketing and copywriting agencies, works as a strategic marketing consultant, and publishes the Strategic AF newsletter. She put hard data behind questions most solopreneurs quietly wonder about with her research report, the State of Solopreneurship. We talked about what the report actually found — from how long it takes to hit six figures, to why email still beats everything else, to the lead magnet and newsletter growth tactics working best right now. Tune in to Episode 724 of the Side Hustle Show to learn: * the most common revenue path for 6-figure solopreneurs * how to validate a digital product idea before you build it * the newsletter growth strategy that works better than a free download Full Show Notes: The Path to $250k+ Per Year: The State of Solopreneurship in 2026 New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here! Sponsors: * Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post! * Quo (formerly OpenPhone) — Get 20% off of your first 6 months! * Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial! * Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses!
How to Start a Billboard Business: $30k a Month Part-Time (Greatest Hits)Billboards are timeless. And they remain a successful advertising strategy even with the rise of digital technology. With that said, you probably never imagined that a solopreneur could rake in $30,000 a month from it (part-time!). But that’s exactly what Chris Brown from Signs of Good and wantmore.org has done for the past decade. Chris retired early at the age of 42 and now owns approximately 30 billboards around Bentonville, Arkansas. Tune in to Ep 608 of The Side Hustle Show to learn: * how to find billboards for sale * find places where you could put one * how to fill that ad space * how passive it is once you’re up and running Full Show Notes: How to Start a Billboard Business: $30k a Month Part-Time New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here! Sponsors: * Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post! * Quo (formerly OpenPhone) — Get 20% off of your first 6 months! * Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial! * Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses! About The Side Hustle Show This is the entrepreneurship podcast you can actually apply! The award-winning small business show covers the best side hustles and side hustle ideas. We share how to start a business and make money online and offline, including online business, side gigs, freelancing, marketing, sales funnels, investing, and much more. Join 100,000+ listeners and get legit business ideas and passive income strategies straight to your earbuds. No BS, just actionable tips on how to start and grow your side hustle. Hosted by Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation.
723: How to Make 5-10x More Money from AmazonWhat if you could unlock 5-10x more money from Amazon than you're currently earning? The Amazon Influencer Program has changed quite a bit over the last couple of years. What worked before, namely the strategy of uploading a bunch of product review videos and hoping they generate commissions, has started to produce diminishing returns. But there's a new strategy that is giving creators a way forward, and it's called Creator Connections. Jared Bauman from 201creative.com and host of the Niche Pursuits podcast is back on the show. He's earning around $3,000 a month from the Amazon Influencer Program, and most of that income is now coming from this new approach rather than the old method of just making videos and putting them on product pages. Listen to Episode 723 of the Side Hustle Show to learn: * how Creator Connections is changing the Amazon Influencer Program * how to pitch brands and get free products sent to you for review * how to choose high-selling products and create review videos that actually convert Full Show Notes: How to Make 5-10x More Money from Amazon New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here! Sponsors: * Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post! * Quo (formerly OpenPhone) — Get 20% off of your first 6 months! * Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial! * Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses! About The Side Hustle Show This is the entrepreneurship podcast you can actually apply! The award-winning small business show covers the best side hustles and side hustle ideas. We share how to start a business and make money online and offline, including online business, side gigs, freelancing, marketing, sales funnels, investing, and much more. Join 100,000+ listeners and get legit business ideas and passive income strategies straight to your earbuds. No BS, just actionable tips on how to start and grow your side hustle. Hosted by Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation.
722: The Million Dollar Business in Your BackyardWhat if the million dollar business you're looking for is literally in your own backyard? William Milliken went from zero to 350 recurring customers in his first three months in business, starting a pet waste removal company as a side project. Last year, his business racked up over $3 million in revenue, all from the not-so-glamorous service of cleaning up dog poop. And if that wasn't enough, William turned his knowledge into another side hustle, teaching others through swoopscoop.com and the Poop Scoop Millionaire community. That's turned into another almost million dollar a year business. Listen to Episode 722 of the Side Hustle Show to learn: * how to start a pet waste removal business with almost no money * the surprising economics that make this a six-figure opportunity * • creative strategies to scale beyond your local market Big thanks to Erica from Kroopin's Poopin Scoopin for the intro! Full Show Notes: The Million Dollar Business in Your Backyard New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here! Sponsors: * Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post! * Quo (formerly OpenPhone) — Get 20% off of your first 6 months! * Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial! About The Side Hustle Show This is the entrepreneurship podcast you can actually apply! The award-winning small business show covers the best side hustles and side hustle ideas. We share how to start a business and make money online and offline, including online business, side gigs, freelancing, marketing, sales funnels, investing, and much more. Join 100,000+ listeners and get legit business ideas and passive income strategies straight to your earbuds. No BS, just actionable tips on how to start and grow your side hustle. Hosted by Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation.
721: $1k a Month with your First Co-Living PropertyWhat if you could create $1,000 to $2,000 per month in cash flow from a single property and need just three homes to replace your W-2 income? Sam Wegert discovered this path 14 years ago when he started house hacking a single property. Today, he owns over 200 rooms across his co-living portfolio, all passively managed while he lives overseas. Co-living is when you buy a larger house and rent out individual rooms instead of the entire property. It's the difference between earning $250 a month from a traditional single-family rental and $1,000 to $2,000 from the same-sized property set up for co-living. From the Scale Your Co-Living Real Estate podcast and ScaleYourRealEstate.com, Sam Wegert shares how he turned a simple house hack into a six-figure business addressing affordable housing from the ground up. (Join his Free 5-Day Co-Living Challenge to learn how to develop the mindset that will take you to success as a CoLiving investor!) Listen to Episode 721 of the Side Hustle Show to learn: * how co-living can produce 4-5X the cash flow of traditional rentals * the formula for converting homes into profitable co-living spaces * creative financing strategies to get started with minimal capital Full Show Notes: $1k a Month with your First Co-Living Property New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here! Sponsors: * Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post! * Quo (formerly OpenPhone) — Get 20% off of your first 6 months! * Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial! About The Side Hustle Show This is the entrepreneurship podcast you can actually apply! The award-winning small business show covers the best side hustles and side hustle ideas. We share how to start a business and make money online and offline, including online business, side gigs, freelancing, marketing, sales funnels, investing, and much more. Join 100,000+ listeners and get legit business ideas and passive income strategies straight to your earbuds. No BS, just actionable tips on how to start and grow your side hustle. Hosted by Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation.
How to Start a Junk Hauling Business: From $0 to $300 Million and Beyond (Greatest Hits)Are you willing to fail? Let that be your new mantra. It's the only way to get up the courage to get started. That's the rule Brian Scudamore -- the founder and CEO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK -- lives by. What started with a $1000 investment (Brian's life's savings at the time) has turned into a home services empire that does $1 million in sales on any given day. Brian's come a long way since that beat-up pickup truck going door-to-door that first summer. His portfolio now includes house painting, moving services, and home detailing--all under the umbrella of Ordinary 2 Exceptional Brands. He’s formulated some unique and effective ways to build teams of passionate employees that share his goals and has leveraged the franchise model to grow his businesses and revenue from $0 to $444 million and beyond. Tune in to hear how Brian started the junk hauling business as a soon-to-be college student, his thoughts on marketing and hiring, and how you can apply nearly 30 years of his own successes and failures to your business. Full Show Notes: How to Start a Junk Hauling Business: From $0 to $300 Million and Beyond New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here! Sponsors: * Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post! * Quo (formerly OpenPhone) — Get 20% off of your first 6 months! * Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial! About The Side Hustle Show This is the entrepreneurship podcast you can actually apply! The award-winning small business show covers the best side hustles and side hustle ideas. We share how to start a business and make money online and offline, including online business, side gigs, freelancing, marketing, sales funnels, investing, and much more. Join 100,000+ listeners and get legit business ideas and passive income strategies straight to your earbuds. No BS, just actionable tips on how to start and grow your side hustle. Hosted by Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation.
720: From $50k in Debt to Mortgage-Free Millionaire and a 3-Day WorkweekOwning your time is a goal we all share, and today's conversation is about giving you concrete steps you can take to reclaim some of that time. Andy Hill went from $50,000 in debt to mortgage-free multi-millionaire and now works a three-day work week. His new book is Own Your Time: 10 Financial Steps to Put Your Family First and Escape the Corporate Grind. From MarriageKidsandMoney.com, Andy Hill shares how he built financial independence through Coast FIRE, side hustle income, and intentional life design. Tune in to Episode 720 of the Side Hustle Show to learn: * How Coast FIRE works in real life * The exact financial sequence Andy used to go mortgage-free and reduce pressure before leaving corporate work * How evergreen side-hustle income helped support a flexible 3-day workweek lifestyle Full Show Notes: From $50k in Debt to Mortgage-Free Millionaire and a 3-Day Workweek New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here! Sponsors: * Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post! * Quo (formerly OpenPhone) — Get 20% off of your first 6 months! * Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial! About The Side Hustle Show This is the entrepreneurship podcast you can actually apply! The award-winning small business show covers the best side hustles and side hustle ideas. We share how to start a business and make money online and offline, including online business, side gigs, freelancing, marketing, sales funnels, investing, and much more. Join 100,000+ listeners and get legit business ideas and passive income strategies straight to your earbuds. No BS, just actionable tips on how to start and grow your side hustle. Hosted by Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation.