Episodios
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The Piggyback Principle is a business idea framework that looks at popular market trends or “ecosystems” and seeks ways to support or supplement those trends.
It’s a faster way to start a business because you can capitalize on what’s already hot with an additional or complementary product or service.
Basically, your side hustle can ride piggyback on a larger business or trend. You could even say that my now-retired shoe-business was a piggyback business on the e-commerce trend and the comparison shopping trend.
It’s a concept I first wrote about 10 years ago, but at that time, I took a pretty narrow view by just talking about marketplace trends.
At that time, it was things like the rise of WordPress, or the popularity of the Paleo diet.
Now, I’ve broken this principle into three stages:
Idea generation
Startup creation
Marketing/growth
And to make this practical, I’m bringing in real-world examples from fellow entrepreneurs who’ve used this approach to build real businesses.
Here are the new and updated trends for the Piggyback Principle in 2025.
Full Show Notes: The Piggyback Principle: The “Lazy” Way to Build a Successful Side Hustle
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When you think of side hustles, flipping 2,000-year-old Roman coins probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind.
But for Dean Kinzer, what started as a nod to his dad’s hobby turned into a $86k/year side hustle, one built around history, storytelling, and a very specific type of collector.
Dean runs KinzerCoins.com and The Ancient Coin Hour on YouTube, where he shares his love for ancient coins and educates others who are curious about the space.
Here’s how he did it.
Tune in to Episode 668 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:
how Dean turned a collector’s passion into real income
why ancient coins are the ultimate niche product
the low-risk strategies he used to build an $80k side hustle
Full Show Notes: How I Built an $80k/year Side Hustle in an Obscure Niche
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What are the best side hustle trends you should look out for in 2025?
These might impact what business you start and how you think about scaling it.
And to help me out is a longtime friend and a friend of the show, Spencer Haws from NichePursuits.com.
He’s been covering online side hustles even longer than I have.
Almost all our content starts from the question of, "How do I make extra money?" To answer that, it’s important to know where the market’s been, where it is, and where it’s potentially going.
Tune in to Episode 667 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:
what side hustles are thriving right now and which ones are fading
why email, AI, and even eBay are making big comebacks
how to future-proof your hustle in a rapidly changing digital world
Full Show Notes: 10+ Side Hustle Trends for 2025
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What if you could make $300 an hour filming short videos with your phone … and you didn’t need a single follower to get started?
That’s the side hustle Megan Collier carved out for herself with UGC (user-generated content).
Think of it as getting paid to create authentic-looking social media content for brands, even if you're not an influencer.
And she’s not alone. Brands are hungry for this stuff.
In just a couple of years, Megan built her side hustle into a six-figure income stream and quit her day job in 2023.
Let’s take a look at how she did it, and how you can, too.
Tune in to Episode 666 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:
how Megan landed her first $750 UGC deal in 10 days.
the exact outreach strategies she used to book brand clients.
how she scaled to $300/hour and replaced her 9-to-5 income.
Full Show Notes: $300/hr as a Content Creator, w/ No Audience Required
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Sponsors:
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Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses! -
Josh Belk is a full-time college student, he works full-time in web design, and in what little spare time, he’s started a $6,000 a month mobile detailing business with his younger brother.
This idea came about when Josh connected the dots between obsession and opportunity.
On the obsession side, Josh would always see his brother out in the driveway cleaning his car.
On the opportunity side, he received an email about business ideas anyone could start, and mobile car washing was one of them.
He asked his brother if he wanted to team up to see if they could make some money cleaning cars — and with that, Belk Mobile Detailing was born.
Tune in to hear the full podcast episode to hear how the pair:
landed their first mobile detailing customers
price their service
stand out from the competition
Full Show Notes: Zero to $6k a Month With a Mobile Detailing Business
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Cody Berman is no stranger to selling digital products.
He’s known in the side hustle world as the "printable guy" and co-founder of Gold City Ventures, but when Internet skeptics told him the Etsy market was "too saturated now" compared to when he started in 2018, Cody accepted the challenge.
And proved them wrong.
From zero to $1,000/month in 116 days with a brand-new Etsy shop, with no followers, no email list, and no marketing. Just skill and data-driven decisions.
(If you want to shortcut the learning curve, check out his course:
(sidehustlenation.com/etsyprintableslaunch)
Tune in to Episode 665 of The Side Hustle Show to learn:
how Cody launched a brand-new Etsy shop to $1K/month in just 116 days
keyword research strategy behind finding low-competition, high-demand niches
why printables aren’t just for passive income but powerful marketing tools too
Full Show Notes: The Path to $1k/mo with Mini Digital Products
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Sponsors:
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I can almost guarantee you've heard the phrase the "money is in the list."
And all the experts, myself included, extol the virtues of building your email list, right? Because it's the platform that you own and control.
But the question is, are you building an email list of buyers? Subscribers are great, but you're not buying groceries on subscribers alone.
Pete Boyle is the founder of growthmodels.co and he has a unique list-building and business-building strategy that throws free lead magnets out the window in favor of low-priced products, starting at just $1, and has seen some exciting results, including $4,000 in just 10 days.
Tune in to Episode 664 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:
how a $1 product can turn cold leads into paying customers (without ads)
why low-ticket offers convert better than free lead magnets
how to stack simple offers into a $250+ funnel that leads to high-ticket sales
(Start your own $1 product experiment at growthmodels.co/dollar.)
Full Show Notes: The $1 Product Challenge
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Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial! -
I’m not usually one to fall for those flashy, too-good-to-be-true money hacks.
But when someone tells me they’re making $200 an hour in their underwear just opening bank accounts? You bet I’m curious.
That someone is Dylan Sexton from dylansbonuses.com, and he’s been pulling in consistent weekly income by playing the bank bonus game.
No shady stuff. No switching your entire financial life around. Just a super smart (and surprisingly low-effort) system that banks actually want you to take advantage of.
Tune in to Episode 663 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:
how Dylan makes $200 an hour opening bank accounts
where to find the best bonus deals right now
the simple system he uses to track and scale it
Full Show Notes: Bank Bonuses: How I Make $200/Hr Opening New Bank Accounts
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Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial! -
Vending machines are a classic passive income source that continues to be profitable today.
We had Mr. Passive himself, Mike Hoffman, on the show before to talk about how to scale up his vending machine business.
And one of his mentees is here today.
Anthony Kolodziej from H&H Vending scaled his vending operation from zero to over $50k per month in just 16 months.
That’s 30+ locations, thousands of transactions, and a strategy that turns vending into something way beyond the old-school snack machine in the corner of a breakroom.
Tune in to Episode 662 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:
how to land prime locations
how to negotiate deals
why he never says the word "vending" when pitching a property manager
Want to go deeper? Check out Mike Hoffmann’s Vendingpreneur training program. (Side Hustle Show listeners get 10% off!)
Full Show Notes: From Zero to $50k in Vending Revenue in 16 months
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Sponsors:
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OpenPhone — Streamline and scale your customer communications with Open Phone. Get 20% off your first 6 months at www.openphone.com/sidehustle.
Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial! -
Most people look at a golf glove and see, well, just a golf club… white, plain, forgettable.
But Randall Pulfer and his co-founder Tyler, with zero experience in manufacturing, no background in design, and a full-time day job, sold $100k worth of golf gloves as a side hustle.
ChippGolfCo.com is now a brand that’s making waves in the golf scene.
Randall breaks down how he pulled it off from coming up with the idea, finding the right manufacturing partner, and making those first crucial sales.
(Want to try one for yourself? Head over to ChippGolfCo.com and use promo code HUSTLE for 15% off your order.)
Tune in to Episode 661 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:
how Randall came up with this idea
how they found the right manufacturing partner to make it reality
the marketing efforts that have worked to start to generate some profitable sales
Full Show Notes: How We Sold $100k Worth of Golf Gloves on the Side
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Sponsors:
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OpenPhone — Streamline and scale your customer communications with Open Phone. Get 20% off your first 6 months at www.openphone.com/sidehustle.
Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial! -
It’s easy to get caught up in the habit of spending without thinking.
But the good news is, it’s totally possible to break the cycle.
In this episode, we’re going to share simple, practical ways to stop spending money and start saving.
These strategies come from real experience and expert advice, so you know they actually work.
Full Show Notes: How To Stop Spending Money
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Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial! -
"Changing the world with chess" and making $100,000 per year on the side.
That’s the story of today’s guest, Jeff DiOrio from EliteChess.net.
Jeff went from earning $17/hr working in summer camp chess programs teaching kids how to play chess, to running his own camps and earning five times as much.
He then transitioned to an online recurring membership model, in part due to the pandemic, while also keeping the in-person coaching side of his business alive.
Jeff’s approach to growing his student numbers so rapidly?
Organic growth through giving to charities and delivering a value-driven service, all while doing something he loves—teaching chess.
Tune in to The Side Hustle Show interview to hear:
how Jeff built his minimum viable audience
the methods he used to set up the business for recurring revenue
how you can borrow some of these same tactics in your business
Full Show Notes: From $17/hr to 6-Figure Side Hustle
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OpenPhone — Streamline and scale your customer communications with Open Phone. Get 20% off your first 6 months at www.openphone.com/sidehustle. -
Back in the day, you needed someone technical (or paid someone technical) if you wanted to build any kind of software.
Today, with the popularity of AI tools, not so much.
Pete McPherson from doyouevenblog.com is earning $100k by using AI tools to help build a series of small-ish web apps, usually built to solve a very specific problem for a very specific customer.
And he's here to share with you how he built all of this... without being a developer himself.
Tune in to Episode 659 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:
how AI tools make building software faster and easier even if you're not a developer
why partnerships and recurring revenue are key to scaling and selling your SaaS products
the essential tech stack that helps you launch apps quickly with minimal costs
Full Show Notes: $100k with AI-Coded Apps
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Sponsors:
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Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses! -
Heff Gerlach started The Keeper League Podcast on the side from his teaching job.
It's not about football, not just about fantasy football, but about a very specific flavor of fantasy football for Australian Rules Football.
That’s a niche within a niche within a niche — where fans don’t just draft players, they build teams that last for years.
And now it serves as the hub for player data, draft tools, and expert analysis for football keeper leagues.
Tune in to Episode 658 of The Side Hustle Show to learn:
how to turn a niche passion into a profitable business
how to build a loyal community around a specific interest
how to monetize skills and knowledge through various streams
Full Show Notes: 160k Talking About Australian Fantasy Football
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Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses! -
It’s time for another round of business idea giveaways, and to help me out is a long-time friend and friend of the show, Steve Chou, a serial entrepreneur who built not one but two 7-figure businesses starting both as side hustles — MyWifeQuitHerJob.com and BumbleBeeLinens.com.
It’s becoming a tradition; this is our 3rd round of business idea giveaways. If you find you like this format, make sure to go check out the other two.
Episode 563: 19 Business Ideas Free for the Taking!, with Steve Chou
Episode 530: 17 Business Ideas Free for the Taking!, with Steve Chou
Full Show Notes: 19 Business Ideas Free for the Taking
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I called the Amazon Influencer Program the easiest money I'd ever made online.
I made $100 in my first month, over $1200 in my first year, and last year, still made over $700 doing almost nothing. Set it and forget it.
The basic premise with this branch of Amazon Associates is to create short product review videos, and earn a small commission when your review convinces someone to buy.
You do need some level of social following and engagement to get accepted, but after that, you really don't need to drive your own traffic. Amazon posts your review videos on the relevant product pages.
In this episode, we check in with Tyler Christensen from TylerChristensen.com — a serial side hustler, teacher, and dad of four who's lately been earning around $5k a month on the side from his product reviews.
Tune in to Episode 656 the Side Hustle Show interview to hear:
how to get accepted into the Amazon Influencer Program
Tyler’s best practices for review videos
The multiple revenue streams you can have as a product reviewer
Full Show Notes: $5k/mo Reviewing Products Part-Time: An Amazon Influencer Update
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Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses! -
Why go through the trouble of building your own cash flow when, with a little determination and a little hustle, you can insert yourself into some income streams that are already happening?
That’s what Link Moser from linkmoser.com and his web design agency windhill.com have done, not once, not twice, but 5 different times, generating $200k a year in semi-passive income.
He was on the show in 2022, where he explained how he makes money with a real estate lead generation site, NHFineHomes.com, where a single referral can be worth tens of thousands of dollars.
But today, we’re diving into a different strategy: business acquisitions.
Tune in to Episode 655 of the Side Hustle Show:
specific types of businesses to acquire
how to negotiate with owners
time and logistics involved in managing his expanding portfolio
Full Show Notes: How to Earn $200k/Year in Semi-Passive Income Through Small Business Acquisitions
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Sponsors:
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Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses! -
Service businesses can get a bad rap.
After all, there are clients to deal with, and actual labor involved in fulfillment. They’re just not as glamorous as other more “passive” income models.
But you should know that more Side Hustle Show guests started with a service-based business model than any other.
This week’s guest has a unique approach to service businesses -- one that doesn't rely on your skills as the expert.
Tyler Gillespie has built two successful service businesses and had a clean exit from both -- the last being just 13 months from startup to sale.
Tune in to hear:
how Tyler comes up with ideas for productized service businesses
the processes he implements to put his business in a position to exit
how he outsources the mechanism of his businesses
Full Show Notes: Built to Sell: Design a Business to Run Without You
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Sponsors:
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Mint Mobile — Cut your wireless bill to $15 a month!
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OpenPhone — Get 20% off of your first 6 months!
Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses! -
It’s 2025, and the line between reality and science fiction is getting more and more blurry every day.
In this episode, I sit down with someone I’ve never met, but they know me pretty well. He even kind of sounds like me in an eerie sort of way.
I was curious how well today’s AI models could pretend to be someone else, given a few simple prompts. The result is this chat with Robo-Nick, my AI alter ego.
Let’s see how well Robo-Nick answers these questions, plus my real thoughts about them.
(This episode relied heavily on ElevenLabs to generate the voice for Robo-Nick.)
Tune in to episode 654 of The Side Hustle Show to learn:
The biggest opportunities (and pitfalls) for side hustlers in the AI era.
Actionable tips to future-proof your income and leverage new trends effectively.
Full Show Notes: I Interviewed My AI Self … What it Got Right, Wrong, and a Little Weird
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Sponsors:
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OpenPhone — Get 20% off of your first 6 months!
Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses! -
Getting out of the rat race is simple, but not necessarily easy.
To escape, all you need is monthly income -- from non-job sources -- that exceeds your monthly expenses.
For example, if you spend $3000 a month, you'll need to bring in at least $3000 (after taxes) outside of your day job.
Simple, but not always easy.
In this episode, I'll break down:
the most common rat race "escape routes"
the pros and cons of each
how to choose the right path for you
Ready? Let's do it!
Full Show Notes: 3 Ways to Get Out of the Rat Race
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Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses! - Mostrar más
