The Side Hustle Show
Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation
- 41 minutes 32 seconds730: $1,000 a Month with Passive Digital Products
A 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.
26 March 2026, 9:00 am - 1 hour 12 secondsEtsy 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.
23 March 2026, 9:00 am - 39 minutes 46 seconds729: $500,000 in Hamster Ball Sales? How a College Student Brought a New Product to Life
Half 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.
19 March 2026, 9:00 am - 19 minutes 35 seconds728: $28k Hanging Balloons, $115k/mo Selling Spreadsheets, the 6-Figure AI Monk, and More
In 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.the-sun.com/money/15971252/flight-attendant-party-rental-ballon-business-side-hustle/
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.
16 March 2026, 9:00 am - 43 minutes 57 seconds727: $250/hr by Productizing Your Expertise
What 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.
12 March 2026, 9:00 am - 41 minutes 10 secondsThe 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!
9 March 2026, 9:00 am - 51 minutes 2 seconds726: The $300/day Marketing Funnel: From Content to Cash Flow
What 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!
5 March 2026, 10:00 am - 44 minutes 19 seconds725: How One Mom’s Laundry Side Hustle Turned into an $12M Business
What 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!
26 February 2026, 10:00 am - 45 minutes 26 seconds724: The Path to $250k+ Per Year: The State of Solopreneurship in 2026
What 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!
23 February 2026, 10:00 am - 52 minutes 41 secondsHow 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.
19 February 2026, 10:00 am - 49 minutes 27 seconds723: How to Make 5-10x More Money from Amazon
What 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.
12 February 2026, 10:00 am - More Episodes? Get the App