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

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

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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

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

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Mint Mobile — Cut your wireless bill to $15 a month!

Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!

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!

In 2022, Summer Fisher discovered the world of renting out dresses.

"Oh, well, I have all these dresses. Let me just put one up," she told Yahoo Finance.

Now with a streamlined inventory of around 200 pieces, she made $150,000 last year using what she calls a "double-dip profit strategy" — renting dresses multiple times before selling them for more than she paid.

(Check out her free masterclass at theprofitcollective.co/RookieResellerMistakes.)

Tune in to episode 652 of The Side Hustle Show to learn:

• Summer's favorite brands to rent out.
• Her pricing and profit margin math on her inventory.
• The logistics of shipping and selling dresses.
• and more.

Full Show Notes: $150k Renting Out Dresses as a Side Hustle

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

Airbnb — Discover how much your home could be worth and find a professional co-host today!

Mint Mobile — Cut your wireless bill to $15 a month!

Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!

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!

If you’re looking to turn LinkedIn into a money-making machine, you’re in the right place.

Joe McKay has taken his LinkedIn ghostwriting side hustle from zero to a multi-six-figure business, generating millions of impressions along the way.

And he's here to fill us in on how to make money on LinkedIn this year.

We broke down the 3 types of posts you need to make money on LinkedIn, how to navigate the platform as a side hustler, and the most common (and costly) mistake people make.

Listen to Episode 651 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:

• the 3 LinkedIn posts every side hustler must use
• why building connections strategically changes the game
• how to avoid the costly mistake most people make

Subscribe to Joe's The Thought Follower newsletter for more LinkedIn tips and solopreneur strategies.

Full Show Notes: How to Make Money on LinkedIn

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

Airbnb — Discover how much your home could be worth and find a professional co-host today!

Mint Mobile — Cut your wireless bill to $15 a month!

Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!

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!

Do you know how much cash flows through your hometown on a monthly basis?

In this episode we explore how to get some of that cash flowing toward you!

I'm joined by Nick Huber, co-founder of Storage Squad and host of The Sweaty Startup podcast.

Storage Squad, a student storage service, has grown to over $3M in sales since starting it as a little part-time project back in 2011.

I invited Nick on The Side Hustle Show to help walk us through his "sweaty startup" framework. That is, how you can start a low-risk, low-overhead, local, service-based business, set it up for success, and let that be the vehicle that drives you away from a lifetime of cubicle slavery.

Tune in to hear Nick’s thoughts on generating service business ideas you could start today, evaluating the market and competition, and scoring your first customers.

That’s why I think this is pretty exciting -- it really doesn’t take many customers to begin to make a meaningful income here.

Full Show Notes: The Sweaty Startup: How to Start a Local Service Business

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

Airbnb — Discover how much your home could be worth and find a professional co-host today!

Mint Mobile — Cut your wireless bill to $15 a month!

Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!

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!

How do you come up with a business idea?

Aspiring entrepreneurs often get stuck in the business idea phase — that is, they’re confident they could run a killer business, make a ton of money, and live the good life — if they could only come up with the right idea.

If that’s you — the idea seeker — I’ve got good news for you: coming up with new business ideas is actually pretty easy.

It’s what comes next that’s hard!

But today, let’s go through some of the proven methods you can use to come up with your first (or next) business idea.

Full Show Notes: 7 Proven Ways to Generate New Business Ideas, with Real-Life Examples

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

• Mint Mobile — Cut your wireless bill to $15 a month!
• Airbnb — Discover how much your home could be worth and find a professional co-host today!
• 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!

Mike Ettenberg spent 10 years as a firefighter, but was constantly losing or breaking his sunglasses on calls.

Frustrated, he decided to take matters into his own hands.

Frontline Optics makes durable sunglasses for first responders with a no-questions-asked replacement policy.

Despite having "no business experience," the Side Hustle Show listener took Frontline from side hustle to full-time venture, selling over $1M worth of sunglasses along the way. 

Tune in to episode 649 to learn:

• How Mike found his first customers
• The "microinfluencer" strategy that generated consistent sales
• When he felt comfortable quitting his firefighting day job
• His plans for the future

Full Show Notes: This Firefighter's Side Hustle Grew to $1M in Sales

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

• Mint Mobile — Cut your wireless bill to $15 a month!
• Airbnb — Discover how much your home could be worth!
• 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!

I want to introduce a concept I call The Side Hustle Snowball.

If you’ve heard about Dave Ramsey’s “Debt Snowball” framework, this may sound familiar.

Here’s how The Side Hustle Snowball works:

You itemize out your expenses and then aim to come up with side hustle income to cover them, starting with the smallest and working your way up.

Once you reach the bottom of your list, you don’t need your job anymore!

The reason I like this framework is setting out to replace your income with a side business can be a daunting task. The Snowball approach breaks it down into mini-victories and lets you celebrate your progress along the way.

And just like a real snowball, it picks up steam, size, and momentum as it gets rolling.

Let’s look at some real-life examples of how you can make extra money. What follows are some of my actual monthly expenses*, and how we mentally zero them out with job-free income.

Full Show Notes: The Side Hustle Snowball: How to “Erase” Your Expenses with Extra Income Streams

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

Airbnb — Discover how much your home could be worth and find a professional co-host today!

Indeed — Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!

Mint Mobile — Cut your wireless bill to $15 a month!

Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses!

The end of the year is upon us, which means it's time to reflect back on the side hustles that stood out — the ones that got people talking and that I was most excited to share.

"Best" is always subjective. But what marks a good episode is when I hang up the call, thinking, "I need to drop what I'm doing and go do something else. I should totally do that."

And I try and exercise some level of discipline and restraint because the shiny object syndrome is real.

But when the shiny object shines for me, I know it's going to be a hit episode.

So here are the top 10 side hustles for 2024.

(Here is the Spotify playlist to make it easy to go add that to your device: Best Side Hustles of the Year 2024)

Full Show Notes: The 10 Best Side Hustles of the Year

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

• Airbnb — Discover how much your home could be worth and find a professional co-host today!
• Indeed — Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!
• Mint Mobile — Cut your wireless bill to $15 a month!
• Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses!

Why should your first online business be a directory? This is one of the most overlooked yet potentially lucrative side hustles out there.

I've got a little bit of experience in this space (I actually built a virtual assistant directory years before), so this is something close to me.

But my experience is nothing like John Rush’s from JohnRush.me, who is a master at quickly building and marketing these little side projects.

He has launched 30 directories in just the past year, managed to monetize 10 of them, and even sold one (AllGPTs.co) for a sweet five-figure exit.

(If you want more resources, check out John’s full Directory Guide or his no-code builder at Unicorn Platform.)

Tune in to Episode 647 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:

• Why directories are a great starter side hustle
• How to pick the right niche
• The tools and strategies to build your directory

Full Show Notes: How to Start an Online Directory as a Side Hustle

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

Airbnb — Discover how much your home could be worth and find a professional co-host today!

Indeed — Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!

Mint Mobile — Cut your wireless bill to $15 a month!

Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses!

If you create content online, sell anything—whether it’s in person, over the phone, or on a website—and want to make stronger connections, reach more people, and ultimately grow your income, here’s something to help you learn how to do it by speaking directly to the 9 types of buyers.

To help us is Melanie Warren, a professional copywriter and the author of The 9 Buyers System.

She has helped sell millions of dollars worth of products and services, and she has graciously agreed to stop by and give us the goods for free today.

Let’s break it down, starting with a closer look at these nine buyers and how you can tailor your content to meet them where they’re at.

Tune in to Episode 646 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:

• How to identify the 9 types of buyers
• Strategies to tailor your content to connect and convert effectively
• Expert tips from Melanie Warren on emotional and logical selling

Full Show Notes: The 9 Buyers: The Key to Stronger Connections and Easier Sales

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

Airbnb — Discover how much your home could be worth and find a professional co-host today!

Indeed — Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!

Mint Mobile — Cut your wireless bill to $15 a month!

Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses!