539 Make Money on the Side with Chris Guillebeau

"Don't worry too much about the things you're not good at." - Chris Guillebeau If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, videos, and more at http://lewishowes.com/539 Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is episode number 539 with New York Times bestselling author Chris Guillebeau.

• 0:07Lewis Howes?

  Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week, we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 0:33Lewis Howes?

  Maya Angelou said, "You can't use up creativity. The more you use it, the more you have." Welcome everyone to today's episode. I am riding high on the Summit of Greatness experience. We just had 1,000 people from around the world, 20 different countries, all come to Columbus, Ohio to embark on a journey to take on self-discovery in a new way and learn from some of the most inspirational speakers in the world. And wow, I am still on a high. If you were there, you know what I'm talking about. And we already sold almost 1,000 tickets for next year. That's how pumped people are to attend in the next year and are so excited about it.

• 1:14Lewis Howes?

  So, thank you to everyone who showed up, who came, who danced their faces off. It was amazing. And what an experience we will always have. I'll do a full recap about the things that worked really well, what didn't work well, how the entire event worked, everything, what was profitable, what wasn't, all that stuff. We'll do a full recap another time. But I want to support Chris because he has a book out right now. And for those who don't know him, he is a New York Times bestselling author and modern day explorer. He's visited every country in the world before his 35th birthday. He's written a few books, The Art of Nonconformity, The $100 Startup, which was a New York Times bestseller

• 1:58Lewis Howes?

  and sold more than half a million copies worldwide. And he's written several New York Times bestselling books for entrepreneurs and founded the super popular World Domination Summit. And his new book is all about Side hustle. So for those who aren't entrepreneurs who work at a job or work at a career and you're happy there, but you want to make more money on the side. This is for you. It's all about what are those things that you can have ownership in? To develop your own side hustle to make an extra 500 bucks a month, a thousand bucks a month, 5,000 a month. Some people sometimes transition completely and they're making multiple six figures with their side hustle. So this is all about how to choose the right side hustle for

• 2:39Lewis Howes?

  you and the entire process for choosing. The most popular forms of side hustle and the benefits of each one. How we all make time for what is most important to us. Why you must validate your idea before you actually go and implement. Also, the role your community plays in your side hustle. Guys, we talked about all this and so much more. Make sure to take a screenshot of this right now on your podcast app. Tag me at Lewis Howes and Chris Gillebeau over on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and let me know that you're listening to this so I can have a conversation with you over on your Instagram story. Lauren Bartus posted a review this week along with many of you and she is voted as the fan and review of the week. So I want to give a quick shout out

• 3:23Lewis Howes?

  to Lauren who said, "I've listened to a ton of podcasts and the School of Greatness is the only podcast I listen to every single day. I cannot start my day without listening to one of Lewis's incredible interviews or Five Minute Fridays. The variety of people he brings to this podcast is incredible and there is something for everyone. I feel the need to tell everyone I come in contact with about this podcast." Thank you for bringing all the incredible interviews and content to us listeners. So Lauren Bartus, thank you for being the fan and the review of the week. And if you guys want a chance to get shouted out on the podcast, make sure to head over

• 4:02Lewis Howes?

  to iTunes or your podcast app and leave a review over on the podcast. Okay, everyone who is on their side hustle, who wants to make more money on the side, or if you're working in a career and you just want to start making a little bit on the side, this is for you. Make sure to share it with your friends, lewishouse.com/539 to get the full show notes, the links, the full video interview with Chris and share it with your friends. Without further ado, let me introduce to you the one, the only Chris Gillebeau.

• 4:37Lewis Howes?

  Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness Podcast. One of my favorite human beings, Chris Gilbo is in the house.

• 4:43Chris Guillebeau?

  Sup man, good to see you sir.

• 4:45Lewis Howes?

  All the way from Seattle or Oregon?

• 4:46Chris Guillebeau?

  Portland, Oregon.

• 4:47Lewis Howes?

  But you were in Seattle before?

• 4:48Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, I was in Seattle two days ago, but literally last night, we were talking. This is a good story.

• 4:52Lewis Howes?

  You texted me.

• 4:53Chris Guillebeau?

  Literally last night, we've been trying to coordinate for this, this interview. And like all these different conflicts, and I know you're a busy man doing lots of stuff. And you were like, how about tomorrow? And I was like, tomorrow? Okay, this is like seven o'clock at night.

• 5:06Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 5:07Chris Guillebeau?

  I'm like, okay, and here I am.

• 5:08Lewis Howes?

  It's crazy man. Yeah, and you're off in like an hour to go to San Diego. So we gotta get him to get his train. He's on the side hustle. And that's what his new book is called, Side Hustle From Idea to Income in 27 Days. The New York Times bestselling author, Chris Gilbo. Now, you've been someone who's generated a lot of different streams of income over many years. You started, from my understanding, with your blog. And then you did these travel hacking guides, other guides as well that came with it. You have a membership site, you did books, courses, you have your famous World Domination Summit.

• 5:46Chris Guillebeau?

  Far too much, basically.

• 5:48Lewis Howes?

  A lot of different things happening, yeah. And you've generated a lot of different revenue streams from a lot of different things. Would you consider everything you've done a side hustle?

• 5:58Chris Guillebeau?

  In one way or another.

• 5:59Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 6:00Chris Guillebeau?

  I think, well, to pick up where you started, I feel like at a certain point, I decided, okay, I'm gonna have this career as an author. Like, I actually really like, you know, writing books. I love going out on the road to meet readers and now listeners to my podcast. But before I had the blog, I did 10 years of other random projects. I mean, I sold things on eBay. And then I learned how to do business consulting and freelanced when I was living in West Africa and just all kinds of stuff. So I've been side hustling basically for 20 years. And then writing about it in one way or another for eight years. So, you know, last year, I had this conversation with you, and then I went out on tour. I went to about 30 cities and talked to people about like how to find the work you were meant to do. And as kind of a little side note in that talk, for like one minute, I would say, oh,

• 6:42Chris Guillebeau?

  by the way, you should also have a side hustle, even if you love your job. It's just gonna be good for you no matter what you do next, etc. Little side note. And then I noticed like afterwards, every event, people had so many questions about that. Like, that's what they wanted to know about more than anything else. And so that's what kind of led us to this.

• 6:57Lewis Howes?

  What is the ultimate side hustle?

• 6:58Chris Guillebeau?

  The ultimate side hustle?

• 6:59Lewis Howes?

  What is that?

• 7:01Chris Guillebeau?

  I feel like it's whatever you want. I mean, I feel like the interesting thing about it is people have different goals for their side hustle. And some people are trying to leave their job, you know, and they want to build income, you know, high enough or secure enough to where they can do that. Other people are happy in their job, but they love the idea of having a backup plan. Or they like just saving money to pay off debt or to save for a vacation or something that they believe in. Other people want to do something that's creative, you know? Like I talked to this guy last week who's a managerial accountant. And he's actually found a way to make a thousand dollars a month doing poetry slams.

• 7:35Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 7:35Chris Guillebeau?

  Right? So the accountant slash poet, you know? So it's a different creative outlet.

• 7:39Lewis Howes?

  How's he making money doing poetry slams?

• 7:40Chris Guillebeau?

  He's like hosting these like workshops and all kinds of things. It's in Dubai, actually. He's working with the government of Dubai.

• 7:45Lewis Howes?

  Wow. And he's found a way to have a full-time job and then say, okay, on Saturdays, I'm doing poetry slams all day. And that's my weekend.

• 7:52Chris Guillebeau?

  And that's just one example, you know? The goal isn't to get everybody doing poetry slams, but the goal is to find something that you're good at, right? To use the skills that you already have to create a second source of income or a third source of income or whatever. So the ultimate goal, I think, is your goal, like what do you want it to be?

• 8:07Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 8:07Chris Guillebeau?

  Because ultimately it's about options, it's about freedom, it's about, you know, if I have this, you know, thing coming in that's separate from my paycheck. Like it's great that I have the paycheck, I have that security, but it's so much more empowering to have something else coming in. And I just see over and over when I talk to people, if they haven't done this before, like the first time they do it, it just feels so great.

• 8:24Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 8:25Chris Guillebeau?

  I made three hundred dollars, like they're just so, so excited about it, right? And it kind of leads to more often.

• 8:30Lewis Howes?

  You were talking about before that you said Uber is not a side hustle, it's a part-time job.

• 8:35Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah.

• 8:36Lewis Howes?

  Right? Because I've been telling people like, hey, go Uber for like a day a week and you'll make some extra cash.

• 8:42Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah.

• 8:42Lewis Howes?

  While you're working on your thing.

• 8:43Chris Guillebeau?

  Sure, sure. Well, here's what I think about it. I think of it as kind of like first level, like entry point, entrepreneurship. It's not bad. I'm just kind of picking on them a little bit because they have this whole campaign of like, you know, drive for Uber, start your side hustle. The thing is, like, obviously it's better than doing lots of things, but ultimately it is a part-time job. Because you have the schedule you want, that's good, that's the main benefit. But otherwise, you're living in their entire system, you're living in their ecosystem, they set the rules, they essentially cap your income.

• 9:10Lewis Howes?

  You can't, you can't charge different than anyone else.

• 9:13Chris Guillebeau?

  Exactly. You can't sell products and services, you're not supposed to sell products or services, you know, to your passengers. You're not really building an email list or anything else, no other form of asset. So it's not bad, of course, but I just encourage people, I'm trying to in this book. You know, to, to think a little bit differently and to say, okay, if you want that same thing like you want, you need the extra income. What can you create that has a potential to become an asset for you? Cause I think that's more powerful.

• 9:36Lewis Howes?

  What are some great examples? You have this new podcast that's been blowing up, talking about the side hustle. So you get these stories coming in every single day, right? And when people are submitting stuff.

• 9:45Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah.

• 9:45Lewis Howes?

  What are some of the most inspiring examples of people that? Cause we, you know, I know you hear this a lot, just like I do. We're like, well, I don't know what I could do around surfing or you know, like I just want to go to the beach every day. That's my thing I love to do. So how do I build a side hustle around this? So what are some examples that would dismantle anyone's, you know, opinions that you can't do?

• 10:04Chris Guillebeau?

  Sure.

• 10:05Lewis Howes?

  What you love and make a little cash.

• 10:06Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah. Yeah. It's good. It's good. So every day on the show, I'm telling a different story. If somebody does this in different ways, like you said, and my goal is to like highlight this range of stories to like, you know, kind of blow down the objections. So, uh, one story and we were just talking about like a starter platform like Uber. Are you familiar with Turo? Turo is where you can like rent your car out to, to strangers. Basically it's like the

• 10:25Lewis Howes?

  Maybe I've seen the app or something.

• 10:26Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah. Like the, the crowd sharing thing for your car.

• 10:29Lewis Howes?

  Yep.

• 10:29Chris Guillebeau?

  Um, so anyway, here in, here in LA, this guy, uh, named Tassir was doing that for a little bit. You know, anybody who has a car can start this. And so he noticed like over time, his car is getting rented out like 25 days out of the month, basically. So it's almost like full time. He's making like a thousand dollars a month doing that. But then here's where it gets interesting. He's like, okay, what can I do next? So he, he went out and leased another car and then a third car and he eventually leased a dozen cars.

• 10:53Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 10:53Chris Guillebeau?

  Uh huh. And turned it into this whole business. It's like $4,000 a month.

• 10:57Lewis Howes?

  This is kind of what people did with Airbnb. They would like rent out their apartment, then they'd get a second apartment, then they'd get multiple apartments.

• 11:03Chris Guillebeau?

  Right, right.

• 11:04Lewis Howes?

  And then regulations happen.

• 11:05Chris Guillebeau?

  Right. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

• 11:06Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. People did this early days with Uber as well.

• 11:09Chris Guillebeau?

  Right. Right. It's true.

• 11:09Lewis Howes?

  Remember this?

• 11:10Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 11:10Lewis Howes?

  When it was just black car service. I remember guys being like, I've got a fleet of black cars.

• 11:14Chris Guillebeau?

  Right. And they get the referral bonuses that are like 500 bucks or something each time and stuff, you know? So here's another story. This, this young couple, uh, they go on a cruise and they got a gift certificate from in-laws or something. And they actually went and had a good time, but they came back and the guy was a copywriter for his day job. And before he went on the cruise, he had all these questions that he couldn't find the answers to. It was like, can I watch Netflix on a cruise? Like he Googles it, doesn't get, really get an answer. So he decides to create a blog, like, and the blog consists entirely of answers to questions that people might ask about going on a cruise.

• 11:45Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 11:45Chris Guillebeau?

  You know, he adds Google AdSense to that blog, which anyone can do. It's free, you know, you just kind of put it there in your little WordPress site. And in about three months, it's making $2,000 a month from that.

• 11:55Lewis Howes?

  Three months.

• 11:56Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, three months. And then within a year, it's like up to $4,000 a month. So this is something like, you know, you're kind of curious, right? You encounter a problem. I'm looking for this information, can't find it. Am I the only person who's looking for this information? Probably not, because a lot of people watch Netflix, like 100 million people, right? And a lot of people go on cruises. And then if it's Netflix, it's also like HBO, it's also this. There's probably other questions, you know, because like the cruise lines, they have their website, but that's propaganda. And then you have like the forums, you know, where people talk about cruises, but that's like a sea of information. I don't want to go into that. Like, I don't want to read 10,000 posts, I just want to get my answer. So he figures it out. So that's just one example, but like, you know, every day I'm telling a different story on the, on the show, in the book, like it's a 27 day process on each day I'm showing a different story that's an example for someone.

• 12:40Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. It's a take a certain mentality to be able to apply this side hustle. If you're working at a company, can you, you know, is there a mindset that's like some people can and some people can't? Or can anyone develop a side hustle mentality?

• 12:54Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, great question.

• 12:55Lewis Howes?

  Get a hundred bucks a month extra or something.

• 12:57Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, great, yeah. I even start with $500 a month. I'm like, that's my minimum, you know, I want you to make at least $500 a month, you know, if you read this book or listen to the show. Um, I think not everyone wants it, first of all, so I think if anyone wants, the first, you know, prerequisite is like you actually believe in this and you want this. Because most people that I'm trying to talk to, like on the show, they're really busy. Like they're busy people, they don't have a ton of free time. They might have a family in addition to their job, they might be going to school, they might have two jobs, et cetera. So really limited time, but. I guess they also believe that they want to invest in themselves, right? They want, they want to make some kind of change in their life and that's probably why they're listening to this podcast. And so even though they don't have a lot of time, they're willing to, to take what time they do have and put into it. So I think that's the first thing I think.

• 13:39Lewis Howes?

  If they want it.

• 13:40Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, they have to want it. Yeah, exactly. They have to want it. And then second, I think curiosity is kind of a common characteristic of people who do this. And curiosity is a skill that can be developed, right? Just kind of being willing to observe different things like the guy who went on the cruise or the guy who rented out his car. And, you know, story after story, it's like curious. And then the third thing would be taking action, right? Like, so I'm not just wondering about it, I'm actually going to do something about it. And not being overwhelmed with, you know, I could do 10 different things. So how do I choose, you know, and like.

• 14:09Lewis Howes?

  Someone says that to me, I don't know which one to choose. Or they get caught up in the mechanics or the, you know, the technology, whatever it is, and then they never do anything.

• 14:17Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, well, they haven't been trained, you know, they haven't, they haven't, they don't come from that world, you know? So they're really skilled, the managerial accountant is really skilled in, in his work, you know? The software engineer, she's really skilled in her work, but you have to kind of acquire a mindset. As you said, you don't have to go out and learn like a ton of business skills. I mean, the whole idea is to focus on the skills you already have, but you might need to learn to kind of translate those skills or adapt them in a different way.

• 14:39Lewis Howes?

  What's this Tinder for side hustle concept? What is this?

• 14:42Chris Guillebeau?

  Tinder for side hustles, what is that? I think that relates to, I have this model in the book called a side hustle selector. For people who are in that position of like, I've got too many ideas, I don't know what to choose. And I think I use this example of like the online dating industry, like all these algorithms that they have. And, you know, their goal is, is to, is to find like the perfect match, you know? For you to be a satisfied customer, you find the perfect match for whatever you happen to be looking for, right? And so the whole goal is to match you with your side hustle. And so it's just really kind of intuitive process that anyone can do in 10 minutes. You know, when you have five ideas and you're like, how do I choose? Kind of write them down and rank them according to some different categories. And then your answer is likely going to emerge from there.

• 15:22Lewis Howes?

  So if you have all the, too many ideas of like, I've got all these passions and things I could do. This is a, this is a thing you have in the book that teaches you how to decipher which is probably the most likely to succeed or that's going to make you the most money or what's.

• 15:36Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, well, according to your own criteria and it uses both like left brain and right brain thinking, which I think is really important. So it's, it's analytical, it's logical, like your side hustle has to make sense, right? It has to make economic sense. There have to be people who want what you're offering, you know?

• 15:49Lewis Howes?

  So how do you figure that out?

• 15:51Chris Guillebeau?

  Well, you you start with looking at the skills you have and you think about how those skills overlap, you know, with what people are interested in. You look for something that frustrates you, some kind of problem. Like, people are always asking, like, what's your passion? I encourage people to ask, like, what bothers you? Like, what are you upset about? What frustrates you? You know? That's one thing. And the other thing is, like, okay, if you have an idea, you need to turn that idea into an offer. Like, your idea has to become a product or a service, because people don't buy ideas.

• 16:17Lewis Howes?

  So, give me an example of that. What's that look like?

• 16:19Chris Guillebeau?

  Hmm, let's take a new, let's take a new example. Let's see. I want to talk about candy hearts, but I'm going to save that one. There's a couple, a couple from Canada. Actually, he's from Canada and she's from Nepal originally. They meet in Europe. It's complicated. They go to Nepal for their honeymoon.

• 16:35Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 16:36Chris Guillebeau?

  And they go and see, like, they can buy cashmere there. That's like the source of cashmere. They can buy, you know, really affordably. Back in Canada and the States, it's really expensive. Like, there's a demand for it, you know? And so, they're like, wonder what we could do with this. And they also like the idea of, like, doing something that supports girls' education in Nepal. So, basically, like, short version is, they just, they don't invest a ton of money. They're not, like, trying to jump off a cliff. They invest, like, a thousand dollars, you know, in cashmere. They come back to Nepal, or back to Canada, and sell, sell that for, like, five thousand dollars. They're like, great, right? And then they go, so then they start building from there, right? So, at first, it was an idea is, like, you know, cashmere, okay. Well, the more specific idea is, like, I'm going to import cashmere, scarves, you know, silk or whatever it is. I'm going to resell it, you know, to this market, and so on.

• 17:19Lewis Howes?

  Interesting, yeah.

• 17:20Chris Guillebeau?

  So, I have a lot of stuff like that. I try to, try to find stuff that's, that different people can relate to, right? Because not everybody wants to be a reseller, you know? Not everybody wants to do, like, I have some stories about people doing T-shirts on, on Fulfilled by Amazon. Like, people who design T-shirts and never manufacture them, don't do any of their screen printing. It's all done, like, automated. And this one guy's making a hundred thousand dollars a year doing it.

• 17:43Lewis Howes?

  Just with designs?

• 17:44Chris Guillebeau?

  Just designs, just designs. Never touches a t-shirt.

• 17:46Lewis Howes?

  How's he, how's he getting them out there on Amazon?

• 17:49Chris Guillebeau?

  Uh, Amazon has a program called fulfilled by Amazon or FBA.

• 17:52Lewis Howes?

  You can upload your own design.

• 17:54Chris Guillebeau?

  And you can upload like a hundred designs, right? And you see which ones sell and then if ninety of them don't sell, you just, you do like ninety more. So a whole lot of people doing this. It's a whole industry. So I write about that too.

• 18:03Lewis Howes?

  You're just constantly creating new designs. How do people find the designs? How do they find the shirts?

• 18:07Chris Guillebeau?

  Well, there's, there's two hundred million people on Amazon. That's the thing, right?

• 18:11Lewis Howes?

  They're looking for like- And there's autistic shirt or t-shirt this way or whatever.

• 18:15Chris Guillebeau?

  Well, you think about keywords, right? You think about keywords. You think about something that's in the culture that comes out, some kind of phrase or something.

• 18:20Lewis Howes?

  Nirvana, you know, images.

• 18:22Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, right, right. Like you're not supposed to do copyrighted stuff, but people do different, different things. Anyway, so some people are really attracted to that kind of thing. So people are like, oh, that's cool. Like I'm gonna sit at my desk and like get a spreadsheet and like, you know, just kind of download all that stuff. Other people are like, no, I want to go to Nepal and buy something and bring it back. And, uh, and other people like, I want to be a coach. I want to be a consultant. Other people are like, would never want to do that, right? So the whole goal is to figure out, you know, this blend of like what you're good at, what your skills are, and then, you know, what other people value and how you can turn that into an offer.

• 18:50Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. What's the first, uh, few questions you would ask someone who says, I just want to make, you know, five hundred extra bucks. You know, what's the first thing you should ask them? Is it, what are your skills or what do you like? Or is that the whole question?

• 19:03Chris Guillebeau?

  First I would ask them about their goals. So you just identified a goal because everybody's goal is different.

• 19:06Lewis Howes?

  Five hundred to a thousand bucks a month.

• 19:07Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, five hundred to a thousand bucks a month. I think my second thing would be tell me just a little bit about yourself, you know, and we'll see kind of where that person starts because when you, when you ask it like that, it's so interesting how people like respond, you know? What's the first or second or third thing that they say? And if that doesn't lead to anything like immediate, then then I start talking about skills, you know? What are you good at? What do you like to do? What do people ask you about? That's a good one. Cause sometimes people don't know what skills they have that are valuable or marketable. They think like, oh, I just went to school to be a dentist or whatever. You know, what do people ask you about all the time? Like, what are you the expert or the authority in? Sometimes people know what your skills and your strengths are like before you do.

• 19:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 19:44Chris Guillebeau?

  So I start kind of going down that road and at a certain point, you know, I'm usually talking about products or services. So there's kind of a divide there of like, okay, are we trying to make a product? Are you trying to provide a service? And it's kind of like a little kind of logic tree. You can go down in 10 minutes, you can usually figure it out for people.

• 19:59Lewis Howes?

  Product, service or software, I guess, but no one wants to really build software.

• 20:03Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, well, everybody wants to build an app, but nobody knows how to do it.

• 20:05Lewis Howes?

  How hard it is. What do most people do you feel like do? Is it 50/50 products, service or more people doing services because you don't have to develop a product?

• 20:15Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah.

• 20:15Lewis Howes?

  You can do coaching or consulting.

• 20:16Chris Guillebeau?

  I think services are probably more common.

• 20:18Lewis Howes?

  Teaching lessons or something, right?

• 20:20Chris Guillebeau?

  I mean, services are probably more common, but a product could also be digital. It doesn't necessarily have to be like something physical.

• 20:25Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 20:26Chris Guillebeau?

  Could be a course, it could be something, a course is a product.

• 20:29Lewis Howes?

  What about people who say, you know, I'm already working 70 hours a week. How am I going to make an extra thousand bucks on the side? I already don't have the time and how do I manage my time? Do I do this at work, do I do this in the morning and you know?

• 20:41Chris Guillebeau?

  Of course, of course.

• 20:41Lewis Howes?

  What do you say about that?

• 20:42Chris Guillebeau?

  I never want to tell people like what to do and how to, how to, you know, structure their time. But I guess what I notice is that we all make time for what's important to us. And most people, probably not all of them, but most, most people have some amount of free time. Okay. And so I would just encourage you to not spend all your free time doing your side hustle, but spend some of it, right? Like maybe watch, you know, one TV show fewer or something. Maybe get up 20 minutes earlier. I'm not telling you to get up two hours a day earlier, but I really think like 20 to 30 minutes a day, like over time consistently is a lot better than like, you know, one Saturday a month, trying to bang everything out.

• 21:17Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 21:18Chris Guillebeau?

  So I do believe if you kind of, if you have a process, which I'm trying to provide, you know, the 27 step process, it's meant to be followed over 27 days, right? So day one.

• 21:26Lewis Howes?

  One step a day.

• 21:26Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, day one, you do this. Day one is basically what's your goal, you know? And then, you know, day two, it's two through five, we're helping people figure out how to get an idea. And then helping people select, you know, from those ideas and helping them create everything they need to deliver their product or create their service or whatever. And then it's all about launching. It before you're ready. That's like step number four, week number four.

• 21:47Lewis Howes?

  It's the most important thing in my mind.

• 21:49Chris Guillebeau?

  Launching before you're

• 21:49Lewis Howes?

  Launch. I always try to launch something before I even created it.

• 21:54Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah.

• 21:54Lewis Howes?

  I say, I say, um, this is what's coming out. You're not going to get it for a few weeks. You can get it for, I usually give a discount for people that buy when there's nothing to get. And I say, buy it now.

• 22:06Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah.

• 22:06Lewis Howes?

  You'll get it in a few weeks. And if no one buys, I don't have to create anything.

• 22:09Chris Guillebeau?

  Exactly. No, that's great. I've had some, yeah, I know exactly what you mean. I've had some stories of people doing that and they, somebody had like a car guide, like a premium car guide or something. It was really expensive and, and he was like, you know, purchase it now. But he didn't say like, I don't have it ready yet. It's like, I'm going to see what happens basically. And then three people bought it and he was like, okay, I gotta, gotta make this. So he wrote to them and said something like, you know, you, you bought this guide and I know you're really excited about it. Want to let you know, like, you know, 2.0, the 2.0 version is coming in like three weeks.

• 22:35Lewis Howes?

  So I'll get you that.

• 22:36Chris Guillebeau?

  I'm going to get you a better version. It's going to be deluxe, et cetera. And if you want your money back now, then you can have that. Or you can just wait a little bit. I'm going to get you more, you know, and everybody just wait, wait it out.

• 22:44Lewis Howes?

  I think that's the greatest way to do it. So you don't analyze if it's going to work or not. You just test something and see if people want to, even just try to get one client.

• 22:52Chris Guillebeau?

  Right, right.

• 22:53Lewis Howes?

  Don't try to have your whole website designed and everything. Just say, hey, what's your biggest problem?

• 22:58Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah.

• 22:58Lewis Howes?

  Let me help you solve it.

• 22:59Chris Guillebeau?

  That's good. And here's the other thing, like what you learn to be like inside hustling is different from entrepreneurship and a lot of startup kind of stuff. And this is something where people get kind of hung up as well, I think. And so idea validation is another thing. Like I, how do I validate my idea? A lot of the like, a lot of the episodes that I feature on the show and some of the stories in the book, there's no way to like validate the idea before you do it, basically. There's a woman, Jen Glantz from New Jersey, who was asked to be a bridesmaid by two of her friends on the same day. And one of her other friends said, well, you're almost like a professional bridesmaid. And so then she's like, huh. And she, she wrote a Craigslist ad that same day and put it up. It's, I'm a professional bridesmaid. If you want to hire me. And it kind of went viral. The next day she had 200 inquiries from people who wanted to hire her.

• 23:43Chris Guillebeau?

  And from women who wanted to do that as a career, basically. So she actually decided to like, let me see, let me see how far I can take this, right? And so she actually created this little business around it. Bridesmaid for Hire made $200,000 in year one.

• 23:56Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 23:56Chris Guillebeau?

  $200,000.

• 23:57Lewis Howes?

  Come on.

• 23:58Chris Guillebeau?

  So how do you validate that idea before you do it? You don't validate, you just do it. You just see what happens.

• 24:02Lewis Howes?

  Put it out and you say Craigslist, hey.

• 24:04Chris Guillebeau?

  Exactly.

• 24:05Lewis Howes?

  You've never done it before. Wow, that's crazy.

• 24:07Chris Guillebeau?

  You know.

• 24:07Lewis Howes?

  Was she doing most of the, she made the most of the money from herself actually showing up at the weddings? Or was it from teaching the other bridesmaids?

• 24:14Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, good question. I think her main service was, was actually not the showing up or the teaching other people. It was, I don't know, it was kind of like virtual concierge. It was like, let me do some of that bridesmaid stuff, but from a distance. She does actually, yeah, wedding planning, basically. Yeah. But it sounds, it sounds better to be like bridesmaid for hire, you know? But essentially was.

• 24:32Lewis Howes?

  She was coordinating all the friends and doing all the planning.

• 24:35Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, yeah, exactly.

• 24:36Lewis Howes?

  So she didn't actually have to show up still?

• 24:38Chris Guillebeau?

  No, you had to pay more if you wanted that, right?

• 24:40Lewis Howes?

  Brilliant.

• 24:40Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah.

• 24:41Lewis Howes?

  So she didn't have to deal with all the drama?

• 24:42Chris Guillebeau?

  Of course, yeah. Well, I think that was part of the service she was offering. Like, if you want me to deal with some dramatic situation, I can do that because that has value to people.

• 24:48Lewis Howes?

  I wonder if she showed up to any of these weddings and was actually like holding like the flowers for the person?

• 24:53Chris Guillebeau?

  I know she went to some, yeah, I don't know.

• 24:54Lewis Howes?

  Huh, interesting. That's kind of cool. Good for her.

• 24:57Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah.

• 24:58Lewis Howes?

  Talk to me about, I want to shift a little bit and talk to me about community because you've built this amazing event, World Domination Summit since 2011. The numbers I have here, 10,000 people from more than 40 countries came. Is that right? Is there more people now?

• 25:11Chris Guillebeau?

  I think 10,000 people come to Summit of Greatness every year, right?

• 25:14Lewis Howes?

  I wish, yeah, I wish.

• 25:16Chris Guillebeau?

  You've really crushed it with that.

• 25:17Lewis Howes?

  Well, a thousand this time, but.

• 25:18Chris Guillebeau?

  That's fantastic.

• 25:19Lewis Howes?

  Uh, so you've had 10,000 people roughly from, uh, you know, all over the world. How important is building a community in order to develop a more powerful side hustle?

• 25:28Chris Guillebeau?

  Okay, um, great question. I almost see them as, there's a little bit of separation there. I think you don't have to build a community to, to make a thousand dollars a month, or even some of these are projects that actually blow up and, you know, do a hundred thousand dollars or more. You don't necessarily have to make a community to do that. So it's all about, again, what are your goals? Like, what's important to you? To me, community's been very important, increasingly so. And I wrote this book and started the show in response to my community because they kept saying like, I want this essentially, like, I need a process to do it. So community is very important to me, but I don't necessarily think that everyone has to be community focused for their side hustle.

• 26:02Lewis Howes?

  So side hustle is essentially your side hustle? Based on what other people, right? Based on what people said, I need a process for a side hustle.

• 26:10Chris Guillebeau?

  Right.

• 26:11Lewis Howes?

  So you said, okay, I'm going to create a new side hustle.

• 26:13Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, that's good, that's good. I need to steal that answer because people are always saying like, what's your side hustle, Chris? I'm like, I got 10 projects. I don't, I don't, you know, 10 different things.

• 26:20Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 26:21Chris Guillebeau?

  You know?

• 26:23Lewis Howes?

  And something you do is you're going on a hundred city tour for this book.

• 26:26Chris Guillebeau?

  Are you coming?

• 26:27Lewis Howes?

  I'm gonna be there in LA.

• 26:28Chris Guillebeau?

  Great.

• 26:28Lewis Howes?

  September 20th, 7 o'clock downtown, General Assembly.

• 26:31Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, something like that.

• 26:32Lewis Howes?

  Something like that. Why do you go through so much? The only people that I know that do something close to this is minimalist.

• 26:40Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, they do a great job. They do a great job.

• 26:42Lewis Howes?

  Great job. But why a hundred cities? And is that within a year or is that over extended time?

• 26:47Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, it's gonna be less than a year. Probably about three months for the first half and a couple of months for the second half. So we're gonna, we're gonna front load it, of course.

• 26:54Lewis Howes?

  Just seems exhausting.

• 26:56Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, it's exhausting and awesome.

• 26:57Lewis Howes?

  I'm sure.

• 26:58Chris Guillebeau?

  It's like a lot of things in life, right?

• 26:59Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, of course.

• 27:00Chris Guillebeau?

  A lot of things in life are exhausting and meaningful.

• 27:02Lewis Howes?

  What's the most powerful thing that comes? Cause you've done these big tours for a long time. This is the biggest one, right?

• 27:07Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, this will be the biggest.

• 27:08Lewis Howes?

  What's the most powerful thing that comes from doing a tour? Even if only 10 people show up at each event, if you're just starting out, obviously you're gonna be blowing up more than that, but.

• 27:17Chris Guillebeau?

  Some of my first events, I had 10 people showing up. I mean, my first book, I, I went to all 50 states and there's not a lot of readers, at least in mine, in West Virginia or North Dakota. You know, for example, but the thing is, your most powerful thing, I think most powerful thing is a connection because I still, I still know some of those people from North Dakota, from like eight years ago. They're still following me and I think it, it meant something in different places to go there, you know? Not saying I changed everybody's life or whatever, but just like I'm, I'm making these connections that kind of follow. And I do think they're closer connections than the ones we make online.

• 27:47Lewis Howes?

  Wow. What, what else comes from these experiences of the event?

• 27:51Chris Guillebeau?

  Stories also, stories, you know, I would say like $100 startup. I wrote that book based off of that first tour that I did because first book was art of non-conformity and went to all 50 states. All along the way, I kept meeting these like accidental entrepreneurs, like people that were starting little businesses based off of something they love. And I was like, man, nobody is writing about these people. Everybody is writing about this Silicon Valley model. That's fine for some people, but like, nobody is writing about these people in middle America who. You know, just, just kind of create something for themselves. That's my market. That's my, that's my people, you know? And so that, that whole book and that project and that changed my life. Uh, so that's, there's, there's just so much that comes out of it. World Domination Summit came out of that.

• 28:31Lewis Howes?

  From touring?

• 28:31Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah. That's how I got people to come to the first event. I mean, it was on that first big tour and like personally invited everybody.

• 28:37Lewis Howes?

  You got, you built an email list from every stop and then you just?

• 28:41Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah. Well, I had to email this, but it was, it was a personal invitation also, right? It was like, here I am in, in Lawrence, Kansas. We're doing this thing next summer called World Domination Summit. What is it? I'm not sure, but come next summer and find out. You know, we need you, basically.

• 28:54Lewis Howes?

  Wow. And you just sell tickets at all these different stops?

• 28:56Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, we didn't sell ticket. We didn't sell ticket. It was more like just kind of, you know, getting interest and uh, so I always think about that when people, like you, you've done very well with your event, but I always think when people come to me, like, how did you, how did you get a thousand people to come or whatever? They think it's easy. Like they think there's some magic trick. Like here's this blog post I wrote. You know, I'm like, I went to all 50 states. I personally invited them. Go and do that and, and you know.

• 29:16Lewis Howes?

  I've done the digital version of what you did. For the last year, I've DM'd people one by one.

• 29:22Chris Guillebeau?

  That's great.

• 29:22Lewis Howes?

  Have you got a ticket to the Summer of the Greatest Hits?

• 29:24Chris Guillebeau?

  That's great.

• 29:24Lewis Howes?

  And continue the conversation and send video messages and photos, whatever.

• 29:28Chris Guillebeau?

  So it's the same, similar principle.

• 29:30Lewis Howes?

  One by one is what sells tickets for me.

• 29:32Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah.

• 29:33Lewis Howes?

  I mean, and then.

• 29:33Chris Guillebeau?

  For events in particular, which are challenging.

• 29:36Lewis Howes?

  Why is it so hard to get people to show up?

• 29:37Chris Guillebeau?

  It's a huge commitment. It's a huge commitment.

• 29:39Lewis Howes?

  It's all the money for people, time, energy.

• 29:41Chris Guillebeau?

  It's the travel and that, like it has to align with their schedule and all kinds of stuff. There's a lot of variables that, that kind of block out a lot of people.

• 29:48Lewis Howes?

  For anyone who's thinking of doing an event, whether it be a small event, massive, whatever, weekend event, what does an event need to have to have magic? Whether it's like 10 people in a room or 10,000 people? What are the elements of curating and captivating magic?

• 30:08Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah. For us, we've always seen it as 50/50 of like what we do and what the community brings. Obviously this is like a rough estimate, you know? But, um, so the 50% that we bring, I think it's important to have a mission and a message. And to have like, here's what this is about. We're not telling everybody like what each expression is going to be and like, how you should think or whatever, but like, we're trying to put something forward here. We're trying to put forward an agenda. So I think that that helps. And then like, as I said, the community, it's it's at least 50%.

• 30:32Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 30:33Chris Guillebeau?

  Getting the right people. Don't you think like getting the right people together? I feel like there's a lot of magic to that.

• 30:37Lewis Howes?

  And you think you attract the right people by having the mission out there in front and kind of like the experience of the website?

• 30:43Chris Guillebeau?

  It's circular, right? Yeah, that, yes. And then maybe next year you attract people because of those people and you know, vice versa, hopefully.

• 30:49Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 30:49Chris Guillebeau?

  That's the goal.

• 30:50Lewis Howes?

  What do you think about every time you do it? You know, you do a big event every year. What do you think about for the next year? Is it, can we, how do we make it bigger and better? Or is it, how do we make it different? Or how do we create something unique? That's never been done. What is your process?

• 31:04Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, I think it's, I think it's a combination of those things. It's not so much about bigger. I mean, in the first few years, we were definitely kind of focused on that. Uh, but now it is, it is about better, like what, what worked? What went well? What do we want to do again? What do we want to change? And I want to make sure that we're always changing, like we have to change. Like I never want to create like an insiders club where it's the same thing like all the time. So always.

• 31:24Lewis Howes?

  What do you mean by that insiders club versus?

• 31:26Chris Guillebeau?

  Well, insiders club, I guess what I mean is, uh, and this has to do with like increasing the size, which we did from year one to year two, and you guys have done. Um, I think you guys have basically doubled or something from first year. Yeah. Right? So, and when we did that, we had some resistance, you know, from some people in the community. Oh, it's too big. Oh, it's, you know, etc. The thing is, if it's the same people coming all the time, then you're not going to grow. You wanted the right combination of people who have like the institutional history.

• 31:50Lewis Howes?

  Who've always been there.

• 31:51Chris Guillebeau?

  That's good.

• 31:51Lewis Howes?

  And the new people.

• 31:52Chris Guillebeau?

  And the new people, right? You want to reach, you're going to reach new people. You want to, it's not just about you reaching people. You need those people to like bring new life to your event, to your community, I think.

• 31:59Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely. Who've never experienced it, who are like, oh, I've seen this for the first time. And then others who are like, oh, let me show you the ropes.

• 32:05Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, exactly. So I, I guess we think about creating something unique. Uh, I try to have a theme each year. This year, our theme was building a better world. Um, kind of in response to a lot of stuff that's been happening in the US and elsewhere. Um, how can we like take active steps individually and as a community? To address issues of intolerance, discrimination, etc. Uh, but how can we obviously still have a lot of fun with our event and, you know, have a positive, you know, affirmative adventurous message? So that was kind of our focus this year.

• 32:33Lewis Howes?

  What was the biggest thing to open up or you open up for you or that you took away from that, kind of focusing on that message?

• 32:40Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, yeah. Good question. The biggest thing I took away. I think for me, I was really happy that it worked. Like people responded well to it.

• 32:48Lewis Howes?

  But it wasn't all about like entrepreneurial, making money or something like that.

• 32:51Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, but it also was, but it also was, was good. Like it wasn't dry or boring or, you know, we didn't want to make people, we want to make people uncomfortable in a good way. Not in a bad way, you know? Don't want people to ever feel judged or burdened in some way. So I think we talked about like creating empathy, creating empathy and surviving empathy. Right? You want people to be empathetic and have an understanding for the issues of the role. But then like, what do we do with it? Rather than just going away feeling burdened some. So I think we, we tried to focus on that. I think we did a decent job.

• 33:19Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 33:20Chris Guillebeau?

  Want to keep improving.

• 33:20Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, it's great, man. What is something you think about a lot throughout your day to day life? Just something that's on your mind, something that either frustrates you or just you're constantly mindful about.

• 33:32Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah.

• 33:34Chris Guillebeau?

  I tend to worry a lot.

• 33:35Lewis Howes?

  About what?

• 33:36Chris Guillebeau?

  I tend to worry about, I don't know, just my stuff, like what I'm making, what I'm doing. Like, am I improving? You know, am I just doing the same things over and over? Think about that. Um, I try to have a gratitude practice and we talked about that a little bit in our last conversation. And try to like write down several things each day that are amazing. And I feel like in my life and maybe most people's lives, like every day, there's, there's some amazing things. And I tend to miss them. Like I tend to not take satisfaction in them. And so I'm trying to like do that a little bit.

• 34:04Lewis Howes?

  What do you think you're missing?

• 34:07Chris Guillebeau?

  Appreciation for it or just, just the amazing, just the awareness of it. Like there's that sunset, oh, great, you know, didn't see it. Well, oh, well, you know, it's my sunset, you know? It's not just the sunset. It's also the emails. I got an email from somebody and they said like this cool thing, like, but am I just kind of skimming over it? And sometimes I just, I have to kind of skim over some things, but like I try to want to let some reality kind of seep in. Because I feel like, like you and me in particular, like we have like the greatest jobs in the world. We get to do this amazing thing, right? I never want to get too used to it. Maybe that's part of it. Like I worry I'm getting used to it. And so I keep trying to change stuff so that I'm, I'm not doing the same thing all the time.

• 34:41Lewis Howes?

  And when you went on your journey, was it 10 years you traveled the world?

• 34:46Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, 11 years.

• 34:46Lewis Howes?

  11 years to see every country or almost, what's the correct?

• 34:50Chris Guillebeau?

  Every country.

• 34:53Lewis Howes?

  Some providence or something, whatever. Yeah, but every country you've been to. Do you feel like you were able to be present in that journey? Or was it more like just to the next place, next place?

• 35:02Chris Guillebeau?

  Sure, sure. Well, I mean, it was 11 years, so I feel like I don't think I could say like I was present every moment. I don't think I could say it was negative every moment. There was just a lot of highs and lows and ups and downs with that. But I would say overall, I was focused on the, on the journey and, and all that.

• 35:18Lewis Howes?

  What would you say is the biggest lesson you've learned this year so far as the year's starting to come to?

• 35:22Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah.

• 35:22Lewis Howes?

  The final quarter. What's opened up for you that you've, that it is new that you didn't know about yourself or something?

• 35:29Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah. How long have you had this podcast? How many years?

• 35:32Lewis Howes?

  Almost five, four and a half, four and three fourths.

• 35:35Chris Guillebeau?

  Going on five years. Yeah. Biggest thing for me was, uh, last year I was like, okay, I need to catch up to, you know, 2005 when podcasts, you know, were a thing. And to you, you know, five years later, I need to have a podcast, basically. And so I started Side Hustle School on January 1. And I was like, since I'm late to the party, I need to be a little different somehow.

• 35:52Lewis Howes?

  Do it every day.

• 35:52Chris Guillebeau?

  Something like, I'm gonna do it every day. There's gonna be no guests. You know, every day, no guests, and it's gonna be less than 10 minutes long. Every day I'm telling a story of somebody who starts a side hustle without quitting their job. And so there's been a lot of learning associated with that. This whole industry is new to me. This whole medium is new to me. Like, so I've looked up to you and other folks, Jonathan Fields and others who've been doing this a while.

• 36:13Lewis Howes?

  Wow. And so what, you're 250 episodes in now?

• 36:16Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, however many days we are in the year. Yeah, it's basically 250 right now, I think.

• 36:19Lewis Howes?

  Crazy, man. You've already done half of what I've done in four and a half. You're gonna get there.

• 36:25Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, next year, my catch up.

• 36:26Lewis Howes?

  You will, man. And what's, uh, what's opened up for you from doing the podcast? What's been? You know, the biggest thing about that, that's

• 36:36Chris Guillebeau?

  I was surprised. I was legitimately surprised at the engagement and the response.

• 36:40Lewis Howes?

  Amazing, right?

• 36:41Chris Guillebeau?

  It is amazing. Gretchen Rubin told me this last summer. She was like, you know, when I started my podcast, you know, I didn't know if it would really bring me a new audience. People said that, but like, I already have a big audience. She started the podcast, it brought her a whole new audience. And that was the same, same for me as well. I mean, I did, um, started doing these Side Hustle School workshops, like the first month or second month, I think in February. And I overheard people talking. One of them, it was really interesting. And they were like, how'd you hear about Chris? And one of the people there was like, I've been reading Chris's blog for seven years. You know, I flew in from Puerto Rico or whatever. And then somebody else is like, Chris has a blog? I didn't know that, you know, like I just heard about it from those, from the podcast, you know, and I'm here. So just, I've really been legitimately surprised and happy and pleased that it's, it's brought like a whole new level of engagement with folks.

• 37:24Lewis Howes?

  That's cool, man. That's very cool. What else do we need to know about the Side Hustle? Anything besides getting the book? You're doing these workshops as well?

• 37:31Chris Guillebeau?

  Uh, yeah, the workshops are a little bit on pause right now, since I have the 100 cities.

• 37:34Lewis Howes?

  That's kind of like a mini workshop.

• 37:36Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, small, it is, it is. Yeah. I want people to come to the events. I mean, the book, you know, the tour, it's sidehustleschool.com/tour.

• 37:42Lewis Howes?

  Sidehustleschool.com/tour?

• 37:45Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, that's for the tour, but it's just sidehustleschool.com for the podcast.

• 37:48Lewis Howes?

  And you're pretty much doing like a little mini workshop at these, you're doing Q and A.

• 37:52Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, of course, of course. Yeah. Come and hang out. We can have a conversation. I'm going to talk a little bit about this process. Um, you know, the 27 day, five week stuff, or of course you can, you can get it online or at your bookstore.

• 38:02Lewis Howes?

  And do you create challenges for people too? Is it to make $500, a thousand dollars in a, $500 in the first 30 days?

• 38:08Chris Guillebeau?

  Well, $500 a month is just like my minimum criteria, like to be featured on the show or to like to, when I say like, what's a side hustle? Cause people have a hard time like defining that. And so I'm like, Side Hustle is income generating. It's not a hobby. It's not just something that you do, you know, for fun. It actually is bringing you money. And let's say it's at least $500 a month. So, and hopefully it's going to be more.

• 38:28Lewis Howes?

  Who's making the most side hustles, side hustles where they still have a job and they're making?

• 38:33Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, good question.

• 38:35Lewis Howes?

  Where they didn't say, okay, I'm making enough to just do this.

• 38:37Chris Guillebeau?

  Right, right. So this was, this week I actually had an episode of a guy who's a Target store manager, who has a personal finance blog that's doing forty-five thousand dollars a month.

• 38:48Lewis Howes?

  What?

• 38:48Chris Guillebeau?

  Like half a million dollars a year.

• 38:49Lewis Howes?

  He still works at Target?

• 38:50Chris Guillebeau?

  That was my question. That was the first thing I asked him. I'm like, so why are you still at Target? And apparently he's gonna quit soon.

• 38:55Lewis Howes?

  Oh, okay.

• 38:55Chris Guillebeau?

  But he's been building this blog for five years. So it's great because you hear like, you know, half a million dollars a year. Oh, my God. But he's been building it. Like, he, he has been building this, like, he actually started as a Target associate. So this is kind of like a concurrent path. He starts as a Target associate while he's in college and like, then he becomes like assistant manager and like eventually he's a store manager. Simultaneously, he starts this blog about personal finance. First year, not much happens. You know, second year, he gets to be a better writer. Third year, he's learning more about his community. You know, year four, he's learning a lot more about monetization. Now, year five, it's, you know, half a million dollars a year and he's gonna quit that job at Target. So that's a lot.

• 39:27Lewis Howes?

  He's writing about personal finance?

• 39:30Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, I don't even know specifically what he's, that's a, you know, that's an industry in which kind of lends itself toward various products and services in which you can make money.

• 39:37Lewis Howes?

  Affiliate marketing.

• 39:38Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, exactly. I think he's focused on college students now that I think about. He's focused on helping college students, you know, manage their money better.

• 39:44Lewis Howes?

  Love it, man. Okay, last couple of questions for you. Uh, make sure you guys go get Side Hustle. Check it out, sidehustleschool.com for the, the podcast, the book, resources, all, the book tour, everything else.

• 40:00Lewis Howes?

  I can't remember what you said last time on three truths, so I'm gonna ask it again. Maybe it's different.

• 40:04Chris Guillebeau?

  I haven't actually even prepared, so good.

• 40:05Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, so, um, if it was the last day and everything you've created is gone.

• 40:10Chris Guillebeau?

  Okay.

• 40:11Lewis Howes?

  So no one has access to any of your podcasts or books, all the hard work for nothing, right?

• 40:15Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah.

• 40:16Lewis Howes?

  But you have a piece of paper and a pen to write down three truths.

• 40:19Chris Guillebeau?

  Oh.

• 40:19Lewis Howes?

  That the world would...

• 40:20Chris Guillebeau?

  Well, this is like the presidential letter, you know, passing it on to the administration.

• 40:24Lewis Howes?

  Exactly.

• 40:24Chris Guillebeau?

  Three, three truths.

• 40:25Lewis Howes?

  Three lessons that you've learned.

• 40:26Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah.

• 40:26Lewis Howes?

  Life, three truths. That, that's all people have to be remembering you of.

• 40:32Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, okay. Number one, don't worry too much about the things you're not good at. Because you could spend a lot of time trying to get to like mediocre level, or you could worry about what you're actually good at, you know, and change the role during that.

• 40:47Chris Guillebeau?

  Number two, at some point in your life, like if you've had like a rebellious personality or upbringing like I did perhaps, it's not going to apply to everyone, but if you've had that, people are going to try to soften it. And you might even like feel like you should soften it at a certain point, but don't do that. You know, because that's going to, that's, that's there for a reason. Not to say you're supposed to be out like breaking the law or being rude to people, but that, that personality is there for a reason. And that rebellion can serve you well. So that's number one. Number two. Man, number three.

• 41:18Chris Guillebeau?

  Don't give up, you know, hang in there.

• 41:21Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah. I want to acknowledge you, Chris, for constantly giving. You give to your community, you create great resources for people that help them with a big pain and challenge they have. The books you offer, the podcasts, you make challenging concepts easy for people to be able to implement in their life. So I acknowledge you for all the value you bring to the world, man. You're making a massive impact.

• 41:47Lewis Howes?

  Final question, which I've asked you before is what's your definition of greatness?

• 41:52Chris Guillebeau?

  Don't even remember what I said on our last one.

• 41:54Lewis Howes?

  It always changes sometimes.

• 41:54Chris Guillebeau?

  Yeah, that's good. I think I probably said something about like, you know, tomorrow is better than today. Right? You know, I know it's so bad.

• 42:03Lewis Howes?

  What is it now? Is it the same thing?

• 42:05Chris Guillebeau?

  I don't know. I guess, I mean, so maybe that sounds kind of weird, but I guess the principle is still kind of there that like the, the best is yet to come. I do say that a fair often, like the best is yet to come. Like no matter what I've done, no matter what I've, I've achieved or, you know, succeeded in, hopefully like my greatest challenges are actually ahead. And I think greatness relates to challenge. I think greatness relates to striving. And that's why we talked about like, isn't the tour exhausting? Well, of course it's exhausting. Wouldn't have it any other way.

• 42:30Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Chris, thanks, man.

• 42:32Chris Guillebeau?

  Lewis, thank you.

• 42:36Lewis Howes?

  All my side hustlers in the house. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Love connecting with Chris. I'm so glad he was willing to share so much. Make sure to pick up a copy of his new book, Side Hustle. He spoke at the Summit of Greatness and he blew the audience away and sold a ton of copies at the event. So again, make sure to share out this link, lewishouse.com/539 with your friends. Tag me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and tag Chris as well. All of his information is back at the show notes, as I'm sure he would appreciate hearing your feedback on what you learned the most about this interview. All right, my family, I hope you enjoyed this one. We've had some massive podcast episodes

• 43:20Lewis Howes?

  over the last few weeks. We had Brendan Burchard, we had Brene Brown, we've got Chris Guillebeau, we've got some incredible people coming up, Gretchen Rubin, and some new people I want to introduce to you too, and some new people I want to introduce you to. So thank you so much for being a part of this movement. We are continually bringing in the most powerful and inspirational people in the world for you to learn from, for us to grow from, and for us to implement their wisdom so we can live a better life. I love you guys very much. And as Maya Angelou said, "You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have." Thank you so much for being a part of this movement of greatness. And you know what time

• 44:02Lewis Howes?

  it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.