Is Your Free Time Your Next Payday?: The Power of the Side Hustle

Side Hustles: Passion vs. Pragmatism – Which Approach Wins?

In this episode, we brought in three dynamic entrepreneurs to talk about all things side hustle—from starting small to turning your hustle into a full-time business. With their diverse experiences and unique perspectives, this conversation is packed with inspiration, strategy, and practical advice for anyone looking to level up their financial game.

🎙️ What You’ll Learn:

How to identify opportunities in the market and create a business that meets real needs.
The power of pursuing a passion and turning it into a sustainable income stream.
The mindset shifts and strategies needed to take your side hustle full-time.

Diverse Perspectives, One Common Goal

This episode features a cider house owner navigating the challenges of startup life, a leadership consultant balancing multiple roles, and a pro wrestling show owner/DJ creating excitement wherever he goes. Their different approaches to success will inspire and challenge the way you think about your own side hustle.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Scott: Dollars and Cents with Hapo Community Credit Union helps empower our listeners to achieve financial success while living for today and planning for tomorrow. This podcast focuses on financial education, community support, fraud prevention, real life stories of financial transformation, and much more.

[00:00:19] Scott: Hapo Community Credit Union serves Washington and Oregon with over 18 locations. Bank on more when you bank with us. Hi, everybody. And welcome back to another episode of dollars and cents. I'm Scott, as you might know, in the studio today, we've got a couple of, gentlemen, that have a, situation where they've got multiple different careers or jobs that they're working, across me, Sean Foley is the owner of tri city cider house.

[00:00:44] Scott: Aaron Grossarth is the owner of Reactivate Professional Wrestling, and Matt Kincaid is a professor full time work in a, is it a leadership company? 

[00:00:52] Matt: Yeah, a leadership development company. 

[00:00:54] Scott: Excellent. Let's go ahead and go in reverse order. Tell me a little bit about, your main, job, as well as the secondary jobs or side hustles that you guys do.

[00:01:03] Matt: Yeah primary job, I'm a partner in a leadership development company, so we run leadership development programs. And provide executive coaching to various industries, although our primary target market is healthcare. So we have, anywhere from two to five contracts going with big healthcare organizations.

[00:01:19] Matt: So hospitals or whatever. We have one in North Carolina right now, one in New Mexico, and one in Dallas, Texas. That's the main thing. But there's just three of us, so we're a real small boutique little company. And we have some 1099 people that we bring on as needed. That's the main work.

[00:01:33] Matt: But then I also teach. I've been a professor for 15 years and I was full time up till this last year. Now I just do part time work for both CBC and Heritage University. And then I also have a real estate license. So I do real estate with Century 21.

[00:01:47] Scott: All right. So you've got your finger in a couple of different avenues there. I'm going to ask real quick, what do you teach? 

[00:01:52] Matt: Business and leadership. 

[00:01:53] Scott: it works right in with that main career path that you've got, 

[00:01:56] Scott: Getting kids out there, at least helping out with their abilities when they get out in the workforce.

[00:02:01] Matt: Yeah. The consulting is really teaching to a different audience. I just don't have to grade papers.

[00:02:08] Scott: All right, Aaron. Talk to us. You are the first person with, professional wrestling as a background that we've had on the podcast. So talk to us a bit about, your career and some of the other stuff that you do. 

[00:02:19] Aaron: So I run a reactivated professional wrestling. We perform shows currently every five weeks at, jokers here in Richland.

[00:02:28] Aaron: It is, again, fully entertainment. We have a good time. my other, side hustle is, Aaron Wilde Music. I am a DJ, MC, singer for hire. I do a lot of that stuff, weddings in particular. That's my forte for that. I do, some karaoke hosting, which is actually how a lot of us know each other.

[00:02:52] Aaron: I spend most of my time on a microphone. It's what I do. 

[00:02:56] Scott: So this is pretty comfortable for you at the moment. 

[00:02:58] Aaron: Yeah. 

[00:02:58] Scott: Alright, and Sean, as the owner of a small business here in the Tri Cities Cider House, tell us about that and what else you do to keep yourself busy.

[00:03:10] Sean: Yeah, so I took over Tri Cities Cider House. It was owned by a gentleman named Nate. He had it for about three and a half years. He opened right before covid was starting to shut everything down. So he had a really rough first three years. So he decided to get out of it and there was still some time left on the lease and everything.

[00:03:26] Sean: So I had a little bit of experience when it came to working in a wine bar and stuff from previous side gigs and side jobs. I decided, got out of grocery, worked in there for 22 years and wanted to start my own small business. I've co owned a few different small businesses before, but this is my first solo adventure.

[00:03:43] Sean: So I took it over at the beginning of the year and, it's very interesting, learning everything from, all the backend finances, IT side, customer service. dealing with the city and the government when it comes to business licenses and everything. But, that's my primary.

[00:03:59] Sean: So my goal for that one is to just continue to build it up and almost create like a co op cider feel. I've worked in grocery most of my life and it's cool when you see a co op and like the small business community minded, versions of that. And I want people to have a say when they come in, have some input.

[00:04:17] Sean: And try to provide what I feel like I've always wanted in a business and then my side hustle gigs. So I have a few right now. So I do water, softener, salt delivery. I get orders. go to Costco, purchase the bags and then drop them off, communicate with customers a little bit through text.

[00:04:34] Sean: And then they're able to tip me if they want, but then I get a small pay from that. But as you get a little bit of heads up, at least 24 hours notice, so I can usually work that around what my primary gig is. I also do DoorDash. And, as long as you have at least a hundred orders and hit some certain criteria, as far as your rating and everything, you can DoorDash on demand.

[00:04:53] Sean: So it's really good for. Before I opened the cider house after I opened the cider house. So right now I don't take a paycheck from the cider house. I wanted to build 

and 

[00:05:02] Sean: create more. So right now I supplement that. And then I also have two rental properties as well. Creates almost like a partial income.

[00:05:10] Sean: 

[00:05:10] Scott: So you've hit a couple of the topics that I was going to cover today, as far as some of those extra jobs, Aaron, you mentioned one and then, Matt, you've got one or two that you talked about that I think are going to fit a different category that we'll talk about here later, which is a bit more, skill based, or knowledge based as far as not everybody can get into those things.

[00:05:29] Scott: You got to pass a real estate exam to be a real estate agent. We've had a couple on, the podcast previously, and I believe you work with one of them. Vicki. Yeah. Fantastic guests. We loved having her on, one of the stats that I looked up before we came out here the number of random blog posts, top 10 side hustles of 2024 or whatnot that I used to pull up a list of different items.

[00:05:50] Scott: The interesting one that I got right out of the gate is 39 percent of people, two out of five people. Have a side hustle or a second job in the United States right now. I think that data might be from 2022. So perhaps that's shifted a little bit. But we are definitely above average in here, where we've got five of us in the room, Jeff hiding behind the cameras over there, and at least three have some extra stuff that you guys are doing regularly.

[00:06:19] Scott: Interesting on that one. not everybody with, a side hustle is two jobs. You've got, the opportunity for the stay at home mom to earn a little income on the side while the kids are off at school or something along those lines. I did a quick look to pull up some of these. We'll talk about some of these Opportunities, for people, cooking and baking, apparently up there right near the top of, side hustles.

[00:06:43] Scott: People who like doing some work in the kitchen and, turn that into a business where they're doing bakery cookies or something along those lines. Any of you ever consider going into the baking business or food truck? 

[00:06:55] Aaron: Food truck. Yes, that's been a thought. At first hand, a few friends that are, they use the commercial kitchens.

[00:07:04] Aaron: They take orders for it, be it cupcakes or birthday cakes or cookie batches or whatever it may be. The baking in particular is a big one. That is one that a lot of people have jumped in on. And honestly, if you're good at it, it's a very good opportunity. 

[00:07:19] Scott: Yeah, I think it gives you one of those things where the time and effort that you're putting into that, given known orders ahead of time, you mentioned ahead of time, Sean.

[00:07:29] Scott: Getting some sort of notice is probably going to help you out with planning these a lot. I feel like that's the type of thing where you can spend a couple hours in the evening, producing a product that you can then deliver and it's not going to be, a full time gig eventually.

[00:07:42] Scott: There's a number of dessert shops or bakeries around that are full time. But if that's something that you like to do to supplement some income, I think that's a fantastic method of bringing those up. Some other ones that I found that were, less barriers to entry, probably some sort of background check like it's employment.

[00:07:59] Scott: We all want that pet sitting or dog walking. I know I've used some of these services before where we had somebody come and take care of our dogs while we were off on vacation. We found a couple of people that we used multiple times for those where it's, Hey, here's a quick weekend worth of effort.

[00:08:16] Scott: You're working a Monday through Friday, you're just going to go hang out at somebody's place on a Friday evening, Saturday, to take care of their animals or something. Dog walking seems like it would be a pretty simple one and get some decent exercise in. 

Oh yeah. 

[00:08:29] Aaron: I just had this conversation with my boys.

[00:08:31] Aaron: As a matter of fact, they were looking for a way to make some money. I mentioned to him, I said the old school, when we came up, the paper routes out the window, but I'd mentioned to both of them. We live in a complex that is relatively closed off and you have access to a ton of people who have dogs and walking their dogs daily.

[00:08:54] Aaron: The compound has, bags set up throughout the area. it's as simple as talking to the complex and find out if you can put, flier up there. Yeah, down in the lobby. People have you walk their dogs. It was like, I got it as a perfect thing, especially for young kids or, somebody who wants to take an hour, two hours a day and make a couple of bucks.

[00:09:14] Scott: Now, obviously young kids, aren't going to be able to do one of the ones that Sean talked about door dash, grocery delivery. Maybe we're not going to tell people to go the water softener salt delivery business. We'll leave that one for you. What other, quick access type ones, or slightly not as accessible to, younger kids, can you guys think of off the top of your head?

[00:09:35] Scott: I've got a short list over here for Dasher's Uber. 

[00:09:39] Matt: I have a buddy, he lives in Spokane. His kid is I think a junior in high school and he's pretty entrepreneurial and he started a window washing business. Oh, there you go. He is killing it. I mean he's busy all the time and he basically has a ladder and a few tools and he does it himself and he charges quite a bit.

[00:09:56] Matt: I think his minimum amount is 150 bucks on a house. And I don't know how long it takes, but he's making far more than most 16 year old kids are per hour anyway. 

[00:10:06] Scott: And that's a solid plan. It's a minimal level of gear that you've got to get into the job. And I've had a couple of people in a business like that come by my house.

[00:10:16] Scott: They're like, Hey, we're going to be up in your neighborhood this, this next Tuesday, and we're just trying to get people on board here. Here's a 10 percent discount. If you want us to get your windows too. 

[00:10:28] Matt: But I think for the younger people too, like when I was in college, I did a college pro painters franchise. So you paint residential houses and there's some training and there's some things you have to do to get that going. But, I did find that people wanted to help out the younger people.

[00:10:41] Matt: If you see a kid High school, college kids showing up to your door, knocking on the door, looking to drum up work. There's something in us that wants to help them. Now with them painting your house, it's not always, they don't always want you to do that. We weren't without mistakes the year. We did that.

[00:10:56] Matt: But I think the same is happening with my friend's son's window washing businesses. Here's a young kid looking to hustle and I think we like that. I would have hired him to wash my windows. 

[00:11:05] Scott: Yeah, honestly, if I had a kid come to my front door and be like, Hey, 20 bucks to mow your lawn, I'd probably be like, let me grab my wallet.

[00:11:11] Sean: Definitely. It's cheaper than the service I pay for now because I don't like mowing my yard. But again, like the window washing, that's something that like, Hey, if you're here and you're going to do it, I might take advantage of that. I think that the younger, generation too, like putting forth that effort.

[00:11:25] Sean: I think, the stigma is we feel like a lot of people are losing that effort that we used to see. We talked about past generations, like what they had to go through and all the time and hours walking up both ways. But I think, we really recognize the effort over, the value of the dollar of what we're spending.

[00:11:45] Sean: So when we see people put forth that effort, then we really like to, champion that and reward that as well and give that opportunity. So even if you don't have as much experience as a professional landscaping company, if they see you and they're like, Yeah, I want to see what he's gonna do.

[00:12:01] Sean: I appreciate the effort and everything and you give him a chance. And a lot of times that's what people need is just that chance. And then take those opportunities to learn. That's where you get your experience. And then you start being able to get your own clientele and stuff like that. So I think starting young and putting in that effort, I think just understanding the fact you're starting, we see that effort.

[00:12:19] Scott: Yeah. So this is an interesting bit because there were a couple of things I wanted to chat about as far as. why people would go into starting up a side hustle, obviously making extra money. Nobody's going to argue about that level of motivation. We could all use a little extra coin, but also, what you were alluding to turning that into a career almost, or in the case of somebody baking, having a secondary hobby or something that they're good at that they might be able to eventually flip.

[00:12:50] Scott: What they're doing as a full time job and something they like doing that they're doing as a hobby on the side that might be paying for itself, into, hey, this secondary thing is now making way more than I would at my regular job. So maybe I finally have the ability to move away from, that original career onto a thing that I have built myself.

[00:13:12] Sean: I think that, when you start your own side gig, if you're working for somebody else, you know that somebody else feels the repercussions a lot more of all of the effort you put in. But when you do your side gig, you feel 100 percent of those repercussions. So you get that self gratification.

[00:13:27] Sean: You get to understand I'm receiving the full benefits of my effort, and I don't feel like that effort is either not wasted or not appreciated as much as I feel like it should. And then I think going in and trying to find a job, they say, if do a job that you love, you never work a day in your life.

[00:13:44] Sean: I think dipping your toe in and starting one of those side gigs where, you feel good when you do it. It's almost therapeutic. It doesn't even feel like work. It doesn't feel like overtime. But then you start leaning more into it, leaning more into it. And then finding one that complements what you're currently doing, with your full time job.

[00:14:00] Scott: Anyone who has a full time job that, they absolutely love their employee or their boss and their co workers and everything, that's great But I hear a lot of people who say and there's certain people there's certain situations certain days Not every job is 100 percent sunshine and rainbows But yeah finding that hobby or that other thing that you want to do that Maybe you never thought could become a career and over time, as you're doing it on the side, it becomes more and more, random question.

[00:14:30] Scott: Do you think your friend's son has a motivation to build this into a full time career in business? Or is this a, I want to make some money so I can buy myself a car, pay for some college, do something else? 

[00:14:42] Matt: Yeah. I don't know. It's a good question but it connects to that thought I was just having where I think sometimes if you're willing to.

[00:14:50] Matt: Go out there and try something. So I would say in his case, he's learning a lot. I've owned several small businesses and granted I have college degrees or whatever, but I learned more the first couple small businesses I owned about business than the two business degrees I have every time. But I think you go out there and then what, what happened to me, and I think what happens to a lot of people is you get out there, you see how things work, and then you realize oh, I can do stuff.

[00:15:10] Matt: I'm capable of this. This isn't, it's a lot of work and there's some complexities, but this is that I looked at before that was totally intimidating and I wouldn't even try it. And so for example, for me, when I only have a real estate license cause my wife and I were going to sell the first house we bought.

[00:15:24] Matt: And I had a realtor come over and she's here's how much we'll sell it for and here's how much you'll pay us. I didn't really like that second part. And so I was like, Oh, I'll just get a real estate license. And my wife rolled her eyes. And so I had a break between semesters.

[00:15:36] Matt: I was teaching at CBC at the time and I had a month. So I just did the whole thing in a month, just put my head down, got the real estate license and that I never intended to keep it. I just thought I'm going to get this to sell this house and save however many thousands of dollars. And then pretty soon my grandparents needed to sell a house and then my sister was moving back to town and I thought I guess I'll just keep this thing going, 

[00:15:55] Matt: but I only got into it because I wasn't intimidated by the idea. And I think a lot of that comes from putting yourself out there and getting experience where you realize. Okay, these are just people out in the world doing these things that before I thought, Oh, I got to hire this person or I need help with this.

[00:16:11] Matt: If you just try some stuff, you'd be surprised how much you can figure out. And then you feel more capable and you get some confidence and then you're willing to do other things. I think it's a good lesson for people because I even have college students all the time. . they think they need help with everything.

[00:16:23] Matt: And I'm like, just go do it. 

[00:16:24] Scott: Try it. If you need help, Come to me 

[00:16:26] Matt: after you try. 'cause right now, you haven't even tried, you don't even know what 

[00:16:30] Scott: questions you want to ask at that point in time. 

[00:16:32] Matt: Yeah. So I think there's a lot of power in just being bold and saying, I'm just gonna go figure this out.

[00:16:36] Matt: And you may do it wrong, but now you're better prepared for that next thing that's gonna come along. 

[00:16:40] Aaron: I think a tailing off of that too, I think that's a big deal, is. Doing something that you're passionate about, doing something that you're talented at doing, and hard work is absolutely a talent.

[00:16:52] Aaron: And going out and doing it, and learning from those life experiences. That's the big thing for me that tailed to a lot of the MC stuff and the DJ stuff and the things like that. I went out and did it. I said, you know what, I've got this. Talent, this ability to talk, this ability to be in front of people.

[00:17:11] Aaron: And I know there's a niche for it somewhere. And I went and found it. And my first, I'd say three, four weddings were all trial and error. And it wasn't just the talent or the way that I would do things. It was the way that business needed to be done. Because when you step into those arenas with no knowledge of anything and you're just, it's all coming at you at once.

[00:17:36] Aaron: You're going to make mistakes and those mistakes are going to be either something you did or something that you maybe had you done something differently. The situation wouldn't have collapsed the way it did. My entire contract now is based on mistakes that I've made in the past.

[00:17:51] Aaron: Yup. And I urge people like if you're artistic or, you are a singer or songwriter or whatever it may be to look at the, realm that's out there and see what people are charging, what people are doing. Never do something that you love. for free. You shouldn't have to because if you're good at it and you've got that passion behind it, somebody's going to pay for it.

[00:18:19] Aaron: Go find out what people are charging. And like you said, go out and do it, learn from it. So the next time you do it, not to do this thing you did before and fix it. 

[00:18:32] Sean: And I think that, when you do start going down that path, if you just listen, to the customers and you listen to the feedback and you don't take it as a negative and you take it as, Hey, I need, you were going to sit in class and you were going to ask for help anyways.

[00:18:47] Sean: If the customers are willing to give you actual, concrete data of what it is a one, you will get more knowledge in what it takes to run that business than sitting in class from somebody who hasn't been in every situation because maybe they haven't been in the situation you're in right now.

[00:19:02] Sean: And then ultimately, if you listen to the business, usually a business, when you start making micro changes, it will start telling you whether or not it's a good idea. And so let's say you have two different ideas and you try this and try this, and this one's catching traction, the other one's really not catching traction.

[00:19:20] Sean: Lean, don't neglect the one that's not catching traction. Just. put less resources into it and lean more into the ones. And then the business itself should tell you how to grow the business naturally. And I think that, contributes to sustainability as well, And then you have less, dams that you come up to when you're sitting there swimming that river of, small business ownership 

[00:19:40] Sean: And you get to enjoy it more and you get toe experience it with the customers experience the growth and you'll hear that feedback. And then you'll get to have more self confidence in what you do and you'll get more confidence to be able to grow the business or work it more. 

[00:19:53] Scott: And early on you were talking about taking over this business.

[00:19:57] Scott: You're like, there are a lot of things that I learned in this process dealing with the city, the county, I'm assuming licensing because the cider house I'm sure was probably your first foray into getting a liquor license or anything along those lines. And so again not scared of coming up to those things, learning as you went.

[00:20:14] Scott: 

[00:20:14] Matt: I would add to particularly if anyone who's listening is looking for a side hustle and you're like, I need to make more money and I'm not, I don't want to undermine the notion of passion.

[00:20:25] Matt: But I would say if the idea is about, I need to hustle, I need to create more income. I need another revenue stream. I would probably throw passion out the door. Personally, I'm really pragmatic and I would say, I would look out into the world and say like, where is there an opportunity? Like where are their pain points?

[00:20:41] Matt: Where are people frustrated? Where is the line for that business too long that I could maybe do better? So I'm always looking for like, where's the opportunity to meet for me? Passion's a little bit fleeting. Like I think it can be great, but just because you're good at something doesn't mean the world wants it and we'll pay for it.

[00:20:57] Matt: 

[00:20:57] Scott: is a fantastic shift between another style of side hustle. If we were talking about a hobby paying for itself or a passion type of a project, that's one. So yeah, if I'm a dungeon master playing dungeons and dragons, and I want to do this hobby more often, but I want it to pay for itself, I could go find a service online.

[00:21:18] Scott: and see if people are willing to pay me to run games for them. Okay, cool. Now my hobby is paying for itself. If I'm a musician, maybe I get a band together. I can go get paid for gigs and now my hobby is paying for itself. But this other route that you're talking about is absolutely like another route that you can go, which is where is the opportunity?

[00:21:37] Scott: I don't care what the opportunity is, as long as it's there and it can make money for me, because now we're looking at the income stream, maybe I don't care anything about wickless candles, but, I've noticed that there's an MLM that sells something along those lines and I can get in on it and people are making money doing it, and therefore I don't care about this product, but I know other people are buying it.

[00:21:59] Scott: 

[00:21:59] Matt: a lot of really passionate people who love something who are broke. I'm not trying to be, brash or anything. But sometimes what you're passionate about, you may not even be the best person in town to do it, right? If you are awesome, but I just think it's worth sitting back and saying, okay, I love to make sandwiches, but I'm like the 18th best sandwich in the city.

[00:22:19] Matt: You may not get paid for that. So find something where someone's just people that are frustrated where there's needs. my buddy's son with the window washing, I actually asked him, they live in Spokane. I'm like, Hey, next time you guys can visit I'll pay him to wash our windows. Cause we have some pretty high windows that aren't easy to wash, I just don't want to do it. Yeah, there's a need there, right? So I think it really depends on the goal. I think yours is totally different cause you're really good at this DJ thing. And you're good with the microphone and good at speaking and there's a need for it. But if there was no need for that and you kept pushing this idea, you would just be frustrated and run out of money.

[00:22:47] Scott: Yeah, I think that like the comment about the passion coming through, I think helps with a business thriving and coming up and off the ground. But. Honestly, having a customer base matter is just as much, more. One of the ones I wanted to touch on again was the professional wrestling aspects.

[00:23:05] Scott: I think this is fascinating because this isn't just a job for you. It's a job for all the people that you're bringing on to do this, right? How accessible is it to, for me to just randomly throw on an outfit, come up with a personality and jump in the ring and start throwing, haymakers at people.

[00:23:24] Scott: Or clotheslines what do we got going on 

[00:23:25] Aaron: with what I do? It's not, with, professional wrestling at the level that we run our shows and that we're running everything. There's a lot of training involved. And there's a constant degree of being in there and going and putting time and effort into it.

[00:23:42] Aaron: I have told many, a person who wants to become a professional wrestler. Not only will you not make any money right away, but You are going to spend way more than you're going to make probably in the first five years. not only do you have to get beyond all of the hurdles, because it's not, it's probably 85 percent physical.

[00:24:05] Aaron: You have to take care of the person that you're in there with, you have to take care of everybody else, you have to be safe. But there's also a part where you're telling a story because it's basically live theater. We are putting on a performance that you're not only sitting there, like when you're at a play, you're sitting there watching a stage.

[00:24:23] Aaron: When you're in that room with us, anywhere in that room, in front of you or behind you, can be action packed. You have to constantly be watching you spend so much time training to make sure that you are safe. The person you're in the ring with is safe.

[00:24:40] Sean: The fans are safe. Everybody is, okay. So it's not one where you can just jump in and go, that's sad. Yes. We can work with you on that, huh? 

[00:24:48] Aaron: these, the people that have stuck with it and gotten good at it, when we talk about our shows in particular, when you're talking about Funny Bone or Drexel or guys that have been doing it for a long time that have amazing characters, do amazing work, are great with the fans, those guys are making money all over the world.

[00:25:07] Aaron: I'm just one little stop in what they do. 

[00:25:11] Scott: As a quote unquote side hustler, as a job, as a wrestler, you're not focused on one show. You're traveling all over the place finding show after show, so it's gig work to a point. 

[00:25:23] Aaron: you, and that's the whole thing is trying to establish your name through not only your work, but Your professionalism and again, reach out, being able to reach out to the fans and whatnot and have them have a want for you to be back because if the fans want you there, I'm going to pay you to be there.

[00:25:42] Aaron: And that's where again, guys like funny bone Drexel or a princess death wish, or any of them that do a lot of travel, that's where they've made their niche. Now I will tell you, they all have other jobs. all of them do, because wrestling, it's expensive. Sometimes the money's front loaded. It comes later, things to that effect.

[00:26:04] Aaron: But, if you're doing it right. And again, these guys have that want to do it. They love that, you can find the money. You just have to make yourself worth it. And I think that's going to fall into really any side work, anything like that. Like I talked about is, hard work is a talent as well.

[00:26:21] Aaron: If you're good at it and you want to do it and you can prove to people that you're good at it, you're going to find more business more. It's going to come through like the young man's window washing. If there's a good word to it, even if it's just spreading through a single neighborhood, Oh, he cleaned my windows and now the neighbor wants their windows cleaned and then the next neighbor wants their, I'm in the neighborhood, 10 percent discount.

[00:26:44] Aaron: The dog poop cleaning up company started. from a side hustle. Every single one of them was a young person cleaning up poop in someone's yard. And now, believe it or not, they're hiring people to come help them because they are so overwhelmed with work. Yep. they're backed up. I know the one big one low, they're backed up weeks.

[00:27:06] Aaron: It takes weeks to get them to come out. 

[00:27:08] Sean: I was going to say you have newer developments that go in all the time. And those are. Theoretically brand new customers, people have never been a homeowner before never needed that service. They move into the area So maybe they don't already have somebody Now there's HOAs and stuff usually newer developments nowadays But if you can contact, any Realtors anything like that and be like, hey, are there developments?

[00:27:29] Sean: Can I put an ad in or anything like that? You know, you do that whole neighborhood and then that ends up actually being more beneficial to you because you can take care of multiple people in the same area, which saves you time. You get multiple customers. Now, all of a sudden you go expand that neighborhood, you get the entire neighborhood.

[00:27:47] Sean: The development right next door. What if they start, getting houses built and stuff, you could have a foot in on the ground level of that neighborhood too. So there's little things you can do as far as, just trying to get in first and then taking advantage of either an oversaturated market or something that has a need, a hole to fill.

[00:28:05] Scott: Get in first or be better. Find the opportunities or find something that you're about that you really want to try and make a thing. At this point, I think we're gonna go around the table, maybe get some last thoughts from everybody, as far as, how careers have worked out, how these things can be, maybe some advice for people who are looking to get into something, and then we'll close up.

[00:28:26] Scott: Matt, you wanna give a quick start for us here, as far as, some final advice or thoughts? 

[00:28:30] Matt: Yeah, one thing that's circling in my mind is most of what we've talked about has been pretty entrepreneurial. And I think there are also, DoorDash, not as much, but right.

[00:28:40] Matt: You're on your own. You're probably 1099, right? But there are other things too. There are other second jobs or side hustles you can get where you're working for other people. So I just started as a, I've coached a lot of basketball. I've also run a lot of basketball camps for the last decade.

[00:28:55] Matt: And I played college basketball and. I took the head coaching job of a girls program at a high school here in the Tri Cities and immediately I have to hire four coaches, right? And so all four people that I hired have full time day jobs, but one is a girl who worked for me for 10 years at these basketball camps I would run and she's our freshman coach.

[00:29:15] Matt: It's a decent amount of money. It's a three month gig and she's a nurse full time. We practice in the evenings and we're working with her and her schedule and we're working with her team. And there's three other coaches that are also part of my staff. they came to mind in terms of if you need a side hustle, if you're not entrepreneurial and you're like, I don't know where to start, I don't know how to get a business license.

[00:29:31] Matt: I get feels like too much. There are still things you can do if you're willing to look for them and willing to do the work. I think the biggest barrier to that extra income or that side hustle is like you said earlier, hard work or lack of effort. And I think we see that a lot. I think, I know people that.

[00:29:48] Matt: I'm amazed what they are unwilling to do, especially when their backs against the wall. Like I'm a person, if my back was against the wall, I'll do anything. I'll be the dog poop guy. I'll do whatever it takes, right? Because that's just how I'm wired. And so I think a lot of it is just swallowing your pride a little bit and forgetting about that and forgetting about the perception people might have of you.

[00:30:09] Matt: I think we spend so much time worrying about what people think about us that it hinders our ability to actually be productive. 

[00:30:16] Scott: is the kind of advice where it's don't get analysis paralysis about what you could be out there doing.

[00:30:23] Scott: If you need to get out and do something like find something and start 

[00:30:27] Matt: don't be a victim. Like for me, I have a couple of pet peeves and one is like a victim mentality. One is helplessness. Just go do stuff. If you're in need of work or money or whatever, go at least try.

[00:30:40] Matt: I don't like to hear people complain, oh it's too hard, I can't do it when there's 50 jobs I could point you to right now. If you're willing to do them. And that's the big barrier I think for most people is the willingness to do it and the willingness to get creative with their schedules and ask for help with their kids picking up from school, whatever you need.

[00:30:56] Matt: If you're willing to be bold and be humble and swallow your pride a little bit, you can make extra money. 

[00:31:02] Scott: Yeah. If you don't ask, the answer will never be yes. Correct. And the worst case scenario, maybe somebody else can't help you out. And the answer is no. Aaron, what about you? What do you got? 

[00:31:10] Aaron: I think what Matt had said earlier, again, we talked about that.

[00:31:12] Aaron: I think being afraid to do it, just go do it. If you have a job that you're going to, we always joke about this the self employed realm is, if you've got a real nine to five, whatever that may be, there are things that you can do around it.

[00:31:30] Aaron: Even small things. Some of the, what's interesting to me is, I have five kids, so I'm very much in the same boat. If my back's against the wall, I'm going to go figure it out. my boys in particular. Always make me laugh about these things because they're really big into the video game streamers or the YouTubers and things like that.

[00:31:49] Aaron: there is actually a really good market for that kind of stuff for people that want to do that stuff. But everybody looks at it and goes, Oh, that's the easy life. No it's not. No, it's not. That takes so much work and so much thought into what you're doing. Because I run the social media for reactivate as well.

[00:32:07] Aaron: Scheduling posts, making sure everything is going up when it's supposed to go up. Consistency. is the key. It's all work. And so you work your nine to five, you've got to find that 6 to 8 or 7 to 9. here's your 9 to 5. What's your 5 to 9?

[00:32:26] Aaron: Yep. Exactly. You've got to find that time and to do these things and not be afraid that. Oh when am I going to play a video game or when am I going to have time for this? You've got to be able to schedule ahead of time and figure it out. Another thing looking at the market for what it is that you want to do and see what's being charged.

[00:32:46] Aaron: I work in weddings and one of the biggest things I tell people is that you'd be amazed what you can do for weddings that you may already be doing. Any bartender with a mask license can bartend at a wedding and make five times what they would in a week. Any photographer who's worth their salt at all, they can take an action shot, portrait, things like that should really look at, what do these professional photographers charge and where do I sit?

[00:33:14] Aaron: Yep. I can tell you now that as far as DJing a wedding goes, I am not the best in the area because there's companies like Platinum that they've got amazing lighting, they've got huge crews, they've got massive stuff. You are going to pay. an arm and a leg for those, but they're worth it. I think that what I do is worth it.

[00:33:33] Aaron: I know because based on time, my focus is mostly outdoor weddings because you don't need as much lighting for an outdoor wedding five o'clock in the summer. I'm not lighting anything up. I might put a dance floor light up and hopefully shade it a little bit. I look at where they're at on theirs, where I need to be for mine, and I cater to a particular audience in weddings.

[00:33:59] Aaron: And this is all research that I've done over the last, oh my goodness, how long have I been doing it? Longer than some of the people listening to this have probably been alive. 

[00:34:06] Scott: Yeah. 

[00:34:07] Aaron: So looking out at 

[00:34:08] Scott: out of the market itself, finding the niche, finding how to price yourself. I know that a lot of people have a hard time figuring out how to price their work.

[00:34:16] Scott: What is it worth? What are people willing to spend? So doing a little bit of research, if you're going to go out and start your own thing as far as how you fit in and what to charge. 

[00:34:24] Aaron: I will always stress to people. Find what you, where you sit in that realm and do not undercut it. Be in that line.

[00:34:33] Aaron: Because if you're gonna come out and charge X amount less than the next guy, you probably better be at least as good, if not better, because I'm gonna look at that price and look at his price and wonder why I should even be talking to you. If you're charging less, you should be right in line with wherever you think your talent tier is.

[00:34:55] Aaron: Or your hard work tier is, whatever they're going on. I've had, window washers that I hired for businesses that I was at. Same thing. Young kids coming in there and when they gave me their price, I said, no, I'll pay you this because that's what I was paying him. Show me that you're better.

[00:35:11] Aaron: 

[00:35:11] Scott: you? 

[00:35:12] Sean: What was the original question? 

[00:35:13] Scott: we're looking, final advice, other thoughts, just to wrap this up on as far as side hustles, what people could be doing, things that they should keep in mind if they're looking to find a side hustle or start something. 

[00:35:23] Sean: So especially for me, it was, not necessarily finding something to replace what I was doing.

[00:35:29] Sean: It was finding something to work around it in order to figure out what it is I wanted to do. Something like DoorDash would be super simple. , I'd later create my own hours flexibility myself. But the thing is, if you take on a side gig and you treat it like a side gig, it will always be a side gig.

[00:35:46] Sean: If you take it and you treat it like a job, it could become a job. So I think taking that and putting that professionalism and that, personal pride into whatever you do, whether it's side gig and like I said, it. Before that effort gets noticed, whether it's a delivery driver, just a little bit more communication.

[00:36:02] Sean: And they're like, Hey, I've never been communicated with this, thank you for letting me know when you were going to show up. Just something that we think is simple, but it's just the effort. It does get recognized. 

[00:36:13] Scott: So effectively, if you want this to be a thing, focus on it, even if it is a side gig, even if it is an hour or two a day or whatever, if you focus on it like it's a job, you might be able to turn it into one if that's what you want.

[00:36:26] Scott: If all you're looking for is a little bit of side cash and you want it to just be a side hustle, you can probably make it be that as well. Gentlemen, thank you so much for coming in, sharing your insights with us on this, an interesting topic as far as side hustles, secondary careers, those type of things.

[00:36:41] Scott: For everybody out there, if you've got the extra time and the motivation, you can probably go out, make a little extra coin, put in your pocket. Thank you guys once again, and this has been dollars and cents, Hapo Community Credit Union's financial literacy podcast.