I Make $6k/Month From Multiple Side Hustles, Here's How
Summary
TLDRJamie Northrup, founder of Minimalist Hustler, shares his journey of making money online without customers. He discusses his experiences with various side hustles, including publishing over 500 books on Amazon KDP, and how he transitioned to building a brand centered around a newsletter that now has over 8,000 subscribers. Jamie emphasizes the importance of consistency, enjoyment, and realistic expectations in side hustles, and he offers insights into his revenue streams, including KDP, newsletters, and community engagement.
Takeaways
- π‘ Jamie Northrup emphasizes making money online without customers.
- π He has published over 500 books on Amazon KDP, focusing on low and no content books.
- π The main revenue source is KDP, followed by newsletters and community engagement.
- π Consistency and enjoyment are key factors in successful side hustles.
- π₯ The target audience includes busy parents and retirees looking to earn extra income.
- π° The community membership is priced at $8/month or $80/year.
- π¬ Jamie's newsletter has over 8,000 subscribers and offers valuable insights.
- π He encourages finding a niche that resonates with personal interests.
- π― Jamie's approach to content creation is based on what he enjoys and what his audience needs.
Timeline
- 00:00:00 - 00:05:00
Jared Balman introduces Jamie Northrup, the founder of minimalist hustler.com, who shares his journey of making money online since the mid-90s, starting with selling hockey cards and evolving into various online ventures.
- 00:05:00 - 00:10:00
Jamie discusses his goal of making money without customers, leading to the creation of Minimalist Hustler, which has grown to include newsletters, a blog, and multiple products, with a focus on personal enjoyment and scalability.
- 00:10:00 - 00:15:00
He reveals his impressive growth in profit from 2012 to 2013, and his current aim to reach six figures in revenue, highlighting the importance of steady growth and the transition to full-time work after being laid off.
- 00:15:00 - 00:20:00
Jamie shares insights into his KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) success, emphasizing the strategy of publishing no-content and low-content books, and the importance of keyword research for visibility on Amazon.
- 00:20:00 - 00:25:00
He explains the structure of his newsletter, which has over 8,000 subscribers, and how it has evolved to include daily emails, sponsorships, and community engagement, while maintaining a minimalist approach.
- 00:25:00 - 00:30:00
Jamie discusses the differences between ConvertKit and Substack, noting that Substack offers better growth potential and community engagement, while ConvertKit provides more automation and customization options.
- 00:30:00 - 00:35:00
He emphasizes the importance of consistency, enjoyment, and realistic expectations for those starting side hustles, encouraging them to find a balance between immediate income needs and long-term growth.
- 00:35:00 - 00:40:00
Jamie highlights the diverse audience of his newsletter, including busy parents and retirees, and expresses a desire to reach students as a potential target market for his content.
- 00:40:00 - 00:45:00
He shares his plans for the future, including a commitment to publishing 12 books in 12 months and the potential transition to Substack for his newsletter, focusing on building a community and providing value to his audience.
- 00:45:00 - 00:51:48
Finally, Jamie invites listeners to connect with him through minimalist hustler.com, where they can sign up for his newsletter and engage directly with him.
Mind Map
Video Q&A
What is Minimalist Hustler?
Minimalist Hustler is a brand created by Jamie Northrup focused on making money online without dealing with customers, primarily through newsletters and KDP books.
How many books has Jamie published on KDP?
Jamie has published over 500 books on KDP, primarily low and no content books.
What is the main source of revenue for Minimalist Hustler?
The main source of revenue is Amazon KDP, followed closely by the newsletter and community.
What advice does Jamie give for starting a side hustle?
Jamie advises to set realistic expectations, maintain consistency, and focus on enjoyment in your side hustle.
How can I subscribe to Jamie's newsletter?
You can subscribe to Jamie's newsletter by visiting minimalist hustler.com.
What platforms does Jamie use for his newsletter?
Jamie uses ConvertKit for his main newsletter and is considering moving to Substack.
What types of products does Jamie offer?
Jamie offers KDP books, printables, templates, and community access.
Who is the target audience for Minimalist Hustler?
The target audience includes busy parents, retirees, and anyone looking to earn money online without a lot of time.
What is the price of the community membership?
The community membership is currently $8 a month or $80 a year.
What is Jamie's approach to content creation?
Jamie focuses on creating content that he enjoys and believes will resonate with his audience.
View more video summaries
- 00:00:00you're almost like a human test case for
- 00:00:01all of us wondering which side hust HS
- 00:00:03to go into and test you kind of test
- 00:00:05them all for us and tell us how they're
- 00:00:06going and we that was like my only goal
- 00:00:08make money with no customers which kind
- 00:00:10of sounds odd but I found a few
- 00:00:12different ways to do it maybe fill us in
- 00:00:15on where Minimus Hustler is right now
- 00:00:17went small and now we're back to getting
- 00:00:20pretty big again but it's different now
- 00:00:21it's on my terms from 2012 to 2013 about
- 00:00:25ome th000 in profit next year I'll
- 00:00:28definitely get through to the six
- 00:00:29figures in terms of where your Revenue
- 00:00:31comes from like what are the big
- 00:00:33dominant sources I mean I have over 500
- 00:00:35books on KDP that are not related at all
- 00:00:37to Min publishing 500 books seems
- 00:00:40unapproachable but you say it like it's
- 00:00:41almost just something that you did
- 00:00:42really quickly it's 520 something books
- 00:00:45460 have never sold a single copy wow
- 00:00:48that's fascinating where are you finding
- 00:00:51the biggest growth when it comes to your
- 00:00:53newsletter size medium was my number one
- 00:00:55source of new subscribers on the regular
- 00:00:57it was you know 100 to 200 new
- 00:01:00subscribers every month you have
- 00:01:03something from you something from
- 00:01:04someone else something from a sponsor
- 00:01:05like how did you land on that you want
- 00:01:08that sponsorship to be part of your
- 00:01:10newsletter and if you choose your
- 00:01:11sponsors properly and they're well
- 00:01:12aligned people even like the sponsors
- 00:01:14more than the actual content what you
- 00:01:16like what's working what's scalable
- 00:01:18these sorts of things I'm not going to
- 00:01:20tell somebody that I don't like my job
- 00:01:21go quit your job you you need money
- 00:01:24there's no there's no way around it you
- 00:01:25need an income you need to pay the bills
- 00:01:27nobody's telling you to stop that but at
- 00:01:29the same time again take that minimum
- 00:01:30amount of time that you could give each
- 00:01:31week and
- 00:01:33build all right welcome back to the
- 00:01:35niche Pursuits podcast my name is Jared
- 00:01:38Balman and today we are joined by Jamie
- 00:01:40Northrup and he is with minimalist
- 00:01:42hustler.com Jamie welcome aboard thank
- 00:01:44you so much Jared thanks for having me
- 00:01:46I'm excited to be here I'm glad to have
- 00:01:47you this is going to be a fun one
- 00:01:48because so much of our audience me at
- 00:01:51the top of that list is fascinated
- 00:01:54enthralled and super engaged in side
- 00:01:56hustles not that everything you're doing
- 00:01:58is side Hustle fol but I do feel like
- 00:02:01having gotten to know you and what
- 00:02:02you're doing there's so much of that
- 00:02:04theme that runs through what you're
- 00:02:05doing you have a great story that lends
- 00:02:07itself on top of that so um I just think
- 00:02:10people are going to love what we're
- 00:02:11going to be talking about today um catch
- 00:02:14us up on who you are maybe bring this up
- 00:02:16to speed um to maybe the beginnings of
- 00:02:19when you started your site and brand
- 00:02:22yeah sure I mean it all starts I've been
- 00:02:25making money online since the mid 90s I
- 00:02:27started when I was about 13 years old uh
- 00:02:30my dad was heavy into computer so it was
- 00:02:32uh you know I got into it by default
- 00:02:34basically through him and it all started
- 00:02:37with hockey cards uh I used to collect
- 00:02:39hockey cards and then I started selling
- 00:02:41them and buying them online flipping
- 00:02:42them locally I mean back then there
- 00:02:44wasn't much people so it kind of kind of
- 00:02:46worked and uh from there I really
- 00:02:48started building websites specifically
- 00:02:50for the cards um then about five years
- 00:02:54after that I started branching out
- 00:02:55making websites uh for other reasons uh
- 00:02:59some were in N sites some were for
- 00:03:02customers locally uh it was really wide
- 00:03:05ranging in terms of websites I think get
- 00:03:07the peak of it there was about 38
- 00:03:09different websites I was running about
- 00:03:1112 for me and about two dozen for
- 00:03:13customers yeah it was uh that was mid
- 00:03:162000 more or less it was uh just you
- 00:03:19know the WordPress 2.0 WordPress 3.0
- 00:03:22phase uh I was really heavy into
- 00:03:24WordPress back then and was a big fan I
- 00:03:27used to go to word camps and the
- 00:03:29conferences and all that and uh
- 00:03:31basically build a whole web Consulting
- 00:03:33agency around that um and I thought that
- 00:03:35was going to be my future that was going
- 00:03:36to be my pathway from my 9 to5 um but at
- 00:03:40certain point I believe in 2017 18
- 00:03:43things started getting a little bit
- 00:03:45shaky in terms of I didn't really enjoy
- 00:03:48dealing with the customer aspect of it
- 00:03:52so you know building websites for myself
- 00:03:54that I enjoyed was great but building
- 00:03:56websites based on somebody else's Vision
- 00:03:58somebody else's like it really appeal to
- 00:04:01me as much anymore especially dealing
- 00:04:03with the feedback and you know the
- 00:04:05complaints and I was managing people's
- 00:04:07whole you know online business including
- 00:04:10emails so when there was you know errors
- 00:04:12or problems with emails even though they
- 00:04:13were unrelated to anything that had to
- 00:04:16do with me I was their first call every
- 00:04:17time and you know that could be at
- 00:04:19random hours so I just kind of started
- 00:04:22thinking you know I need to find
- 00:04:24something more enjoyable something that
- 00:04:26fits who I am and that's when I started
- 00:04:30looking at options and I I tried I would
- 00:04:33say over two dozen different side
- 00:04:34hustles some online some offline you
- 00:04:37know I I did the you know the ones you
- 00:04:39think of first like uh Uber eids task
- 00:04:41rabbit I I tried all those um and you
- 00:04:44know to a certain level they were fun I
- 00:04:45love driving so it was fun but it just
- 00:04:48wasn't scalable right so it was kind of
- 00:04:50trying to balance something I could
- 00:04:52scale while enjoying it as well so my
- 00:04:57resolution for 2020 was actually two
- 00:04:59figure out how could I make money
- 00:05:02without customers that was like my only
- 00:05:04goal make money with no customers which
- 00:05:06kind of sounds odd but I found a few
- 00:05:09different ways to do it and that kind of
- 00:05:12led me to you know to minimalist Hustler
- 00:05:16the brand which was I at first just for
- 00:05:19that and then it kind of like developed
- 00:05:21over the past four and a half years into
- 00:05:24what it is today which is five different
- 00:05:26newsletters a community um you know a
- 00:05:29Blog
- 00:05:30and and many books as well and other
- 00:05:32products so it's kind of like it it
- 00:05:35started out bake then it went small and
- 00:05:38now we're back to getting pretty big
- 00:05:40again but it's it's different now it's
- 00:05:42on my terms so it's it's really
- 00:05:44something that you know I enjoy now
- 00:05:46maybe fill us in on where minimal
- 00:05:49Hustler is right now yeah and then we
- 00:05:51can get into the different things that
- 00:05:53make it up you talked about books and
- 00:05:54newsletter and blogging and products and
- 00:05:56community and there's a lot that goes
- 00:05:58into it uh but we're where are you at
- 00:06:00right now any stats or figures or
- 00:06:01numbers you're comfortable sharing yeah
- 00:06:03uh sure uh I mean I so my growth from
- 00:06:072012 to 2013 was basically the biggest
- 00:06:10jump I had it was 2.4 times bigger in
- 00:06:13terms of profit uh we're looking at
- 00:06:16about back then it was about 30 some
- 00:06:18thousand in profit and I still had a 9
- 00:06:20to-5 and so it was great you know a
- 00:06:23little side thing extra money and all
- 00:06:24that um then I got laid off uh after
- 00:06:28almost 20 years last August
- 00:06:30so I went fulltime onto the minimalist
- 00:06:33Hustler and now I'm I don't think I'm
- 00:06:36going to make it this year but next year
- 00:06:37I'll definitely get through to the six
- 00:06:39figures it'll be my first $100,000 a
- 00:06:41year and I'm you know and and the way
- 00:06:43I've built this it's it's a slow growth
- 00:06:48but it's a sure growth almost you know
- 00:06:50as sure as you can get I would say are
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- 00:07:10big difference on my blog traffic
- 00:07:12already the aier calls it a musthave for
- 00:07:15any SEO adding it was such a pain to do
- 00:07:18internal linking manually before Gareth
- 00:07:20Hoy says he uses it on all of his
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- 00:07:32today and use coupon code podcast to
- 00:07:34save $15 off well you know it's funny
- 00:07:37we're recording this at the end of
- 00:07:39August so it's been basically I have a
- 00:07:40correct about a year since you were laid
- 00:07:42off and have been making this your your
- 00:07:44full-time income that's right it'll be
- 00:07:45uh two days of it will be the year
- 00:07:48congratulations that's a big deal I mean
- 00:07:50I feel like I I've talked about this in
- 00:07:52my own personal newsletter week in
- 00:07:53growth like side hustles obviously you
- 00:07:56kind of touched on all of it they give
- 00:07:57you that extra cash they give you that
- 00:07:59extra income you can use that whether
- 00:08:01it's saving whether it's you know paying
- 00:08:03a bill whether it's paying down debt
- 00:08:04whether it's for a vacation but then
- 00:08:06they also give you this fantastic I
- 00:08:08don't want to call it relief but this
- 00:08:10interesting um uh thing that can happen
- 00:08:14when life changes and you get laid off
- 00:08:15for example and freedom and options it
- 00:08:18gives you you know it's like I I I talk
- 00:08:22to my wife sometimes and I'm like you
- 00:08:23know I've always wanted to try different
- 00:08:26jobs that were kind of you know I don't
- 00:08:29want to say odd jobs but like I've
- 00:08:31always wanted to work in a casino or for
- 00:08:33an airline or on a cruise um you know I
- 00:08:36I'm a big hockey fan my kids play hockey
- 00:08:38I coach them but I'd love to work in the
- 00:08:41hockey field somewhere and there was
- 00:08:43never really that possibility I didn't
- 00:08:45see the possibility before but now that
- 00:08:47money is not necessarily the concern it
- 00:08:49gives you a lot more flexibility to
- 00:08:51maybe take one of those on call jobs or
- 00:08:54part-time jobs or you know even even if
- 00:08:56it's a low pain one it wouldn't really
- 00:08:57matter as much just you know to have the
- 00:08:59experience but it also gives me the
- 00:09:01option right now my kids are still young
- 00:09:03I get to spend more time with them uh
- 00:09:05you know I never miss any games or
- 00:09:07practices because of work I get to go on
- 00:09:08the road with them when there's a away
- 00:09:10tournaments and stuff like that so it
- 00:09:11really gives you options whether you
- 00:09:13want an 9 to five or don't so you are
- 00:09:15basically a full-time side Hustler if
- 00:09:17that's the biggest that's what people
- 00:09:19still ask me do do you still call out
- 00:09:20side Hustler I still I still do because
- 00:09:23to me it it's been built in a way that
- 00:09:25they have all the side hustle features
- 00:09:27it just happens to be when you them
- 00:09:29together it it brings a full-time income
- 00:09:32that's awesome okay so let's get let's
- 00:09:34get into it let's get a little dirty
- 00:09:35here let's let's kind of really dig in
- 00:09:36and roll up our sleeves what are I'll
- 00:09:39put it this way what are the buckets
- 00:09:40that make up what you're pursuing maybe
- 00:09:42to to your point you just said now like
- 00:09:44it's made up up of a lot of side house I
- 00:09:46was like what are those talk us through
- 00:09:48from a high level each of them then we
- 00:09:49can kind of get into each of them yeah
- 00:09:51for sure uh I mean I'm a big try try it
- 00:09:55don't like plan too much don't dig too
- 00:09:57deep try it and then see if it works for
- 00:10:00you and if it's successful or not so
- 00:10:02I've tried so many different things but
- 00:10:03right now the the things that are
- 00:10:04working right now for for M luster is
- 00:10:06definitely everything is around my
- 00:10:08newsletter so I have one big newsletter
- 00:10:11that's uh over 8,000 subscribers and
- 00:10:14everything I do kind of rotates around
- 00:10:17that so I have a a a Blog on medium
- 00:10:20where I earn on medium and I also grow
- 00:10:23my newsletter from medium so it's like
- 00:10:25two things there the same thing I I
- 00:10:27publish books on Amazon TDP
- 00:10:30uh so that feeds back to do like in the
- 00:10:32books they feed back to and the
- 00:10:34newsletter promotes the books everything
- 00:10:35I do kind of try and gravitates towards
- 00:10:37the newsletter I have a community on
- 00:10:39school um you know so those are
- 00:10:43basically the three biggest I also do
- 00:10:45print on demand I also have printables
- 00:10:48digital products on gumroad um those are
- 00:10:51the ones that are really connected to
- 00:10:53minus huster to a certain level I mean I
- 00:10:55have over 500 books on KDP that are not
- 00:10:57related at all to minus huster that I
- 00:10:58start started with which bring in a
- 00:11:01pretty good income but they're not
- 00:11:02related to manila's hustler because like
- 00:11:04I said when I started at 2020 my goal
- 00:11:07was to have no customers and as Amazon
- 00:11:09KDP is the perfect place to have no
- 00:11:11customers and you I I just did a whole
- 00:11:15bunch of no and low content books and it
- 00:11:17was really a quantity over quality at
- 00:11:19the beginning until kind of figured
- 00:11:20things out and that's what really gave
- 00:11:24me the first steady decent stream of
- 00:11:28income online
- 00:11:29uh for to start minimalist Hustler but
- 00:11:32now I'm making books for the minimalist
- 00:11:35Hustler audience so it kind of again
- 00:11:37rotates back to the to the newsletter in
- 00:11:39terms of where your Revenue comes from
- 00:11:41like what are the big dominant sources
- 00:11:44are there like one or two dominant or
- 00:11:46larger sources of revenue so I people
- 00:11:49ask me this question quite often and
- 00:11:51it's it's kind of what do you consider
- 00:11:54an income Source or stream right so the
- 00:11:58my biggest one without a doubt is is
- 00:11:59Amazon KDP that's this without a doubt
- 00:12:01it's the one that brings in the biggest
- 00:12:03so but are you considering minimalist
- 00:12:07Hustler as a newsletter with everything
- 00:12:09tied back to it as one stream or is it
- 00:12:12multiple streams if you consider it as
- 00:12:14one it's getting close to what KDP is
- 00:12:16bringing me without the minimalist
- 00:12:17Hustler content uh but if not it KDP
- 00:12:21dominates for sure I get that yeah I get
- 00:12:24that so the minimalist Hustler kind of
- 00:12:26brand touches on a number of different
- 00:12:28Revenue streams and so if you look at it
- 00:12:30from a holistic standpoint it's rivaling
- 00:12:32your KDP but if you're were to break
- 00:12:34maybe just like newsletter sponsorships
- 00:12:35or something specific inside of it it it
- 00:12:38doesn't that's it you know like if you
- 00:12:39break down affiliate marketing if you
- 00:12:40break down my you know the books that
- 00:12:43that go with minimalist huster the
- 00:12:44digital products the sponsorships as you
- 00:12:46mentioned and now I have uh paid
- 00:12:48subscriptions as well it's it it all
- 00:12:51like they're all some are smaller than
- 00:12:52others and medium but together they
- 00:12:54they're getting close to taking over uh
- 00:12:56what I had built with KDP previously
- 00:12:58let's start with KDP if we can cuz I I
- 00:13:00was introduced to you through your
- 00:13:02minimalist Hustler newsletter so um I
- 00:13:05definitely want to spend some time
- 00:13:06talking about that um very organic
- 00:13:08process I got in your got in your email
- 00:13:10list I love getting different email
- 00:13:11newsletters and really enjoyed it well
- 00:13:13let's come back to that KDP was your
- 00:13:15first like you said your first in this
- 00:13:17transition into building a business that
- 00:13:19had no customers right which I love and
- 00:13:21I think a lot of the audience can really
- 00:13:22get around you we got a lot of people
- 00:13:24who listen who are like man I don't want
- 00:13:25to talk to someone yeah I don't want to
- 00:13:26deal with customer service a lot of
- 00:13:28people people come from affiliate
- 00:13:30marketing in these sorts of spaces where
- 00:13:31we don't have to necessarily interact
- 00:13:33with customers we just did an interview
- 00:13:36a couple weeks ago maybe a month ago now
- 00:13:37on KDP and and really got deep into KDP
- 00:13:41but for you what has been successful
- 00:13:43with KDP I mean publishing 500 books
- 00:13:45seems unapproachable but you say it like
- 00:13:49it's almost just something that you did
- 00:13:50really quickly walk us through what that
- 00:13:52looks like yeah so it's first it's
- 00:13:54important to understand uh the the
- 00:13:57difference between a regular book
- 00:13:59um I I have three categories of books
- 00:14:01that I I I go through but my initial
- 00:14:03business on TDP was built on no content
- 00:14:06books so that looks like daily planners
- 00:14:08uh workbooks log books trackers uh you
- 00:14:12know people often say journals but
- 00:14:14journals I haven't had any success with
- 00:14:17journals but I haven't put a lot of time
- 00:14:18into that either so I can't really speak
- 00:14:20on that but a lot of it is is the
- 00:14:22workbooks and the activity books um
- 00:14:26so it's I did about eight months in
- 00:14:312021 of almost 90% of my time spent on
- 00:14:35KDP this was before I started the
- 00:14:38newsletter and you know out of the 500 I
- 00:14:42think it's I think it's
- 00:14:45520 something books
- 00:14:48450 or 460 have never sold a single
- 00:14:52copy yeah fair play it's it's very uh
- 00:14:56truly v20 right but what happen happened
- 00:14:59was is once you identify one that sells
- 00:15:02regularly and even if that's only once a
- 00:15:04week you could easily duplicate and
- 00:15:07adapt the process now uh you know for
- 00:15:11example if I'm making a book uh you know
- 00:15:15to track for a certain kind of income
- 00:15:19well then I could change that to a
- 00:15:21different type of income without getting
- 00:15:24into too many details there but it's
- 00:15:26like if I'm doing a book that's going to
- 00:15:28track red card and it works then I can
- 00:15:29make a book that tracks Blue Cars and
- 00:15:31then green cars and so on so once you
- 00:15:33find something that works it's easy to
- 00:15:36you know get variations of it that will
- 00:15:38work as well when it comes to success on
- 00:15:40KDP were there any trending things
- 00:15:43you've you've seen I mean over 500 books
- 00:15:46published you you probably have some
- 00:15:47decent insights especially given that so
- 00:15:49many haven't sold any yeah I mean the
- 00:15:52the key to me was looking at me my
- 00:15:56family and people around me and figure
- 00:15:58out what would they buy what would they
- 00:16:00be interested and above all else is what
- 00:16:03would they want to receive as a gift
- 00:16:05since I started in 2021 I I've given out
- 00:16:07more books as gifts than anything else
- 00:16:10just because I've been able to make
- 00:16:11custom things that I know people would
- 00:16:13really really love and I mean it's it's
- 00:16:15that's to me is the the key is figure
- 00:16:17out what people would like and and find
- 00:16:19a people find a specific person and fig
- 00:16:22what they would want because if I find
- 00:16:23something that you want there's chances
- 00:16:26are there's hundreds if not thousands if
- 00:16:27not you know hundreds of thousand people
- 00:16:29that want the same thing give us some
- 00:16:30insight into what maybe an average book
- 00:16:34that you produce for a KDP looks like
- 00:16:37how long is it maybe a sample type of
- 00:16:40topic not saying you got to tell us your
- 00:16:42actual book title but maybe like what
- 00:16:43kind of genre what kind of lengths what
- 00:16:45kind of makeup is it just to give people
- 00:16:47an idea of what kind of books are doing
- 00:16:49well for you so so again it goes into
- 00:16:51the different categories of books so the
- 00:16:53low and no content books which is the
- 00:16:54bulk of my 500 and some books uh has no
- 00:16:58real a lot of it has to do with sports a
- 00:17:00lot of it has to do with hockey because
- 00:17:02when I started I wrote a book called uh
- 00:17:04passion to passive profits and basically
- 00:17:07that book was detailing how to create
- 00:17:10income streams that didn't have
- 00:17:12customers that were related to your
- 00:17:13passion which is what I what I had done
- 00:17:16and so a lot of it has to do with that
- 00:17:18so there there's most books it's
- 00:17:20basically you're designing the cover the
- 00:17:22front cover the back cover the spine and
- 00:17:25then inside there's like one or two
- 00:17:27unique Pages at the beginning one or two
- 00:17:28unique Pages at the back and the rest is
- 00:17:30like 80 100 200 pages of the same exact
- 00:17:33thing it's just you know it could be uh
- 00:17:37you know for example an undated planner
- 00:17:39kind of thing so it's if it's a weekly
- 00:17:40one then each two pages is basically
- 00:17:43your your week split up either five
- 00:17:45weekdays and then the two weekends or
- 00:17:47however you'd like I mean if you just go
- 00:17:49on uh in gumroad not gumroad in uh canva
- 00:17:53and you write you know daily planner
- 00:17:55weekly planner you'll have hundreds of
- 00:17:57examples that that kind of work for for
- 00:18:00KDP you just need to kind of tweak them
- 00:18:02a little bit to get what you what you
- 00:18:04like I mean if you're going to mass
- 00:18:07produce no content books then you'd want
- 00:18:09a specific tool there's like a few of
- 00:18:12them out there that I've used and book
- 00:18:14bolt is one of them tangent templates is
- 00:18:16another one they're both great products
- 00:18:18and um with those products you can you
- 00:18:22could replicate the same book and tweak
- 00:18:24it little bit so if you wanted to make a
- 00:18:26book for all the Jareds out there then
- 00:18:29you make a Jared specific book then you
- 00:18:31can make one for John Jamie Steve and so
- 00:18:33on it's very easy to do and within you
- 00:18:35know a few minutes you have a new book
- 00:18:38ready and good to go um but for my
- 00:18:42minimalist Hustler books I call those
- 00:18:44minimalist books so a minimalist book is
- 00:18:46any book that's under a 100 Pages uh all
- 00:18:49my books are non-fiction but you could
- 00:18:51apply the same principle to fiction
- 00:18:53without issue but all my books are
- 00:18:55related to uh minimalist side hustles
- 00:18:57which is the the that uh that I'm in
- 00:19:00with Min Hustler so all those books are
- 00:19:02related back to the to the newslet one
- 00:19:04one final question here on the on the
- 00:19:05KDP side of things um getting your book
- 00:19:09to kind of show up in the Amazon search
- 00:19:12ecosystem a lot of people will say is
- 00:19:15difficult or challenging how do you go
- 00:19:17about getting any marketing for the book
- 00:19:20or do you do you just kind of publish it
- 00:19:22and kind of hope that all of the uh the
- 00:19:24stars align to get it in front of people
- 00:19:26when they do a search so if again we're
- 00:19:29we're splitting this into two so the
- 00:19:32pre- newsletter all the no content Low
- 00:19:34contents is 100% organic I never ran any
- 00:19:38ads on them I never did any marketing
- 00:19:40for them the the whole point of it was
- 00:19:43to be able to do this without doing any
- 00:19:44of that so A lot of it was keyword
- 00:19:47research there's a few uh Chrome
- 00:19:49extensions you can get uh that will show
- 00:19:53you basically uh how many people are
- 00:19:56searching for which terms on Amazon
- 00:19:58within the kind section or within
- 00:20:00subcategories uh I think self-publishing
- 00:20:02Titans is uh one of the people that has
- 00:20:05uh a few different Chrome extensions I
- 00:20:08use publisher rocket a lot for keywords
- 00:20:10and categories too uh that's a paid tool
- 00:20:12though but the self-publishing Titans I
- 00:20:14think they have a free version that a
- 00:20:15lot of you get a lot of good use out of
- 00:20:18um so that's that's for the you know the
- 00:20:20the No No content books but the the ones
- 00:20:23I'm creating now uh most of the
- 00:20:26promotion is done either through uh my
- 00:20:28newsletter or through my blogs or
- 00:20:31basically other minist Hustler related
- 00:20:33properties kind of thing but I am
- 00:20:36experimenting with Amazon ads and
- 00:20:39BookBub yeah BookBub yeah BookBub ads
- 00:20:43and um you know I'm just getting into
- 00:20:46that now so I I won't have any success
- 00:20:49stories to share on that more you know
- 00:20:51fail stories I would say I haven't
- 00:20:53squandered thousands of dollars but I've
- 00:20:56you know I don't think I've broken even
- 00:20:58I lost in the course of I started in
- 00:21:00July so it probably lost a couple
- 00:21:02hundred so far it's helping sell books
- 00:21:05but I'm not sure doing it probably so I
- 00:21:07actually just got a course from Kindle
- 00:21:10printer to kind of understand Amazon ads
- 00:21:13a little bit better well perfect
- 00:21:14transition I mean you keep mentioning
- 00:21:16minimalist Hustler and how that's really
- 00:21:19where a lot of your focus is now thanks
- 00:21:21for indulging us with some of your KDP
- 00:21:23um uh tactics I sure I'm sure a lot
- 00:21:26people are going to find this really
- 00:21:26fascinating KDP is a of what you're
- 00:21:28doing now but kind of from a different
- 00:21:30standpoint so let's get into minimalist
- 00:21:32Hustler like where did this kick off was
- 00:21:35it the newsletter and is everything the
- 00:21:37newsletter you alluded to the fact that
- 00:21:38kind of the most important aspect of the
- 00:21:40brand you is the newsletter of about
- 00:21:428,000 people but maybe talk us through
- 00:21:44how that minimalist Hustler brand is is
- 00:21:47structured yeah so it it didn't start
- 00:21:50with a newsletter there was never a plan
- 00:21:51for a newsletter it was the beginning of
- 00:21:542022 that uh kind of started thinking
- 00:21:57well I at first I was like I need some
- 00:21:59email marketing to kind of help stuff
- 00:22:01and you know Market my different assets
- 00:22:04that I've had on KDP on Prince on demand
- 00:22:06and and several others uh but I I was
- 00:22:10looking at the different options and uh
- 00:22:13I came along a newsletter from uh Josh
- 00:22:15Spectre uh somebody I really look up to
- 00:22:18a lot he he's taught me so much in the
- 00:22:21past uh two and a half years maybe even
- 00:22:24three uh he sends a daily newsletter
- 00:22:26that's really really short I mean I mean
- 00:22:28he I think he's got one one issue that
- 00:22:30he sent out once only had nine words in
- 00:22:32it and it's just really really short and
- 00:22:35I I really like the format so I kind of
- 00:22:38didn't do the same thing but did it my
- 00:22:40way so I I really decided I'm going to
- 00:22:42start sending in a daily email and like
- 00:22:44like I said I don't think too much about
- 00:22:46things so if I want to try something I
- 00:22:48rather just let's go try it and see what
- 00:22:50happens and you know if if it works
- 00:22:53great if it doesn't work maybe if I
- 00:22:55really want it to work I'll try and
- 00:22:56figure out a way to get it to work and
- 00:22:58if not I'll just move on to the next
- 00:22:59thing so in February of 2022 I decided
- 00:23:03Let's do let's do this daily newsletter
- 00:23:05let's send a a short email every day try
- 00:23:08and help people make more money that's
- 00:23:10what it that's what it started with and
- 00:23:13I think we're at 91 or 912 days later
- 00:23:18I've published one every single day
- 00:23:19since and something that I said I'll do
- 00:23:21for 30 days and see if I like it has
- 00:23:24become my favorite thing in the world
- 00:23:27it's helped me in so many different ways
- 00:23:31in terms of yes there's the that comes
- 00:23:33with it but the organizing everything I
- 00:23:37was doing bringing everything back to
- 00:23:39one thing whereas before I was just kind
- 00:23:42of doing random things and that was on
- 00:23:44purpose because it served the purpose of
- 00:23:47you know the no customers the no
- 00:23:48headaches the the low of stress but this
- 00:23:51allowed me
- 00:23:52to actually have conversations with
- 00:23:55people build relationships with people
- 00:23:57and help people at the same time without
- 00:24:00necessarily calling them customers even
- 00:24:02though I am now offering them some of my
- 00:24:05products but again I'm doing it in the
- 00:24:07what I call the minimalist way it's a
- 00:24:09very transactional process so I don't
- 00:24:12sell High ticket offers I everything I
- 00:24:14do is is low ticket and you know the the
- 00:24:18most expensive thing I sell is the
- 00:24:19newsletter adpot which is now like I
- 00:24:21think $75 a spot or $70 a spot which is
- 00:24:25still really cheap compared to other
- 00:24:28newsl at the same subscriber basee that
- 00:24:29I have but I I really like to make
- 00:24:32things win for other people so that it's
- 00:24:35it's it's first of all they love it but
- 00:24:38it's also easier on me there's no stress
- 00:24:40there's no like I I rarely ever get any
- 00:24:43upset you know customers or people you
- 00:24:46know I'll get the occasional person
- 00:24:47saying this you know I bought this and I
- 00:24:50I don't like it and it's like that's
- 00:24:51fair there's a refund you know it's it's
- 00:24:53not like I'm worried about refunding
- 00:24:55$1,000 or $1,500 or you know back when
- 00:24:58was doing websites and people were
- 00:24:59paying 10 $15,000 for for web design
- 00:25:02back then I don't have to that stress is
- 00:25:05gone so so that newsletter basically
- 00:25:07opened the doors to a relationships
- 00:25:11without necessarily being typical
- 00:25:13customer relationships that that one
- 00:25:15would have yeah it truly is a minimalist
- 00:25:17uh yeah newsletter right like it's short
- 00:25:19it's quick it's to the point I can say
- 00:25:21that you and I have the most opposite
- 00:25:23newsletter experience ever when I send
- 00:25:25mine out it's it's like someone needs to
- 00:25:27shorten this up a bit but so I I
- 00:25:29appreciate it that's it it does have a
- 00:25:30theme to it you've kind of again I've
- 00:25:32only been on your list for a month or
- 00:25:34two I think but you kind of have this
- 00:25:36Cadence that you have you have something
- 00:25:38from you something from someone else
- 00:25:40something from a sponsor like how did
- 00:25:42you land on that has that been um
- 00:25:45iterated on over the years over the 900
- 00:25:47emails you talk about um and and you
- 00:25:50know how did you kind of come up with
- 00:25:52that sort of uh Cadence to your emails
- 00:25:54the my first thing is when I when so
- 00:25:57Josh what he did is he just had one
- 00:26:00thing plus a sponsor and the one thing
- 00:26:03could it be from him or could be from
- 00:26:04someone else so I looked at him and and
- 00:26:06at first I didn't I really didn't want
- 00:26:08to just copy him his whole process and I
- 00:26:11was also getting I'm not sure if you're
- 00:26:13familiar you must be with the James
- 00:26:14Clear 321 newsletter yeah so it was kind
- 00:26:18of like both of them having a baby so I
- 00:26:21had three things in my newsletter and so
- 00:26:23it's an extra one than than Josh it's a
- 00:26:26little bit smaller than James Clea but
- 00:26:28it's still short to the point and being
- 00:26:31having something from a sponsor in each
- 00:26:33one I is you know people seem turned off
- 00:26:37by advertisements but if you choose your
- 00:26:39sponsors properly and they're well
- 00:26:40aligned people even sometimes like the
- 00:26:42sponsors more than the actual content
- 00:26:44depending what it is I I mean when I was
- 00:26:47younger uh I used to love Entrepreneur
- 00:26:51magazine and one of the things that
- 00:26:54would get to me is not even the Articles
- 00:26:55it's looking through the different ads
- 00:26:57that were you know targeted
- 00:26:59entrepreneurs and so it's kind of like
- 00:27:01you want that sponsorship to be part of
- 00:27:03your newsletter and not be like here's
- 00:27:05the advertiser that you could skip to
- 00:27:07get the content you wanted to be part of
- 00:27:09the content to be valuable so I've
- 00:27:11turned down sponsorships from from
- 00:27:13brands that just don't align at all even
- 00:27:16though they were paying better money or
- 00:27:18or the same money to me it's it's more
- 00:27:21about the experience for the reader to
- 00:27:22have things to look forward to do you
- 00:27:24ever get stuck in your business and wish
- 00:27:26you had someone you could turn to for
- 00:27:28Solutions well I think you should
- 00:27:30consider joining the niche Pursuits
- 00:27:32Community you'll get weekly calls with
- 00:27:34experts on growing a successful online
- 00:27:36business and you'll also get assigned a
- 00:27:38small Mastermind group where you can
- 00:27:40solve your business problems as well as
- 00:27:43share your wins for a limited time I'll
- 00:27:45let you try out the niche Pursuits
- 00:27:47Community for just $1 go ahead and use
- 00:27:50coupon code podcast at checkout in order
- 00:27:53to get your first month for just $1
- 00:27:56again that's coupon code podcast go to
- 00:27:59community. nitp pursuit. comom today and
- 00:28:02see what it's all about and maybe I'll
- 00:28:04see you on our call next week thanks a
- 00:28:06lot you you also have a premium version
- 00:28:09of your newsletter if I understand
- 00:28:10correctly as kind of tied in with the
- 00:28:12community how did that develop where's
- 00:28:15that at what's the differences there so
- 00:28:18I've again it goes back to my trial and
- 00:28:20errors and and seeing what what I should
- 00:28:23be doing or not doing so
- 00:28:25I've in February of 2023 I decided to
- 00:28:30create a weekly version of The Daily
- 00:28:34newsletter on substack now there was two
- 00:28:37reasons for that the first reason was to
- 00:28:39have an online archive that was a little
- 00:28:41bit more practical than having 900
- 00:28:44emails that people can go through
- 00:28:46randomly that you know they never would
- 00:28:48go beyond the last five maybe and the
- 00:28:51second of it is substack has a great uh
- 00:28:55you know audience grow internal growth
- 00:28:58tools that you could leverage so I
- 00:29:00started that and then with time substack
- 00:29:03uh released substack notes and the
- 00:29:06growth potential just kept know being so
- 00:29:09apparent to me that I I figured I I need
- 00:29:11to kind of expand on that so I I started
- 00:29:14I I brainstormed I came up with another
- 00:29:16newsletter to launch on substack because
- 00:29:18I really didn't want to move my daily
- 00:29:21newsletter to substack because they
- 00:29:22don't have the same customization
- 00:29:24options they don't have automation that
- 00:29:27I have with convert kit which is where I
- 00:29:29am now and uh so while I was doing a sub
- 00:29:33I realized that you know people at
- 00:29:36substack are already of the mindset to
- 00:29:38pay for content to pay for premium
- 00:29:41newsletters so I said well I might as
- 00:29:42well turn it on but I need to to see
- 00:29:45what I can give them and again I always
- 00:29:49go back to my M my minimalist mindset
- 00:29:52of what can I give them that won't add
- 00:29:55pressure to me so you know some people
- 00:29:58will say well I'll give you an extra
- 00:29:59newsletter a week or I'll give you
- 00:30:01access to extra content but then the
- 00:30:03stress is always on you to create more
- 00:30:06and more content and is the content good
- 00:30:08enough and so on so that's where I came
- 00:30:11up with the idea that I already have
- 00:30:12this community that that does great so
- 00:30:16why don't I give them access to the
- 00:30:18community and a few other perks like
- 00:30:20getting digital copies of my books that
- 00:30:22I'm publishing the ones for minus
- 00:30:24Hustler and some discounts on on
- 00:30:26newsletter sponsorship and so on um so
- 00:30:29that I just basically started playing
- 00:30:31around with the price points and uh the
- 00:30:34offers in the paid option maybe two
- 00:30:37months ago three months ago and uh I
- 00:30:40could say early on it's it's going
- 00:30:42really really well and it's actually
- 00:30:44making me consider moving my whole 8,000
- 00:30:47such subscribers to substack from
- 00:30:50convert kit even though I would losed uh
- 00:30:52some of the Automation and the
- 00:30:54customization but the testing is showing
- 00:30:57me that it it might be worth it to to
- 00:30:59get more people want in the community
- 00:31:02and have everything within
- 00:31:05substack wow that's fascinating um what
- 00:31:08is the makeup and price point uh of the
- 00:31:11community and and kind of how many
- 00:31:13people do you have in there so I have
- 00:31:16368 people as of when we started
- 00:31:19recording this podcast hopefully more
- 00:31:21now but uh so the price point is now $8
- 00:31:24a month or $80 a year um
- 00:31:28it was $18 a month or 140 a year two
- 00:31:34three weeks ago and I just changed it
- 00:31:36because uh I wanted to see if I could
- 00:31:37get more people in and and it's worked I
- 00:31:39think since I changed the price I've had
- 00:31:41a dozen new members come in and it's
- 00:31:43creating a buzz and more engagement and
- 00:31:45you know the community is
- 00:31:47fun and the way I've got it set up is
- 00:31:51there's not as much pressure than other
- 00:31:53communities that I've launched I I've
- 00:31:55launched communities in the past and
- 00:31:57there's always a pressure on the the
- 00:31:59owner of the community to to to engage
- 00:32:02people and get people talking and and
- 00:32:04stuff like that whereas I don't have
- 00:32:06this kind of pressure because uh with
- 00:32:08school there's like a gamification
- 00:32:10aspect to it and I reward them with
- 00:32:12different things like consultations like
- 00:32:15uh newsletter sponsorships I I run
- 00:32:17contests and the engagement kind of just
- 00:32:20happens there a pretty good flow of
- 00:32:22engagement on its own so it's there's
- 00:32:24there's no real pressure to it that's
- 00:32:26why I call it a minimalist Community
- 00:32:28it's it's done in a way that again we
- 00:32:30take the stress away and you know have
- 00:32:33fun with it now as part of the
- 00:32:35newsletter you have the paid and you
- 00:32:37have the free one so I I'll ask this
- 00:32:39question kind of from a high level you
- 00:32:41can choose to kind of go at it from both
- 00:32:42angles or one or the other but like
- 00:32:44where are you finding the biggest growth
- 00:32:48when it comes to your newsletter size
- 00:32:49you when it comes to your audience so so
- 00:32:51growing my newsletter how I'm getting
- 00:32:53the the biggest growth for my newsletter
- 00:32:55so up until 2 months ago it was medium
- 00:32:57medium was my number one source of new
- 00:33:00subscribers um on the regular it was you
- 00:33:03know 100 to 200 new subscribers every
- 00:33:07month without fail for maybe the last
- 00:33:09two years um collaborations go a long
- 00:33:12way but they're they hidden Miss so I
- 00:33:16I'll collaborate for example Josh
- 00:33:17Spectre will mention my newsletter and
- 00:33:19I'll get a 100 new subscribers and then
- 00:33:21another newsletter that's similar in
- 00:33:23size we mention my newsletter and I'll
- 00:33:25get none so it's you can't base has to
- 00:33:28be a perfect fit and you don't
- 00:33:29necessarily know how engaged the
- 00:33:31audiences are but if you find the right
- 00:33:33newsletter to to cross promote whip
- 00:33:35that's a great way to to grow too um I
- 00:33:38got to say that since medium is slowed
- 00:33:40down substack has has taken over and
- 00:33:43it's in I think in the past 30 days I
- 00:33:46have something
- 00:33:47like six or 700 new subscribers from
- 00:33:50substack what like just to give
- 00:33:53listeners um you've already done a
- 00:33:55little bit of this so I don't want to I
- 00:33:56don't want to suggest you haven't but
- 00:33:58for someone who's new to the different
- 00:34:00email providers like a convert kit like
- 00:34:02a substack just give people like a high
- 00:34:04level of the differences in substack
- 00:34:06versus convert kit because I I feel like
- 00:34:08a lot of people are going to be familiar
- 00:34:10with both platforms but maybe not
- 00:34:12understand the differences and how
- 00:34:14you're seeing those play you're talking
- 00:34:15about maybe move to substack like maybe
- 00:34:17summarize bring it together like what is
- 00:34:19the big difference in a substack versus
- 00:34:21a convert kit yeah so I I think it all
- 00:34:24comes from where they both started so
- 00:34:27convert K started as an email marketing
- 00:34:29platform and has slowly transitioned to
- 00:34:32accommodate newsletters whereas substack
- 00:34:35started as a newsletter platform um the
- 00:34:38thing with convertkit the advantages are
- 00:34:41is you have a lot more control on what
- 00:34:42your individual emails in your
- 00:34:44newsletter look like you could segment
- 00:34:47your audience better based on what they
- 00:34:49click on or what they choose where they
- 00:34:51are and so many others you could add any
- 00:34:53kind of tags you want if they purchase
- 00:34:55products you could send them specific
- 00:34:57email sequences and then if they do
- 00:34:59something they could go in another
- 00:35:00sequence and there there's a lot of
- 00:35:03customizing the newsletter to the the
- 00:35:07recipient which is is at the base of it
- 00:35:08is email
- 00:35:09marketing and while that's appealing to
- 00:35:13some it can be a little bit overwhelming
- 00:35:15to others um so substack on the other
- 00:35:19hand removed almost all the automation
- 00:35:22all the only thing they have is an
- 00:35:23automated welcome email once you sign up
- 00:35:26so for example on my newsletter on
- 00:35:29convert kit when people sign up they get
- 00:35:31a welcome email but then the next day
- 00:35:33they get the best of mless Hustler a
- 00:35:35week later I tell them happy
- 00:35:37weekiversary how are you loving it a
- 00:35:39month later I give them a free gift a
- 00:35:40year later and so on I have it going on
- 00:35:42I have it set for 10 years um nobody's
- 00:35:45gotten past two yet because I only just
- 00:35:48passed two years but it to give you an
- 00:35:50idea like there's all this automation
- 00:35:52that with substack it's it's not
- 00:35:54possible
- 00:35:55unfortunately but that said substack has
- 00:35:57advantages that convert doesn't have the
- 00:36:00number one being the growth aspect of it
- 00:36:03so substack has has what's called
- 00:36:05substack notes which is essentially what
- 00:36:08x Twitter is it's you know a social
- 00:36:11network but within substack and it's
- 00:36:13just it it's it's much more enjoyable at
- 00:36:16the moment I'm not sure it's going to
- 00:36:18always say that it's it's pretty new and
- 00:36:20there's there's no like uh scheduling
- 00:36:22tools and so it's not very high on the
- 00:36:25list for internet marketers to come in
- 00:36:28you know suck the fun out and just try
- 00:36:29and push products and affiliate links
- 00:36:32but it's it's a place where you can grow
- 00:36:34your newsletter really really quickly if
- 00:36:36you if you engage and and not only is it
- 00:36:38quickly but it's people that are
- 00:36:40actually interested in you and whatever
- 00:36:43topic you're writing about because it's
- 00:36:45it's all linked together so that's the
- 00:36:48the real advantage of so when people
- 00:36:51come and see me and tell me Jamie which
- 00:36:53one should I start with I'm like 90% of
- 00:36:58the time it's substack but I the first
- 00:37:00question I always ask them is do you
- 00:37:02want Automation and most people say no I
- 00:37:04don't I don't want automation the people
- 00:37:06starting out don't want the complicated
- 00:37:08stuff because you could always add that
- 00:37:10later there there's options there's
- 00:37:12people that have a newsletter on
- 00:37:13substack and use convert kit for
- 00:37:15automations and you know I like I was
- 00:37:18doing for a year and a half I was doing
- 00:37:20both and I'm still doing both till the
- 00:37:22to this day I'm just I'm just
- 00:37:24contemplating moving entirely to
- 00:37:26substack because of the one the growth
- 00:37:29aspect and two the paid subscription
- 00:37:31upgrades so 90% of the time ining people
- 00:37:34go with substack start writing start
- 00:37:37engaging on notes and you're going to
- 00:37:39have fun because you're going to be
- 00:37:41choosing a topic that you like hopefully
- 00:37:42that's one big mistake a lot of people
- 00:37:44make is they choose subjects that they
- 00:37:46don't like because they were told that
- 00:37:48you could only make money if you talk
- 00:37:49about losing weight or about making
- 00:37:51money or about gambling or or so on but
- 00:37:53if you pick a topic that you like I know
- 00:37:55people that talk about witchcraft I know
- 00:37:57people that talk about uh cars uh you
- 00:38:00know any topic you want just start
- 00:38:02writing about it and you can grow on
- 00:38:03substack without needing to go on any
- 00:38:07other platform or using anything else
- 00:38:08you have a number of products um and
- 00:38:11again I'm I'm leaving books out of this
- 00:38:12right we've talked about that we could
- 00:38:14even Circle back on it but aside from
- 00:38:17the you know KDP side of your business
- 00:38:19you have you know things like challenges
- 00:38:21and templates and printables you talked
- 00:38:23about print on demand briefly um how uh
- 00:38:27how the product sales gone and how have
- 00:38:29you chosen which ones to go after and
- 00:38:32make so what's happened again it's it's
- 00:38:34a little bit like the KDP so especially
- 00:38:35with the print on demand the print on
- 00:38:37demand is almost 99.9% unrelated to
- 00:38:40minimalist Hustler I tried to bring some
- 00:38:43in with some minimalist Hustler merch
- 00:38:44but right now I'm using that more as uh
- 00:38:47for contest I'm giving away minimalist
- 00:38:49Hustler merch uh for engagement in the
- 00:38:52community and stuff like that I'm not
- 00:38:53promoting to try and sell the merch uh
- 00:38:56that could change at some point but I'm
- 00:38:57I'm not sure I like giving it away right
- 00:38:59now it's fun people seem to love it and
- 00:39:02and so on but you know all of that is is
- 00:39:07outside of Ms huster is still doing
- 00:39:09pretty well nothing even close to to KDP
- 00:39:12though um but when I create products now
- 00:39:15it's it's always to try and help my poor
- 00:39:17audience through the newsletter and even
- 00:39:20more so through the community I think
- 00:39:21the community gives me a better snapshot
- 00:39:23of who my target audience is so I'll
- 00:39:26often whole you know votes in there and
- 00:39:29seeing what I should do next or what I
- 00:39:30should try or you guys think I should do
- 00:39:33this or that and so on and I'll often
- 00:39:35get feedback from there but at the end
- 00:39:38of the day and this is unlike any of the
- 00:39:41advice I've ever read from all the you
- 00:39:44know the experts online is I do stuff
- 00:39:47for me so when I write a book that I a
- 00:39:51real book that I wrting not like a a no
- 00:39:53content one but a real book it's
- 00:39:55something a topic I enjoy
- 00:39:57and I write it for in a format that
- 00:40:02somebody like me would enjoy like all my
- 00:40:03content even my longer form content is
- 00:40:07really short and if it's if it's long
- 00:40:09it's really formatted so that it's easy
- 00:40:11to skim it's easy to pick out Parts
- 00:40:14because I don't like long form content
- 00:40:16whether it be videos whether it be
- 00:40:17podcasts whether it be you know books
- 00:40:20blog posts I love short form and I'll
- 00:40:23consume I'll consume an hour of of of
- 00:40:26videos but they have to be 60 different
- 00:40:29videos I won't watch one video this an
- 00:40:31hour and in some cases I will but as a
- 00:40:33general rule so my target audience is
- 00:40:36basically me and that's that's how I
- 00:40:39write because I enjoy writing like that
- 00:40:40and I know that there are people out
- 00:40:42there that will enjoy it because there's
- 00:40:448 billion people in the world so there's
- 00:40:46about to be others people like me and
- 00:40:48having just seen my newsletter audience
- 00:40:49grow and seen my you know my followers
- 00:40:51on medium grow on substack and Community
- 00:40:54grow I think shows that it works maybe
- 00:40:56taking a step step back here and kind of
- 00:40:58looking at your minimalist Hustler brand
- 00:41:00from a high level who's the typical like
- 00:41:03what's the typical Avatar of someone
- 00:41:04who's on your newsletter someone who
- 00:41:06buys your KDP books again the ones
- 00:41:09targeted at this style at this at this
- 00:41:11Avatar like maybe who is the the the the
- 00:41:15typical person that you find on your
- 00:41:16list so so I have a lot of conversations
- 00:41:19so one of the the things I love the most
- 00:41:23and I BR a lot of people especially at
- 00:41:26the bigger newsletters miss out on this
- 00:41:27is they don't they don't talk to the
- 00:41:29readers so I'll often encourage in a
- 00:41:31newsletter issue to to reply something
- 00:41:34and then I'll get a conversation going
- 00:41:37and I mean it it it range in terms of
- 00:41:40demographic it it's really wide ranging
- 00:41:43but it's all people that are looking to
- 00:41:46earn money
- 00:41:47online and most of them it's they don't
- 00:41:50have a lot of time so I get a lot of
- 00:41:52busy parents I get a lot of people that
- 00:41:54have high demand jobs and I also get a
- 00:41:57lot of retirees that that are coming and
- 00:41:59they're like well I got my pension and
- 00:42:01it's not as much as I thought or as much
- 00:42:02as I hoped and I I I'm trying to find
- 00:42:04something that I could do that is not
- 00:42:07too demanding but that could you know
- 00:42:09help me supplement my income so I get a
- 00:42:12lot of that too and I mean the one the
- 00:42:14one part where I'd like you know they
- 00:42:17say you need to go after one target
- 00:42:18audience but I I I'd love helping
- 00:42:20everybody and and one target audience I
- 00:42:23seem to be missing that I'd like to go
- 00:42:24after but I haven't really made any
- 00:42:26efforts to do it is students students
- 00:42:30like you know starting University and
- 00:42:32stuff like that like I really think uh
- 00:42:34they would take advantage of this and
- 00:42:36and be able to to earn some money and if
- 00:42:39and if I look back if I started when I
- 00:42:42started in the mid 90s a newsletter and
- 00:42:44even if the topic maybe have changed and
- 00:42:46things have changed over time and I kept
- 00:42:48growing it till today I could only
- 00:42:50imagine what it how different it would
- 00:42:52be you know it's it's the same as taking
- 00:42:54somebody like pet Flynn for example and
- 00:42:56you know I've ever conversating with him
- 00:42:58you know in the mid 2000s and he was
- 00:43:00already you know pretty well known in
- 00:43:02the Comm in the community but to what he
- 00:43:05is today is just a whole whole different
- 00:43:07ball game right and it's just long-term
- 00:43:09consistency with what you're doing is is
- 00:43:11just a total Game Changer and I have two
- 00:43:14boys one's 12 and one's 10 and I I've
- 00:43:17been trying to I got them doing some KDP
- 00:43:19books some print on demand but they they
- 00:43:22didn't really have a feel for it the
- 00:43:23money to them is not really that
- 00:43:26important yet I think my 12-year-old is
- 00:43:28coming around to it now and uh I'm going
- 00:43:31to try and see if I can get him started
- 00:43:32on substack with uh something here you
- 00:43:35kind of touched on it the type of people
- 00:43:37that are listening like for someone
- 00:43:38listening right now who is either
- 00:43:41struggling with their side hustle
- 00:43:43efforts or hasn't started one yet what
- 00:43:46types of uh you know advice or feedback
- 00:43:48do you have for those kind of people I
- 00:43:49mean I'm guessing that's the kind of
- 00:43:50person you're talking to every day on
- 00:43:51your email list but you know what are
- 00:43:53some tangible takeaways maybe that
- 00:43:55you've learned along the process that
- 00:43:56will give someone the opportunity or
- 00:43:58help someone have the opportunity to
- 00:43:59earn you know $500 a month or $1,000 a
- 00:44:02month or something that's meaningful
- 00:44:03from a side hustle they start well I
- 00:44:05mean there there's three things there's
- 00:44:07expectations there's consistency and
- 00:44:10there's uh enjoyment so those are the
- 00:44:14three things that I that come up a lot
- 00:44:16is is you got to first before anything
- 00:44:18else what are you expecting if you're
- 00:44:20expecting to make $500 a month starting
- 00:44:23next month well nothing that I have for
- 00:44:26you likely do that I mean it's possible
- 00:44:29but it's
- 00:44:30unlikely usually for those types of
- 00:44:32people I'll tell them either you want to
- 00:44:34get a gig job in the gig economy like
- 00:44:36Uber Eats or something like that or if
- 00:44:38you want to do it online become a
- 00:44:39freelancer a ghost
- 00:44:40writer something to that that effect um
- 00:44:45but even to those people I I tell them
- 00:44:47that's fine you need the $500 a month
- 00:44:49now or whatever it is go do that but at
- 00:44:51the same time start thinking about the
- 00:44:53long term you know because you could
- 00:44:56start a newsletter with as little as
- 00:44:57maybe 15 to 30 minutes a week it really
- 00:45:01doesn't take much time but that 15 30
- 00:45:03minutes a week is not going to make you
- 00:45:04$500 a month starting next year or two
- 00:45:06years it might take three four five six
- 00:45:08years you know but starting it now it it
- 00:45:12adds up over time so I always preach
- 00:45:15consistency so find the minimum that you
- 00:45:18can give on a weekly basis and start
- 00:45:21with that whether you still need to go
- 00:45:23freelance do 9 to5 have your kids to
- 00:45:26deal with find a minimum amount of time
- 00:45:28start with that and start building and
- 00:45:31often times when you start with that
- 00:45:33you'll start seeing some growth and if
- 00:45:35you're if you do the steps that that I
- 00:45:38you know lay out for them which is
- 00:45:39starting the newsletter on substack and
- 00:45:42having a medium blog usually the the
- 00:45:44little bit of money they can make off
- 00:45:45medium in the first month usually gets
- 00:45:47them excited to keep going because
- 00:45:48medium is a pretty low bar to start
- 00:45:51making a little bit of money it doesn't
- 00:45:52scale for much people but it's you know
- 00:45:56a decent f $0000 uh a month pretty
- 00:45:59easily if you're writing consistently on
- 00:46:01there and and the third thing is is
- 00:46:03enjoyment don't don't do things you
- 00:46:07don't enjoy unless you need the money
- 00:46:09again so I'm not going to tell somebody
- 00:46:12that I don't like my job go quit your
- 00:46:13job you you need money there's no
- 00:46:16there's no way around it you need an
- 00:46:17income you need to pay the bills
- 00:46:19nobody's telling you to stop that but at
- 00:46:20the same time again take that minimum
- 00:46:22amount of time that you could give each
- 00:46:23week and build something that you enjoy
- 00:46:26at the very least you'll learn something
- 00:46:28you'll you'll have fun because it's
- 00:46:29something you enjoy you might meet
- 00:46:31people that enjoy the same things that
- 00:46:33you do and over time you can grow it if
- 00:46:36you really want to and you can monetize
- 00:46:38it if you really want to I mean and just
- 00:46:41as much as the topic is important on
- 00:46:43what you enjoy how you do it is
- 00:46:45important too you know if you don't like
- 00:46:47being on video don't start doing videos
- 00:46:50on YouTube if you don't like writing
- 00:46:52well then start doing videos on YouTube
- 00:46:54or Tik Tok or whatever it doesn't you
- 00:46:56need you need to find the what you like
- 00:46:59and also the how you like it's got to go
- 00:47:01together going forward like what's next
- 00:47:04I feel like for you you're always you
- 00:47:05seem to have your hands in five 10
- 00:47:07things at once it's probably a hard
- 00:47:08question to answer but you I I guess I
- 00:47:11went back to that initial question I had
- 00:47:13for you on where minimalist Hustler is
- 00:47:15and you know you mentioned that by next
- 00:47:17year you'll be cracking the six figure
- 00:47:19Mark like what are you what are you
- 00:47:21focusing on going forward um as this
- 00:47:25brand expands I'm I'm guessing some of
- 00:47:27it has to do with a combination what you
- 00:47:28just talked about what you like what's
- 00:47:30working what's scalable these sorts of
- 00:47:32things yeah so one of the things that's
- 00:47:36uh the the imminent thing is is I even
- 00:47:39myself till September 1st which I mean
- 00:47:41is probably already passed by the time
- 00:47:43this podcast airs but that's in in four
- 00:47:46day or five days from now and uh I've
- 00:47:49given myself till that day to decide if
- 00:47:51I'm moving to substack or not so that's
- 00:47:53going to play a big decision in what's
- 00:47:55next um um either way I really think the
- 00:47:59premium paain option with all the perks
- 00:48:03is something I really want to build out
- 00:48:04more and I I'm also really loving
- 00:48:07writing minimalist books so I've I
- 00:48:10started a 12 books in 12 months
- 00:48:12challenge four months ago so I've
- 00:48:15published actually three books and I'm
- 00:48:18publishing the fourth one after tomorrow
- 00:48:21and I want to continue with that to get
- 00:48:23through the 12 books and I I think I
- 00:48:24might even continue after that because
- 00:48:26I'm in these are all books that are
- 00:48:28related to minimalist huster that I
- 00:48:29could promote to my audience or give
- 00:48:31away included in the paid subscription
- 00:48:33that's great that's great I mean you're
- 00:48:36almost like a uh like a like a human
- 00:48:38test case for all of us wondering which
- 00:48:40side hustles to go into and test you
- 00:48:42kind of test them all for us and tell us
- 00:48:44how they're going and we you kind of
- 00:48:45decide which ones we want to grab off
- 00:48:47the shelf that that was actually a one
- 00:48:49of the websites I had back in like maybe
- 00:48:532003 or something like that and it
- 00:48:55wasn't called side hustles back then but
- 00:48:56it was about making money online and it
- 00:48:58was just like here's a case study on
- 00:49:00this and here's a case study on that and
- 00:49:01it was just like me trying different
- 00:49:03things and you know documenting it and
- 00:49:05it was it was early on back then but you
- 00:49:08know imagine if I had started the
- 00:49:09newsletter on making money back then and
- 00:49:12what it would be today it would be a
- 00:49:14much different ball game but you know
- 00:49:16you live you learn you can't change the
- 00:49:17past but you could focus on now and uh
- 00:49:20see where you're
- 00:49:21going yep yeah you can't uh High 2020
- 00:49:24right but uh doesn't mean you can't uh
- 00:49:26continue working on what what you can
- 00:49:28right now so speaking of where can
- 00:49:30people follow along with what you're
- 00:49:31doing where's the best place to direct
- 00:49:33people so so the best place is is I
- 00:49:36always tell the people the same thing go
- 00:49:37to minimalist hustler.com
- 00:49:39and you just sign up for newsletter
- 00:49:41there's nothing else you can do there
- 00:49:42you get there it's just a simple there's
- 00:49:44no scrolling nothing it's just really
- 00:49:46minimalist you just sign up there and
- 00:49:48you're going to get a welcome email and
- 00:49:50I'm going to tell you and that welcome
- 00:49:51email say hi and I'll I'll talk to you
- 00:49:54and we could figure out where you are at
- 00:49:56where you want to go what you want to do
- 00:49:58and if not you you're not comfortable
- 00:50:00you don't want to don't want to say hi
- 00:50:01just keep seeing the emails there's got
- 00:50:03to be so many different things coming
- 00:50:04through in terms of ways you can make
- 00:50:07money online different platforms you
- 00:50:08could use you know help and and so on
- 00:50:11and uh from there you'll be able to get
- 00:50:13through to my books my community my
- 00:50:14products like everything is is is
- 00:50:16through there um so and like I said I
- 00:50:19answer every email and I I love it so if
- 00:50:21you want if you want to reach me just
- 00:50:22sign up for my newsletter reply to the
- 00:50:24welcome email and you'll be talking to
- 00:50:26me irly uh I I'm 100% soulpreneur I get
- 00:50:29people that email me all the time to try
- 00:50:31and delicate stuff and I my OCD won't
- 00:50:34let me delegate anything so I have a
- 00:50:36control freak so everything that uh
- 00:50:38everything's by me when you see anything
- 00:50:39written online well Jamie thanks for
- 00:50:41coming on and sharing like I said I
- 00:50:42think there's so many things that you
- 00:50:43talked about that listeners will have
- 00:50:45either tried or are dabbling in right
- 00:50:47now or have figured out how to make it
- 00:50:49their primary focus their side hustle
- 00:50:51whatever it is so um this has been great
- 00:50:54giving us uh kind of a look or a window
- 00:50:56into into so many different ways to earn
- 00:50:58money online I feel like we've kind of
- 00:50:59jumped all over the map in a good way um
- 00:51:02thank you thanks again hopefully we'll
- 00:51:04have what's that go ahead F I was just
- 00:51:06saying thank you for having me it was a
- 00:51:07pleasure to be here I love talking about
- 00:51:08this stuff so I could go on for
- 00:51:10days I love it well I was just saying we
- 00:51:13we'll have to do a part two down the
- 00:51:14road maybe next year check in on your uh
- 00:51:16on some of your new mileston some of the
- 00:51:17new side houses you're working on but uh
- 00:51:19thank you again until then have a good
- 00:51:21one hey everyone thank you so much for
- 00:51:23listening to the niche Pursuits podcast
- 00:51:25I just wanted to remind you that if you
- 00:51:27are ready to start building smarter
- 00:51:29faster and easier internal links you
- 00:51:31should check out link whisper you can
- 00:51:33get $15 off link whisper when you use
- 00:51:35the coupon code podcast to checkout head
- 00:51:38over to link whisper.com and use the
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- 00:51:44again for listening
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