Should You Start a Side Gig? YES!

Starting a side hustle isn't just about earning extra money. It can change your life in so many more ways than you think. From boosting your financial security to improving your mental and physical well being, side hustles have a lot to offer at any age, but especially those of us nearing retirement. In today's episode, we'll uncover the top 10 reasons why you should start one and how it might just be your key to a healthier, happier future. I'm Joe, my pal over there doing the hustle. On the side, he's Kurt. And we are dudes in progress. Hey, Kurt.

Hey Joe.

What are you doing? I was over there, I was gonna.

Start chuckling like you did in the last episode with my intro. Remember the 70s, Joe?

That's what I was thinking.

Do the hustle.

Look at you over there doing the hustle, man. Right there on the side. That's my buddy Kurt hustling away. What's going on, man? Brother, how's your day going?

It's going really well. Had a good week and I'm going up to visit Johnny B tomorrow morning. We're gonna do a little babysitting on a Friday. I got the luxury of being able to work remotely from anywhere and so I'm gonna do some work. My wife's gonna watch Johnny B. And my son's gonna work.

You'll hear in my win for the week what I did last weekend. And it's gonna be very similar to this weekend but in reverse. This weekend I'm heading up to. I'm heading up to my daughter and son in law's house and we're going to do a Halloween weekend with my grandkids.

That sounds like fun. I can't wait for those days. Right now I'm kind of resolved to peek a boo.

Hey, that's the best place to start right there, dude.

Bouncy bounce in the chair.

I'm telling you, I love it. I love it.

Giggling and laughing. He's a little bit of fun right now. Or enjoying.

I'm really looking forward to the time that I'm retiring doing only the things that I want to do. And we've talked a lot about retirement. We've talked a lot about what does that mean? What retirement means to me is I'm doing what I want to do, when I want to do it, how I want to do it. When I retire, I'll still participate in some kind of income producing activity, but it's going to be what I want to do when I. When I want to do it. And if I decide I want to take a few days off, I won't have. I will have created my life in such a way that I can, I can do that, right? That's my idea. That's my idea of retirement. And that's why today is such a. I don't know, an important episode for me, because I want to talk about side hustles. As you could hear from my opening, I think side hustles are an underappreciated and underutilized life activity. And I think we should all participate in a side hustle in one way or another. You do a couple side hustles, Kurt. You have a few, you have a few going on your podcast, right? Geeking on wdw, your Disney, your Disney World podcast. I thought I'd bring that up and mention Disney World before you do, because of course you will. So your podcast is listener supported, so that helps you out a lot, brings in a little income for you, helps support the show, enables you to do the show. Not that you make a whole lot from that, but you make enough to do the show, right? That's, that's a good thing. And of course, your podcast has produced a travel agency for you. And I get the sense that from us talking that that's more of a side gig for, for your wife, isn't it?

Well, you know, my wife stopped working outside of the home when we had our third kid. She did work one other job in between there with my uncle who had a small business for a little while that ended up folding it up. So she really hasn't worked per se. And this travel agency, I think, has fit in really well with our lifestyle tremendously. And she seems to enjoy it and she shares it with a good friend of hers and they partner together and I think they provide a great service for our listeners. And yeah, it just blends really like, I think it fits with that narrative you were just talking about. I too am thinking of planning and wondering what that traditional retirement is going to look like for me. And I agree with everything you just said. It's going to be something where I'm going to have my side hustles are going to turn into my full time or part time hustle, maybe a lot of time having, doing fun and hobbies and that sort of thing.

Hustle as much as you want to hustle, right? Yeah, that's exactly. That's exactly right. You have your podcast, which is listener supported and earns a bit for you on the side. You have your travel agency, which your wife Runs and operates. But you are the marketing arm for that, for the travel agency through the podcast, right?

Yeah.

And I know you've alluded to it here and you know that I do it on the side, but you also do a little coaching, some little technical coaching on the side.

Yes, that's true. And I'm always trying to think, what else could I add? Being careful, though, because the main hustle is the best part of my week, a lot of that time. But yeah, I'm always trying to. In doing this podcast with you, although this is a hobby for us.

Yeah, this is a hobby, but it certainly is a bit of a marketing arm for both of our coaching services and some of the stuff that we do. But you know what? It is more than that for me. It's the opportunity to explore personal productivity, it. Explore my own goals and bounce them off of a pal. And when we hear from listeners, bounce it off them. And that really helps us to grow our mindset and our mental capacity and our accountability for these side hustles. Would you agree with that?

Oh, yeah. We wouldn't be doing it for how long now? 18 months or longer?

Yeah, I think we're almost into 90 episodes now. Isn't that amazing?

We started in the beginning of the year, so it'll be two years in January, I guess, right?

Yeah. That's amazing. Very cool. Very.

Yeah, it's a great muscle. Like you said, the exercise, it forces us to think through things, think of ideas, think of ways of improvement. We're always been avid readers and bringing that information to listeners, but is as much for us. I just saw a quote when I was looking up quotes. If you want. If you really want to learn something, learn it, but teach it to somebody else.

That's the best way to learn, isn't it?

It sinks in. That is for sure. I was thinking of some of the coaching I've been doing, and a lot of times you don't have all the answers, but. And this is how I've learned most of the things that I coach to other people. Somebody will ask me a question that I don't know the answer to, but I sure as heck love going, finding the answer and sharing it back with them. And they're like, oh, great, that's awesome. Yeah, I get a. I get a thrill out of that too.

Yeah. My coaching surrounds some podcast coaching, business development coaching, a little bit of mindset coaching thrown in here and there, sales coaching. So that's the kind of stuff that I love to do. That's kind of stuff I'm good at. And I've really built a career on doing those things at some level or another, especially the business development and sales coaching. But what made you want to create a side gig?

You know, there's something inside of me that's been there for a long time. We've talked about some of the strength finders. I think that came from that personality trait. I have this achiever part of my personality. I always. First, I just always have to be doing something. I am noticing that you talk about retirement. I just. There's no way I can sit still. I can't sit still at dinner. My wife, everyone gets frustrated with me because I just can't. I've always got something cranking in my mind of things to do. And, you know, there. There are things that I see. I mean, if you think about the podcast, but I always wanted to do something that was entrepreneurial, too, and see if I could make something in that direction. And I tried for a long, long time. And, and even the podcast, when I started it, I wanted to find that mix where it was Internet business and podcasting, with that being kind of the marketing part of it. But how could you also bring in an income? And I could not. I tried and thought and thought and thought for like, two years, and I finally said, I'm just going to start podcasting and figuring it out later. So a lot of it, it took about five years before I really started making any kind of income in that space. But I just. So the woman I was interviewing last night for my podcast asked me how I did it, how I do it. Week after week for 10 years, it has become just a habit. There's a lot of other reasons why. I mean, I think that'll come up in some of your. Your points that you're going to make, why it's been so fulfilling for me.

Yeah, I think again, at some level, everybody should have some kind of side hustle. And it doesn't necessarily have to bring in a lot of money or any money, but I do think that there's. There's something to a side hustle where you want to give back. Right? You want to. You want to make life better somehow. Your life better, somebody's life better. You want to contribute and on a larger scale to. To society. Right. You want to be useful other than outside of your. Outside of your regular day job. And I think when people reach a certain age, they start thinking, okay, what kind of an impact am I making? Am I doing? Am I really doing what I want to do? Especially when you become an empty nester and you start thinking about retirement and you start thinking, okay, what am I going to do when I retire, if I retire, how I retire. And we just talked about how I feel about retirement and I've always kind of felt that way. But I think putting your mindset to a side gig or putting your mind to starting a side gig or a side hustle at some level is a really good way to not go stagnant in life. It's a really good way to make sure you're always engaged and always moving forward at some level. So I want to go through this list. I can tell you the reason that I started a side gig and I've started many side gigs. I've always had some kind of an entrepreneurial venture going on in my life. We talked a little bit about that last week. I started early in my 20s with a cleaning business and I started a publishing business and an insurance agency and I owned a bar for a while and done a bunch of things here and there. My coaching services now and podcasting and all of that stuff. I've always had some kind of thing going on and I don't let much grass grow up underneath, underneath me. And I know you're the same, you're the, you're the same way, Kurt. But I want to go through this list. First of all, I'm going to name off the list, I'm going to read off the list and then we're going to talk about each point. Okay, so it's not one of these big reveals at the end. You're going to know what I'm talking about here. Number one, earn extra income. And this isn't any particular order. This is the order that you want it to be in. But these are all reasons to start. I think I said, Maybe said top 10, but this isn't really a top 10 list. It's more reasons to start a side hustle. Number one, earn extra income, right? Build financial security, boost your mental health, improve your physical health, explore new interests, improve your skills, potential to transition into full time work. If you're not, if you're not digging the job you're in right now, boost your retirement savings, flexibility and control over your life and increased life satisfaction. Those are, those are the things that I came up with and I had a lot of honorable mentions. And we won't go through those honorable mentions, but maybe we'll explore this list again. Or this will, this could easily be a two or three parter, right? We could talk about the Reasons to start a side hustle. And we could even go into the types of, the best types of side hustles that you can start right now. I always thought it might be a good discussion to say side hustles, you can start for under 500, something like that. That would be a cool discussion, wouldn't it?

Absolutely.

Yeah. So let's talk about earning extra income. That's really what people think about most when they start about when they start thinking about a side hustle, first and foremost to bring in some extra cash. Right. Whether you're looking to pay down debt, save for some kind of big purchase, or just enjoy some walking around money. Right. Some financial flexibility, a little bit of additional cash flow can, can make a huge difference in somebody's life. And interestingly enough, according to a zapier study, on average, a side hustle brings in about eleven hundred dollars a month on average.

Okay.

You know, now that's not, that's not going to get you rich, but it sure going to give you some walking around money. It can pay for a really nice vacation every year or a couple of good vacations, right? I mean, what would that. How I think to myself, what would an extra $12,000 or $13,000 a year do for somebody's life? Just on the side.

Yeah, it pays for my vacations.

Well, yeah, we know how you. Well, like I said, reading out my mail.

Yeah, it wasn't the main reason for me getting into a side hustle. But I'll tell you one of the thoughts too, that was interesting and intriguing to me. Was passive income something that you can count on pretty much every month. And yeah, my podcast income does that. Pays the bills for my podcast and any little equipment expenditure and all the software things that I play around with takes care of that and a little extra that my wife doesn't know I.

Have until now, she fights me about it. Hey, you know, that's an interesting little, little rabbit hole we could go down. You mentioned the term passive income. And those of us that have been, that have been interested in an entrepreneurial space for a long time, and especially the online world, we understand what passive income is. But what do you mean by passive income, Kurt?

Well, it's money that comes in. You do the work, and month after month it still comes in. And in my case, they come in through donations. Through Patreon is primarily the way I do it. There are affiliate income that has become very popular in this space. I mean, you think of people who write books or other kind of courses and those kinds of things that bring in. I wouldn't call it guaranteed, but it's pretty steady.

Yeah, it's income that's not necessarily based on your own time investment. Right. One for one time investment. I think about real estate investing, having rental properties. Now you have to do some work for rental properties, but you have enough rental properties or maybe you hire a, you hire a property manager or something like that, and that's an asset that you own that brings in income, regardless of whether you actually do any physical activity or mental activity to do it. It just brings in passive income. Right. And that's, that's like the holy grail of a side gig, I think, is to build a passive income at some level. And you can do that through many different things. But we're not going to go into that right now. That, that would be a fantastic conversation for the future. And then I'm pretty certain that will be a conversation for the future on, on building on the types of business you can build and the benefits of each type of each type of business. But first and foremost, people earn. They usually start a side gig to some, earn some kind of an extra, extra money. And it's not necessarily to get rich, but you know, if you're, if you need to. You hear Dave Ramsey talk about this all the time, go drive for Uber or go deliver pizzas or, you know, go start a little. Go sell stuff at a, at a craft show or whatever to pay down your debt. Witches. That's really solid advice for sure.

And it has. It's been really satisfying. Like when my wife would say, like I said, she didn't really bring in a bunch of income during much of our married life. But when she says, yeah, I bought all the Christmas gifts with the money I made through the travel agency, there you go. That makes me feel, I like. That's awesome.

That is awesome, dude.

That's very cool. We actually very much enjoy what we do and to hear little things, you know, or she'll buy something for the grandchild, so she spends it in that kind of way and makes you feel good.

I know where a lot of my extra income goes, right, Grampy Joe? That's exactly right. That's exactly right. So let's talk about building financial security and how having a side hustle means more financial security. Listen, man, if something unexpected comes up, a medical bill or home repair and you have some extra income to cover it, that's a big deal. It's not just about protecting yourself now, though. It's. This extra income can help you grow an emergency fund, retirement savings. You know, we talk a lot about retirement. Giving you general just peace of mind to know that if all help, bro, all heck break breaks loose for some reason. You have something, you have something there. Wouldn't it be good to just know you have some kind of safety net in place through a side gig, through a side hustle?

I do. And again, as we're thinking about what we're talking about in terms of retirement, multiple sources of income, you know, I'll have the 401k and those retirement funds hopefully doing well by the time I retire. And you got the. What's the government source?

Oh, Social Security.

Yes.

Social Security. Good luck on that.

Right, well, I've been looking that up. I signed onto their website. I got a pretty good estimate of what Social Security should be. And I'm not worried about that too much. At my age, it should be. It's the younger people that might have more problem than me. But yeah, and then there's, like you said this, the side hustle. Continue to build that and do something you enjoy. It's just another part of the stool for me.

Yeah. These next two, when I, When I thought about these next two before I put them on the list, I thought, how true is this? How true are these next two points? And these next two points, the first one, Build your mental health. Let's talk about how a side hustle can build your mental health. It can really have a. I think it can have a powerful impact on your emotions, on your mental wellbeing. We know that studies after studies, after studies show that engaging at some level in purposeful work outside of your regular job, right outside of your regular grind, can reduce stress, improve mood, provide a sense of accomplishment. Something that you've done, you've didn't necessarily have to depend on anybody for this. Whether you like your job or not, there's something about doing it yourself, having something that you're building yourself to really help with your, Your mental health, your emotional health, your. Your sense of well being. And again, it's not just about the money. Money's important and it kind of shows the value of what you're. You're putting out there in the world. I think that's what money does. It. It shows the value of what you're contributing, but having something to look forward to, something where you call the shots. Right, Kurt? Yeah. It can really bring a. To me, it brings a deeper sense of satisfaction and just mental clarity.

Yeah. The one thing I didn't see in your list, but I'll fit it in here has really been the relationships that I've built. And again, working in something that you're passionate about. So those two things are really important for. For my mental health. I joke with people, but I'm actually very serious. I have no social life outside of Joe and my podcast community. That's not a bad thing. No, it's just the way it is. Most of my social life is online and with people from around the world, but it's pretty awesome. And it's all around the passions that I've built through the communities that I've been involved with. If you're not just doing it for the money, that's. I think that's horrible.

Boy, that's a good point, Kurt. That is such a good point. Listen, this is your side hustle. Choose it yourself. Choose what you want to do. Choose what you love to do. Choose what you. What brings you joy and satisfaction. And this is why I think it's. It is such a benefit to your mental health to have a side hustle because you're doing something you want to do, something you're in control of. And let's face it, if you're working on a side hustle, you don't have time to sit, then sit down in front of TV and watch four or five hours of TV every night. Not that there's anything wrong with that. And I do my share, my fair share of watching television. But if you're working on a side hustle, you don't have time to waste it just watching garbage.

Right? We talked about this in our episode last week. If you do not like your day job, this is a great opportunity. And I think it's great for your mental health to take action and do something in a space you might be interested that could possibly. You could meet some people, you could learn some skills that you want to build. If, I mean, you always hear, hey, become a coder. If you thought you had some technical ability, man, there's plenty of opportunity in today's world with being so connected electronically and so many opportunities to learn extremely inexpensively, things that you could really make a good full time living off of. Yeah, doing a side hustle is a great way to do that.

Yeah. This next one surprised me when I put it on the list as well. Kurt and I really had to think about it. Along with physic, along with mental health, I think you can really improve your physical health by having a side gig. And like I said, this one, this one surprised me a bit when I put it on the list. And I thought about it and I said, why is this on the list? But you know, having some kind of side gig or side hustle, I believe can improve your physical health. When you feel more financially secure and fulfilled, it reduces your stress levels, which in turn positively impacts your physical health. Lower stress levels. I know for me, the less stressed I am, the better I sleep, the better my doctor numbers are. Whatever those numbers are that we go when we get our blood tests and our pulse taken and all those tests, those are all better. When I'm in, when I'm in a lower stress state. And having a side hustle helps me concentrate on things that I love. It keeps me busy physically even. You know, you got to move from here to there and you got to, you know, you got to take care of business, whatever that might be, and you're not sitting in front of the television. But when you have lower stress levels because you're doing something that is fulfilling to you, it definitely improves your physical health. And I believe that.

I was thinking, since I'm going between five till eight o'clock at night, I'm exhausted, I sleep really well at night. I was starting to chuckle when you were alluding to that. And also if you are in a job during the day that you sit a lot, I really enjoy if you had a side hustle that was physical, if you did a little bit of mowing lawns or wood cutting, those, you know, physical activities outside, that would be great too, because I love doing like my yard work for myself. But if you had a side hustle in that direction, where you got out there and did a little physical activity, that could be good for your health too.

Yeah. And let's not, let's not discount those types of side hustles. You know, we've talked, we've talked a little bit about coaching and online business and podcasting and stuff like that, but you could, you could build a really lucrative side hustle with your art, with walking dogs, with cutting wood, with cutting grass, all of those things. I don't care how old you are or what shape you're in, you can start at some level and do some, do some physical side hustles that would really help your, help your health. So I do believe that starting a side hustle can boost your mental health and your physical health, but it also, when you have a side hustle, it gives you the opportunity to broaden your horizons, explore new interests, passions, or hobbies without necessarily leaving the security of your main income producing thing. Right. Your main job. I Don't know, woodworking, writing, online coaching. You can make it up. This is yours, right? This is your side hustle. You can completely make it up and just start at whatever level you want to start and see if it's something you enjoy doing. Just try stuff. You can try anything you want to try. And if you like it, maybe you can build a little side hustle out of it. Who knows? You just might discover your next passion in life. We talked about that last week. Discovering your path and not waiting to start to discover your path, but just start, start doing something. Do the least suckiest thing, right?

Yeah. You start by asking me what made me want to start a side gig. This is one of the things I love. I've got lots of interests. I seem to always come up with other new interests. So I love exploring and going deep in those interests. It's one of the things I get a lot of enjoyment out of my life. So yeah, this is a big one for me.

Yeah. And I think it's important to, as you go through life to try new things. In trying those new things, if you can earn a little bit of extra income from it, then all the better. But no matter what you're doing, it's just practice, right? You're just practice. You don't have to take it so seriously. This isn't. Your life isn't dependent on it. You have another job, Right? We're talking about a side hustle, which by the, by the definition it means you're doing something else other than your main income producing activity. This is a side hustle which could turn into something bigger. And we'll, we'll certainly talk about that. But don't, don't be afraid to explore new interest and exploring new interests. That's my next point. You can improve your skills by starting a side hustle. It really is by starting a side hustle. And you said it, you said it just a second ago when you talked about coaching. And I know exactly what you mean by that, Kurt. When you're coaching somebody and maybe you're stuck a little bit on what to do, you have to, you have to kind of give your own little crash course in learning, man. When you start a side hustle, I do know this. Every business I've started, I've learned some kind of lesson. I've learned some kind of lesson in finance, budgeting, marketing, time management, sales, whatever it might be that has helped my full time career. And those, all those lessons came from a side hustle. So by starting a side hustle, you can really improve your life skills, your financial skills, your professional skills, your personal skills, your interrelational skills. You can improve a wide variety of your skills just by starting a side hustle.

Yeah, because it's real work too. And I was thinking, think of learning something. I did a bunch of side consultings even when I was younger. I did some Microsoft access application building for a couple different people I did and which was a technology I wanted to learn more about. So that helped me in my job. I did some website building with, with someone. And yeah, I mean one thing I did learn though in doing that, speaking of passive income or trading between, trading your time for dollars when you're building applications for somebody, I really learned this the hard way. You own it. And even if it's a side hustle, they always want you back.

Yep, yep.

Once they get their hooks into you, they need you and watch it back. And you gotta be careful of that because it is on the side that can get tiresome. So I've learned that little bit of lesson not to get into something that I'm not willing to commit to.

And man, if it's something you love, you really have to be careful of that. You have to be conscious of how much time you're committing, how much time and energy because you do. After all, you have a full time job that's probably paying the bulk, your bills. Right.

If you get burnt out, it's no fun anymore. You lose the passion for it pretty quick. Yeah.

But you know, along with this improving your skills, when you improve your skills, it's a great way to keep your brain sharp too. Right. Again, at any stage in life. But to be quite honest with you, as a man in his mid-50s, I start thinking about that how do I keep myself mentally sharp, how do I keep myself that mental acuity, those synapses firing. Right. And how do I keep that growing and keep that going and constantly learning and keeping my mental capacities right? That's important to me. So starting a side gig, if that's important to you, it's a great way to keep your brain sharp. And you do that by exploring new interest and improving your skills. The last couple of points, you know here, and here's the big one. For me, a big reason to start a side gig is if you're not terribly happy with your current job. Now I'm pretty happy with my current job right now. I'm contributing. I get to travel a little bit, I get to meet great people. I'm kind of in, I'm in control of what I do and when I do it, for the most part. But there is a part of me that if I let my mind linger while I'm at work, I may be wishing I was doing something else, maybe wishing I was coaching one more client or producing one more thing instead of whatever I might be doing for my, for my work. So there may be some potential there to transfer into a full time, a full time career from your side gig. And this happens a lot. Many, many full time careers, entrepreneurial careers started as side gigs. Very small, but they always have potential to grow into something larger. And for some, maybe, maybe myself at some point in my life, full time self employment. You know, around 30% of people, I was reading a study around 30%, I think this came from Inc.com, about 30% of people with side hustles eventually turning them into their primary job. Because it's a low risk to kind of get going, get moving and to see what's out there. To see how you can grow something. If you want it to turn into a full time gig, then so be it. But if you're not happy with your job right now, starting a side hustle could, could be that potential trash. Transition out of the work you're doing now into something you love.

Yeah, I love that. And I was thinking, I love prototyping, fancy word, but that's what you're doing with a side gig. You're prototyping that possibility and you're, you're dipping your toe in it. You're, you're seeing if you're good, you're good at it. See if you get satisfaction from it. Do you enjoy it? Yeah, there's, it's fantastic way to try to do things outside of what your full time work is. Yeah.

And especially like I said, if you're, if you're dissatisfied with your full time job, this is a perfect opportunity. Just start a side gig, figure out something you like doing. Maybe you like making whirly wigs or widgets or whatever it might be, whatever it is, and you take them to a little, a little sideshow. What do they call those, like farmers markets or craft shows and flea markets and stuff like that? Low risk. Just give it a shot. Right. Because really side hustles do have the potential to turn into a full time gig. So if you're dissatisfied with your job right now, consider starting a side hustle. It's a, it's a fantastic way to dip your toe in the water. Right. To prototype a potential new career at low risk. I Love that. I love the thought of that. Prototyping, a new career and something that is, that is close to my heart. And these are all kind of intertwined. More money. You can do a lot of things with more money, but when you make more money through a side gig, you can certainly boost your retirement savings. Right? And a side hustle can provide more money towards your future without making huge sacrifices. Now interesting. When you reach a certain age, the government allows you to the tax man, the IRS allows you to start putting even more money into retirement. Right? Even more money into retirement and you catch up money. And sometimes you don't always have that extra disposable income to catch up, but if you had a side gig, you would, you could take that side gig money and put it into your retirement fund as catch up. I'm not giving tax advice here, but the good thing about it is that money may be completely non taxable. So if you earn income and you put 100% of that income into, into your retirement plan, into your qualified retirement plan, I believe. Call your tax man. Don't take some yahoo from Cincinnati, Cincinnati's advice. Talking in a microphone. Just because he's, just because he's talking into a microphone doesn't make him a tax expert or an expert of any kind. Right? But contact your tax man because or person, text tax person. Right? Let's be careful and see if that would work for you because I do know that when you make extra at a certain age, you can put catch up money into your retirement funds. And if you don't have the disposable income, a side gig would give you that disposable income.

I like the idea of catching up.

No doubt, no doubt, no doubt. And there's all kinds of investments or I mean, it may not be a retirement fund. You may just want to invest money somewhere else. Right? You can do whatever you want to do. I mean, whatever would make your retirement better, be it paying down your debt, give you the peace of mind, whatever it might be, that extra income can just boost your retirement savings. It definitely can. I like my next one on the list here. Flexibility and control. I love control. I'm a bit of a control freak. I like being in control of my time and my resources. I like being in control of what I do when I want to do it. And I'm quite honestly, I've chosen a job and a career where for the most part I have control over my time. Now I have to produce results. And as long as I produce results, I'm in Control. Now if somebody stops producing results, then that control might be, might be reined in a little bit. But the beauty of a side hustle, it's entirely on your, entirely on your terms. You get to decide, Kurt, how much time and effort to put in. You get decide, get to decide when to work. And this kind of flexibility makes a side hustle, a side gig, just perfect for anyone with family obligations or a full time job. If it's yours, it's yours. And you have the flexibility and control to do whatever you want to do. Plus, having a sense of control over your schedule is deeply satisfying. Deeply satisfying.

Yeah. I love working early mornings and I feel very productive early, early morning doing my side hustle. Other people like staying up late and doing those kinds of things, but it works. Whatever it is, I have that control and it's given me plenty of time. I think you mentioned, you know, trying to do what, eight to 10 hours, I probably put more time than that. But having that flexibility to do what I do, a lot of it off hours works for me.

Here's the funny thing and I just thought about this, Kurt, is I can tell you just about how much time I spent at work and my main income producing activity in a week. Sometimes it's 50, sometimes it's 60, sometimes it's 40, sometimes it's, sometimes it's 30, depending on what happens. Right? I do have that kind of flexibility. Rarely is it under 40, I'll be honest with you.

Right.

It's usually closer to, to the 50 or, or a little, or a little more. But I can tell you almost every week about how much time I put into that work. Do you know what? I can't tell you. I can't tell you how much time I put into my side gig, how much time I put into my coaching business.

Time like just passes by, it just flies by, man. Yeah.

You know, I was having a conversation with a, with a client, I think just, yeah, it was just yesterday, just talking about the progress of their project and I thought it was going to be just a 15 minute conversation scheduled. 30 minutes. And I thought we were talking maybe 10 in the 30 minutes were up, right? 30 minutes were over. I'm like, wow, that went fast. And that's what happens when you're doing something you love. That's what happens when you're talking to people you care about. And that's the beauty of coaching, is in coaching you're talking to people that you genuinely care about. If you're not talking to people you genuinely care about or Coaching people you genuinely care about, you're doing them a disservice and stop doing it. Right. But.

Well, that's right about side gigs being passionate. It's a passion project too. And you know that you're doing something you're passionate about. If time just seems to go, go by quickly, absolutely, you're doing it.

And finally, number 10 kind of rolls everything up into one. Increased life satisfaction. You know how, how much I like to do a little bit of research when I do these shows and find, find studies and research statistics and all that other stuff. And I found one by Bankrate, a survey that Bankrate did that showed 61% of people with side hustles reported a higher life satisfaction. And I think the reason is because it's a combination of earning more money, having more control of your time, and engaging in work that you genuinely love and enjoy. Right. You feel like you're contributing. So life satisfaction, increased life satisfaction kind of rolls everything up into one. But man, even if it's something small, Kurt, just having that creative outlet, that financial boost, it can dramatically improve. It does mine my day to day happiness. And just think about, how could you, how could a project, any kind of side gig that you have, how could that project give you the excitement that will help you make it through your day every single day and give you a more fulfilling life?

I like that percentage, 61% because you could think of it being just more work on top of work that you're doing after hours when you could be sitting around laying around watching TV, I suppose. But I 100% agree with this. Like I've said, I guess you have to be doing again, something you're passionate about, something that falls in your values, something that again, it's in me. For me, it's relationships. It's, you know, that value of helping people, being engaged with people. I'm doing something I'd like to do, like travel. Talking about travel. Talking about happy things. Yeah, and going on travel and meeting up with people. There's getting positive feedback from people on the things that you're doing. Yeah, there's, there's, there's a lot there. But it definitely is having people even at work praising me for my side hustle.

That's pretty cool, isn't it?

That comes up a lot. They're like what you do. What? Yeah, I, I've been doing this for ten years.

Well, there's my list, Kurt. Ten reasons to start a side hustle, Earn extra income, build financial security, boost your mental health, improve your physical health. Explore new interest, improve your skills, potential transition to full time work, boost your retirement savings, flexibility and control, and overall increased life satisfaction. Before we wrap up this section I this part, I do want to say a couple things about starting a side hustle. You might think at a certain age you're, you're too old or you're too young or you're not in the right stage in life. And I would just invite you to set that aside, especially age. If you feel like you're maybe you're too old to start a side hustle, set that aside, man. Age can be a huge advantage when starting a side hustle. Experience wisdom. You have an existing network of people, you probably have, you probably have some, some more assets set aside that could, that you could tap into that Younger side hustlers don't. I I think about Colonel Sanders, Sanders from Kentucky Fried Chicken. He was in his 60s when he started KFC. When he started going around the south with his seven, seven herbs and spices, right? Hustling his, hustling his chicken and he just built it, he built his business, but he was in his 60s when he started that. It's just proof, man, success. Since success can show up at any age. Don't let that, don't let that hold you back.

I love that advice. This has been a great episode, Joe. It gives me, gives me a lot of positive energy in what I'm doing, I guess and satisfaction of what I'm trying to do in my side hustle. But I was thinking of an example too of someone on YouTube and I've got to watch one of these YouTube. Some one YouTube title is starting a YouTube channel when you're older. Like the advantages of being older and starting a YouTube channel because you might think that's for all the social media kind of work is for the young people who doing all these crazy things. But I was thinking of this. I have a, one of my hobbies is my fish tanks. And there's an elderly gentleman, he owns a store, a pet store with takes care of fish. But he has a very specific niche in the way that he does it. But he has this really fatherly, grandfatherly approach when he talks about the hobby. And I find him very appealing. And I think it doesn't matter. You're going to, whatever you're doing, your audience is going to be attracted to you and who you are. And it can be a good thing to have all that experience and be a little older.

Wait until you find out he's 10 years younger than you.

I know it could be all off, dude.

And you wouldn't expect me to say anything but this, to wrap up a conversation like this. Listen, don't wait for the perfect idea before you start. Begin with something that you might think you probably could be. Possibly be good at or something you. You think you might enjoy. Just start there and let that passion grow as you progress. And don't be afraid to pivot, you know, don't be afraid to move in a different direction. But don't wait for the perfect idea. That's the curse, man, to starting a side hustle. Just to wait until you find your passion or wait until you find your path. And we talked that a lot, a lot about that last week. The key is what? The key is to take action because momentum and interest will follow just as naturally once you get going.

And don't forget or don't be afraid to bill people for their. Your service.

Oh, that'll preach right there.

How's that for an ending?

Yeah. Get paid.

Get paid.

Get paid. Absolutely. Well, that was a good conversation, man. Yes, I like that.

Great topic. Thank you.

Yeah. Yeah. Pretty good. Pretty good conversation. Let's get right into our stuff. Kurt, what's your win for the week?

Well, I really enjoy sports. Fantasy football has been fun for the last several years. I've done really well. Now I'm into three leagues. This year, it was just a horror show. I was losing. I mean, I think I had one win after like six weeks or something like that. But this past week, all three of my fantasy football leagues, I won. So that was fantastic. I don't know. I got a long way to go to get back into competitiveness, but still, that was fun. And then my Yankees are in the World Series, so it's great to have your team be in the championship. So I'm excited for that. Starting on Friday night, we'll be watching the Yankees and the Dodgers.

What a series, huh? Those are. I think those are fun series. A lot of people are railing against the east coast, west coast series, but two interesting teams, big followings. I'll definitely watch or listen at some level to every game and follow it and be interested in it. First of all, because I'm a fan of Kurt Stone. I'm a fan of the Yankees, and I'll give you that. So we'll see. We'll see. I'm not a big. You know, I should. I know I should cheer for the National League, but I'll support you, Kurt.

Thank you. It was a great series with Cleveland. Boy, there was some of the Best games I've seen in a long time. With the Cleveland Yankees series for the AL championship. That was, man, some games that just went right down to the wire. Great, great drama. It was, you know, congratulations to the Cleveland Indians.

I love World Series.

They had a great, they had a great year this year. Really played, played hard. And the Yankees just, it seems to be their year. So we'll see they can beat the Dodgers.

Well, I took the grandkids to Kings island this weekend.

All right.

They came down for a couple days and, and we headed off to Kings island and played the, played the games where there's a winner every time. Right. And so we left with a whole bunch of stuffed animals and it was just a blast. And here's the cool thing, and I don't know if I told you this or not, Kurt, or I told. Told listeners to the podcast about this, but my grandkids, both of them, they've graduated to the big roller coasters.

That's a big deal.

That is a big deal.

How old are they?

They are nine and six or nine and seven. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, six or seven, that's a tough, that's a tough age to be doing roller coasters. I know. I have an experience in this topic. Joe. I was talking to a listener last night who listens to Dudes in Progress and she was telling me her daughter, who's four going on fives, did all of the Disney coasters and all the tough big rides and really loved it. So she's a thrill. So your grandkids are thrill ride seekers?

My granddaughter. More than my grandson. Yeah, my granddaughter, she's a hands up the entire ride, the whole time.

Nice.

We're on one big roller coaster and she had her hands up and she looks over at me, right in the middle and she yells, grandpa Joe. I'm floating. Because, you know, roller coaster you. Right. You know, if you, if you get the right air. Right.

Hope you're. Hopefully you're not floating out of your seat. That's a little nerve wracking when you were little.

What fun, man. I mean, just what fun.

Yeah.

If you, listen, if you have, if you have kids in your life, if you have people in your life, find a way to spend time with them. Find some way to spend time with the people who love you and the people who you love. And I love these grandkids. I love my wife, I love my kids. But there's something special about just hanging out with these kids, all three of them, man, that just what a blast. Every single time. If I have a weekend that I'm hanging out with the grandkids. You better believe that's going to be my win for the week, because that's the best thing that happened to me that week, and I'm going to call it a win. So Kings island with the grandkids this weekend, they graduated to the big roller coasters, and I couldn't be more thrilled.

Are they going to have, like, Halloween nights at Kings Island? They do that?

Yeah, that's what this was. They have a. They have. It's called Halloween Haunt.

Haunted houses. Like.

Yeah, haunted houses. But we never go to those. Those are those that. The Halloween haunt on the weekends is extraordinarily busy.

Yeah, extraordinarily busy.

I mean, you can't move. It's just. It's. It's really geared. It's geared for a different demographic than me.

Okay.

But, you know, I do want to go. I think I might want to go to one of them. But during the day, on the weekends, they have what's, you know, the normal. The normal Kings island experience.

Gotta be winding down, though. Winter's coming.

Yep, definitely. And then we have Winter Fest, and that'll be a blast as well.

Well, speaking of Halloween, I did a little research on what could be the top 10 Halloween movies. Perfect for getting spooky with the Halloween coming up this week. Joe, this one, the first one on the list, is probably the one that scared me the most. I remember seeing this in the theater and jumping and kind of be embarrassed with my girlfriend at the time. Halloween, the classic from 1978. The slasher film. That's a good one. I'm not always into the real spooky stuff, so some of these even aren't even that spooky. But the Nightmare Before Christmas, the Tim Burton animated musical, really popular film.

That's a weird one. Yep.

It. Which is a long one, but Stephen King's always great. I love many of his. That was. I remember that being a Made for TV kind of thing. A little disappointing ending, but other than that, it was pretty good. It. And this one gave me nightmares. The Exorcist from 1973. Anything that's demonic definitely is rough. For me, the Exorcist is.

This is the scariest movie I've ever seen in my life. Let me. Let me explain something to you, Kurt, and I mean this sincerely. I can't even think about it without getting creeped out. And I've seen it one time, I was 10 years old, okay? And I've been terrified of it ever Since I can't watch it on TV. Here I am in my mid-50s, a man in his mid-50s. I believe it, that when it comes on I'm like, I want nothing to do with that. It's too much. It's too much. There's something that's just too demonic.

Stuff about it is really rough.

And I. And I've watched. I've watched scary movies and even movies that have the exorcism and demonic possession theme. But there's something deep in my core about the Exorcist that I can't shake. And I want nothing to do with it. Man. It comes on, I hear that music and I just. Oh boy, that's a tough one.

The Omen you made me think of too. That was. Yeah, that was pretty rough. Around the same time. The Blair Witch Project. I've never seen that one. Kind of unique in the way that they did the footage on that one. What we do in the shadows. I don't know this one. Hilarious. I don't know if you know this one. Hilarious mockumentary about vampires living in the modern day New York. I didn't know that one. 2014 hocus pocus. That's a family friendly one.

That's a cute, cute, funny movie.

Good for the. Good for the grandkids, the witches. An animated classic. I don't know that one too, but it's. It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, 1966. That was one we watched every single year.

That is a classic. Love it, love it, love it.

Yep. Always, always. Never missed that one. That was still. It's probably still out there. Last one is Halloween Town. A Disney Channel movie town from about full of supernatural beings. So there's. Think of. My wife loves all this stuff. She's bigger on this. These Halloween movies. She likes the spookier the better. But yeah, they'll be. They'll be playing a lot over the next week.

Well, this was a fun surprise for a resource tip or hack.

Thanks.

I like this man. A quick little top 10 list. Yeah. Gives me something over the weekend.

Yeah.

Yeah. What fun. Awesome. Awesome. Mine is not so. Mine is not so dramatic and not so personal or interesting, but mine. Mine definitely is. I don't know if it's a sign of the times or what it is, but I went to. Because I'm doing a lot of travel. I take my laptop with me to do some of my side gig stuff and I went looking for a new solid state drive that I can store most of my stuff that I need for the Work that I'm doing. Not the. My main work, but my side gig while I'm on the road for my main work. And so I started looking for solid state drives, particularly a large USB drive, you know, the thumb drive, but still a good amount of storage. I can't believe how inexpensive these drives are now. The size and portability of storage right now, Kurt, is just amazing. I can buy 128 gig thumb drive. 128 gigabyte thumb drive for 12 bucks.

Yeah, it's amazing.

It's amazing.

All the space they can get into. It's a little, little device that is.

That may be 10 times larger than my. The storage on my first desktop computer.

Right. For sure.

It's just amazing. So if you're. If you are looking for inexpensive storage, if you're that kind of person that's needs some portable storage, check out solid state drives right now. Everything from two terabyte solid state drives for under $200, right? To a small little USB drive that you can get. 128 gigabyte USB drive for 12 bucks. I mean, gosh, it's amazing.

Solid state means it's going to be fast too, right?

It's going to be fast, right? There's no moving parts. That's pretty cool.

I don't think my first computer even had a hard drive.

You had to put floppy disks in, right? That's amazing.

I'm forgetting. Yeah, it's incredible. I was been looking at like the two terabytes. I think I was looking during the Amazon prime for just around $100. Maybe a little more.

Yeah. Pretty impressive. Pretty impressive. Let's wrap up with our quotes.

Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. Abraham Lincoln.

Oh, boy. I don't know if I've heard this one from Abe. I know, from President Lincoln.

I don't even know if I believe it's from him. He's got too many. He had to have this one, too.

That's a good one, man. Things come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. The early bird gets the worm, right? That's Abe's. Lincoln of the early bird gets the worm.

Is he the one from that one, too? Yeah.

I don't know.

Ben Franklin.

Yeah. That's a good one, though, because it's so true, right? Things come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.

So true.

Oh, boy.

I was surprised. Yeah, that was from Abe Lincoln, but yeah, we like Abe. He's a good guy.

My quote comes from Peter Drucker. Peter Drucker's a pretty well known management consultant guy, educator, author, kind of, I don't know, the Godfather or the father of modern management practices. I think he's, you know, let's see, he's. He was pretty old. I think he, he died in 2005. But a real genius. Right on management and business management and.

The father of these kinds of productivity books.

Yeah, absolutely. Peter Drucker, he said, and I love the short, concise nature of this quote, he said the best way to predict the future is to create it.

I love that. Yes.

Oh, it's awesome.

I love what we were talking about.

And that does dovetail great, wonderfully into our subject. If you want to create your own future, do it a little bit at a time. Go start a side hustle. Right? I agree. Well, let's wrap up right there. Of course, our website, Kurt, is dudes in progress dot com. Dudes in progress dot com. Our email address is dudesudesinprogress.com if you want to reach Kurt and or me for coaching services, to chat about the show, to talk about some good ideas on your own side hustle. Even if you just want to bounce some ideas off of us about, about productivity or building a business or whatever, it might be happy to chat with you. No problem. Just, just let us know. Email [email protected] and remember, especially man, especially if you're starting a side gig, don't wait for it to be perfect. Just make progress. If you're starting a side gig, just take action. Progress. I promise you progress is better than perfection. Just keep moving forward.

Let's get out there and do the hustle, Joe.

That's classic. See ya, man.