The Side Hustle Activator Show: Recent Episodes
Jay Ho
The Side Hustle Activator Show is the podcast for millennials who are looking for ideas, actionable tips and inspiration to turn their side hustle into a six figure business. Find out from people who have escaped the 9-5 by working on their side hustles. Join us weekly when we interview every experts who have turned their side hustles to their full time gig. We tackle everything when it comes to entrepreneurship: making money online, making money offline, marketing, sales, websites, social media marketing and process improvement. Learn from the experts about e-commerce, dropshipping, Amazon FBA, YouTube automation, passive income, blogging, monetizing FB communities, niche sites, SEO, affiliate marketing, Fiverr, running a digital agency, creating six figure courses, coaching, consulting and so much more. Learn how to launch your side hustle and turn that idea into a profitable business. Create the lifestyle that you want by starting today. It doesn't take a lot of money, just action, the right actions and advice.Guests include Brian Winch, Gary Jenkins, Kyle Borawski, Britanny Dixon and many Tony Robbins and Gary Vaynerchuk disciples. Hosted by Jay Ho, Serial Entrepreneur and World Traveler at Side Hustle Activator (.com)
Learn the top tips from 14 entrepreneurs who have scaled their side hustles to six figures and beyond.
**Episode 12 - How to Become an Award Winning Author with Tikiri Herath
Episode 13 - How to Become a Virtual Assistant with Natalie Pinnell**
Episode 14 - Scaling to $2 Million Revenue in 2020 with Adam Lando
Episode 15 - The 5 Pillars to Building Your Business with Kat Millar
Episode 16 - Leveraging Twitch and Digital Events to Create Magical Experiences with Michael Tedham
Episode 17 - Modelling to Serial Entrepreneurship with Daisi Jo Pollard
**Episode 18 - Life Hacking to Become a Marketing Director with Bruce Chen
Episode 19 - How to Start a Gym with Chaw Ftiness’s Chawlyn Mezas
Episode 21 - How to Become a Full Time Twitch Stream with Nathan V**
**Episode 22 - How to Monetize with Data with Cocoon with Jeff Bermant
Episode 23 - How to Take Your Passion and Turn It Into a Business with Bro Dough's Founder Erica Rankin**
Episode 24 - The First 90 Days. Escaping the 9-5 to Become a Plant Entrepreneur
Episode 25 - $40+ Million Selling Paddle Boards with Shark Tank winner Stephan Aarstol
Episode 26 - Brian Scudamore - Building a $400M+ Home Services Empire With Just $700
Episode 27 - How to Make Six Figures with Corporate Sponsorships with Jessica Chinyelu
Episode 1 - $224,923 in 90 Days: Dropshipping with Kyle Borawski
Go to Youtube
Ask Questions and reach out to people who have done what you want to do
Mess around in Shopify
Use the 14 day Shopify trial
Go to Thiev
Episode 2 - Becoming Sydney's Top Rated Coach with Scott Epp
Service based entrepreneurs will face challenges
You have to pivot
Encourage to awaken the wild lion within you
Find your tribe, your community that brings out the best in you
Episode 3 - How to Earn $30-50 an Hour Picking up Litter with Brian Winch
Passion - enjoy
Patient - things aren't going to happen over night
Persistent - it comes from working your business. If you work your business, the business will work for you
Episode 4 - Why Purpose Trumps Opportunity with Chin Hing Chang
Build a business around you as an entrepreneur
At the end of the day build a business that you enjoy
Start from that and then figure out what needs to be in the business and how you're going to do it
Episode 5 - From 0 to 17,000 LinkedIn Followers Within One Year with Celeste Ansell
You as an individual are unique in your skill set and embrace who you are as a person share that from a genuine place.
Episode 6 - $25,000 a Month Loan Signing Agent with Connor Brown
Start before you feel you are ready
When you are ready go direct instead of staying with a loan signing service
Episode 7 - From Side Hustle to the Dragon's Den and Beyond with Wendy Ambruster
Don’t be afraid to hire your first person
It frees you up to do what you’re good at
Work on the business not in the business
Episode 8 - Freelancer to $50 Million Dollar Clients with John Norra
You need to delve into advertising
You have to passionate
Things are changing so fast with FB ads
It can grow from a side hustle to a full time job
Episode 9 - Rising Up For Equity, Diversity and Inclusion with Manpreet Dhillon
As a side hustle you still have a role to play in equity, inclusivity and diversity.
Episode 10 - How to Buy One Property a Year with Gary Jenkins
Have a good solid goal
Conquer Fear
You either live out of love or fear
Reduce fear
Optimism that I can do this!
Episode 11 - $25,000 Christmas Lights Hustle with Scott and Jude
Just Do It
Take Action
If you just put it out there people will definitely come to you
Being able to put faith in yourself
If somebody else can do it, you can do it as well
Jessica Chinyelu is a Nigerian-American wife, mom, boss, Motherhood and Lifestyle Content Creator based in Dallas, TX. Jessica’s goal is to encourage, empower, educate, entertain and influence her readers to go out and claim what’s rightfully theirs and live the life they imagined.
**She’s someone who is focussed on family, business, beauty, fashion, faith and fitness and has attracted an audience of over 34,000 followers and 600,000+views. She’s had campaign partnerships with Herbal Essences, Kroger, Gillette, Wal-Mart, Reebok, She has been featured on BuzzFeed, DailyMail UK, Cosmopolitan, ABC News, Good Morning Texas, Brides and many more media platforms.
In 2012 she started The Woman of Purpose Network which now consists of 3,500+ members and caters to 500+ women at the annual Woman of Purpose Conference. Jessica has hosted four annual conferences where women gather for resources, connection and fellowship. She’s the founder of TheSponsorshiplady.com**
On her website thesponsorshiplady.com there’s a quote that says “You Don't Need To Spend Hours Doing The Work. You Just Need Me.”
Brian built a home services empire starting with just $700 in 1989.
In this in depth interview he shares the value of:
- The Beer and BBQ test when hiring employees.
- Why having that Willing to Fail Attitude is key.
- What he took away from being on Oprah. That you should only have things in your life that are significant, meaningful and useful.
- Why he had to get out of his own way as the business got larger.
- Why connecting with people is his favourite part of the business.
- Why comparison to other entrepreneurs put himself in a doom loop and how we got out of it.
- When you’re trying to solve a creative problem, go to a creative place.
- How he lost some people when he shared his vision but those that remained believed in what they were building together.
- Why having people who believe in the business is the most important element to help it grow and thrive.
- It’s easier for people to accomplish what they want in the world, if they knew how easy it was to just reach out and ask.
- How he had to make a tough decision to fire his best friend who helped him grow the business from $2 million to just over $100 million.
- How WOW 1 Day Painting became one of the emerging brands after Brian had an amazing experience with getting his house painted in 1 day.
- How Shack Shine became an emerging brand after Leigh Adler from WOW referred a gutter cleaning company to Brian.
This interview with Brian is the culmination of a dream I had 9 years ago with starting a podcast and meeting the world’s most influential entrepreneurs. After 3 podcast mics and many non-starts I finally had the confidence to execute on my idea and make it happen. When I moved back to Canada last July I had to find a job and go into quarantine.
During quarantine, I decided then that I would finally start a podcast and I ended up getting hired at 1-800-Got-Junk? As a residential sales agent. When I first started I remember hearing about 101 life goals, which is an employee facing bucket list website where set your goals and get tips as you go.
Shark Tank winner Stephan Aarstol shares:
- How he went from being an SEO guy selling $50,000 of poker chips a month to winning a $150,000 investment on Shark Tank and the biggest lessons he learnt from Mark Cuban.
- How he leveraged his Shark Tank appearance in order to grow from $100,000 lifetime sales to over $40 million in lifetime sales through the Shark Tank Effect.
- He shares what happened when he implemented a 5 hour workday for all of his employees.
- How he plans to fight back against Amazon in order to cut out the middle man and have the world’s best curated direct to consumer brands depository.
- Why focusing on your product and value proposition is the best way to grow your business.
- Why keeping your burn rate low is key. The best time to start your business is when you are young and have less to lose.
- All of his favourite growth hacking tools
Prior to launching The No Middleman Project, Stephan’s last start-up was Tower Paddle Boards. In 2011, when his business had generated $100,000 of lifetime sales he went onto Shark Tank and got an investment of $150,000 from billionaire Mark Cuban. By 2021 Tower surpassed $40M in lifetime sales.
Stephan was able to leverage his Shark Tank appearance and has been featured nationally on CNN Money, CNBC's Power Lunch, the Huffington Post, ABC's Beyond the Tank, Fox & Friends, 20/20, Fortune Magazine, People Magazine, Adam Corrolla Show and my favourite podcast, Entrepreneurs on Fire. I actually listened to his episode many years ago and it’s a thrill to be able to interview him today. Stephan’s become a thought leader in entrepreneurship and was even once hailed as the World’s Best Boss by German Newspaper MorgenPost.
He’s a veteran of the e-commerce space and someone who challenges the status quo. In 2015, he challenged the unhealthy start-up work culture and moved his company to a 5 hour workday and has even written a book about it that has been read by tens of millions of people.
Chad Camacho escaped the 9-5 and became a startup founder with Frondly Plants. He shares his journey as an immigrant entrepreneur, his experiences as a growth marketer, how he went viral on LinkedIn and how he made his first sales.
Erica Rankin took a passion for fitness and healthy food and has created Bro Dough, one of Canada's most exciting Consumer Product Goods company.
She shares how she went from 30 sales a month and storing everything in her car to 700 sales a month to now exploding and getting close to that in a week. (This literally happened in between recording the episode and its release just 2 weeks later.
Get paid for your data. You're already giving it out for free so why not get paid for it?
Jeff Bermant joins the show to talk about the future of data, getting paid for your data and his entrepreneurial journey.
Jeff is a former professional tennis player who transitioned to banking and then real estate development. In his career he's built close 3/4 of a billion dollars in real estate.
For the past decade, he's been a Tech founder working on tackling privacy and now helping the people get paid for their data through his app Cocoon: My Data Rewards.
Nathan Valdez shares his journey to become a full time Twitch streamer. He didn't excel in regular jobs and last worked as a security guard. One day he decided to go all in with his music and he's never looked back.
This episode is for the dreamers out there wanting to escape the 9-5 and pursue their music full time.
In honour of International Women's Day we highlight 17 female entrepreneurs with 16 side hustle ideas for 2021. On this special episode we have writers, inventors, coaches, a consultant in the equity, diversity and inclusion space, course creators, a wedding planner, a musician, models, gym owners and a service providers for dog.|
Chawlyn Mezas shares his journey from completing her Bachelor's degree in Netherlands to flying to Canada to explore the world. It was here that she went to InfoFit Personal Training school with Jay Ho and would later combine her experience as a Zumba instructor and personal trainer to eventually launch C.H.A.W Fitness.
In 2015 she moved to the island country of Sint Maarten and started freelancing as a person trainer. In 2019 she took the plunge and opened up her gym. She's faced many adversities like a hurricane that devastated the island and have a heavy weights injure her so badly that she needed reconstructive surgery.
Through out all of this she has gone on to win the Fittest on the Rock competition and continue to pivot and adapt during COVID.
Chawlyn's a resilient individual who just shares it like it is and tells you what she thinks. If there's anything to take away from this interview it's this:
Don't be afraid to fail. Go out there and build your community today.
Marketing Director of Kocha Soft, Founder and Host of The Makeshift CMO Podcast shares his journey from being a Chemical Engineer grad to bartending to making the leap and move to another city.
According to Bruce, the biggest life hack is to move cities. This forces you out of your comfort zone and you will certainly grow. Bruce talked about how being intentional was a game changer for him. He’s been intentional with meditating daily, cutting people out when he had to (although this was tough), seeing professional help when you don’t feel like yourself and lastly in the information that you are consuming on a daily basis.
Welcome to the Side Hustle Activator Show. Today’s guest is Daisi Jo Pollard. She’s the founder of My Product Model, a unique creative agency specializing in e-commerce product shots, videos, and copywriting for digital catalogs and advertising campaigns. I brought her on the show to find out about how she went from being the former Miss Jamaica signed to top modelling agencies like Ford, Wilhelmina and MMG to launching her side hustle on Fiverr and now running her own creative agency. Somehow she’s found the time to be an ambassador and spokesperson for non-profits and serving on boards like the Meningitis Foundation of America.
Music was always a part of his life because his mom was an aerobics instructor
First Big Break was when Michael’s older sister dated a DJ in high school and the guy agreed to take him under his wing.
Friend worked for a local DJ company and got him his first job in the industry. Michael worked on the sales side and eventually ended up at Caprice as a DJ.
On the side he began to organically grow
Dad’s mantra growing up was “you can’t get a good job if you don’t have a degree” As someone that doesn’t like to be told what he can’t or can do, that guaranteed that he wouldn’t get one.
As he grew his DJ’ing he started growing Man About Town Entertainment on the side.
In 2011, he was at a tipping point. He spoke to his dad and his dad told him “You know Mike you gotta make a decision and maybe this is the time. You’re young. If you think you can make it then you gotta go head first. If it doesn’t work out then you still have your whole life ahead of you.”
With that, Michael decided to pursue Man About Town Entertainment and the rest of his.
From 2011 really branching out on his own to an entertainment and events company that was booking over 115 events in 1 summer season. Until Covid but he pivoted, went on Twitch and started getting that corporate event gig money as well.
Kat Millar helps coaches and passionate entrepreneurs grow a profitable, lifestyle-friendly business doing what they love.
In this episode, Kat shares her story about taking the unconventional route, being in a girl's rock band and deep dives into the 5 Pillars To Building Your Business.
In 2004, she decided that the 9-5 world wasn't for her anymore and wanted to be an entrepreneur. She made the decision to leave the corporate world and become a coach and educator.
Now she helps service-providers grow a profitable business, doing what they love.
In 2020 when may businesses closed down and tried to just stay afloat he scaled rapidly to $2 Million in Revenue.
Adam Kaplan Lando, founder of Dad's Printing comes on the podcast to share his inspirational journey of entrepreneurship. Learn from his experience as a young entrepreneur starting with autograph hunting to selling snap back hats at the Skytrain to creating his own brand WTFWear and now owning a highly successful printing business in Vancouver.
Tikiri Herath shares her journey from having $20 in her pocket and a heart full of dreams to a coveted career in the intelligence sector. She eventually pivoted and followed her true passion in writing and became an award winning author. Through her fiction and non-fiction books she's able to inspire girls around the world to chase their dreams.
Scott and Jude started their side hustle in Nov 2020 and will be making over $25,000 USD this Christmas stringing up lights for people. It's a special holiday edition episode that we've added to show you how quickly you can turn an idea into a money making machine.
Gary Jenkins is a property investor, builder and serial entrepreneur who's on a mission to help others build their dream lives. He started buying properties in his late 20s. Today, he is travelling around Australia in his custom built luxury RV while living off the income from his property investments.
**Manpreet Dhillon is the CEO and Founder of Veza Global, a company that transforms organizations to embed Equity, Diversity and Inclusion into how they operate.
She’s an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Women’s Enterprise Center, helping BC women start, lead and grow their own businesses.**
**She has worked with organizations like The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (a UN affiliate), UN Women, City of Vancouver, University of British Columbia, 7-Eleven, and a host of tech and biotech companies and non-profit organizations.
I’m excited to bring her on as a guest to share her story and learn more about what equity, diversity and inclusion is all about. Like myself many of you at home work for large organizations and also have a side hustle. So on both fronts it’s important to think about how to effect change in the organization you work for but also how to incorporate it into the business that you’re building.**
John Norra is the founder of Promo Atlantic, an agency that helps E-commerce businesses scale to 7 & 8 Figures through paid traffic. His FB Group, FB Ad Giants is a community for online coaches, Facebook marketers, eCommerce owners who want to start or scale their business. If you own an eCommerce store you know that getting people to buy CONSISTENTLY is a big challenge. You have a great product, brilliant customer service, a clear shipping and refund policy, but your traffic does not convert well into PAYING customers.
They look at what your sales & digital strategies look like and we take it from there. Plug the leaky holes, and then drive highly qualified leads and sales to send a steady stream of customers your way.
Their clients have gone on to achieve incredible results ranging from 5X ROI to 23X ROI CONSISTENTLY MONTH AFTER MONTH.
Did you ever think you could create a product that people could help others?
Snugabell's Founder, Wendy Armbruster joins the show to talk about her journey from working for Telus corporate to launching a side hustle with her hands free bra and eventually escaping the 9-5. In this deep dive she shares her accomplishments and challenges trying to raise 2 daughters as a single mom while bootstrapping her business. She shares her experience on the famed Dragon's Den and her latest round of equity fund raising.
Conner Brown is an aerospace engineered who turned his loan signing agent side hustle into a $25,000 USD a month gig. In less than 1 year he's been able to leave his full-time job and turned his side hustle into his full time business. Conner shares his story of going from being an engineer to being an entrepreneur after going through Mark Will's Loan Signing System course.
Are you looking to get the most out of LinkedIn but don’t know where to begin?
Celeste Ansell launched her mentoring and mindset coaching service on LinkedIn just a year ago and she already has amassed 17,000 followers! That’s incredibly fast -- however, her success didn’t come overnight. You can say Celeste’s journey in mentoring and coaching began when she started exposing herself to many different industries, gathering wisdom along the way. It’s also safe to say that her journey is far from over with her upcoming plans. Have a listen and embrace Celeste’s values-driven approach to launching a side hustle.
Purpose trumps opportunity. While working at Spring Activator, Chin worked with over 500 startups as an advisor and has now started his own company called Classy Narwhal. The conversation was a deep dive into sales. The 3 big ideas for this episode: 1) Starting a business isn't what you think it is. 2) Evaluate your purpose/mission first then build your business around you rather than chase opportunities. 3) Figure out whether you are starting a business because of opportunity or purpose.
Knowing your purpose and mission will help guide you as an entrepreneur and increases the likelihood of success. Check out this interview as Chin dives into sales and emphasizes the need to start with your purpose.
Brian Winch has been making six figures for the last 30 years picking up parking lot litter in commercial properties. He calls it "America's Simplest Business." Others like him are making $30-$50 an hour doing it as a side hustle. In this interview we find out more about Brian's story about entrepreneurship and how the money is in the cleaning business.
Today his company is pulling in $650,000 in revenue with fairly low operating costs. It's an amazing business that is made for anyone as long as you have the persistence to do it.
Scott Epp shares his journey from corporate sales to owning 8 rental properties and eventually founding Sydney's top rated coaching company. Before Scott was able to unleash the lion from within, he went through heart break and took a while to find his place in the world. This episode is for coaches, entrepreneurs and those who are struggling to find their path.
Kyle Borawski shares his story about generating $224923 from dropshipping in just 3 months after graduating from college. In the first episode of the Side Hustle Activator Show, Kyle shares his genuine insights on what it takes to be a successful drop shipper, how to find the winning products, the tools he's using to continue to grow his stores such as Thiev.co, Direct Heroes, Spocket and how he scaled the business from a one man show to having a team of 7 others run his various e-commerce stores. At 23 years old, Kyle's already set himself up for financial freedom and he's here to just give value back to the listeners.