LanTOK Side Hustles

The March 2023 Land Talk is about side hustles. People have different interests and skills they can use to make money on the side. Many people have side hustles and do multiple things to earn extra money. Side hustles require time and commitment, but they can be rewarding. Technology plays a role in side hustles, with many people doing them from home. Some examples of side hustles mentioned are selling special edition books and doing graphic design through Fiverr. The Rover app was also mentioned as a side hustle for dog walking and pet sitting. Side hustles for animals are becoming more popular as people prioritize pets over having children. Side hustles related to beauty and kids are also mentioned as potential profitable options. Overall, side hustles can be a way to earn extra income and pursue personal interests. Hi, this is our March 2023 Land Talk, and our topic for today is side hustle. So this is a very interesting topic. How did you guys come up with this? I think we were talking about different types of jobs, and we were like, oh, we can have, like, a side thing on the side. Just when we were talking about our last thing, trying to come up with a theme of what we wanted to do for the year. And we were like, oh, side hustles, everybody likes that. Because everybody has their own kind of thing that they like to do on the side. And if you can make money with it, that's even better. Yeah. I know one of the side hustles I have is I do flyers and graphic designs through Fiverr. Oh, nice. That I'm trying to set up to do. And so you can, like, make your own mini, like, website and, like, a little portfolio and everything. And it's just interesting when you look at it that a lot of people today have side hustles. No one's just doing, like, one thing right now. My dream eventually would be, like, to be able to make up their own hours, be at home, or work from home and do, like, their own thing. Especially after the pandemic, people have got a taste of what that's like. I think that's one of the side hustles that a lot of people take an interest in, though, is if they offer something for later on, something that people can actually be in charge of their own program. Sure. I know there's a lot of entrepreneuring going on these days and stuff like that. So people have multiple side hustles. So that's good. But, I mean, side hustles are good, but you have to have time. You have to commit to that. And it's just, like, a million and one side hustles. And then, you know, like, you get so – you get inspired, you know, when you see, like, a friend or a family doing, like, a side hustle. You're like, oh, yeah, I can do that, too. When you kind of break it down, you're like, this is a lot of time consuming. You know, so it's like, you know, it's good and it's bad. It's up and it's down. You know, you have to just see, you know, what is good for you or, you know, any little skill that you have, you know. And it is true. It is really time consuming. And so you have to sacrifice from other areas in your life to be able to do it. But if you look at, like, even considering, like, how rent prices have gone up and stuff. Like, I have friends that have picked up side hustles just so they can, like, put a roof over their head and everything that's going on right now. Actually, every person that I know right now has – not only has a side hustle, but they are doing, like, two or three things at the same time. And every one of them is to have a little bit more of money. Because even if you have, like, your necessities covered, you don't have any money to spare. You don't have anything for emergencies or if something happens, you don't have it. And it's kind of scary. Okay. So you put all your money that you do have into it to get it up and running because you need to be able to make it survive. And then you're spending more money putting stuff into it to get it off the ground than what you're actually making. And it is hard, especially when you have bills and things to pay for. And you want to keep your thing going because it's, like, maybe a hobby that you really like. And you're like, I could see this going farther. I want it. And then you're also like, I want to live somewhere, too. And all these things. So it's kind of like you have to kind of choose. And I think that's what takes people a long time to get it off the ground running. Well, it's funny you mentioned that, like, hobbies and everything like that. One of the side hustles that I do is I sell special edition books on the side through a website called Makari. And the way that I do it is I do the extra side hustle so I have money to buy the really pretty and beautiful, like, art prints and books and everything. But then I'm like, well, I've got to pay for them. It's like, how am I going to pay for them? Like, they're really expensive. Like, I've spent, like, I mean, because I'm at the point where, like, cost of living is just so high and everything to, like, get food, rent, everything like that. Anything extra you want to do is coming out of side hustles. So, like, if I want a book that's, like, $60 to $120, like, I'm not paying that through my job paycheck. Or even if, like, I want to go out to dinner with my friends. I'm a huge foodie. It's coming from a side hustle. So a lot of the times what I'll do is I'll sell the books I don't want because it's, like, a subscription that I have to do. And then I'll just be like, all right, well, I got, I bought this for $60 but I sold it for, like, $130. I'm going to use that extra money and, like, you know, go out to dinner and, like, you know, actually leave my apartment for a day. Like, that's how it goes. But it's interesting how technology plays a role in side hustles today. Because a lot of people are doing side hustles from their homes. Like selling my books or doing my graphic design through Fiverr. I don't even have to leave my house for those things because they're all digital. Interesting. So what are your, like, some good side hustles or, you know, like, really, really good ones that, like, what are some really good – I'm trying to repeat myself because I feel like I'm talking really low. What are some good side hustles that you guys have considered or feel like is a really good side hustle that, I don't know, maybe is less time consuming? Or, yeah, what are some good side hustles that are less time consuming? Well, I think – have you guys seen the Rover app? No. Where you can become a dog walker or you go watch someone's animal for them. Like, it's an animal babysitting service, pretty much. Like, and it kind of works – like, I mean, if you think about it, Uber, Uber Driving, like Uber Eats, those are all side hustles on the top as well. You kind of control your own schedule with them. But with Rover, like, you put, like, your profile out there, like, I'll work with dogs or I'll work with cats or this, so far. And rather than – clients will look through the different profiles of Rover applications of people who've offered to be a babysitter, and they can choose them if it works for their schedule. And, like, they like the person or anything like that. And you just get to walk dogs. And, like, you can decline if you don't have the time for it right now. Oh. That's an interesting one. I thought it was, like, you're letting a stranger into your house. It's like Care.com. Like, for, like, little kids when you look for a nanny or something like that. But this one is just for a nanny for your pets, basically. I've never heard of that before. You've never heard of Care.com? Yeah. I've heard about that. But the Rover one, I've never heard of before. I've heard loosely about that. Like, when people are looking for, like, a dog walker, you can always go on that. Yeah, dog walker. But I was thinking it was, like, a pet sitting business. Yeah. I didn't know it was an app. What's funny is, I think the reason it's, like, such, like, dog side hustles versus children side hustles now, if you look at our generation, a lot of people, there's a research saying that people are buying houses for their animals rather than their children now. They are getting backyards to have, like, dogs and everything. So even when you look at, like, we talk about side hustles and stuff like that, like, it's not, like, a side hustle used to be, like, an au pair of going and, like, working with kids or doing something, babysitting. Your first side hustle as a teenager is, like, babysitting. But now, even side hustles for babysitting are, like, becoming animals with the change in, like, just who we are. I don't want to say people, but just, like, our social trend. It's our generation. Our generation, what we've been seeing is that a lot of our generation, we don't want kids. I think as we become adults and we start realizing how much goes into just living for ourself, and then if you have a significant other that you move in with, then there's two bodies to feed and to take care of. And then if you bring in kids, that's also more so people's tendency to get animals more, I feel like. And now they cherish them like they're babies. And you'll see more people from our generation, they don't want kids because they can't handle them. And so they get a dog or a cat. And I could see, like, you know what you're saying, my dad always said, listen, I've considered side hustles for beauty and things like that, like cosmetics, because that's really big. And now, too, he's like, you're looking at this all wrong. You have to go for what people are going to want. You have to go for something for kids or for animals. He's like, anybody, no matter what situation they're in, they're going to fall into that category and they're going to be suckers for it and they're going to get something for the kid or something for their dog. I am a sucker. And the way this is its own side hustle, too, is I'm a huge sucker for cat videos. Yes. And I'm like, it's not like YouTube cat videos. Those take too long nowadays and stuff. But if you send me a TikTok or Instagram post that's like 30 seconds of just pure, like, cat media, it's a minute. Like, those influencers, like, they're still, like, showing, like, cat brands and that's their side hustle as well. But those side hustles are so catchy. Like, as a consumer, I'm just, like, looking at them and, like, send all of them. Send them all my way. Like, you're totally subliminally mine messing with me and I don't even care. Like, she realized, I don't know, what was it? A fountain for cats to drink because apparently they like running water and it was, like, it looked like a little mushroom and it had water falling on it. I was like, that's amazing. I have a water fountain just for my cats. I'm like, I want a cat for this. Oh, that's really funny. I think our generation is very much into side hustles now. Like, you know, they're not very fast. They want the jobs after they get out of school. It wasn't an option anymore. Yeah, but you have to be careful with side hustles because they can, sorry, I remember the best side hustle I ever had was, like, a full-time movie reviewer. Because I make friends with this guy that was, like, the owner of a movie place. And he was, like, I don't have the time to watch the movie and to tell the people if it is good or bad or anything. And since I was going there so often, he told me, like, you watch them and you like them because they get feedback so maybe you go do it and I will pay you. And at first I loved it because I was doing what I love and I was getting paid for it because I was going to get feedback anyway. But at some point, when I started to feel that instead of watching the movies because I wanted to watch them, I was watching them because I have to, it became tiring. I didn't want to watch them anymore. That's interesting because there's a side hustle for librarians that once you have your degree, the school library journal in, not the Kirkpatrick Review, this is another one of those, like, publishers and everything. They will actually pay librarians to do book reviews. So, like, you have two. I had to do one for school and I actually happened to be friends with an editor for school library journal and she read, I had her read mine and talked. I'm like, maybe the teacher has a side hustle I'm going to pick up when I'm done with school. But you have 250 words to read a book and describe it. Oh. Yeah. That's good. Yeah. So, it's like a, it's a lot more challenging. You're literally using 250 words to, like, give, like, kind of a list of what the book's about and, like, the important aspects of it. Yeah. So, you don't leave out important details. 260 is not enough. You have to sum it up really, really quickly. But it's also interesting to think of, like, side hustles that we have in our career of what it is that we do. So, like, being able to do work for school library journal, which is such a pronounced publisher and everything like that. It's kind of interesting. I just wish that they marketed it more. I think that's one thing about side hustles that people tend to fall into side hustles depending on what your hobbies are. Like, book Instagrammers are one of my biggest ones or influencers that I've seen because they give us what you care about, what you watch and everything. But sometimes, like, there is so much information and everything is so digital, overload is a huge problem of trying to find everything. So, like, I really wish that they marketed it and said more, like, hey, we offer you this. Or if you're in this profession, we offer you this because you like this. I just wish it was a little bit more, like, organized or just mainstream because it's a lot of overload. Okay. And I agree. Like, I didn't know about what they do that, like, we use the school library journal and we're doing, like, permanent cards that we're ordering. We have to look up reviews. We use that here for it. But I would have never thought that they would have asked for, like, you know, this, like, an everyday librarian perspective on a book and then you can actually get paid for that. I didn't know. I thought it had to be someone within house, like, you know, who works for the company who's doing the reviews for it. Yeah, I think they, like, you can, like, say you're interested. They vet you based off your experience. Okay. And they kind of, like, look at, um, you have a couple samples. You have to show them and stuff like that. And then they go, they assign you based off what you're interested in. They give you books based off of those. So it's kind of cool. They're not like, here, you don't like contemporary or fantasy, but read this huge fantasy and, like, modern technology day. And I'm like, no. Yeah. And they do actually take what you're interested in to consideration and stuff. But I wonder, like, things like that. Ari's example of, like, movies, like, burnout. Yeah. It is. And then you're like, I can't look at or I can't watch it for my own entertainment. I'm looking for these little things that I should make comments about. Or if you see you haven't really made any comments or written down anything about the movie, you're kind of like, all right, I'm going to have to go back and analyze it over again. So I could see that where it's not a fun anymore because you're not doing it for the entertainment purpose. You're doing it so that way you can bring out facts about it and present it to other people. Well, side hustle literally is a second job or a third job. You know what I mean? You can get burned out from anything once you do it repetitiously. I mean, I know people do side hustles for the extra cash and everything like that. But everyone's like, yeah, yeah, you know, I can just do this on the side. But then, you know, you like doing that. And then sometimes people, they just add more on their plate. And then that adds to more burnout. So, you know, if what I'm trying to say is that if you're doing your side hustle, even though it's something that you love to do, just be mindful that, hey, I kind of like to slow down on that because that can add to burnout or I don't know, just, I don't know. It all depends on what you're doing. Write it out or, you know, allow yourself time to hang out, do this, do that, because that also can lead to burnout on top of your regular job, you know, that you're doing. So, I mean, it's a good thing and it's also a bad thing because just like what you explained about overload, that's another factor. So, my question is, you know, when do you, as a person who has a side hustle life, when do you sign off? When do you stop? You know, when do you say, okay, enough is enough? Or when do you say, no, I can't pick up this, but you know, yeah, when do you decide that, you know? I'm not very good at that. I'll be the first. And I think the last couple months this year, especially being in school, like working 40 hours, having like a couple side hustles that I do. I also, my friend is a caterer and I, another side hustle is I do, I run her entire marketing department. So, like I do, I mean, her website, I do all of her menus and everything for pop-ups and stuff and I'm tired. Like I'm really tired. I have reached a point, especially I think in the last couple of weeks with just school, like I said, school and everything, where like I'm starting to realize I need to put those boundaries in place and I don't know how and it's really hard because there's not a lot of tools out there to kind of teach you how or where to get them from. So one of the things I've started with is I've been looking for a therapist just to kind of like where else, if they may not be able to provide me with those tools, but maybe they could tell me who can. What do you mean? Those tools as to? When to say no, or not even knowing when to say no, because I can say no, but it's the boundaries of knowing what's too much for me. Like when do I know what my limit is? And I have a very hard time because like, well, I can handle this. Oh, this isn't too hard. I can definitely do this. This isn't a problem at all. And it's not that I can't do the specific tasks or what the goals are. It comes back to the idea of overload of like my tiny little mountain is turning into this like gigantic mountain and things are just starting to like crumble on the side. And it plays a role in the body. I don't think I have ever felt as tired and old, and I'm not even that old, as I do right now in my life. I was going to say, I think you have to listen to your body, because when you get to that point, you're like, I can't go on one more day. Like you think about it, like when was the last time I actually had a vacation that I had time off? And you see, it's been about four or five months, you haven't had one day off and decide like, you know, maybe if you get like a holiday off, but you yourself haven't taken vacation time. You're like, all right, I lose that. That's your ego burned out. You don't want to go on anymore. And it's even to the point that like with that vacation time, you get to a point of like, we're going to sit over here like, you know what, I finally just have a moment. You sit on your couch for like, two days have gone by, three days have gone by, and you're like, oh, I finally have energy to maybe go up and do something. So then you have to turn around and go back to work and do it all over again. So like everything you wanted to accomplish, all you accomplish is to have energy to do what you were doing before. Which isn't recharging, in a way. It's not. It's the same thing over and over again. So what I wanted to say is that, all right, so that means that, sorry, so that means that, you know, I'm just listening to everyone and, you know, talking about side hustle. And I feel like this is a very, very good topic. But however, I feel like, you know, side hustles are good, but the pandemic kind of pushed forward a lot more people to do side hustles. And then, on top of that, everyone's doing side hustle. The market is very saturated. However, we find that a lot more people are burned out, have mental health issues. And side hustle, not to blame, you know, side hustle, but I feel like, just like what Jess is saying, sometimes you just have to say no. So side hustle is good, but it's just not really all about the money. You know what I mean? Because you're taking all that money in, but then you are, what good is that doing on your mental health? You're dying, basically. You know what I mean? Like, everyone wants the money, wants the money, wants the money, wants the money. You know, inflation is here. Recession is there. You know, but sometimes you just have to put aside that side hustle sometimes and just say, all right, just get back to basics, you know. And it all, you know, side hustle kind of reminds me of like doing a second job, but just not getting up, getting ready, leaving one job and going to the next, like that physical being, but basically doing the work from home. And that, when you look at it under a microscope, that is literally like a second job. So is it worth it? Well, that's the other interesting question you put behind it, is the perception of not having a side hustle. Of when you think about it, being a mom is a side hustle. It's a second job, that's a side hustle. I mean, it can hustle us a little bit, but it's not for me. Let me think about it. Being a mom, having a side hustle, the way, if someone was to come up and say, no, I don't have a kid, no, I have no animals, no, I don't have a side hustle, all I do is go to work and like go home. I feel like people who do that, the perception, it's kind of, I feel like they're approached negatively. Like it's almost like you don't have a side hustle or something that's going on or like a kid or something else outside your life. What are you doing with your life? You have no responsibility. I think it's kind of pressure though. Like you're doing nothing and they make you feel guilty about it. It is jealousy. It's not necessarily guilt. For me it's jealousy. I used to have that at one point. I don't have it anymore. I also feel like we get in a juked cycle. I think that was the best thing that I came up with, is the idea that we have this pressure, this idea that you need to get a side hustle, you need to do something with your life. We have kids have tests. We do work if you're not having any of that. The responsibility, that we need to have all this responsibility. And when it comes right down to it, we really don't. It's just adding pressure to us as an individual. And then we scream burnout, burnout, burnout, burnout. Like no. This society is so fast paced. And I feel like the American culture, we all need to slow down. We all need to slow down. But everyday more and more is adding on everyone's plate. To be honest with you, I would love a side hustle, but I can't. I can't do it. I just cannot. Even if I wasn't a mom. Even if I wasn't in school. I can't do a second job. That's the least I can do. I thought I could find hustles. That's it. Right. But I just want, because it's just so draining sometimes to get up in the morning, get ready, go to work, doing it repetitiously over and over every day, every day, every day. You just want that ability to just relax. I would love. But at the end of the day, it's just not about that money. It's not. I say mental health freedom. What makes me wonder, because you brought the idea of the American culture versus other cultures and stuff. For me, born and raised, I'm American. I'm not necessarily always proud of that, but I am. But it's interesting thinking about the side hustles in American culture versus what you guys have experienced in other cultures. I would love to hear the difference or see the different point of view. Something I noticed that was different here in contrast with my country is this culture of always being working and always trying to be number one. Always trying to be the best person that you can. At first, I thought it was great. But at a second point, I thought it was really, really ambitious to the point that you were trying to get to where you didn't want to be. For example, when I get to my teachers at high school, I have very good grades in high school. They were like, oh, you want to be a doctor or something. I was like, actually, I want to study philosophy. They were like, why? Why? You could be a doctor. I don't want to be a doctor. I don't want that kind of pressure on me. They were so shocked that someone didn't want to get to the best that they could, to get the amount of money, the amount of prestige or anything. I was like, no. I cannot deal with that. I mean, for me, well, I was raised here, but I have a little bit of culture where I'm from in Jamaica. I know as far as work ethic, it's not as fast-paced as here. Just like what Ari said, in America, you have to be the best. It's still there. The pressure is still there, but work life is not as tedious as, from what I know, work life is not as tedious as here. Like how some jobs are open seven days a week. No, it's literally a Monday through Friday schedule. Everyone's home Saturday, Sunday. On Sundays, it's family time. Literally, everyone's home cooking dinner. It's family time. This church where I'm from in Jamaica, everyone's either cooking rice and peas and chicken or some type of meat with the rice and peas. It's that type of culture. It's not as fast-paced. Everyone's working from Sunday through Saturday. Now, it's slowed down. On Sunday, the only place you'll probably find open is, I don't know, a grocery store or gas station. Yeah, business places, they're locked down. There's no business conducted. Here, sorry, basically, in my culture, it's not that fast-paced. It's not that eager to have that side hustle. Well, you know what? People do eager to have side hustle, but they know when to break, to have family time, to have me time. It's just not that constant pressure every day. Like, yeah, everyone has a side hustle. Everyone wants that, even today. Everyone's doing this. Everyone's doing that. As a culture, we need to just slow down. I feel like it's just a fast pace. We have to be doing this. We have to be doing that. I know I'm not from there, but I've done a lot of research on European cultures and stuff like that. It's not like here. It's just on the go, go, go. We have to do this. One of my favorite things, too, like Denmark or Sweden. I forget which one. It's one of those types of countries. They work four days a week. I think they do nine, 10-hour days, and then they're off Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. So they have longer days, but they have more days off, more time to do what they want and everything. Research has shown that that is actually a healthier, better way to schedule your work weeks because it gives you more time in between, and most people are already working over their regular eight hours. So technically, in our culture, it's not a 40-hour week, even though we're all supposed to be working 40 hours. We're working like 60, 60 hours versus doing like 40 to 10 hours, which are going to stay longer anyway. It's just like it's priorities. It's like what they're putting their priorities towards and everything. It's very interesting that side hustles stem from the fact that we put so much priority on working rather than being home with your family or doing things like that. I have a friend who we consistently argue because he's like, no, I would never work if I didn't have to. He's like, I would be home with my dog, with my girlfriend. He's like, that's where I want to spend the time. And my argument is, well, I love my dog. I love what I do. I love coming to work. And we have a very hard time coming to terms with each other. And it's not a bad conversation. We don't hate each other. I think that's why it consistently comes up. But it's just that point of view of what we think is a priority. It's very interesting. I want to add. Sorry if I said something wrong. So I'm glad you mentioned that, Jess, because I had a switch of career. Because initially, I went to school for nursing. I finished nursing school. I graduated. I went to Palm Beach State. And I passed my NCLEX. I'm licensed to register RN. No one knows that. Right. That's a lot of work. However, I did not want to do that anymore. Because I did per diem at a detox. And the hours they put me on, I was like, oh, no, this is just not for me. And while I was in nursing school, I worked at the library as a student. And I was still working as a student and per diem. And I said, no, I don't want to become a nurse. Because of the hours. And I had to do overnight shifts. I mean, it was three days, 12-hour shifts. And I just couldn't do it. I was just like, no. So I opted to stay in the library system. Because everyone was looking at me like, you're crazy. You should be making a lot of money. And I'm like, yeah, for me, it's not about the money. It's what I really prefer, what's good for me, what's good for my lifestyle. And I feel like going to work, coming home, and sleeping in my bed is way more important than chasing a bag. Yeah. So I opted to not do nursing, which I could make a whole lot of money. And I choose to stay in the library because, and that's why I wanted to do the medical librarian. Because my whole feel is in that. And I feel like I still have that advantage of being in the medical field, but I'm not working so much. Physically, mentally, I'm not being drained as a nurse, whether it's in a hospital, whether it's in a rehab, whatever it is. And I choose that because I did not want that. I chose my battles. But yeah, if you want a family, that's a very hard life to choose, especially just starting off. Because you have to take the shifts that you're given because you don't really have any seniority whatsoever. So you're doing those late night shifts all the time. If you have kids, it's very difficult. And another thing, I had my daughter. And I'm like, there's no way I can work. Who's going to watch her? And kids, it has a toll on them emotionally. They all see it. Yeah, if you have a parent. For those of you who are listening, I raised my hand. I'm pretty sure we've all grown up with parents where they went to work and you see them maybe once in the morning. You don't see them for the rest of the night because by the time they get home, you're sleeping again. And they don't understand that. I lived my life from the age of three to almost ten like that. Because first off, my mom, she used to be an Apache helicopter mechanic in the military. So I lived with my grandmother for two years and I never saw my mom. Two years without ever seeing your mom and being there for important milestones or anything. And then when I finally did live with my mom and she had gotten out, she always worked the night shifts. Like how you said, I'd be going to school, my stepdad would be taking me, and my mom either wouldn't be home or would be sleeping. And I wouldn't see her, so I would go two, three weeks without seeing my mom. And being older, that built so much resentment that her and I had to work through. It was being like, you were never there. And as I'm older, I understood why she did it. But it wasn't until I was like 24, 25, I was an adult, I was living on my own. Of like really understanding. She made those choices, though. She could put a roof over our head and do things and take us to Disney. You learn to appreciate it as you get older. Yeah. You can see it because you're an adult now and you have to kind of go by the same kind of way. But I was an angry little kid. No, you're not. No, you're not. All you know is, okay, she chose work over me. I'm here with my dad all the time. I barely see my mom. She was never there. How dare she? She missed our childhood. And then as you get to be an adult, you see, and especially if you have kids of your own, you start doing it for your kids. And you're like, okay, I see it now. And like you feel bad because you had all this anger towards everything. I got a little shit. Oh, I'm so sorry. Thank you so much. Even though you look at it and you're like, a thank you is not enough to show your full appreciation for the things and the sacrifices that they did in order for you to have a better life. Well, that's the idea of the sacrifice aspect. She still sacrificed that time. There's time that will never get back. There's memories that she'll never be a part of. And even though when you grow up and you understand why, it doesn't take the complete thing away from it. And it never will. It's just sacrifice when you pick up side hustles or you pick up extra jobs or you do extra things. You're taking away your time from other people in your life, other things you may want to do. And there's always going to be consequences in reproduction. You see, that's what I didn't want. I did not want that from my daughter. So I made the sacrifice and then by heart I was like, no, I can't do this. This is just not for me. And I went back to what I was doing. And I just made the executive decisions to stay in the life of the experiment. I love it. This is my own information and stuff like that. And you know what? To get on the same subject of side hustle, when you look in the library system, we kind of pick up our little side hustles with doing programs. We do. Stuff that we've never done before. I can't do this in real life. And then when we're doing our programs and stuff like that, we have to teach ourselves how to do stuff in order to teach it or to produce it to our members. The only thing is that we're not getting paid. We are getting paid. Well, we are, but we can't keep our job. Right, right, right, right. That's what I mean. That's what I mean. Because you know what? Some of our members can't be, you know, you know. Yeah. We deal with a lot. And it's different. What we do is working in the library. What we actually go through mentally, physically. A lot of people assume we sit down and we read books and we don't do anything. The biggest misconception. The biggest misconception of what we do. But if we think about it, the craft that we do, the informational programs that we do, all of that is research that we do. And a lot of us do that from home. We take what we're doing here as a side hustle at home to read and look information. It's just extra time that we're spending that we're not being paid for. That's what we do at home. And we turn around and bring it into work. And that's a lot. So for asking us to do all of that, deal with, I mean, I appreciate and I like our homeless people, but also dealing with homeless people, the social aspect of what we're doing, it's all mentally taxing. So to add extra burdens on top of that, it's a lot. It's a lot. But I do love the freedom we have with our program. So the fact that we have so many different programs, because I really like to just go around learning a little bit of everybody here. Because everybody knows something and you don't realize it until they come out with the idea of, look, I have this program. And you're like, what? You can teach that? And it's really so great because you know the person that is giving the program. You know something new about them and they teach you about something. And it's great. I really, really like the programs that we have here. Okay. So is the library system like a big or a little side hustle? I mean, if we ask our regulars, it's a big side hustle for them. I know for the stitching circle that we do, a lot of those ladies, actually they come in and work on things. Some of them have Etsy's that they sell things on. And that's another digital side hustle that I kind of forgot about is Etsy's. People can sell their arts and crafts. You can create any t-shirt business and sell it on there. One of my favorite, I wish I was artistic. I'm crafty with my Cricut machine and I'm good at being innovative. But I'm not artsy, like drawing, painting, doing anything like that. I'm not great except for like digital design. Society6 is a website where people can go on and they can post their artwork and they get commission based off of it. And they can put their artwork on pillows, bath mats, notebooks, art prints, canvases, tabletops. Like t-shirts, you name it, their artwork can go on almost anything. And they get a commission of it and Society6 makes money because they take like 10 or 20% or something from the commission. I've bought a whole bunch of things with some of my favorite artists. My bath mat is like this little mermaid person off of Society6. I've been a consumer on it for a really long time and it's just like, also, it's just fun. I don't know, I like it. You want to support like those who are doing like a side hustle like on Etsy or like those kind of websites. They're sharing their art because it's something that they're doing anyway to express themselves. And you want to give them the money because you want to encourage them to keep on doing it. Because I think that a lot of people when they do side hustles, they also get kind of charged for it. Because it might not be forming into a company or a group that they want to make enough money. And they're kind of like, okay, well, I can't sustain myself financially doing all this. And so they kind of drop it. And I think that's very disheartening when you see something that they love and they can't do it anymore. Because they can't financially be able to afford to keep on doing it. So when you see those side hustles on websites like that where you're like, I want to support them as much as I can. Especially when it comes to a place where you know what they're going through. I think my favorite in that realm of conversation is Patreon. Where, if you guys don't know what that is, it is where content creators, anybody who has just content or information, they do different tiers. You can pay like $5 and be like a warrior. And they can do $10 and be like a queen or king. They can name their different tiers of whatever they want. And based on how much you're willing to pay monthly is the content that you're available to have. Like for me, I follow a book podcaster called Books Review Till. And he has a Patreon. And for like $5 you get like extra books that he's not reading that's not part of the Discord or conversation that's going on. You get an extra review of it or bookmarks that he does. For $10 you get put into a monthly book raffle. You post your wish list and they'll occasionally pull it. And then your own book. Like each tier that you go on to opens more content for you. And as a side hustle, I think it's really cool of like you're driving people to see, to support you. Because these things are not cheap. And then also of seeing of like what's working and what's not working. What are people really interested in? If they're willing to pay $20 versus the $5, why? Like it kind of lets you see what people care about at the same time. And Patreon's a very interesting side hustle that's very psychological based. And I see a lot of people on YouTube because I saw a lot on BookTube. And a lot of the BookTubers are doing Patreons because that's how they're making a lot of their money. Besides just from the money that they're getting from doing full time with YouTube. But like you know, they have like you said the different tiers. And they make it affordable for everyone. So starting off with $5. And I know sometimes for the higher tiers they sometimes give them like a free product. Like either a shirt with the design that they came up with for their channel or something like that. So when you're paying the money you're getting your money's worth. And they don't just feel like okay yeah you're just giving me money just for me to talk. No it's more than just that. But I think it's interesting how they're doing Patreon now. So question for you guys. So do you think that the market of side hustle or entrepreneurship. Do you think that it is overly saturated now? Do you feel like now everyone that you talk to you know they have a side hustle. Because you know if you have a market that has a whole bunch of people who are selling. And with inflation where are your buyers? Do you know what I mean? So what do you guys think about that? I think it depends on the community. What it is and everything really. Because I'm very, a lot of my side hustles and everything have a lot to do with like books. Because that's what I care about. So I don't find it too much. It depends on supply and demand. Because like there's special edition books that come out that I'll resell and everything. That I can sell for $200, $300. But for the same box that I spent for the same time for like the book next month. The book may only be $60. It just depends on how many people want to read that. And the same thing with, I do think that like digital graphics is very saturated. That particular field. Because a lot of people are using tools like Canva. And things that are, the new generation is growing up with these skills. That they don't need to pay someone to do it. Because a lot of them can do it themselves now. I feel like that's where a lot of the saturation is coming from. It's just the idea of like people know how to do certain things. But I think when it comes to like selling or like content and things like that. It's so individually interest driven that it's hard to saturate that a little bit. You also have to look up for copyright issues too. So like nothing's ever, I know when I went to the school for animation. I wouldn't have to take a whole bunch of art classes. They said there's no such thing as an original idea. Everybody borrows something. And it's very hard to find an original source. So that's another thing you have to worry about with a side hustle. Like a lot of people who do books like on Instagram and things like that. And they make their own bookmarks off of books. You have to be very careful about the characters that you're creating. Because if it matches the description of a character that was put in the book. That's considered copyright. If it looks like a movie adaptation of a character in there. That's copyright. You can't make money because if they find later on your product that is copying off of something else. That was already done. You get in very big trouble for that. So it's very hard to be creative in that aspect of okay. If I'm going here and I'm going to just do it off of books. It depends on where you're trying to go with it. What area you're supposed to be in. Because if it's something books, movies, music. A lot of those things it's going to have a trace back to where it originally came from. And it's very hard to make the site business with it. So I think it is very heavily saturated because it's so popular. But you have to be careful with it too. I think DeviantArt is probably the best example of that. A lot of things that are on that website have tons of copyright issues. Because they're fandoms. They're based off of things that people really liked. And they don't necessarily have the author's permission. So it's kind of doing your research on the site that you're using itself. I know for me, I mentioned Society6 before. Of the fact that you can screenshot things now. As much as technology is spreading by hustles, it comes with challenges of its own. And copyright issues I think is probably one of the biggest, I would say. That I've seen people screenshot, try to claim works themselves and have me buy it. Where I'm like, I know for a fact that you are not the original person. Given I have that stuff up, I do information of a living. And I know how to look for those things. But some people who don't, they have no idea. And they are supporting it. And it's not the buyer that's ever going to find out that they're doing something wrong. It's the consumer. Or not the consumer. It's the seller, whenever they finally get caught. And we don't have a way of teaching people that this is wrong either. Because they don't know? They don't know. So. I'm just going to go. Do you want to answer? Do you want to answer? Okay, so I'm going to say a deeper statement. So with all that you guys are saying, do you feel like in certain industries, do you feel like that type of side hustle need is going to automatically get eliminated? As far as, let's say, the digital aspect. Because now you have Canvas. People who are paying someone to design a website or whatever. You know what I mean? They could probably just do it themselves. Do you feel like that's going to fade out and everyone's going to get attached now to Canvas? Or let's say editing. You literally just do that yourself on, what is it, on your own Mac computer. Or you can just YouTube it. So do you feel like, or even if, let's say, like you sell clothes. You sell, you know, stuff like that. Do you feel like that's going to get faded out and people are just going to, probably just going to go to AliExpress and these other websites straight to the buyer? Instead of, you know, what do you think? I think it's going to morph. I don't think it will ever fully go away. I think what's going to happen is that the way we consume things is changing. So the way we sell things or side hustles are executed are going to change. I think there may be a lull a little bit. And then suddenly there will be like, well, this new skill is out. Everybody can do this, but can you do this now? It's going to have to change. Yeah, I think it's just going to change. I don't think it will ever go away because there's always going to be a supply and demand. There's always going to be lazy people. There are. There are always going to be people like, I wish I was one of those people. I could just throw money like that, but there are always going to be people like, I don't want to do this. I'm just going to pay someone to do it. I don't think we are ever going to lose people like that. So I do think that there is always going to be a room as to skill levels and things like that. I think that's going to fluctuate as time goes by. And I think that people who, like, you know, especially with digital art, they have more of a chance of surviving, I think, because you have the option. You don't have to print anything out. You can send it to them through an email, and all your communication can be through email, and everything's fine. But with that, especially when it's like illustrators, people who are doing things like, you know, coming up with something straight from their mind, a lot of people can't do that. Like, I love painting, but I cannot draw a person from my memory. I couldn't even do good stick figures. So when I see people doing it, I'm like, this is amazing. I know. And I'm like, I can paint. If I'm looking at something, I can draw or paint what I'm seeing, and that's fine. But from memory, I can't. So I think it's people like that who just have a certain talent, like artistic skill, for something that they're always going to be thriving, because they have something that they can offer that not everybody can do. It's like Susan's chalk art. Like, that is not something I would ever be able to do, but I would definitely pay someone to come paint a mural or a sculpture on a property that I had just because it's absolutely beautiful and wonderful. I'm just not capable of doing that myself. I just think it depends on what kind of career you're in, like the area that you're going for. And I think you used the word talent, which is perfectly the way. Skill and talent is what it wraps up to. Not everybody has the same skills, and not everybody has the same talent. True. Which I think is where 5 Hustles and their way kind of stem from, because this one person realized they had this talent, kind of made it a thing, and their 5 Hustles grew. And it's just kind of like, in a way, the definition of 5 Hustles was just like knowing, like picking out something else that you're good at, and kind of adding to it. That's true. Also, too, like I said, we have one more minute. So let me just wrap this up. So basically, yes, 5 Hustles do stem from skills that we have and stuff like that. But then other 5 Hustles, like I was explaining before, like selling, you know, people now, some people are, they're doing boutiques, online boutiques, you know, and stuff like that. That market, I feel like it's super saturated. Like it's so saturated to the point where now everyone's going into it. So now it's a competition to see who is selling what cheaper. And that's why I ask, you know, do you feel like that's going to get, you know, faded out? Because now those same online stores who are, you know, who has all these stuff, you can get it on AliExpress or Shein. That's where they get it from. You know. In number or whatever. I've never heard of any of those. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, so that's why I'm saying now those boutiques now are being in competition to see who can sell what at a cheaper price, you know. And then, I don't know if they know that, now you have these pop-up online stores now or apps, Shein, who now you can, it's straight from China, where you have now a new one called Tm, who is a lot cheaper than Shein. So I'm like, okay, is that particular area going to, you know, be faded out by side hustle? But then there's also like, yeah, you can lower the pricing too, but then as you get lower in price, you're not going to profit anything. Oh, no, not to. Like, you know, if you keep on trying to beat out the competition, lowering your prices, then you're going to be spending all this money because you have to find quantities for those things. So when you buy in and let's say you can't sell everything out, then you have very low prices, you're making very little money, and then as you're buying these things for cheaper to get more, you're also losing the quality. So your company does not have something that's original, your company does not have good materials to start off working with anyway, so it's kind of like they have, they're forced to shut down because they're competing with that. So I think if they were to get something that's better quality, I think that would make them stand out more, even if they do have to charge a little bit more. I think that's what's going to keep them going and not necessarily die out with it, because you have to find something that's going to be different to make you stand out from everybody else. It kind of, kind of on an ending note, it makes me think of like Darwin's theory of evolution, of where like side hustles are survival of the fittest, of what's the strongest, but with this idea of adaptation in there as well, of like you look at like the birds that had to like change the shape of their beak through like evolution because of adapting to their environment. I think it's the same way with side hustles and boutiques and frustrations and stuff, that at the end of the day, it is survival of the fittest and being able to adapt. Yeah, that's true. Well, thank you guys for joining me. This was fun. This was my first one. I know you guys have done it before and everything, and I hope everyone else enjoys our conversation.