0:00

The piggyback principle, the lazy way to

0:02

build a successful side hustle. My kids

0:05

will tell you it's easier to get

0:07

a piggyback ride than climbing the mountain

0:09

by yourself. And you've heard the metaphor

0:11

that a rising tide lifts all boats.

0:14

But the secret is... those tides are

0:16

all around us. And you can take

0:18

advantage of them in just about every

0:20

area of your business. I'm tackling three

0:23

of those areas today, starting with idea

0:25

generation. Then we'll cover the startup or

0:27

creation phase and close with the growth

0:30

and marketing segment. For all of those,

0:32

I'm going to show you how to

0:34

get a piggyback ride in the world

0:36

of cycling. It would be drafting if

0:38

it was swimming. It's like, how do

0:40

I swim downstream downstream instead of against

0:42

the current? And I believe. principle in

0:44

this episode. It's a concept I first

0:46

wrote about probably 10 years ago on

0:48

the Sinusil Nation site, but at that

0:50

time I took a pretty narrow view

0:53

of it. Really, it was just about

0:55

taking advantage of marketplace trends. At that

0:57

time it was things like the rise

0:59

of WordPress or the popularity of the

1:01

paleo diet. And of course those trends shift

1:03

over time, but all else being equal. I'd

1:05

like to be in a business where there's

1:07

going to be more customers tomorrow. than is

1:31

increasing. So how do you find those

1:33

kinds of ideas? Lots of different ways

1:35

to go about it. One interesting place

1:37

to start is exploding topics.com. I really

1:39

like this site because it just shows

1:41

you on the home page, just a

1:43

random feed of things that have increased.

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Hustle. So

32:28

far in this episode we've explored how

32:30

to use the piggyback principle to make

32:33

your life easier in the idea generation

32:35

and startup creation phase of your business.

32:37

Now we get to talk about the

32:39

fun part, how to actually get customers.

32:41

and make some money. When I was

32:43

outlining this episode, the first thing that

32:46

came to mind for the piggyback principle

32:48

in marketing was to tap into pre-existing

32:50

marketplaces. I wrote a whole book about

32:52

this with hundreds of examples in 2016.

32:54

It was called Buy Buttons, which as

32:57

a meta example, taps into the Amazon

32:59

marketplace as a way of finding customers. Where

33:01

do people buy books? They buy them on

33:03

Amazon. I might as well put... it up

33:05

for sale there. That's the thesis of buy

33:07

buttons. Put your product or service up for

33:09

sale where people are already searching for what

33:11

you have to sell. Not particularly earth shattering

33:13

advice and maybe not a strategy you

33:16

want to rely on forever because all

33:18

those platforms have fees, but when you're

33:20

trying to get some visibility and awareness,

33:22

it makes sense to get in front

33:24

of customers where they might already be

33:26

looking. I see a lot of entrepreneurs

33:29

intentionally or unintentionally avoiding these market places

33:31

and trying to attract... customers all on

33:33

their own. Say for example you wanted

33:35

to start a take-out delivery service. You

33:38

would need to find a reliable way

33:40

for customers to order and partner with

33:42

hundreds of different restaurants so people could

33:44

order what they want. Or you could sign up

33:46

for DoorDash because they've already solved those

33:49

problems and have a critical mass of

33:51

buyers already using the app. And maybe

33:53

that's a simplified example, but there's a

33:56

niche marketplace for just about everything these

33:58

days. I bought this podcast. Mike off

34:00

a secondhand marketplace that specializes just in

34:02

audio equipment. Reverb, I want to say.

34:04

I don't know if they're still around.

34:07

Another example came from Summer Fisher in

34:09

episode 652. Summer had a unique rental

34:11

business in that she was renting out

34:13

dresses, but she actually didn't invent that

34:15

idea. Instead, she tapped into a

34:17

couple of marketplaces that already existed

34:20

and already had customers. And I just

34:22

thought they were going to rent them on

34:24

a Facebook marketplace or Deepop or something like

34:26

that. And I looked into it and I

34:28

realized there's this whole industry around dress rentals.

34:30

I put up two dresses. One day I

34:33

was just sitting in my car at my

34:35

daughter's cheer practice and one of them rented

34:37

and I got a notification that had rented

34:39

and I was like, oh my god, I

34:41

just rented a dress, but like now what

34:43

do I do? I didn't really understand it

34:45

and I just kind of went all in.

34:48

So I kind of worked it out as

34:50

I went along and then I ended up

34:52

putting all the dresses up then that

34:54

I had been flippinging. and it kind

34:56

of grew from there and then I

34:59

started buying dresses specifically to rent. There's

35:01

online sites where you can rent dresses

35:03

basically, so they're different in every country.

35:05

So for us in Australia, there's a

35:07

site called The Vault, a big one

35:10

in the US and the UK is

35:12

by rotation, so there's several of these

35:14

types of websites and they're kind of

35:16

peer-to-peer lending, so basically you can put

35:18

up your own wardrobe or like I

35:21

do, run it as a business and rent

35:23

to other people. Again, that's Summer Fisher

35:25

in episode 652. I bet you never

35:27

thought of dresses as an asset class.

35:29

I know I definitely didn't. But she

35:31

built a great business renting them out.

35:33

And importantly, she wasn't trying to create

35:35

demand from scratch or build an audience.

35:38

There was already demand and already an

35:40

audience and a place to get in

35:42

front of them in the form of

35:44

those niche rental marketplaces. We talked about

35:46

Amazon and Etsy and Rover and task

35:48

rabbit and eutomy and teachers pay teachers

35:50

and fiver and upwork and even sites

35:52

like Cloud of Goods for mobility scooter

35:55

rentals generally speaking the more niche

35:57

the marketplace the better when you're

35:59

starting out or the more niche

36:01

your service needs to be to stand

36:03

out. Because obviously platforms like Amazon and

36:05

Etsy and Fiver are more crowded than

36:07

they were a decade ago, but it's

36:10

important to remember that the buyer population

36:12

is a lot larger than it was

36:14

too. And if you can create a

36:17

listing that is exactly what somebody is

36:19

looking for, they're likely to give you

36:21

a shot. So that's marketplaces. That's the

36:23

buy buttons component of the piggyback principle.

36:26

Make it easy for somebody to click.

36:28

your buy button by putting it on

36:30

one of these pre-existing marketplaces. But we're

36:33

just getting started with the marketing stuff.

36:35

One of my all-time favorite piggyback principle

36:37

strategies is intentionally going after strategic referral

36:39

partnerships. This is how you can piggyback

36:42

on someone else's audience who serves a

36:44

complementary but not necessarily competitive niche. And

36:46

this can work in a lot of

36:49

different ways from the handshake referral agreement

36:51

to traditional affiliate marketing where you pay

36:53

a predefined commission or percentage for sending

36:55

new customers your way. The question to

36:58

ask is who are your target customers

37:00

already doing business with? And this tactic

37:02

dates back to some of the earliest

37:05

episodes of the show with Ryan Cotay

37:07

describing getting referral business for his CEO

37:09

agency from a local web designer. Hey,

37:11

this website is built. It's only natural.

37:14

You're going to need help. with the

37:16

marketing stuff, right? So here's my friend

37:18

Ryan, he can help you with that.

37:21

And Daniel DiPiazza, he described, this is

37:23

like episode 35, like really low, really

37:25

long time ago episodes. He described getting

37:27

clients for his tutoring operation by targeting,

37:30

I want to say, high school guidance

37:32

counselors. This is 12 years ago. Forgive

37:34

me if my memory doesn't serve. But

37:37

who are your target customers already doing

37:39

business with or who are they already

37:41

paying attention to? In episode 480, Johnny

37:43

Robinson described it this way for his

37:46

window-washing service. Can work online, can work

37:48

offline. I was sitting in my car

37:50

and I see a van passed by

37:53

me and it's a Hardee's Windows, it's

37:55

a window contractor, a big window contractor

37:57

here in Orange County. And I was

37:59

like, huh, I wonder if after they

38:02

install windows they need someone to clean

38:04

them. I'll just call. And so I

38:06

call them, I'm like, do you guys

38:09

need window cleaning for the stuff you

38:11

guys install? And they're like, no, we

38:13

do that in-house. And I was like,

38:15

oh, damn. So I thought I was

38:18

like some mastermind sitting in my car

38:20

that I was about to get so

38:22

much work. And then that happened. And

38:25

I was like, OK. Who else could

38:27

refer me to residential houses? And so

38:29

I'm like, oh, probably maid services. I

38:31

know maid services don't carry the right

38:34

equipment to clean residential equipment to clean

38:36

residential windows, especially two stories, especially two

38:38

stories. on the exterior. So let me

38:41

call the maters. So I call the

38:43

first three on Yale, the top three,

38:45

and they're like, yeah, I'll pass you

38:47

some window cleaning work, just give me

38:50

a little kickback. So it's like, all

38:52

right, perfect. The first two I called

38:54

of the three, we structured a deal

38:57

where they would refer us and we'd

38:59

give them 15% of the job. So

39:01

that's how we started to get our

39:03

first residential work coming in. That's the

39:06

key, not just finding one-off leads, fountains

39:08

that can become a steady source of

39:10

new business. And it's one of the

39:13

most effective marketing strategies ever, one of

39:15

my all-time faves. And that's why it's

39:17

come up so many times over the

39:19

past 10 plus years. Who are your

39:22

target customers, already doing business with, or

39:24

paying attention to? And let's say your

39:26

business is purely online. We did an

39:29

episode on this fast track strategy to

39:31

growing your email list and your sales

39:33

with Dustin Lean in episode 464. We

39:35

called it the partner workshop strategy. And

39:38

here's how he described it. So you

39:40

kind of find yourself in this situation

39:42

where you have an expertise and you

39:45

can actually help a lot of brands,

39:47

but they don't know you exist. And

39:49

so when going through that process of

39:51

how do I grow, how do I

39:54

find places to market that will actually

39:56

get me real clients that isn't going

39:58

to be a waste of time, the

40:01

strategy of just getting in front of

40:03

someone else's established audience that already has

40:05

an audience. full of people who are

40:07

potential clients for you, and they have

40:10

trust built with that other brand you're

40:12

partnering with. So you can kind of

40:14

borrow that trust and get it placed

40:17

on you when they bring you in

40:19

to teach a workshop to all their

40:21

people, and it really helps establish trust

40:23

with you a lot faster. between you

40:26

and their customers. the line in their

40:28

minds as the go-to person for whatever

40:30

problem it is that you solve. Dustin's

40:33

partner workshop strategy is super powerful and

40:35

one I think that can be replicated

40:37

in a ton of different niches and

40:39

industries. Again, highly recommend checking out that

40:42

full episode to learn how we did

40:44

it, episode 464. Another unique way to

40:46

apply the piggyback principle to your marketing

40:49

is to find influencers in your space

40:51

and get them to talk about your

40:53

product. One of my favorite examples comes

40:55

from Lou Rice in her simple strapsicle

40:58

device. This is a little silicone strap

41:00

that lets you read your Kindle with

41:02

one hand. And this is how she

41:05

described the influencer piggyback strategy that led

41:07

to tens of thousands of dollars in

41:09

sales. But then I very quickly discovered

41:11

Book Talk on Tik. And that really

41:14

changed the game for us as well.

41:16

Tell me about Book Talk. Yeah, I

41:18

don't know if you know book talk.

41:21

I mean book talk is a huge

41:23

subculture on tic-toc of people who like

41:25

absolutely love they have their book accounts

41:27

love their books and then they love

41:30

kindles as well So I learned of

41:32

an affiliate strategy go and find some

41:34

micro influences. Give them a phone. That's

41:37

what I did. I spent hours. I

41:39

researched all of these kind of I

41:41

wouldn't even call them influences. They were

41:43

just people who had two or three

41:46

thousand followers, maybe a bit more. I

41:48

reached out to them, told them a

41:50

bit about our story, and offered them

41:53

a sample to try. And I knew

41:55

they'd have kindles because I'd searched all

41:57

the Kindle hashtags to find them. Okay.

41:59

I sent the product out, absolutely loved

42:02

it, and the bonus of that is

42:04

I gave them a code to share

42:06

with the followers, so then they were

42:09

actively promoting for me sometimes daily, weekly,

42:11

and then I was also gathering all

42:13

this UGC content that I could then

42:15

use for my own marketing. So that

42:18

actually, in the first three months of

42:20

business, really helped grow the word about

42:22

STR upschool school. Wow, were you like

42:24

native to the Tik platform? Like it's

42:27

still a black box mystery to me.

42:29

Oh, is it? Oh, yeah, but you're

42:31

like, oh, shoot, I'm going to reach

42:34

out to these micro influencers. I'm going

42:36

to send them my stuff. I'm going

42:38

to get them an affiliate code. It

42:40

sounds like super premeditated, super intentional, like

42:43

super strategic. It wasn't at all. But

42:45

I would say, I mean, you need

42:47

to get on the Tiktik. But it

42:50

is. Yeah, I mean, the organic growth

42:52

opportunities from Tikik. I was like, I'm

42:54

just going to run at this, I've

42:56

got two more months before I go

42:59

back to work. So doing this and

43:01

then seeing the traction, this strategy brought,

43:03

this tactic brought, I was like, keep

43:06

going, keep going. I don't know if

43:08

you've heard the quote from, I think

43:10

it was Paul Graham, do the things

43:12

that don't scale. For me, that really

43:15

stuck, it's like, spend the time, just

43:17

reach out, just reach out, just reach

43:19

out, just reach out, just reach out.

43:22

Especially in the book category, it's something,

43:24

it would stand out. It's like, well,

43:26

maybe you probably get lots of offers,

43:28

read my next book from authors or

43:31

something, but like, oh, a physical product

43:33

that's going to make my reading more

43:35

ergonomic or something, like, okay, that definitely

43:38

stands out from the clutter there. Again,

43:40

that's Alu Rice from episode 589 describing

43:42

a micro-influencer strategy that's been echoed by

43:44

other guests as well, including Mike Edinburgh

43:47

in his sunglasses for first responders business.

43:49

He talked about sending out over a

43:51

thousand pairs of sunglasses to first responder

43:54

creators, the people who were already speaking

43:56

to the audience. he was trying to

43:58

serve. The last piggyback principle strategy I

44:00

want to share on the marketing side

44:03

of things is related to capturing search

44:05

traffic. And while SEO has been a

44:07

complicated and challenging game of late, to

44:10

say the least, it's still quite a

44:12

bit simpler on YouTube, I think that's

44:14

a big opportunity for side hustlers to

44:16

create content that answers a specific question

44:19

that your target customer might type in.

44:21

If you've got the answer, you build

44:23

up a lot of trust really fast

44:26

in the eye of that viewer. Doesn't

44:28

take a lot of views. You don't

44:30

have to go viral to make a

44:32

big dent in your business. Here's how

44:35

Christy De Silva from De Silva Life

44:37

described this strategy in episode 627. We

44:39

decided to launch a YouTube channel and

44:42

that was a huge turning point for

44:44

DL because YouTube is obviously long-form video

44:46

content and people are extremely problem aware.

44:48

Like they're like, how do I do

44:51

this with Click Up? How do I

44:53

do this with Honeybook? And so our

44:55

first YouTube video that ever took off,

44:58

that's still one of our highest ranking,

45:00

is five click-up dashboards that will change

45:02

your business. It was cool to see,

45:04

like, because the first few videos were,

45:07

like, here's how we can help you.

45:09

What's the difference between a CRM and

45:11

a project management tool? You know, beginners

45:14

guide to honeybook and click up, which

45:16

those still do well as well. But

45:18

then the more specific, we started to

45:20

get with it. Like, okay, these five

45:23

click up dashboards that will change your

45:25

business. Even ones, like, specific click up

45:27

automations or how to create a content

45:30

calendar calendar and click up or things

45:32

like that. how to run your agency

45:34

and honeybook. Those are things that perform

45:36

really well because people are searching for

45:39

that exact thing. Did you catch it?

45:41

Christie's actually using two piggyback principle strategies

45:43

at once here. Yes, she's targeting specific

45:46

search phrases she knows she can answer,

45:48

like how to create a content calendar

45:50

and click up, but she's also piggybacking

45:52

on the built-in user base of those

45:55

software tools. It can be a really

45:57

effective strategy to become the go-to expert

45:59

on a specific software, and we've seen.

46:02

examples of people doing that with Fresh

46:04

Books, Shopify, Asana, Salesforce, Microsoft, Infusion Soft,

46:06

and Optimize Press back in the day,

46:08

and yes, Honeybook, and click up in

46:11

Christie's case. If that's a path that

46:13

makes sense for your business, episode 627,

46:15

with Christie is worth a listen. Now

46:18

in my mind, it would be way

46:20

harder to offer a generic project management.

46:22

optimization service. I don't even know what

46:24

that is. But if you're the expert

46:27

in click-up, and that's what you do

46:29

all day long, and you're providing me

46:31

helpful content for free, it makes it

46:34

such an easier decision to hire you

46:36

if that's what I need help with.

46:38

Piggyback, piggyback, piggyback. There's no shame in

46:40

it. It's working smarter, not harder, and

46:43

it can help you in every stage

46:45

of your business. how to apply the

46:47

piggyback principle in three different phases of

46:50

your business, the idea generation phase, the

46:52

startup and creation phase, and then the

46:54

marketing and growth phase. The questions to

46:56

keep in mind. or what would it

46:59

look like if we're easy? Remember Austin

47:01

Church. Pay attention to what wants to

47:03

happen. What trends are happening in the

47:06

marketplace that I could take advantage of.

47:08

Or at the very least, is the

47:10

idea that I'm considering at least increasing

47:12

in demand in the startup, in the

47:15

startup phase, at least increasing in demand

47:17

in the startup phase, it feels like

47:19

you're starting from scratch, but I can

47:22

almost guarantee there is a template or

47:24

playbook of some sort, you can adapt

47:26

to your own of freelance help, mentorship,

47:28

education, and coaching, stuff like that. And

47:31

when it comes to growing your side

47:33

hustle, ask, who are your target customers

47:35

already doing business with or paying attention

47:38

to? How can you be of service

47:40

to those business owners or creators in

47:42

a win-win way? What are the pre-existing

47:44

niche marketplaces? You can put your product

47:47

or service up for sale. And can

47:49

you answer people's questions with evergreen content

47:51

to showcase your expertise? Armed with these

47:54

strategies, you're going to be an expert

47:56

piggybacker in no time. and I'm excited

47:58

for you. I know we referenced a

48:00

lot. of archive episodes in this one,

48:03

and I'll be sure to link all

48:05

of those up in the show notes

48:07

for this episode at side hustle nation.com/piggyback.

48:10

While you're there, you'll be able to

48:12

check out the full text summary of

48:14

this episode. And if you're so inclined,

48:16

build yourself your own personalized, side hustle

48:19

show playlist. Maybe e-commerce is your jam.

48:21

Maybe you're a reseller at heart. Maybe

48:23

you're destined to become a content creator

48:26

creator or make money freelancing. No matter

48:28

which path is for you, I've got

48:30

a short little quiz at hustle.show to

48:32

help you find out which direction to

48:35

go. It'll give you 8 to 10

48:37

of our all-time greatest hits episode to

48:39

listen to next based on your answers.

48:42

Again, that's at hustle.show for that short

48:44

quiz to build your own custom curated

48:46

side hustle show playlist. Big thanks to

48:48

all our amazing guests that made this

48:51

episode possible. Big thanks to our sponsors

48:53

for helping make this content free for

48:55

everyone. You can hit up side hustle

48:58

nation.com/deals for all the latest offers from

49:00

our sponsors in one place. Thank you

49:02

for supporting the advertisers that support the

49:04

show. That is it for me. Thank

49:07

you for me. Thank you so much.

49:09

Thank you so much for tuning in

49:11

the advertisers that support the show. That

49:13

is it for me. Thank you so

49:16

much for tuning in. Hasselan.