Are you looking to start a side hustle in 2022? Watch this quick video for a preview on my Side Hustle Master Plan that you can get for FREE!! If you have no idea how to launch your own small business next year, this is the video you need!!
I LOVE making new side hustle and podcasting friends!! And Cody Berman is DEFINITELY a new side hustling friend! If you are thinking that there is just one way to side hustle or once you start you can’t scale, you are definitely going to love this episode…especially if you have an idea for a digital product. Holy Cow - the options that exist in the digital product space.
Cody is the co-founder of Gold City Ventures and co-host of The FI Show podcast. He’s also a real estate investor, world traveler, and personal finance educator. He left his corporate banking job at age 22 to pursue entrepreneurship full time and now teaches others how to do the same.
Check out his podcast here: https://thefishow.com
And get his FREE ebook here: The Seasonal Products Secret (free ebook) - https://goldcityventures.com/ebook
[00:00:00] Kris: Okay, everybody. Welcome back to another amazing episode of Got Side Hustle. My name is Kris McPeak, I'm your host. And today we're talking to my new friend, Cody Berman of the Fi Show, and that is financial independence. Cody, thank you so much for hanging out with us.
[00:00:16] Cody: Thank you so much for having me.
[00:00:19] Kris: so we were chatting previously and you don't just coach side hustlers. You are a side hustle yourself. So let's talk a little bit about what's your day job, and then where'd the side hustle come from. And and how did that all come to be for you?
[00:00:34] Cody: I've been a long time side hustler. And like you said, now I'm kind of at the point where I've been hustling for a while. You know, able to quit my past day job. Now I have a new day job, but I was able to quit my past day job because of side hustling. And now my day job is actually running this company called gold city ventures, where we help other people get on their feet with various side hustles, most predominantly being, selling digital products online.
[00:00:57] Cody: And in terms of side hustles, I've tried, it has been everything under the sun, Chris. So, you know, one of my favorite ones is the kind of passive incoming side hustle. But I definitely want to talk about today, which is. Selling digital products online. It's a lot. I've also sold physical products online.
[00:01:10] Cody: I've also done Uber Eats on a bicycle. I've bought boats. I've done like literally every side hustle. I've tried it. I am just a side hustle fanatic!
[00:01:19] Kris: So then you're very familiar with the, well, I guess maybe not very familiar, I, I have a theory, a concept of here's the four types of side hustles that.
[00:01:29] Kris: So I think you have your gig economy, which you said Uber eats, like those are the types of things I think about there. Then you've got folks that do affiliate marketing or affiliate income, where they're going to share a product that they love with their friends, and then they get a piece of the action.
[00:01:46] Kris: Then there is the content creator, the creator concept, whether you are. Creating digital products like you were talking about, or people that like are expert knitters and they design things and they make bank on Etsy stores. Like anybody that could, so anything made a killing when COVID started, right?
[00:02:04] Kris: Because now people need masks and they want masks that are cute and that are fun. And that suit their personality. So. That's the creator, the, a line. And then you have your service provider, which is somebody who's going to coach or teach or do massage or all of those things.
[00:02:34] Cody: I like the landscape, you just laid out. What I'd like to do is kind of synthesize a couple of them because I think oftentimes people put those in specific buckets, like they'll say, okay, this is a service based on soul. This is a content based household. This might be an affiliate thing, but a lot of times, like if you're looking to scale your side hustle, and I know your show specifically focuses on side hustles that you're doing alongside your day job, but that doesn’t or can't scale. It doesn't mean you only have to do it like an hour or a couple hours a week. So what I've seen a lot of people do is they'll get the skills doing usually a service-based side hustle. So this could be driving for Uber. It could be walking, dogs could be freelance writing. It could be doing anything, building websites, getting the skill set, and then starting to hire people under.
[00:03:17] Cody: And building a team and then you're taking the margin basically. So you're kind of at the CEO role after you've done it, you've done the initial legwork. Now you're at the CEO role. You start hiring people under you, teaching them your ways. You're charging the client a little bit more than the people that are doing the work are getting paid because, because you're managing them, you know, you are doing some of that work.
[00:03:37] Cody: You know, so then you could go from being a dog-walker on Rover to now owning a dog walking business where you have 10 people working under you, or you could go from being a freelance writer to owning a freelance writing business where now you have five freelance writers writing under you. So I kind of love.
[00:03:53] Cody: The hybrid model where you're bringing together some of these different buckets that you're talking about.
[00:03:57] Kris: I love that. So if you are that person ha I mean, it's scaling just like you said. So what's the first step to successfully start scaling your side hustle
[00:04:11] Cody: We usually have this standard operating procedures SOP in our heads, 99% of people, they say, just have this system that works, but they don't write it down.
[00:04:22] Cody: There's no kind of method to their madness. They just, they just know how to do it. The first thing you should do, if you ever want to scale everyone, a higher out, even just higher up pieces of what you're doing, you need those SOP, those standard operating procedures, because then when you hire a VA or you hire someone to help with the part of your side hustle that you don't like doing, or something that you want to scale, now they know exactly how you do things and it's just training them.
[00:04:46] Cody: So you're basically creating these little clones of yourself to do the thing exactly how you want it done. So I think that is the first step. Scaling any side hustle.
[00:04:55] Kris: I love that idea. And I, so the notion of like, When is it? When is it the right time and place to hire a VA to, to hire somebody to be a mini you or whatever?
[00:05:11] Kris: Like how does a side hustler know that that's time?
[00:05:14] Cody: That's a great question. The right way and the wrong way and anywhere in between, I was seeing people. So I'm also, I kind of came from the personal finance space, just a little bit of background on me. That's why I got so interested in side hustles. I wanted to create passive income, earn more money than just my traditional day job.
[00:05:49] Cody: A lot of people there in my position, they want the extra income. Some people jump into quickly. So someone I met and this is why I was given a person. That's why I went on that tangent. I went on a tangent about the personal finance, because I met a personal finance blogger who had no experience making money in blogging and personal finance.
[00:06:05] Cody: And this, they went and hired five writers that went and hired an affiliate manager. They hired someone for SEO RAF the bat. So like they're already. I don't know, it was like six or seven grand a month in operating costs before they even understood how the business works. So that is the absolute wrong way to do it. Then on the other side of the coin, I see some people who are, you know, they're just to maxed out there. What, I see a lot of burnout in like freelance writing. That's something, I know a lot of people who do that. I've done that previously. That's one where, you know, once you start feeling that burnout, once maybe there's certain topics or certain clients that you just don't feel that motivated, you're not kind of amped to start that work at the end of your Workday is the beginning of your Workday or whatever you get your side hustle work done.
[00:06:46] Cody: That's when you should start really considering hiring it out, finding that special person, getting those SLPs laid out so that you no longer have to do that, work yourself. So I think it's, I think it's when you start hitting that burnout point, that's a really a good benchmark, I think because when we're burned out, we're not loving what we're doing anymore and there's something missing.
[00:07:04] Kris: But when we can alleviate that stress of the things that do tend to burn us out, which I think is a lot of the reason why people wind up leaving, choosing to leave, leave their day jobs in the first place is because there has been an aspect of that day job that's caused that burnout and they don't know how to escape from it or, or mitigate that problem. And that makes the school, I clearly can't be an employee anymore, so obviously I need to quit and find something else to do. But but we can talk about burnout on another episode. So you had said previously you had a day job, you left the day job and then you went back. So I would love to hear a little bit more about that progression. Like what made you go back to a nine to five when you clearly had a. Base of where you were, you know, working for yourself and making enough income that that was doable for you
[00:07:49] Cody: So the original day job that I quit, I was in corporate banking. I was in commercial real estate lending, and it was just a drag. Like it was pretty dry in the office. Most people were miserable and I was just like, I need to get. So at the time I was doing freelance writing, I was building websites. I was blogging. I was podcasting. A lot of this was happening at my day job, which I don't recommend doing.
[00:08:12] Kris: Let's do an episode on that because say, yeah, same problem here
[00:08:17] Cody: I was working like, oh my God. You know, 15 or 16 hours every single day. Cause I just, I knew I needed to get out. So I ended up building like an emergency fund. I started to see some traction with some of these houses. I built up enough, enough of an emergency fund where I felt comfortable to leave that corporate job. And then I was just kind of trying various houses here and there. And that happened for a couple of years, but then now I'm back in, it's not exactly a nine to five, but it's, it's my full-time job. Like it's not, it's not a clock in clock out, but it's a, this is what I'm working on for 75% of my day.
[00:08:50] Cody: And that's where gold city ventures I mentioned at the beginning. But I guess the reason why to answer that part of your question is because I just, I love building things. I love building businesses. Like side hustling is fun, but I think there's a point where. For me anyway, someone who's super type a, I love like hitting goals, hitting milestones, just like doing random side hustles.
[00:09:14] Cody: Wasn't cutting it for me anymore. It was, it was a great way to get out of that first corporate job. But then I was like, I need, I need more of a focus. I need to work with a team. I need to have this, like this vision, this, this one company that I'm doing most of my stuff now
[00:09:26] Kris: So let's talk about gold city ventures. You guys help people create and sell digital products. Okay. So what's your, I don't even know what question I want to ask. Somebody stumbles upon your website and what are they going to find? What are they, how do they know that they want to work with you?
[00:09:44] Cody: So the, our bread and butter. Successful course where we've led the most students through is called R E Printables Course. Let me just give you a bit of background. So it's basically that course is about how to sell digital products, which is printables and digital downloads on Etsy. And also on other platforms we cover as well. I had never been on Etsy before. I never, I didn't know what a principal was. And my now business partner, Julie, we're both like super side hustlers, both from the personal finance space.
[00:10:12] Cody: She's like, Hey, I made six grand last year. And I spent like 50 hours on these things called principles. I was like, okay, I'm listening. So she explained what they were and she was like, yeah. Calendars planners, checklists, invitations. Think of anything you can print out. That's a principle. And then they have their digital counterparts, a digital download.
[00:10:30] Cody: So any of those things I just mentioned in a digital form. So I gave it a whirl. I started creating principles. The first ones were horrendous slowly better. And my graphic design skills get better. I learned about keyword research and SEO and all the things that goes in to running a successful Etsy shop.
[00:10:47] Cody: It was February of, I don't remember the year, but it was the February after I started on Etsy. So it was, I think I started in October, so maybe four months afterward created a bunch of Valentine's day principles. And my shop just blew up. Like I was getting the teaching to change. Are you Etsy sellers when, on that sound and it was, it was the best feeling ever.
[00:11:10] Cody: And after that week was over from just two or three digital products I had made, I think it was a little over, a little bit over $800. And so at that point I was hooked, you know, fast forward to today. Now, Julia and I have a whole course like showing exactly the systems, all the failures that. We've learned and you know, that we want people to not make the same mistakes as us.
[00:11:28] Cody: Yeah. All the trials and tribulations and just how to, so that's what you find. That's kind of our, our main thing that we advertise on. If you go into gold city ventures.com and yeah, we've at this point taken over 3000 students through that course. We have some people who have quit their day jobs.
[00:11:43] Cody: We have a woman traveling the country in an RV, digital nomads. It's it's super cool.
[00:11:48] Kris: That's amazing. So the advent of Canva, how has that. Made this type of thing. Easier, not easy for the digital. Product creator people.
[00:12:00] Cody: Are you a Canva fan, Kris?
[00:12:01] Kris: I am a Canva fan. So I, that's why I asked. I'm kind of like, you can make anything on there, but I'm wondering like, is that senior business go up?
[00:12:09] Kris: Is it senior business go down? Do you coach people to learn Canva? Like what's your, what's your thought there?
[00:12:14] Cody: I love Canva. They're a fantastic company. Love Canva. They're definitely, you know, they work alongside our business. The main two graphic design programs we teach actually are Canva and Adobe illustrator.
[00:12:28] Cody: And I know if you're, so if you're a Canva user, they've just been adding functionality and feature after functionality, it's amazing. They added like drop shadow templates and background remover, and like just all this stuff to make your printables even more amazing to make your digital products look professional. So, yeah, huge fan of Canva and what they're doing over there. And that's what we mainly focus on. That's my favorite design.
[00:12:48] Kris: I would assume then you, is there an option for you to have affiliate relationship with them, for your students? Okay. That's awesome. Good deal. Yeah. I I feel like canvas is the second coming it's and it's like, it's fun to play with it, play around and be, and be creative and silly and all the things.
[00:13:06] Kris: In fact, we we replaced our, I, I work at a community college and I run a scholarship program, our big annual scholarship. And that was just this past Friday. And we moved our. Our screen presentation, where all the scholarship names and the stood recipients are on it. We did did that on PowerPoint for years and just moved it to canvas.
[00:13:24] Kris: Cause I thought Canva was, was prettier and would be a lot more fun. It was a little bit of a nightmare for the the guy that was running the computer. Cause he'd never used it before. But I will tell you, we got a ton of compliments. People said like the slide shows beautiful and it looks really amazing and super professional and people liked it a lot.
[00:13:44] Kris: So. Took that as a win, even though it took David a little longer than he anticipated to get it running. But okay. So. Let's talk about your podcast. What do you chat about on your show? Is it more teaching? Is it more interviews? Like how do you, how do you get your, your message out through your show?
[00:14:06] Cody: Basically the Fi Show, the financial independence show. Thank you for the intro at the beginning there. We are interviewing people at all stages of their financial independence journey. So people who are just getting started, people who are at the mid point, people who have already reached financial independence sometimes at an insane age, like an age that you wouldn't think is possible.
[00:14:22] Cody: And it's not like cut and dry. Some people are doing it through a corporate job. Some people are doing it to real estate. Some people are doing it through entrepreneurship and just highlighting and sharing all those different journeys and perspectives and backgrounds. And it's a ton of fun. Like my favorite part of podcasting, I'm sure you can attest to this is just meeting cool people.
[00:14:39] Cody: Yes. You know, if you didn't have this podcast and not, you know, I didn't have a podcast and we both didn't have an online presence. We probably wouldn't be talking right now. And it's awesome. I love it. I love it. So yeah, that's, that's what we talk about in the show.
[00:14:54] Kris: I have found that I, the people that I'm meeting in my podcasting journey are turning into some of my best, my best friends and my closest confidence. Cause it's a, it's a different sort of like. It's a different sort of understanding, but being in, okay, so here's an example. This is a silly example, but when I left the field of college housing and residence life for my current job in advancement and development, I had all these great friends that I'd met through housing.
[00:15:24] Kris: And, and some of them, I am still pretty close with, but some of I'm not because we did not have that vocation in common anymore. And so those people kind of fell off. But with podcasting, it's like, even if my podcast is about side hustling and that person's podcast is about vegan eating, we're still podcasters.
[00:15:41] Kris: So we make that connection that way. And it seriously has created some of the most dynamic and robust relationships that I've ever had in my life only because what we have in common is that we talk about what we love. In a little microphone onto a Mac computer, and then, and then throw it up on a poster and share it with the world.
[00:16:00] Kris: But there's just, there's so many amazing people that are doing this, whether it says as a hobby or a part of their business or their business full time, like I know a ton of full-time podcasters who are totally monetized with sponsors and, and all of that. And so yeah, I mean, I think it's, it's a great way to.
[00:16:20] Kris: Your message or your thoughts out into the world and a great way to connect with like-minded people that you can learn from and develop really, really solid relationships with. So that's that story. So Cody, if people want to work with you or take your courses, how do they find you?
[00:16:39] Cody: Well, let's say the best way, honestly, just so you can kind of get one foot in the water, at least instead of just like diving into a full fledged course, we have an ebook actually in fact created in Canva.
[00:16:49] Cody: So you can see this, the power can, but it's like a 25 page ebook called the seasonal product secret. And it outlines all the different strategies that we use to drive traffic like every single month on places like Etsy or Shopify or Amazon with digital products.
[00:17:07] Kris: Canva, is it, is it too late? If today we're recording this show on December 7th, the one of the main winter holidays is right around the corner. Is it too late for somebody to get your ebook and make a little bit of money before new year?
[00:17:23] Cody: No. I mean, you have to get started quickly. Like it, it is better to have a, more of a runway up until, like, let's say you're chasing a Christmas printable or you're chasing a new year's printable.
[00:17:34] Cody: Usually we recommend having like four, like three to four weeks before that event, or, you know, seasonal things happening, but we've had people list off this past Halloween actually. Good example, someone listed what was it? It was a take one. That's a printable sign that you'd put like on a, on a little bucket, it was cute.
[00:17:52] Cody: And it had like little, a nice design elements on it and they listed it on October 30th and they had like, I think it was like seven or eight sales that next morning. I mean, it wasn't a world, you know, world changing amount of money, but they made like 20 something dollars from little design that they put up the day before Halloween.
[00:18:10] Kris: I'm curious, what's your. What is your favorite type of digital product to create?
[00:18:21] Cody: I like doing editable stuff, so, and this can be done in a variety of ways. Won't get into the nuances of the design programs and how to do this. But like one that was really successful for me a few years back was like a Valentine's day card.
[00:18:34] Cody: And, you know, I had. You could put the faces in a heart. And then the customer, all they have to do is drag and drop, put their own faces in. They could put their own texts. So I don't know, I like kind of giving the customer the creative Liberty to make something with my printable. It is cool. If you just kind of, you know, make it, make a PDF and they print it out.
[00:18:51] Cody: That's awesome. I think that's exactly what the Halloween one I was talking about to just take one, but like the editable stuff just adds a, another element of special to, to the printable and the customers even happier.
[00:19:02] Kris: Yeah, I would agree with that. I, you know, I find myself too. There's a few folks that create Canva templates that I think like the pho, when people started designing different templates so that you could have something else other than what canvas gives you.
[00:19:16] Kris: And of course, I mean, now it's like, there's, there's so much. That, that platform is so robust, but I there's a, a few folks that I'm very loyal to. Like, I, I subscribe to their memberships because they're going to do new templates every single month and I can get my paws on those. So how do you think that that particular market with St you know, same type of people that are doing stock photography, you know, photography is that a saturated market yet?
[00:19:42] Kris: Or is there still room for people to grow and develop and make money in though in that.
[00:19:47] Cody: That is a growing market. That's actually something we do as well. So interesting that you say that. And another awesome feature of Canva is that, you know, you can, me or you, if you have a canvas pro account, you can go and create a design and then you can go and share that template with anyone.
[00:20:00] Cody: Even if they just have a free account. Now they can go and use that design. So we did the same thing with our community, where we're just giving them five. We give them five templates every month for different designs. We also have a bunch of Canva templates in the course of. It makes everything easier in terms of is the market saturated.
[00:20:15] Cody: The B2B market was stuff like that, where you're selling to other creators where you're selling to other entrepreneurs that is on the come up big time, like the search volume. You know, we do a lot with keyword research stuff has just been going up month over month, year over year. I don't see it stopping anytime soon.
[00:20:30] Cody: And you know, Etsy, as of right now is only like 15% digital downloads, but that number has been steadily climbing and climbing. You know, it's still majority handmade. As long as that number is still like, has that much room to grow. I think it's a, I think it's a market that people can still find a lot of success in.