Get Attention: Let Your Awesome Side Hustles Work for You

I once read that the most successful people have seven sources of income. That is some goal to aspire to. I am not there yet, but I have created a few side hustles. Recently, there has been a lot of talk about side hustles. And, in fact, there is a bestselling book by the same name (Side Hustle: From Idea to Income in 27 Days), and a lot of podcasts. The reality is that most side hustles do not make any money.

On the other hand, some side hustles have become the main event for some business owners. My side hustles have not made a lot of money yet, but that’s because I have not spent the time promoting them. All I have been doing is creating. I know, I know, that creating is the easy part……

A few months ago, I contacted several people, who I have known for a long time – most of whom I have known for 20 to 30 years – letting them know what I was up to and asked them if they knew anyone who would be interested in what I had to offer. The feedback convinced me that I needed to invest time promoting my side hustles. Although people love what I am doing and want to support me, I was reminded that people have good intentions, but you aren’t necessary top of mind for them. And they do not always respond during your time frame or do what they promise to do.

I was also reminded of a session I attended at a conference where Ken Kragen talked about getting attention for your event. The term event is used very loosely. He emphasized that your event should have the three characteristics.

Characteristics of Events (Products/Service/Activities) That Get Noticed

• Special or unique
• Founded on real substance
• Capture people’s attention and imagination

Have you read?

How to Get Attention for Your Business
Life is a Contact Sport by Ken Kragen, Book Review

But one of the most important points he made is you should have at least three events that satisfy the above three criteria in a concentrated time span to get attention. What I did, contacting friends is a good start, but it counts as one since I contacted them the same way. If I promoted an event using all forms of social media, that would also count as one. I have to use at least three different methods. And I would recommend eight or nine because in marketing, they say people have to see your message at least seven times for them to take any action. Whatever methods you use, do them in a short time frame for them to have any impact.

So far, I have three distinct side hustles.

3 Side Hustles

Avil Beckford's E-Books

For more than a year, I have talked and written about the 10 key skills that the World Economic Forum says you need to thrive in 2020. I created the Strategic Reading Challenge to help professionals learn the skills within a year. I have also been working on and shaping a concept called Profit Reading. The premise is that you should get a return on your reading time investment. When you participate in the Strategic Reading Challenge, you read five books each month. I always advise people that when they read, they should take notes to help them remember more of what they learn.

 Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Creativity & Decision-Making Action Guide A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young – Book Summary The MacGyver Secret by Lee David Zlotoff & Colleen Seifert – Book Summary How to Spot Great Ideas When You Read Books Effective Note Taking Tips for Professionals Checklist to Learn Key Skills and Develop Cultural Intelligence From Reluctant Reader to Superstar Reader Read More Books? Create a Quick Reading Plan Book Summary Template: Learn Which Questions to Ask to Delve More Deeply into Any Book 46 Must Have Books for a Home Library

But the process does not stop there. After they finish reading a book, they are asked to review their notes and pick out the big ideas. At the end of the month, they are encouraged to start to combine the ideas, and try to tie the combined idea to a human need. In How to Get Great Ideas by Estelle Ries, she says:

“A great idea can reshape your future. Idea production is the ability to bring old elements into new combinations. Being able to see relationships between old elements is key to producing ideas. Your ability to produce ideas depends on your imagination…. Train yourself to observe not only accurately but quickly. This is the foundation of making contrasts, similarities, additions, eliminations, and proceedings with all processes involved on the search for ideas.”

Implementing the right idea can change your life. With all of this in mind, I created e-books for professionals to get the most out of reading. These short books are for the self-directed learner. And although I want people to read more books, I know that some simply will not for whatever reasons, so I have two book summaries so far – to teach problem solving, creativity, and decision making – and I designed them in such a way that the reader can learn the skills if she uses the models presented. Additionally, I created The Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Creativity, & Decision-Making Action Guide to teach you those four skills. You are introduced to models that you can use in your career.

Visit my shop to see the e-books, I created just for you. Creating products for you is a work in progress, so I am always adding new e-books to help you succeed at work.

Gear Bubble Mugs and Other Merchandise

I attended a webinar about a low hanging system almost a year ago. The low hanging system Rachel Rofe refers to is creating simple designs and placing them on mugs that Gear Bubble provides. She showed proof of her earnings, but to make that kind of money, she wants you to sign up for her paid course, to get the really important information. I decided not to take the course because I had already spent too much money on other courses. I designed the mugs, but once again, I did not devote enough time to promoting the mugs. When I contacted friends, as mentioned above, I included the link to my Gear Bubble store. Those who responded liked what they saw and promised to forward the information to their contacts.

Here is my store, and there is something for everyone in there. If you are an employer and looking for novelty gifts to give to staff, you will find an appropriate design. If you are looking for a sarcastic, funny, inspiring, you name it coffee mug, you can find something in my Gear Bubble store.

Here you will find Avmarie Store for the mugs I design!

Sunfrog T-Shirt Affiliate

There is a company just outside of Detroit that makes T-shirts. The owner of the company, who lives there, started the company to create jobs for the people in his community. You can sign up as a designer or an affiliate to sell the T-shirts. I am an affiliate. You can create collections of T-shirts based on themes and your interests.

I do not promote all my collections. I made a mistake of creating collections based on what I thought would sell and not on my interests. When you do something like this, you won’t spend time promoting things you are not interested in. Look at my collections, can you tell the ones I am very interested in?

In writing this post, and going through all my collections, I realize there are some I like that I have not promoted, and it could be that I created too many collections and cannot manage them. There is a lesson there somewhere.

As a book lover, I have a collection on that theme. As a Christian, I have a faith theme, and a theme for women leaders. Here are all my collections.

https://www.sunfrog.com/Avmarie/educator-t-shirts

https://www.sunfrog.com/Avmarie/Women-Leaders-Who-Rock

https://www.sunfrog.com/Avmarie/introvert-t-shirts

https://www.sunfrog.com/Avmarie/inspirational-t-shirt-designs

https://www.sunfrog.com/Avmarie/Climate-Change-T-Shirts

https://www.sunfrog.com/Avmarie/Arabian-Horse-T-Shirts

https://www.sunfrog.com/Avmarie/Yorkshire-Terrier-T-Shirts

https://www.sunfrog.com/Avmarie/I-Love-Running-T-Shirts

https://www.sunfrog.com/Avmarie/Boyfriend-Tee-Shirts

https://www.sunfrog.com/Avmarie/Walking-T-Shirt-Designs

https://www.sunfrog.com/Avmarie/Nurse-T-Shirt-Designs

https://www.sunfrog.com/Avmarie/Firefighter-T-Shirt-Designs

https://www.sunfrog.com/Avmarie/Make-Money-T-Shirt-Designs

https://www.sunfrog.com/Avmarie/Retro-T-Shirt-Designs

https://www.sunfrog.com/Avmarie/Gamer-T-Shirts-Hoodies

https://www.sunfrog.com/Avmarie/Peace-of-Mind

Have you read?

Effortless Learning by Tony Roe, Book Review

Non-Obvious: How to Think Different, Curate Ideas, and Predict the Future, Rohit Bhargava

Side Hustle Potential

All my side hustles have the potential to make a lot of money, but I have to invest the time to promote them. And that is where I am very weak. Initially, all I did was pin them to a variety of Pinterest boards, but I do not have enough traffic to make this strategy work for me. I also created a shop on my Facebook page, but as most of you know, the social media platform has moved to a pay-to-play model, so for this promotion method to work for me, I would have to buy Facebook ads.

I return to what Ken Kragen advocates, which is to have at least three ways to promote my side hustles and to do so in a concentrated time frame. I have to give this some thought. One way is to use LinkTree to drive sales in Instagram, but I have to get more Instagram followers. For me, it is a catch 22. I have already set up LinkTree, but I still need the traffic. In Instagram, when you click on my LinkTree link you have a few options, two of which are to buy my e-books and my mugs. I have an e-book on Instagram that I plan to read shortly.

If you are a regular reader of The Invisible Mentor, and you think that I provide value, I would appreciate it if you supported my side hustle. You could buy some of the products for yourself and/or for the important people in your life. You could carefully think about who would benefit from the products, then forward them the link.

Side Hustle: From Idea to Income in 27 DaysThe Side Hustle Path: 10 Proven Ways to Make Money Outside of Your Day Job (Volume 1)The 7-Figure Side Hustle: The Million Dollar Side Hustle & GreatnessSide Hustle Blueprint (2nd Edition): How to Make an Extra $1000 in 30 Days Without Leaving Your Day Job!What If It Does Work Out?: How a Side Hustle Can Change Your LifeA Woman's Side Hustle: How to turn your Passion into Profit… Your Resources to Residual