Nick Loper

Nick Loper is a side hustle expert who loves helping people earn more money and start businesses they care about. He hosts the award-winning Side Hustle Show, where he's interviewed over 500 successful entrepreneurs, and is the bestselling author of Buy Buttons, The Side Hustle, and $1,000 100 Ways. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Entrepreneur, Forbes, TIME, Newsweek, Business Insider, MSN, Yahoo Finance, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Hubspot, Ahrefs, Shopify, Investopedia, VICE, Vox, Mashable, ChooseFI, The Penny Hoarder, GoBankingRates, and more.

The 30-Day Meditation Challenge: Am I 10% Happier?

November 4, 2021September 12, 2016

In August I embarked on a personal challenge to develop a meditation habit. If I could do it every day for a month, maybe it would (finally) become a routine practice.

Inspiration for the challenge came from a conversation with Dan Harris, an Emmy award-winning journalist who discovered meditation as an effective way to calm the voices in his head.

Dan convinced me to give it another shot, citing scientific evidence that meditation has a whole host of benefits including lower blood pressure and increased focus. So I committed to meditating every day in August, and I recruited 47 side hustlers to join me for accountability.

192: Starting an Ecommerce Empire on Etsy

May 23, 2022September 8, 2016

Kara Lamerato is a work-at-home-mom of 2, but runs a successful business in her spare time. Kara’s Vineyard Wedding supplies brides with wine-themed wedding decorations, and has shipped thousands of orders.

Kara started the business before having kids while she was still working full-time in private banking. The idea came from her own wedding and thinking there might be other brides out there looking for similar DIY-style items.

She put a listing up on Etsy, and a couple weeks later, she had her first order!

191: Reverse-Engineering a Bestselling Book Launch

April 26, 2024September 1, 2016

Tom Morkes has worked on the book launches for a number of previous Side Hustle Show guests, including John Lee Dumas, Dan Norris, Taylor Pearson, and Neil Patel.

What I wanted to do in this conversation was reverse engineer some of the steps that go into producing, launching, and marketing a bestselling book, even you don’t have thousands of fans waiting for it.

And selfishly, I wanted to get some insight on what I could do to make my latest book project, Buy Buttons, hit the top of the charts. Tune in to hear Tom’s top tips from more than a dozen different bestselling launches.

190: How a Former Hairdresser Turned Her Side Hustle Into a 6-Figure Business, with Rachel Pedersen

November 6, 2021August 25, 2016

Rachel Pedersen was using social media to bring customers to her hairdressing chair, but never really imagined it would turn into a full-time business of its own.

One of her hairdressing clients owned a popular restaurant chain, but was struggling with online marketing and social media. Rachel offered to help and the rest is history.

Today her little social media management side hustle is a 6-figure business and she has even built a training program to help other people follow in her footsteps.

189: Drop Shipping 101: How to Start an Online Store – Without Touching Any Inventory

March 23, 2023August 18, 2016

Dropshipping is also a topic we haven’t really covered in depth in the past, but many listeners have been requesting to learn more about it.

I reached out to Anton Kraly, who’s one of the most successful people I know in this space. He’s been selling online for almost 10 years and he and his team have built out an impressive portfolio or drop ship stores.

Dropshipping is where you sell a product and the manufacturer or supplier ships it directly to your customer.

Amazon FBA Update: I’m Up $656

June 9, 2023August 15, 2016

A few people have been asking for an update on my Amazon FBA efforts, so here goes!

The bottom line is that this side hustle has been profitable, but not by a lifestyle-changing amount.

So far, I’ve only focused on local clearance arbitrage, with my best finds being from Walmart, Home Depot, Office Depot, and Babies ‘R Us.

188: Vending Machines: How Matt’s Passive Income Empire Started With Just $36

July 16, 2024August 11, 2016

Matt is a former Air Force pilot who was looking into various side hustles to support his family after some salary cuts at work. After hustling and selling used books (among other things), he realized it really wasn’t sustainable and took up too much of his time.

That’s when he found a gumball vending machine for sale on eBay for $36. The seller was local in Houston so he drove over with two of his kids and picked it up.

Filling it with candy from Sam’s Club, he knocked on doors of businesses until he found a home for it at a local karate studio. A couple weeks later, he went back and it was filled with quarters!

187: Traffic Hacks for 2016 and Beyond, with Neil Patel

November 5, 2021August 4, 2016

Before people can do business with you, they have to know about you, and before they know about you, they have to find you.

And that’s universal, whether you’re running a brick-and-mortar shop, an ecommerce store, a blog, or a virtual consulting business.

Neil Patel is a master at solving the first step in that equation: getting people to find you. Through SEO, content marketing, and social media, we go through the traffic generation tactics that are working today.

What Happens When You Post “Epic” Content? My Traffic, Income, and Subscriber Results

May 15, 2023August 1, 2016

What’s the most common piece of advice when it comes to online business? Let’s see if this sounds familiar.

See what else is out there, and create something 10x better.

And while creating the best / most helpful / most shareable / most awesomely epic 10x content ever is supposedly the golden ticket, I thought I’d put this advice to the test and share some results from a recent attempt at “epic-ness” of mine.

Does it really work? Is it worth the effort?

186: Happiness is a Skill, and This 5-Minute Habit Can Help You Get Better at It

August 25, 2023July 28, 2016

Dan Harris had me at “meditation for skeptics.”

In the last 5 years, it seems like meditation has gone from a weird woowoo practice to a daily staple of most top entrepreneurs, executives, and leaders.

But so far, I haven’t been able to get into it. Have you?

I’ve tried a few of the guided meditation apps, including Headspace and Calm, but when I tried meditating in the morning, I had this impatient feeling like I should just get on with my day and start work.

Usually Hustling, Occasionally Social