The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

Episode: Passive Income Expert: How To Make 10k Per Month In 90 Days!
Date: December 8, 2025
Host: Steven Bartlett
Guest: Chris Kerner ("King of Side Hustles")

Overview

In this energetic and idea-packed episode, Steven Bartlett interviews serial entrepreneur Chris Kerner, who’s started 80+ businesses and earned millions through a relentless, experimental approach to side hustles and passive income. The episode is a master class on validating business ideas with minimal capital, overcoming mental barriers, and understanding the real trade-offs of “entrepreneurial freedom.” Kerner breaks down exactly how he’d go from $500 to $5,000 in starting capital to real cash flow, offering detailed, actionable blueprints for listeners at every level.

Key Themes & Main Insights

• Accessibility of Entrepreneurship: Now is the best time ever to start a side hustle due to proliferation of low-cost tools and technology.
• Bias for Action: The single greatest obstacle is not lack of ideas but lack of execution—people are held back by fear and the opinions of others.
• Copying (Don’t Reinvent the Wheel): Most success comes not from invention but from adapting—and later, iterating on—existing proven models.
• Testing and Validation: Rapid, low-cost testing—often using Facebook tools—is the heart of modern entrepreneurship.
• Partnership Pitfalls: Most people should start businesses alone; partnerships fail more often than solo ventures due to misaligned expectations.
• Real Passive Income: True “passive” income comes only after lots of “sweaty, ugly,” very active work.
• Focus vs. Variety: Obsessive focus can lead to unicorns, but wide experimentation creates freedom and enjoyment for the majority.
• The Truth About Risk and Freedom: Entrepreneurship swaps predictability for risk and isn’t true ‘freedom’—you trade one set of dependencies for another.

Detailed Breakdown & Notable Quotes

1. Building the Business Mindset (00:00–04:00)

• Chris shares his humble beginnings: selling golf balls at age 9, showing that "business is approachable and we all have ideas, but we usually don't do anything about it." (00:34)
• Main blockers: "They're afraid of what people think...or they're not connecting the tools with the ideas. If we can get over those, the world is our oyster." (01:10)

2. Business Ideas: Starting Capital Case Studies

$500 - The AI Agency for Small Businesses (81:32–87:26)

• Core Idea: Set up a service implementing AI tools for local businesses, who know AI can help but won’t do it themselves.
• Execution: Use $100 for learning rapid app-building tools (Replit, Lindy), the rest for Facebook ads targeting business owners in your region.
• Quote: "There's 400 million small businesses on the planet...they need AI. It's not a fad, it's not going away...they need someone to do it." – Chris (81:32)
• Pricing: $500–$5,000 for set-up; 20% of that as recurring support
• Skills Needed: "You just need to prompt a couple tools a couple times." (85:46)
• Repeatable: "Then you can go to every other business and copy and paste that same app and sell it to them." (86:27)

$500 - Drop Servicing & Directory Site Arbitrage (88:08–93:45)

• Drop Servicing: You market a service (garage repair, oil change, etc.), generate leads via ads, and send the booked jobs to local providers, making margin as the middleman.
• Directory Websites: Build niche directories (e.g. dog parks, ice suppliers), use free/cheap tools, monetize through ads or featured placements.
• Quote: "People are proactively creating their own directories...the play is to have dozens of directory websites, some make $0, some make a few thousand – it's a numbers game." (91:00)

$500 - Vending Machines (95:03–96:29)

• Approach: Buy a used vending machine ($300–$400), stock snacks from Costco, place in busy location, split revenue with business owner.
• Quote: "Once I have one, that's the hardest part. Now you have a track record. This is a business that can be passive." (95:55)
• Lessons: Placement is key, most profit comes from best locations, focus on demand (Doritos & Coke outsell health snacks).

$1,000 - Wedding Rentals & Local Email Newsletters (98:44–103:47)

• Wedding Rentals: Build/rent arches, photo walls, carts to event planners. "Weddings are increasing in popularity...It's just a piece of wood, and he rents it out for $1,000 per wedding." (98:56)
• Local Newsletters: Run Facebook ads to gather subscribers, write a personal-feeling weekly email about local events, monetize via ads to local businesses.
• Quote: "Acquire a subscriber for about 50 cents...you can charge about 50 cents per subscriber per month in ad sales." (101:16)

$5,000 - Buying Small RV Parks for Passive Cash Flow (104:17–108:03)

• Approach: Use $2,000 for due diligence & the rest for minor improvements, find small RV parks with seller financing (aka owner provides the "mortgage").
• Math: Parks can be 3–10x more profitable than single-family rental; stabilize, raise rents, fill units using Facebook Marketplace.
• Quote: "I don't understand why people buy single family homes—small RV parks cost the same, are significantly more profitable and flexible." (104:21)

3. Bias for Action & Execution Muscle

• Shorten time between idea and action:

  "Shrink the amount of time between doing something about that idea and having that idea...it becomes this self perpetuating snowball." (28:13)

• Build the 'follow-through' muscle:

  "You become an expert at doing something about those ideas by doing something about those ideas." (29:10)

4. Copying vs. Inventing (13:06–19:51)

• Reverse Engineering Success:

  "When I see an existing business, I'm like, yes! Someone already proved it for me. Now I just copy." (10:53)

• Iterating Only After You’ve Learned:

  "If you do twists in the beginning, you end up hundreds of miles away from your destination." (15:31)

5. Passion vs. Profit

• Favorite maxim:

  "Ignore passion, follow the profit until you can afford to follow your passion." (01:33, 42:33)

• Explanation: If you start with what you love, odds are you won't make money. Learn to love business itself, and test lots of ideas.

6. Validating Ideas (49:01–57:25)

Rapid Validation Process:

• Use Facebook (Marketplace, groups, ads) to test demand for an idea in hours, not weeks or months.
• Gather clicks, messages, and interest, track in a Google Sheet.
• Example: Creatine for women ("Post a mockup to Facebook Marketplace...see what gets more clicks."). (53:54)

"Focus is overrated and momentum is underrated. The first step is always something very, very low friction." (53:56)

• Skill to acquire:

  "Facebook ads are like the infinite money glitch... We should know Facebook ads like we know how to write emails." (57:52)

7. Team Building and Partnerships (72:53–79:13)

• Partner less, solo more:

  "If you look at the stats, business failure rates are significantly higher with cofounders vs. solo founders." (73:02)

• Equity splits:

  "50/50 almost never works...don't define the relationship too early or too late." (75:33)

• Best practice: Validate, hit a set milestone (ex: $10k revenue), THEN discuss equity based on proven contributions.

8. Realities of Entrepreneurship (121:28–123:17)

• Trade-offs, not solutions:

  "Entrepreneurship is not a solution—you're trading something for it. The question is: is that tradeoff worth it or not?" (123:17)

• Risk and responsibility:

  "My life has been volatile and unpredictable, but the more I do it, the more predictable it becomes, in a good way." (123:38)

• Against hustle-culture myth:

  "Entrepreneurship can be more of a prison than a 9 to 5, at least in the first years, sometimes decades." (120:55)

Memorable Moments & Quotes

On Failure and Persistence

• "Every no is closer to a yes. If my conversion rate is 0.1%, I gotta talk to a thousand people..." (71:04)

On Focus vs. Experimentation

• "All else equal, the guy who focuses more is more likely to be a billionaire. But the person that maintains momentum is more likely to be a millionaire." (64:01)

On copying models:

• "I don't assume that my competitors are idiots... They've learned the hard way. I just copy their pricing, copy their website, size, and niche because that's clearly working." (17:09)
• "Some of the greatest entrepreneurs in the world basically just copy 95% of the blueprint... Walmart copied other regional grocery chains." (13:06)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:34] – Chris’ first side hustle and the mindset barrier
• [10:53] – The "Law of Abundance": Why market saturation is a myth
• [13:06] – Copying better than innovating at the start
• [28:13] – Building the "bias for action" muscle
• [42:33] – "Follow the profit until you can afford to follow your passion"
• [49:01] – How to validate a business idea in hours using Meta/Facebook tools
• [72:53] – Why most partnerships fail; how to do equity splits right
• [81:32] – What business to start with $500: AI Agency
• [93:55] – Vending machine business
• [101:16] – Building a local email newsletter cash machine
• [104:02] – How to buy an RV park with $5,000
• [119:41] – Recognizing “mirage opportunities” and red flags
• [120:55] – The dangerous myth of entrepreneurial "freedom"
• [123:17] – "There are no solutions, only trade-offs"

Practical Takeaways

• Test your ideas online quickly and with almost no money—momentum, not originality, is what counts.
• Ignore whether you’re passionate about something—look for profit first; passion often follows success.
• Be wary of partnerships; start solo and only bring in partners after proving traction and defining value explicitly.
• Passive income requires active, 'ugly' work up front—there is no shortcut.
• Copy what’s working, then iterate as you learn—originality is overrated for 95% of businesses.
• Trade-offs define entrepreneurship; it’s not “freedom,” but a different set of dependencies and risks.
• Finding and keeping good operators is essential: trust, profit incentives, and personal relationship matter more than equity for most.

Final Reflection

Chris closes with a powerful reminder:

"Entrepreneurship is not for everyone. The only way to know if it's for you is to do enough of it to find out if the trade-offs are worth it." (125:05)

And Steven sums up the ethos:

"There are many ways to be successful and to be happy...your own unique wiring and ikigai can drive you to the same outcome of financial freedom—if you're self-aware, work hard, and can cope with the opinions of others." (129:28)

For More

• Chris Kerner: tkopod.com — practical guides, one business blueprint a week
• Steven Bartlett: Instagram, LinkedIn, Podcast Archive

This summary captures the tactics, philosophies, and mindset shifts from Chris Kerner’s entrepreneurial journey—providing a true playbook for anyone serious about starting a profitable side hustle in 2025 and beyond.