on the podcast today, I've got Ryan Garrow with us who is going to help us determine our side hustle, talk about goals, figure out that whole stage. So this is going to be really valuable, especially if you're just getting started and looking for some advice before we get too much into it.

Ryan, how are you doing today?

Have him do an awesome Blake. I'm excited to be here.

Ryan just started his own podcast that we'll get to at the end as well. So we're, we're going to learn a lot here. I want to get some quick context on you before we dive into the technical subject matter of side hustling. So if you could just run, walk us through really briefly the story of your career from how you got started to where you got or how you, how you got to where you are now.

Okay. I don't think our podcast is long enough to cover all of it, but we'll touch on some high points. I've, been in the digital marketing space for about a decade, was CEO of a company that got acquired. I'm now working with the company that acquired us. And so my focus is primarily in the eCommerce space.

most of my days advising businesses on how they can grow their e-commerce, what they can do in strategically. well how they can compete better. But I also have five businesses with my wife outside of that. So I do have the side hustle game going where I have a brand selling direct to consumer. I also have a wholesale division on that.

My wife has a retail store that also sells online. I have a wine and beer retailer. I have a marketing company that tests new products into markets. And then we have a, an investment organization for e-commerce technology. So I am literally all over the place.

I have so many questions, but I, I can't dive in just yet cause I have one more contextual question I ask everybody there. So I'm curious what you would say is your professional superpower.

Strategy. Seeing where something can or can't work.

I love it. I can already tell. We're going to get along great. You're so, so simple. Direct, straight forward. It's going to be fantastic. My first question, because I do this every bit as much for me to learn as for the audience to learn so. You've mentioned you've already got several side hustles, especially some e-commerce stuff.

I'm really curious. First off, we can go into how you get the ideas for that, but then I also want to bring up, before I forget, how do you actually get the system in place to like get, somebody to manufacture it if you need that or how, like how do you build those relationships as well? So let's tackle the idea first, then we can get into the more technical side.

for me, the ideas are generally easy. And the problem for me is, is refining. And figuring out which ones are bad and which ones may have potential. so my wife is usually my best filter. She, she shoots down most of my ideas and tells me they're dumb. And so that's my step one. Like, all right, what do you think of this?

Oh, I think it's bad. Okay, let's maybe table that and I'll try to refine that. But I usually, when I'm advising, cause we have 800 employees here, I'm advising on a lot of side hustles internally for people under 30 but what I like to tell people too is if you're going to make a side hustle work, you've got to be passionate about it or have some interest.

Otherwise it's just going to become another job or a grind and you're not going to keep going and pushing when you're not making money. Cause most side hustles in the eCommerce space. You're grinding now and hoping for pay late, or whether you're working to become an influencer or whether you're working to set up an econ business for success and to scale and pay for generations of wealth type thing.

So I think passionate interest is one of the biggest things I would filter an idea through. And then I think secondary below that is. What kind of con connections do you have or what kind of opportunities do you have to meet people or who is in your sphere that can help you with this? all of my side hustles.

I have partners on purpose. number one, it's, it's more fun to work with people,

but also there's a lot of skills that I don't have. I know I've run a lot of businesses. I've failed at a lot of businesses. I've succeeded. but what I've learned through that is there is no scenario in which I'm going to be able to do.

Everything perfectly or to the best that this business deserves. And so I recommend from most side also people, outside of becoming your own influencer. Even that could use some other people helping each other become better influencers and bouncing ideas off each other. But if you're gonna start an econ business, have somebody else that wants to get excited about this product with you and do it with you, it's, it's way more enjoyable to win together.

Then all by yourself.

Plus the accountability factor.

Yeah, exactly. It's too easy. You know, if you're 25 trying to side hustle and your friends want to go out for beers, and really you do need to develop a little bit of work on your site. You've got somebody sitting there saying, Hey, you're accountable. You said you were gonna do this by this date.

Do it. And with it all by yourself, it's too easy to push things off in your side. Hustle lags and never makes anything.

Oh, I would love to do just like a thought exercise then. So let's say I came up with an idea for an eCommerce product. it's a, it's a litter mat, a special litter mat. Let's go with that. And I have this idea, I think it's going to be really cool, but I have no idea of anybody in my network that can help me out to actually make the thing.

So I'm pretty confident I can set up a store and sell it, maybe even market it. Okay. How did that, like how have you worked with the distribution side of things? Cause I know that's getting a little bit off topic, but at the same time, I know there are a lot of people that have these technical questions.

They feel confident setting up a Shopify or something simple like that. But actually getting the product made is a whole different story.

Well, step one, if we're going to do a litter mat, you better have a cat. Cause if you don't have something to experiment with and see the results and even have some photography that you can do with your own cat, at least have that. after that, my next step would be honestly going into pet stores and researching who's making one, going online and searching, seeing if there's anybody locally.

That is in the space. Maybe it's maybe instead of the mat. If somebody's making litter boxes locally and I can be like, Hey, I'd love to partner with you because if you've got the box, maybe you know people making mats or you can help me. It would stop. I would go around and ask dumb questions. I do so many.

Dumb question, asking sessions where I'm like, I really don't know. Let's just call somebody and see if they'll help. And people respond really well. They love helping people by default. That's my, I think most people do. And so I go on, I'm like, Hey, I don't know what I'm doing here. do you have any advice?

Where can you direct me? And I'll just kind of follow rabbit trails and finding out, Oh, this guy's got a similar product and he's making it in China, in this factory. He introduced me, I sent an email. Great. There's something there.

that, yeah, that's, that's super helpful because that, that side of things is a little bit murky for a lot of people. It's not talked about as much. The sexy thing to talk about is how to set up your Shopify store or how to market your eCommerce product, but the entire thing in the middle, that's the most crucial actually building the product and distributing it totally gets lost.

I think that that's super helpful. But let's get back on track. I, I geared this off in a tangent a little bit there for, for selfish reasons. I'm just curious. I'm curious, like at the beginning, if we have some ideas now, how do you actually narrow it down to choose the right one? And I guess a sub question of that is, do you think you actually have to be passionate about your product, or does it just have to be adjacent to something you care about?

I don't necessarily think it has to be the biggest passion for you. I mean, one of my businesses, I sell organic fertilizer. Guess what? I've never had houseplants before. This

not your number one.

Your life doesn't revolve around fertilizer.

It does not. I have a partner who in loves plants in the business and he created, came up with a formula and my skill set is we were, I was marketing it and getting it into the market. but we aligned while that somebody had that in mind was just like, Hey, I'm going to go figure this one was specifically set up to test out Amazon cause I didn't know what I was doing on Amazon.

So I was like, forget it. I'm just going to jump a business on there and see what happens. so, but I think passion can help, especially cause I'm at a place where I don't need the money. if my side hustles drag along for years and don't make anything. My life's not gonna change. If they make a hundred grand, it doesn't change my life.

So I'm going a little bit different spot as far as my side hustles go. if you need somebody to make money, then I suggest passion. outside of that, just. Also enjoy the process. I am passionate about business and I think that gives me an advantage...