Lemonada. A community host boosts engagement and retention. And she also gets paid for it, of course.

Welcome to Side Uswell School. My name's Chris Gillebeau. In this week's first $1,000 story,

you're going to learn how a personal touch with organized virtual events enabled one community manager to surpass this $1,000 mark while fostering a supportive space for solopreneurs. What am I talking about? I'm talking about the story of Ariel. She had an idea, well, she has been hosting online events.

She's all about building community, responding to comments, getting people talking about

different topics and so on. And she turns this into a business. She was an administrative

of assistant. And then she decided to kind of strike out on her own with this side hustle.

And she goes on to earn a lot more than $1,000.

But in this feature, we focus on how someone goes from idea to income, how they in fact get going.

So without further ado, let's let Ariel tell us the story.

I'll come back at the end with a few words of wrap up.

I'm Lena, and my side hustle revolves around hosting an online community for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Before this, I worked as an administrative assistant at a startup accelerator, where I watched

how founders thrived when they had constant peer support. But I also saw how easily they felt

isolated once a program ended. Around that time, a friend asked if I could help manage an online

membership group she was starting for solopreneurs. The pay was low, but I jumped in, excited by the prospect of helping people feel more connected.

I was invited to moderate a Slack community, welcome new members, and handle basic customer

support, like lost passwords or billing questions for the monthly membership.

I also hosted weekly virtual check-ins where folks shared

progress updates and asked for feedback. Since the community had fewer than 30 people at

first, it felt manageable. But soon, more entrepreneurs joined through word of mouth. I quickly

found myself organizing live workshops, coordinating guest speakers, and even mediating occasional

disagreements in the chat. Every time a new member joined, I messaged them personally.

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