From $17/hr to 6-Figure Side Hustle (Greatest Hits)

The Side Hustle Show

Nick Loper

Business, Education, Entrepreneurship, How To

4.7 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

"Changing the world with chess" and making $100,000 per year on the side. That’s the story of today’s guest, Jeff DiOrio from EliteChess.net. Jeff went from earning $17/hr working in summer camp chess programs teaching kids how to play chess, to running his own camps and earning five times as much. He then transitioned to an online recurring membership model, in part due to the pandemic, while also keeping the in-person coaching side of his business alive. Jeff’s approach to growing his student numbers so rapidly? Organic growth through giving to charities and delivering a value-driven service, all while doing something he loves—teaching chess. Tune in to The Side Hustle Show interview to hear: how Jeff built his minimum viable audience the methods he used to set up the business for recurring revenue how you can borrow some of these same tactics in your business Full Show Notes: From $17/hr to 6-Figure Side Hustle New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here! Sponsors: Airbnb — Discover how much your home could be worth and find a professional co-host today! Mint Mobile — Cut your wireless bill to $15 a month! Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post! OpenPhone — Get 20% off of your first 6 months!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Here's an oldie but a goodie from the archives from the side hustle show Greatest Hits Collection.
0:07.1	What's up? What's up? Nick Loper here. Welcome to the side hustle show because your 9 to 5 may make you a living, but your 5 to 9 makes you alive.
0:15.6	This week, you'll meet a high school dean who's built his side hustle to the point where it now makes more than the day job.
0:21.4	And he's done it teaching chess. Stick around to hear how Jeff DeOreo from elitechess.net
0:27.3	built his minimum viable audience, how he set up the business for recurring revenue, and how you
0:32.8	can borrow some of these same tactics in your own business. As a listener bonus, this week I put together a free list of 20 more hobby niches
0:40.2	where you could apply the same general business model to.
0:42.7	You'll find that along with the full show notes for this episode at sidehustle nation.com
0:47.4	slash chess or through the link in the episode description of your podcast app.
0:51.4	The story starts with Jeff teaching chess at a neighboring
0:54.6	school's summer camp. Ready? Let's do it. I was making $17 an hour and started thinking,
1:05.5	wow, maybe I could do this for myself and give myself a little bit of a raise. Plus, I was, you know,
1:14.6	making all these kids really strong in chess in the neighboring cities and then not really
1:19.8	focusing on my own community that I was working with. You're helping out the competition for your
1:24.9	own chess team. Yeah. and while I believe strongly in just
1:29.1	kind of helping anyone, I thought I should at least serve the people nearest to me too.
1:34.3	Okay. So that was the idea, but I didn't really move on it. I sometimes have a little
1:41.5	trouble getting started. I have these ideas and then I kind of think about them quite too long. And it wasn't until I was about to begin my like fourth year of summer camp where I said, I've got to, I've got to give this a try, but I was scared to do it.
2:01.8	And so I decided that, you know, what's going to get me off of, get me moving would be
2:07.0	to just host a charity event.
2:09.5	I thought that if I made it about someone else, then it would make it a little bit easier
2:15.6	for me to handle if, you know, it didn't go well or if my
	...

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