Matt Gray is a well known Youtuber and content creator. He is also the founder of Herb - the largest and most engaged cannabis community in the world of over 14 million people.
Previously he founded Bitmaker, which trained full-stack software engineers and got them jobs at companies like Shopify, Facebook, and IBM. Bitmaker was acquired by General Assembly.
Guest Author: Matt Gray
The 13-step business plan to build a $15k/month side hustle:
1. Ask yourself, “What topics can I help people get massive clarity on?”
My recommendation: Ask your friends/co-workers what you are an expert in.
2. Distill your value.
By helping someone achieve massive clarity on X, what are they able to achieve?
3. Pick a platform.
Where do the people that need your help reside?
My recommendation: LinkedIn (fast algorithm for growth + professionals looking for growth)
4. Create daily content that talks about the clarity you can provide.
5. DM every account that interacts with your content.
My recommendation: Ask them what they do + what their goals are.
6. If you can help them with their goals, ask them if they’d want to jump on a 1:1 call.
7. Run a consultation on Zoom.
Afterward, reflect on:
• What exercises worked? (ie. Personal Board Meetings)
• What were their major blockers? (ie. Not knowing how to manage >5 people)
• What resources could I create to increase the value? (Matt Mochary’s resources)
8. Do 20 more consultations to understand:
• What outcomes can I promise? (ie. better sales systems)
• Who is my target demographic? (ie. early sales leaders)
9. After every consultation, add each member to a Telegram group chat. Start beta-testing a premium community.
10. Start creating longer-form content.
• Case studies of consultations
• Breakdowns of what processes you are teaching
11. Redirect traffic from your content → new WordPress website → Stripe checkout → Calendly 1:1 link
12. After each consultation, give them the option to opt into a paid community:
• Daily standup
• Weekly Q&A
• Monthly goal check-ins
13. As the community grows, invest to make it stronger:
• Coaches
• AI 1:1 match-making
• Community managers
This lets you:
• Build recurring revenue
• Put your marketing on autopilot (referrals from the community)
• Capture value to launch new products on top of (SaaS tool, group mentorship, etc.)
Here’s the math to hit $15k/month:
• 20 consulting calls/month for $400 each: $8,000
• 140 community members at $50 / month: $7000
To hit 20 monthly calls:
• 500,000 Twitter views
• 5,000 website views
• 1,000 product views
• 2% conversion rate
• 20 calls
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