Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Initial jobless claims came out this morning at a staggering 6.6 million new unemployed.

Think about that for a moment. Nearly 7 million Americans lost their job, last week. Wow.

And I know there are unemployment benefits to fall back on, higher now by $600 a week. But it is finite, and for many who have lost their jobs, it is not close to a replacement of their earned income. I know I have spoken with several people who have been let go, several with a couple months of severance to hold them over. Some that I speak with are looking for the next job. Others are deciding to use the time to hurry and build their own business. Income that they control.

I am in that boat, of adding an income stream. Or two.

And, no, I have not been laid off; in fact I am busier, thankfully, then I have ever been in the home loan business.

I am, in great part due to the rapid drop in mortgage rates, doing a large volume of refinancing to help many people lower their payments and improve cash flow. And my purchase business is steady, but not breaking any records. And that means my Realtor partners are not killing it. Steady, but not setting records.

And that is my first side hustle – one that, teaming with my real estate partners, we are bringing in more home buyers who are ready to make the move and buy right away.

We are collaborating to invite potential home buyers to a weekly webinar that answers their questions and motivates them to want to pull the trigger and buy a home, if they are ready. Check out the invitation page for The Home Buyer Seminar.

It is going very well. And the fact that so many of us are home is just good timing to get more people to hop on our webinar. So, that is a side hustle that is helping my main business but also helping the real estate agents I work with build their buyer list and close more homes.

The second is also a way to help those same real estate agents to build more business by being omnipresent on social media, staying top of mind. Only this is not just for the agents that I personally work with, but for agents anywhere across the fruited plain. So real estate agents can be everywhere, all the time, we started WeQast.

So what about you? What would you build?

I knew what I wanted and I have a little tech ability. But have no idea how to code. And, I am not a designer. But I knew that part was pretty simple with the right software like ClickFunnels, and by hiring a designer on Fiverr or Upwork. That part I had or knew I could figure out by hiring the right person inexpensively.

But, what scared me about trying was the idea of building this thing, and having no one visit the site that I built. Crickets. And failure. Not what I want, but that’s the biggest hesitation I had to building these things. How to get traffic?

That’s where I started following Russel Brunson, who founded Clickfunnels, and listening to his podcast where he talked about how to build traffic – a whole bunch of people to come to the website and take in the offer.

Some of his tactics to attract people to my online business worked, and worked very well. I and my agents are getting a dozen people to the webinar every week, so far; and we are closing 3 new homeowners a month. It’s early, as The Home Buyer Seminar just started in January. So, I expect we will grow.

And now I am excited for you, if you are thinking of taking this home time to build our your business, and have worried about how to built traffic to your online presence. Russell has just published a very definitive book, called Traffic Secrets. He lays out all the ways he practices to drive traffic to his business that he took from an idea to over $100 million in revenue, in the past 10 years.

So if you either find yourself in the unfortunate position of having been laid off, or maybe just wanting to build that side business that you have dreamt of launching, then I cannot recommend the Traffic Secrets book more highly. It will shortcut your success and growth.

Oh, and it’s free! Just pay shipping. You’ll be happy you did.

And, I wish you the best in building your new business.