Side Hustle Samurai: How Bart Merrell Monetized Losing His Leg (part 2)

Side hustle income does not require startup capital, a business degree, or a grand plan. It requires you to look at what is already in your life and ask one question: how can I monetize this?

In Part 2 of this conversation, serial entrepreneur and Side Hustle Samurai Bart Merrell picks up exactly where he left off, with the cliffhanger. In March 2024, Bart lost his lower left leg. Before the surgery even happened, his first thought was: how do I monetize this? Six months post-op, he was sitting in his prosthetist's office pitching himself as a patient liaison on retainer. He is now building apps for the practice using AI, without a single line of coding experience.

That story sets the tone for everything that follows. Bart walks through his nine active income streams, including real estate, dog training, weight loss program promotion, AI-generated music on Spotify, vehicle imports from Japan, and the Side Hustle Samurai coaching and speaking work that grew out of his book Monetize Your Mindset. Every single one started with something already in his life.

He introduces the three-list framework he uses with every client: what do you like to do, what do you need to do, and what are you already doing. He explains why you should make the lists before asking whether you can monetize anything on them, and why giving your brain permission to ask the question is itself the first step to opening new income possibilities. He tells the story of a bus driver named Stephanie who called him at 3 in the morning two days after making her lists because she was too excited to sleep.

He also shares the Acres of Diamonds story and his family's version of it, Acres of Pig Poop, which delivers one of the most memorable and practical closing challenges in the episode.

In This Episode:

• How Bart turned a below-knee amputation into a retainer income stream before he left the operating room
• The three-list framework for identifying side hustle opportunities in what you already know, do, and enjoy
• Why dog training, AI music, Japanese vehicle imports, and a weight loss program all became income streams from things Bart was already doing
• The Acres of Diamonds principle applied to your own backyard, and how most people walk past their own diamonds every day
• The free 1K Blind Spot Assessment and where to access it

Free gift for listeners: 1K Blind Spot Assessment  Takes about 30 minutes. Tells you exactly what is blocking you from your first thousand dollars in a side hustle.

The Quiet Gift: A Journey of Self Worth and Resilience is now available for download as an audible.  Check it out!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

All of us reach a point in time where we are depleted and need to somehow find a way to reignite the fire within. But how do we spark that flame? Welcome to Reignite Resilience, where we will venture into the heart of the human spirit. We'll discuss the art of reigniting our passion and strategies to stoke our enthusiasm. And now here are your hosts, Natalie Davis and Pamela Cass.

SPEAKER_03 0:45

All right, we are back with Bart, um, who left us on a cliffhanger because Bart, you left us with, he said, I don't know how much research you've done, but, and I feel like you were about to pull something out. Yes. Um, I think, I think I know what it is, uh, but go right ahead.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

So I lost my lower left leg March 25th, 2024. Okay. I found out in about October the year before. And when I found out, obviously the first thoughts were how bad is this gonna hurt? And all this good thing, all those not good things, I should say. But my twisted mind goes like this okay, I don't like this. I don't want it to happen, but it has to happen. So how can I monetize it? And so here's my leg. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:35

Uh you have the samurai.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

The side hustle samurai.

SPEAKER_03 1:40

Yes, on the leg.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

So it's tax deductible tax deductible. Perfect.

SPEAKER_03 1:46

And so six months, six months Matt laugh, but when you say that you monetize everything, I monetize even your life. Even your life.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

That's it. So six months post-op, I'm in a an appointment with my prosthetist. And I said, Scott, you know that I interviewed three other prosthetists before I decided on you. One of them had a guy, a guy I could talk to and ask, how bad's it gonna hurt? What about phantom pain? What about this? What about that? Yeah. Scott, you don't have a guy. I'm your guy. And that started the conversation. He's like, Well, what do you want? And I was like, I don't want a job, I don't want to come into the office, I want to be on retainer, you send me the phone numbers, I go talk to the people, meet with them, do whatever they need, and I get paid. And so I'm on retainer with them. It's been a year and a half now.

SPEAKER_04 2:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

And if I hadn't thought about it before, when the opportunity came up, I don't know that I would have taken action.

SPEAKER_03 2:56

Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Because it was in my head, okay, how can I monetize it?

SPEAKER_03 3:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

I didn't know how. I I kind of thought, well, maybe I'm gonna get up on stage and tell people how good I did, you know. I don't know. I didn't know what was gonna happen, but then like I said, the opportunity came up and it was just like, Scott, you don't have a guy, and I'm your guy.

SPEAKER_04 3:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

And it's turned into more because I I do outreach to doctors for them. I do they need a couple of different apps built, and I'm not a coder, but because of AI, I can build apps, and now I get compensated through him and other prosthetists that might want my app. Exactly. Love that. And so thinking about these opportunities that may come up, or at least just ask the question, exactly. It opens your mind to continue to think about it.

SPEAKER_02 3:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:52

I think that was the level of curiosity that um Pam and I were chatting about when we lost you just for a moment, um, a few moments ago. It's you know, not just like when you do when you talk about the opportunity and taking the action, and then not getting caught up in having to know all of the details, the specifics, right? Because when you had this conversation with Scott, it's not like you had a business built out already. You identified the need, you brought forward the strengths that you can help him with, right, to fulfill that need, and then you built out the what? What does it look like? And it has continued to evolve in just a year and a half.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

And his competition had a guy. So he needed a guy. And and so it was just pointing out the obvious to him. Hey, you need me. And then then we negotiated how much do you need?

SPEAKER_03 4:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 4:47

That's that's amazing. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:50

And the opportunities in terms of building out the app and things of that nature. I'm assuming that that comes from you staying in a place of curiosity to see what other gaps are there in the business that I could potentially fill.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Exactly. Well, and and it's just being honest with him and talking. So another thing, I am a dog trainer. I I'm a and I'm a dog trainer because we adopted several years ago, we adopted a 90-pound, eight-month-old Brattweiler that didn't know the word no.

SPEAKER_04 5:21

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

And I kept calling my buddy, his name's Sean. I was like, Sean, Rex is doing this, what do I do? And he would tell me. And about the fifth time I called him, he says, Bart, we're doing the train the trainer program. Why don't you come take our train the trainer program and train your own dog? If you're not gonna pay me to train, train my dog, you need to teach, you need to learn how to train your own dog. Yes. And I mean it was very low startup capital needed. Yeah. And the first year I had a partner, I met a guy at the at the train the trainer program, an older, well, I say older, I'm older, older than me guy that has no tech skills. And so we partnered up. I do all the tech, I do the incoming calls, and we share expenses on things. And the first year I did almost 100,000 in dog training, and he did almost 50,000 part-time. Okay. And just because I adopted a Rottweiler that needed to be trained.

SPEAKER_02 6:23

So you take every opportunity that is handed to you, I'm not going to say challenge, every opportunity that's handed to you, and you figure out how to monetize it. And so the question that I have for you, how many businesses do you have? Because every time you open your mouth, you're like, oh well, I also have I do this. Oh, yeah, I have this, and I got this. So I have probably nine.

SPEAKER_04 6:52

Oh and and some of them are big.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

So right out of college, I bought I bought my first home. And it was I was single. I had one room that I took, the best room, of course, and then I rented out the other rooms to other single guys. Paid my mortgage and then some.

unknown 7:15

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

Then I got married. We rented out the basement to single some single girls in college. Me and my wife lived upstairs. Then when we moved to our current house, we looked for a home with an accessory apartment, a mother-in-law apartment. And I've never lived in a home that I haven't had at least half of my mortgage paid for by someone else. And and so that one doesn't require much unless it's empty, you know, and then I have to get someone in, or if I have to fix something, or that doesn't require much. No. I have a weight loss program that I promote. And this one, my wife, she one time she said, Bart, I'm getting a little more than I bargained for, and I would like to see a little less of you. And she says, You've been working on that before picture long enough. It's time to start on the after picture. And once I admitted to her that yes, I do, because us men, we kind of look in the mirror and we go, Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:16

Yeah, still got it.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Or we go to home, we go to Walmart and we look around, I ain't that bad.

SPEAKER_04 8:23

Look good. I ain't that bad.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

So we have this deniability that we just can deny.

SPEAKER_04 8:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

So when I committed, I was like, okay, if I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna get paid for it. My wife wanted what she bargained for, which was my my wedding weight. She wanted to see that much of me and not more. So I went to GoDaddy. I typed in back to my weddingweight.com. It was available. I bought it. I didn't even know how I was gonna lose weight. But she did it anyway. But I bought it, I held on to that for seven years. Oh because everything that was out there was about the seven the 90-day challenge of me getting my butt to the gym and dieting. Yeah, and that wasn't in my DNA.

unknown 9:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

I would get there that first time, I'd pay for a three-year contract to the gym, and then I never go again. And finally, my friend from California, her name's Beth, she calls me up, she says, Bart, you gotta try this. It's amazing. Even if you don't like it, you can get your money back. You just it's just amazing. You gotta try it. I'm like, Beth, Beth, calm down. What is it? It's the 10-day celebrity transformation cleanse. I paused for a second and I said, Beth, I want to do a 10-day cleanse like I want a colonoscopy. It's not very bad.

SPEAKER_04 9:44

Pretty much the same. Yes, exactly. They're basically the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Now, Beth, she was kind of quick on her feet and she says, Well, at you, your age, you probably need both. And I've had both. Wow. So I try I try she I denied it for the first little bit. She kept on me for about a year, and I tried it. And it I lost 18 pounds in 10 days. I'm excited now. This is working. I took about five days off. I did another one. Lost another 11 pounds. So in less than 30 days, I'm down almost 30 pounds. I did four in two months and five days and got back to my wedding weight. Nice. And back to my weddingweight.com became a stream of income to me. Now I have to be doing the cleanse for people to ask me, hey, how'd you do that? Hey, how did you do that? And they see me drinking my green drink on you know Facebook, Instagram, whatever, and then the questions come and it turns into a stream. But if I'm not doing anything, it doesn't produce income. But I still have it. Yeah. And so most of the stuff I do requires a little bit of time. I'm big into AI right now. Yes. And learning. And I mean, if you're not learning AI right now, you're gonna be left behind. Yes. And so with Lovable, I build apps for different people. And so let's go back to the app that the prostitutes needed. So I do a 24-day board and train program for the dog training. Just because your dog minds me at my house doesn't translate to you at your house when it goes home unless you do what you need to do. And people don't. So I told myself I need an app, an accountability app that shows them what to do day one, day two, day three after the dog goes home. Yes. So I'm sharing this with my prosthetist. And he has had a couple of guys or people, I don't know if they were guys or women or not, a couple of people that had a below the knee amputee.

unknown 11:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

And because they didn't take care of themselves, they became above the knee amputee. Okay. And I says, Well, why didn't they do it? Because when I, I mean, he is very open that if you see anything wrong, take a picture of it and send it to me. Text it to me. And I said, Well, why didn't they do that? I he's like, I guess they didn't want to bother me. And so he says, I need an app for the first 90 days after an amput amputation to teach them what to do and what they need to do to create this new lifestyle for them. So just out over doing, and it's just a little tweak from my dog training app to a prostitute.

SPEAKER_03 12:39

Human for humans, yes, exactly. Yes. For self-care, we'll say that. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

And then let's go back to the music thing. I love music, but I I don't play an instrument well and I don't sing well. And so I create music using AI. I have two alter eagles. One is Mason Kane, and the other one is Dana Call. They both have albums on Spotify.

SPEAKER_03 13:08

Love it.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

Now it's a tiny, tiny piece of income because you only get a little few, like a portion of a penny for a listen, but I'm doing it anyway. It's a it's an outlet, it's a release for me. I listen to my stuff more than I listen to anybody else's stuff because it's about me. Yeah. And it's just, it's one of those things that I'm doing it. So I'm gonna try and make money at it. One of my songs hits, and then pretty soon, you know, all I need is 10 million listens and I can make $30,000. There you go. There you go.

SPEAKER_03 13:48

Wow. Well, and it's so interesting that you talk about the AI music. Um, because I two of my favorite artists right now are both AI. Um, and makes my children insane, but it's good.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Well, and all the musicians hate it because when you do it with AI, the music theory is perfect. Yes. Yes. And it's well thought out. You know, so I mean Claude, we have a little a little collaboration, and I'm sometimes I'm in tears, and I'm just I'm just like telling Claude, I'm not crying, you're crying. And and it it is it is just it is creative, it's creative, but yet it is so uh perfect when it comes to the music theory and when it comes to the both all of my albums have a creative arc. Song one leads to two, to three, to four till we end on the on the tenth song. And most albums out there don't. They don't think that far.

SPEAKER_03 15:03

I was gonna say it probably comes from you buying the cassettes and the records, because that was the progression back when you had to buy all of the songs instead of them being independent songs that just could live by themselves. You you were invested in the entire LP when you bought the record, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:21

Yes, and a live yes. And and then I argue with Claude because Claude will send out things that I'm just like, but Claude, so there's one for, and you know, I have to get in the head of a woman and think like a woman, but she's just separated from her man and she's out at the bar, and someone says she looks nice, and Claude said that she was um uncomfortable. I can't remember what it was. I'm like, but Claude, why would she feel that way? She's excited because someone thinks she's more than her ex was, ex thought. She's excited, she's nervous, she's and so we we battle this out, me and Claude, about the lyrics. And so it comes out better. Yeah, I mean, maybe it's I've never been in a band where they're trying to write music together. So maybe it's just like being in a band and they're probably no, no, yes, no, I I don't know. But it's anyway, yeah. I I I understand that your kids are up in arms because you like AI stuff, but gosh, I I think a lot of the music is better if it's done properly. Yes, agree. Right. You know, I started out.

SPEAKER_03 16:33

I've listened to some awful AI music, and it's yes, you're exactly right. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

And you listen to the lyrics and you're like, what? What?

SPEAKER_02 16:43

I think we need to do a reignite resilience uh theme song, Natalie.

SPEAKER_03 16:48

We could make a song and using it. Absolutely, yeah. That's exactly it.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

I had a uh it's uh a drug rehab, a drug program reach out to me and I created a song for their event. That's cool. Using their guidelines, their their modos, and I just, you know, me and like I said, we and Claude battled it out. We went through it, and then I picked uh I actually had Mason Kane do it for him. And it's also published on on Spotify as well. But it's beautiful. And and it's funny because we I asked him, I said, how how bad do you want it to get? Meaning, so this this talks about, you know, you have you have a preacher who's you know watching his son going through it. You have an old man that's been there and he's he or an old lady in her first circle, a guy who thought about committed suit committing suicide, but he's still there because he made it. You know, anyway, it's just yeah, it's just a great outlet and it's fun. It's fun. And if I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna learn how to make money at it.

SPEAKER_03 18:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

I love it.

SPEAKER_03 18:03

I love it. I love that. And then you have created a whole separate business um where you are the samurai. I'm assuming you're the samurai. You are the person behind the side hustle samurai. The side hustle samurai. Yes. Tell us about the side hustle samurai.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

So people have stuff in them. Just like, I mean, I do it naturally. Anything that crosses my path, I always ask that question. Most people don't. You know, and I was sitting, I was so I volunteered at a drug rehab center, and I was helping them learn how to speak and tell their stories. And I was listening to Jen, and she was telling her story about how as a kid, she thought that her life was like everybody else's. Because when her and her family were out and about, the abuse and the neglect didn't happen. It wasn't until they went home that it happened. And she thought everybody went home and the abuse and neglect happened. Until she went to college and had roommates, she didn't realize her life was different. And so I'm sitting in listening to Jen tell her story, and I'm thinking about my experiences with how I make money. And I'm saying, and the reason this was on top of my mind as I'm listening to her is because my sister denies this, but my sister posted on Facebook an article or a book about how to live on less than $28,000 a year. And in my mind, I said, why would I even want to read that? Tell me how to make more than $28,000 a year, and I'll read it. Yeah. But why would I want to learn how to live on less? And so I'm sitting there listening to Jen, and all the way home I couldn't stop thinking about people don't think like I do. If you didn't grow up with my dad or someone like my dad, you don't think like I do. Right. And so that's when I wrote my book, Monetize Your Mindset. And it is it it is actually freshly done because when I wrote it back in 2016, there was no AI. I mean, we were thinking about it, but nobody was using it. Yes. And so I rewrote it to include a section on AI and how to, you know, uses of AI. Yes. But and and that I'm on my drive home from the that the drug rehab, I was thinking, and monetize your mindset came to my mind. I got home, I typed in GoDaddy. Monetize your mindset.com was available. I bought it. This is a theme. This is this is something comes to my mind. I go down, I go to GoDaddy, I buy it.

SPEAKER_02 21:06

How many of those GoDaddies do you have? Do you know?

SPEAKER_04 21:10

Probably 30?

unknown 21:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:13

At least. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:15

And some of them I use, some of them I don't.

SPEAKER_03 21:18

Exactly. Yes, you don't use them yet. I'm sure that you will in the future, yes. Or sell them to someone who finally comes around to monetize your mindsmith.com. Yeah. I should look into that. And so I don't pay Mart Mart like uh a million dollars for the link. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

Well, and I don't have the I don't have side hustle samurai.com. Okay. It's been offered to me, but I haven't bought it yet. But I have the side hustle samurai.com. Perfect. Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. And and I may I may break down and buy side hustle samurai.com, but right now I'm waiting for him to come back with a lower amount and ask me again.

SPEAKER_03 21:59

Yes. Well, the this the website is already beautiful. So I mean wherever you it l is it's parked, I guess it it doesn't really have that big of a difference because you're making an impact with the work that you're doing anyway. It's there. Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

And so that's what started it all was listening to Jen tell her story.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

And I just started to think, you know, people don't think like I do. Yeah. How could I help them see the things that are just right there? I don't I I come in with no e no agenda when I'm working with somebody. I mean, I'm you're not, I'm not trying to get you to join my network marketing company or sell my stuff. Yeah. We go through their life experiences. I have them make three lists. What do you like to do? What do you need to do? What are you already doing? And you need to don't think about, oh, can you monetize it yet? Just make a huge make these lists. And then we'll go back later. We'll do some research. We'll ask the question how can I monetize this?

unknown 23:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

How can I monetize this? And then let your mind think on it for a week. Because you've opened your mind to say, okay. And another fellow speaker of mine that I know his name, oh shoot, now I said I'm going to tell his name and now I can't remember his name. Mike Rayburn. His motto is what if? So if you say, if you tell somebody, or your brain tells you you can't do that, or if a friend says you can't do that, well, then you say, okay, I know I can't, but if I could, how would I start?

unknown 23:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

And that opens your mind to continue to think. So the same thing with asking, how can you monetize this? It opens your mind and gives your mind permission to think. And so I was helping this bus driver. She came to me with an idea. She already had her idea. And I said, Okay, Stephanie, just humor me and let's go through my process. And she's like, okay. So I gave her the job to go make these lists. Two days later, and we're going to meet next week. Two days later, she calls me Bart. She calls me up and she says, Bart, I'm so mad at you. I'm like, okay. I woke up this morning at three o'clock this morning and I couldn't go back to sleep. I'm like, Stephanie, as far as I know, I was I was in my house in my own bed. Well, I thought of something and I was so excited I couldn't go back to sleep, and I was just making lists of things I need to do to get it off off the ground. Oh my gosh. And I had nothing to do with that other than getting her starting thinking. Yes. And if you just give people the permission to investigate, they're going to come up with the stuff on their own. And so by making these lists and then refining the list and then doing the research, which is very important, something's going to bubble up. Something's going to come up, maybe three, four, or five things of the top things you need to try first. And you need to do your research and make sure it's something you want to do. Yeah. So there is a Japanese restaurant that I love in Japan. It's called Kokoichi, Kochui, Koko Ichibang Curry. It's a Japanese curry restaurant. First place I go when I land, it's the last place I go before I leave. I love it. And so I'm over in Japan. And if you go to the ones by the military bases in Japan on a Friday or a Saturday night, you think you're in America because that's where all the GIs are. Okay. So Americans love this stuff. I'm like, okay, I need to take this to America. This will be awesome. I had a buddy of mine in Japan that offered to fund it. And he said it like this. And I had to check with my other Japanese friends to make sure I understood what he was saying because he said, if we make money, we split it. If you don't make any money, if we fail, don't worry about it. Oh, okay. I had free money.

SPEAKER_03 26:07

Yes, exactly. That's what it sounds like. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:10

I got back here to America and I started doing my research. And I talked to some people that were in the restaurant industry and how they started up and what it took. We did some mock restaurants at our house to see if people would like it. We did all this stuff, and I decided, you know what? I don't want to work that hard. Yeah. Restaurants are a lot. And so I said no. I gave up the free money because I didn't want to do it.

SPEAKER_03 26:40

It's not on the list of the things that you enjoy doing. It goes back to the list that you talk about. Like, what do you enjoy? Yeah. If that's not on your list, take it off.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

Yeah. Well, I'm going to push back on that a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 26:52

Even for free money? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:54

I'm going to push back on that a little bit because I don't necessarily enjoy having my leg cut off. Yes. Yeah. But if I'm going to be doing this stuff anyway, so we we joke before this happened, I would my nightly routine to get in bed was brush my teeth and hop in bed. And I'm waiting for my wife to get done putting all the stuff on her face. Yes. And it's 30 minutes later, 45 minutes later, I'm like, can we turn off the light already? You know? And now with my leg, I'm putting creams and stuff on my leg and washing things. And so it's a whole new routine. And so I don't like that routine, but I've learned it. Yeah. And other people need, I do like, I do enjoy helping other people with learn how to deal with this. Yeah. And so I that's just a little bit of pushback. And I'm not telling your audience they need to go chop off body parts to criticize us. I'm not advised. But the things that you need to do is highly overlooked. Yeah. I have a friend. So my prosthetist, he told me you need to go see a grief counselor to say goodbye to your foot. Like, okay, I'll go say goodbye to my foot. And it was kind of weird. You're writing letters to your foot and saying I'm sorry and having the foot say they're sorry back. And anyway, my grief counselor was one of my friends, and she's a grief counselor, not because she wants to be. Yeah. She's a grief counselor because she lost her son when he was like 15 to some sort of cancer, or I don't remember exactly what it was. So don't overlook the things that you need to do, the things that you have overcome. Because those are the things that a lot of people need.

SPEAKER_02 28:43

And that's that's what's been really the theme of our podcast is every single person that's been on here has gone through some sort of challenge and has taken it and done something with it. Speaking, coaching, books, you know, fill in fill in the blank.

SPEAKER_04 28:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:59

Yeah. Yeah. Finding purpose in it. Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 29:04

Oh my goodness. All right, this has been amazing. And and you kind of give it some insight when you start working with people, kind of, you know, making sure that they take some time with their list that they put together. Do you have any other advice that you would leave our listeners with if they are on this cusp of wanting to monetize more things in their life? Let's just say not say everything, but more things in their life. What where do you invite them to start?

SPEAKER_01 29:31

So it's to start is just to make your list. Okay. But my dad, even in death, taught me a very huge lesson. Have you guys heard the story Acres of Diamonds? No. So it's about a it's an old story. It's about a Persian farmer that sold his farm and he went in search of diamonds. He died broke alone in a foreign land. He never found them. The farmer that purchased his farm was watering his camel in the brook that ran through the property and saw this strange rock. And he picked it up and it was an uncut diamond. He found literally acres of diamonds in what was Alia Fed's backyard. My family, we have a similar story. Instead of acres of diamonds, we call it acres of pig poop. So like I mentioned earlier, dad was a pig farmer. I grew up in a small town. More pigs than people in our town because of us. At any one time we had, I don't know, 15, 20,000 pigs on the farm. Now we ran about 2,000 sows. You know what a sow is? It's a mama pig.

unknown 30:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

And so, and on our and we on a mama pig can have 2.5 times have litters 2.5 times a year. And on our farm, we averaged 9.97 pigs per litter. Wow. And so if you do the math, that's a lot of pigs. I'm an accountant, so I can figure this stuff out. That equals a lot of pig poop.

SPEAKER_03 31:06

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 31:07

Yes. We had these three man-made ponds that we would divert the stuff into, settling ponds. One year go to this one, next year this one, next year, this one. Just rotate, rotate, rotate. When dad was in his mid-60s, he decided it was time to shut down the pig operation and he was going to go search for his next acres of diamonds, his next big thing. He died at age 81, he never found it. Two years after his death, we sold the pig farm for $285,000, which was a fair price for the property at the time. The new owners, about six months after that, were leveling those man-made ponds. Now they had been dry on top for years. But the heavy graters going across the middle of one of those ponds and broke through the crust and sunk up to its belly in this black muck. They called in experts and to figure out what it was. And well, I mean, we knew what it was. We should anyway. But is it dangerous? Is it safe? Right there on the spot, they offered the new owners of our farm $2,000 a ton for the shut. That's a dollar a pound for old pig poop. Yeah. The farm that we sold for $235,000 was now worth over a million dollars. Oh wow. Was right under my dad's nose. Oh my gosh. And so I want to ask your listeners what about you? Are you on the verge of discovery or are you overlooking them like Alia Fed and my dad? Because they could be right in your own backyard, right within your grasp, right there, under your nose.

SPEAKER_03 33:00

Under your nose, right under your nose.

SPEAKER_01 33:02

They may even look like a pile of pig poop.

unknown 33:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:06

Yeah. And you just gotta open your eyes to the opportunities that are all around you so that you have the resources to deal with life when it happens. I'm not about creating millionaires. I'm not about in you know, get rich quick. It's about finding something that brings in that extra cash so that you have the resources for when life happens. And that's what I would leave your audience with and tell them they need to pay attention to what's right here that's hard for you to see. Yeah. I love that.

SPEAKER_03 33:44

That's amazing. Amazing side hustle samurai gem for us to end with. That was awesome. I love that. Um yeah, don't overlook the things that are right in front of you. That's there's so much that we already have access to or familiarity with or what have you. That's that's perfect.

SPEAKER_02 34:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:04

Love that. Oh my goodness. Bart, is there anything that you would like to leave our guests with that we or our guests with our listeners with that we haven't touched on um today?

SPEAKER_01 34:14

So I do have a free gift for everybody if they want to go get it. It is a 1k blind spot assessment.

unknown 34:22

Perfect.

SPEAKER_01 34:22

What is blocking you from making your first thousand dollars in a side hustle? And you can find that at your idealside hustle.com.

SPEAKER_03 34:32

Perfect. Your idealside hustle.com will also make sure that we drop the link in the show notes so people can go and do that assessment.

SPEAKER_01 34:40

It'll take about 30 minutes. I know it's a big ask for people, but it'll really give you some insights into what are you overlooking? What do you need to fix?

SPEAKER_04 34:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

Or pay attention to, I should say.

SPEAKER_04 34:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:53

In order to open up your mind and get there to where you can make that extra side hustle.

SPEAKER_03 34:59

Love that.

SPEAKER_01 35:00

I love it.

SPEAKER_03 35:01

That is huge. Thank you for offering that to our listeners. We really appreciate it. And for giving us all of the insight and background and personal stories. Those are always great as well. Um, thank you for bringing all of that and all of the wisdom to our listeners and to both Pam and I. This has been an amazing opportunity. So we are truly grateful so much.

SPEAKER_01 35:23

Well, thanks for having me. I enjoyed the conversation, even though if it got interrupted there right at the right time. Leave it for the first time.

SPEAKER_03 35:30

I was gonna say it's always divine time. It was a perfect timing. It's gonna work for this episode for sure. Thank you so much for our listeners. We will make sure that we drop the link in the show notes as well as Bart's contact information so that you can go over and check out the side hustle samurai and all that he's offering and what's going on in his world. And you all know the deal. If you want to know what's happening in the world of Reignite Resilience, head on over to ReigniteResilience.com. Until next time, we'll see y'all soon.

SPEAKER_02 35:58

Bye everyone.

SPEAKER_00 36:10

Thank you for joining us today on the Reignite Resilience podcast. We hope you had some aha moments and learned a few new real life ideas to fuel the flames of passion. Please subscribe on your favorite streaming platform, like or download your favorite episodes, and of course, share with your friends and family. We look forward to seeing you again next time on Reignite Resilience.