Hustle with Heels Podcast

Ep 21. The Future of Side Hustles in 2025: 4 Trends You Need to Know

• Cindy Excell

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Are you a corporate professional looking to create financial security beyond your 9-5?

By 2025, nearly 50% of the workforce will have a side hustle or passion project generating extra income. The way we work is changing fast, and waiting for a promotion or raise is no longer a reliable strategy.

In this episode, I break down four major side hustle trends in 2025 shaping the industry and how you can position yourself for success before everyone else catches on. Whether you’re just exploring your options or already in the game, this is your chance to stay ahead.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

  • AI-Powered Side Hustles: How AI is reshaping content creation, automation, and business growth—and how to use it to your advantage.
  • The Rise of Digital Products: Why online courses, workshops, and templates are booming—and how to package your expertise into a high-ticket offer.
  • High-Ticket Coaching & Micro-Consulting: Why businesses are hiring fractional experts instead of full-time employees—and how you can charge $1K-$5K per client for your expertise.
  • Freelancing for Corporate Professionals: How professionals outside of creative fields are turning skills in HR, finance, and operations into profitable freelance gigs.

Key Takeaways:

  • The future of work is evolving—those who adapt will thrive.
  • You don’t need a huge audience to start a high-ticket coaching business.
  • AI won’t replace people—it will replace people who don’t use AI.
  • The best time to start is now—the opportunities are growing fast.

Resources:

  • Book a Free 30-minute Clarity Call: Let’s map out your high-ticket side hustle plan together. Click here to book.

If this episode helped you, take a screenshot, tag me on LinkedIn, and share your biggest takeaway.

Until next time, keep building, keep growing, and take control of your income.

Hey friend, welcome back to the Hustle with Heels podcast. And if you are new here, as you have heard in the intro, I help copy professionals just like you take control of your own career by turning your skills, knowledge, expertise, personal strength, et cetera, into a profitable online coaching business. I help you do that without you quitting your nine-to-five job, without burning out or working crazy hours. Why am I so passionate about this? Well, because I have been there.


I spent nearly two decades in a corporate career. I'm still working full-time at the moment, but I have climbed the corporate ladder, you know, playing by the rules until the day that was back in 2018. I got the tap on the shoulder, which was my first ever redundancy. Yep. Despite being a top performer and high achiever, despite giving everything to my job, I was basically just a number.


That was my wake-up call, and maybe you haven't had your wake-up call yet, whatever that might look like to you. But deep down, you probably know that something is off. What I meant by that is that you probably had experienced the frustration of not getting the raise you asked for for a long time. Or maybe you've hit your KPI with your job, but your company performance wasn't great, which impacted the bonus you worked very hard for, or maybe there was a change of management in your company, and the new culture is no longer in alignment with your values. So whatever the scenario that might be for you, you wish you had more control over your income, over your career, and potentially more financial security so that you don't have to depend on someone else's decision. 


Now, I truly believe that the way we work is changing, and it is changing fast, waiting for a promotion or a pay raise is not a strategy anymore, it's not a smart strategy in the current environment. And if you think the side hustle bloom is just a trend, think again. By 2025, actually experts predict that nearly 50% of the workforce will have side gig or some kind of passion project generating extra income.  Now with all the changes happening, what's really next? What is shifting in the market? And how can you, as a corporate professional, position yourself for success? So today, I want to dive into the latest data on side hustle growth. The industry is literally exploding with new opportunities and what you can do to stay ahead of the curve. If you are looking to future prove your income, if you've been thinking about starting your side hustle,

or maybe you're already in the game, then this is the episode for you. 


Today, we're going to look ahead to what's trending in the world of side hustles is what we're going to talk about. And what are the fastest growing industries, et cetera? And more importantly, how can you take advantage of these shifts before everyone else catches on? Now, speaking of the future of side hustles in 2025 and beyond, I'm going to touch on four trends here.


Trend number one is that of AI-powered side hustles. Well, speaking of trends, how can we not talk about AI, right? I know you're probably sick of hearing about it, but let me just ask you this. If AI, a big if, is replacing people's jobs, do you want to be the one getting replaced or the one leveraging it? According to McKinsey and the company's 2023 report, AI-driven automation is expected to impact over 50 % of work activities by 2030. And another data provided by Statista in 2024 is that the AI market is projected to be worth 190 billion by 2025, which is this year, with massive adoption in content creation, automation, and even customer service. So, entrepreneurs are now creating AI-driven content businesses all the time. AI-assisted coaching programs and even AI generated video courses. You probably all have seen those AI generated videos on LinkedIn or some other social media platforms as well. It's crazy, isn't it? Now here's the thing, AI is a tool, and it's not replacing people. Well, at least not yet, but who knows what's going to happen in the, I don't know, next 20, 30 years. So it is replacing people who don't use AI. The people who actually learn to use it will work less, earn more and scale faster. And the one who ignore it, they will struggle to keep on. So this is the time, this is the real time to learn how AI can boost your side hustle. If you wait, you'll be playing catch up while others are already making profit from it. And big businesses are already adopting AI, which means the way they hire, they market and they run operations is actually changing very fast. If you don't integrate AI into your skill set, your competitors will.


Take my business for example, since late last year, I started to use AI for my content creation process. At the moment, I use the paid version of ChatGPT, help me come up with content ideas to help me refine my content. And I'm doing all sorts of different things in my business with ChatGPT. It's like an experiment. You can't just copy and paste, you actually need to train it the way you want it to work for you. It's like having a conversation with it.


Let me tell you, it used to take me like two hours to write one long-form caption for social media. Now it probably takes me less than two hours to write the whole week's content, which is like five or six pieces of content for social media while I'm using AI Help Me With That. If you can use AI ChatGPT or Copilot or whatever AI tools you use, find ways to save time. You can scale your income, start learning how AI can help you, not replace you. And if you are a solopreneur, AI can help you with so many things in your business before you are able to hire a team. It can not only help you with content creation, come up with ideas, it can also help you with research. The key is to use AI as a tool, don't just ignore it. 


Now, trend number two is the rise of educational digital products. The digital education boom is happening right now. According to the Global Industry Analyst 2023 report, the online education market will hit 500 billion by 2028. Self-paced learning and expert-led courses are growing massively in this space. A 2024 Forbes article also states that 70 % of consumers actually prefer buying expertise in a packaged format, such as templates, courses, or coaching programs, rather than hiring a consultant. And some big course platforms, such as Kajabi, Teachable, et cetera, that data also in 2024 shows that online course and the digital product platforms are seeing unprecedented growth, with individual creators making six or even seven figures annually selling knowledge-based products. So people are turning everyday knowledge, like budget templates, personal finance guide or even AI cheat sheet into passive income streams. People want solutions instantly these days. Courses, templates, and digital resources are the go-to solutions for people who don't really have time for any traditional learning. And the sooner you start selling what you already know, the better position you will be in the market that's growing exponentially. 


Now, this is something for you to think about it. What do people ask you for advice on? What are you really good at, which is like something you're naturally good at as a personal strength but it might come across as very difficult for others? So can you package all that knowledge into a course, an ebook, a template, or even just a 60 minutes workshop? This works really well, especially if you already have an audience or even a large audience, or maybe you have some spare money that can support you to reach larger audience, such as using ads. But if you don't have an established audience ready to buy, or if you don't want to spend any money on ads yet, then the next trend might be for you, which is micro consulting or high ticket offers. Resources from LinkedIn Trends in 2024 reported that high ticket coaching and consulting offers, which usually charge anywhere between $1000 to $5000 per person, are the fastest-growing category in the creator economy. Also, in 2024 Harvard Business Review, more companies are hiring fractional executives and short-term specialists instead of long-term hires. To the company, it is a cost-saving because they might work on some certain project in a certain timeframe. It makes a lot more sense for the businesses who don't need to hire a full-time employee, but they need to solve a specific problem by hiring a consultant. If you are offering a high-ticket coaching program, instead of hourly work, you can offer a high-ticket session such as a 60 minutes or 90 minutes power coaching session, and then you charge $500 or even $1000, and then you do that four times a month. And that's about $2000 to $4000 side hustle income, without any ongoing work. And this is one of the fastest ways to earn more without a big audience. And you can even provide a package instead of doing the one-off session, you can pack that into a three-month or six-month coaching program, et cetera. The coaching and consulting boom is at its peak. If you wait, other people will do it. And if you are confident that you can get people results then don't be afraid to charge premium rates because people will pay for the results, not just your time. For example, one of my clients, Michelle, she's working as an HR manager in her current company for probably over four years now. She started offering a 90 minute career strategy session for $150 per session to start with. Then a few clients later, she created her first six-week coaching program to help new moms return to the workforce. And within a few months, she was making an extra $3,000 a month. And this month, she's probably going to hit about a $5,000 mark without quitting her job. And if you don't know how to do that, that's exactly what I can help here. I'll put a free 30 minute call in the show note below. If you want to have a chat about how we can get you started, make sure to check out the show note. There is a link to book a free 30 minute clarity call and let's have a chat and let's see whether this is something that you want to do and how we can help you get started as well. 


Now moving on to trend number four, which is freelancing. Freelancing isn't just for creatives anymore. It is actually for everyone. Businesses are outsourcing everything these days, marketing, sales strategy, copywriting, finance, and even HR. And if you have a skill, you can monetise it. Personally, I'm not a big fan of freelancing because I like a more structured business and I like the teaching part. But it might work well for some people. The demand for freelancers is basically skyrocketing. Companies are outsourcing more than ever due to the rising costs of full-time employees. Platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, and LinkedIn make it even easier than ever to land freelance gigs. And here's the kicker: you don't have to quit your job. You just start with one client. Freelancing gives you control over your work and your income, so there is no more waiting, and you can set your rates.  Once you have more experience and increased demand, you can increase your rates as well. 


So those are the four trends of Side Hustle. Now, if you take nothing else from today's episode, take this - The future of work is truly changing, and the people who thrive are the ones who adapt. Generally speaking, you have two choices. You can watch it happen, or you can choose to be part of it. The trends we covered today - AI, digital products, micro consulting and high-ticket coaching, freelancing aren't just opportunities; they are the future. So, my challenge to you is that pick one trend and take action this week. Just one. Even just do some research about it.

 

And if you need help figuring out where to start, remember you can book that free 30-minute call with me.  The link is in the show note below. I'd love to help you map out your side hustle strategy together. Until next week, keep building, keep growing, and keep taking control of your own income. I'll see you next week.