The Greater Journey: Stories of Transformation with Gregory Rutledge

From Side Hustles to Financial Freedom with Elijah Bilel

• Gregory Rutledge • Season 1 • Episode 3

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On this episode of The Greater Journey, Gregory Rutledge sits down with Elijah Bilel—creator of The Side Hustler Society and author of The Anatomy of Financial Success.

Elijah shares how his journey from Amazon employee to Uber driver to entrepreneur unlocked his mission: helping people reclaim financial freedom by mastering one-person business skills and understanding their financial personality.

In this episode you’ll discover:

  • Why the “employee” mindset is a new concept—and how to break free from it.
  • How to balance the many hats of a solopreneur (without burning out).
  • The surprising story behind The Veggie Outers and how small actions create momentum.
  • Why knowing your financial personality changes how you save, invest, and spend.
  • The first steps Elijah took that kept him out of the job market and into entrepreneurship.

Whether you’re stuck in overwhelm, curious about side hustles, or ready to reframe your money story—this episode is packed with practical wisdom and resilience-driven breakthroughs.

0:00
Welcome to the greater journey. I'm your host, Gregory Rutled, author of From Waiter to Greater and creator of the
0:05
greater framework. On this show, we're not just going to do the highlights. We're going to dive into the doubts, the
0:11
detours, the lessons, the breakthroughs, the things that shape who we become. Every conversation is going to follow
0:17
the greater framework. And the goal is to uncover those moments that make our guests greater so you can find the
0:24
courage to step into your greatness. Let's jump in. All right,
0:30
I just love this intro. All right, enough of that. Today's
0:37
episode, we have Elijah Blle, the creator of the Side Hustler Society and the anatomy, the anatomy of financial
0:44
success series. He helps those who are a oneperson business achieve financial
0:50
freedom and success. Elijah, welcome to the show, man. Um, there has to be a
0:56
story as to how and why you took this path.
1:03
Well, I appreciate you having me on, Gregory. I know you've been putting in a lot of work throughout the years. Um,
1:10
and uh, you're like me, like this online stuff is, you know, it's great. It's a conduit with the help people, but you
1:16
also are pretty heavy in connecting with people in real life, too. So, I'm glad to see that this brand is really merging
1:23
those sides to yourself because I think there's a lot of people that you can impact and benefit. It just comes down
1:29
to getting the message out there and that's what you're doing now. Man, I appreciate you saying that.
1:35
Sometimes it feels like I have no idea what I'm doing, but in the end, I know it's going to be good.
1:42
So, I remember you telling me a piece of your story that really stuck out to me and it was that you started like you
1:50
have this ability to start things based on a problem you see people have having
1:56
and create a solution for multiple people instead of having to repeat yourself. Um, so would you would you
2:02
tell us a little bit about some of the things you've built and and what the heart like what what started those?
2:10
Okay. Sure. Well, overall I like to think of myself as like a problem
2:16
solver. So, I see problems that are going on in society, but there are plenty of
2:22
societal problems and I can't solve everything. So, I decided, okay, um like
2:27
a good example is um plenty of people have relationship problems.
2:33
And I'm not necessarily the person to solve that problem because I've chosen two lanes to stick
2:40
to. Those two lanes are basically finances and health and wellness. And
2:45
the reason I've been pretty good at solving those problems is because I've chose to focus on those problems. And
2:51
when you focus on a particular area, you see multiple problems coming up. You start to see problems overlap with each
2:57
other or they lead back to a central bigger problem. Then you find a way to solve that problem. And it's kind of
3:03
like, okay, well, now that this problem has been solved for this person, everyone is having this same type of
3:08
problem just in another flavor. So create some type of content, a product or service to share with the next person
3:16
and they can use it to essentially solve that problem, whether it be finances or
3:23
health and wellness. The biggest problem um in regards to what I see in the world
3:29
is that I think we have too many employees and not enough people who are
3:35
self-employed or one person business. See, most people don't actually know this, but the concept of an employee is
3:41
a fairly new phenomenon when it comes to history. Prior to uh what's known as an
3:46
employee, people were what's known as today a independent contractor, a freelancer, or a contractor. they had a
3:54
trade or they had a skill and they would use that trade or skill to make money for themselves. I mean, um, a good
4:01
historical example is you see people with the last name like Smith. And we kind of wonder where does that
4:08
come from? Well, there's a good chance that one of their ancestors was the village blacksmith. Hence, they took the
4:14
name Smith as a form of marketing and advertising. So, people knew to go to that person for that particular need or
4:21
service. Same goes with Baker. If you actually get really deep into this, you'll see that a lot of people's last
4:27
names are actually tied to former trades in their family and then the trade or skill disappear with this whole creation
4:33
of the employee mentality and then we still have these last names to reflect that skill. I mean, imagine we don't
4:39
have to imagine you may have met someone like this. Someone who has a last name baker, but they don't know how to bake anything.
4:47
Yeah, it's real. I I know a baker right now that uh runs a video game shop.
4:55
Wow. Yeah, that's a great example. But um yes so my
5:01
mission statement with uh financial anatomy and the side hustler society is
5:06
to really re reintroduce people to the concept of carrying a trader skill and
5:13
carrying themselves as a freelancer because it doesn't matter what you want to do with those skills. I'll give you a
5:20
great example and I can use myself as an example. So the skill set I bring to the market is video editing. the video
5:26
editor can go and get a job, but if you learn some freelancing skills, I could
5:32
work for myself and be a one person business, or I could start a bigger
5:37
business and hire other video editors to be on staff. So, that's three different types of models to make money. There's
5:43
the traditional, well, so-called traditional, go get a job and make money with that skill. There's, hey, I have
5:49
the skill set to go get clients myself and generate money on my own terms. So, that's freelancing. And then the last
5:54
one is, hey, I want something bigger. Let me go and employ other video editors. And since I've been one, I know
6:01
what things to look at in terms of hiring and what clients are expecting. So, I have a skill that's very malleable
6:09
because I learned the freelancing basics. I feel like everyone should have those basics down because if these words
6:15
ever happen to you, you're fired, you're laid off, it's just not the end of your world. Okay. Well, I have the freelancer
6:22
skills. I'm gonna do that till I find another job. Well, I'm just gonna do that period because I just prefer to have time control over my schedule.
6:30
I want to give people choices and it all stems back from getting that freelancer bone developed in your body.
6:36
That's so good, man. I know you always have really good advice and really good ideas for me when I'm stuck and you know
6:44
I'm new on this entrepreneurial journey and that's why I started this is nobody
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told me all of the things that go into building your own business that when you
6:55
go from being the employee right the pretty new concept to being an individual contributor freelancer or
7:01
soloreneur that all of those things that were handled for you the marketing the sales the admin in, you know, that
7:08
allowed you to just do your job as an employee. You now have have to wear all those hats. So, like, how do you balance
7:16
wearing all these different hats as an individual contributor and and what would you give as advice for that person
7:23
that's a soloreneur that's overwhelmed and doesn't know how to get going?
7:31
Well, first off, my biggest advice is not to wear all the hats, believe it or not. I think you should know how to do
7:38
something and you should put your tenure into knowing how to do something. Uh great example,
7:44
you may not, let's say you're a YouTuber. I think everyone wants to be a content creator nowadays. You may hate
7:51
designing thumbnails. Fair enough. Well, at least design a few so you know how to do it. So, how do you
7:57
really know if you hate some if you haven't tried it? So, at least try it. And um when you
8:03
start getting overwhelmed, you need to make a list of uh things in three categories. There are things that you
8:09
like doing. There's things that I don't like it. I I it's just kind of neutral.
8:14
I don't like it, but also don't like it. Then there's things that you hate. Once you start getting income flowing,
8:22
you need to start outsourcing the things that you hate because that's going to draw away from your energy. Like I got
8:29
to do this stuff I freaking hate it. But it has to be done because it affects income. Start outsourcing that stuff and
8:36
eventually you could get to the point to where you can outsource the neutral stuff too if you want. But the neutral
8:41
stuff isn't as big a drain as the stuff that you hate doing because it's neutral.
8:46
And you outsource the neutral stuff when you no longer have time to do it.
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But um eventually you'll get to the point to where you're only doing what you like to do and you can outsource the
8:57
other stuff. And be sure to keep records of your outsourcing this because all this is taxdeductible, not financial
9:03
advice, entertainment purposes only. Consult with your enrolled agent. That's my disclaimer. But that's how you
9:09
gradually move out of the concept of being overwhelmed. But I will say this,
9:14
you don't have the right to feel overwhelmed if you're too close to the beginning. You need to be willing to put
9:19
the work in to know everything because if you don't and you start to outsource,
9:24
you're probably going to get robbed because they'll probably overcharge you for something that you know isn't the
9:30
right rate, but you don't know because you never did it. So, go ahead and put your tenure in doing it first, then
9:35
outsourcing stuff that you don't like. But have a plan. lay out a plan, like I said, and you'll find yourself not only
9:42
getting away from being overwhelmed, but being able to focus on what you like doing, and you'll just see the money roll in as you uh just move forward.
9:49
You got me leaning in here, man. That's good stuff. That reminds me of the six types of work in genius. How there's
9:55
there's different areas where we shine. And you know, there's there's the zone of frustration, there's the you know,
10:02
competency, and then there's the zone of genius. and what you just mentioned
10:08
remind me of that. Um, and that's that's really good stuff. So,
10:17
one of one of the stories I love that you told that I that I want our listeners to hear is is how something
10:26
how you started the veggie outers. how something so
10:32
simple as having to use your lunch break
10:38
turned into something that's helped so many people. I won't steal the glory of this um of this story. I just want you
10:44
to kind of tell us about where you were, what happened, and and where it's at now.
10:50
Okay. Um let me give everyone the context because they might be wondering what in the world is a veggie outer. So,
10:56
the Veggie Outers is a brand that uh supports people make the transition from
11:01
whatever diet they're on to a plant-based diet. But even if they don't want to switch their diet, it's all
11:07
about getting more plant-based foods in your system because most Americans are lacking in plant-based foods. With that
11:13
like foundation established, we essentially go to restaurants that have vegan options and review them on a scale
11:20
of one to 10 based on the customer service, the price, the atmosphere, and also the cost of the food. But um it
11:28
didn't start out that way. It started out back when I used to work for Amazon because I used to be a process
11:33
assistant. That's like a tier below an area manager who's responsible for running the ship. But essentially,
11:40
anything an area manager can do, a PA can do, they just get the higher salary. So, uh, make of that what you will.
11:47
But I've been, uh, vegan for almost 13 years. So, when I was working at Amazon,
11:55
I would have my lunch because, contrary to popular belief, Uber Eats and Door
12:01
Dash and all that stuff didn't exist yet. And there weren't really any places to eat at that time within like a
12:08
drivable radius around my lunch break. So, I would just bring my lunch. I would
12:13
have these different types of things I bring for lunch. And these are meals that I prepped. And every time I would
12:19
start eating, uh both uh friends, associates, strangers, if they're
12:26
sitting at my table, they just couldn't help but stare at me and stare at what I'm eating. Like, what is that? That
12:32
looks so intriguing. Like, and I would tell them what it is. Oh, well, this is
12:37
a nori wrap. Inside of it is a quinoa mixed with seasonings and avocado in the
12:43
middle and give it kind of like a mock sushi taste without actually eating raw fish. That's intriguing. So, so, so
12:50
you're vegan. You How long you been vegan for? I've been vegan for about three and a half years. But how do you
12:55
get your protein? How do you get your iodine? How do you get your zinc? and I would answer these questions, but I
13:01
started to low-key get annoyed because it would turn into a Q&A and then it would be time for us to go back and I've
13:08
only eaten like half my lunch. So, I started telling them, you know what? Um, how about this? Why don't we actually go
13:14
to a vegan restaurant? Y'all can ask me these questions and y'all can actually get to experience some of the food
13:20
yourselves. That way maybe I can actually get some food eaten because when we get back on the floor and then
13:27
an hour passes and my stomach is rumbling because you're grilling me on questions. I'm gonna give you a stare
13:33
across the warehouse and you're not going to like it. So how about we just go and try that out
13:42
and a lot of people are actually down to do that. So we went to a place in Addison called Gangas Grill. They
13:47
basically allow you to make your own plate. For those of y'all that are familiar with Genghask Grill, full of like vegetables, spices, fruits, and
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they do serve meat, but they have vegan options. They have tofu. So, we tried the tofu and um everyone really loved it. And it
14:04
wasn't like just two or three or four people. Our first Veggie Outers meet up and it wasn't even
14:09
called the Veggie Outers at that time. It was just that this is what we're going to do. It was like 12 people that
14:14
showed up. That told me, okay, there's a big interest in this. So, if we're gonna
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ask people, would y'all be down to do this like on a monthly basis? And they were down. So, then we came up with the
14:28
name and what we know as a veggie outers was kind of formed from there.
14:33
That's so incredible. Every time I hear that story, I just I just laugh. Like he's he's creating a solution because
14:42
people kept using up his lunch break to ask him questions and it's like, well, if y'all want to experience it
14:48
yourselves, let's just go do this so I don't have to want to strangle you halfway through my shift.
14:54
You think that's funny? Another way of looking at it is you could ask, "So, where does the veggie adders come from?"
15:01
You could jokingly say, "Oh, they came out of Amazon." Oh, that's funny. The veggie outer
15:08
Amazon. Technically, it all did start in Amazon warehouse.
15:15
That's so funny. Yeah, that was the other thing. It's like I can't imagine you working at Amazon because you've
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been an entrepreneur how long now? Since 2017.
15:26
Wow. I was thinking way longer. You're just so natural with it. the way you just come up with solutions for
15:32
problems. So, who empowered you when you couldn't see
15:39
or believe in yourself? Uh, this is actually probably a good
15:45
tiein into financial anatomy. So, I've had several mentors throughout the
15:50
years, whether they're mentors from afar. And, um, what I mean by that is like you may have met someone, well, not
15:57
met someone, but you've read several of their books. keep listening to their audio books. So, they've kind of become
16:02
a mentor from afar, but I've also had a mentor like in person. And um interestingly enough, I
16:10
don't want to say he was the opposite of me, but we we definitely didn't have the same type of personality. So,
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he was a good motivator to pick me up when I was down, but he was also kind of a pit bull to point out like things that
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I was lacking in and pushing me to uh you know, reach the next level. But, um, interestingly
16:30
enough, what he didn't do, and it's not his fault. He probably didn't know how.
16:35
He wasn't actually good at recognizing my natural talents and bringing those out to the forefront. So, I didn't used
16:42
to be like the best at sales and inerson stuff like that. And he would always
16:47
tell me like, I lack an edge. I lack like confidence, which uh, me being a competitive person, I'm not going to
16:54
take that too well. So, I went out and actually got the confidence. And each time he would say that there was
16:59
something wrong and it's because I'm uh too introverted or because my my personality type, I would intentionally
17:05
prove him wrong. And that helped develop me into the person I am today. But on the same token, the stuff that I'm doing
17:12
today now, like making money online, like content creation, even the video editing, these are things that are part
17:18
of my normal like personality. And um if I actually would have got on
17:24
that path sooner, it probably would I probably wouldn't be better off, but then again, I wouldn't have developed
17:30
the school the skill sets to be more multi-layered, be able to walk up to anyone and drum up a conversation at
17:36
will. So I'm grateful for him for that. But at the same token, that's kind of what motivated me to start financial
17:42
anatomy. Because the whole concept of financial anatomy and why I wrote the book, the anatomy of financial success
17:48
is to recognize the traits of your normal personality. See what your strengths and weaknesses are.
17:55
Capitalize on your strengths while li while limit exposure to your weaknesses while being aware of them and work on
18:02
them at your own pace so that you can achieve financial success. Man, that is so good. And that reminds
18:09
me of a quote in my book, From Waiter to Greater, how anyone can level up from where they are. It's if anything scares
18:17
you, face it head on so that nothing stands in your way. You seem like the same kind of competitive person as me
18:24
where if someone tells you you can't, you're going to do it twice and get a t-shirt to show them you did it right. And and that's exactly what you
18:30
exhibited is, you know, you can't tell me I'm not confident because that's not
18:36
that's not true. I just haven't developed that skill yet. And you've sent me like you sent me that test to
18:44
take the the financial anatomy quiz. And I don't know what it is lately. I just
18:50
have not wanted to read because it puts me to sleep and I just don't want to rest. But I feel like something keeps
18:57
telling me to rest even though it doesn't make sense. That's another topic for another day. But now, because of the
19:03
way you broke it down here, I can't wait to get off and go read that email that you sent from the results for my quiz.
19:09
Cuz if if you don't know why you do what you
19:15
do financially and how that ties to your personality or your the way you are or
19:21
who you are, you could potentially be ruining yourself just from not being
19:27
aware, just from lack of awareness. So this is incredible. Where where can
19:33
they where can they get this book? How can they how can they find out what their financial anatomy is?
19:39
So you can go to www.thesidehustersocciety.com and you can go there's a store section
19:46
click on store and uh you can experience it in two ways. You can get the financial personality report. Um I've
19:52
actually done a lot to actually make it free to the public because I want this information out there so that people can
19:58
really start to change things because uh things are not improving in the financial world. I think debts have
20:04
started to hit new ceilings. unemployment rate is going rampant because AI is taking jobs. It's getting
20:10
pretty bad out there. So, it's important to know the tools you have to work with and your um drawbacks so you can work
20:16
them out so you can give yourself the best possible chance for success. But um
20:21
another way to experience it is I have something called the financial personality bundle where not only do you
20:27
get the financial personality report but you also get my bestselling book the anatomy of financial success and the
20:33
audio version of the anatomy of financial success too. So whether you choose to listen to it in the car while
20:39
you're on your way to work or social gather etc or you want to sit down and read it or both. Some people want to sit
20:45
down and read it and listen to the audio book and you know go through the book like that. you'll have the option to do
20:52
that. So, I highly recommend people check out that bundle because the anatomy of financial success is designed
20:58
to get you results because we all have financial habits based on our emotions. We have weaknesses when it comes to
21:05
budgeting. We also have strengths and the areas of finance, the investing,
21:10
savings, the expenses, spending money on yourself, donations based on your personality type. Two of those are going
21:17
to be your natural strengths that you're spending money on just by default, but two of them are going to be not
21:23
including donations because that's kind of icing on the top, but two of them are going to be things that you're
21:29
emotionally conditioned to avoid because you're scared of them or you don't like spending money there. It's all based on
21:35
your financial personality type. There's six financial personalities. Once you find out which one you are, you can use
21:41
the anatomy of financial success to dissect, okay, here's where my problems are. here's how I solve them. And the
21:47
same thing goes with different ways of making money. There are different skill sets that you need to develop based on
21:53
your personality and um talents that you need to cultivate. So, I know that might
21:58
be kind of long-winded, but um just to kind of summarize a financial personality report that's free on the
22:05
website, but I highly recommend you get the financial personality bundle because it will allow you to capitalize on a lot
22:11
of the things the report is going to bring up in an active way.
22:19
I am so curious now what those six personality those financial
22:24
personalities are like I I just keep go there's a big question mark next to what what are these financial
22:31
are you able to give us an example like what what is your financial personality?
22:36
My financial personality is what's known as the builder. And the builder's uh strengths when it
22:42
comes to budgeting is investing, investment, and savings. So, those are
22:47
two things I've always been emotionally conditioned to invest in, not invest in, to spend
22:53
money in. Yeah. But the weaknesses the builder has is spending money on on expenses and
22:59
spending money on themselves. Because if you don't pay your expenses, obviously, do I really need to share why that's a
23:05
problem? You can have the best house in the world, but um if you're not paying your property taxes, it's not going to be yours for a while, for long, rather.
23:13
And if you're not spending money on yourself, this is when you tend to start getting depressed because you're not seeing the fruits of
23:20
your labor. You might be wondering exactly why. I'm investing all this money in the stock market and real
23:25
estate and I'm actually seeing the returns and then I reinvest or I save it but I'm feeling like down. Why? It's
23:32
because you're not spending some money on yourself. And uh this is a little nugget from uh the book, but you want to
23:39
make sure that when you're spending your money and you're budgeting those areas
23:44
we talked about, don't ever let it drop below 5% of your income. So, at the very
23:49
least, 5% of your money needs to be going to investments, needs to be going to savings, needs to be going to
23:55
expenses, it needs to be going to uh yourself. Even if things start getting rough, and
24:02
if that's not possible, you need to do what you need to do to raise your income because you're going to start to see the
24:08
drawbacks of not spending money in those categories that you're mostly weak in in
24:13
the first place. That is such good advice. I know when
24:20
things seem tough, we tend to like take savings or things that are good for our
24:28
finance off the table completely. Like from 20% or 30% or 50% down to zero cuz
24:37
it it's about shrinking, not growing. And you know, the reason I'm over here giggling is because I found the email
24:44
and I opened up. I don't think I read past the intro to see that my
24:49
personality type is the fame seeker and I'm not surprised.
24:56
It's just wild. Um, so 5% at least 5% but I love that you know like
25:04
if you can't even manage 5% to put towards your financial health and and
25:10
wellness, you have to do something to increase your income. That is that is a word
25:16
right there. Um, wow. So, I'm looking at like best income
25:22
source, best way of dealing with their emotions, best way of goal setting, best way of paying bills. Like, that's all in
25:29
this report, you know? I don't know why I was af I You know what? I think Elijah, I'm going
25:35
to be real. I think I was afraid to look at it because I was afraid that you would be right.
25:42
Oh, man. This is good. I'm I'm just overlooking. I can't wait to dive into this. I'm not gonna dive into this on
25:48
the show, but I love this. Free flow goals is my best way of goal setting,
25:54
and I couldn't be more accurate. Like, if if something is too routine for me,
25:59
I'll fight it, right? I'm I'm I'm such a rebel, I can't even set a goal or or a task or schedule for myself, I will
26:06
rebel against myself. It doesn't make sense. But enough of me. So, how how
26:14
were you able I'm I'm just curious cuz that is so cool. Like you've got a whole
26:21
assessment, you know, you're helping people with their financial personality
26:26
so that they can be better with their finances based on who they are, not some madeup thing. Like, as I'm just kind of
26:33
glancing over to my right here, I see it is me. Like, I can't even deny it. and
26:40
and I see the hope just at a glance. So, I'm I'm sure when I dive in, I'm gonna
26:45
know exactly what to do to get my finances in order and not to end up back in this place that I'm in right now. So,
26:52
so can you talk to us about like what was the first small action in this journey
27:00
that created the momentum?
27:05
First small action. I gotta think on that. Well, while I'm
27:12
thinking on that, I will let me circle back to what you asked before in terms
27:17
of like mentors. There is a person that he wasn't a mentor, but uh he was very
27:23
inspirational in the creation of financial anatomy and his name is Blair
27:28
Stinger. He's actually a rich dad advisor and it might be in the car. Hold on.
27:35
Uh it is not right here. right there. He wrote a book and I have the CD
27:41
version back thing. Whoa. Called Sales Dogs. You don't have to be
27:48
an attack dog to be successful in sales.
27:54
So good. In Blair Singer's book, there are five different types of personalities that
28:00
you'll fit in in sales. You're gonna either be a bassad hound, a chihuahua, a
28:05
golden retriever, a poodle, or a pitbull. And he has different strategies
28:11
and tactics based on which personality type you are. And I actually had the pleasure of a
28:17
meeting of talking to Blair Singer after I actually wrote my book, The Anatomy of Financial Success. That interview where
28:22
he interviewed me is actually on financial anatomy if y'all want to check it out. But um I thought that this book
28:28
was so cool because it accurately described the emotional hurdles you're going to have to jump through if you're
28:35
going to be in sales. But that there's one problem with it. It was limited just to sales.
28:41
There's several aspects of personal finance. What about budgeting? What about the different ways of like making money? I
28:48
mean, what about the different types of income? So thinking if I could make the same
28:54
thing or well not the same thing but something similar but for personal finance overall I think it would really
29:00
benefit the marketplace and that's what really sets me apart from I'll say the other financial gurus like
29:09
Robert Kiosaki or Dave Ramsey. I have a means of drilling down to the
29:15
core of what the issue actually is. Yeah. And if if you can't drill down to
29:22
the core at at that point, it's like trying to mop up water when the sink is still on,
29:29
right? But in terms of first steps, I'd say the
29:34
first step for me, ironically, is probably becoming a Uber driver. I know
29:41
that's so routine, but I'll say that because
29:46
when I quit Amazon, I was in network marketing at the time. And I was kind of getting to the point
29:53
to where I wanted to own something myself, not be promoting other people's stuff. So, what can I do in the meantime? But
30:00
this Uber thing is popping off right now, and I do have a new car.
30:06
Well, um, my friend Crystal turned me on to it like about a year before then, but
30:12
I only did like four trips. Let me actually do this fulltime while I figure
30:17
out my next move. And then that transition into doing the Uber Eats, too.
30:22
I would say that was my first step because it allowed me to stay off the job market long enough to actually build
30:28
this. Wow. And how are you balancing your time between Uber and building? That's just
30:36
I'm I'm sorry. I'm like a little child that doesn't know anything. I could pretend I know stuff, but I know there's
30:42
someone out there asking these same questions like, "How do you make time for this and this? I don't have any
30:48
energy after this." Right? So, I'm just I'm I'm thinking from that perspective. Uh they're actually interconnected
30:55
because um the Side of Society wasn't always the Side of Society. It used to
31:01
be called the Uber Lifestyle on YouTube. Oh wow. And I make content about how to succeed
31:08
with Uber, how to make more money. The videos weren't getting that many views because rice share content was
31:15
saturated saturated. And I bumped into this guy on YouTube called the simple driver and he
31:21
broke down how to make the most money with Uber, how to make money off referrals, and like he had a whole business system around the stuff. I
31:28
said, "Well, I could do the same thing, but I don't think I'm going to get the same results because it's so saturated."
31:35
But you know what's not saturated? Uber Eats content. Talking about the other delivery apps
31:41
like Door Dash or like WebHub and stuff, but no one was really talking about Uber East and really isolating or focused
31:47
just on that. So, I said, "You know what? I'm going to do what the Simple Driver did, but I'm gonna do it around Uber East content."
31:53
Wow. And that's exactly what happened. um it uh pretty much took off because there's
31:58
a void in the market. And since I focused on Uber, so I was able to figure out the inner workings of the algorithm,
32:04
how you can position your car to be in the right place to get the best types of trips, different ways you can increase
32:10
your tips, you know, just subtly. And um people were signing up using my code. And back in the day, Uber is paying like
32:17
a lot of money for referrals because they would take the advertising money they could use for commercials and
32:22
just give it to you, the driver, to refer someone. Wow. You're going to be the best teacher
32:28
since you went out there and did it. So, they use the network marketing model where they they took their marketing
32:35
budget and put it back into their employees. Well, they're independent contractors.
32:40
That That's what I meant. Yeah, that's it was a little different. A person had
32:46
to complete a certain number of trips. So, it ranged from like 15 trips like 50 or 100 trips depending on what market
32:52
they signed up in. So, they still had to do something, but since I had all this training for it
32:58
on the YouTube channel, yeah, naturally, they're going to do it because they know how.
33:06
You know, I was today years old when I learned that employee was a relatively new thing. I knew that, you know, the
33:13
the nineto-5 that that kind of worker was relatively new. I just didn't know
33:18
that that employees were new. like there's so much I can learn from you and I I want to have you back on this on
33:25
this show. I I'm trying to keep these shows to 30 minutes so you know people
33:30
can can enjoy a digestible snack and get back on their day. But I also have the opportunity to come, you know, have you
33:36
come back on the podcast and dive into more because there's there's so many more layers to you. There's so much
33:43
you've done, so much you are doing, and so much you have left to do. Uh we got a lot more work to do. Elijah, uh, where
33:50
can they find you? So, you're gonna find me? Well, there's
33:56
a website. There's a the side users.com. I'm also pretty active on IG. It's my
34:02
name, Elijah Blau. Nothing special, just those two words and I'll pop up. You can
34:08
also find me on Facebook under Elijah Raylau. But if you type in Elijah Glau,
34:13
that's enough for me to pop up, too. So, if you got any questions, feel free to DM me and um I'm here to help because we
34:21
definitely need it in today's times. I think the ability to get money out of the mud and to budget on a deficit
34:29
is a very needed skill set given the whole I'll say political environment because I
34:35
don't see it getting any better in terms of the effect it has on the economy. So, these skill sets, you're going to need
34:40
to develop them. get ahead of the curve and develop them now so you'll be all right when the problem comes. You try
34:47
and do it when the problem is here. It's just going to be harder. Yeah, man. It's true story, man. And for
34:54
for those of you that that are not watching and you're listening, I'm going to spell Ble for you because I didn't
35:00
even know that's how you pronounced it. I was being all fancy with it. Elijah Ble Ble.
35:07
It's B I L E L E L I J A H B I L E L.
35:13
Uh, thank you so much for coming on today, man. Stick stick around for just a second. I want to talk to you off the
35:18
show, but until the next episode, I want you to
35:25
stay curious and remember that your greater journey is
35:33
just that, a journey. The destination is gonna be boring. So, enjoy the
35:39
journey while you're on it. I need a I need a better outro. You know what? Maybe we'll just do this uh this music.
35:45
This music always does it justice.
36:05
See y'all in the next episode.