In partnership with
Welcome to The Hustle Stack, your weekly hit of smart marketing plays, simple side hustles to grow your income without eating your time, founder hacks, and much more.
No fluff, no filler, just valuable, actionable insights you can skim, save, or stack into wins.
Let’s dive in. 🚀
This Week’s Hustle Stack:
Marketing Play of the Week: High-Value Mini Offer → Fast Upsell
The $2K+ PM Simple Side Hustle Hack: Micro-Service for Busy Creators
This Week’s Hustle News: Gen-AI Goes Mainstream in Marketing
Tool of the Week: Zapier + Airtable = Your Hustle Bot
Time-Saving Hack: Ban the ‘Maybe’ Folder
Founder Success Story: Lucy Guo - Scale AI
🎯 Marketing Play of the Week:
High-Value Mini Offer → Fast Upsell
What it is: Instead of waiting for the perfect 6-figure launch, create a low-ticket, high-impact offer (say $97), limited time, then offer a premium next step.
Why it works: People are more likely to say yes when the barrier is low, and urgency + scarcity push decision-making.
How to use it:
Choose a pain-killer deliverable (e.g., “30-minute conversion audit & roadmap”).
Create a landing page communicating: “Only 24 slots this week for $97”.
Use your email list + social posts to launch. Day-0 announce, Day-1 remind, Day-2 last chance.
After purchase, immediately present a premium upsell (e.g., “Done-for-you fixes” for $497).
Deliver fast—make the low-ticket offer produce value within 48 hours so your buyer trusts the upsell.
Quick tip: Test the pitch you’ll use for the low-ticket on a couple of warm contacts first. Get the wording crisp before you blast it.
💵 The $2K+ PM Simple Side Hustle Hack
Micro-Service for Busy Creators
Concept: Offer a “Content Repurpose Package” for creators/solopreneurs: You take one long form piece (webinar, podcast, video), and deliver 5 repurposed assets (clips, Instagram posts, tweets) for $250. Then offer monthly renewal (5 assets/mo at $500) to hit recurring revenue.
The Build:
Time-setup: ~4 hrs (create template/process for asset extraction + design).
Startup cost: $50-$200 (design tool subscription, landing page).
Skills required: Basic video editing + social asset design.
The Math:10 one-time clients/month × $250 = $2,500.
Convert 4 into monthly recurring at $500 = $2,000/mo recurring.
TOTAL first-month revenue ~$4,500-$5,000. After two months, recurring kicks in.
Launch this weekend:Day 1: Build landing page & sample work.
Day 2: Reach out to 10-20 creators (DM, email) offering “convert your one asset into ten clips this weekend”.
Day 3: Close 3-5 clients, deliver value, and pitch the monthly plan at delivery.
📰 This Week’s Hustle News
Gen-AI Goes Mainstream in Marketing
A new study shows 93% of CMOs say generative AI now drives clear ROI, and 90% of teams use it for customer-journey/analytics.
What this means for you: If you’re not embedding AI into your service offers or marketing hooks, you’re behind. Time to brand yourself as “AI-enhanced” (even if you’re scrappy).Meanwhile, the marketing world is shifting fast: personalisation, lifecycle-marketing, mobile messaging dominate for 2025.
What to steal right now: Use hyper-personal emails in your funnel ("I noticed you downloaded X, here’s how to fix Y") and lean into message + medium (mobile, in-app) rather than chasing broad splash.
⚡Tool of the Week
Zapier + Airtable = Your Hustle Bot
What it is: Use Zapier to connect form submissions → Airtable + Slack → automated email.
Mini case: You launch your side hustle (Content Repurpose Service). All requests go through a Google Form → Zapier triggers: populate Airtable (client info + asset link) → you get Slack ping → you respond + send payment link automatically. Time from client form to payment link = under 5 minutes. Saves you hours of chasing prospects.
Why it matters: This one automation means you’re available for clients 24/7 without actually being “on”.
⏳ Time-Saving Hack
Ban the ‘Maybe’ Folder
If an email comes in & you can act in <20 minutes → do it now. If not → delete or archive, not snooze. No ‘maybe’. Inbox cleaner = headspace clearer.
🚀 Founder Success Story
Lucy Guo — From Drop-Out To Billionaire Builder
Who she is: Lucy Guo (USA) co-founded Scale AI and later launched Passes, a platform helping creators monetise. As of 2025 she is the youngest self-made female billionaire.
Lessons you can steal:
She targeted a real gap (AI data-labelling → creator monetisation). Solve a narrow pain, don’t try to be everything.
She kept ownership. Her early stake in Scale AI gave her major leverage. You want to build assets you own.
She uses minimal distractions & high output (“act broke, stay rich”). Focus beats noise.
Apply this: Pinpoint one pain your niche screams about. Build the lightweight offer. Own the asset. Launch.
👋 That’s a wrap for this week’s Hustle Stack. 👋
Thanks for reading, your time’s valuable, and we aim to make every issue worth it.
Got a hack, tool, or success story we should feature? Hit reply and share it, we love hearing from readers.
See you next week with more sharp plays, side hustles, and founder wins. 🚀
Stay sharp,
The Hustle Stack Team
Shoppers are adding to cart for the holidays
Over the next year, Roku predicts that 100% of the streaming audience will see ads. For growth marketers in 2026, CTV will remain an important “safe space” as AI creates widespread disruption in the search and social channels. Plus, easier access to self-serve CTV ad buying tools and targeting options will lead to a surge in locally-targeted streaming campaigns.
Read our guide to find out why growth marketers should make sure CTV is part of their 2026 media mix.