SHS001: The Origin Story – How Elijah Bilel Built Multiple Side Hustles & Full Time Income Streams
Intro
Every entrepreneur has a starting point.
For Elijah Bilel, the journey into side hustles, freelancing, and multiple income streams didn’t start with a perfect plan…
👉 It started with curiosity, frustration, and a desire for more.
In this first episode of The Side Hustler’s Society, Elijah breaks down his full origin story—from working traditional jobs to building multiple income streams through the gig economy, content creation, freelancing, and investing.
This episode sets the foundation for everything that follows.
Episode Overview
In this episode, you’ll learn:
How Elijah got started with entrepreneurship
The early businesses and jobs he worked
Why he left traditional employment
How the gig economy changed his trajectory
How YouTube, freelancing, and affiliate marketing became income streams
How Financial Anatomy and Airbnb entered the picture
The inspiration behind starting The Side Hustler’s Society
Listen to the Episode
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Quick Takeaways
Elijah Bilel built multiple income streams before going full-time
Early business attempts taught control, marketing, and sales
The gig economy became a launchpad—not the end goal
YouTube, freelancing, and affiliate marketing created scalable income
Strategic pivots led to Financial Anatomy and Airbnb
The Beginning: Jobs, Frustration & Early Entrepreneurship
Before becoming known for side hustles and online income, Elijah’s journey started with traditional jobs:
Janitorial work for his aunt’s company
Walmart
Whole Foods
Amazon
At one point, Elijah was working around 68 hours per week…
👉 Yet only making about $35,000 per year
That realization sparked a major shift.
The First Business: Learning Control
After trying network marketing, Elijah realized something important:
👉 He wanted control
So Elijah Bilel launched his first independent business:
👉 Asili Tiba (Indigenous Remedies)
This gave him experience with:
Pricing
Marketing
Selling directly to customers
The Turning Point: Leaving the 9–5
Even after getting promoted at Amazon, Elijah knew:
👉 He wasn’t reaching his full potential
So he left and went all-in on finding alternative income paths.
The Gig Economy Era Begins
Elijah revisited Uber and started with:
Rideshare
Then Uber Eats
Why?
👉 More flexibility
👉 More control
👉 More independence
The Hidden Advantage: Getting Paid to Learn
While doing Uber Eats, Elijah used his time strategically:
Audiobooks
YouTube
Business content
👉 He was getting paid to learn skills that would later generate income
YouTube + Affiliate Marketing Breakthrough
Elijah started a YouTube channel called The Uber Lifestyle (Later changed To The Side Hustler's Society) focused on:
👉 Uber Eats content
He monetized it through:
Ad revenue (~$100/month early on)
Referral income
Referral earnings:
👉 $500 to $2,000/month
This was his first scalable income stream.
Freelancing with The Rideshare Guy (Major Income Boost)
After learning from Roberto Blake, Elijah reached out to Harry Campbell.
That turned into:
👉 Ongoing freelance video editing,content & channel management work
Income from this:
👉 $1,500 to $2,500 per month
This added:
Stability
Consistent cash flow
Professional experience
Financial Anatomy: Building a Brand
Elijah knew Uber wouldn’t last forever, so he started a new youtube channel:
At first, growth was slow…
But over time, it became a strong income stream.
Earnings from Financial Anatomy:
👉 $1,200 to $1,900 per month
This came from:
YouTube ad revenue
Financial content monetization
Audience growth
Stacking Income Streams (Full Picture)
At this point, Elijah had:
Uber Eats income
Referral/Affiliate income ($500–$2,000/month)
Freelancing ($1,500–$2,500/month)
Financial Anatomy ($1,200–$1,900/month)
Combined:
👉 Multiple income streams working together
This is what allowed Elijah Bilel to fully step away from traditional employment.
Entering Real Estate: Airbnb
From there, Elijah expanded into:
👉 Airbnb hosting
This introduced:
Asset-based income
Real estate strategy
Additional scalability
Now instead of just trading time…
👉 He was leveraging assets
Creating a Product: Becoming an Author
Elijah also created the bestselling book:
👉 The Anatomy of Financial Success
This added:
Authority
Brand positioning
Product-based income
The Bigger Pattern
Across every stage of Elijah’s journey:
👉 Learn → Apply → Monetize
He didn’t wait for perfect conditions.
He:
Took action
Tested opportunities
Built income streams
Why This Podcast Exists
The Side Hustler’s Society was created to:
👉 Help others follow a similar path
By sharing:
Real experiences
Real numbers
Real strategies
Key Lessons from the Episode
1. Start With What You Have
You don’t need perfect conditions
2. Learn While You Earn
Use your time to build future income
3. Stack Income Streams
Multiple sources = stability
4. Focus on Scalability
Time-based income has limits
5. Always Be Ready to Pivot
Every opportunity has a lifespan
Who This Episode Is For
Beginners starting their first side hustle
People stuck in a 9–5
Gig workers looking to level up
Entrepreneurs building multiple income streams
Key Topics Covered
Elijah Bilel’s origin story
Gig economy strategies
YouTube and affiliate marketing
Freelancing with The Rideshare Guy
Financial Anatomy and Airbnb
Watch The Podcast On Youtube!
Work From Home Tips: 5 Habits That You NEED When Making Money From Home
The ability to work from home has become more and more mainstream nowadays. And I'm not going to lie, the recent pandemic of 2020 probably had a lot to do with that. But even without it, there was a gradual push and a gradual change towards more people being able to work from home. Many people with the financial personalities of the The Builder, The Preserver and The Conservative find the ability to work from home very soothing What does that look like though?
Well, your job may actually have features that it can be accessed via the computer. And once the pandemic happened, they just moved everything so that you could actually access to sit fully at home and do your duties at home. If you're self-employed or if you're a freelancer who services are heavily connected to the computer, then you're already working from home. While working from home has a lot of convenient advantages and pros, it will produce a share of cons if you don't take care of them accordingly. In this article, I'm going to share with you five habits to make sure that those cons don't creep up and take you by surprise, and you can just stay benefiting from the pros of working from home. So let's get into it.
Not in the mood to read? Why not watch the video instead?
As someone that's been working from home since the end of 2019, I do have some actual advice that I can give you all in that regards. Now, I say 2019 because that's when I went full-time in it. If we're counting the total amount of time I've actually been working from home for Financial Anatomy, I would say it's about more like 2017 but that's beside the point.
Believe it or not, it's a lot of people's dreams, so to speak, to just be able to get up, not leave their house and generate money from their computer. And it is a beautiful thing, I'm not going to lie but it does produce a share of problems if you don't know how to address these. According to weworkremotely.com, there are three commonly reported issues that remote workers in digital nomads face. Those are loneliness and isolation, anxiety, stress, and pressure to hustle 24/7.
Now these things individually aren't so great, but when you combine them, they have the potential to lead into a very negative emotion called depression. And we don't want you to feel that. Luckily, there are some things you can do to stave off these three things and keep them away from your home, so to speak. So let's get into those habits.
1. Start using voice messages instead of texting
Habit number one is to start using voice messages instead of texting. Now, a lot of people don't actually consider this. If you've been in sales, you're going to relate to what I'm saying big time. Every time you send the text message, it kind of works on your nerves. Now, that's not such a big deal if you're not doing it all the time, but when you're working from home, chances are you're going to be using that keyboard a lot, sending emails a lot, typing a lot, and guess what?
That works on your nerves too, and anytime you're using that for work in any form, you need to give your nerves a break at anytime you can. And that includes when you're just talking to friends or talking to family. So anytime where I'm in a position where I'm not working and I'm conversing with someone, I always try to use my voice.
So that takes the form of I'm going to try and get them on the phone. And if I can't get them on the phone, I just send them a voice message. You can do this by getting the recorder app or you can actually send a voice message via Facebook Messenger, which is my new best friend, because all that typing when it comes to texts really wear on your nerves after a while, and believe it or not, they can actually contribute towards anxiety if you're doing way too much of it.
It also has a secondary benefit of getting you to talk because when you're working from home, depending on what you're doing, you may not actually be opening your mouth that much. Now some people have Zoom conferences, phone calls, that kind of thing to maintain and be involved in.
For those people, this doesn't apply as much but let's say you're a video editor or a graphic designer. You don't really have to talk that much, verbally talk. And if you're not verbally talking, this is when you start to lose your natural communication skills when it comes to talking.
So this has a secondary benefit of just kind of forcing you to talk and keeping those skills kind of sharp, if that makes any sense. And before you knock this, just give it a try, see how much better you feel throughout the day. If you just use voice messages and talk on the phone, as opposed to all that texting. If the people start asking you like, "Hey, why can't you text?" Let them know, tell them specifically why you're not texting and they're going to respect it because they probably just hadn't thought about it before.
2. Plan your day out
Habit number two that you want to develop is you need to make a plan for the day that involves key things that usually get neglected when it comes to working from home. Those times include when you eat, exercise and your free time. They need to be built into your calendar because when you work at home, you're going to have a habit of skipping one or two of these unless it's baked into your daily calendar.
If you need something to keep track of this, Google Calendar is a great way to do it. But however way you do it, it needs to be integrated because if it's not part of the schedule, you'll be working and all of a sudden time has passed and you've lost the ability to do something. You don't want that and these are things that you need to do to maintain your health. It's pretty obvious that you need to eat to maintain your health. I don't need to go into details on there.
When it comes to exercise, you're sitting down all day. So if you don't get the exercise in, you're going to start gaining weight pretty fast. Aside from that, it's not very healthy to just be sitting all day, if we're going to keep it 100%. You need to get out there and do some form of exercise.
I'm not a personal trainer, but I'd also recommend it. If you work from home, you need just a little more cardio in your workout curriculum, as opposed to other people, because you are going to be sitting down most of the day. I would take that a step further and say that you should look into doing Kegel exercises.
This is very important since you're going to be sitting in a certain position all day, unless you have a desk where you're standing up, which actually isn't such a bad idea to switch to from time to time. And this should go without saying, but you need to schedule free time for yourself because that goes to your mental health.
You need to have some way of just unloading, cooling off and it needs to be baked into your calendar. What you do with that free time, that's up to you. You might play video games. You might watch Netflix. You might have a night out on the town. Whatever it is, you need to have some, where you just cool off, and that needs to be baked into your schedule.
3. Separate your work place from your relaxing spots
The third thing that you need to do is less of a habit and more of something that you need to just set up. But once it's set up, it should be good to go. But you want to separate where you sleep and relax from where you're actually doing your work. Ideally, you want to have these in two separate rooms because, for one thing, it's actually going to help with your productivity because psychologically you're answering a work environment. So the thoughts just kind of flow in terms of what you should be doing for work, et cetera. And when you go back to the other room to relax, your brain just kind of wires down gets into that relaxation mode.
If they're in the same room, it's going to be at odds with each other. What's going to happen is you're not going to really get the best of either. Not going to fully be able to relax when it's time to relax, and when it's time to work, you're not going to really fully be in that work mode either because you're not planted to that environmental, psychological advantage that you're going to get from having two separate rooms.
And you might be saying, "Elijah, I don't have another room to switch to." At the very least, try and separate your room into two halves. So you got one half where, let's say, your computer. Everything you need for work is there and then the other half, that's where anything you need to relax is. If you do it that way, at the very least, you're still creating somewhat of a psychological disconnect. So that when you go over here and facing this direction, "Hey, this is work," and when you're over here, "This is relaxing."
4. Maintain a social life
The fourth habit you need to maintain or start is to actually maintain a social life. This is something that many people take for granted. But when you had to drive to go to work, you drive, you go to work, you interact with your coworkers, then you have lunch.
You converse with your coworkers in a more just relaxed environment, and some people actually leave and go to a restaurant for lunch. Lunch is over. You finish off the rest of the day, and then you drive home. Usually when you drive home, you're going to stop by the store. You're going to stop by the gas station. Maybe sometimes you and some of your coworkers may actually want to have dinner at some restaurant after work and just kind of talk, have fun.
Well, all that doesn't have the potential to happen when you're working from home because you're already at home. And going to work and going home, there are so many opportunities that you had to meet new people and to just socialize with your coworkers or with friends or potentially with family. And when you're at home, that's not taking place, so you got to do something to make up for that.
This takes the form of making sure you stay in contact with friends and family even if it's over the phone, ideally you want to try and meet up in person and do something. I understand because of the pandemic that might be kind of... But eventually this stuff has got to be over.
Another easy way to do this is to just pick up some hobbies. What is it you'd like to do? I like riding a bicycle. I love to do 5k runs. I love to shoot archery. I love to visit art museums. I'm just mentioning a few things that I like just to stimulate some thought. But whatever habits you have, I guarantee if you just Google that habit and just, say, near me, you're going to find advanced and local things that you can get into.
So take a look at getting involved in them and they'll help you maintain a social life of abundance because one thing that can happen is if you're working from home and this usually leads to loneliness and depression, which is something we're trying to avoid.
5. Get an EMF for all of your electronics
And lastly, the fifth thing you should do, if you're going to be working from home, you should get an EMF for all your electronic devices. This is actually a problem with Americans in general but we use a lot of technology. A lot of us are oblivious to the fact that this technology we use actually produces a level of radiation. And that radiation is actually linked to certain forms of cancer if you don't deal with it accordingly.
There's a few ways you can deal with it but the easiest way is just to get an EMF also known as the dial and attach it to whatever it is that's producing that radiation. Actually, I have one on my phone. I have one on my computer. Anything that produces that radiation, I just attach that to it. And it actually helps with the electronic device and not getting so hot. So it does have that added benefit. But the main reason that's there is it neutralize that radiation.
Another way of doing this is to keep the sea salt lamps in your room that helps with neutralizing the radiation. But a lot of people are just unaware that this is actually a problem. So you want to make sure that you get those, I've left links to them in the description. And this is something that you'll actually start to see the benefits of like right away.
If you put it on your phone, you're going to notice that your ear isn't going to start hurting the moment you put your phone up to your ear. It's not going to start hurting unless you have it to your ear for like an hour but, normally, it would start hurting probably after like two to five minutes. Well, that's actually be coming from that radiation. What the EMF is doing is, it's neutralizing it as much as it can so that it won't produce adverse health conditions. Like I said, I've left links to them in the description below. If you're not going to get them, I guess the alternative would be getting a sea salt lamp.
With that being said, we covered five habits or things that you should do if you're going to be working from home to maintain your mental sanity, so to speak, and keep the anxiety, depression, and loneliness away from your doorstep. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below and if you want to find out which one of the 6 financial personalities that you are, click here.