The Side Hustle Show

707: $70k on the Side in 6 Months with Aura Photography

November 13, 2025

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  • Strategic partnerships with local businesses and leveraging existing foot traffic are highly effective for launching event-based side hustles with low initial marketing spend. 
  • The core value proposition of this side hustle is the transformational, personal experience of feeling seen and valued, rather than just the physical product (the photo). 
  • Starting imperfectly and acting swiftly is crucial, as demonstrated by the guest's initial setup using a bed sheet as a backdrop, which customers still found valuable enough to generate significant revenue. 

Segments

Sponsor Read: Gusto Payroll
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(00:00:00)
  • Key Takeaway: Gusto offers online payroll and benefits software designed for small businesses, handling tasks like tax filing and benefits administration.
  • Summary: Gusto is an all-in-one, remote-friendly payroll and benefits software for small businesses. It automates payroll tax filing, handles direct deposits, and manages benefits like 401k and workers’ comp. The service is highly rated and offers three months free upon running the first payroll via their dedicated link.
Introducing Aura Photography Hustle
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(00:01:12)
  • Key Takeaway: Aura photography, visualizing energy fields, generated $70,000 in six months as a side hustle charging $44 per session.
  • Summary: Guest Summer Ray built an aura photography business, Somalumin.com, earning $70k in six months while maintaining her full-time job. The sessions cost customers $44, and the business model relies on event-based hustling and strategic partnerships. The core product visualizes a person’s energy field using specialized camera technology.
Initial Partnership Strategy
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(00:01:56)
  • Key Takeaway: Initial customer flow was secured by offering services for free or low flat fees to local boutiques and metaphysical shops to utilize their existing foot traffic.
  • Summary: The initial strategy involved reaching out to local boutiques and retailers to set up pop-ups, sometimes for free or for a small flat fee ($50-$70). This provided immediate access to customers already present in the stores. Promotion was minimal, relying on small social media posts and the host businesses promoting the one-off offering.
Aura Photography Market & Tech
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(00:03:08)
  • Key Takeaway: The guest developed modern aura photography technology because existing cameras are expensive ($7k-$20k), outdated, and unfixable, allowing her to offer a lower price point ($44).
  • Summary: Aura photography technology has not been updated since the 1990s, making old equipment costly and difficult to maintain. The guest developed her own modern tech, which captures the electromagnetic frequency via hand readers and populates a 20-second video, a key differentiator. This modern approach allows her to charge significantly less than traditional practitioners who charge $80 to $180 per session.
The Value Proposition Experience
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(00:04:17)
  • Key Takeaway: Customers pay for the experience of feeling safe, seen, and validated, often overcoming negative self-talk during the session.
  • Summary: The purchase is less about the rainbow-colored photo and more about the energetic feeling of being seen and valued in a welcoming environment. Many clients express negative self-talk before the session, and the experience provides a positive affirmation, which is the true essence of what they are buying. This focus on emotional connection drives the business’s spread.
Event Marketing and Pricing
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(00:07:38)
  • Key Takeaway: The $44 price point is intentionally lower than the $80-$180 charged by older aura photographers, making the experience more accessible.
  • Summary: The process involves biometric readers on the hands tracking energy movement, resulting in a 20-second video from which a frame is printed on a postcard-sized Polaroid. The entire process takes about 10 minutes, which is faster than older methods requiring 10-15 minutes for Polaroid development. The low hard cost ($1.50-$2 per print) results in a high profit margin.
Scaling Through Events and Word-of-Mouth
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(00:10:33)
  • Key Takeaway: Organic growth through word-of-mouth and referrals, including a wedding favor booking, validated the business model beyond initial pop-ups.
  • Summary: After initial validation, the guest focused on events, leading to organic growth via recommendations. One client booked the service as a wedding favor for 300 people, demonstrating high-value referrals. The guest has temporarily paused in-person events to build infrastructure for licensing the software to other practitioners.
Pitching Event Organizers
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(00:12:41)
  • Key Takeaway: When pitching larger events, having social proof from smaller pop-ups and being willing to negotiate a revenue share instead of a flat fee can secure spots.
  • Summary: Having prior experience (social proof) helps when applying for vendor spots at larger events like music festivals. Organizers often require a booth fee plus a revenue share, necessitating proof of potential earnings. The guest successfully negotiated a revenue share arrangement for a $600 fee at a country music festival by showing prior farmer’s market success.
Weekend Revenue Example
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(00:16:32)
  • Key Takeaway: A single weekend at a country music festival, despite initial fees and revenue share, resulted in approximately $5,000 in profit.
  • Summary: At one country music festival, the guest sold out of film on the first day, completing over 100 sessions, and did another 100 the next day. After paying all fees, the weekend generated about $5,000 in revenue. This event also led to a high-value future booking for a wedding.
Marketing Improvements and Collaborations
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(00:17:25)
  • Key Takeaway: Future marketing involves personalizing the print memento with event-specific details and collaborating with complementary service providers like color analysts.
  • Summary: The guest plans to personalize the postcard mementos with event-specific branding to increase their value as keepsakes over generic merchandise. She has successfully collaborated with color analysts, where aura colors informed clothing recommendations, creating a mutually beneficial marketplace experience. Booth setup is kept minimal and portable, allowing for quick setup/teardown (20-45 minutes).
Sponsor Read: Quo Phone System
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(00:18:18)
  • Key Takeaway: Quo (formerly OpenPhone) is a top-rated business phone system that allows teams to share one number and utilizes an AI agent to qualify leads and route calls.
  • Summary: Quo is a modern business phone system accessible via an app, enabling teams to collaborate on calls and texts using a shared number. Its AI agent can qualify leads and route calls, preventing missed customer opportunities. Listeners can receive 20% off their first six months.
Sponsor Read: Mint Mobile
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(00:19:23)
  • Key Takeaway: Mint Mobile offers premium wireless service for $15 a month without contracts, overages, or hidden fees on the nation’s largest 5G network.
  • Summary: Mint Mobile eliminates common wireless pain points like contracts and hidden fees, providing service for $15 per month. Plans include high-speed data and unlimited talk/text on a major 5G network. Customers can bring their own phone and keep their existing number.
Event Types and Demographics
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(00:20:27)
  • Key Takeaway: The primary audience skews female (about 70/30), and partnerships with boutiques sometimes involve offering discounts based on the aura colors identified.
  • Summary: The business thrives at events like First Fridays and inside boutiques, with the audience being predominantly female. Some retail partners offer promotions where customers receive a discount on merchandise matching their aura colors, creating a mutually beneficial arrangement. The guest prefers flat fees over revenue share now due to consistent high earnings.
Selling Experience Over Product
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(00:29:03)
  • Key Takeaway: The fundamental lesson is that service-based businesses sell the feeling they create—genuine, juicy connection—not the tangible item.
  • Summary: Drawing inspiration from Starbucks and Soul Cycle philosophies, the focus must be on making the customer feel seen and delighted to pull them out of their current state. This transformational connection is what drives spending, especially when the tangible product (like a selfie) is readily available for free elsewhere. This principle applies broadly across service offerings.
AI Threat and Human Connection
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(00:31:14)
  • Key Takeaway: While AI can generate readings, it cannot replicate the intimate, transformative connection derived from being witnessed by another human being.
  • Summary: The guest acknowledges the threat of AI generating aura readings from selfies but emphasizes that the human element is irreplaceable. Her custom-coded software is not easily replicable via simple AI wrappers. The deep craving for connection in a disconnected society ensures that in-person witnessing remains a powerful draw.
Future Income Potential
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(00:33:19)
  • Key Takeaway: The side hustle has proven it can comfortably support the owner full-time, even in a high cost-of-living area, despite the guest loving her day job.
  • Summary: The first year provided proof that the business could generate full-time income, even in Central Oregon. The guest plans to focus on building backend systems during the winter downtime. The ability to generate $5,000 in a single weekend shows the potential for part-time work to be highly lucrative.
Software Licensing Expansion
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(00:37:32)
  • Key Takeaway: The business is expanding by licensing the custom-coded software to other practitioners for a $149 monthly fee, supported by extensive operational guides.
  • Summary: The guest is licensing her proprietary software to others who want to start their own aura photography side hustle, charging $149 monthly for access and updates. This model allows for scaling beyond her physical presence at one event at a time. The licensing package includes guides on pricing, outreach templates, and finding potential market locations.
Surprising Session Discoveries
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(00:40:00)
  • Key Takeaway: A surprising discovery occurred when a white ribbon of energy appeared over a client’s solar plexus, later revealed to be the energy of her 12-week pregnancy.
  • Summary: The guest often encounters magical moments, though she maintains honesty about her role as an experience provider, not a clairvoyant. In one instance, the software revealed an unknown pregnancy, indicated by a unique white ribbon of energy in a location corresponding to the developing fetus. These unexpected, touching moments highlight the depth of connection clients experience.
Future Growth and Remote Sessions
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(00:43:48)
  • Key Takeaway: The business is expanding into remote sessions, attracting clients from the Midwest and Great Lakes regions, confirming the ubiquitous demand for this experience.
  • Summary: The guest has recently enabled remote sessions, which are surprisingly gaining traction, particularly with clients in Ohio and the Great Lakes region. This suggests that the desire for this unique, affirming experience is widespread geographically. The guest’s final advice is to simply ‘Start,’ doing things imperfectly and fixing them later.