Chris Koerner: Why copying beats originality in business

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

December 8, 2025

Duration

2h 11m

Channel

The Diary of a CEO

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Serial entrepreneur CHRIS KOERNER reveals how he built 80+ businesses from scratch, turned side hustles into millions, and why ONLY $500 is all you need. Chris Koerner is a self-made entrepreneur and content creator, known as the “King Of Side Hustles”. With over 1 million followers, he now teaches people how to build and scale a business and he is host of the ‘The Koerner Office Podcast’. He explains: ◼️The brutal truth about passive income (and what to build instead) ◼️How to turn $1,000 into $10,000 fast, with a step-by-step formula ◼️The #1 habit silently keeping you poor without you realising it ◼️How to use AI tools to launch and scale instantly ◼️The simple framework for testing any business idea with $0 00:00 Who Are You and What Do You Do? 02:36 What Businesses Have You Started? 05:33 Is This the Best Time to Start a Business? 08:52 Copying Businesses 12:53 Experimentation and Testing 20:11 Your Experience With Buc-ee's 23:00 Is Entrepreneurship for Everyone? 30:24 Should We Have Plan Bs? 36:14 Passive Income 39:10 How Important Is Passion? 41:55 How to Know If You Should Pursue an Idea 47:10 How to Validate Your Ideas 48:49 How to Test a Product 52:02 How Important Is It to Learn Facebook Ads? 57:11 Ads 58:51 The Different Types of Entrepreneurs 59:54 How Important Is Focus? 01:02:04 Did You Feel Guilty for Trying to Build Businesses? 01:07:04 Rejection and Failure 01:09:59 Team Building and Business Partners 01:12:30 Equity Split in a Business 01:15:13 What Would You Do With $500 for a Business? 01:20:57 Drop Servicing 01:27:53 Making Money From Vending Machines 01:36:16 Ads 01:38:19 What Business Would You Do With $1,000? 01:41:09 Online Business With $1,000 01:43:38 What Would You Do With $5,000? 01:49:11 Don’t Ignore This When Starting A Business 01:50:09 Which Has Been Your Most Profitable Business? 01:52:13 Keep Trying and Experimenting 01:55:36 Any New Business Ideas You’re Trying? 01:56:34 Business That You Should Stay Away From 02:00:33 Should You Really Become an Entrepreneur? 02:03:43 What’s One Thing Steven Did That You Appreciated? 02:08:17 What’s the Most Popular Question You Get? Follow Chris: Instagram - https://bit.ly/4oFom0i YouTube - https://bit.ly/3XBUI16 X - https://bit.ly/3Mc0UdJ The Diary Of A CEO: ◼️Get the 2026 Goal Setting Guide - https://bit.ly/ytgoalsettingguide ◼️Join DOAC circle here - https://doaccircle.com/ ◼️Buy The Diary Of A CEO book here - https://smarturl.it/DOACbook ◼️The 1% Diary is back - limited time only: https://bit.ly/3YFbJbt ◼️The Diary Of A CEO Conversation Cards (Second Edition): https://g2ul0.app.link/f31dsUttKKb ◼️Get email updates - https://bit.ly/diary-of-a-ceo-yt ◼️Follow Steven - https://g2ul0.app.link/gnGqL4IsKKb Sponsors: Wispr: https://wisprflow.ai/DOAC LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/DIARY Adobe: https://Adobe.Ly/OneBetter Ketone-IQ: https://ketone.com/STEVEN for 30% off your subscription order

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Steven Bartlett

  host

• Chris Koerner

  guest

• Narrator

  other

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of The Diary of a CEO, featuring Steven Bartlett and Chris Koerner, Chris Koerner: Why copying beats originality in business explores side-Hustle King Reveals Simple Paths To Profitable ‘Passive’ Income Serial entrepreneur Chris Kerner, known as the “King of Side Hustles,” breaks down how ordinary people can launch low-cost, highly profitable businesses without quitting their jobs or raising capital. He argues that we live in the easiest era ever to start a business, but most people are blocked by fear of judgment, poor validation, and not connecting simple tools like Facebook and AI to their ideas.

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