This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Oh my gosh! What a year it has been! This is the final recap of 2019. Everything will be new in just three days. This was week number 52 of the show, so I think we have two straggler days in, I guess you'd call it week 52 and a half, coming up tomorrow and the next day for New Year's Eve. And then we'll be jumping into something very new and different. We'll
also do this recap a bit differently because it is the end of the year. It's now been three years since we started Sylesville School on January 1, 2017. It has continued because of the commitment and enthusiasm of the community. That would be you. So thank you. And what
I thought I would do for this special episode is just give you some honest lessons learned on my part. I like to look at the process of things and see like what has gone well, but also what could be improved. And in fact, a critique is always about looking at what could be improved. And then from there, it's asking what should be improved. I think that's an important point as well because there are all kinds of things that you could do better.
The question is what should you do because time is limited. But let's focus on some honest lessons which have kind of informed what I'm planning to do for 2020 as well. And if you've been listening for a while, if you've ever given me any kind of feedback, if we have featured you on the program, if you know somebody who's been on the program, if we have met at a book event, whatever your involvement, you've been part of getting us where we are now. And then also kind of inspiring the shift that will take place in 2020, which is, as I said, just around the corner. So honest lessons learned. Let's jump in. I think I
have five or six of them. First and foremost, I want to return to doing more listener events, more meetups for listeners and readers across the United States and Canada, elsewhere in the world. So I'm working on that. I've got a big tour coming up in April and May, going to at least 25 cities. Very excited about that. I've got a new book coming out. I'll
tell you about it. But the point is I kind of got off track a little bit because when we started side hustle school, I created a workshop series and it went pretty well. It was like a pilot project, but it went well enough that we definitely could have continued it. I just kind of got behind and overwhelmed. And so I stopped it. So I'm going to regroup
on that along with some other listener events. Second, it's hard to be thematic. And like my intention was to be thematic with the program from the very beginning. By thematic, I mean, this week or this month, we're talking about this particular topic and all of the stories kind of align with that topic. And then next month, a new topic and so on. It was always
my intention to do that, but I think it probably falls in that what is the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I think it falls into that department just because the daily format is so much in terms of preparation, in terms of recording, in terms of keeping up with all the stuff. And of course, I don't do it all myself, but nevertheless, there is a lot of stuff that I have to do. So that has been a challenge. I'm hoping that the new classroom series that we're going to kick off very soon, just in a few days, in fact, will help with that. So I've written a series designed to go from January to December, basically
starting with where do ideas come from? How can everyone get more ideas? How do we choose the best idea? How do we then make those ideas happen? That's actually the majority of the content, like making the idea happen, figuring out what you need, how to go about getting it and then everything that happens after that. So I'm hoping that will definitely help.
Let's see, last week we had the story that wasn't a story. I think I called it the side of the story that wasn't for episode 1085. That was something that I've never done before. I basically talked about why I'm not running a particular story. And I'm really glad that I did that. To be honest, over the course of more than a thousand stories, there are
a number of them that I would like to give more polish to. Or like sometimes I have unanswered questions when I'm looking at the person's story, but I'm not able to reach them in time or they don't respond to their email because they're busy just like all of us. And we have to move forward. So that's kind of the nature of The Daily Show, but it's also something that has bothered me a little bit. So I'm thinking this will be less of an issue for 2020, because we're moving to this format where it is largely featuring listener questions. I'll give you
a complete rundown on that in just three days, but you can also just listen and it will unfold. It will all unfold magically. So I'm hoping that will be less of an issue. Let's see, I also haven't marketed the show very well. Pretty much all of our growth has been organic, which is great, like it's people talking about it. But you know, in a side hustle, it is important
to be able to not just do something, but also talk about it. So I'm going to keep the majority of my attention on content. But I hope that going into 2020 with some other changes I'm making that I can actually focus on that a bit. Because I have a goal, I have a personal goal for 2020 that I'll share with you. And my goal is to double the audience size. Okay,
so right now, I think we have about 40 to 50,000 people that are listening on a daily basis. And some people that are listening to every episode, some that are going through the archives and such. And so I would love to get that up to 100,000 or so. And then also, I think it's good just as a side note, like, you should always focus on what's in front of you, like, and don't worry so much about this audience growth thing. That's what people tend to obsess over. I think if you obsess more over your product, your content and the relationships
you're building, that's ultimately more important. But at the same time, as a counterpoint, if your audience is growing, that also means you're doing something right. So it's not a bad thing at all to focus on it. And that together with the other lessons about being thematic about getting back to listener events, just my challenges in marketing and the recent story that wasn't a story, those are some of the things I think of, as I think about 2019 and think, okay, well, a bunch of stuff went well, that's great. Like there's a lot of stuff I just want to keep doing because it's working. But let's also ask ourselves
what could be better. So those are a few honest lessons I wanted to share with you. I'm going to close out the year in just a moment with a special quote from one of our recent stories that I really liked. When I read this, I was like, "This is going to be a great way to end the year." So I'll share that quote with you in just a moment after this message from our sponsor. I really appreciate them as well all throughout the year.
Big thanks to everyone who has helped out along the way. Chuck Reed, Jed Chang, Tina Hart in particular, other folks from Cadence, from the ad sales team to anybody else working in development, anybody else working in admin and support and tech, all kinds of people that are seen and unseen. I really appreciate them working to make stuff happen, as well as our crew of freelance writers who have worked on the story throughout the year, including in particular Mike Garrett, Lewis, Ellie, Mackenzie, Robin, Michelle, David, Helena, Kim and Alyssa. That was a lot of people, but I want to make sure I mention one more thank you before I close it out and that thank you would of course be to you. That's right.
You are a rock star. You're the reason I make this show. So let's close this recap with a quote from Christine, whose story is coming up on New Year's Eve actually two days from now. Christine is an anesthetist who's also a mom of three. Can you believe I said that right? Anesthetist? I was really worried. Okay. She's also a mom
of three and competitive bodybuilder. And for her side hustle, which has actually grown to be a considerable business, she bakes and sells a protein filled gluten free cake mix. So you'll hear a story in a couple of days. Here's the quote. She says, there is no perfect timing. Strike while the iron is hot and figure out the rest later. We began selling our cakes
before we even knew how much the cost to produce them was. I'm not saying this is a good business strategy, but there is something to be said for jumping in with both feet and taking risks. So that is the beauty of the side hustle model that you don't have to have everything figured out. You can start where you are. And if you haven't done so yet, I highly encourage you to do so in the days to come. I'll be here. I'll be here all next year. I hope you'll
join me for that. You can subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. You can ask a question for our new format at sidehustleschool.com/questions. And you can access more than 1000 episodes completely free in the archives. The best is yet to come. Thank you so much for listening.
My name is Chris Guillebeau for side hustle school. From the Onward Project.
