This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
When should you get started on social media? When do you start making posts for a new project? When do you create the profiles in the first place? When should you have a strategy versus just working on your product or service, making that as compelling as possible? This is a basic but important question.
And the answer is not as simple as saying, go do it now. Get started right now. It is good to get started, of course, but timing also matters. Now in today's question, which relates to all of this, Joshua has an idea for a task and time management system. And he's wondering when it would be good to start those social media accounts.
Too soon, too late, or neither. We'll talk about the concept, the timeline, and the advantages and disadvantages of moving forward without a clear plan. Let's hear from him. [Music]
Hi, Chris, my name is Joshua Guthrie. I'm located in Jackson, Tennessee, and I have been listening to Side Hustle School consistently for about a year and a half or so.
Over the past couple of months, I've developed a task and time management system for myself that I really think others would benefit from. I want to develop it into a brand and side hustle with audio visual media being my primary products offered. Eventually, it could even lead to a book. To get this ball rolling, I want to start with an Instagram account to get my ideas out there, establish the brand and gather a community. However, the concept for the system is still maturing.
My question is this. Is it ever too soon to put yourself out there before you have fully developed a concept and had the time to copyright any concepts you don't want others to steal? I doubt this would be an issue, but I was wondering if you could elaborate a bit on the process of creating digital assets with intellectual rights. Thanks, Chris. Keep up the good work.
And by the way, if you want to follow my, as of now, completely blank Instagram account, you can do so at ultra productive. Thanks. [Music]
Hey, Joshua, thank you so much for the question. It's fun to hear about your project as well. I'm always up for any new time management or a task management system.
I've learned a lot from looking at that kind of stuff. So it's always fascinating to see what other people are coming up with. Now, this reminds me, this question, this idea reminds me a little of my early ideas for the art of nonconformity way back when, I think it's been more than 10 years now. I registered a Twitter account at the end of 2007, if I'm not mistaken, but then I didn't actually use it. I didn't actually tweet until the spring of 2008.
I think I had one little post up that was like, "Hey, something's coming at some point." And then I thought about my ideas and early posts for several months before I did anything public with them, both in terms of the blog and eventually social media. So I totally understand the concept of just sitting on something for a while, letting it simmer, letting it marinate, whatever cooking metaphor you'd like to use there. Now, for the purpose of this question, let's focus on the part of the question that relates to his conceptual development. I agree that intellectual property is not the main issue here. We'll also talk about that a bit more in other episodes, other questions.
Let's focus on that concept. Should you put yourself out there before your concept is fully developed? Now, here's why I think you should, because the short version is yes, I do think you should put yourself out there before everything is fully developed. One, because your concept is always going to be evolving. Like your concept is probably never going to be fully developed.
You'll also improve as you share your ideas. Either your ideas themselves will evolve, or maybe you'll just find improved ways of sharing them. Like even if you have the perfect system, most likely when you put it out there and begin to share it, you'll encounter some sort of misunderstanding or disconnect. Maybe somebody's like, oh, I don't quite understand how this works. And then you think, oh, there actually is a better way that I could explain that or teach that, or whatever the case may be.
So you'll improve. And then also your followers will probably make it better as well, either through that kind of connection of like just the feedback or interaction, or maybe through some sort of application or interpretation, you know, whatever it is. Ultimately, you are the creator, but most of our ideas tend to be made better through some sort of collaboration, even if it's just that basic interaction. Now also, last but not least, some of your followers, presumably your customers at some point, some of them want to follow your process. Not all of them.
Some of them just want the finished product, but some of them do want to know like, what is the origin, the genesis of this? You said that this system is helping you. How is it helping you? Like, why has it been beneficial to you? Why do you think other people can learn from it?
So some people are going to be interested in that. That's why I do tend to think like, you know, all things being equal, the sooner, the better. I will just give you one counter example, and I don't think it's totally at odds, but with Side Hustle School in particular, I didn't tell anyone it was coming. Like when I was getting ready to start this January 1, 2017, I worked on it in the second half of 2016, never said a word about it to anybody publicly. I focused 100% on the content, and I only launched it on day one.
In other words, there was zero pre-launch. There was no like, it's coming in 10 days, it's coming in 30 days, whatever. And that process for me felt fresh and exciting, just because I was a little bit tired of all the pre-launching and hype that I saw taking place elsewhere. But that's a little bit different than just sharing, right? So that's why I don't think these perspectives are at odds.
Overall, I'd say like once you're in a place when you have something worth sharing, by your own estimation, by your own judgment, I think it's good to start sharing. As for Ultraproductive on Instagram, which is just @ultraproductive, I'd love to encourage listeners to check it out, but as you said, it's completely blank. There's nothing there, I want to look. And I would suggest, like there's zero posts, there's no photo, there's nothing written in the bio section. I would suggest even if you aren't going to use it for a while, you need some sort of post that's like, hey, watch this space.
You need a photo and you need something in the bio that says, hey, I'm on a mission to create this new time and task management system, whatever it is. Otherwise, no one will be interested in it. Nobody's gonna follow it. If you put something there, you never know, right? So add something up.
And maybe if our listeners go check it out later, they will see something of interest and follow along. [Music]
All right, listeners, if you have a question, just come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. We'll be featuring lots of questions, lots of projects, like this one and many others, along with updates as we go along throughout the year. So I'm excited to share that with you and you are invited to participate. Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/1104.
We now include transcripts and you can sign up for a newly updated email series. All right, more is on the way, including a story tomorrow about a librarian who invents eco-friendly dental floss. Eco-friendly dental floss, she ends up doing really well, making something like half a million dollars. So I'll tell you about that tomorrow. For now, I'm signing off.
This is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
