This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
>> Welcome, welcome, welcome. This is Chris Guillebeau, your host for Side Hustle School. This is also our weekly classroom episode. I'm going to call this one Roadmap to Launch. I feel like I should say it with more gravitas.
Roadmap to Launch, Roadmap to Launch. All right. Another recent classroom episodes, we have looked at different Cytosil ideas, where they come from, categories, how to decide between competing ideas, and so on. Here in today's episode, once again, Roadmap to Launch will preview all that's to come as we go from your idea phase to the preparation phase to the launch phase. I'll have to come up with something else for the launch phase because that's exciting too.
Now, Benjamin Franklin said, "By failing to prepare, you are preparing for failure." By failing to prepare, you are preparing for failure. I don't want you to fail, so that's the last time I'll use that word today. But when I read that quote, I was reminded of something I've learned in doing major events in theaters. I'm doing this event, World Domination Summit, for 10 years now. Something I heard in the second year was, you have to rehearse, and you have a rehearsal one way or another.
If you don't actually have a standalone scheduled rehearsal, then during your first performance, that's going to be the rehearsal. It's usually better to not have your rehearsal coincide with your first performance. Let us assume you believe in the value of planning. Knowing what you need to do in advance can save you so much time as you go along. It can make you more efficient and more effective.
Often, side hustlers have limited time and energy to work on their sidekicks. If you are a busy person, I say this often, but my market is busy people who don't have 40 hours a week to, "become an entrepreneur." They're just trying to take care of themselves. They're trying to look out for their future, while at the same time, keeping up with lots of current responsibilities. It greatly helps in these situations to be able to refer to a list and remember, "Oh, right. Okay, that's what I need to do now." There's a lot of stuff I could do, but what do I need to do now?
What is essential? For our next assumption, let us assume that you have your idea. That's what I've been talking about so far in the series. Maybe you've been listening for a long time, and you actually have lots of ideas. But the point is that you have identified one to work on, one idea to work on during the season.
The very first thing you should do now is, are you ready? Here's step one. The very first thing you should do now is visualize an outcome. When I say visualize an outcome, I don't mean metaphysically speaking, I don't mean woo-woo, nothing wrong with woo-woo, but in this case, I mean nuts and bolts. Imagine that your idea works as well as you'd like it to, maybe even more. What does that look like?
That website is up, that store is open, you are dropshipping, you are reselling, whatever the thing is that you're doing. Do you have customers? Do you have clients? Are you trying to make sales? Are you trying to grow your following and influence?
Whatever it is, imagine the final outcome of that process. You have the customers, you have the clients, and you have the followers. All right, that should feel pretty good. So step one, visualize an outcome, and here is step two. Shockingly, it is directly connected to step one.
Step two, ask yourself, what has to happen for that outcome to occur? Again, this is meant to be very practical. Okay, so let's keep it grounded. Are customers buying something from you online? Well, in that case, presumably you need a website.
Most likely you need a shopping cart, or maybe you're selling through a third-party platform. If that's the case, you still need an account there. And of course, you need the product itself. If it is a service business, well, you have a workflow of how to provide a consultation, which we're gonna talk about later in the series. Well, you need an online calendar for people to schedule appointments.
These are just a couple of examples. There could be all kinds of things that you need. You might not even know what all of them are until you're in the process. But if you visualize that outcome, I bet you can at least identify several of the major tasks you'll need to tackle in the coming weeks and months. So what are the components of your preferred outcome?
Odds are there are a number of things. Again, website, shopping cart, payment processor, social media profiles, calendar apps, supplies, whatever else there is. And here's another ground rule. Let's focus on what's essential, not what's optional. If you try to accomplish all the things you could do, pursue all the shiny objects that you see, you're never gonna get anywhere.
So what do you really need to reach your objective? What do you really need to experience that outcome that you visualized? Now, those are the first of three steps. Step one, step two. In a moment, I'll give you the final step and also your assignment for the week.
But first, I'd like to thank our sponsor for making all of this series completely free to you. [Music]
All right, we're back. Now we're gonna do that critical step three. But first, to recap, step number one, visualize an outcome. And by that, I don't mean metaphysically speaking.
I mean, nuts and bolts, practical, grounded. Imagine your idea works as well as you'd like it to. Maybe even more, what does it look like? Customers, clients, et cetera. Step two, ask what has to happen for that outcome to come to life?
For that to take place, for that to occur. Again, practical, grounded. Are customers buying from you? Do you have clients? Where do these customers or clients come from?
How do you get them what they have paid for? All that kind of stuff. And most likely you're gonna need a number of things for that to happen. I mentioned a few things, website, social media profile, et cetera, that list there. And then beginning to think, okay, what are the tools and resources I need to achieve that preferred outcome?
So step three, here it is, it ties it all together. Write this down. Document your plan of action. I know it's simple, but it's important because you need a plan of action. Okay, so use a journal, use a paper notebook, piece of paper, use your favorite digital note taker, whether it's Evernote or Google Docs or something else, or even dictate your roadmap using a voice memo, if you're on the go and you like that method.
You're gonna write down a list of all the things you need, or at least all the ones you can think of. Don't worry if there's stuff that's gonna come up as we go along, that's okay, that's normal. And also remember, nothing is set in stone here, okay? But it will give you something to come back to as we go along. It will be a checklist, a guide post, and a to-do list.
Because you're busy, right? And it's important to use your time well. Now, each classroom feature will include an assignment. Coming up next week, we're gonna look at messaging. It's not just what you say, it's how you say it.
And of course, we're gonna work on this roadmap. So in another huge surprise, your assignment is to craft your roadmap to launch. Craft your roadmap to launch, identify at least four to six tasks you'll need to complete in order to launch your new product or service. And don't just identify them, make sure you've got them written down somewhere, wherever is best and most convenient for you. All right, that's it.
You can read notes for this in every classroom episode this year at sidehustleschool.com/classroom. This one specifically has been episode 1136. You can always just go to sidehustleschool.com/ the number of the episode. So that would be, wait for it, sidehustleschool.com/1136. I'm so glad to share this journey with you.
Know that I'm cheering you on. I want you to succeed. And I'll do everything I can in support of that goal. All right, until tomorrow, my name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
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