This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Let's review some of those critical components of your roadmap to launch. That's what we're talking about all this week. Remember, a business is just a product or a service, a group of people willing to pay for it, and a way for them to do so. That's it. And as you think about that second requirement, the group of people, the more you learn about them, and the more you understand their core needs, the easier it will be for you to eventually persuade them of your message.
That is essentially what marketing is about, all marketing, really. It's persuasion of one kind or another. If you think about it from the perspective of being a consumer, something that you pay for, you have to believe that whatever you buy is going to relieve some kind of pain point or otherwise make you better off than you are now. Welcome to Sadduceal School. My name is Chris Guillebeau.
Today's caller is going through this process as she seeks to create educational materials for Dominican Americans or children of Dominican immigrants. What does she need to know and how should she proceed? [Music]
Hi Chris, this is Marlene from New York City. I just want to say thank you so much for creating the podcast. It's been really fun listening to everyone's side hustle story.
My question is how do I identify the most logical and financially beneficial stakeholder for my business? In other words, who do I market my product to? For some context, I'm interested in creating educational materials for Dominican Americans or children of Dominican immigrants. During a conversation I had with a friend, I realized that there aren't that many linguistic or intellectually accessible materials for people who want to learn about the country's history. I'm still in the brainstorming process of it, but hopefully by the end of 2020, I'll have some kind of educational material for Dominican Americans.
Any feedback is welcomed. I look forward to hearing your insight. Thank you so much. [Music]
Well, thank you so much, Marlene. I'm so glad you're listening to New York City and I like this question so much.
The first thing I thought of was a story from our archives. You might be familiar with it, but just in case you're not and some of our listeners might be interested. This is the story, episode 368, immigrant couple translates heritage into children's flashcards. That story was also featured in the 100 Sadducels book. And in that story, it's a married couple who makes flashcards in the Hmong language.
The Hmong language comes from Vietnam, Cambodia, other parts of Southeast Asia. And they make these flashcards in that language for their daughter and other families where the parents speak the language and want their kids to learn it too. And they essentially identified a gap in the market. Nobody else was doing anything like this and it's been very successful. So why is this relevant?
Why do I think about it? Because of the connection with the diaspora. So in the case of that story, the Hmong people living in the United States are all connected through Facebook and maybe some other networks. I'm not sure. And perhaps I'm exaggerating when I say they're all connected, but the point is a lot of them are connected.
A high percentage of these people are connected some way online. And that's pretty common. I also heard an episode of Radio Lab, I think it was, that was all about the nation of Gabon in central West Africa, which has been living under a dictatorship ever since the country gained independence. So there's a lot of people there trying to resist, trying to resist the rule of the one guy who's in power and somehow keeps getting elected with 99% of the vote in some districts. But the people there don't have the right of free speech or a free press.
That's actually very dangerous for them to speak out. So what was interesting in that story is how the diaspora of Gabonese in the US and France is kind of leading the way in news coverage of the situation from afar, broadcasting their message to citizens in the country. So in that case, the diaspora is connecting with everyone back home. Now, in the situation we're looking at here, Marlene wants to connect with Dominican Americans or children of Dominican immigrants. So surely there are places both online and maybe offline in some cities, certainly in New York City, where they gather.
And if so, that seems to me like those are her stakeholders, or at least are very close to the stakeholders. It may not be, you know, every Dominican American is her target market, probably not. But whatever subgroup she ends up marketing to is going to be, as I said, closely related or connected. And the key point is gonna be making something worth talking about, just like Tujur and Maiku Tao did. That was the couple, the Hmong couple I mentioned in the story, who had the flashcards.
And those flashcards kind of spread within the community. They made some videos that were very popular. So Marlene has a similar goal of creating some kind of educational materials that connect or reconnect people based on language, culture, and heritage. So good luck, Marlene. And I hope you end up making something worth talking about.
I'd love to know what happens. And for listeners, if you're gonna market some aspect of cultural heritage, it really helps to have a good answer to this question, where does the diaspora connect and engage? If you have a question of your own, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. We'll be featuring them throughout the year, along with updates from other listeners as they launch their projects. This has been episode 1141, 1141.
So much good stuff is coming up. I hope you are subscribed. Tell your friends it's completely free. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Sodasool School." [Music]
from The Onward Project.
