This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
What's up and welcome to Side Hustle School. This is Chris Guillebeau and guess what? This is day two of publication of the book, "Money Tree." That's my book, "The Money Tree," a story about finding the fortune in your own backyard. I was gonna say this is day two or day three of book tour 'cause I had actually planned on being in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Denver, Chicago, Portland, and so on and so on. But I'm actually going to be in zero cities instead of 40, or I guess technically I will be in one.
Nevertheless, I've been having a great time talking with lots of people. I did numerous interviews yesterday. I was on local TV. I did some Instagram live and it's in Facebook live. I have a new YouTube channel, youtube.com/chrisguillebeau where I am streaming new ideas for finding opportunities in this time of uncertainty.
So I look forward to just getting the message out about the book, but more importantly, getting the message out about what people can do as we navigate this time of chaos and disruption. I really do believe that in the midst of chaos and disruption, a lot of powerful shifts are gonna come about. A lot of people are gonna make some really big changes. So if you're in that place, I wanna do everything I can to support you in that. Okay, so today we've got a Q&A episode.
Today's caller is working on providing live streaming content creation services for small businesses and events. How can he find a niche or target market to focus on? That's what we'll talk about in this episode. [Music]
What's good, Chris? This is Leland from Muskegon, Michigan.
Side Hustle School is an awesome resource and a great inspirational tool to myself and others here. I'm ready to get my side hustle started and I think I found one. I'm working on providing live streaming content creation services for small business startups as well as small events. My question to you today is do you have any ideas or insight as to the potential niches in these two categories? Niches that I could possibly take advantage of right away and get this hustle up and running.
Thanks again, Chris, and I'm looking forward to your insight. [Music]
What's good, Leland? Thank you so much for listening up in Michigan. Muskegon, I believe you mentioned. I'm gonna be in Detroit at some point, which I realize is kind of like how Los Angeles and Chicago are not next to each other, but still, I'm doing my best.
Now, let's talk about your question. I wasn't 100% sure what you meant by the content creation part. So if I get this wrong, let me know and we'll follow up. But when I think about live streaming services, live streaming startups and small businesses and small events, what I think about first is what do these startups or events need? Like, what is their specific need that's going to be met through this service?
Because these days, anyone can live stream with their phone using Facebook Live, Instagram Live, Periscope, Twitter, TikTok Live, if that's the thing. The point is any number of services can do this on a very basic, unmoderated, DIY basis, okay? Now, what Leland proposes here, I'm pretty sure at least, is something more thoughtful and structured than that. But it's just good to keep this in mind. Anyone can do basic live streaming, so what is Leland gonna do different and better?
Now, I also think he's on the right track with trying to home in on a niche or target market since small business and events, startups, all those words can mean a lot of different things. So what are my ideas based on how I understand the question? I thought about startup product launches. I did an event in Austin once during South by Southwest where I actually went to speak at a startups event. They were producing a new product and doing this big launch and they were doing some kind of live streaming for it.
They wanted to reach as many people as possible. They wanted to show some behind the scenes stuff. They brought in guest speakers, including myself, a couple other people I believe. So that's the kind of thing where they're trying to get as much reach as possible and they might benefit from having a more produced live stream format. I also thought about kind of in the same vein, product demos to show a business's new product or service to virtual viewers, kind of an extension of existing social media, just a bit more formal, a bit more deliberate.
And then last, I thought about educational presentations from organizations like the Chamber of Commerce, events like Creative Mornings or similar, venues or spaces like WeWork or Impact Hub or local co-working spaces. And the revenue model there could be a sponsor model. It's like, here I am with this live stream brought to you by so-and-so, right? I think you also have to answer a couple of questions in the service design here. When you're thinking about your niche, when you're thinking about what is this business model, first of all, why will people want to watch a live stream of this content?
Where will the audience come from? And again, how can you do this better than someone holding up a phone and posting it on any social network? I actually think there are good answers to all those questions, or at least there could be good answers. So they aren't something that should hold you back, just something you wanna think through as part of designing the service. All right, thanks again, man.
Good luck, and let me know what happens. Listeners, if you got a question yourself, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. Guess what? We're featuring them throughout the year, along with updates from other listeners as they launch their projects. Be sure you're subscribed.
It is all completely free. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
