This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hello there friends, what's up? Thank you so much for popping in. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School, a daily program, all about creating your own security, finding a way to make an income generating project to start or grow an income generating project without quitting your day job by using a skill you already have and without going into debt. That is our clear and single-minded mission.
We have a wonderful community of amazing people all over the world who are trying to do this in different ways. And my goal is to be a resource and a support offering tips, stories, questions and answers, et cetera. Now today's listener has an idea. They have an idea to work on a new book, to write a new book actually, and share their journey along the way to share the process of writing the book and so on. How can they do this and is it a good idea?
Now I think this question is a really good jumping off point to a broader one about process and behind the scenes. Like, is it a good idea to share your behind the scenes and how much, right? Like how much info is too much versus like just, you know, sharing the work itself. So I do have a clear opinion on this. And the same thing I would say to any caller, I would say to you, my listener, you know, if the shoe fits, wear it.
If you like the advice, that's great. But if something else is working better for you, then of course you should do that, right? The number one thing I can do is encourage people to think for themselves. So hopefully you're doing that. But of course I'm happy to share from my experience.
So how much info is too much? Should I publish a daily audio diary about writing a book? That's the question we're gonna delve into after this shout out to our sponsor. Stay tuned. [Music]
Hey Chris, this is Carol from Tucson.
I've been listening to Side Hustle School for a couple of years. I have this idea to write a book and publish a daily audio diary about the process as I go along. I'm just wondering, do you think that this is interesting? My thought really is that it could maybe create interest and inspire loyalty among future readers. They'll be following along and really excited, I hope.
Fingers crossed when the book comes out. If you were gonna try something like this, how would you do it? And should it be a private diary for subscribers only? Or should I make it available to just anyone? Any help you can give would be amazing.
So thanks so much. And I'm looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks. [Music]
Hey Carol, thank you so much for listening. Thank you for the question.
And that's super awesome about your book. I think your book is gonna be interesting. I'm excited about that. Now let's talk about this idea though, because I think this is something that is potentially a mistake for a lot of people. Okay, now as I said in my disclaimer earlier, if this is the right thing for you, that's great.
That's fantastic. But I think a lot of people end up missing the forest for the trees. And this whole thing about like follow my journey, let's delve into my process. It's really tough to do well. Because if you just think about it, like depersonalize it a little bit, think just a little bit less about yourself and imagine it's somebody else.
Somebody that you don't know. Not everybody is as interested in that personal journey as they are, right? 'Cause it's their journey. Just like your journey is your own, my journey is my own. And so there is some overlap among your fans, among people who are gonna like the book, they're gonna want to know some more about it.
But writing a book is a messy process. And so for all those people who do want to experience part of it, I would say in an ideal world, there's gonna be like a lot more who want to just enjoy the book itself. And so, you know, it's kind of a two-part thing here. Like it doesn't mean you can't involve other people or share notes and updates along the way. You may even want to create like a street team or a super fan list.
That's something Gretchen Rubin does really well. So there are ways to share some of those updates with people who are more interested than others. But in terms of like putting a lot of emphasis on like the daily diary, for example, the way I tend to think of it is like your labor is the gift you give to people in the form of the finished product, okay? Your labor is the gift, like that's what you're putting into the book itself. And everybody else doesn't have to necessarily be along for the ride.
You know, for every podcast episode that we record, like there's a lot of like outtakes. There's a lot of times when I say things, I don't say them very well. I got to go back and say it again. Imagine I was like, hey, I want to give everything to everybody because people want the behind the scenes. You know, I would say 98% of our listeners are like, you know, actually just give me the produced episode, right?
Because you're busy. So in general, I think focusing on the daily updates might end up being more of a distraction than something that's truly helpful and valuable to most people. So therefore it could be a mistake. And you can take that from someone who often gets distracted. Either way, I'm cheering you on.
I wish you every success. And listeners, if you got a question, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. We are featuring them throughout the year, along with updates from listeners as they launch their projects. It is an odd time in lots of ways, but it's also a time in which people have a chance to make some big changes. So I'm excited about that.
And I would love to know what you're up to. All right, be sure you subscribe to much more is on the way. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
