This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Not every side hustle idea is going to work out. That is the reality. That's the truth. It's not a bad thing. You gotta try different stuff to find your ultimate answer.
But is there a way to learn in advance which ones are more likely to succeed? That is the question we are dealing with today. How can I fast track my idea? That's what today's caller wants to know. And I think this is a great question, a good way to phrase it actually, because I sometimes get questions like, "Hey, how can I make money without doing any work?" They don't usually phrase it quite like that, but that's basically what they wanna know.
And I don't have a good answer to that because I do not know how to make money fall from the sky just yet. My last book was called "The Money Tree." I think today's caller actually references it. Maybe the next one will be, "It's raining money." But until I write that book, let's talk about whether there are some things you can do. Are there some things you can do to eliminate bad ideas early and set yourself up for the best possible odds of success? So, can't guarantee it, but if you can save some time and help fast track, well, why wouldn't you do that?
That's the question of the day. I wanna thank our sponsor for their kind support, and we'll hear from Rebecca. [Music]
Hi, Chris, this is Rebecca from Seattle. I've been a big fan of your work since the $100 startup, and just finished "The Money Tree" and really enjoyed it. The story got me thinking about this question.
Can I fast track the process of trying out ideas? In "The Money Tree," Jake's first service attempt fails because it's too generic and because he's not really qualified to offer it. I get that, but I'm wondering if there was any way for him to figure that out in advance. How can I save the work required and put that time to better use in the first place? Can't wait to hear from you.
[Music]
Rebecca, thank you so much for listening up in Seattle. So glad you enjoyed the book. So glad you're out there. And let's talk about this. Well, without giving away the details, all the details of the story, because not everybody has read the book yet, but you have well-identified why that first service attempt didn't work.
As you mentioned, it was too generic and he wasn't qualified to offer it, all right? So too generic and didn't have the authority. So I guess you could kind of flip it and say, well, when you're considering your ideas, ask if your idea is specific enough, the opposite of generic, the opposite of general, and then also think more about that question of authority. Is my idea specific and do I have the authority to provide the answer, the solution to whatever problem I'm trying to address? So I'll give you an example here.
I was thinking about my friend, Steve Kam, who founded the branding community known as Nerd Fitness. Now Nerd Fitness, if you haven't heard of Nerd Fitness, once you hear of it, you probably get it, right? Nerd Fitness, okay, Steve has this whole personal transformation story of sitting on the couch all the time playing video games, and he still likes video games, but basically he's like, I really don't know a whole lot about health and fitness, and he goes out to figure it out. And then he ends up creating this whole membership site and events and retreats and products and such, all built around this concept of you can be a geek, a gamer geek or whatever other kind of geek, but also like really be into your health. So to be clear, Steve is a hard worker, but also it's not surprising to me that that brand did really well, because as I said, it is clear, it is specific.
And over time, he built the authority to be able to represent that brand and to put it forward. So is your idea specific enough? Do you have the authority? And those are the two questions to think about. It doesn't mean that you're going to succeed in every idea that is specific that you are qualified to teach or to present or produce or whatever.
In some cases, you may still have to experiment. You may have false starts. You don't always realize until after the fact what works and what doesn't. But hopefully by listening to the podcast, maybe reading the Money Tree, maybe just thinking about those questions, it will help you cut off a lot of those false starts and increase your chances that you'll find a perfect idea. So nothing is guaranteed, but I think there are ways to fast track, to use that phrase, to be more efficient and ultimately to be more effective, which is even better.
So that's my thought on that. Thank you again, Rebecca. And thank you, listeners. You are awesome. If you've got a question of your own, just come to sodasselskill.com/questions.
I'm so fortunate that we have an amazing community of people out there doing all kinds of really cool stuff. I'd love to know what you're up to, what your challenges are, what your successes are, as well as those false starts because that is normal. If you're struggling in some way with this process, just kind of keep going with it and be willing to tweak, be willing to experiment because, you know, good things come to those who take action, but often you have to take different kinds of action. So that is my encouragement for today. Don't be discouraged and be sure you're subscribed to come back for more.
Once again, my name is Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
