This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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I have enjoyed so much hearing from listeners all over the world who are starting different projects, trying to find a way to live out this side hustle life in their own fashion. We have people with all different kinds of objectives from people who are trying to make a lot of money as full-time entrepreneurs, people who are trying to quit their day job, people who are just building up financial savings or paying off debt, or just kind of exploring, and that's okay too. So I feel very fortunate to connect with you, our listener, and with everybody else out there as well. My hope is to always provide helpful information, lots of resources, tips, maybe just some encouragement as well to know that you're not out there alone, right? Lots of people, as I said, are trying to do this in different ways.
Now today's caller comes to us from the UK. He will be graduating soon with a degree in sport and exercise science, and he's wondering about how to use this to his advantage in marketing a coaching service. In some parts of the traditional world of employment, it's pretty clear what benefits a college degree conveys. It might be required to get a job at certain companies or in certain industries. If nothing else, it can get you in the door for an interview, but naturally in the world of self-employment, the benefits are less clear.
It doesn't mean your education is not valuable, it might be highly valuable, it might even be critical, but those benefits are not conveyed automatically the way they might be if you follow a more traditional path. So that's what he's wondering about. How can you put that education on display in a relevant manner to improve your marketing and help you attract clients in the coaching space? It's a really great question. I'll bring it to you after this message from our sponsor.
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Hi Chris, my name is Jacob and I'm from the UK. I've been listening to the show for a few months now. My side hustle is I want to be a nutrition and performance coach. So my question for you is how can you use a degree or qualification to your advantage while running a side hustle? In a year's time, I will have got a sport and exercise science degree, but I feel this may all go to waste if I end up working for myself and not working for another employer.
I just wondered how I might be able to use this kind of qualification to my advantage and how to make an impact in a highly competitive industry where no one really knows about you. Cheers. [Music]
Jacob, what's up? Thanks so much for listening. Thank you for the question.
Congratulations on reaching the final year of your education for that sport and exercise science degree. And I love this question because I feel like a lot of people probably have it or if they haven't formulated this question, it's still quite relevant to them. Like if they're listening and they're like, I'm actually in school right now or I've finished my education a while back but I'm not sure how it applies to the marketing of my side hustle. Well, this is very relevant. So I think what is most important in this question is to separate a few different topics, okay?
And so we're kind of conflating some things together here. Formal education and your degree, well, let's just say education in general, but here we're talking about formal education and your degree, that certificate, whatever that qualification is. Then qualifications themselves, like broadly speaking, what qualifies someone to undertake a job or to be hired as a coach or for some other form of service. And then lastly, authority. And that last one I think is the most important in terms of marketing a service.
Everything comes down to authority and what you need to do here in this situation where you're like, I'm coming into a competitive industry and I've got this training that is relevant if I go and get a job, but how do I make it relevant in the side hustle? And I think it's all about communication, right? Because we know that it's going to be relevant. Like you've undertaken this training, it's gonna be very helpful, but how do you then communicate that to a potential client? So let's take a hypothetical and say, if Jacob had been coaching an Olympic team for the past 20 years instead of growing up, and they had just won the gold medal somewhere, like nobody's gonna care about his degree in that case.
His authority comes from being the coach of that Olympic winning team. If he had a testimonial from David Beckham saying, Jacob is the best coach I've ever had, then once again, nobody would care about his degree. But because Jacob doesn't yet have those qualifications, those are coming in the future, a degree can be part of demonstrating his skill and competence. And I think that is the key point. As you write your copy, as you think about how do I develop the narrative, the pitch, the offer that I am presenting to people, I think you should always lead with, you're not leading with here's the piece of paper that I got, here's the degree.
It's like, here's why I'm qualified to get you the best possible results. And then that's when your degree comes in after that. Well, I went to study sport and exercise science because I'm highly motivated. And I wanted to learn in a systematic manner. And here you're kind of implying like, I didn't wanna just watch some YouTube videos, or I always really liked exercising myself, but a lot of coaches make the mistake of assuming that their clients are motivated in the same way that they are.
And so I really wanted to make sure I understood the science of physiology and psychology. And because again, I wanna get you the best possible results. I think that's the angle. So to cycle back to where we started, Jacob says, like, I don't want my education to go to waste, or I'm worried it's gonna go to waste. I forget the precise phrase.
I would say it's not gonna go to waste. Just make sure you think of it in terms of authority, because that's what clients ultimately want. That's what they're looking for when they're trying to figure out who's gonna be my coach, or who's going to be my trainer, or to help me go to the next level of whatever I'm trying to accomplish. I hope that is helpful. Good luck with your final year at uni.
And listeners, if you have a question, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. We will feature them throughout the rest of the year, perhaps beyond, we'll see, along with updates from other listeners as they launch and grow their projects. As I said, I love doing this. I'm so fortunate to connect with you. So thank you for listening.
Be sure you're subscribed. You can do so wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
