This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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It's always fun whenever I hear of a new business or a new side hustle that starts from a listener, which by the way, I love hearing stories from listeners about your side hustle, your business. It's just so cool, especially when it comes in some connection to the show, but even if it doesn't, it's still cool. But what I was gonna say is it's always fun whenever I hear one of these things that's based on one of the case studies we featured in the past. In other words, we've told the story of somebody and then some other listener out there is like, hey, that's pretty cool. I wanna do something like that in my town.
I recently heard about this with an urban hiking tour that we've talked about a couple of times taking place in San Francisco. Just heard from somebody who's starting one in, I believe it's Kansas City, if I'm not mistaken. So I'll get some more information about that and pass it on to you at some point. But today I've got another question, the Hoboken Girl story, Hoboken Girl, it was just the name of the brand, that story of an online citywide news hub, which I believe we first featured in episode 902 or something like that. That story has led a listener to wonder if he can do something similar in his city.
Well, of course he can. I mean, that's the short version, but what are the prerequisites? What might he need to know? Also, I wanna give you a book recommendation right at the top of the show here. John Lee Dumas, a long time podcaster, someone that I have learned a lot from in the past.
His first book actually is out today. It's called "The Common Path to Uncommon Success, A Roadmap to Financial Freedom and Fulfillment." I had a chance to read an early copy of the book. It is insightful, it is helpful, it is definitely something that will help people learn. So again, "The Common Path to Uncommon Success" by John Lee Dumas, that book is out today. And in this episode, does the idea of a hometown tourist guide have merit?
All right, that's all coming up in a moment, 30 seconds to be precise, after this message from our sponsor. [Music]
Hi Chris, this is Ash from Ashland. And yes, people point that out all the time. So it got me thinking about Hoboken Girl from episode 902. I live in a mid-sized town slash city, and I don't think we have anything like this.
At least not a single source that's well curated and frequently updated. Do you think her model is still viable for someone starting today? If so, what's the best plan of action to move forward? I appreciate any help or advice you can give me. [Music]
Ash from Ashland, what's up?
That is great. I thank you for the question as well. So is it still viable? Is this still a viable model? Yes, absolutely.
But it's also important to look at why it worked so well. This is definitely a slow build kind of project. It's not a get rich quick plan. It's one that requires a lot of effort, really just dedication. Because it's dedication to content, not creating a lot of content.
It's dedication to relationship building. The business model here is advertising, either advertising or sponsorship partnership in some form. So that requires constant, consistent sales and relationship building, in addition to, as I mentioned, content creation. Take some time really to build critical mass. So time, serious commitment, do be aware of that.
I think it's also really important to find the right kind of city, the right size city, let's say. And one of the reasons why Hoboken Girl did so well, at least according to her theory, which I agree with, is that Hoboken was a mid-sized city, not too small and not too big. Hoboken is near New York City, but the critical point was she was focusing on the mid-sized city of Hoboken, not New York City. And of course, there are lots of smaller towns in New Jersey and the surrounding area, but I don't think those would work either. So you need it to be large enough to have enough website visitors, have enough businesses to partner with, but not so large that it kind of loses the whole community feel, which is, again, why it was successful.
So not easy, but definitely still viable for the right person and city. Ashland might be a little bit small. I think it's 20,000 population size compared to Hoboken, which is 50,000, but it also has a big tourism industry. So perhaps that helps. Just a specific comment there for Ash.
All right, that's it for today. Remember the book recommendation, "The Common Path to Uncommon Success" by John Lee Dumas. And listeners, if you've got a question, come to sinuswellschool.com/questions. Thank you for joining me. I hope you'll come back tomorrow.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Sinuswell School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
