This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Yesterday, we debuted my new course, Idea to Income, which is delivered entirely by text message. I think it's a lot of fun. I'm getting some good feedback and we have a lot of people signing up. If you would like to check it out, sign up with a special discount. Go to courses.sidehustleschool.com and use discount code IDEA.
That discount code is valid only for a limited time. So if you try it much later and it doesn't work, well, that's why. But for now, courses.sidehustleschool.com discount code IDEA. In other news, recently I have been learning about plants. Now I don't wanna sound overconfident because I'm definitely not certain yet, but I have managed to keep some house plants alive longer than I ever have before.
I have about 10 plants divided between my balcony and my little recording space where I'm talking to you from now. And yeah, I don't know. I guess I'm just turning over a new leaf. What can I say? Well, this brings us to today's caller.
She wants to be in her own words, a plant lady. She has several business ideas related to her love of plants and she's looking for some direction. So let's see if we can plant the right seeds. Question is coming up in just 30 seconds. [Music]
Hi, this is Kayla Montgomery from San Antonio, Texas.
And I'm a fairly new listener, but I'm working my way through all of your episodes. I'm planning a side hustle based on my love of plants. I just started an Instagram and it focuses on learning about plants alongside my audience. My current goal is to make an overview guide about plant care for new plant parents. Then later on, I want to create a paid more in-depth ebook that I can sell for maybe $5.
Some stretch goals would be to go into people's homes and help them choose and keep plants alive. Like a housekeeper, but a plant lady. However, now that I'm spending more time on the platform, I see that there are other people selling the same guides I want to create and doing other interesting things that I haven't even thought of. And they seem to be doing it better. My question is how do I stay motivated when I see other people's work and I don't know how to differentiate myself?
Thanks and I can't wait to hear your feedback. [Music]
Kayla, you are awesome. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you for sharing your idea and asking a question. There's a lot here.
There's a lot of layers here because it's one part competitive analysis or validating your business idea. It's another part imposter syndrome perhaps where you're like, oh, look at all these other people. It's one part wondering, does my idea work when somebody else also has my idea? And sometimes we address these topics individually, but the reality is just like you hear in Kayla's question, it's often kind of all integrated. Like you're experiencing all these things at once.
You're simultaneously excited, but also maybe a little bit intimidated. So let's try to look at the overall and see if we can help Kayla, plus anybody else out there who's feeling something similar. So for popular topics, there are gonna be a lot of people in the same space for something like plants. That's not necessarily a bad thing because it means if somebody else out there, some other plant person, let's say, is successful at their business, it means that there's a market for it. And there's definitely a market for house plant care and house plant education.
I recently paid to subscribe to an app that gives me notifications when I need to water my plants, my new plants that I have on my balcony and here in my recording space. And I already decided I needed some help, but when I looked, there were several apps that all had tons of five-star reviews. In other words, it looked like there were several good solutions out there. And the same is true with plant guides or other information products, YouTubers, I'm sure, TikTokers, even if you go into a bookstore, there are lots of books about plants. So not necessarily bad that other people are doing it, but how do you stay motivated and differentiate yourself?
I think that's the key. So one option is to go local, like Kayla mentioned in becoming the plant lady of San Antonio that goes into people's homes. Another option, which could happen simultaneously, it's not one of the other, is to specialize. Become the rose lady, not the plant lady, or any other plant that's difficult to grow. We had a story a while back about a guy who's created the internet's leading resource for carnivorous plants.
We also had a story about a retail store that opened just as the pandemic was beginning. And the owner of that store is doing really well, specializing in easy-to-grow plants for people like me who are not so good at it. There could be many other options, lots of different ways to specialize, but I do think it's important to find some differentiation. And remember lastly, that you want to focus on benefits and not get sidetracked. Pretty easy to get sidetracked once you start going down this path, but I would say Kayla needs to always return to this question, why do plants bring joy to your life?
And as long as she doesn't get too far away from that line of thinking, if she goes down in different experiments and considers, maybe I'll do this, maybe I'll do that, I think she has a much better chance of staying motivated. And whatever it is you're working on, I think the same thing is true. Why does this thing bring joy to your life? Focus on that. Don't worry too much about what other people are doing and just continue to evolve as you go.
That's really the path forward for all of us. So good luck, Kayla. And listeners, if you have a question, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. We will continue to feature them throughout the year, along with updates from other listeners as they launch their projects. I am grateful for you today.
Thank you for tuning in. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
