This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey, hey, what's up? Welcome, my name is Chris Guillebeau. So glad you were tuning in. Let me give you some real talk here right at the top of the episode. I sometimes worry that I'm steering everyone towards doing the easy thing, or refraining from taking on a big challenge, or something to that effect.
And if I ever do that, it's just because I want you to know that creating a new source of income is accessible. It is feasible. It's not that complicated, or at least it doesn't have to be. Like not everything has to cost a lot of money or take months of your life to get going. And that's why I'm trying to show lots of examples to that effect.
But I also want to be careful because if you have a vision to do something, if you've got a big idea, if you're like, there's this thing I keep thinking about, I also want to encourage you to pay attention to that because it's not always about doing what's quick or easy or the most efficient. In life, you're gonna be happier if you follow up on your big ideas, whatever they are. So I don't believe these values are in conflict. You know, my push or my nudge towards, let's just get it done. Let's choose something simple and also pay attention to your big ideas.
I think it just depends on what your goals are and if you have one of those big ideas or not. So keep that in mind. And with that in mind, today's listener wants to make a board game. And to make a board game properly, like we've talked about it a few different times in different stories, it's a lot of work to do it right. There are many steps and this listener or anybody who's going down that path, they have to learn a lot along the way.
So lots of things could go wrong, but that just means, of course, that it's a challenge. So let's see if we can help him out. The question is how to make a board game from start to finish? And the question in my answer is coming up in just 30 seconds. [Music]
Hi, Chris.
This is Will and I have an idea that feels both exciting and scary. I wanna make a board game. The more I think about it, the more I realize there are a lot of elements involved, from game design to actual construction, to stocking inventory and working with retailers. And all of this is before actually marketing the game. It's a lot, but like I said, it feels exciting and I really wanna try.
Any tips or advice? If it helps, I have some money to spend and I'm not in a rush. Thanks. [Music]
Will, this is great. As I mentioned, embrace big ideas.
Don't be afraid of it at all. It's great that you have a little money to spend and you're not in a rush. That's definitely gonna help. So how do you embrace this one and make it a reality? Like what should Will do here?
And of course, our listeners who ask questions, they're often proxies for other people. Like I often hear from people that are like, "Oh, I had that same question. I was wondering, I was trying to figure out what to do." So if you out there are trying to figure out how can I follow a big idea? In this case, Will has already thought a good amount about the different elements, which I think is so important. It's step one.
It's probably step one through five. Just thinking about the different categories, like divide all these little mini projects into categories. You've got game design, manufacturing, fulfillment, marketing, and so on. And then what I would do is I would look for a role model. I would look for someone who's kind of gone down this path before.
But here's a tip. Usually when people do that, they're like, "Oh, I need a mentor. I need to find somebody and then email them and ask them to be my mentor." Well, that's one option, okay? But what if you just looked at what they did? What if you looked at their project and you say, "Okay, well, here's their project now.
What was it when they started? If they did some kind of crowdfunding campaign, what did that look like?" You can usually go back and see all the messages, the updates, if they have a blog or a YouTube channel or anything else that's chronological. Go back to the start and see how it evolved. If you do that, I guarantee you it's gonna help identify some of those categories and tasks and maybe even some pretty specific steps to follow. And this way you don't have to rely on someone else's time.
My theory is people like to help, but it's usually better if you have specific questions rather than just like, "Will you mentor me?" Like, "Will you show me how you did this?" It's more like, "Hey, I've got to stage seven and I'm having a hard time solving this one particular issue." People tend to be more helpful at that point because it's just easier for them to be able to say, "Okay, here's what I did," or maybe look at this as opposed to guiding you throughout every step of the process. And then once you have everything identified and you've got some role models or some examples, you just need to consistently work towards those steps. I mean, that's ultimately what it is. It's like new challenges crop up, you identify, you tackle them, you move forward. And for every maker and creator side hustler out there, I want you to know that while I hope this program is helpful to you in a practical way, I also am just cheering you on and saying like, "Hey, I want you to succeed in this.
You've got this idea. Let's find a way to make it reality and tell me about it so I can share it with everybody else." So to Will and everyone out there, let's use the rest of the year to make something fun and meaningful, even if it's hard. With that, I'm done for today. If you've got a question or comment, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions and also subscribe or follow wherever you listen. Thank you so much.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
from The Onward Project.
