Q&A: How to market consulting for health professionals?

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Welcome to the podcast and happy almost Thanksgiving. Here in the States at least, we are in Thanksgiving week. Tomorrow's a day of celebration and gratitude. I am very grateful for you. I am so happy to be able to make this podcast every single day.

I've been doing it for almost 1800 days because we have an incredible community out there. So if you have listened to any episodes, if you have told somebody about side hustle school, if you have, I don't know, participated in any way, if it has encouraged you in some way, well, that's awesome, that's the whole point. So thank you for being you. Now, of course, in Canada, Thanksgiving is old news. Like they actually get it a couple of weeks before us.

So today's caller is a Canadian listener launching a learning platform for pediatric anesthesia. How can she reach her intended audience and how can she serve professionals in this market from less developed countries who can't afford to pay Western rates? So kind of two questions in one. We're gonna dive into it after this thank you message to our sponsor 'cause I'm grateful for them as well. [Music]

Hi friends, my name is Teresa from beautiful Canada.

First and foremost, thank you for sharing all your knowledge in your brilliant podcast and coming up with that concept of the side hustle. My question to you, it's twofold. I'm in the process of launching an online consulting business. It's a consulting coaching mentoring and also a learning platform for pediatric anesthesia. It's geared towards healthcare professionals such as CRNAs and so forth.

So the first part of the question is how would you go about marketing? Would it be a good idea to contact associations or word of mouth, it's the best? Or maybe a mix of both. The second part of the question is as part of sort of my mission of sharing this knowledge and ensuring that the experience I've gained over the years is shared and the little ones all around the world or as many people as possible benefit from the knowledge and experience I've gained. I would like to volunteer some of my time and knowledge especially in places such as Africa where anesthesia care, it's scarce or non-existent.

How would you approach the percentage of time and investment of resources on this part of my mission? Thank you again and as it is said in French, bon courage. Merci beaucoup, Theresa. Sounds like a wonderful, meaningful project. So let's talk about it.

How to go about marketing, okay? You mentioned, should I contact associations or word of mouth? Definitely both, absolutely. Word of mouth doesn't happen automatically. I think this is a really key point for people to keep in mind.

Word of mouth happens once something is already taking place. So I would definitely contact those associations and any other professionals you know. My encouragement is to be active in this process, not passive. Make a list of all the people or organizations who could possibly help or who it might be good for them to know about this and spend time every day reaching out to them especially in the beginning. Like you wanna give word of mouth a chance to work and you wanna give it some momentum.

So do everything you can to give it every chance of success. Also on the second point, I admire your commitment to service. My suggestion there is just to offer some scholarships for healthcare professionals in places where access to care is scarce. And the scholarships could be completely for free or for some sort of partial payment, whatever you think is appropriate. And in terms of the percentage, like the percentage of time or number of group members, that's also up to you.

I tend to think something like 10 to 15%, at least in most general situations is good. And remember that it's also an act of service to build a sustainable business because then you're gonna be able to keep serving lots of people for years to come. So it's definitely not one or the other. Do spend that active time marketing and remember that building a sustainable business is also an act of service. Thank you again, Teresa, and all of our listeners, wherever you are in the world, I really appreciate you.

I'm excited to know what you're working on. If you wanna give me an update or ask a question, just drop by the website, sidehustleschool.com/questions. And I will be back tomorrow. I hope you'll join me as well. My name is Chris Guillebeau.

This is Side Hustle School. [Music]

From the Onward Project.