This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey, what's up? Welcome to the podcast. My name is Chris Guillebeau, the host of Side Hustle School. And here we are halfway through January. The month is off to a bang, as they say.
I've been hearing lots of great questions and ideas from listeners. This one is a really creative one. Today's caller has an idea to remix a historical event for a new generation. Okay, so they're gonna describe it better than I could. It's basically a civil war reenactments, but with video games, okay?
As I said, they'll describe it. My job is to offer feedback on how it might work, practically speaking, and specifically through the lens of a money-making project, okay? And that's a key point because someone asked me the other day if we feature other kinds of ideas or non-money-making projects or hobbies or charity work. And the answer is no. Like our focus here is specifically on economic empowerment.
Like I wanna help you make money. Okay, there are lots of great projects out there. Not every project you do has to make money. But when you're trying to improve your economic situation, you need to make more money, right? Pretty simple.
So that's the lens that we use to decide on which case studies and listener questions to feature, what really works, how can you be inspired, and hopefully also take action. So today's question, the Super Mario Brothers Civil War reenactment. It's coming up after this quick message from our sponsor. [Music]
Hey Chris, this is Troy from Honolulu. And I found your show after recently reading $100 startup.
I'm sure you've heard of like those Civil War reenactments. Well, I've got an idea that's kind of similar. I think it's kind of cool. I want to recreate some classic video game battles. Imagine playing as Mario in a real life scenario where you have to go through the castle and defeat Bowser, or like Link from the Legend of Zelda, you would have to slash your way through the Lost Woods to assemble the Triforce pieces and eventually challenge Ganon.
But you get the idea. There could be some other examples, but what I'm wondering is what do you think of this as a business idea? Would I get in trouble from using those characters images? I'm sure there are some technicalities and legalities around that, but we've got to rescue those princesses. Thanks.
[Music]
Hey, Troy, what's up, man? I love the idea, love the concept. However, as I said, my job to provide some feedback, hopefully helpful feedback, not just it's a great idea because anybody can tell you it's a great idea. My point is kind of, I don't know that it's going to be the greatest money-making idea. Again, our focus here, our lens with side hustle school, where will these reenactments be helped?
Like as awesome as they sound, it seems like there might be high costs associated with them. It's also a high-touch kind of event to put on some kind of classic video game battle with potentially lots of people. You can only run so many of them yourself. And I could say more here, but you kind of get the idea. It's hard to make money with this.
What is the revenue model? Of course, people will pay to participate, but you might need more than that, right? And unfortunately, this isn't the only problem. So that's why I won't stay on that because as to whether you could get in trouble for using the images of Nintendo characters, yes, you could, basically, for a commercial project like this. And you probably won't get in trouble, at least, as long as you aren't very successful with your project.
But that's not really good news, right? Because it means that just as soon as you start to be successful, then you start getting unfriendly letters from Nintendo's attorneys who can be fiercer than Bowser. Actually, I don't know if that last part is true, but whenever possible, you want to avoid getting letters from lawyers, okay? So for multiple reasons, I think this is an awesome idea, a very fun idea that might be best saved for the list of awesome, fun ideas that you considered before you found your winning one. And I say that as a fan of these classic video games.
So just keep thinking. And of course, let me know how it goes. Listeners, if you've got an idea, or a question, or some feedback, sidehustleschool.com/questions. We'll be featuring them throughout the year. Got a big year planned for you, along with updates from listeners as they launch and grow their projects.
So much is on the way. I hope you subscribe or follow wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is, once again, Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
