This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey, what's up? Chris Guillebeau here, your host of Side Hustle School. I'm excited about today's episode because today we have a caller from Mexico City. Now I record my podcast wherever I am in the world, which used to be a lot of places all the time. These days I'm much more stationary, doing a bit more travel now.
I recently went to Vietnam, which was really fun. But most of the time I tend to be recording in my home studio in the United States. And because I'm not traveling as much, it makes it all the more exciting to hear from people in different parts of the world. So if you are out there outside of North America, thank you for being part of this community. Thanks for being part of my life.
I hope this is helpful to you. And so our caller here, she is starting a semi-regular event, which is basically the Mexican version of Bingo. Did you know that there was a Mexican version of Bingo? It's called something a little bit different, maybe wherever you live, there's something entirely different. Maybe you don't know what Bingo is.
I don't know, but here we are. We're gonna talk about the Mexican version of Bingo, or at least a variation of it. Sounds like a lot of fun. I wanna go. But first we need to help her get set up.
International callers, wherever you are, love to hear from you. You are about 50% of the Side Hustle School audience. And the podcast is available pretty much everywhere. I do my best to make most episodes non-US centric. And so without much further ado, while we do have a sponsor message, I appreciate our sponsors.
But without much further ado, the question from our listener, Maria, and then my answer. All right. [Music]
Hola Chris, this is Maria from Mexico City. I really enjoy listening to the show and hearing all of the side hustle stories. I'm starting a loteria, which is basically like Mexican Bingo, but with colorful cards and lots of cultural references.
It's a lot of fun. To get people to my game, I need to advertise somehow. But tickets only cost about 10 US dollars, so there's not a lot of money in it. How can I get local media to cover my mini startup? Thanks for any advice you can give me.
- Okay, Maria, I love this concept. Like I said, I wanna come. So when you get set up, let me know. I wanna be your first international visitor. So, couple thoughts here.
You're absolutely right. This isn't the kind of project that benefits from paid advertising. You don't really have the funding for it, and you don't need to do paid advertising. It's almost counterproductive or something like this. This is a community event, and you want people to promote it for free.
You want people and media outlets, maybe radio stations. Like I don't know exactly how it works in Mexico, but most likely you need some sort of press release, which is really just an announcement. Press release sounds a little bit formal, but you really just need something that's written that explains, hey, we're doing this thing, and you all should come. Here's how it works. Here is the price.
Here is what you do, and so on. So send that around to local media contacts. And you're like, whoa, that sounds great, but where do these contacts come from? Okay, well, you can start from the email addresses on their website or the contact form, or you can send them a direct message on social. And if that doesn't work, you know, if you're following like the brand accounts, start looking for more personal contacts.
You know, who do you know that knows someone? Again, this is very much about organic outreach. Like don't underestimate the power of local networks in terms of friends and family. Just mentioning this on their personal Facebook or their Instagram or whatever networks people use. Wherever people are communicating locally, that's what you want them to do.
You want them to post a little message that says, hey, Maria is starting this thing, let's go. Or maybe I can't go to the first one, but you go and check it out. And then speaking of the first event, this is the kind of thing that grows over time with consistency. So do a great job with the first event. Try to get people to commit to come to the second.
You know, they're already there at the first one. So get them to come to the second. Maybe they get a discount or I don't know, they can bring a friend for free for the second one, something like that. Whatever it is, you know, grow it over time with consistency and don't be discouraged if you don't have a big turnout at first. Those are my thoughts.
I love it. Good luck, Maria. Let us know what happens. Listeners, if you have a question, sidehustleschool.com/questions, let me know your ideas and what you're working on. I'll do my best to help.
And I'll have a new episode for you every single day. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
