This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
It is, in fact, the middle of November. Welcome to "Sidle School" episode 2,145. Of course, you might be listening some other time, but here we are in terms of when this episode's going out in the middle of November, 2022, the Ides of November, as they say, what a year it's been, so much has happened. I'm gonna try to work on a bit of a year-end recap that I'll share a bit more next month. But for now, I've got a question from one of our callers.
This caller wants to enter the world of personal finance experts and influencers. And as she notes, she's not the only one. There's a lot of people doing this, a huge community, in fact, writing and speaking on personal finance from lots of different angles and perspectives on just about every social network and platform. And it started with blogs back in the day. Long ago, I remember reading my friend J.D. Roth's blog,
Get Rich Slowly. There were lots of others as well. And it's kind of spread along with the rise of other mediums, podcasts, TikTok, et cetera. So if you wanna break in, what do you do? I guess, first of all, is it still a viable topic or industry with so many people in it?
And if you do wanna break in, what do you do? That's the question. Detailed answer coming up in just 30 seconds. [Music]
Hi, I'm Melissa from Denver, Colorado. I binge listen to episodes when I'm in the gym and I've been hoping to start my own projects soon.
So here's my idea. Personal finance is a huge industry where lots of bloggers, YouTubers and podcasts are all putting out a lot of content every day. It's crowded, but there also seems to be an insatiable demand for this content. I like to break in, but I just don't know where to start. And if it helps to know my background, I recently graduated college and did some side hustling to pay my way through.
I think that's a good angle, but I'm also not sure it's specific enough. How would you go about entering this market? [Music]
Melissa, thanks so much for this question. Great question and good thinking, okay? Personal finance is one of those industries in which Melissa's got it right here.
It is very crowded, lots and lots of people talking about it from their own voice and perspective. But there's also still a viable path to entry or many viable paths to entry, let's say. And this is for two reasons. One that she mentioned and one she didn't. The first one, what she did talk about is there's a lot of interest.
She called it insatiable demand. There is in fact a lot of demand. I don't know if you could eventually satiate it. I mean, insatiable is kind of like without limit. But the point is there is a lot of interest in it.
So there's a lot of room for different voices. But second, here's the other reason. There's also a clear revenue model. If you start a blog or a TikTok channel or whatever the medium or platform is about personal finance, you've got a lot of options for how you can monetize it. So that's very different from, let's say, becoming an expert in celebrity gossip or commenting on reality TV, let's say.
Like that's also a big field. There's a lot of people doing it. There's also a lot of people who are interested in it. There might be insatiable demand for celebrity gossip, but it's much harder to make money from it. Like what's missing there is that revenue model.
So maybe a few people who have millions of followers can make money, but with personal finance, depending on what you're doing, you can sometimes have just a few thousand followers and maybe not make a living at it at that point, but definitely make some good side income. So as for breaking in, like we definitely need an angle here. Melissa is off to a good start and saying, okay, she's graduated from college. You know, she's got some experience side hustling. I would just go much further.
I would just dig into that a lot deeper and say, okay, who are we really trying to reach here? Like who is that ideal customer, reader, viewer, follower, you know, however you think of it. What are their deep needs? You know, do they really need to know about savings accounts or is it something, it's probably something much more emotional and ultimately interesting, I think. So I think the more that you kind of delve into that, I've written a good bit about it, like in the side hustle book, some other books, the more that you really focus on like who that person is, how can I build connections with them?
How can I become a trusted source in their life? Not just for information or education, but you know, like that true personal connection. I think that is the goal. So I would focus a lot on that angle. I would start experimenting.
I would decide what is my medium. I would think, okay, what is my message? What are the first 12 posts I'm going to make? Or 12 videos, whatever they are. You might not publish them all at once, but just thinking even beyond 12, maybe 20, you know, what are 20 things I want to teach people or communicate on?
I think those are the first steps to becoming a personal finance expert or influencer and hopefully building some authority. So good luck, Melissa. Let us know how things go. Listeners, I am cheering you on as well. Let me know what you're working on, if I can help in some way.
We've got an amazing community out there, sidehustleschool.com/questions. New episode every single day. You can subscribe, follow, wherever you like to listen. It's completely free. And that's all for now.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to Side Hustle School. [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
