This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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I love to know what you're working on. I really miss being out on the road and meeting listeners and readers. I used to do that so much and just haven't done so much in the past couple of years, partly because of the pandemic, but also just gotten a new routine, haven't had a book out in a while. So this week I'm actually doing some traveling, doing a quick trip to Johannesburg, South Africa, passing through London as well. And it's mostly a mileage run this time.
I'm not doing events, but as I look towards next year, I'm gonna have a new book out in the summer. I will definitely be doing more worldwide events. So let's hopefully hang out sometime next year, if not sooner. And speaking of things that you're working on, today we're gonna hear from an athletic listener from Minnesota who seeks advice on starting a fundraising campaign. He's got a couple of different questions here.
Among others, will he need to improve his social media for more people to notice? So we've got all kinds of people out there doing amazing things. This guy's actually a semi-pro speed skater. So let's hear from Justin. I will attempt to provide something helpful in response.
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Hi, it's Justin from St. Paul, Minnesota. I've been listening for at least a year and I hope to see you on tour sometime. I don't have a proper side hustle yet, at least not a money-making one. And that needs to change.
I have a flexible day job that allows me to pursue my true passion, speed skating. I'm actually trained to be on the US Olympic team and wanna compete in other global championships. My question is, how can I create more financial support around this vision? Should I start some kind of Patreon? I feel conflicted about asking friends and family for money.
I'd rather make products and sell them, but I don't know what they'd be. Lastly, I also think I'd need to improve my social media usage for any of this to be possible. What do you think is best? Thanks for all you do. - Hey, Justin, this is so cool.
I applaud your efforts, mostly in wanting to start a side hustle, of course, but a lot of our listeners wanna start side hustles. Not many of them are professional or semi-professional speed skaters who are competing to be on the US Olympic team or any Olympic team. It's not just about the US. I just think that's so cool. So I also think it is tough to do all these things, especially with your full-time job.
I have a friend who a few years ago was in the Olympics, and it was basically a full-time job for him to qualify and train for more than a year, pretty much. And there wasn't a whole lot of support for it. It's just kind of how it goes. If this is your life mission, you kind of do it for a while and you hope that there is something on the other side of it. But even just the diligence and the commitment and the beauty of giving yourself to something like that I think has so much value.
So it's not even about the economic value that may or may not come later. As for your support though, like I don't mean to take that lightly, but the Patreon, like that's not something to take lightly because if you don't have a ton of social media following right now, that's gonna be a major effort. It's actually more than one project 'cause you have to like build the following, then you have to run the campaign or let's say launch the campaign, then you have to continuously provide updates. And I just worry that it might be too much with the job and the training and all that. So I tend to think that Justin here is onto something with this idea of product creation.
And there you have two different paths, but one clear direction compared to doing a Patreon, trying to raise sponsorship and fundraising. The two paths of creating a product, some kind of resource tool or guide for other athletes based on his skill and experience or something totally unrelated, but still a product, something that people can purchase. So again, some kind of resource tool or guide, whether it is athletic based or not. And either way, the idea of what the product is, even though there is a lot of work required to develop it most likely, in the long run, if you build it properly, it would be much more passive than a Patreon campaign or anything else that requires this continuous engagement, that continuous social media. And that's why I tend to kind of lean in that direction.
It's also okay to say, you know what? I know I need this. Like obviously I need to have some support, diversify my income and such, but maybe it can also wait a while because for some situations like this, like these are really special circumstances, you're not gonna always have the chance to be in the Olympics. So maybe that's what should be prioritized. That's just a bit of life advice for me.
Obviously you could dismiss that if you want and work on that product, but mostly I just think it's so cool that you're doing that. So good luck, Justin, and everybody else out there doing amazing things, whatever your amazing thing is, I admire you as well, and I'd love to know what you're up to. So let me know. Thanks for tuning in today. Comments, feedback, questions, et cetera, sidehustleschool.com/questions.
We've got a new episode coming out every day. As we go into the holidays, we're not gonna let up. I'm gonna be here for you every day in a short, quick, action-packed episode. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
