2187 6:53 Q&A

Q&A: “How to share men’s lifestyle advice that isn’t toxic…”

I always love to hear from our community. You all are doing some interesting things! Let’s see if I can be somewhat helpful to Brody, who wants to share “non-toxic men’s lifestyle advice.”

6:53

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Episode 2187

Looking ahead to next year, today’s listener wants to offer non-toxic men’s lifestyle advice. He wants to be the person he needed when he was younger. You’ll hear more about this from his question, which is largely about how to position this work or message it for the right people.

I always love to hear from our community. You all are doing some interesting things! Let’s see if I can be somewhat helpful to Brody.
"I didn't have a dad growing up, and I want to be the person I needed when I was younger. That’s a phrase I borrowed from my therapist. Specifically, I want to offer men's lifestyle advice about how to be a better person and cope with the challenges of the modern world.

I know it's a big market! But I'm also running into a problem defining it more clearly. There are a lot of guys out there doing something like this, but it seems like they've organized into some camps that I don't necessarily want to be part of. What I mean is that some of these figures are essentially political, and I want to avoid that.

Still, I see why some of the big communities attract such a following. So that’s my question: what can I do to position myself well and not water down my message while also being welcoming to everyone and avoiding toxic masculinity?

Whew! I know that's a lot to accomplish ... but this is important, so I'd love to know what you have to say about it. Thanks for all the inspiration through the books and podcast."
Listen to today's episode to learn more...

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Read the full transcript

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

[Music]

Looking ahead to next year, today's listener wants to offer non-toxic men's lifestyle advice. That's how he describes it. He wants to be the person he needed when he was younger. So you're gonna hear more about his vision from the question coming up in just a moment, which is largely about how to position this work or message it for the right people. It's really important when you're starting any kind of missional project or some kind of personality brand, anything where you're trying to attract people to a movement or an idea.

You really wanna think about how you're going to position it. Like how will you reach the right people? What's the right language to use? And by the way, I really love to hear from our community. Like I always love hearing what kind of projects you're working on, what you're thinking about doing.

You all are doing some interesting things out there. So thank you for letting me be part of it. Let's see if I can be somewhat helpful to Brody. His question's coming up after this quick message from our sponsor. Thanks, sponsor.

[Music]

Hey, this is Brody. I didn't have a dad growing up and I wanna be the person I needed when I was younger. That's a phrase I borrowed from my therapist. Specifically, I wanna offer men's lifestyle advice about how to be a better person and cope with the challenges of the modern world. I know it's a big market, but I'm also running into a problem defining it more clearly.

There are a lot of guys out there doing something like this, but it seems like they've organized into some camps that I don't necessarily wanna be part of. What I mean is that some of these figures are essentially political and I wanna avoid that. Still, I see why some of the big communities attract such a following. So that's my question. What can I do to position myself well and not water down my message?

While also being welcoming to everyone and avoiding toxic masculinity. Whew, I know that's a lot to accomplish, but this is important. So I'd love to know what you have to say about it. Thanks for all the inspiration through the books and podcasts. [Music]

Hey Brody, what a cool mission.

The world needs people like you. I really think the world just needs people who are sharing a strong message of some kind, some kind of positive message. Let's just clarify that. But being willing to take a stand and say here's what I think people need. Here's what people need to hear.

And we need more of the right kind of men's lifestyle advice. So I think, first things first, you don't have to worry too much. You don't have to worry too much because you're already asking the right questions. That's always the interesting thing. Sometimes when people ask the right questions, they already are on the right track.

What you do need to do though, is create some kind of flagship content. To just kind of define this a little bit more specifically. What is your message for the world? What is the mission of Brody's men's lifestyle brand? And don't be put off by the word brand, by the way.

Like it's okay to have a brand. Like you want to brand your ideas well so that they will spread. So you need a manifesto. You need your best 10,000 word blog post or something else that's really surprising or interesting or in depth. Could be some other format.

Basically what you're looking for is your TED talk. But most likely in some other form. Then you need to follow the small army model. Which I have written about a good bit in my books. The small army of remarkable people.

Just trying to build relationships one by one. It's also known or maybe a variation of it is the 1000 true fans model. Where if you can have 1000 people that actually are interested in what you're doing and willing to support whatever it is you put out. That's enough to make a living and also to have something that's really sustainable and impactful. You need ambassadors who are excited about what you're making.

So that is your focus. All that kind of stuff. And it's not a small thing. But there is a path to it. Like not the same message of course.

But a similar model of building that flagship content and then building those relationships. And then following that small army model. So speaking of community, just one more thought here. Is there a way these groups, these followers essentially, is there a way these followers can meet in groups in different cities? A bunch of other people have done that for different movements and such.

And it seems like an ideal model for something like this. So think about that as you build things out. Brody, good luck. Thanks for calling in. Listeners, let me know what you're up to.

If you've got a question, you can always leave feedback. sidehustleschool.com/questions. Of course, I know you're all so busy with the holidays. So you can just keep tuning in. New episode every day.

My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]

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