This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Friends, listeners, community. Welcome to the podcast known as Side Hustle School, every single day for more than 2,000 days in a row, bringing you a new episode with a detailed business idea or tip, question from a listener, case study, archival look at a business we featured long ago, all kinds of stuff focused on helping you make extra money without quitting your job. Today, we're gonna hear from a Washington DC caller. Their name is Marwan. They have an idea for an outdoor adventure and survival training school for city dwellers, which kind of seems apt these days.
I feel like everybody's thinking about the end of the world or at least, I don't know, something bad could happen and you need to be able to survive, even if you're living in the city and not necessarily out hunting deer or whatever people do, outside of the city to survive. I should probably make some notes and not just go off into a tangent here. All right, follow the script, Chris. I am eager to learn more about this business concept. Now we're back on track and how Marwan plans to overcome unique challenges of organizing outdoor excursions in the region.
Does Marwan even know? I don't know. Let's find out. Let's listen to this quick shout out to our sponsor and then let's find out. [Music]
Hi, my name is Marwan.
I'm calling from Washington, DC. I have an idea for an outdoor adventure and survival training school for city dwellers. With many urban residents feeling disconnected from nature and seeking more meaningful experiences, I believe this business could fill a niche. What do you think and how would I put it together? Finally, what should I be considering the most at this stage of the idea generation?
Thanks for your help. [Music]
All right, Marwan, thanks for the question. And I love the idea. I would love to learn survival, you know? Outdoor survival.
I am a city dweller. I mean, I've been outside a couple of times in my life. Mostly my experience in survival consists of eating chips, tortilla chips, while watching The Last of Us. And I'm like, oh, I could be really good at that except here I am on my couch in a temperature controlled environment. There are no zombies or infected or whatever the danger is out there coming after me.
So yeah, I think I would like to learn some survival. And more to the point, I think it's an interesting project. I think it's something that could take off with groups, with tourists, some kind of corporate activity, team building. There's lots of different directions it could go. So given the unpredictable nature of the outdoors, maybe just first things first, it's important to have comprehensive safety protocols in place to provide thorough training to your guides and instructors, and also consider logistical issues like transportation, equipment, permits.
And there's a lot there we could say, but I'm more interested in like, okay, how do we get this idea going? And so I think it needs a strong brand. And I would put a lot of attention there. You need to create an experience with this. Like what's the name of it?
It needs a catchy name. It needs something that like people around town are talking about. Oh, did you do this? Oh, my team went and did this. My team went to this cool experience where we went, I don't know, maybe half an hour outside the city or something and did whatever Marwan puts together.
I don't know exactly how it works. But then you need some guerrilla marketing to sign up those groups. So what about congressional staffers? What about lobbyists? That could be really cool to get some buzz from those groups and then go after all the tourists that visit Washington DC pretty much every season.
So overall, I think it is a promising idea. I would love to know what happens with it. And maybe, who knows? I hope to be on tour in Washington later this year. So if the survival school is up and running, I'd love to check it out.
Marwan, good luck. Listeners, good luck. If you have a question, sidehustleschool.com/questions. I'm cheering you on every day. I'd love to know what you're working on, how I can be of service.
And of course, feel free to just keep listening. It's all completely free. You can get it wherever you get your podcasts. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
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From the Onward Project.
