This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
I love hearing from our listeners with interesting ideas or different ideas, different perspectives, sometimes. The whole reason I started Side Hustle School, I haven't said this in a long time. I should probably mention it more often. It's because I felt that so many people were underserved by traditional business, education, other podcasts, books and such. They all had this idea of like, you need to go out and quit your job and be a capital E entrepreneur and go, go, go.
And a lot of my people, as I thought of them, are busy people and they've got other responsibilities and obligations, they've got jobs, they've got relationships, kids perhaps, or even if they don't have all those things, they're just busy. And so they don't necessarily want to go all in on a startup idea, but they love the idea of building something for themselves, right? So I should talk about that more, as I said, but I'll stay on topic here for today's episode because it is a question that hasn't come up before. Pretty sure in the 2,500 plus episode archives, it's probably one you haven't heard before about business either, at least I'm gonna assume that. So maybe I shouldn't assume, but onto the question.
They are working in business consulting. This is Devon who uses they/them pronouns. And in their consulting, they have a unique twist. They are trying to incorporate concepts of masculine and feminine energy. So is there room in the business world for perhaps less traditional concepts like masculine, feminine energy?
What does that even mean? How might this differentiate a side hustle? I think it all comes back to knowing who your people are and who you're trying to serve. So I'll get into that a bit in my answer, but first quick shout out to our sponsor and then Devon's question. [Music]
Hey Chris, this is Devon from New Orleans.
I'm a business consultant to incorporate concepts of masculine and feminine energy into my consulting work. I find that understanding these energies can help teams become more balanced and productive. What's your take on integrating such non-traditional concepts into a consulting side hustle? Do you think the market is ready for something like this? And what kind of messaging should I use to attract the right clients?
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Hey Devon, I love interesting new ideas or anything that's unconventional, just kind of off the beaten path. And obviously when you think about masculine and feminine energy, a lot of people don't immediately think of business, but that's why it's interesting, okay? You know, the world of consulting is essentially about helping people, right? Like the word value means helping people. I wrote a lot about that in the $100 startup.
Value's this word that people throw around all the time. Well, let's talk about value add. What's the value add? Well, value is essentially helping people, making someone's life better. And it could be in a B2B context, making a company organization better off.
But ultimately you wanna help people and you have found a way it sounds like, or at least you're interested in this concept of integration. And so what do we do with it? What can you do with it? I think it's gonna all come down to who your people are and how do you speak to them? You know, what do you mean by masculine feminine energy?
Businesses want results, remember that. Like businesses want results if you're consulting, focus on the results you want to provide. So is it a better workplace, for example? Is it more productivity? Is it more outcomes, deliverables?
Is it how different kinds of thinking can produce different results, you know, for company growth projects, et cetera, et cetera. And just keep in mind that everybody understands what this means. That's why I say like, what do you mean by it? So if you're gonna put it front and center in your offerings, be sure you're not talking down to people. Make sure you're educating them and use language that focuses on benefits, nothing that alienates potential clients who may be unfamiliar with or skeptical of this concept.
Again, always focus on those benefits, team harmony, communication, again, productivity, rather than going straight into the whole concept of it. It's like, that's what you really want to focus on is providing benefits to your clients. You might have to educate them a little bit along the way, but that's okay. That's part of the process. Again, I admire it.
I love what you're trying to do. Good luck. Listeners, if you have a question or some comments, sidehustleschool.com/questions. More is coming up. I hope you were doing okay during this holiday time.
Always take care of yourself, you know, look after yourself before you look after others, as they say. And I hope you'll continue to join me. New episode every day. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
♪ I'm all mine ♪ [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
