This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Hey everybody, what's up? Thank you for tuning in. Special day here. It is in fact the official launch of my new book, Time Anxiety. I'm so excited about it. It is honestly one of the
most personal and most important books I've ever written, done nine books so far. This is definitely in my top three. It tackles something that so many of us are struggling with our complicated relationship with time. The book is available right now. I would love for you to grab a copy. I truly believe it's going to help you. It's available at all bookstores,
all online retailers, wherever you like to buy books. There's an ebook. There's an audio book, of course. Whatever version is best for you, wherever you like to shop, that's great for me. I just hope it is helpful to you. Again, it's called Time Anxiety, the illusion of urgency and
a better way to live. Oh, and also I'm on the road for the next two weeks doing events in the US and Canada. Would love to see you somewhere. You can check out the dates and details of those cities at time anxiety.com. Let's talk about today's episode though as well because the show doesn't stop, right? The show continues every single day. How do side hustle power laws work? This could be a good
question for today. Not all efforts in a business or in any kind of project are created equal. Some products, some strategies, some clients will generate the majority of your success while others barely make an impact. So understanding this uneven distribution is known as the power law and understanding it can help you work smarter, not harder. So today's question comes from Vanessa in Toronto. I'll be there in a couple weeks. She wants to know how to identify the most valuable
parts of her side hustle and how to cut what's not working. Two important points there. Let's dive into how power laws shape side hustle success and how to use them to your advantage. Stay tuned for the detailed question and my answer. Hey, Chris, this is Vanessa from Toronto. I recently came across the term power laws in
relation to side hustles and small businesses. And from what I understand, it means that a small percentage of efforts or products often generate like the majority of results or income. So I'm curious, how does this concept apply in real life? And how can I identify which parts of my side hustle are worth doubling down on versus the ones I should let go? So power laws are probably one of the most underrated business concepts. You know, Vanessa
is right to apply them to her side hustle and be thinking about this. And basically in simple terms, power laws mean that a small percentage of your efforts will drive the majority of your results. And if you don't understand this, then you end up spending a lot of time on efforts that don't actually create much in the way of positive outcomes. So the key is to identify these high impact areas and focus more on them. So how do you do it in a side hustle context? First,
you look at where your revenue is really coming from. Not all products or services contribute equally to your income. You know, if you sell digital products, you know, most likely if you sell five or six products, the majority of your income is coming from one or two of those products. If you offer services, do certain types of projects bring in most of your revenue, while others just end up taking a lot of time. We always think that we should diversify. And
the law of power laws, well, it's the precept of power laws, let's say, is that you shouldn't necessarily diversify, you should maximize what is working. So next, you want to apply the effort versus reward test. Again, some tasks, some strategies produce massive results, while others drain your time with little return. So, you know, Instagram is fun, but results in few actual sales, and you are trying to sell something. And your email list is actually where sales come from, then you should double down on email instead. You know, if writing blog content takes you hours,
but a quick video drives more signups, well, what should you do there? You should shift your focus toward video content. So make a little list of what takes the most time in your hustle versus what directly leads to results and cut or reduce those low impact tasks. What else could you do? You could identify super fans, like your business likely has a handful of customers who spend way more than others. So if 10% of your clients are responsible for 60% of your income, let's say,
ask, you know, what do they have in common? How could you attract more super fans like them? And all along the way, you want to experiment, but let the data guide you. Like power laws don't mean you should never try new things. It just means you should quickly drop what's not performing. And
if something isn't working after a reasonable test period, then you cut it and move on. That's power laws as applied to side hustles. Vanessa, thank you for the question. Listeners, thank you for being out there. As noted, I have a new book out today, Time Anxiety. You can request
it at any bookstore and find it at any online retailer. If you'll be in one of, I think I'll be doing about eight to 10 cities. I would love to see you somewhere on the road. All the details for that are at time anxiety.com. I'll be posting on social as well. And thank you so much for your
support. I hope you love the book. Of course, the podcast continues tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
From the Onward Project.
