This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Well, this is a fun question. We're gonna hear from a professional athlete, specifically an athletic listener from Minnesota. They are a speed skater. Do you know about speed skating? I mean, it's skating on ice, but going fast, I guess.
So a little bit different from figure skating, which a lot of us are familiar with, but you can in fact race around a skating rink. And they do that in the Olympics and other annual, or let's say recurring events. So this person has trained for this. It is their sport. They are all in.
But now they're looking for some advice on fundraising. So he's wondering specifically, is he gonna need to improve his social media for more people to notice and pay attention to? Interesting topic, right? Interesting niche. I don't think we've talked about professional speed skating very often during the past nine years.
But whether you are a speed skater or not, I mean, who knows? Maybe there's one other one out there. Most likely you aren't. Still, how can you take the knowledge, skills, experience that you have and perhaps fundraise in some way? Should you start a Patreon?
That's one thing this guy's wondering about. We'll talk about it. Could there be something else? And what is the best path to success? So let's hear from Justin.
His question is coming up, followed by my answer right after this. [Music]
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. [Music]
Hey, Justin, well done.
I applaud your efforts. And I think it's kind of hard to do all of those things. Like when you said, should you start a fundraising, a Patreon, a Kickstarter, you know, do you wanna make products and sell them improving your social media? I actually know somebody who was in the Olympics and it was basically a full-time job for them to qualify and train. So I just think let's focus a little bit here.
As for the Patreon, that's not something to take lightly, especially if you don't have a ton of social media following, it will be a major effort. And, you know, if you can't actually have a base of supporters to start with, then the Patreon tends to be kind of sad. You know, like you can go and look at somebody's Patreon and they have like five supporters. That's not great. You wanna see like a bunch of supporters 'cause then that generates more supporters.
So I do think Justin is onto something with the product creation idea. There might be some kind of resource tool or guide for other athletes based on his experience or something totally unrelated. And also with the product, at least in the long-term, it's gonna be much more passive than a Patreon campaign or anything else that requires continuous engagement. And then as for social, it depends on you. If you're into it, if you like the idea, then, you know, there are a lot of athletes that are paying much more attention to their social following these days.
The idea is that you are increasing your value, your worth as an overall athlete, not just in terms of your athletic skill, but in terms of your ability to convey brand messages, for example. You know, a lot of athletes are making a lot more money through brand deals than they do, you know, from their day job of, you know, being a professional athlete. I mean, of course it's all integrated, but the short version is, yeah, probably good to pay attention to social media and see what you can do. Pick one or two platforms, go all in with that, as opposed to trying to be everywhere. That's my advice, Justin.
But again, well done on becoming a professional athlete. Super cool. Listeners, if you have a question, a scenario, an idea, something you're working out, sidehustleschool.com. You can ask questions there. You can read or download or stream all of the previous episodes, 3,000 plus, all free.
Nothing is paywalled over there. You can also subscribe, follow wherever you get your shows for the new daily episodes that come out every day. That's because they're daily, right? Seven days a week. Thanks so much, my friends.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
