Building A Side Gig - Part Three
Advice is a luxury good, Act accordingly
By this stage, we have an idea on:
What success will look like.
What we like to do.
Where we have unique skills and insights.
Our target niche.
The people in that niche, and their problem(s).
What’s next?
We demonstrate competency.
We “talk” to them in a helpful manner.
We help them solve their problem.
Alongside that initiative, we work on ourselves.
Advice is a luxury good.
Reading this, you might not feel like a luxury good, but you are.
And there is more going on (between Coach & Client) than an exchange of information.
The First 1000 Days
At this point, I want to circle back to the “what I like to do” list.
Some online influencers will recommend you make a course, write a book or have a low-price initial offering to sell. That can make sense and there are people out there happy to sell you a course, on making a course.
For example,
20 years ago, I designed a series of online training plans and made ~$500 per hour invested.
When I wrote my book with Joe Friel, I earned ~$1,000 per hour invested.
But before I did that, I had:
Demonstrated Competency.
Helped Thousands of People.
Your offering is secondary to building a series of habits:
Be The Brand
Help Others
Continuous Learning
The Brand
My brand is “the life I want to lead.”
At 31, I made the choice to go directly to the life I wanted.
The people who hired me didn’t necessarily want my life, but they wanted to learn about it.
…and I tried to act in a way where they would always be proud to be associated with me.
Help Others
When Julie Dibens (my coach, now) started her coaching business we sat down and had a chat about the business of coaching.
One tip of mine stuck with her…
***SAVE EVERYTHING***1
Helping others, is how you
Build your library.
Demonstrate competency.
Save future time.2
This habit will serve you well regardless of your occupation.
Each time something repeats in your life, create “an article.”3
Across long time horizons, those articles add up to a valuable database. A database available to help your target audience 24/7/365.
Continuous Learning
Why do we need to keep learning?
Because our current knowledge is flawed and incomplete. Therefore, we need to expose ourselves to new ideas and criticism.
There will be things you don’t want to learn that are widely used in your field.4
Read that again.
You will be tempted to reject important skills and techniques.
And again.
You will ignore effective methods that are different from your own.
It happens to everyone. Don’t feel bad about it.
My writing partner, John Hellemans (background here & here), gets around this bias with a simple technique…
Try something new every year.
What I tell myself…
I don’t have to change my mind.
I will start by trying it out.
Our most basic knowledge (today) started out with athletes and coaches tinkering with “something new.”
Tinkering keeps the mind engaged and gives us something to talk about.
…and clients love novelty.
Steal My Playbook
The success of our side gig is secondary to the benefits we gain from the process of creating it:
Tighten Our Say:Do Gap
Help Others
Learn, Teach & Archive
Always be speaking to your current team.
Always be speaking to your ideal relationship.
One tweet/post a day.
Get in the replies and help others.5
One video a week.6
One article a week.
DMs open.7
If you have something to offer then opportunity is going to come knocking.8
Remember your motivate/not-motivate list. The easiest time to “say no” is before you say yes. When you make a mistake, exit quickly and politely.
Remember your Money Value of Time. You don’t need to be busy. You do need fair compensation for your unique skills and ability to solve problems.9
Let Serendipity do its thing. I will “say yes” to a certain amount of random things. Not enough to distract me but enough so I’m exposed to new experiences and people.
“Save Everything” was in the context of workouts on Training Peaks. At the time, this was my least favorite part of 1:1 coaching. I called it “dragging boxes” because that’s what I would be doing for hours each week. Dragging workouts/templates into my athletes’ accounts. You may have noticed my focus has shifted to “coach the world.” That’s thanks to a conversation with Jeff Shilt.
I started by saving email replies into text files. Those text files became articles. The articles are now chapters with accompanying videos. The chapters and videos, generate money for me (while demonstrating competency, helping others and saving my future self time).
Tweet > Thread > Article > Chapter > Video > Product
I like to write. Video might be your thing. Even better… draw a picture, make a video, have a conversation then write a chapter. There is a better story to tell after a few iterations.
Create documentation you can quickly share with the next person who asks the same question. The same issues repeat endlessly.
My PT uses other peoples’ YouTube clips. You don’t have to design everything yourself. You need to solve problems, quickly and effectively.
When powermeters came out for cycling, I was an early adopter. The meters were expensive and there was push back from established coaches/athletes about their utility. Needless to say, I enjoyed racing in the early years when my competition were clueless about the scale of the energy they were wasting. ASK: What am I rejecting that might prove useful in my business?
Help, don’t scroll. Actively look for opportunities to help others.
Two years ago, I had zero video experience. Now I have 90+ videos in my library.
Having written for 20+ years, I have 1000+ articles in my archives.
I write more than those minimums but I like to write.
Memories are short so you’re better off with frequent, brief interactions. Then double down on the people who ask good questions. Those relationships indicate where you can focus more deeply.
Engagement isn’t a good metric for a high-value consultant. Getting excited with a good question, then producing content to help people with a similar problem… that’s where social media works best.
Set your daily minimums at a level where you can hit them “no sweat” for at least a year. If you fall off the minimum then LOWER the target and start again. The ability to persist is what’s unique, not the size of the daily target.
In a world of short attention spans - frequency dominates. Go deep with the topics proven to interest your niche.
What if opportunity doesn’t come?
First up, it’s a side gig. You can do everything in this series inside your current life. I’m not a “burn the boats” guy. I prefer to change slowly.
Second, I recommend you give the process 1,000 days to unfold. Fully commit to the process.
Your worst case scenario is ending up with an outstanding library in a field that interests.
Be wary of any opportunity that chains you to a phone, a screen or a chair. Constant connectivity is draining.
I set up a Google Doc for needy relationships. Everything is recorded into a document, and reviewed on a schedule. This settles the client’s mind and improves the quality of the feedback. Set clear expectations/boundaries at the start.