Lisa Brown, host of the popular live Instagram show Side Hustle Saturday, joins The Savvy
Entrepreneur show to talk about growing her platform and some of the challenges of doing regular live shows.
Side Hustle Saturday is a live show that features black entrepreneurs. Lisa started the show during COVID. She says she knew many people were hurting, and many felt isolated. She wanted to bring together black entrepreneurs into a community where they could share their stories with others.
Her show started on Facebook live, then migrated to Instagram live. But her show is poised to make the next big jump as a television segment. She’s clearly tapped into something important.
Along with the telling of her journey, we compared notes about how to find great guests, build a community, and ways to monetize a live show or podcast. We share a lot of laughs. Even though our missions and platforms are slightly different, there are lots of tips here for anyone thinking about live blogging, podcasting, or doing a radio show.
What follows is a transcript of our show together. But, if you prefer, click here for an on-demand podcast version. It’s a fun listen — Lisa’s warm, down-to-earth and engaging personality makes this a great listen!
Doris Nagel 0:42
Welcome to The Savvy Entrepreneur show!
I’m your host, Doris Nagel, and I’m a crazy entrepreneur. If you’re a small businessperson, or you’re thinking about starting a business, this show is for you.
I’ve had several businesses over the last 30 years, and I have made a lot of mistakes. My goal is really to share the mistakes that I’ve made, to bring guests on the show who are willing to share their stories to help you not make some of the same mistakes that I’ve made and that my guests have made.
The goal of the show is also to inspire. It’s often kind of lonely out there. And it’s hard to know sometimes when you’re starting a business, or you’re hitting some roadblocks, what the best answer is.
My guests will share their stories pretty candidly. And I think you’ll see that every single one of them faced issues, and fought through them. And hopefully that will inspire you as well.
My guest this week, joining me from Columbus, Ohio, is Lisa Brown. She’s a fellow traveler in that she also has a show focused on helping entrepreneurs. Her angle is a little bit different than mine, as you’ll hear about on this show.
Her show and platform is called Side Hustle Saturday. She wanted to create a platform where like minded minority business owners, side hustlers and anyone thinking about starting their own business could share, educate and encourage fellow entrepreneurs.
Lisa is a digital marketer by training. She has 10 years in the digital marketing field, as well as event planning, small business counseling. She’s always had a knack for connecting and counseling people, personal or business. Her key talent is networking. And she’s living proof of that: she’s in Columbus, I’m in Chicago, and we had never met before.
But through her networking, we now are connected. And so we’re going to talk with Lisa about her journey, and how she got started with Side Hustle Saturday. She’ll share some of the things she’s learned along the way, some of the hard lessons.
And maybe for some of you, you’ll learn some fun things because we’re going to talk about the whole business of podcasting, live casting and radio shows, and offer a few tips. Some of you out there might be thinking about doing the same thing or have been wondering about it.
Lisa, thanks so much for joining the show this morning. Me.
Lisa Brown 3:49
Absolutely. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate and I’m so excited!
Doris Nagel
Me too! I can’t tell you how nice it is to meet somebody that you have really a lot in common with. I think we both have had some past entrepreneurial experience, and maybe not everything’s gone quite as well as we originally have hoped. So we share that.
But I also think it’s unique to take that experience and turn it into a media platform where you help other entrepreneurs. So you and I are you and I are slightly different, but parallel journeys. We’re on a little slightly different paths. But But boy, boy, you know, we have a lot in common in terms of what motivates us and what drives us to do this every week. So
Talk about your show. What is it about, and who’s the intended audience?
Lisa Brown 5:00
My show is called Side Hustle Saturday. I started it last year during COVID, when we were in lockdown. And there were a lot of things of hard things going on last year in addition to COVID. We had a lot of racial unrest. We had people out of work, losing their homes. There were just a lot of things were going on, and I wanted to do something. I wanted to do something to give back. Restaurants and small businesses were suffering, and I wanted to find a way where I could contribute, give back. How could I help? How could I be part of the mission? You know, what can I do?
So I tapped into a lot of people who were struggling or didn’t know where to start. And I love to network. I was an entrepreneur, I had a business, and I like to meet new people. So I thought about how could I take those things and morph them into something.
And so the idea came to me to do a live show. Everybody was going live then, because we were all at home! So I jumped on the bandwagon.
But I had never done live, never done Instagram Live. So I was just jumping in, and I was gonna build it as I went. I was just passionate about talking to people and learning their entrepreneurial journey. I had no experience, but I didn’t care. I decided to just figure it out and make do.
So I started Side Hustle Saturday. I talked to a girlfriend of mine, and she said, “I might have somebody for you as your first guest.” And that’s how it started out.
And then it morphed into Side Hustle Saturday. I wanted to talk to black businesses, what their entrepreneurial journey was like, how did they get started? Why did they get started? I asked them for some tips, and to talk abou some of their challenges, so we could learn from each other.
Because sometimes we can get so siloed as entrepreneurs. We think, “I’m the only one on this journey,” but it’s really not true. We’re all on this journey together. So why not go on the journey together, and learn from each other, and help each other build as we grow?
Doris Nagel 7:40
It’s funny you mention that. I did a little segment for my show that’s airing in just a little bit. And it was about loneliness and entrepreneurship. I like doing those little segments, because frankly, it’s a great opportunity to learn more about a topic. I’ll read something, or have a client with a question. And then I’ll go read what’s been written.
For example, I just read something about why entrepreneurs should have coaches. Athletes have coaches. All the Olympics athletes, but even even NBA all stars have coaches, so why not business coaches? And so I started with that thread. And I started reading, and then did a little segment about how coaching can help entrepreneurs with chronic loneliness.
Loneliness and leadership is a very interesting topic in and of itself. There’s the old saying, “It’s lonely at the top.” And we say it pretty flippantly. But it’s a serious issue for business owners, whether they’re CEOs or founders, or just the owner of the business, the buck stops with them. And it’s a big burden for a lot of people.
So I also like the idea of bringing a community together, like you’ve done and sharing. If loneliness is endemic to business ownership, then creating a sense of community is a great thing.
Lisa Brown 9:30
I think there’s two buckets that people fall into. There are some that think, “This is mine. I don’t want to share it. I figured it out, you can figure it out, too. They’re being lonely building their business, right?
And then there are people that are part of a community. They are the villagers. They are the ones that are happy to share. They say, “Hey, listen, this is what I did. I bumped my head a little bit. I made some mistakes, right? I’m not going to tell you exactly how you should do it. But I’m just telling you my experience and maybe you can learn from that. And they want to help me with my platform.
I believe if I could just reach one person with my platform that says, “That really affected me, that helped me out. Thank you,” then I’m doing something right.
Doris Nagel 10:30
That’s exactly how I feel as well.
How you find guests for your show? And it’s not just about finding “a guest.” As you alluded, it’s important to find good guests that amplify the message. I’m sure you’ve had one or two guests — I’ve tried to screen against it, but I’ve had a couple of guests who seem to be more about “Let me tell you all I’ve done.” As opposed to, here’s some of the things that are hard, and here’s my thoughts about how to help you through the hard part.
Lisa Brown 11:24
I want people to talk about the messy, about the hard things that have happened to them. Guests are a funny topic. I could do a whole show just on guests.
And it’s not glamorous, y’all. So whoever’s listening to this, it is not a glamorous job to find a great guest.
There are guests that ghost you. It’s not just those that don’t answer your emails. There are guests who don’t even show up the day of the interview.
Doris Nagel 12:06
I have never had that happen. Yet. But I should never say “never.” Because every time I say I’ve seen it all, something happens that I haven’t seen. And I’m sure I’m going to have one of those at some point.
Lisa Brown 12:20
By now, I can tell the real deal people that really want to share, because when I was starting out, you know, I started out on Facebook and Instagram, okay. And I started out at zero followers, and then it wouldn’t grow. You know, you tell your family and friends, hey, follow me so I look like I’m doing something right. I’m not just some sort of spam account.
And then when you reach out to people, they’re looky look. You know, they look at how many followers she has. Because that’s just our mentality on social media, right.
But I can tell the real deal people, who were happy to talk to me and it didn’t matter how many followers I had. The ones who, when I told them my story, they were immediately on board. They were like, I love what you’re doing. Yes, I’ll be a guest on your show.
And that’s how I can tell those are the entrepreneurs that resonate and are going to tell the story and aren’t afraid to share their story with Side Hustle Saturday community.
So I find guests by looking for interesting people. I know there are other platforms out there doing the same thing I’m doing. And that’s good. And I think they’re at a higher level.
I like the people that are on the come up. I like the people that are on the journey right now, not so much the multi billion dollar business. I want to get the people that other entrepreneurs and side hustlers can relate to. I want them to listen and think, “I’m in that same boat.” Or they think, “Oh, wow. I have that problem. How do they do that?”
So I look for people that are touchable. They’re tangible. They don’t mind being reached out to or talking with me. They have an interesting story, an interesting journey. And I can see that they’re out there. They’re on their social media platforms, they have a website out there engaging with their community as well. Because if they’re trying to build their community, too, I need to talk to them.
Doris Nagel 14:50
Agreed. But I will say there are amazing people out there. As for my journey I’m now almost into my third year. Time flies. But I have met just some absolutely amazing people, and for the most part, I’ve been very blessed.
But as you mentioned, it definitely takes time and work to find guests, I think that’s one thing about podcasting or live, live Twitter feeds or whatever, you know, whatever live you’re doing, or, you know, radio or or TV, I think people who aren’t in the business. Yeah. And I save a business, whether you’re making, you know, one cent or a million dollars, but the business of finding good guests and lining them up and preparing for the interviews, and organizing everything and the follow up that you to — saying thank you, sending them whatever you’ve agreed, their recording or air date, asking them for recommendations on other guests, or whatever other things you might be doing. It’s a lot of work.
And I’ve found that finding guests is like lead generation for a business. I find guests everywhere – sometimes through word of mouth, through networking associations, neighbors, alumni groups, and even old contacts.
I find guests everywhere, and I find that you have to go to events and talk to lots of people. Tap into whatever networks you have, whether it’s your church or organizations you volunteer with, or maybe they belong to the chamber of commerce.
Entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs are everywhere. For example, I do some community theater, and there were people, you know, two or three people who were entrepreneurs, who are guests from the show, from there. I mean, it’s an interesting way, actually, to, I think relook at your existing network. Because you find that, you know, I don’t know about you, but I find there are people that I, I know, a limited slice about them. So you know, maybe we’re in this organization together, or maybe we have kids together in school, or, you know, we’re in the same church or Yeah, whatever it is. And then you start asking them about what they do and their entrepreneurial business, and what they like to be a guest. And then all of a sudden, it’s like, I didn’t know you had your own business.
Lisa Brown 17:36
That is called networking. And that’s why that is so key. If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ve gotta network!
But I’m with you. When I first started the show, I didn’t know about how to get a guest. So I tapped into the people that I knew that were on my Facebook, that I used to work with that I knew I had their own business. And those were the first people on my show.
After I exhausted Facebook, I subscribed to a couple of digital magazines, black owned digital magazines. And I would just read those mags and see what the articles were about. I look at the news. I’m a news hound. And I love old school. So I like to look at magazines, by hand, I don’t like to do the digital thing. That helps me find my stories. I’m constantly researching.
And now since I’ve been out there for a year, people are reaching out to me! The first time it happened, I had the clutch my pearls for a minute. I was like, “You’ve seen my show? You really want to be on my show>?” And I was like, Okay. Wow!
Doris Nagel 19:22
I’m starting to see the same thing. But I think consistency is really key — this is not so much for radio show people because when you have a radio show, you have a commitment, you have a slot, and they’re expecting airtime, which is good for routine and discipline. But for podcasting, it’s key. I think podcasting is actually in some ways more difficult because until you build that audience, it is so easy to say well, “I won’t bother this week. Nobody’s listening anyway.”
So you’re just echoing that. If you’re going to start this, you need to be committed for a significant chunk of time. Because it takes time to get through all the noise and the clutter that’s out there, and for people to realize you are going to keep showing up every time you say you’re going to show up.
That just takes a lot of discipline and a lot of faith. Fortunately, my guests have helped me through the tough times. Because there have been times when I think, “Wow, this is so much work. Can I really keep doing this?” But that’s when my guests pull me through. I know they want to do the show, share their story, and help me build my platform.
Lisa Brown 20:20
To piggyback on that, before you even jump into these waters of podcasting, or of being on live and interviewing guests, you have to be passionate about it. If you’re not in it to win it, and you’re not passionate about it, don’t even jump into the water! Because otherwise you’re gonna be like, “Oh, I don’t want to do it.” And then it’s not going to be fun for you.
For me, I love this. I just get excited about who’s going to be next. Now, it is daunting because of all this is a lot of work. A lot of work.
And I need a team now. I need a visual assistant. I need a social media manager, because there’s so many other things that I want to take on. Oh, there are not enough hours in the day!
Doris Nagel 21:43
There are not! It’s funny — I was talking to a woman the other day, who actually helped find me a guest. And she said, “I want to talk to you because I’ve really been interested in a radio show or podcast.” And I told her to get prepared for every episode to take about two days a week at least. She said, “I don’t believe that. How could it possibly take that much time? I need to hear more about your workflows and how we can improve those. Because I don’t believe it takes that long.”
Lisa Brown 21:35
Oh yes, it does! It’s so true. And I still work a regular job. I still work a nine to five. And then after I do my nine to five, I do my five to midnight when I come home.
Doris Nagel 22:20
So you are living the side hustle.
Lisa Brown 22:24
I am living the side hustle as we speak. I’m trying to make it so I don’t have to work a nine to five. But right now, that’s not feasible. So I still work a nine to five.
So when I say I’m passionate about what I do, I mean what I say. There’s been times when my son has had to tap me on the shoulder to to bed, because I’m up with my eyes bugged open like I’m drunk a pot of coffee, and I’m still tapping on those keys.
I gotta do this. And I’m not tired. Why? Because my passion is driving me. Because I know that what I can make of this could be huge. So you know, that’s that was my my goal to know when I get to the point where I live now. So I’m doing this. And if I get to the point where I don’t want to do it anymore, then I have to step back and reflect.
From a mental standpoint, are there times when I have to step back? Yes. And I give myself permission to let my brain relax a little bit. Yes, I do take those breaks. I’m not always on the go.
But I would just say for anybody that’s going to get into this arena, be passion, be very passionate.
Doris Nagel 23:10
I would add, “Be disciplined.” But your comment about passion reminds me of something somebody who does voiceovers told me. And it really stuck with me. He said, “When you’re working in audio only, people can hear you smile.” That means if you or your guest have low energy, your audience will definitely hear it.
The whole business of finding guests is really quite. It’s both time consuming, and sometimes frustrating. Mostly incredibly rewarding. But from your perspective, what makes a great guest for your show? And what makes one not so great?
Lisa Brown 23:54
One that shows up? [laughing]
One thing that makes a great guest is one that isn’t afraid to share. One that isn’t afraid to tell the true story. And it’s not about this is what I did, you know, and is very dry about it, you know, they’re there. They’re true, what I call, like I said before, a villager, that is, hey, if you want more information, you can reach out to me, the guests that are open. Yep. I think that makes aggress great guests. And they’re willing to come and talk to a company and be part of the community. And I’ve made some really funny things, I’ve made some associates that I can still reach out to, that I still talk to as guests on the show. And that’s been incredible. Because, you know, like I said, you build a sense of community, I can tap into that person. And it’s not just business, it’s just like, just somebody I can just talk to as a as a friend or building a relationship with.
Doris Nagel 25:10
In fact, you and I were talking before the show about something we both do, which is try to follow the companies and link with people on social media. That way, I see their posts and what their business is doing. For some of them, I’m hooked on the story. I’m hooked on their journey, because I’ve heard the backstory and how difficult maybe some of the times have been.
And so when I see they’ve hit a milestone, I give a shout out. For example, one of my past guests has a medical device company, which is a really hard thing to do for a woman. I saw on social media that her company’s medical device finally got regulatory approval. And I knew that was that was huge milestone that her company had been struggling with. So I reached out and said, “Wow, great, great job – congrats!”
And I try to do that with my other guests as well. Because they’re not just a disembodied voice or a face. They are real people, and their stories are amazing.
Lisa Brown 26:20
I feel the same way. And I do like to support. My pockets don’t like to support, but I like to support as a person.
I need to get more pocket money to support you, but if a black business that I interview has a product that I can buy, I will buy it. If they have a service that I can use, I will use it.
So I’m all in when I ask them to come be on my show. And I’m going to follow them on Instagram or Facebook or YouTube — wherever you are, I’m following you.
And I’m supporting you because that’s what a community does — yes, support.
I’m a real my show. And you know, that’s the one thing that gets me — I don’t want to derail this — is when I go on somebody’s Instagram page, and they’ve got 300 or 1000 followers or 1.2 million followers, and they’re only following one person. Who does that online? That really bothers me. I’m just really passionate when it comes to creating a community and really sharing the experience of being an entrepreneur. That’s what it’s all about.
You know, there’s some guests that I’ve researched. I’ve looked at their site, just doing my research for potential guests. And I’ve looked at their social media and read their stories online and decided, “I don’t know if that’s gonna be a good fit.” So I’ve had those experiences as well. And that’s okay. They might be a better fit somewhere else. But for what I’m doing for my platform, it just wasn’t a good fit.
Doris Nagel 27:30
It’s interesting. I’ve had more than a couple of guests who were so passionate about what they were doing that they just wanted to talk and talk and talk about it. Sometimes passion is, passion is a really good thing in general, but I think sometimes people’s passion gives them a little bit of tunnel vision. It’s hard to explain to people who haven’t been on at many shows or different kind of talking platforms, but those are actually tough guests.
The story may be great, but it’s hard for listeners, what listeners want to hear is a dialogue. You know, they want to hear the back and forth, because that’s really where the fun comes in, I think. And if somebody is talking and talking, you find yourself trying to interrupt them, just slow the train down a little bit.
It’s a little hard, because when I do jump in, I detail their train of thought. And I can tell they’re sometimes annoyed that I interrupted them, but I really did it to try to make them look better and have a better interview. I find it a bit funny, but it does make for a difficult guest sometimes.
Lisa Brown 29:50
I know. I’ve had those guests while I was live. I would literally ask just one question, and they’re on that one question for 15 minutes. It’s almost like a nervous tic — they just want to get everything in, and not miss anything, instead of being willing to be guided.
I would say to those people, you know, let the person guide you, you know, you’ll be able to get, you know, trust the person that’s interviewing, right, when you’re a guest on the show, because they’re if they’re going to guide you and prompt you to talk about what you want to talk about, you know,
Doris Nagel 30:43
I think you have to have your antenna working pretty well. Beecause there are entrepreneurs who have this idea that they’re just so passionate about it, and it’s like that it’s all there is to them. They can’t think of anything else, and I think some of them maybe have lost perspective.
Lisa Brown 31:15
I would agree with that. I think with passion comes focus. You’ve got to stay focused and not derail. And the passion is the one part, but the focus and a little bit of business acumen are key, too.
I hate to say it, but it’s true that me being in the corporate realm has helped me. It’s helped me be more focused, be more prepared, be more structured — not structured in the stuffy sense, but in getting the show together, preparing and doing the questions.
Doris Nagel 32:01
It’s a gigantic project plan.
Lisa Brown 32:06
Yes, it is a project plan. I always say jump in and build it on the way up, and I’m a true advocate of that. Now bring in some of those other elements, too, as you’re jumping. Focus in so it doesn’t look like you’re just out here flailing, doing whatever. And if you’re all over the place, just kind of bring it in a little bit. So you’re not burned out at the end of the day. So you don’t get overwhelmed and feel so much like you don’t know what you’re doing that you just chuck it. You don’t want to do that. That’s the worst thing you can do, because then you’re off the track.
Doris Nagel 32:45
You mentioned that you’ve had a couple of tries at being an entrepreneur. I have as well, and a couple of them really crated quite spectacularly.
I’m curious about that, and how that’s affected how you approach the show, and maybe even the guests that you find — how it’s colored your whole approach to side hustle Saturday. , or maybe even that you even created it because of that. Well, the backstory
Lisa Brown 33:15
Well, the backstory behind that is, you know, working for somebody just never felt like it was right for me.
But I didn’t know what I wanted to do as an entrepreneur. I was looking trying to figure it out. I just knew I didn’t want to work for anybody. That wasn’t my story. But I did not know what my journey was going to be. I just wanted to do something.
So I was basically throwing spaghetti at the wall. And one of the walls I threw it at was eBay. I did consignment on eBay. People would clean out their closet and I would sell it for them on eBay. I would take a cut of the sale price. I did that for a little bit, and then I switched it over to selling things on Etsy. I would go to thrift stores and resell those items. And then I switched it over to selling home goods, home accessories. But I was doing what I was doing just because that’s what everybody else was doing. It made some sense because I also have some retail my background. I knew retail, and I knew I love to shop, so I thought I’ll just dip my toe in that and see. But it wasn’t really what I wanted to do.
But I still had to just keep throwing spaghetti at the wall till it stuck. And what stuck for me was a surprise and a delight. I’ve never been live. I’ve never had to rustle guests to be to be on a show.
Doris Nagel 35:25
That’s a long way from selling consignment stuff.
Lisa Brown 35:32
I know. I surprised myself. I didn’t think that this is where I would end up in then. I really like what I’m doing, and am really enjoying some of the things my journey. I like that I’m evolving this. So people ask me, “Can you teach a class? Can you do this? What about this? Can you teach me about Instagram?” Because there are people that don’t know what some of the things I know and have learned.
So, I had my businesses and the eBay thing. It was alright, but I just wasn’t really passionate about it. And so like I said, I’m really into Side Hustle Saturday. But my other businesses failed. What I really mean is that I let it fail, because I just didn’t want to do it. I let it fail.
Doris Nagel 36:00
That’s an interesting angle. I’ve often thought that with a couple of my failures, I think subversively I let them fail. They were both consulting businesses. And I think I let them fail because I didn’t really like consulting.
There was also another business that I did with two friends. All 3 businesses were poorly thought out because we had done no market research on any of them, including the ones with my two friends. We convinced ourselves we had a great idea. But unfortunately, we did zero market research, which is pretty amazing and embarrassing, because one of the three of us was actually a marketer by training. So I don’t know how that happens, exactly.
But, in each of the 3 cases, I knew people needed the services that we had to offer. But the number one reason businesses fail is because there is no perceived market need. Now that can mean you have a product nobody really wants. But It can also mean your messaging is off. Or your pricing is off. Or you’re not credible. It just means you’re just not hitting your target market and you’re not resonating with them.
Maybe there’s some market for your product or services, but unless you have big time prospecting tools at your service, if there’s not enough buyers that you’re prospecting, eventually your business kind of withers and dries up on the vine.
Speaking of making money, both of us have a show that is a business in a sense, Your Side Hustle Saturday show, my Savvy Entrepreneur show. One of the challenges that I wrestle with a lot is monetizing it. I know that that’s been a challenge for you, too. What have you tried? And what are you thinking about in terms of monetization?
Lisa Brown 38:57
I am currently trying YouTube. I just launched a YouTube channel. I started out on Facebook and Instagram. I was really hitting hard on Facebook, running ads, and all of that. And I learned that the ads it helped grow my followers and likes on Instagram.
But from a monetization standpoint, that didn’t help. Because Facebook’s platform is a little bit difficult to monetize. So then I switched over to using Instagram. I didn’t really like the Instagram Live platform, because I’ve had some issues with that. And my followers weren’t growing as quickly on Instagram as I was see some other people so. And we could do a whole other show, Doris, on how people get followers.
But I like my followers to be organic, and I’m not bound by followers. I might follow you, and you follow me back. I’ll do a follow for follow. You can actually buy followers, but if I did that, my Instagram would not be authentic. And I wasn’t monetizing all that quickly. So I kept hearing people say, “Go with YouTube,” because as people always say, video is king.
A post is queen. And you just have to have a balance of the two. So now I’m starting my journey on YouTube to monetize. It’s gonna be a long journey, though.
Doris Nagel 40:36
These days, YouTube is hard, too. I thought I read somewhere that to get YouTube ads — and what we’re talking about here, obviously, are the little ads that pop up before the video starts, or in some cases – annoyingly — about every 30 seconds. And if you’re the creator of the YouTube video, you get a little cut of the ad revenue. But I thought I read somewhere that YouTube has changed it so that you have to have quite a few followers before the ads pop up. Whereas in the past, you didn’t have to have that many followers.
Lisa Brown 41:34
No, it’s the same for your sponsored ads. And I just started so I’m not at 1000 followers and 4000 watch hours, I’ve just started now that when people look at stuff, and they look for stuff, they Google it, and they bring up a YouTube video, or they go on YouTube, Lena go Google or they go on YouTube, now get out how to what’s going on, or whatever. So I, um, I just I just decided to do that because I felt like it was easier.
There are also some other things that I’m going to be working on that will be coming down the pipeline to help monetizing. I’m going to do ebook, and I’m going to start doing classes. To teach what I’ve learned, and what I know to others. I’ve been assuming that everybody knows how to do this, but they really don’t.
And that was the biggest awakening for me: assuming that people know how to do it. And they really don’t, you know. Some people just struggle or they have somebody else do it with them or, you know, they’re just having a hard time and I’m thinking all that, you know, everybody knows how to do that. You know, so you know looking at you know, doing some classes and some one on one coaching, looking at people’s sites, their websites, and looking at their social media profiles and help them then just do a couple of tweaks and consulting work. So I’m looking at those avenues for monetization.
Anyhow, my first year of Side Hustle Saturday was basically learning. I wasn’t out here trying to monetize. I was just out here trying to figure it out.
Doris Nagel 43:16
There are quite a few people who want to do podcasting and live broadcasting. But if you want to create quality content and also do some social media to promote it, there’s a fair bit of process to it. There’s a lot to learn, and lot of different things you can and should try.
Lisa Brown 43:50
Yep. And I wanted to take that full year to learn that. And so now year two is like, “Okay, I’ve got that underneath my belt. What can I do next? How do I figure out this whole monetization thing, have a wild grow? How do I evolve? Yep. And so that’s what I’m doing in year two, and now I need to plan live year three, I should be all you know, monetize, already starting to monetize. And you know, think about evolve and how can I grow?
Doris Nagel 44:20
You just did a segue right there into my next question for you, which is where do you see side hustle Saturday heading? Where do you want to be a year from now or two years from now? What does it look like?
Lisa Brown 44:35
Well, I might give you a little exclusive here, Doris. So um, I have been in discussions with a black owned network to have Side Hustle Saturday on TV and reinvent it that way. So I’m really excited about it. I’m not gonna spill the tea too much, but I’m gonna give you a little bit of a sip.
We’re working out all the details. I’m working on guests and sponsors and all of that. So Side Hustle Saturday’s evolving on television!
Doris Nagel 45:46
Wow! From eBay consignment to TV rockstar! That is awesome.
The time has absolutely flown by. Lisa, I’m pretty sure we could probably yack for another couple of hours about all sorts of stuff — commiserating about this and that, and tips and tricks. Every time I talk to you, I learn something new that you’ve tried. And it’s just fun to share ideas and what works and what doesn’t work.
Before we wrap up, I’d like you to share with folks how they can listen in to Side Hustle Saturday. Maybe they’d like to hear some past episodes or catch your next ones. Or maybe they’d like to be a guest. How should they reach out to you to do that?
Lisa Brown
For sure. So if you want to be a guest on Side Hustle Saturday, first you got to show up! [laughing]
If you want to be a guest on the show, email me at sidehustlemainhustle@gmail.com. And if you want to see some past episodes, you can look at those episodes on Facebook at Side Hustle Main Hustle on Facebook. You can also find me on YouTube under Side Hustle Saturday, or you can look up Side Hustle Saturday hustle talks. All right. And are you on LinkedIn too? No, I’m not on LinkedIn yet.
Doris Nagel 47:45
Lisa, it’s been an absolute delight having you. Thanks so much for joining the show this week and spending a little time sharing your story. It’s been fun just swapping ideas and funny stories.
Lisa Brown
Thanks for having me. This was so much fun. And I really appreciate you allowing me to share my story and my journey. It’s been fantastic. Thank you so much.
Doris Nagel
You’re absolutely welcome. Thank you again for your time.
And I hope folks who are listening or watching did do go back out there and listen to some of Lisa’s episodes. They’re absolutely great. And I think you’ll learn a lot. And her style, as you can tell just from listening, is just so down to earth and welcoming and supportive.
So I encourage folks to go check out her platform!
In the couple of minutes we have left, I thought it might be interesting to talk about a common theme I’ve noticed with some of the would be entrepreneurs that I’ve been mentoring lately.
Whether it’s an individual who has two or three possible businesses in mind, but just can’t decide which one to start on. Or the individual that has a great product idea, but just cannot decide the best way to package and market it. It seems like a lot of first time would be entrepreneurs suffer from a kind of paralysis. They’re terrified of making a mistake.
I think it’s an interesting balance that you have to achieve as an entrepreneur. Because there certainly would be entrepreneurs at the complete opposite end of the spectrum. The ones that are so focused on action, that they’re essentially ready, shoot aim people. For example, one entrepreneur that I worked with a couple years ago envisioned a catering business. He rushed out to buy a building and start retrofitting the kitchen, only to find that there really wasn’t a market for the kind of catering business he had in mind. I kid you not.
And if you’ve listened to the show previously, you do know I am a passionate advocate of market research before heading too far down your path. I failed to do that with a couple of businesses I’ve been involved with. And believe me, my failure to do that cost those businesses to crater. I lost a lot of time and money.
But at the same time, every single entrepreneurial mindset tool says you need to be decisive and take action. What kind of personality you need to have to be an entrepreneur – the entrepreneurial mindset – is a topic I think I’m going to dedicate a separate segment to. In other words, do you really have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? I’m not talking about your business idea, and your business plan. I mean: are you wired to be an entrepreneur? Because if you’re not, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and headaches and money.
Anyway, every single entrepreneurial mindset tool I could find out there emphasizes action. So there’s something called the network for teaching entrepreneurship. And they say a key attribute for successful entrepreneurs is “Comfort with risk.” The University of Arizona’s entrepreneurial profile says successful entrepreneurs must be” decisive.” Others say you have to be willing to take action — essentially all of them do.
But you do have to just start. Yes, do your market research, for sure. Do a simple business plan, but do not noodle too much over it.
For those of you who have this issue, I have a good book recommendation for you. It’s called Just Start. The author studied successful entrepreneurs and concluded they use a process called “Creaction.” Now, I think that’s just a fancy word that these consultants came up with. It seems like consultants, and authors like to do that to justify the high price of their services or their book.
But I think it’s just a fancy name for the scientific method, which we all learned when we were in grade school or junior high. You have a hypothesis about what might work as a business, and then you take a small step – one that is well within your acceptable margin of loss. Then you measure and assess what you’ve done. You take a look at the results. And then you decide on your next baby step. And you rinse and repeat.
Yes, they wrote a whole book about this. And a lot of people have bought the book, so I’m guessing there are a LOT of would-be entrepreneurs who are noodlers.
For successful entrepreneurs, or second or third time entrepreneurs, or even the ready, shoot, aim crowd, this book really is not for you.
But if you’re a would be entrepreneur and you’re a noodler, sometimes paralyzed by all the options, it might help you. There are lots of stories in the book to inspire you, and exercises to help get you off the dime.
If that sort of thing doesn’t help, it might be time to look in the mirror, and just acknowledge maybe you’re not cut out to be an entrepreneur. And there’s no shame in that.
Being an entrepreneur is really hard. And if even if you’re smart and decisive and have a great product, it’s still more than likely that you’ll fail based on just this statistics year after year. The unfortunate reality is that having a great idea for a product or service, and not wanting to work for the man, as they say, or the woman is just simply not enough to build a successful business.
But I do like having the book on my shelf. Sometimes just seeing the title on the spine: Just Start, is helpful and reminding me to move forward take small steps, whenever I have doubts, and who knows, maybe that’ll help some of you as well.
That’s our show for this week. Thanks so much to all my listeners. And thank you especially again to my guest this week from Columbus, Ohio. Lisa Brown, who’s the host and creator of Side Hustle Saturday.
You can find more helpful information and resources on my website, www.globalocityservices.com.
My door is always open for comments. I’d love to hear from you. questions, suggestions, just to shoot the breeze. You can email me at dnagel@lakesradio.org. I promise you’ll always get an answer back from me.
Be sure to join me again next Saturday at 11am Central/noon Eastern.
But until then, I’m Doris Nagel, wishing you happy entrepreneuring!
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