Alain Guillot

Life, Leadership, and Money Matters

A woman writing on a table at night

Why Marketing Your Side Hustle Is More Important Than Doing The Work

Hard work – that’s how you become successful, right?

Well, not so fast. It turns out that hard work is only a small part of the equation. Yes, you need to do something to get the ball rolling, but knuckling down and exerting effort is only a small part of the equation. 

Giving your all to something isn’t about grit. To see why, just think back to when you were studying in school. There will have been a time in your life when you forced yourself to read something in a textbook, perhaps because you were preparing for an exam. 

When you forced yourself, you had to strain really hard to make the words on the page go in. You weren’t really interested in what they were saying, but you felt as if you had to do it, so you applied effort. 

Did it work? Not really. You retained some and lost some. And what you did learn didn’t really stick around in your mind for long. Once the exams were out of the way, you forgot it all. 

When it comes to business, it’s the same. If you’re passionate about it, none of it feels like hard work. But if you feel like you’re grinding out the hours, it can be a real chore. 

In Business, Only Value Matters

When it comes to business, hard work isn’t important at all. Twitter is a billion-dollar company but only employs a handful of core staff. Those individuals work hard for sure, but the social media site’s value goes well beyond their labor. Instead, the company leverages the crowd, and that’s what’s really creating value. Twitter employees only play a small role in the overall scheme of things. 

It’s critical to realize that in business what really matters is the value that you provide other people. And, ultimately, that’s about how you make them feel. 

What’s interesting about this is that you can create feelings in people before they buy your product. 

Take Apple, for instance. By and large, it is a phone manufacturer like any other. Its products are useful, and some people say that they are the best that you can get, but the differences aren’t that profound. 

However, you wouldn’t think it looking at the queues of people who line up outside the company’s stores every time there is a new phone launch. People are addicted to the promise of the brand – the hope that it will deliver extraordinary experiences. 

This is one of the reasons why med spa SEO matters a great deal. When you’re selling an experience, like a massage, people need to imagine it first. That’s part of the way that you generate value as a company. You get people to really invest in the idea that your products and services are important to the way they live. Nobody needs an iPhone. But if you have the money, you’d rather buy a product from Apple than from a competing brand. It’s just the way the marketing works. 

Your Side Hustle

So what does any of this have to do with your side hustle? Well, the basic message here is that you shouldn’t be looking to work hard. Instead, your goal should be to add value to people. And the way to do that is through clever marketing and a product that delivers. 

Don’t obsess over the product. Instead, obsess over the marketing. Think carefully how you want people to feel and the story you want them to tell themselves.

Apple’s story is extremely compelling. The company promises people “easy to use products that are stylish and have fewer flaws than the alternatives.” None of that is necessarily true, but people believe it. 

Plus, notice how Apple has set itself up as the market leader almost by default. Other brands just don’t seem to have the same mystique or unconscious energy about them. Nobody seriously believes that LG or Google phones are superior to Apple handsets, even though in many cases, the quality is higher. 

Your side hustle, therefore, has to project a sense of greatness. You want whatever you’re selling to seem like the best in the market. Don’t allow yourself to say anything to the contrary. What you’re doing is automatically the greatest. If you don’t believe that in an unconscious way, you’re unlikely to find it easy to make money. 

Side hustles are all about giving as much value to people as possible. But hard work isn’t the answer. Instead, it’s all about feelings and perceptions. If they believe that you’re the best, you’ll get the rewards you want.