Differentiators & the Dead Letter Office

03/09/22 • 28 min

Today’s episode of Hustle Machine is, admittedly, unfinished, or at least only covers part of the topic. We’ll tell you that upfront because, honestly, we could discuss aspects of this week’s topic for hours on end and we try not to strain anyone’s patience in any given episode.

Honestly, though, every episode of Hustle Machine is, to some degree, about this issue and we’ll be discussing it again and again as we continue to keep things chugging along over here.

That’s right, it’s time to start talking about starting a business, a topic that will keep us occupied here at this podcast for many episodes to come as we touch on aspects of it again and again in various ways.

We’ll talk about the basic steps you’ll want to take first, from creating a business plan to researching the market before spending any money.

We’ll argue back and forth on the wisdom of opening a restaurant, much to Jason’s chagrin and Zack’s encouragement, all while hoping you won’t remember we started a self-owned company at the peak of a deadly pandemic.

Jason will also do his best to pretend there are no other website design companies extant other than ours, to variable results.

We’ll also say the word “differentiators” so many times this episode it may no longer sound like a real word by the time we’re done.

From knowing your strengths and weaknesses, and hiring the best people to cover the latter, to budgeting properly for marketing, there’s a lot to know in starting your business, and we hardly scratch the surface in this week’s episode.

We do find time, however, to debate the existence of the Dead Letter Office and continue to pine for our fabled angel investor as we search our spam folders for his or her grant offer yet again.

While we keep looking for that offer, make sure to come back for more talk on this topic in the future. The Hustle Machine is on the move but we’ll make sure to keep circling back on this particular issue as many times as needs be.

Honestly, though, every episode of Hustle Machine is, to some degree, about this issue and we’ll be discussing it again and again as we continue to keep things chugging along over here.

We’ll talk about the basic steps you’ll want to take first, from creating a business plan to researching the market before spending any money.

Jason will also do his best to pretend there are no other website design companies extant other than ours, to variable results.

We’ll also say the word “differentiators” so many times this episode it may no longer sound like a real word by the time we’re done.

We do find time, however, to debate the existence of the Dead Letter Office and continue to pine for our fabled angel investor as we search our spam folders for his or her grant offer yet again.

Previous Episode

The Time is Now

We considered a lot of names for this episode, from “When It’s Time to Fly” to “When It’s Time to Jump Out of an Airplane.” We apparently had aviation on the mind when we were discussing this week’s theme of choosing the right time to take that big step, whether it’s launching a new business, starting a new side hustle or taking the plunge in whatever enterprise you’re engaging in next. We promise there aren’t any jokes about hatching or shoving you out of the nest, at least.

We do spend a bit of time just marveling at reaching this point – not only Episode 3 of Hustle Machine, but to have this project moving forward after nearly a year of considering it but worrying about when it was the proper timing to jump in ourselves. We have to take our own advice, sometimes, when it comes to deciding what’s the right time to start something.

Jason shows off a bit of cultural literacy this episode, quoting both Emerson and “Seinfeld,” without making any judgment on which one is more impressive. Zack, on the other hand, refuses to let Jason make a list of top five signals to look for, as part of the unofficial Hustle Machine policy of “no listicles.” And you can take that promise to heart.

We do give out some advice, though, about finding the self-awareness to find the right time to make a career transition; leaving old jobs on a high note to make sure you can keep up old relationships and networking chances for the future; scheduling around your passions, so you can know when you want to take a chance and when it’s time to make time for the others things in life, like friends and family; and more that we won’t list here lest we break our brand new listicle ban right after making it.

Ultimately, the only way to know when the time is right is to know yourself, a task beyond our capabilities to advise you on; for that you’ll want a philosopher, or at least one of those self-help book writers. But once you DO know yourself, come back over here to Hustle Machine and we can give you more advice on making your business moves at a time best suited to your needs.

Next Episode

Overwhelmed by To-Do Lists

Sadly, our faithful viewers just miss out this week on our wonderful dancing intro, which Zack cut off right before the cameras went live. Jason, at least, demonstrates his record scratch technique, so look forward to that in the opening minutes of this week’s episode of Hustle Machine.

This week, inspired by a text from a friend of Zack’s, we’re talking about what to do when you’re overwhelmed by your to-do list. We talk about making a list of your top three things, followed by a secondary list of five more things, which makes eight things, until you may lose count of exactly how many things there are at this point (there’s a reason the Cat in the Hat restrained himself to merely Thing 1 and Thing 2).

We’ve got a lot of useful advice on this particular topic, based on our years of dealing with overcrowded schedules in previous work environments. Everything from working hard through your most focused time of the day, to scheduling big tasks throughout the day to simply changing up your schedule to start work early in the day are mentioned as options.

There’s also focus on the importance of negotiation, delegation and self-determination in making your workload work for you. We talk about being a generalist, not a specialist, and not putting too much pressure on yourself by sticking to deadlines.

We also have plenty of time to spend on the usual amount of inanities, too, from Zack on the perils of frog consumption to Jason advocating arts and crafts time for a DIY door on open floor plan cubicles.

All that, plus baseball chatter, Jason accusing Zack of being old, Zack explaining the frog eating was actually referring to a book and not literally eating an actual frog and Jason advising listeners of the best way to brood in the dark while still getting your work done. All in a day’s work for our intrepid podcasting duo.

That’s right, it’s another episode of Hustle Machine and we’re glad you’re still with us as we dive into our latest topic on entrepreneurship at its finest.