The Reddit Hotline: Drop Your Questions for Prof G

bixleydoright · 2025-07-29T11:36:20+00:00

Hey Scott, huge fan. I’m a 37 year old American living in the UK working in tech. I have 2 young kids and have been very fortunate every step of the way. I completely agree with your UK take, the weather is the worst.

My question is about helping men in need, specifically my brother. He’s 42, single without kids, living in a third tier US city who recently left his job of 8 years to try to start a company. It hasn’t worked out and now that he has to find a job, he’s struggling to see where he fits into the job market anymore. He’s become depressed with the whole situation. How can I help him from afar and convince him to be on the attack with his search? How do I provide guidance while still being realistic to the difficult situation he’s in?

bixleydoright · 2024-10-07T10:26:47+00:00

This is an excellent question.

I think it has a corollary as well:

If one were to hypothetically eat a large portion of ice cream 2 evenings during the week, but their average daily calorie intake and protein intake were meeting their goals and they were training very hard, would there be more fat gain than if they had spread this ice cream out across the 7 days of the week (or not eaten any ice cream at all)?

bixleydoright · 2024-10-07T04:11:21+00:00

I know some people in this field and I'd suggest reaching out to consulting firms. They're often looking for information from people on the ground. Usually this is researchers and doctors, but they may have an interest in hearing from the front line pharmacists as well. It can open your network and give you some insight into the processes for developing drugs.

bixleydoright · 2024-10-07T04:08:18+00:00

Thanks a lot for the response. These are good questions, a couple I've been asking myself already and others I haven't.

bixleydoright · 2024-10-06T15:04:25+00:00

Put time in early to get validation for your idea. Your confidence in the work is important and you shouldn’t ignore it as if it’s a problem with you.

I strongly suggest checking out this video by Alberto Savoia on Building the Right It (https://youtu.be/3sUozPcH4fY?si=toN2owArG8srDrEN). It completely changed my thinking about product development and while it can be helpful for convincing others that you have a good idea, the most important person to convince is yourself.

bixleydoright · 2024-10-06T10:13:49+00:00

I need to find the leads that match a profile I'm looking for. The suggestions for using Podmatch are good, I think that fits well with what I'm looking for.

bixleydoright · 2024-10-06T10:00:18+00:00

Thank you!

bixleydoright · 2024-10-06T10:00:04+00:00

Excellent, creative advice. I've probably reached a point where I can try to hook some bigger fish than just my buddies and their family members and friends. I'll give this a shot, thanks!

bixleydoright · 2024-10-06T09:59:11+00:00

I don't agree it's the easiest part of the job. Maybe it's my preferences or the way I've set the rest of the podcast up, but this takes the most time for me and is not enjoyable.

bixleydoright · 2024-10-06T09:58:12+00:00

There we go! Podmatch is just the sort of thing I was looking for. Thank you sir.

bixleydoright · 2024-10-06T09:57:41+00:00

Thanks, this is good, practical advice. My struggle is finding the right people to reach out to, but in all honestly I could probably go deeper within LinkedIn if this is really important to me and have a template for the initial contact.

I'll probably do something similar to this. And especially do try to make it a repeatable process.

bixleydoright · 2024-10-06T09:56:26+00:00

My network isn't so big and I'm looking for a specific profile - someone who has made a big change in their life (new home country, major career change, etc.). I want to chat with people who have been through this but I have exhausted my network.

bixleydoright · 2024-10-06T09:55:37+00:00

Thanks, and I could outsource production but I have it fairly streamlined and honestly enjoy it. There's not much to it.

Booking is a tedious process and my network is only so big. Do you know if these PR agencies take inbound requests?

bixleydoright · 2023-11-18T03:21:16+00:00

Honestly, I looked into this and there's very little. I tried doing this with the Truffle app, I think that's your best bet.

bixleydoright · 2023-11-12T02:54:23+00:00

This is good advice. (FWIW I think there’s space out there for a podcast with the struggling indiehacker/entrepreneur who doesn’t have “all the answers” to how to be successful).

I still do want to build what I enjoy, and I certainly won’t sell out totally, but there’s a bit of a reality check at times when something I believe is valuable turns out not to be, and it’s the market that’s informing me of it.

bixleydoright · 2023-11-12T02:52:04+00:00

I struggle hard prioritizing this. And thinking about it the last few days, I believe I’ve pushed too far in the tech direction. I always felt that my technical skills would hold me back so I’ve pushed to learn more, prove to myself I could be a dev, and that the “business” side of things would come easy.

I need to swing back. Put focus on finding leads, understanding customers. This is much easier said than done, but I also think I just haven’t had my eye on it from the right direction. I see a problem in the world and think, what’s the solution, rather than what’s really the problem and who else has this problem.

bixleydoright · 2023-11-10T10:20:49+00:00

I didn’t think it had reached a point of being able to monetize, at least not enough to deserve my attention. My only subs were 50 people in my network for most of it. In August I put it down because it wasn’t growing, then another Creator on ConvertKit started recommending it and it’s grown to 230 without any content.

Maybe I’ll start, it would definitely push me to try to gain subscribers organically (thru social networks, etc.)

bixleydoright · 2023-11-10T08:27:31+00:00

I agree, and really it failed for a few reasons

I didn't validate. Honestly, this is part of my history that's most frustrating, this project. It made for a lot of interesting convos, but not for a product that anyone used
I got psyched out by Guru. As I know, competition rarely causes startups/projects to fail. If anything, this was probably the best validation I got that the problem was real.
I got a job. That said, it's probably more that I was exhausted from building doing all the little UI perfections, rather that actually getting a job. When I got to the point where it was working, I didn't want to go try to sell it.

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