- How to uncover product ideas and markets by looking inside yourself.
The most satisfied people I know are creating businesses that have evolved entirely from their core personality or from a domain they are an expert in, or both.
As a result, I try to uncover the perfect "idea from within" whenever I talk to new Nugget members.
This lesson is about that technique.
It's an idea that's already within you, but you haven't realized it yet.
It's a thing you're already doing on a daily basis. A thing you're probably not even aware of because it's such a fundamental part of your personality.
It's an expertise you know so well that your friends often call you and ask you for advice about it.
It's something you've been doing for years that you never even considered could turn into a profitable side project.
Each of us has multiple ideas from within; we just need to uncover them.
Based on my observations they come from one of three sources:
- A core personality trait
- A skill or knowledge that is second nature
- A combination of the above
- If you deeply care about a project, you will work on it harder and longer than your competition.
- If you have deep domain knowledge, you will radiate confidence, which customers will notice. People buy from people they know and trust.
- Your work won't feel like work because it is something you already know and enjoy.
- If you achieve your deepest goals, you will attain great satisfaction.
"Ideas From Within" Examples
I think the best way to explain this concept is by showing various examples that I have observed.
Oliver is one of my oldest friends.
A core personality trait he has is that of a "curator." From the day I met him, at age 14, he was organizing our friend group, introducing us to new music, and recommending cafes.
Even at that early age, his collections of records, books, posters, clothes, and videos were all meticulously ranked, rated, and paired appropriately.
This "curator" aspect of Oliver has been the fundamental driver of his career.
He has always consciously understood that he has this trait, and he made a point of harnessing it.
As a result, he has been curator and director of many of the worlds finest art museums, including the Tate gallery in London.
Do you have a core personality trait that you could somehow harness in a professional capacity? Or, perhaps turn into an info product? A startup idea?
My wife says I have a rather annoying core personality trait.
I try to turn everything I see into a startup idea. A lot of people think they have this trait. But in my case, it's an obsession. When I say everything, I mean everything.
The best example of this obsession is the time I imagined turning a clip-on reading light into a baby toy.
With this example, you'll understand what a truly fundamental part of my personality it is to think about business ideas, and why that makes Nugget the perfect business for me to be building.
When my son was three months old, he somehow stumbled on to a reading light we had. From that moment forward, he would not go anywhere without it. So much so that we had to clip it on to his stroller and car seat!
The weird thing was, this was one of the only things he would constantly play with at that age. Especially in the stroller.
I wondered if this was a business opportunity!
I researched what toys were available for three month olds and found there to be very few recognizable "brands" in this space. In fact, the only real competitor I could find was Sophie La Giraffe.
I'm rather embarrassed to tell you this, but I went as far as to mock up a version of the clip-on light as Pengie!
My point here is that "coming up with startup ideas" is something that I just do, whether I want to or not. It's something I've done for years.
The lesson here: It took me over 25 years to stumble into the idea of Nugget and realize this core trait could be productized and help other people. Don't wait 25 years to discover yours!
Do you have a core personality trait that can be productized in some way? Think outside the box!
Jason is my podcasting partner on TechZing.
A core personality trait he has is that he loves to help and teach people, especially his kids. Additionally, he is a math geek and loves advanced math.
So he started Math Academy, a startup that teaches advanced math to kids age 11-13 years olds. When I say advanced, I mean advanced.
Check out this video of his 11-year-old kids in their yearly math competition, Solve.
Jason's startup is really starting to take off. The irony is, this was not an idea he woke up with one day, it was something he stumbled into just like I did with Nugget.
The origin story goes like this:
He volunteered to be the coach for his kid's math team. He convinced his kid's school to let him tutor the team in the place of one of their regular math classes. Pretty soon, the kids were too advanced to enjoy any regular math class. So, Jason convinced the school to let his kids switch all math classes to his class. The year after that, other parents wanted to send their kids to his advanced class. Jason realized he was on to something, and turned the whole thing into a startup.
Now he is building Math Academy adaptive learning software for the kids' homework, running a team of 20 curriculum developers, hiring PhD professors to teach in 7 other classes across the Pasadena school district, and being followed around by a documentary crew.
All of this, simply because he followed his bliss and jumped on opportunities that presented themselves while he did that.
Is there something that you absolutely love to do that could somehow morph into a startup like Jason did with Math Academy?
I just want to re-iterate that in both Jason's case and in mine, we created product concepts that fit us like a glove and that matched our own core personality and domain knowledge.
I think this came from both of us following the principles outlined by Derek Sivers in his excellent article Either “HELL YEAH!” or “no.”
In both our cases, as soon as we saw a business opportunity during a "hell yeah" moment, we jumped on it.
Chat Transcripts
I thought it might be helpful to show an excerpt of a couple of chats I've had with Nugget members about this subject. In both Slack chats below, I'm trying to uncover a personality trait or deep domain knowledge and see if it inspires a startup idea. Even though I do have permission to show these chats, I am anonymizing them just in case the members decide to join the Startup Academy.
Justin: Of all the things you've done apart from kids and marriage what is your fondest moment or greatest achievement?
Sam: I always feel a big sense of achievement when I build something that works. Projects like the quad rotor (or a solar bike I helped build) were awesome. I love being a maker.
Justin: Did you have a kit for the quadcopter or did you build from scratch by sourcing different components?
Sam: From scratch. I had blueprints but had to fabricate the body.
Justin: How much total cost to build that quadcopter from scratch?
Sam: Oh, probably $300 total, not including a few tools I had to buy.
Justin: The reason I ask is because I am thinking about something like - Maker Box - a subscription box for makers.
Justin: It’s easier to market to people you resonate with. I find it easy to market Nugget because the end-users are people like me. We are on a similar wavelength, we do similar things, we go to the same places. It gives me a big advantage when building a user base. That’s why I was excited about the drone idea for you since you love being a maker.
Sam: I could walk around my office and find 5-10 guys who are makers right now!
Justin: What is your job title?
Sam: Technical Architect
Justin: How much “Technical Architecting” do you do in your job?
Sam: Compared to what happens in the real world, not much. I am a problem solver in the FinTech world. I manage large teams of FinTech devs.
Justin: Off the top of my head, you could start a blog called FinTechGuy.com.
Justin: You could sell micro courses such as "How to Negotiate Your First Salary in Fin Tech" and sell it for $19.
Justin: Another course could be "How to Increase Your Salary in FinTech" sell it for $49.
Justin: You could become the Patrick McKenzie of FinTech!
Sam: That's a very interesting idea.
The next action will walk you through a step-by-step method to generate ideas from within.