650: 7 Proven Ways to Generate New Business Ideas, with Real-Life Examples

0:00:04 Seven proven ways to generate new business ideas
0:00:06 with real-life examples.
0:00:07 What’s up, what’s up, Nick?
0:00:07 Oh, Loper here.
0:00:09 Welcome to The Side Hustle Show,
0:00:13 where we’ve been helping make day jobs optional since 2013.
0:00:15 Today, I want to introduce seven
0:00:18 business idea-generating frameworks you can use
0:00:21 to come up with your next side hustle idea.
0:00:22 And the first one on this list
0:00:24 is called RIP, Pivot, and Jam.
0:00:26 Now, I first heard about this method
0:00:30 from the Tropical MBA show probably 10 years ago,
0:00:32 hat tipped to Dan and Ian for this one.
0:00:34 Here’s how it works, is you rip,
0:00:36 you look at another successful business,
0:00:41 copy their model, and the key here, Pivot, is step two.
0:00:43 Pivot it to a new industry, a new vertical,
0:00:44 a new audience, right?
0:00:45 And that’s the little turn.
0:00:48 And then the jam part is the hustle
0:00:50 to go get new customers, do the work.
0:00:54 Now, we saw a couple examples of this in the last year,
0:00:58 including Sarah McCaffrey’s clothing consignment business
0:00:59 in episode 640.
0:01:01 – So I did a kids consignment event,
0:01:02 selling my kids’ youth clothes,
0:01:04 and I had no idea what I was doing.
0:01:06 I just showed up, you know, priced the thing,
0:01:07 showed up to sell them.
0:01:09 And when I went to pick up my check,
0:01:12 it was for $800, and it blew my mind.
0:01:14 – This was you, you selling your kids stuff
0:01:15 through somebody else?
0:01:16 – Yes, it was.
0:01:18 That’s how I got the idea.
0:01:20 And after I picked up that check for $800,
0:01:23 I just thought, why doesn’t this exist for adults?
0:01:26 There are a lot of kids consignment events out there,
0:01:28 and not very many at all for adults.
0:01:31 And I just thought, I know so many people with clothes
0:01:33 that’s full of clothes that are in great condition
0:01:34 that people would buy.
0:01:36 Why is nobody doing this?
0:01:38 – Yeah, why is nobody doing this?
0:01:41 Was there a reason that the people running the kids’ ones
0:01:42 didn’t do the same thing?
0:01:45 It isn’t, ’cause we’ve gone to those kid event.
0:01:46 I don’t know if we’ve ever sold anything there,
0:01:49 but we’ve definitely gone as a customer for them locally.
0:01:50 So yeah, you’re totally right, that’s the thing.
0:01:53 – Yeah, and it’s funny because a lot of people
0:01:54 think they’re similar,
0:01:56 but adult events are so different from kids.
0:01:59 We’re willing to buy whatever for our kids,
0:02:01 they’re gonna be running around outside, playing in it,
0:02:04 it’s fine, but when you’re selling adult clothes,
0:02:06 you have to find the right audience for it.
0:02:08 We’re a lot pickier, so the sell-through rate’s different
0:02:09 than kids’ consignment events,
0:02:12 so they just have to be marketed differently.
0:02:14 – Okay, okay, so as far as you could tell,
0:02:15 in the initial market research,
0:02:19 nobody was doing an adult-focused clothing event near you.
0:02:21 I think our mutual friend, Megan,
0:02:24 was maybe doing furniture consignment nearby
0:02:24 who connected us.
0:02:25 – Yes, she was.
0:02:27 – But hey, there’s an opportunity in the clothing space,
0:02:30 and what was your first step
0:02:32 in turning that from idea to reality?
0:02:35 – Yeah, well, first I tried to make the idea go away
0:02:36 because it just felt crazy.
0:02:39 I have two young kids, I’m running a photography business.
0:02:40 I was the breadwinner for my family.
0:02:43 It felt crazy to divide my attention
0:02:45 and try to start a whole other business.
0:02:47 So I really tried to ignore it for a while,
0:02:49 but I got to where I couldn’t sleep.
0:02:51 Like, the idea would not leave me alone,
0:02:53 and so a couple months later, I just decided,
0:02:55 you know what, I’m gonna go for this.
0:02:59 And that night, I found our software that we could use.
0:03:02 I had a friend who gave me the name that day,
0:03:03 who named it Statement,
0:03:06 and then I stayed up all night building a website
0:03:08 on Squarespace, and I just thought,
0:03:11 you know what, this idea will not leave me alone.
0:03:13 I have to do it, like I had no other choice.
0:03:15 – When you get those ideas that won’t leave you alone,
0:03:16 that’s a good sign.
0:03:18 So in Sarah’s case, the inspiration
0:03:22 for the consignment event was a kids’ clothing event,
0:03:25 and Sarah’s pivot was to make it for adult clothes.
0:03:28 And then in the rest of that episode, episode 640,
0:03:30 we talked about the jam, all of the things
0:03:34 that she did to market and grow that business.
0:03:36 Another example of the RIP Pivot and Jam framework
0:03:40 came from Chris Andrews in episode 632.
0:03:43 Chris started a local food tour business in Mobile, Alabama.
0:03:46 – A friend of mine did a food tour in Savannah, Georgia.
0:03:48 I had never heard of a food tour before.
0:03:51 And when she came back home and was telling us
0:03:54 about her experience of going to different restaurants,
0:03:57 and she did a tour of the city of Savannah,
0:03:59 and they went to different landmarks in the city,
0:04:01 and the tour guide was talking about the landmarks.
0:04:03 That was all really, really interesting to me.
0:04:06 I’ve been a history buff ever since I was a kid,
0:04:07 especially local history.
0:04:10 And I thought, that’s absolutely what we need
0:04:11 in Mobile, Alabama.
0:04:14 We’ve got 300 plus years of history in Mobile.
0:04:16 It’s one of the oldest cities in the United States,
0:04:19 and fantastic food.
0:04:22 There’s a great food scene that’s in downtown Mobile.
0:04:25 And so, I think just kind of capitalizing on that.
0:04:29 And that’s kind of how the food tour got started in Mobile.
0:04:30 – Was anybody else doing it?
0:04:32 Like it’s not a new concept.
0:04:33 – No, nobody in Mobile was doing it.
0:04:36 At the time, I think mainly you would find food tours
0:04:40 in large cities around the country, in tourist places.
0:04:42 Of course, New York has probably got seven or eight of them,
0:04:45 New Orleans, which is about two hours from where I am.
0:04:49 They probably again, have five or six food tour operators.
0:04:51 But no, nobody was doing this in Mobile.
0:04:53 And so, that was another big thing for me.
0:04:54 It kept me up at night thinking about it.
0:04:58 I was like, man, somebody’s gonna do this eventually.
0:05:00 And I’m not gonna be able to live with myself
0:05:01 if that person’s not me.
0:05:02 – Isn’t that funny how Chris said the same thing?
0:05:03 It was keeping me up at night.
0:05:06 Now, not a completely new business idea.
0:05:09 Here’s one that’s already working in another market.
0:05:11 So, there’s some validation, there’s less risk.
0:05:13 And then Chris’s pivot was just applying
0:05:17 the same concept to his town, episode 632,
0:05:19 if you wanna learn more about his food tour business
0:05:20 in Mobile.
0:05:22 But, rip pivot and jam.
0:05:23 Pay attention as you go about your day
0:05:26 for interesting businesses and then put them
0:05:29 through the lens of, well, what’s the potential pivot here?
0:05:33 Could you do something similar but serve a different audience
0:05:35 or in a different industry or in a different location?
0:05:37 And one of my most successful side hustles
0:05:39 was my virtual assistant directory,
0:05:41 which used this exact framework.
0:05:46 I had come across a wine club directory and review site
0:05:48 and thought, well, this is kind of an interesting model.
0:05:51 So, I had to ask, well, what other industry could I pivot
0:05:53 that to that I was interested in,
0:05:55 that I knew a little bit about?
0:05:57 And that turned into my VA site.
0:06:00 I haven’t used the same theme that the wine site
0:06:01 was using in the first version.
0:06:03 Just swapped out the content instead of about wine.
0:06:05 It’s now about virtual assistant.
0:06:08 So, that is business idea generating framework number one,
0:06:09 rip pivot and jam.
0:06:12 Number two is what I call the sniper method.
0:06:17 And this is where you look at a broad service or market.
0:06:19 And instead of trying to be everything to everyone,
0:06:23 you focus in on a small sliver of that market,
0:06:24 a small segment of it.
0:06:26 And in doing so, you can position yourself
0:06:29 as the go-to authority on that one topic.
0:06:30 And when you do that,
0:06:34 you often reduce competition sometimes altogether
0:06:36 and potentially can improve your pricing power
0:06:37 quite a bit too.
0:06:41 Here’s how Carter Osborne explained it in episode 601.
0:06:43 – I started out tutoring standardized test prep
0:06:45 like the SAT and the ACT.
0:06:47 I tutored academics, everything from pre-calculus
0:06:49 to history to English.
0:06:51 And then I also tutored college essays.
0:06:52 And the college essays were my favorite part.
0:06:54 I always knew that that was something
0:06:55 that I wanted to invest more heavily in.
0:06:58 Frankly, I had to look myself in the mirror and go,
0:07:00 I am not a good standardized test tutor.
0:07:01 I mean, I’m just not.
0:07:04 I’m not the kind of person who has the kind of organization
0:07:07 and rigor and the sort of like dedication to repetition
0:07:08 that it takes to be a good SAT tutor
0:07:11 or a good SAT taker for that matter.
0:07:13 Even though people were referring other students to me,
0:07:15 just wasn’t the right direction for my business.
0:07:16 And the same went for academics.
0:07:19 I remember sitting down in coffee shops
0:07:22 or cafes with students and learning pre-calculus
0:07:24 as I was trying to teach it to them.
0:07:25 I was remembering how to do things
0:07:27 from my old high school pre-calc days
0:07:28 as I was trying to teach it to the students.
0:07:29 – Yeah, yeah.
0:07:30 It’s been a few years here.
0:07:30 – Yeah, exactly.
0:07:32 – I’m gonna say one chapter ahead of the kids.
0:07:33 – Exactly.
0:07:34 And I’m going, yeah,
0:07:36 I don’t think this is what their parents are paying me for.
0:07:38 So, so eventually I went, okay,
0:07:40 I think that I have enough of a foothold
0:07:41 in this whole tutoring industry
0:07:43 to specialize in one service.
0:07:45 And yes, that means sacrificing clientele
0:07:46 in the short term,
0:07:49 but hopefully it also means defining my reputation
0:07:51 as a college essay specialist in the Seattle area.
0:07:54 And with that more specific reputation,
0:07:56 tapping into a broader market of clients in the long term,
0:07:57 right?
0:07:59 So it was sort of short term loss, long term gain.
0:08:00 That was the theory.
0:08:02 And so far that’s exactly how it’s worked out.
0:08:05 – I kind of like this tactic of starting a little bit broader
0:08:09 just to get a sense of what you like doing
0:08:12 and what is delivering results for clients.
0:08:14 ‘Cause you have to kind of test the waters there.
0:08:15 And when I’m a beginning freelancer,
0:08:18 like if you’re gonna offer to pay me for whatever it is,
0:08:19 like I’m gonna take that work.
0:08:21 I’m gonna say yes, yes, I like play the improv game.
0:08:22 Yes, and by the way,
0:08:24 we could also offer this other service.
0:08:26 But as that business matures,
0:08:27 you start to recognize, okay,
0:08:30 well, this is really where I think my wheelhouse is.
0:08:31 Even if it means it’s kind of scary,
0:08:35 like I might be cutting off 75% of my revenue here,
0:08:37 but I think there’s a bigger piece of the pie
0:08:39 or an opportunity to really carve out a niche
0:08:41 for myself here on the essay prep side.
0:08:43 Carter went on to turn that singular service
0:08:45 into a six-figure side hustle
0:08:47 with far fewer competitors than he had
0:08:51 as the more generalist academic test prep tutor.
0:08:53 That’s episode 601 in your archives.
0:08:54 If you wanna go back and check it out.
0:08:57 Similarly, we caught up with Kate Johnson
0:08:58 last year on her bookkeeping business.
0:09:01 And early on, she said, look, I’ll take any client.
0:09:02 Oh, you know what?
0:09:03 I’ll take any client I can find.
0:09:06 But later on, she decided to focus solely
0:09:09 on those customers using fresh books
0:09:10 as their accounting software.
0:09:12 And not only grew the business as a result,
0:09:15 but really simplified it as well.
0:09:17 I don’t have to learn a dozen different software tools anymore.
0:09:18 I’m gonna focus just on this one.
0:09:21 And early on, this was kind of my method of madness
0:09:23 for my original side hustle,
0:09:25 my footwear comparison shopping site.
0:09:30 At that time, there were dozens of really broad market
0:09:31 comparison shopping sites out there.
0:09:34 Next tag, pricegrabbershopping.com sites like that.
0:09:36 But they all had this super broad
0:09:38 call it a shotgun approach.
0:09:40 They tried to include every product under the sun.
0:09:43 And as a result, left an opportunity
0:09:46 for a so-called sniper like me
0:09:47 to use this sniper method to come in
0:09:49 and say, look, we can build a better mousetrap
0:09:53 by focusing solely pun intended in this case on shoes.
0:09:56 And I remember John Lee Dumas’ advice to niche down
0:09:57 until you can check the box
0:10:02 of being the best/worst/only player in your niche.
0:10:04 At that time, it was the best, worst,
0:10:06 and only comparison shopping site for shoes.
0:10:08 It was, you know, or later on, you know,
0:10:10 it was the best, worst, and only
0:10:12 virtual assistant directory and review platform.
0:10:14 The best, worst, and only podcast
0:10:16 specifically for side hustlers, right?
0:10:18 What is that niche that you can really use
0:10:20 that sniper method to hone in on?
0:10:22 That is what I call the sniper method,
0:10:25 definitely one that I’ve seen work personally
0:10:27 and from side hustle show guests over the years.
0:10:30 Keep an eye out for those broad-serving businesses
0:10:33 and be thinking of how can I carve out
0:10:36 a little sliver of that market for myself?
0:10:37 I’ve got more idea-generating frameworks
0:10:39 coming up right after this.
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0:13:04 We’re talking business idea generating frameworks
0:13:05 on the Side Hustle Show this week.
0:13:08 And number three on this list is the shovels
0:13:10 in the gold rush method.
0:13:11 And you’ve probably heard the advice
0:13:13 in a gold rush sell shovels.
0:13:15 And here’s a little bit of history trivia for you.
0:13:19 That phrase is attributed to Sam Brannon.
0:13:21 He’s called the Paul Revere of the gold rush
0:13:23 because he’s famous for jumping off the boat
0:13:26 in San Francisco and excitingly spreading the word
0:13:29 about gold being discovered in the Sierra foothills.
0:13:31 This is like, you know, 1849, right?
0:13:33 The 49ers football team named
0:13:34 after this California gold rush.
0:13:37 But supposedly before he made this announcement,
0:13:39 Brannon bought up all of the mining supplies,
0:13:41 the picks and shovels and stuff like that
0:13:44 so he could resell them to hopeful prospectors
0:13:45 at marked up prices.
0:13:48 The sell shovels in the gold rush method
0:13:51 helped Sam allegedly become California’s first millionaire.
0:13:54 And even though this happened 170 years ago,
0:13:56 gold rushes still happen all the time.
0:13:58 We’re just not looking for literal gold
0:13:59 in the ground anymore.
0:14:03 We’re looking for it in the form of the latest trend
0:14:04 or the hot fad.
0:14:06 And in my 20 years of online business,
0:14:07 if you’ve been around for any length of time,
0:14:10 you’ve seen gold rushes around eBay,
0:14:12 around niche sites, self publishing,
0:14:14 print on demand t-shirts, Amazon FBA,
0:14:17 probably lots of other examples too.
0:14:19 And every time some of the best businesses
0:14:21 to come out of those gold rushes
0:14:24 are the supporting software and services.
0:14:27 For example, Liz Wilcox of Survivor fame,
0:14:30 she took the trend of online business
0:14:34 and online newsletters and built a simple $9 a month
0:14:35 membership model around that
0:14:39 where she gives you weekly newsletter template inspiration.
0:14:42 Pretty simple business that tapped into that gold rush
0:14:44 of more and more people needing to send emails.
0:14:47 – I knew I was good at email marketing.
0:14:49 And I knew that most people aren’t.
0:14:52 And I knew the missing piece for people
0:14:53 is a weekly newsletter.
0:14:56 Just following up with their subscribers every week.
0:14:59 That’s something, you’re a side hustler.
0:15:02 You’re just working a few hours a night on this project,
0:15:03 like sending an email.
0:15:06 Is that really what you need to be doing with your time?
0:15:09 So I knew if I could just write that newsletter for you,
0:15:11 maybe you’d give it a shot
0:15:13 and you would see results like mine.
0:15:15 So within the membership,
0:15:17 you just get a weekly newsletter template
0:15:19 to take and make your own.
0:15:21 That was low responsibility for me
0:15:22 because in my client work,
0:15:24 that’s what I was already doing.
0:15:26 I was writing emails for people.
0:15:28 I had owned two businesses prior,
0:15:30 writing emails to people.
0:15:33 I had an entire catalog of emails
0:15:37 that I had been writing for years and years and years.
0:15:40 I can just have this one deliverable of this thing
0:15:44 I already have a back catalog of that I can templatize
0:15:46 and I can send out once a week.
0:15:48 – In that episode, episode 600,
0:15:51 Liz described how she grew that simple low cost membership
0:15:53 to thousands of members
0:15:55 in what I thought was a really creative example
0:15:58 of what you might call selling your sawdust.
0:16:00 She already had this library of emails
0:16:02 that she’d written for herself or for clients.
0:16:04 It was just a matter of repackaging those
0:16:06 for a different audience under a different offer.
0:16:08 Do you have something similar in your business,
0:16:10 a byproduct of what you’re already creating?
0:16:13 What kind of sawdust might you be able to sell?
0:16:16 And going back to the sell shovels in the gold rush method,
0:16:19 what other gold rushes or trends come to mind?
0:16:21 So one that probably is on top of everyone’s mind
0:16:23 is like that short form video
0:16:25 is eating every other kind of content.
0:16:26 So it could be something in that space.
0:16:29 You could take a look at sites like Google Trends
0:16:34 or Exploding Topics to see what is increasing in interest.
0:16:35 You can ask your kids,
0:16:36 especially if you’ve got teenagers,
0:16:39 it could even be capitalizing on an up and coming marketplace
0:16:42 like Devin Ricks did with her video game,
0:16:46 teaching/social hour online side hustle
0:16:47 on the outskool marketplace.
0:16:51 – What outskool does is it has created this space
0:16:52 where teachers are background checked
0:16:56 and parents feel safe letting their children log in online,
0:16:58 all the sessions are recorded
0:16:59 and then they can play together
0:17:02 and it’s a good environment for them.
0:17:05 – Yeah, we would call this a buy buttons platform.
0:17:07 Go where the cash is already flowing.
0:17:10 And here’s a platform that has a built-in audience
0:17:11 where it’s relatively easy.
0:17:13 You gotta go through this background check process.
0:17:15 You gotta come up with an idea of what you’re gonna teach,
0:17:19 but relatively easy to put your thing out there for sale
0:17:23 and have people come and do business with you.
0:17:24 And actually you kind of sparked an idea here
0:17:28 ’cause like my son and his friend in California,
0:17:31 like they’ve hung out on Zoom doing like Lego builds
0:17:33 way more than they’ve ever hung out in person.
0:17:36 And it’s like, oh, I wonder if there’s like a Lego building
0:17:37 class where you can do like,
0:17:39 okay, different challenges or something.
0:17:41 So people with different pieces could still try
0:17:43 and build a, okay, today we’re gonna build a bird
0:17:44 or something like, I don’t know.
0:17:46 That would be really interesting.
0:17:48 – Oh, there’s definitely Lego classes.
0:17:50 I have a good friend who teaches Lego classes.
0:17:52 And yeah, she’ll be like, this is the inspiration.
0:17:54 You create your own version.
0:17:56 And so then everyone’s building their own Legos
0:17:59 with what they have, but yeah, that’s totally a thing.
0:18:00 – So the Gold Rush in Devin’s case,
0:18:03 we’ll call it the general rise in interest
0:18:07 in interactive online classes for kids and adults really.
0:18:08 And then coming up with a unique offer
0:18:10 to sell into that space.
0:18:11 And it’s always the example that I give like,
0:18:14 look, if she can make money teaching video games for kids,
0:18:16 you can monetize just about anything.
0:18:18 So that is idea generating framework.
0:18:21 Number three, the sell shovels into a Gold Rush.
0:18:24 What Gold Rush might you be able to sell some shovels into?
0:18:27 Number four is what I call the intersection method.
0:18:29 And this aims to find potential business ideas
0:18:31 at the intersection of your skills,
0:18:34 your interests, and your network.
0:18:37 For example, I started a freelance book editing business
0:18:40 several years ago using this exact method.
0:18:42 Number one, I thought I was a decent writer
0:18:43 and a decent proofreader.
0:18:45 Like I was an A student in English at school,
0:18:47 even though I’d never been paid to do that before.
0:18:50 I was interested in reading non-fiction,
0:18:52 self-improvement business books.
0:18:54 I’d even written a handful of myself at that time.
0:18:57 I was in Facebook groups, this is the network piece.
0:19:00 I was in Facebook groups with other self-published authors.
0:19:02 And it worked well.
0:19:04 It was a fun little side hustle experiment.
0:19:06 I read some, actually some pretty fun and interesting books
0:19:09 and some not so great ones along the way too.
0:19:10 And earned some extra cash.
0:19:13 Another cool example of this came from David Paxton
0:19:17 from Daily Golf Steals, where he was interested in golf.
0:19:20 He had some skills or learned some skills
0:19:22 in sourcing deals in a systemized way.
0:19:26 And he was an active member of a popular golf subreddit.
0:19:29 So skills, interests, and network.
0:19:32 Unlike most affiliate businesses which take months
0:19:36 or maybe even a year plus to gain any significant traction,
0:19:40 Daily Golf Steals posted two grand in your first month.
0:19:42 So talk to me about how you made that happen.
0:19:43 – Yeah, absolutely.
0:19:46 It was very nice off the bat to have quite such a good month.
0:19:49 So it was a confluence of a few different factors.
0:19:51 One, it was July.
0:19:53 So a good month full golf, it’s sunny,
0:19:55 everyone’s playing golf, people are outside,
0:19:57 and they probably even got a bit into that golf season
0:19:59 looking to purchase that next piece of equipment
0:20:01 that’s gonna get them over the hill.
0:20:02 So that was kind of one piece.
0:20:05 And then the second, and I’ll talk a bit more about it
0:20:06 and the facts of the Reddit plays.
0:20:09 – This is July, 2021, just for the sake of timeline.
0:20:11 – That is correct, yes, exactly.
0:20:13 So just about going on two years ago now,
0:20:16 the second piece here is Reddit, just as an audience.
0:20:17 It’s an amazing community.
0:20:19 And if you can get them on your side,
0:20:21 you get them engaged, you’re providing value,
0:20:23 they can be your biggest advocates.
0:20:24 And the fact that in the first month
0:20:26 was able to just get that level,
0:20:28 I can’t remember the quite number of clicks,
0:20:30 they’re just people instantly engaging,
0:20:33 instantly using your clicks to go through to these websites
0:20:34 and making purchases.
0:20:36 And it’s really just a showcase in the value
0:20:38 that a free audience can do,
0:20:39 as long as you can bring them along for the right.
0:20:41 – Was there even a website at that point
0:20:43 or is it you’re posting affiliate links
0:20:45 directly to a golf subreddit?
0:20:46 – There was a website.
0:20:48 And the website, I’ll be honest,
0:20:51 it’s not the prettiest thing, but it gets the job done.
0:20:52 And that really was the funnel.
0:20:54 I mean, Reddit back to some of its,
0:20:58 I would say it’s sometimes anti-corporation, anti-shilling.
0:20:59 They are a bit wary.
0:21:01 However, I was able to sort of,
0:21:04 I would put up about five to seven deals.
0:21:06 I would give some that were kind of freebies,
0:21:07 they would just go straight.
0:21:08 I wasn’t making any money of them
0:21:10 and trying to find that right balance.
0:21:12 And then two or three of them at the time,
0:21:14 I would actually have them go to daily golf steals
0:21:15 and then they would need to make that click
0:21:16 and then go through.
0:21:18 And those ones that would be actually monetizing.
0:21:22 – Now, I am curious to hear how you gently
0:21:23 started dropping these links.
0:21:24 ‘Cause like you said, Reddit could be
0:21:26 very anti-self promotion.
0:21:28 And if they sniff out that you’re,
0:21:30 they’re not as a member of the community,
0:21:32 but it has to be for-profit corporation.
0:21:33 And all of a sudden it’s like,
0:21:34 wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
0:21:36 I mean, I guess you’re coming in with,
0:21:37 hey, look, I’m trying to be helpful here.
0:21:38 I’m trying to save you guys some money.
0:21:40 Like here’s some cool stuff that we found,
0:21:42 but just curious how you approach that.
0:21:43 – There’s a couple of things.
0:21:47 So one, the R golf subreddit is a weird grandfathered position.
0:21:49 So for whatever reason, going back,
0:21:51 I think three or four people,
0:21:54 there’s always been someone who’s the go-to deal person
0:21:56 on the subreddit, posting those deals,
0:21:57 doing out of the goodness of their hearts.
0:21:59 So there’s kind of an established role.
0:22:01 And there’s actually someone who was already doing it,
0:22:03 but I kind of sort of tried to work alongside
0:22:05 a bit of friendly competition, I’ll say.
0:22:08 So one is an established position.
0:22:09 And then the second piece here
0:22:10 is demonstrating that value.
0:22:13 It’s really about actually spending that time
0:22:15 digging in with the deals,
0:22:16 while getting to a bit more
0:22:17 about how to automate it and source them.
0:22:19 But it was like, I think people kind of said,
0:22:21 okay, yeah, maybe it’s an extra click.
0:22:23 Maybe there’s a bit of self promotion.
0:22:24 But if he’s actually finding me good deals
0:22:25 and I’m making that purchase
0:22:27 and the number of messages I was getting from folks
0:22:29 that said, there’s real value here.
0:22:31 You started to actually see that engagement
0:22:33 and build some support.
0:22:35 And I think that’s the other piece I would say here too
0:22:37 is people would actually jump to my defense.
0:22:38 Someone would be like, hang on,
0:22:39 like this is shilling, self promotion.
0:22:41 And then someone would be like, no, hang on,
0:22:42 like he’s actually doing this.
0:22:43 He’s been doing it consistently.
0:22:44 That’s okay.
0:22:45 And I think that’s really where it goes.
0:22:48 And I mean, such a strong part of Reddit is the community.
0:22:49 And that was the other thing.
0:22:51 It’s like, I would listen to feedback.
0:22:53 Someone would say, hey, that deals normally live.
0:22:54 I’d be like, oh, okay, let me update it.
0:22:56 Or like actually chatting to people.
0:22:58 It’s not just post the link and be done.
0:23:01 It’s post the links, engage, ask questions,
0:23:02 have other people contribute,
0:23:04 really buying into that community aspect.
0:23:05 – Yeah, being a part of it.
0:23:08 In that sense, you weren’t relying on SEO
0:23:09 for discoverability.
0:23:12 It was like, I’m gonna shortcut the audience building phase
0:23:16 go directly to the hungry crowd who wants this stuff.
0:23:19 Again, that’s episode 583 with David Paxton.
0:23:20 What do you like doing?
0:23:21 What are you good at?
0:23:22 And who can you connect with
0:23:24 that might value those things?
0:23:25 That’s the intersection method.
0:23:29 And maybe you’ve seen the Ikigai Venn diagram type of picture.
0:23:33 Japanese word loosely translated to reason for being
0:23:35 or purpose where your Ikigai,
0:23:39 and apologies if I’m butchering that pronunciation,
0:23:41 but it lies at this intersection of what you love,
0:23:43 what you’re good at, what you can get paid for,
0:23:46 and what the world needs or what the market wants.
0:23:48 Maybe a little more broadly.
0:23:50 Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert in the comic strip
0:23:53 described it as finding a combination
0:23:56 of potentially common different skills or traits
0:23:59 that when combined can turn into a superpower.
0:24:02 He gave the example of being a slightly above average
0:24:05 cartoonist and a slightly above average humorist,
0:24:07 but combining the two to make a really successful
0:24:08 comic strip.
0:24:10 James Clear the same way gave himself a little more credit.
0:24:13 He called himself a 90th percentile writer,
0:24:14 not the best in the world,
0:24:16 not gonna put that kind of pressure on yourself,
0:24:18 which on its own probably not enough,
0:24:21 but then combine it with what he also described
0:24:23 as a 90th percentile marketer.
0:24:26 And all of a sudden, it’s a really powerful combination
0:24:29 and atomic habits goes on to sell millions of copies.
0:24:32 Christy De Silva was another example from the podcast
0:24:32 in the last year.
0:24:36 She gave this example in episode 627.
0:24:38 – Everyone was saying like niche down,
0:24:38 niche down, niche down.
0:24:41 And I was like, but I don’t even know what I like to do yet.
0:24:45 So I took some time and I did a little bit of everything.
0:24:47 So I was just a virtual assistant.
0:24:50 I did like admin, content creation, systems,
0:24:52 all the things.
0:24:55 And after about six months, I would say,
0:24:56 I decided, you know what?
0:25:00 I don’t want to do everything for everyone.
0:25:04 And that’s when I decided to invest in my first business
0:25:07 coach where our first session together,
0:25:10 basically she had me just like word vomit,
0:25:14 all the things that I loved about my job
0:25:16 and did not love about my job.
0:25:19 And we very quickly realized at the end of that session
0:25:21 that what I was really passionate about
0:25:23 was getting people organized.
0:25:27 And the pathway to do that was through systems.
0:25:29 So at this point for my clients,
0:25:31 I had already set up my two favorite tools,
0:25:33 ClickUp and HoneyBook.
0:25:35 I’ve also set up different CRMs
0:25:36 and project management tools for people,
0:25:39 but I felt very strongly that these were the tools
0:25:41 that I wanted to master.
0:25:45 And at the time, I’ll be honest with you, Nick,
0:25:50 I actually didn’t see many people in the online space
0:25:54 like just niching down into specific tools
0:25:57 and being like pros.
0:25:59 They had ClickUp Consulting at the time
0:26:01 was a very small group of people.
0:26:03 HoneyBook Pros wasn’t even a thing.
0:26:06 I was one of the first like 12 HoneyBook Pros.
0:26:10 And so it felt like again, this like leap of faith,
0:26:13 like starting as leap of faith, continuing,
0:26:15 you’re constantly having to believe in yourself,
0:26:19 but then niching and taking such a drastic turn
0:26:22 was definitely like a mindset thing of like,
0:26:24 I feel like this is the right thing,
0:26:26 but I hope that it pays off.
0:26:27 – And pay off it did.
0:26:30 Christy went from generalist to specialist
0:26:33 and ended up 10xing her hourly rate as a result.
0:26:37 She was interested in and excited about building systems.
0:26:40 She had some skills in a couple of specific software tools
0:26:42 and she could potentially get certified
0:26:45 through those platforms as a fast track way
0:26:47 to connect with potential clients.
0:26:49 That is episode 627 in your archives
0:26:50 if you wanna go check it out,
0:26:52 but this is the intersection method.
0:26:53 What do you know?
0:26:55 What do you like and who do you know?
0:26:58 What’s the network and maybe your network’s network?
0:26:59 Who, what kind of people do you know
0:27:01 to go a little bit broader?
0:27:04 And at the intersection of those is a potential side hustle.
0:27:07 Number five is the scratch your own itch method.
0:27:09 This is solve your own problem.
0:27:10 The saying goes because other people
0:27:13 are probably facing the same issue.
0:27:15 For Lou Rice in episode 589,
0:27:18 inspiration for her Kindle e-reader strap
0:27:20 struck in the middle of the night.
0:27:22 So you drop the sig on your newborn’s head,
0:27:24 obviously probably upsetting for him.
0:27:27 And then you’re like, shoot, what happens next?
0:27:29 – Yeah, I mean, very upsetting for me too, right?
0:27:32 And I think it’s that new mom’s middle of the night,
0:27:33 hour long breast feeds,
0:27:35 and you don’t wanna be on your phone all the time.
0:27:37 So reading a Kindle is a great option.
0:27:42 That happened about 2 a.m., Ben ran in, we were all crying.
0:27:46 But the next day, Ben’s a bit of a creative type.
0:27:48 He had a piece of silicon, a silicon mat,
0:27:52 and he fashioned a really crude strap with staples.
0:27:54 And he gave that to me to try out.
0:27:57 And after a month of that, I was pretty hooked.
0:27:59 I didn’t want the Kindle without it.
0:28:01 I was able to obviously do a lot of things one handed
0:28:04 as you need to when you have a baby.
0:28:06 So we kind of thought, oh, this could be something.
0:28:08 – And this is like 2021.
0:28:10 Had nobody thought of this before?
0:28:13 They had to be a competitive product on the market.
0:28:15 – We had a little look around, obviously on Amazon,
0:28:18 there are similar products, but they were pretty ugly.
0:28:20 They had like little metal claws,
0:28:22 or they’re very industrial looking.
0:28:26 And nothing kind of sleek and stylish like our straps are.
0:28:29 So the silicon means it’s the perfect fit,
0:28:31 like it molds to your hand.
0:28:33 – When we spoke, she was selling like 50 grand a month,
0:28:37 worth of these simple, lightweight Kindle straps.
0:28:39 And I know she’s gotten some great press since then
0:28:41 from pain and frustration to opportunity.
0:28:44 Here’s how Gar Russell described the origin story
0:28:47 of his RV rental business in episode 625.
0:28:49 You have this idea, like it’s gonna be a fantastic
0:28:52 birthday present for your lovely bride,
0:28:54 or an anniversary present rather.
0:28:55 And hey, howdy, we got this RV.
0:28:58 Let’s go, we’re gonna have all these fun times in the woods,
0:29:02 imagining the years of outdoor fun and adventure ahead of you.
0:29:05 And her reaction is not quite what you’re hoping it will be.
0:29:08 – Yeah, we got to the campground and we got set up.
0:29:10 I thought all was going well.
0:29:14 The first morning when she’s chasing our toddler around
0:29:17 and seven months pregnant with number four,
0:29:20 and she said, “I’m going home, baby.”
0:29:22 And I thought, “Oh, what did I forget?”
0:29:24 And I didn’t forget anything.
0:29:25 She was just miserable.
0:29:27 And she was done camping.
0:29:29 And we were supposed to be there six more days.
0:29:34 – Yeah, so that’s not how anybody wanted it to go down.
0:29:36 – No, no, not at all.
0:29:38 And I went right into panic mode of,
0:29:42 “Oh my gosh, I just bought this RV for a lot of money
0:29:44 and my wife doesn’t want to be here
0:29:47 and jumped onto Craigslist and threw it up for rent.”
0:29:51 – Okay, so you’ve got this big expensive asset/liability
0:29:53 at the moment, but hopefully it turns into an asset.
0:29:54 Sitting in the driveway, it’s like,
0:29:56 “Well, shoot, what am I gonna do with this thing?”
0:30:00 So you turn around and put up for rent on Craigslist.
0:30:02 What kind of reaction, does that get?
0:30:03 Any takers?
0:30:05 – Yeah, it blew my mind.
0:30:07 I literally had inquiries coming in
0:30:09 within a couple of hours.
0:30:11 So the light bulb immediately went off.
0:30:14 People are, “Hey, I need it for this weekend.”
0:30:17 ‘Cause that was in July when I purchased it for her.
0:30:19 So it’s like in the middle of summer.
0:30:20 And people are like, “Oh, hey, we’re going camping
0:30:22 this weekend or that weekend.”
0:30:23 – Sure.
0:30:24 – So it was wild.
0:30:25 – That is idea-generating framework.
0:30:28 Number five, scratch your own itch.
0:30:29 Figure out, well, what annoys you?
0:30:31 You can keep a mental note of all the things
0:30:34 that frustrate you, that you spend money to solve.
0:30:35 You look at your credit card statement.
0:30:38 What is a disproportionate portion
0:30:39 of your spending going towards?
0:30:41 What do you wish you didn’t have to deal with?
0:30:43 What are the things that your friends, neighbors,
0:30:45 coworkers complain to you about?
0:30:47 Because on the other side of all of those
0:30:49 is potential business idea, potential side hustle.
0:30:52 We’ve got a couple more idea-generating frameworks
0:30:54 coming up for you right after this.
0:30:58 – Creating really great retail experiences is tough.
0:31:00 Especially if you’ve got multiple stores,
0:31:03 teams of staff, fulfillment centers, separate workflows,
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0:31:09 you can do it all without complexity.
0:31:12 Shopify’s Point of Sale system is a unified command center
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0:31:18 One thing that’s really cool about Shopify POS
0:31:19 is you can keep customers coming back
0:31:21 with personalized experiences
0:31:24 and collect that all-important first-party data
0:31:27 to give your marketing teams a competitive edge.
0:31:29 Even if that marketing team is just you.
0:31:31 Now how about some data to back that up?
0:31:34 Businesses on Shopify POS see real results,
0:31:37 including a 22% better total cost of ownership
0:31:42 and benefits equivalent to an 8.9% uplift in sales.
0:31:43 Want more?
0:31:46 Check out shopify.com/sidehustle.
0:31:48 That’s all lowercase and learn how to create
0:31:51 the best retail experiences without complexity.
0:31:55 Again, that’s at shopify.com/sidehustle.
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0:33:13 Idea generation framework number six
0:33:15 is called Expert Enough.
0:33:19 The idea here is you probably have an area of your life
0:33:20 or maybe several areas of your life
0:33:23 where you know more about than the average person.
0:33:25 And this one can be a little tricky
0:33:26 because once you know something,
0:33:28 it’s hard to imagine not knowing it.
0:33:30 It’s called the Curse of Knowledge
0:33:32 and you almost assume everyone else
0:33:33 must also know this thing.
0:33:36 It’s not that special, but you’d be surprised
0:33:38 that other people might pay to access the stuff
0:33:41 that’s in your head that is second nature to you,
0:33:42 the stuff that you don’t think twice about.
0:33:45 Here’s how Hugo or Tega described it
0:33:47 in episode 602 last year.
0:33:49 – So basically, working as Yacht Crew,
0:33:50 it’s really, really common for people
0:33:51 to have envy towards your job,
0:33:53 ask you how did you get into this?
0:33:55 What do I need to do to do the same thing?
0:33:57 It’s kind of something that we blow off
0:34:00 because you wouldn’t be surprised how many people ask me.
0:34:01 I give them the breakdown, I explain it,
0:34:04 and then everyone goes, “Well, okay, cool,
0:34:06 “I’ll do that sometime.”
0:34:08 And it just kind of got used to doing the same pitch,
0:34:11 copy and pasting the same notes over and over,
0:34:14 but I saw that more and more people were making money online
0:34:15 and it was becoming more and more common
0:34:17 for people to be able to work from their laptop.
0:34:19 So I was based on a boat at the time in the Netherlands.
0:34:21 It was really cold, it was winter, it was bleak,
0:34:23 it was snowing all the time,
0:34:24 and it was this huge contrast
0:34:26 between what I’d been previously doing,
0:34:27 whether it was in the Caribbean
0:34:29 or in the nice Mediterranean waters,
0:34:31 and I just thought maybe there’s something I can do
0:34:34 on the side so I can transition less to doing this
0:34:37 and maybe kind of work a little bit on the boats
0:34:38 but also have something online
0:34:40 because ultimately I knew that I didn’t want
0:34:42 to be permanently on the boats.
0:34:43 – And it wasn’t the first side hustle
0:34:46 that you thought about or that you started, was it?
0:34:48 – No, no, actually I was trying a few different things.
0:34:49 I was looking at drop shipping,
0:34:51 I was in the middle of building a website
0:34:54 trying to sell different Chinese trinkets
0:34:54 and different things.
0:34:56 I was thinking about a lot of different things.
0:34:58 Ultimately I kept coming across more and more people
0:35:01 that were doing information products or courses
0:35:03 based on stuff that they already knew.
0:35:06 And it seemed like people were really successful
0:35:08 when they actually either had the knowledge
0:35:09 or they had the passion for the topic
0:35:10 that they were thinking about.
0:35:13 So that got me to thinking about the niche
0:35:14 that I currently work in and I was thinking,
0:35:17 well there’s not that many people that actually work on yachts.
0:35:18 There’s a famous TV show
0:35:20 that a lot of people think they know about yachting
0:35:23 but it’s kind of a caricature of my industry.
0:35:25 But anyway, I thought maybe this is something that I have
0:35:27 that other people would like to do.
0:35:28 I mean, I knew that people had been asking me
0:35:30 about it all the time.
0:35:32 So I just thought maybe I can package that together
0:35:35 and show people how to do it and that could work.
0:35:36 – Yeah, it’s interesting.
0:35:39 It’s a very niche type of career
0:35:41 but still something where you’ve been able to find
0:35:43 a large enough audience that’s interested in it
0:35:46 to say, okay, we can turn this into a business.
0:35:47 Yeah, it’s definitely helpful
0:35:49 if you’ve got the actual knowledge and experience
0:35:51 to go out and do that thing.
0:35:53 Definitely helpful than just the current trend
0:35:56 inside us is, well, let’s just regurgitate a bunch of AI
0:35:58 and spin up a website and see if it ranks.
0:36:00 It’s like, I don’t know how sustainable
0:36:02 that’s gonna be long-term.
0:36:04 And in your case, it was kind of like
0:36:07 this aspiring yachty career advice seeker.
0:36:10 People trying to kind of land their first job in the space.
0:36:11 Like that was kind of the thesis of who I’m gonna target.
0:36:14 – Right, that was probably my original target as well
0:36:16 but then I also wanted to target people
0:36:18 that maybe just wanted to travel.
0:36:20 They wanted to work abroad or make money
0:36:22 just in an unconventional way
0:36:23 ’cause that was pretty much what I was doing.
0:36:25 When I first discovered yachting,
0:36:26 I had never been on the water much.
0:36:28 I didn’t even know how to swim at the time
0:36:30 and while it was backpacking in Southeast Asia,
0:36:32 I met someone who was doing this job
0:36:34 and just the more and more they told me about it,
0:36:35 it sounded more and more appealing.
0:36:37 And again, my love for travel was really
0:36:38 what drove me into the industry.
0:36:40 It wasn’t so much a love for boating
0:36:42 or a previous sailing experience.
0:36:44 So I figured that it’d be nice to try to find people
0:36:46 that were in the same situation as me
0:36:48 ’cause I felt like if I could do it
0:36:49 and I could have a successful career
0:36:51 getting even up to the position of captain
0:36:53 that I thought a lot of other people
0:36:55 might be able to do the same thing.
0:36:56 – So here’s a quick exercise.
0:36:58 Make a mental note or even a physical note
0:37:01 of the stuff that people ask you questions about.
0:37:04 That’s a sign that you’ve got some perceived expertise
0:37:05 in that area.
0:37:07 It might not be the world’s foremost thought leader
0:37:09 on the topic but you don’t have to be
0:37:12 if you were just a step ahead of your target customer.
0:37:15 Like Hugo found, it just might be expert enough.
0:37:18 You can also take stock of the problems or challenges
0:37:21 that you’ve overcome, the things that you found frustrating
0:37:22 but figured out a solution for,
0:37:25 or the things that come easy to you
0:37:26 that other people struggle with.
0:37:29 And that’s a sign that you might be expert enough.
0:37:31 Again, that’s episode 602 with Hugo
0:37:34 building an online expert-based business
0:37:37 based on his experience or working on yachts,
0:37:39 working on big boats.
0:37:40 That’s framework number six.
0:37:43 And before we move on to our final framework,
0:37:45 I think it’s worthwhile to share a counterpoint
0:37:47 for expert enough, a counterpoint for this one
0:37:50 where you can actually build expertise over time
0:37:52 by following your curiosity.
0:37:55 And the side hustle show is probably a good example
0:37:57 of that where I had a little bit of side hustle experience
0:37:59 when I started, I’d already quit my job
0:38:01 to run the side business full-time,
0:38:03 which I figured at least gave me some authority
0:38:05 to start talking about this stuff
0:38:07 but I’ve definitely gained a whole lot more experience
0:38:09 by embedding myself in the space
0:38:12 for the last 11 and a half years.
0:38:13 But the counterpoint that I had in mind
0:38:17 is Harry Duran from the Vertical Farming Podcast.
0:38:21 Get this, Harry was running a podcast production company
0:38:24 but he didn’t have any agriculture experience.
0:38:26 He didn’t have even any connections in that industry.
0:38:29 It was just something he was curious about.
0:38:31 So we started recording conversations
0:38:33 with leaders in the vertical farming space
0:38:36 and built a really inspiring side hustle
0:38:37 on the back of that.
0:38:39 Here’s Harry on how he landed his first guests.
0:38:42 – And then I started early with influencers in the space,
0:38:45 people who were writing news sites about vertical farming.
0:38:47 I got those early people on
0:38:48 and then I started going for the CEOs
0:38:50 and thankfully a couple of them said yes.
0:38:51 – Isn’t that funny?
0:38:53 I want to pause there ’cause like if you’re just a dude,
0:38:55 you say like, hey, can I pick your brain,
0:38:58 call it up some random CEO or cold emailing them.
0:39:00 You’d be like, who are you again?
0:39:01 Like, no, I’m not taking your call.
0:39:04 But if you say, I have the Vertical Farming Podcast
0:39:06 and you are clearly a leader in this space,
0:39:08 would you give me an hour of your time?
0:39:10 All of a sudden it’s like, it kind of flips that conversation.
0:39:13 They’re flattered by that invite in a lot of cases
0:39:15 and it’s a chance to talk about what they’re doing
0:39:17 and hammer hone their agenda.
0:39:18 I think it’s really cool.
0:39:20 – I think what a lot of people overthink sometimes
0:39:22 is this idea of reaching out to people and saying,
0:39:24 oh, this person is never going to say hi,
0:39:26 I’m a little embarrassed to ask, they don’t know who I am.
0:39:28 And the first thing I did is I whipped up Airtable,
0:39:29 one of my favorite apps.
0:39:31 I just started dropping in all these companies,
0:39:33 vertical farming companies, just doing my research,
0:39:36 who’s the CEO, who’s the founder and building my list.
0:39:37 Some people call it a dream 100,
0:39:39 but people I wanted to have a conversation with.
0:39:42 And when I started early, those early conversations,
0:39:45 I would say, hey, I’m reaching out to name one,
0:39:48 name two, name three, these CEOs and people would see that.
0:39:51 And even though I hadn’t actually had the conversation
0:39:52 with them, by virtue of them seeing that name there,
0:39:54 they’re like, oh, he’s going for like the big names
0:39:55 in the space.
0:39:57 Once those people started confirming,
0:39:58 I would change the language.
0:40:02 I would say, I’ve now confirmed a interview with so and so.
0:40:03 And then obviously once I started–
0:40:04 – Okay, okay.
0:40:05 – Yeah, and stair stepping.
0:40:06 I’m kind of banking on the name recognition
0:40:10 that people are going to know who those other names were.
0:40:11 Okay.
0:40:12 – And then once those started getting confirmed
0:40:14 and scheduled, I said, I’ve now scheduled an interview.
0:40:15 So I just kept changing language.
0:40:16 Obviously, once I’ve recorded,
0:40:19 I’ve recorded three interviews with A, B, C, and D.
0:40:20 – Harry went on to explain how he booked
0:40:25 a $9,000 sponsorship deal before releasing a single episode.
0:40:29 And it was something like $80,000 in total sponsorships
0:40:32 over the course of the show for a very part-time project.
0:40:34 In a niche, he had no expertise in.
0:40:37 So maybe we should call this framework number 6.5.
0:40:40 Curious enough in contrast to expert enough,
0:40:41 but a super inspiring story.
0:40:44 Again, 586 in your archives if you wanna go back
0:40:46 and check that one out.
0:40:48 Number seven is the probing for pain method.
0:40:51 And this can be incredibly profitable
0:40:53 if you know how to ask the right questions.
0:40:56 How this generally works is calling up a business owner.
0:40:58 It could be someone you have a previous relationship with.
0:40:59 It could be somebody you never met
0:41:01 and asking questions like,
0:41:02 hey, tell me a little bit about your business.
0:41:05 What’s the biggest challenge facing your industry
0:41:06 over the next five years?
0:41:08 What does a typical day look like for you?
0:41:10 What’s the most frustrating or time-consuming
0:41:11 part of your business?
0:41:13 Jonathan Stark is a pro at this.
0:41:16 He explained how it works in episode 505.
0:41:18 – Okay, so let’s assume that you’re good.
0:41:19 You’re really good at something.
0:41:20 You know you’re good at it.
0:41:22 You don’t have to be the best in the world at it.
0:41:24 You just need to be a lot better at it
0:41:25 than the people you’re gonna serve.
0:41:29 So, for example, if you wanna sell web development services
0:41:31 to web developers, you need to be great.
0:41:33 But that’s not the kind of thing I’m talking about here.
0:41:36 Let’s say you totally understand how Facebook ads works
0:41:39 and you wanna help, we’ll use dentists again.
0:41:41 So you say– – Dentists are getting picked on.
0:41:45 – Yeah, dentists are like my favorite vertical.
0:41:46 They’re a great one, actually,
0:41:48 because virtually everyone knows one.
0:41:49 So if you do something for dentists,
0:41:50 you can basically go to a party
0:41:53 and literally everyone at that party can recommend,
0:41:54 can introduce you to a dentist.
0:41:55 – Fair enough, okay.
0:42:00 – But anyway, so let’s say you do Facebook ads for dentists.
0:42:01 You already know Facebook ads.
0:42:02 You taught yourself that.
0:42:05 Maybe you did it for fun on a side project or whatever,
0:42:07 but you just consider that you know a lot about it,
0:42:09 probably more than the average dentist.
0:42:11 And then what you do is you go to that party
0:42:13 or you just email your friends
0:42:16 or you, in some private forum, you say,
0:42:19 “Hey, I am thinking about putting together
0:42:20 “a new service for dentists.
0:42:21 “Does anybody know anybody
0:42:23 “that you’d be comfortable introducing me to
0:42:25 “so I could talk to them about this business idea?”
0:42:27 And you’re gonna get virtually every,
0:42:29 assuming you have some friends and family,
0:42:31 you’re going to get a bunch of names.
0:42:32 – Okay.
0:42:34 – Then either you have them intro you
0:42:36 or you reach out to the dentist directly
0:42:38 and you say something along the lines of,
0:42:40 “Hey, I got your name from Bob
0:42:43 “and I’m thinking about starting a new business,
0:42:44 “but before I do that,
0:42:46 “I want to talk to a few people like you
0:42:48 “or experts in your field and find out
0:42:49 “if I’m barking up the wrong tree
0:42:51 “or if this is valuable to anybody.
0:42:53 “This isn’t the sales call in any way.
0:42:56 “I just wanna pick your brain for 15 minutes.”
0:42:57 And in exchange for that,
0:43:00 I would love to answer any questions you might have
0:43:02 about Facebook ads or other things
0:43:05 that other sorts of social media advertising.
0:43:06 – Okay.
0:43:07 – I’ve had some people go nuts with this
0:43:10 and send out maybe a hundred emails like that.
0:43:14 Had other people just send out maybe 20 emails like that.
0:43:18 And in both cases, you get about a 10% response rate.
0:43:20 People are generally pretty happy
0:43:23 to help you out with stuff like this.
0:43:25 As long as, one, they believe
0:43:27 that it’s not a sales call,
0:43:32 and, two, that you’re not some kind of direct competitor
0:43:34 who’s trying to find out trade secrets about you.
0:43:35 – Oh, okay, okay.
0:43:37 – So you have to be really sensitive
0:43:38 about those things and the kinds of questions
0:43:40 you ask them when you get them on the phone.
0:43:42 But assuming that you’re sensitive to that sort of thing
0:43:44 and it makes perfect sense
0:43:46 why you’re asking given questions,
0:43:49 then it’s really not that much of a problem.
0:43:50 So when you get them on the phone,
0:43:53 you say, “Hey, in your mind,
0:43:55 you’re thinking I have this hypothesis,
0:43:58 I have this problem that would be valuable to be,
0:44:00 Dennis would find valuable to be solved.”
0:44:03 And you validate that without leading the witness too much.
0:44:05 So you don’t want to put words in the mouth like,
0:44:09 “Hey, if I offered a service where I advise you
0:44:11 about your Facebook ads
0:44:15 or I manage your Facebook ads for you at night or whatever,
0:44:17 then would you pay for that?
0:44:18 How much would you pay for that?
0:44:21 ‘Cause that’s too much.
0:44:23 People are either gonna be nice and just say yes
0:44:28 or it’s gonna feel weird and awkward and salesy.
0:44:31 I prefer to ask questions that are more like,
0:44:34 the last time you did some advertising, how did you do it?
0:44:37 And they’ll explain some situation, something,
0:44:40 or, and that’ll lead you to the next,
0:44:41 have you ever thought about this
0:44:43 or have you ever thought about that?
0:44:44 You’re not putting words in their mouth,
0:44:46 but you are directing them somewhat,
0:44:47 at least on the topic area.
0:44:50 So you don’t want to get on the phone calling
0:44:51 and just come straight out with like,
0:44:52 “If you could wave a magic wand
0:44:55 and make your dental practice better, what would it be?”
0:44:56 ‘Cause they might go off and say like,
0:44:58 “Oh, if this teeth-wetting stuff was cheaper
0:45:00 then that would be fantastic because it costs so much.”
0:45:02 And I can’t, and they’ll go off for 15 minutes
0:45:03 talking about something
0:45:05 that there’s no way you can help them.
0:45:05 – Okay, okay.
0:45:09 So they, you know, specific to your service area
0:45:11 or your hypothetical service area.
0:45:13 Like, what kind of advertising have you done so far?
0:45:15 What’s your social media presence like?
0:45:19 – Right, and literally everybody on every one of these calls,
0:45:21 I’d call them market research calls,
0:45:26 everybody is, their hypothesis usually blown out of the water
0:45:28 or at least blown sideways by these.
0:45:29 And that’s why they’re so important
0:45:32 because if you just went out and did all the work
0:45:35 to set up a sales page for this service
0:45:38 or started putting together, you know,
0:45:39 a bunch of content marketing
0:45:41 that you were gonna put on an email list,
0:45:43 like a trip campaign, it would be a giant waste of time
0:45:46 because it would turn out that the specifics
0:45:48 of what people actually find valuable
0:45:53 in your expertise space is different than what you think.
0:45:55 And there’s another important piece
0:45:56 is that they’re gonna use a bunch of words
0:45:58 that a non-expert would use
0:46:00 to describe the stuff that you’re an expert at.
0:46:01 And you need to get those words
0:46:03 and put them in your marketing materials
0:46:06 so that your perfect ideal clients
0:46:09 will recognize the message.
0:46:10 – Oh, okay.
0:46:13 So if they’re not talking about, you know, CPMs
0:46:16 and you know how these different jargony words,
0:46:17 they’re like, I could really use more,
0:46:19 I could really use more patience
0:46:20 to get in my dental practice.
0:46:21 – Right, yeah, they’re gonna talk about,
0:46:23 they’re gonna talk about their business
0:46:25 in their business terms and you need to get,
0:46:28 this is the benefit of targeting a specific market
0:46:30 is that you pull that language that’s specific
0:46:33 to that tribe to use the Seth Godin term
0:46:35 and you can put that straight into your materials.
0:46:36 So at the top of the page, when you say,
0:46:38 I helped Dennis with Facebook ads,
0:46:39 they’re gonna read down that page
0:46:41 and it’s gonna be like they’re talking to a dentist,
0:46:43 like you obviously get them.
0:46:46 It’s gonna be, it’s a really good trust builder,
0:46:48 you know, from just a static page
0:46:49 or if you’re doing it over email,
0:46:51 which, you know, in this case probably better,
0:46:54 you know, it’s amazing the difference.
0:46:56 You get their heads nodding immediately.
0:46:58 – Oldie, but a goodie, that original call
0:47:01 with Jonathan Stark, if you scroll down to number 505
0:47:03 in your podcast feed, you should be able to find it.
0:47:05 My hope is that this episode has shown you,
0:47:08 there’s no one right way to come up with your side hustle
0:47:09 idea, your next business idea,
0:47:12 but there are lots of different methods and exercises
0:47:14 to try if you’re struggling to find something
0:47:16 that resonates with you.
0:47:17 To recap, what we covered, number one,
0:47:19 was rip, pivot, and jam.
0:47:21 This is take somebody else’s business model,
0:47:24 pivot it to a new market, a new geography,
0:47:26 and jam, go out and do the work.
0:47:27 Number two was the sniper method,
0:47:31 look at a broad serving product or market or service
0:47:34 and figure out how can I carve out a tiny little sliver
0:47:35 where if everybody else has a shotgun,
0:47:37 how can I be a sniper rifle
0:47:39 and just carve out a tiny little niche?
0:47:42 Number three is the shovels in the gold rush method,
0:47:45 looking for trends and opportunities and figure out,
0:47:48 okay, how can I support the miners in that space?
0:47:50 How can I tap into those trends with something
0:47:52 that would be beneficial to them?
0:47:54 Number four is the intersection method.
0:47:57 This is what you know, what you like and who do you know?
0:48:00 How can you get connected with people that might value
0:48:01 those other two things?
0:48:03 Number five is the scratch your own itch method.
0:48:05 This is looking at your own pains and problems
0:48:07 and saying, well, if I’ve got this struggle,
0:48:09 it’s probably a struggle for somebody else as well.
0:48:12 Lots of examples of that in the archives.
0:48:14 Number six was expert enough.
0:48:16 This is looking at the areas
0:48:18 that other people ask you questions about.
0:48:20 You have some perceived expertise and authority
0:48:21 in that space.
0:48:22 Even you might not even think of yourself
0:48:24 as being an expert there, but other people do.
0:48:27 And that’s a good sign and there might be a market there.
0:48:30 Six and a half, we took a pause to talk about curious enough,
0:48:32 the counter example to expert enough
0:48:36 where if you can bring some unique curiosity into a space,
0:48:38 you can build credibility and authority over time
0:48:41 with the example of Harry and his vertical farming podcast
0:48:45 and number seven was what we called probing for pain.
0:48:47 This is a little bit of the market research,
0:48:51 the one-on-one conversations, what do people really want
0:48:54 and how can you use their own words to build a service
0:48:55 that would be beneficial to them.
0:48:57 And then of course, the other method, number eight,
0:48:59 is to just go binge on the side hustle show
0:49:00 until you find something that sounds good.
0:49:02 We’ve got hundreds of ideas to choose from.
0:49:05 So lots of different episodes mentioned in this one.
0:49:08 I’ll do my best to link up those specific references
0:49:09 in the show notes.
0:49:10 Easiest way to get there
0:49:13 is follow the show notes link in the episode description.
0:49:16 You find the full writeup on all of these different frameworks.
0:49:18 Big thanks to our sponsors
0:49:20 for helping make this content free for everyone.
0:49:23 As always, you can hit up side hustle nation.com/deals
0:49:26 for all the latest offers from our sponsors in one place.
0:49:28 Thank you for supporting the advertisers
0:49:29 that support the show.
0:49:30 That is it for me.
0:49:32 Thank you so much for tuning in.
0:49:34 If you’re finding value in the show,
0:49:36 the greatest compliment is to share it with a friend.
0:49:38 So fire off that text message to somebody
0:49:40 who’s looking for their next side hustle.
0:49:41 Until next time, let’s go out there
0:49:42 and make something happen.
0:49:44 And I’ll catch you in the next edition
0:49:46 of the side hustle show.