#130 Wild Ideas To Remember & Love

Welcoming you back with a Wild Card Edition for the 5th Tuesday of the month. We’ve kicked around different names for this rare occurrence; I may have even referred to it as a bonus edition in the past, but Wild Card is just so fitting.

Because it can be anything. No rules. No restrictions. No limits.

That’s the route we went here. Instead of the usual sections you’ve come to expect, we’ve got something a little different: a recap of the month that was, a section that hasn’t been around in a minute, and a story from me.

Not quite as exciting as drawing that Uno Wild, or maybeeee it is, but if you play your cards right (i.e apply whatever hits home), I bet you it will be more valuable.

The Best of The Best from July…

• Idea-Generation in Our Founder’s Note 💰️📈🚀

• Looking Back at The Best of July 💰️📈🚀

• Asking Questions in Cool Communicator 💰️📈🚀

FOUNDER’S NOTE ✍️ 

I met Nick, a 26-year-old software engineer, last weekend while watching an exhibition soccer match at MetLife Stadium, both of us guests of my future father-in-law. It was a really cool experience. Great energy, great company, and plenty of drinks.

At halftime, I decided it was time to pick Nick’s brain. With all the tools readily available in today’s world and his background in computers / tech, was he interested in one day starting his own business?

“Eventually, maybe, but I like working for a company. I like the structure, and coming up with fresh ideas for a business is a challenge, so it’s easier said than done.”

It’s that last part that stuck with me. I love brainstorming business ideas. I actually believe I got this trait from my day job in underwriting because I’m always researching different companies and learning about new developments. It’s hard to do that and not react like, “Wow, that’s a great idea, but what if…”

Everyone has their own path. Not everyone is entrepreneurial, and that’s totally fine, but I couldn’t let the conversation end there, so I shared this POV re: business idea generation:

The idea for this newsletter didn’t come from some stroke of genius or good luck or lucid dream while under the influence of psychedelics…

It came from a problem I dealt with early in my career. When I was young and just starting out, I always wished there was a resource that could help me navigate this new, real world I found myself in. Something to help with work, work-life balance, personal growth. Something to give me everything I didn’t learn in school.

So I built (and continue to build) my wish. A solution to my problem.

That’s where every great idea begins. With a problem. Or a question. Over the course of 130 editions, I’ve encountered so many problems. Small ones. Big ones. Random ones. And I realized that most problems become a real business opportunity.

So I said to Nick:

“Start writing down any problem you experience during a given day. Then think of a way to solve it. There’s a good chance that solution could be a business.”

The conversation resolved itself, and we went back to our seats, but now my brain was in business mode, and I began reflecting on all those problems I mentioned earlier and how the solutions could become part of OTF’s future. I have big ideas for OTF, a number of different ways we could go down the line, and every single idea stems from recognizing and analyzing problems I’ve encountered. And while I can’t speak for anyone else, it’s a good bet that if you ask any founder or entrepreneur how they came up with their business idea, they’d probably say the same thing.

THE BEST OF JULY 🔥 

ED 126: Sale-Ing Into July 

• 5 Things You Need To Know Before You Sell Anything

  
  A tandem breakdown with Prof Mike in Say It Better, presenting analysis that we believe is beneficial no matter what side of the selling you’re on. If you’re in sales, duh, but this is also important knowledge for consumers to better handle a world that never stops selling to us.

• Read To Sell is Human by Daniel Pink

  I actually just ordered this yesterday. Can’t wait to read it.
  
  (Note: we make no money off this or any books linked in Content for Your Commute; we simply want to recommend the best resources we can find.)

ED 127: SHUT-UP About AI…JK! 

• An Unprecedented Time to Stand Out In Your Career

  The opportunity with AI is right in front of us. This Working With AI was a breakdown of how to use it to stand out in your career ASAP.

• WTF is Vibe Coding & WTF is Vibe Marketing!?

  Scroll down to the Always Informed to learn about these two trending terms you need to know.

ED 128: Definition and Discipline

• Calm About Cash

  In Making Cents, I shared how I manage my emotions when it comes to unexpected expenses and balancing discretionary spending and saving.

ED 129: Behind the Grind w/ a Sports Wellness Founder

• Learn from Erik Poldroo, COO of The Zone, and how he approaches branding, productivity, and money.

  **There are so many gems in this interview, but one of my favorites is the money move he regrets and the lesson that came with it.

COOL COMMUNICATOR WITH PROF MIKE 🧠 

Asking Questions, Solving Problems

I had to piggy-back off Dan’s story because it matches an experience my students have every semester.

Over the years, I’ve given them plenty of brainstorming resources and exercises to help inspire essay ideas, and most involve self-reflection: experiences, likes, dislikes, hopes, dreams, fears, pet peeves, you name it. If you’re going to write with any measure of expertise, you should know the content. And since we’re all experts on ourselves, that’s as good a place to start as any.

This is the first nail that Dan hits on the head:

• Self-Reflection is the 1st Step Towards a Good Idea

So they go through this brainstorming process, and when it comes time to share their idea, I most often get something like “I want to write about mental health.”

Mental health is BROAD. What about mental health? What specifically do you want to say? Any student that submits an “idea” like this must go deeper, and the same can be said for any aspiring entrepreneur at this stage of their process:

• “I want to open a restaurant” ➡️ What kind of restaurant?

• “I want to get into retail” ➡️ Selling what?

• “I want to use my software engineering background to start my own business” ➡️ Doing what exactly?

How do you get where you need to go?

• You Must Ask and Answer Questions Until You Reach the Bottom of the Rabbit-Hole

Because simply answering those follow-ups I laid out above isn’t enough. You go until your vision can’t get any more specific. For example:

“I am going to write about mental health” ➡️ What about mental health? ➡️ "I’ll write about Gen Z and why they suffer from anxiety more than any other generation” ➡️ What are the causes you plan to cover? ➡️ “I’ll talk about social media, the decrease in physical human interaction, increased pressure to perform academically and professionally, and general economic, political, and environmental uncertainty…”

And this is where Dan’s story really rings true. You go down that rabbit hole, and you’re almost there, but there’s still one thing missing:

Why do you want to write about this, and what unique angle can you bring?

“Because it’s something my friends and I struggle with, and my experiences give me a unique perspective compared to what I’ve seen and read.”

There’s a problem — “No one’s talked about it exactly like this” — and a solution.

• You Need a Problem That You Can Solve

Every time someone writes or presents, they’re solving a problem. It’s either brand-new (increasingly rare) or one that hasn’t been solved or addressed adequately. They may not be saying anything ground-breaking, but their point-of-view is different enough to achieve a purpose: to teach or inform better, to be more persuasive, to conjure a new emotional response, to incite new action, etc.

Business ideas work the same way:

Go from general to specific; identify a problem; bring your own original solution to it.

That solution may not be entirely original — “That service is great, but what if they did this one thing differently?” — but solving one small problem or shortcoming is often enough to have a big impact.

Professor’s Notes:

1. Every problem begins as a question, and questions arise from observations. So be present, pay attention to little things, and you’ll be amazed by the ideas that pop into your head. “Why did that happen, why is X that way, etc.”
   

2. I don’t think you need to ask and answer questions in the order I sampled above. Maybe the problem comes first, and then you circle back to the specifics. As long as you have both in the end, you’re fine.

Before You Go

Next week, we’ll be back with August’s Growth Edition, which will feature Say It Better, Hustle Hub, and much, much more.

In the meantime, if you have a quick second, please let us hear from you in our exit poll. It always means a lot to us!

Community Poll 📊 

As always, see you next Tuesday 🤝 

Find Dan on LinkedIn

You are now On The Fly & In The Know.