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mind of an entrepreneur

AoL 030: The Importance of Having the Mind of an Entrepreneur with Joe Albano

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The economy changed as we knew it in 2008 after the recession hit. It made jobs much harder to find. No longer was just a resume going to cut it – especially if you wanted a job that paid more than minimum wage.

2008 was also the year that Pat Flynn lost his job and started his long journey to making SPI what it is today. Personally, I’m glad that he made that decision because without him, there would be one less voice out there promoting entrepreneurship – especially lifestyle entrepreneurship and passive income.

I graduated grad school a year later in 2009. The only jobs I knew at the time were internships and teaching in grad school. That’s why, when I got out, I was sort of lost. I knew I what I didn’t want (to be in a large corporation or a dead end job), but I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted.

It eventually occurred to me within a month or so after graduation that I wanted to get my career started with a startup because I had gotten my focus in Entrepreneurship.

That eventually happened (a couple of times) and now I’m finally doing what I went to grad school for! 🙂

However, not everyone can make that transition as easy as many of us millennials can. There are some people that are still struggling with making the transition from the plan they had before the recession. Some lost all their retirement and are forced to do menial jobs to get by. Others have just kept pushing along in a job that might no longer be providing for them at a level they were used to.

Even I questioned what was going through people’s heads when they couldn’t see the writing on the wall when I started networking in late 2009 and early 2010. Why not just start their own thing instead of waiting for someone to give them something better?

That’s also what this session’s guest, Dr. Joe Albano, thought when he started running into people who were trying to run a business with the thought process of an employee. They were waiting for their business to be given to them. Long story short, he ended up switching the focus of working with large businesses to small and medium sized ones just because he knew how much of an impact he and his company could make if he helped from the ground up.

In this discussion, we chat about that passion about working with small businesses, what it takes to make a successful startup, what’s the difference between an employee mindset and entrepreneurial one, and why new entrepreneurs don’t need advice as much as they need support.

If you’re the type of entrepreneur who’s struggling to find success with your business, or just want to know why your peers don’t understand why you’d want to pursue a business in the first place, I think that this chat will help you straighten a few things out.

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • How Joe’s older brother played an influence in Joe being interested in starting his own business.
  • Why he feels that, as a Baby Boomer, it was a good decision to embrace entrepreneurship early in his career.
  • Why he made the transition from working with big companies to working with small to medium sized businesses.
  • Why he loves helping people look more at the human side of companies vs the management side.
  • What Joe’s definition of an entrepreneur really is.
  • Why he believes that the employee mindset no longer works in today’s world.
  • What’s the first steps he recommends for your new startup.
  • What Joe suggests to those who are running out of time to do all the different jobs to get their business started.
  • Why he believes that many new entrepreneurs need less advice and more support.
  • What Joe’s capacity is when working with college students.
  • An update in what happened career-wise to one of our early hosts, Jonathan Ridge.
  • Why it’s important that you learn to manage your own career.
  • …and MUCH more.

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

Become an Entrepreneur by a guy that’s new to me by the name of Aleksander Vitkin

How to be an Entrepreneur by The School of Life

A Day in The Life of an Entrepreneur by Aleksander Vitkin

Career Advice on Becoming an Entrepreneur by Richard Branson

The Top 10 Mistakes of Entrepreneurs by Guy Kawasaki:

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Stitcher, and/or Podbean. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

Set Yourself Apart From the Competition

Learning How to Set Yourself Apart from the Competition

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When you’re starting to a business, whether it’s strictly online, or even if it’s a brick and mortar business, you have to know how to set yourself apart from the competition that’s in your niche.

Not too long ago, I posted a piece about creativity in where I stated that creativity isn’t about being original, it’s about being able to connect your unique experiences in a way that matters to your audience and/or clients. Even if some of your experiences are shared with other people, not all of them will be.

Knowing this and learning how to showcase that collection of experiences helps you separate from the crowd if you know how to take advantage of it.

All you have to do is make sure there’s a reason why people should visit, read or buy from you. Do this, and you’ll get your followers, and beat your competitors.

Example: Tesla Motors

Just this past week, Tesla debuted the Model 3. They are decimating all previously held numbers for plug-in cars. Why is this?

You could say that it’s the first at making electric cars. But that isn’t the case.

You could say they’re the first in making plug-in cars readily available to the market. Close, but not quite there. Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf are relatively easy enough to get your hands on if you wanted them.

So what exactly is it that’s setting them apart from the pack?

It’s the extras:

  • Superchargers
  • Wireless Software Updates
  • No Pressure Sales (Pretty much anyone can get a test drive!)
  • Performance (not a large golf cart!)
  • Great range for an all electric car.

You might notice that the top 3 are customer service related, and the bottom two are product related. Not bad!

BONUS: There are plenty of videos of people’s reactions from taking a test drive of a Tesla Model S. If you’d like to take a test drive of the Model S with myself and my friend Ben, you can do that here:

Here’s a recording of Maria testing it (Note that AMS no longer runs the Noblesville Mini as stated in the video):

Is it any wonder that I have stock in the company? 🙂

My Example:

While New Inceptions is young, I think the success that I have received comes from the podcast side of things. There are many other business podcasts that like to interview big names and give you the details that helped them get to be a successful entrepreneur or leader, I like to believe that mine is different. I want to make the content that I provide completely relatable.

Part of how I do this is by providing quality information that will help you move from being a freshman entrepreneur all the way up to being a senior. I do this by tapping into everyday entrepreneurs who have had just enough success that a new person can see themselves actually achieving the same thing. I want you to feel as if you’re going on this journey with me as a fellow classmate. Currently I’m a sophomore, so the types of people I have on the show right now are sophomores or juniors themselves.

Also, while I’m new at running my own business, I have had the privilege of learning from online business people for 6 years now. So this gives me some good connections in helping those that are completely brand new to the scene.

Have a question, I’ll answer to the best of my ability. If I don’t know the answer, I’m not going to give some random response! Let’s figure it out together!

Just a little heads up. One thing that I’ve been asked about several times over since starting on my path last year is about all the pieces that a person needs to have a successful online business. I’m currently in the process of making a checklist of 5 different steps you’ll need to take care of to give yourself a fighting chance.

You’ll see more details about this later.

Action Steps:

If you’re starting your own online business like me, or even if you’re doing some offline work, I want you to ask yourself a question. What makes you stand out from the crowd? What makes you memorable?

Do you know the answer? Does your audience and/or clients know that answer? Make sure that they do.

If you don’t know the answer, how do you expect your audience to recognize it? Spend some time figuring out what’s going to separate you from other creators out there. Again, you can have the same kind of sauce – but add your own special spice to it!

Motivate Yourself

Question for You, Reader: How do You Motivate Yourself?

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So let’s try something. I know that comments are dead. Heck, even Michael O’Neal just recently said that he doesn’t get hardly any comments on his shows anymore. But I want to do this just to try and get some engagement with you on here.

You see, I was just talking to a long time friend of mine and we were having a discussion about what motivates people to get up day in and day out. While I usually spring out of bed in the morning, he dreads having to go to work.

And believe me, out of all people, when I say that I know it can be hard to stay motivated. Because it can. At one point in our lives, we’ve all said to ourselves: “I can’t do this”, “it’s just not worth it”, and “I feel like giving up.” (That’s really just the nature of this entrepreneurial beast we find ourselves on.)

However, let me tell you what my friend and I realized. We thought back to our college days and thought about how many people didn’t make it through school. I mean, statistically speaking, from day one certain professors always said, “Look around you. Only half of you in this room are going to graduate. Only half of those people are going to graduate as an electrical engineer.”

And boy, was he right. Freshman year was horrible. My sophomore year wasn’t that much better. I still remember a ton of my college experiences like they were yesterday – and sucking so hard those first couple of years were definitely downers. I went through clinical depression 3 times in those first two years!! Then in my junior year – I readjusted my game. I changed my major from EE to EE Tech. Had I wanted to stay in that field, I would have gotten the same jobs as EE’s.

As time went on in that new major, the game got easier and easier. By the time I reached grad school, I was doing victory laps. I was so happy then. It was so simple at that time. I had mastered the game! But then… it was time to graduate.

And I wasn’t ready.

I didn’t have a job waiting for me. What I had was time to think. I started thinking about what was going to be the next game. I knew it had to be something that I could passionately work towards mastering. But what?

The focus of my masters was Entrepreneurship – so maybe I should learn more about that? Get some training wheel experience under my belt. Work for a startup or two?

So I did.

And now it’s  approaching 6 years since I graduated. Do I feel like I’ve mastered the game? Haha. Not quite. HOWEVER I will say that I feel like I make a good TA. Hence, the reason I rebooted New Inceptions this past year.

Thank you for being in my class. 🙂

Negative Feelings

Whatever “it” is that we feel like giving up on, be it a project, a goal we’re trying to achieve, or something else – realize that all of those negative feelings are just a test of the game.

I view it as the Universe’s way of “weeding out” who can do what – just like professors do to young students at college and university. (In engineering we had chemistry and physics classes that were notorious for doing this.)

We get these thoughts in our heads and by only overcoming them can we succeed.

When I got my undergrad degree (after 6 long years) I learned that I can succeed in whatever I want to do, I just had to find out how I could overcome those “anti-success” feelings. The same goes for you. Find out what motivates you, and let that be your way out.

What motivates is different from person to person. Maybe it’s a quotation. Maybe it’s a person. Maybe it’s family.

When I was in school, I knew that there were better things to come. And because of that, I worked hard every day cause I knew the payoff was going to be worth it. Was it? Well, not exactly the way that I expected it to. But hey, it did eventually lead me to my wife and best friend, Maria.

Action Steps

Yeah, I know this is a quick entry. But this one isn’t coming from me. It’s not about what I have to say. I really want to hear from you guys. Comment below in what motivates you.

What have you learned over the years that motivates you? That makes you know that all the work that you’re putting into whatever you’re working on will pay off?

There are no wrong answers. Don’t be embarrassed about anything. You could say that I should feel embarrassed by not finishing in the degree that I started in – that I proved the professor right. But I don’t. He was right.

This is simply an exercise to show that there many ways to deal with those negative feelings in our heads.

I look forward to your responses.

zephan blaxberg interview

Zephan Blaxberg: Re-Scripting Your Life Through a Year of Purpose (AoL 028)

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They say that your life can change by simply meeting one person. That new person can connect you to world that you only dreamed of living in. For some people, it might be landing that awesome job at a Fortune 500 company. For others, it might be finding a coach that will push them to excel and do more in life. Yet for others, it might just be that first client that will not only be a future raving fan but might actually be a mentor for years to come.

I think about that last one quite a bit. Not necessarily because I’m looking to find a mentor. No, I have my own.

Actually, I think about it because I want to help others succeed. So much has been given to me that I want to pass that power on to others.

This session’s guest, Zeph Blaxberg, knows all about this feeling. He, too, had a mentor that broke him out of mental jail. Working at an Apple Store as a fan of Apple’s… sure, that might sound like a great opportunity. However, when approached by his first client, he was quickly transformed to someone that was unemployable.

Like me, he wants to give back to others. He wants to help people break free of their every day lifestyle and live the life they could only dream of. He does this through multiple platforms including, but limited to, his podcast, a book, and an inner city social program that he helps with regularly.

Recently he was a guest on Pat Flynn’s podcast as someone that is indeed going places. So much so, that he inspired Pat to place an image of him on one of his keynote speeches.

In this chat between Laila, JC, and Zeph, we learn about his experience being featured on Pat’s podcast, his book and where the idea of it came from, his thoughts on the “fad of entrepreneurship”, and the success he had after hiring a business coach.

If you ever have felt that you want and deserve a better life, maybe you just haven’t met that one person – or people – yet. We hope our chat today can help you re-script your life.

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • Where his unusual name comes from.
  • What his high school experience was like and how he received double credit for it.
  • What the SPI podcast meant to Zephan when he first heard it.
  • What he’s realized about Pat after meeting him in person.
  • What it was like to have an impact on Pat.
  • When he felt like he had “arrived”.
  • When he hired his business coach and what that did for him and his success.
  • What his current work is focused on.
  • When he knew it was time for him to write a book.
  • How the launch for the book went and what he learned from the whole experience.
  • What Zephan believes makes his podcast successful.
  • The secret to getting busy guests on your podcast.
  • Why he does the podcast the way he does.
  • His thoughts on the “fad of entrepreneurship”.
  • …and MUCH more.

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

Zephan’s Filmography Company: ZMBMedia

Zephan’s Podcast Interview with Tara Magalski:

Pat’s Podcast Interview of Zephan (SPI Session 202)

SPI-202-sharing

Zeph Interviewed by Alex Harris:

BONUS: Zeph’s 2014 presentation on Overcoming Your Fear of Being on Camera

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Stitcher, and/or Podbean. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

Choosing the Right Business Idea for Your Future Success

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Last week we came up with a way to make a list of decent ideas for a business. However, these are all ideas and while they might be good ideas, they might not be worth our time in pursuing. So how do we really find out if they’re ideas that we want to pursue and actually pilot? We have to dive a little deeper.

1. Is it Something You’re REALLY Passionate About?

Again, I can’t reiterate enough how important this really is. You must have passion about what it is you’re doing. Recently, the Fizzle crew talked about how doing a business you’re passionate in will be what carries you through the tough times.

See, here’s the thing, if you’re not passionate about what you’re doing (meaning you don’t naturally think or do it), even if you do the following 2 steps, it really doesn’t matter in the end because as soon as a problem comes up, then you’re going to have some issues going forward. The simple truth is if you’re passionate about your idea and you really believe that it will work, then your chances of succeeding increase drastically. You’ll put in the extra effort and extra time to make it all work for you if you have the passion behind it. Plus, you’re more likely to create a better product, which will make your customers happy and more likely to buy from you again in the future.

Think of passion as a necessary part of successful long term business.

2. Is it Something that People are REALLY Actively Looking for or Need?

Just like passion needs to be mentioned again, so does this part. Hopefully you’ve done some market research before just to make sure that your idea is worth keeping. Is there an interest in it? Are people going to use it? Even if you have the best intentions, the worst thing that could happen is that you spend a ton of time and resources building something or things that people aren’t going to utilize.

I’ve seen this way too many times in the tech field. A lot of folks will think “Oh, Idea A is good. So is Idea B. If I put them together to Idea C, I’m sure to win!” This isn’t necessary true. Sometimes it’s possible to make something a little more complex than it needs to be… and that little extra complexity can be a problem for folks.

So how do you test that people want something?

  • Ask! – As I mentioned, in the Foundation and via Ryan Levesque, we find that the best way to figure out if a product is going to be utilized is to simply ask. You can ask 10 to 20 people and get an impression of whether or not something is worth pursuing. Remember that if you know a pain so well, that the people you’re asking will think you already have a solution. That’s the point where you make the presale!
  • Are the similar sites and businesses already out there? – If you can’t tell, this is the method I used in deciding to pursue New Inceptions. While Pat is focused on passive income, and Fizzle is focused strictly on online businesses, New Inceptions is focused primarily on those of us who have stumbled into this world of business as a second career path. A resource for those who feel that their inner needs and desires were not being met in the work that they were previously doing.
  • Do some Keyword research – Similar to the one above, you can check the internet to find out if a given topic is already being used. This is achievable by doing some keyword research. There are tools that are available for this. Google has a free one called the Keyword Planner. One that I’ve been using for years is called Market Samurai.
  • Survey Your Already Existing Audience – Perhaps you already have a platform and you’re wanting to offer something new. Instead of asking random people, ask those who have already bought from you once. In fact, those that have already bought from you might realize that your quality is to their standard, so

Remember that when you’re doing this research, it’s not you that’s on trial – it’s the idea. We’d love to believe that all our ideas can make us money, but in reality, it’s up to other people – the market. The best way to see if an idea will sink or not is to find if people will buy in before we ever do the work to do it.

3. Determine Your Scalability

In the passive income world, this is the big question. You don’t want to start a business that the more success you have with it, the more your position consumes you. (However, if you’re a work-a-holic like Gary V, you might actually enjoy that kind of thing.)

Ideally, if you’re in a real passive income setting, the more sales you have, doesn’t necessarily mean you work more. If a million sales suddenly happened one day, would that be a good thing or a bad thing? If you’re pure passive, it’d be an AWESOME thing. It would mean that you wouldn’t have to do ship anything else (as either they get electronic copies or you have another company sending things out) and/or you don’t have to handle accounts payable and receivable – it’s dealt with electronically.

Even if you’re not focused entirely in generating passive income (which, let’s be honest, who isn’t?), you’ll want to think about scalability too. Just in a different perspective. Once you run your idea past a few folks and you know you’d love doing it, think about whether or not you’ll be able to have other people to do it for you. I’m not talking about paying them. Let’s say that’s taken care of. I’m saying, actually have them doing the part you’re doing. Can you train them to do what you do?

If not, then maybe you’re planning on being an artist or musician that makes it so big you that you have orders coming all the time? If so, you’ll want to hire someone to take care of your marketing, office work, and other things you shouldn’t be dealing with. If you’re giving lessons of some sort (say like Roger Love), you might also want to learn how to take care of all the paperwork and marketing that goes into making something like he does successful at his level.

Conclusion:

So, last week, we were collecting ideas that might be part of your overarching theme. This week, we’re inspecting them a little more thoroughly and sorting out the ideas that don’t quite fit. If you follow the above 3 steps, you’re planting some good seeds for a successful business. If you want further help with this subject of choosing a successful business, feel free to take a look at the course in Fizzle called Choosing a Topic by Corbett Barr. Get your first two weeks here free so you can get in without paying a cent.

AoL 027: The Process of Reinventing Yourself and Your Business with Theresa French

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Sometimes, things just don’t work out, in life or in our businesses, the way we expect them to. Whether or not we really wanted to succeed simply does not compute at times. And it’s those times that we find ourselves having to quit the path we were on. Sometimes this can be really hard. Especially since most of us are taught from an early age that we’re not allowed to quit something. (Which, I talked about how to quit without regret in a recent blog post.)

When you do finally quit something, though, whether planned or not, you’ll be starting something again soon. Whether it’s a new job, a new career, or a new business, there’s a process of reinvention.

For me, 2015 was all about reinvention. I had to figure out what I was good at and then I had to choose a business that fit my interests, what I liked to do, and even more importantly, how I wanted to make income.

This session’s guest knows more about reinvention than she probably guessed she would during her college years. While she always had the makings of an entrepreneur, it was only recently that she felt that what she did was truly an extension of her inner self. Sure, she was good at other things, but that didn’t necessarily mean that it was her passion.

Today, Theresa French finds herself loving to work with people in training environments. Helping them be more successful in their work as well as their lives.

In the chat, we specifically talk about where her perseverance comes from, how she got into photography, how she eventually transitioned into speaking and training, and one important thing you need to do before you transition from one job or career to another.

If you have ever felt like you’re lost when building that new business or are simply tired with what you’re doing now, then you can learn a thing or two from what she’s gone through. Reinvention is definitely a process that we all have to go through from time to time.

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • Where her business ownership inspiration came from.
  • Why she still went to college.
  • How she got into her first business after school.
  • How she was able to take advantage of multiples niches in that business.
  • Why many of us don’t like to see ourselves in pictures and/or videos.
  • What she learned when she had to hang up the keys on her first business.
  • How she eventually started her marketing firm and where FocusWorks Consulting came from.
  • The ONE thing that Theresa wants everyone to take away from this talk.
  • The path to how she got into graphic design.
  • The one important thing you need to do before you transition from one job (or career) to another.
  • How she plans on doing more speaking and training in 2016.
  • …and MUCH more.

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

Reinvent Yourself (Motivational Video) – a new favorite of mine?

Wesley Goo (Founder of Reinvention International) on Reinvention:

Robert Green shares the key of transforming ourselves and also talks on his own personal transformation.

Dr. Mario Alonso Puig talks about Reinvention

Steve Harvey talks about Chapter 13 of his book Act Like a Success, Think Like a Success (Amazon Link)

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Stitcher, and/or Podbean. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

business idea

Getting Your Business Idea Ready for Flight: A Short Checklist

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As I’m continuing to catch up on some of my reading, one of the books that I find myself liking more and more is Pat Flynn’s Will It Fly?

I talked a little bit about this book in this post.  However, I must admit, I only skimmed over the book at the time because I was going over a couple of others.

I now find myself able to go over it in detail – including all the little activities he’s planned out for us as readers.

It has been a really enjoyable journey refining some of the thoughts I have about New Inceptions and what it’s potential is. (Which, as Donald Trump would say, is ‘UUGE! :))

If you’re just starting your online venture and you’re in the idea generation/clarity phase, I want to give you a few tips that I thought were really useful from the book… and even some that I’ve learned along the way as I’ve refined NI.

1. Write All Your Ideas Down – Yours and Others.

For the longest time, I would keep all my ideas in my head. If I had time, I would attempt to execute some of them, however over time, even the good ones would die.

When I went through The Foundation in 2012, one of the major things they taught was what I call niche product development. (I talk about this briefly in the podcast with Sharlotte Bouniol from last week.) Basically it means that you learn how to find the products you should be making from your audience. (Ryan Levesque also talks about this in his book, Ask).

If you dig so deep that you know a client’s problem more than they know it themselves. They’ll assume that you have the solution already.

In this process, if you tried to remember it all, I don’t believe you’d fully be able to. There’s simply way too much information collected during these interviews to remember all the issues

So I learned to write them down. Ever since, I’ve written ideas down that I’ve gotten from other people as well as those that I’ve thought up on my own.

If, for whatever reason, you feel like you shouldn’t write an idea down, do it anyway. For one, no one is going to see your list. Also, if you don’t know how to achieve everything right away with the idea, you can pack it away until you have a better idea of how to accomplish it. There’s a much more unlikely chance that it will disappear if written down than it would if you were to simply keep it in your head.

2. Don’t Cross Out an Idea Because It Already Exists

In the segment that I’m currently reading in Pat’s book, he talks about how most folks are looking for an idea that other people haven’t found yet. However, from this post, we should remember that this is nearly impossible. In fact, it’s good that it already exists. It will save you the time and resources to recreate the niche!

An example of this is with fast food restaurants and the nearby chain retail stores. Have you ever noticed that these chains all seem to be right on top of each other?

As far as the restaurants go, you’ll always see a Burger King near a McDonald’s, true. But have you ever seen a Burger King without a McDonald’s nearby? Personally, I can’t think of many instances. And there’s a reason for this. For the most part, early on, Burger King let McDonald’s determine all the good spots to set up shop.

Later, if there was good traffic to that particular area, you started to see other restaurants building on top of established chain locations AND even retail spots – such as Target and, later, Walmart. That’s the basis behind suburbs blowing up the way they have – and all of their “strips” looking very similar to the one in the nearby town.

You can read more about this phenomenon here.

Really, you should think of your niche in the same manner. Unless it’s a small niche, the more traffic in your niche the better.

However, that said, if there isn’t much substance to what you’re bringing, you won’t last long. So don’t expect to just succeed overnight. If there is already established traffic, you’ll have to spend some time learning how to tap into it – just like startup restaurants and stores have to in an established shopping area.

3. Do Something You Have Passion (or at least an Interest) In

If you’re going to be chasing money, you can only do that for so long before you burn out. Eventually, if you plan to stay self-employed for the foreseeable future, you’ll want to do something you feel is natural to you.

For me, I’m a catalyst of people – helping them explore what could be.

I’m a teacher.

I like tech, business strategy, leadership, and am a huge fan of self awareness and self improvement. Combine those all together and that’s what I want New Inceptions to reflect.

Ask yourself, what am I naturally interested in? What do I want to study or think about when no one is looking? Can I make that into a business that will support the things I want to do in life?

In the long run, your business has to reflect you, otherwise you’re going to grow tired of it. (Hell, you might even see it as a job that owns you!) However, your products (especially early on) should help people with very niche issues. Eventually you can add on to them and create suites. But start simple at first. Solve one pain at a time.

4. Fine Tune Your Idea

Another exercise that Pat shares in his book is all about starting out focused. In fact, he helps us do this by having us write a page about our business. Then, he has us break that down into a paragraph. Finally having us write a sentence that defines our business.

The sentence I ended up with from this exercise was this:

New Inceptions is a fiercely loyal online virtual resource hub that connects creative entrepreneurs (Renegades) with the insight, tools, motivation, and community to build a successful online business.

I’d highly recommend doing this exercise. I think it’s definitely going to help me get more focused in what I’m doing.

Action Steps

Here we are, already in March of 2016. It’s essentially been a year since I started on this new path. Personally, I’m starting to see some of my seeds from last year start to grow. For one, I’m helping Mark Nathan launch his book on a larger scale. On another, I’m starting the process of building my first product. And, I’m having some good thoughts on what I want to make my Opt-In in the future be. (Cause let’s face it… it’s so VAGUE right now!)

These are all things that I could not have imagined last year. Why? Because I really had no idea what I wanted to do last year. I couldn’t figure out exactly what I wanted to do. But I was attacking the problem incorrectly. At least for me.

The thing is, you don’t have to do one thing. You can totally do a theme for your site and business.

However, your products or services need to solve specific pains that your customers have.

In this next week, I want you to start thinking of your theme. What kinds of things do you like to do now and in the past? What do you see your ideal future looking like in 5 years?

Next week, we’ll start asking ourselves questions on whether or not the idea that we have is going to get us to where we want to be in the future.