How to stop looking for a big idea and still reach the top

At a certain point in life, you realize you’re never going to be a rock star. You pack away your shiny dreams of being an A-list celebrity, along with the fanciful notion of becoming ‘the next big thing.’

Perhaps you thought you were going to invent something amazing and impress the investors on Shark Tank or Dragons’ Den with those new self-cleaning underpants or that revolutionary blend of kumquat soup.

But now, you grunt when you get up off the sofa, and you have pairs of socks older than most of the entrepreneurs online and you’re thinking, "My chance has slipped away."

But has it?

The truth is that it’s often the pressure to come up with a big idea that stops us in our tracks. We’re racking our brains trying to think of something so new, innovative and revolutionary that it causes our brain to fog over, and we achieve nothing.

Start small

In my experience, the amazing superstars, the ingenious inventors and the big idea stories are few and far between. The true genius is in the little idea – taking something small that already kind of works and making it better.

Looking at something you already offer and finding a new way to deliver it.

Here’s your permission to stop searching for some big momentous idea and start with something small instead. And here’s how to do it.

Step 1: Find your selfish reason

It’s all very well and good to want to help other people, but of course, we must rummage around to find our own oxygen mask first. What’s in it for you?

In my new book, Six Figures While You Sleep, I explain how I turned my skills and services into passive income digital products. And when I asked people why they wanted to come up with a passive income idea, they gave these reasons:

• To make more money
• To spend less time working
• To avoid burning out emotionally and physically
• To not rely so much on a single income source
• To avoid the tedium of doing the same thing again and again
  
  
  

Step 2: Find your altruistic reason

Right now, you might not have an altruistic reason, and that’s fine – but long-term you’re going to need something more than cold, hard cash to keep you going. What is your bigger purpose?

Perhaps you want to:

• Help more people than you can currently
• Help people when they need it rather than making them wait
• Lower the price barrier to work with you

Step 3: Find the frustration

Think about what frustrates you about how you work. Perhaps it’s being asked the same questions again and again, or how long it takes your clients to give you the information you need. Perhaps it’s the time you spend onboarding new people, or how difficult it is to justify your prices.

There are gems in those frustrations. For example, if you’re frustrated by lots of questions, then the solution could be a community or FAQ bank where all those questions are covered. If you’re frustrated by onboarding struggles, then you could use a checklist of assets that need to be gathered and a tutorial on how to do it faster.

You can also think about what frustrates you about your industry. For me, I felt the SEO industry was full of cowboys and those pretending that it’s some dark art or genius-level process that only gurus can master.

This frustrated me, and I saw the need for an honest, plain-English SEO course that normal humans could master. And my ‘Recipe for SEO Success’ course was born.

Step 4: Find the gap

Now, there may be absolutely nobody offering what you’re planning on offering. When I started my SEO course there were only a few others worldwide. There were also no courses at that time offered by a female SEO expert, and none that made SEO fun – and, at times, funny.

If you’re a true pioneer, the land before you is empty to travel as you wish, but you’re going to have to tread your own path. However, if similar products already exist, it doesn’t mean all is lost.

Look at what’s out there already and see how you could make it better. Perhaps there’s already a course teaching people how to use a certain software, but it’s general and not specific to your industry. Maybe there’s a beginner-level offering, but you could offer advanced, or vice versa.

There’s also potential for finding ideas in one market that aren’t tailored to your market. For example, you’ve seen there’s a subcontracting agreement for copywriters, but you can produce one that’s perfect for graphic designers.

A few of my students have taken what they learned in my SEO course and created similar Spanish and German-language versions – obviously not out-and-out copying me, but adding their own ideas and flavor.

Step 5: Paint the future for your potential customers

OK, so far, we’ve been super practical, but now I’m going to let you dream a little. Imagine you’re one year down the track and your passive income idea working – what does this look like?

Take your customer avatar and describe what you’ve helped them do, how they feel and what improvements have your products brought to their life. You can even take it a step further and write out your dream customer testimonial.

I know it’s a bit woo-woo, but it’s a nice exercise to give you the good feels. Even better, soon you’ll be able to compare that made-up testimonial to the real thing.

Any time you invest in planning your ideas will save you months, and possibly years, of effort and disappointment down the track. It will enable you to create something that flies off the virtual shelves and that you enjoy delivering.

OK, it’s over to you. What big little idea can you come up with?