Years ago, Walt and I attended a Brendan Bruchard conference. It didn’t take us long to recognize that we could create a business out of just about anything we pulled out of our asses. I mean, we met people who were making money doing the most outlandish things—painting angel portraits for spiritual guidance, selling dog training pamphlets on the net, you name it.

Our homework assignment one day was to come up with a list of things we were good at, our special areas of expertise, and then list some potential business ideas that capitalized on these skills.

I figured I could teach people how to run a marathon, or speak Vietnamese or Farsi, maybe cook ethnic dishes, or write. Brainstorming further, it occurred to me that I could teach others how to get into Harvard, how to reinvent themselves, how to draw boundaries, how to say no, how to find the perfect mate, how to establish a love relationship that really worked, how to find a mate online… the list went on and on.

Yah, I’m that amazing.

We were then supposed to choose one of these skills, formulate a business idea around it, then work that business ‘like it’s your job’. Drive the fence post supporting that business deep into the ground before throwing some other offering into the mix.

Like, if you’re going to teach Vietnamese, teach Vietnamese, make a real go of it. Don’t go offering cooking lessons or worse, customized online dating profiles, on the side.

Walt and I were all gung ho. We decided to give this whole on-line business thing a go. He had his business idea; I had mine.

We were going to be deliriously happy MILLIONAIRES.

Unfortunately, one of us spent about zero seconds determining which of our listed skillsets were actually marketable. Meaning, one of us hadn’t considered whether anyone out there in the world at large would be willing to pay us for our chosen gifts.

Build it and they will come. Hahahahaha.

I’m not even going to talk about the first business iteration I chose and the eight million lessons I learned off the back of it. We don’t have all day.

Look, I teach coaches, speakers, and service professionals how to write expert-positioning books. That means that I talk to a lot of folks who’d very much like their book to be purchased by a traditional publishing house. Half the time I have to break the bad news that they’re barking up the wrong tree because they either have a poorly defined target market, or they’re serving a niche no one else wants to serve.

Meaning, there’s no money in it.

Traditional publishing houses are…drum roll…. looking to make money.

Here’s where authors and entrepreneurs often get into trouble: we want to serve a target market that sounds fun or interesting—women in transition, people who like obscure languages, or novelists. If this is your only criterion, you’re probably not going to find yourself in front of people willing to take out their wallets. Or a traditional publishing house eager to slide a contract under your nose.

Choosing a target market, in other words, isn’t nearly as straightforward as it looks.

It was marketing expert Eben Pagan who said that, generally, people will pay for one of three things: getting laid, getting paid, looking fab. If you can hook your horse to one of these carts in some way, you’ll probably do all right.

And… there are extraordinary opportunities right now in the online space. Seriously. Double-digit growth. This year.

So if you’re horrified by the prospect of going back to the day job (if there’s one to go back to) or if you’d like to create a side hustle online to bring in extra income, we’d love to take you by the hand and show you how.

After that first Brendon Burchard conference, we struggled. Some of us got really tired listening to the sound of crickets.

You don’t need to struggle.

We’re hosting a free webinar master class today at noon ET (June 16, 2020), How To Start An Online Business From Scratch. Go HERE to register. (And grab a spot even if you have a scheduling conflict. That way we can send you the replay. Cause that’s how we roll.)

The online business we (eventually) created into the clouds of The Great Recession has been very, very good to us… sending kids to college, allowing us to travel and adventure, and being able to work with amazing people all over the world.

If that sounds appealing, please join us.