- Hey there, Dan Martell here, serial entrepreneur,
investor and creator of SaaS Academy.
In this episode, I'm gonna teach you
how to come up with business ideas
to really flex your entrepreneurial muscle.
And be sure to stay to the end where I'm gonna tell you
how to get access to more links
and content that I've created
to help you become the idea monster
and the entrepreneurial creator
that I know you know you are.
(upbeat music)
So being an entrepreneur,
especially if you've built companies at scale,
is both a gift and a curse,
and here's what I mean by that
is, you know, the definition
of entrepreneurship is creating
and becoming a creator means that you see opportunities
around you that other people might not see.
The challenge is, is most of those opportunities
is things, or different areas that need improvement.
Areas of improvement, friction, frustrations
in people's lives.
So what's interesting is most people
that don't create businesses go around the world
and they just kind of interact with the world,
and they get their car cleaned,
and they get dressed in the morning,
and they keep going through life,
and other entrepreneurs like myself,
we unfortunately have the, again, privilege and frustration
of seeing opportunity all around us.
When I go in, for example, I go into a store in the mall,
every aspect, my brain just goes
into analysing their merchandising,
analysing the staff, how many staff they have
on the floor, what's the overhead cost,
I know what they're paying per month.
I analyse this, it's just because that's what I do
in my other businesses, so it's just
my brain continuously flexing that muscle has become
this problem-seeking missile,
and it can be frustrating for people
that work with me, my family members,
because when people come to me I'm always like,
"Have you ever thought of this?"
And they're like, "Why can't you just appreciate
"the way it is?"
And I'm like, "I know, but I see this thing
"and I just wanna make things better."
So, you know, if you're trying to build that muscle,
I'm excited for you because it is this thing
that once you create, it can bring incredible value
to your life and your business
because you can create resources, and wealth,
and all this stuff, but you also need to learn
to turn it off.
Okay, so I'm just gonna say that.
I'm gonna teach you how to develop the muscle,
but with great strength comes great responsibility,
as Spider-Man would say.
Just know that it is both a blessing and a curse.
But let's get into it.
The first strategy is frustration list.
So, I saw this video awhile ago,
I can't find it for the life of me,
from Jack Canfield the author
of "Chicken Soup for the Soul".
I mean, that was a huge, smashing success.
I've heard it's done over 250 million
in revenue as a book series, which is crazy.
It's in the top 0.1% of all books ever sold,
and in this video he talks about developing your idea muscle
and his suggestion is to start to create a frustration list.
And the way he explains it,
he does a way better articulation
of how to do this, I can't even say it properly,
but his idea is that you wanna keep a notepad
and you wanna write down, or you can do it on your phone.
You wanna write down things that frustrate you.
So most people find this weird, they're like,
"Well, nothing frustrates me."
I'm talking about, go around your house.
Think about items that are misplaced,
things that you have to do several times.
So maybe it can be as simple as cleaning up your closet
and you're frustrated b'ause you don't have a hook
for whatever, so you write that down,
"Hook for bath towel."
Or, you know, I have a hot tub and the towels aren't next
to the hot tub, so I might get dressed,
come downstairs, have to go all the way.
I know, first-world problems, I get it,
champagne problems, I'm not an idiot,
like I get it, but I'm just telling you little examples.
So what would be a good example is a towel hook,
or towel station, next to the door right
in front of the hot tub as an example.
But it could be like organising your garage.
Maybe you're like, "Well, why are all the bikes
"just all over the place?"
Maybe they need to be hooks on the wall.
And then it's all these things you write down, okay,
and then the idea is you want to start teaching yourself
to look for these frustration moments in your life,
things that don't feel like they're as well structured.
You know, maybe things are out, not organised,
maybe your closet isn't organised
and you wanna buy an organiser.
If you think about every product
that's sold at your hardware store,
or software that's built online, they were all built
because somebody felt a frustration,
or perceived a frustration in the market
and they wanted to build a better way.
You need to start building that list,
building that muscle, looking for those opportunities
in your daily life, around your house,
maybe in your office, your workspace,
in your commutes, on your weekends,
I want you to keep adding to your frustration list.
Don't edit yourself.
Don't slow down and say, "Well, that's not a good idea."
Just write as much as you can,
and here's the kicker, is try
to start tackling some of these.
Start fixing some of these frustrations,
and look at it as entrepreneurial training.
Like, Navy Seal training for the entrepreneurial mind,
the building of the muscle.
Just take action to get some of those items off the list,
and through that process, you never know.
You might build the next thing
that ends up on the podcast "How They Built That",
or whatever it is by Guy Raz,
one of my favourite podcasts.
Because you might by the next XY and Z company
that builds the next thing that just takes off
into a billion dollar company.
So, frustration list.
Number two, idea machine.
So, I want you to become an idea machine.
I got this concept from my friend, James Altucher,
he's got an incredible podcast.
He's a prolific writer, and I heard him talk
about this seven, eight years ago,
where he writes down every day ten ideas for things.
It's just an idea list, and that's why he says,
"I become an idea machine."
He's taken it to the level
where he shares his personal story
around depression, and challenges in his life,
that the idea machine, the idea list
of I think he uses a waiter's ordering pad,
those ten ideas for the day, for him,
almost helped as a mindset tool
to kind of be creative, because he felt like being creative
and flexing that muscle actually helped him reset his focus,
reset his mindset, so that's super cool,
but I think just the idea of writing down ten things,
ten ideas for businesses.
And he says every day he themes it.
So it could be like, ten books I could write,
ten businesses I could start,
ten problems in the world that need to be solved.
It's just every day, I think he's been doing this for years,
he writes down ten things to build
that idea machine to then use that,
like I said earlier, to see if there's opportunities
around us to build businesses.
So 100% credit to my buddy, James Altucher,
definitely check out his writing,
it's prolific and amazing.
He's got a very unique style.
I appreciate it, it's raw, it's real,
and the idea machine of writing down those ten ideas
per day, that's his.
Go get yourself a waiter's note and move that forward.
Number three, gratefully driven.
So, like I said at the beginning,
the gift and the curse is that some people,
if all you're doing is looking for problems to solve
in the world, is think
that you don't appreciate what you have.
Okay, so this is an idea I made up
because I had to explain to my friends
that the way I look at it is that I am ridiculously driven.
If you know me, I'm just very driven,
like intense, and I'm okay with that.
And in the same sentence, I'm ridiculously grateful
for everything I have in this world
and I don't take it for granted for one second.
And I call it gratefully driven
because if you wanna build your idea muscle,
there's a part of your brain
that won't wanna do this 'cause it feels
like you're not grateful or you don't appreciate things,
and it has nothing to do with that.
So here's the thing, is you wanna be grateful,
in the same sentence, I wanna be grateful
for everything I have, and the people in my life,
and my health, and all that stuff.
Grateful, you can be grateful.
And then, in the second breath,
you wanna be driven towards what's possible,
the future that you could create.
Grateful for what you have and everything
that's ever been brought into your life,
the good and the bad, honestly.
I'm grateful for everything.
And then driven towards the possibility for your life.
If you can have those two thoughts,
'cause they are not the same,
they're separate things.
They're two truths that can be true at the same time.
That is how we release the mental scripts
that could actually be holding you back
from coming up with ideas,
and building the better version of yourself,
because there's a conflict.
So I want you to be gratefully driven.
I want you to think about that,
that it is okay to look for problems to fix,
and things that are wrong and broken in the world
as opportunities and still appreciate everything you have
because you woke up today in a warm bed
and you had a cold glass of water
that was clean, and you have a bathroom
that works and all those things.
I get that, but we wanna be driven towards
what you know is possible for your future.
So quick recap, the three things
that you need to develop to become an idea machine,
to develop your entrepreneurial muscle.
One, create a frustration list and tackle it.
Number two, become an idea machine
by writing ten things down per day.
And number three, you have to be gratefully driven.
As I mentioned the the beginning of this episode,
I wanna share with you a bunch of other videos.
If you're on the journey of coming up
with an idea to grow your business,
below I have listed a few other videos
that I've created in the past
to help you bring that vision and dream forward
and create it in your life
so that you can be a more creative,
a more problem solving focused,
opportunity seeking individual,
and if you think there's somebody in your life
that this video could serve, feel free
to share it with them directly.
Smash that like button, subscribe to my channel.
I appreciate you being here,
and as per usual, I wanna challenge you
to live a bigger life and a bigger business,
and I'll see ya next Monday.
(claps) Boom!
- [Cameraman] On fire! - Appreciate you, bro.