My 6-Step Process To Find +$1,000,000 Business Ideas

And when you see a big company, like 1-800, Flowers are Heineken. So, a company that has millions of customers when they say one or two lines, like

that, that gets me really

I feel like I can rule the world. I know I could be what I want to be like, all right, we're live. Sean is not here. So I'm going to do a

question and answer session. I tweeted out that I'm going to be doing this and we have a bunch of questions. Jonathan's going to be reading. The first ones. What are they? Which where you want to start? All right. This one is from Jimbo slice. Egos would love to learn

how to develop ideas.

Ideas for businesses to start and how to

test set ideas.

So basically because of this podcast, I

have to research cool

companies, but what a lot of people don't know is, I've been doing research on

companies before I worked on this podcast, voice to this podcast and this is how I created the hustle. We ended up selling the hustle for tens of billions of dollars. And this is how he created Hampton, which is going to be a huge company I think, and I've done a bunch of other little projects based off this research model.

I'll do a quick plug. Basically, if you go to ideation bootcamp dotco,

everyone kept asking me about this process. So I like made into a course, you can go and buy it if you want. I'll just kind of give you a little preview. Now, I've got this way of researching where I look for five or six different things

and it's almost like the way that I compare it to a

song. So there's a song called,

you know, like a Guns and

Roses song like Welcome To Paradise,

then what's called Sweet Child of Mine. That's what I'm thinking. Sweet, Child O, Mine.

My Sweet Child O. Mine has this amazing

guitar solo in that

song. And the band said that the someone asked them how they write songs and like well sometimes like which Sweet Child of Mine. I heard this amazing

guitar riff that / was

tinkering with, and I wrote lyrics around it and then we created the bridge and the hook and whatever. Other times I've got this really cool. One liner, this lyric, we're going to turn it into the song, I do the same thing with business and so those little hooks that I

look for are the first thing is demand,

So I'm constantly

seeking out what problems people have. The second

thing is, I'm constantly looking at how many people share that particular problem and I'm going to give examples of all this, the third thing, I look at is who are the leaders in that space. So what's succeeding and why, the fourth thing I look at is of the leaders and the people in the space. What shortcomings do they have? Next, I look at which business models are most effective.

And then finally, I look at

what problems are being solved.

I'm going to give you an example of this and so I have all these tools

that I use and so like, here's a, here's an example.

So there's this company

called 1-800 Flowers and it's a phone service, where you call and you order flowers, and I was just like, probably buying Valentine's Day flowers on their website, one time.

And I noticed that their traffic I use this

tool called similar

If I use that all the time, it's a

plug-in. It's free. They have a paid

version, the free versions, totally fine. They have this plug-in where it tells you a guesstimate of what the traffic is from a website and 1-800 Flowers. As

predicted it had like pretty great traffic. Like it was like 5 million people a month coming their website and then in February it like Pete to be really, really big. That's easy

to guess because it was Valentine's Day but basically

it was that told me that while a lot of people

are using 1-800 Flowers on a

Their bases and it peaks in February and it also had a big jump in whenever mothers day is May or June. And so I was like alright that's interesting. I

kind of knew that, but let me read a little bit more about this. And so I use another tool

called annual reports.com

and I love reading in or reports because it teaches me about the company. So an annual report if a company is public, they have to release this quarterly report where they talk about their

earnings and all these in,

arresting things about the

company and a lot of time they appear boring, but I'm reading them to find insight and I found this one Insight that

We are noticing that the succulent

plant is very particular player. We are

noticing that amongst our Millennial consumers. It's the fastest growing Trend. I also did this with Heineken the company. Heineken they and their annual report they said Heineken 0 so which is like a non-alcoholic version.

They are, it's our fastest growing segment.

It's still really

small, but it's fast growing.

And when you see a big company, like 1-800, Flowers are Heineken. So, a company that has millions of customers when they say one or two lines. Like that, that gets me really interested.

When I say something's fast-growing, I'm like, oh I'm intrigued. And so I'll

read these reports just for looking for one or two lines that say that or I'll use I'll go to like every website I go to if it's like really weird looking and it grabs my attention. I go to

Similar web and I just look at what the traffic is. Because I'm looking for these one little tidbits that catch my attention. And in this case, for the 1-800 Flowers, if they said

succulents were growing and so I'll look at, you know, what they say and then I'd try to find shortcomings. So with 1-800 Flowers, they said that their shortcomings are they that most of the revenue comes from holidays. And so they're trying to get revenue and business between the holidays to make their business more steady. They also said that I believe,

This was a few years ago, they said that most of their profit

comes from, not the flowers, but from vases. So that has the biggest margins and they also said that they are trying to think of ways to get people to buy more accessories, like, vases, chocolates, and things like that.

And then, so, that kind of, like, gave me this idea of like, okay, 1-800 Flowers is a big business because the revenues to Janet

gets tons of traffic. I know that. So that's like proving me that there's demand a big audience.

I know that they're succeeding

To some point because they're publicly traded company and they're very profitable. I know their shortcomings or the problems that we're trying to solve for our that they can't get people to buy stuff on a regular basis. And they want people to buy more

vases. So what other problems are consumers,

not being not

do consumers, have that aren't being solved, and where's 1-800 Flowers failing? Well, in my head I was like, well, if you could figure out a way to get people to buy regularly with different faces, how can I do that? And so I wrote this report.

For Trends, trends, that Co. And then someone eventually launched a company where they created the succulent plant that you like smack on the wall. And it is like, has this like hydrophonic system tonic system where, like, like water itself and then there is another company that launched and they and they created the coolest, it was a succulent plant and some of them launch. These companies based off our report, I wrote another company created this business where they had these like, amazing pots and bases wire it had like artists on there. So like Frida, Kahlo

On one or they would treat like really funny pots and plants like some of the pots were, like, State themed. So, like an organ plant-like had like, an organ flag on the vase, like, things like

that. And that was their way of solving it and a bunch of these companies. A few of them went on to raise millions of millions of dollars. I think there's Bloom scape and I forget the other one, but

It basically came from this like research methodology

of finding demand, finding the

audience, looking at the leaders. The shortcomings, that it's just, like, cycle that I use and I try to

find like

one hook or one line for each of those things that get me interested. So, I use similarweb a ton to do that. So I look at where someone's getting a lot of traffic or how much traffic is getting. There's just another amazing thing called companies house. It's a so basically, if your base in the UK and you're a company that does at least 10 million in Revenue, you have to file

I'll your your financials. And so, if I find a cool company that uses the word LTD, I guess that means like limited company. If I find a company that does something like that has that on their website. I immediately go to companies house. What? So, for example, I found this amazing website that basically basically was reviewing vpns. You don't have VPN is, it's like a thing that hides like where you are when you're using the web and they had like 12 million visitors to their site and I was like

That's interesting and the company was called like something company name LTD. So I go. All right I'm going to go straight to companies house and see what the revenue is. Their revenue was like 18 million and their profit was like

16 million. And so that told me that a there's demand for people who want to get reviews for vpm. That shocks me, I didn't realize that market was that

big be? It shows me that that business model of affiliate so they made money through affiliate. So they would write a

review on a they would write a

Review on a VPN. If someone bought it, they got a

little cut back that business model, super

fascinating. So in my head I'm like, oh wow, what other Tech products are

have this big affiliate fees

and can I create content for them? That business model was really fascinating

and see, I learned that they were the leader in the space and so like that just like, opened up my mind to, like a different business model and a different Niche. And I didn't do

anything with that. But I thought to myself, man, I wonder if I could do this for payroll software. I wonder how many people are having payroll software problems. I bet you. I can get a big affiliates.

With that, I bet you I could rank on search for that and then I never end up doing it because I was passionate about it. But anyway I go through all these different examples and of like these different tools that I use to research on a thi boot camp. It's ideation boot camp .ko but that's like a very scattered example of how I do that. All right, this one is from Mike. Terra Bella. He asks about the evolution of your health Journey while being an entrepreneur. He goes, I've been lifting to get back in shape and just

Us of lessons or future roadblocks to watch out

for. So this is around fitness and health. So let me give you guys some background. So I was

an exceptional High School athlete. I was one of the best in the state of Missouri, where I'm from the 200 M and

400 meter dash. And then I went to a division one school where I was a scholarship athlete for two years and then I quit and I got into business and between the ages of 20 to about 28. I was fat. I was pretty lumpy and I was pretty disgusting.

Now is a good time to put the my before picture. So, if you're on listen to this on audio, you can go ahead and

see. You can go to our YouTube and see those pictures, but I got pretty

fat and I got discussing and then about three or four years ago I

said this is it I'm going to get my act together and I'm going to become a fitness model, that's what I said. It was a joke, I'm not

actually that but it was a joke and I did it. I got pretty fit and so I basically created this rule, the general Mathis, he's this General.

America. He's got this great line that says, figure out your flat

ass rules and stick to them.

And the reason being and I stole it from Ryan holiday whose inspiration to me. He said, the person who decides every day. What choices they have to make for each decision. That person will be exhausted and burnt out. And so about when I was 29, 28 years old, I made the decision that I will

never ever ever miss a workout.

And so at first, I basically created programming for myself, which means I created my own schedule, my own lifts and like, how much I should

I did that on my own for a little while and then I hired a trainer. His name is Jesse

O'Brien at Central athlete. I think I've got a central athlete.com. You can see, I'm not affiliated. I'm just a fan and he created all my training for me, and I meet with them monthly and I do

the workouts remotely, but basically, I don't miss a

single workout and I have, I

work out five days a

week. And I, so that's

five days times 52. I think that's 260 workouts. And the last two years, three years. I've probably have missed five to ten years

And that's usually only because of sickness or like, if someone dies, and have to take a flight to a funeral, but basically

95% of the time I don't miss.

And so I believe, big, big, big, big, big time

into consistency. So I don't miss

the second thing that I do, and by the way, that like that, I'm fairly extreme about it. So, for example,

I drive a ton. So, like, when I go and I take tons of road trips when I take a road trip, and I can't get my workout in the morning

before I leave, I pull over on the side.

The road, I tell, Jesse today is a travel day. I'm going to be driving and I bring bands with me and I pull

over on truck stop. I got lots of

pictures and videos of me sending my wife saying I'm at this particular truck stop. I'm doing push-ups for peace prints, things like that. I will pull over on the side of the road for an hour and do it. I do not miss workouts. The

second thing that I do is I set very specific goals. So each quarter Revenue goal. So those goals have included, like I wanted

to benchpress 330 pounds and I want to squat for her 30 pounds

and I'll take a quarter sometimes too.

Quarters to get there.

The next time I've had a goal of doing a combine and I wanted to score average for an NFL receiver, which I think was like a 45 40, a 34 inch vertical, a 10-4, broad jump, and then bench-pressing 225 pounds times 16 times, I think whatever it was, I pick goals every quarter and I stick to them because I need to have a goal. I don't always hit my goal. Sometimes. I most of the time I do but I, but I always have a goal that I'm trying to do

for me.

Right now and I imagined for the rest of my life it's going to all be centered around weight

lifting because a

I want to live to like I'm 130 and there seems to be a strong correlation between living long

and having muscle like because it I can just not break my hip

when I fall because my bones will be stronger and I can get up when I get

hurt

and also be because I want to look good

naked. I'm vain. So that's why I do it. So I lift a ton of weights and I have a coach that tells me what to do and I basically don't question them. I also use my body

Etutor no

affiliation with them other than I've become friends with them and that

helps me with my dieting. So I

spend roughly three hundred dollars a month on training and I think $250 a month on my body tutor. It's basically a nutritionist.

They call me once a week in the keep me on track. And then

finally, I write down everything I eat and I write down every

workout. So I use an app where I track all of my workouts because I want to know what I did the previous week, so I can improve. And then I track everything I eat because

it's really easy for me to overeat and

Tracking, it helps me. This person asked what future roadblocks will be

everyone. I don't have a kid yet, I but we are pregnant. Everyone says that, that will be a

roadblock. I'm in a very fortunate situation where I've been able to hire some help like a night nurse and things like that.

I have a feeling that it won't be a roadblock,

but it will be more challenging but it's not going to prevent me. Did I answer that question? Yeah, for sure. All right, this one is from John Murphy at e-comm CEO.

So he asks, when to embrace shiny object syndrome in win and how to keep it under control, this is a great question. And this is something that I think holds back 90% of people from really big success. So I constantly ask myself, what can I do this week? This month this year?

What can I accomplish in a certain time? Period, that will make every other tasks not important. And so there's this idea of like procrastination. Paul Graham wrote this great article. If you Google Paul Graham procrastination, he talks about, there's actually good presentation, there's bad press Keynesian procrastination. The bad type is you're just not going to, you just don't start working. But the good type is that it's like the idea of this crazy scientist who's a genius and he forgets to shower or he forgets to wear two matching socks and the idea being

You can actually ignore most things as long as you're getting the big things, right? And so I ask myself all the time, what is that one thing that I want to accomplish? Most people? They try to jump from thing to thing to thing? Because something's not working or because they feel pressured into doing something. I actually think that you should do one thing for an extended period of time. The reason being is because every time I say yes to something, I'm

ultimately saying no to something else and that

means I'm saying if I'm saying yes

to a new project I'm saying,

No, to either things like family time or I'm saying

no to focusing on the thing that matters or I'm saying

no to having. Like I'm

basically giving worried or worry time and I'm giving space in my brain for something that isn't essential. And so saying no is really important, it's very uncomfortable, but I think it's necessary. I think most people do multiple things at one time because they are guilted into it because what they see online and I try to remind myself that

I don't care about another person's opinion, more than I care about my own opinion

and also most people don't know what they're

doing. And so I'm not going to put too much judgment on their opinion because they don't have any idea what they're doing. I also try to remind myself that strong men,

they don't like, give into fear and I think a lot of people have shiny object syndrome because they're fearful that their main

things, not going to work. I try not to give into fear. Of course, I'm human. I do every once in a while but I try my hardest not to do it and so,

I think that.

When you're starting a business is a business podcast, we'll talk about that. I I have to ask myself. Well, I wish that I have stuck with this in ten years, why I look back and say I wish I would have done this one thing and if the answer is consistently, yes, and I'm going to stick to that one thing that said, it's definitely an art to figure out what to say no to and when to bail on what's working. But I've met a lot of successful people

and I have noticed that the people that have huge outside, outsize results,

And have massive, massive wealth. It typically

comes from one thing and then once they get incredibly successful, it appears as though they have a lot of things going on, but

those lot of things are like 5% of the hundred percent when it comes to net worth creation.

And so, I have to remind myself on a regular basis, that big results, typically come from one thing in the people who appear to be, to be doing a lot of things.

They actually kind of are doing one thing, one of my good friends and your well Kansan, the owns a private Equity company or E owns, a thing called tiny, where they buy businesses. And so he owns technically like 40 businesses, but his one thing is buying companies or investing. And so

you have to remind myself, I have to remind myself. That's

his one thing and he's doing that well and

that's what makes everything

else work. Additionally, he also had one agency

metal AB for I think 12 years and then he

started investing into other companies. And so you have to make your one thing.

Work. Otherwise, the rest of the stuff doesn't really work out. And so I

think more people should focus even though it's quite challenging and it doesn't appear as fun. I think it's better results.

Okay, this one is from Gabe. Phenomena at Gabe underscore fin on Twitter. He asks how to be interesting as a podcaster. You're essentially a professional Entertainer. What are the keys skills? You've learned over the years that allow you to be entertaining to listen to and talk to

this question is, I think particularly

interesting for young men, single men because when I was a single guy, when I was 14 15 and 16, well, basically, until I was not

All I cared about was meeting girls and what I learned and I wasn't very good at it. Arguably was never great at it, but I improved the best

thing for meeting a partner was to be an interesting person. I

imagine this works for women as well, but I only know a man's perspective. It works. Also for men is to be

interesting.

I made a few

points about how to be interesting, at least what I think, how to be interesting because I like figure this out. I wasn't like good at this.

The first thing is that you have to find something that interests

You and you have to turn it into a passion

even if it's not popular,

the reason being is people like people who

are passionate about stuff and who are really great at explaining,

why they're passionate about things and they don't need to be popular thing. So, for a long time, I was really interested in denim. That's like, a hobby of mine. I loved

jeans because jeans are

part of American history, and I would like by like five hundred or thousand dollar jeans, just to store them and keep them in only wear them occasionally because there,

Historical and important to me. I was really, really, really fascinated in that. And I noticed that when I would meet a girl and I would say something like, hey, I'm going to this swap meet. They got really cool Dedham just having something to do, and like being passionate about it, it attracts she was more attracted to me because of it and then my male friends as well. We're like, oh, this sounds interesting. You just got me interested in this topic, I'll go with you and you could explain it to me and thus people were attracted to me, this works for business, for meeting someone, whatever right now it's Fitness, I'm super

Fitness and having like a goal and

having something I care about. I've noticed, people are drawn to me. The second one is when

I can, I consume a ton of information. So I

listen to podcasts. I

watch a lot of TV, like

documentaries. I read a lot of books, and I read Wikipedia every night, I love Wikipedia. And when I'm consuming information, I

consume it from the perspective of, I try to find a hook. So I'll hear like, or I'll read something on Wikipedia and I try to find a fascinating.

Hook and I think in my brain, how can I retell this? That can capture people's attention

and whenever I consume information, that's what I do. So for

example, I just watched the documentary on

Arnold Schwarzenegger and he has

this great line where he calls the Shmi, which basically

means bullshit. So like when he was talking about being the spokesperson for

supplement brands or whatever or wining and dining people he goes I got the shush me, I know how to like, grab people's attention, I'm just bullshit with them. I got to get the Gap and he told the story of the Shmi. And I remember hearing that line ago,

That's brilliant. The should be. I'm going to talk about that all the time. I love the Shmi and that was that one little line I took from that documentary and I'm going to retell that story all the time. I'm going to talk all about the shammi and so whenever I consume information, I'm just for a comedy show or anything. I just look for like lines or hooks of a story that I'm going to retell to people constantly. I'm going to steal it. Basically, it does it. It's I consume information as if I

have to write a book report at it at another time.

The third thing is, I ask people all the time and I asked them this

in a

Very non-judgmental way. And a lot of people aren't used to being asked this, but I basically asked them all the time. Whenever they, I'll ask them about what they do for work, or where they're from, or whatever and they'll say something and I'll say an opinion and I always

ask them. Why do you think that? And I always try to ask that because it gets people to open up and when I asked them all about themselves, there's this great book called How

to Win, Friends and Influence People and Dale Carnegie wrote it in the 1920s and he

says, this tells a story about

This

kind of nobody young guy, talking to this big shot executive and the

nobody guy, the young guy. He asked a big-shot executive all about

himself and the executive spends

95% of the conversation. Talking about himself, the young guy, spends five percent the conversation, at the end of the

conversation, the executive goes,

wow! You're a great conversationalist. And the truth is that that's because people love to talk about themselves. And so oftentimes, when I'm with new people I'll ask them questions. Like why do you think that or why do you do that or questions like that? These oh,

Open-ended questions and that gives them an opportunity to talk about themselves. And thus, they think that I am more interesting because

ultimately they find themselves. Probably more interesting than anyone else.

Another thing is, I tried really hard to learn how to tell

stories. My partner in this podcast, Sean Perry, he's one of the best storytellers I've seen. I've tried to learn from him and I've tried to tell stories and I'll re tell the same stories, different groups

of people as if I'm a comedian and I like to see what hits and what doesn't and sometimes I'll alter the story while keeping the truth and there, but also the story in the way I

Outlet in order to capture their attention.

The last two things are. I am constantly trying to improve myself, which is great because

to be interesting. You just make yourself better.

So I'm constantly trying to improve myself and I explain to people what I'm trying to do. So, for example, if I'm trying to get fit, if I'm trying to read a certain amount

of books, if I'm trying to

build a business, I'm always trying to improve myself. And I talked about that with people not an obnoxious way but I let them know and they find that interesting. I found

most of the time and then

Ali. I say my opinion and I usually research opinions that I have. So for example it could be like political stuff, it could be Health stuff, it could be in business, I try to come up with the well-thought-out opinions and I'm very not afraid to say that opinion and even if it rubs people the wrong way I have found that when you explain your opinion and you stand firm on it. It you people find you interesting because most people are vanilla and they don't have strong opinions. And so

That said I'm so open minded, I think there's a phrase, what's that phrase? It's a strong beliefs loosely held and so I'm I can be swayed for sure but I try have strong opinions that I try to let people know about them and then when I don't have an opinion or I haven't research a topic, I try my hardest to say I've not thought about that or I don't know. And so that's how I think you'd be interesting. When we have different podcasts guests, come on. Even if they're not in my world at all.

Because I've like, consume so much information. I'm pretty good at relating to them and that is just comes down to. I just read a ton of Wikipedia and when they talk, I'll reference things in that field. Even if I don't know a ton about them and then

I'll ask them why they think that? Because I read on Wikipedia that this this and

this is that true for you. Is that is that one of the reasons why you think X Y and Z? And they'll say no

actually or Yes

Yeah. And that's a great way to get them to talk more about it and it gets me involved in the conversation. All right, so I back channeled, a few questions. This one is from your buddy Neville Medora at Neville Medora on Twitter and he wanted to hear a bit about your loyalty to your dog. Sid. He had a quote to share that I thought was pretty great. He goes. I remember Sam vividly saying. I hate when people give away their pets, when you sign up for a dog you sign up for life. So never wants to hear a bit about your

Relationship to Sid and just if you could elaborate on that quote a bit. Yeah. So basically, I have this dog named Sid. I got them when I was 20 or 22 or something. He's 14 years old now and I do crazy stuff for this dog. Like, for example, I live half the year sometimes in New York and sometimes I'll fly sometimes I'll drive, but if I fly, I hire a driver for him. So I basically hire someone to drive him from Austin all the way up to New York.

And like, I don't travel because of him overseas, typically. And so, the reason being is I mentioned having rules, another

rule in my book is responsibility and loyalty. So there's a few people, in my

life, my wife, my dog, my business partner, Joe, Sean's one of these folks, Jordan, the CEO of Hampton

I firmly believe that you never ever ever speak badly about them behind their back, you don't lie, you don't disrespect them publicly. You don't question them publicly and I try my hardest not to do that even a little bit. The reason being is

I'm a firm belief in loyalty and

so there's I basically have zero loyalty to most people and then there's like eight people in my life. My life, who I like, I can like write them down. It's like them. I would do anything for them and I expect them

Um, to do that for me.

The second reason is responsibility. So, like when I have a meeting on my calendar, I try my hardest never ever, ever to be late. I try very hard to be early. I don't miss things. If I say I'm going to do something, I do it. I'm a big firm believer. And you do it yusei and

Following through. And so another rule is, when you have a responsibility to stick with it, no matter what. When I got my dog, I said I'm going to raise them, right? And I'm going to like, respect this this like bond that we have. And so I'm crazy about that. So that's a rule that I just don't. Break is loyalty and rules. Love it. All right, this one is from Garrett's his handles at Gigi S III and he goes finding someone to

To build a company with, or finding your first hire. So basically you just asking how you hire people.

So I'm not like a religious person but there's this thing from the Bible, I went to Catholic School my whole life. There's just like a line from the Bible

where like Jesus is trying to like get disciples and he tells one of his disciples Peter and Paul. He goes like I think they're fisherman and he goes, come

join me and you are going to be

Fishers of Men. And I love that line that's an example by the way of being interesting. You

Just find like interesting lines and you you know you re tell them that's a beautiful line and the way that I'm able to hire good CEOs and hire great people. I mean, if you look at the hustle,

I don't know how many people we had when we sold the company may be 40, so we probably have hired 60 or 70 people.

A lot of them are really successful now like we hired them when they were like 23. And a lot of them, maybe like 15 or 20 of them have went on start successful companies helped grow other. Successful companies have a name for

themselves and the reason they did that is

I wanted to be a collector of people. Fishers of Men, that's a weird line. I call it collector of people. So