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

0:00And when you see a big company like 1-800-Flowers or Heineken, so a company that has millions of customers, when they say one or two lines like that gets me really interested.

0:19all right we're live sean is not here so i'm gonna do a question and answer session i tweeted out that i'm gonna be doing this and we have a bunch of questions jonathan's gonna be reading uh the first ones what are they which where do you want to start all right this one is from jimbo Slice. He goes, would love to learn how to develop ideas for businesses to start and how to test said 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, before I started this podcast.

0:58And this is how I created the hustle. We ended up selling the hustle for tens of billions of dollars. And this is how I 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 ideationbootcamp.co, everyone kept asking me about this process. So I made it into a course. You can go and buy it if you want. I'll just 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.

1:32So there's a song called, you know, like a Guns N' Roses song, like Welcome to Paradise. Is that what it's called? Sweet Child of Mine. That's what I'm thinking. Sweet Child of Mine. Sweet Child of Mine has this amazing guitar solo in that song. And the band said that someone asked them how they write songs. They're like, well, sometimes like Sweet Child of Mine, I heard this amazing guitar riff that Slash 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.

2:05I 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.

2:42And I'm going to give you an example of this. And so I have all these tools that I use. And so 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 probably buying Valentine Day flowers on their website one time. And I noticed that their traffic... I use this tool called SimilarWeb. I use that all the time. It's a plugin. It's free. They have a paid version. The free version is totally fine. They have this plugin where it tells you a guesstimate of what the traffic is from a website. And 1-800-Flowers, as predicted, it had pretty great traffic.

3:23It was like 5 million people a month coming to the website. And then in February, it peaked to be really, really big. That's easy to guess because it was Valentine's Day. But basically, that told me that, wow, a lot of people are using 1-800-Flowers on a regular basis. And it peaks in February. And it also had a big jump in whenever Mother's Day is, May or June. And so I was like, all right, 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 annualreports.com. And I love reading annual reports because it teaches me about the company.

4:00So an annual report, if a company is public, they have to release this quarterly report where they talk about their earnings and all these interesting 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 said, we are noticing that the succulent plant, it's a very particular plant, we are noticing that amongst our millennial consumers, it's the fastest growing trend. I also did this with Heineken, the company Heineken. In their annual report, they said Heineken Zero, which is like a non-alcohol version. It's our fastest growing segment.

4:42It's still really small, but it's fast growing. And when you see a big company like 1-800-Flowers or Heineken, so a company that has millions of customers, when they say one or two lines like that, that gets me really interested. When they 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 every website I go to. If it's really weird looking and it grabs my attention, I go to a similar web and I just look at what their traffic is. because I'm looking for these one little tidbits that catch my attention.

5:14And in this case, for the 1-800-Flowers, they said succulents were growing. And so I'll look at what they say. And then I try to find shortcomings. So with 1-800-Flowers, they said that their shortcomings are that most of their 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're trying to think of ways to get people to buy more accessories, like vases, chocolates, and things like that.

5:55And then so that gave me this idea of like, okay, 1-800-Flowers is a big business because the revenue is huge and it gets tons of traffic. I know that. So that's proving me that there's demand and a big audience. I know that they're succeeding at least to some point because they're a publicly traded company and they're very profitable I know their shortcomings or the problems that they're trying to solve for are 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 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 vases how can I do that and so I wrote this report for Trends, Trends.co.

6:38And then someone eventually launched a company where they created this succulent plant that you smack on the wall. And it has this hydrophonic system where it watered itself. And then there was another company that launched and they created the coolest... It was a succulent plant. And some of them launched these companies based off that report I wrote. Another company created this business where they had these amazing pots and vases where it had artists on there. So Frida Kahlo was on one. Or they would create really funny pots and plants. Some of the pots were state-themed. So an organ plant had an organ flag on the vase, things like that.

7:19And that was their way of solving it. And a bunch of these companies, a few of them went on to raise millions and millions of dollars. I think there's Bloomscape and I forget the other one. But it basically came from this research methodology of finding demand, finding the audience, looking at the leaders, the shortcomings. And it's this cycle that I use. And I try to find 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's getting. There's another amazing thing called Companies House.

7:53So basically, if you're based in the UK and you're a company that does at least 10 million in revenue, you have to file 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 company's house. So for example, I found this amazing website that basically was reviewing VPNs. You know what a VPN is? It's like a thing that hides where you are when you're using the web. And they had like 12 million visitors to their site. And I was like, oh, that's interesting.

8:31And the company was called something company name, LTD. So I go, all right, I'm going to go straight to the company's house and see what the revenue is. The 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 VPN. That shocks me. I didn't realize that market was that big. B, it shows me that that business model of affiliate... So they made money through affiliate. So they would write a review on a VPN. If someone bought it, they got a little cutback. That business model, super fascinating. So in my head, I'm like, Oh, wow, what other tech products have this big affiliate fees?

9:10And can I create content for them? That business model was really fascinating. And C, I learned that they were the leader in the space. And so that just opened up my mind to 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 affiliate fee with that. I bet you I could rank on search for that. And then I never ended up doing it because I wasn't passionate about it. But anyway, I go through all these different examples and of like these different tools that I use to research on Ideation Bootcamp.

9:41It's ideationbootcamp.co. But that's like a very scattered example of how I do that. All right. This one is from Mike Terravela. 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 curious 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 at the 200 meter and 400 meter dash. And then I went to a division one school where I was a scholarship athlete for two years.

10:20And 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's a good time to put my before picture. So if you're listening 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 disgusting. 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.

10:57General Mathis, he's this general in 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 still listen to Ryan Holiday, who's an 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 how much I should lift.

11:30I 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 centralathlete.com. You can see him. I'm not affiliated. I'm just a fan. And he created all my training for me. And I meet with him monthly. And I do the workouts remotely. But basically, I don't miss a single workout. And I work out five days a week. And so that's five days times 52. I think that's 260 workouts. In the last two years, three years, I probably have missed five to 10 a year. And that's usually only because of sickness or like if someone dies and I have to take a flight to a funeral.

12:05But basically, 95 % of the time, I don't miss. And so I believe big, big, big, big time into consistency. And so I don't miss. The second thing that I do, and by the way, I'm fairly extreme about it. So for example, I drive a ton. So 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 of the road. I tell Jesse, today's a travel day. I'm going to be driving and I bring bands with me and I pull over on a truck stop. I got lots of pictures and videos of me sending my wife saying, I'm at this particular truck stop.

12:41I'm doing pushups, burpees, sprints, things like that. I will pull over on the side 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, I have a new goal. So those goals have included... I wanted to bench press 330 pounds and I wanted to squat 430 pounds. And I'll take a quarter, sometimes two 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 4-5-40, 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.

13:23I don't always hit my goal. Sometimes I most of the time I do, but I always have a goal that I'm trying to do. For me right now, and I imagine for the rest of my life, it's going to all be centered around weightlifting. 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 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 B, 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.

13:56And I basically don't question them. I also use My Body Tutor. No affiliation with them other than I've become friends with them. And that helps me with my dieting. So I spend roughly$300 a month on training. and I think$250 a month on MyBodyTutor. It's basically a nutritionist. They call me once a week and they 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.

14:29And so tracking it helps me. This person asked, what future roadblocks will be. I don't have a kid yet, 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 Ecom CEO. He asks, when to embrace shiny object syndrome and when and how to keep it under control? This is a great question.

15:07And 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 task not important? And so there's this idea of procrastination. Paul Graham wrote this great article. If you Google Paul Graham procrastination, he talks about there's actually good procrastination. There's bad procrastination. praskination. The bad type is 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.

15:47And the idea being is 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 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.

16:24Or I'm saying no to having... I'm basically giving 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.

17:03I 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 thing's 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, because it's a business podcast, we'll talk about that. I have to ask myself, well, I wish that I have stuck with this in 10 years. Well, I look back and say, I wish I would have done this one thing. And if the answer is consistently yes, then I'm going to stick to that one thing.

17:37That 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 outsized 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 100 % 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. And the people who appear to be doing a lot of things, they actually kind of are doing one thing.

18:22One of my good friends, Andrew Wilkinson, he owns a private equity company, or he 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, MetaLab, 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.

18:53And 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 Finema. At Gabe underscore Finn on Twitter, he asks, how to be interesting. As a podcaster, you're essentially a professional entertainer. What are the key 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 single, all I cared about was meeting girls.

19:32And 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 awesome 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 figured this out. I wasn't 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.

20:14And they don't need to be popular things. So for a long time, I was really interested in denim. That's a hobby of mine. I love jeans because jeans are part of American history. And I would buy$500 or$1 ,000 jeans just to store them and keep them and only wear them occasionally because they're 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 denim. Just having something to do and being passionate about it, she was more attracted to me because of it.

20:48And then my male friends as well were like, Oh, this sounds interesting. You just got me interested in this topic. I'll go with you and you can 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 fascinated in fitness. And having a goal and having something I care about, I've noticed people are drawn to me. The second one is when 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.

21:20And 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 when he was talking about being the spokesperson for supplement brands or whatever, or whining and dining people, he goes, I got the shmi.

21:54I know how to grab people's attention. I'm just bullshitting with them. I got the gift of gab. And he told the story of the shmi. And I remember hearing that line. I go, that's brilliant. The shmi. 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 shmi. And so whenever I consume information, I'm just or 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.

22:21That's it. I consume information as if I have to write a book report at another time. The third thing is I ask people all the time. And I ask them this in a very non-judgmental way. And a lot of people aren't used to being asked this. But I basically ask them all the time. I'll ask them about what they do for work or where they're from or whatever. And they'll say something and they'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 ask them all about themselves, there's this great book called How to Win Friends and Influence People.

22:56And 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 the big shot executive all about himself. And the executive spends 95 % of the conversation talking all about himself. The young guy spends 5 % of 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?

23:28Or why do you do that? Or questions like that, these 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 have tried really hard to learn how to tell stories. My partner on this podcast, Sean Puri, 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 retell the same stories, to different groups of people as if I'm a comedian. And I like to see what hits and what doesn't.