Finding Your True North: Turn Your Passion Into Your Product, From Scratch | B2Breakout 🚀

Is there an area of thinking or work that you’re just naturally better at than other people?

You naturally gravitate towards it.

You love talking about it to anyone who’ll listen.

You actually enjoy it in a way that other people don’t seem to.

And if you’re lucky, your career is aligned towards it.

That’s your superskill. 

You’ve probably thought to yourself:

“What if I could turn this passion into something? I love it, and I’d love it even more if I could get paid for it!”

It’s a subject you truly adore - that makes it an area in which you could become a genuine thought leader. And you’re beginning to realise that there could be something special in that. Something like… a consultancy. And the good news is you’re probably right.

If you recognise yourself or someone you know in this, this week’s newsletter is dedicated to helping you to start developing that passion into something that other people will buy.

I’ll take you through the exact process we used with one of our clients to develop a new product in an area he loved, so he could start moving away from the stuff he didn’t (and get far more money for it too).

Aligning your work to your passion allows you to stop running someone else’s race and realise your true potential.

Now let’s get you to the starting line.

Unlocking Your Consultancy Superskill

Your first step is to get a piece of paper and work through these questions.

It’s the most useful business exercise you’ll ever do - and you can do it by lunchtime.

The more time you can spend thinking, the better, but it’s not an extremely lengthy process. We normally spend 2 hours on it with our clients.

It goes like this:

Stage 1 - Working Out What Your Superskill Is

When we speak to people, the conversation usually starts with these questions:

• Why do you do what you do and how did you get into it?

• What do you enjoy about what you do?

• What are the situations where it just “clicks”?

• What are the situations which you want to avoid?

• What do you think makes you different from everyone else?

• Why do people value this?

• What do you think the ideal end client goal should be?

• Who is the right audience for this kind of product?

• How much money do you think you could get from doing this really well?

• What are the different aspects we would need to put together to achieve this?

Just by asking these questions, you end up in a pretty exciting situation.

Why? Because you are aligning three areas:

Where your natural passion meets a problem that people need solving, X marks the spot of natural client demand.

If you can align these points to find that spot, you have literally found fairy dust.

Stage 2: Finding (And Avoiding) Your Kryptonite

Ask yourself if any of these roadblocks apply to your idea. If you hit any of them, you’re heading for disaster. You need to amend, change or even restart the process.

Clients don’t value it

Simply put, if you don’t think you can get good money for it, don’t do it.

Unclear or unaligned outcome

Everything needs a client-led destination. If you’re unsure what the outcome is for your clients, you may need to rethink your offering.

It’s a “good time business”

If the economy took a dive, would your offering still hold value? If not, you’ll be perpetually on thin ice.

You’re taking responsibility for someone else’s tasks

If you’re doing the work for the client, or finding yourself worrying about whether or not they do it, you’re taking on too much of their responsibility. Guide, consult - don’t do.

It feels like someone else’s business  

If your product feels like someone else’s, even to you, then you will be compared to them constantly by others. Run your own race. Those differentiators are important over the long term.

Stage 3: Sleep On It. Run On It. Speak To People About It.

Okay, I know I said you could do this exercise by lunchtime, but this step is arguably the most important, and it won’t happen today.

I always say there are three levels to working through a new business idea:

1. The idea itself - is it feasible?

2. The passion - could you see yourself doing this?

3. The appeal - do you think other people agree with your logic?

You can only achieve real clarity on this with time, ideally a week or so.

If you or someone else finds a hole in your plan, relook at it to solve it.

You don’t have to have all the answers, but you do need to have something solid, more than just a feeling that this can work, before you go any further.

You may have noticed that we haven’t fleshed out any of the details at this stage:

• The product / package

• Your situation

• Your approach

• Your resources

• Your plan

But none of that matters if you don’t have a solid original idea to hand. One you really care about.

Everything else can be tested along the way, and will need to be. But unless you completely understand and are deeply connected to the idea, there is no point going any further.

Plus, going through this process stops you from getting distracted by shiny object syndrome…

Time To Grab Your Compass…

I know all too well that it’s easy to develop new ideas, but much harder to turn them into something viable.

This is especially true if you don’t have a massive budget to throw at different ideas until something sticks.

That means you need to test ideas through before taking them to market, and do so in the least risky way possible.

This applies to four different situations:

1. Developing a new product idea for a new consultancy

2. Developing a new product direction for an existing business

3. Ensuring that an existing business or marketing strategy hasn’t blown off course

4. Working out whether something is a career or a hobby

We found that this method was a great way to get through those situations to the core of whether we think an idea makes sense, and I hope it can help you too.

If it moves your business forward, then I have done my job. And if you need some support along the way, you know where to find me.

Till next time,

Murray

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It can be a long process to get this all in place, but I’d love to hear if these insights work for you. You can ​DM me via LinkedIn​ or reply to this email with your thoughts or any questions you might have.

And if you’d prefer some direct feedback on your marketing efforts, I’d be happy to help. You can take our ​LinkedIn assessment​ and I’ll follow up with some free analysis a few days later.