Does anyone want what you made?

... and 4 other things I'm working on and thinking about this week

1. Does anyone want what you made?
   In the early days of Wholesale In a Box, I was introduced to the Sean Ellis test and we used it at several key junctures to get to product-market fit. As Lenny summarizes: The “Sean Ellis Test” is a leading indicator of product-market fit. Run it by asking your users, “How would you feel if you could no longer use this product?” with options: “Very disappointed,” “Somewhat disappointed,” “Not disappointed,” or “Not applicable.” If 40% or more respond with “Very disappointed,” you have a strong indication of PMF. It sounds almost overly simple, but indeed, over the last 8 years, I’ve found this to be a really useful tool to assess in a simple way whether you are building something that people want. Obviously there are a lot of subtleties (arguably the most important work of the business) in figuring out what to do with this information. But first you have to have the information. We’ve been exploring this with Cobble. And it’s been helpful as a focusing tool.
   

2. Status and affiliation.
   OG Seth Godin is as great as ever. Listened to him on the Tim Ferriss podcast this week. And he said that human beings seek three things: status, affiliation, and freedom from fear. Maybe they also seek growth and contribution and other things, but putting a spotlight on status and affiliation is helpful to me since as a person, I don’t tend to be as driven by those needs as by other needs (e.g., for autonomy and accomplishment.) It’s made me realize that how important it is for Briico to not only be effective (in helping people build a profitable business in 30 days or less) but also to help people get status and affiliation. This is a big area of opportunity for our work.
   

3. Dancing with AI.
   Speaking of Seth Godin, he has this concept of “dancing at the edge of finished.” I’m a bit of a reluctant adopter with AI. I don’t like fussing with new tools. And I don’t like wasting time on things that feel enmeshed in a lot of drama. But I’m not sure there’s a smart way of continuing to work that doesn’t contemplate AI in it. And recently I’ve found ways of dancing with the edge of AI that feel really fun. For instance:

   • Using ChatGPT as a personal writing assistant (especially fleshing out bullet points or examples once a piece is almost done)

   • Learning about Lovable and envisioning how a broad community of people could benefit from it

   • Wondering how the new tool Rosie might help folks who don’t speak English run their service businesses.
     

4. Reading:
   The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin and re-reading Show Your Work by Austin Kleon.
   

5. What’s the hard part?
   One of the most important questions you can ask about any business idea is: what’s the hard part of this business? If you want to build a business making money from affiliate links or online courses, the hard part is building an audience. If you want to run a real estate company, the hard part is saying no to 999 opportunities and knowing which is the right one. Every business has a hard part and you should pick a hard part that you want to devote your days to.

xo,
Emily