This chapter is the first step in creating a passive income stream... finding a muse.
There are three steps to finding a muse:
1.Find an affordably reachable niche market
There's two rules for a niche market:
1. You should belong to it.
2. It should have it's own magazine.
This was hard for me. I couldn't think of many things.
I'm a student, but that's too broad, and there's no magazine.
Magician, pretty narrow and there's a magazine... but I couldn't think of a product for it short of selling a magic trick, which I wasn't really interested in.
"Pick-up Artists"... but the market is already saturated.
The closest thing I could think of was people interested in personal development... still too broad, but at least it fulfills both requirements. The market is saturated, but the subject is broad enough that I can find a narrow focus within the market.
Then came the next step:
2. Brainstorm Products
There are four requirements for the product:
1.The main benifit should be encapsulated in a single sentence
2.It should cost the customer $50-200
3.It should take no more than 3-4 weeks to manufacture
4.It should be fully explainable in a good online FAQ
I'm pretty sure I'm going for an informational product here, so 3 and 4 shouldn't be a problem... that leaves 1 &2... and of course I have to make sure there's actually a demand.
I came up with a few ideas:
1.How to Create an Environment that Maximizes Productivity and Minimizes Stress
Scratched this one... it's not something I myself would be interested in buying.
2.College Students Guide to Raising Grades and Doubling Free Time
I would feel bad about makng this one with not being at school right now... there's also not enough based on keyword searches, and no magazine to advertise in.
3.Behavior Modification:How to Beat Bad Habits, Create Good Ones, and Change Your Life For the Better.
This one looks to be a keeper. there's only two competitors for getting rid of bad habits, and no real competitors for the creation of new habits... although there's very little demand for habit creation.
There's an interesting section here about how to appear to be an expert, I did a little research for this. Here's some organizations I could be a part of for a small fee:
Association for Behavior Analysis International
The Pavlovian Society
International Positive Psychology Association
The American Psychological Association (APA)
I would be interested to see which ones you think sound most impressive and official sounding.
After I joined those, and had my content, I would then use those credentials to go to some of the nearby campuses (MIT, Harvard) and do free lectures on how to change habits. I would then use the fact that I had lectured at these places to go do some other workshops att a local branch of IBM, Microsoft, etc. I would be collecting testimonials along the way.
I would then use these facts to get published in a self help journal.
At this point my bio would look something like this:
Matt Harold is a top behavior modification expert, who has helped fortune 500 execs change their habits for the better. He is a member of the Association for Behavior Analysis International as well as the Pavlovian Society. His work has been featured in numerous places, including a recent article in Science of the Mind magazine. He has also been a guest lecturer at numerous colleges across the United States, most recently Harvard and MIT.
Pretty spiffy eh?
;).
I would then join ProfNet and ExpertClick to get media mentions and interviews.
Tim's recommended method for actually having expert knowledge:
Take the three top books in the field and be able to summarize each in one page.
That's good, I think I can do better... I want to create a QUALITY product here, something taht can change people's lives. I want to include the science as well as the how, I want it to be comprehensive, and I want it to be immediately applicable.
So, the top three books, as far as I could find are:
1.This Year I Will...: How to Finally Change a Habit, Keep a Resolution, or Make a Dream Come True
2.Changing for Good: A Revolutionary Six-Stage Program for Overcoming Bad Habits and Moving Your Life Positively Forward
3.Self-Defeating Behaviors: Free Yourself from the Habits, Compulsions, Feelings, and Attitudes That Hold You Back (Paperback)
In addition to these, I have a multitude of books which I think apply to the subject:
Influencer, by Patterson et al.
I Read Minds and So Do You, by Anton Zelman
Learning and Behavior, by Mark Bouton
Psycho-Cybernetics, by Maxwell Malitz
7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey
Unlimited Power, by Anthony Robbins
Awaken the Giant Within, by Anthony Robbins
Emotional Intelligence, by Daniel Goleman
Blink, by Malcom Gladwell
Getting Things Done, by David Allen
My definition of expert is this:
When I have read and applied all the information from the top three books on the subject,applied all relevant information from these above mentioned book, gathered it all together into a coherent system, and used it myself as well as helped other people apply it... then I'll be an expert in my own eyes.
My Deadline to become an expert? The 31st. Parkinson's Principle. I'll have to cut out those books which I don't think matter, I'll have to go through the new books quickly, and I'll have to apply the contents. With this deadline in mind, I'm gonna revise my list above... those are all important eventually, but for the bare essentials, I think I'll boil it down to these Books:
Awaken the Giant Within
Influencer
Learning and Behavior
Changing for Good
This Year I will...
Banish Bad Habits (one of my "competitors" products)
That's six books. The bare essentials, from which I'm going to createa comprehensive program, and apply it to myself. If I do that, I think I can in good conscience do some free lectures.
Stay tuned, I'm gonna take you through this process of going through all the books, summarizinjg them, integrating them, along with my own principles, and seeing what I come out with.
See you tommorow :).
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