4 builders who never spoke to each other

Let the questions people send you pick the topic

A steady stream of the same question arriving in your inbox is a pre-validated topic, since the asking already proves the demand and the volume tells you the size. Writing down everything you know from work and hobbies surfaces more of these than brainstorming does, because what feels basic to you is not basic to them.

The method

1. 01

   Choose the product topic from the questions people already come to you with.

2. 02

   Let the questions people already send you privately decide what you sell next, since the topic is pre-validated by the volume of asking.

3. 03

   Choose your book or course topic from the questions people already send you by email and on Twitter.

4. 04

   Write out everything you know from work, home and hobbies, plus every subject friends come to you about, on the assumption that what feels basic to you is not basic to them.

5. 05

   Do not try to invent the idea first: begin from a skill you already have and narrow it through two levels until it names a specific audience and a specific problem.

What it returned

• $46,000

  Jack Ellis was public about running Fathom on Vapor, and the steady stream of DMs and emails asking how it worked became his course, which took $46,000 in week one and about $120,000 in total.

• 75

  Welsh calls the failure to see this knowledge blindness. His example is his wife Jennifer, who has planned hundreds of events up to international trips for 75 people and is repeatedly surprised that advice she finds obvious astonishes the people she gives it to.

• Adii Pienaar noticed he was receiving a stream of paid Clarity call requests about branding strategy and tactics

• Paul Jarvis wrote Eat Awesome after vegan diet questions and Be Awesome at Online Business after business questions; Nathan Barry's first book existed because so many people asked him how to design apps and he had nowhere to send them.

Sources

• Self-Publishing Hangout highlightsJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · On choosing a topic · undated
• The Counterintuitive Approach to Uncovering Your Profitable NicheJustin Welsh · justinwelsh.me · 1. Start with a Small, Hungry Market · 2024-06-08
• Your "Common Knowledge" Isn't Common.Justin Welsh · justinwelsh.me · Step 1: Brain Dump and Research · 2023-10-28
• How Adii Piennar used Authority to publish his own bookNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · 1. What do people ask you for help with? · 2013-07-31
• When Your Audience Isn't Who You Think They Are - SparkToroSparkToro · sparktoro.com · What we’d actually do with this · 2026-06-25
• 2020 Year in Review - Fathom AnalyticsJack Ellis · usefathom.com · March - When everything changed · 2020-12-23