72. How to Choose the Right Business Idea for You
Business ideas don't emerge from thin air- they grow from the intersection of what you're good at, what interests you, and what people will actually pay for. The pressure to have everything figured out before taking the first step keeps countless talented moms trapped in unfulfilling careers, waiting for lightning to strike while months and years slip by.
Starting a business isn't about having the perfect idea from day one. It's about being willing to work with what I call a "shitty first draft" business idea- something messy and imperfect that gets you moving.
Through the Zone of Genius mapping process I share in this episode, you'll discover how to identify potential business ideas by examining three key areas: what you're interested in, what you're skilled at, and what people are willing to pay for. Where these circles overlap is your starting point- not your destination. You'll learn why the most successful businesses often look nothing like their original concepts and how taking action on an imperfect idea is the only way to discover what truly works.
Ready to find your Sh*tty First Draft Business Idea?
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What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
How the myth of the perfect business idea keeps moms stuck in careers they don’t want anymore.
The Zone of Genius mapping process for identifying your first business idea.
What makes a "shitty first draft" business idea powerful.
How successful businesses evolve through action rather than planning.
The questions that help uncover business ideas hiding in plain sight.
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68. Starting a Business Later in Life: Thyme Sullivan’s Reinvention at 48
Full Episode Transcript:
When we step into this what if mindset, suddenly we open the door to possibility. What if my skills from corporate could serve people in a new way? What if the thing I do naturally, the thing I think is no big deal, is actually valuable? What if my messy, half-baked idea could be the starting point for something much bigger down the road?
Welcome to How to Quit Your Job, the podcast for moms ready to ditch the nine-to-five and build a life and business they love. I’m your host, Jenna Rykiel. Let’s go.
Hi, mom friends. Welcome back to How to Quit Your Job: A Mom's Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. I'm so glad you're here with me today because we're going to tackle a myth that keeps so many moms stuck as they're considering starting their own business. And that is the myth that we need the perfect business idea before we can get started. I spoke about this concept in the free webinar I hosted a couple weeks ago, and I got a lot of really great feedback about this piece of it. So I wanted to talk about it on the podcast. It seems like it was an aha moment for so many in the room.
So we're going to talk about the perfect business idea myth, why it keeps us stuck. We're going to talk about possibility as a tool you can use to come up with your business idea. And we're going to talk about how to come up with an initial business idea through my Zone of Genius mapping process. Okay? There's also a free worksheet in the show notes to actually help guide you through that process that I'm going to talk about. So if you don't yet have a business idea that you're ready to move forward on and take action on, this episode is for you, and there are resources in this episode that are going to help you make that happen.
If you're new here, welcome, new to the podcast. Make sure you hit that subscribe button because every week, I'm going to be breaking down the big scary leap from employee to entrepreneur into doable steps. Okay? And when you're subscribed, you won't miss those small mindset shifts and practical tips in every single episode. All of those tips add up over time to help you build the life and business you love. And that's what it's all about.
Okay. Let's get into it. So many moms I talk to, and also my own experience, is that you're in corporate, you're successful on paper, you're the one people rely on at work and at home, and you're also exhausted. Okay? There's a part of you that knows the 9 to 5 isn't sustainable long term, and deep down, you feel like you're meant for something more. But when you start dreaming and thinking about leaving your successful career, you think to yourself, what would I even do? I don't have a good business idea. And suddenly, then you feel absolutely stuck.
So maybe you scroll through social media and you see all these polished, successful businesses, you know, the coaching programs, the Etsy shops, the influencers, the products. And it feels like they have figured out something special that you somehow may be missed. You start to believe the story that unless you come up with a genius, groundbreaking idea, it doesn't make sense to start. It would be a waste of time and energy. So, you wait. You wait for inspiration to strike, you wait for, you know, that lightning bolt idea, and in the meantime, months, sometimes years pass by.
And here's the truth that I want us to really hold on to today in this conversation is that waiting for the perfect business idea means that we'll be waiting forever because the perfect business idea does not exist. I was talking to a woman the other day who said that, you know, she wanted to invest in herself, she wanted to build a business, but that she didn't know what she would do, right? So she didn't feel ready. And she talked about her husband, who was an entrepreneur, and that he had taken a course to come up with a business idea. So out of curiosity, I asked, you know, how did that go? And she said, well, the first idea that came out of that course failed. But then he came up with another idea, and that one's been really successful.
And in that moment, I thought to myself, what a powerful example. There was this investment and this energy that went into coming up with this perfect business idea, and it didn't work. And if he had made that mean he wasn't cut out for entrepreneurship, or if he'd sat around waiting for the perfect idea, he never would have landed on the second idea, the successful one. The one that I assume came to him after he was in the market and trying things out, right?
This is the myth that we need to truly bust because we don't discover the perfect business idea by taking a course or thinking about it, and then build the perfect business, right? The best ideas will emerge because we're willing to start imperfectly, we're willing to experiment, we're willing to fail, and we're willing to learn. And that's also how possibility works. In fact, I want us to think about possibility as a tool. Because when we think and tell ourselves I don't know, or that's not possible, or no one would buy that, we shut the door. Okay? We close off creativity before it even has a chance to show up.
When we step into this what if mindset, suddenly we open the door to possibility. What if my skills from corporate could serve people in a new way? What if the thing I do naturally, the thing I think is no big deal, is actually valuable? What if my messy half-baked idea could be the starting point for something much bigger down the road? This is what I talked about back in episode six, which also is my most downloaded episode, by the way. So if you haven't listened to it yet, feel free to go back after this and check it out. But in that episode, we explored the endless possibilities for what kind of business you could start.
But today, I want to take that conversation deeper because possibilities don't matter if we're stuck waiting for perfection. Okay? Possibility is the spark. Action is the fuel. And I've seen this play out with my clients again and again. Two of my clients just recently hit their $1,000 in revenue mark. And when we looked back at how their businesses started, neither one had any idea what they wanted to do when they came to coaching.
We shaped a, what I call, and explicit alert for any kids in the room. We shaped what I call a shitty first draft idea. I think this is a concept that Tim Ferriss talked about with writing or somebody else. It doesn't matter, but it's a shitty first draft idea. They started having conversations, they tested things out, and the businesses they're running today look completely different than their first ideas. But they never would have gotten here if they hadn't been willing to live in the land of possibility and to take action on imperfect beginnings. Okay?
So let's talk about that term that I just threw at you that I have no idea where I got it from. Let's talk about the shitty first draft business idea. I love this phrase because it really gives us permission to start messy. Okay? To treat our first business idea like a draft, not a final masterpiece. And trust me, I have lived this. My first draft looked nothing like the business I run today. I started by offering free coaching at a single parent housing coalition. Then I found a directory I could list myself on and offered general life coaching. And as I got more experienced and confident, I tapped into my corporate network and started coaching leaders on preventing burnout. That was right after COVID when so many people were walking away from corporate and I thought, I can help, right?
But here's the thing. That didn't fully align with my values, right? Because deep down, I believed that corporate was not designed for moms. And when I went through my own maternity leave, it became crystal clear that I didn't want to help women and moms stay in corporate, I wanted to help them leave and build businesses on their own terms, just like I did. So I shifted again. It was messy, it was imperfect, but every version of that shitty first draft, and I'm going to say the S-word quite a few times. So please keep your muffs on the little ones if they're listening.
But each version of that shitty first draft brought me closer to the work I do today, work I love, work that feels aligned, work that supports moms just like you in creating freedom, flexibility, and fun. And none of it would have happened if I had waited for the perfect business idea. I really did have to jump in and start coaching and start learning about the business and start shaping that so that I could get to where I am today.
So, let's take that and get practical. Okay? Because mindset is huge, right? Stepping into possibility is huge, believing that we can come up with something, believing that we have value to offer people that people are willing to pay for. All of that is important. We also need a tool to move from possibility into a first draft idea. Okay? So instead of waiting for a perfect idea, we map out possibilities. And I want you to think of this like a three-circle diagram. So we're going back to middle school or high school or whenever we learned it. Also, in the show notes, you'll find a free resource that walks you through this exercise, like I mentioned. So listen, but then go to jenna.coach/72 when you're ready to put pen to paper or pause and go check out that resource and we can walk through it together.
But there's the three-circle Venn diagram, and each circle represents something important. Okay, one circle represents what we're interested in. These are the maybe the topics, hobbies, or conversations that light us up. Notice that I'm not saying what we're passionate in. I know there's a lot of people out there who have who are multi-passionate and who have lots of passions, and that's wonderful. Think about those passions for this circle. But I know that there's so many of us who do not feel like we have any passions. Okay? I'm one of those people. I don't feel strongly passionate about many topics, and that doesn't mean that there aren't things that interest me. So think about, you know, any type of hobbies, things that light you up, conversations you love having.
I want you to think about a couple of questions that can help you in brainstorming for this circle. What would I happily talk about for hours over coffee with a friend? What do I find myself Googling or listening to for fun, maybe on podcasts or YouTube videos or audiobooks, right? A client of mine, you know, when we went through this process, she realized that she, she didn't realize, I realized for her when I asked her that she listened to data analytics podcasts for fun. And to her, that felt boring and ordinary, but I had to remind her that's not normal. People are not listening to data podcasts, right? And so she thought that was normal, and she also thought that she had no value to offer in the area of data analytics. But to small businesses that are collecting customer feedback but don't know what to do with it, that skill and that interest of hers is gold, right? And has been gold.
The next circle that I want you to think about is what we are skilled or experienced in, because sometimes what we're skilled or experienced in is not necessarily what we're interested in. Okay? So I want you to brainstorm, these are our professional strengths, the things people naturally ask us for help with, maybe some of the skills and experiences you picked up in your corporate or traditional role, right? I want you to consider asking yourself questions like, what do coworkers, friends, or family come to me for? What am I known for being good at? Where have I built up knowledge over years even if I don't think it's special?
I think about my husband, he is known as the tech guy in my family, you know, with my parents and my grandmother when she was alive. And he doesn't dislike being the tech guy, but I think about it as like, that's not his interest or passion or hobby, right? It's like the thing that people know they can come to him and he can solve their problem, right? He can set up the TV or show them how to work the remote. So I think about that with his experience and skillset, but maybe not something he's interested in.
Another example of this is a client that I had who spent years helping friends and family decorate and bring ideas to life for parties for their little ones. She worked on the Hill, you know, lobbying, but to her, like helping out family and friends with the setup and the creativity of their parties was just fun. It was a hobby that she had. She was creative, she had an eye for decorations. This was just something that people came to her for all the time. And she enjoyed it. It wasn't necessarily a hobby of hers. And when we thought about this as a skill and as a business idea, she really realized that moms would pay her to plan birthday parties so that they could skip the stress. And so then she built a business around that. Now she owns an event space that hosts unique, individualized parties for little ones in the DC area.
Another example of this, like really using our past experience and maybe even our traditional roles. There was a client I worked with who's a teacher or who was a teacher in a past life. She left to be a stay at home mom of four and she really missed being in the classroom, but knew that wasn't a good fit for her anymore. So when we explored this and when I asked her what she was good at and what she liked during her time teaching, she said she was really good at setting up the classroom and managing it with systems and routines for the kids, right? Her classes were always well-behaved and thrived because of the way she set up her classroom.
She also had an interior design degree that she did based on what she was interested in and kind of like a side project passion of hers. So what we did was decided to bring that skill from the classroom into people's homes. What she does now essentially is help parents set up their spaces so that their kids can thrive in their home, right? She helps them to be set up for learning, independent play, systems, and routines. And this was something that directly stemmed from her experience in the classroom and understanding what made her particularly skilled in that role. Again, that role is no longer a good fit for her, but she can bring elements of that role, what she liked about that role into her practice and into her business. Okay, so that's the second circle in the Venn diagram.
The third one is what people are willing to pay for. And this one might feel a little bit tricky, okay? This is the piece that makes it a business instead of a hobby, right? We want to make sure that our ideal clients are willing to pay for it, know they have a problem that we can solve. So I want you to think about what problems do people around me complain about. If I solved that problem, would they gladly hand me money? Okay? And again, this is a little bit tough if we are not in the market and having conversations, but I just want you to open yourself up to possibility and brainstorm what people would be willing to pay for.
In episode 68, I interviewed Thyme Sullivan, and she is the co-founder of a company called Unicorn. Definitely check out that episode if you want kind of more on this topic and more on starting a business in your 40s or 50s. So she didn't invent periods, but she solved a real world problem, making quality period products accessible in the stall when women need them most. And this idea is not where she started, which I'll talk about a little bit more in this episode, but she started with just a simple problem of and belief in possibility that period products could be better. Okay? And from that, she was able to do market research, she was able to evolve her idea, and really figure out that there are companies and there are builders and there are actual public bathrooms with people who could pay her to get her product installed, right? So she was ultimately solving a real world problem, not just for herself, but for society at large.
Now, this Venn diagram that we have, you want to see where these three circles overlap. Okay? And that's our sweet spot. That's where our shitty first draft business idea lives. So we take what we're interested in, we take what we're skilled in, and we look at versions of those things that people would be willing to pay for. And that is how we come up with some of these first draft ideas. It doesn't need to be unique to the world, it just needs to be uniquely yours, okay?
And here's the key, you know, this isn't a one-time exercise. Our first draft idea is going to evolve as we test it out, just like I talked about with Thyme. That's exactly what happened in my own journey, right? I started with free coaching, then moved into life coaching, then burnout prevention, then eventually landed where I am today helping moms leave corporate. And each step was time-consuming, each step there was a lot of learning and a lot of failing, and each step was not wasted. It was a part of the map. And you better believe that everything I created and discovered through my work helping people prevent burnout in corporate, I can apply to moms because we are the most burned out group of people in society, right?
The big takeaway that I and that I want for you is instead of waiting for this lightning to strike, okay? I want you to grab a pen, even if it's in between folding laundry or the school pickup line, whatever it is, and start sketching out that Venn diagram. Okay? It's messy, it's imperfect, but it gets us moving. It gets us brainstorming. And because I know it can be overwhelming to keep this all in your head, make sure that you go to the show notes for that one-page Zone of Genius map that I made for you. It's super simple. You can print it out or just use it as a guide, especially if you aren't sure you remember what a Venn diagram looks like, which is fair. All you have to do in that though is fill in your interests, your skills, and the problems that people would pay to solve, and then look at where they could overlap, and that overlap is your starting point. Okay? Again, you can grab that at jenna.coach/72.
And if you're struggling with knowing what problems people would pay to solve, because I know a lot of you are thinking that how would I possibly know? It's a great idea to start talking to real people. So do some market research. Find out what companies or consumers are willing to pay for. Ask friends and family and coworkers, right? Like that's a great first step. Get out there and start asking.
One of my clients kept brushing off the fact that she loved data. Remember the one I talked about who listened to the data podcasts for fun? That didn't feel special, but to everyone else, that's a superpower, right? And she was able to start by asking friends who owned businesses what they needed with the data. If they were sending out surveys to their consumers, right? She got out there, she started talking to people in her network, and realized that there was actually a need and that the language she was speaking around data was completely foreign to so many business owners, right? And so she started to build the business off of that. And now she's thriving. Now she actually has a pretty big government contract. So she started by asking small companies, but then growing her credibility in the data space, she was able to land a government contract that has been really exciting.
Again, what feels normal to you could be extraordinary to somebody else. So please do brainstorm and look at all of those things with a hint of possibility that you could bring value to someone. A couple other questions that I think are really helpful in this topic and in brainstorming, what's something that you could talk about for hours without getting bored? What feels effortless to you but hard to others? And I kind of mentioned this one before, but like what are all of your friends coming to you for? What could you do a TED Talk on next week and nerd out on it, right? So that's where the seeds of these business ideas like often hide in the things that you're already doing, you're already good at that you maybe just assume everybody's good at.
So the other thing I want to really like hammer home is that businesses evolve. Okay? And I mentioned the episode with Thyme Sullivan earlier, if you listened to episode 68, you'll remember her story. She was a top corporate executive at Nestle for 27 years. She left with a severance package, not because she planned to, but because she refused to relocate her family, and the company was sort of trying to force her hand at that. And at first, she thought she'd just make better period products and sell them on shelves, but she got started taking action and it was a rocky start. She talks about it in the episode, it was the summer of unlove where they pitched to 50 venture capitalists and raised $0.
But through that, her business then evolved, right? She and her co-founder realized the real problem wasn't just the products themselves, it was access. And that's how their company Unicorn was born, right? Putting high quality period products directly inside bathroom stalls. Okay, so that idea, the one that like truly has made such an important impact, didn't come until three years into the business. Okay? Three years. Imagine if she had waited for the perfect idea to start.
Now, three years doesn't mean that you don't have income or that you are a starving artist for three years, right? There's ways that you can evolve your idea and make money whether in your business or in your traditional role while that is evolving and being figured out, right? But you do need to get started with an imperfect idea in order to get to the place in your business where you have found the thing that people are willing to pay for and the thing that lights you up. Okay? Thyme would have never gotten to where she is today without taking action on an imperfect idea. Okay? And this is the pattern that we see everywhere. Businesses evolve. Our shitty first draft idea is not the end point, it's just the beginning.
So, let's bring it all together. The perfect business idea is a myth. Okay? Please, please, please, stop waiting for the perfect idea to come to you or for you to feel inspired suddenly. Like waiting for it only keeps us stuck. Possibility is a tool. When we replace I don't know with what if or it's possible that, we open the door to like the chambers of creativity in our brain that really house like the most fun and momentous ideas. Okay? And we need that momentum.
Our shitty first draft business idea is enough to get started. In fact, it's the only way to get to the clarity and success that we want. We have to get started and taking action so that the idea can evolve. And if you are eager to find your shitty first draft business idea, you can use the Zone of Genius map process where we look at your interests, skills, and the willingness that people have to pay to have a problem solved, to find that shitty first draft idea. And we can trust the process, right? That's one of the bigger pieces, knowing our idea can and will evolve as we take action, as we learn things, as we learn more about the market, as we learn more about ourselves.
So here's your action step for this week. I want you to go to jenna.coach/72 and download that Zone of Genius map. And I want you to come up with your shitty first draft idea. Not a final version, not a perfect business plan, just one possibility that lives within your zone of genius. And I want you to say it out loud. I want you to share it with a friend or meet with somebody to talk about it and to really start evolving it and shaping it. Send me an email, let me know what that thing is, right? Come to the Mom Entrepreneurs Circle and share it with us. You can learn more about all of those things in the show notes.
I just want you to say it out loud, share it, and that way it becomes more real and it's really the first step to nurturing it. And if you haven't already, please make sure that you hit subscribe. Let this podcast and the resources like the Zone of Genius map really be a resource for you and a coach in your ear every week, right? These episodes will guide you one step at a time out of a traditional role and into a life and business you love. And remember, we don't have to do it all today. These things build and evolve and we can have fun along the way because we don't need the perfect idea, right? We just need to keep showing up one shitty first draft at a time. All right, I'll see you next week.
Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of How to Quit Your Job: A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. If you want to learn more about how I can help you stop making excuses and start making moves, head on over to www.jenna.coach. I’ll see you next week.
Welcome to How to Quit Your Job, the podcast for moms ready to ditch the nine-to-five and build a life and business they love. I’m your host, Jenna Rykiel. Let’s go.
Hi, mom friends. Welcome back to How to Quit Your Job: A Mom's Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. I'm so glad you're here with me today because we're going to tackle a myth that keeps so many moms stuck as they're considering starting their own business. And that is the myth that we need the perfect business idea before we can get started. I spoke about this concept in the free webinar I hosted a couple weeks ago, and I got a lot of really great feedback about this piece of it. So I wanted to talk about it on the podcast. It seems like it was an aha moment for so many in the room.
So we're going to talk about the perfect business idea myth, why it keeps us stuck. We're going to talk about possibility as a tool you can use to come up with your business idea. And we're going to talk about how to come up with an initial business idea through my Zone of Genius mapping process. Okay? There's also a free worksheet in the show notes to actually help guide you through that process that I'm going to talk about. So if you don't yet have a business idea that you're ready to move forward on and take action on, this episode is for you, and there are resources in this episode that are going to help you make that happen.
If you're new here, welcome, new to the podcast. Make sure you hit that subscribe button because every week, I'm going to be breaking down the big scary leap from employee to entrepreneur into doable steps. Okay? And when you're subscribed, you won't miss those small mindset shifts and practical tips in every single episode. All of those tips add up over time to help you build the life and business you love. And that's what it's all about.
Okay. Let's get into it. So many moms I talk to, and also my own experience, is that you're in corporate, you're successful on paper, you're the one people rely on at work and at home, and you're also exhausted. Okay? There's a part of you that knows the 9 to 5 isn't sustainable long term, and deep down, you feel like you're meant for something more. But when you start dreaming and thinking about leaving your successful career, you think to yourself, what would I even do? I don't have a good business idea. And suddenly, then you feel absolutely stuck.
So maybe you scroll through social media and you see all these polished, successful businesses, you know, the coaching programs, the Etsy shops, the influencers, the products. And it feels like they have figured out something special that you somehow may be missed. You start to believe the story that unless you come up with a genius, groundbreaking idea, it doesn't make sense to start. It would be a waste of time and energy. So, you wait. You wait for inspiration to strike, you wait for, you know, that lightning bolt idea, and in the meantime, months, sometimes years pass by.
And here's the truth that I want us to really hold on to today in this conversation is that waiting for the perfect business idea means that we'll be waiting forever because the perfect business idea does not exist. I was talking to a woman the other day who said that, you know, she wanted to invest in herself, she wanted to build a business, but that she didn't know what she would do, right? So she didn't feel ready. And she talked about her husband, who was an entrepreneur, and that he had taken a course to come up with a business idea. So out of curiosity, I asked, you know, how did that go? And she said, well, the first idea that came out of that course failed. But then he came up with another idea, and that one's been really successful.
And in that moment, I thought to myself, what a powerful example. There was this investment and this energy that went into coming up with this perfect business idea, and it didn't work. And if he had made that mean he wasn't cut out for entrepreneurship, or if he'd sat around waiting for the perfect idea, he never would have landed on the second idea, the successful one. The one that I assume came to him after he was in the market and trying things out, right?
This is the myth that we need to truly bust because we don't discover the perfect business idea by taking a course or thinking about it, and then build the perfect business, right? The best ideas will emerge because we're willing to start imperfectly, we're willing to experiment, we're willing to fail, and we're willing to learn. And that's also how possibility works. In fact, I want us to think about possibility as a tool. Because when we think and tell ourselves I don't know, or that's not possible, or no one would buy that, we shut the door. Okay? We close off creativity before it even has a chance to show up.
When we step into this what if mindset, suddenly we open the door to possibility. What if my skills from corporate could serve people in a new way? What if the thing I do naturally, the thing I think is no big deal, is actually valuable? What if my messy half-baked idea could be the starting point for something much bigger down the road? This is what I talked about back in episode six, which also is my most downloaded episode, by the way. So if you haven't listened to it yet, feel free to go back after this and check it out. But in that episode, we explored the endless possibilities for what kind of business you could start.
But today, I want to take that conversation deeper because possibilities don't matter if we're stuck waiting for perfection. Okay? Possibility is the spark. Action is the fuel. And I've seen this play out with my clients again and again. Two of my clients just recently hit their $1,000 in revenue mark. And when we looked back at how their businesses started, neither one had any idea what they wanted to do when they came to coaching.
We shaped a, what I call, and explicit alert for any kids in the room. We shaped what I call a shitty first draft idea. I think this is a concept that Tim Ferriss talked about with writing or somebody else. It doesn't matter, but it's a shitty first draft idea. They started having conversations, they tested things out, and the businesses they're running today look completely different than their first ideas. But they never would have gotten here if they hadn't been willing to live in the land of possibility and to take action on imperfect beginnings. Okay?
So let's talk about that term that I just threw at you that I have no idea where I got it from. Let's talk about the shitty first draft business idea. I love this phrase because it really gives us permission to start messy. Okay? To treat our first business idea like a draft, not a final masterpiece. And trust me, I have lived this. My first draft looked nothing like the business I run today. I started by offering free coaching at a single parent housing coalition. Then I found a directory I could list myself on and offered general life coaching. And as I got more experienced and confident, I tapped into my corporate network and started coaching leaders on preventing burnout. That was right after COVID when so many people were walking away from corporate and I thought, I can help, right?
But here's the thing. That didn't fully align with my values, right? Because deep down, I believed that corporate was not designed for moms. And when I went through my own maternity leave, it became crystal clear that I didn't want to help women and moms stay in corporate, I wanted to help them leave and build businesses on their own terms, just like I did. So I shifted again. It was messy, it was imperfect, but every version of that shitty first draft, and I'm going to say the S-word quite a few times. So please keep your muffs on the little ones if they're listening.
But each version of that shitty first draft brought me closer to the work I do today, work I love, work that feels aligned, work that supports moms just like you in creating freedom, flexibility, and fun. And none of it would have happened if I had waited for the perfect business idea. I really did have to jump in and start coaching and start learning about the business and start shaping that so that I could get to where I am today.
So, let's take that and get practical. Okay? Because mindset is huge, right? Stepping into possibility is huge, believing that we can come up with something, believing that we have value to offer people that people are willing to pay for. All of that is important. We also need a tool to move from possibility into a first draft idea. Okay? So instead of waiting for a perfect idea, we map out possibilities. And I want you to think of this like a three-circle diagram. So we're going back to middle school or high school or whenever we learned it. Also, in the show notes, you'll find a free resource that walks you through this exercise, like I mentioned. So listen, but then go to jenna.coach/72 when you're ready to put pen to paper or pause and go check out that resource and we can walk through it together.
But there's the three-circle Venn diagram, and each circle represents something important. Okay, one circle represents what we're interested in. These are the maybe the topics, hobbies, or conversations that light us up. Notice that I'm not saying what we're passionate in. I know there's a lot of people out there who have who are multi-passionate and who have lots of passions, and that's wonderful. Think about those passions for this circle. But I know that there's so many of us who do not feel like we have any passions. Okay? I'm one of those people. I don't feel strongly passionate about many topics, and that doesn't mean that there aren't things that interest me. So think about, you know, any type of hobbies, things that light you up, conversations you love having.
I want you to think about a couple of questions that can help you in brainstorming for this circle. What would I happily talk about for hours over coffee with a friend? What do I find myself Googling or listening to for fun, maybe on podcasts or YouTube videos or audiobooks, right? A client of mine, you know, when we went through this process, she realized that she, she didn't realize, I realized for her when I asked her that she listened to data analytics podcasts for fun. And to her, that felt boring and ordinary, but I had to remind her that's not normal. People are not listening to data podcasts, right? And so she thought that was normal, and she also thought that she had no value to offer in the area of data analytics. But to small businesses that are collecting customer feedback but don't know what to do with it, that skill and that interest of hers is gold, right? And has been gold.
The next circle that I want you to think about is what we are skilled or experienced in, because sometimes what we're skilled or experienced in is not necessarily what we're interested in. Okay? So I want you to brainstorm, these are our professional strengths, the things people naturally ask us for help with, maybe some of the skills and experiences you picked up in your corporate or traditional role, right? I want you to consider asking yourself questions like, what do coworkers, friends, or family come to me for? What am I known for being good at? Where have I built up knowledge over years even if I don't think it's special?
I think about my husband, he is known as the tech guy in my family, you know, with my parents and my grandmother when she was alive. And he doesn't dislike being the tech guy, but I think about it as like, that's not his interest or passion or hobby, right? It's like the thing that people know they can come to him and he can solve their problem, right? He can set up the TV or show them how to work the remote. So I think about that with his experience and skillset, but maybe not something he's interested in.
Another example of this is a client that I had who spent years helping friends and family decorate and bring ideas to life for parties for their little ones. She worked on the Hill, you know, lobbying, but to her, like helping out family and friends with the setup and the creativity of their parties was just fun. It was a hobby that she had. She was creative, she had an eye for decorations. This was just something that people came to her for all the time. And she enjoyed it. It wasn't necessarily a hobby of hers. And when we thought about this as a skill and as a business idea, she really realized that moms would pay her to plan birthday parties so that they could skip the stress. And so then she built a business around that. Now she owns an event space that hosts unique, individualized parties for little ones in the DC area.
Another example of this, like really using our past experience and maybe even our traditional roles. There was a client I worked with who's a teacher or who was a teacher in a past life. She left to be a stay at home mom of four and she really missed being in the classroom, but knew that wasn't a good fit for her anymore. So when we explored this and when I asked her what she was good at and what she liked during her time teaching, she said she was really good at setting up the classroom and managing it with systems and routines for the kids, right? Her classes were always well-behaved and thrived because of the way she set up her classroom.
She also had an interior design degree that she did based on what she was interested in and kind of like a side project passion of hers. So what we did was decided to bring that skill from the classroom into people's homes. What she does now essentially is help parents set up their spaces so that their kids can thrive in their home, right? She helps them to be set up for learning, independent play, systems, and routines. And this was something that directly stemmed from her experience in the classroom and understanding what made her particularly skilled in that role. Again, that role is no longer a good fit for her, but she can bring elements of that role, what she liked about that role into her practice and into her business. Okay, so that's the second circle in the Venn diagram.
The third one is what people are willing to pay for. And this one might feel a little bit tricky, okay? This is the piece that makes it a business instead of a hobby, right? We want to make sure that our ideal clients are willing to pay for it, know they have a problem that we can solve. So I want you to think about what problems do people around me complain about. If I solved that problem, would they gladly hand me money? Okay? And again, this is a little bit tough if we are not in the market and having conversations, but I just want you to open yourself up to possibility and brainstorm what people would be willing to pay for.
In episode 68, I interviewed Thyme Sullivan, and she is the co-founder of a company called Unicorn. Definitely check out that episode if you want kind of more on this topic and more on starting a business in your 40s or 50s. So she didn't invent periods, but she solved a real world problem, making quality period products accessible in the stall when women need them most. And this idea is not where she started, which I'll talk about a little bit more in this episode, but she started with just a simple problem of and belief in possibility that period products could be better. Okay? And from that, she was able to do market research, she was able to evolve her idea, and really figure out that there are companies and there are builders and there are actual public bathrooms with people who could pay her to get her product installed, right? So she was ultimately solving a real world problem, not just for herself, but for society at large.
Now, this Venn diagram that we have, you want to see where these three circles overlap. Okay? And that's our sweet spot. That's where our shitty first draft business idea lives. So we take what we're interested in, we take what we're skilled in, and we look at versions of those things that people would be willing to pay for. And that is how we come up with some of these first draft ideas. It doesn't need to be unique to the world, it just needs to be uniquely yours, okay?
And here's the key, you know, this isn't a one-time exercise. Our first draft idea is going to evolve as we test it out, just like I talked about with Thyme. That's exactly what happened in my own journey, right? I started with free coaching, then moved into life coaching, then burnout prevention, then eventually landed where I am today helping moms leave corporate. And each step was time-consuming, each step there was a lot of learning and a lot of failing, and each step was not wasted. It was a part of the map. And you better believe that everything I created and discovered through my work helping people prevent burnout in corporate, I can apply to moms because we are the most burned out group of people in society, right?
The big takeaway that I and that I want for you is instead of waiting for this lightning to strike, okay? I want you to grab a pen, even if it's in between folding laundry or the school pickup line, whatever it is, and start sketching out that Venn diagram. Okay? It's messy, it's imperfect, but it gets us moving. It gets us brainstorming. And because I know it can be overwhelming to keep this all in your head, make sure that you go to the show notes for that one-page Zone of Genius map that I made for you. It's super simple. You can print it out or just use it as a guide, especially if you aren't sure you remember what a Venn diagram looks like, which is fair. All you have to do in that though is fill in your interests, your skills, and the problems that people would pay to solve, and then look at where they could overlap, and that overlap is your starting point. Okay? Again, you can grab that at jenna.coach/72.
And if you're struggling with knowing what problems people would pay to solve, because I know a lot of you are thinking that how would I possibly know? It's a great idea to start talking to real people. So do some market research. Find out what companies or consumers are willing to pay for. Ask friends and family and coworkers, right? Like that's a great first step. Get out there and start asking.
One of my clients kept brushing off the fact that she loved data. Remember the one I talked about who listened to the data podcasts for fun? That didn't feel special, but to everyone else, that's a superpower, right? And she was able to start by asking friends who owned businesses what they needed with the data. If they were sending out surveys to their consumers, right? She got out there, she started talking to people in her network, and realized that there was actually a need and that the language she was speaking around data was completely foreign to so many business owners, right? And so she started to build the business off of that. And now she's thriving. Now she actually has a pretty big government contract. So she started by asking small companies, but then growing her credibility in the data space, she was able to land a government contract that has been really exciting.
Again, what feels normal to you could be extraordinary to somebody else. So please do brainstorm and look at all of those things with a hint of possibility that you could bring value to someone. A couple other questions that I think are really helpful in this topic and in brainstorming, what's something that you could talk about for hours without getting bored? What feels effortless to you but hard to others? And I kind of mentioned this one before, but like what are all of your friends coming to you for? What could you do a TED Talk on next week and nerd out on it, right? So that's where the seeds of these business ideas like often hide in the things that you're already doing, you're already good at that you maybe just assume everybody's good at.
So the other thing I want to really like hammer home is that businesses evolve. Okay? And I mentioned the episode with Thyme Sullivan earlier, if you listened to episode 68, you'll remember her story. She was a top corporate executive at Nestle for 27 years. She left with a severance package, not because she planned to, but because she refused to relocate her family, and the company was sort of trying to force her hand at that. And at first, she thought she'd just make better period products and sell them on shelves, but she got started taking action and it was a rocky start. She talks about it in the episode, it was the summer of unlove where they pitched to 50 venture capitalists and raised $0.
But through that, her business then evolved, right? She and her co-founder realized the real problem wasn't just the products themselves, it was access. And that's how their company Unicorn was born, right? Putting high quality period products directly inside bathroom stalls. Okay, so that idea, the one that like truly has made such an important impact, didn't come until three years into the business. Okay? Three years. Imagine if she had waited for the perfect idea to start.
Now, three years doesn't mean that you don't have income or that you are a starving artist for three years, right? There's ways that you can evolve your idea and make money whether in your business or in your traditional role while that is evolving and being figured out, right? But you do need to get started with an imperfect idea in order to get to the place in your business where you have found the thing that people are willing to pay for and the thing that lights you up. Okay? Thyme would have never gotten to where she is today without taking action on an imperfect idea. Okay? And this is the pattern that we see everywhere. Businesses evolve. Our shitty first draft idea is not the end point, it's just the beginning.
So, let's bring it all together. The perfect business idea is a myth. Okay? Please, please, please, stop waiting for the perfect idea to come to you or for you to feel inspired suddenly. Like waiting for it only keeps us stuck. Possibility is a tool. When we replace I don't know with what if or it's possible that, we open the door to like the chambers of creativity in our brain that really house like the most fun and momentous ideas. Okay? And we need that momentum.
Our shitty first draft business idea is enough to get started. In fact, it's the only way to get to the clarity and success that we want. We have to get started and taking action so that the idea can evolve. And if you are eager to find your shitty first draft business idea, you can use the Zone of Genius map process where we look at your interests, skills, and the willingness that people have to pay to have a problem solved, to find that shitty first draft idea. And we can trust the process, right? That's one of the bigger pieces, knowing our idea can and will evolve as we take action, as we learn things, as we learn more about the market, as we learn more about ourselves.
So here's your action step for this week. I want you to go to jenna.coach/72 and download that Zone of Genius map. And I want you to come up with your shitty first draft idea. Not a final version, not a perfect business plan, just one possibility that lives within your zone of genius. And I want you to say it out loud. I want you to share it with a friend or meet with somebody to talk about it and to really start evolving it and shaping it. Send me an email, let me know what that thing is, right? Come to the Mom Entrepreneurs Circle and share it with us. You can learn more about all of those things in the show notes.
I just want you to say it out loud, share it, and that way it becomes more real and it's really the first step to nurturing it. And if you haven't already, please make sure that you hit subscribe. Let this podcast and the resources like the Zone of Genius map really be a resource for you and a coach in your ear every week, right? These episodes will guide you one step at a time out of a traditional role and into a life and business you love. And remember, we don't have to do it all today. These things build and evolve and we can have fun along the way because we don't need the perfect idea, right? We just need to keep showing up one shitty first draft at a time. All right, I'll see you next week.
Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of How to Quit Your Job: A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. If you want to learn more about how I can help you stop making excuses and start making moves, head on over to www.jenna.coach. I’ll see you next week.
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