415 – Need A Business Idea? Here’s How To Find 3 Highly Profitable Business Ideas In The Next Hour

Podcast: Download (Duration: 45:45 — 42.1MB)

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In the video:

01:18 – Setting the context of the call
02:49 – The impact of “Why”
06:31 – A second try at “Why”
08:03 – Identifying the challenges
09:50 – Can it be done in 30 minutes?
13:00 – What to listen for
14:54 – Reflecting back
15:33 – Getting specific
16:10 – Locating the pain
17:11 – Agitating pain
21:47 – How does it feel?
26:26 – Waving a magic wand
30:04 – Putting a price on the solution
33:24 – Bringing it all together
37:36 – Getting more IE calls
35:23 – How the slam dunk sale came about
41:05 – Breaking down the landing page
43:16 – Other possible ventures

If you want to take it a step further, check out The Foundation. They cover Idea Extraction, the 4 Elements of a Freedom Business, and how to overcome the fears and doubts and self-imposed limitations so many of us entrepreneurs face as we grow our business.

Tweetables:

The power of the Why [Click To Tweet]
Go where you feel the customer. [Click To Tweet]
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3 great business ideas in less than an hour [Click To Tweet]

Transcription:

James: James Schramko here, welcome to this special edition of SuperFastBusiness.com. In this edition, I’m actually going to share with you a guest contribution from a previous guest and good friend of mine, Dane Maxwell. And this really is around the idea of coming up with a business idea.

As you know, I specialize on the intermediate and advanced Internet marketing techniques, and sometimes I do get a question, “What about ideas? How should I come up with an idea?” So here’s how to get 3 highly profitable business ideas, after watching the video, of course.

You know, it really does stop a lot of people from starting a business. And it’s got nothing to do with money, or connections or time. Most people just don’t know how to get started because they don’t have a good idea. Or if they do, they don’t have ideas that people actually want to pay for. That’s really a big issue.

If you’ve ever found yourself racking your brain for business ideas, or you’ve had countless business ideas that no one wants to pay for, then please watch this video, or listen to the audio version of it, because it was supplied to me by my friend Dane Maxwell, who runs a business called The Foundation. And in this video, he uses a process called “idea extraction” to find 3 business ideas, in an hour, by asking a car sales professional about his business. One idea the guy would pay $200 a month for. Another idea, he’d make an easy 6-figure lifestyle business. And the other would be a platform that might be more challenging to create.

So you’ll notice in the video that while Dane is doing the process, he also breaks down what he’s doing. When you learn this, you’ll discover how to find profitable business ideas in any niche. In fact, you could use this to get your first idea if you’ve never started a business. But if you’ve got a business running, you can use this process to find additional products from your own customer base.

And if you want to take it a step further, then I do suggest you check out The Foundation, we’ve got a special link. You can get access to the information where they cover idea extraction, the 4 Elements of a Freedom Business, and how to overcome fears and doubts, and self-imposed limitations so many of us entrepreneurs face as we grow our business.

So I’m about to play the audio from the video. I hope you enjoy it.

Dane Maxwell conducting an Idea Extraction call

Video:

Dane: So we could have a little stare-off during an IE. It’s a little atypical. It’s not like a typical IE because I’m tracking like four things at once. Landing page, you guys are all doing. How I’m feeling like I’m wanting to show up a little differently than I would during a totally normal IE so I can kind of be meta while I’m with you. So I’m just really tracking all the different pieces of me right now. All right. So, I think we’re going to start right in. Are you ready?

Erik: Uh-hm.

Dane: All right. So I’ll just say ring, ring, you’d pick up the phone, and say, “Hey Erik, what’s going on?”

Erik: Hello. How’s it going?

Dane: Good, man. How are you?

Erik: Great.

The context of the call
Dane: Cool. That’s good to hear. And so we checked off intro. So before we go into the call, what we’re going to be doing today is I want to set some context with you so we have a container for the call and the direction that we’ll be headed towards. Does that sound OK to you?

Erik: Sounds good. Yeah.

Dane: Cool. So firstly, I just want to set the purpose for the call. So the purpose for the call is I understand it, you’re a used car dealer. So I would like to have our purpose be to find a product idea that’s so exciting for you that you would be happy to pay for it. Now, we don’t know if a product exists, we don’t even know if we’ll find one, but the goal is that. How’s that to hear?

Erik: It’s good.

Dane: Sounds good. Does it truly sound good, I’m curious?

Erik: Yeah.

Dane: Cool. So challenge. Cool. And next, that’s cool. I’m happy to hear that. So for roles on the call, what I’d like to do is just set roles real quick, is I’m going to be the interviewer, asking you questions, and all you need to do is just sit back and relax and answer.

Erik: All right.

Dane: That’s it for you.

Erik: Yeah.

Dane: Cool. Awesome. Last, not lastly, but also I think we’ll set a 30-minute or so time container to see where our time and I’ll be tracking that for you. Don’t worry about it. All right?

Audience: Yes.

What “Why”can do
Dane: OK. Finally, I’d like to tell you why I’m doing this. Would you like to hear that?

Erik: Yeah, definitely.

Dane: And just before I even go into why, how is it for me to say that I want to tell you why and then ask if you’d like to hear it? What happens for you when I do that?

Erik: It shows that you care about me and my problem, and you care about this phone call and you want it to be productive.

Dane: Wow. So your impact is actually that I care, seems like I care, and that I want the call to be productive when I say I want to tell you why.

Erik: Yeah.

Dane: Did you guys get that? I am very surprised by that answer.

Erik: That you value my time.

Dane: And that I value your time too. All right. So I asked him about why, I haven’t even told him yet, and I asked him, can I share my why with you? So very profound. It feels great over here to say, “Can I share my why with you?” And then for his response that I care, that I want it to be productive and that I value his time. We’re already starting to build rapport. From over here, it feels like we’re starting to build rapport. Does it feel like that over there for you?

Audience: Yeah.

Dane: OK. So my why, my goodness. I really enjoy the used car dealership space. I enjoy how it works differently than new car dealerships. I find myself wanting to become a very, very successful entrepreneur. That is total, financial freedom. And I feel like I have a good shot at that if I help used car dealerships solve some really painful problems and help the owners become free as well. So my why is essentially to finally become, let’s say I’m not an entrepreneur, but to finally become an entrepreneur and have my own successful product. How is that for you to hear?

Erik: I hope you make it happen.

Dane: You hope I make it happen.

Erik: Yeah.

Dane: So now, do you actually feel a little invested in my success now?

Erik: Yeah.

Dane: Is that fair for you? Fascinating. That’s great. Cool. And you’re not faking. This is your true authenticity, yes?

Erik: Yeah.

Dane: OK, cool. Even the way I asked that I kind of led you, this is your true authenticity, yes?

Erik: Right.

Dane: What I do want to open space for before we begin, just for the education of everyone here, to giving you a second to really feel into you. Is that why? Do you feel that why beyond your brain?

Audience: Can we ask questions?

Dane: Not yet. Write them down. Thank you, though. How does that why land for you? Is it flat? Do you feel it?

Erik: Initially, I didn’t necessarily believe your take on the used car business because it has a terrible reputation so that was my initial reaction.

Dane: Ah. So I broke rapport with you.

Erik: You didn’t break rapport. But maybe a little resistance. It felt like I’ve seen the problem with my customers, it’s everyone knows what used car dealers are traditionally bad experience.

Dane: Ah. Yeah. And as I’m sitting with you here now, I’m actually seeing that was actually my best guess. I’ve only heard that used car dealerships are more profitable than new.

Erik: They can be.

Dane: They can be. And also noticed that you mentioned the word reputation, and I never really went there but you heard that. And it all happened because I reached for a guess. I guessed about used car dealership. So let me actually just retry a why. It’s hard to actually manufacture one and I try not to.

Dude, I just want to become a successful entrepreneur. And I’m really hoping that I can build a product and finally have a crack at it so I can get out of my job. And I’m hoping that we might be able to find a product to build by talking to you.

Erik: Sounds good to me.

Dane: Sounds good to you? OK. Cool.

Erik: Yeah. I want the same thing.

Dane: Nice. You want the same thing?

Erik: Yeah. I don’t want to be stuck doing all the day-to-day stuff in my business.

Dane: OK. So I will just mention stuck day-to-day as a little note, right? Something I might revisit. Stuck day-to-day is what I wrote down there. So the IE call has already started. It’s officially started. But the context happens. He’s already given me an in and I haven’t asked a question yet.

Erik: (Talks off-mic).

Dane: You’re the headline again?

Erik: Are you stuck with the day-to-day stuff of your used car dealership?

Dane: Yup. There you go. Get your copywriting hats on. So, and was that helpful for you guys to see me slow down and reiterate why and try again?

Audience: Yeah.

Dane: OK. Wonderful. All right next. So cool. Now the context is set, I’d really like to begin asking you questions. How does that sound?

Erik: OK.

What are the challenges?
Dane: I’m just wondering if you think back to like the last couple of days, or even the last week, what sort of challenges have you run up against?

Erik: I bought a lot of cars in the last week, which is a good thing, and now I am behind. There’s a lot of steps that the car has to go through to make them ready for sale. When I first started out, it was in my head and I created a checklist, but I find myself not consistently using it.

Dane: Yeah. Typical entrepreneur.

Erik: Right.

Dane: So I’m just going to pause for a second. So, what are you guys getting right now? What’s happening for you guys?

Question time if you need. Yeah, Mike.

Mike: There are two things that piqued my interest. One would be like a software program, that could coordinate all of the…

Dane: So, let me pause you. So when I asked what you’re getting right now, you’re noticing that your mind is starting to go towards solutions?

Mike. Yeah.

Dane: Is that happening for a lot of folks?

Audience: Yeah.

Dane: Yes. Some yes. OK yes, who is this happening for? They’re going for solutions? And no, who’s not? OK, so half and half.

I kind of want to say like, both of you guys are screwed. No, I’m just kidding.

Mike: The other piece is, OK, what other questions could I be diving into to figure out this problem immediately?

Dane: Great. So you’re like, you’re noticing, you’re like, what other questions could I ask to dive into that better? Great. And so you’re noticing you’re going into solutions.

Audience: And that’s why my question is going to be, how you’re evolving this and taking your time, but you’re trying to keep it to this conversation. At what point does it come where this becomes a conversation like you have with somebody else and not just trying to speed through the authenticity here? Because this could be a conversation, like a natural conversation. Where somebody speaks about the problem and get a solution out of it. But at the same time, you want to make sure that you could hear everything and that you’re on track without losing some key piece of information. So how does that stay within these window of time? Because it will seem like you’re taking away his time from doing his business, but at the same time, you’re able to come up with valuable, creative things and all that stuff that they’re asking about.

Is it possible in half an hour?
Dane: Right. So how do you do this in 30 minutes?

Audience: Uh-hm.

Dane: Great. I don’t know how to answer that right now. I think it takes a little practice. Holly?

Holly: With each answer that he gives you, I feel like there are so many more branches that you can take the conversation. So how do you decide what to ask more in depth about?

Audience: Exactly what I was saying. How do you take it and keep it within 30 minutes or expand it into something where you just keep going and branch off. Exactly.

Dane: For me, as I’m like following, I’m following what’s interesting to me.

Holly: So as a follow up I guess, I understand that you typically want to solve problems, not go into solutions but typically we are able to offer solutions. So are you going to keep this going without knowing the solution, filtering out what to dig deeper on…

Dane: How am I able to keep my mind out of going to solutions?

Holly: Yeah. I mean he’s talking about right into details, so do you just give advice on how you can speed up the process, will you be saying, I don’t want to ask about that because that’s too mechanical…

Dane: Yeah, I know. Because he says either I care or I didn’t care. Because I didn’t feel very much from him when he said I’m hiring a detailer. Where I feel him the most is just typically where I like to go because that’s generally where it’s most interesting to me.

Audience: It’s like you want to follow his dream. (Talks off-mic).

Dane: Yeah. Like I’m truly like in such great service. Like I feel like I’m in just total service to Erik like I’m so unattached to finding, like we may not find anything he pays for, that pays for like I’m just so into like, dude, I want to help you so much. And that has me wanting to go to like, I don’t want you to feel any pain at all. I feel so good.

Things to listen for
Audience: So you’re listening for an emotional response.

Dane: I’m not sure if it’s conscious. I actually get a no when I ask. Am I listening for emotional response? OK I get a maybe. What I’m listening for, I guess the way that you say that has me feeling like you’re trying to mentalize it, maybe. Does that fit?

Audience: Yeah.

Dane: Yeah. So I’m actually listening for discomfort, not emotional response but discover maybe an emotional but I’m like, OK. Where do I feel Erik’s most bound? Is that good enough for now?

Audience: Yeah.

Dane: OK.

Audience: What’s coming to me from that conversation you’re having is how are you compassionately agitating him? Cause you haven’t really gone to the next level of agitating pain. And you’re going to stir it but still embodying care and love and compassion for him.

Dane: Let’s wait and see. Yeah. So hold the questions for now unless they’re burning. Are they burning?

Audience: I never heard what his worry was. What steps he did to coordinate things but I never heard his worry. Without the worry I can’t agitate him. So I’m still waiting for the worry.

Dane: Got it. Wonderful. Yup, yup. We’ll get there. We haven’t got there yet. So I’m still in find micro pain. I have not gone to agitate yet. I will circle around in micro pain until we find something then I go, poof. Oh yeah, there it is. And then I kick over to agitate. So I’m still in find micro pain. Very good?

Audience: Great.

The importance of reflecting back
Dane: OK. So the other thing I noticed is that as I reflected back to him and I was like, Oh, yeah, that’s brought out lots of steps and, or no, sorry, you have lots of steps and this detailer and you have all these other things. As I was reflecting back, I was finding myself coming up with solutions, which I don’t immediately just kind of cast a solutions I keep back with him, but I also noticed by me reflecting back, not only am I getting how world more, but I’m actually finding more problems myself. Because you remember when I reflected back, and I was like, Oh you have the detailer, oh, is that process where you sit in the car, is that a checklist or is that intuitive? That came from me reflecting back. So just notice how often I’m reflecting back.

So jumping back in, so you have this Mercedes. And notice how I’m also asking questions, driving him down to very, very specific things. I’m not asking about the five cars. I’m asking about one car. If it were in an email inbox, I’d be asking about one specific email, and I’d be asking about the words in that email. I’d drive towards a specificity because it’s easier, I imagine it’s easier for you to answer when I’m asking about just the Mercedes. Is that fit for you that you can conceptualize wrap around that?

Erik: Yeah. Since it’s one and specific.

Identifying the pain
Dane: One specific, yeah. Cool. So you have the Mercedes, and you get there to sit in the car, and sometimes you follow the checklist and sometimes you don’t. The fact is you have for other cars you’ve got to do this with. You’re not actually out there adding more revenue to your business because you’re stuck with the maintenance of getting these cars ready for sale. So as we’re here in this, before we continue, I’m just kind of wanting to get a gauge on is this actually a problem that you experience enough that you actually want it to be solved? Or you’re OK with it?

Erik: Oh, I definitely want to solve it.

Dane: OK, great. Now, I’m going to agitate pain. Check-in with him. Because if you said no, I would’ve just gone somewhere else. OK, so tell me about another challenge. Tell me about some important activities. What’s up?

Erik: Oh, is that a question? You’re asking me?

Dane: No. See, he won’t answer it. That’s great. That’s fun for me to see. So now, we’re going to agitate pain. So you’ve got this process of as a used car dealer, you’re buying cars and preparing them for sale. Wow. It seems like quite an arduous process over here. Does that fit for you?

Erik: Yeah. It’s time consuming.

Dane: So time consuming is what fits for you. When you think about this process from going from bought car to getting it for sale, time-consuming.

Erik: Yeah.

Dane: All right. So now I could go more into that, but I’m going to follow the process as we teach it. So how does the process work now? You’ve briefly mentioned it to me a little bit.

Erik: Yeah. So I’ve got a checklist that sometimes I follow, sometimes I don’t. It works fine because I know the steps well enough. I can do it well in my head. But as the business is growing, it’s starting to drop the bomb in some areas, where I forgot to order a part and then we have to wait two days and that someone wants to see their car, and I forgot to order a $10 touch-up paint, so I’ll show the car, and there are these little things that detract from the value these people have pointing out, something stupid or simple like that.

And I’m just kind of on top of it, it would have been ordered in time and done, me not having to decide if I’d make a special trip to the parts store and get this $10 item and postpone the sale, and tell them to come and see it tomorrow and maybe if they’ll buy another car or show it them and potentially have them think to themselves that someone has to paint the bumper versus some touch-ups. It’s relatively minor but I know that some people think like that. Here’s $200 for the bumper here when some touch-up will solve it and they really wouldn’t have noticed it.

Dane: So I noticed I felt a little lost in that. It felt maybe overwhelmed, and what I heard was you have this process that’s in your head but it’s also written down. Sometimes you follow it, sometimes you don’t, and that you need better systematizing because you want to scale more. Then I heard that you have things like you might miss a part or a product that might finish the car or not finish the car, and then you might have to make this trip down to parts store, and that might actually delay your sale.

Well first off, let me just pause there. Does that feel like I’m getting a little bit of what’s going on for you?

Erik: Yeah. Definitely.

Dane: Hm. Over here, it seems like a quite a problem to try to solve. Like if it was already solved, if it was simple to solve, I imagine you would’ve solved it. But over here, I actually feel my brain hurting a little because I am truly trying to imagine how this problem can be solved.

Erik: Yeah.

Dane: How is that to hear?

Erik: It’s true.

Dane: Yeah. So it hurts your brain too?

What’s the magic wand?
Erik: Yeah. It’s frustrating, very confusing. I know that there is software out there for dealers, but usually I’ve noticed in the industry, you know, it’s like a really big software that’s more than I need and for whatever reason, this industry charge a lot of money for these solutions. I’ve started looking into a few, and it hasn’t been exactly what I’m looking for. It’s a lot of money and it’s going to take a lot of time to start on them. I want to be able to do it all from my cellphone. That’s simple.

Dane: Do you guys see what’s happening?

Audience: The magic wand.

Dane: Yeah. I didn’t have to take him there. A lot of times, how you can be done for yourself just happens naturally. So I was asking how it is. One sec. And you mentioned that basically what it is just pretty messy and pretty inconsistent, and stuff falls in the cracks. How does it feel for you, now I’m going to agitate pain, how it works now. Now we’re going to this, and as I ask how does it feel, notice he’s touching the back of his neck, his eyes; touching the back of the neck is a huge sign of something happening usually. So yeah, how does it feel, truly, to have that be your process?

Erik: Oh it’s frustrating because I know, I felt like I found the pain of my customers, but then I can’t properly help them because my process is inefficient and broken. So I find myself just stuck in this kind of cycle.

Dane: You find the pain but you feel like you can’t help them because your process is inefficient and broken.

Erik: Yeah, I can help them on a small scale, but I know I kind of seen the possibility and there’s a huge upside and what’s frustrating is I know I’m not taking advantage of it.

Dane: Taking advantage of what?

Erik: Of the opportunity out there.

Dane: The opportunity out there. What do you mean? What opportunity?

Erik: Like I said earlier, the used car industry in general has a bad reputation. I specialize in cars under $10,000, which is even harder in that price range because most of the cars are in not very good condition, not worth buying, people tell me all the time like horror stories of sh**y dealers trying to rub them off and having them run all over the city to look at cars and they’re not what they thought they were. It’s people’s typical second biggest expense, and if they get it wrong, it can become a real pain their a**.

Dane: Yeah. What I’m getting is how much you seem to care for your customer.

Erik: Yeah, I really do.

Dane: Yeah. Also you said that you’ve found this pain, which is what I’m getting is that customers getting pretty much, I don’t know, screwed over by used car dealers, by buying a car that’s misrepresented. Is that the pain that you said?

Erik: That’s part of it.

Dane: Part of it. OK.

Erik: It’s a lot of time and money. People consistently tell me that they’ve spent a lot of time looking and it’s challenging. And I relate to that because I don’t buy my cars at auctions so I’m out there online everyday going to look into cars. So I kind of can relate to where they’re coming from.

Dane: Hmm. Well, that’s a whole another track. OK. So, when you said you have this pain that you want to help solve, but you feel like you can’t because your process is inefficient and broken, do you actually feel somewhat immobilized or paralyzed? Or is that a little too extreme?

Erik: That’s extreme. It’s just, I think it goes back to I’m not really utilizing my time properly. I’ve seen the possibility and it’s kind of hard time getting there.

Dane: Seeing the possibility but getting a hard time getting there. Huh. I feel exhausted imagining that. How is that to hear?

Erik: Yeah. It’s good that you can relate because it is exhausting.

Dane: It is exhausting for you as well.

Erik: Yeah.

Dane: So what do you think will happen if you don’t fix this problem?

Erik: I’ll probably burn myself out slowly. Yeah, I can make it successful because I bust my bu**, but I know that if I don’t make changes I’m going to slowly just wear myself out and greatest fear is that I would have to give up the business and go back and get a job.

Dane: You kind of have a smile on your face when you say that. Is that smile covering up discomfort?

Erik: No, I feel like because I, this past like year, I had a couple of sleepless nights realizing that if I didn’t change, that was what’s going to happen. So this past, like, year and a half’s been kind of a journey of me trying to put these changes in place so I’ve spent a long time thinking about it.

Dane: Yeah, a lot of time thinking about it. So it sounds like now we’re going into, wave magic wand. So it sounds like your problem is you’ve got these cars that you buy and you need to prepare them for sale, and there’s a process that you want to go through to get them prepared for sale. But not only is that process just getting them prepared for sale, there’s actually an integrity to the process so that the car buyer knows that they’re buying a well-represented car.

Erik: Right.

Dane: Not just any kind of process to prepare. Not like most other, what it sounds like, used car dealerships, but a lot of integrity in this process. Does that fit?

Erik: Yeah.

Dane: And that the process is messy right now, and things fall through the cracks, and then things happen like, oh, $200 off on that bumper, so you end up potentially losing sales, one, you might end up losing a sale altogether, and then if you don’t lose a sale you might actually get a lower price. So it sounds like this process is also impacting both the sale price of your car and potential sales in general.

Erik: Right.

Dane: Which seems really alarming to me. Does that fit for you?

Erik: Yeah.

Dane: Does it sound like I’ve basically understood the concept of this problem?

Erik: Yeah, overall. And there’s other aspects of it, but that’s kind of the general idea.

Dane: Yeah, I imagine.

Erik: It’s just the process.

Dane: I imagine. I feel a desire to learn about all the aspects of it, and just pausing, like right now I’m noticing myself, I’m so engrossed in you, and like I could even comes to tears at how much I feel I care about really just wanting this to be gone for you. And like, wanting to know, I just want to be with you all day and find out all your pains and just make them all go away. That’s what I’m feeling right now.

Nowhere in here am I interested in my own product. And I’ll end up getting that, maybe, but I’m still with you. I’m not really thinking about myself right now. I don’t think. Maybe a little, but I’m not too aware, like it’s not loud. What’s louder is you.

So, if you could maybe wave a magic wand, and do anything, like literally anything, I know you mentioned cellphone earlier. If you could wave a magic wand and do anything to solve this process, what would you do?

Erik: Ideally, it would be that I could take a step back from the business and not have to do all these day-to-day things and have employees in place that can do this for me. But the main challenge is being able to monitor things like easily and simply so I can keep an eye on things and could do it just easily from my cellphone. Because what I find myself doing is using a lot of different programs to try to track all this, and it’s just time-consuming because they’re all over the place, and it’s hard to find something that encompasses all of the aspects of the business.

Dane: So you’re looking ideally, the first thing you mentioned was take a step back.

Erik: Yeah.

Dane: Out of the day-to-day. And have employees involved in the business, running those things for you. And then, but you would ultimately keep an eye on things and track things from your cellphone.

Erik: Right.

Dane: As opposed to the multiple different systems that you may be using right now to get it done.

Erik: Right.

How much to solve it?
Dane: If we had a solution, that made all this possible for you (now we’re going to ask for a sale), would that be worth paying for?

Erik: Yeah, absolutely.

Dane: Absolutely. Like absolutely, how strong?

Erik: Very strong.

Dane: Very strong.

Erik: Yeah.

Dane: Yeah. And how much would you pay for it?

Erik: That’s challenging because I think I’m a pretty thrifty and cheap person. And so I’m constantly battling myself to not be cheap or to save a little bit of money by costing myself a lot of money down the road.

Dane: Right.

Erik: I think, if I could see initially how it’s working and how much money it’s bringing me, then I could pay a lot of money for it. You know, initially, maybe $250 to try it out, and if it really works as good as, you know, I think I could potentially pay a lot more.

Dane: So you mentioned being thrifty. I felt a relation to that, like I’m like, yeah, I don’t want to give more than I want. Like I really relate to that. And then also that you might pay a lot more if you really saw what it could do.

Erik: Right.

Dane: But $250 to maybe try it out. $250 one time, to try it out?

Erik: Yeah. I mean, for a month, I mean what I envision is pretty broad, so, you know, the software I’ve seen is sometimes more than that and I don’t think offers everything I need or it’s too complicated and too big.

Dane: Yeah. Interesting. Everything you need, but then it’s too complicated or too big.

Erik: Yeah, I mean, trying to do it from your cellphone, it needs to be simple.

Dane: Yeah, yeah. The cellphone sounds important.

Erik: Yeah.

Dane: Yeah, so $250 a month, maybe try it out and then as you’re edging into it, maybe more and more as you really start to see the value of it.

Erik: Right.

Dane: I’m curious, what are those 5 cars, if you sell them, all 5 for the price that you want, what would be the profit on those 5, just roughly?

Erik: $6,000 to $7,000.

Dane: Total?

Erik: Yeah.

Dane: And how long do you think it would take you to sell those cars if you were efficient with everything?

Erik: I could probably average days and inventory per car, is like 14 maybe? From the time I buy it to the time I sell it, if the process is really working, I could turn it in 14 days. Like per car, I don’t know that I’d sell all 5 in 14 days, but you know, just as like a general average.

Dane: Is it 14 days from the day you buy it, or 14 days from the day it’s ready on the lot?

Erik: Well, I’ve always tracked it from the day I buy it. The industry, I think, tracks it from the day they advertise it.

Dane: So you’re looking at the day you buy that Mercedes, 2 weeks later it’s gone.

Erik: Right.

Dane: And would it be possible to shave that down if you were following a process?

Erik: It’s possible. It’s already 14 days, with the industry target 60 is the average.

Dane: Yeah, seems that way.

Erik: Sixty’s the average. So I guess in that respect, it’s one of my advantages, is that I can turn it quicker than the average dealer.

Ending the call
Dane: So I’m going to pause, and tentatively end this. So what I’d like to do is I’d like to take everything that we’ve said, and really kind of put it into a coherent thing, and bring it to my team and have them look at it and brainstorm possible ways so you could actually have everything on your cellphone, and then get back to you. And I’m hoping within a week’s time. How does that sound for you?

Erik: Sounds good. I feel like there’s probably more things I didn’t tell you though, like there’s other aspects of it that maybe you need to hear.

Dane: Yeah. I feel that too actually. And so I’m thinking I’ll take everything that I have, and then I’ll come back and show you that, and then you can help me fill in the gaps. And then I can show you something else. How does that sound?

Erik: Yeah. That’s a start.

Dane: Yeah. It seems to me that that feels a little bit better to you than just me trying to do everything with what you’ve only said here.

Erik: Yeah. I feel like it’s a big problem, and it’s not going to be solved in half an hour or so.

Dane: Yeah. Awesome. So, I might just end with like, “Dude, this was awesome.” I’d state my feeling. I feel really excited. And I’m like, man, this is so cool. I’ve got this whole new world, this whole new thing in front of me that didn’t exist half an hour ago, that now is right in front of me because of a simple conversation framework, right? I’m just feeling really excited and energized, and I just want to thank you for having the conversation with me.

Erik: Yeah. Thanks for your call.

Dane: Do you happen to know of any other used car dealers that like you’re friends with that might be able to get a second or third opinion of this on?

Erik: Yeah, a couple.

Dane: A couple? Cool. So now I’ve just set up a couple more IE calls potentially. So we’ll pause, we’ll stop there. Now, Holly, as you asked the question like how am I doing this and I’m like listening for what’s most interesting/listening for where he is most agitated. Also it is like listening for anything that feels like an opportunity.

A potential product
One of the fastest ways to make money is to find an expert and publish them. And here in front of me, I have a guy who can sell cars in 14 days to the industry average of 60. I would be very interested in systematizing everything he’s doing and selling that information and that system on an area-exclusive basis. So he’s not creating competition to other car dealerships around the country, and publish it. Interview him, do all the work, systematize it, prospect it to all the other used car dealerships. It seems like a slam dunk sale. Subject line to every used car dealership: Sell your inventory in 14 days or less.

Now I have a very good chance at a pretty decent replacement income, maybe even six figures. So imagine, if you’re going from 60 days to 14 days, that’s accelerating your cash flow times about four, which is a significant amount of money for a business, which means I can charge a pretty nice premium for information like this, especially if it’s only sold to one used car dealership per city. That question, the 14-day inventory only came because I asked a question and followed a curiosity of mine, which was if you take all those five cars and average their profit, how much are you going to make?

Now I don’t teach that. I don’t know how to teach that. But if you watch it, pay close attention, because that 14-day inventory thing only came when I asked that question that’s not currently taught. It’s just like I’m in the moment and I’m thinking, “OK, you’re paying $250 a month for this.” And I’m thinking like, “Oh, maybe you could sell these cars faster. Or how much profit does he get per car trying to factor to help him see the value.”

Remember he said, “If I could see how much this is worth to me, then I would be willing to pay more.” So I was just going there. I’m like, “OK, I’m going to help you see that,” and that’s when the 14-day was mentioned, and then I didn’t think to ask, “Well what’s the average?” He actually still told that to me as well. And as soon I heard the average, I thought boom! Massive money maker. I’m just telling you right now bro, you could actually probably walk away from your car dealership and make more money selling this system of 14-day to 60 than selling used cars.

Erik: I’ve thought about that.

Dane: You’ve thought about that. Good. So that’s IE. I’m so excited to have you guys be able to do this this afternoon. Are you guys ready to do this this afternoon?

Audience: Yeah.

Landing page fodder
Dane: Yeah. This is when your life changes. This is like when everything changes. It’s so emotional for me because it’s like, it’s right there for all of you. It’s like right in front of you. I’m so pumped. So for the landing page, what I found myself doing is anytime he’s said something that stuck with me, I wrote it down. And then my next step would be to go and put it into a landing page. And I had to organize it. Do you guys want me to just read quickly through everything I wrote down?

Audience: Yeah.

Dane: So he said sleepless nights. Oh, he said sleepless nights about halfway in. If I ever hear a business owner saying, “I’m having a sleepless night,” game over. So stuck day-to-day, he mentioned at the beginning. He said he bought a lot of cars that have lots of steps and that takes him away from adding more value to his business. He’s looking to hire an employee. He has to pick up the car first and bring it back to the office and schedule the detailer plus other things, there might be bodywork.

It’s one step at a time, and the steps have to go on a certain order or if problems happen, I have small number of cars, can’t remember what that was about. His process is lacking. He has a checklist that sometimes he follows, sometimes he doesn’t. You better believe that’s going to be on a landing page. Then he mentioned a couple situations and I was like, “Oh cool. There might be a situation like, does this sound familiar to you?” He’s mentioning like you don’t have the buffer, so you don’t buff the bumper and then someone wants $200 cheaper on the car. That’s clappy on the landing page.

And I was like, so on the landing page, if you want to make a note at your template like does this sound familiar to you? Call on. And then just mention some situations. Then it mentions that it’s impacting his sales. So he’s possibly losing sales. Maybe $200 for a bumper. He felt frustrated, confused. Then I have more than you need. I don’t know what that means. Lot of money and time. You want to do it all from your cellphone. You found this pain with existing customers but you can’t help them because it’s inefficient and broken. That to me was a sever trigger for some pain that I could really bring more to the surface of like all these customers are getting screwed by their used car dealerships because you don’t have your act together, like I could have gone there but in a loving way because that seemed important to you. The only reason I’d go there is because you really want to help these people together, right?

Then he mentioned about something that was a whole new track, a whole new tangent for a product, which was reputations of used car dealers. And having a process that you can now potentially create a certification program for used car dealerships to buy into for a process that they have to follow to assure that their cars are not misrepresented and full of integrity, that you now have a badge, that now all customers that are looking for a used car in a sight can see that badge. Potentially that’s a whole another freaking avenue, right?

Then you know, you have customers. It’s very time consuming for them because they want to know this stuff. You mentioned that if you don’t do this, you’ll burn yourself out slowly. Better believe that would be on a landing page, the slow burn out. The magic wand I wrote down was a take a step back so he doesn’t have to be involved in a day-to-day, hire employees. I even wrote a challenge him on that because that wasn’t magic wand, that was his mind thinking about how he could actually step back and it may not even be employees he needs to hire to step back. So that was something that if I had more time, I would explore but the most important thing is he wants transparency, he wants to keep his eyes on things, he wants to track everything from his cellphone, and he would pay $250 a month to try it out. So he was hinting out a pretty big product. It sounded like it had the potential to be a big product.

So my whole interest would be focusing this whole thing down to what’s the minimum that you would need to get started. And that’s where I would go next. So you have this whole big product, which you would pay $250 a month for. What would you pay $250 for a month for now if it could only do a few things? And I’m building that product simply and then I’m going to add on features over time and then increase the price for you as you’re getting more and more value. Just to shrink it down because we want to build the product in 12 weeks or less, which is what we’ll get into tonight when I show you guys the offer that thousand dollar program on how to build your first product. I’ll mention all this stuff tonight.

So that’s everything I had written down. Hell yes! Successful IE complete. Thank you, Erik.

End of video

James: Well, there you go, that was Dane Maxwell from The Foundation with the idea extraction method. If you enjoyed this, then please go and check out The Foundation. Leave a comment here, I’m sure Dane’s going to pop by and answer them, and I look forward to catching up with you on a future episode.

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