#AskAni Ep. 005 | On Bringing New Ideas To Life
Every week, I host a live Q&A on entrepreneurship, personal growth, investing and more via my Instagram account. The format is simple: you open the livestream, ask your questions in the comments and get them answered by me and other participants.
Last week’s focus was on bringing your ideas to life. Let’s keep it real — there is a big difference between a good idea and good execution.
You have to find a balance between the all different moving pieces when trying to get something off the ground — building a team, finding the funding, surveying the market and much more. That being said, where should you start?
Here are my 3 pillars for bringing a new idea to life:
- Reverse Engineer: A lot of people struggle with where to start and sometimes it’s at the finish line in order to work backwards. What does your idea look like when it finally goes to market — what are colors associated with it, what is the tone and voice, what do your customers look like? What channels are you using to growth? Once you have an idea of your end product, identify the foundational elements that you need to get here and start tackling those one by one. During this phase, you shouldn’t worry about making things perfect, but rather the most efficient way to produce your MVP (minimal viable product).
- Iterate quickly and incorporate feedback: Ultimately, you can’t make your idea better until you get feedback. The only way to get that is to go to market and then listen to your users. And that means listening even when it’s uncomfortable. It’s also important to realize that you don’t have to incorporate all your feedback at once, but rather prioritizing and realizing where you add the most value. Perfection is a myth, but you can get close.
- Don’t overthink it: Get comfortable with the fact that everything will go wrong at some point. That’s just part of the game. You’re not going to be able to solve for everything, so control what you can and that will make the difference.
Now on to your questions!
Can you elaborate on how to execute a good idea well enough so that it makes it to market? — @jasmine.vasandani
Here are the steps I would take:
- Audit yourself — Identify what you’re good at and where there is an opportunity to use those skills.
- Test in a small market — Start with family and friends. If your idea is good enough, it will slowly seep out and reach more people just from word of mouth alone.
- Soft launch — Do a soft launch, figure out what you need to improve on and get back to work!
Can you talk about the financial analysis you went through for launch for KCC? — @clearconcept
We analyzed our overhead, fixed and variable costs and expected profit margins. We didn’t have much information on demand, so this quick and dirty analysis allowed us to build scenarios around the “best” and “worst” cases around demand and revenue. From there, we did a soft launch through a pop up shop and recalibrated our expectations.
How do you make a really niche idea successful for a broad audience? — @jasmine.vasandani
Find access points that allow for your idea to speak to a larger audience. From example, with Kolkata Chai Co, tea is a product that drives a sense of community, which leads to connections. Most “niche” ideas have access points for larger buy-in.
How do find time to prioritize what you want to do? — @_aamer.khan
I’ve been through a few things in life to know that we all have less time on earth than we think we do. Find a way to do everything you possibly can in your lifetime!
How do you create compelling content on a small budget? — @aheroforepileptics
Undeniable creative doesn’t have to be expensive. That’s a myth, in my opinion. I’ve seen gritty creatives do a lot with very little. Focus on the feelings and emotions you’re looking to bring out of people. The easiest way to think about this is: What was the last piece of content stuck with you and what got you hooked?
For me it was this video by Bombas
Any tips for how to become a better leader? — @Jesuis_UnPoet
Hire for your weaknesses.
Deploy patience and empathy.
Be fair but firm.
Can you speak about how to reinvent yourself and what process was like for you? — @senseiscommon
Reinvention isn’t easy and my journey of going from a rapper to a business owner has been a wild one. Here are the top 3 things to hold close:
- Embrace the challenge — Reinventing yourself requires discovering new ways of thinking and processing and this isn’t easy.
- Understand (and accept) that there is no option —There is no life without evolution. It’s black and white. Accept the fact that if good things won’t happen until you get in the trenches.
- Separate your ego + pride from the quality of your work — It doesn’t matter how good you were then, it’s about how good you are now.