06 September 2010 ~ 13 Comments

FA010 – Find and Develop Your Foolish Expertise

Audio

In this episode, Izzy and Tim cover finding and developing your expertise for your niche.  We cover  partnering with experts, finding time to become an expert and many more ways.

You might find that you are already an expert without knowing it.  Tim even brings up a new type of expert that has been working in a bunch of niches for the last few years.

Stay Foolish, my friend.

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As always, you can find all the past editions here.

  • Helena_c

    leave them wanting more …. Looking forward to 1. the philosophical chat. 2. teaming up an expert and a marketer. 3. getting your expertise outthere.

    And how about the laugh track for over here too (is 4 doses of Izzy’s a week healthy?!)

  • http://www.izzyvideo.com IzzyVideo

    Heh. I like to laugh. Clearly. :-)

    We’re looking forward to digging more into those subjects in the future too. We’ve got so much to talk about!

  • http://www.MathDad.com Adrian

    Gentlemen,
    Good point. I’ve taught 5th grade math and so my videos are focused in that particular area. However, I’m a little intimidated when I think about having to learn 6th grade math when I’ve exhausted my 5th grade videos. I guess you’re right in saying I’ll understand my audiences’ frustrations because I will have had them myself. Great job! Exactly what I needed to hear.

  • http://www.izzyvideo.com IzzyVideo

    Thanks Adrian!

    It’s one of those great little secrets. If you figure out how to solve your own problem, and it was hard work to do it, then there’s likely a product possibility in there.

    Every time I struggle to solve a problem, I note what it was and how I solved it. If I have time, I could easily turn those solutions into: 1) At minimum, an article… or 2) at most, a full product. Problems are a good thing to track, as well as solutions.

    Thanks for listening!

  • Patricia

    One thing I have discovered of learning a lot about something is to write things down in simple every day words. Don’t try to impress anybody and be stuffy like many university professors. Write things down even if they have a bunch of mistakes. Mistakes can be adorable and they can also be a marketing tool. People love adorable. I just read something I found insightful: Bad decisions make good stories. You can reach more people when you yourself have screwed up and you let the world know how you screwed up and how you fixed the screw up.

    Once again thank you for this excellent episode! I look forward to listening these conversations Monday and Thursday!

  • http://www.izzyvideo.com IzzyVideo

    Patricia,

    That’s a great point. I think Emerson said, “There’s beauty in simplicity.”

    One of the things that I believe is that people tend to over-complicate things. For example, it’s a pretty simple thing to build a business online. It might be difficult to do for a long period of time, but it’s still simple.

    There’s a differencen between simple and easy. Easy is without effort. It’s not easy to build an online business, but it IS simple.

    As we build Foolish Adventure, we’re certainly trying to keep it simple. We don’t want to lose our audience with unnecessary complex ideas. If we keep it simple, our hope is that it will get your wheels turning. And then you can take action.

    Simple feels more actionable.

  • http://www.liznessstudio.com Liz Ness

    Just finished listening to the last few p-casts and had to pop in to thank you for your candor — LOVE it! Love the philosophical foundation as much as the how-to details, too.

    Definitely, a favorite show every week!

    Thanks again,

    Liz

  • http://www.liznessstudio.com Liz Ness

    Say, I was just thinking about this again (tend to do that, think about stuff on and off all day). Anyhow, as I listen I’m often struck with your sw/web-ap experiences — what you know works and why it’s good/bad. I just jumped into the WordPress/Buddypress scene and am learning as I go what tools are essential for the DIY online business adventurer. So, I’m wondering, would you be willing — or maybe you already have, but I didn’t see it — to create a page/link of techie resources that you both value and have used in the past?

    The tech side of launching a business is as interesting to me as the other parts and I’d be so grateful.

    Thanks so much!

    =) Liz

  • Tammy

    This is great information! I was laid off awhile back and feel blessed to have escaped “Corporate America”. I’ve found part-time work, but it’s not going to cover all of my living expenses no matter how much I cut back. I’ve been listening for weeks now and I am taking action. I’ve registered the domain, have the host lined up, I’m learning how to use and design with WordPress, I already have a niche and in my spare time I’m writing and working on content.

    My questions are geared more towards the next step of business formation. These are not “fun” things to talk about, but it’s what I need to do next. Creating my own Foolish Adventure is one thing, but I don’t want to be foolish in the way that I go about doing it. I would love to have some kind of “online business creation” checklist, because I want to make sure all the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed. Anticipating all the money I’ll be bringing in (insert wink) do I need to be registering with my state as a business now? If people buy my bits and I have income rolling in, I’m sure it will need to be reported and taxed accordingly (because I’m an honorable citizen that way). Are most small, online businesses LLC’s or sole proprietorships (SP)? It’s certainly easier to be an SP, but the liability protection of an LLC is important as you get bigger. What about accounting software? Do you start off with excel and do it yourself until you get to a certain point or should I be looking into QuickBooks and an accountant? If now is not the time to be thinking about all of this, at what point do I make these decisions?

    Thanks again for sharing this information!
    Tammy

  • http://FoolishAdventure.com Tim Conley

    Great questions. We actually have an upcoming episode where we talk a bit about this. The big thing being we can’t give you accounting or legal advice and telling you what kind of legal entity to set up falls under those categories.

    For bookkeeping I’ve been using lessaccounting.com though I have heard outright.com is good–sort of the Mint.com for business.

    You should be thinking about and getting legal and accounting advice as soon as possible. You don’t need an accountant or a bookkeeper immediately, but you should be tracking your income and all your expenses immediately.

    t

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_K3SCTF5VR5C4HYA763O2BQYEOM Nina

    Well said, Izzy. Your FA shows are soooo good and straight to the point (even with the occasional and very useful digressions : )

  • Kathryn Scott

    Blog Give-aways Question: I’m up to Epidose #14 and am not sure in which episode you talked about commenting on other people’s blogs in your area; anyway: My husband wrote a humorous book about divorce from the divorce lawyer’s perspective, he has it up on amazon and a couple other places I think. So inspired by your show, last night I googled “divorce humor blogs” and then emailed some of the blog writers to offer them a free giveaway of his book on their blog. 2 Questions: 1. Is this kind of cold-emailing a good idea? and 2. Charlie says Amazon won’t allow him to give away the book for free – is this true? And if it is true – is there a way around it?

    Thanks! Kathryn Scott.
    (The book is called “The Milk is Still Bad” btw).

  • http://FoolishAdventure.com Tim Conley

    Most cold-emailing is going to be considered spam and deleted. If you are coming out of nowhere and pitching something, there must be a catch. Don’t have your first interaction with someone be a pitch. As for Amazon, I don’t know anything about their rules. But why not just buy several so you can give them away yourself?