Last year, I wrote a post about selling shovels, or, in other words, catering to the less obvious markets. I wanted to highlight the fact that business success doesn’t require that you do what everyone else is doing; in fact, you can find tremendous success in offering secondary goods and services to the people who are pursuing the mainstream business ideas. I still maintain that your personal “gold rush” is easier to create when you sell the tools that the hopefuls need.

But, maybe you’re unaware of what “shovels” you should sell. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with numerous options available and so many people being willing to “coach” you (for a fee, of course). But we’re friends, and friends share information with each other. So I’m going to share a strategy for finding your “shovel”, so you can start making the money you deserve. I made sure to do this exercise myself, so I found more than a few “shovels” of my own in the midst of it. More about that later, but here’s the strategy for finding your own “shovel”.

1. Make a list of what interests you. Aim to write down at least 20 things (I felt ambitious, so I wrote down 45 things). These don’t have to be your hobbies, per se: this is a list of interests, not necessarily things that you are actively pursuing. The interests do not have to be activities: I mentioned whisky, vintage fashion, travel, and excellent ink pens on my list. You’re using the list to capture things that you enjoy. If you struggle to come up with 20 things for your list, you may be thinking too narrowly: write down anything that puts a smile on your face. If you like the color pink, that can go on the list. If you enjoy the sounds and smells of wood burning in a fireplace, that goes on the list. Anything you like can go on the list (including people!). If you still struggle to come up with 20 interests, it may be time to grab your journal and figure out if you’ve been suppressing your interests. If so, you’ll have to spend some time rediscovering yourself (it’s worth it to spend time doing this).
2. Randomly pick two things off of the list, and see how these cross over. Whatever cross over you find, consider it the “overlap”. Think of the “overlap” is your sweet spot for “shovel” creation. For the sake of giving an example, let’s take two of my interests, whisky and vintage fashion. These two seem to have nothing in common, but this is just the beginning of your research. A Google search for “whisky vintage fashion” turns up results of vintage resellers with the word “whisky” in their titles, and several whisky brands that have their own vintage inspired logos and branding, who are also selling their own t-shirts and other merchandise. There is ALWAYS some crossover, no matter how wildly different the two interests may be. The “shovel” you’ve been looking for lies in the overlap, and the gaps that the overlap creates.
3. Ask yourself, “What’s missing from the overlap?” The overlap always creates another market, some under-served population that’s waiting for what you have to offer. It may take you a while to brainstorm, but you can always find something to offer the “overlap” population. In the instance of whisky and vintage fashion, I thought of things that whisky lovers that appreciate vintage fashion may like. A vintage themed notebook to capture tasting notes, vintage inspired whisky paraphernalia (glasses, bar tools, etc.,), wall art that features men and women from the 1920s – 1970s appreciating whisky, vintage themed whisky stickers, host whisky tastings that require attendees to dress in vintage clothing, a cool vintage-esque poster that is a checklist of bunch of whisky brands (something that appreciators can “check off” as they try each one) . . . The possibilities are endless, but try to come up with at least 5 ideas. If you struggle to come up with ideas, use something like ChatGPT or Claude to help you brainstorm (I didn’t use either for this exercise, which confirms that you don’t have to rely heavily on technology to generate the idea [though it may be useful to use technology to eventually bring the idea to market]).
4. Determine what you want to offer, then develop your plan to bring it to the market. This will require additional research and possibly some upfront financial investment, but if the idea excites you, then it’s worth exploring. I have some resources I can share in a future post, with how to research your “shovel” potential. Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you that some of these ideas you come up with will bore you . . . And that’s okay. You’re looking for one that offers something unique AND will hold your interest. This is something you want to sell again and again, and that will only happen if you aren’t bored with it. Of course, you may “sell your shovel” once or twice before you realize you don’t enjoy it, and that’s okay, too. You can always go back to your list of interests and try again. With 20+ different interests, possibly hundreds of combinations, and (easily) thousands of business ideas, you’re guaranteed to find something that you want to do.

I don’t plan on using the whisky and vintage fashion idea to test my strategy, but I love proof of concept, so I’ll be taking my own advice and creating a “shovel” with the steps I just mentioned. I’ll take you all through that process in the upcoming weeks. I’m excited to share that with you all as I complete the steps! But until then, think of your own interests, figure out some overlap, and learn how you can serve those groups that will happily buy what you’re creating. You can do it!

I’ll talk to you all soon: take care!