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Who is Ryan Daniel Moran?
Ryan Daniel Moran is an entrepreneur, business mentor, and educator known for his work in the field of e-commerce and business development. However, it’s important to note that information about individuals can change over time, and there may have been developments in his career or activities since then. Here’s an overview of his background based on my last update:
Ryan Daniel Moran is the founder of Capitalism.com, a platform that provides resources and guidance to entrepreneurs looking to build and scale successful e-commerce businesses. He gained recognition for his work in helping people create profitable businesses and achieve financial freedom.
Key aspects of Ryan Daniel Moran’s work and philosophy include:
- E-commerce and Physical Products: Moran has been a proponent of building businesses around physical products, often through platforms like Amazon. He emphasizes the importance of finding and developing products that address specific market needs.
- Mentorship and Education: Through Capitalism.com, Moran offers mentorship, courses, and educational content to help entrepreneurs navigate the challenges of starting and growing successful businesses.
- Long-Term Wealth: Moran often discusses strategies for building businesses that can be sold for significant profit. He advocates for creating assets that generate long-term wealth.
- Entrepreneurship and Freedom: He is known for his advocacy of entrepreneurship as a means to achieve financial freedom and independence.
Business Ideas – How do we generate them?
Framework for generating Business Ideas
Step 1: Focus on Emerging Trends
Ryan advises against basing your business decisions solely on current market conditions and existing data. Instead, it suggests that successful entrepreneurs look ahead to identify emerging trends in the marketplace.
Data is a reflection of the past, rather than a reflection of what’s coming. In order for you to be valuable in the market place for a long time, you need to be ahead of things, rather than operating from behind.
Look at what people’s desires and demands are. Look where there is emerging growth and new demand. These are long-term changes in customer behaviour. They reflect what people’s long-term demands and desires are for tomorrow – not what the “hot” product is today!
Look at where people are going and what their buying behaviour suggests about what they really want.
Examples:
- Henry Ford: If he looked at the historing data, he would have built a better horse and cart. Instead, he recognised that people wanted faster travel – and he built a car, eventhough it went against common wisdom of the day
- Elon Musk’s pursuit of green alternative energy, which was ahead of the curve and tapped into a growing trend toward environmental sustainability.
Step 2: Listen to your Network
You can find valuable business ideas by paying attention to the people around you, such as friends, family, or colleagues. The rationale behind this is that the people in your network have unique perspectives and needs.
By understanding and addressing these specific needs, you can develop a business idea that caters to a niche audience (collection of customers) and stands out in the market.
The concept of customers as an “audience” is an important one. It implies that you are on stage & constantly serving your audience with content. As an “actor” on that stage you need to act the part and build the brand image, so that you have credibility & trust to hold attention. Another tip may be to think of your biggest customer. Define the customer characteristics and pofile. Now imagine that you are in a hall filled with the same customer. Think about what you would say and do – marketing message.
Tune into people and not algoritms. Pay attention to leading, not the lagging indicators.
You need to find something unique!
Step 3: Listen to your emotions, not your brain
Ryan suggests that people often get stuck in the planning phase because they overthink and try to convince themselves of a business’s viability (ie. “analysis paralysis”). Instead, he suggests that tapping into your genuine excitement and passion for an idea can drive you to take action and overcome obstacles. In other words, prioritize emotional connection to a business idea over purely logical analysis.
Example: Mark Manson says that we all have an emotional brain and we have a logical brain and we all think that the logical brain drives the ship, but the emotions have their hand on the wheel and the logical brain is more reading the map. If the emotional brain is not happy it turns the wheel all over the place it becomes uncontrollable and unpredictable. This is why so many entrepreneurs have good ideas (or things that they think will work on paper) but they’re still in the idea phase and they haven’t taken any action.
We all have an emotional brain and a logical brain. Our brain is made to think in logic, reason and safety. Our emotions are about what we want and what we desire. It’s about the life that we want to live.
Oftentimes we obsess over the how we’re going to accomplish something but our body just won’t follow through with it that’s because there’s a conflict between what our brain decides is best and what our body actually wants (eg. waking up at 5am to exercise) – so these two things have to coexist.
If we can tune in to what we really want and if we can pay attention to our emotions about a business, then tour brain can kick on and find the “how-to” and lead us to the best destination
On the other hand if you look at an entrepreneur who’s genuinely excited about an idea and is just moving forward and has no idea what he or she is doing, that person has a better shot at winning than the person with a great idea on paper but isn’t doing anything.
We can’t outsmart our emotions our emotions determine what we’ll actually do – our brain doesn’t. We can try and out think our emotions and try to convince ourselves, but if you feel stuck or paralyzed it’s often because you’re giving more credibility to what you’re thinking about rather than what you actually want.
When you can clear that up and tune into what it is that you really want / desire, the brain then can do its job of finding the best way to make that happen.
Pick one specific person and look at what they want and what they buy. See how you can serve them. Go really micro and remember that all profit comes from people buying things! This means that you need to be emotionally connected to the people that are buying.
You have the unique ability to serve one person – you don’t have the unique ability to serve the entire market place. The smaller you think, the more “unique” you can create your product or business.
Additional reading for generating Business Ideas
- “The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries: This book introduces the concept of validated learning and the build-measure-learn feedback loop, which can help you refine and develop your business ideas efficiently.
- “Zero to One” by Peter Thiel: In this book, the co-founder of PayPal discusses the importance of creating truly innovative and unique businesses, emphasizing the value of creating a monopoly rather than competing in crowded markets.
- “Business Model Generation” by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur: This book provides a structured approach to developing and refining business ideas through the use of business model canvases.
- “Good to Great” by Jim Collins: Although not solely about idea generation, this book discusses how great companies are built on solid foundations, including the right core ideas. It’s an excellent read for understanding what makes a business concept exceptional.
- “The Art of Possibility” by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander: This book delves into mindset and creativity, offering insights into thinking differently and unlocking innovative business ideas.
- “Innovator’s Dilemma” by Clayton Christensen: This classic work explores why well-established companies often struggle to innovate and provides insights into how innovative business ideas can disrupt traditional markets.
- Online Courses: Platforms like Coursera, edX, and Udemy offer courses on entrepreneurship and idea generation. Courses on design thinking, creativity, and innovation can be particularly valuable.
- Industry-Specific Books: Depending on your interests and industry, there are often books that dive into the specifics of generating business ideas in that field. Look for books related to your niche for targeted insights.
- Blogs and Podcasts: Many entrepreneurship blogs and podcasts feature content on idea generation, often providing practical tips and case studies.
- Networking and Incubators: Joining local business incubators, attending networking events, and engaging with entrepreneurial communities can be an excellent way to gain insights and inspiration for generating business ideas.