my sleep's been f„cked for a couple of months now.
i'm in the process of eliminating everything in my life that could be the cause of a pretty nasty skin condition.
but i've already found a few pleasant things in this unpleasant circumstance.
firstly, i'm glad to have some adversity back in my life. i've managed to simplify things to such a degree that i've really had nothing to fight against for the past 12 months. but as we know, good things come out of challenging times.
of course, the value is found in the solution.
right now i'm ruthlessly eliminating every potential cause from my life. i'm doing this systematically, and that means i'm creating something i can share with other people to help them.
of course, some people never solve their problems, which is a shame.
most people solve their problems without thinking about how their solution could be shared with others.
but in the freetirement economy, we can do better...
your freetirement north star
the ultimate guiding principle to living the life you want is mutual benefit.
in other words, if you structure your life around win/win arrangements then, naturally, you can't lose.
now, if you have a problem, it's almost guaranteed that someone else has had that same problem. and when you talk about that problem online you make it very, very easy for those people to find you.
if your problem is one worth solving, people will pay for your solution.
in a way of thinking, solutions are all people ever pay for:
- they buy cars to solve the problem of transportation
- they buy groceries to solve the problem of hunger
- they buy a gym membership to solve the problem of preventable death
of course, people pay for more niche problems too.
the first problem i solved online was for intermediate meditators, who were struggling to take the benefits of their sitting practice into their daily lives.
now i solve the problem of people being stuck doing something they hate to earn a living.
first i solved these problems for myself, then i solved them for family and friends, then i solved them for strangers (for free), then i made a proper offer around them.
you can do this too.
here's how:
the problems to profits framework
this framework will guide you from 1) having a problem that seems unsolvable to 2) selling the solution to others for profit.
step 1: âcreate a notion accountâ if you don't have one.
step 2: open a blank page.
step 3: write down your problem in simple terms (eg: "i'm having trouble sleeping", "i can't get clients", "my garden is a mess", "my mother doesn't understand me". it really can be anything.)
step 4: note everything you've tried, are trying, or intend to try to solve your problem.
step 5: choose whichever of these seems most likely to be the winner and give yourself a time frame to experiment with it (one or two weeks is usually adequate).
step 6: put the other potential solutions out of your mind right now. we want to get clear data on one solution at a time.
step 7: keep a daily journal to track your experiment. if you wish, you can also create a table for tracking simple data (eg: wake-up time, prospects emailed, hours spent).
step 8: at the end of the experiment term, if you didn't solve your problem, repeat steps 4 to 7. if you did solve your problem, move onto step 9.
step 9: find someone else who's suffering your original problem. this could be a friend or family member, or it could be someone online.
step 10: offer to help them for free.
step 11: communicate your solution to them as clearly as you can. expect the process to be messy as hell to begin with. (they won't mind because it's free.)
step 12: document your process in your notion page.
step 13: continue helping people for free until you feel confident you can replicate the solution for anyone.
congratulations! you now have a saleable solution that people will give you money for.
of course, from here you'll need to learn about how to present and tell more people about your solution. you can get an overview of how to do this in my â240-step freetirement guideâ.
it really is that simple.
the internet has destroyed gatekeeping around business. we're back to the roots of human transactionâsimple exchange of value. if your solution is valuable enough to someone, they'll pay for it. and if your problem was substantial enough for you to bother going through the problems to profits framework with it, you've already struck gold. the rest is just mechanics.
need help with this?
click here to talk about how i can make it easy for you.
with love from my desk,
dg đ