I was forced to read a book and it changed my life. I don’t know if you know this but our fearless leader Christopher Hamze is my older (by six minutes) twin brother. As the older brother he feels it’s his job to “make me a better person”. When he read this book he strongly encouraged me to read it. I was hesitant, business books aren’t really my thing. But he was so excited, and excitement is infectious. So I started reading it, and I kept reading it and didn’t put it down until I read the whole thing. I don’t want to write a “review”. Telling you why I think the book is good is fine but I’d rather show you how I’ve already applied what I learned to my own business.

One of the main takeaways that I got was how creating a product is about identifying a problem and then solving that problem. I’ve heard that before and I’ve always dismissed it. Our business in making physical print on demand goods, I’m not selling software or coaching services. I thought our business was just about making cool stuff, I couldn’t do anything as serious as solving a problem with print on demand.

But something clicked in my brain after reading how Noah presented this issue. Why was I thinking that way? Of course, print on demand could be used to solve problems and the fact that I didn’t think in those terms was probably why I’ve had so many failures (which by the way due to this book, I’m not longer consumed by as failure is part of the process).

I decided that I was going to take one of our latest products, Acrylic LED Signs, and make a design that is more than just cute or interesting but rather solves a problem, a problem that I’m currently having.

The Problem

My little sister recently gave birth to the cutest little twin boys. One day I came over to see the little guys and my phone rang and without thinking I answered it. I was immediately told to get the heck out (in a very nice way) by their severely sleep deprived mother. You see, I had walked into a house where the little guys had finally gone to sleep after being awake and fussy all night and I was being way too loud.

The Solution

What if there was a way to let people know the minute they entered your home that they better be quiet or they better get out 🙂 . That’s when I created the Shhhhhh, the LED sign that you put by your front door or in your front window and turn on every time the babies fall asleep. Gone are the days where thoughtless uncles wake up your babies.

The Impact

Because of this book I’m now looking at every product I create in a different way. It’s game changing and has made creating products more fun than ever. The two takeaways from this blog post is read Million Dollar Weekend and solve problems every day. You’ll likely be seeing more posts about the things that I’ve put into practice from this book.