Seemingly, I’m full of random, and sometimes silly, business ideas these days.
My muses, as I call them.
I was watching Tom Brady’s new “Last Week” YouTube videos. As the name implies, a video crew follows Tom around for a week, captures what happens, edits it into a fast-paced video, and posts it on YouTube the following week.
It’s an interesting look behind-the-curtain. Raw and human, yet still polished.
By the way, his life doesn’t suck.
That’s interesting
This concept isn’t unique, of course. Reality TV started it years ago. Now, a lot of people and businesses do it. It’s all over YouTube and social media.
And people seem to love watching these mostly-unscripted, day-in-the-life videos.
They feel real and human. As a result, audiences easily connect with them.
So this got me thinking.
There are a lot of people out there who would love to look like a reality star.
Important. Busy. Making stuff happen.
Certain business industries immediately come to mind, like real estate agents, attorneys, doctors, dentists, consultants, professional services, and others.
Could a video production company be built and scaled around this niche?
“DITL” me this
As luck would have it (we make our own luck, don’t we?), a few days after I thought of this, I was introduced to a local guy looking for ideas to grow his new video production company.
I floated the idea of day-in-the-life videos (“DITL”). We brainstormed around it and had a follow-up call with his business partner located in New York.
The more we talked about it, the more potential we saw.
But video production companies are difficult to scale. Typically, each video is a custom project. Camera crews need to capture the content, editors need to make it look great, and someone needs to manage the project.
But, if we productized the service, could we make it more scalable and profitable?
And even if we could, is there enough interest to build a business around it?
Maybe. But I’m not sure. Neither are they.
Are you following me?
The only way to find out is to test it. But something like this is hard to test without having a sample video.
I mentioned that I’m heading to Philadelphia in a few weeks to talk with Drexel University students about entrepreneurship and my journey building and selling Forge3.
Do you see where this is going?
That’s right. I’ll be the first test subject for this idea.
We’re working on the planning and logistics now. The rough plan is to capture video of me at home, on the boat, flying to Philly, meeting with various business people, presenting at Drexel University, and more.
A “day in the life” of me, Jeff.
But more specifically, I want the video to inspire and showcase the beauty of business and entrepreneurship. The big ideas and the people grinding away willing them into reality, far away from the hopeful spotlight of success one day.
Throughout the process of making the video, we’ll learn a lot about what’s involved.
Is it even possible scale something like this, or are there too many moving pieces?
We’re going to find out.
Stay tuned.