Here's a thing I've been doing wrong for about two years.
Every time an idea showed up, I'd run it through the filter.
Is there a market?
What's the monetization path?
How fast does it pay?
Is this the best use of my hours?
Smart questions. I still ask them for most projects, and I'm going to keep asking them.
But somewhere in there, I stopped having any fun.
I was talking myself into businesses that lived just outside the fun zone. Not bad ideas. Just... not mine, if that makes sense. And then I'd wonder why I kept stalling out on them.
Here's the part I forgot: fun is what got me self-employed in the first place.
My first two real projects were a music site and a fantasy football site. No business plan. No market analysis. I just liked the stuff and started talking about it. Those two carried me further than anything I've ever "vetted."
So a few weeks ago I decided to run an experiment.
For the next 60 days, I'm making one post about every cassette and CD in my collection. That's it. That's the whole plan. Pull one out, talk about it, post it.
I stopped stressing over whether it would make money.
What actually happened
It's been the most fun I've had working in a long time.
People are showing up in the comments. I'm meeting folks I never would have crossed paths with otherwise. And I actually want to sit down and do it, which I couldn't say about the last few "good" ideas on my list.
It's also gotten easier as I go, which I didn't expect.
I started on two platforms only, YouTube and Facebook. That was deliberate. Pick two, go, don't overthink the rest.
Once I got my system down (record, edit, and post in under 30 minutes using Riverside and Claude Code), it stopped eating up too much time. So I added TikTok and Instagram, mostly because Riverside lets me push it out right from the editor. Every week it gets a little more streamlined.
The mechanics of all that are a whole other post. Let me know if you want it.
🔌 Quick plug because I LOVE it: Riverside ($) is the whole reason this got easy. I record a batch, cut them down fast, and push straight to TikTok and Instagram without ever opening another tool. That's an affiliate link and I was using it well before I had one.
The actual point
Stop overthinking it and go talk about something you actually like talking about.
That doesn't mean you can't collect emails. It doesn't mean you can't make money from it eventually. I fully intend to.
It just means money can't be the only reason you're doing it. When it is, the thing never gets off the ground. Or worse, it does, and you hate it.
That was me for two years. Vetting everything, launching nothing I cared about.
If you're sitting on something you'd do for free, that might be your next project. Not instead of the serious stuff. Alongside it.
Here’s the video that kicked this whole thing off…
It's called “What’s in my Collection?” and I’m posting under the MusicGoat name that I started back in 2007.
It's on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. If you're into '80s music, come hang out. It's a good time.
See you there,
Corey
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