IAM2841 – The Importance of Thinking Outside the Box and Solving Real Problems

Building From the Inside Out

Many builders fall into the trap of starting businesses based on what looks familiar, popular, or easy—like launching a t-shirt brand or opening a restaurant just because everyone else is doing it. However, easy to understand does not always mean easy to profit from. In this episode, inspired by a powerful conversation with Tara from Vuvotech on episode 51 of the I AM CEO podcast, we explore why the strongest ventures are born when you stop asking what business you can launch, and start asking what problem you understand deeply enough to solve differently.

The Care Context Advantage

Tara’s journey started from a place of intense personal frustration; dealing with endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain, she found herself misunderstood, underdiagnosed, and under-supported. By researching her own conditions and testing strategies from the inside of that experience, she unlocked an insight that outside competitors could never replicate.

But the phenomenal business lesson she brings to builders is that your ultimate differentiator is rarely just the physical product itself. True value is created when you wrap a product in a complete ecosystem of care context, education, and community support.

Engineering Sharper Solutions and Stronger Margins

The core takeaway for any CEO aligns directly with the “Offering and Product Pillar”. The world doesn't need more business noise; it needs sharper problems and stronger margins. To build something sustainable, you have to think outside the box, look closely at competition, and calculate the small overhead expenses and shipping costs that quietly eat away at profits. Ask yourself this critical question: “Am I building around a problem I truly understand, or am I building around something that simply looks familiar?”. Shifting your mindset to “intention plus action” is what allowed Tara to help over 10,000 women in just a few years, and it's the exact same shift that will transform your business idea into an essential solution.

Previous episode: https://iamceo.co/iam2840-why-builders-underestimate-the-knowledge-that-has-become-normal-to-them/

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Transcription:

Gresham Harkless 00:00
After having conversations with thousands of entrepreneurs and business owners and CEOs, one pattern I see is that strong businesses are often born where personal pain meets a practical solution. Not every hardship becomes a business, don't get me wrong. But problems you understand personally can give you insight competitors may never have. And as we go deeper and deeper into this business world and things become a lot more fragmented, people want to have that connection and that understanding, and that's often done through finding out things that are problems that you have or problems that people have that are close to you. When you're able to solve those, it allows you to open up opportunities for other things.

If you're building something meaningful, you're in the right place. This is the I Am CEO Podcast. I'm gresh, and for over a decade I've had the honor and the privilege of Learning directly from CEOs, entrepreneurs and business owners just like you on how to build after recording more than 1600 episodes, one thing has become clear. Success isn't about following someone else's blueprint. And as I like to say on the show, if you run your own race, you can't lose, even when you feel the journey should be a straight and linear path. What I've come to find out is success is a lot more like a plate of spaghetti. So in this special segment and episode, I'm starting to curate and share some CEO hacks and CEO nuggets that I've been dying to share. Drawn from thousands of of the episodes with phenomenal guests that have provided awesome value on the show, but also my 10 years of business experience as well too. These lessons are designed to strengthen the foundational principles that every business is built on and guided by a simple equation that we always go back to with our content. Visibility plus resources times connections equals success. This is practical wisdom you can apply almost immediately, so be sure to check out the show notes for more resources and next steps on how to level up. And of course, enjoy this special episode of the I Am CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 02:00
A lot of builders start by asking, what business can I launch? This conversation with Tara reminded me that sometimes the better question is what problem do I understand deeply enough to solve differently? In episode number 51 of the I Am CEO Podcast, I spoke with Tara of Vulu Tech and what really stood out was that this was not a business she planned from the outside. Hera actually dealt with endometriosis, multiple pelvic surgeries starting at the age of 11 and later a condition that caused painful even intercourse as well too. So she had to deal with all these things which kind of caused and planted a seed, for lack of a better term, for what she ended up doing later. And so what happened? After researching, she saw a connection between her unexplained nerve pain, her fibromyalgia and vulvodynia, which led her to test different strategies and different therapies. She said within two weeks, her pain was reduced significantly after doing this research and some of the testing, and her pain dropped even more. So here's what builders should definitely pay attention to. Tara did not just find a product idea and say, hey, I think I should create something. She actually found that she was misunderstood, under diagnosed and under supported with the problem that she have. And she built from the inside of that experience. Now, after having conversations with thousands of entrepreneurs and business owners and CEOs, one pattern I see is that strong businesses are often born where personal pain meets a practical solution. Not every hardship becomes a business, don't get me wrong. But problems you understand personally can give you insight competitors may never have. And as we go deeper and deeper into this business world and things become a lot more fragmented, people want to have that connection and that understanding. And that's often done through finding out things that are problems that you have or problems that people have that are close to you. When you're able to solve those, that allows you to open up opportunities for other things. What really stood out about Vuvu Tech was not just selling a problem. Tara talked about giving women other options, providing safer lubricant, helping customers find pelvic floor and physical therapists and pelvic pain specialists as well too. Now, this is a phenomenal business lesson. Sometimes your differentiator is not just the product. It is the care, context, education and support wrapped around that product as well too. Builders working in their business on a everyday basis. This matters because it is easy to chase what looks simple. T shirts. I remember having somebody on the podcast during an intro call and they said, no one just wants to buy your T shirts. And it didn't mean the T shirts aren't important, just mean that there was deeper, deeper solutions that need to be solved. Restaurants, something that everybody else is doing. But Tara's point was simple. Easy to understand does not always mean easy to profit from. So what was her nugget? To think outside the box and solve a real problem. She talked about choosing something people actually need. Looking at competition, understanding shipping costs, calculating packaging, overhead, margins, and the small expenses that quietly eat up at the profit. So you have to pay attention to those things. Where does this show up the offering and product pillar at CBNation builders cannot just ask can I sell this? They have to ask does this solve a painful enough problem and do the numbers actually work? There's also a deeper CEO hack within Tara's conversation. She mentioned that the secret and focusing on the daily goal but underneath that was intention plus action. She had a clear outcome, kept moving towards it and built something that helped more than 10,000 women in just a few years. Here's something you should take away. Am I building around a problem I truly understand or am I building around something that simply looks familiar, popular or easy builders and frankly the world does not need more noise. We need sharper problems, stronger margins and offers rooted in real actual needs. This is an episode definitely worth listening to Listening to if you're trying to figure out whether your business is business idea or whether it's connected to a problem, a popular problem, maybe even that people are actively waiting for somebody to solve.