Honest advice for inventors—with obscure cultural references included at no extra charge.

Episode
201

Help! I Have Too Many Ideas for Products, Designs, and Inventions!

“It’s easy to spend all your time in the visionary stage… but there’s a lot that has to happen between now and achieving that vision.”

Every inventor has more ideas than time. Noah explains how successful inventors avoid shiny object syndrome by focusing on one invention at a time, building a minimum viable product, and prioritizing projects based on available resources and marketability. Learn practical strategies to develop an invention, launch products faster, and avoid the costly trap of chasing every new idea.

Core Topics for this episode:
(possibly) Obscure pop culture references you might hear during this episode of Product Genius include Napoleon Dynamite (Uncle Rico); Holiday Inn Express commercials
Key Takeaways Include:
Listen here:
Episode Blog

Too Many Invention Ideas? How to Choose the One Worth Building

A crowded notebook can feel like proof that you are a “real inventor.” Every page contains another product, improvement, sketch, or business idea that might become the next big thing. The problem is not creativity. The problem is that creativity can become a very efficient form of procrastination.

In this episode, Noah McNeely and Steven Julian explore a challenge familiar to almost every inventive person: having far more ideas than time, money, and attention. The solution is not to stop generating ideas. It is to build a process for deciding which idea deserves to move forward now.

The Shiny Object Trap

New ideas are exciting because they are still perfect. They have not yet been confronted by manufacturing costs, customer indifference, awkward prototypes, or the irritating laws of physics. An idea in your head can be brilliant. A product on a workbench has to prove it.

That makes it tempting to abandon a difficult project whenever a fresher, shinier idea appears. The new concept offers another honeymoon period, while the old one is asking you to solve tolerances, pricing, packaging, and distribution.

Successful inventors learn to separate idea generation from project selection. Capture every idea, but do not automatically promote every idea into an active development project.

Choose With Constraints, Not Excitement

A good idea is not necessarily the right idea for you to pursue right now. Evaluate each concept against practical constraints:

  • Can you afford the next meaningful step?
  • Do you understand the customer and problem?
  • Can the product be prototyped and tested reasonably?
  • Does it fit your skills, network, and available time?
  • Is there a believable path to profit or licensing?

This does not require a 47-tab spreadsheet and a ceremonial board meeting with yourself. A simple scorecard is enough. The point is to compare ideas using evidence instead of whichever one kept you awake last night.

Build the Smallest Version That Can Teach You Something

Inventors often imagine the finished product too early. They picture the perfect molded housing, retail packaging, national distribution, and perhaps the tasteful documentary about their rise to greatness.

The better question is: what is the minimum version that can test the biggest assumption?

That may be a crude physical prototype, a landing page, a customer interview, a 3D-printed mechanism, or even a paper mockup. The goal of an early prototype is not to impress everyone. It is to learn.

A minimum viable product helps you move from imagination to evidence without spending the full budget. If the concept survives, improve it. If it fails, you have purchased valuable knowledge at a discount.

Finish Something Before Starting Everything

Ideas create momentum only when they become completed experiments, prototypes, launches, or licensing conversations. Ten half-developed inventions do not necessarily create more opportunity than one well-chosen product that reaches the market.

This is where focus becomes a competitive advantage. Choose one primary project and define the next concrete milestone. Keep the other ideas safely recorded, but do not let them vote at every project meeting.

Noah’s point is not that inventors should become less imaginative. It is that imagination needs structure. Steven’s humor underscores the absurdity of trying to chase every idea simultaneously: eventually, you are not developing products; you are just speed-dating your own brain.

Create an Idea Parking Lot

One practical solution is an “idea parking lot.” Record each new concept with enough information that you can return to it later:

  • The problem it solves
  • The likely customer
  • The core mechanism or differentiator
  • The next test you would run
  • Why it may be worth revisiting

Once it is captured, give yourself permission to return to the current project. You are not abandoning the idea. You are protecting it from being rushed—and protecting your active project from constant interruption.

The Product Genius Take

Inventors rarely fail because they run out of ideas. They fail because they spread their resources so thin that no idea receives enough attention to become real.

Keep creating. Keep documenting. But choose deliberately, test economically, and finish meaningful steps before chasing the next flash of inspiration. Your best idea may not be the newest one. It may be the one you finally give enough focus to succeed.

Or, read the full transcript here:

Steven Julian

Help! I have too many ideas with all my products, all my designs, and all my inventions. That's what we're going to be talking about next on Product Genius. Do you want to be a successful inventor entrepreneur? Struggling to get your product from idea to market? Well, you've come to the right place. Welcome to Product Genius, the down-to-earth podcast that explores important topics about inventing and launching new products. Noah McNeely is your trusted guide. With more than 20 years of product launch experience, he's here to help you on your journey to become a product genius.

Let's get started. Here's your slightly annoying co-host, Steven Julian.

Greetings and salutations. I am your slightly annoying host, Steven Julian. Welcome to a new edition of Product Genius. This time... Without Tiffany Crumans, but what we do have is the fantastic Noah McNeely. Noah, welcome back to the show.

Noah McNeely

Yeah, it's good to be back. I feel like it's been an entire pandemic ago.

Steven Julian

Almost. It's been at least, it's been a year, but it does kind of feel like a whole pandemic ago. So, Product Genius, this might sound a little bit different. There are some differences. Why don't? we cover all that stuff up front?

Broadcasting this show almost live from the Plush Palatial Studios that is the worldwide headquarters of Product Quick Start. Tell everybody about your new digs.

Noah McNeely

Yes, so Product Quick Start, we were fortunate enough to move into a new facility, well, new to us facility that we're renovating in what they call the Depot District of Lawrenceville, Georgia, which is this... Exciting little area where we have some breweries and we have a distillery going in. that I think is going to make tequila and I try to remain sober during the day when I'm working here.

Steven Julian

Especially when you're doing the show. Well, maybe not as much when you do that.

Noah McNeely

Probably more important that I remain sober when using the power equipment in the back.

Steven Julian

Amen. The other thing we want to talk about for those people who are coming upon this episode and have listened to past episodes. In some respects, we're the same, but in some respects, there are some differences. This show was always known as Product Genius with Tiffany Krumans. Tiffany is still with us, but she's not with us in the studio. So, Noah, I ask. you, where in the world is Tiffany Krumans?

Noah McNeely

Well, anyone that has listened to more recent shows probably knows Tiffany has a lot of ideas for businesses, and she also has... New children in her life, and she stays very, very busy. Her latest company is called Opu Probiotics, and it's a fabulous product. I recommend you try it. I particularly like the mocha mint flavor. But anyway, we believe that Tiffany is scouring the world looking for the finest ingredients she can for that particular product. So you might find her in the Himalayas or the Amazon. Probably wearing a baby and a baby Bjorn and with three other kids following her around.

Steven Julian

And everybody can go to opuprobiotics.com, opuprobiotics.com, and see all the latest things that Tiffany is doing with that product. And therefore, she was the creator of Product Genius originally, and you were a fantastic partner and sponsor of the show and would come on and talk about... Developing products through your business, productquickstart.com. And when Tiffany really launched Opu, she told all of us, Jody Smith, the producer of the show, and myself as the slightly annoying host, hey, I'm going to take a little. bit of time off. I got to launch this new business.

And then in the meantime, let me just fast forward a little bit. And I don't know how much behind the scenes and unplugged you want to get. Why are you sitting across the table from me and why are you now kind of leading this ship that Tiffany built up to this point?

Noah McNeely

Well, first, we're going to hope that the Shipley is led in a good direction and not running aground.

Steven Julian

Not yet, at least. We're five minutes in. It's so far so good.

Noah McNeely

So, yeah, we're doing great at the moment. Well, I always enjoyed doing the show. I mean, I had a lot of fun with you guys and it really hits one of my passions, which... I like talking about this stuff. I do what I love. I enjoy explaining it to people. I think the show is a good way to do that. I've actually met a number of people through the show. Those are all great conversations. My hope is as we move forward, Product Genius will be a show that's useful for inventors, of course.

Really, I think we're going to. talk about things that relate to all entrepreneurs or most entrepreneurs. Even to people that work for bigger companies that want to think more like entrepreneurs.

Steven Julian

So here we are after more than a year off. We're doing a new show. Noah McNeely is sitting across the table from me. Jody Smith from JodySmith.com is still our producer. I'm still the slightly annoying host. And here we are still talking about product development. We're going to talk about inventing. And today we're talking about help. I've got too many ideas. Which is definitely true of this show after not doing it for a year. And people who are doing product development and kind of trying to bring their product to market, as they're bringing one product to market, they have all these other ideas.

That's the entrepreneurial, that's the inventor. There's a lot of people listening who, number one, are going, okay, yeah, they're talking about something I need to talk about. And when you're listening to this, you might also be thinking, Ooh, I know someone else that needs to hear this. So listen to this one, invite them to hear the show because we're going to be talking. about, I got too many ideas. So the title of the show, obviously I gave a little bit of a inkling of it.

You are guilty of this just like anybody else, right?

Noah McNeely

Oh, absolutely. In fact, the fact that I'm doing this podcast while writing a business and... Engaging in various other hobbies may be an example of where I'm guilty of this, but I'm trying to balance it well. And we thought this would be a really good topic for the first show because Tiffany is actually a great example of doing this well. She realized at some point that she had too many different things going on. So to be successful, she had to push some of them to the back, and that's why. That's why we're here.

Steven Julian

That's why she's out finding those great products or finding those great ingredients to go into the mint mocha.

Noah McNeely

That's why she's in the Amazon today. Exactly. So, you know, this is a problem that doesn't just affect inventors and entrepreneurs. It actually affects big companies as well. And back when I did a lot of big company work, this was a topic that would come up. The big. scary corporate name for this is portfolio management. As an inventor entrepreneur, you never need to use that phrase again, probably. But the idea is even big companies, they have so many things that they want to do or would love to do, but they can't do them all.

In a big company, like a Fortune 500 company, I almost said some names there, but I don't want to be sued or anything by any of my clients from years ago. In a big company, you have entire teams of people in many cases. Their whole job is to manage and really to do the portfolio management role. They'll have roadmaps of products that the company is going to develop for five, ten years out in some cases, and they have to prioritize those.

Steven Julian

So let's talk about the person who's listening to this podcast who's trying to bring one or a couple of products to market or are trying to build their business. Go from idea to prototype to development.

When you say, help, I've got too many ideas, can that be true of one product?

Noah McNeely

It can be. It can be true of one product or it can. also just be the nature of the individual. So I've met people that clients have come in and they get really excited about their product. We go through that. And then a lot of times on the way out the door, they're like, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. I've got seven more I'm working on. We're going to talk about them next time. And I think they tell me that to get me more excited about working with them, but that's really often a red flag.

So on the next meeting, you're at the next meeting, I usually have to tamp that down a little bit and say, you know, look, that's great. I love all these ideas, but let's get one on the market first. And I think that can be a tough thing for entrepreneurs, even myself, because I have... I have so many things I want to accomplish and want to do, but it's easy to want to spend all the time in the visionary stage. Hey, this is going to be fun. I'm going to spend all day thinking about this idea and jotting out what's it going to be like when.

I'm done. But the problem is there's a lot of things that have to happen between now and achieving that vision.

Steven Julian

And the ideas is the sexy part. The ideas is the everybody's. Had at least one or two ideas. I actually, I still don't know why at times I'm the slightly annoying host of the show because I've had very few ideas of products. I've never tried to develop anything, but I would relate it. I, I love the world of comedy and I love listening to comedians, especially them talking about doing jokes. And it's one thing to have, Hey, Seinfeld had a book called, is this anything you start with an idea? Hey, is this anything?

Is this potentially funny? But from that point to getting it to where it's a tight bit to be done on stage, there's this huge, there's a lot of work that goes in. So you just mentioned it's easy to do the ideas. I got seven more, but they got all this work they got to do to just to get that one. But I want to drill down and I want to kind of push back and ask even that. person who's on that one, I've got too many ideas. Do they get sidetracked with too many things even in that one single idea?

That they're bringing to market?

Noah McNeely

Yeah, that can happen too.

I think we may have talked about this a long time ago, but there's a concept I call minimum viable product or early viable product.

Steven Julian

I remember that.

Noah McNeely

Yes, it's a classic. You should check it out. But the issue there is sometimes maybe it is just one product, but they have all these ideas for that one product. Oh, I want it to do this. I want it to do that. I want it to be Wi-Fi and I want it to levitate and I want it to glow in the dark. Sir, it's a doorknob. It doesn't need to necessarily do all that. Those are all great. Let's get one on the market. because all that stuff you just talked about, that's a two-year development program.

If we just do your basic product, which is already cool and already different than anything out there, you can be on the market in six months. You can generate revenue. You've got a successful business at that. point. And more importantly, you've got money that you can now spend on Gen 2 and Gen 3 and Gen 4. But if we start down the path of developing, The super mega colossal product now, you're never going to get there.

Steven Julian

And we titled this show again, Help, but I think probably more often than not your job as the product development guru, as the genius who helps people bring their product to market, you have to tell them you really should be saying, Help, I have too many ideas in this super amazing, stupendous product. Very rarely do they verbalize that. You're helping them verbalize.

Noah McNeely

Right. Well, sometimes I have to help people realize it is a problem because, like I said, a lot of visionary people and a lot of entrepreneurs, like myself, we do tend to love that visionary phase. And we think that's the most important thing. It's not. It's actually one of the least important and easiest parts of having a successful business.

So think about it this way. Think about all the little boys who dream about winning a Super Bowl as the quarterback. Now, you can't just keep dreaming about winning a. Super Bowl. That's great. That's a wonderful vision. But if you don't start exercising and training and learning the game, you'll never play on a team, much less get to the Super Bowl.

Steven Julian

So it's a difference between being a Super Bowl quarterback and being Uncle Rico sitting on the front step saying, if Coach had put me in that game, we would have won the state that year.

Noah McNeely

That's exactly right. And there are no time machines that will get you back there.

Steven Julian

Exactly. So portfolio management, to use the term of the Fortune 500 companies, is really them kind of categorizing or siloing or insert other corporate term here. But really, it's checking boxes. It's laying it out in steps.

Is that something that you, as the person with Product Quick Start, is trying to help people say, okay, here are the 17 steps that we're going to have to take? Or is it just getting them focused on creating the 17 steps? Kind of talk through that process. Someone's got an idea, and then someone starts to spiral into too many ideas. The portfolio management that you do, not for the Fortune 500, but for the individual. entrepreneur and inventor, what do you try to bring to the table?

Noah McNeely

Yeah, so it's really launch your product in 375 easy steps. No, it's not. There's really only two questions.

Steven Julian

I thought it was 367 steps.

Noah McNeely

We revised it last year. Oh, okay. So there's really only two. Two questions that I ask people to consider when they're trying to prioritize the features of their product or which product to develop or which product to develop when. And with the assumption that inventor entrepreneurs, you probably don't have five people or 20 people on a team that you're paying to do all the analysis. And yeah, you go to a really big company and they're going to ask a lot more than these two questions. At least they're going to ask a lot more versions of these two questions.

But the two questions I tell people to consider is, number one, what can I get to the market with my resources? And of course, I can help them try to figure that out. This is how much it's going to take to develop this product, to make the tooling for it, to produce it. So we have to be. realistic about what resources you have to actually get that to the market. And that may mean you can't launch five at a time. Now, I've had some clients that are just independently wealthy, and yeah, they can do it.

They have the resources for that. It can still be a bad idea in those cases because a resource that people often overlook is their own time, their own focus, their own ability to strategize and think about their business. So the second question is, what can I sell? You know, what will I be able to sell? So, yeah, this is a great idea. I have the funds to develop it. I have the resources to develop it. But is there a market for it? And is it a market that I understand well enough to actually sell?

And the answer to either of those questions is no. Then that's probably not the product you should develop first. You need to focus on the product or the collection of features in your product. that both of those answers are yes.

Steven Julian

And I know we've talked about variations of those questions over past episodes. Encourage everybody to go back and. listen to Noah's past episodes on Product Genius.

Noah McNeely

Product Genius is brought to you by Opu Probiotics. Pre and probiotics you can pour directly on your tongue in delicious mint and mocha flavors.

Steven Julian

But the taste is just the beginning.

Noah McNeely

With Opu, you can see improved digestive function, boosted immune system, easier weight management, improved mental health, and much more. Try today at GetOpu.com.

Steven Julian

That's GetOpu.com. Let me focus in on the second question. first, because I think... The typical inventor entrepreneur who sits down with you, especially with their first idea, and you ask them that question, you know, what can I sell? Can this sell? Their answer, bar none, is going to be, well, of course this is going to sell. It's a fantastic idea. I came up with this. It came in a bolt of lightning. Everybody who brings you any idea is going to tell you, well, of course it's going to sell. It's fantastic.

Noah McNeely

Yeah, I've heard variations of, well, why wouldn't you buy this if you could buy it? I've probably heard a hundred variations of that throughout the course of my career.

Steven Julian

You're a communist pig if you don't buy this, of course. This is great. Sorry, that was my insertion, not Noah's. My apologies.

Noah McNeely

Yeah, so we're going to remain politically apolitical here as best we can. Uh, yeah. So a lot of, um, a lot of inventor entrepreneurs, they're so enamored by their idea. They just can't imagine it not being successful. And then they're like, well, as soon as people see this, they're going to want it. That may be true. And that, that in some ways that for most people, that probably is true. The question becomes, how do you reach those people? And that's also part of how do you sell it? Can you sell it?

Uh, so if you've got a, it's a product that, oh, everyone would use it. Well, that's almost the worst kind of product for an inventor because. You don't have the marketing budget to reach everybody. If it's more focused, like, well, people that have teenage girls that want to learn how to play golf, you can reach that market a lot easier and in a more forceful way. So that's also part of, you know, what's it going to take to sell this? Not necessarily even, do I have the sales? skills? You can always hire someone to do that for you, but it's got to be.

Do I have the resources not only to design, develop, produce this product, but do I have the resources to sell it? What are those resources going to be?

Steven Julian

And in your help in answering that question, because I was kind of pushing back against the question, the second question you asked there, what can I sell? You have to drill down and you have to ask that question more specifically or they have to answer that question more specifically because really what you're asking is, is there a market for this? Can the person define the market? Can you sell it? Meaning the person who's got the idea, how would you sell it? So let me then ask this in helping them answer that question.

How much is it you trying to get them to have their eyes open to all the all that that's going to entail of selling the product? or and or how much is it you saying, if you'll listen to me, I've had a lot of experience and I've done this for a long time and I've done. this. On corporate level and individual level, here's what I believe and I know surrounding what you've just told me about this idea.

Noah McNeely

It's a little bit of both. It depends on who I'm talking to and how receptive they are.

Steven Julian

Ah, there we go.

Noah McNeely

Different people with different personalities. You know, it's kind of like the old Aesop's fables, the way he would teach very powerful people lessons without insulting them, as he would tell a story about someone else who was fictional. They would maybe learn a lesson about. So sometimes I have to do that. And it comes along as, you know, I have to say, you know, look, I'm not into sales. I'm not into marketing. I design, build, and create stuff. I can help you fill a warehouse full of product. That's no problem. We got that.

What I can't help you do is I can't help you sell. I can't help you market. I can tell you what I've seen other people do and what that's cost them. And oftentimes that loan and going through that process is enough to help them realize, oh, I hadn't thought about that. I hadn't thought about that. I am going to need a budget for that. And so sometimes I approach it that way. Sometimes people come in and they do have a lot of really good business savvy, business knowledge, business experience. They understand that right up front.

I have to do a lot less in those cases. Sometimes in those cases, it's more about explaining why it costs so much to make this product or that product or whatever it is.

Steven Julian

So let me just ask Noah McNeely, the Product Quick Start CEO and the guy who's done this for more than a few years, although you only look like you've been doing it for a few years.

Noah McNeely

Well, hair dye goes a long way.

Steven Julian

Exactly. And flattery will get me everywhere. Do you enjoy to an extent when someone who's just starting out in this, it's their first idea, they've never run a business, but they're receptive to your kind of expertise and guidance. There's that that's satisfying. As well as the satisfying of kind of someone with some business savvy who knows the business stuff and you don't have to spend as much time on that and you can really just focus on. the product development. Is there a preference one where this is just a personal question I'm asking at this point?

Noah McNeely

That is a very difficult question. Exactly.

Steven Julian

I'm slightly annoyed.

Noah McNeely

It's very individual based.

Steven Julian

This is a relational thing for you, right? This is a relational business, even for you and this.

Noah McNeely

I'll put you this way. I'm at a point in my career, I've done this long enough, I don't usually have to work with people I dislike. Now, I will do my best to help anyone. Even if I dislike you, I will try to point you in a good direction, sometimes to someone I don't like, but also. They don't know that. Yeah, they don't know that. No, but either can be good. I think it's better for me to answer this from the standpoint of what's the worst type of relationship.

Steven Julian

Oh, there we go.

Noah McNeely

That's where someone comes in and they've never developed a product before. They don't know anything about it, but they saw something on TV. So now they're an expert or they stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night. So now they're an expert and they come in and they're like, this is how you're going to do it. This is how you're going to do it. And I'm like, well, why are you here? How am I supposed to help you? You know everything already. Even though everything you just told me is completely wrong.

I know you've read a book about it that some idiot wrote who doesn't know what he's talking about, but that's not how you do it. That's not how the real world works. So those are not good relationships. Those usually end quickly. The other side of that is people that they just cannot accept what I'm telling them. So here's the problem you have. And if you cannot solve this problem, You don't have a business. Now, that's just my opinion, but my opinion is based on a lot of experience, and some people just, they get really irritated about that, and I never hear from them again, and that's probably for the best for me.

But unfortunately, they then go out and they find an engineer who's just happy to take their money, and they'll spend a year. Dumping thousands of dollars into making something that they can never afford to produce or. that it's never going to sell or it's just the wrong market.

Steven Julian

I like the way you answered that question. Well done. I asked a difficult question. Noah gave a great answer to it. So let me transition from the second question you asked of what can I sell. And let's kind of circle back real quick to that first question. What can I get to the market with my resources? This is a... Another way of kind of talking about minimum viable products. So what do you need to know from the person that you're talking to? when it comes, because that word resources, let me unpack that just a little bit more.

You know, what can I get to the market with my resources? You kind of need to know some things. How much money do you have? How much time do you have? Kind of break that down.

Noah McNeely

Yeah, I need them to be honest with themselves and with me.

Stuff costs what it costs. You know, I can't work for free. Most people cannot. It doesn't do you or me any good for you to come in and wear a fancy suit, pretend like you have. all this money, and then you don't. Because then you and I are going to talk and go, hey, this is generally what this is going to cost. And you're going to get one or two steps into that and say, oh, I can't afford to go any further. Well, it's like, well, why did you waste the money on the first two steps?

I told you what it was going to cost to get this far. It's like, I don't know. Well. I can't refund your money. All the work is done. The prototypes are built. Whatever it is, that's done. I'm sorry you can't take it any further, but I don't know what you want me to do. Go out and raise some money and come back in a few years, I guess. So that's kind of the worst scenario there. I think I do need to do my best to explain to them, and I try my very best to this where I can.

This is generally what it's going to take. Hear what they're trying to do. I'll lay out a scope. Okay, the first phase is to get us to a prototype. I can give. that a pretty tight number. If there's stuff in there, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. Are we going to end up in this material or that material? Beyond that, I have to give an estimated range. And then I can give my best guess at what the manufacturing is going to cost. But I can't, you know, obviously on day one, nothing's been designed.

So I don't know exactly what that is going to cost at the back end. So I do my best to open their eyes to what the costs are going to be. And also a little bit, you know, you're going to have to have money for marketing. If you're going to do a patent, I'll send them to Brock, who you may know from other shows. All that's going to take money. You may have to prioritize what you want to spend your money on and how you want to spend it. And I think actually in our next episode, we have some ideas about that.

Steven Julian

Ooh, fellow with a tease.

Noah McNeely

A slight tease, yes. I like that.

Steven Julian

Well done.

Noah McNeely

I am not a radio professional.

Steven Julian

You just played one on this podcast. So let me just, again, push back slightly on the word resources. So we are talking about money. There's no question. that is the main.

Noah McNeely

Not just money.

Steven Julian

Well, that was my question. Don't take my question away from me. You definitely are not a professional when you did that.

Noah McNeely

Clearly not.

Steven Julian

So apart from money, what other resources can people bring to the table that you need to know about that will help you in helping them develop their products? See how I did that? Was that good? All right.

Noah McNeely

Thank you. So you may have other resources in terms of people in your network. You know, if you come in and say, I have this great idea and it's for, you know, baseball players and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And okay, that's great. But you don't tell me, oh, and by the way, my cousin plays Major League Baseball. Well, you know, that's a resource that we could know about. that can actually change my mind about how you would market this. Oh, well, maybe you don't need all this money for marketing because your cousin can endorse it.

Well, that may change what I advise you. on. So it can be resources in your network. The often overlooked resource is you, is your tone. Oh, there's the train. We may hear a train whistle on this.

Steven Julian

Now, two things are going to happen with that. People listening go, what train? Noah is hearing things in his head because the mics don't pick it up. In which case, Jody will probably edit this out. Secondly, they hear it slightly, and now I'm talking over it, so I'm being slightly annoying with the train noise.

Noah McNeely

Right. So I completely lost my train of thought.

Steven Julian

Other resource is you.

Noah McNeely

Yes. The other resource is you. You only have so much time. So if you're working a full-time job or maybe you're running another company, you need to be honest with me about how much you can spend on this. Not to say that if you have very little time, we can still move forward, but that helps me understand, okay, this is going to take me this long to get feedback from you. It's going to take me this long to get... You know, to get you unplugged from what your other thing is, you need to be honest. with me about that so we can lay out an appropriate schedule.

Doesn't do me any good to lay out a six-week schedule if it's going to take me two weeks to hear back from you every time we talk about something. So that's a resource that's important too. And you have to be honest with yourself about that. Do you have time to launch a product business? It's not a flip a switch and forget it type of thing.

Steven Julian

I think one of the things I'm kind of hearing you say, it's interesting, one of the resources people can bring to the table is themselves, the kind of time they have, their kind of expertise, their network, what caused them to develop this idea. if they've got a lot of background in this area that they're bringing a product. That's obviously a huge resource rather than we need more vegan options for those long-time listeners of the show will appreciate.

I kind of want to ask this question because you've also said that one of the most frustrating parts is if you're with somebody who's not listening to you or who has read some book somewhere and they think. they know all the answers and why are they even talking to you? There's this spectrum that people – there's a roadway and we want people to stay between the guardrails. They can go too far one way or the other. And I guess one of the questions I would ask you, you've now been doing this for a while and you bring a lot of expertise.

People might frustrate you, but it might be hard for people to bring something that you haven't seen or said something that you haven't heard. You've kind of run the gamut in doing this for a while, correct?

Noah McNeely

Every time I think that's true, I get surprised by something that someone brings in the door. Uh, some new problem they found or some new imaginary problem they found to solve or something they, they tell me.

Steven Julian

Which is probably why you're still doing this show and still running product quickstart because of there's new challenges there, right?

Noah McNeely

It makes life interesting. Yeah. Um, I'm not the kind of engineer designer that could spend his entire life redesigning the turbine blade. I like, uh, um, I like having challenges that are new and different. all the time.

Steven Julian

And I guess what I was trying to get out of that question is some people might be like, well, I don't want to hurt Noah's feelings. Or I don't want Noah to call me stupid.

Noah McNeely

I have never called any client stupid to their face.

Seriously, I do respect my clients. I'm going to do my best. I do my best to have what I guess a doctor would call a good bedside manner. I think you've got the worst idea in the world. I'm going to communicate that to you in the best, most socially acceptable way possible. The nicest way possible. But what I'm not going to do, which is way worse, is tell you, oh, this is great. Spend money with me.

Steven Julian

And that's one of the key reasons you first started coming on this show. And one of the key factors we're going to keep talking about in this show is your industry that you're in, there are definitely people who will take your money and tell you what you want to hear. Even though they're not going to do what you need them to do.

Noah McNeely

Right. If you only just pay. somebody to tell you what you want to hear, there's plenty of people you can hire on the internet to do that.

Steven Julian

But if you want somebody to help when you have too many ideas and help you get from too many ideas to a minimum viable product to potentially something you can sell and to give you honest answers based on the resources that you have, do you know an answer to who that would be?

Noah McNeely

It would be Jim. Yeah, I think I'm a... If there's one thing I'll promise you, I'll be honest with you. Yeah, I'll be honest with you, but I'll be polite. And that's all you can really, that's the best thing you can find in a partner, I think, is honesty. But honesty can be good or bad, you know, and that's part of it.

Steven Julian

So you said that, you know, I'm not a radio professional and you did give a great tease about our next episode. So I hope everybody was paying attention to that because we will be talking about that next. I'm going to do something that is incredibly unprofessional just to kind of match. What you thought, you know, I'm not a radio professional. This is the absolute worst thing. And I'm going to break the cardinal rule on our first time of doing the show together alone, just the two of us. I'm terrified. Yeah.

And good. You should be. So here it is. All right, Noah, as we get to the end of the topic, is there anything else you want to say? Is there anything I forgot to ask? Is there anything we missed?

Isn't that terrible? Isn't that just an awful, awful question? Jody, our producer, is about ready to jump off the table and strangle me for asking that. So unprofessional.

Noah McNeely

Well, we haven't talked about the 800 types of screws that might appear in your product, but maybe that's another show. That's it.

Steven Julian

That's the show. Is it 800? Do you have a number?

Noah McNeely

I used 800 as a random number. It's probably more than that.

Steven Julian

It's definitely more than that. So the first part of that show is going to be to actually put a number. And just when you put a number, you know, there will be another one.

Noah McNeely

Right, right. So that'll be a rather boring show, I think.

Steven Julian

I. think that's the bonus episode. A certain Patreon subscription level, whenever we watch that, will be the 800 times. Okay. So that answer tells me that we did a pretty good job of covering this topic of people who need help. Whether they know they need help and are saying it out loud or whether they need to be told, I think you're going down too many other paths or you got too many ideas. Let me help you prioritize. So for those people, before we talk about contacting the show, why don't you just remind everybody your company, how they can get in touch with your company specifically with their idea?

Noah McNeely

Yeah. So if you do have a specific question about developing your product or just. Want to develop a product, productquickstart.com is the best way to find me. Just go there, fill out a form, and preferably give me a little bit of information. Don't just say, call me, because I get a lot of those, and I can't prep for that call. if that's all I get. Sure.

Steven Julian

So Noah McNeely from Product Quick Start, thank you for relaunching Product Genius. Thank you for being across the. table from me. And with your permission, I will wrap up as professionally as I can. All the other stuff people need to know about this show.

Noah McNeely

Well, permission granted, but please remember we would love people to send in their questions.

Steven Julian

Well, that's what I was going to do.

Noah McNeely

See, I'm professional once again on my part.

Steven Julian

See, now you're just doing that to make me feel better and make me feel needed. So this wonderful podcast is known as Product Genius. It is brought to you by two different companies. As Noah said, Tiffany Krumans is with opuprobiotics.com. What was your favorite flavor again? The mocha mint, yes. And I believe there's vanilla, which is probably Jody's favorite. So go to opuprotobiotics.com. And as Noah said, productquickstart.com is his company. And this podcast, Product Genius, you can learn more about the podcast at productgeniuspod.com. More important than that, on that website, We are asking you, the listener, to submit questions.

I would love to just grill Noah with endless questions, mind-numbing questions. We won't say they're mind-numbing, but we want to hear from you. We want to know what you guys want to ask about product development, about. prototypes, about being an inventor, being an entrepreneur. Ask questions of Noah, of the genius, and we will... Put those on the air. When you go to productgeniuspod.com, there's a place for you to ask questions. There's also a link to the Product Quick Start website if you want to talk specifically about a specific product and have that conversation and consultation with Noah.

So for our producer, Jody Smith from jodysmith.com and for the genius, Noah McNeely, this is your slightly annoying host, Steven Julian, saying thank you so much for joining us and we will catch you next time. On Product Genius.