The Startup Ideas Podcast - How I use Pinterest and Google Trends to find startup ideas

Starting point is 00:00:00 What's up, everyone. Good to have you back. Today, I really want to talk about something that's been on my brain for a long, long time. It's this idea of anti-trends. We talk a lot about trends and building startups for those trends. But I don't think enough is talked about about anti-trends. And today I'm going to talk about how you can come up with startup ideas based on those anti-trendes, how to identify anti-trendes. How to identify anti-trendes. some of the tools I use and just kind of bring you in inside my workflow, because why not? So let's talk about why I care about anti-trends in the beginning. So in software, in startups, it's a very competitive place, and everyone goes for those trends. And what I've noticed, it's actually quite easier to go to those anti-trends. Now, what am I talking about? What is an anti-trend?

Starting point is 00:01:21 If everyone is talking about AI, AI free might be a great way to position your startup. There might be so much demand for AI free that, yes, there's billions of dollars going into building startups for, you know, that are AI. And you see like every agency website saying AI and every SaaS website saying AI, what if you did it? What if you said AI-free? And these are the little things. When you identify an anti-trend like that and your first, it's a really good moat.

Starting point is 00:02:00 So, you know, the question is, like, how do you come up with anti-trend? Well, number one, you go out there in the real world and it comes to you. You just see it. Now, in the example of the AI-free thing, I actually saw, I'm going to share my screen. So sorry folks who are audio only. I actually saw, and I tweeted this, I saw that there was this study that said, AI is a turnoff for consumers.

Starting point is 00:02:31 So a new study suggests artificial intelligence and product descriptions lowers purchase intent with implications not only for brands integrating AI, but of the wider category challenges of the technology faces, it has become widespread. The point is, if you don't use AI on your website, especially in I think B to C, I think good things might happen for you.

Starting point is 00:02:54 So how do we identify? Let's talk about some of the tools that I use when I want to identify a trend or an anti-trend. So, and some of these, by the way, are so underrated. So listen or watch to the end so you understand all of them. One is Pinterest.

Starting point is 00:03:15 Here I'm on Pinterest. This is actually Pinterest Canada. One of the things I definitely, just because I signed up when I was in Canada, one of the things that you see here is a bunch of trends. So these are some trends in Canada, fall outfits, weekly change of 30% monthly change of 400%. Back to school, obviously, dressed to impress, home gardening, color book nails. Okay, interesting. Main character mode has a 10,000 plus monthly change.

Starting point is 00:03:46 sun-soaked spaces, 10,000 plus. When you start seeing these 10,000 plus, these are things that are getting real big. So one way to come up with ideas for anti-trends is just to look at what is trending on platforms like Pinterest and do the opposite of it. And yeah, I see that Brat is trending a little bit here,

Starting point is 00:04:10 but even Brat, you know, they talk about Brat summer and now it's demure fall. Like, that's the end. anti-trend to brat, right? There's always an anti-trend. So let's just say, you know, I've been thinking about this trend around slow living. Now, what is slow living? Slow living, I just noticed that there's a lot of talk around like hustle culture, working all the time, deadlifting, cold plunge, wake up at 5 in the morning, don't, you know, don't stop work until 10 p.m. That sort of thing. It's kind of the opposite of my vibe, actually. So I think that slow living is going to be a more,

Starting point is 00:04:52 more important trend. So I'll use a tool like Pinterest trends to go and see like, okay, where am I going? Is it going down? Is it going up? The one bad thing about Pinterest trends is that it does only go to one year. But what I like about it is it tells me related trends, so minimalist living rooms. So now it gives me ideas, right? So I start with my anti-trend and now it gives me ideas around what are the products that I could actually be building here. So maybe there's an opportunity to create like the slow living interior design agency. Cozy and you see, you know, cozy bedroom. You see these are, these are terms that are coming up. And then it allows me to go check through popular pins. So I can open up a pin here that's popular.

Starting point is 00:05:43 So let's just say this one. Living slow, learn to do nothing, put down your phone, accept rest, drink water, go in a walk, social media cleanse, learn to say no, smile, be still, connect to their community, you know, all this stuff. And what allows me to do then is like now I'm learning about what is resonating with this audience. I'm learning about what are the philosophies and principles of this particular community and in this particular anti-trent.

Starting point is 00:06:13 and it gives me ideas. And then I just take out my notebook and I start writing down, what am I observing? You create a little page, take out a pen, you take a little page and you say observations and what am I observing about this anti-trend? I'm observing that, you know, putting down your phone is like a big part of it or resting is a big part of it. And then I ask myself, what are products and services that I can go and create? so that I, you know, I can monetize and, you know, build a community in that space.

Starting point is 00:06:49 Shh, don't tell anyone, but I've got 30 plus startup ideas that could make you millions. And I'm giving them away for free. These aren't just random guesses. They're validated concepts from entrepreneurs who've built $100 million plus businesses. I've compiled them into a one simple database. compiled from hundreds of conversations I've had on my podcast. But the main thing is, most of these ideas don't need a single investor. Some cost nothing to start.

Starting point is 00:07:27 I'm pretty much handing you a cheat sheet. The idea bank is your startup shortcut. Just click below to get access. Your next cash-loving business is waiting for you. So that's Pinterest. There's also, of course, Google trends that you can use, which is similar. So let's go put Slow Living. And you can see over the last five years, this is worldwide, it's progressively going up.

Starting point is 00:08:01 This is beautiful to see. You know, I look at this and I'm like, there is certainly some opportunity to be building in the space. This is a trend I like to see. It's not like up into the, it's not like crazy growth. And I actually almost like that better because to me this is a sustainable, sustainable growth. Then you can see what people also search, which I find really interesting. But I always check the questions.

Starting point is 00:08:31 To me, the questions is the most important place to start. What is slow living, how to practice slow living. What is the artist's low living? this basically puts you in the mind of people in this anti-trend. So Google Trends, you know, it's completely free to use. I don't know why more people don't use it. I forgot to say. So I actually added this Chrome extension.

Starting point is 00:08:59 I have no affiliation with them at all. But it's this Chrome extension called Glims. Discover trends before they're trending. And it just maps on. It basically just supercharges. Google Trends. So it also adds things like related trends, which is super good to know. So I can go and see all the related trends and glimpse gives me that.

Starting point is 00:09:27 I think it's free to use and, you know, I haven't paid for it or anything like that. And that's really, really, you know, helpful, obviously to know, to know related trends. because then you go back to your notebook and you start writing one of the related trends. And why? You start asking yourself, like, why are these related trends? Why do we think food sustainability is in there? Sustainable Business, Euphoria Party. Like, what do these things mean?

Starting point is 00:09:55 And it puts you down that rabbit hole. The other interesting thing about glimpse plus Google trends is it gives you, you know, where are people, like where's the most activity on social? Is it on Twitter? Is it on Instagram? You can see here, it's very much on Instagram. So when I decide I want to create a social account to build an audience here, because you know me, I always like to start with the audience.

Starting point is 00:10:22 You know, yes, it's nice to be on Instagram because that's where the people are, but maybe I go on Twitter. Maybe I go on Twitter because the competition isn't there, and there's an opportunity to do that. You know, I have a friend who is a coach, health coach. and she was on Instagram and she's like, where else should I be? And I was like, you know, go to LinkedIn. Go to LinkedIn because, you know, health coach for busy entrepreneurs, her niche.

Starting point is 00:10:54 No one's, you know, no one's talking about health stuff on, or not a lot of people are talking about health stuff on LinkedIn. And she's built like a huge, a huge audience on there. So it's, and, you know, when there's not a lot of competition, there's, it's worth peaking in. And then you can see the topic map. So you can see like self-care, green living, journaling. I just find this to be a helpful way to just see what is going on in a bird's eye view. And then these are the Google trends related topics and related queries. So you can see like just what are, you know, what are some breakout topics? Slow living with a princess.

Starting point is 00:11:36 You can just start scrolling through them, having fun. Spend 30 minutes here. Send 30 minutes and start observing and writing down. Another way to obviously discover trending topics. So you'll find things that are trending and look for anti-trends is if you do download Glims, you can go to the Discover Trends tab. You can go to Discover Trends tab. You can click into things, home improvement, let's say.

Starting point is 00:12:11 And it takes a few seconds, but it'll pull up, like, what are the different graphs and what's starting to go up? What's the search volume? So you can see like AC cleaning, high-income business. And then from that, again, you have to come up with ideas around what can I be building here. And I've talked about how I use Gummy Search. in a previous video, a YouTube video, how to do that.

Starting point is 00:12:40 And I think I might create a video and a pod around how to validate some of these ideas if enough people are into that. Comment on the YouTube if you want me to create a video around that or pot about it. But coming up with ideas are on places like on Gummy Search or just asking yourself, okay, what do these people need? So glimpse slash Google Trends is something that is, is very, very helpful. Another thing that I do is I'll go to a platform like Clode.

Starting point is 00:13:17 And by the way, in a previous video, everyone made fun of me that I call Clode instead of Cloud. But I speak French. And, you know, think about Jean-Claude Van Damme. I wouldn't call it Jean-Cloud Van Dam. That's not how you say in French. I'm sorry, I'm going to keep calling a Clot. I might be wrong in English, but that's how you say in French.

Starting point is 00:13:44 So then I go to Clode and I'll say, I want to build a business in slow living. Give me a list of the top creators in slow, sustainable, living and top websites I can go show I can go check out for some competitive research slow and now I generally like to like really define what it is slow living is the antithesis of hustle culture and then give me 10 of each. Let's see what they come up with. So then I've got the list of the top creators

Starting point is 00:14:37 in Sustustainable Living, and then I'll just go and check them out, and then the top websites. So this, like add this to your document, add this to, you know, and some people don't like writing down, that's fine. Put it into a notes file,

Starting point is 00:14:51 like literally a notes file. You don't have to use anything fancy. The reason I like writing or using, just a notes file is not using something fancy just go with what you got and then you can take some of these websites like you know let's see what slow.co is and check this out okay so it's a newsletter for for slow living and then you can go and you know so I'll generally like look okay what okay there's something called the minimalist.com you know there's something called slow your home.com and then once I've done that I'll take

Starting point is 00:15:26 take one of these websites and I'll go to A.H.RFs. I'll put it in to see what's happening. How many backlinks? What are the trends? What sort of traffic? Like, you know, how are they doing? And then I'll just start literally playing around like, what are the opportunities? Any low-hanging fruits in terms of SEO?

Starting point is 00:15:55 Backlinks. I'm always interested to see how many backlinks do they have. What are their top pages? Top pages are interesting because it signifies like, okay, what do people actually care about on these websites? That gives you intel into what to do. The organic competition is really interesting. So just play around with AHRFs

Starting point is 00:16:18 and just see how competitive these anti-trend ideas are. Because that'll give you confidence around what to do where the opportunities lie. So I would definitely do that. You can also go to the keyword explorer and just see how difficult certain terms are. And then I also love looking at the questions. You know, me on the questions part, like what is low living? and this just is it's it's interesting to see interesting to see where are people clicking in from

Starting point is 00:17:01 like randomly Indonesia for example is like the top search volume so it's like that's really interesting what about Indonesian culture lends itself well to slow living and then how hard is it to rank in Indonesia and do I want to rank in Indonesia or do I just want to rank in the United States so these are the type of questions that you get to ask yourself, it's amazing, when you're playing with some of these tools. Another tool that I use, so once you have the list of the creators, you can use a tool like VueStats,

Starting point is 00:17:37 which is Mr. Beasts tool. They also have a Chrome extension. And you can actually plug in. So let's just say, be more with less. Let's see. Okay, does this person, are they trending up? up, like, are they trending down? Or people, you know, let's, let's go, let's go see. So pretty small, 11,000, like, a lot smaller than I thought. Like, not doing much. So I look at this and I'm kind of like, there's, there's not much competition here at all.

Starting point is 00:18:11 Let's go check. How about this guy, Joshua Becker? And by the way, I'm doing this just so you can, like, jump in my brain how I think about things. I feel like a lot of you've asked, like, how do I live cook, basically? So I'm going to do more live cooking podcast and YouTube videos. So this guy is crushing it. He's, you know, definitely adding subscribers. He's making thousands of dollars a month. Things I look for is like how many videos he's doing. I also love to look at long views versus short views.

Starting point is 00:18:48 I like basically don't even acknowledge. short views anymore. It's all about long views in terms of affinity. So if there's a lot of long views, it means that there's a lot of trust here. I have to look at what videos he's doing too, right? This might not be all slow living. So this might, look, it's like some stuff about just tidying stuff and decluttering. But there's also stuff for like 10 reasons to escape excessive consumerism. So there's definitely a part of it that's slow living and a part of it that's just like minimalism.

Starting point is 00:19:22 So there you have it. It gave you my secrets. I told you exactly how I find anti-trends, which are kind of like the trends you should really be paying attention to. And I hope you liked it. And if you did, like, comments and subscribe, just so more of this stuff is in your feed. So at least you can do, you want your feed to be dialed.

Starting point is 00:19:45 If you want more of me in your feed, you got to go and do that. And it also just lets you. me know that I should be creating more videos like this. I did a video on how I find startup ideas with AI. And if you haven't checked that out already, go and check that out. And if you want me to do a video on and pot episode on how I validate startup ideas, let me know. And I'll do it for you. I'm here for you. This is what these are about lifting the veil, giving you startup ideas. And it's more fun when more people are building, you know. And let's go get him. All right. Hope, this got your creative juices flowing. I know it did mine. Thanks for listening. And I'll see you

Starting point is 00:20:30 next time. Later.

The Startup Ideas Podcast - How I use Pinterest and Google Trends to find startup ideas

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