When brainstorming ways to make money or start a business, the process can feel maddening. It’s like wanting to spray paint a giant red X on a wall and smash your head through it, hoping to hit a beam and end the misery.
The mental marathon is exhausting—coming up with dozens of ideas every day, only to reject every single one:
- “No, that won’t work.”
- “Can’t do that, it’s already been done.”
- “Nobody’s going to buy from me.”
- “That idea is boring.”
- “That idea is too complicated.”
This cycle can repeat endlessly, leaving you drained and frustrated. After weeks of this, it’s easy to tally up hundreds of ideas, all dismissed as “not good enough.”
The Problem with Perfectionism
Here’s the core issue with this mindset: The search for the “perfect” idea leads to paralysis. No progress gets made, and meanwhile, others are out there succeeding with simple, unremarkable ideas. Seeing this only amplifies the frustration.
For example, there was an article about someone running a coffee business using a “drop shipping” model. He didn’t have any inventory or products—just a website. Customers placed orders, and a factory handled the rest under his brand name. That was it. And he was pulling in $92,000/year.
Stories like this were infuriating.
- “What does he know that I don’t?”
- “How do you even set something like that up?”
- “If he’s already doing coffee, now I can’t do that. Back to square one.”
This loop of self-doubt kept cycling:
- No technical skills.
- No business degree.
- No “natural” entrepreneurial instincts.
Ultimately, it boiled down to this: the belief that no experience or skill seemed valuable enough to turn into a business.
The Realization
It finally hit me.
Somehow, I’d managed to stay employed, which meant at least a few of my skills were valuable to someone else. If they weren’t, nobody would have bothered hiring me in the first place.
(Takeaway: If you’re employed—or have ever been—you already have at least one skill that’s worth money.)
One of those skills, for me, was working as an SAT/ACT test prep coach for Kaplan Test Prep during and after college. But I had never stopped to consider the actual value of this skill—not to Kaplan, not to the families I was helping. Instead, I was entirely focused on my hourly rate.
How many of us fall into this same trap?
How many of us fixate so much on what we’re getting paid that we never stop to think about what we’re actually worth?
Why This Thinking Is Flawed
Focusing solely on your salary or hourly rate is the wrong way to evaluate your skills.
Your salary is not equivalent to the actual value your skills bring to your employer. Think about it: If a company paid you exactly what your skills were worth, they’d make no profit. Companies don’t just hire you—they invest in you. After onboarding and training, they’ve likely spent $5,000–$10,000 just to bring you on board.
To justify that investment and make a profit, businesses must earn significantly more from your work than they pay you. In most cases, companies make 2x to 5x what you generate per hour.
The Numbers Behind the Work
Here’s an example:
If you’re getting paid $25/hour to provide tech support, the company you work for is probably earning $75–$100/hour from the customers you’re helping.
When I applied this logic to my job at Kaplan, the reality became crystal clear.
At Kaplan, I was earning $18/hour, and at the time, I thought this was fantastic. (It felt like a small fortune compared to minimum wage.) But then I discovered something shocking: Kaplan was charging the families over $100/hour for the exact same work I was doing.
Kaplan wasn’t doing much beyond connecting me to the families. I was handling all the communication, teaching the material, developing the curriculum, and following up. Essentially, I was delivering $100 worth of value every hour, but Kaplan was taking $82 of it every single time.
This realization completely changed how I viewed the value of my skills.
The Turning Point
FUCK. THAT.
It became clear that I had a skill people were willing to pay top dollar for — but I lacked the connection piece. Branching out on my own felt daunting because I had no idea how to find clients. This anxiety caused me to stall, like so many others do at this exact stage.
This is the point where many give up, retreating to the safety of a steady paycheck.
The thought process goes something like this:
“Sure, I have a skill, but my company is the one bringing me all the work. I need them.”
I won’t lie — I felt that way too for a minute. Let’s be real: finding clients seemed impossible. What was I supposed to do? Post ads on Craigslist? Slap flyers on the bulletin board at my apartment complex?
Umm, no thanks. I wasn’t trying to open a lemonade stand — I needed to cover $1,100 in rent every month. I needed a system that worked reliably and fast.
The Eureka Moment
Then it hit me.
I had one of the few bright ideas I’ve had in the past 25 years:
“If I’m looking for a specific type of customer, why not just go to where those customers already are?”
Instead of wasting time searching through outdated classifieds or yellow page ads, I could position myself where these potential clients were plentiful and already in a buying mindset.
This realization changed everything. It gave me a clear direction and, within 24 hours, I had set up my first business. I called it The Marsupial Method.
The Marsupial Method
Picture this: a baby kangaroo, chilling in its mother’s pouch, safe, warm, and fed, while the big, bad world just passes by. It’s cozy. It’s genius. It’s survival with training wheels.
The Marsupial Method works the same way. When starting out, instead of running around blindly trying to find clients, you “hop into the pouch” of a larger, established business that’s already working with your ideal customers. They’ve done all the heavy lifting — marketing, branding, client acquisition — and you get to swoop in, partner with them, and get instant access to a steady flow of customers.
Sound too good to be true? It’s not.
Why This Works
Here’s the deal: businesses already working with your target audience want to add more value for their customers. That’s where you come in. By offering a complementary service or skill, you make them look good while securing paying clients for yourself. Everyone wins.
Examples of The Marsupial Method
- Personal Trainers: Partner with apartment complexes to host fitness classes in their gyms. Residents stay active, the property looks more attractive, and you walk away with a full class and steady income.
- Web Developers: Team up with graphic designers. When their clients need websites built, you’re the go-to solution. They get a happy client, and you get paid.
- Tutors: Collaborate with local schools or after-school programs. You help students excel, schools offer better support, and parents line up to hire you.
The possibilities are endless. All it takes is a little creative thinking to figure out where your ideal clients are already hanging out — then building partnerships to get your foot in the door.
How The Marsupial Method Launched My First Business
When I first used this method, it was like stepping into a cheat code. Within 24 hours, I had my first clients and steady income coming in. Instead of wasting weeks trying to “figure it all out,” I plugged into a system that worked immediately.
This isn’t about reinventing the wheel. It’s about finding where the wheels are already spinning and hopping on board. The Marsupial Method isn’t just clever — it’s survival for anyone starting from scratch.
