Would Anyone Really Pay For That?

I think it's possible I should rename my blog *Talks With My Boys.* If I look back at the posts I've written recently (the ones people seem to respond to the most), many were inspired by a conversation with one of my kids. Like this one.

Confession: one of my favorite things in life is opening my music app and realizing Rollins snuck onto my phone and queued up a day's worth of songs for me. Then, all day, every new song feels like a tiny little present.

But back to my story, which leads me to this question for you: how many times have you asked yourself, "Would anyone really pay for that?" Chances are, the answer is too many.

A quick search turned up a startup that matches music curators with retail stores and companies who want curated playlists for their locations. Take a moment now and think about the things you pay for in your life or business that you never thought you would, or that might have seemed insane to pay for at one time.

Here's my quick list: pest control to make my yard usable in the evenings, a music streaming family plan, an ad-free streaming upgrade, a travel monitor so I have a proper workstation on the road, and a coffee order I place happily every single time without ever waiting in line.

What's on your list? Seriously, take a moment right now and jot down all the things you joyfully pay for that you would have once thought "no way" to. Now look at your list and ask: when that product or service was just an idea on a whiteboard somewhere, do you think someone in the room said, either out loud or under their breath, "Would anyone really pay for that?"

I'm not saying every idea is a money-maker. Plenty of well-known products have flopped for very logical reasons, usually because they misjudged some unspoken social norm about how people actually want to buy and use things. A milk-based product that needed refrigeration people didn't expect, a piece of wearable tech that ran headlong into privacy concerns, a premium version of a familiar product priced for a market that wasn't ready to pay more for it. The pattern each time was less about the idea itself and more about how it landed with real human expectations.

There's also real research on the different emotional mindsets that drive how people decide to buy: things like wanting a problem simply handled and gone, or wanting to feel a little bit special or set apart from the crowd. When I look at my own list of "can't believe I pay for this," I can see both of those at work: solving an annoyance once and for all, and not having to stand in line or sit through a commercial.

What emotional drivers show up in your own list?

As helpful as it's been to notice my own buying patterns while writing this, that wasn't really my point. If there's one thing I'd love for you to take away, it's this: the next time you have an idea for a product, service, or program and your immediate reaction is "nobody's going to pay for that," don't let that be the end of the story. Take the idea and hold it up against the real emotional reasons people buy things. Music curation might not solve a practical problem, but it sure taps into wanting a little fun and feeling special, doesn't it?

What revenue idea have you overlooked? What's something you've been telling yourself no one would buy? That could be your big break.