Do You Lay Golden Eggs, Or Do You Sell Them?
- Writer for DDI on Medium
- Jan 1
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 8
Golden eggs are products that work.
They are hatched from a problem in your business you solved and turned into something for mythical creatures to buy.
If you're a service provider in Trinidad and Tobago reading this, you either lay golden eggs or sell them—you either earn money based on your thoughts and ideas, or by peddling someone else's ideas.
They’re both skills anyone can learn, but perceived value is where they differ.
A methodology that helps someone find and develop their voice, and keep their sound consistent, stands apart from someone leveraging prompts purporting to do so. A product that gets you seen, heard, and paid straight out the gate cuts through a choir of people pitching hard skills.
If you feel like you’re missing something, no matter how much you upskill—like people selling “ordinary services” for a lot of money know something you don’t, it’s time to uplevel your thinking.
When it comes to selling an original idea versus a repackaged one, it’s apples and oranges. What someone is willing to pay for intellectual property isn’t what they’ll pay for a commodity.
Ackeisha’s Launch-PlanFRAMEWORK™ is more valuable to her students' success than just the skills she teaches them because it helps them sidestep 4 main problems she encountered launching her own beauty business.
It’s an extremely valuable part of how her students are able to ‘Launch Their Beauty Business In 60 Days Or Less.’
Her PediPlans™ are designed to restore the health of her clients feet ‘In 60 Days Or Less’ and productized for women and men with varying degrees of callus buildup and fungal infection.
This isn’t about building a monetizing strategy around random skills, or your audience: this isn’t the same as chasing quick commission through products or services sold in the US, UK, Canada, and beyond, or creating multiple streams of income by selling digital products. This is not about selling your audience for brand partnerships.
No fluff. We're not scraping the internet for other people's ideas to tweak and pass off as personal insights to turn into a measuring stick for others. We're taking what’s already resonant about what we do for the people we serve, and turning it into the Northstar so more of those people can find us and connect with how we do things.
The distinction is that...:
It's about the problem you solve instead of what problems you reduce.
It's about the result you deliver on, not improve.
It is about dovetailing your thoughts and ideas on what you sell and getting rid of everything else, causing dissonance.
It’s about being intentional about your main revenue stream so you can grow it in the future, not about multiple streams of income because niching feels like you’re losing money.
This is a mindset shift that’s particularly hard for local small business owners to wrap our minds around. We’re not exactly known for original ideas in the business space. Whether it’s products or services, we typically buy and sell. So, placing the emphasis on building what you're known for around the problem you solve instead of selling a laundry list of services, building value in your intellectual property rather than skill stacking, branding a thought instead of pushing a sale, feels limiting and sounds weird. But it’s the biggest reason potential layers struggle to get paid "their" worth.
How can you be paid “your” worth when it’s someone else's idea you're selling?
When I became permanent at PrinTree, formerly called The Docucentre Ltd, my boss fought her boss for my raise because of what she told me over and over, she saw in my abilities. It wasn't much of a fight because Dale was one of those CEO's with quiet insight who surrounded herself with branch managers with the same strength and a conviction when it came to fighting for their staff.
The team of St Vincent Street came up with core products that brought in money without fail. Each year was epic fun! Here’s a quote from Dale regarding it:
“I recommend Ciji Shippley for employment in the position of Graphic Designer
without hesitation. Ciji was instrumental in building the design capability of DocuCentre’s St. Vincent Street branch. Her creative designs and dedication to service attracted new business and
resulted in repeat work over the years...” -Dale Laughlin former CEO of The Docucentre Ltd
Despite earning awards for my work, there was always a cap on my income because I was selling graphic design skills. Now my services sell for 6K, 10K, and 15K.
The truth is, you don’t have to lay golden eggs if selling them is easier. We should all do what we’re good at. Just don’t conflate the two because they’re different lanes of thinking and operating.
With that said, are you in the business of selling your brain, or are you in the business of selling someone else's?
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