Uncovering Hidden Business Innovators: The Misfit Toys

28 Mar 2025 · 2 min

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1:58

A short conversational YouTube interview (host TJ Walker with Dan) exploring two related themes: (1) identifying 'misfit toys'—business innovators who make outsized impacts without public fame (Dan references the new book 'Pattern Breakers' as an example), and (2) the idea of atomizing intellectual property into multiple revenue formats (ebooks, audiobooks, talks, webinars) to generate measurable ROI for small firms. The discussion uses concrete hypotheticals (an eight-person consulting firm, publishing costs of $25–30k, and a possible $200k return) to illustrate practical motivations.

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So Michael, is, is, are the people that you haven't heard of that I think have built massive companies that, that haven't for their ego built a big social following, but they're just wise, wise, wise. And so I don't have any names to drop. I do follow a lot. I read, I'll push a book right now. I not always a big fan of private equity and venture capital, but I read a book called Pattern breakers just came out and it's a venture capital, a venture capitalist that is, is really, you know, shaking, shaking up that business model and really shared how who is really being disruptive in the business environment, how to leverage chaos and really not so formulaic compared to other private equity people. So I tend to look for the misfit toys, people that are really, you know, you know, truly change agents. But they, they're not so alpha that they want to tell everyone how great they are. So that's, I'm trying to uncover those people.
Dan, you mentioned the phrase atomized several times. I think I know what you're talking about. You can take it an intellectual piece of intellectual property, a manuscript, you can sell it as an ebook, you can sell it as a paperback, you can sell it as a hardback, you can sell it as a, it is an audiobook. You can repackage it as a speech, you can repackage it as a webinar. If, if, if I've built the biggest widget factory in Cleveland and I just kind of want a legacy and I'm already worth 100 million, maybe I don't care about any of that. But let's, let's look at someone who has maybe put together an eight person management consulting firm and spending 25, $30,000 to publish is still somewhat significant. They would love to be able to point to a return on investment three years later. Okay, I did this. I put in a lot of time, but hey, I got 200,000 back. What are you most excited about right now?