Danielle Riddle had an interesting challenge facing her. She wanted to leverage online platforms to create a secondary income stream for herself, i.e. a personal gig or hustle for some vacation money. However, her primary skill was being a musician. Exactly how was that going to translate into music into some kind of a product to sell online aside from selling the music itself? She had no record deal, and Danielle didn't have any quality recording equipment. Getting started would have meant investing thousands of dollars, which defeated the whole point of a side hustle then. So how were the two resources of her love for music and the Internet going to connect?
Ideas Right in Front of Your Face When it came to creativity, Danielle Riddle was surrounded by it. Originally, she had wanted to be a singer, but the pursuit of it on stage didn't pan out. She simply didn't have the voice. Then she got into playing piano and guitar, and Riddle found she was really good at it. Fast-forward years later, she liked her career but wanted something more. Every day, her friends and peers would come up with another story how one of them had figured out a new angle and idea that was popular and selling online. Everyone seemed to have a side-channel except her. So, like she did with figuring out music, Dannielle Riddle rolled up her sleeves and got to work on brainstorming some viable, usable ideas. What Danielle Riddle realized soon after was that problem-solving naturally created products that people wanted. Even as a musician, she could produce products that people wanted online that didn't necessarily have to be music itself. She simply needed to change her perspective a bit. There were problems to solve all around her. Riddle's normal day as a musician was working with her peers, listening to their frustrations about things that didn't work in the studio or on stage and what they wished they had to make life easier. Soon enough, Danielle Riddle realized her friends at work were a research thinktank for new ideas. Even better, platforms like Etsy allowed Riddle to prototype and test her product ideas on real people who enjoyed playing music and wanted things to be easier doing it.