This one’s a little different as we sit down with Craig Krisulevicz (or Craig K. once you get tired of misspelling it) to profile his muse-in-progress built around a thriving, ultra niche community: heavy metal guitar players, or shredders for those in the know.

Though it might look a bit sparse right now, Metal Shredder TV will soon be rolling out a ton of video micro-lessons and e-books on different techniques, starting with TapAttack. While his past few muse ideas have seen sales and created an income stream, what matters now is that he’s living what he sells and has the passion to blow it up. He’s got the calloused fingers to prove it. He’s going to have a killer, passionate community because he’s passionate, and his products/content will be world-class because he’s got the expertise. Here’s a promo video to show you what I mean.

This video hits on something I’m really passionate about – going big. Just because you are creating something that seems simple doesn’t give you an excuse not to max out your vision and plan ahead for something bigger. You will never quit your job and fuel an extraordinary lifestyle with some tiny idea.

Taking something to a large scale doesn’t mean more work, it simply means changing your focus and architecting it properly from the start. LanguageCheat represents one of our muse concepts that we’re taking to that level. What’s yours?

A quick rundown of the conversation…

• Respecting your ideas, respecting your muse
• The Product: Language Cheat
• Where the idea came from
• A few samples
• Evolving a small idea into a big one, without abandoning the muse model
• Business plans & getting investors; defining the details up front
• Going big without getting heavy
• Tell us what you’re working on. What’s your muse?

Creating your muse can be one of the most truly unique challenges you’ll take on. Every step of the way can seem to present more problems than solutions, and staying focused on your niche and your product can prove surprisingly challenging. I composed the following case study as a recap of the entire muse creation process for one of my products, the Audio Mixologist Rapid Memorization System.

Starting with only the spark of an idea – to create an audio learning course for aspiring bartenders – I decided to see what would happen if I set out to create a world-class audio learning system to sell as an information product. This is how I made it happen, presented as a model you can easily replicate… (more…)

In Part 1 of our case study, we looked at the process of taking a simple idea and testing it against a niche audience before committing time to creating the final product. In the case of Audio Mixologist, the market validation was enough to justify the next step… creating the product. You’ll see the pains and gains of creating an audio product, dealing with virtual assistants, creating materials and delivering digital content… (more…)