Yesterday morning at the ungodly hour of 5 am I was in the Qantas club in Perth on my way home to Melbourne. The 6 am flight seemed like a good idea when we booked it … get home in the middle of the day and still be able to get a bunch of stuff done. At 5 am, not so much. Looking around the airport, and the Qantas club, I noticed a very different demographic than in Melbourne. Everyone was wearing orange and yellow shirts with their names embroidered into them. And rather than pulling out laptops for the x-ray machines, everyone was taking off their steel capped boots.

Using my incredible powers of deduction I realised that everyone else was heading off to work in mines. And that on the other side of the country was a completely different world.

The night before I’d been talking to a bunch of cool Thought Leaders about building commercially smart practices. And one of things we spoke about was that as Thought Leaders our message comes first. We start with what we know, what we are passionate about, the message we want to share. Then we find a market whose problems we can solve with what we know.

Business is typically the other way around. It starts with the market, and then figures out how to meet their needs.

I was looking around the Qantas club, and thinking about all the money coming out of the mining sector. And if I was a typical consultant or entrepreneur I would have been thinking about what I could sell to mining companies. But I don’t know that world, I don’t know the problems they face, or how I could help … so I’m leaving it alone. It’s how we roll.

Love to hear your thoughts and experiences. You can leave your comments below.