I recently used a tool called JobBoardly to create a job board specifically for listing employment opportunities within the retail industry. It was a fun and interesting project that made me realize that a job board tool is essentially a matchmaking platform that connects opportunities with seekers. This means its basic framework can be adapted to a variety of other uses beyond traditional job listings, and I thought it made an ideal topic for a FiveBuck Brainstorm. 

Here are some creative applications to consider:

1. Volunteer Opportunities
   Allow nonprofits to post opportunities for volunteers, and potential volunteers can apply based on interest, skills, or availability.
2. Gig Marketplace
   Create a platform for posting and applying for gig work in niches like writing, graphic design, handyman services, or photography.
3. Event Performers / Speakers Listing
   List opportunities for bands, DJs, keynote speakers, or performers to apply for gigs at weddings, conferences, or corporate events. 
   
4. Coaching / Mentor Marketplace
   Create a platform for mentors and coaches to list their services and allow mentees to apply based on their personal goals.
5. Property Rentals
   Don’t try to compete against AirBnB, but if you can find an angle (desirable city, mid-century modern homes, or houses rumored to be haunted) you could create a unique site allowing landlords to list rental properties and collect tenants applications. Focus on a community, city, or even a country.
6. Study Buddy / Tutor Finder
   List study groups, language exchange partnerships, or learning opportunities and let users apply to join. Tutors can list their services and have students apply for sessions.
7. Student Internship Portal
   Companies post internship openings and students apply. Sort categories based on educational qualifications, career goals, and industries.
8. Scholarship / Grant Listings
   List scholarship or grant opportunities and allow applicants to submit profiles.
9. Pet Adoption / Services
   List pets available for adoption and let adopters apply or express interest. Include categories for pet owners seeking groomers, boarding, dog walkers, petsitters, etc.
10. Community Sharing and Upcycling
    List items to borrow (tools, books, etc.), services to share, or spaces to use.
11. Home Services Directory
    Homeowners list home improvement needs (cleaning, lawn care, wet basement, roof, garage doors, etc.) and allow professionals to bid or apply for these tasks.
12. Skill-Swapping Barter Network
    Feature “jobs” where users can offer their services in exchange for other services, bypassing traditional payment.
13. Adopt-a-Project
    List projects or causes that need funding or other resources, allowing donors to “apply” by committing support.
14. Club or Team Recruitment Hub
    Sports teams, clubs, or hobby groups could post recruitment notices for inviting prospects to apply for membership.
15. Donation Requests or Wish Lists
    Nonprofits or individuals could list items or funds needed (e.g., classroom supplies, medical expenses), and donors could “apply” to fulfill requests.
16. Market Research Participant Recruitment
    Companies, researchers, and marketers post studies and surveys in need of participants and invite people to complete an application to take part. Post details on compensation, etc. just like a regular job posting.
    

I hope these ideas have you as excited about the opportunities a simple job board can offer your business or benefit one of your client’s companies. If you’re starting a search for job board software, I heartily recommend JobBoardly. 

I liked JobBoardly so much that I enrolled in their affiliate program, which means I’ll get a small commission if you decide to take advantage of their current offer of a Lifetime subscription to their service for just $297. You get unlimited listings, site traffic, and more for a single payment.

Click here to check out the Job Boardly lifetime deal.

Are you interested in receiving other collections of ideas on a single topic just like this one?

Subscribe to my Five Buck Brainstorm list over on Substack. Free subscribers receive emails containing public brainstorm collections on general topics (like this one). I’m planning to release approximately one free brainstorm per month. If you prefer your inspiration to be delivered more frequently and your brainstorm topics to be a little more challenging and specific — consider upgrading to become a Supporting Subscriber for $5.00 per month (or just $50 per year) and receive a different brainstorm topic each week featuring at least one dozen ideas (and you can even submit your brainstorm topics for a chance to be featured!)

Click here to sign-up for your free subscription on Substack.

At the beginning of every year I share my Whensday philosophy with friends and followers.

This year Whensday is especially appropriate because the very first day of 2025 falls on an actual Wednesday!

By now you’ve probably noted the unique spelling (or at the very least realized the date of this blog post is most certainly NOT the weekday that falls between Tuesday and Thursday.)

I came up with this concept more than a decade ago while thinking about just how many of my own projects get delayed because of simple procrastination. I scribbled the concept in my journal, bought the domain name, and put it on my “when-I-get-around-to-it-list.”

Every year I share the article, but this year I wanted to build an entire content and coaching program around the concept. Today is Whensday for me, too.

I am using Substack to publish a weekly newsletter (every Wednesdsay, of course!) that contains bits of advice, insight, and resources to help move your own Whensday projects off the backburner and get you to turn up the heat on getting them done.

Still a little fuzzy on what a Whensday project is?
Read the original concept article below…

Whensday is that day you SAY you’re going do something.

The day you’ll write your book, take that dance class, go back to school, find a new job, clean the garage, fix the toilet, whatever…

• When I have more time
• When I have more money
• When I get a degree
• When I get a new job
• When I get a raise
• When I lose some weight
• When the economy is better
• When they fire that jerk of a boss
• When someone gives me a chance
• When the world isn’t conspiring against me
• When I get more experience
• When I have more freedom
• When I meet “the right people”
• When I don’t have so much housework
• When somebody gives me some help
• When someone gives me permission
• When my family understands me
• When I get motivated
• When I get famous
• When I get a promotion
• When I get out of debt
• When I save some money
• When I know I can’t fail
• When I’m not so busy
• When I marry the right person
• When I move to another city
• When I start my own business
• When my luck is better
• When I hit the lottery

I’ve got news for you — that perfect day where the stars are in alignment and all your lottery numbers hit, some Hollywood talent scout runs into you at Starbucks and thinks you’d be perfect in the next blockbuster superhero movie, and Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg are start a bidding war to convince you to run their businesses for them just ain’t gonna happen.

You simply need to decide that today is the day you’re going to start putting your goals into action. Today is when you’re going to write the first chapter of your novel, today is when you’re going to call up that dance studio and sign-up for this weekend’s Tango class, today is when you’re going to go down to the hardware store and by a new floaty-thing for your toilet tank.

TODAY is Whensday.

TOMORROW is Whensday.

EVERYDAY is Whensday.

2025 is filled with Whensdays — make everyone of them count.

What do you think… Are you in?

Take your first step toward embracing a full year of Whensdays by subscribing to the Today Is Whensday community for just $5 per month (or sign-up for the entire year at a discounted rate of $50).

Membership gets you exclusive access to 52 weeks of brand new content, advice, and resources for putting your ideas into action.

Click this link to subscribe today and get started tomorrow — on the first Whensday of 2025!

Reach out to me with any questions about the program via the contact form on this site.

It’s like 91 degrees outside right now in Columbus, Ohio as I sit at my desk and work on this post. My Amazon Alexa sitting behind me on the shelf keeps pinging me with “Severe Weather” notifications because of local air quality alerts. This seems like the perfect time to share some of the hot projects my cool friends are working on.

Powerful Mini Books

One of my favorite creative thinkers is Beck Power. Beck is constantly coming up with cool concepts that she wastes no time in putting into action. Beck’s projects always have a purpose and that purpose is usually to help other entrepreneurs build their business. Beck’s latest project is working with clients to quickly and economically turn their ideas into a mini book. For a flat fee of $100 Beck will take your problem-solving idea and use AI to create a first draft of the mini book, then she’ll then edit it and add in some of her patented Beck Magic to produce a 5,000 word/10-15 page mini book that is ready for you to upload to Amazon or email to your clients.

Could you use AI to produce your own book? Probably.
But why haven’t you done it yet?

The beauty of this hot projects is that for one reasonable flat fee you will have a done-for-you mini book ready to go and produced by someone with a lot of experience creating content for herself and for her clients.

$100 bucks and you’re done.
Doesn’t get much easier than that. Here’s the link.

On The Right Track

My friend Maggie Sadowsky is another bright brain I’ve been lucky to connect with. Maggie had a pretty impressive career working as a successful food scientist for other brands before opening her own food consultancy business. In 2020 Maggie launched 8 Track Foods, a company than produces a line of sustainable organic beans that are grown and canned in America. Maggie’s company produces a healthy food product, works to reduce food waste, uses steel cans to battle the plastic packaging that ends up in our landfills, and is winning food awards along the way. You can find her products at a growing number of supermarkets (including Whole Foods, Meijer, Food Lion, and probably an independent grocery near you.)

Radio Gaga

I’m sure you already know what a mess the radio broadcast industry is any time you happen to try to tune into a radio station in your car. Sadly, local radio is going the way of the dinosaur and all that remains on the air in most cities is corporate programming from just two or three behemoth broadcasters that are constantly in the news either announcing their latest Chapter 11 filings for protection from debt collectors or another round of personnel layoffs or how AI voice clones are going to eliminate the need for on-air personalities entirely.

My city recently lost its last standalone independent radio station that had been on the air and loved by listeners and advertisers alike for more than 30 years, but the broadcast business model as it currently exists is tough to sustain at scale — but there is opportunity for creative thinkers who understand how the model can evolve in the face of broadcast radio monopolies and on-demand jukeboxes like Spotify.

Chuck Francis is one of my long-time friends in the radio industry. He’s faced those industry mergers, layoffs, format changes, etc. all head-on and decided the best way to find his ideal career in radio was to create his own radio station. Chuck is focused on super-serving his local community in Buckeye Lake, a village in Fairfield and Licking counties of Ohio. Buckeye Lake Radio (Lake 98) provides local news, maintains a local events calendar, and still goes out into the community for appearances hosted by local businesses that pay affordable local rates to be on the air and reach their customers where they live — not on a national broadcast platform where the media salespeople are rewarded for running ad spots across multiple stations in multiple markets. Chuck has reinvented what radio started out as, an ultra local source, a friend of the community, a media that helps local businesses grow rather than one simply striving to meet national sales quotas. Tune Buckeye Lake radio in on your computer, smart speaker, or free TuneIn phone app.

There you have it — just a few of my cool friends who just happen to be reinventing their industries and making a difference by helping their customers.

How about you?

What hot projects are you working on?
Who are your customers and how are you helping them to succeed?

Drop me a line and share your latest project with me.
If you need some help getting your idea off the ground, consider scheduling a custom brainstorm with me. At the end of our session you’ll have a prioritized plan to put your idea into action!

In order to increase how fast you turn ideas into action you must simplify your creative process, speed up your decision making, and improve your ability to produce mock-ups and prototypes.

Use methods like brainstorming and list making and mind-mapping to generate lots of ideas quickly. Then, figure out which ideas are most appealing, have the most potential for success, and which are the most doable in order to make them a reality in the least amount of time. Then rank them by priority based on your most important criteria and get to work. Focus on one idea and see it through to the end. Only work on the second idea if there is a delay in waiting for elements beyond your control in producing the first idea.

Improve your ability to make decisions more quickly. Breakdown your options until you’re only choosing between two ideas and look for the “Hell Yes” and the “Hell No” to guide you. I’ve found that when there are huge differences between two options (do you want the logo design with the black triangle or the red circle?) it’s actually easier for a person to make their choice — but when the differences between two choices is negligible (do you want your business card design to position the logo in the center or to the side?) the more difficult it can be to choose between them.

The first type of decision should be easier to make, thus you can make it faster. The second type of decision can be very subjective and it usually doesn’t matter all the much, yet the time to decide keeps getting extend. In this instances you should simply flip a coin and move on.

And finally, get better at producing mock-ups and prototypes in order to launch early 1.0 versions of your projects more quickly. Want to write book? Start with single chapter or a short story. Want to create a training course? Begin with a checklist. Want to make a movie? Start with a storyboard.

These proof of concept versions will give you something to put in front of potential buyers. Go take a look at some campaigns on the Kickstarter.com website. Especially within the boardgames and card games. Pay attention to the test play versions they usually feature on the page or in the videos. The used these prototypes to produce a real and playable version of the game and then used it in their pitch to get supporters to help fund the finished version.

By speeding up how fast you act on ideas and turn them into reality, you can innovate faster and shorten your time to profits and success.

This article first appeared in the Big Yellow Sticky newsletter.
If you’ve been missing regular posts from Don The Idea Guy, consider
subscribing to the daily Big Yellow Sticky newsletter on Substack.

Earlier this year I ran across the news that artist Jason Polan had passed away back in 2020 at the age of 37 having succumbed to cancer and I wanted to post a few words about how he inspired me with the prolific amount of creative work and ideas he shared with the world. If you’ve not heard about Jason Polan before, I hope his story and work will also inspire you and your work.

I don’t know exactly when I learned about Jason, but I do recall it was from a short sidebar article about quirky gifts people could buy published in some long forgotten magazine. The article spotlighted the fact you could buy a hand drawn piece of art (a giraffe) for just $10 from this guy named Jason Polan and provided a link to his work on the art website 20×200. His deceptively simply line drawing art appealed to the doodler in me and the so-low-how-can-you-resist price tag sparked all sorts of ideas in my inner side-hustler.  I was instantly hooked and needed to learn more about the artist and his work.

I learned about how Jason Polan established the Taco Bell Drawing Club in 2005 as a weekly meet-up for anyone who wanted to draw. Jason is quoted in The New Yorker as saying “If you draw at Taco Bell, you’re a member” and had laminated membership cards he’d hand out to anyone who wanted one.

You could often find Jason on the streets of NYC working on his never-ending art project called “Every Person In New York” where he’d simply spend time literally trying to draw every person he observed on the city streets. A collected “volume 1” of this work was collected in a book of the same title. I can’t think of a better way to combine his dual degrees in anthropology and art from the University of Michigan.

In 2015 in became aware of how Jason was trying to scale his Hand Drawn Giraffe project by offering to drawn as many giraffes as one could want for just $1 each. The image below is a screenshot from Jason’s (now-defunct) website:

I know I learned about his Hand Drawn Giraffe project in 2015 because I loved the idea so much that I made an entry in my idea journal for a Hand Drawn Lightbulb project which was a blatant rip off of homage to Jason’s giraffe idea.

I don’t recall why my base cost was $100 versus Jason’s $25 but I think the intent was to draw the images inside of a Moleskine notebook rather than a sheet of paper. I never actually posted this offer (perhaps I should revisit the concept?)

In addition to all of Jason’s personal projects I found so interesting and inspiring, he also produced commercial illustration work for retail brands and print periodicals. He was active in the contemporary art world and his work was displayed in museums and galleries, as well as featured in solo and group exhibitions.

Another of initiative of Jason’s I found appealing was when he offered to send an original “Thumbs Up” sketch to anyone who made a donation (of any amount) to the ACLU.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jason Polan (@jasonpolan)

The brand UNIQLO produced a short video honoring Jason Polan and I think it provides a nice overview for those of you interested in learning more about the artist and his work.

Just as I was inspired by the lighthearted and inclusive work of Jason Polan I’m certain many, many others across the country and around the world were also inspired to think and dream and draw — and maybe even make connections with other humans on the streets of their cities.

So long, Jason and thanks for all the giraffes…