People say “I don’t have anything to sell” like it’s a fact.
It’s not. It’s just a blind spot.
The thing you went through, survived, figured out, or quietly mastered—someone out there is desperately searching for exactly that. They’re Googling it at 2am. They’re asking in Facebook groups. They’re paying consultants who know less than you do.
You just never thought to charge for it.
Let’s fix that.
Your Pain Was Someone Else’s Future Product
Think about the last hard thing you went through.
Maybe it was a difficult pregnancy. Maybe you spent months trying to get a UK visa and kept getting rejected. Maybe you started a small business that nearly collapsed before you figured out what was killing it. Maybe you lost a lot of weight after years of trying everything wrong first.
You didn’t just go through that. You learned something. Something specific. Something the person still in the middle of that same pain would pay to know.
That’s a product.
Not a theory. Not a guessed framework. Your actual lived experience—the mistakes, the turning point, the thing that finally worked—packaged and shared.
A woman named Adaeze spent three years battling postpartum depression alone. No one in her family talked about it. She thought she was broken. Then she found a therapist, rebuilt herself slowly, and came out the other side. Today she runs a private WhatsApp community for Nigerian mothers going through the same thing. She charges ₦5,000 a month. Eighty members. Do the math.
She didn’t write a textbook. She just told her story and said, “Here’s what helped me.”
The Bitterness That Became the Business
There’s a pattern worth paying attention to.
The things that frustrated you most are often the things other people are still stuck in. Your bitterness about how hard something was? That’s market research.
Some examples that might sound familiar:
“I couldn’t find a job for 14 months after graduating.” That experience — the cover letters, the rejections, the pivot that finally worked — is a product. A course. A coaching session. A guide called “What I Did in Month 12 That Finally Got Me Hired.”
“My first landlord scammed me when I moved to Lagos.” Someone moving to Lagos next month needs to know what you know. A simple guide. A checklist. A community. Even a short ebook. Done.
“I used to eat badly and felt terrible for years before I figured out how to cook on a budget and still eat well.” That’s a meal planning guide. A budget recipe series. A community for people trying to eat better on ₦15,000 a month.
“I failed JAMB twice before I passed.” You know exactly where people go wrong. You lived it. That’s a tutoring product, a guide, a YouTube channel — whatever format you’re most comfortable with.
The bitterness was the education. You just didn’t know you were being educated.
If You Moved Abroad, Pay Attention
This section is specifically for you.
When you relocated — whether to the UK, Canada, the US, Germany, or anywhere else — you went through something that millions of people back home are trying to figure out right now.
The visa process. The culture shock. Finding accommodation without a credit history. Sending money home efficiently. Navigating the NHS or understanding how taxes work in a new country. Getting your foreign degree recognized. Building a social life from scratch. Dealing with loneliness no one warned you about.
You figured all of this out. Probably the hard way.
That knowledge has a price. And people will pay it.
A Nigerian man in Canada named Tunde started a simple newsletter about “life in Canada for new immigrants.” He wrote it the way he’d write to a younger cousin — honest, detailed, sometimes funny. He covered things like how to build a credit score from zero, which areas to avoid when renting, how to dress for Canadian winters without going broke. In eight months he had 4,000 subscribers and started charging $10/month for a premium tier.
He didn’t have a degree in immigration. He just moved there two years before his readers and took notes.
If you’re in the diaspora and you’re not monetizing your experience, you’re leaving money and impact on the table.
Interview Someone. Sell Their Story.
You don’t even need your own dramatic story.
Maybe your life has been relatively smooth. Maybe you haven’t faced major adversity or moved countries or built something impressive yet.
That’s fine. Look around you.
Who in your network has done something interesting? Who went from nothing to something? Who knows how to do something that sounds hard but is actually manageable once you understand it?
Interview them. Ask the real questions. Record the conversation or take notes. Then package that knowledge.
You become the person who found the expert and made their knowledge accessible. That’s valuable.
Some ideas:
- Interview a mechanic about the most common ways car owners get cheated and how to avoid it. Sell a simple guide.
- Interview a nurse about what to do when a family member is admitted to hospital in Nigeria. People panic in those moments. A calm, clear guide helps enormously.
- Interview someone who built a house without a contractor cheating them. That’s gold for anyone planning to build.
- Interview a Nigerian who got a fully-funded scholarship abroad. The process feels mysterious until someone walks you through it.
You’re not pretending to be the expert. You’re the one who found them, asked the right questions, and organized what they said into something useful.
That’s journalism. That’s research. That’s a product.
The “That’s So Easy” Moment
Here’s something that happens a lot.
You do something every day without thinking about it. It feels completely ordinary to you. Then you mention it casually in conversation and someone says — “wait, how did you do that? Can you teach me?”
That reaction is a signal. Pay attention to it.
Some things that feel basic to you but are genuinely valuable:
- Speaking more than one language fluently
- Knowing how to negotiate at markets or with vendors
- Understanding how to apply for government grants or small business loans
- Knowing how to navigate a specific government process — NIN registration, CAC, international passport renewal
- Being good at managing a household on a tight income
- Knowing how to find reliable people for jobs — plumbers, electricians, tailors — in a specific city
- Understanding how to care for natural hair, especially for a specific hair type
- Knowing how to cook a specific regional cuisine that others find complicated
That last one sounds small. But there are Nigerians in the UK right now who would pay for a simple video class on how to make proper ofe onugbu or banga soup. They miss it. They’ve tried and failed. They want someone who actually knows to show them.
You might be that person. And you might be dismissing it because it feels too simple.
It isn’t.
The Lifestyle People Want to Learn
Some people aren’t selling information. They’re selling a glimpse into a way of living.
If you have a lifestyle that others find appealing — even partially — there’s an audience for it.
Maybe you work remotely and travel. Maybe you’ve found a way to work four hours a day and live comfortably. Maybe you homeschool your kids and have built a structure that works. Maybe you’ve created a slow, intentional life in a quiet Nigerian town and people in busy cities find it quietly inspiring.
You don’t have to be rich or famous. You just have to be living something that someone else is trying to move toward.
Document it. Share the process. Talk about what you figured out. The tools you use. The decisions you made. The things you gave up and whether it was worth it.
People pay for that. They pay to be shown that the life they want is actually possible.
So What Do You Actually Build?
Once you find your idea, you don’t need to build something complicated.
Start with one of these:
A simple PDF guide — 5 to 20 pages. Written like you’re explaining it to a smart friend. Price it between ₦2,000 and ₦10,000 depending on how specific and valuable it is.
A short video course — Record your screen, your face, or just your voice over slides. Three to five videos is enough to start. People don’t need a 40-hour course. They need the key information fast.
A community — A WhatsApp or Telegram group where you share knowledge, answer questions, and connect people going through the same thing. Charge a monthly fee to join.
A newsletter — Write weekly. Share what you know. Build trust over time. Monetize when you have an audience.
A one-on-one session — Just a 30 or 60-minute call where someone asks you questions and you answer them honestly from experience. This requires nothing to set up except a payment link and a calendar.
The Only Real Question
Here it is, plain:
What have you been through that someone else is currently going through?
What do you know now that you wish someone had told you then?
What would you pay to have known two years ago?
Answer that honestly and you have a product. Not eventually. Right now.
The people who say “I have nothing to sell” usually have more than almost anyone else. They’ve just been told — directly or indirectly — that their experience isn’t valuable enough.
It is.
Package it. Price it. Share it.
Someone is waiting for exactly what you’ve been through.