A perfect combo
A clusterfuck. The perfect combo for failure. To avoid it, start Thinking Like A Diver. Clusterfuck [diving].— A hectic situation where too much is happening at once. It causes stress and can lead to uncomfortable situations for all parties involved in said clusterfuck. Underwater, it increases the risks to everyone involved —the diver himself and the ones diving along with (in so many different ways). Losing control of a situation means moving faster (causing fatigue), wasting oxygen, lose…
Breaking a market
In an atomized market, if you do average, you get average. To stand out you need to be an outlier. Thinking as most people, in diving it could be in a very special location, a special feature, etc. However, when the space is price-driven, you need to change the context. You need to be the obvious choice. Breaking a market For the outliers in the market: they don’t focus on the price, but look for a different kind of either an offer or a different kind of buyer, like a more sophisticated…
Diving. A commodity.
A good thing and a “bad” thing. Yesterday’s email said that diving is a commodity and a scaled productized service. And that it’s a good and a bad thing. Depending on where you stand. Good thing The first organizations who entered the market chose to make it like that. They standardized the processes, the inputs, the scope. Making it happen like that allowed them to scale and propagate everywhere. With this, they can (still) capture a high volume and different fees that support their business…
Marketing bullshit
Here are some beliefs that are well-extended in business. Most of them though, take an approach from 100 years ago: an industrial era, not a knowledge era. Thought leadershit The best product wins The best marketing wins The best advertising wins Build and they’ll come You need to start with low prices to enter the market Work for free [aka pricing zero] Show your value (working for free) and then they’ll pay you. Perfect your pitch The more ads, the more they’ll buy your stuff Price is costs…
Dive certifications
You know what’s interesting about dive certifications? They’re a productized service. You know how much time it’ll take you. You know the scope of work. You have a fixed, published price for it. And it’s scalable (yes, hiring more hands to do the work, but still a kind of scalability). The easy thing for the people interested in diving and get a certification is that they self-select —either by location, pricing or other benefits. Schools, certifications, dives and more are all listed and the…
Resistance
When you’re leading, you’ll hit resistance. That’s only natural. Even when the ones you’re leading fall under the innovators part of the curve [innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, laggards], not all of them will have the same risk tolerance. When they feel threatened, they’ll fight with nails and teeth to not break “that tiny part of the new status quo”. Here’s the thing: How do you build buy-in quicker?In 2 steps: Create a system for them to thrive. Build demand. A…
Breaking the Thought Leadershit Cycle
Break the cycle The point of these last emails is to provoke you and push you to question yourself what’s going on. Also, to give you some places, resources and people I’ve found that —if you take the path of making something remarkable— might help you. Remember, leadership begins with building trust. So show up with something meaningful. Show up to help, but not to give [general] advice. How can you better serve your audience? What can you bring to them that will make it worth their while?…
Price tags
Andy’s at a department store, looking for some things to buy and saw this mic… that didn’t have a price. Approached one of the sellers and asked for help. – Andy: “Excuse me. This mic doesn’t have a price…” – Seller: “It does have a price. It doesn’t have a price tag.” :V It’s funny. The same happens when you stop billing by the hour. – Prospect: “What’s your hourly rate?” – You: “I don’t have one.” – Prospect: “So you don’t have a price?” – You: “I do have a price for you. Just not…
You need to convince them
You must’ve heard that to get people to buy from you, you need to influence them. That you need to convince them. And that that is called marketing Marketing is not about convincing (well… bullshit marketing is). People don’t “need to hear a story” to get convinced to buy. They don’t need your storytelling skills (whatever that means) “trying to convince them to buy”. Here’s why When you’re trying to convince someone to buy from you —let’s be honest— you don’t have their best in mind….
I’m A Thought-Leader
Now that the Leadershit part is off my system, we can talk about Thoughts today. You do produce thoughts —as opposed to… everybody else? Right… “I’m A Thought-Leader” Are you, really? Calling yourself a “thought leader” (or that you produce thought leadership) is presumptuous and means you have no agency. Most of the self-proclaimed thought-leaders sound (and feel) like this. (It’s a 4-min inspiring presentation by Pat Kelly) Just because you write/publish, it doesn’t mean your thinking…