Surprise
To deliver surprise you need to be comfortable with risk. No risk, and you’ll be expected, predictable. And if you want to stand out in your market, predictability works in favor of your competitors. Awe them. Awe your customers.
One thing that will kill your business
The wrong focus. On customers that are not profitable. On products that no one needs. On numbers (revenue, sales), over profits. On people who just won’t do the thing or put the work. Choosing is hard, yet simple. You’ve always known what you should do. Take that first next step and just start.
Creative strategist
(Doom)Scrolling through LinkedIn a post popped up: creative strategist. Is there ANY strategy that doesn’t require creativity? How can you create advantage —and bring it in a surprising way— (2 requirements for any strategy), if you bring the same as everybody else? If you’re not creative? Spoiler: You can’t. You don’t. And what’s creativity? The ability to see. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Fake it till you make it.
BS. What if you reframe it? And just see things from what you know, and adapt it to them.
Maximizers
In The JOLT Effect, a maximizer refers to a type of person (buyer, in this case) who: Wants to make the absolute best possible decision, not just a good one. Wants to explore every option, analyze all data, and compare thoroughly before committing. Often fears messing up (making the wrong choice). In short, someone who is always trying to get the lowest possible risk. The trade off is, though, that all of this happens at the expense of risking the inaction of now. It can (it does) take many…
Value?
Revenue ≠ Value Just that for you to think today. 🙂
Revenue ≠ Value
Creating value is not the same as creating revenue —and viceversa. Increasing your revenue can be a good indicator of something happening: the market finding your offerings attractive, making a simpler process for your customers to buy, increasing volume of sales, increasing prices, etc. YET, when your cost structure remains, your revenue minus costs will stay pretty much the same (because your costs are proportional to your revenue on most of the situations above). Revenue can deceive you….
Who do you talk with?
When you’re running a business —or you’re in a position on learning how to— you have your own bubble. And you have to break off of it. Who are you talking with about your business that is NOT part of your business? Lacking an environment where you get to be pushed in your thinking, compare similar or opposite situations with others like you, will leave you in your echo chamber. Look for others who work in a similar situation to yours.
Finding value
How to find value —so that you can sell for more You don’t. You help your clients find that out, because THEN you’ll be able to capture more of it with what you help. It’s not about you, it’s all about THEM.
Don’t stand out
Why would you even want to stand out? It’s risky. Looking different will get attention, and not all of it will be “the right” attention. Involves breaking from the standard. To be the weird one. Is not a guarantee for success. The opposite: it might feel closer to failure. It gets push back (and the “need” to justify). Why so expensive? It makes you different…