The job to be done
Jobs To Be Done Theory focuses on taking the customers’ perspective on what they’re really after, so your offerings focus on their needs, rather than the product or technology itself. There are two (let’s call them) schools of thought on Jobs To Be Done Theory. One taking the comms, messaging perspective, and the other one taking an innovation-focus perspective. Is one better than the other? Is one flawed and not the other? Is one truer over the other? Who cares! It’d be nonsense to focus and…
When your clients (and prospects) ask for the price
Don’t. You. Ever. Try. To. Anchor. Them. Giving. Bullshit. First. Stop trying to convince. Set up your differentiated value and stop the bs. “Our goal withX is to make starting and running your own X business accessible. MBA programs cost upwards of $50,000 [→ FIRST ANCHOR] and exclusive masterminds charge $15,000+ [→ SECOND ANCHOR] to help you learn X fundamentals. We think both miss the mark. You don’t need to spend decades working to become a whatever-aspiration-they-try-to-sell-you [Bro…
After giving your ideas away —for free.
Pre-S: First off, you’re way ahead. I cherish you for this. 🙂 Replies to yesterday’s email were around “that’s the only way to get ahead”. But that’s not the regular response in several industries. There’s a lot of angst around that very question: What if you give your ideas away? Here’s what might happen. Your clients will know how you do the work. Your clients will see how easy it is for you to solve a specific problem Your competitors will build on your ideas. Your approaches will be…
Success and its opposite
Replying to Genevieve Hayes email on “What’s the opposite of success?”, here’s my first attempt at articulating it. 🙂 But first, let’s define success. Success: Achieving a desired state —usually bounded to an outcome (in a sorta defined timeline). It can take many forms and shapes. Like value, it’s completely subjective: it lays in the eye of the beholder. I’d approach success —or better yet— me being successful as being able to have more freedom on the different things I’d want to try and…
Giving your ideas away
What if —instead of overservicing and overdelivering— you’d give your ideas for free? What if you open your methodologies? Your approaches? The way you see a particular problem and how you’d fix it? What would your answer to that be? 🙂
The opposite to success
Friend-of-the list Genevieve Hayes sent this email with a twist to a series I wrote on “What’s the opposite to…” So I’m passing this great question on to you: “In your view, what is the opposite of success?” Hit reply and let me know. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Also, do subscribe to Genevieve’s list to read her take on it. PS.- Here’s my series on Failure ↓ The opposite to failure A trend on failure Consequences to failure
Being open and honest.
While underpromising and overdelivering might seem like a good tactic to delight your customers because you want to have some buffer, don’t. There’s another way. You can be open and honest —that’s the core of business, right? Being honest with your customers— and say you don’t know exactly how long or how much exactly it’ll take. That you’ll put in some buffer, just in case. Sure, you can give an estimate of the time, or even a timeline. Just please don’t lie. Friend-of-the-list Jonathan…
A spark
Today, it’s Rick Rubin who leaves the daily: “The amount of time or effort put into a work doesn’t matter.Sometimes the most meaningful projects spark suddenly and completely quickly.” I couldn’t put it better. 🙂 You can check his instegram post here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CyJCJKArIW-/
Looking under the hood
Under promising, over delivering, over servicing are not really the problems. They’re symptoms. And they have a few drivers: Cost-based PriceAt the center of the decision-making. Will the price be attractive enough to justify what I offer? FearAt the core of making the offering. Will it be good enough so my proposal doesn’t get rejected (or worse: ghosted)? WorthAt the core of linking the offering to you. Is it a reflection of my worth? Self-worthAt the center of your offering building. If…
Selling a personal brand
You can’t have a personal brand. A brand is an asset —a quantifiable one for a business. With that, you can value it and sell it for whatever you want. A brand can change hands and —at least for a moment— keep that same value. As well as it could go up (a VC-funded startup grows its value, as Figma) or absolutely way down (x/twitter). If you were to have a personal brand (aka “become” a brand), you’d turn into an asset. An asset, as a resource or capital… is a thing. If you were to sell…
