Where you at?
Knowing your context. Now that you have a base to make comparisons, between you and your customers, it’s time to see the playground —and how you could find the gaps. Start with these questions: What’s already there? What does the playground look like? Is it leveled? Is it inclined towards someone/something? Is there someone too big? Is it atomized? Is it crowded? What’s my access here? What’s my reputation here? Who’s playing in it? Who are my direct competitors? Who are my indirect…
Who are you?
To see and find gaps in your market begins with setting a baseline. To know yourself, ask questions to give yourself an articulate idea of who you are and what you do and being able to do the Before & After. Can you answer this questions and find yourself being different? What do I offer? Who’s the specific group of people I’m trying to serve? What makes me different from the others? What do they buy instead of what I sell? Do they know who I am? Do they know what I do? What drives their…
Choices
It’s a choice. Everything. You get to decide. It’s your business. Nobody else can put a vision to it. Nobody else is (truly) risking things for it. You get presented with options and it’s for you to choose. There are no shoulds. It also means you take responsibility and ownership. When you’re told what to do (or the lovely “you should do this”), making that choice carries judgement —which might slow you down. But what’s the Anti- to being told what to do? Being able to decide. To have agency….
The Anti-How-To Guide
Most guides are to tell you How-To do things. Step-by-step processes that are great to do the actionable thing. Of great help when you’re stuck or trying something new. They help you DO the thing. You get to train your hands skills. An Anti-How-To Guide? To train your head skills. To train your judgement. To help you see the bigger picture. To make your own guides. What if instead of being told what to do, you get see what’s behind it? That’s what an Anti-How-To Guide’s for. And you only get…
The other What if
It usually goes like this: What if… I fail I’m seen as a fake They call me out Turns out I’m not good at what I do This idea is stupid I ignore the red flags Tripp Lanier has a very technical term for this: Get over yourself. The thing is, when you’re using this first What If, you’re taking things from a lens of fear and threats. John Hagel calls this (Personal) Narratives*, and this type is what he refers to as based on threats. While they might move you forward, you can only get so far…
The problem with winning business
Winning business. Sets the language and actions as a finite game. You win, I lose. In a competition, so to not lose, you need to crush the other players. That’s your only way to get your bite of the cake. A limited cake. → Sets the client as the prize to be won. You need to win the client. They’re the most precious thing (because they have the money). So you set yourself as a vendor amongst many. → Makes you believe that “If you want it hard enough you’ll get it.” And that’s not how life…
UP. It takes you down.
UnderPromising. Friend of the list, AI and Data Science expert, Genevieve Hayes replied to yesterday’s email on OD-ing (bold mine). “Reading this email after yesterday’s email made me realise that underpromising/overdelivering and setting your price low to begin with are actually just two variations of the same thing. They are both risk management strategies caused by a lack of self-confidence in your own abilities, but both are bad in that they create a psychological anchor in the minds of…
OD-ing
Not overdosing. OverDelivering. “Always underpromise and overdeliver” —Crap advisor We’ve been wrongly taught that using this scam (some call it tactic) will delight our customers. In reality, it’s a way to save our asses and don’t lose face when our guesstimates don’t happen accurately… because they’re —guess what— estimates ????♂️. Underpromising and overdelivering is a… Lie to your clientYou’re not 100% honest with the delivery. Lie to yourselfTo avoid that uncomfortable moment of saying…
Don’t break what’s working
“See how much you can raise your prices without losing customers.Raise your prices, slowly, safe and sound.See how far up you can go.Don’t break what’s working.” How many times have you heard that? However… If you have shit clients, you’ll keep them. Only now with a few (more) cons. They’ll: Argue the price raise Try to squeeze more scope in Complain more Look at how much time you’re putting in Feel scammed Feel you’re squeezing them dry (because you’re “greedy”). Look at every tiny, stupid…
Racers and 4x4s
Ethan Garofolo’s lovely email about “What’s faster: Land Rover or F1 Racer?” set up the stage for a different path. While he talks about how at early stages of business, it feels more like you need a 4×4, and when you advance, you focus on getting an F1 in order to grow; there’s another perspective. It depends. How most people see things is “Ok. This is bumpy and quite an irregular field. Let’s look for a smoother road, so we can build our F1.” They start looking for the perfect road to have…