Seems obvious, doesn’t it? … So why don’t more people do it

Part of the reason is the focus on profits and revenues.

Don’t get me wrong, profits and revenues are important when you’re in business. But … if you only focus on the numbers and not the product itself, then things start to erode.

When you focus on creating a product that customers love, you are focusing on the very core that creates the numbers. In other words, profits and revenues are in many ways by-products of creating a product that customers love.

Think about it … Why do people buy? …

People don’t buy because you need them to. They don’t buy because you created financial projections, a beautiful chart, or made promises to investors. Customers don’t care about any of that.

The only thing that customers care about is “Will this product make my life better?” That’s it! Everything else is justification or secondary.

If you can make a product that makes their life better, and that they love it, then you will be rewarded with profits and revenues.

The numbers don’t lead a great product … they FOLLOW a great product.

Steve Jobs took over Apple after marketers ran the company into the ground over ten years. Marketing is important, but when the priority was on marketing and numbers instead of creating great products, the company gradually eroded.

The first thing Steve did was re-focus the company on making great products rather than profits. In his mind, the profits were always subordinate to great products. Profits would come if they created products that people loved.

Today, Apple is the most successful company in the world … and profitable to boot!

Marketing is important, but at the core of every business is a product that customers love.

There’s so much talk about “Do What You Love” these days. It’s time to make an important correction.

As a way of having fun, “do what you love” is a good philosophy. As a way of building a business, it’s not.

People don’t give you money because you love doing it. They pay you because it solves a problem in their life.

Think back to the last ten purchases you made. Last 100. How many did you make because the person who made it or sold it was doing what they loved? Probably none.

The reality is that 99% of the time, you only give up your money because it is somehow making your life better, either by solving a problem or by giving you pleasure. Why would your customers be any different?

A more powerful philosophy is “Do What THEY Love! … “They” being your customers.

When you do what THEY love, they are 1,000 times more likely to buy from you. People give up money all the time for something they love. Focusing on doing what they love is more in tune with how to build a business and increase your income.

The funny thing is, when you focus on doing what you love, you stop loving it after a while because you go broke! Being broke is no fun.

The opposite happens when you do what THEY love. You make more money, and all of a sudden … you love it!!! Oh, the irony of it!  )

So, remember, start with what you love to narrow the field a bit, but then dive in and focus on doing what THEY love. You will be rewarded and you’ll end up loving it too.

Mark

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So you have a great product idea. Great!

Should you build it? … Maybe.

There’s something to be said about scratching your own itch. Many great businesses have been started that way. BUT …

The problem with scratching your own itch is you really don’t know if others have the same itch. (This is such a bad analogy.)

So here’s the deal … there’s only one person who pays you and that’s the customer. If your product doesn’t solve their problem or make their life better, they’re not going to pay you no matter how much you love your product.

Almost every creator is in love with their product or idea. You’re no different, I get that. I am too. Loving your product is important. But it’s not enough. …

The primary driver of whether your product will be a success is whether your customers are in love with your product. Create something that THEY love and you’ll be highly rewarded.

Having a great product idea that inspires you is very useful though. It’s a clue. It’s not proof that there’s demand for your product, but it is a clue, and that’s a good start.

So, what do you do with your idea? You test it.

The first thing to do is figure out the SIMPLEST way to test whether anyone else wants your product or idea. Don’t create the product yet, just figure out a simple way to test your idea with others.

I’ll give you a personal example …

Last fall I joined a local Dining & Social Group on Meetup.com so that I could meet and socialize with new people.

It was a lot of fun, but all of the meetups were on weekends and planned well in advance.

My problem was that: a) I wanted to socialize during the week too, and b) I wanted something more spontaneous. There were many times that I went to lunch, dinner or went to the movies alone and would have liked to have someone else along.

My brilliant idea: Create a “Spontaneous” Meetup Group!

If I was about to do something, I wanted to be able to email a bunch of people to have a few join me.

Sounds good, but does anyone else want it??

Before I went all out to create this group, I needed a way to test the idea.

Key Assumptions to test:
1) Is anyone actually interested in this?
2) Does anyone actually show up?
(What people say doesn’t count. What they DO is the only thing that matters.)

Leverage existing groups.
I was already part of a 250 member Dining meetup group, so I started there. I told the main organizer about my Spontaneous Meetup idea and she loved it. She allowed me to send an email to the group to promote it.

Testing Assumption #1: Does anyone want it?
The SIMPLEST way to do this was to set up a simple email opt-in page on my web site where people who wanted to be more spontaneous could participate. This enabled me to track results and ensure that only people who were interested were emailed about spontaneous events. I emailed the main 250 member list once.

Results: 52 signed up (21%) and showed they were interested in Spontaneous Meetups. Success!! Yes, people were interested. Assumption 1 proven.

But, will people actually DO it??

Testing Assumption #2: Does anyone show up?

Over 7 weeks, I organized 17 Spontaneous Meetups ranging from lunch and dinner, to movie and pool nights. I tested 3 hours notice to 2 days notice.

Results: Although some events (movie and pool nights) had 12-14 people show up (Success!), others like lunch and dinner often had nobody show up. Overall, it was difficult for people to be spontaneous. They wanted to be spontaneous, but real life and busy schedules got in the way. They said it, but they didn’t do it.

Fail on Spontaneous! Assumption #2 did not prove itself.

Net Result:

I dropped the idea of “Spontaneous” Meetups (people couldn’t do it).

BUT … I did keep organizing mid-week meetups around pool, movie, coffee and other things. I just planned them at least a week in advance to give people the chance to put it in their calendar.

Winning idea … Mid-Week meetups! (Planned well in advance.)

So, I had to pivot my original idea, but I’m still having fun organizing stuff and people are now showing up in bigger numbers more reliably.

CONCLUSION

1. Start with your brilliant idea, but test it. See if anyone else wants it.

2. Don’t believe what they say. Believe what they DO.

3. Test your assumptions before investing in full product development. Prove it!

Have fun with it!

Mark

I hear it all the time …

“I’ll get a coach or mentor WHEN I can afford it.”

“I’ll hire an assistant or team member WHEN I can afford it.”

“I’ll get that course WHEN I can afford it.”

“I can’t afford it now.”

All of those statements (and anything like it) have one underlying presumption and false-belief … that you will get the results before you need to invest. Hogwash!

The world doesn’t work that way …

(There are exceptions, but I’m talking probabilities, not absolutes.)

If you want to complete a marathon, you can’t cross the marathon finish line first and then do the running. You have to run first and then cross the finish line. If you want help to do it faster and better and have a higher probability of success … you invest in the coach first, then you’ll get the results.

If you want a garden, you have to plant first, then you’ll get the garden.

If you wait UNTIL you can afford it, you’ll never get to that point. Sometimes you need to invest first to get to the point where you can afford it.

Example …

If you’ve been at the same income level for more than a few years, you are stuck. Doing more of the same won’t get you much further. So if you can’t afford it now, you won’t be able to afford it next year either.

BUT, if you invest in yourself TODAY through a mentor or coach who can help you get to a higher income level, then a) you will be able to afford your investment from the new higher income level, and more importantly b) you will be at that new higher level (or higher) FOR LIFE! You benefit from that breakthrough for life!

To get results, you need to invest first!! In yourself, in a mentor, in an assistant, in your business, in whatever. You invest first, then you get the result.

Maybe your investment is money, maybe it’s time and effort, maybe all of those.

But every time that you say you can’t afford it, you are shooting yourself in the foot.

Your best investment is yourself.

When you invest in yourself, you are investing in your future, a better future.

Is it guaranteed? … No. But it IS guaranteed that if you don’t invest in yourself you’ll stay the same. Do you really want what you have now for the rest of your life?

It doesn’t even matter whether you get the positive result each time

Each time you invest in yourself, whether you get the result or not, you are moving forward to a better place.

Why? Because of two things.

First, you are getting in the habit of investing in yourself, of moving forward, of doing new things, of facing your fear, of aiming for a better place for yourself. Your life can’t help be better for it.

Second, even if you get the results only half the time, you are still moving forward. The setbacks tend to be minor setbacks, but when it does work, you leap forward in big ways.

The #1 Thing That Stops You

The best investment you can make is in doing what you fear.

Yes, I really mean doing what you fear. It’s the number one thing that stops you.

You should definitely do what you love. Really.

But the dirty little secret that no one tells you about is that to do what you love, you often have to do what you fear to get what you really want.

I’ll give you an example … Let’s say you LOVE writing. You wrote your book and are very proud of it. Now you have two choices, keep it to yourself or share it with the world.

You can keep it to yourself and stay in your comfortable cocoon. You won’t have to live with any rejection or criticism, but what a waste. If you wanted to have a positive impact on the world, you just blew that chance.

To change the world with your message, you need to share your creation with the world. That means you need to do what you fear. Sharing anything you create or say is terrifying for most people, but this is the fear you have to face in order to truly get what you want.

You can do what you love, but to get what you really want you also need to do what you fear.

In a nutshell

• Invest first, then you get the results.
• Your best investment is yourself
• Invest in facing your fear
• You can do what you love, but to get what you really want, you also need to do what you fear.

Mark

One of the challenges that creators and helpers in the world face is that the people they are trying to help just don’t respond! (What’s up with that?)

Have you ever created something or tried to help someone who really needs it, and yet they just don’t want your help. Or maybe they do, but they don’t want to pay for it. If you’re in business, that’s a challenge!

So, part of the solution is to swallow our pride, our ego, our self-focus, and learn to figure out what people really want by putting the spotlight on them for a while.

A Little Understanding Goes A Long Way …

Part of the problem is that we often come from a place of inspiration or love, so when we come up with a product or service that we really believe in and are excited about, it puts us on the moon with good feelings.

Naturally, we assume that the rest of the world will feel the same way … Very often we are wrong.

When was the last time you bought something because the person selling it “loved” it? … Probably almost never.

When was the last time you bought something because you wanted it for your own reasons? … Probably almost always!

The key that we all have to face and accept is that people buy things for their own reasons, not your reasons. The sooner you just accept that reality, the better your life will become.

Understanding what people buy, and why they are buying it, will make it A LOT easier for people to buy the products and services that you love to deliver.

Does that mean you have to give up on doing what you love?

No!

What it means is that you need to find “RESONANCE”. Resonance is the spot of overlap between your passionate product or service and what people really want.

You are looking for “RESONANCE”.

If all you do is ask people what they want, you may lack passion for what you do. That’s not good.

If all you do is what you love without any concern over what people want, your excitement will fade fast when you run out of money. That’s not good either.

The world opens up to you when you find the overlap between what you love to do and what people want.

For now, I’ll assume you know what you love to do, whether it’s creating products, coaching, or anything else. The key is to know how to find out what people want.

Finding out what people want.

First, it’s important to understand that people are almost always looking for a feeling.

Maybe that feeling is joy, happiness, pride, love, vanity, success, security.

There are so many feelings, but what you’ll find is that some desired feelings are very commonplace. Most people want to feel competent. Most people avoid embarrassment. Most people love to feel better about themselves.

The key to understanding which feelings are most important is to focus on a very specific group of people. A “niche” if you want to call it that. If you choose the group correctly, you’ll find that the feelings they seek are more consistent. That makes your life easier.

If you’re a coach, you’ll find that you resonate with other coaches at an emotional level. But you won’t resonate with 20-something tech programmers, who have their own emotional wants. These are clearly two separate groups.

Who are your customers? … Can they be part of a more consistent group that will make it easier for you to understand?

Second, people justify with logic after they have made a decision based on emotion. A lot of times we try to convince someone to buy using logical reasoning and it just doesn’t work. That’s because we’ve ignored the emotional part of the equation.

Third, once we’ve identified a fairly consistent group, we can start asking key questions that will help us understand the emotional wants of our customers.

Finally, only then can we offer our products and services to fill the gap. If we’ve done our job properly, people will find it a natural fit and ask for your help.

I will elaborate more on what questions to ask in future posts and teleclasses.

Mark

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Creating A Business That Can Thrive Without You
ISBN: 1591843979   READ: 20101206   Rating: 10/10

Every once in a while, a book comes along that is simple but profound. Profound in the sense that it changes the way you look at things and think about your future. If you want to get back to freedom, growth, and fun in your business, then Built To Sell will provide you with the formula. Easy read, but filled with counter-intuitive ideas.

—————
Get John’s book “Built To Sell: Creating A Business That Can Thrive Without You”
Get more John at www.BuiltToSell.com
—————

MY REVIEW …

Every once in a while, a book comes along that is simple but profound. Profound in the sense that it changes the way you look at things and think about your future.

That book for me right now is Built To Sell – Creating A Business That Can Thrive Without You by John Warrillow. [Original Title was Built To Sell – Turn Your Business Into One You Can Sell]

Read it before you think any further about your business strategy, especially if you have a service business.

It ranks up there with The E-Myth, The 80/20 Individual and The 4-Hour Workweek.

We often start businesses seeking wealth, freedom, and making a difference, but what we usually get is often the opposite. No wealth, no freedom, and little difference to the world. Then we burn out, want to move on, and find out that our businesses are essentially worthless. If that’s you, you need to read this book.

My first two businesses were service businesses and although they provided a decent income for ten years, all they really did was make me tired. The more successful I became, the more in demand I was, the more chaotic the business got, and the more tired I got.

That’s because, even though I had a team, I was still the primary “everything” in the business. And when it came time to exit, neither business was really sellable, so all I got for my years of effort was some income and some experience.

Enter Built To Sell.

This book has changed the way I look at the business, the way I’m structuring the business, and makes it clear what the end goal is for every entrepreneur … it is to sell the business. (One way or another, you will exit one day.)

That’s where the money and freedom is.

Even if you don’t think you want to sell your business, it’s the same process that will allow you to keep your business and go for a six-month vacation. If you can set your business up to run without you for six months, you can do anything you want!

John Warrillow provides some counter-intuitive gems like … If you own a service business, hire a “product” sales person, not a “service” sales person. A service sales person will be creative and will see a million possibilities for each client. They will come back with way more promises than your team could ever fulfill at high quality. However, a product sales person will just sell your “productized service” over and over again, so that you business and your team can get better and better at what they do, providing high value to your customers.

You would think that it’s a big and complex book, but it’s not. Matter of fact it’s basically a story that you’ll read in a few hours.

If you have a service-based business (or even a product business) and you want to one day sell your business for wealth and freedom, then you’ll love this book.

—————
Get John’s book “Built To Sell: Creating A Business That Can Thrive Without You”
Get more John at www.BuiltToSell.com
—————

MY NOTES & HIGHLIGHTS

[Note: Since this book is primarily a story, I preserved the quotation marks.]

“So you run a service business highly dependent on one client who in turn demands that you personally tend to their account, and you compete with a lot of other players who provide similar services. … Your business is virtually worthless today.”

“You’ll need to make some tough decisions and bold changes.”

“Think about what kind of projects you’re really good at.”

Track timesheets back to most profitable projects.

Make a list of the types of projects that caused the most problems.

“Tell me about the system you follow”

“Limit the variables a client can see”

“That’s the problem, Alex. You’re accepting too many different projects so you need all kinds of different talent on your team. You’re a small shop so you have to hire generalists who are inevitably not as good as the specialists the big agencies can hire. So you’re asking generalists to perform specialists’ work and the results are weak.”

TED’S TIP #1: Being a generalist forces you to hire generalist employees and your offering will be average at best. If you specialize, you can hire specialists and improve the quality of your work.

TED’S TIP #2: Make sure that no one client makes up more than 15 percent of your revenue.

“In each business I’ve sold, we created something I call a Standard Service Offering, which is a consistent process for delivering a service that we focused on at the exclusion of other services. We made sure it was a service clients would need on a regular basis so we could count on recurring revenue.”

“I’m suggesting you become the world’s best logo design shop. Write down your five-step process and start talking to prospects about your Standard Service Offering. Create a one-page description of your approach.”

Quickly mock up a one-page sell sheet.

“When I was pitching our process, I felt like I was an expert. I felt confident that we have something of value.”

“Alex, I want you to stop thinking of The Stapleton Agency as a service company and start thinking like a product company.”

TED’S TIP #3: Pitching a process you own puts you in control.

“Your product is your unique methodology”

“As long as you customize your approach to solving client problems, there is no scale to your business and its operations are contingent on people.”

“In an earn out, you put a significant amount of what your company is worth at risk. The acquiring company is now in control. An earn out is almost always a disappointment for an entrepreneur. You’ve assumed most of the risk and the acquiring company gets most of the reward if you’re successful. Acquiring companies use an earn out formula to buy a business when they know the founders are the business. Your job is to business The Stapleton Agency up to a point where the business is independent of Alex Stapleton.”

“You need to train people to handle each of the five steps of your process so you don’t have to be the guy piecing every project together from scratch.”

TED’S TIP #4: Make the business less dependent on you so you can reduce or avoid an earn out.

“When you have a product, people expect to pay for it in advance.”

“If I turn the sell sheet into a brochure and put our fee on the brochure, it would look even more like a tangible product.”

Charge in advance. “The more we sell, the more cash we accumulate.”

TED’S TIP #5: Once you’ve standardized your service, charge up front or use progressive billing to create a positive cash flow cycle.

“If you’re going to commit to creating a business that can be sold, you need to commit to offering one process. That means you need to stop accepting other projects.”

“Clients will never know you’re serious about specialization until you say no to other work.”

“When you start turning down other projects in favor of promoting your specialized process – you’ll instantly become more referable.”

TED’S TIP #6: Prove that you’re serious about specialization by turning down work that falls outside of your Standard Service Offering. The more people you say no to, the more referrals you’ll get to people who do want your Standard Service Offering.

“Imagine your Five-Step Process is an assembly line with five machines and you need to teach someone to operate each machine. Write an instruction manual.”

“Create a business that can exist without you.”

TED’S TIP #7: Generic, owner-dependent service businesses usually sell for no more than a small amount of cash up front and a 3-5 year earn out, which places all of the risk on the person selling the business and puts almost all of the potential rewards in the buyer’s hands. You need to build a business where the majority of your proceeds get paid up front.

TED’S TIP #8: Track your conversion rate of pipeline prospects to sales as it will become essential for an acquirer to accurately estimate the size of the market opportunity.

“Most importantly, you need to demonstrate that you’re not the only one who can sell logos.”

“Hire at least two sales people. Salespeople are competitive and they will compete with each other, which will allow you to prove that your sales engine is not just dependent on one good sales rep.”

TED’S TIP #9: Two sales reps are always better than one because they compete with each other and prove to a buyer that you have a scalable sales model (not just one good sales rep).

“People who are used to working in a service business are good at consultative selling. They will try to convince you to tailor the Five Step Process to meet the unique needs of each client.”

“Product salespeople are use to doing the mental gymnastics required to position their product to meet the needs of their prospect. A product salesperson doesn’t have the luxury of changing their company’s product every time they hear a need from a customer.”

TED’S TIP #10: Hire people who are good at selling products, not services.

“If a client is given the choice, they would always rather have a custom tailored solution just for them.

TED’S TIP #11: You can’t be “kind of” a specialist. Either you specialize or you don’t. Stop taking projects that fall outside of your Standard Service Offering.

TED’S TIP #13: You need at least two years of financial statements using the Standard Service Offering model before you sell your company.

Small service businesses like his typically sell for roughly 3-4 time pre-tax profit.

The 15 percent margin number seemed reasonable.

“You need to show a potential acquirer that you have a management team that can keep the business running when you’re gone.”

“I used a long-term incentive plan designed to reward my managers’ performance and their loyalty to the company.”

TED’S TIP #14: Only use equity as a last resort for motivating and retaining your management team. Consider alternative forms of long-term incentive plans.

TED’S TIP #17: Think big; remember that the company that acquires you will have more resources for you to accelerate your growth.

“Strategic buyers will typically pay more because you’re worth more to them than you would be worth to a financial buyer.”

“Replace the word ‘client’ with the word ‘customer’. Service firms refer to their customers as clients and product businesses refer to them as customers. Product businesses have a standard scalable and repeatable process.”

Replace the word ‘firm’ with ‘company’, and ‘engagement’ with ‘contract’.

TED’S TIP #19: Don’t issue stock options to retain key employees after an acquisition. Instead, use a simple stay bonus that offers the members of your management team a cash reward if you sell your company. Pay the reward in two or more installments only to those who stay so that you ensure your key staff stays on through the transition.

“A buyer wants to hear that you see a future for your business and you want their help to get you to the next level.”

“Tell them you’re proud of the growth you’ve achieved and that you’re at a point in your life where you’d like to create some liquidity for the value you’ve created so far and have an opportunity to participate in some of the future upside of the business.”

“Nobody wants to buy a sinking ship where the captain is about to jump.”

The Model For Selling Your Business

1. Create a Standard Service Offering (that is valuable, teachable and repeatable)
2. Create a Positive Cash Flow Cycle (charge up front)
3. Hire a Sales Team (product salespeople)
4. Stop Accepting Other Projects (specialize)
5. Launch A Long-Term Incentive Plan For Managers
6. Find A Broker
7. Tell Your Management Team
8. Convert Offer(s) To A Binding Deal

—————
Get John’s book “Built To Sell: Creating A Business That Can Thrive Without You”
Get more John at www.BuiltToSell.com
—————

Anything You Want – by Derek Sivers

ISBN: 1936719118   READ: 2011-06-28   RATING: 10/10

I loved this book so much, I renamed my business because of it. Derek’s book embodies a great philosophy of experimentation, excellence and avid customer focus. Having sold CD Baby for $22 million, you’d think he had a grand master plan. Instead, his very duplicatable philosophy is what got him there. Filled with great contrarian lessons and stories that can transform your business and life.

—————————————-
Get Derek’s book “Anything You Want” at http://www.sivers.org/a
Get more Derek at http://www.sivers.org
—————————————-

MY NOTES & HIGHLIGHTS

If It’s Not A Hit, Switch!

[ If your customers don’t react like it’s a hit, keep trying something else until they do. Then go after it with all your energy and focus. ]

Either “Hell Yeah!” Or “no”

[ If YOU don’t absolutely love what you’re doing, go do something else. This keeps your energy and focus up, which gets you better results, as opposed to getting drained and poor results. ]

Customer Focus.

Never forget that absolutely everything you do is for your customers.

Just ask your customers the open-ended question, “How can I best help you now?”

The way to grow your business is to focus entirely on your existing customers.

Care about your customers more than about yourself.

Start Now.

If you want to be useful, you can always start now, with only 1 percent of what you have in your grand vision. You’ll be in the game.

Starting small puts 100 percent of your energy on actually solving real problems for real people.

Proudly Exclude People

It’s a big world. You can loudly leave out 99 percent of it.

Business Planning.

No business goes as planned, so make ten radically different plans.

Just stay focused on helping people today.

The hero needs to be prepared to die to save the day. Your company should be willing to die for your customers. Care about your customers more than about yourself, and you’ll do well.

Like You Don’t Need The Money

Set up your business like you don’t need the money, and it’ll likely come your way.

When you make a business, you’re making a little world where you control the laws. It doesn’t matter how things are done everywhere else. In your little world, you can make it like it should be.

Please know that it’s often the tiny details that really thrill people enough to make them tell all their friends about you.

All employees knew that as long as we weren’t completely swamped, they should take a minute and get to know the caller a bit.

“We’ll do anything for a pizza.”

Don’t try to impress an invisible jury of MBA professors. It’s OK to be casual.

CD Baby doubled in size every year for the first six years. Both customers and profit.

It’s about being, not having

Delegate or die: The self-employed trap

Anything you hate to do, someone else loves. So find that person and let him do it.

As part of learning it, he had to document it in the manual, and then show it to someone else, too. (Learn by teaching.)

Trust, but verify.

Delegate, but don’t abdicate.

I realized that the bigger learning and growing challenge for me was letting go, not staying on.

Make Your Perfect World

No matter which goal you choose, there will be lots of people telling you you’re wrong.

Pay close attention to when you’re being the real you and when you’re trying to impress an invisible jury.

—————————————-
Get Derek’s book “Anything You Want” at http://www.sivers.org/a
Get more Derek at http://www.sivers.org
—————————————-

The bad news … You just can’t do it ALL!

If you’re an entrepreneur, then deep down there’s a belief that you can do pretty much anything you want to do (Ok, maybe you don’t always feel that way, but that’s another discussion).

The truth is that as entrepreneurs we are always operating under constrained resources. A limited amount of time, money, energy, focus and anything else you can think of.

So the goal is to have the biggest impact on the world with the least resources needed, because that’s all we’ve got.

How do we have the biggest impact? …

We have the biggest impact on the world by focusing on what we do best. By “we”, I mean you, your team, and your business. Every one of those has a sweet spot.

By “sweet spot”, I mean that 1% of what you do gets you more than half of your results, profits and impact on the world.

How Did I Get To 1%?

… Of course, it’s very arbitrary but based on the Pareto Principle that says 80% of your results comes from 20% of your efforts. If you 80/20 that top 20%, then your top 4% gets you 64% of the results, and your best 1% gives you a whopping 51% of your results. Do more 1% stuff and results go exponential (in theory).

This is just a mathematical exercise, but the point is made … most of your results come from just a few things, and you can relax about the rest because it doesn’t have much impact.

“Hell Yeah!”

Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby (which he sold for $22 million) and author of “Anything You Want”, has a philosophy called “Hell Yeah! Or No”. What he means is that if something doesn’t grip you or your customers by the heart and scream “do it!”, then don’t do it.

Now this may seem like a radical approach, and it is, but it works. If your customers are lukewarm about your idea or product, then don’t do it. Don’t push it. But, on the other hand, if they jump at it and want it now, then you’ve got something. That’s what he did with CD Baby.

If you think about it, Derek’s philosophy is consistent with the “1% gives you 51% of the results”.

By seeking and discovering that 1% idea or effort, you stand a much better chance of getting massive results.

Of course, that takes a lot of experimentation. To find the 1% that works like gang-busters, you have to try a lot of stuff. A lot!

That’s where the words “Discover Growth” become so powerful.

We can plan, strategize, analyze, and research all we want (guilty), but in the end nothing beats just trying something to see what happens.

Growth then becomes a discovery process. It becomes fun again. It becomes effective.

What do you do with the 1% when you find it? … Keep doing it!

When you discover something that works really well, add it to your “1% box” and keep doing it. Find ways to do more of it and systematize it. That’s where the easier growth comes from.

What do you do with the stuff that doesn’t work or doesn’t work well? … Dump it.

If you keep banging your head on something that gets you little or no results, all you get is a sore head. Stop doing it. Try a different approach.

A Word About “Persistence”

Persistence is very important if you’re an entrepreneur who wants success and to make a difference.

The question is “persistent in what?”

Not all things are worth being persistent with.

If you try something and it doesn’t work, and you give it a few more tries and it still doesn’t work, then you need to question whether persisting is the answer.

Good persistence is when you have a goal in mind and you test different approaches to discover which approach works best. Be persistent in your destination, but be open to other paths to get there.

Bad persistence is when you are stuck on one way of doing something that clearly doesn’t work well, and yet you keep insisting that it will work given enough head banging. Stop that. Try a different approach.

How do you know whether it’s good or bad persistence?

You will know when you find a “1%” approach that gives you fantastic results because you or your customers will go “Wow! That’s awesome!”. Anything less than that reaction or result means it’s mediocre at best.

A Giant Pile Of Global Crap

We now live in a world where mediocre gets buried in a giant pile of global crap. No one is going to sift through that to find you. To get noticed, you need to be amazing. To be amazing, you have to seek out the 1% so that you, your team, and your business can also be the 1% that gets a big result for your customers. Then you will have everything you want.

Do it!

Start with a “Discovery” approach today. Have fun trying things out to discover what approach deserves to be called a “1%”. Then repeat, expand, and systematize for greater growth.

Let me know how it goes.

Mark

P.S. This applies to both your business and personal life.

That big success you want so badly never really happens, and eventually you drop it.

You know how it goes … You know something is important and you want to have some success with it … Maybe it’s blogging, maybe it’s building your list, maybe it’s getting customers … so, you keep slugging away at it week after week, month after month, making incremental progress but never really getting anywhere.

Eventually, you get tired of it and drop it. Maybe you weren’t meant to succeed in that way.

HOGWASH! The reason you didn’t get the results is because …

You didn’t hit critical mass fast enough.

What’s Critical Mass?

Critical Mass is that level when your baby can take on a life of it’s own and is very likely to continue with less effort. If you don’t reach critical mass, your project or business will limp along until it falls to the ground.

An Example – Flying

Do you remember the last time you were in an airplane ready for take-off?

Did the pilot hold back on the power to conserve energy and fuel and spread it out over the day, week, or month? No way!

The pilot gave FULL POWER on take-off because he knew he needed to hit take-off speed before the end of the runway.

Once he hit that speed (that was the first level of critical mass), he rotated and climbed out at a steep angle to clear the trees and other obstacles.

It wasn’t until he cleared the trees at a safe enough altitude (the second level of critical mass) that he lowered the nose a bit and pulled back power to continue with a more sustainable and relaxed climb to cruising altitude.

Notice that by using this approach, the pilot can safely and successfully take-off and have a great flight over and over again!

The pilot in this case knows he has to hit critical mass (in this case critical speed and altitude) for it to work. As long as he does that, he can succeed over and over again. If he doesn’t, he hits the end of the runway or the trees. (Ouch!)

What about you?

Do you take the Critical Mass Approach™ to a new project, or are you just trying to stretch it out over time? Could that be why your projects never get traction and eventually die a slow death?

5 Steps To The Critical Mass Approach™

1. Decide what key project would change your life if you succeeded
2. Decide what the “Lift-Off” Critical Mass is for that project (level 1)
3. Decide what “Clear the trees” Critical Mass is (level 2)
4. Figure out how to hit both of those Critical Mass levels as fast as possible
5. Drop every other distraction momentarily and get to critical mass ASAP!

Once you do, your project will live and grow stronger even as you reduce your energy and focus in that area. Your business will continue to grow and you’ll have more energy.

A Blogging Example

Most people’s approach to blogging is to dabble in it, writing the occasional blog post whenever they feel inspired. Maybe they write a handful in the first month, then a couple in the next month, but without any real results to show for it (they wonder why no one reads their blog) they eventually relinquish it to the back burner. “It’s not for me” they say.

What if you took the Critical Mass Approach™ to blogging?

Let’s say you decided that 30 blog posts would be the first level of critical mass. With 30 blog posts, you would get noticed by google, readers, and other bloggers. Instead of writing 30 posts in the first year, write 30 blog posts in the first 30 days.

The critical mass approach would mean one blog post a day for 30 days (just write short posts for ½ hour), then one post a week for 12 weeks, then you can cruise at one post every two weeks. You’ll have 30 posts by the end of the 1st month, 42 at the end of the 4th month, and 58 at the end of the 1st year. (Wanna do more? Go ahead)

Notice that we do most of the posts up front to get off the ground, then we keep going to get over the trees, and then we finally cruise climb to our desired level.

Great Things Happen When You Take The Critical Mass Approach™

• You’ll get noticed, get read, and build your list in the process.
• Your momentum keeps you growing with less energy
• You’ll be able to afford the help you want once you are over critical mass
• You’ll succeed more often and have more energy for new projects

Other Possibilities

Have a small list? How about setting critical mass at 500 opt-ins? With a list of 500 as your first level, you’ll have enough of a list to earn a decent and regular income. Then build it to 1,000. Once you have that, you know you can keep flying and keep building your business. But get to critical mass fast.

Need new customers? Drop all other distractions and get to 20 regular customers fast (or whatever number matches your business model). Once you have a lift-off critical mass of regular customers, then get to a “clear the trees” critical mass of customers, then you can add more customers at a more reasonable pace.

The Key To Making This Work

The key to making the Critical Mass Approach™ work is to drop all other distractions until you hit critical mass.

Our lives and businesses are filled with things we think we need to do, but really just spread us thin. Drop most of it momentarily so you can hit critical mass in a critical area.

How many projects or ideas have you pursued that never really took off? … Now is the time to change all that.

From now on, when you have a project or idea, one of your key planning pieces is to determine what critical mass is for the project and how do you get to it as fast as possible.

What would your business and your life be like if from now on you took the Critical Mass Approach™ to your projects and had more successes?

Let me know how it turns out.

Mark

P.S. Take off! Eh! (I mean that in a good way )

They don’t because it’s hard to knock the pins down when they are straight across.

But what happens when you arrange them in the bowling pin format you’ve seen, with one pin in the front, two behind it, and three behind that? …

With that set up, you can knock them all down quickly if you hit the first pin right.

So, what about your business? …

When targeting your market, are you putting the pins straight across and making it harder for yourself?

If you find that you’re having a hard time connecting with your customers, that the response to your message and offers is lukewarm at best, if you have a hard time charging what you’re worth and getting it, then you may have set yourself up for this.

There is an easy solution … go bowling!

Ok, so by now I hope you know that “everyone” is not your customer. It’s been hammered into you that you should focus, focus, focus on a specific group of people that you can help best. That part is true, but still I find that most people are left with …

“How do I figure out who my target market is? Aren’t I limiting myself?”

There’s a specific way to focus on your best target market without limiting yourself.

The more specific you are with your target market, the easier it is to attract them, provide value, and get paid obscene amounts of money.

Although most businesses figure out “in general” who their target market is, they really don’t go far enough in specificity because of the fear of limiting themselves. Do you fall into that trap?

Here’s how to make it work.

1. Pick your target market, be specific.
2. Take that target, and break it down into three subgroups. These subgroups are going to be your initial bowling pins.
3. Decide which subgroup you could impact the fastest and the most (think “low hanging fruit”). Put that one in the lead pin position.
4. Of the remaining subgroups, decide which is most closely related to the first group (the greater the similarity, the better), or which is the next easiest to tackle. This becomes your pin two behind the lead pin.
5. Do the same for the third subgroup.

An Example

I help “experts and service business owners” (people like you with brilliance and expertise) attract as many high-paying ideal clients as they want with clear and creative strategies. An expert is someone who makes a living with their intellectual property (what’s in their head).

But “expert” is still too broad and vague to really target, plus there aren’t really “expert’ groups that hang out together.

The solution is to break it up and turn them into bowling pins.

Three types of experts are “coaches”, “authors”, and “speakers”. Each of them is an “expert” on their topic, but they deliver their brilliance to the world differently.

Coaches like to work with people, authors like to write, and speakers like to speak to groups of people (who knew?). So, although there are similarities, there are also big differences in terms of what they want, their challenges, and what drives them.

Not only that, but they hang out together. There are many coaching associations, author groups, speaker associations, which makes them easier to reach separately than together as experts.

So not only is it easier to resonate with them separately, but they are easier to reach separately too. This is good.

Now, all we have to do is choose which one is the lead pin, the second pin, and the third pin down the left side. Which group would be your first? That’s for you to decide.

By choosing them this way, you can focus better AND you’ll be able to knock the other pins down easier too.

Action Steps

If you want to get more traction in your market, more profits in your bank account, and attract your high-paying ideal clients more easily, then do the following:

1. Be Specific – Make your target market as specific as you can
2. Be Even More Specific – Break it up into three subsets or microniches
3. Prioritize – Pick one of those microniches to be your lead pin
4. Focus – Market to your lead pin only and don’t stop until you’ve got significant traction in that lead pin before trying to add one of the other two.

Tell me how it goes!