Business Brainstorm, New Economy
When community invests in an idea, it also co-owns its success.
– Nilofer Merchant, 11 Rules for Creating Value in the Social Era
Your business is not yours alone. Welcome to the brave new world of co-creation and co-ownership. Here, individualism coexists with collectivism. Here, the results of your ambition rely on your ability to create the network that allows you to succeed.
So the question is: are you creating a customer network that is ready to co-create your vision?
There is a piece of “popular” business advice that asserts that “you should teach what you know to people who are a few steps behind you.”
For instance, if you’ve worked through a big personal transformation, you can become a life coach & help others through their own personal transformations. If you’re a blogger, you can help others set up their own blogs. If you write books, you can teach beginning authors how to get published.
Makers, keep reading, I’m not going to let you off the hook.
Hey, this isn’t a bad idea. In fact, this is probably a decent way to get started serving others and making money doing it. You’ve honed in on a specific problem that you can solve and you’re willing to put a price tag on it. Sure, go for it.
But where will you go next?
Honest question.
You can keep serving these clients, incrementally increasing the sophistication of what you’re offering. As you solve new problems for yourself, you can turn those solutions into products and services.
It makes a lot of sense and it can work. Just like monetization.
But will you be satisfied?
I like a challenge. I love the thrill of unleashing my great work for clients who scare the pants off of me. My work gets better & better in environments of great uncertainty.
Having a client that challenges me doesn’t mean that my back is against a wall, it means that my eyes are open to the full array of possibilities before us both. I’m not relying on personal experience or a single formula for my success. It’s an opportunity ripe for never-tried-before ideas and mutual magic-making.
By honoring their experiences, their knowledge, and their trust in our work, we can create something brand new. Together.
I used to feel threatened by the brilliance of my clients. I worried that I failed them when they had an idea or a revelation that wasn’t directly prompted by …me. And then I realized that our very connection was what made that possible. When working with clients that challenge me, I don’t have to be the end-all-be-all in business strategy.
No, it’s my job to co-create the space for our mutual success.
I can be the catalyst. Our work together is the entry point. It isn’t confined to my knowledge & expertise; it’s open to collaboration.
When you & your clients are co-owners of collaborative success, you both are creating something more meaningful than livelihood or results. You are creating movements, future opportunities, and networked transformation. The effects are more wide-reaching, the value is more long-lasting. The possibly of up-ending the status quo is much greater.
But will I rise to the occasion?
Look, it’s easier to cultivate a social network of people who want to be like you. To do what you’ve done. To grasp a little piece of your success. But the rewards of creating network connections to those who are ready to co-own your success are vast.
It can be the difference between slogging by doing something that once thrilled you and forging a new path to a more lucrative future, both financially & meaningfully.
- Are you cultivating a network of yes-people? Or are you gathering a select tribe of idea-challengers?
- Are you going with what you know? Or are you seeking out opportunities for growth?
- Are you seeking out reinforcement of your own experiences? Or are you creating a hub for shared intelligence?
“… attracting and seducing consumers with a relevant, helpful, and unique point of view works better than shoving more messages into the already loud marketplace.”
— Nilofer Merchant, 11 Rules for Creating Value in the Social Era
But how will I find these people?
Here’s a common exercise I do with clients who are ready to make this jump:
Look around your network right now. Make a list of 5 people with a “relevant, helpful, and unique point of view” who are connected to you in some (even tenuous) way who could benefit from your time, talent, and skills.
- How would working for them be different than working with the clients or customers you currently have?
- What conversations or projects would get their attention?
- If you were working for/with them, what changes would you make to the day-to-day operations of your business?
- What problems or desires would you be working on?
- How would your message be different if it was crafted for them and not the mass market?
“Attracting and seducing” the clients that will take your business to the next level begins with everyday changes in behavior. If you don’t adjust your routines, expectations, and message to be especially for them before you attract them, you’ll never have the opportunity to co-create your next-level business with them.
The answers to the above questions are your first steps. Those answers will guide you towards making the changes today that will breed success tomorrow. Those answers will help you step into the attitude of success before it’s even created.
Essentially, you’re inviting your future customers to co-own your success before they’ve even invested in your world.
And that’s why those kind of customers are powerful. And why that’s the kind of people you want to be in business with.
— PS —
I wrote this post with service providers in mind. But product creators & makers, you don’t get off so easy. I see so many makers limiting their visions to a customer who doesn’t fully appreciate what they do. And it shows. What happens if you challenge yourself to create your product for a more challenging set of customers? What would need to change about how your make, market, and sell your creation? How could your product fulfill the ultimate fantasy of a very special network?
Are the customer you’re courting ready to co-own your success?
— PPS —
If this is the kind of leap you’re looking to take in your business before the end of the year, I invite you to join me, Adam King, and a small group of dedicated business owners for Make Your Mark. It’s a 12-week, intensive business coaching program designed to allow you take on challenging, satisfying work that creates loads of personal wealth.
And it’s the only opportunity to coach long-term with me with Fall. There are a limited number of spots on the team – and they’re going quickly! Click here to learn more.
Business Brainstorm, New Economy
Has “monetization” made you nervous about pushing your business ideas to the next level?
The word “monetization” has a shadowy past in the world of business online. Bloggers have tried to monetize their audiences. Developers have tried to monetize free products. Old school media has tried to monetize their content.
Some people have made money through monetization. Some haven’t.
My problem with the idea of monetization isn’t that it doesn’t work but that it’s a destructive, extractive way to view your business. It lacks the innovation, disruption, and creativity that a value(s)-driven business model has.
Isn’t this all semantics?
Perhaps. But I put a lot of credence in the language people use. And when people use the word “monetization,” it blocks their creative juices and dampens their abundance receptors. Click to tweet it!
Here’s why:
Monetization is rent-seeking.
In economics, “rent-seeking” is basically trying to get a bigger piece of the pie. It assumes that there is a finite set of dollars or customers and that you need to through your weight around to get some of it.
The business owners I work with & that read this [site, blog, email] don’t think that way about their business growth. They want to serve. They want to contribute. They want to create things of great value. But they are often following strategies that were devised for monetization & rent-seeking.
And they see a false causality between monetization strategies & success.
For instance, blogs were never designed to be businesses. Blogging grew out of the human desire to record & reflect on life. They became communities out of the human desire to connect and cultivate intimacy.
At some point, people realized there was commercial opportunity in blogging. And I don’t blame them at all! Those early professional bloggers were creating something truly valuable, generating fresh wealth on a daily basis, creating connective threads through communities. As others wanted to get on the growing market, they wanted to learn how to duplicate the success those early bloggers had.
What started as genuine value creation became “monetization strategy.” Here, it was not only the business model that got copied but the content, communities, and outreach. Look around the blogosphere and you’ll see layer upon layer of sameness. Again, what was genuine value is now fluff designed to make money, generate traffic, and simulate credibility.
So when I see people tell you to create lots of free content, build an email list, reach some magic number, and then launch your first digital product, I want to throw up a little. It’s backwards because it’s a strategy that was reverse-engineered from a misunderstanding.
What will you do to generate new, stick-to-your-ribs value? Don’t worry if what you have in mind can’t be “free.” Who cares? Creating value creates buzz. Even when it’s for sale. Especially if it’s for sale. You can build a community or movement from a product that people pay for. Below are three examples of vibrant, profitable communities built on paid products.
Remember Tara Mohr from yesterday’s post? She was amazed at how her audience grew when she launched the very first session of Playing Big. Beyond reaching her sales goal, she added hundreds of new fans. People took notice because she was generating fresh value.
Danielle LaPorte didn’t grow a massive blog and then launch products & services to serve her readers. She sensed she had wealth to offer the world, packaged it as a Fire Starter Session and offered it to anyone who could use it. I believe that the massive value she delivered through those sessions was much more the catalyst of her growth than the awesomeness of her blog. To this day, she continues to create fresh value first instead of extract monetary reward from her audience.
MailChimp created a great email service that companies paid for before they started giving free accounts away to microbusinesses by the drove. They had a profitable business long before they started growing through the freemium model. When they went freemium (you can have a robust email marketing account with them for FREE), they actually noticed a sweet uptick in larger, paying customers as well. That’s not because MailChimp started offering free accounts, it’s because they were delivering a great product.
Why on earth could going freemium bring in these larger and larger paying customers?
Because we did everything totally bass-ackwards.
— MailChimp blog
MailChimp regularly adds 2,000 new accounts per day, most of which are free, but that initial community grew because of the greatness of the product not because it was free.
A small percentage of a very large number is indeed a large number, but can your startup stay solvent while you wait for the conversion to kick in? Freemium only offers the hope that non-paying users will fall in love with your product and start paying for it.
— Rags Srinivasan, Gigaom
You’re looking for impact and growth. You’re hungry to make a difference in as many people’s lives as possible. But free first isn’t the only way.
Your greatest asset to growth might be the product or service you’ve been waiting so long to create.
Click to tweet it!
Your fear of “monetization” is justified. It’s your fear of having something to sell that’s not. If only you had a framework for knowing whether you were truly creating a remarkable product with stick-to-your-ribs value or launching yet another rent-seeking monetization strategy, you could fix it, change it, launch the damn thing already.
If you find yourself questioning the products or services you’re considering launching, it’s probably because you see so much rent-seeking around you.
Here are some questions to ask yourself to determine whether your idea falls under true value creation or whether it’s just a monetization strategy:
- What is the impact of this product on my customer’s life right now?
- What is the impact of this product on my customer’s life over the next 1-5 years?
- How does this product address a genuine frustration or desire that my customer has?
- Would my customer seek out alternatives if my product didn’t exist?
- Who do I want my customer to become as a result of using my product?
- Will my customer want to tell his/her friends about my product?
Create something that people are willing to pay for first.
And let them pay for it! Let them tell their friends.
Don’t rest your success on your ability to convert the masses. Use your early adopters to recruit & court your next wave of customers.
Don’t rely on monetization strategies that seek to collect rent from a community you’re sharing with others in your niche. Generate fresh value that solves a problem or fulfills a need for the customers you want to serve.
There’s plenty of room in the kitchen to build a bigger pie. There are plenty of ways you can serve, needs you can fill.
You’ll create a more robust movement of customers who are engaged, motivated, and results-driven. You’ll get feedback you can actually use. You’ll see opportunities as they present themselves.
It might take longer to grow. But your growth will be more sustainable, longer-lasting, and less dependent on you.
And you can take that to the bank.
Business Brainstorm, New Economy
There are few businesses I work with today that don’t have as one of their goals, “challenge the customer’s comfort zone.”
Consider your own business for a minute: is it more beneficial to you for your customer to remain in her comfort zone? or to be pushed beyond her comfort zone?
Then consider your customer and the results you desire for him: is it more benefit to your customers for him to remain in his comfort zone? or to push beyond his comfort zone?
If your customer is comfortable buying from chain stores and you sell handmade bath & body products, you need to make them a little uncomfortable to change her behavior for both your benefit & hers. If your customer is comfortable with his daily routines but desires a big lifestyle change and you’re his life coach, you need to make him uncomfortable to change his routines thereby achieving his desires for both your benefit & his. If your customer is comfortable communicating with her friends using the phone but you want to disrupt & improve her communication with a brand new technology, you need to make her uncomfortable with the limitations of her current MO for both your benefit & hers.
Yet given the current media & marketing trends, you probably spend more time placating potential customers than confronting their comfort zones.
You are trying to build bridges when burning them may be the best strategy.
Your customers are, by nature, explorers. They’re seeking something. It might have started with a Google search. It might have been an interesting Facebook thread. It might have been a personal conversation over coffee. But they have sought out… something. They’re looking for transformation — even a tiny one.
They may not be able to identify their most pressing needs. They may not know what they’re looking for. But they have that nagging desire to learn more. And that’s where you come in.
Customers trust business owners that have something to teach. When you can give your customer a new way of seeing even the tiniest corner of her world, you are immediately trustworthy. But new ways of seeing don’t come from being comfortable, they come from confrontation.
Today’s most powerful sales people are challengers:
“They’ve got a provocative point of view that can upend a customer’s current practices, and they’re not afraid to push customers outside their comfort zone.” — Matt Dixon, The End of Solution Sales
Now, there are two things I know about you:
1) You got into business to challenge the status quo (your own, your customer’s, the world’s, etc…)
2) You are adverse to the over-the-top, in-your-face sales & marketing techniques of yesteryear.
So I also know that the idea of “confronting” your customer both resonates and feels a little, well, dangerous. Ya wanna push them… just not too hard.
Okay, okay. I get that.
Here’s the problem: your customers are on to your “not gonna push ’em too hard” ways.
Your relationship building techniques – questions, conversations, endless free teleclasses, etc… – aren’t mysterious anymore. People know you’re buttering them up. Sure, they’ll participate. Sure, they’ll engage. But are you really setting them up for a sale or allowing them more time to stew on the inevitable “no, thanks?”
The best salespeople are still empathic, clued into needs, and sensitive to individual perspectives but, instead of following the customer’s lead, they take the reins and deliver an insight that moves the customer to action.
What do you know about your audience – their habits, their failures, their opportunities – that even they don’t know? Supplying that information creates instant fans and eager customers.
Here’s the framework for creating a challenging sales process:
1. Identify a core belief or operating principle that your customer has and challenge it.
Example: Tara Mohr knew women weren’t reaching their full potential in life & business because they were “playing small.” They were excusing themselves from big opportunities or failing to take risks. So that’s how she framed her coaching program, Playing Big. Tara used her intimate knowledge of the differences between women who play small & women who play big to challenge the operating principles of the former.
2. Use your insight as an outsider or expert to demonstrate a new idea.
Example: When I talk to makers about their frustrations with pricing, I make sure to point out that I’m not a maker. No, I’m a customer. I’m one of the people happy to pay twice as much as what they’re charging. That fosters trust & credibility for my ideas.
3. Bring in data or case studies that prove your position.
Example: Copyblogger Media shares multiple insights into well-designed sales pages on the Premise landing page. Instead of just sharing features, the sales page actually tells customers things they may not know about constructing a sales page that works. Take this to the next level by sharing real results from your clients or customers in their own words.
4. Coach your customers on how to buy.
Example: LKR Social Media Marketer explains why – right on the sales page – it’s better to buy a monthly subscription to a community than it is to buy individual solutions to problems that will quickly go out of date. Knowing the solution might be intimidating to customers, Laura cut straight through why her plan is the best.
5. Tailor that position to the person you’re talking with.
Example: Writer extraordinaire, Kelly Diels, creates a separate landing page on her site for every guest post she writes. She understands that different audiences, different types of customers, have different needs, points of reference, and interests. Hone in on exactly what’s important to who you’re talking to.
Your customers can see right through your efforts to build relationships with them – genuine though they might be. We are all in some sort of business and your tactics for creating buy-in are becoming tired.
Instead of trying to make the sale feel warm & fuzzy, allow your customers to trust in the fact that you’re confident & in control. Take the lead with new insights and fresh perspectives.
Will you accept the challenge?
Business Brainstorm
Do you want your business to say “quick fix” or “long haul” to the customers you value?
When you’re on a shoestring budget, you’re always looking for expenses to cut. The app economy has made one of those choices simple: software, systems, and platforms.
You can find a free solution for just about anything.
But just because something is free, doesn’t mean it’s good. One of the first suggestions I make to a client when she’s trying to up her game, gain credibility in the market, and boost profits is to make changes to the platforms she uses to run her business.
Let’s get real.
The tools we use say a lot about the business we run. Good tools and professional systems say that we mean to stick around. Poor tools and DIY-solutions say that we’re a gamble.
Just because a tool is premium doesn’t mean it’s good, either. Your job is to determine the experience of your business that you want your customers to have.
In setting up payment gateways, content security, and member intake at Kick Start Labs over the last few weeks, we made a concerted effort to make everything flow, to make the experience elegant, to allow each detail to speak for itself. We researched platforms, fought with APIs, and tested.
When we launched, things didn’t go as planned.
I was, frankly, devastated.
So we regrouped. Made different choices. Got creative. In the end, the back end is a little more unwieldy than I would like. But the front end is a much better experience.
It’s a user experience that represents the quality our customers receive.
You do great work. You facilitate big things. You serve your customers with heart.
Don’t you deserve the same from your business solutions?
Here are some ideas of how to get started:
Your business most certainly does not to spend money on things you don’t need. But, where you have needs, you might need to spend money. In most cases, free will only go so far.
What platforms are you using that need to be upgraded?
Business Brainstorm
I understand the power (and profitability) of a wham-bam-thank-ya-ma’am launch. But in my own business, the approach tends to be more incremental. The launch process is less orchestrated than improvised.
Just like a jazz musician has a set of chords and rhythm section to create a melody over, I have a message, a set of skills to teach, and a process for making an impact. The actual beautiful music of the launch happens when I listen closely to what’s happening around me and adjust on the fly. A blue note here, a change in rhythm there.
And, often in improvisation, “less is more.”
The key with any launch – but especially an incremental launch – is not to hit your audience over the head with spectacle & showmanship. You’ll earn many wows but few dollars. Your potential customers should not say, “Wow! That’s fascinating. Never thought of that way before. …Now what do I do with this?”
Instead, you want to leave them saying, “Ooh! Gimme more!”
It’s actually about editing. Your tendency is to over deliver. You want to wow your audience with the depth & breadth of your knowledge. You want to prove that you have something of value to offer. Who are you really proving it to?
So you pile it on.
And your audience is truly wowed. Blown away, even.
But then what do they do? You’ve given them ideas, but no action. You’ve given them perspective, but no results.
The goal of your launch is to not to prove that you have the goods but to demonstrate that you deliver results. The easiest way to deliver results is to pick one tiny lesson that teaches your audience something that is immediately applicable. They take that lesson, apply it to their own world/work/life, and can see the results right away.
Their results become your sales process.
Results are like sweet potato tortilla chips: you can never have just one.
Your customers are going to want more. And they’ll know where to find ’em.
If you can create one result, one distinct step forward, for your potential customers, you’ve crossed a psychological boundary. Saying “no” to your offer now feels like a loss, not an equal choice. They’ve already claimed one small outcome. To say “no” to your offer, they’re denying themselves more outcomes.
Here’s the simplest launch checklist you’ll ever find:
1) Choose a single experience that allows you to deliver a clear result.
2) Edit that experience so that your customers can apply it to their world/work/life immediately.
3) Offer that experience for free through a tutorial, ebook, teleclass, or live demonstration.
4) Explain the results your customers can expect.
5) Ask them to report back with their own results and create a system for them to do so.
6) Make your offer.
As your offer & launch evolve, you can repeat this process over & over gain. That’s why it’s an incremental launch. You can offer up many different pieces of the puzzle – each with their own distinct results – without giving away the whole picture.
That makes launching a learning process for both you & your customers. And that’s always a good bet.
Business Brainstorm
As an individual, your learning curve is steep. Every decision, every next step, every opportunity is a first. It’s exhausting.
When we connect with others, each of our learning curves level out. Suddenly no decision in front of you is a first. No next step is a lonely one. No opportunity is too big or too scary. You can tap into the collective wisdom of the entrepreneurial tribe any time you need it.
The work is still yours to do, but the experiences belong to the group, accessible at any time.
Many of you have, as I do, very large goals. You see the success (perceived or real) of others and you want it for your own. What I have learned, directly from these same people, is that the truly successful business owners have asked for the help, opinions, and experiences of others to get to where they’re at.
To launch the product.
To write the book.
To make the speech.
To host the event.
To build the company.
It’s not that they haven’t supplied the bulk of the blood, sweat, and tears necessary to build their success; it’s that they’ve leveled the learning curve, sped up the process, and enjoyed their de facto entrepreneurial education more because they’ve surrendered to the support of friends, colleagues, and mentors.
I’ve slowly built a network of people who I can rely on to constantly level my own learning curve. From a media startup CEO to a jewelry designer to a DJ-turned-woodworker-turned-writer to an intuitive life-shifter to a leading role life coach… and many, many more. The faster I’ve accumulated quality connections, the faster I’ve climbed the hill.
When I wanted to leave web design in the dust and transition to digital products, I knew who to call. When I had questions about planning & leading my own event, I knew who to talk to. When I wanted to know how to hand over email to an assistant, I asked around.
No decision in my business is made in a vacuum.
Are you making your decisions in a vacuum?
You can connect with the people you need in a multitude of places. You can find people in your local community, on Twitter, on Facebook, through friends of friends. There is absolutely no excuse for not having an engaged & invigorating system of support in this day & age.
There is no excuse for allowing your learn curving to be so darn steep.
Click to tweet!
Today, make an effort to ask for help, experience, or clarity. Whatever your “next step” is, involve someone else. Whatever “I’m just not sure” you’re facing, plug someone else into the problem.
And find the road ahead much more level.
— PS —
If you’re looking for a community of like-minded business owners, I invite you to join us in Kick Start Labs. Our community members are ready to go beyond the basics. They’re doing great work and are ready to push through to greater service, more sales, and bigger impact.
These are the kind of people you want in your corner and connected to your goals. Click here to find out more & join us today!
