Last night, Marketplace shared an interesting – although not at all surprising – statistic:
…the number of movies rented or purchased online will jump by 135 percent this year. But consumers are expected to spend $11 billion buying DVDs and Blu-ray discs this year. Compare that to less than $2 billion they’ll spend on movies over the Internet.
We’re watching more movies (and television) online than ever before. In my own life, it’s a rare occurrence to opt for the 60″ flat screen over my 13″ Mac Air. It should be noted that this is further proof that I am not a man.
Many more of us are opting to watch a majority of our movies on all-you-can-eat-for-one-low-monthly-fee websites like Netflix or Hulu. We’re not purchasing DVDs at the same rate we’re streaming movies.
Ya know how most of us don’t collect CDs anymore? It’s kinda like that.
This is a market going through a drastic shift. This isn’t a trend it’s a complete & utter transformation of an industry.
This is great for consumers right now. Sure, we have our gripes about the quality of what’s available online or the seemingly erratic behavior of some of these companies. But for the most part, we’re in hog heaven. Access, baby. We’ve got access!
Except, according to this same Marketplace segment, the industry isn’t ready for this fundamental shift. What’s new, right? What would be new is if the entertainment industry was actually ready in terms of programming, production, intellectual property, or business model for any of the technological shifts that have of taken place over the last 60 years.
If the industry can’t make the money they need to make in this shift, jobs will be lost, quality could suffer, and studios could close. They’re in search of a new business model. Again.
I know, I know. You thought this was about the information economy not the entertainment industry. What’s the moral of the story?
Don’t let this be you.
Do you want to be the disruptor or do you want to be one of the disrupted?
— Umair Haque
The base price of information today is FREE. And it’s getting cheaper every day.
What used to be a “great value” at $97 is now free.
The information market is as thick as split pea soup. I don’t care how finely you hone the tools you use to sell the information, the first response is and will continue to be, “Is it really worth that?”
And that means for all your brilliance, all your value, it’s harder & harder to justify the price of what you’re offering.
What was today part of a valuable exchange may tomorrow be a tough sell. This isn’t obsolescence. The information is still good. Just not worth as much.
Is that all the genius is worth? Of course not. Once again, it’s an issue of substitutes.
— Seth Godin, What is Bach worth?
Why is this happening?
It gets easier to enter this market every day. More resources for selling information means more people are selling information. It’s a nasty cycle.
To add to that, what was highly prized information even 6 months ago has been read, processed, and released through other products at a cheaper cost. That’s not copyright infringement, it’s how information works. I teach you my idea, that idea gets incorporated into your ideas, you teach your ideas. Rinse and repeat.
This pushes us towards new thinking & innovation. Except when it doesn’t. It’s your job to stay on the cutting edge or risk not only being left behind but left without a penny in the bank.
Complacency is the shortest route to the poor house.
The other thing going on, of course, is inflated supply. With millions of people trying to make a living off their bright ideas, how long can supply sustain a high value? Not long.
The app economy – think micropayments for small pieces of software – has made this work by catering to scale. A dollar here & there times a million is still a nice payout. How different is the information you have for sale? Are you willing or even able to find a million customers?
When in doubt, think beyond the “usual” way things are done.
There is a limitless number of ways to delight people — not an a la carte buffet of pre-approved information marketing tactics or even types of information that are valuable.
All too often I hear “how to” is the only way to sell ideas.
To cut through the clutter and prove the value of what you have to offer, you must step outside of “normal.” And to never forget that “normal” changes every day.
What’s a booming DVD business today could be streaming for free tomorrow.
Meanwhile, those who stay ahead of the curve, who discover new ways of delivering value, who never stop thinking about what their customers need to become fully realized human beings, have opportunities to reap ever more financial wealth from the information economy.
What does that look like?
Just like the entertainment industry is stabbing in the dark with online distribution, information & insight dealers are looking for the next best thing.
I think the key is to not look for just “the next best thing” but “your next big thing.” Big difference. What is based on your experience, strengths, and unique perspective is more likely to have value staying power.
Case in point: People are paying more for my book, The Art of Earning, than they were 6 months ago.
The tide is changing. Are you ready?
Clearly, I believe the information economy is changing. I believe that even 2 months from now the way people buy ebooks, digital programs, and even coaching will look completely different. I am coaching my clients through this shift.
What we’re not doing is falling into existing models. There is no “first you release an ebook, then you release a course, then you offer full access” thing going on here. There’s no “typical life coaching business model” to draw on. That path is dying (or already dead). Hopefully it signed a DNR.
Conventional wisdom is a bad product. What other assets do you have to trade in? Personal access? Personal experience? Personal perspective? Collaborative wisdom?
You’re going to have to think this one out for yourself. You’re going to have to decide what’s valuable about what you do & how that matches your customers (sometimes unperceived) needs. You must see opportunity where before there was none. You’re going to have to make bold statements about what you believe and how you operate.
And you’re going to have to translate that all into a package that makes sense for your customer.
My friends and I are often left wondering: where are the men? Whether it’s at home, at the office, on the ‘net, or at events, there often seems to be a bevvy of intelligent, ambitious women and a real dearth of engaged, driven men.
We wonder if it’s the crowds we run with, the economy, or our locale. We theorize that men have been getting mixed messages for so long that they don’t know how to respond anymore. We question whether the fact that women now make up a larger part of the workforce means that men are truly succumbing to stronger women or whether they just feel lost in a sea of change.
Even though I might have had playground fantasies about a world where women rule the world, I don’t actually wish for men to be absent from society. I want to see men with nuanced understandings of women, balanced perspectives on men’s role in society, and, above all, respect for all those around them. But I want to see strong men, nonetheless.
Any economy where an entire gender is on the outs is an economy that isn’t functional and certainly not sustainable.
The emergence of the You Economy seems to be skewed in favor feminine energy. It’s our tendency towards intuition, connectivity, creativity, and nuance that allows us to thrive in this environment.
But it’s certainly not only the realm of the feminine. What do men have to offer in the You Economy? And how can women better collaborate with men to realize a more whole future?
I’m talking to Andy Fogarty, founder of the Masculine Evolution, about this very subject. I’m interviewing him in an hour-long teleclass on Monday, March 19, at 8pm EST. I’m asking:
Where are the men?
What’s the disconnect between what men have and what they really want?
How do men & masculine energy differ from women & feminine energy? What can we learn from these differences?
What should strong women know about collaborating with strong men?
This is a polarizing topic — what’s your advice for a strategic niche launch?
Andy and I both realize that there is room for much more than traditional masculine/feminine roles. Set aside questions of gender, non-gender specific roles. Andy’s niche audience is men who identify with traditional male energy & patterns of behavior but feel like there is something missing from their actualization. I’m interested in shedding light on this group and a woman’s ability to collaborate with them in the You Economy.
I thought the presentation was real and relatable. The concepts were presented in a way that made them feel accessible. It wasn’t nuts & bolts… It was more cerebral and more elegant a presentation. I loved the focus on relationship and human interaction. I could go on and on. My brain is buzzing.
— Stephanie Corfee
Last week, I finally — finally — hosted my first live event: The Art of Earning LIVE. Carrie and I had been planning it since August. Big decisions here, little details there: last week, it all came together.
In the first teaching session, one of the questions I posed to attendees was:
“How are you making your customers richer?”
Not just in terms money, of course, but overall wealth. Are you enabling them to live healthier lives? Are you creating stronger connections between them & those they love? Are you imparting knowledge that grows their stores of intellectual wealth?
The possibilities are endless. There are so many ways to make our customers richer, to add real value to their lives. But it’s something we think very little about. It’s not just about money but about enabling more connected, more engaged, more meaningful lives.
Instead, we try to sell them on personal transformation (nope, no one believes you can buy that). Or we just keep our nose to the grindstone, working on what we’re working ON (not towards), and try to sell something.
Lesson: nothing is an easy sell except for the easy-as-1-2-3 things you don’t want to be working on.
Don’t get me wrong. An easy sell is great. That product that you know would be easy-as-1-2-3 for both you & your client is probably a great investment in your time. It’s probably a great buy for your customer.
But how long is easy-as-1-2-3 going to keep you interested?
Is easy-as-1-2-3 your greatest work?
What does this have to do with The Art of Earning LIVE?
It was a hard sell.
Let me say that again: it was a hard sell.
The people I planned it with said, “Oh my goodness! This is amazing! People will be fumbling over themselves to buy it!”
When the sales didn’t roll in right away, we thought about the variables: price, location, experience, curriculum, marketing… we made some pretty serious pivots. We changed our approach. We used contingency plans. We brought in extra help.
But in the end, I stayed true to my three touchpoints of You Economy business — the entire reason I planned a live event to begin with — and crafted an event that is already changing businesses in big ways. The Art of Earning LIVE was my greatest experiment, the biggest test of my entrepreneurial hypothesis, to date.
If, in the 21st century, people are looking for commercial exchange that delivers experience, connection, and meaning, I will deliver a product that encompasses all those things:
1) Experience: I wanted to create a true experience, from start to finish for those involved. I wanted them to feel pampered, supported, valuable.
2)Connection: I wanted those in attendance to become connected to each other. I wanted them to feel how their ideas, actions, and enthusiasm were inherently tied to every other person in the room. I wanted them to know that there were other people who cared about their success. I wanted them to reconnect to their own immanent value by seeing the value immanent in others.
3) Meaning: Perhaps most difficult to understand, I wanted people to know abundance. Attending The Art of Earning LIVE meant that they were a part of my abundance, celebrating their own abundance, and encouraging others in their abundance. Being there meant they were part of a growing movement of meaning-driven entrepreneurship.
I’m beyond proud to say that we accomplished these goals. Everyone who came to Philly – and even those who attended from home – expressed the sense of experience, connection, and meaning as I described.
We made our customers richer by providing a vessel for a supportive experience, personal connection, and abundant meaning.
Selling these ideas isn’t always easy. But that doesn’t negate their importance, their ability to transform, their capacity for long-lasting results.
It’s not that the value of connection, meaning, and experience is in question – when has it even been? – but it does need to be proven that they can be found in a commercial transaction.
This event was my attempt to prove that connection, experience, and meaning can be delivered on a grand scale. It was my boldest experiment to date. I’d say it was successful.
With each product I build, package I construct, or event I devise, the proof builds. Each time the proof builds, I’m able to further my mission and stretch towards my ambition.
Each new level, new offering, new pitch, there is a new element of uncertainty, a greater need for proof before purchase. This isn’t to be feared but embraced.
No, The Art of Earning LIVE wasn’t an easy sell. The next thing (and the next thing, and the next thing…) won’t be either.
My business is no longer on a slow & steady climb, it’s at the foot of the cliff face.
Will you embrace the uncertainty of the next level? Of gathering proof for your ideas & ambition? Will you embrace the hard sell but do everything in your power to move the product?
When you think fast food, you think McDonald’s, Burger King, and, maybe, Wendy’s. If you want to get “ethnic,” you might throw in Taco Bell.
Try as they might, these companies can’t get you to equate eating fast food with eating healthy. You go to them for two reasons: cost & convenience. And maybe you don’t go to them at all.
And that’s just my gut.
Using my amazing powers of deduction, I would guess that there’s a larger percentage than average of people reading this blog who just wouldn’t go to a fast food joint for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. You’re not in that market. You’re not a customer. You drive by not through.
Fast food has a bad reputation.
The fast food market is fairly finite. While new McEaters are born every day, the group of people willing to eat that food remains basically the same. New people aren’t being “converted” to fast food every day. Those that are do so out of necessity not out of choice.
That means, to grow profits, companies like McDonald’s and Wendy’s have to vie for a bigger piece of the pie. They choose a specific segment and they go after it. They release a new product to court a new segment of customers. They pick up a few more crumbs.
Hey, I thought this was about Chipotle?
Right. So Chipotle comes along. It’s fast food. Straight up. Unless it’s horribly busy, I can get my food in a Chipotle faster than I can at Wendy’s.
Here’s the difference: I choose to eat at Chipotle.
Why? It tastes good, first & foremost. Second, it’s real food.
Did you see this commercial during the Grammys? I couldn’t believe my eyes. That could not have been a cheap ad spot.
Cultivate a better world, says Chipotle. I buy it. Their meats are sustainably raised. They use as much organic produce as possible. It’s a story and an idea I’m willing to buy over & over again.
Chipotle entered the fast food market but it didn’t allow the fast food market to define it. Instead, it generated value (environmental sustainability, health consciousness, deliciousness) that brought a whole new customer base into the fast food market.
What does that kind of growth look like? With 1230 US stores: “Chipotle stock is up 50 percent on the year and over 500 percent over five years, far outperforming the market as a whole or the restaurant sector in particular. They announced last week that revenue grew 23.7 percent in 2011, with an 11 percent increase in same-store revenues. Restaurant operating margins are more than 25 percent,” according to Slate.com.
Those aren’t numbers to sneeze at.
Chipotle has taken a strong stance (anti-factory farming, for one), doubled-down on constraints (1 menu, few choices), and upped the ante by consistently delivering great tasting food. In doing so, they’ve created a legion of new-to-the-market fiercely loyal fans.
Have you backed down from principled choices because you fear the wrath of the existing market?
Are you allowing your competitors to write the rules of the game? Or are you writing your own?
Are you afraid that stating your beliefs and injecting them into every aspect of your business will turn customers away?
Are you simply following the standard strategy? Or are you generating new value through purpose-driven choices that attract new customers to you & your business alone?
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Only a few days remain to get in on The Art of Earning LIVE Virtual Ticket! Build a business on your principled choices, creating value for you & those you serve. Get all the info here.
My social media consumption is at an all time low. At best, Twitter & Facebook are boring. At worst, they’re perpetuating the model of business that got us in this economic mess to begin with.
All I see is formula headline after formula headline, 6 ways for this and 3 tricks for that. They all promise big returns. They are almost (and I’m only saying that to be nice) all fluff.
The bits of brilliance are few & far between. But they’re enough to keep me around.
Radiant self-promotion doesn’t bother me. Scrambling for a just-slightly-bigger piece of the pie does.
Let me explain.
It’s not that organizing information in an easy-to-read way is bad. I could do a better job of that myself. It’s not that writing clever headlines is bad. It’s not.
What is unfortunate is that this trend means solopreneurs are simply resorting to what corporations have been doing for years, going after their competitors instead of bringing more customers & value into the market.
“Now hold up!” you might say. “How is a formula blog post going after a competitor?”
Excellent question. You don’t have to slam a competitor or blatantly try to steal traffic, sales, or customer loyalty to be playing the competitive advantage game.
Competitive advantage is the name of the Them Economy game.
They try to eek out a percentage point here, pennies on the dollar there. Sure, it works. But for how long? They see the market as finite. There are only so many eyeballs — better optimize my business to attract the highest percentage.
They are going for a slice of the lifestyle design pie, the handmade marketplace pie, the travel hacking pie, the minimalist pie, the app pie, the self-publishing pie. They’re not bringing new customers into the fold. They’re not offering new ideas or fresh perspective.
They parrot others ideas in the hope that speaking the same words will yield the same results.
They show up in your Twitter stream to claim what’s theirs.
They see innovation at an end. Sure, the chips get smaller & the resolution gets brighter — but new? Nope, not right now. They don’t see new ideas around every corner, new opportunities for advancement just over every horizon.
They are more concerned with their social media strategy than they are with making your life better, easier, healthier, more connected, or more meaningful.
It doesn’t have to be this way. We don’t have to buy it.
And we don’t have to rely on carving out a bigger piece of the pie for ourselves at the expense of others.
You Economy businesses know that the market is infinite.Click to spread the word! It is only limited by their ability to invite customers to the table.
You Economy businesses know that it’s not a matter of capturing a piece of what already exists but about creating something new, uniquely you, and in service of others. Baking a bigger pie leads to the greatest success.
You Economy businesses create welcoming spaces that use meaning, relationship, and experience to provide multidimensional value to a wider audience. They propose new ideas and invite others to participate in making them whole. They connect people to ambitions greater than any individual company or person could hold for themselves.
And yes, you can do this 140 characters at a time. Try it.
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Want to learn how to craft a business that gives back more than it takes while leaving you wealthier than you could ever imagine? That’s what I’m teaching at The Art of Earning LIVE. Grab your virtual ticket today.
Tara Gentile is on a mission to turn the small business owners of today into the economic powerhouses of tomorrow. She's the creator of Quiet Power Strategy®, a business design system and entrepreneurial family. She's also the host of Profit. Power. Pursuit., which Entrepreneur named one of the 24 top woman-hosted business podcasts.
