Month: December 2012

I love this post from Seth Godin
about
The Cycle of Customers Who Care.

Here is a snippet
(the entire post is wonderful)

“The first step is
people who care
making a product for
people who care.

The second step is
people who care
making a product for
people who don’t care.

And the third step,
so difficult to avoid,
is that the growing organization
starts hiring people,
not necessarily people who care,
to grow their ever-industrializing company.
And since they are servicing customers
who don’t care,
those employees who don’t care
can get away with it (for a while).”

It is very difficult to skip steps
which is why
many experts recommend
entrepreneurs focus on the niche customer
and not the average customer.
Niche customers care.
The average customer doesn’t care.

Build your first products
for people who care.

My SciFi romances originally contain
a lot of extra information.
I write about the policies, the art, the history
of the alien society.
I need that information
to write in a fully formed world.

On later drafts,
I prune out any information
that isn’t necessary for the core story,
the advancement of the romance.
The average reader doesn’t want to hear
about the evolution of the alien species.

Instead of discarding this information,
I post it on my reader blog.

This serves a number of purposes.
These posts become databases
I use when I write the sequels.
It proves to my critics
that I’ve done the research on my worlds
(a common complaint in SciFi).

But best of all,
it provides some readers,
readers who really care,
with insider information.
They are drawn deeper into my worlds, my stories
and become more emotionally involved.
This insider information gives them
a reason to talk about my stories
as they share their ‘expertise.’

Insider information gives your super fans
a reason to talk about your products.

When I was a project manager
at a large beverage company,
all of the management team took a course
on the 5 love languages
(words of affirmation,
acts of service, receiving gifts,
quality time, and physical touch).

Why?

Because thank you’s
and rewards for great service
are most effective
when we incorporate the right love language
(or incorporate as many love languages as possible
if we don’t know).

For example:
A reward that would incorporate
all 5 love languages would be
– you take your employee out to lunch
(quality time),
you drive/personally make the lunch reservations
(acts of service),
you tell her what a great job she’s doing
(words of affirmation),
you shake her hand
(physical touch),
and
you give her a small token of your appreciation
(receiving gifts)
with a card
(words of affirmation).

Easy, right?
And, with this little bit of thought,
your thank you
just moved from okay to superb.

Learn the 5 love languages.

Yesterday,
the nurse,
a couple of DJs fooled
to get news on the Royal pregnancy,
was found dead.
It is rumored she took her own life.

While the DJs
couldn’t have foreseen
that tragic turn of events,
they must have known
their actions would cost
the nurse her job
and severe hardship.

They purposefully traded a nurse’s job
for higher ratings
and more media coverage.

Right now,
one of your employees,
maybe one of your managers,
may be facing an ethical dilemma,
perhaps with the same type of consequences.

Do you have the means to help that employee
make her decision?
Do you have guidelines?
Do you have a shared view or even a motto
like Google’s Don’t Be Evil?

When you’re outlining what you WILL do
to achieve your goals,
also share what you WON’T do.

Change your world for the better.

If you’re involved in a number of team decisions,
you will face a decision
you don’t agree to.

The time to fight this decision
is before it is acted upon.

You bring in an expert
to convince the team
and you ask for another vote.
Or you approach your manager
for advice.

Once acted upon,
a team decision is considered your decision.
The politically correct response
to questions about it
starts with “The team decided…”

Stating that you disagreed
after the fact
does a couple of very negative things.
It shows you have no loyalty
and you’re willing
to throw your team mates under the bus.
Individuals with that reputation
don’t last long in organizations.

It also communicates that you’re weak.
You didn’t have the strength/expertise/skills
to convince your team mates.
Individuals like that
don’t get promoted.

Once team decisions are made,
they’re YOUR decision.

eBook romance novel sales
are traditionally soft in December.
People give print books,
not eBooks
as presents.

Some of my buddies are relaxing.
I’m not.
I’m writing stories for 2013.
I’m promoting on venues
now devoid of competition.
I remain focused on my business.

As Bill McBean,
author of
The Facts Of Business Life,
shares

“In order to be successful
and remain that way,
you have to continually focus on the market,
react to it, and
fight for what you believe should be yours.
If you don’t,
your competition will win the war.”

It is really easy to lose focus
on your business
this time of the year,
especially if your sales aren’t concentrated
during the holidays.

You can’t afford to.
Continue fighting the good fight.

Last month,
there was an opportunity with a larger publisher.
This opportunity,
if I’m successful
(and that is a big if),
would pay off BIG in a few years.

I have a financial buffer
so I was able to take advantage
of this opportunity.

One of my writing buddies
has very little financial buffer.
She couldn’t wait that long
for a financial return.
It didn’t matter how big that return was.

These tough decisions
happen all of the time in art AND business.
The bigger the financial buffer
you have,
the more you can take advantage
of longer term opportunities.

Writer and Director
Joss Whedon shares

“The first penny I ever earned,
I saved.
Then I made sure that
I never had to take a job
just because I needed to.
I still needed jobs of course,
but I was able to take ones that I loved.”

Bootstrap your business
(i.e. keep the costs and investment low)
but consider having a financial buffer
for those bigger opportunities.

A buddy shared that
she hadn’t accomplished her 2012 goals yet.
When I told her it wasn’t too late,
her reply was
“How can I accomplish my goals
in a month?
I might as well wait
until January 1st
and start then.”

You and I know this logic
makes no damn sense.
Starting a goal in January,
a month later,
doesn’t make it easier to achieve.

But humans aren’t logical.
We fall into harmful habits
like delaying working on our goals.

These habits have a cost.
A month delay over a lifetime
is a delay of 6.5 YEARS.

Do you have 6.5 years to waste?
I sure don’t.
Work on your goals TODAY.