Wonder Woman And Game Changers

Wonder Woman is a game changer
in the movie industry.
I watched it
and now I REALLY notice
the treatment of women
in other movies.

The close up of breasts.
The lack of action
taken by female characters.
The lack of female characters
at all
except for the stereotypical ‘love interest.’

It makes these other movies
challenging to watch
and to enjoy.

Some savvy people
have realized this
(that is why
there have been
a flurry of reshoots).
They will likely survive.

Some people
haven’t realized this
or they are resisting this change.
They will likely lose
the female audience.

Because once the game changes,
it is difficult to change it back.

The Romance Novel Industry
couldn’t do it
after Fifty Shades Of Grey
changed expectations.
The Orange Juice Industry
couldn’t do it
after Not From Concentrate
changed expectations.

It is MUCH easier
simply to play the new game.

Watch for game changers.
Change your business
accordingly.

Stuck In Rut Thinking

Whenever I am stuck
in a story
I’m writing,
I look at the assumptions
I’ve made
and challenge them.

Because
we all make assumptions
about the world.

A work week starts
on a Monday, for example.

Or a phone call
is better than an email.

Or Generation X
isn’t a large enough market
to cater to.

These assumptions
can lead to illogical
and no longer relevant solutions.

Seth Godin
shares

“Cars have two headlights
because horse-drawn carriages
had two lanterns.
Of course you couldn’t
put a lantern in the middle,
that’s where the horse goes.
Now, it’s easy to make a bar of light,
one that illuminates from edge to edge.

And jobs used to be done by men,
because statistically,
it’s easier to find people
who can lift heavy objects
among the males in the population.
But now, most lifting isn’t heavy,
it requires insight and care instead.”

When we challenge
our assumptions,
we’ll often see opportunities.

These opportunities
can be gold.

Father’s Day

Today is Father’s Day
in many areas
of the world.

Father’s Day spending
is traditionally
less than Mother’s Day spending.
40% less.

That’s not surprising.

26% of children
under the age of 21
are being raised by one parent.
82.2% of single parent households
are headed by Moms.

This makes marketing
around Father’s Day
a bit more challenging
as some people have
strong negative feelings
about their F\fathers.

Being a writer,
I tend to focus on
my characters who are fathers.
Other writers
focus on their own fathers.

I don’t ask prospects/customers
about their fathers,
whether or not
they’re spending the day
with them.
I wait for them
to volunteer the information.

Father’s Day
IS a great day to promote.
Merely keep in mind
that quite a few people
don’t have a dad.

Published
Categorized as Marketing

Amazon And Choice Of Partners

Yesterday,
Amazon announced
they were buying
Whole Foods
.

Some analysts
talked about how
Amazon didn’t have
much knowledge about
bricks and mortar grocery stores.

That’s bullshit.

Amazon has been supplying
cloud services
to many
bricks and mortar grocery stores
for years.
They had access
to ALL of the data
these stores were producing.

I suspect Amazon knows more
about the grocery business
than their former customers,
now competition does.

When looking at prospective partners,
look at more than
merely costs.

You don’t want to teach
a future competitor
how to run the business.

Making Decisions Is Exhausting

Business building
requires hundreds, perhaps thousands
of decisions a day.

Making decisions is exhausting.
Why?
Because we have to imagine
all of the possible outcomes,
especially the negative outcomes.

Seth Godin
shares

“It turns out that
the mental load of management
is primarily around
experiencing failure.

Actual failure, sure,
but mostly potential failure.
Imagining failure in advance.
All the current things
that could go wrong.
And more important,
the things you’re not doing
that will be obvious oversights later.
Our brains work overtime
to cycle through these,
to learn to see around corners,
to have the guts to delegate
without doing the work ourselves
(even though that creates
more imagined points of failure).
Scan, touch, consider,
analyze, repeat.”

If you reach the end
of your work day
and you’re exhausted,
even though you’ve physically
not done much,
this is why.

Making decisions is exhausting.
Prepare for that level
of tiredness.

The Power Of Small Decisions

I’ve been watching
a show on hoarding.

Hoarders obtain
more and more items
without letting any items go.
Even trash is kept.

When loved ones
finally see the state
of the hoarder’s home,
they can’t believe
he/she let it get to that state.

The thing is…
it didn’t get to that state
overnight.
One day,
one empty can was left
on a table.
The next day,
a second empty can
was left.
Eventually all of the space
was filled with stuff.

This is the same way
business building happens.
In the movies,
businesses are built
overnight.
In real life,
they are built
one small decision,
one small action
or lack of action,
at a time.

These decisions matter.
We might think
we’re not doing much,
not moving far forward,
but the small decisions,
the small actions
add up.

Keep building.

How To Have A Great Turn Out For Your Child’s Party

Every week,
there’s a new post
on Facebook
from a Mom
upset
because no one attended
her child’s birthday party.

Usually,
what happened was
the child went to school,
handed out invites
to dozens of kids
and then,
on party day,
is distraught
when no one shows up.

Of course,
no one showed up.

1) The person who decides
whether or not
a child attends a party
isn’t the child.
It is the parent or guardian.
That parent or guardian
might not have even seen the invitation.

2) The parent or guardian
is most concerned about the safety
of her/his child.

How safe will the child be
if the adult organizer of the party
couldn’t even be bothered
to reach out to that parent/guardian?
If the invites are being given
to random people?
If there is no discussion
about allergies or supervision?
If there’s no follow up
on the invitations?

That doesn’t sound
like a safe environment to me.

What does this have to do
with building a business?

Before you ask for the sale,
are you speaking
to the decision maker
(i.e. the ‘parent’ or ‘guardian’)?

Have you convinced her
you’ve met at least
her minimum requirements
for the product/service
(i.e. it is a ‘safe environment)?

If you answer ‘yes’
to these two questions,
you are more likely to seal the deal
(have a great turn out at that party).

Published
Categorized as Sales

Destroying Is Easy

It takes me
two months of 12 hour days
to write a 200 page novel.

It takes a critic
five minutes
to rip it apart.

Everyone,
even a five year old,
can destroy.
It is exciting,
dramatic,
violent.

Building, on the other hand,
can only be done
by a rare few.
Building takes thought,
effort,
resources,
time, so much time.

Building is a thousand times
tougher
than destroying
but it is worth it.
It is how we build a better world.

Ignore the destroyers.
Concentrate on building.

Chris Pratt And Hustling

We, business builders,
have to hustle
often for years
before we see success.
That can be challenging.

But that hustle should pay off.

Chris Pratt
shares

“I am doing what I love.
It doesn’t feel like work.
Even though it is.
I’m having fun.
I’m overcome with joy and gratitude.

“I felt like posting this
to say to anyone out there
chasing your dream,
fifteen years ago
I felt the same passion
I feel today,
but I had very little opportunity.
I had to hustle hard
and go hungry.
I had to eat sardines
and figure out
how to get gas money.
And I never had a plan B.

I never stopped believing.
Ever.
Don’t give up.
Apply constant pressure
for as long as it takes.
It will break before you do.
Go get it.”

Keep hustling!

Locate With Like Businesses

One of the things
business builders look at
when deciding upon
a physical location
is foot traffic.

The key to this,
however,
isn’t the QUANTITY
of foot traffic.
It is the QUALITY.

If you own a boutique store
and the foot traffic
is all bargain hunters,
that’s not going to help your business.

Lori Ford,
co-founder of
Gum Tree,
shares

“We wouldn’t have been able
to compete in that kind
of an environment
[amidst big retailers
who were willing
to discount products
all year round],
and that’s what drove us
to realize that
we have to be surrounded by
a bunch of small businesses
in a quaint downtown
where people go for
that type of customer service
and experience.”

Consider a location
with businesses
that have a similar target market.