New Business Development – Page 70

Old People Thinking

Everyone is getting older.
That’s the goal in life.
Because the alternative certainly
isn’t fun.

What I call
‘old people thinking’
often comes with
getting older.

And it is often
destructive,
especially as
we’re building our businesses.

Old people thinking
includes thought patterns
like…

Thinking younger people
are lazy.
They aren’t lazy.
They are, on average,
the hardest working demographic
in existence.
But they certainly aren’t,
on average,
being paid adequately.

Thinking they don’t make
good music, movies, books, etc,
any more.
There is amazing art
being created
every dang day.
If we don’t understand
the appeal of it,
we likely don’t understand
those target markets.
That’s EXTREMELY limiting.

Thinking prices
have remained the same.
Prices have increased
in almost all areas…
substantially.
If we don’t know current prices,
we can’t price
our own products or services
correctly.

If we find ourselves
slipping into
‘old people thinking,’
recognize that’s an issue,
do the research,
correct that problematic thinking.

Skip Steps

When I first started
publishing my books,
Kindle Unlimited at Amazon
hadn’t been invented.
Amazon didn’t dominate
the book business
like it does now.
Sales were spread over
many booksellers.

If writers wanted healthy sales,
they had to list their books
at all these booksellers.
That cost time
and money.

Today, Amazon is, by far,
the biggest bookseller.
Many newer writers only
list their books there.
That saves them money
and time
and it focuses their efforts.

Skipping the step
of listing at all booksellers
gives them a huge advantage.

Seth Godin
shares
“I’m sure
there was a really good reason
twenty years ago
for all the steps
that are now involved
in the thing you do right now,
but your competitor,
the one who is starting from scratch,
is skipping most of them.”

If you’re starting your business
now,
YOU are the competitor
Seth Godin is talking about.

Skip the unnecessary steps.

In Times Of Upheaval

I have a routine in the morning,
a list of tasks
that I usually do
in a specific order.

Usually.

This week,
the internet in my area
has been spotty.
It doesn’t always work.
I can’t count on it
being functional.

When it IS functional,
I do the mission critical tasks
first.
I complete the tasks
that HAVE to be done
today.

The other tasks,
the tasks I often
ease into the day
by doing,
can be completed
after that
IF I still have functional internet.

In times of upheaval,
deviate from your set schedule.

Rank your tasks
from the very important
to the can-be-done-tomorrow
and complete those
very important tasks
first.

Your Kids Are Not Your Legacy

A friend told me yesterday
that her kids
were her legacy.

No, they’re not her legacy.
Her kids have their own goals.
They aren’t responsible
for ensuring HER life
has meaning.
They aren’t put on this planet
for her personal purpose.

And it is a sh*tty
pass-the-buck,
maintain-the-status-quo
stance.
It gives her an out
to not do anything else
to make the world
a better place.

Having kids
isn’t an excuse
to do nothing else.

Your kids
have their own legacies
to create.
That’s a huge task.

Create a legacy
for yourself.
Take that additional task off
their shoulders.

Be Open To Changing Your Mind

When I first heard about
COVID-19,
I thought it would be nothing
I had to worry about.
I believed it would be stopped
before it expanded.
I thought it wouldn’t reach
my corner of the planet.

I was wrong.
Clearly.

I tracked the spread
and realized d@mn quickly
it would be a danger
to the people I love.

I changed my position,
ordered the best masks
I could obtain,
donned makeshift masks
while I waited for the order
to arrive,
long before mask-wearing was enforced.

Being open
to changing my mind
helped keep myself
and my loved ones safe.

Right now,
you and I are likely clinging
to stances
that will be proven
to be wrong.

Being open to changing
those stances
could help save
our growing businesses,
our relationships,
and perhaps
even our lives.

Have the strength
and the intelligence
to change your mind.

How To Use Your Power For Good

Leah Jeffries
has been receiving
a lot of hate
after being cast
in the new Percy Jackson TV Show.

Racists are justifying
these attacks,
saying Jeffries’ character
was white in the books
and she should be white
in the TV Show also.

The author of those books,
Rick Riordan
has very publicly
addressed this.

“You are judging
her appropriateness
for this role solely
and exclusively
on how she looks.
She is a Black girl playing someone
who was described in the books
as white.
Friends, that is racism.”

THIS is how
we use our power
for good.

We call others
on their bullsh*t.

And, as business builders,
we DO have power.

We influence
how our employees,
our partners,
our customers
treat other people.

Use that power
to make this world
a better place.

Building Businesses And The Attack On Women’s Rights

The potential overturning of Roe v Wade
in the U.S.
is yet another step toward
taking away ALL rights for women.

That is clearly the end goal.

This isn’t about religion
or saving babies.

They targeted abortion
because they thought
that was the easiest right
to take away first.
Taking away this right
will set a precedent
and make it easier
to take away other rights.

This is about seizing power,
about ensuring women
can’t vote,
can’t have a say
in…well…anything.

Fight this.
Fight this
with all the energy you have.

It will mean
the difference between
living or dying.
Not only now
but in the future.

With climate change happening
exponentially faster,
for example,
resources will soon become
extremely limited.
Groups of people
who don’t have power (votes)
won’t be allocated
sufficient resources.

It will also, of course,
be impossible,
as a woman,
to build a business
under such a regime.

Our options will be extremely limited
and who the f*ck wants that?

Fight like your life depends upon it.

Because it does.

What Is Your Enough?

Part of a marketer’s job
is convincing us
we don’t have enough.
We need more.
Ads, TV shows, magazines
are designed
to seed dissatisfaction,
to shift our expectations.

That is THEIR agenda.

Decades ago,
I sat down and decided
what level of investments,
of income,
of professional success,
of travel,
of other areas
was ‘enough.’

As I hit those targets,
I become immune
to much of the marketing out there.
I feel satisfaction,
peace,
joy with my life.

And it changes my actions.

If 3 business suits are ‘enough’ for me,
as one super simple example,
I stop shopping for business suits
once I have 3 of them.
That time and money
is freed
to do other things.

Seth Godin
shares
“Enough becomes a choice,
not a measure of science.

The essence of choice is that
it belongs to each of us.
And if you decide
you have enough,
then you do.

And with that choice
comes a remarkable sort of freedom.
The freedom to be still,
to become aware
and to stop hiding
from the living
that’s yet to be done.”

Figure out
what your ‘enough’ is,
Write it down.
Look at it every so often.

Live YOUR agenda.

Doing Better Than Your Parents

I grew up dirt poor
(here in North America)
so it was relatively easy for me
to have a better life financially
than my parents.

I eat every d@mn day.
That’s doing better.

For you,
doing better financially
than your parents
might be more challenging
or even impossible.

That doesn’t mean
you can’t do better
in other areas,
perhaps more important areas
than your parents.

Perhaps the business you’re building
or the company you’re working for
is helping to feed the hungry
or has a smaller carbon footprint
or allows you to travel
or brings you fame
or surrounds you with co-workers you like
or makes you feel good
in one of a gazillion other ways.

That’s doing better
and that should be celebrated.

(It could also be a selling point
for your business
when you’re recruiting new employees
or partners.)

Quality Issues Are Systems Issues

When I was working with
a large New York Publisher,
I was receiving complaints
from readers
about the quality of my stories.

My editors with this publisher
were overworked.
They didn’t have the time
to give my stories
a quality edit.

I couldn’t self-edit
any better
than I already was.

So I hired an editor.
I changed my publishing process,
my systems.
And the quality greatly improved.
The complaints stopped.

As Seth Godin
shares
“Persistent quality problems
are a systemic issue,
and if you’re not working
on your system,
you’re not going to
improve it.”

If you have quality issues,
take a closer look
at the systems
you have in place.
Ask yourself,
“How can I improve them?”