New Business Development – Page 84

Getting Critiqued As An Expert

A few days ago,
I had a virtual one-on-one
with a bookseller.

I wanted her to honestly
and brutally critique
my products
at her storefront.

The issue is…
I’m a USA Today Bestselling Author.
I have hundreds of books released.
I sell well.

And I could tell
she was nervous
about ripping my products apart.

So I opened with
“I so want to make (bookseller)’s readers
happy
but half the time,
I don’t know what I’m doing.
My account is a bit of a hot mess.”

She laughed.
Her shoulders lowered.
She assured me
it wasn’t THAT bad.

Then she happily listed
everything I could do
to improve sales.
I took notes,
thanked her,
have started implementing the changes.

Don’t frame yourself
as an expert
if you want an honest critique.

Check your ego
and your pride.
Don’t try to prove
your way is right.
Ensure the critic
knows you realize
there are issues.
Signal you’re okay
with constructive criticism.

Then sit back
and listen.

A Product Release Is Not A Business Strategy

“I’m going to publish a book.”
“I plan to design a new toy.”
“I will manufacture
a new drink.”

These are all great things to do
but they are NOT business strategies.
They are product releases.

A product release is merely
one small part of
a much larger business strategy.

It is an exciting part.
It is the part
many people like to talk about.
But it is a tactic,
not a strategy.

Tossing products into the market
without having a goal for them,
without having a plan
for everything that comes
after or before a product release,
wastes resources
and is a short cut for disaster.

We need more.
We need a bigger plan,
a strategy,
not just tactics.

A product release
is not a business strategy.

If You’re The Exception

When many of us think
of a politician,
we think of a liar,
someone who makes promises
he’ll never keep.

A local politician
appears honest to a fault.
He tries hard
to keep his promises.
If it is at all possible,
he does what he says
he will do.

I say ‘appears’
because, after decades of knowing him,
I still don’t trust
he’s honest.

Simply because
he’s a politician.

Seth Godin
shares

“When you hear a boss say
‘people before profits’,
you’re likely to hold back
before baring your soul
and sharing your fears.

“Trust me” is easy to say,
especially when you mean it,
but hard to hear.

Showing tends to beat telling,
and it takes a very long time
to earn trust
when you’re running
counter to culture.”

If you’re the exception,
it will take a long time,
if not forever,
to convince people you’re that exception.

Don’t build your success
around ever convincing others.

Representing Everyone

When I am the sole woman
on a team,
I am well aware
I’m representing all women.

Whether or not
the team accepts another woman
depends on how well I do.

It isn’t fair.
It isn’t right.
It certainly doesn’t apply
to white men.
And it adds a lot of extra pressure.
But it is reality.

Future women will either be
offered opportunities
or
denied opportunities
depending on how well we do.

Kim Y. Lew,
president and CEO
of Columbia Investment Management Company,
shares

“The tax of failure
for people of color and women
is so much higher.

I’ve heard someone say,
‘I’ve invested in a woman-run fund
and it failed,
so I won’t do that again.’

And my answer to that is,
‘That has probably happened
on a male-run fund
and you didn’t do that.’”

In a team with no other women,
our performance WILL influence
whether or not
more women have an opportunity
to join that team.

Act accordingly
and, if you can,
add more skilled women to that team.

This Could Be The Last

Every year, I send baking supplies
to my much beloved Mom
so she can make
her coveted fruitcake.

I often moan and groan
about finding these ingredients,
about packing them,
about going to the post office
to send them to her.
It is a task of love
but still a task.

This year, my Mom told me
it would be her last year
making fruitcake.
She no longer has the strength
to knead it.

There was a different type
of moaning and groaning
as I located the ingredients.
I wished it wasn’t the last year.
I wished my Mom still had the strength.
I wished I had the privilege
of performing this task for her again.

I know this will be the last time.
But we often don’t have this awareness.

This could be the last time
we start a business.
This could be the last time
we sell our products
to a favorite customer.
This could be the last time
we don’t delegate
the holiday marketing campaign.

Would our attitudes change
if this was the last time?
If it would,
assume that’s reality
…because that might be the truth.

See People As They Truly Are

Many business builders are optimists.

We have to be this way.
We’re designing new products/services
in crowded markets,
hoping they’ll be successful.

But when it comes to other people,
it benefits us
to see humans as we really are.

We learned,
for example,
during the pandemic
that many people
don’t give a sh*t about others.

It would be nice
if they cared
but they don’t
and it is unlikely
our product/service will immediately
make them change their minds.

So we should assume
they won’t
alter their stances.

If our target market
includes those people,
we should ensure
that’s something great
in the product/service
for them.

See other people as they truly are.
None of us are perfect.
We all have faults.

Acknowledge those faults.
Design your products/services
and their sales/marketing campaigns
around our imperfections.

Simplify

I’m working on a second draft
of a story.
The biggest and the most important
task
of my second drafts
is to simplify the story,
to prune away scenes and characters
that don’t add to the main plot.
This allows the reader
to focus on the main characters,
the main plot.

There is a myth
that complex is better.
It isn’t.
Simple is key.
Many moving parts
means more parts that can break
and
it means more parts
that the prospect doesn’t understand.

In this bizarre world
we’re currently living it,
it also means
more parts conspiracy theorists
can investigate and use
to spread lies
about our products/services.

Simple is challenging to do
but it often leads to
a better product/service.
Don’t add complexity
if you don’t have to.

Breakthroughs Bundle

A couple of days ago,
it was announced
that a malaria vaccine
was being rolled out
en masse in Africa.

Yesterday,
it was announced
that a COVID-19 vaccine
would soon be rolled out
for children aged 5 to 11.

There is currently a race
to develop
HIV vaccines.

Multiple breakthroughs in niches
tend to happen
over the same short time period.

Sometimes, it is because
there’s media focus on the industry.
We merely find out
about the breakthroughs then.

Sometimes, it is because
there’s investor interest in it.
There’s increased funding
and that funding leads to
discoveries
and
important work being done.

Sometimes, it is because
a new development (like mRNA delivery)
makes other breakthroughs possible.

Sometimes, one breakthrough
inspires other breakthroughs.

And sometimes, it is merely a coincidence.

This is one of the many reasons why
we need to stay current
in our niches.
We need to be informed.
Because there will be multiple breakthroughs
over a short time period
and that will significantly change the niche.

Stay current.
Let others inspire you.
Push forward.

Limiting Your Effort

When I started writing romance,
I wrote short stories
for a small press publisher.

I was working the business gigs
and didn’t have a lot of time
to spend on writing
and publishing stories.

I also didn’t know
what would sell,
what I was good at,
or
what I was doing.

I used what I call
the spaghetti method.
I threw a bunch of
short, quickly written stories
at the wall (the market)
and saw what stuck
(what was successful).

I used partners
(like the publisher)
so I had time to write
more stories
to throw at that wall.

Then I developed
that best selling ideas.

Daniel Vassallo
shares
(this entire thread
is gold)

“Aggressively capping
your inputs
is important
for many reasons.
The most obvious is that
it gives you space
for more bets.
But it also helps
tremendously
with motivation.
It’s a lot easier to do
small things,
and the failures hurt
a lot less
when you haven’t put in
a big effort.”

If you don’t know
what will be successful,
consider
limiting your inputs
as much as possible
and trying more things.