Last night,
as I was waiting for sleep,
I had a brilliant idea
for today’s blog post.
I was too lazy to get out
of my warm bed.
I didn’t have a notebook or pen
beside the bed
(that is strange for me).
I didn’t write the idea
down.
You can guess
what happened.
I woke up
with the knowledge
I had that great idea
but no memory
as to what that great idea was.
Write it down.
You’re a busy business builder.
You likely won’t remember it
if you don’t write it down.
One of my favorite things
to do
as someone running
a Romance Novel Business
is
hint at products to come.
I love casually mentioning
a character in a previous story
or a blog post,
for example,
and then
responding to readers (customers)
who suggest
I should write that character’s story.
I tell them
that’s a great idea.
And months later,
I publish that character’s story.
That makes readers happy.
They are super invested
in that story
because it was ‘their idea.’
They don’t know
I planted that idea
in their brains
and that this was so successful
hundreds of readers (customers)
also messaged me
with the same suggestion.
Hint at products and services
to come.
Get your prospects and existing customers
invested in those ideas.
A friend writes books
(creates products)
for teenagers.
She spends at least
one day a month
at
the coffee shop
or the park
or a popular social media filming spot
or other places
teenagers gather.
And she observes.
She pretends she is looking
at her phone.
She listens
and she learns
and she applies that learning
to her stories.
Her stories (products)
hit bestseller lists
partially for that reason.
Spend time
with your target demographic,
preferably unnoticed.
Learn what is currently important
to them.
And apply that learning
to your products/services.
A reader left a review
on one of my books.
She said
she always knows
what she’ll get
with one of my books
and, in this crazy world,
that is a great comfort
to her.
The media loves the new.
They love different.
And, as business builders
seeking to snag
some of that media coverage,
we often give them
the new, the different.
But the vast majority
of our prospects
and our customers
are tired of constant change.
They want the familiar.
They don’t want surprises.
They want the comfort
of our products and services
being the same.
Don’t feel the need
to change EVERYTHING.
Many customers want
a reliable experience.
We, business builders,
tend to be heads down
and hard at work
for most of the day.
Take a moment
and look around you.
Gaze up at the sky.
Listen to the birds.
Watch the squirrels play.
Embrace that awareness,
that sense of connection
to something bigger,
something lasting.
You’re a part of all that.
The product or service
you are seeking to supply
will be part of all that.
That is truly special.
Savor it.
Bring that feeling
to your work.
An expert claimed
he could make viable compost
using
only coffee grounds
and
shredded paper.
I can obtain coffee grounds
from local coffee shops.
I have plenty of compost-worthy
shredded paper.
So I made one batch of compost.
I could have made
fifteen batches.
but if it goes wrong,
I’ll have to dispose of it.
If it goes right,
I’ll happily make
the additional fourteen batches.
Start with the smallest viable
experiment.
Then expand
if that experiment
is successful.
If you took some time off
yesterday,
you likely woke up
this morning,
overflowing with ideas.
WRITE THAT SH*T DOWN.
Immediately!
Once you reconnect
with your business
and with the rest of the world,
you’ll be flooded
with other stuff
– problems,
opportunities,
other people’s good ideas.
You’ll likely forget
about your own brilliant
thoughts.
And that would be a tragedy.
You had those thoughts
for a reason.
Write your great ideas
down somewhere.
NOW.
I recently wrote a story
for a serialized app
(KISS, Radish, iReader, etc)
with those readers
as my target reader.
It was a VERY different story
than one I would write
for eBook readers.
It had cliffhangers
every 2,000 words,
for example,
rather than merely at the end
of every chapter.
It was written from
one character’s point of view,
rather than two,
as another example.
It will eventually be published
in both formats
– serialized app
and eBook.
I ensured it was readable
in both.
But the primary target market
drove the product development.
When you design
your product/service,
try to make it
acceptable for all markets
but design it primarily
for your key target market.
It will change
the final product/service
and
that should make
a huge difference in sales.
I update my readers (customers)
regularly
on where I am
with each book,
what I am working on,
the process,
my schedule.
I find doing this
reassures them.
They know the book is coming.
They are also
more invested
in the upcoming book.
They were there
for its ‘birth’,
for every step of the way.
And when it releases,
it feels like THEIR baby.
They want it to be good,
to do well.
Rosario Dawson and Abrima Erwiah,
co-founders of
Studio 189,
share
“What we have learned to do
is to take time
to explain
and educate our community
about the process of
making clothing
and what goes behind it.
We have found that
the more we share,
the more our customer
actually understands
and becomes more invested
in the community.”
Consider updating and educating
your customers
on your production processes.
One of my first tasks
when crafting a new project
is to investigate
if anything like it
has ever been done
before.
If it or something similar
has been tackled
in the past
by someone
or some entity,
it usually becomes
significantly easier
for us to do,
even if it has been done
in a different industry.
Doing groundbreaking,
never been done
work
takes trial and error
and that requires significantly
more time and resources.
As Seth Godin
shares
“…if you’ve signed up
for wayfinding,
forgive yourself
if it takes a little
(or a lot)
longer.
Because if we knew
the right answer,
we would have found it already.
That’s the hard part.”
Search for similar situations
before inventing a solution
from scratch.
It will save you
time and effort.