Category: Personal Growth

Elders vs Gurus: Why Don’t We Listen to the Voice of Experience?

Gary Vaynerchuk recently made an interesting statement at a conference:

“I am addicted to old people.”

He elaborates:

“I switch seats on airplanes all the time – if somebody looks like Yoda, I am sitting next to them. The amount of conversations I’ve had with 80 and 90 year old strangers, I guarantee is the [most] in the world. You know why? They’ve played the game. And you know what they’ve told me – everyone of them – not one of them [cared] how much money they made. Whether they were rich or poor. Every one of them says the same thing: “Gary, I wish I spent more time with my family, and I wish I did something I loved.” And I don’t understand how we know this, and these are the people that have played our game – the REAL game – and how we don’t take that into account.”

(That rant is at minute 50 of the talk.)

What Gary is saying here is profound, and not talked about nearly enough in our culture. Personally, I have spent a lot of time in the past year and a half cataloging my family’s history – scanning in thousands of photos from the mid-20th century, and interviewing older family members about the most mundane aspects of their lives growing up. For instance, I think I have done 12 hours of interviews with my dad so far, and I have called distant family members that no one I know has talked to in the last 30 years. On a personal level, there is an incredible amount to learn from this perspective.

Gary’s point is in relation to business – about how we all rush to buy the latest business books who promise to give us some new magical ‘formula’ for increasing wealth. That we spent hundreds or thousands of dollars to see people speak and attend conferences. That all these gurus are popping up with online courses, some costing thousands of dollars.

And I wonder – why do we spend our precious resources listening to the young, and totally ignore the wisdom of our elders? Wisdom that has perspective, is free, and that they would love to share?

Perhaps these are some reasons why many don’t seek advice from your average 80 or 90 year old:

Their wisdom isn’t sexy.
They don’t promise to make you rich quickly.
They ignore trends.
They don’t feel ‘of the moment.’
They don’t have ironic humor, or reference Glee.
They require us to think deeply, not rush to solve a specific problem.
They give us perspective that runs counter to our culture’s call of ‘success=money.’

So instead, we listen to the young. Some of who are brilliant, and should be listened to. But some of these people have never owned a business. Never run a business. Or they’ve found one cool trick that worked a single time, and are trying to create a ‘system’ out of it. They create things that seem ‘of the moment,’ even though we are trying to create businesses that can sustain across the span of decades. They talk about theory instead of experience.

But when we talk to those who are older – those with decades and decades experience, their advice can be golden:

It is proven.
It is given without any remuneration.
It is shared with perspective of decades, not months.
It comes slower, and takes longer to implement.
It builds something with a legacy in mind.
It stops to smell the roses.

Thanks!

-Dan

Midnight is Where the Day Begins

Why is it that some people seem to lead superhuman lives, with incredible achievements, and others are crushed under the weight of basic chores, such as laundry?

Why is it that we find inspiration in those who achieve, who pushed themselves harder, held themselves to a higher standard, and questioned basic assumptions that lead to ridicule on their path to success?

Why do so many people watch sports? Why do we care about the World Cup? Why are shows such as American Idol and Dancing with the Stars so popular?

Why do we read and learn?

Why do we dream?

I often look at those who are successful as a source of education & inspiration. What I discover is that their lives are ruled by a different set of definitions than most people.

Their days don’t start at 9am and don’t end at 5pm.

They don’t blindly follow “best practices.”

They don’t make the safe, expected choices.

They challenge the rest of us, merely by achieving. Because if they have, it shows us the opportunity we failed to see and work towards. This is why the media culture loves tearing down celebrities. It pulls them back down “to our level.”

U2 has a line in one of their songs: “Midnight is where the day begins.” I have always been fascinated by this lyric. I regard it as a challenge – to defy my own expectation, to do what it takes, regardless of commonly held rules.

When the day begins at midnight, you are not winding down, you are winding up. You are getting a jump on the world five hours before most other people. You are viewing it in an entirely different manner. The boundaries of something as simple as a day have changed.

This will be viewed as stupidity by some, and opportunity by others.

When you are viewing your goals – throw out even the most basic definitions of what it takes to succeed. Because the more your exceed these expectations, the more you are differentiating yourself from everyone else who is struggling to achieve the same things you are.

Instead of you all following the same lock-step patterns and trends, you have blazed a new path. And as the saying goes – that will make all the difference.

Thanks!

-Dan

The REAL Barrier to Growing Your Business & Career Online

There are so many useful resources to teach you information, knowledge, tactics, strategies and skills. Books, websites, videos, courses, seminars, and the like, in both traditional and new media.

But often, we use these resources – read that incredible book, go to that highly regarded seminar – and then go right back into our old routine, implementing none of the useful insight that was shared.

So many approach the web to push their business and career forward, learn the best tips, and fail. Why?

Because many of the barriers to growing our business and career has nothing to do with tactics or strategies, and everything to do with the emotional & social barriers that we put in our own path. I’ll give you an example that I would often see with bloggers I’ve worked with:

  • The setup: I had to work with an expert or writer to launch a blog. The issues people often asked me about were searching for specific tactics that would make the process easy and understandable. It was all presented as tactics and strategy.
  • The real problem: But more often than not, the real barriers in their way weren’t just about content strategy, social media marketing and blog system management, but issues of identity, fear over time management, apprehension of putting yourself ‘out there,’ confusion as to the proper way to interact with other rational adults, and the many stumbling blocks thrown in our own paths that make it easy to feel that blogging wasn’t worth the effort. Even how we measure success suffers from this: focusing on page views as the only metric to judge success, instead of influence, engagement and outcomes.
  • The solution: Sure, I went through proper training and shared all kinds of useful tactics, strategies, and systems for managing their blogs. But the bigger part of my job was to break down the emotional & social barriers standing in people’s way.
    At times, this meant chatting about how we measure success in life, how we interact with others, the mission of our roles in journalism & media, and confronting how we identify who we are in our markets, and the lines between everyone we connect with.

I feel there is about to be an explosion in online education. And admittedly, that is a direction I am moving in. But I think the key is not just to impart knowledge as traditional classrooms did, but in building a system where people can work together to also get over the emotional & social barriers standing in there way.

So much of this is more about confronting fear than it is about tactics and strategies. Again and again I see competent well adjusted adults ask questions about how to act online – on platforms such as blogs, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. And while there are some interesting tactics and insights for each specific platform, the answer should always be largely the same:

Be a caring helpful human being.

Sure, we all need to understand and be comfortable with something new before we jump in. But the fear behind these questions is often about things like:

  • Confronting our fear of failure. Most people don’t try new things because they are afraid of failing and afraid of looking stupid while doing so. THIS is why you see media companies (and others) repackage the same old tactics in new ways – again and again. They know that it worked in the past, so it is emotionally safer to try it again and again instead of trying something new that could work… or could fail.
  • Confronting how we define ourselves, and how our professional roles are changing due to online media. Suddenly, people without the term ‘vice president’ in their title are gaining stature and building powerful networks. In many ways, this can threaten the most basic ways that we define our self-worth.
  • Confronting how others define us. There are many people with great business titles, who are concerned about losing stature if they Tweet or blog. That – someone of their stature does not go down ‘to that level.’
  • Confronting our own daily routines & productivity – that sure, you can fit blogging into your schedule if you are really honest about which of the tasks you have done daily for decades are REALLY worth your effort, and which are a waste of time. It’s hard for people to change their routines, and they will go to great lengths to defend them.
  • Confronting our fear of others – of expanding our social circles, which are often built as a protective layer of ‘friend’ or ‘stranger.’ Social media has made this so much more porous, and many people are incredibly fearful of putting themselves online, of who may contact them, and even of how to contact those they DO want to meet.
  • Confronting our own limited skillsets. It’s hard for people to say “I don’t know.” That is what I find so powerful about LinkedIn Answers – that professionals using their real names say publicly: “I don’t know something, how do I do this?” That isn’t easy for many folks – some people associate that with exposing their ignorance, their weakness, and are afraid people will realize that they don’t know everything.
  • Confronting exposing our hopes and dreams. In some business environments, it is considered weak and soft to show that you want to grow, that you have hopes and dreams. When you get involved in social media, you are exposing so much more of yourself. You aren’t out there just saying, “I’m awesome,” you are out there saying “I want to grow.” And to many, that is inherently a sign of weakness that they are wary to expose. Why? Because it means others have something they want, and exposing that can make people feel deficient.

So the training courses I am developing focus a lot on REALLY useful tactics and strategies for leveraging online media to grow your business and your career. But they also focus on getting past the emotional and social barriers that stand in our way. That – we need to work together to move into new areas, to build our skills, and build and understanding that failure is just one step on the way to success.

Thanks!

-Dan

How to Turn Your Services into Products

Today I want to share the story of someone who is building a successful business online by turning her services into products. As writers, journalists & publishers move their business models online, I can’t help but feel there are important lessons here.

Sarah BraySarah Bray started her website strategy & design business three years ago and now has more clients than she can handle. We were able to chat last week, and she had some compelling advice for those building their personal or professional brands online. Here are the main takeaways:

  • Turn your services into products.
  • Test ideas before you launch.
  • Listen to your existing customers to identify new product ideas.
  • Social media is a critical marketing channel.
  • Be yourself.

Okay, let’s dig in.

Turn Your Services into Products.

Sarah offers website strategy and design services that she has packaged into products for potential clients:

She also just completed a “Gold-Digging Excursion” – a month-long course for 50 people.

Sarah openly prints her prices on the website, so potential clients know exactly what they get for their money. Compare this to many consultants who list off the many things they do, then say “email me to discuss how we can help you.” That email address or phone number is a huge barrier. Sarah has removed it.

She explains the decision:

“[The packages] came early on, out of connecting the dots from what retail businesses do and what other types of businesses do. I thought: ‘Well, why don’t web designers do this?'”

“It’s really intimidating for a lot of people to go on a web designers site who is really good. They don’t want to get in touch with them because they aren’t really sure how much it’s going to cost or what it includes. Then I realized there are basic things that you do for everybody and just start your packages from that. At least it gives people an idea that ‘I can hire this person and it will cost me this much.’ People have a fear of getting into something, then having it add up. Or if people give you an hourly rate and an estimate of how long it will take, what if it doesn’t take that long. I was trying to solve some of those fears and get people talking about what they need, instead of looking around and wishing & wondering and being scared to open the door.”

Another challenge she had to get past was clients wanting just website design services, without the overall online strategy that goes behind building an online presence. She was concerned that delivering tactics without a strategy would leave clients disappointed:

“I started out offering a list of everything I do, because I really wanted people to ‘get’ the strategy. Then if you just want a website and none of the strategy that goes along with it, you can subtract this much.”

“Now, there is a base price, and if you want me to work on the strategy, it’s like a different product. I’m getting ready to launch a whole new set of packages that will solve the problem of some people not ordering the strategy part, which is what I’m best at. I don’t want to NOT do that for someone. Everyone has this idea of me, and if they don’t get that, they will leave disapointed. They will have a beautiful website, but not know what to do with it.”

Test Ideas Before You Launch Them

Last year, Sarah began developing an idea for an online class – a four week course for about 50 people. She called it an ‘Excursion.’ The actual class – the Gold-Digging Excursion – ran in April and was a big success. But she learned a lot during the early process of choosing the topic.

At first, she was going with a different topic entirely. After developing the idea, she began prepping for launch, only to be shocked at the lack of interest:

“I was going to do a whole ‘branding’ excursion about ‘how to get people to change their minds about you. ‘I starting writing a blog series about it, and it just completely flopped. I was getting no interaction.”

“So I abandoned ship right before I was getting ready to launch this thing and I totally recreated it based on what I knew people needed, rather than what I was interested in at the moment. Then I became interested and passionate about it when I came up with the ‘gold-digging’ analogy.”

“I think metaphors inspire me and a lot of people to connect the dots about what this is going to do for you. When they can relate it to something else, like the gold rush. It’s a very similar thing, the gold rush to the internet rush. People are running out here to try to stake their claim in it, and find ways to actually make it work.”

This reminds me of the teachings of Eric Ries with his Lean Startup theory, and Steve Blank with his Customer Development theory. Both center on working with customers to develop products, instead of developing products before you are sure there will be customers.

Need New Product Ideas? Listen to Your Existing Customers

I asked Sarah about the difference between what clients initially ask for (website design) and what they need (an overarching online business strategy.) She describes what she has learned from clients, and how it has shaped her product offering. Listening and observing their real needs – often hidden needs – is crucial here.

“The only real gauge I have is my own clients’ experience who come to me after years of trying and not being able to make anything out of [succeeding online.] I think the economy has spurred that – the realization that ‘my local stuff is not working anymore, how can I get in on this whole online thing. It seems to be the only thing left to try.'”

“Most people are looking for the design part of it initially, and they think that will solve all of their problems – just having a prettier web presence. I encourage them to get into my site before we think about working together. People then realize that it’s not the design itself, its the whole strategy that goes behind it – a strategy that is moving forward, not a “set it and forget it” type of thing. This has to become a different paradigm for you.”

“Maybe they’ve noticed what other people are doing, or have thrown up Twitter or Facebook buttons on their website, or put the blog on the homepage, and that’s not working. And they just though “Why?! I thought that was the magic bullet.”

This is why giving clients ONLY what they ask for can lead them and you to failure. So Sarah read between the lines to find the goals that her clients weren’t specifically asking for, and then worked to give them something that would produce real results.

Sarah recently discovered a potential new product offering during her Gold-Digging Excursion. She had a bonus section where she would evaluate her students’ websites, and it was very popular:

“The most popular part of it was the bonus points section, where I went and actually evualated websites for volunteers within the group publicly. So people could see exactly what I was talking about when I talked about content strategy or the mailing list thing,  the web copy, or when I talked about packaging your services. They could actually see the real-life examples of what that looked like.   That got a whole lot of excitement, and got me thinking, ‘Wow, this is really neat, I can spin off of that.'”

In fact, she created much of the course as it was in progress for similar reasons:

“I was creating content throughout this course, I didn’t just have this set content, and that is what was going to be taught. I decided to get feedback as we were going as to what people needed. When new things were posted, I would email the group.”

Social Media is a Critical Marketing Channel

When Sarah first launched her business, she spent time and money on traditional marketing channels that she thought she HAD to do:

“I think everybody does this when they start their business, they think: “I have to do postcards and mail marketing; I’ve got to maybe get on some forum and Craigslist.”

“All these things that do not work, but we do them. I tried everything. I thought I had to have the perfect business card – all that crap that does not work.”

So what worked for her?

“Then, I found Twitter. It’s not just Twitter as a tool, it was that I could find people to work with that really embrace my values, and not just working with people because they are local or they live near me. I can work with people because they have a similar thinking, and my services are the exact fit for what they want.”

“At that point, I was scrambling to de-search engine optimize my site for local search. I was like “I don’t want to work with local people anymore.”  I went the complete 180 opposite direction. Now, I am trying to get back into the local scene because people are embracing social media more, it’s not so hard to connect with people on that level.”

Be Yourself.

Another thing Sarah learned when she launched is that you can just be yourself.

“At first, I was really afraid of being a freelancer, of being a one-person show, so I did what a lot of new entrepreneurs do, I pretended I was bigger than I actually was. Not by directly saying it, but giving the impression by saying things like “we do this for you” and “we do that for you.”

“Then the world just kind of opened up. I decided it was okay that I was doing this as one person. I can just be one person online, and it’s okay, and be celebrated actually. Then I realized nobody cared about my homepage where you say how awesome you are, they just go to the blog. So why don’t I center it all around the blog. It just spiraled from there.”

She has also been incredibly honest about the challenges of managing her own business, with a blog post like this one: “The Year of the Breakdowns,” where she writes:

“I think I’m going to call this the year of the breakdowns. I feel like this has been a recurring theme in my life and in my writing lately — breaking down. And it’s embarrassing, really. But I have to write about it. Because I can’t write “Top 10 Ways to Fix Your Blog Posts” when I’ve just gotten down off of a two-hour crying jag.”

From all indicators, this level of honesty has really brought her closer to her community and allowed people to relate to her more easily. I think when you are honest like that, people root for you, they join your team to help.

Overall, Sarah has an incredible energy to push things forward for her and her clients:

“I am always launching. I like to always do new things, and always be improving on everything. In the traditional business world, I was not able to do that as I would have liked.”

Thanks to Sarah for sharing her story and the lessons she has learned in growing her business.

Thanks.

-Dan

How to Maximize Your Most Precious Resource: Motivation

I’d bet you have lots of ideas on how to move your business & career forward, but feel you have too few resources to pull it off. Maybe you have a small team (or no team), too many existing responsibilities, not enough money, corporate red tape, and the like.

Dan BlankBut the thing standing in your way is not lack of money, lack of people, lack of technology, or lack of any physical resource.

If you had 10 more people, 20 more iPads, a promotion and a box of donuts, you still might not achieve your goals or be happy. STUFF is not the thing standing in your way.

Your most precious resources are what drives your inspiration and desire to realize your goals. MOTIVATION is the single biggest factor determining whether your dreams will become reality. Preserving this – growing this – is the key to your future.

So how do to you maximize this resources? I’ll tell you how I try to do it:

  • Be Inspired Every Day.
    Even on the busiest of days, I try to take time to be inspired – to learn something new that will fuel my motivation, and push me closer to my goals. One way I do this is by watching interviews on Mixergy.com. Each day, Andrew Warner interviews an entrepreneur about how they built their business. He does a live interview at 2pm each day, which gives me a schedule as to when and where I can be inspired. Make it a priority to schedule something like this into your day.
  • Look at Your Goals and Processes with Fresh Eyes.
    Analyze what you are doing that works, and what doesn’t. If you continue doing the same thing in the same way, then you can expect the same results. How can you improve yourself? How can you remove something you are doing that is standing in the way of your goals?Don’t be so quick to blame others, look inward.I try to be goal driven, even though my nature, I focus very much on relationships and process. To strike a balance, I creating to-do lists each day, and thinking about what I need to accomplish by the end of the week or month. This forces me to be more accountable, and harder to justify activities that don’t produce results.
  • Talk About Your Ideas.
    So many people feel that they can’t share their ‘great big idea’ because someone else will steal it. NO ONE WILL STEAL YOUR IDEA. NO ONE WILL PUT THE PASSION AND DRIVE BEHIND IT THAT YOU WILL.Maybe you did think of the idea for Craigslist back in 1994. And maybe you’re a bit upset that Craig Newmark made millions with that idea just a few years later. The difference though, was not who had the IDEA, it is who DID it. Craig  put more resources behind it than you – he had more inspiration and motivation to realize the idea.The idea alone is nothing compared to that. So share your ideas. Often. To everyone. People’s feedback will be helpful. Talking about it out loud will help you move forward and find inspiration and insight. It will also make you accountable – you are setting an expectation in the world that you might actually do it.

    Personally, I try to do that via Twitter, this blog, newsletters, and lots of conversations. It’s not easy to put yourself ‘out there’ each day, but I feel it is essential to the type of creative work I want to do.

  • Step Outside of Your Traditional Role to HELP Others.
    Everything about your day attempts to define you into a very specific role. When you can step outside of that, even for a moment, a world of possibilities opens up.The best way to realize this is to help others. Are you an accountant who really wants to be a professional photographer? Then offer to your neighbor to photograph his kid’s school play. Offer your realtor friend to photograph the houses she is listing.The goal here is not just the photos, but to create an identity. When someone changes their view of who you are and what you can do, that can be a very powerful motivator to evolve that identity further.

I’ve heard Jason Fried mention the value of motivation, and I know Daniel Pink has written about it too. Check them both out.

Thanks.

-Dan