For a more in-depth look at building a team and shipping a product to market, check out: Collaborate: The Modern Playbook for Leading a Small Team to Create, Market, and Sell Digital Products Online.
One of the first major projects I collaborated on was a business mastermind for veterans.
What's a business mastermind?
In our case (although they aren't all created equal), it was a 6 month 'a la carte', coach-led, business training program + personal mentoring led by several of today's most successful veteran entrepreneurs online (think millions of listeners, views, and revenue).
The minimum price of entry: $3,000.
A steal for the value (less personalized programs run upwards of $2k - $3k PER MONTH), but expensive as a one-time purchase nonetheless.
The results?
Over the last few months, I’ve received dozens of emails from readers asking me how to get their idea or project unstuck.
I’ve done my best to answer everyone’s question individually, but for every person who emails me directly, I can be sure there are two or three others with the same problem who haven’t spoken up.
So today I want to talk about how to get a project unstuck by leveraging a particular framework. This framework works for virtually any type of project in any industry, and I’m certain it can work for you, whatever your sticking point.
A Caveat: No, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for every problem.
My intention isn’t to give you the answer.
My intention is to give you a framework for approaching problems so you can systematically improve your chances of getting unstuck and getting your book, business, blog, or whatever to the next level.
If you have any feedback on the framework, leave me a comment below – even the best framework or system can be improved!
The endstate is essentially your ultimate goal. It’s the final situation you want to create for your project.
Think of it this way: in a perfect world, what would your project look like when it’s finished and shipped?
Why is the endstate so important? Because without it we have no guidance or direction for our mission, and the mission is exactly how we reach the endstate.
A good endstate is measurable, tangible and detailed enough to allow us to craft our mission.
Examples:
Being too big or too small with your endstate can hurt your plans here.
While it’s good to set your sites high, there are diminishing returns when you start setting impractical endstates relative to what you’re capable of achieving. That’s why it’s important to remember that an endstate is composed of multiple OBJECTIVES.
Objectives are those mission-critical events that lead us to the final endstate.
There are progressive objectives in just about any scenario, and each objective is the result of hitting smaller objectives along the way.
In the Army, when you lay out progressive objectives, each one laying the foundation for the next, they call it nesting.
The endstate for the military in the European theater of WWII was Allied control of Europe. This meant the mission, vaguely speaking, was to defeat the Axis power. Obviously, if you’re a lowly company commander, this endstate doesn’t help you much on the ground, does it?
That’s why in the Army they ‘nest’ their missions; they identity major objectives that must be met to meet the endstate, and they continue to break these down into smaller missions for lower units. So as a Company accomplishes their mission it feeds into the Battalion’s mission, which feeds into the Brigade’s mission, etc.
Each unit’s mission must nest with the higher unit’s mission.
In this way, if I’m a company commander and I execute my mission successfully (securing the bridge), this allows the Battalion (one command level higher) to meet their mission (secure the southwestern region)
Applying this to the world of entrepreneurship or art is simple: if you’re setting your endstate way beyond your capacity, that’s okay, but remember – you can only execute the mission at your current level.
So go ahead, by all means set your endstate as having your book published in 50 countries and languages across the world. But this isn’t your mission. You need to keep backward planning (see below) until you get to an actionable mission for the level you’re at (which, most likely, is publishing a book on Amazon and getting digital copies in the hands of readers).
Backward planning means identifying every objective that must be met to reach your endstate and planning from the endstate backward to your present situation.
Backward planning is effective because you’ll never end up with a giant gap of uncertainty – every objective will lead to the next, which means you’ll never be at a loss for what to do.
If we’re not detailed with our backward planning, it can often lead to massive gaps. This is the reason most people’s projects get stuck – instead of backward planning and creating a detailed, step by step roadmap for what to do, they end up with an Underpants Gnome plan.
In the second season of South Park, there’s an episode about underpants gnomes. Underpants gnomes are gnomes that sneak into peoples rooms at night to steal underpants as part of a broader business plan:
Step 1: Collect Underpants
Step 2: ?
Step 3: Profit
When we set unrealistic or impractical endstates, or when we try planning toward an endstate months or years out without meticulously working backward, we’re usually left with an Underpants Gnome plan. Instead of establishing strict, actionable objectives, we have an idea of what we want (Collect Underpants), and a general goal (profit), and nothing in between to get us there.
You can avoid an Underpants Gnome Plan by aggressively chunking and thrashing your plan (see below).
Chunking means breaking up your plan into actionable, bit-sized pieces with estimated time requirements and unique ship dates for each chunk.
The idea behind chunking is to identify every single step along the path to your endstate in a clear and precise manor. By identifying a ship date for each ‘chunk’ we eliminate procrastination or missing deadlines. By estimating (as accurately as possible) the time requirement to complete each chunk, we avoid the possibility of hitting a massive, insurmountable objective half way through our project (stuff like that can cripple a project).
Chunking is more art than science, but it starts with getting really, really detailed in your plan by identifying:
1) Facts – what are the facts of your project? If you’re bootstrapping a software company, a fact might be that you have one engineer on your team capable of coding the product. If you’re writing a book, a fact could be you have very little money to outsource editing. Facts are important for identifying limitations and restrictions (which affects your timeline and the chunking process)
2) Assumptions – what are you taking for granted or hoping/guessing will happen throughout the plan? A common assumption: I can do it all myself. This is almost never the case, no matter what the project.
3) Limitations and Restrictions – this is where you identify where facts or assumptions will limit or restrict your planning. So if you have one engineer to code the product, this limits the ability to start on the next product until the first one is done (without negative side effects).
A good rule of thumb for chunking: break everything down into objectives that take several hours or less to complete.
“Write Book” is a bad chunk. Breaking it down into parts – Table of Contents, Outline, First Sentence, First Chapter, Title, etc. – is much more effective.
You want to be able to accomplish a piece of your project every day to maximize momentum and keep your project moving forward.
Thrashing is the process of removing everything but the essential.
Very few products require more than a few features. This is especially true when you’re first starting out and you’re trying to prove an unknown (i.e. sell a new product to a new market). The fewer features you have, the more you can focus on what matters – and the less likelihood your project will go over time and budget (the killer of all startups).
But there’s an even better reason to strip your product/service/idea of extraneous fat (read: unnecessary features): it is necessary for idea validation.
Idea validation is determining what features you need based on iterative testing with users.
Ultimately, idea validation is about product/market fit – are people willing to pay for your product or service. In a matter of speaking, idea validation determines whether what you create has a reason for being created.
This is the biggest hurdle for most aspiring entrepreneurs to get over – sometimes the idea you have isn’t as good as you think it is. But the only way to find out is by testing it in a market. The only way to do that is by selling it to your customer.
If your customer doesn’t want it, time to think of a new solution.
If your customer likes it but there’s a holdup (cost, features, whatever), then you can continue to test new variations of the same idea.
The goal here is to test a decent sized audience so you’re not relying on just one person’s input, who could very well be the anomaly if you had taken a larger sample size.
Taken from the principle of lean starting, if ten people love what you make (and pay you for it), you’re probably onto something.
While I mentioned thrashing as step 4 in this framework, it’s really an ongoing process that begins the moment you have an idea and doesn’t stop until you’ve shipped.
There are always things you can cut, slash, limit and refine. This is not a bad thing! Think about it – probably the best things in this world (product, service or art) are probably great at one thing, not okay at a bunch.
Your job is to be excellent at one thing. Go for depth, not breadth. Leave mediocre for the try-hards.
This is a really simple breakdown of the framework I use when I start a new project. I didn’t include all the details here because they’re usually not the most important part. What’s important is a clear vision and an idea of the path or roadmap to get there.
That’s the purpose of this framework – to help you focus on what really matters.
If your project is stuck, I'd guess it has to do with lack of clarity or focus, and that is usually the result of failing to execute one of these steps I outlined in this framework.
If you found this helpful, you should definitely check out my guide and workbook on starting, finishing and shipping projects: The Gunslinger’s Guide to Starting and The Gunslinger’s Workbook.
In that guide and workbook, I go into more detail and give you a workbook to actually frame your project. I’ve received some great feedback, so if you’re stuck with a current project of looking to start a new one, grab it (it’s free).
I hope you find this framework practical.
Leave a comment below and let me know what steps you’ve taken or what framework you’ve used to ensure the success of your projects. And if you’ve found yourself stuck, let us know where and why, so we can work out a solution.
Every day, hundreds of thousands of blogs are started, thousands of books are published, and hundreds of businesses are created.
The majority don't last.
So what separates those that last from those that fail?
The ones that succeed - do they do something different?
Is there a common pattern, strategy or framework that successful projects use? And if so, can we model it and use it in our own projects?
These are the questions I've been asking myself recently as I dive headlong into my new publishing startup. The essential question is this:
How can I avoid the pitfalls of unsuccessful startups and tap into the magic of the successful ones?
What I've compiled here are the fundamental dos and don'ts for bootstrapping a business from scratch.
All of these lessons I learned from the masters of the trade (Michael Masterson, Eric Ries, Seth Godin, Chris Anderson, and Nassim Taleb among others) and applied in my own projects.
What you see here is the distilled wisdom of dozens of heavyweights in the business world, as well as the knowledge I've learned from hundreds of books, courses and personal interactions, whittled down into a no-fluff, practical resource you can apply to your own project.
Most of this advice applies to bootstrappers and creative entrepreneurs - but it also applies to the artist, designer and leader.
The lessons included here are universal and impact all of us who build things from the ground up with our bare hands.
So if that applies to you, definitely bookmark this page for future reading.
Good luck, and enjoy:
What not to do with your business is important: the majority of failures are a result of putting time and energy into the wrong things, and if we know what these things are, we can purposefully avoid them.
The 2 biggest don’ts of creating success in business and life are just that – things you should definitely, at all costs, avoid:
Re-routing is spending all your time building a solution…to the wrong problem.
This is one of the most common mistakes beginner-level entrepreneurs make. But it’s not just a beginner-level mistake – plenty of pro’s make the same mistake when they branch out into a new sector, industry, or genre.
Anytime we try something for the first time, we're liable to miss the mark.
That's why it's essential we constantly reevaluate our position, direction and goals (more on that below).
The Lesson: know what problem you’re fixing and why.
John Carter was an epic failure in the box office.
Even when things weren't looking good on set or in test groups, the producers continued to pump cash into the project. By the time they shipped, they needed to make close to $400 million to make money on the project.
With every dollar they pumped into the project, the more unlikely their chance of success.
The Lesson: don’t pump money, time and resources into a project that isn’t working. A sinking ship is a sinking ship - better to cut losses and find a new way to be successful than drown in pride.
It's essential you avoid the two pitfalls above.
Simply put, if you spend your time re-routing or get sucked into the John Carter Mistake, there's literally no way your startup will make it.
But let's say you can and do avoid these two major pitfalls...then what?
What CAN you do to actively improve your chances of success.*
*Note: success is relative and subjective. In this case, I’m defining success as creating something people want to (and will) pay money for without your business going under (i.e. making profit so you can grow your business).
The following is a list of the 9 best ways you can increase your chances of success, both in business and in life:
Just because things are the way they are doesn't mean they should be that way.
No matter what industry of business, genre of art, or category of book, there is always a way to improve the existing paradigm.
There are better systems, better solutions, and better products waiting to be created. The question is: are you willing to create them?
"Never accept the status quo – there is always a better way." - tweet this
Ask yourself:
Is there a way this product or this service can be made better?
Why is this the way it is? Can it be improved?
Where is their a problem and how can I fix it? What are the pain points of others? How do I help them?
Is there something missing that I can fill?
This philosophy (and it is just that - a philosophy for living life) of challenging everything includes challenging your own assumptions and beliefs.
Be relentless.
Constantly test your assumptions and, if need be, change your beliefs - they might just be holding you back.
Why are you doing what you’re doing?
Why do you want to create this piece of art?
Why do you want to build this business?
Knowing why you do what you do is ESSENTIAL. At the end of the day, your why is what determines your success because it directly feeds your solution (your what) and your execution (your how).
Why, how, what - this is what Simon Sinek describes as the "Golden Circle" - check out his short, powerful video below on starting with why.
"People don't buy what you do - they buy why you do it." Simon Sinek
If you aren't sure of your why, but you’re building something anyway, you’re probably rerouting.
Know your why - and then start with why.
No project should start without a hypothesis.
In The Lean Startup, Eric Ries explains businesses through the lens of a scientific experiment – in other words: testable, measurable, and reproducible.
Ries’ startup philosophy revolves around creating a hypothesis for your product or service – if we do X, then Y will happen.
“the goal of a startup is to figure out the right thing to build – the thing customers want and will pay for – as quickly as possible.” The Lean Startup
For example: if I add an email subscription box to the end of every blog post, I will increase my subscription rate by 7%.
Or, if I decrease the price of my product by 5%, gross revenue will increase by 10%.
The point isn't to know if it will work – the point is to have an idea, create a hypothesis for the idea, and then test it.
If it fails, tweak it and try again (email subscription boxes at the top of the blog post, or in the sidebar, or add a popup box to your site, etc.).
Constantly test. Constantly measure. Constantly learn.
And always adapt and grow.
When we hypothesize, we create a question that can be tested and proven right or wrong.
If the solution doesn’t work for a particular product or service, tweak the hypothesis and try again. This is changing tactics – the small scale engagements we make with customers or inside our business (i.e. changes to how we write our sales copy; changes to visual presentation, etc).
Changes in tactics don’t change the fundamental problem you’re trying to solve – changes in tactics simply mean a shift in how we approach the problem.
However, at some point, we might find that nothing is working for our original hypothesis. At this point, it’s time to change strategy - or, in Lean Startup terms, pivot.
"Life is too short to build something nobody wants." - Ash Maurya
Below is a video by Ash Maurya, author of Lean Running, who explains how to create products efficiently and effectively, why most startups fail, and how you can avoid making the same mistake:
If you found the video useful, make sure to check out Maurya's amazing, free lean canvas tool here. It will help you map out an effective, simple business plan.
If you have a hard time filling it out, it probably means you're missing a key piece of the puzzle for your own business. This will help you avoid creating a product that no one wants.
Pivoting means changing your business or business model.
This could mean changing from a "freemium" model (free content to bring people in; sell them paid premium content later on) to a premium, upfront monthly subscription model; from a company that produces and sells information products, to a company that builds software solutions.
Pivoting is sometimes drastic.
It can be scary and it’s never easy (it challenges our pride because it means admitting our original ideas were wrong).
But if you know your why, pivoting becomes a lot more bearable.
The Black Swan is a term coined by Nassim Taleb in his groundbreaking book of the same name, which focuses on probability, randomness and human rationality.
A Black Swan refers to an event that is unpredictable, but has massive impact in our lives.
The internet, for example, was a positive Black Swan event; now we are a few keystrokes away from almost anybody in the world, increasing connection and freedom throughout the world (this change was unpredictable and completely changed the economic landscape of the 90's and beyond).
The terrorist attacks on 9/11 were a negative Black Swan event - the ramifications of which we still experience every time we have to take our shoes off at the airport.
So while we can’t predict when or what form a Black Swan will take, we can focus on exposing our business and our life to positive Black Swan events (and, likewise, protect against negative Black Swans). A few ways to do this:
Here's a lesson on Black Swans from the movie Grinders with Matt Damon. It's 30 seconds long - it sums up why playing it safe isn't the way to live life. Sometimes, you have to take a chance:
Taleb recently published a new book called Anti-Fragility - which explains in more depth all the things that gain from disorder. A must read for all aspiring entrepreneurs looking to make a dramatic impact (and limit their downside exposure).
In the movie The Patriot, Mel Gibson’s character teaches his son how to shoot.
His advice – aim small, miss small.
Once you know your "why" you should focus on the most specific problem you can fix (every product or service fixes a problem).
The smaller, as in, more particular and precise the problem, the better your chances of hitting your mark (because you know exactly what you’re aiming for).
Shooting from the hip (i.e. seeing what will stick) is usually not the best solution to anything.
Be Specific.
Be precise.
Focused on one problem and one problem only to start – and be relentless about defining that problem and your solution.
You do not need a website, a team of coders, or a dozen virtual assistants to get your business off the ground.
You do not need angel investors, the Shark Tank or Donald Trump to pick you.
There is a way to test and validate every product before going full scale, and guess what? You can usually do this by yourself.
Your job is to figure out how to test your solution in the smallest way possible.
Below is a video by Neville Medhora, a guy who does a crazy amount of business testing (from drop shipping companies and one and one consultation services, to eCourses and digital products).
If this doesn't open your mind to what's possible, I don't know what will (warning: some swearing is involved):
Before you start your LLC, lock down the manufacturing and distribution facilities, and enlist a team of salespeople, maybe it would be more effective for you to create the first product and hustle it by yourself.
Can you sell it on Craigslist?
Can you sell it on Ebay or Etsy?
Can you set up a stand outside an event and sell it to real people?
The point is this: you must test and VALIDATE before you start scaling.
Sorry, but if it doesn't work on a small scale, it won’t work on a massive scale (Facebook started out on a single campus, McDonalds on one street corner, and Apple with one product).
Don’t work in it.
Working in your business is essential, but only in the beginning.
It’s necessary to work inside your business at the start; you need to know how it works so you can develop and refine your processes and systems. But once you have the systems in place, and a profitable product or service, start hiring others to do your job.
Your goal should be to create a profitable, organized and systematized business so you can scale.
You really shouldn't be hiring people until you're profitable (there are exceptions to the rule - I'm addressing solopreneurs/bootstrappers in particular here).
Working on your business and not in it is a concept heavily analyzed in The E-Myth Revisited, which explains the success of any startup requires the ability to create systems and processes in order to make your business turnkey.
Here's a video all about creating systems for your business from the author himself:
Creating a business is the only way to attain actual freedom through your creative work. As long as you're an employee or self-employed (i.e. a freelancer), you're at the beck and call of others.
Freelancing requires you to be on the clock (it might be fun, but you're still tied down).
If you want to create something that improves your quality of life, that increases your flexibility and freedom, be an entrepreneur - focus on creating a business, one that can grow and scale, even if you’re not there.
This means working on your business and not in it.
Yes, you might have to forget the project you’re working on, or change your tactics, or even pivot your strategy - but don’t quit on creating.
Never stop doing what you love because it doesn't work on the first try – it rarely if ever will.
"If I fail more than you do, I win." - Seth Godin
Self-determination and freedom are not easily won - it’s a struggle and you will take some hits.
That’s why so many quit or never try to begin with.
But not you.
Have faith, act courageously and keep fighting.
Is to constantly push your own abilities; to learn and grow and improve; to seek out challenges and test yourself.
You don't have to create your empire this weekend - and, in fact, you couldn't even if you wanted to.
But if you start today, in the smallest way possible (just one word on a piece of paper; just one call to a prospect; just one sketch of your design), you begin the process of creating something brilliant.
And in this singular act, no matter how small, you begin building your empire.
So I guess the underlying moral of the story is this:
Never stop creating. Start today.
If you like what you've read and need help starting, finishing and shipping your project, here are a few ways I can help:
1 - Join the Resistance by subscribing to our newsletter here (it's free)
2 - Check out a book I wrote called 2 Days With Seth Godin (PDF version) or on Amazon Kindle that can help you get your book, business, or blog unstuck.
3 - Check out the Cache where I have books, courses, and more - many that are "Pay What You Want" (your contributions help me continue to write, produce, and publish)
Have you ever tried writing a book, a blog, or business copy?
If so, you’ve probably experience writers block: the inability to form your ideas into the perfect words, sentences, and paragraphs.
But this type of block isn’t exclusive to writers.
All creative entrepreneurs - from writers, designers, and inventors, to artists, marketers, and entrepreneurs, experience creative block.
Creative block is the inability to satisfactorily form into something tangible the ephemeral ideas in your mind.
Creative block can hit anyone trying to tell the perfect story, build the perfect product, or produce the perfect piece of art.
And if you’ve experienced creative block, you know what an infuriating pain it is and how quickly it can cripple your project.
You also understand one thing only the few brave enough to create understand: Creative block is real.
Creative block is one of the Enemy’s most effective creativity-destroying weapons.
If you’re not careful, the Enemy will use creative block to get you to quit your project prematurely, give up before you even start, or abandon your life’s work althogether.
Don’t give up – there is a way to fight back and overcome creative block, once and for all.
But you must be ready to go to war with yourself and your art.
If you want to conquer fear, don't sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy. [Dale Carnegie]
There are ideas in your head - ideas that may be vivid, logical and clear before you sit down to write - but the moment you put pen to paper (fingers on keyboard) they vanish.
You sit down to bring these ideas to life but the ideas fade into nothing.
You stare at the screen desperately, hoping through sheer willpower you’ll be able to form your perfect idea into the perfect sentence…but it’s gone.
The worst part – throughout the day you had no problem at all coming up with great ideas.
But they all came at the most inopportune times.
These brilliant ideas come to you in their lucid entirety while driving, showering, or eating; while mindlessly folding clothes, lifting weights, or going on a long run; while in a conversation, reading a book, or listening to a presentation.
But the moment you need them – sitting in front of the blank screen - they vanish.
It seems like when you don’t need the ideas, the ideas come in waves, but when you need the ideas – when you sit down to write; when getting words on paper is the only thing that counts – the ideas disappear.
Insurmountable?
Hardly.
There are ways to overcome creative block.
It starts with identifying the reality of the situation: yes, creative block exists…
But only when we care deeply about what we create and how people will perceive it.
If you don’t care about what you write, or you’re not concerned with how it's perceived, you can write freely and unencumbered (think personal journal or email to a close friend).
For those who care about their work and about how it's perceived, overcoming creative block can be a bit trickier.
Fighting back against creative block is hard if we do it through force.
The two most common techniques are:
Both of these techniques are equally ineffective and will wreck you in different ways.
Both are tools of the Enemy.
Both will bury you.
The only way to overcome creative block is through the circumvention of disempowering thoughts, and focused discipline of good habits.
Forcing the right words never works.
When we sit in front of a computer all day, stressing and straining to get the “right” words onto the screen, we begin our descent into the self-perpetuating abyss of wasted time.
If the words don’t come out right the first hour at your computer, they sure won’t come out right by hour five.
They won’t come out right because they can’t: the words you write are never right. They’re also never wrong.
When we focus on creating the perfect sentence, the perfect flow, the perfect tone, style, or theme, we forget what’s ACTUALLY important: the message.
We forget our purpose; we forget our why; we forget the entire concept of art, which is this: art is never right or wrong.
The first and often most effective way to overcome creative block is to forget forcing the right words and begin allowing the wrong words...
People have writer's block not because they can't write, but because they despair of writing eloquently. [Anna Quindlen]
Eventually, once you allow enough of the wrong words, you’ll forget right and wrong altogether and simply create.
Waiting for inspiration is pointless and futile.
Often, when we’re burned out, tired, or simply unmotivated, we rationalize taking off days, weeks, or months so we can reset and recharge.
The thought process: if I’m well rested, if I take some days of to reset my mind, I’ll come back better and stronger. Plus, the best writing is inspired writing, so I must wait until I’m inspired before I write.
This is the Enemy at work.
The Enemy will justify why you should rest and save strength, why taking a break for an indefinite period is essential for creativity, and why avoiding writing is the surest way to clear your mind for more writing.
Lies.
The Enemy uses creative block to dismantle and destroy your project because it needs you sedated, compromised and passive.
The Enemy’s survival depends on keeping you safely hidden inside the group so as not to expose yourself through your art.
The Enemy fears you as an outlier and uses thoughts of ‘waiting for inspiration’ to cripple your dreams.
Don’t accept this for one second.
Here’s the reality: inspiration comes to those who grind, work, and create.
Inspiration comes to those who allow it to happen through movement, through action, through consistent, repeated behavior.
Inspiration comes to those who are disciplined.
I only write when I am inspired. Fortunately I am inspired at 9 o'clock every morning. [William Faulkner]
Sit down and create every day and you will find your inspiration.
When we put our words, ideas, and art out there; when we produce publicly; when we tell everyone who we are and what we’re about, we expose ourselves to the tribe.
And the tribe isn’t always on our side.
This fear of the tribe, of judgment and criticism, keeps many people from starting, finishing, and shipping their great work.
Overcoming creative block really isn’t a secret. It just means doing the work every day.
But you already knew that.
The real question is: do you have the courage to create in spite of these fears?
And that, like everything important in life, is your choice.
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. [Mark Twain]
I talk to a lot of people - a lot of people with great ideas, great vision, and tons of untapped potential.
But they're stuck on 'start.'
Instead of trying, attempting, and building, they wait around for the perfect opportunity, the perfect connection, and the perfect launch.
News flash: perfect doesn't exist.
Is good enough.
You don't need to be perfect (you can't be), all you need is good enough.
And unless you start, you'll never be good enough.
If that's not enough of a kick in the ass, below are 4 reasons you should start - TODAY.
When you start - when you enter the ring - it stops being an idea, a thought, a dream; it becomes your work, out in the world.
No, you're probably not ready; but the sooner you take yourself and your work seriously enough to ship, the sooner you will actually be ready.
There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting. [Buddha]
It's a paradox, but most important things are.
At first, you may have to fake it. This is okay: everyone else is doing the same thing, even (especially) the more famous writers, entrepreneurs and artists.
Stop worrying about being a phony and start shipping your projects.
Note: you might still feel like a phony even after shipping your 100th project, but that's not what the rest of the world will see.
If you start and it doesn't pan out, keep going. If that doesn't pan out, pivot. If that doesn't pan out, try a different technique, tactic or strategy.
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. [Thomas Edison]
There is no such thing as a single opening launch that, if not done PERFECTLY, will destroy your business, career and art.
Unless you've raised millions in venture capital, the initial start is almost insignificant.
The first version is never the FINAL version. This goes for everything; the first draft of a manuscript, the first iteration of software, or the first marketing campaign of a brick-and-mortar company.
Don't sweat the start. Just start.
Stepping into the ring (actually shipping your product; moving from hobbyist to professional) is never easy.
We think we need to be completely ready - trained up, competent, and ready to deal with any possible failure point.
But that's just it: you are ready. Whether you know it or not, you've been ready you're entire life; you just never stepped into the ring.
So step into the ring already.
Start.
It sounds simple - and it is.
Start right now; release the first version of your blog, publish your first eBook, sell your unfinished (but minimally viable) product.
The worst that can happen is it doesn't work, which means you're closer to a solution that will.
The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. [Walt Disney]
Here is the 2nd episode of “In the Trenches: The Resistance Broadcast Interview Series” and today I had the honor of interviewing Clay Hebert.
[Listen to the Interview by clicking this link]
Clay is an entrepreneur, blogger, multitasking ninja, and all around instigator.
Clay began his career at Accenture. After ten years at Accenture, Clay left corporate America and got his MBA from Seth Godin.
Currently, Clay is building Spindows.com, a new startup that will change the way organizations collaborate (think of it like speed dating + skype + your organization).
Clay has created a number of startups, including: Tribes Win, a marketing strategy and innovation agency, where he helped brands lead their tribes. More recently, Clay began a new project called Work Hacks, where he helps people live a more productive, efficient, and streamlined lifestyle.
You can read Clay’s blog and find out more about him at Daily Sense.
Clay is a sought after speaker, writer, and entrepreneur, and this interview is essential listening for anyone looking to start their own project (book, business, or blog).
In this interview, we cover:
You can read more about Tribes Win here, Work Hacks here, and read Clay’s blog here.
Be sure to check out Spindows here, and read up on some of the interviews Clay has done regarding the new platform he is developing (very interesting stuff).
If you liked this interview, share it with everyone you know and reach out to Clay and thank him!
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Some other highlights from our conversation:
Purple Cow: The essential guide on marketing and creating remarkable products.
War: A nonfiction work that follows a group of soldiers in Afghanistan - not for the feint of heart.
Crush It!: If you want to dominate in the online arena, you need to leverage the connection economy.
The Lean Startup: An incredible book on the power of validating an idea before you begin, failing fast and scaling fast (with minimal resources - great for the solopreneur).
Launchrock: Starting a project? Validate it first.
Skillshare: Have something worth teaching? Make money sharing your knowledge!
***
If you haven't had a chance, catch In the Trenches: Episode 1 here.
Starting down the path to success is simple.
To be successful at anything, you must commit.
But committing to anything means you make a transition.
When you commit, you transition from someone who dabbles to someone who goes all in; from someone who quits when things break to someone who takes it all the way; from someone who lets the claustrophobia of determination keep them from pursuing something worthwhile, to someone willing to face the loneliness of creation without hesitation.
When you commit, you make the transition from Hobbyist to Professional.
This transition changes everything.
Transitioning from Hobbyist to Professional changes your priorities.
When you finally take yourself and your work seriously enough to sell your product, you will find that things in your life start to prioritize themselves organically.
The things you thought were important - like watching the news or knowing pop culture trivia - fade to the background and become superfluous.
The things you had initially avoided as unnecessary discomforts – waking up early, writing every day, or never ending the day without a sale – become your lifeblood.
Transitioning from Hobbyist to Professional not only alters your priorities, it forces you to identify your focus.
In order to instigate (start, finish, and ship) successfully, you will need to focus entirely on one end-state, and this end-state will require all your time, energy and creativity to bring to fruition; it requires everything you've got.
To feel ambition and to act upon it is to embrace the unique calling of our souls. Not to act upon that ambition is to turn our backs on ourselves and on the reason for our existence. [Turning Pro]
Becoming a Professional is no joke.
Nothing great is created by half-hearted commitment, lack of follow through, or someone unwilling to take it all the way.
The Professional understands this and acts accordingly.
Success requires commitment and only the Professional, not the Hobbyist, is ready to take on the pain, heartache and seriousness of commitment.
Committing itself is simple: all you have to do is choose one end-state and make sure you get there (no matter what).
The difficult part of commitment isn’t the focusing on one end-state, nor the grit it takes to bring that end-state into existence (although that requires something special too); the difficult part is what focusing on one end-state means for everything else in your life.
Commitment means purposefully ignoring other end-states, other projects, and other courses of action.
Commitment to anything (a healthier lifestyle, a new project, your life’s work) means you discriminate; that you choose one goal over another.
Commitment means you close doors; that the only door you leave open is the one that leads to your chosen goal.
Wishing never solved the problem. If you wanna get it big time, go ahead and get it, get it big time. [Yeasayer]
When we commit, we inevitably lose out on other paths, other ambitions, and other goals.
Sometimes it even means losing out on the people closest to us.
To do that willingly is tough. It’s scary. It's madness.
There’s nothing easy about commitment, which is exactly why most people don’t commit and instead “keep their options open” into eternity…
But here’s the catch: We think keeping our options open gives us safety, or power, or certainty.
That couldn’t be further from the truth.
The only way to guarantee failure is to never close any doors at all.
All you have to do to make sure you never build your empire, or develop that healthy lifestyle, or create your life’s work, is to keep all your options open, to never close yourself off to anything, and to stay available ad infinitum; to seek and scan for success, but never focus to bring it into existence.
Closing doors is scary; you might choose the wrong one, miss a great opportunity, or regret the choice you make.
Close a door and something bad might happen.
You might fail.
Keeping all your doors open is comforting; you never have to live with the pain of second-guessing your choice, the regret of choosing wrong, or the responsibility of creating your life's work.
Keep all your doors open and nothing will happen.
You're guaranteed to fail.
There is no scarcity of opportunity…only scarcity of resolve to make it happen. [Wayne W. Dyer]
The choice is yours.
Success isn't random.
Creating a successful project is no different.
A business (whether an individual writing novels, a corporation selling insurance, or a nonprofit doing charitable work) is nothing more than a series of projects.
A successful business, therefore, is nothing more than a series of successful projects.
Look at any successful company – Coke, Nike, Apple, Kickstarter, Amazon, Chic-fil-A, Lululemon, Rogue Brewery – do you think their success is simply luck?
Or is it more likely that these companies have a system for instigating successful projects?
Creating a successful project is not about luck or coincidence (although either may help or hurt your project).
On the contrary, there are historically proven steps you can take in order to be successful.
*note: Every single one of the companies I listed above follows some form of this model for upper and lower level management when taking on any new project or product launch.
The following are 3 proven steps to guarantee your success in any project you're about to instigate:
What’s the last goal you set? Did you reach it? If not, where is that goal right now? Above your computer? In your wallet? Taped to the visor in your car?
A goal is only as good as your focus.
There are great tips out there for creating compelling, powerful goals (the SMART method is excellent: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound), but none of it matters if you don’t review your goal daily…
And then take action daily to achieve the goal.
Goals give purpose and direction to our actions, but we need to review and maintain the goal daily to make sure we don’t get sidetracked.
Tip: Set a goal, write it down, and review it every day. It seems so painfully obvious it almost hurts to write – but how often do we put this common sense to practice?
Another one that seems obvious, but how often do we actually commit AND follow through with our projects?
There are ways to measure the success and failure rate of start-ups There are ways to determine the revenue generated from a specific advertising campaign. There are ways to identify the conversion rate of your product's splash page.
There is no way to measure all the projects that failed before they started.
There’s no way to determine the success or failure of a project if we never make it through the brainstorming and thrashing stage.
If our great idea stays an idea, it fails.
If we set a goal but never follow through, we fail.
Tip: Once you've identified your goal, commit your time, energy and focus toward realizing it. Don’t stop until it’s finished. Follow through.
This is what separates successful companies from failed companies.
The pattern of all great companies (and all great instigators) is to create, ship, measure, refine, and ship again.
The beauty of this method: it plans for future failure.
When Pepsi released Crystal Pepsi in 1993, they pushed the marketing and advertising campaign hard. And, for a short (very short) period of time, it was successful.
Until it wasn’t.
Pepsi didn’t push the failing product; they pulled it from the market. They tweaked the formula and released a citrus variation called Crystal from Pepsi, which you probably never heard of, because that failed too. They pulled it from the market.
Pepsi didn’t try to release a new version; the clear-Pepsi thing simply wasn’t working. So Pepsi took the measured results and used them for future product and marketing campaigns (Sierra Mist).
Pepsi can get away with more large scale product failures than we can, but we can still mimic the fundamental pattern of how they create and introduce new products to market (a system that has more wins than losses).
Eventually, one of these products will be successful. That’s the nature of measuring, refining, and shipping; you will eventually create something successful (i.e. something people want and will pay money for).
It’s not guess work; the creation of a successful product is very much a scientific process of measuring results and modifying inputs.
Tip: As long as we learn from our mistakes and use that information to shape future projects and products, we will inevitably create a successful offering. Always measure, always refine, always ship.
The success of a project has nothing to do with luck.
Serendipity and providence can help us, sure, but if we rely on either to propel us toward success, we’re destined to fail.
Serendipity and providence only help those who don’t seek them.
And while we don’t have control over our lucky breaks, we do have control over something more powerful: our actions.
"Life is pretty simple: you do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works." - Leonardo da Vinci
It’s so simple but so often neglected:
Care about your customers and they’ll care about you.
"If you care about your customers, you will spend much of your spare time thinking about how your products can improve their lives. That kind of thinking will lead directly to thoughts about how you can increase efficiency, improve quality, expand customer service – all of which will lead to increased revenues."
Michael Masterson
Or, as Gary Vaynerchuk puts it: give a $%&# about the customer (and employees) and develop a relationship with each customer.
Now, more than ever, developing a meaningful connection with each and every customer is essential for business survival. Why? Because the internet and social media have transformed the business-customer interaction.
While big companies were lifeless, anonymous robot factories throughout the 20th century, now social media allows that same business to put a face to a name and deal one-on-one with each customer.
Because the internet allows us to reach globally and cluster based on interest, it has created a small-town mentality for every niche.
The advent of the internet and social media has facilitated the convergence of two very powerful concepts:
In 1984, if your Sony Discman didn’t work as advertised, you would complain to those around you. Your complaints might influence the purchase of a few close friends.
Word of mouth had very little impact.
In 2012, when the newest iOS update has a map glitch, you can blog or tweet to thousands of listeners, and they can push the message even further.
The word-of-mouth impact is magnitudes greater.
Depending on the reaction, this can be a positive stepping stone towards deeper, meaningful conversation, or it can kill the relationship between the customer and the business.
This phenomenon has helped many small, but passionate businesses become game-changers (Zappos).
It’s also destroying bigger companies that can't wrap their heads around why we don't want to deal with a robot or a labyrinth of menus in the (vain) hopes of speaking with a human being (Comcast).
And while big companies can get away with second-rate service for a while, the stage is set for new businesses with personal connections at their core to disrupt the status quo.
Why?
Because people will pay a premium for service.
How can you (or your brand, company, gang, tribe) build that connection? Below are 4 ways to improve your business:
Listen and respond to questions and concerns people have. Sending blanket emails or pushing products is not acting like a human, unless you're a very boring human that people don't like - stop self-promoting all the time!
No more robot menus...pick up the phone!
That means making every interaction unique. This works better in some professions than others, but anyone from doctors to chemical engineers could use this advice to improve interactions with their coworkers or customers.
There's no tactic, shortcut, or life hack for this one. Sorry folks.
One last thing: building a relationship takes YEARS. This isn't a quarterly marketing campaign - it's a lifestyle of caring.
That takes heart and perseverance. It takes grit.
So here's the question: how do you create real, deep connections with your customers (and do you think it's even worth it)?
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