bwagy, the blog of Ben Young

In this day and age you should be doing what you want.

“do what I want”

Life is so much more rewarding when you are doing what you love, what your passion is, whatever it is that makes your heart soar.

It’s much easier to motivate yourself, create a balanced life and hard work pays off in magnitudes.

Given recent economic changes, now is the best time to get into doing what you love, as weaker competitors will be knocked out of the market thus leaving room for you to dominate.

So if not now, when?

(if you don’t think this has anything to do with marketing, think again, the bigger picture is coming soon)

Woody Allen said:

“Eighty percent of success is showing up.”

However when you go to turn up, you get a sudden fear, a feeling in your stomach, so you stop.

That’s why free events have high rsvp low turn out rates.  

Rather than endure the feeling in your stomach you just don’t go. No pain if you don’t. 

However same thing happens in life, only your letting yourself down.

You need to stop.

Ignore this and dive in.

Been contemplating blogging? building a website? learning a new hobby? always let this pain stop you?

My advice is to learn to love the pain, thrive on it, throw yourself into it, scare yourself.

Some call this throwing yourself in the deep end.

If your not scaring yourself your not pushing yourself, so scare yourself and turn up. 

(that’s where success is hidden)

ps

also read I Fail Lots if you haven’t yet.

I have been thinking a lot about Twitter and the communications channel it provides.

A few points:

• Captive audience (9 – 5 office audience)
• Short, sharp, snappy messages
• Low interaction cost
• Anonymity & transparency (for those who operate under their name)
• High authenticity

So what services would then bode well under these conditions? Quite a lot, Competitions, Market Research, News…here’s one I have been chewing on:

Fitness Plan

Offer a free fitness plan, where you have a trainer, throughout the week putting out exercises you can do in your office (or from your desk).  

Imagine engaging several hundred local people to do the same exercise at the same time and report back (kind of flashmobbing but in the office).  

Keeping fit is a big problem for office workers.  You can then engage with the audience and help them keep fit.  

Monetisation models are numerous: upselling, selling gear, consultations, build a community, sponsorship. 

Take it further, exercises to reduce Occupational Overuse Syndrome (oos), dietary?

Oh and you can use it as a feedback tool to find out immediately the difficulties your market are having and help them. (Help me help you)

We all exist in little pods, groups, communities, tribes

I prefer pods, as they describe the structure, better.  separate distinct pods.

Here are some i belong to:

• Last.fm 
• Twitter
• Facebook
• This blog

There are some overlay between these (majorly twitter/myblog) however they are all separate.

Offline i belong to other pods, families, groups.  

We always have, but as interaction platforms change (from meeting a pub to online) our membership increases.

I wonder if over time we are only going to exist in more and more pods? how about in a crisis like a natural disaster?

This is on the tip of everyone’s tongue at the moment.

How do you turn your customers into fans?

Fans will rave about you.  Tell their friends.  Sell your product for you.

There is no perfect mix, but some questions I would be asking myself are:

– Who are the key influencers whom use my product?

– How can i excite them about my product?

– Am i excited about my product? Why?

– Are you the best? or the worst? Either way.  Pick a spot at each extreme.

– Am i selling the sizzle? do customers know what the sizzle is?

– Have i provided a platform or catalyst for customers to become fans?

– Have i provided tools for my customers to become fans (blogger kits, graphics, competitions)

– Is my product actually making their life better? am i helping them?

Well not quite a sabbatical.

More of a break.

A time to pause / reflect.  

That’s why there is no post today.  (well there is now).

Every now and again, stop, refocus, adjust, push forward, dominate.

Let this be your mid week reflection (as I do the above).

is scary huh?

People pause.  They don’t know what to do.

There is a void.

You instantly think you need to fill it.

What if you didn’t? What if you bought 30seconds of ad time during peak times and had nothing.  Absolutely nothing.

People would be in the kitchen during the ad break going “who turned the tv off?”, others would look up to see what was going on, they might even tune in.

Silence is polarising, we are so used to noise, we have no idea how to react.

Giving groups of things a wrapping adds value.

Some example wrapping:

Collaborate and create an advertising company representing many blogs.  Individually they have no value.  As a collective they do.

Represent a collective of shops to negotiate better rates as a whole rather than individually

Bring a whole lot of friends together and work together.

Wrapping things up and giving them new meaning establishes value and shifts the perspective, the conversation that’s going on in your market’s mind.

What can you wrap up in your market?

I consume a fair amount of media, especially ebooks.

Every now and again I’ll head down the print shop and print them out. (and then once finished I can share them).

Here’s five I’ve read recently I would recommend:

• 4 Hour Work Week Corporate Guide: succinct guidelines from the Four Hour Work Week book (original blog post) for helping you get more out of your time.
• A Brief Guide to World Domination: Must read by my friend Chris Guillebeau
• The Word of Mouth Manual by Dave Balter, poses some interesting thoughts
• BootStrappers Bible by Seth Godin, valuable resource
• Blogging Strategy (my own) but honestly read it if your a blogger, take a step back and then reflect on your blog

Being different is not always the best.

Some things should be the same.

But choose one area where you will be different.

Be different where it matters.

Sitting in a cafe last week for a meeting, I gazed across the beverages.

Glinting at me from the corner were 3 rows of bottled water.

Waiwera Bottled Water.  Shaped round like a rain droplet.  They offering a visual viewing experience.  So they stood out amongst the others.  If i want water.  That’s the one I’ll be grabbing.

They are different where it matters, at the right place (cafe’s) at the right time (i want a drink but not sugar).  Bang.  Other water’s have no chance.

So think about it.  Where does it matter that i’m different?

Are you the Change Management person with a blog? are you the courier man who smiles at every customer.

1) Your product breaks.

2) Your product doesn’t boost my status.

3) Your product isn’t better when my friends use it.

4) It’s too hard for me to write about you on my blog. Give me some materials.

5) Where’s the social component?

6) I’m a loyal fan what have you got to offer me?

7) Why can’t I easily tell all my friends about your product?

8) You ripped me off by selling me a product that isn’t the experience you sold me on.

9) You don’t offer upgrades or a warranty.

10) If i need help with your product.  I have to find it myself.

You could view these how you want, however i will leave you with this Churchill quote

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. “

Think Orange County Choppers

You get to see the whole process from:

• Product Research
• Idea creation
• Mock ups
• Final product

You get to capture the whole story of this bike. 

They don’t need to market the bikes, they have already done it through the tv show.

The only question for fans is how much?

How can you involve your customers in the process? 

And secondly

How can you involve just not 1 customer but potentially thousands of customers? through a blog or video or crowdsourcing or….

First off.

They’re free.  

Which establishes low value. So we’re not actually likely to wear them at all.

Given the cost I suspect that getting you to wear them is not the key part, they want you to discuss their product as you received a freebie.

Let’s change this.

How about, you hire a designer off threadless to make an awesome t-shirt that may or may not feature your brand and give it away.  

You then provide two opportunities for conversation.

1) X company gave me freebies.

2) Hey I like your t-shirt where did you get it from?

3) You will actually desire to wear the t-shirt vs throw it out. (and thus allowing greater opportunities for discussion everytime it’s worn)

Give it a shot, why not? We all know everyone throws those t-shirts out anyway.

Flick Pro / Basecamp / Hosting / Skype credit.

They are all very fragmented.

Payment & bundling is still very standardised I think there is a huge gap for innovation.  

Especially when the internal processes at internet companies are much more flexible.

Why doesn’t someone bundle services into packs resulting in 5%, 10% or 20% savings per month.

Say:

• A freelancers pack: Solo Basecamp + Amazon s3 + Hosting acccount
• Small business pack: Basecamp + Hosting + Yammer

You get the idea.  There is a lot of overlay of some services.  Why not reward those customers.

Take it a step further.

Build a platform so I can make my own bundle.  

Save some dollars.  

Let me share it on my blog and with my friends / family / networks and others can sign up to it.  

Imagine if Michael Arrington had his own personal plan on his blog.  I’m sure hundred’s would buy it.

As a Friday bonus (two posts one day!)

Reading I would highly recommend as a platform of knowledge would be:

The Dip by Seth Godin (must have)

Screw it Let’s Do it by Richard Branson (short version, very motivating)

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (Interesting insights into how we make snap judgements)

E-Myth by Michael Gerber (Teach you all the things you will wish you’d done first time around)

The world of Karl Pilkington by Karl Pilkington (Absolute rubbish with an artistic genius kind of take but hey you need a break)

Grab one from the library, a friend or from the book store.