What do I do?
ONE BIG IDEA
Who Is Coming to Me:• The people who come to me are typically in some sort of emotional pain.
• Some are simply feeling like their business is lacking a little bit of direction, or like their business could use a little more life and meaning out there in the world.
• Others are feeling deeply confused, frustrated, angry, desperate, scared, and embarrassed.
• In these founders’ worlds, everything is cranked up to eleven, they are staring at walls, the ground is opening up at their feet, and fire is raining down from the sky.
• For many people across this spectrum, it seems to them like every solution, tactic, angle, idea has been tried, hacked, modified, reexamined, retried, and still nothing works.
• Nothing resonates with anyone, or at least, not with enough people.
• This issue, regardless of emotional state, is a problem of incoherence.
• It is a story problem.
• From the outside, it is not clear who you are, what you do, or why you exist – to anyone.
• I work with founders in order to remove this incoherence from their business and replace it with clarity and direction.What You’re Actually Looking For Is This:1. Clarity - (This is who I am and what I stand for).
2. Direction - (That is where I am going).How I solve This Problem:1. I determine, develop, and define the differentiating factors of the founder and the business.
2. I make sure that all of the elements in the business are then aligned with these factors.To Describe What I Do In One Line:• I provide Coherence Through Differentiation.That’s it. Here’s a basic overview:1. We determine what makes you different.• You are a unique individual with a unique life, history, and worldview. You had, and still have, intentions for this business. You had an ultimate goal, a dream, an idea.
• There is a reason you wanted to build this thing and set it out into the world.
• We discover how that reason can be used as the foundation for everything else in your business in order to better prepare you to turn your vision into reality.2. Once we know what makes you different, then we find out who that matters to.• Who are your Clients?
• Or rather, who is the ideal client you want to serve?
• Don’t just sell things.
• Sell things that appeal to the right people.
• The things that appeal to the right people are the things that come naturally out of, and fit naturally into, your differentiation, your identity, your story.3. Once you know who you are and who your customer is, you can now determine what to make and/or sell in order to provide value to those very specific people in very specific ways.• Solve a pain point that matters only to this type of person.
• Fulfill a fantasy.
• Represent a philosophy.
• Give them a valid reason to want to be a part of your story, to engage with it, represent it, and tell others about it.
• The best qualities to represent are those that are real, those that are yours.
• If you want to attract real people, you should be real.
• You should be honest from the foundation up.4. Once you know who you are, and you know who your customer is, and you know what your product is -- then, and only then -- should you start developing your marketing, advertising, selling strategies, lead magnets, content, etc…• This is accomplished by deriving all of your content from this source of cohesion.
• This is the context that makes your content make sense.5. Taken all together, you now have substance.• You have reality.
• You mean something to someone, because you made the choice to not make price or service the core differentiator of your business and suffered because of it.
• You chose to be different, to appeal to a different customer, with a different product, presented in a way that provides real value to real people.The Value I Offer:When we are done working together:
1. You know who you are, and why you are that way.
2. You know who your customer is, and why they are your customer.
3. You know what your product is, and what it represents to your clients.
4. You know your identity, your philosophy, your story, and you know how to use those as the fuel to run the machinery of your business. (marketing, ads, content, sales, etc...)
5. You know that you have a direction to orient yourself toward, forever.This Results in What I Call the Magnifying Glass Effect:
The Magnifying Glass Effect Explained:• I work on Step 1.
• I build the “sun” in the analogy, the fuel for the machinery.
• The marketing, ads, content, derive their content from this source.
• Because they are harmonized by the same source, they focus all of your practical efforts into lighting a fire, like a magnifying glass focusing sunlight.
• The “fire” here is that you mean something to someone else.
• You connect on an emotional level, beyond the transaction, and beyond the material value.A Concrete Example:• People all over the world walk through airports every day, and from 100 feet away they’ll spot a bag and think: “A Louis Vuitton bag”.
• Now, we’re a long way from Louis Vuitton, but the principle is the same:
• A perfect stranger recognized a symbol that represents a very specific identity, philosophy, and story, which in turn says very specific things about the person carrying that symbol.
• That’s the point.
• For anyone to recognize the symbol and its associated story.
• And to then recognize the symbol’s associated story with the person displaying it.
• That’s it.
• Further evidence that for a human being, stories make reality, not actual reality.
• It is what seems to be that matters, not necessarily what is.
• However, when what seems to be and what is coalesce in reality, as in the case of the Louis Vuitton bag, a powerful force is created, and because is it unique, it cannot be competed against directly.
• You are different.
• You are coherent.
• Therefore, you have clarity and direction, as promised.Final Thoughts:• It sounds like a crazy thing to have to point out, but the expectations your customer has of your business . . . are the expectations that you created.
• The value your customer wants and expects . . . is what you told them they should want and expect, even if you didn’t realize it.
• Millions of business owners do not seem to understand this basic relationship between what seems to be and what is.
• The equation is very simple:
• If you purposefully solve this incoherence, then you can only provide what you promise to provide.
• Real value to another person.I suppose in the end it comes down to deciding whether or not you are interested in making money for money’s sake, or if you’re interested in building something that is meaningful to you and to other people as a direct result of your interaction.I only do the second one.