Here’s a sampling of some of her more intriguing ideas/reminders…
— “Test two headlines. When you find a winner, run it against a new headline. Keep eliminating second-best. Google Ads is a quick and efficient way to do this.”
— “Now that you’ve identified your fundamental human need, how can that be expressed in an emotion-based headline?“
This one really captured my attention…
— “If you have a dog, use a photo of you with your dog instead. There’s something about a dog that lowers nearly everyone’s defenses.”
Here are his next five points. [plus a bonus point]
6. Aim for providing a unique product that offers great value to the customer. Yes, easier said than done. “The holy grail of marketing,” says Guy.
7. Follow the 10/20/30 rule.
— 10 slides in your PowerPoint pitch.
Title Problem Solution Business model Underlying magic Marketing and sales Competition Team Projection Status and timeline
— Give the pitch in 20 minutes.
— 30-point font should be the smallest size used. It forces you to condense your material to its essence.
8. Hire ‘infected’ people. Ouch! Questionable word choice in 2020, but in 2006, Guy meant, ‘people who not only have work experience and educational background, but love your product.’ — Ignore the irrelevant. Guy has never taken a computer class and was involved in the jewelry business when Apple hired him. Why? Because he lovedtheMacintosh. — Hire better than yourself. If you do that, you’ll avoid the ‘Bozo explosion’ resulting from ‘A’ players hiring ‘B’ players, and those ‘B’ players hiring ‘C’ players…and so on. — Apply the ‘shopping center test’. Imagine you’re in a shopping center and you see the candidate from a distance. If you don’t feel an incentive to walk right over and welcome him/her wholeheartedly, then that person is probably not the one to hire.
9. Lower the barriers to adoption. — Flatten the learning curve. [Simply your product or service.] — Don’t ask people to do something that you yourself would not be willing to do. [ex. Make the process for, say, a password to free products, simple enough that you would be willing to complete.] — Embrace your evangelists. Give perks to, create programs for those carriers of the good news of your service.
10. ‘Seed’ the clouds. — ‘Let a hundred flowers blossom’. Welcome the possibility that unintended customers may use your product in unexpected ways. — Enable ‘test drives’ to make sales. It tells potential customers you think they’re ‘smart’ [capable] and because of that, you’re encouraging them to work with the product. — Find the true influencers. Interact with administrative assistants, tech support, etc. Those folks ‘really do the work.’
Bonus point #11: Don’t let the bozos grind you down. Two kinds of bozos: — The nerdy social misfit bozo who doesn’t want to see you succeed. Easy to ignore. — The more dangerous one–the slick upper management tech bozos who, because of their status, might just make you pause. See the next post…
If you watch nothing else from this video/speech, at least fast-forward to the last five minutes, where he takes himself to task for his own ‘bozosity’. Good stuff.
Here are his first five points…
1. The best reason to start a company is to make meaning.
Increase the quality of life
Right a wrong
Prevent the end of something good.
2. Make a mantra for your organization and its employees. A mantra:
Should answer the question: “Why do you work here?”
Ask women about your business model. According to Guy, women do not have the male genetic flaw of wanting to ‘kill the competition’. ;->
5. Weave a MAT [Milestones, Assumptions, Tasks]
Milestones = first day of shipping your product, finishing a product design
Assumptions = write down and test questions like, “How many sales calls can you make per day?” “What’s the customer ROI?” “How much does it cost to install our product?”
Tasks = actions that help you reach a ‘Milestone’ = rent an office.
Top ten pieces of advice about entrepreneurship from Guy Kawasaki, former chief evangelist for Apple Computer, currently the chief evangelist for Canva, producer of his own Remarkable People podcast, and author of 15 books, including The Art of the Start 2.0, Rules for Revolutionaries, Enchantment, and Wise Guy. Here is a Goodreads list of most of his titles.
Note: I left out plenty of other accomplishments. Hey! I don’t have all day!
Ask women about your business model. According to Guy, women do not have the male genetic flaw of wanting to ‘kill the competition’. ;->
5. Weave a MAT [Milestones, Assumptions, Tasks]
Milestones = first day of shipping your product, finishing a product design
Assumptions = write down and test questions like, “How many sales calls can you make per day?” “What’s the customer ROI?” “How much does it cost to install our product?”
Tasks = actions that help you reach a ‘Milestone’ = rent an office.
Way back in Side Hustle Suggestion 49, I posted a short video running through pithy–yes, exaggerating, as usual–quotes for entrepreneurs.
Today, help yourself to this best seller, though it can’t really be called that since I’m not selling it, but I guess I could, but really, why, I mean, just give it away, right? And what constitutes a best seller anyway?
If you’re read this far, you’re now convinced I should not be anyone to trust with your future…Enjoy the book anyway.
I’ll soon post a pared-down, printer ink/toner friendly version.
As always, in the right column, there are related questions that may be better targeted to your interest.
Otherwise, just keep scrolling through the page that auto-fills more of the 100+ answers. And yes, some folks simply promote their own gig, but again, this is a search for answers and alternative strategies, so plenty here…
Note: Use your browser’s ‘Find’ command to narrow the answers to a specific year.
If you want to add value to these guides, and if you have capable software**, consider recording the screen as you cruise through your favorite content so you can conveniently replay it on your device of choice.
Side Hustle Curator 