Why we will take over the world?

Photo by (Creative Commons) Alejandro.An

Sustainability

Sustainability is still determined by the quality of your product and team of people behind your product.

Regardless of how cool a new tool your competitor is using.

Regular advancements over time matter more than big gains occasionally.  Click to Tweet.

Leadership

Leadership still wins over gimmicks, promotions, incentives and buzz.

Regardless of how much money you raised in your last round of VC funding.

Loyalty

Loyalty is still the currency of longevity.

Regardless of how big a salary you pay for a guy with a fat resume.

People still matter

Products still fail regardless of how innovative and revolutionary they might be.

Real people, do real business, with real people.

A small group of Heretics is still more powerful than a large army.  Click to Tweet.

Revolutions are lead by heretical people who cash in all of their chips based on the passion of an idea or principle.

Products can be copied.  Heretics can not imitated.

Experience is more important than theory.

What you can learn in a book, a course, an article, a podcast, or a two day seminar…..

Still fails in comparison to the experience of living it out.

Transferable skills are not enough.

Proven world changing revolutionaries should have war stories to tell.  Click to Tweet.

How to take over the world?

  • Out-smart
  • Out-think
  • Out-design
  • Out-innovate
  • Out-sell
  • Out-imagine
  • Out-create
  • Be more human

Most people, most companies will never invest this much to succeed.

We however will always invest more of ourselves than the next guy.

And we will take over the world.

What if No One Likes What You Create (Creative Process)?

The Creative Process is full of reasons to quit

When I sit down to work on new creative projects, I often hear this question before I even start. How much time do you spend thinking about why you shouldn’t start creating something new instead of just doing it?

How many statements of disqualification do you listen to everyday?

Do you ever hear questions in your head like these?

The truth is I hear this list a lot.

Sometimes I even yield to its taunting voice. I want to share with you the struggle that I face to make it make it to the finish line. I’m writing this post for myself as much as for you. I need the help in silencing my lizard brain that wants me to stop risking and play it safe.

The “What If’s” that try to stop me from doing great work

  • What if my next projects, my next presentation, my new curriculum, my new software app stinks?
  • What if no one uses it?
  • What if no one likes it?
  • What if no one leaves a comment on my next blog post?
  • What if I don’t finish the Marathon I am training for?
  • What if my manifesto doesn’t get read?
  • What if no one buys my new product idea?
  • What if your book manuscript doesn’t get published?
  • What if no one listens to my new podcast?

I waste time listening instead of doing

How much time do we spend churning through these questions instead of just doing the work?

I am going to wager a guess.

Some days, I spend almost 75% of my time
entertaining these whispers of doubt instead of
courageously doing the work regardless of outcomes.

How many incomplete projects or ideas do you have in your cue?

Steven Pressfield describes these enemies of the creative process in his book, The War of Art. He names the tension, calls out the culprits, exposes our fears and throws a lifeline to the reader to stop listening and start doing great work.

I have a series of projects that I have been loosing the war to what Steven calls “The Resistance”.  Watch his video here on how to overcome Resistance.

Take an Inventory

  1. Would you be willing to take an inventory of the number of projects, ideas, initiatives
    that you have started in the last six months, but not completed?
  2. Now take a similar inventory of the number of projects that you have completed?
  3. How many of the completed projects, ideas, products, inventions, books, stories, speeches, stood up against the above list of fears?

Do The Work Anyway

Once you answer the questions above with the answer I am going to do it anyway.

Then you are free to do the work you love regardless of people’s responses. Jeff Goins published a great ebook that speaks to this kind of thinking, Your Are a Writer, so start acting like one.

Instead of doubting, I want to act like the person I want to become.

  • You are a writer.
  • You are a designer.
  • You are an author.
  • You fill in the blank. “I am a…….”

What will you do today that yesterday you dismissed because you thought
no one will like what you create?

You might also enjoy the podcast interview with Jeff Goins.  Listen here.  

Why Win-Loose sucks?

I had a conversation that went something like this.  I am fine with Win/Win.  I just want to win more.

What’s your reaction to that statement?

Are you cheering him on with agreement?

Are you wincing with disgust?

Is it possible to be committed to a Win/Win strategy during a negotiation and simultaneously maintain a deep commitment to want to win more?

Winning More

If it is, I am not very good at it.  I’ve never found a pathway through the forest of complexity of business negotiations that rewarded a “I want to win more” philosophy.

Every one wants to win.  All of the time.  Not some of the time.

I have built a career centered on the core belief that both parties can win, all of the time.

And the next time your partner, prospect, or customer needs your good or service then you remain on their short list for who to call.

You win.  They win.  Every time.

Why Success comes from persistently improving?

“Success comes from persistently improving and inventing.  Not persistently doing what is not working.” Derek Sivers

Failure is not trying.

We cannot control results and outcomes.

We can control our lizard brain that tells us to do what is safe and risk nothing.

Changing nothing will limit our success more than “persistently doing what is not working“.

How this helped me?

I wrote this quote on the whiteboard in our software test lab at the software company that I run.  We were struggling with selling a particular product and as we reviewed the results I realized it was not going to get any better.  No amount of elbow grease or rally cry speech from the front of the boat was going to help.

It is easier to assume or conclude that something else is to blame than the business model, product, price, people, etc.  Direction and vision are supposed to be created by really smart people, so it must be brilliant?  Wrong.

Since I was the same guy to blame for the business model, we blew it up with a stack of TNT and as a result launched our SaaS (Software-As-A-Service) offering.

Within one week, we had changed course and within one month we had a completely different positive result.   Eight months later we are now doing a substantial % of our business with this new product offering.

If it were not for listening to Derek’s book  driving into work that day.  We would probably still be on a death march hoping that it would get easier over the next hill.

Derek Sivers book Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur.  He started Code baby a website that enabled non-record label musicians to post their music for sale.  Derek was one of the first to create the now common place “buy now” button.

What should you stop doing today that simply isn’t working? 

How Your Art Changes The World

Photo by See-ming Lee 李思明 SML

Art is usually classified as a painting, a drawing, a sculpture, a photograph, a song, etc.

Some might say, “The kinds of things you could find in a museum, that’s art”.

And an expanded interpretation of Art should include the way in which we each alter and influence the world we live in.

The smallest of expression of our heart offered can shape the world to become the place we want to live.

It can be as small as that little note you write for your daughter and drop in her school lunch bag.

Or that email signature quote that you add to encourage others.

Maybe it is calling an employee’s spouse to brag about how amazing their husband is and thanking them for their family sacrifices.

Offer more of yourself.

Bring your art to the world you live in.

And we will be better for it.

Why you should hire yourself instead?

Hire yourself today for the critical role of

Director of Success and Happiness for your life.

Success and happiness are so often a choice.

It is easy for each of us to get stuck and end up with neither.

Or we adopt a belief system that defers responsibility and ownership to others.

When I chose to hire myself there was a shift.

Utter failure is impossible.

When things don’t go according to plan, I start with taking responsibility.
And begin with these questions:

  • What could I have done differently?
  • What did work?
  • What didn’t?
  • What other factors were at play?
    -Internal factors like fear?
    -Or external factors like other people, market timing, team members, pricing, etc?
  • What did I learn from it?

I have heard it said that “failure is only determined by our interpretation”.

In essence, “So what if your project or decision or employee that you hired didn’t work out?”

If we learn from our mistakes then it is not a failure at all.

If we pull out our score card and write down another hash mark in the column of “see I did it again”, well we lose.

Seth Godin once wrote about being a New York Times bestselling author of five books.  And he went on to say that he had written a hundred books.

I am sure he had a few low days along that road.

However, his end conclusion was that he practiced 95 times to smash it five times.

Do you see the distinction?  What a relief huh?

We only need 51% of the vote.

There will always be someone who tells us why we are going to fail, yes always.  Ignore the minority, embrace the majority.

I used to labor and still do some days, over why so-and-so is so difficult to work with.

  • Why are they so impossible?
  • Why can’t they even say good morning?
  • Why won’t they support our initiative?

I can’t fathom the countless calories I consumed to fuel my attempts at answering these questions.  And then one day I realized.

Those people are just plain miserable and it has nothing to do with me or what I do or don’t do.

Waalaa, Presto, Alakazam.  The spell I was under was broken.

Miserable, toxic people are that way whether they are at work or at a stop light behind you giving you the bird.

Once I released myself from the self-imposed obligation of attempting to assuage these people, I was free.  I finally accepted that these people will never be advocates.

I stopped waiting for permission.

I know this sounds simple.  Maybe so simple that I am the only guy who couldn’t get this one?

And yet, I spent a lot of years squatting on some of my best ideas, passion and innovation because there was not an invitation or permission provided.

I believed that if I was performing well my team or peers would offer a resounding “great job-keep going”.

I operated in a stalemate situation.

One foot in “I am going to give this a try” and one foot in “I hope they like it”.

Leadership requires us to dare to do what we know to be right regardless of the permission granted or feedback provided.

Hesitancy made me a very ineffective leader.

I picture one of those high-wire ropes courses at summer camp.  And at the end of the obstacles there is the Pole Jump.

You stand on top of that telephone pole, 50 feet off the ground and you have to leap to grab the metal bar eight feet out in front of you.

Every time someone stood up and gave it everything they had, they made it.  And every time a kid would half-heatedly jump, he missed every time.

The same goes for that cool project, that new idea, product, service, speech, music, adventure….don’t hesitate just jump and go for it.

How about you?  

What would change today if you hired yourself for this role?  

*Disclaimer: Seth Godin reference -I believe was from his book Tribes.  I was not able to find the exact quote.  Thanks in advance for following the analogy even if my exact facts are in error. 

How to Use Twitter to Get Up Close to the Pros?

Twitter & Ironman

Twitter can get us up close with the pros that we follow.

If you use Twitter correctly you can have personal interactions with athletes, authors, musicians, and speakers, etc.  Let me show you how.

Have you ever watched the Hawaii Ironman on TV?  It’s nuts right?

Swim 2.4 miles in the ocean, bike 112 along the wind swept coastline, and then run a marathon (26.2) in the sun baked lava fields.

In 2009, I had the privilege of playing the role of support crew for one of my buddies, Neal Oseland, who earned his way to race this world championship event-Ironman Hawaii.  When the gun goes off and the athletes begin their quest to finish before the seventeen (17) hour cut off at midnight, it is powerful.

You’ve seen the images on TV, athletes thrashing in the water, swimming over top one another.  On the bike, there are crashes and coastal headwinds demoralizing even the strongest of riders.

All day long the athletes make their way through each discipline, as a spectator you are two feet away from them as they pass by.  The proximity to the professional athletes is unlike any sporting event I have ever attended.

The Run is where you get close to the action.

When I worked an aid station at mile 12 on the run I was as close as you can get to the action.  I would hold out a cup of water or Gatorade offering to every athlete that passes.

What you begin to realize is that every single one of them, pro athlete, amateur, young and old welcome encouragement, “Number #1063, You can do it!  Keep going.”

A spring returns to their step, a refocus, a reminder to their internal self  “Yeah I can do this“.  While working this aid station I was up and personal with Chris McCormack (@MaccaNow), Craig Alexander (@CrowieAlexander), Norman Stadler (@normanns), and others.

Eye ball to eye ball, I was able to lob a few ounces of “go get ’em” into their tanks.  Being at Ironman Hawaii is a powerful experience and truly helps to restore your belief in humanity.

Chris McCormack chasing down Craig Alexander
Craig Alexander 200 yards from winning in 2009

What does this have to do with Twitter?

Using Twitter is like being at the Ironman in Hawaii, like the Ironman you can have direct interaction with the Pros.

Most of the time in life, take a concert or a sporting event like football, the closest you are going to get is the front row.  But even then you are very far from actually being in the game or on the stage.

Twitter affords direct interaction with those famed icons that you follow. (click to Tweet)

Direct interactions with the real people, not just their “contact me” page.

Lance Armstrong (to keep with the athlete theme), you can send Lance a tweet and he might reply back to you.  So while he is pulled over on his bike in the Pyrenees checking his iPhone he sends back “@yourname thanks. Live Strong”.

Try doing that with his “contact me” email form on his website.  Good luck, no way will he personally be checking and writing reply messages via email.

Twitter enables direct access to the individuals that you esteem as “smart, rich, powerful, eloquent, fast, cool, and influential”. (click to Tweet)

Where else do we have that kind of VIP back door access to these people?

Here are some examples of my Ironman like interactions on Twitter:

Lance Armstrong:

‏

@lancearmstrong Hey Lance. I’m good friends with (name) and (name). Warm Aloha’s to you today. Look forward to a Queen-K ride.

Reply: @lancearmstrong
@aarondmchugh coupla great dudes. We can’t wait to return to (vacation spot). Be there soon.

Who is Lance Armstrong?  …… 🙂

Michael Hyatt:

@MichaelHyatt I am planning to link to this article. Is this your best example of why “Ship it” now?


Reply: @MichaelHyatt
@aarondmchugh I would check this one too: http://mhyatt.us/Mmrghw 

Who is Michael Hyatt?  He is a New York Times best selling author.  His most recent book Platform-Get Noticed in a Noisy World.

Chris Guillebeau:

@chrisguillebeau Great post yesterday. “I am no Guru”. That is the exact humility that compels people to follow up. Count me in!

Reply: @chrisguillebeau
@aarondmchugh glad to have you around.

Who is Chris Guillebeau?  He is on a quest to travel to every country in the world.  His recent book, $100 Startup has sold over 75,000 copies.

 Hugh MacLeod:

@gapingvoid Hugh im driving thru South TX thinking about your meet packing story from Evil Plans.

Reply: @gapingvoid
@aarondmchugh Hurrah!

Who is Hugh MacLeod?  Hugh is a cartoonist and author.  His book Evil Plans has helped free many people to start their own revolution.

Be genuine, be kind, be encouraging and be yourself.

I don’t know these guys.

I didn’t pick up the phone and try and get past their secretary or meet any criteria to get a reply.

It is easy to be ignored.

I’d recommend that just like at your favorite sporting event, don’t heckle anyone or tell them how to play the game.

They are people too.

They too wonder if anyone reads their stuff, or appreciates their accomplishments.  Just like a Triathlete rounding mile 16 on the run course, 12 hours into the race, they too would love to hear “Way to go-keep going-you can do it!”.  Trust me on this.

Give it a try.

What are a couple of pieces of advice you would offer when engaging people you don’t know on Twitter?

*Disclaimer-I share these interactions that I have had by way of example.  Please be respectful.  Thank you.

*Neal Oseland finished in 10:03 and was 309th in the world.  

Why we should become like both a Mercenary and a Missionary

I first heard of this contrast between a Mercenary and a Missionary from Mike Rowe-Dirty Jobs .  I find it fascinating.

Mercenary-Paid to fight, without the requirement of involving their heart.

Missionary-Making a difference that flows from their heart and beliefs.

These are over simplifications but let’s start here.

A Mercenary is compensated for a battle won, a hill taken,  a conquest, an enemy defeated.  They are not required to care about the reason for the fight, nor believe in the mission.  They offer a robotic allegiance.  “Give me money and I will give you a result”.

A Missionary is fiercely committed to the cause and is sustained by the deep belief inside of them.  They transform the world they live in by caring for those they feel called to serve.

Both the Mercenary and Missionary are prone to go to extremes.  An extreme willingness to conquer and an extreme commitment to provide relief.

What if our work should be a poetic combination of both?

What if you offered the conquest performance of the Mercenary combined with the heart of a Missionary?

Leaving behind the shortcomings of each.

How would this transform you?  Your world?  Your team? Your customers? Your life?

5 Reasons Why the Social Media Frontier is like the Wild West?

Today’s Social Media era reminds me of an old western film.

Like one of the classic John Wayne cowboy films.

The dusty little towns are booming with new enterprise and Pioneers are always risking their life savings in hope of a better life.

Like in those old depictions of the Wild West, the new Frontier of Social Media is full of possibility and promise.

There are outposts of success, rumors and stories of veins of gold being discovered.

But it is far from settled.  It is still wild.

Photo Montana State University Library

1)    New tools keep us in a constant state of discovery.

I am sure if you are like me you are finding this a challenge.

Just when you settle in on a software tool suite to use there are three new one’s that pop up that you have never heard of.

The ease of creation of new software tools has never been easier.
And the Social Economy rewards artists who can create a better mousetrap than the next guy. (Click to Tweet)

I suspect this is the new landscape of the world we live in.

There are so many choices (x) the speed of creation = constant invention.

It also depends on who you ask.  Here are a couple of great examples:

Expert Insight: By Clay Hebert

“There will always be more and more new tools to get distracted by. The key is to not get distracted by them, understand how they work and how to apply them to your specific goals and objectives. People think the right new hammer will build the house (and throw the housewarming party) for them. Of course, it doesn’t.”

2)    There is Gold in the Hills.

During the mid-to-late 90’s the mantra for the Internet new frontier was “build it and they will come.”

The dot bomb era was full of arsenals of venture capital investment enabling the next college kid to become a CEO.

The challenge was no one had figured out how to monetize the traffic beyond banner ads.

I see this same boom town trend today. 

Like in the Old West when there was a hint of gold in the hills above, a town popped up to support the prospectors.

My guess is the biggest winners of those stories were the saloon owners.

Two Business Models Today

Today there are two distinct business models driving successful companies.

1)       “Freemium” is based on the premise that we use the free version of the software/ap and then upgrade to the paid for version.
Most companies are experiencing a 2-5% conversion rate.
That means if you have 10,000 people using your free version, 200 to 500 will pay to purchase your product.

The Challenge:

The challenge for these companies is to define a product/service that customers derive enough perceived value from the use of the Freemium product.  Then even the best of products have to be marketed and sold.

2)      Advertising-Anything that is free is being paid for by advertising.   Today’s rates vary based on how targeted an audience is to whether the ad is served on a desktop browser or on your mobile device.  They can range from $.60 to $40+ per 1000 impressions.

In the 90’s these ad rates were sky rocket high, but came crashing down to smaller CPM rates (cost per impression).  Will history repeat itself here again?

Like with any new frontier, there are winners and losers.

The Promise:

The promise of being a winner, finding the mother-load, keeps us all picking away in the dirt.  Yet, the companies, the investors, the individuals investing their time, effort, energy and resources into this boom town promise may not last.

Expert Insight: By Clay Hebert

“Companies like Twitter and Facebook are selling their users / eyeballs / impressions to advertisers. I can’t remember who said it but the quote goes like this, “If you’re not paying for the service, you’re not the customer…..you’re the product being sold.”

3)    Converting Followers to Customers.

It is great that your company may have 50K followers on Twitter.   In order for the followers to become customers, we still need to remember to provide something of value, something compelling.

Content is King

These days they say “Content is king” and more than 90% of what is provided by companies through Social Media are facts, “We are open from 8 am to Midnight today“.

Distributing facts is temporarily interesting.

Inserting your company voice, personality, culture, mission, struggles, and ideas into the Social Media megaphone is much more compelling. (Click to Tweet)

Chris Guillebeau says that 95% of his followers never purchase anything from him.

For most people they are not willing to put in the amount of time and emotional, intellectual investment to
give away 95% of what they create for free.

It is only those few like Chris that will survive this new frontier.

Check out Chris’s new book, The $100 Startup.

4) The Territory is Large.

Sustainable success can be found in a couple of easy to acknowledge industries.

Retail Restaurants: If you are not using Yelp or a competitor to Yelp, then you can add one more reason why your restaurant may struggle.

The new frontier demands that you engage your customers.

Your comment cards that you put on the table?  Yeah, go ahead and throw those out.
Every customer who walks in your door is carrying a comment card in their pocket, their iPhone. (click to Tweet)

But how will a law firm use Social Media?

Will an attorney tweet “Kicked their zzz” after they leave the court room?

How about a big three accounting firm?  Will the lead partner tweet about the K-9 they just filed?

We know the answer.

Not every industry is as clear as to how it will maximize the opportunity of Social Media, yet.

Expert Insight: By Clay Hebert

“I agree that the territory is large but I tell clients / people to not to even think or worry about “mapping it all”. Nobody ever will, nor should they. They’re worried about understanding every item in Home Depot (and what next season’s catalog will contain) when they should be using the saw and hammer they know how to use to build their house.   Some people have already built a wonderful house (or a few) while others waste time waiting for the next new tool catalog.  Stop waiting. Start building.”

5) There are high rewards for Pioneers.

In the old world, if you were an author, speaker, musician, software company, etc you needed big money behind you in order to succeed.

Today, we each own a factory, a publishing company, a record studio, a software development team-Your computer.

CD baby-Derek Sivers flattened the world for musicians.
He created the “buy now” button for musicians to distribute their music to their fans through a central location (distribution) CD Baby.

Derek was a pioneer uniting the tribe of independent musicians who would not have made the cut in the world of big record deals.  He was faithful in providing his fellow musicians a platform to be heard by new customers.

And they rewarded him for it.  (Read his book)

How else do you see that the Social Media Frontier is still wild?  

Walking the Precipice While Pursuing Your Art

photo by ashokboghani

Have you ever stood on a precipice?

In the high mountains of Colorado you can find them.

They can be very steep, rocky, catwalks across the sky.  On one side the ledge gives way to a thousand foot drop over a series of connected troughs and boulders.

On the other side, a sheer drop hundreds of feet down.  Most people would rather have a rope connected to them and a belay as they carefully pick their way across the precarious terrain.

This dance across the sky might seem like a stroll that you would never do.

Let me increase your vision.

You are already doing this and without a rope.

Each day that you step forward, pursuing your Art or new business venture or athletic feat you are walking the precipice.

Great beginnings always start with risk.

You stand on the edge of a great beginning with the hope of reaching your goal, accomplishing the mission, building the team, raising the money, finishing your first marathon (the other side of the precipice).

You are more courageous than you realize.  With each step you take you are exposing yourself to either side of the precipice.  On one side, there is a chasm of your own fears of failure.

On the other side, everyone else’s fears of your potential failure (your family, your friends, your boss, your investors, your partner, your team mates).

Don’t listen to everyone else’s fears.

Let’s see if any of these may sound familiar……

“It can’t be done”.

“You’re too old”.

“Don’t waste your time and money on that”.

“Nobody will pay for that”.

“What will your boss say”?

Keep walking.  Keep stepping forward an inch at a time.  It’s even worth taking in the view, as scary as it may seem for a moment.  Feel your pulse pounding in your throat.

You don’t have a rope.  And it’s halfway forward or halfway back.

You might as well go forward.  It’s the same dangerous distance in either direction.

In the mountains, we wear a rope when crossing these sections of a route.

In life, there often isn’t a safety net.  Stand tall.  Don’t listen to the swirling echo of the wind coming up either side of the precipice.

Your almost there.

What catwalk in Life, Business or Adventure are you walking today?