Future of Business
The Future Of Business – Deliver.
It seems rather obvious doesn’t it, at some point you have to deliver, you have to deliver something. You don’t start a business or any kind of venture without eventually delivering a product or service. Without delivering you don’t really have a business do you. Why would you go through the process of creating something if you didn’t want someone to see it or know about it. Sure you could create something for you and you alone, but you’re still delivering, you’re delivering to yourself.
If you’ve created something awesome, and you have a plan to differentiate your creation, you must deliver it to someone. How will you ever sleep at night if you don’t?
The only way to change the world, to make a difference, to influence others, is to deliver. Delivering can be as simple as showing up, but you will deliver something when you do.
This equation can be applied to anything, the only way to get good at it, is to do it. Read it, learn it, live it.
Create. Differentiate. Deliver.
The Future Of Business – Differentiate.
Being creative can be fun, it can also be exhausting, it all depends on how you’re wired, what’s you favorite part of being in the creative zone? For me, it’s trying to find the right message, or to make my product or service different. How do I relate my product or service so that it isn’t like anyone else’s, I want it to be different. Hence, Differentiate.
It’s one thing to create something awesome, it’s another to differentiate it from anyone else selling the same product or service. I believe this is the secret sauce of any product or service you try to sell. How do you differentiate it from all the others that look, smell, and feel just like your product or service. This is also why there are marketing firms in the world, it’s the one area most struggle with, it’s not that easy for most business owners.
The biggest difference between you and everyone else, is you! You are the scarcity, there is only one of you, no one can steal that or duplicate it. Someone can steal your identity in terms of identification, but they can duplicate your personality, you are the genuine you. This genuine you creates another problem, you don’t know how, and you don’t want to promote yourself, it’s uncomfortable, and that’s why you need someone from the outside looking in to handle it on your behave.
I hate pumping my own tires, you know, promoting myself, telling the world how awesome I am, how incredible my product or service is. There are those who love it, but most don’t. Having said that, we need to find a way to fight through uncomfortable feeling, because it’s holding us back from success, no matter what the venture might be. It’s a stronghold in your life, it’s bad self-talk and it needs to be stopped in it’s tracks. I’m not suggesting you be arrogant and egotistical because it doesn’t work. And you most definitely do not want to call yourself an expert or guru.
Surround yourself with creative people who know your work, like your work, even love your work, even if they are spread all over the world. Skype is a beautiful thing. Put those creative people to work on marketing you and your product and services, if you don’t know any, you will find some with a little work. If you have built a following online or in your community, someone in that following is creative and loves your work. Build your team and change the world, differentiate yourself from everyone doing the same thing you are, be the best you can be and let the chips fall where they may.
The same rule applies here as it does with creating something, don’t analyze, just do it, do your due diligence and deliver when ready. Build your team, then get to it. Remember, novelty always sells, but it has a short life span, because novelty tends to wear out fast, sell what differentiates you, that has a longer life, especially if your product or service has a level of need.
The Future Of Business – Is To Create!
The greatest of creations ever made, were you and I, we’re amazing! We can do things no other creature or animal on earth can do, we can stop before we respond, we can decide how we want to respond to stimuli. We have so many abilities, one of them is the ability to create, we can create incredible solutions to world problems, we can see things through our ability of foresight, the list is endless.
This blog’s tag-line is: Create. Differentiate. Deliver.
These three words sum up what the business of the future will need focus on.
All of us have ideas, we’re spiritual creative beings, we strive to conquer, we survive, we overcome, we’re passionate, we love, and we have a desire to help one another. Mostly, we like to create, we like to build and conquer. The problem many struggle with, fear, and what to create. A good place to start is, what drives you, what energizes you, what you’re true passion is, listen for the voice within. Many search external clues, the true passion is in you, create that. Seth Godin calls it “ART”, the art each one of us carries within but is scared to let out. Mostly because of fear.
It doesn’t matter what you create, what matters is that you do something, let the art in you be heard, seen and found, you will change your world. So create, make something, solve a problem, eventually you will find a way to monetize your creation. Let the world do the marketing for you, you just let the world know where to find your creation.
The fear of failure is a powerful force, the cost of doing nothing is far greater than failing, so create and fail as often as you can. That failing will teach you more than you will ever learn doing nothing. Don’t analyze, just do! Create!
The Future Of Business – We’ve All Got The Industrial Age Disease
We’ve All Got The Industrial Age Disease, it’s sad, but it’s true. Back when I was in high school, we were told, when you graduate, you MUST get a full time job. So we took a job at the mill, because it payed better than F. W. Woolworth. Today that’s changed, today people want full-time wages for part-time work. We were told to sit down and behave, to pay attention, and how to think… we made a mistake…we settled for something we new deep down within, wasn’t what we wanted. We did it because we were told to, we did it because we felt safe, we did it because we felt comfortable, and then it became our comfort zone, our sense of normal.
Unlike the Matrix, we believed in something that today is no longer true, we believed the Industrial Age System(s) would look after us to our last breath, just as we have in governmental systems. We justify our place in the world based on those systems, the factory model, the school system, they were designed to educate you in such a way that you would fit into that factory model. We went to school, we went to University, being taught how to fit in, not how to disrupt, not how to find a better way. But another way has been making itself known, and only time will tell if it’s a better way. This new way of business may be a replacement for the Industrial Age, it’s called the connection economy!
Seth Godin speaks of the Connection Economy in his book called, “The Icarus Deception”. Here is an excerpt from the heart of the connection economy:
“I don’t care how many friends you have on FaceBook or how many followers you have on Twitter. Those are not actual friends or truly followers. I care about how much people will miss you if you’re not back here again tomorrow.
Connection involves a complex swap of information, expectation, and culture. It involves opening ourselves to others, creating vulnerable moments that frighten us. It requires humanity and generosity, not the rearranging of digital bits.
The swap means that it’s no longer completely up to us; it’s a partnership, not an announcement. When we give up control over the outcome of our interactions, we allow others to connect with us and with one another.”
The biggest difference today, over the last century, we have access to more resources and information than we have time to consume. The Industrial Age forced us to memorize, to conform, to fit in, today we merely need to know where to get the information, we don’t have to memorize it. We no longer have to conform to an old system, we now have the freedom to learn and create new ways to accomplish what the Industrial System doesn’t want changed. Hence, we don’t have to fit in, we can now choose not to comply, we can do that which we were meant to do, we can stand out. We were meant to connect, to share, to make the world a better place.
This new economy feels weird, it feels scary, it feels unnerving, it’s not for the weak of heart, it does however give us a freedom we’ve not had in the past. It’s not perfect, and that’s a good thing, we finally have a cure for The Industrial Age Disease.
The Future Of Business – Is Not SEO!
There is much confusion on what SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is, and what it will do for you, in fact, there are many claiming it to be the end all to your websites problems. I’m not going to go into the details of SEO, I’m going to share an experience, what I’m often asked to do for a business. I can safely say, if you think SEO is going to bring the desired outcomes you’re hoping to obtain without planning, without knowing why you’re flexing the SEO muscle in the first place, you most likely would be wrong and disappointed. If your website sucks, SEO will merely reveal that it sucks even more, much like Social Media Networks do.
[pullquote]SEO is not duck-tape, it’s not a quick fix to a perceived problem[/pullquote],I’m not saying SEO doesn’t play a role in your marketing efforts, I am saying…you need to step back, fly at 50,000 feet, and ask yourself what it is you want your website to accomplish, and then work towards that end. It’s called a realistic strategy, and then a marketing strategy. To explore, to discover what your business objectives are, why do you even have a website? There are many, many questions that need to be answered long before you journey down the Search Engine Optimization road. The future of business is not about shortcuts, it’s not about SEO either.
SEO is not duck-tape, it’s not a quick fix to a perceived problem, it’s supposed to enhance, to improve your findability on the interwebs, to assist your conversion ratio, and much, much more. SEO is so much more than just trying to game Google or Bing, to just end up on page one. If you haven’t done the hard work, SEO won’t do anything if your site isn’t designed or setup to make people do something. If you’re only goal is to end up on page one, that’s easier than you think….but you will still fall short of your desired outcome.
[pullquote]SEO is so much more than just trying to game Google or Bing.[/pullquote] SEO, in my opinion, should be in your marketing efforts, well after the planning and building, after you have completed a mind map of your site’s objectives. SEO is a tool to ensure your content is directing visitors to a call to action of some kind. SEO is not a destination, it will not fix other broken problems with your content, or your website, it will reveal them. SEO should be used to qualify those visitors, and then enticing them to go where you want them to go, what you want them to do. The very notion that SEO should is the solution to your site reaching page one is the wrong objective, it’s the wrong goal, you are asking the wrong questions, there are deeper reasons why Google and other search engines aren’t giving your site it’s due, your site isn’t doing the right things to garner their attention in the first place.
The future of business is not SEO!
