The Future Of Business – Build Small Loyal Communities
Cover of Jerry Maguire
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Remember the movie Jerry Maguire? Jerry wrote a document that went against an industry, it was about having less clients, make more money. That model really is valuable, it is the future of business. Most businesses and entrepreneurs today work so hard to build the largest audience possible, to be BIG, want to be popular, and we do things we normally wouldn’t do to reach that objective.
The real money is made in powerful, small loyal communities, not in being popular and famous. The real money is in serving small loyal communities, being helpful, and connecting with that loyal community. The secret to your success will be from building, serving long before receiving any kind of reward. The service of being helpful to a community fills the need of feeling important, you really are in control of how you provide that service.
If what you do isn’t helpful, it isn’t useful, and can’t be applied in one’s business or life, what’s the point? If you do provide useful easy to implement ideas, you will eventually find a fiercely loyal community shows up, fiercely loyal true fans. Serve the small, serve it well, and your view of the world of business, the future of business, will reveal the why of what you do. Without that community, doing meaningful work, being fulfilled, will never truly take hold.
Fulfillment in your work is derived differently by each and everyone of us, but that’s what we all try to get from everything we do. Build a loyal community, find a 1,000 true fans, serve them, help them, and you will discover, fulfillment has already arrived. It has been said, if you help enough people get what they want, you’ll be OK.
Stop trying to reach everyone, stop trying to be famous, if you must become well known, become famous for building and reaching smaller, more loyal communities, the secret is in the small. Provide useful information, be helpful, listen to that small loyal community and give them what they want, not what you think they want. The future of business is in the small loyal communities, a place where the open & free business model thrives.
If you were to practice the 90 / 10 rule, where you give away 90% and only charge for 10%, could you make a living? With a small loyal community, yes. Build small loyal communities.
The Future Of Business – Create. Differentiate. Deliver.
January 1st, 2013, I spent a great deal of time reading material from people far smarter than myself. Through the process of what I call research, which is reading smarter people’s work, or listening to them speak via video on YouTube, I thought about what my driving force for 2013 was going to be. I wanted to use simple words to help me focus, to help me continue my message, a set of words that would be the basis of my work for this new year.
The Future of Business will always be the umbrella of all that I share here on this blog, from nanotechnology, marketing, people, ideas, thoughts, and the open & free business model. All of the content here is to help you make a paradigm shift, to think differently about business, more specifically…your business. But this years primary theme, or driving words are:
Create.
Differentiate.
Deliver.
This year, to help you, to make it easier for you, I’m going to continue building my platform. A platform where I will provide some tools for you to Create, to implement the open & free business model into your business. These tools will be in the form of webinars, videos, templates, and a simple workbook, similar to the one I provide in my workshops. I will be doing my workshops in a webinar format from this day forward. Most of the material will be FREE, some will be paid content, for members only.
This year is about creating, differentiating, and to always deliver that which has been created and made different.
CREATE
This area is easy for some, and very hard for others. many find it much easier to create for other(s) businesses over their own. But creating isn’t marketing, it’s giving shape to, and giving life to ideas. We all must create before we can do the other two, before we can differentiate and deliver. We want to be creating all the time, it should be what energizes us, to create a solution, or something useful.
DIFFERENTIATE
Once something has been created, we want it to be special, to be different, to be useful, to be the best. This will be the secret sauce of your creation. This is where the quote, “Be The Best, It’s The Only Market That’s Not Crowded”. That quote was provided to me by Tom Peters, which he borrowed from the late George Whalin, from his book called “Inside The 25 Best Independent Stores In America“. (Affiliate Link)
DELIVER
In my humble opinion, you can never deliver enough. You should create, differentiate, and deliver more than you should ever consume. This is where the money will be made, if you ship, you will at some point make money. A call to action. If you don’t ship, nothing happens, it’s that simple. To deliver means, the world will hear from you, and frankly, the world needs you to create, to be different, and to deliver that which is scarce – YOU! The world needs you.
What will you create this year, how will it be different, and will you ever deliver that creation? The foundation of the Open & Free Business Model is to Create. Differentiate. Deliver. I challenge you to explore and implement the open & free business model, to use the 90 / 10 rule, to give away more than you charge for, your business will be a business of the future.
Happy New Year – 2013 Is Your Open & Free Year!
My Goals & Plans for 2013 are not really for me, they are for you. It is my hope that the research and work I do here helps you, helps you see your business in a different way, and most of all, helps you increase revenues through the use of the open & free business model. What is it that you wish to learn, implement or execute in your business? Maybe you want to start a business, maybe you’re looking for marketing help, or maybe you just want to improve your current situation. If you’ve been a regular reader of this blog, and you haven’t signed up for the Future Of Business Updates, do that now. You can wait for the Pop-up or just sign-up to the right ->
As I contemplate what to focus on next here on this blog, it will always be based on the open & free business model, it will always be based on what you want and need, so I’m looking for your input. I often get asked the same question, how do I make money by using the 90/10 rule? If I’m giving away 90%, and only charging on 10%, how do I make that work in my business? It is this question that motivates me to help you, the simple fact that you actually want to know. Unfortunately, not everyone understands the model, or at least there is a perception of what it is I’m trying to teach you, you’re taking me too literally at times.
The best way to start your understanding of the model, is to read through this blog, listen to a few podcasts here, they are on iTunes as well. What you will find is, I’m talking about a new way of thinking, a paradigm shift, actually doing the opposite of what you have been taught in school. Businesses in your community are continuing to do what has always been done for the past 100+ years, they are doing things the old way, the Industrial Age way. I’m challenging you to stop doing that, I’m hoping you’ll allow me to teach you a new and exciting way of doing business.
WHAT SAY YOU?
It is here that I ask you:
1.) Are you curious about this model?
2.) Do you want to learn a different way of building your business?
3.) What is it that confuses you about the model?
4.) What are you afraid of in building your business?
5.) What area of your business are struggling in?
6.) Are you willing to pay the price and stick through this open & free strategy?
7.) What do you really want to know?
8.) What are your goals / plans for 2013?
9.) Would you attend a webinar on the open & free business model?
10.) Would you buy a Book called – “The Future Of Business – The Open & Free Business Model”?
These are just a few questions, but I’m hoping you’ll open up and share with me, that’s a huge part of being OPEN in this model, don’t let fear be the reason you don’t change anything in 2013.
Well enough about that, I want to wish you all a Happy New Year! Please don’t drink & drive, do enjoy yourself, and always think of others first, you’ll be happier and richer for it.
Many Blessings, and I look forward to your questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments, or just email me, I’ll respect your privacy.
Merry Christmas 2012
Here we are once again, it’s Christmas. This year I don’t plan on setting any resolutions, but will think about desired goals for 2013, I’ll share them with you after the holidays. This year we are doing the minimalist thing, no big expenditures, just Lisa & our two boys, and we have a student from Mexico with us. Hoping for snow in the morning, and then it can go away : ) Until then….
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
The Future Of Business – Two Camps
Listen To This Post As A Podcast, now available on iTunes:
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I recently heard an interview that challenged me, in fact, I would say it changed my life. It changed my attitude towards my work and how I go about doing it. What is my work you ask? I’m a Futurist, a Thought-leader, I help you understand a new business model that forces all of us to leave the Industrial Age way of doing work & business behind. I teach & preach the Open & Free Business Model, where the 90/10 rule is the new equation, you give away 90%, and charge for 10%, it in effect, turns business upside down. More importantly, my work is a freedom message, it’s a mindset, and mindset trumps skill set everytime.
It’s possible you haven’t heard about it, you probably don’t know what it means, and what it stands for, but that alone makes it interesting. How can it possibly help you, how can it generate revenues, and how do you implement the model. Each and everyone of us knows something isn’t working, we’re just to resistant to change it. We must change it, in fact we don’t have a choice anymore. The Open & Free Business Model is a new way to disrupt your industrial age thinking. What’s interesting is, the level of resistance to it, resistance to accepting the truth about business, resistance to admitting the industrial age way of organizing and delivering work is dead, it just doesn’t work anymore!
The Heart Of The Open & Free Business Model
– Do something
– Make something
– Give it away
– Do work that matters
– Connect with people
– Lead people
– Deliver
– Make a difference in the world
Answer the question, how many people are better off because you lived?
The list above doesn’t work by itself, you truly have to change the way you think, unlearn, and learn new ways of getting things done, to disrupt your default patterns. It takes work. The how to(s) are the easy part, changing the way you think is more difficult. The biggest hurdle, the fear of loss, this fear is at the very core of the open & free business model. It’s to become a minimalist to delivering products & services, to simply do something, and you will find your place in a community. These communities are made up of two camps, they decide whether it happens and if it’s useful.
CAMPS
1. You
2. Your Fans
You must learn to embrace and trust both camps.
For the first time in history, you get to decide, you get to do the work you’ve dreamed about, all we need is for you to do it, to do something. The cost of doing nothing, is far greater than the cost of failing, it’s a paradigm shift, only you can “Flick The Switch”!
Your Fans decide whether what you do is useful, whether it’s valuable, they will tell you who they are, and if they will be a true fan.
If any of this resonates with you, then you’ve been convicted, you can no longer ignore the voice inside of you, you have to do something about it. Flick The Switch!
This is the first in a series, to help you understand a new way of thinking, and the Open & Free Business Model, feel free to leave questions in the comments, and lets change the world together.
