Successful Blog

Sunday, July 24, 2005: Learning to Breathe

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Breathing Room

They say it takes 5 minutes to start a blog. Whoa! It sure didn’t for me. I had to walk in a crooked line through the virtual halls of Amazon for two hours at least. I had to look at blog templates for another three. And choosing a name, well, I wasn’t prepared for the fact that choosing a name for my son would be easier.

I started in the morning and published in the starlight.

I came to it as a writer. So I thought it was writing. I thought it was about structure and expression, content and presentation, and offering somewhere someone might find a place next to me on the riverbank under the old white oak tree. I was one third in the right direction.

Who’d know I’d be here a short two years later?

Who’d know what I’d discover?

Who’d know I’d hand over my head and heart?

I point to my first blog post — about 100 words. . It’s got stars, life, peanut butter . . . and a quote I still believe.

When I give my soul a little breathing room . . .
everyone I know gets nicer.

I came here to wonder and to find more ways just to be.

. . . and the people who greeted me taught me to breathe.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

The Blog Herald: Social Networking — Am I Person Or an Item?

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Flashback 1997 . . . Flash Forward 2007

For all of our conversation, for the ideas, time, and thoughts share in our comment boxes, I hope that you’ll head over to read this one. Please.

Verbal volleyball can be a kick. When Twitter used the term, people, to mean friends for an Internet second, I got a chance to type, “I’ll have my people call your people and we’ll do lunch.” I’ve always wanted to say that.

Cute, but off the page and forgotten, rightfully so, minutes later.

For the last few days, I’ve been thinking about the realities of going wide and going deep. It’s hard to have the time and the bandwidth to do both. It’s hard to keep up with it all. Every day it happens at a slightly faster speed. The wider I go, the shallower I get.

Read the whole feature in today’s Blog Herald by clicking the logo.

The Blog Herald

It’s about blogging and real life.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
I wrote at the Blog Herald about books, information, and relationships, making connections from the patterns she sees. I consider these keystone articles.
Authenticity and Transparency in the Real World
In the Real World — The Half-Full, Half-Empty Glass
The Universe of People, Black Holes, and Stars
Connectors and Mavens on the Tipping Point
The Writer’s Dilemma and the Blogger’s Secret
The Two Webs: Information or Relationships?
Social Networking: Am I Person Or an Item?

121: How Do You Get from Strategy to Execution?

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one2one blog post logo

An Execution . . . [grin]

Dawud, Do I hear you laughing from sending this question? DAWUD MIRACLE asked me (and you),

What do you feel is necessary to create an effective strategy to promote a business?

I shall rise to the challenge. I shall not be intimidated . . . much.

Strategy and promotion in the last question. Strategy and execution in this one. I’m wondering whether you stay up all night thinking of how to make me work?

Strategy and Execution . . . or Strategy and Tactics

This is a place I could write a book by talking. After five minutes, my husband would say, “Honey, don’t make me live it.” Most publishing projects I’ve worked on, including those I’ve been in charge of, have gotten this wrong in some way.

It’s almost impossible to get the transition from strategy to execution/tacitics just right . . . it’s like becoming a person. In fact, this particular challenge is one of the reasons that I get so jazzed about business. I believe it has made me a better human being — granted, it can go either way.

The main problem that happens is best described this way.

The project is over. Time to do the prototype.

My best tactic is to spend 80% of my time in strategy. I fight myself and everyone on a project to plan deep and build protoypes that are highly defined and agreed upon. Execution is a breeze when everyone knows what the definition of “good work” is, what direction to walk in.

So the way I get from strategy to execution is really to have a strategy, one in which outlines in detail what we are building. The next step is to look at three things closely– People, Quality, and Resources — and how to manage them on a daily basis — Process (information flow).

I actually draw boxes to show how the project will move from one phase to another. In the boxes I write what people and resources I might need to shore things up. I make sure I know what information comes together when.

By the way, I’m no good at doing this in my head or alone. The people involved have to talk it out to make sure that there aren’t gaping holes. When we describe a realistic process, we build in 10% more time for that problem that no one ever expects that always comes.

If I have a clean desk and a schedule for those boxes, when a strategy is planned, I’m more than ready to hit the ground running.

And since this is a one2one conversation . . . and I’m inherently currious . . . to Dawud, (and you too)

I’m sending the question right back.
What do YOU feel is necessary to create an effective strategy to promote a business?.

If you’re reading this, I’d love to hear your answer too.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

One2One is a cross-blog conversation. You can see the entire One-2-One Conversation series on the Successful Series page.

The Ideal Customer Test

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Pick One

inside-out thinking

Who is your customer? Before you answer, if you are going to say “small business owners,” STOP. You can’t build a business foundation trying to read 25 million minds at once. Small business owners is not a niche it’s a population.

In my presentation at SOBCon07, I had a single slide that said

Choose your customers.

I didn’t spend nearly enough time talking about those three words.

The key to a successful business is truly connecting with the ideal customers for the service or product we offer. The process starts by doing what we love, because doing what we love makes good business sense. The next step is to find the folks who love what we do.

How do we do that?

Look to your past successes. Who has come to you in the past for what you love doing and then loved what you provided?

Make a list of the people who have already loved what businesslike thing you love doing for them. Now you have some idea of who your ideal customer might be. Use this model to see who on that list passes the Ideal Customer Test.

Ideal Customer Test

  • The ideal customer is part of a group. You don’t really want customers who are loners. Let someone else sell to the hermits and the recluses.
  • The ideal customer’s group is relational. They don’t have to sing kum-ba-yah by the campfire. Lawyers are relational. They talk to each other and ask what works. Even corporate clients check out the competition and do horse trading.
  • The ideal customer wants to be better . . . to keep up with the folks at the front of the group.
  • The ideal customer has money and the potential to make more.
  • YOUR ideal customer looks a lot like YOU.

It’s true none of us are a field test or focus group, BUT, pay attention to that last point. If you are looking for the folks who love what you do . . .

Your ideal customer is likely to think, act, and respond like you, because it’s human nature to think people who think like we do are brilliantly smart.

That’s how our customers look like us.
That’s why they love what we do.

Skeptical — huh?
Try it this way It’s unlikely that an information geek is going to feel comfortable working with me. I’m just not linear. I’d send him to my friend. Greg Balanko-Dickson the Remote Control CEO. He’s a self-proclaimed information geek. The chart at the top of his blog shows the difference immediately. Greg does what he loves and the information geek would love what he does.

Do what you love in service to those who love what you do. —Steve Farber

Who loves what you do?

Next: Questions to Describe Your Ideal Customer

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Is your business stuck? Check out the Start-up Strategy Package. Work with Liz!!

Related
To follow the entire series: Liz Strauss’ Inside-Out Thinking to Building a Solid Business, see the Successful Series Page.

Hope Seth Doesn’t Mind if I Go Even Further

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If You Can’t Keep a Secret . . .

Finding Ideas Outside of the Box
I hadn’t really thought about the Harry Potter leaked ending, except to shake my head at the industry that used to be my home. To spend $20M on a secret that couldn’t be kept seemed such a waste . . . How I remember the thoght process that gets companies to do that sort of thing.

Then this morning Ann Michael and I were discussing Seth’s insight on publishing and the Internet. He pointed out what I would have never thought.

Five hundred year old technology (books) is just too slow for the Net. The act of printing, storing and shipping millions of books takes too long for a secret to ever be in a book again.

He suggests that, well, read Seth’s post for his brilliant solution. He advocates using the Internet to control the secret. I sure hope Seth doesn’t mind if I use my publishing experience to take his idea just a little further.

Fact: As Seth said, the secret was in always in jeopardy — from the moment the manuscript was written. The company should have seen that $20million, $40million to protect the secret was playing to a weakness.

One thing I’ve learned from Seth is that every weakness can be a strength. Here’s what I would have proposed, had someone asked my opinion. . . . Don’t worry, they didn’t.

How to Release the Harry Potter Secret OR How Choosing for the Customer Is Choosing for the Company

The problem wasn’t having the secret where people could get to it. The problem was the company thought of the secret as a problem rather than an opportunity,

Strategy always begins with the customer. In this case, the customers are kids (of every age) who grew up with the series. $20million of security was choosing for the company not the customers.

If I think about the kids, here’s where I end up.

Ready?

  • I would ask J.K.Rowling to reveal the ending to me as soon as she was able. I would spend a fraction of that $20million building a cool online video game with seven levels to match the seven questions of the Harry Potter Campaign. I’d spend the security there. Fewer people involved, much more control.
  • I’d release the game that reveals the end of the story, three weeks before any pre-launch copy.
  • To register to play the game, I would ask that each player sign in with a name, and a parental permission with verifiable email address (if the player is under 13).
  • The game would be as difficult as any game on the market. It would also have cheat codes and book with hints as salable products. It would take hours– whatever is the industry average — to complete successfuly.
  • When a player made it through the last level, he or she would reach a Howart’s Honor Code screen. The screen would announce the success and point out how difficult it was to achieve it. The Honor Code would leave the question to winner to hold or pass on the answer as they honor their own work. They earned it. People value what they earn.

It’s as Seth said, no one can keep it a secret — but we can control how it gets out. The company could have made finding the answer part of the Hogwart’s World. It could have been an experience. It could have been fun. Besides, I’m not sure that if I worked 10-20 hours to find out an answer that I’d give it away, . . . well, maybe secretly.

Who knows? I might play the game again and again — even after I read the book.

If I knew what I was talking about I’d still be working in that industry . . . right? I’m probably just confused. That comes from thinking like a kid.

–ME “Liz” Strauss