Quitting Slowlane road to go fastlane

[Hai]

What to turn from failure to success
Just read something from the book again. MJs story is tainted by years of failure. When he moved, everything changed. Before the business opportunities were scattered. Now, they were focused, and massive action was taken.

 

[Hai]

Last year was the first foray into business development and marketing. I started with dabbling in self-publishing, app creation, comic creation and went on to making my first online course which was supposed to take only 2 months to create. It tool 4 months to create and I spend additional 5 months in learning marketing and sales(thats what the books say). I thought I would solve a need. But the need was not to create the course but to refer people to the sources. My course does provide excellent info, but it is in fact red ocean, even though I thought it was blue. Learned tremendously from my mistakes.

What could have been done better?
1. Dont create demand from nowhere.
It is tremendously expensive. Even if you market, you need to have the right channels or else it doesnt work. My niche doesnt work with fb ads and google ads. It lives from content.
2. Invest in great execution.
If you have poor execution no one wants to work with you. Your ability to connect with influencers in your market, which is important, is directly in proportion to your execution. Your market is your investor..
3. Get sales. Before you spent every dime in your product, get presales to validate. You dont want to burn money for nothing. Thanks @AndrewNC.
4. Go blue ocean. To not misinterpret this, you need to find a real need that no one solved yet.
5. Know your market
You should know the market size if your goal is a monetary goal. To grow you need to know this.
6. Targeting
Target market, but Im not sure if you should lasertarget to a person yet. Definotely good to solve problems and get first sales.

What is happening next?
I dont want to stay beeing the poor passionate person who spents every dime in a business that doesnt work. The thing I worked on can only stay as a side income and I could even make it drop a bit of passive income with little more work.

Im working on getting the funding for education and experience and working on an idea that will solve an actual need, and even with disregard to my passions (hobbies...). Without money you cant experiment and experimenting is important.

The goal is to have stable income, and executing on a stable business/product that actually solves a problem.
Risk is expensive, which is why I say stable. Anything you do you should validate ASAP with sales or else it is a waste of money and time. Investors dont like risk neither do I.

I know that I pushed my course to the edges, but it also taught me that a product that solves a great need doesnt even need to much marketing.

Product is 50%, Marketing 50%
Product 20%, Marketing 80% is simply wrong in my opinion. Only marketing "gurus" would say that?

I like the MJ and Elon Musk-approach to product-centric businesses.

Also focus on process. If you focus in your process then the "fastlane" will come. But first you need experience. Because fastlane is a result of your progress and experience. Be the best you can be. and have fun going this journey.

 

[Hai]

It doesn´t matter what business model you pursue. Ecommerce, Amazon, Game Development, Mobile Development, Online Courses...At the base of all are products that solve people´s problems.

I´m going back to entrepreneurial basics. Forget about the money, and think about how I can impact the lives of people.
Even with all this "advice" it´s important to note, that gauging market size and competition is part of this process. This is something I learned the hard way.
___
I´m over one month into my first job ever, which is minimum wage. 12h of commuting+mindless work. Now I know how it feels like.
Already planning my escape...

 

[Hai]

Still in the process of creating a landing page.

My next step will be creating multiple screenwriting pitches to test which one people are interested in.

 

[Hai]

I´m having a budget of 1k.
I will do everything myself, unless it is -very necessary- to outsource, or to buy tools-
My goal is to publish something as fast as possible to gain money to put back into the business.

 

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[Hai]

I´m worried, that my writing isn´t good enough.
I should focus on effecting the most people I can-Law of Effection-, not what quality it might have.

 

[Hai]

Something unexpected came up:
I got two freelance gig offers.

Question: Is it ok to postpone scriptwriting for a week to focus on the gigs?

I think yes, I should do it. Its good to have money, a basic security I don´t have yet. Just don´t get greedy.
I bet MJ talks about it in the book, but I cant seem to remember it:

Is it good to use the money you earn on a freelance job to grow your business?
I rather wanted to "bootstrap", like some people may call it.

 

[Hai]

I decided to look for talented people who would make the process more fastlane, since I would take 2 years to draw a graphic novel...
Looking for people/doing everything it takes to accomplish the vision I have for my company, seems to be the right way, whereas writing your own novel for such a long time may be too risky and has too much to do with your own "love" for drawing and writing.

I contacted someone, but I figured my budget is just not high enough yet. I cant expect someone to draw a 22 page comic for 200 dollars....
I was considering a 2 week-1 month cyclew for every comic.

I concluded:

Since I dont have the money, I might as well draw and paint it myself. And only later when I earned some money from the revenue stream would I hire someone to help me produce more.


So the goals for now:


1. work on a 18-pages comic with a 2 week-1 month production cycle
2. hire people to help(once having a revenue stream)

X. work on the longterm graphic novel project(on the side)


I need to uncouple my ego from the production process and do everything the business needs to succeed.

I´m hiring "myself" to do the tasks. And perfection doesnt has a place here.


4. When I was playing MMORPGS, I was a pretty good reseller. In order to help my das with his business, I am learning about eCommerce. It is pretty fun to me. It might be helpful as well in the future, when I´m beggining to ship out books.

 

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[Hai]

Very important reminder:

As an artist I constantly look into other entrepreneurial fields, startup, product development, apps, but what I forget is that as an artist, my expertise is drawing and painting. Programming etc. would take years to learn, and I just can´t focus on it while concentrating on developing art skills. So my expertise, especially what I already know is something I can leverage to create something with value.

The general process goes like this:
Draw what you like->Create value

The key is to stay inside your expertise, your expertise is who you are, your entrepreneurial road.

Some comic artists tell about their interesting life in Japan, some draw nude, some draw fanart.
What they have in common is that while they use their abilities, they still create a lot of value.

I´m testing this idea and see how it goes. I have several ideas already how to create value, by not doing what i like to do, but by doing something with value with my abilities.

Having said that, I´m probably not a Sequential Storyteller(I don´t feel like that yet), but rather an illustrator. So my main focus at the moment is to create value with illustration. And that can be pretty fastlane in my opinion.

I don´t whant to start from zero. To do what I need to do, I know 70% of it, which is my expertise, 30% is the other stuff that needs to be done to make things perfect and to grow the business.

 

[Hai]

By engaging in forum communities one can see how to learn best. You will find the best resources to learn that specific thing. Finding the best resource to learn is key to (fast) success.

 

[Hai]

I´m in the process of hiring people doing what I dont know to do. I found a "business model" where I can take action myself, without having to LEARN too much. That way I can take MORE ACTION. It feels way faster that way.
It is still a process, just way faster!(at least I hope so)

This time I´m going for a low pay-commission, but I plan to pay more and look for better people once I hve a revenue stream.

I´m excited and will see how it works out.

 

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[Hai]

Note:
The more people you hire, the more you can grow. You can grow businesses endlessly.
The more business you have, the tighter your schedule becomes. Now I understand why people would need to work 14h for their business. There is just lot of stuff to do. And you want to keep up with the pace. The faster you get things done, the better.

 

[Hai]

Something I wrote on another thread to remind myself:

What I found these days, how to be more actionable:
1. do what you already know
2. outsource what you dont know
3. learn what you need to learn(just enough to be able to outsource!)

4. Getting profit and outsource more.

This way you will stay in the action cycle way more! And only need to learn if it is something you absolutely must know to be able to outsource!
________________________________________
Something funny:
You can still get things done even though you are learning:
by Outsourcing. Make money/time work for you!

 

[Hai]

Started to use Google Keep/Notes.
It is like a To-Do Businessplan.

Writing things down that need to get done.
Maybe one can make a cycle:

read(plan)->keep->work->read(plan)->keep->

 

[Hai]

Things I learned beeing a merchant in an online game:
-margins
-people are willing to pay a lot for a quality product
-low cost, but high value products can be sold in chunks
-branding of shop, not neccessarily the products

 

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[Hai]

I´m excited about beginning the book "Who owns the Ice house". I have the feeling it will be my second favourite book on entrepreneurship, that will lay a groundbuilding block about how I go about things.

 

[Hai]

Something I still try to figure out:

Learning from short articles, the action is more immediate, while when reading from books, it might take more time to take action.

 

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[Hai]

I´ve been reading up on the Blue Ocean Strategy these days and I´m pretty confident on which business I will focus on, after I´ve run the Buyer Experience Cycle on a popular business model.
Instead of copying them, I will try to give something new to the market.

 

[Hai]

Ive finished the milestone for my product and I am learning Sales and copywriting now. Lets see how it goes...Im pretty excited.

 

[Hai]

I think Ive rushed a bit these days.
I will work more on my product, so that at least I´m excited about it and its ready to advertise.
Althewhile learning all about Marketing and Sales Strategies.

 

[Jeremy Groover]

So far I have only read your first post. Why? You said "As soon as I can get leads, I will start educating myself and produce."

Wrong! Educate yourself as much as possible about your idea. If I were a potential "lead" and I asked you an important question that you were not educated on, I personally would find someone else. I would not wait around for you to "figure it out". My time is valuable, I will not wait to get what I want from someone if someone else can give me the same outcome quicker.

Say you wanted to start a pool company. You knocked on my door and told me about yourself and you company. I said great! I actually have an issue with my spa actuator. My usual service guy wont be here until next week. Mind taking a look at it? You then respond "Yes I will take a look at it!". Then you don't even know what an actuator is or where to find it. Why would I let you say another sentence to me? I would ask you to please leave and go inside my house and continue on with my day pretending I never spoke to you.

 

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[Hai]

Thank you for your input Jeremy. Validation also means to have something workable.

I´ve just finished my website with copy and course so far, that it is ready to sell. Instead of building my subscription base first to launch later, the course is already "launched" as an "early access". It works in itself, but I would like to add more at a later point. I´m not sure if perfecting it and build on anticipation first would be the right way, but I want to get some sales going first to develop it further. At the moment it is a fairly polished and sellable MVP.

I need to file a limited, and also begin developing my marketing strategy.

 

[Hai]

So putting in full-time to work on Marketing now. I really want to get a routine for this, and hope to see first successes soon. Fixing Production issues later. Also filing a Limited soon.

Stages:
1. Direct Marketing
2. Post on communities for Free Content
3. Create Lead Content(Youtube, Instagram etc.)
4. Ask Influencers

 

[Hai]

Moving the train is hard.
I´m going over some educational material and decided to do the following:

1. Target people who have a Major Pain Point->Create Exceptional Content with Authority
2. Raise above the Noise by Emotion

Later:
3. Interactive with Community

And sometihng on the side:
Getting some Followers on Twitter(Promotion Platform)

 

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[Hai]

Influencers are jsut like investors. If you execute well, they will approve. So execute well!

 

[Hai]

I´m just now understanding the concept of Authenticity.
As marketers we tell stories, and these stories need to be believable. And they will only believe you if you can show Authenticity.

 

[Hai]

I have a lot of unused drafts and learning material in drawer and hanging on the wall. Either I´m not ready to execute them yet, or they weren´t as neccesarry as I thought.
However, lately, I DO have a current draft and I execute according to that. I also get some feedback from people, so my executions plans are pretty straightforward.

 

[Hai]

I´m getting some subscribers to my email list, and I´m getting more and more anxious! I really don´t want to mess this up. I somehow need to have a plan of interaction with my subscribers and got to find out what they expect from my product and how I can make it better for them.

 

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[Hai]

"P" beats "E".
We can execute, but according to MJ it depends on the quality of execution as well.
The quality can improve by learning the neccessary skills to execute better! Just doing something, we will hit the wall of our natural abilities very soon.

Now, we also can´t just learn all the time!

What MJ also says, is that the revenue stream/money tree can/should start pretty small.
So what we can do without learning endlessly,
is to learn just enough to start a small money tree. And to execute something that might not take a lot of time, but a lot of skill!

Once we have that money tree we can invest even more time to learning and to even higher quality execution.

 

[Hai]

I needed to reconsider what my product and my marketing is about. I think I´ve found a solution and it is something I just had to remind myself of about again and I´m now pretty confident to provide great value according to my abilities. Struggled with this for 1-2 months.