You Mean We Have To DO Something?

I’m a strategist. I make plans for other people’s businesses. Plans for their brands, their marketing, their web sites, their information products… And I’ve discovered a simple truth, which should have been obvious to me a long time ago. Everyone loves a good strategy, and no one wants to implement it. The strategy is a story about a glorious new future -- full of promise, supported by powerful logic and clear ideas. Implementation is a chore. Worse than that, implementation demands decision, risk and change: the three demons everyone resists. I can’t think of a single business person I know who doesn’t resist getting into action, and to avoid any confusion here, I’d put myself top of the list.

It’s a fascinating study in one of the fundamentals of human chemistry. I have clients of every shape, size, age, gender, history and scale of business. They all balk at the doing part, ex-Marine Corps officers included. I don't mean people are lazy. On the contrary, business people are the busiest people in the world. But busy with what? Short answer: doing what they've done before. The trouble with a good strategy is that it demands taking action into the unknown, which we all like to dream about but rarely want to experience. What’s the solution? If I really knew, I wouldn’t be worrying about clients. I’d be a multi-trillionaire.

Meanwhile, here are two resources that have helped me: Steven Pressfield’s wonderful book, The War of Art, doesn’t really give you any tools to work with (unless you count a daily prayer to your muse), but his intimate description of the wiles and snares of resistance is so chillingly accurate, you feel like he is perched on your desk watching you work (or pretend to). More practical are the processes and trainings created by Dr. Stephanie Burns, who has researched the problem as thoroughly as anyone I know, and leaves most “motivators” standing in the dust. Check her out at stephanieburns.com

The Myth of Competition

Returning to this blog after a long hiatus, here are some brief musings on competition.

I was on the phone today with the founder of a fabulous new publishing house (and new concept in publishing). When I asked him about competition, he said he used Jay Levinson's principle: instead of beating the competition, get them to join you. He has created a fascinating affiliate system that enrolls small publishers who might otherwise be competitors. His instinct pulls him away from the classic warrior stance on competition. And he is becoming hugely successful.

Let's take this further. Here is a rather bizarre thought about your competition: You don't have any.

Let me explain by citing an old saw from the real estate market: "Every house has a buyer." Extending this little piece of wisdom suggests that somewhere in the universe are exactly the right customers for your product. Those customers belong to you. The ones who buy the other product just aren't your customers — they belong to someone else. Your task is not to fight off the competition. It's to put out a clear signal and call in your rightful customers.

Another example. Dating sites like eHarmony could be viewed as a ferocious auction, where potential partners duke it out with competing wooers of the same sex. You place yourself in the shop window and wag your tail, hoping that it's you who'll be taken home — and not that prissy little puppy in the next pen. Of course, everyone knows that romance doesn't work like that. We don't get picked out like a salad in a deli. We fetch up with the one we're with, against all odds, because that's how it is meant to be. Some invisible law of connection brings us together. The only requirement is to show up.

So here's a (to me) new way of framing marketing: It's not about beating the competition. It's about making yourself known to the people who are anyway destined for your product. Just show up.