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At this point in my entrepreneurial career, I have about 30 projects under my belt. Some have been very successful. Some have done just okay. Some have been complete flops. But they all have one thing in common: they started ugly.
You might think that project 29 or 30 started out perfectly, right? With 20+ previous experiences, I had to have figured out how to avoid all the mishaps, errors, and ugliness that go along with a new project.
For the sake of this article, Iâm defining ugly as:
Ugly: A version of my product Iâd be embarrassed to show a potential customer.
The project I’m going to share with you throughout this article is called ofCourseBooks. A project I previously co-owned with friends Paul Jarvis and Zack Gilbert. The three of us came together with the idea to create elegant embeddable workbooks.
But guess what? Things didnât start out elegantly at all.
Sketches on paper. Really quickly thrown together designs. A bunch of bad ideas tossed in a Trello board. All of these things are necessary when starting a project.
It is 100% impossible to get a project from initial idea to beautiful and ready for the world in a straight, linear fashion. Instead, it looks more like this:
Yeah, it looks like a mess, and yeah, it often feels like things might crash and burn at any moment.
If you accept that this phase of a project is necessary (or even mandatory), you can look at it from a completely different angle. You can embrace the ugly phase, and you can use it to your advantage to create without criticism or judgment.
With ofCourseBooks, we didnât worry about everything being perfect from the beginning. We just allowed ourselves to create the first version of a logo. The first version of a branding guide. Definitely the first versions of the website framework and design.
And how many iterations did each of those âfirst versionsâ end up having?
Paul, Zack, and I all have experience working on previous projects, which helped us understand that things wouldnât be perfect on the first go-round. We came together as a team and had conversations about letting go of perfectionism, and about our willingness to create new versions of things âwithout complaining about the extra work.
This is where the word âiterationâ actually means something. Itâs not just a buzzword, people! It means making changes quickly and without hesitation. It means throwing away hours of work that no longer serve the greater good of a project. It means swallowing your entrepreneurial pride and realizing that no one ever makes anything perfect on the first, second, or even third try. Shifting your thinking in this way can help you reach the next milestone or level of success faster than youâd imagine.
I remember what it was like pining over designs for various projects, or even over words for various articles. It was tedious, nitpicky work. And it wasnât until I made the big shift in how I defined the success of my art that I began to understand and embrace that my ugly ducklings could quickly become majestic and powerful mallards!
Nowadays, especially with writing, I just sit down and know that the first version doesnât have to be perfect. There is no perfect, and an ugly duckling is okay. This single thought has completely removed writerâs block from my vocabulary and life.
People don’t need the perfect picture to be interested in buying something.
I learned in 2015 that people donât need the perfect picture to be interested in buying something.
In 2015, I wrote a daily journal for 60 days on the writing platform Medium. In that journal, I shared my heart, soul, and ugly thoughts about what it took to create my next big project (BuyMyFuture). I was scared to publish many of the daily entries I wrote because they were ugly and vulnerable. One, in particular, was titled, âDoes anyone even care?â Hereâs an excerpt:
Every single day I think to myself: âDoes anyone actually care about this journal or my new project?â Thatâs simply the honest truth. I believe a lot of people who are creators (or business owners) can relate to that feeling. When youâre working on something, even if you have validation of the work youâre doing, it can feel like there is a lack of public interest because the amount of interest could never possibly match your effort. Iâve poured well over 200 hours into Project Galaxy [BuyMyFuture] already. Not to mention the hours that other people have poured into this project. The small moments of public validation are fantastic, but it would take an insurmountable amount of them to match up to the hours that have been invested.
A funny thing has happened over the years as I’ve shared my vulnerable and relatable thoughts: People have trusted me and purchased my imperfect products.
I can actually quantify the value of sharing the REALNESS with the BuyMyFuture project. Over half of the 165 buyers of BuyMyFuture said they read the Medium journal and that it influenced their buying decision!
(The first year of BuyMyFuture was sold at $1,000 per spot.)
Going back to ofCourseBooks, we shared a public Google Doc with our podcast listeners and email subscribers. In that doc (as you can see), we shared all our ugly versions and a bunch of our thoughts along the way. Remember, our definition of ugly may vary to your definition of ugly.
And surprise, surprise: many of our founding members say they purchased when they did because we shared the behind the scenes (read: ugly versions). They saw the progress and knew weâd continue to improve our next versions of the product.
Say this out loud: âI know this is the ugly phase. Iâm 100% okay with making mistakes and having to redo work.â The more you say it, the better the outcome of whatever youâre working on will be.
Whether itâs writing an article, building a piece of software, designing a new logo, or all the other millions of ways you can create things nowadays, be okay with having an ugly duckling phase. Understand how beneficial it is, and shift your mindset from worrying about it to leveraging it in the creation of something even better.
Be okay with starting ugly. It doesnât last forever, but itâs completely necessary.
I hopped on a Skype call with a guy named Ash to answer questions about content creation. Ash wanted to talk about writing and defining success. During the call, he asked a simple question: âWith the content you create, how do you define success? Do you look at analytics, reviews, shares, or other data?â
The answer was (and is) no. I donât look at any of that stuff. I donât care about external validation metrics. Iâve been writing and creating for years, and I define success not by numbers and graphs, but by getting an idea, thought, or opinion out into the world and hoping it brings people value. Thatâs it.
Success is defined before distribution, not after it. Hitting publish is a success and then itâs on to creating the next thing.
Ash responded, âThatâs very interesting. Itâs kind of like your writing is your art.â
Iâd never really thought of it that way. Iâd never thought of the words I write as being anything artistic, or of myself as being an artist. But then I thought about what the word âartâ means to me:
Iâm not concerned about my writing “doing well.” In fact, some people might argue that only one of the nearly 400 articles Iâve written (thank you, WordPress post counter) has actually been successful by traditional metrics. That article is the weird morning ritual one, and it’s been viewed over 1,000,000 times across multiple media outlets. And while thatâs great and all, if I let that article be the measuring stick of my writing success, Iâd be fighting a never-ending battle. Itâs so rare that an article will spread like that one did, so trying to recreate that with each article would put me in a creation-straight-jacket.
I recently heard about Cherie Northon, an environmental scientist and self-described ânon-artistâ (like me) who has dedicated her career to showing people how seemingly small things like littering can have long-term effects on the planet. Cherie knows all kinds of statsâlike the fact that 80% of the oceanâs plastic garbage comes from the landâbut she also knows that many of us have turned a deaf ear to tired messages like, âDonât litter.â So how could she get people to care and, more importantly, take action?
She turned to artâor, more specifically, to partnering with artists who could communicate what we all already know in a new way. Sheâs used her credentials to bring legitimacy to art pieces made of ocean garbage, and the artists have used their credentials to ensure the message to use a trash can actually get heard.
Did Cherie have to become a traditional artist to get her message out there? Nope. She had to redefine art as a way of getting her message out, and then find a way to act without getting caught up in how it would be received. Sheâs written that âfew will probably ever seeâ a piece that means a lot to herâan albatross mosaic made of plastic found on the beachâbut she doesnât let it stop her. You shouldnât, either. Find your art, and take action.
I know insanely talented people who get so wound up about putting their work out into the world. Every part of the process is painful for them because they donât create enough to get over their self-doubts, fears, and imperfections.
When I first started writing, I had to overcome a lot of my own self-doubts, fears, and imperfections with a simple idea: That article I just wrote is done, it exists in the world, your time with it is done, itâs time to move on to the next one.
You will always have another thing to design. Another video to create. Another article to write. Remove the pressure of thinking youâre creating the last _______ on Earth, and just get your message out.
The more I create, the more Iâm able to create without over analyzing and putting pressure on myself.
If thereâs one important thing Iâve learned in the past decade as a creative entrepreneur, itâs that the more I create, the more Iâm able to create without over analyzing and putting pressure on myself.
I can now write article after article and not worry for a single second about how each one will do. Thatâs not my definition of success. If an article makes its way from my writing app to my email list and website, it has succeeded. Done deal. End of story. On to the next article.
1. What is your art? Remember: you donât have to be an artist to create art, and your art might be something you donât even realize. In the end, itâs just the vehicle you use to get your thoughts and opinions out into the world.
2. How can you define success for your art that has nothing to do with forces outside of your control? Can you detach from the metrics and find success with your art from another angle?
Look at analytics if you want to, but donât get caught up in them as your metric for success. They will only feed your anxieties the next time you sit down to create, and you donât want your self-worth tied up in algorithms. Remember instead that success comes with completion, so you can get onto the next thing.
Melinda O. – I guess you could say that my art is simply living by my principles, demonstrating to others that there is a different way to define success, and that they can choose their own measuring stick. I cannot say that I do the greatest job of it some days, but art is about inspiration after all. I aspire to inspire others.
Brendan H. –Â Three years ago, I would have said this was blog posts. Two years ago, I would have said this was social media. For the last year or so, I would have said this was my podcast. And now, after the birth of my second son, I’m starting to see things a bit differently. The way that I get my message out there is people, not a media. My kids. My readers/listeners/friends/fans. I think that the greatest art IS the emotions and change in makes it others, not necessarily the paint on a canvas. I think that one of the biggest changes that this has caused is that I’m doing more ‘art’ for people and less for the ‘medium.’Â
Ryan H. – My art is having dynamic, constructive conversations with leaders who have sustained excellence over an extended period of time. I wonât lie⌠I do check the metrics. I view how many people download and listen to each episode. HOWEVER, itâs far more important and impactful to my life when I get an e-mail from a listener of my show telling me specifically how Iâve impacted their life. Maybe my show helped after they got laid off⌠Maybe it helped them become a better writer, speaker, creator or art, etc⌠I absolutely love receiving that feedback and it is the juice that drives me to continually improve as a leader, speaker, podcast host.
Diandra A. –Â My art is bowling. I learned most of the lifeâs lessons I know through the sport of bowling. I am now in a position to open up the eyes of others and show them they are doing more than competing in a sport. They are learning some of lifeâs most valuable lessons. We should all follow fundamentals, but the art in your game makes you unique. I define success based on how much a studentâs average goes up. Or, if a young bowler chooses to bowl in college because of my guidance. I define success based on the path that my studentâs choose.
Forestine B. –Â My art is creating specialized greeting cards for people suffering a loss or celebrating a life. I measure success when people spread the word and others come to me and ask me to create a memory card and they trust me to use my own creativity.
Ben N. –Â My art is often weekly articles to my newsletter subscribers – the Monday Memo – about getting inspired, mastering time management, and building creative habits that stick. Although I can get caught up in my recommends on Medium or email opens, I always try to remember that even one follower is enough. That one person has given me something more valuable than a like or click – they’ve given me their attention and time which is the most valuable resource we have.
Jocelyn M. –Â I AM an artist, but my art is about showing people that they are valuable and beautiful human beings. Success for me is moving my work forward every day. It can be a small step (getting out the next negative, sketching the next idea), or big ones (preparing my materials, printing the work, writing). But I have to do it every day.
Stephanie G. – My art is making videos, photos, and installations about being black, relationships, and hip hop! I find success in just creating and sharing. I want to do that over and over and over again. For a long time I didn’t make a damn thing and then once I got moving I couldn’t stop and people began to notice and that’s awesome!
Roshni D. –Â My art is the graphic memoir that I’m currently making. I’ve never written a book in my life, let alone a graphic memoir, but this thing just won’t leave me alone, so I’ve got to write it. How I define success for my art is, how true the portrayal of my feelings is. I am aiming for passion, not perfection. It may be a commercial flop, but I’ll love it anyway, cuz this book is my baby, the expression of my life thus far.
Kelly M. –Â My art is making buttons (the pinback kind). For me, success is when I see an 80 year old man wearing a button that says “shit works out” (with an image of a poop emoji lifting a barbell), because it made him laugh.
Lou S. –Â I think I’m still working this out. I love doodling. I can’t stop myself from visualizing ideas. I’m also good at asking the right questions and getting to the heart of things. In the past, I thought writing was going to be my art but now I’m not so sure. I’ve always been focused on wanting to help people, even if its just one person. But just like being focused on numbers/metrics it feels like a lot of pressure every time I sit down. I’ll be honest and say I haven’t really been doodling the last few months. I felt that it wasn’t really helping me or others and that I was just adding to the noise. I still use the skills in my part time job but I don’t do it just for myself. I’m going to reframe this for myself and consider it a success when I get a post / blog out into the world.
Sara G. –Â I did high school in an art school and in my teens, I thought I would be an artist – I did mostly contemporary jewelry and thought that was my art. It wasn’t. Today I’m a designer. I thought design was limiting, but I realized I don’t need to stay attached to a specific field – design skills can apply to so many aspects of our lives. So, I believe designing is my art as it is the vehicle I use to get my message out there. Success for me is when I create something that helps someone. For example, when I do a branding project and my client loves it – and I feel even more successful when I see the new visual identity I designed is helping that client’s business grow.Â
Michelle T. – My hair is art. The costumes I put on my dog is art. The way I âblingâ my phone is art. The stickers and fuzzy steering wheel on my car are also art. And my music as a percussionist is my art. My LIFE is art! It took me many years to stop worrying about what people thought and just to try things. Now I’ve tried so many things that I would have never had the guts to try! I define success when I can touch the lives of others. When someone says that I helped them in some way by something I have written or have brought them joy while they were listening to (or watching) me play. There is no better success to me than moving someone by doing something that I simply love to do anyway.
Brad M. –Â My art is split into two things: The first is my writing, my blog posts that I write every week. The second is my interactions with people either through my speech coaching or through my study abroad peer advisor job. I actually really enjoy the second type, because unlike my writing it is much harder to get hung up on getting it perfect. Each interaction is by nature limited in the amount of time you can spend on it and once it is done there is no chance to get back and edit it. It encourages you to let go and focus on the next interaction. For my writing I label an article a success by whether a single person found it useful (even if that person is me!). It’s a humble metric but I like it that way. For my interactions, that is much tougher. So far I think I label it a success if the person walks away from our session happier and more confident (either in their public speaking ability or in their ability to go study abroad). I think that is the real goal of my interactions. I want to make people smile and more aware and confident in their own abilities.
Jason K. –Â I am an âartistâ artist. I draw and paint. But I also I create things â not just art objects â but observations, and connections and experiences that give people hope and the freedom to live joyfully. 2) This year, I have started a âTinker Projectâ which was born out of my desire to spend more time in the studio. The last few years, during my annual review process, I alway felt disappointed that I didnât spent more time making art. (Other business pursuits always seems to take priority.) This year, I said enough is enough, and committed to making 100 new pieces of art, which has required my to set aside one day a week as a Studio Day. So far, so good. I havenât missed a Studio Day, and through March, Iâve made 28 new pieces. Not only does that put me ahead of the pace I need, itâs only one short from the total number of pieces I created last year. Although I suspect good things will come from this project and the art I create, those things are not my primary indicator of success. If I end 2016 with 100 new pieces of art, I will have succeeded in knowing that I finally made my art the priority it needs to be.
Eyram S. – For me, my art is combining Engineering, Art and Memory into a new way for engineers to express their talents, frustrations and creativity – without having to stress out about companies and exams. I think we are really hitting a point where this needs to hit home – we are human beings, not robots. I’m realizing that shipping and tracking how I feel (and my reader feels) about the article as the main metric. My metric is engagement. If I get a lot of replies to my email, I’m doing something right. If I hit my 1,000 True Fans (as everyone always recommends but never does as a metric), I’ll be the happiest 1st gen African-NYCer alive.
Eric R. –Â Over the last couple of years though, I’ve found that how we approach life can be art. How we are in our relationships. How we show up in the world. Being a parent (sculpting the life of another human). I am realizing that for me, the measurement of success is showing up. Pushing through doubts and fears and doing it anyway. Recognizing that you can look at things from many perspectives and if you stay true to your values and who you are, the metrics don’t matter.
Pedro C. –Â I’m a painter. I love art and I draw and or paint because I have to. If a piece becomes a favorite it’s not up to me. It’s up to the audience. I’m very interested in marketing and providing value to my audience. I sometimes think art is my Trojan horse.
October 21, 1879, was the day that made Thomas Edison famous. It was the day he invented the lightbulbâthe day he was interviewed by the New York Timesâthe day of the worldâs very first collective lightbulb moment. Anyone would say October 21 was Edisonâs big break, and to this day, thatâs the date that shows up first on Google if you happen to be looking for something weird like the day the lightbulb was invented. (Google knows everything.)
(Edison in his inventor’s lab. Photo credit:Â invention.si.edu)
More than 100 years later, October would be a pretty big month for Louis C.K., too. The then-unknown comic gave a 5-minute stand-up set on The Cable Comedy Club on October 17, 1988, and again, Google it. A lot of people call that set his big break. Heâs done pretty well since then, I guess.
Editor’s update: Unfortunately Louis C.K. has turned out to be a pretty terrible person and this article was written a year prior to news breaking about him. We’re leaving him in this article as an example until we can find a replacement that ties into our October-themed story.
October 2015 was everyoneâs first chance to buy my future. It wasnât my big break, but it was (and is) the craziest project Iâve ever done.
So, hold on a sec. Do some of us know something about October that you donât?
Am I about to tell you to make SURE you launch your next project before Halloween if you want any hope of success? Am I drawing some sort of crazy parallel between myself, Louis C.K., and Thomas Edison?
Nope.
The fact that all those things happened in October is actually a total coincidence, but they do have something much bigger in common: they all look like theyâre stories about a certain specific date, and they all play on our collective tendency to want to pin things down into summaries and sound bytes. But what are they actually about? Whatâs the real story?
Consistency.
Stick with me here.
He didnât invent it at all, actually, at least not in the sense that we think of inventing as a sudden flash of brilliance out of nowhere. No, Edison instead tweaked a tiny little filament over 10,000 times, becoming known during that time for the quote, âI have not failed. Iâve just found 10,000 ways that wonât work.â But he kept going, consistently putting in the long hours required to reach his goal of a commercially viable light source. October 21 was the day it all came together, but thatâs the smallest part of the story when weâre talking about how something gets invented. (Itâs not even like he quit working on October 22, either. He kept going, filing over 1,000 patents in his lifetime and contributing to the invention of a lot of things heâs less well known for, like the microphone and an early version of the tattoo gun.)
It wasnât until 1996 that he landed a televised comedy special on HBO, and even then, it was only 30 minutes long. In 2005, he got another stand-up special on HBO, and then in 2009, he produced his own special, which didnât go mainstream until 2011. Heâs a household name now, but did it happen because of one appearance back in 1988? No way. Itâs taken him 25+ years of consistently honing his comedic craft to get where he is now.
In 2008, when the idea came to me for my IWearYourShirt business, I had no idea what doing something daily for 365 straight days would do. I just simply thought it was an interesting way to sell something, and I liked the challenge. And make no mistake, it was a challenge to show up that consistently for an entire year. Every single day in 2009, I planned, filmed, edited, and shared a new YouTube video, hosted an hour-long live video show, took new photos, and interacted with a growing community on social media. And every single day, more people and paying companies found me. That business, which I estimate I put over 16,000 hours into over 5 years, paved the way for all the things Iâve done since, and that opportunity to sell my future last October wouldnât have even been possible for me unless Iâd spent the time beforehand, working consistently to build a brand and a platform.
I donât know any other way to put it: You are either willing to put in the effort, or you arenât. Edison was; Louis C.K. was. Are you?
For the past few years, Iâve received emails and tweets from thousands of entrepreneurs, creative professionals, and business owners. Iâve read so many messages littered with dreams and big ideas, only to see just a tiny fraction of those people succeed.
Why donât people succeed? Is it because their ideas are bad?
Nope.
Is it because they donât have that special âitâ factor?
Nope.
It is because they have life circumstances that hold them back?
Only in extremely rare cases.
The reason people donât succeed is that theyâre not willing to put in the consistent effort required to make their dreams come true.
They donât want to hear that it could take 9,999 tries before they stumble on their own lightbulb moment. They donât want to hear it could take 25 years to reach success like Louis C.K.âs. When we see headlines that focus on specific days or specific moments, weâre fooled into thinking that success happens overnight, and that consistency isnât a factor. (Maybe the factor.)
But thereâs no entrepreneurial fairy dust. No creativity magic potion. No idea-generating genie in a lamp (or light bulb).
Thereâs effort. And effort is something people are either willing to invest, or theyâre not.
Iâm living proof that it doesnât take any special skill, talent, or ability to be successful. It just takes effort and determination.
Thomas Edison, Louis C.K., and I have one thing in common: We wanted to do our thing more than we were discouraged by the effort it took to be successful.
(Iâm fully aware that putting myself in the company of Thomas Edison and Louis C.K. is a bit out there. I donât consider myself as great or as accomplished as themâI just have effort in common with them.)
I donât have a time machine, so I canât go back and watch Thomas Edison and see how much effort he put into his lightbulb experiments. But I think we can all agree, trying something 10,000 times (heck, even 1,000 times) is bound to bring results.
Itâs okay to quit something. But itâs not okay to give up on an idea, dream, or business, just because the going gets tough. Spoiler alert: Things worth having take effort and time to get.
The first thing you should do is make a consistency marriage proposal to yourself. Sound weird? It sure is. Thatâs why youâre here.
Through thick and thin.
Through sickness and health.
Til death do you part.
Remove the relationship, love, white doves, and bridesmaids, and those three phrases can help keep you going when youâre feeling a lack of excitement or enthusiasm for whatever it is youâre working on. Louis C.K. himself said it best:
âI’ve learned from experience that if you work harder at it, and apply more energy and time to it, and more consistency, you get a better result. It comes from the work.â
The second thing to do to increase your chances of showing up consistently is to create some sort of accountability.
My wife, Caroline, decided to embark on a daily art project for 2016. Every single day, she wanted to bring two of her passions together: Affirmations and art. She knew that if she didnât put it out publicly, it would be hard to be accountable to just herself. So, she took to her Instagram account and announced #AbstractAffirmationsDaily to the world.
Having done a daily project years prior, I knew what this project would require of her. I knew there would be days when life would get in the way of her art. But Iâve heard her talk about the accountability she owes to Instagram (and to herself, of course). Even on days when sheâs not feeling it, she hunkers down and gets the art done. Even on days when she completely despises her own beautiful work, she shares it with the world. And that, my friends, is one of the most important elements of consistency.
The last thing is to understand that no matter what you choose to be consistent with if you donât truly believe in your own vision/goal/dream, youâll never stick with it.
This is the part of this article where the honesty police arrive. Do you REALLY want to be working on whatever youâre working on? Do you REALLY believe in your idea, or is it just something shiny you saw that worked for someone else?
âThis is not your practice life.â – AJ Leon
You only get one go at this crazy thing called life. I donât know about you, but Iâm done wasting time doing anything that I donât enjoy.
Edison didnât enjoy all 9,999 experiments that didnât work. Louis C.K. didnât love getting on stage in small, empty comedy clubs in obscure cities. My wife and I certainly donât enjoy everything we make or every part of the process of consistent creation. But every success (for everyone who wants to be successful) comes from the work.
You arenât going to enjoy every moment of what you do. But if you truly believe in what youâre working on, consistency will get you through 9,999 failed experiments, 25 years of obscurity, and every October between now and when you finally reach your goal. Then again, you know by now that itâs not about October, anyway.
Chuck Jones, the cartoonist behind the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, once created a set of nine rules (road runner rules) that he used as a filter for his creative process.
Weâre gonna steal his idea, and create Road Runner Rules for a content-based business.
A content-based business is one in which a business owner shares consistent and free content (emails, blog posts, articles, videos, podcasts, etc) with an audience. That content helps audience members improve some aspect of their lives. The business owner makes money by creating products and/or services that build on the free content and provide even more value to the audience.
Example: My previous email list, The Action Army, was a weekly newsletter where I occasionally created products or services (online courses, books, workshops, software, etc) that helped Action Army subscribers learn something that would help them take action in some aspect of their lives or businesses.
Iâm certainly not the first to stumble upon Jonesâ rules, which were first made public in a 1999 autobiography. (In fact, I didnât even find them on my ownâmy friend Matt Giovanisci told me about them.) But once I read the nine rules and understood how Jones used them, well…BEEP BEEP! I knew they could work for business, too.
Here are Chuck Jones’ original Road Runner Rules:
OK, off you go to implement these for your business!
Kidding. Obviously, your rules may have fewer beeps and comedic anvils, but the list above can still be incredibly helpful. And just like your values, your Road Runner Rules can become a set of guiding principles (or filters, if you will). They can help strengthen the content you put out into the world.
Iâll share my rules after the questions, specifically as they relate to content I used to share on my JasonDoesStuff website and with my previous community, the Action Army.
1. Whatâs something unique about the way you create and share content?
2. What topic or genre will you never create content about?
3. Whatâs one word that can describe the outcome you want for the people who consume the content you create? Include the definition of that word (or a quote that really resonates with you).
4. How do you speak to your audience? Is it from a place of relation? From a place of authority? Both? Somewhere else entirely?
5. What is your content schedule? What can you commit to that doesnât waver or change?
6. Do you share stories from other people, or only talk about yourself and your experiences?
7. List out the tools youâll use to create your content. (Having a list of tools will help you create with more consistency and without getting down rabbit holes of trying new tools all the time.)
8. Whatâs one question you can ask yourself at every turn to make sure youâre staying on track with the content you create?
9. Whatâs something you wonât compromise on when it comes to creating content for your audience?
Iâd challenge you to stick to your answers until you absolutely must make a change. These are foundational things. The answers should be based on what you believe in and what you stand for. Those things shouldnât change too often.
(If youâre questioning this, think again of the original Road Runner Rules. How different a cartoon would it be if those nine things werenât consistent?)
JasonDoesStuff merged into Wandering Aimfully and is no longer active but the rules helped me greatly for years Hopefully they’ll help inspire you to write your own rules!
1. Something unique: I will always write and share content in my own authentic voice. I will not remove my nonsensical tangents and commentary. Those are what make my content stand out from the rest.
2. I will never: write from a place of criticism or belittlement.
3. In one word: Action. (Action is defined as inspiring people to do something specific.)
4. I speak to my audience: from a place of relation, and hopefully with some experience to share. I never want it to feel like Iâm talking down to anyone. I always want you to feel like Iâm in the entrepreneurial trenches with you, because I am!
5. Content schedule: I will send my weekly newsletter to the Action Army on Monday mornings at 10am Eastern.
6. When sharing stories: I can share other peopleâs stories, but I must always pick stories that I have some experience with or that have helped me make a big change in my life/business.
7. Tools: I write everything in the Bear Writer app. My editor edits in Google Docs. I send the finished article through Drip to the Action Army. Then I update my Content Calendar Spreadsheet, which helps me track what Iâm working on and when I post.
8. At every turn, I ask myself: Does this thing Iâm creating help someone take a specific action in their life/business?
9. I will not compromise on: sponsorship integrity. I will never create paid content for companies I donât use/love. I believe selling out is defined as taking money for something you donât absolutely enjoy doing (or talking about).
As I wrote out my own Road Runner Rules, I realized how helpful it will be to revisit these rules whenever I felt stuck. If I ever felt like a piece of content, an online course, a podcast episode, or anything I created didn’t meet the requirements of my nine rules, then I wouldn’t share that thing. In fact, I should immediately blow that piece of content up (with Acme dynamite, obviously) and make sure it doesnât see the light of day!
Your Road Runner Rules can be a set of guiding principles for your business.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you probably do. Whether youâre actually creating content is a different story, but nearly all businesses can benefit from putting out targeted content these days.
If youâre starting your business from scratch, this doesnât mean you need to sign up for social media accounts and start posting tweets, status updates, pins, snapchats, and whatever else. It means that you should create content that can help your customers improve their lives and their experience with whatever product or service you create.
My friend Jeff Sheldon runs the popular apparel company Ugmonk. Over the years heâs focused just on creating quality products and hasnât worried too much about the content. In recent years, however, heâs released a few – beautiful – videos and has shared some behind-the-scenes stories of his creation process.
My favorite video from Jeff, taken on a trip to Iceland:
The result?
Heâs rewarding the loyalty of his existing customers and bringing in new people who love his content. He understands that creating content (in a way that he enjoys creating it) is helping his business grow.
Thereâs a reason why almost all of us immediately run to Google when we want to find something. What shows up when you Google something? Content!
If you can create helpful content (read: stuff that makes your audience/customers more awesome), you can attract way more people who matter to your business.
Scroll back up and copy and paste the questions into whatever writing app you use. Then, answer the 9 questions!
So whatâre you waiting for? Run as fast as the Road Runner, avoid any falling anvils, and start writing your nine rules now.
Beep Beep!
Imagine a giant block of Italian Carrara white marble.
Imagine the pressure you feel: your reputation rests on this job. Your family is counting on you. Everyone is watching. The marble itself is priceless and irreplaceable, but thereâs one catch: itâs been examined and abandoned by two skilled sculptors before you. Unfit for carving, they said, shortly after one of them gouged an ugly hole in it and left it out in the elements for 25 years. Too many imperfections.
You have one shot.
Iâm curious what youâd do first, where you would start to tackle this mess of a task and turn it into something everyone could be proud of. Would you start timidly with a toothpick, poking away at the smallest of the âtaroliâ (imperfections)? Would you chip away at tiny flakes so as not to compromise stability at the base? Maybe youâd worry yourself into complete inaction, convince yourself the other sculptors were right, and abandon the job like they did.
In 1501, a young Italian sculptor faced exactly this challenge. Heâd convinced the commissioning party that he could finish work that the skilled hands before him could not, and when he examined the neglected and gouged marble block, towering above him and riddled with taroli, he knew something they didnât: this job wasnât going to get very far with just a toothpick.
The sculptor took a hammer to the imperfect marble. He hacked about six feet right off the top, and he found a reason to make that ugly mistake of a hole even bigger than it already was. He was ruthless in eliminating the unnecessary. What did he see that no one else could? Years later, he shared these words about his masterpiece:
âDavid was always there in the marble. I just took away everything that was not David.â âMichelangelo
Recently, a friend was asking me for help with his new business and the website that accompanied it. He wanted input, he said, because the site was riddled with taroliâor maybe he just said the logo didnât look right on the page. The color wasnât quite right. The sizing was off. And he couldnât decide if it should be left or center aligned. There were so many details to worry about, he confessed. Too many imperfections.
I stopped him in his tracks and asked âAre any of these concerns going to help your customer buy your stuff? Better yet, does your logo size and positioning help your customer be better at what they do?â
Feel free to stop reading this article if youâve ever made a purchasing decision based on the alignment of a logo. Oh, you havenât?? Yeah, me neither.
Of course, his answer to both questions was âno.â My friend realized immediately that he was too focused on the details, and was attempting to carve his marble statue with a toothpick.
We spend loads of mental energy worrying about tiny imperfections in our businesses. We toil over the fear of making incorrect decisions that will reduce our businesses to rubble. We convince ourselves that everyone else was right, and that we should abandon this slab before it gets worse. We lose sight of David in the marble.
When you get stuck worrying about the placement and size of your logo (as an example), youâre approaching a giant piece of marble with a toothpick. Youâre also probably poking away at a section that doesnât even matter (yet).
Should your logo look great? Yes, it should. Should it be clearly visible to people who visit your website? Yes, it should. But should you spend more than a couple seconds worrying about your logo placement on your website? No, because that doesnât help your potential customers make an informed decision about you or what youâre selling.
Whether your goal is to carve a marble sculpture or sell your products consistently and profitably, you need to be prepared to make big changes and take risks. You need to put down the toothpick and pick up the hammer.
Even Michelangelo made mistakes while working on the Statue of David, you know. Some say the right hand is too big, and others debate about a missing muscle in Davidâs back. And who knows what happened during the carving process that Michelangelo managed to fix before anyone saw. Maybe he chiseled off a little too much or removed a piece in a spot that he didnât mean to. Maybe he thought a day of work was going to go one way, but he was soon working on a completely different part of the statue. Whatever the issues were, Michelangelo certainly didnât finish the Statue of David in three years by whittling away at the tiniest pieces or concerning himself with the taroli.
To figure out how to best serve your customers (which also typically leads to making money), you need a hammer. You need to be willing to try new things and make mistakes. This has nothing to do with failure, but it has everything to do with trial and error.
Worrying about your logo: Instead of worrying about the sizing and placement of your logo, maybe you should try reducing your product offering to one focused thing for awhile.
Having social share icons: Instead of adding social share icons to your website, maybe you should try writing useful and valuable content that gives away 90% of your business knowledge.
Social media or email: Instead of being on every social media platform, maybe you focus on just one for six months (or better yet, abandon them all and focus only on email marketing).
Micromanaging employees: Instead of tracking your employeesâ progress by the hours they work, maybe you give them complete hourly working autonomy for a month. Then compare the progress between the two months and see what brought in better results (sales/deliverables/happiness/etc).
Website content: Instead of changing some copy and images on the homepage of your website, maybe you change the entire layout and switch it up month by month.
Running an offline biz: Instead of having a bricks-and-mortar business with the same hours as everyone else, maybe you do limited hours for a month, but in those hours you offer something really unique: free local coffee and pastries, a fun atmosphere to relax in, complimentary accounting advice, etc.
These are just a few examples. Theyâre hammer changes instead of toothpick changes, or at least thatâs the intent. The results will tell how much marble you carved, and how big of a deal it was.
Do less assuming and do more swinging.
The hammer gets you started. Use it to eliminate all the unnecessary stuff, sometimes up to six feet right off the top! Eventually, you wonât need to make big changes anymore. And like a sculptor, youâll then grab a smaller set of tools that help you refine, tweak, and adjust the minor things that show up later on down the road. Even Michelangelo didnât carve the features of Davidâs face first.
Thereâs a reason why there isnât a set way of starting or running a business. There arenât a specific set of rules and steps you must follow. Your hammer is going to be completely different from mine. The trick is to use the tools you have at your disposal and not be afraid of the mistakes that will inevitably happen along the way.
A few years from now, you may need a sledgehammer and an entirely new block of marble. Thatâs called adapting to the times.
Enjoy the process of carving away and getting your business to a successful state. Youâll definitely have to make big changes again in the future, so get comfortable with the bigger tools, and keep in mind that what youâre trying to build is already there in the marble.
What will you use to get it out?
The majority of people won’t bat an eyelash when it comes to taking on considerable student loan debt. But what if I told you that you could find your passion and build a profitable business for under $70?
A college degree is supposed to help you make a return on your investment, yet the average student will incur $30,867* in student loan debt. The standard repayment plan for student loan debt is 10-years, but research has shown the average bachelor’s degree holder takes 21 years* to pay off his or her loans.
Despite the stats about student loan debt, Iâd go out on a limb and wager that the majority of students who take on that average $30,000 in debt believe the education received in college was not worth the time, effort, and money. If we’re talking specifically about a return on investment (ROI), the stats don’t lie: spending $30,000 only to pay it back in 21 years is a pretty raw deal. Even worse than the ROI, most people hate their jobs and live paycheck to paycheck.
I donât believe college is the right option. In fact, I think itâs actually an irresponsible financial decision given the statistics staring us all in the face.
Regardless of my stance on higher education, by following the steps Iâm about to share, Iâm extremely confident that you can find your passion and start running a profitable business of your own. You will be able to arm yourself with all the knowledge you need to get going and for the meager investment of just $64.08.
And yes, you read that correctly: For just $64.08 I want to show you how to gain all the knowledge youâll need to start doing work that matters (to you and others). And no, none of that money will end up in my pocket.
A couple disclaimers before we move forward:
I, just like a college institution, cannot guarantee that by spending any amount of money that you will make money in return.
However, I can guarantee that your investment of $64.08 (which doesnât go in my pocket by the way) is exponentially easier to pay off than $30,867.
If you donât actually do the work laid out below, your chances of finding passion, building a profitable business, and having happy customers are about 1 in a 1,000,000.
I have not been paid by anyone to write this article and the recommendations in it are based solely on my 15 years of experience of going to college, working in corporate America, and then spending nearly a decade as a successful entrepreneur.
You are going to have to read four books and then take action on the practical things mentioned in them. This will take you exponentially less time than four years.
Now, letâs dive into how to find your passion, build a profitable business you enjoy working on, and learning how to make your customers love you.
This is where you start. If you donât know what your values are, what you want in life, no amount of money or success in business is going to make you happy. Iâve been there and so have countless others.
Pamela Slim is a wonderfully smart human and has written an actionable guide to discover exactly what it is you are passionate about. Does that mean youâre going to build a business based on your passion? Probably not. But it will help you define a clear set of values with which you can build a business around so that every decision you make pushes you toward actually enjoying the work you do.
Your values will change. Your passions will change. Your purpose will change. This book will help you start to identify all of those things, and just as important will help you identify things you arenât passionate about and donât want to be doing.
Business is not being done the way itâs being taught in the majority of colleges right now and the word âiterationâ barely exists in corporate America. If you want to build a business in the digital age we currently live in, this book is required reading.
Eric Ries gives you a framework for understanding how to start and operate a business. He walks you through the principles of using “lean” methodology to avoid spending a lot of time and money on your ideas. He introduces you to the term âminimum viable productâ (MVP) which is a critical business concept.
The Lean Startup reframes your thinking and helps you truly understand what it means to own and run a startup.
Grab The Lean Startup on Amazon.
If your business is going to have customers, which every business does, this book will change the way you think about serving the people who spend money on your product or service.
When you help your customers succeed, you will succeed.
Kathy Sierra is a brilliant woman who has written a no-fluff book that breaks down exactly how you should be talking to your customers and presenting what you sell to them. She includes some eye-opening examples of how to shift the way you think about interacting with your customers, especially how you educate them and help them succeed with whatever their goals are.
The advice in this book is timeless. You should always want to make your customers badass and if your products donât do that, the likelihood of you building a business that will last is very slim.
Grab Badass: Making Users Awesome on Amazon.
Rework is the perfect book to wrap everything together in a nice bow. Itâs full of real-talk about running a business and free of âchase your dreamsâ propaganda.
Random fun fact: This is the book I’ve read the most times from cover to cover (4 times!). I make it required reading for myself every year and it’s worth it.
Running a business takes work. Running a business takes messing up and learning from your mistakes. Running a business does not take an executive summary and a business plan anymore.
You donât have to work 8 hours per day (9-5). You donât have to have years of experience. This book is an excellent practical guide to stop thinking about building a business and to actually start building a business today.
Additional free resource to Rework: David Heinemeier Hansson, one of the authors of Rework, wrote a fantastic article to back up my points about passion and money.
I wrote this article for a prospective college student, but I know the bulk of people who might find it is like me. You’ve already gone to college and you’ve either racked up debt or feel like you wasted a few good years of your life.
There’s no acceptance process to reading great books. You don’t have to apply to learn from people who’ve been where you want to go.
Whether youâre a 13-year-old aspiring entrepreneur, or youâre currently in college, or youâve been to college and incurred student loan debt, you can do this.
If youâre scoffing at the idea that reading four books can help you build a business youâll truly love and make you successful, I challenge you to put it to the test. Read these books. Invest the $64. Implement the practical lessons in them. Invest time and effort.
No one article, book, or piece of advice is going to answer all your questions. Consume the right knowledge for what youâre seeking in life, and enjoy the journey along the way.
If I were to start a business with no money right now and had zero experience, zero connections, zero ideas, and no money, hereâs exactly what Iâd do.
Be forewarned: Starting a business takes work. Learning how to turn your ideas into a profitable venture won’t happen overnight. Making a quick buck is not the same thing as building a business that can sustain and last.
If you’re looking to get rich quick, this article is not for you (and neither is building an actual business). But if you’re ready to roll up your sleeves, build something awesome, and reap the rewards for your efforts? Keep reading!
I think everyone has something they can build a business around. Where do you find this idea? It lives in a curious place between something youâre passionate about, something you know something about, and something youâre willing to put effort into.
Just starting a business around a passion wonât cut it. Unless youâve built a tribe of equally passionate people, youâre only going to be building something for yourself. Thatâs definitely not a bad thing, however, this article is about starting a business from scratch.
Grab a piece of paper and make a three-column list. Donât create an Excel or Google spreadsheet. Write this list out by hand. Thereâs something about the process of physically writing down ideas that creates more opportunities for ideas. Remove all other distractions and try to focus on this task for 15â20 minutes (maximum). Letâs call this exercise âThrusness,â because naming things is fun and helps boost creative thinking.
The three columns to fill out for Thrusness are as follows:
1. 10 things you like doing that involve some form of work (example: painting, writing, singing, building furniture, coding websites, helping old ladies cross the street, etc.).
2. 10 ways you could put your work out into the world (example: online course, in-person class, e-commerce website, retail store, series of books, videos, etc.).
3. Review the first two columns and in the third column try to write 10 business ideas down. One could be to teach a class about painting. One could be to create an e-commerce store that sells unique furniture. Just jot down 10 ideas.
I want to be crystal clear in this next point.
This phase is similar to writing the first draft of anythingâbook, article, whatever. It will probably suck. The point is to go through the motions and allow space for your brain to start doing what it does.
If youâre feeling advanced, feel free to sit down with another person or two and do a No Bad Ideas Brainstorming exercise.
The book I most highly recommend to anyone starting a business in the time we live in (the digital age) is The Lean Startup by Eric Reis. Ericâs book will not excite and wow you. (Hey, Iâm being honest.) But what it will do is show you the ropes on creating a business in our current fast-paced landscape (not the industrial age of old).
Another book Iâd highly recommend is Pam Slimâs Body of Work. This book really helped me when I closed the doors on IWearYourShirt and wasnât sure what the hell I was going to do with my life. Pam has some fantastic exercises that you can do right in the pages of the book (so Iâd recommend going paperback on this one, sorry Kindlers).
One last book is… any book by Seth Godin. Any single one. I think heâs written 452 by now. Seth is insanely smart and his books have as much practical knowledge as they contain inspiration. Do yourself a favor and pick one up.
(Seth Godin’s book Purple Cow was life-changing for me in 2005 when I was stuck at a 9-5 job.)
Donât overdo it and donât let reading drag on forever. A lot of people will get lost consuming content from other people. Theyâll go down an endless rabbit hole of consumption because itâs easier than actually building something or starting something of their own. Limit how many books you can read and the amount of time you can read them.
Whether you have a 9-to-5 job, 13 children, or are generally too busy to read, you should be able to read three books in the span of two weeks.
If you donât have any issues with self-doubt and have an idea or two or sixteen, move on to step five. Go ahead, skip ahead.
If you are struggling with self-doubt, I want to tell you one important thing: You are not alone! We all struggle with defeating thoughts, especially when it relates to creating a business.
Will anyone like this idea?
Will anyone buy my stuff?
Will people think my business is dumb?
Will I ever make any money?
Will people talk negatively about my idea?
Will I end up naked, homeless, starving, and trapped in a pit of scorpions if I start this business??
You are not alone if you are struggling with thoughts of self-doubt when it comes to starting a business.
One of the ways Iâve overcome self-doubtâand try to help other people to overcome itâis to only judge myself after Iâve put something out into the world. Self-doubt tends to build and fester before you share something, but typically dissipates once youâve put something out there. And the more you put out into the world, the easier it becomes to have less self-doubt.
Itâs kind of like doing anything challenging in life. The more you do it, the easier it becomes.
If you decided tomorrow that you wanted to become an Oscar Winning Actor/Actress, youâd totally understand that youâd have to take acting lessons, gain acting experience, and hone your craft over and over again (potentially for years). It takes time. It takes effort. It takes screwing up. The same is true for any type of creation or business. You just need to start and not focus too much on trying to be perfect.
Hey it’s me Jason Zook, the author behind this article. Speaking of perfection, I wrote two articles that deal with this topic in-depth. One is about how powerful constraints are to getting things done. The other article talks about perfectionism in business. Enjoy!
Try to limit the crutches you lean on when you have fear or doubts. Whether thatâs over consuming content, distracting yourself with video games, or whatever your vice may be. By limiting how much you can escape, you force yourself to take action. It also helps you appreciate each article/book/thing you consume that much more, because you know you are limiting yourself so you can share your own gifts with the world.
If you did, awesome, skip to step five.
If you didnât, repeat step one. If you still didnât come up with an idea, go on a long walk or hike without your phone or any technology. Get away from any electronic distractions and let your mind wander. Space allows for creation.
This video may also help you if you’re stuck:
Letâs assume you have some type of business idea by this point. It doesnât matter if the idea is âgoodâ or âbadâ right now. Those words are actually irrelevant when starting a business. SnapChat exists and is valued at $3B (with a B!). Ideas are a dime a dozen, the trick is whatâs coming in the next few steps…
When youâre first trying to find your potential customers, especially if they arenât already on an email list you have, connected to you on social media, etc, it can be a daunting task. Donât let self-doubt rear itâs ugly head right now. Just accept the fact that finding and building an audience can take time and effort. If youâre afraid of putting in time and effort you probably should stop reading this article right now and go watch a few videos on YouTube.
1. Reach out to friends and family (they trust you!). Send personalized emails to your friends and family saying something along the lines of âIâm thinking about start a business selling XYZ thing to ABC person. Do you know anyone who might be interested in talking with me about this? Iâm not trying to sell anything at the moment, I just want to talk to a potential customer and get some feedback.â
**Important: Do not mass email this type of request out. Actually, scratch that, just donât ever mass email people.
2. Search Google for forums, blogs, anything related to your idea. Unless youâre creating something thatâs never ever ever been done before (which I donât recommend for your first business), there will be people already talking about what your business is about.
3. Share 90% of what you know about your business idea. Share information freely about your business in multiple places to attract your potential customers (subreddits, Medium, forums/blogs, LinkedIn groups, Facebook groups, local meetups, events, etc.).
4. Competition is a GOOD thing. Why? Because that means thereâs already a market for your product. There are already people whoâve purchased the thing you are going to try to sell. Thatâs good, I promise you. Read more about using competition to your advantage.
This is not the time to compare yourself to existing business owners or to accept unsolicited feedback from people. Feedback is dangerous. It must only be taken seriously when it comes from people who have experience doing what you are doing or are your potential customer. Feedback from anyone else can wait.
Once you find your potential customers, have real conversations with them. If you can, sit down with people at coffee shops. Skype or other video chat services will work, but make sure youâre face-to-face.
The conversations you have with potential customers should go something like this:
Make sure when youâre talking with people you arenât dominating the conversations. You should be guiding the conversation to get the information you need to build your business.
We live in a time of wild business valuations, venture capitalists galore, and stats that say 9 out of 10 business owners fail in their first year.
You shouldnât need funding for your first business. Heck, even if it is your 14th business, you should probably still build a prototype or simplified version of your business before trying to get funding.
I started my IWearYourShirt business with a $150 Flip Video Camera and about $100 in plastic hangers. I bartered to get a website built. I took a photographer to a $30 lunch to get some professional photos taken. The term for this is âbootstrap.â You should do this to the best of your ability.
Social platforms change, the email algorithm doesnât change. If you can offer value to someone and have the ability to send an email to their inbox consistently, youâll build trust and strong relationships. This is the one marketing strategy Iâd advise every single person reading this article to do.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make in business is making assumptions and holding on to them like theyâre precious diamonds. Swallow your pride, listen to your customers, take feedback from your critics (if they have experience doing what youâre trying to do), and be open to making changes.
With all of that said, start with the smallest, simplest version of your business. You might have a feature list for an iPhone app thatâs 20 items long. Cool. Keep that somewhere safe, but start with two or three of the items. Get people using your app. Get people paying for it. See what your customers are actually doing and saying.
No matter what you are trying to build, start small, and just get a version of what youâre building out into the world.
Many people want to come out of the gates with a kick-ass marketing and promotion strategy. They want all the media appearances, all the tech articles, all the things. Your business isnât ready for this stuff.
You need to focus on honing, shaping, molding your business with your first paying customers. Focus on building something so good that your first customers bring in your second set of customers. If that doesnât happen, you need to spend a bit more time making the product or service you sell better.
No amount of marketing, PR, advertising, will beat the power of word-of-mouth. Build something worth talking about and worth sharing. If your business isnât worth talking about or sharing, why are you wasting your time working on it?
One of the biggest mistakes you can make early on is trying to market and promote your business too fast, too early. Think of this like trying to make a train go faster, yet there aren’t any tracks for that train to run on.
The “tracks” your train run are on the core product or service being useful to a customer. It might take a bit of time to figure out what that usefulness is, but you need to get that right otherwise a ton of people visiting your website/app/product and having a bad experience can be a detriment to your overall success.
Embrace slower growth early on and have an experimenter’s mindset.
Honestly, this should be step 1, but I figured it would be a nice way to round things out.
If you donât give a crap about the business you are building or the customers your business will be serving, then you should stop what youâre doing immediately. That type of business may work for some people, but not for me and not for the people Iâd like to be talking to via these articles.
Itâs not a tip. Itâs not a hack. Itâs something that should be ingrained in you because youâre a good human being, and you want your business to make someoneâs life better or to help make the world a better place.
Iâm not saying you need to create the next Red Cross or UNICEF, but your business should solve problems for people and improve their lives in some way.
If you donât give a crap, then move on. If youâve started a business and youâre thinking about walking away, but donât know if itâs the right time, ask yourself this question: âDo I give a crap about this?â If the honest answer is âno,â then itâs time to close up shop. If the answer is âyes,â take a break, do some soul-searching, dig in and fix whatever is broken.
You can do this. Your idea is good enough. You are good enough. You just need to put in the time, effort, and be willing to stick with it.
Getting started in business is easier than itâs ever been. The trick is to just get started.
Not all marketing efforts are evil. You can’t just create whatever your art is and think strangers worldwide are going to stumble across it. If you’re afraid of promoting whatever it is you create, you’re stuck in the anti-marketing mindset.
Did you notice a few years ago when Weird Al Yankovic made a roaring comeback? He released a new album and amassed over 20,000,000 views on YouTube in just three weeks in 2014. His album hit #1 on the Billboard Charts, the first time a comedy album has hit #1 since 1963.
To most people, it looks like Weird Al just made some funny songs, filmed some funny videos, and shared them with his audience. What you don’t see or hear much about is the following:
Safe to say, Weird Al Yankovic is not afraid to market his product (his music). He’s not scared to promote something he spent tons of time working on. And his efforts paid off!
Here are the exact takeaways you can steal from Weird Al…
Weird Al has done this for 30 years. You don’t have to have been doing it for 30 years, but you need to get good at whatever you’re putting out into the world. Spent countless hours getting better at whatever you’re trying to do. Test all of your assumptions about not being able to create whatever you want to create. Share your work, get feedback, make it better, rinse and repeat.
You’ve probably heard of Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule? Don’t let that number scare you. Embrace it. Invest in honing a skill that will lead you to success (in however you define success!).
Weird Al didn’t have College Humor, Funny or Die, and Nerdist knocking on his door. He sought them out and pitched them his (mutually beneficial) idea. Also, I’m sure he received some “No’s” from plenty of other networks. Don’t be afraid of hearing “No.” Make a spreadsheet right now of all the websites, bloggers, Instagrammers, podcasters, etc, who talk about whatever it is you’re creating. Reach out to them. Share your work with them. Don’t spam them! Show up in their communities (in the comments) and try to bring value while also sharing your creations.
Partnerships aren’t created overnight, be willing to invest in building strong relationships you can lean on later down the road.
Don’t just promote yourself when your latest thing is out or for sale. Marie Forleo does an amazing job of promoting herself for 11 months out of the year and selling her B-School product for only one month out of the year. That means 90% of the year Marie is doing nothing but marketing herself (even though it may not actually look like marketing).
Come up with a content creation plan. If you can write, write articles just like this one and publish consistently. If you like making videos, record behind the scenes content and grow a YouTube channel. Whatever content you can authentically give away for free for 90% of the time, do that.
Related: Read my Ethical Guide to Building an Audience
One of the biggest anti-marketing mindsets is, “I don’t want to overwhelm people and over-promote my product.” Don’t worry about people seeing your work too much. If people love your work, they’ll want to see it over and over again. If people don’t want to see your work that’s out of your control and they can take their attention elsewhere.
If you truly love what you’re creating, you shouldn’t be ashamed to promote and share it!
In a perfect world, you’d use your unique superpower to create something amazing and people would find you on their own. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world.
Back in 2008 when I conceived the idea for my IWearYourShirt business (by standing in my closet), I thought it was the next big thing. I thought I had created an idea that was going to have rocket-powered success.
However, when the website was finished and I “launched” IWearYourShirt only 12 people showed up on the first day (thanks Mom and Grama!). I realized quickly that just putting up a website and hoping random people would find it is kind of like putting up a billboard in the middle of the desert.
Had I just sat back and waited for people to find me, nothing ever would have happened.
I got on my marketing horse and started emailing friends and family about IWearYourShirt. I got on Twitter and started searching for appropriate hashtags and engaging in conversations with strangers. With only a handful of hours spent marketing IWearYourShirt the first few sales started to pour in and I made a few critical connections.
The same could probably be said for the success of Weird Al’s latest album. He could have just shared it, uploaded some videos to YouTube, and seen some viewership/success, but it wouldn’t have taken him to the first #1 comedy album in the past 50 years.
As a creative person, I know the feeling of wanting to be found. By putting my heart and soul into creating things, I always keep my fingers crossed that they’re just randomly going to be found and take off (read: overnight success). But this isn’t realistic and never works.
You can’t just create whatever your art is and think strangers worldwide are going to stumble across it. Sometimes you might even think by continuing to put your work out into the world, a little spark of magic will happen (read: your thing goes viral). This also doesn’t ever happen.
The anti-marketing mindset stems from a few different things:
Marketing is an iterative process that looks a lot like a maze. Some marketing ideas lead to dead-ends, but eventually one of those ideas (or the most likely the culmination of them) will bring you success.
This is all well and good, but you probably want to know how to take off the success handcuffs don’t you?
I don’t have a magic potion, a 12-step process, or some miracle online course you can buy to propel you toward success. What I do have for you is a plan of action you can take to get out of the anti-marketing mindset:
Stop putting yourself in success handcuffs. Stop thinking you’ll get more customers by doing the same thing over and over again. Get yourself out of the anti-marketing mindset.
A few years ago I spent time with my good friend Greg Hartle at a Startup Weekend event in South Florida. Greg and I were both speakers at the event, and the subject of his talk was: What’s next?
If you aren’t familiar with Startup Weekend, it’s a 54-hour event where anyone can get on stage, pitch an idea for a business/app/product/service, and assemble a team of fellow entrepreneurs to make that idea happen. The great thing about Startup Weekend events is that there is no shortage of ideas. The tough thing about Startup Weekend is that it can leave many people wondering how to proceed with their idea.
As Greg started his talk he pulled a blue combination lock from his pocket (the one with the dial on the front that spins in both directions). Holding the lock in one hand and the microphone in the other, he handed the lock to a nearby attendee and asked her to open the lock.
Immediately this attendee went to work spinning the dial of the lock. She put it next to her ear and spun it. She looked at it and spun it. She even started Googling “how to unlock a combination lock.” All the while, Greg went on to share his story and talk about entrepreneurship (not talking about the lock at all).
A few minutes later Greg asked the woman how she was doing with the lock. She responded that she was, “working on it.” Greg said he had a piece of advice lots of entrepreneurs get to help them have success: Put in more hard work. He asked her to put in a little more effort into unlocking the lock.
Greg came back to the woman who had yet to unlock the lock. He had another piece of common startup advice and that was to: Use your passion. So he asked her to be more passionate about opening the lock. She channeled this suggestion by standing up and yelling “woo!”  You can probably guess that the lock didn’t magically pop open, even with her extra enthusiasm.
A few minutes later Greg had more advice. This time he said “you have a team of people around the table, get them to help you.” She quickly huddled the six people at the table with her and passed the lock around. Everyone kind of shrugged their shoulders and tried spinning the dial in random directions.
Then Greg offered up his last piece of advice which many entrepreneurs hear and think: “Maybe you need more money to get the lock open?” He pulled some cash out of his pocket and handed it to someone at the table (to which that person shoved it in his pocket, causing the crowd and myself to laugh).
At this point, Greg had asked this table of people to open a combination lock using hard work, passion, teamwork, and money. All of those things are typical pieces of advice entrepreneurs get to be successful. Yet, as you can imagine, none of those things helped the attendees open the lock.
Greg smiled.
He pulled a small piece of paper from his pocket and said:
“Why don’t you try this: 34, 20, 6.”
A few seconds later the lock was open.
Greg finished his talk by explaining that entrepreneurs have a bias toward taking action, which is great but to take an idea and move it forward, you need to analyze and adjust.
Unfortunately, hard work, passion, teamwork, and money aren’t the solution to the problem either.
You need to understand that every business and every idea has a different combination for success. And unlike a combination lock, there’s no secret code for creating a successful business.
If you have an idea, you should also have thoughts about who your potential customers are. Before you do that, make sure you know what your product’s value proposition is (AKA your elevator pitch). What problem does your product solve? What need does your service fulfill? Find your potential customers and bring your idea to them.
The next step is to analyze the feedback you get from potential customers. Do you see any trends? Did you hear common questions or hesitations? Do you see any big gaps that need filling? Were people excited? Did anyone say “I’d buy/support that thing today!”
Take all initial feedback and adjust your idea accordingly. This doesn’t mean you have to abandon your initial vision, but it does mean you should listen and tweak your idea based on what your potential customers had to say.
From here you want to build a Minimum Viable Product (or MVP). This is the most basic version of your product or service so that you can get it out into the world and see if people will buy it. Your MVP could be an e-commerce website, a prototype product, a basic iPhone App wireframe, etc. When your MVP is ready, go back to those first potential customers and see if they’ll pay you money for your thing.
If they aren’t interested, why not? Is it the price point? Is it the way you’re pitching the product? Again, analyze their feedback and see what you can learn.
It’s time to take your MVP to the contacts you already have. At this point you’ve shown it to potential customers, so now you’ll want to put it in the hands of people who already trust you. What do they have to say about it? Don’t ask them to buy it, just ask for feedback and recommendations. If they aren’t potential customers, take buying feedback with a grain of salt. If your friends and family might know your potential customers, ask for introductions.
As you start to talk to more people you want to continue to analyze the responses you’re getting and adjust your business plan and product strategy. You might need to scrap your first prototype (MVP) entirely and start fresh. You might need to change the customers you’re targeting. There is a lot of testing and tweaking you should be doing, and that’s perfectly okay.
Having an idea is just the first step in a long line of steps. And while a lot of steps you take will be in the wrong direction, eventually you’ll find the right combination of things that bring you success.
No one can give you the perfect combination right now, and everyone’s combination is going to look different. Accept that. Prepare for it.
Startup Weekend is a wonderful place to get excited, inspired, and even team up with people. If you’ve never attended an event before, find an event near you.
The idea of working for someone else makes many of us cringe, and if you’ve had a full time job, you’ve probably felt the suffocating hold it can take on your life. Mondays are dreadful. Mundane meetings and conference calls seem never-ending. Having a corporate job can literally suck the soul right out of your body. But fear not, you can start your next business while working for someone else.
I’ll break these steps down further, but here’s the big picture of what it takes to leave your full time job to work for yourself:
Let’s assume you already have an idea for a business you want to start. The first thing you need to do is set your intentions. A couple of those intentions could look something like this:
Those are just a couple examples of intentions I set for myself when I made the decision that I wanted to start my own company and leave my “secure” 9-5 job back in 2007. By taking action and repeating those intentions to myself (almost daily), it created a sense of focus and desire to work that much harder at getting my own business up and running.
Because a normal job creates structure and a fairly rigid schedule, most people want nothing more than to come home, lounge around, kick their feet up, and be lazy. If you want to start your own business, you’re going to need structure in the beginning to make sure you’re actually getting work done and putting in valuable time and effort. Kicking your feet up isn’t going to help you escape the stranglehold your 9-5 job has on you. Here are a couple tips on how to get into a routine after work:
Start small. Don’t try to dive in head first with a new schedule, you’ll never stick to it. For the first week, just try to get on a schedule with one thing (maybe it’s dinner time). On the second week, give yourself an hour of relaxation time after dinner, but cut yourself off after that hour is over. We all have favorite TV shows, but just sitting on the couch watching them doesn’t help us start a new career. Each week add a new change to your evening schedule.
Family comes first. Come home and immediately devote time to your kids, your spouse, your pets, etc. If you get home at 6pm, spend an hour doing something with your family that doesn’t involve TV, a computer, or anything technology based. If you have kids, this is a great time to wear them out before bed. If you don’t have kids but have a spouse, spend some quality time with them and avoid talking about work of any kind. Go for a walk, get some exercise, make a delicious meal together.
Focus! When you start spending time working on your next business (maybe 8pm – 11pm), be focused only on that. Turn off notifications on your phone. Close all the tabs you have open on Google Chrome. Shut your email down and don’t look at it unless that’s part of your work. Spend these limited hours actually working.
You may not be a fan of having a schedule at home, but that’s only because you work at a job you don’t enjoy and it forces you to have a schedule you don’t enjoy. Make an effort to appreciate your time away from your 9-5 job, and I guarantee giving yourself some parameters won’t feel the like the worst thing ever.
Now that you’ve created structure and a schedule for yourself, start working on goals for your new business. Through trial and error, I’ve found that creating three sets of goals works really well for me (and people I consult with). The sets of goals are daily, weekly, and monthly.
These will most likely be your smaller goals or to-do list items. Each evening that you start working, you should make a list of goals you intend to complete by the end of that night. This small exercise should only take 5-10 minutes of your time (at most) and I find it best to physically write these down so you can then cross them off. It always feels great to cross things off a list!
These are somewhat larger goals and are things that won’t necessarily be able to be completed in one evening. Some weekly goals you might be setting early on are: Design and develop different stages of your product/service/website. Reach out to friends and family for feedback about your idea. Do PR or influencer outreach to try to get exposure for your new idea. Put a product or service up for sale and work on perfecting your sales process. Take one week off to recharge your batteries. You should still write these down and be diligent about crossing them off at the end of each week (it’s okay if some carry over to the next week).
These are your bigger goals and you’ll probably want to set these for one month, three months, six months, and a year. It may seem silly to write down goals for a year from now, but trust me, it helps keep you accountable for that intention you set to leave your job in six months. Your monthly goals might look something like this:
It wasn’t until I started writing my sets of goals on a whiteboard in my office that I really started to focus on completing them.
Goal setting can feel uncomfortable and awkward at first, but like everything else, it gets better with practice.
Put these steps in place and you’ll not only be working for yourself in no time, but you’ll also look forward to your work. Of course, you’ll actually need a functioning business to make this entire plan work, but hopefully that part was a no-brainer.
If you don’t already have an idea for a business, read this article about starting a business with no money and no ideas. And if you already own your business, pat yourself on the back and then get back to work!
