How Oprah Nearly Killed My Business
My book, Goal-Free Living, was featured on the cover of the November 2005 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine. Two full pages were dedicated to my goal-free concepts. (If you check out the cover left, you’ll see the headline “What the happiest people know for sure.” That is my article.)
Although this was one of the proudest moments in my life, surprisingly, this type of publicity actually had a negative impact on my business.
You must be thinking: How is this possible? Doesn’t everything Oprah touch turn to gold?
Yes, typically. But my situation was different. My core buyers were (and still are) innovators within corporations. As much as I personally admire Oprah and her work, my clients were not as enthusiastic.
For example, after putting the Oprah mention on my website, my bounce rate (the number of people who immediately leave my website) went through the roof. I had potential clients say that they chose someone else who appeared to be more focused on the needs of corporations. They proceeded to share that the Oprah mention made me seem less “serious.”
I even had one client tell me, just as I was about to go on the stage, “If you mention Oprah, we won’t pay you.”
Apparently, the combination of my “self-help” book and the magazine publicity caused confusion. It was no longer clear that my main business focused on the needs of corporations. In this moment I discovered that the old mantra was true: “A confused buyer never buys.”
There is a lesson in this for every small business.
Know your audience. Know their needs—explicit and latent. Speak their language. Understand what gives you credibility in their eyes.
When you innovate, don’t alienate your current market. You can expand to other markets, but continue meeting the needs of those who have been loyal fans.
Innovation is about shifting your business in a new direction at the right speed. Think of the degree of change as a compass setting.
Reinvention is different than innovation. Reinvention (what I attempted when writing Goal-Free Living) is when you move your business on a 90-degrees (or even 180-degrees) turn. It is a pretty radical change. Your customers may not understand the shift and you may lose them in the process.
On the other side of the compass, there are many businesses making only 5-degree turns. They focus their time on incremental innovations. Although these improvements are valuable, on their own they are not sufficient to sustain long term growth and prosperity. You can ride your past success for a while, but eventually your competition will out-innovate you.
So the big question is: What is the right level of innovation? What is the correct compass setting for your business?
Typically, a 5-degree turn is too little while a 90-degree shift is too much. Forty-five degrees should be just about right.
What does a 45-degree turn look like? It is exploring how to tap into your existing market with new offerings, new services and new products, while also expanding into adjacent markets.
My business just turned 10 years old and I am in the process of rethinking my current model. As it stands today, I primarily convey my innovation messages via speeches and books. My objective in 2012 is to leverage my current intellectual assets by finding new ways of delivering my content.
For example, in 2012, I will be expanding the licensing of my content to corporations, training organizations and individuals who can deliver my work. The more I can tap into the reach of others, the more I can grow my business.
For this, I am not changing my message or products. I am primarily deepening the content and making the process of delivering it “replicable.” Instead of content changes, I am exploring different distribution channels such as eLearning systems, membership sites and other digital platforms.
Additionally, while others are delivering my content to my current target audience, I can explore how to extend my existing content to new, tangential markets. For example, my Personality Poker assessment tool has been largely focused on the corporate market. It can also, however, be positioned to provide value anywhere collaboration is beneficial: relationships, families, negotiations, ventures and so on. Expanding in these directions still positions me as a collaboration expert (a key component of innovation) and would most likely not alienate my core market…
Read the rest of this article on the American Express OPEN Forum
(please leave comments on the AMEX site and “like” the article if you in fact like the article…thanks!)
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Are You Asking the Right Question?
For many years, I was a loyal BlackBerry fan. More accurately I was a CrackBerry addict.
A year ago a got a MacBook Pro and six month layer I acquired an iPad. It felt like I should switch to the iPhone. But I was not ready for two reasons:
- I wanted a Verizon phone that could work globally, and the iPhone 4 was North America only.
- I was wildly concerned about my ability to type on a virtual keyboard. Previous attempts were disastrous.
When the 4S came out, it addressed my first concern. But it did not, from my perspective, address the keyboard issue. Or so I thought.
I was asking for the wrong feature. Instead of asking for a better keyboard, I should have looked for a better data entry method.
I bought the 4S the day it hit the market. I turned off Siri, Apple’s voice recognition system, because I did not think it would be valuable. Man, was I ever wrong! On a whim, I tried it one day. And now I dictate many of my emails and text messages through voice recognition. The accuracy is amazing. And my speed has been increased significantly.
I also marvel at the fact that I can gain access to so much information without ever going into Google. Will these types of devices be game changers, bypassing the search engine’s revenue generating ads? I’m not sure; time will tell their full impact.
But for me, it is a game changer. In one sitting, I dictated four articles; something that I had never been able to do previously. I realize that there are other voice transcription services (manual and automatic) out there. However, the convenience of having it built into my phone made it so accessible I could write anytime I was inspired.
When you are innovating, are you striving to make a better keyboard? Or are you focused on creating a better data entry method?
Asking the right question will lead you down an entirely different path.
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Make 2012 the Best Year Ever
For many years now, I have thrown away the concept of the traditional New Year’s Resolution. In its place I have used themes that guide me through the year. These themes are not specific destinations or goals, but are rather guideposts that help me make smart decisions. In using this approach, I become more “present moment” focused (goals are future-focused). This increases my happiness. And equally important, it allows for opportunities to emerge that might be hidden using a traditional goal-setting approach.
If you want to learn more about creating New Year’s Themes, be sure to read my popular article on “Making Resolutions That Work” (a variation of it appeared in the Wall Street Journal earlier this year).
You may also be interested in some fascinating statistics on New Year’s Resolutions. It is truly amazing how unsuccessful people are with their New Year’s Resolution setting.
Happy New Year. May 2012 be your best year ever!
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Major Licensing Deal Signed
As some of you know, my 2012 business strategy is to license my content in a number of creative ways.
We already licensed Personality Poker in a variety of languages and to a number of trainers. The Dutch translation is the most recent version and will be available in January.
And, just last week, we signed a major deal with one of the premier training organizations to take my content and convert it into workshops that will be delivered by their certified trainers. This is exciting news as it will make my content more accessible to more organizations.
More details coming soon.
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Why Brainstorming is Stupid
I was recently interviewed for an article on Inc.com. Due to length restrictions, only part of my interview was included in the article. Therefore I am giving you the other half here. But be sure to read the their article first as it sets the stage.
I was asked by Inc.com why brainstorming, as usually practiced, is ineffective.
Personally I am not a huge fan of brainstorming, especially the way most organizations conduct sessions. Here are a few of my concerns, along with some possible solutions:
- Poorly defined challenge: As discussed in the Inc.com article, if you ask the wrong question, you will of course get the wrong answer. Most brainstorming sessions do a poor job of thinking through the challenge. If I were running a session, I would spend a bulk of the time making sure we have the right question. Einstein reputedly said, “If I had an hour to save the world, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and 1 minute finding solutions.” From my experience, most companies spend 60 minutes brainstorming issues that are not important.
- Lack of Diversity: Most brainstorming sessions bring in the same people to each and every session. Usually the room is composed of people who are too close to the issue to be objective or even have a new point of view. Innovation only occurs when you have a wide range of perspectives. Therefore, make sure you identify others that have a tangential perspective.– people from different industries or disciplines. This will certainly add value.
- Group Think: When one person throws out a solution, it taints the mindset of everyone else in the room. This causes convergence too early in the process. Instead, consider having everyone jot down his or her individual responses first. Only after that is done, should you have everyone share their thoughts with the group.
- Single Threading: Most brainstorming sessions are done with a leader at the front and only one person speaking at a time. This slows down the process and leads to “social loafing.” In response, some leaders will break everyone into smaller groups. Unfortunately this leads to a lack of cross-pollination. To respond to this issue, I developed a technique modeled after the “Speaker’s Corner” in London’s Hyde Park (described in my Best Practices Are Stupid book). With this method, simultaneous conversations take place with participants moving freely from topic to topic as desired.
- Innovation Event: Brainstorming is typically treated as an event. Too often it is disconnected from the “reality” of the business and therefore does not convert the ideas into results. If you think of the event as the start of a process, you have a better chance of creating value. Before the meeting, get clear on what you will do after the brainstorming session. Get buy-in early on from the people who will make change happen. When innovation is a process, it is repeatable and predictable.
Ok, brainstorming can be effective (and not stupid), if done properly. Unfortunately most organizations do not take the time to do it right. Applying the concepts above can hopefully move you in the right direction.
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