Read This If You Need Strong Monday Focus

This is a sneaky one because almost everyone does it.

Choose the right domain name.Design the right logo.Develop the 5 year business plan.

Get all your ducks in a row.

And that’s exactly the problem.While most of us are out there “thinking through” the problem, our competitors are already done with version 1 of the prototype and getting feedback from customers.It’s so easy to get caught up in the easy stuff because it feels like it matters. It’s much more difficult to ask yourself: “what’s the hard part of my project?”If your project doesn’t have a hard part then you don’t have a project—it’s probably a hobby or dead end.Steve Blank used to say (and I guess he probably still does say) “Get out of the building and talk to customers.”

No matter what your problem is, the people you’re solving it for know the answer.

Example:

Need better sales copy?Go read some of your customer reviews and testimonials.That’s way faster, easier, and cheaper than taking a course on copywriting and reading the top 5 books about sales strategy.

You don’t need to optimize, yet. You need to start.

The time you’re spending making it perfect is the time you could have spent getting the traction you need to then have the opportunity to have something to optimize.You know that little yellow “buy” button on Amazon’s website?You better believe that they spent a LOT of time and energy optimizing it. And they should, because they have a bazillion customers.If you don’t have a bazillion customers, you’re killing yourself by focusing on the wrong work!

2 Minute Action:

What’s the thing you’ve been dreading doing? Do that first.What’s the feedback cycle you’re getting on your work? Could it be more frequent or more actionable? Ask your supervisor or colleague, today.Give yourself permission to have an ugly, embarrassing website (or none at all!) and re-center your focus on the hard stuff.The discipline early on is going to pay dividends later.It’s Monday, people. Let’s start this week off strong.

What To Do When Everything Breaks At The Worst Time

I was working with an Ed Tech client who was having trouble simplifying the on-ramp for new customers.

The interface looked friendly, but there were a lot of features and you had to learn a lot of new jargon to really get the benefits.

Plus, it was super buggy because they had just pushed a new version that wasn’t rigorously tested.

So as part of being a consultant, I was working through the on-boarding workflow with a live customer.

It made sense when I walked her through everything but then, later in the week, when she needed it most, the software broke.

She emailed me in a panic saying she wasn’t going to have her charts for her big meeting on Friday.

I worked through it with her and got her half of the way there. I got her the data but she has to make her one charts in excel because our tool wouldn’t be fixed in time for her meeting.

She said “it’s okay, I’ll just have to use my old excel charts. I was just really excited to look cool in front of everyone at the meeting.”

But here’s where it gets good.

Immediately after we hung up, I ordered a pair of wayfarer-style sunglasses (in the color of Ed Tech company’s branding) and sent them to her office, making sure they’d arrive on Thursday.

I also included a message saying: “thanks for your patience as we fix or software. We’re super bummed that it broke right when you needed it most. That was so frustrating and we’re in the process of improving our testing environment so these massive bugs don’t hit users. In the meantime, I hope these sunglasses help you look cool in your big meeting. You have the data you need to melt faces and blow minds. Go get ‘em.”

Do you see what happened?

It took a little extra time and about 15 minutes.

She emailed me on Friday morning saying that our company was the best. She was bragging to her co-workers about how we handled the situation and that she knew we were in an early stage where bugs were normal. She was going to stick through it with us because we believed in the same thing and gestures like this really made her feel like we had her back.

Boom.

Customer for life.

And it cost $14 on Amazon.

2 Minute Action

Maybe you don’t have customers, maybe you do.

Maybe you have students, or attendees, or subscribers.

Pick someone who doesn't seem to be having a good day or maybe who had it rough yesterday.

Take 2 minutes to do something special for someone.

You don’t need to spend a lot of (or any) money.

You just need to make them feel special like you’re on the same team.

Because that’s how we make the world better, right?

By bringing people closer together.

You Don't Have To Work Hard To Get This

The bar is low for customer service.

Have you ever been yelled at in the airport at 6 AM by TSA.Have you ever been greeted by a store associate with only the two unapologetic words, "we're closed."If you've ever waited in line only to be given excuses at the end of it.All of us can feel it. It's part of being a human.It's just hard to the work AND do the emotional work of smiling at customers, too.The only good news about this is that you don't have to work that hard to impress people.And isn't that a world we'd rather live in? One that's a little bit more human?

2 Minute Action

Hold the door for someone today, look them straight in the eye, smile, and say "I hope you have a great, great day."Instead of pointing fingers or blaming external factors, call yourself out and say "no excuses. This was my fault."It's harder, but it's worth it.