Have you read any of those Choose Your Own Adventure books from
the 80s and 90s?
Basically, you become a character in the story. For example, you're
a private investigator, a mountain climber, a race car driver, a spy.
After a couple of pages, you get two or three choices about what to
do next. Each option leads to more options, and thento one of 40
different endings.
The books were popular because for the first time ever, you got to
control the outcome of a story, instead of just being along for the ride.
It's a lot like starting your own business.
"When you're no longer working in a job where a manager gives you
your tasks for the week, or when you've stopped working on client
projects which have a clear scope and agenda, you get to decide what
to work on every day," writes Brian Casel, on his blog at casjam. "At first,
this is incredibly exciting."
(You may remember Brian from yesterday's email. If not, check your
spam folder...)
However, it's not always clear what the RIGHT choice is for your particular
business.
And Brian says when he wasn't sure what the next step was, he'd just do
whatever felt comfortable.
"Coders love to code," writes Brian. "So they'll program a feature or a
whole app before researching and talking to customers. Marketers love to
sell. So they spend all their time chasing the latest tactic instead of using
their skills to build something that matters."
But what's comfortable is rarely the right choice. And just like in the Choose
Your Own Adventure books, if you make too many bad choices, things don't
end well.
So how did Brian break this cycle and start working on the RIGHT things?
He got really critical about his business.
Now, it's easy to say, "Just be really critical and figure out your #1 problem."
But if we could do that by ourselves, we wouldn't be stuck in the first place.
Brian joined the Mixergy mastermind, along with five other Mixergy Premium
members.
The mastermind was just an experiment, but they got impressive results:
the group collectively 6x-ed their revenue.
"But Andrew, aren't masterminds just bullshit programs, some with $24K
price tags?"
I get the skepticism. I mean, what can you get from a mastermind that you
can't get from a book?
Well, here's what the six Mixergy Mastermind members said they got:
• Instant friends who understand your world and can help you when
you're stuck
• Positive peer pressure to help you make continuous progress
• The accountability to grow your business, instead of trading time
for money
• The push to produce more than you would on your own
Now, no one's saying to burn your copy of The Lean Startup. ;-)
We interview a lot of authors on Mixergy, and I read constantly. But
books are just part of the picture.
When you're stuck, you need help with your specific problem, for
your specific business, so you'll know what to do next.
"The whole purpose of a mastermind group is to keep each other
accountable and focused on the right priorities," writes Brian. Books
can't give you that kind of personal feedback.
And, you need to get that feedback from people who understand
the startup world.
Yesterday I asked who you reach out to for help, and I got a lot of
different answers, like:
• "I don't reach out to anyone. I live in a small town and the few
friends I do have are seemingly uninterested (and unqualified) to
offer any advice. So I sit, explore the problem from every possible
angle, then do nothing for fear of making a mistake."
• "Who do I turn to for help? Other people in the same situation. The
blind leading the blind."
• "I do not have a business mentor or someone similar, so I don't have
one person who I could go to. Reading online generally helps me
deal with some business challenges."
• "I don't reach out to anyone. I'm perpetually in squirrel mode. I have
a full time job that is killing me and want to create some other streams
of income, but, SQUIRREL!"
• "Who do I reach out to for business stuff? Nobody. My 'business' is just
an idea and a landing page right now. I have no customers and very
little traffic. I feel it's unworthy of bothering others with my problems,
especially since I assume most are created by my own inexperience."
• "This is totally the situation I have been struggling with for more than
10 years."
• "I talk to my husband."
• "My friends?"
But your beer pong buddy from college is probably not the person to talk to
about optimizing your Adwords campaigns.
"Our Friday [mastermind] meetings are a good chance to talk shop with a
group of people who do what I do," says Brian. "Frankly, there is so much
that I can't discuss with family and friends."
And get this...
After joining the mastermind, Brian became so successful that I invited
him to do an interview on Mixergy. Twice.
You'll learn what worked in Mixergy's mastermind, so you can put one
together yourself.
OR, if you'd like for Mixergy to help you find a group of ambitious entrepreneurs,
stay tuned...I've got something coming up that I think you're going to love.
However, before we get to that, I have to tell you about the missing
piece of the puzzle...
We've talked about how a mastermind can help you figure out the right thing
to focus on and hold you accountable to that goal.
However, if your goal is to "build an evergreen sales funnel" or to "use content
marketing to drive traffic," you still have to figure out what to do on a
day-to-day basis to reach that goal.
You could test a bunch of ideas...basically throwing spaghetti at the wall to
see what sticks.
Or you could fork over a lot of cash to some self-professed "guru," and hope
that they have the answer. Though you'll probably lose a lot of money on
pricey courses and products until you find something that works.
But you know what I think? Screw that.
The startup road is bumpy enough without wasting your time and money
on that crap.
There's a better way. It's how I built my startups, and it's the driving force
behind Mixergy. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.
Until then,
Andrew
Andrew Warner
Founder, Mixergy
PS. We're making BIG changes to Mixergy to help you kick ass in 2016.
Details tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment