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- ✴️ How I'm Making... #11
I shall pass this way but once; any good that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being; let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
✏️ Summary
Legendary investor Warren Buffett talks about minimizing the “need to believes”.
What he means is,
if you know how to do everything from A to B, you’ll probably get from A to B.
If you don’t, you probably won’t.
It sounds simple, but as entrepreneurs we often get tempted by the shiny new idea.
Remember that the chance of success with any new idea drops dramatically.
📈 Lesson: Minimize the steps to success
Yesterday, I had a conversation with an old friend who is a bike expert. We spoke about his business idea around helping people choose and take care of their bikes. (the recorded conversation is on Youtube here)
We spoke about acquisition. How do you get people to buy your thing when you’re just starting out?
Luckily, this was something I could help him out with.
When I was starting, I tried EVERYTHING.
I recorded free webinars that no one listened to
Built out quiz funnels that no one cared about
One of the quiz funnels
VSLs that no one converted from
Lead magnets that no one read
After months of experimenting, and a few thousand dollars poorer, I did the thing I thought was too simple to actually work.
I worked with people for free to get testimonials, then used those testimonials to get more customers.
The point here isn’t that this is what EVERYONE should be doing. The main takeaway here is this:
The longer the list of steps that need to happen to get to a result, the longer it will take.
When we start out, we underestimate how many steps there are. We don't see how good you need to be with each step to move onto the next.
For example, let’s look at the idea of paid ads, leading to an opt-in form, then a sales call.
It can be tempting to think this is all that’s happening with the whole journey. But here’s the real journey.
These are the actual steps that someone has to take. What might not be obvious however, is that at every single step, there is a conversion %. This percentage value is directly tied to a skill.
In the blue circle are the terms used to describe the skills that are used at each stage of this process.
The steps compound. And at each step, you need to be good enough (or hire someone good enough) to take people to the next stage.
That is why things “don’t work”. It’s not that the concept is somehow flawed - it’s that we don’t have the skills to make them work.
So, whenever possible, simplify until it feels too solid to fail.
🔗 Service: On-Brand Customer Service
If you’ve ever had to scale a customer service team, you know how long the onboarding process can be. Skip the brand training with this on-brand message converter!
What’s Next?
I’m considering starting a community (I know, again…) for people that are working a full time job while trying to build something.
If you know anyone, send them over to [email protected]
That’s all for now!
To everyone out there that’s struggling with the uncertainty of entrepreneurship, remember you’re not doing it wrong. This is just what the journey feels like.
Cheers,
Ben