Everybody knows if you have money, you shouldn’t invest it all in one stock. Everybody knows that’s a bad idea. You need to diversify there.But for our jobs, for how we make money, I think many of us — most of us — have one way we make money. It can be very risky. I’ve really come to believe, and have done a lot of research over the years, that one of the best ways that we can create real, legitimate professional stability for ourselves is by choosing to cultivate multiple income streams.

The Way To Make Money

Unless your job is all-satisfying, all-consuming, or pays plenty of money, you probably have some leftover time, desires, or skills to monetize. And in today’s digital world, there’s simply too much opportunity out there for you to live off of just one salary.Many people have a business idea but don’t know where to start, or they’ve been working on a project for a while but don’t know how to earn money from it.

Step Outside Your Job

The single most effective way to come up with a business idea is to solve a problem. It could be a personal pain (e.g., Razors are a pain to shop for) or a systematic problem (e.g., I want to invest but I’m not an accredited investor) you can be thinking about an idea for weeks, months, or even years. If you’ve had an idea brewing for a while,

1. Idea — Think of a thing

The project phase is where most of us get stuck. Examples of projects could be an App, a book, an art piece, a service company, a service company, real estate, or an event.

2. Project — Create the thing

Entrepreneurs and investors treasure Product-Market fit. Product-market fit happens when the right product reaches the right audience. If you sell Crucifixes in a town of atheists, you’ll go nowhere fast. If you cell Crucifixes in a town of Catholics, you’ll do better.

3. Test — Make the thing better

There’s no formula for setting the “right” price. However, the following two basic principles of economics will help you understand why you should charge more than you think.<ol><li>Scarcity. The scarcer something is, the more it should cost, according to the law of supply and demand.&nbsp;</li><li>Positioning. Customers equate price to value. High-quality products usually charge a higher price and lower quality products typically cost less.&nbsp;</li></ol>

4. Business Model — Charge money for the thing

Your website is built. Your storefront is open. Your booth is set up. Your business cards are in your pocket. Now it’s time to scale. As much as creators hate to do it, this stage is all about sales and marketing. Think about the story of your product. Your story. What is something you believe in that your customers can get behind?

5. Growth — Get the word out about the thing

You may have one idea, no idea, or a notebook full of them. The first step begins with clarity. So wherever you’re at, use this guide to map out the next steps.&nbsp; Ideas die in secret. Don’t let your ideas rot in your head. And don’t abandon your projects half-baked. Use these steps to turn your idea into an income stream starting today.

The Idea

Dorie Clark, adjunct professor of business administration at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and author of the book “Entrepreneurial You”, sums up the reason why multiple income streams…

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

creativity

Creativity

startup

Startups

How to Turn an Idea into an Income Stream in 5 Clear Steps

It’s terribly tough to get into your Zen zone when your phone is buzzing every few minutes. Depending on how chatty your phone is, you may get notifications for everything from emails to retweets. It’s essential you shut these notifications off! You’ll see efficiency skyrocket once you tell your phone to shut its blabbering mouth.&nbsp;

Turn Off Alerts

The news can be a tremendous time sink. The idea that we need to keep up to date on the news is largely outdated. Most of what passes as news today is prettily packaged garbage — it’s trivial, depressing, and unreliable. If something major happens, you’ll find out one way or another. Instead, focus your attention on what’s useful and actionable in your life.

Ignore the News

Exercise energizes rather than exhausts you, contrary to what the couch potatoes might tell you. Some studies have shown that exercise can improve your mood for up to 12 hours following your workout.

Exercise in the Morning

The truth is that most meetings never need more than 30 minutes to accomplish their missions. Many really only need 15 minutes.&nbsp;

Have 30-Minute Meetings

Most of us don’t drink nearly as much water as we should. Our bodies thrive on water — just like the rest of the world!&nbsp;Drinking more water gives you more energy, keeps you healthy, and gives you an excuse to get up for bathroom breaks so you’re not stuck in a chair all day.

Drink Water

It’s easy to burn yourself out if you try to work at full throttle all day long. The truth is that our minds just aren’t designed to work that way.&nbsp;For optimal productivity, try the popular and praised Pomodoro technique — work for 25 minutes, then give yourself a five-minute break.

Give Yourself a Break

When you’re too eager to please, you often end up getting in over your head. You may end up missing deadlines, and despite good intentions, you could end up disappointing others.

Don’t Be Afraid to Say No

Many studies have shown how having pets can promote physical and mental well-being. Employees who are allowed to bring their dogs into the office are less stressed and often report more job satisfaction. There’s nothing like a cuddle with a furry friend to alleviate some of that toxic stress.

Hug Your Dog

Depending on your commute, you may spend hours driving to and from work in your car. Those hours don’t have to be wasted. Make the most of those previously wasted hours:<ul><li> Consider scheduling calls in the morning that you can take during your drive to work. </li><li>Subscribe to popular industry podcasts and listen to them on the way home. </li><li>Stuck waiting at the boarding gate before a flight? Catch up on industry news and articles.</li></ul>

Make the Most of Lost Hours

Do the best you can do in a reasonable amount of time, and then stop.&nbsp;our inner perfectionist can be helpful, but it also needs to be kept in check.&nbsp;

Silence Your Inner Perfectionist

Scheduling requires you to be realistic about what you can get done.&nbsp;Even scheduling free time can be rewarding and can result in a better quality of time spent.&nbsp;

Down With To-Dos, In With Scheduling

Clutter is extremely stress-inducing. A messy desk can make you feel overwhelmed and anxious, so clear those papers, throw out those old paper coffee cups, and feel that heart rate go down.&nbsp;

Declutter That Desk

There are tons of great tools available to help you out.&nbsp;<ul><li>For tracking your time management, try Toggl or Yast.</li><li>Are you a savvy social manager? Go with Hootsuite, which offers a central dashboard for managing all your social media accounts. Also consider Buffer, which makes it super easy to share found articles across various social sites.</li><li>For saving articles to read at your leisure, go with Feedly, Pocket, or Evernote.&nbsp;</li><li>Sick of forgetting passwords? Try LastPass, which keeps tabs and secures all your various passwords for you. If you use numerous accounts in one day (and who doesn’t?).</li></ul>

Equip Yourself With an Arsenal of Productivity Tools

Brussels sprouts have traditionally been the vegetable reviled by children across the country. The truth is that you’ll enjoy those pork chops and potatoes much more if you eliminate the Brussels sprouts first. The same is true for productivity — eliminate your least favorite tasks right off the bat, and you’ll find the rest of your day to be more pleasant and productive.&nbsp;

Begin With Brussels Sprouts

A morning meal gives you the fuel you need to be present and productive at work, so don’t skip it.&nbsp;

Eat Breakfast!

The general productivity consensus is that if a task takes less than two minutes to complete, you should finish it immediately.&nbsp;Whether that means responding to an email or confirming a doctor’s appointment, get those small (but often weighty-feeling) tasks done with, rather than let them collect and snowball.&nbsp;

The Two-Minute Rule

When a hundred little tasks are nibbling at your brain, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and lost at sea.&nbsp;However, a little perspective can do you good — remember to not sweat the small stuff. If you’re going to worry, worry about the big things, not the little ones.&nbsp;

Don’t Drown in the Shallow End of the Pool

It’s easy to break a promise to yourself, but it’s much harder to break a commitment you’ve made to another person. Words have weight and power — make vows to friends (and ask them to hold you accountable), and you may find it easier to keep commitments you wouldn’t necessarily hold yourself to.&nbsp;

Verbal Commitments

Losing one night’s sleep is cognitively equivalent to being over the alcohol limit.&nbsp;Equipment needs to be properly cared for to work correctly. Getting a good night’s sleep of seven to eight hours is mandatory.

Get Your Sleep On

Sunday is definitely a day for relaxing, but if you’re often overwhelmed come Monday morning, logging in briefly Sunday evening may help you alleviate some of that Monday mania.You don’t need to make calls or even answer emails — simply assess what your Monday game plan will be, and you’ll sleep a little more soundly.&nbsp;

Sign In on Sunday 

Sometimes the best way to break a bad habit is to make things incredibly difficult for yourself. If you hate that you watch too much TV, keep the remote control in the upstairs closet. While the extreme lengths you take to avoid certain habits can seem excessive, once those habits are broken it will be well worth the struggle.&nbsp;

Make Bad Habits Difficult for Yourself

Setting unrealistic expectations for yourself sets you up for failure. Don’t be afraid to start with baby steps and work up from there. If you want to run a marathon, start by getting out for a run a few days a week.&nbsp;Your goals shouldn’t be lofty ideals you never plan on reaching — they should be real and attainable. Once you meet your goals, create new ones that raise the bar a bit higher.&nbsp;

Make Sure Your Goals Are Realistic

A positive outlook goes a long way toward keeping you happy, healthy, and productive.&nbsp;Count your blessings, and seek out the silver linings.&nbsp;

23. Stay Positive!

It’s terribly tough to get into your Zen zone when your phone is buzzing every few minutes. Depending on how chatty your phone is, you may get notifications for everything from emails to retweets…

productivity

Productivity

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

23 Productivity Hacks That Will Actually Make You Happy

Did you know there’s a new “pandemic” in town? Yes, apart from COVID and any other disease you might be thinking of. Hold on, don’t panic. It’s actually not fatal, but it’s taking a toll on quite a number of people who keep failing to understand the dynamics behind this whole new infection. I’m talking about the “Entrepreneurialism” pandemic.

New “Pandemic” Alert🚨 

The truth is, a lot of people are confusing the term&nbsp;“entrepreneur”&nbsp;with&nbsp;“business owner”. The two are similar in so many aspects, but they are definitely not the same. Surprised? Well, let me break it down for you.

What’s Really Going On…

A business owner is the owner of a company that provides a product or service to its clients.From the moment they start their business, most business owners have a deep understanding of their market and know who they should sell their products to. They frequently profit from the success of their company, which is either a sole source of income or a side hustle.An entrepreneur, on the other hand, goes way beyond just owning a business.

The Not So Obvious Differences

Entrepreneurs want to disrupt the market by sweeping out the traditional dynamics of how things are thought to work.Entrepreneurs are always all in. They are passionate about their work and obsess over it. It’s a tendency; a predetermined route. It’s a personality trait, a labor of love, an unteachable zeal, a disease that can’t be cured, and an illness that can’t be caught. It’s either you have it or you don’t.Money isn’t what motivates an entrepreneur. That is what pushes businesses and business owners. But for an entrepreneur, money is merely a yardstick.&nbsp;

The Traits To Look For

The status quo is never enough for an entrepreneur. They do not become fat and content. They’re always thinking about the next thing, the next endeavor, The “Big One.” They prefer being in the thick of things. They thrive in a state of turmoil and have their fingers in various jars. That’s why it’s common to hear about them failing at a half-dozen businesses before finally succeeding.That is not the personality of business owners. They usually like focusing on one thing at a time. They are mostly not jugglers and try as much as possible to stay away from failure.

There’s More 

Determining whether or not you have “Entrepreneurialism” is just a matter of self-analysis and careful observation. Here are a few symptoms to help you out with that.

So, How Do I Know?

Entrepreneurs always want to know the answers. They are like sponges, constantly trying to learn more, improve their skillsets and find things out for themselves. They are never afraid to ask questions and won’t stop till they get the answer.

Always Asking Questions 

Entrepreneurs tend to see opportunities all around them, even in simple conversations. They try to make the most out of every situation and connect with people that they believe will be instrumental in the growth and success of their venture.

Sees Opportunity Everywhere And In Everything 

Entrepreneurs have a “don’t stop until the task is done” mindset. They try to hit their marks every time, going the extra mile to make sure they achieve their goals before they can rest.Do any of these sound like you? You’ve definitely caught the bug!

Time Is Never Enough

If you do not relate to any of these, don’t beat yourself down. Not everyone can be an entrepreneur,&nbsp;and it is perfectly okay. You don’t need to force your way into becoming one. Instead, figure out what you do best and do it better than anybody else.

Be Yourself And Achieve Greatness Your Own Way

Entrepreneurship seems to be the new craze in town…but is everyone cut out for it. This article will help you find out!

A lot of people are confusing the term "entrepreneur" with "business owner". The two are similar in so many aspects, but not the same!

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

business

Business

Are You Really an Entrepreneur?: What Separates Entrepreneurs From Business Owners

If&nbsp;you are looking for business tips or for a way to expand your brand. Then, you are in a right place! Because today we are delivering something that is very valuable and if done correctly you are brand will explode.

3 Business lessons that you can learn from Alux.com  

Alux.com is a luxury website. Which is being around since 2013.Although, they introduced themselves to be the number 1 luxury website. Huge junk, of their content, is related to self-help/personal development.

Who is Alux.com?  (A quick reminder )

We have seen many companies or brands positioning themselves in the wrong way. If you are copy-pasting other styles of presentation or following the crowd. Then you are not positioning yourself in the right way.Think of an Apple, for example-&nbsp;there are many smartphones. Why? Is Apple top all of them don't they have money like that of Apple (other smartphone company) up course they have money. It's all about positioning your brand.

Positioning your brand

Apple has positioned itself in a different way in the minds of people. What comes to your mind ? when you think of Apple:-&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1. Luxury&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2. Offers high-quality service&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;3. Great productAnd the list will go on:-When do you decide? I will do everything differently, I will do what my competitor is not willing to do your brand will stand out from there own.

Alux.com has positioned itself differently in the luxury world(We mean website) they do what, other brand doesn't want to do- putting out valuable content for free. Giving financial advice, giving business growth, advice, and so on. Do, what you are competitors are not willing to do.

Every day, you will find an Alux.com video in your YouTube notification. They have said proudly they have been doing it for the last 5 years. Why? Consistency matters the most, you see in order to be great at anything you have to do it every day - not once in a week.

Consistency is the key

The&nbsp;Compound effect&nbsp;is an awesome book ( Where the author's emphasis on how a small step taken every day, no matter how small builds up to a great result ) Alux.com's&nbsp;first video was not that good at all.But, they keep on working hard and improving their content. Where they are now is because of hard work and staying consistent for long.&nbsp;(Consistency over time, bleeds great result)

I have seen many digital media, especially from our region. Whenever I enter their website, I feel like I am entering a crowded market. As soon as I enter their website, I encounter countless ads popping up from everywhere.This kind of act, done by these companies kills the customer's friendly experience. Now - a - days, people are concerned about privacy, security - no- one wants their phone to get hacked by clicking on ads. This shows their after money, not after value.

Never go after money- always focus on value:-

If you looked at Alux.com on the other side. You will see, Alux.com is not filled with too many ads- It is also interesting to say that they only promote two affiliate links (Audible and NorVPN) they have an army of followers of over 4 million. They can easily promote any service they want. But, they decide to put value first, and money later.Here is a thing, if you focus on money only you are a customer or followers will be upset and will leave. Because you are whole focus will on&nbsp;How can I extract money from them&nbsp;-&nbsp;not on improving the service or value.

Just giving way value also does not solve the problem. You will have to give way actual value that people are looking for or want it.

Here you will learn 3 important business important lesson from Alux.com

humanresources

Human Resources

3 Business lessons that you can learn from Alux.com

Work isn’t supposed to be fun. It can be fun, but trying to optimize for it from the beginning is only going to hurt you in the end.<ul><li>Choosing to work on “fun” projects at the expense of avoiding the hard, gritty, tedious ones will end up hurting your infrastructure, piling up your technical debt and stalling your growth.</li><li>Prioritizing the fun approach over the difficult, disciplined and results-focused one will hurt your business, it will hurt your team, and most importantly, it will hurt your customers.</li></ul>

Fun as a core value is a lie

Too many influencers build their brands on “making work fun” for this post not to be controversial. They’ll say things like “life’s too short to not have fun at work”.But fun is a deeply short-sighted priority. Consider having your short life filled with periods of hard work punctuated by intensely fun wins, rather than front-loading small bursts of fun and then paying for it with failure.

Focusing on fun is short-sighted

Why We Dropped “Fun” as a Core Value

Innovation Accounting is a way of evaluating progress when all the metrics typically used in an established company (revenue, customers, ROI, market share) are effectively zero. Innovation Accounting is not only a way for individual teams to report their progress and communicate in financial terms. It’s also extremely useful for seeing how projects, portfolios of projects, or even whole enterprises are changing over time. And, most importantly, it gives the ability to summarize these disparate initiatives using a common vocabulary and accountability framework.

Use IA in the early game

<ul><li>It provides a framework of chained leading indicators, each of which predicts success. Each link in the chain is essential and, when broken, demands immediate attention. </li> </ul><ul><li>It’s a focusing device for teams, keeping their attention on the most important assumptions they’ve made about their project. </li> </ul><ul><li>It provides a way to tie long-term growth and R&D into a system that follows a clear process for funding innovation and can be audited for its ability to drive value creation.  </li> </ul>

What does IA help with

<ol><li>Use a simple dashboard of metrics that allows the team to track progress over time at the start of a project. It gives a basic sense of what’s working and what’s not. If customers won’t even try the product, it doesn’t matter what their repeat purchase rate is.</li><li>It represents the complete interaction with a customer and includes later-stage variables like repeat purchases, bad retention levels, or margin. </li><li>Looks at the learnings gained from the first two levels of IA translated into dollars by rerunning the full original business case with each Lvl 1 and 2 iteration. </li></ol>

The 3 Stages of IA

1. Come up with some initial metrics. These should be simple and actionable and should not have to be related to one another. For example, a number of customers interviewed and their rating on identified struggles might be two starting metrics. 2. If you’re stuck on metrics, ask these four questions, each of which will give rise to a set of metrics designed to answer it.<ul><li>Did we do what we said we were going to do?</li><li>Are our people working differently?</li><li>Do customers (internal or external) recognize and improvement?</li><li>Are we unlocking new sources of growth as a company? </li></ul>

Steps for your Level 1 dashboard 

“To truly transform our organizations and our way of working, we need to change our accounting systems, too.”

Here’s an example of a Level 1 dashboard looking at the first experiment done by a team building a lemonade stand and hoping for hypergrowth through the use of drone delivery and premium ingredients down the road:

A simple Level 1 dashboard

Use the dashboard to hold your team accountable. Simply ask this question: Which metrics are improving over time?For example, a team that’s trying to prove they can charge a price premium for a new product might do an initial version where nobody is willing to buy, so revenue per customer is $0 for the first test. A few product revisions later, perhaps revenue has grown to $1. This is progress, even if the goal is ultimately $10 or $100.

Accountability is Key

Recently learned about Innovation Accounting that's been recommended as the practice to adopt until thinking about metrics relevant to product-market fit.

Innovation Accounting is a way of evaluating progress against innovation objectives in an organization. Download a free exercise from Eric Ries, author of the Lean Startup.

product

Product & Design

Innovation Accounting: What It Is and How to Get Started

Every Entrepreneurs dream is to be flawless in their quest to solve pressing problems, Unfortunately, feedback and sometimes negative feedback only exist to make us better. Here are a few tips to adequately enable you deal with negative reviews from your customers :

How to deal with negative reviews as an entrepreneur.

Feedback can come in different ways and forms and are mostly tied to your customer's experience of your product or service. Their personality also plays an important role in how the feedback is given. Feedback should only make us see how we can make the most of an already thriving situation. embrace it as a way to improve.

1. Understand the importance of embracing feedback

Feeling good about your product or service is definitely a booster. and great feedback pumps you up to do more. But when negative feedback comes, sometimes it sets us back heavily, especially at the beginning stages. Some entrepreneurs quickly resort to defence and overestimate their worth thereby sacking customers that feel like they are not heard. Your business exists to be used and enjoyed by customers. make sure you consistently make them happy

2. Never overestimate your worth

The biggest challenge of businesses today is their inability to listen to customer feedback and act upon them. This explains why some companies consistently outperform others. The Key to listening to customers is to change your mindset towards constructive criticism. Once we understand that a consumer's needs want to be met we can tune our minds towards factoring them in our plans and making adequate preparations to solve problems that exist

3. Listen to your customers

communication

Communication

Deladem Kumordzie on Oct 30

Quality is always the difference between a good product and a bad product. <ul><li>To improve quality, you need to improve the ability to find and fix problems in their early stages. </li><li>And you need a high tolerance for failed experiments.</li></ul>

How do you improve product quality?

<ol><li>Hire the right people and have them in the right roles.</li><li>Have a system that decides how you give feedback to help your team improve their work and it should be through high-quality feedback loops.</li><li>Give your teams the resources they need to succeed and improve their productivity</li><li>Make sure that people push each other. Teams work best when people have a high level of self-awareness</li></ol>

Four key elements of developing a great product quality

Improvement means learning to do the processes better, not producing things that are more made perfectly.

Quality is not a product. It’s a process.

“Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent direction and skilful execution; it represents the wise choice among many alternatives.” - Dr Joseph Juran,

Great products start with real customers who feel they gain some kind of advantage or improvement in their life from using your product. What makes great companies great is not just their product or service’s quality, it’s the dedication they make to the improvement of their product or service.

Great products start with real customers

If customers can’t tell what a product does, then they can’t tell how well it does it. If you want to lead an organization to systematically deliver higher quality products at a fair price, then make your team build a culture that breathes quality.

Product quality is intimately linked to the product’s purpose

How do you improve product quality?

No story lives unless someone wants to listen.

Brands, businesses, movements, products, and services succeed by bringing meaningful change to people. There is a life and a way of being before the product or service existed, and a life and a way of being after it. Can you remember life before Google, with paper maps, telephone directories, bricks-and-mortar everything, and keeping information in your head?Every successful business creates a new kind of customer. That customer’s story changes because the business exists. There is a before-the-product story and an after-the-product story.

Before-the-product and after-the-product story

What customers crave, more than the commodity they think they are paying for is to be understood. What they want more than a reliable ride to their destination, a comfortable bed for the night, or even a book, is to really be seen. What they want more than responsive organizations is personal relevance. The value isn’t just in the data that businesses collect. What counts is how they use it to make their lives better.

Users want to be undersood

The best inventions are never finished. Great inventors don’t just stand there, rub their hands together, and say ‘My work is done here’. They keep working furiously to create something even better. It’s part love, part necessity. Because if they don’t reinvent their ideas time and again, someone else will—rendering their life’s work irrelevant, or worse still, extinct!

Every business today, no matter its size or legacy, faces four massive challenges.<ul><li>Clutter </li><li>Competition </li><li>Commoditization </li><li>Consumer consciousness.</li></ul>

Business challenges

Awareness and attention were the holy grails of every marketing strategy, so the way you became successful was to pay for more of both. But there’s a subtle change taking place. People are choosing to spend their money with companies that take the time to get to know them and whose actions resonate with their values—companies that thrive by doing the right thing and by making things customers love, instead of by trying to get customers to love their things.

Awareness and attention 

Digital is an incredible medium, an enabler of businesses that previously wouldn’t have had a chance of succeeding without a factory and huge investment. But it’s not mastering the medium—understanding how the technology works—that matters; it’s how and why you use it.
You don’t have to become the best in the world at Twitter to be the best business in the world at what you do. The opportunity here is far greater than mastering the tools so that we have replacements for the old ways of broadcasting. Digital gives us opportunities to see our customers and to be more responsive to their wants.

The gift of the digital world

It’s easier than ever to spam whomever you want to reach because most people are just an email address and a click away. If your goal is to get and leverage someone’s attention for a split second, then, of course, you can.The kind of attention everyone seeks though isn’t this meaningless interaction. It’s based on mutual respect and trust. And the best way to get attention, then, is to give it unconditionally first. To start whispering ‘I see you’ instead of screeching ‘LOOK AT ME’.

The best way to get attention

The best — maybe the only? — real, direct measure of “innovation” is change in human behaviour.

They don't disrupt industries, but they disrupt people’s lives for the better. Any innovation that is adopted or idea that spreads succeeds because enough people want the change that happens as a result. Success doesn’t come from simply making things that work —it is born from changing the story of the user or customer for the better.

Disruptive innovations 

Sustainable businesses have long been built on understanding the importance of how people decide, as much as on knowing what they buy. And great innovations are born from believing that the way people use a product is just as important as how it works.It has never been more crucial for the innovator and marketer to pay attention to how the user or customer wants to experience a product or service.

How the user wants to experience a product

Old rules of brand awareness:<ol><li>Make something for everyone. </li><li>Tell our story. </li><li>Attract customers. </li><li>Build brand awareness. </li></ol>The brands that succeed today have flipped things around. New rules of brand awareness: <ol><li>Understand the customers' stories.</li><li>Make something they want. </li><li>Give them a story to tell. </li><li>Create brand affinity.</li></ol>

Old and new rules of brand awareness

<ul><li>Before self-service shopping, online stores, social networks, and recommendation platforms, the consumer’s role was limited to buying what was on offer. </li><li>Today, customers are more than just passive consumers of products and services. They are partners, co-creators, patrons, advocates, evangelists, collaborators, and community members. </li></ul>People no longer just want to buy things from us without thinking—they want to become invested in the businesses and brands that they choose to support.

Customers: from passive buyers to co-creators

<ul><li>They start with a purpose and a small problem, rather than a big idea. </li><li>They're based on what people do, not what they say they do. </li><li>They leverage data to get closer to users, customers, or fans.</li><li>They can be more responsive to customers’ behaviors and needs. </li><li>They tap into consumers’ latent desires. </li><li>They connect the disconnected. </li><li>They create value where none existed. </li><li>They disrupt people’s lives, not industries—aligning with the user’s worldview and often changing what people believe is possible for them, thus changing their behavior. </li><li>They begin by facilitating or creating change for a small group of people at the edges. </li><li>They seem obvious only after the fact.</li></ul>

Disruptive innovations: characteristics

It ensures that the needs and wants of your customer remain front and center as you develop products and services and make plans to bring those ideas to life. <ul><li>Step 1: Story: Think about who the customer is beyond the basic demographic information. Describe a day in their life.</li><li>Step 2. Insight: What do they want to do, but can’t? What can you do to help them? </li><li>Step 3: Product: What features and benefits will help solve your customers’ problem? How will using your product make the customer feel?</li><li>Step 4: Experience: What has changed for the customer once they use your product? How do you want the customer to experience your product?</li></ul>

The Story Strategy Blueprint 

"The most important book for your boss to read this year." -SETH GODIN "Empathy, relevance, and affinity-three great concepts to help you make a dent in the universe. Jiwa explains a whole new way to innovate and change the world." -GUY KAWASAKI "A must read for any entrepreneur or marketer. It's full of lots of "aha" moments with a concrete tool that you can implement immediately. This book should be added to every marketer's toolkit!" -DIANE DIAZ, Instructor Digital Storytelling & Branding, FULL SAIL UNIVERSITY "This book and the Story Strategy Blueprint inside are invaluable for anyone who wants to disrupt their industry and to know and genuinely matter to their customers. Bernadette's unique views and teachings will give you the most important, empathetic tools to know the consumer and be a successful storyteller." -ANTONIO ZEA, Global Director, Football Footwear, UNDER ARMOUR "As marketers our future value and success relies on using our customers as our compass. Through inspiring case studies, learn about the Innovation Trifecta and how affinity that is earned, rather than attention that is bought can power your business growth. Bernadette digs deep to explain why brands that give a damn make a difference and win in terms of profits, people and the planet." -LEE TONITTO, CEO, AUSTRALIAN MARKETING INSTITUTE One of Inc Magazine's Top Business Books of 2015. Our new digital landscape has spawned an entrepreneurial culture and the belief that anyone with a laptop and an Internet connection has the power to change the world-to create an idea that flies. But for every groundbreaking business that started this way, a thousand others have stalled or failed. Why? What's the secret to success? What do Khan Academy, the GoPro camera, the Dyson vacuum cleaner and Kickstarter have in common? After years of consulting with hundreds of innovators, creatives, entrepreneurs and business leaders to help them tell the stories of their ideas, I have discovered something: every business that flies starts not with the best idea, the biggest budget or better marketing, but with the story of someone who wants to do something-and can't. We don't change the world by starting with our brilliant ideas, our dreams; we change the world by helping others to live their dreams. The story of ideas that fly is the story of the people who embrace them, love them, adopt them, care about them and share them. Successful ideas are the ones that become meaningful to others-helping them to see what's possible for them. Our ideas fly when we show others their wings.

books

Books

"The most important book for your boss to read this year."-SETH GODIN "Empathy, relevance, and affinity-three great concepts to help you make a dent in the universe. Jiwa explains a whole new way to innovate and change the world."-GUY KAWASAKI"A must read for any entrepreneur or marketer. It's full of lots of "aha" moments with a concrete tool that you can implement immediately. This book should be added to every marketer's toolkit!"-DIANE DIAZ, Instructor Digital Storytelling & Branding, FULL SAIL UNIVERSITY"This book and the Story Strategy Blueprint inside are invaluable for anyone who wants to disrupt their industry and to know and genuinely matter to their customers. Bernadette's unique views and teachings will give you the most important, empathetic tools to know the consumer and be a successful storyteller."-ANTONIO ZEA, Global Director, Football Footwear, UNDER ARMOUR"As marketers our future value and success relies on using our customers as our compass. Through inspiring case studies, learn about the Innovation Trifecta and how affinity that is earned, rather than attention that is bought can power your business growth. Bernadette digs deep to explain why brands that give a damn make a difference and win in terms of profits, people and the planet."-LEE TONITTO, CEO, AUSTRALIAN MARKETING INSTITUTEOne of Inc Magazine's Top Business Books of 2015.Our new digital landscape has spawned an entrepreneurial culture and the belief that anyone with a laptop and an Internet connection has the power to change the world-to create an idea that flies. But for every groundbreaking business that started this way, a thousand others have stalled or failed. Why? What's the secret to success? What do Khan Academy, the GoPro camera, the Dyson vacuum cleaner and Kickstarter have in common? After years of consulting with hundreds of innovators, creatives, entrepreneurs and business leaders to help them tell the stories of their ideas, I have discovered something: every business that flies starts not with the best idea, the biggest budget or better marketing, but with the story of someone who wants to do something-and can't.We don't change the world by starting with our brilliant ideas, our dreams; we change the world by helping others to live their dreams. The story of ideas that fly is the story of the people who embrace them, love them, adopt them, care about them and share them. Successful ideas are the ones that become meaningful to others-helping them to see what's possible for them.Our ideas fly when we show others their wings.

Meaningful

Meaningful: The Story of Ideas That Fly

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