Seth Godin’s blog post today is Easy and Certain. The lottery is easy. It is not certain, but it is easy. Many choose an MBA because it feels certain. It is not easy, but it feels certain. Once you’ve got the diploma on the wall… success is inevitable… There is a spanish word “chollo”. “Un … Read more
I was thinking about why presentations fail today. Why do so many great ideas fail at the presentation stage? Business plan presentations, entrepreneur pitches, Sales presentations? Why do they fail?There are many reasons: failure to prepare (deliberate practice), failure to clarify what you want from the audience, failure to make the material relevant to the … Read more
Alex Osterwalder has a highly visual and engaging way to think about business models. The presentation below explains his simple and pragmatic way to map, analyze, design and question your business model. The 9 elements of a Business Model Customer Segments Customer Relationships Value Propositions Channels Revenue Streams Key Resources Key Activities Key Partners Cost Structure … Read more
We know what to do to achieve what we want. We could make a list of the steps. We could do each of the steps. But we don’t. Some people do. But most don’t. I include myself. Why don’t we do what we know we need to do to achieve the things that we feel … Read more
I met Cameron Herold at an Entrepreneurs’ Organisation meeting in Vancouver, Canada two years ago. He gave a keynote session to the group. He was passionate… and he left me with practical tools that I took home and implemented. It is rare to find this combination. Cameron delivers. He clearly has a passion to see … Read more
Jerry Weissman, in Presenting to Win, says that there are 5 Cardinal Sins in Presentations: No clear point – the audience leaves wondering what it was all about. “What was the point?” No audience benefit – the audience doesn’t see how they can benefit. “So what?” No clear flow – the sequence of ideas is … Read more
Greg Digneo of Cloud Marketing Lab wrote a beautifully simple explanation over at Triiibes of how to test an idea before you spend any money building. Even “small” ideas like hosting a webinar or writing a short/free ebook to give away on your blog can be tested even before putting time into creating it. 4 Steps … Read more
Professor Robert Cialdini in his book “Influence: The Science of Persuasion” outlines six principles of ethical persuasion: reciprocity, scarcity, liking, authority, social proof, and commitment/consistency. Reciprocation – People tend to return a favor. Thus, the pervasiveness of free samples in marketing. In his conferences, Cialdini often uses the example of Ethiopia providing thousands of dollars … Read more
Jeffrey Pfeffer says that there are 4 ways that good ideas get shot down: Confusion – “yes, but how does that address US foreign policy and the social responsibility charter and the challenges of globalisation… and the new tax situation?” Fear mongering – “uff… this will be like X back in 2008 when it all … Read more
A peasant farmer lives on the outskirts of a village with his family. He comes into the village one day and is visibly disturbed. He speaks to the wise man of the village: “My horse has run away with the wild horses. I have lost my horse. This is terrible.” The wise man says “It … Read more