Do you want to be a monopoly?

I know, you will think this is tough. Of course, it is tough, otherwise everyone will be a monopoly. You will say it is illegal. Of course, it is. But if you can conquer a specific market that loves your brand, then essentially you have a “monopoly” over that market.

You have to be very specific about the market that you want.  Then make them love your brand. Start with your niche. All the other generic sections are over competitive and prices are at parity. There is no money to make there.

Does it always have to be a big market?

How long will it be for sale?

Perhaps you should consider what product you can sell for a long time to come. Spending more time thinking what will consistently sell over a long period of time may actually yield you more profits than a one-off product that is in trend now.

There will always be that product people will consistently use. Your job when you have decided on that is to figure out how you can stand out. Look for your own spin on that so it differentiates you from the rest. Then consistently remind people of your presence and what you can do for them.

Are you an evergreen?

Do you know how to think?

Thinking for yourself is the best thing you can do for your business. Don’t depend on formulas. There are no silver bullets. Look for principles and learn how to apply those principles. Learn to distinguish between principles and formulas. Then dedicate time to apply and experiment with the principles till they work for your company.

Where is the holy grail? 

What if I don’t have the budget?

Start small. Doing business is a marathon. Just in case you need the reminder.

If you don’t have the budget for brand building, start with your niche. Aim to be number one in that niche. Then move on to target a bigger segment. Look for new customers in a broader base. Then keep enlarging your customer base. Amazon started with books. Then CDs, then became the 27-year overnight success you know now.

Is there a way you can fly from the first year?

What are the short-term objectives?

When planning your marketing objectives, you need to be clear on your long- and short-term objectives. Each effect is different and can affect each other. If your strategies are too geared towards short term objectives, it would reduce the effectiveness of your long-term objectives. It’s true the other way around. If you focus too much on your long-term objectives, your short-term objectives would be affected too. To have a rewarding business at the end, you need a good balance of both. Learning to combine both is a skill you need to learn and develop.

What are your long-term objectives?

Do you want to pay the fee?

Whether professional or personal, maturity takes a lot of years to learn. The good news is that it is never too late to enjoy the new found freedom from the shackles of misconception.

As you mature, you experience a lot less pain from the lessons of myopia.

One way of not learning things the tough way is to learn from other people’s mistakes. After all, someone has paid the fees, you can learn the lessons for free. Loosen the chains of dogmatic views and free yourself from suffering.

But even knowing this, there will be those who prefer to learn from their own mistakes.

The fallacy is that they believe they won’t have the same predicament and that it doesn’t apply to them.

You already know this. But worth repeating.

How did you learn your lesson?

Did you ask for permission?

People request for opinions for many reasons. Sometimes they need guidance, yet other times they are confused and need clarity. But sometimes, they ask with a hidden agenda. Perhaps they need your endorsement to do something but are too afraid to ask directly. There are also those who ask because they do not have the confidence in their own answer.

Is it affirmation you are seeking?

What happens when everything is important?

One, do what brings in the most revenue first.

Two, be happy with completing your two to three most important tasks of the day. How do you determine which are the most important? Refer to one.

Three, no matter how busy you are, set aside an hour of thinking time. Alone. Think through one challenge. Sort out the solution for it. Write it down. You can always change your mind later. This limits the emergencies that inevitably creeps up on you if you don’t set this aside.

Four, don’t get distracted. Shut off all forms of message app, emails, social media. If you will have a hard time doing this; it’s a sign you have been less than productive due to these distractions.

Five, Say NO. Really, really say No to things that do not add to your productivity. A bit of discipline and sacrifice goes a long way.

What happens if you keep wasting time?

Do you have the discipline of thought?

Don’t get swayed by very shimmy shiny trends that are out there, whether it is a new media or even a new thought. I don’t mean to say that you close your mind to new ideas. What I mean is to have a discipline of thinking where you can measure these new things against what you know best and what you know works. Better yet, you have already developed a way of thinking through these new things or even old information that you have just got to know.

Learn to have the discipline of thought. One in knowing how to think. And two, knowing what and why somethings work or do not work according to how you evaluate it. That way you do not get distracted unnecessarily. You will also not be thrown off-track.

Are you easily seduced?

Can you see when you are at the bottom?

Brand building is very much like hiking up a hill. You don’t start by thinking, this journey is going to really suck and the view up there isn’t going to be worth it.

Building a brand and marketing your product is the same. Of course, it is going to be to be tough when you start, struggling up steep learning curves. Perhaps sometimes, slipping on slippery slopes.

Once you are at the top, then things seem to be worth it. All the effort, the panting, the aches are suddenly worth it.

Some entrepreneurs tend to forget, you have to believe that the journey is worth it. Otherwise, you won’t suffer through all the suck.

Are you ready for the climb?

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Is your new product part of a fad?

If you intend to capitalize on the fad frenzy, be prepared to take the big risk and be fast and furious.

Like an afternoon thunderstorm that can come and die off in 10mins, the fad frenzy has very short life span. It may fizzle out before your product has a chance to profit from it.

You have to ask yourself if it is worth the rush and the time.

Are you a risk taker?

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Are you in a rush?

The rush that you are injecting into the product launch, is your own excitement. Your consumers frankly have a very busy lifestyle. They couldn’t care less until you care more. Rushing also means you become careless. 

Do it right. If your product does not live up to the expectations, the outcome is far more damaging than the additional month of delay. 

Who do you have in mind?

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Will you be patient to invest in results?

We invest with the goal in mind. To reap the benefits. To see results.

Sometimes, investments do not give you the immediate results but it doesn’t mean it’s not effective. It just takes longer. Slowly but surely the results will come.

Some results are short term and some are long term.

You eat clean for a day; you don’t see any results. Go to bed early a day and get good quality sleep, the very next day you feel fresher than the day before.

Some results are short term and some are long term.

Is marketing an investment?

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Is it worth it if it’s free?

Free means you didn’t earn it.
Free means someone did all the work.
Free means it’s not yours until you accept it. We love free.
The people who gave it for free know the value of giving it for no cost.

How valuable it is to you when you got it for free depends on what you do with it.

How viable is your free? 

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Are you frozen?

Bravely failing forward to yield lessons to succeed is better than timidly not moving in fear of failure.

Can you muster courage?

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How is your digestion?

At some point you will need to stop collecting new information and learning up what you feel will make a difference to your marketing. This can be data, new knowledge, reports, whatever. You only have finite time.

How much time you put in to collect and learn new information or knowledge needs to be balanced with the time you take to make sense of these new materials. Then take action.

Are you constipated with information?

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How do you tame your monkey mind?

Do at least one activity that puts discipline into your day. That at the end of the day, you know you did something you want to do and achieved something.

Some people write, others run, some meditate, yet others read.

Did you discipline yourself today?

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What is success to you?

Define your own success. That way, you'll know it when you achieve it. Please write it down. I would encourage you to go beyond the expected monetary, financial freedom kind of success. Think in terms of relationships, spirituality, intellectualism, freedom of mental chains like anxiety and worry.

Unless you truly know this, your pursuit now may be a futile attempt at the end.

Where are you heading?

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Do you really think you know?

People think they know. In reality they don’t because they are always in hurry. Impatient for an answer. Quick to offer one. They grab whatever that is the easiest for them to comprehend and they stop at the most convenient answer. Then they try to convince themselves that they know. That they understand how this thing works. When asked deeper questions, they realize they have barely scratched the surface.

Don’t believe me? Check your own behavior when you search for an answer on the internet. You barely read past the top 10 results.

What do you understand?

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Are you overloading?

In weight training, there is a principle called progressive overloading. Essentially, you gradually increase your weights, frequency or number of reps in your routine. This challenges your body and over time allows your body to get stronger.

This works for your marketing budget too. If you aren’t progressively overloading with your budget to support your marketing programs, how will your brands progress?

Are you progressing?

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Are you ready to give up?

Some marketers activate some things and start making a judgement that whatever they are doing is not working. Many times, their call is wrong because of various things they have not factored in. 

For example, is it executed correctly? Wrong execution leads to wrong results. Have you done it consistently? Some programs need consistency to show results. Have you done it in the right intensity? If it is not supported with the right budget, you won’t get the right impact. 

What should you change?

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What action do you want them to take?

Let’s start there. We all know you want your target market to buy your brand but before that happens there are countless other things that are more important to them.

Once you list the whole process down then perhaps you will arrive at a communications plan.

What plan did you make?

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What do you need?

If you are a marketer, you need to write a marketing plan. If you don’t know how to write a marketing plan, here is a quick way. Of course, I can’t give you the full answer in a 150-word blog entry but I hope to point you to some steps you can start.

Diagnosis before strategy. Know where you are and why are you there, then decide where you want to go. Which went well, what did, what new launches will there be?

Start segmenting your market. What are you going to market to them? That is targeting. Size the market. 

What are you going to tell them? That’s positioning or messaging.

Then you execute. This is the tactics part. There are various ways of reaching your target and convincing them to purchase your brand. Put it in a cohesive plan and lay a budget on it.

You will be surprised at the number of marketers that have no marketing plan to show.

Do you have a plan?

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What is your moral duty?

Beethoven said, “Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets, for it and knowledge can raise men to the divine.”

Your moral duty regardless of the field and department you are in is to dive deep into the foundations of your field because that is your moral duty. It’s your duty if you carry the role and responsibility in marketing to educate yourself in the field of marketing, as an example. For that I would recommend that you go to the classics in the field. Stop being functionally ignorant about the insights of the field and get to the core of it. Otherwise, you fail in your duty and you are also failing your organization.  

Don’t worry about chasing the new stuff. Worry about not being educated enough with the classics.

Do you have a solid foundation?

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What are you working on?

If you call yourself a marketer or are involved in some marketing function, it is imperative for you to know the difference between marketing and marketing communications. They are similar in that they are involved in the marketing process but one must come before another. Otherwise, you as a marketer may be doing your company a great disservice. 

Every chef in this world knows the difference between salt and pepper. Both can be used in seasoning their dish but whole both are involved in the seasoning process; each has a very different function.

Do you know your job?

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How fast can you indoctrinate mindset?

For many business people, they think about scaling as if it is just the number of shops and the number of staff they can have. Those are the easy parts. The tough part is always duplicating the same culture that made you great in the first place. Mindset and culture are difficult to scale. 

Like the human body and mind, growing big is far easier than training the mind to be disciplined and wise. Translating physical presence and growing in size is easy. Transferring culture and mindset is a different ball game.

How have you defined growing?

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You think you know a lot?

Some people can talk a lot about a lot of things. They may even go on for hours on a topic. But because they talk so fast and are usually pretty articulate, you will miss out on the fact that they aren’t saying much. They may actually be repeating the same things in different words.

Get them to write their opinion down. Break them into separate points. You will see how shallow these people can be.

Here’s a challenge, the next time you wax lyrical on a certain topic in a function or a party; come home and start writing down the thoughts and opinions in a structured manner. Let’s see what you have. 

Did you express it on paper?

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Are they real?

Hopes, wishes, dreams. They are real. They keep us alive.

Hope but do. Wish but plan. Dream but work.

They get us where we want to be. They are the beginning of everything.

When will you realize them? 

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Is it really needed?

If you are very opinionated, often have plenty of suggestions, and work in a team, let me suggest this. For a few times in a row, learn to shut up. Listen and let the others take over. Take the suggestions from the others, hear the opinions of the others without you having to rebut, add on, or input.

It’s time to learn that things can work even without you and your ideas. It’s time to learn to listen.

Perhaps theirs can work too?

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How strongly do you feel?

You can be adamant about your principles and whatever you believe in. But remember, it is for now. When new evidence presents itself, you must be willing to consider change. Otherwise, how do you improve?

How open are you?

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Are they the same?

You know the experts say, the journey is not the destination. Now that I am a little older, I am not so sure. Right now, I think they are one and the same. Like a union, and you should not separate them. Separating them makes you see things in isolation when they are not.

The stress, stumbling, and suffering. The happiness, victories and winning. These are as much the destination as it is the journey. To separate them is to see that one is not the other. The journey is the destination. It gives the destination value. It makes the destination worthwhile. It’s what you do to earn the destination. Why would you not see it as one?

You are all-in into the journey so you can, and believe you can control the outcome. Otherwise, you wouldn’t face all those challenges on the journey.

They are one. Face them as one.

Are they different?

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What do you want to improve?

The more you practice the better you become. The better the practice the better the skill becomes. A better practice is one where there is a coach, some form of a plan, a feedback loop, and of course disciplined dedicated time.

You do this for your hobbies. But how much do you practice for your work-related skills?

Are you getting better at your work?

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What do you need now?

We are in uncommon times. But even in common times, you need this. Find a quiet spot and be alone for a while. Bring a pen and paper. Scribble something, doodle something. Drink some coffee. Or tea. Ask yourself, where are you now? Where do you want to go? How do you get there? 

It’s time to diagnose your situation. Without a diagnosis, there can be no good plans.

No, it doesn’t need to be the New Year to do this. Not as if you had a great plan already anyway.

Where are you now?

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Is it too small?

But this is too small, it won’t make a difference. 

If you are in a crisis and you have no idea what to do, or if you are stuck; then doing something small is better than do nothing at all and waiting for the perfect answer.

Sometimes when you are in panic mode, doing something small is just to keep the momentum going. It’s an initiative to open other doors and ideas to better and bigger ideas. It may not solve the crisis immediately but it will give you an answer that will.

When you don’t execute something and show yourself that you are in charge, there is a risk that you will spin into a vicious cycle. It usually starts with whining, then blaming, then somewhere down the road, giving up.

Start somewhere. Perfection is a pursuit. Not a destination. That perfect solution needs to be worked on. 

How big is big enough? 

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How are problems solved?

Every problem humankind has is overcome with creativity.

When there was a problem that couldn't be solved with the old ways, someone somewhere came out with a new way of doing it. It solved the problem.

As a business person, when you saw an opportunity in the market, you started a business to take advantage of the opportunity that existed. 

Business is a creative endeavour. But when faced with a crisis, some business people clamp up and do not know what to do.

Go back to your creativity. You are creative to begin with and you can solve this challenge with your creativity.

What have you forgotten?

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Do you have a plan?

Business is dynamic. Things change and often change quickly. But that doesn’t mean you don’t plan. War is even more dynamic but generals put in place a war plan. 

Your plan is a foundation. This is the foundation that you can deviate from and be flexible when the situation changes.

Otherwise, anything goes. When "anything goes" is a plan, then it’s a plan for trouble. Nothing will be prepared for any eventuality. 

How much can you be prepared?

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Who’s gonna do it for you?

No matter how much you learn and practice. No matter who and where you learned it from. Eventually, you will still have to figure it out on your own. That’s just how things are. One half people can tell you, teach you, coach you, do it for you. The other tougher half, you have to figure it out yourself.

Depending on who you are, you will find this exciting or terrifying.

Did you figure it out? 

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You want to stand out?

If you want to stand out, be less conventional. There is less competition there.

Sometimes standing out doesn’t have to be absurd. You just have to be willing to do what others aren’t willing to do. Great work ethic being one.

Everyone will say they can work hard. But how many can truly have the commitment and consistency to do it daily? Something conventional now becomes unconventional. Just turning up and being there all the time with your whole presence can’t be done by many people. 

Who can keep up?

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Are their positions threatened?

If all the KOLs are saying the same thing in your industry, you really need to wonder. Think hard and question even harder.

Do they all sound the same and regurgitate the same thing because it is group-think or is it really the best practice?

Or consider this, they feel threatened for taking a different stance fearing being seen as a pariah.

Are you hearing the truth?

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Do you tell yourself the truth?

Learn to speak truth to yourself and swallowing that cold brutal truth. That’s the only way what you think, what you feel, what you say, and what you do can be authentic. If you can’t convince yourself, you can’t convince others.

How authentic are your actions?

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You want to grow?

Don’t take a gap year. That is for wusses. Go be an entrepreneur for two years. You WILL grow. Professionally and personally.

But you will be too soft to believe me.

Do you think you are that good?

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How great is it?

Your product can be fantabulous, supercilious, and whatever superlatives you want to describe your product. That’s all good as long as you have a specific market for it. No, and it’s not everyone. Be very specific about the market that will purchase your product. 

You would think it is basic marketing. But like common sense that is not so common, even the basics of marketing aren’t adhered to when experienced founders or marketers get too excited about their products.

Who will buy it?

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How’s the allocation?

Spend as much time designing your marketing as much as you spend time designing your product. Some people spend so much time focusing on the product that they cut short on planning and executing the marketing of the product. Do the same for your budget allocation as well.

What did you spend on?

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