Trizle

Scenario: "Dude, we gotta think. When we think, we win with great ideas. Yay!" Sure, it seems that way. "We're at our best when we're conscious," common wisdom tells ya. "When we sleep, our brains rest. It's essentially 'dead' until we wake up," the thinking goes. Yet, if you were to compare the processing powers of your conscious mind against your subconscious, what do you get?

1. The subconscious: Brazilian soccer player.
2. The conscious: American soccer player.

(Zing!) Your unconscious mind generates bucket-loads of great ideas. Meanwhile, your conscious mind waits in the wings thinking it's hot stuff -- but it's really not. (It's like an aspiring American Idol contestant.)

The Magic of Your Subconscious

Do this: Tell somebody to throw their patented hay-makers at you. What happens? You instantly get into survival mode: you block, kick, then run -- instantly, without thinking about it. That's your subconscious mind working its magic. Its processing power -- in a millisecond:

1. reacted to the attack
2. mobilized your body into defensive mode
3. planned a counter
4. looked for the most efficient exit door

Your subconscious quickly loaded bulks of learned information from your past experiences -- then responded to the sudden attack, accordingly. (Imagine if you had to "think about it" first, before deciding what to do next. You = hospital.) Your subconscious found the greatest, most ridiculously awesome solution when you needed it. That saved you from being hay-maker'd.

How to Generate Sexy Business Ideas

To optimize your subconscious to form those sexy business ideas, use the pump-then-cruise method. That is, pump up as much information into your fabulous brain as you possibly can, then sit back -- and see your unconscious generating those super-fantastic ideas. Netherlands Professor of Psychology Ap Dijksterhuis recommends it:

Use your conscious mind to acquire all the information you need for making a decision -- but don't try to analyze the information. Instead, go on holiday while your unconscious mind digests it for a day or two. Whatever your intuition then tells you is almost certainly going to be the best choice.

The sucka's akin to pumping a basketball. You can only pump the ball so much -- then you have to let the ball do its own thing to become a great; for instance:

1. conforming to the shape of the court
2. molding itself to the players' hands
3. fitting itself for the particular environment

To get those fabulous ideas, stop thinking.

Pump brain. Put on cruise-control. See sexy magic.

Scenario: "Dude, all-nighters rock. If you're not doing all-nighters, you're not a true badass. Yay!" ^That's a burnout waiting to happen. You know those rough nights/weeks/months when you're pouring your heart out working like a rock star that you are. People tell you to delegate your workload, or you're going to hurt yourself. Yet, what do you continue doing? If you're like most ambitious business-builders, it probably goes a little something like this:

1. "I wish I could delegate my work..."
2. "But then...I'll have to spend more time explaining stuff to the person."
3. "Ahh...fuhgettaboutit."
4. "I'll just do the work myself!"
5. "It'll be faster anyway!"

So, you continue working, and working, and working. Then when another unexpected to-do item comes along, you add that on top of your already-long list of items you still need to do. What happens then? One of these three:

1. You get crushed under the workload (a.k.a. burnout).
2. You miss successive deadlines.
3. Your confidence level in your business drops faster than Britney-Spears'-you-know-what.

The solution? Start delegating.

Why Most People Don't Delegate

It sounds obvious, but not too many people follow the, "I-will-delegate-yay!" advice. Why? Subconsciously, we think we'll get task: _________________, done faster/better/sexier if we did it on our own. That makes sense:

1. When we want something done, we have a vision for how we want it done.
2. And of course, we could probably finish it faster than the other person, anyway.

Delegating it, then: sucks. So, we continue piling work on top of our already humongous shizzle. As you business-builders know: That pile of work seems to never, ever end. Sure, we think if we just finish: ______________, we'd be done. Yay! But, that work keeps piling. In turn, our minds, body, and soul takes a gradual beating per task. Then before you know it:

1. Missed deadlines.
2. Angry customers.
3. Morale = drainage.

How Delegating Helps Your Mind

Think of a bucket. You fill that bucket with water. That's your fuel for the day.

1. When the bucket has water = you're ready for action.
2. If you empty it = your mind: gone.

Now, every task you do -- no matter how small -- uses up some H20.

• You check company email = H20 loss.
• You interview a first-round candidate = H20 loss.
• You order products from your vendor = H20 loss.

You have a limited amount of water in your bucket a day. Doing: __________ everyday diminishes that bucket -- even if it's minimal -- daily. Those "small things" quickly combine into one huge H20 bucket waster that quickly burns your fuel. Before you know it, you've wasted half of the bucket on "everyday, small things" -- before even getting to the "real" work (i.e. work that significantly affects the bottom line). Now, do this:

• Multiply that one day by 30 days: You've lost 15 days of work per month.
• Multiply it by 365 days: You've lost 182.5 days of work per year.

Instead of bringing in $100k for your business, you're left with $50k. Instead of 10 Ferrari Enzos, your cheap behind is left with 5. A depleted bucket forces you to delay projects, work overtime on an empty bucket (and quickly burning yourself out). That destroys your morale -- draining productivity. Doing everything yourself seems tempting in the short-run; but, and here's the key: it'll destroy your fabulous potential in the long-run. As much as you possibly can:

Start delegating your shizzle like a rock star.

Scenario: "Dude, we will always target the teenagers with our brand. Yay!"

1. Say you're running a t-shirt company your segment market absolutely loves.
2. Your shirts are having a cult following among them.
3. Those super-loyal customers are the 19-24 year old demographic.

Now, flash-forward 6 years later when that entire target market leaves the 19-24 demographic.

You have three choices to grow your brand:

• a) Drop the brand completely.
• b) Continually grow with that crowd who loved you.
• c) Stick to the 19-24 year old range like white-on-rice no matter who loved you before.

[Now, many of you are thinking the answer's (c). It's because every single one of our mutha-juggin answers to our mutha-juggin pop-quizzes have been (c). If we were a teacher, we'd give the lousiest quizzes. We = sorry.] If you answered (b) Continually grow with that crowd who loved you, Ding! Ding! You're right.

Keep the People Who Love You

Harley Davidson. Lucasfilm. Rolling Stones. Barbara Streisand. Harpo (Oprah). What do they all have in common aside from viciously loyal fans?

1. They grew with their customers.
2. More important, they kept those customers.
3. Most important, over time: they built astronomically strong relationships that kept their cult brands ticking.

If you have a couple pets, you know the deal: The longer the relationship you have with a pet, the more loyal you are to that pet. It's not that you don't care about the other one. It's just that if you had one shot at saving one pet from a burning building, you'd probably go with the one who's been around you the longest. Super-dope marketers maintain their brands by building those long relationships with their customers. That ensures super loyalty that keeps your business happy.

The Problem with Sticking to One, Set, Demographic

According to Parisian Business Prof Fr - d - ric Dalsace:

The big problem with this approach to branding is that it positively discourages customer loyalty - and, as we all know, it's a lot cheaper to keep customers than to find new ones.

Building super awesome relationships takes more than 5 years. Yet, most marketers make the mistake of starting-all-freakin'-over-again, abandoning those most loyal to their brand. What happens then?

1. Abandoned customers: "Oh-you-mutha-@^^%^&. You sold out. You = suck!"
2. Targeted customers: "Uh....that brand is trying to be 'cool.' We all know it's for old people. Pass."

Uh-oh.

Now, if You Really Want to Keep Targeting a Certain Demographic

(or whoever else) Do what Prof Dalsace recommends, and what we've endorsed in the past:

1. Keep a beloved brand with customers who have loved the shizzle out of it.
2. Build a new brand for the new 19-24 demographic.

Toyota did the latter by creating the Scion brand for the youth crowd. That one freakin' ingenious company knew that younger buyers couldn't gravitate toward the Toyota brand like their fathers (and mothers) did.

1. "Toyota's for old people!" they'd say
2. "I don't want to buy a car that my dad drives!" they'd scream.
3. "T-O. Y-O. T-A. What in the mutha?! Was that a commercial?"

So, came the Scion. Toyota in turn stuck their main brand with the demographic that grew up loving them. And, the car company's been rockin' for ages in a crazy industry.

O Sum - rio

1. If you're trying to target a new set of people, start pimpin' a new brand.
2. In turn, keep a devoted brand rockin' with the customers who built it for you.

"This is yo brand!"

Scenario: "Dude, we can't do advertising. Advertising sucks. eBay and YouTube don't do it. Yay!" We hear the so-called 'experts' telling you: 'Advertising is on its way out! It's the new economy! It's all about word-of-mouth! Yay!' (Yes, 31,000 articles. Oh-fo-mutha-shizzle.) Does advertising work? Of course, it does. Before any expert preaches that advertising doesn't work, tell em: "Hey! I don't want your books!" (We challenge those 'experts' to find just one high-income-growth company who doesn't advertise.)

Why Advertising Works

Do this two-step process:

1. Think of a distant acquaintance.
2. Now, think of a friend you see often.

If two of them were in a room full of other people, who do you gravitate toward? For a ridiculous majority of us, we'll approach our friend. Arizona State's Psych Guru Robert Cialdini calls that the familiarity principle. That is, the more you see something provided it's under a positive light, the more you like it. In other words, the more that people see your company (whether that's a newspaper ad, website visit, TV exposure, etc.) -- subconsciously, the more they'll like it. And -- if deciding between your brand and a more obscure one, guess who wins?

Does Advertising Work For Every Company?

For most part, yes -- if you do it right. Placing a Super Bowl ad for your new product, and hope that'll convert a billion dollars? Not a chance. That's how internet companies earlier this decade imploded: They threw all their marketing eggs into one basket, hoping the masses would latch on. They never did. Instead, advertising takes a continuous "test-see-act" approach for your company.

How to Advertise

It's a continuous cycle that continually loops through three steps:

1. Test

   Small tests. Don't break your bank. You want to test as many marketing media as you can. Whether that's direct advertising, cost-per-click campaigns, cold calling, commercials, or yadda, test a variety of mediums to see what works best.

2. See

   Notice the results. What returns a juicy ROI? What doesn't? Rank each marketing method you do by the cost-per-acquisitions.

3. Act

   For the advertising mediums that worked best, dump a great percentage of your marketing dollars into them. For the other less successful ones, hold back those marketing dollars.

4. Cycle: Repeat ^1.

   Endlessly seek ways to knock off your ^1 ad variation; that ensures you're optimizing the shizzle out of your marketing dollars.

Think of the ATP tennis tour. When the organization finds its ^1 player, does it close the Pearly gates and think 'mission accomplished?' Fat chance. Instead, it continually finds, promotes, and refines players who could take over that ^1 spot. If you're a true business badass rock star, finding your tops ads will never be a mission accomplished.

Advertising = Good

Advertising gets absolutely -- and unfairly -- tarnished for being old school. Then, unsuspecting entrepreneurs build businesses thinking: "Hey, advertising is so Business 1.0. You can't build a business advertising. Yay!" And, then uh-oh: No sales, no cash-flow, no nada. Business = done. Don't be afraid to advertise. You'll uncover some pretty sweet surprises. And yes, even the companies that the experts tell you don't advertise -- really do.

Advertise your shizzle.

 

Scenario: "Dude, we'll promote people to manage ___(enter completely unrelated position here)___ by the results they generate. Yay!" You know the usual up-the-chain ladder that most companies use to promote people:

1. Hire Maggie.
2. She kicks absolute butt cooking breakfast omelets, sausages, bacon, pancakes, yadda.
3. 99% of customers rave about her cooking.
4. Manager light pops up: "Hey! Let's promote her to manage employees!"
5. Manager Sally lacks proper people skills to manage employees well.
6. Employees walk all over her.
7. Manager to Sally: "Sally! You suck! You = fired!"

What was a once-ridiculously-promising star became a fired employee. Ouch. Instead of promoting employees to completely-and-ridiculously unrelated positions, do something else: Promote them to complementary positions where they'll exploit their strengths. Sexy.

Why Most "Managers" Suck

You know your typical managers:

• control-freak
• runs the company by the numbers
• has no sympathy for employees
• disciplines failures
• doesn't understand where you shine higher than a mutha-@^^% eagle on crack

Why? The typical business-school-train of thought goes: "Hey, if Timmy's a great software engineer -- that means he'll be a great people manager too! He'll shine! Let's promote him!" Oh, no. They don't consider: "Hey! Would Timmy manager teams well? Can he relate to everyone on the team? Can he optimize their strengths?" So what do the zero-promotion-IQ businesses get? Once-rising superstars transformed into lousy ___________. Because X does Y well, doesn't mean X will do Z well.

"So, where should I promote people?"

Instead of promoting your fabulous people to unrelated positions, provide them an arena where they'll fatten their super talents. Going back to the Sally-and-restaurant scenario above. If you were to promote her, how would you do it?

• a) Let her manage entire employee shifts.
• b) Let her manage customer relationships.
• c) Let her manage the newly-formed "Breakfast Division" of your company.

If you answered anything other than (c), you'd still be sexy -- but you'd be incorrect. If you answered (c), great job! Ding. Ding. You're right -- and, a sexy badass. Promoting her to the "Breakfast Division" lets her exploit her strengths like the breakfast badass that she is.

• She'll devise with daily breakfast delectables.
• She'll provide breakfast aesthetics to enjoy the delicious food.
• She'll form sexy atmospheres to make breakfast meals shine.
• She'll provide innovative breakfast dishes to enthrall your customers.

The breakfast part of your restaurant? Smokin' rad. Cheese omelet with saut - ed onions, green peppers, mushrooms, diced tomatoes, and juicy tender strips of steak, topped with sour cream and shredded Parmesan-mutha-@^^%& -cheese. Loaded with strips of chopped hickory-smoked bacon. Served with hash browns. Ya heard? Yum-o! So when you see your employees rock your business, and you want to promote them -- find or create positions that lets them expand their super strengths. The template for ya:

"Schmitty, you're kicking major booty at ___. I want to amplify your strengths by letting you: ___."

 

Scenario: "Dude, I gotta trap myself into my office and work. Yay!" When you're constantly seeking refuge from the outside world, you're causing more harm to yourself -- mentally, and physically -- than you might think. According to doctors and psychologists:

When our need for social relationships is not met, we fall apart mentally and even physically. The effects are distinct enough to be measured over time, so that unmet social needs take a serious toll on health, eroding our arteries, creating high blood pressure, and even undermining learning and memory. [Loneliness] makes us sad. We might feel an emptiness. We may be filled with a longing for contact. We feel isolated, distanced from others, deprived. These feelings tear away at our emotional well-being.

So this weekend, go out and hang out. (Or if you're not the most social of butterflies, there's always the online community thang.) Your mind, body, and fabulous soul will thank you. And, you'll maintain yourself for the long-run -- rockin' your business like it ain't no thang but a chicken wing on a string. Word.

Replenish your soul. Go out.

 

Scenario: "Dude, you can't. It's genetic. Yay!" Oh, but you can. How? Seek resveratrol ingredients. You find that in red wine. According to several top-notch scientists:

An ordinary laboratory mouse will run one kilometer on a treadmill before collapsing from exhaustion. But mice given resveratrol (a component of red wine) run twice as far.

What else?

They also have energy-charged muscles and a reduced heart rate, just as trained athletes do

"Resveratrol makes you look like a trained athlete without the training," says a doctor in France. It doesn't make you sexy (i.e. trim the fat), but it's the next best thing to gaining endurance.

Resveratrol = Yum.

Edit: Lukem kindly pointed out below you'd have to virtually get really drunk on red wine before you notice the ingredient kicks in.

Scenario: "Dude, why is life so hard? Ahh!" Imagine Charlie Gubarli. He goes through life like a charm.

1. He has no money worries. He's a trust fund kid.
2. He travels to European galleries, monthly.
3. He eats gourmet, daily.
4. He spends summers yachting.

Think about that for a second. Now, do this: Name your top 5 movies/books/novels/stories/yadda. Of those, how many reflected the above scenario? Likely: not too many. Probably: none. Your favorites list instead included tales of adversity, persistence, and triumph. Adversity makes our lives interesting. Like a video game, it gives us a challenge. Then, it drives us to chase the sucker down and beat the mutha-@^^%^& into submission. When you look back at your life decades from now, your most treasured experiences won't include moments of tranquility. Instead, it'll involve overcoming obstacles that you once thought were impossible. Adversity gives us life. It gives us a reason for living. "A rich, rewarding life often requires a messy battle with adversity," researchers tell us. MLK, Edison, Newton, Disney, Jordan, Lincoln, Einstein, and Gandhi wouldn't have it any other way.

I have fought the good fight.

 

Scenario: "Dude, my fears of certain things will never change. Ahh!" One of the biggest crimes in business = untapped potential. Sally B. has all the tools necessary to build a kick-butt business.

1. She's super smart about her industry.
2. She's passionate about what she does.
3. She's super awesome when you meet her.

Yet, what stops her from building a rockin' business: Fear.

• Fear of the unknown.
• Fear of success.
• Fear of imperfection.

So what does she do? Nothing. She stays being who she is. The world passes her by. If you're gunning to overcome failures, start confronting your fears like a badass. We'll explain.

How Fear Sucks You Down

Your brain houses a small compartment that resides your fears. You've added to the compartment through your "sucky" life experiences. A negative association to a certain experience creates the fears. For instance:

• If a dog bit you when you were 5, you started harboring a fear of dogs.
• If a teacher crushed your spirits when you gave a speech, you started dreading public speaking.
• If some certain bastards derided your accomplishments after you kicked some booty, you started fearing success.

Your subconscious brain drives you to avoid those experiences -- in the future, again. At all costs.

What to Rid Your Brain

Think back to the fear compartment that's housed in your brain above. It's called the amygdala. If you crush that sucka, you'll likely walk up to a group of thugs and challenge them to throw down. Of course, unless you're super buff, that wouldn't be too smart: you'll get a vicious beating. So, your fear compartment houses: (1) good fears, and (2) bad fears.

• Fears that help you survive = good.
• Fears that prevent you from kicking major business ass = bad.

The latter is what you want to crush. It's the sucky roommate you want to kick out. Here's how.

How to Rid Your Brain of Bad Fears

Tell yo booty: I fear ___________________________. Then confront those fears, repeatedly. Incessantly. You created most fears from isolated incidents; the new now-more-positive experiences you gain when you confront those fears starts diluting the negative effect of them.

• If you fear public speaking, join a Toastmasters and give public speeches weekly.
• If you fear success, start generating 5 mini-successes everyday.
• If you're a nerdy programmer who fears girls, talk to five everyday.
• If you fear failure, seek plenty of 'em daily.

(Secret to seeking failure -- You'll discover: "Hey, it's a little hard to fail a lot of times a day. I'm actually doing much better than I thought! And, when I do fail, I'm learning a whole-heckuva-lot to succeed the next time-around. Yay!"

)

"But dudes, it's so hard for me to even start confronting my fears. Help!"

We hear ya. As with building a super dope business, confronting your absolute fears takes time and gradual improvement to get there. If you fear public speaking, you can't overcome the fear of speaking to 10,000 dignitaries overnight. Instead, to overcome that fear:

1. You start speaking in front of one person.
2. Then, you do it with three.
3. Then, with 10, 30, 50 and 100.
4. Then, 1000.
5. Then, you'll prime yourself for the 10,000.

If you fear sales presentations to Fortune 500s, start with small businesses. If you fear cold calling important executives in your county, start practicing your calls to friendly folks in Wyoming. Whatever you feel holds you back from your super ambitious business goals, start gradually cutting into those fears -- until you rid your amygdala of sucky stuff. You can't climb Everest with one leap. It's a sexy step-by-step process. Tell us when you kick booty.

Confront the sucka to throw down.

 

Scenario: "Yo! We'll introduce our product with a Bang! We'll splatter it across metropolitan newspapers. Billions! Give me a high-five! Yay!"

How do conventional entrepreneurs introduce their products?

It goes through a similar cycle:

1. Yo, I'm gonna build the next billion-dollar widget. Yay!
2. Entrepreneur builds product.
3. We're done building. Let's go whacko-crazy and introduce this sucka to the world!
4. Sells widgets.

What eventually happens?

1. Customer A has problem. Customer B has problem. Customer C has problem. Yadda.
2. 90% of buyers start calling and complaining. "You people suck," they scream.
3. You cash flow starts draining -- like mofo -- because of unforeseen problems.
4. Your business shuts down.

Uh-oh. There's a better way to introduce your products. Think: minor league. Oh-yeah. We'll explain.

Why a Minor League for Your New Products Rocks

We'll go all sporty on yo behind and introduce this analogy: A professional baseball team in America has two divisions: (1) major league, and (2) minor league.

• The major leagues are for the super-badasses who can rock the leather-covered ball 53278975105329702 feet.
• The minor leagues are for developing rough players into major-league-ready stars. Minor league players are good, but still need fine-tuning, developing, and -- if deemed super badasses -- promoted to the majors.

The baseball team ensures its "product" (i.e. the fan experience) continually rocks by:

1. Keeping stars in the major league spotlight of millions.
2. Not diluting the fan experience with less-than-stellar players.
3. Developing potential stars in the background when not too many people are looking, and not too many resources are invested.

Then, the inevitable: Bang! When potential stars become actual stars, teams promote them to the majors -- and invest major resources in them. Public perception: "Hey, this organization keeps on chugging out stars. I will always have a fabulous experience buying their stuff. Wowzers!" Unbeknown to them, major league teams kept their "super-awesome" brand unblemished by developing and fine-tuning those stars for the spotlight. Sexy.

"Okay. So what the @^^% does this baseball analogy have to do with my business?"

Most business-builders introduce new products without testing, fine-tuning, and refining their new products. Instead of placing the new products in the "minor leagues," those babies go into the spotlight right away. Then at the new product's inevitable first hint of suckiness -- which all new products experience, the sucker starts diluting the other fabulous products associated with the brand. Like all major league players, your future superstar needs fine-tuning in the minor leagues. Not only does that protect your brand, but that conserves your major resources by (1) seeding something first, (2) seeing if it grows, (3) then piling major resources into it if it does.

"So, how do I introduce my new products using the 'minor league' concept?"

Depending on your business, you can do it one of three ways -- though certainly not limited to these three:

• Create a stand-alone brand for it.

  If the product totally, viciously sucks -- your established brand won't suffer because of it.

• Slap a beta tag on it.

  Customers won't expect a perfect product, so mistakes won't cost you your brand's equity.

• Test with a limited number of users.

  It's the method we prefer most. Limiting access of your product to a controllable number of users gives you immediate feedback for fine-tuning -- and much more important: creates "in-the-know" evangelists. Those evangelists will spread your product to the masses once they find it "ready" for primetime.

Important note:

Not every-single-one-of-your-crazy products will ever be ready for primetime.

Testing them away from the spotlight (1) conserves resources, and (2) maintains your brand's rockin' perception -- even when you ultimately deem the product "Sucky."

"When should I promote my products to the majors?"

1. When people start raving about your product.
2. When you feel sexy about it.
3. (Don't promote it. Let your initial customers do it for you.)

Why we like ^3 more: If your product's truly kick-booty, then you won't need to promote it. Your customers will do it for you, and organically grow your business. Knowing that drives you to build a rockin' product that amazes the begeebees out of 'em. To brace your new products for primetime:

Develop the suckas in the minors.