The Lizard King’s Social Strategy
Copyblogger‘s Brian Clark today posted an interesting story about how The Doors instituted a social strategy—inviting all their friends to L.A.’s London Fog for an audition set—to make them look mega popular. Management was impressed and booked The Doors as their house band, but *gulp* no one showed for consecutive shows. At least, at first.
Mixing a Clear Vision with Agility
One of the sessions I enjoyed at SXSW this year was Jason Fried‘s talk on Stuff We’ve Learned at 37signals. As expected, Jason stressed simplicity, efficiency, and sustainability (in the form of fee-based software). He talked about not planning too far ahead, and being flexible as your business evolves. It reminded me of a challenge a lot of entrepreneurs seem to have: maintaining a rigid focus on a clear vision for their business while at the same time being nimble enough to react to the market and course-correct as needed.
Run Your Startup Like a Poker Pro
The best poker players are great at thinking on the margin. They completely forget about pocket Jacks when the flop is Ace, King, Queen (though it wouldn’t take a pro to lay down that hand).
You should have the same mindset about your startup. You should be getting your money in when the odds are in your favor and check or fold when they aren’t.
Bad card players chase. They get behind and start to make bad decisions hoping to recoup their losses. This same behavior can be seen in entrepreneurs and it’s completely understandable – they’ve put their lives and passion into a vision.
If you want to be a great entrepreneur though, you’ll have to learn to think like the pros. Remember, you make money by playing well over many hands, not by throwing all of your chips in on a risky bet.
An Agile Approach to Content Saves Stress (and Money!)
I have a hard time understanding why clients stress about writing content. (I’m a writer, so it’s my passion. Sue me. Please don’t.) To others, it can be overwhelming and intimidating knowing each piece of copy must appeal to users AND to stakeholders approving that language.
Ok, I get it.
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Growing a Community is like Surviving in the Wilderness
Hopefully, most have learned better by now. A successful community effort is, first of all, grown, not built. This isn't Field of Dreams. Instead, you need to lay the groundwork and then spend the time, effort, and attention necessary to help things catch on. Kevin Vigneault and I have talked about this a few times, and we've settled on the analogy that growing a community is like starting a fire in the wilderness. It's the middle of nowhere, you don't have a flint or a lighter, and you need to get a fire going.
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