Quit now while you still can.
Step 2. Read as much as you can and scribble on it.
AWESOMENESS METHODOLOGY - Step 2 is the easiest part - read. Read more. Read even more. I can attribute a huge part of my success to my reading. Reading is the only way to get close to enough people who've made it already. Reading is the only way to get multiple points of view from the best in business. Reading is the only way to get motivated by the greats.
I hated reading. Hated it - it was so slow and pointless. Now I love reading. Want my secret?
Don't waste your time reading lies. That's my word for fiction. The 'lies' section of the book shop. No, you want the 'non-lies' section of the bookshop. You want the biographies, memoirs, visions, advice of amazingly inspirational people in this world.
Only read books written by or with contributions from people who've actually achieved something. Don't read books by generic researchers - e.g. "How to win deals by A.Anon"... instead read "No B.S. Sales Success: The Ultimate No Holds Barred, Kick Butt, Take No Prisoners, Tough and Spirited Guide by Self-Made Millionaire Dan Kennedy". Don't read "Passion To Profits by A.Anon" instead read "How To Get Rich by self-made almost Billionaire". Don't read "Business the Richard Branson Way by A.Anon", instead read "Screw It, Let's Do It: 14 Lessons on Making It to the Top While Having Fun by self-made Billionaire Richard Branson".
Refuse to use libraries. Buy your books - it's the same concept at work as owning the expensive note book. Make yourself a library and re-read the best ones. Even better - lend them to other people regularly.
Always read with a pen in one hand. Take a pen and scribble on your book. Scribble all over your books. The more scribbles the more value you got from the book - and it makes it easy to re-read quickly later. Underline things. Mark out paragraphs. Star things. Write your thoughts on how you can apply an idea to your life in the margins. Own that book. It should look used when you're done - not crisp.
There is only one way I can enthuse myself to read in quantities - without this method I move very very slowly through a book. The old 5 pages a night method will kill the point of the book - you will be unable to piece the method together. Read the book in big chunks, minimum 1 chapter (a concept) in one go. Trains & planes are great.
Keep a wish list and buy books in batches of 5. There will always be one you want to read most - place this one at the bottom of the pile. Place the pile beside your bed or on your coffee table and get started working your way through the books one by one. When you start the last book - buy another 5.
Read voraciously. Guy Kawasaki said that to me first in his book - my point made?
Posted on March 11, 2010
Step 1. Buy an expensive Note Book.
When I was studying engineering, I wrote thousands of pages out on A4 pad's. Thousands of messy scribbles. Thousands of diagrams. Thousands of equations. Because I was writing in bulk, and on cheap unlimited supply paper - I did not care about what I was writing down. Apart from having to peek for the exam - I certainly would never cherish that ugly mess.
Only write on expensive paper. I only write on expensive notepads now - in particular Moleskine. Why? because it makes me think about what I am writing. I want the result to be a beautiful read - I want to enjoy reading back my notes I write. I write in bullet points about the books I've read, the successes I've had, the meetings I've had, or the tasks I have to complete. Whenever I hear of a great idea, I write that down too. Whenever I have an idea - I write that down with a big star beside it.
Read back your notebook - traditionally on flights. I love having that hour time-out, when my electronics/comms are off, to just sit with a bad coffee and my great notebook and re-read it. The other great place is at the end of an epic day - go for a pint by yourself, and reflect on the last few weeks. I have one particular page where I have listed characteristics I want to achieve - and sometimes I'll bullet point a progress report on how I'm doing on them.
Summary: The more expensive your note book is, the more love, and care, and thought, and time you'll put into it. Every word has to be "worth it".
Posted on March 8, 2010
The Awesomeness Methodology
AWESOMENESS METHODOLOGY - I'm often asked how I came up with such an awesome idea for Decisions For Heroes. Can you believe, most people actually call it "Awesome". So when I was asked to speak about something interesting at a TEDx in Ireland, I decided that I would research awesomeness - what does being awesome mean, and how can we replicate it. I'm going to bring you the result here to robinblandford.com - my Awesomeness Methodology over the next few weeks.
Let's start with what does awesome mean? Well straight up it means you are in 'awe' of it, or as g:define tells us, "an overwhelming feeling of wonder or admiration", "an emotion comparable to wonder but less joyous, and more fearful or respectful", "causing awe or terror; inspiring wonder or excitement; excellent, exciting, remarkable", "to control by inspiring dread", "Adult Webmaster Empire (AWE) is a live webcam affiliate program" hmmmm.
My favourite definition of ''awesomeness' comes from Umair Haque - who promotes that awesomeness is the new innovation, that today "we've got an economy where everything's for sale. Yet, little fundamentally new is being created", that we "we are focused still on selling the same old toxic, industrial era junk in slightly better ways". We need to learn to create fundamentally better stuff in the first place. Umair continues "Beancounters feel challenged and threatened by [Awesomeness], because it feels fuzzy and imprecise. Yet, it's anything but. Gen M knows 'awesomeness' when we see it — that's why its part of our vernacular. It's a precise concept, with meaning, depth, and resonance."
Let's look at his definition:
Awesomeness happens when thick — real, meaningful — value is created by people who love what they do, added to insanely great stuff, and multiplied by communities who are delighted and inspired because they are authentically better off.
So to achieve awesomeness, we need an idea that people will love what they do (rescue - some people even do it as a hobby, donate to it, have emotion to it), we need to make some insanely great stuff (my passion for implementing digital media - and my ability as a finisher), and we need to multiply that by communities (I'm part of that rescue community already - let's amplify that), and we're making people authentically better off (saving lives).
Next up is 'Step 1. Buy an Expensive Notebook' on the journey reaching this point and the methodology behind it. Then I'll go into some detail on thick and thin value I've noted.
Comments please.
The Heart of Marketing
CAMBRIDGE, UK - Every business needs a marketing engine - without one you would have no revenue, no new customers, and after a while your current customers would unsubscribe. Decisions For Heroes has a very distinct marketing heart that we have developed over the last few months. This is how we move people from leads to the heart of our marketing engine "The Repeat Customer" - the very centre of our world. This is where we want people.
It's not about 'being marketed to' - that's not how it works. It's about us having relationships with people, making sure there's as much love as possible between us - that we know them well, and they know us even better. People do not enter this process as a number and get processed through a faceless system - rather it's how we categorise groups of people at each stage, to make sure they're receiving a level of love we're both comfortable with. Danger: Do not over-love someone too early.
Once we have a lead (in green), we start think of them as suspects, first we make sure they are 'Aware' of us - that we exist. Now we suspect we might like each other, is this unrequited love? Maybe we love the idea of having them on-board or vice versa but it wouldn't be good for either of us. At this stage we have a free trial to offer anyone we think fancies us to try and move them to the next category.
Now they're a prospect. We are prospecting each other - they'd like a bit of us, we'd like a bit of them. The question mark here signifies we need more work to go into this phase - we don't have a whole amount of standardised material to share - it's all individual emails and phone calls to move them up to Champion.
We've fallen in love. Champions are our internal lovers - our secret affairs. People who we're now in a relationship with, but the rest of their group isn't so sure. At this point we have fundraising and finance documents to make the internal sale to their board easier. We also have lots of business case material, to make that jump to a nod to go ahead as easy as possible. We'd like to add more tools here as it's the biggest step. We're currently playing with presentations and print-outs that can be downloaded and distributed locally.
The verbal agreement is like our engagement, we're officially a couple. If everything goes well there will be wedding bells in the near future. The question mark here is to show we'd like more payment options such as local direct debits to make this phase easier. A finance document explaining how billing would work would be a nice extra.
I do. That's it, we're married. On payment we send out a lovely welcome pack to each of our teams. It includes some nice t-shirts and some other goodies for the team. We're trying to signify we're not here for your money - we're here for the long haul - lets keep this relationship burning brightly.
Ahh, now we're living together, how's it feel? As our entire existence is paramount on trust, happiness, and love - repeat monthly subscriptions - it is absolutely key we stay in love. .Our repeat customers receive fantastic support, three personal check-ins a year to make sure everything is ok, on-going live video webinars, tips newsletters, and most importantly become part of the feedback process to choose the new features - which we always deliver to exceed expectations.
The concept of the Heart Of Marketing diagram was adapted for us by inspiration taken from Behind The Cloud by Marc Benioff, Salesforce.
D€bt fr€€? Stay debt free.
CAMBRIDGE, UK - his is my advice to anyone who wants their own business and is still debt free - stay that way. Debt traps you in menial jobs, in careers you don't **really** want. Debt bonds you to the 9-5 rat race and 25 days 'leave' a year (what is 'leave' anyway, you get 'permission to leave'... let's move beyond the industrial era! ). You're trapped because you can't afford to leave it. Those direct debits keep on coming. Avoid loans, build up a cash reserve - **be your own bank**. Stay flexible and light with your footprint. Be ready to pounce, ready to fight, ready to move on any opportunity, at any moment. Why? Because when the time comes - when you get your dupree moment, you'll need to cut your costs to zero. Zero. Fast. The lower your costs, the more possibilities, the more opportunities, the longer the runway - hence the bigger the plane. (Image Credit: Hugh MacLeod illustrates Seth Godin's Lynchpin)
Posted on February 20, 2010
2010 Rebranded, Relocated, Renamed.
CAMBRIDGE, UK - I've moved this blog off the company domain to the new robinblandford.com. It's a bit of a new start as I was neglecting the old blog, getting sick of doing Wordpress updates, and tired of traffic taking the server down. This blog is now called "Creating Contagious Enthusiasm" and boy are we going to create some on here over the next few months! On the same note: The business is now doing awesome - I'm really really please with the last month.
(Photo Credit: Author Sipping Gluhwein at a couple 1000m in the Swiss Alps over Christmas.)
Posted on February 19, 2010
2009, ding ding ding.
DUBLIN, IRELAND - I take great joy in reviewing things these days. Calling an end to a chapter, working out what size box I need to put it in. Analysing the good, the bad, and how I'd approach it again. It's become an annual thing for my headspace to review the year-end on this blog.
2008 was AWESOME beyond belief. But Keith Bohanna told me 2008 does not stand a chance against 2009... and, he was right. If 2008's theme was travel, 2009's theme was business foundations...
Pretty much everything I did this year centred on building business, building understanding of our needs, thinking big. I've learned to think BIG. This time last year I would have suggested to you we had a nice little niche product for search & rescue teams. This year I'm telling you we have a product that will be used by governments to save more lives, make rescuers safer, and give tighter budget control, in all aspects of rescue - fire, air ambulances, oil rigs, sheriff depts, coast guard, you name it.
Here's my year...
Selected as training officer for my local Coast Guard rescue unit.
Ski Trip no 1. Skiing in French Alps with great friends.
Getting to pitch my business at Future of Web Apps Dublin. Big moment for me!
Built an awesome assault course for the local scout troop.
Our team of 4 from the East Coast region was awarded 2nd place at the Irish Joint Search & Rescue Games (JSAR).
Ski Trip no. 2. I got to be part of the Outsider Magazine Winter Ski Shoot, I'm in bright green!
19th May 2009 we had the official public launch of Decisions For Heroes. Here is our site. It is awesome and still holding up.
I got to fly a plane for my birthday! Awesome! Thanks Aoife!
I was developing code very hard. We dropped Google Maps and went with Microsoft Bing. We launched a huge number of new features in 2009, which you can catch up with on our blog.
I got to meet the Commandant of the United States Coast Guard on his Irish trip. Very nice!
I got to fly from Dublin airport to Arklow return in one of the Irish Coast Guard Search & Rescue helicopters.
I became a Search Group Leader with the Centre for Search Research.
I was qualified as 'Search Management Initial Response Commander' by the Emergency Response Institute, Canada.
Decisions For Heroes wins €10,000 in the iQ Prize. Nice!
I was lent a narrow-boat for a week on the Oxfordshire Canal. Thanks Phil!
Donnchadh left the RNLI and started working with me to lead our contact with Search & Rescue Teams.
We win the Most Innovative Website in Ireland. Bonus! (Thanks Eamonn for the representation on the night!).
Lots of inter-agency working with Civil Defense and Skerries and Drogheda Coast Guard.
We did our first trade show! The first physical presence of Decisions For Heroes at the Irish Civil Defence Officers Conference.
I pitch Decisions For Heroes at the EU Headquarters in Brussels as a solution for emergency readiness. Big pitch. We get accepted onto a proposal for a security framework.
Organised a joint training exercise with St John's Ambulance.
Moved to Cambridge UK. Set up the business in BeginSpace on the main street.
Pitched D4H at the Cambridge Tech-Meetup to a crowd of UK techies. Great reaction.
We got a huge load of press. Long may it continue!
I'm interviewed on TV3, national television.
We exhibited (thanks to SARAID!) at the Emergency Services Show 2009. This was big. Very big! We got ourselves proper pop-ups and branding, and everything else needed for a physical presence upgrade.
I get conferred with a Post-Graduate Diploma in New Business Development from DIT for my work on Decisions For Heroes.
Our teams start to send us in photos of themselves using Decisions For Heroes in the field. Seen here at the Indonesian earthquake.
Our paying customers start to receive welcome packs.
Organised a joint training exercise on remote technical rescue.
Qualified as a Level 2 Merit rescue climber with the Irish Coast Guard.
We launched our Facebook Fan Page. Facebook continues to be our no 1 source of leads to spread D4H. This is another part of us pushing the boundaries on that.
And with 1 day of the year left - I slipped in Ski Trip no. 3! I short 2 days on the Swiss Alps to meet old friends who I used to workj with out there.
So...
The Good, The Bad, The What Would I do Different.
The Good - the year rocked. Just scroll up! Lots of rescue team interaction.
The Bad - think big quicker. For too long, I thought small.
The Different - we are now thinking BIG. Ignore the little ones. Go BIG or go home. Playtime is over.
Trends should build a business, not be the business.
CAMBRIDGE, UK - I feel I'm pounding my head against the wall on this one.
Never base your entire business and product distribution on solving the problem of a single internet company.
This should only be used if your business model is to get bought out by that internet company, and you're in a strong position to be bought.
The great thing about the internet is it's flexible. But this flexibility means fast change. It means that unlike physical businesses they can change rules and access fast. Your business can be blocked out overnight.
I've tried to find a few examples.
1/ If you offer an IKEA assembly service (me hole!), chances are that store isn't going anywhere overnight - if their profits are booming, so are yours. If they launch their own assembly service, they can't block you from doing it too. If they shut shop, another self-assembly company will replace them. If your business model works, you could claim to be pretty safe. Here you are solving the problem of self-assembly furniture, you're not solving the problem of IKEA.
2/ Now, if your business is based on doing some API trickery to help people only on Facebook, or only on Twitter, or only on the iPhone do something, you are solving the problem for Facebook, Twitter, and Apple. This is like being the self assembly company, but every time you want to assemble a piece of furniture you have to rent a special screwdriver from IKEA and return it right-after. Would you start a business based on that? Would you take that risk that IKEA might stop you one day?
This news today is a great example of what is to come for many of these companies. See ya. Buh Bye.
All of these hooks into these tools should be used as quick wins or to build a business, not be the business. It's critical to surf the trends, not swim in them. There is a big difference between being a business and being a feature.
Look & Taste is a good example. They launched a great iPhone App to build their business. If Apple pull the plug or lock-down a feature, they've still got their business and they'll find another route to market.
Qwitter launched Contrast onto the international stage, gaining them speaking opportunities and new clients for their business. The job here is done, Twitter blocking them or not.
-Robin.
Posted on October 27, 2009
Global Sustainable Unmet Market Need
The later you decide to become an entrepreneur and begin a start-up, the more assets you have gathered in life. The risk becomes much higher - investors will suddenly expect you to have these assets on the line if theirs are too.Shamus also quoted Jack Lang of Judge Business School as always applying this filter to every idea. Does it meet an...
Global Sustainable Unmet Market NeedEvery word there is important. Global - Is the market big enough? It's got to scale big to be big money. Sustainable - Is the market here for a while? Selling something that is temporary, kills itself, or doesn't add real value is not good. Unmet - Is this a blue or red ocean? Are there competitors in this market, who have already met the product need? Market - There has to be a market for this. That means people have to be willing to pay money in exchange for it it. Great idea, no money, no market. Need - People have to need it. No point in a product that solves an need that people don't have. (I'm going to write about needs and wants later - it's another of my hot topics at the moment.) On a note behind Cambridge University Entrepreneurs, the evening was as expected students dressed in suits calling each other 'their colleague'. Ahhh wonderful pomp. As I attended as an unregistered guest, at the last minute - dressed in jeans, rugby shirt, and fleece top - I still managed to circle the room and meet some fantastic people. I even managed to spill a glass of red wine down the back of the legs of one of the Cambridge Angels, bonus. Cambridge really does have a lot of business and technical and talent. Unlike anything I've every seen, there are lots of PhD, MBA, and Master students offering their abilities to get interesting project work both paid and unpaid. -Robin.
Posted on October 15, 2009
