IceCreamKid
With Great Power Comes Great Electricity Bill
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
If I had to start again, I probably would embrace marketing sooner. For years I was too negative on marketing. I used to say "oh wow that stuff is awful and cheesy" when I would see internet sales pages in my industry. Word of mouth was great for a while, but when it slowed down, I had no marketing infrastructure to fall back on, so I had to build it 7 years in.
Damn man, I walked that exact same route too.
If I were to do it all over again, I'd become a hardcore student of marketing before anything else. Back in the day I'd say stuff like, "If I could just get that one idea, I'd make millions". I find myself far more marketing focused than ever before.
Likwid's paintbrush cover is the perfect example of how marketing is king. There is a clone of his product in stores. The clone made it into stores months before Likwid's product. As far as I can tell they serve the same purpose. Same value. Yet Likwid's is far outselling the other. The difference? Marketing.
You can have the greatest product/service in the world that provides immense value, but if you don't have a good way of communicating that value then the business is destined for failure.
Other lessons I've learned...
1. Stop consuming content that you do not need TODAY. Again, only read something if you can take action on it TODAY.
2. Routines and rituals forge a mighty sword. Commit to X number of hours of action per day and TRACK it to make sure you don't sway from that.
3. Learn to be very aware of your emotions and how they might be sabotaging your momentum.
4. Go all in. I'm not saying to work 22 hours a day on your project, but make the conscious decision that you will turn every stone and try every option before considering a project dead.
5. Enjoy yourself. Do what you want.