Okay, so don't ban me, I won't really ask that question (on the other hand if you answer it, I'll listen and learn, I'm sure...).
So I read the two books and had my head spinning. I bookmarked the "Thou shalt read this first" thing, and the Things. Read the books, reviewed a bunch of GOLD and NOTABLE threads, introduced myself, searched my topic before posting (I'm interested in SAAS, right now), tried filtering by likes and followed some legendary contributors, didn't get banned (so far), and avoided locker room talk.
What? That's it? I'm still not rich! What comes next?
Okay, so I confess to digging around in the forum a bit looking for the next steps. Then it hit me. I'm action-faking! I'm looking for shortcuts!
Okay, so it's up to me. Okay, I knew that; that's why I'm here. Fine, fine. So what should I do? I guess I get to journal my journey here and hopefully, it'll spark some response from those wiser, so that's what I'll do until someone tells me to pull my head in.
Right. So that was decided upon. What pops into my head from the books is Kinetic Execution. I tend to spend 90% of the time available planning out the details, then doing the one or two things that matter. That works okay, but maybe I could cut to the chase? Just do the one or two things without blowing the 90%?
OK, so that's something I could do right away. I had the idea, partway through The Millionnaire Fastlane that I should learn to code. I already can basically program my way out of a paper bag using VBA, C++, and SQL and I have a good grasp of WordPress. I build Excel-based apps at work to speed up other peoples' stuff. I have an employee who's a full-stack developer, so I asked him for advice. He said to learn html, javascript, php, java and mySQL. So I sat down and started planning...
Okay, whoa, stop, I've been down that path before. Let's do one action until it's done, and then select another. So I started an html course which got boring, started fiddling around in WordPress, read some more, installed Xampp on my PC, finished TMF , bought Unscripted , did some W3 Schools .... oh, look, there's a squirrel!
Geez.
I just had an F-This Event about myself, not about my job.
The funny thing is, at work, I'm a strategy-and-execution MAVEN. I'm like the CPA that expertly wields billions but can't balance his chequebook. So what would I do at work?
I'd make a simple table, and choose one thing at a time to do, somewhat thusly:
|AREA |Goal |Immediate Strategy |Next Steps |Action|
Area: Business
Goal: A systematic value-creating entity helping millions of people
Immediate Strategy: After a lot of thought, I know I'm good at small business, management, and employee coaching. I also have helped people get themselves into much better jobs than they thought possible. I have documented processes I use for helping people. There has to be a way to extend my reach. For any given type of coaching, could I either automate or semi-automate the process?
N: people who are motivated to achieve more but can't afford a coach
E: to me, this is hard to build. I will have to test that. There are only a couple of other similar products out there.
C: I will build a platform/product myself. I may prototype or even beta in WordPress, but eventually I will make sure I own the product.
S: There are two scaling paths I can think of at this point. Paid subscribers using the app, and teaching other coaches to sell subscriptions. I don't like the sleazy-coach industry that teaches you to coach others to teach coaches to coach others to teach etc, etc. I call bullshit. I have experienced the power of being coached and the enjoyment of having other people achieve more than they would have without me, and anyone involved in scaling would have to pursue that too. So maybe the app would be a set of training, prompts and records, sold with 1-on-1 followup, which I could train other coaches to do. We'll see.
T - at least some part of this would work 24/7/365, whether I own it or sell it.
Next Steps: Well, I think I just talked myself into prototyping in WordPress. So what do I need to know? I like the Google Ventures design sprint approach. It goes something like this, using a team of champions and a decision maker (in my case it'll just be me, so I'll kinda paraphrase):
Next Steps: it looks like I need to map my customer journey, figure out what a prototype might look like, go through thhe 7P stuff.
Action: Okay, having done a sort of gestalt therapy on myself, I will stop jacking around with technology (today I stopped working to try to map steve.dev to xampp on localhost:81 just because it would be cool to hand someone my laptop and say, "okay, go to steve dot dev and you'll see what I mean...).
I will choose one of my coaching processes and map a hypothetical customer's journey through it going from needing help to getting help.
I will just write it in text format in Evernote and will not try to go crazy in XSOL just because my employer paid for some sick software nobody ever uses.
I will not do anything else until that is done, and then I will come back here and decide on the next step.
So I read the two books and had my head spinning. I bookmarked the "Thou shalt read this first" thing, and the Things. Read the books, reviewed a bunch of GOLD and NOTABLE threads, introduced myself, searched my topic before posting (I'm interested in SAAS, right now), tried filtering by likes and followed some legendary contributors, didn't get banned (so far), and avoided locker room talk.
What? That's it? I'm still not rich! What comes next?
Okay, so I confess to digging around in the forum a bit looking for the next steps. Then it hit me. I'm action-faking! I'm looking for shortcuts!
Okay, so it's up to me. Okay, I knew that; that's why I'm here. Fine, fine. So what should I do? I guess I get to journal my journey here and hopefully, it'll spark some response from those wiser, so that's what I'll do until someone tells me to pull my head in.
Right. So that was decided upon. What pops into my head from the books is Kinetic Execution. I tend to spend 90% of the time available planning out the details, then doing the one or two things that matter. That works okay, but maybe I could cut to the chase? Just do the one or two things without blowing the 90%?
OK, so that's something I could do right away. I had the idea, partway through The Millionnaire Fastlane that I should learn to code. I already can basically program my way out of a paper bag using VBA, C++, and SQL and I have a good grasp of WordPress. I build Excel-based apps at work to speed up other peoples' stuff. I have an employee who's a full-stack developer, so I asked him for advice. He said to learn html, javascript, php, java and mySQL. So I sat down and started planning...
Okay, whoa, stop, I've been down that path before. Let's do one action until it's done, and then select another. So I started an html course which got boring, started fiddling around in WordPress, read some more, installed Xampp on my PC, finished TMF , bought Unscripted , did some W3 Schools .... oh, look, there's a squirrel!
Geez.
I just had an F-This Event about myself, not about my job.
The funny thing is, at work, I'm a strategy-and-execution MAVEN. I'm like the CPA that expertly wields billions but can't balance his chequebook. So what would I do at work?
I'd make a simple table, and choose one thing at a time to do, somewhat thusly:
|AREA |Goal |Immediate Strategy |Next Steps |Action|
Area: Business
Goal: A systematic value-creating entity helping millions of people
Immediate Strategy: After a lot of thought, I know I'm good at small business, management, and employee coaching. I also have helped people get themselves into much better jobs than they thought possible. I have documented processes I use for helping people. There has to be a way to extend my reach. For any given type of coaching, could I either automate or semi-automate the process?
N: people who are motivated to achieve more but can't afford a coach
E: to me, this is hard to build. I will have to test that. There are only a couple of other similar products out there.
C: I will build a platform/product myself. I may prototype or even beta in WordPress, but eventually I will make sure I own the product.
S: There are two scaling paths I can think of at this point. Paid subscribers using the app, and teaching other coaches to sell subscriptions. I don't like the sleazy-coach industry that teaches you to coach others to teach coaches to coach others to teach etc, etc. I call bullshit. I have experienced the power of being coached and the enjoyment of having other people achieve more than they would have without me, and anyone involved in scaling would have to pursue that too. So maybe the app would be a set of training, prompts and records, sold with 1-on-1 followup, which I could train other coaches to do. We'll see.
T - at least some part of this would work 24/7/365, whether I own it or sell it.
Next Steps: Well, I think I just talked myself into prototyping in WordPress. So what do I need to know? I like the Google Ventures design sprint approach. It goes something like this, using a team of champions and a decision maker (in my case it'll just be me, so I'll kinda paraphrase):
Monday: Map the customer journey and figure out who the customer hypothetically is going to be
Tuesday: Brainstorm possible solutions and line up some actual prospects for a Friday demo
Wednesday: Defend each of the possible solutions, identify things that might be missing, and choose one
Thursday: build a working prototype ("working" can be a powerpoint with clickable links and dummy data, but it has to show the thing working)
Friday: Test drive with actual prospects (GV uses a camera to allow the rest of the team to observe and note reactions; I might record a video call for later review, or something)
This ties in and complements the Unscripted 7Ps of Process within the Kinetic Execution section, soalll of those things are part of my Immediate Strategy.Tuesday: Brainstorm possible solutions and line up some actual prospects for a Friday demo
Wednesday: Defend each of the possible solutions, identify things that might be missing, and choose one
Thursday: build a working prototype ("working" can be a powerpoint with clickable links and dummy data, but it has to show the thing working)
Friday: Test drive with actual prospects (GV uses a camera to allow the rest of the team to observe and note reactions; I might record a video call for later review, or something)
Next Steps: it looks like I need to map my customer journey, figure out what a prototype might look like, go through thhe 7P stuff.
Action: Okay, having done a sort of gestalt therapy on myself, I will stop jacking around with technology (today I stopped working to try to map steve.dev to xampp on localhost:81 just because it would be cool to hand someone my laptop and say, "okay, go to steve dot dev and you'll see what I mean...).
I will choose one of my coaching processes and map a hypothetical customer's journey through it going from needing help to getting help.
I will just write it in text format in Evernote and will not try to go crazy in XSOL just because my employer paid for some sick software nobody ever uses.
I will not do anything else until that is done, and then I will come back here and decide on the next step.
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum:
Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
