A Model Of Inconsistency
By Cheval John
You main goal when you are starting a business or an organization is to grow a loyal following.
When you put out great content on a consistent basis, then you are well on your way to being very successful and profitable.
However, when you are not consistent at putting out content that is really valuable for your audience, you end up losing a great following and miss out on an opportunity to gain new viewers.
And though you are already have a passionate following in a niche though you have an inconsistent model, it will be very hard to establish a footprint in a new market.
An example of this is soccer (football in the rest of the world).
Soccer is really popular all around the world and have a passionate fan base.
Look at all of the matches that takes place especially at the club levels in major leagues around the world like the 20 team English Premier League.
They are lively and excited.
You have the chance to see the best players in the world compete against each other.
You might think that each of the leagues have a set schedule for their season
Like the English Premier League goes from August to May with only 38 matches for each team.
You are expected to see the matches happen every week.
You find out that they is not a match happen at a particular week because each of the national teams are either participating in an friendly, trying to qualify for their respective federation’s competition or the World Cup.
Add on to that, there are other club competitions that are transpiring at the same time (example UEFA Champions League).
You are confused and wondering when there are going to return back to their respective domestic competition.
For the die hard fan, you are used to the changes of world competitions for soccer.
For the casual fan, that is a turnover to some degree.
That is to me the main reason why soccer will never have a strong footprint in the United States because of the constant changes in competition and really so many tournaments in soccer.
Though the Major League Soccer (MLS) is growing steadily and is profitable, they will always have a hard time in getting a footprint in the United States like baseball, basketball and American football (exception is the minority groups who are die-hard soccer fans).
The other major sports here in the U.S. has a set schedule of when their seasons are happening.
While the MLS might have to take some time off from their season due to other competitions like the Gold Cup which is happening at this very moment.
And the only time you will see a strong turnout for soccer in the United States is when the World Cup is happening.
That is every four years.
And the Women’s World Cup which just happened.
So for the casual fan, they have to really pay attention to the schedule of when the different competitions are happening.
In conclusion, if a business or organization follow soccer’s model, they will always have a difficult time growing their organization and being profitable.
Enjoy Your Business Journey To Success
By Cheval John
You have ventured out on a new endeavor.
Whether it is launching a business or starting a podcast, etc., you want your endeavors to be a huge success.
You look at your competition and see that they are doing great.
You might even see that your competition is amassing a quick following within weeks and are profitable in the process.
Your first thought is “Why They Are More Successful Than Me?”
From that thought, you start comparing your endeavors to theirs.
You will be thinking along the way that you are not good enough to succeed.
When you fall for the comparison trap, you have already failed.
You have diluted your vision of what you want your business or podcast to be and are trying to copy your competition.
When that happens, you are only following the competition and not creating your unique voice for your business.
In addition, you are failing to provide value that would benefit the people who need it.
What you should do is not focus too much on the competition because you will end up creating their vision of your business and not yours.
Also, you should check out this awesome blog post, “How To Understand Your Competitors Without Falling Into The Jealousy Trap,” by Maria Ross, founder of Red Slice.
She explain the post in depth on my podcast, “What’s The Word?” last night about how she came up with the idea of the post and also falling for the comparison trap.
It is really valid because many of us always compare ourselves to other people who are seemingly more successful than us.
I have struggled with the comparison trap a lot of times.
Even though I have achieved a whole lot of goals like having my own podcast, running my own online media company, writing two books, spending an extended period of time in Mexico and Chile, or obtaining two college degrees, I still find myself at times comparing myself to others.
We have to remember that they will always be someone better than you in a skill like business, etc.
Also, you have to understand that they had to work extremely hard to earn their way to success.
That is really not a bad thing.
It is really awesome because you can always learn from them and see what they did to achieve their success.
I could right now compare myself to Maria because she is experiencing a whole lot of success as an entrepreneur while I am aiming to be successful as an entrepreneur.
I choose not to because I understand the journey that she has experienced to be where she is at today with her business.
So if you see a someone (example celebrities, etc.) who are seemingly achieving success very quickly in their new business or podcast ventures, just remember that they had to put in years of hard work and dedication to be where they are at and establishing their audience.
That alone should make you appreciate their journey and enjoy your own business or podcasting journey to success.
Like the old saying goes, “Rome Was Not Built In A Day.”
Your Competition Is Really Your Best Friend
By Cheval John
Photo Courtesy of Phanlop88
Everyone has heard the mantra that in order to succeed, you must beat your competition.
That mentality has been around for a long time.
If someone has a successful business and are doing well, you will want to know how they did it so that you can do it better.
In this day and age, your competition will be someone different you did not expect.
Facebook became the dominant player in social media for years.
They were keeping their eye out on new technologies that would have tried to compete with them.
Then Twitter came along and gave them a run for their money.
A few years later, Pinterest and Instagram came along and have given many people options to find their customers and communicate with each other.
You should not worry too much about your competition because they will always change.
I am not saying to ignore your competition completely.
What you should do is try to learn from them and even lift them up.
Share their content on your social media channels because they are providing tremendous value for your audience.
When they see that you are willing to share their content and lift them up, they will most likely go out of their way to help you in a lot of ways.
Patty Farmer, who was one of the presenters at the inaugural Social Media Day Houston event, shared a great quote about competition.
“If you feel that you need to crush your competition, then you have a scarcity mindset. There is a customer for everyone who is in business.” #paraphrased.
This quote by Mrs. Farmer is right on the money.
When you think you need to dominate the market, you will go so far to the point that you will cross the line.
They are many examples of companies who try to use illegal means to crush their competition.
British Airways is among those companies.
They were trying to crush Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic in the late 80s because they did not like the fact that he had entered the airline industry.
They felt that Mr. Branson’s fun personality and reputation of running Virgin Records was not great for them or the airline industry.
So they used an illegal method called the “Dirty Tricks” campaign in which they would have representatives pretend to be workers of Virgin to convince passengers that their flights were canceled, or that the airline was insolvent.
The method put Branson’s airline in jeopardy as they were struggling to gain new passengers.
In an attempt to save the airline, Branson did the unthinkable.
He sold his Virgin Record label in order to save his airline, took British Airways to court and won.
As a result, British Airways had to pay for their mistakes and issue a public apology.
When you go to any means to crush your competition, you will end up losing money because of fines that you payed.
In addition, you will end up hurting your reputation which will take years to rebuild.
If you just focus on building your business and not worry too much about your competition, the right customers will come along.
Plus, your competition will end up becoming your ally in the long run because you are willing to lift them up and not tear them down.
Your competition will even push you to be better and make you a better person.
Isn’t that what competition is all about?
What are your thoughts on competition?
Leaving A Legacy For Your Readers
by Cheval John
Everyone wants to be remembered for the great work that they do.
They are determined to find the calling that will set them up to be in the position to leave a legacy.
That is why when they first set out on their first career, they feel that they are in the right calling for their life.
Things will be going well for a while until they have that pivotal realization that they are not in the right career.
Most of the time, the realization of being in the wrong career happens in their 40s and they suffer a mid-life crisis.
While some realize that they are not in their right careers in their mid-twenties.
The good news is that it is never too late to change careers.
Ken Dunn was very fortunate to come to the epiphany that he was not in the right career.
He spent fourteen years as a police officer doing private investigative work.
Though he was “enjoying” his work as a police officer, he knew that they was a bigger calling for him to leave his mark on the world.
He ventured into the entrepreneurial world and in the process had a seven figure business.
He then wanted to share his experience of running a business and had written his first book.
He went and found a publisher and a marketer who had claimed that they would be able to get his book to best-seller list as he explained to me in the interview on my podcast, What’s The Word?. #paraphrased
So he spent the $80,000 that they were charging.
Unfortunately, the book did not achieved best-seller list and they were a whole lot of errors.
That bad experience with a publisher led him to do more research in the world of publishing and led to his company “Next Century Publishing” which he rebranded it into the Reader’s Legacy Inc.
The company has been very successful over the years because it is almost like a social media site.
Meaning that the author has their own page and they can interact with their fans on a consistent basis.
It is like the Twitter of book promotion.
Because of this innovative way to market your books, he received a lot of media attention from the likes of Fox News, Entrepreneur.com and the Huffington Post.
Plus he recently held the first annual Reader’s Legacy Choice Awards held last month with speakers like Dorie Clark, Kimanzi Constable and Shannon O’Keeffe.
You can say that he has found his true calling and is leaving a legacy for the next generation of authors.
By the way, he relauched his first book into best-seller’s status and has written four other books as well.
So if you feel that it is too late to change course in your true career, don’t give up hope.
Eventually your true career will find you and you will be destined to leave a great legacy that will make the world a better place.
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