Entrepreneurship

The Problem with Infrequency

~ Don Dalrymple ~ Leave a comment

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How do you know the price of something?

Ultimately, it’s an agreement between the seller and buyer. You don’t have to pay the price. You could go elsewhere and get what you want cheaper. Or you could forego what you want if it’s not a need.

Buyers are at a disadvantage on infrequent items. If you only buy a home every seven years, are you calibrated to the pricing and all the fees along the way? Something you do once every seven years compared to sellers along the way that do dozens or hundreds of deals a month makes them an expert and you an amateur.

The same goes for the infrequency of buying a car, college tuition, health care, and a number of items that we run across in life’s journey and demands.

On frequent items like gas, cell phone service and eggs, it’s easy to dial into the price. You see it, touch it and interact with the pricing so much that there is less of a debate between the buyer and the seller.

It’s interesting to watch people get more excited about a 20 cent raise in gas prices and miss the upswing of university rates. We pay attention to things we frequent more easily.

Perhaps being scarce in attention can help you lever up as a seller. Your service could morph or integrate with other offerings. Or you could work in an innovative, infrequent purchase area to have more pull on pricing.

You could also be a price-focused hustler lowering your operational and delivery costs so that the language of price becomes collaborative with your buyers while you move the cost needle down.

Infrequency has its rewards for sellers and finding a game where you can assign pricing based on that value and advantage might be worth exploring in this vast, hyper-competitive marketplace.

A Year’s Worth of Living

~ Don Dalrymple ~ 2 Comments

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I got to see an unbelievable human being last night with my family, Alex Honnold. If you have not gotten to see some of his work climbing daunting mountain faces, including being the only person to free solo climb Yosemite’s El Capitan simply with his shoes and a chalk bag, be sure to catch his incredible feat on Youtube:

One of the reasons I love living in the mountains is the accessibility of the outdoors and spirit of mountain people. We are always doing something fun and always living with adventure.

Honnold shared his recent trips out to Kenya and climbing Mt. Poi in the North Face Speaker Series. We saw him vomiting climbing Mt. Kenya at over 17,000 feet with his friends. And he had that wonderful perspective,

You get to have a year’s worth of living in two or three weeks.

He had that intentionality and freedom which gets all of us onlookers and fans dreaming bigger. So inspiring and true to hear how he has lived his life and pushed himself.

I’m not sure any of us can get away with excuses on being stuck in the doldrums of life, not when there are people like Alex Honnold out there exploring, pushing and challenging themselves.

Playing it safe, checking off time until we die, doing the known things – these can all be comfortable. Yet there’s a crazy, alluring and adventurous life out there waiting to be opened if we simply make choices to get out of our comfort zones.

With 8 billion people on this giant earth, I’m glad we have those that push the limits and help us dream. Total respect and kudos to a young man that has done unthinkable things and lives fully. It’s got me stoked for sure.

Avoidance is Not a Skill

~ Don Dalrymple ~ Leave a comment

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Are you comfortable with confrontation? Have you ever thought that the ability and willingness to be confrontational can be a differentiator?

I think when Thoreau observed that, “Most men live lives of quiet desperation,” he was commenting on their inability to confront reality, situations and people when they would be served well.

And in our indoctrinated, secular humanistic culture, we are continually pushed towards a form of tolerance that causes individuals to lose conviction. When there’s the trade between truth and tolerance, our culture overvalues the latter.

Tolerance can confuse people and makes avoidance a default action. Instead of talking about something important or addressing issues before they snowball, we lack the guts to push into something when it is required.

I think you get much better results when you are clear, know what you want and bring up discussions at the right time. Playing in the shadows and avoiding hard things when they need to be dealt with or surfaced won’t get you very far.

At the end of the day, the truth will be validated by the results you see and get. If you see a pattern and abundance of positive results, then keep going. If you are not seeing results or find yourself frustrated, then if you want more, you have to change approaches.

I can’t read people’s minds, nor do I care to. I want to talk about issues at the forefront so we can solve problems in a timely and efficient way. That requires candor and confrontation. And I’m comfortable with those interactions. It’s a form of leadership.

The great thing is that if you find yourself avoiding issues, when they need to be dealt with or presented, you always have the opportunity to lead. No one is stopping you. It’s risk. But it’s also rewarding, and it’s how people enjoy more results in their lives.

Do you avoid confrontation? Why?

Forget Being Well-Rounded

~ Don Dalrymple ~ Leave a comment

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I see people every day in business lost on what they should or can do. The old rules where you were a good boy or girl and advanced up a ladder doesn’t play out much today. You can’t simply rest on your laurels and hope someone notices enough to develop a career path for you.

In addition, we have this amazing world of access. You can find out what opportunities exist, and get transparency into jobs far away with ventures of all sizes and shapes. And if you research, investigate and talk to people, you see less of a correlation between formal education and credentials to the jobs that they take on. People are continually reinventing themselves because of necessity.

One strategy for talent has been to be well-rounded. Learning and doing a lot without focusing too much in one area was a conventional approach.

The problem is that you are competing against the world now. Someone looking for talent can find that person who is sharp, not well- rounded.  Sharp skills in areas are desirable because we have the options to keep finding what we are looking for out there readily and we want execution.

We pay disproportionately for top golfers vs. mediocre talent. Same goes for executives that have a special skill or all that cream we see rising to the top.

I think in a flatter world that moves extremely fast, you should forget about being well-rounded. Its better to be sharp and be extremely good at those chosen areas where your competition can’t touch you. It’s a way of standing out and letting your beacon of talent distinguish you when people are looking for solutions that get results fast.

If you find the carpet pulled out from under your feet, or if you can anticipate your comfortable position changing in the next year or so, then how about getting sharper in an area?

  1. Take an inventory of all the things you like to do.
  2. Pick one to move your skills, knowledge and ability to the next level.
  3. Find projects and customers that will pay for this one talent now. Do the research where to find them and put your shingle out.
  4. Execute.
  5. Promote your work.

Get that reputation that you stand out and are sharp in an area.

I’m not sure people have much choice otherwise in a hypercompetitive, accessible world of options. It beats obscurity.

Steve Martin Taught Me to Think 9 Lives

~ Don Dalrymple ~ 2 Comments

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I grew up watching Steve Martin as The Jerk, a Dirty Rotten Scoundrel, Roxanne, Father of the Bride and a traveler in Planes, Trains and Automobiles. He has that brilliant wit and timing that has made us roll over in laughter for decades and I couldn’t believe he was still performing at 71.

That’s a night pic at the Starlight Theater in Kansas City and Steve Martin has been ripping bluegrass on the banjo. He played with Steep Canyon Rangers in several sets and then spun off on a combination of humor and solo picking.

At 71 he shared all his accumulated talents as an entertainer and we were simply enthralled. The reflections on life and career with his friend, Martin Short, made for laughs and delights as we watched them use sarcasm and underhanded humor to shine a light on each other’s accomplishments.

I kept thinking how lucky I was to sit and behold a life’s worth of mastery in so many areas. He truly kept reinventing himself. Sometimes, there were roles to fill. Other times, there was simply curiosity and passion leading Steve Martin to the next thing.

Not a lot of people want to change or explore as much, but with how the world is continually moving on a blistering pace, we don’t have much choice. The things we are doing today matter little in the future that is relentlessly put on us.

But, I do think there are more than inspiring lessons that Steve Martin shares. I think you can find his upcoming shows at stevemartin.com. Here are some thoughts I took away:

  1. Keep expanding your core. Humor and wit were Steve Martin’s core talent. He started there young and went to stand-up, movies, and any other outlet to express his art. He practiced and refined his core talent relentlessly and made that his springboard to opportunities.
  2. Package and repackage. Movies require a certain approach. So do stand-up comedy routines, partnering, music and juggling displays. Ultimately, storytelling within the context of the medium makes for new artistic expressions. There’s always new ways to present your talent.
  3. Live out your 9 lives. If you try a lot of things there are going to be flops. That’s expected and ok. What you are doing today will not necessarily be the same thing you do in a year. Keep exploring and expanding.
  4. Stay tuned in. Though Steve Martin is old, he uses Twitter and other social media. He creates and distributes. He teams up with Martin Short and puts together a baseline theme that reflects on the past rather than is contemporary in content. He’s tuned into himself and where he is at and the world around him and what is available to use.
  5. Remember where you came from. Your baseline are the hard times, struggles and lessons that got you down the road. Go back to them to remain humble and keep thinking bigger by knowing you can always do it again.

If you get a chance to see his show, I would highly recommend it. He’s a treat to the world. I’m glad I got to see a history of work in the flesh and learn some great lessons about 9 lives.

I Want to Grow Opportunities with Apps

~ Don Dalrymple ~ Leave a comment

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I saw this recent statistic to date for number of apps for my Apple devices at 2.2 million and 2.8 million for Google Play! It blows my mind how much technology is available for every average person out there with a thought and a click. We got here fast.

When you look at these numbers, do you think creating one more app will be much value? How would you get through all the noise to even be noticed? You might find a micro niche that has been undiscovered. Or you could try and unseat a current app leader in a category. Tough game either way to bet on, especially when the proposition of free or $0.99 apps are expected. We’re app snobs these days and want extreme power with no cost.

But you could take a look at the bigger picture. Much like electricity is a commodity that we don’t give much thought towards, apps have come to be a sort of utility. We use them for travel, productivity, banking, entertainment and many other uses.

How do you grow opportunities with all these apps, however? What if you want to produce rather than consume? The use case for this supercomputer in your pocket can surely go far beyond checking out or checking in.

If you want to grow opportunities with apps, here are some ideas and strategies that gets you thinking about the game of increase:

  1. Networking. If you extend your inbox to include participating in forums or Quora, you can play a game every day. Give a great idea or connection every day. See if you can be a matchmaker and make new friends by giving substantive value. Push your mind and creativity. See if that translates to deal making.
  2. Build teams. Start a project that has a money-making goal. Keep it small. Use an app to add people to the conversation and actions. Move the ball forward with leadership and project management. See if you can set the next steps forward using distributed talent around the globe. You’ll have picked up the skill of managing virtual teams. You might consider Basecamp, Slack or Upwork to drive this initiative and make an ROI the goal.
  3. Curate. If you keep tabs on trends, products, food, technology or other natural interests, find a way to make a daily post on a platform. See if you can turn that into a transaction. Work with those vendors you respect. Become a trusted, curated resource. Build relationships with your audience and your product vendors to find where the deal making lies.
  4. Encourage. Life is tough and most people are carrying around a lot of worries, concerns and problems. Use an app that would facilitate the process of encouragement. Find inspirations, apt quotes, solutions and answers that would help people. Make it easy for yourself to connect the encouragement with the person that needs it.

You are not going to have a million apps on your device. But you can think about what you are doing with your time and attention and think a bit bigger than mere consumption. What if you could turn that powerful middleware someone created and get resourceful to turn the tech into opportunity building? It starts with a purpose.

Creativity Not Productivity

~ Don Dalrymple ~ Leave a comment

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We had this age of efficiency and continuous improvement for a long time. When the Japanese were destroying us in the auto industry with better quality cars we buckled down and hyper focused on quality. It worked. ISO standards, Deming Cycles and Six Sigma drove quality to new standards, and we produced a generation of managers that ensured statistical quality for the masses.

There’s money to be made in efficiency for sure. I enjoyed conversations recently with an executive friend at UPS who shared the relentless focus UPS has on logistics and using unmanned vehicles and drones in their R&D. They are in the efficiency business, and both workforce productivity and the market demand for immediacy are driving their initiatives. We, as consumers, get to partake in what will be a surreal future of fulfillment based on our whimsical desires. The speed, precision and customization are being worked on while we consume from our mobile on-demand lives anytime, anywhere.

I think the business of productivity and efficiency fit well for enterprises that can move the needle in our lives from a mass perspective. They are productivity behemoths and get rewarded for consolidating around this value proposition.

However, there are many more slots to fill for customers that go beyond productivity. As humans, we still want to consume creativity. That boutique hotel experience or the out of the box retreat attracts us in a way that relieves our tired minds from consumerism, efficiency and boring.

If you are in the productivity business, keep pushing the bounds of faster, cheaper and efficient. That’s the value the market expects.

For all other endeavors, your creativity, not necessarily your productivity, will have a larger impact on selling and being relevant. The ideas you are able to generate and implement will be the differentiator in such a ridiculously competitive world.

I had a friend recently say, “Stay in the mess.” He was talking about the complexities of IT problems he is involved with that AI has not touched yet. We were talking about how that will likely change with deep learning technology that is continuously pushing the envelope.

Today’s mess is not necessarily going to remain hard or obscure.

And the challenge becomes looking for new messes using the efficiencies, tools and platforms that productivity has solved for our creative benefit.

I am not sure what the future beholds in business. But I do see, from the front lines, how those who are creative stand out. Getting in the mess where strategy, forward thinking and the ability to connect the dots tends to gain trust, respect and relationship gets rewarded.

Simply trying to make efficient things more efficient has marginal value.

If you are not productive at this point, you may be fighting an uphill battle. Give it up and do what you can. There’s already consolidated and large leverage players that accomplish productivity far better than you. Partner with them.

It’s a far better strategy to invest in creativity. Find a new angle. Straddle multiple industries and blend those ideas into a new approach. Take some time to get above the fray and see the forest from the trees. You’ll add a lot more value in today’s world being a creative resource that can make ideas happen quickly. Oh, and you don’t have to be frenetic. You just have to commit to being insightful, strategic and creative.

A Little Strategy Please

~ Don Dalrymple ~ Leave a comment

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Any fool can muster up motivation and go for it. You may finally want to act on an idea or make your business work more efficiently in a moment of inspiration.

However, acting simply on emotion and motivation without thinking through options, strategies and ideas can get costly and wasteful. It’s a loser’s mindset.

Doing a bit of upfront thinking about the problems you want to solve – make more money, building stronger relationships, growing a team, being more efficient – can save you heartaches and headaches. Thinking, not hard work, has a lot of cost avoidance.

We have this immense advantage of living in a world where all the pieces are either already invented or able to be put together to solve our problems. We have too much, not too little.

And what you want out of life and business is all there for the taking. Nobody is going to hand you a solution, however. You have to think a little and get clear on:

  1. What you want
  2. Wanting it
  3. Designing the solution
  4. Working the design

A little strategy and thinking can keep you from working on the wrong solution or limiting yourself to an inferior option. There are so many options available.

So, are you hating your job like the 70% of other Americans out there? Yet there are millions of jobs and you merely have one. What about doing a bit of thinking and getting clear on what you want, overcome what is holding you back and find the options that fit you? Then act.

What about being stuck in your current business? Little to no growth year over year can be frustrating. What will happen this year? Same input and same output? How about thinking about what drives your sales engine and either magnify what works or pivot to something more creative. There’s always something more creative.

You need a plan that is well thought through to change the mundane and predictable way of business and life you have today.

Assume everything’s possible and all the resources are there to get what you want. It starts with a little strategy and clarity on your thinking to make anything meaningful happen.

Keep Score Everyday

~ Don Dalrymple ~ Leave a comment

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I don’t find games very engaging without keeping score. My kids are the same way. Once we inject some kind of scoring, it becomes much more fun, and the focus and intensity go up right away.

It’s natural.

We’ve had decades of socializing trying to tell us otherwise, but I don’t see that working much for desperate and scared adults who bought the lie. And those people who told them scores don’t matter, aren’t around anymore.

When you have to survive, meet goals, provide for others or make your vision happen, you have to keep score. How in the world would you know how you are doing if you left it to an ambiguous feeling of doing well?

If you are serious about success and getting results, you have to know your score every day.

Your brain is a problem solving machine. When it sees a void, it wants to fill it. When you compare your goal and your score today, there will be a gap. That’s ok. We are always walking around with the gap between our present reality and our future desire.

The important thing is that your mind is aware of where you are at today and simultaneously sees what you want down the road, so it can begin working on that gap.

Numbers are easy to see these days. You have a ridiculous amount of technology that feeds you information daily. Your:

  • Bank account balance
  • Current monthly sales
  • Pipeline of opportunities
  • Expenses and cash flow
  • Deals you are working

Every morning, look at these numbers. Automate your Google Chrome or browser to open separate tabs upon opening so you have to look at the score on each of these numbers. See where you are, and compare it to the number you are shooting for.

You can also build a Google Sheet to keep track over time by updating your numbers. When you keep score, you are focused on winning.

Yes, some days can be discouraging when you have a big gap. But it’s far better to know where you are at and where you want to be than not know.

Think about getting concrete and building your own scorecard. You can simply:

  1. Figure out where you want to be in three months or six months. Quantify every goal.
  2. Put those numbers in a Google Sheet.
  3. Every day, update your current numbers. Let the Sheet calculate your gap by percentage or amount.

This daily habit can take a few minutes every day. It gets your heart and mind focused on the game. And you are in a game. It’s called life.

I like getting my goals. I’ve seen plenty of unhappy people who insist they can be random and laissez faire. No thanks.

Reality has a way of keeping score whether we acknowledge it or not. If you care about yourself and getting results, keep score daily. You will be giving yourself a gift.

Hard Work Beats Talent When Talent Doesn’t Work Hard

~ Don Dalrymple ~ Leave a comment

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I saw this t-shirt at one of my son’s track meets. That does sum things up when it comes to the playing field of life and business.

I don’t have much sorrow for talent that doesn’t work hard. And I love the overcomer that can use perseverance, tenacity and hard work to get to their goals. These are all within our grasp and a choice.

While our talent may not be a choice, but a discovery process, it’s not much use in the long run without steady, consistent pushing, testing and usage.

Sure, you can pick easy goals to go after. We have a nicely set up world that offers convenience. Often, the trade is simply our freedom, time and attention.

Bigger ventures will be hard. Anything worth doing, typically is hard. But if you have perseverance, then you have what you need to get results over time.

I not only speak from experience, but I also have conviction around this truth from observation of how life tends to play out for those on the playing field and in the marketplace.

Don’t get discouraged. Simply control what is in your grasp and keep moving forward.