Day 10 30 DC - The Power of Saying NO

I'm finding it hard to let go of some of my favorite niches. I chose them in the first place because they are topics I am passionate about, or that I believe others would find compelling. They are, for the most part, highly marketable niches, and I do have some experience and reasonable success in getting things to the right market.

I also liked many of them because I could quite clearly see the related products and services that would generate revenue, and I felt I knew how to attract the target market.

But the numbers just don't hold up. Even though I have run the analysis on my top eliminated favorites a few times (silly girl, the results aren't going to change in a day!), hoping to see potential I missed, they are still "no go".

That's not to say they must be abandoned, only that acting upon them would take certain resources that are beyond the scope of this challenge.

There is a great deal of power in saying "NO". I wish more of my clients would realize that. NO, we're not releasing the product before it has been thoroughly tested. NO, we are not skimping on the manual. NO, we are not spending money on a marketing campaign that doesn't have a specific objective. And so on.

Sometimes, you say NO to gather more data, and that is good. Your decisions will likely be better if based on thorough research. Sometimes, you say NO in order to wait for a more opportune time, thus increasing chances for success. And sometimes, you say NO to a good idea so that you can take advantage of a better idea that is just about to come along.

"NO" creates boundaries. It draws a line that you state you will not cross. And if you cross it you had better know the potential consequences. "NO" clearly establishes your position, without any vacillation or weakness. But you have to mean it.

"NO" is very empowering, in business, in relationships, in life. Try it sometime. Trot it out and give it a go. Let me know how that works for you.

Day 2 30DC - Getting Ideas

You don't have to be a creative genius to get ideas. You just have to do a little bit of research and get your brain thinking along lines of idea generation. Ed's training videos and podcasts today showed a number of places online to scan for ideas. What we're looking for are topics that people are interested in and searching for information on. More importantly, we're looking for things that people are passionate about. If no one cares about your topic area or niche, how can you be successful doing business in it?

This first exercise is really just brainstorming -- searching for idea starters and then jotting them down without editing or evaluation until you get as long a list as you can manage.

Care and Feeding of Ideas
To spark ideas, for whatever it is you need them, it is important to tell both your conscious and your subconscious that you need ideas. As you take steps, consciously, to generate ideas by doing research or "sitting for ideas" which is just being still and pondering your topic, your brain begins to work at coming up with ideas that would be suitable. To get the subconscious mind on board (and this is the one you really need for idea generation), as an idea comes into your mind you need to acknowledge that idea by writing it down.

Acknowledging the idea validates the actions your brain has taken and rewards it for a fruitful search (doesn't matter at this point whether it's a "good" idea, just that an idea has occurred). With that encouragement, your mind begins to look for more ideas, to get more encouragement and acknowledgment. Thus the floodgates begin to open so ideas can stream through.

If you get an idea and you dismiss it, or you fail to write it down, it will go away. The next idea will be more difficult to generate, and if you ignore your ideas long enough, you won't get any new ones.

If your business or academic career depends on the generation of new ideas, don't go anywhere without a notebook and writing instrument to keep track of ideas that come to you. I have a tiny voice recorder that I use while driving because I often get ideas in traffic. (There's a reason for this that I'll explain in a subsequent post, but it has to do with the Theta brain state.)

We've all had that experience of having a great idea, an awesome idea, a million-dollar idea, and then forgetting it a short time afterward. Because we didn't write it down. Take my advice, never be without a means of capturing your ideas, and iif it should happen that the great idea occurs to you while you are completely unarmed for making note of it, figure out some mnemonic that might help you remember it. A rhyme, a string around your finger, a specific phrase. Then jot it down at the first opportunity.

All you need is one good idea to make your fortune.

What does Facebook have to do with Business?

We have been talking about Facebook, Digg and Del.icio.us, among other tools, in the Thirty Day Challenge. It occurred to me today, that these are the Web 2.0 equivalent of the business networking we used to do when we went to networking meetings at the Chamber of Commerce.

You young'uns have just digitized what we old fogies did in person. And of course, now that we have a global marketplace and a 24/7 information overload always-on environment, it makes sense to use these tools to conduct that aspect of business. Of course, they are great for your lifestyle applications too!

Getting an endorsement from someone else for your business was always extremely valuable. Now, in Web 2.0 style, you get a thumbs up or a 5-star rating from people anywhere in the world who thought your stuff has merit.

I almost hate to see those dots connected. Many business colleagues were flummoxed by Facebook and MySpace. That kept the competition out and we early adopters in. Trust the juggernaut that is internet marketing to find a way to almost spoil it in the process (to wit: many fake MySpace pages). But the pendulum has only begun to swing.



Legitimate marketers and business people are using the same leverage, with the same social media tools, to create authentic business opportunities and get that first dollar (or ten) while doing a lot of good in the process.

I haven't even begun to tap the potential of some of these tools, but by working through the material in the Thirty Day Challenge, I'm getting new ideas for how they could be used to help my students and clients immensely. The next month is going to be very exciting!