I spent a few days in Denver, Colorado with a community of doers, entrepreneurs, and misfits looking to do meaningful work.
It was great to see some familiar faces, meet some passionate new ones, and share business advice.
It’s not just the speakers at an event that will spark some insight, it’s the conversations in the halls, over dinner, and over a cocktail that sparks clarity and inspiration.
Below are some of my own personal takeaways from last week at Authority Rainmaker 2015 …
1. Execution is everything
It’s doubt and indecision, not your skill, that gets in the way of launching or improving your thing. (Tweet This!)
The Rainmaker Platform has made it ridiculously simple for people with expertise to launch a product or service. In fact, I setup and launched my product (Smarter Engine) and landed my first customer in a less than a week using the Rainmaker Platform.
I met people at the conference who are actively launching, re-iterating, and growing. But I also met people who are in the same place they were two years ago. They’re stuck because they are constantly questioning, doubting, and letting in-action get in the way.
Stop thinking so much, just launch. (Tweet This!)
2. Surround yourself with doers
Joshua Dorkin started Bigger Pockets 10 years ago. Today they have a growing community of nearly 200,000+ real estate investors, 4 books published on Amazon and a top ranking podcast on iTunes with over 122 episodes (and counting) with no signs of slowing down. Joshua has big goals and he didn’t get where he is today with his community by showing up every once in a while – he shows up every single day!
I had lunch with people like Marie Poulin who is building a platform to help people launch their online program (check it out, it’s called Oki Doki).
Sarah Eadie is in charge of content at Simple. They’re out to make banking umm, “simpler!”
Ethan Beute started at BombBomb as a one man marketing department responsible for marketing, customer retention, and loads more. Today, BombBomb is a 43 person team and growing!
There’s something incredibly motivating about being surrounded by people who are actively learning and doing!
3. Charge more than you think you’re worth
You’d think that if you launched at $100 per month as opposed to say, $500, you’d land more customers. Right?
Wrong!
I’ve received more objections about my starter product priced at $100 per month than I have at my done-for-you product at $500 per month.
It’s like Sean D’Souza said, focus on servicing “fewer, kinder clients.”
4. Think value, not price
Sonia Simone said something that really resonated:
Deliver what they want + what they need. – (Tweet This!)
The airplane ride is the feature, but what they really want is to get to Australia!”
If you’re in web design, your customers aren’t looking for just another site design, they’re looking for a way to get more customers.
When you’re building your product, think about your customer’s problem. What’s they’re biggest pain point? Then, once you’ve helped them identify they’re problem, you can position your service/product as the solution to that problem. Make sense?
5. Test everything
Joanna Lord gave a great talk on developing a culture of testing. The lessons there don’t just apply to big business, they apply to small businesses, too.
It’s easy to try something new, run a new campaign, and see whether it’s working or not. But I also like what Bernadette wrote yesterday …
What if we measured our success by the results we delivered for our customers? Not what the customer did for us, but what we helped them to do. – Bernadette Jiwa, The Story of Telling
What about you?
What was your biggest takeaway? What are you going to implement in your business?
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