business

JOB IS EVERYTHING

You can’t understand what you are without first understanding what you are not. You determine who you are through what you are not. Setbacks and conflicts are given to us as a guidance tool to help us to get to whom we really are.

I don’t want to be a lonely man, who has everything but the human connection.

In American culture, for many people job is everything. It’s their live. Friday evening – they sit in the office. No matter at what time I come to the office, there always will be someone. No plans, no friends, no life outside of the office. Work, work, work… Got to make the last phone call. Send one more email. 

Whenever I ask “How’re you doing?” – “Busy!”. Being busy is a badge of honour. Everybody is busy. Twelve-hour workdays are cool. Hard work. Day in, day out.

It is all great. I respect hard work. I admire those who pursue their dreams. I also see many lonely people. They are so busy, that there is no time left for friends. No time to go on a date. No time to sit down to eat. It’s a RACE! 

I see myself in all those people and it irritates me.
I just like them and I don’t want to be that. 

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Useless Jobs

Overconsumption creates useless jobs.

How many jobs would’ve been eliminated if, as a society, we took only what is needed for our survival and basic needs? How many stupid, soul-killing jobs would’ve disappeared if every person took only what is enough and not more. 

A useless job to me is a job that produces a product or service that is not necessary for survival. A useless job is a job that’s primary goal is making money. A job that was created out of greed.

As a man, I have a strong need for a purpose in life. While I am still not entirely certain what it is, I get closer by learning what it is NOT. My purpose in life is NOT making money. I am not a greedy man. I don’t need the STUFF to make me happy. No illusion that anything or anyone will make me happy. It is freeing. It allows me to look through fog and get closer to my human nature. 

  • My purpose is not to buy a white house with a picket fence and a three-car garage. 
  • My purpose is not to compete for the most desirable female among other baboons. 
  • My purpose is not to prove to others that I am worth being loved. 

Imagine a future, where the majority of people worked on jobs that were absolutely necessary for our survival as humankind. Hypothetically, 20% of Planet’s population is doing these jobs on a rotation schedule. 80% are studying. They are moving the boundaries of mental, spiritual and physical development. This 80% of people receive a “stipend” to cover basic needs and live comfortably. 20% of the workforce every couple of months is being constantly rotated. 

2021 Consumer Trends and insights – Brain Food – 65 Takeaways

  1. Consumers, about 55 percent are likely to continue buying more groceries online after the peak of the crisis. Nike’s first-quarter digital sales in China increased 30 percent
    one year after the company launched home workouts via its mobile app, while property platform Beike said agent-facilitated property viewings on its virtual reality showroom in February increased by almost 35 times compared with the previous month.
  2. In healthcare, digital interactions accelerated—the rapid growth of online consultations, partly thanks to a regulatory shift in reimbursement policy, as well as broader virtual interactions between pharmaceutical sales agents and physicians. These changes occurred ahead of the wide deployment of 5G technology, which will likely catalyze the use of digital tools.
  3. COVID-19 has intensified the debate, with several governments calling for companies in critical sectors to relocate their operations back to their home countries and announcing financial support packages to facilitate this.
  4. Investing in a supply chain and innovation footprint to serve China will continue to remain important.
  5. Weaker companies, particularly SMEs that are not sufficiently agile or digital-savvy, are vulnerable to cash flow issues, unemployment, and business failure.
  6. Attitudes to spending among consumers in their 20s and 30s, traditionally the engine of China’s consumption growth, have changed markedly in the wake of COVID-19. One survey showed 42 percent of young consumers intend to save more as a result of the virus. Consumer lending has also declined, while four out of five Chinese consumers intend to purchase more insurance products post-crisis. Savings have also rocketed—the country’s household deposit balance increased by 8 percent over the first quarter to reach 87.8 trillion RMB. Meanwhile, 41 percent of consumers said they planned to increase sources of income through wealth management, investments, and mutual funds.
  7. More than 70 percent of respondents in our COVID-19 consumer survey will continue to spend more time and money purchasing safe and eco-friendly products, while three-quarters want to eat more healthily after the crisis.
  8. COVID-19 might be accelerating long-awaited structural reforms to land, labor, and capital markets.
  9. About 55 percent of consumers are likely to continue buying more groceries online after the peak of the crisis.
  10. 74 percent of Chinese citizens increased their online grocery visit frequency during the epidemic. Purchasing trade-offs amid a flight to quality: Chinese consumers have become more cautious as a result of the epidemic, tending to spend less but buying better quality products. According to a post-epidemic survey, close to half of Chinese respondents intend to live more frugally and seek value-for-money when selecting products, while 36 percent are more willing to spend more for better quality mproducts.55 Consumers are potentially seeking quality in their necessities, while focusing on value-for-money in other categories. A survey reveals that post-COVID-19, consumers increased their net purchase intention by the largest degree toward essential, health-oriented products, such as sanitary and health products, fresh food, and life insurance, while expressing negative net purchase intention towards non-necessities such as hair and beauty products, and large home appliances.56 Consumer complaints relating to quality have
    also increased. In Guangdong for example, consumer complaints rose 40 percent on year in the first quarter to 98,000, suggesting tolerance for low- quality products and poor service is on the decline.
  11. A majority of consumers told us they intend to keep watching e-sports and online fitness programs. Remote learning for adults looks like another trend that might be here to stay.
  12. Trust is vital as consumers navigate an uncertain information environment, with 89 percent telling us they are turning to brands that they trust
  13. Demand for dairy, vegetables, and eggs was 25-50 percent higher during the initial recovery phase than it was before the crisis. Supermarket and convenience store data shows that, aside from fresh food, popular items during and after the peak of the crisis included grains, ready-to- cook meals, packaged food, and snacks.
  14. There was a reduction in demand for personal care products and cosmetics in January and February, and these categories are only recovering slowly.
  15. In-store pickup, QR code and self-check-out are the most widely adopted digital retail initiatives.
  16. About a third of consumers say they prefer organic but only 1 percent actually purchase.
  17. We believe there is a potential 400 billion RMB opportunity for offline grocery retailers that can adjust their formats in line with shifting consumer behavior.
  18. Offline formats such as wet markets, which account for 30 percent of the market, will lose share to modern offline and online channels.
  19. Several convenience stores could achieve rapid growth by perfecting their use of automation and artificial intelligence to optimize operational efficiency, allowing them to compete in economic terms with mature players.
  20. Offline retailers can take advantage of low-cost consumer traffic and mature last-mile delivery operations from delivery platform partners to unlock online business opportunities.
  21. The majority of growth in the next few years will likely come from leading modern players who re-invent themselves in the digital era, ecommerce players, and new retail challengers.
  22. Demand for domestic travel is approaching prepandemic levels. Hotel-occupancy rates and numbers of domestic flight passengers bounced back to around 90 percent of 2019 levels by the end of August, and railway travel also shows a strong recovery (Exhibit 1).
  23. People of all ages are willing to travel again.
  24. Most survey respondents would likely choose a self-guided tour or road trip.
  25. Some types of travel, especially high-end travel, are booming. Borders remain closed for outbound travel, which means that domestic high-end leisure trips are booming. Occupancy rates at luxury and high-end hotels were back at 85 percent of 2019 figures by the end of August,2 representing a significantly faster recovery rate than that seen by midrange and economy hotels. In September, the average price for five-star hotels on leading online-travel- agency (OTA) platforms was up 10 to 15 percent year over year for trips over the National Day holiday in October. Furthermore, leisure travel to destinations in Western China and Hainan Province—which boast beautiful scenery, outdoor activities, and beach resorts—have seen significant growth.
  26. Companies operating in markets with very low transmission rates may focus on rebuilding domestic demand, finding new channels, or exploring opportunities for travel bubbles.
  27. Rebuilding demand and propelling volume (such as through discounts and presales) are key during the early stages of recovery.
  28. For countries where—as in China—the outflow of high-end tourism-related spending is significant, it will again be important to focus on providing new or improved high-end domestic offerings.
  29. The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of mobile and digital tools. Building digital touchpoints and experiences will therefore be essential. In China, social media and new media are now major sources of inspiration and information for travel decisions.
  30. Asian shoppers buy luxury goods outside their home countries not only to benefit from lower prices in Europe, but also because shopping has become an integral part of the travel experience: buying a brand in its country of origin comes with a sense of authenticity and excitement.
  31. Chinese consumers remain the biggest growth opportunity for the luxury sector. Brands, clearly, will need a new approach to attracting luxury shoppers.
  32. From ownership to experience, and back again. “Experiential luxury”—think high-end hotels, resorts, cruises, an d restaurants—has been one of the most dynamic and fast-growing components of the luxury sector. Millennials (those born 1980–95) opted more for experiences and “Instagrammable moments” rather than luxury items. Baby boomers (born 1946–64), too, were moving in this direction, having already accumulated luxury products over the years. While we expect the positive momentum of experiential luxury to persist, it will slow down in the short term as consumers temporarily revert to buying goods over experiences.
  33. More than 40 percent of global luxury goods production happens in Italy—and all the Italian facto- ries, including small, family-based façonniers, have temporarily shut down.
  34. Many consumers also craved comfort food during a time of anxiety. And they wanted value for money as they feared for their financial future.
  35. Young people were feeling financial pressure as a result of the crisis–about half our customers said they needed to save more money, which helped us focus our response on value and non-discretionary purchases of things like breakfasts and working lunches.
  36. Now, delivery is the mega trend and is already about 30 percent of total sales.
  37. The rise of mobile pick-ups propels us to rethink restaurant design. How much do we reserve for seating versus bigger catering and kitchen capacity that would allow us to produce food faster? In tier one cities like Beijing, restaurant formats can be smaller because people are looking for fast service; white-collar workers in the central business district have more incidence of ‘grab and go’. If you’re in a lower-tier city, family occasions remain prominent, so we’re still committed to a full-blown dine-in restaurant experience.
  38. The restaurant safety measures we put in place will probably be permanent. We still take crew members’ daily temperatures. If you buy McDonald’s takeaway, the paper bag still carries a record of who prepared it and their body temperature. At the office level, we are cutting back on travel. We found less travel is more efficient. Digitization is helping us reprioritize what needs to be face-to-face and what can be done remotely.
  39. Amid all the uncertainty, clarity of purpose is important to inspire and to guide the whole company. Company values and culture seem to be invisible but are extremely important at times like these. If everyone shares the same values of being passionate in helping others and having pride in serving the community, we will be better people and build a better brand as well. From a business standpoint, it is a good time to reset and to reimagine.
  40. On the consumer side, everything shifted to online. The out-of-home, on-the- go channel completely shut down, and we cut down our stock-keeping units (SKUs) to focus on a core of three or four. That’s all consumers wanted–stuff they knew they could trust: Coke and instant noodles.
  41. The acceleration of the online channel has been breath-taking and is here to stay. Except for market visits, I’ve only been into a supermarket three times since March; I even ordered a dozen eggs on my phone and they arrived in 30 minutes! The hard part is figuring out who pays, the seller or the delivery partner?
  42. All our customers are rethinking what they should do in terms of physical retail. Obviously, in some areas you have to have presence, but to what extent will this be true in the future?
  43. Some of the out-of-home, on-the-go business is bouncing back–maybe to 80 percent of the pre-COVID-19 level–but some will never come back, so what fills that void?
  44. On a daily basis, 855 million Chinese consumers were spending an average of six hours on their phones–twice as much as digital consumers in the US–and buying $2 trillion worth of goods and services annually. Now, since China’s outbreak and subsequent lockdown, consumers have become even more digital, buying additional products on their phones, such as grocery items, that they previously would have purchased in stores.
  45. When COVID-19 closed stores and cancelled public events, digital marketing costs went up further as virtually every brand doubled their efforts to reach Chinese consumers digitally, with some shifting their entire marketing budgets into digital.
  46. Major apps have splintered into hundreds of mini-apps and sub-channels, the popularity of new platforms like Douyin (TikTok) and Bilibili has exploded, and live- streaming has become widely adopted, all leading to what we call the ‘dustification’ of consumer attention, meaning that outlets for reaching consumers are hyper- fragmented.
  47. The basics of marketing haven’t changed–find your target consumers and give them the right product and the right message, at the right place and the right time. The difference in the digital era is that marketing technology, or ‘martech’, allows brands to accelerate and maximize this basic endeavor at minimal cost.
  48. An Internet Celebrity approach uses public social apps and China’s thriving “fan economy” of celebrities, key opinion leaders (KOLs), and key opinion consumers (KOCs) to drive brand image and awareness. It’s a focus most effective for newer brands.
  49. A leading international beauty brand, for instance, taking a Performance. First approach, wanted to identify the best marketing content for different consumer segments on its flagship store at Tmall. The company worked with an AI provider to instantly create thousands of layouts with different models, product photos, and colors. Each was dynamically A/B tested with customers to identify those with the highest purchase rate. The result was an ROI boost of 20 percent and a 50 percent reduction in annual design costs
  50. Social commerce, where social media is the driving force behind sales, is one of the hottest trends in China and a major disrupting force.
  51. The average consumer in China now spends more than seven hours a day on the mobile internet, a figure that increased by a fifth in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis. About two-thirds of those seven hours is spent using social or content apps, as users increasingly seek out information from social media, social influencers, and friends in order to make decisions about purchases.
  52. Time spent using social or content apps is now driving 50 percent of shopping interest, and 25 percent of purchases, a marked change from the 2017 figures of 37 percent and 7 percent, respectively (Exhibit 1). And the size of the overall social commerce market is expected to more than double from 2019 levels to reach gross sales of 2.9 trillion renminbi by 2021.
  53. Social-first commerce. Food and lifestyle blogger Li Ziqi is an example of a KOL that has effectively deployed social-first commerce. She has become one of China’s biggest
  54. social media stars by posting artistic videos of traditional life and cooking in Sichuan province’s rural areas. Having built an enormous fan base (26 million on Weibo, 39 million on Douyin, and 11 million on YouTube), she now operates an eponymous brand of traditional Chinese packaged food, promotes third-party brand foods, and operates a store on Tmall to sell directly to her followers.
  55. Li Ziqi sold 100 million renminbi of products in 2019, more than three times the year before, with her success demonstrating the power of converting social engagement into commercial results.
  56. Convenience stores are the fastest-growing store type, while small supermarkets are also large in number. These stores have deeper local coverage and more loyal consumer relationships since they are deeply rooted in their local communities and located closer to customers.
  57. Gen Z represent the next engine of domestic consumption growth. Officially defined globally as the cohort of people who were born between 1996 and 2010, Gen Z make up about 15 percent of China’s population and represent the next engine of domestic consumption growth.
  58. Gen Z spent their childhoods during the fastest sustained expansion of a major economy in history, and are consequently used to rapid improvements in their standard of living.
  59. Gen Z: 10-23
    Millennials: 24-38
    Gen X: 39-54
  60. This behavior is driven in part by robust confidence in future earnings: 78 percent of Chinese Gen Z respondents said they believe they will earn more, or much more, in the future. This combination of impulsiveness and optimism also leads 36 percent of our survey sample to overspend their budget. In fact, China’s Gen Z refer to themselves as “the moonlight clan” in reference to their propensity to spend their entire monthly salary over the course of a single lunar cycle, effectively living paycheck to paycheck.
  61. Gen Z consumers in the US are similarly inclined to spend big on consumer products, while their outlay on luxury apparel and accessories even surpasses that of Millennial shoppers with higher incomes.
  62. More than half (51 percent) of China’s Gen Z consumers prefer brands that offer customized products, while 53 percent opt for brands that provide tailored services.
  63. Once engaged, China’s Gen Z are also more brand loyal : 47 percent agreed that they stick with brands they like, while 43 percent said they will always choose a brand they know over a new one.
  64. Fifty-one percent of Gen Z consumers say that official social media accounts of consumer brands are one of their top three sources of influence, while 44 percent count bloggers and online influencers among their top three sources of influence. Gen Z value these sources of information more than Millennials and Gen X. Key opinion leaders (KOLs) who resonate with Gen Z are driving this trend, such as Li Jiaqi, whose forthright opinions can make or break a beauty brand or product, and online sales superstar Weiya, whose interactive livestreams on Taobao have helped sell billions of RMB of products.
  65. In the US, social media is most influential for 39 percent of Gen Z consumers when deciding to recommend a product or brand, while online reviews and blogs is top choice for 26 percent. Friends and family offline still have most sway for 15 percent, and just 10 percent are primarily guided by influencers.

References:

China consumer report 2021, Special edition, Understanding Chinese Consumers: Growth Engine of the World (November 2020): https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/featured%20insights/china/china%20still%20the%20worlds%20growth%20engine%20after%20covid%2019/mckinsey%20china%20consumer%20report%202021.pdf

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Think big

You know, you have to have the vision of where you want to be … a dream.

For me, it was six and a half thousand euros. I didn’t have it, but I had a very good friend who just gave me the money. This helped me lift off the ground. I’ve done a lot of groundwork leading into that. I had the website. I had made a lot of contexts, and I had a firm belief in what I was doing. It cost me six thousand euros to build my dream. Also, the guy that gave me the money hasn’t looked for it back, nevertheless, I paid it back. I was just lucky and fortunate.

That was his story. Only two and a half… I am looking for seventy.

That’s my mountain to climb, in some respects – the first mountain to climb. I am climbing a big mountain… So I go and go … around the corner. Sometimes I think I am nearly there. And then there’s another lift and then there’s another lift and then there’s another section. And it’s only when you get to the top and look back, and think to yourself: “Wow, that wasn’t too bad”.

You know, seventy thousand or fifty thousand euros is a lot of money. But I think if I can get it and have the first unit built, I might be amazed how quickly the next phase will come. But it’s just that initial one.

Don’t be disappointed and discouraged because some of the best ideas TAKE TIME. And I know, time isn’t always something that people have a lot of, particularly when you put so much of your time and effort into it. I think it’s very important not to lose your confidence. But that’s difficult because you are working on your own. I don’t have people around me that believe in me… but the most important person is myself. You know, it’s no different than any kind of sales job. You’re going to get knocked and it’s a rollercoaster ride. You’re going to get some serious lows. But there come serious highs.

If you don’t believe in yourself, why anyone else should? No, you should have a very strong belief in yourself and the thing you try to do. The luck is on your side. Believe firmly that you have great potential. You can and will succeed! You have two kinds of thoughts: either it’s complete rubbish or it’s really something innovative. Which thought is more pleasant to have?

For me, it’s just that process of getting the investor, that loan of some kind… You know, to get the first one going. It is my key to open the next door.

No matter what way you look at it, once you built the first one, it will just be like a snowball. But this is going to take time.

And you’re always worried that somebody is going to take this and run. Somebody who has the money will build 10 or 20 units. I’ve heard all of this happen to other people’s ideas. Once people see that it works really well – they copy you, create almost exact replicas. They all can make their own money where I will be relying on a builder who could run with the project himself. Just taking it off me.

It needs to happen… But you know, I have to find that money somewhere to get the first one built because there’s nothing that beats the physical product on the ground where people come and walk into. It needs to be close to where I am, where I am going to be touring people, showing and taking bookings.

You know what I’m saying? Even if it’s just one… that generates income, and allow an investor to go inside and say: “Oh, this is interesting“. All of a sudden you have figures now. You will know how many people are interested. Promote your website and collect sign ups. That’s the key – a physical presence. It’s so important. You know that yourself and it seems unreachable right now. People who invest spend incredible money on chances.

The problem is:
How to build the idea and the interest without the physical products? How do I build the interest without the physical unit?

Put up some kind of questionnaire online – a simple questionnaire and say: “Look, I have this plan to build …. and put them in certain areas across Canada. Are you interested? Would you be interested and have some kind of price structure in your head.” What’s this going to cost to stay for a week or two or a weekend. Then ask: “Are you prepared to spend such money and are you interested? – Yes.” Check the box. And “How far are you willing to travel?” Ask people how much they’re willing to pay, trying to get that kind of numbers together. I need to get some kind of data that gives me confidence. Maybe that’s my next stage. That is… The money will appear from somewhere.

It’s a difficult one and it’s frustrating. I’ve been knocked back, but I just got to keep looking for other directions. I really do.

Ok, well, maybe…. Maybe I am aiming too small. What about the idea of creating a village of my units? Multiple units in a really nice area – that’s just outside a city somewhere where it’s easily accessible. A village for remote workers.

What if I go to local rural development groups that have funding by the state/province? Ask for Grants!

I don’t have to pay it back. It’s almost like free money. The government tries to encourage rural area developments, where they try to build and develop a tourism stroke to get people out of the city to spend time in a rural area. Those areas benefit from it because of the inflow of tourists. So maybe it’s something worth looking into… The location could be not too far from a campground or something.

It needs to be on a good route out of a city that has a good road structure which allows somebody to step in a car and drive for an hour to take a week off. Or even an hour and a half and then leave the city and all the craziness with its noise.

Canada is like that. You step outside of Toronto or Calgary and you’ve got this place where it’s just noiseless but still has the infrastructure. By setting up the village – you can bring eight, nine, ten business people together. Yes, the business village.

Find a location to put eight-ten pods into that little community and let everybody know about it. It will be a talking point. You will have people coming from the City, wherever the place is… even a few hours drive away.

The village is in the middle of nowhere, but it has the infrastructure around: small restaurants, coffee shops etc. And what that does, it puts money into that local community and my company. This is a win-win situation. Applying for grants is a lot of paperwork, however I think that might be something worth looking at.

And it opens opportunities in front of me. If I set up my village in an area where there’s a nice restaurant, a nice coffee shop – all of a sudden I’ve got a place where my customers can go. This village will be a great place for meeting like-minded people.

Creating one single village will take less effort than trying to set up six different locations. Also, if I have a village, I can then target the companies – corporate clients. Yes, it will give me an awful lot more options… I can make it a business hub. It could become quite interesting.

I might find a lot of other routes to go. I can have certain times of the year that it’s business based and then I might have certain times of the year that are more suitable for anything from holistic style retreats to holiday retreats.

It gives me a lot more options when there are multiple units in one location. Really good Internet access, really close amenities in the local area for walks in a park, by a river or trails. Nice cycle routes to different locations. People are not only going to work but when they have the downtime, they’re right in the countryside and they can go for a walk or a bike ride while getting business done. They’re getting that “escape”.

By doing that, it might give me more opportunities. I need to focus on figuring out how to set “villages” or “hubs”. The individual locations might come later and if so, they can be developed quickly.

That might become the way to do things. I might be setting up villages with multiple units rather than trying to go for that one unit in different places. And all of a sudden it grows much, much quicker. And it also gives the manufacturer the ability to price the units in multiples rather than individual pricing. So cost effective.

I like it… then develop city by city, location by location instead of spreading yourself all over the place.

If you look at a city like Toronto or any of the major cities in Canada, if you go north, south, east or west – an hour’s drive, I could have four hubs surrounding. I could have six hubs surrounding Toronto with six units. Now I have thirty-six units within an hour of striking distance of the city. It just happens to be close to villages near lakes or mountains or trails. All the hubs interact with the local communities. Such interaction with the local businesses will be generating income for those businesses and communities.

Look if there is some form of government funding to develop businesses like mine. Instead of thinking about only 70 thousand, think about seven hundred thousand. Think bigger! Get the government funding. Whether it’s seventy thousand seven hundred thousand, it’s not big money for them if they see the returns of the idea is strong.

I think the idea is strong. Definitely so!

If I become a government-funded project – that’s huge. It will give me an awful lot of credibility. I can then go to a manufacturer and say, look, this is my plan. My business is backed up by the government and that’s gold. That speaks a lot to investors and manufacturers.

All of a sudden, I will be approached by people who want to build those units for me. They are going to be jumping at the chance because they see that you are the government founded company. This will almost guarantee you lock them down into a contract with you, where they will be a supplier of these units for the whole country of Canada. That’s huge! And I’m talking big!

That’s the way you have to be thinking. You have to dream! But you also need to get to the next stage and find that funding. Once I do find it – I can shout about that from the treetops and tell everyone we got the government funding. We hope to build such and such units… Who’s in?

Put it on you website, something like: “We already acquired seven hundred thousand from government government money and this is happening.” It’s gold. It’s solid that investors would like to become a part of it.

Speaking of investors – I may not need to worry so much about investors outside of the industry.

It might be the manufacturer of the product, who becomes my main investor. He’s going to be looking for the manufacturing and profit margin on that. And that is my investor who will get the margins I have created with my business model. On top of that, it’s my brand, it’s my idea that they’re manufacturing. I might think about signing some kind of confidentiality agreement and licensing agreements with them. I want it to be only my brand, so I have full control.

It only takes one interested party. Go to the local governments, go as high as you possibly can, try and get in front of people and just keep the enthusiasm because that’s infectious. Some people will respond. A lot of people won’t. Don’t ever take it personally. It’s not going to be easy.

But I could be sitting here in two years, and say: “You know, my biggest problem now is that there’s such a demand that we can’t keep up”. which will be great.

Get in front of the people and say: “Listen guys, this is where the tourism industry is going to be over the next three or four years. We’re only starting here… We are using a different approach…”

I need to work through a government body of some kind that may be an international fund or something.

I’ve got nothing to lose. The worst thing is that they say no. I am not going to die from it!

Look, there are problems, but I will get over them. WE will get over it. Yes, for sure! Just a question of time.

And what’s going to happen is that the government will have to invest in new businesses when everything opens up again.

Start looking at what’s coming down the track for funding to push businesses out and that’s the way I will approach it. People are going to look for alternative ways to work and this is the time for my solution.

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THE COACHING HABIT

After you’ve asked a question – be quiet and wait for the answer. Make it a habit 

Small talk might be a useful way to warm up, but it’s rarely the bridge that leads to a conversation that matters.

Coaching for Performance

It’s about addressing and fixing a specific problem or challenge. It’s putting out the fire or a building up the fire or banking the fire.

Coaching for Development

It’s about turning the focus from the issue to the person dealing with the issue, the person who is managing the fire.This conversation is more rare and significantly more powerful.

The Kickstart Question

Start a conversation with the question: “WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?”. It invites people to get people to the heart of the matter and share what’s important to them. It’s an encouragement to go right away to what’s exciting, what’s provoking anxiety, what’s all-consuming, what’s waking them up at 4 a.m., what’s got their hearts beating fast.

3P: Projects-People-Patterns

Projects -is the content of the situation, the stuff that’s being worked on;

People – its you relationships with others and your role in them;

Patterns – this are the patterns of behavior and ways of working that you’d like to change. This are personal and challenging questions. Not often appropriate in organizations;

Example:

  • “What’s on your mind?”, you ask
  • “The [… thing they are working on…]”, they say
  • “So there are three different ways that we could look at it”, you offer.
    “The Project side – any challenges around the actual content.
    The People side – any issue with team members/colleagues/other department/bosses/customers/clients.
    Patterns – if there is a way that you’re getting in your own way, and not showing up the best possible way.
    Where should we start?”
  • [Let them pick one P and talk about it. When they done discussing it, take them to other two Ps] 

Ask the question

If you know what question to ask, get to the point and ask it. Then shut up and listen.

  • “Out of curiosity…”
  • “And What Else?”

Ask it a few times, probably until the person says: “There is nothing else”. That’s good – you’ve reached the end of story.

  • Start with: “What’s on your mind?”
  • Then: “What else?”
  • Then maybe: “What else could you do?”
  • When trying to finds a the root cause of the issue, ask: “What’s the real challenge here for you?...”. Push further with “And what else is a challenge here for you?”
  • When starting weekly check-ins: “What’s important right now?”. Keep pressure by asking: “And what else?”
  • When someone explores new ideas, ask: “And what else might be possible?”

The Focus Question 

The goal is to focus on the real problem, not the first problem.

  • “What’s the real challenge here for you?”
  • “If you had to pick one of these to focus on, which one here would be the real challenge for you?”

What makes the focus question works so well are those two final words – “for you”.

Tip: Instead of asking Why, reframe to What? Instead of “Why did you do this?” Ask “What were you hoping for here?”, “What made you choose this course of action?”

First Three Questions Combination

  • Open with:
    What’s on your mind? (The perfect way to start; the question is opened but focused)
  • Check in:
    Is there anything else on your mind? (Give the person an option to share additional concerns.)
  • Then begin to focus:
    So what’s the real challenge here for you? (Already the conversation will deepen. Your job now is to find what’s most useful to look at.)
  • Ask:
    And What Else (you’re asking about the real challenge)? Trust me, the person will have something. And there may be more.
  • Probe again:
    Is there is anything else? You’ll have most of what matters in front of you now.
  • So get to the heart of the problem and ask:
    So… what’s the real challenge here for you?

You want those you interact with: your team, your boss, your customers, your suppliers to be engaging rather than with reading. You want your people to feel that working with you is a place of reward, not risk. And you also realize that you want to feel like you are safe so that you can stay at your smartest, rather than in fight or flight mode. 

Silence is often a measure of success. When you asked a question and she doesn’t have the answer ready within the first two seconds, take a breath, stay open and keep quiet for another three seconds. 

Tip: When someone asks you “How do I … ?” Say, “That’s a great question. I’ve got some ideas, which I will share with you. But before I do, what are your first thoughts?”. And when she answers, which she will, you will not your head and be engaged and interested, and when she finishes, say, “ that’s terrific. What else could you do?”. More nodding, more being interested. Then say, “ this is all good. Is there anything else you could try here?”. And then, only then, you can add your own idea. 

The Strategic Question is:

  • If you are saying yes to this, what are you saying no to?
  • “What could being fully committed to this idea look like?“
  • “Just to be clear: what exactly are you saying yes to?”

If you say YES to this:

Projects

  • What projects do you need to abandon or postpone?
  • What meetings will you no longer attend?
  • What resources do you need to divert to the yes?

People

  • What expectations do you need to manage?
  • What relationships will you let wither?

Patterns

  • What habits do you need to break?
  • What all stories or dating ambitions do you need to update?
  • What beliefs about yourself do you need to let go of?

Five Strategic Questions 

  1. What is our winning aspirations?
    What game are you playing and with (against) whom?
    What impact do you want to have in/on the world?
  2. Where will we play?
    Choosing a sector, geography, product, channel and customer allows you to focus your resources.
  3. How will we win?
    What’s the difference between you and others?
    What’s your “unfair advantage”?
  4. What capabilities must be in place?
    Not just what do you need to do, but how will it become and stay a strength?
  5. What management systems are required?
    It’s easy enough to manage stuff. It’s much harder to figure out what you want to measure that actually matters.
  • What have you learned since the last time we met?
  • What did you learn? 
  • What was the key insight? 
  • What do you want to remember? 
  • What’s important to capture?
  • What was the most useful for you about this conversation? Or
  • What did you find most valuable about this chat? Or
  • What worked best here?
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A mentor

Had a meeting with my “business mentor” today. It’s been awhile since we met last time – about a month ago. I’ve done a lot of work since then and I wanted to show him my accomplishments. Mainly I was looking for a feedback on the website and VR model of my product.

First thirty minutes of continuous stream of critique were tolerable. I took a lot of notes and I agreed with most of his suggestions. At some point it started getting under my skin. Now he wasn’t only criticizing my website, but the entire business in general. I spent about two months developing this freaking website and I was sick of it… He totally crashed everything – the formatting, layout… Yes, his comments made sense, but it didn’t feel right. He was hitting on the whole idea.

I was speechless. At first, I tried to explain the concept but I stopped. It felt as I messed up as a kid and was trying to explain my actions. Therefore I shut my mouth and kept listening. I was crushed… I thought of myself as someone who is good at accepting criticism, but maybe I am not? Maybe my business is really a shitty idea? What if he is right and no one needs it?

And the he said: “You must have a lot of cash left, so you continue working on this idea?”. That comment really got me. I started laughing. The criticism was so strong and even personal, so I started laughing in response. This was the self-defence response of my physic…

I thanked him for his time and feedback and left the meeting. I felt crushed. I could not do anything… “All I do is burn my savings”, “all I am doing is just f*cking around… playing the entrepreneur”. It’s been eight months since I got laid off. I’ve been trying lots of ways to make money. I was working hard. I promise I did… I did not party. I slept six hours a night. I could not allow myself to sit down and watch a freaking movie. Hustle, hustle, hustle… Yes, I traveled for a bit, but guess what – I always was working on something! I guess I was working on wrong things. I applied to hundreds of jobs. I had job interviews. It did not lead me anywhere. I guess didn’t try hard enough…

I don’t ask it to be easy. It never was.
I am tired. I don’t want to do anything. Maybe he is right – I’ll just continue playing around while I have the money. Once I drained my bank account I’ll do what everyone does – find a job and settle in. Stupid idea. A lot of wasted time…

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FAKE DOOR EXPERIMENT

MVP before the MVP

What’s the purpose of MVP?
The most important role of an MVP is to let us learn about what our users want. MVP’s should provide value to our users, but it is a secondary priority. It should provide value only after we make sure they are actually interested in that value. There is a step before the MVP.

How to quickly measure interest in your product or a new feature without even creating the product itself? There is a concept called a “Fake Door”. This approach involves some manner of pretending you have a product or service, and therefore require you to create a manual, prototype, or page that is a key component used during research.

A Fake Doors experiment is a minimum viable product where you pretend to provide a product, feature, or service to Web page or app visitors. Without developing anything just yet, you communicate to visitors that the thing exists and ask them to act on it. If they do, you know they want it, and it’s time for you to start working on developing it.

Let’s say you would like to build and rent a tiny cabin house. Some Scandinavian designs have inspired you. You will need to find someone, an architect who could help you with the concept. DO NOT invest your hard-earned dollars for an idea you’re not sure about. There are two ways of finding out if potential customers want it:

Launch a landing page with key benefits and a screenshot and collect email addresses of people who are interested. If conversion rates of people giving their email address divided by landing page impressions are high enough, a decision is made to develop the product.

Ask potential customers if they want it. What’s considered as a healthy process in many organizations is sending a team with a new product idea to the organization’s top customers. The team then passionately describes the idea and asks for feedback. Would you use it? Would you pay for it? How much? What features do you want? If 10–15 customers show they are interested, the organization goes ahead and develops the product.

How to design fake door experiment

There are three ways to design a Fake Doors experiment:

  • Landing or crowdfunding page
    Launch a landing page that attempts to prove some kind of commitment on behalf of its visitors. This commitment could be asking them to pay for a product that doesn’t exist yet. Starting an IndieGoGo or Kickstarter project is a variation of evaluating such a commitment. Be aware, though, that crowdfunding attracts very specific types of audiences that might not overlap with yours.
  • The button to nowhere
    When you want to evaluate if people need a certain feature within an existing product, add a button or link or tap target to your product indicating that a certain capability or feature exists behind it. When users press, click, or tap it, show an indication that the feature doesn’t exist yet—a “coming soon” note or an “in progress” banner. Obviously, this technique requires you to have a product and enough visitor traffic.
  • 404 testing
    Launch an advertising campaign, for example, with Google Adwords or Facebook Ads. Ads included in the campaign lead to a 404 error page. You don’t need to develop anything. Your only goal is evaluating if people are interested in the product based on the ads.

WHAT I DID WAS:

  1. Spent a small budget on an architect to help me with creating the concept. I used Fiverr.com. Then found the local guy through the word of mouth.
  2. Created several high-fidelity visualizations representing my cabin near a beautiful area – a lake and woods.
  3. I hired professional to develop Virtual Reality model (if your budget allows).
  4. Designed a website with landing page using Themify.me free website theme to represent my dream cabin for rent.
  5. Embed the map to display multiple locations. Don’t stick to only one location – this will help to test different markets. Used the Airbnb website to find approximate addresses for your future cabin. Find the examples and see where they located.
  6. I drove traffic to the landing page through some paid campaigns.
  7. When someone fills in the booking form, you then automatically directed them to the page that explains the concept of testing the demand. I also gave a 10% discount for booking once my service is ready. You need to be transparent and compensate somehow for the effort so as not to leave a bad impression about your brand.
  8. Collected all data regarding: money spent on advertisement, website visits, booking forms filled, emails, customer locations etc.

Below is the screenshot of automated email that was sent out in response to booking request:

You can easily create and present two versions of a product/service and measure which one gets higher demand.

Why should you do it?

  • You can get qualitative metrics to create a business forecast.
  • You save a lot of time and money on creating products which your customers don’t want.
  • You can collect the emails addresses of people who might be your audience to test your next ideas, prototypes, or eventually become your customer.

The goal

What do I try to accomplish with the website and VR prototype?

The main goal is to Validate the Idea. I want to get a good sense of whether people need something like what I am trying to build or not. I need to know for certain if there is demand, before I get myself in debt. The main question I try to answer is: Do people need the product or service?

Validation criteria

To get the accurate feedback from your audience, three things need to happen:

1

They must know about the product. Your marketing and public relations channels must meet your audience.

2

They must understand the product’s value. Words, images, demos, and videos must communicate the value of the product and make potential customers feel it solves a problem or meets a need they have.

3

They must agree to the product’s cost. Potential customers must accept the price point and be willing to pay what you ask for the product.

Alright, I’ve got a good website and the prototype model. Visitors of my website get a good understanding of what this is and why it exists. There are bunch of photos and videos that showcase what it is. There is a blog page and “About” page which have detailed descriptions of the service. Also, VR model allows to get inside and look around. “Cool!” – some people might say. “So what?”. It’s not enough to showcase the idea, but make potential customers act. Preorders? Bookings? To avoid the “So what?” question, my potential customers must accept the price point and be willing to pay what you ask for the product. This means that I need to include the price and a way to pay – “Reserve online”.

It’s not enough just to launch a landing page, thinking it’s the right way to learn if people need you product. The problem is that the only question landing pages answer is “Are people interested enough to give us their email address?” You learn nothing about what people want or need. Humans have no idea what they need and will almost always be nice to people who ask them. It doesn’t cost them much to be nice and say it’s a great idea.

So what will be a good idea validation indicator? What needs to happen, so I can tell for certain – “Yes, people do want my product!”? The answer is – the ratio between how many people showed interest in the product/feature and the number of people who got exposed to the message about it. “Showed interest” means they either paid to buy the product, funded it, clicked the button to nowhere, or clicked through an ad. In my case it was “Reserve Now” button. People who were interested, would pick dates, location and reserve the stay. I will be assessing the ratio between visitors and bookings requests. The lower the ratio – the better.

What ratio will I consider “good enough” to go ahead and start building the product? Anything above 5. This means that out ever 100 visitors, I will want to see at least 20 bookings. In this case, I will be confident to say: “There is a demand for my service! Let’s build it!”. Anything below 5, will make me question my idea: “Do people really need it? Not sure…”.

Also very important to have the “right visitors”. You have to measure the demand among you target audience, not just anybody. Otherwise the results will be screwed and will not represent the real picture.

Experiments are by their very nature prone to failure

Jeff Bezos

After you have collected data, it’s time to evaluate, make an informed decision, iterate, and move on. When the threshold you’ve set in advance is crossed, or if participants are very enthusiastic about your offering, these are all great signals that potential customers recognize the value of your product, feature, or service and that they want it. This serves as validation, and you can go ahead to make progress with developing a product prototype.

In most cases, though, you will find that your assumptions are invalidated. You learn that your idea has failed. Potential customers don’t provide any clear signal they want your product. This is where a lot of entrepreneurs, product managers, and startup founders make bad decisions. Many of them decide to ignore what they learned and still chase their passion for making a product out of their idea.

Make informed decisions that will help you change your idea a little bit so that it appeals to your intended audience.

Research is to help inform your intuition. Sometimes, it’s the audience that you need to pivot, not the product. In any case, be sure to make a decision based on data you collect, then implement it, and experiment again. Iterate and test again. When you get frustrated that people don’t want your product, then change and test it—that’s innovation, design thinking, and user experience.

Before developing anything ask yourself:
Is this really the smallest test to validate my assumption? 

References:

Fake door — The MVP before the MVP | Hacker Noon. (2017). Retrieved 10 January 2021, from https://hackernoon.com/fake-door-the-mvp-before-the-mvp-61197ed264a3

Research, V. (2021). Validating Product Ideas Through Lean User Research :: UXmatters. Retrieved 10 January 2021, from https://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2016/02/validating-product-ideas-through-lean-user-research.php

Ries, Eric. The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. New York: Crown Business, 2011.

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COMMUNITY-BASED BUSINESS. How to build a Community around your brand?

My product is Deep Work Studio. My brand is based off the need of people for Deep Work – which is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task.

My questions are:

  • How to make deep work hot?
  • How to make it cool, so people will want to become a part of it? How can I make it mainstream?
  • Will it be a platform where people can share deep work spots? Places around the city, which are not their home, where they were able to work uninterrupted and get a lot done?
  • It used to be cool to take photos of your food and post on Insta. Folks can be sharing photos of their work setups? Unique workspots, saying like: “Hey! I’ve been working from this cool place”

In today’s turbulent world, people are hungry for a sense of connection. People participate in communities for a wide variety of reasons—to find emotional support and encouragement, to explore ways to contribute to the greater good, and to cultivate interests and skills, to name a few.

People are more interested in the social links that come from brand affiliations than in the brands themselves.

(HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW, 2009)
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OFFICE AS AN “EXPERIENCE”

The pace and style of learning were set by the institutions, following a one-size-fits-all model. This model has basically remained unchanged for the past 100 years. To think about that is scary. 

 As the World Green Building Council said: “There is overwhelming evidence which demonstrates that the design of an office impacts the health, wellbeing and productivity of its occupants”. 

The workplace impacts the business results!

The most direct benefit from flexible working comes from a perceived improvement in personal productivity. They attribute this to a less distracting, more conducive work environment away from an office environment.

We could put offices into three bucketts: 

  1. Offices as a ‘product’: floor area, for a price (rent) – your typical office
  2. Offices as a ‘service’: space and service, for a simple fee (daily, monthly, etc.) – co-working spaces as an example
  3. Offices as ‘experience’: more than the sum of (a) + (b); attraction; added value;

Office as “experience” is a very interesting idea. What kind of experience will people want to have in such place?

How about the experience of having a place to work in complete silence? Experience of working uninterrupted for hours straight? Experience of feeling concentrated and productive?

“Difficulty staying focused and avoiding distractions was reported by 22% of global knowledge workers and was a top concern for both those with and without children.“

(TEAM OF SLACK, OCTOBER 7, 2020)

To create some kind of experience that sensory deprivation facilities would offer. An experience of working in an unusual environment that is not only cool looking but also enhances your productivity and focus. A “Zen” place. A yoga studio, but in which you can work. How would your ideal workplace look like? What kind of environment do you need to be productive at work? What technology would you like to have at your disposal? Where would you build such a place? Next to your home, in downtown or somewhere in the middle of the forest?

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DESIGNING A DEEP FOCUS STUDIO: SUMMARY

We witness real-time the concept of office change. It’s not easy to adapt and every remote employee has his/her own challenges with that.

Top challenges of working from home

  • Unstable Wi-Fi or internet access – Technical
  • Maintaining and building working relationships with colleagues – Social
  • Staying focused and avoiding distractions – Mental
  • Feelings of loneliness or isolation – Social
  • Keeping up with what others are working on – Social

The main challenges are “social”. People are social creatures and lack of face-to-face interaction results in feeling isolated and maintaining relationships with others. Among social challenges are technical and mental. While technical problems can be fixed relatively easily, mental ones need a more serious approach. In my quest for helping people to be the best they could in this new environment, I decided to focus on the problem of focus and distractibility.

“Difficulty staying focused and avoiding distractions was reported by 22% of global knowledge workers and was a top concern for both those with and without children.“, (team of Slack, October 7, 2020)

My task is to create a service or product that will improve people’s focus and concentration. I have the assumption that there is a need for a place, where people can work uninterrupted. This place is not home, neither it is in the office. Rather than asking when workers will return to the office, companies should be asking what the office of the future will look like. It’s time to focus on new solutions. I want to create an environment that improves not only productivity but also employee well-being.

As a summary of my research, below are the lists of things I want to see in this “work boxes”:

INTERIOR design

  • Rooms painted in different colours:
    • Blue and green (generating new ideas)
    • Red ( attention to details)
  • Toggle Dimmers (customers set their own level of lighting)
  • Tall Ceiling (10 feet or taller)
  • Large Window/Skylight (with a view on nature)
  • Soundproof (all around)
  • Heater & AC (to maintain a comfortable temperature and constant ventilation)
  • Good Airflow (natural ventilation. allow access to operable windows)
  • Materials and Surfaces (no plastic. natural materials)
  • Live Plants

EQUIPMENT/FURNITURE

  • Standup Desk
  • Video Conferencing Equipment
    • High Definition Camera
    • Speakers
    • Microphone
  • Super Wide Curved Monitor (w/ ability to adjust the height if on standing)
  • Large Whiteboard (digital or regular)
  • Noise Canceling System (either headset or entire room)

Optically, surfaces in cool colours seem to recede, whereas warm colours, such as orange and red, appear to be closer. Walls rendered in cool colours make space feel like it’s expanding outward, while walls in warm hues can make the same space feel as if it were contracting. blue and green indicate that exposure to these hues also improves creative problem solving

BELLS AND WHISTLES

  • Unlimited snacks (coffee, tea, etc.)
  • Kitchen (fridge, microwaves) & Dining area
  • 24/7 Secure Access
  • Vintage Typewriter
  • Every 90-minute optional Breaks. Yoga and Breathing exercises
  • Discount for different anti-distraction apps to help people lock their focus (will come free with membership)

Location

Suburban areas of large cities. 30-40 minutes away from downtown. This is a distraction-free office as close as possible to your home, without actually being in your home. No commute. We are accessible and convenient. We are located in your neighbourhood.

College Towns. Especially around engineering/technical colleges. To provide students with a quiet space to study and take exams.

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