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Category: General

Gimme More Competition

General

I hear a lot of hasbeenpreneurs complain that they quit because there was too much competition.

The thing is, if you don't have any competition you are probably in the wrong place. There is probably a good reason no one else is doing what you are doing.

Seth Godin recently wrote about this:

Competition is a signal. It means that you're offering something that's not crazy. Competition gives people reassurance. Competition makes it easier to get your point across. Competition helps us understand that people like us do things like this.

How to Outsmart Your Brain in 5 Seconds

General

Sometimes, or most times, our brain can be our own worst enemy. Its default setting is self-preservation and that mode knows squat about the big picture.

To remedy this, Mel Robbins invented the 5-second rule. It's quite simple really. When you get a thought worth acting upon, like "I should cold call that big shot CEO", or "I should go over and ask that girl out", you should act within 5 seconds. That way you'll work faster than your brain can kick in its all too familiar "voice of reason".

Here it in her own words in her now famous Tedx talk.

Scale All The Way?

General

Nowadays marketing is all about automation.

At Imaginio however, we’ve got our best clients by unscaleable methods – like detailed personal cold emails, coffee meetings, etc.

Automation is the marketing utopia everyone longs for. The holy grail where you “set and forget”, and watch the dollars roll in.

But sometimes it’s good to go old school, and continue with the tried and tested.

Dunkin’ (sans Donuts)

General

Dunkin’ Donuts is dropping the “Donuts” in its branding. According to their CEO, it’s an effort to “increase its reputation as a ‘beverage-led, on-the-go brand'”. An increasingly health conscious consumer tries to stay away from high sugar foods like doughnuts.

Both KFC (F.K.A Kentucky Fried Chicken) and Starbucks (F.M.A. Starbucks Coffee) has successfully diversified their menus in the past.

There’s a pattern here.

Start with a niche, and crush it there. Then diversify and go mainstream.

Winners Never Quit

General

Except they do, all the time.

They quit their failures. They don’t let irrelevant things like sunk costs, saving face, or unwillingness to admit defeat cloud their judgement.

Winners also quit while they’re ahead, when they’re already up the hill and the only way left to go is down.

Winners become winners because they quit things that need quitting.

So when should you quit a project and when should you persist? There’s a great discussion on that on the Tim Ferris Show.