The Self-Made Expert Podcast: Recent Episodes
Philip Morgan
Sprinkled throughout the world of indie consulting are people who have found "orphan problems", adopted them, and cultivated the expertise necessary to solve those problems. The Self-Made Expert podcast is conversations with these people about their journey of cultivating expertise outside the world of academia and the licensed professions. With your host, Philip Morgan.
This was a delightful conversation, and one that made me laugh more than any in recent memory. Rob Fitzpatrick shares the journey from showering under a 5-gallon bucket in a warehouse scheduled for demolition to running a satisficing lifestyle business with $20k/mo in book revenue and a growing community.
Links:
- https://www.robfitz.com/home
- http://writeusefulbooks.com
This was a delightful conversation with emerging expert Denis Oakley. I especially loved how Denis "got his reps in" by selling business models on Upwork.
Links:
- denis@denis-oakley.com
- denis-oakley.com
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/denis-oakley-innovation/
- https://twitter.com/denisoakley
- https://www.youtube.com/c/DenisOakleyStrategyConsulting/videos
Jonathan suggested a followup conversation; I enjoyed hearing from him about his transition from surfing a once-in-a-generation tech wave to a very different kind of advisory business, his inventory of every nasty email he's ever received from his list, and how he runs inexpensive experiments.
Links:
- jonathanstark.com
- valuepricingbootcamp.com
Kyle and I discuss entering a new market, inventing new terminology, and pursuing a transformative agenda.
- https://www.superhelpful.com
- https://museumprogress.com
- You can sign up for the newsletter by visiting https://museumprogress.com/get-map-letters
John Jantsch talks about his new book on marketing, The Ultimate Marketing Engine: 5 Steps to Ridiculously Consistent Growth.
A wide-ranging conversation where Guillaume explains how he remains positive while building a novel framework for strategic narrative.
Chris Ferdinandi helps people learn vanilla JavaScript. He believes there’s a simpler, more resilient way to make things for the web. His developer tips newsletter is read by thousands of developers each weekday. Learn more at GoMakeThings.com.
Seth and I discuss becoming a storyteller, neuroscience, and how to tell a good story.
https://www.storifyagency.com/selfmade
Blair and I had a fascinating, wide-ranging conversation about how he became a self-made expert on selling creative services.
Gini Dietrich created a piece of intellectual property -- her PESO framework -- that has become very popular and trusted (and imitated). In this conversation, she describes the process of developing this IP.
I had a delightful conversation with Jonathan about his cultivation of self-made expertise.
Some time after we recorded this interview, Mike merged his business endeavors with those of his colleage Cory Quinn to form Duckbill Group, but any chance to share Mike's insight -- whether it reflects his current focus or not -- is worth doing, so I am publishing this interview despite it not reflecting Mike's latest trajectory.
I speak with David C. Baker about his upcoming book on selling advisory services. The COVID pandemic totally borked his release schedule, so as of the pub date of this podcast this book isn't available yet; consider this a teaser of an upcoming release.
David C. Baker and I had a wide-ranging conversation about how his expertise-powered business grew to over $1MM in annual revenue.
This letter might be for you. I can’t know, because the response to an email sent to a list is always a probability distribution, never a certainty. I reckon this email lands in a meaningful way for 4% of you.
It is audacious that I should want anything specific for you, other than a nice, warm, up-and-to-the-right curve for your happiness and achievement; a general and sincere well-wishing for your life. You should plot your own course.
And yet I persist in wanting specific things for you. Unreasonable things.
It's not the best summary of this episode, but it might be the most interesting: Stephen Warley of Life Skills That Matter talks about running weird businesses. We talk about a lot more — including how Stephen built a 2-sided marketplace that sold training to the broadcast industry and generated ~$600k/year in revenue.
This interview was originally livestreamed (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXvmJkXf_lc) and has been converted to audio for this podcast.
Jay Clouse is a writer, host of Creative Elements, and the creator of Freelancing School. He is also the founder of Unreal Collective, a community for creatives.
We had a surprisingly delightful conversation. I'm not surprised because I suspect anything about Jay, just that it's rare to encounter someone in the advice-to-freelancers game with such a refreshingly simple approach to cultivating new opportunity. Listen for more details.
This interview was originally livestreamed (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mETk6w4_IwU) and converted to audio here.
It really is harder for us to sell advisory services. But we can learn and adapt and grow.
There are 4 reasons why it's harder to sell advisory services.
With my clients, marketing is this extra burden. It's this other business function that requires work, learning, investment, and discipline. It's this extra job above and beyond service delivery, there's nobody to delegate it to, and even if there was it would be a multi-year apprenticeship rather than a simple task delegation.
But what if it wasn't? What if it wasn't an extra job; what if it was bundled with the service delivery? What if the service delivery itself was the marketing?
I believe a useful form of order can emerge from chaos. You can purposefully use focused chaos to create order.
I think I'm going to have to try this Twitch thing because there's something unique and valuable in the context it creates. Something I suspect more of us are hungry for.
A bullshit-free zone.
The question: "My biggest challenge is connecting the dots between what I want to do and then finding companies who are interested in those services."
This is such an important question. To turn it around on you, dear reader, are you happy following the market (building the specs that your client hands you) or do you want to lead the market in some way (design the specs that your clients follow)?
Links:
- http://theexpertiseincubator.com
- https://philipmorganconsulting.com/risk-profile-self-assessment/
- https://superhelpful.substack.com/subscribe
- https://theexpertiseincubator.transistor.fm/s1/9
- https://twitter.com/alanklement/status/1272616098953932800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
- https://twitter.com/minethatdata/status/1272667768765075456
- https://www.amazon.com/Alchemy-Rory-Sutherland-audiobook/dp/B07PQTT7B4/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=Rory+sutherland+alchemy&qid=1592317784&sr=8-2
- https://www.amazon.com/Ask-Counterintuitive-Discover-Customers-Business-ebook/dp/B07QZNNX36/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=ask&qid=1592313987&sr=8-4
- https://www.superhelpful.com
Read more of Jim's writing at https://contentaudience.com/blog/
More on Super Aggregators: https://stratechery.com/concept/aggregation-theory/
REMINDER: I'm running an 8-week online workshop on specialization, starting May 15. The price is $700 per seat, and attendance is capped at 20 (4 seats are available on a reduced price scholarship basis). My workshops teach you what you need to know, and then push you to take action. Most of the learning comes from the action you take in those 8 weeks and beyond: https://philipmorganconsulting.com/pmc-csw-specialization
The upcoming workshop on specialization, starting May 15, is this kind of experiment. You'll spend 2 weeks figuring out what kind of specialization seed you want to experiment with planting, and then you'll spend the rest of the workshop getting and interpreting feedback from the market.
Depending no how you look at it, this workshop is both high and low risk.
It's possible the market will ignore your specialization experiment harder than Vickie Thompson ignored my awkward attempts at love in the 7th grade. This is the high-risk part, kind of. It's uncertain that the workshop will lead you directly to a specialization that the market wants. At the same time, the potential for harm (the "pH level" of the workshop) is quite low. After all, we're dealing with inexpensive seeds here.
Even if the market ignores your specialization experiment, you'll get hands-on experience with an validation method that you can use repeatedly on your own. This is the low-risk part. Low uncertainty _and_ low potential for harm.
The workshop price is $700 per seat, and attendance is capped at 20 (4 seats are available on a reduced price scholarship basis). Sign up here: https://philipmorganconsulting.com/pmc-csw-specialization
REMINDER: The first step towards valuable expertise is specialization. I'm running an 8-week online workshop on specialization, starting May 15. The price is $700 per seat, and attendance is capped at 20 (4 seats are available on a reduced price scholarship basis). My workshops teach you what you need to know, and then push you to take action. Most of the learning comes from the action you take in those 8 weeks and beyond: https://philipmorganconsulting.com/pmc-csw-specialization
Transcript
Unknown Speaker 0:05
Go Phillip
Unknown Speaker 0:08
Graham, it is good to see you in the cabana.
Unknown Speaker 0:13
As for those listening on radio, this is my my world headquarters my my winterize cabana office. So, Philip and I have known each other now I think for three, maybe four years. Philip,
Unknown Speaker 0:27
that sounds about right. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 0:29
like that I've Phillips helped me with some coaching. And I've been an avid reader, all of his writing for for most of that time. And we were just shooting stuff back and forth on email a while ago, and I suggested there's a topic that I think is of interest to my audience, and so I thought it would be of interest to his audience. But before I go there, let's just do a quick introduction. Philip, would you like to start?
Unknown Speaker 0:54
I'll start, I have spent a lot of time helping people make this decision about how to specialize. I think it gives two benefits you can't get any other way. One is your marketing actually works. I think we'll talk a bit more about that today. And second, you can become what I call a self made expert. You know, without the benefit of academia or pedigree you can cultivate really meaningful expertise. That I think is why I'm most excited about this idea of specialization. Yeah, so that's the work I do. And I support people, perhaps like yourself, Graham, who are some flavor of self made expert.
Unknown Speaker 1:32
Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. So for those who don't know me, I am I help business leaders build a better business. on technology. Essentially, I've spent many decades in technology in various forms. And it's been my pleasure over the last dozen years, I think, to help well over 250 businesses in some capacity, so I get to see a lot of it and now Our topic today is, is there a flavor of specialization that's relationship based. And Philips been challenging me over the years to get more specialized or maybe say that I am. And I thought about this recently, and I think I am specialized and just specialized in a very broad field, which is not just technology. It's everything that sits around technology. I like to say that the technology is the easy part. And it's the it's the vision and the launch of the work and the navigation of the difficult changes that we do. It's change management, its its its usability, it's everything. So not only did I pick a very big field technology, I've now made it about five times the size and that's where I specialize. But Phillip, you've had some interesting perspectives on that over the years.
Unknown Speaker 2:51
Does it go as far as culture, the the sort of work that you do?
Unknown Speaker 2:55
It does, it does an very recent example that we were just talking about. As we're recording this, what is it March 30 2020? First? Yeah, yeah, we're that. So we're right in the middle, as everybody knows of a global crisis here that has forced a lot of businesses where possible to disperse the staff to working from home. those businesses that can do it have had to do that. To me, that's a relatively simple technical challenge, but it's a massive cultural shock for 90% of businesses that do not operate now. Right. So yeah, right. The culture,
Unknown Speaker 3:37
right. And so, we could argue, I suppose, or we could look at this through several lenses. One is, we're not specialized at all Graham. Like, there you know, you have probably thousands of competitors who are like something something culture, something something technology, but you're seeing it through a different lens that I think is really Interesting to dig into that lens is. Well, how would you describe it? You use the word relationship specialization. Let's unpack that.
Unknown Speaker 4:10
Yeah, yeah. Well, before you throw in relationship specialization, I was going to describe it as the human side of technology, which is a bit wishy washy, but that's really what it is. It's, it's not building it. So they will come it's it's building it with the customer, essentially, if they don't like it and stop building it. What's the point? Right, so to me, that's, that's around the human side. My book is called trusting technology, which is another aspect I think everyone has to trust the technology that they use. If you're making big financial decisions within a business as a CEO, then you have to trust it more probably. But whatever position you're in, if you don't like your tools, you can't do your job well. So trust is another element.
Unknown Speaker 4:57
I will jump in and yeah, flat flag. Those two things as a point of view, which is, yes, almost inseparable from some sort of specialization, but I just want to call that out for listeners, those are really great examples of two points of view. You have to be able to trust technology and the human component is just as important as the raw technological component. That's what I heard you say?
Unknown Speaker 5:22
Yes, yes. And when you said that back to me, that's what I heard me say to.
Unknown Speaker 5:29
So So this, this concept of a flavor of specialization that's relationship based, let me just dig a bit deeper into where that idea came from. I was reading a draft of Philips next book, I'm on the privilege list of people that get to do that and get feedback, which is fantastic. And just the insight that came to me is that I have worked in a relatively small community of clients. And we're not talking thousands here. We're talking kind of hundreds. And that's sustained. My business quite well for a dozen years. So it works. It works a whole lot better than having one client for 12 years, obviously. Yeah, in a number of ways, and one of the ways that I feel really enriched Is this a lot of variety in the businesses that I get to participate in. So to some extent, I'm doing the same kind of thing, but I'm doing it in lots of different contexts. And not surprisingly, a lot of people in that client network of mine know each other. That's how I got to know them. I mean, I would say if we were to draw this in circles are probably three circles that constitute mine client base, and breaking into a new circle is quite an interesting challenge. So I've sort of specialized in working for people who know each other and can give each other confidence or trust that I can do the job for those other people if they haven't made it.
Unknown Speaker 7:00
I'm just not sure if that specialization
Unknown Speaker 7:05
I think it is I'm drawing a little diagram that I'll reveal at the appropriate point in this competition show notes for that right.
Unknown Speaker 7:16
So
Unknown Speaker 7:18
let me ask a few more questions before we we try to diagnose this. This strain of specialization. Sorry, it's not bad. Bad coronavirus puns there. So how does how does that turn into business for you? Is it purely referral based? Or is there some other element by which your your thinking is introduced to this audience or what does that look like in general?
Unknown Speaker 7:44
So,
Unknown Speaker 7:47
I'll give a couple of examples here. So I've worked with a number of SEO mastermind groups. So these are groups of leaders small medium business, they typically meet 10 times here every month, and they kind of act as each other's pseudo board members. Yeah. And they're very, very supportive group. So it goes beyond just the business as well, like CEO has been lonely job. So it's great to hang out with other similar lonely people. And you can you can help each other. So ultimately they trust each other implicitly. So if I can do good work for one of them, and another one of them says, I've got a problem that is in this area, then an introduction, in that context to me, is very good. It's excellent. It's almost like sold, right. Obviously, there's a process to go through and we establish whether this there's a fit and stuff, but it works really well. So that's, that's one context. Another context and this is topical, I think is and I'm sure a lot of people I know including yourself are doing this where we're trying to find ways that we can help just because it's the right thing to do. We can help people through His current crisis whether that's in, you know, in technical tactics, or whether it's emotionally or whether it's strategically or whether we actually find an opportunity to help them start to figure out how they're going to rebound out of this when, when we're through it. I'm just doing that and doing it, because it's the right thing to do. Am I doing it because it's going to lead to business? Honestly, I don't really care. I think it probably will. I just believe if you do the right thing, that's the way it turns out. Yeah. So So those are two contexts that this, this works. I think, from a business development perspective, the barriers to entry, presented from giving are much lower than the barriers to entry represented from charging people. And so I think giving is probably a path and that route. It's easier to sell to someone who you've already given to, I think, and I know that's something you you subscribe to.
Unknown Speaker 9:57
Yeah, indeed. Well,
Unknown Speaker 10:02
there's sort of two ways to look at this one is just in terms of defining, is this a specialization? And it's, there's this idea of a beachhead. And I think this bridge is the two ways to look at it, which will sort of talk through here. The work it sounds like has some amount of diversity in it, mm work that you would actually do with, you know, when you look across the past 10 years, 250 or so clients, there's some diversity there, I'm guessing. Yes, you're right. And so we don't see specialization showing up there. But we see a lot of the hallmarks of specialization showing up in your relationship with this small group of people who I'm really curious about, I want to introduce an idea in a moment to kind of explore that but how similar are you to this group of people You see, do they see you as an outsider or an insider? Do you show up dress the same way they do? What does that look like?
Unknown Speaker 11:06
They would see me as an insider. Why? Well, um
Unknown Speaker 11:15
I guess. I mean, I do dress like them. Alright. That's an important point. I am. I guess my my career has been closer to that of a cx o than it has been, which is which is what they are. Right? And it has been anything else of many years. You know, I am CEO I'm CEO of a small company. I businesses are generally much bigger but you're running a business especially when you're selling and running the business. You know, there's there's a lot of empathy there, I think between us. But I do work at breaking those barriers down such as they exist very quickly. And I think that's just in how you relate to people like I try not to show up and stiff and x stiff, I try to cry Like a joke sometimes. Sometimes it goes too far, but very rarely I might add, you know, testing the waters, right. And I think in the case of these groups that I've become close to, we just have a lot in common. So I guess the answer based on that is Yeah, I'm, I'm an insider, and I have now anyway,
Unknown Speaker 12:21
now I'm wanting to know about the jokes that have fallen flat. So yeah,
Unknown Speaker 12:24
there'll be another version of this.
Unknown Speaker 12:28
It'll be you doing stand up for me.
Unknown Speaker 12:33
You have an audience specialization.
Unknown Speaker 12:37
That's, there's basically five ways and maybe this is helpful to some folks, maybe it's a bit of a repeat for some, but there's five ways you can specialize you can broadly you can specialize vertically in an industry or you can specialize horizontally in a type of thing that spans multiple industries. So it could be type of problem and Within horizontal specialization, you can specify you specialize in a platform. If you're in tech, the world of technology, actually, let's say you're in marketing. There are HubSpot specialists. That's a platform specialization. There are software developers who customize Salesforce. That's a platform specialization. You have the other kind of horizontal specialization, which is an audience specialization. And one of the examples I've used in the past is someone who does executive coaching for Fortune 500. CEOs, there's going to be exactly at any one time 500 of those, unless you have one of those weird companies as two CEOs, right? It might take us a slight bit about 500. But that's an audience and what defines the audience is they have something in common that is important to them.
Unknown Speaker 13:51
And
Unknown Speaker 13:54
that's, I think, what you're specialized in. What's interesting, I think, is Is your functioning as from from the sort of expertise perspective, you might look a bit more like a generalist and the typical specialist, but you found this beachhead into opportunity, which is pretty perhaps it's I'm not like devaluing the role that your expertise plays here. But it may be that your emotional connection, just to kind of simplify and abstract a bit. Your ability to emotionally connect and build trust with this group is what you have specialized in. Hmm. Now that may not be fair to the expertise that you bring to the table. But if we just kind of look at it that way, I think that's one way to describe how you specialized What do you think?
Unknown Speaker 14:50
Yeah, that's, that's interesting. Um,
Unknown Speaker 14:55
I, I'm fortunate that I only work with clients I want to work with and I don't say that lightly. I know. Yeah, we don't all have that luxury. And by and large, that's not because I've been in business for 12 years, it's been like that for most of the time alone. I'm sure it gets easier as you mature in your business. So. So, you know, again, I mean, that suggests that I feel like I'm an insider with them. Right? And I would only feel that way if if it was reciprocal. What what I, as you're talking here and thinking what I actually have been told many times, is that I translate or bridge a gap, let's say, between hardcore technologists, the experts, let's say in that, and business folks who have don't have the inclination to understand everything about the technology, they just want it to work. So you know, the metaphor might be I'm in a room with with with one of you And I'm sort of doing the translation, right, back and forth. But in a way that they're both gaining, right, and it's not like I'm translating different languages. I've been told that many times. So maybe that's my specialization. Maybe I'm an expert in experts.
Unknown Speaker 16:18
Well, if if we look at the expertise that that is part of how you create value for clients, that's certainly a significant component of it is this ability to do translation. There's, there's risk mitigation there. There's you prevent opportunity cost. I mean, there's all these things, ways that that shows up in terms of hard measurable value. Yeah, it may not be easy to measure, but it's, it's so valuable. So from the expertise side of things, that's what happens based on what I'm hearing from you when you're in a client engagement. That's one of the drivers of value. And so that's one of the things That makes your situation so interesting is there's there's these sort of different functional areas in which you specialized. You've got this, this horizontal specialization, which, from the expertise perspective is, I'm sorry to tell you, it, although it's not a problem. It's not that differentiated. Mm hmm. That means a lot of other people are like, yeah, I'm great at translating between, you know, the business people and tech people. I've heard that dozens of times from people. And that's not to dismiss or devalue it. It's it's incredibly valuable. And there might be 20,000 people on this planet right now, who can do that? Which is great. But it doesn't make you sound that different. But when you add in this other component of being able to build trust with the right people, that kind of unlocks the value of that, that expertise. That's sort of how I'm modeling what I'm hearing you say about yourself. Yeah, Does that ring True or is that
Unknown Speaker 18:00
it does? It does? That's a great insight. Because you're right.
Unknown Speaker 18:05
You know, if I'm ever filling out a
Unknown Speaker 18:08
one of those forms that asks you what you do, right? I don't know what to say. It's like, I could say consultant or I could say tech consultant or IT consultant or whatever. I'm none of those things, really.
Unknown Speaker 18:21
In our so that's the problem that all generalists almost all generalists have. Yeah. So you share that with them. But you have no problem cultivating business?
Unknown Speaker 18:32
Yes. Yes. No, that's, that's interesting. You know, I mean, I could say I'm an advisor, or I could say, I'm a consultant, or I could say, I'm a coach, you know, none of those quite fit, because I do advise, but then I'm often asked to help actually execute, which is fine. That makes it interesting. So none of those really fit but I think you're right. I mean, there's some sort of a Venn diagram. I think the world is all summarized in a Venn diagram of some kind, but I think there's one here, would you say is a big bubble is 20,000 people. And then there's a small bubble with overlap. And it's essentially which of those people have formed these kinds of close relationships with a a network, or specific network. In my case, it's a network of bias.
Unknown Speaker 19:21
You would have to be so tactful in doing this. Graham? Yeah, the real answer to what's different about you, looks like name dropping. And so you've got, I just made up the number 20,000 people who can effectively translate between the technical layer and the management layer, but let's just go with that for now. Yeah, that's your competition, right? What's different about you? You're talking to someone they've asked you for Graham, what's different about you? There's not you know, 19,999 other people who looked just like you on paper, what's different, and you just start naming names and after they've heard about five names that they recognize of other CEOs that they trust. They're like, okay, you can stop there. Right? Right. You can't do that. It's an experiential thing for them, of you being present in their world in a in the way that you are right? When I say presence, I mean showing up, perhaps, I don't know, if you show up in those masterminds, or whatever. But you've mentioned hosting CEO breakfasts, as, as a way of being present, you're being present in their world. And that sends the signal that accomplishes what specialization, a different form of specialization might be able to accomplish. So it's all it's that's what makes this kind of weird and difficult. And I think that's why when you say, Well, I think I'm specialized this way. It's all in this world of kind of intangible signals.
Unknown Speaker 20:51
Yeah, I like that. So what I'm asking myself, so I'm gonna ask you now is how does this translate to your community, the people that read and work with you. I don't know, I don't know how many folks are in this boat that say that. But I mean, how does this sort of model translate to make it valuable for them? How does it translate to their worlds?
Unknown Speaker 21:18
That's a good question. Let me take us on a tiny detour on the way there. I want to ask, I'll answer but I want to ask you, what's a book that you've waited way too long to read? Oh, for me, I'll answer. Why you think for me, that book is Everett Rogers book diffusion of innovation, which is absolutely woven into the sort of mental model that we use when we're thinking about the adoption of technology. It's that that sort of bell curve depiction where it's divided up into groups of innovators, early adopters, etc. I think a lot of folks recognize that right away. And I've been thinking about that in terms of have changed management essentially, in how you introduce ideas to a system, which is a system of people that could be a company that could be your network of CEOs. And here's the diagram. So all right, have this person. It's represented here as a single person, who's an innovator. And then you have the opinion leaders, there's usually several of those. And the flow of something new goes and I know folks who might be listening to audio of this don't have the benefit of my hastily sketched out diagram, but I think you'll get it. The innovator usually stands at some, they're they're a part of the social system, whatever it is, but they're a little bit removed from it. And they're not trusted in the way that the opinion leaders are. But the the innovation tends to flow through the innovator, whoever that is, or it could be a small group of people. Raiders, I think it's something like 3.5%. Yeah, in general, in the Rogers diffusion model, the opinion leaders are who actually get that distributed. And I see something like that in your description, Graham of your relationship with the CEOs. They're sort of the I mean, it's not like that, well, they're, they're the gateway to the change that you're trying to create, right? Like they kind of I assume, in your work, are putting their sort of political capital, their authority into creating the change, you function as this sort of innovator. And so there's a symbiotic relationship between you and them. They need you for the ideas and the and the sort of help us create this change, but you need them to actually have the change happen. Yeah. And I just see that model showing up in your mind. mapping out your relationships. I don't know that it's directly related to the specialization question, but it's just interesting to notice that
Unknown Speaker 24:07
I like that. I like that. Well, I'm going to be thinking about myself quite differently again. And for those of you listening, this is the kind of experience you get when you read Philips book. I'm not plugging it, but I suppose I am. It's gonna be good. And I gotta say, every page pretty much I'm rethinking things. So. So.
Unknown Speaker 24:27
So what's real quick, what's the book that you waited too long to read?
Unknown Speaker 24:30
Um, I am. I've read it recently. So I did. And I actually I read it a long time ago, but it's, it's by Clayton Christensen. And he's famous for innovators dilemma. He's famous for jobs to be done, but his book is actually called How will you measure your life and as you read it, and as a lot of people may know, Clayton was a Harvard professor. 25 years passed away, unfortunately. A month or two ago. But it felt to me like he was writing to his students on, you know, go into life with these life lessons. And it's interesting he wove advice about everything from raising kids to I don't know, all kinds of life things, right? into essentially his his business advice that he gives to his business clients. The book was written, I think about a decade ago, 2010 or so. But I recommended How will you measure your life? It's a great read. He's a really good writer, and there's so many pearls of wisdom in there. I wish I'd read it before I had my kids, I have to tell you that, you know, there's all kinds of books like that. So that's my book. Wonderful. It's my book. So how do we how do we sort of wrap this and make this as useful as possible? I mean, you know, we did pose a question Is there a flavor of specialization is relationship based and I think
Unknown Speaker 25:59
you You're the opposite. You're the expert. I think you've said yes, there is that? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 26:04
Yeah, we'd call, we would call it an audience specialization. My I would bet money, that you have a heightened insight into the needs of your audience. And there's an expertise that you apply. That's a little fuzzy looking. It seems like you're somewhat of a generalist when it comes to this, you know, weaving together, change management, and technology and culture and all those things like that is the domain of a of a really valuable generalist. And so I think the lesson here is pretty simple. specialization gives you leverage. expertise is not the only place where you can apply that leverage. You've Well, let me ask you this. Have you ever been seduced in a way that would want to take You away from this focus on this group of CEOs? Have you ever been tempted to say, You know what? I just don't know if it's the work worth the work to build up these relationships? The grass is greener over there.
Unknown Speaker 27:13
No, no. And I think, I think specific examples of that. And this has happened a few times where I've, let me say, I've been offered an opportunity to do something other than my business. I've always stuck with the business. Because I like the variety. And maybe that makes it harder for me, maybe I'm just not a natural specialist in the true sense of the word because I like variety. I don't know, I'm not. I know you're gonna start now saying you can go real deep and I take that back. But I like I like the range of things that I get asked to do. And it's hard to reconcile that with my view of specialization. Let me put it that way.
Unknown Speaker 27:54
That's perfect. Normally that that desire to to To have that variety would work against your ability to use specialization as a lever. Normally those would be in conflict, you have resolved that tension. And okay, so you weren't ever sort of like tempted to build a different relationship asset, but you've built a specialized relationship asset that lets you apply a sort of more generalized looking expertise asset to really valuable problems and make good money doing that. Hmm. That is a beautiful
Unknown Speaker 28:38
jujitsu move.
Unknown Speaker 28:41
I didn't even know I was doing it. I was that.
Unknown Speaker 28:43
No, but you were there was some sense that you were following some sort of like feeling of this is the right way to do it. I can't go super focused in terms of my expertise. I don't want to what else where else can I get leverage? And I am confident because of this survivorship bias that pretty much ensures that people don't get to where you are unless they have that sort of nose for opportunity. You just I just see you have as having specialized in building up a really valuable relationship asset. That's how I would describe it, right relationship asset. And you specialize in a pretty narrow, pretty addressable audience to to build that up. And that's so you are a specialist Graham, you can rest easy at night.
Unknown Speaker 29:34
I get the T shirt.
Unknown Speaker 29:36
You know, the the sort of contours of the specialization look different.
Unknown Speaker 29:39
Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you. That was that was very helpful for me, Philip. I hope it was helpful for everyone listening. Obviously. I'm going to wrap now but I'm going to wrap with a question that if there's enough interest, we might have another conversation because this is conversation but you know, when I was looking that question before, we got on zoom here together, I thought myself You know, is there a place for specialization that relationship based the perhaps the flip side of that is, I don't believe you can do business without some form of relationship. So maybe that relationship term takes on different meanings. I was thinking of it, as you know, in the context of a specific, narrow network. Yeah. But let's face it, you don't sell to companies, you sell to people, and you can't sell without some form of relationship. So maybe that's something we could talk about another time.
Unknown Speaker 30:27
There is a really interesting bridge there to this idea of being present with the people those you're trying to reach. And, yeah, we will need to allocate another time slot for that. There's a lot to say about that. There is
Unknown Speaker 30:44
Yeah. Well, thank you,
Unknown Speaker 30:46
Graham. It was such a pleasure to talk about this with you.
Unknown Speaker 30:49
Yeah. It was great. Yeah. And we will we'll share this with our various communities and see if we can get even better relationships, the result? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 30:58
All right. Take care.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Does anything change for the better if you view your clients as an investment portfolio?
Links:
- https://www.getdrip.com/forms/54767916/submissions/new
- https://anthonyenglish.com.au/
This is the Howard Stern interview I analyze: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGHrYS-1IWo
In this episode I describe how I approach helping my clients and workshop participants decide how to specialize.
Some of you can do this stuff on your own. Your intuition or naturally assertive decision making style will take you there—perhaps with some iteration along the way—without any outside help.
This long-form audio essay is for the rest of you.
Links:
- Read this article on my website: https://philipmorganconsulting.com/a-framework-for-deciding-how-to-specialize/
- I mention an interview with Corey Quinn as an example of horizontal specialization: http://consultingpipelinepodcast.com/119
- I mention an interview with Evan McBroom as an example of following a connection: http://consultingpipelinepodcast.com/100
- I mention Matt Rogish as an example of pursuing an entrepreneurial theory: http://consultingpipelinepodcast.com/120
- The NAICS drilldown table: https://www.naics.com/naics-drilldown-table/
- I mention David Baker's work on market size: https://www.davidcbaker.com/how-man-competitors-and-prospects-should-you-have
Links:
- https://www.quinnadvisory.com/
- https://www.screaminginthecloud.com/
- https://lastweekinaws.com/
- https://twitter.com/quinnypig
Specialization School, especially the Decision Making workshop, can help you with the "switching cost" associated with moving from generalist to well-positioned specialist: https://philipmorganconsulting.com/specialization-school/part-1-decision-making-workshop/
Links:
- https://www.scienceplusstory.com/
- https://twitter.com/rlalasz
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertlalasz
Links:
- https://www.scienceplusstory.com/
- https://twitter.com/rlalasz
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertlalasz
Links:
- https://www.fishhook.us/
- https://twitter.com/evanmcbroom
- https://www.fishhook.us/hooked
Links:
- https://twitter.com/ericmwhite
- https://www.ericmwhite.com/
- https://idealizedinnovation.com/
Links:
- https://www.foregroundweb.com/
Miscellaney:
The name I couldn't remember regarding "building a vision" is Jim Camp. If you haven't read his book "No: The Only Negotiating System You Need for Work and Home" (not the other one that's available on Kindle; it sucks) then do not tarry. Read this book or an equally good book with a very similar perspective: "Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It" by Chris Voss. Better yet, read them both and learn about the power of empathy and questions.
The songs that got me so amped up prior to recording the introduction for this show were "Bullet in the Head" and "Know Your Enemy", possibly my favorite one-two punch by Rage Against the Machine, mostly because of the incredible bass work by Tim Commerford and the bone-chilling vocal outro on "Know Your Enemy".
Links:
- http://www.messaginglab.com/
- https://twitter.com/karlschmieder?lang=en
- http://www.whatsyourbiostrategy.com/
Links:
- https://www.davidcbaker.com/
- https://jalopnik.com/the-fascinating-company-that-tears-cars-apart-to-find-o-1787205420
At a certain point in the podcast, David talks about a grid that he made to illustrate the idea of a "black box". He's given me permission to share that grid with you here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1THiuk0DKrzAPkgUV2xftHZNGaLXhIyWX/view
Links:
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielreed/2016/04/14/americans-love-to-fly-they-also-complain-about-it-a-lot-but-probably-less-than-you-think/
Liston Witherill teaches you how to cultivate marketing partnerships that get your work, ideas, book, etc. exposed to a much larger audience than you have access to on your own.
I have a soft spot for training because a big part of my background is in technical training for adults.
So I'm always enthusiastic about the idea of devs diversifying their income and increasing profitability by offering training services in addition to development work.
Reuven Lerner is the ideal person to teach you about getting started in training because he's done it himself. He's landed recurring training clients, some of which are household tech names. He builds and refines his own curriculum from scratch. He runs a Facebook group for devs who are interested in getting into technical training: https://www.facebook.com/groups/techtraining/
From a profitability perspective, training is very attractive because of how deterministic the pricing can be. Strictly productized services aside, training is priced more like a product than almost any other service I can think of except for services like massages, haircuts, etc. Pricing is usually set on a per student per day basis. For example, you might charge $300 per student per day, and collect $9,000 for a 3-day class with 10 students attending.
Compared to a software project that might just as easily take 9 months to complete as 3, that is highly predictable revenue once the sale is made, and that predictability has a beneficial effect in planning your other revenue-generating activities.
Jake Jorgovan teaches you how to generate leads on LinkedIn. Only works for specialized companies!
Wrapping up my review of David C. Baker's new book, The Business of Expertise: http://expertise.is
Diving a bit deeper into a casual, wordy review of "The Business of Expertise" by David C. Baker: https://www.expertise.is/
You may ask yourself... where has Philip been? You may ask yourself... how do I work this?
Your current website is probably doing jack sh*t for your business development. Oh also.... read this book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307345742/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_dp_T1_jT5GzbSRKEK5Q And finally, buy this product http://referralcourse.net/ and use the discount code INFINITEPIPELINE to get 20% off!
How different his life would have been! How many great opportunities would have come his way if he'd pushed through the discomfort!
Garrett talks about that first part of making the transition from coding to providing technical leadership/advisory services.
I talk to Josh Doody, salary negotiation expert for software developers, about a recent change to his positioning.
How can you be getting on the phone with research sources when you're chained to your desk at a full time job?
That's my guest Matt Krause talking about the relationship between narrowing your focus and word of mouth, which has driven huge profitability gains for his small consulting business.
- Caveat: you're GOING to think I paid an actor to get on here and shill for narrow focus. It lines up with EVERYTHING you've ever heard about the benefits of narrow focus.
- What's amazing about Matt's story is how miniscule his initial market was. 6 companies. You heard right... 6 potential clients in the niche he narrowed down to! Matt talks about the mental and emotional blocks you have to get through to pull this off, and the dramatic upside he's seen from doing it.
- One such benefit is word of mouth. I'm paraphrasing here, but Matt says the first question out of a prospective client's mouth now is, "when could you start?". Of course Matt still has to qualify them for fit, but it's a dramatically easier, cheaper sale to make.
A spoke with Ben Krueger of Cashflowpodcasting about how podcasting can be a great way for a consultancy to get leads and new business. Also... a few notes about the end of Season 1 of this show and what you can look forward to in Season 2!
- http://www.edisonresearch.com/the-podcast-consumer-2015/
- http://businessunleashed.com
- http://cashflowpodcasting.com
- http://cashflowpodcasting.com/pipeline
I spoke with Samuel Hulick about his journey from general UX designer to being well known as the "user onboarding guy". I was particularly struck by several aspects of Samuel's story:
- He really embraced constraints in his marketing and kept it simple
- While writing his book, he had a somewhat limited runway paved with a credit card. I was impressed with his ability to produce a successful book under that kind of pressure.
- He has a very interesting story about the process of finding a match between what you do and how your customers talk about what you do in their own language.
- http://useronboard.com
I spoke with Paul Jarvis about the benefits of focusing on a specific audience. Paul is perhaps the most internet famous of my guests so far, and I was interested in speaking with Paul about the role that saying "no" plays in building a successful freelance business.
- https://twitter.com/pjrvs
- https://pjrvs.com/
- https://pjrvs.com/signup
Kai Davis and I discuss active listening and how it relates to consulting. If you're curious about active listening and how you can better at it yourself, you'll enjoy this episode.
- http://DoubleYourAudience.com/cpp/
In this episode Liston Witherill talks about the role that specificity plays in getting your message across to prospects and clients. Liston is a professional copywriter who helps technology companies get more leads and conversions.
I wanted to speak with Liston because any positioning statement ultimately has to be articulated in ways that involve the written word, and I knew Liston would have some valuable input on how to do that very effectively.
- http://goodfunnel.co
- https://twitter.com/law4
There's one thing I've never heard anyone else say about doing a great interview. This episode digs into that one powerful technique, and covers a few others too.
Mentioned:
- Kai Davis at http://doubleyouraudience.com
- http://mixergy.com/about/
I wanted to talk to Gale because he is still technically in the positioning process, although he's chosen a position and he's more in the late validation and early execution stage of that process.
That means he has just recently dealt with some issues that are normally a huge a mystery.
- How do you properly validate your focus on a particular market segment?
- How do you prevent fear and doubt from derailing you?
- How do you get started executing on a new position? What are the first steps?
http://galestafford.com
Kenna Cote is absolutely killing it in a tiny, weird niche. Kenna teaches people who make handmade soap how to do a better job of running their business. To become a leader in her niche, Kenna had to overcome external resistance, fear, and other obstacles. She tells her story here.
Find out more about Kenna:
- http://modernsoapmaking.com
The term "positioning" was coined in 1972 by Al Ries and Jack Trout, and big product brands have used positioning to gain competitive advantage ever since then. I interviewed Al Ries about how the concept of positioning applies to professional services businesses.
Al was game for a podcast interview, but he has some hearing loss so we did an email interview instead. My friend Jonathan Stark was kind enough to read Mr. Ries' part of this interview so that it could be delivered as a podcast.
- http://ries.com
Is an expert defined by how much they know about a subject in an absolute sense? If so, does that information need to be relevant? Can memorizing a book on chemistry from 100 years ago make you an expert?
Or is expertise not about absolutes, like how much you know? Is expertise instead defined by how helpful the expert is in light of some goal? So if the goal is to send people into space, then experts on the geology of Antartica are not very helpful while experts on space travel are.
Finally, who decides who is and isn't an expert? Is it the expert themselves, or some authority, or just anybody? Who decides if a heart surgeon is really an expert? The surgeon, the American Medical Association, or you?
This episode is a sort of meditation on expertise.
I spoke with Travis and his business partner Michael Steele about their journey towards having a more narrow focus in their business.
This was a particularly interesting interview for me because Travis and Michael walked me through the entire process from end to end: the decision around what to focus on, the early uncertainty and fear, the market research, and the implementation and results.
- http://brightagency.net
- https://twitter.com/tnorthcutt/
- https://twitter.com/el_steele
I spoke with interaction designer Nick Disabato about one of the most common fears around specialization: the fear of boredom. In this episode, Nick shares his journey towards specialization.
This conversation brought out several fascinating points about choosing a specialization, changing a specialization, and using specialization as a tool to create a sustainable profitable business.
- https://draft.nu/
- http://nickd.org/
- http://cadence.cc/
In The Positioning Manual for Technical Firms, my short book on positioning your development shop, I talk about several fears you will face as you narrow your focus.
One of the fears I mention there is the fear of boredom. That's what this audio essay is about.
Bore.... dom.
The main idea is this: we tend to fear that if we specialize in solving an expensive problem, we will get bored very quickly with our work. Then what? Will we be stuck in a boring job that we created for ourselves and crying ourselves to sleep on $500 bedsheets? Will we be doing the exact same set of activities day in and day out for our clients?
Jonathan Stark covers quite a few topics in this interview:
- Making a small, safe bet on your new positioning
- Focus as a way to attract customers
- Sorting through your broad, varied interests to find a focus
- Focusing your marketing to achieve resonance with third-party validation
- How focused blogging led to a book deal, which led to client demand
- The importance of speaking gigs
- How your marketing needs to be focused but your work with clients can actually be more diverse
- The importance of building trust
- The value of starting small when exploring a new niche
- How being a specialist helps you find customers more easily
Learn more about Jonathan at http://expensiveproblem.com
In my coaching and consulting work, I've encountered several situations where my client sees the benefit of building a list but feels quite nervous about putting themselves out there by writing content for a list.
I have an idea that I think will help.
Useful Information
- http://rainmaker.fm/audio/rainmaker/content-curation-business/
- http://rainmaker.fm/audio/rainmaker/content-curation-positioning/
- http://rainmaker.fm/audio/rainmaker/curated-email-list/
- http://rainmaker.fm/audio/rainmaker/curation-traffic-strategies/
- http://rainmaker.fm/audio/rainmaker/social-advertising/
- https://blog.bufferapp.com/guide-to-content-curation
- http://www.razorsocial.com/content-curation-tools/
- http://www.business2community.com/brandviews/buffer/rise-curated-newsletter-20-best-newsletters-full-good-links-share-01143473
- http://www.copyblogger.com/curated-email-newsletter/
- http://mailchimp.com/about/press-releases/2013-03-20/
- http://devchat.tv/freelancers/the-freelancers-show-133-running-a-successful-newsletter-with-peter-cooper
Useful Tools
- https://curated.co/
- http://curationtraffic.com/
- http://www.flashissue.com/
- http://www.scoop.it/
Examples:
- http://www.freelancechi.com/
- http://further.net/
Interior designer Cheryl Janis shares how she overcame the many fears she faced during her journey towards positioning her business.
- http://cheryljanisdesigns.com
- https://twitter.com/Cheryl_Janis
Kai Davis talks about how focusing on your audience is a key part of positioning your business.
- http://kaidavis.com
Sometimes positioning is not about going from generalist all the way to fully focused expert. It can be a more gradual process.
Kurt Elster saw explosive growth when he moved his agency from building brochure websites to a focus on a single service for a single platform.
- http://ethercycle.com
- http://websiterescues.com
- http://kurtelster.com
- https://twitter.com/kurtinc
- http://dripprofits.com
My guest Eric Davis was booked solid for months after he became "the Redmine guy".
Find out more about Eric at:
- http://theadmin.org
- http://littlestreamsoftware.com
- https://twitter.com/edavis10
What is this podcast all about?
Well, it's about overcoming the paradox that prevents our consulting businesses from becoming highly compensated, highly in demand.