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Episode 160 – Why Is Choosing A Target Market So Difficult? (Narrower Is Better)

Entrepreneurship, Podcast / By Randy Cantrell

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Business often looks like a typical dart board…full of holes!

There’s riches in niches. Go narrow, go deep. These are terrific bits of advice.

They’re also very hard for people to figure out. I know because I’ve been helping business owners figure it out for a long time. It’s always (always) the first point of conversation, especially with business owners struggling to find a new level of success.

I now understand the dilemma better. I can’t fully explain it, but I do understand how it feels to be confused about a target market. I started looking in the mirror and realized I had no clue about my own target market.

My challenge was compounded due to my lifelong experience, my indifference to any particular industry or space and my utter contentment and satisfaction with just about any selected space. In today’s show I’ll explain my own situation in hopes you can look at your own, and better figure out a few things.

Just remember, it’s one thing to take aim at a particular target…it’s something different to actually hit it. That picture illustrates how many businesses aim and execute serving a target market. The target ends up with a bunch of holes all over the place. Part of that is the process necessary as we figure things out. We just have to make sure that we’re working to figure things out and not aimlessly throwing things toward the target. People often confuse them for the same activity.

Progress doesn’t have to be intentional. Sometimes we find success because we’re putting in the work and a happy accident happens. An accident that wouldn’t have occurred if we hadn’t shown up and put in the effort. But there are other times when we’re spinning our wheels by doing things without thinking…hoping something good will happen. Not a good way to go.

Like a good game of Battle Ship, we want to hit more than we miss!

Here were some of the things that were crucial for me. Your list might look very different.

a. Don’t want to be gone from home alot
b. Don’t want employees
c. Don’t want a long commute
d. Want high margins
e. Want to create digital learning (and help)
f. Want to be able to give more to causes

Later on I added a 7th – and very important – criteria. It’s a criteria that I think is worthwhile for anybody! The first 6 aren’t universal, but that 7th one is. It’s something that you must give lots of thought. And in thinking about it, you have to be true to who you are. It’s why I’m fond of various profile assessments that can help us know ourselves better. You don’t want to serve a market that isn’t a good fit for you.

P.S. Did I say “strategical” during today’s show? I certainly did. Come on, every podcaster makes up words. I’m adding that new word to my podcasting dictionary. 😀

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Special Episode – Are You An Over 40 Victim Of Fate?

Entrepreneurship, Personal Development, Podcast / By Randy Cantrell

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I may be late, but at least I'm closer than 200 years. — I may be late, but at least I’m closer than 200 years.

I was once a fan of Jimmy Buffett. When I was younger. His early days. And I’ve never had so much as a single drink of alcohol. Go figure.

By the time he moved from the gulf coast to the mountains of Colorado to find himself, I was long gone as a fan. So when he returned to the Florida Keys and found his way back home to the gulf, I had been away from his current music for a few years, but his earliest work continued to be in my ear buds pretty regularly. Well, to be fair — I’ve always loved his voice. The whole Parrothead thing escaped me though. But, this isn’t about Jimmy Buffett so much. It is about one of his songs though. A song that I’ve sung thousands of times while driving in the car.

I’m out and about and “A Pirate’s Look At 40” pops into my head. I’ve seen him perform it live many times – pre-Cheeseburger in Paradise Jimmy Buffett.

Part of the lyrics are…

Yes I am a pirate, two hundred years too late
The cannons don’t thunder, there’s nothin to plunder
Im an over-forty victim of fate
Arriving too late, arriving too late

And so in keeping with the last few posts/podcasts/videos here – I began to wonder about my place in time. It’s not something we can do much about, but there are a few takeaways that might be able to help us.

Mentioned:

• Myers-Briggs test
• StrengthsFinder
• DISC profile (this is the one I couldn’t think of)
• Perry Marshall’s Marketing DNA Test

Today’s show was recorded out and about – not Inside The Yellow Studio. Give it a listen, it’s short.

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Episode 159 – When You Blend In…You Don’t Stick Out!

Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Podcast / By Randy Cantrell

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Which economy are we now in? I forget.

Information? Knowledge?

We’re definitely still in the “Attention” economy, but haven’t we always been?

We want to stand out from the crowd.

But…we also want to fit in.

We want to hear about how really successful people did it…so we can do it, too. Over and over you hear the question asked, “How did you do it?” That’s because we think there’s some secret that we don’t know. And it’s because we don’t want to put in the work…especially if we can just copy somebody else’s work. Remember those jerks in school who’d stretch their arms over their desk so we couldn’t see their work? We hated those smart alecks.

But if we’re all copying each other – or if we’re all copying the successful people and trying to do exactly what they did – won’t we end up blending in? If we all dress alike, talk alike, work alike…won’t we be alike? And then, won’t that make us all average?

Is your brain tired yet? Mine is always tired. But such is the life when you have to live with my brilliance! It’s a curse.

Well, here’s what we really want…

To be part of the crowd, but we want the crowd to applaud us, follow us, friend us, subscribe to us, read us, watch us, buy from us, and hold us up above all the rest.

We want to be like everybody else…but better!

With more business. With more followers. With more fame. With more income.

Well, of course. Why not?

Indeed. Why not?

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Bula! Minute 001 – When There Is No Wind, Row!

Personal Development, Podcast / By Randy Cantrell

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Bula! Minute (noun) – a brief audio centered around one thought or idea; normally a short podcast lasting 3-4 minutes

A super-quick audio that conveys an important, if not urgent, message. It’s about the necessity to take action.

While I’ve always loved the phrase, “When there is no wind, row!” — I really think we should row even when there is wind.

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Episode 157 – Act Like A Kid: Turning Dreams Into Reality Through Pilfering And Cleverness

Entrepreneurship, Personal Development, Podcast / By Randy Cantrell

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Piney woods, a childhood haven for imagination — Piney woods, my childhood haven for imagination*

Pine needles still provoke calm and creativity. I spent hours laying on the floor of piney woods, clearly away the pine cones to make a soft spot where I could just lay on my back and gaze up into the trees. The trees were usually too thick to see the sky. I had another spot or two where the pine trees were enormous, but not nearly as close together. I’d go to those spots if I wanted to look at the clouds drift by.

As kids we were either working to build a fort, a cart to roll down the hill or some other medieval-inspired project or we were playing hard. It didn’t seem we spent much time doing anything else, but there was a third thing we often did. It was a vital part of doing those first two things. Thinking. Dreaming. Conjuring up ideas. Being creative.

Every fort I ever built, every cart I ever dared drive (after helping build it), every tree house…they all began in my head and in the heads of my friends.

Nobody talked to us about that stuff. Parents didn’t talk about it. Teachers sure didn’t. We didn’t read books.

Adults read books about creativity, passion and doing cool things. Kids just think them up, then do them. And if our ideas didn’t work, the fun was in figuring out how to make it work!

It’s sorta sad to think of how many books on creativity I’ve read since I’ve been grown. And you know what? I needed to read them, and that makes it even sadder. As adults we analyze things. As kids, we just do them.

Maybe it’s time for us to be more like kids. I’m going to take a drive to the east Texas piney woods and go lay down for awhile.

* Photo courtesy of Bruce Crooks via Flickr

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Episode 156 – If Business Was Easy, Everybody Would Do It (Increased Sales Won’t Fix Everything)

Entrepreneurship, Podcast / By Randy Cantrell

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If Business Was Easy, Everybody Would Do It

Increased sales won’t cure everything. It’s fool’s gold to think you can sell your way out of every problem.

My work focuses only on 3 things:

• helping my clients get new customers

• helping my clients serve customers better

• helping my clients not go crazy in the process

But…

Not every business problem can addressed by these 3 things. Business can be stressful.

Sometimes we encounter product or inventory problems. Sometimes we may encounter a legal problem, or an HR problem. We can have a major computer problem. Or an accounting problem. Businesses have lots of moving parts so there’s always something that can break.

When your computer system is down, increased sales won’t help. Well, it may help you throw more money at the problem to get it fixed, but you still have to get the computer system back up.

Many business stresses can be solved by correctly addressing the 3 things I focus on, but not all of them.

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