I used to own a boutique, 5,000 square foot personal training facility a few years back. Sadly, this article is on the money. We hired strength coaches with degrees in exercise physiology or athletic training and were fanatical about form and outcomes. We wanted clients to re-up not because they'd become best friends with a trainer or been entertained, but because they were experiencing measurable changes in whatever metrics were relevant to them (which we tested on a regular basis). We were very much the exception to the rule in a world where places like Crossfit didn't even exist yet.
The commentary on big-box fitness clubs is also dead on. It's all about maximizing revenue / sq ft, not changing lives. That leads to a 40% industry attrition-rate, because the offerings and environment are so broken, off-putting and ineffective. What other industry survives when you need to regenerate 40% of your client base every year just to stay at zero-growth? Insanity.
Last stat, for more than 30 years, the fitness industry has been trying to attract what's perceived as the holy grail, sedentary adults. But, no matter how much marketing they throw at the market, 85% of US adults refuse to join or stay members of clubs, even though more than 90% say exercise is mission-critical to their ability to live the lives they want to live.
I sold my last facility 4 years ago, but just writing this is reminding me how ripe this space still is for mass-disruption. Crossfit is doing a great job, but there's still so more that can and should be done.
Awesome story. Been taking the same approach with my daughter. She's now 10 and is pretty fearless about wielding any tool or material needed to design whatever she's working on.
Reminds me of a story I once saw about Tinkering School for kids, where they let the kids conceive and builds project together. http://www.tinkeringschool.com/
Question also is, what happens when you put 10 good creators in a hyper-engaged creative environment with 10 great ones? Are good performers simply good because of their innate capabilities or can regular interaction with greatness help tease out capabilities that were previously buried?
Actually the post isn't about the effect of "lost" competition. It's about the difference between internally vs externally placed competition and how if you're driven largely by external competition, that will very likely eventually cap your creative potential.
That was the point of the post and the reason for the title.
I work from home and have a great setup. I'm also a moderate introvert, but I end up going to work at cafes and outdoor space because I also love to be around the intangible energy of other people, even if I'm not saying a word to any of them. Plus, I sense the ability to add novelty to my environment helps trigger a certain bump in creativity.
1 - This is almost entirely a fiction phenomenon, at least for now. While there are plenty of nonfiction books priced at 99 cents, the books on the Kindle Top 100 are consistently all-fiction. Even bigger name nonfiction authors who are traditionally or self-published, including NYT bestsellers, are finding it near impossible to hit or stay on that list.
2 - Many of those self-pubbed fiction writers on the kindle top 100 list are using the 99 cent price point for single books as points of entry or loss leaders (though they're actually still making money) into a funnel for a much bigger body of work. Amanda Hocking and J.A. Konrath experimented with rotating certain books into the 99 cent slot knowing that once a reader likes their style, fiction readers often attach to the author in a way nonfiction readers dont. That fuels them to want to read the authors other books...for $2.99 to $4.99. So one 99 cent book can lead to many more higher priced sales and readers for life.
Glad you guys picked up on this, I used "different," not "differently" in the headline as a nod to Jobs' original Think Different campaign. So, yup, it was intentional.
This was one of the first books I read as a copywriter, it's a tremendous reference and because it's based on human nature, it's timeless.
Cialdini's more recent collaboration - Yes! - is also interesting, rehashes the basic principals, but then adds in some more current research, scenarios and applications.
Another study out of the University of Oregon last year used MRI to show similar results, but in as little as 6 hours of training:
"The changes were strongest in connections involving the anterior cingulate, a brain area related to the ability to regulate emotions and behavior. The changes were observed only in those who practiced meditation and not in the control group. The changes in connectivity began after six hours of training and became clear by 11 hours of practice. The researchers said it is possible the changes resulted from a reorganization of white-matter tracts or by an increase of myelin that surrounds the connections."
While the meditation protocol was not published (MBSR used in the main post has been well documented), I actually interviewed one of the lead investigators for the book I'm working on now and he shared that the U of O protocol was a hybrid that combined elements of mindfulness and some more basic physical relaxation techniques.
There's a legendary book for artists called The Artist's Way about getting back your creative mojo and one of the first things the author talks about is something called your daily pages.
She suggests starting every day writing 3 pages, by hand, totally freestyle stream of consciousness to help get stuff out of your head and get you back into the practice of daily creation. It's not about what you write, you probably will never revisit it, it's just about the impact it has on your bigger creative flow.
Solid basic template and core items to focus on. I've also found a lot of value from the free resources and webinar replays on optimization at http://www.marketingexperiments.com/. Lot's of case-studies and examples with specific conversion change percentages.
I'm traditionally published (Crown & Portfolio), but I've also spent a lot of time researching the options available for self-publishing and promoting. A few thoughts...
1. EBook or print + eBoook - If you are open to starting out with an ebook only, options get a lot bigger. I'd move beyond Lulu.com and look at http://www.smashwords.com/ and http://www.fastpencil.com// as fast, very affordable alternatives who can also help get your ebook listed at major online sellers. FastPencil can also help with book design and packaging and I believe they can do print books as well.
2. Cover/Jacket Design - Depending how serious you are and what genre the books are in, the cover can become hugely important. Cover design can cost anywhere from a few hundred to thousands, depending on the quality of the designer. I'd do two things. First, just google "book cover designer" or "book jacket design" and you'll find the sites of a bunch of designers with portfolios. Second, go to the bookstore and write down the names of the jacket designers for the books that really jump out at you, then search for them online. You can usually find their names in small print on the bottom of the inside fold of the back cover. Many are findable and will freelance.
3. If You Build It...They'll Rarely Come - Writing the book first, then figuring out you're going to market it after it's done is a giant mistake. Start building your platform, if you haven't already NOW! There is nothing more important (beyond writing a phenomenal book) in making your book succeed than having already developed relationships with a sizable, rabid community of potential readers and second-wave influencers who line up to not only buy your books when they come out, but champion them.
At a bare minimum, for authors these days, that should include a blog, FB fan page, twitter and potentially a 4th community that is topic relevant. And, yes, this is still mandatory for fiction writers today as well. You just have to go about sharing in a different way.
I spent nearly two years just building my online platform before my first book was published, then piled on a bunch of more tactical launch strategies in the months leading to publication. But, truth is, in the end, even that's just kindling designed to build enough momentum to get your book to tip into a word of mouth phenomenon. And, for that to happen, you've also got to write or hire someone capable of writing a fantastic book.
Interesting, I've actually found the exact opposite to be true. If you self-publish and do the work of building a platform and marketing enough to show that you have to ability to move books in a real way, not only will publishers be more interested in your next one, they'll more interested in picking up the one you've self-published.
To me, passion in the context of starting and building a business is about a deep commitment to serve the a source of pain or create a source of delight for a market that you feel a strong connection to.
If what's driving you is an attachment to a particular solution, then if the solution doesn't work, your commitment to the entire endeavor evaporates.
But, if your attachment is to a market, you stay motivated and have a much easier time pivoting as needed and surviving until you find the model and solution that work.
Definitely an interesting observation, one I've been exploring a lot, too.
What I've found, though, is that there's also a whole lot of mythology behind it. There are definitely people who are "built" with both the Jones to create in a certain medium and the ability to handle the uncertainty that touches down during the process of a long-term quest. For some, it even becomes fuel organically.
But for many others, they've been given only half the equation - the Jones to create, but not the innate ability to lean into the uncertainty that comes with really pushing into a new level. Some bail on the quest, but others end up creating workarounds, often ones they're not even aware of, as a way to let them do what they're "here to do."
I look at our minds and bodies like a formula 1 car, you may not like it, but at some point you need to replenish. You can either do it in intelligent intervals that allow not to live with that lingering sense that you might blow up at any given moment. Or, you can push until everything starts to fail and you're forced to recover.
The question isn't whether we need to pause and recover, it's whether we'll choose to integrate that time into intelligent intervals that let you feel good along the way or hold out for one big boom the also happens to leave you feeling increasingly like garbage as you approach your limit.
Just look to the structure of ycombinator. It isn't 6, 9 or 12 months. Because nobody can sanely keep that level of intensity or pace for that long.
Plus, once you're far enough into life to have people and activities that allow you to come alive outside of work (even if you love your work), you do a disservice to both your professional and personal vision by ignoring those people over long periods of time.
I generally focus on powerful images and one to three word phrases and use slides largely as an "emotion force multiplier."
Even so, I don't believe any slide holds a candle to an exceptionally structured, well-told story. People remember those a lot longer than a pretty deck.
Beyond the spam issue, the twitter follower list isn't a very accurate list of people with genuine interest in a person or topic anymore. There are so many people and bots and who simply follow in the quest for reciprocation or at the behest of the twitter suggestion engine without genuine interest
The commentary on big-box fitness clubs is also dead on. It's all about maximizing revenue / sq ft, not changing lives. That leads to a 40% industry attrition-rate, because the offerings and environment are so broken, off-putting and ineffective. What other industry survives when you need to regenerate 40% of your client base every year just to stay at zero-growth? Insanity.
Last stat, for more than 30 years, the fitness industry has been trying to attract what's perceived as the holy grail, sedentary adults. But, no matter how much marketing they throw at the market, 85% of US adults refuse to join or stay members of clubs, even though more than 90% say exercise is mission-critical to their ability to live the lives they want to live.
I sold my last facility 4 years ago, but just writing this is reminding me how ripe this space still is for mass-disruption. Crossfit is doing a great job, but there's still so more that can and should be done.