067: Proof of Concept: Use the Minimum Viable Product, Prototyping and Version 1.0 to Leapfrog Your Competitors and Get Everything Done

The only way you're going to make any kind of consistent progress is to break it up into milestones.

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The expert in anything was once a beginner.

Wise Words...

  • The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. -- Winston Churchill
  • When people say mean things about you, it's a reflection on themselves.
  • You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. -- John C. Maxwell

INTERNET MARKETER OF THE WEEK: Marlon Sanders

marlon

He's from TheTrafficDashboard.com and the best piece of "strategic" advice I ever heard from him is to: Absorb the changes. This means, if you put out a great product, service, app, etc. and someone copies you, adding a few features, then copy them right back and make it even better. Use their copying of your idea to make your idea one step ahead of theirs.

marlon2

People give "cliched" advice like: just serve one person, imagine a customer avatar, success leaves clues. Model successful people.
What do you do when you're burnt out? Someone "steals" your idea? (No, they copied. Stealing suggests you don't have it anymore.) The best ideas are combinations of 2-3 things. iPhone, Facebook.

Most people have too many ideas, too scatterbrained, pulled in different directions. Most people can't tell the forest from the trees.

Successful FUNDAMENTALS to Model from Other Marketers

  1. High ticket course (profit margin)
  2. Low ticket solution or software (list)
  3. Warm up: free blog posts, YouTube videos, autoresponder sequence with a blend of pitch and content. A short book couldn't hurt.
  4. Platinum coaching program: easy money
  5. Be a thought leader, speaker, innovator, teacher, even if it doesn't come "naturally"

Knock these out one at a time (series) and not all at once (parallel)

Things Angering Me This Week

  1. No real mailing address on your websites? What are you afraid of?
  2. Linking directly to an order form from an email? At least show the "contract" of what I'm getting.
  3. Trying to piece together a solution (i.e. podcasting) when you should have just bought a damn course (Podcast Crusher, uDemy)

Get it working now and connect the pieces later, so you can whip up the interface when you're in that frame of mind. You don't want to over-engineer software OR your business.

8-Step Software Iteration Process (That Also Works for Non-Software Membership Sites)

  1. psuedocode / "ugly" basic interface (text and buttons)
  2. proof of concept
  3. mock-up interface
  4. test cases
  5. working interface
  6. connect it all together
  7. debugging
  8. interface again based on use-cases (iterate)

You might have to do 10-20% more "work" in the long run, but you'll have a more stable product, make the money faster. You sometimes have to "see" a design or interface in action.

Non-software example: first get the results. Show how you can get consistent AdWords traffic. Keep a swipe file. Develop a checklist. Make it easily do-able and easily relatable.

Resources

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:19 — 43.3MB) | Embed

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Filed in: Archive 1: 2012-2016 • Podcast • Product Creation • Software

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