One of my favorite concepts from all of those years studying biology was the concept of the niche. An organism or creature finds a spot where the competition isn’t too intense, and raw materials they can work with, and decides to set up shop. They work with their environment and find a place where they can be successful, or they die out. Sometimes the environment around them changes, and the creature needs to adapt or perish.
The same thing is true for businesses, economics, families,you name it- as it’s true for bacteria or lemurs. If you find a niche and can exploit it to your advantage, you have a strategy for success that will carry you far. That is essentially the whole basis for great books like “Blue Ocean Strategy” (Amazon Link) that talk about finding markets where the competition isn’t fierce, or just isn’t there yet- you have the ability to own the niche.
One way businesses achieve this is by creating their own ecosystems. Apple is brilliant at this, with iTunes and the App Store- it has created a whole economy that it owns. It lets others play in the sandbox, helping diversify the entire ecosystem, making it more robust, and letting others compete to fill in the niches of best song, or best movie or best work productivity App, all the while taking a percentage, like an agent, as owner of the ecosystem or world. Amazon has done this, as has Ebay. All of these ecosystems compete at points of overlap- like a town encroaching on an animal’s habitat- but for large swaths of the ecosystem, there is less competition and life goes on pretty happily.
Finding your niche is difficult for a lot of folks, in part, because it starts with the very hard question of who YOU are, what you do best, and what you love to do. Sometimes, we can fill a niche because we are perfectly suited for a job that’s available, but if it doesn’t make you thrilled or excited to go to work every day, how are you really going to have the heart required to maximize the opportunity day after day?
Another spot of friction is when you know your talents and strengths, how do you communicate those to others is a short, coherent, easy to grasp way so they can help you find a niche that works? Some people refer to this as a lobby or elevator pitch- what is your tag line that inspires other people to be interested in you and hire you?
For example, on Twitter, I am largely known as LD Podcast, for the podcast I’ve done about learning and learning disabilities. But the important part there is really the Learning part- that transcends people struggling in school or work with things like dyslexia and ADHD. I feel I’m all about learning and teaching, and trying to find the most effective ways to make your message clear. I read business books and marketing books because these fields are all about making messages clear in order to get someone to buy something. I take all these ideas and concepts and apply them to help businesses, medical education, and other clients/niche owners to make their ideas and talents more easily understood. When you understand, quickly, what someone or some business is about, you can quickly decide whether you need that service, and you can convey that information easily to others- making the idea a virus, as Seth Godin would say. The principals are the same whether we’re talking math facts for middle school kids or marketing plans for adults or social media tools- you’ve got to be able to make a case and sell your ideas for anyone else to understand them and do anything with them. And that, in a nutshell, is about good, precise communication.
Which brings us back to science. In science and technical writing, precision is really important. I’ve spent hours struggling over a sentence or two in an abstract, trying to get the exact language as concise and accurate as possible. Likewise, in law school, your ability to win a case or argument depends on how you use language to communicate your client’s position to another, and use supporting information to convince the decision maker you are correct. In business and marketing, you have to do the same thing- use language to convince someone your product or service solves a need or problem- maybe even one they didn’t know they had. (Just ask Ron Popiel, or read about him in Malcolm Gladwell’s “What The Dog Saw“.)
In the end, it’s all about finding your unique niche where you can thrive. You need enough resources (which includes money and customers for business, often money and students for education) to make the most of the niche, and you have to be constantly willing to adapt and change with the environment. If you can’t adapt and evolve, you will likely suffer, decline, and possible even go extinct, or at least out of business.
It’s easier said than done of course. But the process starts and ends with you, not with the shiny new objects or social media tools or anything else. I’d love to be able to say Get Twitter and life will be perfect, but that’s not true. Like monkeys figuring out to poke a stick in a log to get food, it’s all about how you use that tool to its greatest effect that will bring you success, and it often involves experimentation, failure, and reinvention time after time.
I know my life is one great experiment. I think I know something, and that knowledge gets challenged. I can stick to my guns, or adapt to the new conditions. I have to apply what I know. In reading The Checklist Manifesto- How to get Things Right, they talk about two distinct kinds of mistakes we make all the time. There are errors we make of ignorance- we don’t know what we don’t know- and then there are egregious errors- when we know the right thing to do, but we just can’t seem to execute as we’re supposed to, leading to disaster.
For example, I know easily 20 different diet plan that promise to help me lose weight, but it’s not a lack of knowledge, it’s the consistent implementation over time that causes trip-ups. Part of it is programming the environment, and making doing the right thing easier than doing the self-destructive or ignorant or convenient thing. Part of it is keeping simple rules forefront in your mind, and avoiding the infinite shades of gray.
Success will be measured by how well you can adapt to the “rules” or metrics of your environment, or control the environment to your advantage. It’s how well you can fill your social, cultural or economic niche.
And that’s why studying biology and evolution is essential to everyone. Period. Know your niche and optimize it.
Tags: biological basis of business, business, education, finding your niche, ideas, malcolm gladwell, marketing, niche, seth godin, what the dog saw
Posted by Whitney on Mar 26, 2010 in
Uncategorized I’ve been listening to NPR in the morning, following the news about international politics, and these points keep being made over and over:
- In (international) relationships, trust is important and vital to getting anything done.
- The kind of reception leaders get make all the difference in what they are willing to do or not do for the other Country.
- The view of the relationship from the outside- the (media) perception- does not always reflect what’s going on behind closed doors.
- What other people see, through the media or with their own eyes effects their perception of a whole Country and their citizens.
Does any of this sound familiar? (Let me take a moment now and tell you if this “trust” thing doesn’t resonate with you, please go out an purchase “Trust Agents” by my friends, Chris Brogan and Julien Smith immediately.)
The talk about trust, building strong relationships, and what happens when that trust equation fails is a thread that seems to be running through more and more news reports, or I’m finally paying attention and have a new filter through which to view this news. So if you thought Chris and Julien’s book about the importance of trust and relationships was important for business, what could the same perspective do for relationships not only between individuals, but between nations?
Before you write this off as silly, think what the lack of trust does. When a Country doesn’t follow through on it’s promises, relationships suffer. When Israel and the Palestinians seem to go out of their way to provoke each other, it starts to sound like the fourth grade boys teasing each other on the playground, begging for a fight. Unfortunately, this fight involves serious weapons and the loss of life, not a bloody nose and being sent to the principal’s office. (I guess the US gets to play Principal in trying to get these kids to place nicely with each other and respect each other’s boundaries, but we call it Peace Talks and unfortunately, you can’t call their parents at home to make them behave.)
And just like in your relationships with friends and family, helping others goes a long way to building trust and constructive relationships. In a news report this morning on the BBC, a reporter spoke to a Pakistani official who said that when the people saw Americans and American helicopters coming to help them after the devastating earthquake, moving concrete and rescuing people, their perception of the US and Americans in general started to change. Treating people in other countries like neighbors, instead of as “the other”, as “foreign”, but instead as just people goes a long way to changing hearts and minds about what an “American” is or stands for.
The coverage of international politics sounds more and more like a middle school playground, or a daytime soap opera, where trust and drama and small provocations have similar effects as they do on an actual playground, just painted with a much broader brush. And just like on the playground, trust is a currency that facilitates relationships, and a lack of trust makes relationships way more complicated.
Trust, I tell my kids, is the one thing that can’t be easily fixed or replaced when it’s broken. It’s fragile. When you have it, it can create value- people will do you favors, cut you deals, and treat you well, whether we’re talking neighbors, businesses, or Countries. When trust is in short supply, people start acting suspiciously. They look out for themselves first, and others second. There’s less emphasis on what’s mutually beneficial, but on a competitive advantage- winning rather than compromise. The dynamics of the relationship totally change, and friction builds up- there’s more checkpoints, more regulation, more checking the score- and all of this friction slows up the process of actually getting things done.
As I look for fundamental concepts that are universally important at every level of human interaction, Trust ranks up there as one of the most important fundamentals we need in order to make progress of any sort. A lack of trust signals problems that are hard to resolve, since trust requires faith and taking risks that others are worthy of that investment. Fear that others will not follow through, that they will lie and break our fundamental trust keeps us frozen in time and place, and keeps us from acting.
Rick LaVoie talks about disappointment as being one of the most powerful emotions- the emotional nuclear weapon, we should use only rarely, if ever, with people in our lives. It makes us feel shame and injures us to the core. Our fear that trust will be broken is our defense against that disappointment, and the anticipation of disappointment, of having invested trust unwisely causes people to do irrational things, even aggressive, provocative things to strike first and to avoid getting hurt.
If we can remember these things for our personal relationships, if we can apply Chris and Julien’s advice in our business relationships, there’s a chance we can even make things better on a bigger scale as well.
What do you think? Is this crazy? Or is trust the fundamental currency we all trade in, even when we think it’s all about dollars and cents?
Tags: apps, business, chris brogan, foreign relations, Israel, julien smith, NPR, Pakistan, relationships, trust, trust agents
Posted by Whitney on Mar 27, 2009 in
Uncategorized I’ve given three presentations in the past week or so to different groups, and have gotten great reviews, which certainly make me feel great. More importantly, though, is making sure the relationship doesn’t end with the last slide.
Here are a few hints to help you maintain the relationship with your clients, and make sure you’re worthy of a recommendation:
1. Thank them for the opportunity in person and follow up by email. A brief thank you along with asking whether they would like a copy of any information you presented (slides, handouts, etc.) makes sure they have what they’ve asked for in hiring you in the first place.
2. If you are getting paid, make sure you have all the paperwork ready when you present, so you can hand them any w-9’s, invoices or anything else at the time of service delivery. This is professional, and connects the service with the payment, and no one is waiting around for any documentation afterwards.
3. If they were happy, consider asking for a recommendation for your LinkedIn profile, or your website. This helps you build your business and you can get it done while the information is fresh in everyone’s mind.
4. Make sure you give the client actionable steps, and let them follow up with you if they have any questions. If someone has paid me to speak, I make sure I make myself available for any questions they have after the talk. This allows us to continue our conversation and relationship, and the more helpful I am, the more likely they will be to recommend me to their friends and colleagues.
There’s nothing better than word of mouth, so being someone who is a good presenter, helpful and courteous will make you stand out from the crowd. Your reputation is your most important asset, so make sure yours is the best it can be. Whether you consult for businesses, provide a service, or even sell goods, the more personal you can be to customers, the better the reputation you will have, and the greater chance for repeat business for everyone involved.
It seems almost too simple to be true, but being honest, trustworthy, and helpful is a winning combination.
Tags: business, hints, manners, presentations, social media
Posted by Whitney on Feb 16, 2009 in
Uncategorized I just read an interesting post over at Chris Brogan’s site about the Tricky Path of Brand Relationships. And while commenting, it hit me like a ton of bricks- Social Media is A Tupperware Party.
In the “mommy world”, women are often invited to “parties” where the main purpose of the event is some sort of sales pitch. This could be one of at least fifty different women-sales-from-home oriented businesses, including Tupperware, Mary Kay, Avon, Southern Living at Home, Pampered Chef, PartyLite Candles, Discovery Toys, a couple of jewelry parties and the like. (You could also add Girl Scout Cookies, school sales for magazines, wrapping paper and candy, and Scholastic Books to this list without much problem).
The main thrust of these events is Woman A is a sales rep for the Company. Her friend, B, is asked to hold a “party” for her. In return, B gets a hostess gift and a credit towards purchases of her own, based on what the people who attend the party buy. Woman B is then obligated to throw a little get-together, imposing on her friends and her friend’s friends to attend said event some evening or weekend. Everyone knows that it’s a great time to get together and see friends, but it’s also pretty clear that you are obligated to buy “something”. There’s often a few door prizes or little give aways with the pitch and “demonstrations” of how wonderful each of these products are.
Now, I will say up front, that I have been to many of these events for friends. And I’ve bought a lot of stuff, too. I still have and really love most of my tupperware; my favorite serving pieces are from Pampered Chef, and my favorite wine glasses are from Southern Living at Home. I have only once ever hosted one of these parties, and I just could never be a “consultant” myself, because I just couldn’t bear constantly imposing on my friendships with everyone I knew to host parties for me.
As happy as I am with most of the stuff I’ve bought on the whole, there’s that sense of obligation to buy that always bothers me. The hostess often seems to invite people by saying “Hey, come on over- I am trying to help out Woman A, but I just really want to see everyone and it will be fun.” All of us who are invited desperately try to figure out if we have a polite excuse to avoid the party, yet want to go and get together with our friends at the same time, putting us into a social bind that ends up with- “Fine, I’ll go, but I am not spending more than X this time, I swear.”
I always end up finding something I do like or think I can use. Some of the stuff has been really fantastic. The tupperware mixing bowls and kid cups I got have lasted us for years- they are terrific, and I would not be able to get them anywhere else. The Pampered Chef square bowls and dishes get constant use, and my husband, who usually rolls his eyes at whatever stuff I bring home from these events actually counts those as among his favorites. So this sense of obligation and social has led to a lasting good feeling from those particular events. But I will be honest-note to all my friends- Please do not ever invite me to a candle party again- I will not buy and I just won’t come, kthanxbai.
This applies to social media in the same way. We have friends who are approaches by Brands to do something with their product and pitch it to us. Or, we work for a company that wants its brand out before our friends. Our friends care only if the brand/product/service is relevant to them. They will only buy if they need to. And if we try to pitch too frequently, or impose on the friendship too much by asking for spread/retweet/blog posts/word of mouth, our friends will stop helping us out, and start avoiding us as a result.
How do we avoid this? One response is to get lots and lots of friends, that way, you aren’t imposing on the same group of people all the time.
One response is to pitch less frequently, so you aren’t asking your social media neighbors to hold a tupperware party for you every week.
And every once in a while, we get a product in that everyone wants, and it doesn’t matter if you pitch, because the relevance and delight is high enough, the demand is high enough, no one cares. The product is then selling itself, and you are no longer “pitching”- you are just a distributor.
Where do you fit on this progression? Are you the “Sales Associate” for the affiliate marketing program for a Company? Are you the Party Hostess? Is the product relevant to your audience or is it an imposition?
Is this a good analogy? What do you think?
Tags: business, economics, friends, papmpered chef, partylite, social media, southern living at home, tupperware
Posted by Whitney on Oct 29, 2008 in
business,
community,
new media,
social media 
“Business Relationships” used to sound like an oxymoron- there was business, and then there were relationships, friendships, you had outside of the business or work world. Companies classically (and probably still do in many places) discourage workplace romantic relationships, as possibly undermining productivity and morale. Let’s face it- when you get all “mushy and emotional” in business, your steely eyed judgment and practical decision-making can get clouded. This leads to the whole premise of Dan Ariely’s book, Predictably Irrational- the fact that we don;t always make the right decision, but frequently the wrong one, based on our emotional appartus swaying our judgement away from the facts.
But now, business relationships have become the currency of the day. We want to get back to the time where we dealt with people, not just machines. We want to know people, have a face and a feeling about a business or brand. The cold, hard, calculated monolith of business is being infiltrated by the social scientists, who are convincing us that it’s okay to have both business and emotions in the same place and still succeed.
The problem with this over the old Ayn Rand/Mr. Spock way of operating business is that injured feelings heal much more slowly than injured bank accounts.
As a lawyer, I’ve see this all the time. People get themselves into difficult circumstances because they’ve done things for emotional reasons without weighing all the practical ones as well. Here are a few examples:
- Divorce is all about rash decisions, either from marrying someone who doesn’t really suit you or share your dreams for the future, or because you decided to go off and deal with your on priorities without a careful balance of what the impact might be on your spouse.
-Trusts & Estates- there’s an old saying- where there’s a will, there’s a relative. It basically means that people get crazy when someone dies and people have to settle up their affairs. More and bitter fights have divided families over a deceased loved one’s money and accumulated objects than divorce, I would be willing to bet.
-Family Business- here’s another loaded topic. Dad has a business, he thinks he is preparing for his son to take over. Son has no interest whatsoever, and wants to make his own way in the world. Dad sells business, and son is bitter that his safety net/back-up plan is no longer there for him. Or Dad gives business to one child and not the other…. you can imagine the discord from here.
And this doesn’t even get into the problems and hurt feelings that ensue when friends go into business together.
Whenever I approach a business relationship with friends, I always want to have the business particulars drawn out in writing. This tends to seem really formal and silly at the time, but without “ground rules”, people quickly get in over their head. Even when you have ground rules, the relationships aren’t always perfect, and it’s hard to keep the business and personal from creating toxicity if things go bad.
I was recently involved in a business relationships with good friends whom I trusted completely. I trusted that because we were friends, they would obviously deal with me in an upfront manner. I trusted that they would do everything they agreed to do pursuant to our contract. I also thought they would value the relationship highly, since we were friends as well as colleagues. I executed everything on my end to the letter, but the same hasn’t always been true on their side of the arrangement. And what’s worse, the communication has been dreadful. Despite many attempts to chat with them about it, they haven’t responded promptly, if at all.
The crux of the matter is this: Because the trust implicit in our personal relationship bled over into the business relationship, I expected them to act more like friends and less like a corporate monolith. Our business relationship took on corporate monolith -like failure to communicate overtones, which has damaged the trust I had in them both as business partners and as friends. After all, if you don’t have any information to go on, you start to make stuff up and fill in the blanks yourself. You might start out with excuses, but excuses quickly wear thin and all that is left is a feeling that they don’t care and you feel you are being treated with contempt, whether that was the intent from their side or not.
Taking a broader scope, this kind of story happens all the time online. We think we have established a trust and friendship with people we do business with. The conversation we can have on twitter, social networks, and even by email creates a sense of closeness and expectation that isn’t entirely reality based. Because these are not people in your immediate daily social circle, there’s no sense of enduring personal obligation like there is with your neighbors or your child’s teacher. We move ahead in business, thinking we have this incredible bond and relationship, based on how we feel, but in the end, business is business. When someone disappoints us in an online relationship, the trust evaporates even more quickly than when your neighbor forgets to pick up your mail as promised. You still have to live with that neighbor- the guy online is more distant, so your ability to rationalize and contextualize your relationship is significantly reduced.
This leads to trust being a very volitile currency on the web. It can work extremely well, but it needs significant care and feeding to remain healthy. It’s fragile, and can easily be damaged and lost. And with the infinite choices available, people will easily find someone else to do business with. But because the voices of dissent and distrust can always be heard, blog posts, comments and the like about bad relationships will haunt you through the power of Google and the Internet Way Back machine for years.
This means if you are going to play in social networks and social media, the one thing you can never take for granted is how you are building your trust and your relationships, and the ability to maintain those relationships is another currency you need to manage as wisely as the one in your bank account.
What do you think? Is this true? How do you build your trust relationship online?
Tags: business, currency, Dan Airely, dan ariely, new media, predictably irrational, trust
