Pivot #4

Last pivot was in 2020 during COVID. Time for a strategic refresh.

• Read about Pivot 3 here.
• Read about Pivot 2 here.
• Read about Pivot 1 here.

Read on for interesting insights that might inspire you to adjust your business too:

Inputs informing the pivot

For context, here are some additional conditions specific to my interest beyond alignment with my personal mission (Education) and values (Growth, Contribution, Authenticity).

Scalability

The previous pivot to focus on consulting work has treated me well; however, every project has been unique. Despite processes, templates, and workflows I’ve built, each organization sells something different, uses different channels, and has different internal preferences for their team.

These projects also required my specialized experience and weren’t delegable to sub-contractors or employees.

Predictability

Customized projects = chunky cashflow. Not a big issue without a high burn rate, but stress inducing when payments get deferred.

Flexibility

The original plan was to defer facilitating mastermind groups till 2024. I’ve decided to extend this in favour of work flexibility in the next few years so that I can commit to being a more present father and husband.

Facilitating groups would mean that I would have to commit

• More evenings to events and activities to build demand and fill the groups.
• Timing on the weekend to facilitate.
• To a more rigid schedule.

It’s not off the map and I plan on revisiting this when appropriate.

Noteworthy Concepts/Principles behind this pivot

Reflections from recently reading Tim Ferriss’s Tools of Titans. Paraphrased + expanded on below:

Law of Category

What’s the name of the 3rd person to fly the Atlantic ocean solo? Most won’t know, but the name Amelia Earhart is familiar – she’s the 3rd person, but more notably known as the first women to do so.

Though similar, being a category leader isn’t the same as being first-to-market/first mover.

The latter is an uphill battle where you’re navigating uncharted territories (higher risk + costs), need to educate your customers, face potential regulatory resistance, and are constantly defending yourself from copycats.

Though there are significant benefits and differentiation inherent in the first mover’s advantage; I often encourage entrepreneurs to instead be a close 2nd or 3rd where the road has been paved for you, and you do things better. Differentiation helps, but isn’t necessary nor sufficient for building/running a successful business.

It’s appealing to explore application of the law of category because it provides you the benefit of differentiation without needing to be the first to execute. How? By identifying another category to be the first or establish your reputation as a leader in. The next concept will help you with further ideating/defining your category.

Double/Triple Threat

It’s really difficult to become the best at something.

An alternative is to become very good (top 25%) at 2 or more things.

Example from Scott Davis, the (recently controversial) artist behind Dilbert: He’s not an excellent artist, nor is he an amazing comedian. But he combines both with his knowledge on business to be a triple threat to a niche audience.

The Pivot: Sales for Social Ventures

To surface the right category to define myself, I proceeded to create a word cloud of my skills, unique experience, and values. Done on a whiteboard but here’s a digital replication:

As a next step, I used Google + Amazon to search books/services/providers to research potential angles that were appealing yet not oversaturated. Here are some examples of what I explored:

• Selling for introverts
• Startup fractional CRO
• Ethical/Non-manipulative selling
• Sales for founders
• Entrepreneurial selling

As you already know, I settled on Selling/Sales for Social Ventures. Why? Because:

• It wasn’t saturated.
• I had the skills + unique experience to serve this niche.
  • Skills: Sales background, teaching/facilitating experience.
  • Experience: Worked with over 500 social ventures in the past 9-years.
• It resonated with my values and interest in supporting do-good-businesses that weren’t simply out to turn a profit.
  • Growth: As a trainer/consultant, my worth is in my knowledge. I’m constantly learning new things as I expose myself to different people, businesses, and solutions.
  • Contribution: Compounded with delivering direct value by bringing up their bottom-line, serving do-good-businesses meant that I would have indirect impact on their positive influence in the world.
  • Authenticity: Because socialpreneurs prefer, and I strongly believe in – non-manipulative and ethical selling. Instead of crowding myself into providing sales techniques/tips/hacks which were both saturated and often manipulative. I could further emphasize my focus on sales mindset, perception, and misconceptions. In combination with establishing solid frameworks + processes to remove the uncertainty and discomfort around selling.
• It would allow me to continue my mission of educating and empowering people with soft-skills over hard-skills.
• From experience working with socialpreneurs, most were sales adverse and poorly equipped with both methodology and processes. Many socialpreneurs viewed sales as greasy although they begrudgingly acknowledge it is import for financial sustainability.

Blind spots/Limiting Beliefs

Given my background, I’m surprised that I didn’t warm up to this sooner. Upon reflection, I realize I was holding myself back with some internal, unconscious, and probably unjustified beliefs:

Sales

That I didn’t have much to add to this topic given the wealth of existing knowledge/experts.

Upon embracing the Social Venture category, I’m now able to see a lot more potential given my understanding of the unique perceptions and challenges faced by social ventures.

Spring/Keith

Having spent the better part of 2014-2020 at Vancouver’s prominent social venture incubator/accelerator. And continuing to see and respect Keith Ippel as my mentor. I was concerned about going anywhere near “social ventures” because I did not want to be viewed as competing in that space.

Upon reflection, I realized:

• Given my sales focus, I’m not competing, I’m complementing.
• More importantly, I was attracted towards Spring (vs. other tech oriented incubators) and Keith to begin with because I was passionate about amplifying businesses that weren’t solely profit driven.

Because I had avoided serving this category since leaving Spring, some of my projects didn’t spark the same level of passion and excitement in me.

What’s next?

This new direction now enables me to do outbound and have more control over client acquisition instead of purely relying on inbound/referrals because:

• A defined and targeted audience makes for easier list building.
• It naturally differentiates me from other consultants in the space and allows me to clearly articulated how so, instead of having to rely on secondary qualitative factors like better service, more experience/professional, better fit, etc. which everyone toots their horn on and aren’t as believable.