Getting closer to the end product. 📦 No. 157

Getting closer to the end product. 📦 Handle with care. Engagement. A web cartoonist, two comedians, a producer, and two filmmakers walk into...

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Hello there:

Thank you for using the yellow button to tell me I've tipped the scale on value. I'm grateful for the feedback. Some of you enjoyed the product / community intersection. Others found the parts about conversation and language helpful.

This week I expanded on the analysis of business model innovation because getting closer to the end product is super important.

(1.) It motivates you to keep going, and
(2.) it gives you something to offer your community sooner rather than later so you can fund building a product.

Products scale, they get you out of threading water, or trading your time for money. Nathan Barry went from selling eBooks and online courses in 2011 to building a product. ConvertKit is 7 years old, but he figures he still have another 5 to make the product what he envisions.

If you're working on products or to support products as part of your job, here are some things to think about:

Solve the entire problem, not just half of it. For example, you create a player or a plug in and stop there, instead of working your way to building a platform.
Sell the right product vs, the easy one. For example, you create online courses only, and don't consider practical complements.
Stay with the tried and true with a twist, rather than trying to invent a new category. This is very difficult and requires capital and incredible focus, persistence, and luck.

One of the biggest mistakes I made was not to capitalize on the social capital I had build over 7 years of hard work with the Fast Company social network. I've learned a ton, but nobody cares (I was also too early.) In this market, people want to see proof of work. That translates into a solid audience and promise of revenue.

Another thing to consider is when to outsource. Outsource the critical parts you don't have time to learn. A strategist may want to work with a serious development and graphic design person. Partnering with someone who can show you the ropes on something you always wanted to learn could be an option, too. With the right person.

When we work in companies, it's the company or our group that does the hiring. Sometimes we get lucky and strike a work collaboration with someone who collaborates well. But all too often, each person is swimming in their lanes with little to no hands-on practice for each other.

Continuous apprenticeship is the best way to keep sharp and learn to build. There's no experience more beautiful than working with your hands.

Please send me an email (reply) with your thoughts.
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Intricate glass making is a good metaphor
for how we weave our life and work–
fragility and beauty included.
Handle with care.

Massimo Lunardon
is making a nest
for six parrots
(see Instagram).

Website . USA sales . Instagram

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A note on engagement

From announcement that there will be a happy day of nuptials in the future, the word engagement has become a must of digital anything.

As is the case with so many things that involve people, it's not as straight forward as looking at the number of visible activity that gives you a measure of what's valuable.

Quieter, non-commenting, non-responding participants could still be thinking about and using something you've written or said. I get notes, sometimes even hand written, years later. A young CEO I coached and with whom I collaborated early on in my consulting work send me a beautiful card with thoughts of gratitude for the value I had provided three years later.

Now, of course, I'd prefer it if you wrote a recommendation of my work on LinkedIn when the glow of all the goodness I've build and created with you is fresh in your mind. Because that would help other business owners decide whether to work with me. But I think the comment and note say more about the person who sends it than the work of the person who receives it.

Like relationship engagements, it's really hard to time your subject matter to the need of all the people who are potentially reading you. Lurkers participate by reading, or sharing (at some point). Some people are not comfortable broadcasting their preferences. That's ok. Give them other ways to provide feedback: anonymously, for example.

We have an opportunity to change how we approach work: how we manage, communicate, and collaborate. True engagement is whole people showing up to contribute, let's not confuse it with number of likes, comments, or follows. Any bot can do that.

Other things of note

A web cartoonist, two comedians, a producer, and two filmmakers walk into... nowhere, actually. They're staying at home, aren't they? They especially would not walk into a bar right now, nor they would together!

But they can teach us something important about reasoning (my book selection this week, see below), seeing what's invisible, using our whole body to communicate, making things that seem impossible (a new post on the blog about how to structure a presentation, see below), and making people care.

Web cartoonist Randall Munroe answers simple what-if questions using math, physics, logic and deadpan humor.A reader's question about Google's data warehouse leads Munroe down a circuitous path to a hilariously over-detailed answer — he deadpans it, too.
Nature's mysteries meet tack-sharp wit in this hilarious, 10-minute mix of quips and fun lessons, as comedian, writer and TV man John Lloyd plucks at the substance of several things not seen. "Everything that matters and is important is invisible."
Technology should work for us, but what happens when it doesn't? Comedian Chuck Nice explores the unintended consequences of technological advancement and human interaction — with hilarious results.
Producer, songwriter, beatboxer and vocal arranger MaJiKer uses his whole body to express himself musically. Here, he premieres an experimental new piece that combines piano (occasionally played with his foot and head) with beatboxing, to wild effect. At first, this was weird, then it was beautiful.
Canadian filmmaker Martin Villeneuve talks about "Mars et Avril," the sci-fi spectacular he made with virtually no money over a seven-year stretch. In this charming talk, he explains the various ways he overcame financial and logistical constraints to produce his unique and inventive vision of the future. An extraordinary journey of vision and persistence.
Filmmaker Andrew Stanton (Toy Story, WALL-E) shares what he knows about storytelling — starting at the end and working back to the beginning. (Contains graphic language)

As Martin Villeneuve says, "people have the tendency to see the problems rather than the final result. If you start to deal with problems as being your allies rather than your opponents, life will start to dance with you in the most amazing way."