Tara Gentile: ArtofGrowth Ebook

Tara Gentile
author of The Art of Earning

The Art of Growth
Tara Gentile
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a
copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.
We must get something done,
or better let it be done, let something
impossible get done in us.
John D. Caputo
Theres no harm in things looking fun,

and you dont get extra credit for
keeping things indie and grim.
Tina Fey
For Lola
I grow as you grow.
Table of Contents
Introduction ......................................................................................... 6
Impact & Effort ................................................................................... 13
Leverage & the Effort-to-Impact Ratio ............................................ 20
Most Valued Customer ...................................................................... 29
Create an Opportunity Evaluation Framework ............................. 34
Create a Content Capture System .................................................... 39
Build Your Team ................................................................................ 46
Enter Your Human Laboratory ........................................................ 54
Understand How Your Customer Grows ......................................... 75
Engage in Critical Selling ................................................................. 83
Conclusion: Make the Choice to Grow ............................................ 91
The Art of Growth | Tara Gentile 5

Introduction
Life in the old economy has been all about shimmying our skills
and strengths into too-tight job descriptions, ingesting a diet of
pure conspicuous consumption, and exercising the need for more
and more productivity. Life in the New Economy is about the
balance of value and values. Its about satiating our collective
desire to create, to collaborate, to do better, to be better. Goodbye
compromise, hello consciousness. The New Economy puts you at
the center. You are the chief engine of economic growth.
You know that already. Youve been there, done that.
Youve wandered out on your own, started a follow your passion

business and hung out your shingle. Youve taken agency over

your livelihood. You are part of a diversity of ideas, expertise, and
values on the market today. I celebrate that with you.
However, once you got past the easy access point of commerce
today, you most likely encountered much more frustration than
ease. There have been go-nowhere conversations with potential
clients, trade shows that put you in the red, struggles to get paid,
and calendars full of appointments that dont lead to the personal
wealth you were counting on.
Many of the business owners I encounter on a daily basis are not

seeking fame or fortune, per se. They want to build businesses
that take care of them and their families. They want to serve
others through commerce. They want to experience a whole
spectrum of wealth: financial, relational, emotional, spiritual.
They see their businesses as channels for that wealth.
I hope you do, too.
Very, very few people starting businesses today will reach an IPO
or even take funding beyond a few credit cards. Very few people

starting businesses today will even hire offices full of people to
support the growth of their organizations.
But that is not the definition of business growth, even if it is the

picture.
Growing your business is about maturity.

L
Growing your business is about maturity. Just like a child grows
from a baby who needs your care to fill every need then, as he
ages, requires less of your hands-on care, so does your business.
Or, it will if you practice the art of growth. If you continue to baby
your business with frenetic action and reactive effort, your
business will remain a baby. The national news media wonders
if helicopter parenting will create a generation of adults unable to
to care for themselves; I wonder if helicopter entrepreneurship
will result in a lost opportunity for millions of people to
experience a new level of prosperity.
Busyness isnt business.

Dont confuse the two. You can work until youre blue in the face
and still not succeed. Thats not to say that hard work doesnt or
wont pay off. But is your never-ending to do list really getting
you one (or better, a few) steps ahead? Are your daily actions
tuned to the goal youve set in front of you?
Check yourself.
You can see the underlying essence only when you strip away the
busyness, and then some surprising connections appear.
Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
Your goal cant be to work yourself to the bone. The sense of

accomplishment youve been missing wont come from just
checking tasks off a list.
What youre missing is progress, the sense that what youre doing
matters in the larger scheme of things.
Being busy doesnt level the learning curve. Being busy doesnt
create ease. Being busy doesnt create satisfaction.

Know where you want to go and create a plan to get there.
Remove any and all unnecessary tasks and busy work. Take time
off, explore, enjoy. Have faith that your plan will take timeand
that doesnt mean that you have to fill it with work that is
meaningless.
The art of growth is crafting a business that fulfills desires,

changes lives, and rewards you without having to tend to its
every need. The art of growth is about being proactive, not
reactive. Its about integrated systems and strategies.
The art of growth is not necessarily about the fastest track to a

million users. Its not necessarily about reaching the masses. Its
not about turning the people you serve into nameless, faceless
numbers.
Scale doesnt have to mean impersonal. Leverage doesnt have to

mean hands o.
L
Scale doesn't have to mean impersonal. Leverage doesn't have to
mean hands off. Impact doesn't have to mean hustle.

As Danielle LaPorte, author of The Fire Starter Sessions, put it,
Love scales.
That is the art of growth. Its imagining the give-and-receive

nature of business on a whole new level.
If you are frustrated because "if you build it, they will come"
tactics haven't given you the life & business you are excited to
wake up for every day, this book will introduce you to strategies
you can use to start making a bigger impact with less effort
today.
If you have created a sustainable business and are enjoying the

benefits of it on a daily basis, I challenge you to use this book to
take things a few steps further. How much more impact could
you make? How much less effort could you expend?
Before I introduce those strategies for maximizing your impact

while minimizing your effort, I will expand on my core
philosophy for business growth in the age of connectedness. This
is by no means an all encompassing description, but it is an
explanation of the most action-oriented and results-driven part

of that philosophy. In other words, if you were only going to look
at one part of the big picture, this is the part to look at.

Impact & Eort
When I work with clients, my chief goal is to identify ways they
can maximize their impact while minimizing their effort. That is
the core of growth. The purpose of this book is to bring you some
get-it-done-today ideas along that theme.
But what do I mean by "impact" and "effort?"
First, let me say that "impact" and "effort" go both ways. Your
business should make an impact in your own life: lifestyle,
wallet, self-worth, new adventures.And your business should
make an impact on your customers: problems solved, desires
fulfilled, perspectives altered, barriers broken down. Ideally, your

business also has an impact on the world, be it in your little
corner of the universe or on the global stage.
Your business ambitionas Umair Haque describes "ambition" in

Betterness: a statement of how the business will contribute to
society beyond profitmatters. It's purpose & scope wrapped up
in a neat little package, hand-delivered to society.
Through the act of exchange, Ill ignite your human potential.

You will be and become betterfitter, smarter, closer, wiser,
tougher, humbler, truer, wealthier in terms
that add up to a life meaningfully well lived.
Umair Haque, Betterness
What is your ambition? Answer these three questions:
What do you want for your customers? You hold a vision for
your customers. You see light that their eyes havent seen yet.
Lululemon wants their customers to be active, engaged, and
spiritually attunedall whilst looking good. Apple wants their
customers to be creative and iconoclastic, self-expressed,
connected. Spotify wants its customers to be free to take

advantage of the network to find and listen to more music than
ever before.
What do you want for the world? The vision you hold for your
customers has a greater implication: your customers will change
their families, communities, and culture because of the people
they become for using your product or service. What does that
look like?
What do you want for yourself? You have a role to play in this
drama. Already, you are a leader and visionary. How else do you
imagine catalyzing these changes for your customers and the
world? What will allow you to accomplish your vision?
Your product is full of wealth because it tickles the deep desires of

those you serve.
L
Think of your ambition as a statement about how your business
and its product are going to make your customers wealthier. Your
product is full of wealth because it tickles the deep desires of
those you serve. It deposits into their emotional bank accounts. It

puts their well-being balance sheets securely in the black. Their
wealth of resources, information, and relationship surges.
Thats the chief purpose of your business; understanding how you

do it and why it resonates with your customers allows you to see
how your opportunity for growth is so much bigger than the way
youve been managing your business.
Understanding your ambition and how you make your customers

wealthier is the means by which you can make the greatest
impact.
Every business must seek a greater impact.

L
Whether, in seeking "impact," we are seeking deeper personal or
organizational transformation for our clients or a broader reach
with bigger ideas, I believe every business must seek a greater
impact. It's what keeps businesses moving forward, learning,
growing, and diving deep. Businesses that are content with their
level of impact grow complacent and ultimately fall behind the
market.

That said, I'm not suggesting that your business needs to seek
conventional growth to remain sustainable or relevant. You do
not need to add a 30 person team, take on loads of funding, push
revenue beyond sustainable models, or any other metric not
driven by clear purpose and ambition. You can be content with
reach, revenue, or depthjust probably not all three at once.
And that's good. That pushes you to your edge. It fosters curiosity
within your business culture. It asks "What if?" much more often
than "What's next?"
"Curiosity is your growth point."

Danielle LaPorte, The Fire Starter Sessions
It's tempting to think the more effort you invest into your
business, the greater the impact it will create. But sweat equity
doesn't convert well to financial equity. Nor does it automatically
create remarkable experiences for your customers. Through
experimentation and careful analysis, you can learn what
actions, ideas, and communication create the most impact,
concentrating your effort on those actions.

Sweat equity doesnt convert well to financial equity.
L
Sweat equity must transform into organizational equity, or
systems, before it can become financial equity. For every story
you hear about a peer or mentor who worked really hard to
achieve success, theres another story they havent told you about
that work translating into powerful systems. Those systems then
create a new baseline for how others interact with your business
and what it has to offer.
When your businessand you as its leaderinvests effort on

what creates the greatest returns on impact, your customers
don't have to work as hard to engage your solutions. In other
words, when making an big impact is easier for you, it's easier
for your customers to experience that impact. It's not a "cop out"
to reduce the blood, sweat, and tears you put into your business.
It doesn't dishonor the relationship you have with your customer.
On the contrary, reducing the effort your business requires allows
your customers to get more of what they want.
Depending on what effort looks like for you, less effort could
result in lower prices or premium services, one-size-fits-most

solutions or highly personalized products, working in teams or
working solo. It's always your choice, but the imperative is to do
what requires the least effort to produce the most impact, as
defined by you and your business.
When your business is consistently operating using the least

effort while producing the most impact, we call it "leveraged."

Leverage & The Eort-to-Impact Ratio
Let's think back to basic physics for a moment: Consider the
lever. A lever is a simple machine consisting of a bar or plank
positioned over a fulcrum. By exerting effort at one end of the
bar, you gain mechanical advantage over the load at the other
end. You can use less force to make a greater impact on the heavy
object on the other end than you could without the lever.
In your business, the fulcrum is your ambition. It's the big idea
that gets your customers excited, that helps them envision the
evolution of their life, circumstances, or perspective. Its the
message your business, quite literally, hinges on.

Nothing you do matters until everything you do counts.
Umair Haque, Director of Havas Media Labs
When you exert effortthrough powerful communication,

engaged community, transformational experiences, or
remarkable product developmentyour ambition focuses that
energy into a bigger impact for your customers.
A small amount of effort can result in exponential growth of

influence, engagement, or revenue when it hinges on your
ambition. Thats your mechanical advantage. Your customers get
a bigger lift even though youve done less work. Your idea
spreads farther, your purpose penetrates deeper.

Leverage is the dierence between trying to throw a boulder and
using a catapult.
L
Creating leverage in your business isnt just figuring out how to
make more money doing less. Creating leverage focuses all the
energy you put into your business around that single pointyour
fulcrumso that you can do the most good. Leverage allows you
to create more value than you could on your own. Its the
difference between trying to throw a boulder and using a
catapult.
Practically speaking, leverage is what happens when you go from

a business model based on working 1:1 and move to a business
model based on working 2:6 or 1:10 (or more!).
If youre like many of the business owners I talk to on a daily

basis, you got into business for yourself by working one-to-one.
That might mean one necklace for one customer, one hour of
coaching for one client, one website for one organization. Your
Effort-to-Impact (EtI) Ratio is 1:1.

This is, by far, the easiest way to start experimenting with
business. And since just getting started is the hardest part, youre
already well ahead of the curve. But once youve done this 1:1
dance long enough, you start to get frustrated. You start to get
busy. You get worn out.
Working with a 1:1 Effort-to-Impact ratio doesnt afford you any of

the benefits of the entrepreneurial lifestyle. There is no freedom.
There is no flexibility. There is no self-direction. The little you feel
in the rush of starting your business quickly dissipates. Not only
are you limited in the ways your business can serve your

customers, but youre also limited in the way your business can
serve you.
Mini Case Study
On making the leap from True Solo to Enterprising Entrepreneur:
The system I created that allowed me to make a bigger impact with less eort
and energy on my part was the system that shi"ed me from oering my work
one to one, face to face to leveraged group and product models.
On making the leap from Enterprising Entrepreneur to Empire Builder:
The thing that has supported me most on the journey is discovering how to
leverage my programs and products into certifications.Now, instead of just
coaching people on what I do, I train them on how to coach others using my
systems and processes.It's the ultimate leveraged business model.
-- Alexis Neely, creator of Eyes Wide Open Business Management
Instead, you can make a conscious choice to transition your

business to a higher EtI. You can choose to create a model that
focuses your effort on the actions, products, and services that
create the most impact.

What does that kind of business look like?
For a coach, it might mean writing a book on his core philosophy,

allowing many more people to engage his ideas than could ever
fit on his coaching schedule. It might mean working with groups
instead of one-on-one. Or it might mean expertly tailored
individual experiences that go deep to explore deep-seeded
problems and have a price tag to match.
For an artist, it might mean selling high quality prints of the

original artworks that are out of the reach of most customers. It

might mean pricing original artworks so that each piece sold
brings in a months revenue or more. It might mean licensing
some artworks to be reproduced within another companys
product line. Or it might mean creating such a tight niche around
what is most interesting for the artist that commissions both
fetch top dollar and spread virally through niche communities.
For a lawyer, it might mean offering services at a flat fee for

specific results, thereby increasing client loyalty and the number
of new clients willing to give her a shot. It might mean hosting
workshops on common legal problems for her core clients in
order to serve a number of people at once. Or it might mean
laser-focusing on a particular type of legal service that creates
immense impact for which clients are willing to pay top-dollar
and think of her as the only option.
There is a viable business model for every type of business that

increases the Eort-to-Impact Ratio.
L

Mini Case Study
On creating greater impact in a retail home goods business:
I started thinking about how I could expand my reach - for example, being a
sponsor of a cra" fair instead of a vendor, and letting customers know where
they could find me all 52 weeks a year instead of just being present one
Saturday.
My customers don't need to see me every weekend to buy my work as gi"s - it's
better for me to focus on providing many convenient ways for them to buy
great gi"s rather than exhaust myself trying to be the only source for them to
buy my work.
-- Sara Villari, Founder & Designer, Girls Can Tell
There is a viable business model for every type of business that

increases the Effort-to-Impact Ratio. Your business should
examine whether further focus, deeper clarity, and higher price
tags are the way to go, or whether broader reach, more inclusive
experiences, and more accessible offerings are the correct route.
Your business may also choose to employ a combination of these
strategies so long as you are able to serve two Most Valued
Customers.

Consider these questions:
When have I created the most results for my customers most
effortlessly?
Are my goals better served by going deep or by going broad?
When has receiving felt most effortless in my business? When

has my relationship with what was received been most peaceful?

Most Valued Customer
Your Most Valued Customer is the archetype of the person who
will receive the most value from your business and, in turn, will
create the most value for your business.
Your MVC archetype must be ready to receive what you have to

offer. Theyre open to receiving guidance or using what you make.
That sounds obvious, but all too often businesses try to convert
customers instead of finding customers who are already seeking
out solutions to the need your product or service fills. Try as you
might, you cant convince a customer to buy anything. Either you
manipulate and deceive or you provide a solution when the
customer solicits one. Most entrepreneurs I know prefer the latter
approach.

Who is most ready to bring the value your business creates into
her life or organization?
Your MVC is also not motivated by fear or pain. Even though she
is seeking a solution to a problem, shes got her eye on an ideal
or desired outcome much more than her problem. She may not
yet know what the desired outcome isthats a big part of your
ambitions jobbut she knows there is something out there to
hope for. And thats a great place to engage a customer.
Who is more focused on what he desires than what he fears?
Who will take what your business creates and

do the most good with it?
L
While many people might receive nominal gain from your
product or service, your MVC is the person who would benefit the
most from what you offer. Many business owners can give you a
laundry list of people who could buy the product or service their
business provides. But few can name exactly who should buy the
product or service.

Who will take what your business creates and do the most good
with it?
Your Most Valued Customer makes the transaction process a

breeze because he actually values your product more than the
money it costs him. Instead of being quick to ask for a refund if
there is a hiccup in delivery or an unmet expectation, hes much
more likely to work it out with you. Hes not confrontational, hes
collaborative. Hes also most likely to offer you a glowing
testimonial because he takes the time and energy to get the
results he desires using your product. To wit, hes often willing to
pay more than retail price.
Who is actively working to help your business grow?
When you started your business, you no doubt incorporated

many of your own personal values. Maybe it was a penchant for
fun and imagination or a love of learning. Your MVC shares these
same values. Without that values alignment, your MVC wouldnt
be attracted to your business in the first place. Again, there is no

sense in trying to convert or convincefocus on the people who
are already there with you.
Who feels the pull of values attraction?
Finally, your MVC looks to you as an authority, expert, artist, or

visionary. Think about your favorite restaurant. You trust the
host, the waitstaff, and the chef to guide you toward the
decisions that are going to make your next meal there the best
experience it can be. Your MVC wants to put that kind of trust in
you, as well. Dont shirk that responsibility out of fear. Embrace
it.
Who looks up to you and your business as a leader?
If all attempts to categorize, profile, or package your Most Valued

Customer have failed, consider this:
Who is asking the questions I want to answer?
Every product your business sells, every service your team offers,
every blog post you write, or status you update is an answer to
someones question. Or it can be. The people who are most

valuable to your business are the people who are already asking
the questions your business is producing answers to.
If your business concentrates on those questions and the people

asking them, youll know more about exactly who should be
buying your products than youll ever need to know.

Create an Opportunity
Evaluation Framework
Opportunities, whether dropped in your lap, spotted through the
noise, or self-created, are everywhere. In fact, that is the very
problem with opportunities. If everywhere you look there is a
chance to spread your message a little further, create a new
product, enter a new market, gain exposure, learn something
new... youll spend all your time exploring opportunitiesmost of
which pay worse than Wal-mart.
So the first strategy you need to craft to maximize your impact

and minimize your effort is a plan for evaluating opportunities as
you spot them. What makes something a good opportunity? What

kind of return on investment are you looking for? What is most
needed in your business today? Tomorrow? Next year?
First, identify three needs youre trying to fill in your business

over the next six months. Yours might be to reach 300 new email
subscribers, generate $10,000 in profit, and transition to serving a
more precise MVC (Most Valued Customer). Try to make each
need or goal as specific as possible with a number or description
attached to each. Knowing exactly what you want to accomplish
and why is the foundational constraint of your Opportunity
Evaluation Framework.
Next, brainstorm actions or opportunities that could help you fill

each need. Dont get bogged down by the fact that you actually
dont have the time or energy to do all these ideas. The idea is to
expand your thinking around how each goal could be
accomplished.
Lets use the example of 300 new email subscribers. A variety of

opportunities could help you accomplish this: a feature in the
New York Times, a website redesign emphasizing email
subscription, a guest post on five top blogs, a free telesummit, a

local community event where you work with other business
owners to build support, etc...
That list of viable opportunities becomes a shopping list. The next

time an opportunity pops in your inbox or is conjured over a few
too many glasses of sangria (I speak from personal experience)
youll know right away if its an opportunity youve been looking
for or just another good idea for the pile. You may not be able to
dream up every conceivable idea that will get you closer to your
goals but your shopping list should still prove a reliable guide.
Mini Case Study
The biggest shi" I've made recently to maximize impact while minimizing eort
is an internal one: I realized that I could treat every inquiry into my work (as
well as my own new inklings about how to grow) like seedlings. I can water
them generously but gently and then let them grow on their own. This has
freed me to respond to people's inquiries (and make initial contacts of my own)
much more freely (and quickly) without feeling like I then have to check my
email every 2 minutes to see if they've written back and without feeling
rejected if I don't hear back. In the last week this has resulted in phone
meetings with three leaders interested in bringing me to teach in their
communities.
-- Minna Bromberg, Rabbi, Voice-finder, and Songwriter

Finally, identify the Effort-to-Impact Ratio youre shooting for.
Okay, so you probably cant assign a numerical value to this; its
more of a gut feeling (yes, we use those in business). How do you
want to feel once youve acted on an opportunity? How much
closer to your goal do you want to be after youve fulfilled each
opportunity? How much effort is it worth to you?
Each goal youve identified might require you to evaluate

opportunities against a different EtI. For example, in 2011, one of
my goals was to increase the amount of public speaking I was
doing. A low EtI was perfectly acceptable because my goal was
about frequency. Each time I had the chance to step on stage was
a pretty good opportunity.
However, in late 2012, my desired EtI for public speaking

increased dramatically. Instead of taking any gig that came up,
Ive chosen to create my own opportunities to speak to small
groups who pay a registration fee at self-hosted events. Ive also
chosen not to take any speaking gig that puts me in the red
financially. In 2011, paying to speak (in terms of travel or
conference badges) was okay. In 2013, its verboten.

To review, your opportunity evaluation framework consists of
three parts: the needs or goals youre looking to fill, your
opportunity shopping list, and your desired EtI or the amount of
effort youre willing to exert to get the impact you want.
Creating an opportunity evaluation framework means you can make

decisions extremely quickly.
L
Mini Case Study
The right tools can make all the dierence.
Try this powerful 1-2-3 punch: I make a list of every single outstanding action
item by project using Workflowy, an incredibly simple tool designed to help
"organize your brain." Each morning, I revisit the list and capture my biggest
priorities for the day using TeuxDeuxso that I have clear time-based
milestones. Finally, as notes and ideas pop-up throughout the week, I capture
them in Evernote--which syncs seamlessly across my phone, tablet and
computer -- to revisit when I dive into each project.
-- Jenny Blake, author of Life A!er College
Once youve got that down, you can make decisions about
potential opportunities extremely quickly. Instead of hemming
and hawing when a colleague asks you about an idea, you can

confidently say, Heck yes! and start making plans or you can
say, No, thank you, and simply state that that idea doesnt fit
with your goals right now.

Create a Content Capture System

Brian Clark, founder and CEO of Copyblogger Media, writes,
Thinking (and acting) like a media company can help every
startup succeed. Yes, that means you. Being in business in the
connected age means creating and curating content.
Why is content important? Its the body of work that speaks for you.
L
Why is content important? Its the body of work that speaks for
you. Its the long walk on a beach to the old school elevator pitch.
Content is a means of exploring the value, values, experiences,
and perspective of a business.

The core, ethical concepts in which you most passionately
believe are the language in which you are writing.
Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
Todays content takes many forms: podcasts, narrative

commercials, infographics, blog posts, ebooks (like this one),
status updates, pins, and videos, among others. Tomorrows
content will likely take even more forms. With the form and
function of content in a constant state of evolution, it can seem
like it requires an immense amount of effort just to keep up.
Sure, it can. But it doesnt have to.
In order to reduce the amount of effort required to maintain

impactful content creation, you need a content capture system.
In other words, where will you put your ideas when they come to
you?
While this is a simple suggestion, I find most people use

systems that they either get bored with or simply dont use. This
results in lost ideas, wasted time, and loads of stress. Theres
nothing like a forgotten idea to induce a bout of anxiety.

While some pen and paper diehards may decry my suggestion
here, I believe your content capture system must be digital. I also
believe it must be device-agnostic, meaning you can access it
equally well from any device like a laptop, phone, or tablet. Your
ideas should be stored on the cloud and accessible from
anywhere.
Anything less doesnt provide the flexibility you need when youre
trying to capture ideas on the fly. And your ideas do come on the
fly. With the exception of in the shower, you should be ready to
record an idea at any time.
Most often, my ideas are recorded as bits. I simply title a new

note with the idea thats just popped into my head and leave it at
that. Captured. Other times, Ill add a few phrases or talking
points that flesh out the idea without taking more than 30
seconds. Rarely do I sit down and write more than a sentence or
two when an idea strikes.
Because I have such confidence in my content capture system, I

trust that I will return to the idea when Im ready to use it and
make the time to flesh it out.

I also add questions Im curious about or quotes from other
thinkers that Id like to riff on in a blog post or product. Anything
related to turning ideas into more elegant thoughts goes into the
system.
Get an idea, capture it, come back to it, use it.

L
Depending on your preference or industry, your content capture
system may need to be more visual or flexible than mine, but the
idea remains the same: get an idea, capture it, come back to it,
use it.
So what tool do I use for my content capture system? I use

Evernote. Evernote is available for both Mac and Windows, as
well as iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone. Odds are,
theres a version of Evernote available for every device you own.
Its ubiquity is one of the reasons its so easy to use and so hard to
forget.

Youll need to spend 2-4 weeks training yourself to capture ideas
as they come to you. Its a new habit and youll need to spend
time acquiring it.
As I said before, I believe your system has to be digital (like

Evernote). One big reason for this is it needs to be searchable.
Youll also want to be able to quickly flip through, rearrange, and
join ideas as you spot connections. This is easily accomplished in
Evernote, but can also be done with a file and folder system and
text editor like OmmWriter or iA Writer.
That leads me to my final point about your content capture

system: creating great content isnt always easy. The fluff and
garbage blog posts you see passing as content on blogs run by
businesses isnt great content. In fact, its terrible and its a waste
of time. Great content connects people, touches emotions, and
teaches or inspires. Great content takes time. Great content
evolves from simple thoughts and light bulb moments to
beautifully considered ideas.
Your content creation system will allow you to create better

content over time. When you create better content, you can

publish infrequently and still make a big impact. That reduces
the amount of effort that is required to keep up with creation.
Youre free to let the ideas flow naturally.

Build Your Team
Much has been said in the last few years about the promise of
solo entrepreneurship. And its true, you can build a lean, mean
machine of a business as a one-person show. Except that, just as
a one-person show on stage requires additional help from theatre
techs, ushers, ticket takers, and sales staff, your one-person show
requires additional help.
...while youre doing it, doing it, doing it, theres something
much more important that isnt getting done.
Michael E Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited
Thats not to say that you need a team to start your business
though, you might. Before long, youll realize that you simply

cant increase your Effort-to-Impact Ratio without some help. As
you build your team, the goal is to have each person responsible
for doing the work with which they can create the most impact.
As each person works from their strengths, the impact of the
organization grows exponentially.
To get started building (or maximizing) a team, make a list of

regular activities you are responsible for in your business and put
them into one of three categories:
1. Work that exercises your unique strengths or expertise

and contributes to long-term business growth
2. Work that is fun or interesting and achieves immediate
results
3. Work that you would be quite happy never having to do
again
Work in category one is work that allows you to deliver your

greatest impact on the world, for your customers and for
yourself. This is the work that builds equity in the business, the
work that solidifies long-lasting value. This is the long-term work

you & your business will engage in (even if you're not always the
person doing the work).
Often this is work that requires your expertise but that isnt the
hands-on work that you sell. Its systems work. Its process work.
Its relationship building. Its working on the visionand the
byproducts of it. Its the work of growth.
When you exercise your responsibility to long-term growth work, you

can better weather the ups and downs of entrepreneurship.
L
When you exercise your responsibility to long-term growth work,
even if youre not seeing immediate results, you can better
weather the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. If a particular
idea doesnt work out, you have the systems or relationships in
place to get you through. Or you have the comfort of knowing
your next idea or opportunity is already in the works.
Work in the second category is work that acts as a pleasant

diversion. This could be work that allows you to get out of the role
of business builder and into the role of worker. Each of us has a
different capacity or desire for worker work, so you may be

doing quite a bit of this kind of work and be fed up with it or you
might be doing very little and crave more.
Mini Case Study
I have a business that requires my team to duplicate my eorts. So, lately I've
been asking myself, "Is what I'm doing right now something that someone else
could more or less easily learn to do?"
If the answer is no, then I stop doing that action. If I can't teach someone to do
what I'm doing and have them duplicate it then my freedom goes out the
window. My network marketing business is about creating dispensability rather
than indispensability.
I've learned to save my innovative energy for my writing and speaking and stick
to the basics when building my business.
-- Kate Northrup, author of Money: A Love Story, Co-founder of Team Northrup
This second category of work also includes work that you get paid
for. You see, as a business owner, its not truly your job to do the
work that pays the bills. Sure, most microbusiness owners are
building businesses where that is the current and persistent
reality. And thats more than fine. But you should understand
that any work that takes you away from building the business to

run essentially without you is work that could be done by
someone else with appropriate training (training is category one
work) and experience.
Workin thethird category needs to be outsourced as quickly as

possible. Exactly what this category contains will vary depending
on your business and your strengths within that business. It
could be fiddling with your website, sending out emails, or
scheduling clients. It could be sales or creating advertisements. It
could be shipping packages or bookkeeping.
Examine what youve put in this category and determine which

items could be fulfilled by one person. For instance, could you
have an in-house assistant answer the phone, fill orders, and
ship packages? Could you have a virtual assistant input email
updates, schedule clients, and answer email? Could you have a
graphic designer create business cards and the sidebar graphics
you need for your website?
Each grouping of tasks becomes a job description. Once that is

done, take another 10 minutes to write out your expectations for

each task or job. Use your network to find people who have
strengths in the areas you'd rather not work on anymore.
Building a teamor even adding one contractorcan be a
daunting task, especially if youre neck-high in work thats ill-
suited for you. If youre ready to build a team and do more of the
long-term growth work that comes with it, you absolutely must
schedule time on your calendar and Honor it like it was a client
appointment or a project deadline. This is the work that will keep
your business in business. Respect it.
Once youve got that kind of work on the calendar, make sure
that youre creating systems that reduce the amount of other
work youre doing. Use your scheduled time to create a training or
on-boarding process for an assistant or business manager. Also
use that time to plan for new products or services that require
less effort or active time from you. Plan to shift your business
model to one that leverages your time & talents.
All that aside, the main question I get asked about building a
team is, Where do you find the people? The answer is simple:
the network. Sure, there are businesses that specialize in setting
you up with a great virtual assistant or freelancer. But chances

are someone in your digital or analog network has the right skill
set and would love to work with you.
The best candidates are those who will be thrilled

to work for you, not those who just need a new job and
happen to stumble upon you.
Roy Bahat, Harvard Business Review blog
Since youve already done the work of writing out the tasks youre
looking to find help with and constructed your expectations for
each task, youve got great language to use when picking up the
phone, sending an email, or posting to social media about your
opportunity. Once you find someone who could be a good fit, its a
good idea to start on a project basis working toward clear
objectives before hiring her as an all-out employee or contractor
on retainer.

Mini Case Study
I've fully embraced outsourcing specific business roles to specialized

companies.
Not only does outsourcing decrease our overhead, it empowers our company
to focus on core competencies. When correctly applied to an organization's
supply chain, outsourcing leverages the strengths of your new partners,
cancels out internal weaknesses and requires less project management from
your team. Thus freeing up our internal resources, while my partners stay
accountable to their final deliverable.
Do what you do best, and outsource the rest! This operational strategy makes a
tremendous impact on our time resources and bottom-line; with less eort and
tremendous results.
-- Erica Nicole, founder of YFS Magazine
Now, the only question is, How will you spend your time once
youve built your team?

Enter Your Human Laboratory
To me, the networkthe vast array of platforms, applications,
and tools that connect one individual to anotheris like a
laboratory. Its full of volatile chemicals (that would be, ahem,
you) and all manner of equipment for running experiments on
what will have the greatest impact.
Social media is not limited to the internet, its enhanced by it.

L
It would be easy to talk about social media here. And, in its
purest form, that is what Im talking about. But social media is
not limited to the internet, its enhanced by it. Whether you run a
business that exists solely in the digital space or one that exists
in the local community, you deal with people. Those peopleyour

customers, your colleagues, your evangelists, your competitors,
etc...and your ability to connect the dots between them are the
most important business asset.
Since you cant possess them or manipulate them, you must

engage them. Delight them. Question them. Guide them. Serve
them. Connect them. In doing so, you can learn more than you
ever thought possible about the opportunities you have to do
business in the 21st century.
Your business greatest asset is its ability to connect people.

L
The greatest asset your business has isnt its products, your
experience, the equipment in your studio, or the technology that
makes it all go round. Its greatest asset is its ability to connect
people.
Business has a unique power to bring people together. We have

the sense that we have more than a little in common with the
person at Starbucks who orders the same drink that we do. And
we may strike up conversations with other regulars at the
neighborhood bar & grill. Main street businesses band together to

create community activities that bring together whole towns. A
simple ebook can spark an ongoing Twitter conversation.
These person-to-person, customer-to-customer interactions are

important. No matter how trusted the business, no matter how
respected the brand, a business-to-customer relationship will
always have an air of quid pro quo about it.
I experience this firsthand all the time. Ill be having a drink with
someone at a conference or lunch with a friend Ive met on
Twitter. The conversation inevitably winds its way toward
business. Once the other person realizes whats happened, they
often apologize and explain that they value my take on things but
dont want to take advantage of the situation. Take advantage? I
love this stuff! No one needs to goad me into talking about
business, and Im happy to lend a fresh perspective at any time.
But there it is, that sneaking suspicion that our personal

connection may require a greater investment down the line. Not
so, but its something Im always aware of.

Instead, facilitate conversations within your tribe. These are
genuine, peer-to-peer, incredibly enriching connections that help
you do your job better.
First, look for opportunities for external connections. These

conversations & relationships happen in the public sphere. They
happen on social media, main street, book clubs, community
events, conferencesanywhere people are gathering is fair game
for them to talk to each other about what you do. Your aim here
is for your customers or potential customers to be talking about
your ideas or product, not the business itself. Its not that thats
bad, it just doesnt make for as meaningful conversations.
Here are three ways you can encourage external connections:
1. Make an extraordinary product. Products that change

peoples lives even in small ways give people a reason to
talk to each other. Yes, this is classic word of mouth
advertising. But its also spreading special tricks &
techniques or creating a product culture (look at the
conversation around any Apple press conference).

2. Offer up a symbol. Paul Tillich defined a symbol as
something that points beyond itself to something
mysterious or unknown. My iPhone is a symbol of Apple
brand culture, but it also points to an unbound sense of
creativity & love of design. The #youeconomy hashtag is a
symbol of my philosophy of the New Economy but also
points to a sense of hope in the future.
3. Deliver an innovative idea. Your rallying cry, manifesto, or
great ambition is nothing if it cant spark conversation &
connection. Almost every day, I spot a conversation on The
Art of Earning on Twitter or Facebook. The idea that
making money is beautiful is fresh for many people and
its a reason to celebrate, talk, laugh, and share.
Once youve nailed some opportunities for external connections,

take a look at how you can foster internal connections. These
conversations & relationships form within your tribe in secret or
private places. If your business was a tree fort, these connections
would be on the other side of the secret handshake.

Internal connections work because theres a sense of exclusivity.
Not everyone is in on these connections and the people that are
feel a sense of shared purpose.
While this has always been a part of the way I craft offerings,
never have I seen this come together in my own work more
beautifully than in the program I run with Adam King, Make Your
Mark. Its a fairly small group and weighty material, so everyone
in the group is helping to keep each other accountable, witnessed,
loved, and moving forward. Its downright inspiring to watch. I
feel privileged to be able to witness the conversations &
connections happen every week.
Connecting people amplifies the work youre already doing.

L
The Make Your Mark participants will each be more successful in
what they produce from the program because they are now a
tight-knit community. Thats the beauty of internal connections:
they amplify the work youre already doing.

Facebook groups, forums, in-person meet-ups, phone calls, Skype
groupsyou can create these opportunities in a multitude of
ways. Experiment and find out what works best for your tribe.
Never underestimate the power of your ability to connect.
Connection is one of the major touch points of the You Economy.

Moving forward, connecting with others through business will be
a non-negotiable. In your business, you have no room to ignore
the power you have to facilitate meaningful, positive connections
amongst the people who use your services or buy your products.
Those positive connections serve as the context for your human
laboratory.
Eric Ries, founder of the Lean Startup movement, is fond of

saying, Numbers are people, too. When I first read that, Ill
admit, the humanist in me shuddered a bit. People are people.
However, the same technology that brought us such ubiquitous
connectedness brought us data. We have more metrics than we
know what to do with. Ries point is that those metrics may
appear as numbers, but behind each number is a very human
behavior.

Mini Case Study
The biggest driver of growth for my business over the past couple of years has
been focusing on the small set of metrics that really matter.
There are just a few: how much have our solutions helped our customers? How
much new business did we book? How much recurring business did we keep?
Tracking other metrics (including traic, subscribers, followers, social shares)
won't achieve the same impact.
-- Corbett Barr, founder of Think Traic
If numbers arent your thing or if you find yourself caught up in

the game of simply trying to up this number or that, its time to
bring it back to the human level. Get real. Get personal.
Understand the people who are moving all around you. Even if
numbers are youre thing, remember that the human dimension
is where magic really happens.
Working with and thinking about the

human dimension has always served us well because
it means we understand the final recipient.
Chris Brogan & Julien Smith, The Impact Equation

Step into the human laboratory.
L
This is the human laboratory. Understanding, stepping into, and
experimenting with yours will give you what you need to create
products that require little in the way of sales process and
communication that transcends traditional marketing. The
result is sheer impact.
This lab has only three rules.
1) Just be the observer. When engaging people or using social

media, the tendency to broadcast must be suppressed. Youll
have plenty of time to broadcast your message or push your
own agenda. Can you sit back and just observe? Can you simply
collect the experiences, the fears, the celebrations, the
frustrations of the people in your laboratory? Make time just to
observe.
2) Question everything. Be truly curious. Im not suggesting you
need to be skeptical in your dealings with the people in your
laboratory, but dont assume that you understand where your
customer is coming from. Your job is to ask meaningful
questions about your customers experiences and feelings.

Genuinely probe them for deep truth. See what you can
discover by asking why? or how?
3) Find patterns. Once youve observed and let your curiosity lead
you, its your job to take the results back to your lab bench and,
finally, analyze. Look for patterns of belief or action. Where are
there commonalities? Can you see a life cycle begin to develop
across multiple peoples experiences?
Develop regular opportunities to enter your human laboratory.

This could look like industry conferences, people watching at
high-end shopping centers, events that you host at community
space, free training calls, demo nights, living room salons. Your
job is to be amongst the people who have the problems you want
to fix or the desires you want to fulfill.
Commit these opportunities to your calendar. Have a budget for

wining and dining, coffee and tea-ing. Surround yourself with
the human experience.
Then take the time to connect the dots.

3M, makers of Scotch tape, Post-It products, and Command
hooks, spent $1.57 billion on research & development in 2012.
Thats a lot of effort. Of course, 3M is an innovation machine and
you can bet that the impact they received for that money was
well worth it.
But you dont have billions to spend on developing your next big
thing.
In her book Fierce Loyalty, Sarah Robinson writes that growing a

community (online or locally) means that your business has a
built-in research & developmentdepartment. I agree, but I would
add the caveat that your wholecommunity is not a research &
development department. Not everyone who self-selects into your
community fits your Most Valued Customer profile.
You might be wasting a lot of effort on trying to do research with

people who dont have the answers or insight you need. That
leads to products that dont sell as well as they could, missed
marketing opportunities, and generally mediocre engagement
with your audience. Thats a whole lot of impact thats not
happening if your R&D team isnt made up of the right people.

Instead of throwing out ideas or questions to your whole
community, your goal is to select a group within your
community who best represents your MVC. These people should
be the type of people you want to work with on a regular basis.
They're people you want to duplicate, triplicate, and quadruplicate
within your customer base. They are people who challenge you
and are people for whom you have a genuine curiosity. Generally,
they should already have a working familiarity with the products
or services you offer and be an existing customer.
Write down a list of 5-10 people in your community who you

would like to man your R&D team. Once your list is assembled,
you have options.
Your R&D team be as simple & informal as a private Twitter list

you keep your eye on for patterns, conversations, and feedback. If
you push a question or product idea out to Twitter, you can pay
special attention to anyone from that list who responds. Having a
list means it's easier for you to avoid the noise and concentrate
on the experiences of the people who can really create an impact
on your business.

Or your R&D team could be a special invite-only community that
meets every so often on Google Hangout or talks with you on a
special corner of Facebook. If your business is local, maybe you
throw a happy hour for your folks.
Customers love to be recognized by businesses. Especially in the

connected age, customers understand just how important they
are to the success of your business. When you recognize their
importance, theyre willing to do a little extra work to help you
succeed. A personal invitation to a private community may
unlock their passion for helping you succeed.
When you take the time to gather your R&D team before you
reallyneed them, you'll have the opportunity to make the
experience as valuable for them as it is for you. Then when you
are ready to delve into the psyche or experiences of your MVC, you
have a group that is ready and willing to share honestly and
create with you.
As Nilofer Merchant puts it in her book 11 Rules for Creating Value

in the Social Era, When community invests in an idea, it also co-

owns its success. Instead of trying to achieve scale all by yourself,
we have a new way to have scale: scale can be in, with, and
through community.
Harnessing your brand new R&D team means the path to

leverage and increased impact just got a whole lot easier.
Examine the impact youve already made.

L
Another way to gather powerful feedback is to engage your
existing customers about their particular experiences with your
products or services. One of the secrets to increasing the impact
you create is to examine the impact youve already created. That
means you need to have a clear and intimate understanding of
how your customers have used the product or service they
purchased from you.
You want to know how they felt before your product and how
they felt after using it. You want to know how they talked about
their problem before your solution and how they talked about the
results after your solution. You want to know what their ideal

was before engaging your business and what their ideal was
after.
The best way to gather all this information? Ask.
To do this, youll need to create a system for following up with

your best customers. For businesses selling online, you can
automate this task similarly to how you automate sales of digital
goods. Check with your email marketing service provider to see if
the shopping cart you use can automatically import customers to
a new list. For example, e-Junkie.com, PayPal, and Etsy work
with MailChimp to allow this. 1ShoppingCart and InfusionSoft
include email options within the applications themselves. You
can then set an autoresponder to ask for feedback a few days or
weeks after a product is purchased.
If your product or service is on the higher end, follow up with

customers personally to ask about their experience, how theyre
using your product, and what further needs or desires theyve
discovered since using your product. I do this with everyone who
contracts with me for one-on-one business strategy sessions.
These high-end sessions include a call recording and planning

worksheet. So along with the links to those items, I include a link
to a Wufoo.com form that asks questions about the experience.
I can then follow up again from their answers to address

questions or to ask for permission to use part of their answer as a
testimonial.
Following up with customers, whether personally or through an

automated system, creates a sense of relationship. Its one way
that leveraged business models foster the give and take that
forms loyal, long-term partnerships between customer and
business. Those relationships create robust learning
opportunities for you as a business owner and creator.
One fear business owners often express about leveraging their

businesses to make a greater impact or reduce workload is that
their product or service will become impersonal or rigid. The
intimacy of the customer-business relationship will be spoiled.
Not so, writes Nilofer Merchant. She explains, While loyalty in a
predominantly one-way, transactional exchange is fragile,
commitment in a stable, bidirectional relationship is far more
robust. Its not that leverage or scale transforms relationships

into transactions. Its that, when you treat a relationship as
transactional, you ignore the responsibility to create a dialogue
with your customers through transactions and their follow-up.
Further, you strengthen your relationships when you not only

listen but act on what you learn. Just like romantic relationships
become troublesome if they dont progress over time, your
relationship with your customer becomes troublesome if you
dont anticipate needs and make an effort to deepen that
relationship. When you make a plan to collect feedback from
existing customers, its easier to listen, act, and strengthen the
ties that bind.
It also becomes easier to jumpstart that relationship with new

people. As fresh potential customers come in contact with your
business, youll be speaking their language with more fluency,
addressing more of their needs, and understanding their
mindsets with more clarity.
There are five types of questions youll want to learn the answers
to as you interact with former customers in your human
laboratory. No need to ask every customer every question. You

have a variety of toolsas well as a variety of customersto
gather the information you need, so go easy on your customers
and only ask about one or two aspects of their experience at a
time. Finally, be creative when actually posing these questions.
Take the idea and put your own spin on how you get the
information.
1) How does using the product or service make you feel? How
did you feel before? What changes have you experienced
because of that feeling? Understanding the emotional context
of your product makes it easier to construct metaphors, write
copy, and understand the core desires of your customers.
2) Why did you choose to buy? No matter how great a marketer

or product designer you are, people buy for unexpected reasons.
Your best guess is never as good as the real-deal answer from
your customer as to why she pulled out the credit card for your
offer. When you have a real knowledge of why people are
buying, you can create those circumstances more often.
3) What was life like before using this product? Whats life like
after? This question is different than the feelings question.

Instead of understanding the emotional context of the
purchase, you want to understand the behavioral and
psychological context. What was your customer doing before
your product? What has your customer been doing after your
product? What beliefs have changed? What thought patterns
have changed?
4) What new questions or desires have popped up since using

the product? No product solves every problem. In fact,
innovative products and services tend to lead to new questions,
problems, and desires because they unearth unconsidered
possibilities. When your product changes the way your
customers think or interact with the world, youre bound to
generate some new ideas. Staying ahead of the curve on what
those new desires or questions are means that you can develop
new products or services ahead of your competitors and keep
your customers thrilled.
5) What results did you experience after using this product?

Think numbers. Think causation. Think specificity.

After youve gathered the information to answer those five
questions, analyze the feedback. What was surprising? What
confirmed your initial thoughts? What new understanding do
you have about the way your customers engage your product?
What opportunities do you see before you?
Its tempting to think that your products or services are developed

in a vacuum, that your creative vision is what drives the success
of the product or is the reason for its failure. Its also tempting to
work on your product until its ready or, heaven forbid,
perfect.
The product-driven economy is giving way to a new, customer-

centered world in which companies will prosper by
developing relationships with customersby listening to them,
adapting, and responding to their wants and needs.
Dave Gray, The Connected Company
Your product is not yours alone.

L
But your product is not yours alone. As Dave Gray writes in The
Connected Company, products today act more like services. They
are co-created with customers, he explains. The initial launch of

any product or service is simply a starting point; its a proposal to
the people you serve. They will help you make it better if you let
them. Gray further explains that your job is to create systems
whereby your customers pull you toward what they want or
need.
By creating systems that harness the energy and experience of

the people you serve, you distribute the burden of creation across
your network. Your effort is not the sole driving factor of your
creative process. Less is required of you, even as you create more
impactful, transformative products and projects.

Understand How Your Customers Grow
Most businesses start by identifying a single problem or
opportunity and working to solve or fill it. Its that singular focus
that supports the birth of the business. But a business that stops
with that singular focus must rely on constantly introducing new
customers to their solution to continue to grow. Many products
dont lend themselves to repeat business, or the lag between
repeat sales is very great.
Your effort gets put into the unrelenting hunt for fresh blood. I
believe this results in a race to the bottom. Instead of a rich
diversity of offerings, everyone caters to the low hanging fruit.
The natural byproduct of this race is a crowded marketplace. It
requires more effort to make an impact in a crowded
marketplace.

Instead, if you understand how your customers grow, you can
create your own marketplace. You carve out a corner of the
market and, well, corner it as it progresses. You work to
understand the needs of your Most Valued Customers as they
evolve over time. That neednt mean you only serve repeat buyers,
it just means that you understand your Most Valued Customer
could come into contact with your business having any of a
variety of needs. When youre prepared to serve her with any of
those needs, you have more opportunities to make a sale or
provide your service.
While working with Nancy Sherr, a gorgeous and dynamic coach

guiding women through transitions and toward a zestful life, I
had the opportunity to lay out her whole customer life cycle. I
read the copy on her site, I watched an introductory video. I could
tell she knew her customer. And suddenly, I did, too.
I could imagine all the women who had put so much energy into
being the perfect wives to their influential and powerful
husbands only to have their 20 year marriages end in divorce. I
could see all the women who had put their whole hearts into

being perfect mothers only to wonder what to do with their
whole hearts when the kids left the nest empty. I could picture all
the women who had set aside every shred of their femininity to
compete in a masculine world only to feel cold & distant upon
retirement or layoff.
Nancys work naturally picks up where these transitions leave

off. Its the clearest opportunity and the one that most easily
lends itself to an offer. But thats only one opportunity for her to
serve her best clients. She could imagine only serving them at
this juncture in time. She could see her clients as static.
Or she could choose to imagine the lives ahead of them. She could
choose to hold a vision for her clients as they pursue their zestful
lives. And she could choose to create products that serve that
growing & evolving vision.
Much of the problem with the way most businesses have chosen
to see their ideal client is that it stops at now. You can have one
distinct ideal client profile, but that profile doesnt have to exist
only at the point of pain, frustration, or need. No, that profile
that personhas a history. She has unique experiences that have

shaped who she is at this moment. She also has a future. She has
hopes, dreams, and the day-by-day reality of moving through
time.
Innovative businesses hold a vision for their customers.

Innovative businesses use their unique insight into their
customers day-to-day lives to see what tomorrow will look like
and create the solutions that meet them at tomorrow and
beyond.
What business a company is in depends,
in large part, not on existing customers but who
tomorrows customers willand shouldbe.
Michael Schrage, Who Do You Want Your Customers to Become?
That is not to say that who your customer is changes, but it is to

say that your customers are changing. You have the opportunity
to continue to serve them as they progress, or you can take a
myopic perspective and only sell to them now.
Consider the newspapers. Newspaper companies think theyre in

the newspaper business. So its difficult for them to innovate
outside the product that people have always wanted from them.
They think their customers buy newspapers.

But thats not at all that their customers buy. Their customers
buy news. Thats a fundamentally different way to look at the
value provided.
Their customers have become people who seldom read things on

recycled wood pulp anymore. News customers engage
smartphones, tablets, laptops, social media platforms, and
countless other sources of news.
The newspaper business might be dying, but the news

businessat least the market and demand for newshas never
been greater. If newspaper companies forgot the paper part, what
innovative solutions could they come up with not only to meet
their customers with the reality of today but to lead them to the
promise of tomorrow?
What about your industry? Do people actually buy coaching?

What do they buy instead? Are people actually buying website
design? What solution are they really seeking? Do your
customers care that youre a wellness coach? What personal
change are they willing to put money on?

Knowing the business that youre really in helps you to see how
your customers grow and change beyond the 1-point product or
service youre selling now.
Your customers needs change. Their desires evolve. The way they
want to interact with you and your community transforms. The
way they want to be communicated with shifts.
This can be scary. But its really an opportunity.
As your understanding of your customer-through-time evolves,

you will see that there are truly countless opportunities for you to
meet their changing needs. There are desires & needs that
naturally rise to the surface as the people you serve grow. Those
desires & needs translate to offers & opportunities, each with its
own set of constraints and objectives.
Each time you identify one of these needs, you have the
opportunity to layer the messaging, community, and revenue for
that new offer on top of your existing offers. And that can lead to
big returns in each department.

For each question you answer or need you fill in the life cycle of
your MVC, there are other not-quite-so-ideal customers that can
be served. You can reach out to other impact makers to become
strategic partners as your business expands its impact beyond
the scope of its Most Valued Customer.

Your ideal customer is a living, breathing, growing being; your
business is too.
L
Seeing your ideal customer as a living, breathing, growing
human being means you can see your business as a living,
growing, thriving organism instead of a one-trick pony.

Engage in Critical Selling
I see a lot of business owners waste a lot of time and money with
product development. They squirrel themselves away in a cozy
hole, burn through hours, dollars, and nuts, and return months
later with an immaculate product. Then, that product doesnt
sell.
Desperate not to perceive the waste theyve just endured, they

push. And shout. And expend yet more time, energy, and money
trying to make it work, to borrow a phrase from Tim Gunn.
However, growth-focused business owners choose a more

productive path: critical selling. Not unlike the Build-Measure-
Learn loop that lean startups employ, critical selling is a process
by which sales becomes an educational experience. The concept

of critical selling appeals more to me because I prefer to test and
learn more narratively than with numbers alone.
I was introduced to the promise of critical selling during a lecture

by Dr. John Maeda, president of RISD, in Washington, DC. Maeda
discussed how scientific and philosophical learning emerged
from the process of critical thinking. While creative thinking is
tasked with generating new ideas, critical thinking is the process
of application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation that allows
new ideas to mature.
He also discussed the rise of critical making and design. Again,

while creative making is tasked with generating new things,
critical making is the design process by which these new things
become truly useful or beneficial to our lives. Design makes sense
of things while art asks questions.
Finally, at the end of the lecture, he mentioned in passing

something about needing to explore critical selling next. My ears
perked. Critical selling?! No, he couldnt stop there. I needed to
learn more. I raised my hand and asked the question. But he said
he legitimately needed to think more on it.

Ive spent the last year thinking about critical selling, how Ive
used it to grow my business without having a clear process for it,
and how others can use it to grow their businesses faster and
more sustainably. Critical selling is a collaborative and iterative
process for bringing products or services to market.
Simply put: Critical selling teaches you to create products that

wont fail and that make money as you learn.
Critical selling teaches you to create products that wont fail & that
make money as you learn.
L
Critical selling is a cycle. You start with ideation, proceed to
production, engage the sale, evaluate the consumer experience,
and then start the cycle again.
Ideation
The process begins by identifying a need, frustration, or desire

and generating an idea for how to meet, alleviate, or fulfill it. If
youre already meeting a need through a product or service, lets

target a new one. First, consider how your customer is growing
and evolving, as I discussed in the previous chapter. There are
countless opportunities to choose from. Your task is just to pick a
starting point where the need or desire your customer has lines
up with value youd like to deliver.
Try these questions when formulating your idea:

What belief does my customer currently hold about this
problem?
What job is my customer looking to accomplish and what
prevents her from doing that job (easily, conveniently,
inexpensively, etc...)?
What is his question and what is the prevailing wisdom
answer? Do I agree?
Production
The next step of the critical selling process is to formulate an

offering that meets some aspect of the need. Start small. Begin
intangibly, if possible. No need to order a studio full of new
supplies or contract for a brand new website. Reduce your idea to
the minimum number of working parts.

Practically, your offering could be a blog post, a sketch, a status
update, a mockup, a sales page, a beta test, etc...
Each time you enter the production phase, your goal is to further
refine the value youre offering and, if necessary, add complexity.
Mini Case Study
By far, the best thing I did to grow my business was hire an employee to handle
production. This seems really obvious, but its a huge stumbling block for so
many makers. Hiring a production assistant meant letting go of every part of
my process and, more importantly, understanding that it wasn't my process
that my customers where buying. Handing over production meant I could
focus on being the designer, the visionary, and the personality that my
customers are really interested in buying from.
-- Megan Auman, designer & metalsmith

The Sell
One of the goals of critical selling is to reach the sales process as

quickly as possible. Make money. Ask for the sale. This is the
point where the customer actively enters the equation. From
here, you can start gathering her feedback and learning from her
experience. You use this as the starting point for customer
collaboration.
Seth Godin asks you to equate sales with getting people to take an
action that theyll be glad they took. That kind of future-focused
thinking is the basis of the collaborative opportunity.
Normally the sale is the last piece of the sales process. With
critical selling its just your offer of a starting point. Something
magical happens when a customer buys your product or service;
they are literally invested in the progress of your idea and
ambition. They will want to help you complete your product, not
out of some selfless desire to make sure you succeed but in the
self-interest of wanting to reach the culmination of your vision
for them. If your initial idea is on the right track, your customers

really will want to become the people you envision them
becoming.
Evaluation
Time to figure out what you learned, not just in dollars and
customers but in results, new questions, and bigger ideas. You
made certain assumptions in the creation process and now you
need to decide whether those were true or whether one or more
needs to be rethought.
Return to the questions I asked earlier about following up with

your customer. Use them here to guide your learning. What new
features become obvious next steps? How did your customers use
your product or service in an unexpected way? How could you use
the emotions your product stirred up to enhance the experience
of using it?
Once youve gathered your observations and analyzed them, its

time to wander back to the ideation stage. What will the next
iteration of this idea be? Will it be a version 2.0 or something

bigger, grander, bolder? Can you imagine a fully realized vision at
the end of the critical selling process?
Ingenious ideas almost never spring into peoples

minds fully formed; they emerge through a
rigorous experimental discovery process.
Peter Sims, Little Bets
Critical selling removes the urge to squeeze fully formed ideas out of
your brain.
L
Critical selling removes the urge to squeeze fully formed ideas out
of your brain or team meetings. Instead, your business can
harness this process of discovery to allow the fully formed idea to
come to you. And as it does, over time, you can create products
that create revenue now so that the discovery process pays for
itself even as you move toward a much bigger pay day in the
future.

Conclusion: Make the Choice to Grow
Nothing in your business gets handed to you, including the
things that seem to keep you from growing. Everything inside
and surrounding your business is there because of your choices.
That means you have the choice to change anything: the
customers you serve, the product you deliver, the way your brand
is perceived, the marketplace you sell in. Everything.
So many businesses stagnatein reach, revenue, or depth

waiting for an outside force to rise up and alter their course.
Oprah will call, the dream client will ask for a proposal, the
unexpected investor offers $25,000 to make it happen. There is
almost nothing in todays connected age that requires approval
from an ordained body.

There is no singular hand of God in the network. There is only the
distributed touch of the Divine.
Growth requires tapping into exactly that. Leveragecreating

maximum impact with minimum effortdemands a business
model based on an evolving idea, not merely a product or service.
For your idea to evolve, to grow, you have to yield complete
control over its path through the Network. Yet, no one but you
wields control of its ability to enter the Network. Its your
offering.
As Seth Godin put it, It's the conversation that scales. That's how
revolutions start. Conversation doesnt happen because one
person deems it worthy. Conversation happens when two people
engage an idea and pull others in for the ride. It only takes a
spark for a conversation to ignite. Stop waiting for the lightening
bolt from above and choose to break out your lighter.
If youve found yourself wondering when all the blood, sweat,

and tears youve poured into this business of yours will translate
into freedom, influence, or security, stop dreaming and start
growing. The systems that seem out of reach now merely require

you to set the wheels in motion. You will not force your way to
freedom. Yet, it is your choice (or not) to take action on the
systems that will allow you yield control. Paradoxical? Perhaps.
Make the choice to grow.

L
Nevertheless, make the choice to grow. And then get out of your
own way.
Thats the art of growth.

About the Author
I relentlessly study, experiment with, and teach what it takes to

succeed in business in the age of connectedness.
The businesses I work with are helmed by passionate, innovative

leaders and driven by inquisitive, engaged customers. They trade
in delivering experience, connection, and meaning.
I work with entrepreneurs to develop business models and

ecosystems that are driven by curiosity, growth, and the power of
networked individuals. I empower businesses to navigate rapid
change and create systems that recognize emerging
opportunities.

Find Tara:
On her website: taragentile.com
On Twitter: @taragentile
On Facebook: facebook.com/tara.gentile

Tara Gentile: ArtofGrowth Ebook

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Tara Gentile: ArtofGrowth Ebook

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Tara Gentile

author of The Art of Earning

Theres no harm in things looking fun,

Impact & Effort ................................................................................... 13

Leverage & the Effort-to-Impact Ratio ............................................ 20

Most Valued Customer ...................................................................... 29

Create an Opportunity Evaluation Framework ............................. 34

Create a Content Capture System .................................................... 39

Build Your Team ................................................................................ 46

Enter Your Human Laboratory ........................................................ 54

Understand How Your Customer Grows ......................................... 75

Engage in Critical Selling ................................................................. 83

Conclusion: Make the Choice to Grow ............................................ 91

The Art of Growth | Tara Gentile 5

You know that already. Youve been there, done that.

Youve wandered out on your own, started a follow your passion

The Art of Growth | Tara Gentile 6

Many of the business owners I encounter on a daily basis are not

I hope you do, too.

The Art of Growth | Tara Gentile 7

But that is not the definition of business growth, even if it is the

Growing your business is about maturity.

Busyness isnt business.

The Art of Growth | Tara Gentile 8

Your goal cant be to work yourself to the bone. The sense of

The Art of Growth | Tara Gentile 9

The art of growth is crafting a business that fulfills desires,

The art of growth is not necessarily about the fastest track to a

Scale doesnt have to mean impersonal. Leverage doesnt have to

The Art of Growth | Tara Gentile 10

That is the art of growth. Its imagining the give-and-receive

If you have created a sustainable business and are enjoying the

Before I introduce those strategies for maximizing your impact

The Art of Growth | Tara Gentile 11

The Art of Growth | Tara Gentile 12

But what do I mean by "impact" and "effort?"

The Art of Growth | Tara Gentile 13

Your business ambitionas Umair Haque describes "ambition" in

Through the act of exchange, Ill ignite your human potential.

What is your ambition? Answer these three questions:

The Art of Growth | Tara Gentile 14

Your product is full of wealth because it tickles the deep desires of

The Art of Growth | Tara Gentile 15

Thats the chief purpose of your business; understanding how you

Understanding your ambition and how you make your customers

Every business must seek a greater impact.

The Art of Growth | Tara Gentile 16

"Curiosity is your growth point."

The Art of Growth | Tara Gentile 17

When your businessand you as its leaderinvests effort on

The Art of Growth | Tara Gentile 18

When your business is consistently operating using the least

The Art of Growth | Tara Gentile 19

The Art of Growth | Tara Gentile 20

When you exert effortthrough powerful communication,

A small amount of effort can result in exponential growth of

The Art of Growth | Tara Gentile 21

Practically speaking, leverage is what happens when you go from

If youre like many of the business owners I talk to on a daily

The Art of Growth | Tara Gentile 22

Working with a 1:1 Effort-to-Impact ratio doesnt afford you any of

The Art of Growth | Tara Gentile 23

Mini Case Study