yann girard - rethinking the now

More good news...

Life is not like politics.

Unfortunately, we act as if it was.

You don't have to convince the majority of the people out there that what you're doing, saying or thinking is the right thing to do.

Whatever the right thing might be...

As a matter of fact, it's the exact opposite.

You barely have to convince anyone.

Most people don't want to be convinced anyways.

In most of the cases a very small group of people is already enough.

Sometimes even just one person is already enough.

Sometimes just one person is enough to change your world.

And that's really good news...

 

"I don't get it"

I don't get a lot of the things happening online.

Actually, probably most of the things.

Sometimes I don't even get it how people could be interested in hearing from me.

And this is what this is all about.

It's about understanding that whatever it is that you enjoy doing, it could be interesting for some people out there.

And because you can now reach those people in each and every country, heck even in each and every city in the world, these people can turn into a lot of people.

P.S. But just because it could be interesting for some people doesn't necessarily mean that people are automatically and instantly going to notice or even care. As a matter of fact, no one is probably going to notice or even care during the first couple of years. So you can use that time to get better at your craft...

The good news is...

Succeeding at the things you enjoy doing is just as hard as succeeding at the things you don't enjoy doing...

Never vs always

Sometimes you've gotta fall out of love to be able to fall in love again.

Just like you sometimes gotta fall out of love with old ideas to give way for new ideas.

The hard part is to figure out when it's time to fall out of love and when it's time to fight for that love.

That's why at the end of the day it only makes sense to do things you love.

Unless you do all the other stuff to learn how to love and how to get better at it so you're ready when you finally find it...

The only thing you need to know about sales

People don't buy from strangers and people they don't trust.

Act accordingly...

Here's what you need to know about writing a book...

Every year hundreds of thousands of books are being published.

And this doesn't even include the millions of self published books.

Or the hundreds of millions of blog posts.

And those numbers are going up instead of down.

But at the same time the number of people reading books doesn't go up.

Just like the time people spend reading books doesn't go up.

It can't go up because people's time is limited. 

So what does that even mean?

It means that not a whole lot of people are probably going to end up reading your book...

# EXPECTATIONS

The happiest and/or most successful writers are the ones that don't expect much.

But most people do. Most people expect way too much. I'm guilty of it too.

And here's the problem...

Whenever you expect too much and it doesn't work right away you'll be too disappointed to keep doing it and you'll just give up before it works...

# SUCCESS

I'd even say that the happiest and/or the most successful writers don't have to succeed as a writer anymore.

Because most successful writers already built or did something incredible before they wrote their books.

That's the main reason why people want to read or hear from them in the first place. 

Just think about the books you read...

You usually read books from successful and accomplished people, don't you?

Sure, there are exceptions.

There always are.

But basing your life on a probability of 0.001% that you're one of those exceptions is probably not such a good idea...

# SHOWING UP

So what can you do if you haven't built or created anything remarkable, yet?

What can you do if no one knows your name?

Here's what you've gotta do...

You've gotta get your name out there first.

And you do that by showing up way before you start writing a book.

Maybe one year before you write your book.

Maybe two years before you write your book.

Maybe even longer that that.

So how do you get your name out there before you write your book?

For example by writing a blog that people can read for free.

By putting out stuff that people want to see, read, watch or listen to.

Because that's how you build up trust.

And trust is the most important ingredient in any human interaction.

Even when it comes to selling things.

Especially when it comes to selling things.

There's a very simple rule in life... 

Never buy anything from a stranger on the streets.

So the first step is about going from a stranger to someone people know and trust...

# DISTRIBUTION

The biggest challenge isn't to write a book anymore. Or to publish it. Everybody can do that.

Even the formatting, printing and all of this stuff can now easily be done online. Within just a few hours.

The time it takes to upload your book to Amazon and to hold a printed version of your book in your hands is less than 7 days.

Today, the challenging part is the distribution.

And that's the part where no one will be able to help you.

Amazon won't be able to help you. There are hundreds of millions of books on Amazon already. And tens of thousands of new books are published every single day. So it's impossible to find out about you and your new book.

Publishers won't be able to help you. Book stores won't be able to help you either (they're both pretty much dead already). The only books people end up buying on Amazon, in book stores or any other platform are the books from people they already know. Or books on the bestseller list. Or books someone influential recommended to them.

So how do you end up on the bestseller list?

How do you get your book recommended by someone influential?

By showing up, by building a name for yourself, a reputation and by building an audience of people who want to hear from you. Way before you have your book...

# COMPETITION

If you happen to also read a lot, then just think about your own reading list. And how many books you still want to or have to read. Books that changed the world. Must read books. Books that were recommended to you by dozens of people already. And those are the exact same books and authors you're going to have to compete with for your potential reader's attention...

# TIME

We're constantly busy. Running out of time. While at the same time our to do lists are getting bigger and bigger. Which leaves us less and less time to explore new things. So we go for the things we already know. The things everybody else knows. Things that everybody else does. That everybody else uses. And recommends. The things we know that work...

# MONEY

The average ebook makes less than $500. That's the average. And this also includes the bestselling author that sold tens of thousands of copies. So the median sales a book generates is probably somewhere around the $200 mark. Probably less...

If you get an editor, a cover designer and so on, you're probably going to even end up losing money. So if you want to write a book to make money, make sure you understand the chances of making money with that book. Which are basically zero...

Unless, of course, you've already built a name for yourself, people know who you are and you already have hundreds of thousands of people that want to hear from you...

# PUBLISHERS

Should you look for publishers?

If you do it because you want to say that you published a book with a real publisher, then give it a try.

But contrary to popular belief, a publisher won't help you with one of the most important things...

A publisher won't help you with distribution.

Sure, you're going to end up in a few books stores here and there.

But the problem of book stores is that there are tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of books in that book store already.

And the only people who are going to end up buying your book are the people who already know you, your work, your name and what you stand for.

So if no one knows who you are then not a whole lot is going to happen when you have a publisher. 

Again, the only books people are buying are from people they already know, books on bestseller lists or books they got recommended from influential people...

P.S. The only people publishers want to work with are authors who already have a big enough audience that has the potential to get them on the bestseller list. Which essentially means that most of the people who end up getting a book deal are the people who don't really need that book deal anymore because their distribution is already big enough....

P.P.S. This also holds true for raising money from investors. Once you're business is running well, you have a proven business model and you don't really need an investor's money anymore, then you're much more likely to successfully raise funds from investors.

# FREE BOOKS

The biggest problem when you invest your time, money and resources into writing a book that you're then trying to sell is that you put a paywall in front of your ideas. A paywall that will hinder your ideas to spread. And when your ideas can't spread, then people won't be able to find out more about you and your ideas. 

So a lot of people started giving away books for free. Which might work. But only if you've already done the hard work and  have a lot of people who want to hear from you. Because what's going to happen when you give your book away for free to people who have never heard of you and don't know who you are is that not a whole lot is going to happen.

This is especially true when you give your book away for free on a platform like Amazon. So here's whats going to happen when you give your book away for free on platforms like Amazon...

People who don't know you might or might not download your book and none of them will end up actually reading it. Because people who download free books are usually people who download hundreds of free books.

And the only books they're going to end up reading are the books from people they already know and trust. And when I say "they", what I'm really talking about is me.

Here's the thing...

No matter how cheap or free a book is, it still has to be read. And that's a really, really big commitment. A commitment of many days. Sometimes even weeks. And that's what we tend to forget when we put our stuff out there.

So now you might wonder...

Does it even make sense to write a book?

It depends.

If you do it because you think it will instantly make you famous or a lot of money, then it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Because it won't...

Branding

It's very simple.

Create something that's worth talking about.

Do something that most people will never be able to do.

Something that's too much work for most people.

Something that most people are scared of doing.

But most importantly do stuff.

Create things.

Put it out there.

And be patient.

And keep putting in the work.

Longer than most people would be comfortable with.

That's the only "growth" tactic you need to know...

It's not about...

It's not about how many times you succeeded.

Or about how many times you were right.

Or about how good you are.

Or talented.

Or skilled.

No, that's not what this is all about.

At the end of the day it's all about how many times you're able to rebound...

 

More for less

Is what we all want.

More quality for less money.

More safety with less regulation.

More money for less work.

More freedom with less control.

Of course none of this ever really works. 

And someone's always gotta pay the price.

Fortunately, in the short run it'll never be us. 

Unfortunately, in the long run it'll always be us...

The single event phenomenon

There's so such thing as the single event.

You don't know how to speak a language all of a sudden.

It takes years of practice and showing up.

Just like you don't graduate all of a sudden.

And instead you go to class hundreds, if not thousands of times and have to pass dozens if not hundreds of tests.

Just like you don't get promoted to CEO all of a sudden.

And instead you show up at work hundreds, if not thousands of days and do a good job (almost) each and every day.

So how come you think that the thing you've been working on for the past few months isn't worth pursuing anymore?

Do you use Alexa?

I don't.

And chances are that I'll never use it.

But that doesn't mean that I won't be using it some time in the future to help you access some of my stuff.

Just like I never bought anything on Ebay.

But I run a small business on the side on Ebay.

Just like I barely read anything online.

But I have a blog with more than 1000 blog posts on it.

Just because you're not using something doesn't mean that others won't be using it either.

As a matter of fact, many times the complete opposite is true...

Two kinds of marketing

There's the marketing we learn in school and big corporations.

The kind of marketing where all you have to do is to create a few fancy ads, some smart strategies and plans and that's pretty much about it already.

And then there's real world marketing.

Unfortunately, most of the time those two have not a whole lot in common...

Being comfortable getting it wrong.

You'll be getting it wrong until you'll be getting it right.

So the key is to not give up before you're getting it right.

Unfortunately, most people give up before they're getting it right...

How to convince anyone of everything...

Show them that it really works.

And don't just show them an idea. 

Don't just talk about it.

Put in the work.

And make it work.

Show them real world results.

And that's how to convince anyone of everything.

Your boss.

Your colleagues.

Your teachers.

Clients.

And yes, even your parents...

the only one

Just a few short years ago the only advantage you needed to end up getting people's business was to be just around the corner.

But today everybody is just around the corner.  

So here's the good news...

If you're really good at what you do, it doesn't really matter anymore where you live or where you're from.

And here's the bad news...

If you're just mediocre at what you do, it doesn't really matter anymore where you live or where you're from.

Because everybody is now just around the corner.

The good ones and the mediocre ones...

The other way round

Instead of starting with a launch day and hoping that people will end up buying from you, why not build a community around your product, your niche or your industry before you start building your product? Before you even start deciding about what product to build?

Because it's hard.

And challenging.

Because building a community requires a whole different set of skills than building a product does.

But building a community before you build your product is probably the only way to succeed if you don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars to finance that big launch day...

Learning a language vs speaking a language

You can learn a language for many years and never really be able to speak it.

Just like you can learn to play an instrument for many years and never really be able to play it.

Just like you can study business for many years without knowing anything about running a business.

And the list goes on and on and on and on.

We live in a time where it's so easy to learn pretty much everything we want.

It's never been easier to learn a new language, a new instrument or a new skill.

But learning a skill and mastering that skill are two different things entirely.

Learning a new skill or a new language is relatively easy.

What's hard is to really apply that skill or that language in real life.

Learning doesn't require a lot of courage.

It doesn't require putting yourself out there.

And you won't risk humiliating yourself.

In most cases...

But to go from learning a language to speaking a language it requires all of the above.

Just like learning a new skill does.

Or running a business does.

It requires courage.

And it's scary.

And you need to put yourself out there.

Over and over again.

You need to be ready to maybe humiliate yourself.

In front of everybody.

But it's the only way to go from just learning that language to actually being able to really speak that language.

So how many languages [feel free to replace with skills] have you learned?

And how many do you speak?

That problem you're trying to solve...

... is probably not that big of a deal for them as it is for you.

So who is them?

Your customers, your listeners, your viewers, your readers, your family, your friends and pretty much everybody else.

Act accordingly...

What will you do when it stops working?

It will stop working.

Sometimes sooner.

Sometimes later.

So what will you do when it stops working?

And doing the same thing you've been doing all along just somewhere else is probably not going to work either...

Because sooner or later that thing you're doing right now, that thing that'll stop working will stop working everywhere else as well.

Sometimes sooner.

Sometimes later.

What will you do when it stops working?

When there's no deadline

The problem is that most of the important stuff doesn't have a deadline.

When you want to write that book you've always dreamed about writing, there's no deadline.

When you want to do that trip you've always dreamed about doing, there's no deadline.

When you want to record that album you've always dreamed about recording, there's no deadline.

Dreams don't have a deadline...

Because there's no big client waiting for you.

No fat paycheck. 

No grumpy boss.

No bills to be paid.

No nothing...

That's why most of the really important stuff doesn't have a deadline.

But then again, all of these things have the tightest deadline of them all.

You only live once...

What we really want...

Is simple advice.

Advice that's easy to understand.

Advice that's easy to execute.

Advice that makes sense.

Advice that ultimately always works.

That's what we really want.

That's what we want to hear, listen to and watch.

All the time...

And that's precisely why the internet is full of advice that's simple, easy to understand and that makes sense.

But the problem is that this kind of advice never really works...

Focus on the driving.

When you're driving a car you're not focusing on the fact that you could end up in an accident.

What you do instead is that you focus on driving the car.

Turns out that this doesn't apply to driving cars only.

It applies to pretty much everything in life.

Focus on the driving.

And not on the accidents and all the things that could go wrong...

The online marketplace trap

The goal is to make everything and everyone "replaceable".

"Comparable".

The goal is to create an experience where nothing is out of stock.

Ever...

So that no one even notices if that one designer suddenly disappears.

Or that writer.

Or that singer.

Or that seller.

Online marketplaces commoditize pretty much everything and everyone.

Hundreds of different sellers sell the exact same product.

Hundreds of different people offer the exact same services.

Hundreds of different people create the exact same content.

And when one of them disappears, no one will even notice. 

Because hundreds of others are already waiting in line for their 15 minutes of fame...

And that's the goal of pretty much every online marketplace.

To make everything and everyone "replaceable".

And this will always lead to a race to the bottom.

A race where everybody competes with everybody else who's competing with everybody else.

And that's a race that no one is ever going to win.

Other than maybe the people organizing the race...

So what can we, you or I do about it?

Here's something worth thinking about...

Build your own little marketplace.

A place where the only thing on offer is you.

A place where you can offer something that no one else is.

A place where you can be your unapologetic self.

So how do you build that place?

By doing the difficult work.

By going the extra mile.

By doing what most people are afraid of doing.

By playing the long game...

By showing up longer and more often than most people feel comfortable with.

And the first step is to create your own little corner somewhere.

Maybe online.

Maybe offline.

Maybe in your community.

Maybe in your city.

It doesn't matter.

What matters is that you create your own little corner somewhere.

Where people can find out more about you.

A place where people can get to know you a little better.

A place where people aren't distracted by dozens of other things "on sale"...

A place where it's about you and not the race.

And this is difficult.

Building your own little corner somewhere is difficult.

And challenging.

Just like showing up over and over again is difficult.

And that's precisely why it still works.

Because most people don't do the hard stuff anymore.

Because most things have gotten so easy to do that we feel like we don't really have to do the hard stuff anymore.

And that's precisely why doing the hard stuff, the stuff that most people are afraid of doing still works.

And will always keep working.

Because almost no one wants to do the really hard work anymore.

Will you?

The reality....

You don't have to agree with it.

Or disagree with it.

You don't have to pick sides.

Most of the time it's already enough to just understand it.

To accept it.

And to then act accordingly.

Or not.

But you don't always have to pick sides.

That's the reality...

P.S. Did you already subscribe to my new list? You can do so here. This one will be deactivated tomorrow.

Who is it really for?

That gift, is it to make the other person happy or is it to make yourself happy and how it makes you feel to give that gift to someone?

That nice looking sweater you just bought for your baby, is it to make your baby happy or is it to make yourself happy?

That charitable job you have, do you do it to help people or do you do it because it makes you feel better about yourself?

That thing you do, do you do it because you enjoy doing it or do you do it because it's the thing you feel like you're expected to do..?

Who is it really for?

What are you going to do?

What are you going to do when complaining is not an option?

And by the way, complaining is never an option...

What's your "thing"?

There are probably a few hundred people in the world who are able and posses the skill set, the guts and the confidence to manage a multi billion dollar company. 

And there are more multi billion dollar companies out there than there are people out there who are able to properly manage these multi billion dollar companies.

And that's why multi billion dollar CEOs can basically ask for whatever salary they want.

And will usually also get it...

Is this ethical?

I don't know.

But it's the reality.

And the reality looks like this...

The higher the supply of a good (and this includes employees as well), the lower its price will be.

And once supply exceeds demand, then prices for that good (or employee) will race to the bottom.

This is exactly what's been happening over the past couple of years and decades.

It also works the other way round.

The lower the supply of a good, the higher the price will be.

And once demand exceeds supply, then prices for that good (or employee) will race to the top.

And this is why the salaries for CEOs race to the top while everybody else's salaries race to the bottom.

So what can non-CEOs do?

What can regular people like you and me do?

Well, you've gotta find a niche where nobody else is.

A niche where you have as little competition as possible.

Where you're the one being able to create the price, because you're one of the few people in the world who can do it.

And by the way, the price for things that can be learned by attending classes or cources will sooner or later all race to the bottom.

Because if there's a map to follow, then hundreds of millions of people will follow that map.

And then that map becomes useless because everybody ends up competing with everybody else who's competing with everybody else in a brutal race to the bottom...

What's your "thing"?

And not big...

Start small.

And not big.

Because starting big rarely works.

And starting small always works...

What do you do when it doesn't work?

You just keep trying until it works...

But of course not by doing the same things over and over again.

But by adjusting, tweaking, trying again and then seeing what happens.

And then you repeat that process over and over again until it works.

Unfortunately, we've grown so impatient, are constantly busy, stressed out or don't have enough time that we stopped trying.

If it doesn't work right away, we just stop.

If it stops working, we just throw it away.

Why even bother?

There's another job, another opportunity, another idea, another spouse or another friend just right around the corner.

But the thing is that you can't run your whole life from one corner to the next.

Because at one point there are no corners left anymore...

What do you do if it doesn't work?

Something great...

Create something great.

But not because it'll make you famous.

Or because it'll make you rich.

Or irresistible.

Do it because you can...

We all have the ability to create something great.

Something we can be proud of.

Something that will inspire others to do the same.

We all have greatness inside of us.

So why not let it out every once in a while?