MY “LOVE/HATE” LIST This past Wednesday, Bradley Hamner interviewed me for the Above the Business Podcast. I’ll share the recording when it comes out, but something came up while we were talking that’s worth calling out. Bradley’s worldview is that hiring people is the only way to grow a business, and my worldview is that hiring is the worst way to grow a business. (I’m generalizing, but this is close enough for the purpose of this email.) He began delicately prodding my position - like an entomologist who had just encountered a nine-legged beetle - when he asked something like: “Why do you think this?” And my answer was something like: “Because having employees means having meetings, and having meetings is on the HATE side of my LOVE/HATE list.” Bradley: “What’s a LOVE/HATE list?” Me: “As I go through my day, I notice when I love doing something and when I hate doing something, and then I add it to my LOVE/HATE list. Then I periodically review the list and optimize my life to do less of the stuff I hate and more of the stuff I love.” Bradley: “Wait... is this just conceptual, or do you have an actual list?” Me: “It’s an actual list.” ...which is true. As of this writing, it has 28 items on it. Judging by the look on his face, he was shocked by this. This is a total guess, but... I don’t think he was shocked that I keep an actual LOVE/HATE list. I think he was shocked that he had never thought of keeping one himself. Here’s the thing... I wonder how many self-employed people don’t realize they can design their life and business to do more of what they love and less of what they hate. It’s kind of the whole point of working for yourself, no? Yours, —J [This is a repost of my daily mailing list. A prettier formatted version can be found on my website. Go to jonathanstark dot com and click on ARCHIVE]

NOTHING IS FREE This email didn’t cost you any money. **But it is NOT free.** Reading it requires you to _spend_ time, and to _pay_ attention. And to many people, time and attention are worth much more than their money. So... If you’re creating stuff and putting it out into the world - and you want to be able to keep doing that - then you better try REAL hard to make sure that whatever you publish is worth more to the consumer than it cost them to consume it. Even when it’s “free”. Yours, —J [This is a repost of my daily mailing list. A prettier formatted version can be found on my website. Go to jonathanstark dot com and click on ARCHIVE]

SHOULD I OFFER A GUARANTEE IF I AM ONLY 80% SURE I’LL SUCCEED? Earlier this month, I sent out an email about offering different types of guarantees. A reader wrote in with a follow-up question about whether to offer a guarantee when you’re not 100% sure of success: ### Reader: Would you advise the same for service-based businesses that offer an outcome like a 20% increase in conversion rates? ### Jonathan: Are you asking for yourself, or is this a hypothetical? ### Reader: Myself ### Jonathan: Gotcha. If you were picky about your clients, how confident would you be in making a promise like: “I’ll increase your conversion rate by 20% or give your money back” ? ### Reader: I’d be pretty confident, say about 80-90%, if they follow my process and have some prerequisites in place. ### Jonathan: Very nice! So, in theory, this means that for every ten clients you worked with, you’d end up refunding a max of two of them. But offering the guarantee would likely allow you to charge significantly more than you are now. Let’s say you’re charging $1000 per client now, with no guarantee. With ten clients, you’d bring in a total of $10k (and one or two of them would be disappointed with their results) If the guarantee allows you to close deals at $2000 per client, then you’d bring in $16k ($2000 times 10 clients minus $4000 in refunds) and everyone would be happy. This is a lot of guesswork on my part, but that’s the general concept with guarantees. ### Reader: Wow. I never thought of it like that. Thanks a lot, Jonathan. ### Jonathan: Glad to help! ---- Yours, —J [This is a repost of my daily mailing list. A prettier formatted version can be found on my website. Go to jonathanstark dot com and click on ARCHIVE]

STOP WORRYING Worrying more will not improve your odds of success. In fact, it’ll probably increase the odds of failure. But “life is full of risks!” you say. Yes. Assess the risk. Make a contingency plan (or don’t). Proceed. Worrying is a waste of creative energy. Yours, —J [This is a repost of my mailing list. The most up to date version can be found on my website every day. Go to jonathanstark dot com slash archive]

PROVE ME WRONG _(trigger warning)_ What you do... It doesn’t matter. And even if it did... You suck at it. . . . . . . . . . . Now... 👏 PROVE 👏 ME 👏 WRONG 👏 ### Here’s the thing... The extent to which you’re upset by this message is an indication of where you’re at in your journey. No judgement from me... It’s just a mirror. A check in. If it made you angry, that’s normal. All you need to do is _collect more **objective proof** of the results you deliver._ If it DIDN’T make you angry, I hope you’re charging your clients a BOATLOAD for your assistance. Yours, —J [This is a repost of my mailing list. The most up to date version can be found on my website every day. Go to jonathanstark dot com slash archive]

TWO SECRETS OF VALUE PRICING Here are two things that almost nobody understands about value pricing: 1. In almost every case, you CAN’T guarantee the client’s ultimate desired outcome. 2. But if you’re good at what you do, you can almost always guarantee something that _the client believes will contribute to their desired outcome._ I’ll use myself as an example. Let’s say my desired outcome is to double my annual revenue. And let’s say you are an expert at growing mailing lists for thought leaders. You can’t credibly guarantee that you could double my revenue. Why? Because no matter how good you are, I could do a thousand things to tank my annual revenue. BUT! If you are confident that you can double my mailing list subscriber count AND I believe that doubling my subscriber count would lead to doubling my revenue THEN You can set your _price_ based on my doubled revenue, but only _guarantee_ you’ll double my subscribers. ### Here’s the thing... If a buyer is talking to you about the possibility of working together, THEY BELIEVE THAT WHAT YOU DO CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEIR DESIRED OUTCOME. If they didn’t believe that, THEY WOULDN’T BE WASTING THEIR TIME TALKING TO YOU. So... Price based on desired outcomes, but only guarantee the parts you can control. Yours, —J [This is a repost of my mailing list. The most up to date version can be found on my website every day. Go to jonathanstark dot com slash archive]

WHAT THEY DON’T KNOW... It’s easy for consultants to recognize inefficiencies in a client organization. But pointing them out to a client often just adds stress to the client’s life because _what they don’t know isn’t hurting them._ Instead, focus on finding out what keeps them up at night - even if it is something that seems trivial to you - and help them fix it. ## Here’s the thing... If you solve the problems your clients **know about** and keep a list of the ones they don’t, then when you’re done with their list, you can say: > “Hey, I’ve noticed a few things while we’ve been working together that you might want to consider addressing...” Once you’ve solved all of the problems that your clients have identified, you will have earned the right to suggest solving the ones they haven’t. Yours, —J [This is a repost of my mailing list. The most up to date version can be found on my website every day. Go to jonathanstark dot com slash archive]

CUSTOMER VS CLIENT The joke from yesterday’s Ditcherville comic hinged on the difference between a customer and a client. Several folks asked me to go into some detail about the distinction between these two terms, so here we are! Here’s a good summary from Perplexity: > A customer is generally someone who buys a product or service in a mostly transactional, often short-term way, while a client is someone who engages in an ongoing, relationship-based use of professional or personalized services. _(Thanks, Cliff!)_ In other words: - Customer is more transactional, here-and-now - Client is more personalized, long-term So... - If you buy something like a book, you’re a customer. - If you buy something like coaching, you’re a client. ### Here’s the thing... The idea of the comic - that the customer is always right, but the client isn’t - is best represented in the medical profession. Doctors push back on their patients (aka clients) all the time because doctors have their patients’ best interests at heart. And patients aren't typically medical experts so they are likely to ask for the wrong things. Which is to say... **You can’t tell your doctor to give you a triple bypass and expect them to just do it.** That would be malpractice. The same should be true of you with your clients. Yours, —J [This is a repost of my mailing list. The most up to date version can be found on my website every day. Go to jonathanstark dot com slash archive]

IS THE CUSTOMER ALWAYS RIGHT? The customer is always right about the thing they want. But that doesn’t mean what they want is the right thing. Yours, —J [This is a repost of my mailing list. The most up to date version can be found on my website every day. Go to jonathanstark dot com slash archive]

TWO WAYS TO UNCOVER YOUR NICHE When it comes to niching down, the classic question is this: > I know I should niche down to get more/better leads, but **how do I decide what to niche down on?** This is a tough question because the answer cannot be found in the outside world. It’s in your gut. But what if you stink at listening to your gut? Over the years, I have found that there are two questions I can walk a student through that will sometimes uncover a meaningful answer. The first is this... ### 1. What do you want to be known for? This question doesn’t always work but when it does, the answer will generally be a horizontal specialization (e.g., “I want to be recognized as the top SEO expert in the world”) or it’ll be some kind of a mission statement (e.g., “I want to teach 1B creatives how to make a living doing what they love”). If I get an answer that I believe the student is genuinely committed to, then we agree on a strategy that best fits the objective, and start executing tactics that align with the strategy. But if I _don’t_ get a concrete answer to what they want to be known for, I’ll move on to the second question... ### 2. Who do you most want to help? If you know who you want to help, it solves a lot of problems for you. You don’t need to be a brilliant entrepreneur to be successful. Just use your expertise to help these folks get what they want. This typically raises a few more questions (with my answers): - “How do I know what they want?” Ask them. - “What if I don’t have the expertise they need?” Get it. - “What if there aren’t enough of them?” There are. - “What if they don’t have a lot of money?” Package your expertise differently. - “What if I can’t think of anyone I care about helping?” Well... maybe you should rethink the idea of running a service business. Questions? Just hit reply! Yours, —J [This is a repost of my mailing list. The most up to date version can be found on my website every day. Go to jonathanstark dot com slash archive]

WHY NOT BE PICKY? Fellow list member Avi Marcus wrote in with an excellent perspective on my recent message about niching down _(shared with permission):_ > Right - niching down can be for any kind of subset of the market. It depends on what you’re optimizing for. > > If you’re optimizing for a specialty then you can charge more. > > If you’re optimizing for easier marketing and making more use of your domain knowledge in that field, then pick a vertical. > > If you want less emergencies and less stress, pick a group that is more relaxed and has less emergencies. > > If you want to have more fun and click with a certain kind of person, then only accept those as clients. > > Anything that is “I don’t need to be desperate, I can be picky about my clients” is one form of niching down. I especially like Avi’s closing point. I mean, seriously... Why WOULDN’T you be picky about who you work with? Probably because you’re desperate for work. If that’s the situation you’re in, you might want to figure out how to decrease your desperation. The Catch-22 of this is that the fastest way to stop being desperate for work is to start getting picky about who you work with. Yours, —J [This is a repost of my mailing list. The most up to date version can be found on my website every day. Go to jonathanstark dot com slash archive]

I’M GOING TO DEVOTE MY LIFE TO... Two scenarios: ## 1. Alice Let’s say Alice had a powerful personal experience that led to her exclaiming: “Arghhh! F\*ck it!!! From now on, I’m going to devote my life to helping substitute teachers transform their students without burning out!” ## 2. Bob Let’s say Bob had a powerful personal experience that led to him exclaiming: “Arghhh! F\*ck it!!! From now on, I’m going to devote my life to making enough money to buy a big fancy house for my wife and kids!” ---- If you had to bet _real money_ on one or the other of these two succeeding... Would you pick Alice or Bob? Yours, —J [This is a repost of my mailing list. The most up to date version can be found on my website every day. Go to jonathanstark dot com slash archive]

WHAT DOES “NICHING DOWN” EVEN MEAN? In my interview with J.J. Peterson, we discussed the idea of finding a niche. We’re both big fans of niching down, but discovered that our definitions of the term don’t overlap completely. To me, “niching down” is when you stop marketing to everyone (e.g., “businesses” or “people”) and start marketing to a very specific type of ideal buyer. Most people seem to think “niching down” and “picking a vertical” are synonymous, but there are other ways to niche down. - Vertical focus (e.g., dentists) - Platform focus (e.g., people who need a Shopify expert) - Demographic focus (e.g., 25-35 year old moms in NYC) - Psychographic focus (e.g., Terry Pratchett fans) _How_ to pick the right niche is a story for another day. For now, know that “picking a vertical” is just one way to do it. Yours, —J [This is a repost of my mailing list. The most up to date version can be found on my website every day. Go to jonathanstark dot com slash archive]

STRATEGIES FOR GETTING FROM HERE TO THERE Many years ago, my wife and I realized we had different strategies for getting somewhere in the car. Her strategy: “Get to the destination as efficiently as possible.” My strategy: “Get to the destination as enjoyably as possible.” ### Here’s the thing... The strategy you choose extends to other parts of life. Yours, —J [This is a repost of my mailing list. The most up to date version can be found on my website every day. Go to jonathanstark dot com slash archive]

PATH VS GOAL There’s a difference between a path and a goal. Pursuing a path is easy. Pursuing a goal is right. If you live long enough, you will eventually learn that doing what is right is better than doing what is easy. Yours, —J [This is a repost of my mailing list. The most up to date version can be found on my website every day. Go to jonathanstark dot com slash archive]

SMALLEST VIABLE EXPERIMENT Let’s say you want to write a book. BUT! You’re afraid that you’re going to waste a ton of time and money creating a book that nobody buys. What if you ran a test to validate the idea first? Okay, that seems reasonable. How could you test whether anybody might be interested in this book idea? - You could launch a video course to teach the concepts you plan to write about in the book How could you test whether anybody might be interested in this video course idea? - You could run a half-day Zoom workshop to teach the concepts you plan to write about in the book How could you test whether anybody might be interested in this workshop idea? - You could do a 60-minute webinar to share the key insights you plan to write about in the book How could you test whether anybody might be interested in this webinar idea? - You could share a post on LinkedIn asking for DMs from people who are interested in the insights you plan to write about in the book ---- Sharing a post on LinkedIn might seem like too small an experiment to help validate your book concept. But think about it like this: If you wrote the book... And had it professionally edited... And paid thousands for a cover design... And had the interior layout done... And uploaded it to Amazon... What would you do next? **You’d post about it on LinkedIn.** If nobody responds to the LinkedIn post, your book is in trouble. So... Why not post to LinkedIn _first?_ Wouldn’t you rather find out if anybody cares BEFORE you spend all the time and money it would take to publish the book? Yours, —J [This is a repost of my mailing list. The most up to date version can be found on my website every day. Go to jonathanstark dot com slash archive]

WHAT’S WORTH DOING? How do you decide how to spend your time each day? Each week? Each month? Each year? ### Here’s the thing... I’m sure you woke up yesterday and did things. But... How did you decide that those were the things worth doing? Yours, —J [This is a repost of my mailing list. The most up to date version can be found on my website every day. Go to jonathanstark dot com slash archive]

READER QUESTION RE: WHAT’S YOUR TIME MANAGEMENT STRATEGY? Daniel Georgiev responded to an “empty Gmail inbox” image of mine on LinkedIn to ask: > What’s your time management strategy, Jonathan Stark? Thanks for asking, DG! The core DNA of my approach is from GTD by David Allen. And my email management approach is from Inbox Zero by Merlin Mann (who was also heavily inspired by GTD). But my REAL trick is keeping things ruthlessly simple. For example, I have only THREE inboxes: 1. The lock screen on my phone 2. The week view in my calendar 3. The today view in my task tracker With this simple setup, the “event loop” of my daily operating system looks like this: - Check the lock screen on my phone - Is there an emergency-level notification? - If yes, respond - If no, rejoice ;-) - Check the week view in my calendar - Do I have a meeting coming up now? - If yes, join the meeting - If no, note the time of the next meeting - Check the today view in my task tracker - Is there a task I feel like working on right now that can fit into the available time before my next meeting? - If yes, do it - If no, do whatever I feel like in the available time - _NOTE: I might set an alarm to snap me back to reality in time for my next meeting_ Then, whenever I finish 1) responding to an emergency, 2) participating in a meeting, 3) completing a task, or 4) doing whatever I feel like, I go back to the top (i.e., lock screen) and run the process again. I’m not sure, but I’d guess I run through this loop between ten and fifty times a day. Why am I telling you all this? I’m glad you asked! This process results in me spending a lot of time doing _whatever I feel like_, which I have found makes work not feel much like work at all. What’s more, I never have to burn mental calories worrying about forgetting something. I trust the system and can relax, knowing nothing important will fall through the cracks. Questions? Just hit reply! Yours, —J [This is a repost of my mailing list. The most up to date version can be found on my website every day. Go to jonathanstark dot com slash archive]

DO NOT SKIP STEP 1 Let’s start with some obligatory quotes: “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re probably going wrong.” —Terry Pratchett “Rowing harder doesn’t help if the boat is headed in the wrong direction.” —Kenichi Ohma “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” —Antoine de Saint-Exupéry “If you genuinely care about the goal, you’ll focus on the system.” —James Clear “Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.” —W. Edwards Deming ### Here’s the thing... 1. Get very clear about what you want 2. Build a system to get it 3. Work the system **IMPORTANT: Do not skip Step 1** Yours, —J [This is a repost of my mailing list. The most up to date version can be found on my website every day. Go to jonathanstark dot com slash archive]

EXPERIMENTS VS PUZZLES Lemme start with some informal definitions, off the top of my head: 1. EXPERIMENT—An experiment is an attempt to support or refute a hypothesis. Proving or disproving the hypothesis are both _equally successful outcomes._ 2. PUZZLE—A puzzle is a finite game in which the player attempts to transform a current state into a pre-defined future state. Success or failure _depends on whether the player produces the future state._ Experiments and puzzles are VERY MUCH NOT the same thing. BUT! People seem to conflate them. When I talk about running experiments in a business, it seems like most people think I’m talking about solving puzzles. It’s like they want to start off with a predetermined future state in mind and then puzzle and puzzle until their puzzlers are sore, trying to figure out how to produce that future state. An experiment, on the other hand, would start by presenting a loosely held, falsifiable hypothesis and then find a credible way to prove _or disprove_ it as quickly as possible. Signing up to solve a puzzle in a business context is based on an implied desirability of the future state. This creates all kinds of sunk costs, which is bad, but more importantly, _it presumes that the future state is actually valuable._ For example, “Can I figure out how to get more engagement on LinkedIn?” is not an experiment. It’s a puzzle. And it presumes that more engagement on LinkedIn will create business value. Will it? Maybe, maybe not. An experiment, on the other hand, would start with a hypothesis in which you have little emotional involvement. Which is to say, you would be equally delighted to prove or disprove the hypothesis. And the faster you disprove it, the better. Why? Because... **It’s an opportunity to move on to a better hypothesis.** Stop doing puzzles and start running experiments. Yours, —J [This is a repost of my mailing list. The most up to date version can be found on my website every day. Go to jonathanstark dot com slash archive]