Author: Rich Bowdler

FOR the Use of Buzzwords

ME:

Price marinading… Thoughts? Opinions?
When to use / not use?
p.s. (And here’s a picture of some marinading chicken).
HIM:
Sounds like yet another made up marketing buzzword.
(I’ve been in sales 10+ years and heard it all)
ME:
“Price marinading” –> It’s a linguistic shorthand (which obviously you could think of as a buzzword) for saying that you’re going to tell people at the start of a presentation, the price of what you’re going to sell them at the end of the presentation.i.e. They “marinade” in the price.

For anyone who HAS heard about this concept before AND had experience using it, (regardless of whether or not you have a term for it…) do you have any road-tested opinions?

ME (a week later):
Stewing on this some more, there’s more to this marinading business than meets the initial palate (‘scuse the terrible puns):
 
(Written by the people at nfx –> wayyy smarter than me):
 
“Language (Social)
In any human network, language is the main intermediary. It’s the protocol that all the nodes in a network use to interface with each other. For instance, the English language is a serviceable language, but it’s a lot more valuable considering that there are 1.5 billion people who speak it. That’s more than 15 times as many people who speak German. So even though speaking English doesn’t make you 15 times better at communicating than speaking German, the value to speakers is much higher as a result of the network.
 
That’s why, throughout history, language has displayed a “winner-take-most” tendency. People in the same political, social and economic units tend to coalesce around one language.
 
This concept extends to the jargon and vernacular of specific groups, from nations to corporations, teens to hipsters, economists to Google employees. As jargon gets adopted by more and more people, it becomes more valuable to all the other users.
 
Startups can use the network effects of language to take advantage of that winner-take-most effect in at least two ways: first, in creating business category language; and second, in naming a company or product.”
 
….
 
^ This is critical when it comes time to think about category creation (see any brand whose name you know. e.g. Clickfunnels, Levi’s… and on).
 
Reference:
 

Shift to Network Thinking… And NOT as a User Acquisition Strategy

nfx are some of the smartest VCs out there (& accomplished in their own right >$10bn in exits of companies they built).
Thinking in terms of network will become relevant as we transition tech platform, which will enable us to become a platform in our own right.
How each individual user gets more value from the platform with each additional user is something for us to figure out.
Also, how each entity (venue, streaming brand, etc), which sits on our platform, gets more value from each additional brand is also worth thinking through once we get into platform developments in the next 12 months.

This 7min vid is worth a watch to stew things at the back of your mind:

 

Hopefully, the evolution will be to move from pure content acquisition creation –> to content network –> to data network.
Obviously the lights have to stay on in order to get to that point, but this could easily form part of the viable narrative for raising future rounds.

 

Reference:
https://www.nfx.com/post/network-effects-manual/

More on Quadrant 2

Last week the owner of a WhatsApp group with a bunch of highly sophisticated marketers announced that he was fatigued from “running” the group and he wanted to give away the responsibility.

Naturally, as an EPIC alumnus, my antennae pronged in resonance.

I reached out to the owner and said the following:
“I’d be honoured to take up the mantle of shark group admin and carry the torch for the next leg of the journey.

I’m sure you’ll have much interest, but I’d be happy to discuss especially with regard to guiding principles you’d like to see maintained.
Yours,
Rich Bowdler”

—

His response:

“You’re the first one that came to mind dude so let’s make it happen. would be happy to pass the torch your way.”

—

There was no big deal here.
I had simply been contributing to the group over the last 12 months.
Not sycophantically. And certainly not all 1-way traffic.

—

So what?
Well, what I now have is control of a group… $0.
(It’s more of an autonomous collective – see python video for more detail).
50+ highly trained marketing minds to share with, request for insight & help, offer opportunities to work on projects, grow companies, and so on.

Contributing to that group (and this one) has been a satisfying thing to do. AND is a conscious Quadrant 2 (Eisenhower –> Covey) behaviour.
Acquiring any asset requires work, even if that work is sowing seeds to build trust and reputation over years.

So, my question to you:
What are your quadrant 2 activities this week?
(And are they Compounding Quadrant 2 activities? Or Maintenance Quadrant 2 activities?)

Oh, and for 3-mins light relief of British comedy gold. This is how Medieval Times really went down:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2c-X8HiBng

Quadrant 2, Little & Often

Quadrant 2 activities as defined by Dwight Eisenhower are the things that are “Important” but “Not Urgent”.

The eponymous Eisenhower Matrix was popularised by the famous management & leadership coach, Stephen Covey, in his well-known book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”.

What do we mean by tasks that are “Important” but “Not Urgent”?

There are really 2 groups of activities within Quadrant 2.
There are activities to maintain & nurture.
And there are activities which compound or create a step-change.

Regardless of type, they are things that would NOT happen as a matter of inevitability, if you paid no attention.
In all likelihood, they would slip off your radar and no bad thing would happen.
At least not in the short term.

Maintenance activities are things like:

  • exercise
  • some friendships
  • health checks
  • (…list to be added to over time)

 

Compounding or step-change creating activities are things such as:

  • thinking time alone
  • time to write or produce
  • financial planning
  • deliberate nurturing of key relationships within your network
  • learning, mentoring
  • consolidation of learning
  • figure out how to delegate more tasks from the other quadrants
  • (…list to be added to over time)

 

The larger you can make the time allocation to your Quadrant 2, then the further ahead you will ultimately get.
Does your life situation currently allow you to spend time on Q2 every morning?
If not, then how about at least once or twice a week?
Do it now – schedule time with yourself in your calendar that is for you, and you alone to start (or deepen) your journey into Quadrant 2 living.

Let me know what bubbles up!

Rich