Monetization Playbook #40 — iterating the future

Monetization Playbook #39 —

Okay, marketing folklore tells you to be a big fish in a small pond. But at some point, if successful, you'll be a dolphin trying to squeeze in a goldfish bowl.

One option is to move into a bigger pond. Let's call it an ocean. But, stepping into shark territory is the last thing you're ready for straight out the bowl. So the key is to try to find what W Chanh Kim and Renée Mauborgne termed a blue ocean strategy.

There are many parts to their strategy, but my favourite is the value innovation framework. This prompts you to view the current industry's value delivery norms and features and then consider whether to ERRC

Raise

Eliminate

Reduce

Create

Monetization Playbook #38

if you’re standing still—you’re effectively moving backward

Reduce customer value realization friction by eating customer complexity

Why race to the bottom when you can start at the top––own don't optimize! Create your own terms and make em stick!

Great examples include:

Build once, sell twice –– Jack Butcher.

Personal Monopoly –– David Perell

Membership Economy –– Robbie Kellman Baxter

Indie Hacker –– Courtland Allen

Passion Economy –– Li Jin

Monetization Architecture –– strat-e-gym

When it comes to SEO, if you're a black belt 5th dan in backlinks et al., then keep doing what you're doing––for everyone else––inversion thinking may just be for you.

Own don't optimize!

Why race to the bottom when you can start at the top––own don't optimize! Create your own terms and make em stick!

Great examples include:

Build once, sell twice –– Jack Butcher.

Personal Monopoly –– David Perell

Membership Economy –– Robbie Kellman Baxter

Indie Hacker –– Courtland Allen

Passion Economy –– Li Jin

Monetization Architecture –– strat-e-gym

When it comes to SEO, if you're a black belt 5th dan in backlinks et al., then keep doing what you're doing––for everyone else––inversion thinking may just be for you.

Own don't optimize!

Success, even against the greatest foe, is possible. It all depends on where you place the leverage.

A strategy is about many things, but leverage is perhaps the most important. It dictates the terms of engagement and, in many ways, if indeed there is engagement at all.

Rarely are opposing sides matched perfectly. One will always be more significant in size than the other. One will be more agile than the other

Find your fulcrum and double down on using its leverage.

Thus niching is no longer an option––it will become the global language of value communication and compensation.

The production of iron and early steel variants dates back over 3,000 years––the last 250 years of which have fuelled immense innovation in alloying.

First tungsten, then––manganese, then––carbon, then––molybdenum, were added along the evolutionary journey to make steel stronger. The latter addition of chromium and nickel alloys spawned the much-loved consumerized stainless steel.

The introduction of iron transformed antiquity and acted as a foundation for the growth of many early empires. But skyscrapers only came into being with the development of steel frames borne out of alloys' strength.

Your people can create a robust and unbreakable culture alloy scaffold––in your company's reach for the skies.

—how you think further ahead of the next decision

— anything multiplied by zero = zero. Focus on the weakest link in your value chain…

— getting to the A. Finding the atom of your message that resonates.

‘saying less adds more meaning’

— what if there were at least 5 options for every problem—there are!

— customer experiences should be the same across all touch-points.

— focusing on a circle of competence is not as easy as it sounds

— information is everywhere, but being informed is harder than ever before.

— confirmatory statistics are not a confirmation of the truth.

— monetization is a functional discipline

— perception is reality. one may see a pile of coal. the other, a potential diamond in the rough…