Surviving in the Wild World of Business

I saw something on the trail today that stopped me dead in my tracks… 

A big pile of bear poop. 

It made me think… running a business is a lot like running in the wilderness. The terrain changes quickly, and if you’re not paying attention, you could end up in a tough spot (like between a mama bear and her cubs).

But here’s the good news: when you keep your head on a swivel and listen to your market, you can thrive – no matter how wild things get.

So I'm out for a run and I just came across a big pile of bear scat. That's a fancy term for poop. So a great big pile of bear poop. I live out in the woods here in Colorado. We have bears here but this season, this year, we have a lot of bears. It just seems there's more bear activity than we typically see.

Actually, just one of my friends was on that trail just yesterday and he saw a big mama bear with two big cubs. The deal is, with black bears, they don't want to bother you. They don't want to mess with humans. They're not as in general, not as dangerous as say, a grizzly bear or brown bear. Even grizzlies, they don't really want to mess with you either. But black bears definitely tend to be less aggressive except for Mama bears with their cubs. They can be really scary. They can be super, super scary.

And so I'm out for a run on this trail that I'm normally on. I got my earbuds in. I'm listening to my favorite podcast and there's this bear poop right in the middle of the trail. It's not incredibly fresh, it looks like it's probably at least a day old. And the thing right now – all the Bears out  – I've just got my head on a swivel. So I'm running, I'm listening, I'm paying attention, I took the earbuds out, I'm no longer in my podcast but I'm just a lot more aware of what's going on. You know you're out in the woods it's always good to be aware but far more right now because I don't want to scare a bear. I don't want to run up on some bear cubs with Mama around.

I think that's the way business is right now. I mean there's a lot going on – the markets are changing, the economy is changing, the world's changing – this is the time to have your head on a swivel and be paying attention to the market. And being especially paying attention to your clients, your avatar, your prospects.

I just went through my Launch Masterclass™ and one of the most amazing things about the Launch Masterclass is I get thousands and thousands of comments so I get closer and closer and closer to my avatar, to my ideal client, and to my new clients, as well as to my older clients because they always end up coming back.

So I am reading all the comments, hundreds and hundreds of comments on my videos, thousands of comments on the live streams, and you would be shocked how much time I spend in those comments after the Zooms. I download the Zooms and I look through the Zoom stream and I look for what people are saying, how they're reacting to what I say.

I've been in business for a very long time and I think a big reason why I've been able to stay in business and succeed and thrive is because I pay attention to my clients. We have this thing in my Product Launch Formula® – part of the formula is what we call a launch parachute and the other thing is a launch conversation. These might sound hokey if people are just coming into my world. But the launch conversation is all that feedback you're getting during a promotion is absolutely amazing. It can tell you so much – it can tell you what the objections are, it can tell you what the hot points are, it can give you copy hooks, it's super powerful. And then launch parachute is this idea where you're not dependent on any one single piece of marketing that you are constantly reacting and interacting with what's being said to you in that launch conversation. And that's what allows you to tune your marketing, tune your offer, and ultimately succeed and thrive and continue to thrive in the long run.

So I've got my head on a swivel; I'm looking for the bears. I don't want to scare them. I don't want to run into them. I don't want to get into between a mama and a cub for sure. And you know it's safe out there, it's safe out there, but you just have to be aware. And that's the way business is especially right now. You can succeed, you can be safe, you can be secure, but you have to pay attention to what the conversation is happening in your market.

I'm Jeff Walker. Where you're watching this, scroll down, leave a comment for me and let's go get them this week.