dean jackson

Selecting a niche…. create a differentiation

differentiation, Marketing, Positioning, Product Management

Whenever you try to create a differentiation –  it is always with respect to a market.

The red egg differentiation will not matter to a person who does not eat eggs.

I talk multiple times about Joe Polish and Dean Jackson. The reason I am so impressed with them and their podcasts on ilovemarketing and morecheeselesswhiskers is because they explore this concept in so much depth.

You will hear a lot of marketing people talk about identifying a niche in the market, but fail to say the immediate statement after that. Is there a market in that niche

This is the most critical aspect when you decide to segment the market for a niche.

When I started my career in selling process control equipment, we had an amazing product which was also very expensive. Indian industry at that time was still new to the idea of micro processor based process control equipment.

Our product was very good good for controlling complex processes. However there were very few companies who really had the need for such a powerful equipment. And we didn’t have a range of products.

While there was a niche in the market for controlling complex processes, there was no market in the niche…. because there were very few companies with a need for such a product.

Eventually this product could not take leadership even though we came out with this amazing product much before anyone else.

So while finding a niche in the market is important, to be able to differentiate and stand out. You should always see if there’s a market for you in the niche.

Till next time.

Carpe Diem!!!

Serendipity

Serendipity

Everyone has heard the cliché “all that glitters is not gold” but we still end up taking a lot of decisions based on the way something is shown.

Today however I have to tell you how accidentally decided to hear a podcast episode and it turned out to be such a revelation. Pure serendipity.

I have mentioned multiple times to you about the podcast ilovemarketing by Joe Polish and Dean Jackson. If you have any thing to do with marketing, you should listen to this podcast.

Anyway….to today’s story….I was actually intending to hear the episode where Joe Polish talks about his sabbatical. While going through the episodes list I accidentally pressed the episode with Chris Voss.

If you haven’t heard of Chris Voss, he was the chief hostage negotiator of FBI and has written the amazing book Never Split the Difference.

Coming back,  when I heard the first few words at the start of the podcast talking about the difference between assertive and aggressive and collaboration and cooperation I got captivated.

I love people who can give the nuances between words and know how to use the right word…. true wordsmiths

But as I heard the podcast further it had so much wisdom, that I was enthralled. I had no intention of listening to this episode when I had started Google podcast. but I got so much value listening to it.

Sometimes you are looking for something and you accidentally come across something so amazing. I would strongly recommend , that if you’re in any way involved in doing negotiations or love how human interaction can be improved,  you should watch this episode on YouTube.

Till next time….

Carpe Diem!!!

Mind Control – Part II

Affirmative action, Breathing, Habits, Human Brain, Yoga

I was thinking on this topic since the time I posted yesterday on the comment “how can I stop my mind from wandering”

While I wish, I had a silver bullet answer, I don’t.

However there are some more things which help put my mind in better state to get into flow. In yesterday’s post I already suggested you watch a video on YouTube of Ilovemarketing episode on the 50 minute focus finder. Its one of the best methods of getting the mind cleared and then fully in flow. Earlier to that I have spoken about breathing and yoga.

Another thing which I have found very useful when I am doing any activity which requires intense focus is to play Mozart and Beethoven symphonies. Those have a massive impact on my ability to concentrate when I am trying to do a job which requires immense brain power. In addition I use a paper and pencil to put my thoughts down on paper as they come.

The brain is like the CPU of the computer, it typically is working at a speed which is more than a 1000 times faster than the input-output devices connected to it . If you leave the mind idle even for a milli second, it will like to wander and think of multiple thoughts.

In the life of an average person a typical waking day of 16 hours has about 57000 seconds. You brain has massive compute ability, which means it typically processes tasks very fast and then till it gets the next task, it wanders. Potentially your brain could be wandering 50000 times in a day hoping from one thought to another.

To keep the brain engaged you should use multiple sensory organs (the input-output devices of your body).

If I am reading a book – especially a non-fiction book – then my mind tends to wander. So what I do is I use my fingers to scan through the pages diagonally. Since my eyes follow my finger, two sensory organs are involved and the mind wanders less, in addition I play Mozart and Beethoven symphonies and my ears also get involved resulting in much higher concentration levels.

Why not try these two ideas in addition to what I had mentioned about watching the video by Dean Jackson and doing yoga.

Let me know your feedback and do let me know if there are other methods you have found useful and share it with us.

Till next time

Carpe Diem!!!

Mind Control

Affirmative action, Human Brain

In my post on Unfinished Tasks – source of stress – I got a comment saying something to the context of ” I do write down things but thoughts still keep coming – what should I do”

My simple answer is I don’t know.

Mind control is something that humans have been trying to achieve for ages. Someone who can control the mind achieves nirvana. So I am nowhere even close to nirvana.

However as I had mentioned in my earlier post also if you can keep writing down the thoughts which come to you and do a mind dump then after sometime you will reach a stage where you will be able to concentrate on your work and get into the flow state.

I would highly recommend watching this 50 minute focus finder talk by Dean Jackson on Ilovemarketing.com. Watch it till the end. Its an amazing thing and I generally do it every Monday.

On the other hand I must confess that I am not able to do it everyday.

One of the good things – since I belong to the age when compute was very expensive – I have an ability to write with pen and paper and put my thoughts on paper. Most people today don’t have the inclination of using pencil/pen and paper. One of the advantages of using the pen and paper is that the hand and the brain are hardwired so when the hand moves to write a word it also gets mimicked to the brain sending a signal to the brain that the transfer has taken place.

See this video and let me know if it was of help. I look forward to hearing your comments

Till next time.

Carpe Diem!!!