Do you ever feel like you’re stuck on a plateau? Or the opposite– you are so busy with ideas and tasks that you are completely overwhelmed? Neither of these is a best-case scenario. But when you are biz planning for the long haul, you can move past either of these obstacles.
How? You’ll have to listen to what Bjork Ostrom has to say about it.
Listen to Episode 61 – Biz Planning for the Long Haul!
Connect with Bjork Ostrom
You can find Bjork at Food Blogger Pro. Membership is closed, but you can still get great info on the blog and listen to the podcast. You can also find him on Twitter or over at Pinch of Yum.
Podcasting is a fantastic medium for building connections, trust, & intimacy. (1:18)
While blogging and written media is not going anywhere, audio has some unique properties that may allow you to reach new audiences, or your same audience in a new way. Your audience can listen to your podcast while running at the beach, driving their car, or while washing dishes. Something about audio triggers a deeper connection with your audience that is more intimate that simply reading the written word. It also allows you to form connections with other influencers if you are doing interviews or being interviewed.
The best growth happens as you get a little bit better every day forever. (5:15)
Bjork coined the phrase and concept of One Percent Infinity, which simply means that you can improve a little each day over a longer period of time. Rather than thinking of it as going from 0 to 1000, the One Percent Infinity concept means small wins along the way that add up over time. (Read more about this idea at Pro Blog School.) Bjork and his wife Lindsay run Pinch of Yum and Food Blogger Pro and he shares what this one percent infinity looked like for their journey. (9:23) Some of this looked like making intentional business decisions to scale this day by day.
When you have something at 80%, leave it to work on the thing at 10%. (13:05)
I loved this concept of not perfecting the things that are already working really well, but letting those stand while you then try to bring up another element to that same 80%. Start working bit by bit, day by day on the areas of your blog and business that really need the help. Don’t spend time tweaking when you could be making a bigger, more important change. (Raise your hand if you ever spent like two hours messing with your sidebar??) We steal from progress when we focus on those little things that aren’t moving you forward. Move forward on something matters. You will steal joy from yourself if you focus on things that aren’t really accomplishing a larger goal.
“There is so much opportunity to perfect things that don’t need to be perfected.” (15:20)
When you hit a plateau or get stuck in overwhelm, you need to be able to get out. (19:10)
Consider the things that are not actually impacting your bottom line, whether that is traffic or downloads or sales. Figure out the things you’re doing that don’t need YOU in them. Pass those off to someone else. (Which reminds me a lot of my episode on free vs paid tools!) Or, if they aren’t moving you forward, stop doing them altogether. Drop off the things that don’t matter to focus on the things that DO. Experiment with giving this to someone for a month.
Need tips for a membership site? Here are Bjork’s tips. (34:18)
Try a presale to validate the idea and prove the concept. Consider a course vs a membership. With a membership you need to offer something of value every single month. Consider how you can niche down and focus on a specific audience rather than a generic audience.
Many businesses lose money the first few years, but online that may not be the case. (43:18)
Adjust the revenue and expense categories so that you might be profitable from the beginning. How can you become profitable right from the start or as quickly as possible? Find what point it takes to spend money that will save your time. You have to consider the time value of your projects and the things that you are doing. When you start, use the free things that make sense for you rather than diving into paying for all the bells and whistles. You need the things that are worth your time.
Links we mention:
Meron Bareket (his session helped me learn sound editing for podcast editing!)
Maritza Parra & the superniche
And if you want to hear a bonus episode with Bjork where we talk tech and my fears about the apocalypse, listen to Bonus Episode 62 here!
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