Win the fight for attention by communicating with relevance

July 16, 2020 by Luke Szyrmer Leave a Comment

The biggest challenge when introducing a new product is establishing a connection with your audience. Often, this is because you can’t do anything else until this is in place. This detail really hit home for me, when I went to an accelerator event in Mexico.

In this 2006 photograph, a man was receiving an intramuscular injection in his left shoulder muscle from a trained, registered nurse (RN), while his family was observing from over the nurse's shoulder. — Photographer: CDC | Source: Unsplash

One of the speakers was an immunobiologist client of mine, who’d developed a unique salmonella vaccine that could be combined with other vaccines. And it looks as though his vaccine is the only salmonella one which can do that.

I’d worked with him briefly as an innovation expert, and had a discussion about commercialization options as well as some pitch training. At the time he was struggling to see entrepreneurship as a viable route to greater impact. He felt comfortable as an inventor, and wanted to do more of that, not become a businessman.

It turned out I had unleashed a force of nature. Also drilling him in giving pithy explanations helped him hone down his message to something much more concrete for anyone who wasn’t already a fellow immunobiologist, or even a scientist. This one insight allowed him to communicate the relevance of his work to the wider public.

But more importantly, he started to believe that entrepreneurship was a viable route to greater impact. As it would force him to confront institutions that held him and other scientists back domestically.

As a result of both, he’s pretty much gone from a booksy academic researcher to a serious contender in getting funding to help spread the use of his product vaccine. This is the power of relevance and empathy in an age of dwindling attention.

One of the best ways to get (and stay) relevant is to focus all of your marketing and product efforts around a client profile. In theory there are millions of ways to reach an audience; in practice, you only need to reach a specific group of people. So figure out who they are, and then just focus on them. The best way to do this is the Hero Canvas tool. Grab a copy and get a quick intro for free with my Hero Canvas course.

How to create an actionable client profile

August 28, 2016 by LaunchTomorrow 5 Comments

Daniel Day Lewis, method acting maestro

He’s the first man to ever win three Oscars. Daniel Day Lewis, that is.

For the entire filming of My Left Foot, he didn’t leave his wheelchair, sound coherent, or even feed himself. For Last of the Mohicans he became a survivalist. He lived off the land. For In the Name of the Father, he lived in a prison cell. He starved himself. He asked the cast to insult and abuse him.

When playing Abraham Lincoln, he even signed his texts “A.”

Daniel’s style of acting, called method acting, expects him to become his character. To live in their skin. Which is a potent skill to have as a marketer.

Why?

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How to find the perfect cofounder

January 30, 2015 by LaunchTomorrow 2 Comments

That perfect co-founder must be out there somewhere…

A lot of founders I speak to struggle with finding a co-founder, particularly on the technology side. While they have an idea, they want to find someone who will help create that technology. Often development cost is a consideration, so equity seems like the easiest way to get address that.

I find there’s three big issues with this approach:

If your problem was correctly validated, you’d be making enough sales that you’d be able to pay a developer to build out your idea. Pre-sell if you have to. Often, you don’t need a product to make the sale. You need a solid understanding of your audience’s needs to make a sale.
At the same time, try to empathize with developers and understand their motivations. Developers are a curious bunch. Often, they’re more motivated by getting to play with new technology. They want to solve difficult problems. Overcoming intellectual challenges. If you can frame what you are doing as an intellectual problem, you’ll have a much easier time speaking with developers.
Make sure that anyone you recruit as a co-founder is critical to executing your vision. Don’t leave gaping holes.

For example, one of Steve Blank’s startups, a game building one, went bust. They didn’t have a hard core gaming developer on the co-founding team. The easiest way to identify any major gaps in your co-founding team, take a look and your canvases (Business Model Canvas or Lean Canvas). Here’s more on how to do this: https://qz.com/321585/to-pick-your-perfect-startup-co-founder-do-this/

You may, in fact, need a developer. You don’t need one until you’ve validated your problem and proposed solution. Otherwise, you’re giving away your equity. Customers must clearly indicate that they’re willing to pay for what you’re thinking of building.

Another good way of recruiting a technical co-founder is to ask the developer to help you interview customers. Have them help out with founders’ work, what co-founders do. Have them interview customers about their problem. Then, once they get back into creating technology (where they feel comfortable) they’ll benefit from a much clearer sense of what’s needed. Not just what they hear from you.

In that case, you can then focus on marketing, growth, and everything else your startup needs. The developer can build exactly the right solution.