Saturday 27 April 2013

Business Jazz – 26th April 2013 – The Cat Herder and the Leaning Shed of Near Vancouver


TOPICS THIS WEEK: Shipping imperfection; Being unique and marketing that; Working from Sheds

Perfection is key to success in business, right? Your product needs to be perfect to survive in the marketplace. If it isn't, your clients won't like it. Your competitors will steamroller over you.

Really?

Maybe not. Just how perfect should perfection be? There is a point at which perfection is a killer. You keep delaying shipping. Remember that a project that is 95% done, but hasn't shipped, is as good as 0% complete from the perspective of the marketplace. And a 0% product or services isn't attractive at all.

This week we look at perfection in business and how you don't always need to deliver perfection. In fact, have a listen to this episode of Chris Brogan's podcast in which he interviews Paul: The Human Business Way, Episode 10.

The conversation about perfection or imperfection turns to office space. Jane has moved into a shed. Sounds odd? Turns out working from sheds isn't uncommon. In fact, it's quite popular: Shed Working.

Jane at work in the Leaning Shed of Near Vancouver (herded cat in attendance)

We also look at how you market the mundane compared with marketing the new and unique. You'd think the latter would be easier. It isn't necessarily. After all, you have to overcome people's unfamiliarity with the product and service. How can they buy what they don't know or understand, especially if it pushes the envelop?

That also impacts you. If you're doing something new, how do you describe yourself?

Links to people and things we mention


Chris Brogan
Documentally
Peter Cox
Shed Working
Phil Sorrell
Joel Buckland

New rallying point


You are a big part of the story of this podcast. We'd like you to be an even bigger part of it. To help with that, and to help us have discussions about being genuinely attractive in business, we've established a LinkedIn group. Please knock on the door and we'll let you in.

Listening to the podcast


You can listen to this week's podcast using the player at the top of the post or download it directly here: Business Jazz – 26th April, 2013.

We're also in iTunes. We'd love it if you subscribed or left some feedback.


Business Jazz Players


This podcast is a collaboration of people dotted around the world. Most of us have never met each other. It's quite a story and it's still evolving. 
If you'd like to read what's happened so far, you'll find it here: Our Story.

Friday 19 April 2013

Business Jazz – 19th April 2013 – Asking for Help (Continued)



Many good stories share a common storytelling device: an epic challenge that the protagonist must overcome. The story of your business is also about overcoming challenges. You are on a quest – a quest to grow your business, launch your product, reach your targets. The higher you intend to reach, the more epic the quest, the more we are drawn to it. You are the underdog we are cheering on.

We've set some epic challenges for this podcast, and we'd like you to be part of the quest. Join us on the journey and help us build the bright, giving, supportive, valuable community we have in mind.

What are the challenges we've set? You'll have to listen to this week's episode for that. You'll hear how many weekly downloads we'd like to hit by 31st December of this year. You'll also hear of an epic geographic goal as well.

New rallying point


You are a big part of the story of this podcast. We'd like you to be an even bigger part of it. To help with that, and to help us have discussions about being genuinely attractive in business, we've established a LinkedIn group. Please knock on the door and we'll let you in.

Listening to the podcast


You can listen to this week's podcast using the player at the top of the post or download it directly here: Business Jazz – 19th April, 2013.

We're also in iTunes. We'd love it if you subscribed or left some feedback.


Business Jazz Players


This podcast is a collaboration of people dotted around the world. Most of us have never met each other. It's quite a story and it's still evolving. 
If you'd like to read what's happened so far, you'll find it here: Our Story.

Saturday 13 April 2013

Business Jazz – 13th April 2013 – Asking for Help


In this episode of the podcast, we look at the power of asking directly for help – from your support community and from your clients and customers. Sometimes you need to seek out help, sometimes an offer of help drops in your lap. In the case of the latter, we often let the moment slip because we're not ready. That's happened to all of us. So how can you make sure that next time you're ready?

We also lift the veil on where the podcast is at the moment and start to reveal where we'd like to go with it. Community is key to the future of the show and to grow it we need the help of you, our listeners.

One of the things we've wanted to do for a while is start a group on LinkedIn. It's there now. We'd love it if you stopped by and joined the community: Business Jazz LinkedIn Group.

You can listen to this week's podcast using the player at the top of the post or download it directly here: Business Jazz – 13th April, 2013.

We're also in iTunes. We'd love it if you subscribed or left some feedback.


Business Jazz Players


This podcast is a collaboration of people dotted around the world. Paul, Jane and Roger are only two of a small army. How the podcast came into being is quite a story and it's still evolving. 
If you'd like to read what's happened so far, you'll find it here: Our Story.

Saturday 6 April 2013

Business Jazz – 6th April 2013 – Dealing with the Grind 2


In this episode of the podcast, Jane and Roger continue their discussion about Chris Brogan's concept of Loving the Grind.

What's the Grind?

The grind comprises all those things that you don't really like doing but are essential to the health and success of your business. The boring, dull, hard, difficult, tedious stuff that underpins the success of your business.

You can listen to this week's podcast using the player at the top of the post or download it directly here: Business Jazz – 6th April, 2013.

We're also in iTunes. We'd love it if you subscribed or left some feedback.


Business Jazz Players


This podcast is a collaboration of people dotted around the world. Most of us have never met each other. It's quite a story and it's still evolving. 
If you'd like to read what's happened so far, you'll find it here: Our Story.

Extras


We have a tradition here at Business Jazz of recording a segment of audio around the main podcast, usually afterwards. Sometimes we forget. This was one of those times. An side effect of recording so late at night (Jane) and so early in the morning (Roger).