Each and every Friday — I outline a few of the articles and/or books that I have read over the last week or two that are worth taking a look at.
How to Grow Your Small Business: A 6-Step Plan to Help Your Business Take Off By Donald Miller
For so many entrepreneurs, running a small business ended up looking different than they imagined. They’re stressed, discouraged, and not confident in their plan for growth. In How to Grow Your Small Business, Donald Miller gives entrepreneurs a 6-step plan to grow their businesses so they produce dependable, predictable results.
Using the exact steps you’ll learn in this book, Donald Miller grew his small business from four employees working out of a basement to a 15 million dollar operation, increasing revenue sixfold in just six years. As Miller grew his own business from the ground up, he realized nobody had put together a simple, step-by-step playbook for growing a business. That book didn’t exist. Until now.
In this book, you’ll learn the 6 steps to grow a successful small business and create a playbook to implement them- your Flight Plan. When you have a completed Flight Plan in hand, you can stop drowning in the details and spend more time doing the things you truly love- in your business and your life.
In How to Grow Your Small Business, you’ll learn how to:
- Cast a vision for your company that includes three economic priorities
- Clarify your marketing message
- Install a sales framework that makes your customers the hero
- Optimize your product offering
- Run a management and productivity playbook that aligns your entire team.
- Use 5 checking accounts to manage your cash flow
Go here to get a copy of this great book: https://a.co/d/fzOQJeW
6 Valuable Japanese Approaches to Life to Help You Live Better
1. Ikigai
Ikigai (ee-key-guy) is a Japanese concept that combines the terms iki, meaning “alive” or “life,” and gai, meaning “benefit” or “worth.”
Having an Ikigai means having a clear purpose that makes your life worthwhile. Something to get up for each morning.
The word first gained global notoriety in 2017 in the book “Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a
Long and Happy Life” written by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles. A book that went on to be an international bestseller, sold over 3 million copies, and has been translated into 63 languages.
Most recently the concept of Ikigai was talked about in the best-selling Blue Zones book and Netflix documentary “Live to 100: Secrets of The Blue Zones” by Dan Buettner.
It highlights Okinawa, Japan, as a blue zone with the highest concentration of centenarians in the world, and Ikigai is a common theme of living there.
Showing that many of the world’s longest-lived people are driven by passion and purpose, work well into their 80s and 90s, and don’t retire.
So each day that you wake up, work on something that aligns with your strengths and passions and serves the needs of the world around you.
This is what gives life meaning.
“Only staying active will make you want to live a hundred years.” — Japanese proverb
2. Kaizen
Kaizen (kai-zen) is a Japanese term meaning change for the better or small continuous improvement.
The word Kaizen is the combination of two Japanese words, Kai and Zen.
- Kai = change
- Zen = good
Go here to finish reading this post: https://medium.com/illumination/6-valuable-japanese-approaches-to-life-to-help-you-live-better-5f664dce093c
3 Tips for Using ChatGPT to Gain the Competitive Edge
AI.
Is.
Everywhere.
Many marketers I’ve talked to see artificial intelligence as a threat to their livelihoods—a “robots-are-taking-over-our-jobs-just-you-watch” mentality.
But while fear is a natural response to something new and unknown, let me caution you:
Resist the urge to run from AI.
It might be scary to think about how far technology has come in recent history, but it’s far more productive to embrace AI in a helpful “Rosie” from the Jetsons way, instead of the destructive “T-1000” from the Terminator way.
When used properly, AI can be a helpful tool for your business. You can use it as a productivity booster for tasks like copywriting, coding, and even competitive analysis.
To illustrate my point, I want to introduce you to Matt Tessar.
Matt is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of TESMO, a digital marketing agency that’s managed about $500 million in Amazon sales for direct-to-consumer (D2C) and third-party (3P) brands.
In Matt’s private session from Blue Ribbon Mastermind, he discussed what you need to know about building a sustainable competitive advantage for your brand with AI. Now, we’ve taken Matt’s session out of the private vault and turned it into this quick article for you to enjoy.
But first…
LET’S GET CLEAR ON WHAT AI IS
In this article, we’ll focus on a specific kind of artificial intelligence—GPT, which stands for “generative pre-trained transformer.”
Go here to finish reading: https://smartmarketer.com/3-chatgpt-tips-for-dtc-brands/
Are you a good steward?
You Have a Kingdom.
You have a domain that you rule.
Are you a good steward of your kingdom?
Stewardship: “The careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care.”
Everything that we have is a gift given by God.
A gift is something we can either take care of and share with others or disregard and not value.
Through my wins and losses, I’ve been thinking a lot about stewardship and purpose.
My experience has shown that when life is “all about,” Chris Evans isn’t very fulfilling. It’s woven
into the fabric of humanity.
It can be downright miserable, tbh. This should go without saying that yes, I should take care of myself. That’s not what I’m talking about here. I suppose it’s the difference between self-care and love versus self-centeredness.
There’s something in us that wants to contribute to the well-being of fellow humans.
We discover our purpose in what we have to steward. Our contribution.
The proof that you have a purpose that’s beautiful on this earth is that you have desire.
Purpose starts with desire.
Then follows with curiosity, “What if…”
Then action to “pull threads” and experiment.
Where society has screwed up is when we try to elevate ourselves above others (gain status).
We get greedy and take rather than give.
So what have you been given to steward? What are your gifts and natural leanings and propensity?
Go here to finish reading: https://chrisaevans.beehiiv.com/p/good-steward
Hope you enjoy these articles and books. Have a great rest of your Friday an amazing weekend!