Making it about YOU and what YOU like and do is the easiest way to lose.
“I don’t know all the keys to being successful in business, but I do know the most important one:
Make the client the main character of the story.
Who cares what you think or want.
What do they want?
How well can you adapt to maximize their experience?”
-Ray Zingler on X
Let’s just be honest.
When it comes to the marketplace, people are understandably selfish.
They want what they want, and they want it now. And they often want to tell you all about themselves in the process of trying to extract what they want.
Many people in business see these things as net negatives: “Ugh this person is a drain; they are always wanting this or that and they are always talking about themselves.”
If you can’t handle these truths about people get out of business. Commerce isn’t for you.
Will some clients be “easier” than others? Of course. But if you think every client is going to be your picture-perfect interpretation of a client, you’ll fail in business faster than you could shut your own doors.
While having a plan and a business identity is critical, it’s important to understand that your clients are actually your bosses.
“Oh you know, I got into business to work for myself!”
Mmmhhmmm.. That is biggest bag of foolery I have ever heard in my life.
Nobody is in business for themselves.
Business isn’t just the creation of a product or service.
The idea of business is to create VALUE around a product or service.
And then in the eyes of the marketplace, that created product or service is only of value if consumers’ BUY it.
So, no, Ego Joe, you don’t work for yourself.
You work for the consumers’.
And consumers are different from you.
They don’t have your same needs, wants, or desires. And moreso than that, they think and interpret things differently than you do.
This makes adjusting and adapting “your identity” to fit their needs the “art” aspect of business.
At the end of the day, nobody is going to love your product, service, business like you do.
After all, that’s why YOU got into business and not them.
So to try to project your business in a light that you only understand or care about does nothing for them.
How do they interpret it?
How can you adjust so that it makes sense to them?
If you love X and they love Y are you willing to give them what they want?
If so, you’ll win.
If not, well, you’ll lose.
Make THEM the main character of the story.
