Try And Test

If you are anything like many of the entrepreneurs I know and work with you have a bank of ideas waiting to be executed (or discarded). Most of these ideas (good and bad alike) never see the light of day because they are locked up in a notebook, or an app and they haven’t been…

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The Essence Of Meaningful Ideas

Victoria Parade is the road that separates north Melbourne’s suburbs from the city. It’s a busy spot. The road is dotted at intervals with pedestrian crossings and used by cars, commuters and pedestrians alike. But the widest pedestrian path across the dual carriageway isn’t a planned pavement. It’s one that’s been created by the desire…

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The Value Of Customer Questions

Every day our customers give us clues about what’s important to them and what they really want. Often we ignore them. Questions like the one asked of a running shoe manufacturer, which was followed up with this response: “Thank you for your email regarding shoes for a mud run. Unfortunately, we don’t stock a shoe…

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Meaningful Work

We’ve all witnessed a version of this in action. The speciality restaurant vowing to serve free range, grass fed and organic. The gift shop committed to selling local and artisanal. The designer who refuses to work with fast food companies. Uncompromising—until they think about scaling or they hit a bump in the road of their…

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What To Question

The comedian doesn’t think about how he to be funnier, he tries to understand what makes people laugh and why. The shoe designer doesn’t simply consider what will look good, she obsesses over what will make a woman feel good. The architect doesn’t just consider the orientation of the building, he cares about how people…

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What’s The End Game?

Before you pivot. Before you expand. Before you take on extra staff. Before you act on conventional wisdom. Before you panic about the numbers. Before you say ‘yes’ to something when you really mean ‘no’. Before you become someone you don’t recognise. Ask yourself, What was my original intention for this business? Now write those…

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Doing Is Underrated

The customer you could follow up with. The survey waiting to be sent. The product you could trial. The colleague yet to be contacted. The copy you could test. The important observation you might take action on. Each one is an opportunity to learn something that could change everything. The GoPro started as a camera…

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The Most Powerful Thing You Didn’t Do Today

Have you ever been footsteps away from a window and yet found yourself opening an app or doing a Google search to check the weather, instead of simply going over to the window and opening the curtains? Me too! Why is that? We are now in the habit of outsourcing our thinking and second guessing…

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The Purpose Of A Billboard

The purpose of a billboard is to interrupt as many people as possible, to create awareness not necessarily impact, to broadcast instead of engage. I’ve passed a lot of forgettable billboards, pleading from the side of highways on my travels this week—maybe you have too. The only ones that left any kind of impact were…

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Betting On Maybe

There are many reasons why Melbourne has been crowned World’s Most Liveable City four years running—great coffee is just one. It’s impossible to walk a hundred metres in any direction without stumbling on a place to grab a ‘good enough’ macchiato, so there’s a lot of competition in the coffee business and no shortage of…

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