In order to create long-lasting change you may need to change how you see the world a little. I’m going to ask you to put on your nerd glasses and start seeing the world through a different lens — the lens of a scientist. One of the first myths we need to overcome about our new years resolutions is the idea that if we make a mistake and have “fallen off the wagon,” it’s over.
Edison famously said “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Behavior change is a little like creating the light bulb. You need to become an expert in the field of what works and what doesn’t for you! That takes experimentation. With this key assumption, lets don our nerd lenses and get into creating long-lasting change in 2018.
Following that feedback - and with several customers on the hook saying they would buy it as soon as it was ready - I returned to Scott with a very high level pitch of what the product would be. I had made some crude initial mockups, but this idea was beginning to take on a life of its own, and I needed someone that could take it to the next level! I shared what features customers felt were critical and which would be “nice to have’s.” Scott - as usual - made the idea significantly better.
The three vital behaviors these researchers identified are 1) know your stuff, 2) focus on the right stuff, and 3) build a reputation for being helpful (see “Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success”, pg. 138, by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler). As I look back on my experiences with Carrie, and other admirable colleagues, I see the same consistent behaviors.
One of the first things we noticed was that consumers think in terms of moments. When they create a new savings account “Savings 1,” what they’re really doing is planning on buying a car or going on a great vacation. When these customers hit $1,000 in that account they were actually half-way to reaching their goal - they hit an important milestone. That’s cause for celebration!
A recent article from The Verge stated that Americans trust Amazon about as much as they trust their bank. Companies like #GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple) were born in the age of software and the internet. The people running these organizations were technology visionaries and experts. Initially, #GAFA didn’t seem to pose much of a threat to the traditional financial institutions. How could a company that builds cool music devices called iPods impact a bank? How could a company that helps people find things on the internet hurt the financial institutions storing consumers money?
Where once the price of entry into Fintech was sky high due to difficulty in obtaining data, needing to build out intense PCI compliance, or having to hire in big talent with a ton of experience in FinTech, now startups can take advantage of API’s offered by a number of innovative FinTech companies to launch their amazing ideas in mere weeks as opposed to months or years.
After talking with a few real people in coffee shops and around town I ripped out a website over a weekend showing off the product that I planned on building and asking people to sign up for early access once the product was complete. The idea was to gauge the level of interest by routing some traffic to my website and seeing how many people signed up. I made the call to action as direct as I could and published the website late on a Saturday night.
Most us would struggle when asked “What are your strengths? What are you really good at?” Many of us haven’t been in enough situations to even know what we’re good at. In college I realized that I loved statistics during my senior year after 2 years of working on my statistics major. Finding what you're good at takes trying a lot of things.
I like small groups and feel most comfortable when talking to my wife. Honestly, I’d rather talk to her than anyone else. Large social situations are intimidating to me and I sometimes have a hard time getting involved in a conversation when I’m around people that seem to know everything. I grab lunch with someone new every week.
I’ve always liked both the term ‘growth hacking’ and the concept behind it. I find the creative process behind growth hacking to be very fulfilling — as long as I’m successful! I read at least an article a week, sometimes one per day, on growth hacking techniques. I rarely come across articles that talk about when it makes sense to growth hack and when it doesn’t. Some people seem to say “if you aren’t growth hacking you’re way behind!” I disagree.
