The Ford Edsel was one of the worst product failures in the history of the auto industry. The blunder of this one car cost Ford about $350 million in 1957, equal to about $3.76 billion today (based on inflation calculators). This loss was avoidable. Hear the lesson for your business.

Key idea: Don't focus on getting millions of dollars of investment to build a product. Instead, first build the right thing. You have to understand your market, their pains, and their perceptions. Brands are emotional and so are purchase decisions; logic comes later to justify why we chose. That's just how the human brain works.

Plus: the story of Buffer's product launch shows how you can validate your product idea for free before you spend money building it. I may have gotten a couple details wrong as this was from memory but here's the scoop: Idea to Paying Customers in 7 Weeks: How We Did It (Buffer)

Topics:

• Ford Edsel - the famous marketing blunder that cost $350 million in 1957 (about $3.76 billion in 2023 dollars)
• For context: For the fiscal year 2020, Ford spent $5.7 billion on research and development (R&D) expenses. It is worth noting that this figure includes R&D spending for all of Ford's products and services, not just its cars.
• Buffer validated their product with a landing page that was nearly free before spending money to write any code
• Calendly is a self-funded startup that reached unicorn status, valued at about $3 billion today. No initial funding. Just solving a problem that was validated by the market: that scheduling meetings via email was arduous = real pain point

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Have you ever had a fair-weather girlfriend? Someone who's there for the limo ride and jewelry but nowhere to be found when you're broken down on the side of the road in a ditch? This happens in dating, and it happens in your business relationships with your customers. Conflict and failure and tension are inevitable: it's how you handle these -- and come out stronger if you do it well.

I take every marketing client through an important exercise of plotting their brand on the personality spectrum. It's one page with five lines. On the far left you have traits like elite, serious, and conventional. On the far right you have traits like mass appeal, playful, and rebel. There are more. Your brand personality falls somewhere along these lines. Your own personality does too. That's why it works.

Plus: how to handle a business crisis of any size by using the right tone of voice for your brand's personality (and a true story from my own website issue that happened this morning along with the tweet language we used to handle it).

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Three of my favorite takeaways from "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing" by Al Ries and Jack Trout. This book has been a marketing classic for over 30 years and provides valuable insights into the world of marketing.

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Someday soon we'll look back on the term "female founder" and group it with "secretary" or "stewardess", terms we deem derogatory or outdated and only your grandpa still says (which is cute when he does).

First, let's talk about anatomy. When we use the term "female," we're referring to a person's biological sex, which is determined by their reproductive organs. However, this doesn't necessarily correspond with a person's gender identity or how they identify themselves.

If you use this term, consider what it really means. Maybe you won't like it anymore. I don't care if you use it, I'm not offended, I've even used it in the past. Just sharing perspective.

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The alluring thing about 99-cent pricing (known as charm pricing) is that it feels like a sale price. It's a game stores have played with us for decades. Learn about charm pricing, the anchor effect of a price ending in 9 or 99, and whether it's right for your product or service.

Topics:

• Charm pricing: higher prices ending in a "9" will actually outperform lower prices – on the very same product (typically)
• Vanity pricing for considered purchases (HNW or luxury goods)
• 5s are not good. $5000 is especially bad. #anecdotal
• How to know if your brand aligns with charm pricing or vanity pricing
• Historic marketing inspiration story: the successful marketing strategy that launched the Chicago Daily News for 1 cent in 1875 even though there weren't enough pennies in circulation

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When "opportunist" isn't a dirty word.... Dunbar's Number is concept that could change the way you think about your relationships. Anthropologist Robin Dunbar's theory suggests that humans can only maintain stable relationships with a limited number of people, typically around 150. This number is based on the size of the neocortex in our brains, which is responsible for social cognition.

In other words, our brains are wired to handle a certain number of relationships. This includes everyone from close friends and family to acquaintances and even people we just know by name. And if we try to maintain more relationships than we're capable of, it can become overwhelming and stressful.

It's important to recognize the limitations of our social capacities and to focus on cultivating meaningful relationships.

The best thing you can do in business from a relationship standpoint is to generously connect the people you know who will be mutually beneficial. This gives me juice, how about you?

Links and topics mentioned:

• Type 2/4 in Human Design: Hermit Opportunist. This type is all about finding a balance between introspection and exploration.
• Human design is a self-exploration system that combines ancient and modern beliefs. Human design draws on traditions like the I-Ching, the Kabbalah, the chakra system, and astrology to help you understand what makes you unique.
• Human Design - YouTube video: I Found the Best Personality Profile for Entrepreneurs | Human Design
• Bethenny Frankel's mini-podcast is excellent - learn from her format and cadence for your own podcast inspo: Just B
• Follow Tyrone Ross (crypto, startups, fintech): https://twitter.com/TR401

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Apply the principles of Amazon Prime and Uber One to your business. Give up the immediate gratification of MRR and play the ARR long game.

Let's talk about membership. Stickiness. Brand loyalty. There is one aspect I want you to focus on: Sell access (to you).

Related episodes (mini-pods):

1. Four Types of Leverage in Your Business (play on Spotify)
2. Marketing is about Perception, Not Product (play on Spotify)
3. Sell the Problem You Solve, Not the Product You Have (play on Spotify)

No one can argue against the value that Amazon Prime delivers. JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth estimated the true value of an Amazon Prime membership to be worth around $1,000 if you were to fully price out each service. (Via TheFly / JPMorgan)

In 2023, about 70% of US households have Amazon Prime. That’s more than those who decorate a Christmas tree, have a pet, or voted in the presidential elections. (Via Scott Galloway on Pivot podcast.) 

Amazon Prime membership benefits:

• Free two-day shipping, plus extra privileges like music and video streaming
• $139 annual fee

Uber One membership benefits:

• Member pricing guaranteed: 5% off eligible rides and orders on food, grocery, alcohol and more
• Priority service: Top-rated drivers, and Uber One Promise
• Unlimited $0 Delivery Fee on eligible orders
• Exclusive access to perks: Premium member support, special offers, invite-only experiences
• $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year

Video mentioned (Amazon shopping tips) - Our Favorite Spending Hacks with Brittney Castro, CFP

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Research shows that companies with a clear sense of purpose outperform their competitors.

1. A study by Harvard Business Review found that companies with a strong sense of purpose had a 5x higher return on assets compared to companies without purpose.
2. Another study by Accenture found that 66% of consumers are more likely to purchase products from companies with a strong sense of purpose.
3. The acclaimed book Firms of Endearment tracked the financial performance of 18 purpose-driven companies over the course of 10 years. These 18 companies had an average annual return on equity of 9% to 13.1% higher than the average company in the S&P 500. The book also found that purposeful companies outperformed the S&P 500 by an impressive 10 times. 

Finding your purpose can be a journey, but it starts with asking yourself what you stand for and what you're passionate about.

Once you have a clear understanding of your purpose, you can use it to guide your business decisions, attract employees and customers who share your values, and make a real impact in the world.

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Related NEW video: I Found the Best Personality Profile for Entrepreneurs | Human Design

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Things will go wrong in your business but how you recover is everything. The biggest mistake is making excuses or blaming external factors (most of the time). I explain why and how to handle inevitable disruptions in your product or service.

• 68% of consumers say they are willing to pay more for products and services from a brand known to offer good customer service experiences (HubSpot)
• For 86% of people, good customer service turns one-time clients into long-term brand champions (Khoros). Source: HelpScout

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Check out all the incredible Thinkers from best selling authors to motivational speakers and business experts on ThinkersOne. This platform was co-founded by Aubrey Rosenhek and my friend, the brilliant and prolific Mitch Joel, one of North America's leading visionaries and author of Ctrl Alt Delete. Not hyperbole. Mitch's podcast Six Pixels of Separation has been a top 10 business & innovation podcast for over a decade. It was one of the first podcasts that got me into business. Second-to-none guests. Mitch's buddy Seth Godin on multiple times. People like that. Tap in on Spotify: Six Pixels of Separation.

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Topics in this episode, a year-end reflection on marketing, content, business, gifts, audience, purpose, alignment:

1. Find your audience - the key to successful content marketing - and how I've been unfocused but see more clearly now
2. Human Design (energy systems vary between: Generator, Projector, Manifestor, Reflector) - what it means for your business and your work
3. Related podcast: "Is that resolution actually aligned for you?" from Human Design 

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