Last week, we turned the ship to a heading. In my weekly summary:
Now we take off the training wheels. Over the past two years, I took a very deliberate strategy to get to this point – a revenue-generating free-standing company that is a full-time endeavor. To get there, we marched up the revenue stack from small consulting engagements (empowerkit, Canogle) to larges one (Blend Labs). We’ve got that proven. Whilst developing that channel deliberately, we’ve taken an emergent strategy to the rest of the business – workshops with various partners (Lean Meetups, PARISOMA, SARTA, Venture Greenhouse, etc), Sales Meetups, recruiting, experimenting with marketing the books, developing the Opp Canvas.
Now it’s time to move back to a deliberate strategy over the next two months to build product and figure out how to scale this sucker. Once we get that rolling, we’ll go back to the remaining ideas, plus new ones I’m sure we’ll think of.
The SQ website + UDemy is our only focus right now. We need to test the scalability of the company sooner than later. The recruiting business and BarCamp need to go on hold.
Funny thing is – the more we focus on just a few things, the longer the to-do list gets. I think this is a good sign that we’re really focusing, not just saying that we are.
As a side note, I’ve now made the transition to a “regular” at the coffee shop – Old Soul in midtown Sacramento. On Mondays, I meet with Robert for our weekly planning session. Been doing this every Monday since July. Last week, Sarge asked me if I was sending out interference signals from my Mac because every time I’m here, his World of Warcraft slows down. He can move his character.
I met Richard this morning. He’s part of a group that huddle around the leather couches and talk about life’s minutiae. Today he held open the door as I entered and told me he works for tips. We joked back and forth about a few things and he asked me my name.