Key Takeaways:

1. Find the Smallest Viable Audience (SVA). “They are the people who will understand you and fall in love with where they hope you to take them. Becoming part of your movement is an expression of what they are.” “People like us to things like this.” Find who ‘us’ is and tailor the story to them. Price could be a part of the story.
2. People don’t buy the product you sell. People buy the feeling of belongings, status, peace of mind and connections after buying the product. “The thing you sell is simply a road to achieve those emotions, and we let everyone down when we focus on the tactics, not the outcomes.”
3. Breaking the pattern is hard. For example, people who recently moved, or who became a parent who doesn’t have patterns yet is an easy sell. A pattern will break only when you give them enough tension. How come a student who doesn’t raise the hand is happy to answer the question when called on? Getting called on was enough to break the tension. When Slack was introduced to SVA, it provided the tension of FOMO. Your colleagues could have been talking behind your back or doing projects you don’t know about.
4. Show up. “The best marketers are farmers, not hunters. Plant, tend, plow, fertilize, weed, repeat.” Zig Zagler stayed in town for days and weeks when other salesmen came and gone the next day. Showing up translate to saying “I am a trustworthy guy.” Trust is a powerful selling point.