It may sound weird, but I appreciate it when big companies (or small companies) make mistakes; here’s why I say that.

When a large organization or one that is very professional sends an email that has the wrong day of the week on it, or they send a link that doesn’t work, then have to send a correction, or say “hey girl” when I’m a “hey bro” I always smile.

I know that many people respond harshly and say, “It’s Saturday, not Friday, you douche!”

All due respect, people who respond harshly like that have a wrong perspective of what’s actually happening.

What’s happening is we’re being reminded that there is a human behind these big businesses.

Humans make mistakes; we’re all flawed.

Small companies and big companies all have one thing in common, at the end of the day, a human is signing off on something, which means mistakes are going to happen.

I personally sit back and smile when this happens, and if you don’t, I want to challenge you to change your perspective.

My Challenge to You Today:

Show some grace and remember how great it is that all of us are humans that are all works in progress. Be thankful for the human element involved in business and in the digital world, and be thankful for little mistakes, just as people have had grace for you when you’ve done something wrong.

So with that said, I hope you’ve really enjoyed reading this today, Tiffany! Thanks for reading. (I know your name isn’t Tiffany. Calm down.)

Read this: What I’ve Learned From Working with Difficult People

P.S. If you’re the angry, bitter person who responds harshly to the mistakes of others or when you receive an email that you didn’t want, you need to change if you want to enjoy your life. I don’t mean to fight fire with fire, but try smiling, it goes a long way, and it’ll lower your blood pressure. Seriously, calm down.

First off, Mark Twain needed a blow-dryer, brush and some product for that hair. Anyway. I love this quote that he shared:

There are two types of speakers: Those who get nervous and those who are liars.

Mark was 100% right with this quote! 🙌

I now have a love/hate relationship with public speaking. I love it because it adds value to other people, but it freaks me out every time.

You may be asking, “Alex, why do you keep on speaking?”

It goes back to the reason that I just mentioned about loving public speaking. I continue speaking because it adds value to other people. I’ll never stop!

Now I’m going to challenge you… If you aren’t currently speaking but have a message that would add value. It’s time to start!

Did your heart rate just elevate? Mine did the first time I realized I needed to speak.

I have 3 points to share with you:

#1. Get comfortable speaking. 😎

“The more you speak the more you speak.” Alecia Sanfilippo laughed out loud when she heard this quote. It may sound silly, but it’s true. The most you speak, the better you’ll get at speaking. As a result, the more value you will be able to add to the lives of others (Which is the ultimate goal!)

#2. Do it for them, not for you.

Every time I step onto a stage, the first thing I remind myself of is that what I am doing is NOT for me. It is for the audience. That takes all the pressure off of me to perform. Then, it becomes about them instead of myself. (This helps me more than anything!)

#3. Hone your craft.

We always have to be improving. During season 2 of the Creating a Brand Podcast, I recorded with the greatest pubic speaker I know, Clay Baird. Listen to this episode, it will help you: 13 Game-Changing Public Speaking Tips from Clay Baird

CALL TO ACTION:

If you’re ready to overcome your fear of speaking or want to get your name out there more, the time is now. The Creating a Brand Podcast episode below contains everything you need to get started today.

How to Land Speaking Engagements with Grant Baldwin

On March 10th, 2020, I had the idea for a software as a service (SaaS) business called PodMatch. (Shoutout to Alecia for coming up with the name) My business partner, Jesse, and I launched the product into early beta on June 15th, 2020. Fast forward one year later, and we’re serving tens of thousands of members. Needless to say, I’ve learned a lot about building a successful SaaS business since our initial launch!

One Super Important I’ve learned about building a successful SaaS business:

I’ve learned a lot more than just this one lesson, which I will share later, but right now, there is one that is heavily weighing on my mind that I wanted to share with you because I know it will add extreme value to your business, no matter what kind of business it is.

HERE IT IS:

Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick.

This is a famous quote said by Kevin Malone from The Office. I actually say this (word for word) a lot to my team and my coaching clients.

Here’s why this is my number one lesson learned right now:

I’m great at explaining things. I’m naturally a teacher. So, I can give very detailed instructions on how to do something, and there’s virtually no way to misunderstand what I’m explaining.

THAT IS, UNLESS…

…You don’t read my instructions. This is what I’ve learned: People don’t read. I’m not actually sure if people know how to read anymore, in fact. It’s becoming a thing of the past. As someone who reads 52 books every year, this makes me sad.

Related Post: What I’ve Learned From Working with Difficult People

Okay, no pity party for me today, The truth is, people, read when they want to read, but when they are using software, they don’t want to read. They want to push buttons that do things. (That’s how our brains have been rewired in this digital age.)

Here’s PodMatch’s real-life example of people not reading:

For a specific function in PodMatch, I wrote a 35-word instruction on what this button would do if pressed and how to use it and even had a secondary popup explaining that if you press “confirm,” you cannot undo this, and I included what else will happen.

Guess what? Every day we’d have people emailing in saying they pressed the button then pressed confirm and didn’t realize what it would do. I couldn’t understand because my instructions were flawless, literally a perfect explanation of what this would do. There was no humanly possible way to misunderstand it, that is unless you didn’t read it.

I tested this by changing it from 35 words down to 5 words, then the “Are you sure?” being another 5 words. Guess what happened? This problem no longer happened anymore.

The bottom line: You learn say less word to share point.

People will read less than 10 words, but not more than 20, so everything needs to be said in less than 10 words instead of more than 20 words. The shorter, the better – This will serve you well in your business venture!

Conclusion and takeaways for you about Building a SaaS Business:

• Never use more than 10 words to explain what something is/does on your website unless vital.
• Punctuation doesn’t matter.
• Full/proper sentences don’t matter.
• Appearing to be dyslexic is now a positive instead of a negative.
• Always ask yourself, “What would Kevin Malone say?”

Everyone seems to want to change the world, but we all seem to forget the one person who needs us the most. I see this every day in entrepreneurship. As an entrepreneur myself, I get it. We are people of big vision! But I’ve learned it is often these big visions for changing the world that is the very thing that holds us back the most.

I remember when I first decided I wanted to explore my entrepreneurial side and start my own business. I had big aspirations and dreams. What I was doing was going to serve the world – I knew it would change many lives. I passionately believed that what I was about to do would change the world.

I was wrong. My first entrepreneurial exploration was a failed attempt.

But why? It was a good business idea. And more importantly (I thought) was that my heart was right. I wanted to change the world; I wanted it to be a better place. Why did I fail in such an honorable pursuit?

Here’s what I learned: Although having the mindset of positively changing the world through my business is an honorable thing, it’s a wrong perspective for an entrepreneur who wants to succeed. Throughout this post, I will explain the proper mindset for succeeding in your work and building a life of service.

Why you should stop trying to build a business that changes the world:

When we focus on changing the world, we stop focusing on the one person or small group that needs us the most. (These are the people that what we’re doing this for.)

We all have something that we believe will change the world. Or at least that is our desire. Again, this is an honorable desire, but there are two fundamental flaws in this thinking:

#1. It’s impossible to change the world.

Don’t get me wrong, it is possible to achieve the impossible, but it is improbable, and it takes a lifetime of devotion to achieve. Also, this level of power will likely corrupt you along the way. I pray that I never change the world. But if you want to, here is the science behind achieving the impossible.

#2. Trying to change the world causes us to neglect the people who truly need us.

If you take one thing away from this post, let it be this. If you are focused on everyone, you’re focused on no one. By thinking about helping everyone, you’re not helping anyone.

As entrepreneurs, we have the desire to change the world to make it a better place, and in the pursuit of this ambitious dream, we neglect those closest to us. As a result, we’re missing out on serving the person who need us the most.

Here’s the big secret in all of this:

The way you change the world is by changing one person’s life. Do for one what you wish you could do for all.

I’ve had to fight the urge to make what I’m doing bigger because everything in me wants to do something big for the world. But impacting one life is significant. If you don’t believe that, then you’ve placed the wrong value on the worth of a single soul. (Let that settle in for a minute!)

Here are two real-life examples to help re-enforce my point:

#1. The real-life example of someone with a heart in the right place.

Yesterday I was in a Club House room where one of the speakers was passionately sharing how he wants to help people. Then he expanded by saying I want to help everyone, then again expanding, “I want to help the entire world!” Everyone in the room was excited about it, except me, because I know the truth. By wanting to help everyone, you’re helping no one.

Unfortunately, without changing his mindset, this guy in the Club House room will never stop to help anyone until ‘everyone’ is in front of him, rendering him completely useless.

The person I’m explaining used to be me. If you’re reading this, to some extent, I’m likely describing you as well. Here’s my advice: Do for one what you wish you could do for all. (More on this)

When you help one person, they’ll help someone as well; that person will help someone else, that person may help a few people. And it goes on and on. It’s called the butterfly effect, and it echoes on through eternity. Help one person today!

#2. The real-life business example.

My startup, PodMatch, has four avatars. These are unique individuals that we’ve defined who are our ideal customers. With that said, we’ve estimated that this service will be for and help .002% of the entire earth’s population.

Did you catch that number??? .002% of the entire earth’s population!

Our co-educators (competitors, some call them) in the industry would tell you that their service is for anyone and everyone looking to expand their influence and grow their businesses. Therefore, they believe their potential customers are in the hundreds of millions. Wrong! Do you know how few businesses globally service more than 100 million customers?

The co-educators in our space do not stand a chance against PodMatch, although they are great companies that I respect. And here’s why, they are for everyone, AKA no one. And PodMatch is designed to serve four people and the few people who are similar to them, not everyone.

The proper perspective for succeeding in your work:

Focus on a minimum viable audience. What is the smallest group of people that you can offer a solution to a relevant problem for? Find them and assist them in overcoming their predicament wholeheartedly. To dive deeper into this, listen to this podcast episode where I interview Seth Godin: The Secret to Succeeding in Your Creative Work.

Final thoughts

A. Today instead of thinking about your next move in global market domination or changing the lives of billions of people, think about what you can do for the one person who needs your product or service most right now.

B. Instead of attempting to create a company that will change the world, revolutionize an industry, or become a new household name or standard, focus on a minimum viable audience. Think about the fewest amount of people you can help the fastest, then serve only them!

C. As entrepreneurs, we solve problems for small groups of people, not for everyone. Never forget that.

My request to you today is this, please stop trying to change the world. There are already too many people attempting to do that. Instead, take care of it by serving one person at a time. That is needed more than anything else right now.