Cold Star Project

Your organization's speed of response is critical, whether it's taking advantage of opportunities in the marketplace, delivering on a critical mission, or responding to an angry customer.

Tune in for examples of how poor or non-existent documentation processes have resulted in failure of organizations...and most disturbingly, lessons these organizations thought they learned becoming invalidated as the story of what happened changed over time. That changing story is a direct result of poor documentation.

Talk to Cold Star: https://coldstartech.com/bookcall

Verne Harnish has a great diagram in his book Scaling Up. I use it all over the place. The diagram shows 28 million firms in the USA, divided into categories by revenue. You might be surprised at just how few companies reach $50 million.

And between each category, you must go through what Harnish terms the "Valley of Death"! To scale up to the next revenue plateau, you must adapt or die.

How well you adapt is directly impacted by the way you're thinking about your business.

Over the past year or so, I've been searching for different ways of thinking about businesses. Yet the newbie crowd, who are only interested in what I call "newbie talk"--focus on traffic and conversion, tactics, hacks and magic bullets--hear what I bring back from my searches as "philosophical" or just plain nonsense.

But the fact is, having talked about "newbie talk" topics from 2011 through around 2016, I'm simply no longer interested in those topics. They seem like kids' stuff to me. You can still get all my old content out there for free.

In this episode, I'm giving a clear example of different thinking. Three different organizations have three different ways of thinking about...and solving...the same problem.

Until now, you've likely been unconsciously following just one way of thinking in your business.

Which of you will succeed?

The one that adapts the best--which is the one that THINKS the best.

Listen in and discover something new. This is just as real to me as rocks and trees. It's not philosophy.

Brightideas.co and flowster.app founder Trent Dyrsmid is on the Cold Star Project with Jason Kanigan to share the incredible value of SOPs in building your Amazon Wholesaling business.  

Trent immediately documented his processes as he created his own Amazon wholesaling operation, and makes these SOPs available to other sellers.  

Not knowing your numbers is the #1 issue he sees with business owners. And to do that, he has specific programs he recommends you get training on and use.  

We also talk about different Amazon business models and why wholesaling is likely the best choice for newbies today.  

Talk to Cold Star: https://coldstartech.com/bookcall 

"What's the best SaaS dashboard product?" is a common question I'm asked.

And my answer is: the one you build yourself.

No one knows your KPIs as well as you do...and the limitations in the thinking of the dashboard developers will blind you if you use their product.

Talk to Cold Star about your situation: https://coldstartech.com/bookcall

Avis' Manager of Strategy & Innovation, Attila Dobai, returns to the Cold Star Project with Jason Kanigan to share his experience over the last several months causing disruption in his marketplace.   

While leading an innovative program to offer truck rentals at major retailer parking lots, Attila also managed to take a Harvard Business School course on disruption, attend a live networking event at Cambridge afterwards, speak on two stages, and become an examiner for the Baldrige Awards.  

Yes, it was a busy Spring for Attila. Join us to hear the details and learn about marketplace disruption. 

 Talk to Cold Star: https://coldstartech.com/bookcall 

I asked Wes Schaeffer, the Sales Whisperer, back on to the Cold Star Project to follow up on his previous appearance, "What CRM Should I Get?" Turned out there were plenty of details for us to cover, so you could understand what you need to get together before you go out shopping for a new CRM. 

If you don't write down the process you're using to gather leads and market to them, you'll get suckered in by bloated CRM programs that sell you features you don't need and will never use. Wes explains the steps you must go through to make sure you don't fall into this trap, and instead get the right CRM for you--the one you will actually use. 

You'll learn a lot from our straightforward discussion, and if you want Wes' free CRM training package afterwards, it's at https://www.thesaleswhisperer.com/pbl 

 Talk to Cold Star: http://bit.ly/talktocoldstar 

Adam Crowl returns to the Cold Star Project to talk about a "moon-based gas station," point-to-point travel, and why many space-focused people want us to go to Titain.  To become a spacefaring society we're going to need infrastructure, and what we're discussing today could be an economically and physically practical part of that.  

Adam's blog is http://crowlspace.com/ 

 More about Cold Star: https://coldstartech.com/ 

Space news aggregator and educator Fraser Cain is on the Cold Star Project to discuss Elon Musk's Starlink and his experience with startups. 

SHOW NOTES:

First we cover the Starlink constellation:

 -what is it (high speed worldwide ISP satellite network) 

-compliance requirements -space junk / Kessler Syndrome problem - lowered planned altitude solution -astronomers not consulted - streaks of satellites crossing images blocking view (somewhat fixed) 

-privacy & political considerations - it's a broadcast network - no intermediary / routing - all traffic will go at same speed.

Fraser co-founded 2 businesses in the 90s that went public and another that he made a lifestyle business:  

-Absolute Software for a laptop theft recovery system 

-Communicate.com web development for large companies 

-Communicate owned early one word domain names 

-discovered self-knowledge of where his genius range / fun point is in business 

-found his "fun factor" is in educating and directly connecting with readers through Universe Today 

-"20 years later still having a ball" 

-features: minimal staff, built to last, strong purpose (not Exit for money, but "how do I make this more fun for me?") 

-uses Pateron because he doesn't like paywalls 

-how self-directed vs Patreon-directed? His readers want the "chefs special" 

-If-Then Statements about Happiness that don't work out in reality (people end up sadly surprised), so pick something you love. 

Get on Fraser's newsletter distribution list at https://www.universetoday.com/ 

 Talk to Cold Star: https://coldstartech.com/bookcall

Self-educated nuclear propulsion expert Eustratius "Stuart" Graham joins host Jason Kanigan on the Cold Star Project to bring us up to speed on this topic.  

Stuart is consulted by Space industry professionals and is building an online repository of history and information about nuclear propulsion for space vehicles.  

Our discussion is a great primer for you to understand the historical development of nuclear propulsion (which was primarily completed in the 1970s) and how it is being planned for use today.  

Beyond NERVA blog and encyclopediac site: https://beyondnerva.com/ 

In today's solo episode of the Cold Star Project, I'm sharing an example of how harsh demands force people to think outside the box. And that's often not good for you.  

The brutal demands on Germany of the 1919 Versailles Treaty ending WWI prompted Weimar politicians and military officials to come up with creative means to circumvent those restrictions. These means enabled Germany to pay off reparations much more quickly than anticipated and get out of economic domination, and also train and upgrade their armed forces in a way the treaty was specifically designed to prevent. Germany took their activities "off the radar" of the victorious Allies.

If you can't see an event, you can't audit it. As we've covered in past discussions, poor documentation results in stories changing over time...and the lessons you thought you learned often being invalidated.

Talk to Cold Star: http://bit.ly/talktocoldstar