Apparently Seth Godin is going to help me out this week with my Starbucks analogy:
Starbucks didn’t become Starbucks by getting discovered by Oprah Winfrey or being blessed by Warren Buffet when they only had a few stores. No, they plugged along. They raised bits of money here and there, flirted with disaster, added one store and then another, tweaked and measured and improved and repeated. Day by day, they dripped their way to success. No magic lottery. [Read the entire post here.]
So this week’s question for you is: What do people already thank you for? Not what value do you think you provide. Not what would you like to be at the center of your writing career.
Later in his post Godin says:
Here’s another way to think about it: delight the audience you already have, amaze the customers you can already reach, dazzle the small investors who already trust you enough to listen to you. Take the permission you have and work your way up. Leaps look good in the movies, but in fact, success is mostly about finding a path and walking it one step at a time.
So what have you specifically been thanked FOR?
There is crucial information in a thank you. I’d even say that there is crucial information in every thank you, from your very first to your very last, meaning your first day in business and your last day in business and every day in between.
Because if you are doing your job well, then you should be being thanked pretty consistently. And when you are thanked, this is a great opportunity to ask for more detailed feedback or a testimonial.
And then, over time, you start to notice patterns in the feedback you receive. And the consistency either tells you what you are doing right or where you need to improve.
So you tell us right here and right now: what are you doing right? Tell us what others tell you.
