It’s not every day you are given talk after talk from key people of influence, but today was a real treat to not only get the high calibre speakers one after another, but to hear from Daniel Priestley this afternoon was a real honour.
Being the fortunate lucky man I am, I actually met Daniel last year on an entrepreneur ski trip as part of ICE (International Conclave of Entrepreneurs). Yeah, I know, what a title. Ick.
Amazingly I was just finishing his book at the time; “Entrepreneur Revolution”, which I highly recommend – mostly to anyone that isn’t already one, it’s very interesting and his view on the world is well considered and helps you open your eyes to things you may otherwise not take notice of.
Daniel’s entire philosophy, having been a successful entrepreneur himself, is based on personal brand. It’s the main thing that separates the low to average paid workers, to those that go on a spike in pay. He pointed out that the average salary in London was £30k, whilst the average salary in Notting Hill (an affluent part of London) is £160k. Notting Hill is full of creative artistic and media types – presumably the ones who have negotiated strong positions in their careers and companies by being strongly opinionated, standing for something and sharing that feeling.
To make his lesson’s actionable he set out the 5 KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) it takes to become a KPI (Key Person of Influence)
Because this is marketing academy (who the fuck doesn’t love going on and on about the 7Ps of marketing, and no I wont mention them here, yawn), he devised a 5Ps system;
Pitch – Powerfully answer the question – What do you DO?
Words have power.
“I have a dream” is the best pitch ever. “I think we should follow these steps” would not have been so motivating to that audience…
He goes on to point out that how you position yourself, your proposition or your business in your pitch is everything – we are “Tinder for Fashion” is OK. However “We are the fastest growing mobile commerce app in the UK who’s mission is to make mobile shopping fast, fun addictive and simple” is a little more powerful…
2.Publish – Write, publish and distribute. Well, thank God for this blog then.
To get to the point where people respect your stance, values and include you in the discussions you need to find the right places to contribute to the dialogue effectively. This is my place, but I could do more, everyone always can. Being visible is important.
3. Product – Turn your ideas into valuable products that people love to buy.
Create a point of differentiation, and therefore something people love.
He says that a powerful idea is that; “products and services dont make money, product and service ecosystems do’
There are two types of products;
1. Products that help you get known
2. Products that help you deliver remarkable value. He also pointed out that income follows assets so create more assets and spend more time unpacking your IP.
4. Profile – You need to be Googleable. Get ‘web famous’ through social media.
5. Partner and Joint Venture – creating wholesale value.
Someone woke up this morning with the missing piece you are looking for. Make sure you are always on the look out for these new opportunities to collaborate.
Because of Daniel’s inquisitive and rational nature, it was clear that he captivated the room on a new level, he was quick witted and able to make sharp retorts and mock himself (unusual for an Australian ;)), but everything he said felt well researched and fascinating. Consequently, someone bravely asked him what’s in store next for the world. His answer was quite bleak;
Whats next?
1. Baby boomers looking to sell assets to get rich
2. Millenials apathy towards ownership given their experience via banks etc but a desire to be part of something meaningful
3. New transformative technologies
4. Governmental austerity
The culmination of all these things coming together at the same time is going to cause unrest like never seen before in the next 15 years and will be a fascinating time to be alive. Whilst he couldn’t predict the change to come, all he could do is acknowledge that we are all living through what will be a defining area – and this honest response was the perfect thought provoking way to end a truly insightful presentation from the current Amazon business bestseller.
Ending his speech with 29 books for 30 of us as a playful reminder of how important scarcity is, his impact on the group was truly strong and it’s no wonder the name of his last book was “Oversubscribed”. Plus the British love to queue.
