Founder and lead strategist James Heaton was interviewed by long-time Tronvig friend/colleague and badass entrepreneur Pia Silva for her podcast “Show Your Business Who’s Boss.” Tune into the episode to hear:
- Why holding yourself accountable to the advice you give to others is essential to business success
- How fear might be holding you back from focusing on the true thing that you’re better at than anyone else
- What to do if you find that you’re doing work that you really shouldn’t be doing
- How to evolve your brand focus if it doesn’t feel like it fits your vision anymore
- Why specializing is better than diversifying
Listen to the podcast here or find it on your preferred platform—iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, etc.
There is also a related article on Forbes, Getting Rid Of The Good To Make Room For The Great, written by Pia with some very good advice riffing off James’ barnacles analogy from the podcast.
Additional thoughts from James
The point is that every business needs to periodically shed the barnacles that accumulate on it—services or products that have run their course or processes that no longer produce customer value. All good plans, as Peter Drucker will remind us, start with abandonment, deciding what you are not going to do so that you can clear space for what you choose to concentrate on. This is an essential strategic task and one that is counterintuitive and thus, often underappreciated.
Concentrated effort informed by what the world tells you is your natural strength—which it does through various feedback mechanisms including profitability and deep client satisfaction—should clarify what you must abandon to keep your efforts focused on the right things. When focusing on new opportunities, it is too easy to neglect the work of clearing the deck first, as doing this is often both painful and scary.
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