Potential conjures up thoughts of excitement (things to come) or disappointment (wasted talent). The truth is that we all have potential, the difference is how we plan and execute on the potential that we have. The thing is, everyone knows this already so the question remains, how do we move from potential to production?
Moving from potential to production is a tag line that my friend Garrett B Gunderson utilizes for one of his businesses. Garrett also created a useful framework for his clients to take their ideas to market. He called it the “Cycle of Creation”. If anyone is qualified to teach product creation, it’s Garrett. A great example of the way he has been able to use his cycle of creation process is a book project that Garrett embarked on.
Garrett wrote a book called Killing Sacred Cows that came out about a year ago. Initially it was just a self published version that we were proud of because we knew nothing about putting a book on the market and we felt like just getting teh book out was an accomplishment. We had a meeting one day and talked about long term goals for his company as well as the book. One of his goals was to make Killing Sacred Cows a New York Times bestseller.
Having no knowledge of the book industry, this seemed like a lofty goal. But the first step to reaching any goal is to declare it. This was the idea. We then started conceptualizing the idea and asking questions about what holes we had in making this happen.
Once we identified the holes, we then began outlining the team needed to make this happen (agents, publisher, PR firms etc). When we started getting potential names for our team, we outlined what resources (time, money etc.) we would need to move the project forward. With the team and resources in place and identified we began to build the project.
In the end, it took 10 months for Killing Sacred Cows to be rewritten, repackaged, interviews conducted, books pre-sold and marketing campaign initiated. At the end of that 10 months, Killing Sacred Cows hit as high as #6 on the New York Times Bestseller list for hardcover advice. The Cycle of Creation was complete.
The process was not easy for sure but satisfying to see the execution take place. The point is that we are all able to turn our potential into production but we have to recognize our strengths and limitations, who we know and what we know and we have to have a plan. Last but not least it all starts with one big idea. What’s your big idea?