Captain’s log, stardate 20180103

Loving what you do is not enough

Sent by Jonathan Stark on January 3rd, 2018

If you opened a laundromat or a hair salon or a pizza place, would you expect paying customers to just magically appear?

Of course not. That would be foolish.

No matter how much you personally might love...

the sight of perfect creased slacks, or
the feel of freshly sharpened scissors, or
the crackle that crust makes as it cools,

...it’s highly unlikely that your love of your craft will cause customers to automatically line up outside your door every morning.

Guess what?

The same true for software developers and product designers and copy writers and portrait photographers and every other kind of independent professional I can think of.

Yes it is possible to make a living doing something that you love, but you have to go a step further and also create something that your customers love.

Not like. LOVE.

This is rarely something that happens by accident because it’s hard.

So how do you do it?

At a high level, you have to:

connect with the people you want to help
listen to them with empathy and compassion
design and deliver products and services that improve their lives
tell their stories to the right people in the right way at the right time

And then you “wash rinse repeat” for as long as they’ll let you.

More tomorrow. Stay tuned...

Yours,

—J

P.S. The rate for my private mentoring program has gone up by $1,000 for 2018.

As a member of my daily list, you’re entitled to the 2017 price through January 15th.

Just use coupon code VIVALA2017 at checkout here -> https://jonathanstark.com/mentoring