PODCASTS

WhatComesNextLive: Alan Wick

Alan features on executive coaching and leadership develop consultant Tom McCallum's podcast, each a thirty-minute conversation with an inspiring leader.

In June 2016, Alan had what he calls a “stroke of luck”. From that point onwards he made himself a promise, to really “go for it”. As he says: “Life is precious, your business is precious. If there’s something you want to do, get on with it. Don’t wait. Start now.”

Psychographics and selling more effectively

In this podcast, Alan focuses on owner-managed businesses that want to scale up. He discusses the Minimum Viable Audience (MVA) approach and importance of niching down, so you can focus on who you really want to serve. He encourages listeners to:

• Think about demographics and targeting your audience based on traits like age, geography, education, gender and income.  

• Think about psychographics to understand what motivates and moves these people and explore their needs, wants and behaviours.  

• By understanding why people really want what you offer, will help you communicate what you do in a much more effective and engaging way. 

So by putting out the right messages you won’t have to hunt for your customers, they’ll be looking for you.

Developing a culture of self-responsibility - how can organisations do that?!

In this podcast, Alan explores the legacy of command and control, KPIs and the rigidity of 20th century management thinking.

In terms of self-responsibility, he discusses:

• What are realistic goals for large or highly regulated organisations.

• How to work in organisations driven by big personalities where leaders are "leading hard" and the transition to distributed power feels large.

• Why developing self-responsibility requires a more gradual change and the case for "pre-paving" for the change.

Hear Alan troubleshoot and take listeners through a range of real-world examples of where self-responsibility has got stuck.

What I've learnt from working with 1,000 startups

In this podcast, Alan talks about the relationship to money of the leaders of organisations - how that transcends both startups and large organisations. Listen to learn more about:

• What big companies can learn from startups about team size.

• The power and curse of a start-up style "force of nature" personality in your leadership team - how to handle it, how best to use it.

• Understanding the concept of "Partneritis" and how it can handcuff  companies.

• How to develop self-responsibility when people feel far away from the results of their actions in a large company.

The Minimum Viable Audience

When you're launching a new product or business, focus on who you want to serve, because if you try marketing to everyone you appeal to no one. In this podcast, Alan discusses the idea of the Minimum Viable Audience (MVA) and why it's so important to focus. Listen to hear more about:

• Why to avoid trying to go broad and selling to everyone. Instead, you should pick the people who'll love what you do and find out what their dreams, wishes, hopes and fears are. 

• How to be clear about who you want to serve and how you want to serve them. 

• How this will help you to develop the right product or service and position it in the right way, so your target market absolutely gets what you offer and the value it provides. This will make selling much easier.

• Remember, you may only need 1,000 or even 100 customers to make a successful business. But unless you can define your MVA, you'll never know.

Listen to the show to learn more about the benefit of picking the people who'll love what you do, rather than trying to market to everyone.

How much should people pay me for what I do?

Pricing and charging are often seen as the same thing. They're not. Pricing a product or service is a strategic decision, whereas charging is tactical. In this podcast, Alan explains to listeners:

• How to set the price for a product or service correctly

• Business charges for a product or service and how to vary or alter them according to the circumstances

• How to successfully discount. Remember, it's crucial always to show the full price, as well as any discount, so that the original perceived value is not lost.

• The importance of pricing products and services that is carefully thought through - i.e. it is seen as a strategic decision - it says what you, as a business owner, value your products or services at.

The show has real-world examples which will help you to understand the best way to price products and services.

Interviewing Chad Pytel — finding your vision and more

In this podcast Alan interviews Chad Patel, CEO of thoughtbot. During the discussion, Chad discusses the lessons learned from starting the business, the company's methodologies as well as looking towards the challenges and opportunities of the future. Listen to learn more about: 

• Finding your vision and the impact on business

• The importance of being dedicated and fulfilled in your company

• Standing by your principles and learning to say "No"

• How making mistakes contributes to success 

• The importance of real sustainability in your business 

• Why purpose is essential to a company