Disrupt You Workbook July 2015

DISRUPT YOU! Workbook

Jay Samit

DISRUPT

YOU! Workbook

FLATIRON BOOKS NEW YORK

DISRUPT YOU! WORKBOOK

D isrupt You! is written to empower you to transform your life, seize new opportunities, and thrive in this era of endless innovation. You have already achieved the first stage of your journey by reading the book and committing to self-disruption. The Disrupt You! Workbook is one more tool to help you achieve your potential and realize your goals. To change who you are, you must first change who you think you are. The more effort and energy you put into completing the exercises in this workbook, the more you will get out of your career and your life. Before you begin, here are some tips to organizing your self-disruption journey and maximizing your results. Start each day with a few minutes of visualization. As discussed in the book, visualization puts you in a positive frame of mind and opens you up to new possibilities. By visualizing what you hope to achieve, you can develop a step-by-step plan for realizing your goals. When you get in the habit of setting daily attainable goals, you will be amazed what you can achieve during a week, a month, and then a year. Be consistent and persistent in your pursuit. As you read each chapter in Disrupt You!, you’ll learn new lessons for disruption, then reflect on how these principles can be applied to your life, your journey, and your goals. Lastly, when there are setbacks and you have to pivot, go back to the examples in the book for inspiration and ideas of how to proceed. Remember, if it were easy, everyone would do it.

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Chapter One In Defense of Disruption

Before embarking on your own journey of self-disruption, it is important that you understand the fundamental concepts of disruption. This workbook is about personalizing the lessons and information in Disrupt You! The following exercises are designed to help you identify how you can disrupt yourself. Remember, the most rewarding project that you will ever work on is you! Time to begin: 1. Whether driven by ambition or circumstance, every life and career gets disrupted. Define disruption as it applies to your life and your career. What is making you think about disruption at this moment? How are changes in your work affecting you? What will happen if you don’t change?


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2. Write down your fears about being disrupted? Are you worried about losing your job? Could your company go out of business? How are changes in technology and the economy impacting your future? Are their local or government issues that are affecting your stability? Be specific about the obstacles ahead of you.

3. What is the one thing you would hope to change about yourself? What personal traits do you believe are holding you back from attaining success? How do your co-workers and bosses perceive you? What shortcomings do others say you have? What have employers noted on your performance reviews in the past?

4. Is there anything holding you back from making a change in your life?

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5. What do you risk losing if you try to disrupt your life?

6. Who is telling you that you can’t have success? Did they give up on their dreams and is that why they want you to give up on yours?

7. Are you willing to change?

8. Are you capable of change?

9. Do you believe in yourself?

If you answered the last three questions in the affirmative, congratulate yourself. You have already gone farther than most people because you understand that the difference between who you are, and who you want to be, is what you do. Now do it.


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Chapter 2 Become a Disruptor

Chapter 1 was an introduction to disruption. You learned that success as a disruptor is about capturing the value that is released through disruption. Before you can focus on external rewards, it is important to focus inward. Success comes from stepping outside of your comfort zone. The better you know yourself and your desires, the more likely you are to achieve your goals. We all create our own reality. These exercises are designed to help you create something wonderful. 1. Make a list of your strengths and weaknesses. Be honest and really give yourself a hard looking over. What are the attributes that will help you achieve your success? What are the attributes you admire in others that you wish you had? What are the challenges that limit your ability to achieve?

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2. Why do most people set limits when none actually exist? List one achievement that would change how you feel about your limitations. For example, if you are afraid of public speaking, the achievement to list would be giving a speech. If you aren’t knowledgeable about a certain business, it would be taking a course or reading a book on the subject. Choose something just outside of your comfort zone.

3. You already know step three. Take on your weaknesses by proving that you can achieve whatever you conceive. Leave your comfort zone and discover what you can do.

4. Congratulate yourself on achieving your goal and strut your stuff. Use social media to post your achievements. Be proud that you ran that marathon, finished your degree, or presented your paper to a room full of strangers. Congratulations! You proved that you have no limits (and neither does opportunity).


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Chapter 3 The Disruptor’s Map:

By completing the previous exercises, you proved that there isn’t anything in your life that cannot be changed. Chapter 3 is all about being specific with your goals. Don’t let your dreams stay dreams. Write them down in an honest and organized manner. These exercises are your opportunity to turn your dreams into a disruptor’s map. Life is short. Now make the most of it. 1. Write a list of the things you would like out of life. This list can include personal as well as material goals. Be honest and complete. Keep this list in a journal or on your computer and refer back to it in coming days, months, and years. Feel free to update and revise your list as your desires change. This list is your first step at gaining control over your life’s journey.


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2. Take your list and sequence as best you can. Think about the order in which you are likely to attain your goals. (You can’t have grandchildren before having children.) You may find it is easiest to start at the end of the list and work backwards to the present.

3. You now have destination points of your Disruptor’s Map. Hang this list on the wall by your desk or on your bathroom mirror. Study it and revise it. Look at it often. You will be amazed how much you can accomplish once you focus your priorities. 4. Rewrite your ordered Disruptor’s Map on a fresh sheet of paper, this time leaving spaces in between each goal. In these spaces, you need to fill in two key pieces of information: the date by which you must achieve your goal, and the resources needed to ensure your success. 5. Look at the list of necessary resources that you just came up with. Think of those resources as a To Do List. Write up an action plan of how and when you are going to do each of the items on this list. 6. Lastly, congratulate yourself. You have taken the important first step in controlling the outcome of your life; you have made a plan and you have outlined the steps needed to achieve it. The plan will be altered by time and circumstance, but you now possess a powerful Disruptor’s Map for staying on course. Your life now has a purpose and your journey a destination. DISRUPT YOU! WORKBOOK

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Chapter 4 Building a Brand of One

For many readers getting that perfect job is the first step towards achieving personal transformation. Chapter 4 discussed the importance of language in defining who you are and how perspective employers perceive you. Recruiters and prospective employers will only take a minute to eyeball your resume. These exercises will help you make every second count. 1. Describe yourself in one sentence as if you were a brand. What are your brand attributes? What do you want people to know about you? What strengths do you bring to each position that you have held? What makes you unique?

2. Take out a copy of your existing resume and list all of the verbs you use.

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3. Make a list of five people you would like to emulate in your career. These people can be senior executives in your company or notables in your field. Go to LinkedIn and review profiles of other people who have held similar positions to yours that you would like to emulate. Notice the words they use to describe the positions they’ve held and the accomplishments they’ve made. Pay special attention to their use of active verbs (designing, deciding, creating). Which profiles jump out at you? What skills do they list? Which candidates would you want to hire? What image does their profile convey? 4. Circle those skills that you possess, but might not have articulated in your own resume. Also note what training, certification, or other credentials these individuals list in their own profiles. You may need to develop in order to achieve industry success. 5. Now look at the chart you’ve made and compare it to your resume. Replace any of the past tense or passive verbs on your resume with active verbs found in the Transferable Skills Chart in Chapter 4 of Disrupt You!. Try not to repeat the same verbs for multiple jobs or experiences. 6. Now print out a fresh copy of your resume and circle all of the adjectives. Replace any duplicates with synonyms that give your resume more depth. 7. Update your LinkedIn page to incorporate the changes you made to your online persona. 8. Congratulate yourself on your first step in changing how the world perceives you. You should be proud of your professional makeover and can now strive even harder to accomplish what your role models have achieved.


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Chapter 5 Disruptors at Work and the Value of Intrapreneurship Not everyone can go out and start his or her own business. As discussed in chapter 5, many people benefit from learning to be an intrapreneur and disrupting from inside a company can be the best path to achieving your life goals. These exercises are designed to get you to look at your current employer through the eyes of a disruptor. 1. What is the biggest challenge facing your company or your industry?

2. What new competition is threatening your company?

3. How have new competitors stolen market share or challenged your company’s products? Think beyond their pricing or specific ad campaigns. Try to focus on what they are doing different and how it is being perceived by your customers.

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4. What would be the one thing your company could do differently that would most positively impact its future? This doesn’t have to be something in your area of the company, or even something that involves you. The goal is to look for where value is captured through disruption. Does your company need to move into an adjacent market or does it need to change its value chain?

5. Who in your company would gain the most from implementing your ideas for disruption?

6. What skills or training do you need to be able to implement your plan?

7. What is stopping you from suggesting your ideas to senior management?

8. What do you have to lose by trying to change the status quo?


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Chapter 6 In Search of a Zombie Idea

Every entrepreneur wants to discover the one big idea that will change his or her fortunes. As detailed in Chapter 6, the search for the Zombie Idea—the idea that can’t be killed—is a methodical process. The first step is to find obstacles that can be turned into opportunities by a disruptor. These exercises will help you find your Zombie Idea. 1. Start looking for problems. Over the course of one month, write down three things that can be improved in your world every day. They can be big or small; personal or global. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.

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18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54.


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55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81. 82. 83. 84. 85. 86. 87. 88. 89. 90.

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2. Review your ninety problems. Which are you most passionate about? Which problems do you believe bother the most people? Which problems have the least viable available solution? 3. Select the three problems for which you would most like to find a solution. Brainstorm ways of solving three of your problems. Come up with three Big Ideas.

4. Find ten strangers (friends want you to succeed and won’t be honest enough with their feedback) who share the same problem and tell them about your Big Idea. Do they feel it will it help them? What would they pay for a solution? Ask them to try and kill your Big Idea. (Tip: Phrase your questions in an open ended manner so as not to lead them into artificially supporting your idea. “How would you use this product?” is a more useful survey question than “Do you like this product?”) 5. Modify your idea with the feedback received and test the new-improved Big Idea on ten new potential customers. Test and repeat until your Zombie Idea can’t be killed. Revel in having created a Zombie idea and yell “It’s alive!” 6. Congratulate yourself on having the makings of a really great startup. You now have vetted the concept with a test audience and are ready to build your company or start your social revolution.


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Chapter 7 Pivoting Your Energies

The lesson of Chapter Seven is recognizing that failure is not the opposite of success; it is part of success. Virtually all businesses must pivot at one point or another. These exercises are designed to help you turn setbacks into opportunities. The following is an exercise I do at least once a month with every company I advise. These are tough questions that require open, honest and complete answers. They can be assigned to everyone on your management team individually or shared as a group. Remind your team that this isn’t personal. It is the only way to know when to push ahead or when to move in another direction. All too often, disruptors are too busy working in their business to be working on their business. Here are the ten key Disrupt You! questions for pivoting your energies: 1. Are you or your business achieving the milestones outlined in your disruptor’s map?

2. If you are not meeting your projections, is the cause internal, external or both?

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3. What would it take to achieve the original plan?

4. Do you have the financial and personnel resources to stick with the plan?

5. What unexpected obstacles did your business face?

6. What new opportunity do those obstacles provide for you or your competition?

7. What are your actual customers telling you? How does the data differ from your initial assumptions?


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8. If you hadn’t started your business when you did, and now knowing everything you know today, would you still start the same company?

9. If you broke down the value chain of what you have created, what better business opportunity could you pursue with your current assets?

10. Is it time to pivot? If the answer is yes, congratulate yourself for being honest and facing the tough fact that it is time to move forward in a new direction. You are in control of your future and nothing feels better than that. If the answer is no, then focus your efforts on fixing the issues identified by your team. Either way, you tacked your ship across stormy seas and you are headed for success once again.

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Chapter 8 Unlocking the Value Chain

Understanding where value is created and captured in a company’s value chain is key to building a successful enterprise. Chapter Eight proposes a paradigm for viewing how each and every business functions. Understanding your industry’s specific value chain will help you identify the link that is best suited for disruption as well as where the greatest value can be captured. Since all links are not of equal value, it is important to spend the time analyzing how your sector operates. Before setting your sights on disrupting a business or industry with your Big Idea, try the following exercise: 1. Draw out your industry’s value chain as it exists today. 2. Place each link on a separate card. 3. Analyze the cost versus profit potential of each link in the chain. 4. Now reorganize the cards in the order of value creation. 5. Which link generates the most value and which link captures the most value?


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6. Will your new business unlock hidden and unrealized value?

7. Will you be able to capture the value you are creating, or will your business be disruptive without generating value for your new company?

8. How will you defend your new value chain from future disruptors? (This may require you to take another set of cards and map out the value chain of your new company.)

9. Select the card of the link you are going to disrupt and congratulate yourself on decoding your industry. You are now in a position to be a disruptor.

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Chapter 9 Research & Development: Unlocking the Value of Waste Not all disruption requires you to invent something new. As the examples in Chapter 9 illustrate, you only need to find an existing idea and apply it to a new industry or in a novel way. Local, state, and national resources are available to you for discovering intellectual property that is waiting to be discovered and put to use. The following exercises will help you source your Big Idea. 1. Go online or to your local research university and see what research is going on that may be applicable to your Big Idea. Many universities have an office of technology transfer. Meet with someone from that office and learn how you can gain access to their portfolio of intellectual property (IP). Find out what are the financial terms for licensing university research. 2. Look through the list of research patents available for technology transfer licensing from university and government research centers. Can any of these be used for a purpose other than the one originally intended? 3. Contact the scientists or professors involved with creating the original IP and see if they will work with you to grant a use-specific license to their patent. 4. Involve a lawyer in this process to make sure that the entity granting you the license has the authority to do so and to protect your rights going forward. Ask if your new use enables you to file for additional patents in your name. 5. Congratulate yourself on saving millions of dollars in research and bringing your discovery to market. DISRUPT YOU! WORKBOOK

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Chapter 10 Disruption Through Aesthetics

Brand extensions are a powerful way to take your unknown product and make it instantly familiar to the public. Chapter 10 shares a wide range of examples of how branding can be used to disrupt existing markets and save on marketing dollars. Leveraging an existing brand can catapult your Big Idea to success. The following exercises will help you determine if this approach is right for your new product. 1. In a perfect world, what existing brand or company should have launched your Big Idea? Make a list of all the brand names that would work with your new product. 2. Mock up some fake ads for your brand-extension production. Test these with prospective customers to gage their reaction and brand affinity. If budget permits, run some targeted ads online to see which brand yields the best click through rates. 3. Armed with your data, reach out to the brand manager of the established company to see on what terms you can license the brand. Even if you don’t have the capital to execute the license, get the contract in hand. 4. Congratulate yourself. You now have a monetizable asset for your new company. A term sheet to utilize an existing brand may be enough for you to go out and raise your funding. You are on your way to leveraging all of that brand’s existing goodwill and building a new business in less time than you ever imagined.

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Chapter 11 Production: Reuse, Repurpose, Re-create

Many low-cost approaches to manufacturing now exist to help the under-funded startup compete with major corporations. Chapter 11 focuses on the various capital-saving approaches to creating physical products. These exercises provide a step-by-step approach to outsourced manufacturing. 1. If your Big Idea is a physical product, how and where are you planning to manufacturer it?

2. Does 3D printing enable your product to have more features or customization? Could 3D printing provide your product with a key differentiator from other similar products on the market?

3. Are their suppliers online that can rapidly prototype your product for you?


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4. Get samples of your products made utilizing an existing online community. Test the quality and cost of different suppliers. 5. Can you build an ecommerce site that focuses on customization for your consumers?

6. Congratulate yourself if you are now holding a prototype product and have a functioning online store. You now have in your hand two assets that will assist you in raising money for your new venture.

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Chapter 12 Marketing and Sales: Finding the Problem to Fit Your Solution

Building the right business model can be as important to your success as having the right product. Chapter 12 is all about matching the approach to sales and marketing that is right for your unique product or service. Take the time to really challenge your assumptions and you may discover a winning formula that has eluded others in your field. Too many entrepreneurs skip the important step of challenging how their product should be monetized. The following exercises should help you determine the path to likeliest success. 1. What is the business model for your Big Idea? How does this compare to similar products in your industry?

2. Are there other revenue streams or other sales approaches that could be applied to your new business?


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3. Who sets your pricing? How much pricing elasticity can your business model handle? How important is competitive pricing?

4. What marketing channels already exist for your target audience? Can you leverage someone else’s sales channel or sales force?

5. Could branded content get the word out for you more effectively?

6. Have any of your competitors tried a different business model in the past?

7. Does your business model capture the most value from your product?

Building a solid financial model for your new company will help you raise the capital you require to launch your company. If you don’t have Excel skills, hire someone to help you with your modeling. 30

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Chapter 13 Distribution: Unlocking Unattainted Value and the Challenge of Unlimited Shelf Space

Digital distribution has disrupted the business models of all forms of content, including newspapers, magazines, books, music, videos, video games, films and television shows. Chapter 13 showed how the world of content is swiftly evolving, making it ripe for a new generation of disruptors to unbundle existing channels and recreate new consumer offerings. If you are contemplating a business involving digital distribution, the following exercises will help you hone your business. 1. How will your startup disrupt digital distribution? Will you work with existing providers or create your own sales channel?

2. What is the best business model for pricing and consuming your service offering? Is your target audience best suited for subscription, rental, sales, or an ad supported model?


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3. How is similar content being digitally distributed today? Are other content companies profitable in your sector or are they struggling to find a sustainable model? What gross margins can you expect with your business model?

4. How can you compete or defend against the major players in distribution today?

5. What data can you gather to better target successful prospective consumers and reduce your customer acquisition costs or customer churn?

6. Is your audience using computers or mobile devices to consume content? Where should you first spend your development dollars?

7. Have you found an unexploited niche for disrupting distribution?

8. If you answered yes to question number seven, congratulations. You are doing better than most giant media brands.

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Chapter 14 Capital Revisited: Other People’s Money

Other People’s Money (OPM) is a concept where you can leverage the budget of major corporations that benefit from your new offering and therefore aren’t required to pay them back for the capital they spend assisting your efforts. Chapter 14 gives specific examples of how OPM can be used in a wide range of industries and markets. These exercises are designed to help you identify potential sources of OPM for your disruptive idea. 1. Write a detailed description of your target audience. Go beyond the standard demographic information and include the psychological details of what will make customers emotionally connected to your product or service. Try to be specific.


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2. Now make a list of all of the non-competing national and international companies marketing to the same audience. Next to each company write out their tag line or slogan.

3. Identify the advertising agency representing the brands listed above and get the name of the account director at the agency responsible for the brand. 4. Craft an email as to how your company can help them better market their client’s product. Remember, you are helping them do their job – not asking for a favor. 5. Take the user profile from step 1 and list which charities are also targeting the same audience. Come up with a way for your team to work with a charity on a cause marketing campaign.

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Chapter 15 Disruption in the Era of the Crowd

The power of the crowd is the power to fund any solution. Chapter 15 is an introduction to crowdfunding and crowdsourcing as new ways to build a startup in the 21st century. The following exercises are designed to help you determine how you can put the crowd to work for you. 1. Search Kickstarter, indiegogo, FundRazr and other crowdfunding sites for projects similar to your idea. See how many were successful in achieving their funding objectives. 2. Make a list of the terms and rewards offered to funders. How can your project meet or beat these existing market expectations? 3. Study the amount of money raised in each prior project. Try to determine the sweet spot for fundraising. (Remember you can always raise more capital than the minimum amount you requested.) 4. Check with an attorney to see what restrictions there are under the JOBS Act for selling equity in your new venture. 5. Make a list of friends and family that would likely participate in your crowdfunding. Send a test email to see how many would be interested in supporting your campaign. 6. If your test marketing is positive, launch your crowdfunding campaign. 7. Promote your campaign through social media and provide supporters with frequent updates. Turn your early supporters into a network of promoters. 8. Congratulate yourself for getting funded. DISRUPT YOU! WORKBOOK

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Chapter 16 Disrupt the World

The principles of Disrupt You! apply far beyond the world of business. Ideas are worthless unless you get them out of your head and into action. Chapter 16 shows examples of how disruption can be applied to governmental and social institutions. For those of you who dream big and really want to change the world, nothing is stopping you. You have disrupted yourself and your career, now follow these exercises to disrupt the world. 1. Just as you did in Chapter 6, look at the world around you and write down three major problems every day for a month. These are not the small business solutions, but the macro issues. (I’ll give you your first three: climate change, clean energy, and potable water.) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

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14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49.


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50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81. 82. 83. 84. 85.

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86. 87. 88. 89. 90.

2. Review your list of ninety problems and pick the one you are most passionate about solving.

3. Using the tools outlined in this book, write your Disruptor’s Map for arriving at your solution. Are there organizations that can help? Is there a cause-marketing angle that can get big businesses involved?

4. Who can you get to join you on your journey?

5. How can you leverage the crowd to fund and source your solution?

6. How are you going to build out your network?

7. When are you going to change the world?


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Conclusion

Part of being a disruptor is paying it forward. If these exercises have helped you achieve your goals, please share the story of your success on jaysamit.com to help encourage others. We want to learn from you and your journey. What tips or insights can you share to make the road a little easier for others around the globe? Disrupt You! is a movement. We are a community of individuals determined to make a difference with our lives. I thank you in advance for your contributions to our world.

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—Jay Samit

JAY SAMIT

Disrupt You Workbook July 2015

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