When I started Wynn-ing Ways, I had no idea how significant some changes would be in the industry.
Certainly, I know there are always changes. This series aims to design a robust, sustainable business system that delivers the desired results in the face of an ever-changing market.
We want change to be a competitive advantage as others hold to the status quo and continue to zig.
We zag.
Why do we resist change?
Peter Senge and Robert Fritz both talk about tension.
Why is it we don’t just get propelled to our goals?
How come we get stuck in the status quo?
Imagine there is a giant rubber exercise band connected to your goal and wrapped around your waist. The momentum of what could be pulls you towards the goal.
An equally powerful band wrapped around your waist and anchored to your status quo and limiting beliefs.
Sometimes it’s stronger, and you never make progress. Often you oscillate between the two states, never making progress and you’re stuck in limbo.
What is the solution?
Designing a business system independent of your’s or other’s limiting beliefs.
One not focused on conversion or ego, but outcomes tied to your wealth. Pro-tip that isn’t just money.
The source of wealth is conversion. Not converting a sale, but your intellectual property into a cash-producing asset.
What outcomes do we want?
I think its funds and fans…
Outcomes
What causes the outcome?
Build a business that fosters the outcome.
Are you unsure how to do this?
Of course, because it’s not something you’ve done before, and that requires you to learn through doing (see the imposter email). You’ve read it—now it’s time to act.
Imagine if I took away all of Steve Wynn’s money and connections and said, “Steve, here’s a $1,000 to start a publishing company selling the books you write.
What would he do?
What would Dr. Ackoff do?
Would he just follow what others in the industry do or start with a clean sheet of paper and look at the higher-order purpose of the system and get everything to align to it?
What would Ray Dalio do?
While I don’t know your particular brand and genre, I would build a system that focuses on reader delight (fans) and investor needs (funds).
But this is about you…
Are you in a different place than you were 29 emails ago…
Does the new you want to build a different publishing business?
Do you regret the time you’ve spent reading these emails, or have you found a new path to success?
This is what Shane Parrish says to do, “putting outcomes over ego.”
Rather than thinking in the absolutes of the binary, love or hate, failure or success, I have decided (and I suggest you think about this decision) these aren’t absolutes. It’s not a choice of yes or no, but prioritization of what’s essential. This is about creating a future of positive options.
This season and future seasons are designed to my best ability to delight and educate you around the topic of building a great publishing business and turning your creativity into wealth.
It would be wonderful if I could figure this all out for you and then just give the five publishing secrets— boom, you’re a best seller.
But that’s not how it works…
If you’re still reading, you know that in your bones.
Your path to success is for you to decide and determine.
Furthermore, what is working now for the most successful won’t work in the future.
Those that have succeeded may not know why they have succeeded and attribute that success to a false idol.
The worst scenario is mimicking what we think is a successful business model, only to find out that it’s flawed and failing.
What I do to help is be the galvanizing force for purposeful authors.
I can demonstrate the use of skills that have helped business owners to find their path to success.
You know that this is YOUR path, and by the decisions you make, you’ll move along through your journey.
Will there be bad and unforeseen outcomes?
Yes, but that doesn’t mean you’re on the wrong path to a better future.
This all starts with a BIG decision now—deciding to keep up critical thinking and pathfinding or follow others.
You can learn to become confident in the face of uncertainty and ambiguity. Not because you’re arrogant, but because you’ve built this decision-making system that gives you an edge.
A system that turns bad outcomes into learning experiences rather than a session to beat yourself up about a bad decision.
Let me put it to you this way, what do you think will give you a higher probability of a favorable outcome? No decision-making process or using my one-page template?
What about the one you design yourself using my template as its foundation?
Now that’s a system that, over time, could become your most potent wealth-creating tool known to man.
What if you apply your decision-making system to building a publishing business system?
What if that system is designed with the internal tension between funds and fans, where every subsystem is optimized to serve those two goals?
The rest of this series will be about pulling these ideas together to inspire and instruct you to build YOUR business system.
While I can lay out ideas and applications, it’s up to you to act. The action is to decide, then design your new system.
The plan can then be broken down and acted on in bite-size pieces. Realistic pieces that you can afford to do with the capital you have in hand.
Some of this work will seem strange or counterintuitive. Maybe some of it just isn’t for you. That’s cool. Just take what works and leave the rest.
For some, it will take months for this to sink in, then the lightbulb will go on, and everything will fall into place. There won’t be any less work, but it will get done faster because it will have meaning.
Maybe the right thing for you to do this week is to sit down with the decision journal and work through the decision of what your business will be. Then flesh out the plan to make it happen.
This is different than trying to manifest a six-figure author career.
The difference is similar to between imagining what your first book will be and writing your first book.
The planning, work and rework versus imagining this perfect book—the difference between fantasy and creating it in reality.
Your version of a business built to create funds and fans will be like that first book. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
Decide and do it.
If you have decided to build YOUR business system aligned around these ideas, please write me a rough idea of what you would like to implement.
I’ll craft these last emails describing implementation of Wynn-ing Ways using the submitted plans as examples. If you send me a synopsis of what you’ve decided to do, and I’ll give you some of my ideas on your plan.
Sound like fun?
Joe
PS I’m serious! Although I have the framework and topics for the last emails drafted, I’ll read through the plans sent to me. While I may not include your program in the series, I will write you back with ideas.
If what you send fits my last emails, I’ll reach out and get your permission to discuss your plan.