Dear MyShoephoria Team:
I want to
share with you what I have learned from reading SETH GODIN’S FREE PRIZE INSIDE. He is one of my favorite writers.
I’ve read several of his books and his writings never fail to inspire and
motivate me every time.
FREE PRIZE
INSIDE is a follow-up book to his PURPLE
COW. PURPLE COW is a product or service that is REMARKABLE and FREE PRIZE INSIDE teaches the reader how to make a
PURPLE COW.
It was more than a year ago when I read Purple Cow and it’s one of the books that inspired me to build MyShoephoria. After we developed the initial platform, I am now very much determined to grow it as I have envisioned it to be. I want MyShoephoria to be disruptive as stated in our mission: “We will change the way people view and buy shoes.” Needless to say, I do love shoes and I do love success.
The book
made me think of the following:
1.
Are we TRULY REMARKABLE? Are we worth
talking about? Are we creating experiences worth talking about? Worth
remembering?
I would like to believe so. Although the numbers in our analytics don’t
show as much people talking about us yet. In a month we had: 5400 unique
visitors, 125000 page views, 8 minutes average time on site, visits from 74
countries.
The numbers may be considerably big but it is not phenomenal but it’s not
at all discouraging me. I know we have more to offer and we have more to
improve. Let me quote what Seth said:
“Your idea will take longer than you anticipate and work less powerfully
than you hope. But that’s okay because it’s the PROCESS THAT MATTERS. ONCE YOU MASTER THE PROCESS, IT KEEPS GETTING
EASIER.”
This is so true to every one of us in the team. It was a struggle for
Lyndon to code everything at first but now he is getting adept at it. The technical
foundation of the site has been built and the social network and sharing
requirements have mostly been learned. Same goes with Jeff who is working on the mobile applications. I know he
will only get better and faster in developing the mobile apps for MyShoephoria.
Dearlie has created hundreds or probably more than a thousand analysis and
documents to make it easier for our developers to work on the system. Ray has
become very familiar with shoes J as well as the design that I want that he
can execute it more than my expectations. Irene has become an online
fashionista and a digital marketer given her limited experience about this
matter. I salute everyone in taking on the challenge despite our limitations.
MyShoephoria is our JOURNEY. It is not the idea that matters, it’s what we do with it. No matter
what challenges we face, we will defend it from becoming average because MyShoephoria is indeed remarkable and it is
made for greatness.
2.
What makes us REMARKABLE? What is our
EDGE?
What makes a restaurant remarkable? It’s not just the food
but the service, location and ambiance that make the restaurant experience
remarkable.
What makes Facebook remarkable? It’s not just showing your
profile. It’s connecting and interacting
with friends, meeting new ones and a lot of other wonderful, exciting,
memorable experiences we never thought could happen online.
WHAT MAKES MYSHOEPHORIA REMARKABLE? As utility software, we enable
users to organize their shoes but we are much more than that. We have the
capability to TRANSCEND and add UNIQUE and SPECIAL elements to MyShoephoria that are worth commenting about!
3.
How do we make MyShoephoria TRULY
REMARKABLE? How do we create our EDGE?
The book cites different ways to create an EDGE. The most I
saw that are applicable to MyShoephoria are the following:
·
BUILD COMMUNICATION. In this case, we should build
interactions outside and within the site. I believe we are on the right track.
We do have these functions in the site among members and our social network
accounts provide interactions outside the site. However, we need to improve it
by INNOVATING WAYS FOR MORE ACTIVE
INTERACTIONS. This is the “FREE PRIZE INSIDE” - the other benefit that will
make people talk about us and be part of MyShoephoria.
·
REDEFINE USER’S EXPERIENCE. It is all about DESIGN and
USABILITY: how pretty, clean and browseable is MyShoephoria from different
platforms. It’s the ease of use and fun of it. We’re getting there. We have to
keep on improving.
·
MAKE THE INVISIBLE PRODUCT VISIBLE. Events will make us visible. I
believe we have 3 great events that will make us visible soon: Dinner with
Imelda, Shoe Design Competition and the High Heel Marathon. We can do all these!
·
PROVIDE VARIETY. We have members uploading different
types of shoes. We need to gain more international members. Dearlie, it’s time
to work on the Singapore office. We have to finish our Shop Analysis ASAP.
·
SENSUALITY. Yes MyShoephoria has all the reasons
to bring and show sensuality. Irene, it’s your homework :p with Ray’s help :p
·
CUSTOMIZATION, INTERACTIVITY and
CHANGE. What killed
FRIENDSTER? Or let’s not go any further, what kills our projects? Status quo. No
improvement. We need DYNAMISM.
·
MAXIMIZE EXTERNAL EFFECTS OF PURCHASE
& USAGE. The
MARATHON EVENT will be our means to achieve this. Seth said giving a portion of
your proceeds to charity is a nice thing but it’s boring. Lots of companies do
this but we hardly notice it anymore. He suggests helping a CONTROVERSIAL but WORTHY CAUSE instead. An example may be this: Why would one want to
join the marathon? Because his/her participation will give a child a pair of
shoes to go to school. Because it will give a child hope, glee and enthusiasm
to come to school and learn. A simple pair of school shoes will start the
child’s journey in conquering the world with uplifted spirit ;) Okay, I’m just
being carried away. We can think of more CONTROVERSIAL BUT WORTHY CAUSE.
There’s a
lot of other ways to create an EDGE but these are the most applicable to us at
this stage. Let’s carry on Team. I know we will achieve our goals.
If you wish
to read the books, I’ll just leave the copies in the office:
The Purple Cow
Free Prize Inside
And another
one that is already kind of embedded in my sub-conscious, whether it be work or
personal life. The book is called:
The Dip
It says that
every new project/career/relationship starts out fun and exciting. Then it gets
harder and less fun, until it hits a low point – really hard, really not fun.
This can be the DIP which will get
better if you keep pushing or it might already be a CUL-DE-SAC or a DEAD END
which will never get better, no matter how hard you try.
I know that
we are getting into the DIP. We just need to stick it out and keep pushing. We’ve
only just began.
