President Harry Truman said, “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” As a small business owner, you HAVE to be reading and reading on a daily basis. I try to read about 15-20 books a year to help my small business. I get my reading time in at the gym during my walk time on the treadmill. Stack time at it’s finest.
In future posts, I’ll share some of the books I have read over the past year. However, if you only read one, just ONE book this year, you have to read “SuperFans” by Pat Flynn.
My buddy Pat Flynn is best known for his podcast, Smart Passive Income, who’s goal is to help small businesses be successful online. Lots of my success is dedicated to Pat. Thank you Pat, but I digress.
Superfans: The Easy Way to Stand Out, Grow Your Tribe, and Build a Successful Business
Pat starts out by saying… “You don’t need to change the entire world to build a successful business; you just need to change someone’s world.” p. 26 With that in mind, Pat builds on Kevin Kelly’s concept of “1000 True Fans”. What if you could change clients and customers into Superfans? What if you could take casual, active and connected clients, and move them up the ladder into Superfans. How do you build your 1000 true fans?
This is the concept of the book.
The book is a good quick read, organized into five parts and 19 chapters. But more than a book, each chapter ends with an exercise and has online accompanied material. I am not going to spoil nor summarize any of the book’s secrets because I want you to read it. But I will give you five lessons or takeaways I personally have learned from “Superfans.”
Fred’s Five Takeaways
- While I have about 250 clients in my website business (at the time of this writing), I currently have 37 Superfans. Superfans for me, are clients who would buy anything and everything I produce and currently spend more than $100 year, year after year consistently. What would happen to my business if I was to grow that to 1000 superfans?
- My superfans exist not because of my B to B or B to C, but because of P to P: the person-to-person relationship. Furthermore, my clients who are superfans, when asked feel I am their friend. Interesting.
- I can increase my DWDites (my superfans name Chapter 11), by engaging them more, returning every handshake (Chapter 5), making personal thank you videos (Chapter 15), opening the factory doors (Chapter 9) and remembering the lemons (Chapter 14). Enlightening.
- Not all clients are the same. I need to create a Platinum service, access, and experience. (Chapter 17).
- I am wrong in my thinking to try to double and grow 200 new web clients a year. What if instead, I try to grow 50 more Superfans instead?
This book has changed my focus on how I see customer service. This book has changed my perspective on how I can serve my clients. Please, please, please take a moment business leaders and buy and implement this concept. Create Superfans for your business!
Interested in becoming one of Fred’s Superfans? Contact us and see what we can do for your website.