Showing results by author "Christopher Cole" in All Categories

This book is for a very small percentage of business people. You see, most people in business are not trying to use Category Design to create a new category that changes the future and generates exponential new value. Instead, many people in business are trying to “not get fired.” Many people want to go to work, make a contribution, and go home.

Over the past 20 years, category creation and category design has gone from being a little-known "positioning" secret from advertising legends like David Ogilvy, Leo Burnett, Al Ries, Jack Trout, Gary Halbert, and more, to now becoming the single most in-demand skill among business leaders, Fortune 500 executives, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, marketers, and even the next generation of digital creators.

One of the most common questions entrepreneurs and small business owners ask is, “how do I create a category if I’m not a heavily funded startup, or some massively successful company? How can someone like me create a category of my own?” This reveals maybe the single greatest benefit of category design: anyone can do it, at any stage of their life.

Why do some writers and creators become known for a term, a phrase, or even an entire category, while others (talented as they might be) fade away? Because the most memorable writers and creators become known for a niche they own. And, more importantly, they invented new language to help them show the world how and why they are different.

Whether you are a writer, creator, entrepreneur, executive, public speaker, investor, or industry thought leader, Snow Leopard is your guide for becoming known for a niche you own.

A mediocre category designer will beat a world-class marketer every day of the week. The reason is because all marketing sits within a context. "He or she who frames the problem owns the solution." Without this context—without a category—your marketing becomes nothing but screaming, shouting, and pitching customers with deals, discounts, and other short-term tactics in the hopes of landing a sale.

Ninety percent of what we’ve been taught about entrepreneurship, business strategy, and marketing is wrong. Without a differentiated POV, you are just like everyone else. No matter how cool, clever, or expensive your branding is. Short, sweet, and to the point, this is an audiobook for how you can attract customers, clients, fans, and followers.

Short, sweet, and jam-packed with incredibly valuable insights, this “mini-book” is a goldmine of mental pivots and actionable insights that will help you cut through the noise of your industry and become a voice of thought leadership at scale.

The same way startups work hard to one day achieve a legendary liquidity moment and go public, the same can be said about individuals who achieve a certain level of autonomy and financial freedom in their personal lives. And in the wake of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, it’s clear this desire for freedom is more desirable than ever.

The Magic Triangle is the combination of product design, company design, and category design that produces legendary outcomes in the world of business. All three elements—company design, product design, and category design—work together and balance each other to exert great force on a company’s success and value. And the legendary, enduring companies get these three elements of company design, product design, and category design in such a state of synchronicity that they reinforce each other.

In 2005, a little book called Blue Ocean Strategy grew into a global best seller. With over four million copies sold and industry recognition as “one of the most iconic and impactful strategy books ever written”, Blue Ocean Strategy changed the way many people thought about business. We tip our hats to the title, and the framing of the idea, because it is a legendary example of languaging. More than 15 years later, you will still hear people in business meetings referencing “blue oceans” and “red oceans”. But...there are a few problems.

In 2016, Category Pirate Eddie Yoon wrote the seminal book on business growth, called Superconsumers. A Superconsumer is the kind of person who knows your category better than anyone else—and as a result, is willing to spend 30 percent to 70 percent more with you than other less enthusiastic customers. And in this “mini-book,” the pirates follow up with an equally groundbreaking discovery: A Super of one category is also a Super of nine others.

Category Pirates — Christopher Lochhead, Eddie Yoon, and Nicolas Cole — see a meaningful percentage of marketers, entrepreneurs, and executives trapped in what they like to call the "Brand Cult". These are professionals who have been taught the best (i.e., the most well known) brand wins. And this is a lie. The biggest brands in the world didn’t become successful because of their brand. They became successful by creating and dominating a new and differentiated category with which their brand became synonymous. Because categories make brands. Not the other way around.

Short, sweet, and jam-packed with incredibly valuable insights, this “mini-book” shares unique insight into what it takes to become a thought leader and successfully build a unique and differentiated category.

Short, sweet, and jam-packed with incredibly valuable insights, this audiobook busts common product myths and shows how to make a place in the world for your product.

Short, sweet, and jam-packed with incredibly valuable insights, this audiobook is an actionable guide to creating massive differentiation in your business.

The content marketing category is a $400 billion industry. And it’s estimated that by 2024, the content marketing industry will grow by another $270 billion, bringing the grand total to nearly $700 billion. But how much of the content being created (especially by enterprise companies and B2C companies) is actually worth reading? The truth is, most of it isn't.

Category Pirates - Christopher Lochhead, Eddie Yoon, and Nicolas Cole - walk listeners through arguably the most important aspect of going public: writing the S-1. If there was ever a way to measure public company readiness, the S-1 document would be it. Within the first few lines of a company’s S-1, you can immediately tell whether they are positioning themselves in the context of the past, or are educating investors on a different (and exponentially more valuable) future.

In this collection, you’ll find stories conveyed through poetry and song. Some of them will no doubt be familiar to you - like Francis Scott Key’s Star Spangled Banner and Julia Ward Howe’s Battle Hymn of the Republic (although many people are only familiar with the first verse). Other poems will be entirely new to you. My hope is that you’ll embrace both the familiar and the unfamiliar as pieces of the American story that deserve to be remembered.

There are few better ways to discover the identity of a nation or people than by listening to their poetry. From historical events to moral values to the political landscape (and often visions of the actual landscape), poetry, at its best, reveals the soul of a people. And Russia has offered us some of the very best.