244. 5 Business Lesson Learned Over 12 Years
Starting a business is a challenging journey, and it’s easy to stumble along the way. In this episode, Ash Roy, founder of Productive Insights, opens up about his entrepreneurial path, sharing the five biggest mistakes he made while building his business. These aren’t just abstract lessons—they’re real experiences that many entrepreneurs can relate to. From learning the importance of taking risks to understanding the value of mindset, Ash’s stories are filled with practical advice that can help you avoid similar missteps. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to improve your current strategy, this episode is full of insights that can make a difference. So, pour yourself a cup of coffee, and let’s dive into the lessons Ash learned from his entrepreneurial journey.
Timestamp:
00:00 Introduction and Beginnings
00:37 Mistake 1: The Importance of Having a Product
01:49 Mistake 2: Understanding Your Ideal Customer
02:29 Mistake 3: True Wealth and Freedom
03:49 Mistake 4: Building an Audience First
04:26 Mistake 5: The Right Mindset for Success
05:11 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Ash Roy's Video Transcript (This transcript has been auto-generated. Artificial Intelligence is still in the process of perfecting itself. There may be some errors in transcription):
5 Biggest Mistakes on Business Final
Ash Roy:
Hi. I started Productive Insights way back in 2013. Feels like a lifetime ago, and I've learned a lot of lessons along the way. So, grab a cup of coffee and let's have a chat about it. Great coffee. Building my own business from scratch is one of the hardest things I've done, but also one of the most rewarding.
I've made a lot of mistakes along the way, and I'm going to share some of my biggest lessons, so hopefully you don't have to make the same mistakes I did. Let's go for a walk. It's a cold winter's day here in July. Yes, I said July. We live in the southern hemisphere and its winter and my coffee's getting cold.
One of the first lessons I learned was the importance of having a product. You know, one of my earliest clients, Professor Michael Chapman, co-founder of IVF Australia, he's still a client of mine, by the way. He asked me, what are you going to sell? And I didn't have an answer for him. My biggest mistake? I should have answered that question right there and then, but it took me a whole year before I came up with one.
You might be wondering, why it took me so long to come up with a product. Well, the truth is, I was scared. I didn't want to take the chance of making a mistake, so I didn't do anything at all. Not taking a risk is actually probably one of the biggest risks, because business is about taking risks, calculated risks, and when you do nothing, you fall behind.
Just like this flowing water behind me, opportunities kept coming and going and passing me by. I didn't take advantage of them, because I didn't have the courage to put something out there. Even if it wasn't perfect, I was using perfection as an excuse not to launch. You know, Seth Godin said something really important to me.
He said, it's important to ship something you're proud of. It doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be something you're proud of. I wish I'd done that a lot sooner. Okay.
Mistake number two. My second mistake was I didn't get clear about my customer early enough. What I mean by that is I didn't get clear about my ideal customer avatar or my ideal customer persona.
This meant that I was shooting in the wind. I was trying to be everything to everyone and I was nothing to anyone. It took me two years before I really sat down and really thought about who my ideal customer is. And what problem I solve for them. Had I done that earlier, my products would be a lot more focused and my solutions would be a lot more valuable to my ideal customer.
I would have built a valuable business a lot faster.
The third thing I did wrong was to assume that wealth is a problem. It's all about money. What I learned the hard way was true wealth is about having freedom, freedom to do what you want, when you want, and however you want to do it. Over the years, I've had the opportunity to meet some of the most successful people in digital marketing and entrepreneurship.
And what I learned was money doesn't solve most problems beyond a certain point. Sure. We all need enough money to have a good life. But after that, what really matters is freedom, freedom to work on what you want to work on, freedom to spend time with those you love. And typically, money doesn't bring that beyond the first million or two.
So, if I had to do it over again, I'd optimize for time freedom. And to be able to work on things I love rather than just trying to make more income, you know, way back when I was working in the corporate world, my job paid me a lot of money, but I was extremely unhappy because all I was doing was crunching numbers all day.
Scrutinizing spreadsheets. I'm not saying money doesn't matter at all, of course it does. But once you've satisfied your basic needs and you're comfortable, it is important to think about how you want to spend your days. Because the truth is, our time is limited. And I'm deeply grateful for the fact that I can come and hang out in a place like this in the middle of the day, during the week, and share my ideas and my thoughts with you.
My fourth mistake was trying to build a product first instead of building an audience first. Now, there's two ways you can build a business. You can either build a product and then try and scale that product by finding more customers for it, or you can build an audience of following a thousand true fans, as Kevin Kelly would say, and then create a product for them to solve a real problem that they want to solve and are happy to pay you for.
In my experience, building an audience first takes. Far better way to validate your product and your offer. Because when you build a product that your audience already is willing to pay for, sales and scaling both get a lot easier.
And last, but definitely not least, is having the right mindset. When you operate from a scarcity mindset, you approach business in a way that is not optimal.
When you make sales calls, you feel like you're interrupting people. This means that the other person feels a bit uncomfortable when you're speaking to them, and that leads to less sales, which leads to less income, and further drives the scarcity mindset. On the other hand, when you approach Your business with an abundance mindset.
You assume that you're delivering value and you approach conversations with generosity and a sense of openness, which in turn means that your customers and your audience respond to you in a more positive way. You're more likely to make sales. You're more likely to deliver more value and you're far more likely to build a better business.
I hope you found these lessons useful. I'm going to go get another coffee. I'll see you next time.
