“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.”
I’ve been listening to the “How I Built This” podcast for years, pretty much since it started. If you haven’t checked it out yet, here’s the gist: really smart business owners telling the (often ugly) truth about starting and running a business.
Between new episodes, host Guy Raz brings back a past guest (the founders of big names like Airbnb, Calendly, Netflix, Dropbox, etc.) and three small business owners call in with a real problem they’re stuck on. It’s like an instant MBA, called the “Advice Line.”
Before anyone touches a question, both Guy and the expert founder pull up the business’s website. They talk through what’s working and what could be better, and then they get to the advice.
These are founders with billion-dollar companies, who could easily dive headfirst into profit margins or funding. But 9 times out of 10, they start with a browser.
Why?
It makes perfect sense once you think about what the caller just did.
They spent several minutes describing their business the way they see it, with all the context, conviction and backstory that lives inside their brain.
The website is what customers get … without any of that.
If the two stories match up, advice can get specific. If they don’t, the gap between them is the first business problem. And it’s often much bigger than the caller’s original question.
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Your referrals do the exact same thing.
Someone hears your name over dinner, or gets the “you have to talk to my CPA” text from a friend. And before they ever email you, they look you up. Less than twenty seconds to decide whether the business they heard about matches the one on the screen. If there’s a disconnect, they just move on.
So, go ahead and run the “Advice Line” questions on your own website:
What’s working?
Be fair here, because some things might be. You need to know which ones so you don’t accidentally break them.What could be better?
All the things you’ve “been meaning to fix” and keep pushing to next quarter.
A little assist: open the site on your phone as if you’ve never seen it before.
Can you tell what you do and who it’s for in < five seconds? …
And does it look like a business that charges what you charge?
If you flinch at either one, that’s your answer. [ And honestly, the flinch is useful. It means your brand standards are higher than your website reflects. ]
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The founders on “How I Built This” have heard thousands of pitches, and they still start with the website. Because they know that’s where everyone else starts too.
Believe me, your next client already did.
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Make it a great week! 🙌
PS — Naturally, I built a little tool to help. Answer a few questions and our Headline Gap Finder shows you where your words and your clients’ words split apart. Then it drafts three new headlines to get you back on track.
Resource of the Week:
Your website gets judged in five seconds. Your own financials probably take thirty minutes and four logins just to locate.
VELA takes your existing accounts, and pulls revenue, clients, systems, and tasks into one CEO view — then helps you understand what it’s telling you. They’re also doing a pay-once lifetime offer, which is a nice change from monthly SaaS bills for tools that don’t talk to each other.
If you want the inside of your business to get the same honest look as the outside, check out VELA.
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