Recently I had 2 great podcast episodes about focus come across my path.

1. Overlap Technique

When Sean talks about the overlap technique he means running an amazing consulting business and then rolling some of the profit from that in to a product.

Then adding some training.

And still doing client work.

So that means you have 3 things that overlap your core competency that earn you money.

We’ve all heard a variation of that before, so it’s not the new interesting thing that had me thinking.

The really interesting concept he talks about is that way too many people just barely get their consulting business going and then they dive into a product.

Then they release one product (and may not even do a great job of marketing) and move on to training.

Now they have 3 overlapping things, but nothing is really running at full steam.

See, that consulting business lagged while you worked on products and that product marketing died when you added some training courses.

Now you have 3 overlapping things that just barely bring in money so you’re not actually further ahead.

Maybe you’re actually further behind because you don’t have a steady stream of clients. You lost that when you started on the products.

2. Kai Brach

Here Adam (the host) and Kai (guest) talk a bunch, but the last 10 minutes is what really stood out to me.

In the last 10 minutes they talk about chasing other people’s success instead of finding what you’re really good at and being successful at that.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t see Pippin’s success with EDD and then start a plugin that would have the same business model.

That plugin sits unfinished.

Seeing the success of Daniel Espinoza and his growing plugin empire and start to think about other plugins I could build to have a plugin empire of my own.

I’ve also been thinking of coaching, which Chris Lema does to much success. I enjoy teaching and have been a teacher in some form (kayaking, climbing…) for over 15 years.

Am I just seeing the success Chris has as a coach and chasing it?

Chasing Overlaps or Fully Focused?

Are you chasing overlaps instead of being fully focused on a single thing till it’s running so smoothly you don’t need to be around anymore?

Take my consulting business. This has been a slow year, in part because I took time off to meet the new baby that joined us, but it’s also been slow landing clients twice now.

I’ve also put work into 2 plugins that would release commercially.

I’ve also started a book, and some video training on WooCommerce.

Sitting back thinking about it now, I may just be chasing the overlaps I see other people being successful at.

Knowing the support load of Pippin, I actually wonder if I really want to dive into a plugin business and then have to deal with support all the time.

Now You

What about you?

What item (or items) are you currently working on? Are you really focused on one item or are you working scatter shot across 3 or 4, like myself?

Are you chasing the success you see someone else having or are you really digging into what is your success?

photo credit: crawl_ray cc