What do Japanese whiskey, oysters at a hardware store, and limited edition basketball jerseys have in common?
We'll get to that in a moment...
This week I had the chance to see many of you (
Megan C
MichelleR
Matthew
BrianO
BlakeM
AndyM
Nars
StacyW
GregoryF) at the NWVRP Conference in Oregon, where I featured an important new workshop titled First Mover Status, now available for your educational pleasure (paying members please check inbox for a 100% off coupon).
The First Mover Status workshop (and corresponding worksheet) is a creative process to identify your innovation in your market (using ANY of the many innovations we cover as inspiration) in order to gain unfair competitive advantages over competitors.
And one model we propose is "Passion Projects" -- which, on my flight home to Miami, really had me reflecting...on how the Pacific Northwest is the quintessential creator's economy: FULL of small, local, specialized business people getting obsessed about their niche (whether it's products, services).
This brings me back to Japanese whiskey, oysters at a hardware store, and vintage basketball jerseys.
They are things I purchased in the last 3 days in Oregon. Not because I went to Oregon to intentionally buy them...but because their stewards were so passionate about their products and that passion rubbed off on me and I was convinced!
When you sell something you are passionate about, you're not competing with those selling widgets...because you're actually not even selling, you are championing from the heart. When you are not using conventional business metrics nor marketing practices to measure your success, you competing on your own authentic terms....which is perplexing to those who don't operate on these terms (If you get a majority of word-of-mouth referrals you likely are already doing this)
So I wanted to do a thread this week to ask: "What (about your destination) are you passionate about?!
We'll get to that in a moment...
This week I had the chance to see many of you (









The First Mover Status workshop (and corresponding worksheet) is a creative process to identify your innovation in your market (using ANY of the many innovations we cover as inspiration) in order to gain unfair competitive advantages over competitors.
And one model we propose is "Passion Projects" -- which, on my flight home to Miami, really had me reflecting...on how the Pacific Northwest is the quintessential creator's economy: FULL of small, local, specialized business people getting obsessed about their niche (whether it's products, services).
This brings me back to Japanese whiskey, oysters at a hardware store, and vintage basketball jerseys.
They are things I purchased in the last 3 days in Oregon. Not because I went to Oregon to intentionally buy them...but because their stewards were so passionate about their products and that passion rubbed off on me and I was convinced!
When you sell something you are passionate about, you're not competing with those selling widgets...because you're actually not even selling, you are championing from the heart. When you are not using conventional business metrics nor marketing practices to measure your success, you competing on your own authentic terms....which is perplexing to those who don't operate on these terms (If you get a majority of word-of-mouth referrals you likely are already doing this)
So I wanted to do a thread this week to ask: "What (about your destination) are you passionate about?!
- What specifically about your destination (to borrow a phrase from
Virginia) makes your heart race?
- What food or activities or sights or experiences are you obsessed with?
- What could you talk about forever?
- What local place or person brings you great joy?
- What or who do you champion?
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