Happy Thursday!

My newsletters are becoming random... there is no "set day" that I send them out. Particularly evident in the last few editions.

It's because of 2 main reasons:

1. Health issues I'm still healing from -- I never know when my headaches will pay me a visit. So when they do, I'm unproductive for 2 days.
2. Not much to report business wise -- I only want to send out a newsletter when I have something worth sharing. I don't want to write a newsletter for the sake of writing a newsletter.

I'm aiming to not go more than 2 weeks without writing (and updating) you.

So with that said, loads has been happening behind the scenes the past 10 days...

First off, I have finished mapping out my Business Blueprint for my new business. This means I know the WHY, the WHAT and the HOW behind my True North Business.

It's not perfect (of course), but it gives me a solid foundation to work from, a "blueprint" (map) to refer to that documents all the business development work I've done.

It also allows me to tweak things as I go — a living and breathing "document" that will expand as my business grows.

Before starting any business, you should know these 3 important components.

Let me give you a little overview of what you need to know in each component:

The Why (your 3 big whys) -- most imporant!! (Personal Development Part 0)

• Your why for the world -- What does your business exist to do? What good is it bringing to the world?
• Your why for yourself (selfish reasons - YES, you are allowed to be selfish) -- What does your business allow you to do?
• Your why for intrinsic reasons -- What does your business allow you to feel?

Here are my personal answers as an example:

My business exists to empower entrepreneurs (creators) to design a life they love by doing meaningful work they believe in so they’re aligned, living with joy and making the change they want to see in the world.

My business allows me to have total control of my time, do the work I want to do and live the life I want to live.

My business allows me to feel alive, on purpose and in flow everyday.

The worst thing you can do is to start a business to 'make more money'. While there is nothing wrong with wanting to make money (money is important), it shouldn't be the only reason to start a business.

If making money is your only motivation, it will lead you to doing things you don't enjoy and ultimately feeling empty and unfulfilled.

There are plenty of millionaires and billionaires that have all the money, but are miserable and unfulfiled.

A lot of people go through life not knowing why they do what they do... so they spend their lives in a job they don't like or end up doing work they hate.

Don't think owning a business is better. Not everyone is cut out to be entrepreneurs. I certainly wasn't a natural. I had to mould myself into one.

You can also get stuck in a shitty job in your business (like I have, many many times) if you don't know why you're in business or why you want to start one.

It's actually worse to get stuck in a shitty job in your own business because you can't fire your boss! You can't get away from your boss either! LOL

So... if you wanna be in business? Spend time by yourself. Dig deep.

Really know your why.

Sidenote: This is a good opportunity to do some journalling or start a journal if you've never tried writing your thoughts down.

I can't stress this enough because business is hard.

There will be days when you'll feel like quitting. You'll be faced with plenty of obstacles.

If you have a really strong why, then you just have to remind yourself of your why and let it pull you through the hard days and difficult times.

The What (Business Development Part 1)

This is the beginning of your marketing and business strategy work. This work mostly consists of figuring out and fine tuning what you do, who you serve, how you're different, your brand and the promise(s) you make... etc.

Marketing has way more layers and nuances than most people realise. It's not just about the "tactical stuff" you hear all the time like web design, copywriting, SEO, social media, Facebook ads, youtube etc etc, that most people talk about.

Often, the most important stuff you need to work on is the stuff that people can't easily see. It's invisible to an untrained eye.

The How (Business Development Part 2)

The how is the continuation of the marketing and strategy work. It's about nailing the offers (products and/or services) you want to sell in the market.

This includes coming up with your price points, the name of your product and/or service, how you "package up" your offer and how you deliver your offer.

The How is what I've been spending the most time on in the past month or so.

First, coming up with offer ideas, then letting it sit while playing with other ideas and trying to validate those ideas with my ideal audience by telling them about it.

I am still not quite done yet with "The How" in terms of cementing all the nitty gritty details, but I know what my big rocks are... which is enough for me to move forward to launch my first offer.

I can work out the nitty gritty details as I transition myself out of "business development mode" and into "marketing mode" in the coming weeks.

So... after more than 2 long months of refining my offer ideas, I am finally ready to come out of my batcave and make it a reality at the end of August!

Or it could be a total bomb... a disaster... crickets... nobody wants what I'm offering...

Now... this is the moment to embrace uncertainty in business from this point forward. I have no friggin' clue how it will be received in the marketplace.

Everything is theory until someone pays me for what I'm offering to solve their problem.

I guess we'll find out the results in 2-3 weeks.

I will use the last part of the newsletter to explain how I arrived at my offer for your learning pleasure.

How I Came Up with My Upcoming Challenge Offer

In the beginning of June, I knew I wanted to try running a paid challenge in a Facebook Group. It sounded like fun and it's something I've never done before. I wanted to teach something around "writing", and it was going to be around 5 to 7 days.

That was my not-so-brilliant, super fuzzy, non-specific idea.

I started sharing my idea with some entrepreneurs during June even though my idea still kinda sucked. I wrote things down as I got feedback from different people and just let the idea brew away in the back of my mind.

One of my ideas was to teach people how to write 5 pieces of content in 5 days. So at the end of the 5 day challenge, they will walk away with 5 pieces of content they can use for their businesses.

A part of me liked that idea (because it had very clear goals), but another part of me thought it was "meh"...

Because for people who are already struggling to write content, writing 5 pieces of content is threatening (it's a lot)... too steep of a hill for beginners to climb. That's probably for the intermediate to advanced crowd.

So I let that one sit... back to the drawing board. I continued to think about it and worked on it as new ideas popped up.

In early July, I received an amazing piece of feedback from a mentor about the challenge offer ideas I was working on...

This one comment he said to me changed everything:

"Early in my career... if someone could teach me that I need just one epic piece of content to attract my ideal clients, and they're going to give me a framework to build that? That's going to be amazing."

I loved what he said and immediate wrote it down in my notes. Feedback is so important and valuable.

I then told a few more people (who are my ideal audience) about this new idea I had throughout July.

Feedback was positive -- they were intrigued and wanted to know more.

That's the sign and the reaction you want that tells you your idea is good when people want to know more and ask you questions about it.

The positive feedback I received at the end of July and in the last week gave me the confidence I needed to refine it and run with it.

I gained clarity about the problems it could solve, and the outcome my ideal audience wanted.

So I got to work and wrote my opt-in page. I just finished designing it today so I can start capturing interest for the challenge:

​https://jenkuo.com/everlasting-content-challenge/​

If you're interested in learning more about my upcoming challenge and want to join, then you need to add yourself to the waiting list.

Only those who put their hand up by opting in will hear more details about the challenge.

I won't be sending you details about the challenge here, those emails will only go out to people who are interested.

I don't want to send you stuff that's not relevant to you.

My main newsletter (the one you're reading now) is for behind the scenes details on how I go about starting and growing my business (my processes and my thinking behind doing what I do).

For contrast, see the original, crappy opt-in page here that I haphazardly threw up a few weeks ago when my challenge idea was still fuzzy.

Lesson For The Week: Your writing becomes so much better when you have clarity about who you're serving, and what specific problems you're trying to solve for them and the outcomes they want.

Jen x

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P.S.

I'm attending another 3 day Live event this weekend... which means I'll live like a vampire for 3 days (Sat to Mon) while I adjust to North American timezones.

I'm looking forward to learning more business and marketing strategies, and also the opportunity to network and make some new friends around the world :)

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