In this special episode of The RevOps Show, Doug discusses his new book, “The Revenue Acceleration Framework” which shares the proven approach to transforming and growing a business. Prepare for behind the scenes insights and challenges with writing the book and stories from the book itself.
Audio:
Video:
Additional Resources:
Show Notes:
Note: The Revenue Acceleration Framework is out now! Go get yourself a copy on Amazon or preview the first three chapters for free before purchasing the book.
Special offer from May 21 to May 28: The book is currently priced on Amazon at $0.99 for this week only! If you purchase the book and send us your proof of purchase to hannah@liftenablement.com from now until May 28th we’ll give you the below growth tools for free!
- [Video] The Revenue Acceleration Framework Course ($995 value)
- [Video] Business Acumen for Marketing, Demand Generation & Sales course ($395 value)
- The Revenue Acceleration Fieldguide ($99 value) with all the worksheets and other tools to put your learnings from The Revolution Framework into action.
- The Sales Genius Network where you can interact with and learn from your peers ($50/year value)
Pre-Show Banter:
- Doug used to be a DJ and questions whether he should go back
- There’s a new ChatGPT voice that is exciting and scary. Doug thinks he should put all of his content into it and call it DougGPT
- Doug and Jess will be in the same place next week for a client onsite
- Jess reacts to her being mentioned in the book
Why did you write a book?
Doug’s always writing a book. In all seriousness having a book puts everything in one place. You can’t change it. It’s a way Doug brings his thinking together. He wrote this book for two reasons:
- Someone was going to write the book. He had to answer the question, will I be more upset about writing the book or not writing the book and having someone write it instead? That’s his reasoning for committing to the book.
- It’s the best business card in the world.
Why does the world need this book?
Something is wrong in business. The last four years have been economically good, but the perception is the opposite of that. People are tired. There’s no better time to be a great individual contributor. There’s no worse time to be a good contributor.
We’re in a paradigm shift. The world has changed; we live in a post-factual society. When you don’t have context, you can’t be confident. One thing that Dan Sullivan taught Doug from Strategic Coach was every decision that someone makes is a bet on their confidence in the future.
Every time you make a decision, you’re predicting your vision of the future. When you don’t have context, you can’t predict that with confidence. Doug thinks people feel lost which is why he’s a huge fan of frameworks. Frameworks help people coming from different perspectives align, having meaningful conversations, move forward and grow.
What’s writing a book like?
A pain in the ass.
Writing is two-dimensional and what you’re trying to write about is three-dimensional. If you drift off too much it loses everything. Every section has to stand on its own while also making sense altogether.
As the release has gotten closer, there are parts that Doug can’t look at or comment on because the question “is this enough?” always comes up. He’s always looking for feedback on his ideas, but with a book he can’t change what’s already there.
Writing was the easiest part. Editing is miserable because Doug isn’t good at reading his stuff over and over again. What he really wasn’t prepared for was the emotional side.
What did you learn from writing the book?
Doug learned how to better communicate his thoughts. He understands more the impact around sacrificing your best part so the entire piece can be great.
In the beginning of the book, there’s a story about Doug’s time with his parents about value travel marketing. The thing that was most interesting to Jess about this story is the talk about how they didn’t have to beat the competition at their game. They had to figure out what their own game was.
This connects to why people need this book. No one starts a business saying, “Hey, I figured out how to do something exactly like everyone else.” You have a different take, yet before long we’re defining ourselves by our competition and everything we disagreed with that led us to start a business. When we’re not playing our game, we’re having to be someone that we’re not. This led Doug to change his entire approach to sales.
Another story that gets talked about is Rip Van Winkle. It’s about this guy who fell asleep for a very long time and just woke up today. The question around the story is, what would he think? Ultimately things have changed, but a lot has stayed the same. We’re still going to market with the same playbook. The difference is that we have more advanced technology. It’s not a difference in degree. It’s a difference in kind.
What does Alice in Wonderland have to do with the book?
It has everything to do with the economic model.
- What is driving your numbers?
- What are your unit economics?
- How do you understand what is happening?
- What is your economic model?
Strategy is about choices. It helps you understand where you are in relation to where you’re supposed to be, which leads to better, faster learning.
What are the top three takeaways that you want folks to take from the book?
- Know your economics.
- It’s a systems problem, not a behavior problem.
- It’s all about learning.
Next Steps:
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