I am transforming the “old” TrueStory Insights newsletter into this new personal newsletter, which will be called The Build.
A newsletter where I will share thoughts, learnings, and numbers from a life of building ideas, businesses, relationships, mental models, habits, and more.
This issue will be related to Covid-19 and more specifically how I have navigated in terms of our company and myself privately. Focusing is on being proactive and building resistance - seeding the ground for big wins at a later point in time.
TrueStory during Covid-19
Selling real-life experiences in the current pandemic environment, is not an easy task. Obviously.
// Context: We have spent a lot of time and effort the last couple of years on adjusting our organization and setup, in a pursuit of financial sustainability and profitable confidence. That focus proves to be a very wise decision now. We were in no way planning for a situation like this, but it just shows that leaning towards profitable confidence is beneficial in many ways.
// First step: When the lockdown was initiated in both our active markets, we went into forecasting mode. We quickly realized that we had to adjust quickly and effectively.
The following screen dump from our booking system gives you a glimpse of what effect the lockdown had for our partners and customers.
From there, we went into forecasting mode. We worked with different scenarios; the primary one based on index 20 compared to the existing revenue budget in March and April. So far, we have archived 26 (March) and 36 (April). That combined with some big, record-breaking B2B-orders (not included in index numbers), has created a situation where we can work calmly and focused on building strength and momentum, to when things get back to a new normal. Which is very, very fortunate.
// Second step: Most of our competitors have done temporary pivots into digital experiences. At TrueStory, we spent a week on generating ideas on how to create new stuff and business in the current environment as well. We had some great ideas and some good initiatives lined up. The following Monday we decided to scrap it all and pull focus back on what we excel at and what we believe in longterm; real experiences, creating memories with people you love. Meaning that we are saying no to some revenue potential now, but betting on a huge upside later on. Keeping a steady hand in an unsteady situation. I have written a lot about focus earlier and this current situation has been a big test…
I wrote a post about some of this: Move slow to move fast
Brainfood
The following are links and recommendations, from the last month. Books, Podcasts, and different links to articles and more. It is stuff I have highlighted as being very useful and inspirational.
📚 Essentialism | Why We Sleep | When the Wolves Bite
🎧 Q&A with Andrew Wilkinson, Co-founder of Tiny | Balaji Srinivasan: Exploring COVID-19 | Esther Wojcicki: The “T.R.I.C.K.” to Raising “Successful” People
📖 COVID-19 Trends: Looking Past First-Order Effects | The Post Corona World
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Do you like this format? Let me know. I appreciate honest feedback more than anything… :)