I’m in Chicago doing a video shoot for a big online event I’m doing with GKIC in August.

Before I went to sleep, I wanted to tell you about my Uber trip from the airport.

The young dude who picked me up started talking about a technology company he wanted to started. He excitedly told me about the product. After he was through, I asked him a simple question: “How do you plan to monetize this? His answer was classic…

“Well, I first need to create the product and then I will figure that out,” he said.

I patiently explained to him that was the backasswards way of doing things. But the fact is that most entrepreneurs do the exact same thing. They focus exclusively on creating a product and then try to figure out how to sell it. Their emphasis is on the wrong thing.

Whenever I talk to a client about producing an online event for them, I always ask who their target market is, whether they have a list of folks in their target market and how they have sold their product in the past. My focus is on sales and marketing and that’s where your focus needs to be as well.

This is not to say that what you’re selling shouldn’t be of quality. Of course it should. BUT, it doesn’t matter how good your product is if no one knows about it and you don’t have a plan for selling it.

The young Uber driver asked me, “What is something that made you successful.” I thought for a moment and replied, “Changing my mindset from being a deliverer of my service to being a marketer of my service.”

That was a huge breakthrough for me because it put my focus where it should be – on sales and marketing.

Sales and marketing is where the money is made. Where is your focus?

Kick butt, make mucho DEEnero!

Dave “Sleepy In Chicago” Dee