Alright let’s dig into how I actually prepped for and unpacked that Andrew Norris interview on growing a business. Real talk, it felt like wading through mud at first.
The Brain Dump Phase
Started simple. Slammed play on that interview recording and just scribbled everything down like a maniac. Didn’t care about order, didn’t care about sense – just tried to catch every single thing Andrew tossed out. Pages and pages of chicken scratch notes.
Stared at this mess afterward feeling totally lost. Needed structure. Badly.
Hunting the Nuggets
Grabbed some highlighters – old school style. Went back into the scribbles like a detective:
- Yellow for anything about customer problems – Andrew kept hammering this.
- Pink for the scary “messy middle” stuff between startup and big company.
- Blue for concrete tactics he mentioned (like his sales team structure).
Took forever. Found maybe five yellow bits, three pink sections that made my head hurt, and two tiny blue gems.
Trying to Apply It (and Stumbling)
Here’s where I tripped up big time. Thought I’d be smart and instantly use his “listening to customers” thing on my own small project. Sounds good, right?
Dove into my email list and social comments. Tried categorizing everything like Andrew suggested. Spent three hours making a massive spreadsheet.
- Column A: Complaint? Suggestion? Question?
- Column B: Topic (Product? Price? Support?)
- Column C: Underlying need…
Column C stayed mostly empty. Realized I was just shuffling words around. Felt dumb and stuck. Remembered why I hate webinars promising magic fixes.
The Lightbulb Moment (Sort Of)
Felt frustrated. Replayed a section where Andrew laughed and said, “You think you know your customer? Bet you don’t know their Tuesday afternoon headache.” That hit different. My spreadsheet wasn’t getting the real headaches.
Scrapped the spreadsheet. Instead, picked just five recent emails that felt “itchy”. Replies where people sounded annoyed but weren’t super clear why. Sent back short, super direct emails asking: “What were you trying to fix when this thing bugged out?”
Got three replies back almost instantly. One guy said he was trying to prep data for a last-minute client meeting and our tool choked. That was the Tuesday afternoon headache. Not a bug report. A fire drill moment.
Wrapping It Up Messily
Did I magically solve everything? Nah. But here’s the takeaway bouncing in my skull now:
- Andrew’s right about digging for the pain behind the words.
- My big mistake? Trying to boil the entire ocean at once instead of picking one tiny hole and digging deep.
Is my project suddenly growing like crazy? Course not. But figuring out that one guy’s client meeting panic? Felt way more real than any spreadsheet box I ever filled. Gotta chase more headaches.
