A chai wallah does one thing: he makes tea.

He makes tea day in and day out. Over and over.

I remember when I was in India how the chai wallahs would enter the trains at every stop and each had their own way of calling “chai”. They would squeeze up and down the aisles with their pots and glasses, at all hours of the day or night (you never got a quiet time). They would shout about their chai is such a way that the words ceased having meanings and became a song.

They were all experts at the same thing, making tea, but they each had their own way of doing it.  (For a wonderful website devoted to the chai experience in India, visit chai pilgrimage.)

Are You Willing to Become a Wallah?

To become a wallah, you must specialize.  Avoid distraction and do the same thing over and over until you become good at it.  And after you have repeated it over and over, your own unique mark will develop.

Focus on one thing and ignore the rest until you become good at it.

“When you go all in, it focuses your attention and effort, doesn’t it?”

—Seth Godin in his blog post Chai Wallah

If you focus your attention, practice until you’re crazy, you come up with your expert call.  You will become a internet business wallah.

It’s not leading because it’s easy…

Leadership is scarce because few people are willing to go through the discomfort required to lead.

Once again, Seth Godin crystallizes the truth in his book “Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us“.

Up until a few years ago, I believed that leaders were born.  There was some innate talent or drive or karmic force that caused one person to be a leader and the other not.

I observed children growing up and watched some of them emerge as leaders.

In groups, I observed how people would automatically gravitate to my friend for direction, often looking right through me to get to her.

But as I have been growing, I have come to a new understanding, one that reflects what Seth Godin describes.

Leaders Choose to Let Themselves Lead

While some people are more inclined to be leaders because of facets of their personality, no one is excluded.  The only requirements for leadership are vision and a willingness to be uncomfortable.

This summer has been a crash course in leadership.  I began a masters level class called Renegade Breakthrough Mentoring Program with Ann Sieg.  And I set my goal to stop running my business like a shy, wallflower, hugging the wall at a party while everyone else gets up to dance.

I began blogging and reaching out to people.

I stepped up my commitment to Dane Buy Local, a business group I’m a part of.

And from taking the risk to stand out, I have been welcomed as a leader.

I won’t discount how uncomfortable it can be.  To be a leader I have had to face everything that Seth lists:

It’s uncomfortable to stand up in front of strangers.
It’s uncomfortable to propose an idea that might fail.
It’s uncomfortable to challenge the status quo.
It’s uncomfortable to resist the urge to settle.

My summer has been filled with anxiety and niggling self-doubts.  I leaned into all the places that caused me pain.

But in the end, I have found key positions in projects and am finding my place in Ann Sieg’s  organization.  I’m finding my voice and my vision with internet marketing.  And I’m refusing to compromise.

Leadership is not easy.  Decide to ignore the pit in your stomach, and start taking risks.

Seth Godin, one of my favorite marketing philosophies, gave a talk about breaking your relationship with your audience.  “This is Broken” gives examples of communication which try to achieve one goal, but end up achieving something entirely different.

In Seth’s first example, he shows some debit cards which he received from a cell phone company to reward him for signing up.  But the cards expire in 60 days, and are difficult to use.  And the cards were designed for exactly that purpose–to be so difficult to use that many people won’t use them.  Part of the calculus of the “Sign Up Bonus” is hoping that some people won’t get their bonus.

Many companies operate on this principle.  Instead of taking the opportunity to build customer loyalty, to get me so excited about my new cell phone company that I go out and tell me friends, they withhold and offer false benefits.  They “break” the relationship from the beginning.

This is a great lesson.  We can all name times when we have dealt with companies and walk away disgusted with their policies and lies.

And it’s important to ask ourselves as marketers, are we doing the same thing?

This lesson is hard to see when we are talking about ourselves. I’ll give you an example of how it can work.

Right now, the new way to offer internet training is via videos.

But I hate video training.

First of all, you can’t search a video for the part you want to look up the way you can with an e-book.  You can’t skim.  If the video is 46 minutes long, I have to sit their for the whole time, or constantly move my cursor every couple of minutes, hoping to happen upon the section I want to watch.  Videos are dull.

But many people love them.

If I offer trainings, and ignore the desires of clients, and write an e-book, I have broken the relationship from the beginning.  People who want a video must mold themselves into my preferences.  I have made it hard for them.

I can choose to break this relationship or not.  I can choose to cater specifically to people who prefer e-books, and let the video-loving people go elsewhere.  I can tell the e-book people a story about how great e-books are that they will love to hear.

But I have broken the relationship with the video people.

And if my training is about how to make your business available to many people, I have not used my systems in alliance with my goals.

So it’s a choice.

Look at your business and imagine yourself a new person interacting with your systems.  Does it work easily?  Do your systems reflect your goals?

Or will people come to you and say, “This is broken”?

If you want to change the world, get a tribe of 1000 people.

Seth Godin, my marketing hero, recently did an interview with Loic Le Meur.  One of the points that Seth makes, is that if you want to change the world, find your tribe who agree.

He points out that you need a tribe of people who all think like you.  When these people go to their tribes, your message will spread.

Seth Godin is a powerful marketer, but more than that, he is a profound philosopher.

His message is all about how we spread the things we love to one another. Our job as business people is to provide the things people love.

The best marketing is not convincing someone to love what you have, but to have what they love.  After that, they will do the marketing for you.

Be the Best in Your Tribe

Another point Seth makes is that whatever you do–be the best.  Not the second best, not the third best–you must be the best.

He pointed out that in the world of $2000 video cameras, people will buy the best one.  If you are second best, your game is over–no one will buy yours.

This can be applied to everything we do in life, but in particular, to how we do business.

If you are market health products for diabetes, then offer the best help for diabetes.  If you teach people how to blog, give them the best training.

No one will look at your services and say “Gee, she’s not as good as Nancy, but I’ll buy from her anyway.”

You must be the best in your tribe.

…And that also means that you must know your tribe.