What does McDonald's sell?
Let's start out simple
McDonald's. What do they sell? Don't read on, think first for 5 seconds. What does McDonald's sell?
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Burgers?
Nope. Burgers are what they produce, manufacture, not what they sell.
They sell two things.
- Time. When you go to buy a burger at McDonald's, you know exactly how it's gonna taste like, you know the quality, the taste, the smell. Going there buys you time to do other things you wanna do because getting food is so fast. FAST food. They realized it and made McDonald's a really cheap restaurant.
- Happy kids. When you are in the mall with your little kid whining because she doesn't want to try out the pants, you promise her a toy from Happy Meal. You just bought a happier kid.
Okay, moving on.
Personal coaches. You know, who talk about better food choices, make you do push-ups in the morning with fierce background music, give financial advice. What do they sell? Pause here again for a few seconds.
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Books they write? Entry tickets to their inspiring shows, or the shows themselves? Nope. That's what they produce, what they do, not what they sell.
They sell you a richer life. Not lots of positive emotions in your life, but actual life changes, habits, that they get you to do yourself.
Get the idea?
Okay, another one: Apple. What do they sell?
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Easy - it's iPhones, iMacs, i-Things, right? Nope, but I'm sure you felt that already.
They sell you status (brand) and a comfortable life (ease-of-use compared to hacking and bugfixing things yourself if you'd be on competing platforms).
Now, last and most valuable question for you
What is it that you sell? What are you good at?
If it's hard to start, you can ask what takes very small energy for you to do, let's say baking buns. Then think of what you'd like to do for others, let's say teach history. Now join them two and you might already want to start a bakery which writes short history lessons on the wrapping paper. Or whatever, the point is that what you sell is filtered through the lens of giving/sharing/love towards others. People will automatically appreciate it and find reasons to want more of it.
For example
I'm good with languages, it takes little effort to learn compared to most other people I know. But what do I sell? I'm dreaming big right now because I'm not doing it yet, but I will sell freedom. What I will do is give diving courses in different languages and people will experience freedom underwater, the feeling of flying, weightlessness, happiness. You who have dived know the feeling.