Adam’s Daily Post

You don’t have to trick people into clicking your ads.

You don’t have to make “ugly ads” tricking people into viewing something they don’t want.

Why not just make ads people are excited to see?

Just like they were excited for each new episode of their favourite cartoon as kids.

In this video I explore what ads really are, and what people really want to see from your ads.

“Best practices” are dragging marketing down.

Just look at the last few campaigns:

• Maybellene putting lashes on trains
• Scrub Daddy putting F-bombs on TikTok
• RyanAir publicly roasting their own customers

Any ‘best practices’ marketing guru would give you a ‘bombastic side eye’ if you told them that’s your marketing idea.

And yet… these ideas are worth millions today.

Sometimes, doing the opposite of best practices is the real best practice.

I once had a big influencer ask for help…

Publicly, they lived a superstar life.

Publicly, they promised clients on tap.

Privately, they had no clients.

They asked me to help them get some with a great ad campaign.

I will: Help sell quality services ethically.

I will not: Tell lies on behalf of others.

Lessons:

• Focus on doing your thing
• Not all that glitters is gold
• Don’t believe the hype
• Practice gratitude

I was mowing the grass over the weekend, and something dawned on me.

Something you don’t hear bizdev influencers talk about on the ol’ social timeline…

…But something super-important while building a business that doesn’t make you want to put pins in your eyes.

So I was thinking:

“I’m here cutting the grass and next week I’ll need to do it again. Same lanes, same yards, same corners, same machinery, same cleanup, same maintenance, on repeat.”

And we could ‘delegate it all away’, where we do none of it - find a service provider, never have to do it again, buy your time back, yada-yada. And that would be “efficient”. But that’s not what we do. We get help here and there but we do most of it ourselves, even though we could pay someone to work our land all week for just a couple hours of my consulting time.

But why do we choose to do it when we can just “leverage it away”? And what’s this got to do with building a business you love?

Well, it’s got to do with remembering to do stuff you actually WANT to do. Or with feeling satisfied with a job well done. Or getting better at your craft. Whatever brings you joy, y’know?

I’ve built products and services for like, 20 years or something, and I’ve always been happiest when I’ve remembered this truth, and saddest when this was lost for whatever reason.

So the take-away is this:

Don’t copy-trade others. Don’t allow people in your life, home, or even social timeline that tell you your happiness isn’t a worthy trade.

Do you have a healthy mind?

An unhealthy mind steals all joys.

An artist can make a living making art they love…

…yet be unhappy because they earn less than peers who continue to do things they hate.

A solopreneur can earn more than they were making in their former career while touting ‘freedom’…

…yet be unhappy because someone else is earning more, shackling themselves to 12 hour workdays.

All four people could be happy. Instead, they choose not to be.

What you do is a choice. How you feel about it is a choice.

If an unhealthy mind steals joy… a healthy one can find it anywhere it looks.

So, again:

Do you have a healthy mind?

The creator economy is losing its love for the creative process.

It’s not enough for someone to love their work and get paid to do it.

It’s not enough to enjoy the toil and feel satisfied with the results.

No:

There needs to be more MRR…

There needs to be more leverage…

There needs to be less time working…

That’s not being a creator. That’s being a creator imposter.

That’s someone who wants to be a proprietor or entrepreneur who scalps the market for maximum gains and minimal effort… but calls themselves ‘creator’ like it’s first gear in a bigger engine.

Now, that’s may be one way of doing business…

But it’s no way of doing art.

Are you a creator, or a creator imposter?

What you won’t remember in 10 years…

• How hard you worked on this particular project
• The late night you worked to get that thing done
• The ambition you rushed your work with

Things you will remember in 10 years…

• How you skipped those dinner dates or long family walks
• How you didn’t make time to be with your kids much
• How you watched life through photos app, not by being there

Prioritise what you’d wish you prioritised.

Today, I could have finished a project.

It’s almost finished, but not quite.

Instead, I went to playgroup with my son.

Did that make me an all-star go-getter grindtastic creator?

Nope.

Did it make me a better Dad?

Nope again.

But I really, really wanted to spend that time with him.

So I did.

Success isn’t about completing the most projects, earning the most dollars, or collecting the most accolades.

It’s living your life without stacking more regrets.

Worth thinking about.

If there’s one thing that many outspoken creators love more than the ability to produce fulfilling work they love in their own time in their own comforts in ways our parents and grandparents could never have ever dreamed of…

It’s also lusting after the 1%-on-paper lifestyle.

Well if you’ve fallen victim to that energy, good news:

Some studies say as low as 15% of people really, genuinely enjoy their work.

And that around 25% of people get to work from home.

And that around 20% of people have real time flexibility.

So creators get to choose to be in the 15% of 25% of 20%.

I know it’s napkin math… but that’s 0.6%, for anyone counting.

It’s not unreasonable to suppose that only 0.6% of people get to live that way.

And you know what? You already get that by choosing to be a creator.

The money’s useful, not gonna lie, but a free and joyful life beats it hands-down.

So quit stressing and throwing away your gifted position. And create, already.

It can be fun, remember?

Still fighting off the flu.

But the flu reminded me about a key step in the creative process.

Ideas grow in gaps.

Like weeds between patio tiles.

Gaps are when you slow down and pick up a book, or let your mind wander.

Gaps are when you stop thinking about what’s on your plate, so there’s space to think about other realities.

And where there are gaps… there will be weeds.

Mind weeds.

Consider making time for some mind weeds of your own this week.