September 30, 2018 Daily Post
When you enroll a new client, their “yes” should be the beginning of something wonderful.
But it rarely is:
Ever bought something and wondered where the energy of the seller went afterward? Could you be doing that to those you serve?
September 29, 2018 Daily Post
If you get to make decisions that affect those you serve, you’re one or the other:
The fiduciary wants the best for you. The broker wants the best for himself. Which of these people would you prefer to do business with?
September 28, 2018 Daily Post
Sometimes, we have to do something very uncomfortable… we have to pull the red velvet rope:
Do you, and those you work with, have permission to pull the red velvet rope?
September 27, 2018 Daily Post
Please, judge books by their covers. It’s normal, don’t feel bad about it:
Whether you’re working on a book or you belong to a team trying to earn your audience’s attention, it’s worth considering asking yourself what type of book you are.
September 26, 2018 Daily Post
The ratchet effect in a growing team suggests that, sometimes, you don’t get to-do that anymore:
The ratchet effect creates leverage but can be uncomfortable to crank. Is your work important enough to you to make you trade your to-dos for discomfort?
September 25, 2018 Daily Post
Questions control our focus. When posed to us, they have the power to change the way we look at ourselves, even if for just a while:
When we ask questions of ourselves or others, our answers carry into the rest of the conversation. Whether we’re recruiting volunteers or raising their ambition, the lives of those we wish to serve are as good as the questions they–and we–ask them.
September 24, 2018 Daily Post
Brendon Burchard, motivational speaker and coach, says “Problem marketing was a great technique until 2005, but the culture changed, the world changed. We moved away from a pain-oriented society into an aspirational-society.”
Aspirations exist in the future, and the future doesn’t exist at all (yet). With no ‘reality’ to hold it down, the future makes it a great space for raising ambition:
It could be a shared future of better smartphone photography (to take better images of your family). It could be one where a type of crime no longer exists (making a safer world for your children). Whatever it is, sharing future gives us a powerful place to end a message and set the sights of our audience in the right direction.
September 23, 2018 Daily Post
I’m working on a book at the moment.
It’s got a lot of important information in it that’ll help a lot of cause-driven companies.
If they engage with it:
It’s not just what’s in the box that matters. The way we wrap, box, and deliver our work is a part of the work itself.
Do you need to learn how to add more to the box, or how to wrap better?
September 22, 2018 Daily Post
I spotted a man wearing a t-shirt today that said “Time is money” on it.
On its own, that’s a terrible trade:
This way, when you buy time back again, it’ll have appreciated faster than its rate of inflation: you’ll have made a difference.
September 21, 2018 Daily Post
Pushing through adversity–spirit–is rare because of how it’s made.
Seneca wrote, “This is the touchstone of such a spirit; no prizefighter can go with high spirits into the strife if he has never been beaten black and blue; the only contestant who can confidently enter the lists is the man who has seen his own blood, who has felt his teeth rattle beneath his opponent’s fist, who has been tripped and felt the full force of his adversary’s charge, who has been downed in body but not in spirit, one who, as often as he falls, rises again with greater defiance than ever.”
The great irony, then, is that spirit breeds spirit, much like strength breeds strength.
On teams doing important work, fear becomes spirit if you push through it. If we don’t push, it simply becomes more fear.
September 20, 2018 Daily Post
Last May, we talked about how we already have permission.
It’s ours to give away. What does “giving permission” mean in the marketplace?
You have permission. You can give it to whom you please. Will you?
September 19, 2018 Daily Post
Steve Jobs is often quoted for stating, “The journey is the reward.”
Let’s unpack that a little:
Regardless of where it ends up, the journey itself is an opportunity to belong, to create, and to share achievement. It enables us to develop bonds with those we’ve come to trust, be it a journey toward a religious event, local tradition, or new smartphone release.
If you’re doing important work, journeying–rather than merely transacting–with your audience could compound the reward they receive.
September 18, 2018 Daily Post
Imagine you’re walking along on a street not far from your home.
A homeless person walks up to you and asks for spare change.
What do you do?
You and he are still the same people. All that changed was the knowledge of shared past experiences. You realize you’re just like him. Despite not sharing the same blood, shared heritage is enough to make you behave like you do.
As teams doing important work in the marketplace, we should think hard about what heritage we share with those we wish to serve. What could it do to the quality of our relationships with them?
September 17, 2018 Daily Post
Robert Cialdini documents in his book “Pre-suasion” how individuals with no specific genetic connection can employ the power of kinship once characterized by a shared heritage.
Here’s what having a shared heritage gives us:
Shared heritage lets us build strong bonds between strangers who associate with similar beginnings, be it by culture, race, our cause, or a preferred smartphone manufacturer.
September 16, 2018 Daily Post
Every year, Apple does a keynote. And every year, they tell us a story.
Apple manufactures the mystique and excitement around their products using that story. Without the story–the narrative–their keynotes are merely press releases about smartphones with better tech specs.
This is the story they tell us:
It’s the story we buy; the heritage, the desire, and the future. And it’s the story we experience every time we use their products.
The story is the ‘i’ in iPhone.
September 15, 2018 Daily Post
In your field of work, what are you afraid to make?
There’s always something in our field of work that we’re afraid to make, be it a decision, an outcome, or a service. Which is it for you?
September 14, 2018 Daily Post
People don’t normally set out to be ‘the difficult one’:
In one way or another, we are all ‘the difficult one’. We just need a good team around to support us enough to help us shine.
September 13, 2018 Daily Post
We’ve talked about drawing the map before.
What do we do with all these maps?
If you try to enter the market with no maps other than the ones you plan to draw, you’ll get lost. Outside your area of genius, remember: there’s an app for that.
September 12, 2018 Daily Post
You know the price of your service.
But do you know the service of your price?
It’s not about what others are doing, or what your hard costs are. It’s about what service you want to add to your work.
September 11, 2018 Daily Post
You don’t have to. But what you do about that matters:
Serve them fully or not at all. Diluting your value with less effort or less respect only hurts you in the end.
September 10, 2018 Daily Post
Surprises you can’t see coming are the best kind.
The more unexpected, the better:
All that’s required for the best surprises–to plan an encore–is to manage expectations, then break your own rules.
September 09, 2018 Daily Post
What level do you (and those you work alongside) play at?
Solving bigger problems creates more change while offering a greater reward to those who do so.
How we arrive at those bigger problems determines our success:
With few exceptions, we solve bigger problems by giving ourselves permission to tackle them in the first place, instead of getting distracted by things we think will give us permission.
September 08, 2018 Daily Post
But only as much as you work it:
Sometimes the difference between successful and unsuccessful teams is that one of them just got on with it.
September 07, 2018 Daily Post
What are you like?
Protecting yourself from yourself really means allowing others to bring their gifts. There’s strength in knowing when to get out of your own way.
September 06, 2018 Daily Post
5,600 weeks. 1,200 months. 100 years. 1 life.
We can change our teams and ourselves in just days. Next time you feel like saying, “I don’t have the time”, consider the math.
You have the time. What will you use it on?
September 05, 2018 Daily Post
Great teams–those on a mission–make their customers ‘we’ themselves:
When we truly enroll our audience, there is no more ‘us and them’. There is only ‘we’.
September 04, 2018 Daily Post
Your team runs an advert.
Someone clicks your ad but doesn’t sign up.
Did the ad succeed or fail?
Advertisers get fussy about wanting people to “act now” on their “funnel”. And advertising gets a bad reputation because of it.
Advertising is either an act of service or an act of invasion.
Your team gets to choose.
September 03, 2018 Daily Post
Tomorrow won’t be any better than today:
For our teams, our work and ourselves, if we want a better tomorrow, we need to work on today.
September 03, 2018 Daily Post
How “spreadable” is your work?
If you build it like an engine, very:
How can you make your work more spreadable? The answer lies beyond “a bigger ad budget”.
September 01, 2018 Daily Post
“Hello, can I help you?”
Probably not. At least, not yet:
Your audience is probably not ready for your help, yet.
But you can help your audience get to a place where they’re ready for help.