Archive of posts from September 2018

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?

• “I don’t know who you are, but here’s a dollar.” Whether you tell him you don’t have any or you hand him a buck, you’re unlikely to overthink it, or continue to ponder it moments later. The encounter barely registers emotionally or financially.
• “You’re like me, here’s everything I have.” What...

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 is the next best thing to blood. We show an increased willingness to sacrifice our own interests for the group due to these “fictive families”. That’s some bond.
• Shared heritage reinforces our decisions. It brings into focus all we’ve achieved so far, whether...

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:

1. Heritage: Here’s where we’ve been, together. We’re so proud of how far we’ve come, aren’t you?
2. Desire: We’ve created the next step in the journey you’re taking. Amazing, isn’t it?
3. Future:...

In your field of work, what are you afraid to make?

• The important decision: An opportunity to take your current campaign far bigger than you feel comfortable with. Will you say yes?
• The promised outcome: To deliver a result or experience far beyond what you feel comfortable with. Will you commit to making it happen?
• The product or service: A disruptive new way to solve a problem that could shake your entire industry. Will you create it?

There’s...

People don’t normally set out to be ‘the difficult one’:

• They’re talented… Being ‘difficult’, stubborn, or indecisive is normally associated with areas of genius, experience, expertise, or passion. All good things.
• …But challenging. The ‘difficult’ side can remove one’s genius from the rest of the world, inhibiting them from doing their best work.

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...

We’ve talked about drawing the map before.

What do we do with all these maps?

• Draw them where you shine: Your body of work is–or should be–the best in the world for your audience. There’s no map for that, you’re the pioneer. Following a map will only give you results equal to others.
• Follow them where you don’t: Outside of your body of work, others are seeking to be the best in the world for their audiences. Are you...

You know the price of your service.

But do you know the service of your price?

• Lower the price to lower distraction: By innovating your way to a lower price, you can prevent your audience from considering lesser alternatives. Your price renders the service of overcoming inertia.
• Increase the price to increase focus: A larger financial investment often creates a larger energy investment. By increasing your price, you increase the focus your audience brings to your relationship.

It’s...

You don’t have to. But what you do about that matters:

• Your team’s skills come with responsibility: To serve your clients as fully and completely as you’re able. Your feelings on the matter don’t change that.
• Their attitude isn’t the same as their impact: If they’re good stewards of their own clients, then underserving your client underserves theirs, too.
• It’s always a decision: If they’re disrespectful to you or those they serve, you can choose to either help them...

Surprises you can’t see coming are the best kind.

The more unexpected, the better:

• A client gift at Christmas is lovely. But the fact its gift-giving season takes the shine off it a little.
• A client gift ‘just because’ is lovelier. It was uncalled for. They didn’t see it coming. How nice to be thought of.
• Changing your mind for the better is loveliest. After receiving great work, to then receive something over scope right after delivery is icing...

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:

• Start small and work your way up? That’s your choice. The problem, of course, is that once you’ve figured out the small stuff, you’ve solved the wrong problem.
• Start by tackling the big problems? That’s your choice. The challenge, of course, is...

But only as much as you work it:

• 10 cold calls, or 1,000 cold calls. Is it the technique you use, or the consistency you bring, that makes the most difference?
• Doing an experiment, or doing yet more research. Is it the extra research you do, or the real-world experience you earn, that makes the most difference?
• The best talent, or the big mission. Is it the skills you have, or the drive to keep going that you bring,...

What are you like?

• “He’s so disciplined”: So much that he expects everyone else to meet his level of performance? Protect yourself by letting them bring their gifts.
• “She’s so sensitive”: So much so that everyone’s tip-toeing around her and diluting themselves? Protect yourself by letting them bring their gifts.
• “He’s always changing his mind”: So much so that nobody around him can get anything done? Protect yourself by letting them bring their gifts.​

Protecting yourself from yourself...

5,600 weeks. 1,200 months. 100 years. 1 life.

• 1,680 gone: At 30, you’ve used 1,680 weeks. At 60, that’s 3,360. How much learning and experience have you gathered in almost two-thousand weeks?
• 3,920 left: At 30 if we’re lucky enough to see 100, we have 3,920 weeks left. At 60, that’s 1,960. How much impact can you make with almost two-thousand weeks?

We can change our teams and ourselves in just days. Next time you feel like saying,...

Great teams–those on a mission–make their customers ‘we’ themselves:

• Share the story so far… How Rolls met Royce. How Ben met Jerry. How did your story begin? Where did you come from?
• …But don’t finish it. Stories that are finished give closure. Stories that don’t involve us; we want to know what happens next.
• Write them into the next chapter. When they’re in your story, it becomes their story. “They” become “we”. “We” are building a new car, or...

Your team runs an advert.

Someone clicks your ad but doesn’t sign up.

Did the ad succeed or fail?

• Your timing isn’t their timing. Do you sign up to everything you like? Or do you sometimes figure later is fine?
• No stalking. An ad’s success isn’t down to statistics, but how useful it was as a genuine act of service for those you serve.
• Measure the right things. Measure it to see if it is, in fact, useful, not...

Tomorrow won’t be any better than today:

• Stress now, stress forever. Or swap that stress for a disciplined, methodical process that you bring to your work.
• Improve later, never improve. Or make growth a daily requirement worth documenting before each day closes.
• There’s no time, there never will be. Unless we make it, be it for our rituals, our growth, or our team’s side-project.​

For our teams, our work and ourselves, if we want a better tomorrow, we...

How “spreadable” is your work?

If you build it like an engine, very:

• Advertising is the alternator: It gets things started. You don’t need many people to respond if each spreads your work to others they know.
• Your work is the engine: It keeps things moving. Work that’s designed to be spreadable spreads itself. If you have to peddle, you did it wrong.

How can you make your work more spreadable? The answer lies beyond “a bigger ad...

“Hello, can I help you?”

Probably not. At least, not yet:

• You don’t yet trust yourself: Until you understand–and desire–your ideal outcome with clarity and specificity, you won’t trust yourself to truly be helped.
• You don’t yet trust me: Because you don’t know me. I can’t help you if you don’t trust me. You’ll question the council, the process, and the price.

Your audience is probably not ready for your help, yet.

But you can help your audience...