Archive of posts from May 2019

What ideas are you putting your energy into right now?

• By the time it’s in a course that made a guy rich, it’s not going to work for you. The market responded to something exciting, new, but now everyone’s doing it.
• The only things we can rely on, are innovation, and the things that never change. Reliability. Consistency. Empathy. Connection. Care. These things don’t go out of style, do they?

The market rewards us for care & discipline. Or for luck. Which would you prefer to invest in?

Tip: If you want really connect with your audience, and show them you care–that you’re unique–check out BuiltForImpact.net. It’ll help you with that.

The funny thing about pricing, is that the price doesn’t matter:

• Almost anything is worth the price if it leads to success. The only obstacles are in understanding what success looks like, and communicating how it makes that happen.
• Almost everything is too expensive if it leads to failure. No amount of discounts and marketing “hacks” will save a solution in search of a problem that doesn’t exist in the target audience.

There’s value in helping others succeed. But very little in everything else. How clearly are success and your works connected in the minds of your audience?

Tip: Communication is key to making the connecting between success and your work. BuiltForImpact.net can help with that.

Do you know which your market is looking for?

• The market for a paintbrush is ready to try to create something themselves. It may be art, it may not be. A subset of the market may be persuaded to hire an artist, but they’re not yet ready. Others may never need an artist (they’re painting their walls).
• The market for an artist doesn’t want a paintbrush. They’re buying your expression–your emotional labor–not your tools. They may not yet know the costs, but a paintbrush is a lousy down-sell for these folks because it doesn’t solve their problem.

A market looking for an artist won’t opt-in for a free paintbrush. Know your audience’s goal. When designing an offer to serve our market, we should remember to keep the focus on solving the problem at hand.

Tip: If you want to be sure your offer is good–and that your market knows it–check out BuiltForImpact.net for more.

How nice should you be in business?

• Not very nice: Steve Jobs was not very nice. Employees feared him. Yet he founded one of the most successful companies of all time, creating products millions of people love (or love to hate).
• Nice enough: Richard Branson routinely celebrates trusting employees and giving second chances, which spawned a collection of over 200 companies.
• Too nice: Studies have for many years suggested people who are ‘too nice’ are seen as untrustworthy, dishonest, and likely to be trampled all over by life.

The first two options both contain success, change, and disruption. The third, not so much. Nice guys finish first. It’s the “too nice” guys that finish last.

You get to choose where you sit on the scale. Choose mindfully.

Tip: The way you and your peers position yourselves affects how your brand is perceived by the market. To take control of that perception, check out BuiltForImpact.net.

Bertrand Russell famously said, “The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.”

• **Your work might be for me. It may solve a problem I face perfectly. It might speak to the fears and dreams I have. It may be led by a mission I too believe in.
• **But then, it might not. There may be similarities on the surface, but perhaps my problem differs beneath the surface. Or perhaps my beliefs differ to yours.
• **Knowing the difference enables us to market effectively without appearing to be sensationalist snake-oil salesmen. It enables us to speak the language of our chosen few, those who will derive maximum ethical advantage and transformation.

Our marketing power comes from clarity in those we serve, confidence in the message we share with them, and a healthy dose of doubt that we may have it all entirely wrong. From doubt, inquisition and innovation are born.

Tip: If you want to get more clarity over your audience and the right message to share with them, BuiltForImpact.net can make that happen.

What’s better than business automation?

And better than doing everything manually?

We find the answer in an unlikely place: orchestra.

• Automation is all the rage because it enables us to do things the same way clinically every time. But it does require us to manually manipulate the system if the results must change.
• Can manual work scale? Not really, but art wasn’t meant to scale this way. Rather, it’s designed to be appreciated for its lack of scalability.
• The elegance of soft systems is that we get the best of both worlds. We get the dynamism of manual, and the scalability of automation.

Orchestra is the ultimate soft system, because it combines masterful delivery with the intelligence and organic nature of a group thriving from their performance.

How could your work benefit if you a strived a little less toward automation, and a little more toward orchestration?

Tip: Delivering your marketing message the same way every time is a joy once mastered. BuiltForImpact.net can help you master yours.

Feeling the pinch in your business? You’re not alone:

• The market is contracting, but you don’t have to. Instead, your opportunity is to outlive your competitors as an act of service to your market. They’re going to need you, and if you’re not there, who’s going to give them your level of service?
• Companies big and small are hurting, but you don’t have to. Instead, remember that where there are people hurting, there is opportunity to serve, to make a difference. It’s times like this that you need to come through for them.
• Buying power is diminished, but you need not worry. Not if you’re offering amazing quality, at the right price, and you can solve problems that are even more critical in a wounded economy.

When the market is down, stand up. You owe it to the marketplace to thrive.

Tip: Effective marketing is important to surviving market storms. Unless yours is perfect, check out BuiltForImpact.net.

Ever wish business were simpler?

• If it were simple, that’d mean we don’t have many choices. We’d have a small, finite number of opportunities, which we could choose to take or leave…that everyone else was also doing. Simple is marginalized.
• Because it’s difficult, that means that we do have choices. That we have a near-infinite number of alchemic possibilities for us to play with. Each combination unique, as we permit ourselves to explore the nuances of our creative potential.

It’s more difficult to build a business that matters than it could be. But it’s because we have so many choices available to us. It’s because we get to choose what to focus on.

So long as we focus on something.

What’s your focus?

Tip: Marketing messaging is very difficult to get right, because of the number of options available to us. Thankfully, BuiltForImpact.net has systemized getting this right.

The size of our results is limited by how far we delay the How:

• What + How = Dilution. You’re deciding what to do based on what your current constraints, skills, and beliefs. This dilutes you’re ability to do anything.
• What – How = Vision. You’re not considering if it’s possible. You’re simply focusing on what the destination is, unhindered by constraints.
• **How – What = Massive Action. **You’re not considering if it’s possible. You’re simply doing whatever you need to do to make it happen.

By separating the What from the How, we tell ourselves a better story – one that will create a bigger, better result.

What’s your story?

Tip: Your customers and prospects probably aren’t separating these, limiting their story. You can rewrite their story with your marketing. BuiltForImpact.net can help you do that.

Everything you do supports–or conflicts with–your story.

• Bill Gates wears a Casio, which supports his view that money serves us in serving the world. Were he to wear an Audemars Piguet, it could conflict with that narrative, despite his 100.7 billion dollar net worth.
• Steve Jobs wouldn’t accept a license plate on his car, which supported his rebellious “Think Different” mantra. Playing by all the conventional rules would be in conflict with his narrative.
• Richard Branson cuts neckties and dresses informally, which supports the ‘fun’ narrative he tries to inject into all of his work. Sporting a formal suit and tie would be in conflict with his narrative.

The companies we lead and serve all have a narrative. Are you clear on yours? Are you representing it well?

Tip: If you’re not totally clear on your narrative, BuiltForImpact.net can help with that.

When someone buys something from you, it’s not because they want what you’re selling. You fit into a larger narrative:

• Buying a data migration may be because their old architecture is on its knees – they’re buying a partner to support them and help them out of their problem. To leave any part of the process untouched for the buyer to worry about nullifies the value of the purchase. It’s an emotional problem solved with an emotional solution – the migration is the souvenir.
• Choosing a mortgage broker may be because they’re excited about their new home but afraid they’ll be taken advantage of – they’re buying a reliable, consistent, “we’ve got this” partner to support them through the process. To be inconsistent in communication or to extend difficult eSign tools to the buyer nullifies the value of the purchase. It’s an emotional problem solved with an emotional solution – the mortgage is the souvenir.

Working with you may be because of the problem you think you’re solving, but it’s often not about that at all. You fit into a larger story. The better you know that story, the better you can design your work to help those you wish to serve.

Tip: If you want to harness that story and position your work as the natural next step for those you wish to serve, BuiltForImpact.net can help you with that.

How often do you inadvertently communicate negative message to your prospects and customers?

• “Sorry, let’s reschedule, again” actually says, “You’re not very important.” Otherwise the new opportunity wouldn’t have taken priority, right?
• “Please leave a message after the tone” actually says, “You’re not worth my time.” Otherwise they would have picked up the phone, right?
• “There’s been a change of plan” actually says, “You don’t get to get my best.” Otherwise the promise would have been kept as planned, right.

Whether we mean to say these things or not is not the point. In the moment, it’s how other people will interpret it. Interpretation matters: forget what you think your marketing says, what does it really say to those you wish to serve?

Tip: If you want to make sure you cover the bases in you marketing message, communicating clearly to your audience, not just to yourself, BuiltForImpact.net can help.

Do all great companies start with the next big idea?

• Windows transformed the way we use computers, and the computing landscape. But it was really just a visual to accompany what was already being done with DOS. The big idea was to listen to customers and make what they already had easier to use.
• Instagram started out as a Foursquare competitor, and not a very good one. Originally called ‘Burbn’, you could check-in to places and share photos. The big idea was to listen to customers and make what they already had focus on what they cared about: the photos part.
• Slack started out as a video game, an endearing-but-short-lived online adventure. Called ‘Glitch’, the game enabled organic open-world discovery and intuitive chat with other users. The big idea was to listen to customers and focus on the part they did really well: chat.

Your narrative about your work is different from the market’s. If you’re too busy listening to–and sharing–your narrative, you won’t hear the story going on in their minds. How clear are you on what your market needs to hear–and see–from you?

Tip: There’s a simple process for finding out who they are and what they need to hear from you. Check out BuiltForImpact.net to find out.

It’s not obvious to you, and you may not feel it yet, but you’re being watched:

• Consistently high-quality experiences are very, very rare. When folks encounter one, they often share it with those we know, even if we aren’t CC’d on every chat.
• Consistently showing up for those you wish to serve with meaningful, valuable acts of service does not go unnoticed, even if you can’t measure it in Likes.
• Consistently going beyond what we would expect of you in care, service, and ethical advantage does not go unnoticed, even if you can’t feel the eyes on you.

If you do great work and you tell your story effectively, some will take notice. Not in tsunamis of monetized engagement, but in drips and drops, over time.

Tip: If you’ve got the ‘great work’ part covered, check out BuiltForImpact.net for the ‘tell your story effectively so people will take notice’ part.

We like scarcity.

Owning something rare is cool. The tension to buy something that may not be available tomorrow can be a thrill. There’s something better, though:

• Scarcity works by excluding many. Limited-run items designed to make you feel exclusive, and it’s designed to move product. Buy now or you’re out.
• Inclusion works by including many. WhatsApp (like the Web) works well because everyone is on it. The more people who use it, the better the experience becomes.
• What about using both? Something for your whole tribe to belong to, with limited-run items designed to celebrate the most passionate community members. Power in inclusivity, power in exclusivity.

If you’re trying to create exclusivity (or, worse, false-scarcity) consider what it could do for those you wish to serve by instead creating inclusivity. Then celebrate your champions: you need them as much as they need you.

Tip: Getting the messaging right for this sort of thing can be tricky. BuiltForImpact.net helps make it simple.

When we talk to the marketplace-and it listens-it’s trying to figure out who your message is for: them, or yourself?

• “# secrets to (desire) without (roadblock)” – The online marketing world is fixated upon ‘formulas’ like this which promise untold riches to all who use it. The focus? Yourself and your wallet. It is the bait, they are the fish. The market understands this. That’s why they’re skeptical.
• “Tell me about your problem” – This ‘formula’ is usually reserved for medical professionals and priesthood. The act of caring enough to learn what a problem is, and helping solve it. You are the doctor, they are the patient. The market isn’t used to this. That’s why it’s refreshing.

Your marketing message hurts or heals your market-there is no middle ground. Which is yours?

Tip: If you want to be certain your marketing message heals vs hurts your market (it is always one or the other) check out BuiltForImpact.net.

What’s a million dollars worth if you don’t use it properly?

What’s a week of uninterrupted time to work if you don’t use it properly?

Misallocated effort is what holds us back:

• Having a great website, but only sending paid traffic to a drag-n-drop landing page that took only minutes to prepare. Where your message doesn’t shine through. Your mission is missing, as is the level of care you bring to your work. What if your site was able to do the work of a landing page, allocating energy where you need it?
• Having a great car, but only driving it once every three weeks because you’re never home (or never leaving home). Lovely vehicle, but depreciating in the garage. What if your resources were spent where you actually spend your time, to enhance your journey through life where it counts, for you?
• Having a great company, but only investing time in the short-term gains because the big vision is important, not urgent. What if urgent is permitted to continue for so long, that your collective team vision is never realized? What if you spent as much time investing in your vision as you did putting out the daily fires?

We rarely have energy, potential, or money problems. We have misallocation problems. Are you investing in the mission you set out to achieve?

Tip: If a free investment in enhancing your company’s marketing message seems like a good deal, head over to BuiltForImpact.net.

There are 3 paces of development. Which is yours?

• ‘The norm’ makes us the same. If there’s a desire to maintain the status quo, or to achieve a result that matches the median of society, choose this option. Warning: this is the risky option. In the marketplace, there’s no safety in numbers.
• ‘The difference’ makes all the difference. If there’s a vision to create something more substantial, such as a change in the market or culture, you must go beyond the norm. Warning: may be seen as not normal.
• ‘The retreat’ makes us fall back from ‘The difference’ to ‘The norm’ regardless of if things are ‘working’ or not. Humans fight to maintain status, even if that means regressing from progress. Warning: not breaking this pattern means staying stuck.

Every morning, every project, ever meeting, every sales call, we have the opportunity to pick a pace of development. What will you choose?

Tip: Approaching the marketplace with the right message will help enable the difference we want to see in the world. BuiltForImpact.net can help you make that message.

…because it’s already been done:

• If you copy your competition’s marketing, it won’t work for you. Marketing isn’t about being the same, it’s about being different, better, unique, you. The more you copy, the less it works.
• If you use the same scripts as everyone else, it won’t work for you. The market has heard it before, the novelty is gone. The only solution is to be different, better, unique, you.
• The less you copy, but follow sound principles, the more you could stand out. The more you push the boundaries of care and service–instead of marginalizing yourself through copying–the more you could be rewarded by the market.

You can’t stand out if you’re busy trying to fit in.

Tip: If your company wants to stand out with an effective marketing message, take a look at builtforimpact.net

What do you do with your weaknesses?

• Pretend you’re not: We can defiantly attempt–and fail–to cover up our flaws, thinking others won’t know our secret. They will. You’re doing nobody any favors.
• Give yourself a chance: Here we can commit to learning and growing, if it’s something we should be stronger at. But we must be patient with ourselves; this can’t be combined with the first option.
• Give it a chance: If it’s not something you should be doing, give it its own chance of success by releasing it to someone stronger than you. On your team, perhaps. We can’t be great at everything, after all, can we.

On our pursuit to create change, it can be all too easy to be all too hard on ourselves. Be kind. We need you.

Tip: If a weakness for you and your team is effective marketing, give it a chance with BuiltForImpact.net.

Does doing more make more results? There’s a better option to ‘more’:

• More often means less: Running the same advert more. The same messaging more. Chasing more mediocre-quality leads for your business. Trying more marketing strategies because you’re “only one away.” These are all ‘more’, but do they really give you more?
• Better often means more: Running a better advert. With better messaging. Pursuing better quality leads. Focusing on implementing the strategies you’re doing now–better–because you’re not “only one away”, the one you have now is probably in theory. These are all ‘better’, not ‘more’.

Doing more doesn’t give us more. But doing better makes us better. Are you committed to ‘more’, or ‘better’?

Tip: If you want a better marketing message, that helps grow a better business, look at BuiltForImpact.net. It’s built for ‘better’.

#516: More Doesn’t Mean More

If you offer a product or service in the market, what makes it worth paying for?

• Better results? This is a statistical advantage worth pursuing, but we’re emotional creatures, us humans. We care about more than results, as much as we’d like to think otherwise.
• Better price? This is another statistical advantage, whether it means less–or more–expensive than its competition. With these, we’re still at the whims of what competitors choose to do in response.
• Better narrative. This is the story that you–and we–tell ourselves about your work. Beyond results and price, the story we tell ourselves could be that your work is more worthy…more caring…more supportive…more prestigious…less dangerous…any number of things. These are the things that make a service worth paying for.

Results, price, experience, atmosphere, there are many things by which we can compare our work to others. But the area we have most control (and are least likely to focus on) is the story you–and we–tell ourselves about your work.

What narrative are you telling to the market?

Tip: If you want help telling the right narrative to the market, BuiltForImpact.net can help with that.

What is history? The stories we tell in retrospect. We have two choices when it comes to history:

• We can make history: We do this when we write the story that others tell. Every legend is a story told by someone. History makers make history by controlling the narrative and telling a story that spreads.
• We can let history forget us: If we don’t tell a story worth sharing, we don’t make it into the history books. Most companies don’t make the history books for this reason: they tend to be terrible storytellers.

Want to make history? Tell a story that will stand the tests of time. History only remembers the stories worth telling.

Tip: Companies doing good work owe it to their market to make history. We made BuiltForImpact.net to help companies stand out with a message worth sharing.

Innovation sounds exciting, futuristic, lucrative. But without its bigger brother, it’s just a distraction.

What’s the big brother.

Messaging:

• Innovation without a strong message creates more distraction than progress. When we’re not clear on who we’re serving and how they need our help, we can’t innovate to their benefit. We’re as likely to go in the wrong direction as we are the right one.
• Innovation with a strong message creates progress for our company and those it exists to serve. When we’re clear on who we’re serving, and what they need to hear, all new ideas are born from a desire to serve our audience. We’re not limited to mimicking competition, but enabled to create quantum-leaps in service.

Messaging is massively underrated compared to its little brother, Innovation. But we need a clear message to stand out, sell more, and make an impact. Tools like BuiltForImpact.net –designed specifically to get messaging right–will help us unlock our messaging and innovation potential.

Is your message clear enough?

Along the road toward making a big, long-lasting sustainable impact with a business, folks sometimes get distracted:

Here’s what Shiny object syndrome looks like at work: I have yet another new product or service idea! And another! Look at this hip new software, we should try it right away! Now, there’s nothing wrong with improving your services or operations, but when they take your eye off your own brand, they become a weakness. Are you excited about your work, your brand? Or are you more excited about other people’s brands than your own? How can you get others excited about your ethical sustainable cause-driven brand if you’re not excited enough yourself?

The question is… is your brand the most exciting brand in the world, to you?

Or do you get more excited about a new car with a fancy logo on the front? Or a shiny new wristwatch with a fancy logo on the face?

There’s nothing wrong with nice things, but when they take your eye off your own brand, they become a weakness–at that point there’s something very wrong with them. Maybe you pass on an important business investment or campaign because you ‘needed’ to spend that money on new toy instead. Or you spend more time reading about tech or something rather than refining your own story.

When other brands steal your affection away from your own brand, you invest less in what matters. Are you proud to wear your own brand? Of what it represents?

Here’s a tip: Your brand message should be clear enough to send a message to the world. BuiltForImpact.net can help you tighten your message if you don’t stand out enough.

What was every great empire built upon?

What one ingredient was present across every great empire?

Here it is: Empires Are Built On Simple Messages.

The messages that last are the messages we remember. Here’s an example:

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness” – MLK. His message was one of heart and equal opportunity. Minorities and majorities alike needed a simple, clear message. MLK gave them one.

What’s your message? Have you made it simple enough to build an empire on?

Let’s look at more examples of messages that stood the test of time:

Who said this: “Never, never, never give up.”

Any ideas?

Of course, it was Winston Churchill? We know it when we hear it. His message was one of grit and fortitude. Great Britain needed a simple, clear message and Churchill gave her one.

Here’s another. “Just do it.”

Who said that?

Of course, it’s Nike. Their message is one designed to make people get up and exercise. They took a simple premise and personified it. People who want to just do it, wear Nike.

There aren’t many companies that communicate clearly and simply enough to achieve such awareness, adoption, and support. And there’s nothing stopping any company–yours included–from achieving similar results if they commit to a simple message, too.

However you decide to refine your message, remember: empires are built on simple messages.

Here’s a tip: BuiltForImpact.net builds simple messages that help any (good) company communicate in a way that enables them to stand out, sell better, and make more impact.

To the outside world, sustainable brands do complex things.

But to those doing it all the time, it can feel simpler than it sounds, can’t it? When you know what you’re doing and you do a great job of it?

Well, here’s a thought: if it’s simpler than it sounds, why not make it sound simple?

See, it’s easy to make things complicated. Many of the marketing posts online are celebrated for how well they comprehensively cover an array of complicated tricks and tactics. Many companies tout how complicated and nuanced their products are. But is complex and complicated a good thing?

Don’t people want a simple solution to their problem, not another headache? How could you make your message…simpler?

Sustainable brands often make things hard for themselves. It’s hard, to make things simple. Simple is an absence of complexity. That requires saying no to some things. Sustainable brands struggle with this because they want to solve problems for people. But making things simple involves understanding something enough to know what you can say no to. It involves knowing what works well enough to make it simple, elegant.

Marketing, for instance, is complex. And it’s complex to make simple. But if you don’t make it simple, it won’t get done. You’ll just be left to celebrate those comprehensive articles alongside your competitors. How can you make your marketing…simpler?

That’s one of the reasons we built BuiltForImpact.net – because we wanted to make it simple, so that it would get done, properly. So that companies can stand out, sell better, and make more impact, without worrying about 100 different tactics.

What ways are you over-complicating your business, and what can you do about that?

Does your sustainable business advertise?

Here’s a phrase you may be familiar with: “Don’t Set Off If You Can’t Afford The Gas”.

I first heard it when I first tried advertising. Oh how true it is.

Nowadays, our Creative team receives a lot of requests from sustainable brands for help with advertising campaigns. The reply they give is often very similar.

Here’s the first point.

Your communication skills must first improve: Everyone’s does. Yours does. Ours does. The market doesn’t stay still, and neither should you. If people are confused about who you’re talking and what you’re saying, they won’t convert even if you have the best offer in the world…will they?

Here’s the second point… and it’s something we occasionally forget in marketing sustainable businesses: PPC means pay per click. That means paying for every click, whether it’s profitable or not.

It’s hugely effective if you can see it through… but not if you run out of cash before you get there, right?

So. Do you have a message that will scale? Paid advertising simply enables us to multiply the reach of an existing result. You can’t make up in volume what you lose per transaction.

(Tip: If you want to get your message and your targeting right, BuiltForImpact.net is designed to do exactly that. And it’s free to start.)

We attract what we’re close to:

• We can learn our way to broader thinking. E.g. reading books above our level allows us to get closer to the minds of those who came before us. Exposing ourselves to leading divergent ideas creates proximity to greatness.
• We can experience our way to broader thinking. Investing the time to network with great minds enables us to experience ourselves in a broader narrative. Exposing ourselves to other doing great work creates proximity to greatness.

Why not do both? We get to choose how much proximity to greatness e expose ourselves to in our learning and our experiences. Where are your decisions leading you: toward growth and impact, or status quo?

Tip: BuiltForImpact.net distills the work of the world’s greatest minds into a simple marketing plan; take a look.

Did you know that the single biggest threat to your mission…is yourself?

• If you’re in need, you can’t help others in need to the level of your potential. Air hostesses insist you put your own oxygen mask on first for a reason.
• If your business is broken, it can’t help others to the level of its potential. If you can’t yet afford to support a cause and make an impact, it’s time to sort that out.
• If your commitment doesn’t match your mission, the mission can’t succeed in the way you envision it. A $100m vision can’t be achieved on a $100k budget.

Difference makers are held to a higher standard. It’s your responsibility to improve yourself so you can improve the world.

Tip: If you want to stand out, and sell better so you can make your vision happen, go to BuiltForImpact.net and make it so.

If you’re really great at what you do, you are replaceable.

…But wait, isn’t it usually the people who aren’t great that are replaceable?

Here’s the interesting thing about that: The best leaders and team members always seem to try to replace themselves – even though they’re not going anywhere. Why is that?

If you hold on to “your thing”, you become a selfish bottleneck, rather than someone bent on helping the company grow. If it’s the you-show, you’re only holding it back.

The art of being replaceable means you’re actively looking for ways to enable others to do what only you can do today. That empowers the company for more consistency, reliability, and scale.

Becoming replaceable is a goal we should all share.

You see, once you’ve become replaceable, you can turn your attention to the next thing the company needs most. You know…the thing it badly needs but can’t yet do–that thing. You may even already know what it is. Until you’re replaceable in your current work, you won’t have time for that.

If the company matters to you more than your ego, try to make yourself replaceable: only then can you remain focused on what the company needs most.

Here’s a tip: The best marketing is done in the same way every time… When it uses a bomb-proof blueprint, anyone in the company can represent the team with success. BuiltForImpact.net is a great blueprint for exactly that.