Archive of posts from October 2019

We all have them.

We all have weaknesses we know about; we can work on those. Those aren’t the real problem. The real problem is the weaknesses you don’t even know you have:

What’s yours?

Perhaps your contracts aren’t strong enough, or implemented correctly. Your important work can be hindered by misunderstandings or malice when you don’t protect yourself appropriately. Most companies we encounter tend not to think these are very important, until it’s too late – when the weakness becomes...

…Is that you think improving them is all that’s needed.

Many times we’ve heard, “We’re the best in the business and we give to good causes, why aren’t we more successful?”

It’s often not skills you have holding your meaningful work back. It’s often the skills you don’t have – either within yourself or within your team – that are holding your work back. Could it be that you’re great, but you need others to be great alongside you? Or that you’re...

“Give people wonderful tools, and they’ll do wonderful things” – Apple Inc.

The skeptical side of us could assume this is a likely quote from a company that sells premium-priced tools. Remembering that businesses must sell things is wise.

The practical side of us could recognize that people who use ‘wonderful tools’ spend more time and money using those tools, so are perhaps likely to spend more time creating. Facing facts is a good idea.

The optimistic side of...

These things can’t be taken away from you, if you remember what lies beneath:

What’s worse than losing lots of money? Losing the ability to produce it. If money is just energy, consider how we all waste energy every day. But another day comes and yet more energy to fuel it is produced. We only stop producing when we’re dead.

What’s worse than losing your campaign to create change? Losing the will to try again. Campaigns and missions are usually...

Ever find yourself reading about “life hacks”?

Those moreish articles and videos that claim to help you get more done, in less time, with less effort?

I’ve only ever found one life hack worth following.

The discipline of practice:

That blog post that used to take you 4 hours to write will only take you 1, with practice. Not because you found the right ‘swipe file’ online, or ‘template hack’, or because you spent more hours reading about new organizational...

We always – only – get what we order:

If you order a specific scope of work be built for you, but you change your mind, don’t lose sight of the fact you got exactly what you ordered.

If you called in a pepperoni but wanted four-cheese, you can’t complain to the delivery man for bringing you the pizza you asked for.

If you want to stand out and serve your market better than anyone else, but spend all of your...

Doing the right thing isn’t usually very comfortable.

Anticomfort is about taking yourself out of the picture:

Taking yourself out of your marketing gives you room to make it all about those you wish to serve. Marketing isn’t about you. Prospects move forward when they clearly see their journey represented in your words and a clear path from problem to solution. All of that is about them, not about you. Are you brave enough to tell their story rather...

There are some things you can delegate.

Others, though, we need you to do:

Perhaps it’s that video. We need your face on that video, your voice, your energy. Those other things, you can delegate those, we need** you** to do this. Were it to be somebody else, we wouldn’t connect with that audience in quite the same way.

Perhaps it’s that client conversation. We need your voice on that call, because it’s you the client turns to when they...

Creativity might not work.

Social media posts that routinely share awards and team members favorite coffee won’t get you any attention. Nobody cares. But it’s safe and easy. You can pay anybody to make these.

Social media posts that share vulnerability, that reveal your secrets, that do something different, may not work. People may or may not respond. But at least they may actually respond, right?

Mediocre is safe. It’s buying Google Ads not because it’s the best fit for...

“I can’t do that.” “That scares me.”

How often do you catch yourself saying these things?

Nobody can escape these questions from popping up from time to time. The best we can hope to do is know what to do when they do pop up.

These statements we make – either to ourselves or to others – are valuable signal informing us that something is out of order.

To which we get to ask ourselves, “What must I get ‘in...

Just because you’re brilliant, doesn’t mean you’ll only have good days.

Or weeks. Or months.

A developer can build the most popular blog on the Internet, but still be scrambling for full/part-time work for the coming months. I’ve seen it happen, and it’s OK. There are no guarantees, no ‘guaranteed successes’, no sure-things. We can just be thankful for the day.

A designer can win a worldwide award, but still struggle with elements of design that to this day elude...

Not many things are worth getting by email.

So many requests for your email address, so few things worth the exchange.

Herein lies the problem: it has become an exchange. It’s a barter.

Things we barter for

• When they entice us with a super-secret hack we just have to know about (we’re fully aware we’re going to be spammed as a result, otherwise they’d have just told us?)
• When they want to send us a some sort of very-important...

You know those things you claim on your website?

Why should anyone believe you?

‘Red Fred Theory’ is a metaphor of mine that points to the answer.

Red Fred is an alien. From outer space. If I said he’s real, you couldn’t disprove it, could you?

Herein lies the problem: to assert something is “true”, one needs to specify under what conditions it would in fact be “false”.

• “We are the best, because _____.” The ‘because’ is important....

“How to get you get to be everywhere”?

Your marketing message, the value you create for the world, the contribution you’d like to draw attention to for the benefit of those it serves… how do you put all that… everywhere?

It depends how we define ‘everywhere’:

Definition 1: Everywhere is all over the world. The street signs, the inboxes, mailboxes, television sets, Facebook profiles. Et cetera. All of it. How do you be everywhere in this definition? You don’t. Your...

How do you spot someone who’s never done marketing before?

They think it is “done” when it “works”.

Marketing is never “done”. Anymore so than the act of showing those you care about that you care about them is ever “done”. Nor should you want it to be – the nature of moving targets is that fewer ever hit them, sustainably, time and time again.

Marketing doesn’t “work”. You work. Marketing simply creates opportunities for you to “work” – either to work...

What is your job description?

Whether you were given one or you created your own, you nevertheless have one. What is it?

Is it to edit and manage your website? No? Then why are you doing that? You’re welcome to do it, but remember you’re paying a Meddler Tax (in time, effort, focus And opportunity) every time you edit a single thing that your web team should be doing for you. It’s their job description, not yours.

Is it to...