Archive of posts from November 2019

Quick, that client has an emergency! What are you going to do about it?!

When this happens, we have two choices. Let’s start with the popular one…

“Your emergency is my urgency”

This is the default setting of anyone new to this concept who truly cares about those they serve. If you care, you want to “make everything better” when there’s an emergency. To fight the fire, to save the day.

By adopting their emergency as your own, you...

I hear this question a lot.


“If I ‘do marketing’, it should pay for itself, right?”

“If I run some ads, they should pay for themselves, right?”

“If I buy a website, it should pay for itself, right?”

These are the wrong questions to ask:

Marketing can be directly profitable, but to enforce it as a rule limits your potential:

It’s not Marketing’s job to be profitable. If it were, why would anyone use paid advertising to sell $5 books?...

It’s really up to you, y’know.

A conversation with someone you can help that results in postponed discussions could be considered a failure to help someone proceed… or progress toward serving them in their timing. We choose whether we want to consider it progress or not. How we see it affects our response: to be pushy, or empathetic.

An important project you need to terminate because someone’s not behaving appropriately could be considered a failure to help someone proceed… or progress...

Starting a project is exciting for some, daunting for others. The daunting feeling is usually mostly to do with the way they approach working on the project.

Many people go the looooong way around when it comes to producing a body of work that people want in the marketplace. They don’t shorten the distance to success.

Here’s how it normally goes…

1. Think of a product or service, ponder the idea, then decide you’re going to do it.
2. \Make it,...

“I don’t have time for that…”

Yes you do:

Sitting silently with your thoughts for five minutes, with no distractions gives a busy day room to breathe, and you – the author of the day – room to focus on what comes next. The day will rush on by if you let it, or it will work for you if you enable it to do so.

Streamlining the way you do things, removing sloppiness or needless waste gives a team room to...

How much is your furniture worth?

I’m about to move countries. So there’s furniture for sale. How much is it worth?

You couldn’t sell the furniture you bought yesterday for the price you bought it, because you don’t have the brand that the furniture store has. The trust and commitment is different, so you make less.

You may sell your things for less than you think they’re “worth” because you’re buying freedom to move, rather than selling a great experience....

Did you know you’re pushing those you wish to serve…away?

An old friend did a yard sale earlier this year.

While they were setting up their (very lovely) wares in their yard, there was a concern about whether or not the signposts should be put out on the street before or after setup was complete.

The concern was this: “If I put the signposts up now, I might start drowning in punters before I’m ready.”

So the signposts weren’t set...

When you write a blog post and publish it, it becomes live for the whole world to see.

Surely, then, people who have the problem you’re presenting will read your post and move forward with your call to action, right?

However, the problem is this:

“People” aren’t reading it.

The moment you hit the button “Publish” is not necessarily when others need your support. Even if you were to post a tweet with a link to your new blog post,...

Automation is great. Sometimes.

Others, you’ll try to automate something and the reaction will be painful:

• “That wasn’t for me”: A great marketing message should never hear a response like this. If you run an ad and someone thinks this then your targeting was off, but if you email someone and they think this, then you messed up. Email is a personal space – “spam” can be quantified as “that wasn’t for me”.

• “That wasn’t you”: There are some...

One-off purchases, monthly subscriptions, we all have them…

But which are the truly essential tools for your journey?

Let’s use an airplane metaphor to unpack what matters most:

Comfy seats are nice to have. This is what many people spend a lot of their time thinking about; where on the plane they’re sitting, what meal they’ll be served, and how much leg room they’ll have. This is your company car, your wristwatch, your fancy suit. Many strive to achieve these...

Why are they talking to you? Because you might be able to help them solve a problem.

Why are you talking to them? Because you might be able to help them solve a problem.

If they’re not interested, you’ve not connected with the problem, or that it can be solved.

The goal isn’t sales, or conversions, or signups, or any other selfish metric commonly tracked on conversations that involve sales, conversions, and signups. The goal is to help them move...

Don’t curse the imperfections of your journey:

The guy on stage, full of energy? Showing you how to change your life? He bleeds, he hurts, he carries pain. He won’t tell you, and it won’t last forever, but when he comes off stage and goes back to his hotel, it’s in there waiting for him. Not because of doing everything wrong, but because that’s real life.

That company that can do no wrong? Making the most popular products in the...

You might get as many emails as I do, informing you that today is the “last chance to save!”

But how often does that make you buy? And what’s a better alternative?

We interpret “last chance to save” as a selfish offer, a marketing ploy designed to get us to part with our very hard-earned cash. It’s the year-round “Pre-Black Friday Sale” of the inbox that never truly seems to be the “last chance” at all.

There are so many...