Adam Fairhead
Your industry has “a way things should be.”
So does the family you grew up in.
So does the way you and your team implement your important work.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Because your industry normally takes payment up front, doesn’t mean you have to. Because your industry requires its own distribution, doesn’t mean you have to. Because your family was okay with excessive drinking, doesn’t mean you have to. Because your team is used to marginal...
Adam Fairhead
One of our most precious business assets is intangible: brains creating value from sustained focus:
It creates solutions to business and social problems that change the world. Such as Gates Foundation’s transformation of poverty with quality healthcare and education. Your work can make a lasting impact too, if you can sustain focus long enough to create that value.
It creates products and services that change the way we live: Such as iPhones, Internet and powered flight so that humans can...
Adam Fairhead
Are those you’re listening to walking the talk?
Steve Jobs led the Mac, iPod, iPhone and iPad into being. Yet Walter Isaacson (his biographer) cites Steve’s home to be relatively tech-free, without a device in sight at the dinner table, for instance. It doesn’t mean the tech is bad, but it does mean he acknowledged the need for self-discipline.
Internet gurus make bold claims in Facebook Ads about their fortunes and secrets they’ll reveal to you for $97. Yet almost...
Adam Fairhead
Are you an Outworker or an Outlaster?
Outworkers: They curse their mistakes, chase ‘the secret’ and fear falling behind. They celebrate burning the midnight oil and completing busywork ‘because hustle’. They burn out and disappear once replaced by the next Outworker.
Outlasters: They curse shortcuts, chase greater discipline and fear distractions. They celebrate healthy lifestyles and focusing on deep work ‘because delegation’. They’re quiet and efficient, not easily displaced by either Outworkers or other Outlasters.
You can’t be both. Choose...
Adam Fairhead
Got all three?
**When we lack the system, **we try all sorts of things, in different ways, every time. A consultant tells us of a trick that can’t lose. A blog post reveals a secret we simply must try. No system, no results. Got no system? They’re already available to you, such as the BuiltForImpact.net system for communicating effectively with the marketplace.
**When we lack the focus, **we have systems we don’t stick to. The consultant steals our focus...
Adam Fairhead
Important work is easy to dilute.
Create a powerful article, waste time with troll comments. When did wasting time on haters who are tearing you down result in a sale? Why not invest that time on your kind of people, instead?
Create a great social post conversation, then get sucked into popularity contests. When did doing what everyone else does help you stand out? Why not do more of your great pieces, instead?
Create a transformational service, then get weaken...
Adam Fairhead
It’s never perfect.
Your marketing message still needs work. Our Creative team specializes in creating marketing messaging that helps companies stand out, sell better and make more impact… but it’s messaging isn’t perfect yet. The market is forever changing and so, in turn, is the message they extend to the marketplace.
Your business’ strategy still needs work. Our businesses have advisors and mentors at different stages of development because challenges change as businesses grow. No strategy is designed to be...
Adam Fairhead
“This is for your own protection.”
Does that sentence make you feel safe? Or as though your independence and freedom has been compromised?
Whether it’s Google reading your emails or Facebook controlling your timeline, the things that people do “for your protection” are seldom for reasons beyond their own.
Check your words. Is your business telling the truth in its communications, or are you doing things “for their protection”?
Check the words of those you trust. Are the businesses you...
Adam Fairhead
We follow people who take charge and make change. Why don’t you do those things?
This is not a burn, but a call to consider how you could take charge, lead the market, and use your position for growth and for good:
Australia is burning and you don’t care; you do, but only to the point of talking about it to your immediate circle. But you’re not in Australia. What if you took charge? How could Australia, your life and...
Adam Fairhead
We know that meaningful work requires showing up.
A lot.
And so, for many, the excuses start kicking in:
“Can I keep this up? Writing a blog post every single day. Surely I’ll run out of things to talk about. Surely there’ll be days I won’t feel like it, or won’t be able to get around to it.”
“Can I commit to this? I feel good about this today, but what about tomorrow? Next week? Ten years from now? Will...
Adam Fairhead
Ever heard this question before?
Turns out, being right doesn’t matter.
Correctness, fairness, blame, justice and perspective are all relative. Some people think one way, others another. There are few absolutes we can rely upon for everyone to get behind.
What we can rely upon, is our ability to understand where people are, then consider it to be our fiduciary responsibility to help them move forward from there.
If we make it our business to help them move forward, then...
Adam Fairhead
You can make a huge impact on the world during the course of your lifetime.
Whether it’s a financial impact for your family, a cultural change in your community or a quality-of-life change in a nation, you have the same power to create change as anyone else.
But you can’t make every impact.
“Any impact” you want to make may be possible to you. But “Any” requires a lot of saying “No” before that potential is unlocked:
“No” to every...
Adam Fairhead
You have two missions.
The first is the one you tell people about. The nice, workable, “good job” mission. The one that feels pretty much attainable for you, with what you believe you’re capable of today.
The second is the one you’re afraid to tell people about. The one inside your heart. The one you wish you could make, the big difference, the dent in the universe.
The universe would be a lot more dinged up – for better –...
Adam Fairhead
Monty Python we’re onto something.
Everyone in your industry making the same sort of offers? Why not try blowing the minds of those you wish to serve with something radically new, something that will spread on its own?
Everyone in your industry running the same promotions? Why not change the game by gifting your market with something more powerful, intimate, engaging or honest than they’ve ever experienced anywhere else?
Everyone in your industry using the same structure, patterns, or value...
Adam Fairhead
What’s the point…
…In this sentence? Words that don’t create intentional change are better left unsaid.
…In this post? Content that doesn’t create a change for those it was made for are better left unpublished.
…In that product or service? Offers that don’t create real transformation for their target markets are better off discontinued.
…In that company? Teams doing unimportant work that doesn’t create a net-positive impact on the world are better off insolvent.
When it comes to your meaningful...
Adam Fairhead
Is it an obvious question with an obvious answer?
“More money and stuff ‘innit.”
Let’s consider the reality of this, though:
Growth could mean more freedom to choose projects that engage you, or to choose only a tight-knit team you really enjoy working with, or to only work certain days or times. Freedom is an acceptable byproduct of growth.
**Growth could mean making more impact **in the areas you’ve elected to take responsibility for, be they charities, community initiatives, or...
Adam Fairhead
Focus and implication are essential to success. But remember not to cheap out on those in your care:
Your mobile app doesn’t need customizable app icons for the season. Yet when Twitterrific (a great Twitter app) gives a ‘baby yoda’ option during ‘Star Wars season’, you feel how much their team cares about your experience.
Your website doesn’t need to proclaim how it deliberately doesn’t track your user behavior. Yet when Basecamp (a great project management app) makes a rally...
Adam Fairhead
It’s a choice.
Travel to conferences and events: Go to them if they engage you and bring out the best in you for the benefit of your important work. Or stay home with your family if that engages you more, and let someone else go. It’s a choice.
Overwork in the name of ‘hustle’: Do it if it engages you and brings out the best in you for the benefit of your important work. Or pick a pace of sustainable...
Adam Fairhead
Unless you sell things like chocolate, bread and vegetables, consider the implications of building things that last a very long time.
Tension is wondering where the next gig comes from. Peace is building a system that methodically produces accounts and revenue.
Tension is hoping your star performer sticks around. Peace is building a culture that attracts star performers so genius is always in the room.
Tension is wondering how long you have until your chosen cause goes terminal. Peace is...
Adam Fairhead
Who are you fair to? And who are you unfair to?
We’re fair to people we like. Share half of the cookie. Make an offer that’s enticing enough to get them to opt-in, perhaps with self-liquidating offers on the backend to recover your costs. These people think you’re alright.
We’re unfair to people we like most. Share ‘half’ of the cookie and make sure they get the bigger half. Make an offer that gives them what they need and exceeds...
Adam Fairhead
It’s easy to do things that might not work, when it doesn’t matter much.
Trying a different strategy during a board game, for instance.
Or taking another route on your way to somewhere in the car.
If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t matter. Nobody will judge you, criticize you. You’ll be allowed to play again next time.
What about when it’s really important?
When You need to provide for your family because if you don’t, who will put bread...
Adam Fairhead
Do good things come to those who wait?
Patience while building a meaningful body of work, resisting the temptation to cut corners that will dilute the transformation you can provide those you seek to serve.
Careful, thoughtful movements while creating something special, precious, important, resisting the temptation to sacrifice what makes it great for the sake of speed.
Staying ready so that you don’t have to get ready when the opportunity for you to shine comes along. Being prepared, every...
Adam Fairhead
You can’t change their minds by showing them what worked for you, or what you believe.
The doctor wants to see successful studies.
The agnostic wants to see empirical evidence.
The SMB team wants to see safe money.
The enterprise department wants to see safe jobs.
The target market wants to see themselves.
The solopreneur wants to see why it’s going to be OK.
The designer wants to see your process.
The developer wants to see your source code.
Everyone...
Adam Fairhead
What’s your cause/life balance?
Work all hours for your company or cause? Or work all hours toward the priorities you have for your work and your life?
Hustle relentlessly until you reach a certain milestone? Or maintain a pace that will achieve your goals without sacrificing your life?
Burn the midnight oil to beat competition? Or invest a solid day’s work into your work then invest a solid evening’s work into your family?
It’s true, we won’t make a difference...
Adam Fairhead
The potential of this year is infinite.
That’s scary, for most of us.
When we realize it, it puts us on the hook to produce something magical.
Something that could change the world, for better. That we’ll be proud we made.
Or something that could produce windfalls for us, if that’s your thing.
Whatever it is, when we accept the potential of this year, we embrace the huge responsibility we have to make the most of it. To make ‘future...
Adam Fairhead
How did you spend your holiday season?
**How we do anything is how we do everything. **The holiday season enables us to slob out, or recommit to the things that are important to us.
**Our priorities are clear to everyone around us. **The causes we support and work we’ll do this year will fill our hearts and our conversation, or excuses to forget our lives for a few short days will, instead. Which is it for you?
What matters most?...
Adam Fairhead
I hear a lot of discussions about “innovation”.
“Disruptive” ideas.
“Killer” new technologies.
But in this day and age, there remains a radical idea that many businesses continue to overlook.
An idea that every customer and client is sure to really appreciate and tell their friends about.
One so “disruptive” that very few businesses – be they low-ticket product sales or professional service providers – appear to focus much effort on when it comes to their strategic planning.
This radical idea is…...
Adam Fairhead
“If you learn to use failure, suffering, adversity right, it will buy you a ticket to a place you couldn’t have gone any other way.” – Coach Bennett, University of Virginia Cavaliers
This quote struck me as a wonderful example of leveraging every movement for the benefit of our important work.
Our work progresses from success. We have the luxury of doubling-down on what works, when it works. Of refining our work, perfecting our process and making the experience even...
Adam Fairhead
How meaningful and important is your meaningful, important work?
Important enough to be brave when it’s easier to blend in? Brave conversations with stakeholders, family and peers can be easier to avoid than to lead into being, after all…
Important enough to lead when it’s easier to just follow? Great work (much like great lives) doesn’t happen by accident and following conformity is easier to embrace than leading change…
Important enough to sacrifice for when it’s easier to indulge? Making...
Adam Fairhead
Some stories we’re very familiar with.
Hero meets insurmountable obstacle, then prevails.
They couldn’t be together, but fate saw favor on them.
We’ve been a storytelling kind for many thousands of years, tracing back to Egypt’s sons of Cheops entertained their father with stories.
When telling stories in the marketplace – ones the market is likely already telling themselves – it’s wise to pay attention to the stories they know. To riff upon notions and paradigms that produce narratives they...
Adam Fairhead
When you joined – or started – your company or campaign, who’s dream were you realizing?
For most, it’s a personal dream. The dream of serving a particular body of people in a particular way. Of making a certain kind of difference.
That’s wonderful. As long as we remember that our dreams are realized by living in the dreams of others:
Those you wish to serve have a dream. They respond and engage us when they see a way to...
I create a newsletter called GrowthCandy. Each issue shares one idea to help build and spread your work, delivered as a short comic. Fast to read. Easy to apply. Hard to forget!