Archive of posts from September 2021

Think you’re not in sales?

Think again:

Are you a developer who writes code all day? You’re in sales. You talk with other developers, you might hear of an opportunity nobody else could. Open the door so we can walk through it together.

Are you a project manager who talks with clients all day? You’re in sales. You talk with clients about their pains and journeys all day, you might hear an opportunity nobody else could. Open the door so we can walk through it together.

Are you a social media manager creating content all day? You’re in sales. You’re permanently connected to the largest sales system that ever existed, and might hear an opportunity before anyone else could. Open the door so we can walk through it together.

The question isn’t, “Am I in sales?”

The question is, “Am I stepping up in my sales role?”

The web is flooded with articles imposing arbitrary goals on new creators, loyal team members and budding entrepreneurs.

They sensationalise the quick win.

The lucky break.

The hustler who sacrificed everything.

Is all that necessary?

#1 Play by your own rules

We’re not all playing the same game.

That means it’s silly to compare someone else’s rules (and goals) with your own.

Choose your own goals. Choose your own sacrifices. Make your own trades.

We don’t have to change our life goals or the rules we play by, just because someone on the internet said so.

#2 Choose your own lifestyle

I don’t want a Lamborghini. They’re loud depreciating liabilities. I’d rather be playing a card game with my family.

But I do like financial freedom and long walks in nature. So that’s what we have.

Choose your own lifestyle based on what makes you happy. Not on what the Popular tab of Instagram shows you.

#3 There’s no secret

You may hear online that there’s a secret skill or industry necessary to reach your goals.

You may be looking for it in business magazines or blog headlines.

You won’t find it.

We’ve made clothes, websites, coaching programs, NFTs, fitness studios, software…

We’ve sold them using email, social, partnerships, advertising, live events, door-to-door, phone…

Choose your thing. Choose your space. There’s no secret, there is only work.

Any anxiety associated with the comparison between your journey and the journey of others is either FOMO (‘fear of missing out’) or envy.

Neither are good for you.

Neither improve your life.

But both diminish your appreciation of the things you decided were special to you.

How do some companies make you feel so excited?

This is how!

The three elements of brand connection:

1. Your audience
2. Your message
3. Your expression

1) Your audience

Think you know them well enough?

Until you know their fears… how it feels to be in their shoes… their past …their lingo …their dreams and their goals…

…there’s still work to do.

2) Your message

Secret: it’s not your message.

It’s theirs.

They’re on a journey already. They’re sold on it. You can join them and make it easier if you choose.

The better you know their journey, the better your message will become.

3) Your expression

Combine #1 and #2 with contextual expression.

Express their message based on:

• The step along the journey they’re on
• The platform you’re communicating on

Newcomers on Facebook get a different expression than Champions on WhatsApp.

Get those 3 things right and customers won’t need convincing to buy. They’ll be sold before you even know their name.

Everyone tries to master #3 without mastering #1 and #2. That’s what makes marketing hard.

And what’s what will make your marketing easy.

P.S. You’re subscribed to the daily blog, right?

7 things we’re covering together here:

• Putting customers first
• Mastering your message
• Marketing your brand
• Daily marketing comics
• Philosophy
• Community
• Being a digital maker

Talk soon!

Six Flags is a theme park.

So is DisneyWorld.

Why does one make you feel magical, and the other doesn’t? And how can that difference improve your brand?

#1 Feeling

Six Flags sells the ability to go on rides and eat food.

DisneyWorld sells a memorable experience.

Do you focus on your product (like Flags), or your customer’s journey (like Disney)?

#2 Innovation

Six Flags makes new rides for you to wait to go on.

DisneyWorld makes queueing fun, engaging, and air-conditioned.

Do you focus on the things you do, or the entire experience someone has with you?

#3 Integration

Six Flags sends you a payment confirmation.

DisneyWorld sends you a nice box in the mail with your “magic bracelets” to use at the park.

They’re personal. A reminder of what’s to come. The experience starts before you even pack your bags.

DisneyWorld isn’t just a theme park anymore. It’s an experience for your family.

Six Flags is still just a theme park.

How can YOUR brand transcend “being a service you buy” to “being an experience I can’t wait to tell others about”?

Ready for growth?

Here are 3 key insights our coaching team with NarrativeWorkshop.com makes sure that people grasp before coaching them, to make sure that they’re primed for rapid growth:

• Communication-to-success ratio
• Growth discipline
• Narrative philosophy

Let’s go:

#1 These 2 things are directly linked:

• The quality of your communication
• The quantity of your results

Let this idea sink in & experience bigger results.

Your audience’s message is your message. Your job is to express it back to them.

#2 Growth is a discipline, not magic

You must communicate more often:

• Call your clients
• Engage them on social
• Be in their world

Listen for patterns you missed.

No sense in defining the message if you won’t refine the message.

#3 “The best it’s ever been, the worst it’ll ever be”

That’s how we describe everything we ship. So should you.

It recommits you to the ongoing work of:

• Understanding your customers
• Expressing their message back to them

These 3 things are subtle mindset changes that make all the difference to your ability to lead your work to new heights.

Marinade in them. Your work – and those you serve– will thank you for it.

Tech is cool. We think of innovation meaning technology.

But true innovation happens on the people-layer:

Email didn’t revolutionise mail because it was on the computer and didn’t require a postage stamp.

It revolutionised mail because it made humans feel closer.

Google didn’t revolutionise search because we couldn’t search for things before. It revolutionised search because now anyone can find anything.

Web2 didn’t revolutionise publishing because it was on the computer and didn’t require a postage stamp, either.

It revolutionised publishing because it set information free.

Web3 isn’t revolutionising ownership because we had a shortage of things to own.

It’s revolutionising ownership because you’re finally in control of your ownership.

Tech is cool.

But innovation is about people.

“We didn’t spend anything on marketing”

This is a common flex among rising startups.

It’s also a lie.

#1 Marketing and Advertising are different things Not paying for advertising is not the same as not doing marketing.

Doing bartered or unpaid advertising is not the same as not doing marketing.

There’s more to marketing than writing checks.

#2 Time, effort and care were spent Understanding the customer takes time and care.

Learning what they need to hear from you takes time and care.

Expressing that message effectively takes time and care.

#3 Even the stage they’re flexing from is Marketing Being quoted from a publication, interview or event is marketing.

Being in the publication, on the interview or at the event is marketing.

Exploring ways to be in that media is marketing.

If a company genuinely “didn’t spend anything on marketing”, you probably won’t have heard of them.

Don’t feel bad about spending time, effort, care, and money on your marketing.

And don’t feel bad if half of it doesn’t work.

We only hear about the half that does.

This post is for you if you’ve ever said this:

“I don’t do marketing.”

I’ve spoken with leaders, execs, even salespeople who made this statement.

Allow me to challenge your thinking for just a moment:

#1 Do you lead people? Your people need to be sold on your vision.

Every day.

The way you represent yourself, your work and your business… …that’s all marketing.

#2 Do you tweet? Your words represent your work.

With every tweet.

Your rage-tweets aren’t just “expressing yourself”. They’re likely “bad marketing”.

#3 Do you talk to customers? Ever? You’re marketing the firm.

You might pick up the incoming calls at reception. You might answer customer support tickets. You might be a project manager.

You’re in marketing.

One of the big missed opportunities of many businesses is their failure to see how all of these things are, in fact, marketing.

Your competitors may have missed this, too.

That’s your opportunity.

I’ve been fascinated by observing those who tear ahead on social media.

And how different a roaring success on Twitter vs TikTok looks like.

But there’s a pattern to these successes.

Every platform responds to three levers: audience, message, and connection.

• You learn who you’re talking to.
• You learn what they need to hear.
• You learn how to connect the two with on particular platform.

When we misunderstand or underestimate one of the 3 levers, it doesn’t work so great.

When we master all three, it works a treat.

That’s why following an Instagram course doesn’t work for everyone. They may have lever #3, but lack #1 or #2.

And it’s why having success on one platform doesn’t instantly translate to another: lever #3 needs to be understood.

Apply all 3 levers together and win.

Good marketing convinces people. Great marketing wins people. What’s the difference?

I’ve led a lot of sales calls over the years…

I discovered that there’s an entirely different set of skills required to lead someone to a good buying decision from decent marketing vs great marketing.

One requires you to “convince people to buy”.

The other invites you to “win them over as people”.

Here’s the difference:

Convincing people:

• Listing available features
• Comparing to competitors
• Explaining how the service works
• Wrapping it in a limited-time offer

Winning people:

• Empathising with their problem
• Sharing their vision for the future
• Knowing the way to their goal
• Going there with them

You can convince a mind to take a step after winning their heart.

But you can’t win a heart by convincing their mind.

Which do you do?

Here’s a list of 5 things you may think are pointless distractions in business, worth eliminating or automating away.

And reasons why you shouldn’t:

#1 Quick replies

You may not think it’s useful.

It is. People just want to feel heard.

You don’t need all the answers right away. Just let them know you see them.

#2 Warm welcomes

A hotel lobby with no welcome isn’t welcoming, regardless of decor.

Paying a coach without prompt acknowledgment or gratitude doesn’t feel good, no matter how good they are.

#3 Pointless check-ins

Calls without a point aren’t pointless. They show you cared enough to see how they’re doing.

If you only called your mother when you needed something, that’s not much of a relationship. Same with your clients.

#4 Hand-written notes

True: They’re inefficient, expensive, slow. Also true: They’re personal, intimate, caring.

That’s why mass-printed hand-written notes don’t work as well as personal ones.

#5 Better thank yous

One way to say thank you is to send a confirmation message. Or to say “thanks”.

Other ways: Call them. Send a gift. Retweet them. Publicly thank them on Facebook.

The list goes on. So does the ROI.

We’ve all heard of the “feast-or-famine” cycle.

Most of us know how to overcome it.

But there’s a bigger danger waiting when you do:

#1 First, you break the cycle

The feast-or-famine cycle is broken when you stop swinging from ‘busy’ to ‘desperate’.

Breaking the cycle means you stay in the ‘busy’ camp. That’s just the first step. It’s the second step that kills service businesses:

#2 The danger of being ‘all set’

Once a service is ‘all set’, unstable dependencies emerge.

Retainers you expect to stick around indefinitely. Key clients who dictate your schedule. Accounts that would hurt to lose.

You becoming an employee without benefits.

#3 Get ‘busy’, never ‘all set’

‘Busy’ means there’s lots going on:

• You’re marketing.
• You’re winning accounts.
• You may even be turning accounts away.

‘All set’ has lots going on too, except:

• You stopped marketing.
• Stopped winning accounts.
• You’re dependent.

It’s great to want your clients to stick around long-term.

It’s great to have more opportunity than you can take.

It’s great to know your audience and what they need to hear from you so you can earn new relationships at any time.

Don’t throw it away by moving from ‘busy’ to ‘all set’.

Marketing isn’t about collecting sage secrets from influencers.

It’s about knowing your people.

The data is right there. We just don’t always see it.

Here it is:

#1 Want solid market research?

One star Amazon reviews tell you what people expect.

Five star competitor reviews tell you what people love.

Picking up the phone lets you test your theories.

The data is right there, we just need to use it.

#2 Want your marketing to attract customers?

Get to know who they are.

Get to know the journey they’re on.

Get to know what they need to hear from you.

That’s your marketing. The data is right there, we just need to use it.

#3 Want higher prices and happier customers?

Make #1 and #2 constant habits.

E.g. Most coaches don’t want “to grow their business”…

They want to:

• fill their programs
• stop wasting time on FB groups
• stop the months rolling by with no progress
• marketing to be as easy as their sales calls

Message matters.

The data is right there. We just don’t always see it.

What will you build now that you can?

Here’s what I’ve noticed about “winning on social” after watching entrepreneurs socialise online (for 12 years).

There are 2 things the successful ones have that the unsuccessful ones don’t…

#1 Somewhere for you to belong

If you post but nobody sees it, you didn’t post. But if you know…

Know WHERE your people congregate, Know WHY they congregate there, Know WHAT they want there,

…You can be there & capture their attention with what they want.

Now you’re not ‘selling’. You’re facilitating success.

#2 Somewhere for others to belong

Do you help people with something specific that existing communities don’t cover?

Start that community.

Give them a WHERE to join. Give them a WHY to join. Give them WHAT they need to win.

Now you’re not ‘selling’. You’re facilitating success.

People want to move from Problem to Solution.

And while they struggle saying ‘Yes!’ to salespeople… they struggle not to want to join a group of winners.

Don’t underestimate the power of community. It’s a salesforce, client base and referral network all-in-one.

Which type are you:

#1 Empty calendar = successful #2 Full calendar = successful

Both are popular on social media these days. Which actually contributes to “success” the most?

#1 Empty calendar

The flex here is that you’re not obligated to do anything.

Well done, you delegator, you.

You have time to think. To connect the dots. To see around corners.

But if you don’t engage that opportunity with daily discipline of action, you’ll go soft.

#2 Full calendar

The flex here is that you’re highly in-demand.

Demand is good. Well done for having it.

But if you have no time to think… to connect the dots… to see around corners…

…you risk sacrificing the spark that created the demand in the first place. You’ll fall behind.

As with so many things, the sweet-spot is balance.

Show me a semi-booked calendar and I’ll show you someone who is growing.

Show me a full or empty calendar and I’ll show you someone who is stuck.

We need YOU to grow. It looks so good on you!

If you run a business, you might be delusional.

A new delusion might help you grow faster:

#1 Business coaches get in their own way by not believing in their skills.

Possibly because of the testosterone-fuelled charades of their peers.

‘Inability’ is usually a delusion. Get a new delusion: One where you’re worthy of your goals.

#2 E-commerce startups get in their own way by not believing in their brand.

Possibly because of the titan competitors who couldn’t niche like they can anyway.

‘Too small’ is usually a delusion. Get a new delusion: One where you can be the very best for your chosen few.

#3 Successful entrepreneurs get in their own way by making themselves blind.

Possibly thinking, “I have it all worked out”, or from fear of falling from grace.

‘Successful’ is usually a delusion. Get a new delusion: One where you stay close to your audience, not assuming you know them better than they do.

The world is very speculative, full of more fiction than we’d like to believe.

Get a new delusion. One where you’re worthy, able, and committed to those you serve.

Just watch what it does for your work.

Do you know what my biggest roadblock is to growth and progress?

My wife and I were talking about this today, so it felt timely to write about it.

Its probably your biggest roadblock too:

#1 Your relationship with yourself

I beat myself up quite a lot. My wife’s the same way.

For us, it’s a deliberate act to quiet the judgemental voices inside that state, “you’re not good enough.”

When we listen, we suffer. When we ignore, we grow.

#2 Your overthink

You might be thinking too much.

I’m a thinker… I love reading philosophy and comprehending the world and our experience in it…

…But sometimes, ‘think’ gets in the way of ‘do’. Don’t let that happen.

#3 Can’t is a four-letter word

We use “can’t” like a swear word.

It has its place… I’m not woo-woo and understand it has a role in nature…

But you probably need to wash your mouth (and brain) out with soap.

Stop swearing!

Most of business and creating is a mental game.

A game where you think you’re competing with the world.

But really you’re just competing against yourself.

In 2009, a client haggled me down from $20.

Then, I 1000X’d my price and found clients eager to buy before they’d even talked to me.

A Business Coach Manifesto:

Here’s the 4-step process to build a happy client community for business coaches: 1) Audience 2) Message 3) Narrate 4) Cycle

1. Audience Know who they are. Know how to draw connecting their objectives with yours. Understand how tugging on their objectives tugs on yours by extension.

These are your people. This is your world. 🌎

1. Message Know what they need to hear from you. Most talk about themselves, in their language. You’ll talk about the client, in their language.

That’s your opportunity.

1. Narrate Your clients are on a journey. Our job isn’t to make detours to our products. Our job is to offer to help them along their journey using our coaching service.

Paint a picture of their world and how you fit in, not the other way around.

1. Cycle Your message should be the best it’s ever been. And the worst it’ll ever be.

Talk to your clients, test every assumption, challenge every choice of phrase. Every signal you receive (good/bad) makes you stronger.

Re-apply it in your marketing. You’ll be unstoppable.

That’s it!

It’s deceptively simple.

And your opportunity to be the best business coach in the (‘the’ being ‘their’) world.

This week I had someone gush over how much daily content I produce.

Last week I gushed over how much daily content someone else produces.

It’s relative. Wherever you’re at, here’s how people manage to create more than you:

#1 They do the things you don’t, one at a time. You can’t learn everything at once. Focus on what you want to make next. The rest will gladly wait their turn.

#2 They do the things you don’t, faster than you. Everything takes a long time until it doesn’t. More practice usually means better output in less time. Keep practicing.

#3 They do the things you do, without you. A skill you’ve mastered is a skill you can teach to others. Delegating the parts that don’t explicitly require YOU allow you to go even faster still.

#4 They know their audience and what that audience needs to hear “More content” isn’t the point. “More connection” is the point.

He/she who‘s closest to those the customer wins. Know them. Know what they need to hear from you.

Then scale up the production.

We’ve all got goals for our businesses…

Getting what we want is quite straightforward.

It usually comes down to swapping a desire with a question:

How do you get 1,000 new followers? You ask yourself how you could give follow-worthy levels of value to 1,000 people who don’t yet follow you.

Then do that.

How do you get an extra 10k per month? You ask yourself how you could produce 10k worth of additional value per month.

Then do that.

How do you get on that podcast or secure that partnership? You ask yourself what that podcast or partner needs, that you can overdeliver on for them.

Then do that.

What we want is usually on the other side of a give.

The secret? Learning to love the giving (the journey) more than the getting (the destination).

What do successful coaches/consultants and …NFT projects… have in common?

More than you think!

Here are 3 traits they share – and why they matter:

#1 They know what they really sell. Successful coaches know they aren’t selling coaching, but movement. The promise of progress. A journey shared toward a desired destination.

Same goes for successful NFT projects – the jpeg isn’t just the product, but a ticket to ride.

#2 They know what really lasts. Successful coaches create attention around their work, but back it with substance. Others create buzz but fizzle out when the world gets wise.

Same goes for NFT projects – pure hype causes a frenetic pump-n-dump, whereas strong community creates longer term value.

#3 They know who really matters. Successful coaches look after their customers. Enrolment when the shoe fits, refunds for the bad bits. The market pays attention to these things, even when you don’t think it does.

Same goes for NFT projects – one refund demonstrates more faith and goodwill among a community than the order value of any one buyer. Everyone feels looked after. Safe. Confident. This is what coaches want for their audience, too!

These seemingly polar-opposite spaces are united by the things that truly matter:

• Knowing who you’re talking to & what they care about
• Knowing what to say to them that they need to hear
• Knowing how to express that message so they can make the right decision

Even if you think you can’t learn anything from totally different markets and industries, think again: it’s where your best ideas will come from.

Here’s how I learned the importance of “weird traits” when it came to marketing a business.

When I used to design fashion/clothes, I wondered where the real deals were made.

Then someone “in the know” showed me: Art exhibits.

Every couple of months, there’d be an exhibition. Private. Invite-only. Exclusive.

These were the places that relationships formed and collaborations were born.

These places helped me scale up the sales of that project (and finally find a use for my art history studies). I started by discarding them… and ended by exhibiting art I’d created specifically to create more conversations in that room.

I incorporated their uniqueness into my message. A good brand message knows who it’s talking to and what they need to hear.

Your chosen market probably has some weird traits of its own.

Maybe it’s Frisbee Golf in the park. Weekly Twitter chats. Pokémon cards.

Maybe you’ve been disregarding it because it doesn’t feel business-y enough.

Maybe it’s time to dive deeper into your audience’s world.

After all, it’s in their world that buying decisions are made!

Ever feel guilty for not being like others on social media who claim to “live their best life” every day?

It’s a lousy goal.

Here are some better goals to aim for:

#1 An above-average day Looking for “the best day” leaves no space.

A sad family member who reaches out for help will “ruin” your “best day”…

Spending time with an unhappy customer to make them feel supported and understood will “ruin” your “best day”…

Who wants a day so fickle that investing in family and work is unacceptable?

#2 A better day than yesterday If yesterday wasn’t great, pressure to find your “best life” in the next 24 hours is unlikely to help.

Businesses grow when they listen to their audience and express their needs back to them with solution in hand… imperfect daily progress.

People grow when they listen to yesterday’s signals and put changes in place to improve… imperfect daily progress.

#3 A day like yesterday Was yesterday awesome?

Was it full of messy business puzzles and real family life, struggles and progress, successes and lessons learned?

Sounds like you’re already living a “best life”.

Beach not required.

Here’s an uncomfortable truth to get comfortable with as a coach, creator, consultant or entrepreneur:

It might not work.

The project idea might not work. It might not be what the community needs. It might not get its messaging right and run out of time.

This happens. It’s OK. You get to go again.

The product marketing might not work. Your language may not connect with your audience. The ads might cost more than you can afford to pay, pricing you out.

This happens. It’s OK. You get to go again.

The partner or customers might not work. Those you trusted may let you down, badly. Those you served may leave you, badly.

This happens. It’s OK. You get to go again.

Our positivity bias wants us to believe that these things won’t happen to us, only to others.

This is not true, and that’s a good thing:

It means we get to go again and achieve even greater things next time.

Keep growing, friends.

I used to hate the idea of community.

It reminded me of group projects back in college. The ones where you’d do all the work and others would sign their names at the top.

It reminded me of lousy employees who wouldn’t bring their best to work without constant realignment and 1-on-1 interventions.

But then, all of a sudden, I loved community.

A group that naturally emerged around my creative work or a product or service I’d created.

A group that I enjoyed being a part of, that rallied around a project I started, to support their peer.

These aren’t people who sign your work or come to just get what they want.

These are people who come to belong. To contribute. To bring themselves to make the party better.

In the future, this is likely what the marketplace will look like. People who choose to show up because they belong, not just because they were told to. People who love their community first, and the products they build for it second.

I call those people “narrators” today, but I look forward to the day where we’d just call them “normal”.

Is marketing science or art?

Here’s why it SHOULD be both at the same time:

Example of science: “Our CPMs are increasing so we should contextualise our creative.”

The scientific side of marketing can be measured directly with software. Our analytics tools can tell us what happens when we run an ad or create a session. Number of clicks, say.

Example of art: “That brand cracked an in-joke, I like that. Nice one, you guys.”

The artistic side probably won’t translate into a specific, direct, attributable reports. The in-joke you told that caused a conversation this week can’t be measured empirically with a tracking pixel.

Since “what gets measured gets improved”, the danger is to focus only on what can be measured with software. This is where brands go to lose their soul.

Software hasn’t yet got a grasp on culture, micro-communities, and the way someone lights up when they hear it’s you on the other end of the phone.

Those things are harder to track. Those things matter most.

Put the laptop down for a second and give a customer a call.

Say hi. Make their day.

You can’t track magic.

It’s overwhelming, the number of things we COULD be doing in our companies…

Know what the biggest hurdle is to getting them done?

It’s not skill… it’s not access… it’s not resources…

It’s permission:

Want ‘likes’ on social? Give ‘likes’ first.

Want customers to give you some time? Give them some time first.

Want someone to lend you a hand in your business? Lend them a hand first.

Want customers to buy? Give them something they want first.

Want your marketing message to say the right things? Listen for the right things first.

We’ve all seen the people who demand attention without giving it. Or those who give up because they waited for permission instead of going first.

Be the kind of person that goes first.

Hands up if you’ve ever gotten frustrated with how long some projects take to get working.

Even the calmest among us are surely guilty of this sometimes.

But every single project, task, campaign or venture begins with this statement:

“I’ve started and it isn’t working.”

Everything starts here!

New advert not working? Good: “I’ve started and it isn’t working” comes first. New product not selling Good: “I’ve started and it isn’t working” comes first. New role not gelling? Good: “I’ve started and it isn’t working” comes first.

Only then can we get to the next step, “I’m trying and it still isn’t working.”

Which leads to, “I’m learning and sticking it out, and it’s starting to work.”

Which ultimately leads to, “I’m still learning and still sticking it out, and it’s working!”

It all starts with the “not working” part. It means you’re on the right path.

Not the path of your actions resulting in success. But the path of your actions leading to actions that result in success.

Stay the path.

When I was running a “virtual clothes” store in 2007, I asked myself, “What is the most important part of a business?”

It makes you wonder, when you sell something as random like that!

#1 “Is it the quality of the materials?” It couldn’t be… they literally didn’t exist.

#2 “Is it the value for money?” It couldn’t be, at least in the conventional sense… you were buying nothingness. Keep in mind this was at least a decade before NFTs were popular.

#3 “Is it the sales or PR or marketing system?” They’re important, but tools and tactics change over time, and I was looking for something that lasts to peg as “the most important part”…

#4 “Is it the brand?” I thought it was, to start with… but when it comes to “brand building”, most of activity just drifted into #3 again…

#5 I ended up figuring out that it was the role a brand plays in the narrative being told in the lives of (prospective and existing) customers. It was “narrative”.

Now, #4 and #5 seem similar to start with… until you start thinking about how you would take action on them.

Acting on #4 ultimately turns into sales activity, where you’re essentially trying to get in front of your people with a pitch.

Whereas acting on #5 turns into listening. Building relationships. Spending time with people. Offering to make their problems go away. At scale.

Hardly anyone has a system in place for doing this. That’s your opportunity.

YOU can become a forerunner in your market.

Not because of deeper pockets, but deeper care. Not as a result of a silver tongue, but of using your ears. Not as a result of being the most celebrated, but of being the most celebratory. Not as a result of having it all figured out, but of figuring it out with them.

That’s your opportunity.

Go get it.

My wife and I aren’t really people-people.

As much as I love socialising with peers and customers… and routinely tell businesses to spend MORE time talking to their people… when the work day is over, we live a pretty quiet life.

As in, “We like living in the middle of nowhere” quiet.

As in, “Should we get a Doberman to keep randoms away?” quiet.

We all know that he/she who knows the customer best (and how to empathise with their journey) wins…

And yet I frequently hear people tell me things like:

“I’m introverted, I don’t like feeling like I’m in sales, it’s just bothering people, I can just send an email survey or something…”

…as if any of those things has anything to do with spending time with your customers, or as though it gives them a free pass from the rules of the game.

Are you quiet, too?

If you are, remember:

Quiet people are better listeners. They can hear the pains and goals of their audience clearly.

Quiet people connect with purpose, they’re not just killing time. They say things that matter.

Quiet people are sensitive to people’s feelings. They can hear their journey people are on.

Quiet people can sit with the information and find the insights that’ll help their marketing message grow stronger.

Quiet people have superpowers.

This isn’t an excuse to be shy or unconfident (those are fear-driven too).

But if you’re quiet and find yourself wondering if you’re disadvantaged in business because of it, you’re not.

It’s a superpower.