Archive of posts from January 2023

Some say that starting a business is like jumping off a cliff, then assembling an airplane on the way down.

The intention of this sentiment is that it’s both exhilarating & terrifying at once.

But it’s also a good reminder that it’s really not a good time to waste time comparing your journey to someone else’s.

After all, in that scenario, if it flies then you’re happy and that’s it!

Comparing does nothing but steal your joy and distract you from your airplane.

What are creators to do in an AI-powered future?

A place where books are written in minutes? Or paintings made in seconds? Or code challenges solved instantly?

What benefit can creators invest in to overcome the overwhelming quantity of content that’s coming?

The Anyway Benefit: where people want to buy from you anyway, despite there being alternatives.

People bought Twitterrific and Tweetbot despite Twitter’s own app being free (and bought Tweetie 2 before it was bought by Twitter too).

The Iconfactory, Tapbots and Atebits — the creators of those apps — didn’t get purchases because they were the best deal. They got purchases because their work showed a level of care you didn’t find elsewhere. You could feel their passion for their craft in the product. You could feel connected to the artist behind the art.

That was something that, for their chosen few, justified every upgrade fee, in exchange for a shared pursuit of an optimal experience.

As it happens, those apps are gone now. Twitter revoked API access to third-party Twitter apps, and those income streams are no more.

But their community of loyal customers lamented the loss publicly, and agreed to support those creators where they venture next.

This is the Anyway Benefit.

This is the creator’s place in an AI powered future.

It’s more than the product. It’s the shared experience.

Some think that trying to do their own thing is awkward and uncomfortable.

And it is.

But it’s far more awkward and uncomfortable not to try.

Your choice.

I hear you have ambitious goals for your project.

You might want to ‘revolutionise’ something.

Perhaps you’d like to ‘innovate’ in ‘your space’.

That’s cool.

But does Grandma understand?

If she understands when you describe it succinctly to her then, please, carry on.

But if she doesn’t, it might be worth considering a more specific and measurable goal for your project.

That specificity will project you toward bigger things, if you choose.

Another fun discussion on Twitter with a friend led to the question, “I wonder what gets rewarded the most: attention or respect?”

The result turned into a bit of a formula:

Respect + Attention = Trusted influence (a good leader)

Respect - Attention = “Who was that guy?” (Nice but forgotten)

Attention - Respect = A fool, of short-term interest (like setting yourself on fire in the street)

When pursuing market attention for the benefit of your work, it’s worth considering not only the quantity of attention you’re gathering, but the type of attention, too.

Which formula above gives the result you’d like to be known for?

Someone asked me on social media about how one knows their worth.

I thought I’d share my reply here on the blog too!

#1: Philosophically, you choose your value.

Epictetus said, “If you are tempted to look for outside approval, you have compromised your integrity.”

#2: Financially, you choose based on the transfer.

What do you give?

• Scarce skills?
• “Manager of one”?
• Guarantees?

What do you get?

• Money?
• Fulfilment?
• Growth?

Consider all 3 on both sides to value an exchange.

There’s no “one size fits all”, and what works for one person may not for another.

Be honest with yourself, and don’t allow insecurities to make you dishonest about how valuable you are.

AI is the popular topic for leverage in creative-class work.

But it has a less popular sibling that is equally as potent, but less discussed.

This sibling also allows us to produce far greater output for a reduced amount of complexity or effort.

This sibling also equips us with the ability to achieve greater quantity and greater quality in equal measure.

This sibling is also tricky to fully appreciate for those who haven’t yet spent much time with it understanding the nuances of its power.

This sibling is called Systems.

It’s more than just sticking things in Notion. It’s more than spreadsheets and Zapier zaps. It’s more than having Slack integrations reeling off notifications about what your other tools are up to.

• Spotting opportunities for one act to solve multiple problems.
• Tracking your time to see where bottlenecks and slowdowns emerge.
• Uncovering ways to repurpose works to produce additional derivative works.
• Noticing ways your current work could be much stronger through patterns.

These things aren’t as slick as simply typing into a chat box and having answers pop out. Yet.

But they’re equally as potent for the growth of our work, and the leverage available to us.

Solopreneurship is considered to have a nasty downside.

Not the fact that you carry all of the downside risk.

Not the fact that every decision (good or bad) is directly your fault.

But the belief that it is “lonely”.

But “alone” and “lonely” are not the same thing.

One means you’re by yourself. The other means you’re by yourself and you hate it.

If you find working alone lonely, either work on what it is about being alone that you struggle with, it don’t work alone.

But being able to work, think, build, and spend time with yourself is a skill.

A skill that benefits your alone time but also your time with others. It makes you sharper. It makes you clearer about what you want out of work and life, rather than merely going along with the status quo.

Don’t be these people:

The slick sales person who dangles barbed offers to close deals… but the product or service is not as the prospect expected, they’re unhappy about it, but can’t get their money back.

The noisy social media influencer who lies about their lifestyle… and tries to sell their way out of their lie by making you believe you can help them live as you think they do.

The business guru who talks big game on social media, putting down those who work to live rather than live to work… in hope that enough anxiety can be produced to get their group coaching program booked out.

Don’t be these people.

You can do better.

If we’re lucky…

…we’ll see a real influx of creators choosing to take their lives back in 2023:

Doing what they love: Creating things they want to create, because they want to create it, rather than being influenced by what their peers will think about how much they’ll earn.

Taking the leap / quitting job: Because the freedom of choice that comes from being a full-time creator can be worth more in joy than the pay cut could offset.

Authentic, honest marketing: Genuine creators just wanting to bring their fruits to bear, not the insidious, deceptive sales slime balls you normally see peddling services online.

Optimised for happiness, not money: Because if you can only have one, you should optimise for that one, surely.

Give a cheer of endorsement.

Let people know it’s okay to optimise for happiness this year.

Do you make a lot of notes?

Perhaps you’ve written down the step-by-step process you do things that work in your creative process…

Or maybe you’ve got a swipe file full of great banners or copywriting or tweets that you admire…

You could even have notes detailing your leaning journey to a particular skill or outcome…

Presumably you keep them either because you’re messy, or because they’re valuable to you, right?

If the latter is true, they could be valuable to others too.

So why not put a small price on one and see if it is?

Share the value around.

It may help someone.1

Social media attention hogs don’t want to hear this…

But good creators and marketers do…

And I hope you’re as pumped about it as I am:

We don’t deserve attention.

Posting content on social media doesn’t entitle us to attention, views, clicks, likes or comments.

Running ads on social media doesn’t entitle us to sales, conversions, or even clicks.

Split-testing our content doesn’t entitle us to logical (or even consistent) results.

Seeing someone else go viral doesn’t entitle you to draw comparisons or expect the same results if you do what they did.

People will see it if they were there at the time and the algorithm served you up.

People will watch what interests them, like what they feel like, comment if they’re in the mood.

We can’t control any of these outputs. Trying to is futile. Expecting to repeat likes, clicks, or earnings is misguided.

We can only control our inputs.

To keep showing up and do the work for those we wish to serve.

To learn as we go, and to remember it’s the reps that lead to progress, not just the technique.

That’s it.

Which is better: quantity, or quality?

“Both” is a lazy answer.

Let’s go a little deeper:

Some paint with a broad brush and cover large surfaces at scale. They go for maximum reach, likes and comments, increasing reach in hope that some will go deeper.

Others paint with a fine tip, a calm heart and a steady hand. They go for maximum focus, clarity of targeting and pursuit of those targets in hope that precisely those they target will go deeper.

There’s a place for both of these things.

“Both” isn’t the answer. “Know the difference and know when to deploy each” is the answer.

The trick is knowing where each belongs.

YouTube videos made for one person won’t get to that one person because the algorithm may not know to amplify it due to a low volume of data for it to work with.

Cold email outreach heavily automated for maximum reach will have lower response rates than genuinely personal, thoughtful outreach, due to the fact that people can tell the difference, whether you like it or not.

Know the difference.

And know when to deploy each.

Your work — and those you serve — will thank you for it.

What does your profile picture say about you?

If you use a photo pfp, perhaps it shows how professional you are.

If you use an NFT pfp, perhaps it shows a community you like, or a style you enjoy.

But neither of these things are the whole you. They show only one part of you.

Reddit got it right with customisable Snoo avatars, allowing users to customise and showcase a little more about themselves. Even their blockchain-based assets can be dissected for use, allowing everyone to add only the select elements they resonate with to their ensemble.

We’re complex creatures.

There’s lots to say about us.

And there’s a whole lot more to us than pronouns and nuances of our orientation.

I hope 2023 reveals more innovations that add yet more depth and weirdness to how we represent ourselves…

Ways that are less serious and politically charged…

Ways that are a little more… us.

Is your mind out-of-date?

When you’re asked a question you know the answer to, what happens when you respond?

Option 1: You respond immediately with cached information in your mind, available from the last time you thought about this topic.

Option 2: You pause, refresh the cache by considering what you now think about it, and share that information when it’s available.

Websites use caches to load data faster.

So do our minds.

Websites know to refresh their caches periodically.

So too should we, with our minds.

“The algorithm.”

We talk about it like it’s an overlord of some kind.

And it sort of is…

…But it’s not quite so dramatic:

A system that amplifies messages that spread isn’t controlling us, only amplifying things that people want to see. When it comes to places that people visit to be entertained, that seems reasonable.

A system that accepts inputs from millions of people at once isn’t suppressing you, you’re just one in many voices and it has to prioritise the above rule so people keep sharing input. That seems reasonable.

A system that has no feelings or agendas whatsoever isn’t cancelling you, you’re just saying valuable things in interesting ways, or you’re not. And it boosts those who are. That seems reasonable.

As we look beyond the algorithm, we realise the web isn’t rigged against us.

It’s just full of many voices, some lovely, others less so, and we have the opportunity to be discovered by the merits of our message and the quality of our creative, rather than merely the dollars in our pockets.

Seems pretty good to me.

People on LinkedIn celebrate business metrics.

People on YouTube celebrate subscriber milestones.

People on Twitter celebrate cancelling things.

People on Mastodon celebrate not being on Twitter.

If you’re in these places, you might be tempted to value what others value, celebrating what they celebrate if you have what they have, and feel like you’re missing out if you don’t.

Screw that.

Celebrate your thing.

You deserve to do you, and the rest of us need your breath of fresh air.

How is inconvenience better than convenience?

Convenient activities are done by many people, often because they’re enjoyable and affordable.

Convenient jobs are support many people, often with decent pay, easy work and normal hours.

Convenient lifestyles are lived by many people, often because the alternative seems too much effort, despite the fact that dreams may not come true.

Inconvenient activities are rarely pursued, but give rise to rare skills and innovation many dream of.

Inconvenient jobs are rarely taken due to the risk and fear associated with if it might not work, even though the downsides tend to be small and the upsides tend to be huge.

Inconvenient lifestyles tend to include inconvenient activities and jobs, requiring a positive relationship with the unknown, but carry with them the ability to do things you’ll be really proud of.

The benefit of inconvenience is that it’s a path far less travelled.

Inconvenience sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

Why shy away from it?

“Can we make better use of the time we have each day?”

I was asked this question today.

And ooh my, I enjoyed spending time with it, because there’s a temptation to respond with productivity theatre, when in reality that misses the point.

I try to run a tight schedule, with running multiple businesses and raising a family. I plan out the week on Sundays, filling each day with steps to hit the week’s goals across each project and for family too…

But days benefit from some slack.

Not to lounge lazily, but to live.

Seneca wrote, “Living is the least important activity of the preoccupied man; yet there is nothing which is harder to learn.”

And it’s a skill that unearths so much about the person who makes so many decisions about how we lead our lives: ourselves.

We don’t doubt the time we spend investing in employees, peers or family… nor should we doubt the time we spend investing in ourselves, either.

If you’re a coward, you’ll do cowardly marketing.

Cowardly marketing makes desirable offers because its done its homework… but its promises aren’t all they seem to be on the surface. The terms and conditions have “gotchas” to protect the supplier from not being good enough at delivering on the promise they made. Customers spend most of their time feeling duped, but unable to fully articulate why, because the gap between the promise and the delivery feels difficult to fully describe.

Brave marketing makes desirable offers because it’s done its homework too… but each promise is kept. You can try things for free if you like, and pay when the trust is there to go deeper. You can have a refund if you’re unhappy, and the refund really does happen. Moving on one day is a happy moment, one where you’re waved on in your voyage, rather than tricked into paying for another twelve months because it was so hard to cancel.

Cowardly marketing is abundant. We all get caught by cowardly marketing, at every price-point and in every industry.

Brave marketing is phenomenally rare. We all remember these encounters for a long time, and we tell our friends about them.

Be brave.

Your Instagram feed may be full of ads at the moment.

And those ads might be selling you the magical secret that solves your problems.

And those problems might be all solved using the same scam format you’ve seen before.

And that’s why you ignore them: you know what lies look like, and you don’t like buying from liars.

Not because they ARE liars (you don’t know them, you haven’t tried their product or service, you don’t know for sure)…

…but because they LOOK and SOUND like liars, because you’ve seen it all before.

Following “the map” may lead you to the same place.

Looking like something you’re not.

Chart your own path.

You have magic.

You might be reducing it.

What magic? And how is it being reduced?

You create magic when you do the thing you’re great at, with focus and commitment.

You reduce your magic when you waste time doing things you’re not great at, with focus and commitment, because you preferred to do everything by yourself rather than harness the magic of others.

When you do magic for others, and they do magic for you, everyone has magic.

When you try to do their work as well as your own, you reduce your magic and deny them theirs.

That’s bad.

Don’t be afraid to trust others to do their magic, especially when you’re nervous.

It’s not just about who’s doing theirs… it’s also about whether or not you get to do yours.

What’s the best way to ruin a great plan?

Keep changing it!

Plans may not go to plan, and that’s okay. We plan again based on the information we have, if change is required.

That’s plans changing due to action taken and lessons learned.

That’s fine.

But great plans get ruined when they keep getting tweaked without action or new information, because they deny us the opportunity to learn those lessons.

And what’s a plan for, if not to help us take action on something?

And how do we get better, if we don’t learn lessons along the way?

Hold up, what’s the rush?

I get it: you want it to be further along.

I hear you: you want it all to be working swimmingly yesterday.

But get this: today is here one time. Remember to enjoy the journey and live it out in a way you’ll be proud you did.

Remember, regret is looking back at how you lived and wishing you did things differently.

Laziness can create regret due to reflecting upon inaction. That’s not your problem.

Make sure you don’t let your enthusiasm create regret by what you sacrificed along the way.

If you’re looking for perfect tools, stop.

They aren’t there.

Word can do more than Google Docs, but Google Docs is more shareable… you have to choose what’s more important.

Harmony is an amazing animation product, but doesn’t play as nice with third-party compositing workflows… you have to choose what’s more important.

Slack and Teams are both popular communication tools, but they don’t play nice together… you have to choose which environment is more important.

Or you can just use both, and pay the price of maximum compatibility: money, and complexity.

There are no perfect tools.

But it doesn’t matter.

What you make with your tools is all that matters.

Show us what you can do.

The world’s a mess. But there’s so much to look forward to.

Every project is rich with opportunity to refine our skills and create something wonderful.

Every team is brimming with potential to draw closer together and build the impossible.

Every skill and discipline is looking for someone to take things further, and it can be you.

Don’t let the news get you down.

Every day, be inspired by how much is still on the table.

They might simply not understand.

If you’re building great work, but your audience doesn’t understand what great building looks like, they may miss it.

For instance, they may expect daily fanfare from you when in reality you might be in a lot of meetings getting things done.

Or perhaps they’re wondering if you’re building at all if your normal content output slowed down, without realising it’s because your project production is moving at 100mph.

People can’t thank you for your efforts if they don’t recognise what real building looks like.

We can’t fault them for that.

But we can educate them.

And that’s all down to you.

Most people seem to be in a hurry.

To get something they want. To pump stock price. To find the next fix.

Fast is a decision, and carries pros and cons. It frequently produces prompt, short-lived reactions with an insatiable appetite for more prompt, short-lived reactions to follow.

Slow is also a decision, and carries its own profile and cons. It frequently produces a resilient body of work to be proud of that proves those in a hurry who were critical of you wrong after all.

Brick by brick.

“I’ll just do it myself” is a selfish statement.

We think we’re doing our work a service by doing everything alone.

We think it makes us better when we know how when others don’t.

But eventually, we will stop.

In that moment, we won’t be able to do it alone anymore.

In that moment, those who trusted in the outcome we gave them will be left hanging.

In that moment, no one can step in to help, because you kept the map hidden from them.

If we truly want to help them, we’ll give them the gift of our patience to equip others with our skills, so that those we care about – clients, family, peers – aren’t left in the cold when our time comes.

Is it going to be a terrible year or an amazing one? It depends:

Is AI taking all the jobs? Or is it simply creating exciting new opportunities for the willing?

Are the markets going to hell in a hand-basket? Or is a sustainable system correcting itself for a sustainable future?

Is it a tough tough time for your business? Or is it an opportunity to renew your commitment to those you serve?

Is it going to be a bad year? Or a great year?

It is as we see it.

You get to choose.

Looking at a small screen that fits in your pocket?

You might be doing important work. But more than likely, you’re presented with a thousand ways to not do that work.

Looking at a large screen that sits on your desk?

You might be looking for distraction. But more than likely, you’re presented with a thousand ways to lean into the important work of the day.

Neither is bad.

Each is different.

Know their affinities.