Three perspectives:
(Maya Angelou paraphrased in the third.)
The point?
Everyone has an opinion about what your work is worth, and what that means. That’s fine.
Just be sure you have your own opinion, know your own worth, and what that means, to you
The real ones know we can all climb over the wall.
Sometimes, because we’re great wall climbers and do it on our own.
Other times, because people turn around and lean over to help us up.
We can all climb over the wall.
It costs the winners nothing.
It gives those stuck everything.
If it looks like an ask, it goes to spam.
If it looks like a give, it gets a few seconds.
If it looks like a give I wanted, it gets a few more seconds.
If it looks like a give I wanted that’s also enjoyable, you have my attention.
Salespeople chase after “Yes”.
As though there’s only one in a call.
But there’s not just one “Yes” in these calls.
That “Yes” is simply one of the last few “Yesses”.
Preceded by implicit yesses such as concurring with how something would change their world for the better.
And leading yesses such as does next Monday work for you.
Don’t chase after “the yes”
Stack yesses.
Platforms like to tell us what to do.
Platforms dictate what content will sink or swim.
Platforms want to make us play by their rules.
Platforms come and go.
I’m a commodity to them, they’re a commodity to me, too.
Prioritize your work, your craft, your gift, and sure: share it on platforms.
But let them serve you. Not the other way around.
When I write, I find good ideas flow much easier when I do this:
Each time I open a document, I write “Dear son,” at the top.
Then I hit Enter a few times, and write “Love Dad xx”.
Then I go up a few lines an start writing.
This is the best way I know to put myself in a mindset of kindness, giving, holding nothing back, and fully selfless intent.
Because I know exactly who I’m really writing for.
Mistakes happen.
Mistakes are OK.
If you operate in a culture that punishes mistakes (even if that culture is just you, judging you, in your own head) then you have yourself a toxic environment and change needs to happen.
Normalize making small mistakes, big mistakes, and everything in between.
Normalize that being the norm, that being part of the journey, that being the path to where you want to go.
Because it is.
Build in the intersection of these four things:
That’s your combo.
All men are just little boys trying to be brave.
I don’t always do a good job of this… but before I speak to myself internally, I try to think, “How would I speak to my son if it was him in my shoes?”
Would I diminish his feelings, tell him to ‘man up’ & suck it up?
I heard that plenty. I’d never speak to my son that way.
I’d speak to him with love, see things from where he’s at, help him see it’s going to be okay, and make it a game so we can take on the challenge together in a fun way. And be just as proud of him if it doesn’t work out.
All men, are just little boys, trying to be brave.
My wife and I were discussing this earlier today:
When help isn’t coming…
When you’re stuck in a situation without support…
When you’re already maxed out on time, and it’s still not enough…
What then?
We can’t add time onto the day…
But we can add time into the day.
We can’t get more done in the day…
But we can do more of the right things done in the day.
We can’t make others help when they don’t want to…
But we can help ourselves by stripping away what doesn’t matter.
When the problem is overwhelm or “too much”…
The answer is normally “simplicity”.
If no one would miss your work if it were gone?
It might be worth considering if it’s the right work.
Not because it requires the opinions of others to be valuable. It doesn’t.
But because it can be a useful litmus test of how much change or resonance it’s creating.
Because it’s a fun question to ask: what would be a version of this, that people would miss if it were gone?
Complicated task management systems need managing more than the tasks do.
Sophisticated knowledge systems require your brainpower more than the knowledge itself.
Advanced time management systems steal your time from your calendar as you keep it working.
Sometimes, simpler is often better.
Sometimes, a sheet of paper is all you need to make it a great day.
The best offer isn’t the loudest, the most sensational, or that with the most fanfare.
Often, it’s quiet. It feels personal, spoken to an individual, making them feel heard.
Making quieter work harder beats working harder being louder.
Everyone wants to build an Uber.
Everyone wants to follow Uber’s playbook to build an Uber.
Everyone wants to follow Uber’s playbook, built for a point in time where there was no Uber. Where things exploded before we knew what we know now. Playing with playbooks designed for a time different than today.
Playing with playbooks that may not work today.
Why do that, when you can simply listen for what your market wants, how they want it, and give it to them?
Repeat yourself often.
It’s not annoying, or boring, or tedious, or redundant, to the rest of us. Only to you.
If every time we write or speak, we assume people are bored of us repeating what matters, that doesn’t make us fresh nor more value.
It makes us divas.
There’s a reason TV shows say “last time on…” before getting into the episode. It’s not just to pad out the slot. It’s because most of need reminding.
Remind us.
A Prius cannot go as fast as a Testarossa.
And yet Toyota earned ~$404 billion more than Ferrari in 2024.
Perhaps speed and fanfare aren’t all that matter after all, hm?
Eating healthy is simple, but we overcomplicate it.
Exercising is simple, but we overcomplicate it.
Business is simple, but we overcomplicate it.
Life is simple, but we overcomplicate it.
Art is simple, but we overcomplicate it.
If only there was a pattern to this…
People don’t want your affiliate links. They want to feel belonging.
People don’t want your special offers. They want an experience worth repeating.
People don’t want you sell them. They want you to make things they can’t wait to buy.
People don’t want you to cut costs. They want you to invest in them, and they’ll invest in you.
People aren’t logical. So don’t build plans based on logic.
They’re emotional, social, irrational, tired, scared, bored. Build plans with that in mind.
Netflix overwhelms you with choices, so no choice feels optimal anymore.
Spotify curates for you, so you don’t know what musicians you like anymore.
Google Maps navigates for you, so you don’t know where anything is anymore.
Social media gets you addicted, so you don’t know where your free time went anymore.
We’re more connected than ever, yet loneliness is reportedly higher than ever.
If normal isn’t working out for you, consider choosing unpopular alternatives.
Perhaps focus, taste, a sense of direction, connection and decisiveness are on the other side of doing what others don’t.
Marketers like to add positives.
Especially when they should be removing negatives:
Do we want a sophisticated new ticketing system, or do we just want you to pick up the phone?
Do we care you got a fancy new CRM, or do we just want you to reply to our emails same-day?
Do we want your post-sale experience to stay shoddy while you pour more cash into pre-sale?
Do we care that you hired a churn reduction specialist, or that refunds are one-click simple?
Do we want your fancy new AI-powered chatbot, or a real person who wants to talk to us?
Removing negatives is often a faster path to improving customer experience than adding positives.
Whenever you bring up customer retention,
Most of the advice/books/gurus talk about tips&tricks that make it very inconvenient for those customers to leave.
Where they stay because it’s too much hassle to leave.
There’s a WORLD of difference between “too much hassle to leave” and “I wouldn’t leave if you paid me to”.
What’s stopping you from investing in the latter?
There are two big ways to really annoy people when they’re thinking of leaving as a customer:
1) Make it really, really difficult to leave. Now they feel trapped, and want out more than ever.
2) Give them a better price to say. Now they feel cheated, and want out more than ever.
Don’t stop the leaving. Stop the wanting to leave!
You’re doing the same thing in every scenario.
But the results are different, depending on which you’re doing.
Each brings a layer of extra to the ride, that makes you slightly better.
The question is, how much better do you want things to be?
By all means, stay sales-led. Heck, stay founder-led.
Grind for those performance figures, if you really want to.
It just makes the brand game easier for those of us who care deeply enough to show up meaningfully for those who in our care, before they realize they’re in our care.
Thanks for that!
Trying to grow on LinkedIn? Or any platform?
“On LinkedIn” is like saying “in that room over there in particular”.
“I don’t like to show up in that room over there in particular” sounds like a weird OCD thing.
“I don’t like to tell people about myself in that room over there in particular” sounds like something to bring up in therapy.
It’s just a room. Be yourself.
If a process is going to be manual, try makeing it either:
Automating the rests isn’t laziness or cold…
It’s enabling more of those 2 things.
That’s good!
I love when a brand makes me feel like they really, genuinely care about me as a customer.
It’s so rare, and yet the loyalty it creates is insane.
Example: there’s a café about 45mins from where we live, that’s specifically for kids — toys everywhere, slides, books, and the whole menu is for kids too.
There’s a few places like that close to where we live.
But this one place in particular?
The owner remembered my son’s name.
She even let us use the special room you normally have to book in advance and pay for additionally, for free, because he was having a hard time one day and was feeling sad. Just to help us, and to cheer him up.
We go there all the time, and we make a point of buying things there even when we don’t particularly need them, just to support her.
And for what? Remembering a name and showing kindness.
That’s all it took.
There’s a lesson in there for all of us.
Sales reps that push, panic and make their work emotional, are missing one key ingredient about their work:
It’s not about you.
A sales person is just a coach with different payment terms.
Show up for your people and keep it about them.
Because it is.
I don’t trust people very easily.
But when I do, sometimes, I’m very pleasantly surprised.
A team member who leaned into an opportunity you gave them, that you honestly weren’t sure if they were capable of.
A recruit who didn’t seem qualified or experience, but more than made up for it with care and commitment.
That thing you really need help with right now?
The answer might be on the other side of giving someone a shot who doesn’t “deserve” it.
Let people surprise you.
If you hustle to make the tight deadline, you’ll work harder, longer.
And then it’ll become normal. You’ll still be at your desk at that hour after the deadline passed. You’ll keep feeling tired the next morning.
It’s like a form of superstition; a habit that exist long after the danger it protected us from passed.
Sticking breaking in the woods meant lions, then it meant “bad luck”, something we avoided for no reason.
Hustling in our work meant not missing the deadline, then it meant “just what I do”, something we do for no reason.
Watch out for superstitions in your work.
They stack up, shackles promising progress.
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!