Delighting cold calling
Have you ever gotten a cold call and felt fantastic about having that conversation? Weird, isn’t it? Today i just got one like that from Strategic Coach. Even when I knew I was going to say no, there was no pressure on the other side. No shame. No sneaky tactics to pull Noes into Yeses. Even better, no trying to frame me to say yes to get into a buy. It went like this: – Hey Rod. I’m X from Strategic Coach and thought I’d call you to go through some things smoother than over an email. I…
The right mix
Ron Baker, host of The Soul of Enterprise and author of Implementing Value Pricing and Time’s Up sustains that you (paraphrasing him): “need to look at clients like an investment portfolio. Some might have more risk, and be more profitable; some more conservative, and safer”. In that way you can start finding balance in how you play and how you reach prospects and the ones you want to work with—which just made me think of poker and how, if you always play risky, your odds to lose are…
Don’t write daily
That is, if you have no interest in: Gaining clarity on your thoughts Finding deeper insights from your customers Thinking in new ways of the one thing you excel at Figuring out different ways to serve your market Stepping into your fears and make something out of it Leading (with your thinking, instead of with bullshit) Standing out in your market Taking a stand for something Delighting your customers Building your authority to be the go-to person for your right-fit customers. Don’t write…
Changing why into how, what and when. And why.
Asking Why turns things personal AND complex. It requires that the one asked justifies and explains a thing, behavior, event. If it’s too close to them (eg. the owner and their decisions re: their “ugly” website), it becomes a judgment on what THEY decided. They get defensive. Reframing Why. Do think (to start) with why, just reframe it into How, What, When. Why do you work like this? → Explain to me. Justify, TO ME, YOUR decision. Get defensive. Another ways: What made you take this approach…
The ugly one
“How do i wanna present myself? Do i wanna try to be like everyone else or do I want to try to make myself look as ugly as possible so that I can stand out and be stick out like a sore thumb amongst all these other people?” Oliver Tree That’s how Oliver Tree was created. His interview with Steve-O (yeah, the guy from Jackass) is filled with gems: How he sees everything someone does as art. How taking (calculated) risks can propel you to what you want. How not to take yourself too serious. His…
Defining your price
If your job is to lead your clients/customers into seeing new things and seeing things differently, how do you define the pricing of your help? What do you take into account to set a price for your offerings?
Product-Market Fit exercise
“They have an idea for a machine, and they build the machine and then, “Hmmm. Who would want this? We think it’s cool, but who wants this?” So they go do this Product-Market Fit exercise.I don’t like that. That’s how I’ve ended up launching to crickets. And that’s not fun at all.” Jonathan Stark on The Business Of Authority [02:24] Jonathan, in his now reverse-engineering of how to approach the market makes 2 main questions: How to do the thing so it keeps the promise to the person? How do I…
The problem with purpose
The problem with purpose is that most business owners think every business needs one. And it’s not the case. Thinking that every business needs to have a purpose takes lots of people to “craft” one in hopes (aka aspiration) of being relevant. So that it’ll magically create loyalty. That it’ll make the biz profitable. It then becomes something like any other PR stunt such as being ESG, SDG, B-Corp certified and so on. Looks good on paper, but it doesn’t really make it through. It looks like a…
The thing about purpose
While i do think that not every business needs a purpose, i do think that everyone has a purpose. 🙂 And quoting Blair Enns: “We all have ONE purpose: to elevate ourselves through elevating others”. Wouldn’t that make it easier?
What do you have to prove?
What makes you try so hard, that you need to prove you’re a badass? Maybe you don’t need to prove anything. Not to the outside anyways. 🙂
