Things I’m afraid of — on daily writing.
A daily mailing list. For 365 days. Fucking scary. Been doing this for 252 days till now and it still feels scary, but GREAT. Joining Jonathan Stark’s Email365 last year to get to write consistently (again) was challenging/exciting. Over half a year of doing this, there are still these mind tricks playing around: Will I have something to say? What if I run out of things to write about? What if I’m not clear enough? See the pattern? → Me, Me, Me There was a shift Taking Me out of the equation…
Your ONE thing
What’s the ONE thing you really rock at? Would love to know how you do what you do.
The thing about your ONE thing
What’s THE thing about your one thing? What makes it unlike to what others might say about the same thing?
A Gap
After receiving and having a few conversations on these 2 questions: What’s your ONE thing? What makes your ONE thing unlike to what others might say about the same thing? Something stood out: The first question (What) was simple to elaborate and understand. On the second question though, articulating the How seemed more complex. There was a gap between those 2 concepts and how to connect them organically. Do you feel the same when asked about what’s your ONE thing?
Your positioning can’t be fixed.
Having this gap between the what you do and how you do it is what often times feels like a positioning problem. However, your positioning can’t be fixed. Not in a one-time event. Or simply filling blanks in a template. That will help, for sure. But it goes way deeper. It requires: Structural changes Mindset changes Business changes It asks (and forces) you to question how you see things and what you’re able to see. It’s in-depth work. It’s painful. It takes time. It’s a long game —but not…
Feels like magic
Magic doesn’t exist. Yet you create it. Here’s something I learned from a magic course I took at university (entertainment for restaurants and bars —a past life): Magic exists. And it doesn’t exist. Doesn’t exist in the fairy-tale sense. However, magic is that awe people feel when they get to find, see and experience the unexpected. Magic is about surprise. About delight. It takes a shit-ton of work to get it done, and when it does, it’s not about the performer, but about the audience. About…
Maximizing profit
When you’re selling what everyone else is selling, it might give the impression you need to match the rest. 1 way to do that —actually, how the vast majority sees it— is by cutting costs down. It relies on 2 models: Mark-up / mark-down prices (a way of cost-plus pricing). Coming from the industrialized age of business and mass production industries. A method vastly used and (still) taught as a core subject at universities. Shareholder value theory. Maximize the gap between price and costs, as…
That one riff
“Super simple and basic, but it’s effective!Super busy stuff or a lot of unnecessary notes? NO!” That’s Kirk Hammett talking about one of Metallica’s most popular (and loved) songs. What would you say about your approach to work with clients? Are you looking for simple and basic? Are they looking for simple and basic? Or is it all about busy and ornamental?
The hard choice
If you’re jumping from idea to idea, making all of them a priority as they show up, they’re not a priority. In fact, they might feel as emergencies, taking over each other constantly. And that’s not emergency anymore. It’s simply chaos. Here’s the thing Most of this happens because making the hard choice is… well, hard. As creatives, visionaries, or innovative people, we LOVE the new shiny object. But unless we get ruthless with ourselves and make the hard choice to pick and stick to the…
Everything’s been said
Jain. [German expression for Yes and No at the same time (Ja+Nein)] If you have this feeling that when you’re writing (daily), you’ll get to a point where you’ve said it all. You might be right. Or not. Everything’s been already said (mostly) by someone else. However, you have a perspective very few people (if any) have. Your own experiences. Your own fails. Your wins. And your burns. Being original is an spectrum. Like life, it’s not all black and white. So, go ahead and repeat. Plus, if you…
