Fairness
“If someone is working more, they deserve more. That’s fair” [Overheard in a conversation.] That’s not necessarily true. It generalizes that more effort (aka work) is tied to more rewards. If that were the case, interns should be millionaires by now. A book that took 11 years to get written, should be the most awarded. Or… It could have nothing to do with it. Like this song, by Beastie Boys “It was summer 1986. We wrote it in about five minutes. We were in the Palladium with Rick Rubin,…
Point of no return
Going into things and thinking there’s a point of no return, where you just need to keep going. That’s another definition for sunk costs. When you feel you’ve already invested so much it’s not worth quitting so you hope for the best, despite all the red flags. When you know you’re desperate, but think it doesn’t show. When you think you need to prove something. When you think that prospect will be turned off by you reaching out. Here’s the thing You can return. Regroup. Retreat. Is it hard?…
Here to convince you
When you read that, did you feel a strong impulse to say “Hell, no!”? And you’re right. That’s a natural response to “being convinced”. Which brings us to… are you using this in your comms and messaging? That you’re supposed to convince someone of [doing X]? Here’s the thing Often times, convincing tends to make you ready to counter arguments. To wait in silence for your time to speak, without being present. Instead of listening to understand and see if / how you could help. Helping your…
Trade-offs
You can choose to do one thing above other things. If you try to do many things at once, odds of not completing all of them rise. You need to choose. To decide. To trade one thing for another. To pick one as a priority. And —usually— a priority is what stands out. However… You can’t live in priorities. Or in a constant state of emergency. Because if you live in a constant state of emergency, it’s not an emergency anymore. It’s chaos. Your way out: Be ruthless with what you say no to. It…
Momentum
Today, this email comes from fellow daily emailer Tanya Moushi from Daily Inspire. It has such a resonance that I could not not share it with you.(Do go subscribe to her amazing dailies) Daily Inspire I don’t eat the frog.I do what builds momentum.Small wins –> Big snowballs. Tanya Moushi
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…
Market-ING
It’s aimed at the market. It’s directed towards your customers in the context of their alternatives (what they consider instead of your services/products). It’s not storytelling. It’s not messaging. It’s not something / the opposite / a complement to selling. It’s not done to a product. It’s definitely not “internal”, as in “internal customers”. It’s how your customers can change (with your help). And when you start “marketing” with your brand/products/services/me-me-me, your customer is the…
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?
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…
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…
