The bright side of the force
That’s you showing up to serve your customers. Serving them can take many forms: You doing work for them. Advising. Coaching. And telling them “No, I’m not the best one for your situation”. So you refer them to someone who could be. This last point is (the) one that makes you stand out. And how they’ll remember you. Not for the work —who remembers what specific work you did 15 years ago? But for how you helped them. It comes from the clarity of knowing who you can help best, how they can get…
Weirdness
Friend-of-the-list and fellow emailer, Kevin Whelan from How To Sell Advice, wrote this piece about your weirdness finding the right fit to your prospects. This part stood out: “You want people to find you and go, “Wow, your business is weirdly designed exactly for my business“. […] To be the better fit for your prospects.” It focuses right into seeing who fits weirdly to your offering and your offering, to their weird needs. A big difference from “a better fit for the market…
You’re looking for no.
One thing that comes up constantly in owners, founders, soloists and —really, anyone doing sales, is looking for the sale. How to close the deal. How to “get them to yes”. Here’s what happens. It puts unneeded pressure on something that could happen naturally. This is the moment selling becomes: All about your brand (spoiler: we don’t care [at all] about your brand. We care about our problems). All about presenting. All about convincing. All about the sleazy used-cars salesmen techniques we…
Everything is a negotiation
That’s how Chris Voss describes life —and the content of his book Never Split the Difference. While the principles are helpful, how it’s framed (in an overall, high-altitude view) tends to direct the conversations you’re supposed to have into a win. It’s seen as a ser of finite games. A hostage v. a victim. And that’s NOT how life works. When you choose to follow this “I need to win” mindset, you’re not quite giving others the option to say no. You’re fighting objections to get a final yes….
In long days
Today was a long day. So this is your reminder that: When you’re extenuated. Mentally depleted. Needing a break Or just had “one of those days” You can always say no to things, make a pause, and recharge. Taking care of yourself lets you take care of the others. I’m here.
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…
Not to win or Not to succeed?
Failure: to not achieve a determined outcome. Merriam-Webster defines it like this: “• (the) omission of occurrence or performance • a falling short • lack of success”. However, failure could also represent another view(s): To not win To not succeed A win → takes that others (or yourself) lose. It’s a thing that has an end. The rules are fixed: to win, you need to have these requirements. Success → takes that winning is part of it. Just as losing. It’s more nuanced. It doesn’t have clear…
Consequences to failure
Safety (or risk) Regret Creativity Learning Trying feel more like a consequence of failure, than the opposite to failure. As friend-of-the-list Genevieve Hayes says [brackets mine]: “If you succeed at the first thing you do (aka don’t fail), then why ever try anything different?” The only way to know you’re failing is when you set a goal to achieve. How you take the outcome of that process —whether you fail or not— is what builds you up. How you grow. Because all of those words at the start…
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…
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…