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…
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?
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,…
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…
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?…
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…
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…
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…
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…