Being Mikey
Think for a second your name’s Mikey (from Mikayla or Mike —your choice). Running a small or solo business based on expertise and figuring out how to stand out in your market —or at least how to get noticed. Here are a few things that make you different from a big, large co, something like… Nike: You don’t have the big (and deep) pockets of Nike. You can’t sustain a large ad campaign throughout different channels. You can’t run ANY large campaign You don’t have a PR agency/team You don’t…
Noise
Find your voice. Be contrarian. Be authentic. Getting all of these will make you stand out in your market. You’ll start “to print money”. Bullshit. First. You already have a voice. Just like a baby learning how to make their body and vocal chords to work, you have a voice. Second. A polemic won’t build you up into anything for the long term. Yeah, you might get viral. And gone with the next contrarian comment from someone else. Forgettable. Third. Be authentic. Because everyone else is a…
Optimizing the wrong things
◘ We’re talking with an agency to improve our website.They’ve told us we need to improve our SEO, links and so on. With that, our website will be better. FOUR WEEKS LATER… ◘ We’re now optimized and we see our load times are short, our links aren’t broken. ♠ Cool! So what was the goal of optimizing, again? ◘ Making it better. ♠ Ok. And now that it’s better… are you getting more leads? ◘ Oh! No… It’s still the same as usual. Optimizing the wrong things will keep you busy. The thing is, it…
Good intentions, crap approach.
Some of the answers to yesterday’s email brought up some intense feelings: Confusion, disrespect for their work, concern, lack of professionalism, lack of taking things seriously. Now, here’s the setting for it: You need work. I’m getting you work. Free work. But work at the end. It will build your “personal brand”. It will be an investment of your time. You’ll have a return on this work (reputation, value, brand, etc.) You’ll show your value and they’ll pay you what you ask next time. The…
Seeing innovation as innovation
There are 2 (among many other) ways to approach innovation: → From looking at it as a siloed activity. → From breaking things knowing they’ll affect the whole business. If you’re looking to break things into the innovative side, while looking for a siloed, efficient, safe approach… you might be doing it the wrong way. Look at innovation like The Beastie Boys (check their documentary on AppleTV+). do things. break things. reinvent things. go with your gut and jump against what you find…
Let’s create something
A real conversation from yesterday. ◘ I’ve had conversations with the head of sustainability in this big co to implement projects, but the thing’s been without motion for a few months. Don’t know how to (re)approach it. I went to grad school with the head of sustainability and we talked about working together. ????♂️ ○ Cool! Tell me more. ◘ Yeah. He’s very interested in improving a set of reports so we left the conversation open. ○ Open to… ◘ New projects and I said “This seem like a great…
Customer Failure
There’s this new discipline called Customer Success. I take that is opposed to whatever everyone else does: look for ways the customer fails. Was there something called Customer Failure? As in, we the business will do everything we can to make you fail and don’t get a return on what you’re paying? That’d be a scam, right? It just seems a given. That you want your customer to succeed. Or is there something else?
How fast can you…?
A prospect reaches out to you and says “I want a strategy by the end of the week. How fast can you deliver on it?” Since you don’t do magic, you might have a few questions to ask: Who’s your ideal client? What’s your market segmentation? What’s your most and least profitable product? What’s your most and least sold product? What’s your goal for the year? How would you define a good year? How would you define a “Meh” year? What would a home run year look like? Etc. Here’s the thing If you…
The opposite of self-conscious
Unaware of caring That can make you do things you think you’re not prepared for. To go and jump into the pool —and invent water on the way down. To ship and do. To care about your clients and how you could help them. To make a change that’ll improve their lives and businesses. Focusing on this will help you stand out. Just like a kid unaware of caring in the early 70’s. His name is Anthony Kiedis [TS 08:15].
A category of one
Let’s say you create your very own category —as some twitter bros say. Your category of one. Where you have no competition. You’re the first to be there. You have a monopoly of one (as redundant as it sounds). Ask yourself: How do your clients choose you? If there’s nothing to compare to. How do they know what you do —if you’re the first one? When there’s nothing to compare to. How do they know you solve their problems —if there’s nothing to compare to? How do they make an informed decision…