Investing your time
That doesn’t really happen. Time is a constraint, not a resource. You can’t use it, store it or even exchange it for something else. As such, you can’t invest it into doing something. Just as you can’t charge for it (that’s why hourly billing is nuts). What we get to confuse with time is actually the opportunity cost: the fact that if you do something, you’re choosing not to do other somethings. Here’s the thing Choosing to put your effort into something you find valuable in a timeframe is a…
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…
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…
First steps to leading transformations
Making transformations relies on knowing how to ask the right questions. How to lead the system for everyone to speak up. How to build trust —systemically. Your first questions: What do they want? What will this want achieve? Why do they want this? How did they get to this decision? Making these kind of questions will push your clients to think of what’s the big thing behind what they want. When that happens, your odds to help them succeed will grow. And they’ll have clarity of where they’re…
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].
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…
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…
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…
Returns on investments
Friend of the list, data scientist and AI and Analytics Specialist, Genevieve Hayes replied with this gold bomb to yesterday’s daily: 1% (shared with permission, bolding mine): And even if a positive return on investment is guaranteed, this leads to the questions: • Is that skill actually valuable (for example, I can solve a Rubik’s Cube in under 5 minutes, but I don’t think anyone is going to pay me to do so)?• Will that skill actually be needed/wanted in the future? (for example, mastering…