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…
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…
The wrong numbers game
Seen on linkedin Seeing marketing through this lens is playing the spam game. That’s why sales and contacting new people feels manipulative and sleazy. Because it is. 50 → 10 → 5 → 2 Reach the numbers. The more you reach, the more response you’ll have. (Don’t have to be a genius to know that). Here’s the thing Marketing is not about how many people/businesses/accounts you can reach. It’s about how you can help and make your clients’ lives better *for them*. → How many you can reach: go on 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…
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…
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…
1% better
The belief that compound interest in everything you do will make you exponentially better… is a numbers and perceptions manipulation. There. I said it. “The investor makes an investment. An investment compounds with a positive rate of return into the future. That investment —whether financial, physical, relationship, or anything else— is worth more at a date in the future.Our future self cashes in on that value.” That’s just bullshit. Here’s why. It assumes you do have —with certainty— a…
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…
No-Idea-Phobia
Friend of the list and daily emailer Kevin Freidberg wrote about the No Idea Phobia, the fear to —when writing daily—go out of ideas on what to write next. His title though, made me think of another kind of No-Idea-Phobia. The one that’s present in the backburner of our heads as consultants and entrepreneurs: to not be able to say “I have no idea, let’s figure it out together” in a new scenario with your prospects and clients. Because you believe saying “I have NO idea”: Might not be seen as…
What’s a personal brand?
It’s the belief of how one can control the way they want to be seen and perceived by others. Can you really control how to be seen and perceived by others? Unless you’re Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda or Luke Skywalker, it’s very unlikely. You might influence the perception, but can’t control. This false fixation on control will distract you from what’s important to you: serving the people you care for. And when you stop focusing on you, to focus on your customers, you stand out.