Simple and repetitive
“The power of playing simple and repetitive.It doesn’t take long for people to get it.” Victor Wooten He’s got a definition of how music needs this naturality so that you stop listening and start feeling. Once you get it, you can be pulled where the other cool, more nuanced (or sophisticated) stuff is. Same is with your writing. Same with choosing your niche. Same with specializing. Start with that. Play simple. Make people stop listening. Have them feeling. Then you move into deeper…
It’s not fair
There’s no fair thing. Not from your POV as a seller / service provider. What you charge has nothing to do with you. Or if you find it “fair”. It’s about what’s important to your clients. If they think the work you’ll do will mean 500K to pay you and it’s acceptable to them, they’ll pay you (and you’ll take it). You don’t say “Oh, I don’t think it’s fair (to me) because it might take me 20 minutes to get that done or it’ll cost me 20K or I’ll be happy with 7K because that’s what ‘I’m worth'”….
Incremental v. Systemic
Incremental change Takes how not to disrupt the system in search for (small) efficiencies and improvements. Slow: 1,3,5,10… Small changes to increase. Safe: Keeping what you have (aversion bias kicks in). Short term: Not big changes now. Sales to keep. Revenue to keep. Profit not to lose. Don’t stir the pot. What does it look like? Raise your prices… according to inflation, or by 5-10% Raise your prices incrementally +5%, +15%, + 30%… [Timestamp 14:07] ESG, B-Corp Short-term: how can it…
Mapping an ecosystem
Here’s the work of a project led by Philip Kotler: The Wicked 7. It’s a map of how intertwined several (and most times unseen) factors are. It aims to take a systemic approach —or at least gain awareness of how things work… and what could change. With this map, you can have a better picture that taking incremental change (or aim at one-problem) won’t influence the system itself. Taking an overall approach might do. Can you map out your own business ecosystem? Map of The Ecosystem of Wicked…
Empowerment
“We empower our clients.” Take a moment from how things go and let’s rethink of this word. If you run a team or work with clients and you empower them, it means you *give them power*. And just as you can give power, you can take it away. Best control model. Ever. And if you’re in control, the others are not. What you can do is give them agency and/or authority. You don’t need someone else to “empower you”. People —You, my friend, have power within yourself.
Fit contradiction
You need to stand out —in a place where you’re supposed to fit into. How do you do that? Doing both is a contradiction: If you fit into something, you’re pretty much average in that place. If you stand out, you’re out of that average. Do you find the logic behind “stand out in a place you where you have to fit into?”
Feeling safe
Fitting in. It feels safe. Find the product-market fit → safer to go onto the market (and, hopefully, sell). Fit in with the rest → safer to not being pointed out. Fit in → don’t stand out. Most of us are trying to fit in. Because it feels safe. Not creating hassle, not stirring the pot, not “being problematic”. That way, we believe we’ll be able to make our businesses thrive. Not burning bridges in hopes of “we might work one day” —ignoring big time all the red flags. [Spoiler: there are…
Sunday reminder
– Manipulating people and situations to influence markets for client advantage is what? – Consulting. [Rabbit/Hole ep 1] It did make me crack and laughed so hard. Then I realized that’s how consulting is seen for lots of people. And how selling is also seen and —worst of all— taught. Taking this view and understanding both selling and consulting as such creates this feeling of “selling is sleazy”. Your friendly Sunday reminder: Selling is an act of service. As an act of service it takes…
The Earth is flat
You sell time. And time is money. Those statements are the equivalent of saying “the Earth is flat”. Just because some people believe it, it doesn’t make it a fact.
The bends
The bends. A medical condition caused by nitrogen trapped and expanded in body tissue, usually due to an ascent that happened too fast, without giving your body enough time to process the nitrogen out. Besides extremely painful, life-threatening. Here’s Diver’s Alert Network (DAN)’s definition: DCS, also known as the bends, describes a variety of injuries that result from inadequate decompression following exposure to increased pressure. This can occur following uneventful dives within…