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.
A hole in the ground (with more context)
Yesterday’s question was “What’s the value of seeing a hole in the ground?” Some of the answers were: The amount of money saved by not falling into the hole and breaking your leg. ???? “What’s the sound of one hand ????️ clapping?” [ Enlightenment by Van Morrison —first time I heard it and the lyrics are for another mail (Thanks, Ryan!) ] Not accidentally falling into it? None. It’s a hole in the ground. If it’s an oil well, it might have some value attached to it. It depends. What kind of hole is…
Canyons
Here are 2 holes in the ground that you can’t (don’t want to, actually) modify. You can’t, either, take things home off it and you can only see —and explore: The Colca Canyon in Peru Colca Canyon – Nad Hemnani and the Grand Canyon in the US. Grand Canyon – Sonaal Bangera 2 big gaps in the Earth. Do they have value? Yeah. They attract a very specific kind of traveler for each of the available options: from no-budget, to low budget, to medium, to money’s-not-a-problem ($7K+/person). They can…
Don’t bridge the gap. Own it.
Bridging a gap to avoid going into the depths of it might not always be the best choice. It’d leave too many things on the table. Yes, you might need to bridge gaps some times —yet not every gap needs to be bridged. Imagine the Grand Canyon with lots of bridges all over it. It would only create noise. Owning a gap, on the other side, makes you accept it as it is. There’s nothing to fix, it is what it is. It has unknowns that you can explore. It has potential to do and be so much more than…
A shiny ribbon
You receive a present and are asked: “What did you get?” Your reply: “A nice, blue, shiny ribbon.” Wait. What? The ribbon is what makes the present nicer, what completes the picture of it, a part of it. But that’s not the present itself. Same is with marketing and storytelling. So, to whoever tells you that “marketing is storytelling”, think twice. It’s the other way around. Storytelling is (a tiny bit) of (one/few points of) marketing. Does it help? Yeah. Is it all about storytelling? No….
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 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…
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…
The present of the future
It’s about What Could Be. How can you imagine the way things would be different? How can you change what you find non-sense? How can you change the way things are —the What Is? You can only do that challenging what you believe. And what others believe. Seeing a vision (yours or someone else’s) worth pursuing. A clear image of the future —most likely unreachable, yet powerful to get you off bed every day. I’m curious, what do you see?
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…