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 hole in the ground
Pop question: What’s the value of seeing a hole in the ground?
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…
The Flip. Impact
With all this clarity and honest messaging in place, you can start seeing the patterns about your work and its alignment with your purpose. Now it’s time to think about how you can be THE ONE. To state who you really are, what you do and what makes you the obvious choice for the people you serve. To make you less (if not at all) interchangeable. The go-to person or business they call at a specific point. Here’s an exercise done by Joel Pilger: Go from A to THE. How can you make a claim about…
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…
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'”….
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…
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?”
Ditch the beginner’s mind
Beginner’s mind v accepting to not know. The first is about trying to find a pattern. Start with a clean slate. Trying to figure out the right questions to make. Accepting not knowing is embracing the unknown and go deeper to explore, to make better questions. One is about starts, the other about change and transformation.
The Flip
Up till this point, everything’s been about you. Your purpose, your narrative, your alignment, your ability to focus. Now it’s time to look outwards. To move from self-focused to others-focused: to the ones you serve. What’s the language they use? What are their goals? What are their pains? What are their expensive problems? What’s the desired state they strive for? A way to start These questions can help you shift the focus (and your thinking). What’s in it for them? How would they know they…