Japanese wedding
Friend of the list James Turner replied to yesterday’s email with this interesting fact (bold mine): “Funnily enough, getting invited to a Japanese wedding is code for “you have to pay 30,000-50,000 yen” —if people like you and just want to hang out with you and celebrate, they only invite you to the casual afterparty, because getting invited to the actual wedding is super expensive, lol. ” That proves further the point of invitations AND money. If you do get invited to a Japanese wedding,…
No more invitations
“Since you’ve been one of this cohort’s most-consistent members, we would be inviting you to join The Cohort’s Behind The Scenes first.” Want to make your sales not sleazy? Stop inviting people. Unless you’re really inviting them. Have you ever been invited to a dinner or wedding and expected to pay for attending? Me neither. If you were, and had to pay, you’d be thrown off —or feel really weird, like WTF. That’s the same feeling your prospects get when they receive all these “invitations” to…
Relationships are transactions
Transaction. Its root comes from transactio “an agreement, accomplishment”. Relationships are agreements between parties. They can be written or unwritten. But you know what makes these transactions more solid? Trust. Because both parties are for the long game and willing to make commitments —and compromises. Hearing “We’re not transactional, we’re looking for relational” lands funny. It wants to give the impression that the latter doesn’t ask for anything in exchange. ????♂️ (Spoiler: they’re…
Provocateurs
Your price is not a response to the market. It’s a provocation. Push them to consider. Think. Wonder. It’ll change the conversation from: → “Could this expert help me?” (and compare you to others) into → “How could this expert help me?” (compare your proposed options) In agitation,
Don’t start with why
“Rod — Why haven’t you started referring your network to […..] yet?Hit reply and let me know. I want to hear from you.” While the intention of this message is well intended, having Why put me on defensive. It felt like i needed to justify myself. It felt my in-action had a judgement over it. And nothing was about me. It was about the one who sent the message. “I want to hear from you.” More importantly, my reaction came as WTF?! why would I need to give my reasons —if any at all? Have you…
The paradox of originality
Coming full range in what you do. To explore and apply a high level of imagination to a high level of knowledge. Originality. Here’s the paradox though The deeper you know something, the more used to how things are. Things are working, right? So why break them? Here’s why. Breaking off that thinking and finding new ways to apply your imagination can unlock greater originality in what you do and how you serve your market. David C. Baker calls this “being able to see the patterns”. Why? Because…
Beginners Mindset. Not.
“Approach things with a beginner’s mindset.” In an expertise/knowledge-based business, it’s the wrong frame. A beginner approaches things from scratch, trying to figure out the right questions. It takes them time to understand and comprehend things (quickly) because they’re trying to find patterns. A beginner explores with no clear picture in mind, Has no mastery. When you have expertise, it’s your responsibility to see and find patterns in an efficient way, meaning getting curious and asking…
Wishful thinking
Build a brand. Build a culture. Build leaders. Does this even make sense? As if by going thru a process, the result, no matter what, will be that: a brand, a culture or a leader. As you could manufacture any of those. It’s not like that at all. However… What you can do is build the systems to foster an environment where: Your customers build your brand. → Your brand is what they say it is (btw, there’s no such thing as “personal brand”). Your employees thrive to build a culture of trust. →…
Come original
“To come original it ain’t nothin’ strangeYou got to represent you got come full rangeFull range of emotion full range of styles” Come Original. 311 Coming full range. A call to arms to putting the best of you into what you create, but also to the exploration of the overseen / unseen. To come full range: to use a high level of knowledge with a high level of imagination. That’s how Marty Neumeier defines (in my words) what’s New To The World in his Originality Matrix in Metaskills: 5 talents…
Knowledge x Imagination
That’s the formula Marty Neumeier, brand and branding legend, defined for Originality. K x I = O “Originality comes from the exposure of factual knowledge to the animating force of imagination, depending on the quality of knowledge and level of imagination.” Metaskills: 5 Talents for The Robotic Age.2012. Marty Neumeier Meaning, originality is more of a spectrum, with different levels you can tune in. Interesting thing, the more imagination you use, the more original. The more original, the…
