Secret Hacks to Increase Traction (part 2)
Here are the last 14 of 28 Secret Hacks to Increase Traction (SHIT) to fit right in and get quick market share: [You can read the first 14 here] 15. Build a love mark. Because you need to be loved by everyone. And can manufacture love. 16. Build a personal brand. Because that way you’ll show up authentic. And brands aren’t artificial. 17. Find your brand’s purpose. Because every business needs a purpose. 18. Marketing is storytelling. Because it’s about creating compelling content to earn…
Secret Hacks to Increase Traction
Stuck? Try these proven formulas. Here are 28 Secret Hacks to Increase Traction (SHIT) to fit right into your market and get quick market share (part 1): The best product wins. Because great products don’t need marketing. Build it right and they will come. Because you know better than your customers. The best marketing wins. Because marketing is about communicating and storytelling. You need to enter the market with low prices. Because that’s a bulletproof way to capture market share. Work…
Ideas for free.
Why pitching (and elevator pitches) hurts you and your expertise: Because you’re presenting instead of having open, honest conversations. Because you’re operating without diagnosing. Because you go in convince-mode. Because you’re not listening to understand, but to reply. Because you’re shoving down their throats what you think you know, without considering context. Because you’re not considering walking away and recommend others to do that work. Because you’re focusing on implementation….
You don’t *need* to execute.
But if you’ll have to, your clients have to go through the thinking work first. Make that a policy. Unless you want to only sell your hands work. Which is fine too. Just know you’ll be leaving money on the table. David C. Baker explains this in his book “The Business of Expertise”. (bolding mine) Strategy & Execution. The Business Of Expertise. David C. Baker. 2017 “I actually prefer to think of what I’m calling strategy here as research and insights.[…] So the first room on the left could…
Ideas without execution
They say they’re worthless. That without execution, ideas are pointless. That they’re just a thought. Actually… “Ideas are shit, execution is the game.” Gary Vaynerchuk And that’s why most indie consultants and creators do: Ideation Strategy Roadmapping Diagnostics Brains Work for free. Because of the (mis)belief that without doing the execution, they (the ideas, the person) don’t have value. That might be true IF the execution was tied to the thinking. Which is not how life and reality…
Blind
Choosing to go blind* into a meeting. Not fully prepared. Not over prepared. Maybe —just maybe— unprepared. As if you’re going blind. So you can better listen. So you can make better questions. So you don’t get assumptions. So you don’t get presumptuous. Just blind. To see the other side and understand your clients. So that they can see. This comes inspired from one conversation the great Chris Do had around his design agency, Blind, and why it was named that way.
If you’re not being productive, you’re losing money.
When thinking of productivity, the usual way to go is about quantity. How much of X you could produce. Or, as an indie consultant, a creator or expertise-based business, what you can do of something. However, productivity measures the relation between the maximum output and the smallest effort to do so. It’s not only about the quantity (or amount), but about the ratio. It takes in consideration efficiency AND efficacy. Being productive, on the other hand, focuses on what you can get done in a…
Creativity and Productivity
As creatives, entrepreneurs or soloists, there’s this mix up to believe that creativity and productivity are opposites. They’re not. Creativity. The ability to see opportunity. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Productivity. Ratio between the maximum output and the smallest effort. Peter Drucker. They’re different playgrounds, not ends of the same spectrum.
Racers and 4x4s
Ethan Garofolo’s lovely email about “What’s faster: Land Rover or F1 Racer?” set up the stage for a different path. While he talks about how at early stages of business, it feels more like you need a 4×4, and when you advance, you focus on getting an F1 in order to grow; there’s another perspective. It depends. How most people see things is “Ok. This is bumpy and quite an irregular field. Let’s look for a smoother road, so we can build our F1.” They start looking for the perfect road to have…
The BEST guitar player of all times
Everything is seen as a competition. Winners. Losers. Who’s the best —and everyone else can’t be the best too. There needs to be only one. It’s about winning. In business. Or life. How can you win where there are no fixed rules or equal results? How can you win in a game that will outlive you? Whoever tells you “Here’s how you’ll win [in life or in business]” is bullshitting you. You can get ahead or behind. Winning? Nah. Ask yourself: do you really have competition? The interesting thing…