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 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….
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…
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…
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…
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…
A hole in the ground
Pop question: What’s the value of seeing a hole in the ground?
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?
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…
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…