The Flip. p2. Narrative
It’s the thread of what you do and what overarching story it tells. It’s a sustained arc about how you show up, what you do from a high altitude view and how you frame the world: on opportunities or threats. John Hagel has studied the power of narratives and how they’re different from stories. Stories are: about the individual: you, me, someone imaginary self-contained: have a beginning, middle, end focusing on one point (hence, the moral of the story) Narratives are: about the audience: they…
A question for you.
Quick question: When someone tells you or you hear “Mind the gap”, what do you understand and what’s your action to take? 🙂
The Flip. Ep.1. Purpose
Forget about mission and vision statements —they’re useless in this context. This is not a marketing / branding exercise and definitely NOT aspirational (there’s a HUGE difference between aspirational and inspirational, but that’s for another email). It’s who you are and what you stand for. I’m taking you’re in the business of helping people get what they want. If not, that’s ok too. But maybe this is not the kind of email you want to read. Purpose Actionable, yet fuzzy. It’s the thing that…
Markets and fits
What’s a market? Friend of the list, Jonathan Stark, sent this email where he described what a market is: “Market—a place, virtual or otherwise, where buyers and sellers gather to facilitate the exchange of goods and services.” There are a few things to add that also make a market work: They don’t have defined nor definitive rules —yet, they can be regulated. Players can come and go as long as they have 2 things: will AND resources. Markets can expand, contract or cease to exist. There are no…
The Flip. How to claim a gap.
How to claim a gap. Once you’ve seen the gaps in your market, how can you claim it? Here’s an approach. These factors lever and build on one another to help you show your value, feel seen as a consistent / expert brand and have better sales conversations. They help you be the obvious choice —for the right people. Purpose Narrative Alignment Focus Flip Clarity Impact Going in-depth from tomorrow.
Self-Focused v Others-Focused
What’s your focus gap? Where are you focusing your efforts on your comms and messaging? Here’s a self-audit to start seeing where’s your focus. Something VERY important: It’s a spectrum —it’s totally ok to be somewhere in between. The idea is for you to identify where you are. Think of it as a dial. Wherever you are, you can regulate and adapt your messaging to a new state. 🙂 LanguageDo you use your language or your client’s? SELF •————————————————• OTHERS…
Perks of parenthood
Perks of having a two-year-old in kindergarten: you can get sick out of the blue. ???? Jonathan Stark sent this email: No people, no problems. Well, here i am (people) with a problem. ???? I’ll get back to you later on or tomorrow. For now, rest and lots of liquid. Here’s the thing though: Are you taking care of yourself and pausing? Things will be there when you’re back from that pause.Remember, there will be more dives (post from friend of the list and daily writer James Turner)
Breaking the Thought Leadershit Cycle
Break the cycle The point of these last emails is to provoke you and push you to question yourself what’s going on. Also, to give you some places, resources and people I’ve found that —if you take the path of making something remarkable— might help you. Remember, leadership begins with building trust. So show up with something meaningful. Show up to help, but not to give [general] advice. How can you better serve your audience? What can you bring to them that will make it worth their while?…
I’m A Thought-Leader
Now that the Leadershit part is off my system, we can talk about Thoughts today. You do produce thoughts —as opposed to… everybody else? Right… “I’m A Thought-Leader” Are you, really? Calling yourself a “thought leader” (or that you produce thought leadership) is presumptuous and means you have no agency. Most of the self-proclaimed thought-leaders sound (and feel) like this. (It’s a 4-min inspiring presentation by Pat Kelly) Just because you write/publish, it doesn’t mean your thinking…
Thought Leadershit
There’s this belief(?) that you can produce thought leadership.It’s bullshit. It’s like saying that you can produce leaders. A manufactured process (aka certifications) where you put one person in and, no matter what, they turn into leaders. That’s not leadership. That could be management school for all we know —or any online cert. Leadership is the decision to sustain an environment for others to do and be at their best. It’s not about having followers, but to open the path for others so…
