If you want followers…
… you’re looking at it wrong. Because you’ll treat them as followers. And when they get to be treated like followers, they’ll act like followers. What if you treat them like leaders and help them get there? It’ll change the whole way of seeing each other. They’ll question and be critic. If you want followers… just buy yourself a bot farm. 🙂 If you want to lead, help others lead.
You’re only a leader when you have followers
Some say “The only thing that makes a leader is when they have followers.” Bullshit. Leading and leadership is not (about) having followers. It’s opening the way ahead so that others can lead in their own ways. Leadership is about taking the unopen paths when you’re ahead of others, to risk things so that others can move forward. If you lead the way, others will see and take courage on taking the lead. And that’s the game-changer.
Generosity: a mistake often done
Being generous doesn’t mean doing things for free, but with intent. That’s one thing many, MANY people get mixed up. “If i’m to be generous, i need to do things for free” In business it gets disguised as overservicing, overdelivering, overserving, or underpricing. In the long run it makes your margins to go thinner, and your business not sustainable. If you want to be generous, see and act to what’s in your customers’ best interest. Do it with intent. And do it from the heart. You can be…
Price or Terms?
Which one would you rather negotiate on: Price, or Payment terms?
Compensating
When you’re complying with what your customers asks about price: “a better price”, “a final offer”, “your offer is 20% higher than the others”, “my cousin can do it for less”, you’re giving away your power. And profit. And here’s something else. You’ll try to make up for what you’re giving away, in other things with that client. To which, if they don’t do or argue on, you’ll look for ways to get out of it as quickly as possible. And trying to do that is not in your customer’s best interest,…
The brightside
Here’s the bright side (and takeaways) from these friends-of-the-list about “workifor free”: “Perhaps the 95% didn’t “not show up” but rather found a more respectful use of their time.” Wes Wheless “The people you want to work with never ask you to work for free, and the ones who ask you to work for free are the ones you wouldn’t want to work with.” Genevieve Hayes “The secret isn’t showing up, it’s positioning yourself so that you never end up in the position where you have to compete…
A stand on working for free
Friend-of-the-list and fellow daily emailer, Danny Ruspandini, from Impact Labs wrote a post on response to “Work for free”. And it’s worth taking over the list today: On doing work for free. I feel pretty strongly about this, so I replied. For clarity, the context of my response is within your business – you know, the one where you’re a solo creative pursuing a career that supports you, and perhaps a few other people. It doesn’t include helping a friend move house, tending the garden at your…
To stand out, you need to be authentic.
“You need to be authentic” “You need to stay true to yourself” “Your followers are not following your company, they’re following you. The more personal your posts, the more empathy and engagement you will get.” “To be authentic, it means sharing your true self with your network.” Everyone tells you all of that and more. Yet, what does it even mean? Going a bit deeper than just “it means to be yourself”. Authenticity in business is more than just one thing. It’s a set of attributes that come…
“We’re trained to give ourselves up to be accepted.”
That’s why to be authentic feels like a threat. Check this short video ???? Founder of Metahelm, Guillaume Wiatr, had this to say: “We’re trained to give ourselves up to be accepted.” This resonates big time and explains why authenticity is a scary threat and, therefore, why it requires courage, strength, and honesty to find who we are.” They’re right. And this is why —especially with soloists, freelancers, indies— it becomes so fucking hard to say “No” to bad fits, to red flags. Because we…
The opposite of a good idea
Let me know what —to you— the opposite of a good idea is? 🙂
