Are you waiting for the big moment?
Are you saving your BIG IDEA for when you have the big audience and everyone is waiting for what you have to say? You’re not alone. This fear hits us all the time. You think that you’ll “save” your big idea for when you’re famous / recognized and don’t want to “spend” it early in your journey. But what if you’re not spending your best ideas? What if you’re refining them, live, with an audience? Think of it like a song you just wrote. It sounds good in your head, but unless someone else…
Less is less
And more is more —no shit, Sherlock. ????️♀️ You’ve been taught that “less is more”, as in the belief that simplicity and clarity will always mean more, by taking off what’s not necessary. However, what if it’s not less, but actually more? “More is more” by Monotype. To make it “less” cluttered, cleaner, clearer, complex, you need more. More thoughtful, more experienced, more nuanced, more focused on the other side: your customer. More “others-focused”. And less will be less brain work for your…
The problem with thought leadership
Most people think it’s about showing things and that “you know”. But who are we kidding? It’s most to get followers and do sales. It’s about paywalls, subscription or funding things. All focused on “me, me, me”. ???? It should be about thinking. Nothing else. And not even about showing how you think, but about what your thinking can do to help them get better.To move them to take action. To move them to take new perspectives. To challenge their own beliefs and thinking. Thought leadership is…
What’s with writing every *freaking* day anyways?
You can tell me how close or far this thing gets. You’ve often thought of ideas you have, but rarely got to publish them. You considered the idea of putting your views out there to help your customers and market, but found a roadblock on “Who am I to write/say this?” You actually started publishing content to grow your audience, but lost momentum and let it slide. You thought about publishing more often, but also asked yourself “What if I run out of things to say?” “What if what I wanna say…
What’s your prompt?
Justin Welsh wrote this post and it just hit home. Some time ago, I asked friend of the list and data scientist, Dr. Genevieve Hayes: – If, let’s say, 10 people in different parts of the world give the same prompt to chatgpt, would they all have the same answer?- Interesting question. My thinking is that unless the prompt is very simple and specific (e.g. what is 1 + 1?) then the 10 people will get different answers, even if they only differ by a few words. You can see this for yourself by…
Retirement
You get old, to a certain age and you retire, so that you can enjoy of savings —or at least not having to work. Retirement frames work as a chore —as something you’re not supposed to enjoy. At least not when you’re 65+. But what if what you do doesn’t need to feel like work? What if it’s about producing and feeling productive, disregarding of how much effort you put into that work? Here’s a confession: i wish i won’t retire. How about you?
The thing about AI
Here’s this one that was posted on linkedin: “You’re planning to retire and want to write for a living. How can you get started?” This question makes no sense. Retiring + doing something for a living Are you retiring or not? Because if “you need to do something for a living”, you’re not retired. But we’ll… AI —and lame filtering on the (hopefully) human side. Which begs my next question: Are you planning for retirement?
You need to get poor
Poor on what this lady says ???? Because when you get poor on your fucks to give, you get to be free-er. Are you publishing your thoughts to help your customers on a regular basis —or at all? Is it because “you have nothing to say”? Is it because all’s been already said? Well, it hasn’t been through your lens. So you do have something to say. And i bet there are people who’d love to hear about that. So, push.
“Know your worth”
That’s the common, void advice you get about how to do business and charge for the work you do. It’s pointless. Knowing your worth has nothing to do with what you charge for your work. What?! you say —but bear with me. If you’re worth a lot, then your customers oughta pay what you say, right? Let’s say your worth (and time) is $800/hr. Should they pay that money for you… Folding their socks? Mowing the lawn? Changing diapers? Designing a brochure? Writing code? Creating a strategy? If your…
Signals —when things go South.
Testing new launches, products, emails, promotions and whatever you’d like to have can give you the sense of control, that the risks will be minimized and success guaranteed. Life’s not like that —FYI neither are automations in new tech stacks. However, if you get to own what comes with it —good or bad. If you get to be mindful of what you’re trying to achieve, and have your customers at the core of it, you’ll have a better chance to reframe things. And embrace the unexpected. Like a “small”…