Most of the advice you find about hiring is focused or tailored for big corps. For a startup or a growing team? Not really. How do you get to nail

Balance. It pulls one side on, or from the other to make things even. It takes from one to give to the other, so it keeps an equilibrium. And sometimes

When going into running a workshop, having a sales call or getting to know a new prospect’s situation, I’ve come to get prepared-unprepared. WTH you mean, Rod? That you come

It all starts as a rant. What you find nuts, ridiculous or outrageous. Pour your words into it. Be pissed. Be upset. Call out the nonsense. Then, ask ONE question:

There’s no such thing as internal customers. A client is someone who pays in exchange for a service/product. A client is considered one who can make your business profitable via

Winning business. Sets the language and actions as a finite game. You win, I lose. In a competition, so to not lose, you need to crush the other players. That’s

It usually goes like this: What if… I fail I’m seen as a fake They call me out Turns out I’m not good at what I do This idea is

Most guides are to tell you How-To do things. Step-by-step processes that are great to do the actionable thing. Of great help when you’re stuck or trying something new. They

It’s a choice. Everything. You get to decide. It’s your business. Nobody else can put a vision to it. Nobody else is (truly) risking things for it. You get presented

To see and find gaps in your market begins with setting a baseline. To know yourself, ask questions to give yourself an articulate idea of who you are and what

Knowing your context. Now that you have a base to make comparisons, between you and your customers, it’s time to see the playground —and how you could find the gaps.

“See how much you can raise your prices without losing customers.Raise your prices, slowly, safe and sound.See how far up you can go.Don’t break what’s working.” How many times have

Not overdosing. OverDelivering. “Always underpromise and overdeliver” —Crap advisor We’ve been wrongly taught that using this scam (some call it tactic) will delight our customers. In reality, it’s a way

UnderPromising. Friend of the list, AI and Data Science expert, Genevieve Hayes replied to yesterday’s email on OD-ing (bold mine). “Reading this email after yesterday’s email made me realise that

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

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

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

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

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

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