Rod Aparicio

commercial strategy for b2b companies in technical markets

Advisory

Insights

Challenge your beliefs about (your) business, brand and marketing in technical markets.

Be original. (maybe)

What makes you stand out. Sure. Saying you have to be “original”, “authentic”, “focus on the experience” will do the job… of saying nothing, or put you in a place

Sampling

In music, sampling is the act of taking one bit of a song/audio media and putting it to a different use from its first intended context. It can go from

If I do a job in 30 minutes…

“If I do a job in 30 minutes it’s because I spent 10 years learning how to do that in 30 minutes. You owe me for the years, not the

Getting Paid for Years

Internet connection problems. So here’s a great article by Tim Williams on the same subject of expertise. 🙂 Getting Paid for Years – Ignition Group.

You hear what you want to hear

If you’re focused on what you’re going to say next. On how to make your argument more solid. On how your point is the valid (and true) one. No matter

Surprise

To Sting, the essence of all music is surprise. Sting. Interview w/ Rick Beato. And in business, it goes the same way: the essence of all (meaningful) business is surprise.

Your job is to be an orange

“While the client always wants to level the playing field and compare “apples to apples,” your job is to be an orange. Do everything you can to show why you’re

Teach the game in verse

Friend-of-the-list and daily emailer Kevin Freidberg sent this message “Teach the game in reverse”. And I read “Teach the game in verse”, which also makes absolute sense, since his writing

Not being the expert

Not behaving like the expert can take many forms. One of them: trying to avoid pushback, arguments, or resistance in your relationship with clients. It can hurt you more than

Everything is sales.

You heard that right. Everything is sales. But doing sales is not (necessarily) selling. It’s helping to buy.

Maybe you need help

If you were thinking of writing, publishing and share your POV in your industry so that you can help your customers, doing it solo is ultra hard. And maybe you

Thought leadershit

“You can produce thought leadership.”It’s bullshit. That’s like saying that you can produce leaders. A step-by-step process where you get a person in and, like an output, they return being

DIscomfort

To lead, you need to feel discomfort. And to be cool with it. More than feeling comfortable in discomfort, it’s about feeling discomfort and still going through it. It’ll frustrate

A truthbomb

Friend of the list, daily emailer and author, Shweta dropped this post on thought leadership —and on thought leadershit, too. “No one can create thought leadership content for you, except

Snorkeling and business

For snorkeling, you: don’t need quite a lot of equipment: usually just a snorkel, a vest to float and fins. stay on the surface, need lots of sun protection, the

Below the surface

To go below the surface, you need special gear —more than just a snorkel and fins. And the stakes also get higher. What do you think it takes to see

What it takes to see under the surface

Understanding. Yeah, that simple. Understanding of principles, of the conditions, of the stakes themselves. Diving is a different kind of fun (from snorkeling), you can explore for longer what’s underwater.

Diving and business

They’re both about leading, and it will… frustrate you. stretch you. for sure scare the shit out of you. When you go diving, you go see what’s below the surface.

Fits

Fit in. Fit with. Fit. You’re supposed to find a product-market fit, a customer-product fit, a product-channel fit (omnichannel, right?), so that your business thrives. Which means you need to

2 dangerous things in business

There are 2 dangerous things in a world of fit-ins (besides being standard/average/best-practice): → Fit in Imagine this: you’re a square and have to mold yourself to fit in a

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

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

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

“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 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

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

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

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

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