Posts

Do the next right thing

 Yes, there are way too many things to do in a day.  But make sure you are making progress on the important things if not every day then every week. You may prefer to group your tasks (time blocking), which is totally fine. Do you know what's important? Truly important?  Use the Pareto Principle to identify the top 20% of the activities you do in a week or month that yield 80% of the results. Make sure you are moving forward on all of these either every day or every week.  Is there something that has fallen off your to-do list because it seems hard to get started that could be a big contributor to that top 20%? Is there something you should do regularly that will make you more of the kind of person you want to be 1 year from now or 5 years from now?  Find a way to get started on that thing, and keep taking baby steps every day. Keep track in a bullet journal or on the wall. And make yourself keep going day by day.  Yes, time is short. But you have control over how you spend it. Tak
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations on defeating obscurity

 What does Seth Godin say? Stand out - be the Purple Cow Be generous Find the smallest viable audience Use the network effect to your advantage - make the thing you do or sell work better if people invite others to do it also What do others say? You need 1000 true fans (not 1 million) Do things or sell things that people want to share with others (Jeremy Salem) Sell your thing to an existing group that talks to each other Keep showing up day after day after day until you break through the plateau where nothing seems to happen, and you emerge on the other side where things are moving really fast (Atomic Habits) The best product is not the one that wins. It's the one that communicates more clearly and compellingly what and who it's for and how it can benefit them It's not enough to be seen, although that in itself is quite difficult. You must have first understood your audience well enough that you can communicate with them in a way that they will understand. You must speak t
Post a Comment
Read more

Salesy vs. compelling

 A recent U pwork proposal caught my eye: "I'm looking for an ultra-compelling copywriter to write sales pages and emails for a mostly female audience. No heavy-handed, super sales-y writing please." I see this kind of tight-rope walking request frequently. Here's another: Professional and non-pushy tone Use of multiple buying hooks or signals to get results Clear calls to action So how do you come off as professional, and clearly call people to action without being "salesy"? The first is something you could do in person with a friend, or a level-headed person who had already hired you as a coach. You can make a clear pitch for something that is in their best interest - a win-win. And simply ask them to take action. No over-the-top claims or rah-rah needed. No overly emotional appeals necessary.  But if you can link your call to action to something they truly care about, without being manipulative, that's a plus. After all, human beings are not truly ra
Post a Comment
Read more

Tasks vs. Relationships

 I love to-do lists.  Creating them Checking things off Feeling like I've accomplished something I also love getting texts and other messages, even letters or Christmas cards from friends. The problem is, I like to feel that we can pick up those relationships from where we left off. And usually that "where we left off" is WAY too many years ago.  I've lived in four different states over the last 40 years, and have collected friends in each of them.  As I move, I lose that easy "keep in touch frequently because we show up at the same stuff every week" quality to the relationships. Same with my family, who all live 2 time zones away, and whom I only see in the flesh twice a year (in a non-Covid year).  Putting a relationship building "task" on my to-do list isn't something I've done before.  Why not? It seems easy enough to intend to connect with one person I haven't seen or heard from in a while each day, even if only for a few minutes o
Post a Comment
Read more

Obscurity is your enemy

 Whatever your audience, you need to be everywhere that they are:  Where they buy the other things they need that are related to what you do - online and brick & mortar.  On the lips of their friends Used and recommended by leaders they trust.  On blog lists of tools people in their niche use In the magazines they read At the races they go to On the social platforms they use Obscurity is your enemy.  People have to know you exist and how you make their life better before they buy from you.
Post a Comment
Read more