One mindset to have that best builds momentum with a project is to imagine that you’re one domino away from starting the unstoppable chain of falling dominoes.
You might be one newsletter away from it really taking off.
You might be one pitch away from getting VC buy-in.
You might be one campaign away from catching consumer loyalty.
Certainly you can push through for one more, right?
The truth is, at some point in time, you really will be just one away.
Tighter copy packs more of a punch than lengthy copy. It appeals to the short attention span of a reader or browser. It’s good practice.
On the other hand, lengthier copy sends a signal. It’s perceived as you being invested in telling a story. Lengthier copy is more convincing at face value –that is, even without reading it.
If you’re unsure which length makes your audience more responsive, don’t go with your gut. Test it.
Then you don’t have to argue about cutting copy or adding more story; the data will direct you.
Stay Positive & Last Thing You Want To Do Is Assume
Rejection doesn’t tap you on your shoulder nicely.
It doesn’t send you a notice that you’re overdue.
Our brains aren’t wired to immediately accept or embrace rejection like it were an important friend we haven’t seen in awhile.
Rejection smacks. It wacks. It throws us off balance.
But there’s on advantage we have over it: we know it’s a sign that we leaped, we stretched, we tried something.
When we focus on that knowledge, we can find inspiration and energy to pivot again, to leap again, to dance with the rejection and find our footing again.
Your content consumption formulas and benchmarks are likely outdated.
Every day people are getting smarter.
Yes, broadly smarter, across a lot of different topics, but also deeply smarter around the ones they care most about (and, being blunt, even about some ones they don’t…).
Which means that an assumption can be made that people spend more time on pages, reading and connecting than five years ago, five months ago and five days ago.
If the average time spent on your blog page is 5 minutes (which is good), but it was also 5 minutes a year ago (which was good), that says something different about your content than you might otherwise be quick to conclude.
There’s a reason they call it a browser and that’s how they found you.
It does well to realize they’re primarily in the in the browsing mode, the consuming mode – and they want (no, they need) more than they did before.
Now is not the time to reduce your content plans (quantity or duration) – quite the opposite.
Stay Positive & They Also Call Them Consumers For A Reason
Need a plumber? There’s someone you know that knows the perfect person for it.
Want an idea to spread? There’s someone you know that knows the perfect person to share the idea with.
Another way to look at it…
You throw a party and tell people to bring friends. Turns out the two different friends of yours bring one of their friends, both of which happened to go to the same high school together.
You go to organize an event for a nonprofit and turns out your kid’s teacher’s wife is a board member.
We’re all a single connection away. If that’s not convincing enough to plan an event, ship your work or ask for help, I’m not sure what would be.
Nothing is perfect, and even when you get it close to perfect–when you feel like there are no more gaps to fill in the project–the success of that project slows down.
Why?
Because every project or idea is an innovation and every innovation follows the diffusion of innovation curve.
By the time you have your work perfect enough for even the laggards to get on board, the early adopters and early majority and, often times, even the late majority are onto something new.
