Life Lesson

It’s obvious that your website, ad copy or newsletter is about how great you are. Every reader or consumer expects and anticipates you to think that. You wouldn’t be in the business you are if you didn’t think it.

This begs a pretty important question: if someone can already assume that you have a dozen reasons why you, your product or your service is great, then what’s there to really say?

Perhaps it’s more important to say all the things you’re not and then explain why you’re not for everyone.

It’s crazy how validating that kind of messaging can be for someone–it’s easier to feel a part of a tribe when you know who isn’t in it.

It’s crazier still how effective it can be in converting someone who falls into one of the categories of who your brand is not for–namely because a brand that is clear about who they serve is a more inviting brand to be part of than the one that says they are for everyone and their grandmother.

Rather than riffing on how great you are, try riffing on what you’re not here for.

Stay Positive & Introduce The Tension, Don’t Wait For Someone Else To

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It’s a magical moment when a person (perhaps you’ve experienced this?) resolves that they have nothing to lose, so they leap, they try something different, maybe they make a drastic decision.

Normally the threshold is hit once there’s enough of a safety net or reassurance, but here’s the thing: there is always something to lose.

Which begs the question: What’s the real story we’re telling ourselves that leads us to leap?

Maybe we can tell ourselves that story more often.

Stay Positive & There Will Always Be Something To Lose, So Might As Well Leap Again And Again

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There’s confusion all around on what your best really is.

What they want is your best – as in, the authentic you, showing up in this moment and working to make whatever you’re making better than before.

What they don’t realize they are asking for (or what you don’t realize you’re giving) is your best so far – as in, the last possible version of your work on repeat.

Two kinds of bests. Which are you giving? Which are you asking for?

One is about perfection and repeatability. The other is about dancing with risk and full of nuance.

Stay Positive & The Choice Is Yours

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It’s safe to say we grow by being challenged. It might be a stretch, might be adversity, might be from falling down and getting back up or so on.

The tough part about this is that many parts of life don’t come with a dial to increase the challenge/growth.

It’s easy to do for things like weightlifting. Easy to do for things like a traditional education. Easy to do for a corporate ladder.

The real hard stuff, though–the meaningful stuff requires us to imagine there is a dial.

Do you feel like the dial is increasing with your writing? How about with your leadership abilities? Do you think you have more empathy for the target today than you did a week ago?

When was the last time it felt like someone (you, maybe) turned the dial up and made things harder on purpose?

Growth is in your control.

Stay Positive & Hopefully You Can’t Remember When The Dial Was Turned Down…

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Smile at a stranger and the rest will follow. No need to make sure they pass it along.

Write a meaningful message (from you or from a brand) and the rest will follow. No need to spend time contemplating how to make it viral.

Take the leap of applying to that job, that trip, that organization and the rest will follow. No need to get hung up on all the reasons you might not get picked.

There are certainly actions worth taking that require us to think ahead and think about it after the action.

Then there are certainly actions that aren’t. Ones that the rest simply follows.

Stay Positive & Let’s Not Mix The Two Up

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There are certainly some commodities we don’t want to mix and match.

Toilet paper for example. No one wants 24 rolls of all different brands, ply and designs.

Bulk commodities like that aside, there’s something special about mix and match offerings.

The special thing is a feeling; one of adventure, one of getting more value than the cost by getting multiple experiences, one of a guarantee there has to be at least one of the mix and match that one really enjoys.

If you’re not offering mix & match, it’s worth figuring out how.

You may not make as large of a profit margin, but you’ll more easily build loyalists among those who naturally gravitate toward mix & match opportunities (that’s a lot of people, btw).

Stay Positive & Mix First, Then Match

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If you’re creating or innovating a service or product that leverages AI, I implore you to include a toggle ability.

The Smart Nest Thermostat is always learning your temperature habits, but will 1. override your settings for the vacation you plan on taking and 2. if you edit it multiple times while on vacation, it’s going to learn from that.

Spotify is always learning what you like to listen to and will try to give you more of what you want to listen to, but perhaps you have a kid that you want to play children’s music for temporarily or you just feel in the mood for some polka music – guaranteed you’ll have a very different Release Radar populated for you next week than weeks prior.

Driverless vehicles are learning your routes, but one override to take the longer scenic route home forces the AI to question itself: maybe the path that has been taken up to today isn’t the right path.

What a beautiful thing having a widget to toggle the learning on and off would be.

Stay Positive & Don’t Wait For Suggestions For This To Reach Your Threshold, Build It In From The Beginning

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