Life Lesson

Communication is a quirky thing and it can be broken up into three categories.

There’s the stuff we wish we would have said. This happens when we regret not being vulnerable. I was actually in a high school play wherein the entire premise was a series of people saying the things they never did – it was eye opening.

Then there’s the stuff we do say. It is what it is.

Lastly, there’s the stuff we think we shouldn’t have said. This often weighs us down as heavily as the stuff we wish we would have said. But here’s the reality – it’s far more beneficial to feel the concern of having said something wrong than to not have said anything at all.

It’s the vulnerable communication that helps everyone move forward.

Stay Positive & Is That Your Heart On Your Sleeve?

Photo credit

Changes are more inevitable today than they ever were before.

And the degree of change is more extreme.

People don’t change machines they are working on; they change entire industries – and every handful of months instead of handful of decades.

People are ready to leap to a different brand tomorrow with the slightest prompt; those dishwashers won’t stay in a house for 40 years even if they’re built to last 40 years.

The key then is to be ready for the leap. A whole lot more difficult than the actual leaping, IMO.

Stay Positive & Change Really Is Constant

Photo credit

Signage is tough work, but without it, there’s no chance of a business idea surviving.

Flat or protruding signs are important and many businesses choose the wrong one because they don’t think about the guest experience. Just because a flat sign makes a photo of a storefront look prettier, it’s fairly ineffective if people are never in a position to face it head on.

Another element that’s often left out, particularly because of cost, is lighting. If there are no street lamps directly near your sign, you need a light. This applies even if your business doesn’t operate after 4 p.m.

Signs work best when they work with other touch points that communicate the same thing. In short, there should be more people who know about whatever your sign indicates than the number of people who see it and are absorbing its information for the first time.

Keep these three sign tips in mind next time you evaluate your advertising efforts – be it with a large storefront sign or even a poster on the door.

Stay Positive & Send Better Signals

Photo credit

-Insert social platform or touch point here-

The recommended length: as much as you need to get someone to feel seen.

Note that it’s not as much as you need to tell someone what you want.

There’s a difference.

And it also happens that it only takes a few words to make someone feel seen.

Extra tip: If you’re writing to see yourself “We’re so proud to…” – go ahead and write it, but keep it internal or on your desktop. Your target doesn’t care how you see yourself.

Stay Positive & I See You

Photo credit

Will they miss you if you’re gone?

You want them to. That’s a great evaluation tool of whether or not you’re doing work that matters.

Unless, of course, they miss you because you didn’t do the work that they needed done.

For a client or customers, yes, they should miss you.

For a coworker or partner, you should be doing all that needs to be done so they don’t miss you if you’re gone.

Stay Positive & Going Going Gone

Photo credit

The only skeptic that matters is the one inside your head.

The others; the ones saying “don’t do it” or “a gal like you can’t do a job like this” or “you’re not qualified” – proving them does nothing because they don’t care. Prove them wrong and they’re onto the next person to skepticize.

But yourself on the other hand; that voice inside your head – that skeptic matters, that skeptic is worth proving wrong (or, how I prefer to frame it “prove yourself right”.) That skeptic matters because once you’ve proved yourself right, they catch on and the skeptical voice dies down.

Pave the way for doing meaningful work by shutting the only skeptic up that matters.

Stay Positive & Show Who Is Right

Photo credit

Embarrassment doesn’t do one any good.

It does good for others, though.

When they know you feel it. When you share stories about a time you were embarrassed. When you acknowledge that you’re embarrassed by something, but you talk about it anyway.

Not because people connect with the embarrassment piece, but because they find inspiration in overcoming their own feelings of embarrassment too.

So I guess I’m wrong in how I opened this blog post. Embarrassment does do one good, but only if one overcomes it.

Stay Positive & Let It Be Fuel

Photo credit