Life Lesson

Thankfully, when it comes to dumbness, it’s a temporary condition.

But it is a condition everyone must suffer as they pursue something bigger than themselves.

If the change you seek to make didn’t require smarts, it would have already been done and we wouldn’t need you.

It hasn’t, though. And we do need you.

Need you to run into situations where you’ll feel dumb, make decisions you’re unsure of, and raise your hand to ask a question you know everyone in the room knows the answer to but you.

We need you to feel dumb. Temporarily.

Stay Positive & It’s A Sign You’re Still Moving Forward

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At one point the coffee shop used to try serving more than its kitchen could handle.

At one point the brewery tested out what it was like to make sour beer.

At one point the comedian was a lawyer.

At one point I wore skinny jeans.

The idea of there being a version that you used to be isn’t a mark of failure. Often times, “at one point” is actually referring to a time that we were brave, that we took a leap, that we became a better version of ourselves.

There’s no need to get hurt when someone reminds you of what something used to be or how someone (you?) used to be. At one point, we were all lesser off than we are now.

Stay Positive & At One Point, We’ll Be Better Tomorrow Than We Were Today

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When everything you do becomes your story.

When every design of yours adds value (or doesn’t).

When all the interactions one has with you, your brand, your people, your packaging either makes or breaks the chance they’ll ever return.

When everything matters, it’s important to treat the work like theater. To direct people and give attention to every detail so it all dances together in the narrative the customer is telling herself.

It’s about knowing how to handle something off-the-cuff when a step is forgotten.

It’s about speaking from the heart and less about memorizing a script.

It’s about the thoughtfulness around one’s experience than what you hope they leave feeling.

Theater is about communicating through a combination of elements from lighting to music to gestures and speech. Everything matters.

Stay Positive & Let The Show Begin

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Our mission is to reduce the time of a disruption as much as possible.

If there’s static on the radio, how long before you turn the dial?

If there’s someone on their phone during a meeting, how long before you ask them to put it away?

If your supplier isn’t listening to your needs, how long before you fire them?

Those who will succeed do well to remove or reduce disruptions at an increasingly fast rate.

The real skill, however, is to notice that something is a disruption, to not sugar-coat it, to lean in on the reality of what it takes to make great strides forward.

Stay Positive & Professionals Don’t Have Time For Disruptions

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Big moments get all the hype.

Everything supposedly leads to them. We showcase them. The news covers them.

We remember big moments more easily and it feels good to have created a big moment.

But small moments deserve more attention.

They carry us when we’re at our most insecure. They repair us. They give us hope.

We hang onto little moments when they happen – unlike the big ones which quickly go away as we look to “the next big thing.”

Little moments make those who they impact feel as good as those who made them.

Little moments show our humanity.

When in doubt, focus on the little moments more.

Stay Positive & It’s The Little Things Moments

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Too often we confuse frequency and intensity when we try to reduce one.

We meditate in hopes it reduces the frequency of anxiety.

We put in extra hours in hopes it reduces the frequency that we get in trouble or may increase the frequency of a raise.

We surround ourselves with experts in hopes that it reduces the frequency of failure.

But the reality is that we’ll always feel anxiety and fear and failure. If we’re doing work that matters, they all show up to work with us, day in and day out.

Their frequency doesn’t drop.

That doesn’t mean we stop meditating or working smart or surrounding ourselves with professionals. No. Because there’s still a benefit to the intensity of those emotions.

They bring anxiety, fear and failure to a lower intensity, one you can dance with, one you can work with, one that doesn’t paralyze you.

So, by all means, keep performing your key stone habits and working smart, but know that it won’t reduce the frequency of the emotions you dislike feeling, but it will decrease their intensity so you can keep making a ruckus.

Stay Positive & Let’s Get Back To It

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There were enough reoccurring reminders this week that drove the need to share these tips with you.

1. Get input from all parties. If you’re working on a website or (insert your project here), talk to the developers, the client, the creative team, your close friends and experts in the industry. I’m probably missing a few folks you ought to talk to, but the more variety you have, the more information and tools you are equipped to lead with. Turns out the more parties you get input from, the more original the project ends up being, too.

2. Think ahead to where you will over invest and under invest. It’s this exact trend of there being no such thing as a steady project that makes the work worth it. It’s why we have professionals to lead projects and it’s the main reason some projects fail and others succeed. You’ll never have a project where every part to it takes the same amount of money or the same amount of time or resources. You’ll need to decide what’s most important on the project and what’s the least. Do that as early as possible and you’ll save your pocketbook, your friendships, your time and energy.

3. There’s no such thing as a map … until you make one. At least, there’s no map to success, no guarantee and there’s not enough reassurance you’ll get to make you feel confident in the success of your project. The closest you can get is to build the map yourself. Construct the timeline, the tasks, the responsibilities and the team. The only (and best, IMO) map you can have is the one you make yourself, but it takes guts to make it.

Stay Positive & Go Make A Ruckus

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