Life Lesson

I learned a couple of work illusion early on in my life.

I worked with my dad painting and remodeling for 9 years. One observation I made during that time was the reaction customers had when we got the job done quickly. (What do you expect with an energized teen and a boss with more than 30 years experience?) We worked so many jobs to be able to do quality work in a short period of time…but that came with consequences.

Queue the labor illusion.

When work gets judged, we might say the speed of completion matters, but what really matters is that we’ve seen that you worked your butt off for us.

Speed and easiness on your end makes the customer, the client, maybe even the boss, feel cheated. Think about it. Most people view the amount of investment they’re willing to make by evaluating the time and effort they’re saving. If you make it seem quick and easy, they feel cheated.

Moreover, no one likes to feel like they could have done it themselves and saved money and humiliation in the fact they hired or asked someone to do something (that appears!) easy to do.

Another work illusion I’ve learned is the effort trap.

I’ve worked 16 hour days, 70 hour weeks. I’ve skipped meals, gatherings, events. I’ve given up a lot in the attempt to feel, and (admittedly egotistically) say I’ve worked hard.

Our work culture is exhaustive. Literally meaning we convince ourselves that we ought to judge our work by our tiredness, even though every artist ever will say a handful of hours of focusing on one single project is more fulfilling and lucrative then working two different jobs, cramming four different projects and plowing through all your emails.

Now comes how to rid these illusions.

You know how when you have a gift for someone, it feels good knowing you’re going to give it to them when you see them? You go your entire day knowing and feeling that you’re about to make someone’s day.

Think of your work as a gift. (I hope you already do.) Don’t work hard to create something and give it away right away. Hang onto it. Make it special. Give it to your boss, your client, your coworker when it will mean the most to you both. (Hint: now is not always the time to give a gift)

As for the effort trap. Completing the toughest tasks of the day first remains the best option.

If you still care about working hard, work hard to do these two things rather than filling your day with busywork.

 

Stay Positive & Do The Right Things, Not just Lots Of Things

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Five years ago I was at the average marketer status. It was insanely easy to sell to me. It didn’t require much insight, care or passion to get me to give my email address, to subscribe, to purchase something that was “proven to make my life easier.”

A lot of brands and businesses, I think, are still trying to market to average people like I was.

There was a time that the masses were average so it was easy to turn profit. Now not so much. Something’s changed.

The issue facing big brands set in their ways is that the time spent at average (for an average person) is shorter than it has ever been. Fewer and fewer people are staying average.

People (you?) are seeing the benefit of pursuing their passion, of being a part of something for the long-run, of caring about being cared about (and by extension, how they’re marketed to).

The scared brands and businesses are spending their time and money marketing to people that they better stay average so they don’t have to change their way of marketing.

The rest, the leaders, the ultimately successful are finding a way to market to above-average people in ways that are unique to them.

 

Stay Positive & Built A Tribe, Not A Customer List

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A regular complaint I hear about organizations, brands and PR agencies is employees and members want more collaboration.

The digital team needs to work better with the PR team.

The customer service staff needs to work better with the sales team.

Things need to be more integrated.

Here’s your solution: investing 15 minutes in another team member changes the future of a project.

Connectivity promotes longevity. Consistency promotes efficiency.

Investing 15 minutes in a 1-1 conversation with someone from another department changes the dynamics. I’m more willing to put my heart into something you’ve asked for because we’ve connected. You know how to write an email that speaks to me better than before because you’ve got a read on me after 15 minutes of quality conversation together.

If everyone spent 15 minutes connecting with someone new each day, you would be impressed with how many issues are resolved, how many inconsistencies get dissolved, how smoother all the daily processes and work flows.

 

Stay Positive & 15 Minutes Changes Everything

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1) real-time marketing is only permitted when a brand has a go big or go home culture and has a strong trusting relationship with the PR agency they’ve hired

2) the newest type of marketer is the magazine editor-type of marketer; content, business and storytelling is everything

3) you must think mobile first

4) real meaning can’t be found through search, you’ve gotta create it yourself; it’s what people talk about online, it’s not what you find online

5) there is always more money to fund a great idea

 

Stay Positive & Truth Be Told

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Designing sharable content, content that can go close to viral, content that people care to tell their friends about is quite easy if you look to human truths.

What human truth do people want to share with other people?

More importantly, what human truth do people want to share with other people that says something about the sharer.

Is it the truth about weird things couples fight about (and more importantly how you still care about each other after it)?

Now it’s on you to design how your business or brand fits into those human truths.

 

Stay Positive & Don’t Just Be Human, Share Human Truths

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There was a moment in my life that I wanted to be an event planner. Then there was a moment I was. Then there was a moment in life that I wanted to be the speaker at the events. Then there was a moment I was.

I’ve organized, spoken at, and attended hundreds of events (and continue to do so on a regular basis). I’ve noticed a trend that events with speakers are becoming less attended while events with panels and round tables are becoming more attended.

There’s a strong correlation between the opportunity of connection to the attendance and ultimate success of an event.

It’s merely one more indicator we’re in the middle of a connection economy. Those who work within it, who leverage the masses desire to connect will be best off.

 

Stay Positive & Talking With, Not To

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You have a great pitch, an epic deck presentation, a flawless long-haul game plan for a client and then they turn you down.

You could begin to downplay your work. Maybe it did suck. Maybe you were wrong. Maybe you didn’t think it all the way through.

More often than not, the client is merely afraid. Afraid to try jump on a new social platform. Afraid to change their ways. Afraid to make too many moves too fast.

The thing about a fearful client is you can’t rationalize with them. No matter how strong of an argument you make for your plan, no matter how many statistics you throw at them, no matter how many safety nets you show there are, they still won’t buy in.

No.

The only way to market to the fearful is to present them with something they fear even more.

When you expand a clients spectrum of possibility, what they once feared begins to look and feel less scary and more doable.

When you’re pitching creative ideas, two might make perfect sense to do, but always throw in a third that is so far out there, so big of an idea, so drastic of a change so the client knows not only your full potential, but the full spectrum of possibility from what they’re doing now to what really can be done.

The further you push the spectrum, the easier the client will go all in.

 

Stay Positive & Remember That Everything Is Relative To Who You’re Convincing

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