Why Try To Get Out Of Your Box, When You Can Use What's In It?
For those who remark they are waiting for inspiration to hit, I say,why not begin with hope?
Hope is something we can conjure on the spot. Hope is something we can give to ourselves as easily as we give it to others. Hope gets us through the tough spots.
When it comes to inspiration, I have to quote a friend of mine, “those who wait, always will.”
Stay Positive & Less Waiting, More Creating
Photo credit
It’s four degrees below zero out. There’s a lengthy line leading to a bus that’s going to take people to a craft beer and cheese festival. It’s clear where the line starts and that there were people waiting in line for awhile.
The bus pulls up past the start of the line to the middle of the line and opens its doors.
The fact is those who started the line, started it at a terrible spot. The fact is those in the middle of the line and who were looking straight into the open doors of the bus had an option. Do they enter or do they respect those who were in line first?
___
Jump back to September when I went to INBOUND15, a large marketing conference. People were waiting in line to see Amy Schumer provide the night’s entertainment. The line twisted this way and that, but when the doors opened, a stampede ensued.
___
Back to the bus.
The girl closest to the open doors motioned to those at the front of the line (a solid 15 feet away from the bus doors) to get on first.
She wasn’t just respecting the order of the line, she was respecting her tribe. I spoke outloud, “this is why I love craft beer drinkers.” If it was a line of people who love Amy Schumer waiting for the bus, I guarantee once those doors opened it would be a free-for-all.
___
We have the option to choose many tribes as we go through life. I think it’s worth paying attention and asking what makes this tribe great versus that tribe? Is it a tribe that has members who care for each other? Or is it a tribe with members who will step over you to get what they want?
Stay Positive & If You Can’t Find One, Lead One. Chances Are People Are Waiting For You
Photo credit
I’ve seen an increase of those who are fascinated with starting, but once they make their first sale, get their first client, deliver their first download, they slowly back out.
Starting is easier than you think. It’s the continuing that’s hard.
What’s odd about it is, by default when you start, when you put in that 15 minutes, the rest gets easier.
What are you doing if you’re not in it for the long run?
Stay Positive & By All Means, Start, But Continue Too
Photo credit
There are plenty of moments during a customer’s journey that you can either disappoint or delight them.
First there are the expected moments you put the most attention in, often around the moments of service or transaction.
Then there are plenty of given moments that happen without you remembering you planned them: forms, feedback sheets, notifications, letters, and the alike.
Lastly, there are the moments of priming. This is the giving you do before you ask. It’s top-of-mind for you because you’re always working to get new customers.
With these three monumental factors, any slight error can lead to disappointment and I’m going to tell you where it often occurs: the basics.
The givens, the planned items, the situations that have been set into a routine are often the moments of most disappointment for customers. Why? Because owners think that there are pieces of the customer’s journey that they can set and forget… and that’s simply not true.
The second moment that creates disappointment is in the moments of priming. For some reason, we get so much more excited about trying this clever widget or offering that neat discount for new customers instead of getting excited about investing in the lifetime value the existing customers.
As result, the existing base feels jipped. They feel that they’d rather give their money to someone who wakes up and works to win their hearts (business) every day.
The resolution is as obvious as you would imagine: listen.
Stay Positive & It’s Easy To Delight When You Listen To What Disappoints
Photo credit
There are two moments of total impact that a brand makes.
The first is at businesses inception. It’s based on the values the founder holds. It’s based on the reason the business exists. Think of Toms or Warby Parker or Krochet Kids. They started with impact.
A note on starting with the impact: you’re better off starting with impact than trying to tack it on. People can sniff out the fakes. No one you ask will associate JCPenney with X charity even though they have a jar at the register to collect donations. It’s not why JCPenney exists.
The second moment of total impact is far down the road and what we hope to stretch. It’s the impact we have after we make mistake after mistake trying to generate a difference, trying to do things differently, trying to create change.
Impact is that thing that happens when we stop trying to avoid blunders and embrace them.
Stay Positive & Turn Your Misstep Into A New Form Of Dance
Photo credit
Some stumble when trying to show proof of concept (PoC) for something that doesn’t exist yet.
They falter in their attempt to show PoC because, to them, PoC means to show the demand for what they’re offering, that people want it and use it in their own ways already.
However, PoC won’t truly exist for a new idea because the new idea doesn’t exist yet.
We can do as much market research as we want to pinpoint the best strategy for deployment, but, at the end of the day, what matters is if the idea worked or didn’t work – and the only way to show that is to have tried, delivered, shipped.
The telling rarely works before the showing.
That’s why it’s called show and tell, in that order.
Stay Positive & Set Out To Prove Your Way
Photo credit
On this episode of In The Box Podcast we talked about negative competition in the work place, giving ourselves permission to change our minds, every business having a blog, what makes craft beer special and the two important variables when it comes to starting a brick and mortar shop.
Episode 45: Business Blogs, Mortar Shops, Craft Beer And More
Work Place – How do you handle someone who is being negatively competitive with you at work?
Changing your mind – One tip on how to give yourself permission to change your mind?
Business blog – Should every business have a blog?
Craft beer – What’s special about craft beer?
Bonus – What are the two most important variables when it comes to location for a brick and mortar shop (does location matter as much as we think?)
Stay Positive & Listen To More
