Don’t persuade, permit.
As a business owner, your job isn’t to talk people into buying from you. You’re not trying to persuade. Instead, your job is to permit.
Weekly Labs
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5 Reasons Not to Work with Me
1. I provide very little documentation The strategy we’ll create together is ultimately yours, so formal documentation needs to be created on your end (with help and support) so that it doesn’t get rejected by your organization’s immune system. And I’m confident you know exactly what
The Perfect Strategy
If you ask anyone how to create a successful business, there’s a good chance they’ll say: “Talk to customers.” And, they’re right. But, if you don’t know what your best customers actually value most about you, you’re likely to optimize for the wrong things.
Don’t build a brand, deserve one.
Today’s newsletter is a shortened and focused version of last week’s rather lengthy article. If you didn’t get a chance to read it, or you just want a version that’s stripped down to the major points, this one’s for you!
“Make Me Laugh”: How to build a brand based on values
Darwin said that he “followed a golden rule, namely, that whenever a published fact, a new observation or thought came across me, which was opposed to my general results, to make a memorandum of it without fail and at once.”
"You'll get eaten alive."
In 1916, the Saturday Evening Post published “Obvious Adams: The Story of a Successful Business Man” by Robert Updegraff. In the story, the titular Adams becomes a sought-after consultant to business leaders who know they've been blinded by their own narrow perspective.
You can’t skip this step
Today’s newsletter is, hopefully, applicable to everyone, but it’s specifically focused on small business owners and consultants. No one else—no agency, partner, or consultant—can care more about your dream, your business, or your marketing than you do.
Don’t make pain the point
Here’s the sneaky secret nobody tells you about the motto, “No pain, no gain.” It works for some people, but not because pain is necessary. But because those people like pain.
Charge your value or lose it
I was talking to a good friend about a business idea he’s been mulling. He presented his (excellent) plan for the work he’d do, and the clients he’d attract. And then he said, “And I think I’ll just charge a couple hundred bucks for it.” Because I can’t help myself, I immediately blurted out, “No.”
It’s not everything—it’s this one thing
Everything is overwhelming. Writing the copy for your new website. Your social media marketing. Your latent guilt over not yet joining TikTok, and your growing worry that everyone else is moving faster than you are.
How to savour uncertainty
A lot of business owners are putting off working on their marketing strategy. They’re waiting for things to settle down, for the market to become more stable, or to simply have more certainty about the way things are going to go. But the problem is that they’re likely to be waiting forever.
It’s not that it’s wrong
Most of the small business owners and consultants we work with have, at some point, worked with other marketers before. And they’ll often come with some preconceived ideas about what they feel they should be doing.
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