When you sell to someone at a business, it’s worth remembering that the pain their problem is causing belongs to them, while the money they have to spend, doesn’t. Any time you can cure their pain in exchange for their boss’s (or the shareholder’s) money, that’s a compelling offer. The challenge is actually being […]
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Author: Bernice Kanini
Two heads or one…?
As a company gets bigger, there’s an inevitable split between the people who market what gets made and the people who design what gets made. At some organizations, it’s likely that these two people work in different buildings, and don’t spend much time together. One of the most important decisions made in the early days […]
The enemy of creativity…..
is fear. We’re all born creative, it takes a little while to become afraid. A surprising insight: an enemy of fear is creativity. Acting in a creative way generates action, and action persuades the fear to lighten up.
Confidence is a choice, not a symptom…
The batter has already hit two home runs. When he gets up to bat for the third time, his confidence is running high… It’s easy to feel confident when we’re on a roll, when the cards are going our way, or we’re closing sales right and left. This symptomatic confidence, one built on a recent […]
Digital is slippery…
When you build a building, it stays around for a long time. When you invest and staff a factory, it’s something significant, and it lasts. When Coke gets shelf space at the supermarket, the status quo is powerful and that shelf space might last a generation or two. Today, the smart money is investing in […]
Wishing vs. doing…
Wishing vs. doing By giving people more ways to speak up and more tools to take action, we keep decreasing the gap between what we wish for and what we can do about it. If you’re not willing to do anything about it, best not to waste the energy wishing about it.
The number one reason to focus…
You will care more about the things that aren’t working yet, you’ll push through the dip, you’ll expend effort and expose yourself to fear. When you have a lot of balls in the air, it’s easy to just ignore the ones that make you uncomfortable or that might fall. Success comes from doing the hard […]
Have you Set a date..??
If you haven’t announced a date, you’re not serious. Pick a date. It can be far in the future. Too far, and we’ll all know that you’re merely stalling. A real date, a date we can live with and a date you can deliver on. If your project can’t pass this incredibly simple test, […]
Your rotten fish problem…
The rotten fish problem On the first day, all the fish at the fish stall are fresh. Some sell, some don’t. The second day, the sold fish are replaced by newer, fresher fish. The unsold fish remains, even though it isn’t so attractive. By the third day, of course, the unsold fish is noticably […]
How to peel a banana…
There’s a better way to peel a banana. The process is frustration-free and prevents bruising. It even takes those stringy things off of the fruit. Try it. Instead of bending and twisting and eventually tearing the stem with your teeth. Hold the banana stem facing down. Now gently pinch the very top of the […]
Find the Answer in Your Hands…
Our bodies and mind were designed for movement.They were not designed for agonized,depressing paralysis. Yet our current culture and society urges us further and further into soft,lewd arms of comfort.Dark and clammy passivity beckons,and the world becomes obese with self nurturing. Your own way out of this cycle will show up for you once […]
Where Else Would You Look…?
Comedian Jeff Fox was joking about phrases we all utter without thinking.I laughed out loud when he mentioned that people hunting for a lost item often absentmindedly announce,”I found it in the last place I looked” Well,of course you did!Once you come across it,why would you continue searching? I feel the same way when I”m […]
How To Create Exponential Growth For You...
Most business focus only on one way to grow their businesses: get more customers. Usually this means expensive advertising campaigns that yield questionable results. They don’t do anything with the two other ways to grow a business, even though those ways are less expensive than getting new customers. And, by focusing on all of the […]
It’s a puzzle guys…
Succeeding in business today is like solving a living jigsaw puzzle. It is massively complex and complicated. You can approach the challenge in one of two ways. Employ a “top-down” design. Start with an image of what the solved puzzle should look like. Then use that image to decide which pieces to add. And, more […]
Exploit Learning Together…
Meetup,Toastmasters, AA, book groups,workshops,team building events,midnight basketball, community college, jazz bands, … There’s a pattern here. We learn best when we learn together. It’s not merely the logistic efficiency of putting people together in a room. Now that the internet replaces that efficiency, we see that ‘more for less’ is the least of it. Learning […]
Do you have clients or customers..?
You need to choose. Customers hear you say, “here, I made this,” and they buy or they don’t buy. Clients say to you, “I need this,” and if you want to get paid, you make it. The customer, ironically, doesn’t get something custom. The key distinction is who goes first, who gets to decide when […]
Think your way up…
In some of our seminars,one consultant like to draw a picture of a ladder on the board and call it “the ladder of selves.” On the very bottom he writes”The physical, in the middle he puts “The Emotional.” and on top he places “The Mind”. We can move up or down this ladder by the […]
Put your library on the wheels…
One of the greatest opportunities for motivating yourself today lies in the way you use your drive time. There is no longer any excuse for time in the car to be downtime or frustrating or time that is not motivating.With huge variety of audiobooks now available,you can use your time on the road to educate […]
Competence vs. Opportunities…
As we get more experienced, we get better, more competent, more able to do our thing. And it’s easy to fall in love with that competence, to appreciate it and protect it. The pitfall? We close ourselves off from possibility. Possibility, innovation, art–these are endeavors that not only bring the whiff of failure, they also […]
Are you good at listening ..?
Live interaction still matters. Teachers, meetings, presentations, one on one brainstorms–they can lead to real change. The listener has nearly as big a responsibility as the speaker does, though. And yet, Google reports four times as many matches for “how to speak” as “how to listen.” It’s not a passive act, not if you want […]
3 Signs You Will Fail as a Top Leader…
Outwardly, you appear effective, dependable, on top of things. But look closer. Are you in danger of destructive behaviors? Here’s a statement of the blindingly obvious: strong, effective leadership is better than weak, ineffective leadership. Thankfully, it’s usually obvious which is which–most of us can spot a strong leader from a weak one with relative […]
True professionals don’t fear amateurs…
Professional farmers don’t begrudge the backyard gardener his tomato harvest. That’s silly. And talented mechanics certainly don’t mind the antics of the Car Talk guys (or their listeners). Sooner or later, if you need a real mechanic, you’ll find one, and if you don’t, well, that’s fine too. A few years ago, typesetting, wedding photography, […]
Useful and believable promises…
That’s another way to think about marketing. We only sign up/pay attention to/pay for offers from marketers when: What’s promised is something we think is worth more than it costs and We believe you’re the best person to keep that promise. This applies to resumes, meetings and even the kid raking your lawn. If your […]
Waiting for all the facts…
“I’m just going to wait until all the facts are in…” All the facts are never in. We don’t have all the facts on the sinking of the Titanic, on the efficacy of social media or on whether dogs make good house pets. We don’t have all the facts on hybrid tomatoes, global warming or […]
Slightly rewarded (slightly punished)…
For most of us, it’s not the big traps that mess us up, it’s the little ones. Every time I break stride and distract myself by checking my email (a hundred times in a bad day), I get a small reward. I get the satisfaction of starting and finishing a project, on time and for […]
It’s a long story..
Isn’t it always? Actually, the long stories are the good ones. About how you found that great job, or discovered this amazing partner or managed to get that innovation approved. If long stories are so great, how come we spend all our lives working for the short ones? The very act of seeking out the […]
Where does trust come from…?
Hint: it never comes from the good times and from the easy projects. We trust people because they showed up when it wasn’t convenient, because they told the truth when it was easier to lie and because they kept a promise when they could have gotten away with breaking it. Every tough time and every […]
Thriving in a wet environment…
If you’ve ever fixed any kind of machinery, you know that a device that’s exposed to the elements is incredibly difficult to maintain. A washing machine or the underside of a car gets grungy, fast. On the other hand, the dryest, cleanest environment of all is the digital one. Code stays code. If it works […]
How to make money online…
The first step is to stop Googling things like, “how to make money online.” Not because you shouldn’t want to make money online, but because the stuff you’re going to find by doing that is going to help you lose money online. Sort of like asking a casino owner how to make money in Vegas… […]
Don’t give up (you’re on the right track
Wrestling with a puzzle, a project or a problem, the likeliest reason to give up is the belief that it can’t be done. What’s the point of persevering if it’s actually impossible to succeed? “It can’t be done,” we say, throwing up our hands. Not “I can’t do it,” or “It’s not worth my time,” […]
Fear, scarcity and value…
The things we fear are probably feared by others, and when we avoid them, we’re doing what others are doing as well. Which is why there’s a scarcity of whatever work it is we’re avoiding. And of course, scarcity often creates value. The shortcut is simple: if you’re afraid of something, of putting yourself out […]
Too far from the center?
The action used to happen at court. In France, if you wanted to get ahead, you put on your outfit, called in favors and hung out near the King, because proximity was all. If you’re in Kibera, are you too far from Silicon Valley to write an app? If you live in New Zealand, are […]
The difference between management and le...
Managers work to get their employees to do what they did yesterday, but a little faster and a little cheaper. Leaders, on the other hand, know where they’d like to go, but understand that they can’t get there without their colleagues, without giving those they lead the tools to make something happen. Managers want authority. […]