?

Think about the last time you got some good news. Some REALLY good news.

How did it make you feel?

Did it make the rest of your day even better? Or worse?

I’m betting it made the entire day better. Success breeds success, and all that.

Years ago I’m watching a sales guy attempt to brag about a big sale he’d just made. He’s reliving it moment by moment with the owner of the company. It’s a very good sales and he’s clearly excited about it. He also happens to be among the top tier of salespeople in the organization. This isn’t his first rodeo.

The owner grabs the paperwork from his hands, surveys it carefully and begins to grill the salesperson. “Why did you sell them this?” pointing to an item on the paperwork. “You should have sold them (and he mentions something other than the item they purchased).” Almost line by line he criticizes the sale.

The salesman entered the office walking on air, elevated by his success. He left the office crawling on all fours, wondering why he was even working there. A person excited to share good news was summarily shot down faster than an Oklahoma covey of quail.

Tell Me Something Good was a terrific 1974 funky song performed by Rufus and Chaka Khan, written by Stevie Wonder. But it’s more than a 70’s funk hit. It should be a way of life for your leadership. The previous story is how NOT to do it. Let’s talk about how to do it and how to do it better.

You’re smart. You already know that people crave encouragement. You do. You love it when people encourage you. And I don’t mean that empty “come on, you can do this” kind of encouragement. I mean when somebody spends the time to understand what you’re going through, and they want what’s best for you – and you trust them. You crave encouragement that expresses deep belief in you.

That’s universal. Everybody in your organization has the same craving. They’re all anxious to hear something good. Especially something good that involves them.

Your job? Find it. Then share it. Tell people something good. Get in the habit of focusing on the successes.

“Wait a minute, it’s my job to find what’s wrong and then fix it,” says the business owner. Is that right? Is that your job as an entrepreneur and business owner.

Concentrating on something good doesn’t require turning a blind eye on the things that can be improved, or the things that need to be fixed. I’m asking that you flip the priority around from how you may have been approaching these things inside your organization. We focus quickly on what’s wrong – what’s bad. In the process, we too often neglect the slightest recognition of what’s working, the good. We behave like parents of a kid who brings home all A’s and one C. The C leaps out and we give it all the energy we can. I implore our child to do better. We ask them why they’re struggling with this class. The C is the odd man out among a list of A’s and it gets all our focus and energy. Is that what you’re doing inside your company?

Shift your focus. Think differently. Think better.

Try it for a week and let me know how it goes. Starting today, look FIRST for the good news. Find the success. Momentarily, ignore the failure. Ignore the problem. Just for now.

Train yourself to find the good news.

Now, share it. First, go to the people responsible. Do it in front of others. Not in some big, formal fashion. Just do it wherever these people are. Go to them. Don’t call them to your office and do it behind a closed door. Make it spontaneous and on the spot.

“Guys,

Communication. Connection. Collaboration. Culture.

These four C’s are a vital part of my work in helping entrepreneurs and leaders. The need is great. Higher human performance in the workplace is stymied by people’s inability or unwillingness to accurately read each other and situations. We used to simply refer to these things as “soft skills,” even though they’re very hard for many people. Today, a more sophisticated term for it is EQ or emotional intelligence. Pick your poison.

If we can’t improve our communication then I don’t know how we can improve our relationship with the truth. It’s too easy to dismiss alternative points of view or opinions that differ from ours. We rather love our assumptions and blind spots. Of course, they aren’t blind at all to us.

Listening is a prerequisite to understanding. First, we must learn to listen with a favorable bias for the truth, which isn’t always absolute. It’s sometimes contextual. That is, I have a truth that is comprised of who I am and the circumstances of my life. Those are unique to me. Yes, you and I may share some common components, but we’re still very different. Not all truths are matters of somebody being right and somebody being wrong. These kinds of truths just “are.”

Our connection fosters our ability to work together and accomplish more than either of us could alone. But first we must understand each other and that’s impossible without effective communication.

You can’t reason with unreasonable people.

Still we often try. I fancy myself to be a fast learner, but I confess that I find myself still trying to help people understand things. Sometimes these people are unreasonable. I’m learning how to better value my time and stop wasting it trying to reason with unreasonable people.

CEOs, entrepreneurs and leaders often lament similar feelings as they work to engage people, convey some important initiative for which they want high engagement — but they find some people wrecking the process. Unreasonable people.

I like to think we can convert people, but maybe not. You have to decide for yourself if the person is worth the effort. Some may be worth it, others not. You know which ones are which. Help those who can be helped. Fire the ones who can’t.

Connection doesn’t look identical to each of us. But it’s obvious when it’s happening and when it’s not. As a leader, you must judge whether people are putting forth the effort to connect or not. My personal decision as a leader is to not tolerate people who won’t work toward connection. Get on board, or get off the boat. I’m not interested in passengers. I want sailors willing to help serve each other. You decide how you most want to roll.

Leaders can get this stuff out of order and find themselves frustrated. For example, the boss gathers a team, throws them in a conference room and then tasks them to work together on a project. An important project.

The problem is there are people on the team who don’t communicate with any regard for the truth, except how they see it. As a result, there’s not any solid connection, but the leader leaps straight to collaboration, then wonders why it doesn’t work as well as he hoped. Cart before the horse syndrome. You have to get communication and connection right. And it’s why this topic took two little episodes to discuss — truth matters.

The truths that are absolute, with compelling evidence. And the truths that each individual holds based on their personality and circumstances. Both require more deeply understanding.

Ronald W. Pies is a professor of psychiatry in New York. He wrote an article in The Conversation back in March of 2017 entitled, ‘Alternative facts’: A psychiatrist’s guide to twisted relationships to truth.

It’s a timely topic for any time, but increasingly timely given how little culture seems to care about truth or facts. Opinions and feelings are the order of the day. A heightened radar for being offended is a prize possession today. We’ve taken political correctness to new extremes.

Here’s what Professor Pies writes in the article:

First, we need to make a distinction often emphasized by ethicists and philosophers: that between a lie and a falsehood. Thus, someone who deliberately misrepresents what he or she knows to be true is lying – typically, to secure some personal advantage. In contrast, someone who voices a mistaken claim without any intent to deceive is not lying. That person may simply be unaware of the facts, or may refuse to believe the best available evidence. Rather than lying, he’s stating a falsehood.

“You can’t handle the truth!”

Jack Nicholson’s character, Colonel Nathan R. Jessep, in the 1992 movie, A Few Good Men, shouts from the witness stand that famous line. It’s never been truer and in context than today. People seem to be unable – more like, unwilling – to handle the truth. So we fight back with lies and fake claims. Or we take issue with everything as “offensive.”

What’s the impact on our organizations, our businesses, and our leadership? 

Plenty. And the cost is going to escalate. Our organizations mirror society. Whatever demons society battles find their way inside our organization. People are touchy. Dug into positions. Closed minded. Unwilling to listen. Not interested in understanding. Selfish. Proud. Conceited about their own knowledge and intelligence. The epidemic is well underway.

Situations are unique. It’s impossible to come up with some short list of solutions that apply universally. Life is too complex for that. People and circumstances have to be considered. And therein lies a big part of the problem. Our ability to read people and situations determines how well we can handle the truth. It can completely determine our vision and our blind spots.

We don’t know what we don’t know.

Increasingly, we don’t care either. Ignorance is bliss, but we feel our ignorance is superior knowledge. Greater wisdom. We’re right. They’re wrong. Period. End of discussion.

Mainstream news and politics are at the forefront of the nonsense, but it permeates every arena. It’s especially disconcerting for a guy like me who has committed emphasizing communication, connection, collaboration, and culture as the basis for higher human performance. The need has never been greater. Sadly, closed minds may have never been more rampant.

Our relationship and value of the truth – even if that truth isn’t absolute, but how somebody else sees a thing – determine our willingness to engage in the first of the four C’s that are my focus. Communication.

“Wait a minute! You don’t agree with me? Then I’ve got nothing to say to you and I’m sure not going to listen to anything you’ve got to say.”

That’s often our default. Lost along the way is the fine art of persuasion and influence, things we need if we’re going to move forward. I know we think of these things in terms of marketing and selling stuff, but we need them if we’re going to advance ideas and...

Strife doesn’t build a stronger organization. Conflict won’t deepen a leader’s influence.

Confrontation is commonplace leadership topic. I often hear managers lament how they hate it and work hard to avoid it. Frequently they feel that confrontation is synonymous with strife and conflict. It’s not. Well, it doesn’t have to be.

Let’s talk about this and see if we can better understand how our leadership is too often damaged because we’re not seeing things clearly enough. Defining some terms can help. We’ll start with some dictionary definitions because that’ll help point out why we’ve got a problem.

Strife is angry or bitter disagreement.

Conflict (which is synonymous with strife) is a serious disagreement or argument.

Confrontation is a hostile or argumentative meeting or situation between opposing parties.

Do you agree with those definitions?

Let’s work in reverse now. Confrontation has another definition, based on the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. And this is the first definition listed.

“a face-to-face meeting”

Strife and conflict aren’t even third cousins to confrontation. But we confuse them. Easy to do because of the idiocy behind keyboards today where people can spew whatever venom they want. Daily we see folks dig into positions, stop up their ears, and refuse to listen long enough to understand anybody else, especially anybody who may disagree with them.

Waging war is easy. Understanding is hard. So too often people plant their flag and declare war!

Is it possible for your leadership and your culture to foster disagreement without increasing strife and conflict? Can people disagree in your organization without behaving poorly? Can people disagree without being disagreeable?

Of course, they can, but some things are mandatory.

Strong leadership is a must. Fairness and respect have to be protected.

Strong leaders understand that enthusiastic debate can fuel some of the best ideas and creative solutions. Rather than putting a negative connotation on the emotions, strong leaders help people harness those emotions toward learning, understanding and growth. Team members are encouraged to listen without judgment. Strong leadership can help show people the value of supporting the team’s effort, even though there may be disagreement over specifics. This largely happens when the leader keeps the team focused on the big objective. Disagreement over details doesn’t have to result in disagreement over what the team is trying to accomplish. Nor should it.

Safety and trust are required. If they don’t exist, all bets are off. Conflict is sure to follow.

Teams can build trust and safety. To elevate team performance, leadership must make those qualities top priority in the culture.

Intentions matters! If people are pursuing agendas other than those best for the group, then it’s easier for individuals to behave selfishly. Trust and safety don’t exist where selfishness is allowed.

Strong leaders are tough on intentions. People don’t behave perfectly. Sometimes we all mess up. But it’s very important that people learn to exhibit care and concern for the team and the team’s objectives.

“If your end of the boat sinks, so does mine.”

Strong leaders require behaviors to reflect that intention. They don’t allow anybody to violate that without great personal cost. It’s not being intolerant of individualism. It’s being intolerant of autocratic tyranny.

Ideas, opinions, and thoughts deserve to be tested. Vigorously. 

If people can merely toss out some idea,

“You’ve got to get excited. That’s how innovation happens.”  – Stephen Sanger, CEO, General Mills

Enthusiasm is energy. Well, at least it’s one form of energy. A form of energy you’re going to need to reach new heights in your business (and in your leadership).

Somebody said to me, “You can’t manufacturer enthusiasm.” I didn’t argue, but I instantly thought, “Sure you can. You can likely manufacturer or fake just about anything.” But I don’t think he properly expressed the thought. Excitement and enthusiasm need to be authentic. Genuine.

Three grandkids are overtaking my kitchen one morning. I ask them about breakfast. “Who wants oatmeal?” I ask, knowing at least 2 of them (the boys) rather like oatmeal. Big sister pipes up, “I don’t like oatmeal. I want eggs.” Middle brother pipes up, “I don’t like eggs. I want oatmeal.” I ask little brother, “Do you want pecans in your oatmeal?” Before he can answer, big sister chimes in, “He doesn’t like pecans.” I fetch a pecan, give it to little brother and he scarfs it down, then says, “I want pecans.” This is a 3-ring circus. As usual when these beggars are at the house.

I have flour tortillas so I offer to make big sister a breakfast burrito. “I don’t want cheese in it,” she says. “What? You don’t cheese?” I ask. “I don’t like cheese with eggs,” she declares.

Siblings. None of are excited by the same things. Not even the same breakfast foods. Ask them why they like what they like, why they hate what they hate…and they’ll look at you like you’re crazy. They get excited about whatever they get excited about. They’re little kids so they don’t know how to fake anything. Yet.

Such is the case with genuine excitement versus manufactured excitement. True enthusiasm looks very different from fake. The results are different, too.

To go from here to there (from wherever you are to where you most want to be), you need to get excited. You need genuine, true excitement for the work. The goal should excite you. Not in some dreamy, wishful thinking sort of way, but in a way where you believe in it. Where you believe in yourself and your ability to accomplish it.

That’s why HOW is more important than people claim. Pundits declare that big thinkers and high achievers don’t focus on how. Rather, they focus on who can help them. Sounds good, but when you focus on who you’re leaning into how because at the heart of your who is “how can they help me?” I just don’t think how and who are so distinctly separate. And these two concepts – or truths – matter because they’re both required if we’re going to be truly enthusiastic about whatever it is we’re chasing.

How are these important? Because without them you’ll struggle to believe. Without belief, excitement will falter.

A person can get all amped up about some “get rich quick” scheme, but the enthusiasm fades once adversity hits. And adversity always does hit. Fake excitement over an imaged outcome. Sorta like hitting the lottery. Manufactured enthusiasm about something that could happen won’t last. How long can you stay excited about the prospect of winning the Publisher’s Clearing House contest? Not long.

Something else, too. Excitement over such things doesn’t provide any value. You’ve got to be excited about something that needs your purposeful, intentional action. In short, be excited about what you can do to alter the course of your future! That’ll pay off,

I’m going to blow things up and reassemble them, hopefully with a much faster design with an intense focus on mobile experiences. My hosting service – purchased from MapleGrove Partners – is crazy fast and great. I love it. You should buy it if you’re looking for a rock solid, inexpensive hosting that is ridiculously secure. I don’t get a single penny for recommending it, but you should buy it today if you’re in the market for top-notch hosting!

This site is bloated. It happens. WordPress is terrific and I’ve loved it for many years. But, things accumulate. Premium themes, even great ones, have limitations that require extensive plugins, unless you’re a hardcore developer/coder (I’m not). Page loads slow down. Queries pile up to the sky. Things don’t play as nicely as they once did.

So it’s time to blow it up and reboot with a fresh no-nonsense approach. Mobile users, which now accounts for 63% of web users with 37% consuming their content on a desktop. That was the last study I saw back last summer. I’m quite certain that the mobile number is rising and the desktop number will continue to come down.

When we’re on a mobile device we don’t stop to admire the pretty design. We simply want to get what we’re after. Minimalism works. Fancy doesn’t.

The Grow Great Daily Brief podcast gets some traffic, but most of it honestly comes through podcast catchers like Stitcher or Apple Podcasts. Even so, when visitors do come to the site most of them are on a mobile device and the site experience just isn’t good enough to suit me.

Brace yourself because I’m going for speed, speed, speed and ease, ease, ease for folks who visit this website. I won’t be posting anything until I get it done and I can’t promise the site will look like much of anything as I’m working the kinks out. I’m keeping it live instead of opting for some maintenance plugin. No need to make things more cumbersome than necessary.

I’ll be back as soon as I’ve got things mostly under control. In the meantime, I’ll see you over on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or Linkedin.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Few things are more closed than a closed mind. Somebody smarter than me will have to teach us why we close our minds, but I’ve been fortunate enough to have experienced a few epiphanies in my life that forced my previously closed mind to OPEN. Each time I feel like reenacting that old V8 drink commercial. Smack my forehead and shout, “Wow! I could have had a V8.” Except I’d have shouted something more like, “Wow! I can’t believe I was so stupid.”

But another emotion has always quickly followed. Thankfulness. I don’t linger too long in berating myself for being so narrow-minded, or blind. Instead, I’m thankful somebody helped influence or convince me to reconsider what I thought, felt or believed.

Blind spots are funny creatures. They live inside your head and you don’t even know they’re there. But once you spot them, you can’t ignore them. And when you change your mind, they go away. Well, to be fair – those specific blind spots may. But new blind spots are still there. Until something or somebody reveals them. That’s why I’m so intently focused these days on surrounding yourself with people who can caringly challenge you. And your blind spots.

There are some important common denominators I’ve seen in a closed mind. My own and others. Talking about these may help us understand some things we can do to open a closed mind.

For starters, isolation fosters a closed mind. 

That doesn’t mean we have to become hermits. We can isolate ourselves on a subject matter. A person can be surrounded by people but never foster interaction with anybody who may challenge a particular point of view. Leaders do this more frequently than they’re able to admit. A leader operates based on a set of beliefs that are never challenged because he won’t allow it. Mind closed. Simultaneously, he can be open-minded about many other things that aren’t based on strong beliefs. The stronger the beliefs, the more closed the mind may become.

Agreement fosters a closed mind.

When I think back to the times when my closed mind was challenged I realize that my blind spot (and closed mind) were largely fueled by a lack of challenge. I thought something to be true. The people around me thought the same thing. Result? Our agreement never provoked us to take a closer look.

Assumptions are too comfortable. Much more comfortable than considering they may be wrong.

My closed mind was always (100%) the result of assumptions I thought were absolutely, positively correct. Until I learned they weren’t. Or they may not be.

It’s smooth sailing to go our merry way, day after day, living with all the things we’ve always assumed to be true. Honestly, there’s just no work involved.

The workout that kicks our butt is to have those assumptions challenged. To have somebody in our life who cares deeply enough about us to challenge us to make sure we’re seeing things correctly. It’s not about somebody who wants to manipulate or coerce us into their way of thinking. It’s about somebody who caringly, and bluntly, is able to express enough concern for us that they want us to make sure we’re seeing things clearly. Clearly enough to learn, understand and grow.

It’s less about persuasion. It’s more about making sure you’re seeing things accurately.

In my own experiences, my previously closed mind was opened not by somebody who was an opponent seeking to win an argument, but a trusted friend intent on helping me make sure I’m correct. And now we’re onto something powerful I think. Don’t you?

This is why I’m intent on whoever surrounds us not being judgm...

“I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.”  – Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway was right. Most people don’t listen. At least, not well enough. Or often enough.

My son owns and operates his own home inspection business. Here in Texas, that’s a licensed occupation requiring substantial training and certification. The other day we were chatting about all the opportunities in the trades, especially in a big market like Dallas/Ft. Worth. He’s got very solid people skills – those soft skills that present big challenges for some. We’ve both had frequent encounters with business owners in various trades, but he’s obviously running into more of them than me. During our chat, I commented that too many of these people talk too much. They’re busy with what they want to say to pay close enough attention to how the customer or prospect is reacting. He confirmed that he sees the same thing.

It’s not just a problem among the trades. It’s fairly rampant everywhere.

Questions determine our success.

Many years ago I crafted a mantra, “The quality of our questions determines the quality of our business.” The context? Salespeople who asked stupid questions because they weren’t thinking clearly enough. The result was ongoing, systemic problems that could have easily been avoided if salespeople would have just asked better questions.

Through the years I’ve continued to use that mantra because it seems to be accurate in every area of business building. It’s true in selling, negotiating, buying and any other business activity. For good reason. It’s communication. Get better at it, and it’ll help you grow as a person – and it’ll help you grow your business.

But there’s something else to it.

Curiosity and learning.

Have you noticed that the people who talk too much are never asked questions? We don’t have to ask them. We know that at the first pause they’ll run their mouth until they run out of breath. Some won’t stop even then. We’re not very interested in what these people have to say. Ironic, huh?

Then there’s the person we’d like to learn from, but they don’t dominate the conversation. Maybe that’s why we’re drawn to them.

They’ll tell us if we ask. But won’t if we don’t.

Questions give us opportunities to listen, but only if we’re being honest in how we use them. Don’t ask a question to set yourself up to talk. Ask a question to discover what you don’t know. Ask your questions to learn, understand and grow (LUG). When you narrow your focus on LUG it’ll alter how you construct questions. It’ll completely change the questions you ask, and how you go about it, too.

Curiosity and learning are drivers. And results.

Your curiosity finds satisfaction in listening to great questions answered. Your learning is expanded when you listen to answers with a motive to understand.

Pay attention to the person. Watch them carefully. Listen to them even more so. Be intentional in trying to understand the person. It’s deeper than trying to understand what they’re saying. That’s important, but understanding who they are and what they’re feeling is equally important.

When you’re selling (and at other times, too) there’s another enormous value in asking questions – which provide you an opportunity for active listening. You demonstrate that you care about the other person and what they think, and feel.

Do you workout? Maybe take walks? Lift a few weights? Or do you ignore all that stuff and neglect your fitness?

Don’t. Commit to improved health right now. Just a little bit every day until you make it a positive habit.

But I don’t care if you get 6-pack abs or not. I’m more interested in the muscle between your ears because that’s THE most important one. Get that one fit and it’ll serve your entire life well.

Last week Undeniable with Dan Patrick premiered on the Audience Channel, a DIRECTV exclusive. Joe Buck used to host the show. Dan’s first guest was Ray Lewis, Hall of Fame linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens and 2-time SuperBowl champion. Listening to Lewis’ story made me realize I didn’t quite judge him correctly.

Every episode of the show they have a quote by the guest up on a wall. Ray Lewis’ quote was…

“The hardest thing to do is work hard when no one is watching.”

Ray’s story is interesting and like all great stories, it includes a ton of adversity and determination. We’re surrounded by books, articles and podcasts sharing stories of intense resolve by people of extraordinary talent (like Ray Lewis) and people who are far more common and ordinary in their natural talent. But they’ve got something others don’t, a very fit mind. A strong mind.

“Change your thoughts and you change your world.”    – Norman Vincent Peale

Most of us have heard such things all our lives. It still seems like hocus pocus for many of us. Just so much mumbo jumbo. I suppose that’s why it works so marvelously for the few who are able to really engage their brain with whatever they’re trying to achieve. It largely hinges on how driven people are to get their mind in gear toward a pursuit.

What do you most want to accomplish?

What’s the very next step?

I pose these 2 questions because it seems to me they reveal the stumbling block facing many people I encounter. And they also represent the stumbling blocks that often get in my way.

The human mind is able to hold two contradictory thoughts. That doesn’t mean we ought to practice that. We’re also able to have many ambitions. Dreaming and imagining provide countless fictional opportunities for our life. They may be fictional only because they’re not yet real. Or they may be fictional because there’s no way they’ll happen because we all have limitations. Ray Lewis was a Hall Of Famer not merely because he had his mind made up to be a great football player. He had the talent and physical skills necessary. He needed both. Natural talent and skills are required, but without a mind made up…Ray Lewis wouldn’t be in the Hall. Lots of football players have tremendous physical talent and skills, but they lack a strong muscle in their head.

All the possibilities can distract us from growing great. Entrepreneurs can pursue this idea, or that one, or fourteen others. We can do it this way, or that way. Or a hundred other ways. It speaks to the WHAT question. What do you most want to accomplish? We all have to settle on something. It doesn’t mean that has to be our one thing for all time, but it means our lives need focus – a singular purpose – if we’re going to develop a strong mind.

Weight training illustrates the point. A person walks up to the bench and engages in a one exercise at a time. Circuit training can involve multiple exercises, but they’re happening one movement at a time. Bench presses are the focus. Or something else. That’s the focus in the moment. What’s your focus in this moment?

Sometimes people ask me about podcasting because I’...

As a business operator, you can chase any number of things. Each pursuit is different and you should know the risks and rewards.

Some entrepreneurs are chasing fame. They want celebrity. Well, I’m not talking about that kind of pursuit. Instead, I’m talking about the things necessary to build and grow your business. Things like cash, products, services, employees, and customers.

The first thing most businesses have to chase? Customers. Until you have a customer you don’t have a business. Every business needs people willing to trust us enough to buy whatever we’re selling!

Finding and acquiring customers is a big, big topic. It’s what marketing and selling are all about. There are tons of experts willing to share their insights on how you can improve those activities. You’d think it would have all been thought of, written about, promoted and well known by now. And it probably has, except the tactical part. The tools are always changing. Human behavior adapts and adjusts, too. But the principles are likely tried and true. The difference is like a diet program…you have to figure out what resonates for you. Find what works.

Chasing customers can be like any of these pursuits, exhausting. But there’s one thing about chasing customers that is different from some of these other business building/growth pursuits. The more quickly you’re able to get customers the more encouraged you are that your business is valid. Failure to capture customers is supremely discouraging and it may mean the idea isn’t valid. Or it may mean something else. It can be depressing and daunting to figure out what’s wrong. Why can’t I get customers? Or, why can’t I get more customers? It may be a million things and that makes this pursuit difficult when we’re struggling.

It’s necessary to chase customers. It has to be the first pursuit. Above all others. 

Everything else can wait. When you’re starting out, even cash has to wait (kinda sorta) because your path to cash is a customer!

Does “chasing” sound too adversarial? I get it. I don’t mean it like that though. I mean it as in chasing something good. Like pursuing something valuable. And like accepting the responsibility that you need to influence the outcome, not just wait for something to happen.

Don’t be bashful to pursue customers. Let me more properly define “chase” or “pursue.”

I don’t mean corner people, coerce people, or even sell people. Selling people is ideally giving people the opportunity to make up their own mind by supplying them with the true value you can provide. Largely, it’s educating people on what’s possible. It’s not manipulating people into doing what you want.

I’ll use myself as an example because it’s always easier to pick on myself than somebody else. I’m not saying what I do is perfect or even ideal. I think you need to figure it out for yourself and do what works for you. Everybody has to do what feels appropriate for them.

My objective in chasing customers is to first get people’s attention, then inform them (educate) on what I’m able to do to help them and then allow them to decide. I don’t talk anybody into or out of anything. Ever. I respect whatever decision people make. And I’m aware that they may decide based on my ineptness to properly convey what I want, but that’s how it goes. I’m not perfect. They’re not perfect. And if they miss out on an opportunity to work with me, it’s just the price we both pay for my botched effort.