When you want to get better, it makes a lot of sense to study the best in your field. By learning what the very best do, you can adopt their best practices apply them your own plan. However, a lot of people overlook the value of studying the best from other fields.

When you want to get even better, it makes a lot of sense to study the best in other fields. By learning what the very best in other fields do, such as - Coffee shops, Hotels, Banks, Libraries, Engineering/Accounting/Financial Planning firms, Liquor companies, Publishing, Education and … Podcasting, you can adopt their best PRINICIPLES and apply them to your own plan.

What could Starbucks teach your Dentist? What could Disney teach your doctor? What could you teach a clothing store?

Thanks for this opportunity to teach you something.

When you are trying to figure out how effective your marketing is, there are a lot of different data points that you can measure. Clicks, requests, conversion rates, time spent engaged with your content.

Of course the very best measurement would be this one – If I stopped showing up, who would care?

Who is going to miss it and how do they let you know. Whatever you do is what you do, and you are probably not the only person doing it. There are lots of other people who know what you know, and are willing to help. But would these people be missed?

To be missed, do this.

Think about community not customer. You are not the only person who sells what you sell, but you are probably the only person who is trying to make a connection. Don’t focus on what you buy, focus on who you are trying to help your clients become.

Narrowcast. You can’t be all things to all people. In fact, stop thinking about finding new clients, instead be unreasonable about figuring out how you can matter more to the clients you have. Give your customers a story to share. They will only share the story with other like minded people, and when those like minded people hear the story, and want to hear it again, they’ll next want to be part of that story.

Don’t worry about being everywhere. Worry about being where your clients are.

Thanks for this opportunity to teach you something.

The 80/20 rules tells us that 80% of our revenue will stem from only 20% of our clients, and form only 20% of our activities. Consider how much better off every business owner would be if they spent 80% of their time on those 20% activities that do all the good.

In the blog I share a personal story form my own life, here are the three serious shifts.

Know what business you are really in, and to figure it out answer these questions:

This business I am in, when someone buys/uses/experiences my offering, what happens? What is the benefit for them?

Whom specifically do I do my work for?

What change do I help create?

How do I do it?

List all the things down that you do every day that you think helps your business.

Be unreasonable. Go through the entire list, and ask yourself honestly if working on that actually helps you achieve your mandate?

Listen to today’s blog – When I went through this process my list of daily responsibilities was whittled down from “too many things” to three things which were then and remain today:

Public speaking

Talking on the telephone to past and future clients, journalists, and decision makers.

Writing/blogging

Everything else that was on my list that kept me busy but didn’t actually accomplish anything I never, ever, did again. I’ve made a career (and then some) out of my 20% activities.

Ask yourself how you can do your 20% activities better, and then do so right away.

I worked on being a better speaker. I improved my call to action, visuals, and story telling.

I invested in a headset, a stand up desk so that I could stay energized during the day and also improve my note taking and follow up.

Writing and blogging – I went from writing when I could and posting haphazardly to writing a blog 5 days a week and posting daily at 5 AM and my readership increased dramatically.

A little adjustment here, another one there and pretty soon you’re what everyone is talking about.

We all know that you can’t be all things to all people but we are less clear on how to do it. Start by shifting your thinking about 3 key points:

Find your people. When you sell average things to average people, who want an average solution and are not interested in anything rare or special then you are stuck competing on price and service. Instead find your people, those who will appreciate your perspective, your effort and point. Great work makes a point, it touches your clients and they miss it when it’s gone. Average people don’t care about things like that.

Stand for something. 81% of millennials expect the companies that they support to be good corporate citizens. They don’t want it they expect it! Other than sell your clients the things they need, what do you stand for? What kind of story would your existing clients share with the people they know about you, that would make a person want to connect with you?

Do more. The great thing about surprising clients is that it doesn’t take a lot. You just have to bring a little more humanity, generosity and compassion to what you do. When a person hears a good story, they want to hear it again. When a person hears a good story twice, a good story with a nice surprise at the end, then they want to be part of the story.

Thank you,

Dennis Moseley-Williams

Summary:

Having all the facts on your side is great, but it isn’t always enough to win the sale or the argument.

Great businesses and brands understand that the facts should support your great story, not be the story.

When you become a story that people want to hear again, you become a story that they want to be a part of.

Thank you,

Dennis Moseley-Williams

When everything that could go wrong does go wrong you will most likely be the one required to fix it. You will feel a pull between the Old You and the current New You.

The New You will be the loudest voice in your head, equal parts certain and uncertain with conflicting opinions about what should be done now, tomorrow and in the future.

The Old You is also in your head and this is who you should listen to. Old You who built everything in the first place. Old You knows what to do, because they have done it before. Old You is the most qualified to engineer the turnaround. Listen to Old You.

Your mother was right, you never gave Old You enough credit. Old You is amazing and is ready and knows what to do.

Thank you,

Dennis Moseley-Williams

I know the coronavirus is really serious and important. We should do what our health care professionals are advising. Stay home, stay safe and out of the way. While the proper authorities worry about that, here are 5 things you should worry about (and likely were worrying about before civilization flipped its desk).

Mattering more to your clients vs worrying about finding more clients.

Managing the finances of your business.

Managing your energy.

Getting out of the founder dependency trap.

Balancing quality and growth as you grow.

Thank you,

Dennis Moseley-Williams

I have been working in a home office for over 20 years, successfully. An office is where you go to solve other people’s problems. An Accelerator is not an office – it’s a laboratory where you produce your best work and ship it to the world. The rules are:

You must have access to state-of-the-art technology.

It must be comfortable.

It must have a door that you can lock so you can focus and concentrate.

While you’re working, keep these points in mind:

It’s really easy to overwork when you are working from home, so stick to a schedule.

Have a morning routine: get up, get started and if you need to, dress up. It helps.

Take breaks (see no. 1).

Go outside (see nos. 1 and 3).

Spend the last 30 minutes of your day tidying up so that you walk into an inspiring place the next morning. Don’t walk into a mess, it’s crushing.

Thank you,

To summarize:

Everyone can think (very) creatively if they give themselves enough time and space.

To think more creatively, you have to get yourself out of routines, expose yourself to new things and most importantly schedule enough time to allow your ideas to grow.

Ideas are a dime a dozen. Executing one of them could be priceless.

To summarize:

Very few people’s employment requires them to be exact or perfect. There are some notable exceptions (brain surgeon, astronaut, professional athlete), but for the rest of us, we are employed to get things done or make things better.

If your job is to make things better, then don’t get faked out by trying to make things perfect. That will just allow you to hide and delay finishing. Instead of making something new, you held back trying to make something perfect.

I’m not sure if you will find this comforting or not, but when you first started you probably felt like you were pretty good at your job. Now, many years later, you realize that you weren’t; you were just trying really hard. You were far from great, and certainly not anywhere near perfect.

Yet here you are. Isn’t that perfect?