Blog
The products we sell, and what we think matters to our customers, workers, 
friends and family are all constructs of the stories we create and tell (and tell them over and over and over. While we treat our stories as if they were true, very little of what they are made up of involve objective details. Humans don’t connect and engage with facts, so those are often the least interesting aspects.
It’s the juicy stories we’re after. We’re unaware that we’re crafting the stories we then live into. We have little experience getting into someone else’s world and really listening to what matters to them, and why….without adding our own meaning.
The more your added meaning is removed is the extent to which you can reach someone in their world.
Yes, you can make sales without really reaching someone, but your chances of connecting with someone and building trust and a relationship are significantly improved when you connect with them and the world they’ve created with their stories.
Blog
That sentiment can stop us dead in our tracks, not even daring to think of how it might be if it worked out. Acknowledging it can also free us to go forward for the sake of being true to what we say is important, and doing what we thought might be impossible.
Seth Godin’s The Icarus Deception argues that we let the idea of failure stop us and control us way too often. He says that fear keeps you safe and small, and not doing the real work that you say is important, or that the world needs.
It’s why he created the Icarus Sessions…. to give people the opportunity to say what’s important, what matters to them.
In the first Icarus Session in Kansas City, we found that saying what we really cared about was foreign and scary and very different from the way we usually are in the world. It’s also what lights the world up, and sharing it makes it brighter. It’s bringing it out into the light that makes us feel most alive and most human.
I’m going to continue to create Icarus Sessions, to offer opportunities for people to say what really matters to them as they build and create their projects.
I’ll be there to hear their stories, and to cultivate an audience of people who listen. No judging or fixing or networking. Just being fully present to another person brave enough to say what really matters. That matters to me.
Blog
Seth Godin is trying something new. I’m accepting the invitation to participate, will you?
“People volunteer to give a 140 second talk about what they’re working on, creating or building, to do it with vulnerability, passion and generosity. And then to sit down and cheer on the next person.”
These are free events, organized by volunteers, and built on exchanges of bravery. At 7 pm (local time) on January 2nd, people all over the world will be having Icarus Sessions: opportunities to hear what people really care about. There’ll be no pitching and no selling.
A stream of 140-second confessions of passion, fear and connection. How great is that?
Blog
Are we doing this because it’s better…..or because we can?
That’s it.
It’s simple, but we get stopped there all the time.
Just because you Can do something doesn’t mean you should, and just because you don’t know how to do something, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.
Marketing is powerful when the message is clear and it matters – to you and to the potential buyer. Doing a bunch of stuff that sounds good but doesn’t matter to anyone just dilutes what really does.
We often think in terms of bigger is better, and more is better! But it’s not true. What if we all thought in terms of what really mattered, and then just did that?
Blog
Often people I talk to are so frustrated with their marketing, their website or blog, they just want everything new, and they want someone to take it over for them.
Before moving on to something new, it’s helpful to consider a few questions first. When I cover these with a new client, the best solution typically becomes clear to both of us quickly.
What is it that you care about, in this business? What do you want to do?
Who is your next customer (conceptually)?
What do they care about?
What is the story they told themselves (about the world, about this area of life) before they knew about your business?
How do you encounter him in a way that he trusts the story you tell him about what you have to offer?
Blog
Sometimes it feels frustrating, confronting, scary and doubtful.
And those are also signs that communication is actually happening. People are saying things that really matter to them…. and in communicating them, are creating a new possibility. The communication might open up the possibility of resolving an issue, and it might also create a possibility of accepting them.
Unspoken frustration just compounds itself. And unspoken frustration is a soul killer – it destroys projects.
Sometimes acknowledging an issue is all that can be done. But that’s enough to move beyond it and create something new. Sometimes potential clients are unwilling to express their frustration with their current solution, or vulnerability because they don’t understand it all, and just stay stuck.
When we’re engaged in a project, it can feel like you’re working at it. And that’s a good thing. That’s a good sign something’s about to change.
friends and family are all constructs of the stories we create and tell (and tell them over and over and over. While we treat our stories as if they were true, very little of what they are made up of involve objective details. Humans don’t connect and engage with facts, so those are often the least interesting aspects.
