matter
444 posts
Empathy Creates Value
A restaurant host has one job to do—meet and greet diners and show them to their table. It sounds easy enough, but the difference between a good host and a great host is underrated because where people are seated directly impacts their experience. Seating arrangements can influence how long diners s
Listening To Lead
The promise of the digital age was the ability to more cheaply and rapidly raise awareness of our value, our message, or our cause. Digital media levelled the playing field and gave all of us the chance to spread our ideas. In some cases, the desire to quickly spread ideas has led to the misbelief…
The Advantage Of Not Knowing For Sure
Success is as unpredictable as failure. Nobody knows for sure what will be a hit or a miss. Every runaway success is only obvious with hindsight. And yet we expend so much of our creative energy trying to be successful to our detriment. When you liberate yourself from the pressure of having to win,
Gap Bridging
What gap does your product or service help your audience to bridge?
A Question Of Choices
Our choices not only determine our priorities, plans and results—they are also clues about what matters to us.
The Daily Opportunity
Meaningful progress doesn’t happen in a single, magical alignment of the stars. Opportunity can’t pass us by because it’s available to us in this moment and the next one.
On Finding The Right Customers
Building a sustainable and fulfilling business isn’t just about finding enough customers—it’s about finding enough of the right customers. Company-customer fit is unerrtated.
Stand Out
You, your product or your company can stand out by changing how someone feels about themselves in your presence, not just today, but every day.
The Value Of Discernment
The better we are at discerning who our right people are the more shared value we can create.
Exactly Who Do You Serve?
It’s easier to build the right business for the right people when you know who those people are.
The Power Of Owning Your Work
When we own the work we’re proud of it becomes more valuable to the people we serve. How are you owning the work you’re proud of?
Disappointment And Delight
You can find an opportunity to delight, especially when you disappoint. A mistake doesn’t always have to end in disappointment.
It’s Not For You
When you’re brave enough to put a stake in the ground, you will find your right people—those people who you can help.
Effective Change
Even though nine of her children emigrated to England in the 1960s to find work, my grandmother never travelled outside Ireland. She refused to taste cucumber, even though my English aunt insisted on making cucumber sandwiches whenever she came to visit. Even after her doctor told her cigarettes wer
Make Your Customer The Hero
The best marketers give people something to believe in, not just something to buy.
Better Marketers Show And Tell
Every day, we sell ourselves in adjectives that sell us short. Leader, expert, communicator, specialist, efficient, experienced, better, faster, cheaper. We’ve forsaken the effort of showing, for the convenience of telling. There is a better way. Don’t just tell us about the features and benefits of
Purposeful Connection
It turns out that we don’t have to build trust and connection on the fly. We can do it on purpose.
Being Heard Is Overrated
It’s easier to be heard when we shout. But being heard shouldn’t be our ultimate goal.
Your Brand Is What You Consistently Do
What you consistently do—every time, without fail, differentiates your business.
Why Next?
We make more right moves when we stop to think how the next thing we’re about to take on aligns with our values, and if it’s helping us to get to where we ultimately want to go.
