What do you wish your audience knew that would unlock tremendous value for them? Peter Thiel delves into secrets and contrarianism is his book Zero to One. Thoughts on Peter Thiel and his influence aside, I think he’s onto something … Read More
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Proposals don’t win deals, they lose them
“Sounds good, can you send me a proposal?” These words used to excite and terrify me. Then, I’d go off to write an amazing proposal to wow the prospect and win the business. So much stress, for so little success. … Read More
AI to make adding contacts easier
AI is the big buzzword, and advances have made it so anyone can get an always on-call, always patient intern. (Here are a few ways I use ChatGPT to help me get contact info into Mimiran.) Now you can paste … Read More
Do you own your own business, or does it own you?
Most of us start our own business because we want more freedom, more control, more spaciousness to pursue our purpose. Sometimes, though, it seems like the business starts owning us– even more than the corporate jobs we left. It’s hard … Read More
The Olympics, Degree-of-difficulty, and Sales
USA and France played 2 amazing basketball games this weekend– the men’s final on Saturday and the women’s on Sunday, As a basketball fan, it’s great to see the games get competitive, with amazing players from all over the world.My … Read More
The Olympics are the wrong inspiration
This weekend I finally got a chance to watch some of the Paris Olympics. (Amazing drama, especially in the men’s 100m dash.) While I enjoyed watching and listening to some of the expert commentary, I realized that it’s easy to … Read More
Sales and marketing automation vs. organization
There are lots of tools for sales and marketing automation, some quite powerful and effective, in the appropriate situation. But all of these tools will fail if you need to have real relationships and you try to “outsource” your side … Read More
If you rely on referrals, what’s your referral strategy?
For years, I relied on referrals, but I wasn’t intentional about it– I didn’t have a referral strategy. I just hoped I’d get a good referral. And even if I didn’t get a good referral, I felt obliged to pursue … Read More
The Maximum Social Network Calculator
A lot of consultants invest a lot of time, money, and energy in “networking”, understandably hoping to create a strong referral circle. But often this leads to frustration, rather than results. Here’s how we can do a better job networking, … Read More
Your Consulting Website Has 1 Job
To get you leads. That’s it. Everything else is just for fun. (A polite way of saying “vanity metrics” or “waste of time”.) Even if you don’t get any leads directly from your consulting website (often a self-fulfilling prophecy), people … Read More