Tag: Business

Trying too hard

Posted on by philipdodson

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Sometimes in life, we try too hard to make something happen.

We get so fixed on achieving a particular outcome and in doing so, we end up trying to control things that we can’t.

The only thing that we have control of is ourselves. We control our thoughts, our beliefs, our actions, everything to do with us.

Beyond that, everything else is controlled by others. Others that we can inspire or influence, but ultimately they will decide, not us.

None of us like to be controlled by others, or feel that others are trying to manipulate us. We do however respond to something inspiring, something that reaches out to our values, that matches our feelings.

When we listen to a person who is talking genuinely about something, with passion, and that person is not selling something, but instead sharing their thoughts, their story and without an agenda, then that is when we feel we have chosen, we have the freedom.

So in business, it is more important to communicate your message and then make it easy for people to buy, rather than trying to control others through manipulation. Essentially marketing rather than selling. Sharing rather than coercing. Giving instead of taking.

The harder we try, the more we have to control and the more we control, the more we erode the freedom of others and push them away.

The 3 R’s of marketing

Posted on by philipdodson

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There are 3 R’s to consider.

1. Relevancy – is your content relevant to your audience? see yesterday’s post

2. Risk – are you risky enough? In today’s bland, homogenised world, where safe has been done to death, the new safe is being risky. Dare to be different, Seth Godin’s purple cow , standing out from the crowd is only possible now if you choose yourself, follow your dreams and be brave enough to share your creations with the world. Safe is dull, risky leads to opportunities that have not yet been uncovered.

Remember the US Patent office considered closing in 1900, as everything that could have been invented had been!!! It hasn’t all been done, we just have to be brave enough to create something new.

3. Relationships – this is something that does not happen overnight, and therefore involves getting to know people over time, being patient and willing to be yourself. This involves being a giver, not a giver with the sole purpose of expecting something back, but being a giver with no expectation of anything in return. This is something that the truly successful people have mastered, because they are being themselves, not following the flock.

The moment you expect something, then you are a manipulator, and that is part of the same safe formuliac process that bland businesses follow, driven by making money as the only goal.

Give and build relations, be risky, cut out the poeple who won’t like your message, making it easy for the one’s who will love it to connect.

It has to be clear, relevant, and done as if you were marketing to you. Who better to understand what works for people like us, than ourselves.

This came from my podcast yesterday with Bernie Mitchell, have listen to full discussion.

https://www.spreaker.com/embed/player/standard?episode_id=7660774