Try It. Tweak It. Use It. Share It. Volume 8
Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash
By Mary Aviles
I'm getting a jump start on the New Year with some changes. Upon the sage advice of my SEO consultant, I conducted quick-and-dirty brand awareness research and discovered that ~86% of my audience identify with me professionally by my personal name as opposed to by the name of my consultancy. So, after 14 years, I've dropped the Connect 4 moniker in favor of marketing myself by my name. You can now find me online at www.maryaviles.com or contact me at hello@maryaviles.com. I enlisted the wonderfully talented, Nikkita Cohoon, to develop a new visual identity. I hope you are as delighted as I am with the results.
Try It.
While I have to agree with Avinash about the word 'insights,' I think of the term as applying to a spectrum of finding types with various actionability (see the Use It in this post). And, though I can't imagine it as a role on a business card, I LOVE his N-A-C-R framework for classifying out-of-sights:
NOVEL: new and surprising, as in, "Could your audience find this aha anywhere else?"
ACTIONABLE: expressed with a clear implication, as in, "What should your audience do with this?"
CREDIBLE: originating from a trusted data source, as in, "How have you verified the methodology?"
RELATIVE: expressed in context, as in, "Can the audience grasp the magnitude or urgency?"
Tweak It:
Check out Atomic Habits by James Clear. I have been pleasantly surprised by all the supplemental content supplied by authors of the business books I've read recently. James Clear's Atomic Habits is one such example. I have a reputation for being a bit systems-obsessed. This book had me shouting my agreement out loud in the car (I listened to him reading it via Audible). Check out this template (and a bunch of other resources) for developing a Habit Stack. Here are some other affirmations that I noted:
Forget about goals, think about systems instead (systems continue while goals have an end point)
Habits are shaped by the systems in your life
The conscious mind is the brain's bottleneck
A good time to develop a new habit is at the beginning of the month when we are more hopeful
Habits don't limit freedom, they allow for it (what a relief!!)
Use It.
Good business is all about generosity. I was chuckling listening to Adam Grant's WorkLife podcast where he describes himself as an engaged workaholic (sounds familiar!). He says that before he got married he considered a fulfilling Saturday one where he worked uninterrupted from 8 AM - 9 PM and then got to bed at a good time. I understand that sensation, that rush of radical productivity. I feel really good about really good work. This School of Life article sums up how I feel about meaningful work (and the limitless potential for entrepreneurship):
"Business can be defined as the organised attempt by one of a group of people to solve one another's problems. In which case, business will only ever be mature when every last human has reached a state of total satiety. Whenever we spot a problem--in our own lives of that of others--we are also spotting, at least in theory, a latent business waiting to be developed. The biggest source of insight into the problems around which a good business can be built is the individual...The smartest source of market research is introspection."
Share It.
In November, I graduated from Seth Godin and Alex DiPalma's Podcast Fellowship. It was an intense 7-week, 32-episode experience. This was their second graduating class--I passed up the first invitation to join and I'm so excited that I bit the bullet this time around. I've only got one episode in the bag so far, so stay tuned for more details.
The class was delivered via Seth's proprietary learning platform. In addition to delivering educational content, it enables discourse and coaching. It was both efficient and user friendly. This is the same platform that he uses for altMBA and that supplements his most recent book release, This is Marketing. It was pretty exciting to interact with him directly. He even attended our Zoom graduation live! He was gracious and encouraging and, no doubt he noticed, too--the online ceremony resulted in several effusive testimonials he'll be able to source for future class recruitment.
Happiest of holidays for those of you celebrating! See you in the New Year! 2018 was such a whirlwind of people, projects, and possibility. I'm looking forward to all the potential 2019 holds. I hope you are as well.