Reading Time: 2 minAs a small business owner, I’m often looking for ways to better incentivize our staff to work hard and for our clients to stick with us. For our clients it’s not about “incentives”, but rather providing the right products, data and outcomes to satisfy their needs, so it’s not all that different from what an […]
Business
Don’t freak out about AI just yet
Reading Time: 3 minI’ve shared a few times on here some concerns I have with AI. There are good things coming, but probably some bad things too. You’d be wise to spend time with AI tools and start learning how they work, but it’s not time to freak out over it yet. Napster Back in 1999, the record […]
Using ninety.io with Traction
Reading Time: 2 minI’ve mentioned a few times in the past how we use the EOS / Traction model at GreenMellen. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a way to organize and manage your business (with “EOS” standing for “Entrepreneural Operating System”) and the book “Traction” is a great place to start. Funny enough, my main post […]
Who you know really does matter more than what you know
Reading Time: 2 minWe’ve all heard the idea of “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” and that’s very likely true. I’ve never liked that statement, as it can lead to unskilled or unscrupulous people doing work simply because of a relationship, but that’s how things often go. As I said yesterday, relationships will reign and […]
As automation speeds up, relationships will reign
Reading Time: 2 minI recently shared a glimpse into the “bad side of AI“, where I’m starting to get some automated comments on social media and it’s likely to get much worse. The side I fear a bit more is the coming glut of AI-personalized email spam, at huge scale. Microsoft has unveiled Viva Sales and Salesforce announced […]
The people in this room aren’t all the same
Reading Time: 2 minEarlier this year I was at a business event, and the main speaker was a local congressman. As this man generally does, he made plenty of cracks about people “the other party” during his talk, assuming everyone in the room was on the same page as him. They were not. Granted, probably 2/3 of the […]
Powerful systems that work come from simple systems that worked
Reading Time: < 1 minNearly 14 years in, our process for building websites and digital marketing strategies is pretty fantastic. The outcomes, both visually and financially, are a winner for everyone involved. 14 years ago the process wasn’t nearly as strong or detailed, but it worked, and helped lead us to where we are today. In his book “The […]
Negotiate with more questions
Reading Time: 2 minI always find it interesting when the data shows the opposite of what I expect. It could be something like Simpson’s Paradox, which is just so weird, or the idea that expert poker players fold 3x more often than an amateur player. In Adam Grant’s book “Give and Take” he shares a study from Neil […]
Lead with reputation and legacy, not business
Reading Time: < 1 minThere are a lot of situations where it feels you should quickly steer conversations toward business, but that’s almost never the right way to go. Even if you’re at a business-focused event, keeping the conversations more personal and other-focused will lead to better long-term results. Gary Vaynerchuk can be a polarizing person, but I appreciate […]
Responsiveness can be as important as price
Reading Time: 3 minPeople value money but they also value time, and if your service can be faster and/or more responsive customers are willing to pay more. Disney’s “Lightning Lane” (formerly “FastPass”) is proof of this — millions of people pay billions of dollars every year just to get in the park, and a huge percentage of them […]