Reading Time: 2 minThere are two main ways you can approach the internet: You can be patient and giving, contribute to the discourse, and leave it better than you found it. Work to squeeze every bit of value out of it and not worry about what’s left when you’re done. Individuals likely have some granular levels between those, […]
Trust
Precision versus intent
Reading Time: 2 minIf your role in your company involves managing other people, you can ask for work to be done by providing precise instructions or providing the intent behind them. Assuming you trust people to do the job, proper intent will save you both a lot of time. In “The Personal MBA“, author Josh Kaufman shares the […]
What we want to see versus what we expect to see
Reading Time: < 1 minUncovering the truth can be a tricky thing to do. Not only do you have to figure out who to trust and which sources to believe, but our own brains can often conspire against us. According to Adam Grant in his book “Think Again“, we have two biases that tend to drive poor judgement: Confirmation […]
Have you faced marketing trauma in your past?
Reading Time: 2 minThere are times when we’re meeting with a potential client that we can tell they’ve been burned badly by a marketing agency in the past. They’re defensive, questioning, and unwilling to share much about their situation — and for good reason! If they’ve had a bad experience before, it can be tough to trust another […]
Trust versus expectations
Reading Time: 2 minI’ve always considered myself a trusting person, perhaps to a fault. Trust is good, but unearned trust can lead to trouble. That’s why I was surprised a few weeks ago when our team was working through some DISC testing that it showed I wasn’t particularly trusting. Similar to the Enneagram (or any kind of personality […]
Earn the trust first
Reading Time: < 1 minThe other day, I got a message on LinkedIn from someone that I barely knew (I had met them at a Meetup some years ago, and hadn’t talked to them in at least three years). The message was something like: We have a new xxxx service with a “xxxx.” business model. It’s great for xxxx. […]
Retweeting the click of the day
Reading Time: < 1 minI’ve posted many times on here why I believe most people should blog every day. Writing daily is forcing me to read more, it improves my thinking, and I feel that it takes the benefits of journaling and expands them. Much of my inspiration for daily blogging comes from Seth Godin, and he has another […]
Knowing everything versus thinking again
Reading Time: < 1 minAs I’m reading through Adam Grant’s excellent book Think Again, I keep being struck by one big thought — if Donald Trump had read this book, he might have been able to get reelected. There are two big problems with that, of course: the book only recently came out, and “reading” versus “fully executing” content […]
Yes, it can hurt to “just ask”
Reading Time: 2 minYou’ve heard the phrase “it can’t hurt to ask”, and while that’s true in many situations, putting it out as a blanket statement can lead to some bad things. A great example is spam, whether that’s via email, phone calls, or things like LinkedIn connections. In every case, they figure “it can’t hurt to ask”, […]
Trusting authentic recommendations
Reading Time: < 1 minOver at GreenMellen, we don’t host websites. We help people choose hosting, and we take care of all of the technical work, but we want our clients to have ownership of their sites. We do this for their long-term benefit (owning your own stuff is a good thing), but recently I’ve noticed a great side […]