April 25, 2021

Show people their super power

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Reading Time: < 1 minute

In his book “Nothing you don’t already know“, author Alexander den Heijer shares a simple but powerful statement:

You don’t inspire people by revealing your super powers; you inspire people by helping them reveal their own super powers.

This applies to inspiration, but I also think it can apply to your website and marketing.

As explained by Donald Miller in “Building a Storybrand” (and virtually every time he speaks), your goal is not to be the hero to your clients. Your goal is to be their trusted guide, and help them to be the real hero. Help them find their super powers.

If you can make that happen, it’ll be hard to ever lose that trust.

Comments

  1. I’m a bit off your direct topic here, but it’s related. You are doing an amazing job a posting regularly, and also at consuming a ton of books. For years, you’ve had a few disciplines that amaze me. So let me ask the “simple” question: do you have specific times, and maybe places, you set aside for reading, for blogging, and for all the other things you do? I find it hard to believe you just “squeeze stuff in” to what has to already be a very full day.

    • Good question! I’m planning to write about that in the coming weeks, but here’s the short version.

      The writing is largely in batches, as you probably know. While I publish every day, I probably do 70% of the writing on weekends as time allows. Actually publishing takes about 10 minutes each day: one last read through, publish, share as appropriate (depending on content), save a copy in Roam.

      Most evenings my youngest has ballet. After I drop her off and come back home, we tend to all do our own thing for those few hours. That’s most of my reading time.

      I still work through my Anki cards every day; that happens in fits and spurts throughout the day. It’s only about 20 minutes total, usually in small chunks of time when I’m waiting for something else (at an appointment, or even just waiting on the microwave or something).

      My other goals for the day don’t always happen. They are:

      – Work out (I usually make it 3-4 times/week)
      – Take a clarity break (really bad about that lately)
      – Work on my typing (really bad about that lately, too)

      Along with time, you also mentioned “places”. I prefer to read out in our backyard in the evenings, but that’s very season and weather dependent. Most of it just happens in my office. If I’m particularly distractable, I’ll put on brain.fm to try to tune out and zone in a bit.

      This indeed could be a good thing to unpack a bit more in a post, as I think I need some more clarity on my own habits!

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