Set It On Fire

It was 1967 and there were a hell of a lot of great guitar players in London. John Lennon, Jeff Beck, Brian Jones, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, were all playing the clubs. If you were a guitar player too, it was hard to get noticed.

But there was this one skinny guy named Jimi Hendrix from America. He was a good guitarist. Better than most. He dressed weird, but everyone was dressing weird. He used a lot of distortion, but everyone did that, too. One typical night, his band The Experience was playing the London Astoria. At the end of their 45 minute set Jimi kneeled, laid his guitar down on the stage and…set it on fire.

The audience loved it. The music press couldn’t stop writing about it. They started calling him “The Black Elvis”. Soon it was standing room only. He was that guy who torched his guitar.

Unless you live on a tiny atoll in the Pacific, chances are there are a lot of competitors around who do what you do. You may do it better. Better than most. But how can you be really different? What can you do to set it on fire?

Last One Standing

Hurricane Michael was called a once-in-a-100-years storm. One of the towns that Michael knocked square in the nose was Mexico Beach, which was virtually flattened. It wiped out most of the structures, but also severed the deep emotional connection of it’s residents. 

But one house made it through virtually unscathed.

Russell King and his nephew build their home on 40 foot pilings driven deep into the sand, constructing it out of re-enforced concrete that far exceeded all of Florida’s famously stringent building codes. They called it the Sand Palace. Their family’s emotional connection to Mexico Beach weathered the storm because they had built a solid foundation.

Verhaal will be leading a brand strategy workshop next week were we will be building a “brand pyramid” with our client. Brand pyramids are strategic tools constructed in five layers, much like Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, with the brands functional benefits on the bottom building upwards to the emotional essence at the peak. 

Defining the emotional essence of a brand is critical. Why? Because people don’t buy using their heads, they buy with their hearts. They buy based on a deeper emotional connection. And you architect that connection by building from a solid strategic foundation.

Would your brand survive a 100-year storm?

Our New Frankenword

A portmanteau is a linguistic blend in which parts of multiple words or their sounds are combined into a new word. Smoke and fog combining to become smog. Motor and hotel becoming motel.  

A frankenword.

I was looking for a way to describe something that is a duality, a symbiosis, two things that exist in co-dependency. Why? Because I think the branding and business worlds need a new name. 

The world of design and the world of business are converging. They are fueling and sustaining each other in increasingly inextricable ways. For businesses to succeed in today’s commercial ecosystem they are required to be more and more creative, producing visually engaging content in an ever-expanding array of marketing channels.

For creative professionals to succeed it's necessary to be fluent in the machinations of finance, strategy, business, marketing, and in demonstrating the ROI of branding to clients.

Brand design is becoming more business and business is becoming more creative. They are merging. Those that embrace the merger will thrive and those that do not will wither.

Desiness? Bizign? Crearketing? Entrepreativity?

What is the design+business/business+creativity frankenword?

Looking for a Greener Pasture?

A landscaping company in Idaho had a problem last week. They offer a service that clears unwanted brush and growth from your property - with a twist. They don’t use mowers, blowers and trimmers. They use goats.

We Rent Goats trucked in their workers, a herd of 118 eating machines to help a client who needed to clean up around a pond. Let’s just say that the crew didn’t really like the “flavor” of the work. Instead of clearing the pond grounds they decided to tramp over to the adjoining suburban neighborhood and snack on the much tastier flowers, scrubs and gardens of it’s residents.

It’s a classic example of “If you don’t give them what they want, they will go someplace else to get it.”

I often work with clients who have designed businesses, products and services who have taken the “If I build it, they will come.” approach. And often they wake to find that what they are offering is not what people really want. 

An early investment in consumer research and the competitive landscape will tell you what you need to build. Because not even a bottomless marketing budget can keep your customers from tramping over to the competition if what they offer is tastier. 

Finding the "Wow!"

SETI is a collective term for anything that concerns the search for extraterrestrial life in the universe. SETI asks the question: Is there anyone out there?

In 1955, Ohio State University built a telescope they called “Big Ear” to continuously scan the cosmos for radio signals. It wasn’t until 1977 that Jerry Ehman, a project volunteer, witnessed a startlingly strong signal received by the telescope. On the computer printout of the data he famously wrote “Wow!” in the margin.

It only happened once. But they heard it. They heard it because they were actively listening.

A couple weeks ago we conducted a strategy offsite with a client in Canada. She has a interconnected series of brands and wanted clarity on the best way to organize and grow her businesses. 

We didn’t approach the session with a specific point of view or predetermined answers. What we did was ask the right questions. And then we listened. 

When you actively listen - a mysterious and convoluted problem can be distilled into a clear signal. At the end of the day, the wall was covered with giant Post-It notes. On the last one we wrote “Wow!” in the margin.

To Win Big, Think Small

“Alice in Wonderland-like” syndrome is a disorder of the brain. The symptoms are named after Lewis Carroll’s protagonist Alice, who went down a rabbit hole and found herself shrinking or expanding depending on her circumstances. People who are afflicted by it misperceive the size and distance of objects, seeing them as larger or smaller than their natural state. 

In a white paper, comScore has reported that a staggering 80% of social media viewing is done on mobile devices. How do people choose what to consume? They click on thumbnails that jump out at them. So not only are viewers encountering content at a tiny scale, they are choosing what to click from even tinier thumbnail images.

When designing artwork for social media, for Facebook, for YouTube, you have to zoom way out.  When people view your post, your thumbnail may be as small as 3/4 of an inch wide. If your designs have lots of copy, small font sizes or detailed imagery, people are going to get frustrated and scroll right past them. Opportunity lost.

But when people click your thumbnail, you get traffic. When you get traffic, you win. To win big, you have to start by thinking small.

Retail Trend: The Cattle Chute Method

Cows are distractible. They have 360° wide-angle vision and are confused by everything from moving shadows to puddles of water, as well as any surface they can see though. To get cows to go where you want them to go, you line them up single file in a cattle chute.

It’s like putting blinders on a horse: you set it up so they are seeing only what you want them to see.

Last week the New York Times published an article about how Amazon has developed over 100 private label brands - with dozens more planned. If you search for a battery, a cable, or some other household item you will find Amazon Basics dominating the top results. It's a shopper cattle chute.

The best way to compete against the encroachment of private label is through superior brand recognition, product quality and design. To create your cattle chute you must eliminate customer distractions. You show them only exceptional brand visuals and create a simple, compelling customer journey and experience.

Are your customers seeing only what you want them to see?

THREE LITTLE WORDS (AND PEOPLE ARE FREAKING OUT)

Companies regularly write lengthy vision statements, mission statements and mottos. Sadly, far too many turn out to be empty emotional BS.

Before Google got humongous they wrote a cheeky, three word, silicon-valley-punk credo for themselves: “Don’t Be Evil”. Having written a lot of long client credos, I loved it because it was only three words. And I loved Google as a business for putting a moral stake in the ground. 

Recently Google has been considering working on lucrative contracts for the Defense Department. Something about using AI and video image recognition for drone accuracy from what I’ve read. It seems lots of folks who work at Google are freaking out. They think that helping drones kill people better falls into the “evil” category just a tad. I’d have to agree.

Establishing a credo can be one of the most powerful things a brand can create. It guides every brand decision and action. It keeps you and your employees grounded in the brand values. Sometimes those values are tested.

Ultimately, Google withstood their test by refusing the Defense projects, demonstrating to the world their credo is meaningful and authentic.

Even if it is only three words.

Different Is Better Than Better

If you’ve ever stayed in central London you know that the hotels are fantastic. The best.

There are hotels that have old world charm that come in a range of prices. There are contemporary design hotels like St. Martins Lane but these are always very pricey. What didn’t exist was a high-tech high-design option available at a lower price point.

The savvy folks at hub by Premier Inn noticed this empty quadrant in the X/Y map of the competitive landscape. So they did what any smart brand does, they filled it.

I stayed at hub by Premier Inn when I was at a conference recently. My room was about 9 x 14 feet - about the size of a generous jail cell. There was no window, just a backlit glass panel that made you feel like there was one. The headboard was a touchscreen that controlled everything from the “do not disturb” sign outside to the A/C. The interior design was so inspiring and clever I never felt deprived. In fact, I felt smart, stylish and just a little bit richer. 

By expertly delivering on an unmet need, hub by Premier Inn has expanded to 40 locations in under 5 years. Hub is killing it.

Take a fresh look at your competitive landscape. Does everyone look the same? Are they offering the same things, in the same way? Where is the white space that you can fill?

Your Best Self: 7 Mantras for Designers & Entrepreneurs

Mantras are not just for meditating. Mantras are simply ideas and philosophies to live by. Some people call them maxims, mottos or catchphrases. They have one purpose: to keep us on track. They prevent us from going a down a rabbit hole. They act as guardrails for our thoughts and actions so we can focus our energy.

Here are seven mantras that I think are valuable for designers and entrepreneurs to keep in mind. 

#1 Be human.

When your brand is your business, you can sometimes act more like your brand than yourself. No one wants to work with a brand robot – a brandbot. Strategy is great, processes are great, brand tenets are great, but underneath it all we're people. We're original, quirky, and unpredictable. In other words, we’re human. As a businessperson, you do represent a brand, but don’t hold back on showing your humanity (it’s called the Pratfall Effect). Be personable, because people like to work with people that they like. Be humble, because people like to work with people with compassion. Be flexible, because people like to work with people who are open to new things. Most importantly, be you.

#2 Choose fun.

We got into this line of work because we didn't want to have an uninspiring, humdrum life. We became designers and entrepreneurs because we wanted excitement. We wanted to have fun. We wanted to do creative things. Design and entrepreneurship are tough fields, and you have to work really hard at it to be successful. But remember why you're doing it. You're doing it to create a fun, invigorating, extraordinary life for yourself. So try not to take yourself too seriously. Throughout the day you make thousands of choices. As much as you can, choose fun.

#3 What’s the worst that can happen?

Fear can be really debilitating. Whether it’s fear of trying something new, putting ourselves out there or going against the grain, fear can stop you dead in your tracks. Instead of letting fear guide your action - or inaction, think through the fear to the very end. “What’s the worst thing that can happen if things go wrong?” is a powerful question that can shrink  fear dramatically. Think it through; Will you get fired? Lose your apartment? Lose your girlfriend? Most of the time these imaginary disasters never happen, and once you realize that, it frees you up to be more courageous and try new things. And if something does go wrong, simply ask for forgiveness. Making a mistake is never the end of everything. Put fear in its place. Be brave.  
 

#4 Build your resources.

As designers and entrepreneurs, we often like to do everything ourselves. But ultimately, if we want to do bigger and better things, we need additional resources. Be proactive about gathering service providers, companies, printers, coders, any specialists that could help you at some point in time.

Start creating and curating a cache of professionals that allow you to do increasingly ambitious work for your clients. Keep those connections warm so they're there when you need them. Pick a day of the week, say, “Freelancer Friday” to reach out to one or two of your connections. Send a quick text or email, ask them what they’re up to, like some of their social media posts (see more suggestions here). It only takes a few minutes to reach out and if you do it faithfully for a few weeks, you’ll find yourself top-of-mind with them and ready for any project, at any time.

#5 First things first.

Procrastination is a killer for designers and entrepreneurs. Prioritizing tasks and projects can be difficult, but it’s the backbone of success. Tim Ferriss, human guinea pig and lifehacker, has some great advice, “You can spend the whole of the day busy, but fail to tackle the most important items, which in many cases are the hardest things on your plate. So isolate the one or two most important things you need to accomplish today. One or two only.” (Inc.com)

I noticed that Tim was right. Now I move the hardest things to the top of the list and do those first. It pays off. Mark Twain, commenting on doing the dreaded tasks before the easy ones, said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” Amen.

#6 Done is better than perfect.

Designers and entrepreneurs, as a group, are perfectionists. This trait serves us well most of the time, but if you lean too heavily on it, it becomes a crutch. Perfectionism is a way of resisting the future. “Perfect lets you stall, ask more questions, do more reviews, dumb it down, safe it up and generally avoid doing anything that might fail (or anything important),” (Seth Godin).

Instead of focusing on getting things done perfectly, focusing on just getting things done.

Get them out the door. Volume trumps perfection any day of the week. Consistency beats infrequency. More is better, and frequency boosts recognition for your brand. So instead of being a perfectionist and trying to massage every fine detail, get it out the door. No one is really going to notice that level of perfection except you. It's better to just get it done, and move on to the next thing.

#7 When in doubt, communicate.

Here’s the biggest complaint I've heard in my career from designers and people I've worked with; "I don't know what's going on. No one's telling me anything."

It's really hard to do your job well if you feel under-informed. Don’t wallow in victimhood about being out of the loop. It’s probably not intentional. Find the person who might know what you feel like you’re missing and ask them to brief you. On the flip-side, you have to make sure clients know what's going on in your head and you know what's going on in theirs. You need to be consistently aligned to deliver your best work. There is no other way to do this than to communicate. Over-communicate, even. Especially when the news that you're trying to communicate is bad. Always recap conversations and meetings in writing. Communication is a conflict killer.

These mantras have helped me keep my thoughts and projects focused and on track.  They’ve helped me sidestep many professional potholes. If some of these resonate with you, I hope you incorporate them into your daily life. Make them visible. Put them on a post-it, make a graphic as your home screen, or tack it on your office wall. Make up your own mantras. They will enhance your focus, energy and undoubtedly smooth your pathway to success.

In the Flow: 10 Ways to Stay Creative

Creativity is critical to your success as a creative professional or an entrepreneur. New ideas and innovative solutions are your livelihood. But even naturally talented creative thinkers need to cultivate and develop their ability to consistently create “ah-ha moments”. Great ideas don't just drop out of the sky. You have to create an environment for those ideas to grow and be nurtured.

Creating an environment for creativity means looking at your inner world, such as your thoughts and beliefs, your outer world or physical environment, and taking inspired action. Here are my top 10 tips on breaking through for higher creative output:

#1 It’s OK to feel blocked

The very first thing to do when you hit a creative block is this: quit beating yourself up. Negative self-talk will only perpetuate your misery. Here’s the truth about creativity; Everyone hits a dry spot. Creativity isn't a constant. It ebbs and flows. So relax, and give yourself a break, because if you try too hard you’ll tense up and the flow can become constricted.

#2 Carry a notebook everywhere

Everything is available in digital format, even your notes and sketches But there is a downside to going digital with your inspiration; digital can get lost. If you carry a notebook and actually physically write it down or sketch it out, you’re always going to have it at the ready. It’s easier to page through a notebook than it is to open a folder of individual documents. The tactile aspect of doing so is inspiring in itself.  So sketch, doodle, write, tear stuff out of magazines and paste it in. Carry a notebook with you everywhere you go so your ideas are easily written and retrieved.

#3 Walk

It's scientifically proven that going for a 10-minute walk will dramatically increase your productivity and your positivity. New ideas will pop into your mind when you are walking - no podcasts, no music - just walking. Jump on a treadmill or take laps inside if that’s the only option available to you. Getting some fresh air by walking outside boosts your oxygen intake which gives the brain more fuel. Additionally, nature acts like a reboot for the overloaded brain so walking outside gives you twice the benefit.

#4 Copy Something

All fine artists learn by copying. Designers, musicians, writers, and even business professionals actually learn by copying, as well. There's very little in the world that's really original. So if you're having trouble with creative ideas, just copy something. It'll get the creative flow moving and some new ideas will inevitably pop up for you to explore. 

#5 Change your environment

I noticed that after spending many hours in my home office and then going into New York City, I'd have an explosion of ideas. I would write down so many blog ideas, lists, and things I wanted to do. I saw the connection clearly: I realized that simply getting out of my office and getting on the train made my creativity skyrocket. It was the change in my environment. A break from the monotonous routine that got my synapses firing. If you want to stay creative, you must change your environment. Go to the library. Get on a train. Take a drive. Take a walk. Simply sitting in another part of the room can even do the trick. Break  “location monotony” and get creative.

#6 Do something new

Using your brain in a different way can shake off the cobwebs. If you do a lot of designing, do some writing. If you do a lot of writing, do some sketching. If you live in Excel spreadsheets, take up piano. There's a famous saying, “If you want to change what you get, you've got to change what you do.” In order to loosen up those creative ideas, do something new and different.

#7 Practice

Creating a “final product” means sometimes  spending hours crafting it to make sure it's absolutely perfect. Instead, create some stuff that you're definitely going to throw away. Start a  project knowing you're not going to keep it. When you intentionally create work that’s impermanent, it takes away some of the stress that’s impeding your creative flow. It also gives you an opportunity to practice your craft without the tension of creating something final. This gets the ideas moving and helps release the stress that perfection brings.

#8 Calm your mind

In today's fast-paced digital world, we're always on our phones or laptops. Or we have TV, music, YouTube or a podcast constantly providing a healthy dose of sensory overload. All this input doesn't leave space for ideas and creative thoughts to gestate. In order to center your creative self, take some time out of your day and turn off all the input. Turn off your phone, put your computer to sleep, and just sit with yourself. You'd be really surprised how creative ideas will flow in when you simply stop and meditate. Not a seasoned meditator? Here are some short, painless meditations to try.

#9 A Special Kind of Brainstorming

Brainstorming has fallen out of favor in the past few years since its efficacy was debunked (Harvard Business Review, 2015). What has taken its place is a specific type of brainstorming, called a “question burst.” A “question burst” is “a process for recasting problems in valuable new ways” (Harvard Business Review, 2018) by writing down every new question you can ask about this problem. Writing questions instead of searching for answers helps you push past creative blocks by going deep into the “what ifs.” There’s less logic and bias to hold you back when you ask questions, so the creativity surges. Give it a try by yourself or in a group. You’ll be surprised how quickly interesting ideas start to formulate.

#10 Feed your mind

There is so much amazing visual inspiration available for you in print (which still exists, by the way) and on the web. Constantly feed your mind with beautiful images before a creative dry spot pops up. Make a habit of gathering inspiring images. Collect them like a fiend. There are a host of applications that make it easy to collect images. Everyone knows Pinterest, and there are other options like Niice or Behance, which help you make beautiful mood boards. You can also use software you may already have like Keynote, PowerPoint, or a Google Slides  document, Evernote or Google Keep. Become a voracious collector of visual inspiration and feed your brain a diet of refreshing stimulation. It will definitely improve your creativity.

Being in a creative “slow moment” or an “idea desert” is not fun. I know, I’ve been there. It happens to the best and brightest. No one is immune. But these tips and tricks are certain to  help coax your creative self back to life and have you producing exceptional work again in no time

The Sexy Potato

There are watershed moments in our professional lives where something happens that changes everything. Mine was during a photo shoot for Lay’s potato chips.

Lay’s is, maybe unsurprisingly to salty snack fans, the largest food brand in the world, selling in 50+ countries with revenue of $1.7 billion. With a business that big you have to be very careful what you do in a package redesign - well, for obvious reasons. 

So there we were, shooting the sliced raw potato that appears on the back of the core plain flavor of Lay’s. My marketing partner was not happy. The raw potato was unattractive. The raw potato was missing irresistible flavor appeal, that je ne sais quoi.

She said “Philip, we need a really sexy potato”. It was in that moment that I realized I was not in the right place. And that I needed to make a change.

We finished the shoot. We had successfully coaxed the requisite appeal from the potato - as reluctant a subject as she was. But something inside me had shifted. Four weeks later I resigned from Pepsico. A potato was my tipping point.

We don’t get to choose our watershed moments. The trick is to use them as a springboard for positive change when they happen. For me it was a sexy potato. A potato that launched the most exciting and fulfilling chapter of my life.

Did You Get My Message?

In June of 1886 the German ship Paula took part in an experiment to test the ocean currents affecting shipping routes. Over a 69 year period they tossed thousands of amber glass bottles overboard that held small slips of paper. The messages asked whoever found them to report back to the German Naval Observatory with the location of where it washed up on shore.

Last month a woman was walking on the sand dunes on a remote beach in West Australia and found what is now the world's oldest known message in a bottle, almost 132 years after it was thrown into the sea. Let’s just say the location report didn’t do the Germans much good at this point.

When you send your messages, your in-bound content marketing, your social media communications out into the world, are you doing so just hoping that your customer target happens to come across it on their digital shores? 

Knowing how, when and where to target your efforts constitutes the difference between truly effective brand building activity and tossing a message in a bottle into the sea. Because no one wants to wait 132 years for a new business lead.

photo credit: Getty Images / Paul Barton

The Wipe Out

When I was in art school, I had a drawing instructor who had this one exercise that I never forgot. He would instruct you to draw a model for 90 minutes in soft charcoal. You would work slavishly, perfecting every curve and shadow. Then when time was up, he’d say “OK, take your chamois cloth and wipe it all out”.

Some students would gasp, others were incredulous. But I’ll lose all my work!

Once the drawings were erased he said, “OK, now you have three minutes to draw the entire thing again.”

Inevitably, the resulting drawings would be amazing. More full of life than the over-worked 90 minute versions. Why? Because we hadn’t really wiped out the drawing. The previous 90 minutes was visually engrained and in our muscle memory.

As entrepreneurs and creative professionals we may start a project, a product, a business that gets wiped out. Clients lost. Customers vanish. But what we have to remember is that the work we put in, the brain power we invested isn’t gone. It is in our muscle memory, ready to be released, full of life. Refined. Essential. The next one will be amazing.

photo: Shalom Jacobovitz

The Brand from the Black Lagoon

When the film The Shape of Water was released my first response was disbelief. One of my favorite films as a kid was The Creature from the Black Lagoon, a black and white classic that was terrifying and yet somehow comforting in memory. How could they remake it? 

But when I saw the new version I was stunned by its beauty and poetry and thankfully it was a lot less scary. I guess I wasn’t alone. It just received the Oscar for Best Picture. 

Last week I was contacted by a prospective client who wants me to revise their brand identity. In doing my research I checked out their website. The site was like looking at a faded postcard from 1991. Unresponsive, a clunky columned layout, low resolution photographs.

The client had no idea how dated it had become. They remembered it as classic and comfortable. 

Is there an aspect of your brand that is due for a remake? Something you might revise to reach a level of beauty, poetry and performance that you hadn’t thought possible? And maybe at the same time make a little less scary?

photo: ©Universal Pictures

Going with the Flow

One of my favorite books is “Undaunted Courage”, which is about the Lewis and Clark expedition to map and open the American West. When they came to the Missouri River they knew they had to use it to travel north. The only problem was that the river’s current flows south.

The thing that blows my mind about their journey isn’t the distance they travelled, the brutal winters they survived or the Native Americans they encountered. It’s that they physically dragged a 55 foot keelboat loaded with thousands of pounds of supplies up the Missouri against the current. For hundreds of miles. My back hurts just thinking about it.

Recently, I’ve been working with a client to create a customer journey map for their website. The copy on many business’s websites just crows about themselves. Our services. Our products. Our processes. When you talk to your customers that way you are trying to drag them upstream.

Instead, you need to focus on their mindset. Your customer is there to solve a problem they have. What they really want to hear is that you understand, that you care and that you can guide them to the solution. Effective website copy isn’t about you. It’s about them. Selling is easier when you go with the current.

Your Pedal to the Metal

In 1958 Dick Flynn made a change. Dick was a race car driver and was looking for the perfect fuel. One day he discovered that by injecting nitrous oxide into his fuel mix he could produce a huge surge of power.

No one knew how he was suddenly winning so many races. But he did. He had found just the right catalyst to super-charge his engine. He kept the nitrous tank hidden under his dash, activating it just when he needed the boost.

There’s a saying, “If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got." If you're not satisfied with what you've always gotten, then something's got to change.

Brand consultants are accelerants. They can help you get places faster. Sure, you can continue in your lane, picking up an odd tactic or strategy here and there. You can slap a patch on your website or marketing materials and hope it gets you to the next mile marker.

But your dreams of success and freedom will be out of reach without a well-tuned brand. Let’s discover your perfect fuel.

photo credit: CC license @pxhere.com

You're Making Too Much Noise

At Orfield Labs in Minneapolis there is something called an anechoic chamber. Also known as the world’s quietest room. The sound level inside it is -9 decibels. There is literally less than zero ambient noise. When you are in it, the only signal you hear is the sound your own ears make (yes, they actually produce a little noise). That, and your own heart beating. 

The amount of noise that we have to filter today is ridiculous. The signal that we want to hear, that holds a meaningful message, is getting harder to discern. Unfortunately, sometimes we are responsible for creating this noise ourselves. Trying to be on too many social platforms at once, reflecting and bouncing too much content around. You can drown yourself out.

This is why I left Twitter last year (for the most part). My analytics revealed the promotions for my agency were mainly reaching the feeds of other marketers - who were all busy reverberating their own noise. Everyone was talking, but no one was really listening.

How quiet is the room you’ve chosen to be in? Is your customer there with you? They need to be able to hear the heartbeat of your message.

The Shark and the Chumsicle

Sharks are trendy. There is a shark feeding dive I do in the Bahamas where they use a 3ft. ball of frozen fish chum (yum!) suspended from a float in 40 feet of water. They rev the boat engines like a dinner bell. In a blink of an eye there are 60 sharks milling around.

The sharks start circling the “chumsicle” in a wide rotating arc. You get to join in and swim along side them. They don’t even notice. The sharks are busy strategizing.

Soon the most ambitious peel off and attack the bait. But they have a hard time because the chumcicle is still frozen. Later, it begins to thaw and the action gives new meaning to the word “frenzy”. At the end, when the ball is dwindling, the remaining sharks fill up on what’s fallen to the sandy bottom.

When feeding off new trends you have to strategize where you want to play. Do you want to be the first to try to sink your teeth in? Do you want to join when it’s a frenzy, the food is flying and the competition is the fiercest? Or do you exercise patience and benefit from the work of others? There is no one correct answer. You just have to commit to where you want to be in the food chain.

photo credit: where2wander.com

Your Wolf Pack

There is a behavioral phenomenon in wolves called the Beau Geste Effect. When a wolf begins to howl, his pack mates will begin to howl also. However, when they join the chorus, they don’t howl in the same tone. They pitch their howl up or down an octave - modulating the tone mid-howl. It makes the pack sound larger than it is.

During the Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant wrote that judging from the nightly cacophony, "a pack of twenty wolves" had been shadowing his unit. When the pack was eventually spotted, it turned out there weren’t twenty. There were two. 

When you make yourself appear larger than you are, two things happen: 1. You stake out your territory and lay claim to its resources…and 2. You give the competition second thoughts about messing with you.

Entrepreneurs and creative professionals are leveraging social media, blogs, articles, podcasts and video to multiply their voices and appear larger than they might be in reality. 

Ruling your niche is a smart move. Being small is no excuse for not owning your neck of the woods. What more can you do to keep the competition at bay?