Marketing tactic agnosticism
What marketing (if any) do you do? Blogs? Maybe advertising on the radio? Maybe email marketing? Tweets? Posts? Articles? Video? Press releases? SEO? Pay-per-click? The list goes on… Do you ever wonder what the best approach for you to take is? Here’s a thought: Stop. And go deeper. And consider…
What you can do to avoid losing a sale (the way I lost one)
I’ve a client who has used my services a few times. But the number of purchases is one less than I would have liked. And I think I know why it didn’t happen. Let me tell you quickly what happened. In another business I use research (mainly surveys) to provide clients with clear recommendations on…
An argument for a different type of resolution

I just checked google and the phrase “new year’s resolution” appeared nearly 8 million times, 7870000 to be precise. But here’s an idea for you – a different type of resolution. How about a New Day’s Resolution? Why wait till 2021? Why wait till next month? Why even wait till next week? How about tomorrow?…
Achievement is more important than activity

Do you ever have one of those weeks where you spend lots of time on stuff that doesn’t move you forward? I’ve had one of them. Firstly, I’d been having laptop problems so I got a new laptop. But I ended up having problems with the new laptop so I ended up switching again. Let’s…
I doubt you’ve ever met a person like this

Imagine a person that is consistently successful – not necessarily all the time but more often than not. Yep – in all probability you’ve met one or more of those people. You might even be one of them But add in the following characteristic: That this person is not disciplined. Now…
Discipline

I want to tell you about my favourite email this week. It came from an accountability client. Last week he’d had a task to“Rule in / out” a certain project. Should he take it on? Is it the right thing for him to focus on? On Monday this week he sent me his…
Are you a prisoner to past decisions?

Have you heard of the sunk cost fallacy? It’s originally a financial idea – that people continue to sink money into something, not because making the additional investment is a decision that stands on its merits, but because of all the investment they’ve already made. They’re thinking: “I can’t give up…
You always have choice

A few days ago a friend of mine asked on Facebook for recommendations for someone to remove a tree stump for her. I jokingly answered suggesting her husband – who’s brilliant at DIY. She said “he’s just too busy“. But is he? I answered: “as I say to my clients: it’s not that he’s too…
The price of avoiding failure is eternal vigilance

Why do projects fail? Simplistically speaking, a project fails if it fails to deliver the required scope, to the required level of quality, on schedule and within budget. So if the project manager keeps a vigilant eye on scope, quality, cost and time, there’s a decent chance of success. What’s the biggest underlying cause of…
You have goals. Good. But be careful who you tell…

Imagine you’ve committed yourself to achieving a goal. Should you go public with your commitment? Will doing so help or hinder you? There’s academic research on this sort of stuff. It’s a branch of what’s called “social psychology”. But I’ll try not to be academic here – I don’t want you falling…