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Fear Can Lead to Terrible Consequences
Posted on February 15th, 2010 No commentsjust overheard an interesting byte on fear via espn sportscenter. the father of the fallen georgian luger revealed today that his son was overcome by fear upon arriving at the olympic course at whistler that would later claim his life. specifically, he was terrified of the turn where he would eventually lose control of his sled. not sure about you, but this theme comes up consistently over the course of my week — though with far lesser consequences. where you allow fear to take hold, you become unfocused and commit less to the task at hand. the prospects for failure increase significantly. for most of us, what’s at stake is our emotional or financial state of being. we can recover from these. for some, fear’s consequence is far more profound and final.
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Advice: Savor the Challenge
Posted on December 15th, 2009 No commentswanted to pass along great advice from tony phillips of little rock, arkansas. i played football against the guy several times, and he was always a great competitor. “waiting for things to get better before taking action? things won’t get better until you go ahead and get yourself moving forward. the best time to start is always now. no matter what the outside circumstances may be, the most effective strategy is to get your inner strength revved up and rolling right away. if you’re waiting for things to be perfect, then you could wait forever. instead, grab hold of what is here and now. make positive use of it. excuses for delaying may be reasonable and impressive, but those excuses won’t move you forward. circumstances will improve when you make the effort to improve them. even the smallest effort is better than doing nothing. small efforts that bring results motivate you to take bigger, more effective steps. you know from experience that you can do what you set your mind to do. set your mind on the best of what can be. savor the challenge of making it happen.”
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Advice: A Blog Loosens Buying Inertia
Posted on November 16th, 2009 No commentsbelow is some advice i gave to a new client of mine – a home improvement contractor: competitors have been weakened. people are nervous about which company to trust. the potential is therefore great right now for the companies who stand tall and strong. passion and knowledge are an extremely valuable way to differentiate. it works on your behalf to loosen the buying inertia. i know blogging seems fluffy to many in business, but it is a great tool for offering a hands-on, customer-first experience at a website. you’ll communicate that you’re the safer bet, that you care more than your competitors do about the work, that you’re the one with whom they should feel good about committing their hard-earned dollars. make sense?
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Advice: Indirect Talk Leads to Fence Sitting
Posted on October 19th, 2009 No commentswas working on copy and design for a white paper picthed at executives in the financial services industry. below is advice I offered: i’m not wild about the indirect voice that’s taken in this banking piece. what do I mean by indirect? 1) there’s not enough use of “you” to address the address and engage the reader (everything talks about banking like it’s a sidebar for the reader – when it’s clearly not!). 2) there’s a fair amount of extraneous language to slow down the reader, which has the unfortunate effect of branding the company as long-winded and perhaps not action-ready (punchier text would better imply rolling up sleeves and getting down to business!). i’m guessing both of these are offshoots of the “academic” feel that the company has as a whole, and that the company runs into a fair amount of fence-sitting with business prospects who are down in the trenches. I know from personal experience that sales is difficult where an indirect path is taken to pitching services.
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