Yesterday I attended a “fantastic” branding workshop, facilitated by OrangeBall Creative.
I put fantastic in quotes because it was seven hours talking about branding, messaging and marketing for your business. It was a…GRIND (in a good way). I actually came home and took a nap afterwards :)
But it was fun for me to be on the other side in the audience vs. at the front of the room. I came to appreciate some of the simple, tough questions, which require deep, introspective thought, but yield insightful answers.
I can feel this from the audience every time I do a Daily Execution presentation. In a nutshell, I only ask four basic questions:
- What do you want?
- Why do you want it?
- When will you get there?
- How will you make it happen?
When I do the presentation, everyone has handouts, and I’ve found that people usually fall into three categories:
- They sit there, do nothing, and don’t even try (yes, this happens)
- They give a half-hearted effort
- They think, struggle, grind and search within themselves to find the answers
Yesterday, I was determined to be in the third category. Those are the Outperformers.
I’m not ashamed to admit that I didn’t have all the answers. I’m still trying to narrow down exactly who I serve and to be crystal clear on my messaging. I cannot tell you the number of times that I raised my hand and said, “I don’t know what to write–can you please help me?”
I had to fight the urge of feeling like an idiot; like everyone else in the room had the answers except me.
It’s OK to ask for help, and if you’re reading this right now, maybe it resonates with you.
So often we want to believe that we should have the answers to all the tough questions posed by life, but that’s not the truth.
If you haven’t realized it by now, I’m talking about much more than branding. I’m talking about asking simple, but tough, questions about making 2020 a great year.
One of the things they also said at the beginning of the workshop is that most people won’t take a day out of their schedule to work ON their business. They’ll continue to work IN their business.
They’re right.
I’d also argue that many people won’t take time out of their schedule to work ON their life, goals, ambitions. I’m convinced one of the reasons we don’t do this is because we don’t want to be confronted by the fact that we don’t know the answers. Better to distract and deflect than to be faced with that reality.
C’mon, Scott, how do you not know THAT? What’s WRONG with you?
Nothing, actually. Scott circa 2010 would have seen it differently. He would have given a half-hearted effort or avoided asking altogether. I’ve learned that, sometimes, it’s okay not to know.
Take the time to ask tough questions–about your business AND your life. If you don’t know the answers, admit it, ask for help and involve others in the process. Life is a team sport.
If I can serve you in any way (through speaking or coaching or otherwise), please let me know.
Keep Outperforming,
