Why Not Go First?

An article about successful disruptive businesses like Warby Parker or Square spreads like wildfire through social media channels and whole libraries could be filled with stories about what makes Apple unique. It’s natural to want to learn from the successes of others and to wonder how we can borrow a bit of their magic. Following…

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What’s More Important Than Building Awareness?

Ask any business owner what their most pressing problem is and ‘building awareness’ is sure to be on the list. Maybe it’s on your list too? In a world where it’s harder to get attention, gaining mind share is a priority for everyone. We think that if we can just get a few more people…

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Don’t Make Marketing Your Enemy

I often have conversations with people that start something like this: “I love my work (product, service, designs, vocation and so on), but I hate marketing. People who create often worry if they spend too much time marketing, that there will be no time left to do the work they care about—which they remind me…

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Tapping Into Empathy

Wherever you are right now stop what you’re doing and listen to the people and the conversations going on all around you. I’ve been working in public places a lot recently and here’s what I’ve found. Nobody is listening to anybody—not really. They’re pretending to listen while they wait for their turn to speak, but…

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The Truth About Winning

There is no such thing as something for everyone. More is not a shortcut to mattering. You don’t need the most customers. You don’t have to get all of the people to pick you. You don’t need to win all of the hearts. Image by ChrisJL.

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Who Decides What Wins?

The app developer will spend hundreds of man hours writing lines of perfect code in the hope of making his final product the best in the world. The cafe owner could pull thousands of shots in order to create the perfect cup every time. The entrepreneur might invest months agonising over design decisions to launch…

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Marketing Is About Giving Your Customers A Story To Tell

We’ve been stuck in a time warp for the past fifty years with a marketing model designed to sell things to our grandparents. A model that’s kept media buyers in jobs and many media outlets afloat. Marketing used to be what we told our customers to believe about us. What matters more now is how…

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Where Wile E. Coyote Went Wrong

Do you remember those old cartoons where Wile E. Coyote is so focused on outsmarting The Road Runner that he inevitably ends up getting in his own way? He spends so much time and energy trying to be one step ahead of the bird that he forgets what his end goal was. It’s easy (and…

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