Dear Leaders, Entrepreneurs, Dreamers, and Creators of Great Things: I write these Love Letters each month with the hope of bringing you a little encouragement, some marketing help, and a few minutes of joy. Whether we are already friends or have yet to meet, I hope you’ll enjoy my stories from the road and some awesomely random takeaways, tools, tips, and updates.
I’ve always been intimidated by sweet potatoes.
I didn’t grow up in a sweet potato house. We had regular potatoes. Maybe rice occasionally. But never sweet potatoes. I’m not sure I actually ever saw one until I was an adult. I’ve never been a fan of sweet potato fries, and I’ve never actually cooked one before.
But last week, I stayed with a friend and she made sweet potato pancakes and they were divine. So this week, when I was doing my shopping, I bravely put two of them in my cart. I am still not sure exactly what to do with them… (ideas welcome!)… but I am going to try something I’ve never done before.
It’s basic human nature to avoid change. We want to stick with what we know because it’s comfortable. Safe. So we do what we’ve always done and get the results we’ve always gotten. Easy peasy.
But then life happens and change occurs. To us, to our businesses, to our customers. And we have to adapt. The biggest challenge comes when our adaptation muscles haven’t seen the light of day in a long, long time.
Experts say the best way to work those muscles is to purposely get uncomfortable. Drive a different route. Change your daily routine. Use your brain differently. Listen to different music. Try foods that intimidate you. (Hellooo, sweet potatoes.)
When was the last time you purposely got uncomfortable in your life or business? When was the last time you worked those muscles? This last quarter of the year, I dare you to shake it up. Get uncomfortable on purpose. Work those muscles. I promise you won’t regret it.
Two things I learned this month that blew my mind:
There is a new viral social app called SocialAI that immediately gives your account 1million followers. But they aren’t humans, they are bots. When you sign up, you get to decide how these bots behave and respond. Do you want cheerleaders? Supporters? Debaters? Intellectuals? Trolls? Haters? You get to choose. And when you post on that account, you get hundreds of responses in the format you want. It’s an echo chamber where you control the tone. At first glance, this is kind of insane. But it’s also a fascinating look at human behavior and our addiction to digital dopamine.
In the 1700’s Britain transported nearly 200,000 convicts to Australia. It was a gruelling, months-long journey and one-third of prisoners died on the way. Until they made one simple change: instead of paying the ship’s captains based on how many prisoners they transported, they started paying them based on how many survived. Survival rates went from 65% to 99%. Now, you might be wondering why this has anything to do with marketing or business… but it definitely made me think: what am I incentivizing in my business? Am I putting out marketing content just to check a box, or am I paying attention to what actually gets results?
This is where I share the good stuff:
… the latest websites, books, & tools that are inspiring me, the people who are making me smile, and the stuff I have been writing on sticky notes.
- The kitchen tool I cannot live without in the summer.
- Some important lessons learned from the PSL (Pumpkin Spice Latte) I loved this one!!
- A fascinating study on Women in the Workplace. A must read.
- The two books on my to-be-read stack right now: Business and Poetry (Not gonna lie, I am also deep into the ACOTAR series right now. IYKYK. No judgement, friends, a girl has to read some fiction sometimes!)
If not – what the heck are you waiting for? You can find the links here. If you have ordered it – thank you! Also, please take a few minutes to leave a review on the site you ordered from. It means the world to me and honestly, it makes a huge difference in sales. So thank you!
Thanks for reading, friends! If you want to get these in your inbox every month, be sure to get on the mailing list. And if you are looking for a speaker who will motivate your organization to get up, get moving, and face change head-on, I would love to chat.
