As we thought about developing our blog “Exhilarate Now” we wanted to make sure we have relevant, compelling content that resonates, motivates and just a little bit of funky, fun or stupid stuff…because all business all the time makes Jane boring.
Our first book highlight is on “ReWork” by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson the Founders of 37signals.
What attracted me to the book was with a riveting endorsement from our favorite marketing guru Seth Godin– “Ignore this book at your own peril”.
With a recommendation like this – how could I not want to read it and these are guys from the awesome productivity software Basecamp.
At first glance I thought this would be a simple read on some new ways of working. “The new reality”. They start off with it and then add some profound in your face jabs at traditional business methods. The areas of the book that spoke most to me and our events business was:
“Out-teach your competition”
Big companies can afford a Super Bowl ads, you can’t (true) so don’t try and buy their (potential clients) attention with a magazine or a banner ad, earn it by sharing knowledge and teaching – so we are going to be doing this on this blog and through our Youtube channel and at conferences. What do you want to learn?
“Nobody likes plastic flowers”
Too polished usually comes off as boring and stiff. I loved this chapter it’s about being authentic, transparent and real. A great way they summarize it is; “pare down to the essence, but don’t remove the poetry” When something becomes to polished, it loses its soul, so talk like you really talk and reveal things others are unwilling to discuss. They finish the chapter by stating “you might not seem as professional, but you will seem a lot more genuine”…I’d love hear your thoughts on this one…
“Speed Changes everything”
Wow, you can say that again, and the automated voicemail goes “your call is very important to us. We appreciate your patience. The average hold time right now is 16 minutes” – agghhhh, so frustrating just to find a way to talk to a live person, I’ve been there haven’t you. Technology is great but there are some places it really just needs not be used. We’ve been exploring ways at Exhilarate that can even speed up the proposal process – on our website we have the “RFP Express”, we figured you’ve already written out the RFP why do you have to contact us and then wait for us to get back to you and then you e-mail the RFP. We take the unneeded steps out, you can just easily upload your RFP and we will get right back to you with answers.
What’s the new reality in your world? What have you reworked in your business to see results? We look forward to hearing about it!
Feb05