Author: Suresh Dinakaran

Writing It Right !

 

How do you get it write?

 

” Our notebooks give us away, for however dutifully we record what we see around us, the common denominator of all we see is always, transparently, shamelessly, the implacable ‘I.” —Joan Didion, “On Keeping a Notebook “.

 

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing said Benjamin Franklin. 

 

Write something. There is no greater agony than an untold story inside you. Write something. Then improve it. Then write something else.Then repeat it till such time you have enough matter to constitute a post. Then ship it out. Rinse and repeat the process. Throw caution to the winds and to things like ‘ writer’s block ‘.

 

On the freeway of consistent bad writing is the convenience store that comes up- that of good writing. Fuel up there. 

 

And as you do that, you will simplify, clarify and amplify your thinking and strengthen your stories. When you are writing, you are looking at your own freedom. Nothing more empowering than that.

 

 

Please yourself. Pick up a few words. Stick your neck out and string them like a necklace.Open with a question and don’t answer till the end. The world will wait for an answer..then read out the riot…write act. Rinse..repeat.

 

From writer’s block to writer’s blog. The Separation Anxiety that we have in our heads is only a myth.

 

” The first draft is you just telling yourself the story “- Terry Pratchett

 
Did you get it write?
ENDS

 

 

 

 

Are You Putting All Your X In One Basket? Y?

Do pardon me. For disintermediating the age old adage ” Putting all your eggs in one basket “. The X is just a chance I took with phonetic liberty.
If you put all your eggs in one basket, any fall will be a messy one. Any time you put all your eggs in one basket, you’re just one stumble away from catastrophe.
There are so many creators out there. And it’s a prosumer world, an increasing tribe of people who do both, i.e. consume and create content, art etc. And now what has become de rigueur, social media appears to have become the be all and end all of any content articulation, community engagement and community impacting. 
The number of platforms available is also tempting. The recent launch of Threads (Meta’s version of Twitter, now X) saw almost 100 Million sign ups within a matter of days. The new kid on the block was the hottest thing in the social media world. Even within its threadbare duration of existence.
Meanwhile, other social-media platforms are losing steam. Twitter users(and advertisers) have been leaving the platform in droves. Average engagement on Instagram has plummeted. Overall viewership on TikTok is down, and the company faces the possibility of an outright ban in the United States. Facebook is being referred to in the past tense already.
Change is the only constant. A lot of these social media shiny objects are losing steam. Sustainability is hard to come by beyond the thrill of the chase and the incidental afterglow. Remember MySpace, AOL Messenger, Netscape etc- from red hot, warm, lukewarm, cold, beyond back burner, to dead and buried.  All of them were huge, until they weren’t. Here today, gone tomorrow.
That said, a lot of brands still continue to lean into these platforms in the hope that they will deliver their manna from heaven and get them their place in the sun with their audiences. Lulled and lured by the convenience and promise of ‘ quick gains ‘. That’s meaningless ‘  sole searching ‘ – putting all your eggs solely in the social media basket. 
As you decide to fire from a social platform’s shoulder, because it has audiences at all times of the day or night, that freebie comes to you with a Faustian bargain. Which is you giving up control totally to the intermediary, the platform. This intermediary dictates who sees your posts and how often, and it can unilaterally change policies, tweak algorithms, and generally do whatever it wants—even if it puts an end to your business or influence.
Vanilla metrics don’t work. And engagements on social media are predominantly superficial.  A small statistic as a wake up call: Of the 95 million photos and videos posted every day on Instagram and the 500 million tweets shared every day, how many linger beyond a fraction of a second?
We look, like, and promptly forget. And yet, we keep chasing these fleeting ideas that have the shortest of lives.​ Gone before they are born. 
The way to go is to be a master of your space– create your own blog, your own newsletter, your own email list, your own website etc. The Great Resignation is happening from social media platforms. But nobody is giving up on email. Well written emails with the right subject lines can fetch you upwards of 50% open rates and a significant click through rate(CTR). Never will you get this kind of an engagement on any social media platform. Yes, the web and email seem unexciting. But time to put your money where your mouth is.
If the idea you have in mind is to make things last, run away from the latest fad. Seek things that age well. Ozan Varol calls it ” the George Clooney Effect* “.
The Gorge Clooney Effect is a term used to describe the phenomenon of people looking better as they age. It was named after actor George Clooney, who has often been described as looking more attractive as he ages.
How about aging as an asset rather than a liability?
 
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There is more to a job than meets the I !

 

A job description can never exactly give you the full picture. Just as the map is not the territory or working is not productivity, your job and your work while being connected has more to it than meets the common criteria.

 

Your work far supersedes the job you do. Here’s a hint: your work might not be what you think it is. A chef might think his job is to focus on the food. Or the Doctor who thinks her job is to cure patients. But the cure is only a goal and a subset of the work that has a bigger narrative. Of community upliftment, of healing, of teaching, of giving.

 

It’s the famous story of the two workers – one said his job is breaking stones at a construction site, while the other worker on the same site was proud to say that his work was about building a beautiful cathedral.

 

 

The technical tasks are important, but the work involves more than that. There’s always more to the work than what’s in the typical job description.

 

The intangibles that are never part of your job description matter a lot. Delivering a great culinary experience for patrons is what a chef’s work would entail. Which goes far beyond the job of focusing only on the food.

 

A web programmer’s job description would be to write codes so that the site visitor gets to see what she is searching for. But the work at hand would be to offer a seamless, frictionless, engaging experience, that keeps her on the site happily for long and brings her (and her friends) back again and again and again.

 

Doing your job is not always the same as doing the work. There’s far more to it than meets the I.

 

The job description default is a constraint. Work goes way beyond that brief.

 

So, if you are in a job, you have your work cut out! Let’s not miss the wood for the trees.

 

ENDS

 

 

 

 

 

React or Respond? Thermometer or Thermostat?

 

Thermometer: an instrument for measuring and indicating temperature, typically one consisting of a narrow, hermetically sealed glass tube marked with graduations and having at one end a bulb containing mercury or alcohol which extends along the tube as it expands.

 

Thermostat: a device that automatically regulates temperature, or that activates a device when the temperature reaches a certain point.

 

No, we are not here to debate the functions and benefits of these devices. Rather, we want to look at the inference we can draw from both.

 

A thermometer is limited by the fact that it has only one function- that it reacts to the environment. We have used it many a times when someone in the family is sick and it is the go to device for measuring the temperature. The learning here is that a lot of us are like the thermometer, conditioned and restricted by beliefs, people, situation, leading limited lives in the bargain. Reacting in a constrained way to the environment.

 

On the other hand, let’s look at the thermostat. What it does is it gauges the environment and conditions the environment to react to it. If a thermostat notices that a room is too cold or too hot, it changes the environment to fit the ideal for which it is set. We do encounter internal and external attempts at putting constraints on us, which is when we can respond like the thermostat to reject those limiting beliefs and create an environment that aligns with your most ambitious goals.

 

Our attitude precedes the outcomes we desire. Have a reason before you expect a result.

 

All of us know about the oft used adage ” With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility “. Now turn that on its head and make it ” With Great Responsibility Comes Great Power “.

 

To quote Jim Kwik ” If you fight for your limitations you get to keep them. Drop excuses. You can’t get upset by the results you didn’t get from the work you didn’t do. Accept responsibility for your thoughts & actions.

 

The worst place to be, more terrible than Auschwitz, Nazi Germany’s largest concentration camp and extermination camp, is to be a prisoner in our own mind.

 

ENDS

 

 

The Might of a 5 Letter Word Called Might

The Might of a 5 Letter Word Called Might
The natural law is tooth and claw. All else is error.
 
When used as a noun, might means a person’s power or strength, like the might it takes to get a stuck lid off a jar of peanut butter, or the impressive power of a group, like a country’s military might. 
 
Might is also a verb used to express possibility, like when you might go for a walk if it doesn’t rain.
 
Here, the discourse is the latter- the one that expresses possibility.
The ‘might’ in “this might work.” An approach designed by hope, optimism and wanting to take the leap of faith.
 
The propensity to take a call, embark on an initiative, make a generous assertion about things you can’t be sure of.
 
Many hands make light work. Extending the analogy, many a ‘ might ‘, will add up, compound and make things work.

 

Was it Bismark who quoted ‘ Might is Right ‘? Though he was referring to the other might, when used as a noun. We rather use might as a verb. 
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Making up for the folks who don’t!

 

All around us we experience this on a daily basis.

 

If you are a member of a team or community, and given certain goals and responsibilities, you would feel dejected because you feel that others are not bringing their fair share to the table.

 

It could be a splitting a bill at a restaurant or delivering on their promised part of the bargain or doing something to change the culture or create community impact. It could be taking initiative or appropriate responsibility at work. The reasons could be many- one could be that they are selfish but that being said , it is also likely that there is a distinct lack of skill or resources or a feeling of inadequacy that they have.

 

So, the arithmetic is simple- many people do far less than what they should. As long as we are calibrated for that, and prepared to bring more than our fair share to the table, your goal of making things better stands a good chance. Because, we MUST make up for all those don’t.

 

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How is your brand performing in the economy of feelings?

 

 

Ever since I can remember, marketing has focused on the USP, the unique selling proposition, and the product’s/service’s features and benefits. This is a traditional theory and applies to a rational, analytical view of value. In an oversupplied market with more, and often conflicting information, rational decision making becomes a myth.

 

Instead, start paying attention to what people do (which is the best indication of how they feel), not so much to what they say.

 

The more choices there are and the more complex life becomes, the more people make decisions that “feel” right to them, and NOT on an objective truth.

 

So, how is your brand performing in the economy of feelings?

 

Changing behavior is a herculean task- ask any newspaper brand or cigarette brand or an Operating System brand..

 

You would have heard of this brand called Betty Crocker fabled for their Cake Mixes– when they launched, it was launched as a plug & play product, get the mix into the oven and voila, the cake is ready! Guess what? The brand bombed in the market.

 

They went back into the market wherein they gave only a 70% ready product and got the customer to participate and work on the remaining 30%- now guess what?? Betty Crocker was a roaring success.

 

Same thing applied to Ben & Jerry when they launched their Lavender flavor- it bombed..comeback kid was twinned with a more familiar to the audience Vanilla flavour and presto..

 

Creative pursuits that aim at changing consumer behavior should be hinged on layering the novel on the already familiar.

 

Caution: The value of marketing is not where you have been told it is.

 

Analytics inform , emotions compel.

 

In an era of quantum marketing with 5G, IOT, AI, VR, AR, MR, Meta etc, connecting hearts and minds is a great opportunity.

 

So, Marketing 101 would somewhat go like this:

-Identify which audience you want to be serving

-Examine what they need or want but don’t have

-If you can help people get to where they seek to go, when they’re ready to get there, the stuff called marketing gets significantly easier

-Be happy with serving a MVA(Minimum Viable Audience) rather than try to be all things to all people. Delight the daylights of your MVA

-Instead of finding customers for your product or service, find a product or service for your audience

 

As I conclude, may I direct you to this article from BrandKnew on how marketing has changed over the last half a century

 

ENDS

 

 

 

Un-Elevate The Elevator Pitch: Time For A Pattern Interrupt!

 

The quintessential elevator pitch has been indoctrinated into our culture for aeons. It is time to call time on that.

 

A pattern interrupt is anything that forces someone to change their natural pattern of thought. As a result, it is a technique that sales development and business development professionals use for a variety of situations in sales calls and sales processes.

 

Pattern Interrupt is an NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) technique for breaking a person’s usual habits by altering their mental, emotional, or behavioral state. Consider it an unexpected act that shocks them into a different state of mind.

 

” The purpose of an elevator pitch is to describe a situation or solution so compelling that the person you’re with wants to hear more even after the elevator ride is over “- Seth Godin

 

The brains of our audience are overloaded and preoccupied. Even a tiny bit of memory space is hard to come by. Experts will suggest the 3C model for your elevator pitch– Clear, Concise & Compelling. There is no shortage of advice floating around.

 

What if we do a pattern interrupt on the conventional elevator pitch? Which typically has always been about you making a pitch to a potential business partner or employer in the shortest possible time frame. No one ever bought anything on an elevator. The elevator pitch isn’t about selling your idea, because a metaphorical elevator is a lousy place to make a pitch.

 

When you are trying to cram in your perspective, your truth, your nuance, your past & your ambitions, all the while being judged, as you ride up a few floors, in just a few seconds, it is a sure fire way to failure.

So, how about putting the shoe on the other foot? We move from elevator pitch mode to a question mode, the elevator question. Beginning a conversation with the person you wish to connect with. Understanding who they are and what they want and then mapping it against who you are and what you want. So the elevator is like your trial room to check if the fit is right. And if the fit is not right, it is a signal, an opportunity to help the other side, even if it is not from you.

 

Rejection sets in when there is a mismatch of needs, narratives and what’s on offer. Rather than salivating over the prospect of the other person hiring you or doing business with you or fund you, calibrate your mind to think that no one can do these things. While you do that, open up the sunroof to bring in the sunshine of what you can help the other side with( and there are plenty of people whom you can help, mind you). And one way is that help could also come in the way of NOT making a pitch to them.

 

Hustle is de rigueur in our culture but a pattern interrupt that will work best is not to fall into the trap of hustling others.

 

Building a personal brand is an art. If you agree, this article from BrandKnew could be of interest, https://www.brandknewmag.com/you-need-to-establish-a-personal-brand-to-succeed-in-the-workplace-of-tomorrow-heres-how/

 

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Customer Experience Is A Spectator Sport!

 

Before we set out, lets take a look at some of the world’s top tier customer centric companies:

 

Walt Disney: Stooping To Excellence

ACE Hardware: Helpful Hardware Place

Ritz Carlton: We Are Ladies & Gentlemen, Serving Ladies & Gentlemen

Amazon: Still Building The World’s Most Customer Centric Organisation

 

In an in increasingly commoditised, Red Ocean infested world, guess what is your organisation’s best product or service? CeX: Customer Experience.

 

The longest and hardest nine inches in Marketing is the distance between the brain and the heart of your customer.

 

With each passing day, interactions with customers move from private ( phone, email) to public ( social media, review sites and forums). The ‘Me’ in Social Me’dia is the Custo’me’r: Your job is to give them something to talk, yelp, post, upload, converse about…

 

With each customer interaction on these public platforms, not only has your brand to manage the expectations of the original customer in question but also the emotions and perspectives of dozens or hundreds or even thousands of other customers and potential customers bearing witness.

That’s why it is more important to be mindful of what your brand says to the customers online but HOW it is conveyed as well. A minor choice in words could be the difference between an awesome customer interaction, and an unruly, offended mob!

 

Contrarian as it may sound, Employees First. Customers Second(there is a lot of meaning in this contradiction). Transfer the ownership of “change” to the employee in the value zone. You can’t have happy, enthused customers without happy, engaged employees.

 

The customer-centric company looks at customer service as a philosophy to be embraced by every employee of the company. It recognizes that there are both external and internal customers.

 

“You need to get to the future, ahead of your customers, and be ready to greet them when they arrive”- Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce.

 

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Taking A Chance Called Luck!

 

As luck would have it..

 

This popular refrain has stood the test of time..both good and bad..

 

For all those of us staking a claim on luck..

 

Good luck seems something that has been unearned..a freebie..

 

And bad luck seems like an excuse..

 

It’s like being between a rock and a hard place..

The false promise of meritocracy decries luck in all its forms..

 

It goes for the countless things that happens to us in our lives..

 

That I was lucky to get that job or the contract..

 

That I was unlucky not to get that big meeting some years ago..

 

Giving credit(or blame) to luck makes it easier to get back to the hard work of making things better..

 

We do remain guarded about our luck..especially if there has been a windfall that has come your way or you have had a prized catch..the feeling that good luck is scarce, only adds to that sense of secrecy. Though you might want to attribute your new state of success to your skill or talent, on deeper introspection, you would be the first one to acknowledge that is not true.

 

So, WTL(What The Luck)?

 

While we are on this mindset you could take a look at this article on The Power Relentless Optimism in BrandKnew.

 

ENDS