Nicholas Bate

the Weekly Tutorial: GET SMART; GET CREATIVE

Day 2 of 4
Think smarter/2
Stimulate smarter thinking. Here are two simple ideas:
Get more ideas: listen to more audio non-fiction books, more serious radio. Read more. Discuss more. Debate more. Try a massive immersion exercise on a topic e.g. ‘how to improve my leadership’ or ‘how to make more money’ and read lots in a short time. Notice the stimulation your brain gets.
Get fewer ideas. Allow your brain ‘down time’ to get some of its own ideas out. Don’t try and ‘think’ about anything. Just ‘day-dream’. Notice what your brain comes up with.
So: try a session of deliberate over-load. Choose a topic you’d really like to think a lot more about. Get plenty of material. Put aside an hour. See the results.
And try a session (ideally 2h) where you deliberately reduce the input. Notice the results.

The Man Who Mistook His Laptop for His Life

The story so far....see The Man Who Mistook His Laptop For His Life category.....

As Head of Product Marketing it had been a tough roller-coaster 20 months: he was certainly a changed man from when he had started.

0740
Through reception. Past security. Quarter-smiles exchanged. Humourless. The furniture: perfect. The flowers: perfect. Everything hermetically sealed. Lift to the fourth floor. Along the hushed corridor. A cursory 'hi' to one of his team who looked as if they had been there all night. She probably had: it was the nature of the business. Chasing the huge future benefits.. His office, a bit of a refuge.

0745
Fourth buzzer. There it was. First major milestone of the day. Laptop on. Check outlook: first appointment at 0815; time for a decent coffee. Alison are you…yeah, that would be great. Thanks: a 2-shot usual. And make it skinny. So 0815, review with Jim. Now there’s a weasel. Too many Tom Peters books; needs to stop energising, empowering, 'recognising diversity' and just CLOSE SOME BUSINESS. And that’s what I need to tell him. 0900, the boss. Then some review time. Then the Z-10 launch meeting, then the US call. A lighter day would have been nice.

To be continued. Next Monday at 3pm. In the meantime: Get a Life

The Weekly Tutorial: GET SMART; GET CREATIVE

1 of 4

Think Smarter/1

The brain is pattern-seeking. And that is an evolutionary double-bind, which means it’s good news and it’s bad news. The good news is that we are well protected by our pattern-seeking ability e.g. we can find the door wherever we are in the world. The bad news is that we are likely to follow the same old patterns again and again. And it’s these ‘same old patterns’ which can stop us being as smart as we might. Patterns such as:
Patterns of language and thinking: ‘I’ll never get time to do my real passion’.
Patterns of behaviour: ‘I always do it that way’
Patterns of life: ‘but we always go to my Mum’s for Christmas’.
To think smarter, try breaking some patterns. Try a different route to work. Try going to sleep earlier and consequently getting up earlier. Try cooking. Try walking more. Trying making the team meeting really useful rather than an administrative exercise.
And notice how good you feel.

You’ve plenty to do; see you tomorrow.
*Each week, Monday to Thursday at 0700. Coming up in October/November:
w/c 6 November: Work/Life Balance. Is it possible? Yes!
w/c 13 November: How to Get your Book started: now!
w/c 20 November: The Rules of Life.
w/c 27 November: How to Get Fit.
w/c 1 December: Sort your Finances.
W/c 8 December: Simple Christmas

TTD (things to do): TO SORT YOUR FINANCES

1. Shift your basic strategy from spend, then save to SAVE, then spend.
2. Start working more often, as often as you can, in CASH. The spending of real money focuses your mind no end.
3. Save simply. Put every 20p piece you find in your change in a jar. It's pleasurable to see that you CAN save.
4. Remember salary does NOT =wealth. Get a handle on your true worth, your personal balance sheet.
5. Get more finanacially literate. Try this site for starters.
6. Start.

Rules for Radicals

So-do you really want to get your organisation to change?

"First there are no rules for revolution any more than there are rules for love or rules for happiness, but there ARE rules for radicals who want to change their world: there are certain central concepts of action in human politics that operate regardless of the scene or the time. To know these is basic to a pragmatic attack on the system."

Maybe you should read Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky. I regularly re-read my copy. Brilliant non-'management-speak' critical thinking. Read it!

Check out

Top 10 Secrets of the Marketing Process by Seth Godin

Go to his site and check out the 20th October post. Invaluable tips, especially points 1,2,6 and 10.

The Weekly Tutorial: Starting your own premium consultancy

Day 4 of 4

Today is the day you need to start sorting out your study library and/or your mentors. Take a trip to your favourite book-store and find basic books on sales/marketing/finance/leading; find ones which you are comfortable with. Read and absorb and distil down into the essence of what is important for you in your particular context.

As you do, consider these essentials:

SELLING in not about closing: it is about making it easy to buy.
LEADING is not about command and control: it is about inspiration.
MARKETING is not about big budgets: it is about being smart.
SURVIVAL is not about being a financial wizard: it is about getting the cash in. Then getting profitable cash in.

Finally on this week’s tutorial, start to think about who can give you help: who might make a great mentor? Decide to make touch with him/her next week.

See you next week for another tutorial

TTD (things to do): to have more energy

1. Get your full sleep quota. Sleep debt is debilitating.
2. Don't skip meals and think seriously about having a breakfast.
3. Get simple exercise. Our bodies are ment to be used. Use generates energy.
4. Have alcohol-free days.
5. Start to do something about it.

The Weekly Tutorial: Starting your own premium consultancy

Day 3 of 4

To do more than just survive, to make money and to have a comfortable lifestyle, you must be distinct. Bottom line: be distinct or extinct. So today is working on the question of: why would anyone want to buy from you? And the answer (I hope) is NOT because you offer the lowest prices. No, you have something special. But here’s the irony: if you do have anything special: a widget, a methodology, it won’t stay special for long.

So, your secret weapon is to be distinct on your service and responsiveness. Do not ignore that aspect. You must have something(s) which are unique about you: if not you will just be selling on price. Start work now on: what are your unique selling propositions?

What is their problem? TESCO

It seems as Tesco gets bigger, we have to get bigger. I mean we have to get a bigger trolley and buy more stuff. And of course sometimes for the family/weekly/party shop that is great. But what about when you just want a few things, just an ordinary basketful? It can be hard-work. Standing in that queue recently and chatting to other shoppers we agreed things were getting harder for the 1-basket shopper. And yet the reason many of us choose to minimise our shopping is we want to be in and out of the store quickly.

And that's a point which has been lost, Tesco. You are making it easier and easier to buy more and more and spend more and more time with you. But one or two of us like you but don't want to spend too much of our time with you. And please don't say 'on-line'. We know that's brilliant at times, but it too has its challenges for small, variable amounts.

Come on Tesco: allow some of us to fast-track. A lot of people fast-tracking is still plenty of money. What about if you had a corner shop within those warehouse stores which stocked the 20/80 favourites. Now there is an idea.

What about your business? I know you are premium, I know you are quality, I know you are thoughtful. But can you be DAMN QUICK and RESPONSIVE when the client wants it? Something to think about.