Articles on Success, Significance and the Evolving Role of Work

13 Motives Driving Everything You Choose

What made me decide to buy Kaskade’s latest album?

Why do I read and listen to most of what Brian Clark offers?

Why are you reading this right now?

In every decision we make, we seek the following 13 things:

To make money
To save money
To spend money
To make time (free it up)
To save time (extend it)
To spend time
To get energy (feel good)
To save energy (avoid hassles)
To spend energy
To protect someone or something
To feel in control
To feel apart from (think “feel special” or “stand out”)
To feel a part of (belonging)

Of course, we can never get all 13. But we try to get as many as possible with each choice.

There were three reasons driving my choice to buy Kaskade’s new album when it came out:

I love writing to EDM (electronic digital music), so it gave me some new tunes for my writing time (ie. spend time)
Kaskade’s music excites me (i.e. get energy)
I’m a fan — it made me feel part of his fan base (i.e. feel a part of)

As for the reasons I keep up with Brian Clark’s latest writing/thinking:

I profit from his ideas (i.e. make money)
His recommendations, products and services are field-tested (i.e. save time + save energy)
His approaches and thinking give me confidence (i.e. get energy)
Brian is proven leader within the community of modern marketers, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and solopreneurs in which I belong (i.e. feel a part of)

Key Takeaway: The more motives you can fulfill through your brand, content, products and services, the greater chance you have of growing your business.

So what about you? Which motives are in play as potential clients engage with you, your content and your products or services?

What’s the First Story Your Home Page Tells?

This post is part of my Tweak a Week series. It is designed to give you one quick improvement you can make to your business narrative right now.

Open up the home page of your company or personal website on your computer.

Take three giant steps back away from your screen.

Is it obvious what you do?

If so, email me a link to your home page. I would love to use yours as a best practice.

If not, fix it.

How?

Copyblogger serves as a great example. Marketingprofs does too.

My colleague, Chris Bevolo, does a terrific job with his agency, Interval.

Here’s how we set up the story of my organization, Jackson Healthcare.

Feel free to ask questions and share good (and bad) examples in the comments section below.

Is Yours a One-Act or Three-Act Story?

When we first begin to publicly present our organization and work, we face indifference and invisibility.

It’s as if we don’t exist.

No one cares.

At least, that’s the way it feels. (Often, that’s the way it is — I’ve seen the analytics of numerous young organizations and independent professionals and it ain’t pretty.)

The great gift we’re given as we’re starting out is freedom. We can change directions hundreds of times. Experiment. Improvise. Try new things.

Yet, despite this freedom, all we really want is someone to show some sign of interest in what we are trying to offer.

As we begin to emerge, and as the number of people interested in our work grows, something starts to shift.

At first, we don’t notice—we’re so giddy that anyone gives two craps about what we’re doing, that we’re happy to keep doing it.

However, over time, the box we’ve created can begin to feel like a liability. Because once we become known for something, that something becomes the only thing people expect from us. After all, it is the reason they are tuned in, right?

And this can hinder our ability to grow and expand as an organizational or personal brand.

So a conflict emerges within us. There is a piece of us wanting the freedom to explore new directions and ideas, while there’s another piece of us wanting to grow, sustain and engage a relevant audience.

If we keep doing the same ol’ same ol’, our story can grow stale and our audience decline. Or if we start experimenting, our story can grow confusing and our audience decline.

So what options do we have?

Let’s look at the three acts of U2’s story.

Act I — a story of emergence.

It’s about birth. And innocence. It’s an underdog story with an unlikely hero.

For U2, Act 1 was 1976 through 1989. They wore their hearts on their sleeves. They waved the white flag. In an age of hair bands and synthesizers, they were pure, roots-based rock-and-roll with a political/religious twist.

However, by 1989 they were quickly becoming a caricature.

They were trapped in the very box that had propelled them to superstardom.

On December 30, 1989, Bono famously said in a Lovetown concert in Dublin, “This is the end of something for U2…We have to go away and just dream it all up again.”

Act II — a story of struggle and sacrifice.

It’s about the struggle to rediscover some core truth.

It’s about experimentation and walking away to find oneself.

It’s about wandering and wondering.

It’s about sacrifice.

When U2 re-emerged in 1991 with the album, Achtung Baby, and their ZooTV tour, they confused some of their core fans. Had they sold out? Were they desperate?

With Acthtung Baby, U2 began explorations of art, the avant garde and themes of darkness that carried them through the release of their Popmart album in 1997.

By the end of the Popmart tour in 1998, many thought U2 had run out of ideas and lost their way. Album sales were down.

All hope seemed lost.

Act III — a story of resurrection and redemption.

With the release of their album, All That You Can’t Leave Behind in 2000, U2 claimed to be “reapplying for the job as the best band in the world.”

And it worked.

They returned to the sound and stage that catapulted them to best band in the world in the first place. They brought fans, old and new, together under one roof in a cataclysmic eruption of communal joy.

So what are some key takeaways?

You need to live the story you’re telling.
Your story needs to evolve over time.
Even though your story changes, your core values should not.

In Which Act is Your Story?

In Act I, you emerge. In Act II, you sacrifice something. And in Act III, you re-emerge.

This three-act thinking offers endless possibilities and metaphors:

Birth. Death. Resurrection.
White. Black. Gray.
Womb. Life. Afterlife.
Egypt. Wilderness. Promised Land.

It’s worked for U2. Bob Dylan. Allen Ginsberg. Apple. Starbucks. UPS. Nelson Mandela. Annie Leibovitz. And countless others.

The most endearing and enduring artists, organizations and brands live three-act stories. They reinvent themselves, continually emerging as new versions of their original selves.

Most organizations, consultants, freelancers, creatives and causes live one-act stories. Some even make a decent living doing this, so there’s nothing wrong with it per se.

But, in many of the organizations I’ve evaluated and advised, it as symptom of fear, rather than a strategy.

Remember that conflict I mentioned at the beginning of this article?

There comes a point when a new logo or website won’t solve the problem of no one giving two flips about your company, product or service.

You need a new story. Not one to tell — one you live.

Sure, you’ll lose some folks. But you’ll ultimately re-emerge with more, if you live a story worth sharing.

Where are you in your story? Where do you plan to go from here in your story?

Please share your story in the comments. I would love to learn more about it.

PS: If you are not really familiar with U2’s evolution, check out these videos to see how they’ve evolved through the three acts: Act 1, Act 2 and Act 3.

(U2 photo by Jack Newton on Flickr)

Why Your Company, Cause, Product, Service or Career Fails to Catch On (and How to Fix That)

By the end of this article, you will learn how to ask a single question that will transform the way you think about, write for and market to your audience. And it works.

If you’ve read, watched or listened to anything related to marketing in the past ten years, you’ve been exposed to Seth Godin, whether you know it or not.

Seth has long encouraged marketing-minded folks to re-orient. Here is what he’s said over the years:

Don’t find customers for your product or service, find products and services for your customers.

Even though I wish you were, you’re probably not reading this article for that advice.

You’re trying to find customers:

You already have a product (you) and you need to sell it (find a job).
Or you already have a product (a book or blog or app or training program or software solution or widget) and you want to sell more of it.
Or you already offer a service (consulting or graphic design or copywriting or hair care) and you want more clients.
Or you already have a cause (feeding the hungry or fighting illiteracy or saving souls) and you want to do more of it.

Unfortunately, most of our marketing problems stem from this reality — a person, product, service, cause or company already exists and it requires more people to want it. Now!

Whether I’m speaking with a physician, CEO or small business owner, one of the most common phrases I’ve heard over the years is this: “We need to do more marketing.”

When I audit and analyze their business narratives and content, I typically to discover that they are making common, avoidable mistakes.

Let’s walk through the way we’ve been taught to think about and “do” marketing. Then let’s learn about a question that forces you and me to think, write and market in a much more effective (and human) way.

Mistake #1 = Selling Features

Product and service features are important. They’re the bells and whistles we use to differentiate our thing from all the other things out there like ours.

Features often sound like this:

Dual-core enterprise class performance (Intel)
Flex grooves in the outsole promote a natural stride (Nike)
Individual, hand-stitched work of soft sculpture art (Cabbage Patch Kids)

Features also include location, convenience, endorsements and guarantees:

Absolutely, positively there overnight (FedEx)
Never loses suction (Dyson)

A worst-case (but popular) feature is price. Sale! Half price! Clearance!

Features only matter when they matter. And, often, they don’t.

Don’t believe me? Think of one of your favorite books. Now which version of that book would you buy:

One that is hand-crafted with a Gothic blind-stamped leather cover for $150?
Or a standard, mass-printed hard-cover for $20?

You don’t buy a book because of the packaging features. You buy it because of what the content offers you — which, on the surface, feels like a feature. But it’s not.

Mistake #2 = Selling to People Groups

Any time you start talking about soccer moms or stay-at-home dads or commuter couples, you’re talking about people groups.

People groups typically encompass demographics, psychographics and buyer personas.

Something about the idea of targeting specific people groups feels right. You offer a product or service that can help moms who run multiple kids to after-school activities. It seems natural you would target “soccer moms” with your marketing messages.

The problem is no one is one type of person. So a message “targeting” one type of person will often not connect with most in that imaginary group.

Could you imagine what this article might read like if I wrote this for the “marketing blog reader psychographic” or the “stuck entrepreneur” buyer persona?

The Most Common Mistake We Make = Selling Features to People Groups

This is the mother of all marketing mistakes. And it’s what most of us do.

Overly optimistic professionals “target” imaginary people groups with marketing messages that vomit the features and benefits their company, cause, product or service offer.

And then, as they face the reality that no one seems to care or even know they exist, they want to double-up on the features and frequency of their marketing.

How to Avoid These Mistakes By Asking One Question

I’ve spent many — okay most — of my 20 years as a marketing professional selling features to people groups. I admit it.

Have I had some successes? Sure. But I’ve consistently been haunted by the knowledge that the majority of my work could and should have performed better than it did.

It’s kind of like a musician whose ear develops faster than his playing. As he’s performing, he hears all the mistakes and opportunities, but he’s not yet able to execute. That’s what I’m talking about.

In 2005, I read an article by Clayton Christensen in Harvard Business Review that completely upended everything I thought I knew about marketing to and writing for people.

In that article, Christensen argues that our traditional approach to segmenting markets — by a) features and functions and b) demographics and psychographics — is the root problem driving so many company and product failures.

In other words, our marketing most likely fails because we approach it in a way that misleads us.

He offers a different framework — rather than focus on features and customer segments, focus on the job needing to be done.

And he offers a core question we should always ask:

What job is my customer hiring me, my product or service to do?

A Milkshake Story

In that article, Christensen tells the story of a fast food restaurant to illustrate this new framework.

They wanted to sell more milkshakes.

The traditional approach would be to study the milkshake features people prefer — thicker, more chocolaty, cheaper, etc. And identify the types of people who drink milkshakes (i.e. people groups).

Which is what they did. Then they made changes based upon these findings. But milkshake sales didn’t improve.

Another researcher took Christensen’s approach. They asked, “What jobs are people hiring milkshakes to do?”

What they discovered is that a morning crowd was hiring milkshakes to do these jobs:

Make their boring commute more fun
Stave off hunger until lunch
Consume it with one hand without making a mess

In the afternoons, parents were hiring milkshakes for a different job than the morning group. They hired milkshakes for their kids so they could feel like loving parents.

So you can see how any messages that contradict or ignore these essential jobs would be ignored by these milkshake buyers. They needed specific jobs done and they figured out milkshakes did the job best.

To sell more milkshakes meant creating milkshakes or alternatives that do these jobs better.

What This Means for You

Shift your website content, marketing collateral, writing and presentations from a features-orientation and/or people group-orientation to a job-orientation.

Ask, “What job is my customer hiring products like mine to do?”

Then, instead of talking about how great your product or service is, or why I should hire you or why I should donate to your cause, tell me stories that clearly show me how I can get something I want done done (with what you offer).

What This Looks Like in the Real World

Jeff Goins is a writer with a ton of readers.

Analyzing Jeff through the traditional lens, it appears he is successful because he shares accessible and actionable writing advice (i.e. features) with aspiring writers (i.e. people group).

Many have tried and failed to do what Jeff has done. Was he lucky? Was it timing? Did he discover some underserved group?

Let’s ask this question: “What job or jobs do Jeff’s readers hire his writing to do?”

I believe they hire his writing to help them face the fears and overwhelm hindering them from getting their writing out in the world. No one does that better than Jeff. And he’s a smart, kind human being to boot!

Pigtails & Crewcuts is a hair salon for kids. Friends of mine are franchise owners in Atlanta.

It would be easy to get distracted by their features — kids get their haircuts in fire engines, airplanes and the like while watching movies, which makes them look forward to getting their hair cut. And it’s certainly easy to get distracted by their people group — exhausted moms who dread the next hair cut fit.

But let’s ask this question instead: “What job or jobs do Pigtails’ customers hire their service to do?”

They hire Pigtails (often paying more) to remove the fits and fights from hair cuts.

Final Thoughts

I don’t want you to have to guess who you’re writing for or speaking with. And I don’t want you to feel like you have to “sell” some imaginary audience on how great you are.

My hope is to free you to talk directly with those you want to serve in a human way about exactly what they need done in their lives.

The key is to focus on the jobs they want done. Not you, your company, cause, product or service. Not your features either.

Focus on them. Help them get something in their lives done the way they want it, when they want it.

Actions to Take Now

Use this article to kick-start discussions within your organization or team. Ask, “What jobs are our clients hiring our products/services to do?” Also ask, “What other products/services are they hiring besides ours to do these jobs?”
Share this article with anyone you know who is struggling with getting their career, cause or company to catch on and get noticed.
Leave a comment below with ideas, questions, struggles or successes you’ve had related to this topic. I would love to help you leverage this framework for your own success.

If you’re interested:

Marketing Malpractice: The Cause and the Cure by Clayton Christensen
First, Organize 1,000 by Seth Godin
Goins, Writer by Jeff Goins
Pigtails & Crewcuts

The Power of Narratives

Imagine you’re in Atlanta, Georgia on an unusually chilly day in early winter.

You encounter a food truck that happens to be selling hot chocolate for $2 a cup.

So you decide to get a cup. And you watch them pull out a pouch of Swiss Miss, dump the powder in a styrofoam cup, add hot water, stir and hand you the cup.

How would that make you feel? How would you value that cup of hot chocolate?

Now, imagine the same unusually chilly day. But this time kids are selling hot chocolate for $2 a cup to raise money to buy gifts for kids at a local shelter.

How would that make you feel? How would you value that cup of hot chocolate?

It’s the exact same cup of instant Swiss Miss! But the story you tell yourself about each cup changes not only how much you value it, but how you feel.

That’s the power of narrative in your life, work life and life’s work.

There are four foundational narratives in our lives:

Personal narratives: These are the stories about you, your family, hobbies, interests, etc.
Cultural narratives: These are the stories of world news, history, art, science, etc. we read and hear every day.
Political narratives: These are the stories about which policies are best for society and who should lead these efforts.
Business narratives: These are the stories of industries, organizations and professions.

Each of these core narratives have numerous sub-narratives brewing within them.

Take business narratives—my area of specialty. There are numerous types of business narratives. Here are the main ones:

Career Narratives: These are the stories you tell about who you are, what you do and why. We use career narratives in interviews and when we meet new prospects, partners and peers.
Professional Narratives: These are the stories told among peers, like marketing professionals, healthcare executives or web developers. Professional narratives are what drive trade associations and events.
Industry Narratives: These are the stories told within markets and industries. For example, the healthcare industry has an ecosystem of stories shared by policymakers, regulators, executives, physicians, nurses, consultants and vendors.
Organizational Narratives: These are stories told within companies, as well as the stories organizations tell the public about who they are, what they do and why.
Product/Service Narratives: These are the stories of what the product/service is, what it does and why it’s needed.
Cause Narratives: These are stories of societal and social change. Nonprofit organizations, churches and advocacy groups use cause narratives to inspire people to donate their time and money to solving the world’s problems.
Creation Narratives: These are the stories of how your company, cause, product, service or career came to be.

If all of these narratives could be visualized, they might look like a room full of Venn diagrams.

But here is the idea with which I want to challenge you:

Have you consciously (and strategically) crafted the business narratives for your work life—who you are, what you do and why?
When someone asks, “So what do you do?” Do you have an engaging story to tell? Or do you wing it?
Do you have a clear understanding of how your story fits within your company? Profession? Industry?

Trust me, I wouldn’t believe you if you said you had this figured out.

This takes conscious effort, deliberate practice and an acceptance that your story is dynamic and requires continual tuning and toning.

So let’s kickstart a conversation on this.

Imagine we just met. You were in front of me in line to buy hot chocolate from those kids. Which led to a chat about how cool it is that kids would sit out in the cold to raise money for such a selfless cause.

And then I say, “So tell me about yourself. What do you do?”

How would you respond?

Write your response in the comments. I will try to help you find ways to align your story with your professional goals. And I promise I will be positive and constructive!