Not Targeting But Serving

If 'targeting' an audience sounds a little too calculating for your liking, even though your business needs to be all about making the best decisions in order to survive and thrive, look at it another way.

Instead of aiming your service at a group of people who ought to want it, first decide who you want to serve (for whatever reason) and set about actually serving them.

There are few things more rewarding than serving people you like with what they really want.

Roy 

My Enemy's Enemy is....

In the dark science they sometimes call 'the art of the possible' - that's politics to you and me - there's an expression that goes: "My enemy's enemy is my friend".

I think it's a throwback to the days when we were almost permanently at war with someone, and anyone who could help us 'beat' them was seen as an ally. It led to some pretty unsavoury alliances, too.

Back in the real world, I like to think I don't have any real enemies, but I know people who do.

The thing is, if we're to take sides and choose between friends and enemies (as though there's only those two categories to choose from), we're obviously going to choose friends. But, if those friends have a habit of making enemies, how long is it before we become one of them?

Now, I know some long-standing friends who have fallen out with one or two people, but that's different. I know them for the decent people they are. 

But choosing a friend on the basis that he or she is an enemy of someone we don't care to be around is like choosing a smouldering firework over a flaming one. And making friends with someone who can't wait to tell you about all the slights and insults he or she has suffered from other people is like befriending an unexploded bomb.

The same goes for clients, employees and employers, too.

I don't need people like that in my life. Do you?

Roy

It's NOT How Long, It's How Far

One of the things most of us would like to be is 'interesting'. Or at least, not boring.

When we tell a story we like people to be hanging on our every word, eager to know more or hear the next twist. What we don't want is to see them switching off.

But if we're in business there's a big danger people will be doing that all the time. It's fair enough if you've interrupted them and what you have to say doesn't interest them, but if you thought they were interested and they still can't wait to get away, you have a problem.

Turning people off can hurt you in other ways, too. After a while you'll find fewer people even notice when you start talking. And it turns out the same applies to your website. Google's infamous 'bounce rate'* is not a measure of how quickly people leave your site (or walk away, in real world terms) but how many of them only visit one page. That could be the real world equivalent of pretending to listen while they don't really engage at all, even if they don't actually walk away for some time. So, although they stay, they're not really with you.

If you want people to be interested, tell them a better story (by whatever medium you use), and one they want to hear. Your business, and your Google ranking, could depend on it.

Roy

*Google increasingly penalises a high 'bounce rate' by demoting your website in the search results.

What is it Good For?

Guilt has a purpose, but its purpose is not to make you feel bad about yourself or less worthy than anyone else.

So, if there's something troubling you, something you feel guilty about or responsible for, what good is that feeling of guilt doing you?

It's there to encourage you to either,

1. Put it right
2. Not make the same mistake again

So hanging on to guilt is a total waste of your energy. Either do that thing you promised to do, fix the problem you caused, or deal with the consequences. If it's too late to fix it, it's too late. Learn the lesson and move on.

We tend to be possessive about our feelings - they are ours alone, after all - but some things are better left behind, where they belong.

Roy