SPENDING ATTENTION

Distractions abound. And that's ok. They offer options. Like a credit card with low introductory interest, you can profit by taking advantage of it, but go too far and it's hard to get out.

But you know how to manage your time. You love getting in the zone, when the zone is getting you where you want to go. And you know Facebook rarely gets us there. So you target your reading. Stay focused on the things you want to learn instead of what they want to tell.

Your attention span is yours to spend, and I'm honored you've so generously spent this small bit with me.

The Most Offensive Offer

Playing two songs at the same time sounds terrible. The dissonance screams in our skulls. It doesn't matter how good two songs might be. Our minds have no interest in hearing both at the same time.

People don't enjoy dissonance.

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE:

In 1956 Dr. Leon Festinger coined the term Cognitive Dissonance. He realized dissonance doesn't only occur in music. It can also be caused by conversation. It can especially be caused by opinions. It doesn't matter how well intentioned I may be, if I offer an opinion that contradicts my friends opinion, they're unlikely to enjoy the experience.

Aesop's Fable of The fox and the Grapes perfectly illustrates the power of cognitive dissonance.

A hungry fox is walking through the forest, looking for a bit of food. A few grapes are spotted on a nearby branch. Jumping to get them the fox flies through the air but lands with a frown. The grapes are too high. He jumps again and again but simply can't get the grapes. The tree can't be climbed. He knows he can't fly.

So the fox turns to leave with nothing but the taste of bitter disappointment in his mouth.

Then he stops. Looking back up, he notices the grapes have white spots near the stem. The grapes might not be completely ripe. Actually, those spots look a lot like the spots on a sour grape he had last month. These grapes are not completely ripe. Actually, they're very likely completely unripe! Probably... No, definitely sour. These grapes are sour!!

The fox's face wrinkles in disgust as his imagination leaves a wickedly sour taste clinging to his tongue.

Realizing these are sour grapes and walking away, a smile creeping across his face. For now he's completely satisfied after failing to get what he wanted so much.

What just happened?

The fox was excited to find the grapes, then disappointed because he couldn't get them. Now, however, he's completely satisfied to not have them at all.

The fox doesn't like believing he's incapable of reaching a goal he so desires. He'd rather change his desire than admit he couldn't reach it.

Keep this in mind whenever you offer to help someone else reach their goals. Once the fox has decided the grapes are sour, he won't see you as helpful when you show up offering to let loan him your ladder. His opinion's been formed and the best your ladder can do is undermine his conclusion.

To use Dr. Festinger's term, your offer to help simply attacks another's high opinion of themselves. People like to feel they are smart and capable. Your offer to help actually creates evidence contradicting this feeling. That contradiction creates cognitive dissonance.

This is why sales and marketing are so tough. Even when your product is fantastic! People are easily offended when you offer exactly the ladder you know they need.

If it's your job to sell ladders, remember. Your opportunity to help is resting in their opinions. And timing is everything.

DISRUPTING FERGUSON

So many comments on Ferguson today. My Facebook and newsfeeds are jamming up full. And I'm not even sure I have an opinion.

Or do I have too many opinions. It's so easy to judge and to say "listen here".

And yet I have no idea what it's like to be a cop and feel threatened. I don't know what it's like to feel oppressed by a cop.

But I do know what it's like to feel scared. And feeling scared sucks. And I suspect both sides had a pretty big dose.

To even write about Ferguson scares me. And if I'm honest with myself, I fear I'll be judged. What will people think? If I take a side, either side, it feels like I'm condoning something terrible. And this is the part that scares me most.

But then I'm reminded I don't have to take a side. It's not my place to judge.

The question is not what should have happened. Those decisions are in the past and far out of my control. I'm curious more to see what we'll learn. What can we do today and tomorrow to help everyone find better decisions the next time around.

And this is where talking can become important again. Because decisions are made by choice. And choices are made by choosing between available options. And options are something we can create and offer one another. And the more options we offer, the more opportunity we'll all have to find.

Good luck!

BEATING AMAZON

General Motors and Microsoft have made their beds, and now there they must lie.

General Motors rarely worried about building better cars. They focused on building the market. Their true innovation wasn't new technology or techniques, but market segmentation and brand building (ie - Cadillac for the wealthy, Chevy for the workers, and Buicks in between). Because the market was so new and growing so fast, no one knew to expect quality. They were simply excited to have a car.

Ford and Chrysler barely kept up. And any manufacturer who actually took their time innovating a better, more reliable vehicle, like 'Tucker', simply never got a chance to play.

More recently, Microsoft did the same thing. Quality wasn't so important in early computing. They offered such a drastic improvement over the typerwriter, even very faulty computers saved piles of time and money.

Neither GM nor Microsoft ever attempted to be best. They merely rushed to be first. And it worked well, but it only worked because the market was young and their buyers lacked any point of comparison. Microsoft and GM both were then able to leverage their massive market dominance, making it almost impossible for new competition to emerge.

Stopping new competition will shore up profits and growth for a bit, but eventually the public grows disgruntled with the lack of innovation. Under the weight of their own over-confidence, these mega-companies eventually stumble. And when they do the crowds tend to cheer.

We see Amazon now repeating these same formulas to dominate online retail. They didn't have to be best because they were first. They got in so early, and grew so fast even Target and Walmart now stand nervously watching their every move.

But no matter how mighty, competitors eventually will emerge. GM was blind-sided by the Japanese, building across an ocean and outside GM's regulatory control. Microsoft was blind-sided by mobile and social media that sidestep their software altogether.

Who will blind-side Amazon? Perhaps it will never happen. Perhaps it will be you.

Becoming Unforgettable

What are you known for? What words come to mind when people think of you? Are you known for a vision or known for a product?

McDonalds has an interesting problem. They're getting crunched between rising beef prices, a more health conscious customer base, and even environmental and PR concerns as beef production is considered by many a major driver of global warming?

So the cost of making burgers is going up. Demand for burgers is going down, and could even fall of a cliff in coming decades.

But McDonalds is about more than burgers. It's about convenience, affordability, and fun. Watch their ads. Notice how the focus is always on smiles, happiness and people. The food plays a supporting role.

McDonald's can add chicken wraps and salads to the menu quite successfully. Hamburgers will stay central to the menu for a good while, I'm sure. But we can also see a lot of possibility in other directions.

McDonald's brand allows them a lot of flexibility. The focus is on 'fast, cheap, convenient food served in an environment full of smiles'. That focus can include burgers, or chicken wraps, or even kale and tofu. It won't be easy, for sure. But you can see the possibility of a pivot into healthier futures. I suspect they're regularly discussing options like this.

Burger King, on the other hand, is going to have a tough time changing. Their vision, to be the "king of burgers", is tied to the product. And while I agree their burgers are much better than McDonald's, they are pretty much chained to that anchor. If demand for burgers collapses, Burger King will too.

McDonald's has cleverly built the foundation of their vision on giving customers fun, fast, and convenient food. Creating a personal outside the value of your actual product sounds like the completely wrong thing, but it's allowed them to adapt.

If demand for all your products were gone tomorrow, what instilled value would you still be able to offer the world?

GETTING HOOKED

I went into the meeting ready to say "NO!". I know they want help but am unsure what I'd be committing to do at this point. What activities will be keeping my kids (and me) busy? How many new clients will the business have to absorb (and manage) between now and next summer?

I want to help, but also have to manage my time carefully. So much is up in the air. It'd be reckless to commit now to next summer manage the biggest festival in 8 suburbs. I don't even know yet what that commitment would mean.

Then the meeting comes around. The chair of Carmelfest and me. He's new to the position too, learning himself. So I give myself the internal pep talk one more time, "he'll ask for help, and you simply can't commit yet. Better to say no now than risk letting them down later. Keep it low. Be polite. Stay flexible. You can do more later, once the details become clear."

Then the meeting strikes. I sit down. He begins talking but never once asks for help. There's no attempt to corner me into a commitment. Instead he seeks advice. They're adding a new pavilion and wondering how to promote and manage PR for it.

And without even realizing it, instead of saying "No", I'm asking for details. Instead of walking away free of responsibility, I'm throwing out ideas, suggesting options. Then the biggest shocker of 'em all, I suddenly hear myself suggesting he and I meet up next week to walk the grounds, get a visual, discuss marketing opportunities.

And once the meeting's over, walking away, I realize I not only failed to say No. I've already become the volunteer they were looking for. I'm completely on the hook, and loving it!!

The best sales, I'm reminded, isn't about tricks and manipulation. It's about helping someone find themselves in your cause. Getting hooked can be even more fun than getting away, and I'm excited to be joining a team that knows how to manage the difference.

THANK U 4 OVERCHARGING

Differentiation by location part 8

My son and I love drowning worms. We don't do it on purpose, of course. My son's trying to catch more fish and I'm just trying to catch more quality time with him.

Last summer on the lake in Wisconsin, he asks if I'm ready to fish, but I need a fishing license and we both need worms. So we hop in the car and drive straight to the nearest bait shop. 30 mins later our hooks are in the water.

The bait shop was packed too. There was a line for fishing licenses, and since it's vacation, everyone's arms are filled with sodas and chips and all that junk food we never buy back home.

Everything in this little ramshackle shop costs double what its worth and no one cares. We're on vacation and ready to get back to it. No way we're driving half an hour into town just to save a few bucks at Walmart.

the bait shop didn't have to compete on price or features. They were actually able to overcharge, and we happily lined up to pay it because they differentiated themselves from every single competitor quite well. Their location gave us the convenience we craved.

And they knew the secret. The owner's convenience is superfluous. It was our convenience that mattered. And they conveniently took our money as we thanked them for charging us more so we could drive less.

Where does your AUDIENCE love to be most?

ABOUT PRESSURE

I could write about Writer's Block. Sure, why not...

That blank page holds so much pressure. We want the finished product to be brilliant. It's got to capture the imagination of millions, or so we think. And the moment we begin to believe our work is important, the pressure builds too fast. The words get jammed in the chute.

But try starting off your blank page with these 4 little words: "I could write about..." and for the 5th word, just plop in the first thing that comes to mind.

Now the pressure is gone. The page is no longer blank. You have no responsibility to be genius. This isn't even for publication. You're merely jotting down a few things you might say.

And for some reason, the moment that pressure's relieved, the words begin to flow.

But now I've got to get back to it. A client's waiting for their written report, and I've nothing. Well, I could write about Pressure...