/sharpen the ax_
I recently heard a piece of advice for writers worth sharing. A young copywriter was asked by a veteran in the field, “how many hours do you spend per day writing?” The young writer said, “about 8 hours or so.” The veteran responded, “no, no, that’s far too much. Spend 2 hours writing and spend the remaining 6 reading.” That young writer later on wrote, “Got Milk?”
Any work in the field of marketing and sales is truly a creative work. Especially today. Even sales people are asked to be creatives in modern social selling.
The mind, like the body, expels energy when it produces and like the body it needs to be fed. Whereas the body is fed through the mouth, the mind is fed through the ears and eyes.
Abraham Lincoln famously said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax.”
Such a powerful and wise statement. So powerful that “sharpening the ax” is Stephen Covey’s 7th principle of highly effective people.
Then what?
The mind actually craves sharpening. And many people in marketing and sales are learners. Your mind needs to consume in order to produce. This is why content that is strong on education or inspiration does so well.
If you can continue a person’s education or inspire their creativity you’ll give that person the “food” they need to be productive themselves.
But make sure that you have enough presence of mind to know where the audience is at on their journey with you at that time.
If the content you produce is a thinly vailed attempt at selling your product it’s just not that valuable to an audience that doesn’t know you.
If they don’t know you, at most, you make a simple mention of what company you’re affiliated with or you slap a logo on the content. Just because they are reading/watching/listening to your content doesn’t mean they are sales ready. So there is no reason not to put out the good juju, lower the stakes, and give them a reason to remember your brand.
Social is the place to do that. Zoom group calls is the place to do that.
The website is the place to be direct about your offer. That’s where you remove the vail and provide the education about how your product or service will enhance their lives.
But don’t forget to sharpen your own ax first. You’ll never produce anything worthwhile if you are not an inspired person.
In case you aren’t familiar with me here’s what’s nice to know. I’m a former CEO. I decided that marketing and sales was more fun than running an entire company so I made a big change and joined one of my software vendors as the Director of Business Development. It wasn’t an easy decision to make but here I am at Periodic and I’m having a blast running the marketing and sales program.
I believe that conversation is the number one business tool that anyone can have. And I’m continually trying to get better at having conversations. So I’d love to have a conversation with you. It can be about anything. I’d love to hear how you are doing in business and what big nuts you’re trying to crack. I’m an open book. Find a time on my schedule for a jam session at torlando.periodic.site
