Having a bad day

with a new dawn and a new day you have new opportunities, but you don’t need a new Thing.

Your Thing is your Thing is your Thing.

If you are keen for a new Thing, I’d argue you’ve not found yours yet. If you’re just keen for ‘new’ then look at what needs to be new and what doesn’t.

Because there’s “shiny object” new, and there’s “Let’s just try something a little different, based on what we know already works” new. The latter new is a much better and more productive new.

Interviews are an amazing way to discover what you didn’t know you knew already. Provided you’re OK to think on your feet, or OK to ‘go with the flow’, you’ll find out you know a lot more than you think you did. I come up with all sorts of statements, stories and a-ha moments simply as part of a conversation. This is why I rarely say no to an interview.

Sometimes it is up to you to go first.

There might not be an example you can follow. Your idea might be just that—YOUR idea. So you have to do it.

Often when you work out what your Thing is you look around for examples of other people doing it so you can see how it’s done, or see how you want to do it differently, to make sure you stand out.

Transformations are what sell what you do. Features need to be listed of course, but it’s the results that count.

Typically we buy results – the transformation – more than we buy ‘what it is’.

The other night I went out for dinner with a group of people and experienced some serious magic. It wasn’t in fact the cooking (although my Pork Belly was very yummy) but proper “How the hell did he do that?!” close-up magic. The sort of magic where I was incredulously shaking my head shrieking “How is that possible?!” (yes, I was the one choosing the card that ended up in the wallet–in a zipped pocket, in a ticket case–when I had been holding the wallet in the palm of my hand AND it had my name written on it in my handwriting?!).

I love Post-it notes. I’ve recovered from my over-affection (I used to barely be able to see my monitor for the Post-its stuck all around the outside when I worked in an office!), but I still find them super-useful for the right job (just less of them in my sight line).