“The best way to find out of you can trust somebody is to trust them.” — Ernest Hemingway
You know how you speak to the people closest to you?
When you’re honest, personal, and genuinely care about them?
Speak that same way to your customers or audience.
It will work much better than your “professional” voice ever could.
Now, on to this week’s ideas…
1. How To Get Someone To Love Your Idea
“The ability to communicate your idea is what ultimately drives sales, sways opinions, and influences audiences no matter whether you express that idea in person, via email, or through content.”
It’s one thing to have a good idea, but it’s another to convince someone else it’s good.
In this post I break down how to get someone to love your idea including to start with a story, focus on stakes instead of pain, and sell results instead of objectives.
Related: Five ways to increase demand for what you do.
2. The Secret To A Successful Collaboration Can Be Found In This 1962 Avis Memo
“Avis will never know as much about advertising as DDB and DDB will never know as much about the rent-a-car business as Avis.”
This is the story behind one of the most iconic advertising campaigns in history, but the underlying lesson is applicable to any business or creative collaboration.
Tom McCallum explains how choosing to trust helped make Avis a giant and it’s a reminder that setting clear lines of responsibility and then getting the hell out of the way to let people succeed or fail on their own can generate remarkable results.
Related: Art is advertising for what we really need.
3. How To Breathe
“Breathing is like solar energy for powering relaxation: it’s a way to regulate emotions that is free, always accessible, inexhaustible and easy to use.”
Just because you’re breathing right now doesn’t mean you’re getting the maximum benefits you could get from doing so.
Christophe Andre explains how to breathe including six techniques you can use to relieve stress and anxiety such as abdominal breathing, rhythmic breathing, and learning to follow your breath.
Related: The ultimate guide to dealing with stress at every age.
4. The 10 Rules Of Brand Building
“The best way to define what you are, is by what you’re not.”
As a founder of The Hundreds, one of the most successful streetwear brands of all time, Bobby Hundreds knows a thing or two about what it takes to create a brand people love.
In this post he shares his 10 rules of brand building including to ignore the feedback, have something to say, and stay hungry but not thirsty.
Related: Your brand is your audience.
5. How To Handle Other People’s Bad Moods
“Instead of viewing someone’s bad mood as a problem to be fixed, what if you shifted your perspective and saw it as a puzzle instead?”
It’s hard enough to deal with some people when they’re having a good day, but when they’re in a bad mood it presents a whole new set of challenges.
Nick Wignall explains how to handle other people’s bad moods including to try some reverse empathy, be a mirror instead of a mechanic, and clarify your responsibility.
Related: Make positivity louder.
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Next week those will include how to change somebody’s mind, how to be creative, how to use storytelling to drive actions, how to price your creative work, and why you should stop quoting people.
Recommendations
Course
My Newsletter Accelerator course will help you grow your newsletter.
Newsletter
Recomendo features six brief recommendations of cool stuff each week.
Song
Phone Down by Lost Kings and Emily Warren on the For The Interested playlist.
Book
Keep Going: 10 Ways To Stay Creative In Good Times And Bad by Austin Kleon.
People
Some of this week’s ideas came from Khe Hy, Dave Trott, Om Malik, and Claire Lew.
Image via The Hundreds.
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