bwagy

Well not quite a sabbatical.

More of a break.

A time to pause / reflect.  

That’s why there is no post today.  (well there is now).

Every now and again, stop, refocus, adjust, push forward, dominate.

Let this be your mid week reflection (as I do the above).

is scary huh?

People pause.  They don’t know what to do.

There is a void.

You instantly think you need to fill it.

What if you didn’t? What if you bought 30seconds of ad time during peak times and had nothing.  Absolutely nothing.

People would be in the kitchen during the ad break going “who turned the tv off?”, others would look up to see what was going on, they might even tune in.

Silence is polarising, we are so used to noise, we have no idea how to react.

Giving groups of things a wrapping adds value.

Some example wrapping:

Collaborate and create an advertising company representing many blogs.  Individually they have no value.  As a collective they do.

Represent a collective of shops to negotiate better rates as a whole rather than individually

Bring a whole lot of friends together and work together.

Wrapping things up and giving them new meaning establishes value and shifts the perspective, the conversation that’s going on in your market’s mind.

What can you wrap up in your market?

I consume a fair amount of media, especially ebooks.

Every now and again I’ll head down the print shop and print them out. (and then once finished I can share them).

Here’s five I’ve read recently I would recommend:

• 4 Hour Work Week Corporate Guide: succinct guidelines from the Four Hour Work Week book (original blog post) for helping you get more out of your time.
• A Brief Guide to World Domination: Must read by my friend Chris Guillebeau
• The Word of Mouth Manual by Dave Balter, poses some interesting thoughts
• BootStrappers Bible by Seth Godin, valuable resource
• Blogging Strategy (my own) but honestly read it if your a blogger, take a step back and then reflect on your blog

Being different is not always the best.

Some things should be the same.

But choose one area where you will be different.

Be different where it matters.

Sitting in a cafe last week for a meeting, I gazed across the beverages.

Glinting at me from the corner were 3 rows of bottled water.

Waiwera Bottled Water.  Shaped round like a rain droplet.  They offering a visual viewing experience.  So they stood out amongst the others.  If i want water.  That’s the one I’ll be grabbing.

They are different where it matters, at the right place (cafe’s) at the right time (i want a drink but not sugar).  Bang.  Other water’s have no chance.

So think about it.  Where does it matter that i’m different?

Are you the Change Management person with a blog? are you the courier man who smiles at every customer.