Hey Alexa? Please punch me in the face
Sometimes, we make decisions based on our own thinking. Other times, we rely on conventional wisdom. Still other times, we jump on a hot new trend. There are problems with all of them. They’re all just spokes on an endlessly spinning wheel. First one is on top, then another, and on and on this wheel spins.
Today, in our line of work, this wheel feels like it’s spinning ever-faster. I only need to say the name “TikTok” or utter “artificial intelligence” for marketers to shudder. (Shhhh, shh-shh. Here’s a blanket and some warm cocoa. It’ll be fine. Right? Won’t it? Right?)
Right.
It’ll be fine.
It’ll be fine because we see what’s happening: Everything feels urgent. Nothing feels important.
We’re gonna be on Twitter? Okay, great! When’s the best time to tweet? The top report on Google says 3pm, so we’ll tweet at 3pm. Except, now that this info is public, guess what happens? That is no longer the best time to tweet! But we don’t have time to fix that, because we also care about email. Email marketing is crucial to any business today … but why are there some blog posts saying email is dead? That makes no sense to me. But do we have time to intrepret those words? No! Because here comes Snapchat… and now my boss is emailing me. “Hey, what’s our Snapchat strategy?” And we have NO idea, but we’re gonna jump all over Snapchat anyway. But then Instagram just keeps copying every new feature on Snapchat, so we’re ALSO going to be on Instagram at the very same time, oh yes we are. But have you heard? It’s the era of video! Yes! It’s the era of video! Are we making enough video? Marketing our videos? Get ROI from our videos? It is the era of videos!
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But also podcasts.
It’s ALSO the era of podcasts! But podcasts are just a subset of something larger called voice, and voice is eating communication. Have ya heard? Voicing is EATING communication. Are we prepared to run our businesses and build our brands when everyone is communicating through voice? Hey, Alexa? Please punch me in the face!
…
It’s like we’re stuck. We’re stuck on this wheel where everything feels urgent, but nothing feels important. And this endlessly spinning wheel leads straight to the one place we don’t want our careers or companies to be: average.
We have to escape this wheel and think for ourselves. We have to stop clinging to everyone else’s “right” answers and instead, ask ourselves the right questions.
What really matters … not in general, as part of some conventional wisdom or average practice? But what really matters for us in our unique situations?
What is your aspiration for your work … and your unfair advantage for reaching it? Why you and your team, specifically?
What is your first-principle insight about the customer? What are they really after, in the end … and have you seen any true believers responding in emotional ways to suggest you’ve touched on that nerve?
What are your resource constraints? Are they clear and agreed upon? Turns out creativity happens when we know our constraints, not when we think “outside the box.” That’s a myth. We always have some form of constraints. What are they? And if we succeed within that box, how might we expand?
Stop acting like experts and start acting like investigators. Refuse to settle for someone else’s “right” answers. All those right answers got us into this mess.
Alexa won’t save us now.
But you might.
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