Undisruptable

The world is full of AI guys telling you that you don't need the work.

AI ain't going anywhere. And it will bring the biggest benefits to people who've done the non-AI work.

Because they get the context.

As Rick Rubin says: There are no shortcuts. You have to do the work.

Customers know the brands and people who talk it up the most are the ones most likely to let them down.

And nobody reads the generic self-praise that Chat-GPT cranks out.

This week: suggestions on how to cut through their templates.

The world is full of people who are happy to have you work for them, yet seem surprised at your uppity requests to get paid on reasonable terms.

Learn from the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin.

Exciting personal news this week but you'll have to listen to find out.

Each week I write of different things that might help you get ahead in business. This week, let’s deal with the best thing for that.

A smart life partner who gets it, and you.

This week is all about rizz. The Oxford word of the year.

Should you use it in business?

This week, the deep, weird embarrassment of older folk trying to use Gen Z slang at work. Or anywhere.

Including two words guaranteed make any Gen Z person nauseous.

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Dad dance science story https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/lets-do-the-cringe-why-dad-dancing-was-designed-to-repel-20091217-l028.html

How are you going to grow your business in 2024?

Because growth is good, right?

Mostly but not always. The 10x growth mindset, particularly in B2B, is that of the pickup artist.

 Eternally on the cruise for new “targets”*. Talking lots about yourself. The thrill of the pursuit, the adrenalin surge of beating your competitors, the flex of announcing your latest win in the trade media.

This week: how to develop more profitable growth. Get it from your existing customers.

I’ve been thinking about the best half dozen business people I know. These are people who will never share their success secrets on LinkedIn, or appear in the business media.

They just run successful, fast-growing, absurdly profitable businesses with motivated staff who rarely leave.

And run rings around most of their competitors.

I’ve realised the one thing they all have in common.

I'm a big fan of being supportive with suppliers. It's good for your business. But sometimes they cross the line.

This week, we look at the signs that it's time to bring the hammer down and find new suppliers.

AirBNB doesn't have to be any sort of competitor to you.

But bit by bit, it can strangle your business.

Here's how, and how to avoid them getting you.

There’s a cliched view of charm and persuasiveness as being ‘silver-tongued’. It is the opposite of that.

Charm is mostly shutting up, listening and observing.

And you'll be much more charming if you don't use two words that people love to use, thinking they're helping.

This week, a deep dive on those two words.

It's great when your business moves out of your direct control.

I’m not a literal grandparent, but I like the sound of those moments grandparents speak of. Having a great time with the grandkids without being responsible for every damn detail of their lives 24/7.

That’s where our business is at now, metaphorically, and it is a sweet feeling.

Sure you're making no money under massive stress but also those early years of your business are great.

Don't forget to enjoy it.

This week, fascinating client research on why people win and lose sales in the B2B world. The reason every salesperson gives as an excuse? That one doesn't even make the top 10.

Warning: includes the worst tender horror story I've ever heard. If I'd done this, I would have just moved to a hut in the forest for the rest of my life. Welcome to the Fuck-Up Hall Of Fame.

This week, one of the most awful conversations I've ever had to have with a business partner.

And the conversations you should have with your dad, seeing as it's Fathers Day on Sunday, at least where I live.

People are going to ask you for discounts as a matter of course.

You don't have to say yes.

Want to know how to remember things more easily? To step above the daily grind of to-do lists and find out what's really important to you?

It's proven to work by neurological researchers, and the tech is yours for about $4.

Link from show - Do the big thing: the problem with Atomic Habits

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6YM9xFwKh2JqrlzSBX6g3x?si=467fae817ea643c2

How not to execute a rebrand.

Musk has done some genius work in his time, but his Twitter work is that of a man with nobody telling him what he needs to hear.

I don't usually do true crime podcasts but at last my own industry has an epic crime story.

We go inside the Human Group's extraction of $18M from a major bank to spend on all kinds of luxury stuff. Courtesy of friends James and Bradley who had an inside view of the whole caper.

Ask yourself: would the organisation I work in be any worse off financially if your job evaporated? It's a risky place to be.

This week: a different mindset to adopt that might stop you being fired if new owners come in.

We get asked to work for free all the time, so this week some thoughts on dealing with that.

It’s amazing how many salaried people will straight-up ask suppliers to work for their company for free. Would they do their job for free? Do they report to a CEO who works for free?

Here’s a helpful way to futureproof yourself against whatever the hell is in store in the decades to come. Even if your job is mostly online, going to conferences and industry gatherings is really productive long-term insurance as the nature of work changes.

 Yet most of us find it terrifying. It doesn't have to be. I'm a natural introvert, and I have a plan on how to reduce the pain and make it more productive for you.

One of the best ways to lift your all-round business performance is to develop a constant awareness that other people are not you.

It’s so valuable across lots of essential areas: management, sales, marketing, advising clients, and more.

The more you understand people, the better you get.

Yet so much business behaviour is driven by the idea that everyone thinks the same as you.

The path to success comes from embracing the differences between you, your staff and your customers.

Be afraid. That's all.

There's a lot spoke about personal brands and most of it is bullshit.

Here's a simple way to build a personal brand that will serve you well for the rest of your working life.

I very rarely lose it in phone conversations. But this was straight-up the most obnoxious thing I've ever heard from a customer service rep.

From an organisation I've personally spent about $50K a year with more than a decade.

Hear the line, and find out why I am a time management guru's worst nightmare.

Want to be absolutely loaded, eventually*? This week, a simple formula to get you there.

Plus a motto: don’t be like Alan Joyce, soon to be ex-Qantas CEO.

* No get rich quick schemes here, this is a long game.

A dirty habit that some bosses have is forcing their workforce into casual employment.

The fact that it’s bad for those staff is no concern at all to some bosses. Which is why I’m writing on why it’s also bad for businesses.

If your business involves any contact between customers and your people, permanently-employed people will outperform casuals almost every time.

People who feel valued outperform people who don’t. Here's the how and why of making more profit in the long term.

The tax office stuff I refer to is here: https://www.ato.gov.au/business/employee-or-contractor/how-to-work-it-out--employee-or-contractor/

A question to ask when you communicate with clients is: does this thing I'm saying imply they’re complete idiots?

This week, a look at one of those things that lot of companies do.

How it's an opportunity for your smaller, nicer business.

And one essential question to ask your customers that'll transform your business over time.

We all know that gender diversity is good for your business.

It's much easier in some industries, not so much when you're in a traditionally male sector where there's lots of heavy lifting, nightmarish hours and other factors that discourage many women.

But we've made some inroads on that lately and have increased our number of female frontline tech people.

Learn how that happened in this week's episode. Which makes more sense if you look at the photo I'm talking about, it's here https://ianwhitworth.net/the-long-road-to-gender-balance-in-blokey-industries/

I’m on quite the high right now. More on that later in the story, but over to you.

Do you want your people to work as a motivated team, or as a detached collection of individuals?

And do you want them to be happy?

Here's a basic thing we did that really delivered on the staff morale front.

If your business runs entirely on documented process, like the MBA people would like, you're not ready for when the Nazis turn up.

That was a possibility that we had to deal with last week.

Here's a better, simpler, quicker way to make decisions in your business.

So many people with a stable corporate job fantasise about sticking to the man and setting up their own business.

Obviously I’ve done a lot of stories encouraging people to do this, and I can’t recommend it too highly.

Yet you rarely hear of the simple reason why most of those businesses don't make it. That's because it's boring to write about.

Really selling you on listening it this week, aren't I?

But success comes from facing up to the things others don't bother with. Listen, or get run over by a bus.

Last week I crossed a grim line in the sand, and there is no going back.

A story that goes to the heart of how you staff your business, how to find good staff, and how to make sure they stay there.

I recognise most of you don’t want to hear this, but I have a tip on how to lead a happier and more productive life.

Be happy about paying tax.

I’ll just pause as thousands of high-income earners squeak and splutter, and tax accountants take offence at me questioning their entire existence. But hear me out.

This week, a new Mac laptop that copied all the files from my old one. Except the music library.

So all I had was the cursed free U2 album from 2014.

It's still there after nine years. A record by a band that will appeal only to the 50+ white people demographic. 

Every business has these strange legacy things that are invisible to you because they're just part of the furniture.

But customers can see them.

Time for a cleanup.

The other story I refer to in the chat. Old'n'Dirty Syndrome: 13 things to banish from your business 

The blog turns 5 today!

My partner correctly points out I am extremely bad at acknowledging my own achievements.

So this week, an interesting peek behind the curtains of our business and what all this stuff I talk about delivers in commercial terms.

And a few tips on doing anything difficult every week for long periods.

I became a long-term loyal customer of an expensive shop purely from one line the owner told me the first time I went in there.

That approach allowed the store to flourish when all around them are closing down.

Original story (and picture of the green floral shirt) here: https://ianwhitworth.net/how-telling-the-truth-kept-one-business-alive-while-all-around-them-went-under/

Now you have a business, you want to build revenue and it seems the answer is sales. What do you do? Because odds are, deep down you don’t identify as a sales person.

That's fine, most of us feel the same.

Here's how to work around that and still bring revenue through the door.

We're not pro investors but we do the odd angel investment in startups.

There are two Code Red alerts that make us run away as soon as we see them.

If you can drop these two habits, your strike rate will improve.

It’s been fifteen years. How do we finally realise the value of this beast we’ve created? 

Everyone would like to know what’s our exit plan, and what are we going to do with all the money?

This week, I can answer that.

It's time to push back against the HR joy-assassins this festive season.

As a boss in 2022, it’s your duty to let your people off the chain and turn a blind eye to Xmas-idiot behaviour, unless it’s infringing on the good times of your other staff. Because they have fucking earned it these last few years. And because having your people physically together is a blessing for your business.

If your people have had a few too many and they're all standing on a table with linked arms singing Horses, that is a great sign for the future of your business.