willie jackson

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  • Race and Vine

    Michael Parrish DuDell knows what he’s doing.

    I first met Michael during my Domino interview (December 2010) and was impressed by his poise and energy.

    This same poise and energy kept the Domino publishing train on its tracks for six wonderful months, and I’m not sure we would have gotten as much done in the office without his project management oversight.

    Michael recently transitioned out of an enviable and lucrative role with a firm to make his mark in the world, and I’m thrilled to share it with you today.

    Introducing race + vine:

    Specializing in connecting businesses to their consumers in more genuine and meaningful ways through content marketing, millennial engagement, and consumer experiences, race + vine fuses the most valuable elements of traditional PR, marketing, and branding with bold innovation and authentic storytelling to create deeply compelling (and sometimes edgy) work.

    If his services are a fit for your company’s needs, do yourself a favor a book him before everyone else does. You won’t regret it.

  • When will you make the sacrifice?

    If reaching your goal took 300 hours of discomfort, how would you schedule them? All at once or over several years?

    We don’t often think about it like this, but there’s no question that achieving anything worth talking about requires focus and therefore, sacrifice (since you can’t pay attention to everything at once…).

    ***

    The brilliance of Ramit’s approach to personal finance isn’t that he teaches you how to retire wealthy after a lifetime of ordering water while your friends are ordering wine, it’s that his approach targets behavioral change and the absurdities that keep smart people poor.

    As you can see, sugarcoating the truth is something that Ramit spends little time on:

    Earning more is also rife with psychological issues, most of which deal with getting out of your own way and confronting your own barriers. We’ll cover some psychological aspects of earning money, as they are central, yet often invisible, when starting out.

    Finally, if you want to complain about how these tactics don’t apply to your specific situation, go away. Smart people take broad strategies and specific tactics and apply them to their own lives. Whiners complain about how it doesn’t apply to them. Don’t expect to be spoon-fed.

    ***

    I can’t help but wonder what keeps us paying the minimum on credit card debt and mortgage payments is the same thing that causes us to shy away from the sacrifices that make our dreams attainable.

    Would you be willing to work every weekend for six months if it was guaranteed to double your income? How about quadruple?

    Would the allure of high income and some measure of financial security be enough to offset the feelings of sadness when you see pictures of your friends playing reindeer games every Saturday night?

    I’ve been reading a lot about habits and behavior recently and let me tell you…we are a strange species. Here’s the book I just read about this stuff: The Power of Habit

    ***

    This post was inspired by recent discussions with Jenny and Monique, who you should know about if you don’t already.

  • Trust through competence

    I’ve been shadowing my CEO on some customer projects recently, and it’s been eye-opening.

    Sure, he has a decade and a half of high-level engineering experience that he draws from, but what’s most interesting to me is the dynamic that exists during client calls: even previously hostile customers listen with rapt attention, excited to hear about how their business could improve.

    Early on, when I would handle customer calls on my own, I found myself just hoping not to blow a deal. Slowly, I became more confident in what I was “selling,” and that confidence in turn assured the person to whom I was speaking.

    There is a posture that gives customers the confidence to spend money with your company, and it’s forged only by 1) actually knowing what you’re talking about, 2) experience (not just the ability to do the work proposed, but a demonstrated history of delighted customers), and 3) a deep understanding of the customer’s business.

    Oh, and having a quality product to sell.

    As I told clients for years during my freelancing days, the technology is the easy part.

  • Stop Stealing Dreams

    Seth’s latest Manifesto, Stop Stealing Dreams is out (released last week, actually), and exceeding expectations.

    Few peer into the abyss like Seth does (which takes a combination of courage and the ability to synthesize mountains of information at a high level, while also being keenly in tune with human motivation and desire), and I hope you’ll help me spread this manifesto far and wide.

  • Clarity

    Some people resort to strong substances in order to obtain it, but that’s not my current method. I notice the most intense moments of clarity arriving when I’m 1) well-rested and 2) exercising regularly.

    Clarity of mind becomes a powerful tool in:

    • Determining the “right” answer to lingering questions
    • Eliminating unhealthy relationships and obligations
    • Identifying destructive or unproductive habits and patterns of thought
    • Some other things

    You’re probably a lot more disciplined than I am, but I have Sunday routine that helps me with this. It keeps me balanced, focused, and in a constant state of self-improvement.

    The worst misstep, as you can imagine, is missing a day…

  • Work time

    …should be guarded aggressively, even if it’s just an hour of uninterrupted time per day. I know people who thrive in environments where there are constant interruptions (I am not one of these people…), but I’ve noticed that they also make time to get their work done.

    This could mean no phone calls scheduled after 10am and before 4pm or all notifications being turned off when writing, but there should be some time carved out every day for producing and synthesis.

  • Easy to delight

    A dear friend of mine recently lost someone close to him, and he’s a bit shaken up by it. Predictably, the situation is causing him to reflect on his life and to appreciate those closest to him even more.

    He sent me a note this morning that I’ll cherish for a long time. It outlines his respect and appreciation and the quiet gratitude that close friends can understand without trying.

    There’s no reason why he couldn’t send the note any other time, though. And today is just as good a day as any to let someone know that you care.

    To let them know that you noticed.

    To let them know that you miss them.

    To let them know that the sun might not shine as brightly without them in your life.

    Make someone’s day today.

    It’s never too late, until it is…

  • Why are you asking for permission?

    Many people ask for permission to do things because they secretly want to be told no.

    If you don’t want to do something, just don’t do it. It’s unlikely that you’ll be called out for cowering in the shadows and sitting on an important idea. No on can read your mind, and you’re not responsible for what nobody knows.

    But if the terror in your belly confirms that you’ve got to give it a shot, then hurry up and jump. If the anxiety you feel is because you actually might have what it takes to execute, then go for it.

  • Unflinching where it counts

    I left my job in April of 2010 on my own terms, with a bitter distaste for traditional employment in my mouth.

    It would have been easy to say, “no jobs again, ever” after that experience, as I was able to support myself through freelancing and consulting at that point.

    But I wouldn’t have gotten hooked up with The Domino Project, an opportunity that altered the course of my life (in a good way). It changed the way I think about fear and projects and teams.

    I also wouldn’t have been able to take on my role with W3 EDGE, an opportunity that’s further shattering my ideas about how a business is run, how to be an executive, and how to deal with problems.

    Invaluable experiences.

    Both critical to my development and professional trajectory, and both would have been missed had I foolishly clung to an unhelpful and immature mindset about freedom and employment.

  • Spark by spark

    Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swaps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists. It is real. It is possible. It’s yours.

    -Ayn Rand

    A quote I happened upon last week through the Twitternets.

    I can think of few better quotes on which to meditate on a Monday morning.