Surges

When I ran cross country in high school we learned about surging.

Surging is breaking out of your pace and going faster for a period of time before settling back into your sustained pace. It’s not sprinting. It’s adopting a faster pace that pushes your limits but still allows you to settle back in without stopping to take a break.

Surging isn’t easy. And knowing when to do it and for how long can be tricky. But it’s worth learning.

We’ve seen this in music over and over.

An artist has a hit record and rides it for a while. Then puts out a follow up (or two) and it falls flat. There’s no need to do a surge for the next one since they can still ride the pace of the first hit record.

On the other hand…a hit record, then couple duds…and then the artist digs deep and surges. Pushes hard all over again. Breaks out of the comfortable pace and lays it on the line.

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The Closed Sign

I’ve never walked by a shop with a sign in the window that said ‘Kind of Open’.

The sign in the window says Open or Closed. It’s clear. Both to me the customer, and to the person running the shop. We both know our roles.

An interesting problem we run into in the digital world is we can start a bunch of things and keep them kind of open. To the digital public it looks open, or at least not closed…but there ain’t much happening behind it.

(There’s a million band profile pages on Instagram from 2012 that don’t have a closed sign on them)

If you’re open, get to work.

If you’re closed, have the guts (and care) to switch the sign.

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The Clock Isn't Fast

These days there aren’t too many clocks that actually run fast...they don’t tick to the next minute in less than sixty seconds…they’re just set to the wrong time.

Similarly…there aren’t too many of us who read a blog like this that do bad work…but our work can certainly be set in the wrong direction.

Maybe it’s time to reset.

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Along The Way

We get overly attached to outcomes we can’t control and too unplugged from the difference we make all along the way.

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Getting Turned Down

You play the showcase and get the meeting with the company you want to work with. But after that it fizzles out.

It’s one of three main reasons…

-You’re not as good as you think you are, and not as good as they’d hoped…yet.

-You’re great but they’re not looking to work with an act like you.

-You’re great, they want to work with you but don’t think they will be able to sell you up the chain of command. Too risky to sell you to their boss.

If it’s the first one, get back to work.

If it’s the second two, it’s a good thing they didn’t sign you just to be nice. Find a different meeting.

»» The inverse of this applies once you learn your worth and have some leverage and can be patient and let them sell to you. They might not be good enough for you. You might not be looking for a company like them. It might be too tough to sell them to the rest of your team.

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Who Are You Selling To?

If you’re a wedding band don’t waste time selling to brides-to-be. Sell to wedding planners. Planners have a lot more weddings.

If you’re a valet parking company don’t waste time selling to people who need their car parked. Sell to someone who owns fifty hotels.

If you’re a lumber company don’t waste time selling to families that want to build a deck. Sell to general contractors.

It’s easy to get caught in the first part of the examples because it feels productive. And worse, you might get good at the first part and never move on to the next.

Are you selling to the right people or simply making the easiest sale?

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple