Requests for dashboards are almost always the same: I want to know what's going on.  That may be true, but that is not the purpose of a dashboard, and its not what you should really want.

Great dashboards measure the health of the leading indicators of the business.

To measure health effectively you need to:

1. Get clear on what success looks like for your business
2. Identify the leading indicators for success.
3. Measure & track how reality compares with targets

With that information, you're armed to make powerful, strategic decisions in your business. If you just 'know what's going on', you're likely to miss out on the important early indicators.

Sound bites are sexy. They are attention grabbing. They are clear and succinct. Trouble is? Our world isn't.

Our world is complicated, our challenges multi-faceted and our solutions, they are shades of grey.

And although they have their place in marketing, they should not have a place in our decision making. We seriously undermine our ability to understand and appreciate the many facets of the truth when what we hold true is a sound bite.

Remember, the sexy sound bite doesn't lead to the nuanced truth.

..be interested. It's simple: at any given moment, 99% of people are craving validation in the form of interest in themselves, their ideas and their experiences.

Ask a few good questions, add in an anecdote that conveys understanding and connection and - tada - you're their new favorite person.

Another way to think of this is that the best way to connect people is to develop curiosity in them. Curiosity is contagious and irresistible.

Want to be interesting? Be interested. You'll be irresistible.

Growing up American, a hard thing to understand is that less can be a luxury. We are conditioned to want more, to leave our options open, to value choice. Some of this is human (more food is greater than less food if we're fighting for survival), some of this is cultural (with Americans taking the cake).

More can be great. 

I'm a feminist, and believe that both men and women should have the whole rainbow of choices.

There's also the famous spaghetti sauce realization: there is no such thing as one best spaghetti sauce, rather there is a best spaghetti sauce for any number of tastes. (And I totally believe that having your favorite sauce is a good thing!)

But, choice does not equal satisfaction.

I remember coming back to the states from an ethnographic (anthropology) expedition in Tonga, where I went for months and months without seeing a store, let alone buying anything. Upon return, I was tasked with buying toothpaste. I remember standing in the store feeling utterly overwhelmed by the choice before me, thinking how the hell am I supposed to figure out which one to buy? Although I'm better at tuning it out now, I still feel that overwhelm every time I visit a supermarket.

But here's the really bad news: making overwhelming decisions is not only momentarily uncomfortable but also dissatisfying because there remains lingering doubt that you made the correct decision. Any resistance or downside can be perceived as a fault in choice and, therefore, a fault in yourself.

This is the cause of the quarter life crisis: overwhelm, decision fatigue and fear.

Barry Schwartz expands on this overwhelm and the subsequent sense of dissatisfaction in his fantastic book The Paradox of Choice (also, TED talk).

Less can be a luxury.

Releasing yourself from the burden of choice can be a real luxury and the best way to do this is to set yourself up so that there is no bad decision.

If you know your favorite kind of spaghetti sauce, no need to have the others. If you hone your personal style, a capsule wardrobe reduces the uncertainty. If you know what interests you, shut some doors! Delight in shutting them.

Less: relinquishing choice for freedom, emotional bandwidth and overall better decisions, can be a luxury indeed. 

The truth is that it gets much, much worse before it starts to get better.

Overwhelm, confusion and mess sneak up on you. It feels like you had more clarity, cleanliness & safety before you started.

And THEN you have to start making hard decisions. Does this add to my business / life? Am I ever going to use this again? Is this who I really want to be?

It’s not comfortable and it is extremely tempting to give in. To just go back to what worked in the past… to just move everything… But that’s not what we came here to do.

With strategy & with moving, the discomfort needs to be moved through to get to somewhere better, somewhere with greater clarity and quality.

It’s always darkest before dawn.

Great businesses know that social proof works (hello Yelp & Amazon reviews!). But many businesses miss the whole point of social proof. Social proof has two goals:

1. Prove that it works for someone like ME
2. Prove that people overcome MY problem

Essentially, the goal is for me to FEEL that I belong in the group.

You'll note that all of these are about ME seeing MYSELF and MY problems in the social proof. ME, ME, ME. The focus is all on the prospect.

Collect your social proof with this in mind: organize it by WHO the person is and WHAT their problem is. Solicit quotes and photos from your ideal customer demographics, specifically on the biggest challenges.

Highlight the quotes (and photos) of people closest to your ideal customer... starting with the biggest, most pressing challenge and working your way down from there.

Remember: if it's not making your IDEAL customer feel like they belong in the group (no matter how glowing the praise), your social proof is doing you a huge disservice.

When things aren't working, we're often tempted to do more of what worked in the past. Many times, that's the best solution... but it fails miserably if the real issue is a bottle neck, a limiting factor.

How can you tell? Imagine 10x-ing your efforts, would that offer proportionate rewards? If not, you've got a bottleneck.

Your purpose is to identify & release the constraint.

Then repeat... and repeat... and repeat.

Put another way, improving your website conversion won't do much if your constraint is a lack of traffic... And getting more traffic won't make you any more money, if you have nothing to sell.

What is the limiting factor that is preventing you from achieving your goals? Focus on that.

There are three key levers for growth in any business.

1. Add new customers
2. Get existing customers to buy more frequently
3. Increase the average order value (dollars per transaction)

And within each of these levers, there are countless ways to achieve the end goals.

The real questions come down to:

1. What kind of business do you want to be in?
2. Where are your biggest opportunities?

If you want to run a boutique, high touch business, get your customers in the door more frequently, spending more money each time.

If you want to run a high volume, lower touch business, growing your new customers is going to be integral for business health.

If you're just starting out and don't have any customer, 100% of your focus should be on #1.

Get clear about what kind of business you want to be in. Get clear on which metric is your weakest and focus on that one first. It'll be the biggest bang for your buck!

The other day, I was talking with a friend about her business. She was a little stressed out about the quality of her sales copy and specifically feeling like not all of the words were "quite right".

Screw the words.

Okay, okay, yes, words are important... and copy can make a big difference, but I say focus on what really moves the needle.

Get clear on what message and feeling you want to convey.

Copy gets so much easier after that. Then every sentence, every word, can be evaluated by a simple litmus test: Is this creating the message and feeling I want?

It also means you can write from the heart. After all, the message & feeling IS the heart.

And here's the thing, getting to the message and the feeling isn't necessarily harder. It's just not the question we usually ask ourselves.

In the end, the words don't matter that much... but the feelings, they count for everything.

Our society is into the quiz. I'm convinced its a main selling point of trashy magazines. Some of the highest converting opt-in offers online are quizzes. Hell, there are approximately 17 million different personality quizzes.

I'm hardly immune. I'm an ENTP and proud of it. Shenee's right, I'm a thought leader. And my fascination profile is the Avant-Garde.

But why?!?!

Because quizzes simplify the complexities of reality, they make concrete judgements when things feel fuzzy and, most of all, they make us feel seen.

When you simplify, concretize and make others feel seen, you win.

Think luck is random? No way. The formula for winning at luck is simple:

Quality of Content x Strength of Strategy x Quantity of Tries

Sure, you might hit the luck jackpot on the first try... but its much smarter to stack the odds in your favor by producing high quality content with strategic intent. Then you don't have to worry if it happens on try one, or try thirty, you know it's coming.

What does this mean in real life?

1. Make your content the best available.
2. Reverse engineer success (aka be strategic).
3. Repeat.

If you aren't getting lucky, your problem is with your content or your strategy. Otherwise, its just a numbers game.

While there are countless ways to grow your business, they all move they same five levers.

One of the best ways to spark creativity is to go through each of the levers and identify 10 ways to increase revenue using that strategy. Of course, you’ll have some bad ideas, but there are sure to be a few big winners in there too.

Here are the levers, you can:

1. Increase the number of leads Growing the number of leads is one of the clearest, easiest ways to grow your business. The more people in the door, the more you’re going to sell.

   You can grow this lever in tons of ways. You can advertise, create opportunities for word of mouth, do super targeted outreach, get media coverage, write on other websites, use SEO, etc. etc. etc. The possibilities are endless.

2. Increase the quality of leads Another way to make more sales is to not only increase the number of people walking through the door, but also to make them higher quality. Quality meaning that they are more likely to be your ideal customer.

   You can increase this by looking at which lead sources convert really well for you and do more of that. You can also change your channel strategies to better target your ideal audience. Perhaps shifting advertising to focus on people with the desired income range… or focus PR outreach to media outlets that have very clear connections with your products.

3. Increase the rate of purchase (conversion rate) Now, once you get people in the door, it’s key to actually get them to pull our their wallet.

   There are literally countless ways to do this. You can improve the customer experience, offer amazing service, guarantee the lowest prices, discount, build relationships with your leads… the list goes on.

   But the best way to increase conversion rate is always the same. Have the exact product that your market wants.

4. Increase the average order value So now that your leads have purchased, it’s time to help them buy more.

   Well considered upsells are a fantastic way to increase AOV. (Would you like to supersize that? Would you like leather seats in your car? Would you like one-on-one coaching with your course?) Upsells can be no-brainer purchases that improve the customer experience and increase average order value.

   The most comically overlooked way to increase AOV? Sell more expensive products. You can price test your current stuff, you can focus on selling your more expensive products or you expand to new, more expensive products.

5. Increase the frequency of purchase Finally, now that we’ve gotten more leads and more people to buy more, we can focus on increasing order frequency.

   Amazon’s auto-re-purchase is a genius example of automating frequent purchase behaviors. Subscription products, like magazines or software, follow the same model.

   Other models include updating your product frequently, to trigger repurchases (like an iPhone or car), deepening their needs in your market, widening the market to include adjacent goods & services and planned convalescence.

   The best way? Sell great stuff and give them personalized opportunities for buy again.

Whew, after all of that, you should be bursting with ways that you can grow your business.

There are short term plays — send out an email about product X. And, there are long-term ideas — design a new, higher price point product.

My advice: find ways to optimize the micro while placing a few big strategic bets on the macro.

I'm a big fan of the idea to 'buy it for life'. Most people focus on durability as the key criteria for buy it for life. And, yes, the stuff needs to be durable... but the far harder, less common aspect is that you need to still love it in a decade, let alone a year.

How much stuff do you love today that you loved 15 years ago? 10 years ago?

For me, the list is short.

With that in mind, a key question needs to be: is it timeless? Can it survive changes in taste or in lifestyle?

When you find the rare gems where there is a clear yes, you know its a win.

(PS - All tattoos need to meet this criteria!)

There are times when the most powerful thing that you can do is subtract. Take away the feature, cancel the meeting, delete 30% of the words. Simplify, shorten, focus.

Subtraction is hard and rare, which is exactly what makes it powerful.

But other times, we need the exact opposite. We need to expand, connect and luxuriate.

Add the anecdote, offer the nice-to-have, inject it with beauty. Be more.

Addition is the default American strategy. When in doubt, its better to subtract.

Before your launch your new thing, step back and identify its biggest weaknesses.

Launching a new career? Evaluate your experience, your network, your resume, etc.

Launching a new business? Evaluate your plan, your market, your offer, your network, etc.

Next, take that weakness and find a way to make it a strength. All it takes is a mindset shift.

Is your product too short for the price point? No -- it's laster focused and a time saver.

Is it too long? It's the definative be-all-end-all resource.

Is your career in the wrong industry?  No -- it gives you a unique perspective that helps you identify opportunities. (Come up with a couple right now)

New to town with no network? No -- you've got a huge opportunity to network with other transplants (they all remember being the new guy).

Reimagining your weaknesses as strengths isn't about putting lipstick on a pig. Not at all. Your work must be excellent.

Take a look at the example of the product that is too short or too long: two very different markets would be interested in each of them. Neither one is inherently better, just different.

This exercise is also NOT a way to lie to yourself (or to your customers). Everyone loses in that equation.

Transforming your weaknesses into strengths helps you see power you already have by identifying strengths in yourself and your projects that you didn't know existed.

The truth about shortcuts is a lot like the fallacy of effortlessness. They don't exist -- at least, not in the way that they are advertised.

Short cuts absolutely exist, in terms that there are shorter & longer ways to get from point A to point B, but the fast lane to beat all of your competition easily & quickly, there's no such thing.

Shortcuts come from people who have discipline to zoom out and evaluate their market strategically and execute their vision exquisitely. Most people skip this vague and challenging task.

"Overnight successes" are almost always people who have valuable adjacent skills that they developed over the long term. These advantages are often invisible from the outside, but are the basis of quick success.

The seeming unbeatable leadership position came not from any single shortcut or action, but rather through hundreds or thousands of consistent decisions.

All in all, shortcuts come down to three skills

1. Evaluating the system for ways to do things differently and better
2. Evaluating yourself to identify adjacent value that you can offer
3. Executing with discipline and excellence

Rather then search for the shortcut, hone these three skills, and you'll come out ahead -- in the short & long term.

Most things just aren't that complicated. In fact, most things, get worse when they get complicated.

Running a successful company is much less about doing 5,000 different things, and much, much more about doing 10 key things 5,000 times (0ver & over & over again). It's all about optimizing the system.

The thing is that doing 10 key things 5,000 times takes a totally different skill set than coming up with the 5,000 ideas.

It requires action and determination and consistency. It requires grit and willpower. Honestly, it's less fun than brainstorming!

But that work ethic is where success comes from 99% of the time. It comes from the action, consistently optimized, not the idea.

After all, any action at all -- even stupid action -- trumps any idea, any day.

There are three ways for a business to make more money:

1. Increase the number of new customers
2. Get customers to buy more often
3. Increase the average order size of customers

The most successful businesses have found two ways to win big. They can put all their resources in one of those three buckets and hit one out of the park... or they can make modest gains in all three, for exponential total growth.

Both work. One is a lot less risky.

Where are you going to focus?

I'm all about focusing on big wins. I often get feedback that I am be so big win focused, that I let the little stuff slide. Yesterday, I got a stark reminder why that that doesn't always cut it.

I was touring a recently renovated house. When I opened up one of the cabinets, the door wouldn't close properly, it wasn't installed or aligned quite right.

That was the end of my tour, the house was vetoed. All because I lost trust in the builder.

Clearly, they only cared about making it look good from the outside, not quality, functionality or longevity. I assumed that there were lots of other issues like this, many of them much bigger and more ominous.

Even though the functioning cabinet would be a quick and easy fix that really didn't change the home's value, the fact that it advertised that they didn't care was enough for me to walk away without regret.

Your customers do this too.

Where are you losing people due to the little things?

Most people don't think of themselves as marketers or salespeople. They think of Don Draper or Coca Cola or used car salesmen... not themselves. But, business or no business... marketing degree or not, you are in the biz.

Trying to get you kids to eat broccoli? Tough sell. Trying to sell your boss on an idea? Marketing & sales at heart. Looking for a date online? 100% pure marketing.

Long story short, to accomplish anything in life, improving your marketing an selling skills -- you ability to effectively communicate and persuade others -- will reap disproportionate rewards.