Quick Tip
Are You Cursed?
There are 2 kinds of people...
Tappers and listeners.
That's how the groups were divided in this 1990 study at Standford University.
Each tapper was paired with a listener.
The tapper's job was to select a well-known song (i.e., "Happy Birthday") and tap out the rhythm on the table.
But first... they were asked how often the listeners would correctly guess the song they were tapping.
"50%," the tappers confidently predicted. Actually, they estimated anywhere between 10% to 95% - averaging out to 50%
But the listeners only got 3 out of 120 correct—only 2.5%.
Why the chasmic difference?
The Curse of Knowledge
The tappers could hear the melody in their head. The listeners couldn't.
The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias that happens when you unknowingly assume that others have the same background or expertise that you do.
The curse shows up all the time in business. If you are a:
- business coach, struggling with clients who don't "get it."
- in sales and prospects don't see the value of your solution
- frustrated by new employees making frequent mistakes
it could be the curse.
And it shows up all the time in marketing - from thinking you have nothing to say in your emails and content to assuming "shorter is better" so you try to sell your $10k service with 7 lines of copy.
Luckily, this curse is much easier to defeat than the Curse of the Bambino was. Be on the lookout for this bias in your communication and try to see things from the other person's point of view.
And a little user testing never hurts.
Be on the lookout for the curse - and enjoy the picks below.
Bill
913.962.9261
News, Tips, & Tricks
Subtitles and Captions Help Increase Video Views by 80%
Video will help you get more views on social, but if you want to increase the length of those views don't forget your captions and subtitles.
7 Reasons To Track Your Time as a Business Owner
Knowing how you spend your time is the first step to managing it. I'm not a fan of hourly billing, but the other tips in this article are fairly solid. What do you think?
Your Small Business May Be Approaching a Dangerous Level of Growth
Not all growth is good - particularly if you're not ready for it. Here are some tips to help identify when your business is in the "danger zone."
Feeding on Customer Feedback
Client feedback not only tells you where you need to improve, but it can also tell you what product or service you should offer next. Here are some steps for collecting and using feedback to grow your business.
Re-optimizing Content
Stuck trying to come up with new ideas for your content marketing? This case study shows you may be better off re-optimizing content you've already created.
And this...
A Spanish startup wants to serve up 3D printed 'steaks.' Now that we have the food replicator, we just need USS Enterprise.
Book of the Week
Borrowing Brilliance
Learn the key to the creative process - borrowing
Get the keys on Amazon. (affiliate link)
Tool of the Week
PickFu
Replace guesswork with clarity. With PickFu, you can crowdsource up to 500 opinions in an instant. Make better business decisions by seeking the wisdom of the crowd.
Like this newsletter?
Let me know. Reply, email me at [email protected], or find me on LinkedIn to hit me with some feedback. I’d love to know what you think.
Thanks for reading.
Bill
913.962.9261
P.S. - And whenever you are ready, here are 3 ways I can help you grow your business:
1) Get more referrals - Want help creating your system for orchestrating referrals?. Reply to this email with "More referrals" to set up a time to talk.
2) Get Help Quick - Day Rate Consults are the easiest way to get marketing tasks off of your to-do list. See what you can get done
3) Get more leads from your website - If your website isn't delivering enough leads, reply to this email with "website leads" and I'll send you the details about my Website Leads Audit.