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SMARTY.

The human side of business

Archives for July 2015

Small Business

Brave.

July 30, 2015 · By Amy Swift Crosby

BraveWhat a great word. And what a great sentiment – since most of us aim to be brave-er, strong-er, bold-er in our embracing of life and work.

Lately I’ve been asking the “if not now, then when?” question.

Since that started, I’ve taken up African Dance (see a recent performance here!), fired a lucrative strategy client, asked a favorite client for a bigger role, and told a high ranking CEO that his messaging needed First Aid.

All this stuff feels brave. The reason is that it’s possible to lose something by doing it – whether that’s losing face, losing confidence, losing money. But brave has no time for those concerns. When you take brave and decide to connect it with the greatest possible good, productive, exciting, miraculous things happen.

What have you braved lately? Tell me. I want to know. And if you haven’t, how can I help?

Brave waits for only one thing – and that’s you.

August is a slow month….so you won’t see much SMARTY event action. Enjoy the unstructured nature of this lazy summer month!

Small Business

Blind Spots.

July 23, 2015 · By Amy Swift Crosby

BlindSpot2I have them. You have them, too. The question is, are we willing to hear about them from other people? 

The hardest thing about a blind spot is that you just don’t know it’s there, no matter how hard you want to know. The only way you find out about it is when someone braves up and tells you – which is usually a disruptive, startling, blind-siding event – like being hit by an emotional truck. Blind spots exist in the professional universe as well as the personal, but it’s the personal that impacts the professional sense of stability, and much less the other way around.

Inevitably, we have enough relationships that go deep enough or become important enough that we become aware of these behaviors that offend, hurt, alienate, control or otherwise damper positive feelings from others – and at that point we have a choice. We can become hyper-present and hope to catch future offending trains before they leave the station, or, decide we are who we are, and change is impossible or at least improbable.

I think the more important question to ask about blind spots is this; what if, instead of the surprise punch to the gut, we actually asked our peers and friends to put us on the hot seat for blind spot reviews? Sort of a tell-me-everything kind of thing. This is totally terrifying. But it’s also potentially liberating. And much less surprising.

Can we manage and hold the nausea of that uncertainty, of that big, blank, pregnant space of “what will they say?”  long enough to get to what could be a big, juicy, gratifying, satisfying, elevating, profit-making, game-changing evolution on the other side?

Maybe we should try. Could be worth it.

Small Business

Bailing or Believing.

July 15, 2015 · By Amy Swift Crosby

Morning…

So let’s talk about collective intelligence…

As all of you who are community members know, this is something SMARTY has been touting from the beginning. IE, “the more you know, the more we all know, so let’s talk about it” kind of thing.

If this is true, then I have a question for you (one that keeps being asked of me.) Why wouldn’t I offer myself, as well as other experts in the network who have something to give, into an online group setting where individuals pay some reasonable monthly fee to have a twice a month virtual get-down on small business insights, marketing mastery, communications clarity, selling strategies – why wouldn’t I? Maybe I would. Everyone else seems to offer this model. Maybe you could tell me if you would like this – at say $200/month – two Mondays of every month – key strategies, with time for one-on-one work where needed?

Here’s my resistance (I want to be convinced otherwise, by the way)…it just feels like everyone does “group coaching” and when everyone is doing something, my first reaction is to invent and imagine something better. Do you ever feel that way? We all have our virtual models and ways of capturing customers in a way that front loads costs but rewards itself in numbers, but I can’t help this reaction – that it just feels so formulaic. There’s something unoriginal in it. But am I thinking too hard? Am I aiming too high? Maybe it’s possible to offer something that might SEEM like the average, but really be far above it?

I’m contemplating.

Let me hear from you – reply to this if you have a thought – because I want (and need) to believe!

Small Business

The Tension.

July 6, 2015 · By Amy Swift Crosby

TheTensionThis is a feeling you’ll recognize to the degree that you’re connected to your gifts and talents. For better or for worse, the more deeply you understand your contribution to the world, the more this thing pains you.

So here’s the tension.

There’s what you know how to do in your business – your general IQ on how to build it, run it, communicate it, position it. And then there’s what you know is missing, even if you don’t know what it is. The wider this gap, the more it hurts. 99 percent of us have a limitation to the resources we want to or can spend on getting our work out into the world. We do the best we can, and fumble, and succeed, and do it all again – all in a days work. But what happens when this goes on for too long? Do you quit? Is the effort worth the rewards that feel far and few?

Living on this edge is what most of us do. We imagine that something will come along to change things, to interrupt a stagnant cycle, or to at least bring inspiration that could lead to turning something around. And those things do happen – but not usually to the point where we see big financial rewards. And that’s ultimately where we want to see the love – on the balance sheet.

There’s no question to each our gifts and skills. That’s not up for debate. But what is in question is how we deliver those to the world. One talent does not lead to another, and when it comes to marketing, it is the only packaging we can (as consumers) rely on to determine if we like you, or we don’t care. If too many people don’t care…well that math is pretty easy to do.

Identify people who get you, and can communicate for you. There’s too much incredibleness out there to be hidden in average copy, mediocre video, mainstream messages…and if you think I’m talking to you, well I am – but I’m also talking to myself as much as anyone. This applies to each of us, just in different ways.

The world needs you. Remove the static and present yourself.

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About Me

photo of Amy Swift Crosby

Amy Swift Crosby is a brand strategist and copywriter who has positioned or voiced messaging across the commercial spectrum, from icons like Ford, BVLGARI, Pottery Barn, Pantene and Virgin, to boutique brands like The Wild Unknown, fitness franchise Barre3 and the rebrand of legendary metaphysical bookstore, Bodhi Tree. She has leveraged this expertise to help entrepreneurial women and small businesses owners hone their skills, mission and message, while uncovering their own “voice.” This blog explores “the human side of business,” and universal themes like uncertainty, anxiety, the tension between engagement and disconnection, personal value and most importantly, of finding - and hearing - our own voices in our everyday life.

Photo - Andrew Stiles

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SMARTY began as a thriving community in Los Angeles and Boston with weekly panel discussions and events designed to better understand the mindset and growth strategies behind successful entrepreneurs. Today, SMARTY is a weekly blog written by Amy Swift Crosby who chronicles her life as a creative, parent, entrepreneur and spiritual seeker. As an urban refugee living in a New England seaside village, she unpacks topics ranging from uncertainty and doubt to the built environment and advertising. More on Amy.

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