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SMARTY.

The human side of business

Archives for April 2016

Big Life

Solving Obvious.

April 27, 2016 · By Amy Swift Crosby

After her own birth crisis, Christy Turlington Burns knew that hemorrhaging was treatable for some mother’s with healthcare access, but fatal to those without care. Every Mother Counts targets an obvious problem - one region at a time. Image from everymothercounts.org

It’s easy to think that all the “good” problems have been solved. With thousands of apps populating our universe, many of us lean toward a feeling of apathy. With a market saturated with solutions, it can feel like everything interesting has already been designed, launched and “solved.” But there are so many problems – obvious ones – that have yet to see the light of a solution. Some of them are global. Some of them are local. World peace feels too pie in the sky, while local trash pick up feels adorable, but not very potent on the impact scale.

Yet we all want to do something. So what if we approached problem-solving (and business creating) from a more obvious point of view? What if we said: What’s close to me (in passion or proximity) that I can affect? What’s in my immediate world? What group of people – big or small – need me or what I know?

Not everything has to be a business. And not everything has to be a volunteer project. But it would be nice to know that at the end of our lives (not to be morbid), we left it all on the field. We wrung ourselves out with giving our gifts, and bettering other people’s lives. Within this benevolence there are needed boundaries and self-care – but if we spent less time thinking up dynamic, never-been-done-before ideas, and more time solving the obvious issues in our midst…healing, supportive hospital food, global access to maternal health, natural deodorants that actually work, meditation/calming resources for teens…to name a few out of thousands. We could make change we can see and feel.

Remember that some things are NOT obvious to other people – but once you know them, you can’t ignore them.

First step? Open your eyes. Someone needs you.

Big Life

Wisdom.

April 19, 2016 · By Amy Swift Crosby

A portrait of wisdom. Captured by Face on a Train.

What’s the difference between being smart and being wise?

Smart: Crunching the numbers on a loan / Re-Fi / vacation / new car to share with your partner.
Wise: Knowing when to present that information when he/she can hear, digest, contemplate.

Smart: Identifying blind spots for your client.
Wise: Knowing how to contextualize them.

Smart: Understanding the science of opens, eyeballs, conversions, engagement.
Wise: Knowing that without art, none of it matters.

Smart: Working out, eating right, sleeping plenty, meditating.
Wise: Not freaking out if one (or all) don’t happen every day.

Smart: Watching / using your social feeds to move your needle.
Wise: Knowing they only move so much, so fast.

Smart: Bringing desired, substantiated deal points to the table.
Wise: Not using ultimatums to get them.

Smart: Anticipating roadblocks and raising them early with your team.
Wise: Inviting other people to co-author solutions with you.

Smart: Doing what you can to keep your natural glow, youth, juuuge.
Wise: Remaining recognizable, loving your laugh lines, not taking it too seriously.

Here’s to both, working together, in perfect harmony.

Small Business

Happy Faces.

April 12, 2016 · By Amy Swift Crosby

I don’t like to compare the way men and women do things. I like and appreciate our differences, and I’m even good with most of our gender-specific approaches to things. But some thing is happening to us (women) that I need to talk through. Enter…

Exclamation points!
Emojis of any kind.
Prefacing.
Apologies.
“Maybe it’s me, but…”

Many of us are apologizing for having an informed, gut level, professional or otherwise valuable opinion. And we’re doing it in a way that is quiet, and a little bit insidious. It feels like we’re just being nice – but what we’re saying to our teams and ourselves is, our involvement requires a preamble, excuse or pardon. I don’t see men doing this.

Is it okay to not agree? Does delegating work require so much permission/explanation/exhaustion? Is a little debate cause for anyone questioning whether people like them? Yikes. Are we all getting that sensitive?!

Besides just being the right thing to do for better, clearer, more honest communication, the more each of us propagates this false sense of “don’t-worry-I’m-not-mad-but-I-feel-this-way” digital falsity, the more the rest of us sound tone def – as though we might be insensitive, too brutally honest, or my favorite…bitchy.

No. We aren’t anything. We are doing business, and kindly, respectfully putting thoughts into the world that will hopefully move something forward.

Let’s check our intention, then weigh it against the best and highest expression of the thing at stake. Then write emails/texts that mean what we say, without a giant mattress under each one lest someone on the receiving end have an emotional crisis and fall down. I’m all for thoughtful and considerate – but these have become everyone’s crutch (and expectation) and constantly feel like an unnecessary apology.

Get more creative. Articulate yourself. And remember that sentences end with a period, not a happy face.

Have a great day!
(And I mean it.)

Small Business

Mr.Sullivan

April 5, 2016 · By Amy Swift Crosby

If you’re a business owner, service provider, maker, freelancer – you (hopefully) invoice regularly. Just as I love a peek inside someone’s closet or refrigerator or supplements cabinet, I also love to notice how different people submit invoices. It says a lot about you, funny enough. What you’re doing, on a deeper level, is saying “I’m offering you the best of what I can do, and this is how much it costs.” It’s kind of intimate, actually. So why, at times, are invoices such an afterthought? Why have I gotten so many of them from freelancers or interns or vendors with wonky spacing, typos, incorrect math…it’s the most overlooked aspect of what is actually part of your brand, and surprisingly, an aspect to your marketing.

I got this typewritten gem from my painter the other day. I love it because someone, somewhere, took the time, on a TYPEWRITER, to send me a $200 bill. Not much money, but a beautiful service provided, all consistent with the gentleman who owns the business, who puts a Mr or Mrs before addressing anyone, including himself!

It doesn’t matter so much that you take a fancy digital approach to submitting fees for products or services rendered, or a more old school one like the above, or even a hand written one – as long as you do it with the thoughtfulness that this exchange very quietly demands.

You did something. For someone. Make the last gesture of the transaction as lovely or at least as consistent, as the quality of your work.

And…here’s to paying bills and sending bills. Paying them means you’re using your money. Sending them means you’re generating it.
All of it’s good. 

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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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About

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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