Write Bold

Putting Your Content to Work

Britt Raybould

Confidence, Accuracy, & Uncertainty: The Holy Trinity of Business

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ConfidenceMost Sunday mornings, you can find me on the couch channel hopping back and forth between the Sunday political shows. My favorite part of each show is when they move from featured guests to their panels or roundtables. Even though I’m just as likely to disagree as agree, I find it interesting to listen to these pundits debate the week’s news back and forth. What does it all really mean? (Very little, usually.)

One of my favorites is George Will. If you paid attention to predictions during the last presidential election, Mr. Will (and others) predicted that Mitt Romney would win big. Even though I’d been watching Nate Silver, and knew the math backed up his prediction of an Obama win, for the length of that particular Sunday show, part of me thought, “Maybe, George is right after all…” Mr. Will was so confident, that I wanted to think he was right.

It turns out that the reason I like George may have more to do with his confidence than his accuracy. Two economic students at Washington State University took a look at the numbers, specifically sports predictions by both professional and amateur pundits, and the results confirm something you maybe already suspect. The most popular pundits aren’t necessarily the most accurate, but they are by far the most confident.

Their hypothesis: Pundits have a false sense of confidence because that’s what the public, seeking to avoid the stress of uncertainty, craves.

“The stress of uncertainty…” That line caught my eye and made me wonder if we’ve gotten trapped by a similar train of thought in business. For months now we’ve heard that business is holding back because of uncertainty. From elections to tax reform and immigration to healthcare, we’ve seen the headlines that business is afraid to act until the uncertainty is resolved. Seriously?

Here’s the two-step strategy I recommend if you’ve allowed yourself to get sucked into this nonsense.

1. Recognize the business world is never completely certain

If you’re holding back from making a business decision or executing a marketing plan because you’re waiting for the uncertainty to “clear up,” you’ll be waiting forever. I’m not exaggerating. It will never happen. If you’re an entrepreneur, you got a taste of this reality when you started your business. Did you know with certainty what would happen after you flipped the switch and went from just thinking about it to actually doing it? I doubt it, but you still flipped the switch.

The reality is that certainty is one of those things we like to talk about even though we know it doesn’t really exist in any meaningful way. Your job is to assess the variables you do control. After that, make the decision based on what you do know as opposed to holding out for what you’ll never know.

2. Confidence and accuracy are often at war with each other

The most obvious difference between being a pundit and running a business is expectations. Confidence may make a pundit more popular, and your confidence as an entrepreneur made is possible to take that initial leap, but at some point, it will matter if you’re accurate. Clients won’t keep coming back no matter how confident you are if you keep messing up their orders. However, there may come a day when your desire for accuracy will get in the way.

Steve Woodruff calls it the Impostor Syndrome. It happens when we get outside our comfort zone, and we become competent people who feel perpetually incompetent. Steve shared a story about co-hosting LeadershipChat with Lisa Petrilli that demonstrates this disconnect perfectly:

By all accounts, it was a big success. But many people will be surprised to hear my confession that I felt somewhat like an impostor the entire time. Not because of the community management and social media aspects of it – Lisa and I were both strong there. Nor because of the vision and effort we put into it. But the fact is, leadership “stuff” is not in my core. I’m quite interested in it, I can write about it and discuss it – but the topic was much more in Lisa’s wheelhouse than mine. Plus, I’d never worked/led in a larger corporate environment. Therefore, I often felt somewhat out of my primary competency zone.

Steve is a smart and talented guy, and yet, he still felt like an impostor because he didn’t see the leadership stuff as his “core” competency. This will happen to you in your business. There will come a time when a customer asks you to do something, and your initial and accurate answer may be, “No, we don’t offer that.” However, in the back of your mind, you add a caveat, “…but that’s something I’d really like to try.” So while you should represent what you do and how you do it as honestly as possible, be prepared for those moments when confidence should trump accuracy.

There’s no question that it can be a balancing act to manage confidence, accuracy, and uncertainty without letting any one of the three overwhelm you. So let your confidence give you a head start to get past the uncertainty, but have a plan in place that makes accuracy your long-term goal.

Photo Credit:confidence by Glenda Sims

Enterpreneurs Need Responsibility More Than Authority

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I don’t know when it happened, but we’ve started confusing authority with responsibility. Specifically, we assume that unless we have authority granted to us by someone higher up the ladder, we can’t take responsibility for what’s happening around us.

This reality was driven home as I watched the always-inspiring Seth Godin tell an audience why they should want more responsibility, not authority.

2013/05 Seth Godin | Backwards from CreativeMornings on Vimeo.

Now Seth’s points were focused more on someone working in an office with a boss. However, I think his advice to pursue responsibility is something that more than one entrepreneur has overlooked in favor of authority.

What do I mean by that?

A few years ago, I had a conversation with a young entrepreneur. Despite his age, he’d been in business for almost ten years. By any measure he was successful, but something really bothered him: His employees had more time off than he did.

After he finished telling me how unfair it was that he worked more than his employees, I told him I had an easy way to fix his problems. Just get a job working for someone else, then you can have more vacation time.

This entrepreneur had confused authority and responsibility. He assumed that as the owner of the business his authority as the owner should come with some perks, and it did. However, he overlooked the reality that as the business owner he had the ultimate responsibility for running the business.

This confusion trips up even the smartest entrepreneurs. After all, they’re in charge. They run the show. But it usually takes an angry customer or missing an important project deadline to drive home that while authority may feel good, taking responsibility is what puts money in the bank.

Have you ever confused authority and responsibility? How did you figure out the difference?

 

5 Steps to Prepare Your Business for Disaster

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The devastation in Moore, Oklahoma, is yet another reminder that in addition to planning for our own safety during a crisis, we need to take steps to prepare our businesses for disaster, too. It’s incredibly easy to say, “That will never happen to me,” until it does. And in the middle of chaos, the last thing you want to be doing is figuring out how to take care of yourself AND your business.

With that in mind, here are some suggestions for your disaster recovery plan and the things you can do before a crisis hits to ease the stress afterwards.

1. Backup, backup, backup

It took me a few years to make this one a priority, but I definitely sleep better at night. Each day, I back up my hard drives to a remote location. I use Spideroak, but know that others have made use of Dropbox, Carbonite, and other online storage options. Besides being a preventative measure against mechanical failure, it also reassures me that if a disaster hits the actual building, I have another way of reaching and restoring my data. At some point, look into options for securing a physical backup offsite.

2. Figure out what you’re going to say before you need it

Before disaster strikes, write a brief message that can be quickly modified to describe your specific circumstances. This message can then appear on your website and/or in an email responder. Include alternative ways to contact you (if that’s possible) and try to give people a sense of when you’ll be more available. If you’re completely cut off from communications, look to your fall-back network (#3) to help get your message out.

3. Create a fall-back network

If you’re a solopreneur one of the best things you can do is recruit people you trust to stand-in for you and your business during a disaster. This does two things: 1) It lets you focus on your immediate problems; and 2) It shows your customers you’re prepared and responsible. When you’re building your network, look for people who can provide support (e.g., checking email) and action (e.g., follow through on a project deadline).

4. Know your area, know your people

If you run a physical business that requires a storefront to operate, you’ll want to make a list, both physical of digital, of area resources and people. For instance, keep on file the names of a Realtor, the contact number for your utilities (e.g., gas, electric, water), and a local contractor/plumber/electrician. In the event a disaster physically damages your property, you’ll already know who you’re going to call if you need help repairing your property and perhaps making arrangements for a temporary location until your store is repaired.

5. Save as much as possible

It’s a good idea for everyone to save as much money as possible. But for entrepreneurs it’s doubly so. You are the primary source of income, and unless your business can keep going indefinitely without doing your day-to-day-work, you need a financial cushion. I’ve often heard six months income saved is a good goal to work towards, but frankly, anything is better than nothing. And if you find yourself dealing with a disaster, the last thing you want to face is whether you’ve got enough money to get you and your business through it. Yes, insurance is a plus, but between the time you file a claim and receive the payment, you’ll be glad you’ve got other resources.

Just a few steps now will save you many headaches later on when you’ll want to be focused on other things. Make the time and don’t try to convince yourself that a disaster won’t ever hit you or your business.

To help those in Oklahoma, Christoper Penn has put together a great list of services that can use our help at this time, including:

  • Oklahoma Regional Food Bank
  • Red Cross (call 1-800-REDCROSS or text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation)
  • Salvation Army (call 1-800-SAL-ARMY (1-800-725-2769) or text the word “STORM” to 80888 to make a $10 donation, reply yes to confirm donation)

The Power of Negative Reviews

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Today I came across the results of a survey that showed “four-out-of-five consumers have changed their minds about a recommended purchase based solely on negative information they found online.” On the reverse side, the results also indicate that “positive information has a similar effect on decision making, with 87 percent of consumers agreeing a favorable review has confirmed their decision to purchase.”

So what does this mean for your content?

Given our always-on-mentality and ready access to just about everything, it’s doubtful that 100% of the people who read your stuff will like it without qualification. At some point, you will get a negative review of how you’ve written about something. So if the survey says that 80% of people change their minds based on a negative review, you can’t push the negatives aside.

You have to respond to the (valid) comments and make the improvements that enhance your work. The key is to remember that many times, how you respond to the negative can have as great, if not greater, impact than the positive. But when it comes to changing our words, it can be difficult.

Words Hurt

Writers like their words, their sentences, and their paragraphs. Otherwise, in theory, they wouldn’t have written them. Few things seem to stir people up as quickly as a critique of their writing. I know. When I first started writing, my initial reaction to someone questioning my writing was to shoot first and ask questions later.

Over time, I’ve gotten much better at actually hearing/reading the comments and thinking through the intent. Most times the comments aren’t about me personally and do improve the overall quality of my work. But it’s not easy to fight the protective instinct that pops up. For the writers I know, their work is personal to them, and it takes time and experience to separate critiques of our work as being critiques of us individually.

Embracing the Negative

Since we know the risks of trying to be all things to all people, it’s worth remembering that negative critiques may mean you’re doing something right. It’s just a matter of putting it into context. If you’re consistently getting told that your explanations are confusing that’s clearly a negative to avoid. But if your feedback shows that people feel strongly one way or another about an idea you put forth, that’s a different, and not unwelcome, outcome.

Even though it may not feel good taking the hit, it’s worth remembering that the negative can be just as good for you as the positive. Keep that in mind the next time you debate watering down your prose to appeal to the masses.

 

Give Your Content a Makeover in 3 Easy Steps

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I Need a MakeoverI hate when my searches land me on pages that are clearly outdated or inaccurate. Too often in our pursuit of building content-rich sites, we skip over the need to review, update, and toss out content as needed. We also forget that the needs of our readers/visitors may have changed, too.

Holding Patterns

Despite being capable wielders of digital (and therefore flexible) technology, I’m surprised at how few writers and companies embrace revision. Solid content can remain so for an extended period of time, particularly if it’s maintained with care.

It reminds me a bit of our approach to personal health. We’ll live a lot longer and feel a lot better if we take care of ourselves along the way. But, just like our aversion to regular exercise and a healthy diet, we’re often resistant to giving the same, regular attention to our content.

A Content Makeover

A few times I’ve been approached to redo a website or a marketing piece with the plea to start from scratch. On rare occasions, this approach makes the most sense. But if it was solid work to begin with, I can usually take the basic structure and give it a new coat of paint, saving both time and money.

Here’s how you can give your content a makeover:

  1. Update references. Things change, and unless the idea or premise you’re promoting is wildly out of date, look for new sources to reference.
  2. Update images. Few things will date your work more than images of 80s bangs and shoulder pads. With so many royalty-free options available, new images are an easy way to give content a fresh appeal.
  3. Remove dated slang/terminology. Reading terms that reflect previous technology, for example, distracts from what may otherwise be solid principles. Look for better ways to describe your concepts that rely less on words likely to change over time.

Toss It Out

Making the recommendation to toss content out doesn’t happen very often. But you owe it to yourself and what you want to accomplish to assess regularly if content is helping or hurting you. Perhaps it’s too vague or related to something you used to do in the past. Maybe it promotes a service or technique that’s since been called into question. Ultimately you’re writing to not only help people learn, but to also establish your authority. Make sure the content that you sign your name to does both.