Undisruptable

No-one starts their career aiming to be a cheapskate exploitative boss that nobody likes. It all comes down to one career decision: will you work in a low- or high-margin industry?

A short report from Monkeys Surf Resort. May contain Bintang-influenced content.

Greg Hahn got fired from a global-prestige job in COVID. When he was weighing up which way to go, his wife knew what the best option was before he did. He opened his own business less than three months later. Barely three years on, it's widely regarded as the best in the world. This week: the people around you can tell how you really feel before you. Listen to them. Links: The Jon Evans interview The Mischief manifesto Buy my book

How McDonalds touch screens create dirty stores. Lessons in unintended side-effects when you think you have a genius idea to cut costs and lift revenues. And now McDonalds are letting customers down on the things they've relied on for decades. "All that's missing is a bucket bong on the straws-and-napkins counter." Links: Rory Sutherland on why Usain Bolt trains on Chicken McNuggets More Rory on why guys buy more burgers from touch screens Buy my book

Enough of people posting about how they gave up alcohol and how great they feel and you should do it too. Alcohol, in responsible amounts, makes so many people happy. Quit preaching to them about your new-found clarity. This week: the case for the defence for alcohol. "One reason Donald Trump is the next President of the United States is because a lot of normal people are tired of killjoys and do-gooders telling them what they shouldn't be doing."  

Here's a way to make your work life easier, and save a heap of time and effort. Stop your futile efforts to bend people's essential nature to your corporate will. So much time gets wasted on this, so much unnecessary friction. Here's an alternative approach that's much more productive and pleasant for everyone.

Some clients are just a soul-destroying, high-maintenance burden on you and your whole organisation. They do not appreciate all your efforts in the slightest. Working with them does not spark joy. You're just doing it for the money. How would it be if you just waved those clients goodbye? You can do this and it will make your business and your whole life better.  I know because we've tested this theory for you. Because we are privately-owned and can do these things without pressure from head offices or VC creeps.  Learn how and why to reduce your target market in this week's story.

An essential, yet depressing lesson on buyer behaviour from the US election.

A terrible tale of what happened to a serial shout-evader at industry events. (Or round-evader for international listeners). What you do at industry social events can build your personal brand into something that will pay off handsomely your whole career. Or the opposite of that. Find out how to take the first option in this week's story.

Often spending money in your business is outright enjoyable. Hiring more staff. New assets. Those payments bring a pleasant feeling that you're going places, with happy hopes of future returns. Then there are expenses that just suck, bring you zero benefit or joy, and raise your blood pressure every time you pay. Everyone's different, but these are my Top 5 Business Expenses That Can Get In The Bin.

Ian's mum Erica became a major fan favourite after he took her on breakfast TV to be interviewed about being ripped off by her insurance company. She's back this week, or rather a story about her. And how she inspires 65,000 people every year. Link the story I mention about my Dad: How A Hermit Introvert With No Digital Skills Got 65K+ Followers

Customers and the people you work with will defy all logic on a daily basis. You'll provide them with all the cold, hard, objective facts. Then they will make choices that seem to be, as the song goes, insane in the brain. This week, why that is and what to do about it. And why Nobel Prize-winner Daniel Kahneman's best-seller Thinking Fast and Slow nearly killed my will to live.

I have a new business role model for my mental mentors list, and I'm guessing you've  never heard of her. Valerie Mars, who just spearheaded the US$36B purchase of Kellanova. Mars is still privately owned, and they don't even have a sign on their headquarters. They do everything on their own terms, and that is the greatest thing in business. Learn how you can do it on a smaller scale in this week's story.  

Kamala Harris' VP pick Governor Tim Walz pulsates with dad energy. There are lessons for us all in being authentic, rather than suppressing all your instincts to appease your boss.

My friends and I have had clients stolen by dirty rat freelancers and other lowlifes. I'm pretty chilled in busines, but this really makes me feel a thirst for medieval vengeance. This week: rat tales and how to avoid being tainted with the rat brush

You have competitors you've never heard of, who don't even do what you do. If you can understand why, your clients will view you in a whole new light: as a valued strategic partner rather than just a supplier.

One of the best and simplest ways to win more work is just to quote faster. This week: why that is and how to do it. Here's that Top 10 Reasons You Lost the Sale story I mentioned.

I know it's hard, but don't think changing banks is impossible. You get better rates, but best of all you get to punish the people who treated you like peasants because they thought they had you trapped.

What I learned on our holiday in Italy, where the entire country drinks Aperol Spritz. I know you think your product is better, but unless you understand herd behaviour, it's going to be a hard road.

Want the formula for online engagement?The key ingredients that will get more people to read or watch the stuff you post?I've been writing these stories pretty much every week for six years now, which gives me a well-calibrated sense of what's going to work.I've analysed the data. This week, I share what I've learned!Plus other essential things you should know about the solopreneur journey. The right age to do it, the right sectors and so on!Oh, and why the solopreneur pitch reminds me of all the Amway preachers I used to work with in one of my old jobs.A story about being careful what you sign up for folks.

People want business to be more complicated than it is. So they can feel like a clever professional. This week: why that approach usually makes your business worse. Here's a checklist of essential basics to fix that.

The world is full of AI guys telling you that you don't need the work. AI ain't going anywhere. And it will bring the biggest benefits to people who've done the non-AI work. Because they get the context. As Rick Rubin says: There are no shortcuts. You have to do the work.

Four years last week since our businesses got shut down for two years. A lot of predictions about change got made back then. By now the hot takes have cooled down. What was the real effect on our business? Five handy things we learned from that time that continue to help us grow. ____________________________________________ The March 2020 episode I refer to: Laying people off is hideous but at least do it right.

Customers know the brands and people who talk it up the most are the ones most likely to let them down. And nobody reads the generic self-praise that Chat-GPT cranks out. This week: suggestions on how to cut through their templates.

The world is full of people who are happy to have you work for them, yet seem surprised at your uppity requests to get paid on reasonable terms. Learn from the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin.

Exciting personal news this week but you'll have to listen to find out. Each week I write of different things that might help you get ahead in business. This week, let's deal with the best thing for that. A smart life partner who gets it, and you.

This week, how a plucky local iced coffee beat the biggest beverage brand in the world. Why Adelaide is great. And why it's a mistake to treat cities where you do business as just dots on the map. ________________________________________ Adelaide things What's a Stobie Pole? Where was the birthplace of chicken salt? Balfours heritage-listed frog cakes

Teambuilding, corporate wellness and resilience training all have a worthwhile place. Not if the stress is coming from your own organisation though. This week: new research from Oxford University on why so many of these initiatives ... don't work, and may make things worse. And more effective things you can do instead. ____________________________________________ NYT story: Workplace Wellness Programs Have Little Benefit, Study Finds Flight Of The Conchords: Business Time Live 2007

This week is all about rizz. The Oxford word of the year. Should you use it in business? This week, the deep, weird embarrassment of older folk trying to use Gen Z slang at work. Or anywhere. Including two words guaranteed make any Gen Z person nauseous. ______________________________________________ Dad dance science story https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/lets-do-the-cringe-why-dad-dancing-was-designed-to-repel-20091217-l028.html

How are you going to grow your business in 2024? Because growth is good, right? Mostly but not always. The 10x growth mindset, particularly in B2B, is that of the pickup artist.  Eternally on the cruise for new “targets”*. Talking lots about yourself. The thrill of the pursuit, the adrenalin surge of beating your competitors, the flex of announcing your latest win in the trade media. This week: how to develop more profitable growth. Get it from your existing customers.

I rarely write directly of our work at Scene Change but you get the occasional milestone moment. We recently did the LED stage backdrop for the ARIAs broadcast. (For international listeners it's our smaller version of the Grammys). We got there by having the wrong plan from the day we opened. From that, a new theory to explain the world of sales and suppliers that might make your life less disappointing.

I've been thinking about the best half dozen business people I know. These are people who will never share their success secrets on LinkedIn, or appear in the business media. They just run successful, fast-growing, absurdly profitable businesses with motivated staff who rarely leave. And run rings around most of their competitors. I've realised the one thing they all have in common.

I'm a big fan of being supportive with suppliers. It's good for your business. But sometimes they cross the line. This week, we look at the signs that it's time to bring the hammer down and find new suppliers.

AirBNB doesn't have to be any sort of competitor to you. But bit by bit, it can strangle your business. Here's how, and how to avoid them getting you.

Are you in management? There's management, then there's Capital-M management.Capital-M managers are super-annoying to your staff and clients.You haven't read about them in Harvard Business Review yet but stay ahead of the curve with this week's story. Here's the Chesterton's Fence story I refer to

There's a cliched view of charm and persuasiveness as being ‘silver-tongued'. It is the opposite of that. Charm is mostly shutting up, listening and observing. And you'll be much more charming if you don't use two words that people love to use, thinking they're helping. This week, a deep dive on those two words.

It's great when your business moves out of your direct control. I'm not a literal grandparent, but I like the sound of those moments grandparents speak of. Having a great time with the grandkids without being responsible for every damn detail of their lives 24/7. That's where our business is at now, metaphorically, and it is a sweet feeling.

Sure you're making no money under massive stress but also those early years of your business are great. Don't forget to enjoy it.

Beware of advice from tool guys. Too much focus on the tools leads to disrespect of other, softer skills that you need to beat your competitors. This week: why AI art is trash, an explanation for Facebook's diabolical emojis, and why a good business plan is art. The links you need: The crypto-bro who got Chat-GPT to set up a business and how that's going Tom Goodwin's newsletter Kelly Slater surfs a coffee table Stephen Seagal guitar solo

This week, fascinating client research on why people win and lose sales in the B2B world. The reason every salesperson gives as an excuse? That one doesn't even make the top 10. Warning: includes the worst tender horror story I've ever heard. If I'd done this, I would have just moved to a hut in the forest for the rest of my life. Welcome to the Fuck-Up Hall Of Fame.

This week, one of the most awful conversations I've ever had to have with a business partner. And the conversations you should have with your dad, seeing as it's Fathers Day on Sunday, at least where I live.

People are going to ask you for discounts as a matter of course. You don't have to say yes.

Want to know how to remember things more easily? To step above the daily grind of to-do lists and find out what's really important to you? It's proven to work by neurological researchers, and the tech is yours for about $4. Link from show - Do the big thing: the problem with Atomic Habits https://open.spotify.com/episode/6YM9xFwKh2JqrlzSBX6g3x?si=467fae817ea643c2

How not to execute a rebrand. Musk has done some genius work in his time, but his Twitter work is that of a man with nobody telling him what he needs to hear.

I don't usually do true crime podcasts but at last my own industry has an epic crime story. We go inside the Human Group's extraction of $18M from a major bank to spend on all kinds of luxury stuff. Courtesy of friends James and Bradley who had an inside view of the whole caper.

Ask yourself: would the organisation I work in be any worse off financially if your job evaporated? It's a risky place to be. This week: a different mindset to adopt that might stop you being fired if new owners come in.

We get asked to work for free all the time, so this week some thoughts on dealing with that. It's amazing how many salaried people will straight-up ask suppliers to work for their company for free. Would they do their job for free? Do they report to a CEO who works for free?

Here's a helpful way to futureproof yourself against whatever the hell is in store in the decades to come. Even if your job is mostly online, going to conferences and industry gatherings is really productive long-term insurance as the nature of work changes.  Yet most of us find it terrifying. It doesn't have to be. I'm a natural introvert, and I have a plan on how to reduce the pain and make it more productive for you.

One of the best ways to lift your all-round business performance is to develop a constant awareness that other people are not you. It's so valuable across lots of essential areas: management, sales, marketing, advising clients, and more. The more you understand people, the better you get. Yet so much business behaviour is driven by the idea that everyone thinks the same as you. The path to success comes from embracing the differences between you, your staff and your customers.

Salespeople get an unfair amount of stick for all the usual stereotypes. I've had a window into their world for the last few weeks, thanks to my own stubborn pig-headedness, and frankly salespeople earn whatever they're paid and more. The other episode I refer to here: The worst customer service line I've heard in my life.

Be afraid. That's all.