All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But it's like there is this gap. For the first couple years that you're making stuff, what you're making isn't so good. It’s not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s not that good.

Simplicity is difficult because most of us are overcompensating for uncertainty. Adding something is easy. But removing something is hard, because it requires conviction. It’s easier to hedge against uncertainty, entertain multiple paths, and dilute your focus than to develop a strong opinion about what to exclude.

The fact is, meetings are often ineffective because most workers aren't disciplined enough to:

share an agenda in advance of the meeting

prioritize discussion topics

make crisp decisions

provide constructive feedback

assign next steps / follow ups

Do you really think that if we cancelled the meeting, they'll be disciplined enough to write clear documents... See more

A charismatic brand includes a dedication to aesthetics. Why? Because it’s the language of feeling, and in a society that’s information-rich and time-poor, people value feeling more than information.

Here are some questions to add more nuance and rigor around the potential for GTC in your company:

• Who is in our community and why are they here? Who is not in the community?


• What value will we create for the community, whether or not they are paying customers?


• What value will the members provide each other?


• How will we listen, talk to, and be direc

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A community manager’s role is to listen, learn, and connect the members, and sometimes, the appropriate experience is an introduction to a salesperson. When the time comes, and trust has been established, that prospect will then enter into the funnel much more qualified and at a later stage compared to another lead source.

Healthy and active communities have gravity; a “high gravity” community is one that excels at attracting and retaining community members. The go-to-community strategy is what helps build and maintain this gravity while connecting the benefits to company objectives.

Outcomes for go-to-community need to be measured by the growth and retention of the community itself, as well as by less tangible but equally important qualities such as the number of new relationships, the amount of trust developed, or even degree of self-actualization. Incentives are where it all comes together; “show me the incentive and I will ... See more

 Too often, companies view community as a nice-to-have, an add-on to the GTM efforts. In this approach, instead of elevating the community to a role of unique influence, the community program is often co-opted by the goals of other teams, and is expected to influence core business outcomes. But the lens of business metrics is NOT the best or o... See more