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Rod Aparicio

Finding The Gap

Get one tip, question, or belief-challenge that just might change the way you market yourself, so that your customers buy. A *daily* email for indie consultants and creators —without the bullshit.

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Your job is to be an orange

"While the client always wants to level the playing field and compare “apples to apples,” your job is to be an orange. Do everything you can to show why you’re different." Tim Williams Be the orange when they're trying to compare apples. Be a square showing your edge, in a world full of circles. When they're waiting for you to convince them, show them the way they can do best —even if that means it's not you who does the gig. When they're waiting for more of the same, bring the surprise. And...

2 days ago • 1 min read

To Sting, the essence of all music is surprise. Sting. Interview w/ Rick Beato. And in business, it goes the same way: the essence of all (meaningful) business is surprise. Marty Neumeier in his book Metaskills sustains: "While it's possible to define beauty, it can't be reduced to a pat formula for the simple reason that one of the components of beauty is surprise. In everything we experience as beautiful, there is a moment of surprise when we first encounter it. If there's no surprise,...

3 days ago • 1 min read

If you're focused on what you're going to say next. On how to make your argument more solid. On how your point is the valid (and true) one. No matter what your counterparty says, you'll hear what you want to hear. You'll listen to either reply or present. And that's no conversation. The same is with your prospects and customers. If you don't meet them where they are, if you try to convince them —or influence them— and they're not at that stage, they won't hear you. Here's a work around: Focus...

4 days ago • 1 min read

Internet connection problems. So here's a great article by Tim Williams on the same subject of expertise. :) Getting Paid for Years - Ignition Group.

5 days ago • 1 min read

"If I do a job in 30 minutes it's because I spent 10 years learning how to do that in 30 minutes. You owe me for the years, not the minutes." Nonsense. This whole argument assumes that to know something, it's about the effort you put on. About the time you "spent" in learning the thing. How much it meant, in terms of effort, for you to do something. It takes that if something feels as simple as breathing to you, but not for others, it shouldn't be valuable. Or that for it to be valuable, you...

6 days ago • 1 min read

In music, sampling is the act of taking one bit of a song/audio media and putting it to a different use from its first intended context. It can go from different songs, like... Fatboy Slim's Praise you. Grabbing tracks from different, already known songs. To Nirvana's Smells like teen spirit. Grabbing drum beats from disco's Gap Band. To Billie Eilish's Australian crosswalk signal in Bad Guy All of them are original in their very own ways It's more than just a copy. Even doing a cover, it's...

7 days ago • 1 min read

What makes you stand out. Sure. Saying you have to be "original", "authentic", "focus on the experience" will do the job... of saying nothing, or put you in a place of analysis paralysis not knowing how to move forward and take action. Originality is an spectrum. If you're thinking "But I got nothing new to say" or "It's been already said before", aka "It will (and by default, I) won't be original", you might be right. And to be original you don't need to say something that is *always* new to...

8 days ago • 1 min read

It's not about taking a stand against something —an enemy/monster— to change it. Does it help? Absolutely. It's about defining what you see in a future without that enemy/monster. Reason 1. We humans can't process the negatives.Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT think of a pink elephant. See? 😜Focusing on a negative won't last. Reason 2 What's next after the enemy's been destroyed? Your mission accomplished? Reason 3 What if the monster/enemy is only a symptom of something even bigger, larger? What...

9 days ago • 1 min read

Here's another example of the downside of "choosing an enemy": introducing animosity. Fabian Geyrhalter Do you want to rally people up? Or to get them ready to war? One is about moving forward, the other, about winning/losing.

10 days ago • 1 min read

Some say "You need to choose an enemy. This way you and yours will rally together and will make your brand meaningful. 'Look at Patagonia. They fight climate change.'" Well intended. But bullshit. Patagonia is not focused on defeating climate change. Ryan Gellert, Patagonia CEO, sustains "We must use all the tools at our disposal to secure a safer, more just future." A future. Opportunities... The difference between those 2 is simple. Fighting is built on a narrative of threats. This is a...

11 days ago • 1 min read
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