It’s not that unusual for me to marvel at how much better a client is than they believe about themselves, but I’ve never been all that successful at propping up someone’s belief. So I can’t reach inside them and “pull” that belief upward

Perfect balance is boring and inhuman—think of your goal more as intentional imbalance.

Just be sure it’s because they can’t keep up and not because they quit learning from you.

Here’s the point: What we consider to be distinguishing factors that set our firm apart are not that distinct at all. They might very well be true, but they are not uniquely true, and that’s a fundamental challenge of positioning: how to be less interchangeable or how to be uniquely true rather than just

that narrow overlap between entrepreneurship and expertise.

If your perspectives on your area

If you really want to have an

“Contact us for a free assessment of your [fill in the blank].” All that is such bullshit and it devalues what you do.

In your work life, specialize, which is merely deciding where you’re going to be smart. Note the patterns in this defined area and write them down so that you can do some initial testing with clients in a real-world setting where embarrassment stings.