The business world is tough for most these days.
That is exactly where one of my most important pieces of advice becomes even more important.
80% of your value comes from your thinking, your ideas, your advice, your imagination, and your creativity.
20% of your value comes from doing.
This is not exclusively for marketing people. It applies to everyone and every business.
If you are focused exclusively on the doing part, you should only expect 20% of the income that the philosophical thinkers realize. That is because the doing is solidly commoditized. There is no shortage of people and technology that can execute. The thinking remains extremely valuable. It is chronically scarce and in even greater demand than ever before.
I tell every person and vendor I work with the same thing. If they just do the work and offer no insights, ideas, challenges, or recommendations, it will be a one-off thing. If they do offer those things, we will work together for a long time.
If you are not being hired to provide thinking and you want to be more successful and make more money, you need to develop your thinking.
Start by expanding your creative consciousness. Simply do things outside your comfort zone. Travel to new places, even if that just means walking around your neighborhood. Instead of driving, ride a bike or walk. Watch films you have not seen before. Listen to new music. Read unfamiliar books. Talk to people you do not know.
Most importantly, let go of dogmatic beliefs and develop unique, defensible points of view on many topics, especially in your area of business.
And work tirelessly on selling your ideas. This is the bridge to the promised land.
Ideas do not matter. Sold ideas do.
An expanded consciousness, backed by a concise and compelling argument, makes you more cultured and more interesting. It allows you to see everyday things from a new, broader perspective, which leads to being hired to think and solve problems, not just to do.
[BTW, developing my thinking as the primary offering at my former agency helped me realize >50% margins. No secret why I stopped offering agency-style work and went strictly to offering me and my ideas.]
