October 8, 2020

Thoughtful Thursday: Your Anxiety Is Really A Lack Of Grit

Thoughtful Thursday: Your Anxiety Is Really A Lack Of Grit

Welcome to another Thoughtful Thursday, where we dive headfirst into the ridiculous notion that anxiety is a personality trait. 😱

Let’s be really clear: your anxiety is not your identity.

It’s not a quirky personality trait, a TikTok trend, or a badge of honor.

It’s a signal — and treating it like anything else is doing you a massive disservice.

We’ve reached peak mental health culture absurdity 😵.

Every moment of discomfort is now pathologized, every stressor a disorder.

We’ve built an ecosystem that encourages people to curl up in their diagnoses instead of pushing through them.

Anxiety isn’t something to romanticize — it’s something to overcome.

This isn’t about dismissing real struggle. It’s about refusing to let struggle define you.

Resilience isn’t born in comfort.

Grit isn’t cultivated by avoiding hardship ⚡.

When we treat normal human unease as a clinical condition, we strip people of their agency.

We create victims, not survivors.

We’ve normalized treating anxiety like an unchangeable part of ourselves — something to be accommodated, not challenged.

But here’s the truth: you are stronger than your fear 😧 .

You have more power than your panic.

It’s time to stop letting anxiety run the show 🎭.

Acknowledge it, sure — but then challenge it.

Get uncomfortable on purpose.

Do the hard thing. Sit with the tension.

Build the mental muscle to carry the weight instead of asking the world to lighten your load 🏋️.

Mental toughness isn’t inherited — it’s earned.

Every time you choose courage over comfort, you’re rebuilding yourself.

Every time you face what scares you, you’re rewriting your story 📖.

Your mental health is your responsibility. Not your therapist’s, not your pill’s, not society’s.

Yours. Own it.

Fight for your peace.

Stop making anxiety your entire personality and start making resilience your damn legacy 🦅.

Real strength isn’t found in avoiding pain — it’s forged by moving through it.

Stop waiting for the world to be gentle.

Start demanding more from yourself 😤.

You’ve survived every bad day so far.

#ThoughtfulThursday—You’re tougher than you think 💭. Now act like it.

If you’re tired of the coddling and crave more unfiltered takes, subscribe for weekly doses of uncomfortable truths.

Cheers,
Roy
My Podcast Show Audacious Moves to A BILLION shares the specific Moves I made to achieve jaw-dropping growth in an insanely competitive internet business.

”The Audacious Unheard of Ways I Took a Startup to A BILLION IN SALES” is the latest in my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series.

• Posted 10.8.20 at 06:00 am by Roy Osing
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October 5, 2020

5 hidden secrets a great leader can learn from the frontline

Source: Pexels

5 hidden secrets a great leader can learn from the frontline.

One of the benefits of leading many different types of organizations over my 30+ year career was having a window to observe and study other leaders.

Let’s face it, honing your leadership skills is not a one-of event; it’s a process of learning new skills that are required in the role and practising them day in and day out.

I found that looking across at how other leaders practised their craft was an excellent source of learning material; I saw what worked and didn’t work and was able to pick and choose to enhance my own repertoire of skills accordingly.

Most of what I saw in other leaders was quite pedantic. They typically followed the leader book prescribed by the experts in the field and by academics who wrote papers on the subject.
It was a rare occurrence to witness a truly different approach to what the crowd of other leaders was following.

But every once in a while I would see a leader who turned their back on traditional practices; someone who was non-compliant with what everyone believed to be a requisite for effective leadership.

They loved the frontline.

The most amazing leaders I know spend most of their time with the frontline

What I saw was a leader who was always with their frontline employees — service reps, salespeople, credit and collections people, receptionists and call center reps; the people who were on the organization’s line of execution and dealing with customers.

A leader who valued the frontline more than any other group.

They stood out because very few leaders see people down deep in the organization as a priority demanding their time.

Honouring and living with the frontline provides these benefits that enable leaders to perform head and shoulders above their peers.

1. Irritants to execution

They learn what is preventing flawless execution of the organization’s strategy; systems and process issues and other barriers that get in the way of achieving expected results.

Being face-to-face with those who have to work with the internal laws governing the customer engagement process gives them the ability to identify the grunge and dumb rules that must be eliminated to make employee jobs easier and customer service better.

In addition, this insight generally doesn’t readily come from the leader’s direct reports who either don’t know what’s going on or who want to protect their turf.
Knowledge gained from the skip level leader is invaluable and should be expected of any leader. But only the special ones get it.

2. Business plan flaws

They discover the flaws in the business plan; those elements of the strategic intent of the organization that aren’t working because there are barriers and practicalities that prevent it from being implemented in the precise way it was designed.

On paper the strategy may have looked perfect but in the naked light of day where people are involved and competitors prey, it is not possible to stay the course.

The frontline are often brutally honest about your strategy; they don’t hesitate to tell you what won’t work and the challenge for leaders is to listen to their feedback.
Listen to them and tweak the strategy to reflect the realities of execution in the field.

Old school leaders have difficulty moving off the tabled strategy and they often live to regret it.

3. Competitive activity and secrets

Leaders who are in the frontline learn what the competition is doing in real time fashion, creating the ability to take whatever evasive or opportunistic action required and to spot and attack their weakness.

Most leaders rely on traditional methods to obtain competitive intelligence. Periodic studies are conducted, findings are analyzed and action taken as appropriate.
But the process takes time; there is a lag between when the intelligence is gained and when action is taken, often nullifying its effectiveness.

Being with the frontline gives the leader a continuous stream of information on what is going on in the moment. This ability yields faster action and better results; lag time is replaced with real time response.

4. Movers and shakers

Leaders who are with the frontline constantly are able to identify people with high potential for future opportunities in the organization.

They get to see with their own eyes — as opposed to receiving reports from their direct managers or human resource folks — how certain individuals perform, their attitudes and their capabilities to offer further value.
They get to develop relationships with these people in the workplace and provide the mentoring so many need but don’t receive from leaders.

And as a result, the leader increases their personal currency and strengthens their brand as someone who is competent at spotting and developing high achievers for the benefit of the entire organization.

5. Employee engagement

By being in the face of the frontline, this leader is able to get a front row seat on what is necessary to enhance employee commitment and engagement in achieving the goals of the organization.

They don’t rely on, as their peers are forced to do, reports by specialists and other third parties in the field to advise them on what is needed to reach a higher level in employee buy-in.
They learn first hand what is needed to capture the hearts and minds of those charged with delivering results; they see what is needed; they feel what works and what doesn’t.

And they learn what works to engage one employee doesn’t necessarily work to engage another. Every person is different; everyone responds differently to motivational methods.
This leader knows that personalized methods of engagement are required for each employee, not a shrink wrapped corporate program applied to all.

6. The biggest mistake

The biggest mistake a leader can make is not be all in with the frontline where successful organizational performance is either created or destroyed.

To serve the frontline is to step out of the textbook leader herd and make an amazing contribution to their organization while those who choose to follow common leader doctrine are lost in the crowd.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead book series

• Posted 10.5.20 at 05:16 am by Roy Osing
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October 3, 2020

How personalized marketing can boost e-commerce sales to astonishing levels

How personalized marketing can boost e-commerce sales to astonishing levels.

If you are not using personalized marketing for your business or company, you are definitely losing out in sales and revenue.

Offering a great customer experience through eCommerce is not enough; you need to devise ways to drive in more traffic to your platform which will help you stand out among your competitors in today’s competitive and challenging consumer market.

One of the ways through which you can achieve both increased customer satisfaction and drive more traffic to your site is through personalized marketing.

What Is personalized marketing?

Personalized marketing or one-to-one marketing is a strategy through which businesses deliver individualized content to clients. The content is based on the client’s personal data, past searches, history of purchase, location and interests.

The content varies depending on the services or products that a business is offering. However, the most basic content includes discounts, tips, topical articles, and product or service offers.

Why is personalized marketing important?

Despite personalized marketing being a huge eCommerce sales boost, few companies are using it. Most companies tend to concentrate on building a secure eCommerce platform, forgetting that this alone cannot help them achieve their desired goals.

Personalized marketing has these specific benefits which go well beyond simply having an efficient eCommerce platform.

— First, it saves customers time. Under normal circumstances, whenever they visit an online site, they receive numerous ads, videos and articles, most of which are irrelevant. But personalized content only feeds them relevant value-adding content.

— Second, it increases the time a prospective customer spends on your site. If customers find useful information on your platform, they are likely to spend more time there and they are more likely to end up making a purchase. Furthermore, an increase in onsite time reduces bounce rates, which is beneficial to your SEO.

— Last but not least, it increases your eCommerce sales. Valuable content brings about more customer satisfaction and enhances brand building. Satisfied customers are likely to come back for more purchases and also refer others to your site which, in turn further increases your sales.

How to create personalized content

Creating personalized content requires you to collect specific data regarding your clients. Such data include name, contact, email address, location, viewed products, purchases and wish lists. Ensure that you inform the clients that you are collecting their data and how you intend to use it. Additionally, make sure that you get a go-ahead from them.

How to use personalized marketing to boost sales?

Here’s a few suggestions on how to implement a personalized strategy in your business.

    ▪️ Banners for new clients — Your site’s first impression is crucial for any new user. Ensure that you have a welcoming shopping theme to attract more clients. A small welcome gesture such as a discount goes a long way in attracting new customers. A banner containing a welcome discount for new customers prompts them to register and purchase products from your site.

    ▪️ Personalize pages based on search history — Once a customer registers in your site, ensure that you track their search or browsing history. This search history offers a basis for the products you will display at their pages upon their next visit to your site. The personalized lised page display saves customers time since the platform already knows the products they want.

    ▪️ Retarget your clients and offer them personalized ads — Retargeting is made possible through pixel codes, which sets a cookie in your client’s browser. If a client visits your site and leaves without making a purchase, you can follow them to their next browsing sessions. Here, your ad pops up based on their browsing history and captures their attention. This retargeting technique helps turn potential clients into actual buyers.
 
    ▪️ Display recently viewed items — Showing recently viewed items reminds customers of their interests. You can create a wish list on your site, allowing customers to save their most preferred items. Based on the items in the wish list, you can send clients coupons or emails if any of those products have an offer.

    ▪️ Personalized emails — Emails are the most personal form of online contact. Sending personalized emails aims at informing customers when a product they had shown interest in has a discount. Ensure that you include the client’s name in the subject of the email to capture their attention.

Conclusion

To derive the most from your personalized marketing techniques, you need to keep up with digital marketing trends such as social media marketing and SEO.

Personalized marketing is a useful competitive tool in the world market today. If you are not sure about applying personalized marketing strategies, the tips mentioned above will significantly guide you. Implement them today to give your business a new twist, boost your eCommerce sales and remain different from your competitors.

— Monica Lee is a passionate writer and content creator. Her interests include outdoor activities, fitness, technology, entrepreneurship and everything in between. Say hi to Monica on Twitter @monical_lee.

• Posted 10.3.20 at 04:00 am by Roy Osing
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