marcusschaller.com

Business Coach

Marketing Strategist/Copywriter 

Team 201

B2B Content/Messaging Strategy and Copywriting

Senior Content Director

BrandTotal

Content Marketing & Partnerships

Conquer

Copywriter

Gong

FastSpring

Plethora

Field Nation

Western Growers

Cut Through the Noise and Attract Your Ideal Customers

Feeling overwhelmed by all the problems you have to tackle every day? All the moving parts that need to run smoothly in order to grow your business?

Without a proactive problem-solving strategy, it can feel like you’re just randomly hacking away at the obstacles in your path—with no real progress or impact to show for all your effort.

If you want to stop putting out fires and start solving the types of problems that will have a real impact on your business, you need to be able to:

- See through the limiting beliefs, blind spots, and conditioned habits that block your path to breakthrough insights and solutions.

- Focus on the right problems at the right times, without getting sidetracked by “urgent but not important” issues and other distractions.

- Reframe problems in a way that makes it much easier to see new solutions and possibilities.

Think of me as your problem-solving guide. A business coach who will help you see past your blind spots, focus on the bottlenecks that are keeping you stuck, and uncover insights that lead to breakthrough solutions.

Visit marcusschaller.com to learn more.

My book has been selling really well lately!  So what?

Well -- It's discount time! 

Amazon just dropped the price to $15 -- Lowest price ever! This is a perfect time to get a copy, gift one to a friend or your library or get one for a coworker!  YES!!
#innovation #creativity 

Marcus Schaller

amazon.com

The Creator Mindset: 92 Tools to Unlock the Secrets to Innovation, Growth, and Sustainability

Although I am excited about my next book, PIVOTAL, my favorite one is probably Goal-Free Living. Written 20 years ago, it shares a philosophy that can change your life. 

And it appears that Amazon is deeply discounting the book in hardcover right now. Only $5.49. Get yours while you can!

Is it just me, or do cold connection requests that start with "I noticed you are..." seem really disingenuous? 

"I noticed you're self-employed..."

"I noticed you're active here on LinkedIn..."

"I noticed you're a coach/copywriter/marketer/etc..." 

I haven't tested this out in real life, but I imagine that for every 10 of these I accept, 9 would be quickly followed up with a pitch-slap.

Here's an alternative: Just be transparent about how you want to help. We don't have to pretend that we just "happened to notice" each other. 

It's okay to search for people and companies based on certain interests or other criteria. What's not quite as cool is to pretend that you're not. 

Relationships begin with trust. Don't blow your chance to earn that trust right out of the gate.


Never really thought of it this way, but I just realized that the frustration that comes from slow results and stalled progress can burn me out just as fast as when things are crazy busy.

Feeling stuck sucks.

Goes to show that stress is just as much about our thoughts as it is about our reality.

What about you? What emotions or situations tend to make you feel burned out?

Kudos to Jared Olsen for the spark of insight.

"Slow and steady wins the race."

"Slow is smooth, smooth is fast."

"Haste makes waste."

Cliches? Maybe.

But there's a deeper truth that's easy to gloss over. Frantically trying to juggle multiple tasks/projects/conversations at once doesn't make you more productive. 

It just makes you more likely to make mistakes, cut corners, and burn out.

You may be surprised to see just how much you can accomplish when you simplify, prioritize, and focus on one thing at a time.

Okay, so I might be drinking a bit of the AI Kool-Aid, but...

One thing that's been super useful about ChatGPT+ is its web browser.

I needed some inspiration for choosing types of visuals to add to my website. Here's part of the prompt...

"I want to figure out what kinds of visuals would feel authentic to my personal brand [that I had described earlier in the prompt]...You're going to be my web marketing coach, and present to me 5 websites that you feel have the most compelling visuals based on my description above."

GPT's response wasn't Earth shattering, but the results were pretty on point for what I was looking for. 

Of course, I might have found the same stuff with a more sophisticated search term on Google. 

But the point is—I'm actually enjoying exploring ChatGPT, and learning through experience about ways it can help me expand my thinking.

So far, we’ve talked about how to solve complex business problems by:

- Shifting your intention from “knowing” to “learning.” 

- Spending more time exploring and reframing the problem.

- Creating prototypes and placing purposeful bets to test your ideas.

More than likely, many of your ideas for solutions will hit dead ends. They may look good on paper, but just won’t get much traction when you put them out into the world.

All except one (or maybe even a few).

It could be the first solution you think of, or the one that pops into your head when you least expect it, or even the one that feels like a complete long shot. 

Whatever the case, hopefully one of your ideas will show some real promise. 

That’s when you double down.

You increase your investment (time, energy, focus, money) into the solutions that will have the best odds of success based on actual results. 

Here’s a few things to keep in mind when doubling down on your winning ideas:

- “Higher probability” is not the same as “guarantee.” You’re not necessarily going all in at this point. You’re just increasing the size of your bets as you continue to test, learn, and improve on your most promising ideas.

- Increasing your investment includes dedicating more time and effort, not just spending more money. Some of your most insightful real-world tests could also be the least expensive to run.

- Don’t get emotionally attached to any one idea, even the ones that seem like clear winners. The more attached you are to a solution, the harder it will be to recognize opportunities to improve upon it, or to see alternative paths to your ultimate goal.

What will you do today to start investing more resources into your best performing ideas?

Will you set aside some of your time, energy, and money so that you can double down on the winners?
___

Follow me for more tips to help you conquer your most stressful business challenges.


Listening to "Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI" on Audible.

Swinging back and forth between...

"Oh my god, we're all going to be unemployed!" 

to 

"AI still seems to need people to co-create with, so maybe we'll be okay." 

and then back to 

"Noooo, we're all doomed to live in vans down by the river!"

And I still have 3 chapters to go. I don't think my heart can take this.

Ever feel like you’re just randomly hacking away at the obstacles in your path—with no real progress or impact to show for all your effort?

Join me on Tuesday, May 7, 2-3pm EST to learn how to:

- Solve your most frustrating business challenges by focusing on the right problem at the right time.

- Identify and prioritize the bottlenecks that are getting in the way of your business goals.

- Stop letting yourself get sidetracked by “urgent but not important” issues and other distractions. 

For more details and to save your spot, visit https://lnkd.in/dFSnh9tN.

Hope to see you there!


Practicing my prompting chops on ChatGPT 4. 

Can't help but share my first attempt at creating an AI-generated image. 🤣 

___

Me: Create a black and white photographic style image of a horse running across the Brooklyn Bridge.

(First result was okay, but wanted more of a wide shot...)

Me: That looks good, but alter the image so that the camera is pointing down from higher up, and the horse and bridge are below the camera.

What if you’re solving the right problems, but at the wrong time? 

Focusing all your energy on fixing the parts of your business that won’t make much of an impact (at least not yet)?

Things like:

- Obsessing over your website’s low conversion rate, while overlooking the fact that there’s not enough quality traffic to the site to begin with.

- Tinkering endlessly with your job candidate selection and interviewing process, while overlooking the fact that you’re not actually attracting any solid applicants.

- Agonizing over your company’s visual branding, while overlooking the fact that there’s nothing that truly differentiates your product from any other.

Join me on Tuesday, May 7, 2-3pm EST to learn how to stop putting out fires and start solving the types of problems that will have a real impact on your business.

For more details and to save your spot, visit https://lnkd.in/dFSnh9tN.

Hope to see you there!

Complex business problems typically involve more than one person. Even if you’re the only one who’s ultimately responsible for resolving a challenge, you may still need to collaborate with employees, partners, or customers in order to discover and implement the best solution.

The upside of collaborative problem solving is that other people can bring fresh perspectives that open up new ways of thinking about an issue. An approach to a problem that you might never have considered on your own.  

But there’s a potential downside as well. The more people you involve in the process, the more layers of emotional complexity you’ll need to manage.

Additional perspectives come with the same biases, attachments, egos, limiting beliefs, blind spots, and assumptions that we struggle with ourselves. What starts out as a friendly and open group conversation can quickly spiral into disagreements and stonewalling. 

So how can you balance multiple perspectives and personalities while keeping conversations moving in the right direction?

There are three key skills that can help make collaborative problem solving much more efficient, engaging, and effective.

- Focus: Being fully present with others isn’t always easy. We all know what it feels like when someone we’re speaking with is mentally checked out. The longer you can maintain your own focus, the easier it will be to create a more meaningful connection with others. 

- Deep listening: If you want someone to consider your point of view, you need to first be open to hearing theirs. Being focused and present sets the foundation for this type of high-quality, active listening. When you’re truly engaging with other people’s perspectives and ideas, you’ll catch the critical details that you might have missed if you were just waiting for your turn to speak.

- Inquiry: Once you’re fully present and truly listening, it’s easier to tap into your natural curiosity and shift from telling to asking. Posing the types of thoughtful questions that create space for fresh insights, invite others to share their perspective, and open the door to new possibilities and solutions.

Over the next few posts, we’ll explore ways to build on your innate focus, listening, and inquiry skills to help make collaborative problem solving much easier. But in the meantime…

What will you do today to become more attuned to other people’s perspectives and insights?

Will you think about how easy or hard it is for you to stay present, open, and curious?
___

Follow me for more tips to help you conquer your most stressful business challenges.


How to Solve Complex Business Problems—Step 1: Pick a Goal

Your goal should be high-level, fact-based, and objective—not an assumption about the best solution to a specific problem.

“Increase our revenue by 20% by the end of next year” is a high-level, fact-based, and objective goal. 

“Find a sales trainer to teach our sales team how to improve their close rate…so that we can increase our revenue by 20% by the end of next year” is a subjective opinion about the best solution, camouflaged as a goal.

Join me on Tuesday, May 7, 2-3pm EST to learn how to:

- Solve your most frustrating business challenges by focusing on the right problem at the right time.

- Identify and prioritize the bottlenecks that are getting in the way of your business goals.

- Stop letting yourself get sidetracked by “urgent but not important” issues and other distractions. 

For more details and to save your spot, visit https://lnkd.in/dFSnh9tN.

Hope to see you there!

In the last post, we explored some ways to make collaborative problem solving more efficient, engaging, and effective.

Now we’re going to look more closely at how maintaining deep focus can help keep these types of strategic conversations moving in the right direction.

The longer you can stay focused during a conversation, the better you’ll be at collaborating with others. That said, being fully present for more than a few minutes at a time isn’t easy. Internal and external distractions conspire to constantly pull you out of the present moment. 

Instead of concentrating on what the other person is saying, you may find yourself lost in your own thoughts or thinking about what you’re planning to say next.

Strengthening your ability to focus starts with recognizing these types of distractions, and changing a few habits that may be making it harder to stay fully present.

1. Stop Trying to Multitask

If you’re trying to solve a truly complex business problem, you’re going to need to give it your full attention—especially if you’re trying to collaborate with others in real time. 

The first and simplest step is to eliminate unnecessary distractions. That means resisting the urge to multitask. 

Checking your email or Slack every time there’s a momentary lull in a conversation (or worse, when someone else is speaking) doesn’t make you more efficient or productive. It only serves to make you less effective at more activities at the same time. 

True collaboration requires and deserves your full presence. The willingness to shut off your alerts, put away your phone, and pay attention to one conversation at a time.

2. Dial In Your Mental Game 

How you spend the moments before a strategy call or brainstorming session can have a huge impact on the quality of your attention.

You’re going to have a much harder time thinking calmly, clearly, and creatively if you’re shifting straight out of your fourth back-to-back Zoom meeting, catching up on emails, or scrolling through LinkedIn.

Just like a professional athlete approaches their pre-game prep, you want to take at least a few minutes to dial in your mental game, block out distractions, and bring 100% of your focus to the task ahead of you. 

That means creating some time and space to take a breath, still your mind, and center yourself. 

3. Get Curious

Think about a recent time that you were truly interested and curious about the topic of a conversation. How hard was it to maintain focus and stay totally present?

The more of your natural curiosity you can tap into, the less effort it will take to pay close attention to the details that matter most.

The opposite is also true. When you think you already know the best solution to a problem, the less curious you’ll be about other people’s perspectives, and the harder it will be to focus and actually hear what they’re saying.

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