💡 Quote I'm pondering

"People need to be reminded more than they need to be told” - Samuel Johnson

I genuinely believe people have the answers, they just need to be asked the right question.

In line with this philosophy, the most valuable ideas and information are rarely novel. While an introduction to a new concept can unlock huge growth, much more often huge growth only requires a timely reminder of a concept you’re already familiar with.

I like to apply this to business in three key ways:

1. I keep reminding people I exist.

   
   

   1. People don’t need to be told new ways how I can help them, they just need to be reminded I exist and reminded that I can help them. If they aren’t ready, that is fine. I tell them what the criteria is to “qualify” them as ready for future, then I drop in every once in a while to see where they “are” with things now. Timing is more important than people realise.

   
   

2. I relax about my own technical knowledge, I don’t need to know everything. It is more important that I know the right questions.

   
   

   1. This is extremely important for helping clients, especially in fields that I have limited knowledge. I don’t need to tell someone something new for it to be valuable, often I need to give a timely reminder of something valuable. For example, I have recently very successfully helped a current client, Benoist (who you can see in videos here), to increase revenue 56% while reducing his time requirements in the business by 80% without him needing to hire anybody new. This is all despite me knowing almost nothing about his industry, paragliding equipment. I made such a big difference for him because I know how business fundamentally works, and I knew what the right questions were to ask him at the right time. He now enjoys his time, can work fully remotely, and recently took one of our calls from the top of a mountain.

      
      

      Benoist mountaintop lake view in Colorado, working remotely (24 seconds)

   
   

3. I ask for referrals

   
   

   1. I have an extremely high referral rate. Almost all of my clients throughout all time have referred me to at least 1 new client, and most have referred me to multiple. Only 2 of my current clients haven’t referred me to somebody yet, and both have said they want to (they likely haven’t yet as I have only started working with them relatively recently). It helps that I deliver a high-quality service and have great retention, but more importantly these referrals come from my systematic approach to requesting referrals. You see, your happy clients might well intend to refer you to other people but life gets in the way. They forget. Or your request comes at a bad time. Or they don’t know who to refer you to yet. I have automated sequences set up to regularly remind all leads, not just current or past clients but all qualified leads, to refer me to new clients. Thanks to my system, these referrals are both consistent and reliable. A simple reminder goes a long way.

We often learn things, then fail to implement them or fail to remain consistent in their implementation. A timely reminder is often enough to unlock real growth. People need to be reminded more than they need to be told.

Side note: one of my favourite podcasts, Empire, covered Samuel Johnson in an episode in their series on Slavery. Samuel Johnson is famous for inventing the dictionary, but few people know that he left everything to his black heir, Francis Barber, which was considered scandalous at the time. A great episode and I thoroughly recommend the Empire podcast (I found their series on the East India Company and the British Empire in India particularly interesting).

I shared this in my Work Smart Wednesday newsletter. Want the full set of related insights? You can read them here: https://worksmartwednesday.substack.com/p/work-smart-wednesday-september-11

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