Photo by me: My view right now.
Today’s post is a little different.
In a recent Zoom session with a group of business owners, some eyebrows were raised with an answer I gave to a question. In fairness, my answer sounded weird. Until I explained it. You may find it useful, so I thought I’d share the weirdness with you.
The question came from the owner of a marketing agency. She was aware that creative marketing businesses have grown more during the pandemic than at any time in recent history. She wanted to know why her agency was only seeing modest growth.
I replied, “You’re not drinking enough cold coffee”.
Having clearly captured her attention, and seen lots of people leaning forward into their screens, I was able to unpack the answer. The answer applies to the successful development of any business.
Cold coffee productivity streaks
Early in my career, I noticed I could always tell when I was making real progress: I’d find myself drinking a lot of cold coffee!
Don’t laugh. You probably do something similar, maybe with tea. Either way, it looks like this.
- You make a coffee and bring it to your desk.
- Then, because you’re so engaged with what you’re doing, you lose track of time.
- You grab your coffee and start to drink it, immediately noticing it’s no longer hot.
- So, you chug it down quickly and make another.
- If this happens again, you’re officially on a cold coffee productivity streak.
- And your productivity and progress during this time is off the charts!
Conversely, you can’t build a successful business and grow in a truly meaningful way, when you’re doing hot coffee work.
Hot coffee work is busy work: Work that pays the bills and keeps you busy, but ceases to inspire you. Work that drags on. Work that doesn’t feel motivating. Work that fails to stretch you.
You cannot grow without stretching.
That’s why cold coffee work is essential!
We should be focused on the attainment of super-exciting business goals. We should be working on the solutions to compelling puzzles and challenges, which push us to become better and better. We should be focused on thriving and helping others to thrive.
How to know when you’re on track?
I tell my clients that they’ll know when they’ve developed a cold coffee business, because other people will get excited when they hear about your plans and the work you’re doing.