Publish the process Archives - Jim Connolly Marketing

How top professionals turn deadlines into a superpower!

By Jim Connolly - Updated: June 6, 2022

If you want to work with premium quality clients, on hugely rewarding projects, you’ll find what follows really useful. It explains how the world’s top professionals use deadlines like a superpower.

To start, let’s take a look at how the average service provider avoids actual deadlines. It’s similar to the examples below.

It will be ready as soon as possible:

Soon… when is soon? And how is a client supposed to know if their project is running late? How is a client supposed to know what a provider is possible of? The ‘As soon as possible’ line is just an excuse, offered in advance, to justify anticipated disappointment.

It will be ready for you by the end of next week:

That’s better than the previous answer. Which isn’t saying much. But at least there’s an ultimate end-point. The date still remains vague, which makes forward planning challenging for the client. They’re left wondering if it will be with them tomorrow, the next day, the next day, or perhaps sometime next week. It also signals that the service provider isn’t managing their time well. It’s the epitome of average.

In both of those examples, the so-called deadlines are not deadlines at all.

No.

They’re strategies to let the service provider off the hook. Off the hook with their client and with themselves.

A better attitude to service is called for. A professional attitude, that works great for the client and the service provider.

Professionals set deadlines and stick to them

Here’s what the client wants. At least, any client worth working for: It will be completed at 2pm on Tuesday 7th, as promised.

That’s a real deadline.

It means the client knows what to plan for. It also means the client knows you’re undertaking their project in a structured way. And it reassures them that they’re working with a professional.

Professionals meet their deadlines, because they CHOOSE to. To do this, they look at the scope of the project. They determine a realistic time scale for completion, based on experience. Then, they set a deadline of that date and time. And because they’re professionals, they do everything to deliver on that promise. They’ve allowed enough time to do a great job. And on almost every project, it works just great.

Almost every project?

Yes, almost! Professionals are human and fallible. Shit happens.

Dedicated professionals occasionally get sick. Though interestingly, this ‘magically’ seems to happen far less often to them, than it does to the average provider.
Dedicated professionals occasionally miscalculate the time required. A supplier they’ve relied on could let them down. That same supplier they’ve relied on might move more swiftly than expected.
When shit happens, they make sure the client is updated and kept in the picture. They inform the client to let them know the project will be ready a little earlier, or a little later, than the deadline.

Professionals put it on the line. They know that’s how to build a world-class reputation. They also know that once you learn how to accurately schedule your work, and develop the focus to do the work on time, it becomes second nature.

That’s to say, setting deadlines and achieving them is just the way they do things.

What does this have to do with marketing?

Everything!

A professional attitude to setting and achieving deadlines, as promised, is foundational to your marketing.

Clients value it mightily. And they very happily pay a premium for it, too. They learn they can rely on you.

So, they tell their friends.

Some of their friends hire you, then tell THEIR friends. This creates an ongoing flow of premium quality clients and wonderful opportunities.

THAT is bloody powerful marketing, right there!

Seriously, this deadline setting attitude to service is an essential marketing component. But especially for those interested in working on the best projects, with the best clients!

Publish the process: How I write almost everything

By Jim Connolly - Updated: June 16, 2022

I thought it was about time that I shared another Publish the process piece with you. These are where I publish (or share) the process behind my work, including tips I have learned along the way.

Today, I’m sharing the app I use for writing my newsletter, my articles, my posts, my client’s marketing copy… every digital word I produce.

Let’s go!

The above image is taken from my Mac. It’s an app called iA Writer and you can visit their site here. It’s available for Mac, iOS, Windows, and Android and it’s surprisingly inexpensive, especially as it is sold as a one-off purchase, with no annual or monthly fee. For example, the Mac version is currently $29.99.

Why do I use it for everything?

Simple.

The app massively increases my productivity and dramatically improves the quality of what I produce. It gets out of the way. Allowing me to focus exclusively on whatever I choose to write about.

iA Writer and distraction free writing

With iA Writer there are no distractions.

None at all.

The moment you start to type, the screen goes blank. Except for a flashing cursor. The app uses something called markdown. This means you don’t need to use a mouse. You don’t need to access a menu.

Formatting text, adding links, inserting images, in fact everything can be done without taking your hands off the keyboard!

Once you have text on the screen, you can set iA Writer to focus only on the sentence or paragraph you’re currently typing. The remainder of the text fades into the background. It’s there, but fainter. This helps me remain 100% engaged with exactly what I am thinking / typing in that moment.

It’s a feature that by itself, has been of huge benefit to me.

The lack of distractions provides a very productive writing experience. An experience that for me, and many others, has radically improved our writing.

There are a number of distraction-free apps out there. I’ve tried a few, but none can match the level of focus I enjoy with iA Writer.

Is iA Writer what YOU need?

As regular readers will know, I don’t do reviews. However, there are lots of iA Writer reviews available if you do a quick search. This video review is amongst the best. It also has lots of handy tips if you already use the app and want to get more from it.

Yes, as you can see I love iA Writer.

That said, it’s one of those tools that people tend to either love or fail to see any reason to use it. So do your research. Because it might, just might, give you the same kind of productivity boost that it has given me over the past decade.

Update:

Since writing this, iA Writer 6 has launched. It includes additional features. Read more here.

Publish the process: A quick note about notes

By Jim Connolly - Updated: February 6, 2022

Here’s one of those publish the process posts I promised. The photo above is an example of how I take notes at my desk, when using pen and paper. I thought I’d share it today, along with some tips, and a look at how I take notes.

Some notes on note taking

You may notice it’s written in capitals. I do that deliberately. I write extremely fast in cursive, but it can be really hard for me to accurately read what I’ve written afterwards. Writing in capitals slows me a little, which also seems to result in better notes.

Although I used a fountain pen for this note, I use ballpoint pens the majority of the time. Also, when I use ballpoints, I tend to use different pigments in the note. I always have a BIC 4-in-1 (red, green, black, blue) ballpoint pen at my desk and in my bag.

I only write the main points down to begin with. This lets me get the big picture on the page, while it’s still vivid in my memory. And I peg the detail onto the main points afterwards. It works for me.

If you’re wondering, those particular notes were for a blog post. I added the detail to them later, then typed it up into WordPress for the blog.

That notebook was really cheap. I only use cheap notebooks now. I used to invest in expensive, branded notebooks ones, but found zero additional value. I find some people treat their notes like works of art. Not the content of the note. Just the overall design! Many of my best notes were scribbled onto a napkin or a scrap of paper. And some of those scribbles are still perfectly readable, 30 years later!

Almost all the handwritten notes on my client sessions are written into an iPad Pro, using the Apple Notes app. I have my pre-session notes typed up into the app. Then, notes from the session are quickly jotted down onto the same document. I switched to this approach around a year ago. It’s been a huge productivity win.

I’ve found that the key piece of advice regarding note taking, is to find what works best for you, and not to follow every so-called breakthrough in note taking. It’s the value of what you capture that matters. Not the tools. Not the design.

I hope you found something useful there.

Publish the process: Field Offices

By Jim Connolly - Updated: May 31, 2022

In the early days of the blog, I’d often share a look behind the scenes at my working day. It’s something I call publishing the process and today it’s back!

Just as before, I’ll share ideas I’m working on, the tools I’m using, useful new resources, the way I collect ideas… as well as things like sources of inspiration, etc.

Let’s kick things off with: Field offices

Lots of readers have asked me about how and why I use field offices. It’s something I’ve mentioned in passing in recent blog posts and newsletter articles. But never in any detail.

It’s a relevant topic to start with, as I sit in a field office right now; sipping espresso, with my MacBook Air finally connected to the coffee shop’s WiFi.

“[…] We get into ruts at work by following strict routines. That’s the problem! […]”
Dr. Todd Dewett

How many times have you had a great idea or flash of insight, when you’re in the shower, or when you’re at the gym or stuck in traffic?

It happens to all of us and it happens a lot.

One reason for this is that the change of scenery disrupts your routine and provides you with multiple, different inputs. Fresh sources of stimulation. And each of these influences how we think and feel, to a lesser or greater degree.

Like thousands of others, I’ve found that the same thing happens when I deliberately choose to break the routine of working from a non-traditional working environment.

Field offices offer 2 major benefits

Field offices provide you with the same valuable, fresh / different ideas and insights, that often come randomly in the shower. However, by deciding to deliberately kick-start the process, you have far greater control over when it happens.
Because you’re equipped with the tools you work with, for me it’s a laptop or a notebook and pen, you can capture the idea or insight and instantly get to work on it.

I also find it helps to use multiple different locations and settings. Here are the ones I’ve used recently.

A bench on the Chesterfield Canal.
A coffee shop (in the above photo).
The grounds of Lincoln Castle and also Conisbrough Castle.
My garden.
Sherwood Forest.

As with anything like this, some people will find it extremely useful, others will find it a lot less useful. I strongly recommend you, at least, to give it a try. See it it helps and how it helps.

How it helps?

Yes.

Field offices work in different ways for different people.

I find that they’re of most use to me when I’m stuck with an idea. Other people I know, find field offices most useful when writing reports. Whilst others, still, use them exclusively when they’ve spent too many days at a desk, and feel they ‘just need’ a change of scenery.

I hope you found this look at field offices useful. Moreover, I hope it inspires you to give it a try the next time you’re looking for a creativity boost.