Shoot An Arrow, See Where It Lands

Hi! It's been a while, eh?

I wanted to send a quick email to let you in on some changes happening at this blog (Better Questions).

Before diving in, I want to share my process for figuring out what I'm working on at any given moment. It's something that is universally applicable whenever you're trying to make decisions about "what to do with your life" - big or small.

Decisions carry costs. If you work on one thing, you're not working on something else. If that something else would have made you happier, or richer, or better, the cost is considerable. You've wasted time and missed out on much more of whatever currency you care about.

On the other side, you can't go through life afraid to commit just because you might make the wrong call. That's a perfect recipe for perpetual underperformance and a lifetime of regrets.

How do we solve this problem? With bi-modal strategies (sometimes called "barbell strategies").

A bi-modal strategy is a practice of managing two separate but coherent approaches: one focused on maximizing existing resources and the other on exploring new opportunities.

If you already know what you want to spend your time on, then you should be spending your time exploiting that option - maximizing your returns. For example, this could be cutting expenses on your primary business or improving an existing process.

If you're not sure what to focus on, you should spend your time exploring new opportunities. That might look like finding new industries or business ideas to pursue, figuring out if you should move, or dating around to see which kinds of people resonate best with you.

The key to a bi-modal strategy is to be on either end of the explore-exploit spectrum, never in the middle. You want to be all-in on exploring or all-in on getting the most you can out of what you've got. Staying in the middle, doing a bit of column A and a bit of column B, is a recipe for disaster.

For years, this blog was my exploration playground. I read, wrote, learned, and contemplated my next steps, especially since my agency, AdWords Nerds, has run successfully with minimal input from me for nearly a decade. Better Questions was my way of searching to see what captured my interest.

In this blog, I explored various interests, including hypnotherapy, influence, persuasion, psychoanalysis, statistical process control, and AI. These explorations taught me valuable lessons and introduced me to multiple potential paths. Committing fully to one means sacrificing others, and that's a cost I consider carefully. How to choose just one to spend my time on?

The way through this conundrum is with something Dave Snowden calls "multiple safe-to-fail probes." That's a way of saying "test things out without over-committing to anything and see what works well." And that's what I've been up to.

Over the past few years, I’ve dabbled in seed businesses, hypnotherapy, running ads, attending conferences, and more. I’ve started businesses and shut them down, partnered with people for good and ill, and generally did more of whatever was fun, interesting, and profitable.

In all the things I've done, whether it was hypnotherapy or teaching or working with other agencies, the coaching aspect has excited me. Coaching allows me to leverage my skills in psychology, influence, and business, offering a blend of rigor and analytical thinking that I find fulfilling and endlessly fascinating.

So, I've decided to transition my focus to coaching and revive this blog. Why?

1.) It's fun! I've missed doing it.

2.) Blogging is the most effective way of developing intellectual property, which will be a huge help in my coaching practice.

3.) It's a great way to meet cool people, which is a significant aspect of my plans going forward.

4.) I'll be starting a personal podcast soon, and it's a great way to promote that.

5.) Did I mention it's fun?

So, here's what to expect:

I'll be back in your inbox semi-regularly for at least the next few months as I try regular blogging again. When the podcast is live, I'll include those as well, but I'll keep the emails to a maximum of once a week. If you're interested in being coached by me, you can learn more about that here.

Yours,

d