Stop preparing

It's incredible how much time goes wasted on preparing for meetings, preparing the presentation, preparing the offer, preparing to prepare to do something.

But so little time goes into actually doing it.

And once you turn up for that zoom call, you realize you have way too much to say in far too little time.

So you try and condense the already condensed explanations and don't say the things that matter.

Such as what it is that you actually propose and why that makes sense. The numbers that back it up. And how things will look once it's all done.

The reason you don't say this is the same one that keeps you endlessly fine-tuning the slide headlines: you care far too much about what they will think and far too little about who they could become with your help.

I do the opposite.

That's why you will lose when competing with me over a deal.

Not because my presentation is better (I never have one) or because my offer is more compelling (usually, it's harder to buy, much more expensive, and less flexible).

But only because I figure out the answers they care about and don't waste time trying to get them to understand how something works.

And If they need a lot of time to catch on and even longer to commit to an outcome, they're not a good fit for me anyway.

I get prepared by doing the hard things first, one by one, stacking the lessons, and moving fast to the next.

So should you.