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I’m so focused on customers, I don’t have time to work on my own stuff

Cobbling

All Tools
COBBLING@2x

The Context

There’s a reason the cobbler’s kids have no shoes. It’s called operational farsightedness, which is the phenomenon of economics when a business fails to note the needs of their intimate ecosystem, due to an utter dedication to wider market demands. Another name for it is vocational irony, which has a nice ring to it. It’s when a business doesn’t embrace the privilege of having themselves as a client. Like the accountant who is broke, or the therapist who is an emotional wreck, or the tech company who provides cutting edge software solutions for their customers but uses an abacus to calculate invoices. But every company deserves to treat themselves as a client. They just need permission to start and planning to execute.

The Tool

two color

Cobbling

COBBLING -- The practice of shipping ideas for your own business that are up to the same scale as you would deliver for your customers

A helpful starting point is for each owner to ask the following question. What does our business need right now that we’re delivering to our clients, but too afraid, too ashamed or too busy to give to ourselves? Every company has some answer to this question. Some project or initiative that, when actually applied to their own brand, would create disproportionate value to the organization. They simply have to get over that whole billable hours hurdle. That whole treat yourself the way you’d want to be treated hurdle. Because in a world where execution is so easy, that means it’s mostly guilt that holds them back.

Scott's Take

Scott's Take

Google legendarily encourages its employees, in addition to their regular projects, to spend twenty percent of their time working on what they think will most benefit the company. And in fact, many of their significant advances have happened in this manner. Gmail was even one of those projects. Proving, that treating yourself like a client is not an indulgence, it’s simply what smart companies do when they want to grow. Doing so requires people to unhinge from fear mode, responding to threats and preserving assets; and engage in greed mode, expanding assets and creating opportunity.

The Rest

If you want to avoid vocational irony and treat yourself as a client, here’s the plan for cobbling. Block time in your schedule. Hold an ideation session. Decide on a project. Distill it into a brief. Figure out who’s going to own what. Have a kickoff meeting. And then get to work shipping ideas that are up to the same scale as you would deliver for your clients. What does your business need right now that you’re delivering to your clients, but too afraid, too ashamed or too busy to give to yourself?

The Benefits

Save time, effort and money by developing proprietary tools internally
Position yourself as brand with integrity who practices what they preach
Expand your internal asset library and create more growth opportunities
Demonstrate to your team that they’re as important as your customers

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