Greg's Right FIT #392

Quick notes to help you grow your business in less time with less effort. . . sometime next week. 

In this issue: 

- Thoughts on Things
- Being Human
- Random Stuff

Thoughts on Things

• When making event signs, do a mock-up and drive by. How much of the info did you pick up? Take a hint from the pro billboard people: less is more. (and contrast works)
• There is a fine line between enough instruction, and too much. The golf coach Harvey Penick said, "Golf tips are like aspirin. One may do you good, but if you swallow the whole bottle you will be lucky to survive." Focus on one thing.
• We love stories of grit. Stick with it. Never give up. Success will follow they say. There aren't many stories of giving up and pivoting. Most successful people won after their last pivot. The last one worked. It's ok to move on.
• I'm reading about power. "Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York." A book about how one man's vision impacts the way millions live today. The introduction ends with, "It is impossible to say that New York would have been a better city if Robert Moses had never lived. It is possible to say only that it would have been a different city." Good stuff.

Being Human - Listen to it 

"Shooting baskets with a child creates a basketball player; reading to a child creates a reader." – Jim Trelease, educator

I wish I remember the first time someone told me that writing improves when it's read out loud. It's great advice. Before you send it off, say the words out loud. 

Or try something different/better. My friend Drew (Drewstafa as I call him) sent me a link to a new AI tool that reads text. Accurately. With inflection. I'm obsessed. https://beta.elevenlabs.io/ 

Here's the thing. I haven't really used the product. I haven't made it off the home page. The sample reads 300ish characters at a time. About 2 or 3 sentences. Try it yourself. Copy everything I've written above, from "I wish" to I'm obsessed" and plug it in. It's hilarious. The default voice sounds like a Ken Burns documentary.

I have big plans for this once it figures out how to log me in. ("You haven't clicked the email confirmation, click here to send." *click* "It looks like you've already confirmed, email not sent". . .round and round it goes)

All anyone needs is 300 characters for a decent reading of most emails. I recommend testing a few of your emails in the home page. It may sound different that you intended. (or it may sound great, and the reader has issues. . .that's possible too I guess. It probably won't fix every communication issue, I confess.) 

Listen to it. 

Random Stuff

"The only way to fight nostalgia is to listen to somebody else’s nostalgia.” ― Pete Hamill

I have a little process for these notes I zip off into the interwebs each week. I copy them into an archive on my website. This is because over the years I've moved between so many platforms and so many communication tools that things get lost. Technology changes. Things crash. (at least they used to)

The challenge with this process is I fall behind. As of today, there are 40 emails that need uploading. Those are just the recent ones. I have a dozen from 2018 I haven't put in and 70 from a previous platform to transfer. 

I'd leave this task alone but when I do update one of these oldies it's like revisiting an old friend. A little snapshot from a younger, funnier Greg. Someday I'll organize them into an artifact. 

Speaking of artifacts, this week someone dug deep into a closet and found some treasure. We took a big bag of family videos to a place that converts them from tape to digital. They estimate we have hours, many hours, of memories on these tapes. I remember bits of the events marked on the tapes, but I remember the technology more. My big camcorder, my mid-sized camcorder, and my palm sized recorder (digital! but still on tape). So many toys! 

This means, of course, my lovely bride and I have hours of viewing pleasure ahead. It won't be as riveting as "Asteroid City" but I bet one of us cries.