Stories Mean Business - Nick Warren

Here's one we made earlier.

I've been trying to intentionally trigger a flow state this week, and found it useful to remind myself that flow isn't supposed to be effortless. Episode home: https://StoriesMeanBusiness.com/podcast/829:-Flow-Is-Not-Effortless

If you can personify the problem you solve as a villain, your audience will respond. Episode home: https://StoriesMeanBusiness.com/podcast/828-Who-Are-You-Trying-To-Kill

It's easy to get lost in the cold, soggy middle of business. Knowing where you stand saves time and attention to focus on what really matters. Episode home: https://StoriesMeanBusiness.com/podcast/827:We-Don't-Do-That

Dancers train amazingly hard, but they also benefit from the most extraordinary feedback mechanism. The mirror. This delivers the two aspects of feedback that most matter as we strive to improve – speed and brutal honesty. Episode home: https://StoriesMeanBusiness.com/podcast/826:-How-To-Get-Better-Faster

Today is my 52 second birthday ... and I'm not dead yet. Episode home: https://StoriesMeanBusiness.com/podcast/825:-Getting-Older-Is-A-Gift

Last night, I saw a local church choir do a Christmas concert. It's not the kind of thing I do often, but this choir is a little different ... my Mum is the musical director. Here's the thing. Last night, I got to see my Mum in a different light, in another dimension you might say. And that extra dimension brought all kinds of connections, ideas and value that I don't see when she's "being my Mum....

I talk a lot about books on this podcast, but I want to make something clear. When it comes to learning, I start simple. In a world with too much content, curiosity can be a curse ... or at the very least an off-ramp to distraction. Before I read an author's book, I'll often read a summary, watch a YouTube video or looking for a diagram of key concepts. I'm 51. I don't have time to dive into every...

Sometimes, it pays to start thinking about negative space. Episode home: https://StoriesMeanBusiness.com/podcast/822:Be-More-Negative

How can your bring your product or service closer to the identity of the people you seek to serve? Episode home: https://StoriesMeanBusiness.com/podcast/821:-Spotify-Wrapped

Here's the simple, creative question I ask almost every day. "How does this apply to that?" It's origins are buried deep in my psyche – along with Major Tom, primary school and my first lost love. Episode home: https://StoriesMeanBusiness.com/podcast/820:Space-Oddity

Yesterday, we took delivery of a huge pile of logs, and filled the woodshed for the winter. It's a small thing, but it fills me with deep, primal satisfaction. Shelter is a fundamental need that sits at the base of Abraham Maslow's pyramid. In my case, the full woodshed also speaks to me about caring for my family, the comforts of home ... and thinking ahead. But here's the thing I'm thinking abou...

The end matters more than (almost) anything else. The climax of your presentation, the last paragraph of your book, the last paper you published, the last time you saw your kids. That's the thing people will remember ... and it will affect how they feel about everything else. This is the latter half of the Peak-End Rule, and it's worth thinking about. Episode home: https://StoriesMeanBusiness.com/...

Where doing you get your ideas? Hmmm. A few people have asked me this again recently, so I thought I'd go back over my process. This is always evolving, so I'm not promising it will the same next year, or even tomorrow... but this is how it is right now. 1) Put a lot in. There's no real way around this. "In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn’t re...

In the 1950s, shipping containers revolutionised how we move things around the world. The key, of course, is the standardisation that allowed the entire value chain to know what was coming. When we are thinking about our processes, we should do the same.

As I've mentioned before, one of my side-gigs in this portfolio career is doing customer support for a company I admire. It doesn't take up much of my time, but people have asked why I trade time that could be worth £100 for time that's worth a lot less. Of course, there are other ways than money to measure value. Working with the guys at TinyLittleBusinesses.com gives me a front-row seat to two o...

Years ago, a client of mine got a call from a journalist. The reporter wanted to sample her service and write it up for a national UK newspaper. But there was a problem. The deadline was looming. Could my client fast-track delivery? “Sure,” my client said. “No problem.” She knew that the exposure could make all the difference to her fledgling brand. A month ago, a different client released a new c...

Recently I've been stuck in a loop on a project, and when I step back and look at the issue ... the block comes down to one thing. I'm trying to write the final draft first. This is NOT a new issue for me, but for the next few days I'm going to focus on doing sloppier work. Episode home: https://StoriesMeanBusiness.com/podcast/813-Doing-Worse-Work

Over the past few weeks, with some fear in trepidation, ivory roached the matrix trilogy. There are lessons to be learned!

Last week, I was lucky enough to hear Andy McMenemy speak about his experience of doing 66 consecutive marathons across the UK. Pretty amazing stuff, especially given the fact that he got a "challenge-ending" injury on day 2. At least, according to his team physio. But Andy pushed through the constraints to find another way. It was an intensely creative act. Talking of which ... here's Paul McCart...

Decades ago, I noticed that I read the second half of books much faster than the first. With apologies to Highlander (who ruined it anyway), I call this The Quickening. It's my tendency to work harder when the rewards are imminent. I bet you're the same. But do you use this to slipstream life ... or are you more likely to be chasing The Big Swing? One of my smartest dumb questions is ... "how can...

Is it any wonder we see faces in the random world around us?

The human eye is designed to focus on specific object. As Jordan Peterson says, "Our minds are built on the hunting-and-gathering platforms of our bodies. To hunt is to specify a target, track it, and throw at it." Outside of a small area of visual focus, the Fovea, our vision is low-resolution. Outside the small area of our intellectual focus, we are mostly blind unless something gets in our way....

Two of the most powerful ideas in life (and business) are deceptively simple. You are the average of the 4 or 5 people you spend most time with. You become what you think about. The easy wisdom of these words risks hiding their power – but think about this. We spend so much time, money and energy trying (and often failing) to change who we are from within. It is often easier and more effective to...

For a long time, I've been talking about the story layer that filters our experience of reality. The problem is, it's never had a name. I've decided to fix that, and have coined the word Anastora. In The BSG , this is defined as: "The organic network of stories, values and associations through which we experience our ’reality’. This is where the magic happens." Episode home: https://StoriesMeanBus...