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Rebel Brown
Rebel and I talk a lot about her latest book, Defy Gravity: Propel Your Business to High-Velocity Growth (you can purchase below). In the book, she defies status quo behaviors with no-nonsense advice to avoid crash-and-burn strategies while achieving high-velocity growth.
She also kindly answered a few questions below:
You can get the book here (affiliate link):
Intrepid: What is your most intrepid piece of marketing advice for an organization?
Rebel: As our markets accelerate and change – its critical to shift our thinking – out of the past and into today and the future. Stop listening to what you and your team thinks and get out and ask your markets about your Value, your Opportunity and your Future. We all spend too much time inside our organizations pondering our strategy. Value is in the eyes of the beholder – and the only beholders that matter are the ones with the dollars to buy your products. So get into your markets and get a fresh perspective! And don’t just go to the same old customers who you know and love- they may be contributing to your Gravity thinking. Go chat with the customers who left you, the prospects who bought from another vendor. They’ll give you a fresh perspective on your business.
Intrepid: What is your best counsel to help someone overcome the fear that holds them back?
Rebel: Face that fear. Fears diminish, when we look at them head on. So much of our Gravity thinking is created by fears – fears that were programmed into us as children and as adults. The truth is that we can do and be anything we can imagine – when we step beyond the fear. My own personal approach is to face a fear by breaking it down into smaller pieces and then questioning every facet of that fear. Every day I address one of the smaller pieces – sometimes for weeks or months:) But as I step beyond the smaller slices of fear – the main fear diminishes until it doesn’t impact my thinking anymore. I also spend a lot of time listening to my thoughts. Anytime I catch myself pushing for some status quo, or away from something new, I look for the fear behind the push. Once I find that fear (and it is a fear 90% of the time), I break it down start asking questions. Before you know it I find the truth beneath the fear. The truth is usually a dramatically different perspective that’s founded in the reality of today – not yesterday’s old stuff.
Intrepid: How do you get into a creative mindset?
Rebel: I just sit down and start to work – whether it be on a book, an article or a whiteboard brainstorming session. Sometimes the thoughts flow immediately, sometimes it takes longer. The key is to start. Otherwise I procrastinate and come up with all the reasons I can’t do something yet – and I never start. I’ve learned that for me the critical actions is to step up and start – that’s the signal for everything else to flow. And if the greatest ideas don’t flow immediately – I still capture what does come up for future fodder. But I get the process of thinking about creating started. Starting is what it’s all about for me.
Intrepid: What is the most important book people should read (other than your own)?
Rebel: Thats a really tough question. There are so many books I love out there. Here are a few of my favorites.
The Go Giver – by John David Mann and Bob Burg
Career Moves – by Dondi Scumaci
Release Your Brilliance – by Simon T Bailey
Aspire – by Kevin Hall
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