Corporate Renegade

Write It Your Way

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Matthew Goldfarb

Just finished Hugh Macleod’s new book, “Freedom is blogging in your underwear”, and finding it rather short, wanted more. So I went back and picked up his last book, “Evil Plans” and came across this gem that i thought was great.

Because it’s wednesday and I’m feeling lazy, I just took a picture of the passage that i thought was awesome.

From "Evil Plans"

If you’re wondering specifically, what I liked, it was this passage: “So, not expecting anybody to read it, he just wrote it his way. If he had thought a lot of people would be interested in it, he would have written it differently. More uptight. Less transparent.”

Why do i love this? Mostly because it was referring to a person who started a blog and just wrote because he wanted to write. He wasn’t worried about the reaction. Or put another way, he didn’t know to be worried about the reaction. This worked to his benefit, as it led to a real message and real connection with his business.

Which makes me wonder how often people edit instead of just doing it their way. How by being real and transparent, it opens the door more than trying to be slick and clever.

I’m just saying…

Posted in Inspired Renegade Living, On Writing | Leave a comment

Video: The Trajectory of Success

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Matthew Goldfarb

Last year I was in Belize enjoying a few days of rest on the beach. I was reflecting on the idea of success and failure. Less about actual success or failure, but more the idea of it, and how easily people confused by what it means to succeed of fail in life and business.

It was one of those cases where writing couldn’t really do it justice. So instead I made a short video.

It’s 2 minutes, and even has some nice reflective music. Take a watch, and feel free to leave a comment as well.

Posted in Inspired Renegade Living, Renegade Thoughts | 19 Comments

Renegade Thoughts: The Pitch

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Matthew Goldfarb

Some thoughts on the new AMC show “The Pitch” I watched last night…

Posted in Renegade Thoughts, blog | 6 Comments

The Battle of Messaging

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Matthew Goldfarb

If you’ve ever wondered why some people seem so clear when speaking about their business or purpose, it’s not because they’re a million times smarter than you.

It’s not because they’ve made some faustian deal with the devil to give them the answers in exchange for their soul.

It’s usually because they’ve found a way to put the bullshit behind them and simply get real.

Against my mother’s wishes (she claims I give away all my secrets for free), I’m going to give away a secret to what I do:

A secret that allows me to help my clients get clear on the underlying message of their business and set the groundwork for copy that resonates with their ideal clients (and also themselves).

It’s a secret that if you pay attention to and actually internalize, it can get you on the path to finding out who the hell you are and why people should listen to you.

Here we go:

Most people struggle with messaging because it involves surrendering to who you truly are. Most people struggle because it means letting go of who you want people to think you are, and acknowledgment of who you truly are. This requires complete acceptance of where you came from, and all that it took to get you where you are today.

Some Truth: If you truly want to get clear on who you are, what you stand for, and what you want your business to be, you’ll have to come to a place where you are able to remove yourself from any attachment to how your message will be received.

What do I mean? I mean you can’t worry about how your message will be perceived by others and instead just state it in a way that is in alignment with how you really feel.
(Please note, that this is not an article telling you to just blurt out every thought, idea, or feeling you have. It’s to let you know that getting honest with yourself and not worrying about being judged is the first step to take in figuring out your message).

Want to know what keeps most people from uncovering their message?
It usually begins when someone has something they want to share that they deem as valuable and/or important. They try to share what they have to say. The person on the other end may not match their level of excitement. When that happens they start to doubt their initial idea. They begin to self-edit in the moment, instead of staying committed to the idea we originally had.

The truth is that most people are distracted when you speak with them. They’ve got a million other thoughts running through their mind and may not always hear what you’re saying as you say it. Knowing that, you’ve got to be consistent in what you’re saying (without worrying about response) for those rare opportunities when someone actually is paying attention.

You have to believe what you believe regardless of interpretation. Not everyone will resonate with what you have to say.

I’ve said it a million times already, but that’s what you want.

It starts with something that inspires you. And it continues with your testing it with your ideal clients.

Make sure you catch that.

It continues (because it never truly ends) with your testing it with your ideal clients.

In improv, they teach us about the principle of “yes, and.” It’s about being in the moment and not judging. It’s about acceptance of flow, staying present, and just letting whatever bubbles up to come in and get out of you.

Uncovering your message is no different. It’s about giving yourself permission to say what you have to say in the moment without editing or filtering. If you can’t allow yourself to let yourself think out loud without judgement, you’ll never come close to uncovering what this is all really about for you.

There’s enough people out there in this world who feel the need to judge everything we do. Don’t be so cruel to yourself to judge yourself while you’re creating.

Fight the good fight. Win the battle.

Now get writing.

Posted in Inspired Renegade Living, Newsletter Feature Articles, On Writing, Renegade Thoughts | 2 Comments

A few unanswered questions from my call with Suzanne Evans

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Matthew Goldfarb

If you were on my call today with Suzanne Evans, there were some questions that came in that there weren’t time to answer. I’ve taken a few moments to address these questions and provide clarity.

Here they are:

Patricia – Marina del Rey
Where do you find start up capital?

Hi Patricia:
The best place to find start-up capital may very likely be your current day-job. Ideally, I’d recommend avoiding investors for as long as you can. This will help you maintain control of your objectives and priorities.

Ideally, you can use your current job to help you put money aside for your business. When you’re focused on what you need for your business, you can be more intentional on what you spend your money on.

Stacey – Los Angeles

What is the best do-it-yourself website service that can include mailing list, payment processing, and video?

Stacey…I’d probably say the golden standard at this point is WordPress. It’s the easiest to set up quickly and allows for easy integration with video and payment processing. In terms of mail systems, you may want to check out mailchimp, infusionsoft or 1-shopping Cart.

Susan – Los Angeles

I offer services resolving workplace disputes. What I would like to write on my movement page may attract one set of potential clients (Human Resources managers) but could p.o. another (lawyers). Suggestions?

Susan,
I think you need to get to the heart of the matter. What is the thing that attracted you to mediation? What is the bigger picture for human resource managers? What is the thing that is unfair to them in this world? That’s the starting point. Or ask yourself, what are you frustrated about? What pisses you off?

Great movements can start out of answering that question.

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When an Idea Makes You Nauseous

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Matthew Goldfarb

My mentor taught me that part of being an entrepreneur is becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable.

And I’m here to tell you that part of creating copy and messaging that breaks through the nonsense is being willing to push your creative boundaries beyond what is sometimes considered the cultural norm or even culturally accepted truths.

I know it’s all well and good to talk about pushing ourselves, but I also wanted to address a common experience for many of my mentoring and private clients. Perhaps you’ve experienced this too.

It’s what happens when they touch upon an idea or phrase that really inspires them.

Usually they feel 3 things.

Goosebumps
Chills
Nausea

Wait, Nausea?

Yes. Here’s the deal. Great ideas are scary. And ideas that can really connect with people and grow your business are even scarier. Because it means we are taking a stand and drawing our line in the sand. It means we are playing for real. And even though it’s incredibly exciting, it’s also scary.

Here’s some good news: It is possible to be excited by a new idea, and terrified of it at the same time.

For a lot of people, that fear is enough to make them give up their idea altogether. To stay with what’s safe.

And that’s the reason that most of the ideas you see out there are plain old boring.

As you know, I spent many years in advertising. And I always chuckle when my friends tell me how bad television commercials are (And how they consider the creatives who do them to be hacks). Here’s something interesting: Most of the time, the “vanilla” quality of the commercials you see has nothing to do with the creativity or boldness of the writers and everything to do with the timidity and squeamishness of the companies who hire them. They’re the clients who say they want to go out of the box, but are terrified to even consider what lays outside of it.

We’re not going to go that route (Sorry).

“But Matthew,” you say, “No one’s said it like that before. We can’t do that!”

And to that I have to say, “Just because no one’s said it before doesn’t mean it’s not a killer idea.”

We should remember that most breakthrough ideas that are now common place were originally considered heresy.

So. If you’ve created something that feels powerful and amazing. That gives you goosebumps, chills down the spine and of course, nausea, here are 2 things to consider:

1) There’s no prize for launching second.

2) The more an idea terrifies you, the more it means you should follow through with it.

Most of the time when something scares us, it’s because we know we’re onto something real. Something true. Something worth fighting for. Both for us and our potential clients.

So the next time you feel the fear about an idea or a sentence…run towards it, not away. Your bravery will come back to you ten fold.

OK, one last thing: Sharing a “scary” idea means that some of your supposed “tribe” may leave you. Be OK with that. We’re not here to hold onto the people who play it safe. We want the brave ones. The ones who are serious about making a difference in their lives.

Be brave for them.

Now get writing.

Renegade out.

Matthew

P.S. I’ve been receiving some emails lately inquiring about when my next upcoming Renegade Weekend Website is coming. Rest assured we’ll have some cool news to share soon (and we’re making some cool additions to make it even more powerful than before!).

Posted in Inspired Renegade Living, On Writing, Renegade Thoughts | 1 Comment

Branding: What Could Have Been

Posted on April 22, 2011 by Matthew Goldfarb

Hey folks…

As I alluded to in this week’s newsletter, and in celebration of the new brand and logo, I wanted to show you all some of the original logo ideas for Corporate Renegade Copy.

It’s interesting to share because It gives people a chance to see all the different ways we could have gone, and how different your experience, of both my brand and me individually, might have been based on what I decided.

Take a look and let me know what you think

Corporate Renegade Logo 1.0

Posted in Renegade Thoughts, blog | 3 Comments

Creativity, Bravery, and Adventure

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Matthew Goldfarb

One of my favorite writers/cartoonists/thought provokers is Hugh MacLeod. I highly recommend you check out his two books, Ignore Everybody and Evil Plans. They are a lot of fun, quick reads, and will get your brain buzzing.

And that’s why I was writing to you. This week I put out one of my “braver” pieces of writing. I talked about the human element in writing and how standing out often means taking a stand for yourself and the people you want to work with. Why do I consider it brave? Because it went against a lot of common wisdom, namely that we have to protect ourselves from the big bad world.

I just don’t believe that personally. But you can read the newsletter to get my thoughts on it.

I found two great cartoons by Hugh from his Gapingvoid blog. And I wanted to share them with you.

First up: A thought about creativity. Some people think being creative is a talent. As though being creative was something you had a say in and only some people are allowed to “be creative.” That’s nonsense. To be creative, you merely need to be curious.

I think this says it all.

Second cartoon. It’s about whether you choose to play it safe or not.

You can play it safe with your business, your copy and your words. Personally, I don’t care much for that. I’d rather ruffle some feathers and do something worth doing.

You can file today’s note under, “Well-intentioned, not fully baked through thoughts on creativity, bravery and Adventure.”

Go on and Stand out.
-Matthew

Posted in Inspired Renegade Living, Renegade Thoughts, blog | 1 Comment

The Human Element

Posted on April 17, 2011 by Matthew Goldfarb

I’ve got a student of mine whom I adore. She’s a talented, highly intelligent and capable business owner whom now no one knows about.

And it’s mostly her choice.

I was at dinner the other night with my mother and brother. My brother was commenting on how well my business was doing and how impressed he was with how quickly things are starting to happen. He also shared concern with all the details of my life that I share: Pictures of my apartment, photos of my dog, my wife, how I talk about all the fears I have and the mistakes I make.

I understand his concern. I’ll admit that I don’t always remember everything that I’ve shared and have from time to time been surprised when people ask me about personal aspects of my life. It makes me wonder how much do I really want to share of both my business and my life with people who I don’t intimately know.

Here’s a truth: I don’t share about myself out of sheer narcissism or a blatant disregard for my own privacy. I do it because I’m much less concerned with the people I meet who have boundary issues, and more about engaging with my tribe.

Part of the reason I started Corporate Renegade was my frustration at the dehumanization between the corporate world and the public it purports to serve. As bigger companies prove through their actions that they care more about their bottom line and less about there customers, I believe an incredible opportunity exists to connect with our audience in a very real way.

And that means sharing (more) of ourselves.

In the “old” days (a gross generalization on my part), most businesses were local. You used to know your butcher, your doctor, your barber. I mean really know them. You knew about their wives, their children. We know personal stories about the people we worked with and it helped to form a community.

Somewhere along the way we stopped doing all this*. And because of that, business became more impersonal and less connected.

It’s safe to say that as time goes on, we tend to trust the bigger companies less and less. I think many people want a return to older times where we actually know the people we work with.

I’ve written before about why everyone needs to write and how in many ways it’s selfish not to share our gifts. But I would like to go further: If you really want to get clients. If you really want to get your ideal clients (the ones you don’t have to pretend to be anything other than who you really are), you have to give more. You have to share more.

OK. here’s the resistance. I can feel it. You don’t want to share anything real about yourself. You don’t want to scare people off.

And to that, I refer you to page 27 out of my Year One Manifesto.

I believe that when we share more, it helps overcome other people’s natural inclination to distrust and discount anything coming out of our mouths. It lets people see you are a real person with real thoughts, emotions, frailties, and opinions. It lets people connect with you.

And it ABSOLUTELY leads to more business.

I’m not telling you to share everything. Know the line between what you do or don’t want to make public in your life. Have boundaries. But also ask yourself if the things which you hesitate sharing with prospects because you think it’s embarrassing or disturbing may actually be the secret to bringing them in.

So I invite all of you (including my student…you know who you are!) to find the bravery in sharing, and putting faith back in humanity. Let’s see what happens when you give a little more of yourself.

The future of business is in the human element. Will you come join us?

*For a great account of all of this, please check out Gary Vaynerchuk’s new book, The Thank You Economy.

Posted in Books and Creative Inspiration, Inspired Renegade Living, On Writing, Renegade Thoughts | Leave a comment

You Can Always Get A Job (A S.A.D. Story)

Posted on March 26, 2011 by Matthew

From Page 12 of the Year One Manifesto

This is why I love my Year One Manifesto (And not just b/c I wrote it):No Matter what I do, i find myself facing moments in my life where certain pages in the damn thing jump out at me.Packing up our apartment today…Found this little piece of memorabilia from my last full-time agency job.

You can Always Get A Job

Want to know what else I found? S.A.D. Lights. Seasonal Affective Disorder lights. They are these lights you put in your office when you have no natural light and they are used to off-set depression. I had 4 of them in my office at my last job because I never saw natural light. Yes…that is very sad.All of this reminds me that if I ever don’t truly want to be here…don’t truly want to be doing my own thing…I can always go back to the land of the dead…the land of the corporate drone. Back to a name on a non-descript door. I can always find someone else to pay me. Personally…I’ve got no interest in that…but if you’re doubting this…remember…there’s always a name tag for you elsewhere.

Posted in Inspired Renegade Living, Renegade Thoughts, blog | 1 Comment