love

What’s Love Got to Do With It? How to Prep Yourself for a Downturn

Find the bargains. Own the orchard for the fruit crop. Avoid the stampede.

Our three main principles form a pretty clear constellation, guiding our practices here at 228 Main. They are action-oriented, so it’s not hard to tell day to day whether we’re sticking to them.

But what makes us stick with them, especially if we’re bracing for a downturn?

In life, when the going gets tough, our defenses can erode pretty quickly. Our energy flags. Anxiety kicks in. And loss can trick us into believing that good times will never return, that the hurt wins.

Writer and businessperson Arianna Huffington suggests a simple way to get sound decision-making back on track: choose love.

“You’ve got to make your heart bigger than the hole,” she says in her book Thrive. “You just have to make your decisions out of love. And when we make the decisions out of fear, that’s when we have problems.”

Trouble and triumph, set-ups and setbacks—those are constants, and our lives travel the roads back and forth to each. Why should we let fear take the wheel for any part of the journey?

Clients, we know that you’ve felt these truths: it’s part of what makes you the best clients in the whole world, after all. Let this be a reminder, then. We’re with you. We journey together.

When you’d like to talk about this—or anything else—please write or call.

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Here in the 21st century, we all may be in the business of communication via social media, blogging, and other electronic formats. When we embarked on our 21st century communications, a friend pointed us to a helpful, useful TED talk by communications expert Julian Treasure. His life vision is the title of this essay.

His TED talk is ‘How to talk so that people want to listen.’ In an era of ubiquitous communication, isn’t this a key skill? What he had to say applies to Facebook posts and tweets as well as spoken communications—so we thought it might be useful to you, as well.

Treasure outlines four cornerstones of powerful speech. There is an acronym for these things that spells HAIL, a word that means ‘to greet enthusiastically,’ which is how we would like our ideas received.

• H – Honesty, being straight and clear.
• A – Authenticity, standing in your own truth.
• I – Integrity, doing what you say and being true to your word.
• L – Love, not romantic love, but wishing others well.

There is a flip side to these cornerstones—the habits that one should avoid, if effective communication is the goal. Treasure talks about ‘the seven deadly sins of speaking.’

They are: gossip, judging, negativity, complaining, excuses, exaggeration, and dogmatism. We all know what these things are, right? You can look up Julian Treasure if you want more detail.

We have all seen cases where words or images or actions are recorded and spread around the world—go viral, as they say—with large consequences, good or bad. So paying attention to what we say and how we say it may be more important than ever before.

Clients, if you would like to talk about any aspect of our communications, or anything else, please email us or call.

The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.