Why You Should Trust Your Intuition in the Noisiest World Ever

Conventional Thinking Is The Enemy

We live in the noisiest and fastest-changing time in history, where the attention of others has never been more important or more difficult for businesses to acquire and retain. And yet so many people in business want to follow their precious conventional thinking and create more sameness using shortcuts and “hacks.”

Enough. How do you break from conventional thinking? How do you stand out in a noisy world?

For me, learning that lesson began in a very dark place…

One fall not too many years ago, I felt trapped. I reached out to a friend, scheduled a night of beers at a local dive bar, and tried to think about how to articulate this feeling. But I was at a loss.

Ultimately, when we met, I rambled for what felt like an hour. And it was then that my friend, Tettra co-founder Andy Cook, shone a big, bright spotlight on something I knew for years but could never articulate as well as he did.

Me, rambling: “I got into this field solely because I love to create things and see the reactions people have when they like those things. And I know there are others like me that don’t get caught up in the BS surrounding so much of the industry but just put their heads down and want to do great, quality, creative work. I know there are others who are thinking, ‘I thought I’d be working in this awesome industry that enables me to be creative and happy and grow my career, but all I see are marketers obsessing over how to market my stuff or optimize crap for quick gains, not talking about actually creating well or standing out from all the noise.’

“So basically, man, I’m burnt out on all the short-term thinking and constant demands to do more generic stuff, like listicles and clickbait and gated lead-gen ebooks and tone deaf social media stuff and all that crap. And I know people in industries outside ours who bothcare deeply for their craft AND have a community of others who speak the same language to tap into, but I don’t get that enough in marketing, know what I mean?

“So like, the folks in this industry who spend an extra hour trying to make something 2% better because they care so damn much, who agonize and think about things like quality and creativity — not as an artist who produces once a year but as someone in business that wants to get results AND make beautiful things — THOSE are who I want to work with and serve. The people who, if content or creative or stories stopped being important to their companies, they’d probably just leave rather than do other kinds of work for the company.

“I think the world is ready for that group to have a place to study what we love, build community around it, commiserate and collaborate and just make this industry and our careers and our craft better.

…Yanno?”

Andy: “Oh, so you want to work with people who are bothered by suck.”

Me:

THAT’S IT!!!!

(Picture a dozen 100-watt lightbulbs appearing over of my head all at once.)

Without question, that was the best description of the way this individual thinks — this nameless, faceless kin of mine that I so desperately wanted to find and meet and, more importantly, serve.

So, uh…what next?

Well, of course, I first needed to find you.

When you constantly try to break from conventional thinking and favor your own intuition versus that historical dogma, it’s easy to feel isolated from others. Others around you — leaders, clients, friends, family — often embrace the convention. It’s easy, safe, and warm.

And then there’s you, committed to wandering away from that and out into the cold. It can feel lonely.

But maybe…

Maybe if someone sent up a signal on the horizon, more penguins-slash-people would waddle towards it.

And as Andy turned my confused, beer-fueled rant into total clarity, I realized, “Well, I can shoot up a flare.”

That’s not so hard. I don’t need to be “the guy” who has “the answers.” I just need to say, “This sucks, we want a better way, and let’s COLLECTIVELY go build it.”

So, perhaps you have that internal fire to do good work, not just easy work.

You want to better understand and improve your craft, because you think about your work like a craft in the first place.

You want to stop getting cold water dumped on that fire every time your idea conflicts with conventional wisdom.

Me. Too.

And while the occasional blog post or Twitter interaction or keynote speech might fire us back up, I don’t think what we’re after exists externally. I think it’s internal. I think it’s about one thing:

Trusting your intuition.

In the noisiest world ever, where we all have access to the same tools and list-based tactics and “secrets” promoted by “gurus” — the only genuine, differentiating factor in the world is YOU.

What does it take to trust your intuition and succeed?

That is what I want to explore. I want to help you acquire the experiences, skills, and mentality necessary not so I can decide what you should do … but so you can feel inspired and empowered to go decide for yourself.

That’s the journey we’re on with Unthinkable. We’re starting with a show, and some keynotes and workshops. We have lots more to go. And we want to build this together with you.

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