Check your blind spots

“I’m feeling a disconnect…”

On a coaching call this week I told a client this.

We were talking about her big goals, what impact she wanted to have, and how she was thinking about offers.

Sitting on the outside of her business, being presented with the whole picture at the same time, I was having trouble seeing how what she was talking about offering would achieve the goals she had set for herself.

Most people default to thinking big picture or deep in the weeds. And while both are really important skills to have, this frequently creates blind spots for us.

When we’re excited about an idea, project, or offer, we spend tons of time thinking about it, building it out, polishing the details, and dreaming of being featured in next year’s Forbes ‘40 under 40’ because of how amazing it was. But forget to toggle to the opposite way of thinking (big vs deep).

The problem with this is something called the Dunning Kruger effect which “occurs when a person’s lack of knowledge and skill in a certain area causes them to overestimate their own competence. By contrast, this effect also drives those who excel in a given area to think the task is simple for everyone, leading them to underestimate their abilities.” (source: thedecisionlab.com)

To visualize it this is what it looks like on a chart:

The reason I was able to point out a disconnect I was seeing with our coaching client was that we’ve grappled with a very similar disconnect during a launch in our own business in the past, and it didn’t work out for us either. For us, we moved up the “competence” curve by trying things out ourselves and now, as coaches, we’re able to point out other people’s blind spots.

Much like when you’re learning to drive a car, your driving instructor (or parent) hammered home the idea that when you’re changing lanes you should check your blind spots.

It’s very similar in your business - most of the time, what’s happening in your blind spots isn’t that big of a problem when you’re doing ‘business as usual’… but when you are changing things, it can wreak havoc.

Because most of the time, it “doesn’t matter,” it’s really easy to get comfortable and not practice the habit of checking.

So how do you check your blind spots? Here are a couple of our favorites:

• Friends: Talk your ideas out with someone who knows you well (and understands your business), and ask them to give you their honest thoughts

• Dollars: Get someone to pay you money for “it” as early as possible - the flaw in asking people to vote on this on stories (or similar), is you’re not asking them to put money behind their answers, but if you can get someone to put their money where their mouth is and buy a version of your new idea early on in your development process you’ll validate the concept & be able to iterate it quickly

• Napkin: Write out the entire idea in one napkin. The entire premise for most successful companies can fit on one single napkin from a conversation between founders at a diner - basically the simplest form of a “business plan” where you have the who, how, what, and why all in one place

• Ducks: In software development, new hires are often given a rubber duck and told to “explain it to the duck” before asking for help. By going line by line in their code verbally explaining their problem oftentimes they’ll find the solution without having to ask anyone else. You can do this as a way to surface blindspots as well - explain verbally or written exactly how “it” would work, what the entire client experience would be, where exactly money will come from, and what your ideal success will look like.

• Coaches: The value of paying someone is they’re entirely focused on you and your goals. You don’t have to feel bad for talking 95% of the time, or even having to structure the napkin business plan yourself. Generally, they’ve had experience/knowledge about what you’re going through before to see the blindspots before you do.

How did our client respond?

She circled back a couple of minutes later and wanted to go even deeper into the disconnect, once she saw it herself she wanted to know more. It doesn’t have to be uncomfortable if you approach it from curiosity and growth. It’s about helping you improve.

Does listening to an audiobook count as reading?

Since we’re in the middle of people grappling with their New Year resolution reading goals, it feels like I’m seeing this question in multiple places this week…

John Green (author) on his vlog this week made the argument that it counts as reading - this Redditor wrote a long dissenting opinion that John missed a major part of what the definition of reading is 🤔.

Two of the editors of the Verge gripped with reading goals in the second half of this Vergecast podcast (they said no it doesn’t count), and the easiest way to read more books this year is quite more books, getting bogged down just slows you down.

Do you count audiobooks for your year’s reading count?

Lyndon

Links I sent this week

Tim Ferris dropped the first 2 chapers of his new book on the blog on his website - personally I’m really excited about this book it’s gold already!

Justin Welsh wrote a great reframe in his email this week about how to genuinely reach out to people - and how he paid someone $43k who cold messaged him the right way

This preview of the Segway Cyber bike has me really wanting one… I never thought of Segway as more than a gimmicky self-balancing scooter(?)… but I think I now want an e-bike?