The Practice by Seth Godin is a big influence.
One section on the roadmap in particular has stuck with me.
In Earn Your Skills, Seth refers to ‘doing the reading’.
He gets particular about it and its definition.
‘Are you aware of what’s on the list? The reading is what we call it when you do the difficult work of learning to think with the best, to stay caught up, to understand. It exposes the state to the art. You don’t have to like or agree with it. But you need to know.’
This applies equally to our craft as brand specialists.
But also to our clients’ business. Their reading is our reading.
Our job is to know and understand the state of their art and apply our own to their upper hand.
Anything less is a disservice. And it shows when it’s lacking.
An agency who didn’t bother to read up.
A consultant who stayed too firmly in their own lane.
The writer who just jumped straight into the words without doing the diligence.
All of them do, and will always, fall short.
Regardless of how impressive the volume of work might have been.
You can’t compensate for the hard yards.
You can’t fake having done the homework to understand the nuances that distinguish.
It’s the kind of effort that leaves a watermark on every action that follows.
And your client will thank you for it.
So do the reading.Do the homework.
