Category: blog

My bio says: “senior advisor who takes entrepreneurs, leaders and consultants – and their concepts – to the next level”. It’s vague enough to generate interest, but comprehensive enough to frame all my assignments. I run a business where I help people (see above) turn their knowledge and expertise into successful products or services. I…

Do you want to be able to package your knowledge and expertise into successful products, services or concepts? Here are 4 things you absolutely must know. (Not in random order, but in exact order) 1. Which part of your expertise to package. Best case/worst case, you are an expert in an area that would be…

This is a topic with many dimensions. Let’s break it down. But first: credit where credit is due. I heard this for the first time in what I think is the world’s best TED talk: “The art of being yourself” by Caroline McHugh (here). If you haven’t seen it, watch it! Let’s make it educational…

The best phrase you can get from a customer is: “It’s like you read my mind!”. Let me explain. There is a lot of talk about the importance of niching down. It’s true, you should niche yourself as narrowly as possible. But it’s only when you understand why you should do it, that it actually…

The mere exposure effect is a principle about how a person’s attitude towards something or someone changes as they become more familiar. Simply put, we like things we recognize. If we have been exposed to something several times (hello advertising!), we start to develop positive feelings about the product or service. Or the most eloquent example:…

Here’s my best advice for a sustainable professional life (first title was “for a sustainable entrepreneurial life, but I immediately realised that this actually applies to everyone): remove your inner critic. I can bet that at some point in your professional life, you’ve been hard on yourself – even though you’ve been performing at your…

This is one of those “would you rather….” posts. I wonder: would you rather take a small piece of a giant pie, or would you choose to have a small pie all to yourself? I’m talking about belonging to a broad category within an industry, or being completely unique in your niche. Category of one.…

Three fears. Unique, but common. Because we like to think we’re alone with them, but when we dig deeper, we realise that “everyone” has them. At least some of them, whether we recognise it or not. Because sometimes we don’t want to admit them to others, but sometimes we keep them to ourselves. Because as…

My headline says: SENIOR CONSULTANTS who take entrepreneurs and leaders – and their concepts – to the next level. But what exactly is “the next level”? Well… how long is a string? And what are you on it? For one person, it means changing their work situation. For another, it means finally starting your own…

The Dutch bicycle company VanMoof redesigned their packaging to look like boxes for TV sets. Overnight, their shipping damage was reduced by 80% (true or not true = completely irrelevant in this case, we use the example “to make a point”). Because this is the definition of “thinking smarter”. How could you think smarter in…