These 4 misguided tactics are secretly killing your business
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My eyes darted toward my fiancé’s jaw — which had abruptly shifted from a nodding grin to an agape drop in response to the mentor’s instructions on the screen. To be honest, his shocked expression was comforting, as I’d assumed I must have misinterpreted the advice spewing from the man we’d deemed an expert just moments before.
To clarify, this advice wasn’t coming from some unproven internet guru with no track record to speak of. Instead, it was coming from a top sales coach who’d built an esteemed B2B company training some of the world’s biggest sales teams. Nonetheless, accolades don’t erase reality, and the reality was he was giving very poor, unethical, not-so-legal advice…and for whatever reason, his students and followers were eating it up.
It was then and there that I realized — no matter how brainwashed my fiancé was by the smooth-talking master of persuasion — some of the most seemingly confident “gurus” (on the biggest of stages) can spew some of the worst advice. Before you blindly follow whatever leader you’ve deemed your mentor, I’d suggest taking a moment to peruse the four worst pieces of startup advice to which many founders fall prey to avoid a similar fate.
I was recently speaking with a founder who was embarking on a new type of venture that would require more face-to-face networking and sales than any of their prior ventures. In preparation for this new pursuit, this founder was planning to make some significant changes to how they present. These changes included everything from their attire to their posture, body language, vocal tonality, etc. They were instantly met with some backlash from some people in their circle who argued that these calculated changes were inauthentic and thus, would come across as disingenuous. These people asserted their friend should instead “be themself” to create more authentic networking connections.
At face value, it sounds like valid, well-intentioned, sound advice we’ve likely all heard. That said, just because a certain piece of advice is common or widely adopted doesn’t necessarily make it the best…