Sequencing

Allergy Shots

I’ve embarked on a campaign to cure my seasonal allergies. Trying to understand the details of this immunotherapy reminds me how clarity effects confidence.

With allergy shots that require weekly visits for the first several months, then monthly visits for 2-5 years, you’d think there would be a sharp collection of resources to highlight treatment options, insurance codes linked to cost of care, and benefits/risk comparisons.

Proactively investing in your health is hard enough. Feeling like you’re taking a gamble without clarity on how a long-term effort may (or may not) come together, makes it way harder. I understand that healthcare is complex because everyone’s body and health habits are different, but there’s seemingly enough commonality to allow for a solid base of standardization, paired with different options and disclaimers to keep the variables in focus. Wish me luck, but this decision-making process has been cloaked in fog.

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“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling five balls in the air. Work, family, health, friends, and spirit. And you’re keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls – family, health, friends, and spirit – are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same.” –Bryan Dyson

As we look through the lens of entrepreneurship, delivering fearless clarity may put you on the hook and will turn some prospects away, but it adds efficiency to the sales process and leads to more satisfaction from better customers.

This does not mean we simplify everything. Simplification is polarizing, so delivering confidence through clarity is more about sequencing. Try delivering less information to ensure clarity, then support a well communicated slowness with connected resources to meet a prospect’s specific needs. This sequenced effort gives people what they need, when they need it. When everyone feels informed, confidence increases and the opportunity for more lasting collaboration is refined.

By Ben McDougal, ago

Pebbles

If you’ve ever attended a live sporting event, you’ve heard Sandstorm jam through the crowd. This 1999 track was spun by the Finnish DJ and record producer, Darude.

When this EDM icon visited PLATFORM in Des Moines, I said “yes” to adventure and was rewarded with a memorable moment. I was capturing some loud video from the front and all the sudden, Darude called for my GoPro! Footage with a DJ on stage is crazy enough, but having a world-renowned artist grab your camera to shoot their own video is something a bit more epic. Of course, this meant I had to mix up a fresh edit.

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Darude 🪩 Des Moines on YouTube

Before the set even started, everyone knew Sandstorm would be played. Darude delivered his classic, but the build up was perfect. The tiny pebbles he stacked into his set kept the crowd teeming with anticipation. Each time he dropped hints from Sandstorm, the crowd went wild and when his hammer finally dropped, the place absolutely shook. We’ve all enjoyed concerts where sequenced sound brings everything together. These impeccable build ups remind us how to stay juicy.

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My latest innovation drops April 1st, 2023. Here’s your sneak peek!

When delivering your best becomes a habit, it’s easier to remain consistent. As persistence deepens loyalty, connection leads to more connection and trust leads to more trust. Within such abundance, a lasting appreciation remains on tap for what you’ve achieved in the past, while also brewing fresh intrigue for whatever is next. This makes your work feel like play and as we dance to the endless beat, individual notes align to define your music. Over time, artists can blend these pebbles into an extraordinary wall that’s unmistakably you.

By Ben McDougal, ago

Sequencing

Perhaps everything is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters?

Even when it all connects, discovering how endless sequences relate is impossible for even the most methodic mind. Be it system thinking, design thinking, meta-synthesis, neural networking, or whatever mindset you choose, the intensity of such complexity makes it hard to see how a few things connect, let alone immeasurable members in infinite streams.

Machines can add computed awareness, but the squishy nature of each member within a sequence feels like it will remain a futile enigma that will forever transform based on if, who, what, when, where, why, and how something is being observed.

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Nerd alert, but hopefully you’re smiling because that first sentence and many of the terms I’ve sprinkled in, is how a sequence is defined in mathematics.

The processing power required to source the root connection(s) of every moment would paralyze your thoughts. One reason our brain is awesome, is its ability to deduce answers with limited real-time input, but even the way our brain works is like a sequence of positioned memories that provide reasonable assumptions toward what’s next. This saves time and helps us avoid insanity, but it’s interesting how this type of internal sequencing actually mutes the depth of each sequence.

Enjoy the moment and be a serendipitist, but keep a hint on how each member fits into the length of sequenced sequences (not a typo, haha). This mindfulness brews awareness, appreciation, and understandings from the past. It also adds a lightness to each moment, thanks to the liberation of future elements that are yet to arrive down string/stream.

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Merry Holidays! This year-end tour of seven 1MC communities in just four days, was wonderfully wild. As I shared in our Roasted Reflections Discord server, we’ll also be minting the last 5 tokens in the Roasted Reflections NFT Collection, we’re hosting a nationwide holiday party for active 1MC organizers today, and I’m looking forward to crafting the year-end Twitter thread (example) to highlight my second full year of writing every single week! Whoa, cheers to sequencing, eh

By Ben McDougal, ago

Jargon vs. Understanding

Seth Godin is my favorite thinker, but I’ve been pondering the words of Naval Ravikant a lot lately. In this interview, Tim Ferriss and Naval riff on how Richard Feynman differentiated jargon versus true understanding.

This has me reflecting on how humans seek the ability to effectively explain our thoughts, but too often a lack of understanding leads to fancy words and long-winded rhetoric. Sounding smart may protect our perceived knowledge, but as Albert Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

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This tweetstorm first introduced me to @Naval. I’ve since listened to his podcast, read the Almanack of Naval Ravikant and enjoyed this Joe Rogan interview where Naval says, “We have two lives, and the second begins when you realize we only have one.”

As I translate this collective wisdom, I’ve organized a few simple constructs to practice this mental mindset.

  • Be more succinct with my words.
  • Ask an increased amount of concise questions.
  • Get comfortable with uncomfortable silence.
  • Inspiration is perishable. Act on it immediately.

    When trying to balance this cerebral equation, here’s are two questions to ask: Can we deconstruct, expand, or compress what was just said? Can we then describe the exact same idea five different ways? If not, seek further insight to go beyond memorized jargon for true understanding leads to more confident, diverse, and transformative conversations.

    By Ben McDougal, ago

    Backstage

    You’ve arrived backstage!

    If you’re reading this, you’re a VIP and I invite you to stick around for more caffeinated conversations. I’ve written a new book and in 2021, I’m pairing it with a weekly blog called Roasted Reflections. These ruminations will be brewed as innovative energy for entrepreneurs who fuel positive change and the first one drops January 1st!

    Feel free to send me an email if you wanna know where this adventure might take us, but you know me…we’re gonna have some fun making a ruckus.

    By Ben McDougal, ago