23 Jul Do the little things well
Retired Navy Seal, Admiral William H. McRaven isn’t the kind of guy to offer brand advice. A highly regarded office, Admiral McRaven has the upright posture and grounded perspective one gets from a career spent shouldering hard things.
He’s also a sought after speaker and reading a transcript of his 2014 commencement address to graduating students at The University of Texas at Austin is where I stumbled across some thinking that benefits everyone striving to achieve a brand result.
“It was a simple task — mundane at best. But every morning, we were required to make our bed to perfection. It seemed a little ridiculous at the time, particularly in light of the fact that were aspiring to be real warriors, tough battle-hardened SEALs, but the wisdom of this simple act has been proven to me many times over.
If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another.”
You might ask what making your bed every morning has to do with achieving your brand result. But it’s not the bed part. It’s the little thing, the simple, even mundane nature of the task. Because while many people think about a brand with their eye on the grand gesture, that’s not the view I take.
Big things fade, it’s the small stuff that sticks.
Think about a recent experience. Grabbing a cup of coffee from a favourite cafe. Purchasing a new scarf online. A Zoom call with your team at work.
Now zero in on something you remember – and the chances are the something is a little thing. Maybe a small cookie on top of your takeaway cup. A handwritten note saying thanks in the package with your scarf. A heartfelt ‘how are you’ from you workmate.
It’s over 20 years since I visited a Denver, Colorado restaurant and I still remember the waiter switching my white napkin for a black one so it didn’t leave lint on my trousers. Little things. Even bigger chunks of experience break down and are more easily remembered through the lens of small acts.
Admiral McRaven extols the encouragement found in those small acts. Still, alongside the feel-good factor is impact. Chess Prodigy and author Josh Waitzkin says, “how you do anything is how you do everything… if you don’t cultivate turning it on in the little moments, there are hundreds of times more little moments than big moments.”
Which pretty much sums up why the little things mindset is a winner for your brand result. Little things are simpler to do. People feel good whey they accomplish something. Accomplishing something makes it more likely they’ll tackle another thing and another. Little things are stickier and more memorable. Repeat. Before you know it, you’ve stacked your brand result warehouse to the ceiling with value.
That’s a whole lot of return for making your bed.
Thanks for reading