How a Snowflake Changed My Business Forever (and will change yours too).
Going to say hello to my parents in Switzerland, I was again struck by how nature kindly reminds us of the source of inspiration it can be.
It was winter and this year it was snowing heavily.
After having eaten very well (as always, thank you Mom), I decide to walk my parents’ dog. I love watching him play in the snow. I take pleasure in throwing snowballs that disappear in the powder snow while my four-legged friend freaks out looking for them.
All of a sudden, my mind wanders to a snowflake falling into my hand. His story is not epic at all. After about ten seconds, it begins to melt away.
And it was at that precise moment that I realized that everything around me was, in essence, made up of snowflakes.
From this story was born the concept of the snowflake that I want to share with you today.
Because too often, we tend to get lost in our business. And that makes life difficult for us.
We have all encountered this kind of scenario where after hours of effort, the texts on our website are too complicated and nobody understands them.
These painful moments when we wonder whether or not we will succeed in achieving the objectives we set ourselves at the start of the quarter.
Or, those moments when, after a seminar, we say to ourselves that we have no hope of becoming rich with our Business and that we have to convert to Facebook Advertising, real estate or dropshipping.
These situations are legion and unfortunately, too many people suffer from them.
These situations happen to us because we entrepreneurs are at some point affected by a sneaky fear that can take many forms. Here are the four most popular versions:
- The impostor syndrome. The feeling of not being in your place, of not being legitimate in what you want to accomplish in your business.
- Procrastination. Constantly putting off something supposedly super important. In 80% of cases, this task will never be completed.
- Exaggeration. We do too much, we say too much, we over-complicate the texts on our website and we fill hours of online training with blabla to say nothing at all.
- Perfectionism. We go after an image that is not aligned to the pixel on our website. We write To Do Lists as long as your arm and we spend hours in asana writing tasks in tasks in tasks…
Reminds you of something?
Why does fear paralyze us in our business?
The reason is simple. Many people will tell you that a successful business is a business with a clear and ambitious vision. Without it, you won’t know where to go and you won’t have direction to guide you to your success.
But vision is only half of the equation for success. If you look at it another way, your business vision is like the finish line of a race. The point of consecration. The destination that we promise to our customers as well as to ourselves.
But to have a legitimate finish line, you also need to know your starting point.
It is at this precise moment when the snowflake takes on its full meaning. Without a starting point, there is no journey. No movement will then make sense. The entrepreneur begins to tread water.
V*F = S
Vision * Flocon = Succès
But what is a snowflake in reality? The answer will surely surprise you.
To put it simply, the snowflake is the lowest common denominator of everything you can do in your Business. It is the connecting point between everything you do, say and offer to the world.
From then on, your snowflake becomes a source from which you can draw infinitely. It’s a bottomless bag filled with all the motivation and inspiration you need.
Au sein de notre agence, nous avons un mantra de quatre phrases qui nous guident tous les jours :
- Be passionate about your customers’ success.
- Experiment and have fun every day.
- Make others grow.
- Say it loud and clear.
Behind this mantra hides a philosophy of life and work that allows us to give the best of ourselves in a way that suits us.
In summary, this mantra gives us intensity(motivation) andmanner(inspiration).
- If you lack intensity, you risk missing out on the most beautiful moments of your life.
- If you miss the way, you will tire quickly.
What are the criteria for a good snowflake?
A snowflake is, in essence, small. #ThanksCaptainObvious.
But taking a step back, we realize that we can do a lot of things with snowflakes. A snowball, a snowman, water, steam, an avalanche,… . In all these examples, the snowflake is the lowest common denominator visible to humans.
In your business, it’s the same. There is a fine, subtle connection in everything you do that adds coherence and power. It’s your snowflake.
As part of a Rebranding that we carried out for Jean-Luc De Wachter, we discovered that the common link in all these activities was in a single sentence:
Start with Love
This may seem simple, even simplistic. But for our client, it had the effect of a bombshell for him and his business. He realized that everything he did was necessarily tinged with this sentence.
- Love for the family he can maintain
- Love for its employees with a deep desire to succeed
- Love as a starting point during training with his students
- Love as added value in this world.
When you’re aligned and proud of your snowflake, you’ll know it right away.
But as in nature, the snowflake must meet these three principles:
- It is unique: your snowflake is something that looks like you and speaks to you. There is no point in going to copy from the neighbor. Moreover, it is this uniqueness that makes your (future) customers love you.
- It is fragile: no, impacting the world is not a snowflake. It’s either a vision (in this case, it’s good), or a surge of ego (and there, it’s less good). A snowflake is a tiny thing. But so powerful. You must be proud to say to others: “yes, that’s just it…”
- It is versatile: Your snowflake must be versatile enough to be included in everything you do. And if at the end of the exercise, you find yourself with a product and a service that does not match your snowflake, question the relevance of your product, not your snowflake.
And you, what is this infinite source that pushes you to always offer more value?
Although several people can line up on the same snowflake, it is not wise to simply take a quick look around and more or less discreetly copy what is being done at your neighbor (or even worse, your competitor).
Finding a snowflake can take time. And although we help our clients find their own snowflake during face-to-face or group sessions, very often I have a flash several hours or even days after our meeting and send a message to my client saying “That’s it! I’ve found !”
In any case, I would be really happy to know your own snowflake and how this little notion has forever changed your perception of the world. If you want to share, I invite you to send me an e-mail at pascal@marquerlefutur.com. I will respond to all emails.
