When we’re preparing for our quarterly meetings with our clients, we spend a lot of time digging into their analytics from the previous quarter. We want to understand what worked, what didn’t, what’s growing, what’s fading, and anything that could be of value to them.
While the output of that research is certainly important to the client, the work that we put into the research is where the real value lies, because that’s what helps us to really understand what’s going on.
In his book “High Output Management“, author Andrew Grove relates it to reports:
“Reports are more a medium of self-discipline than a way to communicate information. Writing the report is important; reading it often is not.”
That’s kind of like these posts that I write. I hope you find value from them, for sure, but my value is in putting them together. Finding quotes, linking ideas, and thinking through my own thoughts are where I get the most out of them.
I find this to be true of most creative endeavors. I shared the example of David Senra’s “Founders” podcast recently and it’s the same way. David’s output for us is fantastic, but the value he gains in putting it all together is easily 100x more valuable.
You might find this kind of value in creating videos for YouTube, creating a podcast, or even journaling privately with yourself. Look for the avenue to force yourself to dig into your work, and you’ll find immense value in the act of digging itself.
This is a great point Mickey. We use ‘Blumer Client Service Principles’ with our team to guide the philosophy of our service. Principle # 20 says: “Our value is not only found in our presentation of analysis visualizations, but is also found in the time it took to organize visual data in a way that produces insights for our clients. Take the time to prepare the visualizations. The analysis is our value, not only the visualizations.”
This is the exact point you are making and is a good one. Most of the content we ‘have’ to produce to run a business well forces us to study, learn, grow, etc. just like this blog provides value for you. Love it!
I 100% see this with your team. When you all meet with us to discuss the Fathom reports, it’s clear that you’ve spent a lot of time digging through the numbers to come up with the pieces that matter most.
We only see the final result, but you’ve undoubtedly learned a ton about our previous quarter while taking the time to prepare to share with us.