Yesterday's email had quite a tough message I guess.

It said, in essence, that if you want to get productive meetings with high potential clients, you've got to put some work in to create something valuable they'd be interested in discussing.

Some people work hard in the wrong way. They kill themselves playing a numbers game hammering the phones or sending out a zillion emails to people they don't know, trying to get a meeting.

And it does (sort of) work if you don't have anything better.

Make enough calls and eventually, you'll find some people willing to have a meeting with you. And some of them may indeed be good potential clients.

And you can use modern robo-calling technology to only connect you when someone picks up – so you don't waste quite as much time as you used to.

But it's the wrong kind of hard work (and frankly, I dislike the ethics of disturbing tons of people and wasting their time just so you can get through to a small number who might say yes. Very selfish.).

A much better form of hard work is hard thinking to create something valuable that many more people will want to meet you to discuss. Insightful case studies, a contrarian point of view, a benchmarking report.

You only have to do that hard thinking once and you can reap the benefits time and time again.

But instead, most people choose to do the “easy” hard work of networking, calling, chatting on social media.

There's a famous quote often attributed to Lincoln (but almost certainly not his) that says “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend four hours sharpening the axe.”

Rather than chopping away with a blunt axe, sharpen your axe by investing in creating something valuable that people will want to talk to you to discuss. Or download from your website. Or attend a webinar on.

Not the same old stuff they can hear from everyone else. But something sharp and new.

Give a damn about the content you create and the clients you serve by doing that hard thinking.

The good news…no…the great news is that so few others are willing to do it that you'll stand out like a beacon.