Slow Beach Chairs

It is not likely to happen overnight. It is going to take an uncomfortable amount of time. You will tell your story. You will tell it with passion and creativity. And then… nothing.
 
The website traffic stays stuck, attendance at the rallies has dipped, charitable giving is not increasing, employee morale remains the same.
 
And so you are frustrated. You question your offering. You scrap the campaign entirely. Or you take an entirely opposite approach.
 
What you need to do is stop and breathe.  
 
Take the time to improve your offering. Test a different version of your story.
 
Once, on the island of Kefalonia, Greece, I observed the owner of a beach bar oversee the delivery of new chairs and umbrellas. A young worker of his was eager to immediately set up the chairs. But the owner told him to leave them in stacks while he sat in the shade and had a smoke. The old man watched as customers came in and out. He then put a couple of chairs in a new spot to see how people responded. And then he tried them in a different location. I watched this play out the entire week of my vacation.
 
You can see him in the photo above sitting in the background. Getting work done.
 
When I checked out of the hotel I stopped by and asked him about it. He said that he hadn’t decided yet what was best. But that was ok, because “Αγάλα-αγάλι γίνεται η αγουρίδα μέλι.” Which translates “Slowly, slowly, the sour grape becomes honey.”
 
Rearrange your story. And give it time to sweeten.