High standards & good taste will change your life.

Quick overview of what's in this edition.

1. Life Update

2. Why you need high standards and good taste.

3. Mediocrity will be the end of your progress.

4. How it all shows up in work.

5. What can be done about it?

Life Update.

Last week has all been a sort of a step back after an intense sprint of work.

I was spending all the waking hours either working, training or eating, and nothing else for 3 weeks straight.

Had a lot of breakthroughs, as well as some breakdowns in work (Specially the agency, and I’ve talked about it for a while).

So I spent the last week sleeping 10+ hours a day, having the chillest schedule I could, and working maybe 1-2 hours a day, getting the essentials done.

Usually I would be worried about missing out on work, or having things pile up, and this was the first time when it didn’t happen.

Let me tell you how all the travels, or the times I visited my family used to go for the last couple years.

I go back home → I want to spend time with family and enjoy, and I can’t → I’m constantly worried about work when I’m not working → that then showed up in work when I couldn’t focus because I used to think that I can’t spend time with family → Ultimately ruining both experiences.

That’s when I took this quote seriously (and have talked about it on IG too):

“When you work, work. When you’re done, be done.”

And it has genuinely made both more enjoyable. Not in the sense of what we usually feel “joy” is. But actually living in the moment.

Feeling the ups and downs, being happy and worried, like feeling absolutes. And not being confused during happiness and the not so good states of mind.

Resulting in focus. Pure focus while working, training, eating, and also the other side, spending time with friends, and loved ones.

Apart from that, agency work has been picking up. We’re making progress with our offers, service delivery.

My brand vision has never been clear, we have been putting out the most amount of content than we ever did. And I don’t see it stopping in any scenario for the next 8-12 months.

I have made a clear transition in the way I do content, and this move actually was a big W. People are loving the content I put out, plus I maintain my authenticity.

In the space where people lose their identity, sell their soul to the algorithm and the platform, and get in the never ending loop of doing it. Knowing deep down it isn’t the right choice, but the short term gratification is too good.

I’ll forever maintain this authenticity, and with the way I do it, and the mix of values and “brand pillars” I have, I don’t see many people doing it in a way I do it.

Specially when we talk about the 5-10 year timeline. I’m excited for it.

So, brand is doing well, the agency wasn’t and these times my entire focus is on it, there are a lot of things to take care of, one of the most important one is the team.

Let’s move on to the juicy part…

Why you need high standards and good taste.

I am working on creating a more lean team. So, moving forward, I’ll be letting go of the team members with these characteristics (My team will read this, and I am waiting on their response):

1. Low performers.

2. Not doing the basics right.

3. Constant silly mistakes and communication errors.

4. Not taking deadlines seriously.

5. Not taking the learning opportunities when offered.

6. Not keeping people accountable, including myself.

7. Having low standards and bad taste.

The main reasons why I let people go from my team, so far has always been communication mistakes. That too in a pattern.

Constant communication mistakes → Not owning up to it in the moment → Making big commitments → Not following through on any of those.

This isn’t a corporate environment where we’re obligated to keep people for a certain term.

I am not obligated to be someone’s safety net. A friend who will tolerate mediocrity.

My team is not my family. We’re a high performing sports team. (No Rules Rules shoutout)

This is high risk high reward scenario. The online world is ruthless, the ones who perform well, stay the ones who don’t fade away and aren’t remembered.

Take Nike’s new CEO as an example. Him being a high performer for that long, made sure of his progress.

It’s not something you’re born with, in some cases it might be. Mostly, it’s a matter of taking responsibility, let me put it again, real responsibility, and making sure wherever you go, you make that place and leave that place better than you found it.

For a big part of my journey, I had issues letting people go. I rarely many issues of friends betraying me, or me doing it.

In school, it happened once with my best friend at the time, and in college it did with the football and the inside politics.

In both cases I found that I stay attached a lot, until a point where I don’t give a single fuck, and I don’t go back. I stay absolute in this manner.

While running this agency, I have had this issue, and still have of not being able to let people go.

So I consciously have to make the choice now. And this is the next step:

Restructure the team completely, bring on high performers and let go of people who are not. In every aspect.

I am okay with razor thin margins for some time, if it means that the people we work with get amazing results.

Editors, strategists, content creators, ghostwriters etc. everyone will feel it.

Apart from communication, a big part behind it is taste. Taste can’t be taught. It’s all built on the lifestyle you have, who you surround yourself with, what you get inspired by, and what you consume on autopilot.

Found this incredibly good piece on taste, have a read once you finish this newsletter.

“Taste is eating silicon valley”. (Link in the resources section)

Take a simple definition of it: Taste as a skill

Taste is the ability to draw on experience and patterns to help make better choices. For example, an experienced designer can avoid ineffective solutions like poor typography, bad color choices, or unusable interaction metaphors.

Let me list down some use cases of bad taste in work:

1. Editors being okay with average edits. (Not understanding the platforms)

2. Content creators and strategists being okay with “good enough” ideas.

3. Designers creating basic pieces.

4. Consuming mediocre content pieces.

5. Getting inspired by mediocrity.

And this results in mediocrity. Let’s go deep into it.

Mediocrity will be the end of your progress.

High performers find above average performance as an indicator of good direction, hence they put in more work.

The mediocre people get pumped up after above average performance, and set that as standard.

Just like, you create your identity by either keeping or not keeping promises with yourself.

It shows up in what you do.

Sure, in most cases after you put out something you feel like you could have done better.

Having those shower thoughts about how you could have demolished the other person if you used this comeback.

Or a few tweaks that you could have done in your work to make it that better.

It’s a good sign that you seek improvement.

Most people do not. People do not have effort left in them after they do something.

Should make you think why most people can’t stay consistent with a new habit, be it gym, making content, meeting people etc.

The harsh, liberating reality that you should be scared of and be excited about:

Mediocre people do not survive. 

Mediocrity is not about the end product, it’s making sure your input and every part you can control, is of your highest standards at that point.

Some people find a middle ground with it, and change it’s definition.

When you have low standards, bad taste you become mediocre each time you accept that as your reality.

It’s not always the case. The best part about it all is that no-one is born with it.

You get influenced as you grow up. Sure it’ll take more time for you to overturn this subconscious standard, it has to be done consciously.

What can be done about it?

Here are some ways I have found to improve my standard, taste, effort, and how I show up in everything.

Firstly realizing, that you have more control than you think. Treat your life like a video game in most cases.

Collect resources, spend resources to upgrade your character, fight tough battles to get bigger rewards and learn along the way.

Once you realize that you have more control, you should think about what’s the best thing you can do in that moment.

1. Don’t have enough money to buy a phone to make content?

   1. Create with what you have, work more so you have the money for it.

2. Client not happy with the work?

   1. Spend all your time thinking, how you can solve that problem for them.

3. Don’t have money to buy a course?

   1. Learn from YouTube for free, realize that the information you need it our there, all of it, for free.

Instead of giving reasons to not do it, give yourself every reason to work and improve.

Anything can be reframed to sound more favorable.

After that comes the more important ways:

1. Consume better content. Hands down the biggest change you can make for yourself.

2. Consciously set standards of what you want to create.

3. Understand that people love new stuff.

4. Realize that there’s a feel to the creative work that is put out. The energy felt changes with below average work.

5. Define. Define every single small thing that you believe needs improvement

Looks. Aesthetics. Impact. Feel. All of it.

The best way to do it is this:

Find your inspirations → Break down their best work → Any and every take away you have, take note of it→ Do it consciously, regularly → Implement it in your own way.

Most people end up thinking that their breakdowns, and takeaways are bad, when it’s really not.

Based on your perspective at that moment, your takeaways from work that you are inspired by are the best pieces of information you could have. Aside from you learning from somebody else.

Consciously collect those takeaways, and one by one, implement it in your own work.

You’ll find over time your standards improve, taste gets better, results get better and in turn, you as a person, stray away from mediocrity as you do it.

Whatever you do, implement it for yourself, and see the difference it makes.

Resources of the week.

1. 35 min YouTube video on how I close high ticket clients.

2. “Taste is eating silicon valley”. Read it here.

3. If you are a service provider, wanting to build a personal brand so you can get high-paying clients and build your presence, you can join Expert Creator Blueprint.