Author / Nathan Coumbe

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Posts by Nathan Coumbe

My mission is to learn, inform, inspire, and improve. I am a passionate teacher, an avid writer, a leader of people, and a strategic thinker. Wherever I am, whatever the work I am called to do, my goal is the same: make my little corner of the world better for everyone in it. To do this, I ask better questions and solve more interesting problems for those I serve. Think deeply. Think often. Keep exploring. Always be curious.
by Nathan Coumbe

Create a reality from which you don’t want to escape

I can’t remember where I first heard something similar to that headline (it may have been Seth Godin…)

But the idea occurred to me that so much of what we do is an attempt to get away from our daily lives…

People do drugs or drink to numbness to escape reality…

They take vacations to get away from work or family or just about anything else…

And those moments just become these little blips of happiness on the radar. Not even happiness, really, but bursts of pleasure… 

But contrary to popular belief, pleasure and happiness aren’t the same thing.

I think the key to good living is this:

Create a reality from which you don’t want to escape. 

Easier said than done, I know. And plenty of people have real horrors they need to escape from (I know from way too much personal experience). 

But few of us rarely sit down for a few quiet minutes and take the time to think about what that reality would be. 

I’d encourage you to take a few minutes now— with pen in hand and a few pieces of paper—and write out any- and everything that comes to mind about the lifestyle from which you wouldn’t want to escape. 

Then ask yourself what the first step would be on the way to making that reality real.

Because no one else is going to make that reality for you. You’ve got to do the work yourself.

And it’s sad, but true, that you might be at a severe disadvantage compared to others due to things that are completely out of your control—or shouldn’t even matter. 

But that doesn’t change what YOU have to do to get what you want.

by Nathan Coumbe

Would they miss you?

“Stop interrupting what people are interested in, and become what they’re interested in.”

—David Beebe, VP of global creative & content marketing at Marriott International

The essence of permission marketing is this:

Build an audience that wants to hear from you.

Create businesses, products, and services for people that will actively seek you out instead of trying to avoid you when you come knocking.

You’ll know you’re doing it right if you can answer “yes” to the following question:

Would they miss you if you were gone?

by Nathan Coumbe

“Being” requires “doing”

You become a writer by writing.

You become a leader by leading.

You become a doctor by doctoring.

You can learn the principles and the ideas behind these fields from books and courses. But the skill to do them is only developed through practice.

Zig Ziglar said: “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing poorly.” That’s where you must start.

Anything worth being only comes about as a result of doing.

by Nathan Coumbe

Your brain only has one core

The term “multi-tasking” didn’t arrive on the scene until the 1960s. But it was used to describe computers, not people. 

And if you think about it, even computers don’t do multiple things at once as well as they do one thing at a time. 

Imagine your computer running multiple apps, windows, and other software all at the same time. What happens?

The fan kicks on, each app runs slower than it would otherwise. If you’re using a Mac, you’ll probably get that bouncing pinwheel of death…

In simple terms, what’s happening (at least in modern multi-core Macs) is that the different cores of the processors “split apart” to run the different “threads” separately. Each core has to work on its own to do a different task. This is known as multi-threading.

But if you just run one app at a time, the cores can all work together to accomplish that single task faster and more efficiently. This is single-threading.

The human brain works the same way. It does ONE THING very well and multiple things poorly. It’s not designed for “multi-tasking.” 

If computers can’t do it well, what chance do you have? 

It’s cliché to say it, but do one thing at a time until it’s one for better results.

by Nathan Coumbe

Ruining a business is simple

It amazes me how one person can have such a tremendous effect on a business’s success or failure.

I’m talking, of course, about the experience someone has when they interact with any one individual employee of a business.

If the customer has a bad experience, the obvious thing that’ll happen is they’ll swear off the company completely.

“Well, I’m never going back to that place…”

And the funny thing is this: after a few months, or even a few years, that person who delivered the horrible experience is probably long gone…

Yet you STILL never go back. 

They don’t just ruin things in the moment – they ruin them long-term… Possibly forever. 

And let’s not forget the fact that if the employee threw a tantrum in front of lots of other customers, they probably won’t come back either.

But it goes even further than that.

Do you know what people love to talk about even more than a great experience?

The worst experience they’ve ever had!

That’s why all the reviews for every single business you’ll ever read are 90% one-stars. 

Nobody ever writes about a decent, 3-star experience they had… And we rarely take the time to write about the great experiences – it’s too much work.

But when we’re angry, fuming, and vengeful, nothing gives us more satisfaction than to feel like we’re ruining a business.

So we tell the others. And word spreads. And those people who’ve never had a bad experience with the business decide not to patronize it… For fear of having a bad experience. 

Here’s a simple idea for all of us in business: adopt the ideas of Victor Krulak, the former commandant of the US Marine Corps. 

He wrote about the “strategic corporal” which insists that the entire outcome of a war rests solely on the lowest paid, most beaten-down, hardest working Marine on the frontline. 

That Marine bears the brunt of the fighting. And if they do something terrible, they ruin the image of an entire nation… Especially now that everything is seen by everybody.

The solution is to treat your lowest paid, frontline employees as the most important part of your organization. Because they absolutely are!

Those who deal with customers on a daily basis are the strongest marketing force you have, aside from the customers themselves through word-of-mouth.

Treat them as the most important people in your company, compensate them well, and train them to represent the brand you want your business to embody.

by Nathan Coumbe

Here’s how to know if you’re manipulating someone…

If they knew EXACTLY what you knew about your…

  1. Product
  1. Service
  1. Idea

And knowing exactly what you know, they wouldn’t…

  1. Buy it…
  1. Use it…
  1. Believe it…

Then, yes, you’re manipulating them. 

On the other hand, if they knew exactly what you know, and they STILL wanted to engage with it, you’re doing something right. 

Don’t create or sell things you aren’t proud of. 

by Nathan Coumbe

Voting for others’ needs

How would you vote differently if you took your wants and desires out of the equation?

What if—instead of voting based on the promises politicians make that make your life better—you considered how those promises would affect others? 

The people who are different from you…

Those that have less than you (or more)…

Would you still believe that those policies were the best for everyone? Or do they just help you?

And do they actually help you? More importantly, do you believe they’ll follow through with them when so many don’t? Most of it’s just rhetoric after all.

Would you demand more, and better, from your elected officials?

Something to consider when the time comes.

by Nathan Coumbe

Is your frying pan too small?

If you ever go fishing, it’s probably not too much of a stretch to say that you’ll keep the big fish you catch and throw the little ones back…

But not for this one guy.

Zig Ziglar tells a story about a fisherman who was found throwing all his big fish back and only keeping the little ones. 

When asked why he was doing such a ridiculous thing, the man had this to say:

“Boy I sure hate to do it… But I’ve only got this itty bitty frying pan to cook ’em in!”

Now, you might laugh, but you and I CONSTANTLY do the same thing on a daily basis. 

Here’s what I mean:

We say we want big opportunities. We want to achieve big goals and leave our mark. 

We want more responsibility at work, a chance to prove (or practice) our skills, and the chance to make “the big bucks” (or a big difference). 

We pray to God or ask the Universe to help us…

And we get an affirmative reply!

You get a huge opportunity to do everything you asked for…

Then what do you do?

You say, “Well… That’s too big. I don’t think I can’t handle that. I’m not [insert your adjective here] enough.”

We’re given the big fish… And we throw it back because we don’t think we have what it takes to cook it. 

My advice?

Buy a bigger frying pan. 

In other words, take the opportunity and run with it! The worst thing that’ll happen is you’ll fail. 

But failure isn’t fatal in most cases. You’ll be alright. 

And you’ll learn and do it better the next time you have a big opportunity come your way.

by Nathan Coumbe

You will be unhappy…

Anyone who thinks they can be happy every second of every day for their entire lives…

They’re setting themselves up for a lifetime of disappointment. 

Things won’t work out like they’re supposed to.

You’ll lose a job, a pet… Or a loved one.

It’s better to strive for happiness in as many moments as you can while expecting to have disappointments, setbacks, and heartache. 

Don’t delude yourself into thinking you can be happy all the time.

But at the same time, live an optimistic life. Expect things to work out in your favor and often, they will.

The Universe conspires to help us when we make the decision to act.

by Nathan Coumbe

Artists & fly fishing

Seth Godin has a short chapter in his book The Practice on his experience learning to fly fish. 

At the retreat, he specifically requested that he not have a hook attached to his rod so he could focus instead on the practice of casting perfectly. 

Without the hook (and therefore without any chance of catching anything), there was no way he could obsess over the outcome. He was focused on the process when everybody else was focused on catching a fish.

The result—he learned how to cast perfectly and mastered fly fishing. His friends obsessed over making a catch and failed to develop the necessary skills.

This is how artists must work. They must focus on the process, not the outcome. They must create and ship work on a regular basis without worrying about whether or not this project will be “the one.”

Process, not outcome. That’s where we need to redirect our focus.

If we don’t set out to create a masterpiece, it’s much more likely we’ll make one in the end.

(A personal aside: I realized after reading this passage that my dad was an artist in the same way. He loved fishing and genuinely did not care if he caught a fish or not in the process. He was totally at peace on a boat or pier casting and reeling, over and over. He had the mindset and demeanor of a true artist.)