Brian Rhea Brian Rhea

Painting Our House

We’ve been thinking about painting our house since we bought it years ago. It’s a decades-old paint job, the color is dated, and peeling in places. In the years that we’ve owned this house, we have renovated every room, resurfaced every floor, and painted every wall in our home … but we’ve just “lived with” the exterior color.

“We’ll get to it one day.” – Us, for six years.

Recently, an intense hailstorm (golf/tennis balls!) forced us to get a new roof - a clean, black, standing seam metal roof - which is going to make the paint job look even worse and more out of place! And so, we’ve finally bit the bullet and hired a painter.

But, it was the hailstorm, not our persistent distaste for the paint color that kicked us into a hiring search for a painter!

Passive to Active

This sort of trigger is what Bob Moesta and Chris Spiek call out as events on their interview timeline that will tip people from passive search, to active search, and eventually to purchasing or non-consumption (if the available options aren’t better than the status quo).

It makes me wonder about the series of events that lead clients my way and I hope it makes you think about the series of events that lead your customers to your door!

You should definitely watch this video of Bob and Chris at BoS demonstrate the Switch interview technique that will change the way you think about your customers.

What’s the hailstorm that tipped people over to active searching and buying after years of living with dissatisfaction?

If you had a list of the related events that lead paying customers to your door, how might it change your roadmap, the copy on your landing page, or where you’re focusing your sales efforts?

Customer Interviews: Done for You

If you’re looking for these valuable insights but don’t have the time or experience to do it yourself, let’s talk about how I can run a suite of interviews for you, present the insights to you and your team, and develop an action plan to grow your business.


A Few Things I Enjoyed this Week

  1. We just finished Season 16 of Project Runway and it was another solid season! I don’t know jack about fashion and you don’t have to to be a fan of this show. If you love creativity and appreciate watching talented people operate within seemingly impossible constraints, add this show to your watch list! Unfortunately, it’s the last season with Heidi and Tim Gunn 😭but heck, 16 seasons is a solid run!

  2. I finally got around to reading “I, Robot” last month and I’d definitely recommend it. If nothing else for the fact that Asimov wrote these vignettes between 1940 and 1950 before they were compiled into this book in 1950. It’s fascinating to be alive now, where the complicated relationships between humans and machines that Asimov was pondering then are truly part of our everyday lives … just not in the way he imagined.

  3. “Animal” by Air Review is a standout song from a great album that was years ahead of the rebirth of 80s synth. I hope you dig it! 🎧

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