Pick the Best Five Chimps and More Tips for May

MINDSETTake the Coffee Challenge

Worried you’re losing your entrepreneurial edge or getting a little too comfortable? Take the “coffee challenge.” “Ask for 10% off of your next few coffees,” advises tech entrepreneur Noah Kagan. “Go up to the counter and order coffee. Then just ask for 10% off … The coffee challenge sounds kind of silly, but that’s the whole point — in business and in life — you don’t have to be on the extreme edge, but you have to ask for things, and you have to put yourself out there,” he told the Tim Ferriss Show.

COMMUNICATIONSHow to Pitch Journalists

What’s the best email subject line when pitching a journalist? It’s the boring one, says Cherie Stewart, managing director of APCO Worldwide, the second largest independently owned PR firm in the U.S. “The best subject lines start with the type of ask, such as ‘News Announcement: XYZ;’ ‘Industry Executive in Town: XYZ;’ and ‘Trending Story: XYZ.’ It’s not sexy, but it’s appreciated,” she told PR NEWS recently, adding that you should have done your groundwork first. That includes researching and following the reporter’s work (e.g. coverage, Twitter, blog), finding ways to push relevant industry knowledge and insider perspectives, and being willing to provide comments on off-topic stories whenever you can.

SALESIntroduce Fuzziness

According to research done by the University of Utah, people will typically spend 10% more as soon as “fuzziness” is introduced into the equation. It’s part of the reason people lose financial discipline when using plastic and when they have multiple spending and checking accounts. When the total isn’t a precise figure, it’s easier for your brain to justify spending more. It also underscores why it’s so important to have a specific open-to-buy when you go to trade shows.

SALESHungry to Buy

A savory or sweet smell, as you might expect, also makes a shopper hungry — and not just for fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies. “They get your saliva glands going, and that makes you hungry,” Paco Underhill, author of Why We Buy: The Science Of Shopping, told the Los Angeles Times recently. “And when you’re hungry, you’re more apt to buy anything, not just food.”

MANAGEMENTFive Chimps Theory

“There’s a theory that I call ‘The Five Chimps Theory’,” says tech investor and writer Naval Ravikant. “In zoology, you can predict the mood and behavior patterns of any chimp by which five chimps they hang out with the most.” The lesson for business and life: “Choose your five chimps
carefully.”

PRODUCTIVITYYou Have the Time

Feeling like you don’t have enough time to get everything done? Welcome to the club … but don’t blame the modern world. The problem is you. “Lack of time is actually a lack of priorities. If you don’t have time, the truth is, you don’t have priorities. Think harder, don’t work harder,” says John C. Maxwell, author of The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership.

MANAGEMENTDo Less, Manage More

A recent article in the London Business School’s Business Strategy Review recounts an experiment carried out with a sales team at an insurance company. The manager was asked to free up two additional hours a day to just manage. She handed off some admin work, skipped less important meetings and spent the extra time giving more guidance to her team. After three weeks, sales were up 5% over the previous three-week period, low performers had greatly improved, and no one wanted to go back to the old ways of working. If your typical response to handling a problem is, “Let me take care of this,” then you may have something to learn.