Living Above the Line

Debbie Brown, Vice President of Marketing at Good Karma Brands, sent the following article to our team the explains the concept of Living Above the Line: linked here.

Above the Line thinking, a place where you embrace 100% responsibility, is the place where winners live. In sports, it’s called controlling your own destiny. 2020 has challenged us in ways we could have never predicted, and it is easier now more than ever to blame outside forces as the reason for our failures. However, we are in total control of our successes and failures, a concept Steve Nudelburg calls radical responsibility.

This concept is easy to understand but is a lot harder to do. As it relates to sales, you could have worked hard to start a partnership, but ultimately the potential customer said no. THEY didn’t tell me that was what THEY wanted. THEY didn’t tell me their whole budget was less than that. They, they, they. Living above the line is first recognizing that WE should have asked more questions, WE should have understood their challenges, goals and resources better. Shift your mindset from THEY to WE.

Figure out why they said no and then take responsibility for it. Reflect on what went wrong in the process and develop a strategy to reapproach the partner. Ask, listen, understand, and then brainstorm a new idea.

When you think about 2021, there are factors that can make you feel like you will have a successful year: a vaccine, if this political thing happens, recovery of the economy, if that one customer says yes. However, I believe if we want to win in 2021, we have to begin the year being radically responsible for our success and truly believe we can make 2021 a Time to Win regardless of outside factors.

Check out the graphic below from the article I mentioned in the first paragraph. Also, to read more about Living Above vs. Below the Line concept, check out “The Oz Principle” by Roger Connors.