I’m so passionate about maintaining an offensive mindset that it’s my number one rule for my own business; and I devote an entire chapter of my new book Stadium Status to the strategy behind it. That strategy involves what I call The Law of Sevens.
This means that your audience members need at least seven different ways to connect the dots between your brand and what you do. They also need a minimum seven impressions or offers before they are moved to make a purchase decision or commit to the value proposition you offer. In sum, the Law of Sevens is about always being on offense.
My philosophy as a coach (and now as an executive coach) is that the best defense is a good offense. It’s the ultimate differentiator because most teams and people spend way too much of their time on defense. Why would you want to be on the offensive all the time? Five reasons:
- Being on offense is proactive; being on defense is reactive.
- You’re on your toes on offense, but on your heels on defense.
- You dictate the pace of the game, whatever game that might be.
- You create momentum.
- You’re attacking not defending.
Back in the day, as a college lacrosse player, I was an attackman, which meant strictly playing offense, as my position didn’t cross midfield into the defensive zone. When I first started playing lacrosse in high school, I chose the position; it didn’t choose me.
It was my preference (and not because you only had to run half the length of the field), because it was a proactive position. You attacked the goal; you didn’t sit back and wait for things to happen “to you” or “against you.”
When I went from player to coach, I took this philosophy to the extreme. I wanted our defensive players and even our goalie to approach their roles, too, with an offensive mindset. So, our defensemen and goalies practiced shooting drills every day with the offensive players. If a defenseman crossed midfield with the ball, I wanted him to put pressure on the other team, attack the goal and see what opportunities he could create.
I charted time of possession, because we wanted to dominate the time anyone had possession in every game. Later in my career, I…