Hey!
I hope everyone is doing well. Welcome to the next round of the Sunan Weekly Roundup!
What we are working on:
This week we released another excellent blog post titled “5 Tips for Dark Theme Design.” As mentioned in our last roundup, we have started seeing many popular applications, and even mobile OS start offering dark-mode as a color option.
Over the past few months, many researchers have tried to quantify the amount of interest out there for dark-mode. According to some surveys, nearly +80% of users prefer dark mode for their operating systems!
As marketers and designers, we have to start asking ourselves how we can begin to leverage dark mode on our websites and applications. A common mistake I have seen is: Using pure black or saturated colors.
Check out the 5 tips and learn more about how you can use dark mode to provide a better user interface and a fantastic experience.
My biggest takeaway this week: Shift from a Scarcity Mindset to an Abundance Mindset
The only thing guaranteed in business is change. A business that fails to change and adapt will cease to exist.
We have all heard stories of how Blockbuster, once a $4.8 billion company with over 9,000 stores and 60,000 employees, vanished because they failed to innovate and adapt with the times.
On the flip side, there are many success stories of how companies that have managed to adapt and change have reached revenue and growth they could only once dream of.
Take Uber as an example. Did you know that Uber’s delivery business, Uber Eats, is now bigger than its original ride-sharing service! That’s insane!
Again, the only thing guaranteed in business is change.
How a leader responds to changes says a lot about their mindset. Leaders who look at challenges as growth opportunities have characteristics of an abundance mindset.
On the contrary, scarcity-minded leaders tend to close up and start tallying up with losses. Even worse, they go down the rabbit hole of dissonance and become risk-averse leaders. The type of leaders who are comfortable with the status quo and prefer not to sail the uncharted waters of change. They prefer to be tied to their docks of predictability and assurance.
So how do you develop an abundance mindset? Here are 3 tips to get you started:
- Train your mind to recognize more possibilities. A simple question we should ask ourselves, how can we make the pie bigger? How can we create more win-win situations? How can we step outside of the ‘problem frame’ and come up with creative solutions?Let me give you an example. When Sunan Designs started a few years ago, our only focus was creating graphic designs.
We saw a significant opportunity because many of our clients did not know what they could do with the design to drive more awareness and sales. The only thing they would think of was to blast the design on social media and email and throw a few dollars behind a conventional facebook boost hoping to drive sales. Seeing this as an opportunity, we launched Sunan Marketing, where we take the guesswork out of running digital marketing campaigns.
Always remember, the size of the pie is not finite. With enough creative juice, we can create more possibilities for us and everyone we serve.
- Surround yourself with people who have an abundance mindset. Believe it or not, your close circle of friends and peers have a direct impact on your perspective. As I mentioned in our last roundup – Look around you. If your circle isn’t inspiring you, it’s not a circle. It’s a cage.Abundance leaders invest in their teams. They see value in their personal and professional development. If you are in a leadership role, carve our time weekly where you can be that tide that collectively lifts everyone.
- Level up your perspective, especially when it’s not serving you! If our perspective on life and business is so small that it’s suffocating us, we need to scale up our ambitions. We need to start looking at challenges as opportunities. We need to look at change as an adventure. We need to look at failure as growth and learning opportunities. Never underestimate your ability. Exercise your tenacity muscle so that you can work through challenges and build perseverance.
As Henry Ford so eloquently said, “Failure is simply an opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.
Now it’s your turn! Follow the three simple tips to get you started. Always remember, both scarcity and abundance are a state of mind. At the end of the day, what you believe is what you shall receive.
Time to level up!
– Sajjad Husain, Founder & CEO