Disappearing Low-Hanging Fruit

Welcome to another episode of Halftime Talks. My name is Rahim Rasul, and you’re listening to the podcast where we recognize in the middle of our game of life, whether you’re up by 10 or down by 20, we all need halftime talks to uplift us, inspire us and challenge us to bring that level of performance. You know it’s going to take to win the game, [He quotes a few lines of a song.] So welcome back. This is Rahim, and those who’ve been with us for a while, I don’t even want to get started unless we start with a little bit of appreciation.

Today, I want to appreciate those moments of discovery. They feel so good. They open us up to a whole new dimension of the world. It’s like, overnight, somebody just inserted a whole different world that we didn’t even know existed yesterday. Like, how could this be so awesome and exist around me all at the same time? And now I’m new to this. Like, why didn’t somebody tell me this secret before, and now, when you see that, you see the possibility all the old experiences you have, want to relate with it in a new way and discover what it can be, and to stumble upon it, to deliberately seek it out, or for somebody to casually introduce you to this world. Feels so good, and that’s what I want to appreciate in this episode, those moments of discovery.

Does it get better than those appreciations to set the mood, to set the table, to give us that perspective of the energy, the emotion and the vitality that we want to move forward. So this doesn’t have to be something that occurs every time you listen to halftime talks. It can be something that begins your day, something that gives perspective to the next segment of your life experience. So in this episode, hmm, we gotta we got a cool episode planned. And my favorite part about this planned, unplanned episode is, you know, it’s a little bit about my story, pursuing the low hanging fruit. And then what’s after that is, it allows me this episode.

I prefer, I hope I get to make the rules. So hey, I hope that it can. It can give me that perspective on on what’s next. So without any further ado, strap in your seat belts. Buckle up and get ready for what I take to be another cool halftime talks, interesting ride. See you on the other side.

Well, this is a more personal episode of halftime talks. Usually I try to offer some really cool, interesting analogy in life and and I try to paint the picture of perspective, perspective of who we are, where we are, and where we’re trying to get. And this is, this is, this episode is, is a mirror that I need to look in and evaluate not only where I am, how I got here, but also the future. And I think a lot of us, me included, can benefit from that, that level of perspective. And so today, what we’re talking about are low hanging fruit. If you’ve never heard that phrase before, low hanging fruit are, are the things that don’t require a lot to acquire.

I like that, let me say that again, that don’t require a lot to acquire. So it’s the things that come easily. It’s the things that come naturally. It’s the things that we can monetize without without effort. Early in my career, I started out as a designer, and my level of investment, that wall of barrier of entry, wasn’t as high as it’s been in other areas. And so I can dedicate myself. I could dedicate my life to studying design in the specific way that was what a certain type of business professional was looking for. And inevitably, invariably, what happens is that i. You end up crafting and creating a world built around this rich opportunity.

And so my low hanging fruit was in graphic design. It was in Flash animation videos. And while it was more complex than what could be cooked up at home, I didn’t necessarily corner the market. And when I mean corner the market is like develop some proprietary intellectual capacity or capabilities that allow this What should I call it, this irrigation ditch to really flow to my future crops. And so with low hanging fruit also comes the inevitability of somebody crafting a ladder, and when you can’t make the fruit get lower, but somebody can give you access to that lower fruit. What happens? How do you differentiate yourself from easily mimics people who are duplicating what you can do when that low hanging fruit begins to dry up, and that ladder we can call that technology.

We can call that Shifting Paradigms within your industry, your life, within how you offer services and perspectives to the marketplace. Now I’ll say this like my low hanging fruit was when flash died. My low hanging fruit was when WordPress and Squarespace took away those easier projects that I could I could depend on the graphic design when a lot of these low priced options started really hitting and invariably, second time I used to swear this podcast, invariably, what ends up happening is we’re challenged. We’re challenged to go after something that people cannot reach. And while it is natural that the low hanging fruit dry out, it’s a function of time, it’s a function of evolution, it’s a function of progress.

It’s just a human, human condition that we will eventually face. And no matter what industry we are in, the newspaper became the internet, TV became YouTube, taxis became Ubers, and so what people could easily rely on in the past sometimes gets whisked away now, on the other side of it, In the middle of it. Wherever you stand in relationship to this, I will contend to you that we can bemoan it, we can look at what we’re missing, or we can continue to pursue the climb what we’re looking for is no longer within that easily reachable domain that we have once relied on. We might have to look up the mountain.

We might have to take a deeper journey. We might have to face some things that we have been denying or avoiding for far too long. And part of the prize, part of the mission, part of why we are in the industry we are in is to affect change. We are in it to bring a level of satisfaction and enjoyment and and thrill and solve complex problems. And if the low hanging fruit is too complex of a problem for us to grapple with, we need to either stand aside for those willing to solve these challenges, or strap up and prepare to become the person who continues to find ways to add that value.

And lo and behold, I cannot complain to somebody who can offer things at scale. I can’t complain about the state of the marketplace. I can’t complain about the state of the pricing. I can’t complain while I can, but I refuse to. I must become better, and in order to become better, you have to put in a time, you have to put in a practice, you have to have Q. Curiosity, your questions have to evolve and grow. How you solve things need to reach a deeper level, something that something at scale. Let me slow down and repeat that. You have to create a solution that can’t be scaled within the current marketplace.

What distinguishes you must stand out like a beacon of light shining through the skies. So it’s not easily replicatable, repeatable, and you don’t become that commodity where people want to trade you for somebody else without looking at you, looking at seeing the distinct abilities that you possess, it was cool looking at the low hanging fruit. I could easily collect I could easily collect it. I was in a unique position at the beginning of the age and the dawn of the internet in the early 2000s when I could have clients all over the country. But guess what now, that is commonplace. What will separate you from your peers?

What will separate you from others who are within your space? And it’s your interest, it’s the stories you tell us, your philosophy, it’s your approach, it’s the results that you get. It is how you work with people. It is your service. So I’m asking you, not on just one front, but on many fronts, bring all those skills together so that you not only are better and improving in a myriad of dimensions, but the dimensionality of your ability improves. So sometimes we can’t take full and accurate perspective of who we are becoming because we’re so entrenched in it. But as we sharpen multiple swords, as we craft and and refine those abilities, as we are capable of telling deeper and more poignant stories as we’re able to express our actual value, instead of waiting for somebody to tell you, this is how it helped.

We evolve. We’re always evolving. We are always becoming if we have our foot on the gas. If we are engaged and experienced, if we are putting ourself in the flame, then we are cooking. We are baking, and we are rising into the perfection that is who we are each and every day, that version of yourself that you write in your New Year’s resolutions that you reflect on on your birthday, that when somebody else accomplishes something that you have an ambition toward, that we reflect on, exist through the contrast through the climb. Expect more ladders to be created. Expect technology to wipe away what you have previously called an easy bread and butter.

For many things, it’s inevitable that intersection between where we are, what will be, is happening at a more rapid, more readily available pace. It’s one of my great successes and failures in my career. Is how I I’ve been transitioning these peaks and valleys, these erosions of the low hanging fruit. It’s not that everybody’s arms got longer because I had long arms, and I can grasp and gather and provide the marketplace with that low hanging fruit better than most. But when the ladders are when the ladders are created, what happens to you and who do you have to become in order to weather this season? Because we can’t skip back the calendar, we can’t go backwards in time, and we can’t change what is no matter how much people spend their time toiling, remembering, reminiscing and complaining on what happened is the same amount of time that you can choose the direction and intention of your future climb.

We have to develop and cultivate the things that will make us unique, not only within our. Self, but also the marketplace. And they happen through the toiling, through the questioning, through the curiosity, and that curiosity is going to push us in a position where we have to reach toward what others are unable or unwilling to pursue, and that pursuit is our voice, that pursuit is an ability, that pursuit is a competence, that pursuit is becoming better than we are right now. And so I offer this. This is a message to my mirror as I look into it, and I’m assuming that you two can take value from this.

It’s perspective. It’s an inevitability. It is an inevitable consequence of living in this technological age where wealth is created through disruption. But will you? Can you? Will you disrupt yourself? Will you pursue the climb? Will you find the fruit that few are willing to seek and not make it a function of happenstance or or chance, but as a function of your mind’s direction and your heart’s intention. This has been another episode of halftime talks. I hope there was something here for you to receive. Um, I really care about you, the audience, those who communicate with me about the podcast, I appreciate it. It definitely lifts me and gives me solace and lights my fire toward continuing this process with you.

All I do is seek to share, and from there, it has a life of its own. So once again, my name is Rahim Rasul. This is halftime talks. Thank you for listening. So until next time, make sure you share with a friend. The more who know, the more we grow. And I look forward to hearing correspondence for you. You could catch me at at Rahim Rasul on Twitter. Rahim Rasul on Instagram, you can leave us a comment. You can leave us a review, a five star review, by the way, and until next time man go forth and seek joy, for Tomorrow is not promised, and today, we can be the version of who we want to be forever and just carry that forward. Peace.