We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.

Albert Einstein said: "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."

The pandemic has made us open our eyes to digital as if it didn't exist until last year. That's because, unfortunately, many companies are still victims of the "we have always done this way."

Just like the animal of this story, which I am about to tell you:

A donkey went every day from its shelter to the woods, always following the same road. In the woods, it fed on the herbs it found, and then, along the same path, it returned to its stable. It repeated that routine daily, satisfied. Stable, road, forest, road, stable.

One night, in the middle of a strong storm, a lightning bolt dropped a large tree on the donkey road. The following day, the animal woke up and took its usual path to the woods. Seeing its little road interrupted, it began to reflect: "since I have a hard head, let's see if I can move the tree and resume my day, as I have always done."

The donkey then took a short run, hit the tree that it actually moved. Only a few millimeters, however, it moved. So the donkey thought it could do it by force. It took a longer run and collided with the trunk again, which rolled slightly, again a few millimeters.

Convinced, therefore, of obtaining a result, it continued in its intent.

How do you think this story ends? Did the donkey manage to move the trunk or broke its head in the attempt?

The concept of "we have always done it this way" is an excuse that many entrepreneurs and managers use not to look for a new path, which probably makes them feel uncomfortable. Today the new path is digital.

The donkey insists on throwing heads because the tree actually moves a little. If the trunk didn't move, the animal would look for an alternative way. We tend to continue as always done because it works a little.

Thus, we continue to approach digital in the same way, to see it as a cost or as a last resort to focus on when it is too late.

Having had the opportunity to consult thousands of companies over the years, I realized that the biggest obstacle for entrepreneurs and managers is to define a goal for communication or digital promotion activities.

An objective that is different from gathering followers or likes and is instead linked to concrete business goals.

As Peter Lawrence said, "If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else."

So, I defined a framework for the digital strategy that places the goal on the top of a mountain to climb. You can download it for free at visualcommunicationplanner.com, along with instructions for its easy use.

This marketing canvas, already downloaded by over 40,000 companies and professionals worldwide, helps look at the strategy from another perspective. To do this, it borrows the climbing technique, conceived by Paul Watzlawick and carried out by Giorgio Nardone, one of my masters.

Leonardo Emilio Comici, a famous mountaineer, once said: "One day I would like to make a route by dropping a drop of water from the top, and following its path down to the valley."

It is said that climbers, in Comici's time, were used to looking at the top of the mountain and imagining to follow the path to climb it back towards the valley.

The base of a mountain offers multiple starting options and has many routes to the summit. Unless someone has already climbed it, it is not easy to choose the best or the most straightforward route in advance. Not only. If a climber misses the first approach, he is often forced to give up his trip.

If, on the other hand, we see the top clearly, and look towards the base, we realize that there is only one way to reach it.

The Visual Communication Planner applies the technique of successful climbers to the digital marketing strategy.

You can download the free canvas here: https://visualcommunicationplanner.com/

And you can also find free videos, slides and other content in our brand new online platform: https://online.visualcommunicationplanner.com/