Delivering value in a world built to overlook it. Trusted advisor, close counsel. Founder of ValueSmith™. 30 years in the trenches.
Tampa, Florida
Joined March 2007
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Did they lie? No. Did they believe it? Yes. Was it accurate? Also, no.
ALT Did they lie? No. Did they believe it? Yes. Was it accurate? Also, no. — Michael Santarcangelo.
Put it on paper and the argument moves from the person to the paper.
ALT Put it on paper and the argument moves from the person to the paper. — Michael Santarcangelo.
The cost is still there, even when you don’t need to ask for more budget.
ALT The cost is still there, even when you don’t need to ask for more budget. — Michael Santarcangelo.
If it’s important, what keeps displacing it?
ALT If it’s important, what keeps displacing it? — Michael Santarcangelo.
You can feel friction. You can't see gaps.
ALT You can feel friction. You can't see gaps. — Michael Santarcangelo.
An executive's ask sounds like a priority. Often they're just thinking out loud.
ALT An executive's ask sounds like a priority. Often they're just thinking out loud. — Michael Santarcangelo.
There’s a column for cost, down to the penny. Where is the column for benefit?
ALT There’s a column for cost, down to the penny. Where is the column for benefit? — Michael Santarcangelo.
They know the cost. Do they see the benefit?
We're working our asses off. Delivering what was asked for. But the results aren't getting recognized as valuable.
Instead, we hear: "I know what you guys do is important, but what do you do? Why does it cost so much? Why does it take so long?"
Value equals benefits minus costs.
They know the cost down to the penny. There's a column for it. Where is the column for benefit?
If they can't see the benefit, but they can see the cost, the calculation in their heads becomes zero minus cost. It leaves us holding a ledger that's reading in the red.
The benefit has to be realized for the value to be recognized.
Our opportunity is to connect them to the benefit. That starts with delivering an outcome that makes something better for somebody.
Before we start the work, who's got to recognize it as valuable? What benefit will they realize from the outcome?
Those questions give us a focus: do work that delivers a beneficial outcome somebody else can realize. Then they have a benefit to weigh against the cost.
ALT An open ledger shows a column of costs beside a benefit page brought into focus by a gold circle. The benefit page asks: What became better? For whom?
The person who asks for the work is often not the person who needs to recognize it as valuable.
ALT The person who asks for the work is often not the person who needs to recognize it as valuable. — Michael Santarcangelo.
People often ask for their best guess at the solution, not the problem they need to solve.
ALT People often ask for their best guess at the solution, not the problem they need to solve. — Michael Santarcangelo.
Michael Santarcangelo retweeted
How to write a forwardable email
TDLR- I want to just press “f” in superhuman, comment on on top of what you’ve said, and press send. Make it easy.
I get asked to pass along notes all the time. I proactively offer to do so just as often. Here’s how to help me (or anyone else) help you get what you want out of this interaction.
Do This
-Write in your voice about yourself. “I’m Yoni, a partner at Slow…”
-Include all the context the person will need (who you are, why you want to meet them, links, etc.)
-Send individual emails for each person you want me to forward to (“would love to get connected to Yoni”)
-Keep it short.
Don’t Do This
-Write as though you are me talking about you (“I met this guy named Yoni”). I promise you it won’t sound like me, at least not to me and it makes it harder to just press forward
Michael Santarcangelo retweeted
Gentle breath-holding is a non-pharmacologic intervention for stress reduction.
It goes like this:
Inhale normally.
Short hold.
Exhale, inhale.
Short hold.
etc.,
Don't count and forget about time.
Exhale long before discomfort.
Relax and appreciate the experience.
Michael Santarcangelo retweeted
100 years ago tomorrow, the first armed military guard stood watch at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Explore this history in our digital publication: A Tomb in the Heart of the Nation: The Origins and Creation of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier: arlingtoncemetery.mil/Portal…
Michael Santarcangelo retweeted
The difference between being nice and being kind:
Nice people want to look kind.
Kind people don’t give a fuck how they look because they just want to help other people.
Michael Santarcangelo retweeted
Chase Hughes drops the wildest self-improvement hack: Become so self-forgiving it’s almost delusional.
“Most people look back with regret and shame… Get so forgiving of everything you’ve ever done that it’s like delusional to the point where it’s just crazy.
You get to a point where everything is fine and it’s just hilarious.
If you do that, your ability to stay in the present and not get stuck in the past will 10x overnight.”
Clip from this 39-second mind-flip — radical self-forgiveness as the fastest path to actually enjoying the moment.
Have you ever tried forgiving yourself so hard it felt ridiculous… and suddenly the past lost its grip?
Your experience — drop it below 👇
Michael Santarcangelo retweeted
"Eat at a local restaurant tonight. Get the cream sauce. Have a cold pint at 4 o’clock in a mostly empty bar. Go somewhere you’ve never been. Listen to someone you think may have nothing in common with you.
Order the steak rare. Eat an oyster. Have a negroni. Have two. Be open to a world where you may not understand or agree with the person next to you, but have a drink with them anyways.
Eat slowly. Tip your server. Check in on your friends. Check in on yourself. Enjoy the ride."
Anthony Bourdain
Michael Santarcangelo retweeted
A pattern I’ve noticed: The higher the level, the more basic the questions. I’ve advised Fortune 100 CEOs and 8-9 figure founders, and the conversations aren’t exotic. They’re about delegation, time, hiring, clarity, stress. The deeper you go, the more you realize that mastery is disciplined repetition of fundamentals. The amateurs chase hacks. The elite protect the basics.
Michael Santarcangelo retweeted
WTF! - Welcome to Florida! 😎
70 MPH speed limit in Florida is less of a rule and more of a polite suggestion that nobody agreed to follow.
Too slow?
You’re getting tailgated by a lifted Silverado with LED headlights bright enough to interrogate you.
Too fast?
Doesn’t matter, there’s already a guy in a beat up Altima doing 95 weaving through traffic like he’s late for something extremely illegal.
You try to hold a respectable 75.
Immediately passed on both sides.
One car has no headlights.
Another has its hazards on for no reason.
Somehow both are going faster than you.
And then, out of nowhere, Brake lights.
Not gradual.
Not polite.
Just a full interstate wide decision to stop all traffic flow for 30 seconds.
No accident.
No construction.
No explanation.
Just vibes.
You finally get moving again and think, "Okay, we’re good."
Wrong.
It starts to rain.
Not normal rain.
Florida rain. (IYKYK)
The kind that erases the road, your mirrors, your sense of direction, and any belief you had in visibility.
Wipers on max, still losing the fight.
Meanwhile, someone flies past you doing 85 like they’ve got sonar.
And just when you think you’ve seen it all, there’s a gator in a retention pond right next to the highway, watching traffic like it’s judging your driving choices.
No toll booth warning.
No buildup.
Just vibes and consequences.
Your GPS says "arrive in 2 hours."
Florida says, "Depends, you surviving the storm or the drivers?"
And somehow, through all of
this …
There is STILL someone camping in the left lane going exactly 70 like they’re honoring the Constitution.
Welcome to Florida highways.
Where speed limits are optional, weather is aggressive, and every drive feels like a group project with people who did not read the instructions.
