Marketingspeak

Change happens. We have no choice.

There are choices about how we use change, which shows a lot about us.

“For your convenience, the number has changed. Please hang up and dial the new number.”

...says what exactly?

Tips 4 The Big Chair – Obvious after you know it.

Why Blog?

Why blog?

When we asked folks at Blah, Blah, Blog and Blog Lab why they blog, here's a few of their answers:

• The boss told me to
• Recruiters will see me
• I may make money by blogging
• I am a writer, and therefore I blog
• I have something to say and want to share it.

Whatever the reason, to get into blogging, the first step is reading a variety of blogs to see what others write about and how they say it. How would you have said the same thing? Could you make it better?

Ready to do it? Make a commitment to writing the blog – it's a discipline, not a whim.

How do I start? There are a variety of ways to begin: write a comment to a post in a blog you read; write a guest post on a blog; or just jump in and launch your own blog.

What's the format and style?

• Short posts are more readable than writing a novel
• Focus – a single thought for a post – if you have several thoughts to express, write several posts
• Give it a great title – make people want to read the post
• Size of the post is about 10 sentences/ 5 paragraphs
• Make every sentence relevant to your point
• Use your own voice to write the post – what's natural and best conveys your meaning...simple is better than flowery.

Where do I find topics? Everywhere – when you write a blog you are always looking for interesting items as topics – meetings, books, events, conversations... there's plenty of stimulus available for material.

How often should I post? Dick says a mature blog is six posts – write and post, don't save them up and dump them all at once. Writing once a week is fine – but be consistent in posting weekly. Want to do more? Twice per week is good. More is overkill – if you're on a roll, write the additional posts and hold them in draft until ready to release.

Final thought – how many blogs have you visited only to find the last post was six months back...post consistently.

Ready?

Write and post a blog today!

Sales Lab Video Channel - Entertaining experience

Fixin'

There's a descriptive term which could result in more accurate communications: fixin'.

You are fixin' when you are not yet doing, are not yet planning to do, are not yet getting ready to do...you are almost ready to get ready to do something. 

A classic example is when a family gathering is winding down. Departing family members are fixin' to leave when they get up and huddle by the front door but continue to talk. They are not leaving, not gathering coats, not corralling the kids – but they are almost ready to get ready to do so.

It's application to business, social, and volunteer situations are almost endless. Like: fixin' to write a blog; fixin' to get season tickets to the local playhouse; fixin' to get new members. 

Steven Pressfield talks about the effect of fixin' in The War of Art: "It's not the writing part that's hard. What's hard is sitting down to write."

Greater use of this term would significantly increase understanding of the true status of activities or projects.

I've been fixin' to write about this topic for a while now. What are you fixin' to do?

Google + - Center of the Internet

The Truth Comes Out

Recent conversation.

“Well, what do you give to your prospects? You know they’re not going to buy here. They need to walk out of the room and consider.”

“My business card?”

How does that work?”

“It doesn’t, but better than my brochure. Nobody wants my brochure.”

The question is what do you offer that allows someone to come to a buying decision? This isn’t about “SALES,” this is about acknowledging what you are observing about how humans behave.

How many people do you see who keep plugging away with their first idea with no success? Effectiveness is learning and improving from what you experience.

No matter how hard you do the wrong thing, it never quite works.

Rainmakers – Where better comes from.

Letterhead

One of my disappointments with Google Docs is that I haven’t figured out how to make good stationery templates.

My Word templates have over 20 years of refinement, so when I need multiple pages, or one page two column with narrow margin, I’ve got the first sheet, second sheet, margins, headers, footers, and type spacing all available in one document.

LibreOffice also has my templates, but they are not as deep.

Any time I start organizing my thoughts, I put it on electronic letterhead.

What’s the big deal?

Many of the people I work with suffer from a debilitating disease called Smartmouth, sometimes saying things that are not completely beneficial. It gets worse when writing, going in directions that maybe don’t move us toward the goal. I’ve regretted my contributions many times.

I find that writing on stationery reminds me that everything I write is eventually for distribution, keeping me from using the contraction for firetruck, or unleashing a rant.

Last week I was trying to pull in a high value member to a meeting of a chowder and marching society that night. I had been working this guy for two weeks, when he slipped up and let on he might be available. Actually, he said, How was the meeting last night?

Bingo! I had just received a final “day of” invitation/exhortation from the president of the society. I scrabbled back through my email and found the document. It had the information, but was written as, “I’ll be glad when this is over,” which I guess he thought was appropriate communication to his board.

Whatever. I couldn’t send it and I didn’t take the time to rewrite it.

I believe success is about the number of swings, and I pulled my punch. We had a good meeting, one short.

I use a template to remind myself that everything I build is for public consumption, some time, at the very least allowing someone else to repurpose my work.

What is your philosophy of writing?

GooglePlus – How good can it be?