Sales 101 tells us that if we find the pain, we find the sale. Of course this is an over simplification and yes the underlying habits surrounding this concept evolve, but it’s still an essential best practice. The fundamental presumption is that if I can uncover my prospects needs and meet them as desired, I will win the sale. In short, when I act as the authentic advocate to my customers, they are more likely to reward me by becoming advocates of my brand – loyalists, one might say. Do this well and you become what content marketing pioneers Chris Brogan and Julien Smith refer to as Trust Agents. Read the rest of this entry »

I have been a waiter, a maitre d’, a phlebotomist and an autopsy assistant. I have been a mental health caseworker; I have cleaned horse stalls and have led two teams of desktop support technicians located in two different countries. I have managed large and small networks as a systems administrator and have designed and developed Web sites for one-man shops and pharmaceutical giants. I have lived on my own since the age of 18. I have traveled as far away as Thailand, seen lots of Europe and have been all over the US. I am a copywriter, an essayist, a songwriter, a father, a husband, a student, a drama queen, a big mouth and a singer in the alternative rock band, Normaljoy – commence the booing for the shameless plug.

Today, I build my consultancy.

I have done a lot and have seen a lot. More than I can share in any one post. I’m sure the same is true of your adventures as well. Along my journey though, I have learned a lot too. Of all the pearls I’ve accrued through the years, one piece of wisdom I stay fully obedient to is this: don’t change for others. Don’t do it and here’s why. The way and degree with which others express their satisfaction with your changes will never satisfy you enough to make those changes mean as much as you’d need them to for them to last. And ironically, the attempts you made to self-improve using the criteria of others, will leave you disappointed for failing (a false positive, incidentally) and those that really matter, doubtful of your authenticity. Read the rest of this entry »

Among the more challenging obstacles I face converting the doe-eyed into social media disciples is their willful and often arbitrary belief that building a Web site has nothing to do with marketing their businesses online. Even worse, many believe that the only way to raise and influence brand awareness and sentiment respectively, is to pay for banner ads and pay-per-click (PPC) programs. In the eyes of many small business owners, the exercise in building a Web site is the objective itself – ultimately just ambiguous, inert and quickly forgotten. Read the rest of this entry »

Why is it so easy for us to forget how to effectively speak to our audience? Why does it slip our minds so effortlessly how to delight our listeners? After all we know how to and we’ve done it many times before. We know that the content gods will reward us with subscribers, retweets and even sales when we do it right too. So why then, with so much at stake, with so much to gain or lose, do we fail to notice when we’re not considering the recipients of our messaging? And possibly more importantly, how can we avoid making this common, yet destructive error in the engagement process? Last summer, on an ordinary day like today, in the throes of an equally ordinary task, the answer to both of these questions came to me in the least ordinary way: while making my son a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Read the rest of this entry »

Everyday I observe new ways to apply the principles of social media to the task of influencing people. In every facet of life, professional and personal, wisely leveraged new media marketing concepts can help us shape and change lives. As small business owners, I believe we need to divorce ourselves from what we want people to know about us and our wares and look deeply at the approach we take to speaking to those we expect to persuade. And yes, the techniques social media experts espouse are easily adapted to daily life, where maybe there’s nothing to sell beyond a point we want to make or an opinion we hope gets heard. Here’s a real life example, from my daily routine, of how the tenets of social media marketing can help you rethink your message’s packaging. Read the rest of this entry »

You’re going on an interview first thing tomorrow morning. You’ve readied your best suite and it’s hanging perfectly pressed outside your closet. It’s outside the closet as if the closet might eat the suit if you left it in there overnight. And on this night, of all nights, you can’t afford to take that chance. The alarm is set, checked and rechecked. It’s not going to go off at 5:30 PM. There is literally zero chance of that happening. Still you check it nine more times to be sure. Hell, you make it an even 10. You hit the sheets way earlier than is normal for you, but you can’t risk the dark circles. They could finish this thing before it even got underway. Transportation is all set. You’re gassed up and the train tickets are in your wallet. That’s it. You’re ready to dazzle those mothers with your can-do energy. But wait. You’re keeping something from yourself, aren’t you? Now that everything is prepared, something begins to nag at you. Soon the nagging turns to noise. Everything’s prepared, but are you prepared? Fear sets in quickly. Yeah, that’s it. You’re frightened. There you are on your pillow. Everything in its place, when it hits you: someone more skilled is going to score the gig. Dammit! Someone who has been around it more, done it more, done it longer, done it better. Read the rest of this entry »