I’ve been blogging for about 3 years.

Most importantly, my blogs are ALWAYS the top hits in our website. I have 1 blog that almost 10,000 have read. It’s given me influence I could never imagine. You need to start.

Here are 4 essential tips to doing it well (based on research):

1. Make it personal. People love to read personal stories. Start with “I” and “Me”; then shift to “you” and “us”. Web pages that are personal blogs are read more and people spend more time on those pages. We’re all voyeurs.
2. Make it short. The average “non-blog” page keeps people’s attention for about 10 seconds. A blog page holds people for almost 60 seconds. The average person reads about 300 words in that time. Keep your blog shorter than that.
3. Make it visual. Attach a picture. Twice the people will read your blog if there’s a picture. I guess we all love picture books. I try to make my images a cleaver connection to the ultimate content of my blog.
4. Make it simple. Add numbers to your titles and 3 times the people will read your blog. We view titles like “The 4 essential facts about life” as easy, quick, and simple. I can’t read a book about “life” but I’ll take the time to see how you synthesized “life” into 4 points. Use bullet points so that “scanners” will get intrigued.

80% of American Adults want to write a book. But few do. It’s easier to blog! We’d love to set up a simple, easy-to-edit blog on your web page. We’ll also associate it with your “brand”. Because, we let you “communicate. In unison.”

Remember your 1st job?

The Manager met me in the reception area. I called him “sir” and told him I’d work hard for him. He asked what hours I could work and I remember simply telling him, “I’ll work whenever you need me; after school or on the weekend”.

He hired me on the spot. Later, he told me that he had dozens of applicants but I seemed like an over-achiever.

That word seemed negative to me. In fact, one of my supervisors in a future job told me that I needed “to stop being such an overachiever”. To “work like everyone else so they don’t look so bad”. Crazy. I stopped putting in unpaid overtime.

Today I heard a business leader say, “Look at your staff. If they’re not overachievers, replace them”.

Wow. A definition of an overachiever:

a person who is ambitious, driven, and motivated to do (and be) the best.

It’s the way great teams are made. There’s nothing worse than being assigned to a project group (in college or high school) and getting stuck with the kid who doesn’t take initiative and allows others to do most of the work. And then takes the credit. Grrrrrr.

Today, if you’re an entrepreneur, you have control of yourself and the group. Be an overachiever. Only hire overachievers. And the moment you get a sense that someone on your team falls short, start looking for someone else to replace them. Yes. Fire them.

I pledge today to be an overachiever. I want to be as eager as that 16-year old seeking extra cash. And I’d love to taste one of the awesome sandwiches I used to make with fresh baked bread and fresh toppings.

Travel has gotten crazy. The airlines don’t get it.

Here are my simple “steps” to travel (and booking my flights):

1. Go to the web to see what flights are available. I like Travelocity. I check the “flexible” date box. This tells me what flights should cos and if I’d save money to go a day earlier or later. Then…
2. I try to get a ‘deal’. I go to individual airlines, hotwire, expedia, kayak (or similar) to get a deal.

I do the same for my hotel and car. I want to pay the least amount. Period.

It’s gotten to the point I don’t care what airline or the car rental brand. Because the companies don’t stand out as being different.

And for the most part, they are adequate at best. Customer Service has turned into “do the least so you don’t get complaints”. They’re not excited to help you; they’re just pleasant. They don’t want to lose money; so they make us pay extra for everything. They make us cram our luggage into small carry-on bags; then they growl at us for taking so long getting on to the flights.

It wouldn’t take much to stand out in this “hohum” environment. I understand that Southwest gets close to it. We don’t have Southwest service in out area so I don’t get to see it. But they’re always the top of the airlines for satisfaction.

How about you? Do you stand out? Or do you do everything about the same as your competition. If so, your clients will compare you on price only.

Right now: take the time to decide on how you’re going to break through in the marketplace. I guarantee that you’ll start selling more. This is the first step to developing your brand. You have to do it. Today.

There’s still time.

To be honest, I’ve been exploring and researching the possibilities for the new year over the last week; and this coming week, I’m going to narrow goals down and write them down.

If you don’t write them down, they will fall by the wayside and you’ll never achieve them. Goals are only effective if they’re written down.

And checked on.

Here’s the 5 questions I’m going to ask myself the first of every month (to keep me on track):

1. Overall, am I happy? What’s the worst pain in my life? Can I change it? This is like taking an overall “temperature” at a doctor’s checkup.
2. What’s the biggest success? Did I cause it? No wrong answer here — in fact, I love to realize that something “outside of my control” caused something good to happen. This is a way to recognize it.
3. What the one thing I should continue doing? Stop doing? Duh!
4. Am I balanced (spiritually, family-wise, business-wise, personally)? Wow. I need more balance; and this is my reminder.
5. Am I profitable and on track for reaching my goals? Ultimately, if I’m not profitable, I NEED to change things. Drastically.

I’ve developed a convenient .pdf that will help keep track of these answers. Just contact me (use the form at the bottom of the home page) and I’ll send you it. I simply opened a file folder marked “Goals” and I’ll have 12 sheets in there by the end of the year. I can review them next January and see how to revise my goals for next year. Ready to start with me? There’s still time. Join me.

Happy New Year!

I find it interesting that 45% of American Adults will make a resolution in the first few days of this year. And within 14 days, 25% will have abandoned it. Huh?

Are you one on of them? We ultimately know what we should do, but we don’t. We set goals and never reach them. We start strong; and don’t finish.

It’s crazy.

Last week, a friend and I talked about how we want to be different this year. And how we can make sure we actually follow through with our resolutions. Here’s 3 things that will ensure a guaranteed resolution completion:

1. Accountability. If you make a decision by yourself, you may keep it. If you decide with someone who will gently (or not so gently) help you keep it, your odds go up. Another reason we should have good, close friends!
2. A Schedule. A year is a long time. Break your year into a regular schedule to make sure you achieve baby steps towards the goal (weekly, monthly, etc)
3. A Goal. Ah, the reason you’ll go through “pain”. If you’re making a resolution “just because” you will probably fail. Know your end goal. How you will feel, look, be. Then keep reminding yourself why you’re doing the baby steps. The more you remind and visualize the end, the easier the steps will be.

I’ve decided to have monthly checkups towards my end goals. Next week I’ll start to post the 5 questions that I’ll ask myself every month. And the following week, I’m spending 4 days deciding what the end of 2012 will look like. Ready to take the journey with me? Send an email to me with “Resolution” in the subject line; and I’ll send you my “5 Questions” form that will keep track of your resolutions. Then, let’s get started!

When conversations happen, I click into “interview” mode. Asking questions and while they’re answering, I feel if I don’t have a question prepared, there’ll be a horrible, awkward silence.

I need to listen more. Risk silence; and really digest what I’ve just heard.

As the year grinds to an end; are you listening? Or are you preparing to do/say/make/produce something else (because you fear the awkward silence of your office/business)?

In the next 2 weeks take the time to listen. You must.

• Listen to yourself. Often business owners don’t have time to listen to ourselves. You need to take time and ask yourself questions like: What did I enjoy doing this year? What gave me the most fulfillment? What didn’t work? If I could totally guess based on intuition about this next year, what should I be planning for? Then listen. Take notes.
• Listen to your team. I hear from my team all the time, but I quickly create solutions out of their concerns. Instead, ask them questions where they don’t feel like you’re interrogating them. Tell them seriously, “there is no right or wrong answer”. Ask what they enjoy, what their goals are, what they perceive to be successes this year. Then listen. Take notes.
• Listen to your friends. You do have close friends, right? If not, start now to develop friends that will be honest with you. Don’t defend or clarify them, instead… listen. Take notes.
• Listen to others. I met a businessman recently and he couldn’t believe I wrote or read blogs. He said, “I’ve never met anyone I’d be interested in learning from”. What arrogance. Right? But when’s the last time you read a book? Blog? Article?

Yes, the time to act will come (stay tuned to my new year’s post). But for now, listen. Hear. Understand.

How would you improve your website? You have the “before” picture if you go to your URL now. Here’s 3 ways to improve it so you will be found and enjoyed (and have amazing “after” pictures too!):

1. Check Keywords. If you “view source” (right-click on your homepage background); you get to see the code that created your website. Often, command-F will allow you to search with in that code. Search for “keywords”. If you can’t find a list of them, you’re not going to be found easily on search engines. Think about 10 words that you want to be found for — they should describe your benefits and your products. BE CAREFUL: Don’t have too many. And make sure you’re using these words in your page content (search engines check to make sure you do!)
2. Edit. The average person reads 300 words/min; but only spend about 10 seconds “reading” your pages. That means they can only take in about 50 words in that time. Make sure you’re editing your pages to a couple of sentences and some bullet points. Blogs get people to read for about a minute; so on those pages, you get 300 words! That’s why this blog is 294 words and 3 points.
3. Engage. Consider your audience — what are they looking for on your website? Then think creatively to engage them with it. Consider interactivity — people love to fill out short forms, watch videos, look at galleries and search/filter information (to give them a “custom” feel on your website).

From Oral to Print to Broadcast to Digital. As I observed these eras, I realized that we went through these changes based on benefits. If we wouldn’t benefit from the change, we wouldn’t probably enduring the change problems.

What are the benefits?

1. Each time we move forward; we increased the impact/size of our audience. And 2) we save time reaching that audience.

I believe we are now in another era that’s not talked about in the book. It’s perhaps an extension of the Digital age. It’s the “social” era.

And even though we believe that the Digital age allowed us to have a limitless audience potential and the fastest speed delivery; social expands that. Allow me to introduce the words: limitless-er and fastest-er.

Social media is just that. The potential is so huge; we don’t have the words to describe it.

So why should we be doing social media communication? It extends our audience at such a huge rate and does it so fast that there’s no other way to do it.

But it’s got to be done right (strategy) by the right people (the best people on the bus in the right seats) with the right content (following the 80/20 rule of entertainment to marketing ratio).

But then again, that formula has been necessary for every era.

This month, we’re reading the first 2 chapters. The first? A summary of his process written to excite us.

The 2nd chapter? The meat starts.

The book uses imperial data to prove why some “good” companies become great. It took years of research and it’s still very relevant.

Leadership is tackled first. What he calls Level 5 leadership. The crazy blend of humility and willingness to move forward. Do you have that? As he explains the other 4 levels that leads to this mega-leader; I’m struck by something he doesn’t deal with specifically in the book.

The ability to work with others.

Often I fail at that. I struggle between the “doing it myself” complex and “motivating others” satisfaction. This drives me crazy. What am I going to do? Here’s 3 resolves:

1. Never work alone. I need to include someone else in all I do. 2 minds usually come up with better creativity.
2. Never cease to encourage. I want to see others excel. I don’t need the credit; I would rather have the pleasure of seeing someone else take it (yes, I need to repeat this over and over).
3. Never stop recognizing others who allowed you to shine. I didn’t get here by myself. I couldn’t have done this without a supportive wife and kids or the bosses that pushed and motivated me. Or without my faith.

OK. I confess. I haven’t read the whole 2nd chapter yet. I had to stop and write this blog. I want to be a Level 5 leader. But I need to work on some of the lower levels first.

Imagine if you were selling your house. Then imagine that a few people were going to look at it. You want it to be perfect.

Research says that 1) where your house is located is critical, 2) what your kitchen, bathrooms and family room looks like are key, 3) and how uncluttered your overall home is plays a huge role in the success of selling your home.

What about your business’ website? Surprisingly, the same things matter:

1. Location is everything. Essentially you need to make sure you’ll be found where people are looking. Search Engines! SEO rules matter. Check out what I’ve said before about these rules.
2. People will usually click only 3 times. Yep, just 3 times in your website on average, before they go elsewhere. Consider your audience and consider the 3 spots they’ll look. Get them right, and they’ll love you.
3. Simplify, simplify, simplify. Less is more. The average person can only scan about 50 words per page. If you have too many things on a page, they’ll give up and not read anything. So… if you’re working hard at creating a “deep”, complex website; you’re doing it only for yourself. Because no one else (except for your Mother maybe) will wade through your material.

It’s a tough housing market. I wouldn’t want to be a realtor right now. But, think about it! It’s an extremely difficult business economy right now too! Make sure you’re doing things right and you’ll reap the rewards. The ones who don’t will continue to vanish.