It was a magnificent course full of all the good Lord placed here on this earth.  It was also a decent morning of golfing.  My colleague was on his game and seemed to hit shot after shot with a consistent perfection.  Then he hit a shot that would teach me not only about golf, but give me a lesson for life and business.  He hit a shot that sailed for days, landing right behind a formidable enemy.  His shot landed him face to face with a mighty willow tree.  There were two options; shoot back on to the fairway and lose a stroke or attempt to shoot over the willow tree and hope to land on the unseeable green.

We took several minutes to survey the issue and I pushed him to take the risk and to pull out the club and make the willow bow to him.  The willow stood nearly seventy feet tall and stretched just as wide.  He could not see the green from where the balled lay, but he knew the green was there and knew that a good shot over the willow could land him safely on the green.  I whipped out my video camera as he prepared his shot and I waited with excitement to see just what was going to happen.  I thought to myself, “what if he hits this and it rolls into the hole; we are looking at a spot on ESPN for sure!”.

The course silenced as he set up his shot and swung.  His ball sailed up and over the willow only lightly grazing the willow’s massive frame.  As I watched the ball land safely on the green just feet from the pin I was amazed and inspired.  I had just watched, ‘one of those shots’ and had seen a man I respect, risk his game and chance failure in a sport that gives no second chances.

So why do I tell you all this story?  Think of the willow tree as your hurdle in your daily business ventures.  That willow tree is your cash flow, it is getting to your next ‘big deal‘, it is your marketing dilemmas and if you can just get over it you know that the ‘green‘ is just on the other side.  You can’t fully see it, but you know it is there.  Pull out the right tools from your bag, set up all you can and then just swing.  Take the chance to get your shot and impress those around you.

Success is nothing more then trying to achieve what others dare not to do.  Not everyone will hit over the willow tree and you may hit a few more leafs along the way, but set it up and swing away.  Business is more then brains and money, it is about guts and risks.  Those with guts will take the risks and those risks could lead you safely to the green.  But you will never know if you don’t stand back, step up and swing.

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1. I have never been busier then what we have been in the last two months.  Thanks to my awesome team at LIME we have been slammed.  As a side note we are hiring!

2. I have been working with a good friend in Hollywood on a national book deal.  Now it is not done, nor will it be done in the next few months, but the wheels are in motion and I have begun the process.  Thanks to all of your emails and your support.  The readers of my blog and my story have been amazing!

Time will only tell where things go from here.  I had advice to stop writing for a bit till we got a few things in line.  Now those things are in line and my writing will again begin.

I wrote a few months ago about your reach and how it may surprise you–tonight I pulled up my blog’s stats from while I was “away” and I am truly surprised.  The readership and reach of my blog has been amazing again thank you to everyone, let the adventure begin!

These are where the readers have come from in the last 7 days.

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I thought I would take this challenge.  Now being that this blog is new and I used a poor blog service before that didn’t allow me to archive or export my blog posts I can’t take you too far back, but we will give it a shot.

Comment away and let me know your favorites or if I missed something!  Here are the questions to the challenge:

1. Your first post -

My first post was Chapter One and Two of my story.  I will go with Chapter Two: Here is the link

2. A post you enjoyed writing the most -

This was  a tough one because there are a lot of posts I enjoyed writing.  I am going to give you two.  One from my story and the other was a business post.  Chapter Three and The Digital Door is Wide Open

3. A post which had a great discussion -

As many of you know I have both a FaceBook and a Twitter page that I am very active on.  This means that often after I write a blog post I get several tweets, DM’s or FaceBook messages about my post.  There is one post however that has not only gotten me an overwhelming amount of digital comments, but also ‘real world’ comments.  Not to mention I was even asked to speak on the topic at a local business function.  It is a two part post, enjoy!  The Myths About Marketing

4. A post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written -

I get a lot of inspiration and ideas from other bloggers. Many times I will see a blog post and it will get me thinking.  Those thoughts usually end up on my blog with a different ( or my ) spin on the topic.  I wouldn’t say I have seen a post that I wish I would of written, but being that this is a challenge I will say—I wish I came up with this ”7 Link Challenge”!

5. Your most helpful post -

This is an open ended one.  Most helpful for me or the audience?  Well this has been the most helpful for me: Time for a Time Out and through feedback I have learned that this post has been the most helpful to readers: Killing the Mosquitos

6. A post with a title that you are proud of -

I love titles! In fact I truly believe that the Title will make or break your post.  I have so many favorites, but truly the one that got a HUGE amount of traffic in just minutes was: Do You Have a Beethoven or a Hasselhoff?

7. A post that you wish more people had read -

I had to laugh at this question what blog post doesn’t a blogger wish more people had read?  With that in mind however this is a blog post that I feel got decent traffic, but more would of been nice: The Dinosaurs are not extinct  yet!

Well there you go enjoy!

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Brand is another word that is often thrown out there in a general state not really understood.  Your company’s brand is the overall imagery of your mission statement and is not limited to your logo or color schemes.  Your brand is truly any messaging tool your company uses to express its self.  Your brand can be the way you handle client related issues or it can be the way you handle your social space.  Your brand however does have roots and those roots need to be planted, watered and fed correctly.

So what does brand have to do with music or art?  Everything.  Like music, your brand needs to engage the audience.  It has to communicate with a wide group and it must display your overall commitment to your industry and client base.  When you have truly identified your brand it will be a thing of beauty, it will be a modern piece of art.  Planting your brand starts with planning, planning and more planning.  Watering your brand means you look after it and you ensure that those you hire, outsource to and interact with all have your brands best interests at heart.

Now feeding your brand, is the fun part.  This is the part in which you are able to become incredibly creative.  Where you are able to work with your audience to share with them your visions, ethics and dreams.  Feeding your brand correctly, will take your business to new heights and you will soar above your competitors for years to come.  You may have set backs and feed your brand some raw meat, but it is always curable.

In today’s market place your brand must be ready to flex, but not break.  Your brand must be fine tuned, but not over the top.  Your brand must follow the curves, but lead the pack.  Do you think your brand is up to the challenge?  Re-branding an existing company or branding a newly formed idea is one of my favorite tasks and one of the most challenging.  It takes time, energy and a commitment to understanding.  It takes being an artist and understanding your canvas.  Not all brands are created equally, but all brands have the chance to become something great!

Your brand can be as amazing as Beethoven’s Fur Elise or as painful as a David Hasselhoff’s* solo album, it is truly up to you and those you surround yourself with.

*I have nothing against the “Hoff” as long as he isn’t singing.  

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In business we have the same dilemmas.  While you might not be asking your clients to marry you ( although you might ) you are asking them to trust you, your product/service and then offer up the Benjamins.  This is a task all on it’s own.  I want to share some scary numbers with you about business commitment rates.

The below are all examples of some type of business, their efforts and the results ( commitment level ) of such efforts.

• A good preacher should to be able to get 70% of the people who showed up on Sunday to make a donation.
• A teeny bop rock group might convert 20% of concert goers to buy a shirt or souvenir.
• A great street magician can get 10% of the people who watch his show to throw a dollar in the hat.
• Direct marketers used to shoot for 2% conversion from a good list, but now, that’s a long shot.
• A blogger might convert 2% of readers to buy a book.
• And a twitter user with a lot of fans will be lucky to get one out of a thousand to click a link and buy something. (.1%)

Do you see the disparity?  It is quite clear.  Who on the list above has the most personal connection with the client base?  As we get father away from the personal human connection we start to see a dramatic loss in commitment.  Why?

Easy of the ‘no’ or the ignore.  How easy is it to ignore a tweet or a FaceBook update?  How hard is it to ignore a human being standing two feet in front of you?  Although technology is great and can help you reach the masses it has to be understood that there is no easier way to get clients to commit then offer a personal human connection.

This doesn’t mean you don’t need your social space or you should not focus on it.  Just understand what you can really get out of it.  I fear too many business owners are investing and counting on Twitter to grow their business ( aka get new clients to commit ) that they abandon the core of business—knowing people.

Want more commitments? Commit yourself to human connections.

Stats reviewed and drawn from Seth Godin - http://sethgodin.typepad.com

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The online world of content delivery is hands down the best invention since the light bulb, but it is still very misunderstood.  One of the big mysteries is commenting.  Each time I have a client post a blog or a social media status I field the phone calls and questions about the comments.  The phone call either goes one of two ways.  It is either, “I have posted 3 articles and NO ONE is commenting on my posts, why and what am I doing wrong?”  “Lets take a step back,” is my reply.  I continue by stating that facts are facts.  Your blog is new, people are still getting to know you.  They are learning to trust you and learning your style of opinions or information.

Blogging and social media connections are much like starting a new friendship in the physical world.  You aren’t going to jump into a room full of people you don’t know and have everyone tell you how amazing your shirt looks or how smart you look.  It takes time, it takes getting to know people and yes some people have an easier time with this and some bloggers do as well.

Just because people are not commenting or replying doesn’t mean they are not reading.  I have been to many functions where someone will comment to me directly how they enjoyed a post I wrote or saw a status update on my FaceBook wall.  Some people just feel more comfortable telling you to your face, rather then to a comment box on a website.

I also remind my clients that if they or their company have different portals of online communication, say a twitter account, a FaceBook account and a blog, their customers may find it easier to tweet them a comment about their latest blog rather then comment directly to the blog.  The number of comments on your blog is in no way a direct reflection on the blog’s or article’s impact.

Continuing to post is the key and then when you do get that comment reaching out to your opinion or information it is critical that you reply.  Develop an open line of communication with your readers and show them that yes you do care about what they have to say.

Next the client will tell me about some hateful and spamming comments their blog is getting.  In some cases the comments can be hurtful and damaging to a blogger’s morale.  I can’t tell you how many comments and painful statements I have gotten in my blogging and social media endeavors and that is exactly what I tell my clients.  Everyone will get the negative comments and hate mail.  Every blog will be spammed by Viagra ads, you simply have to ignore them.  People will hide behind their computers and there is just nothing you can do about it.

Now in some cases the comments need to be addressed.  They may be negative, but true.  It could be about your companies poor service or a bad experience a client has had with your firm.  You need to address them in an open and professional way and good things can happen.  Here is a live example of this from a project I am running:

The customer was upset and was quite open in his statements.  We worked with him, not against him and in the end we have a fan of not just our one app, but our company as a whole.

Comments are a tricky thing in the online world of blogging and social media.  Not everything you write or ‘status update’ will get replies, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t reading.  Give it time, let it mature and ignore the online garbage.

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Trying to please everyone will only lead to disappointment and in your business endeavors it will handicap you. You will quickly be throwing good money after bad efforts. When you get ready to share your product/service don’t think that your message needs to hit everyone, have it hit a targeted group. How do you find this group? Marketing. Before you even prepare a message take a step back and identify the type of person you want to talk to.

Think in specifics, not generalities. The more specific the group, the better the results. Now that you have them identified, listen to them. Find out what they want or need. Now you are ready to tailor your message. No longer will you get frustrated in creating that message as now you can ‘keep it simple’ and direct. Your days of pleasing everyone must end if you want your advertising messages to succeed.

They got it right when they said, “don’t use a shot gun to kill a mosquito”.

Image credit: http://bruceglider.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/mosquito-researcher-insect-photo-cartoon.jpg

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It is funny how life will come at you full circle.  How it will pull you and push you through your days, through the months, through the years and then at some point you will look around and see that the journey hasn’t taken you too far, yet it has simply taught you how to get around.  When we look at it, it is almost humorous or ironic that in some cases the things we once feared would become the things that save us.  Life is a funny thing, a thing that for my young mind was about to get a whole lot more ‘ironic’.

Dogs for me have a different meaning then I think they do for most of you.  As a small child the phrase, “You are in the dog house” was more literal then it needed to be.  My step father thought of us not as children, but as toys or pets.  For my brother and I, being ‘in the dog house’, truly meant being in a dog house.  Sometimes just for a few hours and then others times it would be a resting place for our small frames.  A place to rest our heads throughout the night.

Then dogs took on a new meaning in my young life as I and the other ‘bad children’ were given the dog dishes as our serving plates.  The dogs were treated more like humans then we were. Both my step father and this new cage I was put in, saw dogs as the superior species over me.  I was placed in their beds as they enjoyed mine and was told to eat off their dishes as they enjoyed food from the tables.  Yes, dogs for me were not, “boys best friend”.  Oh how ‘ironic’ this would become.

There I was alone, trapped and afraid.  Unaware of the outside world or the battle that my grandmother was enduring.  Unaware of where I was, who I was or what I would become.  Had my time of a normal childhood run out?  Was I back in the system for good?  Was my mother coming back for me?  Where was my father, who was my father, for that matter, who was I?  These questions and many more circled my mind and kept my nights sleepless.  Fear filled my body and the only thing I could hope is that ‘mommy’ was coming back for me.  Then almost as oddly and quickly as this chapter in my life had begun, it ended.

I was returned to my grandmother’s.  No answers and no ‘mommy’.  I would not learn until many months later that my mother had requested custody of me once more, but had failed to show up to the hearing.  Months later the courts informed us that her welfare check was running low and she saw me as a way to increase her payday.  I was a pawn in the game of money.  I was not loved by a mother, yet used as a number.  The feelings that came with this, were of hate, pain, fear, worthlessness and sorrow.  My mother had shown the world and myself, that she was incapable of loving.  She had done all she could do for me and now it was up to me to do for myself.

My young life was never the same after this.  That trip to the zoo had changed me forever.  I had learned at too young of an age that life was not fare, nor were there free handouts.  In the next months I would become a terror.  My fits and my temper were untamed.  My concentration in school was almost non-existent.  I had lost the will to survive, the will to overcome.  I preferred to be lifeless and careless, then to enjoy life or care about those around me.  Fighting was about the only thing I had passion for.  Who could I pick on? What wall could I punch or what item could I destroy?  I was fearless, but was becoming feared.  My teachers worried about my progress in school.  My grandmother quickly began to lose control of me.  I had been beaten, abused, left, studied, caged and I had now drawn a line in the sand and I was not about to care about anything, but myself.

I had convinced myself that God had left, He had let me down.  I was no longer ready to believe that God could truly love me and let all of this happen to me.  Why would He allow this?  If He was God he would love me and care for me, He would not let these people do all of this to me. I didn’t feel anything.  I didn’t care to understand anything.  I didn’t want to know anyone.  All I wanted to do was nothing at all.  All I cared about was protecting me at all costs.

With my fits and tempers came more doctors and tests.  This time the doctors weren’t in white coats nor was I placed in a white room, this time they had toys and treats.  They wanted to talk to me, have me look at puzzles and maps.  Sometimes they would just watch me play with legos.  Other times they would walk me to a candy shop and ask me what I wanted.  These doctors and these tests I was happy with, but I remained quite and didn’t let anyone in.  I wasn’t about to let someone else know anything about me or how to hurt me.  This worked well until the doctors shared their results with my grandmother.

My grandmother had done all she knew how to do.  She had become frustrated with me and I had not done my part to let her in.  For her, the tests and doctors were hope, for me this was just another example of how everyone I trusted betrayed me.  So the results were shared.  I was uncontrollable and a risk to myself and others.  I suffered from stress related illnesses and my mind was unable to cope in a normal social environment.  I was for a lack of a better word, ‘a problem child’.  Recommendation?  Pills and clinical therapy.  Yes the medications or ‘candies’ were back.

This time the ‘candies’ would not go away.  My grandmother would see them as a hope to help me cope.  Her only concern would be controlling the side effects.  This would be a test all on it’s own and would lead to countless changes in medications until they found just the ‘right’ one.  The therapy consisted of weekly ‘meetings’ with doctors and scans on my head.  The meetings seemed silly to me.  I would go in, sit on the floor surrounded by toys and then I was told I couldn’t play with them until I answered a few questions.  Then some times I would be questioned with my grandmother in the room and other times I would be given cards and puzzles to solve.  All and all the doctors in these meetings seemed to do nothing for me and I did nothing for them during these sessions.

I was wallowing in self pity and self destruction.  No one understood me except one.  One friend is all I had.  Through my tempers and fits I had lost my friendship with Josh and my school mates.  I was not liked, except by one and her name was Foxy.  She had beautiful silver hair, her eyes were as black as the sky and her love was ironically just what this little boy needed.  I had found a friend, someone that would listen, someone that seemed to care about just me.  No matter how mad or how sad I was she was there for me.  She loved me like no one else seemed to.

Foxy was a pure breed Keeshond and she was my perfect dog.  My grandmother had had her for a few years before my arrival, yet I hadn’t paid much attention to her until after my zoo trip and frankly she hadn’t given me much time of day either.  That all changed, it was if she knew that she had to do her job as a dog and step up and be this boys best friend.

What can a dog do for a small boy?  Everything.  Foxy would know things that no one else would know of my childhood life.  I told her how I felt, how I hurt and how scared I truly was.  The doctors and their tests could not get me to talk.  I trusted no one, except one.  I went through the motions and had the therapy sessions, I took the pills, but I let no one in my life nor would share my life with anyone, except one.

My world had come full circle now and the one thing I hated so much as a boy was now the one thing I trusted more then any.  Ironically, I trusted—a dog.

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As you may or may not know, I am a father of five children and one of our family traditions are “Time Outs”.  Not those where our children are sent to their rooms or noses in the corner, these are treats.  Every so often my wife and I will take a child, just one on one, to their favorite restaurant or activity center.  This is one of our children’s favorite activities, as they are focused on and spoiled without the competition of their siblings.  This gives mom and dad a way to connect with them and to identify any areas we need to work on with our children.  All and all it is a win win.

So how does this apply to business and why am I posting it?  In business we tend to forget the ‘little things’ and focus so heavily on the big picture.  We wrap ourselves in our day to day grind and we lose ourselves in goals and todo lists.  Take a step back and look at your day yesterday, did you get everything done you wanted to get done?  Did you go to bed knowing that you checked off every todo?  Did you even go to bed?

Many business owners work 20 hours a day, but to what end?  What do you accomplish in doing this?  Boldly stated, nothing.  You have headaches, worries and self deflation.  If you have to work 20 hours a day it is a sure sign that what you are working for isn’t working.  So pushing yourself to the limits of time and energy will not create results.  In today’s world you need to be fresh, alert and ready for quick changes.  You can’t do this on 4 hours of sleep.

Here is what I want you to try next week.  It is not a secret that businesses are build on relationships and relationships are built on communication.  With that said, open up your address book, rolodex or business card folio and select two clients.  Doesn’t matter who they are, just pick two.  Call them up and ask them to lunch.  If they ask why don’t be shy.  Tell them you are wanting to communicate more with your clientele.  This is only stage one.

Now that you have set up a lunch or two with clients for the week, I want you to only work six hours a day for the next five days. Why only six hours?  You need to relax your mind.  Take all the tasks you have to do in a day and focus on them for six hours no more no less.  Try this for the five days and once you have, your entire work flow will change.  Even if you have to put more time into your business, you will see that twenty hours is not needed and you will be able to get more done in ten then you ever did in twenty.

The combination of networking and limiting your ‘limits’ will net you more results then pushing yourself to the edge.  You have now successfully been taught my business “Time Out” strategy.

If you try this and find that it doesn’t work—I will buy you lunch.

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The blog post dives into some of the ‘issues’ with KFC and I encourage you to read it, but I want to take this in a different direction.  I want to discuss a principle that seems to be leaving the world as a whole and more noticeably leaving the world of advertising.  It all started decades ago and has been growing year over year.  What is that principle?  Honesty.  Or should I say the lack there of.

Lets take cigarette ads in the the 1960‘s.  Cigarettes were made to be glamorous and would magically turn anyone into a hollywood icon.  Was it a lie?  Did those marketing and advertising cigarettes lie to the world?  Now lets move up a few years and talk about super diets.  In the 1980’s the Atkins’ diet promised that anyone could lose massive amounts of weight by just eating.  By 2003 the Atkins’ diet was no where to be found, so was it a lie?

Now here we are in 2010 and as business owners we are trying to share our products and services with the masses and in doing so, are we being honest?  Are we upfront with our target audience?  If not why are we scared to be?  Why are we so hell bent on glorifying our products/services?  One word; fear.

Yes fear is what drives us all in business.  Fear of failure, fear that we won’t be liked.  Fear that we will lose everything and so on.  Sadly we are losing everything by not facing these and other fears head on.

As a marketing and advertising consultant I battle daily with clients to ‘tell it like it is’.  I push them to open up to their target base and to push the real un-edited version of what they have to offer.  Why?  Because they will stand out.  How sad is that?  By being honest they will stand out to the public and will be able to use honesty as a marketing and advertising angle.

So have I come full circle?  Am I consulting businesses to be honest with the intent to sell and is that deemed ‘frauding the masses’?  I will leave that for you to answer, but I will say this; there is nothing more enlightening then to have an honest and open dialog with an other member of the human race.

There is something about honesty that in the long run, just makes life—easier.  I consult each of you to take a step back and look at your ad campaigns.  Open up to the public and get real with them.  Cut the fluff, cut the junk and just tell it how it is.  Show your face—just make it an honest one—with that I promise positive results.

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