ONE DAY LEFT!!!!

There is one reason and one reason only I dislike listening to music radio stations—that is repeats of the same songs over and over again. Songs quickly become overplayed and out wear their welcome fare too quickly. Nothing is simpler then plugging in my iPod and listening to what I chose and only what I chose. Sometimes it is an oldie and sometimes it is a little Black-eyed Peas. Okay I feel better now that I have gotten that out of system.

What does this and the title of this blog post have in common?  Do a google search for me, better yet I did it for you. I searched the phrase ‘social media’ which returned 157,000,000 results and that is just the tip of it!  ( see for yourself ) You turn on the TV and guaranteed some news station or some infomercial is talking about ‘social media’.  Your email inbox is slammed with offers, updates, blog posts and the like all telling you about this ‘social media’.  You go to conferences and meet ‘social media’ experts or hear of a speaker coming into town that is a ‘social media’ expert. Even my blog post has been shoving the word ‘social media’ into your eyeballs!

Enough. Enough with the most overplayed word in human history.  Yes it is a hot topic, yes we have new vehicles of transportation in its’ world, but in no way is it new.  Let me take you back to the 1950’s when homes were separated by 3 foot picket fences and neighbors talked about children, vacations and yes even products right there over that little picket fence.  How incredible would it have been for Coca Cola to have installed microphones on the fences and each time someone said the word “Coca Cola” they would have it recorded? Well welcome to 2009 when business could start just that.

The art of communication as been around since the dawn of time and since the creation of the first wheel company, business owners have given anything to know and understand their consumers. Now businesses have these great tools in Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter and so on, where endusers freely post truckloads of content and data and somehow this has transcended time and social media was just created.  Somehow someone has made us believe that we don’t know how to be social and we need the media to educate us and train us.  Somehow the word social has become another word for Facebook or Twitter.  This is all just not the case.

Simply put as a business owner your social media has always been there and it will continue to be there long after Facebook and Twitter are gone ( yes they will be gone MySpace ). The word social has been overplayed and oversold.  It is a very important and part of your business, but it always has been and always will be.  Stop thinking you need to change yourself to be a part of a new transportation device.  No matter what car you drive there is always a gas pedal, a brake system, a forward, a backward and a left and right.  You may drive some cars faster and some may pull you out of the muck, but at the end of the day you will—drive.

For those of us out there that are looking to make this social world our world and consult others on it, lets remember the following; non of us are experts in Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare or the like, yet. We have to put the ‘time’ into it to become an expert. We may have social experience, but the transportation devices are infants and we need to respect that for our clients. We are all experimenting.  Further more lets stop overplaying the word and focus on the oldies which are still amazing goodies!

Technorati Tags: Advertising, Buzz Words, Content, Customers, Marketing, SEO, Social Media, Social Space, Website

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How perfect would it be if we could instead of looking at our past could look at our future and then learn to control our past?  If one could simply look ahead and not behind, if you could see what was coming, not what had already passed you by.  How then would life be?  Could you miss a car wreck, plan the perfect date, could you pick the winning lottery numbers.  Just think of all you could do.  Sadly though this is not how life is, yet in many moments of life, I wish it was.

It was a cool summer evening, my grandmother was busy in her room for hours talking to herself as she stood stoically in the mirror, changing her outfit at least 10 times and then reverting right back to the first set of clothes she started with.  Curlers in her hair and all kinds of weird fruity smells engulfing her body.  I was with Foxy just watching as my grandmother seemed more concerned with her lip paint then with the fact that her toes were separated in toilet paper, which we just did not understand.

My grandmother just kept saying to me over and over again, “Don’t fight with the babysitter, I need this night out.”  It was like she thought I didn’t hear her so she just kept repeating it and repeating it as she looked down at me with a look of pain and pleading.  Just a few days prior to this evening I had pulled off one of the most epic “Problem Child” moments.  You see at this point in my life I was not welcome at public schools and so I was forced to be home taught and babysat while my grandmother worked in the days.  I wasn’t a fan of this in any light and did all I could to share this opinion.

On Wednesday I had had enough of the teacher/babysitter and set a plan in motion to expel her from my home.  Through careful planning and exact timing I managed to get her to leave the house just for a moment, but before I did this I handsomely stole her keys to both her car and our home.  Once she was outside I simply locked all the doors, ensured the windows were locked, sat back and watched as she frantically searched for a new way into our home to no avail.  She was successfully expelled and I never saw her again.  Her among several other in house care givers lasted only for a few days and some even hours, as I managed to expel each of them one by one.

Yet this summer evening I felt something different, like a need to just let my grandmother have this evening out, that is until I saw why she was so methodically preparing for the evening.  Just moments after I had told myself I would comply with her wishes our door bell rang.  We had just moved into a new apartment, now no longer in my grandmothers fancy condo.  With all the outside battles grandmother was forced to quit her high roller job and take a job that was less intense and so we lived in a small 2 bedroom twin home with a small living room and an even smaller kitchen.  One bathroom and small hall that connected the house to the main door.  Getting around in the home took only but a second, yet once in your room you felt tucked away and secluded from the main entrance.

The door bell rang again, my grandmother still had all that toilet paper shoved in her toes and her hair was wrapped in a plastic tent.  She looked down at me, “His early!  Go to the door let him in and keep him in the living room.  I will be there is just a minute.”  I slowly got up, grabbed Foxy and headed to the door.  Before I opened the door I took a peek and saw the frame of a giant standing on the concrete porch.  He had to be at least 9 feet tall.  His arms were the size of my entire body and his legs were like trees with shoes on them.  His hands were ginormous and his head was the size of one of those pumpkins you saw on tv!  “Wow”, I thought to myself, who was this man and what did he want?

I carefully opened the door and then his voice came down from the clouds, “You must be Wesley,” he said with wind gusts nearly blowing me away.  “Is your grandmother here?”  I froze, just starring at his bulk wondering why my grandmother wanted this tree man in our home.  He wasn’t wearing anything special, no badges, not even a name tag.  Foxy didn’t seemed bothered by him, yet I just didn’t like him.  Something didn’t seem right and after what felt like hours I looked up past his inflated chest and replied, “No she left a few hours ago with some guy.”  With in seconds the man’s pumpkin head turned tomato red and his trees for legs, fell down off our porch.  His arms reaching for the sky and he turned, looked at me and then just walked away.

Done I thought, one less thing to worry about.  Just then my grandmother came out from her room, “Where’s Harvey?”  Harvey?  “He left,” I stated as I headed back to my room.  With in moments I heard the front door open and then slam.  Minutes passed and then what seemed like hours.  I climbed up on our couch, pried the curtains opened and watched as my grandmother spoke to the tree man and kept grabbing his hand.  Then he wrapped his couch sized arms around my grandmother, picked her up like she was a small teddy bear and they both started walking back to our front door.  Foxy and I quickly jumped down and headed for safety.

We darted to my room, past the kitchen and hiding back behind my grandmother’s flowery pasted bathroom wall.  I quickly closed my door and jumped into my bed. Thinking that if I just could get to sleep I would avoid any trouble and escape what was surly to become one of those long parent talks.  I failed miserably and standing above me was my grandmother and behind her that giant tree.  Foxy squeezed out of my room and headed for safety.  My grandmother pulled back my covers, looked me in the eyes and said, “Wesley this is Harvey.”

Thats it?  You tell me the tree man’s name and we’re done?  A small tear filled my grandmother’s eye.  She popped up, “I will be gone for the evening your sitter is here, I will see you in the morning.”  With that she turn to the door, flipped my light off and left.  I just laid there motionless wondering why I got off so easy.  I had obviously not only irritated my grandmother, but had shown this ‘Harvey‘ what a little brat I could be.  Moments after my grandmother left my babysitter came in, handed me my ‘candies’, a glass of water and then exited just as my grandmother had.  After this I laid on my bed and felt my eyes become heavy as they closed for the day.

It wouldn’t be until years later that I understood what the tear in my grandmother’s eye meant and why she cried that night.  In the short time I had been with her, I had exhausted her and that night I had helped her realize that she couldn’t help me on her own.

The above all sounds like a common little prank, yet it is an example of what I was doing and who I was becoming.  The ‘candies’ only seemed to help me forget, not manage my past.  The doctors and weekly meetings just gave me a place to play with legos and talk about my fits.  My anger, hate, fear and pain was no longer child like.  I was showing the world that I was in control, I would have the final word.  I would do what I wanted to do and nothing could or would stop me.  No one would have control over me and no one would have the power to hurt me ever again.  Yet I was as wrong and as powerless then as any other time in my young life.  My out of control behavior only made my life that much more out of control.

If I knew that night what the next 12 years of my life would be like I know I would have handle Harvey so much differently and shown my grandmother a new side to me.  As it stood Harvey would become a part of my life and would control more then I could have ever imagined.

Technorati Tags: Blog, My Story

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The other day I had the privilege to golf with a colleague who is fast becoming a great supporter and friend.  He and I adventured to a course that was full of gorgeous and majestic trees.  Some that reached nearly one hundred feet into the morning sky and others that spread their leaves as if to cover the horizon.

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.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, LIME, Motivation, Personal, Website

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For those that have been following my blog you have noticed that for the past 30+ days I have not been updating my website.  There is a reason for my absence; it is a two parter.

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.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Content, Personal

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Darren Rowse from ProBlogger.com had a great idea and challenge.  He is calling it the “7 Link Challenge”. The idea is to highlight a few of the blog posts a blogger has made and bring them ‘back from the dead’ if you would.  Giving new readers a way to quickly see the blogs history, potential and vision.

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!

Technorati Tags: Blog, Blogging, Marketing, Personal, Updates, Website

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I am an avid music lover.  So much so that my iTunes is filled with over 529 days ( or over 13,000 songs ) of playable music ranging from classical to rap.  Music to me is one of the truest ways to express yourself or a message you wish to convey.  Those with musical talents truly have an art of expression and that art is a powerful and effective way of transportation of information.  With this said, what if I told you that your brand needs to ‘sing’?

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.  

Technorati Tags: Advertising, Content, Customers, Design, LIME, Marketing, Print, Social Media, Social Space

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In our personal lives we all aim to get that special commitment, or special some to say ‘yes’ when we ask the big question.  Fear drives us not to ask and the thought of rejection often freezes us in our tracks.

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

Technorati Tags: Customers, LIME, Marketing, Social Media, Social Space

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