Reading Time: < 1 minHonesty and helpfulness are two virtues that are key to any great relationship, so it’s easy to spot long-term trouble if either of those are weak early on. I personally look for this when evaluating new tools or technology for our company; if it’s difficult to talk to educated sales folks when I’m actively wanting […]
Business
Offer pain when it’s necessary
Reading Time: < 1 minIt’s often true that pain can make you a better person. Even with your body, broken bones end up stronger than they were before the break (at least for a while). However, sometimes intentional pain can be a good thing. In his book “Secret Tradecraft of Elite Advisors“, David C. Baker explains how professionals can […]
Your prospects aren’t thinking about you
Reading Time: < 1 minIt’s fun to think that our ideal clients are out there thinking about us and wanting to work with us, but it almost certainly isn’t true. In her book “The Revenue Engine“, Kara Smith Brown put it simply: I tell all my clients, “Unless you work for Apple, none of your prospects wake up thinking […]
A logo is a reminder of your brand
Reading Time: < 1 minBuilding a solid brand is essential for any business, but a “brand” and a “logo” are very different things. A few years ago I shared that a brand is simply your reputation, and your logo is just a way for people to remember your brand. In his book “This is Marketing“, Seth Godin takes it […]
Customers are mostly done with their research before they even reach out to you
Reading Time: < 1 minIt’s fun to build a website and think about all of the people that will come to your site to do their research about your product. It certainly happens, but it’s far less often than you might think. In Kara Smith Brown’s book “The Revenue Engine” she shares this bit of data about B2B buyers: […]
Evidence versus intuition
Reading Time: < 1 minOver the past two weeks I’ve heard two opposing takes on trusting your intuition, and it’s been interesting trying to match them up. First, I was listening to an episode of the Founders podcast about Oprah Winfrey, which covered her rise to fame. When she was first looking to start her talk show, people told […]
Businesses don’t need to be moral to succeed
Reading Time: < 1 minThere are a lot of ways to run a business and make good money in a way that is fair to everyone. There are also ways to run a business that are manipulative and exploitative, and those can make good money as well. A great example would be those companies that are using AI to […]
There’s no copying, there’s just execution
Reading Time: 2 minIt’s easy to think that your ideas are to be tightly controlled so that no one “steals” them, but that’s almost never the case. I shared a few years ago that almost every NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) that I’ve signed has been unnecessary. I’m happy to sign them to appease the other party, but they’re not […]
Branded searches are taking over Google
Reading Time: < 1 minAs time has gone on, and our search engine patterns have changed, a big new trend is beginning to emerge: people are using Google for branded searches more than ever before. Put another way, people are searching for “Nike” instead of “best running shoes”, or “GreenMellen” instead of “web design companies in Atlanta”. People are […]
How your brand can grow
Reading Time: < 1 minMost companies are looking for ways to grow their brand, and options for doing so are nearly limitless. However, some strategies will work much better and have longer-lasting results than others. In his book “This is Marketing“, Seth Godin lays out his overall philosophy on this: The truth is that most brands that matter, and […]