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Worthy of an Ode

Ode to Joe’s Fox Hut

There are those couple nights
when I’m in dire need for a medium
extra red pepperoni pizza
the option is always available
delivery or dine in
the smell of freshly made pizza crust
with Stanislaus tomato sauce smothered all over
pick your topping whatever you like
from pineapples to sardines 
wash it down with a sprecher root beer
i’m always ready with exact change in hand
ready to trade the pizza man;
his money for my delectable goodness

My brother wrote this about his and my and many others’ favorite pizza place in town, Joe’s Fox Hut.  ”Worthy of an ode” - the new mantra for serving, producing, and living. I dig it.

2008 11 20 Mike marketing Comments (0) Permalink

Other than fear

If you find yourself contemplating a LEAP of faith today, whether it be leaving the 9-5, taking your business in a new direction or simply moving somewhere to see what happens, ask yourself one question: “other than fear, what is keeping me from taking a leap today?” Chances are, the answer is nothing, and the rewards on the other end of a successful leap are great. Make it happen! (Project83)

John said something similar to me today, and I agree. Keep the faith, make the leap.

2008 11 17 Mike musing Comments (1) Permalink

Email Marketing: tell a story, include useful information and entertainment, finish with a relevant offer

Get Elastic shares a study confirming what successful email marketers already know: en email providing useful information and a related, well thought-out offer pulls better than a straight, mindless product pitch.

Entertain. Teach. Offer. Profit.

If you have trouble remembering, put this on your wall.

2008 11 14 Mike email marketing and copywriting Comments (0) Permalink

Goals Continued: How Daily Goals Elope with Performance Goals

Alfredo challenged my tactic for using daily goals as a source of motivation, and got me thinking about how these interact with your long-term, performance based goals.

First, a caveat: this is targeted at those of us working alone for extended periods of time on something hard.

Chugging on a long, difficult project without anyone else to lean on requires sturdy mental armor and quick emotional footwork. My daily goal setting process is designed to be a key player in keeping my emotional energy and motivation high, even if times are tough.

Ok, let’s break this bitch down…

The Difference Between Daily Goals and Performance Goals (and Why “Daily Goals” do not Equal “Steps”)

Daily Goals

…are small, bite-sized pieces of work you need to (and most likely can) finish today. “Finish and submit client proposal” is a daily goal; so is “Email 5 new leads for a follow-up phone call.”

They’re small and measureable on purpose. At the end of the day, I can (without thinking) determine if each goal was achieved.

Additionally, decide on each one deliberately. Part of their purpose is to ensure I’m not only working hard, but working hard on tasks that matter. As I’ll touch on later, part of my motivation is derived from this.

Why not just call them “steps”? Because I want to level up.

It’s all in the psychology, and how to best trick myself.

Completing a “step,” as Alfredo rightfully said, is not something you generally celebrate. A goal is something you celebrate.

I don’t disagree: I don’t cheer after climbing 1 stair of the Batu Caves, but I feel pretty damn good when I get to the top.

If I thought of these tasks as steps, completing them clearly wouldn’t be very motivating.

But I’m not looking for ways to not motivate myself. I’m looking for ways to keep my energy and motivation high as a kite as I work by myself to get this business off the ground.

So I call them “goals,” because it feels good to hit a goal, especially when that goal matters.

As someone who derives energy from seeing goals completed, this provides positive reinforcement to keep at It.

(Plus, when I complete these important chunks of work, it’s concrete proof I’m doing all I can to take this business to the next mythological level. This helps me review how effectively I’m spending my time–but that’s a different discussion.)

But daily goals aren’t the only, nor necessarily the most important source of motivation. Enter:

Performance Goals

These big cats relate to the results of your daily goals.

“Write this client a sales letter that converts at 7%” and “Hit $500,000 in revenue this month” are performance goals. They are also, hopefully, extremely audacious as well as directly translatable to your overall success metrics.

In the system I’ve constructed, completing my daily goals won’t make my business succeed. But hitting my performance goals means my business is exceeding.

And this brings up a crux you better understand if it’s going to be at all worthwhile: how to measure both kinds of goals, as well as what exactly it is they’re measuring…

Analyzing Accomplishment vs Analyzing Performance: Keeping Thy Head out of Thy Ass

When measuring the ultimate success of my effort, I look to my performance goals. My business is not growing if I’m not hitting these goals. If I don’t hit them, I’m not performing very well.

When measuring my output and how effectively I’m spending my time, I review the daily goals. If I’m not hitting my daily goals, I’m not sure where exactly my time is going (or I will be displeased with where my time is going). If I don’t hit these, I’m not accomplishing anything.

So they’re 2 different measurements for 2 different things. Hit the daily goal and you ran the mile; hit the performance goal and you ran it sufficiently fast. One leads in to the other.

How I Came to Use Daily Goals… a.k.a. Can Motivation Be Taught and Ingrained?

This whole system boils down to a key desire of mine: I don’t want to operate at 99% if I can operate at 100%. 

I want to take the thought out of as many process-based decisions as possible. I want to be as effective as possible. I also don’t want to get stuck in motivational ruts while facing inevitable adversity.

So, for now, we have two key ingredients that I want maxed the hell out: motivation and focus.

Maxing out is all about The Moment.

The completion of a sales letter is followed by 2 of the most crucial seconds of the day, where I ask, “What now?” It’s 2pm, I’m every so slightly thirsty (enough to justify standing up to refill), and I don’t have a task. What now?

I don’t want to have to think about that answer. If I think, I lose.

If I’m forced to think and happen to be in a moment of weakness, nomadlife is loading before I can stop my fingers from control+T’ing their way to a new tab.

So I decided to take the thought process out of the game and never again risk a moment of weakness.

Enter the daily goals. Hand crafted on a bright yellow post-it.

What now? Look to the post-it. That’s my guide, my savior, my treasure map. Cross out that item I just completed (with a silent “fuck yeah” adorned) and slide my gaze 2 centimeters lower to Next Item.

Instantly, I know the answer to “What now?” Crisis averted, focus maintained.

Secondly, as I said earlier, concentrated self-reflection revealed that I am personally motivated by the act of completion. I decided this is worth leveraging, so designed this system to play off that personality trait. One can never have too much motivation, especially when on a solo entrepreneurial journey.

Milk It for Good

This system may or may not work for you.

It was created based on my own self analyzation and what gets my engine revving full speed. It was also meant to help battle those 2-second Moments where I decide whether to stay focused or load a new tab and lose my mental momentum.

Your mileage may vary, but so far mine has been pretty hybrid good.

2008 11 13 Mike freelance
learning Comments (2) Permalink

Stay out of The Way

John has a thought for DJ’s: stay out of your own way.

We marketers should take the same advice and get out of our customers’ way as they experience our product.

Sure, we designed it with specific uses in mind. Sure, it was never meant to do that. Sure, we’re even telling them how to use it.

But at that point it’s out of our hands. The product has been sold, bought, and now interacted with. By then, there’s only one perspective that matters, and it ain’t yours.

How you react, engage, and build upon that perspective is up to you. And that, I think, is where good and great separate. It’s never been easier than in 2008.

2008 11 13 Mike marketing Comments (3) Permalink

A thought on goals

It’s easy to get lost in the glory of hammering our your latest project, and forget to set your 1 - 3 daily goals.

It might not seem that important if you didn’t set a goal for today. And that just made it easier to not set one or three tomorrow.

Sooner or later, though, you’re going to hit a rut.

That hot project might get delayed, or that “yes” might suddenly swing to a “no.” And that’s when the habit of small, concrete daily goal setting is important.

No matter what game it is you’re playing, it’s always a game of inches. And sometimes inches are all you have to rally around.

I went through today without even 1 goal, and now I don’t know if that unfinished sales letter is a problem, or if the fact that it’s almost done is actually a success. Tomorrow that won’t happen.

When you’re pushing it alone, give yourself MORE reasons to rally, not less. It’ll make it easier to fight another day.

2008 11 13 Mike freelance Comments (1) Permalink

Putting your message to the right ears

An email list, when properly built and cultivated, will be your company’s largest asset.

Of course, that makes you wonder, “How often do I contact my list?”

While it is impossible to find the right answer, you CAN find the “most right” answer for each different promotion. Yaro explains how he segmented his list to focus only on those showing interest in his promotion that week:

With some segmentation of my email broadcasts I was able to do the following -

  • Send the offer multiple times without annoying people who didn’t want to know about it
  • Test two different angles to improve response
  • Promote the affiliate product only to those who clearly were interested

Here’s how I did this -

  1. My first message was sent to my entire newsletter, except a few unrelated lists
  2. A second message was sent with a completely different headline and email copy (a different angle/split test) only to those who never openedthe first message
  3. A third message promoting the product when it went on sale was sent only to those who clicked the link in the first and second emails

The full post is definitely worth a read. If you’re serious about growing your direct sales and your email service/software doesn’t allow segmenting like this, you’re probably leaving money on the table AND hurting your list relationship at the same time.

2008 11 05 Mike email marketing and copywriting Comments (0) Permalink

What to do when

When I was in high school, I used (what I thought was) a special study technique the day of crucial tests, especially where memorization was key.

I’d (usually) study hard a night or two before, but when success was supremely crucial, I always blocked out extra time the morning before the test for 1 more run through. For me, this was stunningly successful, and worth the blurry eyes and anvil-feeling head. Should’ve used it more in college.

It took me a while to realize the obvious: mornings are my most creative and otherwise mentally powerful part of the day.

Each person has, and should probably determine, their own rhythm through the day. Playing to your individual rhythm is a key path to your most efficient and successful output.

During my initial copywriting days at MindValley, I found myself dragging on my 1st major assignment and couldn’t figure out why. The reason, I eventually discovered, was the early hours I “wasted” on studying.

I was so intent on success I took a literal interpretation of the “study - apply” philosophy. 

Bad move.

I was INputting during my best OUTputting hours. 

Instead of studying for 1+ hours in the morning and writing in the afternoon, I switched it around. I’d study at night and write down crucial notes to review the next morning. Doing it this way, I still began the day with ideas, but did so in 15 minutes versus 60 - 75.

And I had my best hours to do my most bottom-line critical work. I made sure meetings were after lunch, when my creative output starts to drop.

As a result, I set a new revenue record for my project that month.

Have you thought about your optimal schedule? How can you most quickly fire up your mental magic? What needs to be done the night before to get started quickly the next day?

Just like knowing who to learn from when, I think knowing what to do when is one of the separations between those that succeed and those that struggle.

2008 11 05 Mike learning Comments (0) Permalink

Calculated Blindness

As for what this all means, I’m still trying to figure that out. I abandoned seven long-held principles about business and software engineering, and nothing terrible happened. Have I been too cautious in the past? Perhaps I was willing to be a little reckless because this was just a side project for me and not my main business. The experience is certainly a useful reminder that it’s OK to throw caution to the wind when you’re building something completely new and have no idea where it’s going to take you. (Joel on Inc.)

When you’re venturing into an unknown land, be it a new project, new job, career change, or any sort of risk, it’s really easy to get dragged down by reasons not to do it. And we humans have a tendency to take the easiest path.

But if all we always listened to the reasons not to do something, we’d never do anything. I could think of thousands of reasons not to drive 24 hours to Salt Lake City for my 1st AIESEC conference, take that internship in Egypt, or move to Malaysia after graduating with supreme loads of debt. 

But I have no idea where I’d be had I not taken those 3 risks (and there are more). Sometimes, I think it’s better to chase your dreams with a calculated blindness.

2008 11 03 Mike musing Comments (0) Permalink

Overpowering Brand

Kevin Rose: Proof that dirty details wash away when your story resonates.

I can’t believe I’ve never heard a backlash about NDA’s (1) or misleading marketing tactics (2) in the launch of DIgg:

(1) Managing his image is another story. Minutes after I arrive in San Francisco, a nondisclosure agreement drops in my e-mail inbox with a number of surprising demands. I, the business journalist, am not allowed to include any financial information about the company or to reveal any details about the personal life of the company’s founder. When I refuse to sign — what kind of profile includes no personal details? — Digg’s publicist, Lacey Haines, apologizes. “We’ve never allowed someone in the offices for so long,” she says, even though I’m scheduled to be on the premises for just a day and a half. “Everyone is really scared.”

(2) In addition to his promotional efforts on TV, Rose started talking up his venture on his blog, which had nearly 10,000 registered users. In January 2005, he described Digg as “a friend’s site and one of my favorite technology news websites.”

If you find a story that resonates with the soul of your targets and cultivate it as long as he has, your raving fans will probably forgive the details.

2008 10 30 Mike marketing Comments (0) Permalink