I recently had a conversation with a middle level bureaucrat from the Canadian government. This agency provides consulting to small and medium sized businesses that they lend money to. They have an extremely high opinion of themslves (which comes from being told you are great by people you are giving money to). What this guy told me blew me away.
“We really don’t have any programs to help people think differently.” he told me. “The problem you have is that you haven’t worked with small businesses and don’t understand them.”
I guess having a small business for over 14 years doesn’t qualify me to be an expert who has spent his entire career as a civil servant, collecting a nice paycheck.
This man’s attitude was like being stuck on an escalator. His obstacles were his own thinking and he had the attitude that we should ‘wait’ for the government to help.
As the government starts to take over businesses and gets more involved in telling us what we need, this may be a good story to think about.
Anybody can put up a website. It really doesn’t take much skill.
However, to put up an effective, profit-making website, it requires a team. I have discovered this as I put together www.marketplace-solutions.com and have found new clients for SEO.
A website is like a store. It’s not strictly about location, but it is important to be on an good server. Trying to save a few cents with cheap hosting is a waste of money.
The owner of the store provides the merchandise. The store is filled with whatever the owner wants to sell — be it service, shoes or SEO. There is an old adage that nothing kills a bad product as fast as good advertising. The owner has to provide a good quality product at a competitive price.
The job of SEO is to get people to the store. That’s what traffic is all about. Really doesn’t matter where the traffic is coming from or what they are doing when they arrive for the Search Engine Optimization master. SEO is about keywords, links and ranking reports.
The job of the designer is to make the store attractive. That initial reaction when a prospect sees the website is critical. Is is nice looking? Do I want to buy from these people?
Now is something I have never really thought of — the marketing person. I live & breathe marketing. I am in expert in direct marketing. However, I have found someone to help interview clients and give me an analysis of what needs to go on the website to get the people to actually buy! Again, think of the store.
You’ve brought them in (SEO), you have a nice store front (design), but if the merchandise isn’t laid out correctly, you lose the all important sale. What is the client expecting to find? How does he/she react? That’s the subject of the book, “Web Design for ROI.” I have found someone who can do that job for me — a unique idea in the terms of putting up a website. Webmasters and not marketing gurus.
But you can have a beautiful store, lots of traffic, well displayed merchandise, but if the foundation is weak, it’s worthless. That’s the function of the coding people. It’s about establishing a strong foundation with Cascading Style Sheets, HTML validation and Content Management Systems. The end user doesn’t see it. But the end user doesn’t see the plumbing in a store, either. Yet if it isn’t working, everyone knows it.
I have put together a team that takes my extensive knowledge of direct marketing and translates it to the web. I have a designer (Sharon), an SEO expert (Daniel), a marketing strategist (Mark) and a website/CSS expert (Scott.) I also have other talent I can call on for other tasks, especially polishing the writing.
My team is a virtual team — this cuts overhead and increases efficiency. MarketPlace-Solutions offers a holistic approach to websites to help clients thrive in this tough economy.
I just submitted a paper with 4 other students at IDC Herzliya regarding the affects that Search Engine Optimization for our Integrated Marketing Course. I hope you enjoy it!
Introduction
In the past decade the world has experienced growth incomprehensible to previous generations. At the heart of this rapid expansion is the phenomenon of the internet. Since its introduction, the internet has increasingly changed the way business is done. In the past when one needed to find a service or product they would first turn to the phone book; however, in today’s world these people are now first turning to the Search Engines.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of constructing one’s website in order to improve the volume or quality of traffic to one’s website from the search engines through organic or free listings. The Search Engines provide users with a results page for the keyword one has searched. An “SEO Friendly” site will rank higher on the results page when a relevant keyword is searched for.
Although these books are all different on the surface, I realize that all of them are about corporate culture. It’s a term Mike uses a lot.
The only way GM can survive, according to the book, is by changing their corporate culture — making more innovative and less bureaucratic. The author details some of the changes that have been going on for several years. It’s the vision and leadership of a few people that can determine the fate of hundreds of thousands.
Same thing with “Gamble.” It’s about the complete change that Gen. David Petraeus had to implement to keep Iraq from descending into hell. His plan was not well-received and he had many, many political obstacles to overcome. But he had a vision and a team and they changed the dynamic.
“What Would Google Do?” gives ideas on how to think outside the box — and how Google’s mindset has changed almost everything in society. I am currently trying to build membership for my synagogue. My idea? Lower membership dues and increase the base!
These are ideas and thinking processes that Michael covers in “Flexible Thinker.”
As a small business owner, I have no concept of office politics and trying to influence a huge bureaucracy. However, I constantly have to stay sharp and re-invent myself. I am redoing my website. There is no such thing as resting on your laurels in small business and failure is an option. My business has been steady this year and I am paying my bills. Not an insignificant accomplishment. Reading books is one way to “sharpen the saw” and I recommend it to other entrepreneurs.
I’ve been delaying writing until I finished putting up my n new website, www.marketplace-solutions.com. Alas, it’s taking longer than I expected.
I am trying to leverage my skills in marketing, mailing & printing to expand my business without an increase in overhead. Instead of separate business, they all fall under the marketplace-solutions.com umbrella.
I am also trying to expand to other cities by simply renting a po box and a “fake” phone number.
Business has been steady this year because of my presence on the web. However, the web is a very local media — something that most people do onot recgonize. I appear high in “Direct mail NC”, but not on the first page for “direct mail.”
For the first time, I am puting up a website that has been designed from scratch. My previous websites evolved. I am also trying to put it into a Content Management System, which will make editing and adding pages easier.
So much to write….and too lazy to do it. Not a good combination.
I attended the District 37 Toastmaster Spring convention last weekend. As always, I had a great time. I enjoy seeing old friends, making new ones and listening to the excellent speeches.
I attended two workshops on goal setting, one by personal coach Laura Poole. She is a very dynamic speaker and has great content.
As I was listening to her, I realized that setting goals and achieving does not always equate to happiness. I know goals and happiness are related, but had never given the connection much thought.
My son is taking a course by Tal Ben-Shahar, the author of “Happiness” Daniel says that I am at a very high level of happiness because I really don’t care what other people think about me. I appreciate other people’s resspect and strive to do the “right thing,” but I am not obsessed with how other people perceive my actions.
I am happy. I have two wonderful kids, a business that pays the bills, a wonderful wife, and my health. I am thankful for all it and count my blessings every day. Do I have goals? Yes, lose some weight and make more money. I consider myself self-driven, but not ambitious. I don’t want — or need — a bigger house or a fancier car. I have the respect of people that I respect. I do business with people that I want to do business with. What’s not to be happy about?
Maybe being happy is a function of getting older. The ambitions I had earlier area have either been realized or abandoned. Maybe that is the definition of maturity.
I am following the news in the Raleigh News & Observer about former Governor Mike Easley’s saga of political influence.
Much of it centers around his relationship with McQueen Campbell. McQueen is a great guy. He is very unassuming and has a thick NC drawl.
McQueen joined both of the Toastmaters Club I was associated with — High Noon and Talkmasters. He was eager to get his Competent Communicator award and thought that by joining two clubs, he could do it faster.
I was suprised to find out after a few meetings that he was chairman of the NCSU and Easley’s pilot. When McQueen started Toastmasters, he was a bit awkward and nervous. However, he soon improved and let his sense of humor shine through. He enjoyed talking about flying and gave a very funny speech about what to do when the pilot has a heart attack. His main advice, “Your first job is to land the plane!” It was a humorous speech with a serious message.
I always wondered why politicians spend so much time and money to get elected to offices that don’t pay all that well. Mary Easley’s $180,000/year position at NC State sure seems like a plum position.
I don’t believe that McQueen did anything wrong. I feel sorry for him the way he is being raked over the coals by the media and being forced to resign from his position. I can only imagine the stress and lawyer bills he is accumulating as he fights the charges.
Although I usually side with the MSM on issues, it’s clear that they have used innuendo to indict to McQueen. However, I also think it’s time that politicians actually keep their promises and worry about their constituents and not their private pocketbooks.
I am Toastmaster this week for Raleigh Talkmasters. It is my job to come up with a theme for the meeting.
Toastmasters is all about effective communication and leadership. However, there are times when mistakes are made.
My most famous incident occured when I was in the Israeli army and made the mistake of mixing up the Hebrew name “Meir” with the English command “fire!” and sent a 120-mm shell off to who knows where. The actual word in Hebrew is “Aish.” Long story, but the head of artillery was there and I was given a court martial.
Although I can laugh at this incident today, 54 people were killed that night in maneuvers. It was 32 years ago yesterday. I had nothing to do with it.
The one lesson I learned in the Israeli Defense Force was there are so many ways to die that you could never imagine. That is why my favorite Psalm is “This is the day the Lord has made, come and rejoice in it.” Nobody is promised tomorrow.
I am encouraging my fellow Toastmasters to write down there embarrassing failures to communicate. Often failure can be more of learning experience than being successful.
It’s always fun to be called in to do the writing for a project. This may be a corporate presentation (a favorite was for the Paris Air Show) or the launch of a web site (one company invented software akin to artificial intelligence). In the arts and in the sciences, there have been formal case statements, created to make the case for million-dollar donations. And my share of ads. Fund-raising for national parks. Once, a video to convince a national oversight agency of something I am not at liberty to write about here. Sometimes, a company provides background info (one client had FedEx deliver a box of documents a foot tall). Other times, I’m asked to do all the legwork.
Beautiful! The grand appeal of this career is its wild variety. Audiences are always different. One does not speak to millionaires in the same way one approaches the Pentagon. You’ve known this all along.
There are roughly a million (or two) words in the English language, so in theory, every one writing has the same supply. Yet it is amazing how some strings of words are so threadbare they fade from the mind like a hackneyed film. Or, worse, the words sound weighty, but the message is content-free. Other word-gatherings, though, engender fresh ideas that are highly influential. They effortlessly command the spotlight. Your gut knows the difference, if not how to get there yourself.
At times, your need will be for a solid, fast, precise word mechanic—someone to simply keep you out of grammar jail. For other projects, though, you’ll want someone who can tromp around in your audience’s head. For those projects, I like to ask, “If this were a movie, what do you want your audience to do when the lights come up?” The answer is where I begin.
There is a large adjustment for a child from riding a bicycle with training wheels to being able to handle a full ‘2 wheeler’ without the support that the additional wheels provide. Many parents spend literally hours and hours of backbreaking labor holding their kids steady, running with the bike and then slowly letting go.
The reason that I am writing this post is that my youngest daughter, Hannah who is 7 years old, has just learned to master a 2 wheeler in about a day. The approach that was taken has significant impact for adult learning and applying what we have learned to help shift an organizational culture.
My secret? It is the art of nothing. I literally did just about nothing. What I did (and I also did for my older daughter Rebecca to help her learn to ride a 2 wheeler) was to take off the pedals of a small bike (one that she could comfortably stand with) and told them to just run up and down with the bike and try to coast with their feet up. There is no micromanagement -trying to hold her up while she pedals and only let go in little spurts. There is simply the act of playing and getting comfortable at her own pace in learning to balance on the 2 wheeler. The result? Within 1 day she could ride a 2 wheeler.
What does this story do with organizational development, culture and learning? Everything. The idea of accelerated learning is to give the participant space to learn. Let them play around with it and have fun and they will learn it much faster and at a deeper level. It is the same with organizational development. Micromanaging and trying to ‘control’ the learning takes longer and is much more expensive. The ‘traditional’ way of teaching a child to ride a bike takes weeks and causes incredible back pains. Letting them do it on their own, at their own pace and have fun with it takes much less time. When you apply learning to help create an organizational culture shift the same principle applies. Micromanagement takes much longer and is more often a pain in the backside than it is to simply let people apply what they have learned.
