For solo professionals, entrepreneurs, and small biz owners everywhere - this one’s for you: 

Ahhhhhh….2006’s come and gone - time to put your game face on 

Looking back, you’ll likely see a manic-type of history

Little leaps and giant FLOPS, spurts of “Go!” and wicked “Stops!”

Bank accounts that flow and ebb, big advancements on the Web

So many ways to live your dreams, but nothing’s easy as it seems

Alas, you face another year, determined to flourish! Banish your fear!

Ready to do whatever it takes - mash insights with action, see what it makes

And while you’ll surely flop ‘n leap, reach some goals and lose some sleep

Seize opportunities far and wide, yet still cringe when others slide

May you always have some room to wiggle - and never, EVER forget to giggle!

Happy New Year, friends!

And if you doubt laughter’s clout, bite your tongue and check this out…

P.S. Want a little help getting 2007 off on the right foot! Well, hop on over to http://www.gonutsin2007.com/. Why? Because you’ll get to download a dynamite (and FREE!) special report we co-created with Acorn Creative. It’s an 18-page primer revealing a secret sauce that’ll help your profits soar in 2007…PLUS show you how to maximize your 7 major marketing opportunities while building deeper relationships with your clients (and get a bunch of new clients, too)! Don’t miss out!

Posted in Entrepreneur Diaries, Mood Boosters | 1 Comment »

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 31st, 2006 at 9:54 am and is filed under Entrepreneur Diaries, Mood Boosters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

I remember the Y2K days, when everyone freaked out about what would happen to their data when the year went from “99″ to “00.”

And then almost nothing happened. And people have been relaxing ever since.

But not me.

As the tech support guy in the business, backing up the computers is my responsibility. And as the business grows, so do the stacks of CD-Rs (and now, DVD-Rs) it takes to back up out hard drives. I think I’m up to a half-dozen on each of our three computers now. Good grief, what a pain! But it has to be done.

Or does it?

Lani called me from the road today after hearing a story on NPR about Carbonite. Boston Globe technology reporter Hiawatha Bray thinks Carbonite could be the next big thing in the 2007 tech world.

Carbonite does online backups. Simply install a bit of software on your computer, and Carbonite uses your always-on broadband connection to copy and store all your hard drive files in their data warehouse. No more CD-Rs or DVD-Rs? Sounds like a dream to me!

But I’m also the comparatively privacy-minded person in the business. So the idea of sending everything in my “My Documents” folder across the Internet reminds me of those email viruses you’d hear about - you know, the ones that took all your data and sent it to some random place in the Phillipines.

So I’m going to send the Carbonite folks a question or two, and if all goes well, I’ll be trying out their service early in 2007. I’ll let you know how it goes!

For FREE articles, tips, and strategies designed to catapult your content and electrify your business, sign up for our ezine, “The Inciter,” at EpiphaniesInc.com!

Posted in Entrepreneur Diaries, Married - With Business | 1 Comment »

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 28th, 2006 at 9:03 pm and is filed under Entrepreneur Diaries, Married - With Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Over there in the branding and design powerhouse that is Acorn Creative, Mr. Kevin Skarritt is sharing spectacular tips and advice on naming things: Products, your business, your next swing-out venture, marketing campaigns…the works. He’s on tip #10 right now, and he notes a fine brainstorming tenet I’ve never heard of before. (Rare, indeed.) Behold:

The “phoenix effect” … where your great ideas rise from the ashes of the previous days heated brainstorming session. The point is that time (especially restful sleep) can give you a completely different perspective on any creative process. Including name generation.  Consider all of those hundreds of ideas as seeds. Overnight, the healthy ones will grow and evolve. They’ll be different. Before, they were just a pile of seeds. Now you can tell which ones are viable. NAP TIME!!

Yes, yes, and YES. (And not just because it’s another excuse to nap, either.)

For FREE articles, tips, and strategies designed to catapult your content and electrify your business, sign up for our ezine, “The Inciter,” at EpiphaniesInc.com!

Posted in Brainstorm Blitz | No Comments »

This entry was posted on Friday, December 22nd, 2006 at 11:07 am and is filed under Brainstorm Blitz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

…A “very special and wise” mystery man, and presumably a friend of Lisa Wilder’s, since she ended her “How to Cope When Life Spins Out of Control” article with his profound quip:

“Keep your chin up and your t*ts off the floor!”

Amen to that!

For FREE articles, tips, and strategies designed to catapult your content and electrify your business, sign up for our ezine, “The Inciter,” at EpiphaniesInc.com!

Posted in Call in the Coach, Mood Boosters | 1 Comment »

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 20th, 2006 at 5:00 pm and is filed under Call in the Coach, Mood Boosters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One of the biggest challenges of being “Content Experts” (as Allen and I are) is explaining to people who aren’t so hip to the marketing jive how we can charge hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars to assess (and occasionally write) what appears to be a tiny smidge of copy.

Whether it’s a two-word tagline, a 10-word Google ad, a 50-word postcard, a 125-word radio spot, a 300 word webpage, or a 1000-word article, the temptation for many business owners - especially biz owners with modest marketing budgets - is to outsource the design and production and just zip off the copy themselves.

Please don’t.

Not only does it totally undermine the goal of your spending and mission, but you also risk being made fun of by guys like Seth Godin. Seth outed Sony as being pennywise and pound foolish with a recent post: “Two Best Times to Invest in Good Copy.”

Please, don’t let what happened to Sony there happen to you!

For FREE articles, tips, and strategies designed to catapult your content and electrify your business, sign up for our ezine, “The Inciter,” at EpiphaniesInc.com!

Posted in All About Content | No Comments »

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 20th, 2006 at 3:47 pm and is filed under All About Content. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Earlier this month I flew the roost sans Lani to meet up with 40 of NH’s finest small business owners…and fellow members of the stellar microenterprise advocate, MicroCredit-NH. With dozens of mastermind-type groups all over this great state, MicroCredit-NH represents 80% of all businesses in NH: That is to say, businesses with five employees or fewer.

Here, we have featured speaker Betsy Black. She led the group through two networking exercises, and judging by the volume level in the room, everyone put her advice into action…with gusto! (The exercise? Ask a short set of introductory questions, then a follow-up question based on each response, then play six-degrees-of-separation games as you figure out each other’s mutual friends and business contacts.)

After the guided exercises, we were turned loose to keep workin’ it with as many other biz owners in the room as we could. It worked out so well, we actually closed the Meredith Community Center down! (That’s how life goes. Ten years ago, I closed down a bar or two. Now, I close down community centers.)

Of course, I’m more than a little proud of our own MicroCredit-NH group, “Lakes Region Business Works.” (Left to right is me, Mike Lemire, Darcie Shedd, Lucie Villeneuve, Regional Manager Extraordinaire Claudia Needham, Heather Phelps, Stephanie Demme, and Glenn Madon.) We hosted the event for the other groups in the area, and the feedback has been so positive, other groups want to host their own networking events in 2007.

As entrepreneurs, we (meaning you and me) often say things like we’re “striking out on our own” into the small biz realm, as though we’re exchanging corporate “civilization” for a comparative wilderness.

Truth is, we don’t have to go it alone. And in fact, it’s probably a bad idea. Stir crazy happens. We can lose perspective when we’re holed up in our home offices for days, weeks, months at a time.

Mind a bit of advice? Meet up with some fellow travelers on the small biz path, and walk a while with them. It’ll boost your spirits AND your survival skills. (And you may even score a few yummy snacks, too!)

For FREE articles, tips, and strategies designed to catapult your content and electrify your business, sign up for our ezine, “The Inciter,” at EpiphaniesInc.com!

Posted in Masterminding | No Comments »

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 19th, 2006 at 12:08 am and is filed under Masterminding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Jiggidy-jig and away we go! Look at how Office Max gets savvy & hip with FUN, ENTERTAINING content - riding the holiday spirit wave…

If you watch the clip, you may notice that the pic of me to the left (which was taken at my home a week ago, I reluctantly admit) is the same one that’s on the dancing elf. Easy personalization, fun, quick, and perfectly branded, through and through. Bravo, Office Max! Thanks for knowing it’s good for your business to fund stuff that makes us happy.

(If for some reason that link doesn’t work, or it’s got an expiration date, try your own at www.ElfYourself.com.)

Elfing yourself, it turns out, is a dynamite way to “A-Ha Yourself!”

Man - if artists, creatives, and programmers can develop and launch customizable animation like this in 2006, imagine what 2007 will bring…

For FREE articles, tips, and strategies designed to catapult your content and electrify your business, sign up for our ezine, “The Inciter,” at EpiphaniesInc.com!

Posted in All About Content, Brand Funk, Fun With Marketing, How do you "A-Ha Yourself"?, Mood Boosters, Tools to "A-Ha Yourself!" | No Comments »

This entry was posted on Monday, December 18th, 2006 at 11:31 pm and is filed under All About Content, Brand Funk, Fun With Marketing, How do you "A-Ha Yourself"?, Mood Boosters, Tools to "A-Ha Yourself!". You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

According to Suzanne Falter-Barns in a 12/14/06 interview with Blog Evangelist Andy Wibbels, this factoid comes by way of the Columbia School of Journalism {*pant*pant*pant*}…

A whopping 79% of all professional journalists spend a good 2-3 hours a day surfing blogs, looking for industry experts and niche leaders willing to sound off on their fave subjects publicly. Which, by the way, they’re already doing on their blog.

So if you still think blogging is a fruitless exercise in navel-gazing, think again. Be there when those tech-savvy bloodhounds come a-lookin’ for their stats and quotables, and you get the press you’ve been willing to pay for, if only you had the time, money, or resources to manufacture your publicity.  

For FREE articles, tips, and strategies designed to catapult your content and electrify your business, sign up for our ezine, “The Inciter,” at EpiphaniesInc.com!

Posted in Blog Bits | No Comments »

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 16th, 2006 at 1:28 am and is filed under Blog Bits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

I’ve been blog hopping today.

From Seth Godin’s post on Brand as mythology to Lisa Wilder’s posts (first, one on www.Coachamatic.com re: “How to Shift Out of Fear” (Parts 1 & 2), then, on her www.TheWilderZone.com blog, “Contemplating the Coming Year“), then finally all around Acorn Creative’s “Nuts & Bolts” Blog, a la Kevin Skarritt…

Seth’s post talks about how effective storytelling - with the requisite HEROIC OUTCOMES implied or outright stated - can be weaved into a company’s culture and marketing to create powerful brands that resonate deeply with their core audiences.

Lisa reminds us how easy it is for us to become excellent storytellers of our own imminent DOOM…and urges us to consider becoming just as good (or, preferably, better!) at our imminent SUCCESS. As she says:

“If we’re going to spin stories, and we all do, we may as well spin positive stories that will empower and uplift us and keep us moving forward proactively.”

And Kevin…well, he advocates the practice of IDEA MASHING. Which brings me to my suggestion for you and your ventures, business, and vision:

Instead of (or in addition to) the standard goal sheet or vision statement for 2007, why not spin a beautiful, bountiful, big-vision story of your IDEAL OUTCOME, your BEST CASE SCENARIO, your ULTIMATE SUCCESS STORY?!!!!

Have some fun with it. Weave in details.

• Who will you meet?
• Who will you partner with?
• Will you become a media darling?
• Will you rise to some glorious occasion and inspire charitable donations around the world?
• Are you featured on the cover of Inc. or Entrepreneur magazine?
• Do you have a major business breakthrough that transforms your future?
• Do you FINALLY hit your stride, and become the industry powerhouse you always knew you could be?

The reason everyone who’s anyone recommends storytelling as a biz success tool is because it CONNECTS with the core of your being. It’s memorable. It drives EMOTION. And if done right, it’s downright MAGICAL. 

If you write a version of your own HEROIC adventure for 2007, it may be just the script that helps you play out the details so they become your reality.

So…What’s YOUR HEROIC MYTH for 2007?

Write it. Read it. Learn it. Live it!

For FREE articles, tips, and strategies designed to catapult your content and electrify your business, sign up for our ezine, “The Inciter,” at EpiphaniesInc.com!

Posted in Call in the Coach, Storytelling, Tools to "A-Ha Yourself!" | 1 Comment »

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 13th, 2006 at 3:05 pm and is filed under Call in the Coach, Storytelling, Tools to "A-Ha Yourself!". You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

There’s newsworthy stuff, like peace rallies. But alas, the average announcement of a peace rally can earn more eye rolls than enthusiasts.

THEN there are peace rallies piggybacking on REAL newsworthy items, like a call for a worldwide orgasm party!(Talk about multiple orgasms!)

I found this article on a great little forward-thinking site called www.LASpirit.com, which advocates holistic living in fresh and thought-provoking ways. Enjoy - and by all means, take part in this important global mission!

Two San Francisco peace activists have planned a massive peace demonstration for the Winter Solstice (the first day of winter, Friday, December 22, 2006), by urging everyone not to march in the streets, but stay home and have an orgasm while focusing on world peace. Donna Sheehan, 76, and Paul Reffell, 55, point out that the orgasm provides an incredible feeling of peace during and after. “Your mind is like a blank, like a meditative state,” says Reffell.

Their goal, they say, is to effect change in the energy field of the earth by way of a huge surge of human energy. The couple has cooked up other captivating media stunts. Sheehan, no relation to anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, organized 50 women in 2002, who stripped naked and spelled out the word “Peace,” spawning a min-movement called Baring Witness.

Sheehan and Reffell have studied evolutionary psychology and see war as mainly an outgrowth of men trying to impress potential mates. It’s a case of “my missile is bigger than your missile,” states Reffell. More details are available at www.globalorgasm.org.

Source: NHNE News

2006-12-07

Now THAT’S how to “A-Ha Yourself!” in a bold, fun, newsworthy way!!!

For FREE articles, tips, and strategies designed to catapult your content and electrify your business, sign up for our ezine, “The Inciter,” at EpiphaniesInc.com!

Posted in Fun With Marketing, How do you "A-Ha Yourself"?, Mood Boosters | 1 Comment »

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 12th, 2006 at 5:23 pm and is filed under Fun With Marketing, How do you "A-Ha Yourself"?, Mood Boosters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.