It’s so darn cliche to like Seth Godin, but darnit, I do. Mostly because he often delivers soundbites that keep me alive, make me feel like all the hard work is worth it, and suggest I’m NOT crazy — that there’s more to success than a penchant for checklists, calendar systems, and organizational tools. All of which give me cranial ulcers.

For example, yesterday, on a plane ride, he found himself thinking about pilots. Methodical, procedural, focused, consistent, timely and always-better-in-the-background pilots. And though all who aspire to fly from one part of the world to another certainly appreciate pilots, those “pilots” in industry, business, and everyday life are as essential as a doily. (I’m paraphrasing.)

Behold, the simple soundbite that rocks my world, and makes me want to bust through the barriers of building a small biz and see it all play out:

We don’t need pilots. We need instigators and navigators, rabble rousers and innovators. People who can’t follow a checklist to save their life, but invent the future every day.

Brothah-man, Seth - thanks for saying that.

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 8th, 2006 at 6:05 pm and is filed under Dances With Gurus, 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.

Here in Central New Hampshire, it’s a snow day.

For all you non-snow-enabled folks, that means the whopping two inches of powder we got last night caused our son’s pre-school to stay closed for the day. My wife/biz partner switched into Mommy mode, and whisked our son off to the Children’s Museum.

If only it were that simple. She and I spent most of her 50-mile drive on the phone together, excitedly discussing:

• Ways to explain the “A-Ha Yourself!” concept to our ideal audience
• Content planning and strategy, and how to describe it in terms of benefits and not features
• Being “technicians” who implement strategies, versus being business owners who create the strategies that others can implement easily and profitably

And that’s just a snapshot of topics, nearly an hour and three separate calls later. (Cell service in NH? Not always the best, no matter the carrier.)

Mixing business with life. We just can’t help it. How do you mix business and life?

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 8th, 2006 at 1:41 pm and is filed under 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.

Some Internet visionaries are simply magnificent.

Take Nick Grouf and David Waxman, for instance. These guys have been fixated on using the Internet as a tool to serve the masses and give entrepreneurial underdogs a chance to be the best they can be.

First, these guys founded Firefly, which was all about online collaboration and ultimately sold to Microsoft. (So it must’ve been good. Or a threat to Microsoft’s empire. Whichever.)

Then they went on to launch PeoplePC, which Earthlink gobbled up as soon as it had the chance.

This year, the duo has invented a way for businesses with itty bitty budgets to advertise on TV. Real live TV. Not your hidden local cable access channel, but national cable channels, like ESPN and MTV.

It’s called Spot Runner.

Choose from thousands of pro-produced 30-second commercials and customize your fave with your own biz messaging for as little as 500 bucks. Then spend a few hundred to a few thousand to run your ad, depending on your needs and goals. They even boast you can set up a targeted campaign in as little as 15 minutes. Sounds absolutely unbelievable, but if their website says it, it must be true.

I first read about this service in this article from June 2006 issue of Inc. Magazine.

Anyone out there tried the service yet? If and when you do, let me know how it goes. I’d love to hear if the easy-as-1-2-3 approach is for real…and I’d love to see your slick commercial, too.

(Of course with YouTube, who needs to pay anything for real TV advertising, right?)

Automating the TV advertising process for solo professionals and small biz owners so they can reach targeted demographics, regionally AND nationally. Hmmm. For anyone with a thousands or so bucks to play with, sounds like a fine way to “A-Ha Yourself!” to me.

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!

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 7th, 2006 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Fun With Marketing, 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.

Yeah, blogging’s the big “It” word of the last year or so, but did you know there are university studies about it and its effectiveness for corporations and small businesses?

In one such study (brought to my attention this Andy Wibbel’s blog post), Northeastern University’s Communication Studies department teamed up with Backbone Media to determine “the reasons, conditions and factors that make a blog successful, and to create a list of criteria to help companies assess whether and how they should engage in blogging.”

They interviewed 20 corporate bloggers - a healthy mix of folks from Stonyfield Farm, Adweek, Adobe, and more - and included summaries of the interviews in the study.

Want some tips for best practices? Use this quick checklist:

• Compelling Content Comes from Unique Experiences
• Industry Content Provides Great Relevancy for Audiences
• Sometimes The Most Random Content Generates The Most Interest
• Put Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Marketing at the Center of Your Blogging Content Strategy

To get the PDF of this success study or read it online, click here! Find out if 2007 becomes the year you and your company breaks out of the mold with a kick-butt biz blog.

Good luck!

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!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 5th, 2006 at 11:42 am and is filed under All About Content, 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.

Of the 50 million blogs out there, it’s amazing how you always manage to find the ones you need to read, even when you’re not seeking them out. (And yet, this is EXACTLY how the universe works, which just constantly blows my mind.)

Tonight proved it once again. While posting an article for distribution through SubmitYourArticle.com, I stumbled upon Sharon Sarmiento’s The Art of Evangelizing a Blog.

That led me to Sharon’s blog, eSoup. Not only do I love the posts I’ve read so far, I’m grateful that I’ve discovered another professional who believes in the power of content strategy, relationship building, and using your authentic voice and experience to connect with a like-minded audience.

Bravo, Sharon. You “A-Ha Yourself!” very well.

And that’s all I wanted to say on a Sunday night…

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!

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 4th, 2006 at 1:04 am 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.