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Know well the condition of your flocks,
and give attention to your herds
for riches do not last forever;
and does a crown endure to all generations?- Proverbs 27:23-24
Sheep © by blathlean
The key is understanding what is meant by “knowing”.
Put yourself in the mindset of a shepherd. He would want to know:
- How are my sheep doing as compared to last week/month/year?
- Can I account for the change? What conditions were different?
- How do my sheep compare with other sheep?
- What can I learn from other shepherds to improve the condition of my flock?
- What metrics or scoring mechanism can I use or create to help me ascertain the condition of my flock, or individual portions therein, so that I may work on improving it?
“Knowing” therefore has a context and a purpose. It’s not knowing is the sense of knowing facts.
A good business person will have the same mindset as the shepherd. He or she will have some sort of measurement mechanism — or several — to compare different aspects of the business over time and with other businesses… with the goal of incremental systematic improvement over time.
One of my musical heroes is Kerry Livgren, perhaps best known as the mastermind behind the band Kansas during its glory days.
Despite superb musicianship and songwriting prowess, he nonetheless has no idea what makes for a winning song — a fact he freely admits.
For example, when rehearsing prior to recording the Leftoverture album in 1976, he waited until the band had put all their gear away before announcing his new song. Drummer Phil Ehart tells the story:
When we did Leftoverture, we had practiced up in Topeka, getting
ready to go to Bogaloosa to record, Bogaloosa, LA. Kerry walks in on
the last day – I mean I’m breaking down my drums – packing them up – and
Kerry goes “I’ve written one more song for the album. I don’t know if
you guys are interested in doing it, but I’d like to at least try – once
we get down – we don’t have time to rehearse it here. Let’s rehearse it
when we get to Bogaloosa”. And I said, well OK, does it have a name?
He said yeah – it’s called Carry On Wayward Son.
Carry On Wayward Son (abbreviated by diehard Kansas fans as COWS), of course, became a monster hit. It’s played on classic rock stations regularly and was featured on the game Guitar Hero 2.
That latter fact accounts for the perpetuation of the song’s influence amongst many of today’s youth.
As an aside, there exists a possibly anecdotal story in which Kerry finds himself in a restaurant washroom when COWS came blasting over the stereo system.
A teenage boy — washing his hands in the sink nearest Kerry — said: “That song is on Guitar Hero 2! Have you heard it?”
Kerry replied, “Yeah, I’m somewhat familiar with it.”
After COWS being responsible for millions of dollars in revenue and a staple for concerts, even long after Kerry exited the band, that is quite an understatement.
In his autobiography, Kerry relates how the record company kept pressing for the band to release material it considered “hit worthy”.
Ever the purist, Kerry refused to cave in and just continued writing music that he enjoyed.
The point is simple: he had a huge hit on his hands and he did not have a clue! What he had going for him is he kept on putting out material and finally stumbled upon a song that met both his high standards and that of millions of fans.
This fact alone shoudl be a great encouragement to you.
Keep throwing oatmeal at the wall and eventually something will stick.
I recently interviewed my mentor, teacher, and friend — Ray Edwards — on the subject of launching a business.
We recorded the whole session, and you can get the audio file here:
Upon arriving home the other other day, I stepped onto our front deck on the way into the house. My three-year old boy was playing there.
I greeted him, and he looked me right in the eye and said: “Dad, I need a million dollars”.
!
Aside from the obvious questions (“where did he hear that?”, “does he know what a million is?”, and “does he even know what a dollar is?”)
… it made me ponder the question of what I want, and why. And the likelihood of actually achieving those goals.
Here’s what I’ve learned about achieving goals:
Setting vague or non-specific goals is problematic. How do you know when you’ve actually achieved the goal is become “rich” or “happy”? (Short answer: you don’t.) If you want a shot at getting what you want, make it something that can actually be measured.
By giving yourself good reasons for achieving the goals you’ve selected, you’ll have the impetus to keep slogging away when you may begin feeling overwhelmed or discouraged.
Remind yourself why you want to earn the amount of money you’ve selected, or what you’ll do with the free time you seek. Perhaps you want more time to invest in your family. Maybe you want to fund orphanages in a third world country.
It’s ok to periodically review and revise your goals. Don’t feel like you have to keep the same goal forever if it no longer aligns with your values.
When my son is a little older, I’ll give him the same advice. And also tell him that if he “needs” a million bucks, there’s nothing stopping him from going out and earning it!
As a marketer, have you identified who responds most enthusiastically to your marketing?
All too often, we spend far too much time and energy trying to convince others to adopt our own point of view (or buy our products, or whatever).
If you’re not getting traction with your marketing, it may be that you’re targeting the wrong group.
Think about it!
No one can be “all things to all people”.
Why not figure out who loves you… and love them back.
The idea for this post has been percolating for a very long time… so long, in fact, that I should probably credit several sources that I can no longer remember.
Let’s get right to it.
There’s a huge chasm between “what ought to be” and “what actually is“. And here’s the kicker: not distinguishing between them, and giving each their proper place, is a recipe for disaster. Seriously.
I’m reminded of the guy (let’s call him George) who dresses slovenly and forgets to bathe regularly and still somehow supposes he is a hit with the ladies. If George’s romantic situation is going to improve, he needs to “get real” (in the Dr. Phil sense) and recognize that he is indeed a slob – and then do something about it. He can’t simply keep hoping to meet Ms. Right. Not gonna happen. If she did show up, she wouldn’t stick around.
Here’s a little vulnerable self-disclosure:
I’ve sometimes fallen into a similar trap with my marketing efforts. I find myself thinking that my customers and prospects should be interested in what I want them to buy or read, all the while forgetting that my readers are more interested in their own interests than mine.
Duh!
And I believe that any marketer who has had periods of struggling will recognize the root of the problem: narcissism.
See, the world doesn’t revolve around me, or you. If we want to reach a specific market, we have to persuade them to let us join their world, at least for a little while. We don’t generally find success by asking our prospects to join our own little self-interested orbit.
Some people wonder whether marketing is “hard”. I’m convinced that the “hardest” part of marketing is setting aside my own biases and yes, even my worldview… and adopting that of the people I’m hoping to reach.
To put it another way: taking off my glasses (which I have worn since the age of seven, thank you very much) and donning those of my newly adopted family.
In time, I may persuade some in my target market to wear my glasses for a time; but for now, their perspective is the only one that matters. Even though I have important things to say… ideas they need to learn (“should”) – I have to let them be (“is”) for now.
There are more implications that I’ll likely explore in future articles.
I set up a site in Hostgator. I really like Bluehost — who I have been using for about three years — however, they don’t have a reseller option.
Hostgator does.
I recently replaced my main PC, and as I set up my new machine, I started thinking about the software I use on a day-to-day basis.
There are many paid apps I use frequently; here is a list of the first 8 freeware apps I installed:
1. Firefox browser. I really like Google Chrome too.
2. Antivir antivirus. I’ve alternated between AVG and this one. Antivir seems less “bloated”.
3. LastPass password manager. So cool.
4. Delicious bookmark plugin for Firefox. I like this almost as much as Lastpass.
5. McAfee Site Advisor plugin for Firefox. Sort of a first line of defense against the bad guys online
6. Jing. Helpful software that doesn’t try to do anything. I sprung for the Pro version, but the free one works great.
7. Dropbox. Very easy method of syncing, sharing, and backing up files.
8. Faststone Capture. Good screen capture program. Free and paid versions exist.
A persistent debate among marketers is the question of whether long copy is sometimes used in place of short copy. While top copywriters generally affirm the favorable results of long copy, it’s helpful to get some perspective to see why this is the case.
The general rule of thumb for the length of copy is this: your sales letter should be just long enough to get the job done. If you think about this carefully, the majority of the objections to long copy evaporate. Just think about what we are asking the sales letter to accomplish for us.
We need to explain as much as we can about the product, and most importantly the benefits of our product, with the goal of every benefit appealing the prospect is made plain. Especially in the case of information products, these explanations can be quite lengthy!
Additionally, we need to cover every likely objection the prospect might have. If we were talking with the prospect in person or over the phone, we could simply ask them if they had questions… or respond to any reasons they gave for not buying the product. In our sales letter, we don’t have that luxury. Therefore, we must give the entire laundry list of all possible objections, and demolish them one by one.
Although we have not explained every reason for the superiority of long copy, we are back to where we started: your copy must be just long enough to do its job, and no longer. Factors that will come into play are the target market, the complexity associated with the product or service, and the cost of that product or service.