What a bummer, I got fired yesterday. Bounced unceremoniously like an old worn out dishrag. It was swift and ruthless but apparently necessary.

 

Thank God my dignity was left intact. No one walked into my office and gave me some long-winded crap thanking me for my significant value and then blaming impersonal budget cuts, that apparently no one is responsible for creating.

 

It’s always personal when someone gets the boot, at least to them.

 

I was glad the intercom didn’t buzz and announce that I needed come to HR immediately. The world knows when the boot comes through the intercom. I didn’t have to do the dead-man walking (through the halls) routine but, nonetheless, I got canned.

 

I must admit, it tore at my gut. I literally felt like crying. I’d worked so hard. How could I have failed?

 

Crying wouldn’t help. Business is like baseball in that regard. But at least I didn’t have to tell my wife.

 

You see, I fired myself.

 

I knew there was more I could do that I didn’t do. I worked my butt off but somehow I didn’t get everything out of my ability that was inside.  There was more value within my head, my heart, my soul, and there was only one way to get it out of me.

 

I fired myself figuratively. No one knows I did it but many are feeling the effects.

 

Over the weekend I stopped thinking about office politics, budget decisions that no longer had any relevance, and everything in the “Past” column.

 

Starting Monday this was a new job, a new chance, a new value I would have to bring to survive, add more value, and improve my team’s performance. I decided to approach my work as though I’d just been given a new assignment, which I did.

 

My mindset was one of a new hire. I acted like my new boss had just called me in and said, “This business is broken and we’re looking for you to get us on-track. Fix our processes, evaluate the team, empower the winners and address the losers swiftly, find ways to increase shareholder value now, get some early wins…”

 

So on Monday I looked myself in the mirror and responded, “Yes, sir!”

 

The point of this silly little story is, it’s easy to get caught up in the flow of whatever it is we’re doing. But becoming part of the status quo doesn’t move the needle. If we really want to matter, if we really want to succeed, we have to challenge ourselves in major, not minor, ways and own the results.

 

If you’re up for that, then fire yourself and come in, as a new hire, and make something happen now.

 

My team was surprised, and I dare say, inspired by my decisiveness, assertiveness, and willingness to take on calculated risks.

 

Only you know if you need to be fired. But if you ask me, it’s time to give the new person a chance. He or she just might surprise you.

1. Every page needs a focal point

 

Every page on your website should have a focal point, a place where the visitor’s eyes are naturally drawn. It can be an image, a special offer, or a headline. In addition, that focal point should direct your visitors to act, a call-to-action.

 

Click here for free sample, for example.

 

Think of your pages as Billboards. Billboards are big, bright, and clearly direct you to take a specific action. You site pages should do the same.

 

Your focal points should include images and copy that is keyword rich and help the search engines find your site.

 

2. Headline can be very effective

 

Headlines organize your content by making a promise to the reader. It follows then, that your content must then deliver on that promise.

 

Using the “who-what-why” formula isn’t the only way to format your headlines, but it works. Think of your headlines as a promise, a commitment you make between you and your visitor.

 

There are many effective headline formulas out there, so you need never worry about repeating yourself.

 

Whether it’s on the page or in your meta data, headlines are an important SEO tactic.

 

3. Get 50% through the use of numbers

 

People are more apt to believe something when a number accompanies it. 51% of those surveyed believed something is more powerful than a majority of those surveyed believe…

 

Numbers grab our attention and are more credible than general terms. It seems people like specifics.

 

4. Use power words

 

Words like fast, easy, guaranteed and free are powerful copy.

 

    “Free is the most powerful word in the copywriter’s vocabulary. Everybody wants to get something for free.”

    -Robert W. Bly

 

In our email marketing we typically use headlines such as, “Free PDF…” or some other power word to increase click-throughs and, eventually, sales opportunities.

 

5. Think about your images

 

The cliché is “a picture is worth a thousand words” and it’s true. And if a picture is worth a thousand words then a video is worth ten thousand. Think long and hard about the visuals you use. Pictures and videos can supercharge story and include:

 

    * Photographs

    * Artwork

    * Charts and Graphs

    * Slidedecks

    * Video

    * Infographics

 

Make sure your images have an ALT description so the search engines know what it is you’re trying to communicate through your images.

 

6. Use Sub-Headlines

 

Would you read a newspaper if it had just one headline? Of course not!

 

We want information that is categorized and well organized.

 

If your text is longer than 250-400 words, you must use sub-headlines. No exceptions.

 

While the search engines give sub-headings slightly less impact than Headings, sub-headings remain an important SEO tactic.

 

7. Lists work

 

This entire post is a list.

 

Why do lists work so well? Lists are the building blocks of the thinking process, of ideas. To communicate your thoughts quickly and effectively, nothing structures the information like a well-thought out and logically organized list.

 

8. People love quotes

 

In my book Communication Wins, I opened every chapter with a quotation. Selecting the right quote for each chapter took up a significant part of my editing time.

 

Use quotes to organize your ideas and demonstrate that our major points are significant enough to have earned a historical quotation. If Abraham Lincoln commented on your major point, then it’s probably important enough for people to want to learn more about it.

 

9. Fun with font

 

Some people change fonts within their copy for emphasis. We think that’s a bad idea. To attract attention to a particular point or section of your copy, try using bold and/or italics.

 

The search engine can detect bold and/or italicized font in your copy and assume these are the important terms (keywords).

 

10. Your voice sells

 

There are dozens of good SEO copywriting techniques. We encourage you to learn and use them.

 

However, at the end of the day, you need to find your own voice. Your particular point of view, style, and tone, form the foundation for your audience appeal.

 

I love the way Peggy Noonan writes. She was President Reagan’s speech writer and has a lyrical style and velvet touch while, at the same time, the ability to cut like a knife, without sounding angry, through the foolishness that is served up to us on a daily basis as serious political discourse. Would I like to write like Peggy, you bet!

 

But I can’t. There’s only one Peggy and I’m not her. So I have to do my best to write like me. I’ve learned that my best writing is typically short declarative sentences that are easy to read and understand.

 

Do you agree?

Bob Parsons is CEO and Founder of GoDaddy.com. He’s famous for his over-the-top advertising, which include commercials featuring a porn star or race driver Danika Patrick in a bikini. To me he’s the Howard Stern of entrepreneurs, sophomoric but highly successful.

His business success and therefore, acumen, is what gets overlooked. Like Stern, this mega-millionaire knows what his target audience wants and he gives it to them. While his actions seem cavalier, my guess is there are few casual events in Bob’s business life.

In his September he shared his 16 Tips for business success, which you can view here: Bob Parsons' videoblog. Once you get past the girlies in their tank-tops, I think his advice is both unconventional and excellent. If you want to avoid the girls, here are Bob’s tips in text format:

1. Get and stay out of your comfort zone. I believe that not much happens of any significance when we're in our comfort zone.  I hear people say, "But I'm concerned about security."  My response to that is simple: "Security is for cadavers."
2. Never give up. Almost nothing works the first time it's attempted.  Just because what you're doing does not seem to be working, doesn't mean it won't work.  It just means that it might not work the way you're doing it.  If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and you wouldn't have an opportunity.
3. When you're ready to quit, you're closer than you think. There's an old Chinese saying that I just love, and I believe it is so true.  It goes like this: "The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed."
4. With regard to whatever worries you, not only accept the worst thing that could happen, but make it a point to quantify what the worst thing could be. Very seldom will the worst consequence be anywhere near as bad as a cloud of "undefined consequences."  My father would tell me early on, when I was struggling and losing my shirt trying to get Parsons Technology going, "Well, Robert, if it doesn't work, they can't eat you."
5. Focus on what you want to have happen. Remember that old saying, "As you think, so shall you be."
6. Take things a day at a time. No matter how difficult your situation is, you can get through it if you don't look too far into the future, and focus on the present moment.  You can get through anything one day at a time.
7. Always be moving forward. Never stop investing.  Never stop improving.  Never stop doing something new.  The moment you stop improving your organization, it starts to die.  Make it your goal to be better each and every day, in some small way.  Remember the Japanese concept of Kaizen.  Small daily improvements eventually result in huge advantages.
8. Be quick to decide. Remember what General George S. Patton said: "A good plan violently executed today is far and away better than a perfect plan tomorrow."
9. Measure everything of significance. I swear this is true.  Anything that is measured and watched, improves.
10. Anything that is not managed will deteriorate. If you want to uncover problems you don't know about, take a few moments and look closely at the areas you haven't examined for a while.  I guarantee you problems will be there.
11. Pay attention to your competitors, but pay more attention to what you're doing. When you look at your competitors, remember that everything looks perfect at a distance. Even the planet Earth, if you get far enough into space, looks like a peaceful place.
12. Never let anybody push you around. In our society, with our laws and even playing field, you have just as much right to what you're doing as anyone else, provided that what you're doing is legal.
13. Never expect life to be fair. Life isn't fair.  You make your own breaks.  You'll be doing good if the only meaning fair has to you, is something that you pay when you get on a bus (i.e., fare).
14. Solve your own problems. You'll find that by coming up with your own solutions, you'll develop a competitive edge.  Masura Ibuka, the co-founder of SONY, said it best: "You never succeed in technology, business, or anything by following the others."  There's also an old Asian saying that I remind myself of frequently.  It goes like this: "A wise man keeps his own counsel."
15. Don't take yourself too seriously. Lighten up.  Often, at least half of what we accomplish is due to luck.
None of us are in control as much as we like to think we are.
16. There's always a reason to smile. Find it.  After all, you're really lucky just to be alive.  Life is short.  More and more, I agree with my little brother. He always reminds me: "We're not here for a long time, we're here for a good time!"

Steve

Chris Brogan asked his readers to write their story. Here’s is mine.

The Boogeyman Under the Bed

My story begins with a smack. Not snack! Smack!

There was a loud smack quickly followed by a yelp, which was really more of a scream. It’s all blurry. My dad would smack my mom, she would yelp-scream and my sister was crying. That’s all I remember, it’s my first memory. I was under a bed, hiding, I was three.

It is a matter of profound importance that everyone in a nation know that with whatever facts they start their life, there is a clear and open route to rise…there is power to be had in the full unleashing of human capital.

- Peggy Noonan, WSJ, 11-7-08

Peggy Noonan was writing about the remarkable ascendancy of President Obama. She was praising our great nation but another truth was being shared as well: The ability to communicate effectively is the greatest talent a person can possess. President Obama has that talent at an extraordinary level. I have the lite version but that’s good enough.

My ability to communicate effectively is, in my mind, the reason I was able to crawl out from under that bed, escape my Boogeyman, enjoy financial success, and ultimately live the life me and my wife have, pretty much, always desired.

If you can communicate well, you will succeed in life. If you can’t communicate well, you will not succeed in life. It’s that simple.

Sales pitches, job interviews, doctoring, emails, policing, blogging, creating websites, marriage, parenting—they all hinge on our ability to communicate, both verbally and nonverbally.

Eye contact, hand gestures, pitch, pauses, fidgeting, inflection, passion, and body movement are all important. We know that instinctively. Children can tell when someone is lying. You can too. Our crap-detectors are embedded deep within our DNA.

Juggling all of those verbal and non-verbal “communication balls” while people are watching is hard work. That’s why we get nervous before delivering an important message. That’s why those of us who can communicate well are often successful.

And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight in the bud became more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

-       Anais Nin

Few of my childhood memories are pleasant. We lived on the perforated edge of poverty. Alcohol fueled intense volatility and frustrations piled up without relief, so the smallest annoyance sparked the next firestorm. Peace was a luxury we couldn’t afford. From that cocktail of events and emotions I was able to squeeze some nourishment. Nourishment I’ll call hope.

Dream big. I think dreaming is what saved me from my environment and myself. Somehow I knew there was a better future for me, out there. My circumstances may have stolen some of my inner-self but they also gave me a determination that has served me well. Success requires confidence, which you can fake to a certain extent, and a strong work ethic, which you can’t.

As I taught my children, everyone pays list price for success. Don’t look for short cuts. I never expected my dreams to come true without a lot of effort. I knew there would be mountains to climb, mountains that others can never understand even if they wanted to, which they didn’t. So be it. Change what you can. Try not to complain. Celebrate as often as possible. Go to work.

I am a communicator, a peacemaker and, when all else fails, a comedian. What else could I be? I was a child trying to hold the family together. Do well. Be funny. Keep everyone focused on the positive. Avoid the hell. The past will always be part of me, but I vowed that I wouldn’t let it rule my life. The future belongs to those who define it for themselves.

Ideas won’t keep. Something must be done about them.

- Alfred North Whitehead

High school was turbulent. I had problems with authority but at the same time wanted to do well. Go figure? From my perspective everyone I had met who was in charge was underperforming (I cleaned it up). I learned to trust myself and, regretfully, no one else. Some dust-ups but, as Rocky Balboa said in the movie, Rocky, “Nothing to brag about.”

I left home before I was 18-years old. Somewhere in my early twenties after a few of my friends had been sent to prison and a few others had died, I decided to grow up. Time to stop worrying about the past and mean it this time. Time to get on with my life.

My eyes were on the prize. I became a Labrador Retriever chasing a tennis ball, I had a goal and was focused. I met my wonderful wife and our two sons. Hope was taking root. “I can do this! Have faith (Faith),” my heart implored me. About ten years later I had my MBA and my corporate career was underway. I did well; it’s always better late than never. The appearance of middleclassdom, of normalcy, was getting easier.

Twenty-five years combined in sales and then marketing. We were transferred around the country; the wine-country, Chicago, Philly, Charleston, and Charlotte, our new home. My last three jobs have been as a Vice President of Marketing, most recently with two of the largest industrial distributors in the country. I beat cancer. I wrote and published a book, Communication Wins. Who woulda’ thunk it?

I run my own small firm now, Aligned Marketing. It’s working. Not having a boss is a great way to quell my trust issues, which at some level still haunt me. Until recently so did the fear of poverty, a terrible, sometimes debilitating, feeling. My fear of poverty was a big dragon to slay. They say dragons are mythical creatures but, I can assure you, they are real.

Our financial manager says we’re about set; our money should last until we’re 100-years old. How cool is that! We made it. So can you.

I can write, speak, help when I can, state in clear terms when I can’t and, most importantly, be there for my family. I like being me. I am so glad, so grateful, so blessed, that I was able to crawl out from under that bed and escape the Boogeyman.

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.

-       Cyril Connolly

Note to Chris Brogan: I laid it all out there. I hope you enjoy My Story.

Steve

800-707-9150

On February 21, 2008 Joyce Cohen Day wrote the following about her deceased mother, Florence Cohen:

Those heartfelt words offer us a glimpse into Florence Cohen, the person. On September 11, 2001 Florence was at work in the offices of  the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance on the 86th floor of 2 World Trade Center. Florence was 62 years old when she left us. She was one of 2,996 victims who died that day.

There wasn’t a lot I could find out about Florence but she loved to travel and go to the theater. She lived in New York City and one person said that she wanted to see The Producers. That small goal was cut from her on on September 11th. That’s how evil works, it takes away dreams and harms what you love.

We can never know Florence completely but her daughter’s words suggest she was a woman of faith and character. She had unmet dreams that were stolen from here and her family. It’s important that we all remember that the people who died on 9/11 were real people, with families and connected lives. Below is the only photo I could find of Florence.

Florence is an English-French name meaning “To prosper or flourish.” Florence Cohen apparently prospered and flourished in generosity, helpfulness and parenting. Her loss belongs to all of us.

I don’t know how they found or identified Florence, so many were identified through forensic testing, another reminder of the horrors of that day. And while I have often gotten angry over 9/11, I have never truly figured out what I can DO with those emotions. Writing this small tribute to one of the 2,996 victims was something I could do. If you’ d like to write a short tribute to the 9/11 victims, it’s no too late. Please visit http://project2996.wordpress.com to learn how.

Florence Cohen (1938-2001)

Steve

 

The goals for my blog are to educate and entertain. The topics are almost always business related. I have veered into politics a time or two. With the warmth of Father’s Day still upon me I will use today’s blog to unleash my inner self-help guru. Ready?

The third act of life starts when youth begins to surrender to aging, our career may be hitting a plateau, our children are grown and our parents are no longer around to lead our fan club, connect us to our youth, and provide a buffer against life’s harsher lessons. This is also a time of growth and contribution. It is a chance to listen to the melodies of life and not just the drumbeats.

My third act began after more than 25 years in corporate America. The work began to feel routine and the standard corporate decision making process too tedious to tolerate. Change meetings came and went but, from my angle, were ineffective, pointless. The energy to get after the next big it waned. It was time to refresh.

I have always been driven to continuously improving myself physically, mentally, and spiritually. Spiritual improvement is the most important and rewarding. It is also the most difficult. It requires constant work outside of my comfort zone and constant adaptation as major decisions take on life-long and life-fulfilling consequences. As I pondered the next challenge I realized I wanted something enduring.

For most of us enduring means making a difference in another person's life, our children for example. But how do we do that on a broader scale and in a more systematic way? I believe one way is to do what inspires us, what we love. Doing that is a gift to the world and that gift can have unintended and potentially enduring consequences. There are no guarantees because there are never any guarantees. It's a shot.

To release my best on a personal level I focus on my strengths and share my own unique views and talents through my relationships, work and writing, which is my passion. To further extend my reach I decided to think BIGGER. But how? As is often the case, in order to look forward I began by looking backward.

Three characteristics make our generation different from our parent’s and those past. First is the “bonus round” of time, perhaps an extra decade or more, of active life that will be available to millions of people who have treated their body well. Second are the stronger financial resources and the desire for lifelong learning that tends to flow from having earned a college degree. Third is our desire to give back. Some Psychiatrists call this Mattering. What does that mean?
    
I think that means a rethinking of roles. Traditional Japanese and Native American cultures are a good working model. They offer a society where the roles of older people expand: We mentor the young, care for the sick, deliver justice, and tell stories that reveal the meaning of life. In sum, elders in these cultures ensure the spiritual well being of the community, the tribe. That sounds like internal growth and contribution to me so I plan to do more of it. Look out friends and family!

Oprah Winfrey said, “You’ve got to be in touch with your mind, body, and the spirit to live the life you were meant to claim. When all three are completely engaged, you’re able to fulfill your potential on earth. To own the abundant life that’s waiting for you, you’ve got to be willing to do the real work. Not your job. Not your career profile. But heeding your spirit, which is whispering its greatest desires for you. You’ve got to get silent sometimes to hear it. And check in regularly. You must feed your mind with reading material, thoughts and ideas that open you to new possibilities. When you stop learning, you cease to grow, and subconsciously tell the universe you’ve done it all – nothing new for you. So why are you here?”

What does any of this have to do with business? Nothing. Everything.