I just saw a link to a Harvard Business Review article by Jerry Weissman titled In Presentations, Kill Your Darlings.
I’ve talked a lot about being “concise,” but I’m not sure people know what that means.
So, here’s another way of saying it: GIVE THE SAME MESSAGE, BUT MAKE IT SHORTER.
In the spirit of keeping short, I’ll end with this: go read the post. This applies to anyone who communicates (written, oral, body language, etc. :p).
Paul Copcutt, personal branding speaker and consultant, sent a link to a group I’m in to The Examined Practice, a post by Alan Weiss with a number of tough questions everyone should ask about their business.
It’s worth printing out and answering, ever year. Some questions (read entire post here):
These are four of the sixteen questions. No matter how you answer them now, you can use these sixteen questions as goals to work towards to answer them better next year.
I just finished the second draft of Eight Lunches. Whew.
If you want to review it, leave a comment here and I’ll email it to you.
Here are the instructions for the review:
I think that’s it… pretty simple… again, if you want to see it, please leave a comment on this other post.
I’d like to get this to the editor in the next 30 days… so I’d appreciate any thoughts in the next week or two. If you are a deadline person, consider July 31 your deadline 🙂
In November I bought a projector from Electrocloseout for presentations… I was uber-excited about it because, well, real companies have presentation projectors, right?
It took way to long to get it (I think I finally got it in January :((((((), but it was cool, for about a week or two.
Then we got a white dot on the screen.
Then we got a few more white dots on the screen.
Then the screen started filling with white dots….
Now, in July, check out what our screen looks like:
Today I finally got in touch with the warranty company… I’m really hoping there is a “happily ever after” to this story… we’ll see how it goes!
On our road trip we stayed with family in Midland, Texas. When I was a kid I caught some horned toads (aka, horny toads, which are some of the coolest lizards in the world) there, and have fond memories of hunting for stuff.
My son, about the age I was when we was there last, regularly went out to the yard to see what he could find. We were told the corner of the 1/2 acre, with a wood pile, was the best place to look for critters.
One morning William ran in, barely able to speak/yell, but it was clear we had to run out to see what he found… a freaking awesome wild tarantula!
Why aren’t we lucky enough to get this stuff in our yard in Utah? Dangit.
Anyway, we took a few pictures… this is my favorite… I kept saying “put your hand closer… closer, closer…” until he finally said, with anxiety, “DAD!” Like, “DAD, you are freaking crazy! I like animals, but I don’t like posing like this!”
Nonetheless, the picture turned out great, don’t you think?
Kid1: “hey, respect your elders, yo!”
Kid 2: “But I’m older than you…!
Kid 1: “Yeah, but I’m your UNCLE!”
… good point, I guess :p
Here’s a short-but-good post from Fred Wilson on how to get financing for your new business.
Many new entrepreneurs think they should start out at a certain point – say, with a DESK (ha, a luxury!). Salary is also a luxury :p
If you start your business from nothing, you shouldn’t be looking for, say, $50,000 in start-up capital for things like a really nice desk, a lease on an office, and other things which are revenue-producing.
Fred says many entrepreneurs get their initial money from friends and family.
Why not get your initial capital from selling something to a customer?
After all, you are going to have to do that eventually… might as well start now 🙂
Here’s a new thing I’ve seen in spam recently:
1. This is the first email I’ve noticed where they CUSTOMIZE the dormant account holder. Normally it is a deceased general or president or something like that, and I’ll get millions of dollars. This time, though, it’s a supposed relative! I’m guessing this is just enough to get the unsuspecting to start the scam process 🙁
2. and 3. Why is someone from an “international bank” using a Yahoo account? It doesn’t match up… red flag.
There are a few other red flags in this email – but I hate listing them all for fear the spammers will only use them to make their messages better.
Monday I gave feedback to Brad Merrill about HOW he let others know about his blog… today I want to write about a blog post (his second post).
Brad titled the post What is Ethical Behavior? It’s a good question which really came out after the Enron thing… as an accountant Brad should have some good thoughts.
First Thought
It is toooooooooo loooooooooooooooong.
This post has 1,535 words and would print of on almost four full pages!
I couldn’t read it. It’s simply too long.
Here’s an idea, though: take this four page post and break it up into three or four posts.
Call it a series and make it easier to read for ME.
The beauty of this idea is it is now easier to write for Brad. Why? If he takes one “post” and breaks it down, he now has one to two weeks of blog posts already written!
Let me say this another way – if he spent an hour on that post, and then thought about spending an hour on every post, and wrote two to three times a week, he’d spend quite a bit of time writing blog posts. Okay sometimes, but sometimes that hour just isn’t available.
What if he took this one hour and had all the writing for one or two weeks done?
That is more sustainable, over the long haul.
Second Thought
Give me more personal stuff. The first page (above the fold) has two references to dictionary definitions… I have to scroll down before I see if there’s some Brad Merrill personality.
Instead of starting off with a page of sources, I would have liked to see him launch into a story from his past rich work history:
Wouldn’t a line like that be more interesting? I’d want to read what an accountant has faced … not the bean counting boring stuff, but some conflict, how it was handled, what he had to think through, etc.
My point is, make it personal. I want to read about BRAD MERRILL, not what the dictionary says.
So these are my thoughts as Brad Merrill starts his blogging journey. Really, he has a great start… I’m excited to see him mature and evolve as a blogger 🙂
My friend Brad Merrill took the plunge and started a blog.
It has the potential to be an awesome personal branding tool for himself, and I applaud what he’s doing.
This is the first of two posts where I’m going to give feedback (with his permission) on his nascent strategy. Today I’ll talk about how he let me (and hundreds of others) know about the blog.
It’s important to let others know you have a blog… not just once but frequently. Be careful how you do it, however, because no one wants an email each time you write a new blog post (unless they opt in to a newsletter, or something like that).
Here’s Brad’s message I got last night:
There are a few things I like about this email, and perhaps a line or two I don’t care for. Instead of critiquing the entire thing, I want to focus on TWO things:
The Length.
The length of this message is PERFECT. If it were any longer I’d get lost, or not read it, or save it for later, or something like that. If it were shorter I might feel like he’s just spamming me and a million others with “read my blog!” It is sincere, concise, and very focuses.
The Question in Yellow.
This jumped out at me the most. At first I thought “COOL, a professional blog” (as opposed to a personal blog).
But then, when I read the question “if you have some things you would like to (to) see me write about,” tell me.
That’s when I thought “where’s the focus?”
Indeed, reading through the email again I realized I had no idea what the theme, or topics, of the blog are. Is it a personal blog? Is it a professional blog? What exactly does Brad do, or think about?
If Brad could help me understand this, even if it’s just a reminder (some people know, but a reminder doesn’t hurt), he would have used this email as a branding tool, and helped reinforce his personal brand to his contacts (whether they clicked over to the blog or not).
At a minimum he could have said:
I am going to write about ______ and ______. My last post talks about ethical behavior.
To take it up a notch he could have said something like:
As a professional accountant I see a lot of interesting things. I’ll write posts about my expertise (sales and use tax and financial accounting) and keep it interesting with stories and examples. I will probably write about my passions, including watch collecting) and try to always tie the posts back to business ideas. Whether you are an accountant or just interested in business, I hope to have relevant content for you. If you have any ideas or questions, please let me know, as I begin this journey.
In the first email he reinforces his brand. In the second email he drills down a bit more so people understand more of his breadth and depth… even if they don’t become blog readers they will know what some of his specialties and passions are.
“Where’s the focus” was my first thought, the second thought was: missed branding opportunity.
Next post I’ll critique his second blog post.