by Kirby Hasseman
The Delivering Marketing Joy Podcast is back! Our goal here is to attack 2018 with a vengeance! The Delivering Marketing Joy Podcast will provide some inspiration, motivation and education to make it happen! Consider this your 10 minute “kick in the pants” to get your week started off right! This week on the podcast we tackle a topic that happens to all of us. Sometimes we are just “not feeling it.” That lack of motivation can keep us from starting…and that keeps us from finishing. So today I discuss this real issue and what to do when you “are not feeling it. Listen in here. So those are my tips. But what do you suggest? Do you have other “go to” moves when you lack motivation? Let me know! And keep coming back to the Hasseman Marketing blog each day. We are working to post a brand new piece of content every day. Make sure you never miss an update by signing up for our VIP newsletter here. We do a weekly update with content and specials!
by Kirby Hasseman
I preach the power of consistency. A lot. I talk about it content marketing, sales, building a business, fitness…and life. We need consistency and patience. Intuitively we all know it’s true. Sure…some people might take off like a phoenix to success. But most people have to “show up” over and over and over before an audience starts to notice. It makes sense and I know it’s true. But knowing it doesn’t mean it’s easy. Let me give you an example. I decided about a month ago that I needed to double down on my content marketing efforts for Hasseman Marketing. I even blogged about it (here) at the beginning of the journey. “We are a media company, and we are going to start acting like it.” I also decided that I wanted to be unreasonable and I talked about that here. So I did. I started to post a blog on the Hasseman Marketing website every day. One of my goals, as you might expect, was to increase traffic to our site. I looked at our web traffic for the year and took a snapshot to see what that looked like before the journey. We had had one month in the past year where we had the most traffic by far (it was because of one post) and the previous month (May) was our lowest traffic month of the year. I knew that if I posted every day, we could have a significant impact on our website traffic. I just knew it. Right? About 10 or 12 days into the month I decided to take my first look. I was on vacation and I had time. So I decided to check on the progress so I could brag about the difference I was making in our online presence. What did it look like? Well by posting each day, our traffic (at that point in the month) was lower than May. That’s right. The traffic was lower than our worst month for the previous year. I know…it was only 10 or 12 days in…but I would be lying if I said that didn’t hurt. At that point it would have been easy to say “screw it.” It’s not working. But instead I decided I wanted to see the experiment through. Spoiler alert…I was glad I did. By continuing to post each and every day, something cool happened. Though I did not have any “hits,” the cumulative effect of showing up, started to work. Each day the numbers started to climb. People on Linked in might comment on a post that I had put online a week ago. And with each passing day, there are more posts for them to find. Over the next few days the numbers went past our worst month and worked their way up the list. We continued to track up…slowly but surely. By the end of the month, the best month’s traffic was in range. Did we pass it? Yes. And we did it with no “viral hit.” It’s hard to see the progress and the impact of a goal while you are grinding toward it. That’s the reason to focus on the daily list of tasks. We all want a quick hit to the top. But in the end, it’s slow and steady that still wins the race. Make sure never miss an update (or any piece of content!). Sign up for our VIP newsletter here.
by Kirby Hasseman
I have a place here in town where I love the Pizza. It’s old school and it’s great. You even have to go and pick it up yourself, if you can believe that. And when you call it can often take between 30-45 minutes (because they are always busy). It’s really good pizza. But every once in a while, I am in a hurry. I want that particular pizza, but I show up early. I go in and look at my watch. I pay early in order to let them know I am there…and I am waiting. So they rush to try and get me taken care of faster. And when they do…it’s never quite as good. It’s still really good, mind you. But it’s not quite the same. It’s not cut quite as perfectly. The cheese is not quite as melty. The crust is not exactly as perfect. It’s good…but not quite as good. And it’s totally my fault. The Pizza Maker is an artist. Yes they are in business. But they have perfected making a pizza that is exactly the way I like it. They have a process. They have a time that this process takes. Quality takes time. The only variable changing this transaction, taking it from “perfect” to “very good”…is me. I changed the transaction. And I end up disappointed. We do that sometimes, don’t we? We have our “go to” pizza place, hair salon, realtor, or whatever. They take care of us just they way we like it. We like their process. We like their style. Then we ask THEM to change for us…and we are disappointed. It’s our fault. When I got in business in the Promo industry a wise teacher told me once that “there are three ways you can get it. Cheap. Fast. Correct. You get to pick two out of three!” There is certainly wisdom in those words in our industry…but in most others as well. For me I am going to take this to heart. When I find someone doing things the way I love it…I will try and play by their rules. I am going to make a pact to not rush the Pizza Maker. Let me know what you think! Agree or disagree? Either way, make sure you sign up for our VIP newsletter here. We keep you up with all of our content and we have special offers as well.
by Kirby Hasseman
Want to make the world a better place? You can. Whenever you feel like you, as only one person, can’t make a difference, remember this study. There is a chemical in our bodies called Oxytocin. It’s a good chemical. It makes us feel good, decreases stress and, generally, makes us happy. From Psychology today: When we hug or kiss a loved one, oxytocin levels increase; hence, oxytocin is often called “the love hormone.” Oxytocin is the hormone that underlies trust. It is also an antidote to depressive feelings. A study was done that measured the amount of oxytocin in people that do a random act of kindness to another. As you might expect, the person who receives an act of kindness gets a boost in Oxytocin. Makes sense right? But the person who gave the act of kindness got an equal boost of Oxytocin as well! Very cool. Now here’s the best part. An observer, a person that had nothing to do with the act, but just saw the act of kindness, got an equal boost in Oxytocin as well. That is great. You can make a difference. But how? What can you do? How can you push kindness out into the world? With words. Here are just a few things that you can say to people TODAY that can do that. These are things people never get tired of hearing. 1. Thank you.2. You look nice today.3. You are a hard worker.4. I appreciate your help.5. You make this place better.6. You make me want to be a better (fill in the blank). 7. My day is better when you are in it.8. You make me laugh.9. You make me think.10. You are talented. And these are just a few. Make people feel loved and appreciated and you make the world better. Feel free to give us more. What else can you say each day to make others feel special? Go. Do that. Make sure you never miss an update! Sign up for our VIP newsletter here. We would appreciate that!
by Kirby Hasseman
I just recently finished the book Solve For Happy. It’s an “engineer’s take” on the subject of being happy…and I really found it fascinating.
The author, Mo Gawdat, is the Chief Business Officer at Google X and the book was thoughtful, emotional (Mo lost his son), long, spiritual and more. You can find the book here. I listened to the audiobook, and it was a longer one. Mo dives deeply into topics, so I found it worth the time. But for those who want a quick snapshot, here are a few takeaways I found from the book.
You Are Not Your Thoughts
I found this interesting because I have been talking and writing about this a lot. “We all have that voice” that prattles on in our head. It tells us we are not good enough. It yells about danger and how everything will not work out. It’s often mean and mostly negative. Mo tells us that this voice is not you…and how to take a step back and listen to it less…so you can be more happy. One of my favorite concepts in the book involves Mo talking to his brain, “No. That is not a good thought. Go and bring me a better thought.” Love that.
Negative Emotions Are Not in the Present
Gawdat spent a great deal of time outlining all kinds of emotions and how they can affect our happiness. Then he pointed out the negative emotions. What do they have in common? Nearly all of them are rooted in the future or the past! This was a bit of an “aha” for me. If you are angry about being passed over for a promotion, that is rooted in the past. Worried about an upcoming meeting? That’s in the future. And since the past is done, and the future is just our imagination, the things that are making us unhappy are just our own thoughts. Powerful.
Live in the Present
We need to get back to “living in the present.” That is when we are most happy, content and (dare I say) joyful. Mo says that when he finds himself getting swept away with negative emotions he does a simple exercise. He closes his eyes. Then he opens them and closes them again. Then he describes what is in front of him…in detail. It brings him back to the here and now. This was a detailed book and he covers a LOT more than this. But those are just a few concepts that jumped out to me.
He even talks about how to overcome our fear of death and gives his take on what comes “after.” As I said, it’s a lot…but I enjoyed it. You can find the book on Amazon here.
Want to make us happy? Please check out our content every day. We have videos, podcasts and blogs on our blog page here. And you can always become a VIP by signing up here.
