by Kirby Hasseman
It’s hard to believe it’s been 7 months. On May 30th I decided to start writing this blog every day. And since that day, come hell or high water, I have put something up. Sometimes it has been good. Sometimes…not so much. But the hits kept on coming each and every day. But why though? What is the point of the exercise? As I said in the beginning, it’s because I think we are a media company...and we need to start acting like it. I still believe that…and I wanted to revisit the idea. Since I have started this exercise, I have gotten a lot of questions. I wanted to address them here. Why are you doing this? What do you hope to gain? This is a question I get a lot. The simple answer is, attention and website traffic. Our website traffic, as you would hope, has gone up a lot. We have increased the number of people on our newsletter and we have increased the amount of opens on that newsletter. So not only do we have more people on it, but they want the information. That’s good stuff. We have also increased our sales over that time. It’s a funny thing about content marketing. It’s tough to point to one post and say “oh…that’s the one that caused our increase in sales.” For us, it has been “drip, drip, drip,” over time. During that same time…sales are up. BUT there is no way I can read it every day!I hear this a lot too. Totally cool by the way. And I guess, from my perspective, I don’t expect you to. I never had the idea that people would be sitting by their computer just waiting for the “ping” to come though to let them know I had published more amazing nuggets of knowledge. That would be great…but not my expectation. The idea is I can reach you when you want to be reached. For me to make sure I was there when you needed…I posted every day. In addition, I never knew what idea was going to resonate. I talk about that a bit here. Where Else Can I Find Your Content?As I mentioned above, I want to reach people where they want to be reached. So if you are not a reader, then this might not be for you. So here are some other pieces of content you can find. Delivering Marketing Joy: Hosted at PromoCorner, this is a video interview series that I am incredibly proud of. I have been doing this for 4 years now (so hard to believe). If you want to check that out…it comes out every Wednesday. Here is the latest episode. The unScripted Podcast: Another product of PromoCorner, my buddy Bill Petrie and I talk about the world of marketing and branding every week. We are a bit silly at times and certainly unedited in our opinions. I am proud of this award-winning podcast…and you can listen to the latest one here. Day In The Life: This is my vlog and I have been pleasantly surprised about how many people watch this (here is the latest). It’s about some daily adventures…and it’s usually fun. You can find it on my Youtube channel as above, or you can follow my Facebook page here. What Is Next?This is a question I am asking myself right now. Though I did not have specific measures of success when I started this, I have been incredibly pleased with the results. But do I want to keep this up every day? Is blogging the best way to do it? I am not completely sure what I want to continue to do in 2019. (Opinions welcome here if you want to weigh in). Here are some things I do know. Content is fun for me…and it works. I want to continue to create…and I want to get better. I am excited about 2019. How about you? Thanks so much for reading, listening and watching this year. Make sure you never miss an update! Sign up for our VIP list. As I mentioned above this list is growing. We send one email per week with all of the content! Sign up here.
by Kirby Hasseman
In a staff meeting this week I was talking to the team about GOALS. As many of us start to wind down the year, it’s a great time to be introspective.
How did your year go? Did you do the things you wanted to do? Did you move toward your goals? I talked about the 1 thing holding many people back here.
In addition, I spent a bit of time talking about my thoughts on big goals. I believe you should stretch yourself. These big goals are not Pass/Fail. Read more on that here. But there is one thing that I don’t think we talk about enough when we talk about goal-setting.
If you want a well-rounded life, you should probably have well-rounded goals.
Most of us have goals that center around two areas; finance and fitness. Though those are both important areas, they are not the only ones. That’s why I talk about the 5 F’s of Goal Setting. Finance, Fitness, Family, Faith, and Fun. If you want a well-rounded set of goals (and a well-rounded year), this is a good list to start with.
Finance: This time of goal might center around how much money you want to make, how much you want to save or the sales number you want to achieve.
Fitness: Do you want to lose 10lbs? Want to run a half marathon? Maybe you just want to improve your diet. These are all great and they fall here.
Family: This is the place where I remind myself that I want to spend time with those that I love. Do I want to have a date night with my bride? Do I want to do something specific with my girls?
Faith: Do you want to give more? Do you want to get involved and volunteer? How can you make an impact in this area?
Fun: Yes…I think this area is important too. And it’s great if a few of these might overlap. For example, if you want to take a great family vacation, that might cover two of the five “f’s.”
This is not a comprehensive list. But it’s a great start to getting you thinking about creating a year that you will be excited to live. Now let’s get them on paper! Oh…and if you want to dig deeper on goals, we have created a FREE course on goal setting here.
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by Kirby Hasseman
If you have been around me, listened to podcasts like this one, or read this blog, you might know that I think “busy” is the most over-used word in the English language today. I believe that because the word “busy” has become one of two things. 1. First it has become an excuse of why we can’t do things we really want to or need to? How could we possibly have time to work toward our dreams? We are too busy. 2. Second, it has become lazy speak. It’s just the answer you give…whether you mean it or not. So, as I said, I am not a fan of the word “busy.” But then I woke up this morning and thought about my schedule. I just got back from a two day road trip. I have another out of the office day on Friday. Today, in my schedule, I have 1 day to jam in 3 days of activity. My schedule was decidedly busy…and I was excited about it. That’s when I had a simple realization. You know you are doing the right thing, when you are busy and you are happy about it. If your schedule is full for the day and you are fired up to attack the day, it shows your passion. If you get to the end of the day wondering “where did that day go?” and you feel satisfied, you are probably working on the right projects. This is when you the word “busy” stops being an excuse. It starts to become an excited descriptor. When I started my business I used to say “When I’m bored, I’m poor.” It spoke to the idea that I was excited to be busy. It was important to my success. So start looking for those things that you are excited to tackle. These are the things that will keep you busy…but in a good way. Make sure you never miss an update. I know you are busy! But once a week, we send out our VIP newsletter with all of the content for the week in one place. You can get signed up for that here.
by Kirby Hasseman
One thing I know for sure…the energy in the room matters. You know it when you are in a room of excited, passionate, energetic people. The energy in the room is palpable. There is an intensity and purpose. There is often laughter. On the flip side, you know it when the energy is down. There is an unspoken hostility. You can feel the frustration and anger bubbling just below the surface. For me, it’s often almost hard to breathe, because the oxygen almost feels like it’s been decreased. You can feel it when you walk into the room. We all can. I would also submit to you that just one person can affect that energy. In a larger organization, that effect might be muted a bit. But it will still be there. In their corner of the company, one negative person can suck the energy out. It will affect the rest of their team. But in a small company, that one person can be a disaster. A person with a “bad apple” attitude can seep that attitude into every corner of the place. It will start by infecting the employees, and then it will make it’s way to the people you want to serve. Most of us have seen it happen. You have seen it in school, or in companies, or even in communities. So if we agree that: 1. The energy of an organization is palpable…and…2. That energy can affect the power of the organization…and…3. One person can change that energy for the good or for the bad… Then there is just one important question to ask yourself today. What kind of person will you be in your organization? We all have the ability to impact our organization. We just have to choose how we want to do it. Choose wisely. Make sure you never miss an update. Sign up here to become a part of our VIP list.
by Kirby Hasseman
This time of year, everyone is looking for the perfect gift. And if not the perfect gift…an easy one. So if you are looking for a low cost, last minute gift for someone on your list, let me submit these to you. Fan of Happy: This is the book I initially wrote for my daughters. During their most challenging teenage years I decided that there were lessons I wanted to share with them. The problem is, they didn’t want to hear them. So I started writing them down to share later. What I came up with was 110 personal development lessons that are appropriate for just about anyone. If you like the style of writing (and the lessons) from this blog, you might enjoy this book. Delivering Marketing Joy: This is a book I wrote for anyone who is charged with marketing an organization. There are tons of books written on social media, marketing tactics, email marketing and more. But one of the most powerful (and long lasting) forms of marketing is Promotional Premiums (or promotional products or SWAG), and unfortunately there are not a lot of books on how to do Promo right. This is that book. There are chapters on trade shows, direct mail, promo with social and many include case studies from all over the country. If you know someone that wants to up their marketing game, this might be a cool gift for them. The Written Goal: Finally, for those last minute gifts, you could check out my friend Sam Kabert’s book called The Written Goal. I am a big believer in goal setting and the power of “writing it down” so I am excited to check out Sam’s take on it. I also know the amount of time, energy and work that goes into writing a book! It’s an awesome undertaking. Great job Sam. So those are a couple of last minute gift ideas that can help you (or the person on your list) start off their New Year right! Make sure you never miss an update! Become a VIP. What does that mean? It means we send out one email per week to catch you up on content for the week. It’s a great way to stay motivated. Sign up for our VIP newsletter here.
by Kirby Hasseman
A couple of months ago, my oldest daughter got a puppy. This would be fun and cute except for one important fact. My oldest daughter lives with me. That means this cute little puppy became a true “routine destroyer” in my house. (I whined a bit about that here). Despite the fact that Fin is super cute, he has gone through the normal phase of trying to figure out potty training, biting, chewing, barking at random shadows and more. It’s normal. But it throws everything off. I swear, there is a point to this. This weekend, my family and I were together on a holiday shopping trip. We were enjoying a nice meal together and discussing Finn. I started to point out that we were still working on the potty training thing, and then I stopped. “Wait,” I said. “Actually, it’s been a while since I have had to clean up an accident. He has been doing better on that.” Then we all looked around the table and realized it had actually been about two weeks since any accidents had taken place. Wow. How had we not noticed? We had not noticed because it happened incrementally…over time. He went from being totally unpredictable, to a bit better to even better yet. We didn’t flip a switch. We got a tiny bit better every day. Then one day…boom! Overnight success. That’s how it works with building a business (or creating content, or whatever). You start by just making a mess of things. Then you continue to work at it. You get a tiny bit better over a long period of time. And just like the puppy, there will be times when it does not feel like you are making any progress at all. You will question why the hell you are doing any of this. Then one day, you look up from the grind, and you realized you have made a TON of progress. You will look back at the grind (that felt like it took forever) and realized it happened pretty quickly. And hopefully, when you are on the other side, you won’t have to replace the carpet. While you are on the journey, make sure you become a VIP. Today is a great day to sign up. We send one email per week with all of the content for the week. Sign up here.
