Craig Mod shares some amazing insights for people in all professionals who want to make a living from words. The primacy of the newsletter in finding an audience is the most reassuring. Having a direct channel with one's readers doesn't necessarily lead to big income, but it does lead to crucial connections and feedback that fuel a writing career. Wired: The 'Future Book' Is Here, but It's Not What We Expected, 2018-Dec-20 by Craig Mod Crucial Tech for an Author: Email ... Almost every writer or artist I know has a newsletter. One way to understand this boom is that... Continue reading

With so many of my friends trying to raise money for so many good causes, social media has actually burned me out for charity. My goal for the coming year is to think ahead and give with a plan. Ideas42: ‘Tis the Season for Americans to…Give to Charity? 2018-Nov-20 by Sarah Welch One reason Americans don’t give as much as we might aspire to is because we generally don’t take a step back to consciously decide how much of our income to dedicate to charitable causes. Without a moment of reflection, it’s easy for good intentions to get lost in... Continue reading

The single biggest issue I have with the current administration is the practice of blaming. How can we do better if we're so busy pointing fingers instead of trying to understand what the other side wants? Comedy writers are not paid to be role models. Presidents are. Houston Chronicle: How do we learn to hate? 2018-Dec-13 by Mikki Hebl No one is born with hate. It is a learned process, and it is easily taught, but we know it has a deep connection with fear. We hate someone because we are afraid they will harm us or our loved ones.... Continue reading

Microsoft now has benchmarks for their salespeople on how big their network of connections should be and how much time they should be collaborating with their customers. And their salespeople are relying on the LinkedIn Sales Navigator product to build their networks. We don't know these numbers, which probably would vary across companies and industries, but we know what to watch! Using their own Workplace Analytics software, Microsoft analyzed their own "complex sales organization of 20,000-plus salespeople covering large enterprises to small business customer segments, and spanning 100 countries." Harvard Business Review Blog: A Look into Microsoft's Data-Driven Approach to... Continue reading

A great product or service is no longer enough. Your company has to be respectable in order to sustain customer loyalty. Buyers expect your company to stand up for its values over and above making a profit. In the article linked below, Darren Evans suggests that your leadership has to answer the question: "our brand exists to ...." If your brand doesn't have a specific plan to make the world a better place, then why should I be loyal? The Engine Room: Five reasons why purpose will matter more in 2019, 2018-Dec-12 by Darren Evans (via The Wise Marketer) Research... Continue reading

Here's an excellent way to re-energize your LinkedIn posts. FIRST, you have to think about which people you want to converse with! Managing Editor: Why It’s Worth Rethinking Your LinkedIn Strategy, 2018-Dec-6 by Mary Ellen Slayter “Tagging is very powerful when done right, but you see people that do it in a skeezy way. You'll see people that post something and then they tag 30 people for no reason. And that's the wrong way to do it.” What’s the right way? Jake offers an example: “There's this trend in technology called ‘no code.’ When I heard about it I didn't... Continue reading

Vox is calling this a 'very opinionated' view of U.S. public transit from Houstonian Christof Spieler, but I think it's more... a practical, systematic, evidence-based, and YES irritable view of what matters in U.S. public transit! Vox: The best and worst cities in America for public transportation, according to an urban planner, 2018-Dec-7 by Christof Spieler ...complaining is kind of part of our relationship with transportation. I have yet run into a city where people have no complaints about their transit system. And, in fact, sometimes the places where you hear the most complaints are the best systems because the... Continue reading

On the QViews website, you can scroll down to my recommended books and see Creating Customer Evangelists by Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell. Jackie Huba has gone onto to build an amazing consulting practice that teaches businesses how to make customers feel special. Rally is a recovery and rehydration drink created in Houston. It's been growing for a couple of years and is now available at HEB, Spec's and other regional outlets. Congratulations to Rally and Jackie... I know you'll do well together! BusinessWire: Beverage Company “Rally” Hires Sales and Marketing Talent to Connect With Customers, Fuel Growth, and Expand... Continue reading

Design performance is a measurable goal like revenue and profit, and top management should treat it as such. The customer experience at every touchpoint is all part of the same product/service design. Employees achieve design excellence by working on cross-functional teams. Commitment to constant testing, measuring and revising is crucial. McKinsey Quarterly: The Business Value of Design, 2018-October, by Benedict Sheppard, Hugo Sarrazin, Garen Kouyoumjian, and Fabricio Dore The diversity among companies achieving top-quartile MDI performance shows that design excellence is within the grasp of every business, whether product, service, or digitally oriented. Through interviews and our experience working with... Continue reading

Perhaps we need an address clearance service. People used to be able to use the post office for this... "Notify everyone who mails me that my address has changed." We need to have this for every way we connect. And people need to own their data. Max Niederhofer blog: Why are contacts still such a mess, 2018-Nov-4 When I think of building contacts consumer software, I think it should be fully decentralized. Everyone should have their own record and permission who gets to see what (name, email, phone number, postal address in increasing level of sensitivity). An app sounds like... Continue reading

At Digital Tonto, Greg Satell reviews the innovation method used by Amazon, warning that all companies should develop a process that reflects their own values and strengths. The Amazon approach has three unusual angles which we could copy: Whereas the marketing communication materials are usually put together long after the product has been designed and tested, the Amazon innovation process begins with the creator thinking about what the customer will want and need to know. Writing, revising and getting feedback about the writing are a proxy for THINKING. At Amazon, thinking about the product under development is more clear and... Continue reading

As people get busy they are unlikely to maintain their community, so if you want someone in your IRL community, you have to take responsibility to get them out there. I recently began scrolling through my contacts and reminding people to come to events with me, or to see me for coffee, wine or a walk. The response level is surprising. I used to focus too much on specific people. Now I'm finding out who shares my desire for more community. Outside: It's Okay to Be Good and Not Great, 2018-Oct-16 by Brad Stulberg Foster an “In-Real-Life” Community Perhaps one... Continue reading

Newsletter frequency is traditionally every month, but weekly newsletters are becoming more popular. Newsletters that arrive without fail on the same day each week become part of many people's routine, especially if they reliably make a contribution to someone's life. Blue Penguin Development: The Friendship Illusion, 2018-Oct-19 by Michael Kat Time frame and relationship strength are tightly correlated When it comes to topics of discussion, in general, the better you and I know each other, the more frequently we communicate and, therefore, the narrower the time frame of the news we share. My wife: one day. My friends Matt and... Continue reading

Of course. I have big plans to create a business that Amazon can't touch. Yes,... I am a fool. Max Niederhofer: The Amazon "kill zone" in DTC, 2018-Oct-4 So what's Amazon not good at? Where do startups have an edge? Because Amazon certainly has structural advantages in scale, capital, data, and probably people. Right now, it looks like the advantage lies in "the other ways in which people want to shop." Whether it's through their friends, by following an influencer, by falling in love with the narrative of the brand, by joining a community of like-minded, passionate individuals for whom... Continue reading

From the inimitable Ann Handley: "The most important part of the newsletter isn't the news. The most important part of the newsletter is the letter." The purpose of sending a newsletter is to make connections with people. If you're not connecting, you're not doing it right. Continue reading

Although I enjoyed Scott's LinkedIn post the first time I read it, I keep circling back around to think about what it means to me. Has social media changed the way I form relationships? Yes, social media has changed me. For the better, the way it's changed Scott? Hmmm... Unfortunately, I think it's given me an excuse to not maintain some relationships as well as I should. I check the Facebook profile of close friends and skip giving them a call. On the plus side, I think I have more connections who are different than myself and more ability to... Continue reading

Before trying to change someone's mind, run down this checklist: Am I challenging a deeply held prior belief? Is that belief tied to the other person's identity? What are the beliefs I share with this person? What stories and jokes can I share that will get this person smiling? What are the rewards they could experience if they changed their mind? What are options I could offer this person to experience or learn about the new position? How do I stimulate their curiosity and get them to fill in the gaps in their knowledge? What is the other person's mood?... Continue reading

At PatSnap, the Head of Content is Timi Olotu, and he has established an incredibly effective practice. He and his staff develop blog posts, research, and interviews which are prized by PatSnap customers. The process of interacting with customers, performing research, then tracking statistics is so well ingrained, that having a "content calendar" is irrelevant. Managing Editor: A Different Kettle of Fish: How Timi Olotu Has Built a Successful B2B Content Marketing Program, 2018-Oct-16 by Lee Price For one, research is key. I try to instill a research sensibility with my team. One of the first things I invested in... Continue reading

For the Creative Houston startup, I'm thinking about hosting a marketplace for emerging local artists. Based on this article, this strategy might succeed as long as we plan to let the artists graduate off the niche platform and join the big boys... SSRN: Competing with Complementors: An Empirical Look at Amazon.com, 2018-Jun-6 by Feng Zhu and Qihong Liu Platform owners can exert considerable influence over their complementors’ welfare. Many complementors with successful products are pushed out of markets because platform owners enter their product spaces and compete directly with them. To mitigate such risks, complementors could build their businesses by... Continue reading

I'm all for having a very small board of people who actually want to contribute. Twitter: The Great Non-executive Director (NED), 2018-Oct-13 by Fred Destin 2/ what we normally get - a bunch of high level comments at board meetings only and vague moral support for the founders. 3/ what we’d really like - firstly someone who cares as deeply about the success of the business as the others around the table, and anticipates issues and dynamically maps out opportunities... 6/ here is my list of wants from a great NED : (a) consigliere to the founders (b) independent voice... Continue reading

I do not normally listen to videos in order to learn, but this series from Peter Levine is very efficient. I have a deep marketing education already, and breadth of experience with salespeople, but this set of lectures allows me to check out the specific angles I have never handled before. Andreessen Horowitz: All Things Sales! 16 Mini-Lessons for Startup Founders, 2018-Sep-2 by Peter Levine It takes time for an organization to learn how to sell its product.... The sales learning curve is divided into three phases: initiation, transition and execution.... We think about the initiation phase as hiring what... Continue reading

Why should we invest in social media? There is a path where social media exposure can lead to changes in behavior.... It's a long and winding road! Blog: Social Media monitoring and the spectrum of online relationships, 2009-Oct-1, by David J. Carr Social Media campaigns are uniquely measurable but not all measures are equal and indicate true effectiveness. Different social media actions or online conversations have different values and influences upon consumer behaviour. Multiple metrics, from number of followers and fans, to positive or negative sentiment, to reposts and influencer mentions, can be difficult to distinguish from one another. In... Continue reading

I find it hard to believe that Amazon's growing power will not create negative side effects for consumers. The purpose of "locking in" is to enable exploitation. First, the competitors are eliminated, then the customers are trapped. Government regulation is a normal, but not inevitable, response. Hacker Noon: A Map of Amazon and Modern Marketing, 2018-Sep-11 by David J. Carr Perceptual Competition changes customer expectations. It means you set the bar regardless of whether your product or service competes in the category in question. Building on great customer experience it creates a meaningful and distinctive brand with cultural relevance, esteem... Continue reading

Evidence suggests that I'm accepted by most people as a leader, but I think I'm really falling down in this area, largely because I avoid confrontation. I need to step up to it! Fast Company: 4 ways the people around you are secretly judging your management potential, 18-Oct-19 by Gwen Moran HOW DO YOU HANDLE CONFLICT? One big way people form opinions about you is in observing how you react to conflict, says Natalie Michael, CEO of Waterfront Partners, Inc., a West Vancouver, British Columbia-based executive coaching firm and author of Your CEO Succession Playbook. “To what extent can you... Continue reading

I value loyalty as a behavior because it establishes stability. It offers predictability in a world that's changing ever faster. However, we have to be smart about our loyalty. In order to have a stable base from which we can handle change, we must build our platform carefully. We also have to inspect it and maintain it. When loyalty tries to consume us, or to move us around, it must be questioned and possibly removed. Loyalty exposes us to exploitation. This situation reminds me of the old saying "It's good to have an open mind but be careful that your... Continue reading