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How to Shake the Cobwebs Out of Your Brain

by Adam Lehman on May 16, 2012 in Motivate with 4 Comments

My brain gets foggy sometimes. I’m not sharp.

A coworker of mine once phrased it this way, “I’m asleep but I’m just talking.”

I get that.

Here are a few ways I’ve found help me shake the cobwebs:

Go For a Walk

Don’t walk for 5 minutes, go walk for 30 minutes or an hour. The long process of getting moving is golden.

Get Focused on Something Totally Unrelated

Go do an intense workout. Read a great fictional book. Head to the driving range. Call you parents to talk. Call an old friend. Go shave. Do the dishes.

Make a To-Do List

All those things swimming around your head are clogging your output. Grab a blank piece of paper and write every single thing you need to get done on there. Then put dates next to them. Then put them on a calendar or to-do application. This will free up your brain muscles to push on the important stuff.

Go Buy Something

This might not be helpful, but sometimes – in the shallowest parts of my being – it just feels good to go to Target and buy myself cool pens or a notebook. Post-it notes are a nice treat as well.

If you really want to treat yourself, go buy dehydrated marshmallows (similar to those gems found in Lucky Charms). 

Remind Yourself of Who You Truly Are

Lots of folks spend their time trying to convince you that you need to be something that you’re not. Buy this and you’ll be pretty. Eat this and you’ll be happy. Drink this and you’ll be fun, cool & lovable. Watch this show or you’ll miss out.

Sometimes the best thing you can do is just take a deep breath and say, “My name is ______. I’m ________ & _________ & ________. I’m really good at _______ & __________ and I LOVE ____________.”

Then Get Back to It

Remember, if you just put it all off until tomorrow, you’re gonna be stuck in the same space again. You’re brain real estate will be clogged and you’ll be full of cobwebs.

 

What Are You Trying to Prove?

by Adam Lehman on May 13, 2012 in Marketing with 1 Comment

Your marketing efforts can go one of two ways:

1. You’re trying to share. Pull back the curtains, share the story, tell us about yourself. You’re letting prospective customers know what it’s like to shop, donate, volunteer or give with you.

2. You’re trying to prove. You don’t really believe you can deliver as much value as you ought to, so you continually harp on how much value you deliver. Maybe you’re a small company but you want to sound big, impressive & corporate. So you’re website makes it sound like you have offices all over the country with hundreds of employees.

When you’re trying to prove. Take a second to look at what you’re really trying to say. What are you really afraid of?

Remember: a funny person doesn’t spend all their time telling you they’re funny, they just make you laugh.

 

“You’ve Got My Permission To Make This Better”

by Adam Lehman on April 26, 2012 in Lead, Relate with 5 Comments

There’s a problem. You see it. You know how to fix it.

Now what?

Do you go fix it & then keep to yourself?

Do you tell your boss?

Do you tell your coworkers?

Do you tell your competition?

Do you tell your clients?

Great leaders are ready & willing to delegate results. A great leader will look at you and say, “You have my permission to make this better.”

A great employee will go to their boss and explain problems and ask for permission.“Can I make this better? Who do I need to talk with about making this better?”

Leaders, give permission. If you’re scared to ask, you’re not developing your people like you could.

Followers, ask for permission instead of complaining. If you’re scared to ask, you’re not developing yourself like you could.

3 Kickstarter Campaigns I’m Pumped About

by Adam Lehman on April 25, 2012 in Entrepreneurs with No comments

It’s been well documented by other media outlets, but let me reiterate: Kickstarter is going to revolutionize the way projects & products are launched. We haven’t seen anything yet.

Here are 3 of my favorite projects right now:

1. Instaprint – The Location Based Photo Booth for Instagram

So imagine you’re at a party, restaurant, concert or museum. You snap a picture, post it to Instagram. Your immediate network sees it. Cool.

Now imagine you are that restaurant or venue. You love the free press that is going out because of Instagram pictures, but you can’t really force them to take something.  You install a couple of boxes on the wall that print pictures from Instagram. Someone posts to Instagram and a picture falls out. Then another person at the venue observes all this happening. Then they take a picture. Repeat, repeat, repeat. You can’t pay enough for the organic marketing that just took place.

Watch the video for more or head to the Instaprint Kickstarter Page.

2. Pebble Watch – E-Paper Watch for iPhone and Android

These watches are sexy, gorgeous, awesome or hawt. All the above. I can’t even begin to describe the coolness. Watch the video to see for yourself or head to their Kickstarter page.

3. Portrait: A Documentary on the Minds Behind the Camera

2 things I love about this project….

A. The mission is to “demystify the creative process.” I dig it! Portrait will follow three innovative photographers and let you into their life, their process & their craft.

B. Any contributor will receive their portrait in the film. I don’t possess a shred of vanity, but my portrait in a film seems to make me feel good.

Watch the video below for more or check out their project page.

In Light of Annoyances

by Adam Lehman on April 24, 2012 in Grow with 1 Comment

There is opportunity in the annoying. Lean In

Portions of life can be annoying.

Waiting in line. Bad waiters. A coworker who’s a passionate Nickelback fan. A 4 o’clock meeting on a Friday.

These are a few of my favorite things … errrrr …

Annoyances are such because we have so much opportunity flying around us.

Today there are an abundance of opportunities. of options. of possibilities. Maybe more than any other point in history.

Ever stop to think about why you’re annoyed with your job? Could it be that there seems to be millions around you that are starting their own thing?

Lean into the annoyance & you’ll stumble into an abundance of opportunity.

Why do Twitter spam bots annoy me? Because I’ve made so many meaningful connections there (and intend to make so many more!).

Don’t let the annoyances in life turn you into a cynic. Lean in. Slap on a smile because you see what’s really going on here…

 

A Good Storyteller vs A Good Story

by Adam Lehman on April 17, 2012 in Marketing with 4 Comments

Being a Good Storyteller vs Being a Good Story

Businesses & “gurus” hovering around social media can easily get wrapped up in connecting, sharing, re-sharing & syndicating each other’s content. Exploding with possibility, marketers are drooling over opportunities to tell their clients’ stories.

Speakers, bloggers, tweeters & Google + champs all are developing their storytelling skills.

A good storyteller is able to spot the plot-twists, ironies & foreshadowing throughout a story. Keeping the audience satisfied yet hungry for more is a skill, an art really.

But there is a difference between a good storyteller & a good story.

A good story is about overcoming obstacles, the long-shot or the unlikely hero. A good story might not contain a good storyteller.

You see, a story is much differently than a storyteller. Sometimes I think marketers get that confused….

Marketers can feel like 10,000 twitter followers or 1000 blog subscribers is an epic conquest. We feel like a handful of generated leads should afford us the applause of colleagues.

It just seems that – in our social media world – too many of us have opted to be storytellers instead of living a great story.

Converting the Non-Believer

by Adam Lehman on April 3, 2012 in Relate with 2 Comments

… can be impossible.

In religion, marketing & social media you’ll never be able to convert everyone to your platform, process or product.

Never.

While you might have a far superior product in terms of price, quality & service; there’s one factor you’re not including:

timing.

Timing is the intersection of a potential client’s need and your offering.

I will desperately need business coaching/mentoring … sometime in the future. I am 100% going to need an accountant … but not this year. Try to talk to me about accounting now & I’ll probably crack jokes or yawn.

Focus your connecting and converting with those that are near the timing intersection, be OK with missing folks who aren’t anywhere close.

 

Big & Little Things

by Adam Lehman on March 30, 2012 in Lead with No comments

Great artists see the big picture. Great artists see the details.

To work well with people, you’ve got to understand what’s going on with them on a high level and in the details of their life.

The big things are important & so are the little.

Which are you better at? Big or Little?

What’s the Point of a Magazine?

by Adam Lehman on March 30, 2012 in Business with No comments

This is not a rhetorical question. I’d very much like an answer.

Looking through the latest issue of Artbox Magazine and recognized a lot of works that I’d seen previously on StumbleUpon.

I pulled out another DIY magazine, showed my wife a cool project to which she replied, “I’ve bookmarked so many of those on Etsy.”

Magazines used to be a place to see “new” or “fresh” ideas. But the net has flipped all that on it’s head. Ideas spread in a week (remember the KONY 2012 campaign…?), so publications coming out each month (or quarter) have zero chance of breaking something fresh.

So, you tell me, what’s the point of a magazine?

 

Gaming the SEO System Won’t Work (and 2 Things to Do About It)

by Adam Lehman on March 22, 2012 in SEO & SEM with No comments

Google works pretty dang hard to make sure they’re search engine pops up ultra-relevant results for searchers.

They do a pretty good job.

The day that Google loses their hold on the market will be the same day the top 10 search results are all sites with garbage content loaded with keywords and ads. Google won’t let this happen.

So you can scheme and scheme away at ways to dominate SEO, but all the gimmicky crap is routinely axed.

Here’s the two things that will always matter and will always be useful.

Write Great Content that Human Beings Enjoy

Writing great content with human’s in mind will keep you headed at the same goal as the Googlebots. Google wants search results to be 100% aligned with actual interest of searchers, just worry about your content being interesting. You and Google have the same goal & that’s a good place to be.

It’s OK to throw in a keyword or two, but beware of overcrowding the content with garbage keywords.

Get Links Pointing to Your Website

Google will always rank the authority of a website by the quality & quantity of links pointing towards a site. So doing a bunch of garbage work to get your site listed in directories and forums is fine (until the day when Google gives these spaces less/zero authority) but just having normal people write about your content or list your site are the best ways to go.

Buying links, link-swapping and other shady schemes might pay off in the short-term, but maintaining that is going to be a nightmare once Google gets wise to your schemes.

 

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