The exchange of value — my attention in exchange for the information the newsletter provided me was not of value to me. I valued my attention more. The challenge we all have who write is to connect with the right audience. It’s what Seth Godin says, is your message personal, relevant, and timely. If not, it’s not of value.

So the realization this morning was I felt I wasn’t thinking big enough. To say it better, I had become comfortable and therefore not taking enough risks. I wasn’t putting myself on the line where I could enjoy the fruit of solving big problems. Joy for me isn’t getting by and just making a living. It’s the thrill of doing something big, making a difference, personally growing. That doesn’t mean I’m going to be reckless in my business or personal life, or think that I can succeed at anything I put my mind to, but I do believe that no matter what — I will be able to handle it.

That means a lot to me. It’s allowing me to think outside the box, focus on bigger projects, move faster, look for ways to create massive value, push the envelope, do things differently.

The reality is we are all capable of achieving way more than we do. Let’s give ourselves permission to win — and if we fail, it’s not as bad as we think if our mindset is to get back up. Don’t settle for average, I’m not.

“Too many of us sit on the sidelines of fear and doubt, unable to contribute to a world in need of our brilliance.” Chris Guillebeau

So with that I challenge you and myself to take bigger projects, don’t settle for average, take more risk, trust in your abilities, continually be growing, and set set your sights higher. Who knows — you might just learn that the only thing stopping you, is you.

1. Get in line and receive two decorated containers for the food. These were designed with drawing for the homeless recipient from local children in the area.
2. Mingle with other volunteers while in line. Also don’t forget the cheering for goals reached while in line and listen to upbeat music that kept the line going at a brisk pace.
3. Now you encounter a greeter who thanks you for volunteering and gives you brief instructions on the line you will be going to.
4. Now you are guided down the assembly line by a team leader who is smiling and appreciative you are there.
5. Now you are holding the containers as the stuffing is placed in the appropriate spot in the container.
6. Next person places the serving of green beens into the container
7. Next person says hello as he puts the piping hot corn into the container
8. Next is a high school girl and she puts a scoop of cranberry sauce next to the stuffing
9. Next a nice serving of hot turkey
10. Next a dinner roll
11. And let’s not forget the pumpkin pie
12. A person now grabs one of the two containers you are holding and closes the lid
13. Another person takes the other container and closes the lid
14. Both containers are now being placed in a box of other hot meals
15. I am thanked and cheered at the end of the line!
16. I continue to watch as drivers (volunteers) are lined up along the street at the end of the line to receive written instructions by one person (see video 2)
17. and another person is loading the number of meals for that order.

The 5 things I learned about creating buzz from attending the Cowboys game:

1. Make it where people want to talk about it (go viral). (e.g., post it to Facebook, Twitter, blog, YouTube)
2. Don’t do it like everyone else would do it. (Read Ignore Everybody by Hugh MacLeod)
3. Experiences aren’t found they are created. Someone carefully crafted the experience I was supposed to have, even the experience of leaving the stadium. (Read Free Prize by Seth Godin)
4. Create something that is totally unexpected. (Read Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath)
5. Make sure people have a smile on their face.  (Read Mr. Shmooze by Richard Abraham

It also helps if your content is personal, relevant, and delivered timely.

Reference: Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagiousness

Using a persons name exploits the power of selective attention readily bringing a message to the forefront of your mind. Neuromarketing (2), which is an intriguing marriage of marketing and science, has uncovered a technique for speeding up the processing for certain stimuli in our brains. If a person is exposed to something related to your idea before they actually encounter your idea, they will be more sensitive to it, and this makes it easier to catch their attention. The neat thing is the person doesn’t even have to be aware of the initial exposure for the priming to work. (1)

So how do you make it work?

1. The priming works the easiest when you create timely content. (1)
2. Share topics of interest that you can relate your idea to and deliver that to your target audience and the priming will naturally do it’s magic. (1)
3. Give your fans (subscribers, twitter followers, facebook fans) a sneak-peak of what is coming. (1)

Sources: (1) Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagious Ideas by Dan Zarrella   |   (2)  Buy-ology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy by Martin Lindstrom

1. Get your name for a domain name (e.g. name.com) Click here for the reason.
2. Brand yourself firstname.lastname@gmail.com is not good branding, firstname@first|lastname.net is better, firstname@first|lastname.com is the best.
3. If you are not visible you are invisible. I know being 50 means you are getting older but it doesn’t mean you are old! Start becoming visible to the new economy. Begin by writing, it’s the difference between being found and being extinct.
4. If you write it will make you read. You can’t share what you don’t know. People who don’t write usually have a reason besides atrophy, it’s that they quit learning and quit reading when they graduated. Now they just go through the motions of life.
5. A resume is boring and means very little in 2011; a blog positions you. It tells the world what you think, how you think, what’s important to you, and if you can help me.
6. If a person is looking for someone, where do they begin? Everyone begins with Google. Where are you showing up on Google? If I find you is it relevant information that helps me get to know you or is the same old, same old.
7. Subscribe to blogs and give feedback to the author. It keeps you sharp and you make someone feel special enough that you cared to comment. Some very good blogs to subscribe to: http://dondalrymple.net, http://blog.ascendworks.com, http://sethgodin.typepad.com, http://www.johnmauldin.com/, http://blogmaverick.com, http://boingboing.net/, http://ryanpaynemedia.com, http://www.presentationzen.com/, and many more!
8. 40 years from now what will people learn about you? Where will they learn it from? What about your children and grand children? Will they be able to search the Internet and read what was important to you?

When are you going to get started?

“No, I shouldn’t,” said Alice, surprised into contradicting her at last: “a hill can’t be a valley, you know. That would be nonsense—”

The Red Queen shook her head, “You may call it ‘nonsense’ if you like,” she said, “but I’ve heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!”

—Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

For a hobby, primarily in order to stay in shape, I ride a bike. It is not uncommon if you were riding in a car with me that as we approached a hill I would comment and say, “That is a hill (with emphasis on hill).” I would be defining that hill with some qualification of sort based on my own feelings and experiences riding up hills via my bike. But it’s still just a hill, right? Yes, until you personally experience that hill in a unique way (in my case on a bike).

Marketing automation is the same way. It’s just marketing automation until you personalize and automate the marketing to create an experience and elicit a feeling. It only then becomes powerful and regarded as marketing automation (emphasis).

This involves:

• Telling a story that is memorable
• Precise and purposeful leadflow
• Excellent content
• Good design – not boring
• Concrete message – creatively presented
• Aligning your selling process with the buyers buying process
• Precise nurturing
• Next actions based on activity
• Knowing what is working and not working

Recommended reading: Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.

Just how fast does the brain forget information?

According to the new model brain activity that the researchers have devised, the answer to that is:

One bit per active neuron per second

Fred Wolf of the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization further explains, that “extraordinarily high deletion rate came as a huge surprise,” and it effectively means that information is lost in the brain as quickly as it can be delivered.

For those trying to be noticed this means you are easily forgotten. How can your message be remembered?

1. Create lots of remarkable content that your prospect wants to know. If you want Google to recognize you, your content must be positioned correctly and it must be remarkable content.
2. Your content must help your prospect solve a problem — don’t sell them.
3. Engage your customer by offering something they won’t refuse. (It better be of value!)
4. Make it easy for a prospect to do business with you. Don’t tell them you’ll call them.
5. Automate, your prospect does not want to wait on you. Remember they will forget about you soon as they leave your site.

Reference: http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/28/new-research-suggests-our-brains-delete-information-at-an-extra/