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	<title>Eric S. Townsend Marketing — Leverage the Internet Easily with ESTmktg</title>
	
	<link>http://www.ericstownsendmarketing.com</link>
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		<title>Websites / Award Winners</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/estmktg/~3/MOnpBSeoca0/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ericstownsendmarketing.com/2012/04/27/websites-award-winners/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Apr 2012 04:44:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ericstownsend</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Overview]]></category>

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		<item>
		<title>Spirited.</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/estmktg/~3/aubZkvG51Xs/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ericstownsendmarketing.com/2012/04/23/spirited/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 23 Apr 2012 04:09:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ericstownsend</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Portfolio]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ericstownsendmarketing.com/?p=5633</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Smart branding&#8217;s myriad faces.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Smart branding&#8217;s myriad faces.</p>
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		<title>Richly-Textured.</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/estmktg/~3/mM_cwym9wNI/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ericstownsendmarketing.com/2012/04/23/richly-textured-1/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 23 Apr 2012 04:01:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ericstownsend</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Portfolio]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ericstownsendmarketing.com/?p=5629</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Smart branding&#8217;s myriad faces.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Smart branding&#8217;s myriad faces.</p>
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		<title>Informative.</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/estmktg/~3/zvFMV3FQfpA/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ericstownsendmarketing.com/2012/04/22/informative/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 23 Apr 2012 03:59:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ericstownsend</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Portfolio]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ericstownsendmarketing.com/?p=5626</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Smart branding&#8217;s myriad faces.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Smart branding&#8217;s myriad faces.</p>
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		<title>Competition-Primed.</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/estmktg/~3/V8Pvf6FY758/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ericstownsendmarketing.com/2012/04/22/competition-primed/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 23 Apr 2012 03:55:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ericstownsend</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Portfolio]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ericstownsendmarketing.com/?p=5620</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Smart branding&#8217;s myriad faces.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Smart branding&#8217;s myriad faces.</p>
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		<title>Storytelling.</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/estmktg/~3/__6u2W6Lyfg/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ericstownsendmarketing.com/2012/04/21/storytelling-1/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 22 Apr 2012 01:22:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ericstownsend</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Portfolio]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ericstownsendmarketing.com/?p=5592</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Smart branding&#8217;s myriad faces.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Smart branding&#8217;s myriad faces.</p>
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		<title>Storytelling.</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/estmktg/~3/OPU5pJYBKls/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ericstownsendmarketing.com/2012/04/21/storytelling-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 22 Apr 2012 01:01:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ericstownsend</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Portfolio]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ericstownsendmarketing.com/?p=5585</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Smart branding&#8217;s myriad faces.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Smart branding&#8217;s myriad faces.</p>
<p><a class="a2a_dd a2a_target addtoany_share_save" href="http://www.addtoany.com/share_save#url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ericstownsendmarketing.com%2F2012%2F04%2F21%2Fstorytelling-2%2F&amp;title=Storytelling." id="wpa2a_12"><img src="http://www.ericstownsendmarketing.com/wp-content/plugins/add-to-any/share_save_171_16.png" width="171" height="16" alt="Share"/></a></p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>Vibrance</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/estmktg/~3/01ZGvriI2Bg/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ericstownsendmarketing.com/2012/04/21/vibrance/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 21 Apr 2012 07:42:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ericstownsend</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ericstownsendmarketing.com/?p=5565</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In business, it doesn&#8217;t pay to be shy, reserved and playing things safe. Each of us needs to be comfortable with stepping to the front, communicating vividly and demonstrating leadership acumen. Go-to resource. Voice of reason. Tastemaker. Catalyst for progress. Relinquish your interest or investment in these roles and surrender your gravity. You will seem [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In business, it doesn&#8217;t pay to be shy, reserved and playing things safe. Each of us needs to be comfortable with stepping to the front, communicating vividly and demonstrating leadership acumen. Go-to resource. Voice of reason. Tastemaker. Catalyst for progress. Relinquish your interest or investment in these roles and surrender your gravity. You will seem dull and less capable. You will be asking to be replaced.</p>
<p><a class="a2a_dd a2a_target addtoany_share_save" href="http://www.addtoany.com/share_save#url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ericstownsendmarketing.com%2F2012%2F04%2F21%2Fvibrance%2F&amp;title=Vibrance" id="wpa2a_14"><img src="http://www.ericstownsendmarketing.com/wp-content/plugins/add-to-any/share_save_171_16.png" width="171" height="16" alt="Share"/></a></p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>Hiatus from the Blog – and Why</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/estmktg/~3/yFYO48xGNG8/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ericstownsendmarketing.com/2012/03/01/hiatus-from-the-blog-%e2%80%93%c2%a0and-why/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:01:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ericstownsend</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ericstownsendmarketing.com/?p=4978</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[there&#8217;s a simple reason for my hiatus from the blog tab of this website. i&#8217;m dedicated to the ongoing launch of go booklets, the new publishing arm of eric s. townsend marketing (estmktg). the mission for our products is &#8220;quick to read, educate and inspire — positivity, published!&#8221; go booklets is what i&#8217;d like to [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>there&#8217;s a simple reason for my hiatus from the blog tab of this website. i&#8217;m dedicated to the ongoing launch of go booklets, the new publishing arm of eric s. townsend marketing (estmktg). the mission for our products is &#8220;quick to read, educate and inspire — positivity, published!&#8221; go booklets is what i&#8217;d like to call a &#8220;legacy project.&#8221; it represents something i&#8217;ll be feeding for the rest of my life. it also ties me back to educator roots — my mother and father were both teachers for their entire professional careers. to date, i&#8217;ve authored two books (late 2011 and early 2012), entitled &#8220;<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bizkus-Dragonfire-Business-Haiku-ebook/dp/B0075LLKLU/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top" target="_blank">bizkus: dragonfire for business &amp; life</a>&#8221; and &#8220;<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Telling-Aint-Selling-Customers-ebook/dp/B007B6TFXO/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1330645917&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank">telling ain&#8217;t selling: play catch with customers</a>.&#8221; both are currently available  on amazon. click the linked titles above to visit us there. in addition, &#8220;pretty-formatted&#8221; versions of the books are available at the <a href="http://www.ericstownsendmarketing.com/shop/selected-products">selected products page of this website</a>. we have a series of projects planned for the rest of the year and beyond. of course, we continue to provide marketing services. go booklets is viewed as a natural extension of the professional writing and editing skills we offer to our clients. the output opens up a downstream brand that provides value at lower price points than what it takes to hire eric s. townsend marketing (estmktg). go booklets provides yet another way for us to give back to the professional services community and consumers-at-large.</p>
<p><em>here are additional <a href="http://frugaldad.com/target" target="_blank">amazon promos</a>.</em></p>
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		<item>
		<title>To Live and Die by the Sword</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/estmktg/~3/fc-JFWTHAAk/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ericstownsendmarketing.com/2012/01/09/to-live-and-die-by-the-sword/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jan 2012 04:35:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ericstownsend</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ericstownsendmarketing.com/?p=4727</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[tim tebow throws an errant pass on third down near the end of regulation. it&#8217;s a simple crossing route. his receiver is uncontested. it&#8217;s the kind of blunder that usually costs you the game. it leaves the opposing pittsburgh steelers with just over 1:30 on the clock. a field goal and they win. keep in [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>tim tebow throws an errant pass on third down near the end of regulation. it&#8217;s a simple crossing route. his receiver is uncontested. it&#8217;s the kind of blunder that usually costs you the game. it leaves the opposing pittsburgh steelers with just over 1:30 on the clock. a field goal and they win. keep in mind that this is late in the fourth quarter, on the same stage on which team owner john elway once stamped his ticket for the hall of fame. as fate would have it, the steelers squander their opportunity. whether it&#8217;s divine intervention or not, i don&#8217;t know. the game heads into overtime.</p>
<p>on his next play, given the same type of throw — tebow connects. to live and die by the sword.</p>
<blockquote><p><em>more than 1 million mentions on twitter. the rate of tweets announcing the victory hit 9,420 per second. beats the 8,868 tweets-per-second rate reached when beyoncé announced her pregnancy.</em></p></blockquote>
<p>forget disney world. forget what people are saying on social media and around the cooler at work. tebow earns a $250,000 bonus for this playoff win. it&#8217;s quite the story of forgiveness, second chances and redemption. can you imagine what would have happened if this game ended instead with a interception for a touchdown, and with the steelers victorious? i know, not possible with god on tebow&#8217;s side. still, what a holy war these broncos are waging.</p>
<p>look at what the team&#8217;s on-field leadership believes&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p><em>“football is an aggressive game, a combative game,” broncos coach john fox said. “you can’t play it careful. you can’t play it hesitant. you’ve got to pull the trigger.”</em></p></blockquote>
<p>let me state here that i&#8217;m no tim tebow fan. i certainly won&#8217;t give him singular credit for what&#8217;s going on in denver these days. what&#8217;s most interesting is the alignment of strategic planning, branding and tactical execution — from iconic owner, to rookie coach who&#8217;s adapted the plan to account for his quarterback&#8217;s talents and shortcomings, to a number of players peaking at the right time (tim tebow, willis mcgahee, demaryius thomas, elvis dumervil, von miller, and others). not to mention, these rabid fans actually produced an orange version of their opponent&#8217;s famed &#8220;terrible towel&#8221; for this game. you&#8217;re dissing the legendary steelers, winners of a record six super bowls. that&#8217;s pushing your chips all the way in.</p>
<p>fan or no fan — and i&#8217;m an oakland raiders fan in football — this has become something more than just sport. this is big business.</p>
<p><em><a href="http://couponcravings.com/">Special sales</a> on fan apparel are available through <a href="http://www.gamereadygear.com" target="_blank">Game Ready Gear</a>, our new subsidiary.</em></p>
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		<item>
		<title>Truly Strategic</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/estmktg/~3/2_xQe8ZW2xE/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ericstownsendmarketing.com/2012/01/05/truly-strategic/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 05 Jan 2012 05:47:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ericstownsend</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ericstownsendmarketing.com/?p=4673</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[initiatives are sometimes called strategic, when they&#8217;re really just tactical. if it&#8217;s an issue of semantics, where you&#8217;re mishandling a word but understand the broad concepts, then that&#8217;s perfectly cool. the one thing you can&#8217;t afford is desperate activity — where you&#8217;re tactical without first being truly strategic. if you&#8217;re impatient and that&#8217;s why you haven&#8217;t [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>initiatives are sometimes called strategic, when they&#8217;re really just tactical. if it&#8217;s an issue of semantics, where you&#8217;re mishandling a word but understand the broad concepts, then that&#8217;s perfectly cool. the one thing you can&#8217;t afford is desperate activity — where you&#8217;re tactical without first being truly strategic. if you&#8217;re impatient and that&#8217;s why you haven&#8217;t thought strategically, then it&#8217;s time to find that inner strength. if you feel that strategy is too much thinking and not enough action, then it&#8217;s time to realize that others are using their strategies to achieve greater ends than you. anyone can get busy with tactics. there&#8217;s a huge difference between working hard and working smart.</p>
<p>so let&#8217;s take a look at the difference between the two concepts. if you&#8217;re familiar with the military application of the terms, then you know that strategy is the highest of tier of planning. tactics are the lowest. in between is the operational level, where strategies are converted to tactics. </p>
<p>every businessperson has allowed his or herself to jump past strategy and operations to tactics. it&#8217;s easy to justify. better to do something than nothing. talk is cheap. don&#8217;t just sit there. the list of cliches goes on and on. however, we also know that time and energy are both limited. haste makes waste. with a little bit of upper level planning, the effort you put into tactics will help you to capitalize and achieve entirely different results. you will have a firmer resolve as you hit the battleground running. your focus is sharper. actions will mean more to you because they fit into a bigger picture. one can easily argue that just having a strategy — any strategy— will make each tactic more meaningful and impacting.</p>
<p>so do yourself a favor. be strategic. truly strategic. don&#8217;t just rush into the marketing tactic of the month because someone pitched you to consider it. even if someone you know benefitted from a measure, carefully consider how much you are like him or her — how your goods, information and talents might fare with same. when you have a strategic plan, you will be armed to make the quick decisions you feel yourself wanting to make. that&#8217;s because you will know your goals and how various speculative actions can or cannot reinforce them.  </p>
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		<title>Protect or Share Your Edge?</title>
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		<comments>http://www.ericstownsendmarketing.com/2011/12/22/protect-or-share-your-edge/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:05:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ericstownsend</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[many of us have caught ourselves in the midst of a dangerous tell. others divulge great knowledge, gifts and secrets every week. what is it about cultivating an edge that inevitably leads to it being shared? does being charitable, in this light, not negate the edge? is there some special fit between an edge and [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>many of us have caught ourselves in the midst of a dangerous tell. others divulge great knowledge, gifts and secrets every week. what is it about cultivating an edge that inevitably leads to it being shared? does being charitable, in this light, not negate the edge? is there some special fit between an edge and its bearer that&#8217;s unique, tailored and non-transferable? one thing is for sure. edge is credited often, and in every competitive arena — whether that&#8217;s a playing field or a marketplace. you can&#8217;t move ahead of the pack without it. you&#8217;re told that once you&#8217;ve lost it, finito.</p>
<p>if i lean in one direction, it&#8217;s that an edge can&#8217;t fully be assimilated. it takes wonder, wishfulness and willpower to even pursue and develop an edge in the first place. few have that burning desire or curiosity in his/her belly. that means that few can take an edge and execute like its previous vessel. many are perfectly at ease with following life&#8217;s various manuals and attaining acceptable levels of performance. as students, some just won&#8217;t have what it takes to match or outdo their teachers.</p>
<p>that brings this around to perspective — the way in which one person perceives, parses and positions information to inform a more polished understanding of the way things are. is information not the same everywhere? it&#8217;s perspective that decides who gets it and how much of it. perhaps perspective is why i share at just about every turn. helping others is good practice, and i never feel that i&#8217;m at risk of irrelevance or bankrupcy. perhaps it&#8217;s my respect of karma that leads me to be so free with edge.</p>
<p>i&#8217;m reminded of a conversation that hip hop artist missy elliott and rock and roll hall of famer prince once had on the subject. missy elliott was fired up years ago that artists were &#8220;stealing&#8221; production methods from her and co-producer timbaland. she even went so far as to write new material that challenged that others had been copying — which one could argue was, in itself, copying through rehash. prince stepped in with a simple suggestion. why not change the game all over again? you did it once and could do it again. there&#8217;s nothing gained by copying something that&#8217;s already been improved. the bottom line — keep inventing.</p>
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