Fire By Sea

I’m splitting my business in two parts and it’s a great feeling: one side publishing, one side marketing. Each with their own distinct focus and brand.

My big picture passion is embedded in the publishing side but the marketing is a necessary function of this. For the first time I feel like I don’t have to try and put on an act on my publishing blog — all that business marketing side of things can go into the marketing side.

Another things I’m starting to appreicate is the art of giving myself away. Once you get this concept, it’s enjoyable and feels like the only way to go. Then things start coming your way.

Instead of asking for cash (which there is much less of these days, and I’d say its value can actually devalue human relationships these days), the barter system is working well. People specialize in things and can trade that in for something they need.

I’m putting in the hours now — actually doing that gritty labor that most successful people talk about doing. The time for that is now and I’m glad because frankly I’m getting old.

This split makes a lot of sense — one side can actively go after monetization the other can go after building something truly great.

I guess what it is is that I feel like I’m my own person who understands the rules but knows how to make it my own — that’s the key to a successful marketer. Knowing who you are, being different and using that confidence to get other people excited about their own potential.

So much easier having gotten to this point…

It’s hard not to take business competition personally but it’s best not to as well.

I recently ran into a person who seemingly took my idea and started something on her own very similar to it. I did not release my idea yet (or rather act on it), so by her doing this I’m now all over it and rather excited.

In this case her doing something I had intended to but lack the confidence to do so catalyzed my doing it. Make sense?

So now the trick is to mobilize an do everything better than her. Going head to head against others will appear friendly to clients but will in my idea will be fierce. There is no room for competition in such a small place.

I love serendipity. It has to earned, though. You don’t experience the magic of serendipity unless you’ve been living in such a way that can manifest it.

Today was just a day like that. I’ve been getting up early, running, working more and pushing my intellect pretty hard (which feels great by the way).

Also been riding my bike to work in the afternoon. So today I roll in after taking a way I almost never take, roll into the parking lot and over a parking space that had someone’s cell phone laying on the ground right where the tire would have been had a car been there.

No sooner than when I placed the phone on the parking space curb for its owner to come back and retrieve, a familiar car pulls into the exact parking space with an old man driving it (I see him every day and we are friendly – I have no idea what he does, though).

He gets out of the car, I pick up the phone and said, “I just found this phone in this parking spot. You would’ve ran right over it had I not seen it and moved it.”

“That’s my phone,” said the old man. “How did that get there? Thanks.”

I handed it to him and watched him inspect the phone.

“Good thing I came ten seconds before you,” I said. “You would have ran right over that thing.”

And that’s serendipity.

I woke up early, ran extra, got to work early (which is AWESOME), published a blog post before editorial work, had a lite-ish lunch followed by a walk, then biking back to work, where I got organized and proactive about some projects I have in mind.

Again, it comes down to the little things. I worked on these things to collectively improve my day:

• Woke up with positive attitude.
• Ran about 10 minutes extra (didn’t have to of course).
• Got to work early.
• Stretched.
• Didn’t focus so much on eating.
• Took a walk, used the bike.
• Doubled down on real work.

Plus the weather was agreeable.

Chrome vs. Firefox browser: Chrome just does little intuitive things that make my life easier, save me time and ultimately allow me to appreciate the people behind it. I know they’ve thought hard about these features and tested and tweaked and tested and tweaked and so on.

So attention to detail is paramount. Facebook does this. Yet Twitter doesn’t. Twitter is so simple it’s ridiculous.

Simple, powerful, with attention to detail. Things to think about when designing a software solution.

I suppose in a competitive market, the one who pays the most care to smoothing out the small things will be the one who wins (well along with being honest, taking care of customers, great design, etc.).

So with that said, I’d to give the video-book company a real run for their money. While I don’t sense complacency, I do sense a feeling like “hey we’re the only ones here and we’re awesome and we’re not totally going to try super super hard perhaps because we have deep pockets and the passion is not as there as it should be.”

Maybe that’s just wishful thinking.

But seriously, I don’t totally sense their collaboration tools will evolute in time before a competitor comes along and jolts them. That could and should be me.

So I’ll be 35 next weekend. What do I want out of the next year? What’s my wish list? Let’s see:

• Completion of manifesto by 3 May(?)
• Momentum moving forward. Foundation for the future, no matter how small.
• Stronger, more powerful, less lofty dreams met with pragmatism and hard work.
• Respect of my body: no overeating, over drinking, varied exercise (+ swimming, weights, etc.)
• The Eagle eye — vision to See and Know.
• The ability to afford basic things.
• Connecting the manifesto to a product, even if the product is free.

There’s more, so to be continued…

I used to rely on a steady turnover of odd ‘miracles’ to get me through life — people letting me off easy, some extra unearned cash coming my way, serendipitous fortunes.

Those days are over. I never get anything like that anymore. It’s all to be earned.

Which is to say, for the better. Gotta learn the hard way, the real way, the way that can’t be pulled out from under me.

So, I’m off to work…

Some days are so tough on the homefront that I lose my desire to express myself. Today is one of those days.

Rather than recount the trauma, I would rather like to talk about something from a new angle and try and seek insight into it.

Let’s just put it this way:

• It doesn’t matter where you live, you’re still responsible for your own hapiness
• Attitude is everything, especially when you need help from others
• Being honest, transparent and truthful never fails
• Injecting your ego into your defenses means you’ll fall before you even have a fighting chance

I think some of the biggest constraints in my writing stem from following how people are telling me to write. I can’t believe I listen to them.

Supposedly, the second person ‘you’ is the way to go. We always have to write as if we’re trying to lure people in by sounding a certain way. Like we always have to have them in mind. Is this really the voice of the future, they style and tone — “hi I care about you. I’m writing to you and for you.”

So there’s a time and place for everything (ie copywriting).  But I’d like to switch to the fourth person – ‘we.’ It’s actually called the first person plural, bit I like Nth person better.

When you speak we you introduce empathy into the conversation. It’s no longer a sales pitch. It says “I’m in this with you” instead of “I’ve crafted this message just for you.”

Speaking in 2nd person dominates but it shouldn’t. Often it’s simply not a true voice. The ‘expert’ copywriter who crafted it has experience in sounding pleasing to your ears, in making you believe his benefits and features. There’s a whole emerging industry built on this.

The future of business would be better served in nth person, but it’s gotta be honest. Years of 2nd person marketing have worked but it’s becoming such a fad a lot more ‘we’ enlarges the conversation, connects people to one another, removes the isolation.

2nd person isolates, nth person includes. Evolution of conversation as in social media.