Dominate your Niche.
Its easy if it is in fact YOUR niche. If it is what you choose to do, then do what it takes to dominate it. If it is just something that you kinda like, or it’s just your job, you’ll suck at it. You won’t dominate it.
If you love it, you should be able to dominate it.
This sounds so easy. But it’s not. There is a 4 letter word that gets in the way of all of this. It’s a word called WORK.
Yes. It takes WORK to dominate your niche. But here’s the thing. If what you really set out to do was dominate something that you love, it shouldn’t be that bad of work.
But people are lazy.
How do I know? I work with them. We build killer websites at Green Thumb. But there is something bigger going on when we build a website. The owner who is getting their site has to deal with something much bigger then us just building them a site. They have to look at their self and business and describe how they want to be portrayed online. Do you know how hard that is for some people?
It’s the part of my job that I hate the most. Getting people’s content. Getting them to describe who they are.
I ask them for what they want on their site and they look at me like I just farted or something. "What do you mean, what I want on my site?" HELLO?! Yes. What do you want it to say. I’m not writing it for you. The client has to do the work here. We can’t write your story. It’s yours….
Jarod is a huge pain in my ass. But he has a point with getting peoples content. Getting them to tell their story. People are lazy. People don’t like to be uncomfortable. Writing about their business is uncomfortable for most. I have seen this from the owners of ALL different kinds of companies, big and small.
But alas, these companies that can’t write their own story don’t have to worry. They don’t have to worry because if they don’t write their own stories someone else will tell a better story and then no one will care about their non-existant story because they will be non-existant.
Yes, it’s that’s happening. Some where someone is telling about their business better then you.
Transparency is everything. Being plain and boring gets you nowhere. Being authentic and real gets you somewhere. It gets you noticed. Don’t aim to please everyone. (You can’t please everyone, no matter how hard you try) The goal is to make the people that like you, LOVE you. Then you don’t need to worry about those who don’t like you. (did you really want to do business with them anyway?)
I’ll give you a great example then get off of my soap box. Do you think the executives give a shit about the few people who were offended when their company changed their name? I doubt Big Ass Fans people care…
Dominate your niche, tell your story…constantly. The internet love YOUR fresh content….
I forgot how much fun networking is. Commerce Lexington always puts on a good business link at the Hilton at Lexington Green.
Tonight I started talking with a guy who was an OU graduate…bleeding green like me. Fun Fun
We also ran into the Stewart heating and air conditioning crew. If you need your furnace repaired , they are your people. The whole gang has a great outlook on business and life. Call there sometime, my girl J will greet you with the best greeting you’ve ever heard. I’m proud that we’ve done everything for them from the ground up…and its working…
It was good to run into people who asked me where the heck I had been. Obviously I was happy to bust out a picture of Nola and explain how fatherhood is my new thing.
But the best part is Mrs. Kim. That’s right my babysitter. Mrs. Kim is one of the many women working hard behind the scenes in my life. I told her I had that event and she said she was happy to watch Nola till 6. I ended up picking Nola up at 6:25 and taking her back to the networking for about 10 minutes. Shamelessly promotion with my daughter? I’m not afraid.
Thanks Mrs. Kim for helping me grow a business and help properly raise my daughter. It’s refreshing to drop her off and have her wave her arms in excitement to see you. Couldn’t ask for a better sitter…
Green Thumb Baby!
Seth Godin officially has my attention now until I can read every book he has published. I’m through about 3 of around 11.
In, "All Marketers are Liars" page 160.
He doesn’t even mention Snowshoe, but I get it now.
You see, he tells of how Intrawest is planning on building a "100 year old French Village" in the Alps.
Why would Intra west want to do that? Because it will be awesome that’s why. Because people would talk about it. People would remark about it. It would be "Remark-able" It would flourish from the word of mouth attention.
Snowshoe is also owned by Intrawest. Snowshoe is where I hide. I love it. I can hop in my crappy car and be there in 6 hours.
This 100 year old village made me think about my love for Snowshoe. Why do I love it so much?
Is it because it is the best snowboarding in the Mid-Atlantic? kinda.
But, I could go to perfect north for the day and travel only an hour and a half. Less travel and its way cheaper.
What about Wisp? My buddy Travis lives in Morgantown WV. I can crash at his place and rob his fridge too.. SAME DISTANCE as Snowshoe. Way less cost and a buddy to ride with
Here’s what it is with Snowshoe. Snowshoe/Intrawest do it right.
1. Snowshoe is on top of the mountain. That alone makes it just plain cool, everywhere you look- Killer Views
2. Snowshoe has a town on top of the mountain. You feel like you are, "king of the mountain"
3. Snowshoe has high speed lifts and groomers from out west. (people who know how to make it perfect condition)
It’s the full package. Do I pay a premium? Yeah, do I care? NOPE!
Do I tell everyone I know about my love for Snowshoe? Yep…(Rats they’ve got me!)
..brilliant marketing
Seth Godin has the longest running business blog on the web . You should check it out sometime….
Here’s me hitting a jump….
I am yanking this straight out of Seth Godin’s book "Tribes" I am a huge fan of his stuff.
The quote is from page 92. Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, said, "Google’s not a real company. It’s a house of cards." He also said, "there can’t be any more deep technology in Facebook than what dozens of people could write in a couple of years. That’s for sure."
Funny because Microsoft is playing catch up to Google.
Two big examples…
One- BING. (B.ecause I.t’s N-ot G.oogle)
Two- It is now giving away windows 10.
(you’ll note that Google has given away it’s service for a while now…gmail, analytics and google’s search….you know)
FYI: My fishtank blog is on google’s blogger platform as well.
What this means to your business is easy. Expect the unexpected and don’t rule out that wild idea that the competitor is doing. Don’t stick to the norm. Bust out and do something wild. You might fall, or you might have a huge hit!
Ever heard of Big Ass Fans? How can you not love it? Do some people hate their name, sure. But way more people love it then hate it.
Risks aren’t easy, but the reward is worth the nervousness you have before.
On a Green Thumb note. I was pretty nervous the first time I ever painted my thumb green for a networking event. Do you have any idea how many people LOVED it? I had one lady buy from me the next day cause of it. Do you know how many haters I have encountered with my Green Thumb.
ONE.
Do you think I give a rats about the one guy who negatively commented on it? Heck no. I got people who demand it now and feel let down when i don’t have it!
Take a risk, do something out of the norm. Do something wow… Or something Green WOW . 
It might work.
Webmaster Level: All Last year we introduced Rich Snippets , a new feature that makes it possible to surface structured data from your pages on Google’s search results.
Read more:
Introducing a new Rich Snippets format: Events
Webmaster Level: All We thought it might be fun and educational to create a quiz for webmasters about issues we commonly see in the Webmaster Help Forum . Together with our awesome Bionic Posters , we’ve tried to come up with questions and answers that reflect recurring concerns in the forum and some information that may not be well known
Here is the original:
Test your webmaster know-how!
We hit our revenue goal for 2009! Yes sir!
The goal wasn’t a big one in my opinion. Infact, I’ve ran a business where I personally made as much as our goal was as a team. But that was a different economy and a business I had been in for 2.5 years.
Our man Les pointed out, "Look, you started a business in the worst economy since the great depression"
Unlike my lead business, this company is here to stay regardless of the economy.
But I’m proud of our accomplishments in 2009 beyond the revenue.
The reality which is even better, is that we have created a company with a culture and a flavor that draws employees to it. We’ve got people doing what they love to do, and we let them play to their strengths. That is probably more important then the money, cause when you have that figured out first, the money will come on its own.
Big props to everyone….
Jarod for being a wild man behind the computer screen and being a malcontent with our progress. (kids never satisfied…and that’s a good thing)
Allen for helping Jarod not lose his mind….sorta.
Kelly for always keeping us in check with the finances, and for telling me I am selling like a piker.
Matt for bringing the heat to the sales team and batting down deals while advancing our sales attack, army style.
Casey for stepping up our sales as well as landing us a great tasting beer.
Thank you for anyone who ever told us NO, or that we were doing it wrong…that just made us more determined.
Many thanks to all of the clients who made it possible. I’d like to particularly thank all of the clients that gave us a shot in the beginning when we had ZERO body of work. We couldn’t have done it without you. (Lex mini, Nature Splendor, Powers Transmission)
Wait until you see what we roll out in 2010…
Go Green Thumb!
Celebration to follow when Matt gets back.
Forget the Recession: It is a Renaissance.
A Renaissance coming. I was a history major. I know these things….
re•nais•sance
Pronunciation: \?re-n?-?sän(t)s, -?zän(t)s, -?sä?s, -?zä?s, ?re-n?-?, chiefly British ri-?n?-s?n(t)s\
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: French, from Middle French, rebirth, from Old French renaistre to be born again, from Latin renasci, from re- + nasci to be born — more at nation
Date: 1845
1 capitalized a : the transitional movement in Europe between medieval and modern times beginning in the 14th century in Italy, lasting into the 17th century, and marked by a humanistic revival of classical influence expressed in a flowering of the arts and literature and by the beginnings of modern science b : the period of the Renaissance c : the neoclassic style of architecture prevailing during the Renaissance
2 often capitalized : a movement or period of vigorous artistic and intellectual activity
3 : rebirth, revival
What happened in the Renaissance period is that society woke up. Society was reborn. This is happening now.
During the Renaissance, the common man stopped and looked around and thought, “I can do better than this.” People started thinking again.
The Renaissance came out the dark ages when people did what they were told and didn’t think. Guess what? There was a run of several good years there when people did not think. (Governments included)
We got ourselves in to a recession by running at full throttle. It was a good run. It is obvious the economy ran out of gas a few years back. But there is good news……
We needed it. Society needed it.
“Intellectual activity” is now back.
People are thinking and discussing more of what they are thinking.
It is now “cool” to communicate; and easier to do it.
Join the Renaissance.
PS. You know times are changing when my 60 year old father has a Facebook page! Maybe this is why…
http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/02/02/fastest-growing-demographic-on-facebook-women-over-55/
Cool History Note: Did you know that Leonardo DaVince made a central heating system for a castle in Milan?
One of our core beliefs is that the Millennials have control of the internet. I’m never backing down on that.
Younger generations always will be better at technology. (my daughter will pass me by and my 17 year old sister is a wiz)
Everyone but me is under 25..and I’m the old man at 28, until now…
Here comes 64 year old Les Cecil
Les is going to be our babysitter/drill sergeant. He brings 40+ years of business to the table and is going to manage the team and take us to 300,000 in revenue this year.
Just thought you should know.
You’ve been warned.
