Many people think stress is always bad. The real question is: does the stress damage you, or force you to grow? I get stressed every day. The cold plunge is part of my morning routine. Almost every morning, I immerse myself in freezing cold water for six minutes. The health benefits include: decreased inflammation, release [...]
Impostor syndrome is a natural consequence of growth. Growth creates a gap, between who you are now, and who you used to be. We often interpret this gap, internally, as impostor syndrome. Image from iStock The only qualified experts in any subject are those who have collected a volume of failures in their field. That’s [...]
Creating a whitepaper accomplishes two important goals: Positions yourself as an authority on a topic Builds your email list with a Lead Magnet Making a whitepaper doesn't have to be hard. You already know a bunch of valuable information. All you have to do is package it up as a Lead Magnet: This is the first [...]
Spoiler alert: A PDF by any other name wouldn’t smell as sweet. There’s an air of gravitas around saying you have a whitepaper. It's more than just a PDF download. A whitepaper is an instrument of thought leadership. You claim your stance in the marketplace of ideas by publishing a whitepaper for anyone to read. [...]
People feel life is meaningless when they don’t have goals, rules, and feedback. (These are the 3 attributes of games, according to Dr Jason Fox, that I describe in-depth in my short ebook Gamify Your Work.) Playing the game of life, and doing work that supports your lifestyle, is only made meaningful if we have goals to achieve, rules for how to play, and feedback on [...]
Your thank-you page is where your website visitors have maximum interest in who you are, and what you do. When you have somebody's full attention, use it. The thank-you page is the only page on your website that has a 100% opt-in rate. Everyone who sees has just subscribed to your email newsletter, or [...]
It’s funny how many published authors I know who have a hard time sending out an email newsletter. They like to feel guilty about it. 'If I could write a whole book,' they reason, 'why is sending out a regular newsletter so difficult?' I’ll tell you why: these are two very different kinds of [...]
I keep a set of juggling balls in my desk (and in my backpack), so I can take a play break whenever I need one. If I have a really intense day, building marketing campaigns for clients, and I know I will have to spend multiple hours in focused work, I make sure to designate [...]
I want to share with you a theory I have about tall poppies. What happens to tall poppies? Tall poppies get … cut down. Tall Poppy Syndrome is a cultural belief in New Zealand, where I now live. There’s a lot of resistance when people see others daring to raise themselves up above the crowd. [...]
Internet advice goes stale, but that doesn't mean it goes away. You could be following advice that worked great 5 years ago, but it's no longer working. This is something I find frequently in my work as a marketer. Because I'm in the trenches, testing tactics, I can see what's failing during a hype cycle. [...]