Hi everyone! Great story from the CEO of Breather on how they got started and grew. This week's MKTG article is by Seth Godin - who has the extraordinary power to change your thinking with a few lines.
Enjoy!
Dana
A bear gets a slap on the face from a wet fish as it attempts to catch fish in Alaska, USA.
ISSUE #28Dana's Weekly RoundupHi everyone! I'm trying out this shorter format. Do you prefer it over a short summary of each article?Enjoy!DanaTattoo Artist Who Lost His Arm Gets World’s First Tattoo Machine Prosthesis. Now that's commitment.TAKE ACTION
ISSUE #26Dana's Weekly RoundupHi everyone! A great article from Christine Kane on waiting traps. No one is going to grant you permission to do the thing. As a content curator, I do get content fried due to the massive heaps of content I consume weekly which does affect my productivity. These tips could help combat content overload.Enjoy!Dana
They are renowned for being lazy, but this sloth appears to have caught the fitness bug with a spot of spontaneous yoga.
I waited for an entity – more important than me, more “in the know” than me – to swoop down from some holy place (or more likely, some corporate office) – and give me permission to be this thing.
Content fried is the point we reach when we subject ourselves to too much data. It commonly affects content curators but it can affect any of us. The “always on” Internet may be a blessing much of the time but it can also be a curse.
ISSUE #25Dana's Weekly RoundupHi everyone! A great article on creating explainer videos. I've created one using iphones as cameras and microphones but we discovered that the hard part was getting the lighting right - for that we had to call in someone with experience. I also have "busy" days consumed with unprductive meetings and admin work without getting big things done. The trick is to get the hard stuff going first thing in the morning, before getting sucked in to other things.Enjoy!DanaAurora over camp on Bannerdale CragsTAKE ACTION
There’s nothing that will transform the quantity of your output and the quality of your work like hitting flow on a regular basis. And we know that hitting flow is usually the result of eliminating distractions, discipline, and deep work. The rush produced by hitting flow makes us feel fulfilled and successful.MKTG
Explaining to web users what your business does, what you stand for, and why customers need you. This is called "the explainer video," and it's a quick, memorable way to make an impact on people who might buy your product but need to know more information.IRL
Then, one day it hit me: There's a big difference between being busy and being productive. Yes, yes, we’ve all heard this before. But have you really thought it through and contemplated those times you’re sitting at your computer all day, but don’t end up with a lot to show for it?
ISSUE #24Dana's Weekly RoundupHi everyone! Great article on how cartoonists from the New Yorker generate ideas. Buffer always shares detailed how to articles, and this one about Facebook marketing is very helpful, especially if your new to Facebook Marketing.Enjoy!DanaRatu, a 14-year-old Sumatran rhinoceros, sits next to its newborn calf at Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Way Kambas National Park, Indonesia.TAKE ACTION
At the start of your career, chances are good that you'll be hired primarily for your "hard skills"—the stuff you know that's relevant for the job.But what no one quite tells you is that while you might've been initially hired for those hard skills, they gradually matter less.MKTG
Hi! Hope you all enjoyed the holidays. In this issue, I learned from the article on automating social media lead generation - though I would say proceed with caution. I also share the 10 thoughts I'm reflecting on for 2016.
Share the love and forward the weekly roundup to a friend.
If you got this email from a friend you can join the weekly roundup by sending me an email or signing up here.
Enjoy and Happy 2016! Dana
The moons of Saturn, Enceladus and Tethys photos from Cassini's cameras.
Being more productive is about working smarter, not harder, and making the most of each day. While this is no easy feat, getting more done in less time is a much more attainable goal if you're not sabotaging yourself with bad habits.
Following are 13 things you should stop doing right now to become more productive.
In this article, we will take a look at the time-saving social media lead generation activities that can easily be performed with a tool. We will also learn how automating the social fact-finding jobs through tools helps in filling sales funnel. Twitter and LinkedIn, being the most popular B2B social channels have been considered for describing the automation scenarios in this article.
With the holidays winding down, and the return to routine becoming eminently closer, I wanted to take stock of the last 365 days. I am happy 2015 is over, with it’s ups and downs and twists and turns, and looking forward to a hopefully better 2016. As arbitrary as it may seem, the start of a new year gives us a feeling of a fresh start, like cracking open a new notebook to page 1. The following aren’t exactly resolutions, more like thoughts I am reflecting on:
Every year is fraught with ups and downs, but 2015 was a milestone year for downs in the technology world. From straightforward hardware blunders to simple errors in judgment that led to high-profile stumbles, it was a banner year for tech fails.
In some cases, some of those fails were so ridiculous you had to laugh, but some — like the recent spate of hoverboard fires — were tragic and dangerous. These are technology's lowest water marks for 2015... stay safe and enjoy the schadenfreude.
Let’s face it: long commutes, office politics, and the nine-to-five grind are quickly becoming obsolete. According to a recent report, fifty-three million Americans (34 percent of the U.S. workforce) work from home as freelancers and home-based business owners. Many predict that number will increase to 50 percent of the workforce by 2020.
Now, the small business owner can start-up and generate a six to seven figure gross income in 1–4 years. The telecommuting and freelancing consultant can make six figures working wherever she wants and often less than 30 hours per week.
Hi! Hope you are all enjoying the holidays. We are enjoying the bizarre sunny and snow less Christmas here in Montreal! In this issue, John Lee Dumas drops some Podcast Sponsorship knowledge bombs and Adrian Granzella Larssen presents 16 awesome lists to help boost your career in 2016.Share the love and forward the weekly roundup to a friend.If you got this email from a friend you can join the weekly roundup by sending me an email or signing up here.Enjoy and Happy Holidays!Dana
A group of lemurs prepare to open a Christmas package filled with food at the zoo in La Fleche, northwestern France.
There’s nothing I love more than a good list, especially at the end of the year, when reflecting and resolution-making abound.
You, too? Then here are 16 lists to make in 2016 that’ll help you do both of those activities, plus get a head start on that job search or promotion you’re planning to ask for.
Make one, or make them all—I promise every single one is more fun than your to-do list.
So let’s get real. Can you start a podcast today and have sponsors lined up at your doorstep tomorrow?
No.
Can you start a podcast today about a niche you are passionate and knowledgeable about (the knowledge can come), work hard for a significant amount of time (6 months… a year?), build a captive and engaged audience, and then have sponsors beating down your door to get in front of your listeners?
From the start, 2015 was ripe for world-changing innovation.
In early January, we saw Bill Gates drink clean water converted from sewer sludge and human waste by a special processor. In February, social workers and computer scientists came up with an algorithm to prevent the spread of HIV among homeless youth. In March, a research lab created a microchip that could actually help bridge the digital divide in developing countries.
And the revolutionary ideas and inventions tackling the world's most pressing problems kept coming throughout the year.
Whether you’ve seen their beautifully wrapped bars for sale at Shake Shack or Rag & Bone, featured in the pages of the New York Times or Vogue, or decorating one of their New York, London, or soon, LA shops, Mast Brothers chocolate bars have become the world’s most prominent brand of artisanal chocolate.
But while customers can’t get enough of the company’s bearded, Brooklyn hipster founders, and their brilliantly marketed, $10 “bean to bar” chocolates, a term reserved for chocolate that has been produced entirely under the maker’s control, from the cocoa bean to the wrapped bar, chocolate experts have shunned them.
I just listened to “The Source of Creativity” episode on NPR’s TED Radio Hour which covered ideas about where creativity comes from, why we all have it and how we find it.It takes courage to be vulnerable and say “This is me and I made this.” Especially if you created something that you put a lot of yourself into.I challenged myself this past year to do just that. Create something – from idea conception to final result and push it out into the world. No external obstacles, no managers or committees to answer to, no one instruct on what I should do and how I should do it. This is me and I made this.I listened to many business and entrepreneurship podcasts from other people who created something – a product or a business, including Seth Godin’s Startup School, Mixergy, Startup and I learned a lot from all of the stories of trials and tribulations of people who put themselves out there like that. The main thing I learned is just f#$%^@g do it. Get out of your own head, remove the idea that you have to strive to a level of perfection that doesn’t exist and just do it. Stop talking about doing it and just try it.Watch my favorite motivational 1 min video.And of course there were all the negative thoughts that come along with being vulnerable like that. What should I create? What if it sucks? What if people call me a fraud? What if it just gets ignored completely? What if I’m wrong?But as Ken Robinson says “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original.”I decided to treat this project as an experiment; an experiment in creation. And if it flops, at least I would have learned through the process.I started narrowing down my options. I didn’t want to create a physical product because I know nothing about that and it seemed to be a very expensive experiment to conduct. Instead, I opted to create a knowledge product, based on things I know – no need to recreate the wheel for my beta experiment. I decided on creating an online course about Marketing since I’ve been a marketing professional for almost a decade. But Marketing is a pretty broad term so I needed to narrow it down even further. I was seeing a lot of websites that looked pretty but really didn’t have any substance or optimized for getting customers. And I heard from talented designers and developers that were telling me that they knew how to design a site or develop the site, but they didn’t know much about the strategy side of creating a website. So, I thought I could help with that and I created an online course on website strategy called: “How to Create a Website That Doesn’t Suck.”The challenge was to ship it – to put it out into the world before I talk myself out of it, even if it wasn’t perfect because as the maxim attributed to Sheryl Sandburg goes “Done is better than perfect.”I didn’t want to give in to the fear, I wanted to learn and I wanted to try.This is why I was really struck by Elizabeth Gilbert’s view on how creativity and fear are intertwined.“I think what stops people from doing [creative work] is always exactly the same thing, which is fear. What I've discovered over the years is not that you have to be fearless because I don't believe in fearlessness and I don't advise it.I think the only truly fearless people that I've ever met were full blown psychopaths or really reckless 3 year olds and I don't think we want to aspire to be either of those things.I think instead what you have to do is recognize that fear and creativity are conjoined twins. And what I see people doing in their lives is they're so afraid of their fear, that they end up trying to kill it and when they kill it they also kill their creativity because creativity is going into the uncertain and the uncertain is always scary.So what I've had to figure out how to do over the years is to create a mental construct in which I make a lot of space to coexist with fear.To just say to it: "Hey fear listen, creativity and I, your conjoined twin sister, are about to go on a road trip. I understand you'll be joining us, because you always do, but you don’t get to decide anything about this journey that we’re going on. But you can come and I know that you’ll be in the back seat in panic, but mommy's driving and we're going anyway. And you just take it along with you and that seems to work for me.The rest of the time for me it’s just been about showing up every day for the work. And I find that what actually happens is that you begin the work just from a place of diligence and discipline and then if you’re lucky through that process you’ll have moments where inspiration will come in and meet you.”Gilbert’s approach to fear and creativity really struck a chord with me. Don’t try to be fearless, instead, accept the fear as an integral part of the creative process and don’t give into it.And the results of my experiment? I’m putting the final touches on my course to be released before the end of the year, as I promised myself. I was also honored to present my talk at WordCamp this year, a global conference for WordPress designers, developers and users and I received great feedback from the attendees. It was a great opportunity to test-run my course and learn from all the wonderful creative people who attended. I am very happy to be part of the WordCamp community. What is fear stopping you from creating?
Thank you to everyone who came out to my talk at WordCamp Montreal 2015 - How to Create a Website That Doesn't Suck (Using S.M.A.R.T Objectives, Personas, and Wireframes).I appreciated all of the feedback and questions I got from all of you.Many of you asked about the presentation slides. Here they are:
If you are interested in getting a special promo code for my online course on How to Create a Website That Doesn't Suck drop me a line: danasalman1 [at] gmail[dot]com
Jeff Weiner CEO of LinkedIn talks about the 5 dimensions of great product on This Week in Startups
I just watched This Week in Startups interview with Jeff Weiner CEO of LinkedIn. Jeff Weiner talks about the future of LinkedIn and the 5 dimensions of great product. I learned a lot from the talk and created a quick infographic of the key points made about great products, but I do recommend you watch the whole interview with your team. Enjoy!
I've been learning a lot about entrepreneurship, creativity, innovation and passion projects this past year. I'm fascinated by the subject and I'm learning a lot from successful men and women from different backgrounds.
I recently finished Amy Poehler's autobiography "Yes Please" (read by her on Audible which added to the awesomeness) and I absolutely loved it! The book is heartfelt, smart and funny - a true reflection of what I imagine Amy Poehler is like in real life.
This was my favourite part of the book that really left a lasting impression on me: "What do we do? How do we move forward when we’re tired and afraid? What do we do when the voice in our head is yelling THAT WE ARE NEVER GONNA MAKE IT! How do we drag ourselves through the muck when our brain is telling us you are dumb and you will never finish and no one cares and it’s time you stop.
Well, the first thing we do is we take our brain out and we put it in a drawer. Stick it somewhere and let it tantrum until it wears itself out. You may still hear the brain and all the shitty things it’s saying to you, but it will be muffled. And just the fact that it’s not in your head anymore will make things seem clearer.
And then, you just do it. You just dig in and write it. You use your body you lean over the computer and stretch and pace. You write, and then cook something. And write some more.You put your hand on your heart and feel it beating and decide if what you wrote feels true.
You do it. Because the doing of it is the thing. The doing is the thing. The talking and worrying and thinking is not the thing. This is what I know. Writing the book is about writing the book.
So here we go you and me. Because what else are we going to do? Say no? Say no to an opportunity that may be slightly out of our comfort zone? Quiet our voice because we are worried it's not perfect? I believe great people do things before they are ready."
This really resonated with me because I have a tendency to get in my own head and psyche myself out of doing things either through thinking this won't work, or there are others who are doing a far better job than I could, or the chances of success are so minuscule that it's better to just not waste my time. I just say to myself, just shut up and do it and you will either succeed or learn for the next one. "Writing the book is about writing the book." Working on that post or project is about working on that post or project. Just start it and finish it, it doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be done.
Another thing I loved about this book is Amy's (yes, we're on a first name basis) resilience and optimism. She shares the start of her career and how she made it in comedy, a field that is still to this day a male-dominated field. She always looks for the positive side through successes and failures. It is no wonder that everyone loves working with her, and that is a big plus no matter which field you're in. She says, “Almost every job I have gotten was due to someone knowing my work or seeing me in something else.”
Seth Myers (who has a guest chapter in the book) talks about how Amy was in labour and he was supposed to do SNL Weekend Update by himself for the first time, and she still managed to text him encouragement. She is a great example that you don't have to be an asshole to be successful and being kind is a good way to work.
Amy also didn't sugar coat any of her stories about drug use, heartbreak and failure. She takes responsibility for her mistakes and apologizes for them. Like the chapter she talks about a crass SNL skit about Hurricane Mary which was a movie based on a true story about a girl with cerebral palsy. Amy admits that she didn't know it was about a real person, but she still was too ashamed to face the girl's parents and she only apologized 5 years later.
I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend the audio version, she's just fantastic. We need more women like Amy Poehler in the spotlight.
Tattoo Artist Who Lost His Arm Gets World’s First Tattoo Machine Prosthesis. Now that's commitment.TAKE ACTION
Aurora over camp on Bannerdale CragsTAKE ACTION
Ratu, a 14-year-old Sumatran rhinoceros, sits next to its newborn calf at Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Way Kambas National Park, Indonesia.TAKE ACTION
![The ABCs of Landing Pages That Work [Infographic]](http://copyblogger.com/cdn-origin/images/650/copyblogger-infographic-abcs-of-landing-pages.png "The ABCs of Landing Pages That Work [Infographic]")
