From the category archives:

Strategic Planning

A Different List: Stop Doing What Does Not Fit

12.04.2009 Getting Stuff Done

Over at 37signals’ blog, Signal v. Noise, a reader gave them a heads-up to Jim Collins’ concept of the anti-to-do list: The Stop Doing List.
Most of us lead busy but undisciplined lives. We have ever-expanding ‘to do’ lists, trying to build momentum by doing, doing, doing—and doing more. And it rarely works. Those who built [...]

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No Greater Gift: Understanding Time vs. Money

11.30.2009 Civics' Lessons

Whooooooooooooooooooooooooosh.
We met in 1993. In 2000, I stood up at his wedding.
Before we could sit down again, life happened.
Sound familiar?

Nearly 10 years, 250 miles and 3.3 kids later, he’s here visiting.
When you get a bit older, time tugs a little harder in the war against money.
They’re two sides of the same coin, you know?
Time and [...]

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The Love of a Lifetime Customer

11.19.2009 Civics' Lessons

Read a simple-but-startling angle this morning on customer value.
Have you calculated what a customer’s worth over the course of her lifetime?
What if - just one time - you calculated your marketing budget off that amount?
In Embracing Lifetime Value, Seth Godin suggests this simple challenge:
So, a chiropractor might see a new patient being worth $2,500, [...]

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“Writing the ad is then the easy bit.”

11.17.2009 Marketing

My partner, Craig Arthur, shared this yesterday from half a world away. Craig runs Wizard of Ads for all of Australia. It raises the simple issue of how to measure success:
Today I received this from one of my clients…
From: The Tint Professor
Subject: RE: Radio
Date: 17 November 2009 7:33:19 AM AEST
To: Craig [...]

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Social Media: Best/Worst Practices

11.06.2009 Authenticity

TopRank’s marketing blog published a fundamental foundation to grow your social media platform responsibly. If you’re struggling to grasp what it’s all about, know first you’re not alone by any stretch, but know, too, that you can use this stuff to help you for a lot less money than the cost of a big honkin’ [...]

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The Beauty of Small

11.04.2009 Authenticity

Leo of the many blogs wrote this on mnmlist.com a couple days ago. It seems like an awfully good Morning Meditation for the week:

Less can come in many forms. You can have fewer things, you can do fewer things, you can use fewer things, you can focus on fewer things.
But less isn’t just fewer: [...]

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Six Steps To Simplifying Your Life

08.04.2009 Strategic Planning

Sorry - you cannot travel both and be one traveler.I think more people feel this way than don’t: Wantin to have more time and less … what? … stuff, I guess. By stuff, I mean “commitments” and “stress” and the general detritus of life. And stuff.
But how? You simply can’t take anything off your plate [...]

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(13.1 Miles of) Baby Steps

09.15.2008 Getting Stuff Done

A little over six months ago I was a pack-and-a-half per day mess. Overwhelmed. Disorganized. Frustrating both myself and others.
I just committed to finishing my first half-marathon. I may have to start it tomorrow, but I will finish it.
How do you get from one place to another so different?
You just start walking.
And you [...]

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The Extraordinary Wizard Discussion

09.02.2008 From the Wizard's Tower

Yesterday, my partner, Roy Williams, wrote a memo - The Extraordinary People Myth - that’s been drawing quite a bit of interest from my client’s colleagues. What one of those colleagues took away and shared was:
“You can’t just advertise you have great people.”
True, but … well, read the memo, then come back and read what [...]

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