Scot’s Blog

Want to hear a story? Of course you do. Everybody wants to hear a story. The facts they can Google, but the story, your story, your take, your opinion on any given topic or discovery or service or occurrence –  is what readers want. And isn’t that wonderful, because you can give them all those things…in a blog.

1.    Everybody isn’t doing it. Actually, according to David Meerman Scott, author of  “The New Rules of Marketing & PR” only about 30% of the population are writing blogs. That can be a big number or a small number, depending on how you choose to view it, but the point is, there’s an opportunity there for the individuals who actually act on the desire to differentiate themselves from the pack – either personally or professionally or both.

2.    You don’t have to do it yourself. No time? No discipline? No writing comfort zone? That’s ok, hire a blogger to fill in the gaps and make you a THOUGHT LEADER. All you need is a product or an idea or a story to tell…and the inner drive to tell it. And by the way, we all have a story to tell. Sometimes it just takes someone else to (painlessly) extract and package it.

3.    It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. A blog can be added to your existing website or can be your website – for relatively little cost expenditure – especially when you consider the number of potential customers your message can reach every day, every time, everywhere.

And there are writers out there (like me) who will harness the power of the written word to present your thoughts, ideas, stories in format, on schedule, and on the money – for less money than you’d think. Check it out.
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If you decided to write a blog, what would you write about?

The internet has given us the one key element that our long-entrenched advertising and pr systems traditionally reserved for paying customers…ACCESS.

Up until not that long ago, the only way to get a quality message out to a potential client or acolyte or end user was to pay for the service — hire an advertising or pr agency, buy billboard space or convince a journalist that you had a story that was really worth telling. And then they told you when you could tell it, where you could tell it, how you could tell it.

Those days are over.

Now we all have a story to tell…and the stage to tell it on. No more filters. No more middlemen. No good ol boy networks holding the strings. Let the readers and the surfers and the buyers decide!

I mentioned the concept of Thought Leader in the last blog and that is what’s really going on here.

You have the opportunity to position yourself as a leading authority in your field — whether it be Real Estate or Reality TV or Real Solutions to Wealth Management (and everything in-between).

You have the platform upon which to build a relationship with your brand; to fulfill the inherent promise of being close to your customer base; to clearly, personally, effectively present and delineate and extol the virtues of your product or service or view to THE WORLD.

You have the chance to present the human side of your company or endeavor…and to achieve that most sought after of entrepreneurial imperatives: TRUST.

So what are you going to write about first?

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Let’s talk about blogs. Why? Because they’re everywhere. Because in a very short time, blogs have managed to demonstrate a very long reach. Because virtually everyone is either doing them, having them done, or dreaming of doing them. Even stiff, staid, conventional corporate America has managed, in it’s own special way, to embrace the concept.

And because I write them. There is that. Yeah.

Blame the internet. It’s made it possible for us all to tell our story — or a story — to the world. It’s the reason that we are looking away from the newspaper and the printed page and various glossy pubs and looking toward online news sources, kindles, YouTube and SnotR and facebook and Linkedin and Twitter and, yes…wait for it…BLOGS for information, and inside stories, and content of every subject, size and color.

In the business arena, a blog can fulfill the promise of getting you close to your customer base – not necessarily the existing one, but the potential one. The one that’s out there waiting…to be wooed, to be convinced, to be assured. The bursting-with-potential base of not-yet-believers that wants to trust you.

Put bluntly, a blog can go a long way in convincing prospects that you have a brain in your head and a thought in your mind. In fact, a blog – one that is in-touch, targeted and focused – can do a lot toward positioning you as a THOUGHT LEADER.

And in these times, when everyone is scrambling to differentiate themselves from all the rest of the contenders, being recognized as a THOUGHT LEADER can be a very good thing.

All for now, but stick around. More to come.

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Most of you have heard about that “niche” thing…you know, the rule that says that one of the elemental keys to success in business is to find your niche – that one thing you do best – and stick to it. The idea here, I assume, is to avoid spreading yourself too thin and/or getting into areas that you’re not so good at – because you’ll end up disappointing your client and in the process will kill the account and the referral and eventually yourself in despair.

I’m not buying it.

First of all, I’ve never only been good at just one thing. I’ve never only been good at just one type of writing. Yeeesh, even as a swimmer, I was a serious contender in four or five different events. If I’d had to swim just one race my entire athletic career, I would have drowned from boredom.

If I was only capable of writing one thing, or one way, or in one voice,  I would have written my letter of resignation and moved out of the writing biz a long time ago.

Here’s my take…

In today’s economy, differentiation is the way to succeed. Differentiate yourself effectively from the competition and you’ll have more work than you want to have – and that’s a very nice place to be. Differentiation is essentially a matter of showing how your service or product or skill is better than that of everybody else out there.

I’ve walked into consults with potential clients that could only be categorized as a  “niche ambush.” When asked for samples, the first one presented is the one I do. If it’s a press release, I’m a pr writer. If it’s an annual report, I’m a business writer. If it’s an operations manual, I’m a tech writer. If it’s an ad or a postcard or a brochure, I’m an advertising copywriter. And I frequently find myself having to kick up the pitch just to show that I’m more than a one-trick pony.

I’m a writer. I can write all those things

I can also write bios, and newsletters, and web content, and package copy, and video scripts, and novels, and screenplays, and tag lines of all sizes, shapes and colors. Because I can write (and have written) all those things, I can bring a fresh take to everything I write — a different angle on what might otherwise prove less interesting if done the        same       old         way.

And because many of the rules of marketing and pr and advertising continue to change as a result of the explosive emergence of the internet, this makes me a commodity.

End of story. A writer without limitations has limitless value in the new world order.

Nix on that “niche” thing.

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I’m reading CATCHING THE BIG FISH, David Lynch’s book (just out in paperback) on “meditation, consciousness, and creativity” and finding much that resonates.

In addition to having experienced a “first dive” into meditation uncannily similar to that of Mr. Lynch, I loved his take on depression and anger – two states with which every creative has danced intimately. Take a listen…

“I call that depression and anger the Suffocating Rubber Clown Suit of Negativity. It’s suffocating, and that rubber stinks. But once you start meditating and diving within, the clown suit starts to dissolve. You finally realize how putrid was the stink when it stars to go. Then, when it dissolves, you have freedom.

Anger and depression and sorrow are beautiful things in a story, but they’re like poison to the filmmaker or artist. They’re like a vise grip on creativity. If you’re in that grip, you can hardly get out of bed, much less experience the flow of creativity and ideas. You must have clarity to create. You have to be able to catch ideas.”

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I chose to participate in open water swimming because it wasn’t what I was conditioned for, comfortable with, defined by, shackled to.  It was new and unknown and free. Mostly free — from expectation and comparison and competition.

I chose open water because swimming in a pool didn’t do it for me any longer.  I’m very comfortable in water – in fact, completely comfortable. One would argue too comfortable. Once you get the hang of swimming from one end to the other and turning around and staying inside the lane, the rest is essentially just lather, rinse, repeat. Obviously there is much more to competitive swimming than those simple adjustments, but you get the idea.

The fact is, much of competitive swimming for me was about fear. Fear of failure – of not measuring up, not performing, not winning. I would hazard to say that all forms of competition are essentially like that.

Open water swimming was something I did for myself. No pressure, just anticipation. No looks to the right. No looks to the left. No on-the-block inadequacies. No terror of the gun.

Anticipation. True anticipation. No fear. That’s the cool part.

The start and the finish of an open water swim are similar to the start and finish of any competition. I could fight and kick and survive at the start with the best of them. For many that’s all it was – a battle. At the end, I accelerated through the funnel toward the finality of heat and sand and exhale and completion. But in between, it was all about finding the open water.

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Back on the subject of content.  Essentially, content is what separates web sites that work from websites that don’t. How? Well, consider this…

Content Draws
It draws visitors to your site and into the sales-consideration cycle. Content reveals the extent and the value of your expertise, your knowledge and depth of involvement in your particular field. It shows customers and potential customers that you think, you care, you understand. It reveals passion, establishes credibility, and conveys authority far more effectively than exhausted phrases like “For 25 years, Your Widget Provider” ever will.

Content Differentiates
Consider how far one simple three-to-five paragraph article on a subject in your field can take you today. One article – that’s you talking to a specific aspect of your particular area of expertise or telling a story about a satisfied customer or revealing success secrets or better business tips or questioning/affirming a new advancement or simply venting your professional frustration — can achieve wonders for your business. It immediately puts you ahead of all those competitors that are sending out nothing but bullets and hype and hyperbole. You become “the one that wrote the article”…and a good article/think piece/white paper (or even a good blog) bears repeating.

Fact is, if you have a story or idea or success solution worth repeating, bloggers, podcasters, videobloggers and e-news forums and article services will do just that – repeat your story — all over the world, potentially bringing hundreds of thousands or millions of people your way.

And that’s just on the Web. One web-generated article can also become:

• The first chapter (s) of a book.
• The outline for a seminar or series of seminars
• A brochure
• A point of purchase display
• A sell sheet or handout flyer
• A local newspaper article
• Your stand-up speech at a networking event

One article can feed your advertising, online marketing, and promotional efforts for a year or more. It’s content, and content has applications far beyond its first publication.

Content Shows Them That You “Get It.”
It makes you an expert. It establishes you as a credible source. And the more you provide, the more your credibility grows.

Publishing  –  providing content –  brands you as a thought leader…and that’s a nice thing to be. Especially since what you do can so easily be compared to the “services” list of any other less knowledgeable competitor (amateur/loser/criminal) in your field.

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Food for thought (by way of friend and mentor, Hutt Bush)

“The best thing for being sad is to learn something.  That is the only thing that never fails.  You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds.  There is only one thing for it then - to learn.  Learn why the world wags and what wags it.  That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting.”

- T.H.White

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OK. Got my CEO hat on this time around to discuss a subject near and dear — and vitally important to all of you out there who have yet to embrace the new realities of business building..

The Web is here. It’s not going away. And thanks to the worldwide Web, there is a new set of rules when it comes to selling, promoting, growing your business or product. To prosper in this new world, you need to change your thinking. Some of you, just a little. Some of you…a lot.

Now that’s not anything that you won’t hear – or haven’t already heard — from the scores of web gurus or bloggers or e-book entrepreneurs out there. But this is me. So allow me to reinforce a few key concepts in the context of one of my areas of expertise: Content.

First of all, content is not advertising – at least it’s not just advertising. Advertising (at least in the traditional sense) is a one-way proposition – a one-way interruption — designed to push you into the buying process…KILLER quick-hit copy and graphics that knock you off your seat and into the arms of the product provider.  No questions asked.

Big Media? Not So Big.

There are many clients out there still throwing large sums of money at the big splash ad or bells-and-whistles video commercials, the so-called “big media.” There are still many writers and marketers and advertising execs out there who will (hand over heart) testify that following the old rules is still the best way to sell your product or service.

It ain’t necessarily so.

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So, I went to Scotland. Highlands and Islands – the whole enchilada (The whole Haggis?) – with my mother and my wife. And I truly expected it to be everything I’d dreamed of for so long. I expected it to exceed my expectations…but not by so much. Scotland changed me.

OK. From the beginning. My grandfather was Scottish – from a small town just outside Glasgow called New Mains. It was a coal mining town. For whatever reason – actually the prospect of working in a coal mine all his life was probably reason enough — Alexander McCammon came to California, got a job working at the San Pablo Dam, married, had three kids, lived long enough to see one of them (my mother, Sandra) bear him a grandson (me), then drowned one night in a water sample tank under circumstances never satisfactorily explained to anyone.

But that’s another story. And that’s enough background. Suffice it to say that Scotland has always been my holy grail…the homeland that I have wanted to see and experience for as long as I can remember. It finally happened. We made it happen. And we made the pilgrimage this Summer.

OK. Stifle the gag reflex and bear with my borderline-maudlin metaphoric lapses. I found me in Scotland. I breathed each city and town and highland and island and touched it, walked it, lived it for an all-too-brief moment in time and I came away…different. Different in many ways which remain essentially inexpressible, but real nonetheless.

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It’s getting really scary out there. With as much as Americans find to disagree with each other on these days, I think we can all agree on that. Scary.

Gas prices still rising. Stocks torpedoing. Bailouts on the news and capitulation in the wind. Nobody trusts us. Iran hates us (wait in line). China owns us. We are witnessing the death of investment banking as we know it and we really don’t want to know any more. Depending on who you talk to, we’re in a recession or a depression and it’s not good and it’s not going to get better anytime soon.

Clients are cutting back, retrenching, reducing inventory…trying to keep the big bad wolf from huffing, and puffing and…you get the idea. Kinda feels like the end of the world, don’t it?

Well, it ain’t. A financial client of mine says that while there is this understandable tendency to think that what we are experiencing now is particularly, horribly unique…worse than it has ever been before – the truth is, it’s probably not. It’s not essentially different from what has gone before. And the bottom line here is that “We’ll be Back.”

Still, the universal hue and cry is registering as “What do I do now?” Well, I don’t have all the answers, but I do know that the short term solution is not to nuke your advertising or marketing or promotional budget (or even to reduce it, necessarily).

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Hey. How’s that new cell phone law working for you? Not so well for me.
Wasn’t it supposed to eliminate delays and accidents and road rage caused by can’t-walk-and-chew-gum-behind-the-wheel dysfunctionals and cell phone abusers? Got news for you…it’s not working.

I know. It’s early. Hasn’t even been a year, yet. But the reality is I’m still getting stuck behind start-stop-weave-start-stop drivers on a regular basis. I’m talking both hands off the wheel, wildly gesticulating, talking non-stop into their head set (eyes on the head set frequently) as if the person they are talking to is right there with them — and as if there is no one else on the road beside, behind or in front of them.

And, for the record, I still see plenty of drivers holding cell phones to their ear in flagrant violation of the newly established regulations. The only difference is now they’re paying less attention to the road because they are constantly searching in all directions, wild eyed and alert for the police officer that should be busting them. That is criminal.

Glad we got it taken care of.

And moving in a completely unrelated yet equally disturbing direction…
Somebody want to tell me when we lost control of Halloween? Used to be one night of the year, you put on a sheet with holes in it…or made a black cape out of crepe paper and a pointy hat from some cardboard you found in the garage…or put on your dads old torn up work clothes and rubbed some coffee grounds on your face… or turned a TV carton into a silver-painted robot body and you were good to go for one good night of serious candy predation.

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I’m back. It’s me…me but not me. Maybe the real me at last. Most definitely a lighter version – lost 60 lbs. Certainly leaner – dropped four waist sizes. Meaner? Probably. See, I liked eating…still do. Liked eating all that bad stuff – from Chicken Fried Steak to Meatball Subs to Cheeseburgers (In-n-Out a particular favorite) to Chocolate Shakes to Key Lime Pie and Peach Melba. I liked mayonnaise, salad dressing, bread, pasta, red meat, cheese and grease in all it’s many wonderful incarnations. I mean I really liked them.

But so far, there are things I like more. I like being on the plus side of all those lab test printouts you start accumulating after the age of 50. The ones that list all the three letter acronyms for doom: LDL, BMI, BP/HR, LF, BFR, et. al.. You know the drill…or you soon will. I like wearing clothes that I thought I would never wear again. I like not huffing and puffing up the stairs and not limping because my sheer girth is weighing on my horribly arthritic knee (college trampoline accident). Admittedly, I like the attention, and looking in the mirror, and looking good in a bathing suit. Speedos, no less. I like pulling 60 less pounds through the water when I work out. Old swimmers never die – they just lose buoyancy.

And in the newly buoyant spirit brought on by dramatic weight loss I can optimistically say there’s another way to look at this. I’m not giving up the things I liked to eat as much as I’m discovering new things I like to eat.

OK. That was a little slick… erase, erase, erase.

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I got back in the water today.

I’ve been a swimmer all my life. A real one – you know, back and forth in a cement pool with timers and judges and a bunch of guys trying to beat you to the finish. That kind of swimmer…since I was 10. I strayed for awhile, but I’m back.

I’m certainly not 10 anymore, but I got back in the water this morning — speedo and all — and swam a warmup, short set and cool down…almost like the old days. As Hemingway would say…”It was good.”

I’ll always be a swimmer.

Because it was always more than just conditioning for me…more than just competition, too. I used to love to stay after evening workouts when everybody else had hit the showers. I was in the pool alone, the mist coming in and covering up the far end. There was a mystery and a solitude and a meditative rightness to it all. It was the same in the early mornings before school — peace, calm, clarity.

Of course there is something about swimming…the immersion in and movement through a liquid, flowing medium– even when working out. It draws the mind inward on itself, compels introspection and brings a focus (I believe) not achievable in any other experience. It has always (paradoxically) stimulated and calmed me at the same time. For me, swimming is and always has been essentially spiritual — a zen kind of thing.

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