. . . will probably end up right here on the blog as soon as I get back.
Or, well, most of it. But I can’t guarantee I won’t keep the goings on at Circus Circus to myself.
I’m heading out of town for a few days to whoop in up in Sin City and learn at the feet of a few marketers I admire. And since I’m not quite sure what the Wi-Fi deal is going to be at my hotel, I figure it’s best just to sign off the blog while I’m gone.
But don’t worry, dear reader! I’ve left some Haddonic goodness behind:
During those long, dark hours of your work day, you can read up on the true meaning of Labor Day, tip your hat to the memory of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, or tip back a glass and bask in the glory of the fourth episode of the Biznik Podcast.
And of course if I get the chance (and the web access) I’ll pop in with scintillating marketing observations from the strip.
Later.
c.
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Tuesday night Dominic Canterbury and I rolled out our “Top Ten Marketing Mistakes Made by Small Businesses and How To Avoid Them” class for a third go-round. It was a raucous group, including a tech writer, a private investigator a “poly-positivity” crusader and, of course, a couple real estate agents.
You can see what folks thought of the class by heading over to the Biznik Events Page.
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Over on the Biznik Blog Scott Bourne has a post about his Radical Approach to pricing his services.
Basically, he asks for a flat startup fee and then says “Pay me what you think the work is worth.” And that’s that. No invoicing. No chasing down checks. Just Scott standing there with a smile and waiting to see what customers do.
In a way it reminds me of my friend Kevin Goldman. Kevin never orders at restaurants. He just sits down, grins up at the waitress with his overwide smile and says “Bring me something good.”
And what does the waitress do? Well, it varies. Sometimes he gets shellfish. Sometimes he gets steak. But he always leaves happy.
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Just put up episode 3 of The Biznik Podcast.
In this rollicking half hour of an episode I sit down with Guerilla TV entrepreneur Stephen McCandless to talk about how not to rate your employees, why saving lives for a living isn’t as fun as you would think and why “Money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you any kind of misery you want.”
Check it out at The Biznik Podcast Page or just search for Biznik in the iTunes podcast directory.
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As you dear readers are already aware, blogging is a pretty big part of my life. I spew forth on marketing stuff here at HWW, diddle gamely with small business advice at The Biznik Blog and compose romantic sonnets and whine about women on my personal blog (no, I’m not giving you a link. And don’t try to search for it. It’s well guarded and better defended.)
So, how did I become such a paragon of bloggishness? By pulling info out of the big brain of Blogging consultant and all around nice guy DL Byron. Byron hosted a Biznik class a few weeks back, and while the class itself didn’t light my world on fire, the book he was there to promote did.
“Publish and Prosper: Blogging for your business” is a quick read; handsomely designed and packed full of all the little questions you might have about the where’s, what’s and why’s of blogging.
Check out the book’s blog at blogbusinessbook.com or buy it via Amazon.
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The second edition of the Biznik Podcast–hosted by myself and Dan McComb and diving into all the goings on in the world of small business is now served and ready for your delicate ears.
Check it out here.
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Hey, folks.
Dominic Canterbury and I will be rolling our “Top Ten Marketing Mistakes” class out again August 29th at Richard Hugo House here on Capitol Hill.
More info Here.
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Yesterday the very first Biznik Podcast (lovingly hosted by, uh, me) went live to the whole wide world. Check it out here, or just do a search for “Biznik” on iTunes.
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Over on the Biznik blog, naturopathic doctor Hannah Albert just put up one heck of a post about intimacy in business.
And she quotes me. So that’s kind of cool.
Check it out: Intimacy in Business.
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Ugh. There’s nothing quite like waking up to find an overflowing crate of chatty plastic parrots, erotic board games, horribly ugly action figures and dangerous and sharp bits of industrial metal sitting square in the middle of your living room.
Except for maybe tripping over said crate and having to remember how you got it in the first place.
Friday night Megan Groves and I went down to the home of Beth Yockey and Scott Jones for a rousing night of “Junk Poker”–which can be quickly summed up as “Poker where you really, really want to lose.”
I packed up a duffel bag with a bunch of stuff that had accumulated around my apartment. You know what kind of stuff I’m talking about. Stuff like that bike-tire codpiece I wore in that really bad play 4 years ago. Or a pair of bright red boxing gloves. Or the random and mysterious bars of lead that have been sitting in my closet for as long as I can remember. You know, junk.
And let me tell you, I suck at poker. I can’t bluff to save my life. I have no idea what cards I should hold onto and I have a tendency to let my lower lip quiver madly when I’ve got a good hand. I was absolutely confident that I’d be coming home empty handed. Confident and maybe even a little bit cocky. I went down there knowing that I was going to lose.
“And the river . . .it’s a 9 of hearts!”
“GAHHH! NO! NO! Oh, come on! This isn’t funny anymore.”
“Your pot, Haddad. Take it and weep.”
By the end of the night I was a just about buried under bad books, lacy things and Hulk comics. It took two trips just to get out to the cab. I was a . . . gasp . . .winner. . . and I’d never been so miserable.
Which brings us to today’s topic:
Losing by winning.
You ever know somebody who gets everything they ever thought they wanted and it drives them absolutely nuts? I knew a guy back in college who dropped out two years early and got his dream job running the account side of an advertising agency in San Francisco. He was making piles of money with piles more responsibility and it made him fat and angry and burned out at 23.
And I’ve seen too many small business people win big contracts that they fundamentally don’t want to do and that, fundamentally, lead them down the absolute wrong path in their life.
Or, heck, folks who win the lottery just to end up broke and friendless 3 years later.
Or. . .well, you get the idea.
Sure, we all want to be winners.
But before you throw your money on the table, make sure you know what game you’re playing. And make sure it’s a game you actually want to win.
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