My gripe with LIVE webinars

I am keen on a new course but you have to sit through the sell which is apparently a LIVE webinar

Here is what I posted on the website / Facebook page associated with the course.


My gripe about "webinars"

I am in Australia and not inclined to get up at 2 to 3 am to listen to a LONG sell. Also I prefer to listen at 2 twice normal speed and you can't do that with a "LIVE" webinar. [ Of course you can with a TED talk but that is another argument - the worlds best is 9 minutes... ]

I am keen to be sold into the project but not painfully slowly at 2 am in the morning.

When Can I listen to the "LIVE" recording and please in a place that allows speeding up.

What do you think?? Am I overreacting?? [ Obviously I am!]

Nearly there

Nearly there!

It is the weekend in Perth - starting tomorrow... and after n early a month sabbatical I am ready for my next pivot - actually it is a revisit of the past.

From Monday the "new me" will see the sunlight and hopefully [ should I say definitely but failure is often the best teacher ] the new journey will be fruitful.

If you want to be included in the new material just add "send me the stuff" in these comments and I will.

Time to walk home... glorious day in Perth!

Where to now??

Yesterday I shared an hour with Jean from Auckland... and we were discussing how our area of speciality had changed... we both are teachers of Sales Techniques and were lamenting how Cold Calling had continued its decline as a method to build sales.

It prompted me to contemplate my journey in marketing over 40 plus years...

In the 1970's we used long copy sales letters delivered one at a time by Australia Post... not a viable option now as each stamp sets you back $1 plus and Australia Post may or may not deliver your letter - if you are in Perth it takes upward of 10 business days for a letter from Sydney to reach Perth... so, cost and unreliability made this type of marketing obsolete.

Still in the 70's and pushing into the 80's we started using Post Office Letter Box Drops with 4 page flyers printed in their thousands... I remember it was $80 a 1,000 to have them stuffed in Local Business Letter Boxes but fewer and fewer businesses had letter boxes at PO and the effectiveness dropped - my question now is "Do you have a letter box still?" I do but I think April 2019 [ that's the renewal date ] might signal its end... all I get there now are copies of stuff already emailed...

We flirted with telemarketing - we a team of up to 20 and for a while it started working well until the advent of answering machines and pagers... people stopped liking answering phones [ who do you know who answers "Call number withheld" calls on their mobile phone?

The 1980's saw us embrace faxing with great success [ much better than Telemarketing and less costly ] until too many started using it and now it is possible to find people who do not know what a fax machine is... any many companies don't even have a fax number any more.

By the 90's we were pioneering email marketing - a $5.5 million fine is testimony to being a pioneer. Our business - Business Education expanded rapidly with office in the UK and Middle East [ Doha ] where open rates for email were regularly 80% and we had to divert phones to places to "catch" the hate.

Fast forward to 2018 - email has stopped working - open rates are barely 10% and people are jaded by political uncertainty... in Australia we change PM's more often than Italy...

My question is this - is it the delivery method [ letters, mail box stuffing, telemarketing, fax, email ] or the subject Business Education? or something else?

I think it is something else but at the moment I am not sure what that something else is?? Do you have any ideas?

Remove Google Plus With Care

After reading that google plus covered up a hack attack for 6 months I decided to delete my account before they did it - apparently they have given 1 year's notice... and I didn't read all the notices that started "if you do this then this will happen " and hidden in all that legalise was a warning that my blogspot identity would be removed - I ignored that because I have been blogging before Google Plus.

Well I deleted the G+ account [ having not looked at it in maybe 3 years ] and then I couldn't get into blogger as Google had changed my profile [ I registered with a gmail account ] and it was now Google Plus so all of a sudden I couldn't log in or post - it required some fancy foot work but is all OK now... I don't know why but Google punishes everyone when they get something wrong.... pricks!

Questions Every Leader Should Answer

One of the best ways to become a better leader is to view your organisation in a new light. Here are 17 questions every leader should answer.

1. What three things are holding us back?
2. Is success making us complacent?
3. What policies are outdated?
4. Would I do business with us if I were a customer?
5. What counts that we’re not counting?
6. What can we learn from vibrant start-up companies?
7. Are we winning the word-of-mouth battle?
8. Why are great ideas collecting dust on our shelves?
9. Why are we really losing great people?
10. Do we read the reports that we request?
11. Do people follow us out of fear or out of respect?
12. What actions, today, will have the greatest impact in ten years?
13. Do we walk our talk?
14. What barriers should we remove for our people?
15. Do we spend more time building up or tearing down?
16. Are we doing our best?
17. How are we advancing the values of our organisation?

Frank Sonnenberg

 

Thanks to Frank Sonnenberg who is an award-winning author. He has written six books and over 300 articles. Frank was recently named one of “America's Top 100 Thought Leaders” and one of America’s Most Influential Small Business Experts. Frank has served on several boards and has consulted to some of the largest and most respected companies in the world.

Habits

Atomic Habits
review by Wayne Mansfield

There is a new book - released today October 19th in Australia October 18th in the USA by a young Authour James Clear...

It has a catchy title Atomic Habits and it is for small habits eventually leading to an explosion of productivity in the right direction.

I haven't read the book yet - I will probably listen on Audible when it is available, but have listened to 2 podcasts where James is the guest and they have been fantastic.... So, can I recommend that you take the effort to listen read or track down his blog and start improving your life by using Atomic Habits.

How to Write Catchy Blog Post Titles That Get Clicked Like Crazy

Blogging has become synonymous with content marketing strategy. Every single day, millions of people seek information about products and services online and blog posts regularly serve those needs.

But, without the right use of keywords and SEO header tags, your blog post will end up lost in the web that is the Internet.

So what is a blog post title and why is writing a good title for a blog so essential to its success?

Picture this scenario; you have toiled away and crafted a seemingly well written and well-researched blog post but before you know it, it is left withering away with zero comments, zero shares and yes, zero tweets or likes.

Sound familiar? Well, it’s enough to drive you up the wall and wipe out any motivation for writing any more content.

If you think the answer lies in spending more hours perfecting and honing your writing skills, you couldn’t be further from the truth.

The answer lies in one word, the Title.

So how does writing catchy titles and post topics help, and more importantly, how do keywords help to boost your title and improve social shares for your blog?

Writing great content and slaving away while doing so is all good, but driving people into reading that content and getting more social shares for your blog post is where a good compelling post title comes into play.

They are the yin to the yang and what triggers people into clicking and eventually in turn reading your content. They represent it in search engines, in email, and on social media.

This article shares some tips and tricks on how to zero in on the right keywords and write effective post titles that get more social shares.

Making your post title catchy and engaging

People do judge a book by its cover and a blog by its title. A riveting and eye-catching post title is the gateway to enticing users to click so that they can quickly identify what the content is about and decide whether or not it’s applicable to them.

Creative blog names motivate people to click and read your blog. And every single click matters because that’s the secret sauce in determining whether your blog is destined to be liked and shared across the web or whether it’s going to end up in the proverbial graveyard.

Doing proper keyword research

Keyword research is extremely important and it plays a major role in determining whether your blog post is a hit or a miss.

By doing diligent research on your keywords, you can easily learn a lot more about the customers you’re targeting and directing to your website.

Following are a few keyword research tools that can aid your cause:

KeywordSpy
Moz Analytics’ Keyword Analysis Tool
SECockpit
UberSuggest
KeywordTool

Rethinking the Three Stage Life

From authour Chip Conley: Wisdom @ Work - The Making of a Modern Elder

The age-old, three-stage life cycle—education, work, retirement (raw, cooked, burned)—is deeply ingrained in our institutions and psyches. Changing it won’t happen overnight, especially when “employers can smell 50,” as actor Steve Martin exclaimed in the film Bowfinger. Being too young to retire but too old to find a job is a modern problem that’s ripe for disruption.

As Laura Carstensen suggests, “The young study, the middle-aged work, the old rest or volunteer. We’re supposed to do things one at a time and in order.

There is very little overlap between life stages and, as a result, not only do members of different generations have limited interactions with one another, which fosters misunderstanding and unease, but it’s hard for anyone—of any age—to find a holistic balance between family, work, community and educational opportunities.” It’s time to retire the three-stage life since life stages are just a social construction that today fosters ageism, the squandering of wisdom, and a diminished sense of meaning and fulfillment in the latter half of life.

Fortunately, there is another way that isn’t such a linear conveyor belt to a cliff.

There is a more fluid, multistage life—with transitions and breaks in between: less of a lifelong “raw, cooked, burned” and more of a concentrated series of cycles.

These multistage lives are more of a smorgasbord and less of a progression of appetizer, entrée, dessert, but as such, it requires building new habits to accommodate the many more transitions you will likely experience.

It is a radically different way of thinking of the trajectory of one’s life. At its best, it offers us an opportunity to explore who we are and arrive at a way of living that is nearer to our personal values with the knowledge that we will constantly evolve who we are and what we know to adapt our skills to our changing interests and the changing marketplace.

A last I can explain what I am thinking about for Rebootology!

stop watering Dead Plants

I have an issue today with my blog after deletig my G+ profile and after at first experiencing agnst, i was reminded by a little voice in the back of my head

Stop watering dead plants

The Case of 2 different type of people

The wisdom of Stephen Hawkins

In an extreme cases, we all must know of people who have been doing the same thing for years and seem to not have any problem staying stagnant. Whether it be in their marriage, job, or personal endeavors, they seem to be getting along just fine without progressing towards anything ‘better’.

Where as you would also know of individuals who focus on the positive, set goals and are constantly pushing themselves to greater heights. Be it promotions at work, building a family, celebrating milestones in their marriage or relationships, upgrading houses and cars, setting up new businesses, or going to school again, these individuals seem to constantly progress towards something that improves or enhances their life.

Have you ever contemplated why the difference between these 2 category of individuals?

It boils down to why you feel like or don’t feel like doing something. That usually boils down to one thing. You will recognise it as motivation. It is the force, or lack of, that keeps driving ypeople forward to overcome challenges and obstacles to achieve their goals.

Without motivation, people give up after a few failed attempts or even on the first tough challenge that comes their way.

Lots of people will just give up... I am not meant to be more is what they tell themselves and their justification of doing more of the same.

#Rebootology #WayneMansfield #GettingThings Done #Biitzpro #StephenHawkins #Hawkins

Raving Fans with Randy Gage

The Reboot Quest Day 6 of 100

Book worth reading: Risky is the new SAFE by Randy Gage

written in 2012 and published in 2013 - so the question is... why am I reading it in 2018??

To write well, you need to read a lot... which I am doing on this sabbatical from the last 40 years...

and Randy talks about UnMarketing and mentions people I have been following like Gary Vaynerchuk, Seth Godin, Scott Stratten [ who coined the phrase UnMarketing ] the wisdom on brands Apple, Cirque du Soleil, Starbucks and Nike, and much more

But most of all he talks about sharing every day with your fans... hopefully you are fans... and finding them where they are which maybe on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, a blog, maybe LinkedIn... or by email.... all of these.

So, I recommend that you lift your gaze long enough to see that there are many ways to build your tribe... and share with them.

10 Quotes on Breaking Barriers

Here are my top 10 quotes on breaking barriers:

10. “Our diversity is our strength. What a dull and pointless life it would be if everyone was the same.” - Angelina Jolie

9. “We need to make sure we're all working together to change mindsets, to change attitudes, and to fight against the bad habits that we have as a society.” - Justin Trudeau

8. “No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.” - Robin Williams

7. “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” George Bernard Shaw

6. “The tennis ball doesn't know how old I am. The ball doesn't know if I'm a man or a woman or if I come from a communist country or not. Sport has always broken down these barriers.” –  Martina Navratilova

5. “You can focus on things that are barriers or you can focus on scaling the wall or redefining the problem.” - Tim Cook

4.  “You should never view your challenges as a disadvantage. Instead, it's important for you to understand that your experience facing and overcoming adversity is actually one of your biggest advantages.” - Michelle Obama

3. “Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” - Michael Jordan

2.  “There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.” - Ronald Reagan

1. “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” - Mahatma Gandhi

What’s your favourite quote on breaking barriers?