Today I am introducing one of my latest projects, Growth-Minded Books. The website was born out of my own passion for learning through business and self-improvement books, and the understanding that writing down as I learn helps with retention.
Seth Godin’s Permission Marketing: A Review
Permission Marketing allows businesses to build relationships with potential customers and increase conversions by targeting specific groups of people who are more likely to be interested in what they have to offer.
Review: How to Read a Book
The goal of reading for learning isn't to make it through as many books as possible in a given amount of time; it's to squeeze meaning and/or inspiration out of them. How to Read a Book is a blueprint for how to do exactly that.
Body Transformation, Part 1
Three years ago, I was in the worst shape of my life. I was approaching 300lbs, grabbing fast food at least once a day, and avoiding exercise at all costs. Though I’ve always enjoyed a nice, leisurely hike outdoors, I’ve never been athletic. The only sport in which I participated in high school was track, as a shotput and discus thrower. I did this because everybody who wanted to be...
Becoming a Faster Reader
Everybody wants to read more. Whether it is for pleasure or learning (or for the crazy few, the two go hand-in-hand), we would all benefit from the ability to read a little faster and improve our comprehension of what we are reading.
PR Strategy for Startups
You don’t have to hire an expensive firm to have a Public Relations (PR) strategy as a startup. The beauty of today’s internet is that anybody has the power to reach tens of thousands, even millions, with a properly timed tweet, hacker news mention, or mention on an influential blog. You don’t have to make it onto a cover story in Inc. or Entrepreneur in order to achieve your PR goals, in fact...
Knowing Your Audience: The Tools You Need to Gather Everything You’d Ever Want to Know
The first step in developing a marketing plan is to become obsessed with knowing your audience. That’s right, obsessed. It doesn’t matter how much money you spend on Google Adwords, or how many conference booths you rent out if you are off-course with knowing who your audience is.
Finding Your Customer’s Pain Points
Last week I wrote about the importance of knowing your audience, and tools for getting to know more about your target demographic. This week I’ll be diving into ways to get to know their biggest pain points. We’ll go through the tools available to seek out some potentially unsolved pains that they have, as well as pitfalls to avoid, like why asking them to identify their pain points is a...
Defining Your Customer Avatar: Who is your Ideal Client?
In the past few weeks I’ve been writing about getting to know your audience and finding their pain points to form the foundation of your marketing efforts. This week I’ll describe assembling that data into an avatar, or creating a character with a story, with needs and desires.
How Personal Branding Strategy Can Benefit Your Startup
We all know that our companies need to have a brand identity, this is Marketing 101. What about personal brands of the folks behind the company? Do the founders need a personal brand? Those are actually trick questions, because everyone already has a personal brand, whether they are strategic about it or not. What I have found is that a strong personal brand can actually be a huge asset to your...