One of the ladies in our group then asked the question “Well, if you don’t think about the future and don’t really have a goal or plan set, then what drives you and motivates you?” And you know what, she’s absolutely right. I think we all need some goal or plan that requires us to take action and do something about it, whether that goal be large or small. And when the goal is achieved, set another one.

Why make a plan for the future? It keeps us active, keeps us in motion, keeps us from becoming solitary. Often times our plans will require the help of others, which will require us to create and build relationships. I took the last couple days to set my plan in place. Game on.

This thought occurred to me when I was at the gym the other night. Every January, the gyms are packed with people who made their resolution to get in shape and loose weight. And gradually, as the year moves along, the resolutioners begin to fade and eventually by about March, you are left with a only a few strong ones who have stuck with their goal.

This got me thinking about how most of us are great at thinking of new ideas and making promises, but how many of us are great at the follow through. I feel that so often we get wrapped up in the heat of the moment, make big plans and goals, and we act quickly on these ambitions only to watch them slowly fail.

A lot of the time these plans fail due to lack of planning or fading ambition, but most of the time they fail simply because we have realized that the idea just wasn’t that great in the first place. So what would happen if after every time we had a big thought breakthrough we allow it some soak time. Don’t take any action, just let the idea stew. You’ll find that you’ll come to the realization that your idea wasn’t so grand after all and you won’t  have wasted time, effort, and capital on a bad idea. This allows you to spend more time and effort on your ideas that really might have substance to them.

As for the follow through, make sure you don’t let your good ideas fall through. Make sure you do what it takes to finish the job. It goes back to the sayings, “Don’t start what you can’t finish,” and “Don’t make a promises you can’t keep.” Don’t be another gym resolutioner who slowly looses their drive. Follow Through.

*This post is in no way a slam against anyone who made a resolution to hit the gym, this was simply used for an example.

I recently took a trip to Sierra Leone, Africa. You wouldn’t think that taking a trip to the poorest country in the world, that recently went through a horrendous civil war would be an uplifting trip, but it was, in more ways than I can explain. The indescribable country side and beautiful souls that reside there overpowered the poverty and subpar way of life that most Leones deal with every second of every day.

Most of the time was spent at the Wellington orphanage where I met my 40 new love interests. These kids are some of the most amazing people I’ve ever met. Despite the fact that most of their parents were taken in the acts of war, these children are more filled with life than I could ever hope to be. Their smiles can brighten the darkest room and their laughter is infectious. It took several days to warm up to the kids, even though it only took them several minutes to warm up to me. Once I became adjusted to the orphanage it was game over and I was in love with the children of the Wellington orphanage.

Besides the trip being amazing, it was nice just to get away from the everyday routine that I was used to. If you’re like me the second I awake I begin think and worry about all that has to happen in the hours ahead, and all that happened in the hours of yesterday. So if there is a point or advice to come out of this post, it would be to step away from your routine for a while. come back with a new mindset and fresh ideas. I know whenever I need another break from my routine, I will be headed back to Sierra Leone.

*I also need to say a big thanks to Brandswag’s COO, Brandon Coon for allowing me to go on this trip with him.

The most impressive fact about this speech, in my opinion is the length.  The most famous speech in America was only 10 sentences long and lasted barely over 2 minutes. I’m not sure about you, but this makes me think much harder about the way we are crafting our messages.  One myth of the speech is that Lincoln crafted it on the back of a napkin on his way to deliver it.  When you use only 10 sentences to make a powerful statement, you must craft it for hours.  I wonder how much more effective we could be as professionals if we put in more work crafting on the front end, and less time talking (or yelling) at people on the back end.  History says you could have a tremendous impact if you changed your thinking this way.

This story comes from content that I was privileged enough to hear Mark Sanborn deliver at an event in Oklahoma City yesterday and he actually talks more about these principles much better than I do in one of his posts: How Leaders Communicate; Part II.

We would like to sit here and say that there are TONS of companies that are the same. There are 30,343 graphic design firms in Indianapolis. Not true, but you get the point. I am not talking about face value. The difference in each organization is the people behind the brand.

Each company has individuals that run every facet of the arms, legs, and head of the company. They are each an individual. They are each… different. They each have their own ideas, thoughts, and imagination on where the company is headed into the future.

This is an extremely important concept to understand. You need to utilize each individual under a common brand. We all have different ideas on marketing and that is why companies vary greatly on marketing potential… and (of course) disaster.

Utilize your employees. Utilize your customers (your brand). Create a sustainable future for your (their) company. Create a company that embraces change, ignites excitement, and takes full advantage of a trend.

Marketing is always different. Ideas are always different. It is the implementation… that moves mountains.

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You can see a much more detailed description of this “on” vs. “in” concept here (“You Get to (Must) Choose”) but the concept is simple.  Working in the business are the things you do operationally to keep the business running.  Crafting a proposal, billing, project management, etc. are the “getting things done” part of the business that are absolutely necessary.  But, as an owner, president, or CEO you should be spending at least 50% of your time working on your business.  This is strategic planning, asking the how can we be better questions.  We often avoid this “working on the business” because more times than not we feel unproductive because we are not checking things off the list.  I would assume however that great organizations that blaze trails through the industry are ones where leaders spend the majority of their time working “on” the business.  Try to take a step back every day and allow yourself some time to ask how we are doing as an organization? What are we missing? What opportunities are waiting to be swallowed up? Where can we add more value for the customer? In doing so, I believe all of the “getting things done” functions will vastly improve and your organization will operate on a level of success you never thought possible.

It was a pleasure working with Make-A-Wish on this campaign and knowing that these donations are going help grant the wishes of some amazing children made working on this project even better. We are looking forward to continuing our relationship with Make-A-Wish and using new ways to spread their story and those of the children they are bringing smiles too.

Why? It’s pretty simple… I ask a lot of questions.

I am a project manager by trade and my specific niche is managing web re-design projects. More and more, we are designing websites and blogs for clients that require greater functionality and programming requirements. With these requests come more of the unknown on my end. I am not a programmer and therefore have found myself, asking programmers questions to understand the full scope of work, as to not allow key elements slip through the cracks. I can manage just about anything, but when it comes to the full understanding of what is and what is not possible in web development, you can be certain I will be consulting my “trusted advisors”, a.k.a. programmers.

Web project managers rely heavily on others’ knowledge in order to quote projects correctly.  We also rely on outside sources to educate us on the steps we need to take to get the project done and how to supply updates to the client of what has been completed (even though sometimes can seem like nothing because it is all behind the scenes in code). Having a team of developers who are detail oriented is important. Without the detail, projects can often be misquoted due to an oversite on the deliverables. Much of the complexity involved in creating a website is making it work properly for a visitor. Without the proper documentation in the beginning, projects can go astray, and before you know it the five page site you quoted has turned into a 40 page e-commerce site.

With documentation come questions, at least for me. When I start to quote a project requiring more than just the simple site development, I ask at least 20 questions to ensure every step is accounted for. If I don’t ask the questions, I risk not knowing the full scope of the project, and could be setting the project up for failure.  We all know it is difficult to manage something when you don’t know what is going on?

I know that not every project will go smoothly, and more often than not a client WILL forget to tell you something… but I feel like my job is to ask all the questions early and gain a complete understanding so the project can go as smooth as possible. The client has come to me and my team because we are the experts and they rely on us to ask the right questions to get what we need from them.

But what good is it all if you are not listening? If you ask the questions, like I do, you must listen and absorb the information you get in return.  Like my friend Matt Bernier of Reinforce Media puts it:

“Hearing what the customer ‘really’ wants and needs as well as what they are saying they want and need requires asking the right questions.”

Listening to the answers the client and other team members give makes for a better understanding of the overall scope. You have to understand each chain link, to fully understand the overall chain that makes up the project, if a chain link is broken, the project will be too.

Maybe it is my obsession for knowing the details, or my fear of not knowing, but I am certain I will never grow tired of asking a lot of questions.

I’m tried of reading blog posts about the death of social media experts or how there is no such thing as an expert (I’ve written a couple myself)… or the rise of the new “PR” firm. I’m tired of listening to people drone on about the importance of ONLY using traditional marketing and how social media is just… not for everyone (preaching to the choir here).

Hot air. Hot air. Hot air.

There are plenty of ways to use social media (research, marketing, customer support, internal communications). There are plenty of ways to make money off of yellow pages. Yes, you should still be sending out traditional press releases and YES… you should be using traditional means to meet and sell clients.

It is all about integration… whether you like it or not… social media is going to be around and traditional marketing will still be important. They will be one… one powerful force for customer communication.

Shouldn’t the main goal of your daily routine be making money for your clients? Shouldn’t the main goal be delivering creative and strategic programs to create SUCCESS? We all like a good argument but if the argument was made 10 months ago about social media or marketing… you probably shouldn’t bring it up again.

We can play the edge for a long time and I have done it with success… but it is time to focus on the success of clients and business… not the success of an idea or ego.

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When I personally find myself in a rut I tend to retreat to my Google Reader to find inspiration from other writers in my specific industry. It helps when there are hundreds of people writing about the same topic and feeding off each other to create content.

But that is where it stops or it should stop.

There are plenty of blogs out there that credit an author by linking to their post… but then continue to copy the content and paste it directly into the post. Be very careful when using content from another blog. Is there a right way to credit a writer and still build off their ideas while creating your own? Of course!

Linking

If you are building off of another writer’s idea be very sure that you link the title of their post in your content. By linking to their blog posts it gives the author the ability to visit your blog and comment on your idea. This is a great way to create a environment of co-collaboration. An even better thing to do is to email the author and let them know you are writing about their post.

Paraphrasing

It is okay to paraphrase an author’s work as long as you are giving them credit for the idea. This does not mean you can copy and paste their ENTIRE post inside of your blog. This does not give any credit and it just means you are lacking in the area of original thought.

Quoting

If you enjoyed a sentence or two from a blog post it is okay to quote that author if it supports your post. Be sure that you give them credit for the post and put the quote in italics.

This just happens to be a few personal ideas I have been building over the past year while writing. There have been times when I have made the mistake of borrowing a little more content than necessary and for that I apologize. The important thing to remember is judge the amount of content you are borrowing. Would you enjoy it if another blog borrowed that much content from your post?

There are many authors who could care less if you borrowed their content for a post but like mom always said, “Kyle. Better safe than sorry.”

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