Insights

Lessons from 2010 and Finding Focus for 2011

The great thing about year end is that you can take stock of what happened in the previous 12 months, and look at ways to avoid mistakes and build on successes.

This is true for pretty much anything you do – your personal life, your job, your business, your blog, your dreams. Anything. I know I’ve had a lot to look back on in 2010 – some good, some bad. Some of the good has (fortuitously) turned to great, while the bad has been… interesting.

Because I see this blog as a place for us all to share, learn, support and help grow each other, I thought I’d share what I’ve learned, and where I want to go. Some of it might be beneficial; some, not so much. Heck, you might not even care for any of it, and that’s all good too – I’m just grateful for you being here.

So… here we go.

Lessons from 2010

There were a ton of things that happened in 2010 – launching For Bloggers By Bloggers with an awesome team of authors was hugely satisfying, for example – and each one saw me learn something. Three in particular, though, stood out.

We Are Not Invincible. In March this year, I discovered (not through choice) that we are not invincible. I was struck down with an illness that saw me undergoing treatment for three months, and left me listless, tired and weak. This came at a time when I was (mistakenly, as it turned out) flying high professionally. That period showed me what was important, and I’ve never put business before family and health since, nor will I again. I know it’s not easy, but ask yourself if you really need to file that last report or spend that extra ten minutes at work.

Bitterness Isn’t Your Fault. Recently, I’ve found out that a certain “lady” I used to respect has been seriously bad-mouthing me and telling complete lies to anyone that will listen. Now, I could come out on the offensive and, with the connections I’m fortunate to have, destroy her flimsy reputation in a heartbeat. But what’s the point? As long as the people that matter know the truth, and the bitter people continue to swim in their own crap, why waste energy on them?

Friendship Can Build a Business. I’ve never been a huge fan of going into business with friends – too much can be put at stake. But sometimes, it just works – and so it’s been with Troy Claus, and Bonsai Interactive Marketing. Every day is a bona-fide joy to go into our office, because it doesn’t feel like going to work – it feels like building business blocks for clients with a great friend. Use this for yourself if you can – you don’t have to be in your own business, you can build a solid friendship with those at your workplace. And you never know what the future holds.

Finding Focus in 2011

Of course, learning from what’s gone before is just part of any equation, especially a year-end one. Just as important as learning is building on the knowledge you’ve taken from the past 12 months, and focusing that into the next 12.

So what can you/we aim for in 2011?

Buy Your Weakness. Over on my Facebook Page, Phil McDonnell asked about focus and client offerings. It’s a question most (if not all) businesspeople ask, and something we face at Bonsai. Our answer – concentrate on your strengths and buy your weaknesses by outsourcing or hiring. That’s not saying Phil’s weak anywhere, but say he wants to concentrate on web development, but then social applications and more come into the mix. Get others to work on that part, and concentrate on what you do best. I have strengths, as does Troy, but we know we also have weaknesses, and that’s where we use trusted resources to complete a project. Do the same – don’t be afraid to combine to be truly focused.

Grow Balls. I’ve spoken before about growing bigger balls, but this doesn’t necessarily need to be in the way I described it in the original post. While the points in there are still valid, growing balls can simply mean taking baby steps to your goals and dreams. Start a journal and see if you like writing; if you do, start a blog and share your ideas with the world. Or start saving just a little bit extra, and read just a little bit more, and network just a little bit more. And when you’re ready, think about that business of yours you always wanted to start. Some of the biggest businesses today started as a hobby – why not yours?

Recognize Redundancy. The biggest stumbling block to focus of any kind is redundancy. Redundant work practices; redundant mindsets; redundant answers; redundant heroes. Stop. Breathe. Look around. What’s in your life – personally and professionally – that you can get rid of? Is there a potential roadblock for where you need to be in 3, 6 or 12 months from now? If so, and you recognize it, nuke it now. Make it redundant before it does the same to you first.

These are just some of the things that have been on my mind as I wrap up 2010 and look forward to the next 12 months. Some you might recognize (in a different form) from your own experiences; some you might be working on yourself. Maybe none of them.

The point is, we can all learn from each other – none of us have all the answers, yet together we can find them. Some of mine might help you (hopefully they do). But some of yours will probably help me too. And that’s all that really matters.

How about you – what have you learned, and where are you taking it?

And if I don’t see you beforehand, have a wonderful New Year with you and yours, and let’s make 2011 the year it all makes sense.

image: National Media Museum

And We’re Live With the New Design

Hey there. So, notice anything different?

After what seems like a long journey (longer for some, eh, Lisa?), I’m really pleased to be able to unveil the new design here at DannyBrown.me. Built from scratch on the core WordPress platform, design has been handled by Lisa Kalandjian of SceneStealer Graphics.

It’s a bit of a change for me, since it’s the first time I’ve used a fully customized design as opposed to building from a premium framework (I’ve used everything from Thesis to Headway to Genesis on here at some stage).

I have to say, I’m absolutely delighted with the makeover – I think Lisa has captured what this blog is all about perfectly, from the professional and business-like layout to the (hopefully) welcoming header and comments section.

The blog has always been about making you feel at home, but knowing that you’ll find business advice as well as personal stories of social media and marketing, and I think Lisa has got that perfectly.

It also means that, due to Lisa’s hard coding, I can delete a ton of plug-ins that will mean a faster load time on the blog. At the minute, it’s not completely optimized, due to some tables being left over from a previous theme and some conflicts within my WordPress database because of that, but my web hosts are on that and should have that resolved soon.

So, what’s some of the new stuff?

Home Page

You’ll see the funky new layout, with the featured post image rotator, as well as the drop shadow effects around the blog, the teaser boxes and the sidebar. You’ll also see a nice little speech bubble indicator for how many comments a post has received, and clicking that will take you straight to the comments.

Single Post

Underneath the single post, there’s now a social box, where you can subscribe to the blog for future updates, as well as share with your friends if you liked the post (Facebook Like and Twitter shares are still handled separately). There are also related posts that you can click through on, and the comments section has had a complete makeover. These replace Livefyre, and go back to vanilla WordPress comments with CommentLuv enabled. If I can get Livefyre coded the same, and it adds CommentLuv or similar, I’ve no doubt I’ll switch it back on.

Sidebar

If you look to the right of the blog, the sidebar has had a makeover too. There are different sidebars for different pages, so Work With Me will look different from single post will look different from Charities, and so on. I felt it made more sense to have complementary sidebars as opposed to a generic one all the way through.

Footer

I’m saying nothing except scroll down to the bottom of the blog and check that funky footer option out!

These are just some of the new features and design changes – there are some more, which I’ll let you find for yourself if you so desire. Suffice to say, I’m really excited about the new look, which Lisa has done a tremendous job on.

So tremendous, in fact, that Lisa is now officially the web design arm of Bonsai Interactive Marketing. We’ll be sharing more information soon, as well as a very special offer to celebrate Lisa becoming part of the Bonsai family (as well as the launch of this design), so stay tuned in the coming days!

Like I say, there are some minor tweaks to carry out, but that’s more from the remnants of previous designs and plug-ins in my WordPress database. That should be resolved in the next few days, and the full makeover will be complete.

In the meantime, what do you think?

Out With the Old…

… And in with the new, as the saying goes. Seems kinda apt for some of the changes coming this way in 2011, at least as far as this blog is concerned.

In the next few days, I’ll be putting the new design live on here. Built from the core WordPress platform, it’s the first time I haven’t used any premium theme framework and instead gone for a custom design. The makeover is being handled by Lisa Kalandjian of SceneStealer Graphics in L.A., and having seen what she’s done in the development area, I’m really excited to unleash it, so to speak.

The new design is just part of the makeover, though.

A couple of months ago, I launched For Bloggers By Bloggers as part of Bonsai Interactive Marketing’s online projects. The aim – to (hopefully) offer some of the best blogging tips around for bloggers of all shapes and sizes. Since launch, the site has continued to grow – from subscribers to unique visitors and Alexa ranking. That’s in no small part to the awesome bloggers that have been kind enough to join me and make up our core author team.

Because of the focus of For Bloggers By Bloggers, it means that any blogging-related posts will be appearing on there from now on. I’ll still cross-post the odd one or two here, but For Bloggers By Bloggers will see them first. If you’re interested in learning more about growing your blog and everything around it, feel free to check us out.

There are some more collaborative projects on the way from Bonsai Interactive, one of which we’re really excited to bring you, especially with the people that we have involved in it. My business partner Troy Claus will be heading this project up, and we’re looking to launch it in early 2011 – if you’re a small business owner, it promises to be something you’ll definitely want to keep your eyes open for.

As for this blog, I’ll be concentrating more on you – your use of social media, how you can use it in your marketing, your customer service, your employee culture and more. But at the same time, it won’t use the term “social media” all that much – it’s simply a toolset and/or mindset, depending on your take, and as such we’ll talk about the tools and the mindset needed around them. Think organizational development and you’ll get the idea.

Then there’s also a little thing called 12for12k relaunching and producing a global charity event for the latter half of next year…

I hope you’ve enjoyed this blog so far. It’s been a great experience getting to know you and reading your viewpoints in the comments. You’ve made me think about some of my points of view, and how we can all work together to both ask and answer questions.

I hope you’ll continue to do so in 2011, and feel free to use the subscribe options in the right sidebar to keep up-to-date with everything that’s happening next year and beyond.

Cheers!

Culture Club or Knowing Your Customer

Did you know that in Germany, you should always use a knife and fork to eat sandwiches? Or that in Italy you shouldn?t yawn in front of others?

How about clicking your fingers or whistling in China ? did you know it?s rude?

There are a lot of differences between cultures. Some are less profound than others, yet they?re there all the same. Are you taking that into account when trying to reach that audience?

Say your new client is from Italy and you?re having a webinar. That yawn you fail to stifle during the meeting could skittle that big account you?ve worked so hard for over the last few months. Or you have new investors from Mexico. If you don?t keep your hands above the table, it?s seen as a sign of disrespect. And who wants to work with someone that disrespects them?

It doesn?t matter if you?re in PR, marketing, advertising, manufacturing, retail or a million other industries. If you don?t know either your client or audience, you?re not going to succeed too well.

Online sales have increased massively over the last few years. The Internet and e-commerce have made international trading the equivalent of buying at your local produce market. Even your local produce market – or any offline equivalent – usually has a huge mish-mash of different cultures in the trading stalls.

Shouldn?t we spare that little bit of time beforehand to get to know the culture and see the bigger picture?

image: xiaming

Mixing It Up

When you have a great meal, do you tell your friends about it? When you see a great movie, or hear a great CD, are you someone who recommends it to others?

Word of mouth is the most trusted recommendation factor around. We trust our friends, our families, our connections. We?d rather go with their advertising than some stranger that?s being paid to recommend something.

So how often do you use your word of mouth to highlight unsung heroes, or new connections, or new people?

We?re all connected in numerous ways ? some purely online, some physically. Whatever way it is, the connection is there. It may have different levels of connection, but the one thing that?s constant is the trust factor.

Say someone I respect points me in someone?s direction, I?ll check that person out. Or if they say I should be reading a certain blog, I?ll take the time to have a look through it and either add it to my reader, recommend it to others, or move on. Even if I move on, if I know someone that would get a kick out of that particular blog, I?ll recommend it to them.

This is something we all can do.

There?s a huge amount of great information and people that go unnoticed, simply because they?re lost in the noise of our online conversations. So let?s be cause champions.

But let?s be slightly different cause champions.

If you recommend a blogger, make it one that isn’t from the norm. While the A-listers like Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse and Seth Godin all offer great information, I?m sure none of them would begrudge you recommending other bloggers over them. People like Gini Dietrich, Mark W. Schaefer and Jim Connolly are coming out with some amazing stuff ? you really should check them out.

Same goes for Twitter and the #followfriday recommendations. We all know that the “big guys” are usually worth following. So how about other guys? Recommend people outside your normal niche as well. If we all just recommended PR or marketing users, it?d get to be a pretty predictable Friday.

Or in your business or job – if you can’t handle a project, but know someone that could, recommend them for the job. The client or customer wins, because the work is still being done; your recommendation wins as they get extra recognition; and you win, because you’ve connected two needs to each another and made yourself look unselfish in the process.

There are some great people out there. We know that ? don?t others deserve to know it too?

image: camil tulcan