The Books I’ve Read Since February, 2013

Made a goal in February to read a book a week. Here’s what I read:

1. Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill
2. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
3. The Art of War, Sun Tzu
4. Flyboys, James Bradley
5. A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink
6. Media Law For Producers, Philip Miller
7. The Principles of Microeconomics, Robert Frank, Ben Bernanke
8. We Are All Weird, Seth Godin
9. Good to Great, Jim Collins
10. Citizens of London The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour, Lynne Olson
11. Tao Te Ching, Lao-tzu
12. The Greatness Guide, Robin Sharma
13. Twelve Pillars, Jim Rohn, Chris Widener
14. L’Empire américain en échec, Dominique Lelièvre
15. More Chemistry and Crime, Samuel Gerber and Richard Saferstein 

This will change your life. Guaranteed.

1. I don’t have cable and only watched TV at a friend’s house or at sports bar where I’d watch sports.
2. I watch 1 movie a week.

I’ve added links to these books. Some you can read online. Some of these are on YouTube.

It doesn’t matter if some of these books are outside my current knowledge or comfort zone. This helps me take action. It’s not knowledge for the sake of knowledge. It’s actionable knowledge.

Explaining a Ham Radio (Not a Ham Sandwich)

Ham operator with his amateur radio equipment, LOC, 1921

Imagine some old guy starts talking about ham radios. You’ve heard of ham radios but you really don’t get it. (You’re probably thinking about ham sandwiches right now anyway).

That’s how a lot of us in the agency world engage our clients. We start talking about some great metric and then we dump on the numbers: visitors, unique visitors, HHI (HouseHold Income) HUT (Households Using TV) and maybe we’ll throw in a Query Parameter for good measure.

It’s a giant knowledge dump the poor client simply doesn’t need. Ask the client what he would like to know. Then listen. The answer may surprise you.

International Messages Are Not the Same

It’s absurd to think a message in one language will transfer completely with all the nuances included. Yet, this is what companies think when they open a new division across the pond. The same language, culture and business customs are different. Expect it.

A smart company prepares for this. An ill-prepared company will incur hundreds of thousands of dollars in one very expensive lesson.

Strategy in the Marketing Agency

Strategy in the Marketing Agency

What a lot of marketing agencies lack is strategy. Substitution, is one of the biggest enemies of a marketing agency.

• Substituting people for a process
• Substituting tactics for strategies
• Substituting process instead of alleviating risk

Marketing agencies perform according to a deadline. It’s easy to think in the short-term. Deadlines demand it. Daily checklists and Scrum meetings contribute to immediate production. Clients are absorbed in their work and in getting the project completed.

Marketing agencies need to use strategy as their framework. Solid strategies allow the marketing agency to plan, identify verticals and guard against risks and threats to project completion.

By the way, risks and threat hurt the company and have an impact on the bottom line.

Marketing agencies produce. They produce work for their clients. I’ve worked with my fair share of media agencies-from the poor startup to the lucrative agency. The best ones think through their projects- and how the current project successfully adds to their bottom line.

The Myth of Facebook and You

Please Like Facebook

There’s been quite a lot of hand-wringing by marketing experts concerning Facebook. Marketing discussions go something like this:

Replacement Refs in the NFL

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell serves as a reminder to us all. Your brand is your sacred cow. Don’t sacrifice it for temporary gain. When you need credibility it won’t be there when you truly need it.

Yes, It’s a Touchdown. Yes, it’s an interception.

NBC is Socially Awkward Penguin at the Olympics

NBC finds a way to be Socially Awkward Penguin

I understand why folks are upset at NBC. Who wants to watch a tape delayed broadcast when