Reading Time: < 1 minBack when I was around 12 years old, I was quite active in the Boy Scouts. We had a big luncheon that a bunch of Troops were going to, and the special guest was going to be Mr. Wizard! At the time, Don Herbert was “Mr. Wizard“, host of a fairly popular TV show on […]
Trust
Own your shortcomings
Reading Time: 2 minA few years ago I was car shopping and was looking at perhaps getting a Nissan as my next car. As I researched further, though, I found out that they didn’t yet support Android Auto (which was on the list of features I was looking for). When I Googled for “why doesn’t Nissan support Android […]
The truth is worth more than your agenda
Reading Time: 2 minThe past year has opened my eyes to a lot of things. What I’m noticing more and more, particularly on social media, is people that share stories that fit their agenda with literally no concern about the facts. It gets worse when the facts become clear, yet they double down. I see it happen more […]
You don’t need a new tire
Reading Time: < 1 minThere used to be a guy named Yogi that sold tires out of a gas station near our house, and everyone loved him. If you had an issue with a tire on your car, Yogi was the guy to talk to. Yogi has since moved away, which is sad, because he often did something amazing. […]
That’s not my job
Reading Time: 2 minA few weeks ago, we bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee for my wife. It’s an excellent vehicle, but I noticed something interesting during the sales process. At one point they made a small financial miscalculation, but the finance manager ate the difference to make sure they stood by their word, which was appreciated. That was […]
Spam makes it harder for the good stuff to shine
Reading Time: 2 minSpam is just a bad thing. We all hate it. The problem I’m finding lately is that it’s also making good things appear to be more questionable. “Why did you write about that?” A while back, I shared on my Facebook about some great new charging cables we bought for our devices around the house. […]
Obscurity is still your biggest threat
Reading Time: 2 minThere’s an old quote from Tim O’Reilly that I really love, and it seems to be getting better with age. Tim simply said: Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy. While you can worry about people copying your content or stealing your ideas, your far bigger concern is having […]
Trust seals on your site may not be helping
Reading Time: < 1 minIn the past few years, Google has encouraged websites to work on ways to showcase their E-A-T: Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness. There are a lot of ways to do this, and one option might be to add “trust seals” to your site — things like logos from the BBB. But do they help with E-A-T […]
Show people their super power
Reading Time: < 1 minIn his book “Nothing you don’t already know“, author Alexander den Heijer shares a simple but powerful statement: You don’t inspire people by revealing your super powers; you inspire people by helping them reveal their own super powers. This applies to inspiration, but I also think it can apply to your website and marketing. As […]
The Barnum Effect
Reading Time: 2 minI find the “Barnum Effect” to be a fascinating concept. It’s the idea that you can publish a description of someone that seems very precise and descriptive, but it is really vague enough that it applies to most everyone. Some examples might be: You have a great need for other people to like and admire […]