I was always intrigued by English colloquial expressions and have always loved “testing” my new learned idioms on anyone I see in my path.

Upon my arrival to the US (34 years ago) and during one of my college lunch breaks, I wanted to impress my American buddies with my new idioms. Being so tired from studying the night before and while they were having their lunch I sat down and said: “I pooped!” Their reactions and face expressions made me realize that I may not have been as clear so I yelled again: “No seriously, I Pooped!” “Well … good for you Chad!” I heard them say.

When arriving home later that evening and when realizing that my new idiom has not been as effective and impressive as I thought it should have been, I decided to run this by my wife who was / is the source of many of my exciting idioms. “You said WHAT?” she yelled. “No you didn’t!” she continued. “Honey, You forgot the apostrophe as it should have been I’m Pooped!” she exclaimed.

A huge difference an apostrophe makes, eh?

Although we have launched this site a year ago, we have recently made significant improvement adjustments to the site of Betsy Jordyn, founder of Accelera Consulting Group.

Here is what Betsy had to say about our work and influence on her success:

Here are my key take-aways from attending the Thought Leadership Symposium, hosted and facilitated by Alan Weiss with his guest presenter, David Maister:

• Thought leadership, for me, means being sought after by clients and the media to help improve my clients’ businesses and live. It also means high degree of self-worth.
• It’s not about credentials and education but how smart you leverage your applied intelligence.
• Stop worrying about what people think. Instead, lead them and tell them: “here is what you need!”
• When writing a book, the most important part of that book is the conclusion.
• Develop a vast amount of intellectual property that is manifested in a variety of formats such as: books, booklets, audio and video, workshops, seminars and such.
• You have to create the environment that others see you as a thought leader.
• A firm can be associated with the thought leadership of a concept such as: McKinsey in leadership.
• You may build the future credibility as part of your organization. For example: “Here are The Chad Barr Group strategic Internet growth ideas.”
• When examining my Internet Strategic Profile process visuals, I rank thought leaders between distinct and breakthrough.
• Create a library of great ideas. Move on some quickly while letting others age and ignore the rest.
• Help my clients establish their web dominance.

Summary of David Maister Presentation:

• Trade organizations are very powerful. Publish there.
• The regularity of your articles is the real power.
• The biggest issue with thought leadership is the discipline of it. Find someone you trust that will hold you accountable.
• We all know what we need to do and we just don’t do it!
• The key is to get your clients to rave about you and refer you to others. Otherwise, you have a quality problem and not a marketing problem!
• Take your articles and convert them to books and eBooks.
• Being a thought leader does not mean that you originated the idea but that they want to talk with you about it.
• Develop a powerful questionnaire (assessment) that helps diagnose your clients. In order to get the answers, they have to enter their name and email information.
• Consider doing a pro-bono speech if they give you the email list of the participants.
• Most of your business should be your existing clients. Everything else is gravy.
• Don’t make a promise for something you are not going to do, or scale back your goal.
• Turn down work you don’t need or should not do.

Final points:

• Meet your deadlines and hit the mark!
• Show up at the right time and the right place.
• Remove these items that hold you back or that are clogging your life.
• Take some prudent risk.
• Take action. Move!

In order to be a thought leader remember this:

• It’s all about resolve!
• Decipher what you are going to do and do it!
• You gotta want it!

In this interview, Chad discusses how your web site should align with your business model.

Last year I reported the amazing experience from Bora Bora and this year I am glad to continue in that tradition. So with some outstanding minds around me, we had the privilege of examining our businesses and explore new improvement growth ideas. Below are my key take-aways from our September 2011 meetings of the Million Dollar Club in the beautiful Vila Aminta, located in Stresa, Italy, and situated on lake Maggiore:

Growth ideas:

• Reinvent yourself often.
• Become the catalyst to help reinvent your clients.
• Build and strengthen relationships with clients.
• Hold yourself and help hold your clients accountable.
• Consistent personal touch.
• Share best practices.
• Ask for referrals.
• Make sure your passion and enthusiasm is demonstrated through your work.
• Build communities.
• Build on your strengthens rather than correcting your weaknesses.
• Focus on creating new offerings to existing clients and then focus on existing and new offerings to new clients.
• The key to monetization of your intellectual property is to build and strengthen your brand.
• What action will you take right now? It’s all about execution!
• What opportunities exist that you may capitalize on?
• What apps should you consider developing and what is the value to your clients?
• Deliver “just-in-time” knowledge to your clients.
• Securing cash reserves to sustain your operation for many months will have a dramatic affect, which will free up your mind to focus on your business growth and vision.
• Explore new markets all the time.
• Create a powerful support system of people you trust.
• Does your team meet, don’t meet or exceed expectation? Reward those that exceed your expectations.
• Get rid of low margin business.
• Create rain makers.
• Create remarkable content and get it into the hands of buyers.
• Rather than interviewing people as podcasts, videos or articles, why not call them “conversations” which allows you to inject your own intellectual property and position you as a peer.
• To grow your business, get the right clients!

And some photos:

Stresa, Lake Maggiore, Italy

Left to right: Guido Quelle, Susanne Quelle, Suzanne Bates, Drew Yarro, Maria Weiss, Alan Weiss, Chad Barr, Stuart Cross, Phil Symchych, Kerri Symchych, Wendy Nour, David Nour

Chad Barr and Alan Weiss at the poolside reception

Chad, Stuart, Phil, Kerri, Guido, Susanne.

View of lake Maggiore

View of Lake Maggiore from my room. Doesn't get any better than that.

I am delighted to announce the new site we’ve launched of Garry Beavis, CEO of Beavis Consulting Group, located in West Leederville, Australia. Garry partners with entrepreneurs and business owners to create vibrant businesses and achieve extraordinary results.

Click on our portfolio page collection to view other sites and strategies we have created.

When it comes to the various social media platforms, a common question I am often asked is whom to connect with? Here are my recommendations:

• Anyone requesting to connect with you who has initiated such request. However, they must be genuine and credible. A quick look at their profile should help determine such.
• Clients.
• Past clients.
• Prospective clients.
• Executives in organizations.
• Journalists.
• Colleagues and professional business acquaintances.
• Interesting individuals in groups you belong to and others asking and answering questions.
• Popular bloggers and thought leaders.
• Competitors.

Back in 2009 we have launched the new site our dear client, Stuart Cross of Morgan Cross Consulting, located in the UK. Earlier this year we have redesigned Stuart’s site, blog and newsletter in order to implement the following:

• Create a dramatic new look. I have to admit that this is one of my favorite sites we have developed. You probably hear me say this about all the sites we create, but this is the one!
• Implement various aspects of marketing initiatives and gravity.
• Implement a dynamic interface to better showcase Stuart’s ongoing content development of his remarkable evolving intellectual property.
• Enable Stuart to easily change his own content.

Here is what Stuart has to say about the results we have help create for his business:

In this interview, Chad discusses the top things to consider before hiring your next web company.

What are some of the effective concepts you should consider when creating videos? Listen to this podcast and to Chad discussing these points by clicking the play button below:

Download MP3

and now also on iTunes

When registering your domain name (URL) the one I recommend you secure, that is the most important and popular, is the one that ends with a .com extension. Assuming then that you have secured the .com extension, you are in great shape. However, you may want to also consider registering the following extensions: .net, .org, ,info, .biz and .us if you are in the US.

For example, my blog name is hosted under www.ChadBarr.com which is registered and owned by me. What if someone decides to register one or all of the other extensions, such as the .net which would then make www.ChadBarr.net available for them to populate with their content. This could and would create a situation that when my clients search for me, they would most likely find the other domains that are actually not associated with me and my company.

So the primary reason you want to consider this, is to avoid others from trying to take advantage of your success and then registering and owning the other domains associated with your company name or brand names.

One final point of consideration is that once you have registered and own all these extensions (URLs) is to redirect all of them to your .com domain so when one tries to type the others, they will end up on your main domain.

© Chad Barr 2011. All rights reserved

I am delighted to share with you that I have just completed the writing of my new book Million Dollar Web Presence – Leverage technology to build your brand and transform your business, which I am co-authoring with my great friend, colleague and partner, Dr. Alan Weiss. This took five months to complete, will be published by Entrepreneur Press and is expected to hit the stores by March 2012. Stay tuned for more exciting announcements, excerpts from the book and remarkable new ideas, to help you transform your business.

Million Dollar Web Pressence Book Cover

Testimonial from Richard Citrin PhD, President of Citrin Consulting about the commitment, innovation and vision our company brought to his project.

Developing a sound strategy is critical before success is achieved on the Internet. I often talk with prospective clients who ask me to further articulate and provide them with additional clarity as to what strategy is. So with that in mind, I have decided to write this section for my new upcoming book Million Dollar Web Presence. Since I get asked this question a lot, here it is for your benefit.

A strategy is the framework that helps you identify where you are taking your company and what you want it to become. It is all about answering the “what” and the “why” questions while tactics are the detailed action plan that answer the “how” to achieve these type of questions.

Answering these questions will provide the clarity necessary to then develop your tactics or action plan:

1. What do you want the site to do and why?

• Create credibility?
• Deliver value?
• Educate the visitor?
• Diagnose the visitor through process visuals or surveys?
• Convert visitors to prospects and prospects to clients?
• Enable products purchasing for passive income?
• Leverage marketing effectively?
• Promote your products and services?
• Create a community?
• Promote your books?
• Capture visitors’ information?
• Become the hub and the repository of your intellectual property?
• Help you gain as many clients as possible while reducing your labor intensity and increasing your responsiveness significantly?
• Visitor to have fun?

2. Who is your audience(s)?

• Identify all groups.
• Where do they hang out and what are their geographic areas?
• What do they read?
• What trade shows do they attend?
• Where are they on the web?
• What are they looking for?
• What is their age group and sex?
• Do they search on search engines?
• Do they use social media platforms and which ones?
• Should journalists be targeted?

3. What do you want to become?

• Thought Leader?
• Consultant, author, coach, speaker?
• All or others?
• What are you known for?

4. What is the outstanding value you bring to your clients and your offerings?

Let me finally suggest that no technology should be discussed or design executed prior to the strategy being clearly identified followed by the tactics. As you’ve heard me say: “Strategy first, technology second!”

This is an excerpt from my new and upcoming book Million Dollar Web Presence - Leverage technology to build your brand and transform your business, which I am coauthoring with Dr. Alan Weiss and which will be published by Entrepreneur Press.

© Chad Barr 2011. All rights reserved

Here is a partial list, from my new upcoming book, of five marketing master practices that I see quite often:

1.     Leveraging your sites and technology to increase your credibility.

2.     Incorporating the accelerant curve in your overall strategy of products creation.

3.     Recognizing that your site is the ultimate repository of your remarkable intellectual property.

4.     Effectively leveraging social media platforms and connections to build a community around your brand. Then, nurture this connections and your community.

5.     Incorporating a blog to drive content and interactions as part of your web strategy.

This is an excerpt from my new and upcoming book Million Dollar Web Presence - Leverage technology to build your brand and transform your business, which I am coauthoring with Dr. Alan Weiss and which will be published by Entrepreneur Press.

© Chad Barr 2011. All rights reserved

I am delighted to announce the new site we’ve launched of Kelli Richards, President & CEO of The All Access Group, located in California. Kelli’s focus is on creating connections across music, entertainment and technology.

What I like about this site:

1. World-class design and navigation to help Kelli strengthen her thought leadership and brand.
2. Outstanding content in the form of articles, podcasts on site and on blog talk radio, videos, newsletters, updated blog and social media interaction.
3. Focused strategy and tactics to create credibility, deliver value, effective marketing leverage, promotion of books, products and events, capture of visitors’ information.

Here is a partial list, from my new upcoming book, of five marketing mishaps that I see quite often:

1.     Using a link that takes the visitor to your home page and not to a targeted landing page. This is a huge mistake. Instead, formulate unique pages that are clear to understand with effective calls to action and direct your visitor there.

2.     Not attempting to capture your visitor’s information and not offering free valuable content in return.

3.     Trying to do it all yourself. This applies both to your site and strategy as well as content creation. Hire an expert and partner with others for your content.

4.     Evolving your content slowly or not at all or inconsistently. A great analogy that comes to mind is the one of athletes and the grueling practices the engage in to fine-tune their skills in order to get to the level of success they desire. Your practice manifests itself in the format of creating and publishing.

5.     Ignoring additional effective aspects of marketing gravity and expecting your web site to be the only tool to bring in business and possibly overnight.

This is an excerpt from my new and upcoming book Million Dollar Web Presence - Leverage technology to build your brand and transform your business, which I am coauthoring with Dr. Alan Weiss and which will be published by Entrepreneur Press.

© Chad Barr 2011. All rights reserved

This is a rare interview I have just conducted with Gail Goodman who is the bright, innovative and visionary CEO of Constant Contact, the email and event marketing giant. We discussed topics such as growing your business, strengthening your brand, leveraging creative technologies, the Internet and social media. You’ll here answers to questions such as: Where to find more business that most customers don’t look for? With social media amplifying everyone, who should you really amplify? Who should you follow to improve your success? And much more.

This is a podcast interview you must listen to. So click the play button and enjoy.

(29:06)
Download MP3

and now also on iTunes

Click Here for entire podcast series table of contents

I have recently started to contact some of today’s most successful and well-known global thought leaders for a one day event I am planning on organizing. I have to admit that, for me, this has been an interesting experience. I was impressed with the direct and quick response from quite a few of these thought leaders or their assistants.

This is where this story gets interesting. One of these very well-known thought leader wrote me back that he is interested and that all such engagements are handled through Tom (a made-up name) with his speaking bureau whom he copied on the email. I immediately contacted Tom who wrote back to tell me how busy he is during the entire week and that he needs more details before we talk. Tom finally wrote me back that he is available to connect all day Thursday. I wrote back suggesting 9AM. Tom replied later that he has a meeting at 9AM (don’t forget, he said he was available the entire day) and suggested 2PM. I replied, agreeing to 2PM only then to get a reply back from Tom’s assistant who wrote that Tom has another meeting and suggested 2:45PM?

That’s when I’ve lost it. I wrote Tom letting him know that this is getting absurd and my time is as important and busy as his. He did write back apologizing and commenting that he just needed to change his schedule. I wonder how many other possible speaking opportunities did this well-known thought leader miss because Tom just needed to continually change his schedule?

Years ago when Chad first started to use Facebook, he asked this question on his Facebook wall: “Is anyone seriously reading or even paying attention to these silly status messages?” A few minutes later, his nephew from Australia replied: “That is what we live for!” Although probably a humorous but sad commentary of what may epitomize the trivial interest level of Facebook members, it also made us wonder, could it be that some are looking for quick, stimulating interesting and provocative ideas to interact with or reflect upon or is it possible that they have nothing better to do? Let us share with you some conceptual differences between such posts and ours. Here is a random and quick sample of some of the posts on our Facebook walls today and please keep in mind that these are from entrepreneurs and service providers:

• Thinking of taking surfing lessons later this week. Been watching them and I think I can do it!
• Eating healthy, went for a brisk walk.
• Missed my flight this morning for the first time in about 9 years..
• Oooommm …. “I love my life.” “I love my life.” “I LOVE MY LIFE!” Repeat this all day long to yourself & out loud to others. Wishing you a peacefully & delightfully glorious Tuesday.
• Do something amazing today!
• This quote hit me between the eyes so I have to share it…
• “He that would live in peace and at ease, must not speak all he knows, nor judge all he sees.” – Benjamin Franklin
• View from my coaching room – Just counted 19 bunnies!
• Marketing contest is underway. The votes are fascinating. I love seeing the numbers and what people think. Check out my blog or search on FB.

On the other hand, here is a quick sample of some of the posts from Chad Barr and Alan Weiss:

• Language controls discussions, discussions control relationships, relationships control business. Watch your language. Below is an example of how this thought has stated to generate a discussion.
• Confront, don’t enable, poor behavior: “You’ve cancelled 3 meetings at the last minute. I can’t work with you if you do that.”
• Effective Podcasting. Ever wonder? Listen now: http://bit.ly/qq5eKt
• In first 2 minutes of your speech, audience determines to what extent they’ll listen to the rest.
• Changing Your Small Talk to Big talk http://bit.ly/n5VG3H
• Requisites for newcomer to consulting: High self-esteem, six months of expenses in bank.
• How to Handle Objections: http://t.co/qFtm3XZ
• Requisites for veterans in consulting: Building brand, becoming IP, thinking big.
• Viral marketing incorporates exponential power by leveraging the web, people & your outstanding content
• How easy is it to contact you? Just had to call a colleague but no phone # on his site or email signature!
• How frequently do you have something new to say? Increase your success by saying something unique & often.

Our recommendation is that you ought to consider how unique, qualitative and provocative your posts are. Notice also our incorporation of powerful hyperlinks to the proper landing pages on our sites. And finally, if you are attempting to strengthen your thought leader position, why not demonstrate original thoughts and quote yourself and not others.

This is an excerpt from my new and upcoming book Million Dollar Web Presence - Leverage technology to build your brand and transform your business, which I am coauthoring with Dr. Alan Weiss and which will be published by Entrepreneur Press.

© Chad Barr 2011. All rights reserved

Here are our first three of seven rules for writing a newsletter, but they can also apply in large part blog posts, articles, booklets, and so forth.

Rule #1: Tell them what they need to know, not everything that you know.

Most writing is far too prolix and verbosity has become endemic to our society. But less IS more in writing, so how do you control your propensity to open the verbal floodgates?

Put yourself in your readers’ shoes. Ask what they would need to know on any given topic to be able to pragmatically apply useful techniques immediately. Newspaper articles are written in an “inverse pyramid” style, so that the most important information comes first, and the less important can always be edited out at the end for space limitations.

You have no such luxury in a newsletter that we’re advocating be confined to about a screen or 800 words or so. (An average magazine page, without advertising, has about 800 words.) So ask yourself merely this: What are the three or four most vital points and how can I express them with a minimum of verbiage.

Which leads us to rule #2.

Rule #2: A picture is worth 1,000 words but an example is worth 1,000 pictures

People relate best and most immediately to situations with which they are familiar and/or in which they’ve found themselves (or could readily imagine themselves). Consequently, use personal stories and examples to make your points, which will both dramatically shorten your article and also bring life to it.

For example: “Have you ever been in a classroom where the professor tells you everything he or she ever learned but doesn’t respond to a question and rarely looks up from the  notes? How effective was that learning compared to the professor who wades through the room interacting?”

You’ve been there, and so have we, and you can see (visualize, remember) immediately what that was like and why the point is so valid. There’s no need to try to translate a conceptual theme using thousands of words.

Try to describe a spiral staircase with your hands at your side. At best you’ll say that it’s a continuing 360-degree, ascending stair which revolved back upon its own central axis.

That’s nowhere as effective as saying, “Picture a corkscrew….”

Rule #3: Don’t use no bad grammar

Don’t fall victim to the debasement of the linguistic currency.

The Internet is largely informal, to the extent that you can readily find obscene and scatological references on Facebook and YouTube (which is the web at both its best and its worst in terms of what’s posted there).

Keep your content civil and intelligent, as if you were conversing with acquaintances you’ve met with, but not family or friends at a hockey game. You’re not talking to insiders, but to those with whom you may do business some day. You don’t want to offend, you want to impress.

If needed find an editor or someone who will simply read your newsletter before publication for obvious errors. For example, the correct phrase is “between you and me,” not “between you and I,” even though the latter may seem more refined. You don’t have to know that the reason is “between” is a proposition which takes the objective “me” and not the nominative “I,” but you do have to get it right.

If you’re grammar is isn’t correct, and you’re not smart enough to find someone to correct it, why would your products and services be any better?

This is an excerpt from my new and upcoming book Million Dollar Web Presence - Leverage technology to build your brand and transform your business, which I am coauthoring with Dr. Alan Weiss and which will be published by Entrepreneur Press.

© Chad Barr 2011. All rights reserved

Does your business create intellectual property? Do you have a web site? What about the name of your organizations and the names of your various brands, products and services? Have you protected all of these legally? Do you know the difference between a copyright and a trademark? This is a fascinating interview I conducted with Erik Pelton of Erik M Pelton & Associates, PLLC, who is a trademark attorney and a true expert.

Click the play button and find out.

(30:27)
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and now also on iTunes

Click Here for entire podcast series table of contents

Many people spend their resources and energy trying to attract visitors to their sites. That seems reasonable and achievable. However, there are two aspects to “site power” that often defeat site owners who are investing heavily to attract visitors. In fact, we have one word for it: retention.

It’s insufficient to merely attract people, you need to retain them. Not for hours or days, but fore minutes and for repeats visits. We call this a “sticky” web presence, because people don’t want to leave (and, yes, we make it difficult for them to leave—to get rid of us—because we’re offering so much value, so many options, so much interest).

Here are a different type of “sticky keys”:

a.    Site must be responsive and quick to load and display pages. Otherwise visitor will quickly grow impatient and leave. We once say a site with the “floating head” of the owner, which took over a minute to make its message and clear!

b.    Interesting, fresh and dynamic content, such as diagnostics and self-scoring tests and challenges for the visitor.

c.    Make sure the landing page answers what they came there to do with minimal amount of clicks or clutter. In other words, what are the typical results for the client or customer?

d.    Reduce stagnation. Three strikes and you are out.  Keep it fresh and review your content for timeliness and relevance. If there are three things that are dated, the visitor is probably out.

e.    Enable visitor interaction though email, contact forms, comments, sharing with others. Don’t play hide-and-seek, or protect yourself more from prospects than you do from spam. For goodness’ sake, list your physical address in case someone wants to mail you something!

f.     Community connections with peers and successful colleagues. Demonstrate that you’re connected to the profession and the community.

g.    Others’ recommendations.  Include video and print testimonials and not merely on a “testimonial page.”

h.   Ability to subscribe to newsletters, email notification alerts and RSS feeds.  Allow people to gain a continuous access vial other platforms.

i.     Create incentives such as: “You will receive instantly… Let people download text, audio, and video.

j.     Promote your best content “The best of …” This can often be a list of Twitter posts you’ve made on common subjects, recycling and repurposing your intellectual property in new ways.

k.    Show them additional resources on each page and what other visitors have liked. Amazon is great for this: “Others who read this book have also purchased….”

l.     When people leave comments, respond as quickly as possible and also thank them for stopping by and for their feedback. No inquiry should go unanswered for more than 24hours.

m.  Create a continuing series (sequels) that builds on interest, suspense, and more intense future knowledge. Such as episode #1, #2, #3 …  or Part 1 of 3.

n.   Repurpose older content by adding new life to it. Include videos, or graphics, or case studies of how you’ve since applied it.

o.    Easy way to access the latest announcements, what’s new and upcoming events. Margin real estate is quite effective for this.

p.    Upsell products and services during the checkout process by offering related items and other bundles.  This is the checkout line at your local Staples or Best Buy with all kinds of impulse items for sale as you stand on line.

Customer engagement and relationship building should continue long after a site or non-site purchase. Keep them aware of current and future promotions. We capture every single book, video, audio, workshop, and related buyer and mail to them once a month. Here’s an example below.

One of the slippery slope, stickiness removers, is overly complex design and difficult navigation. Also, too many “orphan” pages, which require no action at all, and go nowhere, tend to turn visitors toward the door. Make sure the visitor is compelled to do something. But keep it local. We generally use no links directing the buyer elsewhere (to another site). We want our sites to be cul-de-sacs where the buyer can stay put.

This is an excerpt from my new and upcoming book Million Dollar Web Presence - Leverage technology to build your brand and transform your business, which I am coauthoring with Dr. Alan Weiss and which will be published by Entrepreneur Press.

© Chad Barr 2011. All rights reserved

Given the knowledge and wisdom I have today, what would I have done differently if I had this knowledge back then, when I first started my business?

Click the play button and find out.

(2:09)
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and now also on iTunes

Click Here for entire podcast series table of contents

A common question I am often asked by clients in my mentor program is how to start a conversation with a prospective client or what do I say after I say hello? Although there are probably questions that are better suited for different personality types, I find the following quite provocative in any situation and the kind of questions that stimulate great discussions. These are also the questions I often ask before reviewing the effectiveness of one’s web and Internet strategy:

• What is your key business focus and the value you deliver to your clients?
• How would you describe your target audience(s) and the profile(s) of your perfect client?
• What are your key product and service offerings?
• What great results have you seen from your web site and its strategy?
• What are some of the key issues / challenges you are facing?
• What would you want to be known for?
• if we were to work together, how would you describe the possible outcome from your site and its strategy that would absolutely delight you?

These questions are provocative and would typically start great conversations. I have to also admit that I am surprised at times how many entrepreneurs struggle answering such questions. So next time you meet a prospective client, ask them such questions but make sure you come across genuine and friendly and not interrogating. And also, how quickly can you reply to such questions when asked and what would be your answers?

© Chad Barr 2011. All rights reserved

I am always amazed at the remarkable life and business lessons I learn when hanging around my two year old granddaughter. Let me share some with you:

• Tenacity to get what she wants. A “no” is simply a slight delay in her strategy. She would then resort to plan B. There is no such thing as rejection in her vocabulary.
• Tremendous self esteem and confidence.
• Zest for life. Every moments counts and is an intense quality interaction.
• Intense desire to learn new things and an astonishing curiosity.
• When bored, find another point of interest and quickly.
• Fearless about trying new things.
• Loves the exploration, fun and discovery of new things.
• Life is about having fun and a lot of it.
• Remarkable memory and focus.
• Creativity level that would have made Edison wish he had started innovating much earlier.
• Trusting relationships with individuals unless proven otherwise.
• Great love for nature and animals.
• Love of hearing  great stories even if read each night.
• Mickey Mouse and her grandfather are very cool.
• Life is great and I am blessed and fortunate!

How about you? What are some of the lessons you have learned from your kids and grand kids? Please share.

Ever wonder what are some of the elements of effective podcasting? Why not click on the play button below and listen.

(3:29)
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Traffic to your site comes from many sources such as when your visitor:

• Enters your site address (URL) into their browser when looking at your business card.
• Enters the web page address (URL) that was shared with them (through other marketing efforts) into their browser.
• Enters your site address into their browser when receiving your company’s paperwork such as invoice, purchase order, check.
• Clicks on your email signature links.
• Reads your newsletter and clicks on one of the links.
• Views your blog or site and clicks on links.
• Reads your guest contributor content, such as your article or your column on someone else’s site and then clicks on a link.
• Views your video on YouTube and clicks on the links to your site in the description area.
• Listens to your podcast on iTunes and clicks on the link to your site.
• Reviews your social media profile or content and clicks on the link.
• Sees your answer on LinkedIn and finds it interesting and clicks on your profile name.
• Finds interesting links on social bookmarking sites and clicks on one of yours.
• Finds your book on Amazon and clicks on the link to your site.
• Reads your article on article directories or an online community.
• Finds you on one of the trade associations you below to.
• Sees your comment on a blog and clicks on your link.
• Notices your press release and clicks on a link.
• Clicks on one of your banner ads or affiliate links.
• Is encouraged to bookmark your site for private use or for social media sharing use.
• Uses search engines and clicks on the organic results.
• Uses search engines and clicks on the paid results.
• Uses Facebook paid advertising and clicks on the link to your landing page.

How many of these are you involved in and are there others worth mentioning?

This is an excerpt from my new and upcoming book Million Dollar Web Presence - Leverage technology to build your brand and transform your business, which I am coauthoring with Dr. Alan Weiss and which will be published by Entrepreneur Press.

© Chad Barr 2011. All rights reserved

Last Monday I spoke to the great people of the Connecticut National Speakers Association chapter. A common question was asked of me: “as a speaker, how does one significantly increase their success leveraging technologies and the web?” Here are my top 8 answers:

1. Become a prolific and constant publisher of great provocative content.

2. Publish in a variety of media formats such as: text, charts or process visuals, images, cartoons, audio and video.

3. Engage in many aspects of marketing to effectively attract your buyers.

4. Innovate, reinvent and repurpose your ideas and content.

5. Create strong relationships with buyers, colleagues, partners and journalists. Well, family helps as well

6. Position yourself as a thought leader.

7. Leverage technology and the web.

8. Evolve.

These points should give all of us a quick guideline and at this point you are probably asking, how to do this? So, stay tuned. More will be published by me here shortly.

P.s. Posting this from the Las Vegas airport while waiting for my return flight home after several amazing days of learning and speaking.

© Chad Barr 2011. All rights reserved

In a recent presentation I delivered in Rhode Island I was asked what are the components I consider when reviewing the effectiveness of web sites for my clients and prospective clients. Here is the list I have quickly come up with:

• Does the site clearly incorporates the three elements of web success which are: world-class design, remarkable content that supports an effective strategy and tactics? Remember my philosophy: “Strategy first, technology second!”
• Is there a strong list of clients you’ve done business with?
• Are there many testimonials from your clients discussing the successes you have helped generate for them in the form of written, audios and videos?
• Does your site show the results you have generated for your clients, listed as bullet points and are substantiated with testimonials and case studies?
• Are there interesting case studies discussing the challenges your clients face, your intervention to help resolve these challenges and then the outstanding results created?
• Can I easily find your intellectual property manifested through articles, checklists, process visuals, audios, videos, surveys and more?
• Are there audios and videos segments that intrigue me to listen, watch and learn?
• Are you demonstrating good products and services for me to consider purchasing or inquiring about?
• Does the site incorporate call to actions for me to click on and direct me to other interesting areas on the site?
• Does it answer the key question of “What’s in it for me?” and demonstrate an overall value for me, the visitor?
• And finally, does it look as the site is stagnant or constantly evolve with new ideas, innovation and creativity?

Let me also suggest the following items to consider:

• Is there a strong value proposition that is pithy and succinct that articulates the way you dramatically help improve your clients lives and businesses?
• Is there way too much text on your home page?
• Can I easily recognize your key offerings in an engaging way?
• Is there an easy way to contact you on all site pages?
• Are there interesting links to click on to provide additional information for me to explore and decide to contact you?
• Are there provocative titles and provocative content that will create great interest for the visitor to explore or will the visitor say “so what?” and go elsewhere?
• Is there a site map and an ability to easily search the site?

I could just as easily have come up with quite a few other points. Yet if your site and strategy incorporate the list above, I will acknowledge that you are ahead of your colleagues and competitors and are leading towards greater success.

So where are you and how would you rank your site?

© Chad Barr 2011. All rights reserved

Dominating the Web: How Entrepreneurs Can Leverage the Web to Dramatically Transform Their Businesses

Chad Barr Presents – Back by Popular Demand

As an entrepreneur, what can you do to build a million dollar business? What are other million dollar entrepreneurs doing with their Web sites that would help you break through to the next level? How can you ditch the hum drum online brochure about your company, and build a Web site that strengthens your brand, wins new clients, generate more revenue and allows you to stand out in the crowd.

In this program, Chad Barr, who created Alan Weiss’s digital on-line empire, will show you how easy it is to make more money and build a community of loyal clients who love doing business with you.

In this program you will:

• Leverage the web to dominate your niche expertise
• Create instant credibility
• Analyze your Internet Strategic Profile
• Create a Million Dollar blueprint to success
• Attract clients with Internet Marketing Gravity
• Build communities around your brand
• Avoid key mistakes people make with their sites
• Leverage social media effectively in your business
• Easily incorporate podcasts and videos to reach new audiences
• Quickly produce products to fill your accelerant curve and generate revenue
• Develop a practical action plan to turbo-charge your growth

About Chad Barr:

Chad Barr is a unique individual who successfully helps his clients leverage technology to dramatically transform their business and create irresistible attraction. His firms, CB Software Systems and The Chad Barr Group, have attracted organizations that span the globe and include clients in Italy, Germany, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US.

Chad devotes much of his time to writing, coaching, consulting, speaking, heading his company and pursuing its vision. He has published over 60 articles and is the co-author of the new upcoming book, Web Dreams, with Dr. Alan Weiss.

In 2007 he was one of the first of 20 world-class consultants to be inducted into Alan Weiss’s Million Dollar Consulting Hall of Fame. As a business strategist and mentor to others, Chad provides guidance and expertise to business professionals who want to accelerate their path to success.

Chad leverages the Internet and helps create the finest professional communities in the world. His firm, The Chad Barr Group, is recognized as one of the leading Internet development organizations in the world.

When: Tuesday April 5, 2011 at 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM

Where: Sigmas Conference and Event Center
1717 Babcock Boulevard
Pittsburgh, PA 15209

Register Now

In this podcast, Chad discusses the importance of crowdsourcing, why you should consider doing it and how.

Click arrow to begin podcast

(7:15)
Download MP3

and now also on iTunes

Click Here for entire podcast series table of contents

Each year, our Million Dollar club, arranged and facilitated by my friend, mentor and client Alan Weiss, heads out to an exotic place somewhere on this planet to engage in stimulating discussions about our businesses. We then get to tough it out and have an amazing time together discussing life balance and the future of civilization over great wine and outstanding dining experiences.

This year we have selected the Four Seasons resort in Bora Bora which was just spectacular.

So allow me please to share with you this experience, through these amazing moments captured in these photos. What a great way to also look back at this year and say THANK YOU to all of you.

Happy New Year!

Chad

Here is the story told through photos, text and captions below:

After almost 24 hours since leaving home, getting ready to board our last segment on Air Tahiti to Bora Bora

The Four Seasons resort (bottom left in this photo) and our amazing suite awaits our arrival

The only way to get to the hotel from the airport is by using this water taxi, well swimming was out of the question at this point.

Checking into the Four Seasons resort

The gorgeous view and the resort reception area

This is home for the next week. The amazing view and the soothing sound of the water in the lagoon. This is my kind of "survivor" week! I am going to learn to tough this out

The astonishing view from our deck at sunset

This was our private island which was the standard view from the pool. Well the latter part of the sentence is accurate.

A night time view of the over water bungalow suites

There is a positive side to waking up at 4AM and being jet-lagged. You get some amazing photos before sun sunrise.

While anxiously waiting for the sunrise, I’ve noticed this bird at the corner of my deck, starring at the water. All of the sudden, it took off, dove into the water and was fortunate to get his meal.

Innocent fish gazing or getting ready for breakfast?

Breakfast it is!

And finally capturing the sunrise at the one end of my suite

Probably the water taxi transporting the amazing help staff at the resort

The sun is finally shining

Just another typical day

This is the view outside our bedroom door that we awoke to each day. How could you ever have a bad day?

It's time to check out the pool and our private island - The Mrs. and I.

One of the dedicated waitresses at the resort. I am told she won the local beauty contest.

My favorite exotic morning fruit.

Each day our group (Alan Weiss, Suzanne Bates, Chad Barr, Andrew Sobel, Rob Nixon, Michael Sheargold, Shane McLucas and the spouses) got together for our exhilarating brainstorming sessions. We explored and shared innovative ideas, existing and new intellectual property, future trends as well as discussed our evolving business models and how to dramatically improve what we do for our clients. What I’ve noticed is that after three years of being together, our group has reached a maturity level that allowed and enabled us to be direct with each other and “push” ourselves.

After our morning sessions, we spent our time bathing in the sun, more intellectual discussions in the pool or the beach, explored the amazing property or took the boat to the island across the lagoon for dinners:

Evening activities. Boat ride across the lagoon for dinners and discussions:

Alan and Maria Weiss

Chad and Laurel Barr

Suzanne and Drew Bates

Michael Sheargold and Shane McLucas

Andrew and Mary Jane Sobel

Rob Nixon, Michael Sheargold and Andrew Sobel

Our waitresses, or were they helping with the food preparation?

Just wanted to whet your appetite or perhaps mine

Local art at one of the restaurants

After dinner, on one of the return evening trips to the resort, I see Alan Weiss at the helm navigating our boat. It's good that we all had a bit of wine!

The reaction on my wife's face when she found out that Alan Weiss is in charge of navigating the boat at night

All things must come to an end to let in the greater things. It is departure time from this paradise on earth.

Catching the boat ride back to the airport

Spending the night in Papeete, Tahiti and one more sunset to capture before the night show and the flights back home

An amazing Polynesian show at the hotel the night before our departure

In my article Best Practices from My Best Clients I reveal my observations of what my most successful clients are doing. You may be surprised.

Checkout our most recent newsletter announcing the new site for Betsy Jordyn, President of Accelera Consulting Group.

Finally, it’s time to thank YOU and wish you and your family a healthy, peaceful and prosperous year.

All the best,

Chad

I find speaking critical from several perspectives. Here are some of the reasons I encourage others to speak often:

1. It is an effective vehicle that enables me to deliver my evolving intellectual property.
2. It sharpens my language, delivery and speaking skills.
3. It allows me to try and test new ideas and material.
4. It enables me to interact with my audience and receive immediate feedback as well as gauge what’s on their minds and what are their concerns, which allows me then to respond and also develop new intellectual property.
5. It “forces” me to innovate and reinvent new ideas, services and products.
6. It positions me as a credible expert, an object of interest and a thought leader.
7. It provides a powerful way to connect with qualified prospective clients and existing clients.

I find speaking to be essential in gaining new clients, growing my business as well as being able to stay in touch and increase the number of prospects who want to stay in touch by registering to our monthly newsletter.

I am often asked by my mentorees to articulate the skills and traits of what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur. Here is a list I compiled with the top 12 in no praticular order:

1. Enthusiasm.
2. Curiosity.
3. Marketing – This one is huge. Ability to market self, team, products and services.
4. Sales.
5. Smart risk taking.
6. Communication – Effectively building relationships, public speaking, writing and publishing.
7. Learn to recognize opportunities.
8. Creation of products and services.
9. Avoid being stagnant
10. Ability to innovate, invent and re-invent.
11. Focus on improving the client’s life and business.
12. Lead by example and be bold.

What would you add to this list?

Leveraging Video to Capture the Hearts and Minds of Donors. If a picture can capture 1,000 words, imagine what a video can capture! Learn with us how to use a simple technique for less than $300 to capture the passion your donors feel for your organization. . .and share it with others.

Click below to listen to the podcast where Karen Eber Davis interviews me as we discuss how to best leverage videos and the flip video technology to effectively capture testimonials.

I am delighted to announce that our remarkable team has recently launched the amazing new sites and Internet strategy for Lisa Martin, President of Lisa Martin International, located in Vancouver, Canada. Lisa focuses on maximizing talent to achieve outrageous outcomes.

Click here or on image below to view the new site:

Click here to read what clients say about Lisa.

Click here to watch Lisa’s videos.

Click on our portfolio page collection to view other sites and strategies we have created.

Checkout our most recent newsletter where I am reporting on some of my key takeaways from the amazing Million Dollar Club meeting in Bora Bora – Paradise on earth.

In my article You Just Launched Your New Web Site, Now What? I discuss what your next steps should be once you launch your web site.

One of the most effective ways of creating credibility on the web is through endorsements of others or clients testimonials. The reasoning behind this is quite simple; If I were to tell you how great my organization is, you may perceive it flamboyant, unlikely or perhaps even hyped. Yet if my client were to tell you the amazing results they’ve received by working with us, that is a proof!

For testimonials to be most effective, they should focus on dramatic results achieved rather than superfluous description of your personality or style of doing business. For example: “Chad’s has helped transform my brand and my organization and double my revenues” describes powerful and dramatic results vs. “Chad’s team is great to work with” which is quite weak in my opinion.

So when is the best time to ask for testimonials you ask?

1. When your client shares with you the great results they achieved by virtue of working with you.
2. When you read or hear about a great success or accomplishment you client has achieved.
3. When you know your client is continually happy with your work.

Testimonials can be in writing, recorded as an audio segment, or as a video segment. If in writing, I prefer receiving them on my client’s business letterhead although at times I may receive them as an email or a short hand written note. When a client shares with me their success as it relates to my work with them, I thank them for sharing this with me and then I say: “Would you be kind enough to capture what you just shared with me on your letterhead and send it to me? It would mean the world to me.” Or, I may simply approach my client and say: “I know how thrilled you are with my organization, would you be kind enough to provide me with a testimonial?” When they agree I say: “May I share with you what would be extremely helpful for me?” I then request they focus and write about the impact on their organization and results achieved. When the opportunity presents itself, I also suggest you request a video testimonial instead or in addition to a written testimonial. If done right, they are extremely effective and powerful. Here are the three questions I usually ask when doing a video testimonial although many times I just focus on number 3 below:

1. Please introduce yourself, your name, title and organization.
2. What was the key challenge you were facing when we first started working together?
3. What has been the biggest impact on your organization as a result of our working together?

Surprisingly, many do not ask for testimonials, either because they are ignorant, reluctant, or afraid of rejection. Over the years, I have encouraged my clients to contact their clients and ask for testimonials and the results have been outstanding and even surpassed my clients own expectations. How about you? How often do you ask for testimonials? Remember, if you don’t ask, the answer is always no.

I will be the guest speaker on Saturday 6/12/10, in Las Vegas, for The Odd Couple® Marketing & Strategy Seminar for Speakers, Consultants & Coaches, conducted by Dr. Alan Weiss and Patricia Fripp as I will share the stage with them. I will be discussing and presenting one of my favorite topics: Million Dollar Web Sites. Hope to see you there.

Below are three videos testimonials from Patrica Fripp taped (a couple of years ago) after one of my presentation.

Why Web Strategy?

Your site As Your 24×7 Extension

Chad Barr Guest Speaker for The Odd Couple

http://www.chadbarr.com/testimonial-from-patricia-fripp/

It is a beautiful morning here in Newport, Rhode Island, as I just arrived for the Thrive! experience with a very special group of people. I’ve decided to get here a bit early so I may slow down the wheels of life a bit, sit and watch the water scenes, listen to the beautiful sounds around me (water, wind, boats, birds, the flag) and read a great book.

And yes, Chadology is by my side to capture and enhance these special moments.

Over and out!

I recently had the outstanding opportunity of interviewing this remarkable individual; Dr. Cal LeMon, president of Executive Enrichment. Cal is a successful consultant, coach, author and a sought after speaker, who has helped improve the condition of some of the best organizations and audiences in the world. During the interview we discussed topics such as: creating extraordinary leaders, key mistakes organizations make, delivering value and the importance of surprises, creating a dream team, becoming a better leader, where do ideas come from, spirituality and much more. This podcast, I assure you, is a rare treat which I know you will appreciate and walk away with some amazing take-aways. Enjoy, Chad

Click below for podcast to start

and now also on iTunes

Click Here for entire podcast series table of contents

My wife just got the recent Macy’s fragrance products catalog, which was sitting on our kitchen counter when I walked in. At first, I was drawn to the vibrant and attractive colors of the magazine but then something else caught my attention. It was the subtle “did you know?” questions placed throughout the pages and followed by creative answers. What I found intriguing was the fact that the answers “placed” the products in the buyer’s hands and suggested a good “use” of that product.

1. How do you communicate your existing and new products and services to your clients?
2. Do your buyers understand how to leverage your capabilities?
3. Do you suggest creative, effective and results-generating uses of your products and services?

Here are some of the catalog images demonstrating my points as well as the last image displaying the incorporation of the social media integration. Nice job Macy’s!

A while back I wanted to check out the newsletter of Jim Cramer of TheStreet.com and the Mad Money TV show on CNBC. Big mistake! I can’t get off his newsletter. I have attempted to unsubscribe by opting-out numerous times as I also emailed his organization directly but no response and to no avail. You must be asking by now: “Chad, why are you not setting up a filter to remove his email into the trash folder?” Well … I did! But this is not the point. I should not be expected to do so from what appears to be a credible individual and company. Yet, after doing a quick search on the net I found out that Jim apparently has been getting quite a few complaints about this practice.

Although I realize that I may be generating free publicity for his organization, my hope is that my readership takes notice and also recognizes the following Lessons:

1. Make it easy for your audience to subscribe (opt-in) and immediately honor their unsubscribe (Opt-out) requests.
2. Test your various aspects of technology.
3. Make it easy for your audience to contact you.
4. Quickly respond to contacts emails.
5. Don’t take success for granted.

Below is a snapshot I captured to illustrate my point:

(Click on image to enlarge)

I recently traveled to Newport, Rhode Island, to speak to the participants of Alan Weiss’s Million Dollar Consulting® College. Since one of the topics I covered was the easy process of the creation and publishing of a podcast and since Alan and I have also promised a podcast to the participants of our New Product Experience collaboration, we have decided to use the opportunity to record and demonstrate it right there and then.

Enjoy,

Chad

Click below for podcast to start

and now also on iTunes

http://www.chadbarr.com/creating-and-marketing-products-chad-barr-interviews-alan-weiss/

Click Here for entire podcast series table of contents

I am delighted to announce the new site and Internet strategy we have recently launched for Exponential Consulting LTD, founded and lead by
Dr. Stephen Billing and located in Wellington, New Zealand.

Click here or on image below to view the new site:

Click here to read rave reviews about Stephen.

Click here to watch Stephen’s videos.

Click on our portfolio page collection to view other sites and strategies we have created.

I recently wrote about the revolutionary upcoming launch of the new iPad. I have also come across quite a few articles claiming this iPad is not yet sophisticated enough or not ready to replace the laptop technology. I suggest you do not underestimate this revolutionary device and I also recommend some patience as I don’t expect all the remarkable future features to be available in version 1 fo this iPad. I predict revolution through evolution. Apple will set the new standard as they keep evolving this platform just as they have done with the iPod and iTune and iPhone and many other iProducts.

It is ONE more tool available for you to consider. There are tasks I prefer to do on my powerful Mac Pro desktop and there are tasks I prefer to do on my Mac Book Pro laptop.

Here are just a few examples why this iPad is superior to what you are used to right now:

1. This is going to be a new touch experience for everyone which is not suitable for your desktop or laptop.
2. I don’t load and play games on my desktop or Laptop. I will on my iPad which was designed for it and will make this an amazing experience.
3. I don’t read books on my desktop or laptop. I will on my iPad which will also make this an amazing experience for me. Multiple books available at my fingertips. Built-in dictionary with a simple click. Search for a word and find where else it appears in the book.
4. Reading newspapers will also be a superb experience.
5. Applications will quickly become available (already are) which are NOT available for your laptop and desktop.
6. I am sure I will quickly adjust to the virtual keyboard and become quite productive using it.
7. For me, the weight and size are just perfect to carry into a presentation or a meeting.

I predict that when version 2 comes out, it will most likely replace my laptop. Until then, just one more tiny device in my Chadology bag which will take less space and weigh less than my 4 books I carry. The world has become an “instant” demand world. Just as we can now get our music of choice and listen to it within a few minutes, we can now leverage such technology to quickly download a book and read it within minutes. Although I would most likely wait for the version that supports a video camera, I can not wait to get my palms on this iPad.

Just one more powerful tool in the Chadology bag.

In this terrific podcast interview, I had the opportunity to chat with serial Web-entrepreneur Jim Kukral. He is a consultant, coach, author and speaker, an expert and an authority on how to successfully leverage the Internet. During the interview we discussed topics such as: Internet best practices and leveraging web sites, blogs and social media. Why consider an affiliate program and what are some of the biggest mistakes people make on the web. How to reach top executives, search engine optimization and much more. I assure you will enjoy and learn from listening to Jim.

Click below for podcast to start

and now also on iTunes

Click Here for entire podcast series table of contents

Here is the new site and strategy we have developed and implemented for Quantum Performance Inc., lead by Josh Leibner (New Jersey) and Gershon Mader (Toronto, Canada). They partner with bold, ambitiopus executives engaged in transforming their organizations.

Click here or on image below to view Quantum Performance Inc. new site:

Click here or on image below to view the new site dedicated to their book The Power of Strategic Commitment:

Click here or on image below to view their new blog:

Click here to view some great clients video testimonials.

Click on our portfolio page collection to view other sites and strategies we have created.

In this fabulous podcast interview, I had the chance to chat with Omar Khan, founder and senior partner of Sensei International and author of several books. We discussed some fascinating topics: What is a global consultant, how do you become a successful one and how do you get started. We also talked about his international company, building and sustaining remarkable relationships, how to succeed in this economy, his blog and the book he co-authored with Dr. Alan Weiss, The Global Consultant.

Click below for podcast to start

and now also on iTunes

http://www.chadbarr.com/chad-barr-interviews-omar-khan/

Click Here for entire podcast series table of contents

Below is my upcoming speaking schedule for various and exciting events. To reserve your spot, contact the individuals below. Hope to see you there.

1. Million Dollar Consulting® College – Newport, RI, Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Alan Weiss, PhD
P: 401-884-2778
Alan@SummitConsulting.com

2. Society for Advancement for Consulting – New York, NY, Tuesday, April, 6, 2010
Alan Weiss, PhD
P: 401-884-2778
Alan@SummitConsulting.com

3. Greater Los Angeles NSA Chapter – Saturday, April 17, 2010
Lori Akina
Executive Director
P: 866-416-7252
lori@tjmanagement.com

4. New England Chapter, Natick, MA – Saturday, May 15, 2010
Donna Powell
donna.f.powell@comcast.net

5. The Odd Couple® Marketing & Strategy Seminar, Las Vegas, NV – Saturday/Sunday, June 12 – 13, 2010
Alan Weiss, PhD
P: 401-884-2778
Alan@SummitConsulting.com

This is a great podcast interview I just did with David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR and World Wide Rave among other books. In this interview we discussed: Viral marketing and thought leadership strategies, the new / old rules of marketing, best practices for consultants, where do ideas come from, how to best leverage social media and much more.

Click below for podcast to start

and now also on iTunes

http://www.chadbarr.com/chad-barr-interviews-david-meerman-scott/

Click Here for entire podcast series table of contents

During my recent trip to London to get certified in Alan Weiss’s Mentor Mastery program, I was fortunate to receive this amazing video testimonial for my dear friend, colleague and client, Libby Wagner. President of Libby Wagner & Associates and Influencing Options.

http://www.chadbarr.com/testimonial-from-libby-wagner/

Below is an interview I did with Seth Kahan, author of www.freelancefortune.com

In this interview we discussed:

• How I maintain a strategic point of view
• Breakthroughs in my practice resulting in dramatic business growth
• Tactics I have used for improving revenue
• The power of working with trusted advisors
• How I have grown my organization
• My upcoming book which focuses on using technology to achieve higher levels of success
• Reflections on breaking the $1,000,000 revenue mark

Click below for podcast to start

and now also on iTunes

Here is the original interview as published on Seth’s site.

http://www.chadbarr.com/world-class-consultant-chad-barr-interviewed-by-seth-kahan/

Click Here for entire podcast series table of contents

You are probably wondering what in the world is Chadology? Well, I am glad you’ve asked. This popular term has been used by quite a few of my clients and is taking off quickly. There are various permutations such as: Chadology, Chadnology, Chadknowlogy, Chadovations yet they all represent the power of Chad’s knowledge and wisdom, combined with technology and then simply applied to the client to improve their lives and businesses. I have just received this photo, of walking Chadology, taken by one of my clients upon my arrival to the Providence airport last week for The New Product Experience workshop I co-hosted with Alan Weiss.

And yes, I am working on simplifying Chadology so there is less gear to carry.

So there you go and now you know.

I view the web as an important component of your overall marketing effort and driving interest to your organization. Seldom, would your Internet effort alone drive the proper interest and success to your organization. However, combined with the following list below and you are looking at the recipe to success:

• Speaking – Is one of the best ways to deliver value to your audience and engage with your presentation. It is especially effective if you leverage your web content during your presentation. Why not reference an article or a position paper: “Let me share with you the top 3 mistakes organizations make …” or perhaps display a chart or graph.
• Publishing – I referring here to both digital and non-digital methods. A hard copy booklet or book and a digital version of such are a very powerful way of complementing your web efforts. This may happen on your site, your blog or on others as well as appearing in various other publications.
• Body of work- The Internet today makes it extremely easy to publish a variety of media formats. Be it the written words, photos, charts, audio podcasts and videos. This creates an interesting variety for people to choose and process at their leisure, when they want and using the technology of their choice: Laptop, desktop, iPod, iPhone and so on.
• Products and services – This is a critical item to create interest in you, for people to be able to engage you and create mutual success. From the promotion of consulting, mentoring, speaking, training, booklets, books, DVDs, surveys, workshops, retreats, webinars, teleseminars and more.
• Provocative – If you want to get noticed, you have to be able to stand out in the crowd. Yet if you sound like everyone else, you won’t. One of the best way to have others notice you and become an object of interest is to become provocative.
• Strong relationships – None of this intended success is possible without the creation of strong relationship and partnership with your clients and always looking for their self interest.
• Delivery of value – The driving force in all of this is the ultimate value the client receive.
• Shamelessly promoting yourself- You can not remain a best kept secret and expect success to knock on your door. Nor could you expect to build it and they will came. These stories usually take place in fairy tails or modern movies. You’ve got to promote yourself, your brands and your products and services and become successful.

“It’s hard work you say?” Yes, it probably is. Yet there is no short cutting the system. Place these components effectively together and amazing Internet results will come your way.

Did you ever wonder how to create your own podcast? During the New Product Experience conducted today in Rhode Island, Alan Weiss discussed the effective and successful components of a podcast, he then had the participants develop the bullet points and called on Donna Brighton to create the podcast with him. With the help of the workshop co-presenter, Chad Barr, the podcast was immediately recorded, music added and uploaded to the blog.

Click below for podcast to start

and now also on iTunes

http://www.chadbarr.com/talk-the-walk/

Click Here for entire podcast series table of contents

Got on the Continental Saturday morning early flight from Cleveland to Newark and then continuing to London.  The comfortable Business First accommodation allowed me to relax, listen to my favorite iPhone music (about 8000 selections to choose from), catch up on my reading and continue my preparation for the New Product Experience I am conducting with Alan Weiss next week in Rhode Island. This week in London is going to be an outstanding week as five of my very close colleagues and clients: Dr. Guido Quelle from Germany, Libby Wagner from Seattle, Washington, Phil Symchych from Canada and Stuart Cross from the UK are meeting here with Dr. Alan Weiss to finish our certifications as Master Mentors, a new service we are going to offer to our clients.

During my first day (Monday) in London, my friend Libby Wagner and I, got a chance to visit Windsor Castle, the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms and Buckingham Palace. Amazing and fascinating places and history.

Here are some of Churchill’s wit that resonated with me:

“When I get to heaven I mean to spend a considerable portion of my first million years in painting”

“I have a tendency against which I should perhaps, be on my guard, to swim against the stream:

In 1933, as Hitler’s Nazi part came to power in Germany, Churchill asked: “Where shall we be in 1940?”

And here is another of his quote that I believe represents what true leaders are made of:
“I felt as if I were walking with destiny and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial … I was sure I should not fail”

Windsor castle commentary by Libby Wagner. For a moment I thought the guards were going to escort her away:

St. George Chapel and view of Windsor Castle

Windsor Castle

Windsor Castle

Windsor Castle

Amazing art inside Windsor Castle

State dining room at Windsor Castle:

Guard by St. George Chapel

What a Royal Mail box looks like

Houses of Parliament from St. James’s Park

The gates of Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace

My wife is exploring various fitness facilities in the area . She contacted one of the popular locations via their web site and requested a visit to review their place. Almost two weeks later, she finally received an email from one of their representatives. My wife wrote back saying that it’s been awhile since her inquiry and she has already joined another fitness facility.

Here was their reply:
“I am sorry to here that, we have been very busy for the past couple of months. The bad weather is giving us a chance to follow up and talk to the potential members that we have in our system. I would love to set up an appointment with you and give you a tour of our beautiful facility.”

When shared with me, not only was I surprised to see the grammatical mistake but I was also amazed of the poor excuses they used for their lack of follow-up action.

Here was my wife’s reply:
“Thank you for the offer but I am no longer interested.  I’m sure you have a wonderful facility but I am also interested in prompt customer service.  It’s not very comforting to know that you didn’t respond to my inquiry until the weather got bad enough for you to have the time to follow up on potential member inquiries.”

I have recently received the catalog from Johnston & Murphy which does have some nice selections I must admit. What also caught my attention was actually the back cover which I scanned below. Notice how they promote their page on facebook with the enticement of finding exclusive offers and news.

Are you leveraging the various aspects of social media such as facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and others to communicate with your clients?  You should.

Are you providing exclusive offers and news with these social media tools? You should.

Are you paying attention and taking notes of what others and your competitors are doing with social media and beyond? You should.

Are you offering your own genuine value by exploiting social media concepts? You should.

Click here for our latest January newsletter.

Featuring the article Traits of a Million Dollar Mindset and our featured client, Dr. Cal LeMon’s article Four Gifts to Give Yourself in the New Year.

here is the new site and strategy we have developed and implemented for Dr. Cal LeMon, President of Executive Enrichment, located in Springfield, Missouri. Cal helps organizations create strategic futures and transform managers to become extraordinary leaders.

Click here to view Cal’s new site.

Click here to view Cal’s fabulous videos.

Click on our portfolio page collection to view other sites and strategies we have created.

Apple has just announced their latest gadget – the iPad which I belive is an industry and revolutionary game changer. Although some critics are already citing reasons why this technology is not as advanced as expected and are finding flaws with it, I think to the contrary. Similar to what Apple has done with graphic user interface (GUI) in the 80s, then followed by many innovative technologies in the 90s, and then the introduction of the iPhod, iPhone, music and movies, they are now leading into the future again with this remarkable invention.

So what is the big deal with this iPad and is it just a big iPod? Well read on.

1. Several years ago I said that sales of hard copy books will drastically subside and be replaced with the dramatic increase in digital book purchases. This is already happening and the iPad will make it a complete reality.
2. The newspaper industry is in a huge decline and elimination. The iPad will make it attractive to digitally read newspapers in intuitive ways which are unimaginable in hard copy.
3. I resisted the Kindle because I wanted a cool tablet which has the power of a powerful computer and displays vivid colors. Steve Jobs made this a reality for me today.
4. I am already using an app on my iPhone that has handwriting capabilities. I am sure this is going to be available on the iPad very shortly and not require these silly digital pens to be carried around.
5. So just a big iPod? Absolutely not! I would call this a Microsoft and Kindle killer. And actually the more I think about it, this is an amazing example of looking into the future in the present.

A question was recently asked: “One of my past clients has retired from his organization and is still consulting for them. I want to get back in this organization. Previously, the ex-employee brought me into the organization and I worked with the CEO who is no longer there. We are going to talk this week. Have you had any experience partnering with an ex-employee to consult with their old organization?”

Here is my answer:

Since he is inside already and especially since you have worked with him and them in the past why won’t you:

1. Ask him what key issues they are facing.
2. What role is he providing.
3. Who, inside this organization, may he introduce you to, to start building relationships.
4. Are there areas that the two of you may collaborate on.
5. What other organizations could he make introduce you to.
6. Ask him for a testimonial of the work you’ve done for him in the past.

I recently spoke on Social Media and All That Online Jazz to the Pittsburgh Consulting Community. Here are some video testimonials I have captured with my flip video camera.

Here is Chad’s definition of social media:

The connection of people online to explore mutual interests, share ideas, wisdom and expertise, build relationships, have fun, provide and solicit answers to questions and conduct business.

I am thrilled to share with you a brand new and exciting offering that was launched today. I have joined Dr. Alan Weiss in offering this new and amazing experience, never before offered, to help consultants, speakers, authors and entrepreneurs to develop and create products. The goal is to provide the tools, expertise, access, references, resources, and support to identify, create, and launch profitable new products, with the option of a partnership with existing, successful providers.

Click this link To learn more and register.

Below is a recent testimonial I have received from Libby Wagner, President of Libby Wagner & Associates.

“Don’t think for a minute that having a great, value-laden website is a nice-to-have business tool but doesn’t really impact your business results or revenues. My website has increased my brand and credibility, created opportunities for new business, including a six-figure contract and two keynotes just in the past 6 months! Potential clients are calling with their buying decision already made!”

This testimonial was also featured in our most recent newsletter.

Pretty powerful stuff you would probably agree. Not only do I take tremendous pride in receiving such testimonial, but the true essence for me, is our ability to lead and help our clients generate powerful results and reach higher level of success in their business and be rewarded for that.

So with that in mind, how effective are you in soliciting testimonials from your clients and how do you then leverage it in your business. Here is my take:

1. It is great to receive unsolicited testimonials from your clients. The way I believe to increase such is to share stories with your clients of the ones you have received. And when that testimonial arrives, I like to follow-up with a thank you note to my client.
2. When I hear my clients share their success story with me, it is the trigger I need to hear to request a testimonial. The language I usually use is: “Thank you for sharing your success with me. It delights me to hear this. If I may, I would like to share something with you. The way our business grows is when others hear success stories, such as the one you just shared with me. It would me the world to me, if you would be willing to write us a testimonial outlining the outcome we have generated for your business and place it on your letterhead.”
3. When presented with the opportunity, I would also ask my clients for their willingness to video record a short testimonial. I would suggest you bring a professional videographer or use a flip video to do it yourself. The perfect opportunity to do this is at the end of your speeches such as in my previous post.
4. Pull out the most powerful sentence or two and display on your testimonial page as well as on various applicable pages. If the testimonial refers to your consulting, why not place it also on that page.
5. Scan the testimonial letterhead received and place a link for the visitor to be able to view the entire scanned testimonial.
6. Why not frame the testimonials and hang them to display proudly and prominently in your office.
7. Include them in your PR kit when you need to send it out.
8. Blog about them.
9. Refer to them in your discussions and speeches. “I was chatting with one of my clients who proudly shared with me that …”
10. Finally, make sure to share with your clients what makes for an effective and powerful testimonial. Let them know that it is not the one that talks about how many years your are in business or how nice your new web site looks. You are looking for the one that describes the outcome and results you have generated for your clients.

You’ve built a great looking web site (well, let’s start with that assumption) and announced it to the world. Yet, several months later you are starting to get desperate as the phones are not ringing, no emails inquiries are coming in and no products are being ordered from your site.

You are probably wondering what went wrong and what are the most effective ways of changing this. Well, here are some points to consider before you pull the trigger:

• There is no one silver bullet approach to creating success on the web.
• Engage in as many effective marketing activities that allow you to connect with your clients. Such as: creation and participation of various web sites, blogs, press-releases, online forums, newsletters, social media activities, Radio, TV and podcast interviews, teleseminars, workshops, speaking and more.
• Strengthen your brand and credibility and become an object of interest.
• Nurture and grow your audience and your databases. From results reported by many of my clients, one of the most effective marketing techniques is to consistently send emails containing valuable offers and incentive to their database. This means that in addition to your content driven newsletters you need to also send announcements of your products and services. This is often overlooked by many.

What have you found to be effective?

It is quite obvious that one of the keys to the business success of many, is their ability to offer valuable products on their web sites. When I demonstrate, review and discuss this with my clients it is quite common to hear them share with me their aspiration to create such products to promote on their own web sites. The unfortunate thing is that such aspiration is often associated with an immense sense of frustration and the rudimentary challenge of how to make this a reality. The other obstacle is how to get their knowledge and ideas out of their head and into a completed product such as a booklet, book, CD, DVD workshop, Teleseminar and more.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Interview other thought leaders, record the conversation and create an audio file that is available as an MP3 download off your site or a CD.
2. Have others interview you or even video tape the conversation and make it available as an audio or video file.
3. If the objective is to increase your audience by providing free value, interface your audio recordings with iTunes and your videos with YouTube and such services. Also make your transcript available as an eBook in a PDF download.
4. Hire a content writer that will help you get your great ideas unto paper or digital files.
5. Assemble some of your best articles into a powerful collection and create a new eBook that is also available as a hard copy.
6. Create a weekly podcast series.
7. Create a monthly video series.
8. Invite your audience for three free teleseminars, deliver outstanding value and announce your new monthly teleseminar series.
9. Get together with your Internet company and layout the strategy and tactics to implement and promote these products successfully.
10. Chart your way to success – Determine one of your desired products, pull out your calendar, write down the date it will be completed and available, determine all the steps necessary to accomplish this and schedule them accordingly. Now repeat for the next product.

Unless you have already mastered the creation of such products and are doing so effectively, consistently and profitably, the key is your discipline and creating a powerful support system to help you get there. To become successful at creating products, you may need to select an accountability partner, a mentor, an Internet and a business strategist, a content writer or someone who has done so successfully and learn from them.

Since it is that time of year when making resolutions is popular yet only few follow through with, why not take a moment, determine a product your customers need that you are passionate about and have the knowledge and expertise. Then, pull out your calendar and take your first step by taking action now. You’ll be glad you did. I promise.

I was chatting with a client of mine the other day, not realizing that my browser’s facebook page was open. My attention was interrupted by the sound of my facebook instant message screen. Here is the brief online conversation that ensued with my face book friend Mark or so I thought:

Mark: Hey. are you there?
Chad: yes, on the phone. you good?

Mark: Not too good at the moment and need your urgent help
Chad: what’s going on?

Mark: We stranded in London,England. Got mugged at gun point last night all cash credit card and cell phone were stolen
Chad: so sorry to hear this. You will have to go to a place that has a phone so i can verify it is you!

Mark: all cash credit card and cell phone were stolen. Thank God we still have our lives and passport
Chad: Since you have your passport, get to the American Embassy and call me from there
and by the way, what is my granddaughter’s name?

9:28amMark is offline.

So called “Mark” disconnected our chat and also and immediately removed his facebook connection with me, which means that he defriended me (social networking term). That was all I needed to realize that my friend’s account was hacked. It was actually kind of eerie to realize that I actually just had a conversation with an impostor – a cyber thief.

I called my “real” friend Mark who was vacationing in Las Vegas and explained to him the situation. He apparently had idea of this and was shocked to hear it. I also explained to him that it is quite likely that this cyber crook may have already contacted others and possibly even engaged in other fraudulence activities. I suggested Mark logs back on, change his password, change his status message to notify his friends of the posisble fraud and then contact facebook to report this issue.

My suspicion is that my friend’s computer security was compromised by him surfing the net and accessing the wireless network in his hotel room.

Protect your passwords by changing them frequently, encrypting them, installing a firewall on your computer and making sure your data is not open to the world and especially when accessing a wireless network.

Safe surfing,

Chad

After last year successful appearance and speaking on the topic of: “How to take your web site to the next level,” I was invited to present again to the Pittsburgh Consulting Community. So on Thursday 1/7/2010, at 4:40PM EST, I will be speaking on “Social Media And All That Online Jazz.”  Hope to see you there.

Click here or on image below to register.

Our latest newsletter, featuring the extensive work we have done for Libby Wagner, President, Libby Wagner & Associates and Influencing Options, is now available. Click here to view.

May this next year be the best of many to come. Wishing you health, peace and happiness. Chad and Laurel.

Images I captured during my recent Israel trip:

Jerusalem

Jerusalem

Sea of Galilee

Jaffa

Jaffa

(click on images to enlarge)

A question was asked today on an online forum I’ve implemented and help moderate. Here is the question:

“I’m doing a redesign of my site based on comments gleaned from an earlier post. (thank you to all). A point was made that too much is buried and buyers are not compelled to dig any further. My worry is having the home page crowded with too much info. I don’t want the buyer to work too hard. As if this isn’t enough, I have three services which i really want to highlight so I have to make sure those are front and center. I plan to include links / topics such as “client results” / “case studies”, “testimonials”, etc. , but what other elements do you feel are essential for the home page?”

I was surprised that all answers from various members focused primarily on tweaks to design and some minor words enhancements. Here was my reply:

Assuming your objectives are:
1. Create credibility and strengthen your brand.
2. Improve and increase your contact with others, increase your distribution list and potential clients.
3. Make it easier for your clients to do business with you.
4. Implement technologies to easily and consistently deliver your value to your clients

And assuming you want to position yourself as a world-class act, then your site does not need a facelift, it needs a major surgery.

And keep in mind that design, look & feel and navigation are only one small component of desired success. Some of the others are:

1. What valuable content (article, position papers, case studies, booklets, books, teleseminars, workshops …) is on your site to benefit your current and future clients?
2. What are you doing to increase your content consistently and how do you leverage it?
3. What are your strategy and your tactics?
4. What elements of marketing gravity have you committed yourself to and how does your site leverage them?
5. What does your accelerant curve look like (products and services)? how does it evolve? Any chasms in it? How does your site support and leverage it?
6. Are you a speaker? If not, should you be? If so, how is your site promoting you as such?
7. Should you leverage social media? If so why or why not and which one(s) should you embrace?
8. Does your target audience search for you and if so should you engage in search engine optimization (SEO) or paid listings (PPC)?
9. Should you create a blog or build a community around your work. Should you create videos and podcasts and place them on your site and on YouTube and iTunes and others?
10. Should you have an affiliate program?
11. Are you evolving and reinventing your business and your site?
12. How would you rank yourself on my Internet strategic profile and where do you need to be tomorrow?
13. I could go on and on …

Focus on design and you will probably end up with a pretty web site that most likely has missed its mark and objectives. But then again, some say: “if you build it, they will come.” I say: “will they?”

Let me share this with you. The ones that have taken my recommendations seriously and work hard at consistently executing the strategy, recognize the highest success. The others, have pretty web sites!

Best,

Chad

Alan Weiss and Chad Barr are pleased to announce that we are engaged with Phil Symchych of Symchych Consulting Inc. located in Canada, on one of our Million Dollar Web Sites projects. The particular appeal of this is that Phil is an expert in small business growth and is focusing on dramatically accelerating the speed of his success. He is also doing this concurrently with a major book project called “Outrageous Growth” that he is co-authoring with Alan. This is the kind of aggressive promotion and overall improvement of marketing position and leveraging of technologies that is so important these days.

The work has just begun and I will notify you when we launch the amazing new site.

Welcome Phil.

Alan Weiss and Chad Barr are pleased to announce a new joint venture, Million Dollar Websites. This was created in response to consistent requests for a combination of superb and powerful marketing text combined with state-of-the-art web technology. We’ve created an absolutely unique web site development approach—turnkey for a new site, metamorphosis for an existing site—with three programs to accommodate a variety of investments. The return on those investments will easily reach seven figures.

Hence, Million Dollar Web Sites. We invite you to visit. This is a unique service, finally combining high tech, with high touch in a pragmatic and customized approach.

http://www.chadbarr.com/million-dollar-web-sites/

In the past 10 weeks I have been traveling for almost seven weeks for both business and pleasure. It was truly an amazing time and I would like to share some of my experiences with you in my next upcoming posts.

Back in October, I traveled to San Diego to attend and speak at Alan Weiss’s Million Dollar Consulting College Grad School. A terrific group of 15 consultants attended the grad school for two and a half days to discuss business challenges, best practices, case studies and participated in various role plays and examined growth ideas.

Here are several take-aways:

1. Look at the world from our clients’ perspective.
2. What can we learn from other companies success that we can apply to our success or that of our clients.
3. Rather than looking at doom and gloom look at opportunities.
4. If you don’t reinvent your business you die.
5. Promote yourself so you are mentioned in the media in print, TV, Internet and radio.
6. Mention your clients’ success often in conversations.
7. Buying high-end goods is an emotionally fulfilling act. People need that emotional fulfillment.
8. Growth comes from top line growth not from cutting expenses.
9. Business model is the structure of how you run your business and how you market and deliver your products and services.

Below are two testimonials from my speech which I recorder with my HD Flip Video camera. First one is from Lisa Nirell, founder of Energize Growth:

And the other from Sara LaForest, co-founder of Kubica LaForest Consulting:

And finally, the fabulous setting outside my window. And remember not to get caught in the web.

I was scheduled to talk with a client of mine recently. I reviewed the most recent email she sent me, prior to dialing the phone number, and noticed her phone number at the bottom of her email signature, which I do recommend as a great pragmatic practice. I picked up the phone, dialed the number listed and got the sound of a fax machine on the other end. Thinking I dialed the wrong number, I dialed it again and got the same fax machine sound. I then pulled up her cell number and when finally connecting she asked me why am I calling her on her fax line. I said that I called the number listed in her own email signature. She indicated that she uses that email address only for private communication and her telephone number listed is her home number that is also used as a fax machine. She then asked me to dial another land line number which was not listed in her email signature.

This illustrates a prime example of how technology may actually complicate the ease of being able to contact you. If you require a fax machine, set up a dedicated number and do not run the risk that your fax machine answers human calls and especially those from your prospects and clients. And if you are listing the phone number to contact you in your email signature, which you should, make sure that number leads to you or your voice mail and not your fax machine.

Share your story with us.

I was recently interviewed and quoted in BusinessWeek.

Earlier this year I visited Alan Weiss to discuss several projects we are working on and to also leverage the opportunity to tape quite a few video segments for Alan’s site. It just so happened that I landed on the day he was scheduled to tape the next five segments of the Writing On The Wall (WOTW) series. Since I am always looking for interesting and valuable content, I pulled out my video camera and taped the “behind the scenes” of Alan’s production. What I found most fascinating is that in less than the 90 minutes session, which mostly was interrupted by me, he was able to tape five segments for the WOTW series and four video testimonials for people in his hall of fame program.

Enjoy,

Chad

http://www.chadbarr.com/the-writing-behind-the-writing-on-the-wall/

It all started with a dream six years ago. Here is the brief conversation I had with Alan Weiss:

Chad: “I have this amazing idea of creating an online community that enables us (24×7) to communicate with you and each other.”

Alan: “This sounds quite interesting and appealing to me. Let me talk to Maria (my wife) about it.”

Chad: “I just realized that I’ve made a terrible mistake.”

Alan: “What’s that?”

Chad: “I’ve come to realize that I am not talking to the economic buyer!”

A few hours later, an email received from Alan saying: “Let’s Rock!” So Alan and I put our heads together, discussed it strategically and tactically and 45 days later the dream has become a reality and with it, an amazing transformation of my life and business.

So a huge thank you to you Alan and this amazing community of colleagues, clients and wonderful friends, for making this a remarkable, uplifting and inspirational journey.

And of course a huge thank you to my wife, Laurel, and my awesome family.

Chad

p.s. and finally, for my outstanding business team.

Earlier this year, my wife Laurel Barr, a Cantor at Temple Emanu El in Orange Village, Ohio, put together this amazing concert. Surrounded by an outstanding talent and the remarkable voices of four great cantors, they sang and uplifted the spirit of the congregation. It is with great personal pride that I’d like to share with you some of the musical gems I recorded. Also demonstrating how easily can these special moments get captured with the right technology and be placed on your sites and blogs for others to enjoy. So here are five videos for your enjoyment:

Invocation & Instructions to the Audience:

Times Like This:

The Girl in 14G:

Your Daddy’s Son:

Hear my Song:

I’ve recently attended Alan Weiss’s Million Dollar Club gathering in beautiful St. Lucia. Surrounded by the gorgeous nature and an amazing group of people: My wife, Alan Weiss, seven other members of the Million Dollar Club and their spouses and partners. We met in the mornings, discussed business, best practices, intellectual properties and ideas to improve our lives and businesses. It was by far the most advanced learning experience I have ever experienced with honest and successful colleagues committed to help me grow. Below are my few takeaways and goals I have committed to. I am sharing this with you, with the hope that it is of help to some and a better way to hold me accountable.

Takeaways:

• Productize my business to complement the concept of the accelerant curve. (more on that soon)
• Commit to the things I must let go in order to reach the highest level of success.
• Be more directional instead of being opportunistic.
• Don’t tell people everything I know but what they need to know.
• To reduce my labor intensiveness: 1. streamline my work 2. transfer work to clients 3. delegate to staff and outsource 4. discard when unnecessary or turn down business you do not need.
• Determine what I want life to look like and then build the business to support it.
• Manage myself out of the business, increase my virtual team, clone myself as much as possible in sales & marketing, leverage my staff to the highest level possible and hold them accountable for outcomes and results. Delegate all that I should and could.
• Create more powerful alliances.
• When developing my marketing content, make sure it focuses on current times and my client challenges.
• Develop case studies that enable clients to relate to them.
• When promoting a book, offer an autograph option for extra charge.
• Create a list of journalists and send them press releases.
• I am a business strategist, who leverages technologies to help my clients accelerate their growth which fits beautifully with becoming one of Alan Weiss’s master mentors and developing a new coaching club for my best clients and push them to higher level successes.
• I am going to start promoting a new brand: “The king of all kings of social media.”
• Schedule systematic and better follow-ups with clients and develop an action plan which can be also delegated to one of my staff.
• I have great intellectual property (IP) which I will develop much more of and productize the heck out of.
• Print my goals and have them display prominently on my desk.
• When struggling with my long, 1st priority, to do list, I will pick out two and get started and then pick out two more. It does not matter which two I pick. Just do it.
• Find a quite place (often) and do all I can to finish my set priorities the quickest possible way and then enjoy the rest of the day. My colleague and client, Rob Nixon from Australia, uses this technique until his laptop battery runs out. With my new Macbook pro that is a problem. Battery lasts too darn long.
• Keep my schedule and calendar sacrosanct.
• Routinize my input and customize my output. Also, if it is worth doing again, systematize it.
• Send my ideas to my team and let them make it happen.
• Develop more diagnostic tools.
• On the last day, I asked each of the members of the group to take a couple of minutes, pull out our crystal ball and in our areas of expertise articulate the future as we see it. VERY POWERFUL STUFF. I then realized that we are our clients’ future and we represent their blueprint to success.
• All great things must come to an end to let in the WOW things.
• The Million Dollar Club is the most awesome think-tank / mastermind group I have ever attended. The relationships and friendships created are priceless. Thank you all and thank you Alan for making this an amazing reality.

My Goals:

• Purchase a focused and high quality database and market to it aggressively. Create web landing pages with videos and make special offers of value. Become a marketing machine. Better penetrate to my associated communities and help my clients reach higher level of successes. Leverage alliances and develop a new workshops with and without my alliances.
• Finish the book I am co-authoring with Alan Weiss and start thinking about my next book.
• Leverage NSA by speaking to local chapters and national conferences.
• Productize my business. Fill my accelerant curve with workshops, booklets, books, webinars alliances such as Alan & the Gang which will be launched 1st Qtr. 2010 and Million Dollar Web Sites and more.
• Push, re-invent and further develop my dream team.
• Promote by new brand of business strategist, master mentor and the coaching club.
• Launch the new amazing web site for The Chad Barr Group with podcasts and videos and …
• Fitness, spirituality and life balance upgrades with my wife, kids, grand kids, family, friends and colleagues. Help my wife pursue her passions.

Below are three videos that will give you a sense of the amazing time I spent in St. Lucia with members of Alan Weiss’s Million Dollar Club. In the mornings, we discussed our businesses, how to reach the next level, we shared our intellectual property with each other as well as shared our interpretation of what the future looks like in our areas of expertise. In the afternoons and evenings we relaxed and enjoyed a great time with our spouse while continuing our fabulous discussions.

Listen to what participants had to say about this amazing experience:

Our MDC friend, Michael Sheargold, discusses letting go at the peak of the Piton Mountain in St. Lucia and at the peak of Alan Weiss’s Million Dollar Club. Prior to playing the video and by looking at the picture below, can you tell who is the member of the million dollar club and who does not care if he is?

In order to generate the highest successful results for your business, consider the following:

1. Determine the highest impact of what you do for your clients.
2. Who would be most receptive for your offerings.
3.  Who has the greatest capacity to pay.

Reflecting on the Jewish new year I have to admit that this year has been absolutely amazing. Just over 6 months ago I was blessed with the birth of my beautiful granddaughter, Dafna. My daughter Sharon was ordained as a Rabbi. My son Yoni is maturing and becoming a handsome young man. My son-in-law Hillel, still in school and whose main mission in life is to take care of my daughter and his and who has been doing an awesome job at that. And of course my beautiful wife, Laurel, who what can I say, is just amazing.

Happy new year to all. May this year bring health, happiness, prosperity and peace to us all.

Dafna and me

More of Dafna

And more Dafna

Handsome Yoni

Dafna and my daughter Sharon

Dafna, my wife Laurel and me

Sharon, Hillel and Dafna

I am constantly intrigued by what generates success for entrepreneurs so I may coach and apply this blueprint for my clients. During a fabulous dinner with Alan Weiss this past Wednesday evening at The Spiced Pear in Newport, Rhode Island and over an amazing 2001 Chateau Margaux, we discussed some of the components of such success:

1. Internalized Knowledge and experience.
2. Intellectual fire power which is gained through additional learning, reading and experience.
3. Innovative and creative ideas.
4. Mental discipline to get out the intellectual capital (between your ears) into products and services which become your intellectual property. This transfer process is done through instantiation, which is your  ability to take complex concepts and simplify them.
5. Constant daily creation and addition to your body of knowledge and body of work.
6. Passion demonstrated in your work and your contacts with your clients.

Below is a process visual I have just created at 32,00 feet, on my way to Rhode Island to speak at Alan Weiss’s Million Dollar Consulting® College:

There are several elements to the chart above: On the horizontal axis is your “Strategy, Tactics and Execution” (referred below in short as strategy), which are the components of what your business and internet should look like, how will you do it, the steps to get there and your fierce commitment to execute it. On the vertical axis is your “Intellectual Property (IP), Content, Products and Services (referred below in short as content). The plus sign(+) represents the high of each quadrant and the minus sign(-) the low.

Quadrant 4 – Create, innovate or get out – This represents low strategy and low content. These individuals suffer from low or no success and are usually struggling quite a bit. The solution (as in my heading) is quite obvious. If you fall into this quadrant and assuming you have the wisdom and passion, start creating and innovating while developing and executing your strategy or find another occupation.

Quadrant 3 – Best kept secret – This represents high content and low strategy. These individuals have outstanding content and lack the strategy to make them extremely successful. Although, some do see some success, the majority struggle to reach that next level in their business.

Quadrant 2 – The emperor has no clothes – This represents high strategy and low content. These individuals are good at the strategic aspect of their business and may even be somewhat successful for a while but they lack the wisdom or the knowledge of how to do it or they use fraudulent techniques.

Quadrant 1 – It’s good to be the king – This represents high strategy and high content. These individuals are great at what they do, their content is good to remarkable, they execute powerful and effective strategy and are extremely successful.

The solution is pretty straight forward. Focus on creating and innovating while increasing your IP, content, products and services while making sure you have a clear strategy and tactics that you execute well and with great discipline.

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

I am thrilled to announce the new site and strategy we have developed and implemented for my friend, colleague and client, Libby Wagner, President of Libby Wagner & Associates and Influencing Options, located in Seattle, WA. Libby is one of the only poets regularly welcomed into the boardroom. Often called the The Influencing Coach™ by her clients, Libby’s expertise in leadership, strategy, management, and executive team development helps organizations create environments where clarity and increased trust lead to unrivaled results.

Here is what Libby just shared with me recently: “I was contacted by a potential client  via my other site devoted to my training programs Influencing Options and was able to secure a new client with a new six-figure contract!”

Click here to view Libby’s new site.

Click here to view Libby’s new blog.

Click here to view Libby’s new branded newsletter.

Click here to view Libby’s exciting corporate videos.

Click here to view Libby’s testimonial videos.

Home Page:

Blog:

Newsletter: 

Click on our portfolio page collection to view other sites and strategies we have created.

In this podcast interview, Pam Harper, President of Business Advancement Inc., interviews Chad on the topic of creating an effective Internet strategy and synchronizing business and web objectives.

Click below for podcast to start

and now also on iTunes

Click Here for entire podcast series table of contents

http://www.chadbarr.com/pam-harper-interviews-chad-barr/

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

Click here for our latest August newsletter.

Featuring the new site for Patrick O’Neill of Extraordinary Conversations, my article Where should you be tomorrow? First, determine where you are today and Patrick’s article The Four Failures of Leaders.

I am pleased to announce the new bilingual site we’ve developed and launched for Steve Savage of Savage International, located in Marietta, Georgia. Steve focuses on helping businesses throughout the world to dramatically improve their sales and marketing.

Click on the image below to visit the Web site:

Click here for Steve’s videos.

Click on our portfolio page collection to view other sites and strategies we have created.

A couple of minutes ago I decided to quickly research the web and see what people are publishing about growing an email distribution list. I launched my browser and googled: “How to grow your distribution list” and to my pleasant surprise I noticed that the second result listed at the top of the Google page was one of my own blog posts: “How to Grow Your Email Distribution List” which I wrote back in March of 2007 and is still a great post I must add.

That triggered my thinking and sharing with you the following points:

1. Have you Googled yourself lately? This is one of the topics I discuss during my speeches. Why not use Google and possibly other search engines to research the web and discover: what is being said about you, what your competition is doing, how is your brand improving, where are your articles positioned? Get the point? You may be pleasantly surprised as well as learn what others are doing.
2. I constantly think of new ideas for my new articles as well as refine existing ones I have previousely written. I then modify and improve my original posts and either write a new blog post to feature this revised article or use Twitter to announce it. For example, four days ago I added more call to actions to the “What’s your call to action” thread I wrote a while back. I used Twitter to announce this, which is found here, and is also automatically linked to my Facebook account. This allows me to revive and repurpose older posts (as I am doing here) while publishing improved newer content.
3. Writing ideas are all around us, we just need to pay better attention to our surroundings.

A great question was recently asked on an online forum my company implemented, which I often participate and help moderate:

“Lately I have been hearing people talk about having their websites done on a WordPress platform so they can make quick changes on their own. Is anyone doing this? If so, is it as easy as others are making it sound? Are there any other benefits to switching over? ”

WordPress (WP), which is the tool or technical engine we use for this blog and many others we develop, is a great option to consider not just for the development of blogs but also for the creation of robust web sites as well. We have developed quite a few sites already using this tool and including the amazing and upcoming site of: Alan & The Gang.
Here are some of the pros and cons whether to use WordPress to create robust web sites:

Pros:

1. Allow the site owner to publish their own content updates and create new pages. Most such content changes may then be accomplished by a non-technical person.
2. Easier ways of integrating video and audio podcasting.
3. Give complete flexibility to your technical team to design the site to have a unique and outstanding look and feel that does not resemble a blog structure at all.
4. Enable easier interface with RSS so visitors may subscribe to automatically receive your site updates.
5. Take advantage of WordPress improvements to advance your site functionality.
6. Gain access to a WP community to learn new ideas and implement new software functionality via plugins.
7. Empower yourself with the ability at your leisure to quickly publish revised and new content on your site.

Cons:

1. Security is the biggest issue from my perspective. WP sites are possibly easier to hack into than other sites. I therefore recommend you do update your site and install security patches often.
2. When you update to the latest version of WP, some of your installed software functionality programs (plugins) may not work anymore.
3. The need to update the software and plugins often.
4. You must become familiar with the plugins concept to avoid the possibility of installing harmful code on your site. If you are not sure, read this horror story.
5. May become time consuming to stay on top of the necessary knowledge.
6. Updating the content does require some technical knowledge which not all people are apt to do.
7. Although it may seem that a non-technical user may be able to use this tool, don’t fool yourself. There are many issues that require the knowledge of an expert and when one is used this point should be place in the pros section above.
8. Backing up a worpress site is a bit more complicated than a static site since it contains databases. As basic as this sounds, do not underestimate the importance of backing up your site on a daily basis.

Upon review of probably thousands of web sites over the years, I have come to the conclusion that in order for your organization to be successful on the Internet, 3 key elements must be accomplished to generate such success:

Design: Your site ought to be professionally designed, attractive and engaging and be easy to navigate in order to quickly gain the visitors’ attention and interest. Good use of images is important as well as the use of action shots of you with your clients.

Content: Your site must focus on your visitors’ interest and addresses the question of what’s in it for them and how to improved their businesses and lives. To accomplish this, strong content must be developed in the form of products, services, and intellectual property while constantly evolving.

Strategy & Tactics: What should the business look like and how should it position itself online. What Internet components are critical to make the business a success. How should you reach and communicate with your current and future customers? Should they be able to purchase products, read articles, subscribe to newsletters, communicate through blogs and online communities?

With that in mind, please review the chart below and notice the obvious at the points of interaction of the circles:

1. The Missing Map – This organization has a site that is well designed with great content yet no defined strategy and tactics to create an Internet success. It’s like driving a great car without a GPS system or an effective map to follow. You’ll be wondering why you are not reaching your destination.
2. The Ugly Book Cover – This organization has a site that has great content and powerful and effective strategies and tactics yet the site is poorly designed and navigated. Most visitors would either close their browsers or press the back button to go to their previous site.
3. The Boring Show – This organization has a site that reminds me of going to see a theater show that was well advertised and promoted with great and colorful posters. Yet when you get to finally watch it, there is nothing there. Just a terrible and boring show. Some site unfortunately suffer from the same syndrome.
4. Success - This organization is reaping the most benefits of effective web strategies. Any missing element and success is either delayed or non-existent. Yet when all three circles and elements intersect that ultimate success is achieve.

Where are you?

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

I am pleased to announce a new site we’ve developed and released a while back for Robert Veninga, Ph.D. Bob is an award-winning author and one of America’s most trusted speakers. He has spoken to over 1,000 audiences throughout the world, including presentations in Europe, South America and China. Four of his presentations have been featured in the prestigious Vital Speeches of the Day which publishes the best speeches delivered to national and international audiences. He operates out of St. Paul, Minnesota and provides inspiring speeches to a wide range of audiences including Fortune 500 companies, financial service organizations, hospitals, government agencies, faith-based organizations and educational institutions.
Click on the image below to visit the Web site:

Click on our portfolio page collection to view other sites and strategies we have created.

You don’t create a blog or a web site or participate in social networking or whatever and hope your clients will come – especially your CEOs or CFOs. Most consultants are making this mistake over and over and are still waiting for the phone to ring! You drive the value to your customers and prospects by creating amazing products and services, publishing great stuff, shamelessly promoting it, and leveraging every component of marketing gravity you can and guided by your Internet strategy.

Let me also suggest (and I am ok if you all hate me for this) that quite a few of consultants’ web sites out there are quite weak (to put it very mildly), with minimal or zero perceived value. Many want to become world-class consultants, yet their web sites and intellectual property make them look like amateurs.

Blogs are only one component of your overall Internet strategy and Internet marketing gravity. Here is one example of how you may leverage your blog to target CEOs and CFOs (I am inserting in the quote here):

“Dear Bob, (Name of your fictitious CEO or CFO – you pick the real one)

I have assembled a brand new and exciting collection of special reports, podcasts and videos to help CEOs and CFOs. This collection is my creation and innovation of a repository of powerful and unique ideas to help my clients with issues they are bringing to my attention. Issues such as: [list areas of your clients' challenges and where you can help them raise the bar]

I am updating this repository area quite often and I am also planning on bringing some fascinating thought leaders as guest contributors. Names such as: [List some great names you are planning on bringing as guest contributors] This area is becoming “the place” for CEOs and CFOs to hang out, get the answers they are looking for and participate in a like-minded community.

To preview this new place, simply click on this link www.ChadGrowthIdeas.com (you probably should use your own name)

I am also attaching my latest special report: “Top 10 mistakes successful CEOs avoid making”
And please checkout next Thursday my upcoming video: “Thriving in tough economic times.”

I will be in touch with you shortly to share some new exciting ideas.

Best,

Chad”

I realize this takes courage, creativity, investment and hard work. But heck the good news is that there are only a few successful thought leaders out there. The rest simply follow or not.

So what do you think? Please post your comment below.

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

BMW has just delivered my new transportation vehicle – the BMW 650i. It sure explains why they named it “The Ultimate Driving Machine.” The drive is fabulous, the computerized system is amazing and driving with the top down, music playing through the awesome sound system is a stupendous experience.

Talk with you soon while I am probably blogging and tweeting from the road.

Life is good.

Last Thursday I received an urgent email and a voice mail from a consultant and speaker, who is also a colleague of mine whose identity I will keep anonymous who is not my client and is not hosted on our server. She reported to me that her web site was infected (see slide below) which presents a serious risk to all visitors arriving to her site. Upon further investigation, not only did we find out that her own site contains serious viruses but the server her site was hosted on was reported to contain thousands of viruses and malicious content.

This is an example of a credible, competent, successful professional who is using the services of amateurs and a hosting company that threatens infecting all the sites hosted on their server if not already done so.

This is also an example of what happens when one selects a cheap solution that may have greatly damage their repute. Can you imagine being the client visiting this site, only to find out that the consultant you’ve trusted over the years, has just infected your computer and potentially your organization with viruses?

Not only should you do business with people you trust, who are extremely competent and highly recommended but you ought to think twice before you select your hosting company.

(Click on image to enlarge)

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

How does one become successful and what does it have to do with blogging and online surfing? Well, let me share this brief story with you. I’ve been monitoring a bit of the online chatter on some of the social networking sites for an article I am working on. Although I find the bulk majority of posts to be utterly ridiculous, boring and a complete waste of time, the one that caught my attention the other day was from an Internet marketing consultant who claims to be quite successful. In his post on Twitter, he was looking for someone he could share a cab ride with and save $5. Well, give me a break!

This demonstrates that not only should you concern yourself with what others may be writing or saying about you but you ought to carefully watch what you may be saying about yourself and your own organization. Language is everything and if you claim to be successful, I suggest you pickup the tab for others to ride with you or even perhaps suggest you use a limo rather than a cab.

And since we are on the topic of success and how to become successful, here is an article I wrote that you may find to be of help: Key Elements to Success. How to Work Smarter not Harder.

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

Many writers I meet (self included) share with me that they often look for ideas for writing and especially when faced with writer’s block. Recently, I published this article: I think I’ll invent something new - What are the best ways of developing new ideas? where I explored the best ways and places to generate creative and innovative ideas.

It also occurred to me that one of the best sources for generating new ideas is actually during my conversations with my clients and prospects as well as colleagues and trusted advisers. As probably happens to you in your conversations, it is quite common for such individuals to share with me their challenges and ask for my opinion and advice. So some time ago, I’ve decided to keep a note book and digital file of such questions which help generate ideas for my next blog post (such as this one), or my next article or product.

The key for me obviously to generating creative ideas for writing or for creating new products and services is to listen carefully. What do you think?

Please click on the “Comment Now” link below and share your thoughts with us.

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

Listen to this great podcast where Chad interviews award-winning speaker, executive speech coach, sales trainer and author, Miss Patrica Fripp and listen to them discuss:

• How to use speaking to promote your business and market yourself as a speaker
• Effective web strategies and how Fripp leverages the Internet to grow her business
• Her famous brother Robert Fripp
• And much more

Click below for podcast to start

and now also on iTunes

Click Here for entire podcast series table of contents

http://www.chadbarr.com/chad-barr-intreviews-patricia-fripp/

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

In an article I wrote some time ago, To infinity & beyond – Nine practical techniques to take your web site to the next level, I emphasized the importance of effectively testing your web site. This means that you need to test your site not only when you are ready to launch it for the first time but also when you make frequent changes to it. Let me show an example:

You may already know that when typing a web address in your browser you may save the amount of keystrokes and elect to take a shortcut. This means that you do not need to include the “http://www.” or the “www.” before the domain name. So for example, if I wish to enter this blog name in my browser I may type “chadbarr.com” instead of “www.chadbarr.com” or instead of the entire “htttp://www.chadbarr” which is often used by many.

Some time ago, a colleague recommended I check the blog by David Meerman Scott who also wrote the book The New Rule of Marketing & PR which I highly recommend. I launched by browser and typed “webinknow.com” and got this error screen suggesting the domain name I type was not found:

Upon further search on Google I found the blog I was looking for:

I then realized that the person who set up the blog did not take into consideration setting it up in such a way that enables visitors to type the shortcut into your browser. No big deal you may say, and although I may slightly agree, why not make it easy for your visitors to find your sites and reduce the chance of annoyance or creating the wrong assumption that your site is down or does not exist?

I then decided to visit David’s main site. When I got to his home page (as displayed below) I  was unable to click on the top right two links which are the Blog and Bio options although they both worked on the interior pages.

This error is quite common in my experience and I am not suggesting that I am immune of it in our own work. But I do suggest however is that if it happens to the best of us it may happen to you as well. Why not take the extra few seconds and test your sites thoroughly and on an ongoing basis?

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

Since we are on the topic of new web sites, here is one I have yet to announce on my blog which is due its proper recognition. Angie Katselianos is the President of Platinum Performance International, located in Milan, Italy. She helps her clients establish the strategies and skills they need to succeed.

Click on the image below to visit the Web site:

Some time a go we were  thrilled to launch the new web site for my good friend and colleague, Stuart Cross, of Morgan Cross Consulting, located in Newark, England. Stuart has been helping world-class companies find new ways to drive substantial, profitable growth. In just two years he has attracted market-leading clients including Alliance Boots, Avon and PricewaterhouseCoopers and his work as a consultant, speaker and coach has taken him to six countries across Europe as well as North America. I am also delighted to announce that we have also just  launched Stuart’s new blog Cross Wires which is already loaded with great content, articles, process visuals, videos and podcasts.

Click on the image below to visit the Web site:

Click on the image below to visit the blog:

Click here and here for Stuart’s videos and click here for his new podcast series.

On a recent vacation trip to Israel I realized prior to boarding the plane, and to my horror, that I forgot the power cord for my MacBookPro laptop. You all know how ornery I get if I don’t get my daily access to my Mac. I quickly used my iPhone to email my friend Dov Gordon in Jerusalem asking him to make the connections necessary to see where I may get such cord. Upon landing eleven hours later, fully rested in first class, and greeted by the beautiful Israeli afternoon, my iPhone email inbox and text messages quickly notified me that I might be in luck. Dov, with the help of technology and probably the Israeli secret service, informed me that the only place in Israel that may have my desired cord is the Mall of Ramat-Aviv, located in an affluent suburb outside Tel-Aviv. So we (my wife and I) picked up the Hertz rental car, turned on the GPS and on our way we were to the mall.

Less than thirty minutes later I parked the car, turned off the engine, smiled and said to my wife: “We’ve made it. Let’s get the cord and start our great vacation.” She smiled and said: “And what a better place to start than this great mall.”  As I opened the car door and stepped out of the car, my keys dropped out of my hands. In a split second, and to my true horror this time, I realized that they fell into a grate and from the sound of it I could tell that it was quite deep. “Oh shoot,” I yelled. (Well it kind of sounded like that.) “What happened?” asked my wife. “I dropped the darn keys in this hole in the ground,” Frustrated I explained. For a moment she thought I was kidding but she quickly learned I was not.

Looking for a quick solution or perhaps a miracle such as parting of the red sea since I was in the holy land after all, I noticed the security booth around the corner. I quickly ran there and explained my situation to the friendly guys. “Not to worry,” said one of them. They quickly grabbed the ladder, gathered the troops, well three does make a troop right? They rolled my car off the grate, lifted the grate and explained to their buddy that they won’t need the ladder while grabbing his legs and dropping him into the hole in the ground. He was mumbling something while going down and seconds later, my keys are flying in the air and land in my hands while the guy is pulled out of the dungeon. I thanked them profusely and rewarded them with American dollars as a sign of my gratitude.

“The cord you are looking for is on back order,” said the clerk at the store. My life flashed before my eyes. Well, not quite but you get the point and the seriousness of my situation right? Yet, I was determined that there is no possible way I am walking out of that store without a cord. After much schmoozing, we find out that this guy helping us at the store, traveled the US quite a few times, he has a family in Cleveland which my wife happens to know quite well and he admits that someone just turned in their laptop for repair with the cord attached. It took all of my positive influence, talent and mastery of the language (begging probably had a lot to do with it) to finally convince him to sell me the cord for a full price. It was double the price I would pay in the US but who cared at that point. I was able to convince him to take the back order cord when it comes in and attach it to the item being repaired. We paid, thanked him and ran out of the store before he changed his mind.

Luckily the stores and coffee shops were still open so it turned out to be a fabulous evening as we gladly invested in the local economy. See pictures below as proof. On the way back to the car I held the keys tighter than ever before yet realizing that in the midst of all this excitement I forgot to take some pictures or videos that would have made my story believable. Well, it truly did happen, really, I mean it!

Chad drinking as known in Israel “upside down coffee” or simply  latté in the US.

Laurel after another successful shopping day

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

Where would we be without the innovations that have gradually and progressively evolved into the modern-day technological advancements we now enjoy?

While, at the time, many people considered each breakthrough unthinkable (in the unimaginable sense of the word), gradually these advancements evolved and became so widespread that they became unthinkable (in the commonplace sense of the word). With each breakthrough, social and interactive along with other types of shifts also occurred.

How we go about finding the root meaning of the words “stagnant” or “evolve” today versus how we would have done so twenty years ago or even hundreds of years ago, demonstrates how things have dramatically changed.

Before Gutenberg’s Moveable Type around 1450, we would not have had access to words in print the way the moveable type made possible. To find out what the word “evolve” meant, we would have probably had to ask someone else who may or may not have known how to best state it. Hopefully, someone we knew would have told us that “stagnant” means to stay the same, slow-moving, sluggish or declining and “evolve” means to progress, advance or transform.

With the advancement of moveable type, multiple copies of text could be created and distributed to many more people than were able to read the handwritten books and materials that were limited in number and availability. After moveable type, ideas progressively became more accessible through the printed word in newspapers and books—including the dictionary where we could then look up the meaning scholars had previously discussed and debated and decided to put into print.

Not only were ideas beginning to advance, but so were people. With the advent of automobiles, trains and airplanes, it became easier to ship goods and send out people around the world progressively faster, cheaper and safer. The exchange of ideas and new experiences opened up new worlds to those who were privy to travel and returned to share what they learned.

When it may have seemed that modern technologies had almost evolved to their pinnacle, the landmark technology of The Internet (circa 1990’s) marked a new domain that soon exploded into multiple domains across the world, allowing people to communicate and interact via the digital typed word and now through audio/video faster than ever before imagined! Yesterday’s fast seems slow to us today as we move towards new and improved versions of technologies that become faster, cheaper and better.

The internet (and all the interrelated technologies connected to it in this era) has opened up a whole new world like never before in regard to accessibility and reach. Some of the latest technologies and amazing innovation are increasingly being combined in powerful ways that enable people to enjoy the benefits of multiple ways of connecting with ideas and with others, including: cell phones, text messaging, Twitter and other social networking platforms, blogging, internet sites and strategies that enable you to effectively market your business and allow you to gain information, knowledge and wisdom and all within minutes or seconds.

While some people may be hesitant to utilize the full force of the internet, others are continually upgrading their technology and technological know-how to maximize their businesses. Those who choose to be stagnant are being and will be surpassed by the many advantages offered by those who choose to evolve along with technology, which offers increasingly improved speed, interactive capabilities, spreading of ideas, more focused searches, exploring new buyers and opening new markets and opportunities globally.

There are people today who still see technology as being somewhere on a spectrum between a necessary evil they tolerate to a complex world they fear. What’s important is how do you see it, think about it, use it and most importantly, how you leverage it. The option is up to you to decide how to reach your customers who are increasingly seeking the best of minds to help their businesses. Are you constantly evolving yourself and positioning yourself as a world-class thought leader who delivers great content, products and services to your customers?

Many times I enjoy reading a hard copy book while other times, I enjoy listening to books on my iPhone or even reading them on this great technology. I love reading the Wall Street Journal print edition yet at times I enjoy reading it online. There are always choices in our lives for us to make, but remaining stagnant in business or stagnant with your web presence is unimaginably unthinkable.

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

I am excited to announce the launch of the recent new site, blog and newsletter strategy for Patrick O’Neill and his team at Extraordinary Conversations, located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Patrick and his team are committed to helping their clients lead positive change by mastering the areas of: the power to envision a preferred future, the power to articulate that future into being and the power to lead others on an existing journey to positive change. By mastering these three competencies, Extraordinary Conversations helps their clients generate breakthrough results.

Click on the image below to visit the Web site:

Click on the image below to visit the blog:

Also, click here for Patrick’s videos and click here for additional articles and resources.

For our latest July newsletter, click here: www.cbsoftware.com/cbnn/2009-7_index.php

Featuring the new site for Dr. Alan Weiss of Summit Consulting Group. Our Million Dollar Web Sites joint venture, my article To Surf or Not To Surf? and Alan’s article Nine Steps to Marketing Email That Will Be Read.

One of my dear and senior clients sends his emails all typed in uppercase or capital letters, perhaps not realizing the internet standard for shouting is all uppercase (although I am not sure who invented that standard). Unbeknown to me, one of my younger staff members received several emails for this client thinking the client may have been unhappy and is “yelling” at him. An interesting conversation followed with each one of them as I was trying to bridge the generational gap.

Although we all live in a diverse world offline, the internet has connected people online in ways that allow us to interact with other people we may or may not meet in person. Some may make the assumption that all internet users use technology the same way as we do to communicate. This assumption needs to be examined more closely so we become aware of the need to be sensitive online as we may already be in our “offline” world. There are cultural, generational and gender differences among people—not to mention the all-important difference of technological awareness, exposure and capability that affects how people use and interpret the internet.

On Facebook—one of the most popular social networking sites—it is easy for people to connect with friends, colleagues and clients so they may stay in touch. It is quite common for people to change their online status and to comment frequently about what they do at the moment. I find the phenomena of mundane comments such as: “I am having breakfast”; or “going to workout”; or “it’s time to go to sleep” not only silly, but somewhat obnoxious, a waste of brain cells, digital ink and Internet energy.

Some time ago, I actually used my status on Facebook to post a simple yet provocative question: “I am wondering why are most so addicted to these silly status messages and who out there really cares?” I did get several replies. Some on Facebook and some in my private email. Some were nice and tried to explian their position yet others suggested I don’t get it. I’ve come to realize that many (perhaps those fitting the friendly stalker mindset personality) love to read what others are doing, spend much of their time following others and also use it to find out where to hang out with their friends. Moreover, some love to see pictures of others and often request you post them when you attend events. My personal preference is to post and read helpful, valuable thoughts and tips and even watch good quality entertaining moments. Since I speak, write and consult on this topic, I do make a strong attempt to be aware of those online differences so I may communicate effectively with others.

So whether it is the realization that uppercase emails do not necessarily mean the person is yelling at us, I also realize the important fact that it is often impossible to interpret the sender’s voice intonation in emails. I suggest we recognize that even or especially online some are introverts and some extroverts and there are many behavioral styles and preferences. I am respectful of people’s Right to Interact, Right to Surf, and Right to Post. Yet as I recently wrote on one of my Twitter posts: “You are right. I only pay attention to the brilliant stuff, the other I have learned to ignore. Now what was it that you said?”

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

Hysterical spin on our technologies from comedian Louis C.K.

I initiated a conference call this morning using GotoWebinar – a product I use to conduct such calls and webinars, which I have done many times before. The call connected attendees from two continents and allowed us to use our computer speakers and microphones to join the call or simply use a regular phone. I’ve elected to use my (USB) headset with the built-in microphone. As soon as the attendees joined the call I noticed that they all sounded like Minnie Mouse. Not knowing if this issue was due to me not having enough coffee yet or perhaps some software setting I inadvertently changed, I immediately changed my mindset to that of Mickey to the rescue, switched to my regular phone and all was well.

Shortly after the call was over I inquired with GoToWebinar technical support: “Oh yes, that is a problem we are working on which only happens with the latest software version of the Mac and only if you use the USB headset.”

“That’s all folks”

(oops sorry, wrong character)

I am excited to announce the launch of the recent new site of Peter Bodifee, the president of Bodifee Consulting Group, located in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Peter’s main focus is in helping his clients leverage information technology for dramatic success and maximum profitability. This site was built with content management integration which allows Peter to easily change the content of his own site.

Click on the image below to visit his site:

I travel the world quite often and here is a powerful lesson I would like to share with you that I witnessed on one of my business trip to the Bahamas. Being in a new environment, especially one as beautiful as the Bahamas, heightens my senses of natural, everyday occurrences. My colleagues and I were engaged in great discussions outdoors as we were also enjoying the fabulous cocktail party and the various assortments of food. I couldn’t help but notice some uninvited guests: The birds.

Discovering the opportunity to join the party and be fed, it did not take the birds long before one would wait the perfect opportunity to dive in, grab the treat, and leave. Quickly to be followed by another and another.

As I observed their behavior, I was thinking how remarkably they have mastered and adjusted their survival habits. They combined their need to feed themselves with an unbelievable desire to succeed, a fierce focus and a natural sense of timing. Yet they were doing it elegantly and with what seemed to be a sense of playfulness and enjoyment.

Birds adapt to their environment, where their strategy may be similar but different when it is an entirely natural setting versus a combination of a natural setting and human-made setting. In either type of setting, birds demonstrate patience in waiting for the perfect opportunity, yet they also use prowess in knowing when to change locations to seek other opportunities. My amusement centered on what seemed to be their natural instincts vs. perhaps their learned, internalized and mastered skills. Here is the process they were following:

•    Holistic view of the environment.
•    Quick analysis of the situation.
•    Tremendous focus on the objectives and goals.
•    Wait for the perfect timing.
•    Take action.
•    Reap the reward.
•    Life balance enjoyment.
•    Repeat the cycle

Their careful watch regarding proximity of people to the food helped the birds time when to act and when to withdraw to safety. When they observed momentary distance between people and some food, they would zoom in and zoom away quickly. They repeatedly grabbed their food in this manner over the course of an hour and a half. Their repeated success demonstrated sustainability of success when given the right opportunity and desire. It’s important to note that they had no fear in taking this constant risk and also if they waited too long to act, their opportunity may have disappeared.

So let’s pause here and think about it. What I am suggesting through my analogy is that reaching life and business success and getting the results we want is easier than we sometimes make it to be. We overcomplicate things at times, which are possibly due to fear, lack of knowledge and not following a successful process. By being able to narrow our own path to the success we desire, we first have to define what it is we are trying to accomplish, then seek the right conditions that will increase our ability to be successful and then take strong, focused and concise action. The birds have an innate sense of what their needs and wants are; whereas ours are sometimes clouded by the disconnect between what we want and what we truly need. Aligning this disconnect between want and need is quite important.

So with the power of illustrating through an acronym and the playfulness spirit of the birds, here’s a quick way to summarize the simple, but important survival strategy lesson I learned in The Bahamas:
B – Be
A – Aware
H – How
A – Action
M – May
A – Affect
S – Success

BAHAMAS reminds me to “Be Aware How Action May Affect Success.” Just like with the birds, there are many factors that go into knowing when to act (and when not to), which are essential to getting the results we seek. Being prepared with a strategy can help us know how to get to the right place at the right time—when the opportunity knocks, take action! It’s not just for the birds!

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

I am delighted to announce the new site we have developed for my great client, friend and colleague, Kim Wilkerson, President of Wilkerson Consulting Group, located in Cedar Rapids, IA. Kim’s main focus is in helping her clients achieve dramatic results such as: build effective management and leadership, improve sales, individual and team effectiveness.

Click on the image below to visit her site:

Reflecting on this day:
I am proud to have served in the Israeli military service.
I am proud to have become a US citizen.
I am fortunate to have an amazing family and friends.
And my utmost respect and gratitude for those who have made the ultimate sacrifice and have given their lives so we may enjoy our freedom.
God bless.

http://tinyurl.com/qkcgd7

I am delighted to announce the launch of the new site of Aries Technology Group, located in Knoxville, TN. Positioned as a software, technology and consulting firm, Aries Technology helps create wealth for their customers. John Shaver, president and founder, is a strong believer in achieving effective business results and his customers’ testimonials are a powerful indication of such.

Click on the image below to visit site:

Below is a powerful video testimonial I’ve been fortunate to get from Alan Weiss, which is something you should consider doing with your clients.

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In this podcast, Internet strategy guru Chad Barr interviews Dr. Pat Lynch, the president of Business Alignment Strategies, Inc. In this interview we cover topics including appreciative inquiry, the biggest obstacles executives face, things the best companies do well, accountability, and Team in Training, the fundraising arm of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Click below for podcast to start

and now also on iTunes

Click Here for entire podcast series table of contents

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

If you have an iPhone and a blog I recommend you purchase the BlogPress app from iTunes. It is a great application which will enable you to post directly to your blog from your iPhone. So now there should be no excuses for you or for me to post such interesting threads which I am doing from my iPhone right now. The landscape keyboard and cut, copy and paste which I use for my signature below are awesome additions as well.

And attaching photos is a piece of cake. Even my dog Noodles agrees since you can see him wagging his tail.

My wife and I have just visited Moxie which is one of our favorite restaurants in the area. We noticed a new item on the menu, the Mediterranean Sea Bass which was highly recommended by our waiter. It was an outstanding dish we both agreed. When chatting with the waiter and commenting on his superb recommendation he said: “You know, when we had it on the menu as the Bronzini Fish, we could not sell any. So we’ve changed the name to the Mediterranean Sea Bass and we can’t keep enough in stock.”

The power of the internet is that it is ubiquitous – which can be a good thing if you are maximizing what your website says about you and your business. Does yours reflect Walking your Talk and Talking your Walk?

Often times during my seminars I ask for volunteers to allow me to demonstrate their sites effectiveness. Most cringe and avoid any eye contact with me. You can almost read them silently say: “please, not my site.” In fact, that may be just the reason why many become our clients since they know that they need to invest in getting their talk and walk in sync.

Your Walk is who you are, what you do, how you do it, why you do it and so forth. It is the action you convey. By being aware of what messages you are sending through your actions, you can adjust them in order to align them so that what you do also tells your customers how your products and services meet and/or exceed their needs and wants.

Your Talk is what you say, the language, that connects you and your customers with what you can do for them. One of the most powerful ways to talk about your business today is through your website so that it says what it needs to say and how it needs to say it. The quality of your website speaks volumes about your business through your powerful language, audio, video and visual messages. Another and probably even more powerful ways of talking about your business, is to let your customers do that through testimonials and commentary.

Here are a few tips to help you analyze both Your Walk and Your Talk online and offline. Go through each of the tips and individually consider Your Walk; and then repeat it with analyzing Your Talk. Make a list of action steps you can take to get them in sync so that your online and offline walk as well as your online and offline talk are synchronized through and through.

1. Is your value proposition (VP), which defines how your clients are better off by virtue of working with you, prominently displayed on your home page? What sections of your site demonstrate and prove your value proposition? If your VP talks about dramatic growth of your clients, you should incorporate testimonials and articles demonstrating and explaining such growth for you and your clients.
2. What is your vision and mission statement and how does your site substantiate them? A client investing six-figure investment with us shared with me that he felt we have similar philosophy. When I asked him to articulate further he said that it was based on similar vision and mission statements that he read on our web site.
3. Are you using effective language to increase credibility through your clients’ list, testimonials, case studies, client results and your intellectual property and expertise? Do your articles show examples and how-to tips based on successful track record with your clients?
4. Who is your audience and what is your market and what are the products and services that may greatly benefit them? Are you constantly adding new such products and services and receiving happy clients’ testimonials that are displayed on your site?

By refining and aligning what your website is saying about you and your business, not only will you eliminate the cringe, but you may find that you are finally proud for the whole world to see it.

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

This is one of my favorite lines from the fabulous movie Awakenings, featuring Robert De Niro. And I am glad to report that although and thankfully for a different reason but I am back. The past several months have been very exciting for me personally and for our organization with many outstanding clients’ projects and personal growth projects, but more on that later on. In the mean time, thank you for tuning in and here comes my next post.

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

Click on arrows below for music selections to start

1086-Veal Kulam.MP3 (2:29)

1087-SimShalom.MP3 (3:17)

1091-ShemaKoleinu.MP3 (5:00)

1092-KiAnuAmecha.MP3 (1:14)

Total (12:00)

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1074-YomHadin.MP3 (0:02:59)

1081-EtGezar.MP3 (0:04:03)

1083-Nekadesh.mp3 (0:01:51)

1084-AtaBechartanu.mp3 (0:00:53)

1085-Retse.MP3 (0:02:15)

Total (0:12:01)

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1040-RuachElohim.MP3 (0:01:34)

1054-Kol Nidrei.mp3 (0:10:37)

1062-Modim.MP3 (0:01:41)

1063-ShalomRav.MP3 (0:01:34)

1064-Eeuleratson.MP3 (0:01:09)

Total (0:16:35)

I love the time of year of the Jewish High Holidays. I find it to be a remarkable close time with family, a time to reflect, for inspirational search, remembering loved ones and committing to renewed excellence and to making this a better place.

Many of you know that I love to brag about my wife who has a remarkable voice and is the cantor at Temple Emanu El in Orange Village, Ohio. I have decide to share with you some of my favorite music selections from the most recent services of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Hope you find this to be as moving spiritually as I do.

Click on arrows below for music selections to start

1004-Shehecheyanu.MP3 (0:02:32)

1010-Hashkiveinu.MP3 (0:03:08)

1016-ShalomRav1.MP3 (0:02:51)

1017-OseShalom.MP3 (0:01:43)

1034-BeroshHashana.MP3 (0:04:18)

Total (0:14:32)

When browsing recently through my digital pictures album I came across some pictures I took while visiting San Francisco when speaking at the Odd Couple marketing for speakers workshop. It reminded me not only of the fabulous time I had with my friends Alan Weiss and Patricia Fripp but it also reminded me of how much I enjoy mixing work and pleasure to the point that I often can’t tell one from the other.

Below are pictures I took from my beautiful Hyatt room and another of Alan and Patricia during a rare odd couple contrarian disagreement that needed a resolution once and for all.

In anticipation of the upcoming Jewish High holidays, I am honored to have my firm work on the new blog we’ve just launched for Rabbi Steven Denker of Temple Emanu El in Cleveland, Ohio. The focus of Rabbi Denker’s blog is:

•  To share his “take” on the affairs of the Jewish people and all humanity through the lens of Jewish Tradition and from his vantage point as an American congregational rabbi.
• To reflect on Jewish texts, traditions and Holy Days so as to imbue today with the timeless truths of Judaism.
• To give us all a Jewish place to share our thoughts on the ideas and issues that are important to our lives.

Click here to visit the new blog and enjoy.

Here are ways to develop interest in your organization and have your target customers contact you:

1. Start speaking professionally, deliver your expertise and talk about how to improve your clients business with web strategies.
2. Add testimonials and clients list to your web site.
3. Start a monthly electronic newsletter and deliver genuine value to your target audience.
4. Write and publish your intellectual property in print and on the web
5. Network and discuss how you help your clients
6. Comment on others’ powerful blogs with useful tips
7. Write a book or start with a booklet
8. Get interviewed on radio and TV
9. Work your referrals aggressively
10. Create a breakfast club and invite your target audience to attend a breakfast and learn.
11. Purchase a database list of your target customers and send them powerful valuable content to entice to opt-in to your newsletter list. Once they do, keep offering them value.

Although it depends on your industry, below are my top seven effective marketing choices:

1. Public speaking and/or speaking in webinars
2. Publish your intellectual property in print and the web and often
3. Search Engine Optimization and Paid advertising
4. Leverage social networking especially online communities
5. Blog and comment on others’ blog
6. Publish a book
7. Create a valuable electronic newsletter

The blah factor is my fancy technical term to describe web sites (not blogs) that have way too much text on their home page. I came across the site below and am depicting it as an illustration of the ubiquitous nature of this problem on the web. During my speaking engagements I often compare and show effective home pages to highway billboards and/or the front cover of most effective books. You only have a few seconds to grab your audience attention and establish credibility. This is not going to happen with vast amount of text and words to convey your message. Remember in this case: “Less is more.” I recommend you significantly reduce the amount of text on your home page, replace it with engaging and professional images or sections, with powerful sound bytes to grab attention that entice the visitor to click, learn more and explore.

The three screen shots below represent the scrolling through the home page of this site that its main focus is to help you become more productive with your time management issues. I suggest they help us become more productive by eliminating most of the text and getting a grip of their home page.

1. It provides another serious and viable option to traditional marketing, which is already and successfully being utilized by the vast majority of organizations.

2. It enables individuals (Customers, suppliers, your staff) to interact with each other, share their experiences of using the products and services, create additional exposure and buzz.

3. It is often quick and rapid to implement.

4. It is often quite economical.

5. It reaches beyond borders and with global exposure.

6. It creates a virtual 24×7 salesman.

7. It allows your customers to interact with you at their convenience.

8. It enables your customers to get instant answers to their questions.

9. Dramatically improve your time to market, which means, leverage the Internet to rapidly introduce and launch new products and services.

10. Stay better connected with your customers, suppliers and your own organization.

11. When the first car was introduced, there were probably quite a few people rejecting the new technology and insisting they keep using their horse. As Henry Ford said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for a better horse.” Are you the one to embrace technology or reject it?

12. One of our clients that sells large and expensive machinery used to have to take pictures of their inventory, print them and FedEx them to interested buyers. The buying decision took days or weeks to be made. Then came digital cameras and email, and we expedited the process significantly. And then came a fully integrated web site that enabled the customer to make an instant buying decision.

13. We have just scratched the surface with what is available to be done with the Internet and how to strategically use it to grow our business. Don’t find yourself left behind.

To develop fresh ideas I would recommend the following:

1. Read the Wall Street Journal, Business Week and such publications and pay attention to what is reported and discussed both in print, online blogs and online forums.

2. Read books on the topic of innovation, Internet marketing and such

3. Attend workshops / seminars

4. Follow blogs of successful thought leaders

5. Meet smart and interesting people, ask questions and start a dialog

6. Create or join a mastermind group

7. Write often

8. Solicit the advice of experts

9. I get tremendous amount of powerful ideas from an online community my company implemented and I moderate http://www.alansforums.com

10. Speaking in conferences or webinars has always generated tremendous mount of great ideas for me when listening to my audience questions

Ideas are all around you, all you have to do is start paying better attention.

I am truly delighted to announce the launch of the new site of Marie-Josée Loiselle, the president of Nuno ID, located in Dorion, QC, Canada. She has been involved in economic development since 1996 and has developed investment attraction strategies for the US and Europe, presented business opportunities to Fortune 500, helped new ventures establish in Montreal and, headed economic missions in Canada, the US and Europe. Marie-Josée draws on her experiences, education, travels, learning, success and failures and uses them in current interventions to create sustainable client results. Marie-Josée is fluent in both English and French.

Click here to view Nuno-ID new site.

Click here to view Nuno-ID new branded newsletter.

Click here to view all New Sites Launch category or our portfolio page.

Home Page:

Newsletter:

1. Unless you have good, interesting and valuable starting content on your forum why would anyone spend time there or consider joining? They are not going to.
2. I would suggest you create a repository of intellectual property (IP) that is available to forum members only and is uniquely position with how-to information.
3. Market to all of your current and previous clients, prospects and anyone you know and share with them the exciting new place / community you have created (after you built the initial content) and invite them to check it out and join.
4. I would charge for membership yet select a smaller group of subscriber that would become the initial group (for free) to start the momentum of posting going.
5. Promote and market your new site and forum in every possible media: news release, networking events, verbally with anyone you talk with, speeches, newsletter, blog, your paperwork (invoices, correspondence), get people to interview you on their blogs (written, audio and video podcasts).
6. Feature the best of the posts in your monthly newsletter (assuming you have one) and create enticements to have new members join.
7. Strive to become “the place to go” for the greatest and latest of your industry wisdom.
8. When possible discuss “success stories” and share on your site and inside the forum.
9. Create a referral network both domestically and internationally that would send your target audience to the forum and to you.

1. Funeral Homes
2. Security
3. Nursing homes and elderly care
4. Baby food
5. Weight loss
6. Wealth creation
7. Do it yourself
8. Home based business
9. Any business that would generate a minimum of 10 to 1 ROI for their clients

Any others that come to mind?

1. Become an entrepreneur
2. Live on less than 85% of your income and invest the rest
3. Invest in your health and life balance
4. Create proper business and personal insurance for you and your family
5. Invest in your continued learning and education
6. Hire the best (staff, advisers and consultants)
7. Re-invent yourself often
8. Find a successful mentor with a proven track record
9. Constantly look for ways to help your clients improve their business and life
10. Give a lot
11. Laugh a lot

Your turn please.

1. Strong entrepreneurship spirit which means not being afraid to fail

2. Willingness to take risk knowing that the potential outcome and success can be enormous.

3. Strong desire to work for myself and exit the “employee” mentality

4. Have complete control of decisions and my own future and destiny

5. Ability to enjoy discretionary time and life balance

What do you think?

In this podcast, technology guru Chad Barr interviews Libby Wagner, the president of Influencing Options. Libby discusses and answers tough organizational topics such as: culture change, core dimensions, leadership challenges, creating vision and strategy, clarity and specificity, alignment, honesty and candor, influencing with integrity and self esteem.

Don’t miss this.

Click below for podcast to start

I am delighted to announce the launch of the new great site of Aviv Shahar, the founder of Amber Network and Aviv Consulting. He is an international consultant, a coach, an author and a speaker. Aviv has extensive experience in coaching leaders—he has helped executives develop breakthrough strategies and improve their effectiveness, collaboration and innovation. Aviv has worked with executives in over 20 countries including Canada, Germany, Brazil, Taiwan, UK, Mexico, Holland, Czech Republic, Israel, and the US.

Aviv’s passion is to help leaders and teams define their purpose and develop and realize their potential for greatness.

Click here to view Aviv Consulting new site.

Click here to view Aviv Shahar previously released blog.

Click here to view all New Sites Launch category or our portfolio page.Home Page:

I spoke for the National Speaker Association Convention in New York City which was absolutely an amazing event. Thousands of great speakers attending many workshops and listening to great speakers such as Marshall Goldsmith and Steve Forbes.

My presentation “Advanced Internet Presence” focused on:

1. Hot to create instant credibility on the web
2. How to leverage the web to deliver value
3. How to attract customers with Internet marketing gravity
4. Blogs, bogs and fogs

Click here to download the PDF copy of my presentation.

I am excited to introduce you to Terry Schmidt, the founder and chief consultant of ManagementPro, located in Seattle, WA. He leads the company which operates as an independent virtual organization aligned with a network of other expert consultants around the world. We have partner with Terry to develop a brand new web site, blog, newsletter campaign and Internet strategy to position the company for growth and success.

Click here to view ManagementPro new site.

Click here to view ManagementPro new blog.

Click here to view ManagementPro new branded newsletter.

Click here to view Terry’s exciting corporate videos.

Click here to view all New Sites Launch category or our portfolio page.

Home Page:

Blog:

Newsletter:

Perhaps not.

I was chatting with my 16-year old son the other day, noticing that he was no longer using his email address to communicate with his friends and us, his parents. I asked him why, and here are his answers:

1. Email is too slow to get a response to, often contains Spam and viruses and at times it is lost in cyberspace.
2. Since most carry cell phones and use instant messaging, he is usually able to instantaneously get a hold of everyone he needs to while being able to conduct a meaningful “digital” conversation.
3. With services such as FaceBook and MySpace, he can quickly and easily communicate with his friends without getting spammed.

I can definitely recognize the benefits of such technology and its access for the younger generation and even us, the so-called more mature generation. Won’t it be great to send a how-to question to your business partner or software company and get an immediate answer to your question? How about an innovative idea sent to your team and an immediate conversation that starts virtually? The possibilities are amazing. Yet, what about the many “interruptions” one may receive?

It’s amazing how often times we are able to learn various pragmatic ideas from the younger generation. But until we enable all our clients to text message us their question, leave a comment and let me know what you think.

This is the web radio interview where Mike Carruthers of Something You Should Know interviews Chad Barr with questions regarding What Makes A Good Web Site?

Click below for interview recording to start.

So what is your blog good for? Here are some ideas: It …

1. Enables you to publish your knowledge and wisdom for others to benefit from.
2. Allows you to promote and refer to it on your web site and newsletter and reference interesting threads.
3. Makes it easy for your visitors to subscribe so they may automatically receive your posts via RSS feed.
4. Gives you the flexibility to react to other blogs, news, current events and interesting posts.
5. Lets you promote your products, services, speaking engagements, articles and white papers.
6. Entices others to engage in a conversations and debates with you and others.
7. Positions you as an object of interest, an expert in your field and have other bloggers and web sites refer to your blog and posts.
8. Makes it easy to summarize your presentations and email the notes to attendees prior and after your event.
9. Creates the tool to allow the discipline to produce content to strengthen your brand and marketing gravity.
10. Evolves into a repository of interesting information – a knowledge base.
11. Sharpens your knowledge as you focus on developing and delivering interesting, new and valuable content.
12. Becomes fun as it evolves and once successful creates a community around your work.
13. Permits you to capture your clients’ questions and respond by writing a new post or refer to an old one.
14. Expands your network to reach out to clients, prospects, colleagues and business partners while allowing them to reach out to their network featuring your wisdom.
15. Pushes the envelop by augmenting the written words and creating additional channels of delivery methods such as audios and videos.
16. Strengthens your Internet strategy by adding another domain that creates content for Google and other search engines to find and index.

What are your thoughts?

I am speaking at the NSA convention in New York on Monday, August 4, 2008 at 4PM. My speech will focus on how to leverage your web site and the Internet to help your speaking career and also when does it make sense to create blogs and online forums to increase the community around you and strengthen your brand.

By attending this session you will learn how to:

1. Create instant credibility on the Web
2. Attract customers by creating Internet marketing gravity
3. Leverage the Web to deliver value to your clients

I hope to see you there.

Chad

Teleconference interview conducted on 6/17/08 by the Simma Lieberman of the west coast SAC chapter with Rob Nixon from Australia. To visit Rob’s site click here.

Click below for podcast to start

I am pleased to announce, back at the beginning of this year, the new development and launch of Dr. Alan Weiss exciting monthly Balancing Act® HTML branded newsletter. To read the five most recent 2008 issues, please click on the links below:

January 2008 newsletter

February 2008 newsletter

March 2008 newsletter

April 2008 newsletter

May 2008 newsletter

I am thrilled to announce the new site we have developed for Dave Delong Ph.D., President of David DeLong & Associates, located in Concord, MA. The company is a research and consulting firm that helps organizations improve performance by solving problems related to changing workforce demographics and knowledge transfer. He is also a research fellow at the MIT AgeLab and an adjunct professor at Babson College.

Click here to view Dave’s new site.

Click here to view Dave’s new branded newsletter.

Click here to view all New Sites Launch category

Home Page: 

Newsletter:

I am delighted to announce the new site we have developed for Suzanne Bates, President and CEO of Bates Communications, Inc. and her team, located in Wellesley, MA. Bates Communications is a strategic consulting firm specializing in leadership development in communication skills.

Click here to view Bates new site.

Click here to view Bates new blog.

Click here to view Bates new branded newsletter.

Click here to view Suzanne’s exciting corporate videos.

Click here to view all New Sites Launch category

Home Page:

Blog:

Newsletter:

I am delighted to announce the new site we have implemented for Gretchen Neels, founder of Neels & Company, located in Boston, MA. Gretchen’s company provides soft skills training to professional services firms covering all areas of business communication, including: Strategic Recruiting, Effective Interviewing and Employee Retention. Four Generations in One Office – Can’t We All Just Get Along? Networking and Building a Book of Business. Business Etiquette 101. Cross-cultural Connection.

Click here to view Gretchen’s new site.

Click here to view Gretchen’s Corporate videos.

Click here to view all New Sites Launch category

(Click image to enlarge)

I am glad to announce the new site we have developed for Leslie Ungar, founder and President of Electric Impulse Communication, located in Akron, Ohio. Leslie has become a pre-eminent source for speaking, coaching, and commentating to the executive and business worlds. Leslie is on a mission to make companies and individuals realize their untapped potential and set them on course to achieve their top-notch performance level which is, electrifying.

Click here to view Leslie’s new site.

Click here to view Leslie’s corporate videos.

Click here to view all New Sites Launch category

(Click image to enlarge)

I am proud to announce the new site we have developed for Temple Emanu El, located in Cleveland, Ohio. The synagogue community is a very special place where not only is learning happening, but meaning is made. I am especially proud to have worked on this project since my wife, Laurel, serves as the Cantor serving this remarkable congregation for many years.

Click here to view their new site.

Click here to view all New Sites Launch category

(Click image to enlarge)

I am thrilled to announce the new site we have developed for Betty K Cooper, founder of Creative Concepts LTD., located in Calgary AB Canada. Betty helps people at every level of business become more powerful, effective speakers through her individual coaching, her workshops and seminars and her talks to businesses and organizations.

Click here to view her new site.

Click here to view all New Sites Launch category

(Click image to enlarge)

In the next several days I am going to feature several new sites and Internet strategies we have recently launched for our clients. Each represents many brainstorming hours, design work, extensive coding and development of content. I do want to thank all our current and new clients for your continued support and the confidence in our work and services. My personal joy is to see the constant success and improvements in your businesses as you embrace these new tools to create new momentum and marketing gravity. Also, a special thank you goes to my great team whose involvement, ideas and dedication has been the key to our success.

Thank You all,

Chad

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”
Anne Dudley Bradstreet

It is that exciting time of year again. The trees are changing, there is an amazing fragrance in the air, the birds are back and their vocal chords are louder then ever, my convertible top is already down, my dog is in a better mood and so are my wife, neighbors and even clients. In my front yard, the beautiful white weeping cherry reminds me of the latest snowstorm already long time forgotten, while my gorgeous sour crab apple trees scream: “spring is here.”

I love each season with the changes it brings. Some anticipated and planned while others a surprise or a new challenge. Life is great and especially the journey.

(Click on images to enlarge):

My weeping cherry tree

My crab apple trees

My dog, Noodles

My wife and I traveled to Utah via Las Vegas this past week. Since I had some business calls to take care of, I asked my wife if she would not mind driving the beautiful route from Vegas to Utah while I make these calls. She of course agreed and with my Latte in one hand, I pulled out my iPhone, connected my Apple bluetooth headset and started to make my calls. No only was I able to be productive and take care of business but in one of the calls I needed to check an email with an attachment and an Internet web site we were working on. I pulled out my Laptop, connected my Verizon wireless card to it and within seconds I was connected to the Internet and my email. And all of this while my wife is driving.

What a great world we live in today.  Especially as our electrical grid is improving almost daily.

Note: I was going to actually post this topic during that ride but decided it was time to enjoy the view and a conversation with a beautiful lady in the car.

I just returned for another absolutely outstanding event – The Million Dollar Consulting College™ Graduate School held at the gorgeous Ritz Carlton in Naples Florida.

“These people represent the finest talent in the profession,” noted Alan Weiss, Ph.D. who conducts this college. “They are the best of the best in terms of methodology, integrity, client satisfaction, and contributions to the profession. And they are highly innovative.”

As both a college presenter and a participant, I was fortunate to be among 12 of world-class consultants and got to spend three intense days working on challenging case studies, role-plays and group exercises. On day two, we were given a couple of real-life critical business challenges by the management of the Ritz Carlton. It was fascinating and a tremendous learning experience to witness how we applied our knowledge, problem solving abilities and experiences and worked as a strong team to solve these challenges while present the solution to the delight of the Ritz’s management.

My presentation, “Advanced Internet and Technologies Made Simple” focused on practical technologies to help consultants in their business. I started with a short video of one of our clients from Australia, Michael Harrison. Last year, prior to becoming a client, I received an email from Michael inquiring about our services. After a brief email exchange we started a Skype session which instantaneously allowed us to be connected between the US and Australia while clearly hearing and seeing each other. I demonstrated this technology to the group and asked Michael to record a brief introduction. Here it is:

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I demonstrated the ease of using the Flip Video to record workshops and testimonials and immediately making them available on the web, such as in this demonstration. Thank you Libby Wagner, Dr. Guido Quelle, Kim Wilkerson, Phil Symchych and Katherine Radeka for the permission to use this.

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Click here to download my presentation converted to pdf document (9.47MB)

Dr. Alan Weiss brilliantly shared with us many exciting concepts. Among them:

1. The importance of focusing on media pipeline just as we are on our prospect pipeline.
2. How to reduce labor intensiveness.
3. The need to constantly develop new intellectual property.
4. Why we need to get our of our comfort zone.
5. Importance of process over content.

On the last day, we had the honor and rare chance of seeing Walt Mossberg, the technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal. He delivered a fascinating 90 minutes presentation. Among the many topics he discussed was the analogy of the Internet to an Electrical grid. Similar to our electricity where you just plug in such devices while some are always connected, the same is with the Internet. Although we have made some tremendous progress, within a few years, EVERYTHING will be ON the Internet. Meaning, you will not have to say: “Are you online?” or “Let’s connect” since the Internet will always be on and for all the devices and gadget we will be using.

Finally, some awesome sunset pictures I took. Life is Good!

I just returned from my trip to Rhode Island followed immediately with a trip to Austin, Texas, where I attended a conference attracting the owners and top management of independent wholesale paper, sanitary maintenance, and restaurant equipment distributors. While meeting with about 80 of these organizations, I asked them to comment on what they see as the key reasons for their success. Here are the top six answers:

1. Diversity – being able to quickly decide which products and services to embrace and release to market and which to discard while offering the right range of their customers’ needs.
2. Management – the human factor of making the proper decision, leading the company and creating strong relationships with customers.
3. Technology – The best and most successful distributors where using advance technologies while constantly looking for the next best solutions to embrace. I found the opposite to be true. The ones complaining about the economy, suppliers and their customers’ loyalty were the ones to use antiquated technologies and way of thinking.
4. Serendipity – Or what many referred to as luck and being at the right place at the right time. It was interesting that the majority or all of the most successful companies did not talk much about luck but their ability to take control and influence their future.
5. Locality – For many, being local helped them focus and develop strong relationships with their customers. I found the majority who held such belief to be smaller organization size as well as revenues and profits.
6. Customer service – They ALL claimed that the key was customer service yet many complained about lack of customers ‘and vendors’ loyalty.

What are the keys to your success?

I just spent a couple of terrific days in Rhode Island where I delivered my speech on “Successfully leveraging the Internet to Drive Value to Your Customers” to the current class of Dr. Alan Weiss’s Million Dollar Consulting College. One of the items I covered during my speech was how to create instant credibility with your web site. More on that in a future article I will be writing. In the mean time, the key components as I see to create such credibility are: your intellectual property, case studies, your clients’ testimonials, description of the positive results your client receive from working with you and your clients’ list. See chart below:

After my speech and before dinner, we all assembled in Alan’s suite and got to brainstorm and discuss some great topics, while hearing some great stories over red wine. I pulled out my flip video, shot some great ones and uploaded them to YouTube and Alan’s blog. Here is a great sample about asking for referrals:

To see the rest, check out the following links. You are sure to enjoy them, I promise:Click here for the boom box story.

Click here for seven more videos.

Click here for the frog story.

In my previous post I was talking about having to listen to absurd and ineffective voicemails when calling others. I recently played several voicemail (VM) messages that I retrieved from my own voicemail system

The first VM was a garbled message from a prospective client interested in talking with me about our solutions. The message was probably recorded using his cell phone making it almost impossible to recognize the complete phone number. Luckily I was able to make sense of the company name and after a quick Google search, I found them on the web as I was able to match the web phone number with the incomplete phone number left on the voicemail. Since I return all calls within 24 hours (unless they are clearly telemarketer calls) I called his company. Their main message stated that they are closed for the holidays. I left a brief message, letting them know who I am and explaining that I am returning their call. I left my phone number and email address twice, and suggested my availability to connect. Finally, I made the recommendations that they check the calendar, as I believe the holidays are over by now. I figured if they don’t have a sense of humor, it would not be a good match anyways.

The second VM was from a company specializing in training and documentation. I was not sure if this was a sales call or an interested prospect so I called her back, got her on the phone yet she barely remembered who I was, This sure made me feel really special. She then immediately jumped into her sales pitch telling me how long they’ve been in business, the type of products they sell, the awards they won and more blah, blah, blah. I was waiting for a question or two but quickly lost my patience when she started her third paragraph. I stopped her and said: “Not Interested.” Meekly she replied: “oh ok” and hung up the phone.

The third VM was from a sales trainer who luckily left a clear phone number and company name. I found his company on the web (where would I be without my Google?) and I quickly realized what his main focus was. Unfortunately I was unable to find any clients’ testimonials on his site or whom he had a chance to work with. When returning his call he immediately gave me his value proposition (good but a bit too long) and told me that he works with technology companies JUST like mine although would not name any of them. And I was born yesterday, I thought to myself. He asked me if I read all the marketing material he sent me. I told him that I have no idea what he is talking about as they all end up in the garbage. He then suggested he would stop by my office to introduce himself so we can talk about my business and what projects I may have in the works. I quickly and politely explained to him that I have no need for his services and do not meet with people who cold call me. He realized that I was getting ready to hang up the phone when he said: “look for me, I will be famous one day.” I hung up the phone and thought to myself, dreams are one thing but illusion and desperation are another.

My favorite was a call I received today in my office. It went like this:
Him: Mr. Barr?
Me: Yes
Him: This is not a sales call.
Me: (silence, although thinking … yeah right)
Him: We are in your neighborhood tomorrow morning and would like to stop by and introduce ourselves.
Me: Not interested (click)

How many of such calls or voice mails do you get and is it possible that you or your staff are making such calls and leaving similar voice mails?

Let me share with you the type of voice mail messages that irritate me:

1. Today is Thursday, March 27. In the morning I will be out of the office visiting with a client and in the afternoon I am traveling to another client …
2. Please stop and listen carefully as these menu options may have changed …
3. This call may be monitored for quality control …

When I call and get a voice mail, I simply want to leave a brief message and in the fastest way possible. I know that since I got the voice mail this person is either out of the office, away from their desk or on another call. I do not need to be told the day it is – I have my own calendar, or what this person’s schedule is – I truly don’t care, or learn new menu options – I have other more interesting things to learn, or the fact that my voice may be recorded.

My favorite message would probably be: “I am out, leave a message now.” But since we all want to probably sound professional and polite, here is mine: “Hi, This is Chad at extension 112. Please leave your message and I will get back with you as soon as I can. Thank You.”

The only reason I record my extension is to make it easier for the caller to get a hold of me next time they call.

Since I am already on this topic, when leaving messages why not make them pithy and succinct?

Back on February 20, 2008, I reported the new and interesting www.alltop.com site released by author and innovator Guy Kawasaki. This site focuses on collecting stories from “all the top” sites on the web.

I am proud to announce that my blog made it into the social media category of this site. See screen capture below and click on image to enlarge:

Charge or retreat, it’s a matter of choice.  

I hear people complaining about the strength of the dollar weakening in comparison to other world currencies especially when the media is reaching for our attention with the stories and news of recession. So how do you leverage these economic challenges to benefit your company?

1. Expand your market – We get more inquiries and new business than ever before from place such as Canada, Europe, Australia, South Africa and Asia. I do not know if this is because of the exciting work we do and our marketing gravity, perhaps serendipity or the weak dollar. What is apparent to me is the fact that organizations and entrepreneurs outside the US are reaching out for help and expertise and a way to get better return from their own currency. Seize these opportunities, branch out and go global.
2. Help change your customers’ perception – In his blog entry Marketing in a recession, author Seth Godin writes about how in good times people buy because they feel they deserve it or just want it. Yet in tougher times they buy from a defensive position to avoid trouble or seize the opportunity. Change your marketing message to help your customers better understand why they need your products and services now.
3. Better use of technologies – Whether you are a large organization or a single entrepreneur, smartly using technologies enables you to deliver your expertise to your clients to help their business, build stronger relationships while allowing technologies to perform the work they should. So instead of receiving orders via phone, fax or a non-integrated web site and having to manually key them into your computer system, why not completely integrate them with your system through the Internet to automatically receive them in your warehouse or your receivable department? Instead of shipping hard copy books and CDs why not send them digitally as eBooks or an MP3 downloads. Instead of having to travel and visit your clients for meeting and training, why not use the Internet to conduct online live meetings and even archive them for future views?
4. Improve your web site – In his blog entry Progression in a recession, Dr. Alan Weiss talks about the importance of changing your web site to broadly describe your services and the importance of technology to reach out overseas prospects and partners.

Your web site and the Internet are both critical tools in helping you market your company, announce new products and services, deliver new offerings and reach global customers. So rather than listen to the negative news (how else would they get your attention) and act scared and indecisive, why not make a bold move, seize the great opportunities around you and make a positive difference for you and your customers’ success.

I was the guest speaker at Alan Weiss and Patricia Fripp marketing for speakers, consultants & coaches seminar- The Odd Couple, held in San Francisco on March 8, 2008. I spoke about “Leveraging your web site and the Internet to dramatically grow your business” to a terrific group of entrepreneurs. View some of the testimonials I recorded with my Flip Video and you are also welcome to view and download my presentation below:

Testimonial from Terry Schmidt of www.ManagementPro.com:

Testimonial from Lisa Broesch of www.inblissconsulting.com:

Testimonial from Don Yaeger of www.donyaeger.com

Testimonial from Sara LaForest of LaForest Consulting:

Slides show presentation:

(to view the slides presentation in full screen mode, click on the “view” link above and then click on “full screen” on the bottom right)

Click here to download slides presentation. (pdf 23.22MB)

Click here to download article handout. (pdf 561kb)

Note: Video testimonials were taken with my Flip Video camera

I don’t get the thinking with web sites that incorporate the concept of “Under Construction” or “Coming Soon” pages. Some sites I visit incorporate these pages to attempt and let us know that these pages are going to be released soon. Some do that on their home page thus suggesting that the entire site will be launched soon. When I see such pages here is what crosses my mind:

1. You are wasting my time navigating your site, thus aggravating me.
2. You are telling me that you are unable to meet your own deadlines and finish your commitments.
3. Marketing your own company is not a priority for you.
4. The methods you and your Webmaster are using are amateurish.
5. There is a good chance these pages will never change.

Here are my recommendations:

1. Finish developing all the content necessary for all pages on your site and only then should you launch your site.
2. Eliminate all pages from your site that content is not ready yet.
3. If you can commit and guarantee that the pages or your entire site will be available on a certain date, it is ok to announce the following: “Thank you for visiting this page, please check back on xx/xx/xx when this page will be launched.”

The examples below not only illustrate my points above, but they also demonstrate business negligence. These pages have been there for over a year. I suggest they either take the page or site down or complete writing the content.

(click on images to enlarge):

Do you still use the phone book to find a company’s phone number? I personally forgot what one looks like and prefer to save the drawer space for other use. Instead, I rely on the Internet to get phone numbers when I need to contact a given organization. I find it irritating and surprising when companies make it a real challenge to be able to contact them. When I tried reaching AT&T the other day, there was no easy way for me to contact them from their home page. I had to spend the time navigating the site and aggravating myself before finding their phone number. Verizon makes it easier as they enabled the “Contact Us” link at the bottom left of the screen. Apple truly got it! They display the phone# as well as easy links to contact them.

How easy is it to contact you by phone or email or even get your address?

Take a look at the examples below or visit our web site for an effective example.

(click on images to enlarge):

Our latest newsletter is now available for publication. It features my article: Can you hear me now? Can you see me now? – Listen and watch your text come to life which focuses on leveraging podcasts in augment your text and marketing messages. It also features our guest contributor , Linda Popky, President of L2M Associates and her article: Planting the Seeds of Success: Why Marketing in a Down Time Helps Business Turn Up.

Enjoy,

Chad

When visiting web sites, how often do you click on a link which takes you to another site? Probably quite often you would answer since this is the basic foundation to how the world of the Internet works. But when clicking on that link, does the next page open in the same browser window or a new one?

Make sure your web master does the following: When developing the navigation for your site, all available links within your own site should open in the same browser window. Opening your own site in multiple browser windows is not only a poor design error but also irritating to the visitor. However, if you decide that you must link to other sites from your own web site, make sure you open up the link in a separate browser window while keeping your site open in the current window. This logic will enable the user to visit the new site, and when closing that window or tab they will be returned to your site which is still open. Otherwise, they are gone and probably will not be back.

Click here for an example of a hyperlink to another browser session and click here for an example of a hyperlink in the same browser window. (You will have to press the go back arrow to return to this page.)

I believe that we have more control of impacting our destiny and creating success than chance or luck has to do with it.

Here are three ideas that have been instrumental in impacting mine:

1. Opportunities are all around us, we just have to learn to pay better attention to them.
2. If you don’t ask the answer is always NO.
3. When serendipity takes place, I seize the opportunity to create additional serendipity.

WYSIWYG – This popular acronym (pronounced “wiz-ee-wig”) has become popular when screen graphic presentations become virtually identical to those when printing or displaying them on the web. For example, the way you design your screen graphic presentation in a word document will be identical if printed or published to the web. I would however like to caution you that a serious issue might exist distorting your web site and creating what I call the WYSINAWYG syndrome. “What you see is NOT ALWAYS what you get.”

When was the last time you or your web development partner decided to test your site to make sure it properly displays and works through the major web browsers and even some older browsers? If you think this may not be a big issue, you should read the rest of this post.

We always attempt to take advantage of the latest in programming languages that is available to us when developing web sites for our clients. We also focus on the latest and greatest in browser technology. I come to realize that this might create serious challenges with individuals using older technologies who are not quick to upgrade their software and Internet browsers.

Below are three screen-capture examples from David Newman’s blog. Notice the books on the right hand side displaying properly in Microsoft Internet Explorer browser (click on images to enlarge):

In the next display using the Mac Safari browser, notice that only four books are showing on the right hand side and several are actually missing:

Below is the example using the Firefox browser, which happens to be my default and favorite browser. Notice that the books are displaying diagonally from right to left and are actually distorting the text of the post:

Here is an interesting chart showing that the most popular browsers are Microsoft IE7, IE6 and Firefox (which is constantly gaining popularity.)

Which brings me to my final point and recommendation that you test your web site(s) using these top browsers as well as Safari. Or you too may be surprised that what you intended to be shown is not correctly shown.

What You Say Online May Damage Your Credibility

As I write on this quite often, blogs are a powerful tool to enable you to rapidly publish content about you and your company. If done well, they can add tremendous credibility for your organization and create an online dialog between you and your customers. However, I would also like to caution you that if in the wrong hands, blogs might become a competitive advantage for your competitors.

We use Constant Contact as our email distribution engine when electronically delivering our clients’ newsletters and ours. We find it easy to use, extremely stable and it generates good successful results. While reviewing newsletter services available from other companies, I came across an interesting company by the name of iContact. When visiting their blog, I was surprised to read their own post from 1/22/08 and 1/28/08 reporting serious issues with their products and how they fixed it. As an Internet and software development company, I do believe in taking action, communicating with customers and being responsible when software defects are discovered. However, I do not find this public open admission to be a good business practice. It’s one thing to contact and notify the customers affected, let them know of the issues and how you have taken care of it now and for the future. It’s another to openly broadcast this message on your blog, scare away potential new customers or even existing ones and give your competitors great research ammunition to use against you.

(Screens capture from iContact blog. click on images to enlarge):

I just came across a site loaded with interesting content and terrific value. Another creative idea from Guy Kawasaki, innovative author, writer and entrepreneur. Click on this link www.alltop.com a site, which collects all the top stories on the web and organizes them in logical categories. It is like having your own table of contents to your favorite topics.

(Click on image to enlarge)

The large amount of people who smoke in Israel is unfortunately alarming. Although I do not have the statistical evidence to substantiate my claim, ubiquitous smokers are strong enough anecdotal evidence. Here is a picture from the duty-free store in the Tel-Aviv airport proving the unfortunate popularity of cigarettes. Tremendous amount of real estate is taken with beautifully displayed, almost candy-like, stacked cartons of cigarettes.

What intrigued me further was the fact that each carton had huge letters and fonts displaying on each: “Smoking Kills”, yet you would think they were giving them away.
What is it about human nature that:

1. Even when individuals have clear and factual evidence that prove they may be in danger or possibly even death, they still elect to do it?
2. Even when organizations and leaders have been proven that there is a “better way”, they elect to either not do anything or select the more economical non-proven way?

(click on images to enlarge)

How much should you share with potential clients when meeting with them and especially in your writing and on the web? I hear this question quite often and for years I was not a huge fan of “giving” away our IP and wisdom. Here is my belief now:

1. If you think you are giving too much of it away, you are on the right track.
2. Your clients will wonder if this is how much “free” advice you give them prior to becoming a client, how much would you then be giving them after they become a client.
3. It helps me to constantly push the envelope and re-invent with new ideas so I do not become otherwise stagnant.

The second most successful outcome of a newsletter strategy is to increase your email distribution list. The first of course is to increase your business with new orders and new projects. I’ve written on this topic extensively in my articles section on my web site as well as here on this blog. Checkout my previous article: How to grow your email distribution list for a good place to start. The best and most ethical practice is when visitors add themselves to your distribution list. Another option is to send a personal email to someone you’ve met and invite them to join your newsletter or ask them verbally for their permission to do so when you are with them. I would even suggest that it is somewhat acceptable to take the liberty and add someone to your list if you had a strong contact with them. However, you must allow them to easily reject your invitation (opt-out) by either allowing them to reply to your invitation or easily opt-out when they receive your newsletter.

My strong position remains that it is intrusive, poor business practice and unethical to add “strangers” to your list without their permission. When I get such obnoxious emails I view these individuals as desperate spammers, poor business people whom I would never do business with.

Checkout the following irritating example. Without my permission, I was placed on this email newsletter from someone (monica@monicawofford.com) whom I’ve never met before. Below is the newsletter that opened up in my email (click on images to enlarge):

I immediately realized that this has no value for me, so I paged down to the bottom of the email to look for the unsubscribe option. There, all the way at the bottom of the page I noticed the “Update e-mail preferences” option:

When I clicked on it I realized a serious problem with this person’s logic. The email address embedded into the preferences option was not my own but their generic newsletter1@contagiousconferences.com address which would not allow me to unsubscribe. Here is what this screen looked like:

Now I started to get irritated. But quickly thinking on my feet, I realized I could simply reply to her original newsletter email and tell her to unsubscribe me. So I did, and within seconds of sending my email I got an email reply from her server (see below):

Apparently and in order to reduce the spam she receives, she decided to use this SpamArrest software (intrusive and I would NEVER
recommend it) which forces a first time user (such as me) to click on the link and request her permission to accept the email. Now I was livid. First, this confirmed that we were complete strangers who never exchanged emails before. Second, this demonstrated the hypocrisy of her trying to protect herself from the spamming techniques she was using on others.

I did click on the link to make sure she hopefully gets my email. The screen bellow did confirm that my email was hopefully sent.

Smirking, I looked at the screen pondering how better this world would be if these amateurs were arrested by the spam police.

This week, I had the great opportunity of interviewing Dr. Alan Weiss. Also known as The Rock Star of Consulting, The Contrarian and The Consultants’ Consultant among other impressive brands. Alan is truly an amazing person who leads a life of great success and inspiration to many of us.

I met him about six years ago and have worked closely with him ever since. His impact on my business and my life has been absolutely remarkable. Several years ago I approached Alan with the idea of implementing and building an online community to attract his followers and allow them to better stay connected with him and each other. The result was Alan’s Forums, a unique and special type of online community attracting the best of global consulting minds. I’ve been also fortunate to work with him on many other exciting projects both on the receiving and giving end including the development and implementation of his terrific blog www.ContrarianConsulting.com.

During the podcast interview we discussed many questions such as:
What are the three most common mistakes consultants make?
What do the most successful ones do?
How to stand out in the crowd?
How do you keep reinventing yourself and increasing your creative output?
How to leverage Requests for Proposals?
What kind of role does serendipity play with strategy?
What should we do differently or more of in times of a recession?
What are the five secrets of living a fulfilling life?

And we even discussed the topic of retirement and living and leaving his legacy.

I know you will enjoy this podcast, will find it fascinating and Thank You! Alan.

Click below for podcast to start

Earlier I posted What have you bought for me lately story here on my blog. My good friend, Tom Breur, Principal of XLNT Consulting in the Netherlands was quick to point out the following fascinating facts. Here is what Tom emailed me and I am publishing it here with his permission. Thanks Tom.

That story actually serves multiple purposes, depending on which point I
am making.

World wide, about 100 Million transactions per day, 50 Billion transaction per year are being screeened online
for fraud, using a Neural Network model (in combination with business
rules). The market leader is Falcon, owned by Fair Isaac, formerly HNC.

Learning points:

1 – Because of the huge volume, the learning is remarkably precise.
Conversely, you need sufficient volume to tease out the signal from the
noise.

2 – You need the “feedback recording” of events in order to make such data
capture a sustainable organisatiopnal activity: credit card companies
“know” when they hit a false positive (they call, and then pass the transaction),
the false negatives are claimed (disputed) after the client receives their
statements. These data are fed back in to the application ot make it
“adaptive”

3 – There are costs for false positives (spoiled surpises, like yours
- that’s what everybody expects if you tell the story right which makes it
so much better), and false negatives, fraudylent transations that were
accepted. If you put those in the equation, you get “better” models, that
is, better tuned to the business needs. (another example of asymetric mis
classification costs I always use is credit cards: when accepted +$200
profit, when defaulting -$5000 write-off, therefore you cannot afford to
err very often).

Here is an example of web site from Poole Resources that unfortunately was not a project my company worked on. Part of the strategy of this web site was an attempt to incorporate and build an online community attracting the company’s customers to interact with each other and the owner of the company. The attempt was not only a failure but it is actually a continuing disaster. Let me explain:

Below is the screen capture of the home page. Notice the “Fast Forum Access” option on the right hand side to enable you to click on in order to access the online community forum. So far so good. (Click on images to enlarge):

When entering the first forum page (screen capture below) notice the very few number of posts at the top right of the screen. Not only are there meager 13 posts, they are all from three years ago and showing no activity since. This alone should have been a strong enough reason to realize this strategy is not working and to either research it further or take the forum down and remove any reference to it on the web site.

When paging down (next screen below) I was amazed to see 5826 registered users. Something did not add up for me. How could you have thousands of users with so few posts?

I scrolled back to the top (screen capture below) and clicked on “Memberlist” and then sort by “Joined Date” in “Descending” order. When I clicked on the “Sort” button, the amazing devastating answer became clear to me. This forum registration page is being spammed by despicable porn sites and similar other web sites. Just reviewing the “Username” is enough to tell the story, but when clicking on the “Website” option … oh my!

I have tried contacting the owner of this site a couple of times in the past 2 years. I emailed her to contact me immediately and stated that I have some critical information about her sites that is potentially harming her reputation. No reply from her yet.

What are you thinking of?

It was almost 10PM and I was standing there at the Tel Aviv airport in Israel waiting for the announcement that my flight to the US is boarding. So in order to kill some time I decided to visit the beautiful, duty free, H. Stern jewelry store.

“You sure have a great taste” said the lovely sales lady, commenting on the gorgeous bracelet I was looking at.

“Thank you” I said.
“For a special lady I assume?” she asked.
“My beautiful wife of course” I said.
“Would you like me to check on the price for this?” She asked.
“Why not, it couldn’t hurt” I said.
“$18,000!” she said.
“EIGHTEEN THOUSAND?” I yelled. (Oh, did it hurt)

Probably noticing the nice Hublot watch I was wearing she continued: “May I show you something else?”
“Ok” I said.
She pulled out this beautiful watch that I immediately fell in love with. How did she know? And she even told me that it looked great on me. (Yes, it was a man’s watch and I believed her)

Unknowingly, several minutes later, the phone rang at my home in the US and it was 5 AM. My wife, still sleeping, answered and heard a friendly gentleman voice.
“Mrs. Barr?” he asked.
“Yes, and who is this?” she asked.
“This is John from the fraud department at MBNA. I just wanted to make sure you knew that a large purchase was just made overseas with your husband’s personal credit card.” He said.
“Where was it?” asked my wife.
“At the Tel Aviv airport in Israel.” He answered.
“Oh, that is fine said my wife. It is my husband I am sure buying me a surprise present.”
“I am so sorry.” He said. “I just ruined the surprise your husband was planning on for you.”

Several hours later, I was greeted by my wife, who came to pick me up at the Cleveland airport. With a huge smile she asked: “How was your trip and did you buy anything special?” I replied: “Great, and I got myself a little present at the airport. So do you like my new watch?”

It was a quite ride home that day.

(Note: Please see the note from my colleague Tom Breur from Holland regarding this story)

I am thrilled to announce the new site we have developed for our dear client, a great friend and colleague, Libby Wagner, President of Influencing Options. Libby and the many trainers associated with her company have been focusing on helping organizations develop the proper influencing skills, reduce conflicts, increase market share and improve performance, trust, morale and retention.

I encourage you to check out her new web site and explore this very smart individual with a great commitment, passion and energy to her clients and her business. Click here to view her new site.

(Click image to enlarge)

Site Objectives:
1. Strong and clear Value Proposition
2. Provocative questions to engage visitors
3. In your face, clean design and clear navigation
4. Calls to action on all pages
5. Testimonials and client results for credibility
6. Big Blocks to promote main products and services
7. Passive income products
8. Visitor registration to electronic newsletters
9. Less is more. Reduced text on home page

Early this week I submitted a proposal (among several others) to a prospect interested in our web site development. Shortly after I sent the proposal the prospect emailed me and asked me to further articulate what I mean in the proposal by suggesting to incorporate strong call-to-action techniques on all site pages. I thanked the prospect and suggested the answer is clearly articulated in a previous post on my blog: “what’s your call to action” and I then suggested they might find several other articles on my web site and blog to be of value:
How the 3 strikes rule applies to your web strategy
The importance of web site evolution
Blogging in the new year

So what are some simple and basic ideas of marketing your blog?
1. Include it in your email signature file.
2. Print it on your business card.
3. Verbally mention it in your discussions and presentations.
4. Mention it when writing your articles.
5. Leverage in your emails especially using my idea above of driving direct value to your current and future clients.

This prospect is not a dear new client.

A question was asked on one of the online forums we implemented and I help moderate: “How often does one need to add a new entry to a blog? How long or short should a typical entry be?” Here is my answer:

This is one of the topics I study, track, research, write about, consult others and help develop. So let me share my bias with you.

I am writing an article for my blog with the title of: “The slow death of blogs” and please don’t misunderstand me, blogs are a powerful business tools and are here to stay and evolve. I am referring to individuals that were convinced by someone or thought it is a good idea to start a blog. But they rarely post on it. Not only is it a poor reflection on them but it is also a sad underutilization and a waste of this powerful tool. Their blogs are doomed by google and more importantly by their possible readers and will eventually close down – It’s only a matter of time. Unfortunately, some are members of this forum and some I personally reached out to and recommended they start posting on their own blog. Well guess what, they did for a short while and then stopped. They may get their last minute of fame and get featured in my article.

So if you are thinking of starting a blog here are some pointers:

1. Minimum 3 posts per week but if you missed a week here and there, not a big deal.
2. Length of each post from one sentence to an article length (1.5 page) although I recommend you keep it short and with bullet points. Write effectively and don’t over think this point.
3. You can always break your posts into sections or to be continued which may create anticipation.
4. The key is INTERESTING and VALUABLE stuff. But you already knew that I am sure.
5. The other key is that there is much more to putting together a successful blog than just starting to blog.
6. A blog is a tool for rapid publishing giving 100% of the control to the author of the blog enabling you to basically fire your web master (well not quite but almost.)
7. Finally, the power in creating a rich experience for the user is by combining text, images, audio Podcasts and videos on your blog. See Alan Weiss for a great example of a fascinating blog. Mine is another of course.

There are other members on the forum that have interesting blogs. Ed Poll, Aviv Shahar, Dan Coughlin, Pam Harper and Michael Harrison among others.

Here are some articles I wrote that you may find of value before you make your final decision:

Blogging in the new year
How to make your blog posts more interesting
The importance of web site evolution
How to improve your marketing exposure

I am so pleased to welcome our new client from down under, Michael Harrison who runs his successful consulting company, Strategies + Plus in North Adelaide, Australia. Michael focuses on helping business owners and executives to grow their business and increase their profits. He is a fascinating thought leader with an impressive background. Click here, to visit his new blog we have just implemented and launched.

(Click image to enlarge)

My colleague, Dan Janal, runs a great operation with his company PRLEADS. His company focuses on helping individuals get quoted in top-notch publications. I know many people that use Dan’s company and get great results and are quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Business Week to just name a few. I met Dan and he does run a great operation that provides terrific value.

Some time ago, Dan started a new blog by the name of: Cool Book of the Day, which actually is a great idea, allowing authors to feature their books. However, I have two key issues with this blog:

The first is Dan’s decision to use Google ads in an attempt to possibly make money. Please look at the first two screen shots (click on the images to enlarge) and tell me how are ads about losing belly fat, quitting your job, and pushing hard the love button, help in establish strong business credibility about the book, the author or Dan’s blog. I believe it ruins everyone’s credibility. Realize that the two screen are capturing the same identical blog page but demonstrate how Google controls changing these ads at different times.

(First google ad)

(Same screen a couple of seconds later with a different google ad)

I read blogs using a blog reader, which allows me to review multiple blogs instantaneously to quickly pick and choose the entry I may be interested in reading. It also saves me the time it would otherwise take to visit each blog in order to check if any of them has anything new to read. The concept has been there for a while and it uses RSS technology, but that is for another article. The reader I happen to use is the popular Google reader. Take a look at the screen shot below, which shows the same identical blog above through my Google Reader. Notice that it does NOT show the Google Ads. This is a huge consideration if you are thinking of utilizing Google Ads in your blog.

(Same screen of above blog page displayed in Google Reader

The second issue I have is more about the content. It seems to me that the author of each book had to simply answer several questions about their book rather than Dan interviewing them and writing his own review. But that would probably take some work.

Finally, his blog uses the Amazon affiliate program. This means that you are able to click on a book, which will then take you directly to the proper Amazon page. If you are then interested in ordering it online, the blog owner (most likely Dan) will earn some dollars. I do not have a key issue with this concept since I do the same on my own blog. The difference is that I believe you need to have a disclaimer about this in order to create credibility. Mine is at the bottom of the “About Chad Barr” page, which states that I will donate 100% of the affiliate program income to my favorite charities.

This article is intended to demonstrate how some decisions have the potential to ruin your credibility utilizing the wrong Internet tools and concepts.

We are working on a client project that involves two people in my organization, the client and another business partner. In order to improve communication and make sure all people involved are in the loop, I requested we all hit “reply all” when responding to emails. Doing so is not just common sense but also good business practice. Well, you guessed right. On numerous occasions both the client and the business partner did not choose to “reply all” and hit the “reply” button only, which would then reply only to the sender and not the others involved. There are of course occasions when this is necessary, especially when you want to reply to the sender, keep it confidential and prevent others from seeing it. But this was not the case here.

An oversight? Perhaps. But if you are not paying attention to important requests that affect proper communication and project success, you are increasing the chances of communication breakdowns and failures. I realize we all may suffer from dementia at times but the fact from my experience is that this situation is ubiquitously common.

The exception to this rule is when someone, erroneously or not, decides to include me and other recipients in their distribution list. Unless the content contains an error that needs to be pointed out, or all recipients need to know that I should not be included in future email updates, I simply hit the “reply” (to sender only) and ask the sender to keep me out (opt-out) of their distribution list.

Since I hopefully got you reading this far and since I know you would agree with me that we all get tremendous amount of emails and spam let me also suggest the following:

1. Reduce the number of emails you are sending and replying to.
2. Keep your email pithy.
3. No email jokes please. Let me share with you that I either delete them without reading or reply to sender with a request to stop sending them to me. This is an example where I choose not to hit “reply all” since I want to reduce the chances of others I do not know on the distribution list deciding to become my “friend” and add me to their distribution list.
4. Which brings me to the last point. When sending an email to people who do not know each other and unless previously agreed by all as expected, use the blind copy (bcc) option when sending your email. This way you are not revealing email addresses of people who would rather remain anonymous. I am one of these people.

Did I follow my rule number 2 of being pithy? Well, this is not an email and you decide.

This was my rant for the day and I do feel better now … I think.

(photo by Tim Niland)

Progress of Music and Technology

The picture above pretty much resembles my LP vinyl records collection I had growing up at my parents’ home. Mine contained roughly 4000 LPs that I managed to purchase and collect from the hard-earned money I made playing my music gigs back then. To make sure my records sounded great, I even purchased a Dual model turntable, which served me well for quite a few years. It was 1972, I was sixteen back then and life was good. Then came the digital CDs, my first Sony Walkman player among the many other players I purchased. As technology advanced, I had to re-invest in this digital revolution and replace the old with the new.

Today, it is my iPod that holds thousands of songs, audio books and movies. This one tiny device, that fits in my pocket, replaces my walls covered with vinyl records, cassettes and CDs as well as the various players: turntable, cassette player, reel tape and walkman I used to own.

I still remember the days when going to the music store and listening to the new records while having to signal to the store clerk, controlling the music, to skip the selection to the next song. Today, at my leisure, I visit my favorite iTunes online store. There, I can instantly listen to and watch excerpts of songs, movies and audio books and immediately purchase, download and listen to the ones I want.

Life is great.

Let me illustrate this progress through pictures:

I still remember this radio at my grandparents home when growing up

Then my first Reel-to-reel tape recorder

And my turntable

With my cassette player

With the thousands of cassettes

And thousands of music CDs

And thousands of vinyl LPs

Replaced with this awesome iPod

And my iTunes where I purchase, download and organize my music

And listen to it all using this outstanding Bose headset

Improving your web site effectiveness.

In my quest to constantly improve our clients’ web sites and develop better and new successful Internet strategies for their business, I come across and review many web sites on a daily basis.

To illustrate and discuss the “good, bad and ugly” techniques used by others, and us, I am starting a new blog category today. “How to improve your web site effectiveness” will be devoted exactly for that purpose, discussions and illustrations of such practices, both good and bad. Please realize this category will reflect my personal bias and opinion, which you are welcome to disagree with. I would really like to hear your opinion and your sharing of other sites and concepts you think are bad practice or helpful.

This following site: www.singletongroup.com used to be a consultant web site and had all the basic elements of such a site. Recently it was changed to the following page:

(click image to enlarge)

Please realize that this page is the entire site now. There are no other sub pages to navigate. My assessment:

1. If this person is on vacation and it is their way of communicating such message, I see it as a poor sense of humor that would turn off customers.
2. If this person’s server was hacked (high jacked by someone else) I hope for their sake they recognize this soon.
3. If they decided to retire, I believe there are better ways of announcing it. But then again, they may not care.

I love a good sense of humor and I believe you can easily leverage it in your writing and professional web site development. However, this is definitely not such an example. Watch out what message your site conveys.

While vacationing in St. George, Utah, back in December, I couldn’t help but notice this creative sign and ashtray:

I am a frequent Continental flyer and enjoy flying with them and the service I receive. Last night, I booked a round trip flight for my son using their online service, which I use quite often. I find www.continental.com to be an easy site to navigate to quickly book my flights.

When logging on to their site this evening, I noticed the price for the identical flight was much cheaper. I called the elite desk line and got Buzz Savage, their pleasant helpdesk manager, on the phone. He explained that the rule states that in order to rebook the flight at the different rate I must make the change exactly within 24 hours of booking the original fair. Although I had passed the 24-hour mark, he will make the necessary adjustment and take care of me.

It was a great pleasure to talk with Buzz and hear his story. He retired quite a few years ago and decided to go back to work. Sitting in his family room where he now works daily, all customers’ calls are directed right to his home phone. He said he loves his job, and Continental takes great care of him. I asked him what is one of the greatest attributes about the company that most people do not know. He said, the focus of everyone in the company to service the customers and make it a great place. He then proceeded to tell me that even though he is already working remotely from home, they are working on the technology to soon allow him to work remotely from anywhere in the world.

These four most recent blog posts illustrate four different companies with four different mindsets of servicing their customers. Which company would you want to do business with and which company most resembles your organization?

While at the mall, my wife and I left Nordstrom and had some time to kill before our dinner reservation at a nearby restaurant. We walked into Dillard’s women shoe department when my wife noticed the boots she got several weeks ago were significantly discounted and on sale now. The sales person explained that even if the boots are still brand new in the box, since they were purchased three weeks ago she couldn’t credit my wife the price difference. Her option would be to return them for full credit, which will put them back into stock and then attempt to repurchase them assuming the proper size is available in stock.

I shared with her the great service experience we just had at Nordstrom and the no-questions-asked and friendly price adjustment policy they had. “We are not Nordstrom” She said. “I noticed” I replied.

I mentioned to her why this is illogical and does not make any business sense. Forcing the customer to return the boots for full credit while waiting for the salesperson to put them back in stock and then allowing the customer to repurchase them seemed absurd.

She thought about it and then said: “Bring your boots tomorrow and I will process the credit on one register. You will then have to wait 20 minutes so I can then process the sale on another register so I don’t get in trouble.”

It’s amazing for me to see how two different organizations (Nordstrom and Dillard’s) empower their employees to make the proper decisions to serve their customers.

My wife and I went to the mall the other day to stop at Nordstrom in order to get my new mail-ordered coat altered. While waiting for the tailor tp arrive, the friendly salesman started to process the alteration order request on his computer. “I have good news for you Mr. Barr”, he said. “I just processed a credit for over $100 on your account to reflect the price adjustment on your coat since it is now on sale.” I thanked him for this special gesture and it was then that the tailor arrived. He took my measurements and asked if I have a special occasion and whether I need my coat ready right away?

It was back in December and a couple of days before my trip to Las Vegas to visit my son in Utah when I realized that I forgot to rent a car for the trip. In a great hurry and armed with the power of the Internet, a couple of minutes later I rented the SUV from Dollar Rent A Car. A couple of days later I landed at the Las Vegas airport and within a short time found myself standing at the long line of the previously mentioned car rental office. And that’s where my dreadful experience started.

It was taking forever for the service reps to take care of each of the irritated customers. Even my attempt to get more help fell on deaf ears. Almost an hour later and finally it was my turn to be served. The condescending representative seemed to be a natural extension of the poor mindset already shared by the other company’s representatives and she also seemed to enjoy her acquired power. I then realized that the faster I get served, the faster I will be on the road for the 4 hour drive to Utah. It took a tremendous amount of self-control for me to not comment on the attitude I was noticing coming from her and the others in that office.

Almost relieved and with the paperwork finally in my hands, I rushed downstairs to their car lot to get my rented car. To my amazement the car was not there. When I questioned the service rep he said that he does not know when my car will be ready although he hopes it will be soon. I told him that hopes won’t get me far and I need the car NOW! He then told me that I may select any car I want from the lot. Glancing over, I noticed they were all small cars and I told him that I reserved a 4-wheel drive SUV to safely drive in the mountains of Utah. He did not seem to care while telling all the customers coming down with their paperwork that they also may select any car they want from the lot. There was an almost frenzy like feeling in the air.

With my pulse beating faster, my self-control gone and my voice increasing in volume I told him he has three options: 1. Go down to his competitor’s lot and get me an equivalent car to the one I rented. 2. Get me into the Cadillac Escalade I just noticed on his lot. 3. Call his manager to immediately resolve this problem. He explained that the keys to the Escalade are locked inside and he cannot leave his post since there are customers to serve. Demandingly I reminded him that I am one of these customers and he better get me the car now while I can direct the rest of his customers.

Perhaps it was my demeanor, my loud voice, the face twitch I started to develop, the fact that he started to get tired of me or perhaps his realization of the customer service responsibilities when he suddenly left. Several minutes later he came back with a brand new SUV handing me the keys while I am still in the midst of directing the customers’ traffic to select any car they see on the lot. What can I tell you? I had to have some sense of humor about this dreadful situation.

As I climbed into the car, almost two and a half hours after my landing, I realized the senior moment I had when booking my car reservation and forgetting to use my gold membership with Hertz, which would have prevented this from happening.

I came across these powerful quotes written by Mark Twain:

“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”

“There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.”

Organizing your reading and writing.

A question was asked today on one of the online forums I help implement and moderate:

“How do you organize potential book commentary, blog posts relevant to an upcoming article, news stories that could be adapted to a speech, etc. so you can find them when you’re ready for them?”

I find my organized digital world much more efficient and faster to search than my paper world. To solve this challenge I created multiple folders on my disk drive. Here are a few to help me better organize myself:

Chad’s Publishing – Is my resource folder for my writing ideas. It contains a word document labeled “Titles” with the headlines of future articles I would like to write. Each time I think of an idea for an article or a blog post, I add it to this document. In this document you will find titles such as: “How and when to fire your web master”, “What they haven’t alerted you about Google alerts”, “Why technologies fail and what to do about it”, which are all articles, blog posts or Podcasts I am planning on doing in the future.

When I read interesting articles on the Internet, I copy and paste each one (and only the important sections) into a word document and I assign it the appropriate title I choose. Assigning it the proper title when saving the document is the most critical step as it allows me to quickly find the resource I am looking for in the future. Inside each document is the content with the date and attribution information. So if I just read three articles about three different subjects such as: disaster recovery, Internet marketing and security, I would name my articles starting with these words and followed by more identifying information in the title. When reading Books, magazines and other publications, I summarize interesting things I read and use the same concept as above. When writing my articles, if I wish to quote another source, I quickly scan my folder and use the proper article with the proper attribution.

Review Articles – This folder contains web articles I copy and paste into that I did not have the time to read yet but I feel they may be of interest to me in the future. I review this folder when I have time and either purge the document if I have no interest or rename it and place it in the “Chad’s Publishing” folder for future resource.

Process Visuals – This folder contains the charts I find or create to be used in my future writing.

Screen Shots – This folder contains the screen capture of various web sites I visited (good and bad) that I plan on writing about.

Stories – This folder contains stories I like to use in my speeches and my writing.

I know all about Google Reader, Internet browser’s favorites, social bookmarking sites, making hard copies and cutting out articles from newspapers and magazines and other methods. Although they have their place and benefit, when it comes to organizing my writing, I find them to be ineffective and a big waste of my time. The system I outline above keeps my writing organized with the proper resources available when I need them. Occam’s Razor – “All other things being equal, the simplest solution is usually the best.”

While visiting one of my clients today and walking by their computer room, I noticed that their backup tapes were neatly stacked on the desk next to their server. When taking a closer look I also noticed that they had two tape sizes, the larger to backup their main legacy system and the smaller size to backup their windows server. Interestingly enough, there were only four tapes in each stack and the ones labeled Thursday were missing from each stack. Since today is Friday, I knew exactly what they were doing wrong. I walked into the CEO’s office and here is the conversation that took place:

Me: who is in charge of the backup system?
CEO: That’s Bob.

Me: I noticed only four tapes in the computer room and I was wondering were the missing Thursday tape was?
CEO: (proud and boasting): You see Chad, we have implemented this great backup procedure several years ago. When Bob came in this morning, he brought back with him the nightly backup tapes from Wednesday, that he took home with him last night. He then put last night’s server tape backups in his brief case so he can take them off site. This way we always guarantee that we have one off site set of tapes. (At this point the CEO had a big smile on his face probably waiting for me to acknowledge their great backup procedure.)

Me: May I ask you several questions?
CEO: Sure, go a head.

Me: How important is your backup system?
CEO: If disaster strikes, we would be dead in the water without them with possible terrible consequences to our business.

Me: Does Bob ever take a lunch break?
CEO: Sure every day.

Me: Does he always carry his brief case with him when he leaves for lunch?
CEO: Rarely.

Me: So I guess if a major disaster took place when Bob is out to lunch, such as; fire, water or earthquake, wouldn’t you agree that you would be dead in the water when he returns?
CEO: (speechless, no sound)

Me: Or if a major disaster strikes your business when Bob is at home and for some reason the tapes he has at home are damaged. Wouldn’t you agree this terrible scenario is the same?
CEO: (starting to make a sound)

Me: Would you like to know what Bob needs to change?
CEO: Absolutely.

Me: Keep all tapes off site and have Bob bring with him the tapes with the appropriate label for the day. When he gets into the office, have him put these tapes in the server and pull out the previous night server backup tapes and place them in his brief case to take home with him. This way you still have three days backup tapes off site if disaster strikes.
CEO: THANK YOU! We shall implement immediately.

Final and additional notes:

1. There are remote backup services available that will enable you to backup your system to a remote server eliminating the need for tapes.
2. Most reliable services are superior to backing up to your own tapes but are much more expensive.
3. If disaster strikes, recovery of software and data from these remote systems could take significantly more time than from your own tapes.

I know that I keep talking about delivering genuine value through your blog. But how do you make your text come to life? Simple. Incorporate picture images, audio and video in your posts and throughout your blog. I visit too many blogs where the author did not realize this simple rule. Unless the message strongly captures my attention, I find most blogs to be quite boring.

When talking with one of our new web clients today, he said that he really likes the way I utilize pictures and videos on my blog. Another colleague emailed me a copy of his blog to comment on. It was painful. Not a picture in sight, just text upon text.

Think about powerful papers and online publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Business Week. Both, among many others, are loaded with outstanding text content accompanied by pictures, audios and videos.

So add some sizzle to your blog and remember, a picture is worth a thousand words. It will break up the monotony of your blog and will make it by far more interesting and unique.

Now where is that picture I wanted to place here?

I recently purchased this amazing little gadget called Flip Video and I have to tell you that I truly love it. This digital video camera is small, compact, light (fits in my pocket) and from the moment I turn it on it is ready to be used within 3 seconds and it stores up to 60 minutes of videos. Once the videos are taken, I simply flip the switch which reveals a built-in USB interface which then plugs to my laptop. Within a few minutes, I am able to upload the video(s) to my laptop, edit as necessary and view or upload to my blog. See several of my posts (in the past several weeks) with the flip video in action. Although I have my other more serious Canon digital camcorder, I find this gadget easier to carry and be ready to shoot when the moment is right.