Keep Reading

You always hear people talking about how reading is so important and how the greatest leaders are people who read. I wondered if that was true. The more I think about it and experience the effect that reading has on me, the more I think that the best workers and leaders do read and A LOT!

The other day I was in a meeting talking about marketing. The people I was meeting with were asking me questions about marketing, and honestly I was afraid that I wasn’t going to sound intelligent or not be able to answer their questions.

As the meeting went on, I realized that I was answering all the questions and had opinions about what they were asking and was quite happily surprised that I actually knew what I was talking about. The more I thought about why, the more I realized it was because I have been reading a lot of books and blogs about marketing.

Reading sticks with you even if you don’t realize it. It seems to me that the more I read the more I learn and am able to bring it up when needed and when the situation calls for me to bring the information out, even when I don’t think I’m retaining the information that I am reading.

My advice is to keep reading if you are a reader, and if you aren’t find what you are passionate about and begin reading. You will learn more than you realize.

Why I am becoming a fan of Google Voice.

Google Voice… so far.

Well after trying multiple times to get Google Voice working, I finally got it. It still is not perfect, but for right now I am happy with the way it is set up. I have it set up so that if I do not answer, the call will be forwarded to my Google Voicemail.

Google Voicemail was the whole reason that I was interested in Google Voice. I am not a huge fan of voicemail for business, as shown by my last post. I am a fan of email though and Google did something incredible by merging them together!

I love the whole concept that if I miss a call, it will be forwarded to a voicemail that will transcribe the message and send it to me in an email and also have on my online account. The transcription isn’t perfect, but its good. I don’t need it to be perfect. I want it to be able to understand the main point of each message that comes in so that I know whether it is urgent or if it can wait until I am able to sit down for a few minutes to return calls.

Overall, I think Google Voice is a great tool that will really help with my dislike towards voicemail and to be able to respond to people’s needs and requests a lot easier and more efficiently.

10 reasons why I hate voicemail, but prefer email.

Let me make a disclaimer, I hate voicemail for business purposes. I have no problem with voicemail coming from a friend or family member.

So here we go!

1. I don’t have to take notes with email.

2. I can’t receive files in a voicemails.

3. I can’t send files in return to a voicemail.

4. I can screen my emails.

5. I can return emails during a time when I am unable to talk on the phone.

6. I can categorize and file away emails.

7. I don’t have to try to interpret and listen to an email over and over again to understand what they are saying.

8. I immediately know who emails are from. (I sadly don’t have visual voicemail)

9. I can respond with a one word email instead of making an entire 5-10 minute phone call if one word is all it takes.

10. I just find voicemail downright annoying.

Well those are my top 10 reasons. Do you have any others?

Again, if we are friends or close acquaintances, I really don’t have a problem with voicemails. Its when used in business settings that I would rather do away with it completely.

Business is Marketing.

I’m going to be starting a series of blog posts on why marketing is so important. I know that my title sounds like marketing is the most important department of business and the only one that really matters. That’s not necessarily what I mean with that. Business is a composition of multiple different departments put together to make a whole.

It is like an orchestra. An orchestra is made up of multiple different groups of instruments. They are all different. The violins play a different part from the trumpets and so forth. The problem is that without all of the parts put together, its not an orchestra. You need all the parts to make it a whole.

While, I believe marketing is one of the most important parts of business, it cannot exist on its own. Business is not just marketing. There is finance, human resources, research and development, etc. Business needs all the these components to work together for it to succeed.

What I want to share with you though is why marketing should be at the core of a business, and not just a department, but something that every department gets in on and has a part in.

Marketing isn’t just advertising, social media, tv commercials. It is changing rapidly to be more all inclusive. Everyone is a marketer in their company and needs to understand what they can do to help their company succeed.

I touched on this concept a little bit in a previous blog from a different angle. :: Marketing is for everyone. I want to focus on why everyone in a business is a marketer for that business in this series of posts.

I hope that you enjoy this, and please comment and let me know any thoughts, ideas, or critiques that you have!

What is Marketing?

Press the play button and then click through the slides to the right, or click more and then auto play. I hope you like it!

more about "What is Marketing?", posted with vodpod

Why should you read this blog?

I’m sure, just like I am, you wonder why you should ever start subscribing to another blog. To be honest I don’t know why you should read any more blogs. It seems like everyone and their mom, cousins, and friends have their own blogs, and naturally that begs a question. What makes this blog important enough that I should read it?

Well honestly, I don’t know if this can be really classified as an important blog, but I do hope to address some questions and thoughts that I have regarding marketing within the culture today.

Marketing issues will be addressed and discussed from a little bit more of a different stand point than the main stream looks at it. Let’s make sure we are constantly viewing marketing and how we can better reach and serve our audience by constantly turning the crystal through which we look at marketing. Marketing and how we do it should be constantly changing, not to adapt and conform to the culture, but rather to change the culture, and for the better.