When I first read this a few years ago, I did some thinking about the way I was living and resolved to begin eliminating hurry from my life. It seemed like a great idea at the time, and still does. But I soon learned that eliminating hurry from my life is easier said than done.

Civilization has been gathering speed since day one. Every important advancement mankind has made has brought with it the capacity to do things faster. And so we have. The more we can get done, the more we can get done. The ability to multi-task has somehow become an admirable quality in today’s hectic world. Busyness is often confused with productivity and most of the time, the busier we are the more in a hurry we are. But being busy does not mean you have to be in a hurry.

The simple truth is, nothing truly important… nothing… can be done in a hurry.

You can’t do your best work in a hurry. You can’t establish meaningful relationships in a hurry. You can’t spend quality time with your kids in a hurry. You can’t be there for your friends in a hurry. You can’t rest in a hurry. You can’t plan for and live a healthy, productive life in a hurry.

So I have recently redoubled my resolve to ruthlessly eliminate hurry from my life. I’ve discovered the operative word here is “ruthlessly.” Eliminating hurry is simply not a casual occupation. It involves a purposeful, “ruthless” turning away from the way I’ve lived most of my life and an equally “ruthless” resolve to re-learn how to live at a manageable pace. It involves an almost minute-by-minute realization of how I am reacting to the pressures that cause hurriedness. It involves a lot of talking to myself and a lot of accountability to those who know about my quest and aren’t shy about calling me on it when I begin to give in to hurriedness.

I’ve discovered that hurry does, in fact, breed waste. I find the old sayings “haste makes waste” and “the hurrieder I go, the behinder I get” to be absolutely true. Hurry is a terrible waste of valuable time. When I’m in a hurry, it takes me much longer to do something than when I’m not in a hurry.

But the most important realization I’ve come to is that when I’m in a hurry, I don’t have time to be a better person. I can’t be the person I want to be because I don’t have time. How pathetic is that? My goal is to slow down and begin smelling the roses and being an encouragement to someone who needs a good word and pausing to appreciate the natural beauty all around me and contributing my time to serve someone in need and reading a book slowly enough to actually breathe it in and going on a road trip with no particular schedule in mind and stop caring about being interrupted because, after all, I’m in no hurry.

I want to ruthlessly eliminate hurry from my life and I encourage you to do the same. Your life will be better for it.

If you ever see me and I seem to be in a hurry, please call me on it. Be ruthless! Say to me, “You know that thing about ruthlessly eliminating hurry from your life, how’s that going?”

I’ll get the hint.

Bill Love

All of those are viable visuals for “focus,” but what does “focus” mean to your writing?

When I apply the word “focus” to writing, whether it’s a simple blog post, a press release for a client, or a story for my children, I see it as a metaphor derived from my background as a photographer.

Photographers want their images to be “in focus,” as sharp and as clear as they can be (in most cases). As the photographer focuses on their subject by making slight turns and adjustments of the lens, so the writer tries to see the story as clearly as possible through visualization, drafting, revisualization, editing (and more editing) until “the picture” is crystal clear. Then, snap. Done.

So how does focus express itself in your writing? How can you, as a writer, achieve better focus?

Here are some common questions I ask while writing that help sharpen the picture:

1 – Who’s the story talking to?
2 – What’s the news?
3 – What’s one thing the reader MUST know?
4 – What makes this story interesting? (Is it interesting to others or just you?)
5 – What is the story about? (No, REALLY, what’s it about?)
5.5 – Walk away and look at it later with fresh eyes. (Revisualization)

While anyone can pick up a pencil, pen or pull out a keyboard and write, if it’s focused, writing can have impact. With focus, writing can help your community, help make change, help save lives and inspire the world.

How do you focus when writing?

But tucked among the sarcasm, humor and self-deprecation, Dave actually incorporates little nuggets of wisdom, whether he means to or not. Last night I came across one passage that really got me thinking (one reason I liked this book so much right now was that, for the most part, it didn’t require ANY thinking).

Dave was talking about kids’ sports these days and how parents are so involved, sometimes a little too much. He cites examples like screaming on the sidelines and convincing kids of being really great at something they actually show little ability to grasp. Of his own athletic abilities as a child he said,

“I learned, for example, that even though I was not as big, or fast, or strong, or coordinated as the other kids, if I worked really hard—if I gave 100 percent and never quit—I would still be smaller, slower, weaker and less coordinated than the other kids. In other words, I learned that even though I enjoyed playing sports, I sucked at them. And understanding that you suck at some things is useful information in life. The world would be a better place if people were fully cognizant of their areas of suckage.”

Amen. I’m known for being fairly straight-forward, and will readily admit when I’m really not very good at something – math, computers, miniature golf, and swimming for any purpose other than not drowning. And it’s funny, and sometimes incredibly frustrating, when someone tries to convince me otherwise. “Oh, I bet you’d really like mini-golf, and are probably really good at it, if you’d just try.” Ummmm, no. I’ve tried many, many times, and I a) don’t like it at all, and b) really suck at it. TRUST ME.

I started thinking about this in professional terms. How many times have I come across someone who thinks they can do everything for their business? They know what their customers like, they know how to reach and sell to them most effectively, they know how to write copy for things ranging from newsletters to ads. There’s little they don’t know, and by golly, they sure don’t suck at any of this! That’s their business!

No it’s not. Their business is to make a profit (or, in the case of non-profits, to keep the organization going and growing). They are where they are in the business because they know how to do certain things really well. There are areas where they excel, and areas where they really aren’t very good. We all have these. The best thing to do is to admit what you’re NOT good at, and find someone who is good to help you! There is nothing wrong with admitting that. In fact, I admire people who do it.

I’m not going to get specific because everyone is good at different things. I just thought I’d start the reflection process for others as Dave started it for me. What are you good at? What are your areas of suckage? Are you trying to convince others that you’re really good at something you’re not? Why?

Andrea James
President

What brand wouldn’t love to be so popular it could put on a one-hour special about their future and have everyone watching, on the edge of their seats waiting to find out the news? That’s what LeBron James did last Thursday. With his impending free agency, he had the sports and advertising worlds on the edge of their seats. By now, you’ve probably heard the critics and basic public relations bust that this was. I think there are several ways to look at it.

Speaking as a sports fan, this was a complete debacle. Maybe I have too many Midwestern values, but you don’t go on national TV to tell the world you are leaving your hometown. He is literally crippling the Cleveland sports economy – perhaps the economy period. Think of all the tickets (tourism), merchandising (shopping) and advertising (business) he is ripping from the city, not to mention their hearts. This is a hometown kid that made it big, put Cleveland on the NBA map for a while, and is now “taking his talents to South Beach.” That statement says it all for me. He didn’t say “I’m going to the Miami Heat.” He said “I’m going to South Beach” – the glitz and glam of celebrity. I may not be a normal sports fan in that I really don’t care how much a player makes because its all relative. Who doesn’t want to succeed and make more money at their job? I think some sports athletes may even deserve a one-hour special if they are popular enough. Good for LeBron that he generates enough interest that people in the middle of July on a Thursday night will tune into a cable channel to watch him. That’s cool. I just think he lost sight of his decision. If Lebron is staying in Cleveland – have the special, donate the proceeds to charity and the city rejoices. He still gets his money and he is still on a good team. His brand keeps moving forward and he is on to even more riches. If LeBron is going to “South Beach” to seek more fame, then announce it like any other player and don’t crush the city that supports and depends on you in front of a nation. Now LeBron’s personal brand has to hit the “reset” button.

As an advertiser, this event poses an interesting question to me – do you want your brand to be associated with this kind of public relations flop? From what I can tell, most people are down on LeBron, and I haven’t heard too much about the advertisers that actually made this special happen. Many of the sponsors were already tied to LeBron – Nike, McDonalds, and VitaminWater. But some were not – University of Phoenix, Microsoft, and Facebook. This article in AdAge, it breaks down the advertising exposure and value of the mention. It also talks about how this TV special came together. What it doesn’t talk about is who was the biggest brand this night?

I think it was LeBron James, because it’s easier for people to identify with a person over a product. LeBron made it very evident he was the brand “taking his talents”, which include marketability, to South Beach. That’s where he lost relevance to his “corporate brand.” It became his decision without considering his brand community.

In this day and age, sports figures have a lot of control over their message – to the point that they easily make a “corporate brand” out of their celebrity. They no longer have to rely on the media to break a story or message for them, they can take the message to the media themselves and monetize it by asking, “What is it worth to you?” They can even go one step further to break news themselves via Twitter, Facebook or their own personal websites. This is all a public relations puzzle as much as an advertising puzzle. Because the relationship that the person has with their consumer (fans in this case), is what drives the brand they’ve created.

LeBron thought his personal brand was above scrutiny and that people would realize it was a “business” decision. Yes, there is absolutely a business side of sports, but the core of what drives that business is the fans and the personal connection the fans have with a team or a player. LeBron failed to see where his brand starts. He thought that LeBron James creates marketability with his talents. No, the fans create his marketability because they admire his talents. When you tarnish your connection to people, you lose your brand.

The great thing about sports and America really, is there are usually second chances. LeBron’s brand took a big time hit last week. He might think he can just garner new fans in a new city and things will be repaired. I think its going to be more than that. He needs to connect again, which is going to be tough. He had a big advantage being the hometown kid. Cleveland likely would have loved him no matter if he won or lost championships. Now in Miami, he has to win. He has to build relationships and find a way not to come across as a narcissistic celebrity trying to be seen. Winning could be the cure, but a lot of people have a new view of him after last week.

Do you think his brand will be repaired? How might he do it?

Change is not a destination, just as hope is not a strategy.
– Rudy Giuliani

Below, I’ve listed five basic strategy steps to ensure success in your website development process. Follow these using a little marketing smarts and you’ll come out ahead in the game.

Strategy Step 1: Set Goals

Developing a website without first setting goals is a little like playing checkers with a blind man. Sure it makes for short, less challenging games, but what do you really gain in the end?

Internet marketers need to prioritize their goals for every website. Expectations for each site varies, but they usually center around a few key goals:

1. Defining the positioning

2. Defending the brand

3. Awareness / education

4. Display / distribution of products & services

5. Building quality leads

6. Sales

Develop your strategy around your goals and you will be starting off on the right foot.

Strategy Step 2: Design with goals in mind

It’s been said that 50% of all website visitors are lost within the first four to six seconds because they cannot find the product or service they are looking for. Why do you think that is?

Being a designer at heart, I understand the aesthetic value to marketing and specifically for interactive user interface, but by setting goals and building a targeted strategy (selling units for instance) has very little to do with cheesy Flash animations or the roll-over state of your navigation buttons. It does have a lot to do with how customers find your product or service. So design the site with the goals in mind and move the visitors to the right page efficiently and effectively.

Strategy Step 3: Track Goal Conversion

This strategy should be at the front of your mind when navigating through the previous stage. If your site is designed with conversion of your goals as a priority, you will be able to track the traffic to and within your website.

For example, let’s say you have 120 visitors to your site tomorrow with 60 of them going to the product/service page. How many actually clicked on the “sign up,” “purchase,” or “more info” links? And then, of those clicks, how many finally made it through to your sales or customer service center?

This needs to be tracked. Even if you’re not a retailer with an e-commerce section to your site, you should find out what pages your visitors land on, leave from and what were the reasons for their exit.

Some questions to ask your interactive developer:

1. Is your website’s navigation confusing?

2. Does your website display a value proposition that would benefit the visitor?

3. Do the headlines on your website elicit action?

4. Is the content on your website unique and keyword friendly?

Tracking traffic and goal conversions within your site is imperative for successful marketing. If you don’t care where your visitors are going, how can they care if they find you?

Strategy 4: SEO – Content Optimization (for organic search rank)

I went to “Home Improvement Warehouse & Testosterone Megastore” yesterday looking for “Deck Screws.” The service person knew exactly what I needed, but when I looked on the box, it didn’t say “Deck Screws.” It said, “Galvanized Wood Fasteners.” Is that what I wanted? Of course!

As a business owner, you speak one very specific language. Your customers, on the other hand, speak a similar, yet slightly different dialect. If you create your website content geared toward how your customers speak (search), you’ve instantly created a bridge that the search engines can naturally connect. That’s organic content optimization.

If I waked into “Home Improvement Warehouse & Testosterone Megastore” asking for “Deck Screws” and the service person just looked blankly at me, how long do you think I would have stayed?

Strategy 5: Metrics & Testing

Finally, the “fun part,” is called metrics and testing. Here, all of the previous strategy steps come together to show you the ROI of your website. They key to success of your business lies in maintaining, monitoring and managing your metrics. The metrics will tell you exactly what is converting and what is not. The metrics will tell you if you’re speaking the same language as your searching customers.

For example:

What amount of sales happened yesterday?

Which page of your website converted the most?

Where are you listed on Google for your target keywords? How about Bing? Yahoo?

From which location did the biggest number of visitors come?

What can you change and “Test” against the metrics you were given this month?

Finally, what is your ROI?

It’s not rocket science. Businesses launch new or revised websites hundreds of times every minute. And I’d be willing to bet a majority of them don’t take these 5 simple strategies into account.

Does your website have strategy? How can you change your current site to incorporate some of these results-driven strategies? How can Love Scott help you get there?

Andrew B. Clark – Interactive Director

• Waking up at 5:45 to workout at 6:15 is not cool. But, there are other people awake at this time and some seem to have been up earlier. They need a mental screening or a sedative.
• Your body can literally keep sweating and sweating and only stop when it literally runs out of sweat.
• A dirty dream can involve yourself, at a table, eating pizza. That’s it. It was a good one.
• I have zero flexibility. Zero. The Tin Man bends better than I do.
• I kick and punch like a girl at times. I also wimper and cry like a girl at times.

Okay, it might not be that dramatic. Its actually been a really great experience and in less than a week and a half I’ve discovered how to push myself even further than I thought I could. I can only hope to see where I can go in this 10-week time. The goal would be to get smaller and leaner and meaner. I’ve been a larger guy for most of my life. I always wondered what it was like to be skinny. To eat whatever you want, bathe it in ranch dressing and lay around. Must be nice skinny people. Well, what I’ve discovered is that a lot of skinny people are skinny because they work at it and they want to be skinny. They are okay with the work you have to put in, the discipline it takes and the rewards of the effort.

At Love Scott, we are a bit smaller than your average large agency. But we like it that way. We’re not ashamed of it and we love the work and effort it takes to see the rewards. We’re different that way. To steal an excerpt from our company manifesto…

“The larger the army, the slower it moves.

That’s a fact. So it’s also a fact that sometimes smaller is better. We’re a different kind of ad agency in that we’re smaller and okay with that. There are lots of smaller ad agencies, but most of them are not okay with that and live for the time when they can be much larger (and as a result, much slower). If cumbersome is what you seek, hire a large ad agency. Spend lots of time working your way around and through the various layers and empires built without regard to responsiveness… not to mention cost controls. Get used to “taking a meeting” whenever you need an answer and whatever you do, don’t cross the prima donnas in the creative department. They’re very sensitive.”

Although this is written in an entertaining way, its as simple as saying the people you meet at Love Scott are going to be the people you see and work with every day. We’re lean. We’re mean. (in a good way) We’re nimble. We like it that way. If you’d like to work with a company willing to work directly with you and you want to reach the decision makers when you need them, we’re your kind of people.

And by the way, the prima donnas in the creative department are sensitive. I’ve found body parts I didn’t know I had that are sensitive these days.

Additionally, and totally unrelated, our creative director, Adam Jensen, signed himself up for a 10-week intense group fitness challenge that one year ago, he wouldn’t have dreamed of taking on. In a sense, he’s been pursuing some personal rebranding, focusing on his health and fitness for the last year. After  watching how hard he’s worked to lose 75 pounds and get into better shape, it was inspiring to see him take on something he’d once thought impossible. Both Love Scott’s rebranding efforts, and Adam’s new undertaking, had me thinking about the one thing they have in common. Making the decision to act on fear or faith.

Decisions aren’t always simple. For some companies, decision-making processes, like whether and how to brand/ rebrand, are daunting. Spending the time and inviting internal and possibly external criticism are not always pleasant thoughts. Likewise, personal decisions such as Adam’s, which require self reflection, motivation and determination, are filled with unknowns around every corner. Think about every decision you’ve ever made in your life. Each and every one was driven by the stronger influence of those two things: fear or faith.

Fear of failure. Fear of change. Fear of the unknown. Everything (non-life-threatening) I’ve ever not tried, I can attribute to overwhelming fear. Now, fear can also be a blessing, and it’s actually required for faith to even exist. But for many (and too many companies I care to mention), focusing on fear can be tragically prohibitive when it comes to making effective marketing decisions. What if a campaign doesn’t work? What if it’s too radical for their public? There’s no proof an effort WILL work, so why take the chance?

And then there’s my favorite word – faith. Faith in what’s possible. Faith in doing things right. Faith in discovery through effort. Every time I’ve succeeded at anything, I’ve counted on faith. Faith in myself, faith in God, faith in others. And there have definitely been times when I’ve leaned on faith only to fail. But those are also the times I learned the most about what was needed to later succeed. What if I’d listened to the fear and never tried? I wouldn’t have learned how to do it right, better, the next time.

Faith doesn’t mean entering blindly into a situation, counting on a miracle for something great to happen. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary offers this as a definition:

Main Entry: ¹faith

Pronunciation: \ˈfāth\

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English feith, from Anglo-French feid, fei, from Latin fides; akin to Latin fidere to trust — more at bide

Date: 13th century

1 a : allegiance to duty or a person : loyalty b (1) : fidelity to one’s promises (2) : sincerity of intentions
2 a (1) : belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2) : belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion b (1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2) : complete trust
3 : something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs <the Protestant faith>

Sincerity of intentions. Firm belief in something for which there is no proof. Complete trust. With a strong belief in any of these, good things will eventually happen. If your intentions are to market your company right, have faith in yourself and your convictions that it will happen. If you hire a company to do it for you, have faith in yourself to choose the right company, then have faith in them to do what needs to be done…right!

With our rebranding effort, it took faith in the time we’d spend and the system itself that got us through the process. We could have feared what we’d discover from surveying our past and current clients, or that extra time we had to invest might be wasted, but we didn’t. We kept the faith that it would all lead to something great. And it did.

Likewise, Adam let fear rule his decision a year ago and didn’t step up to the challenge he now has faith he can complete. He took some convincing, and had to dabble a little here and there to find his faith-footing, but he found it and is now charging forward.

What drives you and makes your decisions – both personally and professionally? Fear or faith? Which do you want to drive your decisions?

I think they expect my answer to be one of the following:

a) rock-solid marketing intelligence, well researched facts and figures on which to base everything
b) a well thought-out strategy that is on target and incorporates relevance and value in the proposition
c) stand-out, attention-getting creative
d) or; developing, articulating, building equity in, and then defending from all foes, foreign and domestic, a brand for your company or product.

All of those things are important to creating a world-class marketing program. But from an advertising agency perspective, I think the single most important ingredient to a great marketing program is having a great client.

I can think of no ingredient I would rank as more important. Great clients allow great marketing programs to happen. Not-so-great clients invariably end up with not-so-great marketing programs and, because they are by their very nature not-so-great clients, they usually end up blaming their “not-so-great advertising agency” for the poor performance of their not-so-great marketing program.

So, what is a great client? From my perspective, first it’s a client who deeply appreciates the importance and incalculable value of good marketing to the success of a business. They get it. They know that marketing is an investment that should realize a good return and that great marketing usually produces great returns.

Next, they are a client who knows what they don’t know. They may be a great businessperson, but unless they’re also a great marketing person, they know they should leave those chores to people trained in the marketing disciplines. They seek out great marketing people and then trust them with the company’s marketing program. Are they totally detached from the marketing program? Of course not. They supply much needed C-level input, but in doing so, they also avoid screwing up good marketing ideas by imposing their power trips on the people responsible for producing marketing results.

And finally, they encourage and reward great thinking from their marketing people. This takes guts! Giving people who hail from a totally different side of the brain free rein to be inventive, creative and cutting edge with your marketing dollars is an act of courage that I have not often witnessed in my 40 years in the business.

But I have occasionally seen it. And it’s a beautiful thing to behold when it happens. It also invariably results in great marketing.

Great marketing starts with a great client. Period.

We’ve all worked with an endless list of not-so-great clients, but can anyone out there give me an “amen” on the joys of working with a great client?

Bill Love

There are two trainers on the show – Jillian and Bob. Bob is the gentle supporter. Jillian the tough love challenger. No matter who you prefer, both of them inspire dramatic change. Sometimes all of us need that coach or trainer to believe in, push us and walk with us as we try to improve. When something is weighing you down, its hard to make yourself or your company actually DO something. We all get caught up in our daily routines and tasks at hand and lose sight of the bigger picture. Sometimes we just don’t have the resources or time to do more than what we already do. Sometimes a gentle helping hand can make a change. Sometimes its a tough love “shove” in the right direction. Someone you trust can tell you your faults and what you need to do to see results. They can even give you plans of action and be right by your side as they help you grow.

At LoveScott, we’ve found something that inspires us to do what we do. Its a program we started called Mission Assist. It’s a unique program that combines the skills of marketing and development professionals to help non-profit associations better tell their story, share their mission and increase funding. In other words, we see a lot of non-profit organizations that aren’t “fit” in their marketing departments or developmental goals. Scott Brunscheen leads the Mission Assist program at Love Scott. As a long-time non-profit director, he is uniquely in tune with the challenges and opportunities a non-profit organization faces. Combine that with Love Scott’s forty years of marketing experience, and you have some knowledgeable coaches willing to help a non-profit get into shape. We’d like to be the “coach” that gives you a shove in the right direction. We’ve had some experience watching non-profits wondering what to do next, and weighed down by limitations. We’ve been able to work with non-profits as a partner to not only improve their marketing strategy and brand, but increase funding and create new funding streams. Its been some of the most rewarding work we’ve done. Through helping them shed the weight of “what to do”, we’ve seen them revel in the joy of accomplishing their missions.

If you’d like to learn more about the Mission Assist program, please head to our home page and click on the Mission Assist logo at the bottom of the page. If its something you could benefit from, give anyone at Love Scott a call and we will make sure you are taken care of. We’ll get you on a program to shed the weight of “what to do.”

-Adam Jensen, Vice President / Creative Director

As consumers, listen to the words that are spoken to you. Don’t just hear what the voice over is saying, but listen to the tone, the timbre and the way that they form the words before they roll out. Do they feel crafted? Do they have substance? Are they soothing or inspirational? Do they feel rehearsed or recited? Do they grate and scale against the soft parts of your emotional under belly?

Words have a lot of power. Especially when it comes to marketing and advertising. A client’s need to move a product or provide a service must be communicated to the audience in such a compelling manner that the burden on copywriters is sometimes overwhelming. But with that responsibility, a lot of ad copywriters have genius when it comes to crafting copy or dialogue that moves people. Think of your favorite television spots or your favorite print ads – ads that made you think or moved you into action. That’s copy writing genius.

***

On the other hand there is the dry, uninspired, rote, garish and simply boring side to that world as well (We’ve all seen those, so no need to embed one here…).

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
– Mark Twain

Clients need to understand that the message with which their brand is associated will last long after the commercial has gone off the air or the magazine has been thrown away. If the words move a person to turn the channel or flip the page, then they’ve just embedded their perception to your brand. If the words, dialogue or copy make the reader pause and takes them to an emotion other than boredom or frustration, that too affects the brand perception.  Which would you rather have? Good language can be wasted in a matter of seconds and redemption takes an eternity when it comes to building and maintaining a strong brand.

The common denominator we have in communication is the word. Whether spoken, written, illustrated or otherwise, don’t underestimate the power of being human.

Sincerely,
Andrew B. Clark, Interactive Director