Tracksuit CEO

I’ve spent a lot of time lately in my blog coaching sessions talking to people about blogging and its place in today’s business world. Something that I find myself repeating is that ‘the blog is the new website’. This has become my New Media mantra. In my manifesto I state that ‘your blog is the only website you will ever need’. Not only is the blog the new website, it is the new resume, business card, portfolio and marketing tool.

The most essential point I try to get across is that your blog is your opportunity to show a human side to the world. When a client tells me a fantastic story, especially if it has to do with their professional trade, I tell them that their clients and potential clients need to read that story in their blog. That story, in the right hands, can mean the difference between them getting a contract or losing it to the firm with a slightly lower bid.

But if my clients read me rambling on about what I like and don’t like won’t I seem unprofessional?

The answer in short is ‘no’. Short of spewing hate speech, your personal opinions will make you more real and accessible to your readers than the typical bio page, which is static and somewhat obligatory in today’s web.

And if you can introduce someone to a website/video/resource that they’ve never seen before, they will be grateful to you and will think of you every time they see it. I know several people who will always think of me when they see the Bible translated into LOLCat, now that’s a legacy.  But seriously, a typical website shows a very impersonal side to the world.  The language of the website is in the ‘editorial we’, which is definitely appropriate at times, but removes the familiar elements that humans seek out.  Your clients are looking for a connection with you and your blog can give that to them.

What if my clients disagree with my likes or dislikes?

This is a big fear among businesses who are considering the implementation of a blog.  But to follow this logic, you would never do a presentation because, what if your clients don’t like your choice of PowerPoint clip art?  What if they don’t like your accent, or the way you part your hair?  I say if they don’t like these things about you then you two are not a good fit.  It’s better to determine incompatibility up-front than to waste your time and energy on a bad business relationship.  The objective, in our new economy, is to sell less of more.  We will fare far better by focusing on quality than by diluting our message to attract sheer quantity.

And honestly, from my experience, most people will react positively to a company who is willing to talk about their distinguishing characteristics.  If this wasn’t the case then no one would ever have occasion to write a Bio for their website.

So here goes, if it makes you feel better, you can think of your blog as an extension of your Bio.  This Bio is frequently updated, it includes your take on the things you specialize in and it gives your readers a reason to check back later.

In the comments:

What’s the most embarrassing thing you have ever included in a Bio or, for that matter, written about on your blog?

Dear Tim,

I met you at SXSWi and immediately bought your book. On completing the 4HWW I was inspired (understatement) and wrote an article here about how you use ‘eustress’ to keep yourself unstuck and to ensure your success. I assured my readers that I would contact someone famous (you, of course) this week and ask them for some advice, as your book recommends, so here goes:

Like you, I was a panelist at 2008 SXSW Interactive and I’m using my fledgling fame and newfound contacts to springboard my career as a blog coach and seminar speaker. I am writing a book called Blog on Company Time: and Get Promoted about how to take over your company’s blog, ensure its success and promptly begin working remotely. In the book I adapted 4HWW principles to perfect techniques like ‘the 2-Minute Blog Post’.

Advice: How can I best get some heavy hitters (like you) to review and comment on my forthcoming book?

Thanks for your time, Tim. And thank you for spreading hope for nine-to-fivers everywhere.

I know you check email weekly so I’ll be patient and with your permission I’ll publish your reply.

Sincerely,

The Tracksuit CEO

One of my favorite artists/pranksters, Jason Eppink, introduced me to a video game called Passage:

“… an art game about our finite existence and how we chose to spend it. In the game, all of life has been condensed into five minutes.”

I actually downloaded the game and gave it a try, it’s a 5-minute game and I only had about 2 to commit before I was presented with some random distraction. I was transported into a world of giant pixelated objects that I had trouble making out. In my short 2 minute jaunt I did manage to hook up with a wife, that was nice, but because she followed me around throughout the game (unrealistic) it then made it more difficult to get through passageways, as I was now 2 people wide. No comment on whether that part is realistic or not.

One thing I found very interesting was the viewable screen space -

You are able to move up and down, left and right, but can only see a narrow sliver of the screen. I think that this is purposefully symbolic of the limited view we have of reality. In my church camp days I remember reading in one of our ‘quiet time’ booklets (note: quiet time is the Southern Baptist equivalent of a daily meditation) about a father and son who are watching a circus from the outside. The little boy is watching through a knot-hole in a fence and thinks the circus consists of one lone circus seal. The boy makes a comment about this to his father who then lifts him up onto his shoulders to reveal his own view over the fence. From here the boy can take in all of the sights and he sees that there is much more to the circus than the baby circus seal (adorable as they may be). The point being that our human limitations keep us from seeing the bigger picture which is visible only to the Divine (represented here by a father who makes his son watch the circus from a vacant lot).

One of the reasons I latched onto the whole video-game-imitating-life thing has to do with something I’ve put a lot of thought into lately: leveling up. In video games, once you have mastered a level you no longer have to start from the first of the game. If you’ve made it to level 3 in Kung Fu and lose one of your lives to the snake that jumps out of the basket, you don’t go back to level 1. You’re past all of that, you simply return to the beginning of level 3.

Life, as I see it, is a series of challenges that we will continue to encounter until we have mastered them. Once we have done so we will then level-up and we won’t have to contend with them any longer. And just like with the video game, when we do start from the first of the game, we’re then able to fly through the levels you’ve mastered with minimum effort. I know in the past that I’ve encountered situations where I felt like I was living in the movie Groundhog Day. Different location; same circumstances over and over. And I can’t break the cycle until I can recognize the situation the life lesson that it is. Kids don’t buy video games because they are easy, they buy them because they want to be challenged. We didn’t come into this world to fly through without conflict. We chose to be here and to face these challenges.

Right now I’m reading the Four Hour Work Week in which Tim Ferriss introduced me to the term “Eustress” which is the opposite of distress:

“Eustress is defined in the model of Richard Lazarus (1974) as stress that is healthy or gives one a feeling of fulfillment.” - Wikipedia

Ferriss argues that the more eustress you introduce into your life, the happier and more successful you will be. I agree that we need to actively seek good stress out and if we actively fill our lives with good stress then we won’t have time for the bad, also known as distress.

So, in my pursuit of eustress - and to further follow the advice of Tim Ferriss - I am going to email a famous person this week and ask them some advice. I’ll publish my email and their response right here on this very blog.

Until then…

Bruce Lee/Kill Bill Jumpsuit on ebay -

I may need to trade in my red tracksuit for this.

tagged: by Tracksuit CEO