EverythingSteve.com

Made to Stick: A Ridiculously Low Cost Investment That Will Make You a More Effective Communicator

A question: How much of what you "created" last week, i.e., documents, messages, presentations, pitches, scripts, sales letters, ad copy...will anyone remember a week, a month, a year from now? What about an important conversation you had with your kid, your spouse, a volunteer group, a team of employees, etc.?

By necessity, we're great at filtering and deleting most of the content we're exposed to every day. For example, yesterday morning I had CNBC playing in the background as I got ready for work. I can only remember one 30 second TV ad for GE Aircraft Engines out of a 30 minute period during which I had to be exposed to 30 different commercials. I remember it because it was funny, which is an unusual ad approach for GE. But I don't remember any of the 'take-aways' from the ad. And I really can't remember any of the other ads.

Now, if you're 'in business,' there is a good chance you've heard of the book "Made to Stick" from Chip and Dan Heath. The question is: have you bought and read it? Trust me: I was more than skeptical about this book. "Oh here we go...ANOTHER tome on building the perfect message or story." And yes, a lot of what you'll find in this book is common sense. But it's presented in a very logical way with oodles of detail and interesting (and memorable) stories that back up the construct of the book.

What is that construct? It's the "six principles" of "Made to Stick" messaging: the SUCCESs Model, which stands for Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories. Is it possible to build messages, presentations, stories, etc., that contain all of these elements? Theoretically, but I'd say if you're hitting three or four of these elements, you're way ahead of the game.

Now you might ask, what IS this construct? Think of it as a system for making content sticky. Early on in the book, the Heath brothers describe a project conducted by an Israeli research team. Their research concluded that the elements which made particular ads memorable could be bucketed and systematized (oh, I'm sure that's not a word, but...) into several categories. The narrative then goes on to describe how this research team tested whether it could take three teams of complete novices: one that received no training on building creative ads, one that received a traditional methodology, and one that received training based on the six specific elements that this wide range of creative ads contained. After a two hour training, the third group created ads that were deemed 50 percent more creative and produced a 55 percent more positive attitude toward the products being advertised. The book states that its aim is to do the same for "your ideas" as the Israeli research team did for advertisements.

As I write this post, Amazon is selling "Made to Stick" for $15.21. This is one of these "loco crazy" values. You can take this book as far as you want to. For example, if you work on a team, you can buy it for your team and go through it chapter by chapter, book club style, over a six week period. We did just that on the product marketing team I'm a part of. I highly doubt any of us will look at messaging and storytelling the same way. A bonus: while I can't say there is any laugh-out-loud funny narrative in this book, the Heath brothers write with a light and conversational tone with some occasional dry wit. This isn't to say this book isn't serious stuff -- it is. I just have to imagine the purpose is to make the content more....you guessed it.

Isn't an 'Up' Stock Market Truly Awesome?

Well, I'm hearing a rapidly growing choir of voices like Bob Prechter's concluding that we're not out of this thing just yet. I had a wake up call last night when I went to a medical clinic owned by Sutter Health. They were supposed to be building a large facility on the east side of San Carlos, California -- one they petitioned for, for many years. One they spent goodness knows how much money on for design, planning, lobbying, etc. The current status, according to the doctor who attended to me last night? On hold, due to the economic climate. The last time I checked, more people are getting older, fatter and sicker. On hold. Not good.

"Free" Hits a Brick Wall in Mountain View...Tonight!

Oh yes yes yes. We've all been buzzing so much lately about the notion of "free" and "freemium" business models. All kidding aside, "free" is indeed here to stay. And why the heck are we going to start paying for stuff that used to be free? Isn't it amazing to see traditional newspaper and magazine folks fall all over themselves figuring out how to solve that one?

But I digress. So here's the question. What happens when a few of the key ringmasters of "Free" gather for a roundtable event in the middle of Silicon Valley? We're talking Chris Anderson, E.I.C. of Wired Magazine -- whose most recent and much talked about tome (Free: The Future of a Radical Price) expounds on the notion of "free;" and the CEOs of Ning, Pandora, YouSendIt, and others.

Does the Churchill Club, sponsor of tonight's event, wisely proclaim, "Wouldn't it be a great publicity gimmick to make this event FREE and try to sell premium memberships to all the folks we get to attend, not to mention get a lot of FREE buzz? Perhaps we'll pass on serving nibblin's and generate some revenue with a cash bar?"

Ummm...that would be a big "No!" For Churchill Club non-members, the admission price tonight is a buzz killing $77. So let me get this straight. I can buy 7.7 copies of Chris' latest book OR pay for more than two years of Pandora's PREMIUM "PandoraOne" service OR get 7.7 months of YouSendIt's premium "Pro" Service (enabling me to send behemoth files as large as 2 GB). OR I can sit in traffic for 45 minutes to get content that I can otherwise largely get for FREE by listening to this excellent NPR/Fresh Air podcast from July 8th? Or another podcast on Amazon?

I think I'll buy the Kindle version of Chris' book and sit this one out! Oh, and of course I'll chill out with my Pandora as well.

Wait wait wait! Did somebody say...Colbert?

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Chris Anderson
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Mark Sanford

The EverythingSteve.com Small Company Seal of Approval, Chapter I

There are a few small companies out there pumping out products or services that I admire. And I like the way they're marketing themselves as well. Simple, low budget activities based on the passions of their underpaid executives and far more underpaid marketing leaders. I'll be writing about a few of my favorites, completely randomly, during the next several weeks-months-whatever. You might want to take note of this first company.

Yuck yuck yuck. It's called Evernote! And this Mountain View-based company recently celebrated its first anniversary. Now, if you're like me, you like to take notes -- a lot of notes. You fill up notebook after notebook. But then what? Oh, and how do you archive and find old notes? More importantly, how do you find the proverbial needle in the haystack? Sure, you can use Microsoft Word or Google Docs to store your notes. Many people do. The latter offering is cool because you can add your pals to a document and enter in notes in real time. A group of us did this during an operations meeting several months ago. It was quite hip. OK, that could be pushing it.

And Microsoft OneNote has been around for awhile. OneNote is specialized software for taking notes. It also stores photos, audio files, handwritten stuff, etc. It stores your information in a more natural and intuitive way than word processing software files. And the search functionality is powerful. But at the end of the day, OneNote, as great as it is (and don't underestimate this product), is essentially client-based software.

Evernote gives you the best of both worlds. Windows client? Yes. Mac client? Yes. But this app. also lives just fine on the Web with an intuitive and powerful Web UI. All Evernote notes files are securely stored "in zee cloud" on whatever hosted storage planet they're leasing. Now, here's where it gets interesting. Windows Mobile client? Yes. iPhone client? Yes. Blackberry client? Nope, but it's apparently the number one complaint of users and they're actively working on it. So basically you can take notes from just about anywhere or capture those random but simply brilliant thoughts that could make you famous for curing world hunger, store them in "notebooks," and tag them for easy retrieval.

And you can take photos on your mobile phone and easily upload them to Evernote.

You can record a brief audio snippet on your cell phone and upload it to Evernote. (Press "Play" for a sample, below.)

Evernote also provides "Web Clipper" bookmarklets for easily clipping and uploading partial or complete Web pages (with URLs) for subsequent retrieval. Sure, simple bookmarks are OK, and I'm a huge Diigo fan. But there is some power in having an immediate visual record of just what it was you were looking at that captivated you so much. In the words of CEO Phil Libin, Evernote wants to be "your external brain" that records and archives all the things you want it to so you can "remember everything" for "for the rest of your life." I'm not so sure about how much I trust that last phrase, but at this point I'm giving Evernote the benefit of the doubt, not to mention my notes! Oh, they've also opened up their platform and work with a slowly growing number of partners. So for example, you can buy a new-hickie WIFI SD card for your digital camera from a company called Eye-Fi and beam the photos you just shot right into your Evernote account.

But the thing I like the most about Evernote is, for lack of a better term, its corporate persona...its BRAND persona. The blog is cool, at least for Evernote fans and fanatics--lots of updates, tips and tricks. They recently posted a podcast featuring the CEO, head of marketing, and some engineering type--most likely the head of engineering. In the school of "why say something in 10 minutes when we can say it in 35 minutes," that's just what they did. And it turned a few people off. I, on the other hand, who typically have the attention span of a gerbil, enjoyed the banter replete with 'only in Silicon Valley' odd and dry humor. For example we get to learn that the CEO is a former FoxPro programmer and a slob who has to take pictures of his hotel room doors to remember where he is staying when he travels. And we also learn that the head of marketing is a green machine who takes public transportation to a fault. And so on.

They also pump out a monthly newsletter, have a Facebook fan page, an active Twitter feed, etc. None of these in this day and age are such a big deal. But their content is authentic. It shows passion for their offerings, and a legitimate interest in their customer/fan base. Incidentally, Evernote is free for the basic version, which recently began displaying small ads. A beefed up version with much more storage and improved security and peformance costs about 5 bucks per month. Most people opt for the free version, so goodness knows how these folks will make money or be viable long term without getting acquired. I care not because I like these guys, their product, and the way they project themselves. Yes folks, Evernote.com gets the EverythingSteve.com Small Company Seal of Approval. If I get ambitious I'll design a logo for my next award recipient. But American Idol is on in a few minutes and I need to proof this sucker and add in the links, so....later!

Are You The Smartest Person in the Room?

No offense, but if you're hanging with either Jeff Bezos of Amazon or Marissa Mayer of Google, the answer is most likely "no." Both of these folks have been on Charlie Rose's TV program in the last few weeks, and the interviews were compelling and thought provoking. Sure, they both have unsettling laughs, engage in a requisite level of company hype, and in the case of Ms. Mayer, have questionable fashion sense. But these are bright bright bright people -- and for me, are a pleasure to listen to.

Click here for Jeff Bezos Interview

Click here for Marissa Mayer Interview

It's Just a Paper Loss

 I have come to realize this has to be one of the dumbest phrases...one of the biggest illusions that we who invest in stocks conjure up to make ourselves feel better. Tell me, when you've got a big gain on a stock and that gain is "unrealized," you feel pretty good, right? And you treat that gain like it's your money, right? I mean after all, most stocks are fairly liquid investments -- plenty of buyers and sellers.

And yet, when one is way down in the chips on a stock or basket of stocks, it's just a "paper loss." It's not real, unless you sell the stock. Interesting. Isn't it your money that's invested in the stock? And isn't the current price of the stock reflective of how much that investment is worth? Sure there are normal cycles, highs and lows, price swings due to the "beta" of an individual stock, etc. But I wonder if we lull ourselves into dangerously ignorant complacency with this term "paper loss."

Last Fall I sold a bunch of stocks -- among them Bank of America. Over a brief amount of time I had purchased 400 shares averaging about $40 and change per share. When I dumped the stock I "realized" a loss of just over $8150 -- or around 50% of my investment. But I think "realized" is a term for the IRS. They "realize" money when you take a gain, and you "realize" a deduction when you take a loss. The point of my story: in the last couple of days we've seen BofA sink further. Now it seems they paid too much for Merrill Lynch, they may have solvency issues, and so they need $20 billion more money on top of the $25 billion already received from the government. The stock price today slid to a multi-year low and BofA slashed its formerly stratospheric dividend to one cent per share.

Had I held onto BofA stock until today, my "unrealized" and/or "realized" loss would have been nearly $5,100 greater -- a loss of nearly $13,250 in total. In percentage terms the loss on my original investment would have been more than 82%.

"Paper loss?" I don't think so. OK, enough babbling. I've got to get myself over to Circuit City to figure out how to spend that $5,100.

All The News That's Fit to.......What Happened? Where Did It Go?

Here is a recent interesting blog post from Seth Godin, calling into question why the New York Times has abdicated so much leadership in the brave world of online and social media, and is therefore "fading away." Some of Seth's prescriptions may seem a bit off-center but: a) isn't that the point -- to buck conventional thinking instead of being outwitted repeatedly? b) his last paragraph has implications for any business, in the now old-school mode of the "Innovator's Dilemma."

Do the people running the Times know more about running a newspaper or building ideas that spread profitably online? How about the people running your organization? Odds are, they're great at yesterday's business.

I guess it's about the difference between:

--senior management playing defense, supporting and protecting the status quo and avoiding offending the elders upstairs vs.

--using existing momentum and clout to build assets for the next business.

It's Bad Out There

What a Difference No Nardelli Makes

Perhaps you've heard of CRM software. CRM stands for customer relationship management. Well, no CRM software that I'm aware of could produce what I believe is a huge improvement in how a retailer treats its customers in just the last few months. Former Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli is long gone, and among the many pledges new CEO Frank Blake made upon being appointed to take over the helm was to improve the abysmal treatment customers received by increasing hiring, treating employees better and empowering them more effectively, and by providing more training. You know...I just made some of this stuff up because I'm too lazy to check all my facts, but hey, it's a BLOG!

OK, in all seriousness, several months ago Mr. Blake was quoted as saying the following: "Our priorities are directly related to what has frustrated our customers. Some of the big issues have been associate engagement, how the associates interact with customers, and the look and feel of our stores.” Apparently, better supply chain management is also a focus. I have loathed the experience of going into Home Depot for years. Our local store in San Carlos, California has been particularly awful. Inadequately staffed with poorly trained and rude floor staff, painful lapses in inventory (i.e., product missing core parts, etc.), dark interiors, etc., all have been core to the experience.

This may all be in the past. Last weekend I walked into Home Depot to find a cleaner and brighter store. Somehow they've put some type of shiny, shelacky finish on the concrete floors. And the help. Well, they've actually GOT help. And they're uniformly helpful. They form complete sentences. They answer your questions. They ask if they can...HELP you. They even offer to get you a cart or help carry the crap you're carrying in your arms. Friends, last Saturday I bought a 100 foot 14 gauge extension cord, 100 feet of garden hose, and...my most precious purchase, a "Hose Mobile." This thing is the real fashizzy. I spent more than $100, and for the first time in years, I didn't walk out of Home Depot feeling like a rage-o-holic. No, I walked out with a smile on my face and a spring in my step. Seriously.

Employees helped me all along the way, eagerly providing me super polite assistance even as I yapped away loudly and obnoxiously with my wife over the Bluetooth (but not at the cash register--NEVER at the cash register...that's simply bad manners). It was simply shocking, so shocking that I called the general manager (his number was located on a sign at the front of the store), who picked up his extension on the third ring. I offered him and his store hearty praise. Of course the fact that I began the conversation by saying, "Dude, I need to give you some straight feedback!" braced him for an abrasive input session. Instead, I gave glowing compliments.

Yes, it's probably too early to proclaim a turnaround, so to speak...only time will tell. But Home Depot proves that CRM is ultimately, like so many other business principles, about people dammit! Speaking of people, Home Depot's gain could very well be Chrysler's loss.