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It's Not Locker Room Talk. It's Violent Foreplay.

Most small business owners judge their website content relative to how close it sounds to the way they would have said it themselves. That standard makes no sense for businesses trying to get found by AI search engines. AI search rewards two things above almost everything else: how recently a business published and how consistently it publishes. In this story, a jewelry store analogy offers the clearest way to understand this vital concept in our rapidly changing marketing landscape.
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First Things First: There's an Order to Profitability

The building blocks of profitability are clear and they even have a required sequence to them. But without knowledge of the building blocks - or awareness that these building blocks even exist! - your marketing can underperform for years (or decades).
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Principles of Graphic Design

Most small business owners are doing a lot of graphic designs themselves. But without understanding graphic design principles what you save in time and fees will cost you in results. This 36-minute video will help you understand the basic principles of graphic design. Whether you are doing your own graphics or working with a graphic designer understanding these concepts will most certainly improve your marketing efforts.
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Radical Inclusiveness - the Competitive Edge

In a business climate where competitiveness and innovation are everything equality and diversity in the workforce are important keys to success.
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Outstanding Customer Service is a Culture Thing

The question of how to deliver the outstanding customer service consumers expect is easy to answer but harder to implement.
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    Reflections
    Follow Reflections
    Ethics

    I Had This Wrong for 20 Years: Profit is Not a Purpose

    Had I stopped to think deeply about it, I would have realized much sooner that profit and a higher purpose are not mutually exclusive.
    Merchandising

    In it to win it: Don't let generic retailers and pricing models drag you off your designer strategy

    You already know being in business for yourself is hard work. But working this hard for no money? Differentiate.
    Marketing

    The Gift That Keeps On Giving? Technical Skills

    You already know that reading, writing, and an education are a requirement for success. Now you must add technical skills to that list.
    Retail

    Trade Shows Are Strategic ... Stop Making Them Tactical

    Branding

    It's Time to Tell Different Stories

    The jewelry industry needs to tell different stories if it wants to stay relevant.
    Leadership

    A Woman

    Management

    Take a Hammer To It?

    I don’t think companies can afford to continue to operate in the old hierarchical ways. Those structures will be the dinosaur bones in the dirt within this century.
    Management

    Collaborative Management: Consultative vs Consensus

    There are two distinct styles of collaborative management. One is preferable to the other for a few reasons.

    Tell Better Stories

    It's not enough to sell a product or a service any more. You must also be able to tell the story. The Pip Storytelling Deck is a tool we use at the Werx Brands to construct and tell better stories. You can be a master story-teller too!

    Order Yours Today
    Management

    The Rudiments of Engagement

    Getting a management team engaged is both financially and personally rewarding. The concepts described here will help get you started.
    Management

    There’s No Pink Pill For This

    We may be in the grip of a virulent form of mass business codependence.
    Management

    Criticism: The fire in the forge of great leadership

    A great leader goes beyond those characteristics to combine a blend of intense personal will with great humility.
    Management

    Power, Politics, Sex, and Religion (yes, this is a business blog)

    The primary goal of a business is to create value for its customers, and each business relies on its employees to deliver that value. Employees who feel respected, safe, and appreciated do a much better job of delivering customer value than employees who feel compelled to put up self-protective walls.
    Management

    On DNA, Ruts, and Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone

    Why business diversity? Because when a business embraces many different perspectives, thought processes, and world views, it fires up the collective brain.
    Management

    Your (Character) Slip is Showing

    The most powerful thing a small business owner can do is be an effective leader, and ensure his entire organization conveys a strong message of character and integrity to his business community
    Management

    Don't Play a Zero Sum Game

    Selling is understanding what a customer needs, then providing solution to their needs. A good sales effort tells the customer what to decide.
    Management

    Change Mismanagement

    The types of changes you should – and should not – make during a recession are the same types of change you should consider during a strong economy.
    Management

    Diddy or The Donald? What Should One Expect from an Employer (and what should we expect of ourselves?)

    We all owe ourselves and all our present and future employees something very important – a commitment to excellence and continuing knowledge development in our chosen fields of endeavor.

    Video

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    jewelry industry, supply chain

    marketing, strategy

    branding

    ethics, personal development

    marketing, management

    Strategy

    Branding

    Don't get FOMO over unicorns in the news. It's not usually the first person with the idea who makes the money, or even the first person who invests the cash. The person who invests the discipline is always the one to bet on.

    Perfectionism is a luxury for (starving) artists, or artists with benefactors. The rest of us must learn the difference between being in love with our own ideas and being in love with progress.

    I suspect the fear of being afraid is the most destructive fear of all.

    Maybe the reason its so hard to remain in quarantine is that it's hard to outrun sadness when you're forced to be still.

    At the end of the day, we all have to fight our demons alone. And I think that's the source of loneliness. If you spend your whole life insisting there are no demons to fight or hiding your demons or determined to fight them in private, you end up existentially alone.

    "Millions of items of the outward order are present to my senses which never properly enter into my experience. Why? Because they have no interest for me. My experience is what I agree to attend to. Only those items which I notice shape my mind.”
    William James

    Society and Culture

    Follow Social Articles

    Who Gets to Marry Whom? According to Which Religion?

    What? No Garden?

    It's Not Locker Room Talk. It's Violent Foreplay.

    (bowing low to The Economist) Great Minds Like a Think

    Stupid, Egotistical, or Both?

    It's Risky Business Speaking for God

    When Talking Gun Violence, Look at the Whole Picture

    What's the Real Problem with Health Care?

    NASCAR for Politicos

    On Generation Bashing