bwagy

You can come from anything anywhere and be what you want to be, which is you.

If you put the hard work in you can pull yourself out of any situation and get there.

The opportunities are there, the funds are there, you can just nail it and do it.

This is a bit obscure.  But really…

Equality is getting closer and closer, the internet is only flattening hierarchies,  I am fortunate enough to be born in New Zealand where it truly is a case of if you want it you can get it (believe me I know).

Just a riff about the world we live in today and in admidst the turmoil it is getting better.

I am a bit of a Physics buff so always keen to read up on the latest experiments taking place.

One I saw late last year was on our perception of time.

As part of fight or flight response to a stimulus our body will shut off certain functions to divert energy and focus to other vital functions.

This most commonly occurs as flow or tunnel vision, where you hold a lot of focus on a task such that you lose track of time.

This particular experiment had a guy dropped from a large height onto a big net.  On his wrist he had a watch like device that was flashing a number at a high frequency that you cannot normally view it.

As he fell the idea was to see if he could see the number.

And he could everytime.  That is during a heightened response his ability to perceive his surroundings was much better than normal.

In fact you can watch the video here: Free Fall Experiment

I thought this was pretty neat especially in how it ties into Marketing and in particular usability. 

If you can change your customers perception of time through stimulating flow or enjoyment you create a strong customer relationship with your product & service.

(Extras for experts read my research on Live Search’s inability to create a compelling experience. )

Actually I fib, it’s Tuesday.

TGIF

People look forward to fridays, end of the week, the weekend is looming.

We also regret Mondays.

This can be good or bad depending on your perspective. I say flip it.

How can you make your employees long for Monday to get stuck into their project and begret fridays? What does it say about your workplace?

Tonnes of businesses unlock the flesh in a market, Google Adsense unlocked the flesh in the online advertising market, Ebay in secondhand goods, Skype in phone calls.

By reducing the flesh consumers benefit from a competitive marketplace.

Although there is a lot of competition in online advertising I still think there is a lot more flesh that can be unlocked.

Companies like Google Adsense, Kontera, Commission Junction will have millions on their books from the earnings of users who do not reach the payment threshold (which is a reasonably common occurrence).  

Their terms usually dictate they hold onto the cash till you cash out or your forfeit it within a certain amount of time.  You are never likely to recover those earnings.

My idea is for a charity or potentially Kiva to setup a programme whereby users donate their past earnings for these programmes.  

They then group these together and cash them out.  Alternativelly it could be a business opportunity, similar to the tax refund model, give us your account details we will get your earnings out and take a 25% cut, as hey if you didn’t do it you get nothing otherwise.

However I think companies are more likely to co-operate with a charity, great pr move for them, users feel great AND charity benefits. Win/Win/Win.

What would you like your customers to be excited about?

Are they?

Why not?

I got an impatient email “When is the book coming out Ben?”.

I explained the hold ups but if you step back a second.

How neat is that that someone is excited enough about it to send me an email about it?

Think about the passion Apple fans have for their product do you have that? It is a worthy goal.

How can you improve yoru communications such that your customers can’t wait for your latest revision?

You have an idea but are afraid to pursue it.

What’s the worst that could happen?

The worst is never as bad as you think.

Today I coin a new word.  A breed of new entrepreneurs.  
The Marketrepreneur.

Sure you can already think of a handful, Richard Branson, Donald Trump, Robert Scoleliser, Seth Godin, Steve Jobs.

Marketrepreneurs are astute entrepreneurs who understand marketing begins at day zero and build it into EVERY part of the organisation.

Being innovative isn’t enough.  Especially if no one knows about it.