The Key Elements of a Positioning Statement

1. Who are you?

2. What do you do?

3. Who's it for?

4. How are you different?

These are the key elements of a positioning statement.

Pretty simple right?

Yes, BUT it takes some work to arrive at these answers.

- Talk to your prospects

- Talk to your customers

- Look at your CRM and intent data

- Talk to customers/prospects you lost

- Talk to the product team

- Talk to the sales team

- Really look at your competitors [without ego]

- Define the status quo and how you are changing it for the better

Many companies try to build their positioning in an echo chamber without taking external factors into account.

That is a recipe for disaster.

If you take the time and effort to do it right, your positioning will guide your messaging, content, and sales, and it will give your customers and prospects a clear message: This is who we are, this is what we do, this is who's it for, and this is how we are different.

I like this positioning statement template from Geoffrey Moore (Crossing the Chasm):

For (target customer) who (statement of the need or opportunity), the (product name) is a (product category) that (statement of key benefit – that is, compelling reason to buy).

If you put in the work to get the complete picture, the rewards will be well worth the effort.

"Can we have a 5 minute call?

My inbox gets flooded with "Can we have a 5 minute call?" emails from sales and marketing folks.

I get it, you need to reach your targets and make stuff happen. And I am guilty of including that phrase in past emails (not anymore though).

HOWEVER, I don't know who you are, what your company does and why I should care.

Most of the time it's a problem/pseudo-problem I'm not even thinking about at the moment while I'm trying to get through important tasks and solve immediate problems.

So before you hit send, please take a moment and ask yourself if your email will serve me, a potential customer, or you. And if it's the latter, your email will probably end up in my deleted folder.

8 Things you Need on your Business Website

With website trends changing faster than Taylor Swift’s boyfriends, it can be very hard not to get swept up in the hype of the latest web trend. Since the beginning of the web, there are a few key principles that are still vital to any good website. Here are 8 things I need to see on your business website to give you my money. Let’s break it down. Anybody else remember Netscape? Just me? Ok. 

Welcome-to-Netscape

 Source: http://home.mcom.com/home/welcome.html

1. Tell me, what do you do?

No buzzwords, no fancy words, no jargon and no corporate speak. As soon as I get on your website, you have about 3 seconds to tell me exactly what you do in a simple, straightforward statement. Avoid words that have become meaningless like leverage and monetization. Don’t be overly philosophical either. I don’t have time for that. If you sell awesome chairs, just say: “We sell awesome chairs.” It helps if you can quickly tell me why they’re awesome. “We sell awesome chairs that were made by elves.”  A short video (less than a minute) would be helpful here too. Of course, the more complicated your products or services are, the harder it is to explain what they are concisely, but try. Something like this:

http://www.getwashio.com/

 Washio is a California based wash and fold laundry service that picks up your dirty laundry, cleans it, and delivers it to you. The Washio website tells you exactly what they do in 8 words. 

2. Tell me, why should I care?

I talk about this quite often with founders and executives who think their company is the greatest thing since < insert awesome thing that isn’t a huge cliché like sliced bread here>. I will try to be gentle.NO BODY CARES ABOUT YOU.NO BODY CARES ABOUT HOW COOL AND SHINY YOUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES ARE.NO BODY CARES HOW MUCH TIME, MONEY, BLOOD, SWEAT, TEARS AND BROKEN RELATIONSHIPS WENT INTO CREATING YOUR COMPANY. People only care about how your products and services are going to solve their problems. And not just any problem, but the problem they are thinking about and searching for a solution for when they stumble upon your website.  Your product may be a great solution to finding great winter tires. But if it’s July and I’m not really thinking about winter tires, I won’t care. 

useronboard-supermario-2

Source: User Onboarding 

3. Tell me, why should I give you my money?

Let’s assume that I understood what you do, and how your product solves my problem. You still have to tell me why I should buy from you and not the other guy that’s cheaper or more popular. Why should I give you my hard-earned money? It could be: our product is faster, better, stronger, unique or the answer may not have anything to do with your product at all. It could be: we’re in your local area or we won’t keep you on hold for an hour or we give a portion of our profit to a good cause. Something like this:

http://www.toms.com/

TOMS Shoes is a company that sells shoes and eyewear. "With every product you purchase, TOMS will help a person in need. One for One.®" That promise was a main factor of TOMS success, because customers felt good about buying TOMS shoes since they knew that it was also going to help someone in need. 

4. Tell me, who are you?

Tell me who is on the management team, and if it’s a smaller company, tell me who will I be dealing with. It’s not only reassuring that I will be dealing with real live humans but it will give me a feel of who is behind the brand. It is also a great space to share key experience and achievements of the managerial team to build credibility. Something like this: http://www.freshbooks.com/our-team.php 

FreshBooks - Meet Our Employees

Freshbooks offers a cloud accounting solution designed exclusively for small business owners. Their team page gives a great intro about each team member along with a nice picture. It personalizes the company and shows the team's experience. 

5. Tell me, why should I trust you?

Even if your product sounds great, and it’s exactly what I’m looking for, I still need to know why I should trust you, especially when I’m paying you or giving you my personal information. How do I know I’m not wasting my time and money on you, especially if I have a pressing problem to solve? At the very least, it’s reassuring to see that you’ve been doing this for a while, or you have certain standards that no one else has. And I would feel more comfortable giving you my money if I see familiar logos of companies that use your product (B2B), testimonials from real customers (and don’t bother faking this because I will know) and the number of customers you have because “1,000 small businesses can’t be wrong”, for example. The last one only works if you have a significant number of customers. Something like this: https://trello.com/ 

Trello is a project management web app. Let's say you were searching for "project management app" and clicked on theTrello website. Even though you may never heard of Trello, seeing companies like Microsoft and Google listed as their customers will make you trust them more. If you’re just starting out, it may be a good idea to give away some free trials and get customers to give you feedback and recommendations that you can share. Unless of course your product sucks, in which case, forget about the website and fix it or kill it. 

6. Tell me, why shouldn’t I worry?

Try it for free, money-back guarantee, we will set it up for you; these types of assurances convince me that I am not taking a huge risk by giving you my money. Something like this (again):

https://secure.freshbooks.com/pricing.php

freshbooks

 The Freshbooks signup page has 6 statements (see image above) that ease my fear about signing up with them and making a commitment. 

7. Tell me, how do I get started?

Ok, so you’ve convince me to try your product, so how do I get started? This part is where some websites go overboard and give you too many choices of actions to take, while other sites give you no actions at all. The idea is to have one clear and concise Call-to-Action that shows your customer how to get started. DON’T:

http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2014/25894/close-the-gap-between-sales-and-marketing

Marketing Profs

 MarketingProfs offers real-world education for modern marketers through training, best practices, research and other content. I subscribe to this email newsletter, but once I get on to the actual site, I find the various calls-to-action (CTA’s) distracting. 

8. Tell me, what happens next?

Once I sign up, I need to see some sort of confirmation that everything went through and what the next step is. “Thanks for signing up! Look out for your confirmation email” for example. This is also a good opportunity to let me know what I can do with this product or how I can get started. Something like this:

https://www.yammer.com/

yammer 1

 Yammer is an enterprise social network established to enable employees to collaborate in real time. You need your work email to sign up since this is an enterprise product. Once you sign up, you get a simple thank you page telling you to check your email to complete the process. Once you confirm your email, you are directed right to the signup page. This is pretty basic but it clearly explains to the customer what to do next. 

Confirmation page

Confirmation email

yammer 3

Confirmation link in the email takes you right to the sign up page.

 Don’t get caught up with the latest web trends. Stick with what works for your business and tell your story:

1. Tell me, what do you do?

2. Tell me, why should I care?

3. Tell me, why should I give you my money?

4. Tell me, who are you?

5. Tell me, why should I trust you?

6. Tell me, why shouldn’t I worry?

7. Tell me, how do I get started?

8. Tell me, what happens next?

The End of Meaningless Jobs Will Unleash the World’s Creativity and The Myths and Realities of ‘Doing What You Love’ | Dana's Weekly Roundup Issue 37

ISSUE #37Dana's Weekly RoundupHi everyone!I think about the coming end of/change of what it means to have a job. The impact of automation and AI on what humans still need to do will open up so many possibilities and give rise to the necessity of the Universal Personal Income, because there will not be enough "jobs" for everyone. I also loved reading about the Myths and Realities of Doing What you Love, which gives a no-nonsense insight into how you can start on that path and what to expect.What are your thoughts on doing what you love?Enjoy!Dana

Sir Nils Olav (the king penguin) is an honorary member of the King of Norway's guard.

TAKE ACTION

The Myths and Realities of ‘Doing What You Love’

How did I evolve from a self-proclaimed couch potato to endurance athletics enthusiast? I learned how to change my attitude.MKTG

SEO is Not Hard — A step-by-step SEO Tutorial for beginners that will get you ranked every single time

SEO is simply not as hard as people pretend like it is; you can get 95% of the effort with 5% of the work, and you absolutely do not need to hire a professional SEO to do it, nor will it be hard to start ranking for well-picked key terms.IRL

The End of Meaningless Jobs Will Unleash the World’s Creativity

Many experts studying the topic of automation believe that the current rate of advancement is leading us into a future with fewer and fewer available jobs. Maybe that’s a good thing.In his 2013 essay, “On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs,” David Graeber argued that in the wake of automation, we created employment for employment’s sake, not necessarily to fulfill any significant task or purpose.

10 Thoughts to Live by in 2016 and 13 bad habits you should break to be more productive|Dana's Weekly Roundup Issue 6

ISSUE #6 View this email in your browser Dana's Weekly Roundup Hi! Hope you all enjoyed the holidays. In this issue, I learned from the article on automating social media lead generation - though I would say proceed with caution. I also share the 10 thoughts I'm reflecting on for 2016. Share the love and forward the weekly roundup to a friend. If you got this email from a friend you can join the weekly roundup by sending me an email or signing up here. Enjoy and Happy 2016! Dana The moons of Saturn, Enceladus and Tethys photos from Cassini's cameras. TAKE ACTION 13 bad habits you should break in 2016 to be more productive Being more productive is about working smarter, not harder, and making the most of each day. While this is no easy feat, getting more done in less time is a much more attainable goal if you're not sabotaging yourself with bad habits. Following are 13 things you should stop doing right now to become more productive. MKTG How to Automate Social Media Lead Generation and Engagement In this article, we will take a look at the time-saving social media lead generation activities that can easily be performed with a tool. We will also learn how automating the social fact-finding jobs through tools helps in filling sales funnel. Twitter and LinkedIn, being the most popular B2B social channels have been considered for describing the automation scenarios in this article. IRL 10 Thoughts to Live by in 2016 With the holidays winding down, and the return to routine becoming eminently closer, I wanted to take stock of the last 365 days. I am happy 2015 is over, with it’s ups and downs and twists and turns, and looking forward to a hopefully better 2016. As arbitrary as it may seem, the start of a new year gives us a feeling of a fresh start, like cracking open a new notebook to page 1. The following aren’t exactly resolutions, more like thoughts I am reflecting on: EPIC FAIL The biggest tech fails of 2015: Hoverboards, Puls and more Every year is fraught with ups and downs, but 2015 was a milestone year for downs in the technology world. From straightforward hardware blunders to simple errors in judgment that led to high-profile stumbles, it was a banner year for tech fails. In some cases, some of those fails were so ridiculous you had to laugh, but some — like the recent spate of hoverboard fires — were tragic and dangerous. These are technology's lowest water marks for 2015... stay safe and enjoy the schadenfreude. LEARN If You Work From Home (or Aspire to) You Must Read This Let’s face it: long commutes, office politics, and the nine-to-five grind are quickly becoming obsolete. According to a recent report, fifty-three million Americans (34 percent of the U.S. workforce) work from home as freelancers and home-based business owners. Many predict that number will increase to 50 percent of the workforce by 2020. Now, the small business owner can start-up and generate a six to seven figure gross income in 1–4 years. The telecommuting and freelancing consultant can make six figures working wherever she wants and often less than 30 hours per week. Share Share Tweet Share Read More Websites 2015-12-26 Websites 2015-12-26 16 Career-Boosting Lists for 2016 and How to get sponsors for your Podcast | Dana's Weekly Roundup Issue 5 Dana's Weekly Roundup Issue 5 ISSUE #5 Dana's Weekly Roundup Hi! Hope you are all enjoying the holidays. We are enjoying the bizarre sunny and snow less Christmas here in Montreal! In this issue, John Lee Dumas drops some Podcast Sponsorship knowledge bombs and Adrian Granzella Larssen presents 16 awesome lists to help boost your career in 2016.Share the love and forward the weekly roundup to a friend.If you got this email from a friend you can join the weekly roundup by sending me an email or signing up here.Enjoy and Happy Holidays!Dana A group of lemurs prepare to open a Christmas package filled with food at the zoo in La Fleche, northwestern France. TAKE ACTION 16 Career-Boosting Lists to Make in 2016 There’s nothing I love more than a good list, especially at the end of the year, when reflecting and resolution-making abound. You, too? Then here are 16 lists to make in 2016 that’ll help you do both of those activities, plus get a head start on that job search or promotion you’re planning to ask for. Make one, or make them all—I promise every single one is more fun than your to-do list. MKTG Podcast Sponsorships: The Ultimate Guide So let’s get real. Can you start a podcast today and have sponsors lined up at your doorstep tomorrow? No. Can you start a podcast today about a niche you are passionate and knowledgeable about (the knowledge can come), work hard for a significant amount of time (6 months… a year?), build a captive and engaged audience, and then have sponsors beating down your door to get in front of your listeners? Yes. IRL 26 incredible innovations that improved the world in 2015 From the start, 2015 was ripe for world-changing innovation. In early January, we saw Bill Gates drink clean water converted from sewer sludge and human waste by a special processor. In February, social workers and computer scientists came up with an algorithm to prevent the spread of HIV among homeless youth. In March, a research lab created a microchip that could actually help bridge the digital divide in developing countries. And the revolutionary ideas and inventions tackling the world's most pressing problems kept coming throughout the year. EPIC FAIL How the Mast Brothers fooled the world into paying $10 a bar for crappy hipster chocolate Whether you’ve seen their beautifully wrapped bars for sale at Shake Shack or Rag & Bone, featured in the pages of the New York Times or Vogue, or decorating one of their New York, London, or soon, LA shops, Mast Brothers chocolate bars have become the world’s most prominent brand of artisanal chocolate. But while customers can’t get enough of the company’s bearded, Brooklyn hipster founders, and their brilliantly marketed, $10 “bean to bar” chocolates, a term reserved for chocolate that has been produced entirely under the maker’s control, from the cocoa bean to the wrapped bar, chocolate experts have shunned them. LEARN 500+ Free Things on the Internet Read More Creativity, Products, Websites 2015-10-23 Creativity, Products, Websites 2015-10-23 On Creativity and Fear, The Conjoined Twins of Creation  I just listened to “The Source of Creativity” episode on NPR’s TED Radio Hour which covered ideas about where creativity comes from, why we all have it and how we find it.It takes courage to be vulnerable and say “This is me and I made this.” Especially if you created something that you put a lot of yourself into.I challenged myself this past year to do just that. Create something – from idea conception to final result and push it out into the world. No external obstacles, no managers or committees to answer to, no one instruct on what I should do and how I should do it. This is me and I made this.I listened to many business and entrepreneurship podcasts from other people who created something – a product or a business, including Seth Godin’s Startup School, Mixergy, Startup and I learned a lot from all of the stories of trials and tribulations of people who put themselves out there like that. The main thing I learned is just f#$%^@g do it. Get out of your own head, remove the idea that you have to strive to a level of perfection that doesn’t exist and just do it. Stop talking about doing it and just try it.Watch my favorite motivational 1 min video.And of course there were all the negative thoughts that come along with being vulnerable like that. What should I create? What if it sucks? What if people call me a fraud? What if it just gets ignored completely? What if I’m wrong?But as Ken Robinson says “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original.”I decided to treat this project as an experiment; an experiment in creation. And if it flops, at least I would have learned through the process.I started narrowing down my options. I didn’t want to create a physical product because I know nothing about that and it seemed to be a very expensive experiment to conduct. Instead, I opted to create a knowledge product, based on things I know – no need to recreate the wheel for my beta experiment. I decided on creating an online course about Marketing since I’ve been a marketing professional for almost a decade. But Marketing is a pretty broad term so I needed to narrow it down even further. I was seeing a lot of websites that looked pretty but really didn’t have any substance or optimized for getting customers. And I heard from talented designers and developers that were telling me that they knew how to design a site or develop the site, but they didn’t know much about the strategy side of creating a website. So, I thought I could help with that and I created an online course on website strategy called: “How to Create a Website That Doesn’t Suck.”The challenge was to ship it – to put it out into the world before I talk myself out of it, even if it wasn’t perfect because as the maxim attributed to Sheryl Sandburg goes “Done is better than perfect.”I didn’t want to give in to the fear, I wanted to learn and I wanted to try.This is why I was really struck by Elizabeth Gilbert’s view on how creativity and fear are intertwined.“I think what stops people from doing [creative work] is always exactly the same thing, which is fear. What I've discovered over the years is not that you have to be fearless because I don't believe in fearlessness and I don't advise it.I think the only truly fearless people that I've ever met were full blown psychopaths or really reckless 3 year olds and I don't think we want to aspire to be either of those things.I think instead what you have to do is recognize that fear and creativity are conjoined twins. And what I see people doing in their lives is they're so afraid of their fear, that they end up trying to kill it and when they kill it they also kill their creativity because creativity is going into the uncertain and the uncertain is always scary.So what I've had to figure out how to do over the years is to create a mental construct in which I make a lot of space to coexist with fear.To just say to it: "Hey fear listen, creativity and I, your conjoined twin sister, are about to go on a road trip. I understand you'll be joining us, because you always do, but you don’t get to decide anything about this journey that we’re going on. But you can come and I know that you’ll be in the back seat in panic, but mommy's driving and we're going anyway. And you just take it along with you and that seems to work for me.The rest of the time for me it’s just been about showing up every day for the work. And I find that what actually happens is that you begin the work just from a place of diligence and discipline and then if you’re lucky through that process you’ll have moments where inspiration will come in and meet you.”Gilbert’s approach to fear and creativity really struck a chord with me. Don’t try to be fearless, instead, accept the fear as an integral part of the creative process and don’t give into it.And the results of my experiment? I’m putting the final touches on my course to be released before the end of the year, as I promised myself. I was also honored to present my talk at WordCamp this year, a global conference for WordPress designers, developers and users and I received great feedback from the attendees. It was a great opportunity to test-run my course and learn from all the wonderful creative people who attended. I am very happy to be part of the WordCamp community. What is fear stopping you from creating? Read More Websites 2015-07-05 Websites 2015-07-05 How to Create a Website That Doesn't Suck (Using S.M.A.R.T Objectives, Personas, and Wireframes) Thank you to everyone who came out to my talk at WordCamp Montreal 2015 - How to Create a Website That Doesn't Suck (Using S.M.A.R.T Objectives, Personas, and Wireframes).I appreciated all of the feedback and questions I got from all of you.Many of you asked about the presentation slides. Here they are: How to Create a Website That Doesn't Suck (Using S.M.A.R.T Objectives, Personas and Wireframes) from Dana Salman If you are interested in getting a special promo code for my online course on How to Create a Website That Doesn't Suck drop me a line: danasalman1 [at] gmail[dot]com Read More Websites 2015-06-06 Websites 2015-06-06 The ABCs of Landing Pages That Work - by CopyBlogger [Infographic] Great summary of Landing Page Elements by CopyBlogger Like this infographic? Get landing page advice that works from Copyblogger. Read More Websites 2015-01-15 Websites 2015-01-15 Lessons from Amy Poehler's Yes Please I've been learning a lot about entrepreneurship, creativity, innovation and passion projects this past year. I'm fascinated by the subject and I'm learning a lot from successful men and women from different backgrounds. I recently finished Amy Poehler's autobiography "Yes Please" (read by her on Audible which added to the awesomeness) and I absolutely loved it! The book is heartfelt, smart and funny - a true reflection of what I imagine Amy Poehler is like in real life. This was my favourite part of the book that really left a lasting impression on me: "What do we do? How do we move forward when we’re tired and afraid? What do we do when the voice in our head is yelling THAT WE ARE NEVER GONNA MAKE IT! How do we drag ourselves through the muck when our brain is telling us you are dumb and you will never finish and no one cares and it’s time you stop. Well, the first thing we do is we take our brain out and we put it in a drawer. Stick it somewhere and let it tantrum until it wears itself out. You may still hear the brain and all the shitty things it’s saying to you, but it will be muffled. And just the fact that it’s not in your head anymore will make things seem clearer. And then, you just do it. You just dig in and write it. You use your body you lean over the computer and stretch and pace. You write, and then cook something. And write some more.You put your hand on your heart and feel it beating and decide if what you wrote feels true. You do it. Because the doing of it is the thing. The doing is the thing. The talking and worrying and thinking is not the thing. This is what I know. Writing the book is about writing the book. So here we go you and me. Because what else are we going to do? Say no? Say no to an opportunity that may be slightly out of our comfort zone? Quiet our voice because we are worried it's not perfect? I believe great people do things before they are ready." This really resonated with me because I have a tendency to get in my own head and psyche myself out of doing things either through thinking this won't work, or there are others who are doing a far better job than I could, or the chances of success are so minuscule that it's better to just not waste my time. I just say to myself, just shut up and do it and you will either succeed or learn for the next one. "Writing the book is about writing the book." Working on that post or project is about working on that post or project. Just start it and finish it, it doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be done. Another thing I loved about this book is Amy's (yes, we're on a first name basis) resilience and optimism. She shares the start of her career and how she made it in comedy, a field that is still to this day a male-dominated field. She always looks for the positive side through successes and failures. It is no wonder that everyone loves working with her, and that is a big plus no matter which field you're in. She says, “Almost every job I have gotten was due to someone knowing my work or seeing me in something else.” Seth Myers (who has a guest chapter in the book) talks about how Amy was in labour and he was supposed to do SNL Weekend Update by himself for the first time, and she still managed to text him encouragement. She is a great example that you don't have to be an asshole to be successful and being kind is a good way to work. Amy also didn't sugar coat any of her stories about drug use, heartbreak and failure. She takes responsibility for her mistakes and apologizes for them. Like the chapter she talks about a crass SNL skit about Hurricane Mary which was a movie based on a true story about a girl with cerebral palsy. Amy admits that she didn't know it was about a real person, but she still was too ashamed to face the girl's parents and she only apologized 5 years later. I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend the audio version, she's just fantastic. We need more women like Amy Poehler in the spotlight.   Read More About Services Blog Contact

16 Career-Boosting Lists for 2016 and How to get sponsors for your Podcast | Dana's Weekly Roundup Issue 5

ISSUE #5 Dana's Weekly Roundup Hi! Hope you are all enjoying the holidays. We are enjoying the bizarre sunny and snow less Christmas here in Montreal! In this issue, John Lee Dumas drops some Podcast Sponsorship knowledge bombs and Adrian Granzella Larssen presents 16 awesome lists to help boost your career in 2016.Share the love and forward the weekly roundup to a friend.If you got this email from a friend you can join the weekly roundup by sending me an email or signing up here.Enjoy and Happy Holidays!Dana A group of lemurs prepare to open a Christmas package filled with food at the zoo in La Fleche, northwestern France. TAKE ACTION 16 Career-Boosting Lists to Make in 2016 There’s nothing I love more than a good list, especially at the end of the year, when reflecting and resolution-making abound. You, too? Then here are 16 lists to make in 2016 that’ll help you do both of those activities, plus get a head start on that job search or promotion you’re planning to ask for. Make one, or make them all—I promise every single one is more fun than your to-do list. MKTG Podcast Sponsorships: The Ultimate Guide So let’s get real. Can you start a podcast today and have sponsors lined up at your doorstep tomorrow? No. Can you start a podcast today about a niche you are passionate and knowledgeable about (the knowledge can come), work hard for a significant amount of time (6 months… a year?), build a captive and engaged audience, and then have sponsors beating down your door to get in front of your listeners? Yes. IRL 26 incredible innovations that improved the world in 2015 From the start, 2015 was ripe for world-changing innovation. In early January, we saw Bill Gates drink clean water converted from sewer sludge and human waste by a special processor. In February, social workers and computer scientists came up with an algorithm to prevent the spread of HIV among homeless youth. In March, a research lab created a microchip that could actually help bridge the digital divide in developing countries. And the revolutionary ideas and inventions tackling the world's most pressing problems kept coming throughout the year. EPIC FAIL How the Mast Brothers fooled the world into paying $10 a bar for crappy hipster chocolate Whether you’ve seen their beautifully wrapped bars for sale at Shake Shack or Rag & Bone, featured in the pages of the New York Times or Vogue, or decorating one of their New York, London, or soon, LA shops, Mast Brothers chocolate bars have become the world’s most prominent brand of artisanal chocolate. But while customers can’t get enough of the company’s bearded, Brooklyn hipster founders, and their brilliantly marketed, $10 “bean to bar” chocolates, a term reserved for chocolate that has been produced entirely under the maker’s control, from the cocoa bean to the wrapped bar, chocolate experts have shunned them. LEARN 500+ Free Things on the Internet

On Creativity and Fear, The Conjoined Twins of Creation

 I just listened to “The Source of Creativity” episode on NPR’s TED Radio Hour which covered ideas about where creativity comes from, why we all have it and how we find it.It takes courage to be vulnerable and say “This is me and I made this.” Especially if you created something that you put a lot of yourself into.I challenged myself this past year to do just that. Create something – from idea conception to final result and push it out into the world. No external obstacles, no managers or committees to answer to, no one instruct on what I should do and how I should do it. This is me and I made this.I listened to many business and entrepreneurship podcasts from other people who created something – a product or a business, including Seth Godin’s Startup School, Mixergy, Startup and I learned a lot from all of the stories of trials and tribulations of people who put themselves out there like that. The main thing I learned is just f#$%^@g do it. Get out of your own head, remove the idea that you have to strive to a level of perfection that doesn’t exist and just do it. Stop talking about doing it and just try it.Watch my favorite motivational 1 min video.And of course there were all the negative thoughts that come along with being vulnerable like that. What should I create? What if it sucks? What if people call me a fraud? What if it just gets ignored completely? What if I’m wrong?But as Ken Robinson says “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original.”I decided to treat this project as an experiment; an experiment in creation. And if it flops, at least I would have learned through the process.I started narrowing down my options. I didn’t want to create a physical product because I know nothing about that and it seemed to be a very expensive experiment to conduct. Instead, I opted to create a knowledge product, based on things I know – no need to recreate the wheel for my beta experiment. I decided on creating an online course about Marketing since I’ve been a marketing professional for almost a decade. But Marketing is a pretty broad term so I needed to narrow it down even further. I was seeing a lot of websites that looked pretty but really didn’t have any substance or optimized for getting customers. And I heard from talented designers and developers that were telling me that they knew how to design a site or develop the site, but they didn’t know much about the strategy side of creating a website. So, I thought I could help with that and I created an online course on website strategy called: “How to Create a Website That Doesn’t Suck.”The challenge was to ship it – to put it out into the world before I talk myself out of it, even if it wasn’t perfect because as the maxim attributed to Sheryl Sandburg goes “Done is better than perfect.”I didn’t want to give in to the fear, I wanted to learn and I wanted to try.This is why I was really struck by Elizabeth Gilbert’s view on how creativity and fear are intertwined.“I think what stops people from doing [creative work] is always exactly the same thing, which is fear. What I've discovered over the years is not that you have to be fearless because I don't believe in fearlessness and I don't advise it.I think the only truly fearless people that I've ever met were full blown psychopaths or really reckless 3 year olds and I don't think we want to aspire to be either of those things.I think instead what you have to do is recognize that fear and creativity are conjoined twins. And what I see people doing in their lives is they're so afraid of their fear, that they end up trying to kill it and when they kill it they also kill their creativity because creativity is going into the uncertain and the uncertain is always scary.So what I've had to figure out how to do over the years is to create a mental construct in which I make a lot of space to coexist with fear.To just say to it: "Hey fear listen, creativity and I, your conjoined twin sister, are about to go on a road trip. I understand you'll be joining us, because you always do, but you don’t get to decide anything about this journey that we’re going on. But you can come and I know that you’ll be in the back seat in panic, but mommy's driving and we're going anyway. And you just take it along with you and that seems to work for me.The rest of the time for me it’s just been about showing up every day for the work. And I find that what actually happens is that you begin the work just from a place of diligence and discipline and then if you’re lucky through that process you’ll have moments where inspiration will come in and meet you.”Gilbert’s approach to fear and creativity really struck a chord with me. Don’t try to be fearless, instead, accept the fear as an integral part of the creative process and don’t give into it.And the results of my experiment? I’m putting the final touches on my course to be released before the end of the year, as I promised myself.

I was also honored to present my talk at WordCamp this year, a global conference for WordPress designers, developers and users and I received great feedback from the attendees. It was a great opportunity to test-run my course and learn from all the wonderful creative people who attended. I am very happy to be part of the WordCamp community.
What is fear stopping you from creating?

How to Create a Website That Doesn't Suck (Using S.M.A.R.T Objectives, Personas, and Wireframes)

Thank you to everyone who came out to my talk at WordCamp Montreal 2015 - How to Create a Website That Doesn't Suck (Using S.M.A.R.T Objectives, Personas, and Wireframes).I appreciated all of the feedback and questions I got from all of you.Many of you asked about the presentation slides. Here they are:

How to Create a Website That Doesn't Suck (Using S.M.A.R.T Objectives, Personas and Wireframes) from Dana Salman

If you are interested in getting a special promo code for my online course on How to Create a Website That Doesn't Suck drop me a line: danasalman1 [at] gmail[dot]com

The ABCs of Landing Pages That Work - by CopyBlogger [Infographic]

Great summary of Landing Page Elements by CopyBlogger

Like this infographic? Get landing page advice that works from Copyblogger.

Lessons from Amy Poehler's Yes Please

I've been learning a lot about entrepreneurship, creativity, innovation and passion projects this past year. I'm fascinated by the subject and I'm learning a lot from successful men and women from different backgrounds.

I recently finished Amy Poehler's autobiography "Yes Please" (read by her on Audible which added to the awesomeness) and I absolutely loved it! The book is heartfelt, smart and funny - a true reflection of what I imagine Amy Poehler is like in real life.

This was my favourite part of the book that really left a lasting impression on me: "What do we do? How do we move forward when we’re tired and afraid? What do we do when the voice in our head is yelling THAT WE ARE NEVER GONNA MAKE IT! How do we drag ourselves through the muck when our brain is telling us you are dumb and you will never finish and no one cares and it’s time you stop.

Well, the first thing we do is we take our brain out and we put it in a drawer. Stick it somewhere and let it tantrum until it wears itself out. You may still hear the brain and all the shitty things it’s saying to you, but it will be muffled. And just the fact that it’s not in your head anymore will make things seem clearer.

And then, you just do it. You just dig in and write it. You use your body you lean over the computer and stretch and pace. You write, and then cook something. And write some more.You put your hand on your heart and feel it beating and decide if what you wrote feels true.

You do it. Because the doing of it is the thing. The doing is the thing. The talking and worrying and thinking is not the thing. This is what I know.
Writing the book is about writing the book.

So here we go you and me. Because what else are we going to do? Say no? Say no to an opportunity that may be slightly out of our comfort zone? Quiet our voice because we are worried it's not perfect? I believe great people do things before they are ready."

This really resonated with me because I have a tendency to get in my own head and psyche myself out of doing things either through thinking this won't work, or there are others who are doing a far better job than I could, or the chances of success are so minuscule that it's better to just not waste my time. I just say to myself, just shut up and do it and you will either succeed or learn for the next one. "Writing the book is about writing the book." Working on that post or project is about working on that post or project. Just start it and finish it, it doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be done.

Another thing I loved about this book is Amy's (yes, we're on a first name basis) resilience and optimism. She shares the start of her career and how she made it in comedy, a field that is still to this day a male-dominated field. She always looks for the positive side through successes and failures. It is no wonder that everyone loves working with her, and that is a big plus no matter which field you're in. She says, “Almost every job I have gotten was due to someone knowing my work or seeing me in something else.”

Seth Myers (who has a guest chapter in the book) talks about how Amy was in labour and he was supposed to do SNL Weekend Update by himself for the first time, and she still managed to text him encouragement. She is a great example that you don't have to be an asshole to be successful and being kind is a good way to work.

Amy also didn't sugar coat any of her stories about drug use, heartbreak and failure. She takes responsibility for her mistakes and apologizes for them. Like the chapter she talks about a crass SNL skit about Hurricane Mary which was a movie based on a true story about a girl with cerebral palsy. Amy admits that she didn't know it was about a real person, but she still was too ashamed to face the girl's parents and she only apologized 5 years later.

I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend the audio version, she's just fantastic. We need more women like Amy Poehler in the spotlight.