Thank others for their gift of time We all know that our time is limited. 86,400 seconds every day seems like a lot, but our entire life is only around 4,000 weeks (if we’re lucky) which sounds shockingly short. If someone is willing to gift some of their time to you, you should respond accordingly. In his book “Giftology“, author John Ruhlin puts it like this:“Giftology is rooted in the acknowledgment of someone’s time being the most precious commodity he or she has to share. We’ve all been ...

Thank others for their gift of time We all know that our time is limited. 86,400 seconds every day seems like a lot, but our entire life is only around 4,000 weeks (if we’re lucky) which sounds shockingly short. If someone is willing to gift some of their time to you, you should respond accordingly. In his book “Giftology“, author John Ruhlin puts it like this:“Giftology is rooted in the acknowledgment of someone’s time being the most precious commodity he or she has to share. We’ve all been ...

The Sunday Summary: Time traveling, weak Google searches, self-doubt and the opposite of friction In an effort to help me keep up with everything I post each week, here is my latest “Sunday Summary” of my posts from the week. Mon, July 1: You control the pen We’re at a wonderful point in history where you can’t complain about how “they” portray things, because your pen is just as powerful as any other. Use it. Tue, July 2: Time traveling through your notes If you’ve been taking notes for any ...

The Sunday Summary: Time traveling, weak Google searches, self-doubt and the opposite of friction In an effort to help me keep up with everything I post each week, here is my latest “Sunday Summary” of my posts from the week. Mon, July 1: You control the pen We’re at a wonderful point in history where you can’t complain about how “they” portray things, because your pen is just as powerful as any other. Use it. Tue, July 2: Time traveling through your notes If you’ve been taking notes for any ...

The Sunday Summary: I know a guy, mobile keyboard, and theoretically altruistic journalism In an effort to help me keep up with everything I post each week, here is my latest “Sunday Summary” of my posts from the week. Mon, July 8: I know a guy in NYC If you ever visit New York City and want to explore, here’s the guy that you need to bring along with you. Tue, July 9: If your goal is to bring people to your website, don’t immediately ask them to leave Getting visitors to your website can be ...

The Sunday Summary: I know a guy, mobile keyboard, and theoretically altruistic journalism In an effort to help me keep up with everything I post each week, here is my latest “Sunday Summary” of my posts from the week. Mon, July 8: I know a guy in NYC If you ever visit New York City and want to explore, here’s the guy that you need to bring along with you. Tue, July 9: If your goal is to bring people to your website, don’t immediately ask them to leave Getting visitors to your website can be ...

Draw out multiple identities One of my favorite new words in the past few years is “sonder” — that moment when you realize that everyone around you has an internal life as rich and as conflicted as yours. With that always on my mind, I tend to notice more areas where it might apply. One of those was in Charles Duhigg’s book “Supercommunicators“. In it, he encourages us to bring out the “multiple identities” in people that you’re talking to. He says:“Draw out multiple identities. Ask people ab...

Draw out multiple identities One of my favorite new words in the past few years is “sonder” — that moment when you realize that everyone around you has an internal life as rich and as conflicted as yours. With that always on my mind, I tend to notice more areas where it might apply. One of those was in Charles Duhigg’s book “Supercommunicators“. In it, he encourages us to bring out the “multiple identities” in people that you’re talking to. He says:“Draw out multiple identities. Ask people ab...

The majority of Google searches don’t lead to websites It’s a trend that has been growing for years, but the number of “zero-click” searches on Google continues to grow (where a zero-click search is one where the user doesn’t ever click through to a website). In a recent post on the SparkToro blog, Rand Fishkin points out that in 2024 only 360 of every 1,000 searches lead to a result on the open web. That means that 64% of visitors to Google never end up visiting a traditional website, which ...

The majority of Google searches don’t lead to websites It’s a trend that has been growing for years, but the number of “zero-click” searches on Google continues to grow (where a zero-click search is one where the user doesn’t ever click through to a website). In a recent post on the SparkToro blog, Rand Fishkin points out that in 2024 only 360 of every 1,000 searches lead to a result on the open web. That means that 64% of visitors to Google never end up visiting a traditional website, which ...

It can be good to doubt yourself I often struggle with a bit of imposter syndrome (“a psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their skills, talents or accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a fraud“), as do many people. It can feel like a bad thing, but I find that it has quite a bit of power. I see a few ways that it can be beneficial:As I shared a few years ago, it can help us to keep working on our skills. If you know you can be better, you’r...

It can be good to doubt yourself I often struggle with a bit of imposter syndrome (“a psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their skills, talents or accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a fraud“), as do many people. It can feel like a bad thing, but I find that it has quite a bit of power. I see a few ways that it can be beneficial:As I shared a few years ago, it can help us to keep working on our skills. If you know you can be better, you’r...

What keyboard do you use on your phone? When asked “what keyboard do you use on your phone?”, I’m guessing the answer that most people give is “the one it came with”, but you may be surprised to learn that there are ton of different keyboards that you can use on your phone/tablet. I’ve talked about great desktop keyboards before, as well as tools like text expanders to help with efficiency, but digging into your mobile keyboard options can be good as well. I’ve used Google’s “GBoard” for year...

What keyboard do you use on your phone? When asked “what keyboard do you use on your phone?”, I’m guessing the answer that most people give is “the one it came with”, but you may be surprised to learn that there are ton of different keyboards that you can use on your phone/tablet. I’ve talked about great desktop keyboards before, as well as tools like text expanders to help with efficiency, but digging into your mobile keyboard options can be good as well. I’ve used Google’s “GBoard” for year...

Theoretically altruistic journalism The latest episode of the “You’re Wrong About” podcast focuses on phones, and makes the argument that phones are generally a good thing for people to have — even teens. Included in the show was a discussion on the potential ban of TikTok, where they shared:And it’s not about improving these systems or improving the world and improving the things that young people, when you actually pull young people and you say, what are you concerned about? And they bring ...

Theoretically altruistic journalism The latest episode of the “You’re Wrong About” podcast focuses on phones, and makes the argument that phones are generally a good thing for people to have — even teens. Included in the show was a discussion on the potential ban of TikTok, where they shared:And it’s not about improving these systems or improving the world and improving the things that young people, when you actually pull young people and you say, what are you concerned about? And they bring ...

If your goal is to bring people to your website, don’t immediately ask them to leave An interesting trend I’ve noticed over the last few years is for websites to include links to their social media platforms at the very top of the site. It seems counter-productive to work hard to bring users to your website, only to immediately ask them to go off to Facebook or Instagram instead.There are some cases where this makes sense. An example is a client of ours that is in the early planning stages of...

If your goal is to bring people to your website, don’t immediately ask them to leave An interesting trend I’ve noticed over the last few years is for websites to include links to their social media platforms at the very top of the site. It seems counter-productive to work hard to bring users to your website, only to immediately ask them to go off to Facebook or Instagram instead.There are some cases where this makes sense. An example is a client of ours that is in the early planning stages of...

How we work with our clients Over the years we’ve refined our approach in working with clients to help make sure the relationship is solid, successful, and mutually enjoyable. As we’ve honed that approach, we’ve come up with 11 items that explain how the relationship will work. I hope this list helps you in two ways:It will give you a better idea of what it would be like to work with GreenMellen for your marketing.It may inspire you to create a similar list for your company.The items in this ...

How we work with our clients Over the years we’ve refined our approach in working with clients to help make sure the relationship is solid, successful, and mutually enjoyable. As we’ve honed that approach, we’ve come up with 11 items that explain how the relationship will work. I hope this list helps you in two ways:It will give you a better idea of what it would be like to work with GreenMellen for your marketing.It may inspire you to create a similar list for your company.The items in this ...

I know a guy in NYC Our family recently spent a week in New York, and one of those days we spent with Adam Guy of “I Know a Guy” to be our personal tour guide for the day. Him and my wife had talked quite a bit in the weeks leading up (where we want to go, what we’ve already seen, etc), so he customized the day exactly for us. Given that, I had high hopes for the day but it’s safe to say that Adam wildly exceeded them. It was a fascinating day with a combination of just walking and talking li...

I know a guy in NYC Our family recently spent a week in New York, and one of those days we spent with Adam Guy of “I Know a Guy” to be our personal tour guide for the day. Him and my wife had talked quite a bit in the weeks leading up (where we want to go, what we’ve already seen, etc), so he customized the day exactly for us. Given that, I had high hopes for the day but it’s safe to say that Adam wildly exceeded them. It was a fascinating day with a combination of just walking and talking li...

What is the opposite of friction? One of the things that have made the Savannah Bananas baseball team so popular (as shared in the book “Banana Ball“) was very simple — remove as much friction as possible from baseball. From the book:“Here’s what I don’t understand about many businesses. Why do they continually do the things that their customers hate? Why are people endlessly put on hold, while a message plays that tells them how “important” their call is, but they do a slow burn while waitin...

What is the opposite of friction? One of the things that have made the Savannah Bananas baseball team so popular (as shared in the book “Banana Ball“) was very simple — remove as much friction as possible from baseball. From the book:“Here’s what I don’t understand about many businesses. Why do they continually do the things that their customers hate? Why are people endlessly put on hold, while a message plays that tells them how “important” their call is, but they do a slow burn while waitin...