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She is a venture capitalist on CBC television’s celebrated programs “Dragons’ Den” and “The Big Decision.” And she’s the owner and CEO of Venture Communications (one of the nation’s largest independent agencies with offices in Calgary and Toronto): Arlene Dickinson knows a thing or two about entrepreneurship! Months ago, I read and discussed (for this blog) her first book, Persuasion: A New Approach to Changing Minds. Today, I’m interested in her discussion of failure in business, in her new study, All In: You, Your Business, Your Life (Toronto: Harper Collins, 2013).

But first to provide the context of that discussion, Dickinson argues that for entrepreneurs like her, work often veers toward workaholism, which undermines the division between “work/life balance.” She says that “work is life” for many business people (57), that the two areas are not distinct. That means, as a result, muddling through “the mess” of daily living, sometimes dedicating your life to business; later putting that business “on hold” to nurture a marriage, etc. She says that “Balance is the enemy of excellence” for herself, and for others like her: “There’s no such thing as a part-time entrepreneur, in my opinion,” she writes. “You’re all in, or you might as well go home” (83 my emphasis).

Yet she recognizes that differences separate one entrepreneur from another, saying that “We all have to do what we have to do to survive and put food on the table.”  Those survival strategies will vary. But she also warns that perfectionism can undermine all early entrepreneurs’ efforts to build their businesses: “. . . it’s also true that there is no ideal time to leave the safety net, and it’s willingness to take the safety net-free leap that is the sign of a true entrepreneur.”

Even if you disagree with her “work is life” philosophy, Dickinson advocates reasonableness, in other ways, as being necessary for entrepreneurship. In particular, she says that “the idea of being good enough” is healthier than being “perfect or excellent or irreproachable” (64). She says that the struggle to “be a good enough mother and a good enough entrepreneur at the same time” isn’t easy for women who are both, but is an essential one to fight (84).

Being “all in” (in the title of her book) does not mean that you have to be perfect, then, but instead that you accept and learn from your whatever your failures are. And her writing on failure is some of the best in the book. These are some highlights:

1. One reason that failure can sit so hard for entrepreneurs, Dickinson says, is that the worst “nay-saying” comes from yourself, not from your critics: when you criticize yourself negatively for whatever failure you make, the pain and agony that arise are far more detrimental than the original failure itself.

Self-criticism surrounding failure can inhibit your progress in business. Negative internal fear is called “resistance” (as Seth Godin has written, cf my earlier blog on his book, Linchpin).  Dickinson shares Godin’s argument that you must act against resistance, however uncomfortable that may feel, if you want to succeed as an entrepreneur. You may need to act before it feels comfortable to do so. But you also paradoxically have to be comfortable enough with failure, itself,  in order to learn from it and to work beyond it (217).

2. Mistakes are the form that failure takes: Dickinson writes that “It’s not the mistakes themselves that hone your entrepreneurial skill – rather, it’s what you learn from your mistakes and the degree to which you’re willing to grow from them” (215).

Mistakes make people better entrepreneurs, and improvement “is honed with losses . . . not honed with profits” (217). One of the book’s best lines is this: “Profits spur you to do more of the same thing; losses and mismatches push you to do things better” (217). She cites an early entrepreneur, Thomas Edison, who said “the fastest way to succeed is to double your failure rate” (215).

3.As an entrepreneur, Dickinson says that you need to look at your failures tolerantly and unemotionally:

“[You] don’t just need faith in yourself and your creation to develop the kind of invisible shield that protects you from taking rejection personally or taking your own mistakes to heart. You also have to develop an almost forensic ability to view your misteps and outright failures objectively” (218).

Dickinson points here to a critical concept here for everyone (and not only for entrepreneurs)–dealing with loss and negative emotions. She argues for the need first to deflect rejection or loss and then to bracket off or suspend your emotions, in which I part company from her, finding that unhealthy and impossible to do. I’d argue that emotions (including loss from failures) must be acknowledged, felt and worked through (in your own time and space), before you can learn and grow from them. Experiencing loss and pain, when you know the source and reason, can become the opportunity for insight, self-understanding and for respect toward, and cooperation with, others (who may be the source of the criticism). SO this is an alternate way in which the work/life dichotomy collapses. Life can be “messy,” and there may be tears or venting in the boardroom and not only in one’s own office.

I’d also argue that recognizing that criticism or loss hurts because it resonates with whatever previously-existing issues you may have (and we all have some “buttons” that get pushed ), but is not that cruel “other” person (i.e. that abusive relative or teacher from your past), frees you to experience the loss and simultaneously to learn from.  For instance, an entrepreneur, Helen can recognize that the memo that she wrote to her employees was, in their perspective, too long-winded and rambling, when she recognizes that those employees actually like her and usually respond positively to her efforts to communicate. When she recognizes that they are not her abusive Uncle J (from childhood), and works through the distress and upset that reminds her of him, she can find an opportunity to grow: she can learn ways (that Dickinson says are “objective”) to write more concise memos that her employees better appreciate. She also learns implicitly that employees’ criticism is not necessarily abusive. Continue reading “Arlene Dickinson Weighs is on Failure in Business: Reading _All In: You, Your Business, Your Life_”

In my last posting, I introduced, through Nick Usborne’s classic study, Net Words:Creating High Impact Online Copy, four ways that a good online copywriter can improve the marcom collateral of your organization or company. Today I’ll conclude with five more reasons.

(5)   This is an outgrowth of #4: your customer service department is not only cash-strapped, but is also struggling because it isn’t earning your prospects’ trust. While automated text is sometimes necessary, so is a copywriter’s warmth:

To meet the reality of high costs, everyone knows that customer service is usually outsourced to call centres in remote locations (e.g. Bangalore).  But online, with text or chat, staff use scripts (and should view callers’ histories on screen before them), so that company replies tend to sound “controlled, pre-determined and repetitive” (165). But as a result, customer service online rarely sounds as fluent in print as it does when spoken in an email or chat. Therefore, when automated copy (e.g customer service emails) must be used, it should always be balanced with some personal additions:

An example of the problem is this website autoresponder:

“Thank you for your e-mail. At CircuitCity.com we are committed to providing excellent customer service. One of our Customer Service Representatives will respond by the end of the next business day” (168).

By contrast, Usborne suggests the following email, which has more warmth, because it reflects the challenges, needs and interests of the customer:

“Thank you for your email. This is an automated response – just to confirm that we have received your message. One of us will get back to you in person as soon as we can. In fact, you can be sure of an answer by the end of the next business day.

Best wishes,

Jane Smith

Your Customer Service Representative” (168).

Many organizations and companies deal with the demands of customer service by mixing prepared blocks of text with a new or direct reply. An agent can say that while they don’t have all of the consumer’s answers personally, they are sending out information that has helped others with similar problems, in the past. A good online copywriter would close such a message to consumers by saying: “If you need more assistance, let us know,” and leave a name and contact information for you. Compare that with the original, lifeless  autoresponder, above!

(6)   You need an e-newsletter (and who couldn’t benefit from one?):

Usborne says that similar to email, online newsletters grew out of the imagination of individuals, not the marketing divisions of large companies.

There are now millions of e-newsletters online, of which many are written with the “passionate voice of . . . people who have something exciting they want to say and are delighted to be able to do so via the Internet” (174). E-newsletters can reflect prospects’ challenges, needs and interests very well, and should include sales copy only secondarily (later in the copy). Newsy newsletters are interesting. And interesting sells. Continue reading “9 Ways in Which You Need a Good Online Copywriter: Revisiting Nick Usborne’s _Net Words: Creating High Impact Online Copy_ (Part Two)”

Business readers often dismiss books as being stale-dated within a year or two of their release. But lately, I’ve returned to Nick Usborne’s classic study, Net Words, to reconsider how you, as a prospective client, can use a good online copywriter for your organization or business. The nine tips to follow (in parts one and two) don’t comprise an exhaustive list, but should assist clients like you in identifying the value of the work I do.

You need to hire an online copywriter because . . .

(1)   . . . The language on your website is not personal:

In this hyper-technological age, there’s been an explosion of knowledge about and for customers, online.  But that explosion hasn’t amounted to a personal experience, when prospects use the web. Personalization software and technology knows prospects only by data, not as people. Usborne notes that technology itself cannot deliver a personal message—only a person can do that (e.g. such as in social media). So, as he writes, “personalization will never feel personal, unless there is some element . . . that touches you . . . [at] a human level” (152). And that element can be good copywriting.

But the trouble is that marketing and IT departments within companies or organizations tend to be disconnected, or to use the technology produced by others, where there are such divisions, within themselves. When marcom specialists like copywriters aren’t respected enough, technology will run rampant and deliver messages that do not connect with customers.

One example (adapted from Usborne) is a marketing email sent from a mail-order company, which reads as follows:

“Dear Preferred Customer,

Welcome to XY’s exclusive email news!

Now that you’re signed up to receive our special fashion mailings, you’ll be the first to hear about exciting new media events, special online promotions and more. These updates will be sent to you (about twice a month).”

This copy fails on virtually every level. It fails even to address the prospect by name (the generic addressee fails badly), and the effort to create spontaneity is undermined by the reference to technology (“sent . . .  twice a month”) and since the claim to “exclusivity” (“first to hear,” etc.) is negated by the reality that the email is mass-disseminated to millions (which the reader knows full well). For a revised version, read on . . .

(2)   . . . Technology has overtaken marketing:

The previous example shows that the company has (in Usborne’s words) “invested in the technology of message delivery, but not in the messages that are being delivered” (155).

Once you have a prospect’s email address, you have an opportunity to become personal with them and to cater to the challenges, needs and interests that they have.  If the personalization technology is “used to deliver personalized messages, then it must accommodate the act of writing these messages in a personal, human way” (Usborne 162). So here’s a revision that does just that: Continue reading “9 Ways in Which You Need a Good Online Copywriter: Revisiting Nick Usborne’s _Net Words: Creating High Impact Online Copy_ (Part One)”

In a recent AWAI webinar, Montreal copywriting great, Nick Usborne, reminded listeners that online, with social media and in other arenas of “marcom” activity, often the more things change, the more they stay the same (“la plus ca change . . . ”–apt, given his geographical location in Quebec ☺ ). He commented that the latest development in “content marketing” in 2014 is nothing new, when marketers in the 1990s often proclaimed that “Content is King.” It’s the practice of writing online copy that should matter, Nick says, not the apparently revolutionary fad of the moment. “Copywriters today need to be sensitive to the voice and tone that they use to persuade prospects,” he says. Writing remains the bottom line.

In his classic study, Net Words: Creating High Impact Online Copy (McGraw Hill, 2002), Nick writes that “the Internet is not a marketing channel or an advertising medium in any traditional sense. [And] the audience you are writing to is [now] composed of active participants and co-owners of the same environment through which you are trying to market your goods and services” (2). Before the web, communication was a “one-way street” from one’s community or the media (e.g. TV, newspapers, radio, direct mail, etc.) by which companies persuaded consumers with repeated messages that told us what to buy. Since the development of the internet, the consumer “has become a participant in the creation and dissemination of advertising messages. And . . . most connected consumers will find the opinions of their online peers more trustworthy than the promises of the manufacturers” (6).

The copy must connect to the culture in which the consumer operates: copy needs to be rewritten with the correct tone for each new context and the consumer has “more control and power online” (11). But he (and most online marketers) are hasty to add that online marketers, such as copywriters, do have something to offer that is “of real value” (11),  so that “if you approach and address your audience with respect for their time and attention, they’ll likely welcome your messages” (11). Being personal, specific, keeping the message simple (without unnecessary acronyms or highbrow language) are all ingredients for earning your prospect’s attention and interest. Continue reading “Nick Usborne’s Rejoinder to Anti-Copywriting Prospects. . .”

With all of the attention Social Media (SM) is getting these days, in which many marketing gurus are tweeting, blogging and writing with their own take on the topic, I’ve become a major fan of Randall Craig, the no-nonsense Canadian social media and web strategist and president of 108ideaspace.com

I listened to Craig’s webinar on strategic integration of SM for professional associations earlier today, and recommend his Social Media Master Class, coming to Vancouver and Toronto, in the next month. Contact him (www.ideaspace.com) if you want to lobby him to travel wherever you might be.

In his blog, Craig writes  about how to integrate social media into your daily business routine, if you, like many organizations or companies are striving to make optimal and efficient use of SM.

Craig reports that the prospect of engaging SM as a part of organizational strategy often inspires two, different (sometimes polarized) responses: (i) “SM destroys productivity. We’ve got enough to do without it” and (ii) “We need everyone to engage now.”

In the first camp are those professionals who haven’t got time for SM. Craig acknowledges that the 20 or so minutes you might spend on SM daily can’t be recouped for something else. But he warns that the “haven’t got the time” thinking is based on the assumption that people, left alone, will become rapidly unproductive, fail and miss deadlines. On the contrary, Craig says, most professionals today actively work against such things. The few people in your organization who genuinely don’t care, he observes, “would simply abuse something else, if SM weren’t around.”

In the second camp are business professionals who think that SM has to be heavily engaged in, or else their company will lose touch with reality. Craig counters that “at a certain point, the marginal benefit of ‘more’ investment is very low, and the opportunity cost of spending more on SM (versus somewhere else) may be extremely high.”  Yes, the conversation over SM is important. But Craig stresses that the extent of engagement should always be measured and integrated into a larger, overall strategy. SM shouldn’t be an afterthought, tacked on thoughtlessly to the end of your marketing efforts.

If you’re tired of hearing what you’re doing wrong (or failing to strategize) and want to know how to “get things right,” Craig has blogged five tips for engaging SM into roughly 20 minutes of your morning (i.e. daily) routine: Continue reading “Need a Social Media Strategy for 2014? Randall Craig’s Tips for Success”