remarkable communication

Do me a favor?

I'm asking my beloved blog community to do me a favor. The details are all on the new site. It won't take more than a few minutes, come on by!

Do You Suck at Selling?

Selling is a black art for a lot of us, but the truth is, it's just a series of techniques that can be learned. You don't have to be born with plaid pants and a firm handshake to sell your stuff, you just need to make a study of it.

I just started a new series on overcoming objections (which, other than communicating why your stuff is cool, is all selling is). Come on over to the new site and check it out.

Objection Blaster Series #1: Capturing Attention »

And remember to update your RSS or email subscription so you get the latest posts!

• Subscribe to the new site in an RSS reader
• Subscribe to the new site by email

Why Great Free Content Is Like Chips and Salsa

Find out how great content can whet your readers' appetites and make them hungry for what you have to offer! Check out today's post on the new Remarkable Communication site.

Remember to update your RSS or email subscriptions--you can do that in the upper right-hand corner of the new site, under "Free Updates."

How Tasty Are Your Chips and Salsa? »

Come check out the new digs!

At long last, the gorgeous new Remarkable Communication is ready for prime time! (Well, pretty close.)

Some of the posts still have funky formatting and many of the links will take you right back here to Typepad. All that will get fixed over the next week or so. But please come by to ooh and aah over the gorgeous job those manly Men with Pens did customizing the Thesis theme. I'm especially happy that the timing allows me to have Beatrix front & center for the rollout.

Please come by right this minute to check it out! (And remember to re-subscribe using the new links.)

Beatrix Kiddo's Guide to Making It Happen

By Sonia Simone

I hadn't thought about this pair of movies since they came out, but lately Beatrix Kiddo, the triumphant and sometimes reluctant heroine, keeps springing to mind. I can see her calm, determined face as she sets herself to the task in front of her and starts methodically punching.

One, two, three . . . one billion and one, one billion and two, one billion and three . . .

Whether she's recovering from a four-year coma or punching her way out of a six-foot-deep living grave, Beatrix Kiddo's got something I need . . . focus.

More »

Happy Birthday To Me

Please join me in wishing Remarkable Communication a happy birthday! I started the blog exactly a year ago, on August 11, 2007.

Today I hope you'll indulge me as I look back over the year. I'm not one whose blog rocketed out of the ground--I've build traffic slowly and steadily, and I'm just now rounding the bend of 1,000 subscribers. (Welcome and thank you to all!)

More »

Relationship Marketing Series #6, Connect With One Person

Remarkable Communication has moved to a spiffy new site! You can find all the relationship marketing posts at the links below, or prowl around for more of your favorites.

The Relationship Marketing Series

• #1: Create a Human Connection
• #2: Don't Be a Bad Boyfriend
• #3: Come Out of the Closet
• #4: Show Up
• #5: Pay Attention
• #6: Connect With One Person

Things to Do Before You Get Famous

Last year, internationally celebrated violinist Joshua Bell tried an experiment. He took his violin (a Stradivarius built in 1713, worth about $3.5 million) into the Washington, D.C. Metro and played for about 45 minutes.

If you want to get cheap seats to hear Joshua Bell perform, expect to pay at least $100.

So who stopped to listen to him play Bach and Schubert? Nearly no one. Thousands of people marched past, avoiding Bell's eye so they wouldn't feel guilty about failing to throw a quarter or two into his case. (He made a little over $32 for the day.)

Music did not soothe the savage breast. Music failed to even register in the savage breast.

What Joshua Bell has to do with your success »

The Complete Flake's Guide to Getting Things Done

Are you smart and motivated and passionate, and have lots of cool things you'd like to get done, but somehow when it comes to doing them, you just . . . don't?

Are you great at ideas but lousy at execution? Talk a good game but don't get any results? Spend a lot of time thinking about where you want to go, but not much time actually moving your ass down the road that would take you there?

You, my friend, are a flake. Congratulations. We are a worldwide force. If we could all get ourselves moving in the same direction, we would change the world. However, that will never happen.

Most of us are creative and smart. We're often very funny and really pretty charming. We get things quicker than a lot of people do.

What we lack is . . . more »

To read the rest of this post, please visit Remarkable Communication at its fancy new home!

Email Marketing: How Not to Be a Dirty Rotten Spammer

By Sonia Simone

Do you remember when you were a kid and crossed the street without looking? Remember how mad your mom got? Even if you were within your legal rights and crossing in a crosswalk, it just takes one oncoming car that doesn't see you and you're flatter than Wile E. Coyote.

The "official" definition of spam is unsolicited bulk email with a commercial and/or malicious intent. The U.S. 2004 CAN-SPAM law makes it illegal to send commercial email with a misleading header, without a postal address, without a way to unsubscribe, or if the addresses were harvested in various nefarious ways.

Read the rest of this post »

Flickr Creative Commons image by uberculture