Partner Spotlight: Lee Dora, Haberdasher

Partner Spotlight: Lee Dora, Haberdasher

This post is part of the Partner Spotlight series. Every week for the next few months I will be highlighting a trusted professional in my network who provides me with outstanding service.

“What’s a haberdasher,” you may ask? Well, before I met Lee Dora I was unfamiliar with the term. I met Lee after he sent me a friendly email and a postcard offering his services. Normally I ignore unsolicited communications like this but it hit me at a time when I was interested in upgrading my business wardrobe.

You see, I was not always the refined, snappy dresser that I am now (at least sometimes…haha). I’ve always struggled with dumb questions like “does this suit go with this tie?”, “jacket open or closed?”, and “how do I pick out a good suit?”

These may seem like dumb questions and you may be asking why I didn’t just go down the the local Men’s Wearhouse and get some help. Well, yes, I could do that but I have zero desire to go clothes shopping. I hate shopping in general, and I especially hate it when I’m shopping for something I know nothing about.

So until I met Lee I was resigned to owning a couple of cheap sport coats and throwing them on with jeans and a dress shirt or just wearing some basic slacks and shirt combos when I wanted to dress up. I justified it by saying “I’m a trendy marketing/technology guy… I can get away with it, right?”

Well, then I sat down with Lee (who works for Tom James). He brought in his iPad full of beautiful photos of suits, ties, great-looking shirts, and even shoes that I could browse through. Not only does he have a massive collection of great-looking stuff, but it’s custom-tailored just for me. He measured me and got all my specs so that my clothes fit great. In addition, he guides me toward the right combinations of things so I don’t have to flounder around trying to figure out which shirt to wear with which suit.

Lee meets me at my office, spends about an hour providing me with consulting, gets my next order, and then comes back a few weeks later with amazing-looking suits and clothes that fit me perfectly. I had no idea how great it felt to wear suits that were made to fit me so well. It’s amazingly convenient. I don’t have to go shopping and I get great-looking, quality, custom-tailored business clothes delivered right to my office.

If you would like to work with Lee, you can email him at l.dora@tomjames.com. You can also find him on LinkedIn.

Maybe I’m just slow and everyone else has it figured out but up until recently, I’ve been pretty bad at picking out high-quality business clothing. Since working with Lee, I’ve been dressing better, feeling better, and getting positive comments from people who have been noticing my new “look.”

Talk to Lee and tell him I said hello :)

Partner Spotlight: Kara DeWitt, Insurance Pro

Partner Spotlight: Kara DeWitt, Insurance Pro

This post is part of the Partner Spotlight series. Every week for the next few months I will be highlighting a trusted professional in my network who provides me with outstanding service.

Insurance is one of those things that you don’t really think about it until you need it. At least that’s how I am. And when you do need it, it seems like the only option is to endure mediocre/terrible customer service, lots of paperwork, and lots of headaches.

Well, the paperwork may not be going away but I now actually enjoy working with my insurance agent. That’s because I work with Kara DeWitt.

Kara owns DeWitt Insurance Group along with her husband, Jim. Kara handles the property/casualty and business insurance side of the company.

Kara is truly a gem. She not only knows her stuff, but she works tirelessly for her clients to make sure they always get the best rates without sacrificing coverage, and she really goes out of her way to help her clients. Her clients get her cell phone number, and she works all hours of the day and night to make sure she is available for help. She communicates via text, phone, email, and Facebook which is pretty unusual for an insurance agent. It makes her very easy to work with.

I’ve referred many of my friends to Kara, often with a time-critical need. She has often worked weekends and evenings to finish applications or make sure the right paperwork goes through on time and has visited my friends in their homes so they are not inconvenienced. In short, Kara’s customer service is ridiculously great.

Kara provides my home, auto, and business insurance and I’ve never been happier with my agent. From her flexibility and availability to her reminders when I need to pay attention to renewals to her deep knowledge of her products, Kara is truly the best.

If you are not 100% happy with your insurance agent, stop messing around and call Kara DeWitt at 317.695.2046 or email her at kara@dewittinsurancegroup.com. I promise you will start to enjoy dealing with your insurance again.

Partner Spotlight: Cory Harkins, Chiropractor

Partner Spotlight: Cory Harkins, Chiropractor

This post is part of the Partner Spotlight series. Every week for the next few months I will be highlighting a trusted professional in my network who provides me with outstanding service.

Dr. Cory Harkins is my chiropractor and honestly he’s the best one I know. I met Cory last year when he joined my BNI chapter. I’m a big believer in chiropractic care as a complement to other forms of medical care and I’ve worked with quite a few. Cory is outstanding.

I’m a recreational tennis player… well, ok, I’m addicted to obsessed with tennis and I play year round. A few years ago I developed a really nasty case of tennis elbow that just wouldn’t go away. I tried lots of things to fix it, including acupuncture, chiropractic, and lots of painkillers. Most of the things I tried really helped. However, nothing really seemed to “fix” it. The pain would decrease enough that I could play again but it never really totally went away  and it would continue to flare up as I played more.

Then I went to see Cory. Within a couple of visits, my tennis elbow was completely gone and I could play tennis pain-free for the first time in years! It was amazing. Not only that, but it almost never flares up again as long a I schedule maintenance visits every now and then. When I am playing lots of matches in a row, it will sometimes bother me a bit but a visit or two in Cory’s office takes care of it and I am back on the courts pain-free.

Not only is Cory a great chiropractor, but he’s also a super-nice guy. He’s friendly, caring, and tries to do whatever he can to ensure that his patients are comfortable and getting the right treatments. He has referral relationships with M.D.s and is open-minded to all forms of health care as long as they are good for the patient.

I’ve referred many of my friends (including fellow tennis players) to Cory and they have been very impressed.

Cory practices at ProWellness Chiropractic in Fisher, Indiana. It’s a beautiful office with a super-friendly staff. You can make an appointment with Cory by calling 317-595-9620. If are having issues like back pain, joint pain, headaches, etc. consider going to see Cory. I think you will be happy you did.

Partner Spotlight series

Partner Spotlight series

As the new year begins, I’d like to run a series of posts dedicated to my trusted business partners. By “partner” I don’t mean literal partners in my business, but rather those that I do business with and who provide me with valuable services. Some people call these “vendors” but honestly I hate that word when it is applied to personal business relationships. AT&T is a vendor. My trusted insurance agent is a partner.

For the next few weeks (or more), I will be highlighting my trusted business partners with a weekly blog post that shines a spotlight on the great people who provide me with valuable services and do so with integrity, competence, and great customer service.

Some of these partners provide me with business services, some personal, and some both. In all cases, these individuals are part of my trusted network of professionals who really “get it”. If you are in need of any of the services that my partners provide, I encourage you to contact them to learn more and tell them I said hello.

I personally endorse every professional in this Partner Spotlight series and I am honored to be working with all of them. I hope it helps others in my network get connected to professionals who can help them, as well. See you next week for the first of many Partner Spotlight posts!

What did I ship in 2011?

What did I ship in 2011?

A while back, Seth Godin wrote a great post listing the things he shipped in 2010. Taking some inspiration from his post, I am also listing the things I shipped this past year.

I’m not a big fan of getting all reflective, goal-hungry, and sentimental when a new year rolls over (I prefer a more constantly-flowing kaizen approach) but this my one year-end indulgence. As Seth said, it doesn’t matter whether these things were a hit or not (though thankfully they were all successful!), just that I shipped them. Here is my list.

  • Delivered two presentations at the CMS Expo in Chicago
  • Launched a highly successful and innovative QR code scavenger hunt for the Massage Therapy Foundation
  • Donated over $2,000 in money and services to worthy non-profits
  • Won the “Supplier of the Year” STAR Award from ISAE
  • Delivered presentations at national conferences from Massachusetts to California
  • Concepted, organized, and marketed a successful first-ever ROWE Bootcamp
  • Launched the ROWE Online Training Community
  • Launched the Massage Learning Network – an e-learning community for massage therapists
  • Ran a highly-successful B2B Power Team meeting for my BNI Chapter
  • Completed the Thrive Progam from Reachmore
  • Won three Addys at the 2011 Addy Awards
  • Registered SpinWeb as an an official Authorize.Net reseller
  • Became a BNI Training Ambassador and launched the BNI Central Indiana Advanced Business Training program
  • Moved SpinWeb to a great new office

Most of these things were done with help from my outstanding team at SpinWeb. A huge thank you goes out to those who contributed and assisted.

I enjoyed this exercise and it helped me see 2011 with a new perspective. It also helped me see what things I wanted to ship but didn’t, which makes for a some nice goals for 2012.

What did you ship in 2011? I would love to hear via your comments below.

Want more interaction online? Ditch the photo of your dog.

Want more interaction online? Ditch the photo of your dog.

Now before you start flaming me and accusing me of being a dog-hater, rest assured that I am not. I love animals and have had numerous pets, including both dogs and cats. My cat is awesome. Now, with that out of the way…

A lot of people I talk to wonder how to get more interaction online. They say things like “how do I get more Twitter followers?” and “how do I get more people to talk to me on Facebook?” and “how do I get more LinkedIn connections?”

There are lots of ways to get better results on social media but one of the most simple things you can do is to simply use a good, high-quality, real photo of yourself. It may sound obvious but I run into all sorts of people online who use photos of their dogs, babies, flowers, or cartoons as their profile photos. Then they wonder why people don’t accept their connection requests, follow them, or take them seriously.

Want some data? I did a LinkedIn poll recently that gathered some great feedback on this issue. Out of 324 people who responded, 63% said they were less likely to interact with someone who did not use a real profile photo. You can see more details on the LinkedIn poll itself which includes demographic data.

So what does this mean for business people (including job seekers)? Simple: if you value networking, marketing, and branding as key components of your business growth and you want to use social media in a business context, be sure to use a real profile photo to maximize interaction.

Why do I make so much noise about ROWE?

Why do I make so much noise about ROWE?

Warning: this is a very open, transparent, personal post. It’s a slightly deeper dive into my brain and my emotions than you normally get in this blog. I hope that’s ok with you. If so, read on.

So my friends all know that I work in (and own) a ROWE (Results-Only Work Environment) and they are probably sick of hearing about it. When they talk about their jobs and the 9 to 5 grind, I try my best to keep my mouth shut but it’s tough. You see, I look at work from a different perspective now.

I sometimes tell people that I look back at our pre-ROWE days at SpinWeb and it seems like the Dark Ages. They laugh when I say this but I’m dead serious. It’s almost impossible to truly describe what a ROWE is like until you experience it. I thought SpinWeb was “flexible” before but after going ROWE, it was obvious that we didn’t truly get it until we went through the training. The Indianapolis Star did a nice story on this recently.

Even if you think you’re already a ROWE, you’re probably not. Trust me.

So I’m making a lot of noise about it right now to the point that I’m sure plenty of people are sick of hearing about it (sorry)! Why am I doing this?

Imagine that you lived in a town where everyone drove broken cars. Their cars were all broken because they were running on a certain type of fuel that had been around for a while but was no longer good for the engine. The fuel was no longer meeting the needs of the modern cars but that everyone just accepted this fuel as the norm. Some cars ran better than others but in general, they all puttered along, frequently broke down, and generally weren’t all that efficient. Because of this, everyone in your town was always complaining about driving and about what a chore it was to get anywhere. Then, one day, you discovered a different, newer kind of fuel that cleaned your engine, made your car more reliable, and helped it run faster. By using this fuel, your car ended up running at speeds twice as fast as all the other cars, stayed clean and efficient, and hardly ever needed repair. Suddenly you could get from point A to point B in record time and driving even became fun! Your productivity shot through the roof and no one else could keep up.

What would you do?

Well, I’m guessing you would tell everyone around you about it. Now, imagine that you started telling everyone to go buy this new type of fuel, but instead of getting excited, you got responses like “that new kind of fuel sounds scary,” and “my car would never accept it,” and “my husband/wife wouldn’t be interested in hearing about it.”

Would you start to look around in disbelief? Would you be completely baffled at the resistance? Would you have any explanation for why your friends and neighbors were not interested in getting their broken cars to run like yours?

This is exactly how I feel about ROWE. My company has been a ROWE for about three years and I cannot even begin to explain the difference. Here are some specific things that have happened since going ROWE:

  • Productivity has literally doubled (measured by number of projects completed weighed against number of people)
  • Employee retention is at an all time high
  • Employee satisfaction is at an all time high
  • Customer service is at an all time high
  • Employees are motivated to work faster and find better ways to get things done
  • Process improvement is in overdrive
  • Employees are able to spend more time with their families then ever before
  • Employees have their lives back

These things are real. These things matter. These things are good for business.

So this is why I make so much noise about ROWE. The traditional workplace is broken. Some workplaces are more broken than others, but most are basically broken. ROWE fixes it. It’s that simple and that life-changing.

ROWE is good for both employees and bosses. It’s easy to see why employees love it but bosses are frequently terrified of it. It doesn’t have to be that way. I cannot make this point enough: ROWE is good for business. It’s proven. It works.

So this is why I am co-presenting a ROWE Bootcamp in Indianapolis on September 13th. Yes, it costs money. I understand that this may seem like a deterrent to some. We are flying in Christy Runningen who is a seasoned ROWE facilitator and HR expert. We are paying for travel expenses. We are paying for materials. We are paying for support. We are putting resources into making this a fantastic training event. It takes time, effort, and money to do this but we are passionate about bringing ROWE to others because it’s simply the right thing to do.

Many other organizations have gone ROWE and are now (like me) looking around in disbelief at the traditional workplaces around them, wondering “why is everyone still working like it’s 1950?” This is why you see such passion and zeal among people who have embraced it.

So, I hope this explains why I make so much noise about ROWE and why I want to see as many open-minded, progressive, productivity-focused small businesses/departments as possible at the ROWE Bootcamp. If you’re undecided, you may want to consider attending the upcoming informational conference call. In order to make ROWE a reality, bosses need to listen, understand, and accept the training that is available. Additionally, employees need to speak up.

So forgive me if I get a little over-zealous but I wish you could see ROWE from the other side and how it truly transforms lives and businesses. And while everyone else is busy making schedules, punching the clock, and spending half the day in meetings, we’ll all be producing results like never before.

17 productivity hacks and tools that help me accomplish more

17 productivity hacks and tools that help me accomplish more

I’m a pretty busy guy. I own a web solutions firm. I run a social media and technology consulting practice. I work for a workplace productivity training company. I speak at events around the country. I volunteer on non-profit boards and committees. I write books. I travel (a lot). I serve in my church. I blog. I play the cello in a chamber music ensemble. I build e-learning communities. I also try to fit in lots of tennis and sushi, as well. My friends sometimes ask me how I get so much stuff done. Am I an obsessive workaholic? Well, yes. However, I also make use of a number of productivity hacks and tools in my life and business that help me accomplish more in less time.

Each hack on its own my not be much, but when you add up the time saved and the friction removed with each item, it quickly adds up. Here are my favorite productivity hacks and tools that help me get more done.

1. Use reQall to capture ideas. Anyone who has read “Getting Things Done” by David Allen (affiliate link) is familiar with the idea of ubiquitous capture. This is the idea that if you are equipped to record ideas and action items at all times, then you keep your brain clear for creative focus while at the same time ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks. I love reQall because it lets me simply speak notes into my iPhone which are then transcribed and emailed to me for later processing.

2. Use Tungle to schedule meetings. I cannot find the words to explain how much I heart Tungle. How much time is typically wasted playing phone tag or sending emails back and forth doing the “when are you free” dance? Tungle solves all that by allowing me to book meetings in 30 seconds by sending out a link that allows others to see my open times, suggest time slots, and automatically add meetings to my calendar. I think anyone who doesn’t use Tungle is stark raving mad.

3. Use TextExpander to save typing. How often do we type the same blocks of text over and over? Meeting details, locations, addresses, messages, etc. TextExpander allows me to save commonly used blocks of text into an archive and then magically pop them into data fields with a simple shortcut. For example, my email signature becomes “ssig”, my name becomes “nname”, and my Tungle link becomes “ccal”. It saves tons of time and helps me maintain my workflow without copying and pasting things. TextExpander is for Mac only but I’m sure there is some Windows alternative out there but I wouldn’t know about that.

4. Use the same GoToMeeting details for all my meetings. Not everyone knows this but you can set up a recurring meeting in GoToMeeting and simply re-use that meeting over and over. You just schedule a meeting, check the box that says “Recurring meeting” and poof! Use the same meeting details over and over. You never have to set up another meeting again. The bonus hack with this is that I have a TextExpander shortcut set up so that when I type “ggoto” it drops in the meeting URL and other details into emails or calendar invites so I can effortlessly schedule meetings and send GoToMeeting info in a matter of seconds.

5. Follow Inbox Zero. Merlin Mann made Inbox Zero popular during a talk he gave at Google. I have since adopted and tuned the system to help me process email faster and be more productive as I manage it. It takes discipline but when I follow the system, it helps me get more done.

6. Keep up with online articles using Instapaper. I subscribe to a lot of blogs and see lots of information go across my radar on a daily basis. I love this because it keeps me informed and helps me stay in a state of continuous learning. However, if I read everything in real time I would get nothing done because I would be reading blogs and articles all day. Instead, I save interesting articles to Instapaper and then catch up with them on my iPad when I have more focused reading time, such as when I’m on a plane or winding down at night. This helps me avoid missing useful educational material while not letting the input slow me down.

7. Migrate to a Kindle. I love to read but transporting a bunch books when traveling is cumbersome. Once I went Kindle, I never looked back. For those who use the common retort “but I like the feel of a real book” I say: give the Kindle a try. Trust me. It is awesome. I love being able to carry an entire book collection with me on a tiny device that gives me the ability to choose what I want to read any time and switch books with the click of a button. And it looks and reads like real paper. The Kindle is truly a revolutionary device. Oh, and don’t waste your time on the alternatives like the Nook, etc. Go Kindle. Trust me. Since moving to Kindle, I find myself finishing more books than I ever did before.

8. Use a hands-free cellphone device. Talking on the phone can take up a good portion of my day. This includes sales calls, client meeting, returning voice mails, etc. By keeping a hand-free device handy, I can turn driving time into productive meeting time. Yes, I realize that even with a hand-free device there is still an element of distraction while talking and driving so please don’t yell at me for suggesting this. Just be careful. It’s amazing how many phone calls I can get through as I drive from one destination to another with a bluetooth headset. It’s also helpful as I walk around the office or do other non-intensive tasks. I can also get a lot of laundry folded while returning phone calls! My favorite is the Plantronics Voyager Pro+. It looks dorky but has excellent sound quality.

9. Leave actionable voicemails. How often do we play phone tag with someone by leaving voice mails that say “call me” with no additional details? Sometimes you really do need to discuss something in real time, such as sensitive or emotionally-charged issues. However, much of the time we spend too much time playing phone tag unnecessarily when we could be moving action items along by leaving better voice mails. When I leave a voice mail, I usually leave very specific details that give the other person information on exactly what needs to be done. Sometimes I can leave a message that simply answers the question clearly and specifically. Other times I leave details on where the information can be found online. I will sometimes even briefly offer multiple options/answers for different scenarios. The point is, I leave details that are useful to the other person, rather than just saying “call me back.”

10. Convert “coffee meetings” to video conferences. If you do a lot of networking like I do, you probably get asked to “get together for coffee” quite a bit. While there is nothing wrong with having coffee (or in my case, a smoothie) with people, a lot of the time these are simply exploratory meetings that may or may not be a good use of your time. If I said yes to every request to get together for coffee, I would be spending all my time driving to Starbucks. So if someone asks me to have coffee as a “get to know you” meeting, I suggest that we do a short video conference (or phone call) instead. This helps keep the meeting short and more actionable. There is something about meeting at a coffee shop that seems to make meetings last longer and lack focus but a video conference or phone call tends to be a medium more conducive to a clear agenda and an actionable conversation. With so many options for video conferencing, like Skype, GoToMeeting, and Google+, there is really no excuse to avoid it. If both parties don’t have a webcam, do a phone call instead.

11. Use Highrise for a CRM. Just about all organization need a good CRM to keep track of contacts and opportunities. Highrise is the best CRM I’ve found for those needing something simple and easily accessible. The thing about Highrise that makes me productive is the fact that it removes friction from the process. I’ve used CRMs in the past that required me to log in, paste in notes, click a bunch of buttons, and generally jump though hoops to get things done. This either caused me to waste time in the application, or not use it all all, which is even worse. Highrise makes tracking communication almost effortless. I can Bcc my Highrise dropbox to record correspondance, I can set up opportunities in a couple of clicks, and I can set up tasks and reminders in seconds. Additionally, I can record voice notes using the iPhone app and append them to contacts while on the go. This saves me even more time.

12. Manage my social networks with HootSuite. I have profiles on all the major social networks and I also manage accounts for a few other organizations. HootSuite lets me manage them all in one place. It also lets me schedule certain posts using an editorial calendar which lets me focus my time and accomplish more by batching my distribution and block scheduling when I work on my social marketing.

13. Store receipts in the cloud with Shoeboxed. I used to hang on to business receipts and then toss them all into a big file cabinet periodically. Then, if I ever needed them again it would be a nightmare since I had no real filing system. It was also annoying to hang on to all that paper while traveling. Now, I simply scan business receipts using the Shoeboxed app on my iPhone, discard the paper, and all my receipts are now stored in a nice, organized, searchable database online. This saves time and effort, not to mention storage space. Shoeboxed saves me even more time when I want to create an expense report. I just select the receipts I want to include and it generates an accountant-friendly expense report in seconds.

14. Manage personal finances using Mint. I think Mint is the greatest thing since sliced bread. It’s a personal finance app that lets you bring all your accounts into one dashboard, manage budgets, and track spending with a few clicks. It eliminates the need for budget spreadsheets, recording transactions, and doing math (gasp!) to get an analysis of your finances. Mint keeps it all in one place and even has a mobile app for when you’re on the go. Mint saves me incredible amounts of time on personal finances.

15. Use OpenTable to schedule dinner appointments. Ok, so this is not always a problem but I do sometimes spend more time than I want to when I’m trying to set up a dinner appointment and I go through the routine of choosing restaurant options, calling around to see who has reservations available, and getting it booked. Rather than go though that routine, I pull up the OpenTable app on my iPhone, let it locate me and suggest restaurants near me, and then choose from available reservation times to book my dinner appointment. It all gets done in a matter of seconds. OpenTable does save a little bit of time but for me it’s more about eliminating friction from the process.

16. Keep a todo list in Backpack. Like Highrise, Backpack is a 37 Signals product and it’s slick. It’s a super-simple todo list, note taking app, and simple project storage system. I organize my todo lists by context (calls, blogs, errands, etc.) and then use the iPhone app to track items throughout the day. Backpack gives me a one-stop repository for all my todo lists and ensures that nothing falls through the cracks.

17. Shop for household supplies with Alice. I hate going to the store. For this reason, I love Alice. When I’m about to run out of an item like paper towels, deodorant, or toothpaste, I simply scan the product barcode with the Alice app on my iPhone to add it to my shopping cart. Then, once I reach a critical mass of items, I place the order with a few clicks and a big blue box containing my items appears on my doorstep a few days later. It’s like magic! I cannot even begin to add up how much time I’ve saved by eliminating shopping trips since using Alice.

These are some of the productivity hacks and tools that help me get more done in the limited time I have. Do you have any favorite techniques that work well for you? Please share below.

Book Review: Do The Work

Book Review: Do The Work

This weekend I read “Do The Work” (affiliate link) by Steven Pressfield. It was recommended to me by Josh Brammer who told me I should read it right now… seriously.

With a warning like that, I couldn’t resist. I had already snagged it on Kindle previously so I clicked and dove in.

This is my kind of book. It’s short, direct, irreverent, and bold. It’s kind of a kick in the pants for creative people. If that’s you, and you need a kick in the pants,  I think you’ll like it.

Here’s what I enjoyed most: it addresses the dark, nagging, lonely thoughts that we all have while fearing that we’re the only ones struggling with said thoughts. Anyone who creates things struggles with the same resistance and demons and  (or “dragons” as they are referred to by Pressfield) and this book did a phenomenal job of boiling it down to the core, raw elements and attitudes necessary to overcome them.

Did I mention that it’s short? It’s so awesomely short that you can finish it in an hour or two. Seriously, just pick it up or download it and settle down to read it when you get a break and you’ll digest it before you know it.

Read this book if you’re stuck in your project, business, art, or whatever. Then get to it.

Course correcting as a professional speaker

Course correcting as a professional speaker

Yesterday I had the pleasure of speaking at Blog Indiana. If you’re not familiar with it, Blog Indiana is a popular blogging and social media conference in Indianapolis and is very well attended and includes some great content.

So I gave a presentation called “Internet Marketing in 90 Minutes a Week” during the afternoon slot. Now normally, I am pretty confident in my speaking. I usually get great feedback, I spend hours and hours tweaking my content to be very high value, and I genuinely love connecting with the audience.

However, at Blog Indiana I did not have an outstanding experience. It started off with some technical glitches that involved me having to use a handheld microphone instead of a lapel mic (I hate handheld mics!) so that sort of bummed me out. However, the real problem was how I was targeting my presentation. Because my title was catchy, I filled the room and they had to open up the side wall in order to accomodate everyone who attended. This was awesome and as a speaker I love to see this. However, as I was giving my presentation, I started to realize that I had made a mistake.

My presentation was not about Internet marketing, it was about content marketing – which is much more specific. In my effort to create a catchy, demand-creating title, I had boxed myself into a corner of having to deliver something sensational to a crowd that included some pretty savvy marketers. To be fair, their were some beginners in the crowd, as well, who learned a lot but a lot of the attendees were already doing a many of things I was covering and were probably not all that impressed.

As I continued the presentation, I got more and more upset with myself for getting the title out of sync with the content and I felt terrible for incorrectly setting expectations. My presentation was a great overview of how to be productive with a content marketing plan but I could tell that a lot of the attendees were there to be wowed by my supposed ability to boil all of Internet marketing down to 90 minutes.

The presentation went ok and didn’t bomb or anything and I even got some decent feedback afterward, but since I’m a perfectionist I was pretty bummed. I beat myself up over it and got really upset.

I was even more upset because I was giving the same presentation the next day as a webinar. How could I repeat the same mistake? Then I realized that I didn’t have to. Two hours before the webinar, I changed the title, tweaked a few slides to get even more specific, and then presented “Content Marketing in 90 Minutes a Week.” Guess what? It went great. I could tell that my message was flowing logically, my content was accurate and relevant, and I got a ton of great questions and lots of positive feedback afterward.

What did I learn? Well, one thing I learned was that I need to be careful when creating presentation titles. I tend to come up with titles first and then create the presentation afterward which can sometimes backfire. More importantly, however, I learned that it’s ok to fail and then course correct. Not every presentation is going to be a 100% knockout. Sometimes I will make a mistake and deliver 73%. As long as I understand what went wrong and can course correct, it makes me a better speaker.

Was it a little awkward to change my title two hours before the presentation? Sure, a little. But all I had to do was explain very honestly why I did it at the beginning of the presentation and then it was on to delivery. It wasn’t awkward because I believed in my message again.

Has anyone else had experiences like this as a speaker? I would love to hear your stories in the comments below.