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Five Blogs I Recommend

By Kyle Chowning 3 Comments

Lately, I’ve been uninspired to write here due to a variety of reasons. So rather than trying to come up with something creative, I thought I would take advantage of the Google Reader Trend statistics and share with you the top five blogs that I’ve been reading over the past 30 days.

If you’re a Google Reader user as well, you can access this same data by clicking on the “Trends” link in your navigation area.

Okay, here we go:

#1 Macworld – I am a Mac enthusiast and I find that Macworld offers one of the most comprehensive feeds for Mac related news, software and products. I read 25% of their posts.

#2 Advertising Age – Makes sense…I’m a marketing guy at heart and this is one of the ways that I stay tuned into what’s happening in my market. However, just tonight, I found Mediaweek which is a promising read as well. I read 25% of their posts.

#3 FlowerDust.net (Anne Jackson) – Anne’s blog is a new favorite. She is the author of Mad Church Disease, a book dedicated to helping those in ministry, vocational or volunteer, steer clear from burnout—which is a MAJOR problem. One of the reasons that I, and many others, enjoy reading her blog is that she is one of the most honest bloggers out there. Seriously, it stretches even me. Check it out. I read 100% of her posts.

#4 Nielsen Wire – I just recently found this blog. It’s written by the fine folks at Nielsen and it is FULL of great articles about what’s going on in our culture. Topics include, but aren’t limited to: TV, technology, trends, economy, and much more. Did you know that just over 1/3 of American’s have an HDTV and the average person watches 153 hours of TV a month? Yeah, that kind of stuff. It’s a must-read for me. I read 19% of their posts.

#5 Without Wax (Pete Wilson) – Pete is also a new favorite. He is the senior pastor at Cross Point church here in Nashville and is one of the more forward thinking pastors I know when it comes to how to use media, technology and the Bible, all in one blog post. He’s building a great community of thinkers, believers and activists at Cross Point and on his blog. I read 94% of his posts.

So there you have it. Five blogs that I read regularly that I think you might enjoy. Feel free to share with me some of your favs in the comment section. I’m always looking to expand my horizons.

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Measuring Client Loyalty

By Kyle Chowning Leave a Comment

The state of the economy is finding all of us in an deep dig to discover and fully realize our core competencies. If you’re a small or medium size business owner, casting a wide net of products and service offerings no longer works. You have to find your niche and own it.  If you’ve been able to be relatively unaffected by the downturn in the economy, good for you, but gone are the days of running your business on assumptions. Why?

The results of the downturn in our economy are going to be better businesses, products and services, driven by people who are determined to make it no matter what. The only thing that’s going to keep your clients from moving over to the next company, product or service is loyalty. Are your current clients that loyal? If you think yes, then you don’t really know, unless you know yes. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: , , ,

Review: Starbucks Gold “Reward” Card

By Kyle Chowning 4 Comments

starbucks20gold20cardBack in November 2008, Starbucks launched a new “membership rewards” program called Starbucks Gold. Basically, it’s a card that costs $25 a year and gives you 10% off most everyday purchases as well as a free drink for registering and one on your birthday. Oh, and you get this nifty little black card with a gold cup in the middle (see image to the left).

Given that I do marketing for a living, I thought I would dive into the idea of the Starbucks card and see what impact it is having on Starbucks. Here’s what I found.

The idea is brilliant for Starbucks

Starbucks gets $25 a year for people to carry around a card that gives them 10% off. If you do the math, that means you need to spend $250/year to breakeven; which equates to 1.2 purchases a week at an average of $4, for an entire year. Unless you’re a die-hard fan, that is not likely. However, after doing some research for this post, apparently, I under estimate the number of people that really love Starbucks.  [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Shouldn’t discovering JOY be fun?

By Kyle Chowning 4 Comments

I find that my criticism is a persistent little pest. It crept up, without hesitation, too many times today. It’s apparent to me that my pride isn’t just going to go away, I’m going to have to work through it. Let’s start with…

Work

I’m a business owner. The company is now in it’s third year after celebrating the two-year mark on July 1, 2008. While this is a success in and of itself, about every three-to-four months, I get in a funk. And when I say a funk, I mean that I’m moody, dissatisfied and generally frustrated…with a lot of things. This is prime time for my criticism to step in. For some reason, it feels justified.

After going through three notable funks, I’ve only been able to conclude that I want what the “successful” guys have. I look at the “Top 30 under 30″ and my name isn’t there. I look at guys who are “making their mark” and wonder why I’m spinning my wheels. I look for “inspiration” from their blogs or the “top” whatever lists and stir in my frustration that I’m not doing a thing to reach this level. The cycle of jealously is a never ending circle that I jump into with both feet in hopes that it will spur me on to even more success. But, it never satisfies. I still get funky.

The other day, a guy stopped by my office to do some freelance work for us. After chatting a bit, I questioned his rates. I told him that he was undervaluing himself and that he needed to raise his rates. He reacted by saying, “how can I raise my rates if I’m not getting the opportunity to send a quote?”

After he left, my thoughts were arrested. How could I be so … ungrateful. At Motiveight, is seems like we are always tracking down new opportunities. Even recently, we’ve been fortunate to submit proposals to great companies like Inspiration Networks, CompuPay, Willow Creek Association and others. It was then that I realized that this guy would kill to be in my shoes and here I sat ungrateful because I don’t have what these other “successful” guys have.

CS Lewis says, “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.”

OUCH!

The more I search, the more I find that pride and joy are mutually exclusive. If I want one, I have to give up the other.

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Filed Under: Misc Tagged With: ,