Conversational Media Marketing

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but you can reteach them lessons they've already learned. I'm relearning a life lesson and it's this...

You can waste your life lamenting missed opportunities, or you can look to the future and seize opportunities that present themselves and even make opportunities for things about which you have great passion and desire.

Like most anyone who has taken up more than a few years of space on the planet, I've let opportunities slip through my fingers. Lately, I've allowed myself the misery of looking back on those with regret. But not today!

I've never been very good at self-promotion. That being said, thanks to some encouragement from a few friends I've taken the leap and am offering business blog and social media consulting and speaking services.

If you visit those two pages, you'll note that I refer to myself in the third person, which does seem a bit weird. Let me know if you think so as well and I'll change that. Also, if you feel so inclined, please pass along my name/contact info to anyone you think might have an interest. Thanks!

PS: A video is being produced from a recent live event, so you'll get to see me in action. (I'm sure it will be need to be highly-edited. :->)

Like many of you I learned of the death of former White House press secretary and Fox News analyst Tony Snow today and was saddened by the news. Tony died from colon cancer, a disease he'd been fighting for three years, at age 53.

Listening to one commentator after another talk about the kind of man he was, the thing that caught my attention was not what they said about him professionally, but how they regarded him personally. Each viewed Snow as a genuine, caring individual who placed great value on family and faith.

Professionally, Snow lived a full life. He was active in nearly every form of media from print to television to radio. From what those I listened to had to say, he lived an equally full life on a personal level as well.

I realize we tend to talk about the best qualities of a person after they've passed, but I have to admit, politics aside, I always sensed Snow was a man whose life was characterized by the very ones of which they spoke.

Considering that I'm only one year younger than he, this news caused me to think about an old adage: "It's not the years in your life that counts. It's the life in your years."

For years I've regarded MarketingProfs as one of the two best marketing resource sites on the web, the other being Marketing Sherpa. As such, I attribute immediate credibility to content published there as well as to the contributors who write the articles.

Recently, I received what we in Acadiana refer to as lagniappe. Ann Handley, MarketingProfs Chief Content Officer requested that I contribute an article on the topic of content marketing. She read a blog post I'd written and asked me to expand on it.

Well, I did, then waited to see what Ann might do with it, if anything. How pleasantly surprised I was to find it listed as this week's marketing how-to...and included as premium content as well!

Needless to say I'm extremely grateful to have something I penned included in a resource site that I hold in such high esteem. I'm honored...and humbled.

BTW, the article is entitled How to Acquire and Retain Customers via Content Marketing.

I'll be taking off for a few days (again), this time traveling to see my son, Jonathan, walk the stage and receive his diploma from Mississippi State University this evening at 7:00 p.m. He graduates with a Bachelors of Science specializing in Physical Education.

Simply stated, my son is a coach. When I say "coach," I don't just mean the title; it's who he is. That's something his mother and I have known for years. And it doesn't extend just to the athletic field either, but to many aspects of his life.

There are some other terms I could use I suppose. "Leader" is one that comes to mind, for he is that. And a man of strong convictions as well.

Whoever he is, I'm proud to be called his father, and never more proud than on this day.

So, here's to you Coach Chaney!  May your life and career be everything you've ever hoped or dreamed.

I rarely ever write personal posts on this site. That's what Twitter and Facebook are for these days. However, you may (or may not) have noticed there was little activity here last week. That's because I took a few days off to visit family.

My father, Clarence Ray, turned 80 last Wednesday and I spent a few days with he and mom. Internet access where they live is non-existent.

I then spent the weekend in Nashville with my son Alan, who turned 26 on the 26th (I read somewhere that's called the "golden" birthday). Needless to say, I didn't worry too much about getting online.

Now, I'm back at work trying to catch up. Hopefully, that includes more posts as well.

On this day which Darren Rowse unofficially inaugurated as Blogger Appreciation Day, I must needs express mine.

I appreciate Toby Bloomberg who was the first business blogger I ever met in real life (2004). We shared a great conversation in a "biker" bar (and that's all I'm saying about that. Some things are best left between friends. :->)

I appreciate Shawn Zender-Lea. We dreamed some big dreams for a southern blog network over gyros in a restaurant in Jackson, MS in 2004.

I appreciate Susie Gardner, who let me serve as Technical Editor on Buzz Marketing with Blogs For Dummies. That was eight For Dummies books ago, including a second volume with Susie, Blogging For Dummies, 2nd edition. (2005)

I appreciate Lisa Sabin-Wilson, who handled most all my blog design work during my tenure as founder and president of Radiant Marketing Group, my one-man marketing company. (2004-2006)

I appreciate Blog Business Summit and Steve Broback who let me be a "sponsor," even though it cost me nothing (2005).

I appreciate all those who believed in a vision I had for a professional blogging association. (2005) In fact, I appreciate those who didn't as well.

I appreciate Jason Calacanis who was willing to hire me to blog for Weblogs Inc. (2005) The funds that came in from that job kept me afloat. I appreciate Peter Levinson at AllBusiness.com who allowed me to blog there as well.

I appreciate Richard Nacht who brought me on to parter with him to start Blogging Systems (2005).

I appreciate the fact that, due to that partnership, I was standing in the right place at the right time so that an acquisition editor from McGraw-Hill, Dianne Wheeler, was able to open the door for the first blogging book to target a particular industry vertical, Realty Blogging. Richard and I were co-authors. (2006)

I appreciate Zane Safrit who, to this day, is a dear friend and fellow member of the "2 Smooth Summits" duo. He and I first met at Blog Business Summit.

I appreciate all the clients I served via my Radiant Marketing Group days. You were forerunners and blogging entrepreneurs. I especially appreciate J D Iles, who I still believe is a model for all small business bloggers.

I appreciate Rick Bruner for authoring what I considered to be the leading blog about business blogging that ever was, Business Blog Consulting. And I appreciate the fact he listened to me when I said he should not let it die. I also appreciate Stephan Spencer for keeping it alive to this day.

I appreciate Tris Hussey, whom I referred to as my little blogging brother. He's the real deal. He's lived professional blogging in the trenches and proved you could make it as a blogger.

I appreciate Andy Wibbels, Anita Campbell, Bill Flitter, BL Ochman, Dana Vanden Heuvel, Denise Wakeman, Des Walsh, Jane Genova, John Jantsch, Michelle Miller, Steve Rubel, Wayne Hurlbert, Yvonne DiVita and all the "class of 2004-2005" bloggers.

I appreciate all my RE.net (real estate) blogging friends, espcially , Dustin Luther and Ines Hegedus-Garcia. You've shown your appreciation time and again for the book. To this day I'm humbled by the response you gave it. And all of you at Active Rain where you let a non-Realtor hang out, even appreciating the fact I was there...you rock!

I appreciate Jim Turner who took my idea for a blogger recruiting agency and ran with it.

I appreciate other friends I've met along the way like Dave Taylor, Andy Beal and Rick Calvert.

I appreciate the "new" crop of bloggers who, though many of them have been around as long or longer than me, I'm only now getting the opportunity to come to know.

Basically, in case you hadn't figured it out, I'm very appreciative of bloggers in general. Just that, on this day, some are especially deserving of thanks and praise.

If you think this post is just linkbait, then you don't know me very well. The doors that blogging has opened and the people (these and many others) I've met along the way...well, I'm deeply appreciative for both the journey and friendships. The lessons those I've encountered have taught me are invaluable and have impacted me both personally and professionally.   

So, who are you appreciative of? Feel free to share your list in a comment or on a post of your own.

Anyone remember the book Megatrends, authored by futurist John Naisbitt back in 1982? It was a book that consumed my thinking.

One of the trends discussed was "High tech, high touch,"  which discussed the need for balance between technology and human interaction.  In fact, Naisbitt revisited that topic in 1999 with a book by that title.

I bring this up for a couple of reasons.

One, I was driving down one of our city streets while out at lunch today and saw this billboard. (And I apologize for the poor image quality. I took it with my camera phone while driving!)

The billboard is an ad for a local hospital. Considering that the hospital in question is Catholic, I'm sure additional meaning is intended by the phrase, "Highest Touch." That being said, the second point I wish to make is not a religious one, though I think there are spiritual implications, and most certainly social.

A new movie is about to hit the theaters January 11 called The Bucket List, featuring veteran actors Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.

The plot revolves around two elderly men (played by Nicholson and Freeman) who find themselves sharing space in a hospital cancer ward and decide to make a list of things they'd like to do before then kick the bucket; a list which includes skydiving, driving a pair of Shelby Cobras and seeing the Great Wall of China among other things. They then set about doing them.

So, what's your bucket list look like? (Mine is below.) 

I have an idea I'd like to proffer. Let's start a meme. Yea, I know memes are kind of tired and "been there, done that," but this might be fun.

Create your bucket list anywhere you'd like and invite five others to do the same. Create it on your blog, , wherever. Doesn't matter really, just do it. If such a meme already exists, perhaps the two will meet.  And if you don't mind, leave a comment to let me know.

It's not the purview of this blog to talk about the company I serve as marketing director, Bizzuka, and rarely will you ever find it mentioned here. However, John Munsell, Bizzuka's CEO, has agreed to sponsor the site and, as such, it's only fair that I pay homage with this single post.