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Bringing Progress Forge back

The new year is a time of new beginnings and reflecting as well on the progress we’ve made over time.

Akin to this analogy, is the bringing back of this blog and newsletter, Progress Forge, from the archived shelves of the Internet.

My original vision for Progress Forge, was a place to share some of my ideas and thoughts on a variety of topics. I usually leaned into topics on leadership, marketing, and business. I plan to lean into these topics still but will expand further – given expanded interests and changes in the macroeconomic world and technological advancements.

I’ve brought many of those blog post articles back in their original form thanks to the Wayback Machine and some automation.

I’m leaving the original dates on the articles to reflect the true age of when they were published. Many of the posts have been updated to fix broken links and images. The original context remains, however.

The last article published on Progress Forge was in late 2014. Now after a hiatus, new life is being breathed into this blog and newsletter.

Although the archive spans back to 2008, and much of the content was published to Progress Forge, the domain ProgressForge.com was re-registered in July 2020. There are some more details here.

A lot has happened in the world since then, hasn’t it? Even one year in Internet time is a very long time.

Here’s to pushing forward and forging ahead.

January 1, 2025
Stretch Results But Don’t Break the Rubber Band

Do you do your best when you stretch yourself? Sometimes we can make the most impact when we push through by sheer perseverance. Other times, we need to be loose, relaxed, and in our most poignant place.

I know that whenever there is a deadline looming and even perhaps a little at risk of hitting the schedule, there can be a certain anxiety created around this. For some of us it pushes us to do our best work. Others don’t thrive in this environment.

I think the important thing here is to take what you have in front of you and make a decision. Think of the road converges poem for example. When you are at the fork in the road, what direction are you going to head?

At the front of all of this is the resolve to do everything possible to hit maximum productivity. Work in your optimal place, zone, or whatever works best.

Stretching can be good, breaking the rubber band isn’t. Do what is best for you and your team.

(photo credit: JustinJensen)

October 22, 2014
How to Find and Leverage Local Resources to Help Build Your Business Idea
Don’t do things alone. Your idea is yours, and you can make it happen, but leverage those around you to help.

When you have a business idea or need advice for your existing business who do you go to? Often first-time entrepreneurs are going to hit the Internet as a first resource, but are you also leveraging your local resources?

Go Local, Resources

I’m a huge advocate of leveraging local resources such as Small Business Development Centers through the SBA, and local organizations that might be funded by your state. Local extension offices for specific industries are important. There are lots of non-profit and for-profit organizations too. I recommend weeding through and contacting ones that you vet have a good reputation in your area, or nationally.

Since we are on the Internet now and your area might be different, here are a few suggestions to find a local organization that could help you:
- Start by asking trusted businesspeople that you know. You likely know a few small business owners, ask them. Chances are they have worked with one of these offices.
- Google tips – Try searches like:
  - YOUR CITY small business resource
  - YOUR CITY YOUR INDUSTRY extension office
- Check your local state’s business website. Most have business sections with directories.
- Ask around or search for local startup or entrepreneur groups.
Sometimes you get connected with very seasoned businesspeople that have moved over to organizations that help budding entrepreneurs, and sometimes you do get connected with people that don’t have a lot of entrepreneurial experience but have do have deep experience in a particular field such as finance. Just use good judgement and don’t let everyone into your “trusted circle” of advisors but listen and try to learn copiously from them.

What about consultants?

Yes, consultants ARE helpful, in fact I’m a product and marketing consultant so I would say the value of a consultant is important especially when we can share with you our real world, on the streets, been-in-the-trenches, firsthand experience.

At the same time, consultants don’t typically give their time away for free. The “secret sauce” or value that they bring to the table for your business isn’t often freely available due to time constraints and reach of a consultant. But many times, small business organizations can connect you with seasoned pros and people that are trustworthy.

What’s the most important takeaway? Don’t live on an island.

We are social creatures by nature, sometimes having an awesome idea and building it or making it happen can feel lonely. Get out there and build the next big thing but build a team of trusted advisors around you. These are people you trust and have tons of value to offer you.

At the same time, respect these advisors and give back to them in return however you can. They are looking out for you. Look out for them too. Don’t steal their time, you don’t need to – just leverage their time and resources to boost your progress and then offer something in return if you can.

Question: Do you have any small business / entrepreneur resources to share for new or first-time people looking for help/info?

(photo credit: losangelesdistrict)
January 13, 2014
Exploring to Find Great Results

There is something about standing on a frozen body of water that both humbles you and gives a form of adrenaline rush at the same time.

As I was ice fishing with friends recently, I relate it to how in life and business we can sometimes be on seemingly stable, but potentially unpredictable platforms.

To get the needed results, in this case a fish, you have to drill holes in the stable, hardened surface.

To reach potential and probable gains in life we must be willing to “drill holes” and explore.

If you are launching a new product, copying your competitors is a bad idea. Focus on where you add the most value – the value proposition. With a focus on the value, you are delivering you will also be focusing on the best delivery of the product.

Don’t be afraid to carve out a few extra holes to find those lurkers that you might not have found otherwise.

Question: What is your experience with carving out “holes” in uncharted territories?

(photo credit: m.prinke)

December 30, 2013
Here’s To A Great New Year

Now is a good time to look at the last year and plan for the next. Goals, objectives, plans, and roadmaps. Where are you headed?

One thing that I did a couple of years ago that I am thinking about repeating this year is selecting the top five people that made some kind of notable impact on me in the year and sending them a thank you card. I got some pretty interesting responses and thank you notes in return.

While businesses are mapping out the new year objectives, individuals are hoping for the future and putting their own New Years resolutions into place. Whether or not you believe in starting off the new year with resolutions, or just doing it as needed throughout the year, now is indeed an excellent time to reflect and prepare.

Either way – best to you and yours in the new year and make sure to enjoy life!

To much success and happiness in the new year!

Question: What are you most looking forward to conquering in the new year?

December 27, 2013
Keystone Content: Which of your content is driving traffic?

When creating and publishing content for your audience, you put in the effort, come up with a topic of interest – typically helping solve a real need, or answering a question. So, to that end what content is driving the bulk of your website traffic?

I’ve often found, when digging into marketing analytics, there are certain trends around your content marketing efforts to be watchful for. One of these is keystone content.

Keystone content typically drives a high percentage of your website traffic over a given period of time, say 6 months to 1 year. You will often see it perform well in organic search, as well as referring, and social media traffic. When the average blog post might be driving 2% of traffic in a period, this one might be driving upwards of 25% of your overall traffic.

What is the importance? You can’t always predict what is going to fully resonate with your audience. However, by analyzing content trends in marketing analytics you can usually find the content that resonates the best with your audience. Then, you can decide from there what to do.

(photo credit: Chris Talbot)

Question: What content themes have you found to resonate with your audience?

April 19, 2013
Force Yourself to Move Faster To Increase Productivity

No one in the history of earth has ever waited until 11:00 pm on a Sunday evening to start a ten page term paper, right? Or how about in business, no one has ever made excuses that they were waiting on ‘this one crucial detail’ from someone to complete a project, only finding they are overdue.

By taking a step back and evaluating, you might find that moving faster may increase your productivity.

When I am speaking of moving fast, in this context, I am referring to ‘working’ fast or ‘pushing’ yourself a little harder than normal.

What role does procrastination have in this? Could purposeful procrastination be a good thing?

I am not sure, but one thing I have learned is that sometimes when you find yourself in a pinch you perform your best work. Why is that? Is it the lizard brain freaking out that you will get into some kind of trouble, so it tells the adrenal gland to give you a little boost?

Try these few things next time you want to push yourself to move faster to get something done.

Increase the urgency, even if falsified

Calendars and to do lists can do marvelous things to trick us into moving faster. Who needs procrastination?

Schedule a due date and time ahead of schedule but make it the ‘freak-out deadline’. Work will get done.

Publicly proclaim your intentions

You don’t have to share with your X (formerly Twitter) friends what your deadline for a top-secret project is but tell a couple of key people that you are pushing to get something done by such and such time and date and tell them to remind you about it.

They will remind you. Think friend-sourcing.

Shut off distractions

Ever find yourself taking a quick peek at the ol’ email inbox right in the middle of a time you are working on some pretty heads down stuff? Stop!

Do this first: You can shut off notifications across your devices. Do it. Trust me. You can typically schedule this during peak work times.

Yes, even mobile phones. Go into your notification settings on your phone and turn off sound alerts and yes, the little red icon that blinks or appears over the email icon.

You will thank me later. You won’t miss a beat, I promise.

Next, invest in some GTD (getting things done) education. Lifehacker has been talking about getting things done for years, and are huge David Allen and GTD fans, but one blog that I’ve been watching more closely lately is written by an interesting Internet entrepreneur, Michael Sliwinski. It is appropriately named, Internet Business Productivity blog. He knows his stuff. Something I’d likely expect as a founder of Nozbe a project management GTD app.

Have fun

Don’t forget to have fun. When you are doing well upstairs and feel relaxed enough to laugh and enjoy yourself, things just click better. Moving faster and pushing yourself out of a rut boosts the fun ratio exponentially!

Question:

Do you have an example of an experience where you pushed yourself to ‘move faster’ and it paid off?

September 15, 2012
3 Ways to Increase Meeting Performance
If there is one thing in business that many are reluctant to do, it is to attend a meeting. Who could blame them? Most meetings are unproductive and don’t accomplish the task at hand. There must be a better way, right?

I sat in and ran my fair share of meetings. I don’t proclaim to be the master meeting guy, but I do have some observations that pull from years of attending and participating in meetings, whether professionally in business – corporate, small business, and startup; civic, and non-profit.

A few types of meeting scenarios you may encounter:
- Recurring meetings – regularly scheduled weekly, monthly etc.
- Spur of the moment – quick, join this meeting, we have a fire drill
- Ad hoc – A brief phone call or instant message session turns into a full-blown meeting
As well, a few communication means in meetings:
- Face to face – sit down at a table or room together
- By phone – No visual, just voice
- Web collaboration – Zoom, GoToMeeting, or Webex style visual slides or watching screen
- Video call – Skype, Slack, Teams, or similar platform with 1:1 or group abilities
When it comes down to it, most meetings could be avoided if the right collaboration tools and platforms are in place, and people know how to use them. It also depends on the meeting size. But let’s pretend you have meetings that you regularly attend and may be either a participant or running it.

Set the pace and expectations

If you want to get the best participation from the attendees and you are running the meeting, make sure that you are slow, concise, and clear of objectives. The best way to accomplish this is with an agenda. Let me say this, agendas are critical! Yes, they often do require some front loading and thoughts prior to the meeting, but it is the best way to set expectations with the team attending the gathering.

Each person in the meeting might have a different communication style, which is OK and expected, so remember it is good to set a good pace and usually it is better to be on the safe side and move a little slower to make sure everyone is in sync. This might annoy some of the faster paced individuals, however, encourage them to give input and then re-cap or summarize for the rest of the crew to make sure the point isn’t lost.

Track specific actions or outcomes

Have you ever been in a meeting and part of the conversation involves, “OK great, let’s follow-up on this later”, and nothing comes of it? So many actions that would be pinnacle to success of the team hinges on follow-up. If you are running a meeting and have a challenging time tracking items while coordinating communication, then see if you can enlist someone on the team to help take notes. In summary: track action items and make sure follow-up happens.

If you are attending a meeting it is a good idea to take note of the actions you are requested to take.

Share the notes with the team on a wiki, shared document, or least preferred by email.

Be present

Put down your phone, quite instant messaging, and reading email while in a meeting. If you are so busy and can’t manage your time that you have to continue constantly communicating while you are attending a meeting, then you need to address that otherwise. Also, especially as a leader attending a meeting, if you do this you set the pace and example for the rest of the team.

When running the meeting, pause after key discussions look around the room (or ask verbally if phone or web meeting) and ask, “Does that make sense?” or “Do you have any questions or feedback on that?”.

Try to be engaging and if you think people are distracted, gently nudge them by including them specifically.

Also, ask yourself, as a meeting organizer, are the right people in this meeting, and do I need to update who attends next time?

Keep working toward meeting bliss

It might be ironic to say meeting and bliss in the same sentence, but when well executed, you can have meetings that you leave excited, exhilarated, and clear on what to do and what the team will do when done.

Question:

Have you achieved meeting nirvana? Any thoughtful advice, or even stories ‘from the trenches’ you could share?

(photo credit: Carl Dwyer & Adriana Lukas)
July 12, 2012
5 Steps You Can Take To Build a Stronger Team

I recently had an interesting experience where something I had been head down working on for a few weeks, I had found a particular component frustrating, and someone stepped in with fresh eyes and gave instant clarity. This is what great teamwork is all about.

How often does it happen where we have our noses pressed so hard against the glass that we fail to see right through it?

Here are five steps you, as a leader, and both as a follower in situations where you must follow suit, can help build a stronger team, with greater focus.

1. Focus on the big picture

There is nothing worse than plodding along with meaningless work. What is the purpose that is sitting before, or the mission at hand? If you don’t set the standard, the pace, and the vision, then who will? Too many of us choose to sit idly by on the sidelines waiting to be called in to the game. Start the game!

2. Encourage pinch hitting

Often there will be situations where it will require someone to help with another person’s “usual” tasks. Don’t encourage animosity for someone to feel like they are doing something that is “beneath” them by drawing to hard of lines in the sand. Teams are just that, teams!

The end goal isn’t always reached by the first set course. Sometimes it requires flexibility. Often, this might require you to roll up your sleeves. But don’t disregard appropriate delegation.

3. Delegate appropriately

Have you ever been delegated a task without any clear guidance? This is very frustrating, right? What about tasks you have delegated? Think about the last 3-5 tasks you have delegated and ask yourself, did you give enough direction, or at least the right initial directions?

If you want to learn some effective ways to delegate, I encourage you to read the five levels of delegation.

4. Set proper expectations

As a close cousin to delegation, setting proper expectation up front is important too. You want independent individual key players on your team, but setting clear expectations is crucial to the success of the overall team. When each person knows what is expected of them individually and as a group, it sets the right tone.

5. Promote integrity

Stepping in to help another or putting in some extra time is more bearable when the team is based around the value of integrity. It starts with vision, no matter how small the team’s task might be, and builds into honesty and integrity. The added advantage to promoting integrity is that problems can be spotted earlier on, and resolved quickly, as there is more open communication, and willingness to take responsibility and fix it.

I am grateful to have had many great examples of leaders in my life that have taken these steps to heart, and some that I’ve seen blow these off. They did so, however, at their own peril.

I like what Henry Ford said, relating to this topic of building stronger teams, “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”

Question: Do you have any more examples on building stronger teams? Are you currently in the process of trying to do this with your team?

(photo credit: voithite)

June 14, 2012
Want to know where the future of marketing is going? Look to the youth.

If you want to know where the future marketing is going, look to the younger generation!

The future of marketing is not going to be about who can spend the most money, the future marketing is going to be about crowdsourcing, remarkable content, and thoughtful data.

Have you ever doubted the power of younger generations today? Just look at the Kony 2012 YouTube video as an example of how quickly a message can be spread around the world. This video which has over 85 million views and growing, was done with a smallish budget, in a brief amount of time, but had an underlying message that resonates!

It is no small feat to create something and spread it across the Internet with hundreds of millions of views. But when you have a massive army of people that are waiting to distribute this content, if it is relevant, meaningful, and has a good message, then it will be shared innumerable times.

The future of marketing is about relevancy, meaning, and timing. I’m a firm believer that the generation growing up now will be some of the most thoughtful humanitarian based thinkers of our time. We are breeding and nurturing an army of people that care more about how things are going to impact our society and world in a positive way over profit and greed. This is why we see many many people responding well to messages that are most important.

Blogging has taken on a new form, with businesses gaining thousands of viewers, and many eyeballs over their content each month, by creating something of use to their target audience. They are creating value beyond numbers, and a permanent resource.

Undoubtedly, blogging in the form that we know it will change over time, and that is OK, we want it to be fine-tuned and improved over time, and that will happen organically. We need to be thoughtful and mindful to remember that not everybody consumes media in the same way. Older demographics may prefer to pick up something tangible like a physical newspaper or book. Some easily transition to using newer technology, like tablets for example. Others may not desire that at all, but I do know that over time the technological impact is increasing, and how we consume media is always changing.

Today’s younger generation are great at consuming media, as most of us are, but they are also great at creating content. From video to artistic photography, to microblogging and long blogging. Most of the stuff that is created is shared with minimal barriers because they know their target audience, their community and what is interesting, and most importantly not boring. They’ve had many many hours of experience of consuming content, so they know what it makes good stuff.

So what can we as content marketers learn from the younger generations? We can learn a lot. We can learn that by leveraging our networks, our friends, family, and colleagues, and those that care about our messages, these stories whether a simple blog post, or photograph, or report, can be shared with thousands, and millions. The key here is no trickery is allowed. No schmucks. No big corporate feeling. We just need a pure unadulterated ‘something’ that is going to impact the world, and that is how it has to be portrayed, otherwise it will be seen as valueless, faceless and cold.

This post doesn’t have all the answers, but as you are creating campaigns, be thinking more about the ‘why’, and bigger picture, and less about the tactics. The tactics are easy, and come naturally to most. Ask strategically, is the thought process being followed really in line with the overall picture?

(photo credit: MoMoNWI)

March 20, 2012