Happy Labor Day
Monday is a holiday in the US. We’re supposed to take the day off and have a “last day of summer.”
I wound up being like a European and took about half of August off. Almost two weeks pretty much off the grid. Then a trip to Foxboro. And as always in August and September, I am up to my ears trying to find referees for soccer matches.
Houston
I’m having difficulty digesting all the devastation in Houston and the Texas coast. As I write this, the remnants of Harvey are beginning to reach Ohio. Looks like where I live it too far north. There are years we’ve been drenched by hurricane leftovers.
But 50 inches (1.27 meters) of rain?
I was helping organize a meeting at the end of September in Houston at BP. Needless to say, that meeting will now be November or December.
Marketing
Bruce McDuffee wrote recently about a new ebook he has published for all you marketing types reading this blog. He specializes on helping companies market in the manufacturing space. This is a difficult proposition because people come into marketing from different paths in manufacturing than in consumer goods. (And yes, I owe him a long overdue guest post.)
A company’s website is its virtual storefront. Whether you’re looking to build your first website, or if your existing site just isn’t getting the traffic or leads you were hoping for, you may wonder what it really takes to have a great website.
This eBook offers 25 tactics to drive traffic, increase leads, and get more sales.
Here’s what’s covered in this 53 page eBook:
- Get found online with SEO and a strong underlying website structure
- Design for usability
- Content that engages, brings people back, and gives your firm credibility
- Bottom line conversion tactics
Thinking like Einstein
I subscribe to a site called “Big Think.” Lots of interesting ideas served daily.
Perhaps you knew that Einstein figured out the principles of Special Relativity and General Relativity and gravitation through the use of “thought experiments.” It was an exercise in imagination. After his insights, he was able to go back and work out the math (which is fascinating).
In this recent article appeared this thought:
How can you utilize Einstein’s approach to thinking in your own life? For one – allow yourself time for introspection and meditation. It’s equally important to be open to insight wherever or whenever it might come. Many of Einstein’s key ideas occurred to him while he was working in a boring job at the patent office. The elegance and the scientific impact of the scenarios he proposed also show the importance of imagination not just in creative pursuits but in endeavors requiring the utmost rationality. By precisely yet inventively formulating the questions within the situations he conjured up, the man who once said “imagination is more important than knowledge” laid the groundwork for the emergence of brilliant solutions, even if it would come as a result of confronting paradoxes.
