Sound-off  1 – 2
Sound-off 3 – 4
Break it on down 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 . . .

In the armed services, a military cadence or cadence call  is
a traditional call-and-response work song sung by
military personnel while running or marching.

In the United States, these cadences are sometimes called jody calls or jodies, after Jody, a recurring character
who figures in some traditional cadences. 

The cadence always brings the troops back to thinking about the “basics.”

Back to the basics is what Starbucks chief Howard Schultz, who returned to the company 2 years ago demanded!  “We have lost our way,” said Schultz.  “We had to go back to the start-up mode, hand-to-hand combat every day.”  Schultz closed stores and laid off  workers. 

His goal was to create an image in their people’s head and have them “to think like employees of a scrappy little company that just wants to serve a good cup of coffee.” 

This meant buying coffee beans in smaller batches and tailoring menus by region. 

It also meant re-designing stores to achieve a certain feeling of location. 
A “Local-ness” per say. 

Well while others are being “ground” through the recession, Starbucks apparently found its roots.  Starbucks, in the first quarter, net income went up by $64.3 million, revenue rose by four percent, as did same-store sales.

This was supposed to be a time when we were giving up the lattes along with other luxuries, but  . . .

How do we get back to the basics?

1.  Hand deliver the report – This gets you out and seen.  Visibility.
Take the Camera and get pictures with your Real Estate Agents. 
Post them to your Website or Face Book Fan Page.

2.  Communicate – Talk to the receptionist, the closing coordinator,
the associate.  Ask what can you do to help and have something for them. 

An article about the Real Estate business.  Maybe some SEO strategies or a list of site
where they can post and list their company.  Write a blog about the Realtor
and drop it off.    Success is just a “helping” away. . . davism

3.  Hand deliver your “New Price Sheet” – Stop in offices.  It is the first of
the year and they will be happy you did.  Re-activate your connections.  Make
it personal with a package.  Price sheet in a colored flat letter envelope. 
Personalize the price sheet with a sticky.   Include on stationary something
personal about your family in the package.  Your anniversary, your dogs or
children.

Boot Camp only lasted 6 weeks.  Let’s spend the next 6 weeks getting back
to being just a scrappy little company that just wants to perform a great home inspection.

Ten – hut!

Maverick Rules!

Dave Park
The Maverick Builder
Your Success is Our Success!

You could already be aware that our limiting beliefs reside in our subconscious mind. Our subconscious mind is not a place, but an activity present in each and every cell of our body. Limiting beliefs are paradigms – or clusters of habits that operate automatically. If someone says, “this is a bad economy” and our first thought is “yeh, it sure is,” the habit or limiting belief of lack (there isn’t enough to go around) responded rather than our making it a conscious choice. We could say, “how do you know that is true,” as example. Questioning, rather than automatically accepting information is how we create new, habits that serve us well.

As spiritual beings connected to all living things via our intuition, we each are born in perfect harmony with universal energy or our creator. The limiting beliefs of others become our own before we reach the age of reason (about 6) as we have no ‘conscious mind’ to accept or reject data. The subconscious mind, however cannot reject, and only accepts information.

A family passes down their limiting beliefs by discussing those beliefs in the presence of a child repeatedly. A family that believes as example,* dancing is a no-no, they don’t dance, they discuss how the family never has danced, why they don’t dance, what’s wrong with those that do dance, etc., and talk about it repeatedly for years, the child now has that limiting belief! An unsolicited gift, if you will, from those who love us and are quite unaware of the less than optimum influence this data has on our life. If we believe there isn’t enough to go around, there will not be enough to go around.

Limiting beliefs create a barricade, blocking access to the perfect harmony we knew as toddlers and our intuition. We want to get back to feeling our intuition and move to shut down our limiting beliefs by creating new ones that will ultimately have us realize that we each have limitless potential!

Julia (2) is my 3rd granddaughter and she spent the night with me last week. She made herself abundantly clear about what she wanted to do and would have no other answer but YES, unless perhaps I offered a new agreement that satisfied her desire for whatever it was. She had no limiting beliefs as to what was possible for her. She would not move on to another task until this one was settled to her satisfaction. She had limitless potential and acted like she was 12 feet tall!

What would our lives be like if we could have beliefs that supported our infinite potential?
If we gave up HOW we are going to do it and only considered WHY we WANT it?

Julia wanted it because JULIA WANTED IT and no other reason. You will be happy to know that it is not a difficult process to create new beliefs that supersede the old limiting ones. That is what my work is all about.

If time and money were not an issue, what would you want?
Forget about how you would get it or that it is something you need.

What do you really want? Do you know that you may have anything you want as long as you do not violate the rights of others? Now there’s a belief system for you!

Great spirits have always encountered
violent opposition from mediocre minds. … Einstein

Leslie Flowers, CS, LSC
Certified Speaker / LifeSuccess Consultant
919-271-4948
www.LifeSuccessLeslie.com

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) like the weather is constantly changing. What worked perfectly just a few short years ago to land your page in the top ten results may only get you on page three or four now.  To stay on the first page of the search results for a specific keyword you must know your competition very well.  This is like a strategic war game of sorts where your competition is learning on the fly, just like “WOPR”, the computer did in the movie “War Games”.

For this article I will concentrate on keywords  specifically, so let’s take a look at them closer and see what we can do to stay ranked on that coveted first page.  As a note, when I say ranked I mean naturally, organically or on the left side of the search engine results pages (serp), not on the right side or top where the pay per click (paid) ad’s appear.

Keywords or should I say “Long Tail Keywords” (three words or more) are much easier to get a first page ranking for now because of the ever increasing amounts of competition.  What I mean is competing number of pages for your particular long tail keyword.  Sure, you will probably get less hits or overall impressions, but if it is a “buying” long tail keyword, then that can avoid the shoppers or tire kickers as I call them.

An example in the insurance world would be “health insurance” vs.  “family co pay health insurance in Washington DC”.  A person searching for the long tail like this example has probably narrowed down their search to a particular type of health policy and is ready to buy, rather than someone who is still performing research about the subject.

So where can we use these “Long Tail Keywords” in our overall optimization strategy? There are two main areas of optimization, on page and off page. I will cover some of both as they relate to keywords in general. The first area to look at would be on page optimization, such as title tags, meta description and meta keyword tags.

A title tag should be brief but descriptive enough for your site visitors to identify you and your business. The title tag is the first thing that is shown and indexed by the search engines. The meta description tag influences the possibility that a person will actually click on the search engine results page and visit your site. Its intent is to be a brief but concise summary of your page’s overall content.

Meta keyword tags  are a summary list of the most important words on your page.  They are still considered very important, but the search engines have de-emphasized their overall value over time because of over usage.  There are other things to consider, but a good overall strategy would be to include your Long Tail Keywords in all three tags. 

The other area to concentrate on would be off page optimization strategies such as video and article marketing.  With several new articles in place on your site and fresh content regularly scheduled, this can ensure you with a much faster return to the top of the search engine rankings for your keywords.

There are many article hosts available, but four or five main sites should be enough to obtain good rankings.  Some of the best sites include EzineArticles, GoArticles, ArticleBase, WebProNews and ArticleDashBoard. 

Video marketing these days can come in two distinct flavors, posted video and hosted video. Posted video is when you create and optimize video content that is uploaded to video sharing websites like Youtube.  Hosted video is either hosted on a private network or hosted on your own site (server).

The benefit of posted video would be that you can leverage the higher page rank and authority that these sites have in order to assist you in ranking well within the search engines. The downside is that this strategy does not help with driving traffic back to your own website. Hosted video is a good strategy when your goal is to drive users to your own website but must be optimized correctly.

With generous usage of your long tail keywords in your articles and on video links will catapult your site back towards the top again.

These are just some of the areas that you should concentrate on if you have found your site sinking back to the second page and beyond.

In the next article, I will go into detail about current Linking strategies and how that ties in with long tail keywords as well.

For more information or questions regarding this article or our services, please email me at Brian@strategicseomarketing.com or visit us at www.strategicseomarketing.com

“Imitation Sugar is Sweet . . . Too!”

Imitation isn’t only the sincerest form of flattery; it’s also a power way to learn new business skills.

Mark Twain learned how to write by imitating other writers.  As a youth he set newspaper stories in type for the newspaper.  Tedious work, but it gave him the chance to imitate writers.  He learned the fundamentals of great writing by copying.

 
I hear the skepticism, “Mark Twain was a great author.”

 
Well you’re a great inspector. 
A professional inspector. 
And you drive a lot.

 
Have you ever walked down a street you normally drive?

Did you notice that you saw, heard and learned a lot more about the street when you were on foot? 
When you slow down, you pay attention to all the wonderful things you normally miss.  

 
The same thing happens when you imitate the great marketers, networkers and sales people.  You
suddenly become aware of what you normally never hear or see.

 
Imitation is POWRful.
 
Athletes watch film of great players.  They are training their minds (and bodies) to record patterns
of creating success. Businesses copy other successful business models.

It isn’t stealing, it’s learning.

If you want to know how to become a better networker, then imitate the people who are already doing it.  Just ask. 
Then will be glad to help.  You will set them as an expert.  It is a great stroke for them. 
A great education for you.

 
When you copy their form, their networking, their style, you will begin to recognize how and why they
get the results they have achieved.

 
Just ask a successful salesperson or training guru.  A networker or media expert.  Find someone to follow
in social media.  Guy Kawasaki or Seth Godin.  Read their blogs.  Then handwrite their blogs.  

 
Sound too simple for you? 

Then keep this in mind.

 
Learning is eternal.  Set aside 10 minutes a day.  The POWR of imitation can transform your entire
ability to move your business. . .  Double your Business!

 
You will be amazed what you will learn!

Plain and Simple!

MAVERICK RULES!

Your Success is Our Success!

P.S.  I want to share with you the THREE SECRETS STEPS of imitation:

1.  Step One:  Set a Goal.
2.  Step Two:  Be Aware of the Moment.
3.  Step Three:  Trust what Happens.

Set at Goal by deciding on what skill you

need to approve on for your business. 

(Networking)

Be Aware of the Moment.  Focus on the

Point.  Focus on the imitation moment.

You point of power is now.

(Keep quite the inner chatterbox)

Trust what Happens.  Everything in life

is or can be a learning experience.  Give

yourself the opportunity to learn, grow,

expand and enrich your skills.

(Take what you have learned and let if flow)

Copywrite 2010, The Maverick Builder
All rights reserved!

“Fat Bottom Girls you make the rocking world go round . . . get on your bikes and ride” -                                                                                                                        Queen

In Reveries today Tim Manners reported:

M.I.T. researchers have re-invented a bicycle wheel “that captures kinetic energy

released when a rider brakes and saves it for when the rider needs a boost,” reports

Sindya N. Bhanoo in the New York Times (12/15/09). The Copenhagen Wheel, consists

of “a sleek red hub” that “can be retrofitted to any bike’s rear wheel.”

It employs “the same technology used by hybrid cars … to harvest otherwise wasted energy when a cyclist brakes or speeds

down a hill.  With that energy, it charges up a battery inside the wheel’s hub.”  The device “includes sensors that track air quality,

a meter that logs miles and a GPS unit to track routes.   All that data can be sent via Bluetooth to a rider’s smart

phone and shared with others.”

It all sounds very cool, but I think it misses the mark.

The basic bike is so hard to beat.

The latest thing now are the simple, fixed-gear bikes, so simple and light you can throw them over your shoulder.

Does anyone remember Schwinn? 

Banana Seat, Monkey Handle Bars and

playing cards in the spokes . . .

. . . Now can you take today’s economic bike truth and pedal your way through your business pricing model?

Let’s look at your price structure:

First is your pricing listed and available?

Is your pricing model simple?

Do your offer add-on values or just “pile-ons?”

Do you have a different charge for age, foundation type, location?

Does your client need a calculator to multiply the charge per sq foot?

Do they need a Abacus when looking over your invoice?

People “Simply” want the best.

And where price is concerned

“Simple” is Simply Better!                  

Maverick Rules!

Your Success is Our Success!

P.S.  If you did not grow up a Queen fan, you simply missed some of

the best music the 70’s and the 80’s had to offer and my apologies to

all the “small bottom girls.”

Julie Jargon of the Wall Street Journal reports that Starbucks has brought in a classic toy to teach inefficiency. 

Mr. Potato Head, one of the world’s most adored “personalities,” was “born” in 1952, at the Pawtucket, RI – based toy company,

Hasbro, Inc., and began making history at an early age as the very first toy to be advertised on television.

 The original Mr. Potato Head contained only parts, such as eyes, ears, noses and

mouths, and parents had to supply children with real potatoes for face-changing fun!

 Yes, the Mr. Potato Head toy helped Starbucks employees understand exactly how

inefficient they are at their jobs.  The toy’s parts are sprinkled “across several tables”

and baristas are timed by stopwatch to see how long it takes them to put Mr. Potato

 head together.

 The first time Tara Jordan tried this, it took her about a minute. But she got her time

down to just 16 seconds after “moving items closer together” and “altering the order of assembly.” This exercise is part

of Starbucks’s drive to reduce its store labor costs, which total “about $2.5 billion, or 24 percent of revenue, annually.”

Now what can we take from Mr. Potato Head. 

Efficiency creates effectiveness — freeing up more time “to interact with clients and improve your business experience.” 

This can be especially tricky because “every inspection business is configured differently and has its own

client-realtor-management patterns.” 

The Mr. Potato Head game should encourage each franchise and inspector “to come up with their own efficiency solutions.”

When was the last time you wrote down all your business pieces?
Do you just plug in solutions or do your create a flow chart?
Which pieces are most important? 

Don’t be a Spud Dud!

Grow your business by providing an Experience.

Explode your business by creating Efficiency.

Mr. Potato Head … a world-class personality whose recognition grew from a simple children’s toy to everyone’s best friend,

a speaker of causes, entertainment star and a cultural icon.

Sounds like a Maverick!