Only recently, as in the past 6 months, have I turned my attention to retention marketing. For those unfamiliar with the term it refers to “marketing programs that are aimed at increasing engagement, brand support, and loyalty to one company or product.”

You may have heard it surface in conversations as lifecycle marketing, loyalty marketing, customer success marketing, customer happiness marketing, etc. There are a lot of ways to say it but it all boils down to – programs that help keep customers happy.

While I may be new to it, my inner curious cat has really enjoyed jumping in head first. I’ve read a few great books, watched some excellent webinars, and set up coffee or calls with pretty much anyone I know that has done this in any capacity.

Guess what I learned? It’s fracking hard. Most brands don’t do it well (or at all), and many brands are using outdated tools and resources to manage such programs. While over the past five years, companies like Zappos have brought customers to the forefront, we are still somewhat confused on how best to talk to them. We aren’t quite sure how to isolate out our different customer types as it relates to loyalty, and because of that we simply fail to reach them effectively.

The Four Types of Loyalty

Did you know there are four types of loyalty? Me either but it’s true. Understanding these groups and thinking about your customers as they relate to each is super helpful when approaching your retention marketing efforts. Each and every customer must sit in one of these buckets:

1. No Loyalty – there s a subset of your current user base that is incapable of being loyal. This is just the cold hard truth. Did you know that? I sure as heck didn’t. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could grasp a sense of how many of your users consistently “shop around” so you can better measure your success?

2. Inertia Loyalty – this is when a customer has a low level of attachment but usually has a high repeat level of repeat purchase.  Basically, this type of customer sticks with you out of habit or price indifference, they tend to sit in the middle – not dissatisfied, but not wowed either. Interesting right? Wouldn’t it be cool if you knew how big this group was? They respond to a totally different message than the other three groups.

3. Latent Loyalty – this is when a customer has a great sentiment for you as a brand, but low repeat purchase. This means they are highly influenced by situational effects like promos from competitors. Isn’t that crazy? Think about how many untapped evangelists are in this group? If you seek out evangelists by number of purchases, you are doing your loyalty marketing an injustice.

4. Premium Loyalty – is just what you think it is. Its when a customer is both highly attached and has a high likelihood to purchase consistently. These are your golden customers. What are you doing to proactively seek this group out? How are you messaging them differently? Are you rewarding them differently?

Your current readers, visitors, customers, etc. fall into one of these buckets right now. Do you know where? Do you know the distribution of those groups by % of your customer base? At SEOmoz, we sure as hell didn’t. In fact we have made some huge gains toward it, but we are still on our own journey toward understanding how our customers feel about us.

So What Did We Do?

About a dozen things actually, but here are the biggies:

We made it a company-wide cause. After letting retention and loyalty marketing be the hot potato for far too long, we simply decided to let someone own it. I am super fortunate to lead the initiative, but I quickly realized I was going to need a whole lot of help if I was going to make a dent in our churn. That help came in the form of a cross-function team. I reached out to a representative from each team that has showed a real interest in reducing our churn and keeping our customers engaged. This team meets every two weeks and covers a variety of topics covering everything from new help documents, to customer surveys, to new success metrics.

I got serious about data collection. When I say I got serious about data collection I mean “I drove people nuts until we had a plan for data.” Honestly, I’m surprised I didn’t get fired while pushing for a new data house, new KPIs, and new business rules around measurement (I plan to do a post just on those metrics soon enough!). I set so many meetings I thought I would break Google Calendar. I wanted everyone on board with what we wanted to measure, and more importantly – what we were okay NOT measuring. This is crucial.

I hired a retention marketer. You might think I jumped the gun but honestly…I wanted someone full-time. When I looked at the role I was easily able to put together more than 40 hours worth of work for them to focus on. They handled weekly reporting, data investigations, churn analysis, regression analysis, source tracking, loyalty program brainstorming, building, and implementation, not to mention – involuntary churn analysis and optimization, credit card processing, etc. Then there is customer landscape research, and email marketing. I mean wowwzzz—how did we not have this yet?

Lastly, I was honest about our limitations – both the companies and my own. I sent an email to the executive team pitching this new program and I made it super clear that there would be a learning curve. I’m not trained in loyalty marketing, and my background doesn’t carry much direct experience either. You could say it was quite a Hail Mary.  Luckily for me, the E-team at SEOmoz supports this sort of risk. They were more than willing to let us run with it.

Where Did This All Get Us?

To a much more successful place IMO. The company now has a place for retention to call home. When questions pop up there are people that are informed and ready to jump in a meeting. We have pushed out over a half dozen loyalty and engagement-focused programs, reworked customer personas, revamped customer metrics, and build a data house that the entire company benefits from.

Do we have a long way to go? Hell yes. We are currently exploring improving our measurement around customer engagement, customer groups, and upsell programs. This is just in the next few months. We have surveys running to help us understand where we can do better, and I couldn’t be more excited to see the results.

I think all of this has taught me something pretty fantastic though – loyalty marketing is more than delivering a good product. It’s so much more…if your company is only exploring the acquisition side and not spending as much time on the customer once they convert – its time to get moving.  To keep a customer loyal is not only cheaper than acquiring a new one, but it makes for more organic growth. The power of customer marketing (word of mouth marketing) is stronger than ever.

Help your customers succeed and then give them ways to share those successes with others. I think its’ time to consider “increasing loyalty” a marketer’s job…because it is. For me, it’s been a fun part too. If you have resources you love on loyalty marketing, share them below!

Then he said “The Desire Path.” Just like you I thought to myself “well this game has taken a turn for the x-rated hasn’t it…” But alas, it was not that at all. He showed me this picture:

When he showed it to me, I still didn’t get it. I had to ask him what it meant. He gave me this quick definition, which is something like this… “its what happens when people choose to create a shorter route than the actual one.”

The text book definition is this: “A desire path (also known as a desire line, social trail, goat track or bootleg trail) is a path developed by erosion caused by footfall or by bicycle. The path usually represents the shortest or most easily navigated route between an origin and destination.”

Goat track. Ha. Moving on.

So I thought about this for a hot minute, then our conversation switched to what airline I was flying out on. However, once I got on the plane I kept thinking about it. The desire path. The desire line. The shortcut we find when we know just where we are going.

This all reminded me of a conversation I had with Peter not too long ago when we were running along the Seattle waterfront. It was one of our first runs as a couple. His steps are about two times the size of mine in mileage covered so lets just say — it wasn’t going awesomely. I was trying to look cute while trying to keep up and he was trying to slow down which made him look like he was stumbling. We were trying to hold conversation but growing increasingly frustrated with each other.

The moment that I remember most was when he jumped off the trail and through this little mini park which has a pretty arch called “Rose’s Garden.” I all but stopped. WHY WAS HE JUMPING OFF THE TRAIL? I literally felt like Field of Dreams when I took my first step onto the grass. It was so crazy — WHO KNEW WHERE I WOULD END UP.

He thought this was hilarious.

“You’ve never gone off the path before?,” he asked.

“Well actually I guess not, no I haven’t,” I answered just as surprised.

This, much like hearing the definition of desire path, struck me. I’m just not one to go off the path. This is strange given I was brought up reading books like “Where the Sidewalk Ends” and listening to poems about taking the road less traveled. I’m the one that took off from home at 21, seeking a coast I had never even seen. I am the one that picked a career my family doesn’t even think is real. I’m the one that used to stay up as a kid dreaming of ways I could build a ladder to reach the stars.

Yet here I am, a grown ass adult… freaking out about the concept of leaving the already established trail. What a strange dichotomy.

Needless to say, the entire flight I kept thinking about this concept of the desire path. I kept trying to find examples where I have “built” one in my life. I could’t really find one. Instead I found a laundry list of examples where I have stayed on the expected path far too long:

I’ve stayed in friendships I knew weren’t healthy.

I’ve stayed in relationships I knew weren’t healthy.

I fought for goals I didn’t really want.

I stood up for people I don’t think really deserved it.

I’ve stood by during injustices.

I’ve masked what I wanted for what I should have wanted.

And so on and so forth.

Just when I thought there was no hope I remembered this one time. I thought back to a time that something was expected of me, I should have done it, and I chose a shorter path to where I really wanted to be.

When I was a senior in high school my mom was dying of cancer. We found out over Christmas that she had a few months to live. I won’t go into it all too much here, instead I’ll save it for another time. However, as the school year was closing my mom had gotten increasingly sick. She was hardly herself anymore. She had stopped working. She didn’t really eat. She didn’t really sleep. She didn’t really talk. She was in a lot of pain.

My sister and I were seniors in a small town, at a highschool where everyone knew us. For months the town and highschool tried to help my sister and I behave normally. It was really important to my mom that we got to enjoy our last year in school with our friends. She insisted we go to school, and practices, and prom. All the meanwhile she was getting sicker, and time was running slim.

So the last week of school finals rolled around. I did well in school, mostly A’s with some B’s. I had to take this Psychology Exam. I remember being in my room two days before the exam and just staring at the books. I kept running out to see my mom in the living room where she now lived with our Hospice care late at night. The next day I went to my teacher and for one of the only times ever I chose the desire path. I said “I’m not taking this.” And as any great teacher would have done he looked into my eyes, knowing what I was going through, and said “ok, no problem, take care.” I walked out of the room and drove home. I sat by my mom for a few hours with no one else around.

She passed away a week later, it was the day before I graduated.

I’m the type of person that was brought up to believe you work harder than others. You put in your time, you do what you’re told, you walk between the outlined trail.

But just like all good theories there is a time to say fuck it. There is a time to look at the winding trail in front of you and step off. Forge your own trail. With this comes the knowledge that people might raise a brow, they might think you’re odd. But who cares.

With any desire path, one must assume there is a desire at the end of it. That alone warrants the risk of a few raised eyebrows, a few broken rules.

I’m excited to have learned the name for this concept that goes against my nature. It gives me something to explore. Who knows…maybe just maybe, the next time you see me I’ll be running along the Seattle Waterfront… on the grass, barefoot…zig zagging all over the damn place.

Here’s to hoping…

The short answer is – yes.

If you had asked me this question a few years ago I might have corrected you and called it “customer acquisition” because that’s where its roots lie. Years ago if you were in customer acquisition you used marketing channels to acquire customers. Often “paid” marketing channels were your weapons of choice, but you worked also on partnerships that would help strengthen your customer counts.

Today, however, I think the dropping of the “customer” was an intentional one. For me “acquisition marketing” truly envelops the acquiring of many things — traffic, engagement, leads, customers, attention, partners, and possibly even companies that may eventually buy you. An acquisition marketer can no longer just be versed in channels, but we much challenge ourselves to redefine that of which we are building. “What is growth?” for your company? Where can you move the needle? Those are the questions we should be asking ourselves.

I think this expansion in discipline brings with it some unique challenges.

1. People like boundaries. If you are the one that starts shifting those boundaries, people will inherently fear that change.
2. Too many goals can lead to very few gains. It’s a constant challenge to want to affect many things and then actually affect them.
3. It’s hard to stay a specialist if you become a generalist. It can be a serious challenge to keep on top of everything, as quickly as all of this moves.
4. Today’s acquisition marketing can not be successful unless the person in charge learns to trust others and delegate effectively. I find the more years I spend in acquisition marketing, the more I learn about seeking out other’s passions and talents and enabling them to run with things I once “owned.”

Just one of those challenges, if not overcome, can throw you off course. So what can we do? A lot actually.

Acquisition marketing, at its core, is simply driving growth. To be successful you must align your efforts with the growth goals of your company. From there research, and resourcing is key. You need to know where you stand, and what bottlenecks are currently in your way. The last piece is really all about testing, and allocation. If you can make baby steps on a variety of your channels, and track effectively. You will know where your optimization hours should go. You will know where to allocate your budget. You will know where your time is needed.

I personally believe that any performance marketer out there should think long and hard about their career as it relates to “growth marketing.” The marketing team at Facebook is actually called “the growth team.” I love that. I love the idea that it is indifferent to a channel, or a discipline, but instead all team members come to work with a common goal — to grow the company.

It’s a scary concept to commit to, mainly because you need to acquire more knowledge. I recently read a great post by Ian Lurie over at ConvesationMarketing. It talked about the difference between “information” and “knowledge.” Trust me…read it. This concept is at the heart of what I am suggesting — today’s marketer needs to move beyond information in a discipline but instead seek to have knowledge about how to successfully grow a company. It’s a slight difference in theory, but a really big difference in practice.

I find these days I spend more time outside of my industry, trying to learn from other industries about how they “grow.” I seek new ways to build numbers. I seek new numbers to build. Less of my conversations at work are about our CPAs and far more are about our growth margins and momentum. I love this. This is what I signed up for years ago. It has no ceiling. As new sites get introduced, new philosophies of communication and persuasion come into play, and as people find new ways to discover what they are seeking — acquisition marketers will have the tools to draw them in and grow their companies.

For me it’s like a light switch was flipped, and suddenly the silos of performance marketing have been beaten down. Now we are allowed to simply work toward a more broad definition of growth and try our hands at different channels, combining their powers…its really awesome.

I’ll leave with you something that crossed my mind the other day– what will the marketer, who does not understand how to grow a conversation, a community, or a sentiment, do in another year? What will they do in two years? or three? I suspect they will be standing right where they are– with very little position growth in company. Hell, they may even be let go simply because– today’s marketer knows how to grow more than a conversion count.

When I look back into my bag of tricks from 8 years ago I literally turn red in the face from embarrassment. Luckily, I’ve been fortunate enough to work with companies and clients that supported me growing in other disciplines — organic marketing, community development, social marketing, brand awareness, content marketing. Couple that with an obsession of analytics, and optimization (landing page, conversion, message, etc.) and you have one dangerous marketer. I have so much more to learn, but I am finally seeing the dots connect and I finally feel comfortable letting go with the old titles of — paid marketer, performance marketer, customer acquisition marketer, etc.

Today’s marketer needs to understand that growing across the board is required to succeed. There are too many passionate people driving companies founded on brilliant ideas. Second place and third place these days simply sucks. I think it’s our time to push ourselves to learn new things and let go of our old identities. Acquisition marketing isn’t some fleeting concept. It’s has a big role to play in future successful businesses, the question is…do you?

Something to remember when you think you can’t possibly achieve everything you want:

Something to remember when you think you have lost your damn mind:

Something to remember when you feel invisible:

Something to remember tomorrow night when you find yourself working at your computer at 1 am:

Lastly… something to remember when the choice you want to make…makes no damn sense:

That’s all I got for now. Thought I’d share a few ripples of motivation your way. Go get em tiger, go get em.

I even did a thesis on the way women communicate in the workplace online. How do we help each other? How do we hurt each other? Specifically I did a Bakhtinian Analysis of a Predominately Female Workplace…which is a fancy way of saying – I studied the way we dialog online. It was a fascinating three years. I almost convinced myself to spend my life in academia, applying to PhD programs and everything. But then…I got my first job at a start up. Fast forward a decade and you know what I do with my day?

I spend it trying to communicate more effectively with people online. Full circle friends. Full circle.

Over the years I’ve learned a lot about communication in the workplace. I’ve seen some really successful relationships, and some really sad-looking ones. I’ve sat in on some meetings that left me feeling like I’ve changed the world, and I’ve left rooms where I am wondering, “what the hell just happen to the last 60 minutes of my life?” While I could go on and on about the many little things I’ve learned to help facilitate successful communication…one thing really stands out – objectivity.

I know what you’re thinking — isn’t that the same as “not standing for something?” Uhm no. Def of Objectivity: “judgment based on observable phenomena and uninfluenced by emotions or personal prejudices.” It might seem strange seeing me preach objectivity, since so many of my posts are about passion, but trust me when I say that objectivity in business is gold, pure gold.

Lately at work, we’ve been brainstorming some messaging. It’s been exhausting, as the 11 of us marketers try to get in a room and tackle this challenge. So many different approaches, and different backgrounds, and different ideas. Back and forth, and round and round we go. Many teams would have thrown in the towel long ago. You know what has kept us going? Objectivity. It’s a powerful tool. No idea is one person’s idea. No direction is one person’s direction. That is a recipe for disaster, yet it happens time and time again.

Dare I say…it’s the easy way out? If you stand by something simply because you have always stood by it…I believe that is the easy way out. You must be willing to be talked out of your stance. You must be willing to meet your colleague in the middle with the understanding you may, in the end, crossover.

In business you see this time and time again — with landing pages, with company logos, with product ideas, with company futures. It is hard, when you are so passionate about succeeding, to acknowledge your way may not be the best… but it may not. I have literally spent weeks pushing for something, only to finally realize, it’s not the best. I’ve spent months working on a funnel to find out it doesn’t improve our conversion rates. Hell, I spent two years on an idea that I swore would succeed, only to have the company fail. You must remain objective or you will lose yourself in the passion and never get anywhere better. You know what I mean?

Here is a test for you –  if someone you know is falling prey to self-interest simply ask them why they love the idea so much. If they say “The idea is good because I believe…” then its about them. If they say “I believe the idea is good because…” then they are trying to stay objective. The conversation at work should always be about the idea, not about the person behind the idea. That was a tough one for me to learn, but a valuable one.

Too many people mistake objectivity with indifference… lack of compassion, lack of empathy, or lack of interest. It is, in my experience, none of those things. In fact, it is usually with a less partial view that one can most successfully steer their passion. When you stay objective you more often arrive at the ideal solution.

These are just my experiences though, and I’m still learning of course. Then again, I did spend three years in a library studying this stuff…and a decade screwing it up, so that has to count for something.

P.s. next time we are at a conference and having a few cocktails ask me my thoughts on Mikhail Bakhtin‘s dialogical theory…I’ve got some great rambles for you.

Peter & I at DomainFest earlier this year.

To be honest he really loved the idea. We joked about the pictures we could snap of late night brainstorms (aka our hot dates) at his office, our conference travels together (aka our pretend vacations), etc. We were super excited until we realized that the blog would likely become a public forum where we would both vocalize just how much this chaos freaks us out at times. We agreed against the blog (for now) but I still thought a post was worth embarking on.

Love is crazy. Like seriously crazy. There are all sorts of things that you don’t expect – compromise for one. Compassion for another. Sacrifice of course. Then there is self-discovery and confusion. There are inevitably moments of doubt. There is also (hopefully) laughter, and silliness. All of this for a common goal – to make it last. The two of you want to build something together that is greater than each of you.

Funny enough… a startup is all those things and more.  Read the paragraph again but think about a start up – compromise, sacrifice, doubt, laughter, silliness—and all for a common goal of building something bigger than yourself.

My boyfriend is a Partner and CMO of a Seattle-based start-up. You can go check him out here. He is a brilliant marketer and businessman. He is a knowledge-seeker, an information consumer, and (I believe) he is one of the biggest “thinkers” I’ve ever met.

He is also my boyfriend. I’ve dated for the last decade in hopes of finding a man like him. He is a Texas cowboy at heart, a family man, a singer, an artist, a film nut, a photography junkie. He is sarcastic yet respectful. He is gorgeous. Dimplessss for days.

We’ve been together a year and a half now. Which for me is quite some time. While things are fantastic at the core, we both admit that as our start-ups grow, our love feels the growing pains.

I’m not saying we have it harder than other couples, but I certainly do think some of our challenges are unique. Lets cover a few of the things that keep us cracking up (half seriously and half awkwardly) as we maneuver this challenge:

First off. We aren’t first. We can’t be. Ask any entrepreneur and they will tell you when all is said and done there are ties in the priority tree. There has to be. While we promise to be there for each other whenever we need each other, more than not we give each other passes on not being there when we need each other. Maybe we are out of state, maybe our sites went down, maybe it’s a trip to the valley that has us occupied. Whatever the reason…we both agree that –right now—for us there are ties for who is first. For me it’s him and my work. For him it’s me and his.

Peter & I at the WTIA Awards. His company won that night!

Secondly, our start-up worlds connect. Our industries (although separate) connect. We’ve spoken at three of the same conferences at this point. We have been invited to the same meetings, and the same events…separately. We have similar business friends, and super-connectors between us. This can certainly be an advantage…we can leverage knowledge, experience, trust. It can also be a scary fucking thing. What if we don’t make it? What then? How the hell does that break up work? Human nature reminds us we can only control so much and those unknowns are scary when so much overlaps.

Lastly, we’re freaking moving fast…like whoa hustle, crazy, bam, moving fast.  This is the start-up way. You all know what I mean. This week isn’t ever just “a week.” It’s the week, before the month, of the big thing that has to happen, before we talk to investors, before we can get the money, to reinvent the (fill in blank) so we can help the world…do what they love and we love…better. Phew.

When life moves so fast, it’s easy to forget how wonderful the people next to you are. All of a sudden you look to your right and either you left them behind or they jumped ship a few “sorry I couldn’t make it” or “I’m just too busy” excuses ago.

Those are just a few of the crazy things we deal with daily but maybe you get where I am going. Him and I, for the most part, talk about how lucky we are. We both love our companies. We both love this fast-paced industry. We both love the days we get to live.

But sometimes… occasionally… we look around at people sitting in cafes all day playing Battleship, instead of on their computers, and we daydream of what a life like this is like. What does love look like for them?

Funny enough, the second I start thinking about that… I realize it is so NOT us. We tried to take a vacation last year and after a few days of laying out in the sun we were seriously stress balls. We never fought so much as we did when we tried to slow down. We just aren’t those people, at least not now.

Right now we are the couple that meets up mid-day to brainstorm over coffee. We sneak a kiss or two, and we exchange what hour we think our days will end. It works for us right now, with a little shaky here and a little shaky there. I think that’s pretty common though.

For others it’s late night TV time that brings you together, for my parents it was the morning time when us kids were still asleep and for him and I – its two iced americanos and some big ideas.  Like I said, we are pretty lucky.

Whenever I start to think about how crazy it is that us two workaholic, start-up junkies fell in love at this point in our lives, I can’t help but think…it wouldn’t have worked any other way. It all comes down to one really important thing — he gets my crazy. And I get his. What more could two people ask for?

This is us out on Orcas Island...where the wi-fi doesn't reach. win.

Since I only had ten minutes I was forced to really ask myself what separates successful PPC marketers and really successful PPC marketers. I came up with three things — The ability to distribute your time effectively, embracing risk in your testing and management, and the last one which is connecting your paid efforts to inbound marketing. The second two will have to be covered in another post, today I really want to talk about that first piece — the ability to distribute your time effectively.

Why that one? Because its freaking hard. Like really hard. Like “whoa I need a glass of wine every night” hard.

Over the years I’ve really tried to focus on how I can be my  most effective at paid search management (returning the highest margins) and my most efficient (staying sane, sleeping, not snapping at family and friends). This can be a challenge because paid search marketing is a data game. Data piles up and it can drive you mad if you let it. So how do you get the control back? I think the key is to rethink how you are dividing up your time.

Originally I was trying to isolate out a plan for paid search marketing management. I came up with this:

What I didn’t expect is how finding something like this to guide me would motivate me to re-evaluate my overall time distribution. After all…why would I want to be my most effective and efficient at just PPC? There is so much more on my plate. How can I best manage those projects and the time I put into them?

I started asking myself – how do I prioritize what gets my time?  I freaked out when I realized that my approach to project management had become insanely reactive. As things pop up I handle them. Eeeek. Bad bad bad. I could probably write a whole post as to why things have become this way, but ultimately I think as marketers take on more and embrace the holistic landscape this issue will become increasingly more of a challenge facing all of us.

I came across this amazing video and it was like a really beautiful bitch slap right when I needed it. In Bing Gordon’s keynote address he talks about how the time we spend on things in our life should be both (a) prioritized by importance and then (b) given time relationally as they compare to each other. EUREKA!

For example if you have three things that matter to you but the first thing is twice as important as number two or three, then you would spend 50% of your time on item #1, and 25% on each of the other two items. Make sense?

I think we all have grasped the importance of knocking out our to-do list by order of importance, but this idea of weighting our priorities by how they compare is an interesting one for me. Below you can see the rough guideline I use for my own day…

I have five main goals at SEOmoz:

1. Grow the SEOmoz Customer Base
2. Grow the Retention Program
3. Be an Indispensable Employee
4. Continue to Learn from the Industry & Grow in It
5. Be a Great Colleague & Help Others Reach Their Goals

I mean there are always other goals that come up, and projects that don’t fit into one of these, but for the most part everything I do during my hours each day at Moz fit into one of these five. With that said there is a clear hierarchy among these. I was hired for #1, and my position has expanded to include #2. Then #3, #4, and #5 are things I’ve chosen to add to the list for my personal and professional growth. So #1 is twice as important as the rest, and #2 is more important than #3, #4, and #5, but those last three all need sufficient time comparatively. So the challenge is for me to break up my available hours according to this distribution.

I’m only about a month deep on it at this point but it really does help. If I find myself freaking out in the afternoon because I am not sure which project to start next I just revisit my list and see which of these I haven’t touched. Have I put too much time into one of them when it should have spent on another based on my distribution hierarchy? Each week I make sure that I have given all five of these the time they deserve.

I might have lost you a bit on those last few paragraphs but I think the point I am stressing is – when was the last time you revisited your approach to time distribution? Have you fallen into a groove that doesn’t actually match up to your professional and personal goals? Have you adopted a model that was there before you were? I anticipate I will have to revisit my current model a hundred times or so but I think that is exactly how it should be.

As months roll by my hopes for my job and my career do too…this should be reflected in your day-to-day activities. No more “where did 2011 go?” I’m over the “time passing blackout” that happens to super busy Type As (aka all of us). Instead I am embracing a more conscious approach to time management and time distribution. Won’t you join me? Trust me, things are way simpler over here. I even get to sleep once and a while…crazy I know.

- D.H. Lawrence (I checked and apparently he was some sort of famous novelist, so he has to be smart and stuff…plus he has a beard, which is cool).

Passion. This word really pisses me off sometimes. People abuse it. They use it as an excuse for stupidity. They make up stories of false passion when they should be using the word greedy. People get competitive about passion…which is fucking hilarious given the fact that passion is an internal thing. Yours is yours. Mine is mine. Yes the overlaps happen in life, but the passion itself starts inside of you. That is where it grows or {sadly} fades.

I want more of this in my life.

I can be aggressive sometimes. Or at least that’s what I’ve been told…in meetings, in relationships, in reviews, etc. The other day a colleague told me “he has never met a woman like me in business.” I wanted to take it as a compliment but I don’t think he meant it that way, or maybe he kind of did. I tried to explain I’m just passionate about all this. I want to give opinions when I think they need to be given. I want to tear down other opinions if I think they will hurt us. I’m passionate about going fast, and hard, and succeeding.

Then I realized…was my passion becoming an excuse? Was it becoming a competition between me and the other team members? I’m not so sure. Given the fact I’ve lived my life (like many of my start-up friends…likely you…whoever is reading this) telling myself that “passion” is what I need above else. I’ve been told by mentors and industry leaders that “passion” is what separates those that succeed and those that fail.

That one word is so big. So over the years I’ve worked on it. How can I give more? How can I try harder? How can I be more for this team? It’s the fuel. The hustle. The Eye of the Tiger playing in your head late night, after late night, after late night, after…

I came across this quote today. “Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you’ve got to say, and say it hot.”

I fell in love. That’s what I’ve been trying to say but never said it very well. I think it’s what I try to do, but maybe not very well. For me passion is something that moves you. And for the love of god when you are moved you are hot, and feisty, and aggressive, and real, and honest. Passion is not supposed to be whispered or second guessed.

I made a goal for the second half of 2011 that I would try to be less loud and more quiet. The only problem with that is…it’s not very me. Then all of a sudden blog posts like this jump out of you. Things get all sorts of crazy when you try to be less passionate for the sake of others. I do think there are better ways than others to be passionate. I think you can be passionate as a listener, as a team player, as a sounding board.

My goal for 2012 is to continue figuring out how to be my most passionate self…only for the right reasons. It’s an easy thing to let run away with you. When you love a company or an idea…it owns you. The tricky part is finding the balance in it all. Be quiet when you have nothing to say and be hot when you are passionate about something. I plan to reconsider how I’m handling it all because there are only two things that freak me out {like scare the bejesus out of me}…

1. I end up where I want to go but don’t recognize myself.
2. That I keep myself but end up some place I never intended to go.

I know resolutions rub some people the wrong way, but in this crazy tech world we all love, I think knowing what passion means to you and letting it lead you…is something worth resolving to do. And that’s exactly what I plan to work on this year.

You know what I realized? People are doing some pretty epic things out there. I was reminded of my recent trip to Barcelona where when looking at Gaudi’s La Sagrada Familia I couldn’t help but ask — where had all the crazy fucking big thinkers gone? Gaudi knew the conventions, he knew the accepted shapes of what a church should look like and instead he built this…

Now that I can appreciate. While wandering today I saw so many amazing sites that just reminded me how fun it can all be. I was truly inspired. I then started mocking up pictures to show my teammates, and although I haven’t shown them any yet, I know its likely these won’t be the final versions. That’s not how it works. Hybrids and collaborative efforts make more sense for pages that must reach the masses. I do think though that just the process of making yourself be open to inspiration was far more important than the pages I created after.

From there I was sharing some links with a friend who works for a start-up back on the East Coast, and she was inspired. From there she passed one on to her boss, who wrote back and said perhaps they too should revisit some of their pages. All of this from one or two sites that were nothing more than beautiful, fun, different…inspiring. Sites like these:

Logartis

DillyDeliTulsa

EmpireVintage

I mean these were just a few that had me opening new windows, wandering through “About Us” tabs, and so on and so forth. I don’t spend enough time wandering the web. I wonder what Tolkien would have said about our time spent on the web? Are all who wander the web lost? Are we losing hours that should be spent more effectively? After all this medium never did stress the importance of organically consuming its fruits. Instead we aggressively bounce back and forth and around, hoping to see as much as we can, and be the first. Novelty is everything these days.

Just thought it was worth reflecting on an afternoon spent on seeking inspiration on the Web. I’m realizing these days it comes in all sorts of pixels.

Pick Your Pixel...Get Inspired

I should kick it off by saying this past PubCon Las Vegas was my 7^th PubCon. Between Vegas, Austin, Dallas, and soon to be Hawaii I have literally wandered the U.S. to make sure I didn’t miss this show. I’ve spoken over ten times on topics like PPC, landing pages, retargeting, the state of our industries job landscape, PR and social media marketing. Not to mention I’ve been lucky enough to moderate panels around analytics, affiliate marketing, SEO, and more.

Like many of you I paid for my first PubCon out of pocket. I still remember tweeting out “should I go to PubCon if my company won’t pay?” and @Sugarrae responded with something along the lines of a “hell yes” and carried on to tell me that this is THE show that is worth attending.

Jesus was she right.

There is something inexplicably special about this show. It likely has something to do with the amazing people behind it, the story of how it came about, the way its grown, and the people that attend it every year. Then there is the hugs, and the sincere “how are you doing friend?” and of course the drinks, and the gambling, and the laughing. Wow has there been some really spectacular laughing.

Because of PubCon we have had secret jokes shared between thousands of friends, a face-to-face with Matt Cutts every year of our careers, we have had something to call “ours” and something to compare every other show to.

Some of us have gotten jobs, some of us have fallen in love, some of us have gotten raises, or started companies…all from a PubCon. We have left PubCon both proud of what we have learned over the past year and humbled by how much left there is to learn.

The crazy reality of all this is that all I’ve listed above isn’t even the half of it. I’ve heard stories of late night brainstorms that led to agency collaborations, new tools, revolutionary ideas and philosophical shifts in how we approach the industry we have all jumped into whole-heartedly.

At PubCons I have seen assholes apologize for being assholes, and quiet wallflowers take a stand (usually over a few cocktails funded by {fill in awesome company here}. This conference gives us a place to rethink things, to validate our gut feelings, and to catch glimpses of what is to come.

Dare I say that PubCon has always been my favorite show over the years? Closely followed by SearchFest up in Portland, and our own MozCon. What can I say? I’m a sucker for shows that truly are just a gathering of friends at some random place usually surrounded by bars. The bigger shows out there have their place and I would never take away what shows like SMX, SES, Dreamforce, etc. have done for me, but something about PubCon keeps it on a very special pedestal for me.

I thought it would be worth writing up a few things I took away from this particular PubCon (since I always say I am going to do it and never do)…

• I need to get over my issues with it and participate more on Google + … FINE! Geeeshhh.
• I need to start saying thank you more to the people in this industry who have supported me for years. Thank you so very much– Marty, Topher, Brad, David, Brett, Steve, and Steve and so many others.
• I must stop making jokes about not being able to see over the podium when I talk, no one has ever really laughed
• I took away I should push myself to do better things with Facebook advertising for SEOmoz, I’m slacking there – ask Brian Carter and Kate Buck Jr. about what they are doing.
• I realized I’m really happy with my job and finally at the place we all hope to get to – a place where I can hear about a new opportunity but not want to explore it
• I’ve realized I will forever be thankful to the veterans of this industry that continue to push out epic ideas that get me thinking– Loren, Streko, Tim, Greg, Chris, Lisa, Rhea, Andy, Tony and so many more.
• I learned that duplicate content issues really piss people off, I’m going to suggest to our bloggers list that we should write more on this
• I took away a whole lot of great information around social and its convergence with our current digital strategies – ask Joe Hall about the data battle out there, it will tell you a lot about where we are going.
• I realized there is not so much a revolving door in this industry (like many other industries) but instead a constantly open one and I am excited to see where all the newcomers will take us in the future, cuz they are freaking smart yo.
• I’m reminded again and again that the amazing women I know in this industry have become true friends and I am a better person for it – Kate, Ruth, Kristy, Monica, Dana, Pam, Carolyn, Shannon, Vanessa, Janet, Lauren, Melanie, Merry, Michelle and so many more.

Okay that’s enough rambling for me, but I will say one last thing that any future PubCon-er should know – this all started from a group of people that literally built this industry on questions and through connecting in forums…where we all tried to help each other move an industry forward.

Sometimes I think we have forgotten that. I only hope that as Brett and his team continue to put together these shows every year we somehow find our way back there – to a point of conversation, and questions, and curiosity…and collaboration.

That’s where I want to be. Sitting around a table with you crazy freaking braniacs, trying to share what little experience I have, and absorb all of yours. Thanks again to the brilliant team behind PubCon… once again you’ve managed to remind us how amazing, ambitious, and special this industry really is.

See you in Hawaii!