Steve Johnsen

Working Hard & Working Smart

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Several times over the past few months I’ve been reacquainted with the experience of working night and day on projects, only to find that there is still more and more to be done. Time is a precious resource. And our capacity to get work done is also measured.

Traditionally, we are taught that with much hard work we can make our dreams reality. However, many of us in the business world have found that hard work that is not constantly being refocused will never yield satisfactory productivity. So we dare not go on aimlessly lest we burn out and give up. But we also dare not let things go uncared for. So what is the alternative?

Work smart.

Now, I know this is not a new thought for most in the business world. But it is a principle that must be refreshed in our minds again and again. We just gravitate toward the to-do list until we are sucked into it and overwhelmed. Until someone comes and reminds once again to step back, take a deep breath, and refocus ourselves on the big picture.

What are your goals? Are they to be “busy” all the time for the sake of being busy? Or is it in your mindset that you want a business plan where you are so in control that your feet are up on the desk and your business is actually WORKING FOR YOU?

I recently hired a new general manager, and after two months of work I began to notice this very malady setting in on his work environment. After talking for some time both he and I realized that it was that time again to step back, look at the big picture, reassess, and pick up the task again of learning to work smart.

I hired a general manager because I wanted someone working alongside me that would take my company’s interests as his own and work toward our goals together with me. Well, maybe it’s not time for you to hire your general manager yet, or maybe you have three managers who are as busy as you are, but you–like the rest of us–are still looking for that perfect employee to work alongside you to build your business.

There is another kind of employee that can “work smart” to help you build your business: your website. When done right, your website works for you nonstop, without vacations, without sick days, never goes to the competition, and can outsell the best businessman. Your website can work hard AND works smart. Is your website your Number One Employee? If not yet, give us a call.

To your success!

The power of focus

by Steve Johnsen

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I’ve been reading an awesome book by Gary Keller (founder of Keller Williams) called The ONE Thing. He writes about the amazing power of focus in work and in life. The key to success, Gary tells us, is to figure out what is the #1 most important thing to be doing and forget everything else.

A lot of us have no problem with wanting to figure out what is the #1 most important thing, but I find myself often wanting to take care of three or four or maybe five really important things in my business. But as Gary points out in his book, the key to be really successful (not just moderately successful but really successful) is to focus on one thing. What is the one thing that you could be doing in your business–that no one else can do, that only you can do it–and that really has an impact on your business growing, that’s where you want to figure out how to block out more time for that and let all the other distractions go or delegate them to someone else.

Darren Hardy in his success training course teaches something very similar. In order to be really successful, we need to figure out what is the number one most important thing to be focusing on for our business, and learn how to let the other stuff go or delegate it.

My approach to building a website is very similar. When a client comes to me wanting their website to be their #1 employee, I bring them through a consulting process to figure out what is the #1 most important thing that their website should be doing. There was a best-selling book on Amazon called 5 Easy Steps to Make Your Website Your #1 Employee that talked about this in the chapter called “Define Your Website’s Purpose.”

A lot of times people want the website to do a whole bunch of different things well. They say the website has to sell product and it also has to get people to sign up for our email list and it also has to present our brand and it also has to provide information for existing customers etc., etc. Unfortunately (or fortunately) people just don’t have the ability to focus on four things at once. They can only focus on one thing. If you present four things for them to focus on, typically what happens is they focus on nothing–and end up leaving the site.

So when you build a site you really want to know what is the website’s purpose. It’s amazing how much clarity this brings to the subsequent steps of creating your key messages, crafting the user experience, writing the website copy, and designing the site to communicate your story and your brand. It’s having a focus of what is the one thing the site is going to do that just helps everything else to line up. .

Now don’t get me wrong, I am a man of action as much as the next businessman, but if your first step is not pointed in the right direction, then where do you think you are going to end up? Obviously not where you wanted to go.

So some things to think about related to your website:

Who is your website visitor?
What are they looking for?
What is the context in which they came to your site–did you invite them there or were they online searching for you?
Did they hear about you from someone else (i.e., get referred to you)?
What must this person visiting your site know before they will decide to do business with you?

Those are some great questions to start with in figuring out your website’s purpose.

These questions, and many others, must be answered before you even begin to write your catchy taglines or design a page. These are some of the questions that we start with when we’re consulting with new clients on creating a custom website that will actually make them money.

To your success,

Steve Johnsen

Byte to Byte with Steve Johnsen

The power of focus

What’s your story?

by Steve Johnsen

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From our earliest days, we are entranced by stories. Watch any small child listen to Mommy reading a book, or to Daddy relaying a story about his childhood. As we grow older, the power of stories does not diminish. Why do we all love to watch movies? Stories make our worlds go ’round.

In business, we must tell stories, too. Regardless of how mundane the topic may seem for any given business, the decision-makers in every industry are all human beings… and human beings respond to stories.

In my profession, I am responsible for sharing essential information that connects my clients with their customers. I take this responsibility very seriously. There is a big difference between providing people with information (which rarely generates a good response), and truly connecting with people through a compelling story. My job is to make sure my clients are connecting and engaging deeply with their prospects and customers, because if they’re not, they’re not going to get results.

When my team embarks on creating a website that offers an engaging experience, storytelling is a major focal point. When we write copy for people, we do not just put words on paper and hope someone will read them and respond. To the contrary, our first order of business is learning through a process she calls “discovery.” Discovery is an essential first step in ultimately capturing the essence of a message, and thus being able to tell a story that causes the right reaction–the reaction you need from your customers to increase your business success.

This week I encourage you to examine the story you’re telling on our website: Is it compelling? Does it touch human emotion? Does it address pain points and illustrate how they may be solved? Is it even a ‘story’ at all? If what you’re saying about your business does not meet these criteria, you’re losing opportunities to gain customers and their loyalty every single day. That can be changed in an instant, simply by creating, and sharing, the right story.

To your success,

Steve Johnsen

Talk to your doctor

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When someone is not feeling well, they typically don’t walk into the pharmacy and ask for “a prescription drug.” Nor do they walk in and ask for some azacitidine. When you are ill, you first need a doctor to diagnose what’s wrong, to look at your symptoms and maybe run some tests. Only then can she prescribe the right medicine.

Building a website is the same way. When you hire someone to simply “build a website” it often does nothing to make your business better. What really makes a website effective is the diagnosis and prescription. (If the FDA regulated the marketing field, you would not be allowed to hire someone to build a website without getting consulting first in order to develop a clear marketing strategy.)

My firm, Cloud Mountain Marketing, is like a medical center with an attached pharmacy. Yes, we do build websites–all different kinds–but the service that is even more valuable is the consulting process I go through with my clients BEFORE the site is built.

Would you like your website to really, really work hard for you to make you money? Then talk to your doctor. Because it’s not just a website.

To your success!

Can you Photoshop that?

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I had a further thought after writing my blog post about the iconic image of a red bicycle in the snow (What’s your red bicycle). A brilliant photographer could turn that isolated incident into a compelling photo. He would select the right lens, the right camera settings, and may even lie on the ground to get the right angle. Then after setting everything up, he would snap the shot.

Once a photograph is taken, it’s very hard to go back after the fact and change it. Once I’ve got a photo of the red bicycle on a snowy day, I can’t go back later and Photoshop in the rider. A great web design is very similar. The art director has considered your content and message from every angle and creates a unique design that presents your story in the best light.

In a sense, you can distinguish a great design from a bland design by how easy it is to edit afterwards. Consider the typical yearbook page. There is a series of boxes, and the editor is dropping pictures and text into the appropriate boxes. It’s very easy to rearrange people on the page, or exchange one person for another. At the same time, there is nothing inherently compelling about the design, and nobody would enjoy looking at yearbook pages unless they know the people involved.

In contrast, consider the photos that go on the cover of National Geographic, or the “Best pictures of the week” web pages that we all enjoy looking at in our down time. The pictures may be of any subject, but they are interesting to look at because they captured the moment in a way that tells a story. At the same time, it would be impossible to go back and change the picture content in any way and still have the same impact.

The next time you are designing your website, consider how this principle affects the design process. A template where all the elements are easily interchangeable is hard to make compelling, and great design can only be accomplished when a thoroughly skilled designer has considered your story and message from many different angles.

What’s your red bicycle?

by Steve Johnsen Leave a Comment

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Last weekend I was walking down the street with my daughter, and I happened to notice a red bicycle, angled slightly against a tree. It was snowy and icy and frigid outside, and I remember pausing and wondering who, in their right mind, would have been riding that bike on a 20-degree winter day. I also noticed half a dozen other people walk by and take no notice of what was to me a pretty cool visual impression. To me, I saw that bike as being central to a story.

This moment made me think of how powerful the visual element is in conveying any story, regardless of the medium. It also made me consider the brilliance of my art director, Haniel Hann, who is a genius when it comes to capturing something visually, finding the art in it, and turning it into a compelling story.

The reason Haniel is so different from a typical graphic designer is that his real gift is in visual storytelling. In fact, his background is not in graphic arts, it’s as a photographer and cinematographer. For Haniel, the way in which he goes about capturing that story is 99% attributed to what happens before the picture is taken. It’s in the thought process he goes through, the research he does, his gifted eye, and his deep knowledge of design as a means to convey a powerful message.

In our business, it can be very difficult to describe the real value in design. Many people think that if a website looks pretty, it’s been designed well. That couldn’t be further from the truth. The real value in design is in the process, the preparation. Those are the elements that cause people to really respond, engage, and relate to you and your business.

I look at website design the way I might consider a wedding album coming together: capturing a series of images in moments that ultimately deliver a compelling story. I challenge you to ask yourself this week: is your website design achieving that?

To your success!