Would your company bail a customer out of Jail?

This past summer I celebrated my 20th anniversary of my friendship to my buddy David. I use the term anniversary because we have been fixtures in each others lives for so long people just assumed we are married...and like all marriages we have had good times our ups and downs and there was even a trial separation but throughout the years we have always been there for each other in the great times and more importantly in the hard times.

I am pretty lucky cause I have a lot of people in my life that I consider friends but there are only a few who I would call if (...and some might say when) I was ever arrested...and sure I am kinda using this as a "WHAT IF" but I got to thinking about this because I took a look outside and saw that the world was in an (decided to use the politically correct term) economic downturn. Yes, times are tough but what a lot of people aren't seeing is the enormous opportunity that lies in these times.

If you think about your best friends there are probably a bunch of examples where they went out of their way to make you feel better after something crappy happened...heck if you look for reviews online to something you can always find people talking about the bad more than the good.

The reason for this is that memories are made in bad times...and if you look around we are in exactly that.

Bad Times.

But ya know what happens when you do amazing things for people in bad times they develop undying loyalty and never forget you in the good times.

If you are a customer facing company you should be rubbing your hands together at this amazing opportunity because quite simply, weather you are doing it for good reasons or just being opportunistic right now is the time to make lasting memories.

Instead of cutting marketing budgets you should be showering your customers with unexpected rewards. If there is a way to make your customers lives easier or take a pain out of their lives....DO IT NOW!

A lot has been written about companies that get built and thrive in these economies and that may be because there is less competition or maybe it is just because there is less competition who really care about their customers and would actually bail them out of jail.

Creative Genius

I am a big fan of the TED conference and of Tina Roth Eisenberg at www.swiss-miss.com so when she posted this video of Elizabeth Gilbert talking about nurturing creativity I knew I wanted to share it because I found it pretty amazing...so here it is (and I thank Tina for finding it first)



...and here is a pretty cool one I found on my own with Philippe Starck talking about design.

When it comes to Marketing or your Personal Brand what is your "right page last panel"?

Before I became one of the worlds smartest and most handsome word of mouth marketers I supported myself (not very well I might add) for a bunch of years as a comic book writer and publisher.

A lot of what I know and do today was learned in those years and one of the biggest lessons I am going to share with you now.

Now this is going to seem like a lesson on writing a comic book (and it is) but the message is the same for marketing or personal branding so pay attention.

People used to ask me all the time what the secret to writing comic books was. My answer was always "Right Page Bottom Panel".

Basically when people are reading a comic book or any book they read left to right and top to bottom. So using that logic you should write your book with a reveal in the first panel of the left page and a cliffhanger or just something interesting on the "right page bottom panel". The best way to use that last panel is to be interesting and even pose a question or something that makes people want to come back for more and be surprised on that next page.

Do you see what I am getting at?

OK I will make it more clear by asking you a direct question. Using this little lesson you should ask yourself...What are you doing in your marketing or personal branding that is making people want to keep coming back for more...and are you living up to the reveal on the next page?

I hope so because I love a good reveal!

Twestival - If it was any other day I would be there.

Today all around the world people are coming together to have a good time and raise money for Charity : Water. Twestival is taking place in 175+ cities and because I am unable to attend I made a video and offering up some support!


A Twestival Message! from saulcolt on Vimeo.

The thing Twitter is really good for is....

People debate and analyze vigorously what exactly Twitter is good for.

Sure people love it and it serves a purpose...heck 8 million people can't be wrong but what is it really best at?

I have witnessed people

Find a job

Find Love

or just

Make some cool friends but if I had to boil down the one thing it does better than anything else I can think of it would wave to be......wait for it.....a second longer....one more second....

Twitter creates those "It's a Small World" moments.

Last week I was having dinner with a woman from the UK who I met through our blogs etc and while I had never met her in person before she told me at dinner "You know we have a mutual friend, right?" She then went on to tell me how she saw on my twitter stream that I had been in LA the week previously and went out for dinner with someone she knew and how she was connected to my friend.

This got me thinking of all the other "Small World" moments I have had on twitter and could fill pages of them from the time I made asked a cab driver in NYC to change his direction because I got a DM from a friend from Toronto through twitter to come have dinner with him to the time I got 25 restaurant recommendations to a Chicago restaurant in the matter of minutes.

This same thing applies to Twitter for business because never before has a company or its customers had so much access to the people inside and behind the brands they love (should the company choose to engage that is) and if you want to know how to win a customer for life the answer is simple...give them an "It's a small world" moment.