I was thinking that I didn’t post very much this weekend on my blogs and realized that I just felt pretty uninspired. Then when I finally came up with a few ideas for blog posts, I also realized that you cannot work day after day and year after year without taking a break. It will eventually burn you out or you begin to feel the humdrum and start to not love what you do. That is why I decided to abandon my computer and email for the majority of the day today (This was the first time I spent more than 8 hours away from my computer (except for sleeping) in at least 5 years). When I got back home from actually enjoying the sun and my friends I felt recharged and ready to go again. I also remembered a picture I took in the Toronto Airport of two dinosaurs.
There is one large one about to attack or eat a smaller one that is laying on the ground and rolling over if you look at it that way. You can always look at it another way as the smaller one rolling into a defensive position or hiding and prepping to fight back and it is actually hiding in a cave or behind a tree or rock and getting ready to spring forward and attack.
It could be the big guy picking on the little guy. Showing dominance over the weaker and smaller dinosaur. You can also look at it as the bigger one coming down on the smaller guy but the smaller one flipping it around and fighting back or prepping to attack because he has a plan.
It really makes me think about when I am competing for a contract or a Client or when someone tries to challenge me or one of my sites for positions in Google and how I react.
If it is a friend and I know they can do a better job, I back off. If they are trying to poach something from me I question then and fight back if they don’t back down. This is always the worst to watch a friend try to stab you in the back. In the current economy you can really see who knows their stuff and who is a scam since those of us who do a good job don’t have to poach other people’s Clients (this is just my opinion).
Sometimes (just starting in the last couple years) I sit back and watch as the other person moves in. Most of the time however when I see this happening I plan a way to avoid the conflict, I circle back and then retake what was mine and don’t quit until I win.
Now, if I do sit back and watch as someone moves in on where my business is, I watch and see what they did, how they approached it and how they got into my space. I then think about why they would target me, how they found me, how I can combat this and how I can help to prevent it from happening again. It is important to remember that just because you sit back and your competitors, or people who stab you in the back, think they are winning or that you are a pushover doesn’t mean you actually are. Sometimes you are just studying them and seeing how they actually are an actually react, act and interact with everyone around you and you are taking a more intelligent approach to learn how to fight this off in the future and how to prove that your Client will be making a huge mistake by moving forward with them instead of staying with you. You also have to remember that even if your Client leaves you need to do it with grace because if/when this new company fails you may want to take them back.
One thing I learned last year, which was really hard to do, was to sit back and watch why and how things happen then analyze them and see how to prevent it from happening again. You don’t have to be friends with people who try to steal your Clients and strategies, but the people who need to poach them or who need to try to steal them can actually teach you a lot about how and why they need to.
How they find you and your Clients, your sites and business, and how you can more properly defend yourself from them in the future.
I remember having a phone call with a rep. from my favorite Affiliate Network a long time ago. When I asked her about why she isn’t worried about companies opening on other Networks or leaving her Network, she responded that she knows they will be back and not to sweat it.
You really can’t get much better than the service legit companies provide and if the mistakes that misinformed Clients are making or if the Marketing Hype and false promises they fell for which is why they are leaving don’t bankrupt them, they will be back and be even more thankful now that they have proper channels and protections back in place. If for some reason they don’t come back then they may just as well fail on their own.
I always remember a saying my Mom told me her Dad used to always say. “If you’re stupid you’re stupid”. It means a lot the way she would use it in a sentence and it is always in the back of my mind when I am making a decision. It has really helped me to start making some smarter decisions lately. Anyways, back to the point of this part of this ramble about not so ethical competitors trying to poach Clients and steal from legit and hard working companies.
What I’ve found is that the majority of these companies actually have no ideas or skills of their own. They don’t know how to get their own accounts and if you actually evaluate them and their work you’ll find they have no way to actually build their own bases or strategies either. The very rare ones in this group that actually have a brain, skills and ideas also tend to be the ones that love to brag and hear about how great they are.
One thing I love the most is watching them at the bar, drinking a ton of liquor and then start to spill the reality of how crappy they are and also watch them get challenged and spill their secrets to protect their egos. The majority of the time as well, from what I have seen at least when watching these people while they are intoxicated and spilling their “secrets”, is that their secrets are nothing more than trying to trick the system (which is most black hat or grey hat), steal from others or just flat out rip off their Clients (With Affiliate Marketing it is laughing about convincing them to allow trademark bidding or pushing toolbars and adware in their programs, etc…). I’m always amazed at how no one really catches onto these people (some well respected people actually don’t even see the truth for some reason and recommend them) and it is even more amazing that many of them can actually get along and have a successful business. However, without them being unethical and not doing a good job on their own, companies like mine and some of the other firms I recommend wouldn’t be in business.
One of my favorite types of projects to work on is helping companies pull out of the ditch that these not so ethical companies and competitors firms had put into danger of going bankrupt and showing these companies the real value of Online and Traditional Marketing and Advertising and how it actually can be and is effective. I love helping these companies out most because they are the most appreciative and the most easy to work with when they see they now have a partner that cares about them and their bottom line, not their Partner’s bottom line coming first.
Sorry for this rant but when I was looking at the picture again I wanted to share it and the different things I think about when I see it and see what you all think about it.
