Listen to Alan Watts a british philosopher talk about how you should be living your life. If this video doesn’t change your life, I don’t know what will.
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My best startup yet: Meet Daniel Raymond Beckett the III
I am happy to say that my little buddy has arrived and he is healthy and strong; weighing in at 8lbs 1.3 ounces and a length of 21 1/2 inches. He is a gift, a joy, and a blessing. I know he is only a week old, but already he has changed my life in so many ways.
Sarah and I are super thankful for him and we look forward to all the great years ahead.
It’s go time!
Want To Enhance Conversions? Here are 15 Ideas
You should constantly be trying to enhance your conversion rates. Why? Because conversions are the lifeblood of your organization – they are what make you $$$$$$.
I’m no professional by any means, but I did put together some ideas that I thought I would share with you this morning. Feel free to go and act on some of these things. Try them out, see what works for you and your company. The same things don’t always work for everyone company – it’s about trial and error.
Here are a few of those ideas:
- Eliminate clicks for the user. Make it simple for them to convert. Don’t ask too much information. Don’t make users click-through7 pages to get to your product or offering.
- Combine as many things as possible into one click user experiences.
- Try adding a video to your homepage that explains your product, value propositions, and who you are as a brand – be sure to give it some personality and realness.
- Make sure your homepage is intuitive and experiential. Don’t lose your customers at the first step.
- Make sure your language sounds like a human wrote it – not a robot. I hate when I see people writing like a robot.
- Study your traffic sources and look at behavioral trends. After this, use the results to for A/B test within your website.
- Don’t be a fool. Use social signup and make it seamless – it will be one of the best things you’ve ever done.
- Quality content over quantity of content. This isn’t 2001 where you were only looking for SEO results. Users are way smarter these days.
- The path to purchase should be easy.
- Try using live chat to engage with every customer at they navigate through your site.
- Test out the timing of users. When are they coming to your site? Where are they at that time? What are they thinking? What are they feeling? Ask questions from the user perspective and try to get into their head.
- Free shipping works every time.
- Put your search bar big and right out in the open on your homepage. Don’t make users go searching for it.
- Show the product on the homepage.
- What are the benefits for the customer – put these out there for the customer to see.
I hope these help. Again, the key is trial and error.
Grab a pen and paper and go to work
Sometimes you just have to grab a pen and paper and go to work. I think we’ve become so accustomed to using tools that we have forgotten the value and efficiency of a simple pen and paper.
Simple is always better – that’s a fact.
The best approach to building an idea starts with sitting down with a trusty pen and paper or at a Think Table (Like that plug didn’t ya) and sketching out your thoughts and ideas.
A blank canvas or lots of white space provides this place to think different and generate lots of ideas quickly without any restraints. You can also explore other options and variations without any real risks – you can just throw it all out their and start to visualize something amazing.
While complex technology programs are great for putting the finishing touches on something, they’re not the quickest way to start the ideation process.
Here’s the question: Are you making things to difficult by pulling up another program when you could just be sitting down and starting to explore?
There is a simpler way. Try it. Use it. Go.
Family Is First
Over a year ago my wife and I packed up our shit and moved to California from the mitten state – this is Michigan for those of you who don’t know it as the mitten. I was over MI. I couldn’t get out of the state fast enough. I was sick of the weather, the startup ecosystem, the capital, it just wasn’t what I was looking for – I learned this the hard way. Not that there aren’t great people doing awesome things in MI, it just didn’t fit and jive with me personally.
While in California, I traveled, I networked, and got super plugged into all the startup communities there. I spent time in San Diego, LA, San Francisco, the Valley, and a few other smaller communities like Santa Barbara, Carlsbad, Orange County, and a few others.
I was looking for more high growth startup stuff and an environment that was conducive to this. I wanted to plug into a system of badass entrepreneurs with vision, character, and a passion to make shit happen. Oh, and they value failure as a key driver to their community.
Moving away from MI was one of the best decisions I ever made. It brought me closer to my wife and my family, I became the one of the leaders of Startup California, which is a region of Startup America, It lead me to all the startups I’m involved with, I met some incredible people, and we found out that we were having Danny Beckett the third. What more could I ask for? Honestly, nothing. I am very, very thankful.
However, after we found out that we were having little guy there was something missing. Something just didn’t feel right. Something was keeping us up all night. What was it? It was family. Family has always been and always will be first in my life – if it’s not I hope someone steps up and slaps me. I say it in my bio, family is first, and after that, I’m all startups and business.
Because family is first, my wife moved back to MI about 3-4 months ago to be with our families during and after the pregnancy. I remained in Mountain View for just a little while longer until I couldn’t handle it any longer and I wanted to be with Sarah and my family too.
Today I spend 2-3 weeks in MI with my family and 2-3 weeks traveling back and forth to Mountain View, LA, SD, CA, New York, CO, and wherever else I need to be. It’s a little crazy at times, but it works for us and we are happier than we’ve ever been.
Here is what I’ve learned. Home is the place where your family is. You will journey out, you will try new things, and you will meet kickass people from around the world, but what will never change is that place you call home.
I leave you with this; move away, try new things, take risks, meet new people, discover the undiscovered, and don’t settle for anything less than awesome. But, while you’re out and about, just remember where home and family is.
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How about you?
What’s your story?
Danny Beckett The III
As some of you probably already know I’m about to be a Dad real soon. September 4th my wife and I will bring Danny Beckett the III into the world to carry on the legacy. I’m so pumped I can’t even sleep at night. I lay there thinking about all the things I want to teach him, show him, and experience with him.
This past January, my wife wrapped up a pregnancy test in a box and gave it to me for my birthday. What? Yup, a pretty little pregnancy test in a box for my birthday. What a surprise that was after coming back from traveling for two weeks. It was a good surprise though!
I quickly opened up the pink box ( I was a bit curious why it was pink) thinking it was a new watch or something cool….and there it was laying all nice in the tissue paper. My first thought was holly shit, am I ready to be a dad? What about? How am I going to? And then I looked up at my wife, smiled/cried, and realized that I was born for this. What could be more exciting than having my own child that I can love, mentor, and watch grow up to do amazing things in the world!
In my mind there is no greater blessing than becoming a father. It’s the best thing that has ever happened to me – besides meeting my wife, she is a rock star. No startup, no company, no exit, no trip, it doesn’t even come close to being a Dad – you Dads out there know exactly what I’m talking about.
This experience has changed my life more ways than one and I can’t wait to meet the little dude.
What we can all learn from Jenna Marbles
Jenna Marbles is the most subscribed chic on YouTube after just a couple of years. If you haven’t heard of her, go watch some of her videos. She is hilarious. Jenna has nearly 3 million people following her weekly videos and she’s built a pretty incredible brand from her bedroom.
Photo Courtesy of: akurepki2 on DeviantART
At first this sounds shocking. Then, you watch the interview and you realize why she’s so successful.
I think there are some great takeaways from this that we can all apply to our lives:
- She say’s the shit other people think about, but their to afraid to say – they don’t want to be judged.
- She’s as real, authentic, and transparent as it gets.
- She doesn’t take herself to seriously.
- She keeps things fun.
- She makes people feel like they are a part of her journey.
- She doesn’t care what people think about her
- She doesn’t try to impress people
- She makes people feel like it’s okay to be weird or awkward
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What do you think about Jenna Marbles? Add your comments below.
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