Date: January 2015

There are blogs and then there are, well, blogs. Some bloggers are one hit wonders, others stay around for the long haul continually reinventing themselves and bringing out new material.

I asked marketers to give me an insight into what they believed was the top 50 blogs that every entrepreneur should read at least once. This is what they came up with:

1.             https://neilpatel.com/blog/

Neil Patel has run two successful software companies, Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics, he has worked with clients of all sizes in almost every industry, in return getting results in some of the most competitive online niches like car insurance.

Most businesses have a marketing component, and if they don’t they should, but what makes a marketing department successful is the quality of the marketing manager.

A great marketing manager can be the difference between success and failure, or growth and stagnation.

Of the Oscar nominated films I have watched so far – and I have watched a few – Whiplash has been my favourite. Putting aside the amazing performance by JK Simmons and the incredible score, it got me thinking about how far people are willing to go to get the best out of themselves and others. 

How far do you push? Is your best good enough or do you strive for better, for more or even to be the best? 

Positive psychology, like all good science, has evolved, becoming richer and more applicable as research uncovers what works to cultivate happiness. Our ancestors rubbed two sticks together to make fire, learning through experimentation, replication, and results how to reliably and consistently create warmth when needed. At first they guessed at how to make fire, just like today some of us guess how to make ourselves happy (which, ironically enough, sometimes makes us feel unhappy).  We have the science now to orient ourselves to happiness, and through the science of positive psychology we can use it to flourish, building a fire of positive emotions that support and nourish our wellbeing. 

The question, however that claws at most of us from time to time is how to maximise positive psychology?

They're young having the time of their lives while studying their arses off, and as part of their University Degree or off their own bat, they have decided to do an internship. Luckily for me, it's at Marketing Eye.

First of all, they send off their resumes to hundreds of different companies requesting an internship. In Australia, they are largely not paid, so interns are volunteering their own time in reward for hands on experience.

I once said to an intern that when they finished their University Degree that they would be more employable due to their internship and ability to attract 50,000 to a blog, than those of who may have received a better score. Experience particularly in marketing counts for something.

So, I asked some of our interns, what an internship is really like. Here's what they had to say:

Back in the mid 1990s, having walked out of university ready to earn big money in journalism, I was rudely awakened by the difficulty to get a job in the industry. So, like any self respecting 20-something, I took any job I could and became a shoe salesman while I trawled job ads for my chosen profession.

I was Al Bundy at the tail end of Al Bundy’s great Married With Children TV run; before the brilliant Ed O’Neill became the old man on Modern Family. Now, I have never considered myself a salesperson, but I did okay and the easiest sales came because of an immediate rapport built with customers. I really wasn’t selling anything, I was just having a chat to someone whose interests matched mine, or whose personality was appealing. I think they bought from me because of the very fact that I wasn’t selling to them, and of course they needed a pair of shoes.

I have been reading some great books recently, mostly about how to build a happy and sustainable culture and build a business globally.

At the moment we are employing new people in key positions within our company. Each position is new as Marketing Eye is growing exponentially and we need to hire people to accomodate that.

I cannot describe enthusiastically enough how excited I am to be in Melbourne today, the 12th day of January.

Still calling hotels my home, but albeit for only a short time more, I woke up excited for what the day will bring. Today, I will re-engage with my Australian team and work together with them to build Marketing Eye in Australia by 40 percent over the next 12 months. We have everything in place ready to go - and its incredibly motivating.

"The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we hit it." - Michaelangelo

Goals. Not the kind Lionel Messi or Lance Franklin kick. More the type set by entrepreneurs, businesses, dieters and anyone who wants to get the most from life. I’ve edited a lot of pieces about goal setting in the last two months. It’s that time of year. Of those, however, who are taking expert advice and setting their goals, many fail to make them stick.

Getting ready for the artic freeze with a 12 degree chill expected tomorrow, I am gladly sitting in my warm office in Atlanta.

The team is fired up for the start of the new year. At this time of year, many people rethink where they sit in this world; life, work, health. I for one, have been doing a lot of that lately.

As I embark on the next phase of global expansion, I am left with some thoughts on the people I employ and those who would best suit our company going forward.