And less than three months, $2.8M worth of new billing, and at least 15 new client engagements later, this was my best thing. And that’s why content works to build your business.

When we hear a story we find compelling, it gives us an opportunity, sometimes even a compulsion to share it with someone else. So when you cast your value in terms of a story that your whole team can repeat and share with others, you’re tapping into a deep human need and connecting it with your measurable business objectives.

The most important piece of content you'll ever produce is your brand story. Do you have yours written down? So you can use it? Every day? If you don't have a clear, compelling, memorable story ready to share with your most important people everywhere you communicate with them. You are behind the 8-ball.

At the top of the scannable menu. Very prominently displayed was a message noting that credit card purchased would be charged an extra 4%. Clearly, to offset the charge the restaurant paid for credit card processing. Funny thing, though, when the bill arrived, it showed the price along with the 4% added. Then, right underneath, it showed the "cash" price, which was 4% less.

A big part of the way Google measures "quality" is how the keywords are used. There are other components to this like length, frequency of posting, backlinks, traffic and duration of views on a page, but the keywords, historically, have been a massive part of this. On the other hand, we humans who need to read the content, need to find the information you post informative and useful, too. In the SEO game, they call this "relevance." Humans measure and react to information differently.

There's a time for original creativity. And there's a time to put your original creativity to use. One, you start from scratch. The other, you use touchstones. The things you know and believe about yourself. The things you believe. The things that make you matter.

"Authenticity" is one of those words like innovation, disruptive, synergy, guru, and paradigm, that gets thrown around as a distractor. By people who pretend they know things. But it's a word with a meaning, that when it is used properly, is enormously powerful and important. To me, authenticity is a way of being true to who you are and who you want to be.

Reading fiction, specifically, improves your sense of empathy. And who among us couldn't use a bit of that? Study on the subject says reading fiction regularly helps you sleep, makes you more creative, sparks your memory. It expands your knowledge, improves your use of language, boosts your confidence and analytical skills.

Is your message the same today as it was last year? Probably not. If there was a simple way to create the tools you need to communicate your message clearly, consistently, and effectively across your entire team, would you?

There is.

Wouldn't it make your business better if you had a single source... one tool with all the words you needed every time you had to write something, or present something, or answer a question about your business?

Your brand’s secret superpower isn’t just in your story, it’s in the way you choose to put it to work and the way you can get your whole team, your whole enterprise behind it.

It's the headline you see all the time. And it's undisputedly correct. Storytelling is human. It's powerful. It makes an impact. But it's a bit of a myth, too. Unless you have all the missing pieces.

“Be careful what you think you know about a person. Because you’re probably wrong,” author Jeff Linsay had one of his characters offer as important advice. And it holds up in real life, too.

Today was the day. It's been about six months since we moved. Out west. To altitude. In Colorado. I've been trying to get back into my running. And failing. But today, I ran the full four miles I've been targeting. Without walking. Or falling out of breath. First time since we moved to altitude.