In another blast from the past, here is my interview from March 19, 2010, with my email marketing brother from another mother, Jordan Cohen, now Vice President of Marketing at Movable Ink.

—————————————————————–

ScottWritesEverything.com: Thanks for joining me, Jordan.

Jordan Cohen: Thanks for inviting me to participate here. I have really enjoyed getting to know you and the other high quality #emailgeeks who have been contributing to the discussion on Twitter over the past year.

SWE: It’s definitely been a fun year. Let’s start at the beginning. How did you get your start in email marketing?

JC: I’d say that, “the stars they all aligned.”

My first job out of college was as media coordinator for a large financial services company in New York, and after about two years of honest-to-god whipper-snapper dedication, I was downsized. It was 2003 and the nation was experiencing a tremor that was prelude to the economic earthquake we’ve seen over the past 2 years. I’m talking about the days of Enron, Worldcom, and Tyco–lots of people were affected.

But losing my job ended up being the best thing that ever happened. I ended up landing a job as Manager of Public Policy for the DMA, where, among other issues, I got to work on media relations and industry communications in support of the association’s anti-spam platform.

Back then, we were lobbying to enact the CAN-SPAM Act, and eventually it was passed through Congress and was signed into law by good old G-Dubya. We also worked to educate the membership about email authentication and eventually made implementing proposed standards like Sender IT and DKIM a member guideline.

Needless to say, my experience at the DMA was incredibly educational, and taught me a ton about email technology and policy issues. It also helped me begin building some great relationships in the email marketing industry. Eventually, a member company recruited me to head up their ISP relations and privacy program, and the rest is history.

SWE: Given your deep involvement in the industry, what would be your recommendations for someone who’s looking to get involved in the “conversations” of the industry?

JC: Three things immediately come to mind:

1. Read everything you can get your hands on. And read every day. The world is moving a million miles a minute; the only way to keep up and be part of the conversation is to read. And don’t just read about email either, read about everything.

2. Think before you speak. Every word you say and write counts. Being thoughtful spurs conversations. Being flippant spurs fluff.

3. Join associations and go to the conferences. We can tweet, twit and twirp all day long. But at the end of the day, meeting people face to face always makes for the deepest and most meaningful conversations.

SWE: Let’s continue in a general “conversations” theme. Who is your biggest influence in the industry?

JC: My biggest influences in the industry have been my bosses. I have been truly blessed to be able to work with some of the most talented, brightest, and hard-working people on the planet. In particular, I have to acknowledge:

1. Lou Mastria. Lou hired me at the DMA and effectively laid the foundation for my career. Even as a naive, bright-eyed 23-year-old, Lou treated me as an equal partner and set an example for how to lead by example. I’m proud to say that we’ve been close friends for years.

2. Michael Della Penna. Michael brought me on as Director of ISP Relations at Bigfoot Interactive, and we ended up working together for 3-plus years, eventually as part of Epsilon after the successful sale of BI. Michael is a “worker.” He’s the guy who’s emailing you the latest draft of the deck at 11:30 at night. He’s the guy with the hunger to do whatever it will take to win. Michael always challenged me to be better, and I can’t thank him enough for that.

3. David Atlas. David was my boss at Goodmail. There are few career opportunities in life as educational as working at a Silicon Valley start-up. David is one of the smartest people I know: a deep, intellectual thinker and a natural storyteller. He opened up a new and exciting world for me.

4. Deirdre Baird and Michelle Eichner. I knew and worked with Deirdre and Michelle for years before joining the Pivotal Veracity team, and have always respected them for their professionalism and dedication to providing the industry with best-in-class technology and services. Deirdre and Michelle believe in their people and their products, and stick to their values no matter what.

SWE: That’s a great list. Let’s go even further on the “conversations.” What are three books that you think every email marketer should read?

JC: Do people really read books these days? Can I recommend newspapers and magazines instead?

I feel strongly that you can’t become a great email marketer (or any kind of marketer) by reading books. The key to successful marketing of any kind–especially in this day and age–is to understand what is going on in the world around you right now, today, and to articulate where and why you fit in it today.

Books are too static for me. If you agree with that (likely highly fallible) logic, three periodicals that I really recommend are the The New York Times (because it’s The Times), The Economist (because it covers everything that’s genuinely important around the world on a weekly basis), and New York Magazine (because it keeps me connected to pop culture but with a high-brow edge).

SWE: Then maybe blogs are more your cup of tea. Other than the blogs you write, what would be your top 5 blogs for email marketers to read?

JC: Yeah, here are 5:

1. ScottWritesEverything.com – a.k.a. “Musings from the 2nd most popular Cohen in email marketing.”
2. Email Marketing Reports – British + Expat living in Austria + Knows a ton about email marketing + has funny, YouTube-a-genic kids = a great bloody read.
3. Retail Email Blog – Chad White is a superstar and has been in the trenches for ages. He knows more about retail email than anyone else in the world. Hey, someone has to, right?
4. BeRelevant! – Tamara Gielen is a superstar, too, and also has been in the trenches for ages… but trenches on the other side of the Atlantic.
5. The Email Wars – Dylan Boyd always keeps it fresh and addresses the big picture issues of the day. And there are tanks on his homepage. Three of them. Hardcore.

SWE: That’s a great list (…trying not to toot my own horn too much…). Let’s talk challenges. What do you think is the biggest challenge facing email marketers today?

JC: The biggest challenge facing emails marketers is one of the biggest challenges facing ALL of mankind: the irresistible urge to reap the most reward for the smallest amount of effort. It’s a problem that’s endemic across all industries, not just email. People who “get by” are sloppy, and in email marketing, unfortunately, that translates into a bunch of spam for the rest of us.

On the other hand, email marketers who take pride in their work and operate with integrity always seem to find a way to excel.

SWE: Changing gears a bit. We’ve all heard about Facebook’s Project Titan. Given what you know of it, how do you think Project Titan will affect the industry as a whole?

JC: Google proved with Gmail that a smart company can rapidly become a force in the consumer email space, so as the world’s most popular online social network with hundreds of millions of users, I’ll definitely be watching Facebook and “Project Titan” closely. The most interesting things to look for will be how Facebook integrates email into the larger social networking experience, and corresponding new opportunities that might be afforded to email marketers.

SWE: That will be interesting to see. How about mobile? You’re so heavily involved in the mobile email debate. What impact do you think mobile will have on marketing as a whole in the next 3-5 years?

JC: I’m heavily involved in the mobile email debate because I see it as the most exciting and important trend to impact this industry since I’ve been a part of it, and probably since the inception of email and email marketing altogether.

The numbers are staggering: More than 1 billion people will access email on their handhelds by the end of 2014. Cell phones (smart or otherwise) currently outnumber PCs by a factor of 4 to 1 around the world, and I believe that in the next decade–if not sooner–more people will be accessing brands’ email in the palm of their hands than at their desks or in their laps.

This represents nothing less than a total reinvention of the channel. Making sure your templates look good on the small screen is just the tip of the iceberg. The bigger challenge will be evolving email marketing programs to create an optimal user experience that is always on, and on the go.

SWE: Definitely a major consideration now and in the future. Okay, a fun question. What’s your favorite thing about email marketing?

JC: Email is the epicenter of people’s digital lives, and there is no reason to believe that this position will be usurped for the foreseeable future. Working in email marketing means that you are helping to shape the future of how human beings communicate, and it’s a privilege for us to work on the vanguard of technologies that are changing the way that people around the world connect and interact with each other.

SWE: Two words: Love. It. But just as there are two sides to a coin, there are two sides to the discussion. What’s your LEAST favorite thing about email marketing?

JC: The lack of rich media in email depresses me. We were able to put a man on the moon in 1969, but we can’t even allow basic images to display by default–let alone video or 1-click shopping capabilities–in email in 2010 because the industry hasn’t been able to coalesce around common security standards. It’s kind of shocking, and I also think it severely limits the ability for email marketing to get adequate attention, respect, and dollars from the C-suite.

SWE: Last question: If you were stuck in an elevator with the CEO of a company that doesn’t utilize email, what is your “elevator speech” for email marketing?

JC: If I were stuck in an elevator with the CEO of a company that doesn’t utilize email, I wouldn’t bother giving him an elevator speech. I try not to waste time on idiots.

===========================

About Jordan Cohen

Jordan Cohen is vice president of marketing for Movable Ink. He is an accomplished communications, marketing and public affairs professional with extensive media, analyst, Internet and marketing industry relationships.

An expert on email marketing, deliverability and online privacy, his portfolio includes volumes of articles and white papers, and speaking engagements at national events including DM Days NY, NCDM, the Online Trust Alliance Summit and the inaugural Email Evolution Conference, where he delivered a keynote speech.

Jordan also has been actively involved in influencing legislation and regulation. He has chaired two industry committees focused on public policy (OTA and EEC), and was one of a few dozen individuals quoted by the Federal Trade Commission in its 2005 report to Congress on the effectiveness of the CAN SPAM Act.

Jordan graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor with a BA in Communication Studies.

Three years ago, I launched a series of interviews with a group of email industry folks I called “The Email Snobs.” With the blog crash a few months ago, the Email Snob Interview series was “lost” but since has been recovered. I decided I would post these interviews again, if nothing else, to simply see how much has changed in email marketing in the past 2-3 years. (How about that for the speed and craziness of technology?)

The series of more than 20 interviews began with an interview with John Caldwell. I’m proud to present this interview once again:

————————–

I have the great privilege of launching the series with “one of the greats” (in my opinion), John Caldwell. Here we go:

===================================

ScottWritesEverything: John, I appreciate your willingness to be a part of the “Email Snob” (or in your case, Email Geek) interview series.

John Caldwell: Appreciate being asked. This is my first official email interview about email…

SWE: I can imagine. Let’s start at the beginning. How did you get your start in email marketing? Tell me a bit about your background.

JAC: I really just sort of fell into it; it started in the mid nineties when I’d picked up a cool domain name, VeniceBeach.com.  It’s a much cooler site today than it was back then.  Anyway, I’d built sort of a community portal – when was the last time you heard that word?  And while I was messing around trying to figure out a revenue model, people were emailing me asking about different things about Venice Beach.  It didn’t take long before I started doing a regular newsletter.   The first newsletter was sent in June of 1996 and grew to a small handful of newsletters segmented by user preference by that fall.

By the end of 1999 I was the email marketing department of an online agency, Lassoo Interactive.  At Lassoo I developed and deployed some of the earliest email marketing campaigns for companies like WebEx, X-Drive, Lawson Software, and Microsoft Great Plains.  For about a year I partnered with a developer buddy outsourcing email deployment services with our own platform.  He got an offer on the platform and I got an offer to be the email marketing department of Experian’s FreeCreditReport.com.

At FCR I created and implemented the company’s strategic email marketing plans and designed and developed their email marketing and reporting guidelines. Automated programs grew about 100 times during my tenure, with channel revenue growing about 15 times.  Not bad for a one-man department, huh?

After leaving Experian to become an independent consultant in January of 2005 I was fortunate to have them as my second client.  Clients since have included eFax, LegalZoom, Teleflora, to name just a few, and I’m currently on a second engagement with eHarmony – love the way that sounds, an engagement with eHarmony.  I can’t tell you what I’m doing, but it’s very cool, very geeky, and I’m having a lot of fun working with some really great people!

SWE: Based on your experience, if you could say one thing to someone who wants to get into this industry, what would it be?

JAC: What kind of twisted masochist are you?  Naw, just kidding; or am I?  Seriously, though, immerse yourself in everything email and don’t believe everything you read.  Most of what’s written about email marketing is from people that have never done email marketing.  I’m not knocking the observers, and I know a few that could probably describe what I do better than I can.  There’s a difference between suggesting things for a client to try/test from the comfort of your first email job working for an ESP and sitting between the keyboard and the chair with deadlines and your boss standing on your shoulder.

Oh yeah, and don’t buy lists and don’t use “blast” as a verb.

SWE: I would also add never to use “blast” as a noun in terms of email either. Anyway, I’m curious. What’s your favorite thing about email marketing?

JAC: I really like the nuts and bolts of email operations across the board. I like to design and develop complex automated programs, roll them out, geek on the numbers, and then start tweaking and tuning. But my absolute favorite thing about email marketing is having the opportunity to share my experiences and what I’ve learned in my time in the space.

SWE: I appreciate your desire to share your experiences as well! Moving on… How has your work in the email marketing industry affected your personal use of email?

JAC: I’m terrible. I have very high expectations. If a sender can’t do the basics of email well, why would I believe that they can do anything else well? I know, it’s probably not a fair statement, but come on, this is 2010. Email is not new.

I also  probably subscribe to a lot more crap being in the industry than I think I would if I wasn’t…

SWE: How do you think the iPad will affect email marketing?

JAC: i-what? ‘Nuf said…

[Editor's Note: Crazy to think that only three years ago, the iPad was new and this was a true discussion.]

SWE: Taking that concept a bit further, what effect do you think mobile technologies will have on email marketing?

JAC: I think that alert-type messages were made for mobile, but other than that I see mobile devices as more of an Inbox triage.  I just can’t see too many people stopping whatever they’re doing to order this that or the other thing from their mobile device because they got an email right now.  The same goes with visiting a Web site or subscribing to whatever from a mobile device.  I could be wrong, but I’m just not seeing the reality living up to the hype.

SWE: Changing gears a bit… If there was one thing you could tell either clients or ESPs–whether it’s a frustration, some words of advice, or even praise–what would it be?

JAC: To ESPs: Don’t dumb-down a sophisticated product; smarten-up your users.  Just like not everyone can be an athletic superstar or cover girl model, not everybody can do email.  And if an organization wants to do sophisticated email marketing, don’t expect it to come from this week’s email marketing guru that was last week’s call center rep.  ESPs will never be able to simplify a sophisticated tool to that level, and to do the really cool stuff that makes lots of money, organizations are going to need to spend a buck or two on talent.  So, I guess there’s a little something for both ESPs and end-users.

To the end-users I ask, “What’s in your documentation?”  What? You don’t have any documentation?  What happens when your call center rep-cum-email guru wins the lottery and doesn’t come back to work?  How will the receptionist ever be able to figure out what’s been done and what needs to be done with your email programs?

SWE: Who is your biggest influence in the industry? Why?

JAC: I don’t think that there’s a single influence.  Right out of the box I’d say Stephanie Miller.  She’s absolutely amazing in everything she does in and for the email industry, and she’s just plain scary-smart.  Another big influence is Luke Glasner, also scary-smart, he has more passion for and dedication to the industry than just about anyone that I’ve ever met in the space.  Coming from the hands-on user side of the business, Luke understands the pressures and expectations of being on the front-line of email marketing.

There are others, including you, but to list them all would start to sound like an Oscar speech, and then I’ve got to worry about Kanye West and all that….

SWE: Continuing in that vein, if you could name one book that you feel every email marketer should read, what would it be? Why?

JAC: “Sign Me Up, A Marketers Guide to Email Newsletters“.  Email newsletters done well make money.  And if you can’t do something as basic as a newsletter well, what makes you think that you can do complex lifecycle marketing at all?  Next would be “The Truth About Email Marketing” by Simms Jenkins.  I particularly like how Simms explains some of the concepts behind email marketing and how they can be put to practical use.  And if you really want to get your email geek on, “Email Marketing by the Numbers” by Chris Baggott.

SWE: What about a blog (that’s not your own)?

JAC: I’ve been reading Mark Brownlow’s Email Marketing Reports for years.  I don’t know how many years, but it’s been all of them.  If I could chose only one industry blog to read, it would be EMR.

SWE: Great stuff! All right, now for a fun question: What is the one thing you’ve always wanted to try with email but have not done to this point?

JAC: Are you a cop? I don’t know if I should answer this question without my lawyer present….

SWE: Fair enough. All right, last question. If you were stuck in an elevator with the CEO of a company that doesn’t utilize email, what is your “elevator speech” for email marketing?

JAC: It depends….  If it was the CEO of Charmin bath tissue I don’t know what I could do….  If it was Willy Wonka, maybe something along the lines of, “How would you like to increase the sales of everlasting gob stoppers and pull in about $40 for every $1 you spend doing so?”

=============================================

About John Caldwell

Active in the email marketing and operations space since 1996, John Caldwell is an innovative marketing executive experienced in integrated email marketing, operations, and lifecycle messaging. As an independent consultant John has brought his utilization of email marketing best practices, including customer segmentation and profiling, and operational analysis, to a number of major clients including Teleflora, eHarmony, Experian Consumer Direct (FreeCreditReport.com), and more.

While at Experian, prior to becoming a consultant, John created and implemented the company’s strategic email marketing plans. He designed the company’s email marketing guidelines and developed comprehensive reporting matrices to measure the operational statistics of email programs and campaigns providing actionable intelligence to Business.

John has spoken at Industry events on deliverability and other topics, and is a Member of the Email Experience Council of the Direct Marketing Association.

The other day, my boss asked me point-blank, “How much do you think email could move the needle on its own in terms of our conversion?”

I thought about it for a second, then floored him with this answer:

“By itself, not much at all.”

(I can hear you thinking, “But, Scott, you claim to be an email marketer. What the hell are you talking about?”)

I then went on to say, “We need to beef up the website and leverage this awesome content as drivers for email clicks.”

As I’ve said before, email can’t be put into a vacuum. And the ultimate question for an email is this:

Where does your call-to-action land your customer?

If you’re landing email clickers on your website, your website becomes the most important component of your email campaign.

Why? Because if you’re selling me a four-star hotel, and I arrive to find a shack surrounded by dirt, I’m pretty sure I’m going to want my money back. If you want me to buy a vacuum, and you link me to a page that’s not specifically about vacuums because you haven’t built it, what are the odds I walk away from your offer? Probably pretty good.

I tell everyone who will listen that I don’t want people reading my email. I want people to click through to my website so they can purchase something. The purchase cannot take place inside the email itself.

Even if the email offer is a printable coupon for the in-store purchase, I still have to go to another place to complete the action you want me to perform. If your store is horrible, and you don’t have the item I want in stock, I’m not completing the purchase.

So, the question of the day is this: Does your website back up your email program? If not, start there before really pushing new creative.

I frequently listen to The Nerdist podcast. Between being able to nerd out along with the hosts of the podcast and listen to great guests get into truly deep discussions about their history and perspective (i.e. the Mark Hamill episode is pretty phenomenal), it satisfies my two requirements for solid programming in the car:

1. It’s funny
2. It makes me think

And I’ve been thinking a lot about what one of The Nerdist’s hosts, Jonah Ray, said in one of the episodes I listened to a month or two ago. Jonah said (and I’m paraphrasing now) that as we get older, we learn to “forgive our parents because we are now the age they were when they were having us.”

Once I heard that, I immediately thought two things:

1. Experience is the ultimate teacher and deliverer of perspective
2. Crap, I am my parents.

Then, I thought further: What is parenting, really?

The answer: The illusion of control

We grasp for control in every situation we’re in–it’s the human condition. And since there are so many aspects of our lives that are out of our control, we seek it out anywhere we think we can find it. Enter a baby.

We think we’re overlords of these beings, these lumps of flesh and phlegm (how’s that for spelling without spellcheck?). We expect obedience the first time, every time, and get really upset when the baby doesn’t behave the way we would like them to.

Why do we parents do that? It’s crazy talk! Why?

We spend the first year saying Yes, then the next 2 (or 17) saying No.

Seriously, every milestone in the first year is celebrated. Hooray, you’re sitting up! Yes, please crawl! Fantastic, you’re walking! (Yes, walking sometimes comes later, as was the case with my daughter.)

Then, they’re mobile, and we think, “Shit, now they’ll get into everything!”

So, we start saying, “No.” No, don’t open that cabinet. No, you shouldn’t grab that knife. No, the dog is not a horse!

Isn’t that confusing for a baby? I can only think about my daughter’s internal monologue: “Gees, Daddy, you told me Yes for a year. Why is everything different now?”

I’m not advocating for never installing boundaries or teaching manners–far from it. But we have pretty high expectations if we expect the baby to fall in line like some sort of Marine.

We’re making it up as we go. Everything.

It’s time to admit it. I don’t know how to teach a three-year-old how to do anything, really. Yet, somehow I’m imparting knowledge and wisdom on a daily notice. (I believe yesterday’s lesson was about what my daughter should do if I tell her to “Enunciate!”)

And yes, parents, you’re faking it, too. Daily. Time to stop pretending you’re the smartest person in the world.

Parenting is all about faking it well. There are some things you simply can’t teach. For example, why kids shouldn’t bang their heads into the wall…

It’s okay to admit we don’t have control of the situation. Part of the fun is letting go and letting the kiddo figure it out for herself. After all, she’ll need self-reliance eventually… right?

So, do I “forgive” my parents? Yes, because I *get* it now. I understand.

I wrote this original short post about three and a half years ago. It’s sad that only has cable news not really changed, but in many cases, it has only gotten worse. In fact, research proves it. Here’s a snippet from a Huffington Post article I read today:

The [Pew Research Center] study’s authors found that, since 2007, CNN, Fox News and MSNBC have all cut back sharply on the amount of actual reporting found on their airwaves. Cheaper, more provocative debate or interview segments have largely filled the void.

Remember when news was simply “That’s the way it was” and nothing else? Yeah, me neither. Anyway, here’s the post I wrote three and a half years ago:

——————–

People often forget that comedians and cartoonists are the Court Jesters of our day. They can make fun of the “King” without getting killed. A short post today featuring one of my favorite comic strips ever: Non Sequitur.

The part that stands out to me the most here is the line “It’s the context in which you misinterpret it.” Spin alley, so to speak. I think this says a lot about our so-called “news” media when you can look at a set of facts of go two, three, four, five, countless different ways in terms of interpretation. Kind of crazy.

Anyway, I don’t want to dive too far into this. Just thought we could enjoy a little humor on a Wednesday morning.

One of the most defining movies of my childhood was “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.” I’m not ashamed to admit this–in fact, I’m proud of the fact that this movie got me interested in both music and history.

(Note: This post was originally written back in May of 2010 and is another one that was founded courtesy of the Wayback Machine. Rather than post it back in the archives, I want to post it here now because, well, I love Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.)

But before you scream “Shut Up, Ted!” at me, the question now is what can Bill and Ted teach us about email marketing? The answer, my friends, lies in the following exchange:

Let’s break down why this exchange is important for email marketing:

Tools and knowledge are critical for success

Bill and Ted are looking for the easy way out in becoming a super band. A “most triumphant video” and Eddie Van Halen mean they won’t have to work for success. Good, world-changing email marketing doesn’t work like that.

Building your knowledge of best practices and a tenacity for testing those practices is a critical element of success. Giving yourself the tools to build and use your knowledge is also important. Some takeaways:

• If you’re a marketer with an ESP, utilize your ESP’s available resources.
• If you don’t have an ESP, consider it as a viable tool. Also, consider lobbying for the resources to make yourself a better email marketer.

Hard work begets success

In his excellent book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell has a chapter about rice paddies in Asia.  Gladwell’s big premise is that the harder you work on your rice paddy, the greater your yield of rice will be. There is a direct correlation between the level of work and the yield.

Email marketing is much the same way. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme. The harder you work on your campaigns, the better they will perform. It’s that simple.

You could be a game-changer

Remember the whole premise behind the “Excellent Adventure?” Bill and Ted have to work hard to pass a history final so they can go on to create excellent music and change the world.

You can change the world, too. Just remember this:

Be excellent to [your subscribers] and party on!

Last week, I taught my third Email Marketing 101 course for an Internet Marketing class at Weber State University. One of the key points I bring up to these students during my lecture is this:

If you’re going to lose a subscriber, it’s better that they unsubscribe rather than mark your email as spam. You’re going to lose them anyway, so don’t shoot yourself in the foot by making it hard to unsubscribe.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t use your unsubscribe page as a method of subscriber recovery. Take a look at their unsubscribe page:

Here’s why I like this unsubscribe page:

• It “admits” that they send a lot of emails. And they do send a lot of emails.
• It offers reasons why subscribers should stay active on the list.
• It maintains the personality of the brand.
• It offers the option to “opt down” or opt out.

Say what you want about the politics here. I think this subscriber recovery effort could be very effective.

What do you think?

Recently, I came across an old post from this blog from almost three years ago–one that got lost for a while in the craziness around the blog reboot. But rather than simply post it back directly into the archives, given my current state of mind, I thought it would be appropriate to post a shortened, updated version here now:

————————————————

… I was reminded of a small exercise that all of you can do–the idea which came from Seth Godin in his book Linchpin.

The idea is simple: Shut up and think for five minutes a day.

Godin uses Richard Branson (of Virgin Airlines/Records) as his prime example. He says that Branson likely works his ass off during the majority of his days, but he spends probably five minutes a day thinking about new ways to do things.

Five minutes a day to innovate. To dream. (In Branson’s case, to ideate Virgin Airlines when he owned a record company.)

What could you think up in five minutes:

• A new way to reach your customers
• A new functionality for your existing product
• A new product to bring to a new audience
• A book idea
• How to finally solve that complex math problem

These are just some examples.

Seriously. I’m talking about five minutes a day. Your daily (hopefully) shower likely takes you more time than that… so hey, you can kill those two birds with one stone.

Tell me: If you devoted five minutes a day to just thinking, what do you think you’d come up with?

Three years ago, I started my Quest for 50. I had it in my head then that I needed to lose 50 pounds to be considered healthy. I also had been two months past shoulder surgery and thought the time for excuses was over.

Naturally, it took me another year to start getting serious about it.

About a year and a half ago, I joined a gym and even went one step further and signed up with a personal trainer for one training session per week. While I can’t say my progress has been perfect, at least I can say there’s been a good chunk of progress. Here’s an update (with changes in parentheses) before I talk about the battle:

• Weight: 236 (-14 since start, -11 since first weigh-in with trainer)
• %Body Fat: 22% (-3.2%)
• Arms: 14.25″ (+.75″)
• Waist: 43″ (-.50″)
• Hips: 45.875″ (-1.125″)
• Quads: 24″ (+1.5″)
• Squats: 6 reps at 285 lbs (+240 lbs since first training session – 1-rep max likely 330 lbs)
• Leg Press: 10 reps at 585 lbs (+405 lbs – 1-rep max likely 705 lbs)
• Deadlift: 185 lbs (+130 lbs – herniated disk in back last time I did them this heavy, so avoiding heavy deadlifts)
  
• Shoulder Press: 140 lbs (+50 lbs)
• Bench Press: 155 lbs (+70 lbs)
  

My lower body numbers have increased much more for two reason: 1) lower body strength increases much faster than upper body in terms of weight, and 2) I started coming off of shoulder surgery, ended up having wrist surgery 11 months ago, and have been battling carpal tunnel for the past six months. Lifting heavy with no grip in one hand just doesn’t work.

Anyway, I’m pleased with the progress, especially since I usually only make it to the gym 2 days a week. I’ve gained inches in the right spots, and lost inches in the right spots. And as I wrote at the beginning of the Quest, my reasoning for once again telling you all about this is twofold:

1. By chronicling the journey here, it’s a mechanism to keep me honest.
2. I need all the support I can get to get through this.

Here are a few lessons I’ve learned in the past 16 months since getting much more serious about my health:

Skin in the game is crucial to success

I didn’t just join a gym; I also signed up for personal training. The added cost alone forces me to make a more dedicated commitment to exercise. Sure, I could only work out that one time a week with the trainer (and some weeks, that is the truth), but what would I get out of it in the end? Certainly not the results I’m seeing now.

Having skin in the game forces you to commit, take the process more seriously, and develop the discipline you need to make exercise become a habit.

The first six months are the worst – You’re going to hurt.

I think the first six months are the hardest part about establishing the workout routine. Your body isn’t ready for it, and you’re going to hurt–especially if you’re doing strength training.

But, if you power through it and get the discipline and routine, you hit the point I’m at now: That point where when you DON’T work out, you start to feel weird, almost anxious. If I don’t get at least one workout in a week, I almost get twitchy. (Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about two-hour workouts, I’m talking 30-45 minutes, twice a week.)

That said…

It gets better but only gets tougher.

I have a huge stack of sheets of workouts from my first year with my trainer. In the beginning, the weight was lower, the reps were the same, but I only had a set or two of each exercise. Now, I do at least three sets of everything, and the weight is almost always higher.

This is not a bad thing. Your routine needs to be mixed up to keep your body from adjusting and plateauing.

You will be humbled and you won’t always have “it” for every workout.

There are some workouts where I could lift just about any weight thrown at me (within reason), be done with my training session, and feel like I could keep going for another session. Then there are those times where you just don’t have it, and you do a lighter workout and it kicks your ass. And, there are exercises you do where 5-lb dumbbells have you nearly falling over from exhaustion. (No, I’m not kidding. Anything that goes away from your body that’s not a press takes a ton out of you.)

Lastly, it’s important to be realistic about your progress and persevere.

Over the past three years, I’ve dealt with:

• Shoulder surgery–the shoulder took a full two years to feel normal
• Wrist surgery to repair a torn ligament (still not 100% and may never be)
• Carpal tunnel in the same wrist as the torn ligament (for which I’ll be having surgery done in a month)
• 10 months of seemingly constant illness due to allergies and horrible “inversion”  here in the SLC area (read: pollution)

I have a list of reasons to hang up the cleats and not work out. But I stick with it because it’s one of the few things that actually helps me overcome (and at least deal with) the above list. I also know that these ailments may slow down my progress, and that’s okay.

—————–

What are your lessons for starting and/or maintaining a workout routine?

I just started reading Brainfluence: 100 Ways to Persuade and Convince Consumers with Neuromarketing (affiliate link) the other day, and the very first chapter (in fact, the only one I’ve read so far) got me thinking in a big way. The specific passage that has me thinking is this (bolded emphasis is mine):

Customers generally can’t understand or accurately explain why they make choices in the marketplace, and efforts to tease out that information by asking them questions are mostly doomed to failure. Furthermore, marketing efforts based mostly on customer statements and self-reports of their experiences, preferences, and intentions are equally doomed.

Essentially, what people tell you about their preferences generally aren’t true.

In the email marketing space, there’s been a lot of discussion about the effectiveness of preference centers. Some will say they’re useless, while others will swear they’re really effective. (Loren McDonald has a great post about this debate in the Email Insider - worth a read.)

Andrew Kordek, over on the Trendline Interactive blog, has the right idea: focus on subscriber behavior, not self-reported preferences. Use behavior to create “a rich profile of [your subscribers] to then test, target and optimize your program.”

Essentially, actions matter more than words.

A brief personal example: When the Manti Te’o story broke, I told my wife and myself I didn’t care about it. Yet, every time there has been a new development in the story, I’ve read up about it. (To be fair, the Te’o story is truly bizarre.)

So, if you were to not target an email message to me based on what I told you, what would happen? Nothing.

If you targeted an email message based on my continued actions of reading stories? Who knows exactly what I’d do. But you can bet you’d have a better chance of getting additional action out of me.

This brings to mind the old Henry Ford quote: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

People need a push in the right direction (whether that’s right for them or for your bottom line–hopefully it’s both). Harnessing the data around their engagement and behavior, while difficult (as Andrew noted), can be extremely effective. In fact, I know from my experience that more engagement equals better conversion rates.

Seems so simple, right? If someone acts on your message, they’re more likely to buy. Rarely does conversion come out of nowhere.

Does this mean you ignore what your subscribers or customers are telling you? No.

But it does mean you should take it all with a grain of salt.