My New Girlfriend! Gasp!

As I was packing the garage to move a couple months ago, I found a list of goals from 1998.  One of my goals was to have a Frisbee dog.  All three of the dogs we've had since then have been rescues, with their built in issues.  They've been awesome, and we've loved them to death, but I haven't been able to turn any of them into frisbee dogs.   Speaking of death, we lost one (Toni) last year and another (Riley) this year.  Toni lived to nearly 16, and Riley to 14.  Nothing can replace them.  My daughter Kalin was crying, missing Toni, just yesterday.  : (

Jonesie - my wife's dog -is our most recent rescue and  we're working hard with him to help him get over the insecurity and aggression issues he came with.  He's in obedience classes right now, and he's come a long way.

I'll be 50 next year.  Mid life crisis time, right?  A little anxious, and in need of something exciting, something new, something different.  OK, I'd really like a 2013 BMW M5, but that like $100 grand.  I'd love a 6 month hiatus to Italy, but that's not practical just yet.

So what to do... Well, I've been obsessing about Border Collies for some time now.  And it was time.  I ultimately found my dream dog - a purebred female Border Collie with high toy drive - from Heather Hutchings of Power House Border Collies.

My new baby's name is Saphira Marie.  Saphira after the dragon in the Eragon book series (not the movie, the movie sucked) and Marie is my daughter Kalin's middle name.

She is literally the most beautiful dog I've ever seen.  Sure, I'm slightly biased, since I'm in love and all, but if you can find a better looking dog, send me a picture!  And she is freaking perfect - fun, playful, affectionate, afraid of nothing - human or animal, and has an off switch so she can be mellow.

She goes with me everywhere I can take her, and some places I can't.  She's eaten at lots of restaurants - they just give her a pass since she's so freaking adorable.

Oh, and she's already great at fetching a Frisbee!

Here are some pics my awesome photographer wife Leila took of us tonight:

True Love

Yes, her eyes really are that blue.

Vocal warm ups

Purple Cow

My wife has been pushing Seth Godin on me for awhile.  I finally caved and started watching his YouTube videos.  Really good stuff.  I wanted more.  So I purchased his audio book, Purple Cow. Audio book you say?  Heck yes!  I LOVE audio books.  I read while I run.  I read while I drive.  I read myself to sleep.  But that's off topic.


In the dark ages before the interwebs, marketing went like this:  Huge companies spent millions of dollars on national TV campaigns, sold a ton of product, and reinvested the money in, yep, more TV time.  They forced ads down our throats, we watched, and bought.  This worked fabulously.  Then.  But this was before TiVo, Hulu, Netfix and an epidemic of ADD.  


Now, if we don't want to watch an ad, we don't, so more effective marketing has evolved.  Certainly, some companies have not evolved and they're still using the 1970 model.  It doesn't work anymore.


Now, you've got to do things differently.  You've got to target your marketing - get your product or service in front of people who WANT to see it.  That's the genius of a Google search - you type "widget", and you see ads for just what you're looking for.


The main point of the book however, is that marketing should start with the creation of the product.  You need to create a product that will market itself.  You can no longer create something, and then think, "hmm, how will I market this?"  The product or service has to be the marketing.  And how will it do that?  It must be a purple cow.  It's gotta stand out.  Be different.  Make people take notice.


If your product IS the purple cow, you'll have the early adapters (sneezers) gobble it up.  It will be so cool, that they'll "sneeze" it out into the world, and then the rest of the world will start to adopt it.


So here's the question:  How are you going to make YOUR voice over business, your widget or other product stand out?


Check out Seth's book and get the full scoop.