One of the latest technologies to find its way onto business cards (and many other places) is the QR code. I think it’s a must for your new business card.

It used to be that your business card might be the most important (and least expensive) way that people could contact you – pre-internet. Biz cards were inexpensive to print and everyone who was in business had one.

But today, it’s just as likely that someone will Google you if they want to know how to contact you – or just ask you for your Twitter or LinkedIn name, for example. In many ways, the business card is becoming just another annoying piece paper you bring home – and then there’s the question of what to do with it and how you keep track of the information.

In fact, for many coaches and consultants, the business card is obsolete. Clients come to us by referral or by in-person interactions, where an email address or phone number scribbled on a piece of paper serves just as well. Many people no longer care whether you have a card, or what it looks like – they just want to know how to connect with you.

But it’s still convenient to have a card – and if you keep the back of it blank, you provide a simple notepad for the recipient to make notes (about you or their shopping list or when that movie starts.) Always appreciated.

Enter QR Codes.

If you’re ready to re-do your card, I’d say it’s time to add a QR (Quick Response) Code. A QR Code is similar to a bar code (but cooler looking – go here to see great examples on business cards.) Most smartphones, with the appropriate App, can read the information electronically and download it for you. No more wondering where you put the card, or laborious time copying information. Just scan and it’s in.

To set it up, you need a Code Generator, and here’s one (free): http://goqr.me/. It will generate a .png file with your code – you choose the content. While you can duplicate the information you might put on your business card, you can also use it to send people to a certain web page, for example, or any other content you wish to share.

Here’s the one I created – if you have a smartphone, download a QR reader and check it out by pointing it at this image on your screen!  E-mail it to yourself and la voila!

A Few Tips:

1. Once your QR Code is created, test it out. If it reads, at the size you’ve chosen, you can now go and put it on your business card. You’ll want to include your contact information in print format, too, on your card. Here are some business card examples.

2. The QR creator also gives you an option to create a V-Card.

3. Here’s how I figured out how to read my QR code on my Droid:

a) Download QR reader App (free) and open the application and choose camera option

b) Point Camera at code as if you’re taking a picture

c) It will read the QR code and the contents (text, etc.) will pop up on your phone

d) From there, you can save, send it via social media, and email it.

4. Learn more here about Best Practices with QR Codes.

I’ve been thinking about this question of which delivery service to use for delivering newsletters and blog posts a lot recently.  I’ve charted below the leading choices to get some clarity on options.

I left out a higher end all-inclusive service known as infusionsoft.com because it is expensive and has a very steep learning and set up curve.  I also left out 1shoppingcart.com which has a service at $19/monthly for emails but has no direct blog integration.  If you need to be able to sell products – or alternatively, if you want to create specialized opt-in forms, 1shoppingcart – and infusionsoft – will do that.

But if your focus is figuring out the best way to deliver your messages – in some combination of blog and newsletter – check out the results below or download Which Delivery Service PDF here.

For a fuller comparison of Feedburner and Feedblitz, click here.  (Note: Feedblitz claims it also has better social media integration and RSS feed capacity, which I haven’t covered here.)

Working with a client today and the need to go slow to go fast in his business was slapping him upside the face.

I know just how he’s feeling because it’s been slapping me, too – specifically with my flugelhorn.  For one year, my teacher has emphasized that in practicing the flugel, which takes great physical strength and endurance (in the lips, just like a trumpet), progress is best achieved by resting as much time as you practice.  In other words, practice an exercise for 30 seconds; rest 30 seconds.  Repeat.

And for one year, I’ve been resisting.  Why?  I tell him I don’t have time for that.  It’s all well for him; he’s a professional musician and practices five hours a day.  I have a day job, not to mention family and other responsibilities; I only have one hour a day to practice.  So I’ve been telling him – for one year – that it’s just not efficient for me to practice/ rest / practice / rest.

This week in my lesson, he countered my argument, suggesting that I am not making more progress but less by practicing without equal rest.  The resting, he insists, is part of the strength building.

Okay, says I.  I’ll give it a try and see how it goes. 

The very next day, I try it.  Practice 30 seconds of exercise.  Rest 30 seconds.  Repeat.

Wow!  A very strange outcome.  Up to now, it has taken me a full hour to complete my full exercise routine.  But this time – taking equal rests – it took me LESS time.  I completed the full routine in only 45 minutes.  Next day, same result: with equal rests, 45 minutes.  And the next.  And the next.

I think we all have stories like these, where going slow allowed us to accelerate our progress.  What are yours?  Where else can you apply this in your life?

Multi-media’s the name of the game now. Watching TV on your computer. Tweeting on your phone. Catching Netflix movies on your TV.

For bloggers, this multi-media world allows us to amplify the impact of everything we write, by connecting our social media, so that one blogpost broadcasts to multiple social media sites automatically.

Note: This applies whether your blog is primarily words, photographs, video, or audio, or a mix.

In this multi-optioned world, different folks gravitate to different media choices: one mainly tweets; the other is more of a Facebook person; the third prefers viewing blogs online; the fourth only reads what shows up in his email box.

The good news is that there are many tools to help you get your message out wherever these different types hang out – and most of these tools will automate the process for you. All you’ll need to do is post to your blog and bam! Out that posts goes to – Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

One caveat. Please be aware that at the end of the day, you’re trying to build relationships, not just be everywhere online. You’ll also need to figure out how to be part of online conversations, build connections, and yes, have conversations. These tools can support, but not replace that.

Here’s a quick outline of how to take your blog posts and automate them to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. There are many other tools and options, and dozens of other social media sites, but this is a good basic place (and may be sufficient for many.)

So get these working, start joining conversations, and build those relationships!

There are two basic set up options for how to set this up:

Option One: (This is the one I use.)

1. You blog.
2. Your blog sends a message to Twitter about your blog post.
3. Twitter sends a message to Facebook and LinkedIn about your blog post.

Option Two:

1. You blog.
2. Your blog sends a message to Twitter about your blog post.
3. Your blog sends a message to Facebook about your blog post.
4. Your blog sends a message to Linked about your blog post.

TOOLS

1. BLOG TO TWITTER
• Use the Twitter Tools Application (“App”) plugin in your WordPress site. Twitter Tools also gives you the option to display recent tweets on your blog page.

2. TWITTER TO LINKEDIN
If you’re using the Twitter Tools App described above, then by adding a Twitter to LinkedIn tool, your blog will also post to LinkedIn.
• Here’s one automated option, a Twitter App known as Install Tweets, which will also post your tweets to LinkedIn (including your already automated tweets about each new blog post.) You can find out about it here and you can go from there to your LinkedIn account to set up Install Tweets. It has additional features you could explore: “With Tweets, you can now display your most recent tweets on your LinkedIn profile. Tweets also gives you instant access to the updates of people you are following on Twitter and the power to tweet, reply, and re-tweet — all from your LinkedIn home page.”
• Or you can use the LinkedIn Application called Tweets, which you’ll find on your LinkedIn account profile under Apps and again, will post your tweets to LinkedIn.

3. ALTERNATIVE BLOGTO LINKEDIN FEATURE: STATUS UPDATES
• If you want your blog post to become a Status Update in LinkedIn – and the reason you might is because anyone receiving weekly email LinkedIn updates will see your post in their email box – you’ll need to manually add a post about your new blog to your Status Update each time you post. Log in to LinkedIn, go to Status Updates, and write about your blog post with a link to the post.
• The advantage to this approach is that anyone receiving LinkedIn email updates will be notified of your blog post in their email box.
• On the other hand, even if you use this feature, I’d also recommend you link your blog to LinkedIn automatically, because then every blog post will also be featured in your LinkedIn profile. Anyone who wants to learn more about you on LinkedIn will see all your blog posts there.

4. TWITTER TO FACEBOOK
Once you’ve set up your blog to post to Twitter, by setting up your Twitter to post to Facebook as well, you’re also posting your blog post to Facebook.
• While in Facebook, search for Twitter and you’ll see the Twitter App. Click on the Twitter App and it will redirect you to log into your Twitter account and allow the connecting of Facebook and Twitter. Once enabled, your Tweets will post to your Facebook page.

5. BLOG DIRECTLY TO LINKEDIN
• Use LinkedIn’s Blog Link App. It is available from your LinkedIn profile under Applications. Once you’ve added this application, each time you post to your blog, the blog post will also be added to your LinkedIn profile.

6. BLOG DIRECTLY TO FACEBOOK
• You can use a plugin: for example Wordbook, which updates your FB wall with each of your blog posts. Or you can use Simple Facebook Connect plugin. If you go into your WordPress site and search for plugins for Facebook, you’ll find there are many other Facebook plugins. However, a warning: WordPress plugins are created by independent developers, and may or may not be effective or compatible with your site. They also require a higher level of technical knowledge to use, and as WordPress versions get updated, the plugins may fail.

7. BLOG BY EMAIL
There are two main services – one free and one paid – that will allow people to subscribe to your blog and receive their blog updates by email. The free one is called Feedburner and is widely used and easy to add to your blog. The other one is Feedblitz, a much more robust – and paid – service. Next week, I’ll review the features of each service and discuss why you might choose one or the other. Hint: This choice is also related to your newsletter strategy.

[Note: This post is discussing pinging in the context of WordPress blogs. If you are using a different service, these features may function differently, although the concepts are the same.]

Ping has entered into our new vocabulary – in a non-technical sense. “Just ping me when you’re ready to leave the party” my friend says, and I might send him a text, call him, or just shout upstairs. I know what he means when he says he’ll ping me.

But ping has a more specific meaning in the blogging world.  My client Cari Cole got a pingback on one of her blog posts recently, and I’m going to use this example to teach Ping and Pingback 101 here. Pings and pingbacks are another way to AMPLIFY your online presence.

What is a Blog Ping?

A ping is a notice that is sent out each time you post a new blog, or, as defined by pingomatic, “a service to update different search engines that your blog has updated.” In WordPress, pingomatic is automatically built right into the basic architecture of the site, so that each time you post a blog, it pings (notifies) these services that you’ve just posted.

To see that feature on your blog, once you’re logged into your WordPress site, go to: Settings / Writings / Update Services, and you’ll see pingomatic there. (You also have the option there of adding additional services to be pinged with each blog post, beyond the services pingomatic uses. Some bloggers might want to choose additional services to ping, but pingomatic states that they are pinging the most important of the search sites.)

So these pings help to give your blog posts more searcheability and therefore visibility and viewability.

What’s a Blog Pingback?

The best definition I’ve found on pingbacks is from the wordpress.org site:

The best way to think about pingbacks is as remote comments:

• Person A posts something on his blog.
• Person B posts on her own blog, linking to Person A’s post. This automatically sends a pingback to Person A when both have pingback enabled blogs.
• Person A’s blog receives the pingback, then automatically goes to Person B’s post to confirm that the pingback did, in fact, originate there.

So what happened is that after Cari, my client, ( Person A ), went to the ASCAP Expo Conference and blogged about it here, another blogger, Live Hart (Person B), reposted Cari’s post on her blog here.

Next, Cari received a pingback notice (sent as an email) from Live’s blog, and we went in and approved Live’s pingback, so it now appears as a comment at the bottom of Cari’s blog post (scroll to the bottom of the post to see Live’s comment, which is a link through to her blog.)

How Do I Know if My Blog is Enabled for Pingbacks?

The reason Cari got a pingback when Live posted and linked to Cari’s post is because both Cari and Live have “pingback enabled blogs.” The good news is that if you have a WordPress.org blog, pingbacks are automatically enabled.

To see that feature, if you’re logged into your WordPress site, go to:  Settings / Discussion. There, by default, you’ll see two boxes checked that say:

• Attempt to notify any blogs linked to from the article.
• Allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks.)

If those boxes are checked on your WordPress blog, you’re pingback enabled (both for those who link to your blog post on their blog, and if you do the same on yours to someone else’s post.)

It’s all part of the connecting up process that builds internet connections – and  also real connections between people, ideas, and their blogs. Plus, it helps your Google and other search engine rankings when you have more ingoing links – and that’s what pingbacks are.

Any questions remaining about pings or pingbacks?  Ask them here and I’ll get you the answers.

A few weeks ago on American Idol, top six contender Lauren Alaina, had a breakthrough.  In fact, her voice broke.  And that was a good thing.

How’s that?!

Background:  The judges have been pushing Lauren to go further – that good as she is, she hasn’t hit her greatness yet, because fear is holding her back.  She’s already a powerful voice and artist at only 16 years old.  But to win, she needs to take her music further and she’s afraid that if she sings with more power, she’ll mess up the notes.

But after some good coaching (thank you, coaches!), Lauren got out there on performance night and let it rip.  And yes, her voice cracked.

So why was this good?  Listen to the judges:

Jennifer Lopez: “I’m so proud of you, it brings tears to my eyes, because I saw you pushing – and those barriers are so hard for performers . . . with our insecurities… and you got up there and you pushed and I heard your voice crack a little bit and I felt proud.”

Steven Tyler:  “When your voice broke, that’s when you shined. . . keep breaking like that, because that shows the character in your voice.”

This lesson applies to all of us, musicians and non-musicians alike.

We are all faced with barriers – made up of our own fears and insecurities.  To step into a greater place, to move beyond and become more, we, too, have to be willing to ‘crack.’  If we want to avoid that, we can play it safe, but the price is to never truly mine our own personal gifts.  To never truly “show the character in our ‘voice’.”

The next time I’m up against one of those barriers, I’m going to remember those words:  “Let your Voice Crack”  – and go for it.

How about you?

p.s.  See Lauren’s night here

This week I carried through on a very difficult decision I made recently.   As I learned years ago from life coach Cheryl Richardson, the quality of our life can often be improved most powerfully by removing things – rather than adding more of what we love.  The mystery is that when we remove what is burdening  us down, new space and energy shows up – sometimes effortlessly – for what we want and love.

And sometimes, there are other discoveries in the process.  That was true for me this week.

On the top of my list of things to remove from my life for several years has been to stop caring for two aging and difficult cats.  They were not terminally ill, but had what the Vet, whom I saw on Tuesday,  called ‘inappropriate urination’ (technical word for peeing in all the wrong places) and there was no alternative home for them.

Here’s a picture of the two of them, Rita and Jessie – the two grey ones – together with our third cat, Meehta – the black one. (Okay, my daughter was very young when we acquired this brood; these are the crazy things parents do for their children sometimes.)  You can see why this was a very difficult decision.

So after long deliberation, I chose to end their lives so that I could reclaim a clear and beautiful home, which despite my best efforts, was severely compromised living with two these two cats.  Part of coaching is to help people to reclaim themselves; this week I was the client doing the reclamation, but I had to say goodbye to two very dear cats in order to do so.

This was when I discovered grace.  First, with the Vet, Dr. Jeanne Gallo, who 100% supported my decision, and give me a big hug and cried with me afterwards and shared my sorrow deeply.

Next another unexpected discovery.  Late that same evening, I ran to the grocery store to pick up a few items, still feeling sad, raw, and very lonely.  As I was checking out my groceries, the man working the register asked me how my day had been.  Barely able to speak, I said “Not easy.  I put two cats down today.”  Any more speaking and I would have burst out in tears again.  So I quietly paid for my groceries and picked up my bags.  At that moment, I felt this large bouquet of flowers being placed in my arms by the checkout man.  Free.  Just because.  I took them and walked out, in tears, again.  But I felt the beginning of a deep healing in this moment of connection.   My loneliness was eased.

As my friend Lauren said, reflecting on it afterwards, it was the power of connection to his humanity – that was his gift to me – arriving as a bouquet.  This is what we do as coaches for our clients – connect and discover; and as people, when we can, for one another.

So the grief, which I had anticipated, but not as strongly as it came, has been with me this week.  My two remaining animals are feeling it, too.

This is a picture of Meehta and my dog, Tingo, today – slowly adjusting to their new life as the only two animals in the household.  Not quite at ease with each other, but this will come, I know.  And the grief will subside, too, in a while.  Naturally.   I don’t have to push it away.  Just feel it and breathe.

Imagine yourself in this situation (which showed up last week on American Idol for two young musicians.)  You’re in the top 8 remaining singers (out of the approximately 100,000 plus who started out.)  You’re preparing the song you’ve chosen to perform this week; and if the public doesn’t like it, you can get voted off the show.  You go into your preparation session and there’s the Idol head coach, Jimmy Iovine.  We’re talking the guy who heads up a label owned by Universal Music, a guy who has produced some of the biggest pop stars of the last 30 plus years.

You know what you want to perform but Iovine trashes it, telling you you’re going to be completely unpopular and in danger of being voted off the show if you go with your choice.  He pressures you to go with a safer more ‘popular’ song choice.

What would you do?  What is the best thing to do?  If you want great success AND you have a passion for your work?

Well, two young artists – Casey Abrams and later James Durbin – dug deep and faced the darkness and vulnerability of their artistry – bucked the advice of Iovine and performed their own song choices.  They did “that thing that their hearts, their inner genius, was calling them to . . . . to reach the treasure of their self-in-potential … and the answer to why they were put on this planet.”   Steven Pressfield, The War of Art.

Abrams went forward against the advice of the industry insider with the decidedly non-trendy number, Native Boy by Nat King Cole – and blew away the audience and judges.  Here’s what the three American Idol judges said to him after his performance:

Jennifer Lopez:  “That’s what makes a really great artist . . . you don’t have to be a pop star . . . the music itself crosses the boundaries and touches people. “

Randy Jackson:  “We have really true artists on the show (this year) . . . it’s embracing who you are … and these records do sell … there’s a place for this and a place for you.  I thought it was brilliant, man, I thought it was absolutely genius. . . It makes me proud (as an artist) to judge artists and not just pop stars.  The world cannot live by pop stars alone.  We need art.”

Steven Tyler:  “You took a song that my mother sang to me when I was a little boy … You did what is in your heart, regardless of what Jimmy Iovine said.  You believed what was in your heart and you did it.  That’s the truest sense of the artist.”

See for yourself and watch how it unfolded for Casey Abrams.
(You may want to fast forward to second 59 to skip the intro.)

That same night on American Idol, top 8 contestant James Durbin was put through the same pressure for conformity from Iovine in his song choice – and he, too, chose to go with the music that called out to him that week (Heavy Metal by Sammy Hagar.) Again, he wowed the audience and the judges.

Here’s what Durbin said before his performance last week:  “This is what I’m doing.  I know what’s best for me as an artist …I have such a deep seated passion for my music that  I want to make the decisions,  if they’re good or bad.  I don’t think I would still be here if it wasn’t for my passion. . . I don’t want to be another face in the crowd.”  Watch James Durbin here.

Both Abrams and Durbin survived elimination last week.

Why does this matter?  For coaches?  For entrepreneurs?  For anyone?

This story is not only for singers.  No matter who you are, if you have a passion and a desire to create something, you can go the safe and arguably popular and already known route, and hope that it will bring you success and money.  Or you can look within and “Ask yourself like a new mother:  What do I feel growing inside me?  Let me bring that forth, if I can, for its own sake and not for what it can do for me or how it can advance my standing.”  The War of Art.

Or as Robert Frost said in The Road Not Taken,

I took the [road] less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

It turns out that this approach – mining the depths for what most matters to you and being brave and steadfast in bringing it out in the world – can be the foundation for your great success  in every aspect of life, business, career, sports, art, or wherever you chose to go.

What will you do?

About a year ago, I started playing the flugelhorn. I didn’t even know what  a flugelhorn was (think Chuck Mangione) until a few weeks before I went online, bought a horn, and starting playing.  I’m a pianist, so blowing a horn is new to me.

But with the assist of a great teacher, Ross Hill, and lots of practice, I’m playing this flugel and having a great time.

Now breath is super important with the flugelhorn – no breath, no sound – plain and simple.  Plus, the longer you can blow with one breath, the more luxurious the lines you play.  But how do you develop it?  It didn’t come automatically for me.

A few months ago, Ross told me to play a particular exercise in one breath, instead of the way I usually do with a big extra breath in the middle.  I was certain it was impossible, but I gave it a try – and to my surprise, just one big inhale and I played through to the end.  Wow!  First time ever.  Had no idea I could.

Ross explained to me that the only thing that changed this time was that I intended to do the exercise in one breath.  It turns out, it’s all in the intention; if I intend to play it in one breath, I can and I do.  And the more I do that, the more breath I have and the longer my lines become.  But If I forget to intend for one breath, there’s no way I get through it without that annoying and unartful extra breath.  (Or even worse, my sounds just dies; how pathetic.)

Back alone in my practice sessions, I learned that I can do this exercise in one breath – but ONLY if I remember to intend to do so, before I get started.  If I forget, then mysteriously, my breath runs out way too early.

Learning #1:  Intention, in doing something new, must be continually renewed. It is a verb.

Even better, as I’ve practiced this new breath intention, over the course of a few months, sometimes I find myself playing the phrase in one breath – without intending to.  What’s that?!

Learning #2:  Habit is this beautiful moment when a carefully practiced intention becomes so ingrained that you start doing it without conscious thought. And that truly puts you on the path to mastery.

I’ve intended the one breath routine so many times that I can play long passages without taking a breath; it’s becoming a habit. My buddies I play jazz with on Sunday afternoons having been commenting to me: “Wow, that was a beautiful long note you just held” and the reason I can do it because I intended it over and over until it became routine. A habit. This intention verb and practice: a path to mastery.

Many writers are torn these days between seeking a traditional publishing deal and going the self-publishing route.  But in many ways, this is a false distinction, because even if you do get a traditional publishing house to give you an advance for your book, you’re still not going to sell many books unless you have already built your audience / fan base / tribe and can reach them and move them to buy.  That is the essential factor in this new publishing paradigm.  Only the truly big time authors are going to receive substantial marketing commitments from their publishers; everyone else is going to have to do most of the promotion of their books themselves.  These are the new rules of self-publishing.

All of which leads me to sales pages (also called landing pages.)  For the uninitiated, this is a web page on your website or on a dedicated URL used to promote a book, a product, an idea, etc.  What’s a dedicated URL?  Well, as an example, if your book is called “How I Cracked Open the New Publishing Paradigm and Earned Millions in One Week with My First Book”, you could purchase the URL named www.HowtoEarnMillionsWithYourNewBook.com (and yes, as of today, it’s currently available for purchase for under $12) and then you’d send people to that page to promote your book.

Whatever the URL for your sales page, that’s where you want to send people to read about and hopefully buy your new book. That’s the page where you’re going to write something interesting, clever, and compelling about this book – something so good that once people get there, many of them will not be able to resist clicking through and buying your book.  The actual sale may be through Amazon, or you may sell it directly yourself.  Either way, you’ll want a sales page to support that effort.  Maybe you’ll post a YouTube video there, too — or how about an audio clip?

How will people find that sales page and know about your book?  That’s where building your tribe, your audience is essential.  There are a wealth of options, from social media and online vehicles to snail mail to in-person networks to smoke signals to skywriting – yes, the sky is the limit.  Whatever works for you to reach and stay connected with your core audience – eventually, if you do it right, you’ll not only have finished and published your book, but you’ll have lots of folks (your tribe) to send to a landing page to buy your book.  And they’ll send their friends to that page, too, and so on and so forth; this can really grow for you.

So that landing page is important: so much so that Penelope Trunk says “Forget about the book cover — have a great landing page instead”:

Today authors need to be good at creating landing pages. It used to be that publishers were market-makers for books. We know now that authors are, but since publishers are not great at online marketing, it makes sense that the person who is writing—and connecting with the audience—would also be the person writing the landing page to turn interest into sales.

So you’ll need to create that landing page – remember, that’s where you’re going to be so interesting, clever, compelling that people will buy – and hopefully send others there to buy.  Yes, you can do that.  You’re a writer, after all.  You wrote the book so you know your subject through and through – in fact, I’m betting you’re passionate and relentless about it.  So writing that landing page is something you can do.

But what about the design of that page?  Good landing pages are designed and you can hire a designer to create your landing page.  But what if you could “Build, Publish and A/B Testing Landing Pages Without IT”?  That’s the tag line of www.unbounce.com, and I’m excited to take it out for a ride.  Penelope just created a simple landing page for her new book using Unbounce.com.  Awesome, I say.  Unbounce provides landing page templates, the capacity to post video on the pages, a WYSIWYG editor (shorthand for “Yes, even untech trained people can create their pages with it”), and more (for example, split testing capacity, meaning you can create two different landing pages and find which one is more popular.)  As the folks at Unbounce.com say, “If you can use PowerPoint, you can use Unbounce.”

Okay, I cannot wait to try this product out.  And it’s not just for authors; it’s for any landing page purpose – anything you are trying to sell, or any time that you’re going to try to get people to opt in to your lists – to start that ‘first handshake’ that can lead to raving fans down the line.  And lots of book sales, I hope.