Announcing the Death of SEO (and not a moment too soon!)

A good deal of Web 2.0 arguably presents a far more slippery slope than any other tech trend of the century. Naturally, the herd is always the last to know about something, and SEO is no different. I have come to learn that if every third or fourth person at a cocktail party is dropping the buzz-phrase SEO in one way or other, it clearly has become a deprecated subject.

These days, people seem to always be looking for short-cuts to successful results. I believe SEO is now just another lazy man's short cut to the hard work of creating sticky, robust, vital content and then taking the time to create serious, thoughtful, and compelling linkback relationships. Most of the killer algorithms now require the above-mentioned hard work, and SEO is no longer a solution by itself. Granted, in your niche marketplace, SEO may put you on top for a short while, but if you live only by SEO, you will surely die by SEO. Eventually, your competition will beat you because they are willing to hardwire their site for success by doing the hard work.

Blogs as short-cut marketing tools have been dead for years. SocNet may well go down the same road, dying under its own useless weight or getting constrained by policy or the simple common sense business notion that spending so much time on the computer leads to productivity losses, not gains.

Over the past 15 years or so, new tech has often reminded me of the new toy given to the narcissistic child. They play with it so hard and fast that it ends up broken in pieces, only to leave the child craving the next new toy. Will ALL these new technologies go the same way? I hope not. Hard work, and the use of new technology in MODERATION, will always get you where you need to be, without all the wasted time, bandwidth, and unnecessary drama.

Managing millenials in the workplace: Our Purpose or Their purpose?

As the so-called millenials enter the work force, or form a start-up business, or simply begin the journey of defining career objectives, there exists the challenge of educating them to the harsh cold realities of the work-a-day business world. So, how can we lead millenials to a place where they can mature into effective and useful participants in the company culture?

The problem here is somewhat complicated in that millenials grew up believing they could achieve anything, for the most part, without a clear set of rules, or framework, or container to help them form a good foundation that can support and sustain their achievements. Thus, when they encounter something that stands in the way of the path to achievement, they tend to consider it antagonistic to their objective.

It doesn't at all help that many present-day brands marketing almost exclusively to this group (i.e. video games, listening & mobile devices) actually leverage these self-centric tendencies to foist product on the group as a whole thereby reinforcing the negative programming.

Eventually, it all comes crashing to a halt in the workplace, where millenials suddenly realize that their sense of entitlement to a sort of achievement fast-track is a complete delusion. But companies, seeing this as a communications problem, are considering ways to meet the group half-way through specialized messaging and intra-networking platforms to make it easier for the group to receive training and execute strategy. This is not automatically a productive solution.

Companies need to count the hard costs of hand-holding this group until it can somehow get its bearings in the real world. And the solution should be finite in its execution. Otherwise, the company will be permanently married to another cluster of apps that only results in enabling the very self-centric perceptions the group needs to shed in the process of maturing in the workplace.

Until companies solve this growing dilemma, there will continue to be bumps in the road that can only be mitigated by incubating millenials in a way that gradually empowers them to achieve their goals in a team context while also training them to be effective participants instead of usurpers.

Information, Knowledge and Wisdom.

Twenty-five years ago or so, there used to be just one information explosion. The 90s brought the digital age to the masses and also the advent of a multiplicity of information explosions. At the turn of the millenium, this plurality quickly gave way to a complete cacophony of nearly infinite explosions.

Naturally, as society becomes subjected to all this information in one way or another, the question is raised, "are we gaining knowledge and wisdom, too, along the way?"

The whole technology layer presents a slippery slope for many who seek to gather a quantity of information quickly. It's true that info can be mined rapidly, but there are often many bones to spit out in the process. Does any of this actually lead to increased knowledge? I think it can, but a prerequisite amount of common sense is essential for vetting data found on the web.

The real danger here is the growing trend of mistaking information for knowledge and/or wisdom. For example, a handful of programmers in the late 1990s began developing the app that sends text messages over a wireless network. They used their growing storehouse of mobile platform development information to construct the basic texting application many of us now use today. Did they stop to think that teenagers would become addicted to the technology to the point where they are sitting side by side on a bus and texting each other instead of talking? I have it on good authority that they did not.

Thus, we seem to have sacrificed the notion that technology is best developed and applied when it is counterbalanced with an equal dose of wisdom.

One of my favorite phrases these days is "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should." How many investment banking and mortgage banking firms (not to mention other companies who got into banking after the rollback of Glass-Steagall) looking to make their quarterly numbers failed to consider wisdom before they leveraged their balance sheets up to 40:1 nearly bringing the U.S. economy to the brink of collapse?

Wisdom does not proceed from knowledge; it guides and governs it. May we NEVER lose sight of this fact. For information without wisdom does not lead to knowledge; and without wisdom, knowledge is directionless.

Balancing the heavenly and the earthly.

With all of us seemingly drowning in a sea of technology these days, many are considering the question of whether or not it is better to concentrate more on eternity and less on today, in an attempt to achieve the right balance.

The answer is found clearly in the Bible as Christ commands us to "...love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." (Mark 12:30-31).

When we do as Christ commands, we learn how to achieve and sustain "the balance" as the dynamics of life unfold around us. Both factors are equally essential, much the same way salvation leads us to the subsequent journey of sanctification.

Three Steps to Improving Your VO Audition Technique.

Now that we all seem to be connected via SocNet, everyone is pouring their hearts out online about the frustrating process of auditioning for voiceover work. For years, I used to share the feeling until one day, in 2003, I turned a corner on the whole matter. Since then my Audition Conversion Metric (ACM) has tripled, and I also get way more FIGs (Found-Gigs, where they just called and booked without any audition) than I used to.

What happened on that fateful summer day in 2003? I made these three changes of attitude:

1) I decided that NONE of this business is about me!

Instead, I began to look at myself as a highly-trained professional capable of doing whatever it is the producer or writer is asking without balking, flinching, wincing, or whining. In the case of auditions, the written direction and the direction from your agent(or room producer), are the only things you have to go by and you must trust them completely.


2) I treat each audition as seriously as I treat a regular VO job.

I discovered that it helps dramatically if you can get as much "back story" about the company: their market share, their quarterly earnings, their product/service pipeline, their weaknesses, strengths, competition, and so forth, as possible.

Then, do your best to distill that data into a nice thesis by which you can translate the direction provided by the writer. Everything you can learn will ultimately help you be the race-horse that can win it for the company and help them achieve their ad campaign objectives. This approach is very powerful, and it can be heard and felt in your audition performance.


3) Do not, under any circumstances, look back at the audition once it leaves your lips or your studio.

Stop wondering or worrying about whether you'll get the job. The old adage here is really very true: A watched pot never boils. Simply put, you approached the audition with selfless confidence, an abundance of knowledge, and an ever-improving skillset, and you did the absolute best job you could do. Now, forget about it, and move on to the next audition.

I truly believe that if you shed the typical ironic duality of narcissism/insecurity we as actors seem to drag around with us, you will discover who you really are behind the mic. It will shine through, and your ACM and FIG numbers will climb sky-high.