Dennis Powers

Is there an alternative to website redesigns?

On this run, I’m on a road run as an alternative to my usual trail running, and it’s got me thinking…

Is there an alternative to watching your website’s (your brand’s digital front door and hero for your marketing efforts) traffic, engagement, and conversion decline for 4, 5, 6, 7 years or longer, and watch your website’s bounce rate increase until you can’t stand it any longer, and redesign it only to repeat the cycle of decline all over again?? 😳🙄

I’m glad you asked 😊

The alternative is to “always be designing,” or as I like to call it, “Strategic Website Maintenance and Support.” 😍

A strategic and proactive approach to use data to measure website user engagement, interaction, and conversion, and always be doing little things to improve those measurements as they relate to your organization’s goals. 🙌

If results from your website were continuously improving, would you ever need to do a big, expensive, risky redesign project?

If your website continues to evolve with your brand, and users continually use, love, and trust your website, and traffic, engagement, and conversion continuously increase, would you ever need to redesign your website?

In this video, I touch on this approach. If you’d like to know more, feel free to reach out.

www.LinkedIn.com/DennisPowers

Video Transcript:

Hey there. Welcome to another episode of Random Thoughts While Running with Dennis Powers.

Road running today. There’s been a lot of random thoughts running through my head on this run. I wish I could be more focused today.

Look at this view, huh? If you gotta road run, road run near a lake. Just gorgeous.

The thought that I thought was worth talking about was sort of a continuation of a thought I had earlier. I’ve recorded a couple of videos on this – regarding website redesigns – and, you know, if you’re stuck in a situation where you think you might not be able to redesign and redevelop a website, there is another option that might be available to you. And that’s sort of evolving that website over time.

If you use data and sort of thoughtfully, do mini-projects to slowly improve that website, all your decisions backed by data, small mini-projects. If design and engagement is your problem, then maybe you should look at small, little user design projects, UI projects, and measuring and doing these things over time. If you do it right, you’ll have what appears to be a new website over time.

Take a snapshot of your website now and then take it again in three, four, or five years from now, and you may have a completely different website, and you may be delighting your users with the small changes you’re making over time based on how they’re interacting with the site and the data you’re able to measure.

I’ve done this with a number of clients, and really the thought comes down to, or one of the driving factors for something like this is, by now we’ve all been through a major redesign/redevelopment project, and so many of us have been either disappointed with the process, or frustrated with the amount of time it takes. You know, we’re working on these projects off the side of our desk. We’ve already got a ton of work. We have our regular day job we need to do. And on top of that, we need to manage a major website redesign project.

That’s tough, and things fall through the cracks. Things get lost in communication and translation, and quite often, we don’t get what we were expecting in the project.

So, if you do mini-projects and you slowly evolve the website over time, the risk is drastically reduced and mitigated. The time it takes for you to manage these mini-projects and measure the results, and show the results to leadership is drastically reduced.

I mean, you probably still spend the same amount of time over time, say four or five years, but you’ve avoided a risky major website redesign project. You’ve delighted your users. You’ve reinforced trust with leadership around the way you’re managing the website and the results you’re getting from those efforts.

So, it’s really something worth considering. If you’re curious about learning more about evolving websites, website optimization, user experience improvements, working with your marketing teams, your growth teams, making sure they’re happy with how the website is working and performing with the work they’re doing, digital transformation projects and how the website is adapting and facilitating those changes, all of that kind of stuff can be done through this website evolution, website optimization.

So, if you’d like to, you know, watch me breathe heavy and share thoughts on that kind of stuff, let me know in the comments.

Thanks.

– D

So I’m talking about website projects and why they take so much time.

On this run, I was reflecting back on another website redesign video I had published earlier. In this video, I wanted to go a little bit deeper on the main reason website redesign projects take so long – The Strategy and Planning Phase (Discovery).

Both are a major time and budget suck for a project, and in some cases ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY (at least full Discovery or Strategy and Planning Phases)!

Once that phase is complete, your web partner is doing Best Practices through the Design, Development, and Launch Phases that are strategically tied to research and recommendations brought to light in the Discovery Phase – pretty straightforward forward really 😉

What website redesign project are you thinking about? Let’s discuss!

Video transcript:

Hey there. Welcome to another episode of Random Thoughts while Running with Dennis Powers.

Just finishing up a 5K run. Beautiful sunny day. It’s warming up here, and it is slushy on this trail.

So, today I just posted my first video talking about websites, and as I was editing it and posting it, and having conversations with people about the post, I realized I didn’t fully describe the process of why it takes time to make a really good website.

And honestly, I don’t care if it’s Wix or Squarespace or WordPress or Drupal or ModX, whatever floats your boat in terms of how you power and manage that website; what technology software you use, that’s up to you. But to just do it without any data, sort of guiding you, basing your decisions upon information on the target persona you’re trying to reach, a strategy and plan for the website – I mean, you can look at my my earlier video and where I talk about sort of what a good website is, especially if you’re a business with sales.

But you know, it helps if you know who your persona is. It helps if you know who your competitors are, what your competitors’ strengths are, and what their weaknesses are. It helps if you have a current website, like many businesses do, and you do a content audit of that website and find out what content people are engaging with and why. Where are they going within the website? You know, what sort of traffic you’re getting? What sort of goals do you have for the website when it’s done? And you put together a strategy and a plan for that website. You put together a content strategy for the content you’re going to produce.

You take the necessary time to plan that out, and then you design and build a good website with all of that information at hand.

That’s why it takes so much time to or why it should take time to produce a website.

You know, so many people want to get to the design phase, “Show me how good it’s going to look.” But, you know, make a plan. Make a strategy and a plan. Spend that time and do that work. And then, you know, it’s a living, breathing thing. As strange as that sounds, once you’ve designed it, once you’ve built it, the work isn’t done.

Continually check that data. Find out how people are engaging with the site. Track traffic to the site, and any leads coming in if that’s important to you, or donations if you’re a nonprofit, and corporate sponsors – whatever your goals might be for that website.

Continually just work at it, improve it, evolve it. Website users are changing all the time, and your website should reflect that as well.

I mean, I was having a conversation with a fellow yesterday that I’ve known for quite some time. We both worked in the industry for a number of years. We remember when a website was an online postcard, and then it was a brochure, and then it was dynamic. It had a content management system powering it, and then it was mobile-friendly, and now there’s 1-2 million dollar websites that help run businesses. They’re essentially applications that are driving revenue and reducing operating costs.

But it doesn’t matter the size, the scope of the project, or the goals. Take the time to do a good plan and a good strategy. Do your research. Make some data-based decisions.

That’s all really important, and it takes time. But you’ll thank yourself for going through that process.

– D

On this run, I’m thinking about lead generation for our own agency and how we have marketing and sales working together to generate leads.

Lead generation is not the sole responsibility of sales, and it’s not the sole responsibility of marketing. Marketing can be more effective when working closely and collaborating with sales, and sales can be more effective when working closely and collaborating with marketing.

Marketing can learn from the conversations sales is having with customers and clients when sales is listening in those conversations. Sales can learn how to engage customers and clients better by learning about the target personas marketing is developing and what’s connecting and resonating with those target personas.

Right now, I’m working closely with marketing on our email outreach. Marketing is developing the personas and in some cases, providing me with the content included in the email sequences to those personas. We’re then comparing data and results on campaigns, and I’m providing feedback and new information on target personas based on my listening in the conversations I’m having with those folks.

Check out this latest episode of Random Thoughts While running with Dennis Powers, and let me know what some specific examples are that you have of marketing and sales working together to generate leads?

Video Transcript:

Does lead generation solely fall on the shoulders of marketing?

Hands up – and I can see you by the way. Hands up if you are watching this, and you’re in marketing. Okay, hands up if you’re watching this and you’re in sales.

Okay, now, hands up – for the marketers in the room. How many of you put your hand up when I said sales as well as marketing? How many of you in sales put your hands up for marketing as well as sales? In my opinion, you’re the
winners! There are no silos. The two have to work hand in hand.

Don’t solely rely on marketing for lead generation. Don’t solely rely on sales for lead generation, and use your strengths with those two teams working together to optimize that funnel.

Likewise, I’m not leaving it just for marketing through email to bring in leads. I’m connecting with those folks on LinkedIn. I’m doing cold calls, and we’re getting leads. We’re filling the top of that funnel.

We’re also taking our own medicine, drinking our own whiskey, whatever you want to call it. We’re also doing that through marketing lead generation.

And key to all of that is – one – of course, generating leads, but – two – watching your cost of acquisition and cost of lead generation. And making sure that that’s aligned with your gross margins, and what your product’s worth, how you bill your customers for that, and how you get and measure your return on investment.

Lastly, I’ll leave you with this. And I’m sure I’ll talk about it more, and try not to make this a rant thing, but…

Please! Please follow up on those inbound leads! I actually reached out for some help from some outside email lead gen folks so we could scale up a little bit. And I think out of the four or five, only one responded to me within 24 hours. And a lot of them reached out to us. And they’re in lead generation!

Okay Dennis, take a breath. All right, I’m better now. And look at that. Why wouldn’t you be all right, folks?

I feel so much better getting that off my chest. I hope there was some value in it for you.

Back to my run. Please play outside. You’ll feel better for it.

– D

Diversify your marketing investment in budget, time and effort.

On this run, I talk about how I diversify my training to help stay safe and strong on the trails. I also talk about how that translates to how we invest our budget, time and effort in our marketing.

Should we invest everything at the top of the funnel (paid ads) and not optimize down the funnel for best engagement and conversion, maximizing our investment?

Should we invest only in ads on only one platform? Are there other platforms we should test? Should we invest in owning some exposure at the top of the funnel on some of these platforms or simply rent?

Check out this latest episode of Random Thoughts While Running with Dennis Powers as I talk about all of this… by myself… in the middle of nowhere 😉

Video transcript:

Hey there! Welcome to another episode of Random Thoughts While Running with Dennis Powers.

I’m still out on the trails, although you can see the snow in the background. That’s Okanogan Lake. Isn’t she beautiful? It’s cloudy with sunny periods today. Not too cold, 2° Celsius. If you’re in the U.S., you’ll have to do the translations to Fahrenheit.

Let me start with a little Story. My trainer is Leslie Park. She’ll probably kill me for telling you how old she is, but she’s 61, maybe 62. She’s going to kill me. And I’m blessed to have her as my trainer and my running partner on some of my long-distance runs, where we attempt to crush 50-plus kilometres, and I’ll never forget this story that she shared with me.

A couple of triathletes came to her, curious about training, but I mean, they’re completing triathlons. They’re in amazing shape. So, these triathletes show up for a consultation, and they’re not sold.

“We don’t know if we need this.”

Lesie always starts with an assessment, like you’re going to your doctor or coming to me for marketing advice. So, they show up, she runs them through an assessment, and everything’s fine. And they’re like, “Yeah, I think we’re good.”

And Leslie’s like, “Okay.”

So, she kind of walks around the two of them – husband and wife couple – and they’re kind of watching her walk around. As she gets to the side of them, she pushes them. Not hard, but pushes them laterally, and they almost fall over.

They’re like, “The hell you do that for?”

And she’s like, “Well, I think I noticed your problem.” And she’s like, “Let us try that again.”

This time, they’re prepared for her. They braced themselves, had their core tightened, everything… almost the very same result.

Their exercise and training were solely focused on going forward in a straight line. They had no strength laterally if the situation ever came up.

So, what I want to talk about today is diversification. We think about this in the context of investing. I think about it in the context of exercise and training.

Another funny story. I’ve been on a couple of trail runs where there have been switchbacks. If you trail run, you know what I mean. Cliff on one side going up. Cliff on the other, and you’re making a 180° turn – I hope I got that right. And you lose your footing, or in one case that I remember very clearly, you step on one end of a stick that’s on the trail and your toe gets caught on the other… Recipe for disaster!

But because of my training, when situations like that come up, I somehow magically stay on my feet, and you’ll hear me out in the middle of nowhere, “Thank you, Leslie!” Because if it wasn’t for her training, it would be game over for me

The reason I’m thinking about this kind of stuff is because I spoke to a potential client today and their websites were okay. They’re making good money, and they’re expanding. They’re growing their business into new countries and new markets, and so they want to get prepared for that, and they’re asking for our help.

We dig in a little deeper, and they’re getting almost 10 leads a day. That’s freaking awesome! It’s helping them to reach their revenue goals and give them the confidence and the funding to do this expansion.

Here’s the thing: it’s all in Google Ads.

They’re spending a big chunk of money a month on Google Ads, and  – hey, I get it, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it  – but we talked about this earlier. We talked about rainy days. We talked about when things change. And add to that the fact that you don’t own the platform. What happens if something changes? Also, what if I could tell you that if you diversified your advertising and marketing spend, you could eventually own some of that traffic and not have to give all that money to Google.

So, think about that. Is your marketing investment diversified like your personal investments? Like the way you train your body so you’re prepared for anything and positioned to get stronger and grow? Think about not just Google ads, but think about keeping those folks on your website. Think about organic SEO. Think about other channels like Meta. My goodness, if you’re crushing it with Google Ads, at least test Meta and LinkedIn and see what happens. I mean, they’re B2B, so something worth exploring.

So, these are the conversations we’re having, and things I’m thinking about.

Stay safe out there.

– D

I think work or work-like tasks or effort creeps into our non-work time, our family time, our recreational time, our vacation time, more than we care to admit.

I get it. A lot of us want to be better at what we do for work. Some of us have side-hustles in addition to the work we get paid to do in an 8-hour day. I guess my question is, where and when do we draw the line?

Do we read a business book while we sit on the couch at the end of the day with our spouse? Do we listen to a business podcast while we take our kids to soccer practice or when we’re taking some “me” time and going for a run on the trails? Do we answer emails during Sunday evening family time to get ahead of the upcoming work week? Do we scroll LinkedIn in the mornings while our spouse and kids get ready for the day?

Laptops, tablets, mobile phones, social media, podcasts, and e-readers have made it easier and more convenient for us to work anytime and anyplace, but does that mean that we should? Know where to draw the line for yourself!

I roll through this topic in my mind while running the trails in the latest episode of Random Thoughts While Running with Dennis Powers. Check it out.

Video Transcript:

Hey! Welcome to another day or another episode rather of Random Thoughts While Running with Dennis Powers.

So I just read a blog post by Karen Stewart on LinkedIn. You should find her if you can. She’s a very successful entrepreneur, and she has a blog on LinkedIn called Good Decisions Happy Life. One of the articles that she’s written there uses a Venn diagram to understand how work creeps into non-work time. I found the article really interesting, but I’m also listening to Dan Martell’s Buy Back Your Time, as I mentioned in an earlier post. I’m in a section of the book where they’re talking about multitasking and time batching. And you know, when I’m out on these trail runs, I’m quite often listening to podcasts and audiobooks, so in a way I’m multitasking. I’m trying to do my best to capture and learn what’s coming through my ears as well as pay attention to the trail and be present in my surroundings.

This is a lot, you know?

I’m also asking myself the question, “How much of this kind of multitasking – we’re thinking about work, maybe learning, trying to capture nuggets from podcasts and audiobooks and other things – how much of this multitasking is creeping into what  should be non-work time with family?”

I mean, should we be listening to a podcast on business or marketing when we’re driving our kids to soccer? You know, having that maybe 15 or 30 minutes of quality one-on-one time with our kids? My kids are older, so I missed that opportunity, but I think about that.

I’m going to be going on a little mini vacation here pretty quickly with my wife and our two adult children, and after reading Karen’s article, I don’t want any work time creeping into that non-work time. I want to cherish that time and be fully focused on my family.

So yeah, I’m thinking about that, and I’m wondering what your thoughts are on it.

I think going on these runs and learning at the same time is a good form of multitasking, but I know I do the not-so-good form of multitasking. I know that work thoughts creep into my non-work time, when I should be focusing on family and other things – you know, those in-the-moment things that are gone forever if you’re not fully present.

So yeah, I’d be interested in your thoughts on this. If I maybe shouldn’t be doing this, or should I continue doing this? Is there something else I should try?

I think I’m about three kilometres into this 5-kilometre trail run, so time to finish strong.

– D

I’ve been talking about goals lately (see my previous post and the post before that :)). In this post I’m thinking about and talking about strategies and plans for ENSURING hitting goals and targets – I’m talking about working smart, working hard and most importantly, doing more than is necessary in order to hit our goals and targets.

The reason I’m thinking and talking about this now is because I’ve registered to run a 50km ultra running mountain trail race called The Broken Goat. I’ve done 2 long runs over the past few years (a 58km run and a 47km run) – one I was very prepared for and enjoyed, and one I wasn’t prepared for that, while beautiful, was painful to run. Based on my past experiences and some research I was doing on improving my training for this run, one thing jumped out at me. I must gradually increase my weekly distance to 80kms a week before I taper before the race. Following this strategy and plan will put me in a position to have my body be strong enough to finish a 50km run strong… making my run more enjoyable (within reason :)).

This got me thinking about my work in sales and marketing. Should I be thinking about doing more in order to better ensure I hit my goals and targets in my work? And here’s the other thing that’s got me thinking about this… There’s a lot of uncertainty in the world, and it’s impacting some of my work. It’s making it more difficult to hit my goals and targets.

My strategy and plan are sound, so if I continue to follow my strategy and plan and increase the activity within the plan, is there a better chance that I will hit my goals and Targets?

Check out the video where I’m thinking about this on my run.

Video Transcript:

Hey there folks! Welcome to another episode of Random Thoughts While Running with Dennis Powers.

I’m at the beginning of a 5K trail run, about a kilometer in, and I wanted to get this out so I can focus on the rest of my run. I signed up for a 50-kilometer race taking place this summer It’s called the Broken Goat. It’s up in Rossland, British Columbia. It’s a beautiful location, but it started me thinking about being prepared.

Yes. How important is being prepared for the things we do? You know – running metaphor for life, work, and all those types of things. So yeah, when you think about preparedness and all the things you’re doing and the level of work that’s required in order to be prepared, in order to be successful, what does that look like?

So with this 50 km run, I’ve run 58 kilometers in the past. I remember when I ran that, that was my first, what they call ultra trail run I think, and I had all sorts of anxiety. I was so worried, just about whether or not I could actually complete it, and I was overprepared! I think looking back on it, the run was so much more enjoyable having that level of preparedness.

A year or so later, I went on a 47-kilometer run. Just as much vertical – around 2,000 meters – and I was underprepared. And it was painful and uncomfortable, and while beautiful, not as enjoyable as the first one.

So with this one in mind and being prepared – wanting to be prepared – I’m looking at being able to do around 80 kilometers a week as I get closer to the race in order to be able to do one run at 50 kilometers a little more comfortably. I’m not looking to win. I’m just looking to enjoy myself.

But how do we think about that in other parts of our lives? I’m smiling because I consider myself a pretty good Boy Scout. Every time my family and I go camping, I pack more than what’s necessary. Day trips, traveling, all of that kind of stuff. You never know what might come up, and I want to be prepared.

I hadn’t really thought about what that looks like for running until having those two past experiences. And I’m thinking about it in terms of work as well – in sales and marketing – which I’ll be talking a lot about. It’s my work. It’s my passion. It’s what I think a lot about – balancing all the other things, of course.

For sales, there’s targets that need to be hit, and we’ve got some baseline metrics of what that would look like. But do I just do what’s required, or is it better to do more than is required in order to better ensure that those targets are met, those quotas are met?

Same with marketing. There’s some activity based on data – holistic  – everything from top of the funnel – digital ads, social media blog posts, all of those types of things, newsletters, email marketing, and – middle of the funnel – websites, engagement – bottom of the funnel – conversion, inbound leads. There’s some activity that is based on data that’s predetermined in order to hit some targets. But you there again, it’s probably a good idea to be thinking about doing more than what’s necessary if there’s a particular target to be hit
6:17
So if the trails allow for it – no snow on the trails – like what I’m experiencing today (you can see a little bit of the white stuff around the edges from the snow we had earlier), I’m going to be out here maintaining, doing some road running as well, and training other parts of my body, and eventually working my way up to be more than prepared and enjoy myself on this run, and thinking about how that translates to other parts of my life.

All right, have fun out there people!

– D

In my previous post, I talked about goal setting and making your goals uncomfortable – slightly outside your comfort zone. In this post, I share what can sometimes happen when you’re doing something uncomfortable.

Many of us have a voice or voices inside our heads. I like to think that these voices have been with us forever. In hunter-gatherer times, the voices were there to protect us from doing something dangerous where we might hurt ourselves or worse – die. However, in addition to helping protect us from risking our lives, these voices seem to protect us from one of the next scariest things – being judged or worse, alienated from our tribe, family, friends,… or (heaven forbid) our LinkedIn network 😉

In the video below, I share a story about what happened when I first started posting these videos – Random Thoughts While Running with Dennis Powers. It was (is) very uncomfortable putting myself out there through these videos. In that moment of posting my first video, a very strange and scary voice came from my mind to the forefront of my attention. I won’t share what was said. You’ll have to watch the video to find out 🙂

I don’t think the point is to hear these voices and turn away from whatever challenge we’re trying to face. I think the point is to hear the voice – listen – try to understand where the voice is coming from and what it’s trying to save you from. It may very well be that what the voice is trying to protect you from is EXACTLY what you need to lean into in order to grow and evolve as a professional in your career or as a person.

Video transcript:

I mean I should explain. I’ve been listening to some of these videos and apologies for the breathy voice, but I am exerting myself here. I’m freaking running trails! You know the the point is that I’m trying. So, getting out there, consistently doing the work. We’ll see where it takes me.

So, sometimes there are things that I save up for these conversations, and sometimes those things stay with me until I have these conversations. I want to share something that happened to me earlier this week.

I mentioned I’ve been listening to these videos. It’s because I started editing them and posting them, and it’s really uncomfortable for me – putting myself out here like this – but I feel like that’s the whole point right? If it’s uncomfortable then it’s definitely something you should try.

So, I pushed publish on the first video it’s mostly published it’s out there. Great! High five! I faced my discomfort and published it. I went to bed, I’m lying there awake in the morning waiting for my alarm to go off, and there’s a voice in my head that I’ve never heard before.

“You ruin everything!”

I was like, what the hell was that? And so I really started paying attention, and sort of trying to figure out what that was and where it came from. And I mean it was really disturbing, and a little scary, and yeah – I was really taken back by that.

Thinking on it some more and trying to dig into it a little. I’m pretty sure that that voice has been there the whole time. Just under layers and layers of other voices and conversations I have. Because this was a particularly uncomfortable situation, I think it gave an opportunity for that voice to come to the forefront. To be honest, now that I’ve had a few days to think about it, I’m glad that I heard that voice. I’m glad that it finally showed itself, and that I can begin to deal with that, and make it so that voice is no longer necessary. It doesn’t need to protect me. It doesn’t need to be there anymore.

I was out for dinner last night with my wife and my son for my 56th birthday. We have a friend there that manages the restaurant. Plug for Jordan Ambrosio and BNA in Kelowna. It’s a beautiful establishment. They just opened this little country speakeasy – don’t get me started on country music. Anyways, Jordan knew it was my birthday and he said he said, “What’s your one piece of advice for a guy like me?”

I’m 56 years old, he’s just starting a young family now, they had their first child, he’s doing really well, and I don’t know if this is an issue for him but because it’s still so front and center in my brain. The only thing I could come up with on the spot is, “Don’t listen to the voices in your head. They can be real assholes.”

I know mine is. And I know it’s trying to protect me, but what I’m doing isn’t – you know –  I’m not risking my life. And I’m going to keep doing it.

– D

In this episode of Random Thoughts While Running with Dennis Powers, I highlight the fact that I’m running in the winter. The winter months, primarily December and January, often prompt me to reflect on the past year and challenge myself to be better in the coming year, 5 years and beyond.

This winter has been noticeably different from previous years. I typically spend my winters running on roads, but the weather has been such that I’ve been able to run the trails, which makes me very happy.

The focus of my goal setting this year has been somewhat different from previous years as well. I’m challenging myself to get uncomfortable. Creating these videos is one of those uncomfortable things I’m challenging myself to do. There are uncomfortable things I’m challenging myself to do in other areas of my life as well.

Check out my latest video where I talk about where my goals are coming from, getting uncomfortable, and the areas in my life I think about when I goal set.

Hopefully, this information will help you when you goal set in the future.

Video Transcript:

Hey there! Welcome to another episode of Random Thoughts While Running with Dennis Powers.

There’s a quote that’s been stuck in my head for years. I’m probably butchering it a little bit, but it’s by David Bowie – my daughter’s a huge fan of his work and has all of his vinyl. I think he said once in an interview that when he thinks about his music or whatever he’s doing creativity-creatively, he wants to feel like he’s walked into the water, maybe at a beach or something like that. He keeps walking and he keeps walking until his feet barely touch the ground. That discomfort that you’re not quite safe. You’re not quite stable. It’s uncomfortable.

It’s winter. This is a time where we take time to reflect on our past and what we’re doing in our future. I’ve always made goals. What I wanted to achieve. Sometimes I’ve reached some of them. Sometimes I haven’t.

I’m listening to this audiobook right now. It’s mentioning that when we’re in these situations, we want to get better. With self-improvement, very often we’re doing this ourselves. So by that very exercise, it’s kind of flawed because when we read these goals we may not look at them and feel uncomfortable. And that’s I think something I’ve been guilty of in the past. Something I’d like to change for the year, for the next five years, and beyond. I want to look at my goals around family, career, health, spirituality, and finances. I want to look at those goals and go, “Yikes!”

I mean, I don’t know if I necessarily agree with shooting for the stars and – you know – “Hey! We landed on the moon. Way to go! We didn’t hit our target but we landed on the moon!” I don’t know if I necessarily agree with that, but I would like to shoot for the moon and land on the moon or maybe shoot just past the moon and land on the moon or know that I reached – you know – seventy or eighty percent of my goals. One hundred percent would be awesome!

So, what are you doing this year? What are you thinking about for the next 12 months? For the next 5 years? For yourself? For your family? Your career? Your finances? Your health? Does it make you a little uncomfortable? Because I think it should.

Do you think maybe you should have somebody else take a look at it? Someone who can maybe think more critically than you so you’re not doing it in a vacuum?

I think things happen to us for a reason, and they keep happening to us until we’re ready to accept what’s uncomfortable and do what’s necessary. Suffering is inherent in life and maybe we don’t all accept that and don’t want to get uncomfortable. I know I’ve certainly been guilty of that in my career. Even any success I’ve had, I did it the way I knew I could. I didn’t truly optimize it to see what else could be achieved.

So, looking at my goals, and sometimes it starts with, I think it was The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People where they say what would you want people to say for your eulogy. I’ve more recently started basing it on – what if your life was a movie? What would that movie title be? And then sort of break that down. It’s where I’d like to be health-wise, career-wise, finances-wise, spirituality-wise. I think I said health.

That’s why I’m here out here in the wilderness. And then you know, what does that look like in 5 years? And then what does that look like in one year? What vices stand in your way that you’re not willing to accept or acknowledge, and purge from your life in order to help you reach those goals? Just think really critically.

So, I hope what I’m thinking about on this run is helpful to you and will be something you think about and work on for your future.

Till then, have fun out there.

– D

In this episode of Random Thoughts While Running With Dennis Powers, I talk about thoughts what came up for me as I ran a trail for the first time since I broke my ankle on it six months earlier.

Being present and staying focused is something I struggle with. My mind always wanders. As a child, as far back as I can remember, the word I heard most used to describe my lack of being present was “daydreaming.” It’s something I’m aware of and working on.

I started focusing on working on it a couple of years ago. It’s distractions inside my mind versus what’s happening elsewhere that pull my mind away from what I should be focusing on. Developing fictitious stories in my head – good, bad and just straight-up awful.

For a while, my mind was creating awful stories in my head and convincing me that they were true or going to happen. Then it almost became a self-fulfilling prophecy. I got some help and tools to understand better what was going on, and how to deal with it.

It takes practice like many things to stay focused on the present and what’s happening around us. I read later, while recovering from my broken ankle, that if we run the same trails, we can get bored. Our minds begin to wander, we lose focus on the trail, and we can injure ourselves. That’s what happened to me… Like I said, I’m working on it, and I’m a work in progress 🙂

Check out my thoughts while running this trail again… for the first time 🙂

Video Transcript:

Hey! Welcome to Random Thoughts While Running with Dennis Powers. Can you see that behind me? There’s snow on them there hills!

I’ll tell you a little bit about where I’m running, just in case you’re curious. This is the Okanagan Valley. That lake behind me is Okanagan Lake. I think it runs about 90 miles through the Okanogan Valley

Up here behind me. You can’t see it, but uh there’s a mountaintop there. It’s an old extinct volcano called Spion Kop – S-P-I-O-N first word, second word K-O-P. Like I said. I think it’s an old extinct volcano. There’s a couple of them around here.

The reason I’m sharing that with you is because it’s right outside my house and there’s about I think roughly 30 km of trails here. There’s a nice little trail system that volunteers and the local community have put together. So, I’m lucky enough to step out my front door and hit these trails to do my training. I train for longer runs. I like to see if I can do 50 or 60-kilometer runs. I’ve got some plans to do them in the Rockies and in the Selkirks if you’ve heard of those mountain ranges.

So, the reason why I think that’s important is because what’s coming up for me today, is being present. And, the reason that’s coming up for me today is because I’m running, for the first time in 6 months, a section of trail where I broke my ankle.

So about six or 6 months ago I was training for a 50 km run. I’d been running about 15 km. Still pretty early on in my training and I was quite tired and started getting, I think getting lost in thought and not necessarily paying attention to where I was planting my feet. I came up to a section – I think the section is right up here where there’s a downhill section. I was sort of thinking about that downhill section, again not really paying attention to where I was putting my feet, and maybe landed on a rock or slight little washout in the road, or a root, and down I went.

I had to go to the hospital, but I had to first of all call my wife to pick me up at the trailhead. I still had a 1 or 2 km walk out of this area to meet her. So I sort of fashioned to stick and limped my way out. Who knows it might have helped cuz I didn’t end up needing surgery. I probably jammed it back into place and just needed an air cast. But it still ruined my time out here for a good long time. Almost 4 months before I could feel comfortable getting back on the trails and now it’s been 6 months or more before I actually felt comfortable running this section again.

So yeah, all of that, I think, really, is again, what’s coming up for me is just being present and staying focused. We can get tired. We can get lost in thought. Man, I tell you what is inside my head is… it’s something I struggle with all the time. Always getting lost in thought. Not thinking about what’s, or paying attention to what’s happening right in front of me. So this is something I’m really trying to focus on. And I guess my point is that by staying present I can enjoy this space, this run, this experience, and all the other ones that I’m currently experiencing in my work.

I think this is the spot. Just this tiny little downhill section. I think I  broke my ankle right up there. So, I have no idea how I made it down this section with a broken ankle. I must have been partially in shock. But anyways, this is sort of the reason I’m sharing random thoughts while running. Because, you know, as I learn more about this journey, staying present, and I practice, you can’t stop thoughts and emotions feelings and stuff from coming, but you can, sort of, proactively if you’re knowledgeable enough and aware enough, you can not follow those thoughts.

And so my hope is, that when thoughts come in that might be distracting or interesting, there’s a way of getting them out, getting them done, letting them go, I’m going to record them here and I’ll share them, and maybe something in here resonates with you.

So, that’s it. Have fun. Play outside. If you can, I highly recommend it. But, whatever you’re doing, stay present and enjoy it.

– D

In this episode of Random Thoughts While Running With Dennis Powers, I talk about thoughts that were triggered by listening to just the first chapter of ‪Dan Martell’s‬ ‘s book, “Buy Back Your Time.”

I have a little fun with my initial thoughts of hiring staff, developing systems and processes, implementing AI and automation, playbooks and other solutions to free up an entrepreneur’s time so they can better reinvest that time into their business or other opportunities. If I’m truly honest with myself, it’s a bias I’ve carried for a long time.

I’ve completed listening to the book now and I can honestly say that I wish this book had been available to me when I was running my business almost 20 years ago. I tried to design and grow the business to have as few employees as possible because I felt ill-equipped to manage employees. This was shortsighted. We built a profitable company, and it continued to grow and evolve and needed to innovate. I needed to evolve and innovate my thinking on employees and managing them too. Instead, I sold my stake in the business and walked away. There were other factors involved in my decision to sell, including the fact I was burning out – a result from not buying back my time.

The business no longer exists.

I still struggle with letting go of the reigns even as an employee – considering virtual assistants, automations and AI in order to scale what I can do in my role and be more efficient and effective – but I’m learning to accept and embrace this now. It really is a necessity.

Check out my thoughts on all of this after listening to only the first chapter. Great book Dan!

Video Transcript:

Hey there! Welcome to Random Thoughts While Running with Dennis Powers.

So what’s coming up for me today. Well I’m actually listening to an audio book – Dan Martell’s, “Buy Back Your Time.”

I’m only getting started but after listening to the first chapter and two thoughts came up for me:

1. One is that I’m a control freak, and
2. I’m sorry Dan, but my first thoughts were nobody can do me better than me.

That just sounded bad!

Uhhh… What I mean to say is, I’ve worked my whole life by sort of trying to put myself out there – so talking to potential clients and everything – and when sales automation tools and marketing tools and everything started becoming prolific in my space I was like – No! Just no! This is this is wrong!

Like I’m still I’m looking at some of these, you know, even AI generated email outreach solutions. I was talking to someone today where they’re sending out 120,000 emails automatically over a 6-month period and they’re doing all that to close seven deals. It seems awfully noisy. It just doesn’t seem like me.

But there is something to it – buying back your time. Finding systems and processes. Using automation you know where it makes sense.

And the other thing Dan touched on in the beginning of the book was playbooks. And that really resonated with me too. I’ve closed a couple deals recently where one of the big pain points for clients was being proactive versus reactive with their marketing. They had no playbook, so everything that came up for them required a big conversation. A discussion around, “Is this the right thing for us, or not. And if it is, how do we do it?” That’s a huge time-waster!

Playbooks can be a real benefit. So you know, that’s that’s something that marketing companies can do for you. They can put that strategy and plan together. That playbook that makes all of those decisions. Puts guard rails in for you and your team to go forward. And then also includes tactics, and even goes as far as sort of sharing the messaging within some of those tactics.

So yeah Dan. I think you’ve got a point. And I think this book is worth listening to. So I’m going to get back to it.

Have fun and try to play outside okay?

– D