Insights from Nebo

The Atlanta Beltline is the most transformative smart growth project in the United States. A 22 mile emerald loop of parks, trails and transit will soon encircle our city and represent a new path towards a better Atlanta.

As a fan of new urbanism and someone who is passionate about our city, it’s a project I’m proud to support. So when Jennifer Dorian and her team from the Atlanta Beltline Partnership reached out to us to discuss ways to help them hit their 2014 fundraising goals, we immediately offered to help.

Nebo celebrated its 10th birthday earlier this year. To say we’ve been very fortunate along the way would be an understatement.

We’ve grown for 10 consecutive years. We’ve been named to the Inc. 5000 list for the past four years. We’ve never laid off a single employee. We’ve never had a down year. We’ve won over 100 digital awards in the past two years alone. We have 50 of the most talented and passionate people in the industry.

Yet, I’m still completely terrified. I still feel like we haven’t made it. I still feel as scared and humble as I did the day we decided to launch Nebo.

Conventional wisdom says empathy can’t be taught, learned, or strengthened. Conventional wisdom assumes our empathy ability is relatively set in stone.

But our empathy system is complex. It’s an interesting interaction of several neurological elements working together. Part of empathy is relating to others. Part of empathy is being able to understand what others feel and think. Part of empathy is going beyond knowing, but caring and feeling.

Thankfully, the term empathy is moving beyond pseudo science and toward actual science. Thanks to fMRIs and other tools we can actually see, measure, and evaluate “empathy”.

In a previous post, I mentioned that empathy was the most important tool in a marketer’s toolkit. Not fake empathy. Not user personas. Not demographics. Not primary or secondary research. Not insights or key motivators.

Actual, real empathy.

The SEO industry is always changing, best practices are evolving, and Google is always shaking things up. This summer is proving to be a whirlwind so we're recapping some of the top updates, news and trends from June and July.

From interface updates to targeting improvements and a new list of PPC experts, this past month was certainly a busy one for Paid Media. It may be summer, but that doesn’t mean the industry gets a vacation. For those of you who were lucky enough to have a nice summer break (or if you just have summer brain), this recap will help catch you up on the top paid media happenings in August.

Failure.

The F-Word to any motivated, determined go-getter. Do you shiver when you hear it? Do you automatically start reliving the times you’ve failed?

We’re often told that failure is important for growth. That it’s okay. That it’s necessary in a creative industry in order to push past your bounds and achieve greatness.

But the kicker is...we still rip on those who fail.