1%

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This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — 1%, by Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell.

Two tech executives with no food experience and no marketing budget launch a product called Bacon Salt.

Next, they search for people on social networking sites who profess a love for bacon, then friend them. Among a small percentage of those people, enthusiasum begins to spread about Bacon Salt. What began as a tribe quickly multiplies into 37,000 fans on Facebook and MySpace.

Months later, the buzz spills over into newspaper articles, TV interviews and the holy grail of PR, an appearance on Oprah. Two guys who knew nothing about the food business and had no marketing budget now had a certifiable cult hit. Inspired, they create several other bacon-flavored products. It’s the birth of a brand.

Their success began with a small – very small – group of self-identified fans of a category. Even if social networks have millions of members, it will never translate into millions of buzz-spreaders. The Bacon Salt story illustrates that it’s usually a small percentage of the tribe within the larger tribe who spread the word—usually about 1 percent. They are the One Percenters.

The One Percenters are not the usual suspects of name-brand tech bloggers, mommy bloggers and or business bloggers. The One Percenters are often hidden in the crevices of niches, yet they are the roots of word of mouth.

This year, your job is to find them and attract them. Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell are the authors of the books Citizen Marketers and Creating Customer Evangelists. They blog at Church of the Customer.

Enrichment

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This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Enrichment, by Rajesh Setty.

We are all on a search – a search for more meaning in our lives.

Through choosing to enrich other people’s lives, you add meaning to both their life and your own.

Some simple steps to follow:

1. Commit: Commit to lifetime-relationships that span events, companies, causes and geographic boundaries.

2. Care: Care for the concerns of others as if they are your own.

3. Connect: Aim to connect those who will benefit and enrich each other’s lives in equal measure.

4. Communicate: Communicate candidly. Tell people what they should hear rather than what they want to hear.

5. Expand Capacity: Aim to expand people’s capacity to help them give and get more from their own lives.

The Litmus Test: If you are truly enriching someone’s life, they will typically miss you in their past. They think their lives would have been even better if they had met you earlier.

You are only as rich as the enrichment you bring to the world around you.

Rajesh Setty is an entrepreneur, author and speaker based in Silicon Valley. His blog is Life Beyond Code.

Vision

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This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Vision, by Michael Hyatt.

Vision is the lifeblood of any organization. It is what keeps it moving forward. It provides meaning to the day-to-day challenges and setbacks that make up the rumble and tumble of real life.

In a down economy — particularly one that has taken most of us by surprise — things get very tactical. We are just trying to survive. What worked yesterday does not necessarily work today. What works today may not necessarily work tomorrow. Decisions become pragmatic.

But after a while this wears on people. They don’t know why their efforts matter. They cannot connect their actions to a larger story. Their work becomes a matter of just going through the motions, living from weekend to weekend, paycheck to paycheck.

This is where great leadership makes all the difference. Leadership is more than influence. It is about reminding people of what it is we are trying to build—and why it matters. It is about painting a picture of a better future. It comes down to pointing the way and saying, "C’mon. We can do this!"

When times are tough, vision is the first casualty. Before conditions can improve, it is the first thing we must recover.

Michael Hyatt is the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers. He blogs on "Leading with Purpose" at MichaelHyatt.com and also Twitters at @MichaelHyatt.