Rich Howard

SEO, Growth & E-commerce.

[Rich Howard @richhoward]

@lilyraynyc @Dixon_Jones @athenseo Hey @Dixon_Jones I tried to visit your website on my iPhone/Safari and the homepage is pretty much unusable. Can you please fix? Want to checkout what you have built.

[Rich Howard @richhoward]

@RossHudgens We are also seeing the same thing!

[Rich Howard @richhoward]

@skalskip92 Yes its amazing, just dont know what I can do for free and if it would work on my macbook air or I need a big gpu machine.

[Rich Howard @richhoward]

@skalskip92 I want to do something with basketball, but worried my macbook air wont be able to do much work with video.

[Rich Howard @richhoward]

@skalskip92 Looking to do something nerdy to get me started is find old either satellite images of lakes in my area that have low water during winter or fly a drone and map a lake and have the detection pickup "stumps" or trees in the water that would attract fish for summer time fishing.

[Simons @Simon_Ingari]

"Why does our top performer get the worst reviews?" the boss asked.

I was reviewing their annual performance data.

"Show me," I said.

She pulled up the ratings.
Diana: 2.8 out of 5.
Below average on "collaboration."
Low marks for "team player."

"What's her actual performance?" I asked.

"Exceeded every target.
Landed our biggest client.
Trained three new hires."

"So why the low scores?"

"Her peer reviews are dragging her down."

I scanned the comments.
"Too direct."
"Challenges ideas too much."
"Not supportive enough."

"Let me talk to Diana," I said.

"I used to give honest feedback," Diana told me.
"Said our pricing model was broken.
Got dinged for 'negativity.'"

"What happened with the pricing?"

"They finally fixed it six months later.
After we lost two major accounts."

"What else?"

"I questioned why we needed
eleven approvals for a simple contract change.
Manager said I wasn't being collaborative."

"Are you still giving feedback?"

"No. I learned my lesson.
Now I smile. Nod. Say everything's great.
My reviews are improving."

"But nothing's actually improving?"

"We're making the same mistakes.
Just with better vibes." She chuckled.

I went back to the boss.

"Your review system doesn't measure performance," I said.
"It measures compliance."

"That's not true."

"When was the last time someone
got promoted for challenging bad ideas?"

Silence.

"When did someone get rewarded for preventing a mistake?"

More silence.

"You've trained your best people to stay quiet.
And your mediocre people to stay nice."

A few months later, they redesigned the system.

Added a category: "Constructive Challenge."
Points for identifying problems early.
Rewards for preventing costly mistakes.

Diana got promoted.

"What changed?" I asked the boss.

"We stopped confusing agreement with alignment.
Stopped mistaking silence for harmony."

"And?"

"Turns out our 'difficult' people
were our most valuable.
They actually cared enough to speak up."

Here's the truth about performance reviews:

Most companies don't reward performance.
They reward performance theater.

The person who says the meeting was great
beats the person who says it wasted an hour.

The person who agrees with bad ideas
beats the person who prevents disasters.

You think you're measuring contribution.
You're measuring conformity.

And your best people?
They've already figured out the game.

They're just deciding whether to play it
or find somewhere that values truth over comfort.

[Rich Howard @richhoward]

Extraordinary success requires extraordinary sacrifice.

As I hit year 25 in SEO and Growth, this hits home.

In high school, I stayed up all night learning, slept in class, failed English twice, and did not walk at graduation.

I was on my own at 17. Paid my own bills. Said no to parties so I could build.

Twenty-five years later, I still wake up early, work weekends, and read every night.

I have burned out. I have learned balance. I have done it to give my kids opportunities I never had.

The opportunity today feels bigger than ever.

Sacrifice compounds. So does progress.

[Sharran Srivatsaa @sharran]

Extraordinary success requires extraordinary sacrifice.

While your friends are at happy hours drinking and partying, you’re building. While they’re sleeping in, you’re studying.

The price of greatness is everything normal people do for fun.

[Sofía López @sofialomart]

https://t.co/GTnPibxume

[Rich Howard @richhoward]

@rustybrick anyone else talked about this by chance?

[Rich Howard @richhoward]

@brodieseo @glenngabe I am seeing considerable changes to avg pos, impressions & ctr % starting January 4th. Are you'll seeing anything? Looks like Google changed the serps via SEMRush sensor then. Sitelinks significantly changed, AIO, and people also asked.

[Nev Flynn @NevFlynn]

We’re hiring 2 world class creatives to shape the next iteration of the @elevenlabs marketing website: a Designer and a Design Engineer.

You'll be working (on things like this) alongside myself, @bradlc and @RomaTesla.

If this is you, or someone you know, DMs are open.

[Sharran Srivatsaa @sharran]

https://t.co/bE9Hv784fr

[Rich Howard @richhoward]

@elevenlabs Can't wait to see what people build with this new model!

[Rich Howard @richhoward]

@davidsven I had it when I was 30 and my vision had “stayed the same for a few years”. I needed glasses again 5 years later and now I have dry eyes frequently and can’t wear contacts. It was a great 5 year run. My brother had prk same time and lasted over 10 years until he got in 40s.

[Rich Howard @richhoward]

@wilreynolds seen this yet? https://t.co/FwR2iLns27

[Rich Howard @richhoward]

@Hobo_Web Source?

[Rich Howard @richhoward]

@Marie_Haynes @Marie_Haynes can you dm me? I have one I wanted to share too

[Rich Howard @richhoward]

@davidsven Do you know if prescription lenses in gen1 will fit in gen2?

Also noticing a lot of people saying no major upgrade in video quality?

[Rich Howard @richhoward]

@Jens_Polo @elevenlabs @Jens_Polo music should be back! just curious what do you see on the soundboard page? Can you share a screenshot?