Enjoy your journey

Could the same Throniemania behind Game of Thrones’ recent episode leak lead to a high demand for scrap metal?

Whether you’re a die-hard fan or a new Thronie (a self-labeled term for fellow Game of Thrones enthusiasts), if you’ve watched one episode of the popular television series, you’ve probably noticed the swords. With names like Widow’s Wail, Lightbringer, Lady Forlorn and Blackfyre, the swords are a big part of the show – almost official cast members, actually. العاب بوكر اون لاين

In fact, the swords are so popular many DIYers are recreating their own using scrap metal! تنزيل العاب اون لاين According to many online forums, good choices are coil springs, timing chains and leaf spring steel.

While you may not find Valyrian steel – the ultimate, highly coveted metal for swords in the TV series – you can find a surprisingly extensive list of metals and other scrap materials at our client’s site, iScrap App. And even if you’re not a Thronie looking to forge an impressive conversation piece, you can also find the latest metal prices and news at the iScrap Blog.

And while you’re at it, tell us what you thought about the Season 5 kickoff, leaked or not. المراهنات الرياضية We won’t tell.

P.S.: If you think forging a sword from scrap metal is a fun weekend project, check out how this guy recreated the throne from Game of Thrones using duplex nails.

What do you get when you mix industry thought leaders in growth hacking, SEO, marketing, lean startups, enterprise innovation and plenty of sunshine? SFIMA’s Startup Marketing Conference in Ft. Lauderdale!

The event took place April 9^th, and featured speakers like Aaron Kahlow, CEO & Founder of Online Marketing Institute, Zach Onisko of Autodesk and Laura Busche from Smashing Magazine, among many others, bringing together leading industry minds to talk about some pretty exciting things in marketing.

In the rapidly evolving landscape of digital marketing, staying ahead of the curve is essential for businesses looking to thrive. Events like SFIMA’s Startup Marketing Conference provide invaluable insights from industry thought leaders who share their expertise on growth hacking, search engine optimization, and innovative marketing strategies. With speakers from renowned companies, participants gain a wealth of knowledge that can be applied to enhance their marketing efforts.

As digital marketing continues to grow in importance, having access to expert advice and industry best practices is more critical than ever for achieving success. When it comes to specialized fields like HVAC, tailored digital marketing strategies become even more crucial. An HVAC Marketing Agency specializes in understanding the unique challenges and opportunities within the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning sector. They bring expertise in crafting targeted campaigns that resonate with homeowners and businesses seeking HVAC services.

By implementing data-driven strategies and focusing on customer engagement, these agencies ensure that HVAC companies can effectively reach their audience and drive sales. With the right digital marketing support, businesses can capitalize on growth opportunities and position themselves as trusted providers in their communities.

Similarly, when it comes to businesses in the dental industry, partnering with dental seo experts usa ensures a tailored approach that can elevate a practice’s online presence. These experts understand the specific challenges of attracting local patients and creating effective online campaigns that improve visibility and conversion rates.

Whether it’s optimizing a website for better search engine rankings or developing content that educates and engages potential patients, dental SEO experts help practices stand out in a crowded digital landscape, positioning them as leaders in their communities. With their support, dental professionals can grow their patient base and establish a trusted reputation in the market.

Our very own Marketing Director, John-Michael Del Valle (JM), was a member of the Growth Hacking Panel, discussing the future of marketing and lean startups. We sat down with him to talk about key takeaways and thoughts from the event.

1. How can Growth Hacking change the way we market brands and products?

Growth hacking is combining marketing, development, and data science, and utilizing these diverse disciplines to enable fast-paced growth with small budgets in a smarter and more efficient way. The status quo has been that organizations see these core disciplines separately. Growth hacking aims to combine them into a laser-focused strategy. It’s less about shortcuts or actual “hacks”, and more about a way of thinking, a paradigm shift in how we do marketing.

2. Your takeaway on Content Marketing and SEO?

In our industry, it’s common knowledge that SEO is a staple marketing channel due to the heavy use of search engines like Google. But actually, the best way to see results from search engines is to instead focus on quality content to drive optimization organically. In other words, quality content is key over SEO – developing content that people are actually searching for and providing the information and answer to their query. This drives credibility and authority on Google – and goes beyond just search engines to all marketing channels, even e-mail, and social media. 

3. Key marketing trends to watch for?

As marketers, one of the key things we should be thinking about is what data can do for us. In terms of hyper-targeted marketing content, data science is the proverbial tip of the iceberg. I think we’ll be seeing an influx in software and central database management platforms to help in developing predictive analysis and sales forecasting. It’s basically using algorithms and models, like those used in financial institutions, applied to the marketing space. 

4. Your favorite content hacks from the conference?

One thing that caught my interest was the AIDA method for writing effective copy, presented by Neville Medhora. AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action, simplifies the copy process, and can be used for e-mail, web copy and pretty much anywhere you want to drive engagement.

Another cool hack I learned is a technique to prevent Gmail from sending your e-mails to the Promotions folder. You simply include a P.S. asking for a reply or comment. Once the customer replies to your e-mail, this signals Google to whitelist your e-mail address. 

5. Give us a glimpse of the future of marketing.

Even in an industry that’s constantly changing and pushing the envelope, I can’t help but still be in awe at the potential of the future when it comes to the marketing space. At the conference, discussions broke out about topics like iPhone wearable technology, augmented reality, and even websites as we know it becoming obsolete. Actually many things that would seem Sci-fi before are plainly just around the corner. 

I think the main takeaway is how quickly technology can change the marketing landscape, and as marketers we must be able to adapt to these emerging platforms. 

The tools we use today may feel advanced, yet they are only stepping stones toward a more interactive, personalized, and conversational future. Instead of static pages and one-way communication, the focus is shifting toward experiences that feel alive, intelligent, and responsive to individual needs.

In that sense, Strictly represents an example of how marketing is already moving in this direction, blending AI-driven engagement with dynamic websites that don’t just present information but actively interact with users. This kind of transformation signals that adaptability isn’t just a nice-to-have skill for marketers anymore—it’s essential if we want to remain relevant in an environment where change is constant and consumer expectations evolve overnight.

At Peak Seven, we are proud to have been a part of a local movement to share ideas and discuss what shapes or marketing and messaging, especially in the South Florida community, and we look forward to having the opportunity to participate again. Check out upcoming events on the SFIMA  website.

In our first installment, you got a peek of sleep’s benefits to boost creativity. Check out how sleep can help you with your next successful campaign and creative!

Log Happy Hours: Sleep makes us happier people

Although not a direct creativity booster, a boost in happiness levels generally makes people more creative in that it motivates creative self-expression. And as it turns out, you needn’t look further from your pillow to find the silver bullet, or happy pill, of happiness. The effect of sleep on happiness is even greater than that of money!

In The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working: The Four Forgotten Needs that Energize Great Performance, President and CEO of The Energy Project, Tony Schwartz, dedicates an entire chapter to the importance of sleep and happiness. One of the studies the book highlights, done at the University of Michigan, found that sleep had a more significant effect on a person’s state of mind than earning more money. Yet another study published in the professional journal Science supported this finding. betfinal عربي The Science study’s authors concluded, “Large increases of real income in the developed world over the past 50 years have yielded no change in reported life satisfaction. [On the other hand,] differences in reported sleep quality are associated with a very large difference in reported enjoyment.”

More than Just a Rat in a Cage: Sleep and memory

Did you know that lab mice dream about mazes? You’re probably wondering where I’m going with this? (Pun intended.) Well, it turns out that only after a good night’s sleep can lab mice actually figure out how to get around obstacles in a maze. It turns out it’s the same with people. I guess the Smashing Pumpkins were right after all…about the “rat in a cage” part. العاب وجوائز مالية حقيقية But save the angst, this is good news – sleep improves memory and learning.

Author Tony Schwartz notes that learning actually takes place during sleep. He notes, “Although the acquisition of knowledge occurs only during waking life, there is evidence that we process, consolidate and stabilize memory during sleep…[During sleep,] we appear to process and consolidate fact-based information, such as a new language or the capital of a state.”

If you don’t think memory is important in creativity, just consider that, as noted by author Vera John-Steiner in her book Notebooks of the Mind Explorations of Thinking, some of history’s best-known creatives such as Mozart, claimed to turn to memory to create their many Magnum opi. Mozart called his muse his “bag of memories” – a collection of experiences from which he gleaned inspiration for his musical pieces. Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman equaled the creative flow state to “plunging into the deepest roots down into the world of childhood memories.”

In fact, John-Steiner emphasizes the importance of sleep in helping creatives craft ideas from seemingly unrelated things, what she calls combinatorial creativity. She writes (quite creatively, by the way):

Among the invisible tools of creative individuals is their ability to hold on to the specific texture of their past. Their skill is akin to that of a rural family who lives through the winter on food stored in their root cellar… The creative use of one’s past, however, requires a memory that is both powerful and selective.

 Don’t be 40% Less Smart: Sleep helps us learn better

In the creative field, we are constantly learning what works, and what doesn’t, and staying abreast of the latest trends in marketing and branding to create more effective campaigns. Whether you’re learning from the past, learning from your mistakes or learning from the pros, if you’d just learn to turn in earlier for some z’s, you’d be a whole lot smarter.

According to the National Institute of Health, sleep is key to boosting our smarts. لعبة سباق الخيل Dr. Matthew Walker, a sleep scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, says, “We’ve learned that sleep before learning not only helps you prepare your brain for initial formation of memories, but that sleep is essential to help save and cement that new information into the architecture of the brain, meaning that you’re less likely to forget it.”

Dr. Walker explains, “While you snooze, your brain cycles through different phases of sleep, including light sleep, deep sleep, and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, when dreaming often occurs. The cycles repeat about every 90 minutes. The non-REM stages of sleep seem to prime the brain for good learning the next day. If you haven’t slept, your ability to learn new things could drop by up to 40%.”

It may seem counterintuitive in a culture that’s driven by coffee-fueled long hours to suggest logging in some downtime, but as we’ve learned, sleep isn’t downtime. It’s when we get smarter, happier, and more creative. So next time you’re struck by writer’s block, artist block, or whatever you choose to call your creativity drought, spend some time under the sheets. Your clients will thank you for it!

Can Sleep Cure Creative Block? 

In the advertising field, ideas are your bread and butter. Throughout history, creatives everywhere have pursued countless ways to induce, inspire and downright finagle ideas and innovating thinking from the muses. From the oracle of Delphi’s penchant for toxic fumes to inspire creative visions to Mad Men’s liberal use of libations to get creative juices flowing, people in the creative fields have turned to a little help to create better. الروليت العربي But you don’t have to find yourself sipping at the bottom of an old whisky bottle, or at the mouth of a volcanic vent for that matter, to push through the dreaded creative block.

Idea-deprived and creativity-blocked ladies and gentlemen, meet Morpheus – no, not the Matrix’s preachy guru with a charming inclination toward tough love. I’m referring to the mythological Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams that takes you to the land of slumber every night, because the secret to more creative thinking is actually better sleep. But what’s so special about sleep?

In the first part series, we’ll learn how sleep wakes the muse in us and even makes us smarter.

From Snooze to Muse: Sleep helps us connect ideas

A study done by Matthew Walker of University of California at Berkeley found that sleep helps us connect “remote associates”, which are like pieces of information that our mind usually keeps separate. Basically, sleep makes it easier for our brain to pull together little flashes of brilliance into cohesive ideas! لعبة الروليت المجانيه

“Making links between pieces of information that our daytime rational minds see as separate seems to be easiest when we’re offline, drifting through the dream world,” said Tom Stafford, of the BBC’s Neurohacker Column.

This skill cannot be overlooked in creative fields, where clever headlines and visuals must constantly push the envelope, depending on these “free associations” to craft new ideas by linking together useful associations between seemingly separate themes. Next time you need a clever headline or stunning visual, consider your time under the sheets.

Sleep Smarts: Sleep makes us better problem-solvers

A research study by the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine found that sleep enhances our problem-solving capabilities. It seems that REM, or Rapid Eye Movement, the special eye activity that only happens while you’re snoozing, boosts the brain’s creative problem-solving centers.

Sara Mednick, the leading scientist in the study explains, “We found that – for creative problems that you’ve already been working on – the passage of time is enough to find solutions. تاس ولدم بوكر However, for new problems, only REM sleep enhances creativity.”

Mednick and her colleagues think that REM sleep boosts creativity by stimulating “associative networks”, allowing the brain to make new connections between bits of information.  If you don’t think that problem solving is important to creatives, just think that every logo, website or even a headline is actually a small problem to be solved, each with its unique obstacles.

Time to put to practice what we’ve learned. Go catch some z’s, and tune in next time for more of sleep’s awesomeness.

Peak Seven’s Director of Marketing, John-Michael Del Valle (JM), to speak at SFIMA  Startup Marketing Conference 2015.

As a member of the Growth Hacker Panel, JM will be covering Growth Hacking Lead Generation. سلوتس اون لاين

The brainchild of Startup Socials – a global community of entrepreneurs fostering growth, connections, relationships and education – Startup Marketing Conference 2015 will bring industry thought leaders, authors and big idea teams together to teach companies about rapid growth and digital marketing best practices, new trends in digital and lean marketing, and growth hacking.

The Startup Marketing Conference will take place in Ft. Lauderdale, on Thursday, April 9^th. Get invited and check out more details on their site.

“The future looks bright,” say Sunshine State entrepreneurs like Darren Seys, CEO of Peak Seven, recently featured on the Miami Herald, Sun Sentinel, and Palm Beach Post. “It’s clear the South Florida economy has hit a great stride, and our members are overwhelmingly confident the business climate will grow even stronger.”

In a world of recession panic and cutback scares, it is encouraging to see the numbers of confident entrepreneurs forging forward toward a profitable future. According to Ostrowski, a survey done by the Entrepreneurs’ Organization found that about 88% of South Florida business owners anticipate bigger profits in the coming years, and 75% even plan to increase their staff. It seems the Sunshine State is ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to being optimistic, with the number of entrepreneurs expecting bright profit futures falling somewhere on the 78% range.

But while the nation – and the world for that matter – adjusts to growing economic constraints, are entrepreneurs simply overly optimistic Pollyannas driven by unfounded dreams. كيف تربح في الكازينو According to Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, the answer is a somewhat complicated yes. موقع ٣٦٥ To Kahneman, bestselling author of Thinking, Fast and Slow, entrepreneurs are an irrational bunch, driven less by calculated decision-making and more by “Delusional Optimism.”

It turns out, this is actually a good thing.

In an interview with Eric Schurenberg, editor-in-chief of Inc. Magazine, Kahneman explains, “All the world’s inventions came from people who didn’t know the odds they were facing…if they had known, they might not have done it, so a lot of progress is driven by delusional optimism. We like optimists and we want to be lead by people who say we are going to be OK…optimists are more likely to be successful because they will inspire optimism in others.”

Although some have written off entrepreneurs’ cheery outlook as the “optimism bias” – a tendency to look at the glass as being half full – for South Florida business owners, it may just be a case of self-fulfilling prophecy. A recent article on the Miami Herald Business Monday section detailed a resurgent South Florida economy starting early 2015.

According to J. Antonio Villamil, founder and principal of the Washington Economics Group in Coral Gables, South Florida has all its economic cylinders “running at a high rate.”

It seems likely then, that South Florida entrepreneurs are on to something.

Our own CEO had this to say about the link between optimism and the booming South Florida economy. “[Us] entrepreneurs are an inherently optimistic crowd, but all the hard numbers back up our positive view of the local economy.”