temperance

Temperance: Prader-Willi California Foundation – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, temperance in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.

Malcolm X

Normally, I try to keep business separate from social points here. But there are times to not be silent. And this venting helps me cope and understand.

And, luckily, I have Malcolm X on my side – he says that’s alright. I know a lot of people who will disagree, but we’re seeing the result of not having conversations play out in a very radical way right now. So let’s discuss. Let’s have those uncomfortable conversations. Let’s try to understand each other!

If we don’t, the result is a bipolar radicalization. All people on the right are not KKK right-wing extremists. All people on the left aren’t bleeding heart Marxists.

THE MAJORITY OF US are slightly on one side of the middle, or the other. But when we don’t discuss, we don’t realize that. As humans, it is our nature to try to make everything black and white. We’re programmed to make it us versus them.

But the world is so much richer when we don’t. And when black and white play together – as Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney remind me – it can be wondrous and beautiful. So let’s get all these crazy KKK people talking with all these crazy Antifas – TALKING. Put down the guns and discuss.

The orange dufus doesn’t want that. And it’s backfiring. (At least, it seems like it is.)

There is a time for the middle way. Most of us meander around it, but stay close. And that’s what the Dalai Lama woulda done, and that’s what John Wayne woulda done. Sounds good to me.

Temperance is a good thing. Mark Twain reminded us before that temperate temperance is best. That means going a little crazy is okay once in a while. But not all the while.

And Malcolm X tells us when it is okay to not be temperate: When it’s go time.

Temperance: An Interfanatic Quality

For me, business is all about constant growth. Not necessarily explosive, but to keep growing, you have to keep moving. And that’s how we handle our business: constantly feeding everything a little bit.

I often compare business and website maintenance to a garden: if you pour a giant bucket on everything once in a very great while, it ain’t gonna work. If instead you install that drip system and make sure it keeps working regularly – every day or every week – you’ll see beautiful blossoming results.

And so that’s how we do things. I got an email from a customer in the middle of the night last night, he’d been informed his website had been hacked. (It was incorrect, but that’s okay.) Because we constantly care and feed that site, I knew the problem wouldn’t be big, and even if it was, I had a quick solution. So I fixed the site quickly. (And then I did some research and found out the alert was incorrect). But both me and the customer instantly had peace of mind because there was no problem, and if there was, we fixed it.

Because we at Interfanatic constantly fixing problems to make sure they don’t get big.

Prader-Willi California Foundation – A Constant Need for an Even Temperment

In thinking about temperance this week, I immediately thought of Prader-Willi. We had the privilege of working with PWCF a few years ago, and I learned so much! We made a beautiful website for them that they could constantly care for and feed. Unfortunately, they took it over in-house, and it’s nowhere near as interesting or lovely as it was when we were in control.

But Prader-Willi Syndrome is a rare and difficult one (in many ways, its rarity increases its difficulty). But what I learned is that it is often nearly a non-issue if it is treated properly. The treatment: temperance.

“We loved making the PWCF website. While we helped them with it, it was beautiful and successful, because we did a little bit, often.”

There’s a very specific diet that must be followed. There’s a very specific schedule that must be followed. And when those things happen, people with PWS don’t seem to have any kind of syndrome. They lead completely “normal” lives and do not appear to outsiders to not have any kind of syndrome. Early diagnosis and constant temperance and diligence reduces symptoms dramatically.

And it makes me wonder if PWS is extreme focus on something we could all do better.

The symptoms of PWS are something like autism crossed with down. But if you treat the patient properly, with temperance – constant feeding of the right things at the right times – not too much and not too little – the patient doesn’t experience the emotional issues that make PWS difficult for them and their support network.

So when we got to work with PWCF – the Prader-Willi California Foundation – it was a great experience for everyone. We loved making the PWCF website and while we were helping them with it, it was beautiful and successful, because we did a little bit often.

Temperance – A Regular Flow of Customer:
Interfanatic Basic Email Marketing

When you’ve had happy customers, perhaps the best thing you can do is email marketing. What email marketing does is keep you at the top of your happy customer’s minds.

But don’t try to do it yourself! You will almost certainly have problems with the email address you use for sends – particularly if you’re sending emails to a lot of people. (If it’s just a few, it’s okay – get started! But when you have dozens or hundreds or thousands, it’s time to call us.)

We’ll set up a schedule for you, import your customer’s email addresses, and start watering that garden. Even if an email leads to just one or two sales, it’s already paid for itself. And if those customers share that email – because you give them something of value – then it leads to new customers.

It keeps your customers thinking about you. And if you’ve given those customers a good experience, that’s a good thing. And if you’ve given them a bad experience, they’re more likely to talk to you about it first (by replying to your email) than they are to blab on social media, or hopefully to their friends.

I’ve had a number of customers who were insistent that they didn’t want to start conversations because they didn’t want to hear the negativity. That’s the wrong attitude. When you hear the negativity, you create the opportunity to correct it. When you don’t, your customers don’t feel heard, and they spread that negativity.

So email marketing solves many problems.

We can create the emails for you, or we can take your message and only broadcast it safely. Up to you. As always, you get final approval.

But going it alone, without somebody on your side with vast experience… that’s a bad idea. Especially when it’s so cost effective!

Interfanatic and Temperance

There are a great many ways to control the flow of customers. Don’t have any? We can help. Don’t have enough? We can help. Have too many? Actually, that’s not us – we specialize in getting you too many.

(But seriously, we can moderate the flow and help you keep things under control until you’re able to grow to meet the demand.)


This week’s image:
Interfanatic‘s founder, Ryan Delane, takes or creates every image you see in our social feed.

Temperance, an Interfanatic Quality. Interfanatic Digital Marketing founder Ryan Delane takes or creates every image you see in our social feed.
Temperance, an Interfanatic Quality. Interfanatic Digital Marketing founder Ryan Delane takes or creates every image you see in our social feed.

Here it is: that garden. Don’t flood it. Don’t starve it. Use the middle way to keep it flourishing.

Just a little snap with my phone from the garden.

Temperance: South Bay Beer & Wine Festival – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

Temperate temperance is best; intemperate temperance injures the cause of temperance…”

Mark Twain

Clemens’ words… always funny. The complete quote is actually, “Intemperate temperance injures the cause of temperance, while temperate temperance helps it in its fight against intemperate intemperance.”

He’s being funny. But he’s also being quite serious: his message is that when the rules are too strict, it causes societal problems. We have to have a little leeway.

As is the case with the good Rotarians of Palos Verdes. They do good things for their community, but they always do them in moderation. Because too much of anything is not necessarily a good thing. (That’s a James Kirk quote, by the way.)

It’s easy to get excited and go overboard. It’s easy to not get excited enough, and to not do enough.

Enough: that’s the trick. And that’s where temperance comes in. It flourishes with experience. After 20 years of web sites and digital marketing, we have the experience to know how to make things tick. With temperance.

Temperance: An Interfanatic Quality

Every year, there’s a new fad. Many people jump on board immediately, hoping to ride the wave. We don’t do that. We tend to watch things for a bit, see how they work – if they stick. Then and only then, if it seems the new solution has staying power, we get good at it. Really, really good at it.

“If… the new solution has staying power, Interfanatic get good at it. Really, really good at it.”

There was a time, not that long ago even, that businesses were choosing to eschew a website in favor of a MySpace or Facebook page. As confidence in Facebook has eroded, those who controlled their narrative and presence with their own website have done better.

Facebook certainly has a place in digital marketing. But if you don’t control your message, you’re at the whims of others. Cambridge Analytica, political ads, and many other sideshows taint perception of Facebook. Do you really want you primary message tainted?

The point is, use a bit of temperance to keep your keel in the water.

Platforms come and go. Social Media comes and goes. Snap was quite en vogue a few years ago, but now it’s more popular with certain demographics in certain places than others.

Let Interfanatic be the experts so you can focus on your business. It’s what we do.

And Twain has some marked words about experts, too. But today we celebrate his keen wit and understanding of one of our favorite qualities. Temperance.

The South Bay Beer & Wine Festival: Temperance for a Good Time

Just a couple of years ago, Karen Greenberg asked us to help get Rotary’s South Bay Beer & Wine Festival website fixed up. It was our pleasure to help.

Since then, another Rotarian has stepped in to take over, and we always agree that free can be a beautiful thing. The event continues to be a success and we will always support the event and the great people behind it.

Without forethought and temperance, their festival would be a nightmare. But when good people come together to do good things with a bit of temperance in all they do, the result is beautiful.

As we look forward to the nerve-wracking future directly ahead of us, we do so with temperance. With patience. With the understanding that comes with 20 years of experience. These coming days will not be easy. But they will go more smoothly if we keep a healthy dose of temperate temperance at our side.

We’re here, working hard to support you for the coming years. It is Interfanatic‘s great pleasure to help.

This week’s image:
Interfanatic‘s founder, Ryan Delane, takes or creates every image you see in our social feed.

This week’s image is but a screenshot. I thought it was funny that while I chose the quality of temperance to celebrate this week, the stock market was crashing – surely intemperate temperance made a physical reality. It is a reaction to a great deal of intemperance at the heart of the politics of the past couple of years. At Interfanatic, we’re calm and we carry on. Be safe. We’re on your side.

Temperance: Tetra Graphics – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

Temperance is a tree which has for its root very little contentment and for its fruit calm and peace.“⁠

Buddha⁠

Buddha tells us that temperance results from feeling unsettled, and that result of employing temperance is that we feel settled.

So temperance is important.

Temperance like eating a Handel’s chocolate fudge sundae rather than a knocking down a banana split by yourself, or a Vermonster. Yes, Handel’s chocolate fudge sundaes definitely represents temperance well.

Another, perhaps better, example of temperance is Mike Wratchko and his Tetra Graphics.

Mike came to us looking for help with SEO. It was fun and challenging working with him, to try to promote his business on the Web.

Wratchko works in a tough industry. There are a lot of printers in Torrance. There are a lot of printers – many of them huge.

You have to temper yourself when you go to real SEO. It takes months of dedicated work to get results. But it can definitely be done.

Of course, it depends on your industry. If your industry is very niche, like you create “precision rubber seals for medical photo equipment,” you can target keywords a bit more easily than if you want your site showing for “photo equipment.”

But whether you have longtail keywords to target or common ones, the right, dedicated SEO strategy will yield results, so long as you temper your patience and follow through with the hard work.

Scroll to Top