07.03.09
Posted in General at 3:07 pm EDT by Michele PW
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Have you heard any of these?
* A guy who works part time for the Eagles Football team updates his status report by saying something to the effect that the Eagles suck due to a trade they made. The Eagles fire him.
* A woman gets a job offer from Cisco. She tweets “Got a job offer from Cisco. Now have to decide between a fatty paycheck versus a long commute and hating my job.” One of Cisco channel partners sees it on Twitter and comments. I didn’t hear how it turned out but I’m fairly certain Cisco rescinded the job offer. (And chances are she’s going to have a heck of a time finding another job since this story was all over the place to such an extent it will take awhile to get it out of Google.)
* A guy who I think is the agency owner travels to the headquarters of one of his biggest customers for a presentation (ironically on social networking). He tweets an unflattering tweet about the city where his client is headquartered. The employees spot it, call him on it and he ultimately loses the account.
I’m sure there are more of these stories, but you get my point. Social networking can give you credibility, visibility, leads and can help grow your business. It can also lose you jobs and customers.
So what do these stories have in common? Simple — the person forgot social networking was public.
And that’s the point of today’s article. What you do on social networking is public.
Now, I know that sounds obvious but, like most obvious things, it gets overlooked. And it’s easy to see why. I mean, half the time (or even more) you get no response to things you do on Twitter or Facebook. So it’s easy to start thinking no one’s watching.
And the moment you slip and think no one is watching, no one cares, that’s when it bites you. You think you can say whatever you want, and you do. Only to discover much to your dismay that people really ARE paying attention.
The same thing that makes social networking such a powerful networking tool is the same thing that can ruin you. Remember, your biggest strength is your biggest weakness. And that’s true here as well. The power social networking has to get your name out there in a big way can also replicate your unfortunate choice of tweets or posts in a big way and ruin your reputation faster than you can say “to tweet or not to tweet.”
Now, I’m not saying you should run scared of social networking. This isn’t about you agonizing over every comment, tweet, post, etc. you put out there. This is about being smart. It’s about never forgetting you’re dealing in a public arena and people are paying attention, even if there are days where you wonder where all that social networking love went.
And if you DO screw up and say something you shouldn’t? Well, depending on what exactly it was, you might have to do some damage control, and/or just come to grips you’ve put a black mark on your reputation and have to do some cleaning up. You CAN come back, it might not be easy or fun, but it doesn’t have to be the end of the world either.
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06.12.09
Posted in General, PodCast at 7:08 am EDT by Michele PW
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When people realize I walk marathons, one of the questions I frequently get asked is “how did you do it? How did you finish the marathon once you hit the point of ‘nothing helps?’”
Well, I can tell you it’s not easy. Lots of demons come out to play and you have to push past them.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Why would knowing how to finish a marathon have to do with your business? Because you might be having the same problems in your business — demons coming out to play and you throwing in the towel too soon and not seeing the success you deserve.
Let me explain. It’s been documented that lots of business owners quit too soon. They either quit the business altogether or they lower their goals (i.e. “I don’t need to make 7-figures, I’ll be happy in the low 6-figures”) or they drop a product or service that’s not selling.
However, many times the turning point in their business is just up ahead. They’re right there, the finish line is a half mile away, but they stop. They stop and they use all sorts of excuses as to why it was a smart decision to stop.
This happens to me all the time after I get past mile 20 in the marathon. It gets even worse once I hit the point of “nothing helps” — the pain is awful, I’m exhausted (a deep, deep exhaustion, so deep it makes it difficult to fall asleep for several hours after you’re done) and I’m extremely grumpy.
All the demons come out. “I’ve done this before. Why do I have to make myself miserable now?” (The first year it was “I can try this again next year when I’m in better shape and know what to expect.”) “Boy that pain in my knee feels bad — maybe I’m permanently hurting myself. I should stop.” “Look at all those other people in the medical aid tent, they’ve stopped I can stop too.” “Why the heck (or something stronger) am I doing this to myself again?”
And on and on.
So along with walking on despite the physical pain, you’re also battling mental demons. And this becomes an even bigger issue the longer you walk because at the end it’s all mental. There’s nothing physically left — the only reason why you’re staying on your feet is because you’re forcing yourself too.
Does any of this sound familiar in your business? “Why should I bother marketing and/or selling? People aren’t buying anyway. And the economy is bad. And my industry is struggling.” “I haven’t sent out a newsletter in months, I’m just too busy.” “I know I have a stack of business cards on my desk I should follow up with, but I’m just so busy. And besides, do they really want to hear from me anyway? It’s probably too late.” “This product launch was a disaster. Only 2 people bought. I guess no one is interested in this after all.” (Never mind you only sent out a couple of emails and called that a launch not to mention never sending out a newsletter.) “I’m almost done with my first product. I just have a couple more things to add/change.” (And you’ve been saying THAT for 3 years.)
And the most insidious of them all “I’ve been doing everything so-and-so said for months and it’s still not working. Maybe I’m not cut out to run a business. I should just quit and find a job before I run up any more debt.”
All of these are just variations of the same theme. You’re throwing in the towel before you’ve reached the finish line. And chances are, if you DO quit, success is most likely right around the corner.
Now this isn’t to say there is never a time to quit. Sometimes you really do injure yourself and you can’t finish the marathon. And sometimes a product or a service you’ve launched really isn’t a good fit for your target market and should be dropped. And sometimes things have so radically changed in your market you need to change something or you’re going out of business.
But, a lot of times the reason why things aren’t working is because you aren’t marketing enough (or marketing smartly). Maybe that product really isn’t a good fit. But if you only send out 2 emails to your email list that only hears from you once in a blue moon and call that your launch, you don’t know enough to say it’s not a good fit. You haven’t given it a fair shot.
What can you do to push through? Even when you feel like you’re doing everything you’re supposed to and nothing is working? Just do what I do after mile 23. Put your head down and keep walking. Don’t listen to the chatter in your head, just keep walking. Focus on the cheerleaders on the sidelines telling you you’re almost there and keep walking. The finish line really is just around the corner, and eventually you’ll get to it, but only if you keep walking. The moment you stop, you’re done.
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06.08.09
Posted in General at 8:11 am EDT by Michele PW
Social networking.
It’s the talk of the town. Everyone is buzzing about it. Everyone is doing it (or trying to do it).
But is anyone making at money at it?
The short answer is YES — but only if they’re doing it strategically.
And that’s what I’m going to be teaching you in my next Copywriting and Marketing Success Circle call, “How to Turn Social Media Visitors Into Paying Customers.”
(In a hurry? Here’s the link.
No matter where you’re at in the social networking spectrum — youÕve heard of twitter and that’s about it; you have a facebook account but you don’t know what to do with it other than look for old high school buddies; or you’re actively working the social networking platforms — you’ll discover proven steps on how to convert your social networking activities into actual cash.
You’ll learn:
- How to turn friends and followers into PAYING customers. Yes, it IS possible, but you need to
know what to do
- What NOT to do so you don’t turn your friends and followers against you (this is almost as important as knowing what TO do — it’s very easy to destroy your online reputation and once that
happens, it’s very difficult to get your reputation back)
- TESTED campaigns that resulted in CASH in your pocket (you can easily implement these in your own
business)
- And more
You’ll get my step-by-step system on how you can make money doing social networking, as well as
templates and samples (yes samples of how to write for results in the social networking world) to make it easy to “plug and play” in your own business.
It all happens on Tuesday at 4 pm Pacific, so you’ll want to reserve your space now. Here’s that link again to sign up.
To your success!
P.S. When you sign up, as a special bonus you’ll also get a copy of my Sales Letter Secrets: Rev Up
Your Business With Copy That Sells! Here’s that link again.
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06.04.09
Posted in General, PodCast at 7:38 pm EDT by Michele PW
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Musings from the Marathon (and How it Can Help Your Business)
I just returned from San Diego where I walked my third marathon. It took me 6.5 hours. (I’m not a runner, I’m a walker, and that’s averaging between a 14- and 15-minute mile.) Now if you know anything about marathons, you’ll know that I’m never going to make the Boston marathon with that time.
In fact, I was beaten by an 86-year-old woman from South Carolina (we were neck and neck for awhile — she pulled away when I stopped for a bathroom break, beat me by 5 minutes) by a man dressed in a banana suit, by naked man (he whipped off his shorts when he crossed the finish line, although it’s probably not fair to compare him to me as he definitely had less wind resistance than I had) and a bunch of guys dressed as Elvis.
My point is if I was doing marathons to win, I would probably be in the depths of despair this week. Lucky for me, I do marathons for other reasons that have nothing to do with speed and everything to do with perseverance.
In fact, I think every business owner and entrepreneur should complete a marathon at least once in their life. No, not because I want partners to share in the torture and agony, but for the same reasons why I do. Let me explain.
I’ve come to the conclusion that nature has intended for the human body to only travel about 20 miles at any one time. I’ve decided this based on both science and my own experiences.
Now, I’m not a scientist but here’s my understanding of what’s going on when you walk a marathon. Your body only has around 2000 calories of ready energy it can use at any one time. How long does it take you to run out of 2000 calories? Oh, about 20 miles. After 20 miles, your body starts attacking your muscle to use as fuel (your body can’t burn fat on its own, it can only access the fat through burning something easier, such as carbohydrates or muscle).
At the same time, the hormones your body produces when you run (the ones that are responsible for the “runner’s high”) are used up. When that happens, the natural pain killer that’s part of the runner’s high also disappears, so now you feel every bit of the pain your muscles are going through.
In other words, somewhere between mile 20 and 24, your body runs out of ready energy and starts attacking your muscles and also runs out of the hormones that give you extra energy, stamina and pain relief. There’s a term for this you might have heard. It’s called “hitting the wall.” And if you’re going to hit the wall, you’re going to hit it somewhere between mile 20 and 24.
As someone who has smashed head first into said wall, I can tell you it’s not pretty. You can get a second wind at mile 12, 16, even 18. There’s no second wind at mile 24.
During every marathon I’ve done, there comes a time where nothing helps. Nothing. Everything hurts. Everything. You’re exhausted. Every muscle in your body is screaming for you to stop. You’re keeping your legs moving on sheer grit and determination alone. There’s nothing else left.
The only thing that even comes close to helping during this time is the people cheering on the sideline. The ones near the end yelling “You can do it, you’re almost there.” (Note to spectators, this is the time to lie. Tell the runners or walkers or limpers they’re almost there or the next mile marker is around the corner, even if the next mile marker is actually around the corner, up a hill and a half-mile away. You need anything you can grab on to at this time.)
So for all you spectators, yes your cheering really DOES help. Don’t let our grumpy expressions fool you. We’re hanging on to what you’re saying for dear life.
(On another note, the neighbors who live between mile 15 and 16 who every year buy a gazillion oranges, spend hours cutting them up and then MORE hours standing on the street handing them to us as we go by, I only have one thing to say to you — I’m leaving you in my will.)
Okay, so my hypothesis is the human body is only supposed to walk or run for 20 to 24 miles. And a marathon is 26.2 miles (and yes, that .2 is VERY important — that .2 of a mile is harder than the first 20). So what that means is you are literally pushing yourself past your body’s limits for at least 2.2 miles.
In fact, that’s why I think marathons ARE 26.2 miles. Because they push past your physical boundaries.
I suspect this was the discussion back when marathons first came up. The Marathon God was sitting around with the other Greek Gods in Mt Olympus and the conversation went something like this. “Maybe a marathon should be 20.4 miles.” “No, no, that’s still within their body’s limits.” “Okay, so how about 28.8?” “No, that’s too far. Too many people will drop out or die and that defeats the purpose.” “So what about 26.2 miles?” “Perfect, just far enough to push past their boundaries and not so far that they give up or die.”
So walking marathons is about pushing past boundaries. If you can push past your body’s physical limits with your mind, then you should have no problems pushing past other boundaries with your mind, such as income boundaries or business growth boundaries.
After all, you know it’s possible to build a multi-million-dollar (or billion-dollar) business from scratch. You’ve seen other people do it. And after you walk a marathon, you’ll know you can push past boundaries because you’ve just done it. So therefore, now you know you have the capability to push past whatever boundaries you’ve set for yourself. You’ll have physical, tangible proof of it. (And they even give you a medal when you finish.)
And that, my friends, is why I think every business owner and entrepreneur should walk or run a marathon at least once in their life.
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05.19.09
Posted in General, PodCast at 3:48 pm EDT by Michele PW
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Let me begin by saying I was very impressed with Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump’s daughter. She spoke at the Dan Kennedy/Bill Glazer Superconference and it was fascinating hearing her take on business. Here are a few nuggets I came away with:
1. You got to really want it. Ivanka is a driven woman. In fact, I would go so far to say she is succeeding despite her father and wealth. She works 3 times as hard as anyone else to prove that she really is the best person for the job. And she has succeeded.
Now you could say it was easy for her. She has connections, a name, money. However, that’s exactly the reason why it’s difficult for her. People assume her success is due to her family and not her ability.
She could have thrown in the towel, turned into another Paris. Instead she decided to work 3 times as hard to prove to the world she is just as capable as her father at being successful at business.
My point here is that everyone has obstacles. Even if you can’t see them, we all have issues and blocks and obstacles. And we can choose to give in to them or to succeed despite them.
And, we all feel the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Ivanka truly believes her father would fire her if she screws up. (Actually he publically said that in an interview, he’d fire his kids if they messed up.) Can you imagine the public embarrassment and humiliation if that actually happened? Sure we can all look at Ivanka and think “oh, she has it so easy.” But if she ends up in the middle of a colossal failure, the world will all know about it and talk about it. That’s not the case with someone less well known.
This is very common in business (well, in life in general) - people assume someone else’s business is a piece of cake while they have to X, Y, Z to contend with. While it’s true maybe that person doesn’t have X, Y, Z, they do have A, B, C, which are just as difficult in their own way. So the best thing to do is rather than wasting energy on comparisons, focus on making what you have that much better.
2. What’s going on with the economy is just a way to make businesses stronger. Okay, she’s 28, which means she was an infant during the last big recession. However, she is learning from her father, who not only lived through that recession but nearly went bankrupt. How did her father handle it? He got up every day and did something about it. He didn’t let the fact that he owed millions of dollars with no way to pay it back stop him. He got up every day and did something about it.
What are you doing right now? Are you sitting there waiting for the economy to “get better” so you can start making money? Or are you going to start doing something NOW to make that money?
Businesses are still making money right now. People are still buying products and services. You can make money, you just need to be smart about it.
3. Find what you love and do that. Ivanka had been offered a very prestigious job in another company after graduation, but wanted to work in the family business. Her father questioned that decision, which for a long time made her angry. However, he just wanted to make sure she was doing something she loved and not just getting a job in the family business because she thought it was expected of her.
What I liked about this story was what it said about both Donald and Ivanka. Ivanka knew she loved construction and buildings, so she designed her career around doing what she loved. Her father knew how important doing what you love is, and wanted to make sure Ivanka was following in his footsteps. Not his footsteps in the family business but that she truly was doing something she loved.
Are you doing what you love? Or are you doing what is “expected” of you? Think about it. Make sure you really are designing a business you love and that motivates and excites you.
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05.05.09
Posted in Business, Copywriting, General, Marketing at 11:14 am EDT by Michele PW
Between deadly pig flu, government bailouts and pirates, talking about the recession seems almost anticlimactic – nevertheless I wanted to share something I learned from Dan Kennedy at the Super Conference.
Dan had a special session about Recession Rescue, which included a bunch of good info about thriving during this time (I’ll be sharing more in later posts). He had an interesting point I wanted to talk about today:
One of the main reasons why spending is down is because businesses have stopped asking for the sale.
Businesses all over have cut back their marketing and sales budgets because they think it doesn’t matter. “Why bother?” they say. “People aren’t buying anyway, so why bother trying to sell to them?”
Of course, as all good students of copywriting know, if you don’t ask for the sale, you’re not going to get the sale. So if you stop marketing and selling, people WILL stop buying. (Yes it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.)
And especially now, you need to sell and market even harder because people are more cautious with their money, so if anything you should be stepping up your marketing strategies and efforts, not cutting back.
When business is slow, there’s no question it makes sense to cut back on expenses. But cutting back on things that directly relate to income (i.e. marketing and sales) is not a smart business move.
What are your thoughts? Have you noticed less selling in your life? What have you noticed in YOUR business? Leave me a comment and let me know what YOUR experiences are.
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04.21.09
Posted in Business, Copywriting, General, Online Marketing, PodCast at 10:41 pm EDT by Michele PW
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Want to know the secret for creating promotional materials that make sales?
It starts with the headline.
You see, people are busy. They’re only going to take a few seconds to determine if they want to spend any time with your promotional materials or not (whether that’s an email, a web site, a sales letter or something else).
How will they make that decision? A big part of it will come from reading your headline. So if your headline doesn’t pull its own weight, your prospects will most likely simply move on.
So how can you craft a headline that persuades your prospects to keep reading? Here are 3 tips to get you started:
1. Put yourself in the mind of your prospect. Chances are, your prospect landed on your site because they have a problem. And they’re looking for a solution to that problem. And they’re impatient because they’re squeezing in searching for this solution in between taking the kids to dance class, sending a few last emails and figuring out what to throw together for dinner. (Okay, that was a very female-biased day, but men are equally as stretched.) So if they’re not feeling confident they’re going to find a solution, they WILL move on. And fast.
But, if you create a headline that embodies the solution, then they’ll probably stick around and keep reading. For instance, a headline like this:
Give me 3 days and I’ll show you how to make more money while working far less
If you’re considering writing a headline like this, then your prospects are probably completely overwhelmed, exhausted, struggling to get everything done and not making much money. See how the headline entices them to read on because it promises a solution?
Here’s another one:
Give me 3 days and I’ll show you how to lose weight without crazy fad diets, pills, hours of sweaty exhausting exercise or feeling hungry.
(Ah, don’t we all wish?)
Okay, so your prospect wants to lose weight and has tried a lot of things without success.
See how this works?
2. Give them a time limit. If you were wondering in the above examples why I had a time limit in there, it’s because that resonates with people. Again, people are impatient. They don’t want to wait years or decades for the solution to take effect (even if that’s what it takes). They want to know the solution is within reach and it’s a manageable time frame. So if you can frame your solution around something that sounds doable (a couple of weeks, days or minutes are best yet if you can distill it that far).
3. Use language your prospects will relate to. Whether it’s language that resonates with your prospects (hours of sweaty exhausting exercise would probably resonate with prospects who don’t like to exercise whereas it wouldn’t with people whose hobby was running marathons) or using words like “Free” or “Guaranteed,” making sure you pick the right words can mean the difference from a kick-butt sales piece to a so-so one.
And don’t be afraid to simply tweak a couple of words. Sometimes that’s all it takes to tweak a word or 2 to transform a blah headline into a sexy, profit-pulling one.
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04.20.09
Posted in Copywriting, Creativity, General at 3:47 pm EDT by Michele PW
A couple of weeks ago, my accountant called to let me know my taxes were ready. He also shared with me that I was one of the “lucky” ones - I was one of the few in his practice who owed money because my business made money last year.
Ah, lucky me.
Good news, my business was successful last year. Bad new, Uncle Sam wants his piece of the pie.
So I decided to look at this as a win-win. I would have a 24-hr sale on one of my best products, Kaching Traffic Secrets.
You win because you’ll be able to save a whopping $200 for 24 hours AND you’ll get THE system on driving more traffic to your site using Web 2.0 tactics. This isn’t another information product that will languish unopened on your shelf - this is the actual system I use for myself and for my clients to drive thousands of visitors to their sites. You just hand it over to your virtual assistant and they implement it. It’s that easy!
And I win because I’ll be happily writing my check to Uncle Sam. (Well, happily might be stretching it…)
Uncle Sam wins too, but maybe we’ll not talk about that…
Anyway, sale starts bright and early Thursday morning at 6 am Pacific and ends Friday at 6 am Pacific. Here’s the link if you want to check out Kaching Traffic Secrets now:
http://www.kachingtraffic.com
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03.19.09
Posted in General, PodCast, Social networking at 10:34 am EDT by Michele PW
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Isn’t social networking fun? You get to meet all these people and connect with them and spend hours looking at their profiles and videos and photos and…
Okay, so clearly social networking can take an awful lot of time. The question is, is it worth it? Will spending all that time doing social networking lead to an increase in sales?
And the answer is, yes it can. But you need to be strategic about it — just like you need to be strategic with all your marketing. And one way you can do that is to have a social networking landing page.
So what the heck is a social networking landing page? Read the rest of this entry »
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03.14.09
Posted in Copywriting, General, PodCast at 11:35 am EDT by Michele PW
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At Alex Mandossian’s Teleseminar Secrets Reunion, we did a “timeline” exercise. Alex started it by charting his highlights and lowlights from the past 20 years. It was fascinating to see this laid out for us and to know even someone like Alex was in the abyss at a couple of points.
Even more importantly, I learned 2 important takeaways I wanted to share with you.
The first came from one of the participants. He remarked that the timeline exercise really put things in perspective. These were simply events, not good or bad. They were neutral. Whether you’re in bankruptcy or just broke the 7-figure mark, it’s just an event. A fact.
It’s the story around it that turns it into something else. The story is where the emotions come in. And that’s where it gets messy.
The event isn’t the problem. The story is. If you can take the story out of what’s going on, you can look at what’s happening more objectively and objectively make a decision about how you’re going to handle it.
You may have heard the quote that life is about 10 percent what happens to you and about 90 percent your reaction to what’s happened to you. In other words, the event is in the 10 percent — your story is in the 90 percent. Read the rest of this entry »
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02.10.09
Posted in Business, General, Marketing at 8:12 am EST by Michele PW
If you remember nothing else in this article, remember this: even during the great depression, people still bought things. And not just food and necessities — lipstick and entertainment were hot sellers. (In fact, that’s where the cosmetic industry got its start.)
Why am I starting here? Because I know it’s easy to get caught up in a cycle of negativity right now but if you want to succeed you absolutely MUST rise above it. People are still going to buy no matter what the economy is doing. It’s YOUR job to position your products and services as the ones they buy.
So how do you do that? Here are 3 tips to get you started.
1. Dance with the one who brought you. In other words, now is not the time to abandon the marketing strategies and tactics that got you here. A lot of business owners will be tempted to cut back, especially their marketing. This is a mistake. If anything, you should increase your marketing now.
However, by increasing your marketing I don’t necessarily mean increasing how much you spend. It’s perfectly acceptable to find low-cost or no-cost marketing methods to still keep the momentum going. One word of warning — there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Chances are you’re going to pay somewhere, and that payment Read the rest of this entry »
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01.23.09
Posted in Business, General, Marketing, Public Relations at 9:12 am EST by Michele PW
Brace yourself. The Arizona Cardinals, known as one of the most woeful franchises in all of professional sports (not just football), has done the near impossible and is now headed to the SuperBowl.
They’ve been the underdog in every single one of their playoff games (including their home games) — they’ve been disrespected, dismissed and disregarded. In fact, they’ve even been called the worst NFL team to make the playoffs in history. (And if they win, I suspect they’ll be called the worst NFL team to win the SuperBowl.)
Yet they’re now headed to Tampa and the SuperBowl (where again they’re the underdogs). And, they’ve done with this a head coach who is only in his second year of coaching, a bunch of no-name players and a 37-year-old quarterback everyone thought was washed up years ago.
This is just such an incredible story to begin with, but why I’m talking about it is because there is so much you can learn and apply to your business. And if there’s anything you can take away from this story, it’s that anything is possible. No matter what your business looks like right now, no matter what the economy is doing, you CAN turn your business around. This is a story of hope — no matter what your circumstances currently are, you can change them.
So, what are the Cardinals’ secrets? Let me share two I’ve noticed –
1. They don’t give up. Actually there’s a story within a story here. Kurt Warner, the quarterback, was initially cut from Green Bay, no other team would take him and he had to take a job bagging groceries. But he didn’t give up, he kept plugging away, finally got signed on by the St. Louis Rams, took the Rams to the SuperBowl twice (winning once), before being cut by the team, had a forgettable stint with the New York Giants and again looked like his career was over until Arizona gave him a one last shot (the only team willing to give him one more chance).
And look whose laughing now?
No matter what everyone was telling him, Warner kept believing in himself. Just like the Cardinals. No matter what the rest of the NFL and sports media was telling the Cardinals, they kept believing in themselves. Actually, they did more than believe in themselves, they used all the negativity as ammunition to prove everyone wrong.
The entire team refused to stop fighting. They refused to listen to what was being said about them. In essence, they refused to lose.
So what is your attitude with your business? Do you find yourself saying things like “well, the media is saying we’re in a recession so I can’t expect to make any money or grow my business now?” Or “all these other businesses are shutting their doors, I guess I better follow their lead and just hunker down until the economy improves?”
Think about it. If the Cardinals had listened to what everyone was saying about them, and had believed it, then I wouldn’t be writing this article right now because some other team would be headed to Tampa. Instead, the Cardinals decided to go down swinging. Shock the world. Prove them all wrong.
And they did.
2. They play to win. Boy, watch the playoff games and you see those AZ coaches take some pretty gutsy chances. Some of those other playoff teams, well, those teams were playing not to lose. They took no chances and played conservatively.
Those teams are all staying home. (The Pittsburg Steelers, the other team going to Tampa, also plays to win.)
You got to play to win. You got to take chances. You can’t play conservatively.
So what does play not to lose mean in business? I invite you to do this exercise for yourself, but here are a few ideas to get you started –
* Are you cutting your marketing budget to bare bones (or nothing at all)?
* Are you no longer investing in yourself (you’ll wait until the economy turns around)?
* Have you decided to start doing things yourself because you don’t want to pay someone else to do them?
If you answered yes to any of those, I would say you’re playing not to lose.
Now, I’m not advocating putting yourself in the poorhouse or running up a bunch of debt, but you have to be smart at what you’re cutting. Just doing an across-the-board slash of your marketing is not the answer. Strategically reviewing your marketing and cutting what isn’t working IS a smart thing to do (and you should do this all the time, not just when business is slow).
Deciding to do your bookkeeping right now because you want to save a few bucks is not smart. Should you really be spending hours struggling with something you’re not good at versus taking that time and focusing on your strengths and bringing more business in the door?
Yes it can feel scary. I’m sure it was scary for those Cardinal coaches when they chose plays that while could win them the game, it also could just as easily have blown up in their faces. But, I can pretty much guarantee they wouldn’t have won those games if they hadn’t taken those chances.
Remember, no one wins playing scared. Even if you fall on your face and the play completely backfires on you, you can’t stop playing to win. Because in the long haul, you WILL win more then you lose.
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01.15.09
Posted in Business, General at 4:01 pm EST by Michele PW
As we say goodbye to 2008 and hello to 2009, I thought I’d take a moment and share with you the business lessons I learned in 2008. (Yes, it appears to be one of those lovely facts of life that you never stop learning no matter how much you think you learned the year before. But I digress.) Here are my top five lessons for your studying pleasure.
1. Gotta keep focusing on your mindset. I saw it over and over with myself last year. I get cloudy and I start struggling with my business. I’m clear and focused and my business is easy and effortless to run.
If I forget myself and allow myself to get distracted by whatever what’s going on (in other words, get in my “stuff”) then all of sudden I find I’ve attracted a whole bunch of problems (or “issues”) into my business. When I keep my focus on the positive and what I CAN control, then suddenly things get a lot better.
One of the lessons I learned is you should never stop working on your mindset. Even if it’s only 5 minutes a day, just enough time to take some deep breaths and center yourself and maybe say a few affirmations, that can be the best thing you do for yourself AND your business.
2. It’s like an onion. Sadly, this was the most unfortunate lesson I had to learn in 2008. You know all those issues and blocks you work so hard to get through? Well, guess what — they never actually go away. Yes, no matter how much you work on them and through them, they keep sticking around, just at a deeper level.
(Sigh.)
So, I’m here to tell you this is a lifelong process. Don’t beat yourself up over it, just accept it and keep working through them. And remember, even though it can get frustrating at times, the more you work on these things, the more you WILL see success at every breakthrough. The rewards are there if you’re willing to do the work.
3. Your habits are more important than you think. What do you do each day? Are you spending hours checking email and pushing paper around your desk? Do you find your days disappear and you look back and wonder what exactly did you get done?
I’ve studied a lot of successful people, and one thing they all have in common is they have pretty rock-solid habits. They get up early, they make time to read, exercise, work on their mindset, etc. Yes, they might not always get everything done on their to-do list, but every day they’re working toward the bigger picture.
I made a point this year of dumping old habits of working that no longer served me, and starting new habits. Now, I’m going to admit I’m not perfect yet. Some of my old habits still creep back now and then. And it wasn’t easy (I broke habits I had for years.) But, it was worth it. I’ve more productive than I’ve been in years, but even more importantly, I’m more relaxed, calm, and at peace than I’ve ever been.
What habits do you need to break? Do you numb yourself with too much television, Internet surfing or some other distraction? Do you find yourself sucked into drama or gossip? Or maybe you just waste time doing things in your business you could hire a virtual assistant for half (or less) of your hourly rate?
And what habits should you be doing? Journaling? Reading? Exercising? Meditating? Eating healthier? Once you start replacing your old habits with new, healthier ones, you’ll probably be amazed at what starts to happen in your life.
4. Get the right people on the right seats on the bus. Building a team, and making sure the team is the right one for you, is crucial. You can’t do it alone. You need people around you to support you and do the work you have no business doing. But you need to make sure it’s the right team for you. And don’t be afraid to make changes — sometimes the team that was right for you 3 years ago is no longer right for where you are now.
When your team is clicking, it’s a great feeling. The work is getting done, you know you’re supported and it takes such a huge burden off of you.
5. Don’t be afraid to give up control. The smartest thing I did this year was give up control of the operations of the business to my husband. If you’re anything like me, you’re not the best person to be running the operations. You should be focused on the vision and leadership of the company, plus the other aspects you’re good at. The details of whose doing what and is it getting done is probably not your strong suit. That’s why, after you’ve grown to a certain level, you need to take yourself out of that role.
Now, you might not have a spouse who can handle the operations, and if that’s the case I encourage you to look for an operations manager. While it might feel like a big leap, it’s an amazing freeing feeling. All of a sudden I have the energy and space to truly focus on what I should be focusing on, instead of getting dragged down by the minutia.
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12.19.08
Posted in Business, General, Marketing at 7:11 pm EST by Michele PW
For those of you who don’t watch professional football, let me give you a (very) brief synopsis so you have some context. (Trust me, this will be worth it.)
Brett Favre, who was the quarterback for the Packers and is considered one of the top quarterbacks ever to play the game, retired last spring, then decided to unretire last summer. The Packers sent him, well packing, to the New York Jets because they wanted to give their new, young quarterback Aaron Rodgers a chance.
Since then, the Jets (who were dreadful last season) have a winning record and are probably headed to the playoffs whereas the Packers are 5-9 (when last year they were 13-3 and almost made it to the Superbowl) and headed nowhere.
Now, before I go any further, I want to preface this as I’m a Packer fan, an Aaron Rodgers fan and a Brett Favre fan, so this is not an article about whether or not the Packers should have done what they did. Rather, this is an article about what (I think) happened and how you can use this lesson to be more powerful in your business.
So, what DID happen? I mean, while the quarterback is an important position, it’s still just one guy on a team (and football is a team sport). He’s not even on the field half the time. Is the quarterback really responsible for a team winning or losing?
And, for that matter, is Rodgers really that much worse than Favre?
I’ll answer the last question first. Actually, Rodgers has a higher quarterback rating than Favre this season. So at least in terms of being able to throw the ball, Rodgers and Favre are on par.
But what Favre brings to the table that Rodgers doesn’t (at least right now) is the legacy of what he has accomplished.
Here’s what I think happened. When Favre went to the Jets, the Jets suddenly got this boost of confidence they didn’t have before. Now they had a Hall of Fame quarterback on their team. Oh my gosh! This means they might actually win!
At the same time, the Packers lost that shot of confidence. I know Packers publicly stood behind Rodgers, and he’s done a great job, especially when you consider it’s his first season. But regardless, he doesn’t have the track record that Favre has. It’s not Rodgers fault, how on earth could he bring that same confidence to his first season? Favre didn’t have it either in his first season, in fact the Falcons traded Favre early in his career.
Now, a shot of confidence doesn’t sound like much, but the Packers have lost almost all of their games by less than 4 points, and usually lost it in the last couple of minutes in the game.
Okay, so how does any of this pertain to you or your business?
One of the traits I’ve noticed in my associates and colleagues is what happens after they break the 7-figure mark in their business. Something changes. There’s an air of confidence in them that I don’t want to say was lacking before, but it’s even more pronounced. Now, they know they can do it. Why? Because they HAVE done it. And all of a sudden it’s easier and faster to double, triple that and more.
The more confident they are that they can make that kind of money, the more effortless it is for them to actually do it.
To take it one step further, because they believe deep down inside they can easily make 7 figures, they DO make 7 figures. Much like the Jets now believing they can win with Favre whereas they weren’t nearly so sure without him, entrepreneurs who believe they will make that kind of money actually do.
So, what can YOU do to start feeling that confidence about building a successful business? And knowing, deep down inside, you will break six or seven figures? The faster you can start feeling that, the faster you’ll start experiencing it.
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12.04.08
Posted in Business, General, Marketing at 10:12 pm EST by Michele PW
It’s an odd time of year. For some industries and businesses, this is their busiest season, when they make most of their money. For others, especially service businesses or B-2-B, it’s their slowest time of year.
But it doesn’t have to be.
If you’re someone who really would like to get more work in November and December to pay for those extra holiday expenses, here are 3 tips to get you started:
1. Don’t stop marketing. Does this sound familiar? You know your business is slow over the holidays, so you think “why bother” and don’t do anything. After all, no one is interested in buying services now, you might as well wait until January when people have their head back in their business.
So, you cut back or stop your marketing. And what happens? Well, business slows down. (Amazing, isn’t it?)
Then, if you’re one of those business owners whose marketing suffers when you’re busy, and you have a busy September and October, well that’s a double whammy. You’ve basically guaranteed a slow down in December and January.
I know, it seems like you’re competing with a lot of holiday advertising, and it’s true you are. But, because a lot of businesses stop marketing, it’s actually a pretty good time to get in front of your prospects because there’s less of that type of marketing going on.
2. Know what your prospects are thinking about and join in the conversation already going on in their head. So what they are thinking about? The holidays, right? That’s true, but they’re also thinking about what they liked or didn’t like about this year, what they want to be different about next year, etc. Even for people who don’t sit down and do formal planning, there’s still a feeling of closure (for the old) and preparation (for the new). If you can position whatever it is you’re selling to fit that, you have a good chance they’ll want to start the “new year off right” by hiring you.
Now, you might be saying, but everyone says something like that, won’t I sound like everyone else? Well, yes and no. Yes that’s a common message because it resonates so strongly with us as humans. But you don’t have to phrase it like everyone else. By stating it differently or coming at it from a different angle, that’s what’s going to set up apart from everyone else.
Which leads me to the last point…
3. Inject some urgency into your marketing. It is true that because people are spending a lot of money on holiday stuff, they might want to hold off on spending any money on their business until January (and they might not want to even focus on their business until January). Well, the new year is also a natural time to raise your rates. So, what better time of year then to encourage them to hire you NOW so they lock in the old rates?
The trick is to get them eager to hire you because they want their business to look different in the new year, and they better hire you NOW because they want to lock in this year’s rates.
And, you can take this one step further — if you don’t want to actually start the work until January (because you want some time off for partying as well) then have them pay a deposit in December or extend it somehow, where they get extra time for the same price. Now you have money now, you have work lined up in January and your prospects are happy because they’re getting a deal. It’s a win-win-win.
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