What your Grandma Never told you about Relationship Management

Grandma always said; mind your own business, do not gossip, respect your elders, keep your mouth shut, choose your friends wisely. Perhaps that works on the playground, but not in a social business world.

CRM says:

• Everyone is your friend and their business is your business
• Gossip is a note that you need to highlight in RED, and share discretely with your team members! 
• Respect your elders and all the other relationships you encounter by connecting with them on their terms, the way they prefer
• Open your mouth and log what you say ~ make sure what you are saying is relevant to your listener and benefits your goals for them
• Choose your friends wisely and tag the rest of your contacts as vendors, prospects, alliances, or otherwise needed to remind you that not all relationships have the same value, but all relationships have value.

CRM says not to:

• Clique, classify, or corner yourself into a reputation that you don't want to represent you. By handling all appropriate relationships in a strategic way you have more control over your customer experience.
• Be your own data aggregation tool! That will be an epic Fail! Trust a technology sweet that will give you some integration and streamlined analysis
• Work with someone without properly understanding the relationship. If you have no way to monitor or reference your history with a person, than how can you expect to classify them as a good partner! 

You can't live without Grandma or CRM, they both have their places in your life. But you spend more than 8 hours a day developing your business value, shouldn't you trust that to someone more relevant! Sorry Grandma! New Media Wins this one!

Marketing Lessons from the Polar Express

I love looking at this face. I dream about it. I meditate on it. It is by far one of the richest parts of being his mother. It occurred to me that there is a magic in this Holiday Season I had never experienced before. It is a small window in time unique to me, unique to him. It is a window especially designed for us, for our life and our memories. It will expire before long, but it will never leave us. It is ours to treasure. It is ours to embrace.

This window in time reminded me of three valuable things to try to capture in my message. The message of life, and the message of work. This message is the expression of your heart. The expression of meaning that penetrates another, that locks them in and focuses them on what’s really important. Three lessons I discovered in The Polar Express by way of the face of my child are as follows:

1. Believe in the magic. Imagination and creativity are forces for good in the world. We can use them to create an experience that will transcend time both in our lives and in our hearts, and expressly in the hearts of others.

2. Engage with the message. Create a message that compels others to encounter, embrace, and engage with awe, excitement, and anticipation. There is something so powerful about the feeling that underlines truth that you cannot help yourself but to desire it over and over again. No matter how many times we watch this magic, it is more and more magical every time. Over time, it becomes fixed in our minds and our hearts, a very poignant part of who we are in the greater story of our life and message.

3. Lead with purity, integrity, and courage. Take risks for another. Be vulnerable, be honest. Take a moment to listen to stories. Take a moment to wear their message on your heart. Let your message become a message that identifies with others. Let that message create your value. Let that message become your worth.

During the year, we have little time to reflect on how well or how limited our impact is and was. Take a moment this season to watch, reflect, listen, and dwell. Those things are the medicine for the soul. Infuse a penetrated soul in all you do, and create for yourself a magical experience that never ends. Look closely at that captivated face. You aren’t the only one watching.

Happy Holidays,

-GoldCoastLady

When Expertise Escapes You, Call in Reinforcements...

How Leveraging your relationships to create value for your online community!

Have you ever heard that old saying, "If the shoe fits, wear it" I have been wearing that shoe a lot, lately. I can't always seem to figure out how I get myself into these fixes, but I do. Maybe it's called a heart too big. Whatever the case may be, here is how it began.

Last week, a very dear friend called me with a problem. Her problem was one I couldn't solve. A friend of a friend needed help upgrading to a newer version of software that was no longer supported by the software company. She gave them my information, and they gave me a call. I wanted to help them, I swear I did. But I couldn't. This is often a limitation of being an expert at certain things, and not a generalist with many.

Luckily for her, I had an expert in my back pocket who could proficiently handle this complex upgrade. So that leads me to 3 things to remember about creating value for your clients and their friends!

1. Your referrals are just as valuable to them as your advice! This is why I am loving some #FF aka follow Fridays on Twitter! This gives me a chance to showcase my favorite and most trusted network of connections for introduction to my valued followers.

2. Your referees are a major tool to keep in your arsenal! My best question for you is this: Are you a brand ambassador? If not, you might want to consider it! Recognizing good stuff and showing the love creates good will in every direction!

3. Your referrers are a mixed bag of both of these! I love my clients, but I also love my brand ambassadors. Many times, they are strategic partners who don't use my services, but understand their value to their own clients. Make sure you develop these and know who they are! This should be an important part of your strategy!

Leverage will serve you well in the long run! Incorporating and Comprehending their value in your relationship strategy can move you into a new level of esteem. Make sure you plan for how long you want to run!

OH NO YOU DIDN'T!!!

Turning Up the Volume with Relevant Questions: 5 Questions to Engage the Audience

One of the most important things about reading blogs is the extended power of opinion, especially when it differs from my own.  Most often when I read something that really gets my blood boiling or challenges my thinking, I never forget it. I often even meditate on it for days.  Sometimes it colors the mood for the rest of the week. I don't mean to give it that much power, but sometimes the power it has over me is relevant. It is a teachable moment, a moment of utmost importance in the greater shaping of my character. I like these moments because they make me double down and get a little bit more serious about my personal brand. Often times, I find myself returning to the same place for the next saga in non-conventional thinking outside of the box.
Turning up the volume with challenging and non~traditional content can be a boost to your readers, depending on how well you deliver it. I have come up with five questions that will help you develop your content in a way that will be non-confrontational, and yet very effective in delivering a message that intrigues, satisfies, and compels your readers to think.
These five questions are:

1. What influences the way you view this topic? This will be the ground work for laying a foundation that makes you reader friendly and intelligible.
2. What is single most important thing do you find about this discussion? There are moments around every subject that each of us connect with more strongly than others. What are they? Why are they so powerful? Which buttons were pushed for you and Why?
3. If you don't have enough information, how would you go about determining the best position on this?
4. Where do your values lie on this subject? Values make our work significant. Values make our ideas coherent and effective.  What are yours and where did you put them in relation to your content? Can your readers connect with them, understand them, and determine them from what you have written? If so, how? If not, how come?
5. Do you think your personal beliefs will serve you well over time? This one is a kicker! When delivering thought provoking content that creates your following audience, it is important to determine whether or not your beliefs about the subject will serve you well over time. As a thought leader, if you cannot take a position and and stand on it, you will lose credibility with your reader, and with your brand.  Figure this out, and work from within it.

Discovering hiccups in our thinking can move us further into creativity by broadening our worldview, and point of view. Here are five questions for uncovering your hiccups!
1. Who am I in relationship to this thought. Who is my reader?
2. What am I saying, and is what I am saying align with what I believe?
3. When I say this, am I willing to define myself by it?
4. Is where I stand on this topic today a place I would be comfortable to stand on tomorrow, next week, or five years from now?
5. Why am I writing this? Do I believe it, am I afraid of it, am I changed by it, is it a sensitive spot in my being?

I think content is so powerful! Don't be afraid of it! Use it wisely, use it carefully, and use it courageously and you just might develop a tight little niche that makes a great big splash....