Let it Go! What Businesses Can Learn from Frozen!

My life consists of Disney, Pixar, and Animated movies on repeat these days. 

I cannot tell you how many times I have watched some of my favorites over and over and over again. Wreckit Ralph, The Little Mermaid, Incredibles, and Despicable Me are on autopilot in my home. So how do I keep a work life balance, I think that most days I just give that up. Perhaps that is only an illusion, anyway... Besides, I find I hone my marketing strategy skills by learning from these precious gems, these amazing sources of truth, character, and imagination. My son's most recent obsession is Frozen. He thinks that Elsa is his wife, and insists that only he can sing her parts. I love that. I love the power it has over him. I love the message that it sends us, our family, and me.

I have become really talented at identifying key points that we can all take from these animated professors. And today, Frozen has given me perhaps, some of my most favorite. Here are three great lessons that businesses, and marketing strategists can take and apply from Frozen.  I hope they have the same affect on you as they have on me!

1. Don't go it alone: Success in life and in relationships is all about the relationships you build and enjoy while journeying the unknown. Those relationships enrich any field, any situation, any circumstance you might find yourself in. As in life, or in marketing, leaning, leveraging, and relying on relationships for your success is paramount. Without them you will not be happy, complete, or successful. All GOOD and well implemented strategies have to engage, encourage, and embrace them. Build relationships with people who seek relationships. Relationships are a skill, and it's easier to develop that skill with others who seek to develop that skill as well.

2. Face your Fears: Change is scary. Success is scary. Pain is scary. We cannot get to the next level, the next phase, the next pinnacle in our business, or personal life without risk. Risk can sometimes leave us in a vulnerable spot. Sometimes we might even fail, but risk can also give us that experience, expertise, and understanding that we might not have gained otherwise. Face your Fears, step out on faith, trust your relationships, and build your legacy based on hope and trust, not fear. Risks always produce more opportunity than being paralyzed with fear ever will.

3. Let it Go: Sometimes are experiences tie us down. Sometimes what we gain from them feeds are fears, keeps us from starting over and trying again. All good strategies fail sometimes. All efforts aren't always realized. There is not a fool proof plan that works with any and every audience, but a strategy that evolves, changes, withstands hard times, and moves forward will always win. Let go of the things that didn't work, but don't quit trying. Don't quit being. Don't quit working. Don't quit. 

I love that my little guys learns these ideas from a Disney movie. But more than that, I love that these things transcend our home. They are tried and true life lessons, and we can apply them to our day to day, our life strategies, and our relationship strategies. We can apply them to the course we take in general and always find worth. That's what I call a lesson worth learning...

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!

Sometimes you need a little break to realize you were missed

Summer Days are gone too soon, and fall is approaching rapidly. This is the time of year for backpacks, candy corn, homework assignments, and pumpkin spice lattes, but did you know it is also a good time to reach out to your most favorite customers? Did you know that a good contact schedule can keep you visible, favorable, and even missed by your customers? Many of us take some vacation time in the summer. Did you ever think that it might be a good idea to give them space?
Like any relationship, you need to learn how to honor the way your customers want to be reached. Fall is a good season to begin to reconnect with your relationships, both business and personal. Setting a good reach strategy could be the difference between your success and failure in business.  Here is the rule of 4: When touching your contacts, use these initiatives and track them:

• Have I emailed them?
• Do I show up in their Social Media Feeds?
• Have I showed up at the end of their dial tone?
• Have I sent them a card?

In the fall, I always start with a card! Something along the lines of, "Hope you had an awesome summer and I am looking forward to connecting with you soon" Use your #CRM to manage the ways they have been touched, how frequently, and keep it consistent. Come up with a variety of ways to stand out, be different, and create meaningful impressions. Spice it up! Analyze your Big Data and create Loyal Relationships with your customers and your prospects. Take breaks, and then meet back up again. This is a real relationship, so let it look like one. Build your relationships like an ant farm, one small treasure at a time that creates a great big long lasting history that means more to each of you than any thing else. This is the way to success and it takes time. That's your greatest investment.

Listening is the Key to Communicating What They Want

It occurred to me that with listening being as important as it is to success, we might need to stop and investigate how to listen properly and effectively.  This is always a good thing to ponder over and consider, so that we can identify if our listening skills are in tip-top shape.  So here are my top five tips for listening better!  Hope they are intuitive for you, or easy to instantly apply adopt for your good fortune!

How to Listen

#1~ Be teachable!  A good listener enters into every conversation with a personal motive to discover!  What can you learn about this person, situation, or circumstance?  What is the goal, motivation, focus, areas of penetration or need?  How can you help develop the argument or the solution! Both are important in problem solving!

#2~ Be accountable!  Make sure that you repeat back what you have discovered so that you can then take responsibility for the role you will or will not play in it.  A person who feels you understand their uniqueness, needs, and problems will likely trust you to solve them!  Make sure you interject with validating phrases, such as, "So you are saying that", "Just so I can be clear that I am understanding", "Let me verify that I understand this right", "I am not sure I see your total vantage point, can you further explain", or "Just so I can be the most help to you in solving your problem, it seems as though you are saying".  Be careful not to paraphrase exactly, as it can come across and disingenuous, and you definitely don't want them to discover you are practicing your listening skills on them.

 #3~ Listening is 70% eye contact! If you are on the phone this is hard!  Make deliberate efforts to have important talks face to face! Skype can help with this if you are a technical consultant! If not, make sure you dialogue enough, so that the relationship has time to manifest. This requires an effort to let them talk, and to give them the freedom to digress.  Authenticity happens in the details.

#4~ Listening is hands-free!  Put down the gadgets, phones, ipads, computers, or any other little distraction that will steal your audiences' confidence in your interest, and your attention!  If you are like me, and you struggle with paying attention, then you need to make extra measures to do this!

#5~ Listening is active!  It grows, develops, shows, and remembers!  A tool for this is helpful.  I use #NIMBLECRM to record relevant details about my audience, so that I can revisit, resuse, and re-encounter our comfortable place over and over again.  You can do this, too, and it is necessary to be fully engaged and effective!

The final part to listening is conveying that you have done so! Here are five queues you give to your audience that you heard them and understood what they said!

How to Convey

#1~ You are important enough for me to think about!  If you cannot see the big picture after the first conversation, let them know that they are important enough for your to study and research the best possible situation for them.  Since they feel you have confidently responded earlier that you understand their needs, most people will greatly appreciate a well thought out plan, and not a quick answer. Stay away from quick answers! They hurt your reputation and your relationship.

#2~ Take some time to teach! If you feel that the problem is only developed partially, and my have additionally areas that will be affected, take the time to explain additional considerations, ideas, thoughts, and possible limitations that might pose a problem to the solution.

#3~ Take the time to come up with examples they relay your thoughts! Have some ideas on hand that can be expressed in tangible ways.  Sometimes words can get muddled, but people understand real life situations or examples. Have a few to spare.

#4~ Don't give away too much info. It's scary, and un-necessary.  Be careful that they don't find you intimidating and run for the hills.

#5~ When in doubt, hold your fire!  The less you say about a concept or a thought you haven't fully considered, the wiser you appear.  The wiser you appear, the wiser you are.  Don't speak before your think.

Be honest with your listener that this is your standard of business, and what they can set for you as an expectation.  It drives the ball home, and hopefully the project, too!

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Tried & True...

We've all heard it said that if something's not broke, don't fix it.  This works fine, I suppose, if you are a repairman. If you are the creative type, you realize that this could be quite boring and ritualistic to your marketing, and before long you will get lost in monotony.  So what's the solution?  A little bit of new and a little bit of familiar married together!  By this, I am referring to Card Marketing!

Who doesn't love to get a card! WE all enjoy this from time to time. We send cards for occasions to the people we care most about.  Why not incorporate this into your marketing blueprint!  Reach out and touch someone!  By integrating commonly accepted and classic marketing methods that work into new media marketing and Social Media Marketing, you have a well diversified marketing plan, and you certainly won't saturate your audience with the same old thing...

Hyrum W. Smith, a world class public speaker talks about four basics needs that feed all of our activities in life. They are to love or be loved, to live, to feel important, and last but not least: Variety!  Variety, being a need and all, should be a motivator for a balanced approach to reaching your audience! Let them be touched in a familiar way... Incorporate something old, something new, something borrowed, and something tried and true to make your marketing consistent, effective, and steadfast for years to come...

Here are my TOP 3 favorite tools that let you use card marketing in a new media environment...
1. My first and favorite is: Send Out Cards!  This program even let's you record your own signature and handwriting font! You can upload pictures, create QR codes, and they stamp and mail it for you! You can even send gift cards and home baked goods like brownies! Amazing and Personal
2. Bluebird Cards - Very similar to Send Out Cards, but less features! Same idea as above, but the personalized touches are limited.  The real draw here is the pricing is very reasonable compared to other options.
3. Snapfish - If you don't mind mailing and stamping, Snapfish is a great way to send a personalized greeting card.  A little bit goes a long way!

Cards can be a powerful tool in your marketing.  Don't neglect the power they have to increase revenue and favorability.  This can be the difference between being a cut above your competition!

Why Having an Expert Makes the Difference

 

Recently, a new client called me into their business to clean-up remnants of a database implementation gone wrong.  I might mention that they shopped me first, determined I cost to much, and hired a general IT firm.  Now, I am not saying anything negative about IT firms, I need them as much as they need me in a perfect network LAN setup situation, but what I am saying is: Don’t let a general doctor perform your heart surgery! That’s just asking for trouble!

After peeking into the situation, and seeing all 30+ databases that were created during the troubleshooting process, it reminded me of why I specialize in particular areas of expertise.  Here are three things that I need to remind my clients and prospects of when price is a factor:

1. What I can do in 3 hours as a product expert, others probably will have to multiply by 5. In the end, how much money did you save?  Not only did you spend your time, but they spent theirs trying to solve problems they didn’t really have a complete and total understanding, grasp, and full scenario of possibilities.  A product expert that knows the ins and outs of the product will be able to leverage different aspects of the software that most other professionals miss, or fail to completely develop thesis on.  Sometimes their solutions create the need for other solutions. Sometimes their solutions create other problems to be solved as well.

2. What happens when they cannot fix a problem is: You are paying for me anyway.  That has to really hurt.  When you shop someone, go with the lowest price, and then you have to pay the firm you hired for their time, and the person you could have hired from the beginning to fix the mess.  Can you imagine all the time and money saved had you just done what needed to be done in the first place. Moral is: Go with Experience! It is the only truth that can be trusted.

3. Trust your IT firm to provide you references for professionals/experts they have worked with. Your IT firm is your trusted advisor, your intermediary.  A good IT firm will refer you to who you can work with when they realize and understand the extent of their own expertise.  They will steer you in the right direction and save you money by bringing in partners or experts in what you are trying to do.  If they don’t, find a new firm.  You are no one’s Guinea pig. Don’t allow yourself to be treated that way.

Having and expert makes a difference because it saves you time, energy, and money.  They all combined equate to success…

What the Experts Know…

Recently I was called in to work with an IT firm who was trying to implement and troubleshoot issues with a LAN based CRM solution that I support.  When I got on-site, the flustered and frustrated technician told me through angry tears that he had exhausted all his resources: time, technique, and treasure. In the end he lost money on this deal, and he was losing his rapport with the client by the minute.
After assessing the situation, diagnosing the problem, and setting up a plan to solve it, relief immediately overcame him.  I was glad to facilitate this, but it also reminded me of 3 important lessons I learned early on in my career.
1. Always have a plan before starting any engagement with a client.  If you are not an expert in what they are asking you to do, it’s best to evaluate how much time you can spend figuring it out versus paying someone who knows how to do it, in order to prevent you from losing money. If you are not profitable, you will not stay in business.
2. Set the expectations for the client (this is why the plan is PARAMOUNT). If you can explain to the client before hand what steps need to be taken, they will trust you as you walk through the steps with them, and they will likely go with what you determine as situations progress.  People want to know that what you say will be, especially when dealing with their livelihood and business processes. Set the expectations and follow-through with them as described.
3. Develop partnerships: If you are not an expert, work with experts. Partnerships will make you a lot of profit because they save you time.  It is important to remember that time is worth more than your hourly rate! When you think about it from this perspective, can you really afford to sell it for cheap?
Being and all hands technical expert can take you very far, but it limits your ability to get really good at any one certain thing.  Assess your abilities: strengths and weaknesses, and grow your clients in light of them… This is what the experts know will bring them the greatest success all the way around.

To Drip or Not to Drip... That is the Question

In my previous post about the power of perpetual touch we talked about what is a drip marketing technique and why it is an important part of cultivating relationships for business.  To expand on the idea that perpetual touch is important, I wanted to cultivate and explain the difference between a good drip, and a bad drip.  As I explained in that article, it is not enough to simply touch someone, they have to desire your attention.  So what are some good ways to drip, and some not so good methods you ask? Here are my top five:

Top 5 good drip marketing tips:

1. Always ask them first!  This is especially important with email marketing, and does not relate as much to Social Media touching and direct mail!  Permission is key, email is private and personal to many of your recipients. The very first bad way to ruin your impression is to send them something they don't want!
2. Be authentic! If you think about business all the time, it is OK to post about business, however, you will tire your audience! They want to know that you are well rounded! Keep your posts centered around who you are. Get a little personal by sharing your values and your humor! They will connect with it.
3. Show up for every meal you are invited to! If you know what they want and need, give it to them and show up on time. There is nothing worst than getting someone to give you access to their trust, and under delivering what they expect you to know and offer them. 
4. Send cards! People love them and they go a long way, especially if they are hand written!
5. Be spontaneous!  As much as you can try to stick with a blueprint of how you want to touch your audience based on information you have gathered about them, but don't hold tight and fast to this.  Spontaneous and unprompted reach can be very compelling. Follow your promptings! If you think of them, send them a note!  This always translates into a language they receive!

Top 5 bad drip marketing tips:

1. Don't: Send them everything you got! If they don't care about this service, product, or event, don't bully them with information about it.
2. Don't: Forget their interests, important occasions, and technical aptitude! If they give you a birthday, remember it! If they don't tweet, don't invite them to connect on twitter! If they want to learn about email marketing, don't teach them about widgets!  You know longer look like a person who wants to help, but like a person who wants to sell!
3. Don't: Send them a letter you send to everyone else. Be careful of form letters! They look very impersonal and usually get trashed.
4. Don't: Show up for every meal! Don't overstate & over saturate them with your presence! People like seeing you, but if they see you too much, they will certainly get bored with your content. Listen better than you talk. You will be received much better.
5. Don't: Get too personal! People care about your kid and the cute things they do, but they easily get tired of your opinions on all hot topics!  Have opinions, just respect the opinions of others more! Stay close to places where we all see eye to eye, relate, and understand with common ground.

Drip Marketing is not rocket science, but it is an art!  Be creative, courageous, and meaningful so all will value what you have to say, and how it affects them... beyond business, into every day life.

Drip Marketing... The Power of Perpetual Touch

I think that in most areas of life, we underestimate the power of touch.  With Valentine's Day on the horizon, it has never been more on the forefront of my mind.  Little things we do; physical, spiritual, intellectual. Our initiation makes a mark; it leaves and impression.  How much of an impression, we never know.  But we do know, don't we.

Drip Marketing is applying this principal to business. It is allowing the importance of touch, wanted and sometimes unwanted, to leave an impression.  Your strategy can be the difference in the impression you make.  It can make you or break you.  Some people say that it doesn't matter what people remember, as long as they remember.  I don't believe this to be true.  I think silence is golden, if the noise you make turns someone away.  This is where cultivating a strategy will serve you well. 

What is a Drip Marketing Strategy you ask?  It is simple.  It is the process of touching your audience by different methods for the purpose of building a solid and favorable impression.  It is the planning and organizing of the ways and means by which you touch them.  It is the understanding and recognition of their desired methods of touch, by means of studying and learning your pursuant.  It is the method by which you consistently seek relationship, friendship, engagement. 

Just like in all relationships, faithfulness, loyalty and perseverance is valued and savored in real authentic friendship.  Business is the cultivation of friendship for the benefit of commerce.  Apply principals of friendship to business and you will manifest loyalty every time.
Drip Marketing is a requirement for success.  If you are not doing it, you are surviving by luck.  Luck will only take you so far.  Strategic Relationship Cultivation will take you the rest of the way... Trust it...