Month: September 2014

Everyone is as unique as their DNA, so how do we define who we are? Who in your life matters most?  What matters most?  What pisses you off?  What makes you totally happy?  How do you feel about money?  If you have kids, what activities do you enjoy doing with them?  What activities are they passionate about?  What are your favorite sports?  How do you feel about politics? Do you like to travel or stay home?  Do you enjoy art?  How about history?  What era?  Are you a religious person?  If so, what denomination?  What kind of music so you enjoy?  What are your favorite movies or TV shows?  What about food and beverage?  Do you like to cook and/or bake?  Do you like cars?  What organizations do you support/volunteer for?

If you could talk about anything with a group of people with a common interest, what are the top 3 topics you’d select?

Of all the items listed above, what are the absolute deal-breakers that stop a conversation before it starts? What are three more that you would be okay with, but wouldn’t participate because of a lack of knowledge?  When you cross off those 6 items, what’s left is a solid cross-section of you and your worldview.

Now go get connected and start some fun conversations.

You need food, clothing, shelter and money.  And you need to preserve all of them.  If they’re lost or damaged you don’t want to spend large sums of your own savings fixing or replacing anything.  

There are a plethora of brands out there providing very similar solutions for your needs.  How do you decide who to work with? 

 

You send out 1000 mailers to the general public per month but throw away your junk mail without reading it.

You call people at home to set appointments for your business but screen calls or hang up on people that call your residence.

You send electronic sales-related messages to your customers several times a week, but have an Outlook rule set up that directs all incoming SPAM to the trash folder.

You sponsor a local school or civil organization but refuse to associate with or promote them.

We’ve all been hypocrites at some point, some more than others.  The important question isn’t if we’ve been one, it’s how often we STILL consciously do it.

Everybody would be doing it.   Social media is great at making you FEEL like everybody IS doing it.  Everybody but you, that is.  The number of blogs, podcasts, and online platforms increases exponentially every day…as does the amount of information available on your mobile device—literally at your fingertips.

It’s easy for Chris Brogan, Gary Vaynerchuk,  Ann Handley, Seth Godin, and other influencers to post their thoughts for our reading pleasure, but how can you make something happen?

Forget about fomo.  You’re not as behind as you think.

The key is connecting with the right people, hearing the right message, filtering the right information, and creating a specific plan that leads your team to victory.  Not knowing where to start doesn’t mean you should sit on the sidelines, or worse, forfeit the game.

Until you break away from the traditional paradigms and best practices, you’ll never be able to create a new path forward.  Building and executing a plan aligned with the customer experience expectations of the next 20 years  is critical to success.   The part that’s holding you back is in the mirror.

Your opponent is YOU.

It’s possible for anyone to do who has the right attitude—who’s doing something they love that other people will pay for them to provide. That’s the key. Unfortunately, either they have the wrong attitude or they don’t have enough people who want or need what they provide.

Here’s the missing piece of the puzzle:  People will pay for an above-average product when delivered by someone who makes them feel special.  They won’t always pay for an exceptional product when delivered by someone that makes them feel average.