The Marketing Message Blog

Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Here's a post I wrote in 2006 that I wanted to reprise. It's related to how resistance can prevent you from what Seth Godin refers to as 'shipping' in his great new book Linchpin:

I just finished Steven Pressfield's pocketbook called "The War of Art." (See Required Reading.)  This slim volume is very powerful and is a must-read for all small business owners. From hard-fought experience, he concludes that there is one thing that prevents people from achieving their dreams.  He calls it 'resistance.' 

You feel resistance as fear, envy, negative self-talk and 'helpful' comments from 'friends.'  Essentially, to overcome resistance, you need to follow your own intuition and fight against what you perceive as reasons not to.  I know upon reading this, that you will instantly think of five reasons why you shouldn't try a new business idea or product.  In fact, most of them are reasonable.  They may not be true, but they are reasonable. That's resistance.

Many small business owners lurch from fad to fad only to be disappointed when they realize that no one can dictate the one right 'magic bullet' for you.  You need to do the hard work of developing a strategy.  I use MindMaps to develop strategies for my small business clients.  I recommend this tactic to you. 

First, start by reading the book above and then sit down and create a MindMap of your business strategy.  The map will provide tangible evidence that your plan is right for you, regardless of what others say.  That's a good feeling when you're leading a parade of one.

Beware of One-Size-Fits-All Marketing Advice

One online business issue that I'm concerned about these days is that small business owners may not be getting the right marketing advice SPECIFIC to their business.  No matter who advises you or how much you pay for marketing, the advice is useless unless it solves your company's problems. 

As I listen to the stories that customers tell me about previous advice they've received, I've begun to realize that a lot of it is good general advice about online tactics, but it isn't worth much to someone who doesn't have that challenge.  Unfortunately, an advisor may not know how to apply real world thinking to abstract concepts. If they know how to grow a mailing list, that's the advice you get whether or not you have that problem.

For example, a local business doesn't need to gin up traffic from around the web unless she is focusing on broadening her offerings.  Someone who has an extensive mailing list doesn't need to focus on growing that as their first step, they need to look at how to convert more.

It's not my intention to criticize anyone, it's just to alert small business owners to make sure that when they hire an online advisor of any kind that they get measureable advice that relates specifically to their business. One size never fits all.

Taking Leadership Seriously —Triiibes.com

I've been reflecting about online communities and what they represent. I have helped my customers create them and have joined a few others as a member.  I recently joined Triiibes.com started by Seth Godin and the experience has been wonderfully eye-opening.  He takes leadership seriously.

In his post called "When in doubt, (don't) follow the money" Seth said "I smiled a bit when I saw a few posts from people who suggested I started the Triibe group as some sort of grand scheme to sell books." 

As a long-time marketer I have to smile as well.  No one sets out to create a real community with their heart and soul as a "promotion."  A community takes work to build.  If you want something wonderful and sustainable you have to put effort in to shape it and nuture it.  It's not something you do to earn money. 

My concern is that social networking groups have given participants the idea that a real online community should be a free-for-all.  To build a real group it takes leadership and vision.  Slackers need not apply.

Priorities— Your Way

In my previous post for the new year, I talked about asking the right questions. The second part of that is setting the right priorities.  I'm sure you've read about a million different ways to prioritize your work lists.  But there is a key part of that which is usually overlooked.  That's what I want to write about today— defining priorities your way.  That makes all the difference to a small business owner or anyone who has responsibility for the bottom line.  Let's look at the components of this. 

First you have to have a way to rank priorities.  I use this method but if you have a preferred method use that.

I determine whether it is: 1-Important and urgent; 2-Important not urgent; 3-Unimportant and urgent ; 4-Unimportant not urgent and I write the number next to the item on the list.  Then I put them in order by number and that should do it, right?  WRONG! 

What I haven't done is redefine what those categories mean to me at this moment in 2008. What is truly important?  Is it what your staff thinks?  Is it what your accountant thinks?  Or have you thought it through to the point where it really is what you think. The key to moving your business forward is acting on what you know to be important to you and your business and not what's standing outside your door at any given moment.  This is deceptively simple. You think you know what's important to you, but given the explosion of social media and new ways to think about business, have your really developed your priorities?

Capturing the Right Questions: A Plan

Now is a great time to formulate the questions you need answered to grow your business.  As the old saying goes, "everyone is an expert when you ask the right question."  It's important to note that you ask yourself questions as you go through your businessday.  For example: "Why are these products moving faster than those products?" "Why do I seem to get sales concentrated in the morning hours?"  Yet, if I asked you what questions you want answered about your business, you'd probably not be aware of any.  That's why you need to capture them!  They'll never get answered if you don't write them down.

As you go through the work day, resolve to make a list of all the questions you ask yourself.  Carry this list around and don't be lazy about adding to it.  At the end of the week, look at the list and see what patterns emerge.  Are you asking lots of questions about packaging?  How about returns?  Prepare a new list with all the questions grouped in categories and set up a time to answer them.  But, can you answer them?  If not, you need to figure out what tools to put in place to capture the information.  Once you get proficient at capturing and answering these questions you'll be on the road to really growing your business.

The Power of Focus

At this time of the year, when everyone is ramping up for holiday sales and promotions I am reminded that the ability to focus is the one thing that separates the very successful from the wannabees. Well-known life coach Nido Qubein is quoted as saying, "nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all your energies on a limited set of targets."

I use a tool called Mind Maps to help me focus and plan.  You may have another tool that works for you.  The key to getting through all the clutter, emails, podcasts, videos and promotions that come your way is to simply decide what's important and only focus on that. 

Years ago I worked with a very successful entrepreneur who believed that his only skill was being able to concentrate on one goal while everyone else had a list of plans, strategies and objectives. He believed that if he accomplished that goal, all the others would fall into place. 

It may be counter-intuitive, but if you have a huge list of things to do, just pick the most important one and the rest will take care of themselves.

Taking Stock

It's Fall here in the U.S. and it's back to school and work.  The tempo picks up and everyone gets to look at their business with a fresh eye. Now is a good time to take a "big picture" look at your business goals. Are you meeting them? Have they changed significantly? Is your website content in line with what you're promoting now?

It's very likely that the answer is no. Everything related to the Web changes so fast that you could be hampering your business growth because you're not keeping up with what's going on around you. You don't want to be the gating factor to your own businesses growth. This month, make an effort to assess how likely you are to meet year end goals. There is still some time to effect change.

The 4-Hour Work Week

I don't usually recommend books whose titles include the word 'Rich', but I'll make an exception in this case.  Let me be one in a long line of many, who are recommending Timothy Ferriss' new book, "The Four Hour Work Week, Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich." 

It's a fun read with a serious message —Don't work just to keep busy and feel important!   We all know people who feel important because they are busy.  But are they?  They may be important in spite of the fact that they are harried with out-of-control schedules.

I've often thought that many of these people were bad time managers without specific goals.  Now thanks to Ferriss' book we can espouse that sentiment and rein in our 'crazy busy' behavior.

Thanks to Web 2.0, we can uncouple the workday from the hours of 9-5.  Most small business owners long for some breathing room so that they can simply THINK about their business.  Read Ferriss' book for some really great tips on how to redesign your business and your time.

When is Being Influential a Bad Thing?

According to the article in the NY Times, being influential can be a bad thing—at least when you're in a bad mood. Check out Sunny or Cloudy, Moods Cast an Influence in the Career Couch column by Phyllis Korkki.

It's not your imagination.  When you're in a bad mood or a good one, you influence those around you. Ms. Korkki notes, "in groups, people unconsciously tend to mimic the demeanor of those around them."   If you're a business owner, your negative tone could be sabotaging the creativity of your colleagues! 

When you are the chief promoter, strategy planner and content producer, you need to make sure you are leading your troops to victory. It's easy to obsess and focus on what's wrong to the exclusion of what you and others are doing right.   

The good news is, you can make negativity work for you when you have a killer deadline at hand.  Jennifer George at Rice University tells us that, "people in bad moods tend to be more realistic , more self critical and more attuned to detail."  So you can use a bad mood in a positive way if you work at it.  Nobody said management was easy.

How Info Products Unshackle the Free Agent

If you read Daniel Pink's great work, you know that he champions the role of the 'free agent.'  An article by Jeffrey Pfeffer in October 2006, Business 2.0 called, 'Why Free Agents Don't Feel Free' furthers this discussion.  It brings up what I believe to be an important point about how free agents, entrepreneurs and small business owners should approach their business.

If you trade hours for dollars, you are still limiting your ability to achieve a balanced lifestyle. Most business owners believe 'time is money' so they work very long hours in exchange for dollars. The missing ingredient is the ability to create passive revenue streams. Put another way, you have to create products that sell while you're not working.

I speak to many small business owners who don't want to create an info product because they believe it will be too much work. If you are an expert in your field, you live and breathe the content for an info product every day. And as for too much work, I think they are forgetting that they will be able to take time off while the product is working.

Think about what you can create. If you have an idea you want to share, don't hesitate to drop me a comment.