As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a great fan of Seth Godin. I receive ~ and read ~ his blog post every day. Yes, he writes every day, sometimes on weekends! And they’re almost always thought-provoking. So are his books. In fact, I’m reading two right now: The Big Moo and Tribes.
Anyway, he wrote a post entitled “How to be a great client.” You can read the original if you want. What I’ve done is take poetic liberties and reframed, and in some cases re-languaged his points around the topic of “How to Be a Great Leader.” I hope you benefit from what I’ve done. Equally important, I hope Seth feels honored by what I’ve done. Thanks, Seth, for being such an inspiration!
As a leader, your job isn’t to be innovative. Your job is to foster innovation. Big difference.
Fostering innovation is a discipline, a profession in fact. It involves making difficult choices and causing important things to happen. That includes setting the tone and creating the culture in which it’s safe and people are encouraged to innovate and collaborate. Here are a few thoughts to get you started.
- Before you expect others to be disciplined, demonstrate you are disciplined yourself.
- Be honest about what success looks like, what your resources actually have, what’s needed, and how committed to doing what it takes (as long as it’s legal, ethical and moral.)
- If you can’t write down clear ground rules about which rules are firm and which can be broken on the path to a creative solution, how can you expect others to figure it out?
- Simplify the problem relentlessly, and be prepared to accept an elegant solution that satisfies the simplest problem you can describe.
- After you write down the ground rules, revise them to eliminate constraints that are only on the list because they’ve always been on the list.
- Hire the right people. Don’t ask a mason to paint your house. Part of your job is to find someone who is already in the sweet spot you’re looking for, or someone who is eager and able to get there.
- Be honest about resources. While false resource constraints may help you once or twice, the people you’re working with demand your respect, which includes telling them the truth.
- Pay as much as you need to to solve the problem, which might be more than you want to. If you pay less than that, you’ll end up wasting all your money. Why would a great innovator work cheap?
- Cede all issues of irrelevant personal taste to others. I don’t care if you hate the curves on the new logo. Just because you write the check doesn’t mean your personal aesthetic sense is relevant.
- Run interference. While innovation sometimes never arrives, more often it’s there but someone in your office killed it.
- Raise the bar. Over and over again, raise the bar. Impossible a week ago is not good enough. You want stuff that is impossible today, because as they say at Yoyodyne, the future begins tomorrow.
- When you find a faux innovator, leader, or team player run. Don’t stick with someone who doesn’t deserve the hard work you’re doing to clear a path.
- Celebrate the innovator. Sure, you deserve a ton of credit. But you’ll attract more innovators and do even better work next time if innovators understand how much they benefit from working with you.
What do you think? Are you inspired and ready to lead, to empower others, and to create an environment that fosters innovation? I hope so. Your company’s life depends on it!
December 16th, 2009
I immediately bought the book and signed up for Tim’s e-course I receive via emails.
Today’s issue #29 was exactly what I needed to read today. By the time I got his email, I had created the draft of a PowerPoint presentation for a project I’m working on for a client, I had a meeting with him while taking my morning walk, I wrote another blog post, read and when appropriate answered about 40 emails, and discovered about 10 new sources of knowledge and expertise I’ll explore after I finish this post.
Yet, even having done all that before noon, I felt pushed and pressured by myself to do more faster. Then I read Tim’s advice. I found what he had to say so helpful I wanted to share it with you… I know I am in good company with others like myself 
Here’s what Tim shared:
Making your life a direct expression of your purpose is the most fulfilling and rewarding choice. It is also something that doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time to make an orderly transition from how you are currently living to a new, purpose-centered life.
This may or may not involve changes in profession or other life circumstances. Remember, a purpose isn’t a job, a job is an expression of a purpose.
Living fully from purpose requires consistently making purpose-based choices. More on that in a later issue.
There are a couple of significant disadvantages to this strategy. The most common problem people face with this approach is fear of the unknown. They imagine that they will be unable to support themselves, that people they love will reject them, or any of a number of other fears. These fears rarely come to pass, but the imagination of them can deter people in their movement towards manifesting their purpose.
The other “problem” is an interesting one. Moving towards your purpose tends to increase the amount of serendipity and synchronicity in your life: people show up to help you and things that you imagine will be difficult become easy. This creates a feeling of “acceleration” which can be both exhilarating and nerve-wracking.
Of course, it’s hard to imagine a better problem to have: the question becomes, how much exhilaration, meaning, passion, and success can you tolerate? It seems like a silly question, but it really isn’t. I often find myself “hitting the brakes” a little bit to keep the rapid progress towards my purpose at a rate I can manage.
Copyright © 2003-2009 Timothy A. Kelley. All rights reserved. “Know Your Purpose” and “Purpose Hunting” are trademarks of Timothy A. Kelley
Back to my thoughts…
I’m wondering if Tim’s perspective was helpful to you. If so, how specifically?
Equally important, how do you manage the pace you operate at because you’re driven by your passion ?
Please share as I know we are in good company and what’s working for you may help me and others, too.
Thanks in advance for your comments!
Tags: Become an Expert, Information Marketing, Information Products, Internet Marketing, Marketing for Professionals, Professionals
December 15th, 2009
I just got an email from ??? Can’t even tell you at the moment. Whatever they said, whatever they offered, I nibbled, I bit, I got hooked.
They did everything right including thanking me for taking action. On the thank you page was a list of related resources. Many looked interesting and valuable and free. So I selected the ones most relevant for me. Here’s what I discovered…
All are by different authors. How do I know? I got emails from the different authors - the double opt-in type. Each therefore had a link for me to click to confirm I wanted what they were offering. I went to a different website for each information product I had selected. All were nice enough websites…
Some were offering additional products for a fee. Some now had me subscribed to a new newsletter.
And I now have access to lots of new informatin I said I wanted in the first place.
On one hand, I’m impressed with this strategy. A very cool approach in theory… All of this was professionally done. No complaints in that regard.
Here’s my growing concern as I get email after email offering more information. Not just the ones I mentioned above… From lots of other people ~ some I know, some I don’t and have no idea how they got my name in the first place (whether the info they’re offering is valuable or not…)
I’m on information overload – not so much the information itself, mind you. I love learning new stuff. The world’s changing so fast, I’m grateful there are so many people out there keeping up with this aspect or that, and are offering to let me in on their secret.
Free or fee, receiving access to all this information isn’t the problem.
It’s the time involved with reading the original email, clicking, entering my info, getting opt-in email, clicking, either waiting for next email or getting immediate access to the resource – which I usually have to save as I’m not in the stop and read mode.
I know I’m not alone. How are you dealing with it on the receiving end? Deleting? Unsubscribing?
Here’s my BIGGER question:
What if you’re a consultant wanting to serve more people and make more money? What’s a consultant to do to stand out in a noisy and crowded marketplace?
Any ideas? I sure would love to hear from you!
Woops, I just left myself wide open to get yet another bunch of new emails offering me yet another bunch of new information products or services promising to solve this problem or that.
What’s a girl to do?
More important, what’s a consultant to do?
Tags: Become an Expert, Email marketing, Information Marketing, Internet Marketing, Marketing for Consultants, Marketing for Professionals
December 14th, 2009
I just got back from a two-day seminar on Internet Marketing. Armand Morin was amazing. He talked non-stop, except for breaks, of course, for both days.
Needless to say, I learned a great deal. Some you’ll be hearing about in future blogs and articles. I also met dynamic, exciting people.
The single most important benefit to me: I’ve shattered another myth in my Marketing Resistance Syndrome, one of the biggest obstacles to my success. Maybe you can relate, and more important, hopefully you, too, can banish this “Success Thief” from your mind forever!
I LOVE what I do. I talk about it, read about it, listen, watch, think about it. My ‘IT’ is helping consultants turn their expertise into gold by becoming known as a VIP with VIP ~ a Very Important Person with Valuable Intellectual Property. If you’re a consultant, you want the perks that go along with being known as an expert in your field, don’t you?
What’s your “IT”? As you read the rest of this post, imagine you’re holding your “IT” and the people you LOVE to serve in the center of your heart. That’s where they are already, isn’t it?
Back to my story… Here I am, sitting in a room filled with “Internet Marketers.” I wish there were a way to spell that in four letters because that’s how I used to think of them — emails, newsletters, links, opt-in pages, downloads ~ information overload. And what are they promoting and selling? Information products, often not even their own. Why? To make the thousands of dollars a day they advertise you, too, can make, or the pounds of weight you can lose, if you buy whatever they’re selling. Sound familiar? Yuck!
Well, after a slow start, I found myself typing away as fast as I could. Why?
Armand said something so important. He only said it once, and I could have missed it if I weren’t listening VERY closely.
His examples for how to use this technique and that to promote and sell products were always his or someone else’s product that would help the Internet marketer succeed.
Before I quote Armand, I want to tell you something I learned at T. Harv Eker’s Train-the-Trainer as well as from many others who coach and teach about creating, promoting, and selling information products.
We MUST package our expertise into Valuable Intellectual Property, also known as Valuable Information Products. Sure, there are many benefits to us.
We’ll get to those in a moment.
More important, let’s take a look at how our clients and prospective clients benefit when we turn our knowledge, experience, and wisdom into something tangible, something they can hold in their hand or download, something they can take home with them, or discover sitting comfortably in their favorite chair.
People are hungry for information. Not just any information. Specific information on something they’re passionate about, curious about, maybe they just need to know. It doesn’t matter if it’s related to their work or personal life, their hobby or a community project. They’re searching and more and more, they’re searching online. How do you think Google stays #1 on the Internet?
And some of them are searching for what you know! They have a problem they want to solve, a pain they want to avoid or eliminate, a pleasure they’re seeking, or maybe it’s a question they want answered. And they’re actively looking for “IT”!
You can make their day! You said you were PASSIONATE about “IT”, didn’t you? You want to share your passion with others, don’t you?
Guess what?
You owe it to these people to share your expertise with them! From their perspective, you’re being selfish if you don’t. Did you ever consider that? And once they find you, they want to stay connected, to learn more, to be encouraged, to be shown how step by step. They need you!
So write it, say it, demonstrate it, and while you’re at it, record it. Turn it into a blog post or article, an audio or video podcast, post it to YouTube, Tweet it, share it with your Facebook friends and fans. It doesn’t matter if it’s a book, a song, a product, a program or a service.. It could be physical or digital. There are advantages to both, so why not do both. You can give it away for free or sell it. The important thing is share it!
Share it with the world so those who are looking for you can quickly and easily find you and benefit from your expertise, your perspective, your wisdom and knowledge. There’s only one you. You’re the only you that ever was, is, and will be! YOU have the perfect message, the perfect story, the perfect answer for someone, for the many someones who are looking for YOU right now! Start spreading the word to the world so those who want to be in YOUR world can find, and get to know, like, and trust you.
People do business with those they know, like, and trust. That’s how you benefit! According to Milgram’s law, the marketplace will blindly believe the words of an expert. So you must be perceived as an expert. To be perceived as an expert, you must be more visible to more people who then have the opportunity to realize you are credible and valuable. That’s how you become more profitable and get all the other perks of being known as an expert in your field. How cool is that!
Back to Armand and that one thing he said that changed my world, and I hope changes yours.
“What’s better than using all the techniques Armand covered, and all the ones he didn’t cover, to promote, distribute, and yes, even sell other people’s products, programs, and services? Create, promote, distribute, and yes, even sell your own!”
Thank you, Armand!
Does that make you an Internet Marketer? Or are you still you, being passionate about what you do, using the Internet to help you become more visible, credible, and valuable to those who want to find you because you are passionate about what you do? Here’s the bottom line…
Whether you’re doing business around the corner or around the world, you owe it to the people who need you and are searching for you to take your message to YOUR World. It’s time for you to become a VIP with VIP!
Tags: Become an Expert, Information Marketing, Information Products, Internet Marketing, Marketing for Consultants, Marketing Resistance Syndrome, Professionals, VIP with VIP
December 7th, 2009
So you want to be well seen, well known, and well paid for doing what you know and love to do, right?
Maybe you call yourself a professional, maybe a consultant, maybe both.
Anyone can declare the same. All you need is some qualifications: experience, credentials, a degree (not necessarily related to what you’re doing now.)
More and more people are doing just that as they are laid off.
That means you’re swimming in a crowded Red Ocean of competition. There are many consequences of playing in this arena. Consultants chase business, winning clients is more difficult, and your piece of the pie is smaller. People want to bargain with you about your fee. You end up customizing what you offer for new clients. You know the drill.
What’s the alternative?
Swim out into a Blue Ocean. In fact, you can create your own Blue Ocean where you become known as an expert in your field. You get treated as a VIP, with all the perks. Business chases experts. People trust experts because they’re known as experts. Experts get to charge more, and people don’t expect a bargain.
Here’s the thing. While anyone can be self-declared professional or consultant, you can’t declare yourself an expert. Well, you can. Without much in your court that validates your declaration, I’m just not sure how credible others will find it.
What does it take to truly be recognized as an expert? Others need to say it’s so. Your clients, peers and experts in your field, the media, people with authority deem you an expert.
How do you win their endorsement? How do you become more visible, credible, valuable and, eventually, you become more profitable?
Have you ever heard of Milgram’s Law? The marketplace will blindly believe the words of an expert. You must be perceived as an expert.
Who’s an expert? Milgram says it’s someone who’s an author. While an author does have instant credibility, I believe today we have other options.
You can become a VIP with VIP ~ a Very Important Person with Valuable Intellectual Property. Turn your expertise into physical, tangible information products. It can be text, audio, video or multi-media. It can be physical or digital. You can offer it for free or a fee. There are many other criteria by which you can describe your Valuable Information Products. The important thing is that they exist. The evidence of your expertise then speaks for itself.
So what’s a consultant to do? Click here to discover 10 Blue Ocean Strategies I propose you implement to transform yourself into an expert in your field.
Here’s the thing. While it takes only a moment to read each strategy, becoming known as an expert isn’t instant pudding. You’ll need to invest time, energy, expertise, and maybe some money to implement each. Do consider working with someone who’s an expert at turning consultants into experts and expertise into Valuable Intellectual Property. You’ll achieve the coveted status more quickly and easily, with less wasted resources, than if you make the journey on your own. I’m here ready to extend a helping hand. All you need to do is ask.
The rewards of being known as an expert in your field is well worth the effort it’s going to take to get there. It’s the quality of your journey as much as the destination, so as you take one step after the other, remember to do so with a joyful heart. “Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down in the most delightful way.” If it’s got to be done, make it fun. Your vibration serves as a homing beacon. You attract what you vibrate in harmony with. You get what you put your attention on whether it’s what you want or don’t want.
So keep your eyes on the prize ~ you being known as an expert in your field and enjoying the perks that come with the status.
Tags: Become an Expert, Information Marketing, Information Products, Marketing for Consultants, Marketing for Professionals, VIP with VIP
December 4th, 2009
I’m still reading Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. My business partner and friend, Russ, had been recommending it for a while now. I’m glad I am. It’s one of those pivotal books for me.My dear friend and business partner, Russell Cox, has been talking about Blue Ocean Strategies for some time. He brought it up again during a recent conversation with Rick Hadsock, the third in our team.
What’s a Blue Ocean and why is it important to you and me? “Blue oceans are defined by unknown, and therefore, untapped market space, demand creation, and the opportunity for highly profitable growth.”
This is compared with Red Oceans which represent all industries in existence today in which “industry boundaries are defined and accepted, and the competitive rules of the game are known. Here, companies try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share of existing demand. As the market space gets crowded, prospects profits and growth are reduced. Products become commodities, and cutthroat competition turns the red ocean bloody.
“Although some blue oceans are created well beyond existing industry boundaries, most are created from within red oceans by expanding existing industry boundaries. In blue oceans, competition is irrelevant because the rules are waiting to be set.
“It will always be important to swim successfully in the red ocean by outcompeting rivals. Red oceans will always matter and will always be a fact of business life. But with supply exceeding demand in more industries, competing for a share of contracting markets, while necessary, will not be sufficient to sustain high performance. Companies need to go beyond competing. To seize new profits and growth opportunities, they also need to create blue oceans.”
If you want to learn more without (or before) reading the book, click on this link. You’ll be taken to a website from which you can download files about Blue Ocean Strategy ~ a few summary slide presentations,
The best files start with Blue Ocean Strategy. Start with them.
Enjoy and happy sailing!
Tags: Become an Expert, Information Marketing, Marketing for Consultants
December 3rd, 2009
Once again Patricia Weber offers excellent suggestions in her blog post, How to Prevent Your Business from Death on the Vine.
Below you’ll find her original post with my comments in italic wherever I insert them.
In times of plenty, when there is more certainty and confidence, businesses may have the luxury of customers or clients showing up on their front door step. These are not necessarily those times for many businesses. But just because there’s no crowd at your front door right now, you must continue to bring people to that door step.
1- Maintain a focus on your prospective client’s problem or pain. Even difficult economic times are NOT about you. In sales and marketing, it is always about the customer. What is your customers most prevalent problem? What do they want to avoid or what do they want to get? Keep that at the heart of your message.
When you talk to your prospects, focus on the results you will deliver to your customers and how they’ll benefit from those results. Another way to think of it is, “How will working with you improve the quality of your customer’s business and their life.
2- Plan to drip on your prospects. Tougher economic times usually can mean longer decision making cycles. You must plan to follow-up more than before. Before what? Well, before the internet. The International Marketing Association reported an average of 6 contacts with a prospect before they moved through the “know, like, trust” cycle to buy. With the onslaught of television, radio, direct marketing, and internet advertising, the time line is now between 6 and 21 times.
I’ve heard many times that many a successful person will actually say ‘no’ the first time or two just to see if you are confident enough to follow-up again.
Once you’re conversing with your prospect, consider ‘no’ as a request for more information. And when you deliver, tell them ‘what’ and ‘why.’ Remember to save telling someone about the ‘how’ for after you’ve been hired.
3- Drip with purpose. Business graveyards fill up quickly without purpose because, people aren’t interested in you! Plan to be systematic with reasons that prove you were listening to them. Something personal like a birthday, something that shows you were listening, like their interest in red wines, fine valid business reasons that are purposeful in connecting.
What are you finding is working to keep your company, your business, alive as the economy in general continues to remain stuck in many areas of the world?
Thanks, Pat for reminding us that we can contact a prospect or a customer for either personal or professional reasons. The purpose of staying in touch is to let them know you care. You’re building relationship. You’re helping them get to know, like, and trust you, so when they’re ready to buy, you’re who they want to do business with.
So drip, drip, drip with a purpose. And enjoy watching your business flow.
November 9th, 2009
I’ve been a Success Coach for over 15 years. One thing I’ve learned is that Success is personal. Only you can define what success means to you. Why is it so important for you to define YOUR success? Imagine your success is atop a very high and rugged mountain. You want your journey to be fulfilling and joyful, right? That means you’ve got to be climbing the right mountain.
I’ll tell you from personal experience, if you’re journeying up the wrong one, someone else’s for whatever reason, you’ll work at least as long and hard. And even if you end up on the top of the mountain, neither the journey or destination will be as satisfying.
One more thing before you roll up your sleeves, open your heart and mind to your heart’s desire, and discover what’s really important to you, consider gathering more than a pencil as Curtis suggests. If you’ve got colored pens, pencils, crayons, markers and/or highlighters, use them. They’ll engage your Inner Child. Engaging this part of you in this process will give you results that will be richer, more authentic, more aligned with your Higher Self.
So, create a safe and quiet space, a chunk of time when you will be free and focused. And have fun!
And now, onto the next leg of your journey to success in business and in life with Curtis.
I was reading a magazine that had a very interesting exercise that will takes about 5 minutes to complete. I wanted to share it with you if you can spear a few minutes. I’m sure you will find it very interesting since it is about YOU!
You will need a piece of paper, pencil and your honesty. Draw a circle on the middle of the page and write down the word Success. Then draw five arrows for what success means to you.
At the end of the five arrows, write another word or phrase: good health or a million dollars in the bank, whatever. Then extend five more arrows from those five and come up with five more words from each.
This exercise leaves you with more than 30 succinct clues to what drives You, entice You, attract You.
You may notice that your priorities are different than your thought. It doesn’t mean you’ll be less successful. But it definitely gives your success more significance and a sense of fulfillment and a passion You never felt before.
Once you make Your list, ask Yourself: Why will these things make me successful and -or happy? And how do I achieve them? If you engage in “deep reflection you will find the answers.
~ Curtis and Valerie Robert
Successful entrepreneurs, real estate investors and sales professionals
Created a self-help program to “Learn How to Escape Procrastination, Lack of Focus and Increase Your Potential in 40 Day Program …Guaranteed!” which has help them to be successful in theirs own lives over the last 20 years. They use all the techniques they share with you everyday. What we share and teach is from our own experiences.
We are offering our complete program (Goal Getter Guide and Workbook) to the first 25 people to order for $59 (a $139.95 value) for a limited time only plus shipping and handling. To order Search Facebook 40 DAY GROUP or to learn more about our FREE group!
November 9th, 2009
I just read a post by Nancy Marmolejo, from Viva Visibility. She was writing about how the Twitter airways are getting cluttered with people pitching their wares instead of using Twitter the way many prefer ~ to connect with others.
Here’s my comment to her post.
Nancy, I’ve heard people complain about the other end of the spectrum… reading tweets about what they’re having for lunch, where they’ve been or are going. That, too, is cluttering the tweet airways. I think the challenge of finding a meaningful mid-ground is a challenge facing many of us in all forms of media as we transition from the traditional forms of marketing ~ expensive, mass-media, push, interrupt, shotgun approaches ~ to ones that build relationships ~ where we get to know, like, and trust each other, where we’re we’re able to personalize and target our messages.
In other words, we’re evolving right before our very eyes. We need connection, communication, collaboration. We crave it. We speak words of cooperation and collaboration. We believe in what we’re saying. And we’re searching for models of what they look like and sound like. I believe we’re talking about a change in consciousness and that takes awareness, intention, and a desire to discover new ways.
Thanks for leading by example and encouraging us to do the same.
So, you’re gaining an understanding of what people want and an awareness of where you are in the continuum. That’s the place we all have to start.
Now take a deep breath, and accept what you’ve done in the past ~ good, bad, whatever! The past is gone and spending time criticizing yourself, let alone beating yourself up about it, does more harm than good. I’d mastered those skills a long time ago, and trust me, they don’t produce the desired outcome..
I’m discovering that I need to become more aware, to accept where I am, to affirm where I’m going, and especially to treat myself lovingly, gently, and with respect. Isn’t that how we want others to treat us? Isn’t that how we’d ideally like to treat others? And oh, by the way, that’s the same way people need to treat each other in the spirit of conscious collaboration.
~ The Energizer Bonnie
November 7th, 2009
You want to serve more people, more businesses and organizations, right? You want to be more profitable, too, don’t you? You’re paying attention to what’s going on in the world around you to know one way to become more visible and credible to more people is to become a Social Media Marketer.
My business partner and I identified significant differences between Social Media Marketing (SMM,) a relatively new method of becoming well seen and well known that’s evolved because of Web 2.0, and traditional marketing, specifically advertising.
We also realized many people believe in a difference that’s really a myth: while traditional advertising is expensive, SMM is free or nearly so.
The first statement is still true. I hope as you read this article, you come to agree with the growing number of people who are discovering the second statement is a myth.
Why is advertising through traditional media channels expensive? You’re paying for everything that goes into creating and delivering your message.
Let’s say you want a print ad in a newspaper, magazine, or the Yellow Pages. You pay for the ad. Then, especially in the “the good old days” before technology empowered so many the ability to create print-ready ads, the media organization’s experts do what needs to be done to create and modify copy, graphics and layout until your ad is ready for printing. They help you decide where and when to place the ad. Then they take care of printing and distributing the media in which your ad appears.
All the people who contributed their area of expertise are paid by the media organization. That’s why advertising through traditional media channels is so expensive.
Guess who really pays all these experts? You!
That’s why while the experts are doing their thing, you’re doing whatever you do to make the money to pay for your ad.
Now let’s take a quick look at what’s involved in social media marketing. I’ll bet you’ve heard that many channels for SMM, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, a blog, ezine, and such, are free or almost. From one perspective, that’s true.
You can do the research to choose which platform to use and why. You can take a free class, listen to a free recording, or watch a free video to learn how to do what you need to do. You can get a free page in most social networks, create your own profile, upload your own picture, invite and accept invitations. You can get a free blog, and start your own ezine.
Now who’s got to have the expertise in all the above mentioned areas? Now who’s got to have the time, skill, and know-how to research and develop all that expertise? You!
You could do it all, if you had the time, tools, technology, talent, expertise and inclination… And if you truly believe you could do it all for free.
I’ve tried to do it all. So have many others. Have you?
Here’s what I’ve discovered. I don’t have the time, the inclination, nor the expertise to do it while I make a living and have a life.
So what have I decided to do?
I get experts to handle technology and graphics, especially because these often need to get done only once. And I get experts to train me.
Who pays for that? I do!
What happened to free? There is no such thing as a free lunch. And no matter what some want you to believe, Social Media Marketing isn’t instant pudding.
Is Social Media Marketing worth it? I think so. So do millions of others. Why?
Social Media Marketing is still one of the best deals in town, especially compared to the cost of traditional advertising. In fact, now that I’m up and running, SMM is free, or almost.
I do have to continue to invest my time and energy if I want results.
I’ve still got to learn how to use the social media I’ve selected, identify my target marketing, niche, and ideal client; create and distribute my message, and share my expertise with those who want and need it.
You’re ready to become the right person sharing the right message with the right people in the right time in the right way. That’s how you become known as an expert in your field. And that’s the quickest way to become more visible and credible so you can serve more people and become more profitable.
And that’s what you said you wanted in the first place, isn’t it?
So roll up your sleeves, gather your resources, and do what you must to get started. Craft and implement your Social Media Marketing (SMM) strategy and plan. Identify your ideal clients. Design your Irresistible Offer and Call-to-Action messages. Choose the best media channels to reach them. Decide what to outsource and what you’ll do yourself.
Then “just do it.” Be willing to learn by doing and learn in public. Repeat what works; modify or stop what doesn’t, and try something else.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, if you’re suffering from Marketing Resistance Syndrome, if you don’t know where to start or what to do next, there are people all around you who are ready to help as you learn how to swim. And as a trained lifeguard, I’m here for you.
So come on in. The water’s fine.
Tags: Social Media Marketing, Web 2.0
November 4th, 2009
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