Marketing & Networking

Secrets of Successful Marketers

2010-05-05T20:44:00.000-07:00

The Secrets of Successful Networkers
How to be at the top of your game.
By Christel Wintels, Executive Director – BNI Golden Horseshoe Region, Canada

* Stand up for yourself. Be willing to stand up for your goals and beliefs. If you don’t, no one will. Good networkers, like strong leaders, have the courage of their convictions. They know what they value and consistently express those values. Let your contacts know you value them and the opportunities they represent for both of you, and they will be willing to follow your lead.

* Inspire others. We can’t force people to help us. We can’t order people to be part of our network or demand referrals from them. However, we can inspire them to achieve greater goals by working together to achieve them. Great networkers get a true sense of satisfaction from helping others be successful. If your network contacts think of you as a person who inspires them, they will look forward to working with you as often as possible. And, by convincing others they have the ability to achieve greater things, they will help you do the same.

* Take risks. Successful people are generally those who take risks to achieve their goals. Getting out of our comfort zones and meeting new people is risky. They may not like us, and no one likes rejection. But, if we don’t make new contacts and don’t develop those contacts, our businesses certainly won’t thrive as they could. They might even fail. At the least, when we’re willing to try new, uncomfortable methods to achieve greater success we are just as likely to succeed as fail.

* Be innovative. It goes hand in hand with taking risks. We need to be open to new ideas and new ways of doing things if we want to see a change in our success. Nothing stays the same - you can always count on things changing. Because it feels like our competition is increasing daily, we have to be willing to try different approaches to attract new business. The more people talk positively about your business, the more new customers and colleagues you’ll attract. Positive word-of-mouth impacts your bottom line directly. Make sure you’re creating it all the time, through all the people you know.

* Do it now. A sense of urgency separates superior networkers from average networkers. Waiting until tomorrow to make that call or follow up with one of your contacts leaves the door open for your competitor. A sense of urgency doesn’t mean that everything is an emergency. It means that you make the effort required to service your network contacts – now. If they get that level of attention from you, they will do the same for you.

Bootstrap Your Dot Com

2010-04-13T22:59:00.000-07:00

How To Make $1 Million Before You Graduate
Helen Coster and Melanie Lindner, 02.17.10, 06:00 PM EST
Valuable lessons from preternatural wealth builders.

In Pictures: How To Make $1 Million Before You Graduate

American philosopher Eric Hoffer said, "If a society is to preserve stability and a degree of continuity, it must know how to keep its adolescents from imposing their tastes, attitudes, values and fantasies on everyday life." Too bad Hoffer never met Jamie Murray Wells.

In 2004 while studying for final exams at University of the West of England, Wells, then age 21, went shopping for a pair of prescription glasses. Nonplussed by the $150 pound ($300) price tag, Wells decided to funnel his $2,000 student loan into what would become Glasses Direct, a London-based online retailer that now generates $5 million in annual revenue.

Wells is part of an elite club of preternatural wealth builders who managed to cobble million-dollar enterprises before they graduated from college. The "million-dollar" measure refers to either total revenue generated or the value of the enterprise built (as opposed to the size of the total profit pile). That's no mean feat for any entrepreneur, let alone one who can barely buy a drink legally in the States.

The nine entrepreneurs featured in our slideshow--six from the U.S. and three from the U.K.--started launching businesses by the tender age of 15, and one before he broke double-digits. Some of these wunderkinds, like Wells, identified problems and created companies to solve them; others turned their hobbies into money-making ventures. Some teamed up with friends, siblings and mentors; others plowed ahead on their own. Their common thread: singular focus, preternatural financial savvy and the optimism and confidence to wrest financing from seasoned investors.

Smelling Opportunity: Jamie Murray Wells

0216_jamie-murray-wells_170x170.jpgWhen Wells was bemoaning the price of his lenses, four retailers dominated the U.K. prescription glasses market; all relied on pricey retail stores to move their merchandise.

Wells figured he could move the entire purchasing process online. All he needed was a factory to make the lenses, assemble them with frames and package them. He would then ship them to shoppers, who would simply e-mail or mail in their prescriptions and pay for their glasses online. Without the costly infrastructure, Wells could sell glasses for about one-tenth the price of the established brick-and-mortar players.

Getting Started

A nifty new business model isn't nearly enough to launch a thriving company, let alone when you're 21 and have no track record. "I was knocking on the door of an industry, saying, 'The way that you're selling glasses is wrong, and I've got a better idea,'" says Wells.

Luckily he had friends and family members who agreed to put up a few thousand pounds to help him get started. Wells didn't disappoint: In the first year, Glasses Direct's revenue topped $2 million. And unlike many zealous entrepreneurs, Wells figured out how to manage his cash flow to bootstrap the business. The company took credit card payments upfront but didn't pay suppliers for another month. Wells used part of the float to hire a public relations firm to hype his low-cost strategy.

The next year Wells turned to professional angel investors. "With some investors, I simply walked in to a meeting with a sales graph and let that speak for itself," says Wells. As demand grew, Wells raised $34 million in venture capital from the likes of Highland Capital, Index Ventures, and Munich-based Acton Capital Partners. That should tide Wells over until he turns his first profit.

Asking for Help

Wells believes his age and inexperience helped him. "Having a young founder helps to add a lot of personality to a business," he says. Still, you can't cover payroll with personality.

Recognizing his limitations (yet another challenge for many entrepreneurs), Wells sought out mentors, including ophthalmologist Dr. David Spalton, and David Magliana, a marketing guru who helped bag the 2012 summer Olympic games for London. While Spalton lent credibility with the eye-care community, Magliana worked with Wells on getting the word out about Glasses Direct.

"As an entrepreneur, it's a lot easier than you'd think to reach out to people," says Wells. On the flipside, "entrepreneurs love to be written to and asked for their advice," he adds. "If your question is appropriate for them and they're emotionally interested in you, you will get a letter back, and you will get to meet them for coffee."

Running on Empty: Michael Furdyk

In 1996, as the dot-com boom started to simmer, Michael Furdyk started a Web site, called MyDesktop.com, an online computer magazine, in the basement of his parents' home in suburban Toronto. Furdyk was 16 and a bona fide computer geek. His site was filled with tips and advice Furdyk gleaned in online chat rooms, where he also came across fellow teenager Michael Hayman in Australia. The twosome figured they could turn their passion for technology into a paying business. Hayman was so convinced that he moved to Toronto to get things started.

Just one problem: Their only source of income was Furdyk's paper route. Solution: barter. In exchange for Web site storage space, they ran their host's ads on MyDesktop.com. They negotiated cheap rent on their modest office by designing their landlord's Web site.

Selling Strategies: Six New Ways To Make Money Online

Soon MyDesktop.com was bringing in $60,000 a month in advertising revenue from blue-chip clients like Microsoft ( MSFT - news - people ) and IBM ( IBM - news - people ). Furdyk and Hayman used some of their excess cash to scoop up smaller technology sites for $5,000 to $10,000 apiece. By 1999 the company was attracting 1 million unique visitors a month (serious numbers back then). Furdyk, Hayman and a third partner sold the company to Internet.com for "over $1 million," says Furdyk.

Absorbing the Blows

As part of the MyDesktop sale, Furdyk and company received a small amount of venture capital funding for their next project, a product review site called Buybuddy.com. They raised an additional $5 million and brought on an outside management team. But the good times were short-lived. In 2001 the tech bubble burst; Buybuddy suffered and shut down within three years.

Furdyk hasn't soured on entrepreneurship; indeed, he is promoting it via TakingITglobal.com, a nonprofit social networking site he launched for youngsters and educators interested in using technology to solve global problems. "Never be afraid of failure," says Furdyk. "Just learn from it. When you're young you have even less to lose."

Going With the Flow: Fraser Doherty

0216_fraser-doherty_170x170.jpgWhile his fellow mini-moguls were making a mint on the Internet, Fraser Doherty was doing things the old-fashioned way. In 2002 at the age of 14, Doherty started making jams from his grandmother's recipes in his parents' kitchen in Edinburgh, Scotland. Neighbors and church friends loved them. As word spread Doherty received orders faster than he could fill them, so he leased space at a 200-person food processing factory several days a month.

By age 16 Doherty left school to work on his jams full time. In early 2007 Waitrose, a high-end supermarket in the U.K., came knocking, and within months there were SuperJam jars on the shelves of 184 Waitrose stores. Doherty borrowed $10,000 from a bank to cover general expenses and more factory time to produce three flavors: Blueberry & Black Currant, Rhubarb & Ginger and Cranberry & Raspberry.

Spreading the Word

Last year Doherty ramped up the company's marketing efforts, printing 50 million coupons in newspapers across the U.K. He also ran a promotion in the Sun newspaper offering readers a free jar of jam. Good moves: SuperJam's revenue hit $1.2 million in 2009, flat from the prior year. Doherty's retailers now include U.K. chains Asda Wal-Mart, Morrisons and Tesco ( TESO - news - people ). This year he plans to introduce three new flavors.

Doherty remains the company's only full-time employee, although he hired three part-time staffers to hand out samples in grocery stores. Within the next four months, he hopes to produce mini jars for airlines, hotels and gift boxes. Based on a reasonable valuation multiple of one time revenue (jelly maker J.M. Smucker ( SJM - news - people ) generally trades between 1 and 1.5 times revenue), Doherty's debt-free stake is worth between $1 million and $2 million.

As for taking SuperJam up a notch, Doherty asserts that his supply chain and operations can safely scale to meet heavier demand. "We're sticking with what works," says the entrepreneur, now a seasoned 21 years old.

10 Historic Marketing Breakthroughs and their Legacy

2010-02-26T05:39:00.000-08:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35548850/ns/business-success_in_hard_times/?pg=11#BIZ_BrilliantMarketing_100223

10 of the most brilliant marketing ideas
From radio to YouTube clips, these firms changed everything

As every dedicated watcher of Mad Men knows, advertising is built on the genius of ideas. Inspiration can strike from any corner (and in every flashback). And beware: Even the greatest ideas are fleeting.

But every now and then, an idea comes along that changes the game for good. Yes, the campaign generates huge, instantaneous buzz and moves plenty of product -- but it also stands the test of time, infiltrating the culture in subtle ways for decades to come.

"It doesn't happen often," says Bruce Vanden Bergh, advertising professor at Michigan State University, "because it takes a combination of the right people with the right skills, the right climate and luck."

And sometimes, it takes nothing less than a breakthrough.

Selling diamonds during the Great Depression, charging more for a spirit no one can identify blindfolded, pitching a tiny car during the era of chrome and fins--all of these campaigns made Entrepreneur's list of 10 brilliant marketing ideas. The list spans more than 70 years--from pre-TV to the YouTube era. Just don't get upset when you learn how you've been manipulated. It's the nature of the business.

In the words of Don Draper, Mad Men's tortured lead, "What you call love was invented by guys like me," he says. "To sell nylons."

1. 'A diamond is forever'
Back story: Diamond prices were sinking fast in 1938, so De Beers mining company enlisted ad agency N.W. Ayer & Son to help reverse the trend. A year later, it launched the "diamond is forever" campaign and brazenly promoted the idea that every marriage required the gift of bling. And plenty of it: It also invented the "two months' salary" spending rule.

Breakthrough: A slogan that transcends the campaign. "It created sentimental meaning for the product that resonated with people," says Michael Cody, communications professor at the University of Southern California, adding that the phrase is so entrenched that some people don't know its commercial origins.

Legacy: Tapping emotions. Think Nike's "Just Do It" and Mastercard's "Priceless."

2. Marlboro Man

Back story: Incredible as it seems, Marlboro cigarettes were marketed for decades as a premium filtered cigarette for women. That all changed in 1955, when Leo Burnett's advertising firm reinvented the smokes with the most masculine of icons: an American cowboy.

Breakthrough: Image advertising. The Marlboro Man wasn't just a hugely successful trade character, Cody says, the campaign was also the first example of "image" advertising. "No attributes of the product were mentioned, but the campaign appealed to white, male individuals who perceived a connection with ruggedness and masculinity." Whatever controversy came later, the ads made Marlboro the bestselling cigarette in the world.

Legacy: If you're ever boggled by the behavior of brand-conscious youth, know that it started here. Those Abercrombie dudes could be the Marlboro man's grandsons.

3. 'Does she ... or doesn't she?'

Back story: In 1957, Foote, Cone & Belding invented the Clairol girl, a wholesome girl next door with a shocking secret: Her hair color might be fake. A series of ads for tints and dyes posed the titillating Q&A: "Does she � or doesn't she?" ("Only her hairdresser knows for sure.")

Breakthrough: The shock ad. Advertising Age columnist Bob Garfield calls it the birth of "shockvertising," campaigns that generated buzz by tapping into the sexual revolution. Of course it worked: Ten years later, annual sales of hair coloring rose by more than $160 million.

Legacy: Sex sells (no kidding--but someone had to figure it out). "Does she" paved the way for Brooke ("Nothing comes between me and my Calvins") Shields and Pam (naked for PETA) Anderson.

4. 'Think Small'

Back story: The diminutive Volkswagen Beetle wasn't an easy sell in 1960, the era of major chrome and fins. So the Doyle Dane Bernbach agency did something unheard of at the time: It paired a copywriter with an art director to create the campaign. Volkswagen's revolutionary "Think Small" ads featured a tiny image of the car surrounded by acres of white space and a few words about "our little car."

Breakthrough: Synergy -- and risk taking. "It showed how breaking with the norm could also change culture," says Michael Belch, a marketing professor at San Diego State University. "Small became sexy." Adds former Advertising Age editor Jonah Bloom: "It's about the guts to be different and take huge risks with your message."

Legacy: Embrace the product. Honesty and risk-taking can pay off big -- just ask Avis. Its "We try harder" campaign flipped a No. 2 ranking in its favor.

5. Beauty Mist pantyhose

Back story: To sell Hanes pantyhose, the Mullen agency famously recruited Hall of Fame quarterback (and playboy) Joe Namath. The 1974 TV commercial panned up a pair of smooth, nylon-clad legs that turned out to belong to Broadway Joe: "Now, I don't wear pantyhose, but if Beauty Mist can make my legs look good, imagine what they'll do for yours." It was just a matter of time before sales of pantyhose outran sales of stockings for the first time in the U.S.

Breakthrough: Celebrity endorsement. Namath wasn't the first celeb to hawk products, but the success (and controversy) the ad created showed the power of the right celeb

Legacy: Cue the athlete endorsement. George Foreman and Salton. O.J. Simpson and Hertz. Michael Jordan and just about everything.

6. Absolut Vodka

Back story: The product was clear, flavorless and more or less indistinguishable from any of its competitors. But the agency TBWA's clever use of the bottle's shape and name made Absolut the first breakout premium vodka -- and inspired barloads of imitators. After nearly 30 years, Absolut Vodka is one of the longest-running campaigns in history, and still going strong.

Breakthrough: The absolute power of advertising. It's stunning, actually, that these ads moved millions of Americans to pay more for a product they couldn't identify in a taste test. "It's also proof," Bloom notes, "of advertising's ability to create value in a commodity marketplace."

Legacy: Sometimes it's all about the sizzle. With a campaign that's infinitely riffable, Absolut continues to innovate with the times (there's an iPhone app)

7. '1984'

Back story: Apple's "1984" was a single commercial, broadcast during that year's Super Bowl. But Chiat/Day's interpretation of George Orwell's post-apocalyptic novel was more effective than most large-scale campaigns. The concept: A roomful of drones stares at a large screen where an authority figure bleats propaganda. Suddenly, a strange woman bursts into the room, hurls a hammer at the screen and smashes it to bits. The scrolling text: "On January 24, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984."

Breakthrough: The noncommercial commercial. It introduced Apple to the world as a rebel and game-changer, an identity that lingers despite its huge presence today. "The commercial didn't explain the product or any of its benefits," Bloom says, "but instead promised a lifestyle change, freeing you from the tyranny of your operating system." It also helped make Super Bowl ad time the most expensive on television.

Legacy: A new annual short-film festival (aka commercial breaks during the Super Bowl).

8. The Coke geyser

Back story: Drop Mentos mints into a 2-liter bottle of Diet Coke, step back and watch the thing blow -- physics teacher Steve Spangler's hokey demo became an Internet phenomenon in 2005, spawning an unbelievable number of page views and copycat videos. A couple of guys even re-created the Bellagio fountain with Coke/Mentos eruptions. Thing was, sales of Mentos and Coke hit the roof, too.

Breakthrough: Viral marketing. "It was unexpected and unsponsored, but it opened up everyone's eyes to the potential effect of viral videos," says San Diego State University's Belch. Indeed: Saturation media coverage at almost no cost? We'll take it.

Legacy: Is it content or advertising? Come up with something cool (or crazy) enough, and customers will look for you. See Dove's "Real Beauty" campaign, or Burger King's "Subservient Chicken."

9. 'Change we can believe in'

Back story: Barack Obama's bid for the presidency was also a lesson in groundbreaking grassroots marketing. In addition to the instantly iconic poster and slogan, there was skillful use of the web and social media, from early discussions with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to responding to negative reviews online and uploading flattering clips to YouTube.

Breakthrough: Social marketing. AdAge readers voted Obama the "2008 Marketer of the Year"--before he won the White House. "It wouldn't be an overstatement to say that the campaign underlined the advent of a new era of social marketing," Bloom says.

Legacy: Twitter, Facebook and who knows what next. Whole Foods has 1.6 million followers on Twitter. Victoria's Secret used Facebook to promote its Pink line to college students.

10. Dancing in the Tube

Back story: In January 2009, Saatchi & Saatchi launched T-Mobile's "Life's for Sharing" campaign, which included flash mobs (that is, groups who assemble briefly in public to perform some kind of action). In this case, it was a smartly choreographed dance routine in the middle of a London Tube station. The video became a YouTube phenomenon.

Breakthrough: Too early to tell. But after tens of millions of page views on YouTube, there's no doubt that commercializing flash mobs works.

Legacy: YouTube required. But talk about knockoffs: Trident gum's flash mob did Beyoncé's "Single Ladies" dance in the middle of Piccadilly Square.

Being Your Own PR Agent

2010-02-19T18:15:00.001-08:00

Being Your Own PR Agent

Visibility is critical to any brand or company. But building your buzz doesn’t have to cost you. It starts with developing a public relations plan.

“A PR plan is your road map to where you’re going,” asserts Jennifer Fortney, President of Chicago-based Cascade Communications. “You wouldn’t take a cross-country trip without a map, so why would you not plan out your marketing efforts? Moreover, a well-thought out plan can help you see the PR opportunities for your business and set deadlines to get those stories out in time to make media deadlines.”

In terms of moving the needle regarding awareness of your company and brand, and building a good PR plan foundation, Fortney outlines a range of sound tactics:

* Use social media—Facebook, Twitter and other social media collectively represent a quick way to increase awareness for your business. Although it does take some time to develop social media, it’s free and gives you the chance to interact with media, and potential partners, in a way never available before. “The key is being interactive and providing good content,” Fortney adds. It can’t be all about you. It’s called ‘social’ media for a reason. I always say it’s like being at a party filled with people you want to meet.”
* Be the expert you are—“One of the most important things you can do for business success is to differentiate yourself from competitors,” says Fortney. “Once you’ve defined that key difference (and benefit to your customers), make yourself an expert. Media are always looking for fresh expert sources for stories. You aren’t always going to get a full-page feature on your business so you might as well be quoted as an expert in a trend piece. This is especially true with national media.”
* Utilize media networks—There are resources that specifically help get your message to the media. For example, Help a Reporter Out is a service that provides emails with direct queries from media members seeking sources, ideas and products. MyStorySource.com is a free service that compiles up to 30 story pitches daily from small businesses and nonprofits into one email for media representatives. Others include Reporter’s Source and PitchRate. All of these are free to join and use.
* Become a local news source—Local media are local for a reason. They want interesting stories and ideas on local businesses. If it doesn’t have a local angle, they aren’t interested. “Don’t be afraid to tell the story of you behind the business—what made you start the business, the story,” she notes. “Media and the public love human interest stories.”
* Craft solid press releases and send them out at intelligent intervals—Among the key problems business owners have with do-it-yourself PR is that they don’t know what their story is or how to tell it. Or they may think they have a story in their mind but it won’t be of interest to media, who produce stories based on reader interest. “It can be tough to learn to think like a reporter, but that’s exactly what you have to do to create a compelling and interesting news story,” adds Fortney. “It can be worth it to find PR pros that specialize in small business to help write your press release.” The amount of press releases you send out should be relative to the number of events, promotions, compelling stories you have to tell. If you don’t have news, don’t send a press release out. It’s sort of like crying wolf. One day you will have an incredible story, but media may be turned off and not open your email. Fortney calls this “the Bowl of Spaghetti Theory.” “Take a bowl of spaghetti—press releases—throw it up on the wall and see what sticks. PR is about news. It’s about great and interesting stories and it’s very proactive. At the end of the day, success comes from follow up with media.”
* Work with the media—Respect their deadlines and ensure that they cover your type of business or story. Also, Fortney warns, don’t send large file attachments in email, as it bogs down inboxes. And if a reporter calls you, get back to them ASAP.

“The reason PR works is because of the credible third-party endorsement it offers,” she points out. “Imagine you pick up the paper and read your favorite columnist and one day he/she mentions a product or company. You’re almost 10 times more likely to seek out that product/service because a perceived reliable source has given you the information. Much like you’d ask a trusted friend or family member to refer a doctor. Because of this, PR tends to be seen as less intrusive then advertising. Just bear in mind that your PR must be strategic; you need to understand where PR fits in with other marketing tactics and build a plan that supports each tactic with the next.”

2009-12-26T21:17:00.000-08:00

Leadership
When The Boss Is A Complete Jackass
Shaun Rein, 12.22.09, 02:28 PM EST
How not to put up with it.
More from Shaun Rein

Judging from the reader response to my recent article "Why Men Don't Promote Women More," far too many people have bosses who are jackasses. You know the type. They don't recognize and reward hard work. They rant late into the night. They send messages to your BlackBerry on weekends. They constantly set impossible deadlines. They torpedo confidence. And for the most part they are incorrigible.

Jackass bosses can be the worst people in our lives. After all, we may well spend more waking hours with them and our co-workers than at home. They exist in every organization, big or small, in every part of the world. Only the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries can love them--anti-anxiety prescriptions and anti-baggy-eye cream sales would plummet without them.

Most people try to work harder to please their jackass bosses, but that rarely succeeds. Have you ever seen a jackass boss change into a reasonable, competent manager, without going through a heart attack or some other life-changing crisis?

Under them your career gets derailed, unless you take control of your destiny. And the stress spills over into your personal life, poisons your marriage and turns your children into budding Britney Spearses and Lindsay Lohans. Once that starts to happen, you need to do something fast. Not even a Goldman Sachs ( GS - news - people) bonus is worth such a price.

Here are two tips for dealing with jackass bosses (and see also my article "Get Rid Of Jackass Clients"):

First, figure out if your boss really is a certifiable, irredeemable jackass or just an incompetent one who can be saved. A large part of getting ahead is managing your boss. A true jackass boss won't change, but many bosses who act like jackasses really are not. You can help reform the latter type.

Many incompetent bosses are so scared of failing that they don't take a step back to recognize how their own behavior hurts the people around them. They micromanage. They yell at you out of frustration at themselves and out of sheer fear. Confronting them directly doesn't work; they get threatened and lash out. They head toward becoming genuine jackass bosses.

If your boss is edging toward the dark side, one strategy is to get your human resources department to e-mail your entire office links to columns like this one. Leave a copy of a must-have book like Robert Sutton's The No Asshole Rule or Will Bowen's A Complaint Free World anonymously on the boss's desk. Persuade human resources to organize a team-building exercise. If your boss isn't a full-fledged jackass, he or she might recognize the need to change.

You have to be careful with this strategy, however. A true jackass boss won't take it well and will know that someone is opposing him. He may become even more vindictive and turn against you in particular. In that case, be wary of going on the ropes course with him.

Second, make sure you continually network outside your company. No matter what you do or how hard you try, it is virtually impossible to get a jackass boss to like your work. Even if you get along with a perfectly decent boss and are valued by your company, you should constantly network. Good bosses get fired or promoted and replaced by jackasses all the time.

Too often executives, especially in big multinationals, forget that there are other companies out there. They spend all their time politicking internally, trying to get ahead. That can be dangerous, especially in this season of mass layoffs. Very often those executives get let go and find they have no ties on the outside. Once cut off from the pride, they get lost and confused and roam aimlessly.

The key to networking is to start when you don't need anything. If you're looking for something specific, it becomes obvious, and your efforts are unlikely to work very well.

Going to industry conferences and using social media sites like LinkedIn are great for keeping in touch, but the best way to network, especially for younger people, is through your school's alumni network. Your fellow alums are more likely to help you out than someone you meet at a conference. Most conference attendees are looking for a job, to sell something, or, especially, for an excuse to get out of the office. Why else would so many conferences be held in Las Vegas and Hawaii?

Your best networking might be through your university or graduate school alumni association. Or it might be through your high school. Wherever it is, make sure you keep in touch. For me, it was my boarding school, St. Paul's School. For years, even after I started working, I made it a rule to contact at least 10 alums every week for informational interviews. I asked for advice on how they had achieved success and what they wished they had done differently. I never asked them for anything but information. Those discussions taught me invaluable lessons about trends in the business world and how to develop my own career.

Every year I send long, personal thank-you notes to my mentors. I update them on how I'm doing. One recently introduced me to former Prime Minister Tony Blair. Another helped me land my biggest client ever, another a prestigious speaking engagement. Most of all, they have provided great advice. Sometimes you need to hear perspectives from outside your own company.

And, by the way, make sure you pay this advice back to young ones who come up the corporate ladder behind you. Give them a helping hand. What comes around goes around. When job-hunting or looking to get out from under a jackass boss, remember that the best jobs are almost never posted on online sites like Monster.com or Dice.com. Most are found through trusted personal connections.

People who think bosses automatically execute the management expert Peter Drucker's tenets for leadership--always respect the worker, always think before acting, and so on--are living in a fantasy land. Most managers don't know how to manage, and people working under them need to help them make better decisions or, if that won't work, need to look for opportunities elsewhere. You must not let a jackass boss derail your career. Working for a jackass is hell.

Shaun Rein is the founder and managing director of the China Market Research Group, a strategic market intelligence firm. He writes for Forbes on leadership, marketing and China. Follow him on Twitter at @shaunrein.

Marketing Highlights

2009-10-30T14:55:00.001-07:00

Make 'Em Laugh

"Most marketing campaigns fall down because they're specifically designed to sell products and generate leads," says David Meerman Scott, viral-marketing strategist and author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR. A better plan, he says, is to back off the sell and amp up the entertainment.

Be a Guru: Part I

Whether you sell real estate or fix teeth, you know a whole lot more about your business than your customers do. Attract attention by sharing that expertise.

Stick to a Shtick

Some brands are so dialed in to a customer base--its history, interests and aspirations--that the marketing effort smacks more of a celebration.

Connect With Customers by Making Them Stars

This is a less costly twist on MicroBilt's make-a-video strategy, with a dash of social-networking spice thrown in. Talented or not, people want to share their art, stories, even their hopes and dreams. Give them an outlet in exchange for sampling your product or service.

Connect With Customers by Making Them Stars

Tweet (No, really, we mean it.)

By now you've heard about Twitter--that curious, strangely addictive social-networking technology that facilitates the exchange of torrents of severely truncated messages (140 characters max) among millions of users. You may have read that it's a waste of time--and in many respects, that's true. What's also true is that Twitter can be a powerful marketing tool. Here are 21 compelling ways to use it.

Work the Press

Mentions in the news media offer what traditional marketing and advertising can't: exposure with implied credibility. While PR is nothing new, plenty of companies (and PR agencies) still don't get it.

Be a Guru: Part II

Disseminating data and white papers is nice, but ultimately connecting with customers is what counts.

Get on the Menu

If you can, let others do your marketing for you.

Host a Virtual Trade Show

Traditional trade shows are a convention-center-sized hassle--and they cost a lot to boot. Add up booth rental and presentation time-slot fees, advertising, promotional doodads and travel expenses (never mind the lost time away from the office), and a company's tab can rocket up to $100,000 per show. Hence the rise of virtual trade shows, designed to look and function like the real thing but that play out in real time in cyberspace. Entry fee: just $3,000 to $8,000. Better yet, you don't need to be a computer wizard to participate. Here are nine steps for getting the most out of them.

Meet the Neighbors

The rise of online networks plugged into specific local communities is a huge marketing opportunity for small businesses.

Build a Board to Buff Your Rep

Small businesses are short on a lot of things, credibility included. The higher your profile, the more clout you'll have with suppliers, partners and customers. A board of advisers can help.

Light up Their Inboxes

E-mail marketing has been around for years, but the tricky part remains getting people to open the messages in the first place.

Bake It in

Marketing shouldn't be an afterthought--it should be an integral part of the business concept and execution strategy.

Barter for Exposure

By now, everyone knows that the more people who link to a Web site, the higher it appears in Google's search results. That's where all those trigger-happy bloggers come in.

Cozy up to Celebrities

Think celebrity sponsorship is the solely province of companies with huge marketing budgets? Think again.

Wipe Off the Lens

If all else fails, take another hard look at the market and its willingness to pay for your product or service. Cost: Market surveys can cost up to $10,000, but there are some cheaper online options. Zoomerang charges $600 for a year subscription to its surveys service; Survey Monkey offers subscriptions starting at around $20 per month or $200 a year. Focus groups? Perhaps $100 for food and drinks.

Fool article October 2009: Power of Influence

2009-10-21T06:49:00.000-07:00

The Power of Influence

By Jennifer Schonberger
October 20, 2009

A Southern comedian of the 1960s, Brother Dave Gardner (not Tom's brother, David Gardner!), said that you can have a great product and the public might beat a path to your door -- but advertising helps. And advertising is marketing.

A company can produce a good product, but if it doesn't market it well, the product could be a flop. Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), for example, along with Coca Cola (NYSE: KO) and Ralph Lauren (NYSE: RL), are smart marketers.

Robert Cialdini, who recently visited Fool HQ, says we need to get real when it comes to how we're marketing our products -- and part of getting real is admitting weaknesses upfront.

Cialdini was the regents' professor of psychology and marketing at Arizona State University, founder and president of consulting firm Influence at Work, and author of the book Influence. His latest book is Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive.

In his well-known book Influence -- a book about influence and marketing -- Cialdini lays out six principles of influence as they pertain to the psychology of marketing:

Reciprocation
Commitment and consistency
Social proof
Authority
Liking
Scarcity

During Cialdini's visit to The Fool, we delved into the principle of authority -- the notion that we defer to people with authority. Someone who has expertise -- credentials, background, or experience -- that one can use to take shortcuts to make an informed decision.

But it turns out that expertise alone doesn't define the "optimal authority," according to Cialdini. The optimal authority is defined not only by expertise and knowledge, but also by trustworthiness. "It's very important to try to establish both of those components in the eyes and minds of an audience before we try to be influential," he said. "If those two things are present in the way someone registers us, we have become the single most powerful authority, or communicator that social sciences has ever uncovered."

Establishing trust
Cialdini points out the obvious: that the first is easier than the second. You can represent your background credentials, experience, and years on the job fairly quickly. Establishing trust can take a period of time traditionally. But what if you don't have weeks, months, or longer? Is there anything you can do to produce instant trust? Cialdini says there is.

The secret is to produce your weakness before your strength. The concept was developed by the advertising community, which has to introduce new products or services to markets that have no history with those products and services.

The most savvy of them will mention a weakness in their case before they present the strongest argument in favor of their case. As counterintuitive as it might sound, Cialdini says it establishes them immediately as being credible and trustworthy. "There's no special reason for people to believe our most positive claims unless we've demonstrated our trustworthiness," he said. "So the place the moment of power actually exists most propitiously for us is in the moment after we mention a small drawback or a weakness."

Cialdini points to Berkshire Hathaway's (NYSE: BRK-A) letter to the shareholders as an example. He notes that in the letters, Warren Buffett first describes something that went wrong, but then follows that with the things that went well.

The power of 'but ...'
According to Cialdini, the word "but" says to recipients in all human languages to take the information they just received, put it away and focus your attention on the next thing I'm about to say. "This is why we want our weaknesses before the word 'but' and our strengths after," he said. "The weakness has to go first, otherwise you don't get the proper focus on the strength."

The top marketing campaigns of all time employed this strategy. He points to Volkswagen as an example. Each ad began with the same statement "We're ugly, but ..." Then they talked about gas economy, reliability, and availability of parts through a network they had set up. Other examples, according to Cialdini, include, Avis' "Avis, we're No. 2, but we try harder;" and Loreal's "We're expensive, but you're worth it."

Madoff's use of Cialdini's principles
Oddly enough, Cialdini's six principles can be applied to Bernard Madoff's $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

Madoff used several of Cialdini's principles, but for evil instead of good. He used the authority principle because he established himself as an expert in the area of investing. Madoff presented himself as trustworthy through serving as chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange.

He also used the principle of social proof, that people want to follow the lead of those around them like them. As Cialdini points out, the recruiting always took place among individuals in their own network groups where people knew one another and let the message come from their colleagues instead of from somebody who is trying to sell a product or service. Finally, Madoff used scarcity, says Cialdini, noting that there were limited availabilities to gain access to investing with Madoff, which made those opportunities seem more valuable and exclusive.

Cialdini says there are two lessons can be learned from the Bernie Madoff saga. One is the power of these rules. The second is that if you used them the way Bernie Madoff did -- dishonestly -- the whole thing crashes down. "It's not sustainable if used that way," he said.

Mint.com: Bootstrap Your Internet Start Up

2009-09-20T18:34:00.000-07:00

The Triumph of Web 2.5

The well-deserved success of Mint.com, and what other Web businesses can learn from it.

How Savings Savvy Are You?

Do you know the tricks that insurance companies, grocery stores and other companies use to separate you from your dollars? Try this quiz and see just how savvy you are about saving money.

By Daniel Gross

Sep 18, 2009 | Updated: 5:20 p.m. ET Sep 18, 2009

Earlier this week, Intuit, the software company that owns the popular personal-finance software programs Quicken and TurboTax, agreed to pay $170 million in cash for Mint.com, a two-year-old startup whose free tools allow chastened customers to manage their personal finances online. Some critics, such as Web entrepreneur Jason Fried, view the deal as a defeat for upstarts: A wounded incumbent that charges hefty fees for its services is taking out a free competitor for a relatively small sum and increasing its market power. (Last year, Slate's "Shopping" column tabbedQuicken.com and Mint.com as the best online tools for keeping track of personal finances.) But the all-cash deal, which will provide a hefty payday for the company's founders and venture capital investors, represents a triumph of a new business model. Indeed, the sale of Mint.com may be the first big payoff for a Web 2.5 company.
Web 2.0 refers to the generation of companies and services built on the wreckage of Web 1.0.

In the 1990s, hundreds of billions of dollars were spent building the physical (fiber-optic cable, server farms, payment systems, software) and mental (marketing, hype, promotion) infrastructure of online business. Many of the companies that created the broadband ecosystem wound up going bankrupt. But they left behind a platform and user base that could be tapped into by new companies, which could gain scale without having to make massive investments. YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Skype, Twitter, Salesforce.com, blogging software, and, above all, Google.

The first generation of dot-coms burned through cash rapidly because they had to spend a lot of money building and running their businesses—marketing and advertising to get the word out, not to mention software, consultants, and programmers to run online systems and analyze the results. Thanks to Web 2.0, many of these costs have plummeted. Many of the basics are now essentially free, which means a business built on the infrastructure laid down by the first two generations of Web companies can gain scale on a shoestring budget, all while giving away its products and services for free. Call it Web 2.5Yesterday, at a panel I moderated in San Francisco, Donna Wells, Mint.com's chief marketing officer, stunned a room full of digital marketing pros by noting that she really didn't have much of a marketing budget. Mint.com has gone from zero to 1.5 million users in two years with no ad campaign, save a mid-five-figures sum spent on search engine terms. Rather than purchase traffic, it has pursued the same type of strategy that food trucks and online magazines do: Using free social media and piggybacking on popular new communications technology. Mint.com has more than 36,000 Facebook fans and 19,000 Twitter followers, a well-trafficked blog, and a popular iPhone application.

Mint.com, which advises customers on how to pinch pennies, does some penny-pinching of its own. It uses Wordpress (free) to run its Web site and blog. To analyze traffic partners, conversion rates, and other essentials of an online business that generates its revenues through lead generation, it uses Google analytics (free and sufficiently simple that Wells' marketing staff can use it without the help of software experts). Wells referred to a bunch of other services it uses to keep tabs on its site, such as ClickTale and Crazy Egg and Compete, as "virtually free"—costing a few hundred dollars a month. Mint.com's main market research tool is Zoomerang, which helps companies conduct online surveys and collect user feedback. The cost: about $700 per year.

Mint.com has benefitted from a cultural shift as well as a technological one. During the free-spending housing bubble, a Web site that encouraged people to manage spending, comparison-shop, and save was definitely out of step with the prevailing mood. But once the financial and housing markets tanked and the nation went into recession, the zeitgeist shifted. Shrinking top lines have caused people to focus on the bottom line, and the savings rate has spiked. Third homes and luxury goods are out; coupons and growing your own vegetables are in. Saving is the new borrowing. Thus considered, Mint.com, which launched in September 2007, timed the market perfectly. It hit the Web at a time when more Americans suddenly had the time, inclination, and motivation to manage their financial affairs more prudently. And it gave them a way to do it without having to spend a dime.

Misner: Using small actions to get big results

2009-09-16T20:15:00.001-07:00

Ivan Misner: Networking

Use Small Actions to Get Big Results

When it comes to creating relationships with other companies, take a long-term approach.

By Ivan Misner | December 03, 2008

The Key to Networking

Building long-term relationships based on trust will help open the door to others' prime networks.

By Ivan Misner | February 26, 2007

Positive Attitude Article

2009-08-05T19:46:00.001-07:00

10 Ways to Build a Positive Mental Attitude

By Dieter Pauwels

The news is working hard to make us fret about our futures-our ability to make it when businesses are closing all around us. Yes, times are tough, but you can "toughen up" - and enjoy the ride - by making sure your attitude is positive. Here Dieter Pauwels offers 10 tips for you to stay positive:

1. The choice is yours.

Your life is the result of your choices. You always have (and had) a choice. You can choose to let the current state of the economy bring you down, or you can choose to look for opportunities. Choose to focus your attention on what you can do and what you will achieve. The way you choose to see the world creates the world you see.

2. Limit TV time.

Instead read a positive book, start a project, pick up a new hobby, spend some quality time with your family-do something that will enhance your life. Manage your time around your highest priorities and values. How high is the TV on your priority list?

3. Use positive language.

Listen to the words you use. Avoid words like 'always', 'never', 'can't', 'won't' and even 'why.' Say 'I choose' or 'I want,' instead of 'I need' or 'I should'; notice the difference.

4. Surround yourself with positive people.

Surround yourself with people who are positive influences: people who speak the truth and support you. Expand your circle to include people who are further ahead in personal and professional development than you are. Disassociate with negative people who impede your progress.

5. Develop a Givers Gain mentality.

Give away what you seek without expectation or measuring. When you seek success, help others to be successful, too. When you seek happiness, help others to find happiness first.

6. Invest in yourself.

Listen to positive attitude audio CD's, invest in courses or workshops, or attend personal development seminars. Read books from people like Napoleon Hill, Earl Nightingale, Jim Rohn, Charles Swindoll, John Maxwell, Dale Carnegie, Anthony Robbins, Jeffrey Gitomer, Wayne Dyer, Norman Vincent Peale, Ken Blanchard, Jack Canfield and many others. People who write about how you can and will, not why you can't or won't.

7. Let go of anger, resentment, and judgment.

Hanging on to negative emotions like anger or resentment will drain your energy and hinder you from moving forward. The best way to let go of these emotions is to fully acknowledge the feelings associated with the initial negative experience. Honor those feelings and let them go as they no longer serve you; replace them with something positive. You can still hold on to the lessons learned from the initial negative experience.

8. Create positive, realistic expectations, and take action.

All too often people try to live up to the expectations of others: a parent, a manager, or a significant other. Make sure your expectations are congruent with who you really are. You are what you believe, and you become what you expect. Expect the best - and only the best - from life, others, and yourself. Take action on your expectations.

9. Start believing in what you really want.

Identify and let go of limiting beliefs that no longer support or honor you. Instead develop empowering beliefs that are aligned with your goals, values, and your heart's desires.

10. Take responsibility for your own life.

Focus your attention on what you can control: your thoughts, your actions, your behavior, your emotional state, and your daily actions and activities. You're the steward of your own life, solely responsible for the results and experiences you create. Taking ownership and responsibility for your own life is a freedom and tremendous privilege.

It all starts with your attitude.

You can check out the rest of Dieter's website at: http://lifecoaching.dieterpauwels.com/.

Tags: attitude, Dieter Pauwels, expectations, January 2009 edition, personal development, positive

Ivan Misner: Increase what others need to know about you to refer

2009-07-01T19:56:00.001-07:00

Looking for More Referrals?

Remembering the GAINS Exchange

By Dr. Ivan Misner, Founder of BNI July 2009

So often, I see BNI members who are frustrated about not getting more business referred to them-especially in the beginning as they build relationships with chapter members.

If your chapter members aren't passing on the number of referrals you'd like, take a look at yourself first. Before you can expect to have business referred to you by your chapter members, you may need to actively share more information about yourself.

The fact is it's not enough that you're great at what you do and can offer a lot of value to new clients. To win referrals from your chapter members, you need to ensure that your contacts have all the necessary information about you and your skills so they can persuade third parties to come and purchase your product or service. It's amazing how many people fail to recognize this.

There are five essential areas for the members of your network to get acquainted with before you can expect them to refer business your way. Equally, you need to know these same five things about them so you can reciprocate. I call this process of reciprocal sharing of information the GAINS exchange, based on the first letter of each of the five essential informational points: Goals, Accomplishments, Interests, Networks, and Skills (first discussed in my book, Business by Referral).

Goals: What are the objectives that are important to you? What are the problems you want to solve? Not just financial and business goals, but also personal and educational objectives.

Accomplishments: What big projects have you completed in business or as an employee? What are your accomplishments as a student or parent?

Interests: What are the things you really enjoy doing? The music you like to listen to, the hobbies you spend time on, the sports you like to play or watch? People are more willing to spend time with people they share interests with.

Networks: Each of your contacts is a part of many networks. Do you know what these are, how big they are? Each of us has the potential to connect with hundreds or thousands of people if we cultivate these resources.

Skills: What do you do especially well? What are the professional areas in which you excel? Don't be afraid to share this information with your contacts, and learn about the talents and abilities of the people in your network as well.

These are not mysterious pieces of information. They are facts we are exposed to every day, if we look for them.

By remembering the GAINS exchange, you can make sure you don't overlook this essential information about your networking contacts.

Called the “father of modern networking” by CNN, Dr. Ivan Misner is a New York Times bestselling author. He is the Founder and Chairman of BNI, the world’s largest business networking organization. His latest #1 bestseller, The 29% Solution can be viewed at www.29PercentSolution.com. Dr. Misner is also the Senior Partner for the Referral Institute, an international referral training company. He can be reached at misner@bni.com. Visit www.iLearningGlobal.tv/Networking for downloadable content by Dr. Misner.

The Black Swan

2009-05-26T07:47:00.001-07:00

by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Expect the Unexpected - black swans happen, your paradigm will change, good or bad, get ready for it.

The Golden Question

2009-05-26T07:46:00.001-07:00

Who do you know who would like a really good . . . doctor? realtor? agent?

Positivity

2009-05-26T07:33:00.001-07:00

Positivity.org

If you're successful half the time, try doubling your efforts.

Build on the Good that you have now --- family, happy clients, whatever it is you have you love - make it better, build on your strength!

On a positive note I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. · ·

I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. · ·

I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your life. · · I've learned that making a "living" is not the same thing as making a "life." · ·

I've learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance. · ·

I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back. I've learned that if you pursue happiness, it will elude you. But if you focus on your family, your friends, the needs of others, your work and doing the very best you can,happiness will find you. · ·

I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision. · ·

I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one. · ·

I've learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love that human touch - holding hands, a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. · · I've learned that I still have a lot to learn. · ·

I've learned that you should pass this on to someone you care about. · ·

I just did. Sometimes they just need a little something to make them smile. Note: People will forget what you said, People will forget what you did, but People will never forget how you made them feel... "

Positivity

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Positivity is a term popularized by journalist Albert Nerenberg to mean an emphasis on the positive in the face of the gloominess of the 21st Century. Nerenberg was surprised that officially, Positivity is not truly recognized as a word. The term was featured in a series published by the Montreal Gazette^[1], which featured new trends in culture and science which emphasized hope, intelligence, and human progress in face of war, fear and climate change. Also the term might simply be a calque or loan translation from the French positivité, something possible in a city like Montreal where language interference (English-French and French English) is a common occurrence.

PositivityBlog.Org

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
- Anais Nin

I think that one of the most effective ways to improve your life is simply to think in a more positive way.

This is of course nothing new and not that simple. If it was, well, then at least most of us would already be doing it.

So, why aren’t we more positive? I can think of a few reasonable reasons.

We think it is like it is - It´s easy to confuse what has happened to you, the story of your life, with now and the future. The past does not necessarily equal the future. If you believe it does then it does. But if you don´t if you believe it does then it doesn´t. If you change your way of thinking you can change your behaviour, habits and your life.

Social programming – A big reason many think that things are like they are and will always be that way is because no one ever told them that there was an alternative. The school, newspapers and other influential forces tells us we have a life and an identity that is us throughout our lives. And at least in much of the media, negativity is the normal filter to view the world through. We hear this every day when we are young and very impressionable. Then we continue believing it and it becomes a part of our sense of self. And we continue our lives on that path.

Lack of energy – Changing the many negative and neutral thoughts in our day to day life to positive ones can take quite a bit of energy. If you are stressed out by work and your personal life, if you aren´t eating and sleeping well and don´t take time to exercise there will be a lack of energy. And with that lack it´s easy to just feel too damn tired to change your thoughts, to just give up and revert to the familiar way of thinking.

Too reactive and mindful of what others may think – You may think, if I change and become more positive, what will other people say? That I´m weird, hyper, over-compensating or unhappy on the inside? Will they laugh, mock me and question this change in outlook on life? Or perhaps, they will actually like it and it will give me new opportunities down the line. Maybe it will bring success and my relatively comfortable life will be shaken up and change. Yeah, such thoughts can be some scary thoughts.

Lack of motivation –Not knowing exactly what´s in it for me on a personal and beneficial level.

Wanting to be right – Most of us have an ingrained sense that what we believe is right. Even though a belief we have might not be that useful. Or makes our lives out right miserable. It can be hard to give up a belief because then we have to give up being right.

We tried but failed (once or twice) – Throughout our lives, in school and society we are taught that we should not fail, that it is bad. This can make us very reluctant to take chances and keep trying beyond the initial attempt.

A lack of knowledge/too much disempowering information – You will most likely fail several times at first. You will make mistakes. You may be met with negativity or disinterest. It may take more than a weekend to get the success you envision. It may take longer than you think, perhaps months. And that is ok, that is normal.

Not knowing how the world (most of the time) works can discourage you. And the information about how the world works that you get from media, the people around you and society may not always be that accurate and effective. Instead, seek out relevant information for yourself to set your expectations to a reasonable level. Get information from a variety of different sources. And get it from people that have experience and knowledge about what you are interested in. A good starting point can be your local library, bookstore or amazon.com.

10 reasons why you should become more positive

You will create a better world around you as your surroundings will become affected and change due to your positive thoughts and actions.

You will make better first impressions. Everyone stereotypes, whether they want or not. A positive first impression can mean a lot in many situations and have a lasting effect throughout your relationship with that person.

You will focus on the good things in people. Not their faults. This will make things much better overall and improve all kinds of relationships.

It´s easier to become more productive when you stop laying obstacles in the middle of the road in the form of negative thoughts.

Work becomes more fun. Everything becomes more fun.

You become more attractive. People like positive people. Positive people make other people feel good about themselves and they don´t drag the mood down. Also, a positive attitude is an indicator – and source - of high self-confidence, a quality that just about everyone is attracted to.

Being negative has very little concrete advantages and is not a very empowering way to look at life.

It opens up your mind to focus on other ways of looking at things. Sometimes wonderful new ways you might not ever have thought about or experienced before.

It puts the Law of Attraction to better use. The Law of Attraction basically says: whatever you think about you attract into your life. As you replace the negative thoughts with positive thoughts you will start to attract more positive opportunities and people into your life.

You´ll waste less time. Negativity can be like a self-feeding loop. First you think one negative thought. It leads you to three more. And then you start examining your life in deeper detail through a depressing lens. When you get into a vicious cycles like this it can eat up hours, weeks and years of your life. It can drain a lot of your energy whilst trapping you in paralysis by analysis. And you probably won´t become that much wiser in the process. As mentioned in the Where is you time really going?, we live for about 24-28 000 days. Don´t waste them.

The how to do it

“Between stimulus and response is the freedom to choose.”
- Viktor Frankl

The Positivity Challenge is this: For 7 days you will try to only think positive thoughts. Whatever happens to you will see the good side of it and what positive things you can learn and take away from it. By the end of the week you will have started to discover the very real benefits of a positive thinking, how much negative thoughts there are both in you and the world (you might be surprised) and begun establishing a new habit to replace your old, less constructive one. And then you can continue from there.

What I suggesting here is not a mindless kind of positive thinking where you pretend everything is ok whilst the house and your bed is actually on fire. Instead it’s you noticing a situation or stimuli and then choosing a positive and useful response to it instead of reacting in a knee-jerk way.

It´s you focusing on what could be a more positive and useful solution for you. Or even better, what could be a win-win situation if the situation involves other people (which many important situations in our lives do). A win-win solution is more often an even more satisfying and beneficial solution than the one where only you win.

Now, how to go about it? Here are three tips for the first week.

Cut the negative threads quickly. Only allow yourself to go on a negative thread of thought for a set time-period, perhaps 30 seconds or a minute. Then just cut it off, drop it and think about what positive things you can get out of this situation. Don´t feed the negative thoughts with more energy or you might trap your mind in a downward spiral for quite a while. If you start going down a negative thread of thought it is important to cut it fast.

Realise that it is possible to choose what you think about and how you react. You don´t have live your life in reaction. Being reactive to everything is not very empowering. You have a choice. But it might take some time to make this click in your mind. Even though I understood this intellectually pretty fast it took a longer time to understand and accept it emotionally and on a deeper level.

Focus on the gap between stimuli and reaction. The more you think about this and try to use it by consciously choosing, over time (for me it was months but it can surely be achieved quicker) the gap will appear larger and larger and that will make the process easier.

Accept your feelings, don´t deny or refuse them – Although it´s often possible to just quickly cut off negative thoughts sometimes it might not be enough. Negative emotions can build up within you over time or you might feel be overwhelmed by a certain situation. Then you can try the counter-intuitive way and not keep the feeling out by fighting it.

Instead, accept the feeling. Say yes to it. Surrender and let it in.

Observe the feeling in your mind and body without judging it. If you just let it in and observe it for maybe a minute or two something wonderful happens. The feeling just vanishes. It sounds weird but give it a try.

In addition, here´s a bunch of other suggestions – some of them you might not be able to use fully within a week but instead over a longer time-span - to make this challenge easier and improve your life.

Get the physical fundamentals down. If you don´t have time to sleep a healthy amount of hours, eat properly and get exercise then you need to reprioritize. If you don´t do this it will be harder to become and stay positive. If you do reprioritize, your general sense of well-being will increase, you will feel stronger and have more energy. Use Where is your really time going? and Prioritize with the Pareto Principle to make better use of your time. Decrease stress using those two articles and the rest in the series How to double your productivity. Also, check out this simple way to feel really relaxed.

Act as if. Smile to feel happier. Move slower to relax. Use positive language. Act as if you are a positive person and you will start to feel and become more positive. It might feel weird at first, but it really works.

Start your day in a better way. Check out these five tips for a better beginning to your day.

Limit your time with really negative people – Some people feed on negative energy and whatever you try it never pleases them or changes their sour minds and moods. If nothing you do works then finally you might have to cut them out of your life or at least limit your time with them.

Model positive people. Find positive people in your surroundings or anywhere in time and space (through documentaries, biographies etc.) and learn from them. Find out how they handle everyday life, problems, setbacks and compare it to your own thoughts and how you would handle similar situations.

Focus on the now and future, not the past. A lot of people spend a lot of time thinking about on the mistakes they made in past. A better way is to think about the mistake you made and what you can learn from it. Then stop wasting your time and shift your focus to the present and the future where you can actually make a change.

Redefine “failure” and “proof”. You don´t have to learn much about successful people to realize that one of their key-strengths is that their way of looking at failure is widely different from more common one in society. As Michael Jordan said:

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Also, in a similar vain, thinking one example represents the whole world might not be the most helpful belief to hold. Yes, someone may have cheated on you, treated you badly at work before you were fired and your first business venture may have gone down in flames. But applying one or two bad examples to the whole world and the rest of your life will cause suffering for you long after those hurtful events happened. And could set you up for even more pain and disappointment through self-fulfilling prophecies and the Law of Attraction.

I don´t think these all these words are the truth about how the world around you and me works. Just as a pessimistic (or realistic) view of the world is not the truth either. I don´t believe there is one truth, but rather that the world changes due to the beliefs you have about it and the actions you take based on your beliefs. I do believe that this is a more useful model of how to view and interact with the world than a pessimistic one and that it´s a more enjoyable way of thinking. It is a way of thinking that increases happiness and joy in life. Something I think just about everyone wants.

“Though I might travel afar, I will meet only what I carry with me,
for every man is a mirror.
We see only ourselves reflected in those around us.
Their attitudes and actions are only a reflection of our own.
The whole world and its condition has its counterparts within us all.
Turn the gaze inward. Correct yourself and your world will change.”
- Kirsten Zambucka

The Networking Instinct by Russ Ouellette

2009-05-06T08:21:00.000-07:00

The Networking Instinct

Why BNI is an advantage.

By Dr. Russ Ouellette, DM

"Work hard. Keep your head down: In doing so, you will be recognized and advance."

This advice isn't always true.

Face it. It's the people with the large Rolodex who are moving ahead in the workplace. The old saying "It's who you know" is spot on, but not in the negative way that it has come to be used.

We are witnessing the redefinition of work at all levels, from physical labor to knowledge. We need to move faster and with agility to compete. There is a move toward empowered organizational principles, such as flat organizations and teams. Many people resist change, but with change comes opportunity.

Networking is one of those opportunities, and it is a primary tool for success as we better understand it, practice it, and do it well.

Just a few decades ago, the primary work contract was to find a job—not a career—stay there until we are 63 years old, and then retire and sit on a beach for the rest of our life. That contract was broken by many employers, and job security became a fairytale in the traditional sense. Companies no longer considered employment a life contract, though some people still do. It's a myth.

During this decade, the free agent, small businesses, and entrepreneurship became real and primary choices for many people trying to find professional freedom and expression; however, the free agent choice cannot exist in a traditional paradigm of big business institutions.

In other words, while many of us have become entrepreneurial in our own businesses, or behave that way while working for a firm, there are many who still believe that the old contract of work—staying in one job for life—is still viable. As a result, many people are ignoring the value of a network.

While the work contract has changed, people and relationship behaviors have not changed.

Completing the Relationship Gap

In many cases, people have been taught by their institutions that networking is unnecessary. It may be that networking behavior is intentionally suppressed by institutions to keep us right where we are. Regardless of the reason, some people still believe that networking is a political behavior.

They believe networking is used for the sole purpose of finding a job, is something that only sales people do, or is a form of self promotion and politics. They would be right if life existed in a cubicle. It doesn't, and we need to engage in the world; we need to know how to network.

In my research, I set out to prove that there was a better return on investment (ROI) for people within a network if they held strong relationships with people. The theory was that we would need to have better and deeper relationships to achieve more success and ROI. In other words, good relationships meant more ROI value.

The study surveyed ten BNI networking groups (184 BNI members) in the greater Manchester, New Hampshire area. In the study 3,642 dyad (2 people) relationships were measured for strength to determine if stronger relationships traded more referrals than weaker ones. In other words, will I receive more referrals from my friends or people who consider me their friend?

My theory was proved wrong, but it was proved with a statistical level of significance, that the further away our relationships are from one another, the more referrals we will trade. In other words, BNI members provided more referrals to people they did not have a deep relationship with. What people are doing, instinctively, is providing more referrals to people they are trying to complete the relationship gap with—extending gifts to people they want to be their friend.

In reality, networking is an instinctual behavior. It is a critical tool for success and is emerging at a rapid pace, as evidenced by the Internet and social networking applications, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Fundamental changes in our economics, politics, and business are creating a new paradigm of operations, new tools, new applications and new opportunities if we are looking for them. Look for them.

Networking groups and on-line communities will become the norm. It's only a matter of time. BNI has proved it works, and the research discussed proves that networking—networking that provides a return on investment—is something we all do instinctually when we get outside "business as usual."

The network instinct—go with it.

Dr. Russ Ouellette is the managing partner of Sojourn Partners, a results-driven executive leadership coaching firm located in Bedford, NH. He can be reached at 603-472-8103 or russ@sojournpartners.com.

Speaking As An Expert

2009-04-22T21:31:00.001-07:00

ou should develop a genuine focus on being “of service.” Develop authentic curiosity - focus on everyone’s favorite subject, ME. Ask questions focused on them, such as “tell me how you got started in this business?” or “who would be a good referral for you?”

I once worked with a salesperson who pointed out a lawyers office as we were driving and then a few moments later, a chiropractor’s office and said, “They do business together because of me – I brought them together. They are both my clients and now each others clients.” That’s netweaving and it’s one of the most powerful ways to prove your value to people – and stand head and shoulders above the crowd of other me-me-me sales people.

In fact, your goal should be to become a you-you-you sales professional!

Are you magnetic?

Another aspect involves the concept of magnetism. Working like a magnet – to attract people to you, almost irresistibly – instead of laboriously panning for gold among the pebbles can make the single biggest difference in dramatically increasing a sales professional’s effectiveness.

What if, through your efforts, you drew people to you? You have heard of people with magnetic personalities? This is called magnetic marketing!

In magnetic marketing, you move away from sales “rocks” to find your valuable iron ore – or sales “magnets.”

Here is a question to get you started thinking about magnetic marketing – How can you convert prospects into SUBSCRIBERS?

That’s right – subscribers. People who actually want to hear from you, value the information you bring to them, and look forward to the next time you call, email, or send them something in the mail, simply because of its intrinsic value.

In other words, how do you keep prospects coming back for more of what you have to offer? Simple: offer useful information on a regular basis.

Becoming a geyser of information

That leads to the next logical question, which is How can you become a valuable geyser of useful information?

Once you’ve answered this question, you’ll start pulling people toward you so they will WANT to do business with you. They will call YOU! Wouldn’t that be something? Well it can be done!

The way to do this is to develop a marketing/ prospecting plan, including creating information products, outreach tools, and using speaking and publishing opportunities (yes, for salespeople) to build your expert status.

Publish a newsletter on a regular basis and send it to your clients and prospective clients. Fill it with valuable tips, advice techniques and information. Don’t use boilerplate newsletters prepared for your industry – make this real, make it personal, and aim it squarely at your best prospects and clients.

Let’s face it: you are an expert in your particular product and industry – or should be. So show off your expertise!

In the age of technology, cost is no barrier, because you can create a wide variety of valuable tools electronically: annotated PowerPoints, white papers, audio programs, cost and savings calculators, short articles, tip sheets, and checklists. These take minutes to create (maybe an hour or so to do one really well) and can pay off in huge ways.

Just make sure you don’t produce a thinly disguised sales pitch (people can see right through that!) and do provide solid information to increase your credibility.

Secret #1: Publishing

Most publishers of industry and trade magazines and newsletters are HUNGRY for content. Not to mention websites, e-zines, industry specific online forums, and countless in-house publications (probably a good number of which are published by your prospect companies!)

The content is gobbled up every month and editors are always looking for NEW stuff. So all you have to do is ask and submit! When you get published you now have (wave the magic wand) TAAA-DAAA…Instant credibility!

Suddenly you’re an “industry expert.” Hey it’s not fair – but that is how it works! Wouldn’t you want to buy from an industry expert? Or at least speak to him or her for a few minutes on the phone to tap into their expertise?

Secret #2: Speaking

Associations are HUNGRY for speakers and they need one every time they have a meeting.

Package your expertise as a nice little 30 minute talk and you are now ready to speak to your future buyers!

Again, don’t make it a sales pitch; make it content rich and helpful.

If you sell copiers, do a talk on 10 Hot Trends in Office Technology. If you sell restaurant supplies, do a presentation on How to Increase your Business Traffic 100%.

When you speak, you become an expert – and usually get a list of the attendees so you can follow up.

Now you may say, “I’m not very good at public speaking.”

Usually when I hear people say that, it means one of three things:

They tried it before and didn’t like it because they gave a pitch from the podium and got zero response (which is exactly why I warned you about this a minute ago!)

They don’t want to put in the “extra work” to create, develop, and pursue delivering short, value-rich speeches.

They don’t know where to begin.

If you fall into the first two categories, all I can suggest is that in order to change your results, you’ll need to change your behavior.

If you’re in the third category, there are many options open to you, including the truly valuable Toastmasters organization, and presentation coaches who can get you comfortable, and even excited, in developing good speaking skills within a couple of months. Here is the formula:

PR+V= Cx10

Good PR and Visibility increases your Credibility times 10!

2009-04-22T21:25:00.000-07:00

Basic Marketing Ideas for your Marketing Calendar

I like to keep a running list of ways people can market their businesses. As I see new ones, I like to add to the list, and share it with the women in my mastermind, and network. It's particularly helpful when I am planning or updating my marketing calendar.

There is also a PDF Marketing Calendar template available for for download; and this list is also available in PDF format for download here. The article before this one lists the questions you should be able to answer about your business and your customers before you get to this planner. And of course, there is the annual list of special dates (Canadian) and seasonal topics to tie your marketing to.

As for this list, you can drop me a line to let me know if you have found it useful, or if there are ideas you think should be on it. - Gisela

The Basics:

Branding (name, logo, colours, identity: packaging, letterhead & envelopes)
Brochures
Business Card
Flyers
Sales letters
Networking
Referrals
Newsletters
Free Samples
Cold Calling
Sandwich board
Magnetic signage on cars
Hold Events
In-store Signage
Store Dressing
Staff Dress-up
Word of Mouth
Phone Listing
Join Associations
Clothing

Direct Mail:

Sales Letter (series)
CDs
Postcards

Traditional Media:

Press Releases
Newspaper Ad
Magazines
Radio Interviews
Publicity

Not-so-basic:

Write a Book
Blimp/sky writing/plane banners
Billboards
Subway / Transit Ads
Landscape Ads

E-marketing:

Website (including Search Engine Optimization)
Online Advertising Campaign
Newsletters
Affiliate/Referral Programs
Web banners
Directories
Writing Articles
Network / post to discussions where your target market hang out

Cross Promotion:

Prize Packages
Sponsorships
Coupon books
Write for other company’s newsletters/publications

Appearances:

Tradeshows & Exhibitions
Meetings, Conventions
Speaking Engagements
Festivals
Conferences
Create Training Programs around your area of expertise

Content/Focus of the promotions

Use specific time-constrained offers
Discounts/Coupons
Giveaways
Contests
Gift with purchase
Client Appreciation
Open House
Seasonal Extended Hours
Anniversary
Business Events
Corporate Gift
Donations
Trinkets
Awards – sponsoring, creating
Charity

Marketing Pyramid

2009-04-22T21:15:00.001-07:00

Power of the Marketing Pyramid by John Doerr

"All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others."
- George Orwell, Animal Farm 1956

Imagine this scenario: you are at a professional services firm that has just come off a fairly good year of growing revenue and profits. You want to continue this growth going into the coming year and have decided you are finally going to take some of these profits and invest in marketing. You have accumulated a list of 1,000 clients, former clients, and prospects to target. Everyone turns to you and asks, "Well, how are we going to invest our hard-earned profits?"

If this sounds agonizingly familiar, you are not alone. Once most professional service firms get past the idea that they are going to invest some money in marketing, they are then faced with the riddle of where and how to spend it.

While they know not all prospects and clients are equal in terms of business potential, they all too often treat them equally in their marketing efforts. As a result, the marketing budget does not go very far and it is not very effective.

The rest of the scenario: the next year, profits go into everything but marketing, and, a few months later, the growth curve flattens.

All Prospects are Not Created Equal

So what went wrong? To start let's paraphrase Orwell, "All prospects appear equal, but some are definitely more equal and potentially more profitable than others." Since they are not equal, they should not be given equal marketing attention. We want to spend our time and efforts where we have our best chances of success (unlike our friends in the above scenario).

A very simple tool to help you decide how much and on whom to spend is the Marketing Pyramid. Those of you with any kind of marketing background will realize that there is nothing particularly new about this approach. Consumer marketers have been using this method for years to decide how to market to heavy, medium, and light users through offering coupons, special offers, contests, and other incentives to invite consumers to continue to buy. Since service purchasers generally do not buy in specific quantities each month, service marketers fall into the trap of lumping all of their targets into one prospect category.

Determine Your A, B, and C Targets

Let's go back to our first scenario of the firm coming off a successful year. They have identified a total of 1,000 clients and potential clients. However, not all 1,000 of these targets have the same profit potential. To begin rationing out their marketing dollars they should first divide their target list into primary (A), secondary (B), and tertiary (C) prospects.

As a rule of thumb, primary "A" targets should make up approximately 10% of their list. These should include:

Current clients
Recent past clients
Recent referrals from clients or influencers
Any "hot" leads from the last few months (from seminars, speeches, web searches, articles, white papers, etc.)

The secondary "B" list should make up approximately 25% of the total list and include:

Somewhat recent past clients
Somewhat recent referrals
The top targeted companies from their wish list of future clients (this can be by the verticals with which they have been successful, verticals they target, geography they target, etc.)

Leads dropped that may be six months cold or older.

Lastly, the tertiary "C" targets comprise the remainder of the list:

The balance of targeted companies from their wish list of future clients
Inquiries, business cards, and other contacts
Anybody in the list of 1,000 who looks like a good, but not imminent potential client

Another way to classify your targets is to ask yourself, "If I were to get in front of this person how often will I close the business?" When asking yourself this question, a good rule of thumb to help divide your list is:

A's about 1 in 10 (or less) will close
B's about 1 in 25 will close
C's about 1 in 100 will close

Now that you have a better understanding of who and where your targets are, you are in a better position to decide how to go about your marketing and parcel out your marketing touches and dollars.

Communicating to Your Prospects: Unequal Prospects = Unequal Touches

If you have designated your A's as closing 1 in 10 times, your B's as 1 in 25, and your C's as 1 in 100, then you should spend 10 times more on your A's than your C's and 2.5 times more on your A's than your B's. In addition, you want to personally contact your A's 10 times a year, your B's 4 times a year, and your C's once a year.

For example, your "A" contact plan might look something like this:

Contact #

Call to set up a new meeting, lunch, or breakfast about something of value to the prospect.
Send a summary of your meeting.
Send an article of interest to the prospect.
Send an invitation to a special networking event, seminar, or webinar you are hosting.
Send a special note about a speaking engagement that might be of interest to them (even better if you are the one doing the speaking).
Call regarding something you read about them or that would be of interest to them. See if you can expand on what their needs are.
Send an e-mail with an interesting article relating to their business or industry.
Send a letter offering a new white paper your firm has published.
Send a holiday card with a personalized note.
Call to see how they are approaching their needs (and see if they should still be on the "A" list for next year).

Your communication with your "B" list may consist of #'s 1, 2, 7, and 10. Your "C" list may just get #4 or #8 to keep you on their mind.

As the year progresses, you will move prospects up and down in the Marketing Pyramid and out of the pyramid (ideally into the closed list) based on the outcomes of some of your contacts and conversations.

The Results

In the long run (assuming the 1,000 names from the original scenario and based on our assumptions about closing), you should expect to get 10 new clients from your A list, 10 from your B list, and 7 new clients from your C list.

If all prospects are not equal, treat them as such. You will end up with continued momentum, continued growth, and greater return on your marketing efforts.