•Does the cutting edge of social media really pay?
? So someone asks you: "What's your Twitter name?" And you look at them like they are a loony. Twitter? Huh?
And then the next person asks you, "You blog, right? What's the URL?"
Hold it. What happened? In the seeming blink of an eye, suddenly there's all this new so-called 'social media' on the web, and you know nothing about it.
What's worse, is that everyone else seems to be there already. It's like you went to the bathroom, and when you came out, the party moved on, leaving you in a dark...
•Handling complaints without making things worse.
The email comes, or the phone rings, and there's an absolute flood pouring right at you. "Hey, you didn't do what you said you would do. This didn't work as advertised. You goofed!"
Yup, a complaint. Ahhh! A complaint?! But you poured your heart and soul into it, how could they complain?
Then you take a breath, and you read what they're asking for, and you realize... they were right. You DID make a mistake. Things are goofed up, perhaps badly.
Time to hang up your hat and go work in a cafe?...
•How productivity contributes to global warming and debt.
There was an edge to my voice as I asked the question: "And so why haven't you finished what you promised to do?"
I meant for it to come out nicer, more reasonable. But, it didn't.
This is so often where we land, kerthunk, in business: are you getting it done, or aren't you? In the western world, we call this 'productivity' and we think it's a good thing. Even if we complain about it, or hold spiritual values that say otherwise, I find that my clients (and me... ) orient around this...
•How to avoid reader fatigue in your subscribers.
There's some buzz I've been reading about in forums and on blogs about what's known as 'reader fatigue.' This is the condition that happens when you, as an individual, are confronted with sixteen hundred gazillion blogs, email newsletters, forums, and pdf downloads and you just get fed up with it.
I can relate.
Unfortunately, when you switch hats to being a business owner, suddenly you don't want to relate. You want people to read your emails, blogs and pdfs. Each unsubscribe, or ignored...
•Smoothing cashflow when your business is small or new.
A participant in the Opening the Moneyflow Course has a fairly minimal email list of potential clients, about 80 or so. It's enough to bring in a few clients, but not enough to keep her pipeline full.
While she's ramping up to increase the list, which is growing every week, she's still facing that cashflow issue: how can you keep a steady cashflow with just a handful of clients, before your marketing gets traction?
When the last session approaches.
In the first four sessions of a...
•The Curse of Professionalism in Your Business.
Have you ever received (or written) an email like this one?
"Thank you for your correspondence. We appreciate your desire to contact us, and someone will get back to you shortly."
Kinda cold and stale, eh? I'm used to seeing things like this from corporations, and from the back of our refrigerator, but how about us teensy business folks?
You don't want to sound like an automaton, but you also don't want to be inappropriately familiar, or sloppy. And, of course, there's that thought going on...
•The true measure of money in your business.
Shiny new cars. Big mansions. The good life. Even if you're not a particularly material person, it's easy to be caught by those images, and to wonder: "Why don't I have that? Is there something wrong with me?"
It's become especially popular to equate material wealth with spiritual attainment. "If you do good, and if you think abundantly, then the untold riches of the universe will pour forth for you. If you stew yourself in despair and complaint, then forget it. You get nothing."
Is it true?...
•When Following-the-Leader Gets Your Business in Trouble.
On a hot summer day in the early 1990's, I was standing in the middle of a California freeway. Four cars were piled up around me, and ambulances, fire engines, and the California Highway Patrol were arriving one after the other.
Our paramedic unit had parked where the first-in unit had told us to park, and we were working on the car that first medic on-scene had directed us to. Per protocol, the first paramedic on-scene was the "incident commander" until a higher ranking command officer or...
•Why Attraction is a Mistake in Marketing.
Coffee shop. The background beat of some silly pop music. Buzz of conversation. The glow of laptop screens. And then, one near the counter, the other in a window seat, they both look up, and their eyes meet. Attraction! Next thing you know, they're picking out paint colors, and sharing chores in some nice little house in the neighborhood.
It's a cozy picture, isn't it? If only your clients would move into your business as easily.
Unfortunately, when your eyes meet theirs, they tend to look...
•Why you make some business mistakes over and over.
Why do you make certain mistakes over and over again? No matter how hard you try to fix or control the situation, they seem beyond your control.
For instance, I was working with a client recently who has a number of staff working under him, and wanted to delegate to them efficiently. And the same problem showed up in employee after employee.
Okay, so it got incrementally better, somewhat. But, even after several years he was still exhausted and the delegating wasn't really taking the load...
•Why your business needs a peer-led Mastermind group.
Every time I teach a class, and build in the buddy system, people are blown away by how much -easier- everything is, just from not doing it alone. And not just getting stuff done, but the insights, the perspective shifts. Everything changes when you aren't solo.
I just returned from my second annual mastermind weekend, and I'm flying high for the same reason. The four of us in my mastermind gently, compassionately, and yet with some real -oomph- pointed out each other's blind spots, stuck...
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