Sometimes I Wish I Could Fire Me

No one likes to learn lessons the hard way.

I just learned one and am going to live with the embarrassment for a long time. It happens that in marketing myself, I didn’t represent myself in the way I would have liked. I am being kind to myself, as advised by a dear friend and colleague, because ordinarily after this kind of debacle, I usually beat myself up pretty good. Taking off the boxing gloves, I will gently tell you what I’ve learned and maybe you can benefit somehow.

This has to do with marketing yourself, as a marketing company. One doesn’t get a second chance to make a first impression. So, I have some work cut out for me. I sent out a mailing that was not up to my standards. I wish I had someone to fire. But, the fact is I can’t fire me. So, I will pack up the lessons learned and keep them close at hand.

#1) Always do your best work for yourself and others
#2) Always provide  final approval on marketing materials that represent you
#3) Take responsibility and don’t blame someone else
#4) Be kind to yourself and to those involved

And, I will quote a master of the Creative Genius Paul Arden, from his book: “It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be“: “Don’t hand your work over to a supplier and think they will work magic. You are the magic.”

Fail Fail again. Fail Better. Samuel Beckett.

And finally, my favorite: The person who doesn’t make mistakes is unlikely to make anything.

Now, I feel better. Don’ t you?  jh

Jan’s 3 Predictions For 2010

Prediction #1: Jan will buy an IPad.

We all know Apple continues to be the king of innovation. They have figured out what the techy population likes and wants. Now the big question on everyone’s mind is will Jan have to have one?  What’s the answer?

 Well, that’s a big IYES.

If you recall, I resisted the IPhone in the spirit of my previous post: robots r us.  But finally I fell. After years of battling missed calls, unintended pocket calls and difficult dialing, hearing and well…talking with my Blackberry Pearl I gave up and got the IPhone. I am obsessed, as I pick up emails from all three addresses, I post on facebook, tweat on twitter and stay Linked in. I can even blog, oh… and i can even find places. I actually used my I Phone to find an office in downtown Kansas City and tracked my car all the way on the screen. I watched the road of course, but also I saw on the screen as I took wrong turns. I now wonder how civilization managed to get by without the IPhone. I suspect I will feel the same way about the IPAD.

Prediction #2:  Jan will Collaborate 

It appears we can all expect a rough ride in 2010, so we might as well just buddy up.  Working with like-minded businesses/people doubles our impact. I have partnered with long-time associate Dick Molohon, president of Sales and Marketing Profiles. Dick found his niche in helping small businesses hire and develop effective sales teams. He provides an online sales assessment tool and does telephone screening and initial consultations. Oftentimes companies ask him for help with marketing once their sales team is in place. Companies I work with grow with effective sales, and now I have a tool to help them.

Prediction #3: This isn’t  As Good As It Gets

Well, let’s hope the way things are today is not as good as it gets. I fear and I’m not alone that the slow growth, no growth is our economy’s new normal. Well, as we try as a nation to find our baseline, the place to build from, there are things we can do for each other. For one thing, no matter how bad things are for us, we can have hope, we can decide to be a little nicer and we can laugh a little. I volunteer raising funds to better serve orphans. I spend self, time and energy daily with this endeavor. I won’t accept that this is as good as it gets, not for the orphans and not for us as a nation, not for my business. So, I predict success in 2010 on all three fronts. jh

So now invent something

We hear it everywhere. That America is getting their lunch eaten while the rest of the world makes fun of us. Well, not sure if that’s so true, but I do think innovation is what made our nation great, along with our constitution written to protect individual freedoms and our work ethic.

So, with all the pundits wringing their hands about what to do, I think it’s pretty clear. We all need to just get busy and work our pundits off. Pay off our debt, personal and national and invent something we can build here.
My friend Andrew with Daylite Films in Arizona sent me this link and I think it’s worth passing on.

I have a few invention ideas of my own. One is Janny’s Light Strips. These are Christmas lights on a plastic strip attached to the house and the lights are on a plastic strip with velcro. You keep the plastic back on your house all year long and in the fall, before it gets too cold… just lay the solar powered LED light strips on the panels. 

Lift a Bike: Ok. This is a lightweight hydraulic tool, no more than 10 inches long and 3-4 inches in circumference.  It is either stored in a saddle bag, or preferrably attached on the side of the bike. The purpose is to allow a motorcyclist to hoist a bike back up on two wheels after a drop. The market is women, elderly men or small framed people who have difficulty lifing their bikes up after a drop.

Flushable port A poddy. This is a mechanized tissue sleeve that fits over the hole of a toilet. The idea is that a person using a port a poddy need not fear the abyss of the biff. With a  simple press of a lever and a mechanism folds the tissue and the substance it holds, the user can “flush’, as the tissue sleeve wraps around the refuse, releases and drops to bio degrade in the biff abyss.

Horse shavings saver: This lovely dandy is a must buy for any horse owner and barn. Do you know how expensive shavings are? Very expensive. So, if a screen lay over a wheel barrel, and was able to shake, I would hoist the wet shavings onto the screen and let them dry. Then I would switch on the shaker and the clean and dry shavings would fall into the wheel barrel for reuse.

Mail box shredder: This is obvious. How much junk mail comes to your mail box? I have an answer. The all in one mail box shredder. This mechanism is both a shredder and a mail box. The mail box sits atop a paper shredder and makes it easy to discard junk mail at the point of entry. Better yet, the mail box shredder composter wold even be a better invention.

 So, there you go. If you want to learn about my invention to improve your golf game by 6 strokes…well that will cost you money. And rightly so.

Now that I’ve shared my great ideas… what are yours? Go invent something!

Robots R Us

I’ve had this theory for some time and I think it’s time to just get it out there. As a product of the 60s, when mega-computers filled complete warehouse buildings and the micro wave was just beginning to gain acceptance, the idea of someday, someone inventing a robot that would help around the house, a sort of chore buddy that could carry heavy objects and do tedious labor were well… just ideas. We read about them in our Weekly Reader, not Kindle.

Well, today, creating a robot to do those things is beyond possible. The robot idea is a bit outdated, and instead, engineers, social, electrical and mechanical have come together with a much better idea. Robots R Us. Why not simply create a world where everything is electronic? We’re almost there already.

Today, we wake up to the alarm on our cell phone, we have all our contacts, road maps, records, calendars, communications, finances, soon to be medical records, videos and music accessible with the tap and swipe of a finger. We can pay bills, transfer money, organize dates, buy concert tickets, make a date, all from our phones. We read Kindle digitally, we research digitally, we socialize with Skype, IM, Twitter and Facebook. We can even start our car remotely with our phone and watch the Taliban on You Tube. All of these things have become the way we exist, so ultimately there is no need for a robot. Robots R Us. 

So, as long as we’re this far along…why not make the chips small enough, oh…they are already? Well, WTH, simply implant that puppy in our bodies somewhere.  Why not? We’re already there. It’s the world we live in. 

Well… don’t look at me like that. I can see you through the chip in my head.

Oh, by the way…I have incorporated a Referral/Drawing Registration Form on my website. Each month there will be a new drawing. So sign up and stay tuned for that. JH

Starting at the beginning…

Orphan girl takes care of her sister

Just finished helping Angel Of Mercy’s Executive Director set up a blog, get her Twittering and start a Facebook cause. They’re not perfect, but just the beginning of her social networking.  Her hope is to stay in contact with her supporters, gain new supporters and raise funds so she can keep helping HIV/AIDS patients and orphans in her home country of Cameroon. Well, spending 8 hours on a Sunday with her is the least I can do for those babies.

But, we all know the set up was the easy part… the hard part is keeping all these sites current.  As we sat outside my office, laptops…well in our laps… I invited all my contacts in my database to join her cause. It wasn’t long and I started recieving emails, right in front of her, from my contacts that they were joining her cause…she was pumped.

Can you believe all that networking was free? It cost us time, an a few hamburgers and two bored children. But, that was a small price to get something more substantial going for the babies who live in sadness and pain every day.

Oh darn, I forgot to tell her about joining LinkedIn and setting up a group. Next time.

Refine, Redefine.

I happened on this great video  on  Zeal Optics this  morning. The video tells the story about redefining and refining our marketing and management. We can all take a lesson from them on how they are refining who they are, redefining their focus and image. How have you retooled your business in this downturn?

Singing Praises Of Bing and Yahoo

Here’s why I love Bing and Yahoo. I ranked 3rd on Bing when companies were searching for Effective Marketing Strategies. I was delighted to rank 1st when companies searched for Efficient Marketing Strategies on Yahoo search.
How did I discover this?

I read my Google Analytics report and saw that I had 15% organic visits, top bill from Bing and 2nd place from Yahoo.

Even after all my dissing of SEO, I was thrilled to see my company’s ranking. The reason I don’t really think it is worth putting lots of effort into it, my business grows from word of mouth, like most people.

The rankings are great, because it tells me that I have my website set up to receive searches… so whoever you are out there…now that you found me…call me and let’s do business together! Then I may become a believer in the value of SEO. JH

Win Win Collaboration

Businesses are working with each other to be more effective and efficient these days. Lots of networking, collaborating and outsourcing to reduce costs and increase business.

Enjoying Girls Night Out with Love and Faith

One fine example is the shopping district in Excelsior Minnesota. A good friend took me to House of Amore & Fede. I observed the fun of collaboration at work. They’ve joined together with other businesses to create reasons for shopping with live music, promotions and a Girls Night Out theme.

Did I mention that these women also are very active in doing fund raisers for World Vision and orphans around the world? They are doing a good work in their communities and in the world.

Anyway, a great time was had by all at their Girls Night Out, and it was a great example of win-win collaboration!

How could you collaborate to make things happen for your business?

A slow but sure metamorphosis

I was talking with a good friend who owns a small business. She happens to be my horse trainer, so as we have our lesson, I get my therapy and she gets marketing advice.  We inspire each other. I love hearing about her day to day operations and how she as the owner is involved in every aspect day to day. Awhile back, I gave her some tips for her website and over time she has implemented a number of them. The thing that inspires me most is that while doing the web changes, she also began to redefine her business. It seems as if we have become a very visual society and when we take the time to refine our online image, we begin to redefine how we want the world to see us. An added bonus is that our eyes are opened to what is working and what isn’t. Since then, she identified her strengths and began innovating around them.  She’s added activities that complement her core business. An example is Ladies Night and a Horse Spa. These activities improve customer loyalty and attracts new business.  By refining her visual image on the web, it helped her see what was of real value to her bottom line.

I’ve watched the metamorphisis over the past year. She’s let go of some activities that didn’t help drive her business. I watched the changes happen and over the course of this slowing economy, her business is as busy as ever. Coincidence? I think not. While redefining her website, it made her aware of her strengths and what added value to her bottom line. This takes me back to the reinvention, refining and redefining in 2009 in my newsletter.

I think we’re all doing our share of refining, redefining and reinvention in light of the economy. Many are finding that refining ourselves, as in refining of gold, only makes us of more value to our customers and prospects as well. This video is for inspiration… So get to it. Refine yourself…. JH

Productivity in the Blogosphere

Seems like everyone’s doing it these days; twittering, linking in, blogging, social networking, etc. However, not all social networking sites are created equal and not everyone uses the sites to their advantage. I say pick one and do it well, or leave them alone. Categorize the sites you are on and prioritize your time on them for effectiveness. You measure effectiveness by return on investment. How much are you getting out of the sites and how much time are you putting in. My daughter is a recruitment specialist and uses Linked In as her primary prospecting and networking tool. She intentionally, actively and creatively uses Linked In to find potential hires for her clients. Linked In provides her all the information she could dream of on potential candidates. What impresses me is that she controls it, it doesn’t control her. So often these tools become a distraction and  pull away from productivity instead of adding to it. Blogging and activities on other networking sites needs to be measurable and somehow monetized to show tangible value. So, tell the truth, what is your return for the time spent blogging and networking? You might check this site out to learn how to use Linked In for greater effectiveness. JH