Bulldog Marketing

Take Responsibilty!

As "Independent Professionals" a.k.a. "You do everything Yourself" you may have times where things are moving a bit quickly, and you may make a mistake or two along the way. Some mistakes may be more critical than others depending on your model of the world, and if you are like most people, you probalby take more pride in being right than being wrong.

I recently had the pleasure of making a mistake of the worst kind. I accidently charging a client 500.00 instead of 50.00, which to me is a Big-Time No No! When I realized what happened, I could have blamed the 'person who does that for me', the credit card processing company, or my computer for having a sensitive keyboard, but that only makes it worse. You need to accept responsiblity for everything you do, no matter how badly you feel when you mess up.

If you find yourself in a simular situation, I have found that it is best to say, "I screwed up, and it is completely my fault". No need for long explainations, just take total responsiblity. Then figure out what you can do to make up for the error, and follow through with the customer to make sure you have done all you can to fix the problem in their mind.

The nice thing is, you won't need have multiple meeting with a committee or get approval from your supervisior of boss to bring the issue to resolution. Do what you think is right, and do it quickly, and you may find that the biggest mistake you can make is not when you make it, but it is how you handle it when you discover it.

All or None Thinking, Isn't

I don't listen to a lot of music, but there are a few people that I really like to listen to.  John Mayer is one of them.  There is something about a guy who can sing 'Your Body is a Wonderland" to a bunch of screaming girls, and then turn around a do a song like 'Stop This Train' that makes me cry every time I listen to it because the lyrics and melody are so good.  So from time to time, I stop by his website to see what he is up to, and I don't mean to find out  whether he is dating Jessica Simpson or not.
If you haven't seen his blog, and are interested in reading great content by  someone who is an exceptional writer, check it out.  His post on Global Warming is very thought provoking and  really got me thinking about something...
Do we have to do something 100% for it to make a difference?

The Importance of Collaboration

As a self employed 'Independent Professional' you are probably working solo most of the time. I know this to be true for me. But now I really understand the power of collaboration.
We have a client who is here with us to develop some products. Not to just talk about what they want to do, and develop a long term plan, they are standing up in our 'studio' and recording stuff, and we are editing it right on the spot. The cool thing is, even though all of us working together have the same background and training in NLP, Hypnosis, Coaching and Sport Consulting, the ideas are just flowing between all of us. We aren't afraid to share and trade information with each other. After putting in long hours, we all end up feeling very energized by what is happening.
If you feel a bit burnt out or stale in your current situation, who can you turn to to collaborate with, even if it is someone that you would consider to be 'The Competition?' Go out and find someone to work with. When you share ideas and become inspired, you may find that you are unstoppable!

Keep it Simple

I attended a seminar a while back and learned 7 ways to jumpstart my business, and I admit, I have not had time to implement all 7, and probably never will. Last week, I got a call about another seminar that will teach me 21 ways to create Internet presence. Hmmm…21. That seems pretty robust but if I can’t do 7, the odds for me winning the lottery are greater than the chance that I would take action on 21. Needless to say, I passed on the seminar. Recently, due to the popularity of the movie The Secret, which is based on the Law of Attraction, I have seen a lot of revival around the 28 Laws of Attraction created by the late Thomas Leonard, who created Coachville and CoachU. So why am I rambling on about this?
Our Alphabet consists of 26 letters. From those 26 letters, people are able to communicate and express themselves to others. From those letters we verbalize our dreams, label our feelings and behavior, and even our lovely self talk whether positive or not so positive is comprised from the same little 26 letters. When I think about that, I begin to wonder if we tend to make things too complicated. I mean, how many steps should a process really have? If you are in the business of consulting or coaching and you have developed your own unique process or system, is it something that the average person is capable of actually doing? Even if you have an incredible process, if you can’t get the average person to do it, how incredible is it really?

Google...Schmoggle!

Are you having a productive day? I hope so. Normally when I post on my blog, I really try and focus on ya'll out there that read my stuff. I'm sorry, but today, it's all about ME! Here is how my morning went:
I got up early, grabbed my cold TAB (Yes, they still make TAB), sat down at my computer and started doing the daily browse. Stopped by my friends Denise & Patsi and saw this post about boosting your blog rankings.
Interesting stuff, and something a lot of you have been asking about, and so I figure you would want to know about it, so I dig a little deeper. Turns out that PageRank is actually named after Larry Page, and not physical web pages. Hmmm...Read a bit more, and find out PageRank is really about sites that link to your site which is called Backlinking. Where it gets even more interesting, is that some links don't count toward your PageRank score, which by the way is a number that they say is between 0-10. The links that don't count are links that are called No Follow links, and those are links that may come from message board posts, and even some blogs, since people could just do mass postings and link to their site, and artifically inflate their ranking. If you have real sites linking to your site, you would get credit for that link, and if you have a real well known site linking to your site, then you would get extra credit for that one. Get the picture? Hopefully that was good information for you, but remember, this is about me!

Things you probably already know

But I am going to tell you anyway. If you are looking for something serious, you won't find it here, but here are a few things that I have learned that you may find helpful:

1. According to my 'Hair Sytlist' Tony, if you have more than three bad hair days in a row, it is not your fault. You need a haircut.

2. If you have the correct shaped eyebrows, it really will make you look younger.

3. You can save yourself about 25.00 by cutting the feet out of your panty hose instead of buying Spankx, the cool body shaping device that was invented in Atlanta. The key is to cut off only the foot becuase they will roll up, but if you are wearing a wider leg pant, the roll won't show.

5. If your laptop falls off the counter onto a hard wood floor, chances are, it won't work very well after that.

6. If you have some free time tomorrow, January 4th, check out the Martha Stewart Show. They are doing a rerun with Amy Sedaris- who is hilarious, and really gives Martha a run for her money. Funny stuff.

Do you have anything to add?

What do you believe?

When I was young, I had some pretty interesting beliefs about the way things worked; like listening to the radio. One day, when we were driving in the car, I asked my mom a question that had been on my mind for several days. "How big is the lobby at KSFO radio station?" My mom looked a bit surprised, and said, "Why do you ask?" I launched into my question, "I was just wondering where all the bands and singers sit while they wait to play their songs?" My mom kind of laughed and said, "The bands and singers don't have to show up at the radio station because the radio station plays records." That never occurred to me because I had made a picture in my mind of how things were. I shrugged and thought, 'Hmmm, that makes a lot of sense'. But the cool thing about being a kid is that you can let go of something that you think is a certain way when you discover it to be different, and you don't beat yourself up for thinking it was the way it was. When we get older, I think it is strange how people hang on to their beliefs, even when contrary evidence is staring them in the face. If we understand that things are always changing, we can exchange stale thoughts for fresh ones that honor where we are in our evolution, without dissing where we have been. That is the sweet spot.

Take a stand

I have been thinking alot about this lately.

Are you in business for the money or because you love what you do? I went to an internet marketing seminar recently, and it got my hackles up big time. It seems that I could implement a 'system' and turn my computer into an ATM! Wow! How cool is that?

The funny thing is, the thought of that makes me sick.

I am not interested in making money by grabbing a few dollars from a few billion people for no purpose other than waking up and checking my account to see how rich I am. To me, I would be living a life of poverty because I would have no net worth or value of myself. The karma and laws of compensation prove this out. If you don't believe me, then look at lives of people who win the lottery.

I am interested in believing in something, and taking the next step toward making that happen by trying to provide content and information that people can take away and use, not teaching them something that creates a problem that can only be solved by the next seminar. If that is the only way that I can teach my information, then I need to go back and rethink my strategy, or at least tell prospective customers where they are in my product lifecycle. If I can work hard, think differently and have something that people want, I will be compensated farily.

I am giving huge kudos to the Blog Squad for getting this right. If you check out anything that Denise and Patsi do, it is useful, straight forward and actionable.Check out this post and you will understand what I mean. I was afraid to click on the link to get the information, because most people would have tried to get something out of me first. Not them. They haven't made a dime off of me YET, but I know when I need something, they will come to my mind first. Thanks for being a good example for me to follow.

Don't call it a blog if it is a sales pitch!

I really have a hard time with this one, and maybe I am just being bull-headed, but I don't think blogs shoud be a glorified marketing campaign that just keeps getting longer. I realize that 'Internet Marketing Gurus' know all about writing great copy, capturing your email address and building huge lists, and I think thats great! But when I go to visit their blogs, I am a bit dissappointed because I don't know any more about them or how their systems can help me then I learned from their website whose sole purpose is to capture my informaton. I get that what they have to offer is 'a real secret' and I am not looking for them to give anything away. My point is, don't say you have a blog and give me a link to it if all it is is an advertisement. I already have that information from your other one page websites.

I think having a great blog and offering real, actionable advice is a great way to build trust and a ongoing relationship with prospects and clients, and you can still collect email address by offering a special download or article that isn't available anyplace else.

At the end of the day, a 'Heeyy Yaaa" Marketer and I end up with the same thing- a list of people who are interested and have given us their email information, but I feel better asking because I know I have given poeple a chance to learn more about me, and hopefully given advice that they find useful. I often wonder what is more valuable? A huge list of people who have never really experienced you, but gave you their name to get 'behind the curtain' or a list of 1200 people that actually know you, and when you send someting out to them, 65% of them actually open it up. I guess I am more of a quality than a quantity girl.

WOOF!!

Leaping to Conclusions

Life is funny sometimes. Today I wake up (a good thing) and yes, I slept with my contacts lenses in last night. So I realize that things seem a bit blurry when I look at my email, which is a very small font. So, I take out my contacts, and put on my glasses. Hmmm...still blurry. Then the self diagnosis and wonderful helpful self talk comes in. Things like, "You know you wrecked your eyes last night because they didn't get enough oxygen", and ,"Maybe I had a stroke and didn't know it" go running through my mind. So I go and do what most people do, consult with someone who is not licensed as an eye doctor, but is a very caring individual, and happens to be right there at the time, my dear significant other. He is much more scientific than I am, so we hold a cereal box up to my eyes, and I try to read the fine print, and then focus on a tree outside. You know, Eye Exercises. We decide that I spent a lot of time on my laptop yesterday, and my eyes are probably strained. I relalize that I probably need a bigger laptop, with a crisper screen, and I go down that path for awhile. Finally, the voice of reason speaks up. You know the little voice inside you, that seems to know what is true and what isn't? It gently says, 'Blondie...why don't you try cleaning your computer screen before you spend money and time on a new laptop and lasik surgery." So I did. And guess what? I CAN SEE!!!