Business Brainstorm, events
Stay tuned for a special event announcement & giveaway at the end of this post!
Many business owners – yes, me too – have a difficult time defining their own noteworthiness.
When we look at what we do, how we do it, or the story of how we got to where we’re at, all we see is unremarkable. Our day to day tasks, the services we provide, and the manner in which we live seem all seem very normal. Hardly the stuff of press releases or blog posts.
Of course your life seems normal! It’s your life!
The difficult choices you’ve made now seem like no-brainers. The lessons you’ve learned now seem like kids’ stuff. You do what you do with ease, a fair amount of practice, and some innate skill.
I hope, though, that it comes as no surprise that your customers don’t see you that way. They see you as a rock star glamor queen who lives a magical life of goals accomplished & dreams fulfilled.
It’s also worth noting here that they see none of the people you judge yourself against.
This isn’t a matter of trickery or chance. It comes from understanding that you have what others need. After all, that’s the very basis of your business. You provide a service or product that fulfills some need for your customer.
So how do you discover what’s truly noteworthy so that you can engage & delight your customers? How do you communicate your story to your customers in a way that they can relate to?
I asked Bernadette Jiwa, who specializes in helping businesses find their story:
Take a step back, walk in your client’s (or potential customer’s) shoes and anticipate how they are feeling. Then build your story and brand experience around that.
Often, we are so busy thinking like a business owner that we forget to think like a customer! Doh!
When was the last time you looked at your website, business card, or press release from a customer’s perspective? When was the last time you spent some time looking at yourself from the perspective of your best clients?
Get in the mind of one of your best customers and ask yourself:
- What do I find intriguing?
- What do I find compelling?
- What do I aspire to?
- What resonates with me? Makes me feel like she “gets it?”
Then come back to your business owner mind and ask yourself if you’re really communicating those answers to your customers. If you are finding limited success, it’s quite possible that some people are putting two + two together but that you can help many more people discover your story!
If that still leaves you a bit confused, I’m excited to say that I’ll be hosting a Q&A call with Bernadette Jiwa herself next week, Wednesday, March 23 at 8:30pm Eastern. Click here to register.
We’ll also be giving away TWO of Bernadette’s signature Brand Storming sessions to people who join us LIVE on the call. They’re worth $497 a piece. Yeah, you want that.
If you want a chance to ask real questions about your real story, win a killer Brand Storming session, and just absorb some great information on discovering the story of your business, register for this FREE call now.
{ image by omar omar }
Business Brainstorm
In any discussion of social media, blogging, networking, or any means of connecting one person to another, there is an inevitable point of resistance for many: I am an introvert.
Wallflower, you bring me joy.
You there in the corner, shy, soft-spoken, it’s time to turn your intro out.
It might surprise you to know that many of your entrepreneurial role models are introverts: Chris Guillebeau, Darren Rowse, Chris Garrett…
Me.
You don’t have to be a wam-bam-thank-ya-mam extrovert to get ahead in business. To build a network. To create a following of loyal fans.
You need to know your strengths, as they relate to yourself & to others.
Your inward business plan…
As an introvert, you lead a rich internal life. Instead of having an intuitive sense of others, you probably have an intuitive sense of yourself. You know what works for you, how you will react to different situations, what excites you, and why certain stimulus shuts you down.
That knowledge is invaluable in building a business platform that works for you – regardless of if it has been done before.
Your outward social profile…
Introverts naturally gravitate to low barrier social tools like blogging or Twitter. There, we can prepare our thoughts, research our answers, and quietly observe. Skills we’ve honed but rarely get to use in more immediate social circumstances.
The real trick in using social media as an introvert is learning to reveal the process. Instead of closing up your social process deep inside, letting it out – allowing others to see how you work through conversations, experiences, and questions – will naturally bring a sense of expertise, authority, and transparency to the profile you’re building.
Your growing relationships…
So much of building a business is nurturing relationships. Extroverts may have an easy time of finding new people to add to their ever-expanding network. But introverts rule the roost when it comes to taking those relationships to deeper levels.
With much of our lives lived at superficial-at-best levels, a business owner who takes the time to cultivate deep, lasting relationships with her customers, partners, and colleagues is a business owner worth investing in.
Introverts do well with deep relationships and conversations rather than chit-chat. Be generous in introducing people to each other as well. Then it’s easier for you to ask for introductions from your good contacts.
Nancy Ancowitz, author Self Promotion for Introverts (via Inc Magazine)
The internet has made it possible to connect to surprisingly perfect people. Perfect for you, that is. Take advantage of the low barriers and starting forming relationships that matter.
Use our own inner mind work to work out what others are feeling & experiencing and use that to connect with them. You may not be able to do that in real time or in person but give it an extra 30 seconds and you might be a social situation master! Conducting business in the online space allows you to do just that.
Your sense of self…
When it comes down to it though, as an introvert, it’s often lack of confidence in yourself that creates the biggest barrier to social exploration.
The good news is that the digital age means that your “authentic self” can still be a persona. In fact, developing a persona can help you get in touch with the deepest truths of our own quiet selves.
If you meet me at a conference or workshop, you would likely pass me by pretty quickly. Although I’m working on my social shortcomings, I’m not close to be where I’d like to be. I don’t ask the right questions, my stories ramble, and my words are awkward.
But my personal brilliance is bubbling just below the surface.
Online, I allow that brilliance to shine through. That is who I am. I know that I ask the right questions, tell remarkable stories, choose the right words (at least sometimes!), and make you feel at ease.
It’s not that the digital world allows me to be someone I am not, it’s that the barriers to my own sense are broken down.
Introvert, it’s your time to shine.
How can you challenge yourself to allow your own personal brilliance to brighten the lives of others today?
Business Brainstorm
This post is part of the Brilliant Marketing Tricks series over at Heartmade Blog
What I’m about to share is not a trick. It’s a smart way to turn ambiguous problems into a successful business model.
Offering services – whether it’s web design, virtual assistance, social media marketing, coaching, or teaching – and developing ecourses is a fantastic way to grow a business or add another layer to a successful one. But just slapping up services on your website won’t bring the clients in.
In order to sell teaching or services and build a thriving business you need two things: a need & a magnifying lens.
You can’t teach something people don’t want to learn. Well, you can, but it would be a lot like playing school with a classroom full of teddy bears and Barbie dolls. And if you try to teach something without a unique perspective (that’s where the magnifying lens comes in), you’re just trying to sell Googling services and people don’t pay for Google.
In the end, marketing is all about matching the right people with the right product to fulfill their need. So the key to crafting a service that sells is to find a need, fill it, and then find a way to tip off the right people to your solution.
Identifying Needs
When we consider what we want to sell, we think of just that: what WE want. Luckily, we’re not buying our services – there’s no profit in that.
Instead, when considering your services package or your newest ecourse, it’s of utmost importance that you continually look to your potential customer, your existing audience, as the source for the product you’re designing.
- What problem needs solving?
- What itch needs scratching?
- What are they already buying?
- Why doesn’t it work?
- What constraints do they have?
Looking through your brainstorming, you’ll no doubt see problems you have no interest in solving. Others will seem too hard. Still more will seem too easy.
Pick one that you have a strong reaction to.
Consider how you could mold and shape this need. Consider how you already deal with it on a day to day basis. Consider what parts of the problem are easy and what parts are difficult.
Most importantly, consider the experience your audience has around this need. Is it frustrating? Terrifying? Does it leave them feeling stupid? Does it just take too much time?
Of course, you can’t teach something you’re no good at. And you don’t want to teach something you’re not interested in. But the genesis of the idea comes from the customer. Even if the need you identify isn’t particularly interesting to you, there are ways of bending it to your will.
Using Your Magnifying Lens
Danielle LaPorte teaches that your business should be centered around what comes easily to you. I agree. We often shy away from what is easy because other people could do it too, our customers could do it for themselves, or people would never pay a premium for it.
Bologna.
If you build your skills around what comes easily to you, you’re virtually guaranteed a great marketing strategy.
And here’s where you need to whip out the magnifying lens.
What comes easily to you is not quite enough around which to build a business or a brand. Take your ease, your shining personality, your unique perspective and look at them through your magnifying glass.
- What details really stand out?
- What have you not noticed before?
- What looks really funny all blown up?
Now, how can you use the magnifying lens to turn what is easy to you into what is marketable? Use what stands out.
For instance, don’t stop at saying you have a passion for helping people. Sure, I have a passion for helping people too. I call mine “Brainstorming” and I let everyone know that I think big. I’m not afraid of the big ideas that you need to move your business forward. I won’t just “help you,” I’ll shift your thinking. I’ll take your small thinking and bust right on through it.
You know you have small thinking. I have big thinking. We work well together. Simple as that – that’s marketing at it’s best. Matching needs with the product or service that fits it BEST.
Brainstorming & big thinking are the details you see when you look at my business with a magnifying lens. “Helping people” just kinda blends in. Build your service or ecourse around the unique details, the thing you can’t get anywhere else, your sense of humor, your affinity for the magical arts, or passion for Pokemon. Just don’t make it boring.
If your brand, your service, or your ecourse – let alone you – is indistinguishable from the crowd, you have nothing to market. All you can do is hope something picks you instead of the 500 other options out there.
If you have a service built around your passion for Pokemon, I guarantee you’re going to find the right people.
If under the magnifying lens, your unique perspective is like a red ant in an army of black ants, the people who are looking for you will spot you right away. The people who need to find a red ant for their red ant colony will scoop you up and take you home.
Marketing a service or ecourse is as simple as finding a need, creating a solution, and using your unique perspective to find the right people for the product. While the idea for your service may start with your customers’ need, it’s sold on the unique details you have to offer. It spreads because of the manner in which you translate your own passion into the mundane. Your customers share it because they identify with the details, not so much with the problem you’re helping them solve.
Consider how you can help your customers today. Then grab your magnifying glass and look for your unique solution.
{ image by jonny2love }
Business Brainstorm
What assumptions do you make about your business? About the way it operates? The amount of income it can earn? About the way your customers buy… even who they are?
In Chris Guillebeau’s brand new book, The Art of Non-Conformity, his mantra is:
“you don’t have to live your life the way other people expect you to.”
Chris challenges everyone to live the life they want, redefine work, and change the world. No short order. And his book is a beyond-basics guide for doing just that.
But I won’t spoil anything from the book, I just want you to think about that first guiding principle:
“you don’t have to live your life the way other people expect you to.”
At the heart of this principle, is that people make assumptions about the way you’re “supposed” to live. Whether it’s our parents or our friends or our teachers or even our children, we make assumptions about the way they view our successes & failures. Even more so, we make assumptions about what others expect from us. The thing about those assumptions is that they end up being self-fulfilling prophecies. They end up controlling us without having been given much consideration or even investigation to find out if they’re true. What assumptions do you make about what others expect from you?
Do you think that if you’re …
- an artist, you should be a starving artist?
- self-employed, you have no security?
- not happy, there are no other options?
- ta small business owner, you have to struggle to stay afloat?
- a responsible adult, you make a home & stay in one place?
If you know me, you know that I don’t believe any of those things. I agree with Chris –
you have the ability to create a life that is unique, passion-filled, and secure by following your own path.
I also believe that people’s assumptions are changing. That this kind of life is not so strange and that we have the power to challenge others assumptions and our own.
As a small business owner – or aspiring business owner, you instinctively know this already. But what you may not realize is that you’re making assumptions about your own business that could be holding you back. Do you assume that you:
- have to go it alone to make a profit?
- know what your customers want?
- have to keep prices low to get any business?
- need to put all your time into administrative tasks?
- must pursue balance at the expense of success?
Your business might be changing or maybe it was never the way you thought it was from the beginning. You’ve made assumptions about what it takes to turn a profit and how your customers interact with your brand. You’ve decided to push on through, to keep struggling, instead of waking up to the fact that things may not be as they seem.
Form your business around your hearts desires while forming your business with profit in mind.
You can create a life & a business that work together to make you happy, instead of opposing each other and leaving you frustrated.
Not every business idea we have is a good one, not every lifestyle decision we make is a positive one. But allowing assumptions about others expectations to dictate the course of our life is never positive.
Today, brainstorm what assumptions you’ve been making about your business. Examine what your customers want and how you’ve been delivering it. Dissect your product offerings, your workflow, and your business communication. Consider how your preconceptions have affected those around you. Allow yourself to devise alternatives. Embrace truth & reality instead of assumptions.
Today, I challenge you to have a business breakthrough.
Business Brainstorm
Permission: do you have it? Can you get it? Do you foster it? Do you use it or abuse it?
Seth Godin published a fantastic – no, I use that word to often – monumental piece today called A Post-Industrial A to Z Digital Battledore. In it, he lists an almost alphabetical index of ideas that are defining the post-industrial age & the new economy.
I am reading it and rereading it. And I suggest you do the same.
While many future posts will be inspired by this resource, today is brought to you by the letter P.
p is for permission
In the past, advertising was obtrusive. We noticed it – it influenced us because it disrupted our routine — a commercial in the middle of your favorite TV program. It’s a pop-up ad on the internet or a door-to-door salesman. Sometimes these ads worked but over time, we began to be able to tune them out. Eventually, regulations & technology began to screen them out. Advertisers got nervous.
But with the dawn of Web 2.0, and certainly before, came the age of permission-based marketing — ads that we welcome into our homes & our lives because they are part of the context. Blogging certainly falls into this category. Product placement ads, Facebook fan pages, email newsletters, Twitter, and brand names on t-shirts those are all permission based too.
Some marketing is done with such style, grace, humor, or usefulness that it becomes a part of us. And we invite it in.
Are you seeking permission – and, better yet, excitement – from your audience? Or are you lambasting them with product pitch after promotion after poor ad?
It’s easy to say “get on Facebook,” “get on Twitter,” “network network network” – but is your brand message one of usefulness & style or one of self-promotion?
Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch aren’t just words on a t-shirt. Those words are a brand message that says cool, stylish, hip, sexy. The brand says, “If this kid is cool enough to wear me on his chest, certainly you’re cool enough.”
Does your brand speak to the people who give you permission to talk to them?
Or does it remain a silent distraction from the goings on of daily life?
