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Behind the scenes in WorkingMomsOnly.com, MaryEllen Tribby is continuously adding incredible resources for the community of working moms. We are proud to announce three additions to our Expert panel of contributors.Watch this video and find out who is going to help you make this year your best.
After the video,you too can be a part of this community by taking a look here: workingmomsonly.com
By MaryEllen Tribby
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going” is a motto your more resilient and clever CEO’s and marketing professionals adopt while their meek counter parts tend to bury their heads in the sand during these tough economic times.
Yes, times are still tough, and people are still scared regardless of their current income level.
And rightly so, many people who are in decision-making jobs feel a sense of responsibility to their employers, their colleagues and their staff. Very often these folks have a knee-jerk reaction and cut marketing dollars before weighing the consequences.
In reality, cutting your marketing budget in a bad economy is the last thing you should do. This is not the time to focus less on marketing … rather the opposite. The beauty of marketing in the 21st century is that many of the marketing channels available to you are cheap, easy and fast to execute.
The cost of entry has never been lower (and I am not just talking email marketing), there has never been more niche markets available and it has never been easier with today’s technology to accurately measure the impact of your marketing efforts and make educated decisions about going forward to plan cohesive multi-channeled marketing campaigns.
Smart companies that continue to grow and prosper during hard economic times understand the value of multi-channel marketing:
Regardless of which channels you use you should never promise anything that you aren’t going to be able to deliver. In fact, you should always be over delivering on the promises you make in your marketing copy. Remember that integrity is the key.
For the most part, direct e-marketing is a two- step process. The first process is to develop a list of people who will accept your promotional messages. This list is built through the use of banner ads, insert ads and asking for your customers’ email addresses. The second step is to send them your direct response promotions. These are usually longer sales letters, much like direct mail.
It is also imperative that you are involved in the conversation on your own site. To ignore your own customers (on your website or others) is an unforgivable mistake in today’s interconnected world. You must always be answering their questions, responding to their complaints, exploring opportunities, announcing new products, listing upcoming events, reminding them of deadlines. The list is endless.
It’s very important to target your press releases to specific publications and media outlets whose customers you want to reach. Rather than sending out 1,000 general press releases about a story that has general appeal, it’s much more effective to send out a dozen or so targeted press releases containing stories that are exactly right for the intended audiences. It’s simply quality vs. quantity.
To find your joint venture “soul mate” think about the major players in your marketplace. Consider the strengths and weaknesses of each. Ask yourself how you might benefit from working with them. Make a list of potential partners and develop a strategy to approach them and show them how they could benefit from doing business with you. The idea is to develop joint venture relationships that are easy to maintain, financially profitable, intellectually rewarding, and long lasting.
Regardless of how many channels you use and which ones they are, smart companies understand ROI (return on investment).
If you see a company, perhaps one of your competitors advertising often and in multiple channels -- chances are it is a healthy company. Study that company, is there something they are doing that you can implement.
If you are interested in expanding your company’s reach, try incorporating multi-channel marketing campaigns into your business model. But to make sure you spend the appropriate amount of time on each channel (for the revenue generated) check out my #1 Amazon.com best-seller, Changing the Channel: 12 Easy Ways to Make Millions for Your Business
By Joyce Bone
Do you want to boost your selling power? Then, add power to your persuasion.
How can you add power to your persuasion? How can you become more effective at persuading your customers to buy?
Here’s my top 10:
(1) Be positive
I’m from Georgia. We kinda talk funny sometimes but never underestimate us. Here’s what one successful insurance salesmen from South Georgia, had to say, "You can no more sell something you don't believe in, than you can come back from some place you ain't been."
Successful salespeople are positive people.
They have positive mental attitudes about themselves, the companies they represent, the products or services they're selling, the prospects they're attempting to persuade, the country they live in. They're positive about everything. There is no room for “stinkin’ thinkin’” when you are committed to making great things happen in your life!
Enthusiasm is contagious. When you're excited about life and the work you're doing, you can persuade with power, because you can get other people excited. Passion sells my friends!
(2) Prospect
Successful salespeople have learned to direct their persuasive power toward people who have the resources to buy and have good reasons to buy what they are selling.
Successful salespeople pinpoint prospects who are likely to provide long-term profitability. They analyze the possibilities for cross-selling. They know that it takes an average of three calls to cross-sell an existing customer but seven to sell to a new customer.
In short, the powerful persuader targets all efforts at the person who has the resources, the motivation, and the authority to buy, and the potential for profitable repeat sales.
(3) Prepare
The average salesperson will work like crazy to get an appointment, then blow the opportunity with a poor presentation after the decision-maker has agreed to the interview.
You don't make sales to busy people by rambling on for 40 minutes about features and benefits. Usually, after such disjointed presentations, neither the salesperson nor the prospect can summarize what's just been said.
Professional salespeople always do their homework. They know that the better they're prepared, the more persuasive they'll be when they walk in to make a presentation.
They research to find out everything they need to know about the prospect. They plan what they will show and what they will say. And they practice, practice, practice.
There is a great book out there called, “How to Get Your Point Across in 60 Seconds or Less” by Milo O. Frank. I bought it as a joke to give my mother-in-law for Christmas. She didn’t laugh.
(4) Perform
Amateur salespeople complain furiously when they are beaten out by a competitor. The customer was no idiot. The complainer was just outperformed by a more competitive salesperson.
Remember: People don't buy; they're sold. In fact, nothing is ever bought. Everything has to be sold. If you don't make a strong presentation, you can't persuade your prospect to buy.
Powerful persuaders are like stage actors playing to a full house. They are artists at making their presentations. They're entertaining and informative to watch and hear.
To succeed in business, you have to make every second of every minute of your "action time" count.
(5) Be perceptive
Powerful persuaders are alert to everything that happens during a sales interview.
They are not preoccupied with personal problems, with airline schedules, or even with the next call they are going to make. They know that reaching a sales goal always begins with making the sale at hand.
Powerful persuaders tune into their prospects and look for the motivating forces in the life of each. Once they discover that motivating force, they play to the motivation.
To add power to your persuasion, learn to read your prospects and to discover the motivations they have to buy or not to buy.
(6) Probe
Average salespeople do a lot of talking. That's why silence is so threatening to most salespeople. The instant a prospect pauses to take a breath, the amateur will jump in with a sales spiel, just to break the silence.
But powerful persuaders use questions to diagnose the needs and concerns of a prospect much as a skilled physician uses them to diagnose the problems of a patient.
They become masters at asking penetrating questions, and they use those questions to draw prospects into the selling process.
(7) Personalize
The most powerful word in selling is you.
The emphasis on you marks the difference between manipulative and non-manipulative selling.
Manipulative selling is self-centered. It focuses on what the salesperson wants and needs.
Non-manipulative selling is client-centered. It focuses on the needs and desires of the prospect.
A person who is looking at the business proposition you are offering wants to know just one thing: What's in it for me?
If you want to add power to your persuasion, personalize every part of your presentation to meet your prospect's own personal needs and wants.
(8) Please
Powerful persuaders seek to close sales by pleasing their clients. When prospects become excited about the idea of owning what you're selling, they become customers.
Professional salespeople know that they can't force their prospects to buy. Their challenge is to make them want to buy. So they seek to please them in so many ways that they create the desire to buy.
(9) Prove
Salespeople with selling savvy don't make statements they can't back up with facts.
And they don't expect their clients to accept at face value everything they say. They are always prepared to prove every claim they make -- to back up those claims with hard data, with test results, and with performance records.
One of the best ways to persuade by proving is to give proof statements from people who are happy with your products or services. Third-party endorsements go a long way in building credibility for your claims, and for your products.
Facts and testimonials are very persuasive. Learn to use them, and become a powerful persuader.
(10) Persist
Call on good prospects as many times as it takes to sell them. About 80% of sales are made on the fifth call or later. Yet studies have shown that:
· 50% of America's salespeople call on a prospect one time, and quit.
· 18% call on a prospect twice, and give up.
· 7% call three times, and call it quits.
· 5% call on a prospect four times before quitting.
· Only 20% call on a prospect five or more times before they quit.
It's that 20% who close 80% of the sales in America.
You don't have to become a dynamic personality to sell. You don't have to put pressure on people, or out-talk people to sell.
The most effective thing you can do is to apply your own selling savvy to these ten ways to add strength to your persuasion.
Learn how to persuade more effectively and you will boost your selling power.
***
As a stay at home mom, Joyce Bone took a $10,000 risk and co founded EarthCare, an environmental company. It grew into a $125 million dollar NASDAQ traded powerhouse. Her book Millionaire Moms – The Art of Raising a Business and a Family at the Same Time http://www.millionairemomsbook.com shares her phenomenal success story and that of 35 millionaire moms who share their best advice and insights on how you too can achieve your dreams! She considers her most important role that of wife to Alan and mother to her three boys, Griffin, Alex and Ethan. She can be reached at joyce@millionairemoms.com.
Business is about the bottom line. Joyce helps individuals and companies grow theirs via her coaching, marketing services, & speaking engagements. Be sure to sign up for her complimentary website and ezine at http://www.millionairemoms.com.
(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5) Loading ...By MaryEllen Tribby
The first and most notable advantage of social media advertising is its low cost.
The Good . . .
Once your website is built and running, it costs very little to get your customers and prospects to go to it. They will do it on their own almost every time you put an advertisement in front of them and every time they consider buying one of your products. If you have established e-mail contact with your customers, stimulating them to use your social media site (such as blogs and forums) costs you nothing more than the expense of composing the message. Expensive list or space fees do not apply.
The next thing that should be said about social media is its wide reach. When a social message catches fire, it can travel around the world, to millions of people, in a matter of weeks or even days. The main reason for this is the Internet. But other media are often involved too. It is not unusual for a hot Internet message or video to be picked up by radio, television, magazines, or newspapers. Sometimes, all of these media jump on the subject at one time.
Social media is also a superb way to gather information about your customers, their wants and desires, and to deal with any business problems you may be encountering. Social media advertising is the most effective way to establish, defend, and boost your company’s credibility.
Social marketing has many potential benefits. But there are draw- backs too. Of all the advertising channels, social marketing is the one that offers the longest odds.
The Bad . . .
The reason social marketing can be difficult is because of the channel itself. It is big and it is powerful, but it is not controllable by the marketer. In some cases, it can backfire by turning into negative publicity.
This is especially true if you try to use social media dishonestly. If you misrepresent yourself online, you will most likely get caught and suffer the consequences. The online world will quickly turn against you with a wave of very bad buzz across cyberspace. This will result in lost sales, public outrage, and more.
So how do you use social media dishonestly? Shady marketers have created fake profiles of “fans” on social networking sites like MySpace in order to promote their products. They’ve also created “consumer” blogs that were written by their company’s PR department.
And The Ugly . . .
In one widely publicized recent case, Whole Foods’ CEO John Mackey was caught posting negative comments about a competitor on Yahoo Finance message boards. He used a pseudonym during the entire eight-year run of trash talk. Many believe his goal was to drive down the stock price of the competitor so that Whole Foods could easily take it over. That allegation was enough to get the SEC involved.
In another case, Wal-Mart’s PR firm hired two journalists to travel across the United States in an RV, visiting stores along the way. Posing as ordinary people, the reporters collected overwhelmingly pro Wal- Mart interviews with employees and customers and posted them on their blog. Around the same time, the same PR firm created a fake grassroots campaign in which a mom, part of a working-class family, sang the praises of the retail giant. Savvy Internet surfers soon realized the “bloggers” in both cases were hired guns, and spread the news online.
Honesty is a key asset with social media, not only because of the consequences if you get caught “faking it,” but because of the creative strengths you enjoy when you figure out how to promote the core values and qualities of your company and products through this channel.
These are the main principles that apply to social media advertising:
* The Message Is for the Medium. When creating an event, writing a press release, or crafting a video for viral marketing, think about what people are interested in, not what you want to show them. Nobody in the major social media is likely to be interested in a new product you create or a new development in your company. But if you can reposition your news so that it will be interesting to the greater public, you have a good chance of getting coverage. The trick to writing good press releases and/or informational videos is to study the media beforehand. Figure out what types of stories/videos they like to run, and tailor your piece to match.
* Audacity Is Everything. When developing a news story or event, be aggressive in your conception. Big stories are generally better than small ones. Crazy events are more interesting than sane ones. Odd or funny videos get more play than conventional ones. But when thinking audaciously, be calculating. Study the media’s preferences. Determine what kind of odd, crazy, and/or funny messages they like to feature.
* Respect the Priorities. Records are more interesting than lists. Lists are more interesting than facts. Social media loves world records, even world records for obscure and silly things. Next to world records, social media loves lists, especially top-10 lists: forecasts, trends, favorite picks, and so on. The best movies of the year, the best albums of the year, the best electronic gadgets, and the best travel destinations are examples of lists that are popular in social media. People have strong opinions about these subjects, and such lists can generate a lot of discussion among those who disagree with the ratings. Think of how your business can generate your own world records and top-10 lists.
* Give Them Something to Talk About. Everyone likes a scandal and controversy. If you can figure out how to sex up your message, try it.
* Simplicity Is a Virtue. When announcing your news, express it in the simplest possible language. Simple language gives you two big advantages. First, it is easier to comprehend. Second, it is easier for people to remember and repeat, like a catchy sound bite that you may hear on TV. Think of how quickly catchphrases from the sitcom Seinfeld (“yada, yada, yada,” or “no soup for you”) passed into everyday usage.
* 6. Make It Brief. The core concept of the message—the part you want people to remember—should be short enough to print on the subject line of an e-mail or in the headline of a magazine article.
If you are interested in expanding your company’s reach, try incorporating social media into you multi-channel marketing campaigns. But to make sure you spend the appropriate amount of time on this channel (for the revenue generated) check out my #1 Amazon.com best-seller, Changing the Channel: 12 Easy Ways to Make Millions for Your Business
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...By Noah St. John
I’m about to save you a ton of time, money and energy – because I’m about to show you how to STOP spending your hard-earned money on “self-help” products that don’t get you the results you want.
Americans spend $11 Billion a year on “self-help” products, while companies spend over $400 BILLION on professional development programs every year.
But I call this SHELF-HELP — because that’s where most of it goes — on the SHELF along with all the other stuff you’ve bought!
Take a look at that “shelf-help” you have. If you’re like most of my clients, you’ve spent $5,000 to $50,000 in the last year on “shelf-help”… or more. (In my seminars, people come up to me in tears and say that I’ve saved them over a million dollars.)
The #1 Reason Most People Struggle in Life and Business - It’s Not What You’ve Been Told
Why, with all this time, money and energy being spent on “self-help”, are so few people actually living the life they really want?
Like most vexing problems, to answer this question, we must ask a deeper question:
What Really Causes Human Behavior?
Here’s the simplest answer to that question. It’s a simple answer, because I’ve found (and I’m sure you have, too) that simple solutions lead to the best results.
The Scales of Success
Picture a balance, like the Scales of Justice in a courtroom.
On one plate, imagine you have Your Why-To’s. These are your internal motives or Reasons Why to do something. On the other plate, Your Why-Not-To’s – your internal Reasons Why Not to do something.
For example, why are you reading this right now? The answer is: because you perceive that there are more Benefits of reading this, than Cost of doing so.
Your perceived Why-To’s or Benefits of reading this, might include:
And your Why-Not-To’s or Cost might include:
Can you see that every decision you make is built upon your Why-To’s and Why-Not-To’s?
It’s all based on your Why-To’s and Why-Not-To’s!
But What Does This Have To Do With Success?
“Okay, Noah,” you’re saying. “I see that every decision I make is based on my Why-To’s and Why-Not-To’s. Are you trying to tell me I don’t want to succeed?”
After working with thousands of people in my seminars and mentorship programs, I’ve never met one person who doesn’t WANT to succeed.
Yet we’ve already seen that millions of people are holding themselves back from the success they’re perfectly capable of… even though we’re spending billions of dollars trying to fix the problem. What’s going on here?
The Hidden Reason You’re Stuck
Picture an iceberg.
Scientists at Stanford, MIT and other institutions have determined that the human mind operates like an iceberg: the 10% that’s visible (above the surface) and the 90% that’s hidden (below the surface).
The Iceberg of Consciousness
Let’s call the visible 10% your Conscious Mind, and the hidden 90% the Subconscious Mind. Another word for Conscious is intentional, because it represents CHOICE.
Your Subconscious is a vast collection of unintentional, habitual thoughts, behaviors, and actions. Therefore, the Subconscious mind is NO CHOICE.
Your Subconscious Mind is like a completely dark room. We don’t know what’s in there, because we can’t see it — it’s hidden beneath the surface like the bottom 90% of an iceberg. And when you can’t see something, it’s awfully hard to change it.
Which brings us back to the original question:
Why Millions of People Are Still Stuck… Even AFTER Spending So Much Money on Self-Help Products
Putting together our Scales of Success and Iceberg of Consciousness, the answer becomes stunningly simple:
Why do you think we’re spending all this time and money trying to be more successful? You – and everyone else – really do WANT to succeed.
But have you ever stopped to think about the Cost of actually ALLOWING YOURSELF TO SUCCEED?
I’ve asked this question of thousands of people in my seminars, and the response I get is… dead silence. I can almost hear people’s minds whirring as they ask themselves: “Gee, I never thought of that before…What could be a COST of ALLOWING MYSELF TO SUCCEED?”
When I ask my audience members to give examples of their perceived Cost of Success, they say:
Did you notice something about these Why-Not-To’s? They are all held in your Subconscious mind. Meaning: no one wakes up in the morning and says, “Today looks like a great day. I think I’ll hold myself back from success today!”
Nor does anyone say, “I think I’ll buy this book (or go to this seminar, or start this coaching program) so I can SABOTAGE myself better!”
Everyone wants to succeed — on the Conscious level.
But because your Why-Not-To’s of Success are hidden in your Subconscious mind, it’s like you’re driving down the road of life…with one foot on the brake.
How to Start Getting Your Foot Off The Brake
The best way to start getting your foot off the brake is to see why it’s there in the first place. Make a list of your Why-To’s of Success and your Why-Not-To’s of Success. List the reasons you really do want to succeed, followed by what you think you’ll “lose” when you let yourself succeed.
Share your list with a friend. You’ll be amazed at the things you never expected.
Noah’s Note: Until you get your foot off the brake, stepping on the gas harder won’t get you from where you are to where you want to be.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...By MaryEllen Tribby
The “A listers” already know it.
They may not always admit it, mainly because A+ copywriters have healthy egos and that’s ok. But they know exactly what we discussed in the last two parts of “The Holy Grail of Marketing”.
They know that “Copy is King”. And that there are three components that govern the success of any promotion: the quality of the list and media you select, the offer you present to the prospect, and the copy you use.
Of these three, the list is the most important, the offer is next, and the copy is third. The right offer with great copy mailed to a bad list will produce zero results. Mediocre copy with a mediocre offer mailed to a great list can produce good results. That said, selecting qualified lists and framing attractive offers is less difficult than crafting great copy. That is why in direct response advertising, copy is king.
Even if you never plan on writing your own advertising copy, you MUST understand the fundamental rules of writing effective copy.
Learn it or perish
Don’t proselytize. Preach to the converted.
One of the tenets of direct-response marketing is to target the sales effort to qualified prospects: people who have already demonstrated an interest in buying products and services similar to those you are selling. Trying to sell a watch to someone who has never bought a watch before is an uphill battle at best. Most of the time, your advertising will be directed at proven buyers—enthusiasts, as it were. When writing to enthusiasts, you should write enthusiastically and remind them constantly of what they already believe—that buying your product will make them feel good, the same way it has made them feel in the past.
The 10 Golden Rules of Power Packed Copy!
1. Start with the prospect. Many beginning direct response copywriters make the mistake of spending too much ink touting the product, describing all its features at length and in detail. This is an understandable mistake when writing about a new and exciting product. But the direct marketer must keep in mind that the prospect doesn’t really care about the product. All he really cares about is himself and how the product might be able to help him. Keep that in mind when you write copy. Ask: “What is my best customer thinking about? What’s keeping him up at night? What is he dreaming about?” Figure out the answers to those questions, and your copy will never stray far from the mark.
2. Long copy out-pulls short copy. This principle is highly controversial. Many Internet copywriters believe that the nature of the Internet—which makes it necessary for prospects to read copy on a screen—favors short copy. Although short copy can sometimes work very well, hundreds of tests that we have seen prove the old direct-mail maxim to be true: Other things being equal, longer copy is usually better.
3. When it comes to long copy, the lead is 80 percent of the game. A typical direct-mail or e-mail promotion has three parts: the lead, the body, and the close. The lead is usually less than 20 percent of the whole, but it carries the responsibility of conveying the “big idea” of the sales message and provoking an appropriate emotion in the reader. If you can do that consistently in your e-mail promotions, you will have a great deal of success.
4. In crafting a lead, stick with the proven six. There are dozens of ways to begin a long-form sales letter, but in the history of direct response, six have dominated. These are: offer/promise, invitation, problem/solution, secret, story, and prediction. If you can figure out which of these six leads works best for the offer you are making, your chances of success will skyrocket.
5. All leads range from being very direct to very indirect. Direct leads are those that are obviously sales pitches. Indirect leads appear to be doing something else. Each approach has its strengths and weaknesses. Effective e-mail marketers make wise use of both.
6. Given two packages with equally strong leads, the one that is well-balanced will do better. A well-balanced promotion has four aspects: idea, benefit, credibility, and track record. We call this “the secret of the four-legged stool,” because if your promotion has all four of these “legs,” it will be well balanced and it won’t topple over.
7. When composing headlines and bullets, details matter. Make your headlines and bullets more powerful by focusing on what we call “the four U’s”: uniqueness, usefulness, urgency, and ultra-specificity.
8. Every product needs a unique selling proposition (USP). Essentially, the USP is what makes your product stand out from the competition and gives your prospect a good reason to buy from you. Ignore this principle at your peril.
9. Benefits are better than features—and deeper benefits are better than superficial benefits. For example, don’t tell a prospect that the car you are selling has good tires and suspension. Those are features. Instead, describe how, because of those features, they’ll be able to maneuver easily through rush-hour traffic and avoid accidents with dangerous drivers. If you understand the deeper benefits your product offers, suggest them (indirectly, not directly) in the copy.
10. Write to one person at a time in the language you would use if you were talking to that person face-to-face. That doesn’t always mean informal language. But it does mean conversational language.
Those are not the only principles that govern direct mail and e-mail marketing, but they are 10 of the most important.
If you want to get a head start on mastering the fundamentals of direct response marketing and putting your competition to shame, check out my #1 Amazon.com best-seller, Changing the Channel: 12 Easy Ways to Make Millions for Your Business.
(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5) Loading ...By Laura Day
As mothers, it's often easy to forget to factor in a very important family member. No, not the dog, YOU! Everyone else's needs come first and you tend to judge yourself on how well you fill those needs. However, the most important lesson your child will ever learn is to be part of a community and to consider the needs of every member.
As you know, children learn by example. By having your own needs and empowering your child to help fill them, you become a good role model. You don't want your child to become a martyr, because although they are often depicted in a romantic light, martyrs embody a pathological state. You want them to know what they need, to express those needs directly and in a manner that allows others to respond.
How can you model this for your child?
1. Be organized about your routine and daily tasks. Find ways that your child can really help. This is different from chores because their help is a direct gift to you. Make it something personal, like helping you remember your cell phone in the morning or bringing you a glass of water when you are working.
2. Although everyone is an individual, many studies have shown that there is telepathy in families—a merging of feelings and thought between people. Verbally state what you are feeling, in age appropriate terms so that your child can participate. For example, "I am feeling busy/tired/happy/nervous. I would love it if….."
3. Find ways your child can participate in activities that you enjoy and raise them with the manners to do so. Victorians had a separate world from their children, but today you may feel obliged to do "kiddy things" all of the time. An art opening, dinner with friends, grocery shopping, and even a doctor's appointment can be an opportunity to enjoy and support each other while teaching your child to find mobile and appropriate places to be part of a community. Just bring a portable activity bag; I always bring one for myself!
4. Families create unintentional mythology. Create an intentional one with statements like, “we are a family that makes our guests feel comfortable.” “We are a family that shares.” Acknowledge when you make mistakes, which will make it more equitable when you have to do the same with your child. Children have a black and white sense of what's fair. So be fair and insist that situations are fair to you. This will set the ground for a future of honest negotiation with your child.
5. Although every parent has tried, you cannot be in two places at once. Use telepathy as a source of pleasure for both of you by making time during the day or a missed event when you think of each other in a healing or loving way. With pre-verbal children, you can have a caretaker use a "talking card" from a gift store. Your child can open the card and hear a loving message in your voice. Paste photos of the two of you together on the card. This affirms not only positive telepathy and object constancy, but the awareness that you and your standards and love are present, even when you are not. Remember, all children become teenagers!
6. Do your homework when your child does theirs. Parallel play is the first way we interact and can help you spend quality time with your child while doing things for yourself.
7. Allow your children to be wise for you and listen to yourself, not friends, experts and statistics when it comes to them. As babies and small children, intuition is the first capacity your brain has to survive in the absence of experience or reason. It can be easily redirected to give both you and your child a unique and loving guide to creating family.
Your child wants your approval and your happiness. In fact, allowing your child to be of use will empower them to be of value to you, themselves and their ever-expanding community.
***
Laura Day is an internationally known speaker, teacher and consultant. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller "Practical Intuition," as well as "The Circle: How the Power of a Single Wish Can Change Your Life, " "Welcome to your Crisis: How to Use the Power of Crisis to Create the Life you Want and How to Rule the World From Your Couch”. Laura Day's clients range from Hollywood's most powerful stars to Fortune 500 Companies, and her successes have been covered by leading global media such as CNN, Good Morning America, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, ABC News, Oprah, Martha Stewart Living and People Magazine.
You can purchase How to Rule the World from Your Couch on Amazon.com using this link:
http://www.amazon.com/How-Rule-World-Your-Couch/dp/1439118205
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...“Hey Sam, how’s Spencer doing? And how does Holly like being a big sister?”
As Sam, an industry colleague, answered my questions with a huge smile on his face I could not help but notice the quizzical look on our fellow colleague Patty’s face.
Later, while sitting at lunch, Patty asked me how long it had been since I had talked to Sam. When I told her it was at least two months ago, again she looked shocked. She asked how I remembered the names of his six-month-old son and two-year-old daughter.
Patty told me that she was simply not a “kid person” and even though she sees Sam almost every day she had no idea what his kids’ names were.
How sad, I thought.
As I mentioned, Patty, Sam, and I run in the same industry circles. I see them two to three times a year at business events.
But Patty and Sam work closely together. Patty has been in meetings and out to lunch and even social events where Sam has talked about his new baby boy. Yet Patty did not think it was important to remember his child’s name. This isn’t just a social faux-pas. It’s a big business mistake.
Building strong relationships is one of the most important business tools you can master. When you have good relationships running your business is so much easier. People respond to you faster and are willing to go that extra mile for you.
Once word was out that I was starting my new business I had nearly one hundred emails and/or phone calls from industry colleagues offering assistance. These offers included advertising my business to their customers, copywriting, product development and brainstorming.
Over the years I have cultivated numerous business relationships. I recently examined them and tried to figure out what made them work. Here’s what I found:
1. Know something personal about the people you do business with. Some people don’t believe in mixing business with pleasure. But your business should be your pleasure! Think about how much time you spend on your business. It makes it so much nicer to know what’s important to your colleagues. For anyone who has kids, there is nothing more important to them. Make an effort to know their children’s names.
Or if your colleague is an avid golfer or tennis player; ask them how his game is going. This doesn’t have to monopolize the entire conversation. But it is a great way to start off a business lunch or meeting, especially if you have not seen that person in a while.
2. Always be sincere. Has this ever happened to you? You are at a conference, and you meet someone in your industry. You seem to hit it off well and you think this could be a good business connection. Your new business connection even initiates the card exchange and says, “Call me anytime.” You follow up right away with a phone call or email… and nothing happens. After a few weeks of trying, you realize it’s a dead end.
If you have no intention of cultivating a relationship do not give the impression otherwise. It’s really ok not to offer cards at conferences. And if someone asks you if they can call and you know you are not interested – tell them up front. Be polite and respectful but never give the impression that you are going to do something when you know will not.
3. Respond to colleagues in a timely manner. We are all busy. Someone else’s biggest priority is usually not our own. However, if you agree to do something for someone, do it in a timely manner.
Recently a colleague wrote a book and wanted some feedback on his first chapter. Unfortunately, his request went onto my junk email folder. When I saw the request three days later, I immediately sent him an email explaining the situation and told him I would read the chapter right away and send him my comments.
It was 11:00 p.m. when I saw the request, but I still read the chapter and sent off my comments right before midnight. Sure, I would rather have gone to bed and done it in the morning. But I knew this was important to him. We had been colleagues for 10 years. We had worked on multiple projects together, and he never missed a deadline.
Sure enough he was online and sent me a big thank you as soon as he received my email.
4. Always arrive on time. Fashionably late does not exist in business. Showing up late for business meetings or lunches lets the other person know you don’t respect their time and that you think your time is more valuable. It also makes one question if the project will get done on time.
5. Never use your children as an excuse. Many times the reason for not finishing a report or being late for a meeting very well may be because one of your children wasn’t feeling well, or they couldn’t find their homework or you forgot to pack school lunches.
Regardless of the reason, never walk into a business meeting that you are late for and announce that the dog ate Bobby’s’ homework and you spent the last hour redoing the assignment. Simply apologize for being tardy, ask what you missed and move on.
There will be times when real emergencies occur. At that point it is perfectly fine to let your colleagues know that you need to leave because your child needs you.
6. Be positive. No one likes to be around cranky people. Beside the fact that cranky people take the fun out of things, it can be draining and counter-productive. A study published in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology shows that positive people accomplish more than negative people.
7. Know something about your potential business associate’s company. If you are off to meet with a potential business associate make sure you do your homework. Understand the company’s main function and core competencies. Know how long they have been in business. Have a basic understanding of how you can work together. With the Internet, all of this information is just a keyboard away.
8. Never, ever gossip. Being known as a gossip is the fastest way to destroy a business relationship. Regardless of your skill set, no one will want to work with you. Gossip can destroy careers and takes up valuable time that could be spent on gratifying situations.
9. Give more than you get. Karma does exist. If you are known as the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) type, you need to work to change your image. When you are willing to help others without payback, it comes back to you ten-fold. Don’t get me wrong. We are all running businesses, working towards maintaining a balance life. However, helping a business colleague without the expectation of payback will be far more beneficial to you in the end.
10. Just say no. Being a working mom, we try to please everyone. However there are times when saying no to a request in business is better than saying yes. If your plate is full and you know that you will not be able to honor the request in a satisfactory manner, then don’t do it. If you know the outcome will be substandard, you are at risk of hindering your credibility, disappointing your colleagues, and missing deadlines on projects you have already committed to.
By saying no, your colleagues will actually respect you more for your honesty and commitment to finishing what you already started.
Make it your goal this year to work on this vital business building skill. Improving your relationships with business partners, colleagues, and all those you work with will bring many benefits.
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