I’m participating in a program at my gym. For 6 weeks, every day my goal is to walk 10,000 steps. Different activities translate into a number of steps per minute. My routine varies from day to day. Some days I am dancing. On others, I take yoga, Pilates, a combination of strength and sculpting, and of course, one of my new favorites, salsa.

What You Can Measure, You Can Manage

I work out consistently and frequently. What has changed with the addition of the pedometer is my focus on reaching my goal, 10,000 steps every day. As Buckminster Fuller said “What you can measure, you can manage.” I was surprised to see just how many of my current activities translate into this fitness goal. On several days I have exceeded by more than half the number of steps in my target. What I didn’t expect, I found myself looking for more opportunities to be in motion. All because I am wearing a pedometer.

In school, students are measured: attendance, turning in assignments, completing projects, social skills. In business, our performance is reviewed by our customers, our peers, and are managers. Stating the outcome we want and measuring our actions and results against the desired outcome, gives us the information we need to know to evaluate our actions compared to our intentions.

The very act of stating a goal, measuring progress, and being mindful of your goal, can help put you into action. In another area of my life, writing my book on marketing, I made a comment error. Even though I am working with a coach to help me build out my book, I neglected to write down my goals with dates and I didn’t make appointments to do the writing. I’m driven to take action when I have items in my calendar. This oversight putting back several weeks. When I met with my coach, I realized my error and I have now corrected it by putting time to work on my book in my schedule, a repeating event with alerts is now active on my calendar.

Planning your actions helps you reach your goal. Measuring your activities is a way to remind yourself, and reward yourself, for staying on track. Measuring and documenting your actions can also reveal what is getting in your way and give you a place to take corrective action.

A simple way to track your actions might be to make notes in your calendar. Of course, there’s an app for that too. Here are a few apps that can help you without taking up too much time and they are fun to use.

Evernote

It’s a free tool that I have installed on my computer, my iPhone, and my iPad. It lives in the cloud and syncs between all my smart devices. Tim Ferriss used it to write his most famous work, The 4-hour Work Week, and The 4-hour Body. It’s a great tool for writers, business owners, students, anyone who wants to keep track of information, websites, and organize the data. You can clip URLs, articles, and entire webpages with ease. You can create separate notebooks within Evernote. You can add tags, notes, voice annotations, photos, and you can even e-mail right from the program. There is a paid version of the program, most users will be satisfied with the free version. Check it out at http://www.evernote.com

Wunderlist

Wunderlist is a task management app that works on smart phones and computers (Mac and PC). You can ask it to remind you with alerts, e-mail reminders. You can create multiple lists, and like Evernote, sync your lists to your various devices via the cloud.

Google Docs

You can create a spreadsheet to track your actions and if you have others on your team, you can grant access to your Google Docs easily.

Dropbox

Is another cloud service where you can share documents on file by file basis. If you’re working with a coach, or other team members, putting your documents into dropbox allows sharing and editing with the people you grant access. To sign up for Dropbox, click here.

Tools You Can Use

I invite you to give these tools a try. They are free. Pick a project you want to complete and see how these tools help you succeed. You may be surprised to see how measuring what you do will help you do what you want to measure.

 

Want your next workshop to sell out?

Act like a rock star.

If you have ever tried to get tickets to your favorite band, you may have been astonished to find that all the seats were sold in just a few minutes. When well-known performers, like the Rolling Stones announce a new show, they are able to sell out scheduled performances in just a few minutes.

What’s their secret?

They have a huge fan base. When the word goes out, their fans already know them, like them, and are tuned in to consume their music and their life events.

How To Get Similar Results

You can stimulate the same kind of response for your products and services when you take these steps:

Build Your Fan base

If you have a blog you may have subscribers. But it is a common mistake that people can’t find out how to subscribe to your blog. You need to make it easy for people to subscribe to your blog. Where you place your subscribe button or form can make a huge difference in how many people take action and sign up.

If you have a Facebook page for yourself or your business, do you have have satisfied customers and supporters who like you on Facebook? Are you inviting people to “like” your page? What content are you providing to keep them engaged?

Perhaps you belong to online forums or groups. You might be posting questions or answering questions on LinkedIn.

You could upload videos, share slides, create podcasts or video casts, create a customized channel on YouTube, well, these are just a few of the social media opportunities out there. All of these channels have one thing in common, they are great places to engage in a conversation. Conversations are an exchange of ideas and through them, people connect. Connecting is just 1st step.

Grow your fan base

How can you have an ongoing relationship with your fans? You need to interact regularly. A small group of active fans is far more valuable than a big list where there is little loyalty, commitment or engagement. You need to nurture your relationships in cyberspace as well as those off line. Consistency, such as publishing new content on a regular, predictable basis can help people invest in you and build their trust in you as an expert and resource.

Capture Contact Information

Interruptive marketing (like paid commercials on radio or broadcast television, telemarketing calls) are perceived as annoying because they take you out of the experience of enjoying the story or music you were experiencing. Permission-based marketing is the new model for growing your business. It means that people who like what you have to offer, knowledge, services, or products, have given you permission to be in contact with them. On Facebook, we like people or their pages, on Twitter, we follow them, on YouTube, it is possible to subscribe a channel or to become a friend. I think you’re getting the idea. In each of these cases, there is an easy way for people to indicate that they want more of what they just consumed. There is a convenient way for them to opt in (join) your list.

Give It Away and They Will Come

Your opt in box should be prominently featured on your website. To incentivize people to opt in, you may offer something for free that is of value in exchange for their contact information. We have all willingly given our business cards away for a chance to win something valuable. The same idea works on line when you offer a free report or sample of your services in exchange for your visitors’ contact information.

“The Tim Ferris Effect”

I read a great post today on the forbes.com blog. It was about how to have a successful book launch. The author is a friend of Tim Ferriss (The 4 Hour Work Week, The 4 Hour Body). His book launch as tracked on Amazon was hugely successful because he posted as a guest on Tim’s blog. He went from being listed as 1,295 to an Amazon Best Seller at #45 on the day he posted to Tim’s blog. If you know someone with a very focused and loyal set of followers, you might consider strategies for getting to be mentioned on their blog or offering to create a “guest” post. The big guys do this all the time. When someone in the “Guerilla Marketing” stable publishes, they cross promote themselves on each others web site and email lists.

Start now to build your list and get growing!

btw – If you would like to create an action plan for building your list, see my special offer.

 

Do you think Prince Charming could find Cinderella if he didn’t know who he was looking for? He searched the land high and low for the woman who fit the glass slipper she had left behind. He knew only one woman was a match. Only one had a foot to fit the shoe he possessed.

When you begin the process of identifying your ideal customer, think like Prince Charming. Hopefully, more than one client is a match for your business. However, narrowing your search is a good place to start when defining your target market.

What are the exact characteristics and attributes of your ideal customers? Where would you be most likely to find them? What makes for a perfect fit with your services? Does your offer perfectly match the needs expressed by your customers? When you match up needs with what you provide, it will be like Cinderella and her perfect fit in the glass slipper.

If you remember the story, Prince Charming searched the land desperately seeking the woman whose foot was an exact match to the glass slipper. It was his only clue to her identity. He spent hours and hours, days upon days, weeks upon weeks, sifting through countless princesses, ugly stepsister’s, lots and lots of poor matches before he rediscovered his one true mate.

Fortunately for you, your marketing effort doesn’t need to be so difficult. You can start by writing down all of the attributes of your best customers or those who you want to be your best customers. You have tools at your disposal like Linkedin, business directories, networking groups, and of course, referrals from your existing customers.

Think about how persistent Prince Charming was in the pursuit of his goal. He overcame obstacles. He was tireless. He told everyone in his kingdom his plan. He used the tools he had, word-of-mouth, sending out messages of his intentions, declaring what he wanted, what he was looking for and his desired outcome. If you apply this kind of clarity of purpose to your marketing, I guarantee you will see positive results.

Prince Charming was a man with a plan. He knew who he was looking for, how to tell when he found her, and he knew who didn’t fit his plan. How many of you know your market as well as Prince Charming? Have you taken the time to profile your ideal customers? Are you persistent in casting your net in the right places at the right times?

I hope this somewhat fractured fairy tale not only makes you smile, but it makes you think and take action. Of course, having a little help from your Marketing Fairy Godmother is highly recommended.

Judy Baker, your Completely Creative Action Plan Marketing Coach and Marketing Fairy Godmother

 

Red shoes may have worked for Dorothy, but we aren’t in the land of Oz. On Earth, planning and attention are what it takes to get the job done.I have been guilty of neglecting this blog.

I was production mode as I set up two new WordPress sites. I ignored my schedule and while in my mind I had only missed a week, it was actually three weeks since my last post here.

One of the new sites is for a business with my friend, Peter Ivory. We created Visual One Media to serve the visual marketing needs of entrepreneurs. Our site is http://www.visualonemedia.com

To keep on track going forward, I have a solid strategy that will help me. When I want to move from neglect island into a positive habit island, I start by creating a date with myself. I put it in my calendar. For my blog, which is on ongoing project, I added a repeating appointment to write and post my blog in my calendar. I set alerts to sound and flash to get my attention. I can still work on my blog at other times if I choose. I will work on it when I have made an agreement with myself.

I learned long ago that what I schedule gets done. Wishing won’t do it. Spending the time consistently is the best way to go from here to there.

I recommend you use this methodology on projects you want to move from idea to completion:

Getting it done strategy

What’s your strategy for getting things done?

 

I am documenting the steps for setting up a recording studio in my office. The intention is to give you a how-to guide. You’ll have the information you need to evaluate whether or not you want to replicate these steps yourself. If you do, you will be able to efficiently record yourself in your own office. Or you may decide to focus on creating content and decide to hire talent to do the recording and editing portion of your video marketing.

I’ll tell you what you need: about the tools, hardware and software, the environment, time and money required to create your own recording studio. I’ll even go into expected learning curves for each aspect of doing it yourself.

Why Video?

The value of video in telling your stories and connecting with your audience is huge. YouTube gets more than 200 Billion views daily. I want to help you take your first steps into using video as part of your marketing toolkit.

My recommendations plus the advice and guidance of my partner, a professional videographer,will help inform your decision about how to put your video on the web and beyond. We will outline what you need to know and how to begin. We will include what we have learned so that you can avoid common mistakes and produce video that communicates well to your selected audience. Our goal is to help you evaluate whether or not it makes sense for you to do it yourself, what part of it you can do yourself and when it makes sense to hire professionals to assist you.

We’ll tell you what it costs, the tools we recommend, the time it takes and how you can benefit from video marketing.

Who can benefit most from video?

Speakers, trainers, consultants, people who have a story to tell, those who want to educate, those who want to entertain, those who have an idea to they want to share, or those who are seeking support for a cause.

Resources for storytelling

National Storytelling Network  http://www.storynet.org/

Tim Sheppard’s Storytelling Resources for Storytellers http://www.timsheppard.co.uk/story/

Storytelling Websites  http://www.courses.unt.edu/efiga/STORYTELLING/StorytellingWebsites.htm

Milbre Burch, Storytelling as an Artform  http://www.kindcrone.com/article_2.html

If you have a favorite resource related to storytelling, tell us about it.

“Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.”

 

I recommend asking for testimonials.

I coach my clients in what to ask so they can hear for themselves just how valuable they are to their clients. Yet, when I suggest they ask for testimonials, 99% of the time the first reaction I get is “I know I should do it but…”. What comes easy to each of us may not be easy for others. Getting into the habit of getting acknowledgment for the impact we have on the lives and businesses of those with whom we work requires focus, willingness to receive praise, being vulnerable, and the possibility of being rejected.

I created a checklist of questions to ask to help frame the request for positive testimonials. The protocol is to connect with satisfied clients. Request 10 minutes of their time. Let them know you are planning to interview them and you are going to ask them to approximately 10 questions.

These questions are designed to help you and your clients quantify the results of working with you. Here are the questions:

Quantify Your Results

1. What did it look like when we started working together?
2. How does your business look now?
3. What is the best thing you experienced working with me?
4. What have your clients noticed that is different as we began working together?
5. What were your profits before we started working together?
6. What are your profits now?
7. What was your turnover at the start of our contract (instead of turnover substitute the appropriate business challenge of that company or client)?
8. What is turnover like now?
9. Who do you know who might benefit from working with me?
10. This one is most important — Would you be willing to contact them on my behalf?

You may also choose to take a status or temperature reading of their business as it exists today. Here are questions that can help you get a clear picture of their business:

• What is your income now?
• What is the average value of a client?
• What is the average value of a transaction?
• What is the lifetime value of a client?
• If you broke it down, what are they worth to you:
• Per week
• Per month
• Per year
• How many active clients do you have now?
• How many are inactive?
• How many clients can you handle? per day? per week? per month?
• Describe the gap to between what you have and what you can do.
• Describe the gap between what you have now and what you want in your life and business?
• What do you think is getting in the way of your having what you want?
• What are you committed to doing or changing to get what you want?
• By when?

The Power of Stories

Here is a better way to capture the value of your services through the eyes your clients. Ask them for stories that tell about changes you initiated for them. Document at least a three stories and be sure to include metrics (increases in profit, the savings of time, money, or the reduction of losses, staff, profit) that were used to document progress. And, if you can, record the testimonials in audio and or video format. Then post the clips on your website, on YouTube, your blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, so others can see and hear about you straight from the lips of those who you have helped.

Treasure those stories and incorporate them into your message. Leverage word of mouth stories. Use them  to your advantage and grow your business.

 

Traction is an interesting concept

As defined by Webster’s Dictionary:

traction |ˈtrak sh ən|
noun
1 the action of drawing or pulling a thing over a surface, esp. a road or track : a primitive vehicle used in animal traction.

• motive power provided for such movement, esp. on a railroad : the changeover to diesel and electric traction.
• locomotives collectively.
2 Medicine the application of a sustained pull on a limb or muscle, esp. in order to maintain the position of a fractured bone or to correct a deformity : his leg is in traction.
3 the grip of a tire on a road or a wheel on a rail : his car hit a patch of ice and lost traction.

The word itself contains the word action. Action alone may not produce traction.The right actions will give you traction.

Picture yourself on a slippery highway rain is coming down in fact it may be cold enough that there is ice as well as rain on the road. If your tires don’t have enough tread hydroplane. When your tires are in good shape plenty of rubber and all of the gripping action that comes from plenty of tread you will have traction as you drive across the road. In the fall of 1986, I was driving the Oakville grade on my way to work. Those familiar with this road know it is particularly steep and narrow, and starts high over the Napa Valley.

It was September and we had a light rain the first of the season. This road was part of my daily commute from Sonoma to my job at the Robert Mondavi winery in Oakville. I was quite familiar with the road. The factor I was not familiar with was the oil and debris that had accumulated on the road that made the surface slick from the first rain. I just started my descent from the top of the grade into the Napa Valley. I was startled when I saw a large logging truck coming from the other direction. Reflexively I tapped my brakes and that’s when everything changed. My car lost traction and I started spinning. As soon as I realized what was happening I took my foot off the gas pedal my hands off the wheel and let the car travel on its own. In those few moments of sheer terror as they waited for the car to stop moving I realized just how important it is to be sure my car tires are up to the task of driving under any conditions.

Fortunately for me just the evening before I was watching a program on what to do if you ever are in a spin out in your car. The safety experts recommended the actions I took the very next day. They said if you are in a spin the best action to take is take your foot off the gas keep it off the brake and take your hands off the wheel. Many drivers try to over correct for this span and consequently they lock up the drive train of the car. My actions resulted in my car stopping safely on the other side of the road which happens to be at the edge of a very steep mountainside. I was able to walk away from the accident with a few bruises and scrapes but I was able to walk away. Had I tried to steer the car once it started spinning it is very likely I would have ended up a at the bottom of the mountain.

Your marketing activities may resemble an out-of-control spin. One moment everything is fine and the next finds you in danger. If you assume you have control over the situation when in fact tools enter vehicle are in poor repair and have put you into danger. Granted it’s not likely that you’ll find yourself in mortal danger as I did, but he could be risking the health and success of your business when you lack useful systems and the proper tools to give you traction in your marketing actions.

The five things that will give you traction in your marketing

One: a written plan

Two: schedule time for marketing

Three: measure your results

Four: follow-up consistently with the people you meet

Five: do something positive everyday

Sounds simple doesn’t it? Want to know a secret–it is. What happens to most of us is that we get busy doing and delivering services and we forget the importance of making a plan, a scheduling time to execute the plan, measuring our results, and while we may be busy networking how many of us consistently follow up with the people we met so our investment in networking returns dividends. The last piece, do something positive every day, is there to remind us what we think influences what we do.

Keep yourself from a marketing spin out by incorporating these five simple practices. You will be pleasantly surprised at your results when you start with a plan, purposefully take time to focus on marketing, you measure your results, and grow relationships by following up with people you meet, and every day you put your mind in a positive space and take positive action. Do this, and you are sure to gain traction from your purposeful actions.

 

Delegate

Collaborate

Grow

 

The power of a mastermind group

Yesterday I was at my monthly meeting of trusted advisers. It’s an opportunity to take advantage of the brainpower in the room. One of my favorite sayings is this, “you don’t know what you don’t know.” What I’m talking about here is I can’t see it my own blind side. No one can.

What I appreciate most about this group is the willingness for all of the members to appear vulnerable and at the same time to be caring and innovative when solving problems for one another. I’m a strong advocate for mastermind groups. It led several with spectacular results for all of the members. In my latest group, one of the members launched two new training programs, and has plans which are in progress for a new segment of her business. Two others, no make that three, updated or launched their websites focusing on their ideal clients and showcasing their products and services in clear user-friendly ways.

The benefit of having a mastermind group is exponential in moving ideas forward and discovering the best ways to overcome to go around obstacles. I like the give-and-take as much as the brainstorming and warm support I have experienced and helped to create in each of the mastermind groups I have participated in and facilitated.

As Einstein said “you can’t solve a problem in the same frame of mind in which the problem was created.” Bringing together the minds of others and focusing on the problem generates many more possible and plausible solutions than anyone of us can imagine on our own.

Every business owner needs the group of trusted advisers, Board of Directors, creative minds. Meet with them regularly. Share your successes, be transparent about the issues and concerns you have, and most of all asked for help when you need it. Be generous with your ideas, your concern, and creativity when you are on someone else’s team. Acknowledge ideas, appreciate help when it shows up, and recognize contributions from your advisers as the gifts and solutions that help you and your business excel.

Two heads are definitely better smarter than one. Watch for news about my next mastermind group starting this fall. If you have stories about your success as part of a mastermind group I’d love to hear all about it.

 

My husband, Garry, is nearly finished filling in our backyard where previously we had a deck. He has loaded a total of 16,000 pounds of dirt and poured it over the ground in the backyard. Each wheel barrel full was about 200 pounds. It took him 80 trips to complete this seemingly overwhelming task.

He did this step-by-step, day by day, shovel full by shovel full. He didn’t do it all at once. Some days he got more done than others. In less than three months from start to where we are today, this Herculean task is nearly complete.

As I said last time, I was only able to help with small, but important effort. Garry demonstrated that doing a little bit at a time and yield massive results. The changes in our space reflect his efforts. Sometimes he spent an hour, sometimes two or more. What he did was work at it with consistency over time.

Take a look at areas in your life and business where you would like to make a dramatic and significant change. These changes can be accomplished with small steps taken consistently. Just remember my husband moved nearly 1ton of material by himself. If you are committed to making a change I’ll bet you can move your own mountains.