Category: a slice of STRATEGY

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Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

Are you a solopreneur? 3 perks and 3 downsides you can easily combat

Posted on by Red Slice

Going solo in your business is either a launch strategy or a deliberate business model choice. Sometimes you are just getting off the ground and you’re a party of One, doing everything from accounting to marketing to product development. Other times, though, you are intentionally creating a lifestyle business and don’t want extra complication from staff, tax requirements or overhead.

I’ve deliberately chosen a “solopreneur” model for my business and have no plans to build an agency. I like being in control, not managing people and being able to handle the ebbs and flows that writing and consulting bring. Plus, I find it’s easy to keep overhead low and ramp up or pare down by partnering with others as needed.

Being a solopreneur both rocks and sucks – but you can combat the latter (Tweet this!). Perhaps you can relate?

Three perks to being a solopreneur business:

  • Control: You maintain control over all business and marketing decisions. There are no politics to deal with or egos to soothe. After my long stint in corporate America, this is a godsend for my stress level.
  • Creativity: You can get crazy creative on marketing ideas, promotional pushes and even which projects you take on.
  • Speed: When you make a decision, you’re done and off to the races. No internal selling, pleading or persuasion required. I have decided on marketing efforts in the morning and implemented them by that afternoon, easy peasy. I can take advantage of last-minute opportunities and react fast.

OK, couldn’t resist a 4th bonus perk:

  • Selectivity: You can work with who you like, when you like. And if it doesn’t work out, you never have to sub-contract that person or continue with that client or customer ever again if you don’t want to.

With upside, comes downside, though.

Three challenges of being a solopreneur – and steps you can take to alleviate the pain:

  • Lack of collaboration: If you’re extroverted like me, one of the joys of working on a team is a meeting where you’re all hashing out ideas on a whiteboard. You can get out of your own head and vet ideas with other smart people. Working solo, you miss out on that sanity check from others and potentially limit your thinking, creativity or perspective. Those voices in your head may be leading you astray and you might never know it.

COMBAT THIS! Pull together your own makeshift Board of Directors or accountability group of other solopreneurs. Choose people you respect but who also come at things from a different point of view. I collaborate with a few key partners and often ask to bounce ideas off of them or seek their advice when making a major decision. Another colleague of mine often will email a close group of trusted partners to get a consensus or conversation going when she needs to make a quick decision. Your collaborative team won’t be handed to you when you work alone, spout one together yourself – and offer to play that role for others if they need it.

  • Loneliness: If you’re an extrovert like me, this is kind of related to the one above, but it’s more than that. I miss shared office moments, blowing off steam with others, lunch dates, heck even water cooler gossip. I even go in to my husband’s office or a coffee shop every now and then to work just to be around other people. Talking to the dog only gets me so far, and even gets bored with my running commentary and retreats to the other room every now and then.

COMBAT THIS! Get social on your own. Make time for coffee dates to form relationships with other freelancer colleagues. Join local groups and associations. Participate in online forums. Attend conferences. Force yourself out of your office at least 2-3 times per week just to be social. Or arrange phone  or Skype meetings with other solopreneurs where you can each just unwind for 30 minutes, laugh, share, vent and support each other.

  • Lack of resources: It’s all you, baby! You are chief cook, bottle washer and accountant. If you don’t do it, it won’t get done. Your  to-do list is never complete and there are always way more ideas than hours in the day or mental energy that you can expend. It can be hard to unplug when you are all you’ve got. And this can lead to stress, headaches, poor health and damaged relationships.

COMBAT THIS: Ask for help. You are not supposed to be an expert at everything. Why do you think companies and org charts exist? If you are not technical, outsource your website maintenance and design. If you hate writing, hire a part-time writer to put together your materials or blog posts. If you know something will never get done if it stays on your To-Do list, hire someone else to do it for you! The flip side is that this scarcity mentality helps you pare down to the most important tasks in your business right now. Save the stuff you love to do, or the tasks only you can do for your precious time and attention: everything else? Get help. Hire a virtual assistant. Send your receipts to a bookkeeper. One big caveat here: don’t barter for everything. You simply exchange one set of tasks taking up your time for another. If you want to really free up time, make the investment in paying someone else to do it.

Photo credit: 55Laney69 on Flickr

Your turn: Are you a solopreneur? What do you love best? What do you love least and how do you deal with it? Are you temporarily a solopreneur or do you have plans to stay that way? We want to know so please share below in the Comments!

 

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

Boost your brand: 3 tips to make blogging easier

Posted on by Red Slice

Blah, blah, BLOGGING.

If you just sighed in disgust, overwhelm or sheer panic at simply reading the B-word, I’d like to talk to you today. Blogging is, in my opinion, one of the single best ways to grow your business, boost your brand and hustle up some thought leadership street cred. Think of it like you are the editor of your own little magazine: press releases and pitching be darned! You have the ultimate in with the editor of You.com -YOU.

How can blogging help your brand and business?

  • It gives you a forum to promote your expertise and point of view
  • It’s SEO-licious, meaning you can write about your core product or service areas and search engines will develop huge crushes on you
  • It provides your target audience with information, advice, entertainment – all great things to build community and nurture future sales and customer loyalty
  • It offers you content to share in social media (for those days when you’re like, “What the heck should I tweet about?”
  • It gives visitors a reason to keep coming back to your site
  • It provides the press with examples of your expertise in case they are writing a story for which you’d be PERFECT

I could go on and on…. “But I hate writing,Mariiiiiiaaaaaa!” (enter whining) “I don’t have time.” “What should I blog about?” I will admit that I have it a bit easier, as I love writing – it’s my favorite form of expression. But even I have days where I face a blank Word document, with a blinking cursor mocking my lack of creativity. We all do. The muse does not always show up when it’s convenient for us.  (TWEET THIS!) Sometimes she’s out grabbing a caramel macchiato and surfing One Kings Lane for fun household furnishings.

So here are 3 tips for making blogging easier and – hell – more fun:

  1. Jot down every question someone has ever asked you about your line of work: Seriously, the juicy ones, the silly ones, the obvious ones, the annoying ones.  Are you a knitting store? How about “How can I learn to knit?” “Where can I find fashionable patterns?” “Isn’t this something just old women do?” Or are you a personal trainer: “What are the best super foods I should be eating?” “How can I start on Day One if I’m overweight?” “Don’t I need to be wealthy to have a personal trainer?” Perhaps you’re a social media consultant: “How do I start on Twitter?” “Which platforms should I be on?” “When are the best times to post on Facebook?” – or even “What questions should I ask to find a good social media consultant?” Got your list? BOOM. You just came up with 3 months worth of blog post topics.
  2. Rif on trendy topics: The Grammy’s are coming up. Can you relate something about your business back to music, a Grammy winning star or even something controversial that happened at the show? New movies come out all the time. Can you relate some tips about your products or services back to a popular film? These kind of posts are as fun to write as they are to read – and you can take advantage of trending topics when promoting the content on social media. For example, if #Grammys are hot, hot, hot the day after the event, you can use that hashtag to promote your post.
  3. Interview interesting people: Who would your target audience (or you) love to hear from? Are there related experts who complement what you provide that would be valuable for your readers? You don’t have to come up with all the blog post ideas yourself – sometimes the best thing to do is feature another interesting person with juicy nuggets of wisdom to share. Not only will your audience love it, but you create a built-in promotional partner – and you get to be generous and support someone else’s great brand so perhaps later they may support you.

Photo credit: Foxtongue on Flickr

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

Stayin’ Alive: 4 Tips to Keep your Brand Voice Active

Posted on by Red Slice

The amount of available media today is explosive. These platforms can greatly benefit a brand, or send marketers searching for a positive response. To keep your brand active and influential in this new media age, understanding the goal is your first step. Guest writer Elliot Martinez, a freelance tech writer, offers you 4 basic essentials to give your brand a fighting chance.

Segment Your Target Market

Consistent brand messages tailored to a specific demographic yield the most success. Once you define your target market, it is important to dissect it. Targeting segmentations of your audience will likely help your brand connect more and lead to consumer loyalty. One branding giant doing this successfully is Toyota. The auto maker has focused on the family segment with commercials driving an emotional appeal; the vehicles are shown being passed down from generations and keeping Toyota in the family.

Brands with a persistent message earn a loyal following. The brands I love have reached me through all the other market noise. This is a scary commitment for many brands, but a risk worth taking if you are in it for the long run. Really understanding your audience in each piece of branding will help you take more chances and receive a more genuine response. Do you know who your target market really is? Who are you talking to? Ask yourself these questions every time to help your brand be heard.

What’s the Message?

This is the most important aspect for any brand. With all the different forms of communication available today, your brand message can easily be misinterpreted. You must be able to convey the same, identifiable message whether it is through a 30-second TV spot, a Facebook ad, or 140 characters. There is no shortage of social media platforms to share your message, and your brand must understand what works best for the message you’re trying to send.

Nike is a master at keeping the message consistent throughout. Their message is captured by the “Just Do It” slogan, which is perfectly tailored to fit both their audience and the brand’s personality. The Nike swoosh logo is also consistently a part of each and every campaign. Alternatively, some brands, like Geico, have not heavily implemented social media campaigns, nor do they have one unifying brand representative (Gecko, Caveman, Kash, etc.), yet still remain successful today. Keep in mind that this is not the case for every brand.

If your brand is struggling to stay relevant, breathe some life into it by altering your message or coming up with an interactive campaign to get your consumers involved. Find which media platforms work best for you and stay persistent. Provide clever brand tips and responses to your consumers. Create clear objectives for each month or quarter and work to accomplish these. Using tools like HootSuite or Google Analytics will help you gauge your brand voice while you are tracking your efforts in ROI.

How Do You Follow Up?

Marketing never sleeps. The Internet keeps conversations going, for the good and the bad. Make sure your brand is active in the conversation post-message and not just watching the action take place. Having quick counter points or supplemental media is huge for consumers. Give consumers a call to action. Brands like Doritos have done a great job in keeping consumers active; from online voting campaigns to partnerships with Taco Bell, there is a constant brand presence. These efforts help consumers feel involved and keep your brand above the rest.

Just Keep Swimming…

Now it is time to take a look at your brand. your brand. Ask, is your brand connecting with its audience, or are you missing on the message? (Tweet this!) The brand environment is more competitive today than ever before. Never be afraid to take a chance with your brand but be aware of your activity and consumer responses.

 Photo credit: Marcus Povey on Flickr

About the Author:

Elliot Martinez is a Business graduate of the University of South Florida. He is currently working towards his graduate degree and covering all tech topics as a freelance writer.

Now it’s your turn: Is your brand active and current – or still stuck in the 70’s wearing bell-bottoms (wait, those are in style again, right?)? In what ways to keep things fresh and energized? Share your tips (and your brand) in the Comments below!

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

10 ways to boost your brand with LinkedIn

Posted on by Red Slice

I’m excited to share this guest blog post from my friend and frequent collaborator, Sandy Jones-Kaminski of Bella Domain Media. As I’ve mentioned before, Sandy’s a “social media life saver” and is especially adept at leveraging LinkedIn for marketing and business development. Here’s an awesome post from her full of some of her own secret sauce for generating leads and boosting her own brand on LinkedIn. Enjoy!

Recently, after speaking at an event where 80% of the room admitted that they were hardly leveraging LinkedIn at all, I thought I’d share the 10 things I do on LinkedIn each and every week as inspiration for others to do more on this powerful professional networking platform.

Yes! You can hire Sandy Jones-Kaminski to show you how to REALLY leverage LinkedIn. If you start doing even just a few of these things, I bet you’ll see some new (and welcome) outreach or activity.

  1. Update the status on your profile with either news about a connection or an upcoming speaking engagement I have.
  2. Share something worthy that a connection has posted.
  3. Review your main stream and Like or Comment on things your network has shared.
  4. Review who’s looking at your profile and see if there is anyone you want to connect with on the list. (BTW, don’t bother with the upgrade. I had it through a prior job and didn’t real see any real value in it as long as you check it every few days, which I do.)
  5. Share an industry-relevant article, post or maybe a new service offering on your company page. Don’t have a Company Page? Create one!
  6. Endorse what you’re comfortable endorsing for direct connections. (Does anyone really endorse people they couldn’t vouch for during a reference request?)
  7. Research people or companies you’re interested in or are targeting for future work or collaborations.
  8. Follow some new (to you on LinkedIn) thought leaders or Company pages and Comment, Like or Share that content.
  9. Check out what’s happening within some of the groups where you’re most active. (Comment and Like where appropriate.)
  10. Grow your network by sending personalized Invitations to Connect to the new people you meet (or like) each week.

BTW, you can hire Sandy to show you how to REALLY leverage LinkedIn. Click HERE for details.

Not ready just yet? Click this link to get more tips from this networking maven!

Now it’s your turn: What do you think of LinkedIn as a business and brand booster? What do you do on LinkedIn on a regular basis? Please feel free to add your weekly To Dos on LinkedIn in the Comments below, so others can learn from you too!

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

14 Secrets to Selling $4 Million: How to Find Digital Success Using Old-Fashioned Values

Posted on by Red Slice

I adore today’s guest post from Beth Marbach of Downtown Gal. She spent 12 years building a $4 million designer shoe resale business on eBay. Her story has everything: Scrappy moxie, digital prowess and a health dose of good old -fashioned values that catapulted her to success. Whether your business is online, in an office park or on Main Street, you will devour these 14 secrets which Beth was kind enough to share. Enjoy.

In 2001, I was an executive recruiter, and I wanted out. Desperately.

On the side, I started selling books, CDs and DVDs on eBay. With time I moved onto selling dog jackets. My profits on books were $4 to $6; my profits on canine apparel were $19 per jacket.

It was when I spotted a $49 pair of Coach Boots at DSW, which I bought and sold that very evening for $149 that my whole life changed. Twelve years later I had earned $4 million selling designer shoes online. The lessons I learned along the way were many. I honed relationship, business and marketing skills amongst many others.

Here are 14 such lessons I feel were some of the most critical to the success of my business.

1. Make Study Sheets

The success of my business was critically dependent on the monthly trips I took to various designer shoe outlets around the country. I made these trips to purchase shoes, but I also made them to solidify and grow relationships with store personnel.

See, my revenue was determined on the quantity and quality of shoes I could access, and as I could not be in all places at once, that access was greatly determined by the store personnel who thought to call or email me first (before any other reseller) when new inventory arrived.

To help support me in this, I made laminated spreadsheets which included basic information such as store names, phone numbers and addresses. These spreadsheets also included names of all store personnel (which I had met to date), and any information which would be helpful in both personal and work related conversations.  Prior to going into every store I studied these sheets and directed conservations accordingly.

2. Call Ahead

Spreadsheet studying and traveling across the country all prove to be futile if, when you arrive, your favorite sales person has the day off. To prevent this from happening I always called ahead to make sure when I arrived, they were waiting for me.

3. Know the Best Days of the Week to Shop

I was not a store’s average customer. I did not go in and purchase a few pairs of shoes. I went in and made purchases up to $10,000. To do this, I needed the undivided attention of store personnel which meant I needed to go on the slowest shopping days of the week – Monday and Tuesday. 

4. Inexpensive Branding Can Work

My branding did not come from a high priced design shop but from a few hours of my husband’s time with Photoshop. Likewise, my business name was not derived from expensive brainstorming sessions but was simply borrowed from what was, during my single days, my Match.com handle – Downtowngal. (Editor note: See? Told you building an irresistible brand on any budget was possible!)

5. Hire Effectively by Hiring Creatively

Having 100s of pairs of shoes to photograph, inventory and ship required assistance. I hired super smart high school gals, paid them more than the mall and kept them happy by letting them listen to whatever music they wanted.

6. Consider Office Space Very Carefully

Storing 100s of pairs of shoes in a basement and working for 12 years alongside them might seem less than ideal, but doing so saved me $1000s of dollars annually (or 10s of 1000s of dollars over 12 years).

7. Know there is More than One Way to Get Supplies (and Just about Anything Else You Need)

The price of shipping supplies was always a challenge. As a cost savings work around, I utilized the clean (and in good condition) shipping boxes from my local grocery store and daycare center. I then invested 2 cents per branded sticker and placed one on every box I shipped.

8. Become an Expert

95% of what I sold was shoes, and within that I focused on a small handful of designer brands. Developing my niche allowed me to use my time effectively (which was very important when you have two little kids), provided me focus on the key relationships to develop and provided me the ability to increase revenue in ways that would not be feasible had I attempted a broad product line. (Oh, and it greatly reduced daily insanity, so there is that too.)

9. Please Your Accountant

With the enormous number of fraudulent designer shoes in the marketplace, it was critical for me to keep all receipts in the case the legitimacy of my inventory ever came into question. More often than you might imagine customers asked for proof that shoes they purchased from me were legitimate. It was always good to have that validation readily available.

Keeping all receipts also helped quarterly taxes go quicker, ensured I received maximum tax benefits and made my accountant quite happy. (Happy accountant = Happy business.)

10. Categorize Your Customers

Keeping detailed records on my customers including their gender, designer preference and shoe size allowed me to easily contact people when I received shipments in which they might have interest. Sometimes I could even sell shoes to them before I had to take the time and expense to put them on eBay.

11. Consider Online and Offline Inventory Acquisition Options

The majority of the shoes I purchased were from brick and mortar stores; however there were times where I could buy shoes directly off their website. To make this process efficient, I bookmarked 20 stores, which I knew carried the designer shoes I desired. Every morning I would go through these links, purchase desirable footwear and have it shipped directly to my house.

12. Be Nice to Everyone. No Exceptions.

The sales folks at the designer outlet stores were underpaid, overworked and rarely appreciated. I found the simple act of bringing a goodie along – calling and taking coffee orders before I arrived, buying nice chocolate as gifts or bringing in a fruit basket significantly differentiated me from other resellers who, I might add, were frequently downright ruthless to store personnel.

Who wants to call a jerk to give them the heads up that new inventory has arrived?

No one.

Who wants to call the woman who is nice to them every time she sees them, brings them coffee and gets to know them so well she is invited to their wedding?

Well, that is how I built my business. It is also how I made an enormous number of wonderful friends.

13. Thank People the Old Fashioned Way

When I was growing up my parents made me send handwritten thank you notes when someone extended kindness towards me. When I received a shipment from a reseller who thought to call me first, I did the same. Within that note I included a $25 Starbucks gift card. For one quick note and a small gift of coffee, I was always one of the first resellers they called.

14. And Keep Thanking Them. All of Them.

I certainly wouldn’t have a business without the designer outlet personnel I befriended over the years, but I also wouldn’t have a business if it weren’t for the UPS drivers, the folks at the post office, my staff and of course, my customers. Christmas time at DowntownGal Shoes meant it was “thank you” time.

To my UPS drivers and post office friends I gave wonderful holiday cakes and popcorn tins, the gals I worked with could pick any pair of shoes they wanted, and the sales associates at the designer outlets would receive a  Starbucks gift certificate (with a higher value than the normal $25 cards I gave throughout the year), a card and a photo of my family. And regardless of what time of year it was, I included a free shoe shine kit for my customers with every purchase.

In the end, I found that although we live in a society that drives very hard towards the big things; it is, in fact, the little things that guarantee we get there.

About the author: To learn more about Beth Marbach, and her 12 year saga selling $4 million dollar of designer shoes on eBay go to: http://downtowngal.com/

Photo credit:  geishaboy500

Your Call to Action: Which ONE tip will you put into practice to boost your business this week? Please share in the Comments below!

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

5 clever ways to position yourself as a (real) expert

Posted on by Red Slice

Guru. Master. Legend.

Wouldn’t those be nice words to hear after someone introduces you?

Maybe. Personal branding is all the rage these days. But most of us don’t have to be THE leading voice on a certain topic, but a unique, thoughtful and useful voice that is part of the conversation.

I say: Beware the lone guru.

There are so many “personal brands” out there, claiming to be expert in this, or someone who can teach you the secrets of that, or the end-all, be-all source for (INSERT TOPIC HERE).

How nice for them.

The ones who claim to be experts in helping you establish yourself as an expert make me giggle the most. I mean, you should at least have some experience or competency in your chosen field before you expect that article in Fast Company. Experts are not invented, they are cultivated. What are your special skills, talents, experiences that can form a solid, authentic foundation for you to then learn even more and become a valid expert?

My vocation of choice is as a storytelling expert: small business brand strategy, marketing, messaging. Do I know all there is to know about these topics? Hell to the no. I am one of MANY brand strategists and experts. And that’s totally cool with me.

It’s not about offering people one authoritative voice to follow, one cult to join, one Kool-Aid flavor to drink. (Tweet!) There are so many talented brand strategists out there – seeming competitors – whom I admire, follow, learn from and even cite.

No one built up their knowledge and competency on their own. They learned it from somewhere, from someone.

But if you want brand awareness for yourself or your company, if you want to get press + customers + love + speaking gigs + influence, it is a good idea to establish yourself as part of that expert tribe, as someone with a valuable perspective and keen insight into this area.  So instead of getting frustrated every time you see one of these vocal, self-promotional, personal brand “experts” instead of pouting, why not follow some simple tips to join the conversation?

Here are 5 tips on how to establish yourself as an expert

(and no, I’m not claiming to be an expert in expertise – these are just tips I’ve used that have opened up new opportunities for me to help brands + businesses). All of these assume you already have a true level of education, knowledge or experience in your chosen area:

Keep soaking up knowledge:

That’s right. Think you know all there is to know about your topic? You’re done before you even start. Read the best-selling authors out there, attend conferences, read blogs and newsletters. Find out how others are approaching this area, stay up-to-date on trends, and pick and choose which bits of wisdom resonate – or don’t (see Tip #2) – with how you view this topic area. Keep a list of 5-10 sources to follow regularly so you don’t get overwhelmed.

Present a point of view:

It’s not enough to go out there and agree with every expert you read or follow in your space. Often, if you can present a valid, contrarian point of view, people find that much more interesting – and the press may bite. I have often used contributed articles (see Tip #3) and blog posts to say why I thought a certain expert got it wrong, and put my own unique spin and experience on the situation. Being willing to challenge the status quo – for real reasons, not just to be a pain in the neck – displays confidence and authority that people will notice. For some great advice about presenting value-drive content that rabid fans will adore, check out this Jay Baer blog post.

Write & pitch contributed articles/stories:

Not every piece of content you write should be about selling your products or services. People don’t pay to subscribe to news feeds or publications to get commercials. But can you convince Entrepreneur.com that you’re the perfect person to comment on 5 ways companies are actually making money from better SEO? Can you convince Katie Couric that 5 overlooked stressors are making women and mothers ill? Can you persuade TechCrunch to accept your premise that Big Data is changing the way companies roll out new products and features? Think about the macro trends and theories rather than just your own offerings and offer a thought leadership point of view that benefits everyone. Sidenote: Offering guest blog posts to robust online communities like Biznik or BizHive or influential blogs is also very effective.

Speak in public:

Nothing impacts your street cred more than presenting to group as the…you guessed it…guest expert! Have you contacted your local Chamber of Commerce, Small Business Administration or chapter of a national association? Pitch yourself as a speaker on your topic of interest (no sales pitches, please – except they may allow you to have one slide at the end to promote your book, service or special offer). Start building your buzz locally first and then you can start to point to those successes when applying to national event and conferences. Nervous about presenting? Hire a speaking coach, media + presentation coach, or other developmental coach to squash those fears and help you get your message out there. Some great resources for creating an online speaking profile and finding gigs are SpeakerMatch and eSpeakers.

Blog:

Cue the groans. But I’m telling you, blogging is one of the single best – and free – ways to share your philosophy and highlight your expertise on an on-going basis. You don’t need permission or acceptance like you do for scoring a media article or on-camera interview. Think of your blog as YOUR media outlet where you can say whatever the heck you like, Wrote a contributed article about the new rules of workplace etiquette and no publications bit? Fine, post it on your blog. See a juicy new trend in your space that you’re dying to comment on? You can post it tomorrow. The other added benefit of blogging regularly is that you become search engine friendly around these topics, and the more content you have online, the better to establish your expertise when people are searching for info on those topics. Want proof of the power? I often receive both media and sales leads from blog posts that I’ve written 3 or 4 years ago. Need help on where to start and what to write about – or even just how to work with your blog? Take a session with this woman now or check out Problogger for fabulous tips.

What actions have worked for you in establishing your expert status? Which experts do you admire and follow? Share your thoughts and get some link love back to your (expert) site!

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

Your social media lifesavers: 6 people you need to know

Posted on by Red Slice

Social media. Do those words alone cause a panic attack and drowning sensation? How the heck can one human being possibly keep up with the constant onslaught of blogging, tweeting, posting, Pinning, connecting when you have a freaking business to run?

If you’re like most people, you’re doing one of three things:

1. You’ve doubled-down on a few networks and use them all the time
2. You’re killing yourself trying to be in 50 places at once – and not seeing any ROI
3. You’ve opted out completely because it all just gives you a headache

Building your brand awareness online is vital in today’s marketplace. Why? One, customers expect you to be available online in some way, shape or form (I’m still reeling from a woman with no website because “I don’t want the wrong people finding me. I get enough business through referrals.” Um. Okay. How long will that last?) In fact, I’m dubious of any business these days who doesn’t have any real-time online presence. Makes me think they are fly-by-night.

Two, you need to prove you are relevant and current. That you keep up with trends. And three, there’s just good old fashioned lead generation. You can find and connect with partners and potential clients or customers more easily and cost-effectively if you blog or play in social media.

If you’re trying to keep your head above water when it comes to social media, then grab a lifeline from these 6 people you absolutely need to know to make your life easier.

Sarah Von Bargen: Sarah is a brilliant copywriter and master blogger. We partner on many of my SLICE sessions and part of what she delivers is practical advice on your content marketing strategy. Read her small business blog (or her very fun personal blog which gets over 11,000 readers a day!) and consider one of her sessions to get your blog working for you, not against you. She’ll even share ideas for how to promote your posts effectively in other channels to get more readers. Check out this recent post on avoiding social media overwhelm. Brilliant.  Follow her: @yesandyes

Amy Schmittauer: I’m loving the fresh, practical advice this “Savvy Sexy Social” gal is dishing up, especially when it comes to using video effectively. Sign up for her weekly videos where she gives you entertaining and practical advice on all things social media, whether it’s Google +, Twitter or her sweet spot, creating videos. Amy makes everything seem doable and easy and doesn’t overcomplicate. Love that. Check out this recent post on how to make cheap awesome videos. Follow her: @savvysexysocial

Amy Porterfield: This social media strategist is the queen of cracking the Facebook nut, and she’s charming, approachable and knowledgeable to boot. I took one of her digital programs and, while normally a skeptic . I got so much value out of it, I couldn’t believe she didn’t  charge more. She comments on many other social media channels, but Facebook seems to be her sweet spot. Check out her extremely useful Resources page if you’ve ever wondered, “Is there an online solution that will help me do x?” Follow her: @amyporterfield

Sandy Jones-Kaminski: Sandy is a networking queen who – literally – wrote the book on it. She has mastered how to use social media  – and LinkedIn in particular – not just for effective networking but for more sales, more business opportunities and more leads. I’ve seen her literally work on someone’s LinkedIn profile and that person received two fresh leads the next day. No joke. She offers everything from workshops, to consulting to spot-audits of your profile. Follow her: @sandyjk

Karen Rosenzweig: Karen is a personal friend and a social media colleague, who specializes in restaurants, food businesses and hospitality – but she consults with any solopreneur or small biz to assess, create and/or manage their social channels more effectively for more customers, more sales and more buzz. I actually consulted with Karen when my book, Branding Basics, was published and she helped me use Twitter effectively to reach the right influencers and build buzz for the book when I had no clue how to use what is now my favorite channel. She also does group trainings. Follow her @karenrosenzweig

Tracy Warren: Tracy’s specialty is handling the day-to-day social media efforts of the business, acting as a ghost writer/marketer.  She offers coaching and page creation – as well as ongoing management (hurrah!) for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Biznik.  Her focus is primarily on small businesses, solopreneurs and other organizations who just want someone to take things over and get it done, including non-profits, events, and even brick and mortar businesses.  What I love about her blog is her clear, easy, uncomplicated advice for your social media efforts. Follow her @readysetgrow

Photo credit: Pipistrula on Flickr

Now it’s your turn! Which social media gurus make your life easier with practical help and advice (not just theory)? Please post your suggestions and a link in the Comments below. And also, let us know your greatest tip for managing social media overwhelm.

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

Combining football, business & money into an expert personal brand: A chat with Kristi Dosh

Posted on by Red Slice

Fall is almost here in my part of the world. Warm sweaters. Pumpkin Spice lattes.  And of course…football season! If you know me, you know I’m a huge football fan, both college and pro. I would never call myself an advanced expert, but I know the game, can recognize many ref calls, and, when my husband wants to wind me up for an amusing rant, he’ll bring up the Wildcat formation (while exciting to watch, people can’t just go around playing any position they want to, IMHO)

Whether you, too, are a football fan like me or not, you will love today’s post. It’s about sports, yes, but it’s also about how to create an expert personal brand to launch blogs, books and speaking opportunities. We’re talking with Kristi Dosh, ESPN’s sports business reporter, an attorney, public speaker and author. Kristi is the founder of BusinessofCollegeofSports.com, a website dedicated to the financial side of collegiate athletics. Kristi’s latest book on the business of college football, Saturday Millionaires: How College Football Builds Winning Colleges launched this week.  She also has another book due out next year: Balancing Baseball: How Collective Bargaining Has Changed the Major Leagues. Kristi is a frequent guest lecturer in sports management and law programs.

We crossed paths through HARO for a freelance article she wrote. And I’m so glad we did, as she combines two things I love: business and sports. Read on to see why she wrote a book about the business of college football, and for your own brand and business, how she not only became an expert on this topic after being an attorney for many years, but how she promotes this personal brand effectively (hint: targeting is key!) 

RS: Welcome Kristi! What made you decide to write a book about the business of college football?

KD: In the early days of my sports media career – the ones where I wrote for free for Forbes and anyone who would have me on their blog while simultaneously practicing law full-time – I became fascinated by financial statements for college athletic departments. Math was never my favorite subject, but I found out pretty early on while covering the sports business that numbers can tell a story. And the story I was reading between the lines of athletic department financials was nothing like what I knew about college football from years of being a fan. In early 2011, I wrote a six-part series for SportsMoney on Forbes about the finances of every public school in the six “automatic-qualifying” conferences. Those posts received more views and feedback than any other posts I’d ever written, and I knew something was there. At that time, no one was writing about the business side of college sports on a consistent basis, and fans were becoming interested in what was going on off the field in these athletic departments earning millions from television contracts. Seeing the interest and realizing there was a gap in coverage by the sports media, I began to seek out more stories about the business side of college athletics, particularly football. It wasn’t long before I realized all I was learning from my research and visits to college campuses for facilities tours and sit-downs with athletic directors was changing the way I viewed college athletics. I knew not every fan would have that opportunity, so I wrote the book as a way of sharing everything I’ve learned with fans.

RS: How do you become an expert on a topic like this?

KD: First, I think it helped that I chose a topic where there was a gap in the coverage by traditional media. It’s sort of like when you’re developing a new product – you want something that fills the white space.

Next, you have to commit 100 percent. I made learning everything I could about the business side of athletic departments, and writing on what I learned, a part-time job in addition to my full-time job that was paying my mortgage and student loans. I started a blog called BusinessofCollegeSports.com so that all my writing on this subject would be in one easy-to-find place. Then I committed to writing on that site every single weekday. Between the launch of the site and the day I quit writing for the site to join ESPN, I posted 133 blogs in 175 days. In fact, I believe one of the reasons I ended up at ESPN was because their college football writers were linking to my blog on a weekly basis. On top of that, I was promoting myself to radio stations around the country as an expert on the matter by sending them blog posts pertinent to their market.

RS: How do you market yourself as an expert?

KD: I think self-promotion comes more naturally for some than others – for better or for worse, it comes pretty naturally to me. That being said, I think anyone can learn how to do it. Most importantly, you have to create something you can show to people to prove you’re an expert, whether it’s a blog, a book, a podcast – anything that illustrates your knowledge. Then you have to present that knowledge to the right people. This is where I see many young bloggers get off track. They inundate more senior writers on Twitter, LinkedIn and email with every post they write. My strategy was to carefully select who I targeted so as to give myself the best chance of having that person look at my work. For example, if I wrote about the finances of FSU’s athletic department, I was going to try and get it in the hands of beat writers who cover FSU and local radio hosts and producers. It didn’t make sense to me to send it to a national writer when it’s more of a local interest story, or to send it to someone who doesn’t cover the team regularly. Obviously getting a national writer to tweet out your story or reference it in his/her own piece is amazing exposure, but you can’t just send those people everything you write. Instead, I’d watch for them to write a piece that something of mine tied into – then I’d send them my piece. In the end, I found the most effective way to get other people to help you is to find a way to help them do their job better.

About  Saturday Millionaires:

Saturday-MIllionaires-BookLast year Football Bowl Subdivision college football programs produced over $1 billion in net revenue. Record-breaking television contracts were announced.  Despite the enormous revenue, college football is in upheaval. Schools are accused of throwing their academic mission aside to fund their football teams. The media and fans are beating the drum for athletes to be paid. And the conferences are being radically revised as schools search for TV money. Saturday Millionaires shows that schools are right to fund their football teams first; that athletes will never be paid like employees; how the media skews the financial facts; and why the TV deals are so important. It follows the money to the heart of college football and shows the real game being played, including debunking 6 myths most people have about college football programs, such as: Myth #2: Supporting Football Means Degrading Academics and Myth #5: A Playoff Will Bring Equality to College Football

Check out Kristi’s great new book on Amazon or Barnes & Noble (print & digital editions for both). Follow her on Twitter for more insights and news.

Your turn: What area of expertise do you promote in your brand? Why did you choose that area: skill, passion or something else? Please share in the Comments below. Or just let me know your favorite football team you’ll be cheering in this fall!

 

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

Sales page and email copy that works – minus the sleaze. A chat with Felicia Spahr

Posted on by Red Slice

“How do I sell my stuff without sounding sleazy?’

This seems to be the question du jour. But c’mon everyone: relax. Before you think you need to turn to a life of ill repute with clients who go by number instead of by name, get schooled by Felicia Spahr.  In another joyous perk due to both the work I do now and social media, Fel and I crossed paths and I’m mesmerized by her writing prowess. Felicia is a pro copywriter, teacher, and lover of people. Dedicated to discovery and the power of words, she is on a mission to shake the world with tectonic-plate-shifting communication.

We sat down to talk about killer messaging, sales page copy magic and how to write emails that get noticed.

RS: You’re kind of a sales page genius. What are 3 tips readers can implement right now to improve messaging on their sales pages?

FS: Tip #1: For the love of god, stay away from trying to sound clever. Why? Clever is confusing. Simple language that your right people can understand and grasp onto is what sells.

Tip #2: As my boy Einstein said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.” What does that translate to for you? Spend most of your time understanding the needs, wants, and problems of your customers before you go writing a sales page. Once you have enough information and can sense patterns and recurring problems (related to your service or product), the sales page will pretty much write itself.

Tip #3: You are a HUMAN, not a selling machine, right? J A big part of why we feel kooky and weird about selling ourselves (let alone writing sales pages) is because we associate selling with car salesman, in-your-face headlines, B.S., and cheap promises.

Selling is one of the most beautiful things you can do. When you’re writing your sales page, let your people know that you truly understand them—which translates to your ‘why’. Your why has gotta be in there or you’ve just got bullet points of deliverables and a lackadaisical emotional connection. Simon Sinek’s TED talk, ‘Start With Why’, is a great way to spend 18 minutes of your time drilling that idea into your beautiful head and adopting that mindset for life.

RS: What is your best tip for sending email to a busy big shot you don’t know – if you would like a book testimonial, interview or simply to say “You are my hero”? 

FS: The very simple trick is this: Make it 99% about them—mention only a VERY small-sized lick about who you are. The biggest mistake I see people making is: “Hi, I’m Joe, and I’ve been featured here, here, and here and I’ve worked with x, x, and x, and you should be impressed! Read on to find out more about what I want from you.” 

Instead, here are some examples of questions (that work) to use that are customizable, riff-able, and personality-injectable:

For an interview: The information about [topic they love] you talk about would be an invaluable resource for my readers because [specific reason—what might your readers need help with?]. Would you mind if I interviewed you and asked you [#] questions on [very specific topic]? 

For a book testimonial: After reading [x, x, and x—show that you care about them and their work] about you, it seems like this topic is one you enjoy immensely. Do you think reading my book would be useful for you, and if it is, would you mind endorsing it? 

For ‘You’re my hero’: Be extremely specific about what resonates with you about them, and then you can swoop in with your question with something like this:

I thought I might ask you a question that you could provide a unique perspective on [Insert why you’re thinking about this—and why them.]

The question I wanted to ask is: Your delight-inducing question here.

RS: What brand messaging mistakes on small business websites drive you up a wall? How can we avoid them?

FS: Copying other people’s words. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked at sites and have seen the exact same, inexplicable wording (especially in the life coach space: create the life of your dreams!) that really doesn’t mean anything. Same goes for ‘creative business’. What. Does. That. MEAN.

Think about your differentiating value factor—your unique perspective. You have one! Let’s be honest—the concepts of our ideas are not original. It’s how you spin it, position it, and package it. And you don’t have to be a sharp, clever, or witty wordsmith to express it—just very specific. Remember, you’re a person. Talk to me like I’m your really good friend or mentor whose opinion you take seriously.

And remember: No one can mess with your messaging if no one else can say it like you. (Tweet this!)

2017 UPDATE: Unfortunately, Fel is no longer doing copywriting projects but this advice is still golden! You can find out about what she’s up to now here. 

Got a burning copywriting or promo plan messaging question? Please share it in the Comments below and Felicia and I will gladly answer!

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

4 tips to create magnetic brand messaging

Posted on by Red Slice

How can you engage and delight your audience without sounding like everyone else?

Brand is communicated through more than just a pretty logo. It’s actually communicated in three important ways: visually, verbally, and experientially. I call this the Three Legged Stool of Brand. I’ve talked about this in a past video.

Visually is what you think of when you think of brand: logos, colors, design.

But your brand is also communicated verbally: your copywriting, your tone, your messaging personality.

And finally, where the rubber hits the road, your brand is communicated experientially. Now that you’ve promised me a brand visually and verbally, do you deliver? If your brand screams hip, cool and innovative, then your products and services – even your employees – better walk the talk!

In today’s Red Slice TV video from MySourceTV, I’m focusing on the verbal aspect and sharing 4 tips that will help you craft magnetic messaging that engages, informs and delights your audience. This is oh-so-important in everything from your About page to your sales copy.

The way your business “talks” is one of the most vital ways to convey your brand (Tweet!)  What is the “voice”? How should you write your copy? What is the story that you tell?

Photo credit: Brendan-C, Flickr