This Is a Message from Your Heart

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

I had a heart scan the other day – mainly because I’m old and my spouse is convincing in the most loving way.

a4gpa via Flickr CC

If you’ve never done it, it’s a pretty incredible experience to get to watch the awesome mechanical miracle that is you heart spray blood in and out through a series of valves, tubes, chambers, levers and doors that any engineer would be challenged to recreate.

More often than not the heart is the subject of poems and songs about romance and love but in addition to being a physical masterpiece I believe it is a formidable business tool.

The idea of love as it relates to business is a tricky one. People talk about loving or not loving a business or the products and services of a particular business, but rarely is love looked at as a strategic way to run a business or lead a team.

The heart is seen as weak and squishy and emotions like love have no place in cold hard world of commerce.

But, here’s what I think. It takes incredible courage and strength to lead with your heart, but it’s actually the most natural and freeing way to do so. The heart isn’t all sappy and bending at all, it’s a ridiculously appropriate and intuitive decision-making tool.

May I suggest that you lead with your heart.

Heeding the mind body connection that comes with following your heart is how you fill your business with passion and purpose. It’s how you make the decisions in every instant that are right for you and most likely right for others involved.

Try this – get up and walk across the room and focus on leading with your heart – literally taking steps with the mind to push your heart out in front with every step. As physical as this action seems you’ll find that it also creates an immediate emotional sense of confidence and well-being.

Running coaches and yoga instructors alike frequently urge their students to lead with their heart as they perfect their form and move gracefully from pose to pose.

When it comes to building your business, tapping your passion, brining a sense of higher purpose to your work, making decisions that determine the outcome of a situation that impacts your life and the lives of others – lead with your heart.

Your heart – or at least that sensations that you receive as you ponder a decision – will instantly tell you the right choice to make, if you only pay attention.

But let me warn you, lest you think this is simple pop nonsense – making a decision out of love is much more difficult than making one out of fear.

Have you ever made a decision or taken an action in the heat of the moment, maybe in a moment of doubt or fear, only to regret it or overturn it when you regained some sense of calm and you thought more about it? That was your heart regaining the wheel.

Have you ever experienced that “something about this doesn’t feel right” kind of moment and then learned later that you’re instincts were dead on? That was you listening to your heart.

The heart is good for business because it cherishes

• Love over hate
• Faith over doubt
• Hope over despair
• Light over darkness
• Joy over sadness
• Passion over indifference

Leading with the heart is good for business because it prefers

• Giving over receiving
• Lifting up over tearing down
• Teaching over dictating
• Abundance over scarcity
• Understanding over telling

People frequently advise that you must find something you are passionate about in order to succeed and, while I believe there is merit in that advice, I further believe you can fall in love with whatever you do if you choose to lead with the heart.

The opportunity to lead with your heart is the absolute best part about doing what you love.

View full post on Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

This Is a Message from Your Heart is a post from: Home Wealth Project
Special Thanks: Kissimmee Auto Repair, Kenyan Safari Package, Sell Medical Practice

No email, no social media, no video, no blogs just people taking products and services directly to the people.

Personal branding at it’s best and most basic.

Mark Twain understood and appreciated the value of a sales process 147 years ago.  He sold thousands of copies of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, through “subscription agents”, salespeople who would pre-sell his books door-to-door using sample pages of the books.

Here are the five progressive steps from The Successful Sales Agent to what he called “Canvassing” taken in the following natural order:

• First: Thorough preparation
• Second: Securing influence
• Third: Gaining a hearing
• Fourth: Creating a desire
• Fifth: Taking the order

*From Hamlin Hill, Mark Twain and Elisha Bliss (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1964)

He opens the manual with this statement:

“You must be interested yourself, or you cannot interest others; and the way for you to become interested, is to KNOW your book THOROUGHLY.”

Is this sales 101 or what?

“Know your product, be a user of it and be passionate about it’s features benefits and results.”

Please take a few minutes to read the “Successful Sales Agent Manuscript” written in 1865 by Mark Twain and marvel at how the fundamentals of salesmanship that we follow today have not changed at all. Fast forward to today and add in some fancy technology, uber cool new media, a ton more competition and being in a completely different time in history and those five progressive sales steps from 1865 are still the steps we take to deliver the products and services we market and sell today.

Ask yourself:

• Do you have a passion for sales?
• Do you believe in your product?
• Are you building relationships?
• Are you developing testimonials and referrals?
• Are you presenting yourself professionally?

We can learn a lot from Mark Twain about sales:

• Be prepared
• Know your customer
• Follow common sense tactical fundamentals
• Practice, practice, practice

Mark Twain Quote Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

A Timeless 5 Step Sales Philosophy From Mark Twain

View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends

A Timeless 5 Step Sales Philosophy From Mark Twain is a post from: Home Wealth Project
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SEM Business Blueprint – **6 Figures From 10 Sales?? is a post from: Home Wealth Project
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A lot of tech companies often start out with the most humble of beginnings – in this case: Google. Now standing as one of the most powerful companies in the world, their journey has been chronicled since the conception of “Backrub” – the first search engine for the world wide web.

The interactive infographic you’re about to see sheds some light into the world of Sergey Brinn and Larry Page’s brainchild we’ve all come to know, love, and respect.

Created by Online PhD

View full post on Business Pundit

Google: From Grad School to $150 Billion Company is a post from: Home Wealth Project
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The most frustrating thing for me in the SOPA/PIPA debate now winding down is how unnecessary the whole thing should have been. It occurred to me that we learned a lot about what sort of behaviors make for great leaders and careers. The short version: do the opposite.

When did we lose Congress? Not just in terms of losing our respect for just about everyone there (one of the least respected careers in the USA) but in the sense that they no longer even pretend to represent our interests or act as we would act if given the chance?

I’m not so much angry as saddened that it has come to this.

When planning your career, avoid these pitfalls, behaviors evidenced by many elected officials:

• In all things, look for money first. Listen to people with money, respond to people with money, justify your actions around money. Worth noting that 47% of those in Congress (House and Senate) are millionaires–an even greater percentage than those that are lawyers.
• Embrace the fact that you don’t know what you’re talking about. Aspire to run systems you don’t understand.
• Compromise over the important issues, but dig in and fight forever over trivia.
• Along those lines: focus obsessively on the short run. Even though you are virtually assured of re-election, define the long term as “before the next election.”
• Take months off from your day job (with pay) to actively campaign for a better job.
• Blame the system, the other side and your predecessors for the fact that you are not taking brave, independent action.
• Avoid developing independent thought and analysis. Focus on parroting the work of lobbyists and the party line.
• When given the choice between being on television or doing hard work, pick television.
• When a difficult problem shows up, duck.
• Try mightily to outlast passionate resistance by quietly ignoring it and waiting for it to go away.

I’m thrilled that reality has intruded and SOPA is derailed (for now). You probably know more about how the internet works than your senator does. Has he or she called you or asked your insight?

I’m disheartened that even when a linchpin shows up in Washington, she is quickly beaten into submission. Where are the lions, the Mr. Smith’s and the statesmen who would rather do the people’s business than business as usual? Sure, Congress has a marketing problem–largely because they have a problem with the decisions they make and the way that they make them.

At least they’ve left us a useful career guide about what not to do in the real world.

View full post on Seth’s Blog

Learning leadership from Congress is a post from: Home Wealth Project
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The book is a collection of essays from 30 people who are active online and who have experience building communities, along with a foreword by CC Chapman, author of Content Rules.  Contributors include Brian Clark, Natalie Sisson, Evan Carmichael, Kristi Hines, Derek Halpern and Ana Hoffman — to name a few.  ”Yours Truly” (me, Anita Campbell) is also a contributor, so you can expect this review to be a bit biased.

What’s Inside

The contributions range from big picture strategic … to detailed and tactical.  The contributors represent communities  numbering in the millions, to those that are compact and relatively new.

The types of communities include:

• blogs
• paid membership communities
• forums and discussion boards
• email mailing-list communities
• communities built on social media platforms such as Twitter, Google+ and Facebook
• communities that are multi-faceted and loosely defined — they fluidly cross over from blogs to Twitter to Google+ to Facebook, and back again.

Each essay has the contributor explaining his or her own experiences.  Each speaks with a “been there, done that” authenticity.  The contributions are thoughtful and analytical.  Most are written in the first person to describe the contributors’ own experiences of what worked … and what didn’t work.  Where else can you get so much expertise in a single package?

There’s also Danny Iny’s (@DannyIny on Twitter) own story.  He writes about building Firepole Marketing, and the painful realities of their first big promotion of marketing services.  They ran a huge contest as a promotion — and in the end got zero buyers.  He faced up to why the promotion failed — the company had no community to tap into.  As he writes,  ”A loyal and strong audience is much more than a bunch of readers — its a living and breathing entity that ties real people together.  In other words, it’s a community.”

When you buy the book, you also get a link to a website with access to a template for requesting guest blog opportunities,  checklists and infographics about community building.

An Example of Two Trends

There are two trends in book publishing that we’ve seen emerge recently, and both are reflected here:

• Sponsors:  Like an increasing number of self-published books these days, Engagement From Scratch has sponsors.  In this case they are Photos.com, WebFaction hosting, and Firepole Marketing.  At the back of the book are special offers from them.
• Proceeds to Charity:  Giving a portion of proceeds to charity is age old, but we’re seeing this occur with more frequency among books by entrepreneurs.  It’s part of the larger “social entrepreneurship” trend.  In this case, 50% of profits will go to the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship.

What I Liked Best About Engagement From Scratch

I like the fact that the book is set up as a series of individual essays.  You get to hear from a wide variety of  people.  Each has different experiences building different types of communities. Each essay reads as a stand-alone piece.  That means you can pick up the book and read one essay, set it down, and come back to it a few days later and read another essay — without missing anything.

Of course, the “separate essay” structure of the book may be disconcerting to some.  Each contributor has his or her own voice and writing style.  And while there are common themes that the contributors universally agree upon, there are also some points, especially tactics, that may seem contradictory from one essay to the next.  I am not bothered by that, because there’s always more than one way to do things.  I like a variety of input.

Here’s an analogy to maps and directions:  Engagement From Scratch is not one set of directions for you to follow to get from point A to point B.  Rather, think of it as a map that shows multiple routes you can take to get to the same destination.  You get to pick which roads and highways to follow.

Who This Book is For

It’s ideal for entrepreneurs starting literally from scratch to build communities.  While you may have a dream and good natural instincts, your dream will be easier to achieve if you can tap into others’ ideas and how-to tips.  Even if you’re on a tiny bootstrapped budget, you will find plenty of insights that don’t cost much other than your time.

This book is also useful for those in small businesses that run existing online communities.  No matter how thriving your community, there’s always something to improve.

Finally, Engagement From Scratch will also be valuable to marketers and executives in a large company tasked with building a community for your company.

From Small Business Trends

Review of Engagement From Scratch

View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends

Review of Engagement From Scratch is a post from: Home Wealth Project
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As in, “that’s not a real football team, they don’t play in Division 1″ or “That stock isn’t traded on a real exchange” or “Your degree isn’t from a real school.”

Real contains all sorts of normative assumptions and implicit criticisms for those that don’t qualify. Real is just one way to reject the weird.

My problem with the search for the badge of real is that it trades your goals and your happiness for someone else’s.

View full post on Seth’s Blog

Walking away from “real” is a post from: Home Wealth Project
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From Beliefs Commitment Comes

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

One of the central elements used by many companies to help simplify and tell what the company stands for in a way that generates commitment is through a list of stated core values or what I call Commitment Beliefs.

Jeff Kubina via Flickr

Now, it’s quite possible you’ve worked for an organization that’s hung a list of impressive sounding attributes on a wall somewhere and said here’s what we stand for. Maybe you’ve done this in your business.

Of course, for this to be anything more than an exercise you have to live your beliefs. That’s why stories are so important; they become tangible illustrations of what’s real.

Funny thing is every company has a set of core beliefs – some positive, some negative. It’s a lot like your brand, you can’t really hide it or fake it because ultimately is comes through in who you’re being, how the leadership team treats employees and customers, how you respond to adversity.

The key to tapping and leveraging your core beliefs is to find a way to capture the best of what your organization stands for and create, instill and live those things as often as you can.

The process of uncovering a set of core beliefs can be a little frustrating and highly personal, but what about generating purpose isn’t?

Create

The key to creating a great list of commitment beliefs is to throw off any notion of what they should be and simply brainstorm a bit about the best traits of your organization. Think about your people. Who on your team embodies what your company stands for?

Gather your leadership team, even if that’s just you, and spend some time pondering attributes that feel right, that inspire, that you’ve seen and heard used by staff and customers and record as many as you like. I know this will sound a little corny to some, but you’re looking for words and phrases that have to power to send a chill through the room.

You might even consider including a handful of customers in this exercise. Ask them to describe what they experience as a customer. You might be surprised how insightful some of their comments are.

Once you have a list that seems comprehensive it’s time to start paring it down to the most essential elements that are true beliefs. There is no perfect number, but as you move to make these beliefs the foundation of your message and story, there’s a case to be made for less is more. Strive for six or seven candidates for the final list.

Once more for emphasis. This is not a list of what ought to be or what sounds impressive. This is a list of what is, even if what is today isn’t as fully developed as you know it can be.

For example here’s a list for my organization

1. Practice your magic – do what you preach
2. Simplify everything – elegance over complexity
3. Extend trust – give what you need to earn
4. Make progress – failure is okay
5. Everyone leads – teach and learn
6. Create more – the value equation
7. Be a gift – love each other

The idea behind these 7 elements is that we try to live them in our interactions with each other, our customers and the market as a whole – they become what we communicate as elements of our brand, but more importantly we use them to make decisions individually and as an organization.

Instill

Appletree Answers, a professional telephone answering service and call center headquartered in Delaware, has distilled their list to the following elements with detailed descriptions attached to each:

• Employees are Critical
• Think Like a Customer
• Integrity Matters
• Small Details are Huge
• Be Quick, But Don’t Hurry
• Take Care of Each Other
• Spirited Fun

Company founder John Ratcliff admits that after creating the above list the elements remained little more than words on paper until he started finding way to drive them home repeatedly.

Ratcliff and other key leaders routinely visited Appletree’s eighteen locations to meet with staff employed there. Ratcliff started challenging members of these gatherings to recite the seven core values. He offered a $20 bill to the first person who could do it.

After seventeen meetings without a winner, a young man jumped up and recited the list verbatim. Ratcliff was so please he reached in his pocket and pulled out what ended up being $100 bill as a reward. Word spread quickly soon after and now everyone in the organization can readily recite the organization’s core values upon request.

Of course simply paying people to get closer to the words chosen to represent the core values isn’t what makes the pay for Appletree, it’s the shared language and actual decision making that’s come about through repeatedly emphasizing this set of words.

The core values show up everywhere at Appletree, including on applications completed by potential new hires.

Live

The thing about anything you state as true, it’s your actions that make them so.

All the brainstorming sessions, all hands meetings and bronze plaques in the world won’t bring any life to your stated core values unless you live them and reinforce them in your everyday acts and decisions.

Your commitment beliefs must become part of the story that employees share with each other, with customers and with new hires.

Committing to this practice can prove to be expensive in the short run, but pay huge dividends in the long run.

Ratcliff recounts a story about an employee that was found to be effectively stealing through various practices of manipulating lead sources and falsifying reports. Appletree immediately let him go, but was faced with a bit of decision after a large sale that the employee had worked on came through creating a commission of several thousand dollars.

“We knew that no one in the organization would have faulted us for keeping that commission, but that was the point. The money was due him and in accord with our ‘Integrity Matters’ belief, we determined paying him was the right thing to do.”

Ratcliff claims that writing that check was hard at the time, but doing so did more to bring life to the plank of integrity than any amount of words could do.

So, have you crystallized your commitment beliefs? Care to share how these beliefs impact your organization?

View full post on Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

From Beliefs Commitment Comes is a post from: Home Wealth Project
Special Thanks: Kissimmee Auto Repair, Kenyan Safari Package, Sell Medical Practice

Pet Rescue by Judy is a 501C3 no-kill animal rescue organization, dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation, and re-homing of abandoned and abused pets.

Get information about the Dash for Dogs schedule and activities. Be sure to visit their Facebook page as well.

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