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I received this email from a client yesterday morning. I hear this sentiment a lot and knew it was worth quoting directly:
“I am on my way to Charlotte to the WITHIT conference. Women in the Home Furnishings Industry. I feel a bit guilty going so much this month, but that is the way the schedule fell, and I am determined to network more and outside my normal sphere. Driving this time and planning to spend the night with a dear girlfriend on the way home to spend time with her.
“Not many of us can just go when we want to and I am new to this freedom. Pretty amazing. Looking forward to speaking to you next week.”
My response:
“Let go of the guilty feeling for a second, pull back and take a look at the life you have created for yourself. I see a woman on the move and making a living, with friends in all places and the agility to manage the freedom and joy of this independence. What’s to feel guilty about? That others haven’t designed their lives to have what you have? That you get to be happy?”
And hers back to me:
“I have printed this out to read and reread as I travel over the next couple of days.”
My head is still spinning from the informational overload, excitement, new relationships and possibilities opened as a result of attending this spectacular conference in NYC last week. I want to offer my own session next year called something like, “So you’re totally inspired by BlogHer ’11. Now what?”
Thought I’d share some of my follow-up to-do list to inform and inspire you, and for you to hold me accountable.
- Check out and spend time on these websites and blogs among others:
tarynp.com
alltop.com
pearltrees.com
topsy.com
tumblr.com
smartbrief.com
- Spend time: researching google analytics for my blog posts, inserting a google tool bar, learning more about feedburner, clicky.com, wompra, postrank, filtering keyword reports.
- Add social media addresses to my email sig file. New business cards with social media addresses.
- Introduce people I met at BlogHer to people I know who would benefit from knowing them.
- Write blogs about each of the subjects I noted, like the fine line between friending and stalking; whether or not to truncate blog posts; what it’s like to be more learner than expert, etc.
- Form a social media mastermind group to help me and others up their tech skills in these areas.
- Spend dedicated time on twitter and facebook daily
I will approach these in bite-size pieces and spread them over the next several weeks and months until using social media and feeling more on top of this becomes second nature. Currently it feels like I’m in the parking lot of my elementary school with my father pushing me on my two-wheeler with unsteady training wheels. I look forward to being on the open roads sailing along on a ten-speed, hands free.
Let me put this in perspective for those of you reading this who are under, say, 40. Having my picture taken with Bruce Jenner would be the equivalent of you having your picture taken with Tiger Woods last summer. Bruce Jenner was THE athlete back in the early 70′s. No way would I have been anywhere in the vicinity of this superstar athlete. But, at BlogHer ’10, I was wrangled over to his area of the trade show asking if I’d like to have my picture taken (on my own camera, thank you) with Bruce Jenner. Why not?!
There’s something here about the trajectory of a career. He’s now stumping for Tropicana. What does that tell you? My kids and others more familiar with his career asked if he was the one married to a Kardashian. I’ve vaguely heard of those folks. Made me think about what fame can do for or against you. Sobering…Not sure I’ll ever have to be concerned with that degree of fame and its aftermath.
I had the immense pleasure and privilege of sitting at the table with Missy Germain and her mother Gail at the opening breakfast session at BlogHer 2010. I was with Sarah Youngblood, my client and friend from Georgia, when we randomly sat down and then pinched ourselves with delight that we had met such successful bloggers right at our table.
Missy and a partner created the blog bittenandbound.com which, her by her tagline’s admission offers “the not so pretty side of Hollywood.” On my own, I would never have come across this blog, but after talking to Missy, I got more interested. She shared their sky-high hit rate and how hard they have worked to achieve this. What was so exciting was to hear someone so successful in this medium, and a very nice person to boot.
I also loved the relationship between this mother and daughter who work together. They clearly had great affection for each other. You could see the pride in each others’ eyes, not to mention the delight at the fact that they were being very well compensated for their efforts.
I couldn’t help but noticing the tattoo on Missy’s arm. I saw it, but wanted to really get a closer look at what the message said. It reads, “I will choose the outcome.” Gail, her mother, elaborated. “Missy believes in wearing her intention.” Clearly, Missy has her eye on the prize and goes after it with intelligence and drive.
I choose to follow these women and learn more about how they’ve become so successful. I’ve committed to diving in deeper to social media as the way to achieve that knowledge. A large part of that commitment I owe to Miriam Salpeter who has been encouraging, guiding and nudging me forward via twitter. I’m in, Miriam!
In May I attended my first Savor the Success event in NYC–an all-day program called Rock the World, which I thoroughly enjoyed (and blogged about). Last night I went to the organization’s monthly meeting hosted by founder Angela Jia Kim. The setting, 75 Wall Street – top floor – had a spectacular view of the East River. Here (in photo), featured speakers on the subject of branding gave a talk about packaging products for media attention.
The ride into Manhattan was fun as I was accompanied by Laurie Davis, aka the Glitter Fairy, and Kate Woodman of Sharp Hill Designs. Both are Premium Members, so I got all the details and a hunger for more. Riding home, we picked up two more passengers to Connecticut: Nancy Moon of Moon Public Relations and Robin Horton of Robin Horton Design and Urban Gardens. As Kate said in an email today, the ride was the best part. Which says a lot, because the event was really good. How rare is it to sit with five women (in an enclosed space) and share stories about business ownership! It’s where the truth comes out quickly and the intimacy of the details is savored.
So why would I join yet another network, especially one 50 miles from my home? The women! Everyone I met had an enthusiasm for entrepreneurship that I have not previously encountered. Angela radiates confidence, poise and intelligence. She gave a brief and crisp talk about midway through the evening. It was informative and to the point. She attracts good people and kept the flow of the night pulsing. No small feat.
Two-hundred and fifty women received a postcard mailing from me last week announcing my upcoming summer Remarkable Women’s Network events. It had the image you see here on the face of it taken at my March 15 event held at Boardroom in Stamford, CT. Only women who have attended one of my events received a card. Everyone else will get email blasts starting next week.
Colleague and friend Karen Hodges, who received over-sized postcard, emailed me saying, “You just AMAZE me in how you have your marketing machine so oiled, even using ‘old school’ marketing to catch people’s attention during summer vacation time of year when the focus might be off networking and business building.”
Now, I will take credit for using the ‘old school’ marketing and for catching people when they’re not expecting it, but the well-oiled marketing machine made me laugh. My process looks more like one of those old Rube Goldberg contraptions:
This was reinforced for me at a Mastermind Group session I led on Wednesday night. One member, a professional organizer, embarrassedly admitted that her desk was a disaster area. She said she’d be horrified if her clients could see. Another organizer chimed in, ashamedly, “You should see my files! A total wreck!”
Of course, I brought up the shoemaker, but everyone was laughing too hard to hear me. I say “here’s to keeping up the illusion” and don’t beat yourself up if it’s messy getting it out there, as long as you do get it out there.
Heather Habelka told me that when she used to play with dolls, she didn’t cast them as family members like mother, father, sister and brother. Nor did she pretend that they were students and she the teacher. When she was growing up, she told me recently, her dolls were customers. “I always knew I wanted to own my own business.”
Heather has been on my radar for about a year now since we met at a networking event. I think it was Ladies Who Launch. I remembered meeting her when I saw her again at another event a month or so later. Over the year I watched and listened, noticed and became inspired.
One colleague hired her for a project after meeting her at my Remarkable Women’s Network event and was very pleased with Heather’s work. I sat in on a roundtable when Heather was speaking and heard her wisdom voiced to the participants. Recently Heather sent me a note letting me know the impact of my groups on her business.
The point is, and I want to make this very clear, marketing is NOT sending out an e-mail blast. Look at the arc of my relationship with Heather as an example of how many hits and drips it’s taken for me to make the phone call to hire Heather. This goes for being hired as well as hiring. There are few silver bullets, so much of the work of entrepreneurship is staying mentally, professionally and emotionally fit for the long run, the marathon of success.
The impetus to pick up the phone, finally, came when I received an offer from Heather in the EWN goody bag at the Grand Networking Event. It was a beautifully presented card with a well-stated message that fit my time frame and pocketbook. Marketing is not a) attending networking events, b) being a great ambassador for what you do, c) sending out mailings, d) acknowledging others and forwarding relationships, but e) all of the above; rinse and repeat.
P.S. At lunch today I sat next to Sherrie Norton, a creative designer and construction manager. I asked her if she knew early on that she had this interest in shaping space. She told me that, as a kid, when she shoveled snow or raked leaves, she always made it into a floor plan. Some lucky people, like Heather and Sherrie, were born to their businesses. And, they still have to market.
Thank God Sam Horn wrote the book POP because owning it saved me from having to write down every word she spoke at the conference I attended last week in Waltham, MA. I knew that I would be able to look up the gems she shared and spend time mulling them long after she finished her talk.
One phrase that particularly resonated for me, Sam dubbed the ‘empathy telescope.’ She related a story about a sinking ship where the crew was rescued, but shortly after the sound of barking reminded the now-saved sailors that a dog had been left on-board. Long story short, the world rallied to save this one animal. “Why,” asked so many, “is so much energy being focused on this one dog when there are strays filling pet shelters all over the country?” The answer, according to Sam, is that we are not able to stand in the shoes of thousands, but when the predicament of one is brought to our attention, our ‘empathy telescope’ zooms into action.
How does this apply to you? She immediately went into the self-introduction that everyone dreads–the elevator speech–and how to make it relevant to your prospects. By telescoping in on exactly what you do, your message is more powerfully communicated. I jotted down one of my client’s names to use in my future 30-second commercials. Let me try it out on you; then you can hear it right from Kate’s lips in her longer version.
Prospect: “So, what do you do, Jane?”
Jane: You know how people have dreams or visions of where they want to take their business? Well, what I do is hold that vision, like Kate Eisemann’s for a photography studio outside her home, and coach her to take specific and scary actions towards having her dream, which she did. Within 4 months was in her own dream studio (in the video below) with her work hanging on the walls.
If you don’t believe me, here’s Kate telling that story:
I had my wonderful reunion walk with Lucy this morning (see Wednesday’s blog for details). I told her I had blogged about her and gotten a tremendous response regarding her energized, pro-active connecting abilities. She looked at me and said, “Connecting is my oxygen.”
I feel the same way and am so glad to have that supply reciprocated.
P.S. I recently received a compliment and a request about the images I use for my blogs. Often, they are photos I’ve taken on my own digital camera. Sometimes I borrow from the website of the person I’m featuring. But, more often than not, I use istockphoto.com for the impact I want to create. Unfortunately, today, the only walkers of mature women bore no resemblance to me, although if you squinted, you might think Lucy could be the woman in the fuchsia top.
I’ve talked about Lucy Hedrick on many occasions, but her re-entry to Connecticut this season prompts another side of Lucy I’d like to share. Enviably, Lucy spends over six months a year as a snowbird in Sarasota, FL, taking her writing and book proposal coaching business with her. Once the Northeast warms to her liking, Lucy returns to her Greenwich home for the spring and summer months.
Lucy doesn’t sit around and wait for her friends and colleagues to notice that she’s back. She doesn’t even consider that anyone should have her on their radar. Rather, she gets busy reaching out and setting up her calendar to include the people and activities she most enjoys.
Last week I received a personal messages from Lucy with an inspired way to connect. She emailed me that we had lots to discuss and would I like to meet her for a walk. Note the benefit here: Lucy invited me for an activity she knows I engage in regularly. She also knows that getting anywhere in Fairfield County is a challenge. She made an irresistible proposal. She offered to drive to my house to meet me. My answer was an immediate, “YES!”
Early this week I was included in a group email sent to the women from my writers group which disbanded a few years ago. These creative writers are still foremost in my heart, but we haven’t gotten together as a group in well over a year. The email was from Lucy with the suggestion we get together for a reunion. Again, not only did Lucy come up with a lovely idea, but she also named a place and put out 5 dates that we could respond to.
How many times do you hear, “We should really get together!” followed by an enthusiastic, “Yeah! That’d be so nice.” And nothing happens. Lucy pre-empted that go-nowhere invitation with her thoughtfulness and commitment.
Lucy and I are walking this Friday morning at 7:30am, and our group will meet at one of our colleague’s homes at 3pm on the 29th. When you connect like Lucy, things happen. From my own experience, more things happen when you’re connecting with others than when you’re sitting in your office. I’m grateful to be on the receiving end of Lucy’s networking outreach.
