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In response to my blog post on Monday, the brilliant and creative Denise DiGrigoli, owner of Troy Fine Art Services, Inc., came rushing into my Remarkable Women’s Network event Tuesday evening exclaiming, “I’ve got something to show you!” Denise had written me a heartfelt response to my entry on self-promotion the day before. Last night she handed me this page from Martha Stewart which elaborately pinpoints exactly where you can find Martha–on television, on twitter (or The Twitter as Betty White so adorably calls it), at events, on the radio, on her blog and The Daily Wag which catalogs her pooches’ comings and goings. That’s how Martha is staying connected and letting her fans know where she is.
Marketing is not a passive activity. Build a website and they will come? Not anymore.
In response to Martha’s powerful example, Denise who is nothing if not a consummate go-getter created her own self-promotional version.
I challenge you to cut and paste your own version of Where To Find __________ and understand that a one-time postcard mailing or monthly newsletter is not going to get the big results. Today’s market requires multiple channels of visibility. Martha has laid them out well on her page. Borrow her example and use her variety and breadth of reach as a target.
Check if this feels familiar: A company owed me a check for the books they had sold during a speaking engagement. I had anticipated receiving that money a few days after the event. Now it was closer to a few weeks and still no check. My resentment was rising. I had to take a look at my piece of the transaction.
- Did I have our agreement in writing? No.
- I noticed that I was getting more and more annoyed at the absence of an envelope in my mailbox.
- I then realized I hadn’t even been to my P.O. to check on incoming mail for several days.
- I owned the fact that I had not emailed my contact to be sure the transaction was in process.
- I realized my passivity was an old way of operating and hoping someone else would take care of me.
Once I got to my post office and saw that the awaited check was not there, I sent an email and got an immediate response and a check soon after. There had been a glitch in the system, and now they were on it. Very simple. No one to blame.
I find that I need to identify my old, but familiar relationship with victimhood every once in a while to be sure I’m not feeding myself a dose of adrenaline just for the rush of emotions it brings. That’s a dangerous place to live, and I don’t want to dwell there.
Mark Twain said, “My life has been full of catastrophes, most of which have never happened.” Are you susceptible to this behavior? The best antidote I know is to share the situation with a trusted friend or colleague, shine the light of day on it, and remove it from the dangerous neighborhood of your brain.
We as business owners all know that the way to capitalize on our resources is to spend our time doing the tasks we do best and delegating the rest. When I was new and young in my business I did it all: data entry (handwriting names on 3×5 cards), producing the items for sale (decorated eggs, jewelry), marketing (designing the postcard mailings and applying the stamps myself), etc., etc. I always felt like I didn’t have the money to pay someone else. And besides, it would take longer to explain it than to just do it.
Over time I learned that in order to grow, I needed to let go of the work that I could hire out and that had a lower dollar-an-hour amount in cost. If I could design and sell an egg for $100 and it took me an hour to do that, then anything taking up my time–like filing or licking stamps (this was pre-self-stick stamp days) valued at less than $100 per hour–I would be wise to delegate. Eventually I hired an assistant in my studio at $10 per hour and never looked back.
Nowadays, I spend 90% of my time coaching, speaking and writing for which I have the highest return on my investment. I hire people to convert my online e-newsletter to html, take registrations for my events and outfit me so I look professional and stylish.
Think of it this way if you’re having a hard time letting go. At some point our forefathers and foremothers let go of milking their own cows and trusted that the milk they drank would be okay, even if it didn’t come from the labor of their own hands.
Is there a to-do on your list that you’d like to let go of but are afraid of losing control? Can you trust that delegating this labor-intensive task will free you up to be more productive in your business? Call a goal buddy and commit to letting go of the equivalent of cow-milking. Let me know how it goes.
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.
My younger daughter Laura, to whom my book Soul Proprietor is dedicated, helped me out this week by listening to the soon-to-be-released audio version of the book. Line by line, she read the text while listening to the recording I’d spent the last couple of months on. I wanted a fresh pair of eyes and ears to catch any stumbles or other errors in the recorded version.
She did a fine job dog-earing any page that had a repeated phrase, a mispronunciation or missed word from the text. I want this to be letter perfect. I plan to submit it for acceptance in iTunes and know that any boo-boos would throw it into a reject pile. (BTW, if anyone knows the best way to get onto iTunes listings, please let me know.)
When she was all done reading this new edition as well as listening to my voice speaking it, I asked her if she had learned anything new. After all, she’s known me for 28 years. I was pretty sure it would be in her bones having lived with and observed me for the first 18. Laura is entrepreneurial now herself, translating Japanese text daily for an international television company. She works independently and takes on other freelance work as it comes.
“I was not aware of how much help you’ve gotten from other people,” she told me. The book is filled with examples of my reaching out and asking questions of people in my mastermind group, taking courses, attending networking events and otherwise relying on a think-tank of friends and colleagues who have been more than generous with their advice and resources.
“I didn’t realize how many people you’ve hired and how much you’ve delegated.”
“I had no idea how persistent you have to be. You would call someone six times before letting go. I’ve never done that.”
I love that Laura had me so magically powerful–that I had created it all by myself. But, I love it more that she knows the truth and has a realistic sense of what it truly takes to be successful: lots of help and the determination, willingness and self-caring to go for it.
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.
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.
My daughter Laura and I leave for Danbury prison early this morning (it’s 5:49am as I write this). I’m unsure of what will happen at the job fair I’ve agreed to speak at, but anticipating a valuable learning opportunity. I’m going with an open mind, open heart and desire to share what I know.
In the meantime, I got a hearty response to my last blog about fees and pricing. Even as I was writing it, my mind kept flashing on my friend and colleague Kate Kelly. Sure enough, this message arrived soon after I posted. Take advantage!
From Kate:
How to Set Your Fees and Get Them, a book I wrote to address the difficulty of fee-setting, provides VERY helpful advice for anyone selling their services. Now that I’m writing more in the field of American history, I haven’t had time to re-publish the book so some of the anecdotes are a bit dated. That said, the book’s advice is still very solid, very relevant.
The book retailed for $17.50 but because I’m not actively promoting it, I would be more than happy to provide your readers with a “deal.” If they are willing to mail me $6 which will cover the envelope and first class postage, I will be honored to send them a copy of the book. Pls put Fees Book in the subject line and e-mail me: kkelly@katekelly.com. I’ll send them my mailing address and the book will go out as soon as I receive payment to cover my costs.
I don’t like to be misled. Like I was when I grabbed a mesh bag containing four avocados at Trader Joe’s Sunday morning. I saw the RIPE label on the skin and thought, “Great! I’ll use these tomorrow to make that salad I love.” When I got home and cut the avocados loose from the bag and gave them a squeeze, I knew they weren’t ready to be used yet. That’s when I noticed the small print saying “when soft”. I had been manipulated and misled by the large red print. I resented it.
Gaining our customers’ trust is important and anything that disrupts that process can create ill-will.
You are not alone if you have given an estimate or proposal for your goods or services, only to realize a few days or weeks into the project that you have underestimated your own time and value. Welcome to the club! This is part of the learning curve in entrepreneurship.
If there was one book that had the exact answer for how to price a job, it would be an all-time best-seller. The fact is, no one can say for sure what YOUR time is worth except you. And, you have to figure it out as you and your business grow over time.
A client recently shared with me that she had undervalued her creative services and asked how she might go about collecting the shortfall from her client. I recommended against this as a practice or even one-time happening. I am not in favor of passing along your learning to the person who is paying you. We, as business owners, are responsible for the cost of our own education. My friend Terri Lonier* calls it “tuition” and says “there’s no good way to ask for that money.”
Here’s the growth challenge. Rather than underbid a job, take the time to calculate your anticipated hours labor, materials and overhead. Be generous with yourself, as you know that things always take longer and that unexpected occurrences will pop up during any project. Account for those in your budget.
The risk here is stating your true anticipated cost upfront. The amount may be surprisingly high to you, but you’ve got it justified by your carefully considered mathematics. You may be pleasantly surprised by your prospect’s acceptance of your estimate.
If you believe in the saying, “Pay me now, or pay me later” you’ll appreciate the wisdom of asking upfront for what you really deserve rather than trying to make it up with explanations and pleading after the fact.
While I know that pricing can be a tricky issue, it’s better to gain clarity around your costs before, rather than after, the deal is made. Like most customers, unhappy surprises produce resentments.
*I had the privilege of being interviewed by Terri for her online newsletter. Here’s today’s issue.
After a super-busy weekend in NYC and out of my office for nearly three days, things have a way of piling up exponentially. It feels burdensome to walk into my office and see every countertop filled with business cards, unsorted mail and yellow stickies with important to-do’s jotted down on them.
The first thing I did this morning was a gross sort. As you can see from this photo, I have a lot of areas in my life. I just assigned each of them a pile and labeled them so I can spend quality time on book promotion, my new Mastermind groups, speaking and family matters.
By doing this, I opened up space on the other side of the office for actually generating the effort:
Lesson 48 in the new edition of Soul Proprietor is all about getting organized. “What really, really gets me inspired is a clean desk.” (p. 94)
It happened for me this morning. As soon as all the piles were sorted out and that space next to my computer was cleared out, I could feel my creative juices begin to flow and my energy rise. Try it. You’ll like it.
BTW, I set a timer and give myself 15 minutes for the sorting. It’s motivating to know I don’t have to spend an hour doing this, just 15 minutes. Don’t you know, after the buzzer goes off, I’m so into the process I set it for another 15 so I can keep going.
