communication

Do You Want More?

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“You cannot connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards… – Steve Jobs

 

Do you have synergy with your business or organization? Or even if you are an employee… do you naturally approach your projects with a perspective of synergy and connecting the dots?

Synergy is when the sum is equal to more than the two parts. Yes, the connection and energy of ideas meeting each other and creating something MORE. Do you want MORE for your business or organization?

When I meet with a new client, I am always looking for synergy or ways to connect theIMG_0169 dots. Below are the four ways I approach connecting the dots when working on a project or with a client.

1.) What do you value? Every company, organization or brand has something that it values. Event if you don’t notice it right away, there is something happening

2.) What are you really selling: Not your service or product. But what are you really providing and giving to your clients? Why do they choose YOU? Know this.. and the world opens up.

3.) Know Your History: Steve Jobs put is wonderfully with the above quote. You have to look back at all your dots, history and connections. With clients, I’m always looking for the foundation, how it started. What was the sentence, the experience, the event that started the ball rolling. Don’t ignore your history.

4.) Maximum effect: In addition to looking at all the above-mentioned, I also review how each action can have maximum effect. Every action or initiative that we do should have multiple purposes and functions. If one of your actions will only affect on thing, its time to either rethink the action or connect the dots. For example, if you speak at a conference, that speech or preparation should be repurposed to do something else for your brand. How can it have maximum effect?

Synergy.

Connecting the Dots.

Keys to Clarity: Tips for Creating Clarity in Your Life

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Clarity is everything.  Unclear expectations, goals or communication produces unclear results.

Without clarity it is very difficult to move forward and grow your business.  Being clarity lee wattsstrategic becomes challenging without clarity.  You will communicate ineffectively to your audience and clients. Ideas may not flow freely and you are unable to determine the next steps.

Many leader talk about the importance of focus.  However, without clarity – you may not be sure what to focus on.  Clarity must come first before you can obtain true success.

Below are XX ways that you can gain more clarity in life and business:

1.) What do you want?  Sounds like such a simple question, however, so few people can answer this.  I will often start my branding sessions with this question.  Over 50% of the time, my client will stumble through their answer.  Get clear on what it is that you really want.

2.) Exercise.  Exercising is such a big stress reliever, releases endorphins and overall helps you to feel better.  There have been many, many times I’ve received a great idea or an answer to a problem while exercising.  This doesn’t mean that you have to have a strict exercise program or train for triathalon.  Exercise could simply mean walking in the morning or evening or doing yoga in your living room.  The key is to relax, clear your mind and allow your brain to receive.

3.) Write it Out.  Journaling or writing out your thoughts and ideas in an unsensored manner is extremely helpful.  In work, we are trained to sensor our thoughts and ideas.  However, clarity often comes during those times of letting unsensored thoughts flow. If you are not a writer, consider talking into a voice recorder or creating a private video.  The goal is to go back and review for thoughts and look for aha moments or common denominators.

4.) Immerse Yourself in Action.  Often we will sit and review our thoughts and ideas without trying anything.  Immersing yourself in action and taking chances will quickly show us if something will work or not.  Don’t be afraid to try and fail.  Failing is one of our best teachers and can quickly put on on the road to clarity.

5.) Ask Yourself Why. Knowing your WHY has become a little of a catchphrase.  However, if done correctly, it is powerful.  Don’t underestimate it. Knowing your WHY for doing anything helps to eliminate the things in your business or life that don’t serve your purpose.

6.) Watch Your Time. How do you use your free time?  Be careful and selective on how you use your mind when you are not working.  Are you numbing your mind with trash television, filling your body with junk food and sugar?  Create a clear and clean lifestyle, and your mind will follow.

7.) Build Your Tribe.  In addition to creating a clear and clean lifestyle, it is important to have a close network of colleagues, mentors and friends that have similar goals.  This will help provide you with clarity and vision for your business and organization.

Do you have clarity—about work, relationships, health, free time, friendship, or any other aspect of your life?

If you are looking for clarity with your personal brand or the your organization or business, feel free to contact me for a clarity session.  Signing up for a complimentary consultation session may also help with your direction.

 

 

 

Developing Business During the Holiday Season

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Marketing is all about relationships.  What better time to focus on your marketing and business development than around the holidays, when people are focused on their closest personal and business relationships? 

Office Desk Computer, Coffee Paper Christmas Holidays Decoration

 

Below are some five tips on how you can be strategic and thoughtful with your clients during the holiday season. 

 

1.) Know Your Contacts – If you have not taken the time throughout the year to organize your contact list, this a good time to tackle this important task.  You should be aware of where your contacts fit on your list of priorities.  For example, knowing if a contact is a prospect, current great client, a client with potential for growth (more work), or a client that is slipping away, or a referral, etc.  Once you know where your contact stands on your list of priorities, you are better equipped with a plan to reach out to them during the holidays (and the new year).  Some contacts may receive a card, other contacts may receive an invitation to dinner or a party, others may receive a company gift.  Get organized and know your clients.

 

2.) Brief Client Interviews –  Although the holiday season is not the time to do aggressive selling  to your clients, it is the time to lay the ground work and gather important information for the new year.  As you are visiting clients, don’t be afraid to conduct a quick assessment on how the year has gone for their business or your work for them this year.  As you are gathering this information, you should also plan on how to address their issues in the new year. 

 

3.) Plan Your Visits – This is a great time of the year to visit clients, referrals and prospects bearing goodies for the office or business.  A box of donuts or cupcakes can go along way and also opens up an opportunity to find out what they are working on or may need assistance with for next year.  On-site visits are an excellent way to glean more information and work from your clients.   

 

4.) Create a Holiday Message:  Consider tweaking a tagline or key brand message for your company.  It is completely appropriate at this time of year as long as you maintain an authentic brand voice for your company. 

 

5.) Don’t forget about the New Year: We often focus on Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and Christmas, however, don’t forget to celebrate the New Year with your clients and prospects. Again, this is an excellent time to celebrate and quietly bring up their goals and plans of the New Year. 

 

Don’t let the holiday season slip by you without doing something strategic and thoughtful for your key contacts.  The most important point is to know who your key contacts are and where you want the relationship to go.  This will help determine how to approach them for the holidays and as you go into the New Year. 

 

Finally, remember…. it is all about building the relationship.  You should never think its a waste of time toasting with your client or stopping by with cookies. Relationships are the key to great business development. 

Marketing Challenges for Entrepreneurs

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As an entrepreneur, we can get pulled in so many different directions. There are challenges that will distract you on this entrepreneurial journey.  In this article, I will highlight just a few marketing challenges for entrepreneurs and new business owners.

  1. Not knowing your audience: So many people start businesses based on their watts marketing challengespassions and strengths.  This is excellent!  However, we often are so focused on starting the business that we forget to pay attention to who we are selling to, including their needs, desires and burdens.  We sometimes stop at just describing the demographics of our target audience.  However, there is more to knowing your audience than their age or demographics.  How do they purchase?  What keeps them up at night?  Where do they consume information? What do they follow and like on social media? It is critically important to know your audience.
  2. The wrong marketing platforms:  Many new businesses have the wrong marketing platforms.  They hear about so many social media platforms or new apps or programs and they want to start all of them.  There is not careful consideration of which platforms work for your business, target audience or which of them “speak” or sync with each other.  It is important to do an audit of your programs and make sure they work for your business and marketing strategy.
  3. Inconsistency & Lack of Clarity:  One of the keys to branding is creating a consistent story and selling that narrative to your audience.  This requires managing a lot of moving pieces and being able to stand back from your company and brand and decide on a consistent message.  This can be challenging. Often, this is the importance of having a marketing or branding consultant, to have an objective eye to look at your messaging and challenge you on your strategy.  Inconsistent messaging can cause distrust and ultimately hurt your brand and selling opportunities.
  4. Not Knowing Your USP:  Knowing your Unique Selling Proposition is key to marketing and branding.  You must know what value you bring to the table.  What is your differentiator?  Why should your clients and customers purchase from you? When businesses are unclear on this, they stumble through their messaging and how to sell and package their products and services for their clients.  Know your value.
  5. Underestimating Content Marketing:  Most small businesses don’t have the time or staff to work on content for their social media, blogs or website.  However, content marketing is key to establishing your brand and identity.  It is what will set you apart as a thought leader in your industry. No matter what you are selling, work on establishing yourself as an expert in your industry.

All these issues can be overwhelming, however, every business owner faces marketing challenges.  For assistance with any of these marketing challenges, feel free to contact me. 

 

 

Building a Brand or a Movement?

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Creating a movement or a brand-Starting a business is hard work. The hours can be grueling, along with the emotional and mental stamina needed to stay focused and innovative.  One thing that helps with turbulence and challenges of starting a business or organization is to understand if your business or organization exists for more than just paying bills.  It’s always exciting when you are brand is also a movement.  When the company or organization is more than about a product or service, but you are wanting to create change.
Brand vs. Movement
So what is different about creating a movement?  Movements are built on the things that make us human, which is ultimately that we want to be a part of something greater. Connecting to something to believe in and follow.  Movements are about creating a change.  This doesn’t mean that brands won’t do that.  However, the goal of a brand is about telling the story of your business, organization or product and allowing people to experience and follow that brand.  Movement is about transformation, where brands are often looking to dominate and compete in the marketplace. The goal of a movement is to change lives. Both are needed and critical, however the strategy and tactics needed with each are different.
Which are you doing?
If you are interested in creating CHANGE, if you have a message, if you want to go deeper, bigger and bolder, it’s important to see yourself as creating a movement. Movements build momentum and loyalty.  Movements offer hope…
 
Are you creating a brand or a movement?
Below are some key elements to creating a movement:
  •  Inspire.  You can’t get away from it.  If you want to create a movement, you have to inspire people to love something or hate something.  You have to tell the story in such a compelling way that you tug on the emotions of your audience.
  • Experience.  Stories are great; they keep us engaged and help us to think.  However, experiences make us FEEL something.  When creating a movement, you have to create an experience for your audience.  The experience you offer will depend on your industry and the vision for your company.  But don’t ignore it.
  • Live it. Whatever you are asking people to do, you have to be already doing it.  It needs to be ingrained in you and what you believe and do .
  • Create a call to action. What do you want your followers to DO?  Do you just want them to share the information? Donate? Follow? Attend?  Buy?  Whatever it is, tell them what you need for them to do and engage them to be part of the project. You have to show people how to follow.
  • Build a Tribe.  In order to build a tribe, you need to build trust.  Trust allows you to ask people to do some amazing things.  When creating a movement (or building a brand), you need trust.
Again, some brands are both.  They are about telling your company story, creating a following and proposing change.  Whichever you are doing, know the difference and tweak your business model accordingly.  If you need assistance in this area, feel free to contact me at [email protected].  Or attend my next workshop Strategy & Stilettos- The Workshop.

Does Your Organization Have Raving Fans?

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I had the wonderful privilege of visiting the corporate headquarters of Chick-fil-A yesterday.  As we all know, this company, from top to bottom, sets the bar for exceptional customer service. It was both an honor and overwhelming to take in all the wisdom that was shared regarding their philosophy on honoring others and providing excellent client service.  Each philosophy was steeped in spiritual nuggets and life truths.

Transferring all that wisdom and knowledge into another business model can be challenging, however, it is absolutely

necessary if you want to grow your business/organization and differentiate yourself in the marketplace. If your entity is struggling to grow, take a look at how you and your staff provide service to visitors and clients.

It is easy to think that if you have a great product or service, client service is not very important.  This is unequivocally wrong.  I have seen many small business owners think that because they have a great service they can be rude or not take good care of their clients. Having a great product, service or worship experience may create a satisfied client or member, but it will not guarantee a raving fan.

According to the NY Times, did you know that 83% of satisfied customers will not tell others about your service or product.  This is not a raving fan.  A raving fan will pay full price for your service and then run and tell others about it.  How many of your clients and customers are doing that?

Raving fans directly affect the bottom line of an organization.  If you are not systematically finding ways to create them, you are leaving money and resources on the table.  This is not an easy process.  It requires you and your staff to go above and beyond . . .every single time. It requires you to see your business/organization from the eyes and needs of the client or customer.  It is also critical to create emotional connections and know the real needs of your clients. In addition, creating raving fans is more than great customer service, it is providing the client/customer/member with more than they expected.

What is that one thing that could differentiate your business and service?  Something that shows you have gone above and beyond their expectations?

If you are not creating raving fans or providing exceptional client service, please allow me to help you implement this in your marketing strategy.  Contact me and let me help you connect the dots

Five Essentials for Building a Brand

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When speaking to someone interested in starting a business, writing a book or leading an organization, inevitably the aspect of branding is discussed. Branding is one of my favorite marketing topics because branding is truly about emotion and connection. The strategies we use to create a brand should focus on creating a strong connection and relationship between the product/person/company and the customer or guest. More importantly, this strong connection creates customer loyalty.


To grow a business, brand or create loyal customers – a robust brand strategy is needed. This takes time and patience, however, it is absolutely necessary.

Below are essential keys needed for building any brand:

1.) Know the Strengths. Are you aware of your individual strengths or the strengths of your organization? If it is your individual brand, spend valuable time examining your strengths. Ask those closest to you about your strengths. The same holds true for your company. What are the strengths of the company? This may become clearer through surveys and focus groups, asking key customers, clients or guests key questions about the company or brand. If you are starting a company, find your target audience and discover what they value.

2.) Be Authentic. Authenticity is key in branding. This is knowing your strengths, as well as your weaknesses – but being perfectly okay with both. For example, Chick-fil-A does not try to make burgers or tacos. It has identified its strength, and probably its weaknesses, and they continually build on their strengths. They make really great chicken sandwiches with exceptional customer service. They don’t focus on making new sandwiches or twists on chicken sandwiches. As a result, they avoid their weaknesses and focus on the brand.

3.) Add Value. Whether it is an individual brand or company, be clear on the value you bring. Does your brand solve a problem or meet a need? Not only should the brand add value, but it should also differentiate you or your company from others. So many brands, organizations, services and products are competing for our attention. What will differentiate your brand from the others? It could the smallest thing that makes the difference. Discover “the thing” that will set your brand apart from others.

4.) Create an Emotion. What is the feeling you would like to invoke in your audience or clients? What emotion do you want your brand to feel? Dale Carnegie states: “When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion.” Brand strategy should focus on building an emotion.

5.) Consistency is key. It is critical to reinforce the value, skills and expertise your brand brings. This should be communicated through your various marketing platforms. Consistency will help your prospective clients and customers, as well as your current clients, quickly know how to describe your business or your service. Consistency is also important for your visuals. Eventually you want customers to see your logo, your colors, as well as your fonts and formatting and know instinctively that it is your company.

If you are interested in creating a brand strategy for your company, organization or building your individual brand, please contact ashby & watts. We can help you connect the dots.