Are You Selling Your Business With A Story?

I just finished a great book that had been recommended to me. It’s called A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink.

According to Pink:

We’ve moved from an economy built on people’s backs to an economy built on people’s left brains to what is emerging today: an economy and society built more and more on people’s right brains.

To survive in this age, individuals and organizations must examine what they’re doing to earn a living and ask themselves three questions:

1. Can someone overseas do it cheaper?
2. Can a computer do it faster?
3. Is what I’m offering in demand in an age of abundance?

If you answer yes to 1 and/or 2, or no to 3, it’s time to rethink what you are doing.

I would highly recommend adding this to your reading list, as the book is filled with ideas that can really make you think about where you stand today.

So of course, I took an hour out this morning and looked at my business, and reworked some of the things we’re doing, adding new tasks and goals.

Ultimately everything we do comes down to how well we can share our ideas and information with others, and how well it is perceived by others.

If you are trying to sell what everyone else is, you’re going to have trouble.

But if you find a creative way to sell what you have, you’ll be a success.

People don’t want things the same old way. They want something new and different. They want to be able to put their own flare to it, be creative with it, and share their ideas in their own way.

Which is one of the reasons social networking is booming. People aren’t being marketed to; instead, they find new things by relying on “friends”.

It’s time to look at your business in a different light. What can you do to become more creative with what you do? What can you do to create something no one else is offering?

Book Review: The Alchemist

When you think of spring break, what do you think of? For me, its usually lying on the beach. This year we chose to stay home, and do a few things here in Colorado. So rather than reading a traditional business book this week, I picked up a copy of The Alchemist by Paulo Choelho.

How I missed this book all of these years, I’ll never know. It’s a quick read, and a great story that teaches you about life.

One of my favorite quotes:

“To show you one of life’s simple lessons,” the alchemist answered. “When you possess great treasures within you, and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed.”

I remember sitting in one of my very first seminars when we started our photography business. The speaker said, “I’m giving you the exact formula I’ve used for my business. Yet I know less than 5 percent of you will try any of this, much less all of it. Don’t be the 95 percent.”

I never forgot that quote. How could anyone not take advice from someone who is giving it freely? But it was true.

• Some of the information I simply wasn’t ready for.
• Some of the information didn’t apply to me yet.
• Some of the information I simply didn’t understand.

And so I too didn’t use the majority of what I learned.

The Alchemist walks you through the life of a shepherd who is on his quest to find his personal treasure. Unlike most people, he trusts his instincts, and continues on his journey. When he finds “treasure” on his journey, he doesn’t get sidetracked into believing he has what he needs. Instead, he continually puts things on hold until he achieved his goal, and finds his own personal treasure.

We all have our own personal treasure. Unfortunately life often gets in the way and we give up on our dreams. Even success isn’t the ultimate goal unless it’s what you’ve always dreamed of achieving.

This is a book to read again and again. I’ve added it to my daughter’s summer reading list. And I know I’ll be reading it again soon. Every read will have a different meaning. And isn’t that the point? We always need to be reminded that we can achieve our dreams if we stick to the plan.

Book Review: Barack, Inc. Winning Business Lessons of the Obama Campaign

I’m a fast reader, and try to read several different books every week. With non-fiction and business books, I usually just skim them to get the overall idea. Occasionally I find one I really enjoy, stop and start reading page for page.

After hearing quite a bit about it, I picked up a new copy of Barack, Inc. Winning Business Lessons of the Obama Campaign by Barry Libert and Rick Faulk. And this is one of those books that is crammed with ideas and inspiration; one that I not only stopped to read fully, but have also read a couple of times in the past week.

It’s an easy read, with only 146 pages. The authors have split the book up into four chapters:

·    Success You Can Believe In and Emulate
·    Be Cool
·    Be Social
·    Be the Change

As you would expect from a book entitled Barack Inc, it is all about the campaign and how Barack utiltized various tools to go from a virtual unknown to the 44th President of the United States.

But what you might not expect is the pearls of wisdom on how you can change your own business for the better.

Read more

Using Twitter To Grow Your Ideas

What can you do with social networking?

Well if you’re trying to raise money and awareness about literacy, it can be amazing.

Chances are you’ve heard of Tim Ferris and his mega best seller, The 4 Hour Work Week. My copy looks like a college text book, with highlighted paragraphs and stick tabs throughout the book.

On his blog, he’s trying a new experiment. It’s more like an ethical bribe.

The Tweet to Beat: Paying $3 Per Twitter Follower

In order to raise money for literacy and library programs throughout the United States (and increasingly around the world) he will donate $1 for every person that follows him on Twitter, and an anonymous donor will follow up with a $2 donation. (@tferriss)

Pretty incredible goals. So far he’s gained over 4,000 followers. His goal is to reach 50,000 new followers.

• It’s great for literacy – what a great way of raising awareness and money for something that impacts our lives.
• And it’s also a great example of using a noble cause for dual purposes.

What could you do with 75,000 people following you?

Book Review: Hot, Flat and Crowded

What does the future hold in store for us if we continue on the way we have in the past? What if we ignore the warning signs of global warming? What will happen as we continue to add billions of people to our current lifestyle trends?

That’s the premise behind Thomas L Friedman’s Hot, Flat and Crowded. I’ve been looking forward to reading his latest release for quite awhile. I read The World Is Flat a couple of times in the past, and enjoy his writing style.

In Hot, Flat and Crowded, Friedman opened my eyes up to why our current path needs to change – and also opened up my eyes to ways we could do it.

The current reports all say we have a problem, and if we don’t fix it, we’re on a course for destruction. Friedman lays out how we got this way, and what will happen if we don’t make changes. He makes a number of great points that left me pondering for hours.

In his chapter “If It Isn’t Boring, It Isn’t Green”, Friedman talks about the impact we’re facing today with the automobile industry:

President George W Bush and his administration claimed that they were protecting American companies by not imposing tougher efficiency standards, such as those proposed for more efficient cooling by air conditioners or better mileage performance by American cars. It was an understandable reflex from an administration that considers itself business friendly. It was also dumb. When you are the most innovative country, with the best research universities, the best national laboratories, and the highest technological base, you should want higher standards – because your companies can meet them while weaker ones cannot.

People around the world have always looked up to Americans because we have the power and the ability to do anything. People like Arnold Schwarzenegger came to America to fulfill the dream of being able to do anything. But if we lower our standards, and make things easier, we allow others to catch up.

An interesting way of thinking.

It’s not about putting America on top – it’s about Americans sharing their knowledge and abilities to help achieve prosperity around the globe. As we wake up to the knowledge of what being green truly means, hopefully it will also put us on course to develop a new way of lifestyle that can easily be implemented throughout the world. The only true way of not failing is to take action.

A great read and one that should be required reading for all of today’s students, this will be on my daughter’s bedside table – as soon as I reread it myself.

Books on Demand

Have you ever gone into a bookstore, looking for a book that isn’t on their shelves? You inquire at the information desk, and they say they can order it for you.

At that point you have two choices: order from the bookstore and come back in a week to pick it up; or head home and order it online and wait for it to arrive in your mail.

What if you could have it on the spot? I found an article about a bookseller that’s doing just that. Blackwell’s is offering print-on-demand books while customers wait with their newest innovation – the Espresso Book Machine (EBM).

The machine currently prints 40 pages per minute, but this is expected to double  later this year. Which means you can have an average business title in under five minutes.

How cool is that?

This isn’t meant to take over what a bookstore is currently offering – it will merely complement it by offering more titles than a bookstore can offer.

I can’t wait until we see this technology here…

Two Modern Day Stories

Two things have caught my interest over the past week.

The first was a book by Harlan Coben, “Hold Tight”. Though I don’t usually read a lot of fiction (mostly non-fiction business books are on my nightstand), I read a review recently that made me want to give this book a try. I’m doing a lot of research/writing on social media and Internet security, which are two of the main topics in this book. The story is about a teenager who commits suicide, and it all leads to different clues using today’s social media tools and email. It also asks the question that many parents today are facing: is spying on your kids’ online habits a good thing?

I enjoyed reading about a family’s challenges when facing their teenager’s choices, and the author’s take on keeping your kids safe. Because many parents today simply don’t understand things like Facebook and MySpace, keeping their kids safe is a difficult task. With a book like this, it’s opening up topics that before were simply unknown. If it can get parents to start thinking and to start learning a bit more about today’s tools, it’s a definite step in the right direction.

The second was a movie, Untraceable. This action thriller is about an FBI agent who tracks people online, and traces them to different crimes. The storyline revolves around how you catch a killer who broadcasts online, but programs his site in such a way that he is untraceable.

There are lots of turns and twists that keep you on the edge of your seat. Once again I enjoyed having today’s technology featured in such a dramatic way. Is all of it believable and plausible? Probably not. But it’s a great two hour look at what today’s technology can do.

In both cases the author/director shares a modern look at technology, and the impact it can have on our lives. In both cases it’s not based on common every day occurrences, but it still is enough to share possibilities with readers/viewers. Things have definitely made mainstream when best selling novels and action movies are centered around it.

If you’ve read the book or watched the movie, I’d be interested in hearing your comments.

Have you ever had a Meatball Sundae?

How many of you are fans of Seth Godin, raise your hand?

I’ve read a ton of his books, and love following his blog. I finally got a chance to read his newest book, Meatball Sundae.

If you haven’t heard of Godin, or his book, the name may throw you a bit. After all, what does a Meatball Sundae have to do with marketing?

First you have to think about what a meatball sundae actually is. It’s the result of combining two perfectly good items that don’t go together at all. You don’t end up with something new and fresh; you actually end up with a big, sloppy mess that has zero attraction to the general public.

In this case a meatball would be the basic staples – the things that traditional marketing could sell quite well. The topping would be the new marketing – MySpace, websites, blogs – all of the magic that makes the sundae irresistible.

Unfortunately, most businesses still live with the idea of producing the meatball. They produce a product and continue to market it in traditional ways, usually because they don’t understand New Marketing.

To succeed in today’s world, you have to break away from the traditional marketing, and learn to play in the brave, new marketplace.

Take for instance Godin’s Trend 14 – New Gatekeepers, No Gatekeepers. With old marketing, the only way to get “big” was to get in with the big guys. You did everything you could to be noticed by one of the biggest companies in the marketplace. Once you were found, your business was on easy street. Not so today. The big actually tend to struggle as they apply all of their big, corporate rules to the new marketplace.

Where else can a tiny company produce a short video with no ad budget, place it on YouTube, be found, and within  a few short months have the video viewed millions of times? Only in times of new marketing. Again, this is with zero ad budget – YouTube is free, and shooting an in-house video can cost next to nothing.

But with new marketing, you have to step outside of the traditional box, and be willing to try a few things. And if they don’t work, try a few more. Then keep what does work, and try some more.

New Marketing is changing all the time. The important thing is to learn what you can, give it a try, follow the advice of others, text, and start all over again.

If you’re looking for something to read on your next flight, or even to take to the beach (can you tell it’s almost spring break, and I’m ready for vacation?) give Meatball Sundae a try. It’s a quick read, and really can put some new ideas into place.

Does It Really Matter How Many Books We’re Reading?

I’ve always been a little shocked at the statistics that suggest people aren’t reading books anymore.

According to statistics on Parapublishing.com:

Only 38% of adults in 2006 said they had spent time reading a book for pleasure the previous day.

65% of college freshmen in 2005 said they read little or nothing for pleasure.

30% of 13 year olds in 2004 said they read for fun "almost every day," down from 35% in 1984.

So what is this really saying about our society? Are people reading less because they are simply too busy to read? Or is there another reason?

I found an interesting article on Publishing 2.0 on the change to Networked Thoughts. Like the writer, do people not read because of lack of time, or because they are moving into a different type of reading habit? Is the online world changing the way we absorb our information?

I read constantly. I have 5 books started on my nightstand. I subscribe to many magazines – all niched by nature. And I read constantly online. But I read each of these types of media in very different ways.

In his article, Scott mentions what the future beholds for readers. It’s interesting to note that all of today’s top players (Google, Facebook, etc) were started by obsessive computer programmers. They may not read the typical novel, but you can better believe they are getting tremendous information from the online world. Through forums, blogs, news sites, and many other formats, they are getting an education every day in an easy way. When you find great sources, you don’t have to hunt for the information – you simply subscribe to the newsfeed and read what pertains to you.

So is "not reading books" a bad thing? Not when you look at reading in a whole new way. With today’s technology, staying on top can be gained in many ways.

What does your perfect workday look like?

Along with the New Year brings many resolutions. This year my top goal is to become more efficient in my work day, leverage myself more, rely on others to get more done, and spend more time doing things I enjoy – not have to do.

Are you like me? Juggling many different things each day, often leaving more on your list than you eliminate? I’ve been doing that for years. But I’m also getting better at creating lists that Iknow are important, and that I can get through in  a day.

So I thought I’d share with you my perfect work day. Keep in mind that this is my perfect work day – not something I actually do every day, though it is something I’m working towards.

6:00am meditate, read, clean up email, and set up my goals for the day

7:00am wake up my daughter, have breakfast with her and get her to school

8:30am – 12:00pm I have three areas of concentration: client work, production work, and self work. I work in each area every day. Mornings are my most productive time – I get as much done as possible.

12:00 – 2:00pm Have lunch, network with a group or a friend, get in a walk or exercise.

2:00 – 4:00pm Work through emails, phone messages, and any other customer contact, as needed. Finish up projects, and begin planning for tomorrow.

4:00 – 8:00pm Family time

8:00 – 10:00pm Writing time, and time to research and surf online. This is my dreaming and discovery time – time to plan for future projects and ideas.

I love reading books on this area as well. Some of my favorites are:

7 Spiritual Steps to Success - Deepak Chopra

The Power Of Focus – Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Les Hewitt

The Success Principles – Jack Canfield

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