Thanks for coming back, if you want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Consider the following scenario:
There is a wooden beam, 15ft long lying on the ground in front of you. The beam is 3 inches wide, and your task is to walk from one end to the other without stepping off. Pretty straightforward for most of us under normal circumstances you would think.

But now suspend the same beam 150ft in the air between 2 buildings and attempt the same feat. Very likely, if you attempted this feat at all, your performance would be much more stilted, cautious and hesitant, and you would certainly feel very different about the experience!

Now it can be reasonably argued that the “fear” or trepidation we would feel with the second task is a perfectly normal response, as it is our minds’ natural protection mechanism kicking in, and a normal way of preventing us from putting ourselves at risk without being very aware of the consequences.

But the point is this: whether the fear is based on real or imagined dangers, the impact on our performance is same.

In sports this is often called the “choking” or “tanking” effect, and in the world of entertainment “performance anxiety” or “stage fright”. The same phenomenon also occurs in all other walks of life whenever we perceive the outcome of our performance to have heightened importance or significance, such as when taking an exam or driving test for example, or when delivering a wedding speech or business presentation.

The key to maximising our own performance levels and ultimate success in life comes down to being able to identify whether the fears which impact our performance are based on “real” dangers, or simply those things in our perception which “appear” real. To quote a common definition of fear, this can be described as False Evidence Appearing Real.

The ability to view your fears from a 3rd perspective and to dispassionately question their validity represents the start in the process to overcoming them.

Check out ’Pick from 18 excuses to inhibit your success’ for more insights into blasting away those road blocks!

For more articles like this go to ‘Changing Times’ or follow our ‘Twitter feed‘  for updates.

My recent postings ‘How to maximise your business exposure’ generated a lot of interest and emails asking for more examples of low to nil cost marketing strategies with high returns.

Before sharing 3 of my favourites I just want to remind everyone that like baking a cake you get out what you put in to these strategies i.e. time and enthusiasm combined with creativity.

Any marketing strategy relies on you knowing who your target customer is and where they can be found.

Those being said below are my 3 favourites, though not necessarily in order of preference:
1.    Networking – voted the top marketing activity by a recent small business survey. Now this isn’t turning up at an event, finding your mates and eating a soggy breakfast. This is ‘laser networking’ when you know exactly who or what types of people you want to meet and you set yourself a target of how many contacts you will make. Do you have an offer or call to action ready and have you rehearsed your ‘elevator pitch’? Well then you’re not networking! In one group I attend a gentleman always wears an orange suit , everyone knows Eddie at ‘Creative Copywriting’.
2.    Email signature – I am always amazed when I receive emails from business contacts lacking contact details, some call to action or link to their web pages. Every email sent is an opportunity to promote your services or products. Have you considered adding a testimonial to the bottom of your signature strip? I use a great piece of software by ‘Rocketseed’ that delivers a branded signature strip and banner with my emails along with links to my web sites. And email notification when a recipient clicks on one of my links (so I know who went where).
3.    Joint ventures – often overlooked and one of the most effective marketing techniques available. Develop strategic partnerships where you do not have the same product and where there is agreed course of action to promote each other to your shared target audience. Both parties have to be committed for this to work, but the results can be excellent.
And don’t forget to be measuring your responses to these marketing activities and changing the approach if they are not achieving results.

Hopefully these have sparked your imagination and helped to shift your perspective around the possibilities of improving your business marketing exposure.For more articles like this visit ‘Changing Times’, our blog or follow on ‘Twitter’ for updates.

It never ceases to amuse me when I engage with clients and find similar issues affecting more than one client. Recently I have been working with clients around their ‘Sacred Cows’.

Now for the uninitiated this is not the Hindu practice of worshipping ‘Sacred Cows’ but the corporate equivalent of creating and then following without question a procedure or policy as if it was written in stone!

Every business needs systems, procedures and policies if it is to produce consistent results. However there has to be someone who is prepared to challenge the status quo and champion change.

What may have seemed sensible, if not vitally important, at a time in the past can quickly become outdated and potentially ludicrous in today’s business climate?

I read recently of an experiment where scientists put 5 monkeys in a room and placed some bananas in a far corner. Obviously the monkeys wanted the banana’s but every time they went to get then just before they got to then a jet of cold water shot out and sprayed them!

The monkeys quickly learnt not to go near the Bananas and when the scientists replaced a monkey in the cage the old monkeys stopped the new one from getting the bananas and a potential drowning.

Within a week the scientists replaced all the monkeys but none went near the bananas. Even though they’d removed the water hose!
In effect the market conditions had changed but the team (monkeys) were unaware and maintained an inherited practice which had no practical purpose in their new conditions.

These ‘Sacred Cows’ likely exist throughout your business in your leadership, marketing and customer service practices. So what are your ‘Sacred Cows’? Are you prepared to look at your business and hunt these out?

Now I’m not proposing to massacre every ‘Sacred Cow’, merely that every business should be prepared to cull its herd occasionally.
How do you spot a ‘Sacred Cow’? Look for a policy or procedure that outdates the oldest employee and is slavishly followed without thought or question. Metaphorically these have a life of their own and had become a noun!

It is likely that the worship of ‘Sacred Cows’ is stopping many businesses from embracing the innovation at their disposal and improving their profitability and market position.

Take out sometime over the next 24 hours and start to question some of your ‘Sacred Cows’ – make sure you are running your business the most practical and effective way possible – not how it’s always been done because………..

For more articles like this check out ‘Changing Times’ or follow our updates on ‘Twitter’.

So I was reading an article by Joe Vitale – ‘No Excuses’ reminding me that the excuses I have been using today are universal  and that I don’t own them! Funnily enough I had just stooped reading ‘Excuses Begone’ by Wayne Dyer, having put it down at the final section on breaking the pattern.
Needless to say this reality check made me finish both article and book and has led me to want to share Wayne Dyers ’18 Excuses Catalogue’;

1.    It will be difficult
2.    It’s going to be risky
3.    It will take a long time
4.    There will be family drama
5.    I don’t deserve it
6.    It’s not my nature
7.    I can’t afford it
8.    No one will help me
9.    It has never happened before
10.    I’m not strong enough
11.    I’m not smart enough
12.    I’m too old (or not old enough)
13.    The rules won’t let me
14.    It’s too big
15.    I don’t have the energy
16.    It’s my personal family history
17.    I’m too busy
18.    I’m too scared

I’m willing to bet you’ve recognised a few there! I would challenge you right now, as I did, and see which excuse or combinations of excuses are holding you back. The great thing is once you admit to yourself that this is an ‘Excuse’, and label it as such, you are on the first step to blowing it away.
The second step is to look at how to get around these excuses – are they real or imaginary (trust me their likely to be the later). Question: Has anyone else, ever gotten past the same excuse?
Finally what will you do when you have no excuses – simply get out there and do it? When it comes down to action always destroys excuses. So take some action today to move yourself further towards the life you want and deserve.
For more articles like this go to ‘Changing Times’ or follow our updates on ‘Twitter’.

In the last article we examined the opportunities to maximise the exposure of your business thru use of PR. Too often businesses avoid this due to a lack of confidence or the conviction that someone else is already doing it!

No article on maximising your marketing exposure would be complete without some reference to ‘Guerrilla Marketing’ (first coined by Jay Levinson in 1982).

As a small business owner, it is impossible for you to match the marketing budget of a large company in the same business space as you. However if you can get creative and come up with a ‘Guerrilla marketing’ campaign, you may be able to make a bigger impact than you ever imagined. Simply putting your message in an unpredicted spot to make the public take notice really works.

This is by no means a comprehensive list, but should serve as a spring board for further cost effective marketing strategies. There are cheap and easy alternatives that have been proven to work:

•    Viral emails are all popular and whilst dominated by slick ad agencies. You-tube videos – create an informative, outrageous or noteworthy video pertaining to your business and post it on You-tube, you never know, it might just become an internet classic.
•    Vehicle wraps are a great low cosy way to get your company name out to the public sometimes more effectively than a yellow pages ad! Think Truck advertising.
•    Advertising on coffee cup lids on napkins – a recent campaign in Canada started advertising on tissues.
•    Maybe you can’t create crowd stunts – but creating competitions for customers that will get press support or simply capture the customers imagination. Think ‘crab races’ in restaurants or inviting customers to name a new product.
•    Flyers can be produced on your home printer and placed under car window screen wipers.
•    Visit your local library and insert a business card in books about your business.
•    The famous red telephone box in London keeps many a ‘working girl’ busy due to the business cards posted in them.
•    Sponsoring local sports teams – maybe even school or university teams – can create massive local exposure and good will.
•    Putting enough stickers in noticeable places, like car bumpers and at busy subway stations, can create a buzz for your business while spreading awareness of your company brand.
•    Send a media kit to editors in some unique packaging or delivered by a show stopping character.
•    Open houses – invite your clients to an open house at your office; have them bring friends for the fun, great opportunity to introduce yourself and your business products and services.
•    Business partnerships – finding other businesses that offer related services to your services and feeding each other business is a great way to help market your business.
•    With blogs and social networking sites, there are opportunities to market your business in a different setting. Post blogs and comment on other postings about issues concerning your product.

Find something that your customer will enjoy receiving. Therefore, you are quadrupling your exposure to customers from complimentary businesses in exchange for giving your customers something that they perceive as a gift.

The great opportunity here is the use of your own time creatively is a free gift to yourself and can be a lot of fun. And it’s unlikely that your corporate big competition is thinking in the same ball park.

Check out articles like this at ‘Changing Times’ or follow for updates on ‘Twitter’. If you want to learn more about low cost ways to maximise your business exposure check out the ’.

In ‘How to Maximise exposure for your business PT1’ we looked at making sure that you had your key indicators in place and knew what your present activities were doing for your exposure.

A good public relations strategy is an alternative to advertising. Effective PR is a cost-effective way to gain editorial exposure for your product, generating more leads, converting into more sales.

What makes PR so powerful is the credibility it creates for your business. Many consumers see thru advertising and products or services mentioned in the context of a news report or printed feature story gives it a passive endorsement and an add on 3rd party credibility advertising cannot buy.

Some years ago I had an executive role with ‘Planet Hollywoods’ – the international restaurant chain with Bruce Willis and Sky Stallone as the faces of the business. This company reverses the traditional role of PR and spends the majority of its marketing budget on PR. This was because they knew that a news report is actually far more likely to move people to action than conventional advertising, and a good public relations strategy is the way to get the media to seek you out.

How can you make the PR process work for you even if you’re not an international company? To my mind there are 10 rules you need to create an effective PR plan:
1.    Know your market. Be very narrow in your target and specific which community should use your product/service. This will make it easier to identify which media you need to work with.
2.    Identify the product benefits relevant to your market. Forget the features; at this stage you’re trying to sell your product or service to the media so your story will get published. Communicate the benefits and show them the numbers to prove that your product saves users time and money–or makes money.
3.    Establish your product as unique. It’s important to be able to prove your product is “x-times “better, faster or more cost-effective than your competitors’. Give the media concrete evidence to feature your product over anyone else’s.
4.    Source and use testimonials. Testimonials are one of the strongest ways to enhance the credibility of any promotional piece. This also holds true for your editorial piece as well. However an editorial piece needs to be about a targeted benefit.
5.    Target the media used by your target market. Find out which media outlets your target market typically reads views or listens to. If you’re not sure Google ‘Bacon’s directories’ – this publication outlines available newspapers, magazines, newsletters, radio and television broadcasts according to locality and special interest groups. They also provide names and contact information for key editors.
6.    Prepare your press release to be printed as is. Start your release with a great headline. Journalists spend on average of seven seconds “speed reading” the hundreds of news releases they receive each day, so the first 25 words are critical. And remember to keep your editorial to one page or less.
7.    Sell your release. Make a phone call to the person named in the media guide. Give them the headline and the first paragraph. They’ll make a decision then and there whether they like it or not. But still follow up by asking if you can call back the next day or at some other specific time.
8.    Follow up. Call your contact when you said you would to confirm whether or not they received the information you sent and offer to provide more information if necessary.
9.    Keep in contact. If the story is of value, it will sell itself. Still provide your contact with the convenience of more information. This is also a good way to make sure your press release gets a second look.
10.    Use a photograph. A picture can literally sell a thousand words. Modern media are more photo-conscious than ever, but they are usually only interested in a photograph if it educates or informs the reader.

These steps do not guarantee success but you increase your chances by following them and you will start to build media relationships. Consider how many of your competitors talk themselves out of this strategy by presuming it won’t work. Timelines are important; earlier in the week avoids competing with weekend news. Though stories like Michael Jacksons death can always come along and through you out! But that’s the risk you take.

In ‘How to Maximise exposure for your business PT3’ we’ll look at the offline PR strategy you can use to get your business even more exposure.
If you like this article and want to read more like it check out ‘Changing Times’ or follow me on ‘Twitter’ for updates.