| Greetings!
Welcome to the July edition of Build and Balance. You may have noticed that I took a little vacation in June and neglected to do a newsletter. Spent more time balancing than building that month! That's how life is, isn't it? Some months we work more while others we relax more. The point is to always do a little of both to stay balanced and continue to build.
This month I'll discuss under commitment and great advertising. Two areas I'm feel strongly about. I've also revised my link box at the top right to feature upcoming events I'm hosting first to make it easy for you to see at a glance what educational events you might like to attend. Most of the events are free - and all are intended to be helpful. So, make time to attend one or two of them. Please do forward this newsletter to others in business. I'd really appreciate that action on your part. Thanks, as always, for your faithful support.
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Nuggets from the Wizard of Ads
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 I have been listening to audiobooks from Roy H. Williams lately and I must say they are GOOD. They are the Wizard of Ads series. I want to share a few things that I've learned from them with you. First thing is that there is no one ideal advertising medium for a product or service. Of course, there are some forms that are better suited for certain types of ads than others (Roy really likes the power of radio), but what's more important than the medium is the...message!
Too many advertisers place boring messages in the right advertising vehicles and get nowhere. Most ads don't really say anything except, "Buy from us. And here's how to find us." That's not compelling advertising. If you can't give the reader, viewer or listener some darn good reasons to buy from you that mean something to them, then you may as well save your money. So, first lesson, the message is what makes or breaks an ad, not the demographics of the audience.
Another great lesson is that you can't count on your advertising salesperson to tell you if you have a compelling ad or not. Oftentimes they either aren't paying enough attention to notice, don't care, or don't want to tell you it's a bad ad because then you won't run it while you go fix it. Moreover, just because a person sells advertising doesn't make them a good marketer. They may have little to no experience in marketing. So, second lesson, if you don't have a keen understanding of advertising principles, don't count on your advertising salesperson to guide you UNLESS they happen to be great marketers, too. (Here's where I insert a plug for me as an experienced marketer ready to go to work for you).
Last lesson I'll share with you here is that radio, when done properly can blow the doors off of many other mediums. Why? As I understand it from Roy, it's because you can reach a lot of people over and over to the point where they will actually remember you if you have a compelling, what? Message. And they'll take that memory right to you to buy what you're selling. Indeed, you can expand your business like crazy with a proper investment in radio. What's a proper investment? A one-year commitment for starters (Roy says you shouldn't expect much of anything for the first three months), broken down in to regular weekly advertising on how ever many stations you can afford. The actual formula is in Advertising in America and I'd be happy to go over it with you in detail and help you to put it all together if you have the courage to commit to radio for a whole year.
I highly recommend the Wizard of Ads series to anyone interested in improving their marketing knowledge. I'll share more tidbits with you down the road.
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Have you tried under commitment?
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What is it about modern life that beseeches us to over commit? Especially when over commitment can easily create lots of stress. I'm trying to move away from telling people I'm 'busy' when they ask me how I'm doing as if it's some badge of honor. It's not. Instead I think it suggests you're on a treadmill, which is good 3x a week for 30 minutes, not all the time.
I'm realizing as I grow older and, ahem, wiser, that under commitment is the way to go. Why? Because life throws us unexpected events all the time. How will we handle them if we're already over committed? We start dropping balls, which creates even more stress.
On the other hand, if we are fortunate enough to not have anything unexpected happening, then we simply have some free time on our hands to do something relaxing or creative. I believe a relaxed mind is much more creative, which is why we spontaneously generate ideas when we're doing something simple like showering or cutting flowers. If you haven't come up with any good ideas for your business lately, then you might not be relaxing enough. Hmm.
How will you apply this idea of under commitment if you're presently way over committed? Gradually. Start extricating yourself from commitments over time. When it comes time to renew one, don't. When someone asks you to sign up for a new commitment, decline. It's a habit you need to cultivate or you'll never be able to leverage the power of under commitment for creativity, relaxation, planning, goal-setting, and so much more that's only done with consistent free time.
Another magical thing about under commitment is that it gives you much more time to spend with those that are closest to you. This may be what I value most about committing to this change in my life.
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Time saving tip: Jott
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Jott is a great service for business owners. At its heart Jott is a transcription service you access from a phone. I'll just share with you here the way I use it.
First step is to enter in to your Jott address book the mobile numbers of people you regularly communicate with. Then, you call Jott and you'll get the same greeting every time, "Who do you want to Jott?" You then say the name of ther person you want to reach. Jott will repeat the name back for confirmation. You then say what you want to convey to the recipient. Jott proceeds to send a text message to that person's cell phone. With Jott you never have to text while driving. The transcriptions are amazingly accurate, but not perfect. So, you live with a little inaccuracy for the sake of improved efficiency and timeliness.
The feature I use most often is the Outlook connector. Jott will accept messages for Outlook Calendar, Email and Tasks. I mostly use the Calendar for new appointments I make while I'm driving and talking on the phone, and Tasks for any new jobs to add to my ongoing list. I've had times where I add 8 or 10 tasks all in a row, which is incredibly helpful.
Fairly soon I intend to start using Jott for voicemail, which will transcribe incoming voicemail and drop them in to my email in-box. If I start getting more email than I can handle during the day, then I might pay up for Jott for BlackBerry, which will enable voice-driven replies to email.
Most of what I've described here is not free. Surf over to Jott's site to see how much the package you want will cost. I highly recommend you have a free try as Jott does even more than I've listed here. It's a keeper if you're seriously looking for ways to save time.
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Thanks for reading this month's issue. I want to express my deep appreciation to those of you who are doing business with me or referring business to me. I could not be here without you. Thank you.
Remember that true fulfillment comes when you build and balance.
Sincerely,
Michael Neuendorff
The Growth Coach |
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Upcoming Events & other resources
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| Your Growth Coach |
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Michael is ready to work with you to grow your business. Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today. Let's start right now!
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| My Network Spotlight |
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I believe in the power of a strong network and regularly seek to maintain it by providing referrals to professionals I know, like and trust. In each issue I spotlight people in my network. I encourage you to do business with the people listed below. If you need a product or service not featured, please contact me for a referral to a qualified professional. Appliance Repair AJ Appliance, Inc.650.347.0104 Auto Repair A+ Japanese Auto Repair650.595.2277 Business Insurance State FarmCraig Ichiuji 650.342.8857 Business Health Insurance Woodruff SawyerMichelle Droz 650.523.5889 Catering Services Dynora Catering Lydia Marchetti 650.255.0436 Commercial Cleaning and Residential Carpet Cleaning PARICLIN Paris Millan 650.346.1320 Computer Support Business and Home Computer ServicesWil Del Barrio 650.743.0976
HR Consulting & Staffing
PAC HR Solutions
Manisha Patel
650.594.2900
Kangen Water
Gregg Heckert
650.766.3898
Kitchen & Bath
Gilmans Kitchens & Baths
CJ Lowenthal
650.286.0433
Puzzle Store
Jigsaw Java
650.364.3634
Travel Services
AAA Travel
Nancy Diaz
650.572.5693
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