Easy To Make – But Costly Mistakes

In sales it’s really easy to make mistakes that can come at a high cost. A few days ago I read an article, “The Three Top Sales Promo Mistakes” that outlines some important information that we often accidentally leave out of email notifications, websites and press releases.

These top three mistakes are:

1. Forgetting to include the address/time/date of an event. Be sure to include ALL the important details – date, time, and address in every correspondence you send out. Don’t rely on people reading a previous email you sent out.
2. Not double-checking links. It’s so important to double-check all links in your emails (including your signature) and on your website. Make sure that a link isn’t dead and that it takes people to the correct page.
3. What does your subject line reflect? You know someone isn’t going to open an email unless they see some value in there for themselves. Make sure that the subject line gives the reader a strong urge to open your email.

If you want to read more about these three mistakes and their fixes, click here.

Teleprompter on Steroids

Thanks to Janice Tomich, an expert on creating great presentations, at Calculated Presentations for today’s gem from her newsletter.  If you need to oomph up your presentation skills, check out her newsletter!

How many of you own an iPad? I’ll share a secret with you, I covet one but haven’t bitten the bullet yet. But this app may convince me:

Prompterous

Essentially it is a teleprompter on steroids. Presentations can be recorded and played back for critiquing. Documents and text can be inserted on the fly. Presentation text can be set to scroll at different rates of speed.

A myriad of applications are possible with the use of Prompterous and an iPad.
-  moving away from a lectern with iPad in hand
-  loaning a scripted iPad to a client to practice
-  playing back the audio numerous times to help with memorization

Prompterous also puts an end to shuffling notes or managing cue cards that are out of order.

Can’t wait to try it out for myself!

Your Friday Smile

Gotta love this article in Advertising Age – a brief history on screwups in social media history.  It looks at 37 cases where social media went horribly wrong.  Read it here.

Take Advantage of Market Trends

Trendwatching.com is one of my favorite companies – I love their briefings on market trends;  they give me loads of ideas on how to grow business for myself and my clients.  Below are their latest trend watching tips that you can use for your own business development today.  Make sure you read tip #13 to get some ideas on how to apply the trends you’re reading about to your business.

1. Know why you’re tracking trends
2. Don’t get your trends mixed up
3. Know a fad when you see (or smell) one
4. Don’t apply all trends to all people
5. Be (very) curious
6. Have a Point of View
7. Benefit from an unprecedented abundance of resources
8. Name your trends
9. Build your Trend Framework
10. Start a Trend Group (even if it’s just you)
11. Secure senior backing or be doomed
12. Don’t worry about timing or life cycles or regional suitability or…
13. Apply, apply, apply
14. Have some fun
15. Let others do some of the work for you in 2011

Source: www.trendwatching.com. One of the world’s leading trend firms, trendwatching.com sends out its free, monthly Trend Briefings to more than 160,000 subscribers worldwide.

Checking in with yourself

I have a new love in business.  It’s Charlie Gilkey, founder of Productive Flourishing.  He’s created a great toolbox of time management tools that I enjoy using with both clients and myself.  He just sent out a great newsletter about a Mid-Month Review, which I am finding extremely useful for keeping myself on track.  Here are his words of wisdom on why you need to do this and what it involves.

“A Mid-Month Review is a review that’s somewhere between a Weekly Review and a Monthly Review. The benefit of doing a Mid-Month Review is that it’s a chance to sync up our monthly perspective with the reality of the way the month has gone. It also happens to coincide with mid-month paychecks, and many of us need to look over finances and such anyway.

While this list of questions is by no means exhaustive, it’s a good place to start. Give yourself 30 minutes to an hour to work through them – it may help to print out this message:

• What have you accomplished?
• What goals or projects need to be adjusted or dropped?
• What are your priorities for the rest of the month?
• What bills need to be paid, and do you have funds in place to cover them?
• What projects/tasks have fallen off the radar?
• When was the last time you rewarded yourself, and when will be the next?”

I don’t think any of us can go wrong taking a moment to answer these questions.  It will definitely make the rest of September more productive!

Women & Power – Why Don’t They Get It?

Just read this interesting article on Harvard Business Review by Jeffrey Pfeffer – Women and the Uneasy Embrace of Power.  He discusses how, although women are graduating from college in record numbers, they are still not ascending to positions of power in noticeable numbers.  He makes 2 recommendations:

1.  Women need to be willing to make more trade-offs to attain power.

2.  Women need to be tougher.

Needless to say, this article has provoked some great comments and discussion.  Read it here and tell me – do you agree?

Do women need to be tougher?

Finding Peace Of Mind

“Set peace of mind as your highest goal, and organize your life around it.”

– Brian Tracy, Speaker, Author, Consultant

This quote has been my mantra since the beginning of 2010.  At times I have a tendency to bury my nose in work and develop unhealthy habits that do not make me a happy girl.  When I first read this quote, it felt like it was directed right at me.

I have met so many financially successful people who lack peace of mind lately.  They are driven and often quietly miserable.  Who says life should be miserable?  That days should be long and hard?  That peace of mind is something you should wait till retirement to achieve?

This lesson is something I have been trying to teach clients this year.  Know what makes you happy and do more of it.  Recognize your triumphs and celebrate them.  Be proud of who you are and what you have achieved.  Think about how to bring peace of mind into your life, rather than waiting for it to find you by accident.  Act with deliberation.  Be aware of the decisions you are making, rather than sleepwalking through them.  Think first, before you act.   For what do you have, if you do not have peace of mind?

Schedule some uninterrupted alone time this week to set some intentions for gaining peace of mind for yourself.  They can be in the areas of relationships, work, health, dreams you have – whatever area you think you need to pay attention to.  Keep your intentions short, but choose ones that you will focus energy and time on.

Don’t worry about what other people might think.  Do what feels right for you.

My advice is featured on Entrepreneur Magazine!

I am honored that my business advice was selected for the 2010 Women’s Advantage Calendar and is featured as today’s Daily Inspiration on Entrepreneur Magazine’s homepage for women.  Check it out here!

Trust Your Gut

This week I experienced another powerful reminder of why it’s so important to learn to trust your gut.  When I look over my life, I realize the biggest mistakes or wrong directions occurred when I didn’t listen to my gut.  Today’s article is one that was written by life coach Cheryl Richardson in her weekly newsletter earlier this year, which I thought worth sharing with all of you.

“This week I received an important reminder about trusting the persistent inner voice that tells us when to act.  For more than a month I’ve been in the process of looking for a place to finish writing my next book.  The last book was written at a small inn on an island near our home.  It was a beautiful little room that looked out over the open ocean and I loved every minute of being there.  Unfortunately, the inn was just sold.

I’ve looked everywhere.  I’ve spoken with realtors, answered ads in our local paper, and followed up on leads from my assistant.  Nothing has shown up.  Here’s where the lesson comes in.  Over the last month, I’ve driven by a little shop downtown, and each time I did, something told me to stop and check in with the owner about a place.  She’s someone I know, but since I hadn’t seen her in several months, I was reluctant to drop by.

The first time I felt the nudge to speak with her, I ignored it.  The second time I drove by her shop and heard a little voice prompting me to stop, I wrote it off as merely wishful thinking.  The third time, as I sped by, I said to myself “You know Cheryl, you really ought to listen to your intuition and call this woman.”

Finally, one morning this week, as I sat at my desk preparing to write, I thought about how frustrating it’s been trying to find a suitable space. In that moment, the shop owner’s name, once again, popped into my head. This time I paid attention and quickly dialed her number.

She picked up the phone on the first ring.  I said hello and explained my situation.  She listened intently and then said “I have an idea.  Why don’t you call back later today and see what I’ve come up with.”  I thanked her and hung up.  When I called back, she had three possibilities for me to investigate!  I put down the phone and smiled to myself thinking “I should know better than to ignore my intuition.”

How often have you done the same thing?  You get a hunch to call someone or to take a certain step and you ignore it.  We often neglect to check in with our intuition because we’re all so busy or because we’ve been trained to look outside of ourselves for answers.  Yet, when I look at my example it’s clear that my inner guide knew exactly what to do and I could have saved a whole month’s worth of effort (not to mention frustration), had I paid attention.

Let this week’s newsletter be a reminder to turn to the wisest messenger of all – your inner self.  When you need guidance or support, take a few moments to close your eyes and consider your next step.  Who knows?  You may just save yourself a little time and frustration.  Remember, the more you pay attention to your intuition, the stronger (and more accurate) the messages become.

Take Action Challenge

This week, choose one situation where you could use some direction and write it down.  Then, close your eyes for a few moments and ask yourself, “What’s my next step?” Regardless of how strange or unexpected the answer is, check it out.  Then, during the week, pay close attention to the little nudges, hints or hunches that pop into your head and take action!”

Ideas You Can Use

Thanks to Karole Sutherland over at Sutherland Consulting Group for these ideas we can all use.  A witty commentary on simple things to do to fix communication issues in your life:

1.  Stop using triangle communications – step up and fix it yourself.

2.  Quit using verbal ornaments that hide your real meaning.

3.  Build personal interaction – it works.

Read the whole article here.