Jacqui Malpass

Call me

Jacqui Malpass — Tue, 21 May 2013 05:48:45 +0000

Call me, I’d like some clarity Back in 1870 a couple of inventors created an amazing device which could transmit voice over electricity. It truly was the start of a communications revolution. Imagine if you couldn’t talk face to face, you now had the gift of communication over the wire. First Voice – Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you. Alexander Graham Bell’s notebook entry of 10 March 1876 describes his successful experiment with the telephone. Speaking through the instrument to his assistant, Thomas A. Watson, in the next room, Bell utters these famous first words, “Mr. Watson — come here — I want to see you.” http://inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventors/a/telephone.htm I don’t know about you, but my chosen form of most communication is face to face, I like to get all of the nuances of the conversation in, right there, right then. Of course that is not always convenient and we need to find other ways to communicate. My next chosen way to communicate is telephone. Yes I know that really old device that sends words on the wire. Well actually it could be voice over IP – Skype or the like. Why would I want to talk to you over maybe sending you an email? Don’t get me wrong I love the internet, email and social media for the ease and speed of sending a message. However, some messages don’t make any sense. The way that your words are strung together allows me to make meaning and sense in a way that potentially you never intended. Most peoples writing and therefore their written communication ability is very poor. Woah! I hear you cry, but I am a published author or a senior executive and I have an MBA, I do this stuff all the time. So what! Now hold onto your saddles cos I am going to have a rant! If we work in the same office or live in the same house why wouldn’t you get off your backside and come and talk to me? Well I can think of a few reasons, I asked you not to disturb me, in which case I will forgive you, but if I haven’t, what’s stopping you? Laziness or you suffer from random leg severance (they disappear and grow back at will). We meet at a networking event, swap cards and I say I will call you and I do, but you don’t call me back. Why is that? You don’t think I will buy your voodoo of business dolls? You are immensely busy selling your dolls? You don’t think I look like someone who can connect you to someone who wants your dolls? What? I am intrigued, why you a) don’t call me or b) return my calls c) how much is this networking malarkey costing you? d) what is your purpose in networking? You want me to do something for you, so you email me a long string of a conversation with someone else or several someone’s and expect me to make sense of it. You don’t condense it for me, you just expect me to know what the hell you are on about. Well, let me tell you I don’t and even if I think this is an opportunity for me and you, I am likely to ignore you, because it – you’ve got it – it doesn’t make sense. You have a question, it will only take five minutes or less to ask me, but instead you fire over an email, I am busy and I forget or it goes into spam and I forget… You are trying to arrange something and you email, back and forth, back and forth and…. Just pick the phone up! Call me… And there are so many other rants I could have! And even if you want to sell me something, I’d like you to call me, not a scripted cold call, where you dribble the words from your ideal conversation planner, just a hi can I ask you if this would interest you. Yeah, yeah, everyone hates cold calls, but let me tell you if you are friendly and not a boring robot I will talk to you. Let me invite you to the revolution. The voice revolution. Face to face is best. Voice is next best (phone or Skype) Written words – email or social media are memorandum. Try this The next time you want someone to respond to something and you are too busy to pick up the phone – I know how can that be, if you can spend the time writing an email you could pick up the phone…. Ok maybe you did pick up the phone and they weren’t there or maybe the email is a preliminary to a call???? Etiquette. If you need to send large volumes of ‘stuff’ summarise it. Make it easy to consume. State a time and date when you will call – agree and diarise. (Put it in your CRM) Call when you say you will. Follow up with email. Put actions in your CRM / to do list. OR Call, ask if it’s a good time, if not agree a time. Follow up with an email and summarise what you want to talk about. Talk and follow up. Put actions in your CRM / to do list. OR Connect on social media, quick chit chat. Agree on a time to talk – agree and diarise. (put it in your CRM) Call when you say you will. Follow up with email. Put actions in your CRM / to do list. Benefits of the phone call It is quicker to use the phone than any other method of communication. Email may be fast, but it can be confusing and time consuming. What can take days can be solved in minutes on the phone. You can ask and answer questions in real time. If you are worried about thinking on your feet, pre plan the call and if you don’t know the answer, say [...]

Forget blogging, try new blogging…

Jacqui Malpass — Wed, 15 May 2013 09:24:51 +0000

Do your eyes glaze over when your marketing consultant or manager says ‘ you must have a blog!’. You gaze at this alien and wonder what language they are speaking. Surely people of our age, don’t blog? You cry! Websites tell one story, demonstrate your expertise, offer products and services, tell the world a bit about you, serve as your online shop, they are the static (typically) face of your business. Your blog on the other hand is your personality, it is your voice on your industry, it’s where you share your expertise, a place to announce your news, proffer your views, build your credibility and raise your personal brand profile. And as an extra bonus it will improve your SEO (search engine optimisation). This is the way that your website gets found on the internet. Ok, forget the word blog, think news channel. Think influence, you to your industry, you to the media and you to your prospects and customers. It is your way of staying in touch and managing the conversation. A corporate news channel is one of the fastest and most versatile ways of delivering new content and building relationships. Your news channel is your opportunity to tell your corporate story with a personal touch and a bit of flair. You can invite customers/prospect to give you feedback, to interact with you in an entirely different way and to find out what you really do and how you do it. In my very humble opinion, just because you don’t understand what a blog is, or think it’s something that spotty teenagers do when they are not on Facebook, doesn’t mean it isn’t valid business tool. New blogging, as differentiated from spotty teenager blogging, lets you put your unique voice and corporate spin on what life is really like at your business, a birds eye or insider view. New blogging gets inside the business and includes news and views people from different teams, from customers, investors and even the MD. If you have something interesting to say, have amazing products, deliver awesome customer service, are a lynchpin in your industry – start your online newspaper. If not, then you were right – you do not want a blog. Other reasons for the news channel If it takes forever to get web content added, this will give you access to an easy to use platform which will allow you to publish immediately. It can be updated from anywhere at anytime. You can quickly share company news. It is more effective at delivering news than your email newsletter, which is delivered, possibly read and often deleted. Online content stays online until you delete it and you can refer to it in your digital communications as often as you like. Your content is filed online and available 24/7. Interaction with e-mail marketing – write your blogs, then use them to drive your campaigns out and to deliver leads back into the business. And my favourite is using your blog as the basis of your book. The news channel is the hub from which all content can be virally marketed. By which we mean that it can be easily ‘posted’ to social media channels where the intention is to drive traffic back to the news channel/website to capture new customers, leads, event bookings etc. Your news channel will raise awareness, protect and build reputation and brand value. Measurement of effectiveness will be via analytics and research/feedback from members. What is in your blogging plan?

Turn downturn into opportunity and reap the rewards

Jacqui Malpass — Tue, 14 May 2013 06:06:31 +0000

“Today’s economy provides an unusual opportunity to differentiate yourself and stand out from the crowd” Knowledge@Wharton Once I had a job in marketing and it was pretty cool, I was in the IT industry, software and technology was exciting, fast paced and innovative. Then something happened… I made a mistake. I found myself being in a profession that my employer at the time found to be “a waste of time”. Dare I tell you, he was an accountant. Now I like accountants and I have some fab accountant friends, but this one, well, mmm, he was a short sighted number cruncher, who thought that moving beads along an abacus was the way to run a business. Me, bitter and twisted? Not really, I am merely commenting on a predicament that many a marketing person has found themselves in. I think it is because marketing is viewed as a cost by some, rather than a set of amazing activities that stretches from end to end of the business and involves everyone. It’s a bit like the operations teams viewing sales as a pain in the proverbial. I think they also forget that it’s the sales people that bring home the bacon. But let me stop my bitching. I know that in good times organisations see marketing as a proactive investment in raising profile and generating opportunities, whilst in bad times as a cost, often driven by sales and reactive. Why is this? Mistakenly cutting marketing spend to affect the bottom line, impacts the ability of the organisation to create new opportunities and therefore reduces overall profitability and new customer growth. It’s a simple truth, but many an organisation fails to see a smooth running operation until they dismantle it and then it’s too late. I have witnessed it so many times. That and forgetting to keep filling the sales funnel, but thats another blog for another day. I do however agree that marketing for marketing’s sake is daft, yes we make mistakes, but marketing is a process and by trying things you learn what works and what doesn’t and then by carefully analysing what does work and continually improving on it, you can get a marketing system that works for you. Plus, if you maximise your human assets and align their values with yours – whamo you have a set of brand ambassadors that are worth their weight in gold. Turn your fear into opportunity If competitors are reducing their marketing spend, it means that they are also reducing their market voice and very probably their market share. This then is a perfect time to invest in your business and to get your stories out there, making sure your voice is the clearest. If you are in front of your target audience more than your competitors, you will be the organisation which reaps the profits. Investment in tough times is an opportunity to gain market voice, share and be in a stronger position when growth returns. So what can you do? Understand who your customers are and what they value By understanding who your actual customer is and what they value, you can concentrate your marketing spend on influencing those customers who value you what you have to sell. When did you last undertake a customer satisfaction and value survey? During the 2001 recession Best Buy continued to spend in areas which impacted the customer experience. Use change as an opportunity to re-position yourself Recession or change of any kind is an opportunity to re position yourself, organisations who follow a re-alignment and investment in marketing strategy will become the winners. This of course requires strategic thinking, a willingness of the board to implement change and it also necessitates action. External partners can play a key role by being able to look in and question organisational thinking and inject new ideas. Re-align your sales and marketing processes Many organisations rarely undertake a review of how they generate business, who is involved, what each of the steps are and questioning how they add value to the process. If we ask is this really the best way of doing it and how else could it be done, you may be surprised at what you discover. Plus by reducing inefficient activities you stop wasting valuable marketing spend by only targeting those organisations who will become profitable customers and focusing on those activities which will raise your profile. What if by doing this in six months your pipeline was three times what it is now? Park short term survival, think innovation and creativity It is understandable that many organisations will be too preoccupied with short-term survival to think about innovation and growth, or lack the resources to implement such strategies effectively. Ask yourself how else can we approach our market? During the recession of 1990-91 Intel exited low margin business and focused instead on core markets and innovating in those markets. Adapt and survive, implement new PR, control the conversation The goal of new PR – much like traditional PR – is identifying, understanding and communicating with those communities or stakeholders that are affected by or have an effect on you or your organisation. The differentiator of this new approach however lies in engaging communities, customers, etc. in conversations directly and managing those conversations. You need thought leaders, people that understand that personal branding is a key component of creating and controlling the conversation. Where are your rising stars? The ones that are prepared to go that extra mile to help your organisation stand head and shoulders above the competition? New PR is a blended approach to communicating your message. New PR takes the best of traditional PR, melding it with blogging, books and video to tell your stories in a far more powerful way. During the 2001 recession Wal-Mart increased its communication with its customers and increased its profitability. “A McGraw-Hill Research study looking at 600 organisations from 1980 to 1985 found that those businesses which chose to maintain or raise their level of advertising expenditures [...]

Leaving corporate life and learning to fly

Jacqui Malpass — Fri, 10 May 2013 07:51:52 +0000

Learning to fly I was reminded recently when I had my profile done with the wonderful Elaine Godley how important it is to use these things pro-actively and positively. She laughed as she went through it saying ‘you are unemployable’ and then went on to talk about my high level of flexibility, how that helps me to fit in and get pretty much anything done and how much I adore challenge and without it look out, plus a whole load of other useful things. What was interesting about this was, that all my working life I have nagged my bosses to give me other jobs to do, new challenges and opportunities and you know what, with a few exceptions I was largely ignored. No wonder I moved jobs when the boredom had me screaming from the hills. It strikes me that because we don’t really know ourselves, we don’t really give ourselves the opportunity to find careers, businesses or a life that we really want and which fits our values and passions. Somewhere, somehow, something went wrong. We learn from our parents and the big people around us and I guess that their fears, dreams and hopes get rubbed off on us. Mum and dad wanted a safe job for me, I tried the civil service for five years and OMG I was driven insane. In my 30’s I did an MBA for a challenge and in my 40’s when someone said ‘no you can’t do the ILM level 7 executive coaching qualification, because bladebla…’ I knew it was about her inferiority complex and not my ability. I did it by the way, you will have heard me quote from Dirty Dancing before but ‘no one puts baby in the corner’. Since Wednesday evening I have been mulling my profile over. What is interesting is that I have had these things done in the past, but no one has really explained how to maximise the results. When I went to an assessment centre (yes they are fun) for a job, the psychologist fedback one thing, that I had an entrepreneurial style. My heart sank, I was convinced it would mean that I wouldn’t get the job. I needed that job (not wanted) because of personal circumstances, I needed safety. I got the job, but they didn’t explain why I was a fit. Elaine discussed a few other things to me and so much slotted into place. Why I wondered do companies spend so much on assessing and profiling their staff and not considering the best way to work with them, to help them become invaluable human assets and at the other end, let them go and be valuable somewhere where they are a better fit. Of course my personal brand, how and who I work with now is down to me. Just as yours is in your hands The job that I took out of necessity, proved to be one of the most rewarding, because my team of directors were different, they had open doors and open minds. I can’t say they always agreed, but they would listen and consider and they gave me stuff to do outside of my remit. When the director team all left on mass ( their values shining though), a short while later I was made redundant and I was delighted. Life had changed, things and people who no longer served me were out of my life and I had an opportunity to re assess me and my values. It was an enlightening period. This was the second time I had been chucked on the heap. The first time I took it badly and it shattered my confidence, but there were other circumstances which made this a horrific event and I also didn’t trust that anyone would help or look after me – I was of course wrong. The truth is corporate life doesn’t suit me. I like short interventions where I can sprinkle magic, make long term and lasting friendships, I hate being bored and I want to teach others everything I know and help them to fly. You can’t do that with your wings clipped and trapped inside a gilded cage. I also do not want to work with politics, bitchiness and back biting, I want to be with others who want to watch your back and being an entrepreneur gives me that. So here we are. Today I can tell you who I am and what I stand for. When I first left corporate life, I had an identity crisis. Who was I? I knew what I did – that was marketing, training and coaching – but who the hell was I and what difference did I make to others lives? Sure I knew what my friends and family got, but customers and other scary people??? You know that I am not a shrinking violet and by having bags of confidence and a thing called a mouth, I kept asking and I still ask. Asking for help makes you stronger. I have spent a long time soul searching and looking inwards to find and really understand my core values and match them to what I want for me (not in a selfish way). If you feel trapped inside a cage, be that a job, career or business that does not suit, you can change. Start planning your break out now. Think about this, if your goal is to start a new career or business, what has to happen to get you from here to there? Whatever you are doing right now, start to build your personal branding action plan, put into place the things that you need now so that when you start to market the ‘new you’ everything you need is ready. In some ways, I wish I had had a crystal ball so that I could have started a blog or written a book and built different things into my profile and in other ways I am glad that I was thrust out [...]

Become a SWOT

Jacqui Malpass — Mon, 06 May 2013 08:35:00 +0000

Understanding Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) and rock your brand Now I really wasn’t a SWOT in school, in fact I was quite foolish. I was one of those kids that got bored easily and then became disruptive. I didn’t know then that one of my strengths was that I learn really quickly and it could have been an opportunity for me to help other friends who were a little behind, I most definitely saw being a clever kid as a threat and that became a weakness. Don’t feel sorry for me, learning is sometimes tough! Happily school days are over and I have been able to use this fantastic and timeless tool to bring clarity and focus into my life, brand and marketing. What is a SWOT? SWOT analysis is a framework for analyzing your strengths and weaknesses, and the opportunities and threats you face. This will help you to focus on your strengths, minimize weaknesses, and take the greatest possible advantage of opportunities available. How to use tool: To carry out a SWOT Analysis write down the answers to the following questions. Where appropriate, use similar questions: Strengths: What advantages do you have? What do you do well? What relevant resources do you have access to? What do other people see as your strengths? What is your competitive advantage – what makes you different, really different…. Not claimed by the competition Objective Quantifiable Means something to your customer Consider this from your own point of view and from the point of view of the people you deal with. Don’t be modest. Be realistic. If you are having any difficulty with this, try writing down a list of your characteristics. Some of these will hopefully be strengths! In looking at your strengths, think about them in relation to your competitors – for example, if all your competitors provide high quality products, then a high quality production process is not a strength in the market, it is a necessity. Weaknesses: What could you improve? What do you do badly? What should you avoid? Again, consider this from an internal and external basis: Do other people seem to perceive weaknesses that you do not see? Are your competitors doing any better than you? It is best to be realistic now, and face any unpleasant truths as soon as possible. Walk through your processes, how can you eliminate waste and improve what you do? Opportunities: Where are the good opportunities facing you? What are the interesting trends you are aware of? Useful opportunities can come from such things as: Changes in technology and markets, government, social patterns, population profiles, lifestyle changes, etc. A useful approach to looking at opportunities is to look at your strengths and ask yourself whether these open up any opportunities. Alternatively, look at your weaknesses and ask yourself whether you could open up opportunities by eliminating them. Threats: What obstacles do you face? What is your competition doing? What specifications for your job, products or services are changing? How is changing technology threatening your position? What are you doing about bad debt or cash-flow problems? Which if any of your weaknesses seriously threaten your business? Carrying out this analysis will often be illuminating – both in terms of pointing out what needs to be done, and in putting problems into perspective. SWOT Now summarise all of the points above, this is where you need to put on your thinking cap and step outside the box. Leave the SWOT for a while and really reflect. After a good nights sleep or a few days mulling it over come back and ask… How are you going to:- Use your strengths to take maximum advantage of your opportunities Stop your weaknesses getting in the way of seizing opportunities Use your strengths to overcome or resist the threats Prevent the threats taking advantage of your weaknesses Key things that have helped you (or prevented) to get to the position you are in today What are the key things that have helped you get where you are today? Rate them 1-10 What are the key things that have prevented you from going further? Rate them 1-10 What does this tell you? What are you going to do about any of it? Good luck and I would love to know, what did the SWOT do for you today?

Life purpose, the meaning of life and personal brand

Jacqui Malpass — Fri, 03 May 2013 05:16:14 +0000

Life purpose, the meaning of life and personal brand, what’s it all about? Despite what some people think, I don’t really know what came before or what comes after. I have an overactive fertile imagination and a strong belief, which helps me to keep me grounded and I do truly believe that there is some purpose to all of this. This is not meant in a dreary way, I am an explorer and I want to know what’s out there as much as the next person. What if for a moment we allowed ourselves the luxury of knowing. Here’s the deal, before we come to inhabit our host body, our soul gets to choose what they are going to do. Imagine you (as a soul, whatever that looks like) sitting at a big computer in your soul office at the Soul Plaice, skimming the options. After you created the magic combination, you pop over to the soul tube and wham you are in amniotic fluid and waiting for departure. At which point your memory is wiped, you are in the body space and its time to work out the meaning of life. “You came from nothing and you’ll go back to nothing. So what you´ve lost … Nothing.” (Life of Brian) So with nothing to lose, let’s get on with it shall we! So, you are here on Earth, you can’t remember your life purpose, there’s a limited amount of time before the rubbish body you’ve been given expires. It’s a rubbish body because you’ve forgotten that you are supposed to look after it and someone else’s life purpose (the viruses) is to create sugar, tobacco, alcohol and big macs. You are not in control, the host body is leading you astray… Limited time, rubbish body, wicked viruses, searching for the meaning of life… It’s all quite exhausting isn’t it? Come on , let’s make the best of it shall we? Life purpose = living life on purpose, doing every day what you love and making sure that before you expire, you have a ball in whatever way that you can. Sure some of it is crap, but that is behind you. Draw a line in the sand, put the rubbish stuff in a bin bag and put it out for the bin man (bin = trash). The past is for reference, not a place to dwell and when you get back to the Soul Plaice and you watch your Earth holiday movies, just laugh at your antics, I am sure all of your soul buddies have done some cringe worthy stuff too. Now you are standing on a line, in front of you is the meaning of life, your life. Take your faith in whatever form that has meaning for you and look along the line, at the end is a huge golden egg, that is my gift to you. You can put in it anything you like, anything. I can’t promise that you can have it all, I cannot gift you the red Porsche, house on the hill overlooking the sea, $1 million in the bank, but I can gift you the personal permission to hold a picture in your head of what you want for you. Humans need to remember to live each day in the present moment (I know it’s a tough one sometimes) and we need to know that there is meaning and something to work towards, so mix that up in whatever way that works for you. I don’t know about you, but I am feeling relieved already that my rubbish is out for the bin men and that I have a golden egg, stuffed full of love, laughter, light, things and right by my side are my gorgeous family, the ones that I was supposed to find. I know, sometimes finding your soul group is a tough one. Is there a reason we make it so hard? Past behind me, golden egg in front of me, life on purpose, live in the moment, line in front of me, meaning of my life, now what? Your personal brand, of course. What goes on inside your head is yours, what we now need to consider is how we express all of our gorgeousness to the people out there. So, back in the Soul Plaice and you are waiting to catch the tube to Earth, you need to find a way so that your soul group, the rock band that you belong to, can instantly recognize you. You program in your personal brand. One last look to make sure you have your life purpose, the journey mapped out – the meaning of your life and your personal brand – your soul group identity so your mates can find you and its off for the adventure of a life time. Sunglasses, sun cream and a good book, you are off! Despite the silliness of this blog, there is a serious message. We don’t really know what came before or what comes after, all we know is now and I want now to be a place where I have a life I love, I live and work with people I love and I am in control of my personal brand. My personal brand is how you know what I stand for and who I am, it is my identity, my visual representation of me, it’s everything I say and do, it’s the way that you will know if we are right for each other. I’d like to think that we are a match made in heaven. See you back at the Soul Plaice, the party’s at mine, bring your smiles and hold onto your bellies, I think we may we laughing a lot!

It’s funny where you end up when you are trending

Jacqui Malpass — Thu, 02 May 2013 21:33:31 +0000

It’s funny where you end up when you are trending Out of curiosity I let my fingers wander over to Google and asked ‘what’s trending’. I kind of wished I hadn’t. Transported into a nether world of weird wonder, I now knew why I hid my head under the blankets and let the real world pass me by. Yes it’s true strange things happen in reality land. Well, let me tell you it has been quite a revelation. Firstly there is a building shaped like a penis, then someone noticed her name on a cheque and paid off her mortgage, dog gets a tummy tuck, Warren Buffet joins Twitter and there are six rubber ducks in Hong Kong harbor. Are you gripped? And it was then that I knew that my life was truly complete… And in no particular order – Posh has cut off her hair, Heather Locklear has a new man, bankers struggle to live on $1m+ pay and the one that wins the prize is that the first masterbationathon kicks off and wont be completed until 27th May. That’s a lot of, you know, masturbation (is that really trending?) I knew if I kept looking I would find a story worthy of holding onto. And this headline This fundraiser is a stroke of genius. Really is a stroke of genius. Now I was hooked so I popped over to http://www.crowdrise.com/phillymasturbate2013 to find out how much had been raised, no pun intended… I adore their balls and it looks like its for a good cause. So cum on and feel the noise for http://www.screwsmart.com/ I love the internet, don’t you?

Fear, uncertainty and doubt

Jacqui Malpass — Wed, 01 May 2013 05:18:28 +0000

Fear, uncertainty and doubt, it’s the FUD that’s holding you back FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) was originally defined by Gene Amdahl after he left IBM to found his own company. He used it to describe the fear, uncertainty, and doubt that the IBM sales people were spreading to their customers who might be considering the competitions products. In this case the competition was Amdahl. Look at the word FUD what does it conjure up? Imagine if you dropped it – FUD – a dull lifeless thud. That’s what it feels like when you let fear into your life. It stops you moving forward, leaving you mentally paralysed and invites procrastination in. Procrastination is a lovely word, roll it around a bit. It’s kind of playful isn’t it. Don’t be fooled playful it might be, the devil in disguise it most certainly is. Procrastination takes you off in a merry dance, anywhere but on what you are supposed to be doing. It is your perception that is spreading the FUD and leaving you unable to move forward. When I work with entrepreneur writers, this is some of FUD that I come across:- I am scared someone will find my writing. I am too busy. I can’t think of what to write next. There is no time. What I have written is boring. I don’t know what to write about. I don’t know where to start. I can’t write stories. I am scared of failing (or is that success?). My creativity upped and went! Who will want to read what I have to say? There are already lots of books on my subject. I want to write a book but…. (you fill in the blanks) I want to carry on writing but…. (you fill in the blanks) What I propose is this. At many times of our lives FUD will appear. It will appear as the voices in our heads, AKA the mind chatter, that endless, relentless stream of thoughts that wander around our minds distracting and de motivating us. When your mind is full of rubbish it is hard to concentrate on other things. This is when writing really is your best friend. When I say writing, I mean journaling. Leave what you are doing and get scribbling, it doesn’t matter if it seems incoherent or meaningless, get it down and let it rest a while. When you come back to whatever it was that was troubling you, you will have much more clarity. Harness your FUD and turn it into something creative and useful. Having these feelings is usually a sign that you are onto something good, but the voices want to tell you otherwise. We have choices and it is your choice if you or the voices win. What is your FUD? Fear exercise Watch the video and then make a list of all of your fears around writing. Write back to yourself with advice about how to handle your fear. Procrastination FUD leads to procrastination, which is linked to our beliefs and therefore we must understand what those beliefs are and how we overcome them. So now what we need to do, is find out what your procrastination beliefs are and find a way to overcome them. Leap of faith to end FUD and procrastination Let’s take a leap of faith, be brave and turn our thoughts, ideas and words into art to share. One way of overcoming this is to have a Procrastination Action Plan – a way of responding to the excuses you come up with. What are your excuses for not writing or making contact with a person or business you really want to work with? What are your counter arguments? Write quickly and positively. Leave and reflect. What can you learn? Whatever you uncover, please record it in your journal and consider how you can use this to knowledge and understanding to bring about change and to have inspiration for your stories. This exercise is taken from Writing to Heal. Available in print and Kindle. Take the Writing to Heal course on Udemy. Use coupon code JM1301 to get this course for less than half price.

Marketing communications, plan, test, measure

Jacqui Malpass — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:53:56 +0000

Marketing communications, plan, test, measure, it’s all in the process When you think about marketing communications what springs to mind? Slogans, a bit of PR, your website, possibly your blog and your customer facing materials? When I think about marketing I think process, test and measure. I love it when people tell that marketing doesn’t work. When you drill deeper, the what that doesn’t work is the inconsistent approach to it. I know I have been that inconsistent person and I should know better. Naughty Jacqui. I can preach about marketing with the best of them. I know a lot about marketing and I should do, I have been doing IT for over 25 years, but I think that when you come out of corporate life and set up on your own, it’s one of those things that along with finance, filing and making the boss tea,it all just becomes too much. And the reason is that you don’t follow the process. And of course you are working on your clients marketing and yours gets waylaid. As solopreneurs your time is consumed by so many things, that you begin to lose sight of what you are in business for, you reach overwhelm. There is the social media plan, the blog, networking and and and. One answer of course is to outsource what you can, but for some this isn’t possible. The other thing I notice and this isn’t just small businesses, it is everyone. At the start of your business you put masses of effort in, you have a point to prove and a Chablis habit to maintain (or whatever your guilty pleasure is) and then when your funnel is full you stop marketing. Then, shock horror as the business dries up, you start to panic and take your eye off who your ideal customer is and what you are in business for, you flounder and lose focus. What about those businesses then, who keep on stuffing it in the top end without thinking about the backend. What happens when all of your fancy marketing and focused sales activity brings home the bacon, but the pig squeals that you aren’t delivering on your promise because you didn’t think about how you were going to service your clients. What then? Marketing isn’t just about filling the funnel, it is a process that goes across the whole organisation. Everyone is involved. A wise man said ‘marketing is a process, it has a beginning and a middle, but never an end, because it is a process’ or something along those lines. It’s a process where I cannot possibly guarantee you returns in the way that you might demand, because the process that is right for you needs setting up and testing. When you have tested something, look at it and ask what could I do better and just keep doing it, until you get it as right as you can. Market conditions change and you have to keep your eye on what’s going on out there. What works today may not suit the market tomorrow. Legislation may change and you may find yourself without a business. Yes it does happen. I once found myself on the receiving end of the government pulling the plug on the home computing initiative - with just six weeks notice. I am going to suggest that right here, right now, you stop. Draw a line in the sand and take stock. That’s right just stop and reflect. That’s what I am doing right now. I have made me my client – yeah I know weird. I am re branding and refocusing, I am auditing myself and if truth be known I feel a little foolish for letting things slip, but that’s ok because I am on top of it – I am a hard task master. So – line in the sand time. Your marketing communications plan is one of the most important function of a business alongside making sure the cash flows effectively. Your marcoms plan will:- Ensure your organisation speaks with one voice (even if that is just you – think partners or joint venturists) Enables diverse or even globally spread teams to communicate in an integrated manner Makes sure your message is heard above the noise in the marketplace Help you to connect and resonate with your target audience Give you a better return on your marketing spend Ensures that marketing is integrated with your overall business objectives Target your efforts more effectively Yep, you need a process. Steps to ensure your plan is properly thought out New business opportunity profile What makes a perfect (or near perfect) customer? Describe or draw one. What do they need or want from you? Your objectives Know your customers better and use that knowledge to enhance profitability Grow the number of customers, the amount of sales per customer, and the lifetime value of the customer Highly profitable customers: What can we do to keep these customers and keep them spending? How can we attract more like them? Profitable customers: How do we get more of these customers to adapt the habits (spend) like our highly profitable ones? Unprofitable customers: How can we phase out these customers and, in the meantime, serve them economically? Serve each segment more effectively and at a lower cost How do your customers prefer to receive information about your offerings? How do your customers use this communications during the buying process? Can I throw a spanner in the works? You have your NBO, but what about your blockers? You know the ones who could stand in your way. Find them and think about what benefits they get from you. How will you win them over. I know life is tough. The process I told you that it was about the process. How are you set up to sell? What are the steps you take, are they effective? What communications work best where? What is your customers buying process? Different customers have different buying processes, and your sales process [...]

Fake it until you make it

Jacqui Malpass — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 06:39:34 +0000

Fake it until you make it, create the right conditions for success All of the authenticity freaks out there are probably screaming nooooooooooooo at me, the thought of faking anything is an anathema to them. But hang on a minute, wasn’t there a time when you didn’t know who you really were? Were there times when you were lost and looking, wanting to do and say one thing when something else tumbled from your lips. Heart aching, heart wrenching moments when someone says what do you do and you would utter, I am a marketing consultant. When what you really truly wanted to reach out and say is, ‘I transform people and personal brands by helping them to find what they really do and what their gifts are through discovering and developing personal and business stories. And how they can create and communicate it with a book (or blog, video, PR), changing their life and business. I make it easier for them to share and make cash from what they are passionate about.’ Try it, tell me what you do, in the old way, how does that feel? Now have a go at a different way, the way that if no-one was listening and you didn’t feel quite so foolish you would. How does that feel? Yeah I know silly, but if you keep practising, it gets better, easier and you can keep refining it until magically, it is your truth. Really fake it until you make it means act as if. Act as if it were true. If you pretend you are confident, you will trick yourself that you are and you will be. When we moved from Llantwit Major to Bridgend at the age of 19, it was both annoying and terrifying. My dad has been in the RAF and we had moved every one to three years, we had to get used to going to new schools and meeting new people, but we were settled and now they wanted to uproot us again. I had no choice, I didn’t have enough cash to rent my own place so I moved to a new town. Despite having friends just 45 minutes away, getting there was a pain so my only option was to go and find new friends. The thought of breaking into established groups was scary. The thought of walking into a pub and just talking to anyone was beyond daunting. But I psyched myself up before walking to town. I had worked out which pub and I sort of had a strategy – find a big group with a nice looking bloke and give him the eye. I know it’s a crap strategy, but at least it was a plan. It was a plan that worked. The man in question was very nice when I went and chatted to him, he introduced me to a lovely girl who took me under her wing. The rest they say is history and lots of new friends. I acted as if going out by myself was easy peasy. I acted as if it was normal for me to just go and say hi to new people. I acted as if I had all of the confidence in the world. All of this makes sense when you consider what we put ourselves through in the name of business (and life). Underlying the premise of fake it til you make it, is simply that by forming good habits, that those habits will become an intrinsic parts of us. Forming habits is about creating conditions for something to thrive. Humans want and need to be programmed, which is what conditioning is. We are evolving, learning creatures. Our life is about learning how to make the best conditions for us, the best life. Back to my school days and in the weeks that followed my being expelled (yeah I know, I was naughty), I was invited away for a weekend retreat, only it was a weekend with the Moonies. The Moonies are a cult, who scour the streets looking for vulnerable people to ‘condition’ into their way of life, in other words, serve Reverend Sun Yung Moon. The premise being that these people sacrifice their lives (not kill but give their possessions and freedom) for the Moon family, whilst the Moon family live a life of richness and celebrity. Being cynical I think it’s called brainwashing. Conditioning, acting as if, telling yourself it is true, for whatever reason. The Moonies conditioning didn’t work on me, but it did work on thousands of innocent victims who were soul searching and lost. In fact the Moonies didn’t want me. Ethically what the Moonies were doing was criminal, but they are a brilliant example of how the brain can be tricked. Take another nutter, Charles Manson, who founded the Manson family, another cult. Afters years of prison life Manson rebranded himself as a guru. The late 1960’s was a time of peace, love and hippies, people were really reaching out and wanting something different, a different kind of freedom and people like Manson I assume was plausible and likeable and the women (it was mostly women) wanted something to believe in. He conditioned himself to believe he was that guru, gave them something to believe in, his brand promise and he took them along for the ride. As it turned out a disastrous ride which ended up with the famous murders of star Sharon Tate, her friends and the LaBianca family amongst others. The point in citing Moon and Manson is only to demonstrate how powerful the mind is when left in the wrong hands. Every day we are bombarded with adverts which do the same thing, influence, condition or brainwash us. Brainwashing I read is controlling another’s mind against his will. To my mind we brainwash ourselves, whatever term you want to use, you and me, we allow ourselves to be controlled. I am not sure who the little men who live in our heads [...]