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Great Opportunities Brilliantly Disguised

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When you launch your business – your greatest opportunities will often be brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.

I shared earlier the “impossible” situation Janet Simpson found herself in on your way to the top – you might fall down.  She finished her 5 mile race despite falling flat on her face and cracking several ribs.  I shared how that’s the kind of tenacity you have to have to launch your own successful business.

Back in 1997- a series of minor “impossible” situations forced me to leave my “real job”  in advertising and launch my own business.   Along the way – I’ve experienced what seems like more than my fair share of impossible situations.     One thing I’ve learned over the years is this:

Hidden deep inside each and every impossible situation is a great opportunity.

The key word above is “hidden”…. because for some mysterious reason great opportunities are rarely easily visible.

In order to find the great opportunity which lies hidden within your impossible situation – you’re going to have to dig.

You’re going to have to dig into that impossible situation with your bare hands because impossible situations rarely happen when you’re surrounded by the proper tools.

You’re going to have to dig through that impossible situation until your fingers are bleeding – and then you get to dig some more.

You will probably have to dig through layers of gunk and goo which makes raw sewage seem sweet in comparison – all in search of the golden nugget of opportunity which lies hidden within.

Og Mandino wrote:

“Your capacity for occasional blunders is inseparable from your capacity to reach your goals. No one wins them all, and your failures, when they happen, are just part of your growth. Shake off your blunders. How will you know your limits without an occasional failure? Never quit. Your turn will come.”

There is no way to ensure that you’ll never find yourself in an impossible situation – however you’ll reduce the odds of finding yourself there if you never take a risk.

My favorite saying lives on a coffee mug which reads, “What would you do today if you knew you could not fail?”

With that attitude – even the most impossible of situations becomes a treasure trove of opportunities.

Happy gold mining!

On your way to the top – you might fall down

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I’d like to introduce you to Janet Simpson.  She is a nutrition coach and registered dietitian.  However, she’s also  an entrepreneur, a professor, a mentor, a grandmother and tri-athlete.  She could have cut time from her first triathlon if she hadn’t stopped to hug and kiss her grandchildren who were there to cheer her on.

In other words, Janet is “Wonder Woman” in the flesh.

Janet had previously shared with me that she was planning to run in a 5 mile “fun run”.  If running five miles doesn’t sound like “fun” to you – you ain’t heard nothing yet.  When she finished with her fun run, she planned on helping race organizers tend to the needs of those running the 100 mile course.  That’s not a typo – in addition to the “mini” 5 mile run, there were half and full marathons in addition to the  one hundred mile competition!!!

Eighty people signed up to run the 100 mile course, and Janet later told me that the winner finished in a mere 18 hours.  She reported that he looked as fresh and energized as if he’d just completed a jog around the block.  Of the 80 who signed up for the 100 mile run – 60 completed the course in well under the 30 hour time limit.  Of those who didn’t finish – all completed at least 60 of the 100 mile run – before succumbing to such injuries as their toenails falling off.  One competitor ran the entire 100 miles barefoot.  Did I mention the race was held in October in Michigan?  BRRRR!!!!

If you think running 100 miles in the course of a single day barefoot in the cold sounds like an entry in the DSM-IV for some form of mental illness – you’re not alone.

While the runner who won the 100 mile run finished the race looking and feeling great – the same couldn’t be said for Janet. The course she ran followed a trail which lead through a forest.   The leaves from the trees  had  fallen, covering the exposed roots and other hidden dangers.  As Janet began her descent down a steep hill, she found herself flying through the air.  She had inadvertently hooked her toe under an exposed  tree root- hidden from view by the leaves.  She landed face down with enough force to not only scrape her face, hands and knees but also to knock the wind out of her and  crack a rib or two in the process.

Here’s the amazing part – the part that anyone who aspires to build a business of any size needs to know –

Janet still finished the race.

Even though she was battered and bruised, she sill  finished running the race -and came in 2nd in her age category to boot.   Initially she justified finishing the race by saying that she fell at the 2.5 mile mark and it only made sense to keep moving forward.  However, she later admitted that she could have chosen to ride to the finish line – but she was determined to finish the race under her own power.

What this story has to do with building your business

Building a business is hard.  I’ve worked with literally hundreds of new business owners and few are prepared for how difficult the process can be.  It’s taxing physically, mentally and emotionally.  As a general rule, everything will cost more than you think it will and take longer to complete than you think it should.  It’s just how business launches go.

New business owners are rarely prepared for the many obstacles they will have to overcome as they launch their new business.  While some hazards are common enough to be experienced by almost all business owners, others are like the tree roots in the forest through which Janet ran which laid hidden beneath the leaves.

According to Patricia Schaefer at Business Know How, one of the key attributes needed to start a business is the ability to recover after encountering such hidden obstacles.  She writes:

You learn from your mistakes, and use these lessons to succeed the next time around. Brian Head, Economist with the SBA Office of Advocacy, noted that studies of successful business owners showed they attributed much of their success to “building on earlier failures;” on using failures as a “learning process”.

Some hazards you’ll encounter as you launch your business are predictable.  That’s why you choose carefully the team members you’ll use to support you as you build your business.  A good accountant, attorney or business consultant can help a new business owner see many potential hazards which lie ahead.  Their advice is often worth it’s weight in gold – but if you’ve never tripped on a hidden root and broken a rib – you might not realize how valuable your trusted adviser’s advice is.

No matter how good your counsel – chances are that as you build your business – you’re going to have to navigate a steep path covered with newly fallen leaves.  You too may stumble upon a hidden exposed tree root and you may find yourself lying face down on the ground, battered and bruised with the wind knocked out of you.

At that moment – you’ll  have a decision to make.  Will you use the fall as your excuse to leave the race?  Will you climb upon the courtesy cart and be ferried back to the finish line?  Or – will you pick yourself up and start running again – heading towards the finish line?

The answer ultimately determines whether or not you’ll succeed in your business – because it’s not a question of WHETHER you’ll fall.  You will fall.  It’s just a matter of when, where and why.

No- the question is whether you decide to get up and try, try again after the fall. Will you view your fall as a learning experience – or will you view it as the end of the race?

Business Blogger – Know Your Audience

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There’s no way for me to over emphasize how important it is to know your target audience.  It’s my experience that blogging without a target audience firmly in mind is one of the primary reasons why business blogs fails to make a”connection” with customers.

In  the blog post “Telling Stories to Sell More Stuff” I gave an exaample of how the recent Allstate commercial tells a story which effectively entertains and educates at the same time making it a powerful marketing tool.

I saw another ad in the Allstate Mayhem series while watching a football game the other day.  This 2nd ad  is tightly targeted towards football fans and frames the new story in a way to appeal to a different audience.   Instead of a teen-aged driver in a pink SUV – this story uses a college football quarterback to tell the story.  Though it uses a similar story plot – it casts different “players” to tell the tale so it will “connect” with yet another niche market.

When you defined your blog’s target audience –  you’ll know who should be starring in the stories you tell.    You’ll know who to cast as a villain and who to cast as the conquering hero.

If you haven’t defined your blog’s target audience though – you won’t know where to begin.

Blogging for your business is incredibly easy and hard at the same time.  A blog makes it easy to get your story published to the web.  Unlike the television commercial featured above – you don’t have to hire a production company or actors to tell your story which makes it a great tool to “test” the waters and see which message connects with your audience.

However, while it’s easy to publish your story online with a business blog –  you are still faced with the task of composing those stories with your target audience in mind.  That’s where blogging gets hard for most business owners and bloggers.

Sometimes you have to compose dozens of different stories before you find one that connects with your audience.  Business blogging allows you to “test” these stories and see which one makes a connection.

Your business blog allows you start the process by telling the story with words – and then move on to audio or video if you see that a particular story has struck a chord.

Not long ago, I had a conversation with a client who wanted to try something new with her blog.  She had an idea for a feature she thought might connect with her target audience and it was an idea which had the potential of becoming “viral”.   However, she wanted to test the waters first and her blog was the perfect test vehicle.

Instead of investing in a production crew to create video stories – my client started by creating a written story which she published to her blog.  She then broadened that single story to a series of stories.  Now she is incorporating audio into the story telling process. If that’s successful – THEN she’ll make the necessary financial investment to move to video to tell her stories.

When your marketing and advertising budget is less than 5 figures per month, you have to be “smart” about what paths you pursue.  “Spray and pray” is not a viable marketing strategy for most small and medium sized businesses.  When you’ve got limited resources – you can’t afford to invest in creating a “viral” video that doesn’t work to build your business.   That’s where your blog can be a money saving lifesaver.

Blogging is a wonderful cost effective way test your marketing stories which is just one reason why your business should be blogging.

Telling Stories to Sell More Stuff

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Since the beginning of time, stories have been used to not only entertain but also to teach and even sell.   Blogs are a great vehicle for telling stories.  If you want to use your blog to sell products or your services, then it’s important to master the art of storytelling.

I got an email from a beginning blogging client the other day – asking if a post was too “silly” to use on the blog.  I replied that there is no such thing as content which is “too silly” for a blog post.

There’s no such thing as “too silly for a blog post” advice comes from someone who wronte about condoms and social marketing in which I told how I mistook a brown paper bag filled with condoms for moist towelettes.  The moral to the story was how my frame of mind affected my perception of what was inside.

“When people arrive at your blog, website or other advertising material, they already have a conversation going on inside their head.  If the conversation on your blog – on your website or in your advertising materials isn’t clear – you might be surprised at how “distorted” you message can get.”

Telling stories is an incredibly effective way to sell more stuff – whatever “stuff” you’re selling because stories can entertain and educate at the same time,

Allstate is currently running a series of amusing commercials which entertain and educate – the story of what your “cut rate” insurance may not cover.

You don’t have Allstate’s media budget to air your amusing and educational stories nationally.  There is another more affordable option available and that’s telling these stories on your blog.

Heck – even if you have that kind of advertising budget- your blog is a great place for entertaining and educational stories to live when they’re not burning up the airwaves.

Before you can decide what storiess you need to tell, you first need to decide what information consumers need.  Allstate’s commercials are educating conumsers about what might not be covered by your “cut rate” insurance.

What information do you need to communicate to your audience?  What do they need to know in order to buy from you?

If you’re competing solely upon price- then telling stories probably isn’t for you,  However, if you’re making a Major Sale – consumers want and need as much information as possible before they make a decision.  Your blog can tell a hundred variations of your educational and entertaining stories.  Those stories may not garner a lot of consumer comments – but they may do something better like contacting you to learn more about how to become YOUR customer,

Social Media’s Role in Branding

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Before social media, branding was the buzzword of the marketing and advertising industry.  Like social media today – many in the “biz” were familiar with the term branding – but really didn’t “get” what it was really all about.  As a result a lot of “noise” has been made about branding which focuses upon the choice of colors, logo or other visual elements used in marketing.   But branding is so much more than just the visual packaging of your business or even your business name.  While the name and the visual elements are a way to quickly communicate the “core” or DNA of your business to consumers who don’t know you yet – your true BRAND is built through interaction with your customers.

I’ve always said that branding is not something you do to your business – but rather it’s something your customers do to your business.  Just as a calf does not control the hot metal which sears a symbol into it’s flesh – your company’s brand is controlled consumers.  This is why focusing upon the consumer and striving to meet their expectations is the foundation of branding.  Social media gives businesses a way to make that connection – to collect that information – and to actually see your business from the consumer’s point of view.

Peter Drucker was a self-described “social ecologist” whose insight helped to build some of the most successful companies in the world including General Electric, Coca-Cola, Citicorp, IBM, and Intel. Drucker attempted to unveil some of the “mystique” surrounding branding,

“Suppliers and especially manufacturers have market power because they have information about a product or a service that the customer does not and cannot have, and does not need if he can trust the brand. This explains the profitability of brands.”

According to Drucker – the essence of branding is building trust and long term business profitability ultimately depends upon building trust with consumers.  Branding is all about building trust with consumers.   When consumers can trust you – they’re more likely to buy from you.  Social media provide the communication tools necessary to engage consumers and build that trust.

The process of building trust with consumers used to be as mysterious and abstract as quantum mechanics.   Companies had no way of knowing whether they had made a “connection” with consumers other than to watch for the cash register to tally up another sale.    Social media is providing revolutionary insight into this once obscure concept but  it’s increasing the importance of actively striving to build trust with consumers as well.