Category: Business Playbook

18
Apr

Script Your Shift 4x4x4

Live on purpose. Select your scenes! Don’t leave your life to chance. You don’t have to be caught up in trauma and drama. And you don’t have to allow your self to be pulled along by every character that pops on to the scene of your life! Write your story—your Life Script!

Realize that you are the Star of your life story. You are the Producer. You are the Director. You are the Screenwriter. Write the script (thoughts, beliefs, actions) in a way that serves your stardom (or get assistance to do just that!).

Give your word and live your word (the Life Script). Write your way in and out of the experiences you desire, require, and deserve to enjoy—professionally, personally, and potentially! Be the Star Performer of your world, the center of your universe, and play your part for an award-winning experience!

4 Steps You Can Take To Star In Your Own Life Story

  1. Listen. Tune in to your inner voice, notice what you are saying to your self.  Consider what your thoughts say about what you believe. How do your thoughts affect your actions? Awareness is a key step in change. Become and observer of your self. Then, continue doing what serves you and adjust otherwise.
  2. Align. Get in accord with your self. Pay attention to your thoughts, words, and deeds. Do they support and nurture how you desire to live your life? If not, change your internal message. Again, continue doing what serves you and adjust otherwise.
  3. Prepare. Make a plan, a guide, and let it be the script to your live. By considering potentialities and the outcomes desired, you set up your self to act in accord with your desires. You will be in a position to recognize and act on opportunities that serve you.
  4. Act. Live intentionally, on purpose by creating habits that align with your desires. If your goal is to be fit, make it a habit to exercise daily. Create a habit of eating to fuel your health. Be the Star Performer in the experiences you create for you. To build your business, hone your message and consistently uphold it.

Starring in your story takes focus and intention. It starts with writing down your goals. Most people don’t bother to write down their goals. They wind up drifting aimlessly through life. Is this you? Are you wondering why your life lacks purpose and significance? Are you willing to give your self an aim? Committing your goals to writing is the beginning of creating the life of your dreams. The key to accomplishing what matters to you is committing your desires in writing. This is important for at least four reasons.

  1. It forces you to clarify your desires and set your destination. Writing down your goals and milestones compels you to select something, to get specific… to choose the outcome you desire for your life.
  2. It motivates you to take aligned action. Write down your goals, articulate your intention, and execute in alignment with them. Writing down goals and reviewing them regularly keeps you mindful of the destination and prompts you to take action. It provides a filter for opportunities that could otherwise become distractions. The more successful you become, the more you will be presented with opportunities. Maintain a list of written goals by which to evaluate opportunity, take appropriate action, and stay on course with your goals.
  3. It fortifies you to face challenges and overcome resistance. Every meaningful goal encounters resistance. When you focus on the resistance, it will only get stronger. Overcome it is with focus on the goal. Write it down and review it often.
  4. It enables you to recognize and celebrate progress. Life  is particularly difficult when you don’t see progress. You feel like you are going nowhere. Your written goals act as mile-markers. Review them to see how far you have come. Outline steps for where you require to go. And take the opportunity to celebrate when you attain a milestone.

If you are overwhelmed … or if you are focusing on your star performance and desire for assistance with the other stuff, get in touch with me to script your shift so you can shine! And if you are looking for a place to start, consider these tips.

4 Tips for Writing Your Life Script

  1. Focus on your desired result in each area of your life (fitness, health, career, finances, intellect, relationships, and spiritual).
  2. Write your story in the present tense—as if you are living it now.
  3. Engage all of your senses and make it active—walk through your home and surroundings, note the things do, what you see, sounds you hear, scents, what you touch, and how you feel.
  4. Be the main character in the visualization—dream big and make it as realistic as possible to convince your self and to believe it is a potentiality for you.

The process of writing your Life Script brings opportunities to you just by changing your focus to what you desire. This benefit from shifting your focus from what isn’t working to your dream experience takes place during the creation of your Life Script.

Many are challenged with describing what it is we desire to create. We have an easier time describing what we do not want, which isn’t a bad place to start; but don’t leave your focus there. Instead of wishing to be less fat, focus on how good it will be to feel more fit.

Create and star in your dreamyiest life … get in touch with me to script your shift so you can shine!

 

15
Feb

Set Up Social Media Success in 6 Simple Steps

Social media doesn’t have to be daunting. In fact, it can be your best sales associate and your favorite marketing tactic. The key is to focus so you don’t get overwhelmed. It all begins with your message. Here are five steps to go from strategy to scheduled for social media success.

#1 Create Your Social Media Strategy.

For your Brand, you have a strategy. Now, align that with Social Media. Determine your niche—your target audience. Consider pain points and interests; and your solution for them. People seek solutions and benefits!

Brand strategy is a long-term plan for development to achieve specific goals. It is your playbook. Goals, strategies and tactics are outlined to give you a game plan.

Your brand is not your product, your logo, your website, or your name. It is much more than that. It is tangible and intagible, purpose driven, mission focused attributes that are your reason for being. It’s a feeling that separates powerful versus mediocre brands.

Your brand strategy considers:

1. Your industry & design trends
2. Your ideal client’s desires
3. Your brand personality

Distinguish your brand — how do you differentiate yourself and speak to your audience in a way that attracts them? There are many ways to give your brand a personality. From your logo and colors to tone of voice, messaging must align with your audience while remaining consistent in delivery style. Imagine your brand talking with one customer. And then, replicate that conversation consistently in the marketplace. This is where the social media strategy comes in.

Now, create a plan for social media that addresses your target audience where they are. Design a communication and messaging strategy to deliver information that is helpful to them and of interest. Relate to other topics that they are engaging with across platforms.

Check out this article of interest — Perfecting the four P’s.

HOMEWORK:

  1. Know what makes you different from your competition.
  2. Define your target audience and the solution you provide.
  3. Translate this to your Social Media strategy.

#2 Choose Your Social Media Platform(s).

You aren’t required to be on every Social Media platform to be successful. Pick one, possibly two to start. Avoid overwhelm!

In the beginning, fewer and BETTER is the focus. Facebook is the logical first choice for most brands. Twitter, LinkedIn, and/or YouTube are strong second choices, depending on your niche.

With Facebook, create your personal Profile then set up your Business Page. From quotes to images to video, you can dominate presence in your niche. Facebook Live amplifies the possibilites. You can benefit from low cost, highly targeted Facebook Ads to generate leads and build your list.

Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest along with LinkedIn and YouTube are great online real estate for your message. Your strategy will assit you in selecting the one or two places to start so that you speak to your tribe and align with your message.

To get a feel for the social media channels, check out this article of interest — Social Media at a Glance.

HOMEWORK:

  1. Set your goals — what you aim to accomplish.
  2. Select the Platforms you will use to START.
  3. Set up your social media sites.

#3 Curate and Create Your Content.

Develop an Editorial Plan to guide your content with purpose. And then you can repurpose the information across your social media channels. This reinforces your presence.

Create a calendar — three, six, nine, or 12 months out. For each month, brainstorm themes and then topics within that theme that would be of interest to your audience. Look at information that will establish you as the “Go To” person in your arena.

Choose themes and topics so you can weave information from one post to another. Look at the map of content so you know what you are sharing each and every day. Content can easily be “re-purposed” and used in a variety of ways, and across multiple platforms.

For more insights, check out this article — Repurpose Key Twitter Posts.

HOMEWORK:

  1. Brainstorm content theme ideas.
  2. Outline topics of interest to your niche.
  3. Create a 30 day content editorial calendar.

#4 Create a Series of Messages.

Now comes all the write stuff. Tailor the words to fit the channel. A blog post can be pulled apart for fodder you can upload to Twitter or Facebook. Specific messages can be developed for each channel and your audience there. If you desire assistance with this, let me know.

Now, get going. Check out this article of interest — Pretty Perfect.

HOMEWORK:

  1. Write your message(s).
  2. Develop content tailored to each channel.
  3. Consider quotes that align with your message.

#5 Select Message Visuals.

There are a number of ways to deliver information—your brand strategy will assist you in selecting the style(s) best suited to your message.

Photos; Infographics; Videos (Live and Native); Blog Posts and Original Articles by you; White Papers; Blogs and Useful Articles by other thought leaders in your niche who do not compete. Make Video a priority as it gets the MOST engagement!

Once you determine the style of information delivery, create your content. Outline it. Find photos and images to add impact. Consider using Piktochart or Canva to create images and infographs. Look at Notegraphy for creating impact with your words. And, find free photos and images at Pixabay.

Check out this article of interest — A Picture Worth 1000 Words.

HOMEWORK:

  1. Consider your brand image and align visuals with that.
  2. Create your message visuals.
  3. Develop content across visual media.

#6 Schedule It.

Effective Social Media Marketing can be done in 30 minutes a day when you have a plan and you WORK that plan.

You can use tools such as Hootsuite or Buffer to schedule your posts in advance. This puts your social media presence on autopilot.

Check out this article of interest — Storytelling and the 3 T’s.

HOMEWORK:

  1. Schedule posts for 30 days—consider Hootsuite or Buffer.
  2. Check in every day for 30 minutes to boost activity and interact with your tribe.
  3. Share posts from others who attract your niche.

Define your brand strategy and your message. Choose which delivery method will be best for your message. Make a list of themes and topics of interest. Create your content. And schedule it.

Congratulations! You now have the steps required to command Social Media and dominate your niche for business awareness, lead generation, client contact, and nutured relationships that lead to SALES! For assistance in creating your content, get in touch with me.

21
Jul

3 P’s of Your Startup Business Plan

There are so many business plan templates to prompt the presentation of your map to success. Some are tailored to one industry or another. Others are boiler-plate MBA outlines. Still, at the center of every business plan are three key points — your purpose, your plan, and your progress indicators.

PURPOSE

Your first challenge is to define your startup’s purpose for being. The raison d’etre for your burgeoning business. What pain point do you serve and in what way? What is the intention or objective of your company? Defining the purpose of your business reveals what needs to be done to move it forward. Clarifying can include a simple description of your products or services, or it can elaborate on detailed offerings, as well as a precise description of who you will serve — your ideal customer. Outlining your purpose will define what the business is — where you are starting — and what it intends to be — your future vision.

PLAN

Once your purpose is revealed, you need a plan to reach your vision. Define your goals and the steps needed to reach them. A map of goals will help you and your team know when to act, and when to wait. Factor for future growth in the business plan to prepare for changes in the market, evolving trends, innovations to pursue, or opportunities to take as your company grows. A a comprehensive business plan includes statistics, facts, and details that show whether or not your startup has the potential to be profitable. This is a critical factor when soliciting investors to provide capital required for getting started. Your plan outlines the organizational structure of your business, including positions and individual duties. This is a game-plan for your entire team, keeping everyone working together with an eye on the prize, from partners to suppliers, leaders, and employees of your venture.

PROGRESS

Know your metrics. Measure your results. Note how you have progressed. Without progress that confirms you are on target, it can be difficult to know whether you are still on the right path. Validate your intent and results, daily. Be sure you and your team are prepared to make operational decisions in line with the overall business strategy. Your plan shows the way and includes alternate actions the company will follow if projections are overly optimistic. Referring to your plan helps maintain a big-picture view as you make day-to-day decisions.

Your business plan is a living guide for your vision. It is a reference and a management tool to ensure efforts are aligned to meet goals, targets, and milestones.

21
Jun

2 Sentences with 5 Things Investors Need to Know in the First Moment You Meet Them

Get ready to present to investors. For this opportunity, the elevator pitch is a key to introducing your company and grabbing attention at the start.

Dave Bittner, CEO at Beanstalk CFO Group, suggests two sentences to your elevator pitch. Investors need to know how to compare you to other startups they work with and other companies in the marketplace. Your elevator pitch places you in their mind. This is the set up and it is an opportunity to position your startup for play.

With these two sentences, you provide investors with the critical outline of your business.

Sentence 1: We sell _____ (product or service deliverable) to _____ (target market) who want _____ (benefit).

Sentence 2: Unlike _____ (competitor), we _____ (differentiation) .

So let’s look at the five things presented here.

Product/Service — This is simply your offer—the thing you are selling. What is the thing that appears on the invoice? What is the nut that you deliver?

Target Market — Remember, your target market is not everybody. Everybody doesn’t want what you are offering, you don’t have resources to attract everybody, and investors will lose interest if you are not focused. What is your headpin?

In Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore, he refers to marketing like bowling. Hit the Headpin. When you are bowling, you don’t lob the ball into the pins, you roll it into the headpin — the beachhead segment of the market. You hit it based on your ability to hit it, and it’s proximity to other pins. Let it knock down the other pins that knock down other. A domino effect.

Benefit — You may have hundreds of benefits. Pick one, the primary benefit. Feature that. Only that. Clearly.

Competition or Comparison Others — Do not say you have no competition. How attractive can this market be if no one is doing something in it? do the research and stretch to cite competition or substitute for your offer). Unlike the way it has been done before, we do something interesting. Unlike it has never been done before?

Differentiation — What do you do better? Highlight that key facet that distinguishes your company among others who address the problem you solve. This is that one unique selling proposition that sets you apart. A personalized message for every customer. A quirk. An extra step in the process. Or timeliness that sets you one step ahead of the other options. Make sure it is clear—and compelling.

Show your elevator pitch, and include your mission, tagline,brand promise or slogan as a signature to your presentation slides. You don’t speak everything you have on your slide. Supplement information so it works together — spoken presentation and written form. Catch the entire video of presentation tips to put your best startup facets forward.