Whether you are a fan of the American TV series “American Idol” or not, there are some very important lessons that we can all learn from it.

While watching the show with my kids last night, it occurred to me that there are three things that the judges consistently say week after week, season after season. For ten seasons this hasn’t changed, even though the judges have.

1. Be You.

This one is HUGE. In working with small business owners and independent professionals, this is so often overlooked. Like the contestants on the show, most people focus on the talent, the appearances, etc.

The truth is that being who you are, and showing who you are, is often ‘the missing piece’.  Sadly, most people are too busy trying to figure out ‘what will work’ or what will sell.

People who are willing to be themselves stand out, just by the sheer nature of who they are. NO two people are the same. I’ve said it before: the world is full of vanilla. When you are vanilla, you don’t stand out, you have a lot more competition and you create a lot more stress for yourself. Be willing to be chunky monkey, or rocky road.

2. Make it your own.

When you are true to who you are, and aren’t trying to copy someone else, you have something to offer of unique value. When there are dozens of other people just like you, there is no reason to pick you. When you are no different than any one, most people will either a) choose the cheapest one, or b) choose the one that stands out.

3. Give it your all.

This is about not holding back and Having the courage to put your “self” out there

Not being you, not making it your own comes from that voice that is afraid people won’t like you, or pick you. The irony is that in most cases, it is the only way that they will. When you try to ‘fit in’ you don’t stand out.  When you shy away out of fear of rejection, you also hide yourself from those who would give you approval.

 

Imagine this…

You meet someone online who has the same sense of humor as you, is funny, witty and smart. You begin to think of them as a friend and when the time comes that you are in need of the service that they offer, you know that is who you want, because you really like and trust him (or her). So, you decide to meet in person at a coffee shop. When you arrive, that person has a completely different personality. They don’t have that same sense of humor, and when you start to talk about conversations you’ve had on twitter, you are met with a blank stare. You are confused…Why?

Because that person had an imposter tweeting and facebooking for them!

The person that you ‘knew, liked and trusted’ isn’t the person in front of you. It is someone that they hired to ‘do their social media’.

How do you feel about them now? Do you like and trust them?

Want to do business with them? Probably not!

How would you feel if you met someone that you really liked and they said “I don’t really have time to date you right now, and I don’t want to waste my time until I know that you are worth it. So, if you don’t mind, I’m going to have someone fill in for me OK?”

It’s a common dilemma these days. Everyone wants ‘friends, fans, and followers’ because they want more CUSTOMERS. They “don’t have the time”, or ‘don’t want to’ do it themselves, so they hire someone. Afterall, that is what people have done in business forever right? You hire an assistant, a marketing person, or someone else to do the things that you don’t want to do. So, why not this?

Because it ISN”T ABOUT ADVERTISING! (Yes I yelled that!:)

Keyword = S O C I A L

Think social NETWORKING instead of MEDIA. You NETWORK socially USING social MEDIA (as in mediums). Networking is a verb – it requires action!

It’s about conversations, creating relationships and developing trust.

We used to say “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”. Now it’s more like Carrie Wilkerson says “it’s how much people feel like they know you”

People won’t feel like they know you, if there’s a ghost tweeter behind that profile picture.

So, what do you do?

You don’t have time right?

Consider this:

No matter what you do, no matter how techie the world gets, there is STILL a human on the other side of that ‘buy button’.

Consider that there is NOTHING more important in your business than interacting with your customers, clients or patients! Nothing!

Yes, there are other things  that have to be done. The books, the inventory, the this the thats all have to happen. Hire THOSE things out! I am a big fan of outsourcing certain things. Virtual assistants are GREAT for allowing you the time to do what is important – Communicating with those that you serve!  Hire one to post events, even spell check and upload those blog posts, or pictures.***

The voice, and conversation has to be YOU, if you want to reap the reward!

We want to know who we are doing business with. We have MANY choices in who to do business with today. I can go to twitter and find 10 people that do just about anything in a matter of minutes! I will choose the one who engages with me, talks to me and who I feel connected to. Period.

It’s not about quality or price anymore! Quality is virtually the same for most things except service these days, and someone will always be cheaper (and you get what you pay for anyway!).

• Stop focusing there.
• You are the only you! NO one can compete at being you.
• Be you, let it show and show up!
• Talk to us, don’t SELL to us.
• If you want us to make the time for you, make the time for us!
• Connecting with us has to matter to you, or you won’t matter to us!

If you have a larger company than one or two people, consider hiring someone to help you set up your accounts, develop a strategy and create a plan that allows everyone who comes in contact with customers, clients or patients to participate! Have them tweet and post to facebook using their initials. This way you are being authentic in who is ‘talking’, and folks get to know your entire staff! They won’t feel ‘bait and switched”, they will feel like they already know the people that they will be in communication with, and the conversations can be richer and more frequent!

Be authentic and upfront! Remember, to be trusted, you have to be trustworthy!

For more about the importance of ‘voice’ in today’s market click here for

It’s Not Just about Business Facebook Pages or Twitter or Blogs. It’s a Revolution

Social Media is for Conversation, Not a Bulletin Board

*** I personally recommend www.AssistantAngel.com for help with social media, and for many other tasks as well***

 

There’s a lot of talk about social media these days. Lots of people jump in, others are still ‘deciding whether they have time’.  Most see it as ‘another new thing’, and many see it as ‘one more thing they have to do or learn’.

There are lots of people out there teaching ‘how to’s’ and selling the latest greatest apps and tools to leverage social media without having to ‘do anything’ differently. People talk about ‘Personal Branding’ and all sorts of buzz words, but it’s really about YOU!

One of the first things that I do with clients is talk to them about their ‘story’. Who they are, why they do what they do, what their true purpose is, and passions are.

To learn facebook?

Yes, to learn facebook! You see it’s about more than facebook, or business fan pages, or twitter, or blogs, or logos or any of that. It’s about you…It’s about your voice, and what you are saying.

Social media is an incredibly powerful way to reach others so that we can serve them. It has truly leveled the playing field. But, it’s not just the latest greatest marketing channel, or fad. It’s not advertising, or business as usual in a new place. There is a lot more going on here. There is a lot more to it than websites and networks. The ‘place’ hasn’t just changed, the context has changed, the culture has changed, the message has changed, the audience has changed, the voice has changed…

(this is where I veer radically off course with all of those other social media folks, techy types, marketing people, and anything you might have learned in Business 101…buckle your seatbelt!)

We are living in a revolution…

First we had the industrial revolution. We had mass production, with it’s assembly lines of ‘don’t talk just do your job’, and then the Corporate world of, “Repeat after me: I will not have any ideas or voice of my own. I will wear a blue suit….”

So long to meeting the vendors on the street, and talking about their goods and services. So long to conversation.

We had mass media, and mass marketing. We had a few TV channels, and newspapers, etc. Entertainment was limited and if we wanted it, we had to endure the advertising. Since advertising was expensive, and only came in so many ‘channels’ it had to be very broad and vanilla and appeal to everybody. And if wanted to watch or listen, we had to hear it.

“So the customers who once looked you in the eye while hefting your wares in the market were transformed into consumers. In the words of industry analyst Jerry Michalski, ‘ a consumer was no more than a gullet whose only purpose in life is to gulp products and crap cash.’ The power swung so decisively to the supply side that ‘market’ became a verb: something you do to customers.”

Advertising and marketing aren’t a bad thing! We needed to know what was available. We wanted to know what our choices were.  We weren’t very well connected. If we had a ‘friend in the business’ we would choose them, but we simply didn’t know ‘one of everybody’ so for everything else, we relied on advertising and salespeople and hoped for the best.

The true definition of marketing is ‘what happens between the creation of the product and the sale.” The problem was ‘what was happening between the product and the sale’. Unfortunately, a lot of people abused us along the way. They lied, they interrupted, they spammed, cold called, screamed, etc. We got on the do not call list, celebrated the growing list of ‘spam filters’, got TIVO and so on.

At the same time we were getting sick of being lied to there, the internet was growing. Slowly and quietly at first. Limited to techy types, and then slowly reaching out into the homes of everyone everywhere. Then came easier ways to use it. Free blog sites, and social networks and so on. Now anyone could have a voice!  That grew slowly but surely and still does, every single day. Now, anyone who wants to can share their message with the world, and whoever wants to listen, can.

Adding to our frustration with the mass ‘everything’ mentality, and the corporate clones and robotic speak, along came the Enron’s and the Big Banks, and the big bailouts, etc. Now the word “Corporate’ became synonymous with crook (whether it should or not). 

We don’t like having marketing shoved down our throats, we don’t like the big voice-less Corporate Wall, and guess what? We don’t have to take it…

Blogs, Facebook, twitter, and other social mediums erupt…

We have a voice. All of us! As customers, clients, consumers, as entrepreneurs and business owners.

• We can choose what to listen to.
• We can choose from hundreds of TV channels and radio stations, etc.
• We can also choose from millions of blogs, and people having two way conversations about anything we could possibly want to talk about.

Now, because the quarantine on ‘voice’ has been lifted, we kind of like it! Now not only do we have many choices and no longer have to just pick “beaded or non-beaded jewelry’”, but we also get to hear the voice behind it. Kind of like the old days where you knew about the jewelry maker, or the shop owner. They had a personality! We like that. We are humans after-all, not robots.

As business owners, this is great news!  You don’t have to do a press release and pray that the media gods find you worthy. You don’t have to be able to afford crazy advertising prices, or buy lists of people to spam! You don’t have to ‘fake it til you make it!’

We truly can create not only a business that we love, but that customers will love, just by listening to the conversations, and choosing to let our personality show through. By putting YOU in your business, allowing those who like you, find you.

Whether online or off,  it’s kind of like a street fair…

A couple of years ago, we had a street fair here. It wasn’t organized by ‘committee’ and so without regulation, two different businesses gave two different hot dog vendors permission to park on their property during the event. They happened to be directly across the street from each other.

One was a guy from New York with a typical cart. He was cordial, but not what I’d call friendly (not here in the south anyway!). He sold a name brand hot dog with the usual condiments.

The other was a woman who although only barely 5ft tall, had a personality bigger than a sumo wrestler! She was fun loving and flamboyant. Her cart had a hot pink umbrella, hot pink drink coolers, and  homemade condiments. Her hot dogs were the same brand, and a few cents more in price.

What a great example of ‘pull vs. push’! No one chasing anyone down the street with flyers, or brochures, no screaming through bull horns. Everybody simply chose whichever one they wanted. The ‘personality’ that resonated with them! As people walked by, she cheerfully spoke, acknowledged the kids, laughed, etc. He sat on his stool and served hot dogs.

People did go to both. Some may have chosen his because they didn’t want to wait in line at hers, or maybe because they didn’t like hot pink and personality. Who knows! It didn’t take an accountant however to see what the market preferred! I don’t know how much of it was her personality, or how much was just having a personality, but not having one clearly wasn’t the winner!

So what’s the moral of the story?

• Create a business that you are passionate about (it’s more fun AND it will show!)
• Let it show! You will attract the customers that you are meant to serve.
• Let us hear your ‘voice’, and listen to ours. We like that.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? I would love to hear your thoughts!

 

The Go-Giver is a powerful little business book based on five “Laws of Stratospheric Success”. I find people who haven’t read the book often misinterpret the meaning of these principles. In fact, I talked to someone the other day who complained that (they thought) it meant that “making money is a bad thing” and that being “a Go-Giver” is about paying it forward.
That’s not ‘it’ at all!

I’ve also found that even those who have read and embrace the principles often overlook (or forget) a very important one:
The Law of Compensation

They provide value, they strive to serve lots of people, they are authentic and open to receiving, but sometimes miss the all important “…how abundantly you place others’ needs first”

Click here to view the embedded video.

More posts about “The Go-Giver”…

http://heathero.com/tag/go-giver/

http://quintessentialfeline.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/get-inspired-by-the-go-giver/

http://frostfirefarm.blogspot.com/2010/01/go-giver.html

 

Everyone is all “a-buzz” with the “new” ways of doing business. “Social networking, authenticity, adding value” and the like are all being thrown around as if they are new. I admit, for many the concepts of offering value and being authentic ARE new, but they have been around forever. Napoleon Hill wrote about giving value in the 1930′s, and before that, of course was The Bible!
Social networking, aka connecting and sharing have been around since Eve shared the apple!
What is new are the online social tools that allow us to more easily network with others, and the culture that exists within these networks. The culture within the “social networking world” embraces and demands authenticity and a “give value, don’t just promote yourself” mindset.
As I mentioned, principles such as these have been written about for centuries, but “The Go-Giver” by Bob Burg and John David Mann which summarizes them as the “5 Laws of Stratospheric Success”, not only outlines how adding value and authenticity is a business strategy, but also defines the “rules of engagement” for “social networking (online or off).

It astounds me how often I hear people question whether these principles “work”. So, in order to illustrate that the laws do “work”, and that they aren’t “new”. I will use the Grateful Dead as an example. Yes, long before this book, or facebook, there was the Grateful Dead. And they lived these laws beautifully, and successfully! (No doubt they had naysayers then too!)

(For an “optimum experience”, I recommend playing this video in the background as you read!)

Click here to view the embedded video.

The 5 Laws and how they lived them are as follows:

The Law of Value: Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you receive in payment.

During a time when the average band played for around an hour and a half, the Dead played for three. They didn’t play “just long enough” to make their fans happy, they played until they couldn’t play any more!

The Law of Compensation: Your compensation will be determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them.

The Grateful Dead recognized that their fans wanted to know what they were doing, and wanted them to be a part of it. They created a mailing address where fans could send them mail, and request to be added to their mailing list (no sneaky aweber email capture needed!). They sent newsletters to anyone who requested one, to keep connected. At one point this list was over 40,000 people! And they actually had to pay postage to mail them!

The Law of Influence: Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s needs first.

The Grateful Dead is notorious for openly allowing fans to record and share their music. In fact, you can hardly google the word “bootleg” without the Dead coming up in the results. Unlike the current trend of athletic and other organizations trying to outlaw “tweeting” or other means of sharing their events, out of fear of “lost revenue”, the Dead in their infinite wisdom reaped the benefit. By allowing fans to “share” them and their music, more fans were born! Whether they “lost revenue” is hard to measure, but they did report earnings of over a million dollars a year during a time when others could only dream of such.

The Law of Authenticity: The most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself.

DUH! If there is one thing that the Grateful Dead could never be accused of, it was being anything other than simply who they were! They didn’t try to be like anyone else!

The Law of Receptivity: the key to effective giving, is to stay open to receiving.

The Grateful dead graciously received the feedback AND adoration of countless raving fans.

They were BEYOND successful, they were legendary. They went beyond “making money” and created a legacy…