A Hard Look at Good/Bad Media Habits

If you’re like me you get many emails a day and are bombarded with conversations on social media. For me, it comes to the point where I scream ENOUGH!!!!! I’ve just gone through a purge in the last couple of days. Being in the consulting/coaching field, I get tons of notices from others in similar positions that are marketing their workshops, their products and services and their offers for this, that and the other thing. And recently it seems that there’s a new hitch – called affiliate marketing where one person, and then another, and then another all send out notices to their groups about someone else’s programs that they are testifying to. If you’re signed up for several of these people, you can easily receive 5-7 notices from different folks about the same program or product. It just gets to be too much!

Do you know what I’m talking about? How do you handle your email in-box? Do you dutifully read every note that comes into your computer? And then if you also get things on your phone and/or tablet – you have multipled many times over the number you get a day. And that’s not even talking about other social media. What happens to your Facebook page once you’ve signed up for a group or a page? I know, I understand, I get it.

There are several things that you can do to make this social media mash up easier. Set a timer for 1-2 hours and DO NOT check your email during that time. Then, give yourself permission to take a peek and read the new emails. Are there emails you get on a regular basis that you don’t read, that don’t have any meaning or that you just are tired of getting? Unsubscribe. Do this periodically so that even when you sign up for new, you’re eliminating some of the old, not necessary, emails any longer.

Similarly, do the same type of thing with your social media like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. How many groups are you in? How many do you actually participate in? If you haven’t been involved with one or another for say a month, it’s probably not something that is really that important to you. Unsubscribe. As well, give yourself a set amount of time to surf the different sites. Once that time has been met, actually get out of the program (not just close the page), and go on to your work, whatever that might be.

As a business owner, you need to work with social media, and so I suggest you create a content calendar to facilitate what you put on social media and how often. Then, you can use programs like Buffer or Hootsuite, or even the one run by Facebook itself, that allows you to create a number of items at one time and schedule them to post at a later date or hour. I do that with my newsletter, too. I create the newsletter when I have time to be creative, and then schedule it so that it goes out at the same time and date each week. This gives my readers the sense of consistency. They know when to look for it, and to anticipate reading a great document. I try very hard not to send things out at other times so that the readers don’t feel like I’m bombarding them with information.

These are just a few little ideas that you can use to help with time management, and to also help you create programs that your customers appreciate and look forward to. If you have questions on these, or if you’d like to chat, go on over to my website and set up a time for a call. We can see how we can help each other and maybe get to know each other a bit better.



In the meantime, here’s to your success. Soar Higher!!!!!!

What's the Real Meaning of Success?

The Oxford Dictionary defines success as:

the accomplishment of an aim or purpose: "the president had some success in restoring confidence"

the attainment of popularity or profit: "the success of his play"

a person or thing that achieves desired aims or attains prosperity: "I must make a success of my business"

That being said, I think that success means something different for each of us – it could be attaining prosperity, or it could be gaining confidence in self or product/service. You need to define what success means for yourself. It is only when you know where you’re headed that you will truly find your path there.

I’ve spent a lot of time lately trying to figure out my map to success. It hasn’t been easy and I have gone through some really hard lessons along the way. One of the things I have found out is that I have to be totally honest with myself, and learn to listen to my “gut”. I grew up with great parents but they always wanted me to be successful and pushed me to do the very best I could. And at the same time, we lived with my grandmother, who was never satisfied. Nothing I did was ever good enough. So, I grew up with this complex that made me feel less valuable than others around me.

As well, I was never allowed (thanks to my grandmother) to have friends so, if someone was willing to do something with/for me, I was eternally grateful – even when in all reality THEY were the ones getting the value. It was only after my coach made me realize that by my giving away my value and my expertise, I was not only not doing myself any good, but was not truly supporting my clients to the best of my ability. My husband, the fireman, often tells the story of telling his fellow firefighters that if they rush into something they are not helping others if they get hurt themselves. The same is true here. I’ve got to be aware of what I offer and know that I am offering something beneficial, if others are to value it too.

Success for me, then, was finally finding my own value and knowing that no matter who worked with me, or what we did together, I was offering something of great value, and something that others would find beneficial.

Have you ever felt this way? What is your idea of success? What, personally, does it mean for you? There’s a very interesting exercise that we’re going to be doing in a masterclass program over the next few weeks. In part, it’s defining what you want to be doing 5 years from now and where along your “road” have you settled? It’s a great exercise, and if you add the thoughts of WHY you started your business you will wind up further along that road than you ever could otherwise. You need to have concrete visions for where you’re going in order to become the success that you envision for yourself.

There is a big difference between being an entrepreneur and a business owner. Know what they are? An entrepreneur was defined in a book I read recently as being a freelancer or side hustler -- someone who worked to create something, make money and enjoy life. A business owner on the other hand was someone who worked ON their business. Creating the processes and strategies, looking down the road to the future and mapping out where and how they wanted to be in the years to come. They left (when they were able) the work to be done by others and they devoted their time to things like how are we doing this? What tools will it take? Does it require a capital investment that means getting a loan? And so much more. But these are the meat of the business. Others can do the work, but the owner needs to be the one with their hands on the controls, guiding through the ups and downs, the pitfalls and wins. Which are you?

All too often when I ask someone what they see in their future, they say, I can't even decide what I want for dinner. How can I decide what will happen 5 years from now? That's a sure sign that you're not ready for business ownership. It takes more than a dream and a goal. It takes planning, making intelligent guesses as to what needs to happen. It takes buckling down and going all in. A TV show I was watching the other day called I Quit was all about several people who wanted to start their own businesses. Only three of the 6 or 7 companies made it through to the surprise ending (a check for $100,000.) What happened along the way?

There were three companies that didn't take things seriously. They didn't invest in themselves, in their futures, in their dreams. They didn't listen to the mentors, and they thought they knew it all without help and support. They didn't even get considered for the $$$. No one knew about the money but the three that were considered were in it for it all. The one that won actually sold his home and rented so they would have more $$$ to invest, he had in the beginning a long list of things he didn't like to do but by the end was doing them all himself. He devoted every waking minute to listening to the mentors, to doing what he could to support both his family and his business. One day he received a knock on the door and there stood the three interviewers with a check for $100,000. It made all the difference in the world. I see this time and time again. Those who don't focus on the needs of the business but do what they want when they want, they don't listen to the experts' advice, they think they are good to go without help or support -- their businesses generally don't succeed. So, what does it take? It takes going all in!!!

Our master class will delve into all this. Want to know more? Check out www.businesssuccessunlimited.com and sign up for this program.