Tag: inspiration

Posted on in audio blog, Creative, marketing, Success tips, Two Minute Commute

Episode#104 – Why is Your Goal?

Why is your goal?  There’s some funny English for you.  We’re missing a “that”.  Why is that your goal?  Why is your goal that?  But I say, “don’t change my question”.  I historically make up words, so today I thought, “self, I’m going to make up sentence structure.”

Why is your goal?

It makes perfect sense.  You have a goal, and you’ve put it on paper, but what is the why of the goal?

I’m a big supporter of the SMART goal planning method… the Strategic Measurable Attainable Reward Time bound method.   And you can sure put on paper that your goal is to lose 10 pounds by the end of June.  But… WHY????

Why is an important little question!

What is the why of your goal?

Do you want to lose the 10 pounds because you want to feel better, because you want to walk without getting tired, because it’s the beginning to 50 pounds, because you want to fit into a different shirt, WHY????

Ask this why of your business.  Why are you in business?  Answer: to make money, to not have a boss, to have freedom, to pay off debt, to save for a car, to pay for my child’s college, to produce a product that helps people… there are many, many why’s… “Why is your goal?”!?!

If you get a little upside down, backward, overwhelmed, and feeling confused.  Bring it all back to the simple question, “Why?”

No one can stop you when your “why” gets a massive injection of passion!

Check out my motivation ideas on my BigFishIdeas.com website.

PS: if you love my post … give it a “like”!

Action Step
1- Rediscover your passion for your business.  Write down three reasons you are keeping such a crazy schedule, taking a risk, and putting yourself out there.  (and congratulate yourself)
2- Install my free app! (SmallBusinessClubApp.com)

Listen to Episode #104 of the Two Minute Commute audio blog Podcast

Love this saying?  Buy it on a 12″ x 12″ Canvas “Social Square” wall hanging!

Two ways to get more Small Business Tips …
A- Install our Free App (SmallBusinessClubApp.com –Apple or Android )
B- Subscribe to my blog at BigFishIdeas.com

Posted on in audio blog, Business owner motivation, marketing, Planning, Success tips, Two Minute Commute

Episode #95 – Start NOW! Quit Using Perfection as an Excuse.

What’s holding you back?  Fear… Perfection… both?  I’m a little under time right now to create this post because I sat down and the ideas started flowing for a speech for my Toastmasters meeting, tomorrow.  Yikes!

The crazy thing is… it wasn’t the perfect time or ideal setting, but the idea was there and I just started jotting it down.  The speech is tomorrow and perfectionists out there would roll their eyes and say, “you are at the idea phase, and the speech is tomorrow?”

My answer is… “YES!  And I’m giving it”

I give you permission to just “do”.  It no longer has to be perfect to get off your plate.

There is one thing I really love about social media marketing.  It does not have to be perfect.  And quite frankly, it works better if it’s not polished, perfect, error free.

These days, people just want real.  They want to see the behind the scenes things happening at your business.  They want to hear about the funny stories.  They feel your pain when your entire phone system goes down (like it did for me yesterday…. UGHHHHH).

Today’s messaging is real, gritty, and sometimes spelled strangely.  Sure, work for great grammar.  I believe that is still important.  But if someone wants to roll their eyes because you spelled something wrong, they’re not your ideal customer.  Your ideal customer loves the real you, flaws and all.  Rolling eye customer need to go to “perfect grammar store” down the street.  Here’s the silly thing about “perfect grammar store” they don’t post!  They’re afraid of something not being perfect!

How ironic!

The time will never be right, ideal, perfect… but it will always going to be OK.  Just jump in and start!

PS: if you love my post … give it a “like”!

Action Step
1- Start.
2- (You know what project you’ve been avoiding… admit it… and do #1)
3- Install my free app! (SmallBusinessClubApp.com)

Two ways to get more Small Business Tips …
A- Install our Free App (SmallBusinessClubApp.com –Apple or Android )
B- Subscribe to my blog at BigFishIdeas.com

Listen to Episode #95 of the Two Minute Commute audio blog Podcast

 

Posted on in audio blog, goals, marketing, Success tips, Two Minute Commute

Episode #65 – Plan, Prepare, and Expect to Win

Each day make a plan… each day have a goal… and each day prepare your journey to your goal! It’s the little things every day that create your big success! 

I like this quote by Zig Zigler, “You were born to win,, but to be a winner you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.”  If you prefer the word success you can plug that in as well…

You were born to win  (succeed)
But to be a winner (success)
You must PLAN to win (succeed)
PREPARE to win (succeed)
EXPECT to win (succeed)

Either way it the important three words do not change and that’s Plan, Prepare, and Expect.  It’s impossible to expect to win or succeed if you do not have an outcome.  Therefore, for this quote to have an impact you must set a goal.  In order to achieve the goal you must implement steps toward the accomplishment, and to identify the steps it starts with a plan.

So the statement on the surface “sounds nice” but when you stop and dig in deep, it’s pretty awesome.

Print up this inspiration and use it as a daily reminder to start your day with the outcome you want to achieve.  Remember your big successes in you business are made in your daily climb.

PS: if you love my post… give it a “like”!

Action Step
1-Start a daily plan/prepare/expect journey
2-Start today! (come up with your daily goal)
3-Create your plan… and DO!

Subscribe to my blog at BigFishIdeas.com

Listen to Episode #65 of the “Two Minute Commute” my audio blog Podcast

Posted on in Creative, marketing, Real world, Success tips

Make It Your Own

It’s a bar. It’s a work of art!

Recently I was on vacation and I was super hungry for lunch.  After walking along the beach, a cute little restaurant/bar appeared.  When you walk in this restaurant it has an amazing first impression.  It’s probably the only bar decorated with bottle caps and colored lights.  What was once ordinary is now a focal point and cool piece of art.  It makes me wonder what the story is… did someone nail one bottle cap and it got out of control?  I don’t know, but it would be a cool story to put on their menu…

This business took a risk.  They did something unique and it worked.  What I like seeing is when a small business makes something all their own. I don’t mean make a piece of furniture, I mean they took ownership of what their company vibe is and expressed it in a unique way.  This can be accomplished with paint, words on a wall, or the front desk in an office.

Your mission statement on paper is critical to your day to day operations.  It helps to focus your process to ensure a great outcome. The problem with a mission statement is that it’s flat.  I’d love it if you took the opportunity to add a vibe and feeling to your mission statement.  Sure, your branding takes care of font and colors, but this task is a little different.  Ask yourself what feeling or emotion do you evoke when someone walks in your door?

Here are two ways to think about vibe/feeling.  Buy a hamburger.  It’s a grilled ground beef patty on a bun.  Now go and buy the hamburger at a fast food counter, the local greasy spoon, a sports bar, and a fine dining experience.  It’s still a hamburger but the vibe of each location is very different.  Next, go looking for a hotel room… you visit a roadside motel, an business traveler hotel, and a luxury resort.  Again, it’s a room you sleep in, but the vibe is completely different.

What vibe does your business give off?  Is this correct?  Do you want to change it…   Start to pay attention to the feeling your business creates.  Here’s how we’ve used this at our marina.  In the winter it’s difficult to sell boating in Minnesota.  Outside there’s a foot of snow, the wind is howling and the lake is frozen.  What I’ve done in the past is create a summer vibe.  When someone visits our store they’ll see fresh flowers, feel a warmer room because I slightly turn up the heat, it smells good because I plug in air freshners that smell like coconut (sun tan lotion), and they hear some great Jimmy Buffet summer music, and finally, as a distraction to the outdoor windows I rotate beautiful photos on our monitors.  It’s not cheesy or overbearing, but it has a summer vibe.

Action Step
1-Evaluate the Vibe/Feeling/Emotion of your business.  Write down three words to describe it from the customer experience.

2- Is this the vibe you want?

3- What can you do to enhance the current vibe or what can you do to change it… for example, add a water feature or plants,  music…   When will you implement this???

Posted on in audio blog, marketing, ProfitCenterCoachShow, Success tips

Create a Solutions Environment

If there’s a problem… there’s always a solution! Switch your focus and create a problem solving environment.

Listen to my audio post for a great idea on how to start making this happen at your business.  It’s a simple and free idea!

CLICK HERE for audio post.

Thanks for reading!  If you love this type of info… follow me! 🙂

 

 

Posted on in Content, marketing, My Story, Real world, Success tips

Day Three… Spring Cleaning Your Brand!

I started my day by making an entry in my audio blog – right now, it’s short one minute inspirational quotes.  It is just a fun way to start your day, kind of like if someone left you a clever voice mail that made you think!  I’m glad to be doing them again.  The fun part about about an audio blog is that you don’t have any rules.  It doesn’t have to be 30 minutes, an hour, or even 12 minutes… whatever time frame works for your content is perfect.  I may change it in the future, but for now it’s awesome.  I will get it in podcast form soon.  You can find it on this blog – just flip to the audio blog page.

I also got caught up at work.  After being gone a week there were a few things that I needed to take care of, and that’s a good thing!  Otherwise, if I had nothing to get caught up on, well… what would be the point of paying me, someone else could do my job.  Keep that thought in the back of your head as you are working today.  If you own a business and someone is out of town, do you miss them? If yes… you made a good hire!  If no… well…

Keeping with my “catch up” theme I ordered the T shirts I needed from the Sparklesrock.com sales I had while I was at Social Media Marketing World.  They’ll arrive later this week… I’ll share the finished product with you later.

Continuing with my Social Marketing Content theme, I looked at my website, BigFishIdeas.com – I ran screaming from the room, then came back and looked at it again.  Yikes, there is some work needed there.  I started, but let’s just say part of my challenge to you is to look at your own website.  Then, when you pick yourself up from the floor laughing or wipe the tears away from the horror of what you see.  Regroup and make a list of all the things that need to be changed.  I’m sure your website is beautiful.  But, I’ll guarantee that it has some cringe worthy things too… OH if you’ve got a “really good” example – screen shot or take a pic and send to me!  This is a good exercise in both your online AND offline world.  Get up and walk around your retail or office space.  Look at it from the perspective of a customer… see it “new” for the first time.  Trust me, you’ll have plenty to do after this exercise, think of it like “Spring Cleaning” for your brand.  (I like that….)

Also… make sure to click follow and never miss a blog post!  If you have a friend with a small business and you think they’d enjoy this blog, help me spread the word! ProfitCenterCoach.com

Your Action Steps:

  • Would an audio blog be easier than a written blog… what topic would you focus on?
  • Give your website and store a “walk through” from a “new” customer’s eye… make a list and start updating!
Posted on in Blog content, Content, marketing, My Story, Real world, Success tips

Ready. Set. Gnome!

Day Two.

I’ve got my Gnome notebook… I’ve got my black eye…  No really!  My black eye is healing. I forgot to mention that one yesterday.  Back story: the day I left for Social Media Marketing World I was teaching a 3 baton lesson.  I’m a coach in real life too! I competed for 17 years and the last black eye I had was in 8th grade so this isn’t common.  Look at my photo from yesterday’s post – you’ll see it, I had three layers of “grandma concealer” on that bad boy, but when a baton hits you in the face there’s nothing you can do!  For the most part, it was “ok”, it didn’t hurt (that much) — I guess I was channeling my inner Marcia!  Remember that Brady Bunch episode with Marcia and the football!  Yeah, makes me laugh too.   But nice timing, eh?   Thank you to the kind flight attendant on Sun Country Airlines that gave me an ice pack.

Back to my journey, I grabbed my Gnome Book full of notes and treasures from Social Media Marketing World , my note sheet from yesterday, and I started answering a bunch of questions that guided me down a path of introspect.  What are my strengths and what are my weaknesses.  I like coaching, motivating and marketing.  I’m good at these.  So this blog makes total sense.  My weakness is consistency.  That’s the goal here.  I’ll continue to write my story to help benefit you as I ask you to do some of the same things.  It will also help me develop my consistency… so like this post to motivate me (please!)!

Now it’s your turn… Start with your own business.  What are you good at and what needs some help?  Come up with a list of 5 or 6 for each topic.  It will really help you focus when you can clarify these two lists.  Besides, writing a giant list of what you’re good at makes you feel good too.  When you get that done, go on to our number two task which is…

Determine what your customer is really looking for from you. I think it’s fair to say that most of the small businesses that read this blog are looking to make more money with creative marketing ideas.  My goal is to level this up and get YOU to start sharing your ideas.   I’ve been fortunate to travel around and come across fun and creative tips, but opening it up to all of you will really share the news and increase the creativity of the whole group.  (hang with me… I have a plan that I’ll announce soon )  So now it’s your turn to sit down and really determine, what are your customers looking for and how can you best serve that void.  The more detailed the better, but your core mission should only take a few words.

Finally, a big area of my planning on day two involved crafting a content marketing mission statement.  Read that again, a content marketing mission statement.  What the heck?!?  Yes.  For your online marketing to be successful you must determine what you are going to produce content for that your audience will like and respond to.  Well… since I’m creating content for small businesses that will help them increase sales, that means my content marketing will really focus on the ideas and creativity that small business need to tweak their marketing!  If you determine what you’re good at and what your customers want, then really… your content marketing statement is fairly easy!

The best part about your content marketing statement is that once you have it written, it really helps to focus your content creation.  After all, if you are looking for a topic to write about and it has nothing to do with your audience or what their main goal is that you can fulfill… then don’t write it!  See how valuable that content marketing statement is?!  So again it’s your turn.  Create your content marketing statement.

Homework:

  • What are you good at?  What are you “not so good” at?
  • What are your customers looking for and how can you best serve that void?
  • What is your content marketing statement?
  • Click follow on my blog!  (Already did that? Get a friend to follow)

BTW – my entire day was filled with creative thoughts… it was a whole series of processes and many a piece of paper that helped me focus my current situation.   It really took all of day two.  Well that and I made two dog collars for my “dogcollarwithname.com” business and I made a couple rhinestone designs for my “dollyandmematchingtees.com” business.  In the mix I walked Mr. Pancake… my dog who is still mad at me for leaving him in boarding for a week.  But the things I learned at Social Media Marketing World will also help Mr. Pancake’s website: PancakeLover.com – Glad my planning day is done and I’m ready for Day Three… now it’s your turn!