As an entrepreneur and small business owner, I know you probably struggle with the feeling that you’re never doing enough to grow your business. I know you probably wrestle with time management and getting more clients and customers. I know you probably grapple with knowing how to give your business the boost it needs when you hit a plateau.
How do I know? Because I’ve been working with entrepreneurs for fifteen years, helping my clients face those exact struggles. I talk with entrepreneurs and small business owners every single day who face these challenges and more.
Know how else I know? Because I’m an entrepreneur and small business owner, just like you. Used to be, when I put down a book or walked out of a seminar, I’d wonder, “What now?” I felt like there was something missing.
More than that, I wanted to know what I was missing so I could stop struggling, get out of a plateau, and then share what I had learned with you (and in this webinar, I’m sharing it for free). So I made a list of the most amazing, mega-successful entrepreneurs, authors, and experts, and I interviewed them to get real answers.
After studying the interviews and gathering the “missing pieces,” I discovered seven consistent, clear lessons. I’ve used these lessons in my own business to end my frustration and struggling, and now I’m ready to share…. Go ahead and register- this one’s on me!
Title: “The 7 Lessons of Mega-Successful Entrepreneurs” Date: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EST
After registering, you’ll receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.
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P.S.If this isn’t your interest, or you aren’t able to join me, please feel free to share this with your friends, if it’s comfortable for you. This webinar is open to the public!
I’ve had a Sony Vaio laptop for three and a half years now. I used to turn technology over faster, back when I was doing more web development and technical stuff, but these days, most of what I do involves writing. Still, I’m what’s known as a “power user” and tend to overtax any computer I use, and the Sony Vaio is known for overheating and shutting down at random without notice…which is not cool when you’re doing something important and haven’t had a chance to save your work yet.
I decided it was time to make a decision: do I sent the Sony in for service (again) or break down and upgrade to something new? The answer came when I remembered a lesson my husband, Leo, shared with me, something he learned when he was a young musician. Leo is a drummer who has played professionally in bands around the world, and he told me that when he was starting out, he would only invest in equipment that could be used to generate income that would pay for itself and then some. The way he phrases it, “When you invest in your business, it always comes back.”
When I remembered him saying that, I realized that my laptop is an essential tool for my business and right now, the machine I had was holding me back- not helping me and certainly not paying for itself anymore. It’s time to move on and invest again in something that will “come back” again.
There are many ways to invest in your business. Making sure you have the right tools doesn’t just refer to technology, but also to projects like web design, consulting, and coaching. The question to ask when you’re evaluating a business purchase is, “Will this pay for itself and bring more money in?” If so, that’s an investment you should make, if you can.
Want to learn more? Why not come to my webinar, “The 7 Lessons of Mega-Successful Entrepreneurs” on November 29?
Ross Faris, founder and owner of Your Neighbor's Garden (image from YNG)
I just received a heartbreaking e-mail from one of my favorite family-run businesses. Ross Faris, the founder and owner of Your Neighbor’s Garden, a small home market in the suburbs of Indianapolis (and I dare say, one of Indy’s best semi-kept secrets), passed away last night.
The story of Your Neighbor’s Garden has always held a special place in my heart, partly because it’s such a lovely family story, and partly because it’s such a perfect example of the business philosophy that is so near and dear to my heart. I’ll quote Ross’s own posting of the history of YNG from their web site:
“Thirty years ago my son Greg and daughter Anne asked me if they could have a lemonade stand. I suggested they could make more money selling vegetables from my garden. We started with the produce on a picnic table in our front yard along Grandview Drive. And soon we erected our LOCAL PRODUCE sign at the end of our driveway and moved closer to the house. Sales were brisk so I made my garden larger and started using other parcels of land to expand our garden business. I might add that I was in charge of production and the kids marketing. I took half the proceeds for my contribution and they took the other half.
We first called ourselves FARIS FRUITS AND VEGGIES and after a few years we changed our name to YOUR NEIGHBOR’S GARDEN because at the beginning our Highland Kessler neighbors were our main customers.”
The YNG story continued after the children grew up, and Ross ran YNG part-time for thirteen more years before he retired from a successful career and took the market on full-time, finally satisfying his life-long small business aspirations.
I didn’t know Ross very well. I went to YNG fairly often for fresh, local produce, but more often than not, Ross was busy unloading produce or puttering around in the garage next to the market itself. He was quick with a smile and a friendly hello, and always made sure we had everything we needed. He was a really nice guy, that much I know.
Your Neighbor's Garden home market (image from 4thfrog.blogspot.com)
Your Neighbor’s Garden is (despite the uncertain future of YNG, I hold out hope that Ross’s legacy will continue, so I’m writing in the present tense) the embodiment of what I imagine I would have discovered, if I’d known Ross Faris better. It’s welcoming, friendly, and the kind of place that returns you to a time when we all trusted one another. You see, Your Neighbor’s Garden operates on the honor system. There’s no cashier. There’s a locked cashbox, where you put the money for your produce, or, if you don’t have the right cash on-hand, a handwritten IOU (and you always pay the IOU, because in this day and age, if someone trusts you to give them an IOU, you never want to disappoint them!)
Your Neighbor’s Garden is housed in a small shed next to the Faris’s house. The shed is air-conditioned and there’s a fridge in the back where 4H students and other kids sometimes sell eggs from their chickens. By the street hangs a wooden sign that lists the various kinds of produce in stock. It’s very homey and sweet.
Sign for Your Neighbor's Garden (image from goinglocal-info.com)
I remember the first time I went to Your Neighbor’s Garden. I’d heard about it for years, even drove by without realizing what it was. The first time I actually visited, though, I worried that I might be trespassing on someone’s private property. When I got out of my car, Ross welcomed me with his big smile and I knew I was in the right place.
Over the years, the Faris’s added a small parking lot, started working with other local farmers, and selling at the weekly farmer’s markets in town. And if you’re a “regular” to the home market, then you encounter the same welcoming friendliness when you see YNG staff at the local weekly farmer’s markets around town.
Ross Faris was a brilliant example of a parent teaching his children about small business. Many of us started out with lemonade stands (myself included), but how many kids left their lemonade dreams behind and stopped dreaming the entrepreneurial dream? Ross not only kept the dream alive for 30 years, but transformed it the embodiment of his own small business vision.
I decided to write about this today because I’m so saddened by the loss of Ross Faris from a personal perspective, but also because I also wanted to share his story from a business perspective. So often those with small business dreams think that they have to come up with a grandiose idea or a big invention. So often, people who fantasize about leaving corporate careers behind think they have to spend a lot of money to start a business.
Ross Faris and Your Neighbor’s Garden are a testament to the idea that you can start a business inexpensively, doing what you love, do it in your own style, do it on your terms, and you can do it extremely well.From where I sit, that’s the perfect illustration of a successful Business in Blue Jeans.
Recently, Leo and I discovered a Japanese game show called “Ninja Warrior.” In this show, athletes from around the world (but primarily Japan) test their skill and strength at a seemingly unbeatable obstacle course, in the hopes of becoming a champion worthy of the title, “Ninja Warrior.” The other day, as Leo and I watched yet one more round of warrior athletes performing what seemed like impossible stunts, I reflected on the business and life lessons one might take away from this extraordinary show.
Do something you think you can’t. Ninja Warrior tests are incredibly challenging and often seem impossible. But the competitors are rarely daunted. They always try whatever seems impossible…and even if they can’t defeat the obstacle course, they almost always go home and train for a full six months before returning for the next Ninja Warrior competition and conquering the obstacle that tripped them up last time. Likewise, if you see a challenge and think you can’t do it, try it anyway. Then, if you don’t succeed, train harder until you can do it.
Always compete against yourself, not against others. One of the characteristics that drew us to Ninja Warrior in the first place was that it’s not a competition where participants compete against each other. It’s every man (or woman) against the obstacle course. So rather than worrying about what anyone else is doing, each competitor is focused on doing his or her best. Similarly, in business, we’re often focused on the “old school” concept of watching the competition and worrying about what they’re up to. Instead, focus on you and what you can do to improve and grow, and cheer on your peers. Their success has little to nothing to do with you.
If you fail, keep trying. There’s a group of Ninja Warrior “All Stars” who have participated in many of the Ninja Warrior competitions. If you watched the show from the beginning (as we have) you’d see these competitors go from young upstarts to family men with successful careers. And they just keep coming back to try to conquer the Ninja Warrior obstacle course again and again and again, hoping to succeed where they have failed before (of course, a couple of these All Stars have actually completed the course, but they continue to return to try to conquer the course as it has evolved). In business, if you don’t succeed at something, that doesn’t mean you should give up. In a recent The Experts Series interview with a bestselling author, I learned that this author’s book was rejected two hundred times before he got his book deal that shot him into bestselling status. If you fail, go back and try again and again and again.
Never give up in the middle. Something that keeps us in awe of this show is that none of the competitors ever gives up. Even if a competitor knows the clock is running out and he may not complete the course, he never stops giving his full effort- not until that last second when the buzzer sounds. Likewise, in business, give it everything you’ve got until that buzzer sounds- until you know for sure that what you’re doing isn’t going to work.
Always be gracious and find the fun. Leo and I are constantly impressed with the graciousness of the Ninja Warrior athletes. They cheer each other on, seem genuinely sorry when their comrades fail, and vitually all of the contestants maintain a friendly, lighthearted spirit and focus on the fun of the game. Your business may seem very serious to you, but if you’re too serious or too desperate to succeed, your attitude might be standing in the way of your success. Instead, try to look for the fun in what you’re doing and be as gracious as you can- to your clients, to your competitors, to everyone you encounter.
“Ninja Warrior” isn’t business- it’s a game. But it’s a game with some really powerful lessons that can be applied to business. Ultimately, what Ninja Warrior teaches us is to be as strong as you can, test your limits, never give up, and remember to find the fun in everything you do.
I’ve noticed something in many of the folks who come to me for help. It’s a new phenomenon that I’m adding to my list of “entrepreneurial illnesses,” something I call “Expert ADD.” In today’s article, I’ll explain what Expert ADD is, tell you why it’s a problem, and show you how to avoid it.
When new entrepreneurs or struggling business owners become aware that they need help growing their businesses, they usually start with a Google search. Before long, they have a list of folks who claim they can help, and most likely, have signed up for a wealth of e-mail newsletters and e-zines, hoping that someone, anyone, will have the magic bullet – that one thing, that one answer, that will give them the clarity they need and solve all of their business problems.
Soon, the e-mails start coming in. Suddenly, there are too many answers. I’ve had clients come to me with a list of “to dos” so long and so diverse, they’d need a full team and a full year to get just half of the list done.
Here’s what happens: most “experts” and “gurus” have specialties. They focus on e-zines or public speaking or viral videos or internet marketing or sales…the point is, they focus on a specific part of the marketing or business process. Each expert says you should be doing whatever it is that they focus on. So you’ve got an e-zine specialist telling you that to grow your business, you need to focus on e-zines. And a social media expert tells you the best way to market your business is to put all of your energies into social media. And so on.
The result is “Expert ADD” (referring, of course, to “attention deficit disorder”), where you’re reading so many experts’ opinions that you think you have to be putting effort into all of these things to grow your business. This creates overwhelm and confusion.
When I begin working with a new client, one of the first things I ask of them is that they “turn off” their “guru” e-mails for awhile. The reason is that our first goal is to create clarity and a manageable plan. If you’re still getting pulled in ten or twenty different directions, then achieving real clarity and developing a plan that rids your life of the overwhelm will be difficult.
I can always tell when a client hasn’t turned off the e-mails. Instead of doing their “homework” and making regular, methodical progress toward their goals, our weekly sessions usually include conversations about new directions and ideas. Instead of helping them make progress, paying attention to too many “gurus” actually gets in the way of them achieving success.
So how do you avoid “Expert ADD?”
First, take inventory of the experts you’ve been following and start paring down to only those who are authentic, honest, and truly have your best interests at heart. I’ve heard from a lot of folks that even if they decide to stop following someone, they keep reading their e-mails to learn what not to do. I actually did that myself, for awhile, but quickly learned that it didn’t serve me to maintain any ties with someone I didn’t respect and didn’t think I could learn from. So pare down, but really pare down.
Second, when you choose to work with a business coach or consultant, allow them to guide you so that you can make progress toward your goals. Why hire someone if you’re not going to let them help you?
Finally, remember that you don’t need to do everything for your business to grow. Choose one or two avenues to focus on and put your attention there for awhile. Measure your results and see which marketing strategies are most effective for you, before adding more to the mix.
“Expert ADD” can be a huge obstacle, if you let it. Instead, protect yourself by taking in just the information you need, and discarding the rest, so you stay away from that paralyzing overwhelm and confusion and maintain a positive, motivated, and organized perspective.
Recently, someone posted a kind comment on my Facebook Wall, saying how special I am and how much my friendship means to them. At first I thought, “Wow, I’m really glad that person is my friend!” and started to post back a thank you for the warm and friendly post. But then I noticed where the comment was generated from.
You know how Facebook tells you when something’s been posted from HootSuite or Ping or a mobile application? Well, this one was posted from a tool that acts much like an e-mail list management tool that lets you insert “%firstname%” into the body of your text so that the person’s actual name appears. For example, when I write my weekly e-zine, the software I use allows me to write something like, “Hi %firstname%, Welcome to No Suits Allowed!” and the e-mail that the subscriber receives, says, “Hi John, Welcome to No Suits Allowed!” Well, this software allows you to do the same thing, but with social media. So you can write something like, “Hi %firstname%, I just wanted to let you know how special and amazing you are, and to say that I really treasure our friendship,” and send it to a thousand people.
Efficient? Yes. Totally against the entire point of social media? In my book, pretty much.
Social media isn’t designed to be a mass enterprise. It’s designed to form and build relationships and connections among people. Whether you’re talking about Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, social media is all about a conversation that takes place between individuals. If you want to leverage social media to its greatest advantage, you have to actually participate in that conversation.
I’m not entirely against time-saving tools for social media. In fact, I make great use of them myself. I use Networked Blogs to automatically post my blog posts to my Facebook and Twitter accounts. I use HootSuite to load in links to articles I’ve written, to maximize visibility of those articles over a longer period of time. And I recently started using the feature in my e-mail newsletter software that allows me to post my weekly e-zines to my Twitter account.
But the automation stops there. If I automate personal messages, how, exactly, am I building high quality relationships, and how can I bring true value to my friends, followers, fans, and associates? How can one form an authentic connection, if one starts by deceiving people by posting what seems like an intimate and individual comment, but what turns out to be a generic message which was actually posted to several (or even hundreds) other people?
Back to the individual who posted this message to my Wall…I looked at this person’s Facebook Wall, to see what response she was getting from others. Many people had posted and thanked her for the message she posted (and a little detective work proved that indeed, it was identical to the one posted on my Wall), and it’s pretty clear to me that most didn’t know (or didn’t care?) that this was the exact same message she’d posted to everyone else…and that she hadn’t visited their Facebook pages to learn about them, but rather had just clicked a single “Submit” button to send one message to many.
So maybe this tool provides a jumping-off point for forming a relationship? But…no. Because as I suspected, the person in question hasn’t responded to a single one of the people thanking her on her Wall, which is what you’d think someone would do, if they understood the point of social media and were truly interested in forming those connections.
Folks, social media isn’t about collecting followers and friends. The numbers aren’t what’s important – the quality is what matters. If you have thousands of friends, how much good does that really do you, if you don’t talk to them or engage in a dialogue with them? How does it serve you to have that many friends you don’t have a relationship with, and more importantly, how can you possibly serve them?
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times…social media is about engagement and it’s about the conversation. If you post to your Wall or tweet and you get no response from your friends and followers, there’s a reason why. You’ve got to get to know people to know what will interest them. You’ve got to get to know your friends and followers to know what they want to hear about from you. And if you don’t bother doing that, you’re wasting the incredible business and personal potential that social media puts at your fingertips.
Now, if you’ve got thousands of Facebook friends and Twitter followers, obviously you won’t be able to have conversations with each and every one of them every day. But what you can do is post things that appeal to your friends and followers, and engage in a dialogue about those things. Different things will appeal to different people, which means that over time, you’ll get a good mix of many of your friends and followers involved in the conversation. People will talk to you and they’ll talk to each other, and you’ll create a little community, just by getting to know the people who you’re connected to in social media. And that’s the point.
Ever since I gained a certain level of visibility and credibility in the marketplace, I’ve been bombarded with private messages and e-mails from people who want me to promote their books, products, teleseminars, live events, telesummits…
I’m particular about who and what I promote. I only share people and products I have personal experience with. I only share things that have helped me and improved my business. If I connect with someone or read a book that just didn’t help me, I’ll be darned if I’m going to promote that to my subscribers and followers, just to get a fat commission. I’ve never believed in promotion for profit. It’s just not my style.
But what bothers me most is that I regularly receive requests for help from people who have befriended me on Facebook, never said “hello,” and then sent me a message a couple of weeks later asking me to promote their new book and help them get to “bestseller status” on Amazon.
Why would I do that??
Why would I ever promote someone I don’t know? Why would I promote content I haven’t reviewed? How could I possibly recommend someone I don’t know and maintain my own integrity and authenticity?
I imagine there are people who will promote anything, thinking that associating themselves with someone they perceive as more successful makes them look more successful. It doesn’t.
So here’s the scoop: if you want people to promote your products, here’s the way to do it:
Create really solid content. Don’t hold back. Give everything you’ve got and make sure you have a good editor (for print or audio).
Form strong relationships with other entrepreneurs and small business owners who have the same target market. Look for complimentary businesses to form alliances with.
Talk to people. Get to know them. Comment on blogs, Facebook pages, articles, and show your support.
Bring value to the table for other people before you ask them to do something for you. Believe it or not, things like what I mentioned in #3 are ways of bringing value and forming a relationship with someone. I remember the people who post comments on my Facebook status updates and blog posts.
If you want someone to promote your product or book for the first time and they haven’t seen your content before, send them a copy of your work before asking them to promote it. You might end up with a great blurb for your book cover or web site and you might also gain a fan.
Ultimately, the most important point I can make here is that if you’re using social media as a business networking tool, make sure you use it the right way. Remember to focus on the “social” part of social media. It’s all about the connection and the conversation.
Customer service is one of the most important things in today’s marketplace. In this article, I’ll show you how one big company got their customer service wrong, and how you can learn from their mistakes and take your small business customer service to the next level.
Last Christmas, when Leo and I took the kids to Spain for the holidays, we experienced several hours of delay in London Heathrow Airport. After our delay, our flight was boarded then de-boarded, and then we spent several more hours in the chaos of baggage claim, trying to get our suitcases back. British Airways made no public announcements, made no real effort to provide accurate information (except to first class passengers, and even that effort was minimal, at best), and no one seemed to be in charge. Not only that, but my bag was lost for an entire week, and we received Leo’s bag a week after that, the day before we left to come home, and the entire time the bags were lost, no one at British Airways seemed to have a clue what was going on.
And believe it or not, that wasn’t even the worst part of the customer service catastrophe. After the holidays, on the train back to London, I filed the claims for our canceled flights and reimbursement for what we purchased while we awaited deliver of our lost baggage. I heard back from BA by February, but in March, they stopped responding to my e-mails. It took until May to get a response, and only because I e-mailed the CEO of British Airways, and then it took another two and a half months to get them to issue a reimbursement check. The final insult? The check they sent covered less than half of the claim I submitted.
Where did British Airways go wrong here? Everywhere. So…what could they do better, and more importantly, what can you learn about about small business from my bad experience with British Airways?
The customer or client should be at the forefront of everything you do.
I’ve said it hundreds of times – your priority should be to meet the needs of your target market. You have to know who they are and what they want so you can design everything for them. When you develop your brand, ask yourself: will this appeal to my target market? When you have a web site created for you, ask yourself: will my target market be able to navigate this? When you set up customer service guideline and procedures, ask yourself: does this serve my clients and customers?
I’d wager that when BA execs sit down to plan something new, they don’t consider the customer at all. It’s evident in their hard-to-navigate web site, their lack of easily-accessible customer service phone lines, and their lack of consideration for the customer in virtually every aspect of travel. Make sure you don’t make the same mistake.
Have emergency backup plans in place. No matter what business you’re in, there will always be moments when something goes wrong. If you have a contingency plan in place before things go wrong, you won’t have to scramble to figure out what to do. Your response time will be faster and your customers will be satisfied sooner…and you won’t feel frazzled, because you’ll know exactly what’s going on and what to do about it.
If British Airways had an emergency backup plan in place for what happened when we traveled back in December, there would’ve been BA personnel telling people what was going on and what to do next, and no one would’ve spent the night sitting in baggage claim.
Keep your customers informed. The worst thing you can do when things go wrong is to cut your customers out of the loop. Maintain regular communication with your clients and customers, even if you can’t tell them what they want to hear. They want to know that you’re working on solving their problem.
A great example of this is how American Airlines handled a problem I recently had with a ticket. They’d made a mistake and ticketed something wrong and I was on the phone with their customer service agent, trying to solve the problem. The agent had to put me on hold for a very long time so his supervisor could work with another department to fix the issue. Every couple of minutes, though, he’d come back and say, “I’m sorry this is taking so long, Mrs. Baroncini-Moe, but I just wanted to check in and let you know that we’re still working on this and I just need to have you hold a bit longer. Is that okay?” And because I knew what was going on, I was fine with the lengthy hold.
British Airways could’ve gone a long way with customer service by having someone in the baggage claim area telling people they weren’t sure what was going on, but they were in the process of finding out and were going to let us know just as soon as they had answers, having someone call my hotel to let me know they were still trying to get our bags to us and updating me on their progress (even if there hadn’t been any), and, instead of going for three months without replying to my e-mails, having someone contact me to let me know they were researching my receipts and working on figuring out the reimbursement, which brings me to my next point.
Respond quickly and communicate regularly. When customers contact you and let you know there’s a problem, respond immediately. Let them know you’re willing to take action to resolve the issue, and you are on their side. Your goal is to preserve the relationship, and one of the ways to do that is to keep the lines of communication open. Make sure they know you’re continuing to work on resolving things and keep them updated on your progress.
Obviously, if British Airways had communicating effectively and regularly from the start, we wouldn’t have spent the night waiting for our suitcases, and obviously I wouldn’t have spent three months trying to get them to respond to e-mails. Beyond that, if just once, a member of the BA staff had picked up the phone and called me, instead of relying on the impersonal medium of e-mail, I think I would’ve felt like they cared a little.
Go an extra step beyond to satisfy your customers, and apologize. Be exceptional. Go overboard. Do what it takes and go beyond just what you “have” to do to resolve any problems. British Airways sent me reimbursement for half of what their mistakes cost me. I would’ve been happy if they’d sent me exactly what I spent on replacement clothes, toiletries, and, as this was our Christmas trip, replacements for the kids’ Christmas stockings and stuffers, but do you know what I never received, even to this date? An apology. If, at any point during this process, anyone from BA had called me to say, “We are so sorry for how this has been handled, and we’re going to make this right,” I wouldn’t have felt so frustrated and angry as I practically forced them to resolve the problem.
My point in this post is to show you exactly where this big company went wrong in their customer service, and how you, as a small business, can do better. Good customer service matters – people talk about that. So make your customer service about caring for your clients and customers in an unparalleled way. Go the extra mile, and dare to be exceptional. Put yourself in the shoes of your customers and clients and ask yourself, “What can I do to put this relationship first and delight this person?” Do that and you’ll find your customers becoming more and more loyal, until you have your very own volunteer marketing team.
These days, anyone and everyone are calling themselves an “expert” and there are tons of business “coaches” who are promoting the idea that you don’t need experience, education, or training to be an expert. So…what is an expert, anyway?
Let’s start with the dictionary definition:
Expert. noun. a person who has special skill or knowledge in some particular field; specialist; authority. adjective. possessing special skill or knowledge; trained by practice; skillful or skilled (often fol. by in or at).
Okay, that gives us a lot to go on.
To be an expert, you must have special skill or knowledge in some particular field.
How do you acquire special skill or knowledge in a particular field? First and foremost, I recommend reading. I’ve read over 3,000 books on small business, marketing, branding, personal growth, success, and profitability. But believe me, it’s not enough just to read. You have to read with a critical mind. You can’t read every single book and think they all contain The Answers. In fact, many books I’ve read contain one or two great thoughts, and the rest of the book simply builds on the theme. Other books have so many gems and wisdom, they tend to look like they’ve been through a war, with all the underlining and dog-eared pages. You have to learn to discern quality and substance, more than anything else.
Second, I recommend training. Take classes and courses in your area of study. I started my career as a web developer and I took tons of classes to acquire the skills I needed to be successful. Later, I taught classes in web development, and believe me, you become an expert very quickly when you teach! When I got carpal tunnel syndrome and had to change careers, I took a ton of training to be a coach. I didn’t take one course and call myself a coach. I took several courses and relied heavily on my Master’s degree in social psychology as well. And when I transitioned in to business consulting, I studied marketing and branding, startup and growth, and worked with mentors who taught me what they knew as well.
And that leads me to the third recommendation: study with the masters. Study with people who have vast amounts of experience in your field. Ask them to mentor you, as I did, and see if they’ll teach you or allow you to apprentice.
To be an expert, you must be trained by practice. In Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, he shares a number that many of us know: 10,000. 10,000 hours is the number of hours it takes to become a master at something, to be truly proficient. So if you’re a chef, it takes 10,000 hours (or 10 years) to become a master chef. If you’re a violinist, it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become truly proficient. Likewise, if you’re a coach, it’ll take you 10,000 hours or 10 years to be a master (not in title, but in practice). I didn’t call myself an expert in small business until I had 10 years under my own belt. You just need time in the field and lots of practice to get beyond theory and to really know what you’re doing.
To be an expert, you must be an authority. You know, there are lots of ways to become an authority. People all over the net are showing you how to become an “authority” or achieve “expert status” by marketing articles and using strategic PR…but you become a true authority when you have studied and trained and practiced, and achieved credibility and legitimacy. Ultimately, you achieve authority status when you achieve the respect of your peers and of those who have less experience and practice than you.
At the end of the day, anybody can call themselves an “expert.” But authentically, are you really one?
“We’ll show you how to get on the Oprah show”
“Some of the graduates of our program have gone on to appear on Tony Robbins’ stage!”
“We’re always getting calls from publicists who want to know who’s hot right now so they can put them on Oprah.”
Have you heard any of these claims before? Maybe someone was trying to sell you a public speaking course, a public relations program, or your very own internet radio show, and they used what I call the “Oprah and Tony Marketing Strategy” to do it.
What is the “Oprah and Tony Marketing Strategy?” It’s a sales and marketing technique that’s based in another old strategy I like to call the “overpromise, underdeliver” strategy. They promise you the sun, moon, and stars, but deliver very little in the way of usable content or implementation. The Oprah and Tony Marketing Strategy is basically the “overpromise, underdeliver” strategy on steroids.
Let’s face it, if you’re a writer or an expert of any kind, if you have a message and you think it’s your life purpose to deliver that message to the world, then getting on Oprah’s show or Tony’s stage is your path to greatness, right? After all, Oprah changed the lives of Dr. Phil, Rachel Ray, and Dr. Oz, among many others. And Tony Robbins’ stage is the Holy Grail of public speaking, shared only by the best of the best.
Of course you want to get noticed by Oprah and Tony. And that’s what smart marketers and salespeople are counting on.
Let me tell you what happened to me the other day:
I received an e-mail on Facebook from a producer of an internet radio show company, subject line “Media Request.” He said that his company was developing a new internet radio show about small business and that I’d come up on his “radar” as a credible expert. He said he wanted to talk to me to see about having me host the show.
Luckily, I had heard of this company before, otherwise I might’ve been flattered by the “media request” (which, btw, is typically reserved for interview requests). I have to confess, I already didn’t like this company to begin with, because they named their company specifically to take advantage of a well-known classic in American radio, in the hopes, I think, of confusing people into thinking they were going to be appearing on that program or station.
But the thing is, I wanted to know what they were selling – I know some people who have been taken in by them, so I wanted to know how much they charge and what they promise. So I set up the meeting with the guy and settled in for the sales pitch.
As expected, this was a perfect example of the Oprah marketing strategy. I heard all about the many famous authors this guy had produced shows for, the implication being that if I did the show, then I’d become a famous author just like them, nevermind that none of them were currently paying him a dime, nor could I get confirmation that they had paid this particular company for this particular service. The fee was $6,700 for a 13-week internet radio show, and the guy said they’d help me produce it and then market it for me, so all I would have to do is call in each week, do my show, and then go on my merry way, doing nothing whatsoever to market the show after that. And by the way, publicists, PR reps, agents, and producers for shows like Oprah listened in on this particular company’s broadcasts all the time to find new talent, and they call this guy all the time to find out “who’s hot” and who they should bring on their shows for interviews.
See how slick that is? So basically, for a mere $6,700, I could get famous with my own radio show, have to do virtually none of the marketing stuff we all hate, and get on the Oprah show??? And you know that’s what most people hear.
But you have to listen in between the lines and know enough to know when you’re getting scammed. The marketing services they offered were minimal, some were unnecessary, and frankly, you could do much better yourself.
More importantly, there are companies that offer the same services for free, or with cool add-ons, up to $999 for an entire year of your own internet radio show. So why would you pay almost seven grand for this? Oh yeah…because you might get on Oprah.
Let me tell you another story. This time, a woman who found me on Facebook contacted me and set up a phone meeting to talk about a public speaking training program she was developing. She wanted to ask me (as well as several others) what I would want in such a program, so she could make sure to include stuff that people really wanted to learn. When we talked on the phone, she dropped several well-known names and bragged about how she can get people on Tony Robbins’ stage.
People? Seriously? When someone is trying to sell you something and they tell you they can get you on stage with Oprah or Tony? Hang up. Delete the e-mail. That is one of the biggest red flags of all time. Unless you’re talking to Oprah’s producer or reading an e-mail from someone with an e-mail address ending in tonyrobbins.com, stop falling for this nonsense! None of the big names you know were overnight successes because they paid for an internet radio show, a public speaking program, or anything else.
And I hate to say this, because for some of you, this might sting a little. It might seem harsh, but it’s the truth, and you need to hear it.People use the Oprah and Tony Marketing Strategy to prey on people who believe that the world is waiting to discover them. These are the same people who have been told that all they have to do to be successful is find their “life purpose” or their “passion” and then everything will be easy.
Small business is not easy. It requires work. You have to work hard and you have to work smart. Don’t be fooled into thinking you can build a million-dollar (or multi-million dollar) business on a 4-hour work week! Sure, there are ways to work smart so that you don’t have to work a 40 or 60 hour work week, but please, stop looking for the easy way out. Stop looking for the easy answers or for the magic bullet and start taking responsibility for yourselves and for your success, and remember that unless you’re hiring a reputable publicist with a solid, proven track record, the likelihood of you getting on Oprah is…unfortunately…slim to none. Not impossible, but unlikely. And Oprah is not the only path to becoming notable. So settle down and pay your dues wisely, and it’ll be easier to spot the scams.
