Niche Marketing and The Naked Cowboy
You don’t have to be very familiar with New York City but you may have heard that “The Naked Cowboy” is running for mayor. That’s right, the 39-year-old man who spends his days at one of the busiest corners in Times Square with his hat, cowboy boots, briefs and guitar (strategically placed so it looks like he’s naked), is entering politics. (Yes, that’s me and The Naked Cowboy last September. My kids were mortified. ) And sure, I paid $2 to have my son take the picture. But I digress.
Now that The Naked Cowboy, born Jack Burck in Ohio, has announced his mayoral campaign against incumbent Mike Bloomberg, he has developed a slogan or tag line.
“Nobody has done more with less.”
I love that line and after giving it some thought, I’ve come to realize there are a few wise lessons I have learned from The Naked Cowboy. We can apply them to our own organizations and lives:
1. Go deep. Find your niche and market the hell out of it. Don’t be a jack of all trades. Differentiate yourself from others with your own personal brand.
2. Dress the part.
3. Create a buzz. Chances are The Naked Cowboy won’t come close to winning the election. If his only goal is to increase his visibility and get people talking, mission accomplished.
4. Have the courage to be yourself. You can’t make a mistake when you are authentic. You can only trip yourself up when you are trying to be someone else.
5. Balance fun and professional. The Naked Cowboy is an ace at customer service. He smiles, makes people feel comfortable and is polite. He’s got charisma. He only wanted $2 for the ”photo op” but he was so nice, I may have paid him $5. He provided an “experience”, not simply a picture. As crowded as Times Square was, he made me feel like it was just the two of us. No distractions.
This all happened on a crowded street corner in Manhattan. After that, it was over to Juniors for cheesecake. Only in New York.
3 Ways to Connect with Your Readers on Your Blog
Writing your blog is an excellent way to connect with people. It can help to build your credibility as an expert in your field, generate a loyal following in Social Media, and share value and insights with others. You may find it’s much easier to connect and engage with people in person or with short Tweets on Twitter. Writing can be a challenge.
I’ve been writing for 25 years. Here are a 3 quick tips to engage people with your blog posts.
1. Be yourself. Write the way that you speak and avoid “talking down to your reader.” People enjoy authenticity more than a stage show.
2. Bring your reader into the post. Ask questions like: “What do you think?” or “What about you?” Connect them to the point of your message. Bring it full circle to get them engaged: thinking, feeling, reacting and involved.
3. Reveal something. While being professional, it’s perfectly fine and recommended to give readers a peak into your personality. Show a brief example of a situation that brings your message home. It can be a quote from your favorite grandparent, a holiday ritual that ties into your theme or a lesson you’ve learned on your journey.
Blogs are your personal podium and microphone that allow you to offer your unique views, expressions and insights. The words will come easier when you write from the heart. Can you do it? Can you be yourself? Remember, when you are genuine, you’ll never make a mistake!
Proactive Blogs Lead to Business Growth
Being proactive in your public relations, marketing and online networking is critical to your business growth, relationships and revenues. I’m hearing great feedback on my free webinars next week from people who are also beginning to understand the concept of how quality blogs are building online relationships and showing value. Your presence affects your prosperity.
Check out the free webinars on August 5 & 6. I promise the 30 minutes will be packed with amazing story ideas and nuggets to help you grow your organization. Join me on either August 5th or 6th (different content and story ideas for you each day! ) at 12:00 pm Central, for an opportunity to learn how to create compelling, consistent and timely blogs that directly connect back to your organization, customers and prospects.
Professionals are “tweeting” about my concept and programs. They are spreading the word..they are registering for the preview webinars on “Building the Buzz that Builds Your Businesss” because they know they have to be proactive. The world and technology are leaving too many of us behind. Social Media is not a fad. We have to learn and grow with the new tools we have available. It’s all here for you. Commit to learning and using them, one at a time. If you don’t, your competition wins.
Your blog is an untapped vehicle to drive traffic to your website. Learn how to use it as an integral part of your business development.
I invite you to register for the preview call now and spread the news!
Business Growth Strategy for the Summer: Go Outside
In 2006, 60 billion e-mails were sent worldwide every single day. That’s according to the School of Information Management and Systems at the University of California at Berkeley.
In our busy worlds, networking and face time are rare commodities. Regardless of your industry, you probably find yourself using more gadgets and technology that saves precious time and helps you to operate more efficiently. That may be true, but nothing a can replace a handshake, smile or our human communication. Are you hiding behind technology instead of connecting face-to-face with your fellow humans?
As the summer unfolds and our frenetic paces slow down, try this exercise.
Look through your database or Rolodex and call several former clients, colleagues, networking acquaintances and others that you have not heard from in at least six months. Spend a few days meeting with each one for an early cup of coffee or breakfast at 7:30 or 8:00 a.m. This helps you to make sure your face time doesn’t interfere with normal business hours and it allows you to catch up.
Here are 3 tips:
1- Go to the meeting with the sole intention of reconnecting and nurturing relationships.
2- Use your good listening skills to truly hear what the other person has been doing.
3- Fill them in on your latest projects and accomplishments as they may be able to connect you with new opportunities.
Together you can help one another to cultivate new business and enrich each other’s lives. Take the time to build rapport and invest in human communication. Repeat this exercise once or twice a quarter.
A cold computer keyboard will never replace a warm handshake. Happy networking!
Grow Your Sales Based on Value
If you have business cards, it’s likely that you have your job title emblazoned in a very prominent place. When you meet people and network, you probably mention your title in the first few minutes of the conversation. Titles offer people validation of our self-worth. Titles may reflect our achievements. But they do little to show prospects and clients the value we offer them so they can achieve and be successful.
In order to grow your business, you must be able to communicate the return on investment and value you offer to people. Why should someone take their hard-earned money and give it to you? How will you and your business/expertise make their lives easier and help them reach their goals?
The bottom line and harsh reality: no one cares about you. They care about themselves. They have no regard for your job title.
That is why you must position yourself by concept and not title.
This is a very powerful approach to business and sales. I learned it from a small, 75-page gem-of-a-book by Mark LeBlanc. It’s titled “Growing Your Business!” LeBlanc writes, “Titles are hard-earned…but focus on the outcomes of your work and what happens when customers use your products and services. That should be your primary strategy for differentiation in the marketplace.”
Every time I write a marketing piece for my public relations and communications training company, I flip the switch. Shift the focus off of yourself and onto the customer. Show them value.
Position yourself by concept, not title.
Quality Questions Reveal Quality Information
In 1970, Barbara Walters wrote a book titled “How to Talk to Practically Anyone about Practically Anything.” She says it was intended to help people start conversations and break the ice. These days, the questions can apply to networking, sales and casual conversations.
The book ended with a chapter titled “When All Else Fails-Twenty Sure-Fire Conversation Starters.” Walters, a pioneering woman in broadcast news, knows plenty about asking quality and thought-provoking questions. She says she still uses the following timeless questions in her interviews today. Consider your own responses.
1. If you were not doing the work you are doing now, what would you most like to be doing?
2. If you could live in any time in history, when would you have wished to live?
3. If you could be any person in history, who would it be?
4. If you were suddenly given a million dollars and told you had to spend it just on yourself, what is the first thing you would buy?
5. If you were hospitalized for three months but not really too sick—whom-and it can’t be a relative- would you want in the next bed?
You can gain insight into people’s personalities, interests, values and challenges by asking quality questions. On the list above, I thought my answers were pretty good, until I heard my husband’s responses.
The 10 Commandments of Effective Communication
I’ve spent these past 25 years as “Life’s Little Observer.” In my years in news, government and public relations, I’ve learned and obeyed the following Commandments. They weren’t handed to me from a mountaintop on stone tablets. They are lessons learned from the road.
1- Always listen more than you speak.
2- Compromise whenever possible.
3- Ask good questions.
4- Look for similarities to bring people together and avoid differences.
5- Develop charisma.
6- Know when to speak up and know when to shut up.
7- Understand and apply empathy and compassion with everyone you encounter; even strangers.
8- Choose your words and silence carefully.
9- Give all of your attention to the other person.
10- Be able to tell a good story.
What do you think? Do you obey any or all of these Commandments?
Develop Your Personal Brand for Networking & Business Growth
Whether you’re a business professional, work for a nonprofit or are looking for a job, your personal brand is essential to networking and growing your business (making more money). It helps your self-confidence too.
Consider yourself a special commodity. People who meet you and those who know you should be able to repeat your personal branding statement on your behalf. This leads to word-of-mouth referral network for you. It’s a beautiful thing.
In developing your own branding statement, consider the following points:
1- What makes you special? What do you do better, different, cheaper, faster than your competition?
2- Identify your DNA- dynamic natural ability.
3- What value have you gotten for clients that have helped them to grow and be more successful?
4- Weave in your personality and accomplishments in a charismatic and friendly way without sounding pompous or arrogant.
5- Come up with a 6-8 word “catch phrase” or one-liner that addresses the above points. You may have to begin with a longer sentence and start editing!
6- Use punchy words and think in “sound bites” like newscasters. Go for the golden nugget that will compel someone to say “tell me more…”
Creating your own special brand that is relevant, distinctive, valuable and memorable can be fun…and it affects your bottom line.
Communicating and Listening Includes Children Too
In my interview with Emmy-award winning journalist Linda Ellerbee, she shared her insights about her work as host of the acclaimed “Nick News” on Nickelodeon.
“We are in the 19th season of ‘Nick News’, which is a news and documentary series for children. It’s a show of serious intent. We cover the behavior of nations, not how crayons are made. Reporters still ask me and write about me and how I talk to children. And they don’t get it, I don’t talk to children, I listen to children. That’s what our show is about. Not talking to kids, it’s about listening to kids. And in 19 years, I’ve listened to them talk about September 11th, the Oklahoma City bombing, AIDS, divorce, abuse and loss. I’ve listened to their hopes and dreams. I’ve listened to them talk about politics and every election since ’92. The whole key is listening. I’m not their teacher and that’s not what our show is about. I am not there to tell kids about the world. I am there to try and let them understand the world a little bit and to listen to them. Wonderful things come out of their mouths. It stuns me after all these years of doing these shows when a grown-up says ‘You know, I watched that show you did with those kids and those kids were so smart.’ Well, if you shut up and listen, most kids are smart. But adults have to listen… as we get older we don’t always get smarter, we sometimes just get taller.”
The Bottom Line: Listen with your mouth closed.
Bridging Communication Gaps with NLP
One of the greatest and most exciting discoveries in business, communication and psychology in the past 30 years has been Neurolinguistic Programming. NLP was developed in the 1970’s at the University of Santa Cruz in California. The founders of NLP, Richard Bandler and John Grinder, began discussing how some people are able to “get through to difficult people, and others can’t.” That’s how NLP was born.
It examines the relationships between thought, communication, and behavior. This methodology is used by top business leaders, politicians and athletes around the world. There are connections with Emotional Intelligence, but NLP goes beyond EQ (empathy, compassion, assertive communication and self-awareness).
NLP focuses on four key areas: rapport, sensory awareness (modalities), outcome thinking and behavioral flexibility. NLP teaches us how to bridge communication gaps, looking for similarities rather than differences. It helps us to become aware of how others understand and process information so we can communicate with them more effectively. It includes the secrets of nonverbal communication, influence and trust-building, limiting self-talk and modeling human behavior. It’s fascinating.
The core of NLP is based on our sensory modalities. If we listen carefully when others speak, they will drop cues and clues as to which modality they prefer. The three main modalities are:
• Visual – Most people are visual. They learn by seeing. They need to actually see how something is done in order to comprehend it. They use expressions like “I see”, “I get the picture” and “That’s crystal clear to me.”
• Auditory – Others learn by hearing. They can hear something explained once or twice and have a full understanding of the subject. Auditory people tend to use phrases like “That’s music to my ears”, “That sounds good to me” and “That rings a bell.”
• Kinesthetic – These folks learn best through touch and feel. Artists and creative people are usually kinesthetic. They may say things like “I get the point”, “I can embrace that idea” and “I have a bad feeling about that.”
If you tend to be more visual and you are disagreeing with someone who is an auditory person, it’s as if you are speaking Spanish and they are speaking French. It’s extremely difficult to communicate. When you identify someone else’s prime modality, you can use it to bridge the gap, build rapport and engage them. The outcome will be quite different than if you were butting heads and feeling frustrated.
Take time to learn more about Neurolinguistic Programming and how it can be used in all areas of your life. Having this skill set can enrich your relationships.
