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Category: Entrepreneurship

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Entrepreneurship Skills

6 Self-Limiting Habits

Here’s a checklist of attitudes, traits, behaviors, and beliefs that the Top 1% of consultants, coaches, and experts wrestled with – but then STOPPED so they could become the Top 1%.

How many of these have been problematic for YOU?

It’s time to ASSERT your rights.

Because you DESERVE success.

And you must STOP getting in your own way with these 6 self-limiting, revenue-killing, success-preventing BAD habits.

Ready? Here they are…

  1. Lack of time, focus, and a game plan to build a serious “speaker/ expert” platform that could be generating an additional $10K-$15K per month on speaking/training fees alone AND helping you reach more high-probability buyers with your impactful programs
  2. Small potatoes thinking and doing: Settling for local chambers, libraries, and business organizations with no overall game plan to target high-fee niche groups on a national level and build a revenue-generating machine for ALL your investable opportunities, including speaking, training, coaching, consulting, and online products.
  3. Generic sounding programs and No target market that is hamstringing the efforts that you ARE making with your limited time. What needs to happen here is a way more effective and efficient approach. (Targeting specific decision-makers with a value prop they’re already seeking.) Transforming your generic-sounding programs into 2-3 well-branded ones in your “integrated product suite” and dropping the Chinese menu approach that is commoditizing you to death!
  4. Gaps in the sales process, sales execution, and sales follow-through with little proactive selling – too much distraction and thus, falling back on reactive “catch as catch can” marketing and taking on random low-fee opportunities as they fall in your lap. Replace with a buyer-centric DAILY dose of high-touch, high-relevance outreach.
  5. Lots of good ideas but too little activation and too many “spinning plates” which you can no longer afford. It’s high time you started making more money – in other words, it’s time to STOP paying your dues, and start paying your bills! Even seasoned experts are often OVERDUE in raising their fees because they’ve gotten complacent or wrongly believe that clients won’t or can’t pay more. There’s always a bigger fish – and if you’re not moving ahead, you’re falling behind.
  6. Mindset, self-esteem, self-worth, and the impostor syndrome. Nobody will value your programs, services, and solutions higher than you do. Stop being your own worst enemy and get out of your own way. Sales, significance, and happiness will follow.

Ready to assert these rights?

Ready to BUILD or REBUILD or PIVOT into the high-fee expert business you’ve always wanted?

Ready to start down the path of doing so quickly, with all the steps laid out so that you get a reliable, repeatable process that brings you the clients, the impact, and the freedom you deserve?

We can help you: https://www.expertprofitformula.com/

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Investing Management Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

“This Is How To Detect Fraud In Negotiations Easily” – Negotiation Tip of the Week

“You become susceptible to fraud when your greed outpaces your logic.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert (Click to Tweet)

 

Click here to get the book!

 

 

People don’t realize; they’re always negotiating.

I’ve heard some negotiators say all is fair in love, war, and negotiations. And some of them will stop just short of fraud to obtain a favorable outcome. Others will outright attempt to defraud you. The latter negotiator types are the ones whose shenanigans you must be alert to – they’re the ones that can leave you financially and emotionally devastated.

They’re signs to observe, in both the spoken and written words, that someone uses, that can serve as a forerunner announcing their pending trickeries. Take note of the following. You’ll see what I mean. You’ll also discover how to detect fraud to protect yourself from those that attempt to defraud you in your negotiations.

Do you ever consider how easy it is for someone to commit #fraud against you in your #negotiations? Fraud occurs in one form or another more than you realize. Learn how to detect fraud before it’s unleashed on you. bit.ly/3gASVRN

Categories
Entrepreneurship Marketing Skills

17 Tips to Create Audio That Rocks

I’ve done a lot of homebrew audio – on my laptop – with a Zoom H1 digital recorder – and with my trusty Blue Snowball microphone and Audacity on my Mac. And I’ve also done a fair amount of studio recording in studios ranging from the scary to the awesome.

Here are 17 tips for speakers, authors, consultants, and independent professionals who want to create better sounding, more professional audios for their podcast, radio show, audio products, or voiceovers.

1. Stand up when you record – it makes a HUGE difference to the way your voice sounds. For example, I recorded the entire 12 hours of the Do It! Marketing audiobook standing up. (Wear comfortable shoes!)

2. Speak close to the microphone – you want to get right up in that bad boy’s face. Somewhere between 4 to 8 inches from the microphone. If you’re doing this at home, test different distances and use the one that sounds the richest, warmest, and most clear.

3. Use a pop filter. You will totally thank me later. It’s going to be the best money you spend if you’re serious about creating great audio.

4. Don’t overinvest in equipment. You don’t need a lot of fancy gear to sound great. A good USB microphone, a mic stand, a pop filter, and some basic recording and editing software like Audacity (free at this link) will go a long way.

5. Don’t skimp on studio time, either. If it’s an important project where production quality counts, find a great local recording studio near where you live. Top-notch studio time is surprisingly affordable these days. Expect to pay between $75 and $125 an hour for a top-notch facility and technical staff who can help you produce top-notch work.

6. Don’t over-prepare. If it’s a big project especially – it doesn’t make sense to over-prepare. You should be familiar with the material (if you wrote it, you will be!) and that’s about it.

7. Don’t under prepare. If you’ve never done an audio recording before, paid studio time is not the place to learn the ropes. Invest a few hours with “practice recording” at home. Your studio time will go that much more smoothly and quickly.

8. Read – but don’t “read.” In other words, don’t make it SOUND like you’re reading. Speak naturally. Pretend you’re talking to a friend so it’s not boring.

9. Mix it up. Use vocal variety – just as professional speakers and seasoned storytellers know how to vary their pace, tone, pitch, and volume to keep an audience engaged in what they’re saying… YOU should use the full range of your vocal variety to emphasize keywords, transitions between points, and to underscore important ideas.

10. Use your body. Since you’re standing, you’ll have the ability to do more physical movement. Use it! It’s amazing how the voice and the body are connected. Have you ever seen actors like Robin Williams or Whoopi Goldberg or Tom Hanks in those “Making of” special features on the Disney movies that they do voice acting for? They are gesturing wildly with their hands, bouncing on the balls of their feet, making silly faces, leaning into the microphone, sometimes even jumping up and down. And it’s for a VOICEOVER. That’s because your vocal energy is tied to your physical energy. Use it – and your voiceover range and variety will improve dramatically.

11. Remember the art of the pause. Listeners need a pause to comprehend the last thing you said. Think of pauses – some short, and some not so short (for dramatic effect) – as the punctuation in your audio. If you never pause, you exhaust your listeners who lose the thread of your long sentences or complex ideas. If you use pauses to insert “natural phrasing” into your script, it makes it much easier for your listeners to understand, absorb, and they WANT to keep listening!

12. Take it one page at a time. For the Do It! Marketing audiobook, I had to get through 60,000 words and 280 pages. If I had thought about it that way during the recording sessions, I might never have made it! I took on the task one page at a time. Do longer recordings with this mindset, and you’ll sail right through faster than you ever imagined. I cruised through 150 pages on Day 1 (6.5 hours) and 130 pages on Day 2 (5.5 hours). And it was fun!

13. Have a “keep going” mindset. Voiceover professionals know that their main task is to “get the job done” – and that momentum is their friend. Don’t think about stopping. Don’t take too many breaks. You’re in the studio (yes, even your home studio) to crank out the work, not to obsess over minor details or do endless retakes. Keep going!

14. Flaws are good. Good professional audio editors will take out every inhale, smooth over every rough patch, edit out every vocal aberration. GREAT editors will leave in just enough of those same aberrations to make the voiceover pro sound human. When we chat in coffee shops, over breakfast or lunch with friends, or in front of prospects or clients in meetings, our vocal and verbal delivery is never 100% perfect. There’s a difference between sounding professional and sounding sterile and robotic. So leave a few “personality flaws” in your audio. Maybe 5-10%. It makes all the difference and you’ll sound like a REAL human.

15. Pause whenever you need to. Ah, the magic of editing. Whenever you screw up a line, swallow a word, stop to fix a typo in your script, or for any other reason (sneeze, cough, get a drink of water) – keep the audio rolling and pause. Then pick up where you left off. Most professional audio engineers will mark the script at that point to help the editor, but you just pause as long as you need and jump right back in when you’re ready. You don’t need to ask permission, you don’t need to apologize, you don’t need to get flustered. Pause so you can GO!

16. Eat! And drink tea, bring lozenges, avoid dairy and coffee, and bring water. Don’t forget to eat breakfast on the day you’re recording. Why? Because stomach grumbling is audible on good audio equipment. Yes, really. Avoid coffee – it dehydrates you. Drink tea – especially lemon tea or ginger tea that has a little bit of acid to clear and soothe your throat. Bring lozenges with you in case you need a midday vocal recharge – I like the Ricola classic Swiss herb cough drops. Avoid dairy products like milk or yogurt which tend to generate phlegm and block up your throat. Also, bring a water bottle so you have plenty of water available in the booth as you record. Water is your friend!

17. Personality not included. No matter how great your script, it doesn’t have any personality until you pick up the script and put YOUR personality into the words you’ve written. Don’t be shy – in fact, if you don’t bring your full personality to the recording, you’ll miss out on the biggest opportunity that audio programs and products present – the opportunity to connect and build rapport with your listeners and have them experience what it’s like to have a warm and personal conversation with you! If you’re loud, be loud. If you’re a little edgy, sound edgy. Don’t hide your personality for the sake of a “professional sounding” recording. There’s no such animal – the whole point of recording audio is so that you CAN marry your content with your personality.

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Investing Personal Development

Your price defines the customers you get

Have you ever thought that the price of your product or service selects what customers you get? Your price will differentiate how the market perceives your company, and by what kind of customers are attracted to your products or services.

In short, you need to consider that your customers will fall into three categories:

  • The price-sensitive customer
  • The neutral customer 
  • The loyal customer

Let us start examining the price-sensitive customer. The main (and possibly only) reason why this type of customer decided to buy your product or service was because it was the cheapest. They care very little, if at all, about the features and functions and benefits of your products or services that makes it different from the competitions’ products or services. They do not value the extra work and resources your company has spent to develop a better product or service. Moreover, because they don’t really care about the product or service, they are also less likely to learn about how to use it (for a product) or understand it (for a service). The result of this is that they will clog your customer service lines with question after question on the most basic functions. They need a lot of “handholding,” and despite all the effort your company puts into meeting their ever-demanding needs, they will still be somewhat dissatisfied with your company, products, or services. So, to be clear, the price-sensitive customer is an expensive customer in two ways: they cost more to support in cash, and they are likely to express their dissatisfaction with your product or service to their friends, family, and anyone else who cares to listen to them. 

Then also, there is the “ticker” to consider – you spent lots of time and effort supporting the price-sensitive customer, and you finally think you’ve got the customer on your side. You think the customer finally understands why your product or service is not only cheap but it is better, too. But wait a minute. As soon as a cheaper alternative to your product or service shows up in the market they will switch as quickly as a flash. The alternative may not be nearly as good as your product or service, but it has one thing going for it – it is more affordable. So, all your hard work and effort to keep your price-sensitive customer happy and loyal will be for nothing – as they will disappear in a flash! You’ve been unceremoniously dumped – for a “cheaper model.” So, you are lucky if you ever made a profit from that price-sensitive customer in the first place. A lot of time and effort for little, if any reward. 

Next, let’s examine the loyal customer. This customer is the polar opposite of your price-sensitive customer. The loyal customer loves your product or service. The loyal customer does not care much about price. That’s a good thing! But they do care genuinely about the value they receive from your product or service. You need to hear that – it’s important! 

They are unlikely to use your customer support. Another good thing. In the rare occasion, the loyal customer will contact the company’s customer support function, it is more than likely to tell them they have figured out something about the company’s product or service the company itself did not know, or that they have figured out ways to use the product or service in ways that were never really intended for in the first place, or in ways to add even more value than its original design or definition had initially intended.

Whenever possible, the loyal customer talks about your company to everybody and anybody they meet. They are your most dedicated evangelist. This is worth remembering, too!

The loyal customer did not buy your product or service because of low prices but instead because it has some unique feature, function, or benefit that is particularly valuable for them. For consumer goods or services, this includes a wish to be associated with the brand’s messages and positioning.

Next, we have the neutral customer. Alternatively, maybe we should call them the “pragmatic customer.” Obviously, in their behavior, the pragmatic customer is somewhere in between the price-sensitive customer and the loyal customer. The pragmatic customer does care about the price, but price alone is not the reason for their purchasing decisions. For the pragmatic customer, it is essential that they receive what they would consider good value for money. Again, this is worth noting. 

So, of these three types of customers, which customer do you prefer, and is your pricing aligned with your preference? 

Let me review some examples:

Consider this cloud-based telco, focusing on customers in the B2B space. They started out very small and grew slowly. They decided to price very low to capture market share from potential customers. So low, that profitability became an issue. Willingness to pay research showed them there was room in the market for a substantial price increase. In fact, the company was able to, over some time, to quadruple its prices. The aforementioned price increases in itself generated to a 25% increase in sales volume which, in itself, is interesting, but even more interesting, is that with these new higher prices the company attracted a whole different set of customers. Customers the CEO described as “professional” and as a consequence, led to a significant decrease in customer support costs that further led to about a ten times increase in profit margin. 

But not all companies are so lucky as this telephone company. Consider this national seller of home-improvement products. Profit margins were slim, and the company wanted to increase prices to boost its profit margin. Their business model was in-homes sales, and they advertised heavily on TV with the central message of deep discounts. Willingness to pay research showed them that the general consumer population was not very price sensitive. With one exception, those customers who had a preference for buying this kind of home-improvement product by in-homes sales were extraordinary price sensitive. This meant that the company’s ongoing low-price marketing only attracted those customers for which price was the most import decision-driver. This led to a “big” problem for the company. They could not increase prices, because that would severally affect the sales volume among those highly price-sensitive customers. They could not change their TV advertising to a value or benefit message, as this would severely impact the number of sales leads the company received – as those customers who want to buy in an in-home sales model are those that are the most price-sensitive. The company had painted itself into a corner from which there was only one way out – start a new brand, which turned out to be an expensive and involved proposition!

So, think about this the next time you are considering your pricing strategy. The last thing you want to do is cater to the least favorable customer at the expense of your most valuable customer. Your sales volume, profit margin, and revenue depend on you getting your pricing strategy right. 

Per Sjöfors
Founder
Sjöfors & Partners
www.sjofors.com

Categories
Entrepreneurship Skills

Erase It

You should have been here – in my office – 5 minutes ago.

This whiteboard was FULL – and I mean jam-packed – with ideas, notes, bullets, to-dos, action items, brainstorms, and some jottings about the “next big thing” for our professional speaking and inbound marketing firm.

Perhaps you have a similar whiteboard in your office. Or a wall filled with post-it notes. Or plaques and awards on your bookcase. Or other visual reminders of where your company has been and all that you have accomplished.

Tremendously exciting. Truly.

The only problem: it was tremendously exciting in your past. Every day, every week, every month – hell, every hour – that you do not ACT on those ideas, they start to turn on you.

They are no longer motivators – they are pacifiers that remind you how great you WERE. What you imagined would BE. And what – for better or worse – didn’t quite turn out the way you envisioned last week, last month or last year.

In my case, my office whiteboard was holding onto ideas and initiatives from 6 months ago. Yikes! Totally useless to me today. EXCEPT it made me feel good about how gosh darn smart I am and what big plans I have/had (NOT!)

When Steve Jobs came back as interim CEO of Apple in 1997, he had every award, plaque, and completed project plan removed from the walls and hallways of Apple. He did not want any visual reminders of the past. All he wanted his teams to see was their future.

NEW plans, CURRENT prototypes, and UPCOMING projects were all over Apple’s hallways, offices, and conference rooms. Everything was future-focused and kept rigorously up to date.

What do you need to erase from your whiteboard? Which awards should you put away? Which of your accolades are keeping you stuck in the past?

Put that stuff away.

Look to your CURRENT future. In the words of Steve Jobs – it will help you “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” And it will help you achieve your NEXT level of “insanely great.”

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Investing Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

“This Is How To Attack Difficult Choices In Negotiations” – Negotiation Insight

Negotiations can become complicated when presented with difficult choices. But you can attack those difficulties by being cunning, beguiling, and using a little lateral thinking. The following is how you can accomplish that.

Click here to discover how you can make difficult choices easier!

 

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

 

Listen to Greg’s podcast at https://c-suitenetwork.com/radio/shows/greg-williams-the-master-negotiator-and-body-language-expert-podcast/

 

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

 

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Negotiation Insight” click here https://themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

 

 

 

Categories
Entrepreneurship Leadership Personal Development

Road Trips Are Back! Take Audio Theatre Along for the Ride!

When we started Barefoot Wine, we spent a lot of time in our car. We live north of San Francisco but had customers all over the country. We would often drive south to Los Angeles, San Diego, north to Portland and Seattle, and east to Reno, Las Vegas, and Phoenix. We couldn’t afford to fly due to extremely tight funds and we couldn’t take the 10 cases of wine samples we needed on board. So we would spend 7-19 hours in the car! What to do?

Turning Miles into Stories

In those days, audiobooks and courses were on cassette tapes, and every dashboard had a slot that would play them over the car’s sound system. We would entertain and educate ourselves with stories of the great entrepreneurs of the last century. And we’d listen to the latest tips from Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, and Tony Robbins, hoping to remember them and use them at our next presentation down the road.

We liked the stories the best because they were theme centric and lasted for 5-10 hours, perfect for a road trip.

Pandemic Brings Back the Road Trip!

Fast forward 30 years and we are in the clutches of a pandemic. Folks don’t want to expose themselves in airports or be trapped on a plane for hours. The big cruise liners are also perceived as somewhat of a risk. So how do folks get away in the age of the Corona Virus? Road Trip!

But these are long travel times, 7-19 hours like we used to drive on a regular basis. Once again, your car is your classroom and audio theatre. This is the perfect time and place to discover or rediscover pre-recorded audio productions.

Old Time Radio to Pass the Miles

When we created our audiobook, The Barefoot Spirit, we were inspired by NPR’s Theatre of the Mind and A Prairie Home Companion with its 1940’s-style audio skits like Guy Noir Private Eye. In fact, it was on one of those long road trips across Arizona that we got the idea for Business Audio Theatre.

We love the way the actors brought the characters to life, the way the scenes unfolded in our minds, and the way sound effects and music gave an entertaining and cinematic quality to the stories. The miles flew by! The long journey became fun!

Have a Test Drive on Us!

Won’t you try out this “new” fun format and take us along with you and your family this summer? Our audio play, The Barefoot Spirit, has received multiple 5-Star reviews and was selected as one of the Top Five business books of 2020 by the Audiobook Publisher’s Association. It’s conveniently broken down into ten episodes of 30-40 minutes each, comprised of 2-3 minute scenes.  The audiobook totals just over 7 hours. Totally segmentable or binge-able.

We want you to have the opportunity to “test drive” The Barefoot Spirit on your next trip. So here is the 1st episodic chapter for FREE! If you like it, you can get the rest on any audiobook platform you favor.  Happy trails! And enjoy the ride!

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Investing Management Marketing Mergers & Acquisition Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

“This Is How To Use Leverage To Win Negotiations” – Negotiation Insight

As a #negotiator, #leverage can enhance your #negotiation efforts. But it can become a tool turned against you if you misuse it. Discover how you can use leverage to improve your negotiation outcomes. bit.ly/310PAHc
Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Marketing Sales Skills

Pie

As one of the few experts who only preaches what I practice – and what has worked for hundreds of our clients – here’s the real deal on the 7 key strategies that need to be firing on all cylinders for your business to grow.

It’s about pie – more on that in a minute…

Questions I get from smart cookies like you all the time:

  • David, what does it take to gain pre-eminence in my market?
  • How can I become the go-to person in my topic/niche?
  • Why am I still wrestling with the feast-or-famine revenue roller coaster?
  • How can I set and get premium fees when clients are tight with budgets?
  • How can I expand my reach, grow my list & build my platform?
  • How can I recession-proof my business so that I make money regardless of the economy and industry ups and downs?
  • I’m plenty busy – why aren’t I making more money?

All these questions have their answers hidden in one of 7 key areas of your thought-leadership pie as a consultant, speaker, coach, author or independent professional…

No alt text provided for this image

Let’s explore each one – and see how you can tune, tweak, and improve anything that’s missing, not performing, or could use a major overhaul in YOUR business…

1. Speaking – obviously, this is our area of expertise. Having a solid speaker marketing strategy is vital to help you gain visibility in front of audiences who matter (aka buyers and decision-makers); generate leads for your back-end professional services; and generate significant revenue in paid professional speaking fees for your workshops, seminars, keynotes, trainings, workshops, and private events. Speaking is one of the most powerful lead-generators and revenue-generators in your expertise-driven business.

But how do you scale this above and beyond the audiences you can reach through live speaking? The next pie slice has your answer…

2. Online Courses – The most successful experts, speakers, consultants, and coaches are embracing the power of online courses, e-learning, and digital distribution methods for their expertise. The first benefit here is pure scalability – your business can reach thousands (or tens of thousands) of ideal customers, prospects, and buyers through the power of online courses. As a source of revenue, online courses are hard to beat because you create it once – and get paid over and over and over. This allows you to create a freedom-based business where your value is no longer tied to your personal time, attention, and presence. Jackpot!!

But now how do you reach those thousands of eager prospects, buyers, and decision-makers?

Let’s look at the next piece of the pie…

3. Webinars – The day I fully embraced webinar marketing back in 2012, my entire business – heck, my entire life – changed dramatically. We are living in an “Attention Economy” – meaning, when it comes to getting clients, you first need to earn their attention and only then do you get the chance to earn their money :o) The #1 best way to deliver massive value to your subscribers, fans, followers, prospects, and buyers is with content-rich webinars that teach actionable strategies, tactics, and tools. You need to be radically helpful and radically generous. This is what converts strangers to friends and friends to prospects and prospects to paying customers who love you, buy, repeat, recommend, and refer like crazy.

But webinars presented here and there sporadically and without a clear strategy are not going to do the trick. So you need…

4. Funnels – A marketing funnel is simply a fancy word for a programmatic sequence of touchpoints – emails, videos, blog posts, webinars, PDFs, and other helpful communications – delivered in a specific sequence to a specific subset of people specifically interested in a certain one of your products, services, or programs. A marketing funnel is your lifeline that keeps you connected to prospects who are at various phases of the buying cycle – from merely interested in the topic (browsers) all the way to committed to investing in your solutions/services (buyers). A well-designed marketing funnel will take a cold lead from initial contact to signed contract in a predetermined sequence designed to both add value, and extend offers and invitations to your relevant investable opportunities. Without a marketing funnel in place, you will never get off the “feast or famine” revenue roller coaster. And worse, you risk alienating people who are NOT interested in buying today while completely missing out on sales to the hot prospects who are ready to buy right now.

But what about long-term stability and predictable revenue? The best way to share your expertise and gain this benefit is…

5. Consulting/Coaching – Having longer-term engagements on your service menu – such as 90-day coaching packages or year-long consulting programs or monthly facilitated mastermind roundtables – is a great way to increase your impact on client results. Remember, people don’t really value transactions – but they VERY much value programs and services that deliver transformation. And delivering results over a sustained period of time is the best way to guarantee your clients’ success. Because of the greater depth, breadth, and duration of these engagements, it is much easier to get premium fees from premium clients who are deeply committed to the transformation you offer that will get them the results they truly want. These longer-term engagements also provide the foundation of your financial stability because the income is significant and ongoing.

But then how do you capture “lightning in a bottle” to let all the folks who can’t afford your consulting or coaching know you are the real-deal resource who can help them when they’re ready to transform?

6. Publishing – One of the best ways to do this is with publishing a nonfiction business book based on the expertise you already have. Writing, publishing, and promoting a business book that captures your methodology, training, and tools is an outstanding way to build your platform, expand your reach, and establish your authority as the “go-to” expert in your specific topic, niche, or industry. After all, you “wrote the book” on it so you must be a highly credible expert. And – some tough love coming up here – your book needs to be excellent. Not just good or very good, but truly great. It does NOT need to belong – in fact, the bestselling business books of all time are less than 120 pages in a small 5×7 trade publishing format. But just writing a book for the sake of having a book (and a crappy one at that) is definitely not going to help promote your expertise. That’s why the book needs to be marketed, launched, and sold for the long-term impact it can have on your professional success.

And what makes all of these components really take off? It’s about how you articulate and distinguish them with your messaging and packaging, which means you need to master…

7. Copywriting – Copywriting has nothing to do with patents, trademarks, and copyright notices ;o) “Copy” is written content conveyed through online media and print materials. Copywriting is one of the most essential elements of effective marketing and successful selling. It is the art and science of strategically delivering words (whether written or spoken) that get people to take some form of action. Good copy resonates with the reader and is relevant, valuable, attractive, and effective in communicating the value, impact, results, outcomes, and emotional payoffs tied to investing in and benefitting from your products, services, or programs. The better you are at copywriting, the more prospects, leads, and sales you will generate because you’ll be able to quickly get your prospects to “get it, need it, and want it” when considering buying from you.

Bam!! There you go.

If you want some guidance on how to put these exact pie slices together for YOUR business, check out https://www.expertprofitformula.com/

Categories
Entrepreneurship Personal Development

Innovation and the Coronavirus Pandemic

Innovation and the Coronavirus Pandemic

The world-wide Coronavirus pandemic has changed or is about to change virtually everyone’s life.

As we deal with this is a terrible situation it is important to keep in mind that innovation can be used to address many of the challenges the world is now facing.

Just like President John F. Kennedy’s commitment in 1961 to “land a man on the Moon, and return him safely to the Earth” ushered in a decade of incredible innovations, so can the fight against the Coronavirus and the preparation for future pandemics, provide mankind with tremendous innovative advances.

To get some perspective of the possibilities of innovations that might be developed in our current Coronavirus pandemic just look at some of the innovations that resulted from an “all hands on deck” effort to try to land a man on the Moon:

  1. Air purification technologies
  2. Artificial limbs
  3. Freeze-dried foods
  4. Insulin pumps
  5. Materials that improved radial tires
  6. Memory foam
  7. Polymers for heat resistance
  8. Solar cells
  9. Technologies required for CAT scans and MRI’s
  • The technology necessary for LASIK surgery
  • Water filtration technology
  • Wireless headsets

But, keep in mind the goal for true innovation should not just be the acceleration of current trends like online operations, hosted-environments, and the gig-economy, but truly new innovations.

The overarching objective for innovations should not just be to ameliorate short-term difficulties, but ones that address long-term challenges that will exist after the Coronavirus crisis.

Three Foundations of Innovation

To foster innovation in each of our lives we need to focus on the three foundations of innovation, which are:

  1. See every problem we incur in our daily lives as an opportunity for an innovation
  2. Innovations are not limited to some magical new invention, but include a wide range of ideas that result in “doing something in a better way”
  3. There are 9 different types of innovation, not just new products and services

What are these 9 different types of innovation?

  1. New products and services—Using innovation to develop new products and services (e.g., new cell phone or cloud-based service).
  2. Cost reductions and productivity gains—Applying innovation to lower operating expenses or to become more efficient (e.g., a process to reduce wasted material in manufacturing activity or using new software that enables field service personnel to be more productive).
  3. Customer experience improvements—Separate from new products and services is coming up with ideas to improve your customers’ overall experience in interacting with you (e.g., giving customer support personnel greater latitude and power to solve customer problems during the first call).
  4. Employee satisfaction and engagement increases—Using innovative thinking with regard to how employees are treated that enables you and your personnel to work as partners (e.g., developing a true team environment or implementation of an incentive compensation plan tied to customer satisfaction surveys).
  5. Supply chain and vendor interaction enhancements—Working with suppliers and vendors to explore joint development of innovative initiatives so that you and they operate in concert (e.g., Wal-Mart’s joint development of RFID [Radio Frequency Identification] inventory tracking with its supply chain).
  6. Market reorientations—Applying an existing product or service to new markets (e.g., Arm & Hammer utilizing their baking soda in laundry detergent, toothpaste, pet care, etc.).
  7. Business organization restructurings—Using innovative thinking to establish new ways to organize and operate your company to provide competitive advantages (e.g., Hewlett Packard’s reorganization into Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Hewlett Packard, Inc.).
  8. Environmental impact advances—Applying innovation to environmental issues (e.g., development of a system that provides real-time monitoring of specific smoke-stack pollutants that enables immediate adjustment of the equipment generating the pollutants).
  9. Societal enrichments—Using innovation to improve a society (e.g., having prison inmates train service dogs who are provided to returning soldiers to help with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Two Related Coronavirus Crises

Health experts have stated that there a two separate, but related Coronavirus crises.

First, the Coronavirus health pandemic itself and second the epidemic of loneliness and isolation being felt by people as a result of the “shelter in place” and social distancing guidelines being practiced by so much of the world.

In this newsletter, I would like to look at how innovation can be used to address the seclusion and lack of companionship challenges that we will face as long as it remains unwise to gather together.

To address this isolation, we have to create a virtual environment that can emotionally sustain and support people.

To do this we will need to see an eruption of creativity and innovation as people use technology to create a nurturing virtual ecosystem.

This creativity can evidence itself in two basic ways.

First, improving existing technology, such as ways to improve video chats and push critical information to cell phones. As we use the current tools there will be plenty of opportunities for seeing ways to improve them

Second, developing entirely new innovations. This involves going about your day and when the thought “I wish…” or “Wouldn’t it be a great idea if…” comes to mind, then come up with a solution that will address the issue.

Examples of “Shelter in Place” Coronavirus Innovations

Let’s begin by looking at some of the things people are doing already to survive.

In addition to the expected things where people are using smartphones and various forms of video chats to stay in touch with those who are physically distant, we are now seeing virtual yoga classes, virtual dance lessons, virtual church services, virtual dinner parties, that are not just one way, but involve interactive, two-way communication.

People are using Facebook groups to share information that assists neighbors in dealing with the current pandemic situation. Also, a group of public-school teachers, created a Google Doc to share ideas regarding how to teach students during state-ordered school closure.

Users have added innovations to multi-player online gaming platforms and people that can’t party in person have created “cloud clubbing,” which is a virtual party in which D.J.s stream music sets on apps like TikTok and Douyin.

Related to the entire area of virtual human interaction, the prior innovation of Social Media was supposed to improve humanity, but unfortunately, it was used by some persons and organizations to sow distrust and discord. Hopefully, the coronavirus crisis will cause people to come together and break down barriers, rather than erecting them – and there are early indications this is occurring.

A positive outcome from this crisis of isolation would be that the internet would be used to connect with each other, share information and resources, and develop solutions to the challenges that we will face for a while.

The desired outcome from these innovations is we create a virtual environment with is interactive, not just a passive one in which people just read or watch media because research has shown that people who use social media actively by messaging, participating in chats, and making comments are happier than those who are passive consumers of information on the internet.

Where to Start

While you encounter a problem or difficulty as you are practicing “sheltering in place” and following social distancing guidelines and you say to yourself “I wish…” or “Wouldn’t it be a great idea if…” remember to:

  1. See that problem as an opportunity for an innovation
  2. Related to the difficulty, think of ideas that can solve the challenge and result in “doing something in a better way”
  3. Keep in mind there are 9 different types of innovation, not just new products and services

Hopefully the innovations you come up with not only address the current situation of loneliness and isolation but one that solves or addresses a long-term or overall challenge.

Also, keep in mind that there are 100’s of millions, perhaps billions of people experiencing the exact same difficulty as you are, so there is a huge potential market for your innovation

If you could use assistance with developing innovations as we are practicing  “sheltering in place” and following social distancing guidelines, please contact us using the information below so we can be a resource to you in this important area.

Fountainhead Consulting Group, Inc. is an Innovation and Business Planning firm. During the past 17, years we have shown over 1,200 companies how to achieve their goals by using our unique, comprehensive, and systematic FastTrak Innovation Program™, Innovation Academy™, and  Structure of Success™ methodologies. Using the components in these methodologies, each month we examine an aspect of how to transform your business or organization into a true 21st Century enterprise.

Office: (770) 642-4220

www.FountainheadConsultingGroup.com

George.Horrigan@FountainheadConsultingGroup.com