LeadershipTalk

Fortunately or unfortunately I needed customer service this week for my Web site and design needs. Let me say, I was amazed. GoDaddy has great service, over the top, couldn't help enough, looked for more ways to save money and ensure I was getting all I needed. Someone use them as a model!!! If more companies realized your marketing starts internally before it really can be the best externally, profitability would prevail. I'll be back GoDaddy. I'll spread the word, I'll talk about the lady that was incredibly helpful, and further, I will provide free marketing for you as I talk about your services to my friends. Everyone, look at your companies. Starts with staff, training, leadership, accountability, bringing your whole self to work.

Why not? We are always encouraged to think outside the box, but who says there isn't a window you've been looking through for some time and wish you were outside? In that area where the grass is always greener. Where if you had just _____, and you can fill in the blank here, your business, your staff, your association, your Board, your family, etc. would truly be better, happier, wealthier, more in tune, in touch, productive, happy, all of that. This is it! Open the window. The box you are in has a window! Who knew? All this time you really thought you couldn't get out without a great deal of thinking. You have a free ticket. This is the point in time you make the decision to change it all up. To be in the moment, be creative, look for alternative ways, set your staff free to think with you, brainstorm with your partner, talk with your family, and meet with a focus group of your association to really make a difference. Today is so much further removed from 6 mo...

Its usable in sports, acceptable as one of the rules, and also in tag when you were a kid. Time out. Don't you wish you could get some time out to think, be creative, chill for awhile, have everything in the world stop and give you some moments to gather your thoughts and energy? Really? Why wouldn't we? In the middle of thinking through a huge decision that means using your resources to market, to spend time on Social Media, to use a chunk of change to upgrade the technology for your company ~ you name it ~ wouldn't you really like a time out? Not today. Not tomorrow. Decisions at the speed of sight. Snooze you lose. All those euphemisms. My advice? Stay on it. Use your time wisely. Work smarter, not harder. Work to keep marketing and part of all that you do, but also teach everyone in your company they are part of the sales staff, the marketing department and the customer service. Today you are being branded every nano second by your customers and your st...

Back to my blog commitment! In my training classes I emphasize the importance of Social Media reminding everyone about how many said a few years ago that they didn't have time for email or the Internet. I am my own student, of course. Life gets busy and, like everyone, it is easy to get caught up in all that surrounds us each day. You lay your head on the pillow at night and promise yourself you WILL post the next blog and all the other things we all do to stay relevant, in the game, on top of the pile, ready to join, you name it. Be in the moment. There are millions more ready to push you over the ledge into the pile of nondescript marketers or other companies that ARE ensuring they are THERE.

the only way to change is to stop doing the same thing expecting a different outcome. That has been said so many times before it is worn out. But people keep going back to that. Insurance companies keep insisting new fledgling agents call 300 people they don't know and hope the law of numbers still applies. Marketing isn't the same. This is today. The rank and file must stand up and start thinking and management needs to listen. They are frontline.