Category: Marketing

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Lessons Learned – #5

Each month I write an e-newsletter that focuses on observations in business and life that could be beneficial for readers. The December issue is always a reflection on the lessons I learned during the year. Here is the 5th most important insight I discovered in 2010:

Stand On It – One of my intentions this year was to confidently treach out to anyone who could possibly enhance our success – to play big. This focus attracted conversations with many executives… and each was gracious to provide guidance and referrals. On the personal side, I submitted an application to ‘Be the Boss’ on Sirius/XM’s E Street Radio. They said yes, and I had the opportunity to play my favorite Bruce Springsteen tracks and share stories on the air. Never be shy to raise your hand; it’s the best way to start working on a dream.

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Lessons Learned – #6

This is the sixth most important lesson I learned during 2010:

Few Words – In his bestselling book, “Drive,” Daniel Pink tells the story of how in 1962, Claire Booth Luce told President Kennedy, “A great man is one sentence.” Lincoln preserved the union and freed the slaves. FDR lifted us out of a depression and helped win a world war. Ms. Luce was challenging JFK to narrow his initiatives. ‘What’s your sentence?’ is an excellent question to ask yourself to ensure your mission and work are aligned.

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Lessons Learned – #7

What’s the seventh most important lesson I learned during 2010?

Passages – This year I lost two uncles, an aunt and two cousins. As my friend said, “It’s the stage we are at in life.” I hadn’t spent much time with them in decades, so I decided the best way to pay tribute would be to compile our family tree on ancestry.com – a terrific free website where you can upload stories and pictures of relatives. While it took many hours to add 428 members dating to the 17th century, the historical record should help our next generation connect with their roots.

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Blog This

Recently, a client said he wants to start a blog… yet he has no idea where to begin when it comes to creating content. “You’re a writer, I’m not,” he said. “I’m worried I won’t be able to come up with any ideas. Help me.”

That’s a quandary many folks face when they try to develop thought leadership material on a consistent basis. Since this is my first blog posting in three weeks, you might think I suffer from a similar challenge; however, the reality is I took a vacation, traveled out of town to work with a client’s executive leadership team and stepped back into my former life to produce a series of videos for a client. It’s actually been finding the time to write, not a lack of inspiration, that’s disrupted my plan.

So here’s the approach I recommended to my client to help him get over that ‘writer’s block’ mental hump and, hopefully, allow him to share wonderful ideas with his desired audience. First, keep your eyes open for insights that appear before you. These may come from reading an article, having a discussion with a client or friend, or reveal themselves in a late night dream. The key is to connect the dots with a “that’s something I would like to write about” realization.

Second, keep an ongoing list of these ideas near your keyboard. Then when you’re ready to write, you won’t have to sit down and stare at the screen hoping some idea pops into your head. Third, and this is a new awareness I’m testing today, block time to write four or more entries at once. Then you simply have to schedule them to post at regular intervals. That’s going to be my way of preventing long interludes between musings.

Finally, and this is the most important lesson on writing I learned – and it came in the fourth year of creating my monthly E-Newsletter – never worry about what your readers think. If it’s well thought out, true to what you believe and comes from your heart, then your part is complete. Allow your viewpoint to resonate with those who are open to receiving it.

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Clear Understanding

In 2007, the president of an energy company that engaged me to coach one of their senior executives asked what year we started this business. When I told him 2003, he said, “I believe it takes 10 years to master a craft; you’ve got a ways to go.” At the time I recall thinking he was overstating the education process, or I was far ahead of his learning curve. Now I realize he was right on the mark. I’ve gained more knowledge in the past 18 months about how to best serve clients than I did in the previous six years, let alone the 23 years I spent in other careers.

That’s one reason I spent Memorial Day weekend rewriting our Web site. The first time around in ’03, I created nice prose that sounded pretty good; however, I really didn’t know what I was talking about when it came to explaining the value clients receive from working with us. Three years ago when we updated it the first time, my thoughts were closer to the actual target, although still more style than substance.

I actually committed to this project 13 months ago – and sat down several times to start the process. Yet the words never appeared on my monitor, regardless of how hard I tried to force them… so I set it aside and moved on to things that seemed more urgent. Last week, the inspiration appeared out of nowhere and the words flowed easily from my fingertips.

Three lessons here: 1) If it’s been awhile since your last Web site (or marketing materials) update, you’re likely a lot smarter, so you may want to consider a redux; 2) It takes a decade to become a master, so be patient and keep learning; and, 3) You can’t force things, so when you’re stuck, step aside and ‘wait for it.’

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