Multiple Platform Posting Strategy

It’s challenging to keep up isn’t it?  There are so many platforms to be on!!

This blog is going to assist you to create a posting strategy that covers multiple platforms in the least fuss as possible.

It’s important to establish something right away. 

WHICH PLATFORMS DO YOU NEED TO CONCENTRATE ON?

There is an abundance of platforms to choose from. The most popular platforms currently are:

Facebook
Linked In
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google +

I would recommend you have a presence on all of the platforms above even if you are not actively posting on them all, it’s worth claiming your name on them before someone else does!

Researching your market is going to help you massively here. Where does your industry dominate? Where are your avatar hanging out? It’s ok to ask your clients what their favourite platforms are, conduct a simple survey via email or when you speak with them.

When you’ve decided which platform is core to your business you can then create or curate (gather from others) content that is a match for that platform. I’m going to assume that for most of you reading this it’s because you are Facebook users and your main platform is Facebook.

My best advice would be to join Buffer. This is an incredible tool for sharing content across multiple platforms.  You can share posts across Facebook , Twitter, Linked In and Google +  (and Pinterest is in trial mode but it will cost to use) …BUT… and yes there is a BUT… not all of your posts are going to be suitable for all of the platforms AND it’s not a good look to have the exact same content going out on each platform at the same time each day. This is where you need a posting purpose and strategy.

There are also other ways of connecting the platforms. There are ways to tell Facebook to post to Twitter for example. I’m going to strongly recommend that you do NOT link in this way. The posts that are designed for Facebook look crap on Twitter when it shares over especially if it’s too many words for Twitter or there is a pic which becomes a link etc. It obvious to your followers that you have automated the sharing of the post and they feel ripped off by the fact that you are not personally there to engage with them. So if you’re thinking about linking platforms together do a test post to ensure it looks sexy on the other site too.

COVERING THE BASICS

When your core platform is Facebook, Buffer is the go.

Facebook posting Purpose: to provide your audience with value or something interesting/inspiring, to inform of events, products & services. Generate leads, sales. Build the Tribe

Posting schedule: From 1 to 3 post maximum per day and only at times that you are able to be there to engage with people. 

Strategy: High engagement on quality content. All content is designed and optimised size, graphics and colours to appear dynamic and compelling specifically for Facebook.

Suitable content: Blogs with featured pic, Quote pics, Articles, Text, Video

Side Note: Blogs & Articles - schedule to Facebook, Linked In and Google + at the same time.  Do separately to Twitter as it creates a different display and requires a small portion of text before the link to look good once posted.

Linked In - the posts you want to share to this platform are the more formal and technical content around your business and industry. You need only schedule a couple of high value posts per week and check in on the days you choose for your posts to appear to engage with people, accept connections, endorse your friends and answer messages.

Google + - share your valuable content to Google + blogs, text posts, pics. The more you give Google, the more content, keywords and expertise to index in it’s search results pages. Aim for a minimum of 3 posts per week. 

Twitter - You can go wild on Twitter. You can post interesting tweets more often and use Buffer to schedule your more valuable links to your blogs each week. If you choose to use Twitter you will need to check in at least once a day to engage with your followers. 

As you can see your content can be shared to at least 3 additional platforms in one hit while having a main focus on Facebook as your core platform.

AS FOR THE OTHERS

Some of the other platforms require a more one on one approach. for example if you use Instagram as a big part of your strategy then you need to share the pic originally through the Instagram app where you are then given the opportunity to share your pics onto your Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr profiles.

Similarly if Pinterest is your strategy you will need to share the original posts to Pinterest by uploading or pinning them to a board and then using the share functions from within the app to share to Facebook and Twitter.

By the time you cover all 6 platforms your strategy is quite large and complex, it’s easy to experience overwhelm at the thought of keeping up with all. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

The best strategy is to focus 80% of your effort into the platform/s that work for you. Do not try and create a winning strategy on every single platform (until you have a team of social media managers to support you). Focus on creating a presence that tells a story about your brand and directs people to find out more about you - in the place you’re hanging out.

Ensure that all of your profiles are complete with links to your website and links back to your core social profiles. 

Work more on creating massive value for your audience in the one place that they gather and then filter out that value across the other platforms for the sake of continuity and that odd person who will find you on your “other” profiles.

And remember just because you CAN link & share content from one platform to the next…doesn’t always mean you SHOULD.

Happy posting everyone :) Leave your questions in the comments below.

How-to Grow Your Facebook Likes

This is a popular question and there are so many ideas shared by so many people in so many blogs all over the internet so my mission is to make this the last one you'll need to read on subject.

Firstly I'm going to take it right back to something that you may not have been advised on in any other blog.

I'm going to suggest to you that the most important thing you need to know is your AVATAR (your customer) you need to know this person so well and with incredibly specific detail.

If you haven’t got a clear picture of the perfect customer for your product or service then how can you possibly create a Social Vibe that attracts that person to your tribe?

Identifying your Avatar and getting super clear on how to communicate with them is going to help you in ALL areas of your business not just the Social part of it. This is a step that you cannot miss, it's a MUST DO.

You may be thinking...well where do I start with THAT...well ...lol... here’s a FREE Design Your Avatar worksheet for you to download. You're welcome :)

Once you have that amazingly clear picture of who you are speaking to then you can create an effective strategy that actually works to attract the right people to you.

I'm assuming you are reading this blog because you are serious about building your business on Facebook, so it won't surprise you to know that you need a serious marketing strategy.

This does not need to be some fancy 20 page report but it does need commitment to doing what it takes.

That being said...the number one strategy for building your likes on Facebook is...

#1 Put your money where your post is!

The fastest way to grow your page consistently - is to allocate some money to paid Facebook advertising. If you are serious about growing your page for your business then this is the way to get in front of the right people.

LIKE ADS

Facebook has THIS PAGE dedicated to giving you the info you need to get a "Like" ad started. It even lists the size of the pic you will need, how much text you have available to you and shows you what this kind of ad will look like to everyone

Now you do NOT need to spend lots of money on this. You can grow your Facebook page likes by as little as $20 per month.

You'll notice you get to choose details about your target audience, so it's a good thing you know your Avatar well enough to be able to refine your target audience enough to capture their attention.

BOOST POSTS

If you write a blog then this is a brilliant strategy for not only getting new likes to your page but also more views to your blog.

Again you do NOT need to spend a lot of money to get this going. Decide how much and how often and boost the blogs that offer massive value to your audience. Not only will your $$ get your blog viewed by the right people but they'll share it too and spread the word further than your initial investment took you.

RUN COMPETITIONS

People love competitions and they jump at the chance to be in them. You do need to comply with legal rules to do it right and not have it pulled down or be fined or worse still your business page suspended.

I found this awesome blog that explains it really clearly so if you wanted to explore that option then check it out here - How to run a (legal) Facebook competition

#2 Network like crazy 

Join with other people who are doing the same as you - looking for likes and support for their Facebook business page.

LISTS

I recently created a "List" on Facebook called Tribe Builders where we have come together to support each other by liking, commenting and sharing posts on each others pages. Not only does this boost engagement for the pages involved it also generates new likes from new followers networks who are seeing their friends activity on these pages.

GROUPS/PAGES

There are a myriad of groups and pages for small business owners/Entrepreneurs that do something called Follow Friday where you get to share your page in return for liking the other pages shared.

If you want to find groups you can search Facebook or ask me for ideas. I belong to Blog Chicks - For Aussie Women Bloggers and I am a business owner in Victoria, Australia.


INVITE YOUR FRIENDS

I know some people think it's weird inviting your friends to like your page but it's really not. You'll find they will be honoured to support you. They may not be your ideal customer but they will add to your like total, like the things they like and engage with you by commenting on your page. All of that tells Facebook that your page is valuable and that it should let more people see it in their news feed.

#3 BE Irresistibly Valuable 

Give, Give, Give and then Give some more.
Be helpful.
Be kind.
Show that you care.

People will be drawn to you.

Everywhere all over the world that person [your avatar] is looking for you.
YOU have the answers they want.
YOU have the cool thing that they need.

And then when they find you they will find someone so irresistibly valuable they will want to share you with their friends and they will invite their friends to like your page.

And this is the moment where your tribe builds your tribe.

Simple and powerful.

I trust this has been extremely valuable for you and you now have some simple and effective ideas to use to create a strategy for generating likes to your Facebook page.

At the end of the day always ALWAYS come back to #3 - because it doesn't really matter how much money your throw at it or how many places you hang out, if you're not valuable then you won't be valued. The market is swimming in a sea of content, products, services. Stand out. Be memorable.

#BuildYourTribe

It's up to YOU. Lead the way!

How you show up online counts. Just because people cannot see your face, doesn’t mean they can’t SEE you.

There is more written and photographic evidence of you, your history, your behaviour, your everything online, than if you had a store that people only met you briefly off the street in.

“Every time you post a photo, or update your status, you are contributing to your own digital footprint and personal brand.” A.Martin

So I'm wondering...

How are you showing up? 

Are you showing up to serve your community?

Are you there to give?

Are you there to take care of the big and the small?

What is the digital footprint you are creating for yourself?

Are you showing up as a leader?

It may not seem like it, or it may not have occurred to you but your own leadership development is essential to your businesses success online.

Great leadership means you openly respect and show gratitude for your online community.

Great leadership means you appreciate the little things are just as important as the big things, and you don’t wait around for someone else to take care of them YOU take care of them.

Great leadership means you can articulate what’s valuable to your online community and share it with them.

Great leadership means you know how to manage your language and tonality through the tough times as well as the fun times.

Great leadership also means you have standards that you show up with, are a shining example of, and are uncompromising about.

What standards do you have in place for:

- Answering questions

- Expressing gratitude

- Celebrating your communities successes

- Respecting peoples beliefs

You are the leader of your online community. You set the standard. You teach everyone else how to treat each other. 

It’s up to YOU. Lead the way!

If you hadn’t thought about your position as a leader online then I trust this blog has inspired you to take a moment to reflect on how you are showing up and the standards you have in place for yourself and your community.

If there's anything you would like me to blog about to assist you in your online business developments then please leave me a message in the comments below.

If you find my blogs valuable hit the share button and help me reach more people.

With gratitude

Teash xx

Are you compelled to stop?

Are you trying to get people to STOP and look at your business by throwing it in their face?

CHECK OUT THIS COOL THING!!

HERE'S WHAT WE OFFER!!

STOP!!

LOOK HERE!!

In this day and age people using Social Media are absolutely drowning in a raging torrent of content before their eyes. Have you watched yourself as you scroll through your home page? Have you ever stopped to appreciate the sheer speed at which you process information? The only way to keep up with it all is to develop your “scanning muscle”.

You know what you like, the words, the picture, the expressions, the story, so you’re only going to stop scrolling when it catches your eye and compels you to stop.

For a business owner to compel you to stop long enough to “come in and stay awhile and get to know them” is a really tough gig.

That’s why this check list is crucial to consider. How you set up your virtual business environment is everything. 

Ask yourself these 4 questions

1. Are you driving your MISSION with burning PASSION?

2. Does your mission embrace others with a sense of BELONGING?

3. Do your followers feel as though they can significantly CONTRIBUTE to that mission?

4. Are you rewarding your followers when they do contribute and making them feel SIGNIFICANT?

Mission, Passion, Contribution, Significance, Belonging - these words alone create a compelling feeling inside of you - can you feel it?

Imagine the virtual environment you can create for your followers and the stories they would be compelled to share when they feel passionately about belonging to a significant mission that they contribute to.

I would love to hear what your mission is. Leave me a comment below :)

5 Simple Steps to creating your Advertising Masterpiece

Advertising is an art and the best ads really are like Masterpiece’s. You see it, you know it’s an ad, but you can’t look away. It sucks you in. 

There are top marketers and human behaviour specialists that have done extensive research into what languages, sounds and images to use for each product and person out there. They know what we want to hear /see and they set out to tell/show us exactly that.

For those of you just getting started on creating advertisements for your business, here is a great structure to get you started into creating great ads. This could be useful for brochures, flyers, online video ads…

So here are the 5 simple steps to help you create a Masterpiece Ad of your own.

1. KNOW who you’re talking to. 
- What picture or graphic is going to make them stop? 
- What keywords will spark their interest?
- What’s their main concern that if they had an answer to it all their christmases would come at once.

2. State the PROBLEM they’re experiencing.
- Don’t you hate it when…?
- Is this happening for you?
- Are you tired of…?

3. Demonstrate your expertise.
- Show them that you know what you’re talking about. 
- Give examples of the results you have achieved for others.

4. Present the solution.
- What’s your cool thing that will help them?
- Give them an opportunity to know if it’s a match for them.
- Let them know who it’s not a match for.

5. Call to action
- Show them how to find out more
- What do they click on next?
- Who do they call?

Have a closer look at ads next time you’re flicking past them on Facebook. Have a go at identifying which parts of the structure they’ve used.

What made you flick past it? 

What made you stop?

What sparked your interest? 

What turned you off?

Notices which ads have the most likes, comments and shares. 

Notice the colours that stand out the most.

Notice the emotional trigger an image gives you.

Which video ads get the most engagement?

There’s so much we can learn and model from what’s out there. Allocate some time especially to discovering what’s working and what’s not.

Observe, play with it, test it out, tweak it up, learn & grow.

Happy Creating!

Hater's gonna hate.

There are some really nasty people out there - as you know.

There are people who make it their life’s mission to misbehave on people’s Youtube video’s, Facebook Ad’s, Photo’s, Blog’s you name it they’ll defame it.

They’ll post nasty comments, dumb comments, death threats, pornographic pictures, bad reviews that you just cannot get rid of and sooooo much more, yep I’ve seen it all.

In some instances you can delete the comments and in some you can’t. 

I would highly recommend you take nasty comments with a “grain of salt” and where possible DELETE & BAN. Do not hesitate to remove them from your space and if they keep finding a way back in REPORT them. And if you don’t know what to do ASK FOR HELP.

If you cannot remove them from the space (due to restrictions from the site you might be on) then flat out ignore them. 

Fires can only burn where fuel is provided. Douse it quickly, with your silence.

You owe them nothing.

You also cannot SAVE them.

Save your energy for those who are genuinely looking for your help.

If the haters want saving they will be inspired by your graceful example of calm leadership and they will come to you. 

Not sure which course of action to take?  Sometimes you need to:

Need further advice? Send me a message on my page Social Vibes. 

How a Rockstar was made.

Ok Ok not really a Rockstar LOL It's just me...Teash...the one they say rocks and they call Star...It's my journey from zero belief in myself to a list of skills I could never have imagined possible!

It was about 12 years ago where it all started for me. I was a single Mum with one child on the pension and it was challenging. I did not think I had any REAL skills, you know the ones that could offer me employment in anything other than waiting tables, washing dishes or cleaning hotel rooms.  

However a friend of mine saw the potential in connecting me to the world wide web and bought me a very basic computer for $200. To say I was grateful would be an understatement.

Life as I knew it completely changed from that moment. The first thing I did was enrol myself in a distance education course studying Information technology. In my holidays I would enter competitions to win my son the toys that I couldn’t afford to buy him. In 2 years I spent about 9 months of that entering competitions (I did quite well by the way, around $8000 in prizes).

What that gave me was so much more than some cool prizes. There was a massive online community around 20,000 people who were registered in the forum. I was really fired up and passionate about helping people succeed in that space. I would help people in the forum, teach them what they needed to know, make their lives a little easier and I did it because I loved doing it.

It didn’t take long for the team running the site to invite me to join the team and become a forum admin. I absolutely loved doing that and found I had lots of opportunity to use my new skills from my course in IT to assist the users and I loved being a part of the team keeping the site running smoothly, archiving old competition listings and moving things around if they were posted by a user in the wrong place. 

I completed another IT certification that was specifically for IT Support and then moved up again to the next level of certification and almost finished that too (life kinda found a new priority for me just before I finished the last module so I chose to let it go) then when the space was clear to study some more I found The Coaching Institute and enrolled in the Diploma of Life Coaching. 

That was 4 years ago now and at that time TCI did not have much of a presence on Facebook. One weekend a couple of us enthusiasts that were longing for the connection of other coaches gathered together and with the inspired challenge from Sharon Pearson to fill a Facebook Group with 1000 coaches in 3 days we set to work, and yes, by midnight Sunday we had filled the group.

Again I had a platform to do what I loved which was to help people get the most out of the space and connect them with the resources they needed. Within around 6 months of just being me and doing what I loved - helping people, I was invited to join the TCI Team.

Fast forward 4 years and I have been blessed with the incredible mentoring, teaching, opportunities and support of being a team member with TCI and employed to do exactly what I love. My skills have increased exponentially to include successful strategies in Social Media Marketing, Community development, Leadership development, Team Culture development, Brand Culture development, Content curation, production and design. TCI's Social Media presence and the standard it is delivered in is as world class as the service it provides. 

Now the space has opened up for me to do something more, I now have an opportunity to teach people these awesome strategies and help people learn and get the most out of Social Media for their businesses so they too can have outstanding results. 

And so Social Vibes has been born and with this new platform I want to help people create a business environment that cares for their clients no matter how much distance is between them. As the world becomes more digitally focused we must focus on learning how to draw our attention in even closer to serving from the heart even when it cannot be seen, heard or felt in real life. 

Via Social Vibes service I will do that by assisting small business owners to begin their social media platforms with great strategies in place that allow that servants heart to shine through setting up standards in communication and service delivery and bringing a Virtual WOW element in all they do. 

I will teach this without the overuse of tech jargon and make it simple and easy to do, no matter where they’re at, in terms of marketing or IT skills.

Using the hashtag #BuildTheTribe the tips out there are available to find easily if you know how (if you don’t know how to use hashtags or what they are you can find it out in my very simple explanation blog right HERE).

I look forward to making many many lives so much easier. Perhaps even YOUR life :) Please feel free to connect with me on Facebook, Instagram, Linked In, Pinterest & Twitter. 

Chat soon!

Hashtags - What are they and what's the fuss?

You’ve heard about them. 

You’ve seen them.

You may have even tried to USE them.

You’ve probably seen them OVERUSED. #afullsentencehashtag

What on earth are they???

Well…let me explain.

I’ll leave the jargon right out of it too.

A hashtag is a word, any word or string of words, that has a # symbol in front of it. 

Anyone can decide which word or topic they want to use as a hashtag. 

You’ll find hashtags used on places like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google + and Tumblr (just to name a few) and the idea is that, if you post a post and include the hashtag in it, then when you go to the hashtag stream, you will see all the other posts on, let’s say Facebook, that everyone else has posted, who also used that hashtag in their post.

Let me give you an example to make that even clearer. 

 I use #BuildTheTribe on some of my posts and my mission is to build up a whole bunch of useful tips on how you can build your tribe on social media. So rather than you having to scroll through my Social Vibes page to find all the great tips, all you need to do is type #BuildTheTribe into the search bar at the top of your Facebook page.

Then what you will get is a whole stream of posts that have used that hashtag.

Have a go right now.

See it?

Cool huh? :)

The other way to quickly access the hashtag stream is to click on the hashtag when you see it. Have you noticed that the word is blue when it’s a hashtag? That’s because it has turned into a link, like the same as you would see a link to a page on the internet. 

You will notice there are people you don’t know in that hashtag stream. This is your opportunity to check them out, like a networking event for Social Media :) You might like what they do and want to connect. Boom. Virtual Networking.

Like anything it’s very easy to use once you know how. So go ahead and click on the next hashtag you see..you won’t break the internet! 

Happy Hashtagging folks :)

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Fall Madly & Deeply in Love with your Goals

You know those things you enjoy doing the least, those things that you leave until last, so they become one of those things you do quickly to get them over and done with...? 

Don't let your GOALS become one of "those things".

This is why we are encouraged to go to so much effort in planning and visualising our goals. We are encouraged to draw them, write them, have them in full view and celebrate their achievement. 

I'm going to take it that little bit deeper and suggest that you fall madly and deeply in love with them. Make them so compelling that your very being will experience cognitive dissonance if it's not doing something each day, no matter how small so long as it's something to work towards it.

Bring an energy of love, appreciation, gratitude, joy and enthusiasm to each and every little step you take that moves you closer to your goal.

Keep your spirit invigorated with a burning passion...this is of course YOUR life by YOUR design ~ LOVE it!! :)

Valuing Building a Positive Team Spirit

One thing that is really notable about the environment at TCI is the team all really gets along.  They really genuinely care about one another. It’s quite a contrast to the bitchy backstabbing office environments that are all too common out there in the world.

Going to work with a group of people that you love being with is an extremely inspiring and satisfying thing.  Working, playing, respecting and being present with one another creates a space where people care and will go above and beyond because we believe in and trust in one another.

This can be attributed to the fact that Value #10 - Building a Positive Team Spirit matters so much that’s it’s one of our core values and we strive for it everyday.  Not only that but when you have a values driven culture that brings out the best in everyone then everyone is encouraged to be even better by the best they see in each other.

Recently in a small part of the team we noticed the team spirit was not being nurtured. Everyone had gotten so busy and focused on achieving their own results they dropped the standard of this value and began working in silo’s…the positive team spirit within 2 weeks took a nose dive and people started to take sick days for a break to recover, meetings were not had and communication was poor.

All that in 2 weeks of not fighting for this value, I can only imagine what a workplace is like that doesn’t even acknowledge this as something that matters!!

Here’s some questions you can ask yourself and even create intentions for your day with, to ensure you are being the example of building a positive team spirit in your team, business or even family!

• Have you shown respect in every conversation you’ve had today?
• Are you holding yourself and others accountable when you are not contributing to building a positive team spirit?
• Who have you encouraged today? Who did you shut down?
• Are you serving those you also lead?
• Are you being the example of excellence?
• Are you bringing out the best in others?

Have a positively awesome day everyone and please encourage the best in me to do more by liking, commenting or even sharing my blog if you found it valuable. 

Valuing Modelling Excellence

From the moment we are born we become experts in modelling. We watch our community for cues on how to be in this world. 

How to walk, talk, do, be, think, believe, behave…

Then there comes the time when we move into independence and we start choosing the models for ourselves. Now depending on what shaped you in your early years your models may lead you to success or to some serious life lessons.

For the sake of this blog I’m going to assume you’re here to be inspired on modelling those that lead you to success of the variety that you'v not yet experienced. Like the opening pic quote from Thomas Jefferson it says “ If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done” - That “want something” could be results or things of any kind and that "do something" is that thing you're yet to learn.

What do you want to get really good results with? 

What do you want to have? 

Let’s explore how to…

A great place to begin would be to model a great strategy for modelling. 

This is value # 9 for us at TCI and its a foundation value for delivering consistently outstanding results.

At TCI we learn from Sharon (a master modeller) to do this:

Find a successful model of excellence

Learn the strategy

Do the strategy until you get an outstanding or even better result

We also have a strategy of excellence for learning & growing that goes like this:

Learn > Implement > Teach

It’s important to then BECOME the model of excellence. Albert Einstein says “If you can’t explain it simply then you do not understand it enough” let that be a benchmark for you, not only do you achieve the results but you then pay it forward and help others achieve the results too.

I am running the Learn > Implement > Teach strategy right now. I have learned the TCI Values from a model of excellence (SP) > Implemented the TCI Values everyday > Am teaching YOU right now my understanding of each value as simply as I can.

To begin go ahead and have a fresh look at your 90 day goals and identify which of them you have a models of excellence for and which you need to find a model of excellence for. Then get researching! We live in an abundant age of information it’s all at your finger tips. Go for it!

I trust this blog has been of value to you. As always please like, comment or share to let me know you’ve visited and it’s inspired you in some way. “See” you again soon.

Valuing Learning & Growing

Valuing learning and growing ripples out into every aspect of our lives. 

As an infant learning and growing was unquestionable, a matter of survival even. 
As a child it’s a must to get through school.
As an adult, for many, it is a choice, a choice to learn…or not.
As a team member at TCI it is embraced with an insatiable hunger.

It has to be. 
We want the business to grow.
WE want to grow. 

It’s even more than that too. 
Who wants to be in a job that only utilises the things you know how do, same tasks day in day out…looks boring just writing it. 
If that’s what you like then by all means rock on…if not - I’m sure you’ll agree, you’re up for a good challenge, passionate even.
Bring it!

Everyday we are faced with challenges. 
We can choose to see them as problems to hold us up or see them as opportunities for us to learn and grow.  Get passionate and determined about learning what you need to learn.

Take a moment right now to reflect on the last week.
Think about the opportunities you had to learn and grow…did you embrace them?
What books did you read to learn more?
What Youtube tutorials did you watch?
What did you Google & research on the net?

For those of you who already value learning and growing and would love to model an awesome strategy, I share with you something that Sharon Pearson (CEO of The Coaching Institute) shared with us on her Facebook page the other day.

“Here's a frame I use to learn a lot of information:

1. Figure out the actually purpose the information, so whatever is being learned must assist in the achievement of that outcome

2. Identify all the main categories of experience needed to achieve that outcome - so, for example, in email marketing, I would identify the subject headline, the opening, the content, the language, the call to action, the PS etc

3. In each of those categories, determine the crucial areas needed to succeed - yep, for each of them

4. Compare what I identified with best practice (for example, I would study Frank Kern's emails to see if I've matched his emails)

5. Practice my own version (and suck)

6. Practice my own version, and compare it again to best practice

7. Practice again (and suck less)

8. Implement

9. Document, and teach

10 Rinse and repeat.

Trust that helps”

I would love to leave you with this one final quote by Ray Kroc

"You're either Green & Growing, or you're Ripe & Rotting"

As always please like, share and leave a comment if you found this blog valuable.  Have a great time learning and growing and remember to pay it forward and teach it to others. 

Valuing Embracing & Driving Innovations & Improvements

Imagine for a moment. 

Everything that once was, is no longer. 

Everything that you had in place, gone. 

Everything you had made, undone. 

Or lets think about it in another way.

Everything that once was, got outdated.

Everything you had in place, lost it’s place in the market.

Everything you had made, someone else did it better.

I have seen the last one with my very own eyes play out on Facebook. One business owner who had been creating a handmade product for years and selling them at markets all of a sudden had a huge following online. Within that following were people who loved the creations and wanted to create them for themselves. These little creations began appearing and being sold in many cases for much less.

What did that business owner do? Well…one option could have been to accept the challenge and raise their competitors with something new and amazing that was again unique to them but that’s not the option they selected. Instead they chose to put a lot of energy into making a public drama about how terrible the copy cats were and proceeded to berate, abuse, name and shame them. This played out a year ago and I made the decision to remove their profile and page from my list and from what I’ve heard on the grapevine, it’s still going on today!

CHANGE IS THE BIGGEST CONSTANT. 
CANI (Constant And Never-ending Improvements) is a MUST.

For businesses that are excited at the potential for change and improvements, scenario’s like the one described above, is what gives them the passion and determination to be continually staying ahead of the game, to be continually providing a high quality and unique service. At TCI this is Value #7 and for anyone who does not enjoy change, need not apply. 

Anyone can copy what you do, in fact it is the very essence of human nature, from the moment we are born we proceed to copy the things and people around us.  What they cannot copy is the uniqueness that is YOU, what you bring to your service & products. The key is to be continually learning and growing and developing into the best version of you and producing a creative expression of that into everything you do. No-one can copy that.

So if you had to find a way to do everything differently right now. How would you do it?

If someone copied everything you did. How could you make yours better?

Do you set aside time to have a “dream session”? A time where you ask yourself. If we had all the resources - time, money, skills etc what would we do differently, better, more? This is a powerful way to innovate, it’s takes all of your newly learned knowledge and turns it into possibilities.  A famous quote by me (LOL) “Whoever said ‘Get your head outta the clouds’ never knew the possibilities that existed there” DARE TO DREAM!

Here’s some questions for a stocktake of how much you are valuing, embracing and driving innovations and improvements:

- BIG change is happening, is your biggest thought EXCITEMENT - or fear?

- Are you really embracing the changes, or are you merely surviving them?

- When was the last Dream Session you had?

- When was the last massive change in your business?

- How do you stir things up and help the people around you embrace change too?

As always please like, share and leave a comment if you found this blog valuable.  Have some fun creating chaos! Live your dream!

Valuing Out of the Box thinking

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."    Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was a very smart man and to this day one simple quote can still change the way we think about things to the point of fast tracking our success.  Reflecting on the Einstein quote above, if we all took a moment right now I'm pretty confident that each one of us could identify at least one task that has become repetitious and mundane and might get a good result but not a GREAT one. 

Unless we challenge the status quo on that task we may never give ourselves the opportunity to discover how much greater the result could be and what growth that would allow for.  Complacency will destroy anyones business. We live in a very fast paced society where new shiny things are lighting up the eyes of consumers every minute of everyday. It literally would be INSANE to keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting our business to expand. 

Is your business still an adventure?

At TCI this is Value #6 for us. It's so very important to us to LEAD in the industry because our mission is to Inspire the Extraordinary. We won't inspire the extraordinary in anyone if we simply hum along like a well oiled ship that's cruising a calm sea...no way! It's a well oiled ship with a strong foundation crashing through the waves others are seeing from a distance! 

We approach situations and challenges with an open mind, creative thinking, interesting angles and a sense of excitement and adventure for the unknown. We model others then challenge that too, stamping our own unique signature on everything we do creating new paths and possibilities.  

Here's some questions you can ask yourself at any time to check in with how much you're valuing out of the box thinking over status quo:

- Think about a recent task you did GOOD.  Is complacency limiting the thinking keeping it from being GREAT?

- Do you hear yourself saying "That's the way it's always been done" 

- How have you challenged the status quo and ask how can I do this better, differently?

- How have you stretched the thinking of OTHERS today?

- Are you being adventurous and creating new?

- Is out of the box thinking something you'll save to do only when you have the time?



As always please like, share and comment if my blog has inspired you to think even a little differently outside the box :)