Archive for the ‘General’ Category

But I Just Can’t!

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

I talk to a lot of people about coaching and what I do. A question I hear frequently is “What do you do if a client doesn’t do what he or she committed to?”

Good question. I like it because it gives me a chance to talk about one of the biggest values I can bring to a client.

Most people don’t intend to fail to meet commitments. Usually failure to do what you say you will means you are dealing with some sort of roadblock. Let me give you an example.

A client of mine was having trouble growing her business. She knew what she needed to do, and she had some excellent networking skills. But she resisted getting out to meet people, and her follow up was tepid, at best.

When we did some digging, we discovered that she had set a message in her subconscious that she didn’t want to make money! How? Well, a few years back, she’d been facing a possible bankruptcy, and she had decided it didn’t make sense to increase her income until that had been resolved. The situation had been subsequently resolved, but she hadn’t “reset” the message to her subconscious.

I’m happy to report that has been fixed, and she’s now networking and landing lots of new business.

Could she have figured it out on her own? Maybe. But using someone else as a sounding board, preferably one who’s trained at it, can make it a lot easier.

What should you do if you find yourself unable to meet commitments or do what you know you need to do to grow your business?

1. Ask yourself why

Is it time management difficulty? Are you burned out on your business or job? Is your home life making you crazy?

Talk to some friends. Ask them what they see that’s different with you now as opposed to when you used to be more productive. Or ask them what they think might be in your way. Your friends often know you better than you know yourself.

2. Make incremental changes

You didn’t get the way you are overnight, and you won’t change in a day or two. Look at your end goal and then decide on one step to get you in that direction. If your problem is, say, lack of organization, make a commitment to one small change, like cleaning up your desk.

3. Hold yourself accountable (or find an accountability partner)

Accountability is hard. You’ll make progress forward and then feel like you’re slipping back. Having someone else to be accountable to can help. It’s even better if you’re holding your buddy accountable too. Change is easier when shared.

4. Celebrate success!

When you make a step forward, celebrate. Look at what you just did instead of looking at how far you still have to go. Enjoy your accomplishment, and then set your next step to the goal.

Tried all that, and you’re still stuck? That’s a good time to hire a coach. Like me!

Anyone else want to share some stories about how you overcame your roadblocks?

Message Lost In Delivery?

Monday, November 28th, 2011

I recently tried to read 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris. I really wanted to like the book. Many people have said good things about it, and I was interested in the idea behind the book. (Who wouldn’t be?)

However, I couldn’t get into it. Why? Because the messenger and the delivery got in the way of the message. I found the author obnoxious. His stories, while entertaining, were not getting me closer to the answer. Ironic, since one of his main points was to do more in less time. I felt his stories were wasting my time.

But enough about Tim and his book. The point of this post is not to trash him. But look at what I felt. His message might be good, but his delivery was in the way.

Think back to a time you were trying to communicate something. Did the person get it? If not, might there have been a problem with how it was communicated?

Another example. I was reviewing a marketing message for a healthy food product. The packaging told me lots about what the product wasn’t. Gluten free. No dairy. No trans-fats, etc. What was lacking? Did it taste good? Is it smooth? Will it melt like cheese? They didn’t tell me any of those things. For all I knew, it was healthy but tasted like cardboard. I think the message was supposed to be healthy and just like cheese, but that was lost in their delivery.

Here’s one more. Have you ever been oversold by a salesperson who doesn’t know when to shut up. You were ready to write the check or hand over the money, but he wouldn’t stop, so you gave up and left.

These are all examples of when the message was lost in the delivery.

What can you do? To be persuasive, everything has to be in sync. Your message needs to be good. Your tone of voice, posture and words chosen need to advance your goal and be in line with your message.

Let’s look again at the examples above. What could have been done differently.

Well, Tim could have gotten to his point quicker and made his book less about him and more about what’s in it for the reader.

The food ad could have said something like “Tastes like cheese!”

And the salesperson could have listened more, talked less and shut up when you indicated you were sold.

See how it works? Think carefully before sending your next message to be certain your audience hears what you intended and not something else.

Anyone else have a message delivery story to share?

Mobile Search Optimization: Guest Post by Nancy Wigal

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011

On Monday, Nancy Wigal of the Search Engine Academy of Washington DC told us about local search optimization. Now, she’s going to discuss mobile search optimization. Why do you care? Because lots of people have smartphones, and use them to search. Learn how to make it easy for them. Take it away, Nancy!

There are plenty of facts and figures, but the bottom line is, mobile search is growing daily. More and more of us are buying and learning how to use our smart phones to find information and solutions while on the go.

Would your business benefit by offering a mobile version of your website? If you’re a restaurant, food delivery service, movie theatre, or even any type of retail store, the answer is a large YES.

Think about it…you’re out running around. It’s time to buy a new washer and dryer. You’re looking at one set in one place, but you’re wondering if you can get a better deal somewhere else. It’s just too handy and convenient to look up the prices on your smart phone and make an informed decision on the spot.

Restaurants and food delivery businesses absolutely should be mobile and local, first and foremost. When designing your mobile version, be sure that your link to your menus, your locations and the hours you’re open pop up on the screen without scrolling down.

Is your website done in Flash? If so, I have a news flash (I know, not funny) for you: Flash does not render on mobile devices. What this means is your pretty, lovely, absolutely fabulous Flash website shows up like a little tiny blue dot in the middle of a smart phone screen. If your site is done in Flash, you’ll need to shell out even more for a completely different looking mobile website version. Sorry!

Make your phone number clickable as well. Anything you can do to make it easy for the prospect to do business with you is one less person your competition is getting.

Are you a tow truck operator or mobile vehicle repair business? If so, it’s critical that you’re an easy mobile search, plus you want to get listed with 411, Onstar and the other in-vehicle information and notification services so you get called more often.

Local and mobile search is growing daily. Don’t be left behind – review your business listings, consider uploading a mobile version of your site and optimize both your web pages and business listings with the keyword terms your target market uses.”

Thank you, Nancy. Follow her on Twitter: @seowashdc

Have a happy Thanksgiving and see you after the holiday.

Local SEO Optimization: Guest Post by Nancy Wigal

Monday, November 21st, 2011

I recently did a post on the importance of claiming local search places, and Nancy Wigal of the Search Engine Academy of Washington DC added a great comment, so I asked her to elaborate. Take it away, Nancy!

Recently Juli wrote and published “Claim Your Place,” to give you, dear reader, a better understanding of how to get more visitors to your website and traffic to your business location by checking your local business listings on the major search engines.

In response to her wonderful, informative post, I’m writing this post as a follow up to provide a better understanding of two fairly new search engine optimization (SEO) processes – local and mobile SEO.

Local and mobile SEO go together in many cases like peanut butter and jelly. Let’s see how they complement one another, but first let’s talk about local business directory listings.

Companies and businesses that depend upon customers and clients locally to come to their bricks and mortar location need to know that they must take advantage of, and leverage their business listing on large search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Most small businesses that depend upon walk in traffic aren’t aware that they can create local business listings on Google, Yahoo and Bing.

If your business has had a hard copy Yellow Pages ad, it’s highly likely you have generic business listings that you need to “claim,” then customize.

Claiming means you need to create accounts with Google, Yahoo! and Bing, find your generic business listing, verify you are the owner, then customize the listing for better local search results.

There are many good reasons to claim and customize all of your local business listings. You will show up higher more often in local searches, which will drive more traffic to your website and your physical business location.

One very good reason to claim your business listing is to ensure your competition doesn’t grab your listing and either delete it or put in false information that can negatively impact your sales.

Two other great business directories to be listed in is Best of the Web (BOTW) and Universal Business Listing (UBL).

One more that is very, very local is Patch. Patch often drills down to specific sections of cities, so be sure you keep going down to your neighborhood for the most accurate listing possible.

The other good thing about all of these listings is the citation factor Google looks for when ranking and indexing local businesses for local search results. The more listings you have, the more your business looks important to Google.

So how can you optimize for better local search results?

If your business is concentrated on getting customers from specific areas, put that on your website – neighborhoods, zip codes, counties, etc. Put your physical address and phone number on every single page of your website. Make it easy for your visitors to see where you’re located. The search engine spiders and robots also will “crawl” your address for ranking and indexing your pages in local search results.

Many folks do a search for local businesses by typing in a zip code. It’s so easy, it’s a crime NOT to do it! You owe it to your business!

Customize your business listings in the various engines and directories by using keyword phrases your target market is typing in to find your services and products. Add photos and videos, and optimize the titles and captions with variations of your keyword phrase.

Thanks, Nancy! Tune in Wednesday when she’ll talk about mobile search, so people with smartphones can find and buy from you.

Follow Nancy on Twitter. Her handle is @seowashdc

Excerpt from The Enthusiastic Networker

Friday, November 18th, 2011

I hope you saw my announcement on Wednesday that my new book, The Enthusiastic Networker, is available. Today I wanted to give you an excerpt so you’ve got a better idea of what the book is about. Enjoy!

Excerpt from Chapter 2 of The Enthusiastic Networker

Before we begin, we need a common language. What is networking? What is social media? What are the characteristics of a successful networker? And what about referrals?

There are a lot of misconceptions about face-to-face networking. Some think it is another word for soliciting sales. Some think it’s about collecting cards and contacts. Some think it’s only about finding new prospects and clients. Still others think the way I used to:, believing it’s something that only a certain economic class of people do or that it’s what happens on golf courses or at ritzy fundraising benefits.

Social media has almost as many misconceptions. For example:

* It’s only Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (maybe blogging).
* It’s a complete waste of time.
* Only 25-35 year olds do it.
* It’s so essential that it’s the only way to save a business.

Most of these misconceptions do have a certain amount of truth to them. Many people network exclusively among people of their class. Salespeople certainly network to find new prospects. Social media can indeed expand to fill all available time and space. Younger people are, in general, more comfortable with social media than Boomers. And to some extent, you do have to collect a certain number of contacts in your database to be effective.

But at its heart, networking is about building relationships. Hopefully, these relationships will last a lifetime. These relationships will nurture you no matter what you need, whether the need be clients, a new job, or the name of a great plumber.

What Is Networking?

Networking is about helping others. As Zig Ziglar said in Zig Ziglar’s Secrets of Closing the Sale, “You can have everything in life you want if you will just help other people get what they want.” I suspect that he meant that from a sales perspective, i.e., he’s talking about helping others get want they want by selling it to them. But the statement works just as well, if not better, when seen from a networking perspective.

Think about it. If you help someone to get new clients, doesn’t it make sense that he will help you get clients in return? Or if you help someone get a new job, one that is just perfect for her and her career goals, don’t you think she will be highly motivated to help you get what you want?

Of course. That’s what networking is really about. It’s connecting people who need to meet each other. Sometimes, you will be the connector. If you are good at it and do it well, sometimes you will be the connected.

It’s that anticipation of being the connected and the satisfaction of being the connector that develops and maintains the enthusiasm. There’s a real emotional charge about receiving a referral. Sometimes, there’s an even greater charge from giving a slam dunk referral. In either case, you want it again and again. Kind of like an addiction, but in a way that harms no one and helps everyone.

Networking is not about collecting the most contacts. I know someone who boasted that she had thousands of contacts in her Outlook database. She was connected to more than a thousand people on LinkedIn. She went to lots of networking events each month where she met new people and connected them with each other. Sounds like she must be a pretty good networker, right?

Unfortunately, she also constantly complained that she had no clients. How can that be? She knew a lot of people. She went to events and continued to meet new people. How could she not have clients? With so many contacts, she should have had many people clamoring to work with her.

The truth was that she was a contact collector. Yes, she met a lot of people, collected a lot of business cards, and had many LinkedIn connections. But she had a relationship with very few of them. It’s not enough just to know a lot of people. Truly beneficial contacts are people who like you, who trust you, and who know enough about you to give you referrals. And that was the piece she was lacking. The relationship.

Networking Fundamentals: Remember that networking is about building relationships. In life, it’s not the one who dies with the most contacts who wins. It’s the one who has the most people speaking, with love and respect, at his or her funeral.

What is Social Media?

When someone says “social media” a lot of people think Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, maybe MySpace or YouTube. But there’s a lot more to social media than these sites.

I define social media as “any way people meet each other, interact and build relationships online.”

Certainly the five sites above fit that definition. But social media is much broader than that.

Online forums or boards are social media. I hang out in the Wizards of the Coast D&D (Dungeons & Dragons) boards. I also often visit a forum for people who write Torchwood fan fiction (Torchwood is a dark spin-off from the British Dr. Who science fiction series). I mostly lurk on those boards, but if I wanted to, I could certainly build relationships there.

Listservs or email groups like Yahoo! Groups are another form of social media. I’m on the Kindlekorner Yahoo group. It’s been an invaluable source of information about self-publishing, as well as a great place to find free books. Again, I tend to lurk; I can only be active in so many social media channels. But I’ve spent enough time with that group to recognize many of the regulars. Some I like and respect. Some I don’t. Just like interactions in the face-to-face world, social networks bring you in contact with a diverse community. The trick is to sort out those you most want to build relationships with from those better left at arm’s length.

Don’t forget about LiveJournal. LJ combines blogging and social media, so that it’s more personal than, say, WordPress, which is a more traditional blog platform, as is Blogger. LiveJournal is mostly consumer-based, so you’ll find lots of special-interest communities as well as individuals. If you want to connect with a group of people focusing on, for example, dogs, LiveJournal can be more effective and focused than Facebook or Twitter.

My husband loves to play chess. Chess.com is the site he uses to find and play matches with people from around the world. There are lots of social media elements to the site, so even my husband (who insists he doesn’t do the “social media” thing) is active in social media. But don’t tell him, okay?

Given the multitude of options available, it is essential that you identify your purpose and have a reason and a strategy before diving into social media. If your target market is knitting fanatics, Twitter might not be the best place for you to spend your time. But a knitting group on Yahoo! Groups (I found 6515 when I did a search) might be perfect.

Just remember that social media encompasses so much more than Facebook and Twitter.

Liked that? There’s more in the book. Comment and let me know what you liked.

Amazon Lending Library

Friday, November 4th, 2011

You may recall a few weeks back when I posted an article about how Amazon was, in my opinion, being reactive in the ebook space and not innovative. Well, some things have changed, and I wanted to update my comments.

Since that post, Amazon has come out with the Kindle Fire and several new Kindles, including a touch screen model. I had said Amazon needed to respond to the desire to have touch screens on e-readers, and I thought they needed a worthy competitor to the Nook Color.

Looks like they’ve done both, even though personally, there are some things about the Kindle Fire I’m not crazy about (like limited access to competitors’ ebook reader apps). Sure, it maintains their lock on content, but even the new Kobo Vox could load the Kindle app without rooting or otherwise messing with the operating system. At some point, you have to keep customers because they are loyal, not because you metaphorically locked them in jail.

But that’s a post for another day.

The new Kindles, however nice, are still reactive. They don’t push the limits too far. I closed my last post with requesting that Amazon answer a need no one else is answering, and they did that yesterday.

People have been asking for a “Netflix for e-books” for some time, and Amazon just released it yesterday. All Amazon Prime members have access to a limited selection of ebooks, for free, with no due dates.

No one’s really happy with it yet. The selection of books is tiny (about 5000), and you can only borrow one a month. Books by the big publishers still aren’t present, so you might not find that new best seller everyone’s talking about. In addition, it only works on Kindle devices, not apps, so I can’t take advantage of it. (But with the Fire so cheap, I might consider getting one in the future, even though it’s not the device I was hoping for.)

But think about it! Netflix had to build up their streaming content over time, and I’m sure Amazon will do the same. I believe in a couple of years, this will grow and be an excellent way to read ebooks. Publishers want to stop piracy. The music industry learned that the best way to stop piracy was to make content cheap and easy to buy.

Amazon has been trying to make that happen in the ebook space for some time. This is the next step in that process. Let’s see how it plays out, but I’m excited, even though I can’t take advantage of it right now.

Way to go, Amazon! You listened to your customers and are working to keep us happy.

Anyone else have an opinion about the new lending library?

On Offering Advice

Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011

I was at a large trade show recently, where I was selling copies of my networking book. (Yes, I do have a book published. Why haven’t you heard all about it before now? Because it’s not yet available to purchase online. Soon my publisher will get it live, and I’ll post relevant links here. Until then, email me for information on how to get a copy.)

Ahem. Anyway.

Lots of people were offering me well-intentioned advice on what I needed to do to sell my book. Some of it was good. Some not so good. But almost all of it was offered in a tone that implied that I didn’t know what I was doing.

Yes, I am new to published authorship, but I’ve also done a lot of research and planning to lead up to this. I’m sure no one intended to make me feel like an idiot, but a couple did come across that way. (If you’re reading this blog and were at the event, I doubt I’m speaking about you.)

Of course, I was polite to everyone, but it made me think about advice and how we often offer it.

The last time you offered advice, did you inquire first if the advice was welcomed? Did you approach it like, “Have you thought about this?” or did you just come out and say, “You need to do this.”

Advice can be great. It’s also often worth exactly what we paid for it (usually nothing). If you’ve made some mistakes or been in a similar situation before, yes, you may have something to offer. But remember to assume the person you’re advising has already thought things through. Ask some questions before blurting out your advice. Maybe learn what someone’s plan is, then offer improvements to the plan.

After an entire day full of “You need to do this!” I’m giving some real thought to being more aware of what advice I offer and how I offer it. I really don’t want other people to walk away feeling, “Juli thinks I’m an idiot.”

How about you? How do you like to offer advice? How do you like to receive it?

Nook Color As Tablet

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

A few months ago, I wrote an article about using my Nook Color as a tablet. That article was written when I was using the stock OS. About a week ago, I finally broke down and bought the N2A card for my Nook. Umm, why did I wait so long? Seriously.

Basically, I was using my Nook as an ebook reader, Evernote-taking, some light web browsing and word processing. And that’s basically what I’m still using it for. Only, I’ve got better apps and more options.

Let’s start at the beginning. Obligatory screen shot

Home screen on my Nook Color

Taking that would have been easier on my stock Nook Color. I had to download an app to do it on my rooted one. But, it’s okay..

No, the important thing here is not the picture of James McAvoy, though it is nice, isn’t it? See the two widgets? One is reminding me of active tasks and the other is telling me my next appointment? These are great. Yes, I use Pocket Informant for tracking my tasks, but I like having certain things right in front of me every time I look at my Nook. I tend to read in the evening and not use my iPhone as much, so I’m more likely to see things (like clean the cat box) when they are on my Nook. Besides, the little octopus is completely adorable!

Web browsing is much nicer in Dolphin Browser HD than in the stock Nook browser. It’s more responsive and seems faster.

Reading is much better. Why? Because I can buy books from anywhere. No Kindle books on a stock Nook color. But notice the Kindle app on my home screen? Yes, I can buy and read Kindle books on my Nook. I need 4 apps to cover everything, but I can live with that. Amazon has some great deals.

Including a free app every day. Sure. Most of them are terrible. But a few of them are great. Like the alternate keyboard I downloaded recently.

Note the cursor keys. Unlike my iPhone, Android has no easy way (that I’ve found) to precisely position the cursor. Those keys are making all the difference! Taking notes in Evernote is a piece of cake. And this keyboard has some predictive typing, so I can often finish a word without typing all the letters. The Nook keyboard didn’t have either cursor keys or predictive typing.

I’m not using it much for social media, although I thought I would. I like Hootsuite for iPhone better than for Android. I can’t figure out how to get more than 20 posts from a stream at a time. 20 posts isn’t nearly enough at one time. But I am using it for reading blogs. The Google Reader app is nice. And the Gmail app is much better than the Nook email app, which had to re-download every email every time you launched it. What a waste!

I’m still trying to find a good word processing option. I had QuickOffice on the stock OS, but it doesn’t work right on the rooted OS. I’m test driving a text editor, which may do everything I need.

The final result? I’m doing more with my Nook than I ever did. Good for me. Bad for my battery. Now I need to charge it every day. Not because the drain is worse but because I’m just using it more.

A small price to pay.

Threats and Opportunities

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

Remember my recent post on dealing with fear? Well, I’ve got a confession to make. I’ve been dealing with a decent amount of fear myself recently.

Over the weekend, all the reading and coaching I’ve done finally came together, and I had a breakthrough. I realized that I’ve been worried about the future and all the bad stuff that might happen. Which has been missing half the picture.

Look at it this way. Have you ever done a SWOT analysis for your business? It’s where you look at 4 areas:

1. Strengths
2. Weaknesses
3. Opportunities
4. Threats

Those last two are the important ones here. In your business, you need to be aware of outside threats and opportunities that can affect your business. If you are aware of them, you can take action to avoid the threats and take advantage of the opportunities.

Well, it works in your personal life as well. It’s easy to be paralyzed by fear of what the future might bring. We tend to look at the bad stuff that might happen, like:

1. What if I lose my job?
2. What if I don’t land that big client?
3. What if I get [fill in the blank illness] just like my mom/dad did?
4. What if my child grows up to be a drug addict?

Sound familiar? I bet you’ve had similar fears, right? And you’ve spent a lot of time worrying about them or planning for how you’ll avert the disasters.

Well, what about the opportunities?

1. What if I get that raise?
2. What if my spouse lands that great job and we get to move to Hawaii?
3. What if my child graduates from college and becomes rich and famous?
4. What if my book becomes a best seller?

Do you spend as much time anticipating and planning for the opportunities as you do the threats? My guess is that you probably don’t. Remember, fear is a very powerful emotion in the brain, and if you are experiencing fear, it tends to drown out everything else.

So what can you do about it? Well, just like in your business, give equal time to evaluating opportunities as you do threats. In fact, I’d advise you to spend more time thinking about opportunities. According to Your Brain and Business, anticipation of a future positive event is more powerful to your brain than past events. If you train your brain to be aware of opportunities, you’re more likely to see them when they come knocking.

For myself, I’ve developed a new daily mantra, “I will be aware of both threats and opportunities in my future.” I’m retraining my brain to be aware of both. It’s a lot more fun than spending all that time worrying about and fearing the future.

What about you? In the comments to my last post, @seowashdc mentioned she’s been using Buddhism as a way to get a handle on her nameless fears. That’s excellent. Anyone else want to share strategies that work?

Working Through Fear

Friday, September 16th, 2011

I recently read a fantastic book called Your Brain and Business: The Neuroscience of Great Leaders. It’s not an easy read, being very technical, but it has excellent insights on why we do some of what we do, from a brain standpoint, and on how we can be more effective in business by working with our brain instead of against it.

The section on fear was particularly interesting. It makes sense that fear distracts us, but I didn’t realize that the part of the brain that deals with emotion puts fear at the head of the list. If fear is present, it drowns out almost everything else.

Another fascinating fact was that the brain has a bias toward future positive events. That’s right. Your anticipation of the future is more powerful than what happened in the past, whether positive or negative.

Those two facts work together in an interesting way. If you are fearful of the future, the fear is going to be processed first by the brain, and the anticipation of your fearful future is going to be perceived strongly. Since few of our fears involve obvious physical danger, like running from a tiger, we don’t always handle our fears in an appropriate manner.

So what can we do to diffuse the fear and help our brains to function better? First, you can divert the fear. Fears are usually nameless anxieties. When we examine them and make sense of them, we often discover that the fear is worse than the reality. For example, are you worried you might lose your job? In this economy, that’s a reasonable fear. But take an honest look at it. Is your job really in jeopardy, or are you reacting to all the news about the recession? If your job really is in trouble, what can you do now to improve your situation? Well, you could certainly start networking!

So first determine if your fear is real, and what you can do to positively address it. Then look to the future. Imagine a realistic but positive outcome. Perhaps you could visualize that you’ve networked your way to a new job. That vision of reality becomes paramount in your brain, and it will both ease the fear and direct your brain to be on the alert for ways to make that future happen.

Does it sound kind of New-Agey? Well, maybe, but it’s backed up by sound neurological science. Your brain has always been one of your most potent allies. Learn how to harness it to help you, and you’ll do much better than if you let it control the show and your future.

Read the book. There’s lots more there to give you ideas to master your fear and be more successful.