Category: business coach

The Introverted Networker

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Shy

There’s a belief out there that you have to be an extrovert in order to be an effective networker.

That’s a myth.

While it’s true that extroverts can be great at networking, introverts have their advantages too. Take for instance: listening skills. You and I love to connect with others, but the only way that’s possible is if there’s a discussion. That means someone is talking, while the other one is listening. If you’re talking all the time, you’ll notice people avoid you like the plague. Listen well and people will be drawn to talk to you.

Quality over quantity is a huge factor too. As an introvert, you may not be able to shake 50 hands during an hour meeting, but the 5 or less people you do meet you’ll probably remember how to follow-up with them. Consider using network events as a way to meet people, then grab coffee or schedule a phone call with them afterwards. Networking is a numbers game. Extroverts are better at meeting a lot of people at once. Introverts are better at getting to know a small amount of people at a time.

Only 7% of communication is done through words. The other 93% is shared between tone and body language. Introverts tend to be more intuitive so they pick up on non-verbal cues and intonation. Since interpreting communication requires observation and reading beneath what’s said, people feel valued when they are “heard” correctly. Knowing this, if you’re an introvert and have avoided networking up to this point because you didn’t feel like you’re “talkative” enough, stop making excuses.

It’s about who you know, not what you know, so if you’re not meeting new and maintaining old relationships, you’re getting behind!

A Speaker’s #1 Weapon

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public-speaking

Public speaking is the #1 fear of adults, but why? Up until a few years ago I dreaded speaking in front of an audience myself. Most people aren’t born with the gift of public presentation and as an introvert it can cause a lot of anxiety just thinking about it. Practice doesn’t make perfect, but it does make better so every opportunity to get up in front of people and speak, you should take advantage of. Confidence builds over repetition, but the one technique that elevated my speaking ability literally overnight is called The Memory Palace.

Essentially it’s a visualization routine to help you memorize your speech. Think about it. If there’s one aspect that stands out about great speaker, it’s their ability to not use notes. I always believed speakers who could orate without referring to an outline were superhuman. But with this technique not only do you give your audience the illusion that you have a fantastic memory, but your body language exudes confidence that is memorable.

Not only has it helped me become a better speaker, but it also cuts down on prep time because you’re remembering stories associated with images rather than reciting words written down on paper. When speaking only you know if something was omitted. You can always play off the fact a point was forgotten because no one else knows what you intended to say. There are many ways to plot your talk, but here’s what works for me:

1) Storyboard your ideas on paper in 4 equal quadrants

2) Organize your thoughts so the story flows

3) Add visuals (screen images and/or props) to enhance your message

4) Rehearse at least 3 times before you present

5) Smile and have fun speaking!

The formula of 70% presentation and 30% content has worked for me. Once I jot down my ideas, I shift my focus towards what clearly communicates my point to the audience. Your message is directed towards the crowd, not you. Stop preaching and start sharing. Body language plays such a huge role in the absorption of a presentation, so smile, make eye contact and slow down. Public speaking is becoming a lost art with the rise of technology, so if you want to stand out professionally learn how to become a great speaker.

If you want to improve your speaking skills, here’s the video that transformed me!

3 Ways Leaders Are Willing, Not Ready

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LEADERSHIP

Are leaders born or made? That’s a debate this article can’t cover (in under a 1000 words) so I won’t go there. Everybody wants to be a leader, but if you knew what it really entails you might change your mind. In previous positions I’ve held, I learned over time that leadership isn’t as glamorous as advertised. In order to be an effective leader you have to be willing to absorb the following 3 things:

1) Willing to Take The Blame – If you want to lead, you have to accept being the goat. Not the “greatest of all time,” but pointing the finger at yourself when your team fails. It may not be your fault, but when something goes wrong people usually point “up.” I remember a time one of my staff members said something insensitive during a presentation and one of the audience members expressed their displeasure to me immediately. It wasn’t my mouth that this inappropriate comment came from, but after discussing it with my colleague, I decided to publicly apologize to the crowd. I wasn’t thrilled about it, because it wasn’t my “fault,” but it was under my watch so I took the fall for my team.

2) Willing To Deflect Praise – If you love getting credit for success, get out of leadership. Books, media and social networks paint a different picture, but rarely do leaders get praised when things go well. In fact, the better you get at leading and the longer you do it, it becomes an expectation (not appreciation). It’s like the obedient, older brother who gets overlooked by the prodigal son by his father. “Hey, I’ve been doing great all this time, but now this delinquent boy comes home and you give him a party?” Thanks for noticing. Not only do you have to take responsibility for your team’s blunders, but you also don’t get rewarded for achievements. Leadership isn’t all what it’s cracked up to be.

3) Willing To Follow – Maybe the hardest lesson to learn as a leader is managing your ego, not the egos of others. I learned this as a coach. Sometimes you’re right and they’re wrong, but you still go with their decision even when it turns our bad. Why? Because leadership is about developing people. If you make all the decisions, followers become dependent on the leader and never learn to soar on their own. When you delegate responsibility/let your team make decisions and live with the outcomes, they become leaders during the process. It’s not about telling people what to do and enforcing it. That’s called dictatorship. It’s why we hate micromanagers. The best way to illustrate this concept is an inverted triangle. The leader is at the bottom and his/her job is to support the people “above” them. Serve up and you’ll never fall down.

The better question to ask when it comes to leadership is: are you willing? Leadership is not for everyone and that’s okay. There can only be so many chefs in the kitchen, then it becomes too chaotic. Leaders are thrown into situations where they aren’t prepared all the time. It’s about knowing yourself, knowing your values and knowing your role. You don’t need an official position to lead, you just have to be willing to do the tough things and not get applauded for it.

Why Graphic Design Contests Are Great For Startups

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For a very long time, most companies have hired design agencies or freelance designers in order to source custom designs for their business. While it works well for multinationals such as Facebook, Microsoft and Apple that have exorbitant budgets, it proves to be a rather costly proposition for small businesses and startups as they mostly lack resources and bank balance to settle the bills of design agencies or freelance designers.But does that mean startups and small businesses don’t deserve to professional and creative logos, business cards, websites etc. for their entity? Do they necessarily dig a hole in their pockets for a professional identity? Of course not!If you’re at the helm of a startup in need of everything from a logo to a business cards, simply turn your attention to crowdsourcing design sites such as Designhill and launch a design contest. No matter how much people despise of crowdsourcing contests, it still rules the roost, especially for small businesses and startups with limited funds and resources.

Crowdsourcing design contests allow you to procure designs that share your passion, drive, and vision for your startup without spending an arm and a leg. But it’s not just that you get to save some fortune and a lot of hassle, there are numerous other benefits of holding a design contest. Let’s explore 5 of the most significant reasons why crowdsourcing design contests make for a great proposition for startups and small businesses.

1. Tap Creative Extremes:

Inc.com reveals that most design agencies are in fact marketing agencies with a heavy focus on visual media. Resultantly, when you work with such agencies, you end up getting graphic designs out of complacency. This is because design agencies are not faced with any competition when working for a client. On the contrary, crowdsourcing contests thrive on competition and ingenuity.

Competition gives birth to ingenuity. So, when you launch a crowdsourcing design contest, hundreds of designers compete against each other and come up with different unique concepts to win the competition making it easy for you to tap the creative extremes and get unique and superior quality designs for your startup or small business.

2. Get Much More than What You Pay for:

Let’s face it; graphic design firms remain the first choice for most multinationals and large corporations. Quite expectedly, design agencies often treat multinationals and large corporations with huge budgets as premium clients and offer them better service as against startups and small businesses. After all, you’re just another low-budget client in their long roster of clients. Resultantly, most startups end up getting ‘just what they pay for’.

But with crowdsourcing design contests, listed designers treat every design project as an opportunity to earn prize money and in a bid to outshine their competition; they come up with dozens of unique and professional concepts. Therefore, with crowdsourcing design contests, you get ‘much more than what you pay for’.

3. Get Innumerable Choices:

Chances are that you may a design agency that would agree to work on your budget, but you would not get more than 3-5 design options to choose from limiting your choices. With limited concepts, at times, you’ll find the ideas stalled and will have no option but to compromise on your business identity.

But, for crowdsourcing design contests, diversity is the name of the game. Startups can get many design ideas, inspirations and styles. With an average of 100+ design options to choose from, you’ll be able to find more than just a few concepts to match your project needs.

4. Get Affordable Designs:

Forbes reveals in one of its articles that for most startups and small businesses, the real challenge remains getting things done in a nickel-and-dime. Well, with the price of graphic design services sky-rocketing these days, it becomes almost impossible for startups tobuild a brand around users with graphic elements that they can relate to and connect with.

This is where crowdsourcing design contests help startups and small businesses reach beyond boundaries and get quality custom designs without burning a deep hole in their pockets. But affordable price doesn’t mean that you need to compromise on quality. So with crowdsourcing design contests, you get the finest of fine graphic designs for the price that you’ll set for your design contest.

5. Save Money & Time:

Quick sprout mentions in one its insider stories that establishing a startup takes an awful lot: a lot of effort, time and money! Working with a design agency usually takes up a lot of time due to the long list of people involved in the entire process. And due to the involvement of many people, it takes a seemingly long time, a lot of energy and quite a fortune to meet people, exchange emails, arrange teleconference and personally visit the agency.

However, crowdsourcing design contest doesn’t require you to spend too much time, money and resources. And all you need to do is just fill in the design brief, name a price and relax while the ideas start to pour in from graphic artists, logo designers, illustrators and an entire community of graphic artists from across the globe, ready and willing to work for you under the tightest of deadlines. It saves you money, time and efforts that you would otherwise incur on transportation, teleconference and physical visit when working with a design firms.

So, Go For Crowdsourcing Contests And Give Wings to Your Startup:

So, if you have a big graphic design project on your plate, launch a crowdsourcing design contests and explore the endless possibilities of getting affordable logos, business cards or web designs to establish your brand identity, garner media mileage and build a loyal customer base.

How to Gain Satisfaction and Loyalty From the Customer

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Guest Post by Chris Madden

The marketplace is changing with business owners getting less and less face time with their customers. With more transactions taking place online, businesses and marketing agencies need to get creative on how they can engage with customers. Here are a few things we can do to build customer loyalty and trust online.

1. Get Personal

The web as a whole is extremely impersonal, so take advantage of photographs of your business and your staff along with contact details. Social media however, is perfect for developing a connection with your customers. Often times, brands tend to speak in their“corporate voice”. This does not foster a real connection, lacks responses and people can see through it. Marketers need to know not only where their customers are on social media but what is the best way to interact with them. When businesses can “talk human” you foster brand loyalty and can potentially increase conversion rates.

2. Stay updated

Your team should be pumping out content regularly on your blog and even updating the content on your website. The benefits of doing so are two fold, not only does it improve ranking as Google will crawl your site more frequently, but it also reassures customers that your services will be updated as well. Whether it’s your in house team handling your website content or an agency that offers website design and can make updates be sure your editorial calendar is organized and tasks are delegated.

3. Special Occasions

Gifts such as birthday cards, anniversary cards and holiday cards are great tools you can follow up with. You don’t need to spend a fortune to show you care. Get creative and come up with interesting gift ideas that tie into your business or personally with your customer.

4. What Are You Doing for Customers

Keep your customers in the loop on exactly what you are doing for them. This can be in the form of a newsletter that is emailed out to existing customers. It could even be a phone call. Whatever strategy you decide to use make to point out to customers what great service you give them. If you never mention what you’re doing for your customers, they may not notice. It shouldn’t come across as “cocky” but coming from the angle of “i doubled checked for you” or “I filed the paperwork so you don’t have to worry about it” shows you care and gives the customer added value.

5. Engage on Multiple Channels

Consumers today expect to find the address of a retailer online. More often they check product details and availability both online and in the store. Then they order using whatever channel they want either online, in-store and increasingly social media. Make sure you are engaging on multiple channels and managing what is being said about your business. If a problem should arise that a customer vocalizes on Twitter for example, be sure to respond and resolve the issue. Businesses and marketers in the new marketplace have an opportunity to generate more ROI and improve relationships with their customers online. Do an audit of your business and see if you are set up for customer satisfaction and loyalty success.

Why Do You Want to be An Entrepreneur?

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Being an entrepreneur is certainly a stressful experience.

Why, then, would anyone dream about taking their chances as an entrepreneur?

It is not that hard to fathom.

Let us find out why.

It is Satisfying

When you taste success as an entrepreneur, it could be both emotionally and financially

rewarding. There is no better feeling in this world than seeing a product you have

designed on a store rack, or when you have provided extraordinary service for an

appreciative customer. It is all the more exciting to win a new customer over or

successfully complete a sale when you know it all comes down to your perseverance.

Further, it is very pleasing when customers tell you that your service has truly made a

remarkable difference in their lives. Finally, it goes without saying that generating

profits and knowing your business is scalable provide great personal satisfaction as well.

It is Flexible

The degree of flexibility in an entrepreneurial avatar is far too flexible than what you

would experience in a typical 9 to 5 job. Yes, you can put in more hours at work, and

you can very well do so whenever you want- on your own terms. Moreover, you can

take a break at 330 to pick up your kids from the school down the road. What’s more,

you need not seek for permission from your boss. If you are nocturnal, you can change

your schedule to work from 12 am to 5 am. You are the boss. You are free to call the

shots. And, it can be quite exciting.

It is an opportunity to create

What do you want to do as an entrepreneur? Do you want to build something new? Or,

do you prefer to help others around you? Maybe you want to form a legacy that will

outlive you. Or, you want to help the community by leaving something behind. No

matter what motivates you, building things or creating stuff right from scratch is akin to

raising a baby.

Got a new idea for a small business? It is not difficult to get business loans these days.

Several small business loan companies are ready to turn your dream into reality. Leave

it to them, and set your focus, rather, on the new idea. The joy you get from seeing

your idea grow, and develop over time into a successful entity is incomparable.

The sense of accomplishment, the degree of flexibility and the chance to innovate that

an entrepreneurship role offers is quite difficult to replicate in most other professions.

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Winsight Episode 35: Adversity and the Celebrity Quarterback

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johnny manziel, cleveland browns nfl, celebrity quarterback

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/winsight/35_Winsight_Episode_35_-_Adversity_and_the_Celebrity_Quarterback.mp3]

 

When I’m in the car by myself I like to listen to sports radio instead of music. One of the reasons is I’m a huge Lakers fan so I want the latest scoop on them, but mostly I find sports radio intriguing. The more opinionated the host, the more listeners tune in. One morning while listening to Colin Cowherd on ESPN radio, he used the term “celebrity quarterback” and it had practical applications for you and me.

In this episode learn the following points:

  • What successful quarterback have overcome that mediocre ones haven’t
  • Why feeling like “quitting” is a good thing
  • What this generation hates, but is priceless
  • The different question a victim vs. a victor asks him/herself

Are you a “celebrity quarterback?” How do you normally handle adversity? What’s one takeaway you can apply this week?

Entrepreneur Trade Secrets [Infographic]

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As an entrepreneur do you know what a trade secret is? This infographic below explains what a trade secret is and how the law can protect you.

In your business, your formula is your “secret sauce.” Once that information is stolen, your product/service is no longer proprietary. Trade secret laws also protect your “expression of ideas” that patents exclude.

Check out the examples of recent trade secrets exposed and the consequences handed down. Information is power and what you don’t know can hurt you!

Read up and know your rights as an entrepreneur!

Source: http://www.kellywarnerlaw.com​
entrepreneur trade secrets, kelly warner law

Winsight Episode 34: Improving Your Public Speaking Skills

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public speaking without using notes, memory palace

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/winsight/34_Winsight_Episode_34_-_Improving_Your_Public_Speaking_Skills.mp3]

 

Think about the best public speakers you’ve heard. I bet their execution was flawless. They tell stories, speak with passion and beam with confidence. Public speaking still ranks as the #1 fear amongst adults, so if you improve your public speaking skills you stand out from the crowd. Every speaker has a style unique to them, but if there is one attribute that can bring your speaking game to the next level, it’s speaking without notes.

In this episode, learn the following ways to improve as a public speaker:

  • Why memorizing your speech is actually a bad thing
  • My method for plotting your next talk
  • The #1 benefit from speaking without using notes
  • The reason why public speaking is becoming even more of a game changer

After listening to this episode, what tips will you implement the next time you speak? Name your favorite speaker and what makes him/her memorable. How do you want to be remembered as a speaker?

 

Winsight Episode 33 – Don’t Follow Your Passion, Follow Your Effort

Scott Asai2 Comments

mark cuban, billionaire entrepreneur, shark tank, follow your effort

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/winsight/33_Winsight_Episode_33_-_Dont_Follow_Your_Passion_Follow_Your_Effort.mp3]

 

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban said, “Don’t follow your passion, follow your effort.” The first time I heard that quote it made me think. Everyone wants to do something they’re passionate about, but are they willing to do the work to turn a dream into reality?

In this episode learn from the following examples:

  • The gap between inspiration and action
  • The payoff of being disciplined isn’t always money
  • Why you can’t always depend on passion
  • What trait all successful entrepreneurs share

After hearing this episode how does it change your opinion about passion vs. effort? What are you both passionate about and willing to do the work on?