Living in a digital world, we tend to value speed and the ease of quick communication. Rightly so, but I’m constantly reminded of the power that a written thank you card can hold. Yeah, it takes a little time, but says “I care” so much better than with an email or direct message. Not saying that you have to write thank you cards, even tho I do suggest it as a common practice, but learn to say thank you well. It will transform your networking efforts, increase your sales, and improve your client experience.

Have some good ways of saying “Thank You”? Do share!

It’s important to expose yourself to new ideas both for personal growth and for your business, but what good is that if those ideas don’t actually change the practical things you do every day?

Reading books, blogs or attending a conference or workshop are great ways to get exposure and get excited about new ideas, but the more time passes the more inspiration fades. Making changes is difficult, even when we know those changes will be good for us. Implementing change takes discipline. The more the change goes against our predispositions, the more discipline it requires.

There’s a lot of talk around the interwebs about playing to your strengths, and that’s absolutely true.  You need to know your strengths and maximize them, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t also minimize your weaknesses.  You need discipline to say no to what you shouldn’t do, and discipline to improve upon the things that don’t come naturally to you.

When a change feels daunting, break it down into smaller goals, and set accountability so you can measure and report on the change you’re wanting to make.

What change are you going to be disciplined about implementing this week?

Things are still changing.

It’s funny how it seems that the internet has been around for so long, yet the impact of communication channels moving online is still playing out in various industries.  As the cost of distribution of information plummets, traditional paradigms are forced to shift.  Newspapers are going out of business.  Independent music distribution is flourishing like never before.  Opportunity to place your product or service in front of people is cheap and easy.

The more choices you have, the more bad choices you have.

Once in high school I noticed a screen saver on the monitor of an English teacher that read “The possibilities are infinite, choose wisely.”  Like the smart-ass that I am, I asked her, “If the possibilities are truly infinite, how can you possibly choose wisely?”  There’s some truth to this:  The catch about the barriers to communication falling is that with the increase of good information available (you define good), there’s also a plethora of bad information.  Whatever shall we do?

There is more information available to you than you can possibly digest.

As consumers, we have no choice but to be selectively ignorant.  In this environment, we often rely on others to filter information for us.  Since we can’t possibly sort through all the possibilities ourselves yet still desire to make an informed decision (whatever that actually means), we rely on recommendations from sources we trust to tell us to whom we should give our time, attention and money.

The best way to get new business has always been referral.

In one sense, the power of recommendation  has been true for a long, long time.  However, never have the effects of recommendation been felt on the scale that they have been or will be felt as barriers to communication fall away due to new tools becoming available.

The more the power of recommendation grows, the more it is essential that you harness it for your business.  This is the single reason why you can’t afford to ignore online software that we presently label “social media.”

I’m a big fan of Hugh at http://gapingvoid.com because he tells it like it is, and provokes thought with his work.

How you’re speaking to your customers and prospects is as important as as what you’re saying.

Gary gave a talk at the Orange County Direct Marketing Association that follows in the same vein as last week’s post, Vision and The Hierarchy of Success. Gary discusses brand development, vision, voice and tactics.  He also briefly touches on how vision and voice must come before tactics in the context of social media.  Below is a short audio excerpt from his talk, enjoy!

Gary Sikes – OC DMA Oct 2009

One struggle with being a visionary is experiencing  a constant discontent with the way things currently are.  While seeing how things could be and pointing others toward that is so important, it’s easy to skip over appreciating the present.

Celebrating our successes is a discipline we’re learning at ELEVATION.  No matter how small or even if it is not quite what we imagined, success deserves a proportionate celebration.  When we celebrate what we have accomplished we’re more motivated to press on towards what we see in the future and what we want to achieve next.  Not only that, but we’re happier people, appreciating the present.

When our clients see us celebrating the results of our hard work on their behalf, they’re also more inclined to stop, reflect, and appreciate us as well.  Celebrating success is not only a great practice for your business, but also a great way to live.

How will you celebrate your past success this week?

Seth Godin recently wrote and article titled “The Hierarchy of Success” in which he outlines the following hierarchy for success: (Brackets added)

I couldn’t agree more that we spend so much time on the bottom of the list (because they’re the tangibles) and neglect the higher items on the list.  However, there’s something very key that is missing here: vision.

Vision comes from an understanding of who you are and what you bring to your work.  Out of vision comes the attitude and approach you bring to what you do.  It’s vision that refines and provides a litmus test for your goals.  If your goals don’t match match who you are, you need new goals.

An understanding of your vision sets you up for success and cascades down the hierarchy.  This is why vision is so important to us in our work with our clients.

In the current economy, everyone seems to be much more concerned with real, measurable, tangible returns than they used to be. This is a great thing, because this is how it should be.  You should always measure the impact and return (fiscal or otherwise) of an investment and make decisions from there.

However, there are many investments related to marketing that are more difficult to quantify, but still have a tremendous impact on your business.

Your visual communication is one of them.

Those who don’t understand this decide when things get tighter it’s time to slash marketing budgets, or choose a low quality alternative and end up with communication that poorly represents them.  The result can be a downward spiral.

The flipside is while others make those choices, you have the opportunity really stand out.

I’m not saying spend and don’t think about it, but when you can’t perfectly quantify, make your best educated guess.  Ask the right questions.

Is spending on this (or spending more on this) going to increase my sales?
How many additional clients do I need to book to cover the cost of this upgrade?
Will the quality or level of people I desire to attract be impacted by this decision?

Was just thinking about how commodity driven we’ve become as a culture. So much so, that we’ve devalued ideas in general and placed an unhealthy value on the final, more tangible products that result. It’s really a shame too, because ideas are the crux, the substance of all good products and efforts that make the world go round. If the goal is to just have stuff, then we loose sight of the ingenuity and strategy required to make that stuff valuable.  And by the way, in our current culture of overload, being valuable will be increasingly more important.

Reminds me a little of math class in high school, when our teacher was more concerned with the process and the proof than with the final answer.  You certainly needed to have the right answer, but if you were strong with the ability to get the answer, you could duplicate your success in other scenarios.  Duplicating success is essential, by the way.  Maybe I should have paid better attention in high school :)

How can we move our clients or the people in our communities to set aside the burning need for the tangible ‘hard’ goods, at least to start the process, and instead place value on the ideas we all uniquely create? Remember, good ideas set the table for great results.

May we also encourage you to set the example for your people! Value your ideas (and unique talents) appropriately and value the ideas of others in your circle of influence…you may be surprised at the results!

Listen up friends and let’s shoot straight. Strategy often gets replaced by convenience, lack of insight, and/or a misunderstanding of tactics. Convenience in that you feel like you’re wasting time planning, when you can just get to it. Lacking insight, well, we just don’t know as much as we’ve been led to believe (there really is a lot out there to consider, which wise counsel can help you navigate). Lastly, tactics are simply the ‘how to’ and there are definitely more ‘how to’s’ out there these days. Only problem is, an overabundance of available tactics leaves us with a lot of companies & organizations going 100 miles an hour without knowing where they’re going. When they eventually hit a wall or get lost, they have to retreat and reset, wasting valuable time and resources, while never actually maximizing ROI.

Best to have a vision for your destination and an understanding of what your voice will be during the process…before traveling too far. Not vision and voice over tactics, rather vision and voice so that you use the right tactics, the right way!

Remember, professional athletes TRAIN. Coaches at the top levels create new GAME PLANS every season. Good movies require PRE-PRODUCTION. A great vacation requires PLANNING. Notice they all still play, create, and produce…there’s no standing on the sidelines, just encouragement to have the right game plan.

Strategy breeds success and enables those who do it properly to craft an approach that pieces together the right tactics, for the right time, and the right market, so that the response is as expected and produces desired results.

As a good friend of my says, “it’s always a good time to reset” (Thx Dane Sanders), so don’t worry if you’ve just been driving at full speed and never looked at a map. You can always pull over for a pit stop, grab a frosty beverage and put together your roadmap. It will provide clarity, direction, and speed of travel to reach your goals more quickly and with greater accuracy.