Talk to the Human™

2009 was a year of ups and downs for many people. How do you plan to improve things in 2010?

If you have some SMART goals for 2010, then you’re on the right track. If you don’t, you shouldn’t try to rush out a “New Year’s Resolution” just to say you do. Take your time and make those goals ones that you can quantify, achieve, and see progress in over time.

Have a great new year, and I’ll see you with a new post on the 1st day of 2010!

Are you having trouble connecting with your audience? Maybe it’s not all their fault. Seth Godin says “if your target audience isn’t listening to your message, it’s not their fault…it’s yours”.

What does that mean? It means that there are times when your audience doesn’t need your message. Sometimes they need something different, and for those times, you need to provide the content that will help them, not just the content you think is best for them.

But those times are the majority, not just once in a while. Want to see success? Know your audience and shape you message for that audience. Remember, if they can’t (or won’t) hear you, look at yourself first. After all, it’s not their fault…

How do you handle the need to speak off-the-cuff? Whether it’s at a holiday party, a bosses request for a status report, or a job interview question you were not ready for the answer to your success can be the same: Planned Spontaneity.

What does that mean? Simply put, you need to be ready to respond when you are caught off guard. Sounds easy when you say it out loud, but it does take a little work and preperation (plus a little practice) to get it right.

First, let’s deal with the intial work – preparing what you know.
1. Identify your three best topics (i.e. leadership, speaking and blogging)
2. Decide on your best story on each topic (i.e. something where you learned a useful lesson from another source)
3. Come up with transitions from common themes (i.e. holidays to speaking, “biggest challenge” to leadership, or your own common themes)

Second, find a venue to practice these stories (note: it helps to write them down).
1. You can use your mirror
2. You can use your Toastmaster’s club (if you are not a member, then join one)
3. Test your stories out on friends. See how they respond and adjust.

Third, freshen up your stories. Your life changes, and you will want to avoid using the same stories year after year. As you get better at this, and make yourself a story file, this will become easier.

Take the time to be prepared, and you can see success as a spontaneous speaker in a variety of real-world situations.

Is it worth your time to pursue a DTM award through Toastmasters?

This is a question many active Toastmaster members struggle with, and it surprises me how many of them make their decision for the wrong reasons.

The Distinguished Toasmasters (DTM) designation is awarded to Toastmaster members who have completed all of the educational speaking and leadership requirements in the organization. These requirements (at TI’s site here) take a very real effort, not to mention some significant time.

I have listed the full requirements in a previous post. What I didn’t discuss in that posting was the value to the member who completes the award, and the value to the others in the members circle of influence (work, home, and society).

Here are some of the reasons, good and bad, that I have heard for pursuing or not completing a DTM award from current and past Toastmaster members:

1. It’s a highly respected designation. Here’s my experience on that:
- Outside of Toastmasters: “What is a DTM?”
- Existing Toastmaster DTMs: Mutual respect, to be sure
- Other advanced Toastmasters: Different levels of respect
- New Toastmasters: a mix of “What is a DTM?”, ”Why would anyone do that?” and “wow.”
FAQ answer: the award is worthy of respect, but is just sometimes misunderstood.

2. Once I finish my DTM, I can relax. Ouch. The experience required to compete a DTM makes a member best experienced to help others in reaching their goals, and in helping clubs support their members. Those members who treat the DTM as a plateau may be missing their best opportunity for growth.

3.  Finishing a DTM isn’t worth my time. This one really confuses me. Any person who puts more than a few years into their Toastmaster’s experience would find it a worthy opportunity to finish the requirements to achieve their DTM. See answer 2 above to see how that leads to even more growth and experience, not to mention the opportunity to network and help others.

4. I don’t need a DTM. This one is technically true, I suppose. In my experience, this tends to be uttered as an excuse for not wanting to start/finish a High Performance Leadership (HPL) program, which usually is the last (or one of the last) achievements in the DTM program. Stop making excuses (you know who you are).

In the end, the DTM award is valuable not only it it’s own right, but more importantly in the process you follow to achieve it. It may not be easy, but then if it were too easy, what would be the point?

You should read Authority Rules, the 10 Rock Solid Elements of Effective Online Marketing by Brian Clark of CopyBlogger fame. I don’t care if you’re into marketing or not, and it doesn’t matter if your into “online” or not either.

These rules work the same for speakers or writers. If you want to improve your speaking, and you want some ideas for future speeches, this is a document you should spend 15 minutes reading.

This is really well put together, and it highlights (and explains) a very interesting and important point: People trust authority. The premise of the paper is that because people trust authority, you need to be an authority in your field.

The question that probably comes up for you is how do you become an authority? Well, one thing to keep in mind is that the perception of your authority (i.e. the important thing) is seen not as your ability to claim expertise (valid or not) but how well you demonstrate expertise.

Cool Quote: What other people say about you is more important than what you say about yourself.

The document does well hightlighting the disctincion between building traffic (the normal point of view for a web site) and building trust. It also outlines some ways to do build that trust, and provides links to additional free content.

It takes great writing to make great speeches, and this paper will help you understand some different angles to achieving great content. If you’re a blogger, then this is a must read.

Are you tired of “free content” that leaves you needing to buy something to really get the value?

There seems to be a number of different marketing ideas out there, and there are two that I notice in effect that include free content.

First, there is free content that is designed to just whet your appetite for the premium content that is, of course, not so free. This model seems to be built on the premise that if you get too much good stuff for free, you won’t buy the premium content, products or services. 

I’m learning that this is quickly becoming a failed business model. Why?  Simple: Humans like you don’t have time for free crap. You want value for you time…not just for your money!

Duh? Yes, I know. But so many providers out there are thinking that their stuff is the best stuff that you can find. They think once you find it, you’ll stop looking. After all, their crap is as good as the rest. But no, you’re gong back to Google to look again and find something better. Then, once you find the really good content (and you are finding it), you’re doing three things:

1. You are sticking with it.
2. You are telling your friends in real life.
3. You are posting about it on FaceBook, Digg and Squidoo.

You might even be buying from those better sites. And here is the why (and the second kind of free content marketing):

Some providers are making content available for free that stands all by itself. It’s good enough that you don’t have to buy from the provider. This may seem like a risky business model, but it’s not. Let’s look at some examples:

LinkedIn -Yes, LinkedIn has premium features available for a cost. Many users don’t even realize it. How cool is that? Here’s how it works – the basic features are plenty for a large percentage of users, and cost almost nothing to maintain. In fact, it’s the free users that help sell the premium features to the small percentage of users that need (or just want) them. After all, who would pay for those if there were only 500 users on the whole system? No one. But with nearly everybody there (or so it seems), there’s a market for those wanting to use those features professionally. And because the main site is free and worth the time, more people sign up each day. Imagine if it required you to pay $10 a month once you had 10 or more contacts? Guess what? 50,000 abandoned accounts and no one wanting premium access.

WordPress - All hail WordPress! That’s right, it’s free and the more people that use it, the more that want it. But if you need more (space, users, hosting ad free, etc.) there is a premium service. Again, the free version stands on it’s own and you could go years using that every day and not miss a thing. Making that available makes the premium version more valuable, and therefore attracts some paying customers. Sweet!

Copyblogger - and other content-driven blog sites (like…ahem, mine). Some of these may (most do) have premium content that you can buy. The fact, though, is that you could spend days going through the free stuff and learn a ton of useful things. The extra content is totally optional.

What makes this work? The fact is that humans (like you) value useful stuff. Period. People that provide useful stuff (could also be you) will find that they are in demand.

Here’s the real catch. If you don’t have enough content that you can give useful information away for free, then you probably don’t have enough useful content to make a living anyway. Read more…learn more…experience more…write about THAT and see where it takes you.

If you’re looking for the free content, look no further. Not only do I buy into the goal of providing it, but I also like to point out where else I’m finding it. So what do you think? Which marketing model is for you?

Are you struggling with the question of how best to use PowerPoint in your next presentation?

Not long ago, I was one of those many out there who thought I was the one that knew how to use PowerPoint correctly in all of my presentations. Oh, yeah. I used the correct bullet format, eliminated needless words and even made sure to never show the audience my back. That’s right, I was just about average.

Then a friend suggested that I move beyond PowerPoint, and I found I had another “unique” struggle. You see, I didn’t just use the program to display my outline and stats, I used it as my primary source of notes. In fact, I used it as I developed my content, not just after.

So here was his thought: “Rob, you can still use PowerPoint for your presentation, just don’t show it to your audience.”

“huh?”

“Use it as you develop your presentation, and then you can print the slides out to use as notes.”

So now, even in presentations where I may need to show one or two slides with specific pictures or stats, I can create a 10-slide .ppt file, and only show slides 5 and 8 (or whatever) and set the rest to “hidden”. That way, my printout still has my outline, but the audience only sees the slides they need for effect. The rest of the time I use the “b” button feature (blanking the screen) to keep the attention where it belongs (on Rob).

If you find yourself looking for a way to ween yourself off of the PowerPoint train, give this idea a try and see if it works for you too.

Ever lost a week of your life to a silly illness? For me, it hasn’t been a whole week, but from Wednesday through Saturday I’ve been unable to get anything of value accomplished due to a sudden virus. I won’t gore you with details, but I’ve lost 3 complete days to sleep, and in fact this post is the first coherent thought I’ve put together in more than 72 hours.

What is the best recovery plan for this lost time, especially with the holidays upon us? A couple of things will just have to be considered lost to the cause:
1. Blog posts for those days
2. This week’s book for the book review tomorrow
3. Toastmaster meetings I missed (three, this week)

Some other things I’ll have to work extra to make up:
1. Work projects that need progress before the holidays
2. Preparation for my own holiday plans
3. Prep for my next speech in early January

Overall, I’d say losing 3 days to this isn’t the worst thing that could have happened, so I can be thankful for that. But no one I know likes behind the power curve, especially with the holiday season in full swing. As my brain starts working again, I expect to have some more relevant posts ready for the blog, so stay tuned..and stay healthy!

Last week, I mentioned this book in another review, so I thought I should give this a bit more than just lip service. Guerrilla Marketing, 4th edition is quite possibly the source for our generation on marketing strategy for small businesses. I have personnally had a number of small business owners and some very successful professionals recommend this book to me, along with a plethora of related (guerrilla) books just this year.

The book’s tag-line is Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from your Small Business. I found it interesting to read and packed full of great ideas, references and stories about success in small business. The strategies discussed are designed to be within the capabilities of a one-person show, or a small business with a reasonable budget as well. It has a how-to feel about it, along with the success stories built in for credibility.

Like some other books I’ve read, I found that this book is a fantastic reference to look back on for ideas. It includes a thorough index and an attachment labled Information Arsenal for Guerrillas that includes 14 pages of books, DVDs, CDs and websites to help you further your knowledge and be successful.

What’s great about this book:
Sparked a revolution in the marketing world, and is updated and supported by the author and an army of others.
200 marketing weapons are invaulable as a reference and to spark creative ideas.
Sixteen monumental secrets to Guerrilla Marketing really set the stage for the whole process.

Limiting Factors:
It’s enough to read this book from cover to cover to get an understanding of the power and usefullness of Guerrilla Marketing. But to really move forward, you’ll need to plan on doing some real work.

Great Quotes:
Your compitition won’t quit
Ignorance is more expensive than paid research
Value is far more crucial than price. And perceived value is far more crucial than value 

Recommendations:
This book is a must read, unless you have no plans for your future. If you haven’t read it, stop reading this post and go get it.

Rob’s Rating system (bolded, the rating is)
Buy at full price (even though you won’t have to)
Buy if you get a discount
Wait for the paperback
Wait for someone else to be done with the paperback
If you’ve read my reveiw, you got the jist of it

Every now and then I find someone else’s blog that flat out impresses me. Today, one of my friends at work told me about a blog that I will talk about shortly, but that one led me to others that I think are truly remarkable and dare I say it…awesome.

http://www.remarkable-communication.com, written by Sonia Simone isn’t simply remarkable in name. The content, frankly, knocked me out of my seat. Seriously. I read two of her posts, 7 Dumb Things Small Businesses Do and 7 Things Big Dumb Companies Do That You Can’t Afford (Especially Now) and I was thoroughly impressed. These blogs are aimed at small businesses, like my own consulting business. Oh yeah, The Complete Flake’s Guide to Getting Things Done might just be on my top 10 favorites of the year. Not Kidding. If you’re not a flake, you won’t understand.

www.ittybiz.com, written by Naomi Dunford is simply awesome. After reading a couple of posts, I listened to a 20-minute video lesson on how her site makes money. Very informative. Plus, it was very easy to listens to, entertaining, and…oh yes, awesome. The site started out based on her consulting business, helping really small businesses with their marketing. The tagline is Marketing for Businesses without Marketing Departments.

This led me to another blog that I found interesting, and where I found the picture at the top of this post. http://johnnybtruant.com is subtitled the Internet made awesome, which is a phrase that I am now totally jealous of. After reading a few of his posts, I found myself really enjoying his writing style, and laughing quite a bit. His area of expertise is web hosting, blogging and he’s a big proponent of WordPress. All hail WordPress.

Finally, the blog that started it all for me today: http://www.copyblogger.com. This site has a plethora of ideas and how-to’s on writing copy for your blog or business site. Tons of information on social media, writing so people will read your copy, and some solid humor spread throughout. What led me to other blogs was that this particular blog has multiple contributors.

So, the other shoe: be prepared for a bit of colorful language. There’s nothing my 7th grade son hasn’t heard at school (unfortunately), but it’s there none-the-less. It doesn’t detract, but I just wanted to warn you since I’ve written topics about that sort of thing before.

So what common threads do I like about all of these? I’m glad you asked! First, they totally strike me as real. That may come off as understated, but if (like me) you have read some of the crap out there in blog-land, you will know what I mean by real.

Second, they all provide plenty of free content to try for yourself (and it’s really good). I signed up for a couple of their e-mails, and they are not “sell you crap” marketing zombie-ware.  

Third, they all have a genuine “get off of your a..” style that makes America great, and lets you know you are in for some work if you want to be successful. Not a “click here to get rich” concept like you have no doubt seen on other sites. It was an odd coincidence to me because I saw (and responded) to a LinkedIn post today asking, “how can I make money with a blog?” I had a lot in my brain when I read that, and I responded to tell him to have some worthwhile content, do his homework, and expect to do more work than just wait to get rich. Later, when I was reading these blogs, I felt the same sense of “it’s not easy, but it’s worth it” from all of them. Gotta respect that.

A couple of quick disclaimers: all of the links above are direct links. No affiliate links to make me money or anything. I’m telling you I like it because I like it, straight up. It’s not that I’m opposed to affiliate links. In fact, I expect to have some up on my site next month, and that will include one for Johnny Truant’s site (the human that makes the Internet awesome). But those will be on a separate page, and not hidden scammily into my daily posts. 

If you know me at all, you know I enjoy writing my own blog, and I enjoy knowing people read my work. Also, you know I enjoy reading too, and that’s what led me to those blogs. If writing or blogging is your thing too, start with the copyblogger site, and make sure to check the rest out as you have time. Of course, my blog still belongs in your “must visit” list, but what kind of a human would I be if I kept all the awesome stuff on the Internet to myself?