1. Are you a model of courageous questioning?
2. Are you asking questions you don’t know the answer to?
3. Are you asking the same questions as your competition?
4. Are you seeking answers or questions?
5. Are you trying to ask the right questions or to ask questions right?
6. Are you willing to ask a question that will expose your ignorance?
7. Do you have a list of questions you need to ask?
8. Do you have the time and energy to really listen to the answers to your questions?
9. Do you keep a supply of questions with you at all times?
10. Do you use questions to get ahead?
11. Does this question have the potential to initiate a breakthrough discussion?
12. Exactly what do you want to do with this question?
13. How are you creating a question-friendly atmosphere?
14. How can you focus your questions on the right information at the right time?
15. How can you phrase this question to everyone’s advantage?
16. How do you define the atmosphere needed to ask your questions successfully?
17. How many dangerous questions did you ask today?
18. How many dumb questions did you ask today?
19. How many questions did you ask yesterday?
20. How many questions have you invented?
21. How much difficultly will people have in answering this question?
22. How well do you time your questions?
23. How would you improve your question asking?
24. What are the best possible questions you could ask this person?
25. What are the dominant questions of your life?
26. What are the questions you (still) can’t believe your customers actually asked you?
27. What are you constantly questioning?
28. What are you questioning?
29. What are your burning questions?
30. What are your questions of clarity?
31. What is the atmosphere needed to ask your questions successfully?
32. What is the most important question you will ask?
33. What is the question that if you had the answer to, you would be set free?
34. What is your questioning quota?
35. What might be some sub-topics of this question?
36. What question did I not ask that you hoped I would ask?
37. What question needs to be asked so you can move forward?
38. What question(s) could you ask to bring out what’s not being said?
39. What question(s) could you ask to develop common ground?
40. What questions are still unanswered?
41. What questions are your customers afraid to ask you?
42. What questions are your employees afraid to ask you?
43. What questions aren’t being asked because of the walls of denial?
44. What questions do you have?
45. What questions do you need to minimize?
46. What questions generated the most useful responses?
47. What questions is this person asking with his body?
48. What questions must you have answered by the time the meeting is over?
49. What top three questions do your customers ask you?
50. What will you say if the customers asks a question you can’t answer?
51. What words govern your questions?
52. What’s the next question that wants to be asked?
53. When is the appropriate time to ask this question?
54. When was the last time you asked specific questions to see exactly what your client wanted?
55. When was the last time you make a list of 100 questions?
56. Where do you want to take this person with your question?
57. Who else should be asking this question?
58. Who taught you to ask questions?
Hello! My name is Bob Johnson.
I’m the owner of a company called ACX Advertising Advisors Unlimited.
Greetings! My name is Sharon Smith.
I’m here with Super Creative Communications Corporation International.
Good morning! My name is Randall Stevens.
I represent Industrial Graphic Management Solutions and Investments Company.
Howdy! My name is Janet Bishop.
I’m the CEO of Premiere Branding, Marketing, Advertising Communications and Investments.
No.
No, no, no, NO!
Your company name sucks.
In fact, if your company name includes any of the following words, you’re in trouble:
1. Advertising
2. Advisors
3. Associates
4. Branding
5. Communications
6. Company
7. Consultants
8. Consulting
9. Corp
10. Corporation
11. Creative
12. Deluxe
13. Enron
14. Enterprises
15. Graphics
16. Industries
17. International
18. Investments
19. Kwik
20. Management
21. Marketing
22. Materials
23. Partners
24. Premiere
25. Presentations
26. Products
27. Promotion
28. Services
29. Shop
30. Solutions
31. Store
32. Super
33. Systems
34. Tech
35. Technologies
36. Ultimate
37. Unlimited
38. (Or, ANY acronym whatsoever. With the exception of IBM.)
See, here’s the problem.
If your company name contains words like these, it sends the following messages to the world:
1. You’re LAZY. You don’t care enough about your company to take the time, effort and money to do it right. Nice pride.
2. You’re AMATEUR. You clearly don’t understand the value of remarkability or crafting an identity for your organization. Read ‘Purple Cow’ for God’s sake!
3. You’re UNORIGINAL. You created a generic company name. Which probably means you’re a generic company. With generic employees. Who produce generic products and deliver generic service. Which is a problem, since most people don’t want to pay for average.
4. You’re UNCREATIVE. And that’s going to trickle down into every other entity of your business. That can’t be good.
5. You’re UNPROFESSIONAL. And customers are going to take you less seriously. Which means they will buy less. (Also not good.)
Of course, that’s just the perception.
Doesn’t make it true. Doesn’t mean you’re a bad person.
However, perception is __________.
Reality.
Currency.
EVERYTHING.
SO, THIS BRINGS UP THE QUESTION: When was the last time you hired someone who (you perceived as being) lazy, amateur, unoriginal, uncreative and unprofessional?
Yeah. Didn’t think so.
Interestingly, the Great Place to Work Institute and Fortune Magazine recently named America’s Top 100 employers to work for in 2008.
Take a look at this list. What language trends do you notice?
1. Google
2. Quicken Loans
3. Wegman’s Food Markets
4. Edward Jones
5. Genentech
6. Cisco Systems
7. Starbucks
8. Qualcomm
9. Goldman Sachs
10. Methodist Hospital System
11. Boston Consulting Group
12. Nugget Market
13. Umpqua Bank
14. Network Appliance
15. W. L. Gore & Associates
16. Whole Foods Market
17. David Weekley Homes
18. OhioHealth
19. Arnold & Porter
20. Container Store
21. Principal Financial Group
22. American Century Investments
23. JM Family Enterprises
24. American Fidelity Assurance
25. Shared Technologies
26. Stew Leonard’s
27. SC Johnson & Son
28. QuikTrip
29. SAS Institute
30. Aflac
31. Alston & Bird
32. Rackspace Managed Hosting
33. Station Casinos
34. Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI)
35. TDIndustries
36. Nordstrom
37. Johnson Financial Group
38. Kimley-Horn and Associates
39. Robert W. Baird
40. Adobe Systems
41. Bingham McCutchen
42. MITRE
43. Intuit
44. Plante & Moran
45. Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
46. CarMax
47. J. M. Smucker Company
48. Devon Energy Corporation
49. Griffin Hospital
50. Camden Property Trust
51. Paychex
52. FactSet Research Systems
53. VSP-Vision Care
54. CH2M HILL
55. Perkins Coie
56. Scripps Health
57. Ernst & Young
58. Scottrade
59. Mayo Clinic
60. Alcon Laboratories
61. Chesapeake Energy Corporation
62. American Express
63. King’s Daughters Medical Center
64. EOG Resources
65. Russell Investment Group
66. Nixon Peabody
67. Valero Energy
68. EBay
69. General Mills
70. Mattel
71. KPMG
72. Marriott International
73. David Evans and Associates
74. Granite Construction
75. Southern Ohio Medical Center
76. Arkansas Children’s Hospital
77. PCL Construction
78. Navy Federal Credit Union
79. National Instruments
80. Healthways
81. Booz Allen Hamilton
82. Nike
83. AstraZeneca
84. Stanley
85. Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network
86. Microsoft
87. Yahoo!
88. Four Seasons Hotels
89. Bright Horizons Family Solutions
90. PricewaterhouseCoopers
91. Publix Super Markets
92. Milliken
93. Erickson Retirement Communities
94. Baptist Health South Florida
95. Deloitte & Touche USA
96. Herman Miller
97. FedEx
98. Sherwin-Williams
99. SRA International
100. Texas Instruments
– – –
I know, I know. I counted too 🙂
Associates – 3
Company – 1
Enterprises – 1
Group – 4
International – 2
Investments – 2
Markets – 4
Store – 1
Systems – 4
Technologies – 1
So, FINE. There will always be exceptions.
But, see, those few companies can get away with it.
Because they were the FIRST company to use that word.
Because they’ve been around a LONG time.
Because make BILLIONS of dollars.
But YOUR company, on the other hand, doesn’t.
You’re not Adobe Systems. Or The Boston Consulting Group. Or The Container Store.
You’re YOU.
Which is good! You wouldn’t want to be anyone else.
THE CHALLENGE IS: You need to dig deep and discover the remarkability that lay within.
Oh yeah. It’s there.
Waiting for you.
Crying out, ‘Use me! Use me! I’m cool! I can help grow your business!’
And you need to listen.
Because you DON’T want a generic company name.
See, generic names = generic products.
And generic products = generic value.
And generic value = generic service.
And generic service = generic BUSINESS.
And generic businesses … rarely STAY in business.
1. Attitude. In a sea of thousands of people all trying to get noticed, you have NO choice but to be unforgettable and remarkable. So you better begin with the attitude of approachability. That you’re going to stick yourself out there.
2. Detach from outcomes. Sure, you have goals. Maybe to sell. Maybe to get in front of the right buyers. However, also try to focus less on the outcome and more on the big picture. Free yourself from agendas. Develop a no-entitlement attitude. And focus on having fun, delivering value and creating a memorable (er, unforgettable) presence.
3. Go beyond free. Every booth, vendor, exhibitor and company is going to give something away for free. So, before you attend the show, brainstorm a list of the Top 50 Most Common (and Annoying) Free Giveaways. Don’t do any of them. Instead, pick something cool, remarkable and consistent with your brand that people will actually KEEP. Otherwise, you may as well just tell the attendees, ‘Here, YOU throw this away!’
4. But don’t go overboard on free. You don’t have to give away something for free to EVERYBODY. If they don’t want it, don’t force it. REMEMBER: approachability is a two-way street. Consider offering a free item that’s so good, people actually come up to YOU and say, ‘Ooh! Can I have one of those?’
5. Smile. The whole damn time.
6. Wave. To every single person.
7. Use disarming approaches. Six words: ‘Hi, I don’t know anybody here!’
8. Practice strategic serendipity. Say yes a LOT more. Spend time with people in areas and around things you wouldn’t normally approach. Break your patterns.
9. Don’t pick and choose. Talk to everybody. Even your non-buyers and customers. Even the food service people. Even the janitors. Even the information booth guy. Even the conference planners. Especially the conference planners. Because you never know. And consistency is far better than rare moments of greatness.
10. Dress it up. If you can find some sort of costume that’s consistent with your brand, do it. I wear a giant nametag to my conferences. Nobody misses me. Does your appearance stand out or blend in?
11. Achieve The HVA. Which stands for 1) ‘Huh?’ 2) Value and 3) ‘Aha!’ Attract people to yourself (or booth) with curiosity. Spark their interest. Then deliver your value statement. Then get them to say, ‘Ah! I get it! That’s cool…’
12. Speaking of curiosity. Do something that encourages strangers to approach you and say, ‘So, what’s the story behind that?’
13. Strike the match. Do something that make people say, ‘Dude, did you see that guy who…’ Generate inner-conference buzz.
14. Make music, not noise. Everyone else at your conference is going to be making NOISE. With their annoying, boring promo materials and free toys that nobody wants or cares about. You need to make MUSIC by getting people to smile, laugh, say hello, start talking, have fun and deliver remarkable value.
15. Interact; don’t interrupt. Everyone else at your conference is going to be INTERRUPTING the other attendees. Take this! See this! Have a free cookie! They say. Instead, consider INTERACTING, not interrupting people. Making friends. Strike up conversations. Talk about business later. Lead with your person; follow with your profession. Open your conversations with topics OTHER than business, sales, the weather, traffic and the like.
16. Just chill. Stressed and hurried are not approachable adjectives. Separate yourself from other attendees by not appearing overly needy and desperate for business. After all, it’s hard to sell with your tongue hanging out! Just chill. Relax.
17. Attract attention. Notice it says ‘attract,’ and not ‘draw.’ Major difference. Your job is to be remarkable and cool and fun and valuable. If so, people that see you will follow these six steps:
a. Smile and point at you.
b. Nod in agreement.
c. Think or say, ‘Nice!’ or ‘That’s cool!’
d. Grab their friend’s shirt and say, ‘Jimmy, you’ve got to check out this guy over here…’
e. Approach you.
f. Tell everyone about you.
18. Find the cameras. Photographers, press folks and bloggers LOVE to capture images and videos of cool, fun, remarkable stuff. They also like to share those images in their publications and on the web. So, ask yourself the following three questions:
a. Are you worth videotaping?
b. Are you worth taking a picture of?
c. Are you worth blogging about the next morning?
19. Be a rock star. Do things to enhance your celebrity status. Bring a friend to follow YOU around with a camera all day. Give a speech. Hold a pre or post event party.
1. Are you really the BEST person to be doing this?
2. Are you watching people who are the BEST in your industry doing what they do in action?
3. How and where do you gain your BEST insights?
4. How are you BEST suited to serve humanity?
5. How can you become the BEST marketer in the world?
6. How do you create an atmosphere in the workplace that encourages the generation and application of your BEST ideas?
7. Is this experience helping you become the BEST version of myself?
8. Is this person helping you become the BEST version of myself?
9. Is this thing helping you become the BEST version of myself?
10. Is what you’re doing right now the BEST use of your time?
11. Is your product the BEST at anything worth measuring?
12. What about the situation brought out the BEST in you?
13. What are the BEST people in your field doing?
14. What are the BEST possible questions you could ask this person?
15. What are you recognized as being the BEST at?
16. What behaviors are preventing you from making progress towards becoming the BEST version of yourself?
17. What can you do to become the BEST?
18. What do you think is the BEST way forward?
19. What happens to someone like you at your spiritual BEST?
20. What is present when you’re at your BEST?
21. What is the BEST possible way to release this energy?
22. What milestones can BEST mark your progress?
23. When have you felt that your actions spoke for the BEST in who you are?
24. Where can you go that helps you relax BEST?
25. Which four small actions will BEST prepare you for a great action blitz tomorrow?
26. Who can you be that would BEST serve my goals?
27. Who is the very BEST in the world in your field, and how do you compare to that person?
28. Why do you want to become the BEST at what you do?
29. You, yourself, are at your BEST when you’re acting HOW?
1. Make it quick. The speed of the response IS the response. And the medium IS the message. So, even if you don’t have the answer to a question or a problem right away, you can always drop a quick, one-line email that says, ‘Thanks for letting me know. I’m on it. Call ya this afternoon.’
ASK YOURSELF: Can you respond quicker?
2. Filter. When someone sends you a four-page email loaded with NO line breaks and 48 questions and comments, here’s how to handle it:
a. First, give it a quick once-over.
b. Next, go back and separate each section or question. (See, to make sure you address all of their concerns, you’ll be turning your reply email into a numbered list.)
c. Introduce your list with something like, ‘Thanks for all of your feedback! I’ve written a response to each of your questions below…’
d. Then, boldface their original thought and write your response underneath. This type of response shows organization AND openness to ALL their ideas.
e. Finally, close with your signature.
ASK YOURSELF: Are you breaking emails down enough?
3. Summary. Next time you have a detailed conversation with someone over the phone, suggest the following: ‘Hey Mark, I’ve been taking some notes on our conversation. Would you like me to email you a quick, bullet-point list of all the key points we’ve covered, just to make sure we’re both on the same page?’ 99 times out of 100, the person will not only gratefully accept, but also be WOW’ed by your listening ability. Not to mention, you’ll have documentation of the conversation for future reference.
ASK YOURSELF: Are you on the same page as your clients?
4. Email introductions. This is a GREAT practice for bringing two people together that should meet, have something in common or can help each other. A few tips for an effective email introduction are:
a. Give a short background on each person.
b. Reference your relationship with each person.
c. Provide phone numbers, websites and email addresses.
d. Keep it short, casual and friendly.
e. Stress the idea of they can help each other or that you think they’d get along great.
ASK YOURSELF: What two people do you know who should meet?
5. Frequency. If you’re one of the Brave Souls who sets a boundary to only check your email a few times a day, good for you. Way to (not) be addicted to your Crackberry! Just remember, accessibility is still important. So, in your email signature, consider letting people know about your new emailing-checking schedule. You may also want to include a number where people can either contact you or someone else who can help them in your e-absence.
ASK YOURSELF: Do you (really) need to check your email as SOON as the plane touches down? Come on, folks. Let it go. There’s no way you’re that important.
6. Fun with From. The ‘from’ line is a PERFECT, yet underused hot spot for the of stamp your personal brand. Let’s say you’re known as ‘The Tax Law Queen.’ Great! Put that instead of [email protected]. It’s guaranteed to stand out among the hundreds of emails in your recipients’ inboxes, and probably get read first.
ASK YOURSELF: What makes your email stand out?
7. Architecture. The human attention span is about six seconds. First impressions occur in less than two seconds. And people receive hundreds of emails a day. So, if you want people to actually READ your letters, the secret is to make your writing easy, quick, fun, approachable and, most importantly, digestible. I call this architecture. And it’s defined as, ‘The creative design and page presentation of a piece of writing.’ For example:
o Make it bold.
o Make it a list.
o Make it italic.
o Make it chunky.
o Make it shorter.
o Make it ALL CAPS.
o Make it underlined.
o Make it b-r-o-k-e-n.
o Make it one word long.
o Make it one sentence long.
o Make it centered on the page.
o Make it bold AND underlined.
Ultimately, if your writing is laborious to get through, readers will just move onto the next email. Besides, people are probably doing three other things while reading your stuff. So, the minute your page presentation starts to bore them, they’ll probably move on.
ASK YOURSELF: 500 emails a day – why would they read yours?
8. Email less often. There’s no need to send piles of emails to your clients, customers and prospects constantly. Once or twice is enough. Any more than that, they’ll either think you don’t trust them, think you don’t have a life or think you’re desperate. (But in all cases, they’ll be annoyed.)
ASK YOURSELF: Do I really need to send another email to this person?
See, whenever someone’s ready to take the next step – to follow up WITH or open up TO you – they’ll do it because THEY want to. Not because you emailed them (again) just to ‘follow up,’ ‘see if they have any further questions’ or ‘check in to see how it’s coming along.’ Easy, Dilbert. They heard you the first time. Have a little faith. When they want you, they’ll find you. Patience.
1. Respond to fan mail promptly.
2. If you’re going to be in the same place or city as you fans, send out a letter to see who wants to meet up for a beer.
3. Post your travel schedule on your site. Make it easy for fans to see you when you come through town.
4. Thank your fans regularly.
5. If you don’t have the ability to create a NEW fan community, consider joining an existing community.
6. Help them feel like they’re on the road with you. Use blogs, pictures, diaries, message boards and videos.
7. Community doesn’t always mean your fans are talking about YOU. It might be about your characters, topics or the bigger idea of what your work is about.
8. As important as fans are, don’t forget to make the art form the first thing. Whether it’s painting, music or writing, you can’t (not) be good!
9. Create a DVD in which you’re interviewed about your various products, books, albums or projects. Think of it as an informal, inexpensive documentary about your work. Send copies (cheaply or for free) to the people on your list. Let them get into your head.
10. Fans are now USED to discussing books, CD’s and other art forms. Either in groups or online. As such, fans are smarter than they used to be. Which means they listen, read and experience your art with that sort of eye. So, be sure your work is conducive to discussion and debate.
11. Fan loyalty is a function of how easily accessible you are. Seth Godin, best selling author and super-successful speaker/entrepreneur, answers many emails within about 30 minutes. And he has the most loyal fans in the world. Coincidence? Nope.
12. When you go BACK to a town you’ve already appeared in, do your best to remember and contact (and possible hang with) the people you met the first time. Prove to them how valuable they are to your livelihood.
13. Or, go one step further: when you come in town, send postcards to the fans on your list to let them know you’re coming.
14. Thank your fans regularly. (Did I say that already?)
15. Connect your fans to each other, then get out of the way.
16. Send your fans stickers with important product releases, conference times, meetings, and appointments or show dates. Tell them to mark up their calendars so they know when to buy your stuff and see you in person. NOTE: think about what your vet, dentist or cardiologist does with your appointments or hospital visits. Same thing.
17. While signing books, CD’s and the like, lock and load. They only have a short time to engage with you. Give them your full attention.
18. Create downloadable items on your website that they can print out, draw on, fold or share. Let them participate.
19. Take pictures of you and your fans. Post those pictures on your blog or your photo sharing account. Then email a link of that page to your fan. He’ll love it! Not to mention, he’ll probably tell everyone.
20. Create some sort of card that indicates they’re your fan, friend or ‘part of the club.’ Think about what rock bands do: they create laminated badges for their fans to wear backstage. What about you? What kind of backstage pass or ‘with the band’ item could YOU create?
21. Thank your fans regularly. Seriously. Thank them in your blogs, books, ezines, linear notes and websites. After all, without them, you’d be out of a job!
22. Give your fans enough information to make them feel like an insider.
23. Get Meebo. Like, today.
1. Are other people telling their friends about you?
2. Are other people repeating your ‘story’?
3. Are people talking about you?
4. Are the very first words out of your mouth consistent with your brand?
5. Are you broadcasting your brand to the right audience?
6. Are you building things worth noticing right into your product or service?
7. Are you concerned with traffic or transactions?
8. Are you everywhere?
9. Are you giving away enough stuff for free?
10. Are you listening to the word of mouth about you?
11. Are you pushing or pulling your customers?
12. Are you specializing enough?
13. Are you starting positive epidemics?
14. Are you still ripping off that lame-ass ‘Got milk?’ campaign?
15. Are you thinking about your non-customers?
16. Are your products positioned, or do they just have clever slogans?
17. Can your target market afford you?
18. Do people know what you do?
19. Do people know what you’re DOING?
20. Do people know what you’ve DONE?
21. Do you find unusual places to show off?
22. Do you have customers or fans?
23. Do you have them at hello?
24. Do you know which of your marketing efforts have been effective in the past?
25. Do you provide a value message to your customers every week?
26. Do you really think anybody is talking about your yellow page ads?
27. Do your beautiful, award-winning marketing materials actually influence customer decisions?
28. Does a lower fee make you more affordable, or less attractive?
29. Does your website offer proof or just list a bunch of adjectives?
30. Has anybody ever done this before?
31. Have people heard about you?
32. How are you allowing customers to participate in your brand?
33. How are you building a following? (If you’re not presently doing this, send an email to [email protected] and I’d be happy to show you how!)
34. How are you building a permission asset?
35. How are you enabling your customers to do your marketing for you?
36. How are you getting permission from people to market to them?
37. How are you making it easy for customers to tell their friends about you?
38. How are you marketing yourself daily?
39. How are you staying in front of your fans?
40. How can you be visible to the highest number of people?
41. How can you become the best marketer in the world?
42. How can you keep marketing, even when you tell customers no?
43. How can you make yourself more marketable in the next year?
44. How could you encourage strangers to break the silence and talk to you?
45. How do you measure your permission asset?
46. How good are you at attracting attention?
47. How many different ways are you interacting with your market?
48. How many different ways can you leverage this?
49. How many different ways did you leverage your media appearance?
50. How many people anticipate your marketing?
51. How many people do you think really read your press release?
52. How much money do you spend on marketing?
53. How much time do you spend on marketing each day?
54. How often are customers retelling your company’s story?
55. If you have to jump through hoops to defeat someone’s efforts to avoid your advertising, is the result going to be worthwhile?
56. If you have to trick people into looking at your advertising, is the result going to be worthwhile?
57. If you showed your idea to a teenager, what would she think?
58. If you showed your website to a five year old, what would he think?
59. If you stopped advertising, would anybody even notice?
60. If you were your customer, what would you LOVE to have from you next?
61. Is anybody else doing this now?
62. Is your idea simple enough that a five year old could understand it?
63. Is your idea so good that other people are copying it?
64. Is your idea so good that SNL would parody it?
65. Is your idea so remarkable that people make fun of it?
66. Is your marketing interrupting or interacting?
67. Is your marketing making music or noise?
68. Are you creating a website or a destination?
69. Are you sharing link love FIRST?
70. Can your business afford not to have a website?
71. Did you buy the domain first?
72. Did you get their email address?
73. Did you register all of the misspellings and accidental permutations of your URL?
74. Do you have a web-SITE or a web-PRESENCE?
75. Do you really care if your non-customers don’t like your website?
76. Does your website honestly reflect your business personality?
77. Does your Website leave a perception of value or vanity in the mind of a visitor”?
78. Does your website scream, ‘Look at me!’ or ‘Here’s what you were looking for’?
79. How are you getting customers to come back to your website just to see what you’ve been up to?
80. How are you participating in your online image?
81. How are you taking advantage of the infinite shelf space of the Web?
82. How powerful is your online platform?
83. Is content king on your website?
84. Is your website an experience?
85. Is your website something you can proudly reference?
86. What are the Potential Silent Dialogues when people first come to your website?
87. What makes your website a destination?
88. When someone comes to your website, how do you want them to feel?
89. When someone comes to your website, what’s the ONE THING you want them to do?
90. When was the last time you added new content to your website?
91. When was the last time you bought something from spam email?
92. When was the last time you checked your website stats?
93. When was the last time you Googled a word or idea?
94. When was the last time you Googled somebody?
95. When was the last time you invited your audience to participate at your website?
96. Where are most of your hits coming from?
97. Who’s blogging about you?
98. Why aren’t you blogging yet?
99. Why wouldn’t anyone spend more than 60 seconds at your website?
100. Why would someone come to (and stay at) your website for more than 60 seconds?
101. Why would someone give you her email address (and therefore, permission) to market to her regularly?
102. Why would someone return to your website consistently?
103. Why would someone tell her friends about my website consistently?
104. Why would you put links on YOUR website that send customers to someone ELSE’S website?
105. What are three reasons ANYBODY would want to go to your website?
106. What are you doing to stimulate, harness and increase word of mouth?
107. What are you giving away for free?
108. What could you do to strengthen the relationships with your biggest fans?
109. What have you recently learned about marketing trends?
110. What is it about your idea that makes people eager to spread it?
111. What is your total marketing capacity?
112. What part of your marketing makes people stop and ask, ‘Huh?’
113. What type of marketing will you use?
114. What would the twenty-second word of mouth ‘sound byte’ be if your customer were to tell a friend about you?
115. What’s the most important word in marketing?
116. When was the last time a complete stranger come up to and said, ‘OK, so, I just HAVE to ask…’?
117. When was the last time you actually bought something from a telemarketer?
118. When was the last time you invited your audience to participate in your brand?
119. When was the last time you picked up Yellow Pages to find a product or service?
120. When was the last time you updated your brand identity?
121. When was the last time you were THRILLED to get junk mail?
122. Why are you marketing?
123. Why are you (still) wasting money on advertising?
1. You can talk too much.
Which means you’re not listening too much.
2. You can listen too actively.
Which comes off as annoying and fake.
3. You can ask too many questions.
Which turns you into an interrogator.
4. You can be around too much.
Which might give someone the impression that you’re spying on her.
5. You can violate someone’s boundaries.
Which makes them feel uncomfortable and unsafe.
6. You can use someone’s name too often.
Which appears unnecessary, forced and inauthentic.
7. You can check up on people too much.
Which demonstrates a lack of trust and unwillingness to relieve ownership.
8. You can share too much personal information.
Which is just plain awkward!
9. You can communicate too many different messages.
Which results in a confused mind, which never buys.
10. You can send out a mass email to everyone in your address books.
Which comes off as impersonal, lazy and makes (some) people feel small.
11. You can listen too much.
Which can emotionally drain you, which can rob you of the energy to reciprocate.
12. You can be too empathetic.
Which will unnecessarily internalize someone else’s pain.
13. You can email too often.
Which makes people wonder if you’re either really bored or stalking them.
14. You can have THEE answer for everything.
Which makes you seem like a know-it-all, which makes people feel like they ‘just can’t win’ or get anything past you.
15. You can always share your opinion about everything.
Which makes people question your insecurity.
16. You can be too quick to prove people wrong.
Which means you probably weren’t listening; but rather waiting to talk.
17. You can say certain words too much.
Which diminishes their value over time.
18. You can offer too many compliments.
Which comes off as trying too hard to connect, ass kissing and inauthentic.
19. You can try too hard to build a connection with someone you’ve just me.
Which comes off as rapport seeking instead of rapport attracting.
20. You can be too clever.
Which seems like you’re ‘always on,’ and is overly motivated by self-interest.
21. You can give your opinion, even when nobody asks for it.
Which can be annoying if that opinion makes no difference in the situation.
22. You can try to hard to make an impression on someone.
Which usually leaves you flustered because you’re focused on outcomes, not conversations.
23. You can never take no for an answer.
Which is not only aggravating, but can show that you don’t respect someone’s choices.
24. You can agree to easily.
Which means people won’t know whether or not they’re on the right track with you, which will make you a less trustworthy person.
25. You can be too prepared, too organized and too ready to engage.
Which means you’re unrelaxed, over determined and too agenda-focused; which ultimately blocks listening.
26. You can give out information too soon.
Which seems forced and isn’t as effective as organically easing into explaining to someone ‘what you do.’
27. You can talk to fast.
Which doesn’t allow space to be created in the conversation, which makes it hard for others to chime in, which is really, really frustrating.
Growing bigger ears isn’t just about what you DO.
It’s also about what you DON’T DO.
1. Don’t react.
Respond coolly, objectively and non-judgmentally.
2. Don’t think.
Just perceive without interpreting or labeling.
3. Don’t perform.
Because some people view listening as a performance.
4. Don’t tell someone not to feel a certain way.
This cheats her out of having her feelings.
5. Don’t get bored.
Because that means you’re focusing on the wrong person ?
6. Don’t take over.
Instead, take IN the other person.
7. Don’t tell.
Instead, ask. (But not too many questions!)
8. Don’t give advice.
Unless someone asks for it.
9. Don’t usurp ownership.
Let the other person give birth to their ideas and realizations.
10. Don’t inflict your agenda.
Because listening isn’t about you.
11. Don’t one-up.
It’s a form of conversational narcissism.
12. Don’t use the other person’s comments as prompts for your clever little jokes.
It’s annoying and clearly motivated by self-interested.
13. Don’t speak.
Just stop talking for a while. Seriously. Let the silence make space for the other person to just BE.
14. Don’t impose your own structure.
Let the speaker pace the conversation.
15. Don’t fix.
That isn’t your job, and people don’t like to be ‘fixed.’
16. Don’t take too many notes.
Or else it will look like you’re too busy to listen.
17. Don’t ask, ‘Why?’
That word creates defensiveness.
1. Read lots of books. Highlight, underline, take notes and annotate. When you’re done, recopy those notes onto a Word file. Then save them in a folder called ‘Book Notes.’ Refer back to them regularly. And never loan those books to anybody. Start with one per week.
2. Google everything. Ideas, people, YOURSELF, information, companies, competitors, trends and the like. Do it daily.
3. Ask smart people smart questions. In person, via email, online and ESPECIALLY when you’re in the audience during a speech. Have a handful of smart, open-ended toughies ready to go for any occasion. My favorite example: ‘What was the biggest mistake you made in your first year of business?’
4. Take notes. Listen closely to (and write down) those smart people’s answers. Keep those ideas in a separate folder called ‘People Notes.’ Refer back to them regularly.
5. Screw up. Big time and small time. Keep a running list called, ‘Things I’ll Never Do Again.’ Consider partnering up for this exercise. Regularly share your list with a safe, accountable person.
6. Daily appointments with yourself. Take this morning time for reflection, journaling, meditation and thinking. This quiet time will help you listen to your intuition, which will enable you to learn more about yourself. Do it for at least 15 minutes, and do it ever-single-day.
7. Be uncomfortable. Understand, step out of, expand and LOVE your comfort zone. Daily. Because you can’t learn when you’re comfortable. Also, ask yourself, ‘What three situations make me the most uncomfortable?’ Make it your goal to intentionally involve yourself in ONE of those situations over the next 30 days. (As long as it’s safe, legal and appropriate.)
8. WRITE. Chronicle, journal, blog, diary, (whatever … just WRITE) your thoughts, experiences, feelings, emotions, philosophies and concerns. Daily.
9. Just do stuff. Don’t talk about it. Don’t plan. Don’t take lessons. Just go. The best way to learn how to do something is to DO that something. Action is eloquence.
10. Make lots of lists. Best creativity tool EVER.
11. Eclectic education. Once a month, go to Borders. Buy a cup of coffee or a brownie. Spend an hour or two reading every magazine on the rack. Especially ones you wouldn’t normally read, i.e., Tiger Beat.
12. Hang with super smart, cool and creative people. Ask yourself, ‘How smart are the five people I spend the most time with?’
13. Find out where you suck. Because that’s the only way you’re going to get better.
14. Learn how you learn. Visual? Aural? Kinesthetic? Take a personality assessment if you have to. Anything to identify your learning style. This will help you better educate yourself in the future.
15. Mentors. Three types. Directly, through an official program like SCORE. Casual, with a colleague, friend or advisor. And indirectly, via books, audiotapes and online content. Mentors are GOLD. And don’t forget to take lots of notes!
16. Motivate your melon. How many books on creativity did you read last month? How many courses in creativity did you take last year? Train your brain. Daily.
17. Grill yourself. Pretend you’re on an interview. Ask yourself tricky questions like, ‘Who can hurt me the most?’ and ‘If everybody did exactly what I said, what would the world look like?’ REMEMBER: questions are the basis of all learning.
18. Bedtime Brain Boosting. Keep a stack of index cards and a Sharpie next to your bed. Every night before you hit the hay, think of ONE lesson you learned that day. Jot down a few words on the card. Keep them in a pile. Then, once a month, lie in bed with all your lesson cards. Take a few minutes to review everything you’ve learned.
19. Quotes. Any time you hear a great quotation, movie line, proverb, psalm or old saying, write it down. Keep a running list called ‘Quotes’ and file it in a folder next to your ‘Book Notes’ and ‘People Notes.’
20. Teach. Other that writing, teaching is probably the best way to learn. Share your notes, ideas and lessons learned with others. When you pass your wisdom on, you learn it better yourself. Teach via writing, blogging, speaking, talking or mentoring.
21. Talk. Conversations are laboratories. People are libraries. So, exponentially increate your activity level. Especially with diverse individuals. And maintain an expectation that you will learn at least ONE thing from every person you encounter.
22. Unlearn. Make a list of ten childhood assumptions taught by your parents, teachers and faith leaders … that ended up being totally bogus. Use affirmations and self-talk to reprogram yourself. REMEMBER: part of learning is also UN-learning.
23. Extract. Lessons from others, that is. For example, any time someone tells a story, follow up by asking, ‘So, what lessons did you learn from that experience?’
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