A couple years ago, my hubby and I decided to ride our BMW motorcycles from Myrtle Beach to Watkins Glen State Park, in the Finger Lakes area of [...]]]>

No one wants to fail.  Certainly not me.  But sometimes failure can actually produce unexpected positive results.  Let me tell you a story of how I learned this.

A couple years ago, my hubby and I decided to ride our BMW motorcycles from Myrtle Beach to Watkins Glen State Park, in the Finger Lakes area of NY.  It was early in September and the weather was as close to perfect as it could be.  We drove 1100 miles through the mountains of North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, and arrived safe and exhilarated.  We pitched our tent among the trees and decided to ride into the nearby town to pick up some ice, drinks and other supplies.  The road leading into the town was full of curves and hills.  As we approached an intersection, my hubby (who’s always in the lead), raced to the top of the hill, glanced both ways, barely coming to a complete stop, and made a quick left and off he went.  I didn’t quite make it to the top of the banked, curved hill.  In one horrifying moment, I realized I was off balance, and there was no way I could straighten the bike on that angle.  Over we went – the bike going one way, and me rolling in the other direction.

Now, let me stop and tell you that my greatest fear had been to go to this rally with 1000 other riders, and have something like this happen and draw attention to myself.  I had only been riding a few years, and even though I had about 50K miles under my belt, I was far less experienced than most of the other riders.  Almost all the riders were men, and the women who were there were primarily riding on the back of their guy’s bike.

So, with my husband nowhere in sight, I picked myself up and immediately was surrounded by men pulling over to see about me.  Mercifully, I wasn’t hurt because I had the good sense to ride with proper protective clothing and leather gloves.  It was my pride that was hurt.  Several guys picked up my bike, and one even offered to ride it over the hill to the other side of the road (where it was nice and flat).  I readily accepted the offer.  About this time, hubby came roaring back down the road – he had finally missed me! – and asked where in the world I had been.  I explained I had been in the middle of the road – thank you very much! So, what did I learn?

Here are a few lessons:

1.  My greatest fear came to pass, and I survived it.  I think I internally relaxed about it, and I rode hundreds of miles around the Finger Lakes, and never even came close to another incident.  The worst had happened, and I was over it.

2.  It actually created a sense of “belonging” among the other riders.  They were gracious, kind, and talk around the campfires included the old saying among bikers: “There are only two kinds of riders – those who have dropped their bikes, and those who will.”  I was now part of the club!

3.  One man gave me a well-written motorcyclist’s manual with some nuts-and-bolts tips on handling a big bike.  I tried some of those techniques, and became a better rider.  I even learned how to counter-steer through sharp curves.  What a blast!

And last but not least – hubby decided to ride in such a way that I wasn’t a fading dot in his rear-view mirror!

So, what are you afraid of?  What failures have you experienced in life and business?  Can you stop and make a list of how those failures produced good in your life?

Leave me your comments and tell me your story…I want to hear it!

Here’s what a very wise King Solomon said, “Choose a good reputation over great riches; being held in high esteem is better than silver or gold.” ~~ Proverbs 22:1

Now before you think I’m saying that all people with good reputations must be poor, let me put that to rest.  [...]]]>

Should You Be Worried?

Here’s what a very wise King Solomon said, “Choose a good reputation over great riches; being held in high esteem is better than silver or gold.” ~~ Proverbs 22:1

Now before you think I’m saying that all people with good reputations must be poor, let me put that to rest.  That’s NOT what I’m saying.  I want to take this Scripture at face value, and say there’s not enough money on earth to make up for a bad reputation.

There’s another great quote I’d like to share with you:  “Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow.  The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” ~~ Abraham Lincoln

So, it used to be that all we had to do to have a good reputation was to treat others well, be good to our family and friends, and conduct our business fairly.  But today, it’s not enough.  What???

That’s right…and I’m talking about the internet and social media.  I love America and free speech, and all my liberties; but with all freedoms, there are abuses of those same liberties we all hold dear.

Let me tell you a true story (a story still being written)…

I got into the internet marketing field about two years ago, and began developing training products for small businesses to access online, rather than having to travel for seminars, etc.  That led to many of those businesses contracting with me to help them be found online.  So, I began helping them develop an online presence and become involved in the social media conversation.  What great fun this is!!  I’ve discovered many wonderful tactics and strategies that are valuable to my clients.

Then, one day I had lunch with an old friend in another city, whom I had not seen in years.  As we were catching up, she began to cry when she told me about a vicious online attack against her husband.  I was horrified.  The attack was coming from just one man, who was disgruntled over something personal.  This attacker is brilliant in his use of the internet to create havoc.  My friends are very successful in their lines of work, but have absolutely no experience online.

She found out what I was doing professionally, and wondered if I could help.  I told her I would look into it.  So I did.  I studied what was on Google when I searched for my friend’s name.  I began to see a pattern with what was being done.  I studied the keywords, the frequency of the posts, and all the sites that were being used to crucify my friend.  It really was a cold, cunning, calculated vicious attack.  The man launching the attack happens to have a high-ranking authority website with a lot of “muscle” online and he was using that muscle for his own perverted pleasure.

I began a campaign to help my friend.  I studied everything I could get my hands on concerning Reputation Management online.  I soon learned that it’s a wide-open field.  Many large companies are hiring Reputation Management companies just to police the internet and push down the negative and boost the positive.  I bought courses…I studied from the best.  I tested, measured, and tested again.

I’m happy to report that if you were to Google my friend’s name right now, there’s “good stuff” at the top, and the negative is being pushed down.  It’s been a process and a journey.  It seems so unfair, that anyone can go online and say anything at all and get away with it.  It doesn’t have to be true.  It’s protected under free speech.  The only way around this is to actually hire an attorney, take it to court and prove fallacious content has been posted with malicious intent.  That’s a tall order.  In the meantime, while the court docket has my friend’s case scheduled for early 2013, the attacker is free to continue.

On a less serious scale, there are small businesses out there that really need to pay attention to what is being posted online.  Restaurants, dentists, plumbers, hotels, etc…  After all, Google is the new Yellow Pages, and if someone is searching on Yelp for a good restaurant, and the first thing they see is a bad review, trust me, they’re moving on to the next one.  Reputation matters.  Period.

In closing, there is one last quote I’d like to leave with you.  Benjamin Franklin said this:  “It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.”

This topic of reputation online will be coming to the forefront more and more and you’ll begin to see national media coverage on this topic.  I’d like your comments…please post below.

The world of small business is changing, sometimes faster than what we can keep up with.  Many factors contribute to these changes – increased competition, the social media revolution, the recession – and as a result, we’ve all been forced to rethink our marketing and advertising strategies and tactics.

Since the economy [...]]]>

SMART MARKETING IS NOT OPTIONAL!

The world of small business is changing, sometimes faster than what we can keep up with.  Many factors contribute to these changes – increased competition, the social media revolution, the recession – and as a result, we’ve all been forced to rethink our marketing and advertising strategies and tactics.

Since the economy tanked a couple years ago, many small businesses are finding it more difficult to compete.  The biggest question we ask ourselves (I’m a small business owner, too!) is, “How do I make my business recession-proof?”  Really, the only way to do that is to give marketing a front seat ride.  It’s simply not optional anymore.

I can think of another dozen things that I consider important. For instance, customer service, a solid accounting process, employee training.  But none are more important than a good, smart marketing plan, especially during a recession.  Knowing how to market and then actually doing what you know (or what you learn) will make the difference in whether you stay in business or close your doors.

I heard that during the Great Depression, several companies actually became super stars and some are still in business today.  They learned how to take a bad situation and turn it around for their advantage.  During hard times, we learn the importance of making the most of every marketing dollar.  We study, and train ourselves to see things differently and we watch every dime that gets spent—and we consider it an investment, not just an expenditure.

I am a small business coach, and therefore, I look for ways to help my clients thrive, not just survive.  The first thing we need to realize is that people really have tightened the belt and aren’t spending money like they used to.  Therefore, we have to be wise in searching out the prospective buyers, and we must learn to use new and innovative ways to find our audience and get them to listen, and ultimately, to buy from us.

Marketing used to be like a game of golf.  We just walked out to the tee box, lined up the shot, took dead aim, and swung the club.  We hoped the ball came close to the cup and if it didn’t, we just hit it a few more times, and then we scored.

But today, marketing is more like a game of tennis.  We hit the ball and our opponent (our customer) might hit the ball straight back to us, or they may just hit it somewhere else entirely.  Literally, the ball is in their court.  Our goal is to get them to hit it back to us.  So we’re not just pushing a message out there (the golf example) in hopes of scoring,  but we’re engaging in a back and forth game in hopes of winning by confidence, skill and persistence (the tennis example).

I am going to write a series of articles that address this subject of smart marketing for the small business owner.  This is the first of the series.  I hope you’ll come back and join me for all of them.   It’s really a wonderful time to be in business, if we’re careful to make marketing a priority.

One way of enhancing your marketing is to begin to market with email.  Here’s a link to a fantastic course I’ve prepared for business owners who want to start with email marketing and don’t know how.  http://YourEmailMarketingSuccess.com Be sure to check it out – it could be your best move yet!

Our daily lives are made up of automatic tasks and routine.  That really sounds boring, doesn’t it?  But when I think about it, here’s what I become aware of – I get up in the morning, go to the bathroom, go to the kitchen, put the coffee on and feed [...]]]>

Write Something Everyday!

Our daily lives are made up of automatic tasks and routine.  That really sounds boring, doesn’t it?  But when I think about it, here’s what I become aware of – I get up in the morning, go to the bathroom, go to the kitchen, put the coffee on and feed the dog and let him out while the coffee’s brewing.  Then, the dog comes back in and he goes back to bed for awhile while I enjoy my coffee while checking email.  Then, while it’s still quiet, I do a little reading, usually a devotional or my Bible.  Then, I review my list of things for the day and get things ready to fire away at my list.  That’s my morning routine – almost every day unless I’m not at home.  Do I have to think about these things?  No.  I just do them.

How about driving your car?  Are you really thinking about the moves you’re making?  It’s scary, but the answer is no.

Establishing habits and routines are important in order for us to quickly get things done without too much time thinking about it.  For a professional marketer, writing is one of those things that we simply MUST do.  No question about it; you can’t market, especially online without writing being an integral part of your daily routine.  Notice I said daily, not weekly or frequently – DAILY!

Every day I must write articles, blog posts, emails, work on short reports, write eCourses, scripts for Ads On Hold for my telecommunications business, and write outlines and prepare slides for my webinars.  If I had not made writing a part of my daily life, I couldn’t do my job for myself or for my clients.

So you want to be more successful as a marketer, or as a writer, or as any kind of professional?  Start writing every day.  And you may ask yourself where to start. For me, I purchased my name – jeannekolenda.com from GoDaddy, figured out how to host it and build a blog, and I began to blog everyday.  I then began to tweet out those blog posts on Twitter, and my traffic began to grow.  Then I began writing articles for ezinearticles.com and as my traffic grew to my blog, I started to write eCourses and produce training webinars.

The next thing I did was to participate in a 30-day blogging challenge. There were about 100 people who signed up to write a blog post every day for 30 days.  About half of us finished it.  Then, just 8 weeks later, another online guru hosted another 30-day challenge.  I signed up again.  This time, more than 250 people signed up and I think 84 finished it.  During these blog challenges, I also met many new friends online and I wrote comments on their blogs.  So I felt like a writing and reading machine.  I then completed an eZineArticles challenge to write 100 articles in 100 days.   Someone asked me what I would win. I honestly didn’t even know what the prize was…I just knew I had to do it for the feather in my cap as a writer.  (It was a clock that didn’t work, a mousepad, a coffee mug [my favorite] and a leather coaster.)

What I’ve found is that I do my best writing late at night when nothing can interrupt me.  I find that when I sit down at my computer, I instantly relax and find that my fingers literally fly across the keyboard and this makes me very happy.

I believe the first step really is to get your blog going.  Even if you know nothing, my business partner and I have put together a course that will walk you through every step of it.  Check it out here:  http://SmallBusinessBlogHelp.com Get started today to be the writer you need to be for professional success!  Let me hear from you.  I’ll be glad to help in any way I can.

And PLEASE, do yourself a favor and sign up at the top right in order to receive a great free video  called “Taming the Top 10 Grammar Monsters.” I’ll connect with you and send you valuable information on writing, and growing your business.

Leave a comment and tell me what your writing habits are.

I’m a writer.  I’ve been a writer for most of my life.  I remember the days when “writing” meant grabbing my favorite pen and a yellow legal pad and heading to my favorite chair to scribble notes, strike them out, start over, and finally taking the terribly messy pages to a typewriter for the [...]]]>

http://MakeMicrosoftOfficeWork.com

I’m a writer.  I’ve been a writer for most of my life.  I remember the days when “writing” meant grabbing my favorite pen and a yellow legal pad and heading to my favorite chair to scribble notes, strike them out, start over, and finally taking the terribly messy pages to a typewriter for the final output.   My, how things have changed!  I can’t even remember what it’s like to not think in front of a screen and a keyboard.

However, years ago, when I first ventured into the Microsoft Office software products, and I began to learn some basics, I found that I was learning just enough to get my words on the page and then I was off to something else.  By the time these powerful word processor software packages were commonplace, I was well past college age, and if I was going to learn the finer points, I had to teach myself.  As the years passed, I found myself always bumping my head against something or other when using Microsoft Word and it usually had to do with formatting, indentions, setting margins, spacing, etc.

I finally went to the local bookstore, purchased a big tutorial on Microsoft Office products (with colored pictures!) and set aside time every day to work my way through some of the basics.  I was constantly amazed at how simple something was that I had struggled with.

What I felt I was missing was the personal touch.  If I had just had someone to show me how to do it! I could have saved hours and hours of time.  I believe people today are still struggling with the same issues – in fact, I believe that much of our business writing is terribly inefficient because of a lack of expertise in using Microsoft Word or similar software, such as Open Office.

Here is a list of common features people struggle with in Microsoft Word:

1.      Spacing manually to indent a list

2.      Backspacing one character at a time

3.      Trying to insert numbers in front of a list AFTER typing the list

4.      Changing your margins without tabbing or spacing

5.      Quickly and easily changing the font size, color and style

6.      How to number items or use bullet points automatically

7.      How to make sub-headings with clean indentions

8.      How to insert frequently used words or phrases

9.      Finding and replacing strings of text, phrases or individual words

10.  Creating simple tables and inserting graphs and charts

11.  How to use spell-check, grammar-check or check for style

12.  How to easily undo and redo a series of changes or edits

I am now a partner in an online training business and I am thrilled to make this learning curve much less steep for you than what I experienced.  If you think you could stand to gain efficiency with your writing by getting to know your software a little better, please click on this link and pay us a visit:  http://MakeMicrosoftOfficeWork.com