Friday Funnies #6 – Are You A Survivor
July 29, 2005→ 1 Comment
This week the Friday Funnies are more along the lines of "funny how things have changed" 
) If you were a kid of the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s or 70s you must think, like I do at times, how we survived.
The author of this piece is unknown to me but the wisdom is universal.
We survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes.
They didn’t need birthing classes or birthing videos to do what comes naturally.
No need for back rubs, a partner to breathe with them, or the need to put the blessed event on a home movie for all and sundry to see..
Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints, with bars you could get your head stuck in.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pick up/ute on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank pop with sugar in it, but we weren’t overweight because……………. WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.
We respected the authority of adults, parents, aunties, uncles, teachers, police officers and the like.
We had to attend school every day and like it. We worked our arses off because we knew the consequences of a poor report card.
The teacher was always right, and your parents sided with them.
When we misbehaved, were rude, spiteful, or didn’t follow the rules, we were caned, detained, and reprimanded. We didn’t go home and tell our parents what happened because we knew we’d get walloped again.
We had three meals a day and we ate what was put in front of us.
No choices. You ate what you were given and you ate it all….."There were children starving around the world."
We had an extended family watching out for us……….aunties, neighbours, and your friends’ mothers. If you were caught doing something you shouldn’t be doing, you got a slap up the side of the head from some one.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
If you were lucky enough to get pocket money………you had to earn it.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms……….WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
Dirty knees and fingernails showed we knew how to play, explore and have FUN………a few bruises and scabs proved we were tough.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!
Cricket or Football teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
So What IS Podcasting? (For the 90% who are yet to understand)
July 27, 2005→ Add Comments
Podcasting still falls well within the realms of an emerging technology. Very few people know what it is let alone are regular users of podcasting.
If you want to know what podcasting is and how it is used here are two Flash demos that Andy Wibbels has made that give you more background: How Podcasting Works and The Big Deal About Podcasting.
Many in mainstream media are also looking to find ways to leverage podcasting. The main ones that I subscribe to are provide by the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) -
- TripleJ’s weekday current affairs program, Hack, and Thursday mornings Dr. Karl segment
BTW – The Life Matters Program on Radio National is also available as audio downloads but not as a podcast at the moment.
Now I know I am in the minority (a recent survey showed that less than 10% of people know what podcasting is) but podcasting is an upward trend in many sections of the community. It allows people to share ideas and products and, as long as your market is a fit for the technology, it will be another medium for small business professionals to share their wisdom.
S
o my suggestion to you is that you should at least educate yourself on what podcasting is. Check out Andy’s quick tutorials or you might even want to take his Podcasting Bootcamp training one day. You might even want to check out Andy walking his talk in his new Podcast project BizSlap.
Whatever you do don’t just stick your head in the sand and say “I am not that technical”. You might just be able to use this to your advantage sooner than you think.
Tools of the Trade – Making Direct Requests
July 25, 2005→ Add Comments
While planning for some change in the business and developing some new products and services I was reminded of a story that we can all learn from as business owners.
The Sandbox
A little boy was spending his Saturday morning playing in his sandbox. He had with him his box of cars and trucks, his plastic pail, and a shiny, red plastic shovel. In the process of creating roads and tunnels in the soft sand, he discovered a large rock in the middle of the sandbox.
The lad dug around the rock, managing to dislodge it from the dirt. With no little bit of struggle, he pushed and nudged the rock across the sandbox by using his feet. (He was a very small boy and the rock was very huge). When the boy got the rock to the edge of the sandbox, however, he found that he couldn’t roll it up and over the wall.
Determined, the little boy shoved, pushed, and pried, but every time he thought he had made some progress, the rock tipped and then fell back into the sandbox.
The little boy grunted, struggled, pushed and shoved. But his only reward was to have the rock roll back, smashing his fingers.
Finally he burst into tears of frustration. All this time the boy’s father watched from his living room window as the drama unfolded. At the moment the tears fell, a large shadow fell across the boy and the sandbox. It was the boy’s father.
Gently but firmly he said, “Son, why didn’t you use all the strength that you had available?”
Defeated, the boy sobbed back, “But I did, Daddy, I did! I used all the strength that I had!”
“No, son,” corrected the father kindly, “you didn’t use all the strength you had. You didn’t ask me for help.”
With that the father reached down, picked up the rock, and removed it from the sandbox.
Are you using ALL of the resources at your disposal. Some of us will struggle against an issue and use all of the tools we have, while still forgetting that there is a simple tool we have not used. That tool is a simple, direct request. When asked to help most people will do so. Just as I have ask for the assistance of current subscribers to grow this newsletter, you too can make a simple request of a friend, colleague or loved one to help you achieve your goals. Who can you ask to lend a helping hand today?
The Realities of Writing Non-Fiction
July 22, 2005→ 1 Comment
Many of my consulting and coaching colleagues have a secret desire to write a book about their field of expertise (some even want to write a book whether they have some expertise or not). It seems to me that the number of wanna-be writers is disproportionate to the number of successful non-fiction writers.
Now I must admit that there is probably a place in my future for sharing wisdom via some form of publishing (traditional or otherwise). And to this end I have enjoyed sharing in the wisdom of David St. Lawrence as he went down the path of self-publishing. I have also enjoyed the wisdom of Yvonne DiVita and John Kremmer.
But in the last 24 hours one of the authors that has managed to get a reasonable amount of space in my bookcases, Seth Godin has offer some advice for non-fiction authors. In particular the thought he offered that has given me some pause for consideration is -
Books are wonderful (I own too many!) but they’re not necessarily the best
vessel for spreading your idea.
If you want to do some writing to share your wisdom with the world then I strongly recommend that you call on the wisdom of those that have been before you.
Friday Funnies #5 – Brought to your by the Letter ‘I’
July 22, 2005→ Add Comments
Friday Funnies is brought to you by the letter ‘I’ – for ice-cream – now even though it is as cold as the inside of an ice-cream freezer here in Sydney at the moment thoughts can still turn to the iced delights of summer. More specifically if you were ice-cream what type of ice-cream would you be.
If you need some Friday distraction – whether you are freezing in the southern-hemi winter or basking in the northern-hemi summer – check out "What Type of Ice Cream Are You?"
Seems that I may be a little "chunky"
| You Are Rocky Road Ice Cream |
|
Unpredictable and wild, you know how to have fun. You are most compatible with vanilla ice cream. |
A big Friday Funnies thanks to Toby Bloomberg at Diva Marketing for the heads up on what type of ice-cream I am.
100 Keys to Solo Success – #26 Give Your Wisdom Away
July 21, 2005→ Add Comments
Your customers are not so much interested in your product or your service as they are about what is in your brain. Your product or service is a commodity – it is in competition to dozens, or even hundreds, of other similar products or services. What can turn it from a mere commodity into something of value is the experience you have in how the product or service can be used better, more, or at all.
Let me share with you what prompted me onto this line of thinking – the wonderfully wise Andrea Learned shared in a recent post her experiences at the annual conference for Photographic Research Organization.
In talking with the membership of PRO, two high impact/ low cost efforts filtered up as ways to better present the store’s customer experience:
- Using the images, faces and stories of existing customers will authentically reflect the faces of your store or brand to women who often think in terms of relationships.
- You will gain women’s trust and longer term investment by presenting your incredible intellectual capital and years of experience as the knowledge resource it is.
Now as important as tip #1 above is, it is #2 that holds some great gems. How much would it cost you to share your intellectual capital with your market and your clients? How much easier could you make your client’s journey with your products and services if you shared even a small amount of what you know?
And BTW – I don’t think that it is just women’s trust you will gain by offering a knowledge resource to customers – guys like that kinda thing too you know.
Think about the equipment, products and services you use – do you use them as effectively as you could? Are there others things you could use them for, if you only knew how? How often do you even bother to read the manual?
How would it be for you if the supplier of that product or service shared relevant and easy-to-access information with you not just how to use the product, but about how to get the best out of your purchase from them. It would probably make shopping with them again next time (instead of shopping around for the lowest price) an easier decision.
The other thing that Andrea shared is one of those SBO moments (statements of the bleeding obvious) -
There is so much experience and insider/secret
knowledge floating around in the brains of retail owners, managers or longtime
employees in any industry, it is amazing. Still – many of the web sites for those same businesses are basically
brochures. And, many of those industry masters don’t quite know how to go about
sharing those helpful tidbits in their heads.
Now it may be obvious to me, and may even be to you, but how many times has your market yawned when reading your glossy brochure or website.
People don’t want to be bored to death with specifications, features, and statistics they don’t care about and don’t understand, let alone take the time to use. (Unless of course you are in engineering where specifications still count – but you don’t have to make them boring).
Stop telling people what you do, or what you sell, and start telling them what you know! Tell them things that can help solve their problems, fix their challenges, or get them where they are going quicker. They are interested that.
Take all that expensive real-estate on your brochures and website and start using it to share your wisdom about things that people could make use of. (BTW – that’s what I see blogging is about – sharing your wisdom).
Do it this week !! Write down the top 10 things that would solve a customer’s problems. List the things you would share with your best friend about getting the most from your service. Share the handy hints that you use and think that everyone else also knows about your product (because they probably don’t).
And if you are in a business where you normally charge for your wisdom (eg. some form of consulting) you also have an opportunity to give your wisdom away as well. Not everything that comes out of your mouth or your head is worth charging for. And even the good stuff can occassionally be shared without you having to be compensated or being able to bill it in 6 minute increments. Start sharing!
If you get stuck then start asking questions – ask your customers or your market what they would most like to know about using your product or service. Even ask yourself “what is the best thing I have learnt about ….”?
If you pour your wisdom into the sea of people around you it won’t be diluted and lost, it might just come back as a wave of support and interest on the door of your business.
Even Business Owners Have Blah Days
July 19, 2005→ Add Comments
Remember when you worked for someone else and you had ‘blah’ days – you know the ones where you felt you needed to get out of the office, enjoy the sunshine, just get the hell outta there, or even not even get out from under your blankets. They happened! And in employee mode this was when we normally had a “sickie”.
But you don’t get paid for “sickies” or blah days anymore. What do you do as a solopreneur when you are just having one of those days? Or don’t you think they happen when you are self-employed?
A client, colleague and friend of mine, Robyn Horsfall, has recently given some advice in here Transition Gym blog about how to deal with ‘blah’ days.
Robyn knows about blah days and how going through times of transition can seem to trigger those days. But instead of going for the standard advice on keeping your chin up etc, etc, she offers in her post some practical tips on how to handle the day. Now her advice is targeted at people in employee-mode but it works equally well for you and me as solopreneurs.
Now the more rah, rah amongst you would probably say it’s all about choice – you
can choose to feel better, it’s all about attitude, just get up and do
something, get over it, or whatever. In lighter, more positive moments I’d
agree with you, but in the midst of feeling like getting up is a massive effort,
I’d probably want to smack you in the teeth (if I could be bothered).
So stop believing that you just don’t have ‘blah’ days and get yourself a strategy for working with it.
For me it is getting some fresh air and sunshine, going to lunch or coffee with my husband or a friend, playing with the dog, or sometimes it is messing around on the computer reading blogs )
100 Keys to Solo Success – #25 Have a Plan B
July 19, 2005→ 1 Comment
In the world of self-employment we try to be productive with our time and resources. Calls are scheduled, proposals need to be written, emails need to be responded to, work done for clients ….. and the list goes on. But what happens when the resources you come to rely on aren’t available to you?
Having spent many years in IT and telecommunications I am hyper-aware of the challenges that computing technology can provide.
My father often calls to ask me why the computer is doing “such-and-such” or more often why it isn’t doing what he wants. He thinks that computing technology is a perfect science and operates with the same consistency as the mechanical-based equipment he has in his shed. I often tell him that IT is an imperfect science but he finds it hard to understand that something that is so widely used still doesn’t always perform to specification.
So what do you do when your technology resources fail you? Do you have a plan B? If you are like many solopreneurs your computing technology will be one of your most valuable resources. A colleague of mine once lost over 1000 networking contacts when her computer gave up the ghost. And there was no backup. What makes this situation all the more sickening is that she was about to embark on a marketing campaign.
We all know about the benefits of backing up but how often do you do it? Even though I know about the benefits and the tragedies I have not always been consistent in backing up.
I have the tech know-how to backup to any medium but the key for me is still that it be effortless. That is why recently I purchased a Maxtor external hard-drive with a one-touch backup facility. No more tolerations about my 800MB+ email folders not fitting on a CD, one-button and it does the work for me, in fact so effortless I do it everyday now.
But what would happen if you not only needed to restore the files but also needed a new computer? How would you handle being without a computer until the new one arrived? Or had a printer that decided it wasn’t printing properly or at all and needed repair? Do you have a spare on hand? For many small business owners that would be cost prohibitive. But what is the lost opportunity cost in the meantime?
Having a backup plan for your computing technology is within the control of most business owners. But I had an experience today of having to find a Plan B for something that was outside my control – the electricity supply.
This morning everything went black (thankfully I hadn’t passed out and I still had my eyes open). But there was no lights, no computer, no internet (broadband needs power), and no telephone (even that needs power). This immediately made me think back to my telco days when one of the main auxiliary pieces of equipment to every business phone system that we sold was a power back-up facility. Depending on the numbers of hours the business wanted to keep their equipment operational without mains power depended on the size and the cost of the power backup unit.
These measures may seem extreme for many small business owners in major capital cities, where we have come to rely on consistent, quality mains power supply. But as with computer technology it isn’t always perfect. The cost of a power back up unit (also known as a UPS – un-interruptible power supply) can vary – but again what is the opportunity cost lost. What would be the implications if you were in the middle of preparing the biggest proposal your business had ever seen or on a telephone speaking with a prospective client?
In my case I used the 2.5 hours to catch up on reading from research, writing notes, even writing this post, and was able to make use of the time. The loss of power was not at a critical time. But what if I had needed it? So I am now going to revisit my time as a telco engineer and do some more investigation into purchasing a UPS.
What’s your plan B?
What If ..
July 14, 2005→ 1 Comment
What if you had the chance to start again in a different way?
Would you take the opportunity or would you stay with where you are because “you should see things through?”
I despair when having conversations with people who are existing in a world of shoulds, what maybe or what was. Through the lack of understanding of what is and the inability to tell their story in an authentic way, they struggle – struggle to find a purpose for themselves and their business.
Who is that these people are trying to please by standing still?
What image are they trying to live up, or down, to?
Are they playing small for fear of what might happen if they play big, bold and authentic?
If you could start over what story would you tell?
How Does Your Online Presence Rate?
July 12, 2005→ Add Comments
A suvey released last month by the Online Publishers Association, in conjunction with the Media Management Centre at Northwestern University, identified the key experiences that drive web site usage.
The survey concluded that in order to get audience attention with a web site “it means going beyond providing content that gets good user satisfaction ratings to finding ways to involve and engage users’ minds and emotions.”
It makes logical sense to most business owners to target their services to fully engage a client but really how many small businesses are holding the intention to “engage users’ minds and emotions” when a online presense is being designed.
The survey found that the top 10 drivers of web site usage are :
1 Entertains and absorbs me
2 Looks out for people like me
3 Regular part of my day
4 My personal timeout
5 A credible, safe place
6 Connects me with others
7 Touches me and expands my views
8 Makes me smarter
9 Turned on by ads
10 Easy to use
Experiences further down the list included : Helps and improves me, worth saving and sharing, tailored for me, guides me to other media, makes me feel I belong, a way to fill my time, and Ggves me something to talk about.
So how does your site rate against your competition?
Does your site include at least 3 of the top 10 drivers for usage?
Can you take one of the most critical drivers and improve how you deliver this against your competition’s site?
You know have quantifiable information on which to base the content and design of your web presense. So don’t just base it on vanity, personal preference or “pretties”, base it on what people want.
