Resolutions…

Current readers know how much we like the opportunities a new year brings. The chance to evaluate, reevaluate and either live with what we have created or create something new. I see it as a time when you can focus on building a life rather than drifting through the life that comes your way. Because I am an avid “resolver”, I love to ask around and see what others are resolving to do. The answers I get are often very inspiring and interesting and sometimes very deflating.

Top 3 Disappointing Responses to “What are your 2010 resolutions?”

1. “What’s the use? I never accomplish my resolutions anyway. Why set myself up for disappointment?”

You know, in black and white that statement looks pretty sad. Defeated. Uninspired. It tells of a person who when faced with the challenge of an exciting life decides to be content with mediocrity. The sad thing is, of the people I have spoken to about resolutions in preparing this article, this response was WAY too common! What I see as a fresh start to a new year full of excitement and opportunity other people see as more of the same, which, according to common consensus, was not that great. Which got me thinking… this has got to change! Without coming across as a Pollyanna or a self help speaker, how does one convey what a great time this can be with only a little bit of reflection and projection?

I think the point behind this statement is that people have missed the purpose of a resolution.  Let’s start here…

A Resolution Is Not A Goal or To Do List!!

“Lose 10 pounds” is a goal. Likewise, “Clean out the garage” belongs on your to do list. How inspring is it to resolve to clean the garage or get a raise?  This misconception has people with the same resolutions every year and the same lackluster results which snuff out any enthusiasm about the new year and same old list.

A resolution is the desire to be better than your were yesterday. It is a small shift in action or thought that makes a big difference in your life or character. It can be as little as “I resolve to not take myself or others so seriously” or as big as “I resolve to be a better example to my children”. But the theme here is an enrichment of life, circumstances, other peoples lives or your own character.

2. My resolutions are always so big, I never accomplish them.

This is one of the easiest roadblocks to overcome in goal making. It may be overwhelming to take on a task such as “Become Senior VP of My Company”. But remember this kind of goal is more of an objective. An objective is where you want to go, the direction your driving. Your goals are the milestones to get there. Your resolutions are the small things that take dedication or risk to accomplish. The best resolutions are ones that resolve to make a small change that you can apply on a consistent basis or resolutions that will enrich your character.

Examples:

“I resolve to arrive to work 15 minutes earlier to make my day more organized.”

“I resolve to eat more whole grains on a daily basis.”

“I resolve to walk after dinner with my children a couple of times a week.”

3. I haven’t had the time to make resolutions.

There is no excuse for this one. Have you had time to read the paper? Have you had time to watch a television show? Have you had time to sleep in an extra 30 minutes on Sunday morning? Sitting down and putting a little focus on yourself, your life and your direction in life is more important than all of these things and could take the time of one of them. If you are easily distracted, schedule a time to drive your car to a park and sit for 30 minutes to map out 2010. It is usually fear that keeps people from “getting around to it” more than the time dedication it would actually require.

Some pointers for efficient resolutions:

Look for Progress NOT Perfection. Chances are you will not complete every resolution to a tee this year (unless you aim low) but your resolution is just to be better today than you were yesterday. The destination takes care of itself if you are making the progress to get there. A good way to do this it to look at your resolutions the first of every month and think of some action steps that month that will help.

Keep it short. You should have no more than 5 – 10 resolutions.

Keep them in mind. Your resolutions should be in a place where you will think about them as often as possible. Your thoughts will beget action so keep your resolutions in your thoughts.

Make your resolutions as specific as possible. Instead of “Read More” resolve to “Read a book every two weeks”. Instead of “Exercise more” resolve to “Take spin class on Monday mornings”. If your resolution is “Be a Better Example For Your Children”, break it down into pieces every month so you can focus on one thing with enthusiasm and have measured results. (Example: January – I resolve to eat dinner at the table with my family. February – I resolve to take my kids to the park on Saturdays and so on).

Check your progress. Every month, take a look at what areas of your life you are improving with your resolutions. Sometimes, because resolutions are more abstract, it is not as easy to see how your life is improving. But look every month and ask yourself if you are getting even a little better in certain areas of your life. Life changes come slowly and steadily. Seeing small changes will keep you inspired.

Keep them in one place. Every year, I use the same book to record my resolutions in. I also keep goals in this book and aspirations I have for my life. It is always nice to look back to resolutions I made just three years ago and see what kind of progress I made in that area. It did not seem like things were changing but in retrospect, they definitely were. That kind of review keeps me motivated because I know that every day I am better than yesterday makes a year that is better than the last.

However, this was about 10 years ago and it didn’t quite come down to one neighbors garden for another. What bartering was being used for was one of three things:

1. Inventory that was no longer a salable product on its own. (e.g. Company XYZ orders more winter boots than they can reasonably sell and decides to barter them for advertising space)

2. Enough spare service time to justify selling it for the ability to buy something useful (e.g. a photographer is having slow month but could barter services for accounting work)

3. Unused product or service. (e.g. a plane only half full still costs as much as a full one so why not liquidate extra seats for a magazine ad)

So the theory behind barter was compelling and seemingly feasible, right? But, when faced with the functionality of bartering, there was a tipping point that had not been reached and without it, barter was not strong enough to be a viable currency of exchange. What good is selling your photography services if it bought you nothing usable for your business. Barter is only as good as the size of its network and that takes a lot of people having faith in the same theory at the same time.

How times have changed!

When asked almost a decade ago if I found barter helpful, I replied “I find bartering incredibly valuable only because I am consistently and creatively trying to find ways to spend it.” After all, earning barter is easy and there are always plenty of buyers for a quality product. But spending your barter dollars can be more than challenging.

Bartering has recently come across my desk again though and this time, it might be ready for a second go. According to American Express, 23% of small businesses increased barter activities during the recession. And why not, the consumers were not buying the way they were and businesses had excess product, time, energy and overhead.

So, let’s figure out the ways to use barter.

#1 Way to Barter – Mano a Mano – Suppose, you are, like I am, a marketing professional. The single best way to barter is mano a mano – hand to hand. Suppose I want printing done, which I plan on reselling to a client. I have a graphic designer on staff who is facebooking instead of working because we have a lull in graphic design business. I call the printer (better yet, I show up at the printing office and speak with the owner or manager) and say, he can resell X amount of graphic design hours for X amount of printing I need.  This is the best, least complicated and most authentic form of trade.

Pros:

You pick the business you like based on quality, location, whatever.

There are no middle man fees.

Cons:

You have to put on a good salesman cap to pitch this idea.

If not executed well it could create bad blood in existing business relationships.

#2 Use a barter Exchange - There are exchanges such as ITEX and BoA that will give you a currency to weight your product to. For instance, the printing I need done will cost $1000. I sell $1000 worth of graphic design work and use that income to pay for the printer.

Pros:

You have many more seller options.

The exchange has already sold the idea.

There is a neutral third party to coordinate transactions.

The exchange usually rates buyers and sellers based on performance and good standing with the company and client.

Cons:

You pay fees (in cash) for transactions based on a percentage of the sale.

There is a monthly fee to be associated with the exchange.

There is no choosing companies based on quality or performance.

#3 Community Websites such as Craigslist – This is a great place to post what you have, post what you need and see what else is out there.

Pros:

Lots of exposure and potential advertising opportunity

Easy to use and free

Cons:

A bit hit or miss with prospects.

Some unwanted contacts or unusual responses

Do You Barter?

In a service industry, barter is a no brainer at least on some scale. Even on a personal level, why wouldn’t someone trade a couple of couches for some computer troubleshooting?

1. To start using barter, make a list of things that you have to offer and the things that you could use.

2. Start at home – try negotiating with those you already use and are happy with first. Why not see if your hairstylist will trade service for a laptop? Or if someone will trim your trees for financial advice?

3. Check out a barter exchange service in your area and see what buyers and sellers they already have. If it looks like one service is already one you could use, consider trying out the service.

Also try:

www.craigslist.com

www.U-exchange.com

or fee based sites such as:

www.ITEX.com

Barter of America

What is the difference between “pea green” and “sea green”? Or between the word “buy” and “purchase”? How about the different between a model wearing glasses and one without?

In the world of marketing, these small changes, slight as they may appear to the untrained eye are the ingredients for a successful marketing campaign.  As consumers, people minds are constantly reacting to subtle cues in marketing, branding, and media. On the surface a slight variation in color is a trivial change but to the psyche of your target market, this slight alteration creates a whole different set of clues about your company, product or service – most of the time reacted to by your consumer but usually completely unbeknownst to that very same consumer.

Now your job, as the psychological and marketing genius that you are, is to figure out what clues to give and how to give them.  This is done is a series of ways but lets start with the easy ones.

(Let me digress for a moment to give kudos to what a consider a particularly good marketing genius.  The idea for this post came from a entry I read recently on the Four Hour Work Week blog created by Tim Ferriss, author of “The Four Hour Work Week” (to purchase this book, click here). This is a constant read for me as I find it intriguing and baffling the way the his mind works but through extensive experimentation, he has become an out-of-the-box marketing genius.  See my previous post on Tim Ferriss titled “Tim Ferriss – Marketing Outrageously” by clicking here.)

Sending the right message

1. Draw a picture of how you want to be perceived in your field.  By draw, I mean map out. No art skills needed here.  Are you reaching a market that expects your company to be edgy, funny, professional, even dry?  If you were to describe what your target market is looking for in 5 words, what would they be?

2. Now take that map and create 3 examples of what you think your clients are looking for.  This is where the testing will begin.  The are a lot of factors in testing two so it is important that you start with this image in your own mind and develop it from there.

3. With three mockups in hand (be they what they may such as landing pages, print ad copies, email newsletters, etc). Divide your mailing list, marketing effort or advertising in three equal (as equal as you can) parts. Your goal here is to create a constant in the testing. Once you have 3 equal parts, send out a test to an equal portion of each list.

4. Track which piece performed best. This should be based on things like layout, color, actions steps, etc.

5. Take the best layout and perform the same test with different verbiage, calls to action, etc.

I would highly suggest reading the book to anyone interested in creativity, success, independence, business, personal development, marketing, etc. It is a cornerstone of my library, up there with De Bono’s and Carnegie’s books.

But I wanted to specifically discuss marketing today with regard to Ferriss. His ideas, while sometimes not general enough to be applied to marketing as a whole, are starter ideas. Mind stretchers, box openers, <insert random adage here>, etc.  Ferriss is a big fan of testing his marketing before launching it.

Example: When looking to publish his book, Tim Ferriss conducted various experiments to deduce the best title, book cover and even book location on a book shelf. On a busy afternoon at a large bookstore, Ferriss planted multiple dummy books in various book jackets with various titles and placed them in various (and visible) locations on a book shelf.  Then over the course of the next few hours, he watched people as they browsed. From this he deduced a specific location on a book shelf that was most successful among shoppers.  He also decided on a book jacket based on the responses of unsuspecting consumers, unwittingly part of his creative experiment.

Example: The Four Hour Work Week blog is a constant experiment in readership, membership and current market trends.  Tim Ferriss is constantly tweaking small things on the blog and seeing how people react to them. He has, thereby, developed an extremely successful product built to the specs of his fans and constantly evolving to meet those very same changing specs.

If you take anything away from this post, let it be this. Go read Tim Ferriss’ book and blog!

Disney is known for their rather rosy version of legendary fairy-tales brought to children worldwide. To give you an idea, Mickey Mouse is one of most recognized characters on the planet.  (In fact, I just have to throw this in there… The Brother’s Grimm would have been horrified to know that their horror/fairy tales were cartoon musicals.)

But Disney is looking to add a new stream of folklore to it repertory… The myths and legends of the comic book giant Marvel. Superman, Spiderman, Thor, The Fantastic Four… maybe even to music?! I can’t help but wonder if die-hard comic fan are happy of the acquisition.  Disney does have a way of vanilla-izing a poignant story.

In the grand scheme of marketing and the focus of this blog, there may be little to glean from this change in the comic world.  True. I guess if you really need a thread, however thin, think about how this merger will cross two very different and devoted target markets.  Disney will now serve the child market, chalked full of fairy-tales, plush toys, princess clocks and mickey mouse underwear as well as the comic fan market, typically adolescent to adult with products from halloween costumes to conventions and expos.  Not bad Disney.

Comic Con is back, which began informally in 1976, has become a culture unto itself, replete with vampires, aliens and heroic bugs of gigantic proportion.  Whether or not you give a hoot about comic books, Edward Cullen, or Knight Rider, when something grips one of the largest cities in America in its spidey claws, it is time to take notice.  Especially is you have anything at all to do with popular culture or MARKETING.

Let me share some musings about what Comic Con tells us about our culture and how it pertains to marketing.  Bear in mind these are not statistical or highly researched but simply some observations to take into consideration.

1. People still love to dream. By most measures, I would consider ours a pretty practical society.  We work hard, more than much of the world, for money to buy the things and lifestyle we want. We aim to be doctors and lawyers and business executives but there is still a little kid in all of us who wants to fly or be invisible or better yet, invincible.

For this model, I turn to Tokyo. Tokyo has the hustle and bustle of our big cities, but on speed and with a lot more ambition. Yet every aspect of marketing and advertising culture has the quintessential aura of fantasy. I mean, men in business suits who are masters at Pachinko… need I say more?

2. Graphics still sell. A picture is still worth a thousand words. Animation is the embodiment of sensory stimulation.  Marketing is still about getting attention and graphics do.

3. Fun never gets old. For fans, Comic Con is still the candy store and they are still the kid. Appeal to the desire for fun, joy, childlike happiness and people swoon. If you cannot appeal to the kid in people, appeal to their nostalgia of being a kid. Creating nostalgia is as good as giving someone a memory they never had.

So get out there, be a kid, watch others swoon over superheroes and wait in ungodly lines for a signature of a pseudo vampire. Consider it a study in the science of marketing… that is… if you need an excuse.

Pulitzer prize wining author, Thomas Friedman, in his recent book Hot, Flat and Crowded, said of the Internet, “It created a global platform that allowed more people to plug and play, collaborate and compete, share knowledge and share work, than anything we have ever seen in the history of the world.” 

To put it another way, the Internet has essentially created a massive community, devoid of physical human interaction, one giant virtual reality – and with that virtual reality, limitless possibility.  I also see this statement of Friednman’s as an implication that the glass ceiling we have attributed to limited resources or lack of opportunity is essentially non-existent in the World Wide Web.  We have all been put at the same start line with the same running shoes and the same pep team.  Bang and they’re off!

It is true, there was once a time when we were confined to the skills on our resume, the degree we held, and in some places, the class we were born into.  But the Web has changed any decision previously made on our behalf about our destiny.  Self-enterprise is flourishing because it has no restraints. 

My personal example of this kind of independent industry is day trading.  To me, it symbolizes the ultimate par course of industry, where the only ceiling is the trader himself.  Day traders are self-employed business owners who are unyoked from a corporate ladder and unshackled from their educational degree – or even lack thereof for some.  (Of course this may give the illusion that day trading is easy to learn and do – which is a whole other article!) 

This also comes into play when the individual has no choice but to lean on himself.  With some of the biggest institutions crumbling, it is hard to maintain the staunch confidence in American industry we have always had.  Who would have thought the very cornerstones of our auto making industry like GM would be buckling.  Things must naturally, and somewhat painfully, bring about a new era in individual self-reliance. 

Friedman also stated, “Two things are going on at the same time with the flattening of the world: The relentless quest for efficiency is squeezing some of the fat out of life.”  While this sounds at first a bit Marxist and points to a commodification of human labor, it also points to a newer leaner form of corporate structure. 

Take this analogy for instance.  Compare Walmart to Mom-and-Pop stores.  Walmart has become such a huge functioning machine.  It is easy to overlook the components that comprise that machine, people, which in the Walmart business model are virtually expendable and replaceable in the given social climate. Walmart buys a majority of their products from other countries with lower wages and leaner costs, thereby side-stepping much of their reliance on the American work force. Mom-and-Pops cannot compete with this smooth, oiled, consumption machine but what chance they have is in the network of the World Wide Web.

But there is a happy ending! With the flattening of the world economy, there also must evolve, out of necessity a fresh wave of industrial creativity.  The corporate structure is failing people with regards to pensions, stability, even basic civil rights.  You might think the question is, “Where is a balance between Mom-and-Pop and Huge Corporate Animal?” but what you should really be asking is, “Where can I fit into that spread?”  

What do Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Stumpleupon, MySpace, Digg YouTube and Yelp all have in common?  You mean besides the fact that they are all gargantuan social media websites with hundreds of thousands of users?  They are also the new forum for your business!  I’ll admit it.  There was a time when I was social media snob.  Who spends their valuable time on MySpace designing pages and letting everyone know what mundane thing they are doing at any given time?  How could I miss such valuable nuggets such as “So-and-So is brushing their teeth” or “So-and-So is eating pasta”?  What I did not see coming was the change in the marketing world staring me in the face.  This is the new M&A campaign people!  And it is free!  

On the one hand, seeing as my business is rooted in increasing market awareness for my clients, the double edged sword is more than apparent to me.  I sometimes wonder if these social media outlets will do for marketing companies what Expedia, Travelocity and Priceline have done to the good ole fashioned travel agent.  The world wide web has been known to swallow more than a few job descriptions whole.  However, social media being more accessible to the every day, small company does a couple of things that make me love my job even more.  

In a marketplace where everything is accessible to everyone, the only advantage one has is the knowhow to make the web its cocoon.  One of my new, self-proclaimed, job descriptions is “spider extraordinaire”.  (While I feel that I creatively invented this title, it is possible that hours of osmosis on the Internet has somehow influenced it).  Essentially, a good portion of my day is spent trolling the Internet.  New content is surfacing everyday.  And with social media a hot button and growing sector, I have an ever-regenerating field of fertile soil in which to plant my seeds of exposure.  But really, who can complain about spending their work hours exploring… anything.

I have often wondered if the Internet is becoming so diluted with content that one cannot count on the potency of marketing on the web.  And that is true… and very false.  The way I see it, the Internet gets bigger exponentially.  It also competes more and more for every page view, click-thru and website visitor.  But the fact is, we are moving online at a rapid pace.  Postal service feels more and more antiquated every day.  A business not maintaining a website is competitive suicide.  We shop online, watch TV online, socialize online and even order pizza online.  For every competing webpage, there are new users up the wazoo!

Soooooo, where are you? If you are on the sidelines, thinking this social media craze will fade into a worn out fad, you are losing whatever toehold you have in your market a little quicker every day.  So what if you sell brake cleaner or dog-sit for a living.  There is no industry above the Internet and eventually, we will all submit and pay homage if we plan to survive.  

So get yourself a facebook profile, register on yelp, get into Digg.  You can even add “Spider Extraordinaire” to your resume.  It just may become one of the most valuable skills on it.

So, if you read my blog post NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION – DAY TRADE FOR A LIVING  you know I have been day trading to supplement my sagging retirement accounts.  I have to tell you, I thought it would be easier.  I consider myself to be a pretty disciplined person but find that my control freak personality is not always conducive to day trading.  Let’s just say… I am learning a lot about my self in this new venture.

But alas!  The first quarter has been fantastic.  That is not to say there have been days where I have not lost money.  To me, this was one of the hardest hurdles in day trading is the understanding that you WILL lose money.  But if you manage your positions correctly, you earn a lot more than you lose.

I am not sure that I will ever get used to this concept of losing money.  How does one just become “ok” with it?  Coming from my marketing foundation, I am no stranger to failed tactics.  In fact, Ramit Sethi said something interesting in a recent video clip with Tim Ferriss that really made a lot of sense.  He said, (and I am paraphrasing here) that if you are not getting a constant flow of failures, you are not taking enough risks.  But if there is anything I have learned, it is that successful day trading comes from taking as little risk as possible.  Risk in this sense is gambling.  A system creates statistical guesses and the stronger the system, the less risk.  I suppose I am cheating a little here since my system is the chat room I trade in.  

(On a side note…Is anyone else here a member of InvestorsUnderground.com?  I posted a code for a discount to the site in my last post.  The code is supposedly still active, so hopefully some of you got the discount.)

I’m sure I will have more nuggets of learning for you in the near future.  Learning as I go!

1. Always negotiate at the end of the advertisers deadline.  Advertising space is not like last winter’s coats that can be sold at clearance or sent to another reseller.  Once the space is not filled, it is worthless.  Keep this in mind when purchasing your ad space.

2. Look at the competition.  It is very easy to get lost in a sea of ads.  Magazines these days have more pages of ads than they do of content.  Is there a particular market where your product will get less exposure but more targets exposure?  So you sell yoga mats. You could advertise in Self Magazine but it will cost your dearly and you will be competing with a bazillion other ads.  Also, the people who read Self are not necessarily the market that will end up buying your products.  But say these yoga mats are environmentally friendly.  You will get more bang for your buck by negotiating with a smaller, more focused periodical with a market that is more inclined to take action.  

3. “Let me check with my client/partner/boss?” Those who have a hard time negotiating are afraid of how they will be perceived personally.  Remove this from the equation. Even if you are the ultimate decision maker/owner/CEO, use the scapegoat of some really tough and hard ball boss.  This is a revival of the good cop, bad cop skit.  

4. Never let the advertiser in on your plan, timeline, incentives, deadline, etc.  If they know you have to get advertising by the end of the month, it puts them at an advantage.  If you only want to advertise in their magazine or plan on dabbling around, keep it to yourself. You can always pull the “I don’t know. Let me ask the CEO” gig.

It is a great time to get your company out there!

Remember – Some of the nations leading companies were launched in recessions.