Five Signs Threatening Your Collaboration

I remember Coletta grabbing my left shoulder, shaking her finger at me and stating in no uncertain terms: “You’re known by the company you keep, young lady.”

As I talked about affiliate marketing this week, that conversation drifted back to me. Mom set some clear boundaries. Her parameters contained a common thread: trust. She extended trust until a violation occurred. Then boundaries changed.

What if I applied that thinking to today’s world?

Social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace make collaboration easy. Outsourcing sites like Elance match freelancers with employers. ClickBank offers dozens of opportunities to add products to your offerings. Working together in these or other relationships implies joint responsibility as well as trust.

Consider these five red flags that can choke collaboration and then apply one of Mom’s adages:

1. Your partner collaborator misses deadlines. In one case, the deadline for a book collective is now 18 months overdue. Re-evaluate. Constant re-scheduling covers other problems. Question and define those problems. Mom might point out, “Don’t change horses in the middle of the race.”
2. The scope of work remains cloudy. From past experience I see that projects undefined morph into new problems. Clear parameters set at the beginning and benchmarked along the way mean a higher chance of success. It makes sense to articulate opportunities and then further define them in writing. Get the questions on the table early in the game. Mom said, “The devil is in the details.”
3. Promises go unfulfilled. One can forgive and note transgressions. As Mom put it, “Give him an inch, he’ll take a mile.” Be wary of those who don’t value commitments. See flag #1: re-evaluate.
4. No common courtesy exists. Life is too short to work with jerks. A simple thank you or some follow up goes a long way. Once again, the adage Mother used to quote: “You get more flies with honey than with vinegar.”
5. Frequent mis-communications. “You made your bed, now lie in it.”

My Mom celebrates her 80th birthday today. Happy Birthday, Mom! I owe who I am today in major part to you. All in all, Mom made life sound pretty simple. Why not? As she said, "If one has only a hammer, all problems look like nails!"

Consider collaboration from a new perspective. Run it through the five flag filter.

Still chasing Your Online Media Room?

One hundred forty seven days into the 2008 and what reasons excuses do you name for not having your media kit complete?

Memorial Day, the summer kick-off holiday, marks the timing for this post, the time to evaluate progress year-to-date and the time to plan the second half of the year. Bottom line: if these statements sound like you, it time to make a change:

• When I need a media kit for some big event I’ll pull one together; no need to work on that now.
• I don’t have time to do this; there are other, more important priorities for my business right now.
• This doesn’t apply to my business; engineers (or accountants, or nurses, or, put in the name of your profession) don’t do it that way.
• I don’t know where to begin; building a media kit or an online media room sounds overwhelming.
• I can’t afford to do that; even though I don’t know what it costs, it sounds expensive.

OK, I get it!As a small business owner, you have every right to protest another piece of work, especially one that seems so simplistic. Your marketing designee is working on a “campaign” after all. Brochures. Collateral. Big pieces.

I understand how you feel; I’ve even felt the same way and in the process deflected my own deadlines. (Read one of my previous posts - Saturday May 3, 2008 about taking my own medicine.) So, are you sick of taking the easy way out?

Cynthia Morris, author, speaker and creative writing coach, offered a perspective on projects with this comment on Copyblogger recently:
Is the “F-Word” Really So Bad?

It seems to me that applying the “F-Word” to your media kit or online press room might move the project forward. In fact, I challenge you to use the five step method Cynthia recommends. Here’s how it might look in practice if you were considering applying her system to the online media room project:

1. Identify your motivation.
   Visibility begins at home; I now make my business a priority for additional publicity as I complete my own online media room.
2. Commit to a project.
   I complete the official biographical sketch for my media kit on or before 5/31/08 and post it in two places.
3. Build structure.
   I spend the first 30-minutes of each day on media kit/online media room marketing activities for me. Each evening before I finish for the day I list my first marketing task and leave that folder on my desk.
4. Stay on track.
   I set a timer and work against the countdown in order to meet my goals.
5. Acknowledge and celebrate completion.
   My reward for completing this project: Tuesday, June 10th off from work.

How do you feel about applying the “F-Word” to your project?

Synergistic Tactics Generate Success Online and Off

“Synergy means that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It means that the relationship the parts have to each other is a part in and of itself. It is not only a part, but it’s the most unifying and most exciting part. The creative process is also the most terrifying part because you don’t know exactly what’s going to happen or where it is going to lead.” –The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, May 21 Calendar posting

A single media tactic seldom works because it lacks synergy. For that reason, I tell people to pick three. An Online Media Room won’t work as your only media strategy, for example. Cynthia Morris with Original Impulse discovered that. She posted a press release about the shrine movement on her site and nothing happened.

As we discussed the lack of response, Cynthia began to see the parallels for herself. Not even her own subscriber list of 1,400 was aware of her efforts. She incorporated the announcement of her shrine sales into her regular newsletter. In addition, she customized the release and sent it to a number of local media outlets prior to leaving Denver. It was picked up and published by DailyCamera.com, an online newspaper. In addition, several bloggers wrote about the shrine movement.

In addition to the online media room at JourneyJuJu.com, Cynthia used these tactics:

• Posting on her own JourneyJuJu.com and OriginalImpulse.com blog
• Direct appeal to other targeted blogs on which she’d previously commented
• News releases to specific local media
• Her own newsletter
• Articles posted online

Did it work? In a posting on May 11, Cynthia writes about Dorothy Siaw, the KIVA entrepreneur she launched as a result of Shrine sales. Synergy made the difference.

Have you combined your tactics in a way to create synergy?

Kaizen anyone?

More than 20 entrepreneurs attended an AIBA-sponsored Lunch ‘N Learn “Building Blocks for the Web,” presented by Emily Leach of Search Engine Academy Southwest. Thanks to Holmans and Don Chalmers Ford, this was a free peek at increased performance on the web.

Like many small business owners, these seminar participants already own web sites and want to increase their effectiveness. Emily reminded the group of four common myths of being on the Internet:

One strategy will work for everyone
All you need to do is build a website and traffic will come
Getting my meta-tags updated will get me to the top of search engines
I only need to be found for my business name on the search engines

Although she quickly exploded these myths and offered a number of different strategies, the value of Emily’s presentation falls into the questions she urged business owners to consider. She encouraged each person to think through a strategy with the query: “How is that working for you?”

The Japanese term kaizen, meaning continuous improvement, migrated into our vocabulary during the period after world war two. It’s a perfect word to describe the attitude with which one must approach the Internet.

What do you get from your web site? Is it currently working for you? And, if the answer is “no,” or, “not as well as I’d like,” what do you plan to do about it?

How do you walk your talk?

I ask the "walk your talk" question with all sincerity. No matter what you say, (or don’t) you’re building your reputation.

I first met Jason Varley in 1999. Young, talented and enthusiastic, Jason threw himself into the broadcasting business, living and breathing radio. From programming to voice-overs to sports play-by-play Jason did it all. In spite of a good connection, I lost track of Jason during the next few years.

Recently I met him for lunch and rediscovered his enthusiasm. He’s now in business for himself and has named his company High Five LLC. “I want raving fans, not just customers,” he explained. "This was a name to conjure that."

Jason fixes computers and does networking, server maintenance and more for small businesses with the same dedication he gave to broadcasting. His six certifications and specific list of tasks underscore the care and quality of what he does. I'm impressed with the fact that he works by referral only. His biggest concern when we spoke: “How can I be sure my customers are pleased?”

My reply: “Walk your talk.”

Jason didn’t write out his formula for success in exactly these words, but here’s how he gets the job done:

1. Do what you say you will do
2. Be fair
3. Ask for input and listen to what people say
4. Under promise, over deliver
5. Have fun
6. Be good at what you do
7. Start where you are

Think about your list. How do you walk your talk? (Hint: Do you walk the talk so well that your business can thrive on “referral only”?)

Add V-v-v-Voom! with a Kudos Sheet for Your Online Media Room

Building collateral materials for your online media room can be as simple as taking note of the kind words or praise you receive.

The word kudo has roots in the ancient Greek word kydos, and literally refers to “that which is heard of.” Your achievements on a nonprofit board for example, can earn you praising remarks known as kudos.

Leverage the success of your business by letting others know about your fame or renown with a simple kudos sheet. New authors, persons making career transitions, professional speakers and service providers of all kinds can make good use of a kudo sheet.

Kudos sheets begin as a collection of praise. I differentiate between a kudo and a testimonial in tone. The kudo is informal and frequently without full accreditation. Consider these kudo notes from seminar participants:

• “This presentation was useful for our business and humorous, too.”
• “You presented in a non-threatening way for the not-very-technical among us.”
• “This information is invaluable for all small businesses that want to grow.”
• “The before and after examples made this effective.”

The kudos sheet is a first step to add power to your web site. When a customer doesn’t give permission to use a name with a positive remark, it’s a kudo. Initials-only-comments are kudos at best. The specificity of a comment combined with a name, business or identifier and location build a kudo to testimonial quality. We’ll focus on testimonials in another blog post.

If you don’t keep a kudos sheet, begin one now. Use your kudo sheet to promote. Or, use it as an internal tool, one that generates positive feelings and reminds you how far you’ve come.

Even if you choose to never publish your kudos, you’ll enjoy reading through the comments. And, you can prime yourself to begin asking for additional specifics as well as permission to use names and then build a testimonial.

Clarity Begins at Home!

I confess to taking my own medicine. Fellow blogger Mary Schmidt emailed me a question about identity: “who do you want to be when you grow up?” she asked.

Truth is, I don’t want to grow up. However, I concede she had a point because I had identities – different emails, different company names – floating around. Schmidt referred to three URLs: Merrigan Group, Connecting Point Communications and ProfitMeister.

Had I thought, I’d have babbled to her: Merrigan Group, LLC, the name of my business came first. (It’s been difficult to let go of my name!) The business, Connecting Point Communications grew out of my expertise; connections were a focus. When I developed a newsletter I named it ProfitMeister, acquired the URL, and the rest is history. Confusion reigned.

I’m reminded of the adage: “The shoemaker’s children have no shoes.” My website development has been on the back burner for a number of reasons. It’s the conundrum that many solo-preneurs face: work on other people’s business or work on your own.

If one of my clients had this problem I’d suggest that they do a bit of both and begin immediately. That’s my assignment now through the end of the month. Good. It’s out in the open. I’d like to say that I feel lighter, as if a burden had been lifted from my shoulders, but the truth is that the “to do” list just got longer. Nevertheless, I’m on it!

I’m taking my own medicine and doing it now.