Growing & Learning Archives - Page 16 of 23

Putting lipstick on a pig!

March 6, 2007

I have met the master!

Phil Gerbyshak at Make it Great has created a multi-part interview (part 1, part 2, part 3) with me. He makes me sound pretty darn good! And that’s no small feat.

In his interview he covers branding and a whole host of other marketing and life-related topics! Even if you skip over my interview, Phil’s blog is a guaranteed pick-me-up! Check it out!

Many thanks to Phil for putting my best face forward!

Flickr photo courtesy of thornypup.

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Help me give college grads a fighting chance

March 5, 2007

It’s Spring. The birds will soon be chirping, the flowers blooming and the college grads descending like locusts on every marketing agency, marketing department and media outlet. They all want one thing — their first real job.

I remember how scary it was. 20+ years later, I shake my head at the mistakes the grads make while trying to vie for my attention. So I decided we (yes WE) could give them a gift that will put that digital camera to shame. We can help them get that job.

Here’s how you can help:

~ Post your answer to one (or more) of the following in the comments section:

How I landed my first job (war/success story)
What I wish I knew when I was trying to get my first job
My advice for someone trying to break into the marketing/advertising business
Words of wisdom about careers in general

~ Point to this post on your blog and encourage your readers to come over and add their 2 cents so we can gather even more answers and advice.

We’ll gather up all the comments, thoughts and stories and create an e-book for the grads to download and study. Who knows — maybe we’ll get some great employees out of the deal as well!

Come on — someone helped you once upon a time. Time to return the favor.

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What’s your personal tagline?

March 4, 2007

There’s a lot of talk these days about personal branding. Tony Clark at Success from the Nest asks his readers about their personal tagline.

It’s a great question. My answer? Gratitude. Grace. Give. (check out the comments for some insightful thinking.)

But let’s take a broader look at the question. If you own a business, how does your personal mantra/brand/tagline influence your business and its brand?

If you’re a one (wo)man band, that probably works okay. After all, you are your company. But how do you shift to it being bigger than you? Especially if one day, you aspire to sell your company.

So…what is your personal brand/tagline and how does it impact/influence your business?

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Blogtipping — March ’07

March 3, 2007

I am joining with my fellow bloggers in celebrating some new blogs that I discovered this past month. Sorry I’m a couple days late. It’s been a little crazy around the McLellan house these days.

As is the blogtipping tradition, (created by Easton Ellsworth) I’ll offer a few reasons why I like the blog and one suggestion for improvement.

This month’s nods go to….

My 2 cents is David Reich’s musing on marketing media, public relations and life. For a novice blogger, David is proving that for some people, it just comes naturally.

Things I love:

How you share your professional experiences and make them relevant to the topic at hand.

The insights are smart and accessible.

You use many different sources for inspiration and point us there as well.

Suggestion:

Okay, this is silly but make your visuals a little bigger. They get dwarfed by the text.

Soul to Soul is Madena Burman’s view on life, learning and leadership.

Things I love:

How much of your spirit and soul you put into every post.

You put a spotlight on your struggles and weaknesses just as often as your strengths.

How you share your faith in every post.

Suggestion:

Graphics to illustrate your point would be a good addition to a good blog.

On Copywriting is Ryan Healy’s look at the art and business of writing.

Things I love:

You write about more than writing.

You share yourself and your life with your readers — it’s not just business.

You’re book list is excellent.

Suggestion:

Any thought to adding some visuals to your posts?

There you have it discerning readers…until next month’s blogtipping adventure!

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A marketing tip from my Italian grandma: Give back

March 3, 2007

This post wraps up my marketing tips from my Italian grandma series. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have writing it.

No doubt you look at my last name and say Italian? But rest assured, on my mom’s side I’m your amico! Like all Italians, I had an Italian grandma. And like all Italian grandmas, she had an opinion about everything and wasn’t afraid to share it or the life lessons she had collected along her colorful life. What she didn’t realize is that she also taught me some great marketing tips that in her honor, I’d like to share with you.

My grandparents never had much money. They both worked in a clothing factory. They supported two kids (plus an orphan they took in for over 10 years) and did the best they could. No fancy anything. My grandma made most of her own clothes (which meant her polyester pants often matched her polyester shirts — see photo) and she’d cut up old panty hose and use them for rubber bands.

But when someone was in trouble or needed help — my grandparents were there. With food, shelter or whatever was needed. One of my favorite family stories was about their neighbors, the Bleiweiss family. Mr. Bleiweiss lost his job and was struggling to support his family. My grandparents knew he’d never accept money so they anonymously mailed him cash every week for months until he found work. It was money they didn’t really have to spare. But in their lives — you shared what you had. No matter what.

They did it without fanfare or the spotlight. They did it because it spoke of who they were as people. It was part of their brand.

Our companies need to step up to that example. I don’t care how new or small your business is — you can help someone. You can share what you have — time, talent, treasure (money). Serve on a board and share your expertise. Volunteer to sort food at a food shelter or serve a hot meal to the homeless. Tutor. Donate your product/service to a non-profit. If you have the resources to be reading this — you have enough that you can share.

You do it because it is the right thing to do. It’s always been my philosophy that if you give for the right reasons without looking for an angle or way to make money — the rewards will be there. Probably more than you could imagine or deserve. But it starts with a generous heart.

At McLellan Marketing Group, one of my expectations for every employee is that they are involved in some sort of community service. I could care less what the cause is. I care that they do it. And if an employee can’t embrace the idea of sharing of themselves, I know they are probably not going to be a good MMG team member.

Go on….share a little. Give back. It won’t hurt a bit.

Here’s the entire Marketing Tips from My Italian Grandma series, for your enjoyment:

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How do you chase new business?

March 2, 2007

A resource that I have enjoyed for a long time is RainToday.com. They describe themselves as "your online source for insight, advice and tools for growing your service business."

And they are certainly that. I almost always find gems of insight in their articles.

They have just released a new research report What’s Working In Lead Generation. (with the obligatory sub head: How to Spend Your Time, Energy & Money for the Best Marketing ROI in B2B Professional Services.)

They’ve been kind enough to share a press review copy of the report with me and over the next several posts, I’d like to share with you some of the wisdom their research has uncovered.

As we always should, let’s start with where we’re at today.

The report goes on to say that:

45% responded that finding a lead generation strategy, tactic, or offer that works well is "extremely challenging" or "very challenging".

84% of respondents reported that in the next two years they will increase their lead generation efforts.

What does that mean for us? First, everyone agrees that finding new business is no small or easy task. And to reduce it to that probably means you aren’t really doing so hot at getting it done. The second and potentially alarming stat says that the competition is getting ready to gear it up.

Are you ready? What is your lead generation plan? Is it automated enough that if you get busy — it keeps chugging along?

For many small businesses, this is the biggest challenge. They launch a lead generation tactic or plan and it works. Yeah! But also — Boo! Because the plan is too dependent on their man hours. And now the man hours are consumed with taking care of the new business they just generated.

Once they get that new business under their belt — the pipeline is dry again because they could only do so much and then the work got in the way of continuing to fill the pipeline.

What do you have in place to prevent that?

More insights from the report are on the way….

Note: The full RainToday.com report shares 6 key insights which I’ll be exploring over the next few days with you. In the meantime, if you’d like to download their free 21-page summary, you can grab it here.

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A whole lotta Drew

February 27, 2007

If you care to, you can practically pick your medium and find a little bit of me there.

The good news is…you can completely ignore me in each and every one of these venues… and STILL learn a lot about branding, blogging and relationship building. I just happen to be there too.

So go ahead and take your pick.

Live Radio: Tuesday night, I’ll join the BlogTalk radio show Nuts and BlogBolts to talk branding. Hosts Mike Sansone and Wayne Hurlbert will no doubt lead a lively conversation with the likes of myself, Valeria Maltoni, Mike Wagner, Derrick Daye and John Moore. It should be a good time and I am looking forward to learning quite a bit.

Podcast: If you can’t listen to the Nuts and BlogBolts show live, you can download the postcast here.

Print/Blog: My friend Phil Gerbyshak over at Make It Great! does some insightful interviews with authors, thinkers and relationship geeks. I’m not sure what possessed him…but he’s decided to interview me and give away a few copies of my book.

Live Conference Presentation: I’m joining some smart speakers, bloggers and thinkers (see Mike Sansone and Phil Gerbyshak above) to be a part of SOBCON ’07. Chicago. May. You should come.

Whew….that’s a whole lotta Drew! TV may be your only escape!

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Taking a 360 degree look

February 25, 2007

8+ inches of snow fell on us over night. Hundreds of churches and other organizations cancelled their Sunday events. Reporters told us to stay off the roads. Almost 200,000 were/are without power.

But what does the snow mean?

It would be easy to only see it from my own perspective. Using that single lens focus we discussed in an earlier post. But what happens when you actually take the time to walk around an issue, thought, product, client and take a 360 degree view?

For me, the snow is beautiful. Having grown up in Minnesota, I love the snap of cold, the crispness of the snow and the serenity in the blanket of white.

For my dad, who’s flying here from Sarasota today, it’s a reminder of why he left the Midwest and no doubt will be a source of much grumbling over the next few days.

For the neighborhood kids, it’s an imagination overloaded play land filled with an ice fort’s construction materials, bombs to be lobbed, and snow people to be birthed.

For my friend Steve, whose daughter was at a weekend church retreat deep in the woods and about an hour away, it brought worry about how to retrieve her safely. (We took my 4-wheel drive…all is well!)

For my daughter, it was a close but no cigar. 24 hours later and we’d have had a snow day.

For Mark the guy who runs a snow removal company, it was cha-ching and relief after a very slow season.

For the families without power, it was a potential crisis. No heat brings frozen pipes, no way to keep the family warm, and a huge hassle.

A relatively simple thing. A snow storm. And yet to each different audience, its importance and meaning was very different.

As you approach a marketing project — how often do you "place the item in the center of the table" and walk around it, describing it from different perspectives. We know people buy based on emotional responses. This snow storm brought a sense of calm/serenity, disgust, frustration, glee, disappointment, worry, relief, and panic.

Wow…those emotional truths are tools for a marketer. With a better understanding of people’s reactions to an event, product or service — you can talk to them in a way that will resonate with those emotional realities.

But only if you take the time to understand them.

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You don’t know what you don’t know

February 24, 2007

One of the most dangerous habits a marketer can develop is thinking that they/their life experience is an accurate (and the only) filter. We’ve covered aspects of this topic before.

That’s a very narrow lens to use. But, with a slight twist, your single lens view finder could become a kaleidoscope with all the colors and images mixing up and showing you a completely different way of seeing the world.

Let me give you an example. I read an article about a new product/trend that is beginning to bubble up across the globe — women only cab or car services. When I first read it, I thought — wow, are we talking segmentation too far? But as I kept reading, my middle-class white man perspective melted away. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but it never occurred to me that women would be attacked after getting into a cab. But, according to what I read, it happens. In London alone, an average of 10 women a month are attacked.

Here’s how the Pink Ladies, a women-only cab service in the UK is solving that problem for women.

"Booking is done over the phone, and a text message is sent to the customer to let her know the vehicle is approaching, which means she doesn’t have to wait outside. Drivers are trained in self-defense and will wait outside a customer’s home after a drop-off to ensure she gets in safely."

Bravo to someone who turned the kaleidoscope to see the picture in a new way and develop a profitable and customer centric new solution.

Here’s my question to you marketers — how do you make sure you’re looking through a kaleidoscope and not a single lens view finder?

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Technorati tag cloud — what does it say?

February 22, 2007

I was checking Technorati tonight and the tag cloud on the home page caught my eye.

These are the things we — the entire blogging world — are talking about.

For those of you who aren’t as familiar with tag clouds — the bigger the type, the more frequently blog posts are tagged with that word. In this moment of time — this is what matters to us enough that we write about it.

Where’s the marketing lesson in the cloud?

Pop culture is clearly huge. Shock tactics (like shaving your head) still work. Despite the mainstream media focus, people aren’t ready to talk/think presidential race ’08 yet.

What do you see in the cloud?

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