There is nothing more stifling to success than rigid thinking. Do you have that? Rigid thinking leads to rigid behaviors and rigid behaviors lead to dead ends, blind alleys, and creative cul-de-sacs. Today’s topic is about success in business require flexibility. Do you have an idea of what that even means in business?
Being Complacent
While there is a certain amount of comfort to routine, too much routine can choke off all chances that you will be able to successfully reach your business goals. Why? The answer is very simple.
Resilience And Change
The world, including the business world, is constantly changing. Rigid thinking and rigid behavior, by definition, are resistant to change. Therefore, rigidity, in thought and action, spells obsolescence in the business world.
In today’s world, information is power, money, and control all rolled into one. The fast and free flow of information is what makes this possible. Everything changes quickly and what is a successful formula or a popular product in one cycle can be, and usually is, old news in the next.
The only way to successfully stay on top of this bucking bronco of information and use it to your advantage is to be flexible enough to roll with the changes.
Flexibility
Flexibility is easy to achieve as long as you are not too tied down to any single idea, product, service, or manner of delivery. If you can keep up with changing market conditions through judicious use of the flow of information, you can easily spot new trends. Then you can adopt them successfully, usually before your competitors have had time to act.
No Fear
The only trick is to not fear change and, instead, embrace it. And if changing is the only reality in the business world then, to be successful in that world, change is going to be your reality as well.
This one is fairly straightforward. Are you taking responsibility in business for both the good and the bad? What does that even mean? That’s our topic for discussion today.
Let Me Tell You a Story
President Harry Truman had a sign on his desk that said“The buck stops here”. What he meant by that was, as President, he did not have the option to pass the buck when it came to mistakes or failure. He was the boss and the buck stopped right there. “What does that have to do with my business?” I can hear you say that pretty clearly.
That’s pretty smart advice for any business owner who wants to be more successful. When it comes to the results of decisions you make, don’t pass the buck.
Everyone is happy to take credit for a successful outcome; as well they should if they were directly responsible for that success. That’s the easy part. The hard part is owning up to your own mistakes.
Now This is The Hard Part – The Guilt
Taking responsibility in business means it’s up to you. There is somewhat of an inclination to try and blame someone or something else for a negative outcome. The most successful people fight that inclination and accept the blame for their mistakes as readily as they accept congratulations for their successes.
They do so because they realize that being the captain of the ship means that all decisions start and end with you. Am I right? Don’t be that one business owner that suffers from guilt.
Making Decisions About Responsibility
If you happen to make a bad decision then you own that fact, tighten your belt, and move forward armed with the knowledge to never repeat that mistake again. This is a part of the process of growth. It is a process that demonstrates that the greatest opportunity arises from failure.
By avoiding the repercussions of that failure, you also avoid the opportunity to grow as a leader and learn from your own mistakes. In other words, you condemn yourself to make that same mistake over and over. Yikes!
So, if and when you are faced with a bad business situation of your own making, don’t pass the buck.
Today let’s talk about persistence and whether or not success requires persistence. For starters, how many old sayings, aphorisms, and clichés are there about persistence? The early bird gets the worm. Slow and steady wins the race. If at first, you don’t succeed, try again. If life gives you lemons make lemonade. The list goes on and on. Right?
The reason that there are so many old sayings about persistence is twofold: First, it’s a really important element in success and second, it an element of success that gives a lot of people a lot of trouble.
The Importance of Success
Something that’s as important and troublesome as persistence deserves a lot of clichéd sayings and a lot of attention. Are you persistent? Meaning = do you never give up?
The problem with the road to success is that many people only picture the destination, not the journey.
When they do this, they not only fail to see that true success is not a destination (it’s a lifelong process) but they also fail to see the potential problems that routinely occur when striving for success.
The Prepared Person Has Persistence
Are you prepared? Or are you the person who is so unprepared that you get stopped dead in your tracks?
And in your confusion, you forget where you’re going and why? Are you going backward or forward toward success?
When you are prepared for and anticipate the setbacks that can and will happen on the journey to success, you are ready to repair, rethink and reengage.
Persistence is a Two Way Street
The persistent person understands that failure is a temporary condition that affects everyone at one time or another before they reach their goal. They also understand that failure and setbacks teach powerful lessons that ultimately make you stronger.
As Gandhi said, strength does not come through winning. Instead, strength comes through failure. When you struggle and decide not to quit, that is strength.
It is also persistent and points to why every successful business owner understands that setbacks are opportunities in disguise.
Now here’s an opportunity for you. I would love to help you find success in your business. I’m the type of person that doesn’t like other people to struggle unnecessarily. So, if you’re looking for help, please reach out to me and let me help you discover how persistence can help you and your business.
We’ve all heard the old saying “nothing ventured, nothing gained”. Like most old sayings, there’s a strong element of truth in those words. Are you a risk-taking business owner? Maybe you are and you don’t even know that you are one. Simple to find out though, take a look at this definition.
Definition
Definition of risk-taking: the act or fact of doing something that involves danger or risk in order to achieve a goal Starting a business always involves some risk-taking.
At the risk of following one old saying with another, without risk, there is not, and cannot be any reward. There is an element of chance inherent in every venture and unless that chance is recognized and faced, the venture will never become reality.
A Natural Risk-Taker
There are people who are natural risk-takers, as well as people who are very risk-averse. Do you find that to be true? The key to success when it comes to risk-taking is understanding what type of person you are. Take this quiz here ⇒ Quiz and see how you fare.
How does this personality trait affect your business when it comes to dealing with risk? It is important to keep in mind that the secret of success when it comes to business risk is mitigating potential damage in favor of potential gain.
Is it a Risk or a Danger?
Therefore, neither type of risk personality, in and of itself, provides an advantage over the other when it comes to risk management. A risk-taker can just as easily overreach themselves as a risk-averse person can underreach themselves. Interesting yes?
When faced with a situation that offers reward and risk, the key is to coolly and impartially assess the potential positive and negative outcomes. And then decide accordingly. No danger there right?
Being a Successful Business Owner
Successful business owners are sometimes seen as risk-takers simply because they understand the danger in a situation better than anyone else involved. So, while it appears that they are courting disaster, the reality is that the risks involved have been managed. This allows them to control negative consequences.
The Scenario
The successful business owner who takes a risk is very much like a professional tightrope walker. To the observer, it looks death-defying and, perhaps, frightening. To the performer, it is simply another day at the office. Their skill, training, and preparation sufficiently offset the inherent risk to make the feat only appear to be remarkably dangerous. What do you think?
In your own business, don’t be afraid of risk but, at the same time, don’t take the risk lightly. Weigh your options carefully and, when you arrive at a prudent decision, move forward with confidence.
And speaking of confidence, I have a great course on confidence.
Continuing on with our Content Marketing Plan, this time we are discussing how to PLAN your content. One thing that’s very important, if you plan to leverage the power of audio, video, and text, is to have a comprehensive content marketing plan.
Here’s a little checklist that might help you do that.
Setting Your Goals
Step 1:
All your content creation should have a purpose and that purpose should not only benefit your readers but benefit your business as well.
Some purposes might be:
Search engine traffic
Word of mouth and viral effect
Pre-selling and warming up the audience to a product
Establishing credibility and authority
Reader satisfaction
Boosting your opt-in list subscribers
Boosting customer relationships
Selling your products
Just remember, the goal or purpose of each content piece is aligned with your overall marketing strategy. This may also help you decide whether content should be in audio, video, or text format. For example, if your goal is to boost customer relationships, you might choose a video of yourself to do that.
When you do your content marketing plan, make sure your content includes a call to action that supports your goal. For example, “For more information about how to manage debt, grab our free report 12 Steps to Eliminate Debt in 12 Months.” – tell them what you want them to do next.
Research
Step 2:
Carving out time for research is very important. From brainstorming topic ideas to finding supporting information for those topics, there is plenty to be done. You also want to research potential places to distribute your content as well.
Here are some things that will make your research easier:
Keep a list of content ideas throughout the month.
Use the following to generate content ideas/topics:
Social networking
Keyword research tools
Blog comments
FAQs
Client interaction
Brainstorming
Review the analytics and results of last month’s content and evaluate which pieces generated the most interest or results. Know which pieces your audience responded to and use that information to create content topic ideas for this month.
While you’re researching topics, take note of interesting articles, statistics, and other items you might reference later as you’re creating your content.
Keep your eye out for places where you might publish your content. Connect with other website owners who might publish for you. Connect with them by subscribing to their sites, on Facebook, Twitter, and more.
Creation and Distribution
Step 3:
Here are some things to plan and keep in mind, so your content gets out there to your audience.
How much content will you need? Will you write it all yourself, hire a writer, or use PLR? If you’re using a writer, ensure they have all the information they need well ahead of time, so they can meet your deadline.
Have you created your content publishing schedule? Plan ahead, so that you can match content topics with products you’ll be promoting. Decide where each piece will be published and which pieces will be published in multiple places.
For example:
Autoresponder
Blog
Guest blog
Website
Social networking page
Article marketing site
Video sharing website (ex. YouTube)
Audio sharing website (ex. iTunes)
Other
Repurposing
Part 4:
The best way to make the most of your monthly content is to find ways to reuse it and repurpose it. However, when creating your repurposing strategy make sure that you’re still focusing on your goals. Each repurposed or reused piece of content still needs to serve a purpose and support a goal.
You’ve created a plan to reuse or repurpose some or all of your content. For example, an article published on your blog can be rewritten and published on an article marketing site. Or an article that resonated with your readers, could be made more visual and viral by turning it into a video.
Each piece of content that is repurposed or reused content has a goal/purpose. You should always keep benefiting your business (and your audience, of course) in mind.
It may seem overwhelming to have to plan all this content in a variety of mediums, but over time you’ll learn what your audience responds to and where you should focus your efforts.
And remember, quality is more important than volume, so focus on delivering quality.
This ends this series on Content Planning. Hope you enjoyed it and found it useful.