Desperately Seeking the Truth

People today are bombarded by so much information that they have become numb to what feels like advertising or, during political cycles like we are in today, out and out fabrication.

Small business owners should resist the temptation to copy what passes for advertising today and focus on telling the truth. I don’t really mean to imply that companies are lying about what their product or service can do, I just mean that they aren’t giving us any reason to believe in or trust what they have to say.

So how do you do tell the truth? Tell me a story. Speak to me honestly about why you got into business, tell me your pain, show me how you struggle and, most of all, give me some reason to hope.

Create a marketing document that tells your story and you will find that you can use it in a variety of ways.

The marketing story is such an effective tool because it allows you to do several things that traditional marketing or advertising does not.

People learn through stories

Stories are an effective way to simplify a complicated issue.

Stories can create emotion. People buy on emotion and rationalize their decision with facts

Stories are easier to remember because people can more readily relate to a story

Most importantly…Stories build trust

The basic types of plots for your marketing story

Who I am stories – stories that allow the reader to connect with who you are or who the company is

What I do stories – Stories that communicate what your firm does in a way that gets at why it does it.

The vision stories – Stories that paint a picture of a dynamic future.

Values in action stories – Stories that illustrate slogan like “we try harder”

Lessons learned stories – Shared lessons that expose the human side – both the good and the bad.

I know you stories – Stories that demonstrate to the reader that you have walked in my shoes.

The link to your core marketing message or USP.

As you create your marketing story it is helpful to keep your USP in mind. The marketing story can be a very effective way to demonstrate the words in your most important marketing promise or core message.

Your story should be chosen partly based on its ability to directly link the reader to your USP.

A word about structure - There are several items that go into a good story.

Your story should have personality. A good story is always a good story.

Your story should connect with the reader by revealing a simple truth.

Your story needs a caretaker. Someone in the firm needs to own the story and give it a passionate voice.

Your story should be so focused on the target market so that they can see themselves as characters in your story.

Several great uses for a good story

It can help you recruit employees who relate to the story.

It can and should be part of your marketing materials. Print it on the back of invoices. Hang it in the hall. Tell it in your newsletter. Put it on your web site.

Use it to help present your firm in an industry award competition

A couple of closing thoughts

The story must be true. I don’t think that I need to explain that one too much.

The story must be somewhat entertaining. Facts and figures can add credibility to a story but emotion and personality keep the interest.

A 13 year old should be able to understand and appreciate the story. If you have a teenager, then you know what a challenge this is. Pass this test and you know you have a winner.

Get Yourself A Sites Brain Team

You've probably heard about a "brain team". It's an idea that made many famous people rich. They all had a team. And a team had a brain. A brain of a whole team. What does it have to do with internet marketing?
So you have started to do some internet business. You need to make money of it. But all you have is some mediocre traffic, which doesn't make a lot of money. As I told you in previous articles - you have to do some massive action. But first of all - you need to know - what kind of action do you need to do.
Of course you can plan it yourself, but there is a better way. Contact some of your competitors, say "Hi" and talk to them about their business. Here is a most important question you should ask them: "Is there a way I can help you?"
Why should you do that?
First of all, when you are helping tons of your competitors - you learn what you should do to get yourself a better place.
Second, you get a team of people who owe you, because you helped them. It doesn't mean you have to cheat them and use them after that. You'll eventually get some tips, ideas and joint ventures from them.
Also, you'll get to know the most current news in your industry. You'll understand the most some of the most current ways your competition achieves results.
Eventually you'll see your competition linking to you. And sometimes you'll see them asking you for advice or asking for some joint efforts. So, you are now in the center of a whole team of the best in your industry. And what did you do to achieve that? Just helped them (or even just asked what can you do).
That might sound unusual to help your competition. But new age requires new approaches. But I can hardly call that a new way. It's just a new vision of an old marketing way. It's a kind of things spies used to get into trust of another country, another company, etc.
Helping pays off really much. You don't have to always to that, only at start and eventually later. But later you'll get so big thanks to ideas of your competition that helping them will not affect your business in any way.

Tree Can Help You Grow Your Business

A tree is a natural example of a perfect business. It energises us with fresh oxygen while recycling our waste air. It absorbs energy directly from the sun while we still have to digest food. It aligns with the forces of nature. Imagine your business is like a tree. Is your business growing each year and producing ripe results? Or is it stunted and withering.

Here are some ways that you can regenerate your life and business using the wisdom of a seed, a tree and a forest.

1. The Seed That Grows A Forest.

Look at a seed. Perhaps an apple seed. It has an entire apple tree enfolded within it. This one seed can start a tree. Perhaps a whole forest. Now apply the same thinking to your business. What seed vision animates your business? Where is the heart in your business? What makes it breath and live? The answer is YOU. Your business vision must support your life vision. What is my life vision, you ask. Hmmm.

Think like a seed again. Design a lifestyle that you desire. Envision your life in all its many colours, shapes and stages of growth. Create wonderful possibilities. Charge this vision with good feelings. What you feel becomes real. Sow this seed vision within your heart. It will soon grow upwards into your head and outwards beyond your body.

2. The Roots Produce The Fruits.

Whatever you sow, it will grow. A seed grows a complete root system before it breaks through the soil surface. Now if you planted cabbage seeds when you really wanted apples then you will experience a very different result. The results in your life and business are like fruits. They can be traced back to your original seed thoughts. These original seed thoughts grew deep roots. They formed your beliefs about life and business. Your beliefs branched into behaviours. Your behaviours formed habits. Your habits created results. Your results created your life. If you have a major problem area in your life then this is just a result. It could be the result of a limiting memory planted many years ago. For example, a barking dog can still cause anxiety in an adult who remembers being bitten as a child. Certain words capture the power of our beliefs. For example, say the word, STOP, 10 times with feeling. Note the physical sensations in your body. Now say the word, GO, 10 times with !

feeling. Note the physical difference between these two words. The lesson here is to choose words that cause a positive vibration in your body. Changing your vibrations can help to eliminate old root beliefs by shaking them loose from the soil of your mind.

3. Turn Weeds and Toxic Thoughts Into Fertiliser.

The success of your business depends on increasing energy levels and removing blockages. So start to clear out any weeds. I call WEEDS - Wasted Effort Energy Drains. Find all the weeds in your life and business. Simply make a list of the 10 most terrible negatives in your life. On a separate paper, write the complete opposite of these negatives. Find their positive equivalents. Like turning your weeds into flowers. Now tear up your negative list and ceremonially burn it. Like burning old weeds in the garden. Now focus on your positive list. Use this list as seeds for positive growth. It is important that you raise your life-force, your energy levels. Weeds, pests and toxic thoughts drain your energy and stunt your growth.

4. Money Is Just A Fruit Full of Energy.

Money is just another form of energy. It is like a ripe fruit. We desire the juicy taste and sweet joy of the fruit. Rather than just the fruit itself. Similarly with money. We want the freedom and joy that money brings. Rather than just lots of money. So focus on all the good things money can create. Imagine you have sufficient money or fruit to feed yourself and a 1000 other hungry mouths. You help them grow their fruit trees so that they can feed others. It is no point in having basket-loads of money yet you are still poor in heart and mind. It is like the greedy king who kept all his ripe, golden fruit in his kingdom for himself. His joy was short-lived when his fruit all started to rot. So the lesson is to be wealthy in mind, heart and bank account.

5. Marketing Lessons of A Tree.

What value does your business provide to the market? Who is your market? Think like a native tree in a forest. How does it attract birds, bees and other animals? Does it use nuts to attract squirrels or shiny red berries for the birds? Does it have bright flowers with a beautiful fragrance to attract bees? The marketing lessons of tree are about sending out good vibrations that attract your preferred customers. Using light, sound, touch, smell, taste and feeling to form a connection. What subconscious messages are you sending out about your business? Your customer's subconscious antennae are picking up signals all the time. Make sure you are releasing a positive message like a flower releasing a beautiful perfume.

So look to nature when seeking new inspiration and ideas. There are many business masters within the classrooms of a forest. So start with the teachings of a tree. In fact, grow one. Grow several. It all starts with a single seed.

Making Cultural Differences Work In Your Business

Advancements in technology have made the world so much smaller, don't you think? We used to be separated by mountains and oceans, color and culture.
But now on the highways and byways of the internet, we're but a single mouse click away. Think about this for a moment. You and I may be thousands of miles away at opposite ends of the globe, but on the net, we may as well be sitting across a coffee table.
The internet's really one huge melting pot of people, ideas, culture. Just take a look at any forum or message board and you'll see what I mean. So if you're going to be doing business on the internet, you should consider that your business will be open to the world, and you're going to be serving customers from the West Coast to the Far East, and everywhere in between.
I know many of us have this idea about starting small, and so we start out thinking we'll only be dealing with local or domestic customers, the people in our neighborhoods, our city, our country. So the issues of cultural and business differences were not something we spent too much time worrying about.
Sure, as a start-up, the bulk of your business may initially come from your local marketplace, and your customers are likely people who speak like you, live near you and do business the same way you do yours.
But hey, wait a minute, take a good look around your community and chances are you'll see a pretty diverse group of people. Unless, of course, you live in some place like the South Pole where the only other person in your neighborhood is... well, yourself!
Running a business on the internet is not quite the same as operating a small retail shop at your local shopping mall. On the internet, you are for all intents and purposes opening your business to the world. Like it or not. And when that happens, it's important to note some points about international business.

1. Not every one speaks English. While it's impossible to give a simplistic figure for how many people in the world speak English, estimates put the percentage of people whose mother tongue is English at 7% of the world's population. The percentage of the world's population who speak English as a second language is estimated at 30%. A quick bit of math here tells us that over half the people we come across in our business dealings may not even speak English.
2. When dealing with people from vastly different cultural backgrounds and business practices, it's best to remain patient and polite at all times. It never hurts to pepper your communication with 'thank you's' and 'please's'. Common courtesy can go a long way in customer relations.
3. Keep your language simple at all times. No jargon, no fancy sentence structures please. Just say what you mean as clearly and as simply as possible. The objective is to be understood, not to win the Nobel Prize for creative communication.
4. In times when it's not clear to you what the other party means, it's best to seek clarification. Paraphrasing can be quite handy in confirming your understanding of what the other person means - simply rephrase what you think is being said with a simple question at the end asking if you've understood right.
5. If you're on the phone, speak slowly and clearly. It's entirely okay to repeat, paraphrase, and ask. Make allowances for the other party to do the same as well. Misunderstandings can be costly in terms of time and money, so save yourself the inconvenience and profit margin.
6. Not everyone is in your time zone, so do allow for slight delays in terms of timing. If you're planning something in real time (such as an online event), find a time that's convenient to all or at least the majority. For example, if you're planning to call someone in another part of the world, it's good customer service not to plan to call someone at some unearthly hour.

So there, we're all set to hit the international business scene. And when the going gets tough, it helps to remember three things:

1. someone somewhere is having or has had a similar experience,
2. it's all part and parcel of business,
3. once you get the hang of working around cultural differences, you can only get better.

And the best part about all of this is you get to reap the rewards of the global marketplace.Copyright 2004 Kit Lum. All rights in all media reserved.