Time: A Precious Commodity
Time is one of the most democratic of possessions. Each week you and I have exactly the same 168 hours (1,440 minutes) as everyone else. It’s how you choose to use them that is the difference between those who accomplish a lot and those who don’t.
Personal Branding: You Are The Expert
Meet Lauren Luke. Age 27.
In 2007 Lauren was an unemployed single mother with a passion for make-up. So she started to produce short eye make-up tutorials teaching other young women how create an Amy Winehouse or Leona Lewis look. On 22 July, Lauren published her first eye make-up tutorial on YouTube. It was amateur and basic - they still are - but it worked. In a matter of months thousands of young women were following her advice and today Lauren is the 2nd most popular UK user on YouTube - some of her tutorials have up to 1 million viewings.
Lauren is the last person you would have expected to have jumped to the top of the cosmetics beauty product queue. But in just two years she has done just that. In this tutorial I talk about the mindset behind what has happened to her, the role that social media plays and why her website is so effective.
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Take Action! Don’t Wait
When I worked in the film industry, I bought an option on a book to turn it into a television film. The writer agreed to also write the screenplay and we arranged a date by when he would deliver the first treatment. Weeks turned into months as I waited patiently for his first version to arrive. In between, I would speak to him and listen to a series of excuses about why it was taking him such a long time.
After nine months, the treatment arrived together with a hand-written note that said, ‘All things come to those that wait’.
Theatre of the Mind: Your Automatic Success Mechanism
In 1950 Florence Chadwick was the first woman to swim the English Channel and soon began to make a habit of attempting difficult sea crossings. In 1952, she attempted to swim from Catalina Island to the California coastline – a 26-mile stretch.
A thick fog set in and Florence told her mother, who was in one of the boats, that she didn’t think she could make it. An hour later, just one mile from the shore, she gave up - because it was too foggy to see. Afterwards, she said to the reporters, ‘I’m not offering excuses, but I think I would have been able to make it, if I had been able to see my goal’.
Two months later, she tried again. This time, despite a similar fog, Florence made it. She said her success was because she kept a vivid mental image of the shoreline in her mind while she swam.
Evidence suggests that this type of thinking is one of the most universal and relied-upon psychological tools of success. You hear about lots of top sportsmen, adventurers and entrepreneurs using it… but, do YOU?
Mental Fortitude: How To Reach Your Everest
Sir Ranulph Fiennes is the oldest Briton to have climbed Everest. He succeeded in May 2009 at the age of 65 and at his third attempt. The first had failed due to a heart attack he had near the summit and the second due to extreme exhaustion.
The fact that he had had heart-by-pass surgery in 2003 appears incidental. Except that within three months of the operation he completed seven marathons on seven continents in seven days.
Copywriting Dynamite: ‘Scientific Advertising’
If you are a serious student of marketing you will want to read and study Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins. Published in 1923, it continues to be an invaluable reference work for copywriters and marketers. David Ogilvy claimed that it changed the course of his life.
Claude invented test marketing, sampling by coupon and copy research. He was forever experimenting and testing new ideas in search of better results. “Almost any question can be answered, cheaply, quickly and finally by a test campaign. And that’s the way to answer them - not by arguments around the table”, he wrote.
7 Recession Rescue Strategies
Maybe everything is going swimmingly well for you? If so, you can skip this and continue to enjoy the fruits of your labours. If not, here are seven simple things to focus on:
- Don’t throw in the towel emotionally just because things might be a little tricky right now. They are supposed to be. Strong headwinds challenge and test even the most experienced of sailors so why should you be any different? So long as the basics are sound and you are putting measures in place to keep going forward, however slowly, then that’s okay.
Business Finance: Swim with the Fishes
Last month I was working on a project and discussing a small challenge with a contractor friend in Florida. He told me to send him the file because he knew someone in Peru who could sort out the problem. So in a matter of hours my file leapt from Cheltenham to Florida to Peru and back again. Puzzle solved.
The Paradox of Choice
As consumers, we are spoilt for choice. The range of choice when it comes to buying a cup of coffee, a mobile phone or a pair of jeans is overwhelming. It’s also very time-consuming and at times frustrating.
According to the psychologist Barry Schwartz, freedom of choice is the great paradox of our times: we want more control over the detail of our lives but at the same time we want simplicity.
Consider this in relation to your own business. There is a high probability that you offer a wide range of services in order to satisfy a variety of potential customer needs. You want to demonstrate your diversity and ability, but how do you know you are not creating confusion? Maybe even anxiety? This is why it’s dangerous to be generic in your marketing.