Stop Looking for New Ideas - Start Looking for YOUR Ideas

Stop Looking for New Ideas - Start Looking for YOUR Ideas

OK, I am not going to lie to you. The fact is, there really are no new ideas. Unless you’re performing cutting-edge scientific or medical research or are hot on the trail of the biography of the most up-to-the-minute celeb-to-be, there will be other people out there writing on your subject. And depending on the subject, there may be a LOT of people out there writing in your area of interest.

LISTEN UP: Do NOT panic. I am in no way saying you shouldn’t write on the topics that interest you. You should write about them – all of them – and here’s why.

You were blessed with a brilliant brain. You’ve got insights and instincts and a perspective that are all your own. Your education, life experience, and professional expertise have given you a view and understanding that is different from everyone else’s – even others in your industry! Have you ever heard the saying, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear”? With your blog (as well as articles, white papers, and/or books and eBooks), you will become a teacher for someone. Admittedly, chances are pretty good that folks will already have heard at least some of your message elsewhere before, perhaps many times. Sometimes, though, it takes a special turn of phrase for the message to actually sink in. Timing also is critical. I may have heard the lesson a thousand times before, but this time, at THIS moment, I am ready to learn it, embrace it, embody it, and act on it. This time – because of your message.


Do not let the idea of competition stop you from writing. That is a lack mentality and comes from a perspective of limited belief. Whether you agree or not, we live in an abundant universe. There is more than enough for all of us. More than enough business, more than enough clients, more than enough money – and certainly more than enough people who want to hear your message.

There is, however, one caveat: As Seth Godin says in Purple Cow, you must be ready to be better than the rest. What does that mean?

Fortunately – or unfortunately – to be better than the rest is not really a matter of intelligence or profound ability. What it takes is effort. It takes an investment of knowledge, skill, professionalism, and time. Make sure your articles contain useful content. Find someone to interview and use a quotation from them. Do a little research and include source material from another expert. Make sure you have double-checked all your facts. Make sure you have spell-checked and that your grammar and usage are precise and correct. Make sure you’ve formatted it for easy reading. Make sure your tone is appropriate for your audience. Make sure you attach appropriate keywords to it so that people can find it.

These things may all seem obvious, but they’re not. When showing up on time for work and knowing where the file is when your boss asks for it are now considered exemplary employee behaviors (and they are!), getting all these little details correct will make you stand out from the crowd in a major way.

Places to Go for Ideas

• I Thought EVERYONE Knew That! What are the things that, when you hear people ask you, you say to yourself, “Really? I thought everyone knew that.”
• Your Passions Are a GREAT Idea Feeder. What do you love (to do)? What do you hate (to do)? What would you like to learn more about?
• What Are You REALLY Good At? What do you do better than 90% of other people? At which part of your job/business/industry do you excel? What do other people tell you you are good at?
• What Are You Reading? What books and magazines are you reading? What are you reading on the Web? What exciting new thing did you learn about in a publication that had nothing to do with your business?
• What Happened to You Yesterday? Did you lock your keys in the trunk? Have a great (or terrible) customer service experience? Try a new restaurant? Have an interesting conversation with your kids? What lessons can you take from the day-to-day and apply to your business/industry?

Some industries are tailor-made for blogging all day, everyday. Coaches and therapists. Financial advisors. Indie bookshop owners. Others - like plumbers, chiropractors, or mortgage lenders - are more specialized and make take a bit more creativity. But the ideas are there - and as soon as you learn the secret of tapping them, they will gush at you in a torrent. Make sure you capture them by writing them in a notebook reserved for them, or on your digital recorder or phone.

Good topics get a lot of coverage. Don't shrink from adding your two cents. Take comfort - and confidence - in the knowledge that you have a new slant, perspective, set of life experiences to bring to the table. No one can write like you can - and somewhere out there is a person who's waiting to hear from you.

This is Day 13 in the 60-Day Content Challenge. See you tomorrow for the next post!
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Sign up today for Laura's next workshop, Want to Charge More? Start Writing! Or e-mail your questions about topics for content to Laura.

Practice Makes Perfect When It Comes to Creative Marketing

Practice Makes Perfect When It Comes to Creative Marketing

When I was first starting my business, I had a mentor who was one of the most creative marketers I'd ever met. We would have a blank sheet of paper in front of us; all I would see was white, but he would see 27 opportunities.

Spending time with him was simultaneously invigorating and incredibly frustrating. He seemed to have access to a never-ending stream of new ideas, and I wasn't able to think like that. Eventually, though, my own creative marketing brain kicked in and I learned how to think differently.

That's all creative marketing is, really. Thinking about the same situation in front of everyone else, but seeing it differently. My friend Tom Otstot, a sharp businessman and masterful public speaker, says that innovation is less about coming up with a new idea than it is about finding a new way to do or use something that already exists. He distinguishes innovation from invention in that both are new and useful, but innovation is applied.

Steps to becoming a more innovative marketer:

1. Find a role model who is a willing teacher. Pay this person if you have to - it will be so worth it in the long run.
2. Read and absorb everything you can get your hands on that is related to creativity, innovation, and marketing.
3. Take some time to process and let what you've learned percolate.
4. Act on your ideas, unafraid to fail.

Will every idea work? Of course not - but you won't know which ones do work until you try them all. Even the greatest inventors experienced many failures.

I failed my way to success.

- Thomas Edison

As with everything else we learn in life, practice makes perfect when it comes to creative marketing. What can you do TODAY to begin to think more creatively about your business?

This is Day 12 in the 60-Day Content Challenge. See you tomorrow for the next post!
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Sign up today for Laura's next workshop, Want to Charge More? Start Writing! Or e-mail your questions on creative marketing strategies - to Laura.

12 Unconventional, Extra-Mile Marketing Ideas

12 Unconventional, Extra-Mile Marketing Ideas


Here are a few marketing ideas that go beyond the traditional Web site, business cards, leave-behind materials, and social media. All involve some combination of time, effort, or money - but they are ideas that will get you noticed. The goal isn't for you to implement every idea on this list - or necessarily any of them. It is to get you thinking about creative new ways you can market your business.

1. Once a month, give something away for free. If you deliver pizzas, pay for the pizza yourself and give it to the customer at no cost. If you're a hair stylist, give away a free shampoo and cut. If you're a REALTOR, give one of your clients a magazine subscription. The idea here is the element of surprise. Be as creative as you can.
2. Partner with 3 or 4 other professionals in your industry (or allied industries) to host a fundraiser for a charitable organization. If the others are in your specific field, you might want to invite them from surrounding communities. (1) Decide on a theme. (2) Select the nonprofit beneficiary. (3) Choose a date. (4) Find a venue. (5) Invite everyone from each of your lists - and the charity's list! (6) Use social media to spread the word. (7) Do a media release and send it far and wide.
3. Host a drive to collect goods for a worthy charity: US soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq; no-kill shelters; teachers in low-income school districts; group homes for teens or the mentally ill. Invite your clients, vendors, friends, and family to participate. Write up a media release about your success. With the organization's permission, make a video of yourself delivering the goods you collect.
4. Host a party/event for your A-list clients. Do something intimate and interesting: visit an art gallery; have a wine tasting at a local wine bar; play laser tag; paint some pottery; plant an herb garden; give each other mani-pedis. Make it a regular event.
5. Hire someone whose only job is to attend the myriad networking events available to you. Find a way to make them memorable: they wear your company's colors to every event; wear a cool hat or carry a unique bag; sing their 30-second commercial.
6. Nominate yourself - or have a trusted friend or colleague nominate you - for an award. This one seems obvious - but many awards go to less-qualified candidates simply because the better qualified folks never even tossed their hats into the ring.
7. Hold an online treasure hunt. For one week, use social media to post a question a day about your company - and send people to your Web site or blog to find the answers. For example, a restaurant owner could ask participants to name the third ingredient in one of her dishes. Make the prize worthwhile, like a gift certificate for your products or services.
8. Write and release a free eBook. Include links to your website throughout, and encourage your readers to share the book. If the eBook is good enough, it could go viral and drive lots of traffic to your site or blog.
9. Go to the beach and write your Web address in the sand. Of course, you want to make sure you're out of the way of the tide, and that the letters are large enough to be seen from a great distance. An alternative to this - but one that costs considerably more - is to hire a skywriter to do the same thing. NOTE: This will work best with short URL. And make sure to check the weather in the days before your ad goes up, up, and away!
10. Always carry an supply of extra business cards with you to leave behind in coffeehouses and shops that allow around such promotions. You can get GREAT deals on business cards and postcards for this at www.gotprint.com.
11. Run a contest related to your business, and make the prize a service you’ll perform. The only limit is your imagination, but here are a few ideas to get you started: messiest office; garden makeover; Web site makeover; biggest weight loss; chili or other food cookoff; best video. 
12. Use www.gotprint.com to make stickers with your logo and Web site. Hire some kids to pass them out at a highly trafficked event like a ball game, street fair, or concert. People are a lot less likely to throw away a sticker than they are a piece of paper.

BONUS IDEA: Blog for 30 straight days. That's right ... T-H-I-R-T-Y days in a row. Choose two or three keywords to focus on. Share your blog on facebook and twitter. Use a relevant image in every post.


Please notice, you didn't see the phrase "outside the box" anywhere in this post. While it may have been a clever phrase the first 1,000 times it was used, it is now as cliched as "teach an old dog new tricks." Time for someone to come up with a new term!


For more great ideas about mischief, guerilla, and unconventional marketing, read:


Mischief Marketing: How the Rich, Famous, & Successful Really Got Their Careers and Businesses Going, by Ray Simon


Guerrilla Marketing, 4th edition: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business, by Jay Conrad Levinson


101 Ways to Promote Yourself: Tricks Of The Trade For Taking Charge Of Your Own Success, by Raleigh Pinskey


This is Day 11 in the 60-Day Content Challenge. See you tomorrow for the next post!
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Sign up today for Laura's next workshop, Want to Charge More? Start Writing! Or e-mail your marketing questions to Laura.

Marketing Mishaps: Making a Poor First Impression

Marketing Mishaps: Making a Poor First Impression


Anyone who knows Donna Tucker of Career Pros Résumé Center is familiar with her tagline: You never get a second chance to make a good first impression. We've been hearing this message for years, yet it's surprising how many entrepreneurs fail to understand all of the things that can negatively affect this first impression.


Hygiene is important. That should go without saying. But every time something should go without saying, it seems all the more imperative that it be said. Make sure your hair is combed, teeth are brushed, and that you've had a shower recently. My friend Karen Langston, nutritionist extraordinaire known as The Extreme Food Whisperer, recently told me a story about a guy she met at a networking event:


"He came up to me and he just reeked. Smelled like he'd just smoked 100 cigarettes in his car with all the windows rolled up. To be honest, I don't even remember what he said he does because I was so distracted by the smell. He was talking, and the whole time, I was thinking to myself, 'I wonder what his house smells like. I wonder if he has a girlfriend. I wonder what his lungs look like.' I literally could not wait to get away from this guy."


I'm  not a smoker, and I'm making no judgment about smokers here. I'm simply offering a word of caution: you are so used to the smell that you probably don't notice it anymore. That doesn't mean that everyone else is equally immune.


And speaking of smells, another thing I come across quite often is the perfume/cologne bather. Folks, sometimes less truly is more. When you walk through a crowded restaurant or conference room and your scent trails after you like an ocean wake, you are not making a good impression - regardless of whether it's a classic like Chanel #5 or a store-brand knockoff of Jean Naté. For one thing, olfactory allergies and sensitivities are more common than you may realize. But sometimes, you don't even have to be allergic to find the over-scenting overbearing.

Speaker trainer to the stars (e.g., Oprah, Barbara Walters, Bill Gates), Joel Bauer offers this singular piece of advice about making a good first impression: "Make sure you wrap your package." In other words, dress the part of the successful individual. Ladies, this means that you always wear a jacket or outer shirt. Gentlemen, at the very least, a collared shirt. In Arizona, we've come to accept business casual, so ties are rare - but you certainly will stand out (most likely in a good way) if you wear one.


Things not to wear: flip-flops, t-shirts, tank tops, shorts, short skirts (hint: if you have to keep pulling at it as you walk, it's too short); tops that overemphasize your décolletage. The only exception is if you have a REASON to wear something outlandish or unusual. Personal trainers who wear workout clothes to networking events make sense to me. 


Lastly, pay attention to the way you introduce yourself to new people. At a large networking event where lots of people are circulating, look for entry with either (a) someone you already know, (b) people who are alone ("Hello" is usually all the opening you need), or (c) a group with an open posture that appears inviting. Definitely avoid crashing a conversation between two people - even if you very badly want to meet or speak to one of them. It's perfectly fine to wait patiently a few feet away - but don't hover or hang about looking overanxious. The last thing you want to do on your first meeting with someone is be remembered as the guy or gal who interrupted a very important conversation.

This is Day 10 in the 60-Day Content Challenge. See you tomorrow for the next post!

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Sign up today for Laura's next workshop, Want to Charge More? Start Writing! Or e-mail your  questions on any aspect of marketing or the client cycle - to Laura.