Kim Gluckie, Power of M Marketing
Are you tired of reading conflicting ideas about how to best build your business? Do you suffer from a bit of ‘analysis paralysis’ every time you read an article or blog or listen to an expert with advice different from the path you’ve just taken?
The best existing example is with the debate on social marketing vs. traditional marketing. Talk about confusing! My opinion is that it is an AND not a VS. in that statement, but it doesn’t even matter. The point here is you are currently inundated with articles and advice as soon as you open your mind to learning something new.
So, are you confused about how to tell the good advice from the bad? No need to be! And I’ll tell you why. Growing my career in the tech sector gave me a valuable insight to one of the key lessons every entrepreneur must know related to doing their business and their marketing. To succeed you must have passion and passion is just another way of saying you are going to do what you want to do, no matter what someone else says.
Lesson: YOU know best! Yes, it’s that simple.
This does not mean don’t seek advice, or listen to what’s offered, or follow experts, or hire experts, or watch the competition, or attend classes. What it does mean is that when you open your mind to information, do so with two things: (a) an armour; (b) a filter.
The armour is to prepare you for battle against all the external factors that can bring you down and put you to a stop: competition, conflicting ideas, confusion, self-doubt. When you learn about how to build your business you either have an ‘aha’ reaction or a ‘I don’t know what to do reaction’.
The latter brings out other feelings and the armour is there to deflect ‘feelings’ and allow the information to just become impersonal data. Imagine reading a great article and finding your competitor quoted in it. Agh!
But armour yourself knowing this can happen, and put it in the “who cares” file. Don’t distract yourself with ‘feelings’ about this and move right onto processing the data you learned in the article in the first place.
The filter is to help you sort all the data you expose yourself to as a tool to evaluate it quickly. Yes, even as I offer you advice, filter it. What’s the filter? It’s EXPERT YOU. Every time you decide to read an article, a blog, a paper, a business magazine… take a minute first to remind yourself of YOUR knowledge: what your immediate business goal is, what you are already know and what you are currently working on, and what you hope to gain by opening your mind to new information.
This way, you have established yourself as the ‘expert’ first… because you are the expert in your own business. Own what you know to be true and what works for your business. Filter out conflicting ideas.
The other aspect to the EXPERT YOU filter is YOUR instinct. As you start to read new ideas, and receive new advice, before you react and before you act (with your time, with your wallet), pay close attention to how you feel and if what you are about to do is what you WANT to do. Filter in new ideas that ‘feel’ good or ‘feel’ right. They probably are the ones worth considering.
I like to say that marketing is a puzzle. The puzzle has hundreds of pieces that can be used in many different ways, and each time it is put together it generates a new picture. The goal is to complete a puzzle, even though you don’t really know what the picture is going to look like or what mistakes you may make along the way. You may even complete it and then decide it’s not what you wanted so you start over. The pieces are all the variables you must consider, and you may take advice to decide which piece to use when and where.
But in the end, YOU choose based on what YOU want and what YOUR instinct tells you.
Filter this advice: Don’t fall victim to passive learning or opportunities that fall in your lap. Occasionally they are the perfect fit, but rarely. Instead, seek out knowledge and opportunities when YOU need them, and then take them when you trust them.
By the way, if you don’t have time to read blogs, articles, or books, know you have everything you need to succeed already. Your passion will carry you forward until you reach a roadblock. Then your own instincts and knowledge will lead you to what you need to know, when you need to know it. You are an entrepreneur after all!
You are the expert in your domain. Lead your learning. Lead your experts by owning your own expertise first. Your success will follow.
If you are in the right mindset and are seeking knowledge, marketing training events occur weekly in Calgary for women entrepreneurs and you can register for a soon-to-be-launched teleseminar series starting in November!
Kim Page Gluckie, CAAP
Strategic Planner & Trainer
MPowered Marketing
http://www.mpoweredmarketing.com
403-479-9669
Fall marketing training and networking event information now posted. REGISTER SOON! Space is limited.
Email me to be added to my contact list.
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Power_of_M
Facebook business page, join by clicking ‘become a fan’: http://tinyurl.com/mucvrv
Related posts:
- ALL YOU NEED TO HIRE BUSINESS EXPERTS IN THREE LITTLE Ps Kim Gluckie, Power of M Marketing Ever been burned when getting...
- FEAR AND LOATHING IN "LAS MARKETING" Kim Gluckie, Power of M Marketing I have met dozens...
- GETTING ORGANIZED CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE! Georgina Forrest, Smartworks Office Organizing Services Okay, maybe that’s a...
- TO TWEET OR NOT TO TWEET? THAT'S THE MARKETING QUESTION FOR BUSY ENTREPRENEURS Kim Gluckie, Power of M Marketing I’m often asked my...
- WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THOSE TO-DOs – PART 2 Georgina Forrest, Smartworks Office Organizing Services So what’s the big...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
