Is Your Marketing Message Clear? (WT404)

Is Your Marketing Message Clear? (WT404)

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by Shirley Dalton | 23 Mar, 2018 | Blog, Business

WT 404 Is your marketing message clear?

I just finished presenting a masterclass – How to Generate More Leads with Video. 

One of the things I’ve found is that many entrepreneurs and small business owners have huge difficulty articulating what it is they do. 

I thought I’d share my formula with you for crafting a Marketing Message to attract your Ideal Client (IC). 

Firstly you need to identify your Ideal Client. 

Who is he or she? 

Think about your best clients that you work with now or have in the past. What are they like? What attributes do they have? Describe them. Give them a name. 

What are their pain points? What are their Fears, Frustrations, Challenges and Doubts?  

What do they want and need? What do they desire?  

How old are they? Where do they live and work? How much money do they earn? 

Spend some time on this because you will use this to craft your message. 

What credibility and authority do you have for doing what you do?  Is it length of time or experience? Maybe you’ve won awards or have other accolades, for example my TV show is consistently rated number 1 or 2 for viewers on the Empowered Connections channel.  

What is your offer or invitation and finally what is your promise? 

Now that you have all this information, put it together and edit it so that it takes no more than 1-5 minutes to say. 

This is your script for your Personal Branding Video. 

Check out my Linked In profile (www.linkedin.com/in/shirleydalton) or www.themarketingvideoagency.com to see my examples. 

This is something we help you create when you join us for the Powerful Marketing Video Event and it’s something you can use to market yourself 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

It sounds easy and the formula helps to simplify it, however what I’ve found is that you can’t see the label from inside the jar and participants tell us that one of our biggest points of difference is how we help them to craft their message. 

Your task this week is to have a go at crafting your message. Use the formula above and see if you can create a script. If you do, send it through and I’ll personally have a look at it and give you feedback. Email it to shirley@themarketingvideoagency.com.

Stop Pushing Me (WT403)

Stop Pushing Me (WT403)

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by Shirley Dalton | 16 Mar, 2018 | Blog, Leadership

WT 403 Stop pushing me

When I started High School, it was “cool” for girls to shave their legs. It was a long time ago before waxing became the norm. 

I asked my mum if I could borrow her razor. 

“What do you want that for?” she asked. 

“To shave my legs of course”, expecting that she should have known that all the cool girls shave their legs. 

“No! You’re not shaving your legs,” she almost screamed at me. 

“Why not? Everybody else is,” I cried. 

“You’re not and that’s all there is to it,” and with that I was dismissed. 

Now being the strong willed, pig headed and rebellious character that I can be, what do you think I did? 

You guessed it. I went into the bathroom and I shaved my legs. 

Not content to just silently call victory to myself, I flaunted the act by going and standing next to my mother who was on her hands and knees cleaning up a spill on the floor. 

I simply stood there until she figured something was up. Without looking up at me, she turned to face my legs, ran her hand up my leg to make sure she wasn’t just seeing things and then slapped my leg so hard that it stung and repeated, “I told you not to shave your legs”. 

Mission accomplished, I grinned and walked off. 

And I’ve been regretting that decision for over 40 years.  

So what has this story got to do with “Stop Pushing Me”? 

For me, it’s about knowing myself and being able to respond rather than react. 

My rebellious streak has gotten me into trouble (a lot). 

If I feel pushed to do something or am told I am not allowed to do something, my rebellious nature will arc up. 

Thankfully, over the years I have come to recognise it and have learned to manage myself with awareness and self talk, although the initial feelings can still be quite strong. 

And why is this the topic for this week’s thought? 

Following on from last week’s thought, “Every team needs a leader”, it’s important for you to know your people and to know when to encourage, push or support. 

It can be tricky to know the difference and timing is everything. The last thing you want to do is push someone when they are at breaking point and needing some care and attention and by the same token, neither do you want to let them off the hook when they do need to step up and take responsibility and do the work. 

You’ll know which way to go if you tune in to your people and listen to what they are telling you, both verbally and non-verbally. 

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go shave my legs.

Every Team Needs a Leader (WT402)

Every Team Needs a Leader (WT402)

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by Shirley Dalton | 9 Mar, 2018 | Blog, Leadership

WT 402 Every team needs a Leader

One of the things I love about our leadership program is the way the participants really get to experience what it means to be part of a team and how much every team needs a leader. 

Each session the participants are assigned homework. If everyone completes every task, the participants receive a “Pass” overall. 

If just one task is missed, by just one participant, the entire “team” is awarded a “No Pass”. 

In all the time I have been running the programs, there has only been one group that passed one session of the homework.  

This might surprise you and like me you might think, “How hard can it be to do some tasks?” 

The other interesting thing is that almost universally, no-one steps up to lead the group. 

I call them a group of individuals because for the most part, participants operate on an individual basis until they get the concept of “team”. 

It’s really fascinating to observe human psychology and behaviour.  

All it would take for the team to Pass is for one person to step up and take the lead and coordinate with the other members to make sure each person completes their tasks by the due date. 

Again, every team, no matter how small or created for what purpose, needs a leader, whether appointed or not. 

In the case of our leadership program, I don’t appoint a leader. I provide the opportunity for the group to experience what happens when there is a lack of leadership (i.e. No Pass). 

This experiential learning, whilst at times it can feel unpleasant and awkward, provides much more value than me simply handing out notes and lecturing on the importance of leadership. 

This week I’d like you to look at the teams in your business and in your personal life. 

How many of them have an “appointed” leader? (In other words, positional leadership with a title and authority.) 

How many of them started as groups of individuals and someone stepped up to lead? 

Every team needs a leader. 

People are looking for leadership. 

Are you that person? Are you the one who will put your hand up, whether appointed or not and take charge? 

I challenge you to notice the difference in productivity and enjoyment of the tasks between groups and teams that have leaders and those that don’t. 

Let me know how you go.

Go Ahead and Join (WT401)

Go Ahead and Join (WT401)

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by Shirley Dalton | 2 Mar, 2018 | Blog, Business

WT 401 Go ahead and join

This afternoon I am flying to Brisbane to speak at the launch of the audio edition of the book “Broken to Brilliant”. 

This is a big deal for me. 

I will be on stage with Karen Jacobsen, better known as The GPS Girl, Aussie Karen (who can be heard in over 400 million Garmin GPS devices as well as being the voice of Aussie Siri).

The reason I get to speak is because I introduced Karen to Kate Smith, director of the charity Broken to Brilliant. 

Kate’s mission is to help survivors of domestic violence to rebuild their lives, hence Broken to Brilliant.

I first heard about Kate and the work she is doing a few years ago, through the Amasssing Ladies Leadership retreat. We raised money to help publish the book. At the time I had not met Kate, but through my membership with Amasssing, it wasn’t long before I met and interviewed Kate for my radio and TV shows. 

When Ross and I were leaving to go to America, we donated a heap of office furniture to Kate as they prepared to establish their first headquarters. 

Not long after we arrived in America, Kate asked me if I could recommend anyone to read the book to create an audio version. 

Having just interviewed Karen for my TV show, I immediately thought of her. 

It was easy to make the introduction and they took it from there. 

However, this is background information because the message I really want to give you today is to “go ahead and join”.  

I met Karen through my friend and mentor from the National Speakers Association, Lou Heckler. 

As a member of the association, I attended a training with Lou and then did some one on one coaching with him. We became friends with Lou and his wife Jonellen and met up with them a few times when we were in America. 

On one visit, years ago, when we were heading to New York, I asked for some introductions through the Speakers Association. Lou introduced me to Karen via email and she graciously invited me and Ross to afternoon tea at her apartment in New York. 

I was so excited to be seeing a real life New York apartment, that it wasn’t until a few hours before our meeting that I looked up Karen on the internet. OMG! I was so intimidated. She was famous, she was so successful, what could I offer her, why would she be interested in me? 

Of course Karen and her husband Tom and son Hayden were gracious and we enjoyed a fabulous afternoon together and from there kept in touch and over the years caught up whenever Karen had time in Australia or we in America. 

Now to the punchline – if I hadn’t joined the Speakers Association nor Amasssing Ladies, I would never have met Lou, Karen or Kate not to mention many other friends. 

I’ve coined the phrase “Networking Ancestry” because it’s your network that enables you and others to collaborate and help each other.  

If you don’t join and become part of a network, you’re missing out on friendships, business and who knows what opportunities. 

So my message today, if you have been invited to join a group of some sort is “go ahead and join”.  

You just never know who you will meet and how beneficial that membership might be.

It’s Not Until You Do It That You Learn How to Do It (WT400)

It’s Not Until You Do It That You Learn How to Do It (WT400)

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by Shirley Dalton | 23 Feb, 2018 | Blog, Business

WT 400 It's not until you do it that you learn how to do it

Each week there seems to be a theme that presents itself a number of times. I guess that’s the universe making sure I get it.

This week, the theme was all about taking action and getting feedback in order to learn how to do it better.

Working with a long term client, I flew to Canberra to provide some training for their managers and sales reps. 

Together we created the content for the program and delivered it as a pilot to ensure we had it right before rolling out across the company. 

Remembering last week’s thought – Plans are Useless but Planning is Essential – we had certainly planned for the training. 

And now that the training has been delivered, it’s easy to analyse what worked and what didn’t work. 

Little things like the start and finish times for the program could have been changed to suit the hours the team were used to working, rather than the hours I generally do for the leadership program. 

Having the materials couriered ahead of time would have saved me some excess baggage fees with the 17kg of folders and books and resources that flew with me. (Thank God my bag didn’t get lost or I would have been in a real pickle.) 

It was only through delivering the material that I could determine the right amount of time to allow for different activities. The participants seemed to catch on to some concepts really quickly which means I can shorten the amount of time allowed for future participants. Other concepts that I thought would be completed fairly quickly actually took a lot longer because the participants were totally engaged in discussing how it applied to them. 

It’s not until you do something that you learn how to do it. 

Another example; our makeup artist for The Powerful Marketing Video Event allowed 60-90 minutes per attendee. We were all pleasantly surprised to find we only needed 45-60 minutes. This feedback makes a huge difference when we are planning for future events and the number of people we can comfortably film to help them market their businesses. 

And just yesterday I joined an exercise club. This morning I was quite anxious about using the equipment without having been trained. Again, it’s not until you do something that you learn how to do it. Tomorrow will be easy! 

Thinking about you and your business; how does this apply to you? What are some of the things that you might be procrastinating on because you think you have to figure it out first before taking action? 

I encourage you to simply take action. In fact, one of the games we played demonstrated this concept beautifully. The instruction was “No thinking is required – only action”. All the participants had to do was listen to the feedback. They received a clap for taking the right action and silence for the wrong action. No thinking was required. 

What will you take action on this week? Are you open to the learning and the feedback?  

The quickest way to learn is to do it.

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