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Four Marketing Practices the Drive me Crazy

Posted on by Linda Anger

I unchained myself from cable TV a year ago and now tolerate only the small amount of network broadcasts that come on before I flip over to my Roku player, where I watch Netflix, Amazon Prime, the Smithsonian Channel, and awesome PBS documentaries.

Now, on the rare occasions that I actually do watch network news or see marketing on the internet, I am doubly annoyed by four marketing ploys that have bothered me for a long time.

Are your TV and Social Media peeves like mine? Let’s see:

FIRST: I am totally turned off by business owners whose TV ads feature their children or grandchildren, especially if they are singing stupid jingles. Unless your business is all about kids, please leave them at home where they belong.

SECOND: I will never, ever do business with companies that hire that voice-over guy who screams for the entire 30 or 60-second spot. He’s just plain obnoxious. That form of advertising lost its luster back in the 1950s. Please, leave it there.

THIRD: Ads or circulars or flyers that claim the issuing company is “the best” in the industry, or uses any other superlatives, without providing absolute proof.

FOURTH: Facebook posts that declare they will “blow your mind,” “change your life,” or “bring you to tears,” then show you a mediocre or nothing-new video.

Bottom line for me is this: If I find your advertising obnoxious, annoying, or utterly stupid, I will not buy your products or hire your company. I don’t believe I am the only one who feels this way, so please comment!

 

When ‘Ordinary’ is Enough

Posted on by Linda Anger

Everywhere we turn we are immersed in a world that tells us we must be bold, stretch beyond our limits, do whatever it takes to be an extraordinary person living an extraordinary life. If we don’t, we’re doing ourselves a disfavor, selling ourselves short.

The zen teachers say the way to enlightenment is to “chop wood and carry water.” I’ve given this considerable thought over the last months, and I’ve come to understand something:

If you can’t find peace in the ordinariness of your everyday life, you won’t find it by moving to Tahiti, buying a new sports car, or trading in your current spouse for a new one.

This understanding has three parts:

Part 1: Ordinary is Enough.

I’m happy to “be” an ordinary woman, going about my “ordinary” day – tending to my body, mind,  spirit, and family in ordinary ways, practicing ordinary tasks and processes in my business. I’m content with who I am and what I do, and am, these days, striving to simplify in any way I can. It is amazing how little we really need.

Part 2:  Ordinary is Not Boring.

Giving ourselves over to the ordinary – to washing dishes, changing sheets, mowing the lawn – brings moments of release and realization. Years ago I wrote a blog post titled “My Now and Zen Kitchen” that speaks to this phenomenon. Slowing down, stripping away the noise of advertising and the pressure of keeping up with the latest whatever, brings a level of peace and calm that is anything but boring – this is the space where creativity brews and thrives!

Part 3:  Ordinary People can and do live Extraordinary Lives.

There is no contradiction in this statement. When we are content with what we have and do, when we are no longer striving for more or bigger or better, our energy patterns change, opening the door to our dreams – and beyond that door is where extraordinary things happen.

How do you get to a place inside where Ordinary is enough?  Can you spare five minutes? Oh, yes, you can.

Sometime today, take yourself to a place where you can be undisturbed – even if you have to leave the office to sit in your car. Sit still and quiet for 5 minutes, focusing on your breathing. As thoughts bubble up – the distractions of “this is stupid, you should be doing…” let them go. Stay focused on your breath. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. When your mind wanders, and it will, just be aware of it and go back to breathing in, breathing out.

If the car thing isn’t your thing, forgo the dishwasher and wash your plates and pans by hand. Focus on the motion – that “soap on, soap off” motion. Feel the slipperiness of the suds on your hands, see yourself washing away the leftovers and scraps of your day.

As you continue to find ways to slow down and let the ordinary things of life be enough – even if it is just for five minutes at a time, your life will change.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this  topic, and your experiences!

 

Holiday Scam Emails

Posted on by Linda Anger

It’s a happy holiday season… until you get an email saying there’s a package waiting for you when you know you didn’t order anything. But it’s the holidays! Maybe someone sent you a surprise?  Here’s a quick look at how you can tell a message is bogus:

The first clue that this is Phishing (say “fishing”) is in the “From” line.  Why would Costco be sending out an email from some other company’s email account? It pays to look closely here.  Sometimes the hackers fake an email that is similar to the real one (like “orders@costcoo.com” – see the extra “o”?)

Clue #2 and #3 are grammatical.  The first one should be “…recipient coincides with yours.” The second one – well, no one in America would use that phrasing.
Clue #4 is that the message is vague. There is no purchase ID#, no indicator of the content of the order, not a single identifier of anything.

If you were to click on any of the links in this message, you would be taken to a fake Costco site, asked to fill in personal info, and within minutes of clicking “enter” or “next” or whatever button they have created, your bank account would be emptied or your credit card used for who knows what.

Have Happy Holidays – pay attention to every detail of the emails you receive, and never, ever click through without checking into it completely. In the example above, if I had indeed ordered something from Costco (and this message wasn’t so blatantly a scam) I would have phoned Costco to check it out, not click through on a message that was so vague.

Most large retailers have a Fraud Department, where you can report Phishing attempts like this. Click Here to see Costco’s Fraud page.

 

Three Websites that Make you Think

Posted on by Linda Anger

There were over 200 million registered websites strewn across the internet in January 2014. To save you time wading through the chaff, here are three worthwhile sites that make you think…

howstuffworks.com

From 10 reasons space exploration matters to you to the most terrifying spiders in the world, How Stuff Works offers simple explanations of everything, including elevator etiquette. The articles cover so much stuff you can wander and learn there all day. Great site for research on most topics!

big think.com

Big Think is an evolving roadmap to the best thinking on the planet — the ideas that can help you think flexibly and act decisively in a multivariate world. Read articles such as How your Body Language Alters your State of Mind  and The Internet of Things will Make you Poor, Surveilled, and Alone.

And of course, the Big Daddy of make-you-think websites:

ted.com

“Ideas worth spreading” TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). Short, powerful talks on science, technology, human nature, and just about any other topic you can imagine. You can also search for TED Talks on YouTube.

 

Learning “Conscious “ Listening

Posted on by Linda Anger

Five-time ted.com speaker and leading sound expert Julian Treasure says our “we don’t want poetry, we want sound bites” attitude is a big part of humanity losing its ability to consciously listen. It is hard to listen carefully in a noisy world, and we grow less able to pay attention to the quiet, the subtle, the understated.

Image from Flickr by Ky Olsen

In a talk he gave in 2011, Treasure says our “we don’t want poetry, we want sound bites” attitude is a big part of humanity losing its ability to consciously listen. It is hard to listen carefully in a noisy world, and we grow less able to pay attention to “the quiet, the subtle, the understated.”

Consider the humble beginnings of the art of listening, when families or tribes would gather around the hearth or campfire, telling stories about everything – creation myths, tribal or social rules, and the latest goings on in the community.  Everyone paid close attention to the storyteller, because in some instances, what you failed to hear could mean your last meal was as the main course for a saber-toothed tiger.

Flash-forward thirty million years or more and we’ve invented recordings, which downgrade the need for accurate listening, and replaced conversation (“dangerously,” as Treasure says) with personal broadcasting. Is it any wonder no one is really listening?

It’s worth taking the seven minutes to listen to the Ted Talk, and consider the five exercises Treasure proposes.

One is “The Mixer,” in which you attempt to identify as many different sound channels as you can hear. In the grocery store line today, I heard – simultaneously, but still separately –  conversations at two other check-out lines, the hum of the refrigeration units, the sliding entry doors opening and closing, and squeaky wheels on at least one cart. According to Treasure, the ability to isolate specific sounds within the larger cacophony of sounds improves the quality of your listening and the amount of important information you retain. He also suggests we spend a minimum of three minutes each day in total silence – or as close to it as we can get.

Treasure’s final message is that we must listen consciously in order to live fully in space and time.

How much space, and how much time, are you willing to give to conscious listening?

 

How to choose a blog type

Posted on by Linda Anger

A well-planned blog can make a huge difference for an individual or a business. But how do you know what type of blog will work best for you or your company?  Here are four blog types to consider before you get started:

A How-To Blog

Become a Hero by helping people understand how to do stuff . . .
Here, actual writing is limited – it’s more a matter of collecting and sharing material others have created. Show people how to solve their problems and where to go after they’ve visited your site.  Always give credit to the folks whose work you are sharing – gain written permission whenever possible, and make sure it is clear that the “how-to” is theirs, not yours.

A Storytelling Blog

Generate interest in your business and services with real-life stories . . .
You’re often told to ask your clients and customers for “testimonials” – short blurbs about what a great job you’ve done. Sadly, few people know how to write a testimonial that “works,” and even fewer people actually read the testimonials strewn across a website. But you can create a story about your customers/clients and the success that came from your interaction. Then it becomes a human interest story to which people can relate – and that is the type of “testimonial” that attracts attention.

A What’s Happening Now Blog

Perfect for creating a well-linked (and well-liked) news resource site  . . .
If your world is all about what’s happening around the world, a “what’s happening now” blog makes sense. You don’t have to write much, just gather info from other sources, report on them, perhaps add a bit of commentary and links galore. Just make sure your sources – and their sources – are credible.

A Personal Blog

Build a following as a thought leader. . .
Pondering a famous quote or concept in a weekly blog goes a long way in establishing your credibility as a thought leader – one of the golden few people want to follow. A personal blog differs from the other three in that its style is conversational, where the others are more professional. Consider carefully the persona you wish to project and the audience you wish to attract.  Be even more careful in the topics you choose to cover.

 

Love the Lemons in Your Life

Posted on by Linda Anger

Image of lemons on a lemon treeWe call the bad things, the dysfunctional things “lemons.” We say, “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade,” meaning throw a bag of sugar over it so you don’t see the dysfunction, the mechanical failures, the sourness of your situation.

Lemons grow in warm climates, their juice sour and acidic – much like the emotions we experience when things that we perceive as “bad” happen to us or around us. But that sour taste, that lip-puckering tartness, can play another role – an amazing role – if we embrace it. Lemons are teachers, messengers, angels sent to reshape us. Welcome them, love them, and squeeze out every bit of juice they offer.

I was handed a life-sucking lemon – a diagnosis of Stage 3C uterine cancer – in July 2009.  Over the next three years, I lost my business, my retirement fund, and in the end, my home. I tell you it was awesome – because the destruction of those years led me to the life I live today.

I could have viewed cancer as a death sentence, but chose instead to turn myself into “Lindiana Jones” on a wild and dangerous adventure that would prove my tenacity and strength.

After the radical hysterectomy, I could have handed my life over to my oncologist.  I didn’t, opting instead to do my own research on treatments and creating – with my oncologist’s hesitant agreement – on a plan that worked for me instead of the standard protocol.

I could have isolated myself to avoid infection or, even harder to endure, the fears of family and friends.  I didn’t do that, either. There were weeks during the year of chemotherapy that I was relegated to home with dangerously low blood counts. The rest of the time, I was out as often as my energy level allowed.

I chose to turn the most sour year of my life into a positive, life-affirming experience. It wasn’t easy, but this is what I learned:
When life gives you lemons, find someone with vodka, and throw a party.

 

How My Company Came Back From the Dead

Posted on by Linda Anger

Image of a bridge with post title

It was July 3, 2009, almost Independence Day – a day I celebrate four ways: as an American, the mother of an American Government professor, a single woman, and a small business owner.

It was almost Independence Day when the biopsy showed I had uterine cancer. Over the course of the next three years, I would come to realize just how deeply dependent we humans are on each other, and how my tendency to be fiercely independent would be tested.

I had owned and managed a successful copy writing and graphic design company for the better part of nine years on that day. I worked with Fortune 100 companies, regional nonprofits, and hundreds of small businesses across SE Michigan. I and my company –  The Write Concept, Inc. – were well known and well respected.

Fast forward past radical surgery, a year of chemotherapy, and two more years of exhausting residual side effects, and my business would have been in the morgue had that “fiercely independent” side of me not risen from its chemo stupor, demanding immediate action.

Resuscitating a mostly dead business requires strategy, energy, and patience. Many of my previous clients had changed jobs or retired; some had gone out of business in the economic downturn. I had to study and adjust to the dramatic technological changes in the marketing arena, update my social media skills, and reconnect with my network. Slowly, things began to happen, projects and revenue came in, and my friends and colleagues celebrated the 14th birthday of The Write Concept in March 2014.

The truth is, every small business goes through life cycles, and you must be on guard every day, filling it with life and energy, to stay strong during the downturns – and they do come – whether it is a slow season, or for a challenging reason such as cancer.

Four Things that Brought My Business Back to Life:

  1. Self-determination. I knew that I could have no doubt of success, that if I was not convinced of success, or depended on a “safety net” of any sort, I would fail.
  2. Good People. I aligned myself and partnered with those I knew would support me and my business, and I turned a deaf ear to the naysayers – especially the “little voice” inside my own head.
  3. Give Back/Pay it Forward. I’ve always been into social entrepreneurship, doing all that I can to promote and support my network. Whether you call it karma or the law of reciprocity, sooner or later what you do comes back to you in the same manner in which it was given.
  4. Tending to myself. Working 12-16 hours a day did not make me a champion. It made me ill, short of temper, and less effective. I created a new schedule for myself, which includes eight hours of sleep, time for family, and time for the golf course.

What are your tips/suggestions for breathing new life into a nearly dead or failing business? Share them here, please!

 

Finding Peace Despite Social Media

Posted on by Linda Anger

I love Facebook. I love the casual interaction with business clients and friends, and keeping up with family in other states and countries. And over the last two years, I’ve made peace with the downside of Social Media – the negative side of the public forum. My father used to remind us, as young adults, that politics and religion were topics to avoid in social settings. Apparently that advice is not universal and mostly forgotten in cyberspace.

In the year before the 2012 presidential election, I was frequently agitated and angry by the increased number of negative political and religious posts on social media, from both sides of the aisle. When I lost sleep for two nights over the level of hatred spewed by one “friend” in particular, I made a commitment to not “like,” “comment,” “share,” or otherwise engage in ANY political or religious posts or discussions online for the rest of the election season.

It brought me joy to just zip past most of the messages on Facebook, and by the end of the election, I had committed to maintain that commitment indefinitely. The last two years have been far less stressful as a result. I have unfriended a few people whose posts are always political, preachy, spiteful and exclusionary. I have focused on connecting with those who are positive, upbeat, expansive, and inclusive. I read posts that uplift, or those asking for real help. I admit that I have broken my rule two or three times in the last two years, but I don’t see that as failure. I see it as learning.

Some days it is hard not to respond, like today when I saw the post about the “Christians” who insulted the Hindu priest invited to give the opening prayer at a session of the U.S. Senate, screaming their own prayers in an attempt to override his voice.  There have been days – and today was one of them – that I typed a response equally as insulting as the post that hooked me.

The Chinese say:  “Fall down seven times, get up eight.”

Thankfully, the “little voice” inside poured a dose of commitment down my throat, which instantly caused me to highlight and delete my words, then forgive myself for the intensity of the response I wanted to send. It feels good. It feels like growth, like peace.

Through Social Media, I’ve learned how reactive I can be, how quick to judge or respond without forethought. By swearing off interaction on two popular Social Media topics, I have settled into a softer, calmer place with a clearer handle on my own life, and the things that really matter to me.

 

One of “Those” Days

Posted on by Linda Anger

image of a woman pulling her hair outHaving one of those days, darling? You know what I mean – one of those frustrating, exhausting days in which everything you had planned is blown out the window by the things you didn’t anticipate?

The kind of day when you needed only to focus for one good hour to complete an important project, but the phone rings, the computer crashes, or the one person you desperately need to consult has left on vacation? The kind of day in which the faster you go the farther behind you fall?

Any street-corner guru will tell you: what happens in your life is not important. Hate your job? Not important. Dumped by the love of your life? Sorry, not even close to important. Diagnosis: Cancer?  To this I can personally and emphatically say, “Not important.”

That same street-corner guru (who happens, just like you, to be my brother) will tell you: What matters is the way you respond to what happens.

Look, my friend –I made it through radical surgery and nine months of chemotherapy by conducting little experiments just to amuse myself, and refusing to attend the pity party. You’d be surprised at how people react to a bald lady singing out, “Good Morning!” as she race-walks down the hospital hall at 6 a.m., grinning like the Cheshire Cat, morning after morning.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., one of my long-time favorite American authors, said, Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I, myself, prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.

So when the day is long, your schedule has been tossed and torn by the winds of change – when you think nothing could be worse than getting what you got, or not getting what you wanted ­– turn your mind around, and give yourself a good belly-laugh.

There’s less cleaning up to do.