Stalkers are no longer a problem for only famous people and celebrities. These days, every time you log on to your computer, your own personal stalker is waiting for you, right where it was when you last logged off. And with every little click you make, it will follow you, watch you, and form opinions about you in eerily accurate ways. I call this stalker marketing, and it doesn’t show any signs of going away any time soon.

Case in point. This morning, I posted a simple question for debate on my Facebook page:

“Flip flops or stilettos?”

The response to this philosophical conundrum has been robust so far, with a mix of interesting and fun answers. However, the responses are not what I’m interested in at the moment. What I’m interested in is what happened in the sidebar next to the post.

Stalker marketing is always watching you

 
Known technically as targeted marketing, this form of reaching out to new customers is no longer lurking in the background, surveying your moves, and making occasional suggestions.

Now it’s right in your face, every day, and showcasing products you might want to buy on every site you visit on the web. It knows your likes, your interests, and even what you ate for breakfast. Like the obsessed fan Sting writes about in his 1993 hit song “Every Breath You Take,” stalker marketing is always watching you.

To illustrate how stalker marketing works, check out this image from my Facebook conversation this morning:

Notice how the related ad feed is all about shoes? And not just any shoes, but high heels and flip flop style sandals?

This is an example of targeted marketing in its finest form. It picked up on keywords in the conversation, matched those keywords to ads, and voila. Everything from “Addicted to Shoes” to “Bows to Tows” popped up, complete with alluring photos to entice people to click.

Like everything else, marketing evolves with the times

I understand the motive behind stalker marketing. It’s the most targeted form of advertising EVER, and gives companies and brands a way to hedge their bets for gaining new customers in a clogged and highly competitive marketplace. Like many people, though, I have learned to tune out the ads along the sidebar in Facebook, as well as in my gmail account and other places I frequent online throughout the day.

The folks who write the algorithms seem to know this about us mere mortal Internet users, and thus needed to up the game to increase the odds of getting someone, anyone, to click on an ad. I don’t know about you, but the more I feel this monster’s hot breath of “Buy me! Buy me!” in my face, the more I recoil.

From a marketing point of view, however, this kind of consumer customization is a dream come true. Having the ability to match products and services so precisely to potential buyers seems nothing short of magical.

The big question here is, of course, at what cost?

Online marketing ethics

With discussions these days about online privacy and rights lighting up all the media channels, this new form of marketing is getting a lot of attention. Questions about the ethics of online advertising are at the center of these debates, causing people to pay more attention to what’s behind the curtain of all the sites they enjoy using day after day.

But I wonder: does the mere act of visiting an online site such as Pottery Barn or Home Depot automatically give marketing companies the right to now shove in my face ads for products those companies sell on every other site I now visit? Is this permission somehow woven into the tightly knit fabric of search engine usage agreements?

I get that targeted marketing is just an evolved form of the marketing beast, but somehow this one is the most sinister to me. Getting a recommendation from a friend about a cool new product or restaurant is one thing. Being the object of a complex algorithm that seems to know more about me than I know about myself is something entirely different altogether.

What are your thoughts about stalker marketing? Does it bother you or do you see it as just another part of online life? Share your comments!

Making decisions these days can often take a long time. With so many choices available, is it any wonder so many people get paralyzed by indecision? We live in a world full of distractions, ready to steal our attention and focus at a moment’s notice. The challenge is, of course, that with each new distraction, we become splintered, like a broken window pane. We may still be able to see out of that window, but our vision is distorted. Without a clear view of where we are going, what we are doing, and why we are doing it, we never advance.

Just look at the Smart Phone market as one example of thousands. The number of options seems endless. A person only needs one phone, yet each new model that comes along suggests it is far better than the one that was released last week. How to decide?  Precious time ticks away. The longer we wait to make a decision, the farther behind we get in reaching our goals.

Food, clothes, cars, tablets, entertainment…each of these categories offers an extraordinary number of options. Yet while the number of things we can do with our time has increased significantly, the number hours we have each day has not changed. This enormous number of choices is at the root of so much indecision. Far easier to not decide than pick something that may not fulfill our expectations, right?

Making decisions in the age of the Internet

I see making decisions and time challenges affecting a lot of small businesses and entrepreneurs with respect to using the Internet to grow their businesses. At a presentation I made recently, the audience was clearly overwhelmed with the number of options the Internet affords us to build, market, and sell our products and services. They had so many questions about websites, social media channels, videos, information products, etc. Technology has blessed us in so many ways, but it has also created tremendous overwhelm. Overwhelm can become so, well, overwhelming that sometimes we don’t make any decision.

Not making a decision can have far worse consequences than making a decision that may not turn out the way we thought!

So how do we move beyond the distractions to make good decisions?

Distractions abound in 2012, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. The only way to move beyond the distractions and avoid overwhelm is to be crystal clear about what your business is and why you are in it. Having that inner conviction about what you are doing each day can eliminate the majority of overwhelm. Entrepreneurs with focus and passion are relentless in their pursuit to grow and make an impact on the world. They are also very good about making decisions that leads toward growth.

This is not to suggest that focused entrepreneurs don’t get tired. But being tired and being overwhelmed are two completely different things. The former feels like accomplishment, while the latter feels like frustration. The next time you find yourself worn out at the end of the day, ask yourself if it’s because you have been working so hard on growing your business or if it’s because you’ve been chasing too many distractions?

If you answer honestly, and without judgement, the answer will help you shape what you do tomorrow.

In what ways have you been overwhelmed and how have you moved beyond it? Share your story in the comments below!

When social media first burst onto the scene, many people said it was a passing fad. Even with the overwhelming popularity today of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, some people continue to ask, does social media work for business? Arguments often center around how to effectively measure the ROI of social media on a business’s bottom line. After all, to gain from social media requires a big investment of time (to learn the dos and don’ts), along with a monetary investment (to hire someone to manage your social media channels or to enroll in courses to learn how to do this yourself). Social media is definitely NOT free!

Thus the question continues to be asked:

Does social media work for business?

I might count myself among the naysayers about social media’s influence on growing a business had I not met my first significant client via social media. Just for the record, that one client has led to me closing thousands of dollars worth of business. And it all came from a connection I made on Facebook.

When people ask me whether or not investing time and money into developing a social media presence is worth it, I say, “It depends.” It depends on what your goals are for your business. I always ask, “Why do you want to use social media in the first place?”

Answers often fall into one of these categories:

• People want to expand their network
• People want to meet potential customers and/or business associates
• People want to develop brand awareness for their business

The secret to social media success

Today, my inspirational posts series is about something near and dear to my heart: creativity. New research about the brain and creativity is revealed every day. In Jonah Lehrer’s book Imagine: How Creativity Works, mountains of evidence is presented about creativity, including where it comes from, why some people seem to have more of it, and how it can be fostered in schools and at work.

Mr. Lehrer also reveals that creativity is one cornerstone of success, thus supporting the idea that spending time doing things of a creative nature can pay off handsomely. He also advocates occasionally doing nothing, or wasting time, as a means of igniting the creative spirit.

Creativity is an asset

As a digital entrepreneur, I have to rely on my creativity constantly. Writing, filming videos, research…these are all parts of my daily practice and are each creative acts in their own ways. People have asked me over the years how I got to be so creative. I tell them that one of the greatest gifts my parents gave me growing up was long stretches of unstructured (aka “wasted” time.) Left to my own devices, I had to use my brain to create what amounted to self-entertainment. (Back then, we didn’t have screens in every size, shape, and color to entertain us.)

While at the time I didn’t always appreciate those long stretches of time — which I sometimes punctuated with loud complaints of “I’m bored!” — today I am so grateful my parents “forced” me to be creative with that time. The greatest outcome is that today, I can think creatively with relative ease, something I count as an asset in my life as an entrepreneur.

Genes may play a part in my creativity, but I honestly believe that “wasting” so much time as a kid is the real reason my brain sees things the way it does. As a busy parent and entrepreneur today, I don’t have nearly the time I once did to waste. But I do make a habit of taking breaks each week to just be. To an outsider looking in at my life during these times, it might appear that I am indeed wasting time. But nothing could be further from the truth.

I believe everyone is creative in one way or another, and that creativity isn’t something you are born with. Again, genes may play a role, but experience, education, and practice are far more important factors in determining someone’s level of creativity than the family DNA. If you are feeling stuck right now and want a boost of creativity to help you push through your obstacles, the best advice I can offer is to go waste some time. Do something that is completely unrelated to your current job or problem. Your brain will relax, refocus, and probably give you the creative solution you’ve been beating your head against the wall to get.

How does creativity play a role in your daily life? What things do you do to waste time when you need to get the creativity juices flowing? Be sure to share your comments below and pass this post along to inspire your circle about creativity!

Like so many millions of people nationwide, I’ve been caught up in the Hunger Games this week. I saw it twice in two days; the first time with members of my book group, and then with my two teenage children.

While the book captivated me completely as I read it in one sitting, the spectacle of Suzanne Collins’ gruesome event known as the Hunger Games was made that much more chilling on the big screen. As members of the power elite known as the Capitol speak the following words at the start of each year’s brutal competition — “May the odds be ever in your favor” — I was struck by the parallels between the participants of the Hunger Games and the millions of businesses competing for survival in the online marketing world.

In the Hunger Games, the Odds Are NOT in Your Favor

As onlookers, we are fully aware of how slight the odds of survival are for each of the 24 children randomly chosen to participate in the annual reality TV show known as the Hunger Games. We know only one child will survive, while the other 23 will meet a savage death. The odds of winning the hunger games are very, very small.

In the online marketing game, the odds of winning big are also highly stacked against us. (Thankfully, though, there is more than one winner.) In the small span of five years, the competition for targeted and qualified traffic for our products and services has exploded exponentially. The amount of time and work it now takes to even get in the game is staggering.

Just as we see in the Hunger Games, time is not on our side with online marketing. Players who came to the table early and got themselves a position in a highly competitive niche (think personal development, social media, weight loss, make money from home, etc.) have a huge advantage over the rest of us who may also have businesses in those same niches. Fair or not, it is what it is.

Find Yourself a Haymitch

So, knowing that online marketing is a critical part of doing business in 2012 and beyond, what can we do to give ourselves an advantage? In the Hunger Games, the children selected to be tributes for the games are assigned a mentor whose job it is to groom and guide them to victory. Haymitch is the heroine Katniss Everdeen’s assigned mentor. As the story unfolds, we are privy to how he pushes, challenges, and ultimately helps Katniss transform.

Unlike in the Hunger Games, most of us won’t be assigned a Haymitch as we work hard to grow our businesses. But finding an online marketing mentor doesn’t have to be hard, and it is honestly what can make the difference between our business survival and extinction. Whether you have a one person shop out of the dining room of your home or 100 employees who show up every day to help you get closer to your dream, online marketing must be a part of your success equation. And you either have to learn how to do it yourself or hire experts to help you.

Time Is Not on Our Side

These days, technology advances and changes way too quickly for any one person to keep up with it, let alone stay ahead of the curve. At some point, each of us has to identify for ourselves what we can do and what we need others to help us get done. While the odds may not be ever in our favor of hitting it huge online, there are plenty of ways we can make an impact and indeed, get noticed with our online marketing efforts.

More times than not, making it really big online isn’t what people want anyway. The business owners and entrepreneurs I talk to simply want to see positive results from their online efforts (read: more sales and cashflow). After all, no one goes into business with the expectation of never growing or seeing a return on investment.

If there is one lesson to be learned in the Hunger Games, it is this: survival really is a team sport. Nowhere is that more true than in today’s fierce online marketing climate. Just as Katniss discovers, forming alliances with strategic partners can turn the odds in our favor of our small business not just surviving, but thriving.

What other business lessons did you notice in the Hunger Games? If you have a mentor, how did you find him or her? Share your feedback in the comments below!

One of the central components to building a sustainable and profitable business is developing a robust client base. Clients are the lifeblood of any business, and the goal is to consistently hold on to the ones we get while adding new ones to the list. For service-oriented entrepreneurs such as coaches, trainers, realtors, massage therapists, and the like, learning how to qualify clients is one of the most important skills to learn.

In a recent post, I wrote about getting fired by a client. My friend Donna Merrill commented on that post, sharing that she uses a questionnaire with potential clients to see if there is a good fit between her and them. Donna said, “When I decide to work with someone, they have to fill out a questionnaire ….a pretty long one that asks them certain things about their goals, how much time and money they want to spend on their project, etc. Usually I’ll work with one out of five people that come into my fold.”

One out of five. That means that for every client Donna works with, she turns away four.

For anyone in the beginning stages of building a business, the thought of turning anyone away seems downright insane. Why would you want to turn away someone whose wallet is open? After all, a client means money and money is often in very short supply in those early days of getting launched.

Yet this is precisely why so many new business builders discover fairly quickly that while they may now have some clients, who they have may not be so ideal. And in some cases, can be downright draining!

What happens if we qualify clients too quickly?

In the scramble to make some money, the process of how to qualify clients properly is either rushed through or ignored altogether. I have seen this happen in countless businesses (including my own), from direct sales to personal development coaching practices. I cannot stress enough how important it is for all business owners to invest some time into first, learning how to qualify clients and then, using a systematic approach the way Donna does with her questionnaire. It can literally mean the difference between feeling excitement and dread about going to work each day.

When I was teaching, I did not choose my students. They were given to me by the school I worked for. My client list was never in my control; if a bad apple happened to be among the students, so be it. I did not have the power to terminate the relationship. This was one of the reasons I eventually left institutionalized teaching to start my own business, one that is centered around many fine educational principles but is one I shape and control.

One of the countless benefits of working for yourself is getting to choose who you work with. Who our clients are at anytime in our business is a direct reflection of who we are. It took me awhile to understand that principle, but once I got it, things changed significantly for me. No longer did I feel imprisoned by less-than-ideal clients. Only people that fit my criteria get the privilege of my time, wisdom, and experience.

Turning away clients is actually good for your business

How to qualify clients for your business will depend on the nature of your products or services. In general, it will mean being very clear about the characteristics of your target audience so that you can spot instantly who is right and who is not for you. Using a questionnaire or some other filtering device before any money changes hands will save you so much and time and hassle down the road.

Indeed, having the confidence to turn away clients that are not a good fit for you is a sign of a healthy business. Working only with the clients who want what you offer, can pay for what you sell, and appreciate your expertise will not only make you a lot more money, but will make you a lot happier, too.

How do you qualify clients for your business?

True or False: Can entrepreneurs get fired?

If you answered false, you are right.

Consider these all too common scenarios, for example:

When a homeowner decides to go in a different direction part way through a remodeling project, the general contractor gets fired.

When someone in direct selling company A decides to join direct company B, their original sponsor in direct selling company A is essentially fired.

When a client stops one coaching program to join a different coaching program, he is firing the first coaching program (and the person/people behind it).

Just because you run your own show does not mean you can’t get fired. In fact, entrepreneurs get fired every single day. I know, because it just happened to me.

“You’re Fired!”

The call came around 5:30. The name flashing on my phone was a relatively new client. I was surprised to see his name because earlier that day, I had spent three hours at his place of business making a long list of things he and his wife wanted me to do. As I said hello, my initial thought was he wanted to add a couple of more things to that list.

That’s why I was so caught off guard when I heard him tell me that they had decided they would no longer need my services.

If you’ve ever been the recipient of a call like this, or perhaps sitting across a desk from a supervisor knowing the ax is about to fall, then you know what happens next. Heat rose to my cheeks and my heartbeat increased. My throat began to close in on itself and thoughts were flying around my mind like spooked bats. I let him talk; I said, “Okay” several times. I didn’t protest or question. I simply listened.

It was clear to me he had made his final decision.

I am not ashamed to admit that when I hung up the phone, I burst into tears. More from the shock than anything else, honestly. I had been working for this client for less than a month and did not seen this coming (do we ever?) It wasn’t my first experience getting fired, but it was my first experience in my new business getting fired.

My two kids instantly rallied around me, asking me over and over again, “What happened, Mom? What happened?”

I was honest. I told them I’d just been fired. They hugged and kissed me and offered kind words of encouragement. I texted a friend the news. She immediately called. We talked, and as we talked I could see red flags had been there from day one, as they so often are. Red flags I’d registered in some deep part of my consciousness, but hadn’t really acknowledged.

That not moving forward long term with this client had been written on the wall from the start due to circumstances beyond my control.

So what do you do when you get fired?

No one wants to hear the words made famous on TV through Donald Trump’s reality show “The Apprentice.”

I don’t care how tough anyone is, “You’re fired!” is a blow to the ego. As entrepreneurs, especially if it happens early in the development stage of building our business, getting fired can be a double whammy. Not only does getting fired make us wonder if we are doing the right thing with our business, but it also feels deeply personal because so much of what we do is connected to who we are.

Thus, when we get fired, it’s very easy to slip quickly into self-blame, self-sabotage, and enough negative self-talk to fuel an entire year of nightly news. Obviously, beating ourselves up and throwing a pity party doesn’t serve us well in the long run. (Neither does seeking revenge against the ones who let us go as much as we might entertain such darker thoughts.)

I confess, I had a few hours of self-doubt after getting that phone call. I wondered. I questioned. But then I remembered how so many people I admire and respect – famous people like Jerry Seinfeld and Robert Redford, along with people from my own personal circle of family and friends – have all been fired and gone on to succeed wildly with a new venture.

Moving forward

Getting fired is never fun. The bruises of loss can last far longer than the initial sting to our egos. No matter the reasons, coming to terms with why we were asked to pack our bags and hit the highway can become all-consuming. Questions about self-worth and meaning replace conversations about what’s for dinner and which NCAA team will advance to the Final Four.

But in the end, getting fired is sometimes the greatest unsolicited blessing in disguise we could ever receive. It allows us to reflect on what we do and in turn, grow from an experience that didn’t turn out the way we perhaps hoped or expected. One door closes, another opens. I have yet to see this principle not work.

Have you ever been fired, either from a job or by one of your clients? What was the greatest lesson you learned from the experience?

Is your website doing everything you’d like it to do, in terms of attracting and converting traffic? If not, could you benefit from some website remodeling?

Just like our homes, our websites need to be updated from time to time. Small changes can yield big results! Watch this video to learn more about how website remodeling can make a difference for you and your business.

Your website is your online real estate. It’s often the first point of contact potential clients and customers have with you.  Are you putting your best foot forward online? Do you have a website that not only reflects what your business stands for, but also does the heavy lifting for you in terms of being a central hub for all your online activities?

I have personally remodeled my website several times since coming online in late 2008. It’s funny to look back at the evolution of my site and see what changes I made as I learned more about design and functionality. In those early days, I made so many mistakes!

For example, when I launched my very first domain, I didn’t know that I needed to have it connected to my social media channels. In the online marketing world, that is one of the top five violations. I also didn’t give my visitors any way to interact with me (also in the top five). I was writing posts all the time but not getting any comments or visitors. I was so naive!

Thankfully, I discovered resources that taught me what my website needed to not only look good, but to function online effectively. Some tweaks were small, while others were large, but in the end, they all made a difference.

I cannot stress enough how important having a clean, aesthetically pleasing, and functional website is in today’s competitive marketplace! If you aren’t completely satisfied with your current website, contact your designer to discuss website remodeling ideas. Or, if you developed your site yourself, look into ways you could transform it to become more aligned with your vision. Look at sites that appeal to you and ask yourself how you might incorporate some of the elements you like into your own site.

Website remodeling can be quick, fun, and straightforward, especially when you (or your designer) understands what you want!

Some days, does it feel as if no matter how much you do, you are still light years behind where you want to be? That to embrace chaos in our a tech-driven culture would lead you to pull every last hair out of your head?

If you answered yes, you are not alone. More and more entrepreneurs and business professionals face the challenges of working in a rapidly changing business landscape that often seems to have a mind of its own. Just when you think you’ve mastered one thing, the rules change and the learning curve goes up again. It can be downright frustrating if you don’t embrace chaos as a normal part of the way business works today.

Welcome to the New Economy

Today’s business landscape is filled with unprecedented opportunity and more overwhelm than anyone can remember.

The good news is, this overwhelm is widespread. We can all take comfort in knowing that the gal or guy with their iPad or smartphone standing next to us at Starbucks is scrambling to keep up just as much as we are. What will separate the businesses that flourish from the ones that perish will come to down to following simple principles of strategy, core values, and being able to embrace chaos in the new economy.

A recent post over at FastCompany referenced Charles Darwin’s famous observation made more than 150 years ago. Foreshadowing this era in his description of natural selection, he said: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives; nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”

It’s not as if we haven’t been warned.

Predictions of technological overwhelm have been around since the early 20th century. In fact, Mark Twain wrote a science fiction story called From the ‘London Times’ of 1904 in which he featured an invention called the “telelectroscope.” In the story, Twain described this imaginary device using the (relatively new) phone system to create a world wide network of information-sharing.

Sounds a lot like an early version of the Internet, doesn’t it?

Like so many other science fiction writers, Twain wrote about things that frightened people. Fear was an overriding theme in his story — fear of being controlled by man-made creations, fear of losing our humanity to something out of a lab. I think back to that Sandra Bullock movie from 1995 called “The Net.” According to that story, the Internet (which was relatively new) was going to do us all in.

Fear and overwhelm are close cousins. Today’s emerging business leaders have to move beyond any fear of falling behind in order to survive. We have to bust through the overwhelm and embrace chaos to get where we want to go. When our mission and our message is too strong, we can’t afford to allow chaos to swallow us up.

3 things you can do right now to embrace chaos and thrive.

No one said life would be easy, but there are some things that can help make it seem less hectic. I’m sharing three of my favorites here:

1. Start a “Little Win” Journal. Acknowledge what you have done so far to be where you are. Be proud of it. Sometimes little wins get overshadowed by the idea that all we can celebrate are the big events. You know, the Super Bowls of our businesses. But any team that gets to the Super Bowl has to have had little wins along the way. Make a point to acknowledge them in your journal. Write them down daily.

2. Set Your Priorities. Before you shut things down for the day, take 5-10 minutes to set your priorities for the following day. We all have a million things we would like to get done. Make a point of thinking through which tasks are most urgent and which ones can wait. You will go to sleep with these thoughts in mind, which can help improve your productivity levels the next day.

3. Establish Boundaries. Sometimes feeling overwhelmed and out of control is a direct response to loose boundaries in our lives. If you work from home like I do, it is especially important to embrace chaos that comes from blending work life with home life. Setting clear boundaries make this so much easier for everyone. Setting office hours for yourself, and staying focused on work during those hours will boost your productivity. The dishes, the laundry, the meals can be addressed during their scheduled times. And if you have children, include them in your decision making process so they understand when you are at work and when you are at home.

What do you do to embrace chaos in your professional life? Share your tips in the comments below!

So what would having some extra money mean for you?

I’ve asked myself this question, and I imagine you have, too.

What would you do with extra money if you actually had it? Buy more things? Take more trips? Save for a rainy day?

Advertisers seem to believe we would run out immediately and start buying stuff. Cars, houses, electronics, jewelry, ridiculous shoes…

All that and more.

Many studies have been done about how much money makes us happy. Even more studies have been done on whether or not having more stuff makes us happier.

Time and time again, the results come back and show that having more stuff does not equal greater happiness.

Yet more experiences seem to make the happiness meter rise.

When I put this question to my Facebook network, I suspected that I’d get about a 50/50 split on the answers. 50% would buy more things with extra money and 50% would spend that extra money on experiences, like trips and concerts.

The results were interesting as the split was closer to 90/10, with 90% saying they would spend extra money on experiences and only 10% would spend it on getting more stuff.

What does extra money mean for your business?

Let’s say you wanted to use the results of my poll on Facebook.

If my Facebook friends represented your clients, then you would know right away that your clients are geared towards buying memories more than they are in accumulating possessions. Knowing this information could help you build your next marketing campaign.

For example, let’s say you sell healthy prepared meals to professional women who work full time in white collar careers. For your campaign, you might choose words that build a bridge between your products and their desire to get away from the hustle and bustle of cooking dinner. You might also consider words that make them think about having special quality time with their families.

Something like:

Dinner’s on us tonight so you can hear what your kids did at school today.

As a mom myself, I know that line would grab me. And if I had extra money to spend on healthy prepared foods, I would buy them.

Tapping into emotions is powerful. When done right, results can be staggering.

Having extra money changes behavior.

As consumers, having extra money changes our behavior. As entrepreneurs, finding customers with extra money changes our profit margin. The concept of having extra money will always be one of those fail-safe trigger phrases any business can leverage.

After all, we live in a culture that worships money, and having a lot of it seems to be the big goal for many. How successful we are perceived to be is directly proportional to what’s in our bank accounts. When you can tie what you do or sell to what people with extra money want to do with it, you’ve struck gold!

What would you do with extra money? I look forward to reading your comments!