The Doctor is IN!

I believe in the Gallup Poll's StrengthsFinder 2.0

August 27, 2009 By 1 Comment

I have to admit that when I needed to take the Gallup Poll’s StrengthsFinder 2.0 skills assessment prior to teaching a resume class for people who had been unemployed for months, I was skeptical, even cynical, about the results. I had completed many assessments in my career (even though I had the same MyersBriggs profile as the CEO of 3M in 1989, I didn’t get hired there). What would one more assessment do for me?

Well, I was wrong. I took StrengthsFinder online; the code is in the back of the book, which I ordered from Amazon for about $13. I received a detailed explanation of my five top strengths that felt like the writer had known me all my  life. I had always thought my insatiable desire to learn was kind of “nerdy”; after reading the analysis of “Learner,”  I discovered ways to highlight that strength in my resume/marketing materials.

What was most interesting, though, was to compare the results of my students who had the same strengths as I did. Their detailed analysis of, say, the strength of Responsibility was totally different than mine. StrengthsFinder is clearly a sophisticated tool that captures and highlights individual differences.

The best part was to work one-on-one with my students rebuilding their resumes after receiving their assessments. One woman had been apologetic about her work history, speaking negatively about its apparent incoherence. We wrote out her five strengths on the top of her draft and quickly identified how her three separate career moves demonstrated increasing responsibility and growth within her five strengths. Her shoulders relaxed and she started to smile more in class.

The theory behind StrengthsFinder 2.0 is that most training focuses on improving our weaknesses. That’s all well and good, but this assessment suggests that we also identify our strengths, demonstrate them to our potential employers/clients, and focus on building our careers on our strengths. That makes a lot of sense to me.

Filed Under: Marketing, Personal observations Tagged With: , , ,

I don’t like to write, but I like to "have written"!

March 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

My title today is a quote from someone famous (whose name eludes me). The quote alludes to a nearly universal writing block that often keeps us from our best writing efforts. I’m practicing the antidote to “I don’t like to write” right now, by disciplining myself to write every day on the introduction to my book on Marketing Bingo.

Come to think of it, writing is a lot like marketing: “I don’t like to market, but I like to “have marketed.” Maybe that’s why I’m writing this book–for all of you who postpone marketing because of “marketer’s block.” The solution to writing block is writing; the solution to marketer’s block is…to market. Pick a tactic, any tactic,  and do it, laying out the steps you need to follow to accomplish it.

One tactic is “Get a newsletter!” Here’s what the steps are: 1. Find a delivery method. 2. Find what you want to say (your voice). 3. Find listeners (readers). 4. Create a schedule. 5. Write. 6. Publish. 7. Repeat 5 and 6.

When I finish this blog, I’m going to sit down to read the information for a new health insurance program I will probably sign up for. I got the information from a man I had contacted three years ago about health insurance when I moved to Colorado. He looked at my current policy and said he honestly couldn’t provide anything better at that time. He sent me newsletters for three years. Two days ago, my insurance company wrote to raise my rates, and Andrew’s newsletter hit my e-mail box at almost the same time. BINGO! I e-mailed him right away to get a quote, and I think I have a new insurance agent.

And that’s why we market. Not because we like to, but because we need to, and it feels so good to have new business (and repeat business) come knocking at our door.

And that’s why I am writing this book. Good marketing is like good writing: Just do it! And then do it over and over until you get it right. Then get it better.

The marketing isn’t fun, but the business it brings IS fun.

Filed Under: Writing process Tagged With: , , ,

Two weeks off and back at it

March 16, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Did you know I’m writing a book on Marketing Bingo? Did you realize that my 25 blogs on Marketing Bingo were the prewriting for that book? I wrote 5 blogs a week for 5 weeks on marketing tips that I have learned, for a total of 25 chapters that I now have in draft form. What a treat! Here’s what I learned:

  • A blog is great for thinking about your audience. I’ve always written in journals, but that is so much more private than a blog. The blog may be less public than the book itself, but at least I’m thinking about you, my audience.
  • Having a deadline, even self-imposed, is marvelous. There were many nights when I sat, exhausted in front of the laptop but compelled to post to the blog (and after I read some of those entries, I realize that evenings are not my best writing opportunities!) Never mind: I have a draft, I have a draft, I have a draft of my book!
  • Your comments were so helpful (and I wouldn’t have had those comments in my journal, would I?) Thanks for staying with me.

The blogging experiment was so successful that I will continue, five blogs a week, to write the introduction and conclusion to the book. Stay with me. I’ll be in print by May! Thanks for reading, and for being there.

Filed Under: Business writing, Marketing, Prewriting, Technology for writing, Writing process Tagged With: , ,

When paper is better than pixels

December 9, 2008 By 1 Comment

I mailed my paper newsletter on Monday to about 250 clients. As a result, I received a request from a former client to give a presentation at the Denver Chamber of Commerce, and another booking request for a half day training at Denver Water.

I believe that the paper version of my newsletter brings in more business than the electronic version, which I send to a different audience. I think this might be because people may feel overwhelmed with the electronic wash of information; I know I do. Paper, individually addressed envelopes, and postage seems to bring more responses than the e-mailed version.

I wish it weren’t so, as I hate the labor-intensive process and the environmental unfriendliness of the paper version. BUT I’ll take the business!

What has been your marketing experience?

Filed Under: Business survival, Marketing Tagged With: ,

The benefits of aging

December 3, 2008 By Leave a Comment

“Your eyes have actually improved since your last visit,” said my eye doctor yesterday. I immediately hoped that this improvement in my lifelong near-sightedness and astigmatism was the result of all the kale I’ve been eating recently. “Nope,” she said. “It happens as you age.” (She’s impossibly young, of course, obviously younger than my youngest child).

Never mind. I’m thrilled with the improvement, one tangible benefit of getting older. I just realized another benefit, too: I’m old enough to have lived through all the recessions that are being cited nowaday (the 70s, 80s, 90s, early 2000s). I didn’t starve; I didn’t become homeless. The fact that I’ve survived those difficult times and thrived in the meantime gives me much hope in face of the daily grind of bad news.

Just the other day a client contacted me to say he’d been laid off that morning, the Monday after Thanksgiving. For the rest of the day after receiving his e-mail, I was fearful: The recession now had a new new face on it. Then I remembered that I, too, had been laid off on the Monday after Thanksgiving in 1990, and as a result, I launched my business.

“Lurched” is probably more like it for the last 18 years. In spite of all my mistakes, I’ve learned a few things that will aid my survival in these times: Trim the budget; market like crazy; accept every contract and rejoice in the work; live in gratitude; help others. I did these five things yesterday and slept deeply. I feel much better today. I’ll make it through this, and I’m grateful for my age and experience.

What do you do to overcome the financial fear when it paralyzes you?

Filed Under: Business survival, Marketing, Personal observations Tagged With: ,