Ribeezie: Social Media Business Strategy for Real Estate & Small Business

Overnight Success

Chris Brogan started what has become a favorite series of mine... It's on becoming an overnight success. His first post was this one followed by this video: 

 

See, the thing is, being an entrepreneur is hard work. A point Neil Patel nails down rather well in this post titled: 

The 7 Harsh Realities of Starting A Business

It's not always a "walk in the park" as some people might think. What makes it easier is enjoying/loving what you do (and I do). It's the relationships and the "aha" moments that you share with a client when they finally understand what you're teaching them. When the audience responds with a wave of applause to a presentation you've given. The phone call or email you get asking for help and the thank you's you get for doing so. Those moments that you share make the hard work all worth while! 

But it takes hard work. Waking up early. Going to bed late. Sacrifice. Commitment. Determination. Dedication. You make mistakes along the way (I know I have). You have to pick yourself up, recognize your mistake(s), and move forward. Have a clear sense of what you want to accomplish and then work really, really hard to get there. Don't let anything stop you or deter you from reaching your finish line. 

This series from Chris has inspired me. Inspired me to develop a clear sense of what I want to accomplish moving into 2010. With the help of my friends, I'm working on getting there... 

How about you?

How Remarkable People Succeed

The following video is a 3-minute Ted presentation delivered by Analyst Richard St. John. It's a short presentation and well worth the watch. But if you're still looking for the cliff-notes version, here are the 8 things (according to Richard St. John) that lead to success: 

• Passion - be passionate about what you do. Put your heart into it and the money will follow.
• Work - work hard. Day in and day out. 
• Focus - don't try to be everything to everyone. Focus in on your skill and get better. 
• Persistence - nothing in life ever comes easy. If you fall down, get up and keep moving forward. 
• Ideas - give life to your ideas. 
• Good - practice makes perfect. Practice your craft and get damn good at it.  
• Push - push yourself to succeed daily. 
• Serve - be helpful to others. Find something of value to serve and share with the world. 

If you ask me, a good combination of all of these things lead to success. But at the end of the day it's about working hard on something that you believe in, improving yourself and consistently delivering value to those that you work with. 

How do you define success? 

How Many People Do You Connect with Daily?

If you believe that your business is built on building relationships, then you need to make building relationships your business. Don't you think? 

With that said, I thought I'd throw out a little survey today to see how many people you're personally connecting with on a daily basis (both on-line and off-line). 

• How are you connecting with them? Do you follow up with an email, phone call or personal note card?   

• How do you manage your database? Do you even have one? (If you don't, it's time to get on it. Just sayin'...).    

• What counts as a "New Contact" to you? Somebody you've merely spoken to? Or do they count as a contact if they've subscribed to your newsletter or something to that effect?   

• How often do you follow up? Is this a weekly, monthly or quarterly process for you? 

Cast your vote in the poll below and then drop a comment. Share your process! What works, what doesn't? How do you do it? 

FAILURE

I wanted to share something simple with you today. A video. A motivational video. Something that I found while traversing the web in search of inspiration. I think I found a bit of that in this video here. 

See in my opinion, failure makes us stronger.

Build Your Brand

I wanted to share a quick quote with you today on the subject of Personal Branding and building your brand...

"Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You." -- Tom Peters

So, what are you doing to brand yourself? Do you have your own website and email? Or are you using the companies address? What else are you doing for that brand called "You"? 

Focus On Improving

So you're sitting there thinking of ways to drum up new business. You're doing all the "traditional" stuff and you've even taken a stab at some of this web 2.0 marketing stuff that people seem to be talking about. And yet still, you sit there wondering... 

Growing up my parents and godfather would always say, "you can do better!" They didn't say to be harsh or cruel. They said it so that I could continually challenge myself to do better. And I did. I consistently challenged myself in finding ways to improve in all aspects of life. 

What's the point of all of this?

Being self-employed can often be challenging. Especially when you're going it solo (with no mentors, advisors or partners to see you through). Sometimes, it's not the market or economy that sucks; it's you. People are still making buying decisions day-in and day-out; they're just being more selective. So what can YOU do to stay top-of-mind and influence people's buying behavior so that they purchase from you? Focus on improving! 

• Improve Your Product: are there things about it that customers don't like? Can you fix it to make it better?   

• Improve Your Customer Service: do you want people to evangelize your product/service? Then remember this, it's ALL about the experience! If you improve your customer service, you'll increase your client retention and create better word-of-mouth.     

• Improve Your Delivery: your product sure does have some nice features. But why should I buy it from you and not the next guy? Give me a compelling reason to buy from you and maybe I will. 

There's more you could do I'm sure so please feel free to add to the list. And speaking of lists, here's a great one to follow by Chris Brogan: "10 Things You Can Do Better Today" 

[Flickr Photo by: gutter]

Start Early!

Do you ever feel like there's just not enough time in the day? I know I do. 

You keep moving through your tasks checking off items as you complete them. You're phoning clients, working on projects, responding to emails and dealing with all of the other miscellany that takes up the work day. Before you know it, the day's almost gone and you still feel like you have a ton of work left to do. Your office inbox tray is full, so is you're email, and you still have a few voicemails that you've yet to respond to. 

You don't have the budget to hire an assistant. So what do you do? 

One solution: start your days earlier in the morning!

Ok, so it's not the sexiest of solutions. But it works! I get more done in those wee early hours of the morning when the sun's still struggling to get up and out than I do during your standard 9:00 to 5:00pm. By the time noon hits, a days worth of work is done and I coast through the rest of the day without stressing over deadlines or follow ups. 

Of course it wasn't always this way. It took a little discipline. Here are some tips that might help you out: 

• Try going to bed a little earlier every evening. Even if it's little by little (a few minutes every day), it still counts. 
• Quit hitting the snooze button in the morning. This one might be tough. After all, they say the best sleep happens after you hit the snooze button :-)  So place your alarm clock across the room so that you have to get out of bed to turn it off. Then get up and stay up, no sprawling back into bed.   
• Open up the blinds and let the sunshine in. If it's still dark out, turn on the lights. And maybe a little music might help (keep it mellow though).  
• Talk out-loud. Practice your elevator pitch. Sing along to the music. Whatever. You need to get your speaking voice ready to start your day. (I have a few east coast clients which means I'm on the phone at 6:00am sometimes which is 9:00am to them. I can't sound groggy when I'm on the phone and you shouldn't either).   
• Be consistent. That is to say carry this routine into the weekends as well so that it becomes a habit.   

If you're a solo-practitioner, knock out your morning status updates and client calls in the early a.m. This way they know you're on top of things (nothing makes them happier than to have that piece of mind) and it gives them a reason to recommend you later on. This is where good customer service and reputation is developed. If you work in an office, feed off of your peers. Make it a point to get together for coffee or breakfast in the a.m. Consider this your creative brainstorming session then get back into the office and rock your day! 

Sooner than you know, all of this will have become habit and you'll be getting more done with time to spare at the end of your day. 

Does this help? Are you a morning person? Do you recommend any strategies for how to get the most out of your day? Let me here it in the comments. In the meantime, I'm off to grab myself a latte. 

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[Flickr Photo by: Macmiester]

Failure Makes Us Stronger!

I believe that. But maybe that's just me. 

I believe that in order to succeed in life, we need to learn from our mistakes and the mistakes of others (it's ok to mess up, so long as you learn something from it). 

I believe that in order to succeed in life, you have to take risks and experience failure because that's what makes you a stronger person. And I'm not talking about "risks" in the sense that you "go all in" Texas Hold'em style. Calculated risks are ok. What I'm saying is, if you want to do something, GO FOR IT! If you fail, get up and try again. 

(Ok, so sometimes, you'll have to call it quits on a project or let go of a dream...but at least you tried. To have never tried just leads to regret).     

It's not going to come easy. Things are always easier said than done (don't you think?). It's going to take hard work, every day. Day in. Day out. Sweat. Frustration(s). Sacrifice(s). An investment of time and energy (both physical and mental). 

To get what you want, you have to start by figuring out what that is (if you don't know, that's ok. We've all been there. Myself included even every now and again). Then, dedicate yourself towards improving and getting closer to that goal each and every day. Never-mind what everyone else is doing. Worry about you and what you're doing to improve today and be better than you were yesterday. You might fall. And it's gonna hurt (I know. I've been there; believe me. Sometimes it hurts like hell). But see, today we have a choice: 1.) get up and try again and move forward, or 2.) sit and make excuses (call it quits). I choose to move forward. 

What about you? What did you decide?  

What do you want from 2009? What are you doing to get there? What are you doing to make yourself better? Tell me. I want to know. It's motivating! 

If you need a little "pick me up," you know where to find me. 

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Stumble It!

Some Great Advice to Follow!

I can't begin to tell you how applicable this is to Twitter! Want to know the secret to getting more followers? Be interesting. Be relevant. Stop broadcasting "me, me, me" all the time and then you'll notice that you're finally gettin' somewhere. 

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[Source: Hugh MacLeod, author of GapingVoid.com]

[Hat Tip: John Moore, author of Brand Autopsy]

The Secret of Life!

Have you ever seen the movie "City Slickers"? It's one of my favorite movies. But anyway, the cast is hilarious (at least in my opinion) and well, I wanted to share one of my favorite scenes with you. It's funny, but it got me thinking... 

Mitch and Curly are riding their horses when Curly shares the "Secret of Life" with Mitch...

[Watch the scene from the movie on YouTube here.]

Curly: You know what the secret of life is? 

Mitch: No. What?

Curly: This.

Mitch: Your finger?

Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don't mean shit.

Mitch: That's great, but...what's the one thing?

Curly: That's what you gotta figure out! 

Life and work gets hard sometimes. There's no denying that. Now this scene is meant to be funny but it damn well got me thinking... What's that one thing? That one thing that makes me keep going? Heck, what's that "one thing" that keeps YOU going? It could be family, a significant other, or passion for the work you do. Whatever it is, if you focus on that, it kinda makes everything else just a little easier to deal with. Doesn't it?!

Chris Brogan talked about being stuck in the trenches today. The fact that, from down there, it's difficult to see things from a different perspective; one that might allow us to change for the better. But when you have life's worries hounding you day-in and day-out, it's no wonder you can't look at things from a fresh pair of eyes. It's no wonder you can't put things into perspective (a different perspective) and start living the life you want. 

Personally, I think I might have found that one thing...well no, I have spotted several of them. When I focus on them, the days still stay long but they're a lot less stressful! It allows me to have a clearer picture of what I want my 2009 to look like. What about you? What are you looking forward to?