entrepreneurship

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listening

we listen to words with our ears.
we listen to feelings with our ??? [help! what's the english word here?]
we listen to body language with our eyes.
we listen to intention with our heart.

deborah tannen studies how we communicate. her focus is on the different communication styles of men and women. here's the one minute summary of her latest book.

this is a good way to improve your listening skills, by recognizing that what we mean is not always what we say.

GoSmallBiz.com

At today's meeting, Chuck Holder called our attention to a nifty business aptitude test that's available on GoSmallBiz.com. This is website is apparently associated with PrepaidLegal.com. Chuck is a representative so you can contact him about getting access: cholder80@PrepaidLegal.com.

Lester Wills will present at our Aug 6 meeting on "Yes Strategies."

Tips on Effective Selling

Today Mathew Assemes briefed us on a presentation he attended about effective sales tips. Here are some of the ideas he mentioned:

1. Do your homework before your business call.
2. Be a customer of the client.
3. Work on your elevator speech.
4. Do not bring a folder full of brochures, find out individual needs. (Brochures are presumptive. They imply you assume you know what they need. Better to seek to find out what they need.)
5. Know who the decision maker is.
6. Begin with the end in mind.
7. Know who the decision mater is in the organization. Are they the ONLY decision maker or might others veto their decision?
8. Respect their time.
9. Followup is the most important part of the call.
10. Building relationships is position marketing.
11. Underselling and over delivery.
    Matt's presenter had advocated "don't undersell or overdeliver." We questioned this advice. Following it can easily wreck your credibility by making you appear purely self-interested. Prospective clients will want you to care about their needs.

Updated 7/27/2009 based on meeting notes.

King Warrior Magician Lover

On July 9, 2009 at our EC meeting, I began a presentation that I hadn't really had time to winnow down to the time we had available to cover it.

It was about Robert Moore's and Douglas Gillette's 1990 book called "King Warrior Magician Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine."

I had mentioned this book in an earlier meeting and Peter expressed interest in hearing more about it. So we made it the subject of a meeting.

But since it's too much to cover in one meeting, Peter suggested I blog it. So I cleaned up and completed the copy I had started. I have created a website and put it up there. This link below takes you to it.

If everyone is interested and reads it, then we'll be able to discuss it in a future meeting if we so choose.

Of course, you can just buy the book yourself but this is only (?) :) 7 pages which is a darn sight less than the whole book! What I eliminated to create this was mostly cultural histories, anecdotes, excess examples and redundant material. Otherwise, the core of the information is there.

http://sites.google.com/site/karenhzipser/home/king-warrior-magician-lover-summary

penny haynes is everywhere!!

"create your own think tank" is the header on an email that my friend chuck sent me the "amazing" news is that you can advertise on facebook.

simultaneously at the same time, my virtual friend penny sent an email via twitter that leads back to one of her websites.

<---

Hi, peter mitchell.

You have a new direct message from twitter:

pennyhaynes: Thanks for following! Here's a quick video to get to know me better:

http://commercialcreationcenter.com/contact/

Reply on the web at http://twitter.com/direct_messages/create/pennyhaynes

Send me a direct message from your phone: D PENNYHAYNES

--->

both of these are ways to use social networking sites to spread your message.

breaking the rules

malcom gladwell is one of my favorite writers. he has a gift for finding truly interesting people and telling their story.
his latest story - about breaking the rules - is fascinating. it's about a guy who was coaching teen age girls basketball, and about how he was able to step outside the conventional basketball wisdom and develop a championship team. and the result was that he got the opposing coaches so enraged - even though he was playing within the "rules" - that they effectively banished his team from the competition.
so anyway, this is a story about thinking outside the box. about stepping aside from the conventional wisdom and intuiting a creative solution.

ecreferral makes reading more beautiful

last thursday, the ecreferral group did some mulching preparing the library garden for the season.

web marketing 101

a short tutorial about how to use the internet for effective marketing.
enjoy

emailing large groups

sharon sapp sends me a marketing newsletter email every month and she uses my personal advantage; cost about $10/month for unlimited emails. they also offer direct mail pieces at a competitive price.
the other email contact program, constant contact, only offers email. their price starts at $15/month and their price goes way up depending on your volume. they do not offer direct mail..
just thought i'd let you know.

volunteer peten

i've know matt peters for a while now, and i am continually impressed with his ability to get things done.
in malcome-gladwell-speak, he is smart enough, he has taken advantage of opportunities as they present themselves, and he has an excellent work ethic.
about 10 years ago, he went to the back country of guatamala with the peace corps. and when his term was up, he stayed on. in his small town, he has built a library, a school, and an ecological park; all with volunteer labor and volunteer donations.
and he has mondo marketing skills. his target market is people who want to make a difference in a third world country. he comes to the united states for about one week a year to do fundraising. here is an interview he did on a local tv station that is basically his fundraising pitch.

Guerilla Marketing

Jay Conrad Levinson has written 42 books, all with the words "Guerilla Marketing" in the title. I can't bring myself to read any of them. For some reason my eyes glaze over when I read advice like "Stay in touch with your customer base". He offers a thousand tips about obvious ways to get your message across but he never comes right out to say what is creative marketing. Not recommended.

book review - outliers

malcome gladwell is a staff writer for the new yorker. his style is pop psychology anthropology. he is a compelling storyteller. his gift is finding unusual people, like the guy with a 190 iq whose day job is a ranch hand raising horses. or this one, six degrees of lois weisberg about an anonymous grandmother in chicago who is also a kingmaker.

his book outliers is about people who have achieved extraordinary fame or wealth. his conclusion is that being smart helps, having the right opportunities helps, and that your cultural upbringing - your work ethic - helps. but it is really the matrix of all of the above that is the magic. it's almost worth reading the book just for the stories.

but i gotta tell you, his world view: "we are only a chaotic random collection of atoms - that just happens to write books and listen to mozart" [my words not his...] is sort of limiting. but that's a story for another time.