Work Like You Haven’t Made Your First Sale
When it comes to promotion and sales, work like you haven’t made your first sale and disregard each sale you do make to continue to act as if you still haven’t made one yet. With this head down approach, your results will dramatically improve. It gives you a constant state of feeling hungry and on your toes to work harder and harder and think of new ways to drive your promotional and sales efforts. The downside of making sales is that it can make you complacent and complacency is the enemy of success. When you feel as if you have not yet made a sale, you will overcompensate with the amount of effort and action you take. So adopt this as your operating basis and keep yourself focused on using this to augment your work ethic and attain better results.
The great thing about brand new salespeople that need to prove themselves and need to make their first sale is that they hustle more than most and because of that over-estimated work effort, they tend to get early success. Then once they have gotten used to making sales consistently… that level of determination tends to wear off and their results sag. Don’t fall the effect of this. Work every single day as if you haven’t made your first sale.
– Robert Cornish
Disregard the “Financial Cliff”, It’s Irrelevant… To You.
Focus on things you can control, change and improve within your sphere of influence. Each day I see people get caught up in problems, situations or issues that they work themselves into a worry about and yet can’t really do anything about them or even if they could, they don’t. My advice is to forget it. Focus on controlling your environment and that means putting your attention on things you can control.
All the recent news about the ‘Fiscal Cliff” is irrelevant to you. You will pay more taxes, less taxes or about the same in the future. The problems or economic challenges will be harder, easier or about the same in the future. None of it really matters. What does matter is your personal work ethic and determination. You need to be planning to succeed well in excess of any economic barrier and that will take a heck of a lot of work so your focus needs to be on things that will help you to do that. You need to be working your tail off to drive your revenue or personal income right now. Your level of hustle, determination and focus needs to be toward “out-creating” any future issue that may arise. So ensure your sights are not set too low and then ensure the level of work or action or doingness that you are taking is way way above what seems logical or needed to attain your goals. It’s really the only safe zone to play in. Everything about your future should be elements you can control. Don’t plan based on factors that you’re effect of. Plan based on what can be controlled, improved and augmented for yourself. Then take action based on that plan. If you focus on elements you cannot control, it will paralyze you and most definitely hurt your ability to succeed. So ignore it and move on to what can be controlled. List out the things that will help move you closer to your goal. Then work out what actions need to be taken. Then work out the approximately work needed to get those and be sure to heavily over-estimate the effort and then simply execute, execute, execute and don’t lift your head up until you’re there. It’s as simple as that. I realize that it sounds sophisticated to talk about economic problems or somehow you feel involved with what’s going on with this country but all it really amounts to is you getting worked up about something you cannot control, unless of course you planned to enter politics, which I doubt. So focus on controlling your environment and then do so and all will stay on the rails. – Robert CornishCEO, Richter10.2 Media Group
Happy Holidays from Richter10.2
To all of our clients, friends and contacts, we wish you all the best this holiday season and an exceptionally prosperous 2013!
Happy Holidays from Richter10.2 from Richter10.2 Media Group on Vimeo.
Self Motivate and Manage
One of the worst positions you can be in is one that requires someone else to motivate you, push you and supervise you to do your work and attain goals for the company. The position and mode of operation you want to adopt is for you to motivate yourself. You to push yourself. You to manage yourself. You to set your own targets and you to demand production and hustle from yourself to attain your goals.
Do not allow yourself to slack off. You can be and should be your own best motivator and manager. If you catch yourself getting distracted, re-focus your thoughts on your goals, moticvation, wants and why you’re doing what your doing. Anything in life is attainable but it comes down to how bad you want it and what you’re willing to do to get it. Assess your day to see if you are effectively self managing and self motivating to hustle and nail specific targets and ensure they’re attained for your own internal reasons or if you have to be managed and motivated by someone else and when you aren’t, you aren’t fully focused and applying yourself?The path to real success comes when you have adopted a discipine to push yourself without being pushed by anyone else. Look at anyone that has attained huge success in life and you will see that something was driving them. Something kept them focused and clearly no one was cracking any whip to make them work and push them – they did all the pushing themselves. So push yourself, keep yourself moticarted and demand production and high level of action from yourself and you’ll see that you are actually the best manager and motivator you could have.
– Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group
While the world sleeps, watches TV and Movies….
Building a company or gaining success is a very committed discipline. Don’t kid yourself when you see articles about rich and famous entrepreneurs to think for one second that they got lucky or it was easy in any way. I assure you that it takes enormous hustle and action to attain anything. Most people don’t have what it takes. They lack discipline and focus to push when others relax. The temptation to watch a movie or sleep or get distracted is too great so they never make it. Every successful person I know and I know plenty, have worked their tail off. They forge ahead with unbelievable commitment. While you go to bed or go out for drinks or watch a movie, they write and execute a strategic plan, make another 30 calls, fire off emails that will take them further, board a plane that takes them to a meeting that will open a new opportunity, stay awake for one more hour to get something important done, go for a run to stay sharp or execute a project target that will take them to the next level.
I’m telling you it takes focus and discipline. Look at what you’re doing now and then figure out how to ramp it up 3 or 4 times. If that thought scares you or makes you feel like it sounds a little crazy then you’re thinking is more in line with what is needed. We live in a pretty cush society. It’s deceptive and distracting and it holds you back. You need to barrel through obstacles and push yourself beyond what you actually thought you were capable of. If you wrote down what you felt your potential was and then looked at where you currently are – how much of a gap would be exposed between the two? It’s an eye opener, I know.
So I simply would challenge you to step up your game. Don’t get distracted. You can succeed – that much I can promise but the question is, how bad do you want it and what are you willing to do to attain it? In other words, is your drive or desire greater than the work required to accomplish it? If not, you may be screwed but on the other hand, if you can muster up a fire in your belly that will carry you to wake up at 5AM, go for a run, work while others sleep, read a book while others watch TV, execute targets while others relax, push on while many clock out…. well, you have a very good shot at accomplishing anything you can possibly dream of.
Don’t think it over too much. Challenge yourself to DO and continue to DO until you’re there. I believe this country needs more people that are willing to hustle to attain their dreams – now more than ever.
– Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group
Top 10 Forms of Content Marketing
Content Marketing has rapidly become our go-to method for branding media in an environment where people want their information free and easy to access. If your company isn’t using at least half of these resources or more to brand themselves, consider yourself either in the danger zone or close to it.
10. Microsites
Websites in general are the most common form of content marketing and are a given at this point. At the same time, microsites are just as important to your branding strategy. Mobile marketing thrives on microsites and gives QR codes a reason to exist. Just make sure the microsite differentiates itself from the home site and gives consumers a reason (incentive) to visit it.
9. White Papers
The beauty of white papers is that they are known to be one of the most informative ways for an interested prospect to learn more about you. When I see a white paper with a clear focus in something I’m interested in, I am almost guaranteed to read the entire thing. The simplicity, credibility, and accessibility of white papers make them essential for any business.
8. Webinars
Although they are not for everyone, webinars are fantastic tools for reaching a wide audience very quickly and keeping those prospects. They allow real-time feedback that can still be monitored and controlled, and webinars are ultimately far less costly than conferences while delivering even more effective results and engagement.
7. Podcasts
People love podcasts and RSS feeds for the same reason they love television. Keeping up with an episodic series of interesting content is addicting and satisfying. Creating a quality podcast with a loyal following is one of the best ways to network with people who are the most likely to do business with you.
6. Email
When handled incorrectly, email and newsletters become spam and do a lot of damage (spamage?). The key is to remember that the purpose of email is to share and promote, not enforce. When handled correctly, email newsletters become your trump card for generating reaches and leads for your company.
5. E-books
Basically, an E-book is just a longer version of a white paper. They both set out to do the same thing (inform under the pretense of providing a solution to your problem), but your decision between the two comes down to how much information you are looking to disseminate.
4. Infographics
Most people are visual, which means that your marketing strategy hinges on being just as aesthetic as it is informative. The truth is that infographics end up being one of the most persuasive forms of content marketing just because people are more likely to read through the whole thing and retain more of the information.
3. Video
People don’t want to read paragraphs of text when they can just watch a video that is short, punchy, and to the point. Like infographics, people are more likely to remember more information from video, and high-quality videos lend an enormous amount of credibility to your brand, ensuring trust in what your company can deliver.
2. Q&A Sites
The reason these sites are becoming more popular is because they are essentially a forum for problem solving. Marketers are realizing that they can find interested prospects very easily just by networking on popular sites such as Quora and LinkedIn. Before you begin answering those industry questions, however, make sure you have the sales pitch needed to handle the likely competition.
1. Blogs
Blogs lend a personal touch to an otherwise impersonal slew of communications your company has with its prospects. Unlike Q&A sites, your company’s blog is indirect, in that it is attracting people to your site for content rather than a sales pitch. This makes your company stand out when it comes time for that person to look for the service you’re providing, and bolsters one of the largest audiences you can accumulate online.
Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.
Image courtesy of contentmarketingtoday.com
How Your Manager Views Social Media in the Workplace
This morning, I had a lengthy conversation with a good friend of mine who is a higher up in the banking industry. We discussed the topic that seems to be ubiquitous these days: social media.
Specifically, we spoke on how social media has affected his workplace…negatively and positively.
On the positive side, he pointed out how channels such as LinkedIn and Twitter have allowed him to create extremely productive relationships with clients and new accounts.
“LinkedIn provides different channels for networking and ultimately allows me to connect with people I otherwise could not have.” (He chose not to disclose his name)
On the flipside, he pointed out how the potential for causing distractions at work has made him and other executives wary about social media usage. Their immediate response has been to block and filter websites, but more and more companies are beginning to realize that this causes a separation in networking opportunity.
“At the end of the day, I feel that if a company has enough trust to hire an employee, they should have enough trust in the employee to do the right thing. In other words, giving them the benefit of the doubt.”
While I agree to an extent, I also find it interesting to note that evaluating your employees based on production is really the measurement of whether or not they can handle the freedom to be able to check their Twitter, and as social media is becoming more integrated with our overall internet usage, is their any real way for us to monitor these distractions?
Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.
Image Courtesty of techinasia.com
Social Scoring is Not Obsolete
It’s just getting better.
People don’t like Klout. That’s fair. Klout contains an unknown algorithm that no one outside of the company has truly figured out, making Klout’s credibility that much more uncertain.
People don’t like uncertainty.
That said, measuring influence online has to contain some uncertainty, lest we are left with scammers who manipulate the system. I like the fact that my social score can’t be measured against someone who achieved theirs unfairly.
In the meantime, competition is rising with Klout, forcing the brand to innovate and make our social scoring something we love not just because we’re addicted to it (and we definitely are), but because sites like Klout constantly make us better at being influential. Who doesn’t love that?
If you want to beef up your Klout score the fair way, use timely.is. This nifty site schedules post by when your audience is at peak interest and gives pretty awesome statistics on the performance of your tweets or posts.
Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.
What does every truly influential person have in common when it comes to, say, Twitter? If you just look at celebrities, one very obvious trait their profiles all share is that they have vastly more followers than people they follow.
What does that mean? Well, they share more than they consume. Sure, it’s their celebrity status that has elevated them to the point where people want to follow them because of their name, not their content, but that does not change the fact that the influential Tweeter in question is sharing content much more than they are consuming it. In no way am I downplaying the importance of consuming content. That is how we gain the knowledge and insight that foster our creative, industrious minds. There is no reason why my retweeting an insightful article makes me any less influential, but the dirty secret is that retweets and reblogs alone do nothing to make you influential. They just make you a reference. How else do bloggers, vloggers, and Tweeters rack up followers without being a household name? They’ve figured out how to create content that people like-that people have a demand for. The next time you are looking for a way to bolster your own influence, whether it be online or even in the workplace, take a good look at how much you share and create, not just how much you consume.Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.
A Different Way to Approach Feedback and Criticism
Too often we fall into the trap of measuring the value of what we create based on others’ perceptions. I do this when I write a blog post and eagerly wait to read the feedback and see what people think. I consider it success when something I create is popular and accepted.
That’s doing it backwards.
If I am creating content that is inherently mine, then I shouldn’t be terribly disappointed if someone else doesn’t value something that isn’t inherently theirs. That means I can celebrate doubly when something I write or create has been accepted and shared by someone else. It means that I’m becoming more insightful, gaining more empathy, and learning from what I’ve done correctly.
Once you’ve made something to the best of your ability, you’ve created good content. Use feedback to measure how influential and insightful you are, not how good you are at what you love to do. That’s what criticism is for.
Of course, your content connecting with someone else is a huge indicator of how valuable it is, but at the same time, something superficial and soulless can do the exact same thing.
Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.
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