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Lesson Info

Setting Your Goals

So this is powerful business planning with barbara findlay, skank it's really my pleasure to welcome back barbara to creative life she's course being with us before, and we're so thrilled that she came back to teach this course of the last couple of days. We've really enjoyed it so far, and I know it's going to be a very, very powerful day just to give you some background about barbara she's, a marketing strategist, she's, a small business advocate, and she helps build leaders bill, start brand market and even eventually sell their companies. But she's also very accomplished in the media world. She's written so many for dummies books some of them here on the shelves, she's also a congress for msn she's a well no speaker and she talks all around the world of international quinces. We've already met peters and now it's time to meet barbara peace welcome back, barbara findlay skank thank you. So lovely to see you here. I'm gonna get right out of your way I'll give you the quicker you get ...

going right away and we'll be chatting wars and go through the day thank you, thank you, barbara. The baton has been passed and I'm so glad everybody's back today I know I worked everyone hard last night and you're gonna work harder today because two of you had twenty five word descriptions and two of you had longer and there's a wonderful mark twain quote, which is I would have made this shorter. But I didn't have the time it's very difficult to shrink what you do down and you have to do it eventually. I loved that you got inspiration into yours, brigitte. Because it showed. Or was it you who got inspiration? One of you had you got inspiration? What was the end of yours? It was beautiful resilience, these air points of differentiation. And one of the online once had value social media with business values and all of a sudden to a consumer they begin to know the's. They know whether they want to know more or not. Those air qualifying terms on ly those who I want that unique point of differentiation are going to come to you. You end up winnowing out all those who aren't interested in that. Not everyone wants social media with values, but that's what that person delivers. Not everyone wants inspiration from yoga. Somewhat more physical, great. They are able to self qualified by you, putting forth your point of differentiation and that's what I want all of you to do, I hope the studio audience over today chimes in as frequently as you want because I want to hear your business descriptions I want to hear your questions about how to grow your business is because this is our last day this is our last chance together and we are going to make it worthwhile we're going to go on to setting your goals and preparing to reach them it starts with knowing who you are it starts with hello what do you do? Do we get this question all the time and does anybody else get tongue tied because for years even I got tongue tied and we had a marketing actually we always went back and forth was it a marketing firm or an ad agency which tells you how difficult it is and I always opted for ad agency because I felt that's what people wanted to buy the truth is they needed marketing services that's what we want to sell them they were prepared to buy an advertising agency and so that's what we called it although we were in fact a marketing firm sometimes you have to tailor it well you always have to tailor it to the interests of those you're talking to you have seconds to catch their interest and in those seconds you have to tell them what they need to hear have um that you need a head turning factor like, well, that sounds like me I want to know more and if you're lucky they will interrupt you and they'll start asking you questions because they're engaged the more they're talking versus you talking during your introduction the more you know your introductions working the reason I started you with the twenty word or one hundred sixty character bio I told you this yes, stray is because it's twitter's restriction and it has really become sort of the description that migrates throughout social media and before long people realize even on their websites they need something that short to get people to want to reach the read the rest of the web site that the days of people reading paragraphs to figure out what you do are over. And in those few words you have to tell your business purpose what you do, what makes you distinctive, trustworthy and likable yesterday I told you something that makes them want to know more in the same way it's likable if I want a social media company with values, that description is very likable to me a cz one who's sometimes feels that I'm just being barraged by people just putting forth sales messages on social media that I really would gravitate toward that to think there's so you have to think, who do we want to reach and what's going to make us likeable to them inspiration? You know that your clientele is looking for that kind of empowerment and and boy and resilience that's what they're celebrating, so figure out what is it that makes your business likable? Um, and then always make it, keyword rich anything you khun dio to make your description include the key words that people would use when searching for you it becomes a way to further optimize you cannot really expect searches to lead people to a small business you it's still your job to get your business to them, putting your facebook link on your email signature line, whatever it's your job to pull them to you, but nonetheless, when they are searching, you want to make sure that you come up that there's a possibility you'll come up and that will only happen if it's keyword rich and then certainly attention worthy and no hype no high. Nobody wants to hear you're the best year premier, and later we're going to get into something, I'll tell you now, and I'll repeat it later. People don't buy features, they buy benefits, and so before you say we are the oldest or the longest standing or we have the biggest studio, we have the most expensive camera equipment those air features add the word, which means and complete the sentence when you complete the sentence, you figure out the benefit, which means I can accommodate big crowds and you will never feel crowded. Or which means I don't know what it is you have to figure out what's the benefit they want but think of your feature add the word which means you end up with a benefit and that's how you avoid hype makes sense what I said before is the elevator pitch has turned into a twitter pitch but it's still the basis for even it becomes the basis for a longer conversation and in your business plan you do need to explain it in more than one hundred twenty words so as you work up that introduction you want to know give you when you work up here in an introduction when of whatever length it is put it through this test does it tell your business purpose and sometimes that means deciding your business purpose peter's right? I was not a fan of business plans I wasn't a fan of budgeting I still don't like budgeting but I realized you had to do it what I was always a fan off I was talking and so I always knew that I had to tell people what it is they wanted to hear and that was the business purpose I never doubted our business purpose so in some ways although I wasn't a fan of the structure of planning I always planned so they're um the business year in and your business purpose the product or service you offer again these are really self self search issues before they are presentation issues your target customer and that you sirven adequately large target market especially if you're looking for support from others. You need to know this for yourself, but anyone who's going to support your business needs to know who are you serving? And is that an adequately large target market? I'll tell you with books when you propose a book if you can't really firmly prove that that book will sell five thousand copies, no major publisher is interested and they're going to lose money if they can't sell five thousand copies, so I have to go back to how many people are out there in this situation how many of them likely buy books? How many of them are likely to buy this book? How many are likely to buy this book in the first six months of this release? And if I can prove that that will be five thousand people I could sell that book contract so you have to figure out how many people are out there and maybe I decide five thousand people aren't going to just not going to buy that book and so I sell it as an article to target groups that reach fewer people you figure out who's your target customer and how many are there are there enough of them to make it profitable? The benefits the customers can count on this is really called a value proposition what value do they get out of working with your business? A sense of your business personality? You know, I just have some random question marks in here, don't I? And I'm sorry for that, but um it is a question I guess but there's not supposed to be a question mark there a sense of your business personality when I was first working with creative live and I want to give a shout out to the producer of this of course michael karsch because he's wonderful and he's guided me through these courses and he said, what's your personality so that they could make what's your brand so that they could make the stage look like me and I said approachable and professional that's my personality done and you know what? I said it naturally without even thinking nobody had actually asked me that question for a long time but it's nice to know your personality so therefore everything you put forth conveys that somebody else doesn't want to be approachable. A lot of top ceos don't want approachability they don't want somebody to email them and think they're going to get a result they don't have time they can't handle that so that's not their personality that's my personality so no the personality of your business so that your introduction and everything else can convey that personality and therefore attract people who seek that personality and convey what sets you apart from competitors nobody gets away in my world saying they have no competition nobody because I told you the customer can always do nothing and that's a competitors what sets you apart from doing nothing? What sets you apart from all the other options that could solve the need and we do go into competition later and what makes you uniquely distinct incredible your introduction needs to twenty words need tio hint it all of this or at least support all of these answers even if they don't tell them and then you need to write down the purpose as you've done and then come up with longer introductions to use in different places I need one for radio so that they can in one sentence bring me up an answer I need one for ah longer introduction like I just got this morning so you provide different kinds of introductions that tell different amounts but I do want you all to write down the purpose of your business why you exist, why you come to work every day that's really your mission in vision, the change you in to make in your world the need to address and why people will choose you over all others I often use the same example because I think it's a powerful one maybe because I'm from oregon and its age old and everyone knows this story but the oregon trail their vision was to find a better life that was the vision that's what they were setting out to do their mission was to travel from missouri to oregon to do it, and their strategy was to get wagons and load them up with whatever they could and transport them from where they were to the better life they were seeking that's sort of an example so you think what what am I trying to accomplish? Healthier women and people thank you because it's men and women that use personal care products that I don't even healthy reason even the word maybe you have a different word for it but that's the vision that you are going toward and then you come back and you say ok that's my purpose and then the change you aim to make becomes part of your business definition the need to address becomes your value proposition and why people cheese you over others becomes your point of differentiation and to a degree your personality as well formula begins with a statement that describes the change you want to make you add a clause summarizing the need your business addresses example and I use a brewery because oregon is full of brewpubs eddie it's, it's the new gold mine I mean people are mining beer so and it's amazing it's selling like mad every day a new one opens and so I used to brew pub make a difference that's really their vision they want to make a difference by crafting great beer that people love in our brute brewpub on tap at celebrations and because we support important causes so this make a difference really comes down to people's lives and the community they live in that's their purpose and you're going to see that purpose come back in a minute the reason I put that particular when there's you're going to see it come back in a minute when it comes to goal setting because goals stem right off of that purpose and you're going to get that in this course if you want yet more on it business plans kit for dummies mike fabulous co authors did a lovely job of diagramming how to make this happen once you know your business introduction I just showed you one then you customize it twenty words you've already done or hundred sixty character for twitter fifty word one hundred word versions to investors you're going to focus your going to slant that message toward how you'll make money two journalists and I intend for all of you to be successful enough that at some point you're going to want to get publicity somewhere so when you're pitching a journalist you want them to know how this is going to contribute to a good story your readers are interested your viewers are interested in this I have a really important story that I'd like to share I'm available for interviews your business associates want to know how you'll be a good partner your consumers you can't it toward how you'll address their wants and needs you really focus on your value proposition and to everyone you convey your unique benefits and who therefore so once you get your twenty to twenty five word description hammered down, then you blow it out into a larger versions that you can use in different places including in your business plan then get out of time we're untested I did I was really happy salesforce wanted me to do a blood post on me and I like it when big you know salesforce is big, so I did a blood post in and in full info graphic this took me forever a designer I'm not, but it was cool and I went two hub spot dot com that has great templates that you can use for free if you ever need to do a an infographic and this is the very top of it test your intro with a timer information overloaded click obsessed audiences decide to tune out or the to tune in or bailout in the first two now or bail in the first couple of seconds that's it today's attentions man is down to eight seconds this is verifiable research and they say a lizard has twelve seconds so so you really and it's going down it keeps going down they used to be twelve and now it's eight seconds that's how much time people give you in general seventeen percent of web site visits last four seconds and if the wheels start spinning they bail in less than four seconds so or whatever you know to see that it's buffering still twenty percent of video views last ten seconds most engaging posts on social media have one to eighty words verified research from a number and on the full infographic which is on my website are all the sources for this but um attentions bands are shrinking, so understand that in those few seconds whether you're standing in front of an audience or putting it on your tweet or anyone else, you need to convey your strengths and to run a business you need to know your strengths and your weaknesses and yesterday I told you about the swat analysis strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats you'll hear about a million times and particularly in financially oriented business plans that are asking for money you need to summarize and so it's not that hard and you can actually kind of do it yourself or with team members and this is a wonderful place to bring in a mentor if you have one um and we talked last night about the fact that I perhaps didn't go into a as much details, I could've about assembling a team around you, all of you when you work for yourselves or in very, very small businesses, and particularly for freelancers who were really all alone, you need tohave people to test your ideas against you need to have people to collaborate with sometimes people too, be skeptical and know you well enough that they can be skeptical. And so I can't recommend enough finding someone and reaching out someone who's accomplished in your field or accomplished in a way that you want to be accomplished and say, could I count on your help? And all I'm asking is, ah, once a quarter meeting where I bring ten questions to you make it understandable that you're not going to be a drain on their time, flatter them, and then give them a realistic expectation of what you want and chances are very good they'll say yes, people have called me. Will I be there? Mentor? I say, you know, that's not something I can commit, tio, but I'm available to answer your questions and people are so nice they do not write me often. Maybe once every three months, they'll send a question here is when I'm really wrestling with can you give me an honest feedback in I have gotten to the point where I don't have thin skin. And I expect people who are asking me not have thin skin. I'll tell them like it is so that's what you want. You want someone, and I'm not offering myself just because there's one of me. But, I mean, really, even if you really do have a question asked me, because, but I can't be a mentor to anyone. You might not need a mentor, but then again, if there's someone who's willing to be it, bring him on board because they'll help you at times like this.