Intrepid LLC

I was reading Leo Babauta’s e-book about focus recently, and he was talking about the importance of rituals. He says it is easy to get distracted in this modern age, but when you engage in rituals, you are more likely to be focused and in the moment. He writes:

A ritual is a set of actions you repeat habitually — you might have a pre-bed ritual or a religious ritual or a just-started-up-my-computer ritual. One of the powerful things about rituals is that we often give them a special importance: they can be almost spiritual (and sometimes actually spiritual, depending on the ritual). And when they become special, we are more mindful of them — we don’t just rush through them mindlessly.

And I thought, I bet intrepid marketers have marketing rituals. So let’s examine this idea…

If intrepid marketers (CLICK HERE to learn what an intrepid marketer is) engage in rituals, based on Leo’s writing above, we should assume they are focused. On this point, I don’t think there is any argument. The question then becomes, what are they focused on? And thus, what part of their marketing process is cemented into daily ritual…

Are you focused on the customer? It is my opinion that each business needs to be more customer-focused, and thus, we need to devote more time – each day – to thinking about every customer interaction. We often overlook even the little ways our customers interface with our business.

What to do? Setting a ritual where you review these interactions – on a regular basis – is vital to success of your business. How about creating a series of questions you ask yourself – maybe at the end of each day – that help keep you focused and review how each customer interacted with your business, and how you can improve those. Include everything, from products, to voice mail, to your invoicing process.

Are you creatively focused? If being creative is an important part of your work, and it is for most of us, then ritual is probably a very critical element in your creative process. What does it take to get you in the creative mood? Do you need to remove all distractions, such as email? Twitter? Phones? Do you need to use a specific creative space, such as your studio, coffee shop, or the conference room?

What to do? Figure out what you need and then execute on the ritual so you can deliver your best creative work. And don’t let ANYTHING disrupt the ritual process.

Are you focused on process? Or results? These are two very different things, process and results. How you might ritualize to focus on these two would be different in my opinion.

What to do? First of all, do you have your process committed to paper? Can you measure the results of each step in the process? A regular examination of this process, and ritualizing to determine what is working and what can be improved might be a good thing to always be getting better at what you do.

As for results, well, isn’t this what we are after? Most people are more worried about the process than the results, and that’s why they have NO cash flow. It might be helpful to set a weekly ritual where you focus on thinking through all you are doing to be sure they are leading to actual positive results for your business…

Are you focused on conversation with your marketplace? Is interacting on the social web important to you and your business? Well, then you need a ritual. And I am not talking about getting on Twitter and just doing whatever for several hours.

What to do? What is your goal on the social web? If it is to identify and make relationships with new prospects, then create a ritual where you listen for keywords that are of interest to you, and begin a conversation. Then share information with that new contact. This three-step ritual might work for you. Here is what I do to help bring some sense of ritual to one element of my social web activity.

See, I am thinking most small business people don’t have marketing rituals. We are all too busy trying to manage the mundane and time consuming tasks of running our shop day-to-day. But, if Leo is right and rituals are a set of actions you repeat habitually, then we all need to formulate some new rituals. Life is too hectic, and we probably don’t have the discipline to focus our minds – on a regular basis – on the important things related to our business.

What do you think? What are your rituals? What works for you?

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I recently stumbled upon Leo Babauta’s Mnmlist blog, a blog about minimalism and simplifying your life. It has been a profound find, as I am in the process of trying to simplify things in my cluttered life (and I simply LOVE the blog’s design).

But as I was spending time thinking about these things in the context of my life, I got to wondering if there is anything to applying the same concepts to our marketing efforts. Just as it seems to be the case with my crazy life, I oftentimes wonder if most entrepreneurs have a marketing program that is far too complex.

So, here are some minimalist ideas to think about and some important questions to ask yourself:

1. Is your message too complicated? Make it easy for people to remember why you are special.
2. Is your website too cluttered? When people visit your website, make it easy to learn what you do and easier to contact you to do it.
3. Is your strategy on the social web too complex? Your simple online mission is to engage and serve others. That’s it.
4. Is your target audience too scatter shot? Be laser focused on a niche. Don’t try to help everybody.
5. Are you focused on simple storytelling? Do NOT try to communicate one thousand different ideas/messages/concepts/fixes…
6. Can your prospects look at your marketing collateral and easily understand the call to action?
7. Is your diet of new learning focused on the things you need to improve? Don’t read thought leadership on shiny objects (as Seth says) that don’t really advance the goal.
8. Do you have BOATLOADS of pointless busywork? Instead, be laser focused on the important work.
9. Do you experiment with all kinds of new tactical options on a whim? Instead, execute only on new ideas that fall into the scope of your crystal clear marketing plan.
10. Wait, do you even have a marketing plan? Oftentimes, the lack of a road map leads to confusion, complexity and disarray.
11. Are you worried about too many details? Such as inventory, blogging, twitter, facebook, sales, promotions, employees, sick days, cubicles, vacations, graphic design, vendors, invoices, accounts receivable, etc? Instead, focus only on the customer. All the rest will fall into place…

So, minimalist marketing isn’t about cutting back on your marketing, or reducing your marketing budget, or even cutting the time spent on marketing. What I am talking about here is simplifying things so that your program is uncluttered – and can do it’s job.

What do you think? Agree or disagree with this concept? Got anything to add or subtract? Let me know if you have additional ideas to simplify your marketing…

[photo by marmota]

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cartoon by @gapingvoid

I was at an event last week, and engaged in a pleasant conversation with a fellow who worked for a local corporation. This gentleman had a decent job and wasn’t worried about losing it. In fact, it was apparent to me that he was very comfortable and almost complacent.

Being the marketing guy I am, I of course asked him about his role in the company’s marketing. His answer? “I don’t have a role in the company’s marketing.”

It amazes me every time I hear that. Sadly, it doesn’t surprise me anymore. Because what I know is that customer service is a very big piece of marketing, and most people, like the corporate gentleman cited above, don’t understand that.

But at this same event I run across a half dozen folks who are solopreneurs, people who do the sales, admin, and the product work – all themselves. These are the sort that do most of their sales and marketing at networking events, and you see them everywhere running the networking circuit. When I ask them the same question, their answer is different, but the same. Although being 100% responsible for their marketing, their answer is usually something like “I just don’t have the time” or “my budget is tight, so I have to cut back on my marketing.”

This too vexes me. But again, I am not surprised. And in their case, they aren’t even thinking about customer service. They are talking about the sales process…

Before I go on, I want to define what I mean by “marketing” when I ask the questions above. I am talking about an intense focus on your prospective and/or current customer. And focusing intensely on their overall experience. And by that I mean their pre and post-purchase experience. Customer service in other words.

Now when I proclaim to them that neither care about customer service, both snap back at me and proclaim “how dare you say that.” But deep inside, you know I am right. Now that said, both do probably care about customer service, but do both really CARE about customer service? We all know exercise is important, but a lot of us sit on the couch and watch old reruns of Seinfeld…

Watch this video of David Meerman Scott. He is describing the corporate guy above:

The point that David is making in this video is that the corporate folks are sitting around in meetings making stuff up and guessing, instead of mixing it up, engaging and getting dirty with real prospects and customers — finding out what they really want and need. [and yes, social media is a great way to get out in the world, ask these questions, and get answers]

What I am getting at here is twofold: One, every member of a larger organization, from the C-Level executive to the receptionist, has an important role in customer service. It’s not just the people answering the customer service hot line — and I will submit a majority of people answering that phone don’t care about customer service either…

And two, the typical solopreneur I run across on a daily basis believes they don’t have the time to focus on customer service, let alone sit back and think about ways to innovate and make it better. I’ve got a message for you: that should be ALL you think about.

We all need to be aware that today’s consumer has more ability to publicly comment about their customer experience – pro or con – than ever before. As a result, we need to be more attuned and focused on the customer experience than ever before. And I mean INTENSELY FOCUSED. OBSESSIVELY SO.

Every member of an organization, from middle management in a large company, to the one-man shop, needs to focus on the following:

1. Improving the pre-purchase experience
2. Improving the post-purchase experience
3. How to better handle customer problems
4. Better enabling sharing and helping spread the word about you and your service
5. Don’t sell. Serve. Help. Build. Grow.

Yeah, there are other things you could be thinking about. But a focus on the above five will be a strong baseline with which to start. So, get out of that cubicle or conference room, and start really understanding how you can spend time improving on the five items listed above. If you are the solopreneur, shift your paradigm and your thinking on your marketing, execution, and admin to how you can improve on those five things.

To survive in today’s marketplace, you have no choice.

Now, many of you solopreneurs will be angry with me for saying that you aren’t as focused on customer service as you should be. Do you know why I am saying that? Because I am one of you. As much as I talk about it, I need to do a better job of it myself. And I can promise you that increasing my focus on improvements on those five items above will be a MAJOR goal of my 2010 calendar year.

What do you think? Let us know!

Be Intrepid.

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