Steve Miller's Blog, page 5

Massive Action Beats Massive Disruption

Get Ready. I’m going to INUNDATE you with tips, ideas, fun facts, quotes, and whatever the heck else I can get my hands on to pump YOU up for the next few weeks! If you don’t want SOLID content that will help you be super productive and maybe make you laugh a little, then please unsubscribe right now! (Unsubscribe link is at the bottom.)

We’re all experiencing Massive Disruption in our daily lives.

Many, including our daughter, Kelly, who works for Callaway Golf, are now assigned to work from home.

Restaurants and other small businesses are losing money…many are closing, so please do your part to support local businesses!. People will get layed off.

Many, many people rely on social contact to keep their sanity, my smokin’ hot wife, Kay, included.

Nobody is unaffected. But one thing you can focus on during this historic episode is to practice MASSIVE ACTION.

Massive Action is a concept…an attitude we can embrace when things are TOUGH…when we get STUCK, maybe FROZEN…when our personal rhythm is disrupted…when our world is thrown into disarray by uncontrollable circumstances.

Massive Action helps us survive, because we CHOOSE to not let the chaos take us down.

Massive Action isn’t mystical, or woo-woo mumbo-jumbo. It’s solid stuff. But it might be different from what we normally behave, or normally think.

Massive action is a whack on the side of the head we all need in times of crisis.

Over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to share a daily Massive Action you can take that might make a huge difference in your day and in your attitude.

Today’s Massive Action Tip #1 speaks mainly to people who are now forced to work from home. You might be surprised at its simplicity.

MASSIVE ACTION TIP #1

If you’re working from home, dress like you’re still going to the office.

This is a pretty big deal, actually. I’ve been reading all these social media posts from people talking about rolling out of bed, not taking a shower, and wearing their pajamas, maybe even less, when they “go to work” at home.

Look, if you consider yourself a professional, then ACT like one. Get up tomorrow morning, take a shower, eat breakfast, grab your coffee, and get dressed just like you did last week.

For many of you, this would definitely be MASSIVE ACTION. Think about it.

Kay and I have have worked out of our home for 34 years now. We’ve got a LOT more specific MASSIVE ACTIONS to share with you.

Watch for tomorrow’s tip.

Stay UNCOPYABLE!

PS: Did you watch my video last week, 5 marketing tactics you CAN do during the coronavirus crisis? Good stuff there, too.

5 Marketing Tactics During the Coronavirus Crisis

Even though we have no reported cases of COVID-19 in Federal Way, WA, our mayor has declared a state of emergency.

Things are weird.

Maybe the coronavirus has taken front stage, but we still need to stay committed to marketing. This might also mean changing things up a bit, even finding new ways to communicate.

Here are five things you can do to make your marketing work during this challenging time.

Watch this week’s UNCOPYABLE Business video!

Are you still competing on price? We can help with that. Email my smoking’ hot wife, Kay, right now and set up a diagnostic call about how you can stop being seen as a commodity! EMAIL KAY

I want to GIVE you $538 worth of my products for FREE!

The update, expanded paperback version of my Amazon #1 best selling book, UNCOPYABLE: How to Create an Unfair Advantage Over Your Competition, was released TODAY!

Even if you’ve already read the original hardback, I want to BRIBE you to buy the paperback.

Watch this short video and find out how you can get $538 worth of VALUABLE, money-making information for the cost of a paperback book!

If you want to skip the video and go ahead and get the book, CLICK HERE. Then send a copy of your receipt to this email: paperback@theadventure.com. We will set you up for your $538 in BONUSES!

The Majority is Always Wrong

I was reminded this week of that quote from a good friend of mine, Dan Kennedy.

Breakthrough innovations…separating yourself from the crowd…creating new paths to success…

…none of these happen when we follow majority thinking.

Watch this week’s UNCOPYABLE Business video and listen to why I believe the majority is always wrong.

Are you still competing on price? We can help with that. Email my smoking’ hot wife, Kay, right now and set up a diagnostic call about how you can stop being seen as a commodity! EMAIL KAY

Feel Like Your Marketing Underperforms Compared to Competitors?

I read an article this week on Inc.com that said 60% of small businesses think their revenue growth is below average.

Let’s think about that. Statistically speaking, 60% CAN’T be underperforming, so this apparent lack of confidence must come from somewhere in the gut, not the spreadsheet.

Why would that be? Of course, we know our numbers, but not the competition’s. Somewhere along the line we’ve absorbed “clues” that skew our world view. And for the most part, those heuristics are based on guesses and not facts.

We “see” how our competition (and ourselves) communicate with the marketplace via marketing communications and media. If we think their marketing is better, we assume their results must be better.

What’s the rest of the story? How do you fix this? Watch this week’s UNCOPYABLE Business video and see the solution Steve has for you.

Think your company should be generating more leads? Or do you feel like your marketing is underperforming? Reach out to us for a no-cost, no obligation Discovery Call! Email kay@theadventure.com.

The Old Rules of Business That Still Matter: Redux

I wrote this post back in 2010 and received a LOT of comments. I ran across it again this past weekend and thought it’s a good time to bring it back out. Please let me know your thoughts (especially you younger people!), and share with friends.

I first noticed the change when presenting CompuServe’s first “online seminar” back in 1993. Nothing like today’s webinars! I “spoke” to the Business Forum, basically typing in Part 1 of my “presentation,” then responding to comments and questions over the next two days. I then posted the Part 2 and did the same thing. There were seven parts total and it took two weeks, but it was well attended and popular.

However, an unsettling thing happened during the Comment & Questions phases. For no apparent reason, a handful of people posted insulting, malicious messages attacking me and my presentation. I was baffled. Okay, they didn’t like it, but the hate-filled messages were completely unnecessary. In fact, it was clear they were doing it just because they could. Others came to my defense, and to my astonishment, fired back in the same vitriolic manner. I was a part of an early “flame war (are they even called that anymore?).”

The Internet has shown great power in its ability to connect the world in ways we never before imagined. Customers have power through their ability to collect information heretofore unavailable. Political movements around the world have ignited massive change and toppled entire regimes. Historical events are instantaneously shared minutes, sometimes hours, before traditional media can report. Small businesses compete globally on an almost equal cyber playing field with previously untouchable mega-corporations. We are only a click away from escaping advertisers. The list of amazing capabilities the Internet brings to us is long.

But strengths are also weaknesses and that list is equally long. Our privacy is disappearing fast. We’re losing our personal uniqueness by living and defining ourselves through parameters set up by the digital moguls. As Douglas Rushkoff states in his book, Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age, “We are making choices not because we want to, but because the programs demand them. The more we learn to conform to the available choices, the more predictable we become. We train ourselves to stay between the lines.”

More than that, we’ve become dislocated. My parents were born and raised in Jamestown, North Dakota. In the 30s and 40s, its population was a few thousand. The nearest big town, Fargo, was 98 miles away, so you can imagine what life was like growing up there. Jamestown was their world. No TV. No interstate. No Wal-Mart. No cable. No 16-screen cineplex. No Internet.

People connected with people via a strange medium known as face-to-face. They went to church, participated in the PTA, attended all the Jamestown High football and basketball games, gossiped over backyard fences, pigged out together at the county fair and church buffets, took turns over party lines, and knew where every teenager was on Friday night. There was one radio station, run by Bob Ingstad (eventually one son would become Shadoe Stevens), and one newspaper that competed with the local gossip mill to see which could spread news faster.

Like generations before, as people connected with others face-to-face in daily, local encounters, they learned to be courteous, respectful, and well-mannered. Children were taught to call adults Mr., Miss, and Mrs. We learned to say please and thank you. We learned manners.

We learned other simple rules of etiquette – be polite, be punctual, do not point or stare, remove your hat indoors, hold the door, stand up when you meet someone. We learned to keep the conversation polite – do not lose your temper, swear, or shout. We learned rules of grammar – sentences begin with capital letters, sentences end with punctuation marks. We learned the Golden Rule.

Why was all this necessary? Because it’s how a society survives. Because people deserve a reasonable amount of respect, care, and consideration. And because my parents and generations before them were connected to people LOCALLY. Even if you didn’t personally know all the people in Jamestown, odds were pretty high you would run into everybody else at some point. Society needed such unwritten rules in order to survive.

Technology has changed that. As I said, we are now a dislocated society. Because we don’t literally “run into each other” anymore, why bother with manners and courtesy? The flamers who attacked me in 1993 knew there was literally no way I would ever confront them in person. Add to that the fact most of them posted their inflammatory remarks anonymously and we now have a new ballgame. Dislocation has given all of us the power and permission to be jerks. We say things digitally we would never say in person. We see boorish behavior from others online as acceptable.

Some of this has spilled over to the real world, as well. Not that many years ago, hand-written thank you notes were the norm. No more. Last year we sent some money to the daughter of a friend for her graduation. Several weeks later, after getting no response, Kay emailed our friend asking if she’d received the gift. “Yes,” was the reply.

Here’s the rub. As our world grows smaller from all this wonderful technology, we lose sight of the fact that people are still connecting with people. And just because we’re not always connecting with them locally doesn’t mean the rules of civility, courtesy, and manners should change. In addition, it should make no difference if our connections are in the business world. Whether you’re a small business marketer or big, it’s doesn’t matter. Why should it? Yet, for some reason, many of us think they do.

BUT people don’t do business with companies. People do business with people. Period. This is not up for discussion.

“It’s only business. Nothing personal.” is beyond stupid. EVERYTHING is personal. It’s all about people. It doesn’t matter whether you’re with someone on the golf course, playing bridge at home, sitting next them on an airplane, behind them on the freeway, or across the table from them in a board room. It. Doesn’t. Matter.

For those of you in business (which I assume is pretty much all of you), here’s an amazing benefit to this (especially you small businesses). You have a very good chance of separating yourself from the competition! Unbelievable, but true. Being nice…being courteous…having good manners…using proper grammar…all this will probably make you stand out from the crowd. What a concept. And best of all, it’s really cheap, too!

The change in interpersonal behavior I experienced in 1993 has only grown worse. We receive an impolite, rude email response to a prospecting query and we’re supposed to feel “lucky” because we weren’t ignored. We hide behind pseudonyms so we can tell people what we “really” think. Cyberbullying has become an international problem.

Am I suggesting we return to the “good old days” of my parent’s Jamestown, ND? Heck, no. I like all our new toys.

I am suggesting, however, that before we get enamored with all the New Rules of (pick one)  – Business…Marketing…the Economy…Work…Real Estate…Investing…Spamming…Channel Surfing…Body Waxing…etc. – we should make sure we have a solid foundation underneath us.

Does all this sound old-fashioned to you? So what? It still works. It’s Rule #1 of the OLD RULES OF BUSINESS THAT STILL MATTER. And it’s not just Rule #1, it’s also the most important.

OLD RULE #1: 
PEOPLE DON’T DO BUSINESS WITH COMPANIES. 
PEOPLE DO BUSINESS WITH PEOPLE

Do you like this perspective? Please share with your friends.

I also have ten more Old Rules of Business. If you’d like a FREE copy of my ebook, The 11 Old Rules of Business That Still Matter, please click the link below:

Theadventure.com/11oldrules

 

Greatest Super Bowl Promotion Ever?

Super Bowl LIV was a very good game, but many (most?) people actually watch the game for its commercials, right?

HOWEVER, none of these matched up to what Steve believes is the BEST Super Bowl promotion ever. Do you know what it is?

Be sure and COMMENT on this year’s commercials and also what you think of Steve’s pick!

Watch this FIRST:

Then watch this:

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Too Busy For Marketing?

We’ve all fallen into this trap. Some of us learn from this mistake. Many don’t.

Many pay a terrible price.

The trap? It’s when business is so good, we don’t have time for marketing. We get focused on operations, production, and delivery.

But don’t worry about that, because eventually the orders dry up and you don’t have to worry about operations, production, and delivery! You’ll have plenty of time for marketing.

What a vicious cycle. Feast and famine.

Watch this week’s UNCOPYABLE Business video and get Steve’s perspective about this.



 

The Surest Method To Get Your Emails Opened

Do you have difficulty getting your emails opened? What about direct mail, or getting banners, or trade ads clicked?

There is one sure-fire method to make that happen. Get their Reticular Activating Center’s attention!

This is not a joke. It’s very real and I explain how this works in everyone’s brain and how you can take advantage of it to get your moose to engage with your marketing message.

Watch this week’s UNCOPYABLE Business video and learn about this powerful marketing tool!



Do you know if you’re actually marketing backwards? Most people are!

Check out my UNCOPYABLE Marketing Machine online course and learn the RIGHT way you should be marketing!

CLICK HERE

Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport Is Uncopyable!

A couple of days ago, my smokin’ hot wife, Kay, and I flew into Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.

On the surface that might not have been a big deal, but last month the Wall Street Journal released a study naming Sky Harbor as the “Friendliest Airport in the World®.” I remembered that and was interested in testing Sky Harbor employees to see if they lived up to the designation!

After landing, I thought it was cool when I spotted welcome signage saying, “Welcome the the Friendliest Airport in the World!” Wow, I thought. They jumped on the WSJ award!

Nope, they didn’t. Turns out Sky Harbor has titled itself “The World’s Friendliest Airport” for several years now! It’s their branding promise, and as far as we could tell, they’re doing a great job living up to it. Everybody we encountered was extremely friendly — gate agents, wait staff, and cashiers. 

Pay attention to this branding lesson! One of the most frequent questions I get is, “How do we separate ourselves from the competition?”

Watch Kay and I discuss why Sky Harbor’s promise is so powerful!

Like our video? Please share!