Randy Clark's Blog, page 17

How to Target Your Audience on a Budget

How to target your audience on a budget doesn’t need to be complicated. “Target Audience” has become one of those marketing terms that many use and few can consistently define. It has taken on multiple meanings, and businesspeople bandy it around like it was the panacea to all their business woes. So, what is a target audience?

“A target audience is a group of people that products, services, or marketing efforts are aimed toward, typically defined by traits like age, gender, income, interests, challenges, and goals. Targeting the right audiences can help you reduce costs and increase conversions.” — Semrush – What is a Target Audience? 

If only we could pinpoint our target audience—you know, demographics and stuff. Conversely, some marketers have made it so complicated that only those trained in esoteric analytics (such as the service they offer for a fee) can understand it. If you have the means to hire one of these gurus, go for it, but if not, let’s try a simplified approach.

How to Target Your Audience on a BudgetDefine the Problems You Solve

Who do you help, and how do you help them? Too often, when companies look for their target audience, they focus on the features of their product or service. Forget about the features; how does your product benefit the client? What does it do for them? When you can answer that, you’ll know who needs your product.

“Market the solution, not the product. Most people search for solutions to their problems rather than products. If people can’t see how their problems could be solved by what you’re providing, you may be wasting your time and resources.” — Are You Selling the Benefits of Your Product?

Describe Your Perfect Customer

Once you know whose problems you solve, you can better an understand who they are. For example, a residential heating and air conditioning provider that offers 24-hour service solves the problem of a furnace dying at the stroke of midnight, in the middle of winter, on Sunday.

Obviously, homeowners are a target audience, but what else can we learn? What are the statistics for the life expectancy of HVAC equipment? According to this Frigidaire study, the average life of a furnace is 20 years, air conditioning 16 years, and a heat pump lasts on average 14 years. Homeowners with a 14 to 20-year-old home are a target audience.

“A great first step in figuring out who most wants to buy from you is to identify who is already using your products or services. Once you understand the defining characteristics of your existing customer base, you can go after more people like that.” — Hootsuite — What Is a Target Market (And How to Find Yours in 2023)

What’s Your Niche?

The answers to these four questions will help you define your target audiences.

What are you great at?What sets you apart?What’s your expertise?What can you do better than anyone else?This Isn’t Target Practice

Yes, this isn’t target practice, or better yet, it’s not fishing. You’re not just throwing a line in the water to see what bites, are you? Because if you are, that’s not a plan. That’s a hope. You need to understand your target audience, know what problems you solve, and who has those problems before a plan can be made. Once you know that, you’re on your way. Of course, the next step is reaching them, but that’s another post.

Are You In Sales Management? 

Are you leading people or managing projects? Do you set goals based on activities to continue, eliminate, or improve, or do you strictly look at the results? Do you believe one sales strategy fits all your clients and sales team? If so, you’re walking the streets I paved, and those streets lead to disappointment. The good news is if you recognize these behaviors in yourself, you can change. I did. I eventually became a highly effective sales manager, and so can you. This workbook is a good place to start. The New Sales Managers Workbook

If you enjoyed this post, you might also appreciate How to Recognize Your Competitive Advantage.

Image by Pixabay

 

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Finding Your Corporate Blogs Voice

Finding your corporate voice begins by asking why your company blogs. While secondary purposes of customer service and feedback, employee engagement, and community involvement are important, the primary purpose of most business blogs is to bring leads to the top of the funnel. So, with that in mind, a corporate blog’s voice should appeal to the target audience and potential customers; most people are attracted to blogs that sound human.

Finding Your Corporate Blogs VoiceFind the Sweet Spot

How does a corporation sound human? Just the word corporation sounds cold. The key is to project a helpful and professional voice without sounding too professional.

Use a Conversational Tone

My friend Andy Hollandbeck suggested, “Narrowing your audience to just one specific person can give your writing more focus and eliminates the equivocation and generalizing that can creep into a post when you’re trying to be all things to all people.” Blogging for the Smallest Audience. By focusing on a specific target, your blog develops a voice that speaks to your audience—not at them,

Speak In Plain Language

Stilted language full of insider terms, loaded with multi-syllable words, and industry catchphrases seldom impress visitors to your blog; it puts them off. The simplest most direct word is almost always the best choice. And regardless of what your style guide suggests, use contractions. They sound real. It’s how humans talk, not corporations.

Share Personal Experiences

One of the best ways to relate to people is to share experiences. Showing glimpses of your world attracts readers.  Poorly Maintained Roads cost us Twice.

Have Some Fun

People love to laugh. Show people you’re not some callus corporation but a group of living, laughing, and loving people with real lives. My Dad, Water Jugs, and Customer Service

Break Rules

Your voice shouldn’t change to fit every grammar expectation. It’s OK to end sentences with prepositions and use split infinitives to maintain a tone. You should know the rules, and you should know when to break them.

Solve Problems

Consumers are searching for answers. They’re looking for information about the products and services you offer. If you have an answer, even outside of your industry, share it, and you’ll be remembered. My Top Ten Leadership Mistakes

Don’t Be Long Winded

How long should a blog post be? Regardless of the varying answers to this question, there’s only one correct answer as long as it needs to be and not a word longer.  Being forced in the classroom to word stuff to reach a word count goal has nearly ruined generations of potential writers. A corporate blog isn’t the place to wax poetic.

What’s the Key to a Corporate Blog? 

A corporate blog can be used to establish authority and credibility with your audience, and it’s critical to SEO. But none of this will be achieved if no one reads your blog. People want to hear the truth from another human being. They don’t want to be shouted at, advertised to, or treated as if they’re ignorant. People want to read a blog they can relate to. People want to learn, laugh, and be entertained, and they want their problems solved and answers to their questions. They want it easy to digest, to the point, and conversational, like chatting with a neighbor at the fence. Hi neighbor.

How Can I Help You? 

Let me know if I can offer any help or advice. If this post struck a nerve, you should check out my book, How to Stay Ahead of Your Business Blog Forever. The book contains action plans to create a blogging/writing system that works for you.

If you enjoyed this, you might also like, What Makes a Blog Attractive to Readers?

Image by Karolina Grabowska from Pixabay

 

 

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The Importance of Follow-up Training

The importance of follow-up training became clear while I was working with two corporate staff members on leadership training and management development with their teams. One of the managers asked what he should expect from follow-up with his team.

We had just held the first meeting of a new class on leadership. The topic was one of my favorites: the need to manage projects and the importance of leading (influencing) people. At the end of the first session, each participant was asked to pick one action to become a better leader.

The Importance of Follow-up Training Use it or Lose It 

After each chose an action, we discussed how critical follow-up would be. Several studies conclude that without follow-up, people lose 70% or more of anything learned in as little time as 24 hours. However, with follow-up, those percentages reverse.

What Should be Expected? 

So, as I mentioned, one of the team leaders asked what he should expect when he followed up individually with his team members. I told him, in the beginning, don’t expect much more than that each person remembers the action they committed to. More than likely, they hadn’t begun acting on their action. The leader was disappointed with my answer. He smiled and laughed but said he was expecting more.

I explained that it was up to him to set the tone and lead the way through his continued follow-up. Initially, he should not be disappointed with modest gains, baby steps if you will, as long as they’re heading in the right direction. As time passes, if he continues to follow up, lead, and help, he can expect more, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.

At the end of our conversation, the other team leader joined us. She’s led similar classes previously. Without her being aware of our earlier discussion, I asked what she expected from the first follow-up. She said she hoped they remembered what they committed to. The other leader laughed and explained we were discussing this and how glad he was that he’d asked because he would’ve been disappointed.

Baby Steps 

I learned this the hard way, by trial and error. So, the takeaway for leaders who read this post is this: progress is progress. It often starts in small increments, not giant leaps. So don’t be disappointed, strive for more, and push to be better. However, don’t be discouraged when the needle is pointed north, regardless of the size of the compass. It’s up to you as a leader to show your team how to follow up on improvement commitments. The more you do, the more they’ll improve.

How Can I Help You? 

I like to help people and organizations, but I have three criteria I consider before taking an assignment – I believe in what the organization stands for, I know I can help, and it looks like fun. If you have any questions, Contact Me. 

So, does your business have a management training plan? Because if not, many organizations, large and small, use my book, The New Manager’s Workbook, a crash course in effective management, as the basis for their leadership development program. Check it out. It might help you stop putting off what you want to do.

If you’d like more ideas on follow-up training, read this: How To Improve Employee Training Retention.

Photo by Campaign Creators on Unsplash

 

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How Negativity Adversely Affects Your Health (and what you can do)

Yes, it’s a fact, negativity adversely affects your health. For most of my adult life, I’ve believed one’s outlook affects one’s health. My unscientific observation has been that pessimistic people have more illnesses and ailments than those who see life’s brighter side. Part of the difference is self-fulfilling; some of it is the harm negativity does to the human body. Fearful and negative thought processes release molecules into the body that are detrimental to one’s health, don’t they? Yes. They. Do.

How Negativity Adversely Affects Your Health  Negativity = Stress = Strain = Damage 

A Negative outlook is stressful, and stress strains the human body. Over time, stress and strain can and will damage the body, but why is that? “One theory is that having a positive outlook enables you to cope better with stressful situations, which reduces the harmful health effects of stress on your body.” Mayo Clinic Stress Management 

The effects of stress caused by negativity include poor sleep, high blood pressure, heart disease, poor digestion, stomach aches, headaches, and a compromised immune system, but how does this happen? “Your body responds to stress by releasing hormones and increasing your heart and breathing rates.” — Healthline the Effects of Stress on Your Body

Stress, anger, negativity, and fear engage the amygdala, producing a fight-or-flight response. “…when the nervous system is in “fight-or-flight,” the body’s self-repair mechanisms don’t function properly, and the body is predisposed to illness. All because you thought yourself sick.” — Scientific Proof that Negative Thoughts Harm Your Health 

From the Common Cold to an Early Grave 

A negative approach to the world around you can make you more susceptible to the harmful viruses and bacteria you encounter, “Poor emotional health can weaken your body’s immune system, making you more likely to get colds and other infections during emotionally difficult times.” —Family Dotor.org How Emotions Affect your Health. 

And negativity can shorten your life. New scientific understandings have also identified the process by which chronic stress can decrease our lifespan by shortening our telomeres (the “end caps” of our DNA strands, which play a big role in aging). — How do Thoughts and Emotion Impact Your Health? 

What Can You do About it? 

If you have a negative, Murphy’s law (what can go wrong will) view of the world, can you change how you perceive the world around you? Yes, but it won’t be easy.

Just say no

Tell your inner voice no. Our inner voice is there to protect us. It will take limited information and project possible destructive outcomes. As helpful as it may be, our inner voice can be a negative source of stress. Occasionally you must tell the voice, “Thank you but, no, I got this! Telling Your Inner Voice No

Forgive and forget

Forgiveness is more about you than those you forgive. Forgiving others frees your mind from the burden and stress of the infraction. Forgiving others relieves stress.

Own up

I recall walking past a new manager conducting an employment interview. I sat down uninvited and took over the interview. Later, I heard my actions were a source of discomfort for the new manager. I immediately sought her out and apologized by telling her it was inconsiderate and egotistical for me to barge in. She accepted my apology and said she was concerned about saying anything to me because she appreciated my leadership training. I was wrong. Admitting I was wrong and seeking amends opened up communication with the new manager and eliminated a potentially stressful situation for both of us.

Practice stress relieving activities

For me, it’s time outdoors, hiking, gardening, or just sitting in my backyard reading a book. Whatever works for you, be sure to schedule time for stress relief.

Celebrate even the smallest successes

A good friend wanted to share her disappointment at a recent conference with me. She counted off the problems, and when she finished, I asked her what went right. She paused for a moment and then listed off several successes. Later, she thanked me for changing her perception of the conference. I told her I often had to remind myself of the same.

Show gratitude

Can you think of a more positive and less stressful emotion than gratitude? When jealousy, ego, and anger rear their ugly heads, find something to be grateful for. You know there’s a lot you have to be grateful for, don’t you? How to Relieve Stress and Fear with Gratitude

Think Yourself to Better Health

By controlling your outlook on life, looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and finding the good, you can reduce stress while decreasing the chance of damaging your body and mind with negative thoughts. Like I said, it won’t be easy, but you do have a choice. It’s up to you. Is your glass half empty or half full?

How Can I Help You? 

I like to help people and organizations, but I have three criteria I consider before taking an assignment – I believe in what the organization stands for, I know I can help, and it looks like fun. If you have any questions, Contact Me. 

So, does your business have a management training plan? Because if not, many organizations, large and small, use my book, The New Manager’s Workbook a crash course in effective management, as the basis for their leadership development program. Check it out. It might help you stop putting off what you want to do.

If you enjoyed this post you might like, Volunteering Your Way to Better Health and Wellness

Image by Mojca-Peter from Pixabay

The post How Negativity Adversely Affects Your Health (and what you can do)  appeared first on Randy Clark Leadership Training.

Death of the Salesperson

Yes, we’re nearing the death of the salesperson. The day of the fast-talking, door-knocking, drink-buying Salesperson is approaching obsolescence. Old-fashioned 20th-century selling methods are outdated. Consumer’s access to information. People don’t want to be sold—they want to be advised. It’s the death of the salesperson and the birth of the consultant.

Consumers no longer need a salesperson to sell them a product when they can find out what they need to know online. Companies that hold onto outdated titles and tactics will be left behind.

Death of the SalespersonConsumers Check Online Before Contact

Studies show that most consumers vet businesses online before considering a product or service, even if they plan to go to a brick-and-mortar outlet. Not only that, but shoppers shop. They compare products, prices,  and read reviews.

Whether B2B or B2C, prospects can find the answers to their questions and solutions to their problems online, and if they can’t find them on your website—they’ll move on to the next. They seldom need Salespeople to educate them. However, they may seek advice. To offer good advice, representatives need to become consultants, which begins by understanding the customer’s problems and recommending the best solutions for their needs.

People Don’t Have Time 

In the 1980s, I managed a home remodeling sales team that spent, on average, three hours at consumers’ homes. Although this was an award-winning team, can you imagine spending three hours with any salesperson? Today, most people don’t have that kind of time and don’t need a complete product demonstration and education. For example, our TV went out. My wife went online, read reviews about brands and models, chose one, and then priced it. We picked a local retailer not because they were the lowest price but because they offered the service we wanted. We were 90% done before we walked in the door.

If you’re a B2B and think this doesn’t hold true for your business, think again. More than a decade ago, in a 2012 Harvard Business Review study, The end of solution sales shared this, “In fact, a recent Corporate Executive Board study of more than 1,400 B2B customers found that those customers completed, on average, nearly 60% of a typical purchasing decision—researching solutions, ranking options, setting requirements, benchmarking pricing, and so on—before even having a conversation with a supplier. ” This study may be 12 years old, but I doubt the numbers have decreased.

People Want to Collaborate, not Negotiate

Consumers, whether B2B, B2C, or not-for-profit, don’t want to be sold. Most people don’t want a product forced down their throats, so a price negotiation can begin. More often than not, people want to work together towards mutual benefit. They want partners, not salespeople.

Where Does Change Begin?

It starts with titles. That may sound funny, but what someone is called has much to do with how they see themselves and how others categorize them. Eliminate Salesperson as a title and, depending on your business, replace it with Consultant, Business Development Manager, Technical Representative, or Product Adviser.

The next step is to teach the consultants to consult. They must understand most prospects have done their homework, or they wouldn’t be talking with you. The consultant’s job is to find out what problems the prospect has and how they believe your product and service will serve them.

The Salesperson of Tomorrow

The death of the salesperson. “Willy was a salesman. And for a salesman, there’s no rock bottom to the life. He don’t put a bolt to a nut, he don’t tell you the law or to give you medicine. He’s a man way out there in the blue riding on a smile and a shoeshine.” ― Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman.

If I asked you to describe a salesperson, would you picture a fast-talking huckster more interested in moving their products than helping customers? Unfortunately, that Salesperson is still out there, but the tide is changing, and the Salesperson who depends on a “smile and shoeshine” will find it progressively more challenging to connect with buyers.

Who is the Future Salesperson?Consultant – The productive Salesperson of tomorrow will be a true consultant focused first and foremost on the customer’s needs. They will be experts on products and industry. They will resemble today’s paid consultant more than yesterday’s Salesperson.Collaborator – Future salespeople and customers will collaborate to maximize product usefulness. Some products will be created specifically to solve problems, while other products will be shared with customers to beta test and brainstorm potential uses.Customer Service Advocate – With customers having full access to millions of potential clients on social networks, nothing will be more important than keeping them happy.Analytic advisor – Salespeople who can analyze big data and offer strategies to capture market share will be in demand.Product developer – The best salespeople will work directly with an R&D team to develop products specific to the customer’s needs.Educated in sales – Many salespeople now and in the future will hold degrees in professional sales.Sales Scientist – In the past, the power of persuasion and the psychology behind sales, combined to create the art of sales. In the future, the ability to use the scientific method will be critical to the science of sales.Partner – Salespeople will develop partnerships working side-by-side with customers, participating in strategy meetings, educational training, and product roll-out.She’s Not Your Father’s Car Salesman

Personality profiles using gregariousness as a benchmark for sales ability are outdated. It’s the death of the salesperson. Whether someone is an introvert or an extrovert will be less of an indicator of sales potential than empathy, problem-solving ability, and analytical thinking.

“The only thing you’ve got in this world is what you can sell.” ― Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman.

Mr. Miller the world has changed. The essential talent for tomorrow’s Salespeople will be their ability to help.

Adapt or Be Eaten

Adapting to the current business climate can be your business’s life or death. Understanding and meeting the needs of your target audience is the key to successful consulting. It’s not the other way around. The world is changing fast, and those who don’t adapt will be swallowed up. “In the past, business success was all about size: The large eat the small. Today, business success is all about speed: The fast eat the slow.” — Huffington Post, Daniel Burris: Profiting from the speed of business. Are you going to eat or be eaten, are you ready for the death of the salesperson?

Are You in Sales Management?

So, are you leading people or managing projects? Do you set goals based on activities to continue, eliminate, or improve or do you strictly look at the results? Do you believe one sales strategy fits all your clients and all your sales team? If so, you’re walking the streets I paved, and those streets lead to disappointment. The good news is if you recognize these behaviors in yourself, you can change. I did. I eventually became a highly effective sales manager and so can you. This workbook is the place to start. The New Sales Managers Workbook

Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash

 

 

 

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Have you Driven These Haunted Highways?

America has a love affair with its highways. Even if they’re haunted highways. Since President Dwight Eisenhower created the FHWA (Federal Highway Administration) on July 29th, 1956, we’ve been enamored with our interstates and roads. Many call the interstate system envisioned by President Eisenhower, the greatest public works project in history. It gave our country mobility, freedom, and the opportunity to ship goods by truck almost anywhere in our nation. It also created stories and urban tales of haunted highways.

Ghostly apparitions shimmering in the moonlight, eerie howls heard in the middle of the night, and tales of driverless vehicles before there were self-driving vehicles. Hitchhikers who vanished into thin air and roads that went nowhere (not from Google Maps) became part of the American highway legend. Is any of this real? Do you believe in ghosts? Because if you do, could some of them be on the road tonight when you’re driving home? In the spirit of Halloween, let’s explore some of America’s haunted roads of legend. 

Where Are These Haunted Highways?Highway 11, Decatur, AL

In 1934, Lonnie Stephens was convicted of murdering his girlfriend, a charge for which he was exonerated when the murderer stepped forward. Unfortunately, it was too late for the hapless Mr. Stephens. One dark night, he escaped from a chain gang, but he was struck and killed while attempting to cross Highway 11. It’s said he’s still trying to cross the road and being struck by terrified drivers who never find a body.

I-65 Evergreen, AL

This 40-mile stretch of I-65 had 519 accidents, 208 injuries, and 23 deaths in a six-year period from 1984 to 1990. Many believe the high collision rate is because this road was built atop an Indiana burial ground. The Creek People were forcibly relocated from this area to a reservation in Oklahoma in the 1830s. Hundreds of the tribe’s members perished along the way. Legend claims they have come back to curse this road, which now desecrates their sacred grounds. Drive carefully. Be very careful.

Clinton Road, NJ

It’s said if you toss a penny from the bridge that crosses the reservoir, a boy who fell from the bridge and drowned will throw it back. What, a penny’s not enough? Do you think he’d throw back a dollar?

“My friends and I decided to find out for ourselves what is true and what is not.  We went to the bridge and threw a quarter off.  Not but a minute later you hear the bloop, as if you dropped the quarter in again. The water filled with ripples and a child’s reflection appeared.  I flew back to the car.  That scared all of us.  –Dina, West Milford.” —  Weird NJ

Highway 365, Little Rock, AR

If you pick up a young girl hitchhiking, especially after dark in the rain, you may feel obligated to give her a ride home. The home’s not very far away, but she vanishes before you arrive. If you knock on the door, you’ll learn she only tries to come home once a year, on the anniversary of her death, at the highway where you gave her a ride. Haunted Arkansas: The Vanishing Hitchhiker

As a young man growing up in west suburban Indianapolis, we also had our ghosts. The Avon Haunted Bridge comes to mind. We didn’t really believe in ghosts, but even today, they give me goosebumps—or should I say, “ghost bumps.” So, if you’re driving in the rain on Halloween night and are on a haunted highway… BOO!

Photo by Daniel Herron on Unsplash

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Is It Process or Procedure that Needs Improved?

Is it process or procedure that needs improved? When expectations aren’t met, too often managers jump to conclusions before gathering and analyzing information. I’ve seen procedures changed when, in fact, the problem wasn’t the procedure. It was because the procedure wasn’t being followed. And processes (the act of doing the procedure) that were micromanaged when, in fact, it was the procedure that was flawed. Both approaches result in little or no improvement.

Is It Process or Procedure that Needs Improved?10 Minute Response

I worked with a company that set a procedure to respond to all web inquiries within 10 minutes. It was a simple procedure. When a new inquiry was submitted, the response team was sent an email and was to respond within 10 minutes. It was discovered some responses took up to an hour. The IT team was tasked with improving the system.

After spending hours “improving” the system, the results did not improve. Because it wasn’t due to the procedure; it was the process. The team responsible for answering the inquiries only checked their email once an hour.

How would you answer these two scenarios?Scenario I

You make thing-a-ma-jigs. They haven’t changed, and nothing out of your organization’s control is affecting production. However, production has declined. Is the problem the procedure or process (defined as how the team works together)? Should you alter procedures or do you need new procedures? *See the Answer below.

Scenario II

You offer a service. An outside sales force drives sales. The personnel have not changed, and the economy is the same. However, sales are down 10% from the previous year. So, do you need new sales procedures, better processes, or new salespeople? *See the Answer below.

The Answer

Neither scenario gives you enough information to make a decision. Therefore, facts need to be gathered and analyzed before making conclusions.

Four Conditions of Process and ProcedureWhen the team is on track. Reinforce this positive behavior with recognition and rewards.If the process is good, but the procedure is flawed, ask the team to offer suggestions to improve the procedure. Review the team’s goals, refocus priorities, and assign tasks that look like they have the best opportunity to improve the procedure. Establish and train the new or improved procedure.If the process is inadequate, but the procedure is workable, what steps in the process need improved? Where is the process faltering? Are procedures being followed? Have they been adequately trained? Follow through with training or corrective action as needed.If the process and procedure both need improved, follow points 2 & 3.How Can I Help You? 

I like to help people and organizations, but I have three criteria I consider before taking an assignment – I believe in what the organization stands for, I know I can help, and it looks like fun. If you have any questions, Contact Me. 

So, does your business have a management training plan? Because if not, many organizations, large and small, use my book, The New Manager’s Workbook a crash course in effective management, as the basis for their leadership development program. Check it out. It might help you stop putting off what you want to do.

If you liked this, you might also appreciate Why SMART Goals Are Dumb.

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

 

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6 Steps to Communicating about Communication

This post, 6 steps to communicating about communication, began when a friend asked for my advice on a panel discussion she is chairing and organizing. The topic of her panel is communication. The discussion is part of a regional seminar for a large not-for-profit organization with many participation layers. I thought about it and offered her the following points to discuss with her panel before outlining the discussion.

6 Steps to Communicating about Communication1. What’s the Purpose?

Is it to improve communication in general or in specific areas? Is it to introduce new topics, improve one segment of the communication chain, or clarification?

2. Who’s Involved?

Does the topic fit the audience? Is it what they need to hear? What’s the best way to deliver the message? Should the audience be reduced to sub-groups or increased in size?

3. What Are the Panels Expectations?

What’s the takeaway? What do you want people to understand, learn, and embrace? How would you measure the success of the discussion?

4. How Will the Message Be Shared?

There are so many ways to share a message today it’s easy for it to get lost. One of the most common outcomes of verbal communication is misunderstanding, so should information be printed as well? Should it be available via email, text, social media, video, PowerPoint, or?

5. How Will You Follow Up?

One lecture is seldom enough to influence most listeners. How will you follow up your message, with whom, how often, and by what media?

6. What Will Your CTA (Call to Action) Be?

A presentation without actions tied to it is little more than words. What actions will you ask your audience to take post-discussion?

What’s Your Recipe?

I’m not sure all six points fit my friend’s needs or the organization’s purposes. If you’re reading this, it may be the same for you and your organization. Pick and choose the questions that best focus your team on improving communication. Build your communication recipe. “We’ll have a dash of number three with sides of five and six, please.”

I know this: the answer to improving communication in your organization starts with beginning a conversation. What points work for you? What points have I missed? Are we communicating effectively?

How Can I Help You? 

I like to help people and organizations, but I have three criteria I consider before taking an assignment – I believe in what the organization stands for, I know I can help, and it looks like fun. If you have any questions, Contact Me. 

So, does your business have a management training plan? Because if not, many organizations, large and small, use my book, The New Manager’s Workbook a crash course in effective management, as the basis for their leadership development program. Check it out. It might help you stop putting off what you want to do.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also like, Why Communication in the Workplace Sucks

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The Night Carl Died

The night Carl died is a story I rarely share. However, October is National Pedestrian Safety Month. It’s time I tell my story. 

I was walking back from a hike along Eagle Creek near my home recently. As I entered the housing addition where I live, I noticed a group of young teen boys walking in the street, on the right or traffic side of the road. I asked if I could chat with them, and they came over to the sidewalk with me. I explained that there were a lot of drivers that drove on this road both too fast and distracted. I’d seen them too often, and that having their backs to traffic was dangerous. I also suggested they use the sidewalks. The boys politely thanked me and used the sidewalk. 

When I got home, I told my wife about this and said I don’t know why these boys on the street bothered me so much. She looked at me and said, “You know why, remember?” I did. 

A Sock Hop 

It was the winter of 1967; I was 16 years old, soon to be 17. There was a sock hop at the Junior High gym. If you don’t know what a sock hop was, it was a dance on a gymnasium floor where everyone took off their shoes to avoid damaging the gym floor. We hopped in our socks. 

After the game, I gave a ride home to my girlfriend, who sat in the passenger seat of my mom’s 1965 Mustang, and my cheerleader sister with two more cheerleaders in the back seat. 

There was a bit of snow on the windshield, so after starting the car, I stepped out to scrape off the windshield. Randy N. came over to help. He wanted to say high to the cheerleaders. 

The Night Carl Died

Only a few blocks away on Thompson Road, a two-lane unlighted road, suddenly there was a load boom. My girlfriend screamed that the windshield on her side was smashed. I thought I must have hit a falling tree limb or something. 

When I got out of the car, Randy N. frantically told me it was Carl. I had hit Carl with my car. Randy, Carl, and one other were walking home from the dance. They all wore blue jeans and dark blue letter sweaters. I didn’t see them. Carl had been thrown to the side of the road in some bushes and weeds. Although he was breathing, the left side of his skull was gone. His brain was exposed. He died at the hospital. 

How Often Does this Happen? 

“Nearly 8,000 pedestrians were killed on our nation’s roads in crashes involving a motor vehicle in 2021.1 That’s about one death every 66 minutes. One in six people who died in crashes in 2021 were pedestrians. There were also an estimated 104,000 emergency department visits of pedestrians treated for non-fatal crash-related injuries in 2020.” — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

To this day, it’s difficult for me to talk about it. Surely, there was something I could’ve done or done differently. 

Here’s What I Can Do. Drivers

Drivers, be aware of what’s in the road. Please don’t drive distracted, especially in areas where there could be pedestrians. Slow down! Every day, I drive through 25 MPH school zones with flashing yellow lights and get passed by drivers. I’ve even had drivers angry with me for driving 25. 

My neighborhood is quiet, with wonderful neighbors, but too many people drive too fast. They also run stop signs. Twenty years ago, my wife petitioned the city for a stop sign on the main drag. The city installed two. On my walks to and from the creek, I pass by one of the stop signs. Over a week, I counted 100 cars at the stop sign, of which 88 ran the sign. Yes, most slowed down, but some didn’t reduce their speed. 

If you drive a tall truck or SUV, you may not be able to see what’s on the road directly beside or in front of you, so please drive ahead. 

Pedestrians

Please do not walk in the road with the traffic. If there is a sidewalk, use it, and if there is no sidewalk, walk against the traffic so you can see what’s coming. 

And please don’t walk on the road distracted. Just last week in downtown Indy, I stopped to let a pedestrian, staring at their phone, cross the street against the light. What if I’d been on my phone? 

We Can All Do More 

“Pedestrian Safety Month shouldn’t just be about observance; it should be about action. Smart Growth America and the National Complete Streets Coalition have long raised our voices for safer streets, and we have followed that up with action by supporting quick build demonstrations, training local champions, and providing important policy guidance to jurisdictions.” — Ready for Action: National Pedestrian Safety Month 

I cried as I wrote this. I hope you never experience the night Carl died. Please stay safe. 

Photo by José de Azpiazu on Unsplash

The post The Night Carl Died appeared first on Randy Clark Leadership Training.

Volunteering Your Way to Better Health and Wellness

Volunteering your way to better health is a fact. Volunteering is good for the soul and more. I assume everyone knows this, right? When I do good things, when I volunteer and help, I feel good. And when I feel good, it must mean good things are happening to me physically and mentally, right? Everyone knows this, don’t they? But wait, why are there so many angry people? Who are they helping with their rage? Don’t they realize they may be damaging their well-being? Maybe everyone doesn’t know that helping others is good for the body and spirit. Do you?

Volunteering Your Way to Better HealthHow Do You Feel? 

Are you one of the angry ones? At some level, you must know it’s not good for you. Do you tell yourself volunteering would be great, but you just don’t have the time? Several studies show that only 2 hours per week, 100 hours per year, of volunteering will reap huge benefits in health and wellness.

“Volunteers report better physical health than non-volunteers. Research also has shown that volunteering leads to lower rates of depression and anxiety, especially for people 65 and older. Volunteering reduces stress and increases positive, relaxed feelings by releasing dopamine.” — Mayo Clinic.

“A national survey of 3,351 adults conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of UnitedHealth demonstrates that volunteering is good for your health. Here are some of the takeaways from this research: Volunteers say they feel better—physically, mentally and emotionally…” — Nonprofit Quarterly. 

Is Your Heart in the Right Place? 

Seriously, those who give, who have their heart in the right place, experience improved health—even with heart disease. What ails you? Could volunteering be part of the answer for your health and wellness improvement plan?

“In a study published in The Gerontologist, middle-aged volunteers were less likely to have abdominal fat and high blood glucose than non-volunteers. They also had healthier levels of “good” HDL cholesterol. Older volunteers were less likely to have high blood pressure than their non-volunteer counterparts.” — American Heart Association

Can You Feel the Pain? 

Studies have shown that volunteering can impact sufferers of chronic pain.

“People with chronic pain experienced a reduction in pain intensity and less disability when they started to work as peer volunteers for others suffering from chronic pain.” — Rush University Health Center

It IS Better to Give than Receive!

That giving is better than receiving isn’t only a wise adage—it’s the truth. Several studies have shown that those who give receive more than they share. They get happiness in return, and happiness is healthy. “In one study, people were asked to spend $5 on themselves or someone else. Guess which group was measurably happier? Those who spent money on other people.” — Happify

Make Time to Help

Not only can you do it, but you should. You should do it for yourself, for your health, and well-being, both physically and mentally. Two hours per week is all it takes. Find a cause or charity that speaks to you that moves you, and then make yourself available to help. It’s not complicated. In return, you’ll receive the benefits of happiness: improved health and mental well-being. Do you volunteer? What does volunteering do for you?

How Can I Help You? 

I like to help people and organizations, but I have three criteria I consider before taking an assignment – I believe in what the organization stands for, I know I can help, and it looks like fun. If you have any questions, Contact Me. 

So, does your business have a management training plan? Because if not, many organizations, large and small, use my book, The New Manager’s Workbook a crash course in effective management, as the basis for their leadership development program. Check it out. It might help you stop putting off what you want to do.

If you enjoyed this post you might like, Who Have You Helped Today?

 

The post Volunteering Your Way to Better Health and Wellness appeared first on Randy Clark Leadership Training.