What is your "gut" potential?

Does it ever occur to you as you are about to make a business decision, or a statement to a customer or a non-sequitor remark on a phone call, that perhaps you shouldn’t? Some call it gut instinct, some call it intuition…but either way, it’s as if there’s someone sitting on your shoulder saying, “uh uh, wouldn’t do that….don’t think it’s prudent (if I can steal a Bush-ism of the HW variety)”. Often times, it’s really not so much about making the statement, but the value of not making the statement that your gut so naturally pulls at you about.

Saying too much in a meeting can often leave a potential customer or even a longtime customer feeling like your interaction was more of an opportunity for you to perform for them and not so much like you even cared to listen to them.

Those poignant moments when there are definitely things to be said, but the noise of your voice in the back of your brain says, “noooooooo” are often times of enlightenment in your professional relationships. That pause, or rethinking of how you want to position a thought or action shifts the whole dynamic often placing you in a very different position of strength and humility for that matter.

These growth opportunities are aplenty if you give your intuitive nature a chance to show you, and often times what results of them is a sense of control you would have lost had you gone in an alternative direction.

I love this zen-like approach to relating with oneself and others, whether professionally or personally. It also gives you the opportunity to really think out your second best response- which often times, is so much more valuable than the first.

Here are 8 great strategies to help you sharpen up your intuitive abilities:

1. Self-Appreciation

Intuition is your own higher perspective. Most everyone already knows that when you ignore intuition, the situation does not generally turn out so well. Allowing yourself to invite more of your intuition into your life is a powerful act of self-love. By embracing your intuition, you show compassion for yourself and make the choice to bring more positive outcomes into your life.

2. Listen To Your Body

Your intuitive messages can come in a number of forms. You may hear actual words, see a clear image, or have a deep inner knowingness. Your intuition may communicate with you in the form of hunches, insights, Aha! moments, a feeling, a sixth sense, or various types of body sensations. Set your intention to notice the many individual ways your intuition communicates with you.

3. Embrace Quietude

Intuition is initially often a quiet, gentle nudge. It generally does not shout loud enough to be heard over your stress, upset, frustration, anger, or judgement. Spending some quiet contemplative time each day is good way to strengthen your intuitive voice. Simply sit in a quiet place every day for about 1 to 20 minutes. Take a deep breath, and ask, "What is it I need to know?" or, "What will move me one step closer to a more fulfilling and meaningful life. Then be open. Release your need to think, analyze, and know everything. The best information comes from the quiet guidance of your own intuition.

4. Sit With Your Problem

Try this experiment. When something is deeply troubling you, just sit with it. Don't do anything to logically fix or solve the problem. Instead, just sit, place your intention on allowing the best possible outcome, and breathe. See if you can step away from the negative thoughts circling with frenzy within your head. Your intuition sees many creative ways to bring about a goal or bring about a positive outcome to your situation. Your job is to stop fretting and stressing with the problem, and instead place your focus on being open to amazing new potentials. Make the decision to allow your intuition to get involved in your life.

5. Play Games With Your Intuition

Play fun little games with yourself that allow intuition to expand. For example, when standing in front of a bank of elevators, ask your intuition to "tell" you which elevator will reach your floor first. If you guess correctly, make a big deal of it. Notice how good you feel and breathe into that feeling. Let yourself know that you want more of this type of intuition that feels good. It doesn't matter if your correct guess was just a fluke or actually intuition. Your purpose is not to second guess, but to build up more of what you want. If you guessed incorrectly, just shrug it off. Let your intuition know that you may have ignored it in the past, but you are now ready to begin listening and taking action on its wisdom. Have some patience with yourself. Once you decide that you want more intuitive information in your life, it will begin showing up. Allow yourself to turn those initial little successes into avenues of greater intuition.

6. Ask Intuition Based Questions

Questioning is one of the best ways to develop stronger intuition and gain clarity and insight. When getting in touch with your intuitive self, ask questions that would lead you forward into positive solutions. Ask clearly formed questions that allow clear answers. For example, you might ask, "What is the next step I could take that would bring new energy and new passion?" Intuition can bring you down paths you hadn't considered. Intuition can show you new paths to try and new possibilities. Your intuition is infinitely inventive. When listening for your intuitive answers, remember that you may get your answers from a variety of sources including hunches, coincidences, feelings, words, or even physical sensations.

7. Follow Your Hunches

Once you get an intuitive idea, decide to take action. It doesn't have to be a huge life changing action, but you can take one small, comfortable step in the direction of your intuitive guidance. On a day-to-day basis, allow your intuition to play a bigger role in your life. If you have a sense to take a left turn instead of a right turn, follow through and go left. Your goal is to create a bond of trust between your logical self and your intuitive self.

8. Journal

Writing is a gateway to your intuition. Exploring with pen and paper allows a process to unfold of reconnecting with hidden aspects of your self. It helps you speak out, allowing ideas to become tangible words. It allows vague concepts to take shape in the safety of a journal. Writing is a power tool that allows what is often locked away inside to have access into the world. It allows you to feel into your physical body and connect with intuition, creativity, and imagination. Writing allows the time to find precisely the right words or the most powerful images to express your self. It takes fuzzy or confusing images and brings them into sharp focus. Writing is an easy way to gain insight from your intuition.

Intuition is your higher perspective and guidance. Since it is an aspect of you, it holds your best interests for creating a fulfilling and meaningful life both personally AND professionally. So what’s your quiet little voice been telling you lately? Listen, learn and find that your untapped gut potential is unlimited!

Agility Training for Entrepreneurs

Today’s business section of the local Suburb paper I have delivered daily had me shaking my head.

The two main articles on the front of the Business Section spouted that Motorola executives think the “Worst (of the recession) is over”. The article under that was titled,
“Wall Street basks in glow of good reports”… But the “Biz beyond” column which saddled both articles to their left read like an obituary of big business.

The retailer Officemax reports a drop in sales, Brunswick (world’s largest recreational boat maker known for its bowling, billiard and fitness products) reported a 52% decrease in sales, Aon, (touted as the world’s largest insurance brokerage) saw an 11% profit decline, Tenneco (auto parts maker) reported a $33 million dollar loss (attributable to reduced vehicle production) and Caterpillar, who has laid off more than 30,000 workers during the recession laid off another 75 in it’s central Illinois foundry and is considering a two month shutdown.

If things are really looking up, why are so many huge companies finding it hard to stay in the positive column? All of you who jumped ship on a big corporate job to go out and become the master of your own domain know why…and the recession is only one part of the reason.

I just finished a book called Battling Big Box: How Nimble Niche Companies Can Outmaneuver Giant Competitors which succinctly explained the woe of the huge company- the behemoths that seem to loom large on streets globally and in the WSJ daily.

As small to mid size companies become “at one (ommmmm) ” with their agility and ability to be change agents, adaptability, customer service, and credibility without the trailer hitch loaded with executives and board members behind them, they can definitely win the battle against Big Box.

Whether the arena is business-to-business or business-to-consumer, retailing, manufacturing, or services, it's a battle of David vs. Goliath on steroids. The mega-sized competition has deep pockets, massive advertising budgets, and suppliers that court them every step of the way, while small companies operate on shoestrings and have to struggle every day just to survive. These same competitors are headlining in papers across the globe with reports of their losses, their cuts, their downsizing, their every attempt at being a shade of “agile” in response to the current downturned economy.

By empowering your people, building a powerful brand, managing your cash flow, innovating relentlessly with a vision for your business’s future in mind, and listening to the pulse of your strategic marketing and business plans, I dare say your agile small to mid-size business will not be another victim of the downturn obits. Be cautiously optimistic when you read the paper but rest in knowing if you employ these four key tactics to building and sustaining a successful niche company, you will be nimble enough to avoid the pitfalls of your largest (and I do mean largest) competitors.

Check out the Competition

How does your company’s customer service stack up to your competition’s? You’d better have a handle on it, then you better one-up it by a yardstick!

How do you find out how you stack up against them? Call your own customer service department with an issue and find out how they treat you. Call your competitors with a similar issue and see how they treat you and whether you are satisfied with the resolution. If you don’t yet have a serious point of differentiation, make the way you will now reflect resolution in YOUR customer service department the top differentiating benefit when you position yourself and your “brand” to potential customers who are “shopping around”.

You Are What You Eat!

The interesting thing about food is that we all eat it.

I’ve had cause recently to assess the grocery store aisles and the brands that line them a little more closely. My daughter has some special needs and so I have been trying a wheat and dairy free diet for her with impressive results. The challenge of course, is in finding convenient and comparable food items that will replace her previous noshing on all things dairy and wheat. Think Pizza replacements, cereal replacements, milk, cheese, cream cheese, butter…and you see the challenge.

Though the major grocery chains often carry many organic and restrictive diet foods, I have spent much of my “free” time over the last few weeks ducking in and out of smaller specialty stores. Dominicks, for example, used to have a special Organic/Natural Foods area which enabled a shopper to find all things natural and organic in one area of the store. In recent months, however, they have incorporated this specialty foods area into the general aisles which has increased a shopper’s time in the aisles three fold.

The No Bull Docs, a client of Freakin’ Genius Marketing, say, “shop the outer perimeter of the store, ignoring all processed foods entirely. Keeping heart healthy means staying off the foods that offer no nutritional value.” But there I stand in the cereal aisle looking for the one or two simple wheat-free cereals I can choose from among hundreds of wheat and sugar laden boxes.

As I look now, more closely than ever, I see 4-6 different incarnations of Corn Flakes by the same manufacturer. I see 4-5 different brands of Corn Flakes side by side, and that doesn’t include the bulk brand sold sans the box. That means, and I actually counted one day, in a revelation of sorts, nearly 20 varieties of Corn Flakes to choose from. Add to the variety the variance in pricing which is sometimes as much as 30% different among different incarnations of the same brand. Talk about complicated! I see repetition of the same marketing strategy by the makers of Mini Wheats, Cheerios, and even the store brands have knock-offs. The cereal aisle in most grocery chains is on average 25 feet long and 8 feet tall. This is no aberration to the cereal aisle either. History repeats itself throughout the store as I learned passing the yogurt section of the dairy case. There, I see fat free, sugar free, organic, and regular versions of the same brand, with another 8-10 brands in direct competition.

So, my question is, isn’t a recession a time of simplicity? Isn’t the strategy failing these manufacturers in that all they are doing is eroding their own marketshare. I know, I know, they are trying to keep their once regular corn flake eating customer now that they are a little older and perhaps looking for a calcium enriched corn flake, or a sugar free frosted flake – but really, are they accomplishing anything but increasing the shopper's time in the aisle and sending them and their cart out the front door of the store exasperated at both the time and the money blown in the store?

I say, simpler is better. While my grocery bills are no smaller, my frustration level is lessened by shopping smaller stores with fewer but basic varieties of choices. Fresh, organic foods, corn fed free range chicken, and grass fed beef help to keep heart disease away in more ways than one. I know that the less stress I have staring at an 8 foot tall, 25 foot wide cereal aisle for 8 minutes trying to find the one item I am looking for, the healthier I will be for it!

How I spent my June evenings or what I’ve been reading while you have been sleeping?

Being the forward thinker I like to consider myself, my bedside night table is littered with a number of books, written by academics abound, about 2012 as it relates to the future for all of us. I found The Mystery of 2012 the most captivating.

For those of you who are less in the know, 2012 marks the end of the Mayan Calendar, and some say that it could also mark the end of the world as we know it. Now before all of you go clicking to get off this page, let me tell you, this is not an Armageddon rant, though many academics go on and on about those possibilities and in fact, probabilities if things don’t change between now and 2012.

What was of most interest to me was the stance of a total shift in the general consciousness of all of the earth’s inhabitants. Now, this book was 450+ pages and this article is only bound to be 750 words, but so much of what I read led me to think about core values, core consciousness and core ideology…as it relates to self, business, community, politics, government and global issues. It got me thinking about Freakin’ Genius Marketing and our ideology and it should get you thinking about your company’s ideology too!

Does your business have a core ideology that you were instrumental in developing?

A core ideology is a shared understanding of an organization's “reason for being.” Why was it created in the first place? Of course, organizations are started to make a profit and provide a living for its founders and employees. But, there is so much more… there is something that each company does to contribute meaningful value to its customers, community, employees and, even society as a whole.

How is the world better because your business exists?

Clarifying a core ideology gets at your greater contribution to the world. Whose lives will be enriched because of your products and services? What global resources might be saved or worse, tapped? What are you adding to the eco-concern? Have you increased your personal carbon footprint at work today? Have you asked everyone on your staff to do the same without realizing it?

How would the world be worse if your business didn’t exist?

How does your very existence make a difference to the communities or society of which you’re a part and what if, in like the Scrooge film of yesteryear, you could envision a world without your business in it. What would be missed?

What are the driving principles on which you make day to day decisions?

A core ideology also has to do with the “character” of your organization. What are the most important guiding principles or values by which you want people to conduct themselves? In this sense, your core ideology is like a founding document, your “constitution” that teaches people what you believe and how you want to behave.

Do you have people working with you who align and think this way?

Your ideology is the foundation that helps you build your culture. A good ideology, well-executed, should shape attitudes, habits and behaviors of everyone within your company. Culture check on register 5? When was the last time you thought to consider the corporate culture as the essence of how the community sees you from the outside looking in?

Awareness: Once you have worked on documenting your core ideology, make the statement known to all employees and clients. Publish it on your website, in your newsletters, and communicate it multiple ways to your staff. Become more aware of your business' core ideology yourself. Make a commitment, take a stand, keep your word.

Discovering the core ideology of your business if you haven’t already done it

It's not novel and there is no rocket science here. There is no right or wrong way to discover your business' vision - it's a unique journey. You discover core ideology by looking inside. You can't fake it - it has to be authentic. It's not an intellectual exercise.

It is in discovering the core values we hold as individuals that provides unwavering guidance in our lives. It's equally as meaningful to your business and the people inside your business. The quest for the answer and what it stands for in your business is like the yellow brick road to greatness.

I am personally going to devote quite a bit of time to the effort of documenting the Freakin’ Genius Marketing core ideology over the next few months. I think it will help both me, my staff, and my business stand the test of time, most especially if that time involves a shift in consciousness to the greater global good on December 21, 2012.

Loyal Customers in Good Times and Bad

Loyalty. Something most businesses would give their bottom line for! Loyal customers are the best investment and asset a business can have and will help you weather the proverbial storm during the mean times. In the end, it’s your loyalist’s experience with your company, products, and employees that will keep them faithful and encourage them to spread the word to others also. So what strategies do you have in place to not only keep your faithful customers happy but perhaps even increase their spending with you?

Consider what the impact on sales would be if you could motivate your top customers to purchase one more item per visit. Executing a cross-sell promotion to drive the purchase of an additional item or a bounce-back offer to motivate the customer to come back for an additional visit can have a significant impact on your sales. Make your loyal customers feel special and the results will speak volumes.

Not all ambassadors of your brand will need a specific reason to tell someone else how much they love you, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to empower them with new exclusive benefits that they’ll be so excited about they’ll tell everyone. With new customers getting harder to acquire, word-of-mouth marketing through your tried and true loyal customers may be the most attractive. Give them something fun or valuable to share, or create a “refer-a-friend” program.

Creating conversation with your most loyal customers is easy. They are already loyal to you and have a lot to say to you. You have earned their respect. You can get their feedback on your product line, customer service, or e-mail campaign by using a satisfaction survey or an exit interview at your register or door. Enhance any customer touchpoint with product review options, testimonial forms, and acts of sincere thanks for their business. Asking for your customer’s feedback and advice is the greatest form of flattery, and the last time I looked, there was no itemized budget for flattery, so use it generously.

One word of caution, when you collect your loyal customer’s feedback, don’t ignore it. The act of collecting it is not the endgame. It is imperative that you react to the feedback you receive from your best, most loyal customers. Be ready to respond to concerns that could lead a loyal customer to jump overboard. Lastly, don't let once-loyal customers slip away. Reach out with an incentive-laden “lifeboat” at the first sign of activity drop off.

Tweeting for Profit

Smart entrepreneurs are now doing deals in 140 characters or less on Twitter

(Source: Fortune Magazine)
A year ago Kris Drey couldn't care less about Twitter.

With 13 years of Web site experience, Drey is no technophobe. He serves as vice president of product marketing at Fliqz, an online video-hosting service with 20 employees in Emeryville, Calif. But when he first skimmed Twitter, the popular micromessaging service launched in 2007, Drey saw a lot of mindless chatter and very little that seemed useful to a video business.

Still, with the economy taking a dive, Drey persisted. He was looking for ways to spread the word about Fliqz without spending any more of his maxed-out $15,000 marketing budget. Not only was Twitter the fastest-growing social media service around -- its user base grew by a whopping 1,841% in 2008, to 14 million -- but it also wouldn't cost him a dime.

"The only overhead is your time," says Drey, 40. "You need to pay attention."

He did just that. Drey started posting three or four updates a day as @Fliqz (all Twitter IDs start with "@") and subscribed to (or "followed") the 140-character updates (or "tweets") of anyone he could find who seemed interested in the online video industry, even if the person was just posting links to stories on blogs. One Saturday afternoon Drey spotted a Twitter post from a Fliqz customer who was having trouble encoding video. After exchanging a couple of tweets with him, Drey called the customer on the phone, figured out that the guy had a corrupted file and fixed the problem. The customer posted a tweet of happy surprise.

Talk back: Are you on Twitter yet?
Fast-forward a few months, and @Fliqz now boasts 1,358 followers. Thanks to Twitter, Drey snagged 21 new sales leads, and Twitter also helped him seal one $6,000-a-year contract. Fliqz signs or renews up to 30 deals a month, so the company is hardly tweeting its way to massive growth. But it's not too shabby a return for a free tool. Drey estimates that he spends eight hours a week on Twitter, or the equivalent of 2% of his marketing budget every year.

Call this the year business invaded Twitter. The service -- which can be used on any cell phone or computer -- has been a hit almost since its inception, with celebrities as diverse as Richard Branson and Britney Spears using it to tout their appearances and correspond with fans. But in the past year, @Comcast has set up what has effectively become a help desk on Twitter, while @JetBlue (JBLU), @Zappos, @WholeFoods (WFMI, Fortune 500) and @Starbucks (SBUX, Fortune 500) interact with hundreds of thousands of their followers. (Source: Fortune Small Business)