At the end of the day, look back and ask yourself, “What did you really accomplish today?”

If you can’t answer that question with:

• I did this
• Got this completed
• Talked to so-and-so about this
• Finished this project
• Closed this deal

Then perhaps it is not how you are ending your day; it may be how you are starting your day.

I keep a long list of things that I need to do. Every morning I look at the list and ask myself, “How can I move these tasks forward?”

Will it require an email?

Do I need to make a phone call?

Is there a specific task I need to do?

I realized a few years ago that all I can do is move things forward one step at a time… one baby step, then another one.

Trying to do too much too fast usually means that nothing substantive actually gets done.  In the end all you have is a bunch of unfinished items, which leads to unfinished projects.

Take a step back and see what little things you can do to move a project forward. You will find that you actually have a lot less to do than you think, and can accomplish more than you can imagine.

Get moving…

I recently listened to a speaker talk about this “blue sky idea” that I know will never work, yet the audience was eating it up… Does this sound familar?  It certainly is something I’ve seen happen over and over.

The information this speaker provided was:

• Outdated
• Unrealistic
• Unusable

Yet, the audience was feeling good.  Perhaps that is all that matters.

This happens every day all over the country.

To prevent yourself from falling into this trap and wasting both time and money, you should ask yourself a few questions before signing up for that next seminar:

• Who are you listening to?
• Do they know what they are doing?
• Can they demonstrate what they are talking about?
• When was the last time that they did what they are telling you works so well?

The business audience is depending on the expertise of the speaker to bring them new ways to think about and know the world around them.

A good speaker shows new ways to “know and see” the world.

There is a profound difference between knowing what to do and being able to do what you know.

The key to execution is being able to do what you know and then get it done to the outcome of a stable result.

Really, knowing how to do something means that you can think with the materials and that you can improvise and innovate, because nothing is as cut and dry as it seems.

Just something to think about.

Some years ago, I sold robots.

For 99.9999% of the people in the world, the robot was a cool, neat and impressive piece of machinery but was not valuable to most people.

Why? They could not do anything with the information, except be impressed by it. They could not afford it nor use it to do anything with what I was offering.

Now on the other hand, if they:

• Served as senior engineer for a manufacturing facility
• had a funded project
• could authorize the purchase
• could provide internal support, and
• could justify the project with ROI

Then, and only then, would we begin the conversation about my product or service being valuable.

SIDE NOTE: Shhh… ROI is still important (if you are in business). There is an ROI associated with time and effort. Don’t forget that money is foldable time. If you are not paying attention to this then you might be wasting alot of time for nothing.

Do you see how specifically this offer is matched?

This is such an important lesson. The key is exposing your offer to the right people who care about your offer. To say that “everybody needs what you have” means you have not taken the time to think about your ideal customer.

New Media Application: The World Is Your Oyster (Sort of…)

Social media gives you access to a bunch of people. But you still have to target your communcation to the people who want, need and can afford your offer. Technology has allowed us access to just about any one in the world, but…

• After you get access, then what?
• What is your valuable offer?
• What can you do for the person after you get to them?

Your offer needs to be thought out, understood and planned… before you start attracting the market. By the way, people still like to talk to people. The internet has made us lazy with the craft of communication. Everything is not good content. Some of it sucks and has no value whatsoever.

• Old Adage: If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.
• New Social Media Adage: If you can’t say/share something valuable, don’t share it at all.

Now follow me as I apply this to social media. I was told yesterday that I don’t use social media very well because I don’t have a huge following on Facebook.

I thought about it for a moment, and replied, “Because you can’t see what I am doing, does not mean that I am not doing something.”

The same thinking that I used for moving in the marketplace selling robots is the same thinking that I use as move in the “social media” marketplace.

Well-placed effort and communication is valuable for all parties involved.

The idea of just Tweeting, Facebooking and Blogging for the sake of Tweeting, Facebooking and Blogging is of no value and creates no value in the marketplace. What it is creating is noise.

When you don’t know:

• who your customer is
• where they are
• where will come from

you will use a shotgun approach and hope that your prospects will find you. That is called shotgun marketing. It is expensive and ineffective offline. And now this thinking has moved online.

When you know:

• who your client is
• what your offer is
• where they are
• how to attract them to you
• what is important to them

That is called valuable offer positioning. It makes business life a lot easier. Keeps costs down. This is well-leveraged effort.

For a business owners and independent salespeople, creating a valuable positioned leveraged offer is critical to your success.

The first key to creating a valuable positioned offer is knowing who you can be valuable to and designing the offer so that it can be:

• exposed
• consumed
• understood and acted upon.

We’ll talk about this in the series of calls that I am doing.

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www1.gotomeeting.com/register/640505905
Webinar, Monday March 29 – "Creating Your Offer"
8PM EST– 9PM EST / 7 – 8 PM Central US
Go there now and register, as we have limited number of spaces available.

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Til next time,

David Bullock

Over the last few years, I have moved from handling big pieces of heavy equipment to knowledge exchange and service offerings. And it just dawned on me that most people have not sold and created value for both the tangible and intangible markets. 

So here we go…Is your offer valuable?

That is a fundamental question that few people can really answer. It’s a simple question with big implications…

Your “thing,” whatever it is, needs to be defined in several ways:

• It is Valuable to whom?
• Who is willing to buy your stuff and why?
• Who sets the value of your product or service?
• How do you know it is valuable?
• How do you create value?
• Can you tell me in 20 words or less why what you are doing is valuable?

In the last 20 years I have worked in some very interesting very different industries. And when I say worked, I mean I worked in the industry – not as a consultant, but hands-on and got results for myself, my employer or client.

So follow me as we look at two different types of markets and offers that I have worked with:

Big [Kill-You-Dead-If-You-Do-It-Wrong] Products 

• Heavy Equipment Support – Industrial Lubrication 
• Heavy Equipment – Robotic Programmer to Account Manager

Digital (Building Communication and Response Systems)

• Pure Knowledge Work – Taguchi Testing And System Optimization
• Knowledge Work – Seminars, Books, Information, Webinars
• Services – Lead Generation
• Online System Design – Landing Pages
• New Media - Branding And Positioning
• Entertainment – Emotional Appeal and Art

These represent the teaching, training and performance I have done in the marketplace in very different markets.

Do you see the brain stretch? What I am reflecting on is that I have not forgotten what I have learned through all of these situations. I keep on building on the experiences and leveraging up and out of markets.

Here are two things for you to consider:

• Are you building on your experiences to create value?
• What did you do “over there” that can be useful “over here”?

Key Point: Your experience is your greatest unique resource.

Take a moment and inventory your experiences and see if you can use today anything that you have done in the past. We as humans tend to forget things. We tend to think that what worked in one situation will not work anywhere else. And then on the other side some of us assume that what worked “over there” will work everywhere.

Both are erroneous assumptions.

There are only a few universally applicable axioms. “Experience (if you are paying attention) is a great teacher” is one of them.

Look around your world and determine what you really have to work with and use all of your resources to move forward.

Just when you think you don’t have what you need your experience should tell you to look again.

Be well,

David Bullock

Have you ever seen an opportunity in the marketplace and wondered what would have happened if you had taken the chance to actually go with a hunch and do something? What did you do then and what are you going to do in the future when opportunity presents itself?

In May 2008, I was presented with an idea with an uncertain future. But I seized the opportunity and a whole new world has opened up for me. As I write this post today, I am pleased to be able to share with you what I had been up to and the adventure it has been.

Key Take Away : One project that is well selected and executed in a timely fashion can change your life.

You own it. No one can take it away from you. And the lessons that you learn along the way are priceless.

The Project That Started With A Conversation

Over the past year I have been working on several projects some good some bad. But all of them taught me something.  As I have been watching the market, I have noticed that there is this idea that you only need one skill, one magic product or one super-secret technique to create a wonderful empire.

With Barack 2.0, we have spent over 12 months expanding the blog into a book, which then grew to a full-blown business and speaking career.  There was no one product or skill that we used to accomplish this.  It took a bunch of pieces to complete the puzzle.

We incorporated:

• Offer Creation
• Salesmanship
• Traffic Generation
• Content Deployment
• Listbuilding
• Repackaging
• Leverage Management
• Taguchi Thinking
• Video
• Audio
• Blogging
• Copy Writing
• Online and Offline Networking
• Public Speaking
• Social Media
• SEO
• Pay-Per-Click
• Strategy
• Tactics
• Seminar and Webinar Presentation
• Building Credibility
• Social Proof
• Public Relations (Credibility Public Building)
• E-commerce
• Distribution
• etc…

More on Integrating Your Marketing & Connecting The Dots – Webinar Series

• What is your definition of success?
• Are you giving “it” your all?
• Are you making a true effort?

Listen for the definition of character and reputation… Very powerful points.

More on Great Video On Success : John Wooden

Question for you?

Are you leveraging technology for your maximum benefit?

This one person is acting as a full orchestra.

Tools. Practice. Willingness. Performance. 

How can you use the technology that you have access to…

• keep in touch with more people
• increase your productivity
• communicate better with clients and customers
• be better organized
• promote our products and services
• get better information

These are real situations that there are technology leveraged solutions that do exist.

The real question is: Are we using the resources that we have available to us?

Enjoy…

As I viewed this video in the wee hours of the morning, I was struck by the collaboration and combination that the embrace of technology has spawned within the arts community. Because of the internet and social media technologies, dance moves from one part of the world are easily shared elsewhere. Thus an acceleration of the evolution of dance as we know it.

Moving the art form to levels that we have not seen before. This is spectacular to watch.

This is the true use of technology as it used to create new movement and expression. This is the highest and best use of media.

In this short video I saw:

• value exchange
• emotional response
• years of dedicated practice
• self discipline to perfect a craft

Manipulation of space, time and energy are within the realm of quantum physics but are part of the vocabulary of dance. Amazing and intriguing.

What I also observed was dance styles that are from the 70’s still being practiced and refined and taken to new levels of control and perfection.

Alot of implications here…

Like when was the last time, you got up from your computer and really interacted with people?

Hmmm….

Enjoy.

As we completed the Barack 2.0 project, we had the opportunity to speak with the professors at Wharton School of Business about the data exhaust that is created due to new media platforms and practices.

These are the questions that came out of that discussion:

• What data is required to produce a profit in business?
• What data is worth inspecting?
• You have the data… now what?
• Does it go into a nice report and sit on the shelf?
• Is all of this data collection and measurement meaningless?

It can be meaningless if the data is not useful and pragmatically applicable.

Let’s look at a few concepts that filter out a lot of the noise:

More on Perfect Information: Social Media Strategy and Tactics

When I worked in the robotics industry many years ago, there was this guy named Scott.  He just made me laugh one day because I asked him what his role was and he said, “I am the idea guy.”

Why is this funny and how does this apply now?

While ideas are very important and we have to have them, at some point someone has to take the idea and do something with it. There are millions of ideas available right now in the US patent office. Some of them are good, some are bad and some are just plain crazy but all in all they are ideas.

When I hear someone say that they are an idea guy, I always get a bit worried.  If you are just an idea guy when did you get the practical and pragmatic experience to know when your idea is a good one?

More on Ideation: Scott the Idea Guy