Surely this is somebody's fault!!
when things aren't going my way, it's somebody else's fault, right?
In today's edition of Burke's Bits:
Who else can you blame?
Copy Tip
Social Selling Tip
From the Research Files
Pun of the Day
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It's the economy!
No one has money to spend!
My team is a mess!
If only I had a degree!
When I hear entrepreneurs complain about their business, they blame everything and everyone else - they rarely talk about their own efforts.
Instead of helping them do more, I ask them to do less.
I swear to the coffee fairies, we're great at adding to our to-do list and terrible at eliminating items off our lists.
We're good at starting projects and bad at stopping pointless tasks.
I've got 5 things I want to share with you. 5 things you should stop doing - today.
They'll turn your business around faster.
1. Stop - Making Excuses
Commit to 5 days without blaming anyone or anything. Then, on Day 6, blame everything bad on someone else. Don't take responsibility for anything on that 6th day. Resign from being an adult and live as carelessly as possible. On the 7th day, take a look at which one you prefer - assuming responsibility or putting it off on someone else?
2. Stop - Lowering Your Expectation
Why is business bad? Do you think your prices are too high - so you think, just this one time, you should lower your prices? Do you need a helper and find yourself saying you're willing to hire someone with great skills, even though you can't trust them? If you make exceptions, where do you draw the line?
If you think lowering your expectations will make your life or your business better, do it. BUT, if you do this you can't blame others for the outcome. People don't fail because they have high expectations, they fail to reach high expectations because they're too busy meeting their low expectations.
3. Stop - Overreacting
Panic and success don't work well together. When things are going badly, you need to pivot and evolve. Do not overreact. Communicate with your team and your customers. If you panic, your team will panic. Customers sense panic as desperation and people do not do business with desperate people.
4. Stop - Skipping Sleep
It's an amazing thing, really. When people feel overwhelmed, they sacrifice their sleep. For some reason, they think that skipping sleep is the fastest way to succeed. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Science has proven that when entrepreneurs sleep less, they make more mistakes. When youre struggling, take care of yourself and self-care starts with a good night's sleep.
5. Stop - Stop Talking to Others
A few years ago I found myself struggling with business challenges. I called a life coach friend of mine and said “Let’s meet up and talk.” We met, and we talked for 4 hours. For the first 3 hours, we didn't mention the word business, sales, or marketing. We talked about life. In the last hour we talked about business. My friend allowed me to reconnect.
I had been feeling isolated and forgot how important it is to feel like I'm part of a community. A few hours after our meeting, I sent that life coach friend of mine a text that said, “I regrouped and I can see the future better now.”
Slow down, stop doing pointless things, assume responsibility, take care of yourself, regroup, and continue to move forward.
Keep your expectations intact, make decisions according to your plan.
Call on outside help as fast as possible.
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Copy Tip
I follow three "Golden Rules" when writing copy for myself and for clients:
Golden Rule #1
Lie down with dogs and you'll get up with fleas:
Never agree to partner with or promote products sold by people you know to be less than honest.
Golden Rule #2
Never promote products you suspect could be defective or dangerous:
Avoid things you wouldn't want your mom or dad, your significant other, or your kids or grandkids paying for and using.
Golden Rule #3
Never, ever lie:
Say only what you are convinced is true –
and have substantiation to back it up.
The above were written by Clayton Makepeace, a very successful copywriter and owner/writer on the website makepeacetotalpackage.com no longer in operation. I came across the site many years ago and learned how to manage clients and business through his articles. He passed away March 24, 2020.
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Social Selling Tip
Posting in Social Media Groups
I was scrolling through a comment when I saw someone ask "how do I find a passive candidate on social media?"
I responded with a comment that included a basic boolean search string they could use on Google and get a couple of pages of candidates that fit their needs.
I suddenly realized I was in the perfect social media group to sell my candidate sourcing services.
Where was I?
Not Facebook ☺️ Facebook groups weren't a 'thing' because this was in 2008. I was in the community section of a website for recruiters aka a "sourcing forum". Today I still use groups and forums that are attached to a niche website.
You can do this, too.
Look for and join associations and niche-specific websites where your ideal clients are. For example, if you write copy for the medical industry, you'll want to search for forums...
When you find the forums where your ideal clients are hanging out, join. Look through discussion threads. Find opportunities to answer questions, offer resources, participate.
Not only are these great places to get the attention of your ideal client, I hope you can see they're great places to do VOC research for copy you write for yourself on your website, blog, your articles on various sites, and more.
To summarize:
Find 3-5 quality groups where your ideal clients would hang out. Remember, it’s not where you want to hang out but where your clients want to hang out.
Post your own original content. Make sure this content is valuable and helpful. If we go back to the weight loss example, maybe you could write a post about the fat loss benefits of weight training.
Interact genuinely with everyone who comments on your posts. Always be helpful and inject your personality into your comments and posts.
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From the Research Files
aka random bits of info you may or may not be able to use in your life
A true two-sided mirror (also called a one way mirror) that allows light through one way, but no light through the other, is not possible. It violates the second law of thermodynamics.
Let’s say you had a hot object on the blocking side and a cold object on the transmitting side. In this case, radiant energy would be traveling from cold to hot, while energy on the hot side would simply be reflected back into the hot side; so the net effect would be the heating of the hot side from the cold side without adding any energy to do so, thus violating the second law of thermodynamics.
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Pun of the Day
If a Wizard uses magic to hold up a camera and take a picture of himself,
is that a Spellfie?
With Gratitude,
Charlene Burke
Let's Connect
“Let us not forget that human knowledge and skills alone cannot lead humanity to a happy and dignified life.” ~ Einstein