By Posted in 3 Journeys of Marketing.

Review: The Synergist by Les McKeown

I need to start with a disclaimer. If it weren’t against my religion, I would worship Les Mckeown and the wisdom he carries about start ups and business. And he should, after being involved with 42 start-ups, and having worked with uncounted other businesses in all stages of development.

I read his first book, Predictable Success, with great enthusiasm, only to end up thumping myself in the forehead repeatedly as I recognized mistake after mistake I had made. What a gift of clarity!

I was then lucky enough to strike up a friendship with Les through Twitter and then on the phone, after which I had the great good fortune to meet him in person at a Predictable Success workshop he gave in Seattle, Washington.

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By Posted in 3 Journeys of Marketing.

Stop Doing “Internet” Marketing

When my grandfather died a month shy of his 99th birthday, The Washington Post ran advertising in his obituary. That’s because some of the ads he created for the family retail store were bold and controversial, and they memorialized him with a few of them. He had blazed a path forward based on his convictions.

Years later I found myself coaching my parents who were then running the store. My father was spending six figures a year advertising every week in the newspaper, and that’s how customers came in.

Instead, I suggested that he start an email newsletter, and he did. Nearly every customer who came in the store wrote down an email address and it wasn’t long before his list topped 10,000 people. Eventually he stopped advertising, and that email list was pretty much the only external marketing the store did.

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By Posted in 3 Journeys of Marketing.

How to Avoid Overmarketing The Wrong People

Every year around this time the mail gets heavier and more challenging to bring in. You know what I’m talking about.

Catalogs.

Just because we bought something from a New England clothing retailer a few times, doesn’t mean we want to see a catalog every week between Thanksgiving and December 26. I like hearing from those perfectly-coiffed New Englanders, it just gets to be a little much around end-of-year holidays.

When we talk to clients about running email campaigns for their offers, the same reaction comes up in them: they don’t want to be throwing unwanted catalogs at their readers.

This is a justifiable concern. Yet if you hold back from sending out emails, you don’t see the results come in.

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By Posted in 3 Journeys of Marketing.

5 Ways To Scale Without Scaling

This is a guest post by Chris Johnson, co-founder of Simplifilm.com. Chris’s company makes clear, short, effective videos to explain what can be complicated products. They have seen stunning success and meteoric growth over the last year and a half.

They are on track to having an incredibly busy, overflowing 2012, and yet he keeps his company very small by being extremely focused and productive. He shared this productivity tip with me over tea recently in Portland, and I wanted him to share it with you all. So here it is.

My company is growing fast right now. I’m immeasurably proud of the success we’ve had and the high profile accounts we’ve won (like Envato). At any given time we have 3-8 film pieces starting and we’re increasing that number gradually each month.

We’re doing this without adding staff.

When Mark and I met for tea in Portland a couple months ago, we talked about some of the ways that I learned to “scale without scaling.” We have to be ridiculously efficient–without coming off as rude or “too busy” for our clients. Mark was interested and so he asked me to write this up.

Out of financial necessity, we’ve had to learn some productivity techniques that have allowed our 2 person team to output more volume (and quality) than most (or all ;-) of our competing companies – even some that have 10 people. (more…)


By Posted in 3 Journeys of Marketing.

The Do No Financial Harm Round-Up

Two posts from me, five guest posts, and over 230 comments later, not to mention the folks inspired enough to take the conversation to their own blogs, apparently this topic is something you care about.

Here’s the round-up.

First I posted Is It Possible to Do Financial Harm to a Client?, with 150 comments. The comments really brought the topic alive in amazing way. Some very deep insights.

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By Posted in 3 Journeys of Marketing.

The Do No Financial Harm Pledge

This pledge came out of a conversation that started here, continued here and here.

As an ethical, heart-centered, business owner, I commit myself and anyone else on my team to the following principles:

 

1. To care for my clients’ financial well-being, which includes:

  • When interviewing potential clients, asking them both about their ability to pay and their ability to receive benefit from the product or service, in a compassionate manner that supports them in thinking responsibly about their financial situation.
  • For significant purchases my discount and other deadlines are set to allow for both a cooling-off period and the ability for the potential client to discuss the purchase with others.
  • If through the client interview above I find that purchasing would critically impair the potential client’s ability to feed, clothe or house themselves or their family, I will recommend more affordable alternatives.

2. To care for my business’ financial well-being, which includes:

  • Charging prices that allow the business to be profitable and allow those who work for the business, including myself as the owner, to be receive comfortable compensation.
  • Cheerfully and humbly accepting payment from those who have the ability and willingness to pay prices that allow for profitability.
  • Once having interviewed a client and given them the time to reflect, discuss and make their own decision, I trust their ability to make that decision.

3. To care for the financial well-being of my industry, which includes:

  • Taking a stand for Do No Financial Harm, which means being a voice for these principles where appropriate.
  • To not endorse, privately or in public, explicitly or implicitly, businesses that I believe are using unethical tactics to sell, no matter my opinion of their actual product or service.

What’s Next?

If you agree with this, I recommend two things.

1. Commit to it, communicate it to anyone who may be on your team, and, where appropriate, educate your clients and colleagues about it.

2. If you want, make the Do No Financial Harm badge visible on your site. Here’s code for it, including a link back to this page with the explanations.

<a href=”http://www.heartofbusiness.com/the-do-no-financial-harm-pledge“><img title=”do-no-financial-harm” src=”http://www.heartofbusiness.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/financial-harm.jpg” width=”155″ height=”142″ /></a> 

3. Sign on below, with your name, and a link to your business’ web site.


By Posted in Sacred Selling.

Compassion In All Directions

This is a guest post by Andrea J. Lee in the Do No Financial Harm series. Andrea is a leader at the intersection of coaching and small business. She’s contributed to numerous coaching associations and organizations, both public and private, since 2001, and plays an active role in shaping the programs of other coaching leaders internationally. Her coaching mentorship company and more about her is at available at www.WealthyThoughtLeader.com.  

Yes, we can do harm – not just financial, but spiritual, karmic, emotional harm. And the ultimate in physical harm – James A Ray just received his 2 year prison sentence for the death of 3 people….

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By Posted in Sacred Selling.

Why I Won’t Take the “Do No Financial Harm” Pledge

This is a guest post by Grace Judson in response to the Do No Financial Harm topic. Grace creates content that connects for her clients, helping them develop powerful messages by understanding their clients’ experiences and the language they use to describe that experience.  Her most recent offering is a free e-course called 12 Ways to Quickly Stand Out from the Crowd and Attract More Clients More Easily  She’s happy to admit that she tweaked the title multiple times to be as appealing as possible to her target market!

“Do no financial harm.”  It sounds like something any reasonable person should stand behind.  And reading Mark’s draft pledge – what’s not to love?  It’s ethical, honest, and authentic. I’m grateful to Mark for bringing up the issue; it’s important.

But something bothered me about the idea of a pledge from the moment I read about it in the comments on the first post.  Thinking and feeling my way through my reasons kept me awake late that night, and woke me up at three the next morning. (more…)


By Posted in 3 Journeys of Marketing.

Is It Possible to Do Intestinal Harm?

Pace SmithThis is a guest post from Pace Smith, the co-leader of the Connection Revolution. Pace teaches idealists how to change the world through connection. She speaks, writes, and teaches workshops to foster understanding, healing, empowerment, authentic communication, and personal growth. She’s happily married to Kyeli, her partner in life and in business. She loves to play Dance Dance Revolution and carries a spare spleen with her everywhere she goes.

“Yes or yes?” asked the man on the TV.

My friend Jessica (not her real name) got off the couch and stood up. “Yes!” she shouted back enthusiastically.

“Is she seriously talking to the TV?” I thought to myself, worried.

You see, Jessica and I were in the middle of watching T. Harv Eker’s Millionaire Mind DVD that she had brought over to share with me. She had just spent the cost of a new car on his latest coaching program, and couldn’t stop singing his praises. (more…)


By Posted in 3 Journeys of Marketing.

What Does a Do No Financial Harm Pledge Look Like?

Last week I was amazed by the over 100 comments we received about Is It Possible to Do Financial Harm to a Client?

There have been a number of other contributors to the conversation as well, including guest posts by Kate Svoboda and Adam King. With more guest posts coming.

When I was a paramedic, I took a pledge, an oath really, to “Do no harm.” This accepted the reality that sometimes, as a helper, the person in need was beyond my help, but that I would at least not do any harm.

This was an inspiring, humbling oath to take. And it’s a concept that I think translates into business extremely well. But it needs to take into account two (three) aspects.

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