5 simple shifts in perspective that you can take to the bank
I received my first lesson on the fundamentals of economics when sailing down the Mekong Delta in Vietnam at age 22. I was working as a tour leader, accompanying groups through Vietnam and Cambodia. Our local Vietnamese tour guide, who I’d hired to accompany our...
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Our love-hate relationship with social media
In the last nine years that I’ve been teaching social media marketing courses, I’ve seen people get highly emotional. Social media course participants become emotional in a way which doesn’t happen when I teach other digital marketing and business topics. For a while,...
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Creating rapport with strangers through screens
Reaching through a computer or phone screen to pluck the heartstrings of strangers and make them feel as if they know you is no small feat. It’s more than addressing people by [firstname] custom field. It’s more than blogging or sending e-news regularly. It’s not...
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The secret to making real change in your life (that has nothing to do with desire, motivation or willpower)
We know that change is hard. If you’ve ever tried to adopt new habits in business, or started a new business routine which you’ve done enthusiastically for several weeks and then … stopped … what’s wrong? If you’ve made goals and resolutions that you haven't achieved,...
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Behind-the-scenes of how I design my business to fit like a glove
When I began my business more than 10 years ago, I came from PR agency land and custom publishing, so I structured my business the same way. Most people do this. Or, they have a quick glance around at what everyone else appears to be doing, and follow them. At some...
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Why a premium-priced product is key to increasing profits
McDonalds has a lot to answer for, not least of which are their two-dollar burgers. You wouldn’t want to start a small burger restaurant and attempt to match McDonalds’ prices. Yet when starting a small business, that's exactly what so many people do – they look...
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Shame about hustle has to stop
There’s way too much shame amongst business owners about the hustle, and it’s got to stop. We have far too much polarisation and not nearly enough reason in our attitude towards promotion, marketing and sales. Funnily enough, much of the shame about hustle is...
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The vulnerability of visibility
I’ve lost track of the number of women who have confided in me how vulnerable it feels to use the internet to talk about themselves and their businesses. Often these women are in their 40s or 50s, with corporate backgrounds, some with considerable management...
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Planning for profit: how to do a mid-year review
End of financial year and start of a new financial year calls for champagne and cake! Cake all ‘round, with another round of coffees, yes thanks. With or without a company, team, or board to approve these extravagances (all hail to having no board!), it’s time to...
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Zen and the art of coaching
I’ve never been very good at saying good-bye. This made life difficult when I was a tour leader in South-East Asia, where good-byes were part of the job description. Of course, there were many passengers I was happy to see the back of – I’m no saint. But when I’d...
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Marketing hit-list: “I’m proof”
In university, one of my lecturers used to scathingly refer to “evidence by anecdote”. It was the practice of using anecdotes to indicate that something was statistically significant. What she was getting at was that evidence or truth shouldn’t be confused with...
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Time to write a new chapter on selling
In Pulp Fiction, gangster Marcellus Wallace is preparing Bruce Willis’s character Butch to throw his fight. “Pride only hurts, it never helps,” says Wallace to Butch. As it transpires, Butch doesn’t throw the fight, he wins. Seems pride (and cunning) wins after all....
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