Lip-Sticking

Access is the New Currency

Guest post by Lena L. West, Social Media Strategist

The other day I was having a conversation with one of my new Advanced-Level Authentic Influencer clients and she was telling me all about how she had purchased coaching programs from two other VERY well-known Internet marketing specialists. She mentioned that while she liked their systems well enough, the one thing she didn't get was enough one-on-one time with these experts.

Now, partly, she's to blame because if someone is asking me to drop thousands on a coaching program, you had better believe that I'm going to know EXACTLY how much one-on-one time I'm getting, if I know that's what I'm looking for.

But, here's how these Internet marketing experts missed the train:

Are YOU Being Set Up By Your "Mentor/Coach" to Fail?

Guest post by Lena L. West, Social Media Strategist

At first, this might sound elementary. I mean, it's basic common sense, I think; but then again, common sense, isn't all that common.

But, what I've realized is that in the name of empowering women business owners, some coaches, marketing consultants, etc., have been telling women, "Charge whatever you want, people will pay for it. If you're not charging the highest price, then you don't think you're worth it."

Well, that last statement is true if you have the experience and the results -- and you still aren't charging what you're worth, but there's a bumper crop of women business owners who are coming out of these coaching mills programs with a serious disconnect between how much they can charge and what they can do for you.

Case in point, we're in the process of hiring a LOT more Social Media Concierges based on some planned business growth I've alluded to in a previous post, and I recently had a conversation with someone whose rate was $50/hour.

I asked her if she had ever used HootSuite before. She said, no.

I asked her if she was familiar with WordPress. She said, no.

I asked her if she had links to Twitterstreams, Facebook pages, etc. for client projects. She said, no.

I asked her if she had client references to attest to the work she said she could do. She said, no.

At this point, I asked her what she DID have experience with and she said newsletters and scheduling people's calendars.

Ok, so that's not SOCIAL MEDIA.

I tried to explain to her that it was going to be awfully hard for her to charge $50/hour for work she's never performed before and she said that Ms. Popular Mentor Coach told her she could charge just as much as she wants.Wow. You don't say?

Here's the thing: and I don't say this to make anyone feel badly, but if you're still "green", you need to charge "green" rates until you get more experience and anyone who's trying to "empower" you by telling you to "charge whatever you want" is setting you up to fail. Period.

Who the HELL greenlighted this?!

Guest post by Lena L. West, Social Media Strategist

I have been wanting to blog about this for weeks now! Al fin!

Every now and then you see a commercial and you wonder, "Who the HELL greenlighted this?!"

My pick of the litter recently are the Swiffer commercials. The ones that depict women as little pieces of bitter, desperate, easily-swayed dirt who abandon their friends on a whim and are just sitting around waiting for someone to "pick them up". Really? No, really?

I really don't much care that there are other commercials that were released using men in similar roles.

If you haven't seen them, check it out. I don't have much to say except:

1. Who the HELL greenlighted these commercials?!
2. This is EXACTLY why I'll continue to buy the store brand of static wipes. Humph.

and, here's the other "offender":

Do You Have the Marketing "Maturity" to Pass Up Good for Great?

Guest post by Lena L. West, Social Media Strategist

Passing up good for great is a concept that was first introduced to me by Cheryl Richardson in her book, Stand Up for Your Life. If you haven't read this book, take some time to read it. This book was what helped me create boundaries around my life - especially who has access to me and when...but that's another post, for another time (I ALWAYS say that, right?!)

Anywhoooom, I was the afternoon keynote at the MACs Women's Summit on March 26th (if you didn't attend, it was spectacular BTW, and I FINALLY got to meet Shawna Marie - she has such GREAT, CLEAN energy). While I was on stage, someone asked a really good question that I wanted to share with all of you.

Many of you know that I recommend posting to your blog AT LEAST three times a week. Once a week is a newsletter and once a month? Well, that's a magazine.

When I shared my suggestion on blog posting frequency, someone asked, "Can I start with two posts a week and work my way up?"

Something I see all the time that just drives me batty!

Guest post by Lena L. West, Social Media Strategist

In the past few days, I've have seen something similiar happening with women business owners -- and what's the saying...where there's smoke, there's fire?

I"m seeing a trend with women business owners (I'm sure men do this, too, but this is a blog about women for women) who don't have the login information for the websites and other critical marketing or technology accounts.

They think because someone else is "in charge", that they don't have to have the information to log into their own accounts. That's not delegation, that's poor stewardship as a business owner.

I liken this to not having keys to your summer home. Just because you've hired someone else to manage the property, doesn't mean you shouldn't have keys to your OWN house so you can let yourself in and lock other people OUT, if needed.

I see this all the time. This happened to someone I know well with her Twitter account. She's smart as a whip and a seasoned business woman, but the person she had "Tweeting" for her locked her out of her own Twitter account when she had a dispute with him. How EMBARRASSING!

Make sure you have ALL your login information squirreled away in a safe place, that's backed-up and easily accessible to you whether your in front of your computer or on the road. If you have someone working for you, test your logins every so often so you make sure they're still valid. Require that if they change the password on an account, they send you a notification IMMEDIATELY (some services require that you change your passwords every so often upon login so the person can't NOT change the password).

These online accounts are part of your BUSINESS. If you're not doing so already, start treating them as such. When you don't know how to log into your own web service accounts, guess who looks like they don't know what they're doing?

Be Specific

Guest post by Lena L. West, Social Media Strategist

Today, most of us work with people virtually in some capacity.

Either you have a virtual assistant, you have a team-member who lives in a different state or possibly a service provider who lives in a different country.

No matter what the case, all of this requires us to be able to communicate effectively. It simply won't do to have poor communication skills. (That's why we've added some sort of writing skill as a "must have" to almost all of our job descriptions and also why I'll hire a good writer to do anything any day, but that's another post for another time.)

As our "e" communications increase, there are a couple of ways to make sure that your email (and all other digital missives) are read and received the way you intended them to be:

• Don't say "it", "that" or "those". Be specific about what you're referring to. When you write an email and use the word "it", what do you mean by "it"? Is "it" a phone, a location, a hobby? What is "it"? Ditto for any other non-specific pronouns.
• If someone gives you the choice of "blue or red", don't reply with "yes". Tell them specifically which one you're choosing.
• Don't expect someone to remember what you spoke with them about last week or even yesterday. When reaching out, devote a quick sentence or two to a recap and then move on. People are busy and they can't be expected to remember what you're referring to.
• And, along the same lines, don't start an email in the middle of an idea. The person you're sending it to is probably engrossed in their own work and it will take them time and energy to figure out what you're talking about and most times they have to come back to you with a bunch of questions to get to the bottom of what you're trying to say. Avoid all that by being clear in the first place.
• Don't send three emails when one can do. It shows you're unfocused and it's egotistical. What you're really saying is, "I expect you to work to figure out what I'm saying here. You put the puzzle pieces together because goodness knows you don't have anything better to do." Well, maybe not all that, but you get my drift. Don't clog up someone's inbox because you want to respond to questions one at a time. If you find it hard to focus (and some people do), work with a coach to help you with that because real business people won't tolerate it for long.
• Ditto for typos. No one is perfect, for sure (heck, for all I know there's a typo in this blog post), but read what you wrote, do a spell check and see if you can understand what you yourself wrote! At least make the effort.
• Use timezones and times of day. We have them for a reason. Not everyone is in your timezone and furthermore many people don't know where you are. 8:00 am or pm??? EST or PST?

All of these things might sound really simple, but I can't tell you how many times I've had to reply to someone and ask them, "what do you mean?" or "do you mean X or Y?" or "is this Eastern or Central?"

Everyone is always riffing about how they don't have time and the truth is if people were to pay more attention to their writing, they wouldn't have to go back and explain themselves over and over -- wasting even more time.

How to Turn Haterade into Rocket Fuel

Guest post by Lena L. West, Social Media Strategist

I am about to launch a huge program unlike anything I've launched before. I'm skeered as hell.

Now, you might think that someone with 14 years of business experience tagging behind me might be ashamed to admit something like that publicly. Nope.

Anyone who tells you they are fearless is a liar, a sociopath or the Dalai Lama (and he probably gets skeered, too!).

People who "feel the fear and and do it anyway", do fear less, but we aren't fearless -- not by a long shot.

I used to be absolutely FROZEN by fear. For YEARS it stopped me cold in my tracks. Thankfully, I've always been able to make a good living, because if not, there would have been trouble. I wasn't innovating or IMPLEMENTING big (I've always been a big thinker). I was just doing the bare minimum until one day I ended ALL THAT.

I ended it by thinking like my haters. Say what??

If you're anything like me, you cannot sit right in your skin if someone tells you that you can't do something. If someone doubts you or tries to throw the least bit of shade on your game, you're Jane-on-the-spot. You're like my dog when it's snowing out -- you dig your heels in at the door and refuse to be moved. In the words of Jay-Z, you become, "fully focused, man."

I've learned to transform this negative energy to work for me.

Here's the thing, this tactic probably wont work for you if your feelings are easily hurt or you have not learned how to proctect your personal energy field. If you've got these things going on, learn what you need to learn before you try this tactic.

So, here's what I do. I either work with a partner...someone I know who can hold space for me and who, at their core, has my best interests at heart or I work with a mirror.

I say all the things I imagine my haters saying. Not all the mean, rude, idiotic stuff (that stuff is just dumb), but the more insidious junk, like:

• "Who do you think you are?"
• "I can't believe you went the 'long sales letter' route!"
• "What a sell out. I thought you were REAL!"
• "I already know all this stuff. This is not news. Tell me something I don't know!"

These are just some of the statements my clients provide when I'm taking them through, what I call "the Hatercise". You probably have your own, so use them instead. If you're at a loss for ideas, start with these until you get the hang of it.

Essentially, I role play with myself. I say all the things I think my haters are saying and I counter them one by one with exactly what I would say if someone said those things to my face (the counter statements I say while looking in the mirror). Hearing those negative things makes me want to prove to that "other person" that they don't know what I'm capable of at all. In fact, hold on a second, let me give you just a taste of what I'm about to do...

Those negative statements...I diffuse them. I want to prove that other person wrong so badly, I start taking all kinds of action. I raise my Hater Blockers and only accept calls and emails from people who mean business -- everyone else talks to my team. I zone in and get dead-ass clear about what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. I remind myself that somewhere there is a woman who is totally stuck when it comes to social media marketing and either I'm going to reach out in a BIG way or she's going to sit there and wonder why no one will help her. I draw my focus on my target like an owl.

Many people might say that this is focusing too much on negativity or giving haters too much play in my mind. But, you and I both know that there are times when you can only hear the haters. There are times when you're too scared to move. There are times when you wish you were someplace else doing anything else. So, while I might feed into the haterade a little bit, I flip it to make it work for me. It doesn't happen often, but when I'm petrified, this REALLY gets me going. Call me crazy, but the Hatercise hasn't failed me yet.

Are you scared stiff? Instead of beating yourself up about it, "listen" to what your haters are saying and come back with your own STRONG replies. The more you "show up" for this exercise, the more powerful it is. Be willing to be surprised.

Could You Be Rushing the Sale?

Guest post by Lena L. West, Social Media Strategist

How you're treated BEFORE you spend your money...is a damn good indicator of how you'll be treated AFTER you give someone your hard-earned cash.

Recently, I reached out to someone who I believed provided a service that I will need in a few months. Being the over-achiever that I am (this is NOT always a good thing, BTW), I reached out to this person, let's call her "Heather", in an attempt to lay the ground work for when I need to actually start working with her.

I read her website, looked at her materials and left her a voice mail letting her know that I had some questions to ask her before I engaged her firm. I asked her to call me.

Five days later, she returned my call and didn't even mention the communication lapse. Oh, I forgot to mention that "Heather" and I have many, many colleagues in common. I know her and she knows me; it wasn't like I was some stranger calling her (it actually would have been worse if I were a stranger!).

She left me a voice mail and asked me to call her. Which I did, less than two hours later, and I couldn't get through to her. After 45 minutes of trying to get through, I sent her an email thinking that maybe something was wrong with her phone. She responded to my email by sending me a form that asked some questions that was clearlly labelled, "Request for Services". Wait, when did I request a service? What did I miss?

It was clear that I was being forced through some sort of "sales funnel". I felt like I was being sold and I wasn't given a chance to be HEARD yet.

Listen, I'm all for being focused on process, but remember, people do business with PEOPLE, not processes and if a potential client feels like they're being sold before they get a chance to ask a question -- even if it's answered by someone on your team -- they are probably going to bail. People NEED to feel heard (see Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs), not SOLD.

And, it can happen to the best of us, right? We're following the advice of an "expert" and they recommend an approach that is so process-driven that it takes the LIFE out of the sales process - it robotizes it and by so doing tries to plunk square pegs into round holes.

So, here I am, someone with intent and money to pay for "Heather's" services...and now I'm turned off and don't really want to work with her.

Here's the take-away: All of this is marketing. How you treat someone before you get their money is a good indicator that you won't serve them any better post-sale. If you do a gut check and find yourself rushing the sale, take the time to ask youself these questions:

• Why am I rushing the sale?
• Do I feel nervous about the sale? Does selling make me feel badly in some way?
• Am I relying too much on process and not enough on the "me" that people are truly buying?
• What are the indicators that I can look for that will tell me when I'm rushing the sale?
• When these indicators "show up", how can I level off and stop rushing?

If you are rushing the sale, remember, it's OK. You're not a bad person. Be patient with yourself and be willing to "go there" and ask yourself some questions. It could be that you don't like sales or sales put you in a different frame of mind. My point in writing this post is to ask you to get to the bottom of it because if your sales process is turning people off, well, then that kinda defeats the purpose, yah?

Email Marketing: Social Media's Red-Headed Stepchild?

Guest post by Lena L. West, Social Media Strategist

  (Apologies to all the red-headed step children out there. Although I am not red-headed, I am a step child, so it's all good.)

I've been a fan of Tory Johnson's for some time now. Actually, ever since I stood out in the freezing cold  to be one of the first people into her Women for Hire event in NYC (back when I was still listening to my parents pleas that I get a "real" job). I thought to myself then, as I do now, "Who the heck IS this woman to have this much centripetal force that makes NYC women even THINK about arriving early and waiting in the cold in heels?" (Not in a who-does-she-think-she-is kinda way, but in a I-want-whatever-she's-selling-in-fact-I'll-take-two kinda way.) 

Over the years, our paths have crossed, but we've never actually worked together. Well, they say 2011 is the year of massive changes and shifts and "they" might be right.

Funny thing...he he...

Some time last week, I came across information about Tory's Spark & Hustle conference somewhere on the interwebs. I looked at it and thought, "That Tory's up to great things as always. She rocks," and I didn't give it a second thought, until... two days later a colleague sent me a link to the conference, and then I thought, "Hmmm...Tory's everywhere..she's getting her hustle on (pun intended). It'd be nice to be a part of that conference series." But, due to my own abundant schedule, I didn't reach out, but I won't lie...my non-busy mind, was thinking about the possible angles.

I "happened" to see the logo for the conference the next day (again in passing on the web) and then later that same say, someone from Tory's camp reached out and asked me if I would speak at the conference and two or three days of detail-ironing later, I'm speaking in LA on Feb 5th and in NY in March. Wanna guess what I'm speaking about?

If you guessed social media, you'd be wrong, wrong, wrong :)

My presentation is about email marketing. Yes, email marketing. Ever since social media gained popularity, email marketing has, to some, become the acne-ridden teen at the lunchtable in high school, the forgotten sweater from last year's school shopping spree, the corner of the pie crust we don't dare eat because we have to leave SOMETHING on the plate.

As I travel around the country speaking and doing in-person, one-on-ones with my private consulting clients, people invariably ask me, "Now that I'm using [insert the name of the latest social media hotness here], do I have to keep building my email list and sending my ezine?"

The answer is HELL yes, in fact, continuing to send your email newsletter gives you yet another notch on your social media success belt. Why? Well, I'm going to go into a lot of that at the S&H conference, but the crux is this:

Proximity.

You're going to be hearing a LOT about this topic from me this year and the concept of proximity (and it's cousins influence and authenticity) is at the heart of a HUGE program I'm launching next month. (I'm all nervous 'n excited 'n stuff!)

Here's what: email marketing allows your company to create a proximity with your potential clients/customers that most social media efforts could not and cannot achieve. Mmm hmm, I said it. Social media is AWESOME, but it's not the holy grail, it's not the key to the pyramids. Influence is, but more on that later...

While at S&H, I'm going to be sharing a real case study of an invitation-only, HOT, woman-led start up. Not a company with 15,000 people on their mailing list, but a company that has a little over 200 people on their list. They're a client and we are taking them through the Internet marketing ropes right now and you'll get to see what's happening behind closed doors and how my company is building their email marketing from the ground up.

Wanna know who the client is? Come to LA or NY.  Holla at me if you're in the house. I want to be able to personally welcome my Lipsticking peeps.

Oh, and bring your smelling salts...there WILL be "Oprah-ish" surprises at BOTH locations. See you there! ;-)

 

The Humility of Sacrifice

Guest post by Lena L. West, Social Media Strategist

You may know intellectually that you cannot have everything you want. I think, to some degree, we all do. But, it's another thing altogether to know on a cellular level that sacrifice is part and parcel of running a successful, growing business.

Now, I don't mean sacrifice in that you:

• work with clients who are not ideal
• accept sub-standard work from your team
• charge less for your services

No, I don't mean sacrifice in the damn-do-I-have-to-short-change-myself-again?? sense of the word. I mean it's important that we, as entrepreneurs, get an opportunity to regularly practice the humility of making a scarifice in our lives -- personal and professional.

There is no honor in being inflexible. There is no gain in being unyielding.

When my father retired, he was a well-known union executive and is revered as possibly one of the best union negotiators. He was tough when he had to be, but was always fair. He always told me that in order for a negotiation to be a good negotiation, everyone must sacrifice something. Everyone.

Sometimes we negotiate with ourselves. We know we need to put the business to the side and get a 9-5 job (for a little while) so we can make ends meet, but we don't because our pride won't let us. Pride is the ultimate stiffener. The business we've built doesn't have the right business model and instead of changing, we hold on to what doesn't work. We're rigid. We didn't anticipate this marketing plan being so tough to execute and instead of going balls-to-the-wall and getting it done, we quit under the guise that "marketing doesn't work".

When we come from a posture of humility, we are an open vessel waiting to be used for good. Open to see things in a new way, because we don't think we know it all. When we are open, more opportunities flow to us because we have not adopted the posture of being closed. When we are open, clients want to work with us because we can put our egos aside and do what's best for them and their situation with the knowledge that when we do what's truly best for our ideal clients, we're ultimately doing what's best for our business, too.

Being willing to forego something sends a subtle message to the Universe, to others and to yourself that you don't feel you have to have everything you want. Things need not go your way 100% of the time for you to be content and fulfilled.

My mentor of 15 years, always says the same thing to me when I come to him for advice: "Are you willing to walk away?" He doesn't mean am I willing to pack up my toys and go home and never play with the other party again, just am I willing to sacrifice this opportunity...am I willing to let it go. The minute I tell him I'm willing to make the sacrifice, then he can help me craft an approach wherein I feel good no matter the outcome. But, on the off chance that I'm too close and I'm unwilling to walk away, there's not much room for him to help me, because I'm holding on too tightly.

If you're willing to be honest, there is something right now in your business of which you need to let go. It's not something you WANT to release, but it's something that needs to go so that something else that you really want to happen will happen.

Oprah said it best: "You can have it all. Just not all at the same time."

Will you sacrifice today?