And now it's time to introduce yourself .... eeeeeek!

We have all heard that the thing that most people are afraid of is speaking in public. I can attest to that. I have seen grown men come near tears when asked to give a brief presentation in front of their peers. These are the same men who tell jokes with wreckless abandon and have the entire office in stitches. There is just something about being serious and having to stand up in front of everyone that makes most adults feel faint.

As business owners or managers it's not the 30 minute presentation that comes our way most often. It is our 30-60 second introduction of ourselves at organizational meetings that get the best of us.

I thought it might help to share my 'How to give your 60 second marketing message' with you. Here it is.

How To Do Your 60 Second Marketing Message

1) Stand up, smile, speak clearly & do not rush

Always stand up. It makes it easier for people in the back or to the side of the room to see who is speaking. Speak clearly, don't mumble and for goodness sake --- don't rush! The rule of thumb should be if you rush then you have to do it all over again.

2) Introduce yourself & company

Say your name and the name of your company --- clearly, and get some volume going and keep smiling

3) Tell who you help (who needs you) & what you do to help them (to) & how you do it (by)

WHO: This is very important. Your target market, the people who purchase your product or your service -- in essence, the people who keep you in business are the people who NEED you -- who are they? You want to make sure that you tell your listeners who these people are just in case they are one of them or may know someone who is one of them.

TO: Next, you need to say what you do for them. They don't care what you do - they need to know what you do for them. Do you make them healthier, save them money, get them more customers, make them prettier? What is it that you do FOR them?

BY: And last, but not least. Tell your listeners how you do it. Start out with the word BY and follow it with a brief process.

4) Invite those who (or know someone who) needs you to contact you

You can start out with the words: "So if you are ___________ (this is the people who need you) please contact me to find our how I can _____________ (what you do for them).

5) Reintroduce yourself & company

Smile, say your name clearly and then the name of your company clearly

6) Quote your tag line, smile and take a seat

Tag line? You do have a catchy tag line right? If not, start working on one right now that tells people what you do or how you do it or why they need you. Something that will cause them to remember your message.

Smile, smile, smile. You are almost done. Finish talking before you start to sit. Then sit.

When you are finished - DO NOT lean over to the person next to you and say, 'Oh my God, I thought I was going to faint." Stay seated and act like you do this all the time and each time you get better and better.

That's it. Do you need an Elevator Speech (15 seconds)? Replace 4-6 with a memorable website
address or hand them your professional business card.

Please make sure that you have your business card on your ALL the time. You are marketing all the time, right? Also, take a look at your business card. What is it saying about you?

That's a blog for another day. Practice your Marketing Message in th mirror at least five times today. It wouldn't hurt to practice it all the time.

Smile and Tell the World why they should do business with you!

Being Brave

“Courage is not the absence of fear but the judgment that something else is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever but the cautious do not live at all. For now you are traveling the road between who you think you are and who you can be.” Meg Cabot

I wake up every morning like thousands of other people in our county, look in my bathroom mirror, take a deep breath and resolve to be brave.

My act of everyday bravery isn’t about rushing into a burning building to save a life. It isn’t about placing myself in harms way for a citizen. It isn’t even about fighting off someone who is a potential threat to my loved ones. My act is a smaller act of bravery; but like those thousands of others who join me; my act is that I go beyond my comfort zone each and every day. I push myself to do something I am either uncomfortable with or not particularly wanting to do. I do something that scares me. I face my fear and that fear is being the ‘me’ that I was born to be.

“That’s not frightening,” you say. “What’s so fearful about being yourself?”

Well, if you believe, as I and many others believe, that you have a great destiny in this lifetime, that you were created for greatness and that you will never truly know your purpose in life until you reach that destiny; then you understand the ‘bravery’ that it takes each morning. Most of us have to be brave because we find ourselves seemingly ill equipped for this mission and that the faith that we are here for a purpose is our only weapon.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1

My ‘fear of failure’, in this mission to reach my full potential, drives me to get out of bed on mornings when the rain is drizzling against my window pane, the sky is gray, the weather is cold, I am feeling weak and exhausted and I would like nothing more than to stay in bed with a good book and a hot cup of tea. It drives me to go help one more person, smile at one more passerby, go to one more meeting and shake one more hand.

You see, we ‘brave ones’ hear little voices in our heads that try to turn us back from our appointed missions. Those voices try to remind us that we have too much or not enough looks, brains, money, degrees, kids, spouses, friends, reputation, experience, health, energy, time or control.

We hear those voices and keep on going. We face our fears and do it anyway. Why? Because there is a stronger voice that nudges us towards our goals of being good providers, great parents, better spouses, mentoring bosses, loyal friends, successful business owners and the people we were born to be.

They do not give medals for this everyday type of bravery. There is nothing that someone can pin upon your chest or bestow upon you that pronounces that you bravely faced each day not knowing what would be ahead and yet you did it with a prayer and a smile. The only reward you may ever get for facing your fears and reaching your full potential are the final words, ”She made a difference.”

Go out and ‘Make A Difference’.

Monday Morning Meditation

As a small business owner do you ever wonder why some of us are really successful and some of us are barely making it. Can I let you in on a little secret? Most of us are hanging by a thread.

Yes, most of us look successful on the outside but in reality we are one payment away from defaulting on the lease of our copier machine. Why is that? It's because most of us are doing everything ourselves, including trying to manage our money and keep up appearances. That's another topic for another day.

We go to chamber functions and give away door prizes that we can't afford to give away. We pick up the check for luncheons for possible clients or friends throwing down a credit card all the while praying that we don't go over our limit. We smile and tell everyone that we own our own business. On the outside we look successful but on the inside we wake up sweating in the middle of the night remembering something we should have done or worse yet, paid.

WHY do we do this? Because owning your own business is the American dream. It is our dream. There are far more cons than pros in owning your own business but the pros outweigh the cons. What? That doesn't make sense to you? Sure it does; if you really look at it.

Do this right now. Take a blank sheet of paper. Draw a large 'T on it. On the top left side of the T write pros. On the top right side of the T write cons. Then start filling in the space underneath both regarding owning your own business. On the cons side you might write 'haven't had a vacation in five years'. On the pros side you might have 'get to take 30 minutes when my kids come home from school to ask them about their day'. Thirty minutes a day with your kids far outweighs a one week vacation in the Bahamas in the long run. To you and to them.

You should do this once every quarter just to make sure that you are in business for the right reasons. If ever the cons start outweighing (not out-numbering but outweighing) the pros then you have to take a serious look at going back into the workforce and possibly working for someone else. If just the thought of that makes you cringe then keep looking for those pros.

Small Business Marketing Coach Tip: The best way to help you realize why you do what you do is to collect testimonials from your satisfied clients. Ask them to write down why they do business with you and why they continue to come back to you for your products and/or services. Share those with others through your marketing materials and your website. Read those testimonials on those days when you think working for yourself isn't everything you thought it was going to be and smile.

Be proud that you are living the American Dream. Congratulations! You are a business owner.