Category Archives: Uncategorized

Coaching


Posted by Amy Diederich

Recently when working with a client organization I had a chance to read a case study provided by the Marketing Leadership Roundtable. The company profiled was a Financial Services organization. The case study discussed common “coaching resistant”.

They found leaders may resist coaching when benefit aren’t clarified or when coaching is misunderstood as separate from day-to-day activities.
Additionally leaders may not perceive coaching as necessary to advancement in organizations without a history of coaching.

Finally they found leaders may not know how to coach, thereby confusing coaching with other managerial tasks and missing true coaching opportunities.

To address these types of resistance the company took the time to build a roadmap of how to coach employees based on job function. What a great call to action for all those who are coaching. Taking time to apply the coaching process and tailoring it to the role you are trying to coach.

In addition to the great advice on Coaching introduction to great resource like the Marketing Leadership Roundtable (www.marketingleadershiproundtable.com) is invaluable. This site is a great resource to find best practice information.


While on the subject of Feedback


Posted by Amy Diederich

My sister has these words hanging on her wall:
If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn.
If a child lives with ridicule, she learns to be shy.
If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight.
If a child lives with shame, she learns to feel guilty.
If a child lives with tolerance, he learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement, she learns confidence.
If a child lives with praise, he learns appreciation.
If a child lives with fairness, she learns justice.
If a child lives with security, he learns to have faith.
If a child lives with approval, she learns to like herself.
If children live with acceptance and friendship, they learn to find
love in the world.
—Dorothy Law Nolte
I often find myself reflecting on these words in parenting. Lately I find that I reflect on these words for more than just my kids but also in all aspects of how I live my life. I was reminded today to Thank People! What a great reminder. I am also reminded to praise people to help them live in appreciation. Who are you appreciating today?


A BIG LESSON


Posted by Amy Diederich

A Live BIG Lesson

Yesterday was a very bad day. It was one of those days where everything went wrong. I was late for a meeting. I conducted a training session that did not go well. My kids were home sick and I had to work. I am ashamed to say I took my bad day out on everyone. I snapped at several people I care about, yelled at the kids and the dog!

My worse offense came at the end of the day. I received a complimentary email from a colleague. Instead of thanking them for the nice note I sent them a negative email. I went up the ladder of inference and inferred negative meaning in their compliment! What a boneheaded mistake!
My behavior was very contrary to the “Get Your BIG On” philosophy! My personal mission is to make a positive difference every day by giving BIG.

So where is the lesson? It came today. I woke up and had what I term as a “bad mood hangover”. Like the movie Hangover I woke to a foggy recollection of all the havoc I created from the day before. I started my day apologizing to the kids and giving the dog a bone. I went on to apologize to everyone I snapped at.

Today I didn’t give BIG but I received BIG!

The last person I apologized too was the colleague who had sent the well-meaning email to compliment me on some work I had done. I explained to her in great detail what led up to my incorrect inferences and how I really did appreciate her recognition. She very graciously listened and let me leave the conversation with my self-esteem intact. She was definitely the bigger person.

This kind of BIG has nothing to do with size and everything to do with heart. She with meaning and with caring listened. She did not accuse, blame, yell, but just graciously accepted my apology. Her gracious acceptance of my apology made BIG difference.

Achieving this level of personal grace requires getting your BIG on. Grabbing big, bold, brave thinking and opening the door to not only living your best life, full of confidence and courage but also helping others live their life to the fullest.

The “Get Your BIG On” lesson? Follow my friend and colleagues example and when someone calls me admitting they are wrong and behaved badly, I hope I have the personal grace to allow them to leave feeling big.


Innovative Entrepreneur Greg Sanchez


Posted by Amy Diederich

Meet Greg Sanchez, Founder of bConcerned.com, a free dating safety tool that monitors your safe return home! I am always amazed at how the internet has created so many new business ideas. Greg’s site is both a product of how dating has changed the internet as well as being an internet-based business.

Raped, stalked, scammed and death are some unfortunate stories associated with online dating. With the increase of mobile devices and fast internet speeds, online dating has become extremely popular and convenient for busy singles, students and professionals. With the vast amount of dating websites to choose from, finding your next date is simply a click away. Unfortunately, the quick and convenience factor also means there is a risk of someone using the online dating scene to search out their next victim. Although, there are thousands of websites offering dating safety tips, finding a reliable dating safety tool is difficult. bConcerned.com, a free dating safety tool that confirms your safe return home, solves that problem.

The idea spawned from continually being asked about safety tips and precautions regarding online dating. Founder Greg Sanchez, a Police Detective, found himself emphasizing the importance of informing a trustworthy person of when you go on a date. He would then be told, “That’s the problem, I met this person on an online dating site, and I’m a little embarrassed to let a family member know that my date is from the internet.” After much thought and research, Greg and co-founder Marcello Saldana found that there are all kinds of internet dating sites, but there were almost no safe guards for the individuals who use them. As a result of their experience and the lack of a reliable safety tool, they created a notification system into a dating safety website that is now called bConcerned.com.

“After developing bConcerned.com, we realized that we had created a safety platform for the dating scene. We truly believe it is a public safety issue, and since no one’s safety should be compromised, we knew that bConcerned.com had to be a free safety tool for our members,”explains Greg. “The website is very user friendly and the registration process is quick and simple. After registering and completing your profile, the member than adds an Alert Contact, and schedules a date and return time. The member has eight hours after their scheduled return time to logon and confirm their safe return home. If the member fails to confirm their safe return, bConcerned.com will notify their Alert Contact,”states Marcello.

Co-founders Greg Sanchez and Marcello Saldana have 25 years of combined experience in the law enforcement and legal field. “Our mission is to bring safety awareness to the dating community. We believe your safety is always our priority, by providing a dating safety website, with cutting technology, unparalleled service and our exceptional insight to safety, you can rest assured knowing that your safe return is being monitored. SAFETY is our PASSION!”


Meet Ken Bator- Get Your Big On Expert


Posted by Amy Diederich

Ken Bator, Founder BTC Inc.

 http://btcinc.net [email protected]

714-681-BTC1

Ken Bator has over two decades of experience in helping businesses make money, save money, and just plain surviving. As a management and marketing expert he has served as an executive of three different organizations throughout the country and has assisted many small to medium-sized businesses to reach new levels of effectiveness. Ken Bator has facilitated several training and strategic planning sessions for many organizations since 2001. Bator has earned a BS in Finance and an MBA in Entrepreneurship from DePaul University as well as a Certificate in Integrated Marketing from the University of Chicago. His articles have appeared in many trade publications and he is the author of The Pocket Guide to Strategic Planning: The 90-Day Quick Fix for the Business Owner or Manager.

Ken has a passion for helping small business build their brand.


If you are an entrepreneur and can help, read here!


Posted by Amy Diederich

Today I want to tell you about a potential exciting endeavor Start BIG is considering.

We have been approached to provide training for female entrepreneurs in Kenya. If you have experience with Kenya and entrepreneurship I would love to hear from you. I am in the process of creating courses and handouts. I am seeking information on Kenya.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Keywords and other curves in the road


Posted by Amy Diederich

I heard a story once about four new mountain bikers. These bikers were learning from fantastic guides. One guide was in the front of the group and another behind the group.  The line of bikers proceeded through a rigorous mountain course. Everything was fine until they approached a narrow path with a sharp turn. The first biker took the turn to fast and careened off the path. The second biker seeing what happened to the first slammed on the brakes falling head over the handlebars. The third biker swerved to avoid the second. The fourth and final biker listened to the guide behind him. This guide yelled look past the curve! Look past the curve! The fourth biker looked head on the path to the other side of the curve. Keeping his eyes fixed on the place he was headed he effortlessly piloted through his fallen comrades to the other side of the curve.

What do we need to learn from this? We must always keep our destination in focus! We must look past the curves we will undoubtedly encounter when starting our own Big thing!  As an experienced entrepreneur I still get some of those curves right now for me it is Keywords. I will post on what I have learned about Keywords in a future post. But for today I will share with you a more macro lesson. Look past the curve! See your destination so you can make it through the turns!


Branding


Posted by Amy Diederich

Service Delivery as Delivering on the Brand Promise
According to Webster’s a brand is defined as having a reputation and a loyal following. If you are an entrepreneur brand is something to which you must pay attention! If you are just starting out you need to decide your brand your image. If you are established you must constantly monitor your brand. Often times we are tempted to think of brand only when we are thinking of our advertisement or public relations messages. However brand is the alignment between your product, service delivery as well as your messages. If you fail to deliver on the promise of your brand your brand is quickly diminished.

How do you deliver on the brand promise? It is everything your organization engages in from delivery of the actual product, to how you answer emails! Today you must think of all the messages you put out to the world. What is being said on Twitter and how does that relate to when your client reaches you via phone?


According to Kenneth Bator Author of  the Pocket Guide to  Strategic Planning 

Successful companies understand the critical nature of aligning their brand, culture, and strategy.

Does your business offer a consistent experience? Are your organization’s brand, culture and strategy in complete alignment?


Building the Buzz


Posted by Amy Diederich

You have decided to start a business, you are excited about the prospect. You are passionate about your business idea. But there is so much to do. How do you make time to execute your business idea and market your idea at the same time. You may have limited financial resources or the resources you have you want to devote to your brick and mortar business.

The reality is you need to make time for building awareness. The good news is you can raise your profile for free! You can do so organically through interviews with news organizations, speaking engagements and building a reputation in social media. There are ways to do it as you are building your business.

Some ways to consider are starting a blogging about your business places like blogspot and wordpress are a great place to begin blogging. This is a free way to start to get the word out. It can work with your development of your business because you can use it capture and shape thoughts about your business idea best of all its only cost is your time. 

Another idea is twitter. You can begin to tweet about your business right away. You may also want to consider writing articles about your business concept, location, expertise, etc.

According to Hubspot “It is exciting to see inbound marketing growing as an industry. As this trends picks up, business owners, marketers and marketing agencies have the tough task of hiring the right people to help with inbound marketing for their business. This process is often further complicated by the fact that the recruiters are still in the process of learning about inbound marketing themselves.”

If time is in short supply check out tools such as Hootsuite. Hootsuite allows you to update several social media outlets at once. Some networking sites such as LinkedIn allow you to update both your LinkedIn network and Twitter friends at the same time.

So jump in and begin sharing your story!


Love and Business


Posted by Amy Diederich

Move fast and break things. Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough. ~Mark Zuckerberg

This quote leapt off the page for me because last night I broke my website…well, at least the homepage. I found Mark’s quote reassuring as I wait for my webmaster to contact me with the fix for my missing home page.

After reading and fixating on this quote on Valentine’s Day of all days, I realize I might be in love with my business! Read more and see what you think?

According to “love experts” you know you are in love when:

1. When, at the beginning of the day, you are already filled with thoughts of the other person: what he/she is doing, how he/she looks. I woke up this morning with the very first thought on my mind did the webmaster fix my website? will I see my beloved home page again?

2. You become selfless. And you start thinking more about what would be good for the other person, than what would be good for you. I have a ski trip scheduled for the holiday weekend. I had to give up a speaking engagement to go on the trip. I found myself wanting to cancel my trip to stay home and be with my budding new elearning site.

3. You start to think of how it would be to be with this person forever… and you relish that dream or feeling. The thought of spending the rest of your lives together is not seen as being stuck with another person, but is considered to be a very wonderful idea. Recently on a daily walk with a friend she expressed she is having trouble deciding what to do in her fifties. I told her she needed to find her passion and her calling…like I had.

4. Even if there are other people who are more beautiful or attractive, you still choose to be with this person. This means your commitment to this person is absolute. You have fully and undeniably decided to be with only him/her no matter what. It is not only love, but also devotion. I was approached recently about taking a six plus figure job at a well known corporation. I did not even entertain the idea.

5. There is passion and fireworks, even after the infatuation period of six months. If you have been together for such a long time now, but aren’t bored out of your minds yet and can still feel the fire burning – simply because you keep it burning (and this requires dedication and effort), is a clear indication that love is still shared between two people. I have had my own business since 1999. Sure it has grown and evolved. Building the new e-learning website has added a new passion and a new sense of purpose. I can not imagine doing anything else.

6. There is a desire to understand each other, even at the biggest of arguments. You continue to communicate openly and do not harshly judge each other. You accept each other’s faults and shortcomings. Last night I was ready to throw my computer against the wall but instead I stayed up late trying to understand Joomla.. the software that supports my website.

So I don’t know:  is it love or just business?

Are any of you out there in love with your business?