A number of you have been asking about my Intentional Creation journey…how I heard about it, what I did to follow up, that kind of thing.

It all began on November 19, 2009 when I attended a monthly networking meeting for the Central Iowa Chapter of the Project Management Institute. That month our guest speaker was Tracy Duez from Break Free Consulting in the Houston Texas area. At the time, I was in the throes of my own inner turmoil. Business was suffering from the ravages of the year that was 2009, my brain was fully engaged in the destructive practice of catastrophizing – and I had no idea that was even happening. I was plagued with uncertainty about what to do next and which move I should make to pull out of the free fall. My analytical mind was in perpetual motion trying to “think” my way out of my conundrum. I was, however, putting on a very good face. After all, I am Director of Programs for the chapter – scheduled to introduce Tracy as our speaker. I had never heard of the study of “axiology” that our speaker was about to enlighten us on.

In the one hour presentation, we learned that our thoughts could be measured by an assessment called the Hartman Value Profile. Furthermore, invariably it is our thoughts that limit us. Most of us have heard that many times throughout our lives. Not sure how many of us truly understand how it works. By the end of the present, while I still wasn’t clear WHICH thoughts were limiting me, I had a much better understanding of how that might indeed be the case.

The fact that we have the ability to measure thoughts has profound implications for the coaching industry. Instead of relying on a client to self-report their current status and thought processes, we can now have them take a 20 minute assessment and get a highly scientific and validated reading of which thoughts were supporting them and which thoughts were sabbotaging them.

After spending about a month pondering and researching this tool, I was inspired to take action in early January of 2010. In the next post I will provide an overview of the coaching I participated in with Dave Blanchard of the Og Mandino Group, as well as some details about the training that I along with a select group of coaches participated in during the first week of March.

To take the assessment yourself, click here. Upon completion, you will receive your personalized website including a breakdown of the 36 thought processes on three levels: balanced, over-focused and under-focused. The assessment is free and includes a one hour debrief to assist you in interpreting the results.

Mel Wildermuth recently posted this question on linked in: Soon moving to Des Moines (this summer). What are some reasons why we will be happy in Des Moines?

This was my off-the-cuff reply:

1. If you have kids it is the best place in the world to raise and educate your kids.
2. If you don’t have kids, you know you are a part of a family-centered, education-focused culture.
3. You are the center of the political universe every 4 years.
4. Traffic Traffic Traffic – no small thing to be able to get to where you are going.
5. Clean air!!
6. Clean water
7. If you want a day trip to the big city, take your pick in terms of the direction you want to go.
8. GREAT (and reasonably priced) golfing!
9. Strong work ethic. If you can somehow plug into the old-fashioned farm ethic, you’ll be inspired.
10. They aren’t kidding when they say the people are different. Make a small effort to connect and you’ll be surrounded with friendly people ready to pitch in and help with anything.

This list is merely a start, but just a few of the things that immediately come to my mind. Iowa is a fantastic place to call home, and one of the world’s best kept secrets. Iowans (at least this Iowan) do not really object when some folks laugh and tell us the last time they drove through the state. Their response comes after I say something like “I’m from Iowa – somebody’s gotta be.”

Iowa is the best kept secret folks. We like it that way. Keeps traffic manageable - at least until the next political season.

What would your response be to Mel’s question?? Post below and respond to Mel here.

Well, it’s been quite a first month on the Intentional Creation circuit. The assessment, the calls, the clients have been nothing short of amazing. The process works – it MORE THAN works. When I first saw the presentation in November ’09 I was blown away that there was a way to measure one’s thoughts. I’m even more in awe that we can use that as a starting point, a springboard for where someone wants to go in a coaching engagement. What a much more productive place to start than relying on a client to self-report where they are and where they want to go. That’s the equivalent of looking in the mirror and seeing the lion, know what I mean??

One of the greatest paradoxes of our physical senses, is that our eyes actually show you what you believe, not what you see.

 Some clients come to the coaching program for a new life and begin the process of intentionally creating their lives. Others begin awkwardly, hanging on to old thoughts and habits, not realizing they are clinging to old ways. Prospects show up looking for a guarantee. The only one I can give them is that “I guarantee you currently have no clue what is possible for your life.” Prospects come to the call well conditioned in systemic and extrinsic thinking. Only when the intrinsic world enters and blows the seams apart are inward eyes illumined.

So as March turns into April, I want to share a progress report. The process most vividly reminds me of my favorite poem by my favorite poet, David Whyte. The youtube link is below, but it’s worth spending time with the words as well:

THE JOURNEY

by David Whyte

Above the mountains

the geese turn into

the light again

painting their

black silhouettes

on an open sky.

Sometimes everything

has to be

enscribed across

the heavens

so you can find

the one line

already written

inside you.

Sometimes it takes

a great sky

to find that

small, bright

and indescribable

wedge of freedom

in your own heart.

Sometimes with

the bones of the black

sticks left when the fire

has gone out

someone has written

something new

in the ashes

of your life.

You are not leaving

you are arriving.

Sometimes everything has to be enscribed across the heavens so you can find the one line already written inside you…….

You are not leaving – you are arriving. 

Here’s David doing the reading:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Wonder what April will bring.

Just in time for March Madness, here’s a clip you’ve probably seen before. See if you can watch it again without being moved to tears! Then spend some time thinking about what’s possible for you…even when the odds seem stacked against you.

Got this in my inbox the other day from my dear niece Hannah. It seems something or someone has turned her on to Skype, and I don’t know if she will ever be the same. I encounter so many people out there who are afraid to just dive in. This post is meant to inspire and challenge you in case there’s been anything technologically that you’ve been resisting (like Twitter!). It’s also supposed to make you laugh. Enrolling our elders into something like a video chat should not require this much of a sell job. She is skilled in the sales art of “what’s in it for me” isn’t she?

Here’s the note:

Dear aunts and uncles,
Wouldn’t you like to video chat with your niece HANNAH? We are now set up on Skype. It’s a free computer to computer video service and Uncle John and I had a blast last night chatting. The software is a free download and it’s easy to set up an account. All you need is a webcam and if you don’t have one, you can still “talk” or instant message through your computer. It’s so cool and I really want some of you to look into joining my fun! I have been really wanting some callers. Be adventurous and join me. It is as easy as 1 2 3! PLEASE JOIN THE FUN! GET SKYPE! I really would like to visit with my aunts and uncles but also my cousins.

Sincerely,
HANNAH
P.S. If you already have Skype please let me know so I can search for you.

Here’s a photo to give you some indication of the age. (Folks we’re into a whole new generation that hasn’t even been labeled yet!)

And here are some links if you haven’t gotten started on skype or twitter yet:
www.skype.com
www.twitter.com

Okay, I’m thawing out from a free ”Great to Skate” party held at the indoor rink in Ames, IA this morning. The local Ice Skating Club held a party, and invited all the local schools before they let out for the holidays.

My 13 year old had it in his brain that it was “time to go to his skating party” at 7 a.m. on a Saturday in 20 below weather. Turns out it was a recruiting party for anyone interested in taking skating lessons.

I share this because it’s a perfect example of my previous posts. If the club had just passed around a registration form at school, how many do you think would have signed up? One, maybe two?

But as I’m cursing the day I was born on my way to the rink and swearing the parking lot would be empty as we would be the only ones crazy enough to take them up on their offer on a morning like this, I was mystified to see a FULL parking lot as we pulled in. People love free stuff. If there’s perceived value, they’ll show up for A N Y T H I N G, A N Y W H E R E, in A N Y    W E A T H E R!

This morning proves it! (My fingers and toes prove it!!) 

So it wasn’t a party just for Michael, but for at least 200 other folks who were looking for a good skate. Throw in a few basic lessons, a featured skater doing a routine to Thriller, and several invitations to sign up for skating lessons, and you have them lining up to enroll!

The Ames Figure Skating Club gets it! They get free, free, fee! They get the fact that people love to buy, but they hate to be sold. And they certainly get that people are crazy enough to come out at 8 a.m. in 20 below weather to buy. How whacked out is that?

And you’re trying to convince me that people simply won’t buy in this environment?!?

Again I ask you: what part of your offerings could you give away to bring em out at 8 a.m. in minus 20 and still have them lining up?

(Part 2 in a 3 Part series on “People will not buy in this environment”)

I’m squeezing this post in while visiting the relatives in St. Louis, watching Kathy Lee Gifford host the Today Show waxing eloquently about “how not to raise a brat” in this day and age. Writing on a whim and being able to connect with you kinda gives social media all new meaning  (as I implore my 16 and 13 year olds to “Please pay attention to Kathy!!!”)

But it’s been too long since the last post, thanks to OC (Operation Christmas) – which NEVER seems to end at our house, even long after the big day. Anyways, I digress – and I’m being a BRAT!

The essence of this post is that people WILL buy in this environment. They just won’t buy the farm, the whole chalupa in this environment. You must chunk it down for them in bite sized pieces. And if that’s not enough, you must give them free tasters as part of your marketing efforts. (Recall our last post on the difference between marketing and sales.) Giving away free value (bite sized pieces, not the whole sandwich) is the hallmark of your marketing efforts. 

My good friend Ben Stone of RPO Consulting recently reminded me of an excellent phrase from Jeffrey Gitomer, the sales guru. Gitomer says “people love to buy, but they hate to be sold to.”  Absolutely true – so we all must give customers a reason to buy by giving away free value.

Your  marketing mantra goes like this: free – free – free – free …….. fee!! In other words, you may want to think about giving away some freebies to demonstrate your value-add. Once customers experience some value, they’ll be more than ready and willing to make the purchase. My other good friend Mike Sansone of converstations.com fame talks about the free bite-sized tasters on a toothpick outside of Chik-Fil-A. How many grilled chicken sandwiches in the mall do you think those tasters on a toothpick have sold???

So what piece of your product or service offerings can you give away for free to get customers interested? Recall our definition of marketing:  Marketing is the process by which you accumulate a reservoir of people who may, one day, be interested in buying. Selling is the process by which you help a person who is in the reservoir make an informed and well-timed decision to buy.

Giving away value is an approach doesn’t come naturally for most people or organizations. One of my past customers was a prominent public garden. This was a garden whose potential customers could have been literally anyone on the planet. But only a small percentage of the pool of potential were regulars – the rest just kept driving by because they thought they didn’t fit the profile based on what they saw from the outside looking in. So the question became “what can we do to get those cars to pull in and stay a while?” What if we started giving out free passes to non-members like they were candy?

Initially this was a difficult concept to get across. But the more they thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense. And it served to be a nice counter-balance to the price increase they had previously just initiated.

You MUST find ways to give away free value to develop that reservoir of potential customers. Blogs and electronic newsletters are both great ways to share free value. (It’s entirely possible that your business could be completely transformed from this three part series alone!) Feel free to comment other ways you are using (or should be using) to give free value and develop your reservoir of potential customers.

As part of this post, my offer to you is a half hour in person or on the phone to explore your marketing strategy and how you could break down your product or service offerings to give away some free tasters. Of course, this half hour offer to you is free! (You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.)

(As I finish writing  this post, you’ll be happy to learn that the family is still wrapping prezzies for the next batch of relatives we will visit as part of OC. The widescreen has sparingly been flipped from Kathie Lee to Sports Center.)

This was in my inbox this morning from Creativille, specialists in design and brand building for anyone in need of a unique voice. Based on their holiday message, I’d hire them. I’m not sure I’ve ever read a better holiday message:

It’s not the gifts, it’s the giving.

It’s not the singing, it’s what you say.

It’s not the party, it’s the people.

It’s not the snow, it’s the snuggle.

It’s not the shopping, it’s the sharing.

It’s not the food, it’s the feeding.

It’s not what & where, it’s who and why.

It’s not one season, it’s the whole year.

Be simple. Be good. Be kind.

(This is Part 1 in a 3 part series: “No one will buy in this environment.”)

“I work in sales & marketing.”

“Give it to the gang in sales & marketing.”

“That’s a sales & marketing thing.”

We tend to compress the two functions of ‘sales’ and ‘marketing’ together in both our words and our thinking as illustrated in the above few examples. In my opinion, they are anything but the same function.

Here are my working definitions of the two processes of marketing and sales:

Marketing is the process by which you accumulate a reservoir of people who may, one day, be interested in buying.

When you market, you are not at all interested in an exchange of money. You are interested in gaining someone’s interest and attention. The goal is to get them interested in you, your product, your service, ultimately your value proposition. You want them to think of you first thing when they wake up in the morning. THAT’S what you’re interested in when marketing.

Selling is the process by which you help a person who is in the reservoir make an informed and well-timed decision to buy.

This is more of a ‘pull’ approach than a ‘push’ approach. If you’ve done your marketing properly, selling becomes almost effortless. They have been in your reservoir, or pipeline, for sometime, learning about YOU and how you will make their life better. Then one morning they wake up and realize, “Life has become such that I’ve got to get a hold of that person/product/company.”

Hopefully they have entered your reservoir by some vehicle of permission that you have given them. Email marketing works great. Blogging and blog readers are currently all the rage. (Great low cost marketing device. Get there, if you are not already.) And what about Facebook and Twitter? I keep hearing comments that Twitter is a passing fad, made for those who just want to tell us they just finished brushing their teeth this morning.

I’m here to tell ya that Twitter is here to stay. Those who are using it well for business promotion purposes are using it very effectively as a low cost MARKETING medium. No exchange of currency is taking place, but if I’ve signed on as your follower, I’ve just given you permission to keep reminding me how great you are through your tweets. Next thing you know, I’m thinking about YOU when I wake up in the morning.

In part two of this series, I’ll outline a tidy strategy for going about the low-cost/no-cost marketing process. The focus next time will be on marketing. If you go about the marketing process correctly, a steady stream of customers will eventually be yours, assuming there’s value in what you offer.

People WILL buy – even in our current economic climate. You can help them with their purchasing decisions. But you must first distinguish your marketing efforts from your sales efforts. 

What might happen to your sales if you began to market merely to develop a reservoir of potential customers rather than market to make the sale???