January 11, 2012

Guest Blog - Frankly Speaking / Are You Staring at a Blank Canvas?

Are You Staring at a Blank Canvass
The Power in Saying Hello

Thanks to Frank Palmer for this second Blog post from his “Weekly Messages” to his Team at DDB Canada…

“I recently read a interesting article about Professional Hockey Players who just retired. One player said: “I considered myself as well prepared to leave pro hockey as anybody and it was still quite a shock to me. Suddenly you are staring at this blank canvas that is the rest of your life. And it’s time to paint something different.” The lesson learned here is that we all need to be prepared to be thinking about what to do or where to go in life all the time. Hockey for most players can be a blessing and a curse. They get to live their dream and passion, then when it’s over they find it tough to find a second passion.

I have a passion for business. It’s my first and second passion. For the majority of my working life it’s been advertising and communications and it’s been a life-long passion. Finding your passion might mean that you need to let go of your current fears in order to experience more joy, freedom and fun.

My question to you is: What would you do if you weren’t doing what you are currently doing today? What career would you seek out that would ignite you all over again?

There’s many new businesses that excite and ignite me. If you are looking to find your passion you must let your true purpose guide you. I’m not sure that all Hockey Players truly wanted to be Hockey Players. I believe that it was their parents dream for some or most of them. No different than a lawyer or dentist wanting their children to follow in their footsteps.

Author/poet Carl Sandburg said:
“Time is the coin of our life. It is the only coin we have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spent it for you.”

I think that far too often we get stuck in a comfort zone and before to long it gets too late to do anything about it. We become at ease being in a place or zone where we can’t shine.

And in some cases the people or companies they work for won’t let them shine. I have loved what I’ve done, but there’s also many other businesses where I know my passion can shine.

We need to always ask ourselves a few questions:
-What motivates me?- What fulfills me? -What is it that keeps me passionate? -What comes naturally to me?-What can I do that includes having Fun?

Seems to me that in order to fill up that life canvas of yours with happiness and passion you will need to “Do what you Love and be able to have Fun at it.”

Remember you’re your own problem - you’re your own solution. So don’t leave your life canvas blank.

Frank”

Posted 1.11.12 at 05:34 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 9, 2012

3 Resolutions for 2012

If you have the bandwidth to do only a few critical activities in 2012, these three will pay you back in spades:

1. Adopt BE DiFFERENT in your Leadership vocabulary. Start asking “How will this make us DiFFERENT?” when someone presents a proposal to you. Make this the test you apply to all new investments.
If a $10,000 new investment doesn’t make you Stand-out, why are you making it?
In addition, replace Best in Class conversations with “How do we Stand-out?”
Have a Stand-out Workshop every week to continually explore opportunities to breakaway from The Herd.

2. Focus on your Fans. Trust that if you take care of the people who are loyal to you and CARE about what you do, they will return the favor by spreading your word to others.
This is the real source of long term GROWTH.
Resist the temptation to offer special promotions to try and entice people to leave their current suppliers and come to you. “New Customer Acquisition Programs” that reward switchers and not your loyal Fans have no long term value.
In fact they insult the people who have supported you over the years.

3. Create The ONLY Statement for your organization as your competitive claim. “It’s not good enough to be the best of the best. You need to be the ONLY one that does what you do.” said Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead. Amazing insight from the world’s most successful touring band. Uniqueness is the name of the game. If you’re not Relevant and Unique you will be common, invisible and ignored. And eventually dead.

Make these 3 strategies your priority for the coming year.

You’ll never look back.

Cheers,
Roy
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Other Articles You Might Like
6 Mistakes Start-ups Make
3 Ways To Be An Un-Perfectionist
The Herd’s Brain Has 5 Parts

Posted 1.9.12 at 05:31 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 5, 2012

6 Mistakes Business Start-ups Make

Guest Blog - Frankly Speaking / The Power in Saying Hello.
3 Ways To Be An Un-Perfectionist
The Herd’s Brain Has 5 Parts

Got an idea you think can make you lots of money? Good. Chalk one up to you for coming up an innovative thought.

But the REAL challenge you have is to figure out HOW to monetize it. If you can’t turn your “Brave Idea” into a “Crude Deed” by getting people to buy it, your idea is wasted.

So…here are 6 mistakes entrepreneurs absolutely MUST avoid:
1. Not determining how your idea is DiFFERENT than your competition. Ultimate success will be determined by staking a unique claim in the market. If your idea is the same as, or similar to something already out there, it will be invisible. It won’t attract attention and no none will buy it.

2. Not clearly identifying who the POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS for your idea are. Winning is all about targeting your idea to very specific groups of people and giving them a reason to buy from you. It’s NOT about flogging your idea to the masses and hoping it will stick to some of them. If you can’t define your potential customers, STOP.

3. Not involving people who have a strong MARKETING and customer SERVICE background. Ultimately, the success of your idea will depend on “go-to-market” effectiveness. Better have people on board who have experience in serving customers and providing value-based solutions to people. Technology and finance expertise are needed as well, but in a supportive role. People responsible for customers must be your anchor.

4. Not TESTING your idea with potential customers. It’s not about how excited you and your friends are about your idea,  it’s about what your potential customers think. Get them in a room and present your idea. Ask them to evaluate it. Do they think it satisfies a real need they have? Do they think it’s different than other stuff out there? Would they buy it? How much would they be prepared to pay for it? Would they likely tell their fiends about it? Does your idea excite them?

5. Not defining the unique VALUE you are creating with your idea. Business success comes from supplying value to people. Figure out how you are satisfying a want or desire that your potential customers have. This will form the basis of your marketing efforts and your pitch to potential investors.

6. Thinking that technology will sell itself. It’s not about a product or service. It’s about VALUE. People don’t buy technology, they buy what the technology creates for them. Happiness. Joy. Pleasure. Solution to a problem. Make it easy. This kind if stuff.

Then there is the potential investor. What will it take to convince her to part with some of her money and help you launch your idea? If you fall into the above traps, your audience with her will likely be short and unrewarding.

Cheers,
Roy
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Posted 1.5.12 at 05:01 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 4, 2012

Guest Blog - Frankly Speaking / The Power in Saying Hello.

The Power in Saying Hello

Frank Palmer is the Chairman & CEO of DDB Canada and is known as the “winningest” man in Canadian advertising. From his humble beginnings in Vancouver over 40 years ago, Frank has created Canada’s most creatively acclaimed marketing communications agency, remade DDB into a powerhouse brand, and changed the face of Canadian advertising.

Frank is DiFFERENT. He is an amazing guy with out-of-the-box thinking and relentless energy to pursue his many innovative projects. He is a Leader who shows his people the ways to better themselves and realize their potential.

Every week Frank sends a personal message to his Team on something he believes will make a difference to their lives enhance the performance in his organization.

He has graciously agreed to allow me to post a selection of his “Weekly Messages” in my Blog. This is the first Post. “Listen” to Frank’s words and add them to your repertoire of Learnings that will certainkly make you DiFFERENT, successful and a better person.
Frank Palmer...
“Truly noticing others is fundamental to their self-worth.

I believe that the word ‘Hello’ is a very important one.
It’s a word that doesn’t get worn out because it’s not used as much as it should be. It’s as important as saying ‘Good-bye’.

Let’s face it, we all need recognition. We need to feel important and that we need to feel that we matter. Unless we were born with no feelings, every human has a basic and natural desire to be acknowledged. What we need to realise is also that saying hello is just plain “good manners.” It displays respect, caring and consideration. Far too often today in our age of self-satisfaction and instant internet gratification it seems that we all care more for our BB’s, iPads and iPhones etc than we do for those that we work with?
In good soil where we nurture plants, they usually grow better. It then would seem to me that if we display good manners by taking the time to recognise others with a simple hello it will help in making their day as well as help growing it.
It’s a simple greeting that says that we hope that they will have a good day.
Try saying hello more often.. and say it while giving them eye contact.

It will help nurture them to grow healthier.
Frank”

Posted 1.4.12 at 05:03 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (1)