RAMON GIL

Life Lessons from Steve Jobs, Deepak Chopra and Eddie Murphy (Yes, Eddie Murphy)

I was at a children's birthday party over the weekend, and a friend I only see once a year (at this birthday party) asked me "So why have you stopped blogging?" I thought about it and the truth is, I feel like I'm at a cross-roads and needed to first do some serious "soul re-searching" regarding my life, business and career.

I say "soul re-searching" because, for me, this meant gathering as much information from mentors, books, articles, documentaries and TED talks and organize all I've learned and all my thoughts into some kind of coherent road map. Here's what I've come up with so far and you know I'm serious because I'm actually using footnotes.

QUIT
Cut out the not-so-great stuff. It's easy to get distracted, to want to pursue all your different interests and explore all your different business ideas. But the fact is, dividing your attention and energy means not being able to give your all to any of them. So choose the 1-3 things that you know are the best or most important pursuits and focus on them. Quit, get rid of or shelve everything else and any activity that doesn't support those top priorities.^{1, 2, 3}

MONEY SCHMUNY
Focus on the work, not the rewards. When we are obsessed with making money or having a great image or status, we make different decisions for ourselves and our businesses as opposed to when our goal is to do great work for it's own sake. Be it a service, a product or even just an activity, do your best and relish the process. Besides "The best way to get more clients, is to do great work for your current ones".^{1, 2, 4, 5, 6}

THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE AREN'T THINGS
Value your relationships. Whether it be a client, a friend or a family member, having good and close connections to each other are actually one of the three most important keys to happiness. Ever notice how no matter how many "things" you accumulate, the happiness fades? But not if you accumulate time and closeness with the people around you. Material things will never make you as happy as the memories you make and the feelings you share with your loved ones.^{6, 7, 8}

BE COOL
The truth is, we have no real control over anything outside of ourselves. How happy our family is, how our bosses or clients treat us or whatever else life dishes at you. The one thing you can control is how you perceive your situation which in turn influences your attitude, reaction and behavior. If you can have the presence of mind not to react badly when a little child says "I hate you" why can't you have that same presence of mind to react positively to another bad situation…any situation. Sure, you still have to deal with it, solve it, whatever…but how will a bad attitude, worrying or a lost temper help matters? In fact, a positive attitude usually generates a positive outcome. Life is messy. Accept it. Be present. Choose the right attitude and move on.^{8, 9, 10, 11, 12}

HELP
Being helpful has several interesting benefits. 1. It makes people want to connect with you. 2. It makes you a valuable resource to people you do business with. 3. It helps you forget your own troubles and actually makes you happy. And of course, 4) there's karma. In fact, our brains are hard wired to feel good after helping someone. "When in doubt, focus out."^{6, 8, 13}

There are a few more but I'll stop here for now as these are the ones that most closely relate to business. (Let me know if you'd like to see the ones on "Having a Happy Personal Life"). Hope this little entry was as helpful for you to read as it was for me to write. Take care!

Sources:
1 Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
2 Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemier
3 The Dip by Seth Godin
4 Eddie Murphy on Inside the Actors Studio
5 On Advertising by David Ogilvy 
6 The Happy Movie (documentary) by Roko Belic 
7 Nic Marks on TED.com 
8 Momentum Education, New York, NY 
9 The Road Less Traveled by M Scott Peck
10 Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson 
11 Roy Sutherland on TED.com 
12 The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra 
13 Joyce Moy, The Accceleration Group

How to Market Your Business on Facebook

This may be a heretical thing to say but I don't believe Facebook marketing works. Okay, just so I don't draw the ire of social media experts everywhere, I will qualify that statement. I don't believe Facebook marketing works the way most people think. Let me s'plain.

Unless you've got a huge fan following like Hall & Oates (Did I just date myself?), most business-related status updates don't really get that much attention. Like paid ads, we've learned to ignore them. UNLESS the post is entertaining, provocative or useful to the reader. I see lots of experts post updates on Facebook about their latest speaking engagements or any PR that they scored. But does anyone really read them? I rarely do and I suspect most people are the same. 

So can Facebook be used for business marketing at all? Well yes and no. While it probably doesn't hurt to talk a little bit about your business on FB, I think there's a better use for it in relation to marketing. I call it "Facebook Networking."

I've said it time and time again, business is all about relationships, so why not use Facebook to cultivate them? I am a Social Media Butterfly. As long as I remember meeting you, I will confirm your FB friend request. (And sometimes even if I don't remember someone, but their picture is incredibly hot, I will be their friend anyway.) Why do I do this? Because I want to get to know people and I want them to get to know me. In my last blog post, I talked about the "Power of Options." Well this is sort of an extension of that. The more people I know on FB, the more relationships I can cultivate. And the bigger my network and potential pool of business and resources.

Building and cultivating relationships is all about keeping in touch, getting to know each other better and finding commonalities. In the old days, you had to do it in person or on the phone. But now, you can do it virtually! How cool is it that you can now get to know a person's family, hobbies, activities and (most embarassing of all) musical preferences, all online? Is it an invasion of privacy? Not if they're uploading things on the World Wide Web! And let's face it - if your FB friends are posting pictures and status updates, then they obviously want you to see them. They want you to get to know them, connect with them and reaffirm them. It's human nature!

The flip side of this is that people get to know you as well. And that's the secret ingredient. People don't want to do business with "companies." They want to do business with PEOPLE. People they like. And the only way they will have the opportunity to like you is if they get to know YOU personally.

Now I'm not advocating that everyone "fake" being friendly to people on FB. You can limit yourself to friending people you genuinely like (which makes for stronger relationships anyway). Luckily for me, I'm a natural extrovert and love learning more about folks. And I just love being able to post witty comments on people's walls.

Another good thing to do is be helpful and giving if people need recommendations, advise, or just a little empathy. We all could use a little of that. Especially New Yorkers.

So yes! Have a seperate FB page for your business (so that people who are curious can see what you do). But also focus on leveraging your personality and be a friend who keeps in touch, is helpful and wants to grow the relationship.

The other day, I was on the bus and someone whom I had met only twice before sat down next to me but we knew (sort of) what was basically going on with each other's lives (through Facebook). How's that for virtually strengthening the friendship? 

People ask me all the time, if I've gotten any business from Facebook. And my answer is "No, I haven't gotten any business from FB. But I have built friendships on Facebook and they've given me business." See the difference?

So feel free to "Facebook friend" me at http://www.facebook.com/ramonsgil. Just please don't hold the whole "Hall & Oates" thing against me.

The Power of Options

Way way back in college, one of my design instructors asked us "Who has more power in a negotiation? The client or the vendor?" Most of us said "the client." Then the instructor gave us the answer which has stayed with me ever since. "The person with the most power, is the one who has the most options." Wow!

As if a follow-up to that, my Dad always liked to say "The more options, the better." (I had a girlfriend who also liked saying that, and now I understand why, but I'm not sure if that's relevant to this discussion.) ANYWAY...let's examine how this works in the real world.

In Career Paths
Most people go through life content to work their 9-5 jobs. But when for some reason, they lose it, they are forced to find and take another one based on what limited jobs are available or offered to them (maybe one or two) . But the person who scans the job listings every week has several options open to them on a regular basis. Every week, they have the choice of staying or doing something else - EVERY WEEK. But if you only look for a job AFTER you get laid, off, well, a bunch of other opportunities could have already passed you by. In fact, your dream job might be out there somewhere, but if you're not CONSTANTLY looking out for it, you could miss it!

In Networking

In business and in careers, it's all about relationships. A manager bringing his loyal employees with him to his next post or the business owner who has cultivated deep personal ties with his best customers. Well, when you need a new employer or a new client, the person who has built up a huge network of friends and acquaintances to call on has the advantage. If you need to send out an email asking asking people if they know of a position or a prospective client, wouldn't having 300 people on your list be better than having only 20? Wouldn't a thousand just rock?! It may be what you know that gets you the job, but who you know can get you to the front of the line. And knowing more people, means getting to the front of more lines. (Why do you think you keep getting these emails from me?)

In Business

They say the best time to look for new (and bigger) clients is when business is good. Here's why: When business is good, you can go after new business and if the match isn't good, you can actually AFFORD to turn it down. A company that doesn't have enough business will have a hard time turning down anything! Which can lead to bad clients, unprofitable projects and low morale. A company that is flushed with work has the option to be choosy. So when you have more clients, that's when you should be selling more. Not when you have less. No matter how busy you get, always make the time to go after new business.

In Creativity

They say that it takes a thousand shots to get one good photograph. This is true for many things. A designer or entrepreneur who has come up with a hundred or a thousand ideas has more to choose from than the ones that only came up with five or ten. Albert Einstein had hundreds of ideas in order to get that one theory that changed the world. You could even say that brilliance is simply a matter of quantity. So brainstorm, brainstorm and brainstorm some more! Don't stop at five or ten!

"The more options the better." You can apply this same principle to many things. Shopping, dining, finding a place to live, selling, even dating. EXCEPT maybe girlfriends and especially NOT spouses. 

 

 

The Holy Trinity of Sales

Did you ever wish you could guarantee how much revenue was coming in to your business from one month to the other? Well, there are no guarantees in life and business but we can come pretty close.

While it's true that we can't control how much business we get from our clients, we can often reasonably predict the amount of business we get and do things to help insure that we get what we need. In order to do this you need to know three things. The amount of business in your Sales Pipeline, The average amount you make on a sale (or project), and what your closing ratio is. All of which you should be able to figure out based on past experience.

1. The Sales Pipeline
Make up a chart with columns representing the next 6 months. In each month's column, list the names and dollar amounts for projects you know are coming in based on commitments made by customers. Also list out any sales that regularly come in based on past patterns and experience. If you're not sure about some of them, then make the dollar amount a percentage of how likely you will get the sale (example, if there's a 50% chance that you will land a $3000 project in June then put down $1500). Do the same for any jobs you are currently pitching. Pretty soon, you will have a good picture of which months will have enough income and which months won't.

So say you need $10K a month to meet all your expenses, and in July you notice you're short by $6K, here's what you can do to help make sure you make that extra six thousand.

2. Your Average Sale Amount 
Take all the jobs you've done over the last 3-6 months and average them out. And let's pretend that each project comes out to about $2,000. How many projects will you need to add to June? Three! Now we we're getting closer to knowing how much selling we're going to need to do in the month of May. With me so far?

3. Your Closing Ratio
Again go count all the business pitches you did in the past six months and count how many of them were successful, in other words, how many of them resulted in a sale. Now you should have a your closing ratio. Let's imagine that your closing ratio is 1/3. Now we have all the information you need.

Do The Math
IF you know how much more business you need to raise in June ($6K) and if you know what your average sale is ($2K) then you can figure out how many projects you need to add, right? (3)

And IF you know how many projects you need to add (3) and if you know what your closing ratio is (1/3) then you can figure out how many new business pitches you need to make in May (9). Make sense?

So if you do whatever it takes to make 9 business pitches in May, and indeed you get 3 new projects at an average of $2K each, the you just made your June quota!

Viola!

You can also make your life easier by either increasing the amount of your average sale by raising fees or adding more services, or you can increase your success rate when doing business pitches by learning to be a better closer, or BOTH!

Does "selling" make you feel uncomfortable?

I was teaching a marketing class recently at the Workshop in Business Opportunities and talking about things like prospecting, qualifying a potential customer, identifying their buying motivations and personality types, etc etc. Then one of the students said "isn't all that being really manipulative?"

Though most of the other students smiled or laughed at this comment saying "Welcome to running your own business" I have noticed this stigma surrounding the act of "selling" among a lot of people. As if selling was underhanded, dishonest or simply just beneath them. 

Well there are all types of selling. Some methods may indeed be less than honest. But it doesn't mean you have to be.

This is what I believe in regards to selling - Every product we sell and every service that we offer is a solution to somebody's need or problem. Our job as business owners, is to find those people and help them. If indeed you have a good and honest relationship with your customer, and if indeed you really want to help them, and if indeed you believe you have the best answer to their problem, why wouldn't you want them to buy from you? Hard sell or soft sell, that's your choice. If your product is the best solution for them, then say so. And if isn't...well I would say so too. Getting their trust in the long term is better than getting this one sale in the short term. Make sense?

I've mentioned this alot in my workshops but I thought it was worth repeating here. Plus I really wanted to draw a superhero.

 

 

Grab Them By The Jugular - Better Click Rates for Your eBlasts

It seems that nowadays, everyone who runs a business is sending out a regular e-newsletter or eBlast. But truth be told, how many of them do you actually read? Or turn it around, how many actually read yours? They say a 10% open rate is good. Well, let me show you how to double that!

1. The Subject Heading
This is the first thing people see when they check their inbox and this will determine how many people will actually open your email. Here are some "boring" subject headings. "The Latest News from ACME Consulting," "Weekly Update from the Stonecutters Association" or "Some Great Tips for Marketing Your Business" Now here are some "Not Boring" ones. "How to Avoid Killing Your Web Designer," "Don't Hire Your Friends" and "Here's Your Share of the Stimulus Package - FREE INTERNS!" Get the picture? Make it specific to the content of the eBlast (in these cases my actual blog entries), make it intriguing, fun or provocative and most of all don't make it broad, generic and the same from one eBlast to the other. If they know from the subject line what it's about,  and if it interests them, they will open and read it. If they only see a mundane headline that doesn't tell them anything, they will pass.

2. Make It Valuable
Nobody cares about what your company did, what awards you received, or what new clients you just won. There are lots of radio stations out there but everyone mostly listens to WII FM. "What's-In-It-For-Me." So give them something they can actually use. NOW give them those marketing tips. Tell them about business resources. Invite them to events where they can network. Then at the very end, toot your horn a little - a project, client or award we won. (Yes, I know I said they don't care but hopefully the first two items will make them feel obligated.)

3. Keep it Short and Sweet
Nobody wants to read a dissertation. I like to keep it down to 3 topics with brief synopsis (no more than 2-3 sentences) for each one. The first being the intro to a blog that gives them tips about something. The second is usually a link to a resource they might find useful. And last, some PR for yourself. Basically, you want to keep each item so short that they don't have enough time to decide they're not interested.

4. Subheads Subheads Subheads
Use subheads to not only separate the items on your eBlast but also to give readers a clue as to what they're about. That way, if they're only skimming, they'll get the gist of the topics and will read deeper if it interests them. And again, make the subheads fun and catchy (See #1). This is true not just for eBlasts, but for ALL text-heavy documents.

5. Use Links to Track Response
As in all marketing, you need to measure results. As I mentioned in #2, I link to the blog, I link to the resource and I link to the press release about my company. The reason for this is that the eBlast services (ConstantContact, iContact, Vertical Response, etc)  can track click-rates from those links -  giving you an idea of what your readers are interested in. Wouldn't it be valuable to you to know which 23 of your readers clicked on the link about your latest website redesign project? But no links, no tracking.

6. Clean Layout and a Picture
The simpler the layout the better. Sidebars and boxes, and different sections are too much. The nature of emails is that they are quick. They are sent quickly and read quickly. The more complicated the layout, the harder it is to read fast. I like to keep my emails plain white, one column, topics separated with thin rules and a logo on top. And if you can, use one or two small pictures that relate to your content. If there's one point you need to drive home, make it a caption under the images. Everybody reads captions!

As a caveat, keep in mind that some of these suggestions may not be appropriate for all types of business or organizations. Funeral homes, divorce lawyers and NY State Governors come to mind. You get the picture.

How About a Hug?

In this day and age, it's easy to get lost in our hyper-connected, ultra-technology filled lives. Once in a while, it may be a good idea to reconnect with folks the old-fashioned way...by cellular phone.

I got a phone call day before yesterday. The caller said "Hi Ramon, it's Susan Chan." Now Susan Chan is a Feng Shui consultant whom I had met a few years back at a networking event I had organized. At the time, I thought she was very cool and that we had good chemistry and that I would have enjoyed working with her at some future date. We'd emailed a few times on business matters but never got the chance to go out for coffee as we'd always discussed.

So here she is on the phone and she said "Ramon, I'm calling because I feel that we've all gotten so wrapped up in technology that we've lost that human touch. So I wanted to reach out to people whom I like and just connect." Or something to that effect. "So how are you doing?" She asked and off we went talking about our businesses, our families and what exciting things were going on in our lives.

Needless to say, it was a pleasant break from my work routine plus it gave me a great new topic for my e-newsletter/blog.

Today, we Tweet, we FaceBook and we Link-in. Some of us go so far as to eblast and blog too. We walk around with our faces in our BlackBerries or iPhones or we plug into our iPods. But are we connected? Not to the internet but to our fellow men and women? Our friends and families? Our humanity? Do we spend enough time with our children, nieces and nephews? Do we call our parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts just to shoot the breeze? Are we building and strengthening the relationships we have with our friends or is it just on cruise control via Facebook and MySpace?

I read an article a few months back about a study that found that, not surprisingly, "things" do not make us happier as much as experiences and relationships. In the end, the material things we've accumulated aren't going to matter as much as the memories, feelings and experiences we've shared with our loved ones. Kind of puts a new twist on the definition of "tangible", doesn't it?

Whether in your personal life or your business life, it's not a bad idea to check to see if you're REALLY connected to the folks in your life. And if you're feeling a little empty or something is missing in your life, or even if business is just slow, why not just pick up the phone (and please forgive the cliche) and reach out and touch someone?

Of course, the ironic thing about all this is that Susan called me on my iPhone and now I'm tweeting/blogging about it. Sigh.

 

Leading Your Clients

Though I usually have an unlimited Metrocard to use on the subways and buses, every once in a while when I'm having a really hectic day, I like to treat myself to a little TLC. In other words, I take a cab.

I do this for two reasons. 1) It gives me a few private moments to relax before my next meeting or task and 2) It's one less thing I have to worry about. I don't have to worry about walking, stairs, which subway or bus to take, where to transfer or what station I need to get out at. I just tell the driver where to go, and he gets me from point A to point B plain and simple. And when a client hires you, that's what he or she wants. To be taken from point A to point B without having to worry about it.

I was at a seminar being given by my good friend and marketing-mentor founder Ilise Benun a few years back and one of the speakers said this. "Clients want to be Led" and it's absolutely true. What this means is, that when a client gives you a project, they want to worry about it as little as possible. The worrying, the project managing, the anticipating, the problem solving and troubleshooting...that's now your job. But your most important job is making sure the project keeps moving forward to completion. Granted there may be some information you absolutely need from the client in order to move forward and some clients like to take their time making decisions. But don't be passive about getting it. Check in, remind, give updates and if necessary, try to get the information on your own. At the very least, give the client something to chew on.  Do whatever it takes to get the client to where they want to be. Lead them there.

This is one of the holy grails that I'm trying hard to perfect in my business. Making sure that the projects keep progressing and ultimately completed. Not only is this good for your cash flow, but it makes for a happy client! Hopefully one that will give you more business and/or referrals.

Did you get my little joke about TLC?

 

Do We Have Chemistry?

They say business is all about relationships. Well it is. And the better your relationships, the better your business.

If you've ever attended any of my workshops, you've no doubt heard me quote Jeffrey Gitomer saying "All things being equal, people want to do business with their friends. All things being NOT equal, people STILL want to do business with their friends."  

I've said this time and time again in the context of business being all about relationships. But I think I haven't done enough to emphasize the "friends" part of the quote. You see, one key to a good business relationship is to be friends. And the key to being friends with someone, is having "chemistry."

I'm not going to go over the importance of networking, let's just all agree that it is important. But here's the secret to making it more pleasant, maybe even fun. Find people you have "chemistry" with. The ones with whom you have things in common. Be it kids, books, sports, movies or even values and ideologies. Cultivate the relationship and bond over those commonalities and viola, you have a friend. 

And don't fake it, because you can't fake chemistry. I'm saying find people you would genuinely want to have AS friends. Because then you'll genuinely like them and they will genuinely like you. You'll enjoy talking to them, meeting with them and helping them with whatever they need and vice versa. With chemistry, comes sincerity and authenticity. And you can't buy that. 

As for all the others on your network, keep in touch with them. Keep them on your mailing lists. Get to know them better. You never know. But for the ones you've identified as your kindred spirits, treat them special. If you have their confidence and their trust, then eventually, you'll do business together.

Speak from the Heart

The role and importance of honesty and sincerity in business.

Back when the internet was new and online dating was hazardous to your health, I posted a personal ad on AOL. I had just moved to New York City, knew no one and figured "why not?" 

After several scary blind dates (In 1994, normal people where hard to find on the internet, much less women) I made one last effort and wrote a personal ad that came straight from the heart. I spoke about my wants and needs, my dreams, and what I was looking for in a soul mate. It was eloquent, it was unvarnished but most of all, it was sincere. The response was AMAZING. But that story is for a different blog entirely. 

Fast forward to 2010. After starting and running my own marketing and graphic design company for 4 years, I've come to realize is that what I'm really REALLY good at is graphic design. So if I wanted to grow my "marketing" company, I needed help. I needed a partner who complemented my skills. A professional marketing planner/strategist to match my creative executions. Someone who (Please forgive the Tom Cruise quote) "completes me." So again, I posted an online ad for a business partner and again I spoke about my goals, my needs, my ideal business mate, all from the heart. And once again the response was amazing! 

I now have a few people to collaborate with and hopefully score some new business with. There have always been contacts I've made whom I knew needed more than what I could provide, but with my new-found friends, I can now give them a shot! 

But getting back to the point I was trying to make - Sincerity stands out; honesty encourages trust; and having the confidence to risk bearing one's soul can be inspiring and highly attractive - to just the right people. 

Though these are just two examples, I've found this to be true in situations through out my adult life. Marketing copy, press releases, headlines and taglines...they all have a time and place. But every once in a while, its best to just speak from the heart and let the power of authenticity strengthen your relationships and help you build new ones.