Are You Marketing Your Best Self?

 

   

     You can have the best marketing plan on the planet, have clients spilling over your chairs, but if you don't deliver high performance service, nothing else matters. Every once in a while a friend pops in on Facebook or in an email with a question. Millie, how do you do so much, where do you get your energy, I wish I had half your energy. I don't go to the energy store and buy a six pack. My energy comes from my lifestyle and my lifestyle comes from being broken and having to fix myself. Many of my new friends may not know the struggles I too have had to face. 2009 my world fell apart. My marriage failed, my shop closed and I felt all my life's work to this point had been just an illusion of success. Without any other choice I had to rebuild my world, step by step. I read, studied and listened to my mentors, to success gurus and also to friends and family. I pieced together strategies to carve out a new way of living. I believe for me,  it comes down to passion, balance and discipline. I looked at the strategies of other successful people I admired and took pieces and parts of their disciplines and adapted them to create a lifestyle that works for me. I had to change my mind, in order to change my life. The first thing I did was eliminate all negative information that we are all so inundated with these days. Yes, I quit watching the news. Any negative thought or event we allow in our brain takes energy away from the positive. At times we can even allow ourselves to get dragged down to pity city with no ticket home. I'm not saying I'm a Pollyanna, but you can limit what you allow in your brain. If we fed our bodies food like we feed our brains information we would be dead from the toxicity. Negative in , negative out. Positive in, Positive out. And by all means, don't talk about negative things with your clients. You become the negative experience. Speaking about food, I changed my diet entirely and became vegan. I'm not saying you have to go to this extreme however there is so much evidence about the poisons in the standard American diet that you can no longer turn a blind eye to it. I wrote a blog post about this after watching a video by Dr Amen so you can check that out here. Can a healthy brain make a difference?

 

 

          I began running, at 48. I knew diet was only half the answer. I made a commitment to exercise every day, whatever form and have added Yoga, Pilates and strength training. I feed my spiritual self. I went back to church, meditate several times a week, read inspirational books and listen to motivational cds. Getting in touch with a higher resource gives me the grace I need to face the challenges ahead and to be continually grateful for my many blessings I continue to receive. I remain passionate about what I do and who I do it with. I don't take one moment of this career for granted, I don't take one client for granted and I look to the purpose and lesson from everyone put in my path. While at times I can be a workaholic I have also been fortunate to have the right people surrounding me to let me know when to take a break and enjoy time off. Even if they have to drag me. Many people tell me well I could never be vegan or I don't have the time to exercise or read. Here's another secret. I don't watch TV. Well that's not true, I did watch the Golden Globes, for research.. But in general I have to say I watch maybe 3 hours a week. That may be a little extreme for some, but I can tell you it frees up so much time, time you say you never have enough of.

     Please don't take this as a sermon, or an indulgence. Believe me I am a work in progress every day. These are strategies I have found that have helped me and I am constantly working on the right balance. While on the treadmill this morning, watching a YouTube video on High performance by Brendon Burchard he suggests you ask yourself several times a day What is my energy level and how present am I? Marketing yourself is marketing your BEST self. Not your 1/2 engaged low energy self. I encourage you to take a look at your lifestyle and think about some ways you can up your performance to market your best self.

The Secret Is Not Enough - Psychology And Physiology Of High Performance - Brendon Burchard



Master Your Career

      Zig Zigler passed away this past week. He was a mentor of mine. Even though I never personally met him I saw him live once and have listened to his cds and podcasts for many many years. A lot of my life philosophies have been impacted by this man. Many motivational speakers have recycled much of his material and woven it into their presentation, so you've probably been influenced by this man more than you know. Last month I had the opportunity to spend some time with another mentor of mine Geno Stampora. He gave me a few cds to listen to and give him my feedback. I have to say I have been listening to them several times a week this past month and they take me through a host of emotions. To say they are just motivational is really not enough. It was Mr. Zigler that said motivation is like deodorant, you have to do it every day or you start to stink. I agree, I have to listen to something inspirational every day. I have to share some Geno wisdom with all the listeners tonight.
1. Work Ethic. Do you have a great work ethic? Are you willing to do whatever it takes? It will have a direct effect on how much you make. Are you willing to give 100% every day. What about 100% most days and maybe 50% others. Don't think it matters? You won't notice a difference in a week. However, an interesting think happens over time. It will matter in month, greatly in a year, five six years down the road, wow a whole lot of money you could have had, should have had left on the table.
2. You have to have the look and act attitude. You have to look good, act good, smell good. You have to act like you know and if you don't you have to act "as if" until you do. I mean we've all gotten back from a show and put that new product on the very first client we could get our hands on. You know, with the cheat sheet in the drawer next to us.

3.  Study Time, do you practice what you do? Could you do what you do better, to add value to your market place? Are you watching videos? Reading a good book? Listening to cds? Help yourself grow.
4.  Preparation. Successful people are prepared. Don't disrespect yourself or your client, or the people you work with by being unprepared.
5.  Personal marketing. What are you doing to market yourself in the beauty industry? Quit waiting for the salon you work at to market you. It's not going to happen. You have to have a personal marketing campaign.
6.  Dialogue. How do you meet someone? How do you talk about what you do?
7.  Learn how to connect. Don't just make eye contact, look to see the color of their eyes. Have a sincere, human connection. When they talk, match their tone of voice and match their speed. People like people who they think are like them. For an hour, be like them.

8.  Have true client respect. We all have Those clients, let them go and refuse to go with them. Most of our clients are fabulous, but learn to respect them all.
9. Honesty. It is important to be honest, all the time. Once you lie to a client, you're done. Don't sell them things they don't need, don't talk to them about things they don't need.
10. Stay inspired. Who is inspiring you? Who are your mentors? Who are you reading and studying right now? You need inspiration every day. Listen to something inspiring, music, guided meditations, DVDs cds seminars, every day. Some days just suck. Change what you can change, leave the rest behind. Develop an inspirational calendar. Start to inspire yourself to be everything you can be. To do more and be more and have more. Life is happening in the moments, make every moment count.

11. Expertise. At what point will you become an expert at what you do? At what point can you say I am a master? It will make a difference in your world, your income, how people see you. Is there something you don't know, that if you did know would make a difference, take you to that next level. Are you branding yourself as an expert?
12 Consistency. You must be consistent. Treat every client like a new client. Treat every client like they matter, do great work, all the time. Commit to excellence. Take care of people.
Geno Stampora