Yesterday I spent the day hanging out with Ben on his school field trip. He's been asking me all year to sign up as a chaperone and the timing always conflicted with things on the business calendar.  Yesterday was no different, however the business event was a networking meeting so it was a little easier to miss. To compensate for the lack of face time with the wonderful ladies in attendance, and the lack of admin time before and after, I got very strategic and intentional throughout the past week. I knew that by doing so, I'd see much success!  

​Here are some of the things I did:

• Worked the Sat before.....and after!  The Sat before there was another event with the same networking group. Normally I don't do events on Sat am because I like them to be family time. However, since I was getting the family time the following Fri, I made the exception. This also gave me face time with some of the same people I was going to miss on Fri.
• I posted in the FB group for the networking event before AND after the event. This ensured that people saw my face and thought of me, even though I wasn't there.  Additionally, my post ​reinforced my brand message. I teach people to balance happy lives with happy businesses.  To reinforce this message, I shared in the group the reason I wouldn't be there so I could be an example of what I teach.

• I scheduled 1:1 meetings with people from the group during the week.
• I attended networking events with two separate groups the day before.
• I worked early Fri morning and Fri late afternoon/early evening to ensure the admin things I had to do got accomplished.

So often we all strive for balance and when we don't get it, we feel defeated. Balance on a daily basis is an illusion. The key is to try and find balance within a week or month. As you can see from my example above, not every day can be perfectly balanced.  We can, though, take time at the start of a week or a month to remember what's most important to us, both at work and home, and build time for each into our plans. ​
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Something exciting has happened this week that I wanted to share with you! The online promotion for my April Magnify Your Marketing Program has officially launched. This promotion includes a lead page that was created and daily Facebook Ads for the next 5 weeks leading up to the program.  

The best (and most exciting!) part about this for me is that I AM NOT DOING IT!!!!  That's right, I've hired a team to take care of this for me.  Sure, I could have done this myself but the results would NOT have been the same because my knowledge is only basic and my time is limited.  In the weeks ahead you'll see some cool things unfolding and I'll share different tips with you about what I've been learning from my awesome team. 

​You may be wondering why I chose the Digital Hook. Honestly, I've been looking for the right team for about 3 years now.  James is in my Bolingbrook Chamber Bang 2 Referral Group.  I've been observing him since early last fall. I'd listen to things he'd say at meetings and pick up little nuggets in passing conversations. The more I heard, the more I felt they were the ones. In a brief 3 min conversation after one meeting, James shared about how he LOVES the clients that don't believe online marketing can get results. He quickly shared how he enjoys proving them wrong and seeing the joy they get when their business suddenly grows by leaps and bounds.  Jame's wife, Tawanna recently left her job to be full-time with the business. Seeing how James was able to replace his own 6 figure job, and is set up to do the same with his wife's job, showed that he has traveled my path of leaving a high level job and opening a business to replace that income.  Additionally, Jame's family is very important to him and his kids are part of the business, just like my Z&B.  They say "People Buy People" and that is so true.  That's always the most important part of a buying decision for me.  

This time, though, was different.  I have VERY AMBITIOUS goals for 2017 and it's crucial that 1) I don't try to accomplish them on my own and 2) I have a team supporting me that has taken other businesses to the places I'm looking to go.  Once my gut knew The Digital Hook was the team, I continued to observe. This time it was listening to others that have used them and hearing about their results. That's what finally sold me and I'm happy to say that every minute of my working with them has EXCEEDED MY EXPECTATIONS!

There are a couple others that I know well that passed the "People Buy People" test.  Although I did not chose them to be the online team for Z&B's promotion, I will be pulling them in to be part of my support team and will tell you all about them in future editions. 

If you write a blog or put out a newsletter (or have been thinking about starting one), you may have wondered from time to time "Is anyone reading what I write?" or "Is it even worth the time I am taking?". This subject has gotten a lot of traction the past week amongst my Coaching Club clients. It first started in the Facebook group and later came up again in our Monthly Mastermind/Workshop yesterday.  Here's a little of the wisdom that myself and others shared.  

First, EVERYONE is NOT going to read our stuff and that's OK. The world is simply on information overload. When we write, our goal should be two-fold:

1. Impact the lives of those who are able to take time to read
2. Stay top of mind and create a positive feeling about us and our services for those who can't take time to read.

​One of my clients, Jessica Olivito of the Sozo Group sent out a great newsletter this week.  Discussion about it came up in the group and we had people who identified with scenario #1 above and people who identified with scenario #2.  I was in scenario #2 and explained how warmed my heart was when I saw the email come through and how I skimmed it and clicked the link but didn't have time to delve into reading. Most people will be in #2, which is frustrating knowing how long we take to put out a newsletter.

What can we learn from this?

• It's important to streamline the process so it's not such a drain on our time.  Doing so will allow us to be consistent and present with those who want to hear from us.
• Don't sweat the small stuff and embrace imperfection. You all read a few weeks ago about how I hadn't sent my newsletter out in a year. What I didn't share was that during the year, I had written a newsletter two different times. Both times it was 95% ready to go. I had every intention of coming back to it but wasn't able to each time.  Hitting send would have accomplished #1 and #2 above with my followers and let them know I was still alive, had I not of sweated the small stuff.  
• Take the great stuff we do and repurpose it. Here are some ideas I gave Jessica for ways to repurpose her newsletter.
  • ​Jessica's newsletter linked to 3 articles. Throughout all 3 articles, there are nuggets that can be pulled to create social media images. She could also probably create a 'free offer' with some of the content.  
  • She can share it with places that also serve her ideal clients and ask them to share w/their people. For Jessica that is churches. Additionally, she can post it in places like online newspapers, Facebook and LinkedIn. She can also ask key partners to share on their Facebook pages & in groups they are in to increase exposure.  

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Repurposing may seem like tons more work. The point is not to stress, or to add more to your list of to-do's.  Instead, to look at your to-do list and see where you can cut work down by using some of what you've already done.  Once you do, you'll feel excited because you've taken 1 task that takes so much time and maximized that effort by increasing your visibility and the # of people who see it.  The information above, for example, was copied from a comment I posted in my Facebook group.

Let me leave you with a few tips that came from a mastermind discussion.  The question proposed to the group was "What do you look for when you decide to read a newsletter?"  The responses varied with each person.  The lesson here was to be your true self and those who are meant to be attracted to you will be.  For those who aren't, that's totally ok.  What else did the group share they look for in a newsletter?  

• Eye catching
• Short, quick reads (which this blog surely is not!)
• Resonating with the person and/or knowing them
• A topic of interest
• A mixture of videos and articles 
• Breaking the text up with images and 'read more' links

The biggest take-away, which pairs well with the information shared above, was "Less is more!"