That’s how I’m feeling.

And it shows because I haven’t been very active in social media and I haven’t updated my blog in a while. I write when I’m inspired and I get really quiet when I’m not. It’s not the way to build a blog or an audience, but as a friend of mine says all the time, “it is what it is.”

So I’ve been really quiet the last couple of weeks and it’s because I’m tired. I’m tired of a lot of things actually, including:

Social Media

Yes, I said I’m tired of social media. I didn’t realize how tired of it I was until my friend Colleen Pence sent me this link: Social Media Manager Fatigue. People, read the comments. It’s real. And be sure to click through to the article Amber Naslund wrote called Social Media and the Stages of Grief.

What I LOVED about Twitter was the personal relationships I built. Now, I have too many followers to have personal relationships with them. And each time I open TweetDeck, I groan. Even though I have neat little columns to help me keep track of conversations and people who are important to me, there is still too much for me to pay attention to and digest.  The self-inflicted pressure to stay on top of what is happening with friends, business associates, news stories and small biz articles is tough. Then there is the external pressure of others’ expectations to re-tweet their posts, participate in their contests, send kudos, etc. I’m so over it.

Am I telling you to disengage in social media? Absolutely not. Should you be on Twitter? Absolutely yes. I’m just at a different place with it than I was 2 years ago and I’m trying to figure out how to get back to what I loved about it.

Business

Can we please stop having antiquated conversations about leadership? Please? For Pete’s sake, what leadership training program has not been developed yet? Most are versions of the same thing taught 20 years ago except instead of saying, “Get the right people on the bus,” we’re using terms like “empowerment and influence.” There is so much new information out there. What aren’t people talking about it or utilizing it? I don’t know. But I sure as shootin’ am.

I’m tired of the word “innovation,” especially in Corporate settings. Not only do the leaders not understand what innovation really means, they are completely unprepared to create a work environment that supports and fosters innovation. I’m so glad I get to speak about this at the TalentNet Live unconference in San Antonio this July. Granted most of the participants and certainly the speakers are progressive thinkers so in a sense I will be preaching to the choir. But my hope is they will do something with it, because they are progressive.

The fact that HR Conferences still have a “Gaining a Seat at the Executive Table” track is ludicrous to me. Really? Heads up: the 80′s called and they want their Personnel Department back. If you don’t get it by now, find a new career please; you’re making the rest of us look bad. Laurie Ruettimann wrote about this ridiculous mentality in one of her recent blog posts. Amen Laurie!

What Does All This Mean?

I help people get radical results in their businesses by introducing uncomfortable, inspirational, research-based and scientifically-supported principles. I help people make changes in their behaviors so they can change their results.

And some things are going to be changing here at Sanera. I don’t know what it all looks like yet, but stay tuned. Who knows what will happen once all this stops percolating in my brain.

BNI (Business Networking International) is an industry-exclusive, competition-free networking group  that gathers once a week for the purpose of passing referrals to everyone in the group.

When I started my business three years ago, I joined a BNI group and I didn’t renew after my first year. Why?

1. It is a big investment in time. You have to attend or have a substitute attend for you if you can’t make it. After a few absences, you’re kicked out of the group.
2. There were some people in my group to whom I simply could not send business. For example, there was a successful Mary Kay rep in my group. But I use chemical-free Arbonne products which one of my dearest friends sells. My referrals were going to my friend, not Mary Kay.
3. I didn’t get good referrals. Part of that was because someone else in the group had some (not all) services that were similar to mine. Also, I had not fully developed the scope of my business or my target market and that made it hard for people in my group to refer to me.

I stepped away from BNI and devoted myself to social media, which has yielded fantastic results and relationships; it’s transformed my business and was totally worth the ROI.

Things to Consider Before Joining BNI

BNI (or any referrals based networking group) can be a game-changer for your business if:

• Your target market is in it or if the members know your target market
• You are willing to commit to building relationships
• The members are willing to build a relationship with you

My biggest issue with BNI is that you can only visit a group two times and then you have to make a decision about joining. Two times is not enough to get a feel for the group. When you visit, you don’t know if the referrals they pass are the norm or an anomaly. Also, knowing the professions of the members is one thing, but knowing their ethics, character and personality is something else; you can’t discover that in two visits.

Your Advice About Joining BNI

So why am I considering going back to BNI? I’d like to develop a stronger base of local business. I visited two groups and then threw this question out on Facebook:

I’m thinking about joining a BNI group. Thoughts?

Holy wow. Did people have thoughts! They are pretty insightful, so I thought I’d share. Feel free to share your thoughts about BNI or other networking groups in the comments.

John Rasiej, with Speak Louder Than Words said:

“Check whether the group has a number of members in your sphere of influence. If it’s a group dominated by home contractors and you do a whole different type of work, it may be harder for people to pass you referrals. The other thing to consider is the time/attendance commitment.”

Wendy Albers with Broadway Bank said:

“A huge commitment with ongoing expectations and accountabilities that can be tough to fulfill. At least, that’s how it was several years ago. But some folks swear by it.”

Patsy Foxworth with Foxworth Consulting Group said:

“I have visited numerous BNI’s around SA – they are excellent for small business owners/sales reps who want to grow their businesses. In the business coaching world – they are excellent for group coaching products. The one-to-one coaching product is a bit out of their investment range.”

Barbara McNeely with Mariposa Naturals said:

“The time commitment is bigger than they let on. Once you’re in, they come up with more. I put my membership on hold last fall with 8+ months remaining. Not real sure I’ll use those 8 months. It does depend, a lot, on who is in your chapter and if you’ll get good referrals. Something else to consider: based on the 2 chapters I am real familiar with, they cannot even spell Social Media. Sometimes email was difficult for them.”  I have to interject here. Barbara raises a great point about social media. Being part of a group that can spread the word about you in their face-to-face network and via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and their blogs is huge.

June Smith with Royal and Mary said this:

“In BNI it is all about the ‘power team’. These are career positions that may have the same target audience as you and refer you out to their client base. For instance, a residential realtor, a mortgage broker, a title company rep and a remodeling contractor would all have similar target prospects and can easily refer one another regularly. You must fit into a BNI where you have a great power team in place or you will have to build your own by inviting your affiliate businesses to join your group. But your affiliate businesses are probably referring you anyway so be sure there is a strong power group in place for your client type, otherwise you may not see the results you are looking for. I did not renew. My decision was based on a personal goal of getting my Chair Suits line to market by the end of 2011. I had to develop a different action plan for that. I am still decorating and designing custom draperies and bedding for income, but needed the additional time for product development. I liked BNI, but did not generated as many referrals for my group as I would have liked. I received a few very good jobs from their referrals but mostly within the group, not outside referrals.”

Ava Diamond with Feisty Women Rock said:

“So much depends on who is in the group, and if they are, or are likely to know your perfect target market/audience.”

Ricci Fitzpatrick, owner of a technology company said:

“It really does depend on the group. We got a lot of business from the BNI chapter that Frank was in, but zero from two others that we tried.”

Patricia Porter with Conflict Connections said:

“I got a similar invitation to join a BN recently. I’ve been to one in the past but didn’t feel the audience really met my target audience. I did however get a referral for a general contractor from a BNI group that was helpful. I used the general contractor too.”

What do you think?

Alicia Arenas is a business coach and corporate trainer. When she’s not singing or song-writing, she helps her entrepreneurs increase their sales through coaching and her business boot camp. Alicia is based in San Antonio, Texas, and coaches people nationwide. Like this post? Sign up for her free, monthly, non-spammy, Un-Newsletter.

Last Saturday, I had the chance to hear an outstanding speaker named Keith Lowry who enlightened us about dealing with difficult people. In his hilarious and poignant way, Keith took us through his experience dealing with an extraordinarily difficult, button-pushing person.

Part of what he learned was which battles to fight. My friends, as entrepreneurs, this is a lesson we need to learn too. There are fights that are worth every ounce of energy you expend and some that are not worth even thinking about.

For example, the employee who consistently shows up to client appointments 1 hour late? Worth the fight because he/she is affecting your brand. The vendor who is not living up to the terms of the contract which costs you profit? Worth the fight. A snide remark on Facebook or Twitter? Maybe not worth the fight.

My point is this: We have limited amounts of energy and resources. We need to use them wisely. In the words of Keith Lowry:

“Everyone knows any hound dog can whoop a skunk. But sometimes it just ain’t worth it.”

May I challenge you this week to prioritize your battles?

Alicia Arenas is a business coach and corporate trainer. When she’s not singing or song-writing, she helps her entrepreneurs increase their sales through coaching and her business boot camp. Alicia is based in San Antonio, Texas, and coaches people nationwide. Like this post? Sign up for her free, monthly, non-spammy, Un-Newsletter.

Photo courtesy of me’nthedogs via Flickr.

Sometimes I procrastinate because I’m disorganized. You know, I can’t find what I need,  so I can’t do what I need to do.

Sometimes I procrastinate because I’m lazy. I would just rather do something else like get on Twitter, talk to a friend or read a can’t-put-it-down book.

But most of the time I procrastinate because there is something happening in my mind, a fuzzy idea or belief that puts a mental STOP! sign in front of me.

Pay Attention to Procrastination

Procrastination tells us something important about our belief systems. We need to pay attention to it.

For example, a weight loss coach told me one of the most frequent reasons her customers put off starting a weight loss/exercise program is because they believe they are not worthy of being healthy or beautiful.

One of my clients (Susan) kept putting off an appointment with a prospect. Three weeks later, they were still playing phone tag. My client isn’t so overwhelmed with work that she can’t squeeze in a new client. So we talked about it. It turns out that Susan’s procrastination did not come from disorganization or laziness. It took her a long time to admit it, but Susan flat out did not want to work with this prospect.

Why? Because in the one conversation they did have, the prospect spoke to her in an arrogant tone, interrupted her multiple times and said things like, “I don’t understand why we have to do this project, but since we must, we might as well use you.”  She felt under-valued and unappreciated before the project started. That revelation enabled her to stop beating herself up about procrastinating.  More importantly, it also helped Susan make a decision: she called the prospect and gave him the names of other people he could work with.

Are you procrastinating because…

• Of fear?
• The action or activity doesn’t line up with your values at some level?
• What you need to do is not your strength?
• An internal warning bell is going off?
• You need to obtain more resources or knowledge to move forward?

Change Your Beliefs and Procrastination Will Fade

Anastasia Pryanikova, founder of  Brain Alchemy, gives us insight into how our beliefs (conscious and subconscious) impact our behaviors. In this article, she tell us about the discomfort of talking about money:

To change how we talk about money is to work against the wiring of our brains. Our brains can easily filter out the subject matter we don’t enjoy. We don’t invest a lot of mental energy into things that we don’t want to think about… Second, the brains prefer status quo, the familiar patterns of behavior. We may have inherited these patterns from our families or developed our own ways of dealing with money, which the brain turned into habits overtime. The point is we all have money stories already in our subconscious mind that drive our behavior and choices although we may not always realize it.

I believe the same is true with most everything we procrastinate doing: We all have stories in our subconscious minds that drive our behavior and choices. So figure out your internal stories and you’ll be freed to take action.

On the other hand, some things just have to get done whether you know your story or not. Procrastinating on taxes? April 15th is right around the corner.

Alicia Arenas is a business coach and corporate trainer. When she’s not singing or song-writing, she helps her entrepreneurs increase their sales through coaching and her business boot camp. Alicia is based in San Antonio, Texas, and coaches people nationwide. Like this post? Sign up for her free, monthly, non-spammy, Un-Newsletter.

Photo courtesy of Dierk Schaefer via Flickr.

Today is the three year anniversary of my business! Woo-hoo!!!

I started to write a post with all the things I’ve learned in the last three years, but it got too big. (Look for an ebook soon.)

Instead, here’s the short and simple version:

1. Do what you love.
2. Be picky about your clients.
3. Stop giving everything away! (That deserves an exclamation point.)
4. Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you are and who love you enough to tell you when you’re being a bonehead.
5. Focus.  “If you chase two rabbits, both will escape.” Anonymous
6. Face your fears and do it (whatever “it” is for you) anyway.
7. Listen to your gut – always.
8. Find a way to serve.

Thank You

There is no way I would have made it without help:

• My husband – I love you Sweetie!
• Linda Farley – you know all the reasons why.
• Michael Long – all I can say is “Duuude!”
• Colleen Pence – I’m so thankful for you.
• Debi Pfitzenmaier – it all started with a tweet and my life changed forever.

• Beverley McClure – look at what coffee led to!
• Melanie Mendez-Gonzales – you have been a life saver. Actually, more like a sanity-saver. Thank you!
• My online HR buddies: Mike VanDervort, Kevin W. Grossman, Meghan Biro, Charee Klimek, Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter
• My marketing buddies: Todd Schnick, Patty Farmer, Kent Huffman, Eric Fletcher
• My Sanera Camp grads – I am so proud of all of you!
• Stacey Thomson with the Disney Institute – thank you.
• Chris Brogan – thank you for that ticket back in 2008.
• The TEDx San Antonio organizers Todd O’Neill, Donna Tuttle, Debbie Curtis, Susan Price & George Riley – you allowed me to bring purpose to my pain by helping others. I am eternally grateful.
• And Jesus – Ephesians 2:10

To all my other wonderful friends, the people who read my blog and newsletter and everyone in the San Antonio social media space – thank you.

So that’s my two cents about being an entrepreneur. What would you add?

You are in for a treat! Welcome to the 2nd in a series of marketing specific posts for small business owners called March Marketing Madness. My guest expert today is Jeff Ogden, President of Find New Customers. I met Jeff virtually on Twitter via #B2BChat (I suggest you follow that Twitter conversation Thursday nights) and was impressed with his insights. The more I got to know Jeff, the more impressed I became. He has won awards from Marketing Sherpa and HubSpot and is an in-demand keynote speaker. The best news? He’s a small business owner who has proven success in making marketing work.

Jeff, welcome to Sanera!

Can you really market a business without a lot of money?

Many small companies and startups are afflicted with a serious problem – they have little spare cash. But they are looking to sell their product and services. With limited funds, they cannot do outbound marketing – buy ads on radio, in newspapers or on TV. They cannot buy booths at trade shows. These approaches have been primary means of attracting customers in the past.

Without deep pockets can they really market their businesses and get new sales opportunities? Have times really changed that much? If so, how can they marry those two – a lack of funds and the need to win new business?

The recession impacted businesses hard. But we can also look at today in a ‘glass is half full’ mind-set. In many ways, you’re lucky today. Technology and the advent of high speed connection and social networks means the world has changed dramatically. Brian Halligan, President of the inbound marketing software company, HubSpot (one of the fastest growing companies in the USA) says “It used to be that businesses competed on the width of their wallets. Today, they compete on the width of their brains.”

If we take Brian at his word, that means if you are smart, you can compete with the big boys – even if you lack the millions of dollars some companies spend on marketing. Let’s look at how this is done. Here are six action items you can do today – for little money:

1. Know your prospective customers – deeply (Cost: Near zero)

You want to know everything. What do they care about? Where do they turn for information? What kinds of events trigger a decision? Whom do they trust? Where do they look for answers – friends, social networks, Google, Trade Associations? Spend some time doing the research. Pick up the phone and call a few. Ask questions on LinkedIn. Create a survey (SurveyMonkey) and send it out. The better you know prospective customers, the more effective your marketing, so take your time and do it well. Document your customer map.

2. Create great content. (Cost: not more than $200)

Now that you really know what makes buyers tick. one of the best ways to demonstrate knowledge is to start writing a blog. Sign up for a blogging platform like WordPress, Blogger or Typepad. Then write and publish articles. Add images from sources like Flickr and iStockPhoto. (Look for Creative Commons licensing by doing an advanced search.)

3. Distribute your content on social networks (Cost: Zero)

Make it really easy for prospective customers to find by posting to social networks like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook as well as Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, SlideShare (presentations), YouTube (video). Also, when you post your content, add your search marketing keywords so that search engines can index it.

4. Create a simple to understand website (Cost: A few hundred dollars)

You need a good home to post your content. Make sure it is simple and easy to navigate. Add registration forms for them to sign up and download your content. (I suggest you give away some with no registration – especially simple tools and documents, while putting more in-depth content behind a gate. (Don’t ask for too much either. Name and email is a good start. People hate long and complex forms.)

5. Re-imagine your content (Cost: Not more than a couple of hundred dollars)

This is where the power comes in. Take your existing content and turn it into something different. Maybe a text interview of a thought leader can become a YouTube video. In our case, we turned a popular blog article, 7 Keys to Successful Lead Nurturing into a very slick looking Cheat Sheet. Cost for the graphics work – $100. You can also take an ebook for instance, and create a PowerPoint presentation. Upload it to Slideshare, and add a YouTube video or audio to your presentation. Again, use your keywords when you upload it.

6. Give to Get (Cost: Zero)

Become active online. Follow interesting industry people on Twitter. Check out fan pages on Facebook. Read their blogs. Once you’ve become really familiar with them, start posting thoughtful and careful comments. Do a lot of commenting on industry blogs. People really read those.

Once you’ve done those six things, keep it up. It is a marathon – not a sprint. Keep publishing, listening, posting. Over time, you will get more and more traction. Over many months, your traction will grow and grow. You will find more and more people interested in your services.

At Find New Customers, we’ve embraced this approach. In the last few weeks, we’ve had prospective customers sign up and download content and subscribe to our blog. We co-hosted a big marketing summit. We’ve been featured in two books. We were featured in a white paper on B2B blogging. We were a guest on HubspotTV recently. And we’re a young and small business with very shallow pockets.

It CAN be done. You can do it.

Who Is Jeff Ogden? Jeff is the president of Find New Customers, a demand generation consulting company with the theme “Lead Generation Made Simple” and the goal to transform the world of B2B marketing.   Jeff is also known in the B2B demand generation world for his blog The Fearless Competitor. He’s won numerous awards from entities such as MarketingSherpa and Hubspot; has been quoted by social media marketing expert Paul Gillin in the new book Social Marketing to the Business Customer; and is a highly sought-out speaker – a certified speaker for the CEO group Vistage and presenting at the CMO Thought Leadership Conference. Jeff previously worked as VP of Sales & Marketing at Greenlight LTD in London and as Global Leader for GE for Business Objects Americas. He’s a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where he earned a degree in Marketing.

You can connect with Jeff via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, his website, by phone at (516) 495-9350 or via email at jeff.ogden@findnewcustomers.com.

This was a concern of two of my clients recently. In John’s case, an ex-employee is contacting his clients trying to woo them away to John’s competition. He asked me if he should give his ex-employee a call accompanied by a smack down. He also wondered if he should reduce his prices to keep the clients that are staying.

Another client (Monica) has some big name clients she’s worked with recently. She wants to add them to her website along with testimonials. But she’s hesitant. Monica’s fear is that if she publishes their names, her competitor will actively work to recruit her clients away.

There are a lot of reasons why clients go to a competitor: New leadership, budget cuts, nepotism, etc. In my experience, these are the two most common reasons.

Why Clients Go to Your Competition

1. They’re not the right clients. They may not be your target market. But more often than not, they don’t value your products or services appropriately. In that instance, lowering your prices is not going to help. It may cause them to stick around in the short-term, but they will always be looking for the better deal. What will you do next time? Lower your prices again?
2. It’s your fault.

Look, if one of my clients leaves me to work with another coach, I’m not going to mad at that coach. How can I be? First, if I’m not a good fit for a client, I want them to find someone else who is. Second, if someone tries to steal my client and he/she does not say, “Are you kidding? Alicia changed my life. I would never consider leaving her.” That’s my fault. I have done something wrong.

There is great power in personal accountability. When you cast blame on someone else, you lose your ability to change your outcome. You see, if it’s “their” fault, “they” have to correct it and you have no control over what other people choose to do. But when you decide to address the person in the mirror rather than pointing the finger somewhere else, your outcome becomes full of endless possibilities. How? Because the one thing you can always change is yourself.

So, don’t call the ex-employee and chew them out for trying to steal clients.  Go ahead and publish your client list. Focus on doing so much good for your clients that if they ever receive a phone call from your competitor they will shout from the rooftops, “_______ takes such good care of me, I would never consider leaving!”

Related posts:

• What You Need to Know About Your Competition
• It’s Easy to Be Extraordinary
• A Little Sales Kick in the Pants

Alicia Arenas is a business coach and corporate trainer. When she’s not singing or song-writing, she helps her entrepreneurs increase their sales through coaching and her business boot camp. Alicia is based in San Antonio, Texas, and coaches people nationwide.


Photo courtesy of UNC-CFC-USFK via Flickr.