Happy Friday, I hope things are going well.
I published a new poem today. I hope you like it. The poem misted into my thoughts one morning when I was listening to the world around me wake up and before the noise of traffic drowned out my thoughts. You can read it here. Silence Misting
I like word games, brain teasers, riddles etc. They make me think and let me have fun at the same time. When you add the fact that I like reading and writing you will understand why I have added a new page to my website.
My question for you is if you could receive a card in the mail with a couple of brain teasers in it would you like it? I would so I’m setting up a page for that purpose.
Please note there is no cost or obligation to subscribe to this fun and mentally stimulating service. I’m doing it for the fun of it.
You can learn the details here… Brain Teasers
I ashamed of the New England Patriots.
I believe that until the investigation into the rape allegations against Antonio Brown are resolved he should not be playing football.
I cannot support a team that supports a public figure accused of rape.
I am no longer a fan and will trash all my Patriots gear.
Shame on the management and owners of the New England Patriots. Money has won out over decency.
When was the last time you received a personal letter in the mail?
How did it make you feel?
When was the last time you sent a letter or card?
Sadly the world has jumped on board with email, texting, instant messaging and abandoned snail mail.
Do remember the pleasure of going to the mail box and getting something besides bills and flyers?
I have discovered that I enjoy writing letters. It is probably one of the nicest things I do for myself and other people. I am sad to admit that I didn’t do it often enough in the past. I can change that now.
I have been using a system for a few years that lets me send real cards in the mail. I get the pleasure of writing the card and knowing that the person I’m sending it to is getting a card in the mail. I didn’t use it as much as I wanted because I was limited by how much I had in my account every month. At the end of April that all changed! I can now send as many cards as I want for $97.00(USD) a month. If I only send one card a day that works out to $3.23(USD) per month based on 30 days. Now the fun part… if I send 2 cards a day it is only $1.62(USD). Every time I use the system I reduce my cost per card. AND THOSE PRICES INCLUDE POSTAGE! It is the best value I have seen for sending cards in the mail.
What a great way for everybody to be nice to people!
Send thank you cards to customers and clients.
Send thank you cards to referral partners.
Send nice to meet you cards.
Send birthday cards.
Send cards just to say hello.
Send cards to people you want to reconnect with.
Send get well cards.
Send cards just because you can.
And it gets even better…I sent in a sample of my handwriting to the company and now when I send a card I can choose my own handwriting as a font!
All this from an app on your phone.
I love this system so much that I promote it to business people as a great marketing tool and help other people get into the business themselves.
It’s easy, it’s fun and it’s affordable.
Want a free account or to learn more? Click here.
“It’s so funny how social media was just this fun thing, and now it’s this monster that consumes so many millennial lives.‘ Cazzie David
“The more social media we have, the more we think we’re connecting, yet we are really disconnecting from each other.” JR
As I was adding the poetry page to my website I was thinking of some of the poems I had written and found one about social media.
I am not against social media. I have seen it help bring people together. I have seen it used to share important information.
My struggle with social media is how disconnected we are becoming. It appears that we are too busy to answer the phone, we are too busy to call a friend, we are too busy to go for a coffee with someone.
Here are a few stats on Facebook usage;
(source https://sproutsocial.com/insights/facebook-stats-for-marketers/)
Active users as of June 30, 2017; there are 2 billion monthly active users and over 1 billion daily active users
Facebook time is decreasing and is down to an average of 35 minutes per day.
Facebook users check their page and average of 8 times a day.
It doesn’t sound like much but when you add the multitude of other social media platforms people check every day then social media time is a big part of each person’s day.
Here is a link to the page where I post my poems. I wrote Social Media one day when I was feeling very disconnected from people.
I have a few questions and a story for the sales people and business people out there.
Would you rather do more business or less business?
Would you rather do more repeat business or less repeat business?
Would you rather get more referrals or less referrals?
How much does it cost you to get new business compared to repeat and referral business?
Are you open to learning how you can make more sales and do more business?
I know when I ask those questions business people stop and listen. As a business person I ask myself every day how I can increase repeat and referral business. I use a simple, affordable system to build repeat and referral business and to generate new business.
Now the story…
Today I went for a walk in downtown Whitby. I can’t drive right now so I decided to walk and talk to business owners. I set a goal to meet and talk to 25 people and get permission to send them something.
In 24 of the businesses the managers and owners were open to me when I asked if I could send them some information, some even asked when I could email it.
In one business I went into I was referred to the “Chief Marketing Officer”. Initially he refused to speak to me but after I asked one question he did let me speak for a minute.
When I said I would like to send him some information and asked him for his card he refused. His answer was “I don’t want to get on a mailing list and get a bunch of junk in my inbox.” I explained to him again that I was going to send the information by snail mail. He begrudgingly gave me his card after a few seconds of thought.
I reassured him that I would mail not email the information and left.
Now for the interesting part of the story…
The company provides digital marketing services to business. On their website they have opt-in forms for people request information which subscribes them to their list…BUT THEY DON”T WANT TO BE ON ANYBODY’S LIST.
What do you think?
(If you are open to making more sales and doing more business get in touch.)
Networking. Being face to face with real people. Shaking hands. Listening. Looking for ways to help the people you meet. Give referrals.
Don’t try to sell, open the door to future conversations. Ask questions. Follow up. Provide value.
Have fun.
To nurture the sort of relationships that will truly help propel you towards accomplishing great things, you need to forget transactional networking and focus on having in-depth conversations with fewer people about subjects you really care about.
Naveen Jain
My advice for folks on networking is give, give, give. You will later receive. But you are really planting these seeds. Some of them will die, and they won’t become anything. Many of them will take many, many years before they pay off for you if at all.
Sallie Krawcheck
Why blog?
If you do an online search you will find thousands of sites with a number of different reasons to blog regularly. When you stop and think about it there is only one reason for a business to blog.
TO GENERATE MORE LEADS!
As a business owner you know that without leads you won’t have anybody to sell your products or services to.
Now that we’ve covered the only reason for your company to have a blog we can talk about the 5 main reasons you need to blog regularly.
Rebuilding my site and…my business
Rebuilding my website
I thought it was time to rebuild my website. I have built a number of sites for different businesses over the years and have let my site drift in limbo.
I have shifted from Weebly to WordPress. I like the fact that WordPress is easier to blog from when operating on a mobile device.
Rebuilding my business
I have taken some time to evaluate what I want to do for a living and to earn an income. I was shocked when I realized that as much as I love writing I do very little of it in my income stream. I have decided to rebuild my business.
When I was done sorting through the things I’ve done to earn a living I learned that while I am competent at many things there are two areas where I get the most satisfaction.
The first is writing.
Writing is a pretty broad term so I had to work my way through the type of writing I enjoy the most that would generate income. It boiled down to blogging. I enjoy doing the research on different topics and different industries and then writing. I enjoy writing articles that educate and entertain. I enjoy helping businesses build relationships through their websites.
The second thing I do that gives me satisfaction is my greeting card business. I enjoy sending greeting cards and teaching people how they can use greeting cards to generate business by building relationships by showing that they care. One of the aspects of my greeting card business that I like is that some of my customers ask me to help them with their writing. The second part I like is that I earn money by teaching people how to teach other people how to use the system. Yes, I am talking about SendOutCards. You can check it out clicking this link Sendoutcards.com
I look forward to hearing from you. I have already picked out my next few blog topics and am working to get myself back on track and to blogging regularly. I’ve been teaching the need for regular blogging for years and sadly let my blog slip into the realm of non-existence.
