7 Keys to Marketing Without Money on Marcia Zidle Radio Show on Voice America Radio Show.  This was a fun show and I got to tell some of the best tools that I have found to get your business out there in a big way without blowing your budget.

http://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/73339/the-seven-keys-for-marketing-without-money/55181

Marketing is not an afterthought, but as an ongoing activity. This program is about the 7 keys to marketing without money. Marcia Zidle interviews Patrick Dougher, host of The Business Spotlight.

Patrick is going to speak in this interview about the 7 Keys to Marketing Without Money. Patrick learned these keys by learning from coaches like Zig Ziglar and others in Zig’s programs, and simply from trial and error. Most people jumped into marketing from finding the need, filling it, and then sending an invoice. He did it just like most entrepreneurs out there who had the insights to skip over obstacles that get in the way.  (new paragraph)  What he found was that he had to learn how to market HIMSELF better.

Make sure you are working in an area you are passionate about.

Network – put together joint venture partners who will cross-market with you. Work with others and collaborate with those in similar industries to compliment each other. Work with the best people and write references. Begin mailing to someone else’s list to market for them as well as yourself. Provide testimonials. The more social proof you have, the better you are – build your credibility and reputation so people can get to know you, refer you, and build your business. (new paragraph)  Doer says the easiest marketing technique to implement is to first find out where your clients or niche market goes and network with them. Touch others and find out what they want, and show them how you can help them.

To learn more marketing techniques from Patrick Dougher and Marcia Ziddle, call 1-866-472-5790, or send an email to Marcia@smartmovescoach.com.

Transcript:

Announcer:  It’s time to stop focusing on business problems and start focusing on the growth and leadership of your business. Welcome to The Business Edge with your host, Marcia Zidle. Learn to create a growth agenda to get your business on the right track and keep it there. Rev up your growth engine with exceptional talent and develop the right kind of leadership to move it forward, fast. Now, here is Marcia Zidle.
Marcia:  Welcome to The Business Edge, giving practical advice to entrepreneurs and business leaders in how to take your company, firm, or practice to that next level with less stress and more success. In other words, how to take the growing pains out of growth.
I’m Marcia Zidle, your Smart Moves coach, getting you on the right track, keeping you on the right track, and making sure you don’t get sidetracked.
Let’s start with two Smart Moves quotes from Seth Goden, the best-selling author who said, one, “Marketing is a contest for people’s attention.” And two, “Dig your well before you’re thirsty.” Both say you must see marketing not as an afterthought, but as an ongoing activity that captures and keeps the interest of your potential and current customers.
To help us do just that is my guest Patrick Dougher, business marketing coach and host of the TV show The Business Spotlight. He has 20 years of professional selling experience, ten years directing a self-improvement seminar called The Road Adventure, and a year with Zig Ziglar as one of his presenters. His passion is helping other reach their potential. Zig Ziglar always said, “You can have anything you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”
To help us with what this show is about, providing practical advice for business success, Patrick will give us the Seven Keys to Marketing Without Money and much more. Welcome, Patrick.
Patrick:  Thank you so much, Marcia.
Marcia:  The title of today’s program is Seven Keys to Marketing Without Money. How did you learn these keys?
Patrick:  Most of us purchase wisdom in one of two ways. Either we buy it out of a book or rent it from a coach like you, or we purchase it the long, hard way. I’m an Aggie. I probably purchased more of it through just doing stuff.
Tell me, Marcia, if you haven’t seen this with your coaching practice. A lot of business owners, they don’t start their business right from the get-go with all the funding they need, the ten-year plan laid out and it totally meshing with their purpose, their passion and their why, and its meaning to the universe, the rest of the world, and doing something for somebody. Most of us were unemployed. We were laid off and had to create something out of thin air.
I was talking to a good friend of both of ours. I believe you know Brad Stevenson. I said, “You know, Brad, I really have built my business on one statement. That is, find a need and fill it. And then, send an invoice.” The way that I’ve purchased a lot of this stuff is just like every entrepreneurs out there, just swinging for the fences every day, and getting around bright people like you, Marcia, that have the insights and wisdom in how to skip over some of those obstacles that are in the way of the early, new entrepreneur.
Marcia:  I’ve written several blog posts on what you can learn from failure. Sometimes we learn more from our mistakes and things that didn’t go well than we do from our successes. Part of what I do when I’m coaching someone is to say to them, “Look at what went right. What did you learn from that? But also look at what didn’t go right. What you can learn from that.” I think that’s what you’re really saying, that a lot of it is through going out there and learning, and learning from your experience.
Patrick:  Exactly. Working with Zig was amazing and we had a lot of fun. We had about a year of working with about 35 guys and gals around the country that were part of his certification program. We spoke all over the place on his stuff.
That was great. But what I found was that I needed to know how to market myself better. Not sell, because there’s a difference between marketing and selling. A lot of people think they get in business to sell a widget, but if they don’t learn how to market that widget and get someone to raise their hand and say, “Tell me more,” then they’re going to miss out on the universe around them that really needs their solution, but they just can’t find them because they’re not speaking in a language that particular customer can hear.
Marcia:  We’re going to get to speaking that language of the customer, but I would like to follow-up with this question. The title of the program is Seven Keys to Marketing Without Money. So how do you maximize your marketing without spending a mint? What are some things you can tell our listeners?
Patrick:  Great question. Thank you so much, Marcia. First, make sure that what you’re doing is in a passion zone. If you’re not passionate about it, if you’re not really loving what you’re doing and it’s not consistent and congruent with who you are, then by all means, there’s lots of things to sell. Go find out what you really love. I’m pretty certain, Marcia, that you have tools that help people find their purpose and their passion. Would that be fair?
Marcia:  Yes. Certainly. The first thing is make sure you’re passionate about what you want to do. What other marketing tips can you give that you’re not spending a mint?
Patrick:  Find ancillary businesses that are in complementary niches that you can collaborate with. Joint ventures is what I call them, but when I say joint ventures, I’m not thinking in a legal term joint venture.
I’m thinking you and I, Marcia, interview and talk to many of the same people. The people that could be on my show could be on your show. The people that understand that what we do is marketing will pay for what we do as marketing. That’s an idea.
That’s just an example. We’re in a similar industry and, yet, you do something completely different from what I do. But yet we literally talk to many of the same people. Does that make sense?
Marcia:  It makes sense. That makes sense to me because we are in similar industries, but what other examples can you give to the listeners out there of complementary industries?
Patrick:  A couple of other ones are in the industrial area, building stuff, how many of those subcontractors can refer business to each other? This guy needs an electrician. Behind the electrician is the _____ and the _____. You build a list of these ways to collaborate so you make sure you’re working with the best people on the best jobs all the time.
Another way you can begin to really maximize your marketing, amazingly enough, is doing something like getting on LinkedIn and write a recommendation for people that you know that could be clients or yours, or have been clients. Write them something nice. That way the people who look at them see your recommendation, see your name, and that halo effect is actually a very inexpensive way of creating some marketing. That’s an online solution.
There are other things like mailing to somebody else’s list. If I wanted to write people that I know about your show, which I intend to do, then I’m going to sit there and say, “Marcia does the best radio show that I’ve been on in the last few years. You’ve got to get on her show.” Then I’m marketing for you.
But what’s really fun is, usually, that creates what I call a psychic get where the other person goes, “I can do that, too.” Or, you can pre-arrange it. That cross-marketing is awesome. Testimonials are awesome. Testimonials should be in every different form: written, audio, video. I know that some people are uncomfortable doing some of that, but the fact is that the more social proof that you have, the better off you are.
Marcia:  What you’re really talking about is building a reputation and building your credibility so that people know you and can refer you and can help you in building your business.
Patrick:  That is exactly right.
Marcia:  You’ve given three or four really good keys to maximize marketing without spending a mint, and those are the things that are building your credibility. What have you found to be the easiest to implement?
Patrick:  The easiest to implement is first getting out to the networking groups. Go to Meetup.com. Go to EventBright.com. Go to the LinkedIn groups and find out when they’re having meetings. Get out into your marketplace and begin to see who your ideal client is. Where do they hang out? And go there. It’s so funny, but somebody said it years ago: “Find out where your clients like to play, what playpen they like to get in, and go join them there,” because just hanging out with them, you get that ability to tell them what you do.
There are some keys to doing that, too, but I’m trying to throw some easy things out there to get people out of their shell and begin to step into the marketplace and to have a way of touching others and saying, “This is the solution that I bring to the table. This is what I do.”
It’s like you, Marcia. You help businesses get their phones ringing and doors swinging through proper systems. I do the marketing that helps people get their phones ringing and doors swinging through the online stuff that I do.
Marcia:  What you’re really saying is a couple of things for the listeners. Here are some key points. Networking is extremely important. Get out there. Get known. Get to know the people.
But I think there’s another piece you alluded to, which is it’s not going to 50 groups every week or every month. It is trying to determine which groups are best for you. Which groups are you going to meet your potential clients? You have to be somewhat discriminatory. Would you say that?
Patrick:  Absolutely. You hit that nail right on the head.
Marcia:  This is Marcia Zidle, your Smart Moves coach. You’re listening to The Business Edge, taking the growing pains out of growth on Voice America’s Business Channel. My guest is Patrick Dougher. We’re going to get into how do you implement this? These are great ideas, but let’s move into the how tos. Stay tuned.
Announcer:  You are tuned in to The Business Edge with Marcia Zidle. To reach Marcia or her guests on today’s show, please call (866) 472-5790. You can also send us an e-mail to Marcia@smartmovescoach.com.
Marcia:  My guest today is Patrick Dougher and he’s talking about the Seven Keys to Marketing Without Money. He’s given us some really good tips, but we need to go a bit further. We need to look at how to implement these keys. It sounds like a lot of work, Patrick. Is it?
Patrick:  The answer is yes. It is a lot of work. But one of the things a lot of people need to understand is there are systems that can help you. When you look at marketing, it’s about getting someone to raise their hand and say, “Tell me more.” Whether it’s audio, video or articles that you produce for the online universe, make sure that you’re posting those out there in your social media and things of that nature.
The biggest mistake that people make though, Marcia, is that they go out to Facebook and they read everybody’s warm fuzzies that are being pitched around. They throw in a few of their own touches of wisdom. They try to sell too often. They make these mistakes.
The other thing that they do is then they go to Twitter and then they go to Pinterest and then they go to da-da-da. It’s like, “Oh my God, I could ruin three hours or have this massive time suck.” All you’re doing is playing. That’s what it looks like to everybody around you. And that’s what it feels like to you. And yet, you think, “I’m doing branding. I can do branding!” You’re like, “Ow, this hurts!” That’s especially true for people who are high drivers. They want to get everything done and they don’t like people anyway.
Marcia:  I’m not sure about that, because I’m a driver at times, too.
Patrick:  I think you get it, though. It’s that person who thinks, “I don’t care that much about social media. I just want to make the sale.” It’s like, “Don’t complain about the birth pains. Just show me the baby.”
But the point in all of that is that yes, even for that person that just wants to “git r done” and get on going down the road and help people and get paid for it, the biggest mistake is don’t do it from the social media site. Post it on your site. Put it on your site and then push it from there out to Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter.
There’ are several resources out there that will do that for you. One of the things I like to do is look for massive value. There’s a tool called OnlyWire. OnlyWire will take your posts and it will deposit it and post it for you on a bunch of different sites. You set up the accounts. You drop in the thing. You fill out the form. Boom! It’s done and it’s very, very inexpensive. It’s like $12 a month and you can have a thousand of those. Nobody ever uses that many, but that’s the program. That’s an easy one.
Another one is make sure that you have a follow-up program. If you’re out there networking with people and you get their card, make sure that you put that card into a database that has some form of CRM attached. That customer relationship manager makes a difference. The cheapest and best one that I’ve ever seen, and I’m sure there are others, is a thing called Contactually. It’s a plug-in to Gmail. If you use Gmail or things like that, you can use this. It’s an online service. It’s cheap. I’ve never paid anything for it, but it’s $20 a month if you did. I just share it with people and get free months. Everybody somebody clicks on my affiliate link, I get a free month and they get a free month. Everything is good. Then they can test it. The whole reason I mention Contactually is because I’ve seen it to be one of those valuable marketing tools that allows you to keep your relationships current.
Marcia, in your work, I know you do this really well. You understand that every relationship we have is like a diamond. How many diamonds do you throw away each year?
Marcia:  You’re asking me how many I do? Probably more than I should.
Patrick:  Some of us drop them. We don’t really cast them away. We just stop communicating with them. We lose track of them. We’re not utilizing.
This Contactually tool is really cheap and easy. I’m not trying to get you into high-end stuff. It’s just easy. It goes out and grabs all the e-mails you have in your system. Everybody has a contact. It piles them up. It piles up everybody that’s in your LinkedIn. In my LinkedIn, I have a fair number.
Marcia:  How many do you have in LinkedIn, just out of curiosity?
Patrick:  Close to 2,000. And then, on Facebook, they only allow you 5,000, so I guess I’m about tapped. The point is all of those people are then piled into one database. Contactually pulls out each day 25 people for me to follow up with.
I just click “follow up.” I have a template already set up. I pick up that template and hit send. Done. I do about 25 of them in ten minutes, I’m done every day. I’m just reaching out and saying, “Hey, we haven’t talked in a while. What are you doing nowadays?”
Notice I didn’t say, “I am amazing and you should hire me.” I’m just saying, “Hey, what’s going on in your life?” Let’s create a dialogue. Let’s get somebody to raise their hand and say, “I’ll talk to you.” Then you create that dialogue that lets you find out their needs. If I’m not the right person to solve those needs, do I know the right person? I started about eleven networking groups, so I meet people a lot. I probably know two or three people they need to know.
Here’s another golden key: introduce them. Go ahead and make the introduction because the beauty of it is, as you know Marcia, when you introduce somebody, even if nothing comes out of it, you did a good thing. You’re a hero now to two people, not just one.
Marcia:  Great ideas. What do you do when you send out 25 and you only hear from two or three people?
Patrick:  That’s two or three people.
Marcia:  That’s two or three people. The other 23 or 22, do you contact them again?
Patrick:  I contact them again in about 45 to 60 days. The next time their name comes up, “Hey, what’s going on now?”
The point is everybody has tons of people who are trying to get their attention. In our inbox, Marcia, would you say that you get over 100 e-mails a day?
Marcia:  It can happen, yes.
Patrick:  It can happen. I get over 300 a day, every day, because I’ve raised my hand a few times. How much of it is actual e-mail? Two?
Marcia:  Maybe a little more than that.
Patrick:  Seven? Seventeen? Usually, a lot of it is just static. That’s the way people are looking at some of these e-mails and some of these other things. It’s static. But every once in a while, the static clears enough so that your message can get through.
Realize that marketing is less about what you say and more about that you touch. But make sure when you touch, it’s sending a message that they want to hear. It’s understanding your ideal client and really defining them. Part of marketing without money really is understanding, “Who do I want to talk to?”
When you and I are looking at people to talk to, I’m pretty certain if you sat there and said, “It’s an advanced degree, typically a master’s or doctorate-level person; they could be published; they’re probably a leader, like a CEO, CFO or COO of a company or someone in an advanced position in management, maybe even a founder; somebody that would have influence; somebody that wants themselves to reach their potential.”
What I do is about messaging, giving them the platform to message. What you do is giving them the mindset and the material, the ideas, to get them through the breakthrough, to get them to that next level in their career and in their business’s growth.
I understand who I’m supposed to be talking to, so I don’t go to poor people’s networking groups. That sounds really tacky, doesn’t it? It’s not meant to, but the reality is, in a lot of Meetups, you have 72 MLMs trying to sell to each other. Don’t go there. If you walk in and that’s what you see, get out. Seriously.
Find one like a CEO Netweavers. If you’re a high-end professional, you’re going to look at some of the mastermind organizations out there like the Alternative Board of Vistage or some of these other ones that are out there. The fact is you’ve got to be hanging with the people who can hire you. If you’re selling a $3,000 to $5,000 solution, you can’t be hanging around people selling candles that smell pretty.
Marcia:  How I language this is the idea of strategic networking. Networking just to go out there and meet 10, 20, 30, 50 people and exchange cards doesn’t work. I think what you’re saying is target your potential client, target your market, and go to the places where they hang out. Correct?
Patrick:  That’s it. That’s the key. And then go play with them when they want to be touched, talked to, engaged with. Some people post on social media all hours of the day. You know there’s about four times the week that are really popular and every other time is kind of a waste of noise?
Marcia:  . This is Marcia Zidle, you’re Smart Moves coach. You’re listening to The Business Edge, taking the growing pains out of growth, on Voice America’s Business Channel. When we return, Patrick Dougher will continue his great info about marketing without money. Stay tuned.
Announcer:  You are tuned in to The Business Edge with Marcia Zidle. To reach Marcia or her guests on today’s show, please call (866) 472-5790. You can also send us an e-mail to marcia@smartmovescoach.com. Now, back to The Business Edge.
Marcia:  Welcome back. My guest is Patrick Dougher and he’s been giving us great insights on marketing without money and went into some of the tools that we can use to reach and impact our customers, both current and potential customers.
Patrick, I saw the list of things that you have recommended, those marketing tips, and one of those is public speaking. I know I do a lot of it. I love to speak to groups. I do keynotes. That’s where you can really impact a group of people. It’s beyond just one-on-one. Now you’re dealing with a whole group of people who can hear you. You can touch them. You can find out what’s on their minds. Tell me more about public speaking. Why do you think it’s so important, and how do you do it well?
Patrick:  Thank you, Marcia. One of the things that’s really important is, in my life, I found that being able to speak efficiently and effectively – not necessarily perfectly, but effectively – has been the number one biggest impact to my business growth, bar none without exception.
At any level of business growth, that ability to stand in front of a room and actually be able to communicate an idea effectively so that they understand what you just said is actually pretty incredible. A lot of people envy it. In fact, they say public speaking is the biggest fear, period. It’s above death.
Marcia:  Right, most people fear public speaking more than death, which I don’t quite understand.
Patrick:  We’re the ones that have been up front before. But I will tell you, one of the things that’s really important is, if you’re going to get out there, you need to learn how to be effective in front of a group. I know that there’s Toastmasters. I know that Flannigan Training has a great effective speaker class. Carnegie has a great effective speakers’ class. But what they’re going to teach you how to do is open strong, keep your points consistent and keep your content to what is the answer to their question.
In this case, what are the keys to marketing without money? Great. This is one of the biggest because, when you stand in front of an audience, when you stand in front of a group, you’re the obvious expert. You’re now the teacher. You’re the edu-tainment. I say that in a meaningful way. If you’re not some way edu-taining, if you can’t entertain and educate, you’re going to be boring. People don’t want boring.They want to find out what you have in your heart, what you want to do to help them get where they want to go? How can you do that? They want that to come out.
Some of the things you want to look at are make sure that your message is core to you and your business. Make sure that you have a very short system to give them, like “the 7 biggest sins in your industry” or “the 11 biggest things that someone in your industry will never tell you about” or “The 9 insider secrets.” Those are low numbers. Notice that they are all odd numbers, which is odd but it seems to work well that way. It’s the small amount of information that gives the idea that you have a clue and they’re going to get something. They’re going to get information to help them.
One of the keys that I found I’ve seen too many times, Marcia. Have you ever seen somebody who is fairly new to speaking step up to a podium or a lectern and they grab the podium and their knuckles turn white? They obliterate themselves and do a horrible job. This will sound kind of graphic, but what they’ve done in a spiritual way is they’ve pulled their eyes out of their head, set them on the podium, looking back at themselves and then tried to present from the perspective of ripping themselves to shreds over everything they do. “Should I have laughed? Should I have said that? I blew that joke.”
Marcia:  Just a piggy-back on what you’re saying and then I want to get some more of your ideas on public speaking, but what I find is someone who is new or nervous, they’ll get up and they’ll apologize. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t have as much time to prepare,” or “My slides may not be legible.”
I think that’s one of the worst sins you can make. You need to get up there full of confidence, even though you may be shaking inside, and if your message is important to them and it’s important to you, then that’s what you should be concentrating on.
Patrick:  That’s absolutely right. But here’s the question. If I had one question that would change the paradigm, would you let me share it with your audience?
Marcia:  Sure.
Patrick:  Okay, here’s the question. When you get up there and you’re about to deliver any talk, ask yourself one question: “What do these folks really need to know right now about what I’m going to deliver? What is it they need to know right now?” And then answer that one question.
Marcia:  I heard a professional speaker talk about how before he goes on stage, he tells himself, “This is not about me. It’s about them.” That’s it. That says it in five or six words.
Patrick:  That’s the whole reason I’m saying “What is it they need to know?” It puts your eyes back in your head, it gets them looking in the right direction, and it gets your heart and your energy focused on them. The audience needs to know something from you.
It’s so critical that you learn how to be effective. You don’t have to be a professional. Go to Toastmasters. Go to Flannigan Training. Go to Carnegie. They’re great programs.
There’s one other one that I want to make sure that we cover that’s really important for an entrepreneur or a business owner, and that is get into some form of a mastermind group. It’s a form of coaching where you have several six, eight, ten people, who are peers who are not in your specific niche that understand business growth from their perspective. They don’t have your limiting beliefs. That’s critical. They don’t have your limiting beliefs.
When you’re there, there are four questions that I think every mastermind group should be asking and answering. They should know what’s going on in your business, and what do you want to be going on in your business?
Marcia:  What’s going on now?
Patrick:  It’s as is and should be. What do you want it to be, and then what’s the barrier? What’s in your way? And what would it mean to you if we got through that barrier? If the group began to work on that barrier and they brought you solutions and systems and things of that nature from a different perspective and you implemented those and gave you accountability, it’s amazing.
The idea behind the mastermind is probably older than this, but in the old book “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill, he talked about the mastermind group that Carnegie and Edison and Ford and Harvey Firestone had. One of the coolest statements, I think Edison said it, “Independently, we’re all pretty bright guys. But together, it seems that there’s no problem we can’t solve.”
That’s what happens. There’s a group mind – a mastermind – that begins to show up that literally helps people break through at a phenomenal rate. I know that if somebody wanted to be involved in a mastermind, Marcia, you probably have facilitated many of those. You would be a great person to connect to on that and just create something that has massive synergy.
I will also tell you that the free mastermind groups that are out there where the five buddies from whatever that you do casually don’t usually work well. The ones that work the best are the ones that people pay. And it seems like the more you pay, the better it gets. Whether it be a tab or a vistage or something with you, paying $500, $600, $700 a month is not uncommon in that industry. I’m not throwing any numbers out there to blow anybody away. I’m just trying to set a stage that if you’re really trying to get to the next level, trying to break through a ceiling that’s a limiting belief in your own mind, hiring somebody like you, Marcia, is a Godsend.
Marcia:  I want to thank you for that plug. Yes, I have done masterminds and peer coaching groups.
I think this is the most important question for our audience. What should people do now with what they have learned?
Patrick:  The first thing is identify your client. Really get a good idea who your ideal client is, and then begin to create a message that they want to hear, something they can resonate with. Then go find those people networking, online, offline or any other way.
Marcia, quite honestly one of the biggest things they can do – and I know this sounds like a serious suck up and I suppose it is – is they need to connect to you. They need to get into a program that helps them see their blind spots and coaches them through that mess so that their message reaches the audience that it’s intended for to create the result that they’re really wanting. I know the things that you do, Marcia, would make all the difference in the world for them. I know they can connect with you.
By the way, I’m using a PowerPoint that I created to keep me on track with this. They can get it. If they e-mail you, let me know and I will e-mail it to them or you can, whichever. But the idea is that I’d love for them to have the information most of all.
Marcia:  This is Marcia Zidle and when we come back, Patrick Dougher will tell us about getting in contact with him and we’ll be going to Marcia’s Musings. Stay tuned.
Announcer: You are tuned in to The Business Edge, with Marcia Zidle. To reach Marcia or her guest on today’s show, , please call 1-866-472-5790. You can also send us an e-mail to marcia@smartmovescoach.com. Now, back to The Business Edge.
Marcia:  We have heard the Seven Keys to Marketing Without Money with my guest Patrick Dougher. Patrick, you have a couple of ways to update and connect with the audience. Can you tell them what the different ways are to connect with you?
Patrick:  Sure. I’d love to, Marcia. Thank you so very much. My website is  HYPERLINK “https://www.doertv.com” www.doertv.com. You’ll see my TV show. You can watch it. There’s always some great information on marketing and business development that come from my guests and the different shows that I host and co-host.
You can also go to my Facebook fan page. It’s Facebook.com/thebusinessspotlighttv. You can go there or you can get to me on Twitter at @bizspotlightv. Those are the ways to connect to me in the universe, so to speak. You can e-mail me at patrick@doersuccess.com.
If you want to see what we’ve been able to create for our guests on our show, literally take Patrick Dougher and drop it in to Google and hit enter. Put it in quotes and then hit the videos tab. You should see a number that’s in excess of 50,000 video links that we’ve been able to create for guests who have been on our show. I create a marketing tool that helps business owners get their message into the marketplace in a massive way.
Marcia, the other thing is, if they want the Powerpoint, they can either e-mail me or e-mail you. I’d love for them to e-mail you so that you get to see who’s connecting with me, as well. What’s your e-mail?
Marcia:  It’s marcia@smartmovescoach.com.
Thank you so much, Patrick. It’s been a delight. I’ve had so much fun talking with you. You are both a consummate professional and also a good friend. Thank you.
Patrick:  Thank you. You bet.
Announcer:  It’s time for Marcia’s Musings – a tasty morsel of wisdom and wit to take the growing pains out of growth.
Marcia:  Are there some rules that need to be broken? Stop at the red. Go on green. Wait your turn. Treat others the way you would like to be treated.
Certain timeless rules are better obeyed than not. But are there certain ones that can and should be modified or even replaced? In today’s constant changing business world, many of the rules that guided previous generations of managers may no longer apply or, at least, be relevant.
A business client during a recent staff retreat said, “If you’re not breaking rules on a regular basis, your customers and markets are going to somebody else. So look, listen and change.” What she was really saying is that she wanted everyone on her staff to know that the task of managers can no longer be just seeing that things get done in a timely manner. They have to do more than that. It’s time to get rid of business as usual.
Effective managers today must be committed to do new things and to do routine things in a new way. It comes down to breaking some long-standing rules about managing people, managing projects and managing businesses.
Here are some examples:
Old rule: Strive to maintain the status quo, but react quickly when change happens. 
New rule: Don’t wait for change to hit you. Anticipate it. Plan for it. And make it happen on your terms.
Old rule: Management’s job is to make decisions. 
New rule: Management’s job is to facilitate decisions made by those closest to the customer or the situation.
Old rule: Avoid conflict at all cost. People can’t handle it.
New rule: Create conditions that get people to grapple with different perspectives, which will lead to better solutions and results.
Old rule: Tell employees what to do and when to do it and how to do it. 
New rule: Give employees the resources and support they need, then stand back and let them do their job.
Here is a Smart Moves tip. Letting go of rules that have served you well can be difficult, but holding on to them can be fatal. Don’t allow yourself or your people to get comfortable with the status quo. Don’t get stuck thinking what has made us successful so far will continue to make us successful in the future. Think about this. Are there some rules that need to be broken or at least modified? Which ones?
Do you know how to lead right, hire right, motivate right and get the right results? Quickly build the right skills to manage your priorities, your people and their performance in your business with “Quick Wins: 101 Management Tips that Get Results.” Send an e-mail to marcia@smartmovescoach.com with “Quick Wins” in the subject line, or call me at (972) 380-9181.
Announcer:  You’re listening to Marcia Zidle, the Smart Moves coach, making sure you’re on the right track and not getting sidetracked in your drive for high performance and profitability.
Marcia:  Next week’s program is the strategic value of CEO peer advisory groups. Networking with successful executives is a key tool in the success of any business, particularly when things are going tough.
David Torrance, president and CEO of Renaissance Executive Forums, will show you how business owners, CEOs and other top executives find strength and direction through a working group of trusted local advisors, all of whom have expertise and success drawn from the real world. Tune in Wednesday, October 16 at 11:00 a.m. Pacific, 2:00 p.m. Eastern.
Here is a Smart Moves tip to fast track your effectiveness this week. Hunt elephants every day. Go after your high-payoff priorities. Minimize the time spent on stomping ants — those tasks that give you a quicker kill and higher body count but don’t put much meat on the table.
Are you an ant stomper or an elephant hunter? If you want to be more of an elephant hunter, then contact me at marcia@smartmovescoach.com or (972) 380-9181. I’ll quickly get you on the track.
Thank you for listening. Tune in every week, 11:00 a.m. Pacific, for The Business Edge with Marcia Zidle, the Smart Moves executive coach and speaker, helping entrepreneurs and business leaders take their company, firm, or practice to that next level with less stress and more success. In other words, how to take the growing pains out of growth. Innovate, improve, ignite or die. Make Smart Moves. Thank you.