Business Blogging Pros welcomes our newest client, Seaside Shoes.
Our team has created what promises to be a fun blog. About twice a week, we'll publish some lighthearted trivia or historical tidbit about shoes. We also plan to run a couple of fun contests just to see what happens.
Our desire is that some of the traffic will spill over onto Seaside Shoes' main website and they'll sell a few pairs of Crocs as a result.
Mike Leeds is one of my clients. Mike works with companies, managers, teams, and individuals to increase their sales and profitability.
I helped Mike start his blog about eight months ago. Mike is living proof that you don't have to dedicate a lot of time to blogging in order for it to produce results. Mike writes a new post on his blog about every other week. He recently told me that he landed a new client in NYC as a direct result of blogging. He received a phone call from a consulting firm in New York, NY looking for assistance with developing a sales process for their team. They read his blog, checked out his website, and gave him a call.
I've known Mike for a long time and I will tell you that he is very good at his craft. The cold hard truth however is that the New York firm would never have known about Mike except for his blog. And consider as well that there are probably dozens of other firms in New York offering the same kind of service as Mike.
To Mike's credit, he is doing everything right:
Mike is building a great example of what Hugh MacLeod calls his Global Microbrand. It's a microbrand because it is what Mike wants to be known for. It's global because Mike can live in Phoenix Arizona and his market is not limited to the people that live here.
Way to Go Mike!
Business Blogging Pros welcomes The Healthy Cooking Coach as our newest client.
I met Rachel when I was speaking recently at a conference of the National Speakers Association. I'm a foodie myself so we hit it off right away. I think what interested Rachel the most was that her blog could serve as a website as well. When you look at her blog, you can see pages dedicated to a description of her services, press releases, her book, as well as her own Amazon store.
The initial cost of creating a site like this is higher that just a basic blog, but the big advantage to this approach is that you don't need to rely upon a webmaster. Once everything has been set up, you can update the content as frequently as you like all by yourself.
Business Blogging Pros welcomes our newest client, Allan Himmelstein and the Scottsdale Arizona franchise of The Alternative Board
I was talking to a friend who is the CEO of a multi-million-dollar company just yesterday. He was bemoaning the fact that he does not have a mentor or anyone to bounce ideas off of. He has nowhere to turn to discuss his problems and issues. He is a candidate for joining one of Allan's boards because their purpose is exactly that - to provide you with a peer group with which you can share and discuss ideas, challenges, and issues and learn from each other.
Business Blogging Pros welcomes EJ Kai and Dry Cleaning Zen as our newest client.
EJ Kai is a thought leader in the drycleaning industry. I - who knows nothing about drycleaning - was fascinated. EJ wanted a platform to share his thoughts, views, and opinions with the rest of the world about dry cleaning.
You will notice that Dry Cleaning Zen does not look like your ordinary Typepad blog. We have an outstanding graphic designer here at Business Blogging Pros. Frankly, she is the best graphic designer I have ever known. I have been looking forward to the opportunity to show off her talents. If you want a custom design for your Typepad blog we can do that for you very reasonably.
Business Blogging Pros Welcomes Sue Shipman and the Institute for Optimum Balancing as our newest client.
This is Massage For Your Brain and it's cool. And it works.
Business Blogging Pros welcomes Cindy Kenna and Staging Solutions, LLC as our newest client. Cindy is a Home Stager. Almost everyone knows what home staging is, but for those that don't, it is a mild form of redecorating a home that is for sale with the intent of making it more appealing to prospective buyers, and many times with the added bonus of a higher sale price.
Home Stagers normally market their services to realtors. Our purpose with Cindy's blog is to talk directly to the home seller, educating them,opening their mind to staging's potential, and dispel some of the misconceptions produced by shows such as Designed to Sell.
Business Blogging Pros welcomes Mike Leeds and Pro Sales Coaching as our newest client.
MIke is also the President of AZ Sales Pros. I have known Mike through AZ Sales Pros for a couple of years. Mike's passion is helping professional salespeople be more effective. I have actually been to a couple of Mike's workshops and found them to be very beneficial.
Mike is clearly enjoying blogging
Business Blogging Pros welcomes RV Hometown and Jaime Bruzenack and Alice Zyetz as our newest client. Jamie and Alice have an online store, RV Hometown in which they dispense advice about seeing the country in an RV, including topics such as working on the road. They also offer a series of books published by various authors providing advice about various aspects of RVing.
Through their blog, Jaime and Alice's will provide advice, tips, and techniques. They will publish reviews of the campsites they stay at, and provide us with tales of their adventures!
Business Blogging Pros welcomes Leo Gillen Consulting as our newest client. I met Leo at CONFAB last week.
As Leo says, the world is changing at warp speed. Our markets, economies, and business enviroments are changing, and the pace of change is continually accelerating. Leo helps companies not only cope with these changes, but to actually thrive upon them and leverage them.
Leo has a lot of interesting, thought-provoking ideas and it will be fun to learn from him via his blog.
Business Blogging Pros wecomes Predix Link Inc as our newest client.
I've been working with Lori, Patty, and Kevin for about a month and they are a smart bunch of people. Predix is in the business of executive development and team building, but in a way that is unique. Thrugh a combination of personality profile testing, online simulation, and an impressive amount of knowledge and skill, they are able to produce amazing results.
We are going to be working with them to leverage converations in the blogosphere to increase their exposure, reputation, and credibility in their target market. I expect their blog to be fascinating.
Busines Blogging Pros welcomes Gail Keith Marketing Strategies as our newest client.
Gail helps companies develop marketing strategies and campaigns. What I like about Gail is that her ideas are concrete and realistic and can be imlemented without spending a bazzillion dollars (unless you want to spend a bazillion dollars.) In other words, Gail's strategies are realistic, reasonable, and actionable wth the resources at hand.
Gail has done a great job with her blog, mixing humor with informative articles. It realy is fn to read.
Congratulations to Doug Ingersoll for winning the Free Typepad Blog For A Year. at our Real estate Blogging seminar on August 28, 2007, sponsored by Business Blogging Pros.
After Doug won the drawing, I set up his blog during the seminar so that everyone could see how easy it is to get started blogging. As you can see from his already frequent postings, Doug has started off with a bang!
Business Blogging Pros welcomes Ray Silverstein and President's Resource Organization as our newset client.
Ray is another 'Old Dog' like myself and definitely proves that old dogs can learn new tricks. Ray is the founder of Presidents Resource Organization, a nationwide network of peer group forums, where expert facilitators guide participants towards improved company and personal performance. PRO gives business owners an opportunity to present their problems, challenges, and opportunities in a confidential setting to others who have "been there, done that."
Ray has wtitten a book, The Best Secrets of Great Small Businesses. Ray has also invented this cool device that anyone on crutches is probably dying to have.
As the owner of a small but growing business, I know I m going to learn a lot from Ray's Blog.
Business Blogginng Pros welcomes Tom Selling as our newest customer.
Tom is an accountant, but a different breed of accountant. He has a way of explaining even the most mind-being topics - like Sarbanes-Oxley - in a simple way. Tom is also Founder and President of Grove Technologies, the people who offer that really cool collaboration platform GroveSite. I'm going to spend some more time with GroveSite because I think it would make a great platform for building your own social media site.
Tom's blog is Accounting Onion and has already proven to be very interesting.
Business Blogging Pros welcomes Blair Ballin and The Teddy Blair Team as our newest client.
Blair's blog is The Rambling Realtor.
Blair is a realtor specializing in Phoenix reale estate. In the short time I've known Blair, I've learned several interesting things about him. For one, he lives in Phoenix's Coronado Historical DIstrict in a house he restored himself. Wow!
Though Blair and I are both foodies, we inhabite different parts of the foodie spectrum. Blair likes to try new and different restaurants. Me? I like to cook. I really look forward to Blair's foodie posts.
Business Blogging Pros welcomes Shauna Wekherlien and SWC Business Enterprises, PC. as our newest client.
Make no mistake, Shauna is The Tax Goddess.
Shauna is also my accountant. I spent an hour with her a couple of weeks ago and I have never in my life seen someone so passionate about taxes, accounting, and bookkeeping. Evryquestion I had, she had a simple, understandable, yet comprehensive answer for. Shauna is brilliant.
Business Blogging Pros welcomes Andrew Greese and Quality Equipment & Spray as our newest client.
Quality Equipment & Spray manufactures custom commercial spray rigs. Andy showed me some of the simple yet innovative features of one of his rigs - like a shutoff valve that allows you to change the filter without draining the tank.
Andrew's blog will enable him to educate and inform on some of the things to consider when selecting a spray rig. Andrew lives and breaths this stuff, and I know from talking to him that he is going to have an informative and very educational blog.
I've already subscribed to his feed and look forward to Andrew's postings.
Rochelle Kosanivich, Sales Trainer and Sales Manager for J. Roberts & Company won the raffle during my recent Real Estate Blogging Seminar. The prize was a TypePad blog for a year.
We were going to set up her blog during the seminar, but that is the evening that Typepad (and a large part of San Francisco) suffered a power outage. So we regrouped and met a couple of days ago at the local Paradise Bakery, enjoyed a strawbery Italian ice, and set up her blog.
Well, she jumped right in. It has only been a couple of days and she's already got seven blog posts.
Great job, Rochelle
Business Blogging Pros welcomes Greg Peterson and Amy Godfrey and the rest of the gang at Your Guide To Green as our newest client.
I first met Greg and Amy from Kathleen Davidson, a writer for the Phoenix Business Journal. Kathleen introduced me to Greg and Amy and together they described their mission and project.
I help Greg put together five blogs, each related to a different aspect of sustainability. Greg's blog, Down on the Urban Farm, for example, is where Greg talks about turning the city lot his house sits on into a constant source of fruits and vegetables. Instead of flowers and shrubs growing in the planters and flowerbeds, Greg has fruits and vegetables. His hedge is a row of apple trees.
I provide ongoing coaching to Greg and the other bloggers (Valerie, Maura, John, and Mary).
In addition, I also man the driftnets for them, regularly monitoring about 180 RSS feeds looking for other bloggers to engage in conversation with as well as looking for interesting news items for them to comment and write about. This service has worked out so well that I have begun to offer it to my other clients.
There will be a sixth blog soon, but I can't talk about it yet. Watch this space.
Business Blogging Pros welcomes Business Achive, LLC and Achieve Transitions, LLC as our newest client. I've know the founder, Susan Chesnut for a couple of years, and she is all about helping people and companies who are at transition points and need assistance in career direction, self–management, family communications, etc.
Susan started Achieve Transitions to help people who are in some sort of transition and need help figuring out the next step to take in life. She is a strong proponent of the Birkman Method and the About-U Report.
Susan gave a powerful presentation at a meeting of the Phoenix chapter of Institure of Management Consultants a few months ago and was really impressed. I look forward to reading her blog, Achieve Transitions.
Business Blogging Pros welcomes Janus Center for Personal Growth as our newest client. I met Janus' founder George Gillas at a recent AZ Sales Pros meeting. A few days later we had lunch. I was fascinated as George explained Neuro-Linguistic Programming to me. Unlike a lot of other NLP practitioners, George was able to explain it clear down to the level of biophysics.
George really knows his business and is very passionate about it. He is going to make a great blogger. I look forward to reading his blog, Now Think For A Change, often.
Business Blogging Pros welcomes Dave Cooke and Strategic Resource Group as our newest client.
Strategic Resource Group helps companies who are frustrated with their sales results, struggling to find an effective growth strategy or seeking a new strategy to sharpen their competitive edge. Dave typically provides sales support in three key areas:
I met Dave through a mutual friend, Michael Goodman. Dave is a sharp guy. He understands the power and benefits of networking, and it was gratifying to see that after speaking with him for only a few minutes he understood that blogging is networking on steroids.
Dave is pretty Saavy, and it is going to be interesting and informative to read his blog.
A couple of days ago, my client and good friend Connie Kadansky related this story to me:
As a result of reading one of Connie's blog posts, someone from a large corporation called her and asked her to write an article on the same topic for their publication.
How's that for the power of blogging?
Wes Zimmerman is not a client but he is certainly a good friend. (He happens to be a client of another good friend, Bill Austin.) Wes is the author of The Perception of a Difference, which I think should be required reading for anyone in sales or who owns their own business.
A couple of months ago, Wes attended a networking function where I was speaking about blogging. After the meeting, Wes, Bill, and I had a long discussion about the pros and cons of turning Wes' Zingers into a blog. With a little help from Bill, Wes did just that.
Today he told me that traffic to his website has doubled since he started the Zingers blog.
Business Blogging Pros welcomes Irene Hammond as our newest client. Irene is half of a mother-daughter team of realtors who specialize in acting as Buyer's Agents.
One thing that really impressed me about Irene was that by the time we got together to start her blog, she already knew the content of my own blog almost better than I did!
Irene is sharp and when the time comes to relocate, there is no doubt in my mind that she will get my business.
Business Blogging Pros welcomes Lois Tiedemann and Transformation TriSystems as our newlest client. Lois is a pretty exceptional person. Lois is an accomplished triathlete (but put her in a stylish outfit and you'd never know it, she is stunningly beautiful) and is one of those people who is very passionate about her business.
I met Lois at an AZ Sales Pros meeting where I was speaking about blogging, and we instantly hit it off. She is one of the most enthusiastic, wonderfully 'up' people I have ever met. And Lois is one of the few people in my life that I have met and instantly felt like I could entrust her with my deepest most personal thoughts, emotions, and feelings. I have no doubt that she is an excellent personal coach.
She recently founded her company, Transformation TriSystems, a seminar and coaching company that teaches/coaches The Transformed Life, Finding the Entrepreneur Within using her own unique formula for coaching her clients.
Business Blogging Pros welcomes Pat Simmons Golf as our newest client. Pat and his team have developed a unique new line of golf clubs. I met with them a few weeks ago and we spent several hours in a very animated conversation regarding how blogging can help Pat spread the word about his new design. I look forward to seeing what Pat and his team do with their blog.
My long-time good friend, Michelle Conlon has finally started a blog. Michell and I have known each other for almost ten years and I was really excited to learn that she is finally blogging:
Steve Groves and I have begun a discussion on his blog regarding the ROI of business blogging and I want to expend upon that discussion.
Steve cites a great example of the ROI of the networking activities of one of his clients. I agree, Steve that your client has experienced great ROI. The problem I have is that the nature of the 'R' was entirely unknown until after-the-fact.
When trying to sell a CEO or Board of Directoers on the benefits of blogging, you and I know there will be a return upon the investement. The real problem we face is that we have no way to know a priori what the nature of that return will be. And if we cannot qualify it, then we can't quantify it either.
That's why I think it is important to either:
I think either approach is valid. The first is tougher and requires a more disciplined approach to blogging, with each blog post being more carefully crafted and strategically planned. This works best when blogging is integrated with other marketing activities. It also allows you to put mechanisms into place that measure the effectiveness of activities. It also carries the inherent danger that the blogging will be deemed a failure simply because the desired objective wasn't met even though there were enormous benefits in other unmeasured areas.
The second is very much like the what happens to most successful internet startups: They begin with a product (or service), listen to the feedback, and then evolve. (A good example: PayPal started out as a way to beam money between two Palm Pilots.)
Blogging as a business tool is still in its infancy. For that reason, I think we need to avoid situations where the CEO gives us the steely-eyed look and asks, "What's the ROI" because we cannot a priori give him an answer he can take to the bank. Instead, I think we need to spend more time educating our prospective clients on the broad general nature of the benefits that can result from blogging.
Business Blogging Pros welcomes Connie Kadansky and Exceptional Sales Performance as our newest client.
Connie and I are both members of AZ Sales Pros and I have known her by reputation for several years. She specializes in helping you overcome sales call reluctance, and she is the best I know. Her services are valuable not only for sales professionals, but also (maybe more so) for any professional or small busness owner responsible for growing their business. I have learned a lot from Connie just in our few conversations, and I am looking forward to learning more from her new blog Sales Call Allergy Treatment Center.
Connie offers her workshop only a few times a year and the next one is starting March 7, 2007. I highly recommend it.
So I get this email out of the blue from Francine Hardaway that says, "We have formed a Phoenix Chapter of the Social Media Club. Wanna come? Of course. I'm sure that Francine doesn't remember me from Adam, but I've known Francine for a long time, clear back in the days of the Arizona Software Association.
It was an interesting mix of people who have been blogging for eons and Get it (It's the first time here in Phoenix that I've run into people who know who RageBoy is and recognized my Streetcard and from whence it came) and people who were just beginning to explore the world of blogging.
One of the most fun aspects of gatherings like this is connecting face-to-face with people that I have known only through their blog. I have been a reader and fan of Escape from Cubical Nation for a long time and was delighted to meet Pam in person.
I also met another Foodie. I have had my own food blog for over a year and it is always fun to meet another foodie and swap URLs. This time it was Tery Spataro of Daily Eats. Interestingly, while I am a 'producer' foodie (my interest is in the preparing the food), Tery is a 'consumer' foodie. It will be interesting to see if I can get Tery over to the Fumbling Foodie household sometime for a meal.
If you are in the Phoenix area and are a blogger the Social Media Club should be a must-attend event for you. I can't tell you how great a feeling it is to be around 'birds of a feather'. On the other hand, if you are interested in learning more about blogging and other social media then the Social Media club is a great place to learn too.
I met Krisanne at one of my recent Why Your Business Should Have A Blog seminars. Krisanne owns a recruiting service and we had lunch a few days ago to discuss blogging. It was clear from the start that she is one sharp lady.
Krisanne faces a common problem: There a probably dozens of recruiting service companies in the Phoenix area. How can she stand out from the crowd? A blog can help her do that in three ways.
First, we think she would be the only recruiting service in the area with a blog. That fact alone will mark her company as forward-thinking and technically saavy. I remember back in the early 1990’s when having a website or email address had the same affect. In the tech sector it often made the difference between getting the business or not. A blog is looked at the same way today.
Second, because she blogs, her current and potential clients will see her as open and honest – more so than her competitors.
And third, her potential clients will see Krisanne as a real person. In this day and age of media over-saturation we have become immune to the marketing messages thrown at us. As a result every owner of a small business knows deep down in her gut that to grow her business, she needs to connect with her current and future clients and do so in a very personal, engaging way. A blog would allow Krisanne’s potential clients to get to know her and feel comfortable with her even though they have not yet met. It will give her that personal edge and to the readers of her blog, she will stand out from the crowd.
Welcome the Arizona Chapter of IMC (Institute of Management Consultants) as our newest client. I am a member of IMC-AZ and it has been my pleasure to be associated with this organization for a while now. They are a very forward-thinking bunch (which should be obvious by the fact that they now have a blog) and have been very supportive to me personally.
This blog will help the organization and its members stay better connected as well as raising IMC's visibility here in Arizona. You can IMC-AZ's blog at:
Chris Locke, probably best know for Cluetrain Manifesto, turns 59 today.
Happy Birthday, Chris. I'm not far behind you.
I was at a networking event a few days ago and I heard Hilari Weinstein of High Impact Communication talk about making one's presentation - PowerPoint or otherwise - much more powerful and compelling. I was so impressed that I hired her to help me work on mine.
I have a "Why your business should have a blog" presentation that I give to groups of small business owners. This presentation is probably my most important marketing tool. It not only is the way most clients are introduced to my company, it is also my best tool for motivating businessiness owners to start blogging.
As a result, I believe that this presentation needs to be very good. While the middle - meaning the main body of content - was good, my introduction and closing were weak and I knew it.
Hilari quickly recognized that and we spent a couple of hours tweaking things, moving them around, and adding a few things here and there. The result is that my introduction is very powerful, has a lot of impact, and really grabs you. Likewise, I think the closing does a much better job of motivating people to actually do something with the information they have just learned.
Hilari really helped me a lot and I am grateful for her insight and assistance. It was money well-spent. I think that anyone in the Phoenix, AZ area who uses a public presentation as their primary vehicle for gaining new clients should strongly consider spending a couple hundred bucks with Hilari.
I also think that Hilari is a perfect example of why a business needs a blog. Her website does a good job of telling you what she does. The thing that caused me to become a client however was seeing her demonstrate how good she is at her craft. Her presentation at that networking event made me realize that my persentation needed help and Hilari was very qualified to give me that help. It's tough to convey that on a website. A blog would give her a platform to demonstrate that expertise of hers.
She could write a blog post about me coming to her, the problems with my presentation, and how she fixed them. A few of those and every visitor who found her blog would come to the same conclusion I did at her live presentation: Here is someone I need to do business with and it is clear that she can help me.
Business Blogging Pros welcomes Data Dimensions, Inc. (DDI) here in Phoenix, Arizona as our newest client. (Full disclosure dictates that reveal I earn a considerable portion of my income from Data Dimensions in my capacity there as Web & Database Development Manager).
I gave my 'Why Your Business Should Have a Blog" presentation to several of DDI''s staff a couple of weeks ago, and while they were all enthusiastic, DDI's CEO, Dave Cameron, was unable to be present. Last week I gave the presentation to just Dave and at the conclusion his response was, "Let's get started.".
I think what appealed to him was the fact that a blog allows you to reach people and tell your story without resorting to sales or marketing. This really resonated with him because I know that for may years, DDI's business all came from word-of-mouth and referrals, and using those personal one-on-one encounters to 'sell' was avoided. I think that to him, the blog will be just an extension of this 'soft educate and inform, don't sell philosophy that DDI has been so successful with in the past.
You can read DDI's blog at http://annotations.typepad.com/annotations.
Chris Locke has a lot to do with the reason I started Business Blogging Pros and it is time for me to publicly thank him. I was a Cluetrain Manifesto fan long before a mutual friend introduced us. About that time, I read Gonzo Marketing and I marvelled out how Chris could so eloquently put into words what I had felt and sensed for a long time.
I still think that Cluetrain is one of the most important books - if not the most important book - for anyone in business today.
Chris, anytime you are in Phoenix you have an open invitation to have dinner with me. And I guarantee what I prepare will beat ramen and canned chiliby a long shot.
Dr G attended my first Why your business should have a blog seminar, and I was really impressed that he 'got it' right away. This weekend, I helped him set up his blog Liminal Space. I found the name - Liminal Space - to be rather intriguing. Dr. G explained to me that it means that time/place where the old no longer works and the new is uncharted.
What a coincidence. Mass Media and Mass Marketing are dead, they just don't know it yet. In Gonzo Marketing, Chris Locke said it much better than I can:
Even after the advent of automobiles, trucks, and airplanes, the railroad tycoons remained imperturbably self-confident. If you had told them 60 years before that in 30 years they would be flat on their backs, broke, and pleading for government subsidies, they would have thought you totally demented. Such a future was simply not considered possible.
The iron horses of today are Mass Marketing and Mass Media, and blogs and e-Zines are the equivalent of the automobile and airplane. Only this time the tycoons don't have sixty years.
We are in Liminal Space.
