• The Legend of Beverly Best
    19/08/16 Uncategorized

    The Legend of Beverly Best

    My best childhood friend, Stacy, lost her dad to a brain tumor about 17 years ago. He was young. She and her brothers and sisters were devastated. It completely altered their reality, and they struggled for many years to recover.

     

    Last week they said goodbye to the final piece of their father. They sold his weekend mountain retreat in Pinetop, Arizona. The place held a million memories for Stacy and her siblings and they only very reluctantly agreed to pass it on to someone else. It was sitting vacant week after week and year after year. And as much as it hurt to let it go, everyone knew it was the right thing to do.

     

    So they got a realtor from the area, Bev Best, and she facilitated the sale. It wasn’t a big commission for Bev. It was just a tiny condo.

     

    But it was a big win for Bev. Because she did something that every great brand knows how to do:

    She made her client say, “I can’t believe she just did that.” And then she got her client to speak about her as though she was a legend.

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    12 responses
  • Turning a Snafu Into “I Love You”
    08/08/16 Uncategorized

    Turning a Snafu Into “I Love You”

    Last Friday my dog groomer, Danielle, didn’t show up.

     

    Danielle is a peach. Diego and I are both crazy about her, and we have a standing appointment every other Friday. So when she didn’t show, I wasn’t aggravated. I was concerned. She’s never done anything like that before. And I thought maybe something had happened to her.

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    9 responses
  • What Are You So Afraid Of?
    27/07/16 Uncategorized

    What Are You So Afraid Of?

    Have you ever been so afraid to do something that you’d do anything else just to avoid doing that thing?

     

    Like being so afraid to write your keynote speech that you organized your silverware drawer?

     

    Or so afraid to have the conversation with your best friend about how your feelings were hurt, that you washed all the linens in the house?

     

    Or so afraid to go for that promotion at work, that you decided to start training for a marathon?

     

    I’ve been there SO MANY times.

     

    But a couple of years ago, I realized that some fears are buried so deeply, and their black magic has worked its way into our lives so seamlessly, that we can’t even see them. Sometimes someone else has to point them out to us.

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    31 responses
  • 4 Solid Ways to Turn Your Brand Into a Profit Machine
    18/07/16 How to Brand Your Juju # , , , , ,

    4 Solid Ways to Turn Your Brand Into a Profit Machine

    As an entrepreneur, you’re pulled in a hundred different directions. It’s easy to be swept away by the moment, day after day… attending to the crisis at hand, selling to the prospect who’s right in front of you, or ticking that next thing off the list.

     

    Time for long-term planning? Not so much.

     

    Alex Charfen, developer of the Entrepreneurial Personality Type (EPT) and one of my favorite online gurus, recently posted a video in his EPT Facebook group about the 50% Future Focus Rule. Charfen says that in order for entrepreneurs to scale and grow businesses, we must spend at least 50% of our time in strategic, long-term planning.

     

    Here’s something you may not have considered:

     

    Branding is one of the most powerful strategies for long-term profit.

     

    So if you’re seeing your brand as a function of design or an exercise in story telling, it’s time for a mindset shift.

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    26 responses
  • Calling it Quits on Sales Shaming
    10/06/16 How to Brand Your Juju , Personal Juju , Uncategorized # , , , ,

    Calling it Quits on Sales Shaming

    I grew up surrounded by the car business. My dad was an old-school car dealer. The kind who would say to customers things like, “Whaddya think, we plug these lights into the moon?” or “Whaddya mean you have to ask your wife? What kind of sissy has to ask his wife if he can buy a car?”

     

    He carried a wad of cash in his pocket with a rubber band around it, instead of a wallet. He wore Sansabelt slacks that coordinated perfectly with matching polyester-blend golf shirts and pullover v-neck sweaters with little penguins embroidered on the left breast. He golfed 18 holes most every afternoon, and spent his evenings in lounges with high-back red leather booths, velvet wallpaper, and great big porterhouse steaks… a glass of something clear, amber, and on the rocks invariably in-hand.

     

    In the 1970’s he broke Nissan’s sales record for the most new vehicles sold in a single month. (They were still Datsun then.) When he died in 2008, the record still stood.

     

    When I was a little girl, I thought my dad smelled like 50% perspiration, and 50% California sunshine. I thought he could make money rain from the sky.

     

    But I never wanted to be a car dealer.

     

    Sales? Ewwww.
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    8 responses
  • Is “Be Yourself” Bad Brand Advice?
    07/06/16 Uncategorized

    Is “Be Yourself” Bad Brand Advice?

    Authenticity has become an overused buzzword. No one uses “authenticity” authentically any more. And this weekend, there was a lively debate in the media about its true meaning – and more importantly – about its benefits and potential dangers related to success.

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    19 responses
  • How My Golden Retriever Runs a Successful Operation
    31/05/16 Uncategorized

    How My Golden Retriever Runs a Successful Operation

    We have a 104-pound Golden Retriever.

     

    We used to tell ourselves he was big-boned, but we’ve come to face the facts. He’s just fat. He has more junk in his trunk than a traveling encyclopedia salesman. (If you’re under 45 you might not get that… So suffice it to say, Diego’s ass is enormous.)

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    one response
  • Great Story, Dude.
    24/05/16 How to Brand Your Juju , Personal Juju # , , ,

    Great Story, Dude.

    As marketers, we brand our businesses and brand ourselves through stories. We tell the world how we got to where we are today…

     

    What private hells we endured in the honing of our crafts,

     

    What it took for us to finally create the solutions to the nagging problems we now can solve for the rest of the world,

     

    Or of the pivotal days that pushed us – unceremoniously — off the ledge, and qualified us to talk other potential jumpers down from that very same ledge.

     

    These brand stories represent our ascent into the world of entrepreneurship. And they create bonds with our customers that lead to sales… that foster success.

     

    But what about the stories we don’t tell everyone else?

    What about the stories that we tell ourselves, instead?

    The ones that hold us back? Hold us down? Hold us hostage to our own self-sabotage and destructive habits?

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    9 responses
  • Ever Try Too Hard?
    20/05/16 Personal Juju , Uncategorized # , , , ,

    Ever Try Too Hard?

    I haven’t been my consistent wordy self on the blog for the past few weeks, because I’ve been trying.

     

    I’ve had my head down, trying to make something work.

    Pushing. Pressing. Testing. Tweaking. Wiggling. Testing.

    Sighing. Crying. Laughing. Singing. Then sighing and crying again…

     

    I did my very first yoga video just after I turned 40, almost ten years ago. It was Baron Baptiste’s “Journey into Power.” Everything about yoga was new and weird and amazing for me, and for long moments I just sat and stared at Baron.

     

    But when he said, “Don’t try hard; try easy, “ I had to stop and rewind.
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  • When Was the Last Time You Did Something for the First Time?
    12/05/16 Uncategorized

    When Was the Last Time You Did Something for the First Time?

    Lately, I’ve been doing a ton of things for the first time. And after a 28-year career of successfully doing the same things, a LOT of times, being a stone-cold beginner is a mind-boggling, humbling, ego-shattering experience.

     

    Last night I was summarily schooled in the art of beginning… by my teenage son.

     

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    22 responses
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