3. February 2012 by Frank Goad.

That title sounds oh, so very scintillating, doesn’t it? It comes under the heading of, “Made you look.” What is the secret? You don’t have to be Hemmingway or Ayn Rand to be a good blogger. Surprise!! The most unlikely folks have created popular blogs that have enhanced their career and expanded their world.

The secret to blogging is to: A. Go with your strengths, and; B. Write only as much as it takes. One of the things that making a living entails for me is writing, and it comes naturally. I love to play with words, ideas, a clever turn of phrase, but, to many, that’s like walking with glass shards in their shoes.

I had a manager at Lexmark by the name of Ellen Fernandez. She was a great manager: Smart, organized, able to grasp goals and make things happen. Best of all, she is a wonderful person who believes that everyone has greatness in them and working for her was a joy. One day she said, “I’m betting I could lock you in a room with instructions to write all day, and you’d be very happy.” I agreed. She said, “That would be a day of torture for me. Ask me to spend the day analyzing spreadsheets and I’d love it. I see patterns in the numbers and trends many people miss.” Nevertheless, she was a good writer and her memos were clean, to the point and well structured.

My point is, you don’t have to create a masterpiece to share quality information. Writing is like anything else: The more you do it, the more proficient you become. You exercise the language part of the brain and it gets stronger. As the saying goes, “Begun is half done.”

If you believe you are good at what you do, and it’s something you like, then share your knowledge. Someone might live a better life after learning something you shared in a blog. Don’t worry if it’s blue ribbon prose because, if your information is accurate and understandable, people will be very forgiving. Be as brief as possible, use pictures and illustrations if you have them and, if grammar is a problem, get some help. There are plenty of services online that will critique your blog and help you eliminate any errors.

Besides sharing information, blogs also help you build a body of work that can become a reference for you and others. As time goes by, you’ll see a pattern develop and it can help you think more deeply about your career and profession. So, now the secret is out, and you have something new to share.

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13. June 2011 by Frank Goad.

 Time and again, clients ask me, “What should I do?” While many think I’m being a smarta**, my response is, “What do you think you should do?” 

This isn’t a flippant answer but, instead, a serious question. Most people know more about what to do than they think and, like many things, need some training. Moreover, they need to learn how to think about what they communicate to their customers. Part of my job is helping people hone in on what their customers hear from them that keeps them coming back. Businesses often have a very hard time answering that question because they’ve been doing what comes naturally and not analyzing what those things are.

You talk to customers all the time and have a good idea what they want, like, need and, conversely, don’t want, like or need. Time has taught you to largely think like them and tailor your business in order to cater to them. You work hard to “walk in their shoes” and anticipate their next desire. You develop a relationship with them and use what you learned from them with the next new customers. 

On the other hand, learning how to create a motivating advertising or marketing campaign, write ad or brochure copy in a way that speaks directly to them, or even see through their eyes takes time; often a long time. The truth is, some folks never learn, and that doesn’t make them any less of a business person, it simply means that it’s not their strength. As we all know, dealing with someone one-on-one is totally different than trying to persuade people you can’t talk with personally through ads, brochures and so on.

It’s like my mechanic - he doesn’t want to do ads anymore than I want to do his job all the time. He’s an excellent mechanic and has spent decades learning the tricks of the trade. His experience lets him solve mechanical problems in a heartbeat, whereas I’d spend a lot of time researching the problem. On the other hand, he named me “Old Golden Tongue” and calls me when he has to write an important letter or put an ad somewhere. “I understand cars,” he says, “but people are a bit harder for me.” 

My point is, you know your business and I know mine (which is communications, advertising and marketing). As a another good friend of mine says - who, by the way, is an awesome accountant but a really lousy writer - “We’re all smart, just in different ways, and the trick is to find someone who’s smart in ways that make you look better.” Give me a call and let’s see if I can help you.

Frank Goad, Pres.
Frank Communications Lexington
For information, email: fcl.info@frankcomlex.com
www.frankcomlex.com
859-335-8742  

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10. May 2011 by Frank Goad.

I’m writing out of guilt. You see, I advise all my clients to blog for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that websites with blogs get as much as sixty-per-cent more hits. So, if I’m going to harp on them to do it, I must practice what I preach.

I don’t know about you, but I can usually find something to write about even if it is - paraphrasing Jerry Seinfeld’s description of his series - “A (blog) about nothing.”  On the other hand, it proves that the creative process comes about sometimes simply because you engage in it.

Speaking of creativity, do me a favor: Never, ever say to me that you’re not creative. The problem is that the word itself has been equated with art, and art has nothing to do with it. The definition of creativity (mine, really) is that: A.  You are being creative if you take two or more things and combine them in a way that you believe has never been done to accomplish a goal, or; B. You are solving a problem in a way that is novel to you.

The important thing is that you’re doing something you’ve never done before, or doing things in a way you’ve not done them. Just because someone else might have thought of the same answer/solution/combination/etc. before you does not negate your own creativity. If you didn’t know about it before doing it, that counts.

Art is only one of many avenues of creativity. I know some damned creative accountants and a few carpenters that can create masterpieces from scrap lumber. I’ve met farmers whose creativity kept them from bankruptcy while all those around them found their spread up for auction. I’ve known moms whose sheer industrial-strength creativity kept their family together, fed, clothed and housed.

I grew up in the country down on the Kentucky-Tennessee border in a farming and logging town of 3,500 people. Many of those folks lived in tiny houses or tar paper shacks out on some gravel road miles from town. They were often the most creative folks I knew. They eked out an honorable living with barely a penny to their name and held their heads high.

My family was middle-class and, if something broke or wore out, we paid someone to fix it, or we bought a replacement. They had to find a way to mend it or build another from whatever they could find because paying someone or buying another was often simply out of the question. Many had barely a sixth-grade education, but had a practical knowledge that was a Ph.D. in life. As they say, “A country boy will survive.”

Creative? Of course you are. You just have to believe it.

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21. January 2011 by Frank Goad.

While talking with a client recently, he was bemoaning the diminished traffic during the winter snows. When asked what he did with the down time, he replied, “Oh, you know, the usual. I cleaned, organized and took care of some loose ends.” When asked if he couldn’t have an employee do that, he said, “Well, I suppose, but I know exactly how i want things.”

This is a perfect example of working in the business, not on it. We talked about how he might have made that time more profitable and here’s part of the list:

• Call customers and say, “Thanks for your business - what can I do for you?”
• Look over his Facebook page and add posts to it
• Look over his Facebook page’s friends and see what they’re talking about; knowing that can help you know what they’re likely to want or need so that you can advertise to their comments
• Look for local happenings on the different calendars and see if there’s an event that would offer people and a theme that resonates with his business
• Call his vendors and see if they have any marketing ideas or have any examples of some other customer’s promotions

As you can see, the list is as long as your imagination. If you have employees, let them do the busy work. It’s easy to fall into doing menial tasks when you’re stressed because, as Dennis Waitley says, “They are tension relieving, not goal achieving.”

So, don’t fret the snow. Use that time to build customer relationships and boost your business.

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24. May 2010 by Frank Goad.

If you are in business for yourself or own a business, you have to be promoting yourself all the time. There is increasing competition for an ever-shrinking pool of business. It’s tougher today than a decade ago if for no other reason than advertising and marketing is so fractured. As I’ve written before, these days, it comes down to time or money. That is, if you don’t have the money to do a big, sustained advertising campaign, then you have to invest the time to do it yourself.

Advertising today is a lot like megaphones:
• If you have a lot of money, you can buy a PA system and hire someone to run it for you. You can even hire someone to do the talking.
• If you have some money you can buy a large electronic megaphone that even has a horn or siren to get folks attention.
• If you don’t have any budget, you pick up the nearest thing that looks like a cheerleader’s megaphone and start running around and yelling. Hello Facebook, blogs, meetings, etc.

Most of us fall into category two or three. That means we have to find publicity wherever we can. Want to get some attention from the media and burnish your reputation? Do something for the community. Don’t just run out and have a bake sale - have a cause you believe in first. In this day and time, many agencies are going wanting due to thin budgets and thinner staffs and will welcome any help they can get.

No, this isn’t some cynical operation that you do because it’s good for business – you do it because people need help. Still, the glow from a charitable act will net you good will and you’ll make some new friends. Friends are about the most important asset for any business. Beyond that, will it make a lasting difference in one person’s life? Yes? Then that’s all you need to know.

Pick something you feel strongly about like cancer, autism, the environment, education, the arts, women’s rights, animal welfare, inner-city programs, youth in music (one of my favorites) or whatever pulls strongly at your heart. Write a mission statement that says what you want from the event, why you’re doing it, who it will help and how much you think it might help and how. Update the mission statement often as you’ll find new things as you go along – the ending will likely be different and better than you planned.

From this planning, you’ll have an idea of what you can raise or do for the event. Is the goal to raise money? Raise awareness? Get material or goods (e.g., pet food for the Humane Society)? The sponsoring agency will give you guidance as to what is most helpful. Plug this into your mission statement.

Once you’ve written down your goals and plans, then go to an organization who is usually attached to these causes (if there is one), share what you’ve written and see what kind of help they’ll give you. Try to find a co-sponsor who’ll help, too, before you go; many hands make for light(er) work.

Next, plan your event and pick a theme. Get help and figure what it’s going to cost, where to have it, etc. This is where an event planner comes in handy. You’ll have to think about everything from sanitation to seltzer water. Whatever the event, you’ll likely need at least a few months to plan and execute.

What event should you plan? That’s up to you and your planner. Stage a fishing or golf tournament, a picnic or barbecue, a pool party, cookware event, a gourmet hors d’oeuvres party, a wine tasting - something that helps folks walk away happy (and not just because of the wine). Since it will likely start with friends, you know what they like, so plan something you’re familiar with and it will be easier for you.

Then, build your list of people to invite and determine how many you realistically think will come. If you’re not sure, call a bunch of friends and ask them to see if they’d be interested. You might get a volunteer or two calling their friends. Check with the organization you’re doing it for as they’ll likely have an idea, too. If all your friends invite their friends, and their friends invite only half their friends, that could be a good number.

Then go back to your mission statement and use that to create your publicity plans and your press releases. It will inform everything and everyone about why you’re embarking on this madness. Try to find one person in the media (reporter, DJ, public relations agent, etc.) and get their advice and names of helpful folks. The agency you spoke with can usually help you with that.

After that, when you’re about three months out, send press releases out to all the media you can think of and follow up regularly with with new items (don’t rehash the old - make it new). Again, work with the sponsoring agency (if there is one involved) and get help on publicity from them - they might be able to  accomplish many times what you can. Keep calling and get help arranging for any publicity you can find. There’s no shame in attaching your company’s name and your co-sponsor’s to this whole thing. (Alltech has their name all over WEG, and rightfully so, thank you Dr. Lyons.)

This is just a snapshot and, realistically, doing any public event is tough. It doesn’t have to be something with thousands of folks. Sometimes small events with a unique or outrageous flavor get more attention - be creative.

If you handle it well the rewards you’ll feel as an individual will be huge (food for the soul), the benefit to the community will be greater and, who knows, you could start an annual event that becomes legendary. You’ve heard of the Kentucky Derby, right?

Want some more ideas? Need help with marketing or advertising? Call me or use the contact form at the bottom of the page at the Frank Communications website.

Posted in delight, Success, Character, Branding, creativity, Frank Communications, Social Media, FrankyGee3, Frank Goad, building business, business relationships, PR, Frank, blessings, responsibilities, Public relations, "The Frankifesto", relationships, business, business plan, Marketing | Print | 1 Comment »

25. March 2010 by Frank Goad.

Beyond coffee, surviving in your job requires innovation. Sure, showing up on time helps, but companies want people whose contributions set the business apart from the competition or improve operations. So ask yourself these questions: Are you helping your employer grow the business? What are you doing to enhance your status?

The coin’s other side is that business is harder these days and innovation is critical to survival. A great way to maintain job stability is to be the one who helps the company remain stable. Since there is rarely a silver bullet to save the day, small improvements and gap-filling ideas add up to a brighter picture, and maybe a fatter paycheck.

Several times a day, ask yourself questions like, “What can I contribute that sets the company – and me – apart?”, “What can I do that makes a difference in the ‘bottom line’?”, and, “What opportunities are we overlooking?” It doesn’t have to be a Herculean effort, just investing some of your time and brain cycles to look more critically at what goes on.

Some think hunkering down and staying out of sight is the best policy, but here’s why that’s not necessarily true: I worked at a local company that has been, and still is going through wave-after-wave of layoffs. The company’s local workforce is less than half the size it was when I joined and many jobs went overseas. The folks I know who are still there escaped the hatchet for one of two reasons: 1. They work like Trojans and are high-output individuals, or; 2. They have a track record of innovation and usable ideas. Yes, a few are just lucky or really charming, but that doesn’t always work.

So, what does this have to do with coffee? I have the coffee maker you see above and I think it’s the greatest one ever. Why? Notice there’s no pot - it doesn’t have one. The coffee flows into a reservoir and then you place your mug underneath where a pot would be, push a lever and your cup fills. Best of all, it brews one awesome cup of coffee. No, it’s not like an $11,000 Clover coffee maker, but my less-than-cultured palate finds the results quite good.

Is it a big seller? Well … no, and it’s a bit hard to find. It’s a little pricey, too. Doesn’t sound like it’s perched to become a market leader, does it? On the other hand, everyone who visits notices it and becomes curious. We talk, they recognize Cuisinart as a good, dependable brand with nice styling and, of those folks, many have bought Cuisinart appliances. The coffee maker is different enough to make itself and the brand stand out in prospect’s minds, and to motivate them to invest in their products. Are there things in your business that can be reformulated?

In 1899, U.S. Commissioner of Patents Charles H. Duell said, “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” Do you think that way at your work place? Don’t becuase, after all, the lowly coffee pot was improved. Try to take a fresh look at what is going on there. Do barriers to innovation exist, like a manager who hates change? If so, try to involve them early and with tidbits of information.

Compare them to the Grand Canyon: It took a long time for the water to carve the canyon, and you might need extra patience, too. Chip away with questions like, “Why do we do it this way?” “Had you ever thought about … ?” It doesn’t hurt to let them think that some of your ideas are theirs – if they shine, you’re likely to benefit from their light. Asking them questions that guide them to your answer lets them think it’s their idea. Once that’s done, you can build on it with suggestions and ideas to foster a partnership for innovation.

It’s hard to innovate using the same data you’ve collected for years. That’s a “can’t see the forest for the trees” situation. Some of the best investment advice I ever got was, “Look around. Before investing in a company, see where they are in the lives of their customers.”

The true meaning soon dawned on me: Ask folks what they think about a company and its products or services. How often do they use them? Do they tell their friends? If they’re really into it you’ll get a good report, or even a glassy-eyed rant extolling the virtues. Ask your customers to lunch or coffee and listen to their thoughts and feelings. If nothing else, call them and say, “Just checking in … .” Customers usually have a clear eye toward your business and know what others say, too, so make sure to keep a journal of their input and plans on what to do with that intelligence.

Then you can go to your manager (or shareholders) with fresh, documented input and confidently present your ideas based on real data, not just a hunch or an idea. You become the expert and a thought leader in your company, and someone with a much better shot at job security and brighter prospects.

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26. August 2009 by Frank Goad.

Cryptic title, I know. What I mean is, the things I see on my computer - the electrons - make me reflect on my corporeal being - the atoms. Facebook has really messed with my mind many times. For instance, folks I’ve not seen in twenty or thirty years from my little hometown are now talking to me on Facebook. I see their pictures and they’re not the ones I knew back then. Logically, what would you expect? High school was a long, long time ago.

On the other hand, the realization of the amount of time that’s passed smacks me around a bit. High school reunions just wash over you and you get a lot of it out of the way in one “fell swoop.” Facebook is a steady diet of, “Oh, man, has it been that long?”

To anyone under thirty-five or forty, this is probably fairly meaningless. It occurred to me that history teachers probably have a hard time because it’s not easy to get someone to appreciate other folk’s history when you don’t have one of your own. When your own is still being written, the ever-lengthening scope of it tends to skew how you record it.

It doesn’t stop the melancholy, though, and that’s just life. While that’s easy to say, the emotions color everything. Being fairly ambitious, my tombstone will not read, “Nice guy, but unmotivated”, so I think about my legacy. What example will I leave my children? Probably that of a workaholic but, in many respects, that’s a man’s world to me.

All that aside, there’s still the fact that I’m deep into middle age and the re-connections make me think harder about what being my age really means. Things are more finite now. My life is good, but there’s a gravity and a lightness that coincide. I can glimpse the end and the beginning, see all the good that’s passed and imagine that which is coming. The age old questions - What have I done with my life? How will I get by when I’m old? Etc. - bear down but, being pretty optimistic, I always assume that I’ll bull my way through it all. Still, there’s a little nagging doubt and ’round and ’round we go. That’s life, though, and it’s a far better thing than the alternative.

Posted in Intelligence, blogs, blogging, FrankyGee3, Frank Goad, "The Frankifesto", creativity, Frank Communications, Frank | Print | No Comments »

15. August 2009 by Frank Goad.

The video linked below tells a somewhat mind-blowing story about how scientists and astronomers rolled the dice and pointed the Hubble telescope to a tiny black point in space. That doesn’t sound like such a big deal, but time on the Hubble is a huge prize for scientists, and very expensive.

We think we know about infinity, know that as humans we can’t really get our minds around it, but now there’s some evidence that simultaneously helps us understand it better and makes it even harder to conceive; that’s what it does for me, anyway. I cannot grasp the concept of infinite, nor can the average human. The measures involved in these discoveries boggle the mind and make it even more amazing and daunting:
- The light that the Hubble captured left its source thirteen billion years ago
- The galaxies they discovered are as far a forty-seven billion light years away
- Over 10,000 galaxies appeared in a section of the “sky” described as “the size of a grain of sand held at arms length.”
- There are over 100 billion (100,000,000,000) galaxies in the universe

The number of galaxies has to be an estimate because, if we’re finding new ones and seeing farther into space, how can we really know? And if the universe is infinite, how can we think we know? (And, no, I don’t believe it’s turtles all the way down.) Beyond that, how do we actually comprehend this? I don’t know about you but trying to picture infinity in my head makes it hurt. The video helps, believe it or not, and perhaps you might find some help in it, too.

As a Christian, thinking about the scale of these things amazes me even more. That the Father can do anything, and that the scale of the universe is so amazing, it affirms in my mind that there is a master plan and Master Planner.

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 3D

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3. August 2009 by Frank Goad.

This is a great little animation with music done on a whiteboard; or maybe it’s with a whiteboard and a computer (I haven’t figured that out). Whatever it is, it’s wonderfully creative. Why would I post this here vs. over at Frank’s Silicon Buffet? (This is supposed to be my thoughtful writing blog and FSB is supposed to be for blurbs and curiosities.) Because it shows how cool a whiteboard is to create and think. It’s not just for classrooms or meetings to record what was said or what you’re thinking - it’s a fluid space that gives you lots of room to create islands of thought and then connect them, or move them around like some cerebral tectonic plate shift.

I like to use a whiteboard to think, plan, create and develop. If I could, I’d have an office with two walls painted in whiteboard paint so that I could wander around and draw what I was thinking. I use lots and lots of paper and post-it notes to think and plan. I’ve tried using some computer programs to emulate that (for instance, working in PowerPoint and telling it the paper was 15′ x 15′), but I like to be able to see it all or walk close and see just a bit. The tactile part of it is so much better than a computer. Scrolling around the page that’s in the computer, well, the screen makes you feel like you’re trying to navigate a submarine - you get one little window to look out at everything and have to keep swiveling and turning to see everything. (Does that make sense?)

Just as cool is using post-its and a white board - maybe cooler. Anyway, that’s just me. Some folks don’t need paper at all. They just close their eyes and it all gets mapped out. Some folks get one letter-sized sheet and they can map the world. Not me.

Go check out the animation - it’s a great few minutes.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xpjpd_whiteboard_creation

<a href=”http://feedshark.brainbliss.com” id=”OV424331″>Ping rss</a>

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