Are You Seriously Telling Me This Matters??

Today’s blog is going to share why you really should make the effort to focus on your company’s values. They have more value – pun intended – than you realize.

I’m not gonna lie. Today is one of those days when it is tough for me to write this blog. It’s the end of summer and it’s harder for my brain to focus because drinking a margarita in the pool this afternoon sounds more my speed right now. It’s been a busy week and I would love to chill out a little. Can anyone else relate? But I’m gonna stick this out because you’re worth it and I want you to learn how powerful values can be to improve and grow your business.

What are you going to learn? - how values help your business - the structure to create or reevaluate your values - how to transform values from empty platitudes to the meat that draws in more clients. If you do this one, you won’t get brownie points from me, you’ll get more money in your account from clients who trust you and want to buy from you.

Definition of Business Values First of all, I guess we should start by defining what I mean by your values. I see values as the meaning behind your vision if you take it apart and look at its’ components, deconstructed.

Like I mentioned in my last blog on vision, the difference between your mission statement and your vision statement is that your mission states exactly what you do right now for your customers. Your vision tells the greater purpose and heart or the reason why you do what you do. Your values should break this down and spell it out in greater detail.

For instance, my vision is Help others maximize their God-given gifts through their businesses or organizations.

My vision statement could be interpreted all sorts of ways. My values will clarify what I mean. Our vision statements can be broad enough to give us some wiggle room to grow and evolve while also serving as the compass keeps us on course. My values communicate how I define my vision:

Cherish Clients Focus on Results Create an Environment of Trust and Truth Silver Lining Thinking Leading with Character

These are listed at www.stellanovastrategies.com/character-attributes/ with a sentence or two for each to provide more detail.

Creative Exercise to Define or Reevaluate Your Values Here is where you get to tap into the creative part of your brain. Close your eyes and think of a time when someone did something positive for you that shocked you because it was unexpected and impacted/transformed the way you think, work, or behave. Now draw a simple image that symbolizes what this means to you. Do this a few times thinking of different people and situations that have made an imprint on you, shaping the way you conduct yourself and your business and voila!, you have the main pieces for your core values. Now do a gut check and see if you are truly living these out in your business.

Do you do these for your customers?

This exercise will do one of two things. It may reinforce what you do and allow you to break down your values into tangible words and phrases that help you teach others who you are, how you are different from your competitors, and what they can expect when they work with you. OR, it may help you realize that you need to reevaluate your values and the way you do business with others. How Values Help Your Business Think about why you decide to work with one person over one of their competitors who offer something similar. Chances are it fell into one of these categories: - you had a better connection with one person over another - one seemed more transparent and genuine that you knew you could trust them - one had a lower price

While you might think that last one is most important, I’m here to tell you that it really isn’t. Many people will pay a premium simply because they enjoy someone more and/or they know exactly what to expect and know they can trust him or her.

How to transform values from empty platitudes to the meat that draws in more clients If the three reasons listed above shape many of our buying decisions, let’s focus here. Oh wait, we just did. It’s called walking out our values!! When you do these three steps, it will make all the difference: 1. Become aware of exactly what others can always expect from you that is straight from your heart to theirs 2. Communicate these in concrete terms to your audience consistently 3. Let your audience watch you demonstrate this in your interactions with them and with others.

There you have it. You now know what your values are, you’re communicating them consistently, and you’re demonstrating them in the way you work. When implemented, this will go a long way in quickly gaining clients and referrals.

How have your values worked for you in your business? Let me know in the comments.

Create a Vision Statement that Gets Noticed

When it comes to creating a vision statement, most people realize it has to do with their purpose and heart-felt reasons why they are in business but it can be difficult to boil down into a few phrases or statements. Today, I’m going to break it down into a really simple structure for you. What is a Vision Statement? Let’s start with exactly what it is. Your vision statement has a couple of really important purposes in your business. First, similar to your mission statement, it should serve as a guide for all that you do with your business. While your mission statement describes what you do, your vision statement outlines why you do it. Think of it as the greater good that you do to serve humanity with your business or organization. As an example, here’s mine: Help others maximize their God-given gifts through their businesses or organizations. Clearly Communicate the Heart of Your Business The second reason you have a vision statement is to clearly convey to others why you do what you do. It shows the human side of your business and the heart behind why you do what you. Since people want to do business with other people, not businesses, they want to know who you are, what you do, why you do it, and they want to know they can trust you. Your vision statement is one way to convey why you need to serve others with your business. When you delve into branding, your mission, vision, and values are the mighty three pieces from which all branding and messaging springs.

Steps to Create Your Vision Statement Ok, let’s move on to how you create it. First, spend some time brainstorming (by yourself, with a coach, or friend). Write down or tell them the purpose of your business very conversationally – like you’re speaking to your best friend. Tell them why what you do is helpful to humanity + emotions that draw you to this business + the part of your heart that makes you want to get out of bed and work on this every day.

Don’t get frustrated if this takes awhile to put into concrete language. Fitting something emotional into a statement or two that fully encapsulates why you’re drawn to your business for the greater good is pretty difficult.

Second, go back and revise this to make sure it’s clear to others – also difficult – but definitely doable.

After you revise it, share it with a few different people, separately, and ask them to communicate back to you what they think you’re telling them. This will let you know if you’ve really clarified it the way you think you have.

Next, after you receive their feedback, you will want to refine it even more to make it really concise and polished.

Some may be able to whittle this down into one sentence. For others, it may be two-to-three sentences. As long as it condenses your ultimate reason with one or two of your core values that you live out by offering what your business does as clearly and succinctly as possible, you’re in good shape.

Practical Applications From the practical side, where are you going to use this, and how? This should definitely be displayed on your website to help people quickly get to know you and your culture. Since a prospect may Google you, it’s a good idea to share this in more places than only your website. It is great to include in marketing materials, as part of a long description of your business on social media, or as a theme for social media posts you create.

It is a key message point to use when you are presenting to a group, a sales presentation, or at a networking event. You might share your vision statement or you may again use it as a compass for your messaging and talking points. Let people know more about who you are and why you are in your business. Boiling your vision statement down to a concrete statement or two keeps you from stumbling trying to tell people what you really mean. You need to know this inside and out, forward and backward, and incorporate it into your branding and messaging consistently and constantly.

Why Do I Need This Again? As I mention at the beginning of this blog, it should be a guide for you, as is your mission statement, and when you are considering offering something new or doing something differently, you should be able to come back to this vision statement and make sure it still rings true with whatever you plan to add or change. If it doesn’t, should you really do it? A vision statement gives you boundaries so that you and your audience know exactly what to expect and not expect from your business. This helps you hone in on your niche and ensures that everything you do is never strays from what you set out to do.

This will help you clearly articulate your heart for others and how your business is the instrument that accomplishes this. People will understand you and want to get to know you more. In essence, you have just done a great job at establishing trust, and when people trust you, they will be ready to buy from you. So what are you waiting for?! Get out there and create your awesome vision statement. If you need some help, I am here for you. Please don’t hesitate to reach out and set up a session with me to get this fleshed out, polished, and ready to use.

Once you accomplish this, you will be well on your way to building a strong foundation for your business to take off and grow.

Bonus for All the Over Achievers Out There For those of you who stuck with me here to the end, I have a special nugget. This one goes out to all of you over-achievers who demand absolute polish in all you do – have a specific story ready to share about what led you to want to do your business: what sparked it. Not only will you have the structure in place but people will see you are more than words when you provide evidence of a story that demonstrates how this has played out in the life of your business. Not only that but everyone loves stories and it’s a soft way to sell who you are and your values.

Biggest Marketing Frustration Ever...

Hmm, I'll go with running in circles trying everything under the sun to build your business until you’re exhausted and burned out. If you've tried this and are now laying on the ground out of breath and panting, here's some help. Let's simplify by getting laser focused.

I hope you enjoyed the tips I offered in my series about overcoming business fears. This next series focuses on marketing strategies.

The first way I recommend you simplify is by creating a concise mission statement that speaks to the core of exactly what you do to help your clients. It should be specific and may be inspiring as well.

The focus of your mission statement shouldn’t be about creating pretty, fluffy verbiage that looks good on your website. You should be able to hold it up to every action you take with your business to make sure everything you do is moving your business forward in its mission. If not, either you shouldn’t do it or you should consider rethinking your mission statement. It is a vital and powerful tool that should be every business owner’s compass.

If you remove all of the fluffy language and boil down your wording to only the key phrases that tell the crux of what you do, you have the making of a potent mission statement.

As an example, here's mine: I help clients overcome fears, create successful marketing strategies, and tell stories that sell.

Everything I do in my business reflects these and if it doesn’t, then I shouldn’t do it. You may need to update your mission statement from time to time. It may change as the scope of what you do changes.

It should be action-oriented, explain your company's purpose.

Here are some examples of other mission statements.

"The mission of Trader Joe's is to give our customers the best food and beverage values that they can find anywhere and to provide them with the information required to make informed buying decisions. We provide these with a dedication to the highest quality of customer satisfaction delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, fun, individual pride, and company spirit."

“Warby Parker was founded with a rebellious spirit and a lofty objective: to offer designer eyewear at a revolutionary price, while leading the way for socially-conscious businesses.”

“Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

I would love for you to leave me a comment below and let me know your company’s mission statement or where you’re stuck in writing your mission statement.

How to Win in Business and Stay Sane

It can be easy to start out strong with your business, idea, or project when you are excited about doing something new or differently because you are inspired. The sun is shining and the birds are chirping their beautiful song. You are in your happy place and nothing can stop you.

The problem is that those initial feelings can quickly fade into monotony. Suddenly, you feel overwhelmed, you realize you have to do the same thing over and over, and faster, or you will be quickly eclipsed by the competition. The sun that was so cheery and wonderful is now blinding and way too hot, and the birds that sung a harmonious melody are now annoying the crap out of you.

Especially if you are the only person in your business or one of a small few, all of the hats you wear and the quick turnaround times for areas that you’re still learning are now tearing you apart at the seams. Ok, I get it. I’ve been there. We’ve all been there. And you know what, we’ll all be there again.

How do you talk yourself off the ledge and away from that half gallon of butter pecan ice cream in the freezer? In addition to taking control of your emotions like I discussed in my last blog, how do you tackle all of these tasks that are piling up? Ugh!

For one thing, stick with it. Like everything else in life, these feelings will pass. The way we persist through any situation or difficulty is to just keep going.

This is much easier said than done – believe me, I understand. The way we keep going is by continuing to put one foot in front of the other. In the life of your business, this means tackling projects in bite-sized pieces, one at a time. Take the time to master the first piece. Don’t think about the next one yet.

When you move forward, not only will you do a better job on each task (the way you really want to do them) but you will also start a snowball effect and accomplish subsequent tasks more quickly. This is partially because you are forcing yourself to be focused, disciplined, and growing in your confidence. The tortoise really does beat the hare.

While I understand that you can’t shut out the world and client proposals and deadlines, you can carve out 30 minutes here, an hour there, and an occasional 90 minutes to get something completely done – and done well.

Another tip is to build three minutes of inspiration into the start of your challenging task. These may be difficult tasks or they may be annoying, tedious, or boring tasks. Regardless, you’re not looking forward to it. The best thing you can do is find inspiring quotes or part of a biography of someone you admire and spend just a few minutes getting pumped up by seeing others overcome obstacles and realize that you’re no different from them. The key to this is limiting your time spent on it. Don’t let it overtake your time. You are really looking for a momentary boost to give you momentum. Give it a short time limit and set a timer.

Stop as soon as it goes off.

5 Ways to End Your Love/Hate Relationship with Marketing

I get incredibly irritated by terrible marketing and am impressed with those businesses who know how to do it well. When it’s done well, it comes across as funny, impressive, informative, helpful, and other positive descriptors. It makes me interested in what is offered and possibly leads me to buy what they sell. What I find most difficult as a business owner and marketer is not wanting my marketing to be cringe-worthy, annoying, or useless – presenting something poorly so that others aren’t interested. Business owners out there, do you feel me? Who is tired of feeling paralyzed that your own marketing efforts may not be up to snuff and you worry that you look like an idiot or are simply spinning your wheels?

So, what do you do? The answer is to remove yourself from communicating to your audience based on how great and helpful you know your product(s)/service(s) are and step into the mind of your target audience and translate it into something they find valuable.

Here are a few keys:

1. Target your audience. While what you offer may be something everyone needs, you won’t attract as many customers while you cast the net out to anyone. It’s too blah, too generic, no one feels like you’re talking specifically to them. Think about who your best customers are and what similarities they have.
2. Learn more about your target audience. Do more of them tend to be male or female? How old are they? What is most important to them? What do they enjoy or what gives them the most satisfaction? What is their biggest fear? Understand that most people are extremely careful about how they spend their money – no matter how much they have. Why is what you offer vital to them?
3. Set yourself apart. Don’t sound the exact same as everyone who offers what you do. Think about how you are different than others in your industry. Also, are there ways that your competitors do a poor job of conveying what all of you offer? What aren’t they saying or what do they say that rarely results in a buying decision from customers?
4. Know the reason why you devote your work life to this profession. Write out what made you decide to forego every other profession for this one. Is it a funny story, a heartfelt story, is it the source of your passion? Your customers want to know you and what makes you tick.
5. Connect on an emotional level. People make buying decisions based on emotion. They back it up with facts but humans are typically drawn to something based on emotion. They believe it will improve their lives in some way. The emotional level doesn’t have to be heartfelt and weepy. While it might be, it also might be something fun to add adventure. It might be serious. It might be a status builder. It could be something completely different. Find the way to connect emotionally with your audience and brainstorm a bunch of scenarios to communicate that emotion, tying it back to your product or service.