It happened so suddenly with little warning. But the Mother practically smacked us when we came too close.

Yes, I’m talking about the 4 little robins that hatched in the shrub just outside our door.

We’ve been watching as the robins prepared the nest, then laid the eggs. And now are feeding the winged family. It’s all fascinating.

It’s just like a business.

1. Preparation: First came a great idea; then you got together with the right people and started to lay the foundation of your business. It’s important to have a business plan that is “big enough” but not too big. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Just right.
2. Birth: Then the company “opened”. It probably hatched faster than you wanted; or it may have taken an eternity. But it happened. In fact, it’s pretty easy to start a business. But now what?!?
3. Nourishment: This is often the missing part in business. Although it comes naturally for the robins. They continually search for worms and swoop in to feed the very demanding young ones. A business is demanding too — but as the entrepreneur, you NEED to be constantly feeding the sales pipeline, the employees, the clients and business plan. If not; it doesn’t take long for the infant company to perish.
4. Crowed Nest: The little birds have outgrown the nest. Look at the picture above! But the illusion that the birds can live on their own is wrong. You need to keep feeding your growing company. Probably past when you think it’s viable. And when it’s time…
5. Take Flight: Then one day, the well oil-machine starts to work on it’s own. Divisions and managers take over and spread their wings.

It’s not easy running a business. And from watching the mother Robin; it’s not easy raising their family. It’s a constant thing. Just like it needs to feel for us as business owners. And every step is critical.

“From the moment I arrived, I knew there were problems. I’ve been saying it since I arrived. Nothing seems to be working properly still; so I’m hoping to see it change soon.”

To me, this isn’t a leader. He’s a follower. It seems that the problems have taken over without any leadership or change. He’s destined for failure.

Find yourself complaining about “stuff” that’s not going “well”? You have 3 reasonable responses:

1. Blame others. It’s always easy to blame. But if you’re at all in charge; you need to accept blame yourself.
2. Blame the environment. You know, the economy or the business environment. This seems to be a cop out too. Yes, you may have challenges all around you; but real leaders find solutions, in spite of the challenges.
3. Accept blame. You alone, have the ability to change things (starting with you).

So what should you do once you accept the 3rd response?

1. Ask what you’ve done differently today to change the results of yesterday. Be specific. Is there anything?
2. Ask what you plan to do tomorrow so that it gives hope for today. Everyone doesn’t like change, but everyone wants improvements. If you talk about the positive results; they’ll endure the change.
3. Ask how you will measure everything so you know which direction you’re heading. Change without measurement leads to confusion. The more you measure specific change; the more you know what caused the success. Accountability is also imperative.

I totally understand. We’re going through a lot of change at PinPoint Creative; and I’m excited to say that we’re getting great results. It all started with some huge branding/benefit decisions. I can hardly wait to share them with you!

It’s no secret that I love food. I also enjoy trying new restaurants. Often I have to go quickly, since the restaurants rarely stays open longer than a few months. They seem to fail faster than any other business. I’ve seen statistics like a 96% failure rate. It’s scary.

Some of the things that scream “This Restaurant is going to fail” are:

• Signage looks homemade. They’re hand-painted and busy. Or overly simple. Cheap-looking banners that seem like their kids painted them. Professionalism sells! Cheap says “we don’t know how long before we go bankrupt; so we don’t want to waste money on signs or marketing.”
• Wild Specials. It never fails, as soon as a restaurant doesn’t get traffic, it starts to have crazy, spur-of-the-moment specials. People standing with signs at lunch time. Random, too-good-to-be-true specials that still don’t bring people in.
• Generic within its ethnicity. Often Chinese, Italian, Japanese, and Mexican restaurants have the same look, feel, and menu as the restaurant down the street. Nothing sets it apart. It’s the same old, same old. It’s not known for anything.
• Bad service. I don’t care how good the food; if the service is bad; the people will stop coming. Of course the proper mix is to have good food AND good service.
• Blue walls, logos, menus, etc. Blue should never be used around food. It actually creates an adverse reaction. God didn’t make blue food (even blueberries aren’t really blue); so we sub-consciously disconnect it from good food. Brown, interestingly enough makes food taste sweeter (think chocolate).

Basically, professionals have formulas to connect good food with an audience. It’s not for the faint at heart. It’s always worthwhile to have good professional help.

I’m tired

• What’s one thing that your business NEEDS you to do right now?
  Do it.
• What’s the one thing that your business NEEDS you to stop doing right now?
  Stop it.

I could easily tell who the ad was for. Gap.

See? Good companies/brands can be smashed, and still identified.

When Coca-cola developed their bottles, they wanted them to be unique. A light green tint, a slight hour-glass shape, and the “ribs” so you can hold on to it easily. This unique shape (unlike anything else on the market at the time) became so mirrored to the brand of Coke, that even when someone broke a bottle, a small piece of it was identifiable. They trademarked it.

Your brand should be the same. Everyone relies on logos to communicate their brand; but in order to develop a world-class brand, you should be able to “smash” your website and still be able to identify your brand by small components or parts.
The same with your signage. Your ads. Your direct mail.

How do you do that?

• Think unique design.
• Think unique style.
• Think unique colors.
• Think unique fonts.
• Think unique sounds.

Get the drift? Uniqueness (that’s memorable and builds your brand positioning) will allow you to “own” a smashable brand. And the benefit? People who don’t have time to read, or look at your entire message, will start to understand and remember your brand when they need your benefits.

Yes, a smashable brand will make more money for you. It’s worth getting it professionally done.

You can imagine how difficult it is for 2 separate families of 4 to live in 1 house. But we (the adults) see parenting the same way; and their kids were so well-behaved, they brought joy rather than chaos to the 7 days.

When kids get tired the stress levels grow. So bedtimes demonstrated their good parenting skills. It also reminds me of good branding.

It’s all about consistency.

I’m always curious why clients want to “change things up”. Their stories are similar. They’ve become bored with the “usual” and they think it’s not working anymore.

I guess it’s like children. They want to do something different at bedtime. Not the usual. Stay up later and become stimulated with something new and different.

Good parents know, that this leads to out-of-control kids. Whining, crying, complaining. They take longer going to sleep and the parents reap the “penalty” of breaking the rituals.

What’s best? Stay the course. Each evening our guests would prepare their kids; allowing them to wind down, take a relaxing and fun bath, say goodnight (or blow kisses), get a drink of water, climb into bed, read a story with Mom or Dad, and then quietness.

This schedule can happen as easily in North Carolina as it can in New Brunswick. Which makes for happy kids (and parents!)

Your branding is the same. Whether in print or online, you need to control the experience so your audience isn’t surprised.

Comfort comes through repetition.
Rituals allow processes to become easier.
Consistency creates brand loyalty.

And ultimately, it leads to harmony.

And for the life of you, you can’t remember why you called.

In a strange way (almost in reverse), every business owner wants people to come to their website. SEO strategies are rampant with a lot of crazy “consultants” getting paid lots of money to “help” the SEO rankings of companies. (REMEMBER: there are basically only 3 “free” pillars of SEO: check them out here).

But what do the business owners forget? I’m amazed that people pay huge amounts of money (or a lot of time) to attract lots of people to their websites; but they forget what they’re bringing them for.

When people come to your website, what do you want them to do? Make sure you have a strategy.

Some possible things:

• Get informed
• Buy something
• Sign up for something
• Fill out a form (for building a list)
• Call you

If you don’t know what you want people to do when they get to your website, then stop attracting them. It’s as awkward as the moment you have to say “I’m sorry, I forgot why I was calling you“.

(Please Note: Honesty is written here. Don’t hate me in the process.)

The majority of people are using Facebook. There’s a simple explanation of the mechanics of Facebook when you sign up; but really, social media is all about sharing information. Content if you will. And there’s no “official” instructional manual for producing the content that is posted.

One rule for content: You want to engage people and not drive people crazy.

If you continue to post content that is annoying, you’ll drive people away, rather than attract. And if that’s your goal, do us all a favor and stop using facebook. I’ve always said, if you can’t get friends in “real” life, facebook won’t help you find or keep them.

So, being the “voice of honesty” in an insane social media world; let me share with you what annoys people on Facebook:

• Posts contains the words “please repost”. If you have to threaten people to repost, it’s not worth reposting. And we all hate chainletters.
• Complaining all the time. Ever been around someone who channels Eeyore? No one likes to always comfort and encourage someone who always finds the cloud in the sky.
• Remorse or anger without giving an explanation. This is a juvenile way of requesting interaction. Stop emoting and expecting us to ask what’s wrong. These sound like, “I’m so upset right now!” or “I can’t believe my life”
•  Not engaging. It drives us crazy when we reach out to you for friendship and you don’t reciprocate. That’s why there’s a HUGE “social” in front of “network”. If we comment on your post, have the decency to answer or post on our pages.

Social Networking does work. You just have to actually be friendly. And then we’ll be friendly back. It’s really that easy.

Ice Cream Friday.

It’s as important to PinPoint as helping our clients “communicate, in unison”.

I was traveling back from a Palm Beach Church conference. It was Friday. I got off my flight in Atlanta and quickly made my way to my next gate. And then I smelled it.

The fresh-baked waffle smell and that unique, sweet, creamy smell that stops me in my tracks. Ben & Jerry’s.

I quickly looked at my phone clock and realized I could probably stop since there weren’t many customers waiting in line. OK, I had already stopped. So I “turned”. I got into line and ordered. A chocolate-dipped waffle bowl with a small scoop of Cherries Garcia.

She politely served me and told me to proceed to the first cashier (the only one open). I picked up my bowl, slung my computer bag over my shoulder, grabbed the handle of my roller bag and gingerly pushed my way 6 feet to the cash. The cashier told me how much to pay (which, since it’s in an airport, I had to take out a small mortgage to pay for it). I set everything down again, went into my computer bag, found my wallet, gave them my credit card, signed the receipt, waited for my card and my receipt, and then start the process of picking everything up again.

I was ready to rush to my gate when I realized that I didn’t get any napkins. And I ALWAYS need napkins. Especially when eating on the run.

The cashier wagged his head and said, “they’re over by the other cash station”. I had to shuffle over 3 ft to the right, set everything down in order to reach for the napkin dispenser (that serves one at a time) that was next to the cash that wasn’t open.

Please. How hard would it have been for them to give me napkins with the ice cream?

Make sure you “experience” the “regular” process you’re putting your customers through. If not, you risk that their bad/awkward/crazy experience overshadows the pleasure of your product.

I’m not a sports person, yet I sit with family and friends, eat, and watch the game. From the start to the finish.

OK, I know who is playing (I had to look it up); but ultimately I find the super bowl games rather boring. Sp why do we watch? There’s a social reason. We love to have a “reason” to get together and be unified. And huge ratings say that most people are captivated in front of their TV.

Enter: Commercials. When there’s a captive audience; there’s a great opportunity for ads.

So what makes a good ad? Here’s 3 things that have to be present:

Engaging. Know your audience and give them what they’re looking for. That can mean humor or a dramatic story line.

Branding. If someone doesn’t remember what the brand name is; the ads are simply entertainment. There needs to be a simple brand message that ties the “idea” of the ad to the benefits of the product.

Memorable. We are bombarded with ad images. So many (and increasing) that an ad has to be incredibly “breakthrough”. It has to catch us, keep us, and then stick with us.

I’m looking forward to the game starting in a few minutes. Well, actually for the commercials to start. And I hope people don’t talk through them. I know, I’m hopeless. I love advertising!