Doug Mcisaac

Never Lose sight of your dreams

February 24, 2011 by Doug Mcisaac

This is a little different from what I normally write and is much more about me and mindset then strictly about business. We’ll be back to our irregularly scheduled business and online marketing posts soon, but for today join me as I explore my goals from 20 years ago and how they relate to where I am today.

I have a game or ritual I’ve done for years. I walk up to one of my book shelves and I take down whichever book catches my eye first. I open it up to a page and sit down and start reading. Then most importantly I try to apply what I’m reading to a situation that I’m currently going through.

This morning I grabbed Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins. I opened it up and the first sentence I noticed was one that I wrote in the book in 1991, when I was 23 years old. It said “Never lose sight of your dreams.” I asked myself had I lost sight of my dreams? The short answer is “maybe” the longer answer is much more complicated and I like to say my goals have evolved.

Ask yourself that question today and take the time to answer it honestly. Most of us have lost sight of our dreams or at the very least they’ve been subjugated or set aside.

After thinking about that and journaling for a while I decided to track down my goals list from 1991 and I found it. I am blessed that I have journaled in my life. I wish I had done it more regularly throughout my life, but I’ve had several periods over the last 20 years that I’ve spent time journaling and am am able to go back and read about myself from those periods.

My goals / dreams in 1991 were the following:

Build a multi-million dollar business and become a millionaire in my thirties.
Get paid to speak in front of 3,000 people
Compete in a national martial arts tournament – I didn’t really care if I won, but I wanted to be a legitimate threat to anyone I fought.
Build muscle to reach 175 pounds
I wanted to help others achieve their dreams

Let’s see how I did since then:

Goal # 1 Build a multi-million dollar business and be a millionaire in my 30s.

I did that with RMTG, Inc. We had 30 employees and did just short of $5 million a year for 5 years. Then I “retired” selling my shares back to the company with a 10 year, six figure a year payment package in 2005. RMTG ultimately went out of business and my payments stopped at 10 months instead of 10 years. This on top of a number of other things caused me to ultimately lose everything which could be another series of blog posts.

I joke that I should have been more specific with my goal because I was a millionaire in my 30s and lost everything before my 40s. I’m back on track to building a multi-million dollar business again and will easily do six figures in 2011.

Goal #2 Get paid to speak in front of a group of 3,000 people

When I was 23 I was speaking quite a bit, mostly presenting the Shaklee opportunity, but also talking about NLP and mindset. My regular speaking was MC’ing a monthly Phoenix- wide Shaklee seminar that had 100-150 people and the largest group I presented to a group of just shy of 300 where I was able to share the stage with Robert Cialidini, the author of Influence, one of the seminal works for people interested in persuasion. I ended up moving back to Billings from Phoenix in 2002 and pretty much set speaking aside until a couple of years ago.

In the last three years I’ve presented both paid and for free to groups across the US from as small as 10 people to almost 200. This year my goal is to get paid to speak at least once a month. I have three, possibly four speaking gigs lined up for March and am starting to plan April and May. The 3,000 is a very specific number and will take a while, but I will hit it. If you know a group that might be a fit feel free to contact me.

Goal #3 Compete in a National Martial arts tournament.

I was doing Kenpo karate point sparing tournaments back then and that’s really what I meant. I didn’t check a leg shot properly and tore my MCL and quit competing. Since then I’ve done Olympic fencing and fought in local club tournaments reaching the semi-finals a couple of times with foil. But my best chance at this is SCA heavy fighting. I’ve won 2 of the last 4 tournaments that I’ve been in and feel that even at the ripe old age of 43 I have a chance at increasing my skills enough to be a legitimate competitor in any tournament that I enter. Not quite there, but certainly on the path.

Goal #4 Build muscle and reach 175 pounds

I was pretty skinny back then and was working out an hour or two every day while trying to improve my fighting skills. I was about 165 pounds and one of the issues I had was not enough muscle and/or power. Because of that my goal was to build more muscle. Part of my reasoning was vain as well. What 23 year old doesn’t want to have big shoulders and bulging biceps.

Today, I chuckle at this one. Let’s just say I will never be “only” 175 pounds again unless I lose a limb. I soared past that in my early thirties. My goal today is to get back down to 205.

Goal #5 Help others achieve their dreams

What I meant when I wrote that was help people grow their Shaklee businesses. I quit doing Shaklee and personally feel that the old school MLM model is broken. I still use the products because I do believe in them. Which could just be a case of “drinking the Koolaid” but I find my body likes their protein better than any of the others I’ve tried over the years.

What it could mean today. I love working with business owners helping them grow their businesses. Almost everything I do is focused on helping people make more money. Local businesses don’t understand online marketing and most of the people who are trying to sell them services are simply fleecing them or have no clue what they are doing.

I also dabble in information marketing and have built and sold several courses and coached other online business owners over the years. The courses range from my work with Social Traffic and my product Local Social Profits. Both of which were focused on showing people how to be a local social media consultant helping businesses leverage the power of social media marketing for their businesses. I’m toying with re-launching that again, but their are so many of the “get rich quick” types peddling “get rich” selling offline consulting that it has poisoned the well a bit for me personally. I’ve been doing online marketing consulting for almost 5 years now and get a little disgusted with what I see being sold.

The exercise:

Track down an old goals list. This is best if the list is at least a decade old.
Review your goals.
Write down what you meant on each goal that you set.
Write down how you’ve done on that goal
Write down where you are today.
Once you’ve done that ask yourself, “Am I following my dreams?”
Journal your answers
Come back here and share what you learned

I hope this post was as interesting for you as it was for me. I rarely share about myself and posted on Facebook that this post was coming yesterday because if I hadn’t I probably never would have hit publish.

Racing to the bottom is not a marketing strategy

February 4, 2011 by Doug Mcisaac

It happened again this morning. I received an email from someone I consider to be a smart marketer and who has a depth of knowledge that I respect. She was offering new pricing for her services that are a deep discount on her past prices. Why is this pertinent to the post title? It's because I've seen her drop her prices several times in the last year and it appears that she has made a rookie marketing strategy mistake of discounting her services.

Why isn't discounting a good strategy?

History is littered with corpses of once great companies that tried to race to the lowest price. When is the last time you shopped at a Kmart? Do you even remember Woolworth's or Kreskes. Walmart, as big as it is is even beginning to show some kinks in it's armor.

It also sounds like shes desperate. Do you want to do business with someone who's desperate? I know I don't for a number of reasons. First how did they become desperate? Do they suck? If you're going to offer a discount you need to tell me why you're desperate for the cash. Second desperate people tend to get themselves in over their heads and end up never delivering. I've seen it many times.

You don't want discount customers

The other problem with discounting is the type of customers it attracts. Spend an hour on a Saturday at WalMart, is that who you want as your customer? Discount customers are discount customers because they can't afford better or they don't value you and your services enough to pay what they are worth. Not only will you be stuck with these customers, but you will find that they tend to be the most difficult and demanding customers as well.

What about the customers that paid full price?

Have you ever bought something and then saw it in another store for less or an ad where it was discounted? How did you feel? Do you want your customers feeling like that? Dropping your prices can cause a negative backlash from your current customers.

But sales are good aren't they?

Occasional sales are great, but they need to have a reason and a limit on them. If she had said I just had a big project reschedule and I have time to take on 5 more clients this week at a discounted rate. That would have been fine, it still maintains her value, gives a good reason why and gets her the cash infusion she needs.

The key in any business, but even more so as a consultant is that we need to value our time first before we can expect anyone else to value it. I'll do a follow up post explaining some of the things that I have done to maintain my value.

Are you Frustrated with Your Social Media Marketing?

February 3, 2011 by Doug Mcisaac

“Frustration” – a word frequently used to describe companies new to social media and those who have been involved in social media but have yet to enjoy a return.

The problem is two-fold. First, establishing a social media presence takes time and continued effort. You have to be consistent in your involvement with the social media medium and remember that returns will not be overnight. Second, you have to make sure that you are using social media in a way that makes sense for your business.

If you are not sure, ask yourself these simple questions:

Are you using the right platform?

First, remember that there are a variety of social media platforms for you to consider – most notably Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Further, within these platforms, there exist variations on the theme. For example, in Facebook, you can have a “Page,” a “Group,” or a “Community.” Each variation has its own set of tools, purposes, and capabilities. In addition, you may decide to participate in several social media platforms at the same time.

For example, if you have a fitness center or weight loss product , you may want to use your YouTube channel to publish videos on how to perform certain exercises or tapings of classes you offer there while using Facebook to build a sense of community through candid photos, listings of hours, available classes, and upcoming events.

Have you scrapped past attempts?

However, you also need to remember that whatever you take on has to be maintained and updated regularly. This can take up valuable time and people resources. While it can certainly be worth it in the long run, remember that consistency is key. If you do not think you will be able to maintain various platforms (or you have already started and stopped using a platform) be sure to erase or delete those accounts. Otherwise, you stand the risk of eroding your brand value when a customer (current or potential) stumbles across your forgotten Bebo account. Instead, make sure that what you have is the best it can be and do away with anything that you are not actively using.

Are you providing the type of information and interaction that your audience wants?

Ask yourself what it is that your audience would want to read, not what you want to tell them. Providing discounts or having giveaways can be useful, but you have to have more substance than that. Consider posting facts about your company, the brand, or its products. Think of the tidbits of information you encounter everyday that make you stop and say, “Really?” Examples include fun facts about how long you have been in business, what happens “behind the scenes”, why your business operates as it does (e.g. why Yoga class was cancelled on Tuesdays, why you do not serve poppyseed bagels, why you buy local, why legal documents are presented in blue card stock), etc.

Are you listening to your audience?

Likewise, are you listening to your audience? When they make a post, do you respond? Do you stay on top of when your company is mentioned on other sites, blogs, social media, etc., and make relevant comments to that affect (on that site and yours)? Remember that social media has developed because of the continued interaction it affords. Its purpose is not to simply broadcast, but rather give people a voice in things they would otherwise not be privy to.

Do you allow them a voice?

Similarly, make sure that you give your audience a voice. Ask open-ended questions, run surveys and polls, include them in new product decisions, etc. – the more things like this you do, the more valued your audience will feel. Remember that interaction is a large part of a successful social media campaign. If miss out on this, you may already be out of the game.

Social Media can be a key part of growing your business and brand to attract local consumers.

Local Internet Marketing isn’t just about having a website, it includes being findable in multiple places when local consumers are looking for your product or service. A Local Internet Marketing Consultant can help you determine the best route for your online marketing plan.

Simple Facebook Promotion strategies

October 3, 2010 by Doug Mcisaac

Simple promotion strategies or ways to get fans to your page:

Invite Them

Inviting them through invite a friend. This works great if you have frinds that you know would like to join the page, but do not barrage all of your friends with this unless you are 100% sure that it’s something that they are interested in.

Ask Them

Ask them to invite their friends through invite a friend – same as above, can work well, but request that they invite people that they think would be interested.

Advertise

Run Facebook ads – honestly the most effective way to get your page past a “hump-. It happens on all pages your initial push gets you a bunch of fans and then everythigns slows down. Using ads is the quickest, easiest way to get things going again.

The “ninja” trick is to run ads against friends of people who are fans. The ads show with their friends names on it, most people do not realize that it’s a paod ad, they think it’s a suggestion from Facebook.

Contests

Have a contest – I’ve seen lots of great viral contests. This can explode you page, but contest people can be difficult to get engaged. They aren’t there because theya re interested in your page, they are there because they are interested in your contest. There are lots of ways to do contests that keep people engaged.

Tag em

You can tag people you know in a post about the page, do it sparingly because you don;t want to be blocked because of "tag spam"

Have a Party

Have a tagging party and tag other pages that you think your fans will like. This is something Mari Smith just started, it’s similar to a Follow Friday thing from Twitter. It will get you new fans, but they won’t be the most engaged.

Email them

Send an email to your current customer list. This assumes you have a list, but don’t just say “fan us on Facebook” give them a reason to go there. Restaurants could say check our Facebook page for our daily specials, a retail store could have Facebook only specials or even post a word or phrase of the day for discounts.

Ask Them 2

Ask your customers – assumes that you talk to them either on the phone or in your store. But give them a reason to fan your page.

Use Your Username

Add your Facebook.com/Username to your business card, your print ads and TV ads.

NEVER say Find us on Facebook without giving them your custom username. That’s like saying find us in the phonebook. I cringe every time I see someone with an ad campaign that does that. Do a Facebook search on the first 10 brand names that come to mind and look at the results. How many of those pages do you want your customers landing on? Probably not the “BrandX is cruel to animals” or I hate BrandX” pages.

Can’t find 25 fans to get your username, run ads on Facebook use one of the other examples above or if all else fails go to Fiverr.com and get 50 for $5. Don’t fool yourself the “fans” from Fiverr won’t be real people who will engage with your page, but they will get you your username.

Hand it out

Print your address on your business card – Tell people why they should check out your page

Fan Box

Add Facebook Fan Box to your website – I recommend showing the recent posts and at least two rows of faces. You will get more people who go to your website to join your fan page.

Go ahead and add your promotion ideas in the comments. In a couple of days I will dig into ways to get more engagement on your page.

Finding your writing voice

September 23, 2010 by Doug Mcisaac

Today’s topic is on finding your writing style or voice. I have a confession to make. I’m a horrible writer. Not that I can’t write, it just takes me a long time to do it. It takes me hours to put together a blog post. I can write 20 page proposals in less time than it takes me to write a 500 word blog post. I think it’s because I don’t like to share who I am. I prefer to share my knowledge. But I’m working on it, i fact I’m going to do my best not to delete anything in this post and just to write it.

I think the problem started when I was in school. Our English teachers taught us to write in the third person, but that doesn’t work in the new social media and blogging world. We expect to be able to get to know the people we follow. There are some that just lead with their knowledge but most of the successful bloggers / social media consultants let us into their lives to learn who they are.

My style will probably never be as open as someone like Chris Brogan or Mari Smith. That’s just not how I”m wired. I like my solitude and my privacy. I enjoy being out in the public and sharing information, but only once have I shared much about my past while on stage. I don’t hide where I’ve been and what’s happened in my life, but I feel we all need to walk out own paths and frankly like to leave my past in the past.

Now how can you find your voice? Here are a couple of things that I’ve done and I’m going to share one of the resources that helped me. Hopefully this will help you

Just hit Publish

One of the first things I was told was to just write and hit publish. That’s what I’m doing. It’s tough to do it, but I’ve been assured that it’s gets easier as you do more of it. Just like speaking. I remember when I was just out of high school and wanted to learn how to speak in public. I took the steps necessary to learn how to speak. You can read about it here.

The more I spoke in public the easier it became, where today I can get up in front of hundreds of people and deliver a talk without thinking about it.

Talk

Talk– this is advice I first received from, Paul Myers and more recently from David Preston. They both said if you have trouble writing don’t write talk. Dragon Naturally Speaking is a great tool to use. It takes some training to get it to work for you. I tend to do a lot of my work sitting in coffee shops so I haven’t used it as much as I should, but I agree that it’s a great tool to use and it is amazing how fast you can put an article together.

Read and Emulate

Read and emulate — this one is tough because what you want to do is find your own style, not try to become someone else. But if you are really struggling, just read other blogs and get some good ideas for content.

I found Twitter helped me with my writing. You only have 140 characters, can’t do too much damage in 140 characters can you. 🙂 I guess even using chat would have helped. It’s easier to keep it conversational.

There are the things I tried and here’s the resource that I mentioned from Paul Myers. It’s free, nothing to buy, Paul’s that kind of guy. He just creates amazing content and freely shares it. Heck even when he sells stuff it’s usuallyonly $17-27. I’ve received more value and learned more about marketing reading his free newsletter than I’ve learned in $2,000 training courses. Sorry for the sales pitch. Once again there’s nothing to buy, download the guide and let me know what you think about it.

Let me know what you’ve done to help improve your writing too.

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