“Sometimes, I wish I had not learned that”
A week or so ago, I was talking with my 11-year-old son about what I was learning in The Plant Paradox. It has a pretty extensive...
Finding your “magic bullet”
A lot of business people I meet are looking for the “magic bullet” that will change their business. They want to find the one social...
The Problem with Marketing Automation
If you listen to the messages from most marketing automation companies (from email automation to optimizing pay-per-click results), you...
Perfection is the Enemy of Progress
For the past several months, I have been wanting to upgrade the Factor Four website. As I have adjusted our marketing messaging over the...
Selling the Intangible vs. a Defined Process
A few months ago, we had a landscape designer come to our home and give us an estimate. He had good reviews and was focused on a...
Keeping Prospects in Your Universe
Are most of your prospects ready to buy when you first meet them? Unless you offer something that people only think of when there is a...
Sharing Your Passion
This past weekend, we were in Valle de Guadalupe. It is a lovely wine area in Baja where fantastic restaurants are also springing up. We...
Admitting you need help...
After 8 years in business and many iterations of my marketing message, it finally occurred to me that I needed some marketing help. Yes,...
The wrong approach to marketing
Until you become large enough to hire a business development professional, one of the biggest challenges that service providers face is...
Ignoring Bright Shiny Objects
When business owners want to meet, they typically want to talk about tactics: Can Instagram work for a service business? Would Google...
The Power of Habit
Are you aware of your habits? While I have been growing more aware of my habits for some time, after reading Charles Duhigg’s book The...
Knowing Where to Start
When most people look at generating more leads, they start from the wrong end of the equation. They tend to start with: “What can I do to...
Confidence is a Numbers Game
In talking with a business owner on Monday, he shared that he had just lost a long-time client. While this did not break his business by...
Understanding Your Value
Last Saturday, I took a jacket to a tailor shop to get it repaired, because the stitching at the end of the sleeve was coming undone....
Valuing Your Story
A couple of years ago, I decided to stop going to most of the networking meetings I was attending. Why? Because service professionals are...
When Less is More
Last weekend, I disassembled the platform that formerly went under our mattress. As I started taking it apart, I was surprised to find...
Exciting vs. Satisfying
In today’s marketplace, we have been trained by (unscrupulous) marketers to want fast, exciting results: “Lose 20 pounds in a week.”...
Explaining it in their words
Have you ever had the experience of asking someone what they do and at the end of their explanation, you are left wondering what they do?...
Can you find enough of the right prospects?
Yesterday, I was on the phone with a prospective client. He is actually someone I have worked with in the past, so I know his business...
Having Enough Leads is Not Just About Revenue
Have you ever had a problem client? If you have been in business more than a few months, you probably have. Did you just suck it up and...
