All or Something

As a recovering perfectionist, I understand "all or nothing" approaches to projects.  And in dealing with grief, I've adopted a "something is all it takes" approach.  Micro-approaches to projects are amazing!  Getting started is often the most important part of tackling a difficult, overwhelming or unpleasant project.  Committing 15 minutes to a task breaks the barrier.  Now the project is started.  When we give ourselves the option to quit after 15 minutes, we can choose to continue or schedule another 15 minutes at another time.

And, choosing to organize a drawer or cabinet, rather than a room or whole house,  provides a chance to more easily celebrate success.

If you have a drawer full of business cards that you've intended to enter into your contacts system, consider entering 10 per business day.  The stack will rapidly diminish within a month, and once you begin to see an end in sight, you might even commit to keeping your newly acquired cards, and LinkedIn connection requests current.

When we move from "all or nothing" to "all or something" thinking, icebergs become ice cubes.

Cheers!

Link, Tweet and Friend Like a Pro in 2013

Social media is an important part of our lives.  We first presented a Link, Tweet and Friend Like a Pro panel  four years ago.  We just engaged two social media experts, Raissa Evans (Executive Manager of Practice Growth, PKF Texas) and Tracie Welch Brenton (Director, Audience Development, Houston Business Journal) to share their expertise for a capacity crowd at a Comerica Bank Business Forum today.

Tracie and Raissa very successfully embrace social media in their professional and personal lives. They enthusiastically shared valuable strategies, tips, do's, don'ts, success stories and helpful encouragement to launch or expand social media as a crucial, cost-effective part of our attendees' overall marketing and business development plans.

Though, Raissa and Tracie are terrific marketers with strong technology interest, education and experience, I am proof that technology acumen isn't a prerequisite to diving in to social media.  Tracie and Raissa both emphasized the importance of intentional messaging that is beneficial to your target audience.  They both have access to colleagues who have very valuable content to share (reporters and CPAs) and have the opportunity help extend their expertise to others.

Some take-aways from their enlightening dialogue include:

• Know and cater to your audience
• Provide interesting, useful content - don't forget that pictures speak volumes
• Post regularly
• Be authentic, consistent and human
• Don't over-promote
• Listen twice as often as you post
• Time is the biggest investment in social media - use it strategically and wisely

LinkedIn

Last Friday I received one of 1 million messages sent by Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder and Chairman of LinkedIn, to the first million LinkedIn subscribers.  He was announcing an amazing milestone: 100 million subscribers.  LinkedIn is a robust, useful business tool and I was delighted to learn from his message that I was among the first half million users. 

Valentine's Day Launch for Sterling Bank Women's Business Initiative on Facebook

I love great timing.  Though we'd expected to launch our Sterling Bank Women's Business Initiative Facebook page in January, our merger announcement postponed these plans. Our Valentine's Day launch may be even better since Valentine's Day is about expressing love and friendship.

We're in our 11th year of providing educational forums for female executives and business owners in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio.  The business connections and friendships that have developed have been exceptional.  The LinkedIn Group has given attendees additional chances to connect.

We like this group so much that we're continually trying to find additional ways to add value. A Facebook page was the next logical tool.  Since the Facebook connect tool is the "Like" button, Valentine's Day seems to be the perfect day to extend WBI friendships.  I'm transported back to grade school when I couldn't wait to see how many Valentine's I'd receive.  Today, I'm hoping you'll fill that virtual Valentine's box with Facebook "Likes".