I grew up in a rough neighborhood on the East side of Tacoma, and in neighborhood like that hustle is considered a strength, a great quality to have. The part of the definition that makes it so powerful is that hustle creates “energetic space” to sell. Being able to hustle is powerful when you are a solo-preneur especially, but I would argue in this day and age, hustle is a good thing PERIOD. Your ability to create the energy you need to do what needs to be done and get that sale is a good thing.
I believe I owe my small business success to hustle. Those of you that know me know how much I believe that SALES is a part of small business life. While talking on the phone today with Tory Johnson of Women for Hire, Good Morning America and Spark and Hustle she said that at her events she met many women that would start a business and then they were “hoping someone notices”. Don’t hope, learn how to sell, learn how to do it so it feels right! In February I will be on the Spark and Hustle Stage sharing what I know about sales and social media, come join us!
What will you do in 2011 to uplevel your hustle?
Ann M. Evanston is a “Chief Breakthrough Officer” teaching other Business Warriors how to slow down, and find the most unique part of their business that makes them stand out among the crowd. She has been named one of the top marketing consultants by About.com, is a guest blogger for Showcasing Women and takes pride in moving you from “blah, blah, blah” to “BOOM, BOOM. BOOM!”
In January this year I did this video, it’s important to watch to gather the context of this post.
Do you know that as of August 2010, 2 BILLION videos a day are watched on YouTube alone (not counting any other videos online. Getting over yourself and using video is incredibly important for your goals these days. It develops trust and credibility even faster than your blog can.
In July of this year, after loading videos regularly, but not really paying attention to what I can do with social media and YouTube (yes YouTube is a social media channel, you can comment, like, have favorites, friends and subscribe. You can market to those you are connected with as well), I decided it was time to build a strategy for success. So here is what I did:
1-I purchased this program ($10 a month) a steal! TubeTool Box is a phenomenal time saver
TubeToolBox does target searches for the people I want to connect with for me, all I do is load the phrases, tell it to start and it finds 1000’s of connections for me that are a fit with my target market(it’s running as a write this, 355 my potential people as of this morning). Then, to make it even better, it will auto send the friend invites for you! The program is BRILLIANT because it knows YouTube’s parameters so you don’t get flagged as spam. My friends have increased from 59 to 1630. My subscriptions (which I am not even trying hard yet) are up from 16 to 284!
2-I worked with some amazing friends of mine to develop a “video viewing program”. This program drives people to watch your videos to watch. Let’s face it, more views mean more opportunity. This program invites some of those 2billion views a day to YOUR videos. The result: My views are up in the 1000’s! I have also received 2 paid speaking engagements, a webinar and I am part of the YouTube Partner program which gives me a share of income from Google ads. So far the ads alone is bringing in about $200 a month! There are programs that do it for about $50 a month, but I think we have made ours quite affordable and do-able, (starting at $10 a month) so try it!
YouTube is a speeding train. Be the ENGINE of that train in your industry. Figure out the kinds of videos yuu can do product reviews, stories, fun, inspiration to attract your market to your product or service.
What is my point? YouTube works as a social media sales and marketing tool. But there are programs out there to focus your efforts to make it successful. It’s time to think about your marketing videos. Oh and I hope you will subscribe to my You Tube channel while you are there!
Ann M. Evanston is a “Chief Breakthrough Officer” teaching other Business Warriors how to slow down, and find the most unique part of their business that makes them stand out among the crowd. She has been named one of the top marketing consultants by About.com, is a guest blogger for Showcasing Women and takes pride in moving you from “blah, blah, blah” to “BOOM, BOOM. BOOM!”
I am a warrior- I love being a warrior, but I have been thinking a TON about this lately on social media sites:
I want to be able to dialogue with people, absolutely! I, just like each of you, want to feel respected for my viewpoint. So here is my pledge:
1-I promise to practice this MORE often, especially with people I feel closer to. You are the ones I often think can handle my strong opinion and that’s not fair.
2-I also promise that if my opinion is super strong, I will post what I think on my wall or profile, but if you choose to jump in, you are fair game.
3-I will also promise to take the 1 minute “time out” when I write a response due to an emotional reaction BEFORE I post it, and then ask myself, how should I rephrase this or not post at all?
What can you do to make sure that social media sites remain a place of positive interaction and sharing, even when we disagree?
Ann M. Evanston is a “Chief Breakthrough Officer” teaching other Business Warriors how to slow down, and find the most unique part of their business that makes them stand out among the crowd. She has been named one of the top marketing consultants by About.com, is a guest blogger for Showcasing Women and takes pride in moving you from “blah, blah, blah” to “BOOM, BOOM. BOOM!”
Recently I did a great interview with Louise Edington that inspired something that’s been brewing inside me for a while. In that interview we talked about the fact that often early on, because of your fresh new exciting business, you often “get a sale” right away. What we often think is: “that was easy”. And that is the problem – see, it wasn’t easy – it was probably lucky.
Sales aren’t easy. I’m not trying to scare you–> I want you to know that it isn’t magic.
My sales success comes from these basic steps:
1-build a follow up system
2-learn to ask for the business
3-break down your goals. If you want to make $10,000 a month, what do you need to do to make it?
4-develop multi levels to engage, upsell, and ways to ask customers who they know that should know you and what you have to offer.
I give additional tips in my post on how to “Prime the Pump”
What do you need to start doing to build a sales process for your business?
Ann M. Evanston is a “Chief Breakthrough Officer” teaching other Business Warriors how to slow down, and find the most unique part of their business that makes them stand out among the crowd. She has been named one of the top marketing consultants by About.com, is a guest blogger for Showcasing Women and takes pride in moving you from “blah, blah, blah” to “BOOM, BOOM. BOOM!”
Those of you that read my blog, take classes with me, follow me on Twitter know that I believe the main reason to participate is to build trust and credibility. I teach my clients strategies that increase your opportunity to do just that. On a recent flight I read Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust, by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. WOW! Take a look at this:
You can pick up the book on Amazon!
Are you interested in making a commitment to a mastermind?
What will you do in 2010 to increase your influence, trust and credibility online?
How can it help your business?
Ann M. Evanston is a “Chief Breakthrough Officer” teaching other Business Warriors how to slow down, and find the most unique part of their business that makes them stand out among the crowd. She has been named one of the top marketing consultants by About.com, is a guest blogger for Showcasing Women and takes pride in moving you from “blah, blah, blah” to “BOOM, BOOM. BOOM!”
