“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.” ― Randy Pausch
It is uncanny that I ran across this quote yesterday. I’m gonna get honest here. I was having a pity party last night. I even shed a few tears of frustration.
Why?
I’ve been working so hard at my writing and brand building, I’ve been on a zillion webinars, I work all day and well into the night, I have bought a tonne of stuff to help me with my digital marketing, many that I haven’t even had a chance to look at or to learn yet, I have been setting up E-comm stores, and MORE!. … and I want things to be moving faster for me.
I keep finding the shiny things and thinking this is IT! But those shiny things only distract me. 🙂
Anyhoo, I really, really, liked this quote. And I think of one other that has helped me out over the years which is “If it was easy, everyone would be doing it”. LOL
Thanks for listening and always keep the faith. I am over my pity party and it is back to full speed ahead. 🙂
AND if you are feeling frustrated and not where you think you should be by now, hang in there! We’ve got this. Stay the course and always remember Persistence, Persistence, Persistence! 🙂
I was reading up last night on Pinterest and their predictions and marketing trends for this year. I was so excited as many of them were things that I personally love like “Finding Balance” which is self explanatory, and “Re-Wilding” which is about spending time in nature to lower stress and to increase energy etc.
However, there is one concept that they are encouraging for 2020 and I LOVED this one. It stood out for me because I am already doing it and believe in it so much.
And Here It Is:
Stop Interrupting and Start Inspiring!!!!
♥ Inspire ♥
What does this mean? It means, as marketers, stop the annoying in your face pop ups, 9 million ads that one must scroll through, the FEAR factor tactics, the crap popping up in your face, it means market through ♥ Inspiration ♥ rather than through disrupting people. I so love this!
From Pinterest:
Here are some tidbits from Pinterest’s CMO Andrea Mallard. And I LOVE all of them:
As a brand or business ask these questions:
“How do I become more accountable for the outcomes that I engender in someone’s life? And in the extension of that … in the entire world?”
The new era is to inspire on “How to Live an Inspired Life”.
“It’s not about selling people, it’s about inspiring people about what could be in their lives”.
So there we have it ♥ Inspire ♥. Be of service. Offer value. Inspire people through your marketing efforts and help them to have better lives and this in turn will make for better lives right across the planet. What’s not to LOVE? 🙂 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Have a great day everyone and I hope this inspired you 🙂
Motivational Quotes are a very powerful way to get engagement in your social media and more importantly to spread good cheer! You can never, ever, fail by spreading more positive messages in today’s world. Share these messages far and wide.
When it comes down to business, positive messaging helps your customers and potential customers to relate to your company or business in a way that feels good. There is an energy and an image that results from sharing the good so do more of it.
Here are 5 Positive Happiness Quotes for you to use:
You can add your company logo or your website url or just share them as they are. You can use one of the many photo editors out there to add text to these graphics. My personal favorite photo editing tool that I use ALL the time is PicMonkey. It is so easy to use, it’s fun and it lets you explore that creative side of yourself and it helps you have more success in your marketing and that is always a good thing. Here is a link to check it out https://picmonkey.love/ref/Eicks
Okay so here are your free graphics. Use away.
Oh and another idea for you is you can take these same quotes and make your own graphics over at PicMonkey. Here is an example of one I just did this morning. And by the way you are welcome to use this one too! So there you go you now have 6 positive quotes to use and to also re-purpose your content on multiple social media platforms.
This is a picture I took yesterday at my lake house on the shores of Lake Superior where I work and play from anywhere enJOYing the beauty of the North. I hope this picture brings you JOY as well.
I was talking with a friend the other day about how our stocks are doing…. not good. Anyhoo, it got me thinking about how things can change in a heartbeat. Anytime, anywhere. CEO’s leave a company for whatever reason… fired, removed, step down etc., take-overs happen and the list goes on. Supply and demand changes, competition emerges, trends change… and the list goes on… it always goes on.
Things happen all the time and you just never know how things will go. I read an article today from 2017 about Wework and how well they were doing. I had never heard of this company, believe it or not, and was impressed so I Googled to learn more about them… well they are not doing so well right now and they are all over the news about it. Once again reminding us that things can change at anytime.
And now the Good News:
After some feelings of overwhelm thinking about things, I had a Eureka moment, if things can change like this, they can also change in a heartbeat in a positive way! Yes, maybe that one idea you have IS going to boom! Maybe that blog post will go viral! Yes, maybe you will tap into the million dollar marketing idea and watch the cashola roll in. Yes! Yes! Yes!
And as I have blogged about before, many times, the power of your mind and your expectations are HUGE. So let’s all run with this one shall we? 🙂
Problems…. we all face them. Challenges, problems, and obstacles. We all face them, especially in business.
One of my favorite sayings that has gotten me through tough and challenging times throughout the years is “Problems? I eat problems for breakfast!” You can replace the word ‘problems’ with ‘challenges’ or whatever word you like.
When you know head on that challenges are just part of the game, the gig, it makes it much easier. Going in knowing that challenges are a part of what will make you successful, makes it much easier to roll with the punches.
Advice Help Support And Tips Signpost Shows Information And Guidance
Being able to receive is a huge success secret! Many entrepreneurs and business owners are often strong headed and tend to get in their own way.
Being open to receiving is a huge deal!
Here are some ways of receiving:
Saying thank you when complemented.
Letting someone buy you coffee or lunch without a power struggle… just say “Thank You!”
Being open to advice and suggestions or guidance.
Being willing to listen to alternative ways of doing things.
Here’s a big one: Feeling worthy enough to receive great things and abundance in all areas of your life and work.
Allowing others to help you instead of doing it all yourself.
Letting others do what they are good at and letting them help you.
And the last one I will leave you with for today, is…. being gentle on yourself and receiving your own support and encouragement from YOURSELF. We need to be our own best cheerleader and support system. So never, beat yourself up, but always show support to yourself and most of all, receive it and accept it. 🙂
As a Certified Infinite Possibilities Trainer & Coach I both use and teach three useful questions when testing out new ideas, especially when it comes to anything to do with sharing of information that will make a difference in someone’s life or work. I love to Inspire.
I believe these questions are helpful in whatever we do in business or in life. We are all looking to be more authentic and raw and that is a beautiful thing. When we bring our heart into our work it adds a whole new depth to the term ‘Service.”
Perhaps you will find these questions useful in your life and work.
Here they are:
To quickly achieve clarity and have confidence in a new idea, ask the following 3 questions:
Persistence is the golden key to success in all forms. I learned this a long time ago. And now that I understand universal laws so much more, I really get it. Energy flows where attention goes, so persistence helps to keep the attention focused on where it needs to go to develop momentum and ultimately business growth and success.
One of my all time favorite sayings is: “Persistence, Persistence, Persistence”… I say it with a french accent to make it even more stickable in my brain so that I remember how important persistence is 🙂
An Insiders Checklist on
Posting to Instagram to
Increase Audience Engagement
With over 1
billion active monthly users, Instagram is one of the best
apps to get your blog and business noticed, while at the same time also giving
you an opportunity to engage your audience, leaving users with a deep sense of
community.
Your Instagram followers are your biggest supporters, clients, and
oftentimes, friends. Below is a checklist you can refer to when posting on
Instagram with the aim of engaging your audience.
1. Study Your Followers
It’s extremely
important you know who your audience is.
Why?
It’s because beautiful
photos and witty captions will do you no good if your audience is not engaging
with your content.
One of the
best tools for knowing more official stats about your followers is Iconosquare.
This website
links to your Instagram account and gives you information on when your audience
is the most active, which photos are most liked, and what your audience
comments on the most.
Iconosquare’s statistics can be really
useful because they help you see if there’s a disconnect between you and your
followers about what or when you post.
You may really enjoy posting photos of
your dog, but your audience might actually love all those photos of your
artwork even more. Iconosquare can help you create an Instagram plan that feels
good to you and gives
your followers what they want to see.
Iconosquare also lets you know
which hashtags have brought you the most success, which is a helpful
statistic when planning your captions.
You can find all of this information by
creating an Iconosquare account via your Instagram and looking under
“statistics” >> “optimization.”
2. Ask Questions
People like to know that you value their
thoughts and opinions.
So, your level of engagement will soar if
you will:
Ask your followers how their day is
going.
Take a photo of what you’re working on
and ask them for their opinions.
Share about your upcoming trip and see if
your followers are headed anywhere, too. Anything to get them talking.
It may feel a little awkward at first,
but if you will do that, you’ll be surprised at how many people will reply.
Additionally, if you’re traveling, ask
your followers if they’ve ever been there and what recommendations they have
for you.
This one is a total win-win because you
get to hear about fun places you can explore, and best-of-all, you’ll get your
Instagram pals chatting and engaging with you.
3. Find
something that will set you apart
In order to stand out from competitors on Instagram, it’s best you set
yourself apart from by offering something of value to your audience.
For instance, if you’re a food blogger, you could share a dinner
recipe that you wouldn’t normally share on your blog.
The key here is to give your audience a reason to return to your
account. Being consistent and knowledgeable on Instagram can lead can generate an
abundance of success, not to mention an interested and engaged audience.
4.
Be Quick with Your Hashtags
On Instagram you really only have one chance to get your photo
noticed in the grid before it quickly gets lost.
So, best to insert your favorite hashtags right away, so you can be
seen live, by people currently tagging the same thing. Remember that the first
few seconds after you post your photo are the most important to bring in new
eyes, otherwise the photo gets lost.
5.
Create a Challenge
Invite people to be a part of your Instagram world by creating
a challenge. This will expose your account to a lot of new people. It will also
help you get to know your audience, and create a little buzz around you and
what you are doing.
Ideally, it’s wise to take the time to participate by liking and
commenting on photos whenever possible. This is not only polite, but it also
creates a bigger sense of community and it shows you care.
If you’re nervous about people not participating, consider reaching
out to a few of your currently engaged followers and
personally inviting them to join in.
You may want to consider teaming up with another Instagrammer to
host your challenge. That way, you have accountability and you
get to share each other’s audiences for an even bigger opportunity to boost
engagement.
6. Respond
to all Comments
It’s critical you respond to all of the comments you receive.
If you follow the checklist as laid out in this report, it’s highly
probable that people will start commenting on your photos. If you ignore their
comments or only respond to a couple here or there, it shows them that you’re
not interested in building a community.
So, make a point of responding to each person who comments to show
how much you value them and to build friendships with your followers.
Doing so will lead to an even stronger connection and more engagement!
Most of all have fun with all of this! I personally, love to create fun pictures to share with my audience. It allows me the opportunity to let my creativity out. 🙂
If you would like to follow me on Instagram you can find me at:
Maggie helps entrepreneurs and small to medium sized businesses with digital marketing, growth ideas, websites and more. Maggie has over 30 years combined experience in traditional business, networkmarketing, self-employment, property management, online marketing and coaching.
One of the things I have learned about what makes successful people successful is they use this question a lot! “Is this an asset or a liability?”
An asset is something that benefits you and contributes to your success and a liability is something that takes away or simply does not contribute.
For example, if I buy a large screen TV to watch general TV programming and I am an entrepreneur this would most likely be a liability and even perhaps cost me money over and above the initial purchase cost of the television because the time I spend watching takes me away from building my own business!
On the other hand, if I purchased the TV to use for doing business presentations or for watching webinars on topics useful to growing my business, then it is an asset and a potential tax deduction! It can actually make me money and/or enhance my business.
When you learn to question everything including the time you spend doing things, you quickly start to learn to make asset building choices more often.
There you go a simple question you can use to change your business and your life!
Maggie Holbik.com is a Certified Life & Business Coach with over 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur and business owner of various businesses. She is also a property manager and believes in multiple income streams including networkmarketing. Maggie also owns a digital marketing company Webpros2
Maggie Holbik Business Coaching 