Our last past on inspiration garnered some interesting feedback including the question, “How do you stay inspired?”

Here’s my answer for business inspiration – and not in order of priority:

1. I read blogs. LOTS and lots of blogs. Mostly business and marketing related. If you’re interested in exactly what I read, connect with me on Google Buzz. I click “share” for all the posts that I read that I like on pretty much any subject.

2. I read and analyze print magazines. I read magazines that have nothing to do with my career niche. By the time it comes out in print, it’s long gone. I get my business info on the web because the web moves quickly just like business. But I love to analyze layouts, strategies, organization and article presentation in print magazines. My favorites of the moment feed my current hobby of decorating our new-to-us 1920s urban bungalow and my desire to be a more creative, organized, and thoughtful mother to my kids and friend to lots of types of people. Currently, I’m reading House Beautiful (because they run the gamut of practical to totally impractical, on their editorial while keeping their presentation creative and simple to consume), Martha Stewart Living (because Martha and company still have the perfect balance between practical and remarkable) and Real Simple (because I usually find a tip that sparks inspiration in my life) pretty much every time a new issue comes out.

3. I read product packaging. I like the wit and information found on great product packaging and the opportunity that it provides to connect with an existing customer and extend that customer experience. I love it when I hear the personality of the company come to life on the product labeling. Right now, I’m drinking a Sparkling Blackberry IZZE from a can. The label reads: “We stay true to the fruit. IZZE is 70% pure fruit juice. A splash of sparkling water. Made with natural ingredients and fortified with vitamins with no refined sugars, no caffeine, no preservatives. Naturally delightful. Visit IZZE.com.” They could have skipped the “stay true to the fruit and the naturally delightful part and still told their story. But the personality jumped in a bit and makes me more interested and adds value to my experience. I watch for that, consider it, am inspired by creativity in the details of a business.

4.  I hang out with my kids. We paint, read, laugh, play games, cook together and go on special outings together. Each child sees things from a unique vantage point – which inspires me to do the same. They help me look through a new set of lenses and give me ah-ha moments unlike any others.

5. I garden a manageable amount of flowers that give me opportunity to be rewarded in short order with cut-worthy blooms. I water them to get refreshed. I look at them to get inspired. I tinker with fertilizing them, pruning them, and rearranging them to learn from them.

6. I exercise… With Andy or alone, mostly by walking or running outdoors. I’m not a group game sorta person. I use my exercise time to talk things out, think things out, breathe fresh air, run off my frustrations, capture a change of scenery – all leads to a more inspired me – and make me a healthier human for my family.

I hope that helps and gives you some ideas for gaining your own inspiration – what about you? What inspires you in your business?

Photo Credit: Clearly Ambiguous

The Doherty Hotel - a historic, independently owned hotel in Clare, Michigan with a catering department that actually cooks yummy food and truly caters to the specific needs of their conference customers.

I was delighted to wake up today to find Chris Brogan’s new post on Detroit in my RSS reader. From where I’m sitting, I don’t think enough ‘atta boys’ can be sent Michigan’s way. Despite all the publicity scars they’ve endured from national media, national politicians and even their neighbor Canada, Michigan’s passionate citizens have persevered and are under the radar turning lemons into lemonade at a mind-numbing rate.

A local taco joint in Almont City, Michigan – a really small town where more than 100 folks came out to learn how to do small business better. That’s passion to succeed.

Two years ago next month, I had the privilege to keynote the Michigan Downtown Conference. Since then, I’ve had the privilege of visiting community after community and meeting business owner after business owner and to work with state and development agencies across the state – and all the time, I was learning firsthand what passion and perseverance really looks like. In Michigan, more than any other place we’ve worked, they “get” social media, and they’re using the power of human relationships to change their world and transform their image from the inside out.

If your small business is in a rut – just look to the passionate folks in Michigan for some inspiration. Is your local community or state in need of a boost of energy or even a complete image overhaul? Connect with some passionate folks in Michigan – they’ll show you how it’s done.

Need some places to start?

My first recommendation and go to person in general is my friend Joe Borgstrom (@JoeBorgstrom), a guy that didn’t wait for permission and created enormous buzz that reaped big dividends for Michigan’s downtowns among media, politicians and local shoppers alike by personally taking Michigan’s Main Street initiative into the social media world – and keeping it human and real every step of the way. He’s the guy that made the “OPEN” video happen – a video that went viral all over the U.S. last year, and he’s the commander of the simply brilliant Pure Michigan Living initiative. You should also know his wife, Kirsten, because now her PR genius unveiled at Travel Michigan is now available to the world (Congrats, Kirsten, on being another cool Michigan entrepreneur!).

Catching Fireflies is in a rehabbed train depot in downtown Rochester, Michigan.

Check out the passion at Getz’s (@getzs, Getz on Facebook) – the third largest Carhartt dealer in the nation – at home in an old building in downtown Marquette, Michigan – and running what can only be described as a Santa’s workshop on the top floor.

I’m also in love with Sandy at the Howell’s Mainstreet Winery (Howell’s Mainstreet Winery on Facebook) – where a great couple, both former auto industry folks, combined some passion with savings to start a wildly successful micro-winery, classes, and wine shop in a great downtown building in Howell, Michigan.

April at Catching Fireflies (@whimsicalgifts, Catching Fireflies on Facebook) in downtown Rochester, Michigan also has a store in Berkeley – and a fantastic wholesale line that is bringing money into the state every time she goes to market to sell. She’s creative and brilliant when it comes to making human connections using Facebook, Twitter, her blog and regular e-mails. I can never resist her passionate offers – or her fun notes stuffed in my packages when they arrive.

There’s Motorless Motion (Motorless Motion on Facebook, @motorlessmotion on Twitter), a little bicycle shop in Mt. Pleasant that loves people and educating customers – and now they can do it on Twitter and Facebook and reach the world with their information – and sell bike parts that way, too. There are the local cops who bought the floundering donut shop in downtown Clare, renamed it Cops & Donuts (Cops & Donuts on Facebook) – and made the national news in the process.

Marianna with the owner of Starring, a brilliant art gallery experience started by a former automotive exec.

And there are dozens and dozens more stories just like these – where pure passion is sprouting “green” for folks in Michigan.

Watch out world.

Michigan’s identity is transforming from the inside out. After spending some time there, I want to be more like those folks. Hardworking, passionate, friendly, helpful people they are…

How about you?

This week, I spoke to a lot of downtown redevelopment types at the National Main Streets Conference in Oklahoma City. We talked about how to tell your story in this modern world (whether community, business district or small business). Social media plays a big part in that. But it’s not the central element…

In my presentation, I pointed out that to tell your story well, you must play by four basic rules. Without repeating my speech here, I do want to share the first rule and most important rule with you, because strategically, everything else will crumble if this rule isn’t followed:

Rule #1: You Must Have a Strong Home Base for Your Business or Community

That home base should most likely be your web site. In nearly all marketing models, it works for the web site to be the epicenter of the marketing universe. (It doesn’t HAVE to be that way, and I’m more than open to creative thinking on this subject depending on goals and budgets. But in most cases, it works for it to be the web site.)

Is your web site working as the epicenter? Are all roads leading back to your domain name…to your web site?

How can you make your HOMEBASE stronger?

1. Make sure it’s easy and quick to update. If you can’t update your own web site, you’ve got a big problem in today’s fast paced world. We love the WordPress platform because it takes me moments to make major updates to my own web site. It’s as simple as sending an e-mail.

2. If it’s easy to update…are you updating it? Are you adding new and interesting photos, educational content, employee and owner profiles, product and vendor information, demonstration videos and how-to lists… Are you making your web site and interesting and valuable resource for your customers and prospects?

3. Is your domain name appearing everywhere, even if your logo can’t? This includes audio communications (like radio, word of mouth, etc.), store signage (yes, including the front door and front window of your store), shopping bags (you never can tell where those bags will go), t-shirts, postcards, advertisements of every sort and at every opportunity.

4. Are you actively seeking to create traffic TO your web site through interesting posts on social media, links from vendor or organizational web sites, etc.? Remember that valuable content you created? Now it’s time to tell folks about it through Facebook wall posts, encouraging folks to share that information on Facebook, Facebook advertising, Twitter posts, LinkedIn posts, e-mail marketing and many more new media traffic drivers.

5. How does your site appear on search engine results? Does it even appear at all? Keep an eye on this, and ask your web guy for help if necessary.

6. Do you have Google Analytics and other robust web site analytics packages installed on your web site that are set to send you daily or weekly reports? Are those reports summarizing how much web traffic you are getting and from where (both geographically and by keyword topics)? Do you know who and why your customers are visiting your web site (keywords, inbound links, etc.)? Are they finding what they’re looking for – and so much more (bounce rate, number of actions per visit, time per visit). You might be surprised at what you learn, but you certainly need to know. And you need to correct course with the web site if it’s not delivering the desired results.

P.S. Interestingly enough, on my trip home, I was catching up on some reading and found that Chris Brogan had an interesting post on this same subject. His post has cool screen shots demonstrating how confusing it can be to customers if you do NOT have a strong home base. I hope you’ll enjoy his post as well.

Also, if you’re also just home from the National Main Streets Conference, you might enjoy our conference wrap-up of conference tweeters to follow and other good resources.

What say you? What results is your home base providing for your business?

When Andy and Marianna asked me to be a guest blogger on Results Revolution I was super psyched, but also a little nervous! I’m just a small business owner that likes to blog – not an expert on blogging! But then I think that was the point – right guys? If I can do it, you can definitely do it!

First, let me introduce myself. My name is Mandy, and I own Swagger Gifts in Cary, NC. I have been blogging for my gift shop since February 2008. I love to blog, and I do the best I can. But I KNOW I’m not the best blogger out there. I think when I finally realized that, I actually became a better blogger! The fear of “am I doing this right?” is gone, because there is no right or wrong! I know there are a bunch of people out there giving advice on blogging – and I try really hard to follow some of it – but the best advice I received was – JUST DO IT! And in turn it is the advice I am handing out to you today!

Creating your blog (which you can do for FREE – just Google “free blogs”) and then writing a post are the first two steps. I promise it is easy and basically painless! Then commit yourself to the blog. It only works if you are consistent!

Marianna asked me to answer two questions for you:

1. How often do I blog? Of course my goal is to blog every day, but sometimes I can only make it happen twice a week (you know all the other stuff that comes with owning a small business gets “in the way”). However I do strive for twice a week – remember consistency is key – it gets your readers in the habit of coming to see what is going on at your business and the search engines love it!
2. What type of content do I put on my blog? I guess “a little bit of everything” would be the answer here!

One thing that we do to get people visiting the Swagger Gifts’ blog on a regular basis is to do a weekly giveaway. It is a lot of fun to interact with our customers in this way and it showcases a specific item that generally customers come in and purchase (which of course is the goal!). Our blog also feeds into our Facebook page, so people will share the giveaway on their pages which also increases our “fan” numbers (more people to market to – yeah!). The weekly giveaway has been very beneficial financially for Swagger Gifts!

I also blog about “new stuff” that has come into the store. I have done posts on 23 boxes just arrived to Hot New Trends to Baby Gifts under $40. I think pictures are worth a thousands words, so I always attach a picture to our posts! One of our most popular posts was about how a new oversized flower could be used in the Front Door Idea blog post. I know it was popular because the flowers sold out almost immediately, and we had a “people to call” list waiting when our next shipment came in. Most people said they saw it on Facebook!

Blogging about community events and charity events that we are doing in the store or ones that our customers are involved in is great for goodwill! It also shows that you are involved with the local community!

A while ago, Marianna wrote a blog post about sharing “Behind the Scenes” info with your customers. I have posted Behind the Scenes info a couple times and our customers seem to love it! We live in such a “social” society that people love reading about what your life as a business owner is really like! I should do this more often – thanks Marianna for the tip!

This also leads me to writing about going to tradeshows or other places you visit for your type of business. I have been writing about our market trips for two years now and our “sneak peak” blog posts get customers excited and coming into the store asking “when is so and so going to arrive!”

There are so many other things to post about, and I would love to hear what you do on your blog to generate traffic for your business! Please comment below – I’m sure all of us who read the Results Revolution blog would love some new ideas!

For those of you who don’t have a blog (yet) – go out there and start one! Then come back here and comment on how easy it was!

Thanks for reading and for sharing your tips below!

Mandy

Just got back from watching the “Julie & Julia” movie with Andy. Two inspiring tales of paralleling perseverance in ages of “new media” – that’s my summary. (The movie was brilliantly done, in my opinion.)

One of my favorite lines from the movie was later in the movie when Paul (husband to Julia Child) said to Julia, in the depths of her woe over her manuscript rejection: “You can teach cooking in our kitchen…you CAN teach cooking on television.” (Keep in mind, TV was still a “new media” – and cooking shows were unheard of.) Julia was completely taken aback – but she also believed it possible. Julia Child made her own game from the moment she pursued doing something she loved instead of just something culturally acceptable. Julia was a game-changer on so many levels – of the sort that Chris Brogan describes in Trust Agents.

And then there is Julie – the picture perfect example of what happens when an “average” person does something extraordinary. I would suggest that everyone is extraordinary – we just don’t always find our passion. We don’t always have that fire to pursue our dreams, to do what we love, to find our fire and go with it at all costs. But Julie didn’t know anything about blogging or technology or even anything extraordinary about her topic. But she set a goal that had to do with something she LOVED, and then she mustered discipline and determination and was willing to share her journey with the world. And she wrote and wrote and wrote. She wrote transparently and honestly. She had success – and she had strife. And she wrote. Authentically. A real person.

Julie and Julia are both loved for their authenticity. Julia Childs wasn’t afraid to mess-up or spill or even fail on the camera. Julie wasn’t afraid to have a “melt-down” on her blog. Nor did either hold back their successes and joys – the celebrations were euphoric and contagious. Human. So very human.

Julie’s story can be your story. Just with a different passion attached. New Media – like blogging, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, etc. give you an opportunity to do something extraordinary, to be “found” and to earn a living on the coattails of something you LOVE. You don’t really have to KNOW anything more than how to be human and willing to develop a discipline and perseverance for the long haul.

If you’re willing to be very human – you too can be a “New Media Success Story.”

Photo Credit: Rakka

To the best of my recollection, I’ve been blogging for about seven years now. Maybe longer. I guess I could look, but I do know that the number of posts written on small business marketing number in the hundreds… So, sometimes I wonder in my “always wanting the next big thing” mind, is this really still important? Yep, it really still is… So, if you’ve been blogging for a while and are getting a little ADD about it, don’t. Add some widgets, study your metrics in new and better ways – look for ways to improve. But don’t quit.

And if you haven’t yet started blogging – it’s not too late. And you, too, can join the conversation. The important thing is to GET started.

Here’s a link from my friend Mandy’s recent article about how to blog successfully written for OneCoast’s Advisor e-newsletter. Mandy is one of the smartest and most successful retailers that I know, but she also doesn’t really like to write. You’ll appreciate her recommendations for blogging success.

Here’s a link and excerpt from the eMarketer article today that cites the stats that prove why blogging is and will continue to be critical to our marketing toolboxes:

Don’t delay – get started with blogging immediately!!

With your target objective (mission) and goals in clearly defined, it's time to start planning, researching and taking action. With our planning for the National Main Street Conference, we really only had about two weeks of firm planning time.

Here is how I broke down the planning: logistics, action items tied to goals, contacts and packing.

For me, the list proved to be a bit daunting. I am a perfectionist, and on occasion bite off more than I can chew. This conference wasn't the only thing on my plate after all. I have small business owners that I consult each week and projects and other speaking engagements to manage. Knowing all of this, I must say I did a fine job of making my lists, then editing myself.

I cannot state this any more strongly for those planners among you: there are plans that will save the world – but require the moon's sacrifice in order to happen. And there are the plans that work, that achieve real, measurable results – because, quite simply, the plan was edited into reality.

I am a journalism student by training, so with list in hand, I took out my trusty red pen. I found it helpful to actually categorize my action items by those tactics that would produce the most bang for my buck with no regard to my personal comfort level. Some of the items would require me to get outside of my actual personality in order to produce the greatest results for the least effort. (Now that is what I call LEAN THINKING.) The categories led me to basically edit into oblivion every tactic that wasn't an all-star. What we ended up with, I believe (and I may be wrong), we've ended up with a more flexible schedule that will allow us to take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves while securing PRE-conference certain appointments and plans that have us well on our way to achieving our target objective.

Let me explain:

Tactic that got the red ink:
- Drinks and appetizers for a large group of folks, many of whom we don't know. Would have required a fair amount of planning, organization and time spent inviting, etc.

Instead…
- Made lunch appointment with a state coordinator to discuss upcoming opportunity to speak for the first time in this state.

We did set some meet-ups and lunch dates in advance of the conference, all scheduled for the first two days. This leaves us time to build new relationships over a meal, coffee or drinks later in the conference schedule, if needed. We used the list that the conference provided of registered attendees as well as our existing contacts in order to schedule valuable encounters.

We also took the time pre-conference to promote our attendance at the conference on social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, and Twitter. We also offered some valuable information and information of our attendance via the Main Street members only listserv to which we are members. Even now, you can follow the conference at the Twitter hashtag we created at #MainStreet09.

We have an on-site goodie in store, too… stay tuned, so you don't miss valuable small business owner survey results that will be available to conference goes FIRST, before we post it on our web site.

Small business tip: Making plans BEFORE you get to the event in order to maximize your time AT the event.

P.S. For real live blogging of the actual conference sessions, etc.
check out the official conference blog which is very well done so far
at Main Street Live 09. You can get an insider's perspective as the staff of Michigan Main Street live blogs the conference on their blog (What can we say? They are our star student!). And you can follow the conference on Twitter at #MainStreet09.