What is your superpower?

In his newest book Linchpin - Are You Indispensible? marketer Seth Godin asks: What is your superpower? (He explains that your superpower is not your USP, it’s not your ’strength’ or your ‘core competence’, it’s that about you that tells me how you can help me - or how I can help you. It’s the unique talent that you choose to develop.)

In the lead up to International Women’s Day I was invited to speak to a group of young business people at CBS Interactive. So, I posed the “What’s your superpower?” question to them (along with letting them know that it was okay to NOT know what you want to be when you grow up - I’d left home at 17 and didn’t have a tertiary education but have worked long and hard to improve my skills, encouraged them to try lots of different things that interested them - telling them I assumed that they HAVE a rare gift, that if they chose to share would make them very happy and make a big contribution to others - and I invited them to dare to lead).

Something I said seemed to stick. I heard, from the lovely woman who coordinated my presentation, that over lunch that day, they talked about what they thought their super-powers are. That made my heart sing.

In Linchpin, Godin says:

“The ’super’ part and the ‘power’ part come note from something you’re born with, but from something you choose to do and, more important, from something you choose to give.”

Choose today.

Warmly,

Suzi

P.S. If you haven’t yet signed up to attend the free webinar with Seth Godin on 23 March at 12.00pm AEDT, here’s a link. I hope you’ll join me.

Meet Marketing’s No-Bull Maven

Hello and welcome to the herBusiness program where we interview inspiring businesswomen and entrepreneurs.

Today’s guest is Sharon Williams, CEO of Taurus Marketing.

Sharon Williams is a pioneer in the Australian agency industry and proof a small business can influence and service the big end of town. Taurus started out of Sharon’s living room in August 1995, just two weeks after the birth of her first daughter. She is celebrating her 15th year of business.

Sharon appears on Kochie’s Business Builders as Channel 7’s marketing and PR expert and is a regular media spokesperson on broadcast media such as SBS and ABC News.

Last year Sharon also became Ninemsn’s leading SME blogger with her weekly blog ‘The Bullseye’.

In this interview we discuss:

• The role of social media in your marketing mix
• Why personal branding is more important today than it has ever been
• We also look at the trends we’re seeing in marketing and some tips and
• Give you some strategies to kickstart your marketing

Enjoy this interview with business woman, Sharon Williams.

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More About Sharon Williams

Sharon Williams - CEO and Founder, Taurus Marketing

Sharon Williams is a pioneer in the Australian agency industry and proof a small business can influence and service the big end of town. As the founder and CEO of Taurus Marketing, this year Taurus is celebrating their 15th year of business. This alone stands as a substantial accomplishment within the marketing and PR industry which was hit hard by the recession last year. Taurus has grown to service industry leaders from ASX listed QBE’s global CEO Frank O’Halloran to make-up King Napoleon Perdis.

Starting out of Sharon’s living room in August 1995, just two weeks after the birth of her first daughter, Taurus has expanded consistently year-on-year since inception, and is now one of Australia’s highest profile, privately owned integrated marketing, creative, and public relations agencies.

Sharon was instrumental in helping the KAZ Group go from media obscurity in 1995 to one of Australia’s highest profile and largest information communications technology companies. Last year, Sharon’s vision and expertise saw Taurus launch its new trademarked personal branding service TaurusProfile™ a product that builds the personal profile of CEO’s, business leaders, politicians and celebrities in order to serve business growth.

In 2009, Taurus was engaged to manage the PR and assist the social media strategies for the Bible Society’s Jesus.All about Life campaign. For the first time in the history of the Christian Church in Australia, the campaign utilized modern and traditional media through online, print, outdoor, radio, press and TV advertising to take its message to the community. The Taurus team were delighted to take this ground breaking campaign on board and the results suggested this with over 500 pieces of media coverage gained attracting over $2million worth of media exposure.

Sharon is a highly experienced and entertaining public speaker and trainer on marketing, PR, social media and business issues. Frequently speaking overseas and in Australia her presentations have won praise at conferences, expos and in-house workshops. Sharon has also been the resident marketing expert on Channel 7’s Kochie’s Business Builders, is a regular media spokesperson on broadcast media such as SBS and ABC News. Last year Sharon also became Ninemsn’s leading SME blogger with her weekly blog ‘The Bullseye’.

More recently, Sharon was invited to join both the NSW Council for the Australian British Chamber of Commerce and is also on the American Chamber of Commerce Women in Management committee.

A true testament to Sharon’s belief in a healthy work life balance Sharon is a devoted mother who lives in Sydney with her family and three children. Her love of the beach and swimming gained her an Australian Surf Life Saving Association bronze medallion and on Sunday’s you might catch her patrolling one of Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

Website: www.taurusmarketing.com.au
Phone: 02 9415 4528
Blog: The Taurus Marketing Blog
Twitter: www.twitter.com/TaurusMarketing
Member Directory Profile: See Sharon Williams’ profile

Join Seth Godin, World’s #1 Marketing blogger as he discusses his new book, ‘LINCHPIN’

I’m a marketer, and I’m always looking to see what’s new and relevant to me and to my business.

I’m also an avid reader. Whether it’s ebooks, paper books, audio books, I’m lapping up new content and information via book.

That’s why when Citrix GoToWebinar and the Australian Businesswomen’s Network decided to launch a new lunch time webinar series (where we’ll bring the best business authors and their new releases right to you at your desk once a month for free), it was top of my wishlist to invite Seth Godin to be our inaugural speaker.

If you’re a marketer then you probably know Seth Godin (author of Purple Cow, Permission Marketing and many others). If you’re in business and you DON’T know of Seth Godin, then I recommend you look him up!

Here’s a quick video I did about the event on 23 March.

I hope you’ll join us.

You can register right here! Hurry - places WILL fill.

Best wishes,
Suzi

BOOKED for Lunch - Drive by Daniel Pink - Free Webinar

National - 8 April 2010

We’ve been conditioned to think that the best way to motivate ourselves and others is through external rewards like money or fame, or by the fear of punishment - the carrot-and-stick approach. That’s a mistake, Daniel H. Pink says in his transformative new book DRIVE - The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Join us on 8 April when Daniel H. Pink takes part in Booked for Lunch - Free Webinars with the world’s leading business authors and thinkers.

Booked for Lunch Details:

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us - National

Date:	Thursday, 8 April 2010
Times:	12.00pm to 1.00pm AEST approx. (Check your timezone.)
Venue:	Webinar, from the comfort of your home or office.
Price:	Free

Note: You will need internet access to participate in this GoToWebinar. Call costs may apply if you do not use VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). Learn more about GoToWebinar.

About the Book DRIVE: The Suprising Truth About What Motivates Us According to Daniel H. Pink, the key to high performance and satisfaction is intrinsic, internal motivation: the desire to follow your own interests and understand the benefits in them for you. His groundbreaking-ideas book examines what truly motivates us and how to harness that knowledge to find greater satisfaction in our lives and work. In Drive, Pink lays out the hard science for these surprising insights; describes how people and corporations can embrace them; offers details about how we can master them; and provides concrete examples of how intrinsic motivation works on the job, at home and in ourselves. This is a book of big ideas that explains how each of us can find the surest pathway to high performance, creativity and even health and well-being. Book available April.

About the Author Daniel H. Pink Daniel H. Pink is the author of several provocative, bestselling books about the changing world of work. His articles on business and technology appear in many publications, including the New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and Wired, where he is a contributing editor. He has provided analysis of business trends on CNN, CNBC, ABC, NPR, and other networks in the U.S. and abroad. He also lectures to corporations, associations, and universities around the world on economic transformation and the new workplace. Daniel H. Pink is a former speech writer to Vice President Al Gore and writes regularly for the New York Times, Harvard Business Review and Wired. The author’s first book, A Whole New Mind, is a long-running New York Times and Business Week bestseller that has been translated into 20 languages. Watch Daniel Pink’s presentation at the TED conference. Read more about Daniel H. Pink.

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About the Booked for Lunch Webinar Series The Booked for Lunch webinar series are free lunch-time webinars that feature bestselling business authors and thinkers. Presented by the Australian Businesswomen’s Network and GoToWebinar these events are open to men and women who seek to expand their business education and to be inspired by thought leaders who will present new trends, big ideas and pose thoughtful questions. To participate all you need is access to the internet. So, book yourself in for the next Booked for Lunch series and get ready for some powerful food for thought. Read more about the Booked for Lunch webinar series.

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What is a webinar?

A webinar is a web-based seminar. To participate you need internet access. Instructions will be sent to you on receipt of your registration. This webinar is brought to you by GoToWebinar, Web events made easy. Visit GoToWebinar and start your free 30 day trial today.

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IMPORTANT - LIMITED SPACES ON THE DAY

Your registration today indicates your intention to attend. This event is a free event. We therefore expect a percentage of those that register to not attend on the day. With this in mind, the ABN/Citrix GotoMeeting will oversell the event. We recommend you login early on the day (lines will open approximately 15 minutes before the webinar commences) for the best chance of securing your place. In the event that you arrive at a time when the capacity has been reached you will not be able to attend the live session. You will however be sent a link to the recording of the webinar.

Strategic Marketing: Develop effective strategic marketing and set your business apart

National - 24 March 2010

Today’s major challenge lies in developing a killer marketing strategy in order to cement brands for survival. We exist in an ever-demanding and dynamic landscape of sophisticated consumers, competition and marketplace demands. As choices become vast, the only thing that matters are your relationships with the marketplace.

During this webinar you will learn:

• How to define the needs of your customer/consumer and use these insights to build a basis for effective marketing strategy
• How to differentiate your brand and maximise growth in a competitive landscape with solid and sustainable brands
• How to understand your market, challenge your offering and position it against your core target consumer/customer
• How to define your brand and its strategic role in the business
• The best structure for defining and building your marketing strategy

Your Speaker:

Gemma Manning - Manning & Co Gemma Manning is a marketing professional with more than 10 years marketing and business management experience across multiple industries including professional services (operational and financial management consulting), pharmaceutical and healthcare, telecommunications and retail tourism. Click here to learn about Gemma.

Event Details:

Strategic Marketing - National

DATE:	Wednesday, 24 March 2010
TIME:	10.15am for 10.30am - 12.00pm AEDST (Check your timezone.)
VENUE:	Your home or office.
PRICE:	Growth Members - $0 - FREE
	StartUp Members - $39
	Non-Members - $59
	(*members: login to get your member discount.)
	Not a member? Join now and save all year.

Note: You will need internet access and a headset with microphone. Fee includes tuition. Call costs may apply if you do not use VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol).

The Business Growth Webinar Series This event is part of the Business Growth series of webinars which are free to those with Growth Member membership to the Australian Businesswomen’s Network. For details on the benefits of Growth Membership take a look at our Membership Comparison Chart. For details on other webinars - see the Events section on our website.

Not a member?

Join today and you save hundreds of dollars each year on workshops designed to help you be more successful as a businesswoman. Membership is less than $1 a day! Learn More about Membership Now

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Marketing Plan Design: How to create a blueprint for powerful marketing tactics

National - 17 March 2010

A marketing plan sets in place what you’re going to do, how you’re going to do it, who you’re going to do it for and what it is going to cost. But, where do you start?

During this webinar we’ll look at a straight-forward, no-fluff way to create a marketing plan. You’ll have a blueprint (the essential elements of a marketing plan) to complete and some important issues to consider as you develop you strategy for trumping the competition.

Those who attend this webinar will gain an understanding of:

• The benefits of marketing planning in growing your business
• The importance of understanding your products, customers and market
• How to match your services with existing market opportunities
• A simple, step by step marketing planning process – what to tackle first
• When you need to develop or revisit a marketing plan
• The value of leveraging the technology in the process

Your Speaker:

Anne Sorensen - Marketing Is Us Anne Sorensen is Director of Marketing Is Us, a specialist marketing agency dedicated to facilitating business growth through cost effective, marketing strategies. She holds a Bachelor of Business (Marketing), MBA and is a Certified Practising Marketer with the Australian Marketing Institute.

Event Details:

Marketing Plan Design - National

DATE:	Wednesday, 17 March 2010
TIME:	10.15am for 10.30am - 11.30am AEDST (Check your timezone.)
VENUE:	Your home or office.
PRICE:	ABN Members - $0 - FREE
	Non-Members - $39
	(*members: login to get your member discount.)
	Not a member? Join now and save all year.




Note: You will need internet access and a headset with microphone. Fee includes tuition. Call costs may apply if you do not use VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol).

The StartUp Success Webinar Series This event is part of the StartUp Success series of webinars which are free to all members of the Australian Businesswomen’s Network. For details on the benefits of Membership take a look at our Membership Comparison Chart. For details on other webinars - see the Events section on our website.

Not a member?

Join today and you save hundreds of dollars each year on workshops designed to help you be more successful as a businesswoman. Membership is less than $1 a day! Learn More about Membership Now

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Tips for successful blogging, from Problogger Darren Rowse

Day 1 at the South by South West festival and Aussie Darren Rowse (@problogger and problogger.net) took the Day Stage to talk about his book (which is about to be released in 2nd edition) and gave some great tips for successful blogging.

A few minutes into his presentation the room was evacuated when a (false) alarm went off but we were back 20minutes later to hear his great tips again.

I managed to catch up with him quickly and invited him to give some of his strategies for successful blogging.

In summary:

1. Be as useful as you can.
2. Enhance the lives of others.
3. Produce content that others want to share.
4. Put yourself out there and promote your content.
   • Where are your readers gathering online?
5. Interact with your audience as much as you can.
   • Ask questions, start debates, engage with people, highlight your readers’ blogs.
6. Capture people’s details (not just RSS) then you can email them update, drive traffic and promote product to them later.
7. Look at the style you write in and experiment in different voices e.g. humorous, technical, use of video - readers will respond well to some but not others - and helps your style and voice evolve.

PLUS:

What change have you made to your marketing strategy in the last three months that made the biggest difference to your results?

We asked our community this question for the current issue of our Women in Business eNewsletter. A compilation of these answers was published for our community of women across Australia to learn from. Click here to read our current newsletter, and click here to read the answers we received.

Please let us know your thoughts, and add a comment here.

Do you speak English? Communication tips for business owners. (PART 1)

As any new migrant will tell you, the inability to communicate effectively can get in the way of opportunity. No matter how clever you are, communication attempts can be thwarted by the lack of skill to communicate well and get your message across.

Communication skills are  more important today than ever before.

And, communication barriers go beyond language barriers. Let’s assume you speak English well. You may not be the next best-selling author, or Tony Robbins, but you have a decent command of the English language. You’re good at what you do and you want to grow your business.

But, nobody’s listening, nobody’s buying.

What’s happening?

Do you speak English?

My mum arrived here from Greece aged 15. She spoke no English and, like many migrants new to a country, struggled for a long time to be understood.

Some migrants, like her, moved to neighbourhoods with like-speaking people, worked in factories where their native language was spoken, mingled only with others from their own culture. No doubt their progress with the English language was slow.

Mum wanted to learn the language of her new country - to be understood.  So, when my brothers and I were in school and she finally had some time to herself, she went off to English classes and while we kids would at times giggle at her attempts at words (English is a HARD language) she persisted. She wanted to be understood. I didn’t realise, at the time, the persistence this took.

Communication today

Doing business today requires you to be able to communicate better and differently than ever before.

Technology has given us many tools with which to communicate. But the tools themselves don’t make us good communicators. The mastery of one or many, could however make you a market leader.

Over the next few weeks I’ll post about the effective use of of my favourite communication tools for business.

Here’s my position on Communication:

Communication is a skill.

It can be learned, improved, mastered. By anyone. Yes, including you - regardless of your level of schooling.

Tools do not make you good.

Communication tools like blogs, podcasts, emails, newsletters, videos, webinars, seminars etc. are TOOLS. Their use, alone, does not make you a master of them.

In my opinion:

• A bad podcast COULD be worse for your business than no podcast.
• A bad webinar COULD be worse for your business and reputation than NO webinar.

The key to more effective communication is to take action AND to get education and improve your skills. For example:

• If you’re going to blog, get some basic training.
• If you’re going to podcast, then get some honest feedback on your voice and some voice training.
• If you’re going to do seminars, then please, please, get some presentation skills.

You get the picture?

The big opportunity

Those who commit to master of their communication will win the hearts and minds of their customers, staff, allies and community.

If you’re up for the ride, then let’s go.  Next week’s post: Basic Communication Tools to Grow Your Business

Cheers
Suzi

New iPhone app means you only need to print 1 business card.

Apple took out a full page ad in today’s paper to promote a number of their iPhone apps that are good for business.  One application stood out to me, and it could save you a whopping amount in printing.

Possible Scenario at your next meeting:

PROSPECT: “Do you have a business card?”
YOU:  “Sure.”

Then…

• You produce a card (or something glamorous made from long-lasting plastic, platinum etc. with all your details - including your Twitter handle!)
• Your contact takes a photo of it with their iPhone (what else would you use, really?).
• Your details are now in their phone.

No paper, no waste.

The Business Card Reader allows you to take the photo of a business card on your iPhone (or Blackberry). It then ‘reads’ the data and enters the details into your address book.

So, no scanning, data entry, or piles of business cards stashed in drawers.
Now all you need is one business card and friends and colleagues with iPhones.

I’ll be getting the app.

Suzi

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