Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

Catch up with Your Pipeline

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Last week in my newsletter I mentioned 3 things you can do to wrap up your business for the holiday season. The first suggestion I made was to catch up with your pipeline:

Yes, spend some time with your CRM or lead list, however you have it saved. Spend time making sure that you have followed up with everyone on that list. Assign yourself tasks and follow ups for January. Check back in with folks who said “maybe later this year” but you got busy and forgot. Make sure you’ve followed up.

Take some time when it gets quiet these next 3 week (or the first week of January if you have year end deadlines) and make sure you’ve crossed every t and dotted every i!

 

Networking with Yellow Dog Consulting in December!

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It amazes me how many networking groups take December off. I know, I know. It’s busy. You’ve got year end work to get done, you’re finishing up projects, but also, we all still have budgets to be met, sales goals to meet (or exceed) and we need to get out of the office and network! This year don’t dismiss that holiday party or open house too quickly.

This month I have a few company holiday parties, friends holiday parties and an alumni event to attend. AND I’ll be out and about networking as usual. Unfortunately I did NOT make the Geekwire Gala last night, which is THE big networking holiday party of the season, but I will be at these events this month plus other meetings and you know, client work, this month!

NWEN Breakfast Buzz

Friday, December 14th, Bellevue City Hall

eWomen Network Luncheon

Thursday, December 20th, Salty’s on Alki

Bonus! January 8th, Webinar

Authentic Selling: Growing Your Business When You Think You Hate Sales

Last week at my PSBJ Workshop I challenged every attendee to attend 2 networking events this month. holiday parties, coffee appointments, and larger networking events all count towards this. So, what are you waiting for? There’s business to be had in December!

Super Fun Logistics of Public Speaking

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Last week I was invited to speak at the Puget Sound Business Journal. Since I was paid to speak on their behalf for 4 years, it was just like going home. Except this time, the content was mine (or lovingly borrowed from others), I didn’t get paid and didn’t have to answer to anyone. It was kind of awesome.

I forgot how much I enjoy speaking to groups of people who just need someone to tell them they’re on the right track. Or they can stop doing what they hate, or they really SHOULD be following up on those leads because it’s free money waiting to happen (seriously, do you know how much money I have NOT given people???)

I received a follow up note from an attendee who is looking to do more public speaking and she made a couple of comments that I thought were worth noting.

1. I Don’t use PowerPoint. I do this for a couple reasons. The real reason is that I don’t want to BUILD the presentation! However, I also don’t do this because when I start the presentation I ask people what they are hoping to learn today. If I need to pivot my presentation I’m not held hostage by the PowerPoint, I can make those changes.

2. I had 5 points and 90 minutes. It FLEW by! I was sure I was going to run short and have a long Q&A time, but I had just the right amount of time, we started right at 11:30, and ended right at 1 PM. Be respectful of peoples time. If you run 30 minutes past the time you said you’d finish, how can I expect you to finish the project I hire you for on time?

3. One Handout, Five talking points. Don’t over think the handouts. I actually wasn’t planning to have a handout till I talked to someone a couple days before. I do like a good outline so I can follow along, and I decided it was a good idea for this group too. They all seemed to appreciate it.

If you want to do more public speaking, stop stressing so hard about it. Just get started. Tell your network you want to do it and do it. If you have 20 minutes, practice, and make sure it’s only 20 minutes of content. Have an hour and a half? Make sure to get the audience engaged and interacting so they don’t fall asleep on you or start playing Words with Friends. Just get GOING!