Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

December Pop Culture Round Up

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december pop culture round upIt’s the most wonderful time of the year to be a Star Wars fan isn’t it? I don’t know about you but I’ve see The Last Jedi twice so far and it lived up to the hype! Besides Star Wars it’s been a good month for pop culture diversions, here’s a few of my favorites…

Reading

Sadly I haven’t read much except Entertainment Weekly and Year End Lists this month. I’m hoping to get one more book in by the end of the year, and my comics are over flowing right now…

I have started getting Brian Stelter’s nightly newsletter – Reliable Sources. He does a great job of recapping the news so I don’t have to watch it. He also throws in some good pop culture and Hollywood news which I always appreciate.

Listening

I saw Billy Joel again this year! He is SUCH a fun concert and I had a great time (as I did when I saw him in 2016). Everyone sings way too loud (or maybe that’s just me) along with him and a great time is had by all. If you get the chance, go see him!

I signed up for Cards Against Humanity Saves America this year, their holiday “gift” is always amazing. The give away a ton of money and do some good stuff. BONUS – you get really inappropriate new CAH cards. This year because of all the bad news out there they started The Good News Podcast. It lives up to the promise each episode. Very clever, and very short. A good post- The Daily listen.

I’m almost done with Young Charlie. Between Young Charlie and The Watch they’re my mental health check’s from listening to too many political podcasts. We have a holiday road trip this weekend and I’m excited to finally check out Origins – which is all about the Origins of a TV show or program. Their first season was about Curb Your Enthusiasm (which I didn’t watch so didn’t listen to) but this season is about ESPN. I think my husband may be interested in this one too…

A friend of mine also suggested Oh No Ross & Carrie – where they try a bunch of different things, including religion. I’m looking forward to checking it out, especially their Scientology episodes…

Watching

Tis the season to catch up on a lot of binge worthy shows on TV and on streaming…

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon Prime) is a really fun show you should watch over the holidays. It’s clever and funny and the same creator of Gilmore Girls. However it’s made for streaming not TV, so there will be swearing (and “brief nudity”- your mother’s been warned)

I am LOVING The Runaways (Hulu). It’s a Marvel comic series about a group of normal kids in LA who discover their parents are super villains. It’s AWESOME. The creators of the show also did The OC and Gossip Girl – so it’s beautiful people in beautiful settings doing not so beautiful things. BONUS: There’s a religious cult – my favorite!

If you haven’t watched Mindhunter (Netflix) yet – get on it. It was AMAZING. I really really enjoyed it.

We watched the Jeremiah Tower episode of Anthony Bourdain and it was incredible! As a big food nerd I was shocked that I didn’t know this story at ALL. He has led a crazy life with some incredible twists and turns. Don’t watch on an empty stomach…

Top Chef is back!!! The perfect winter show to keep you hungry and happy during a dark cold winter. I’m not sure who’s taking home top prize but I’m rooting for the gal from Alaska!

I’m taking the last week of the year off and plan to finally finish this season of Mr. Robot and s2 of  The Crown. I watched the pilot of Godless and it was OK, I might come back to it because it’s showing up on some end of year lists…

I of course saw Star Wars The Last Jedi and loved it. It was LONG and I was disappointed that the Master Codebreaker wasn’t who they teased it was…But SO DANG GREAT.

What are Your 2018 Marketing Goals?

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2018 marketing goalsDecember always has us thinking about the end of the year and what we’re going to do in the coming year. Or it means racing to the finish and you’ll figure out the next year when it gets here.

Either way, I wanted to put a few nuggets into the back of your head to start to consider for 2018…

  1. Stop Blogging – You hate it and so you don’t do it consistently. What if instead of blogging each week (which means really once or twice a month) you take that content and turn it into a great newsletter each month along with a few other tips and resources?
  2. Start Blogging – You love to write, you’re frequently sending a long ass email to a potential client about the SAME THING, you might as well put it in a blog post so you can save the time and effort. Start blogging – it’s a great way for potential clients to get to know your voice and your expertise.
  3. Streamline Your Social Media – Is your target market on Instagram and you’re spending too much time on Twitter? You don’t have to do everything, but whatever you do, you have to do it.
  4. Build a Relationship Before You Sell – If you have a new product or service or class you’re offering in 2018 I better not hear about it for the first time when you’re asking for my money to buy it. If you have a book coming out in the spring I want to start hearing from you now, along with little teasers of info that I will fall in love with so I’ll gladly buy the book when it comes out. If you have a workshop or group you’re starting next year, start sharing content and resources and teasers of what’s in store. You can’t just sell to me, you have to earn that right by educating me and connecting with me along the way.
  5. Be Consistent with Your Newsletter – You knew I couldn’t write a blog post without including this! You may know you need a newsletter, but let’s make sure it’s consistent. Please. And again, don’t just sell to me when I hear from you.

What are your 2018 marketing goals? What do you need to do in 2018? Who do you need to setup meetings with NOW so you can start off January with a BANG?

One thing you can do? Grab my Free Marketing Calendar to help give you action items each week!

How Often Do Service Providers Waste Your Time?

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How Often Do Service Providers Waste Your Time?As a service provider my job is to make my clients happy and to not stress them out or overwhelm them. As a business owner, my biggest pet peeve are service providers who waste my time and make unnecessary busy work for me.

Today’s a good example. I had a call with a service provider. It was a video call scheduled for a half hour. I was on the link sent to me on time. About 8 minutes later I received a phone call from the person I was scheduled to talk to. And I mentioned I only had the 30 minutes so now only had 20, so we need to be efficient with our time. And then we spoke for about 15 minutes and it was to tell me 3 things that very easily could have been in an email (I need a credit card on file, pick a template you like from this link, anything specific we should focus on?) Needless to say I left the call annoyed and wishing they were more respectful of my time.

What processes should you have in place that could make your clients time more efficient?

I have a few checklists that I use for clients, including my Newsletter Setup Checklist where I ask my clients for everything I need to get their newsletter setup. Once I have it, I can get started. After about a week I check in and let them know what I’m missing. And, sometimes if they seem to not want to do it or are dragging their feet I will offer to setup a call to walk them through it. I don’t mind spending a half hour or hour on the phone to walk through my checklist if it’s easier for them. But my job is to make their life easier not stress them out or annoy them with unnecessary meetings.

The next time you schedule a meeting or call, make sure that everyone has what they need up front and that the meeting is necessary. YES you should have face time with your clients and talk to them regularly. But don’t annoy them before the ink dries!