Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

I’m Not an Expert, And Neither are You

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I was talking to someone the other day and they mentioned they want to be positioned as an expert in their field. As we all know, Malcolm Gladwell says that’ll take us 10,000 hours. Hop to it!

Expert, Guru, Maven – there’s a variety of ways we can present ourselves as an expert in our field. And I’m hoping to  never refer to myself as any of these things. I’m a business owner, who’s found my niche with small business owners, helping them with their newsletter and marketing efforts.

Should I be an expert? Maybe. Should I be on Facebook? Maybe. My ego isn’t at a place where I need you to think I’m the best at something and I have to do ALL THE THINGS to prove it. I have found my success in doing what I like to do, doing it really well and making my clients happy. When I do that, they refer business to me, colleagues refer business to me and I haven’t panicked about where my next client will come from in well over a year.

Are there people who are better at this and have more bells and whistles than I do? Sure. And if that’s what you want, you’re welcome to work with them. I understand. If you want to pay that premium price for an expert who will stick you into their cog, go for it!

I’m grateful to have found my niche and thankful for the clients who want to work with me.

And, when I hire people, this is the method I prefer. I’d much rather you show me how awesome you are instead of tell me.

June Pop Culture Round Up

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June 2017 seems to have been the culmination of amazing peak TV viewing. My DVR seems pretty happy that HBO is in a holiday mode till Game of Thrones returns next month because good GRIEF there was some amazing TV this month! And, thanks to sunshine and warmer weather (and joining Book of the Month) I finally read a book! Netflix seems to be exploding with new shows just in time for the summer, let’s get caught up…

Reading

Why yes, I read a book this month! A friend recommended I check out Book of the Month and since they have a bunch of books that have been on my list I decided to try it out. The first book I picked was Dennis Lehane’s Since We Fell. I LOVED IT. I’ve never read Lehane before, although I really enjoyed some of his movies (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone) so my hopes were high. And it was a fantastic twisty-turny mystery, exactly what I needed this month! I’ll definitely read more books by Lehane and I’m excited to jump into my June pick which was the new David Sedaris book.

It was too hot to go outside this weekend, but too nice not to read. Once I finished my book I caught up on some comics. I’m now up to date on The Walking Dead and Hawkeye. Hawkeye is a LOT of fun and a fantastic female protagonist. I’m way behind on Outcast and I have the Princess Leia series from last year to read still.

Listening

The Daily is turning into a daily must listen for me. It’s an easy way to get a behind the scenes look at major news. Last week over two days (6/22 & 6/23) they talked about the opioid epidemic in the US. I knew we had one but it hasn’t personally touched me or my family so I wasn’t that familiar with it. I was shocked by what I learned. If you’ve been hearing about it and want to learn more, this is a great place to start.

I’ve needed more non-political podcasts lately so I’ve been especially grateful for The Watch this month. I’m also really enjoying some recent live interviews from Fresh Air where Terry Gross (the most soothing female voice in all the land…) interviewed Seth Meyers and Joe Biden (separate, but together would be mind blowing!)

Watching

On Father’s Day my dad was visiting so we went to do what any father and daughter would do – we saw Wonder Woman. And it was PERFECT. I can’t wait to see it again and I loved everything about it! Holy crap this is exactly the super hero movie I’ve wanted and it was so well executed, I can’t say enough great things about it! GO. NOW. Stop what you’re doing and go.

The series finale of The Leftovers was wonderful and spectacular. I really really loved this show. I know the first season was super dark, but you were rewarded for it in seasons 2 and 3. I was concerned they couldn’t answer all the questions and that we might feel disappointed, but no. Damon Lindelof nailed it.

The season finale of The Americans was good, I am super curious how the final season will go next year. There was no big “aha” like previous seasons, but if only half the questions get answered by the show’s end they have a season’s worth of work.

I loved the book version of The Handmaids Tale and the show did a good job, but I am curious what they’ll do with multiple seasons still. I’ll come back for next season and I really hope they don’t screw it up!

Season 5 of Orange is the New Black was a very easy binge a few weeks ago. The series taking place over 3 days of a prison riot was a creative way to slow down the timeline. I didn’t like any of the flashbacks and don’t think they’re needed, but I still enjoyed the season and I’m starting to wonder how many more seasons this show will last.

I also tried two episodes of GLOW on Netflix, and I can NOT for the life of me get into it. What am I missing? It should check all the boxes and everyone raves about it, but it is not my jam sadly.

Downward Dog sadly ended this week, and stupid ABC cancelled the show on top of it. This show is so perfect and hilarious and has the added benefit that Norm usually gets extra snuggles and treats during the show because of it. If you haven’t watched it, even if you aren’t a dog person, trust me. It’s awesome.

I have the entire last season of Fargo on my DVR and Orphan Black started up again a few weeks ago. I decided last season that I would binge Orphan Black so will start when there’s just a week or two left in the series. There’s way too many plot lines and too much science to follow on a weekly basis!

What have you been reading, watching and listening to so far this summer?

Be Friendly to Customer Service

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The other day I posted this to my Instagram:

PRO TIP: be friendly to customer service folks. A few weeks ago I had a weird issue pop up in @mailchimp so I chatted with a friendly customer support person. I was nice & he was helpful & after we finished the chat and he resolved my issue he sent me a link to order a prize! And now I can’t wait for winter (or to see if norm will let me put it on him tonight after daycare…)

Update – he did:

Norm and the hat

So what are the marketing lessons to be learned here?

  1. If you’re in customer service – kill them with kindness. I’m a paying MailChimp customer and most of my clients are not. And my question was for an account that’s not paying for this technical support. But they answered my question anyway. They could have been an asshole about it, but they were awesome. And I was rewarded for my gratefulness with a new winter hat to terrorize my dog with.
  2. If you’re speaking to customer service: BE NICE. It’s not their fault something happened to you. It’s probably some glitch in code somewhere way down the line that they’re in no way responsible for. Plus – if you’re nice you could win a prize!
  3. Empower your employees! I didn’t need a hat – or any free MailChimp swag. But I’m pretty excited for it! And now I’m writing a blog post singing their praises. Empower your team to reward your customers.
  4. Dog’s in human clothing are always funny.

I hate when I get further by complaining to a company on social media than being able to handle it politely behind chat rooms. Start by being nice and polite. Yes, you can be super frustrated too. I often start out conversations (not the one with MailChimp) with “I’m super frustrated and I know it’s not your fault so I apologize if I accidentally yell or blame you for something outside your control.” That also helps put them at ease. They know they aren’t the villain in this story, but does the customer?

Be Friendly to Customer Service.