Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

3 Ways to Manage Your Summer Slump

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3 WAYS TO MANAGE YOUR SUMMER SLUMPLast month I attended, and spoke, at an event with my friend MaryAnn McNulty. She talked about the stages and cycles in business. It was a great reminder of what I can do to better manage my business year round, not just when times are great or I’m in a slump.

The summer is an easy time to slack off and enjoy the sunshine while it’s here. But, what I often notice is that when I slack off, I pay for it. Not in a week, but a few months down the road. So, what can you do to prevent a slump in your business?

  1. More 1:1’s – Some networking groups take time off in the summer. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still network. I like to schedule more individual meetings in the summer. Plus sitting outside drinking coffee (or something stronger) is best enjoyed with awesome new people.
  2. Networking in August – Why? August is AWESOME in the PNW! I can make an excuse to stay home and hangout in my backyard with Norm and my husband instead of putting on mascara and driving into the city to network. But it needs to happen. That’s why you’ll find me networking, even in August. And I won’t be alone.
  3. Follow Up – Summer is a great time to make sure you have your follow up systems in place. People are on vacations and not working as many hours, but you are! Make sure to follow up, and don’t use the summer excuse. Let your potential clients and referral partners tell you, don’t assume!

What do you do during your potentially slower months to ensure you don’t pay for it later?

How Do I Target a Large Company?

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how to target a large companyA few weeks ago a friend emailed me asking for my totally biased opinion (my favorite kind to give!) about how to target a large company with no known contacts. It’s a great question and I thought it might be helpful to share here, if you’re trying to find a way into any size company and don’t have a contact…

I really want to go after (giant company’s) corporate staff. They are right across the street for God’s sake! Do you have suggestions for targeting them specifically?

The first thing that ALWAYS comes to mind for me in these situations:

Ask For Introductions

  • Use your LinkedIn to search for contacts and connections you have to anyone at the corporate level within said company. Shoot them a note and ask them if they’re comfortable making an introduction. In my experience, they either say yes and make the intro, or if they haven’t talked to that person in a while they’ll introduce me to someone else at the company or another connection that gets me closer to the business.
  • Ask on Facebook for folks who have connections. You know what departments you need connections to and can just ask: “My goal for Q3 is to start working with (giant company) – do you know anyone in (departments you want connections in) that you could introduce me to?”
  • This goes for all social media honestly, tweet it out, pretend people listen into the vastness of Google+, SnapChat it…
  • Use your Referral Partners – This is what they’re here for right? If you have a couple of people in your network who are great at supporting you and refer to you, ask them if they have any connections or can help make connections to get you closer. They may be heading to a networking event at said company. Or know someone who can get you there.
As I always say: I can’t help you if I don’t know what you need!
What do you do when you target a company and don’t have an obvious connection to get your foot in the door?

May Pop Culture Round Up

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May pop culture round upThankfully here in Hillsboro the sun finally arrived in May. For me that means sitting on the patio at the end of the day and reading more. Add in two road trips this month and my podcasts are almost all caught up! My DVR is still backed up, but hey, it’s supposed to be cooler this week right? Here’s a few of my favorite things I consumed in May…

Reading

No books this month, but I did get caught up on some comics finally!

Evidently “strong female characters” is my type of comic lately. I finished Clean Room which is a creepy cult/sci-fi-ish series from Gail Simone, a fabulous comic book writer here in Portland. I caught up on The Mighty Captain Marvel which is a great new series. I’m glad to see that Lazarus is going to take a break for the next year it looks like. The mini-series will be interesting to check out (they’ll focus each of the 6 issues on background characters). The comics were coming a bit sporadically in the past year and I wondered what the plan was. A break to regroup sounds good. And I still really enjoy Ms Marvel, as she’s becoming an unofficial symbol at Women’s March events around the country. And Mockingbird wrapped up well, I wish Chelsea Cain would keep it going, but she said 8 and done. Boo…

Listening

A couple of weeks ago I heard about The Daily, a behind the scenes interview with reporters of breaking stories at The New York Times. There’s a new episode bright and early each morning and they’re only about 20 minutes. It’s a great way to learn more about whatever the day’s breaking news is. I still continue to enjoy Pod Save America and even Lovett or Leave It. In other political podcast entertainment, I checked out the most recent Thinking Cap which featured my political crush Jason Kander.

Since I still haven’t watched Fargo, I’m behind a bit on The Watch but have caught up on a few recent ones that have been great. And from forever ago I listened to Reza Aslan on WTF and Dax Shepard on The Nerdist. I fell asleep in the car listening to Crimetown this weekend, which probably isn’t a great sign.

Watching

I am NOT ready for the end of The Leftovers this coming weekend. The show has always been fantastic, and a favorite of mine, but good grief this season has been so weird. And so great. And introduced me to weird 70’s pop culture history I probably didn’t need to know about. I’m not ready for the show to finish up this week, but I trust Damon Lindelof to end it the way he wants and has always had planned.

The Americans took an interesting turn in the past couple of episodes and I’m excited to see how they wrap up this season and set up for the final season. And if they decide to do a spinoff in Moscow, I would gladly read the subtitles each week.

The Handmaids Tale was a book I really liked when I read it a few years back. I was excited for the show to start and assumed it would just be a mini series. But when I learned a couple of weeks ago that it’s been renewed for another season (and then learned that Elisabeth Moss has signed on for 5-7 years) I was bummed. However, they’ve done some good world building in the past couple of episodes (That Mrs Waterford back story was really interesting…) and I am curious to see what they do and where they take it. And who knew that Rory Gilmore could actually act?

As with many good dog owners, we are really enjoying Downward Dog, it’s very cute and clever, and the voice of the pup is so funny! Jane the Virgin just wrapped its season and as always, I love that show. It’s the feel good soapiness I need to offset all the dark stuff I watch (see show 1-3 above).

That’s it for my May Pop Culture consumption. Now that we’ve hit sunshine and road trip season, what are your latest pop culture obsessions?