How to use social media, especially LinkedIn, for B2B marketing

Are you trying to figure out what to do with all the social media advice that gets thrown around?

Dan Ince of BrandWorks Social is in the Ask the Expert chair.

Dan uses his many years experience in marketing consultancy with big name brands to give small businesses access to a more strategic approach to social media. He recently did a

Focusing on small service businesses who mainly use LinkedIn, his advice helps us identify the best strategic approach based on what we want to achieve.

Here's what Dan recommends:

Get some clarity

Before diving in and potentially getting overwhelmed, be clear about why you’re using a particular social media platform for your business.

For a small B2B service, it's best to use your activity to create brand awareness and showcase your skills and knowledge rather than try to fill a sales funnel and find leads. Treat it as a long game in building strategic* relationships.

*Strategic means people who may become clients or recommend you - not your peer group or friendship group.

Be really, really, really clear about who you want to reach (potential clients), what their needs are and how you can help them. Write posts with the intention of being useful and engaging for that audience.

Remember that your social media footprint – the things your audience sees – includes your likes and comments on other people’s posts so make sure you don’t slip into becoming irrelevant to your audience by liking posts that will make them unfollow you. (That sympathy like / emoji for your friend with a bad back is best handled in a private message).

Take it slowly and discover a need before you try to sell. If someone doesn’t need what you do, trying to sell to them is a waste of time and will just annoy them.

Be consistent

The tagline “Mr Kipling makes exceedingly good cakes” is 60 years old.
“I'm lovin' it” was first heard on a McDonalds ad in 2003
“Every little helps” has been used by Tesco since 1993
“Creating a buzz for your business” has been Andy Boothman’s tag line for Busy as AB for over 25 years.

You may not have a memorable tag line but you can create consistency by being clear on your values, key messages and in the way your posts look as well as their style and tone.

Good examples of this are:
Dan Ince’s 5 4 Friday posts,
Jo Twiselton’s weekly learning points,
and Adam Driver’s three things videos

*Ring the bell  on LI profiles of people you follow to get notified about posts as they're published.

Don't worry too much if people don't appear to be "engaging" with your posts. 90% of people on LinkedIn never engage with anything but this doesn't mean they're not reading your content. Lots of enquiries come from people you may never have been aware of until they contact you. This is why being consistent matters.

Ensure your LinkedIn profile is up to date and relevant to your audience – if people like your content, they’ll take a look at your profile next. Your tone of voice should reflect who you really are. If someone who has been reading your posts has a call or a meeting with you they shouldn’t discover that your posts give a different impression to you in person.

Don’t get sucked into trends that don’t suit your style or purpose. Selfies are not always a good idea, especially just because everyone else is doing them. In fact, if your content looks and feels the same as everyone else, you won’t stand out.

Advice on "being personal" 

This is the most misunderstood advice on social media. If you're using a platform as part of your marketing strategy to connect with potential clients think carefully about the impression you're giving them. While most people are nosey and people buy from people, sharing personal content is a fine balance between helping you look interesting (hobbies, activities, interests etc.,) and a big red flag to potential clients who may see inconsistency as a liability. If you wouldn’t walk into a meeting with a new client and start the conversation by saying “I’m having a shit day” its probably not a good idea to share that on social media. Also be mindful of the impact your ‘too personal’’  posts may have on other people who are just trying to get through another day in business.

How often to show up

It’s worth remembering that 95% of your target audience aren’t ready to buy what you have to offer at any given time, hence the need to be active on social media frequently but it’s always better to post when you have something interesting to say than scrape something together that’s pretty flimsy just because you’ve been told “it’s good to post three times a week”.

No-one will notice if you don’t post but they will notice if you post drivel!

The best time to post is whenever works for you. There are no rules. Some people get a good response if they post at weekends or in the evening and others stick to Mon-Fri, 9-5.

To get results from social, it’s vital to not only share great content, but also engage with your audience. If someone comments on one of your posts always reply and try to say something more interesting than "thank you". It’s called ‘social’ media for a reason!

Set aside regular time to curate and engage with your network.

Most of all be human, be you and remember, if you look & feel the same as everyone else you’re just average!

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This is a big topic and how we each handle social media will vary a lot, depending on what we’re trying to achieve. It can be very time consuming to figure out what works so to find out what’s best for you and your business we recommend contacting Dan who has lots and lots of useful strategies to ensure you get the right results.


Dan Ince
Brand Works Social 

07770 738323


Is staying small the next big thing?

Growth is often seen as a measure of success in business but its not what everyone wants

When you're booked to capacity and your earnings are limited by how many hours you can work, and you don't want to employ other people or outsource, what's the next step for your business?

This is the question many small businesses, freelancers and consultants face. They're often urged to adopt tactics that them away from doing what they love and into the realms of managing other people which is not everybody's idea of fun.

Bianca Botten was pondering similar questions about developing her busy VA business Neon B when she read the book Company of One by Paul Jarvis.
Jarvis is a veteran of the online tech world who realized that working in a high-pressure, high-profile world was not his idea of success. He now works for himself and no longer has to contend with an environment that constantly demands more productivity, more output and more growth.

Bianca wrote the following review of the book:

Company of One is a book about improving business and providing the best service to your current clients. It questions whether growth is right for you, or if having a business that fits around your lifestyle is better.

I found myself nodding along with the author for the first half of the book, agreeing that you should build long-term relationships with clients, (so they send you repeat business). Continuously searching for new customers is time consuming and costly whereas, “maintaining good business relationships with customers doesn’t require superhuman efforts. Rather, you simply need to do what you say you’ll do and customers will be grateful”.

I love the idea of becoming better at what you do by improving systems and processes to be more efficient in how you run your business. For me this feels like mastery and being the best version of myself.

The end of the book didn’t hold my attention and I found it a little repetitive. Throughout the book the author kept mentioning being a “Company of One” at an organisation, and I felt he was trying to appeal to people who work as contractors inside big businesses rather than microbusiness, freelancers and solopreneurs.

Company of One confirmed how I felt about my business and reinforced that I would prefer to provide a good service to a small group of loyal clients, as opposed to exponential growth, which would mean more noise and chaos.

I much prefer a business that fits around my lifestyle of raising children and being the best, least stressed version of myself.

I can recommend reading this book and give it 7 out of 10.

If you've read the book or find yourself asking the same questions as Bianca we'd love to hear from you - leave a comment below or get in touch at info@drivethenetwork.com

Follow Bianca and Neon B on
LinkedIn
Twitter
or
Instagram


Becoming a Pocket Buddha: Living a Life of Acceptance and Silliness

How to surf life and change direction when needed.

And do it without regret or self-recrimination.

Laurence Sarno and Ruth Farenga led a discussion on how to cope when when life is a turmoil of unexpected situations.

Thanks to the creative genius of our members, there are five ways to enjoy this wonderful experience:
1. A doodle from Anne-Marie Miller (Carbon Orange Graphic Design)
2. A video of the opening statement
3. A transcript of the opening statement
4. A Baz Luhrmann Sunscreen treatment by Susie Hinchliffe
5. An awesome animation of Anne-Marie's doodle by Susie Hinchliffe
6. A video and book recommendation from Ruth Farenga (Conscious Leaders)

The video of the ten rules:

https://youtu.be/9pZLp6RLRTY

Laurence's Ten Rules:

Number One
You are enough. This is true for everyone, but our Drive Tribe especially are all exceptional people. You are intelligent, knowledgeable, caring, and generous with your time and emotions. You show up for others.

Number Two

Acceptance – living a life where you can roll with huge and tiny problems with the same balance – starts with loving yourself. All of yourself. Trust an ageing transgender bloke; there’s no way around it. Life starts expanding when you love yourself. If that sounds airy fairy, we’ll get down to the practicalities in the next seven minutes.

Number Three
Forgive yourself.

Number Four

Excuse me, my friend Randy Rainbow wants to tell you this one.
[Laurence puts on Randy, a large, pride-coloured puppet made by Drive member Jo Bryant(The Hands On Company)

[Randy:]
Take joy in your essential ridiculousness. As the great philosopher Tim Minchin said, “At base, we’re just fucking monkeys in shoes”.
How seriously we take our work is ridiculous.
Holding on to terrible things our parents said to us decades ago is ridiculous.
Sex is definitely ridiculous.

Numbers Five, Six and Seven
Be kind.
Be kind.
Be kind.
It pays unlimited rewards.

Number Eight
Life’s too short. Please don’t wait until you’re my age to understand this; do it now.

This theory has a number of corollaries.

Life’s too short to expend energy on things that only upset you. Unless your work demands you stay absolutely current on all major news events, skim the headlines and ignore everything else.

Limit your social media, your time and your emotions to the people you enjoy and the handful of causes you really care about.

Don’t be drawn into other people’s causes. Really, just stop. It’s no good for you.

Life’s too short to worry about what other people think of you. Some people will like you, some won’t. You can’t change that, so let it go.

Unless people are bleeding in the streets, it’s not an emergency. If your kid or your client has done something monumentally stupid in public, do what you can for damage limitation, but believe me, it’s not a crisis.

Harbouring resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. It only hurts you. Let it go.

There are no setbacks, only lessons. If something crap happens, what did you learn from it? This isn’t new age nonsense; it’s the way toward an emotionally balanced life.

The final corollary (and this is Helen Lindop’s favourite), everything is part of the process. If you walk out the house, realise two minutes later you forgot something, go back and get it, that’s not an extra annoying, frustrating step that upsets your day. It’s part of the process of leaving the house.

What could be more ridiculous than expending energy being grumpy about it? Life’s too short.

Final two points

Why meditate? Because if you meditate regularly, your own life story begins to bore you. The stories we tell ourselves about ourselves keep us stuck where we are. Meditation opens your life to new possibilities.

Why practice mindfulness? Because, bluntly, it gets your head out your ass. Another phrase for mindfulness is “do what you’re doing when you’re doing it”. If you’re taking a walk, smell the smells, feel the breeze, be interested in what you see, pay attention to the people you pass. Smile. Connect.

It’s way better than the hamster on the wheel in your head. Lots of my creative ideas come when I’m mindfully walking, taking a shower or doing the washing up.

The Baz Luhrmann Sun Screen version:

The Awesome Animation

https://vimeo.com/742822213

Laurence has used meditation and “walking meditation” or mindfulness to help him through years of upheaval in both personal and business life and Ruth studied Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy or Mindfulness-Based Stressed Reduction through Oxford University, spending two years in teacher development.

Ruth’s previous Ask the Expert session on this topic including a short video and reading recommendations can be accessed in our Learning Hub
Other book recommendations:
Tiny Habits: BJ Fogg
Atomic Habits: James Clear

 

Follow Laurence and Ruth on LinkedIn

J Laurence Sarno

Ruth Farenga 

 


How to survive the summer in business

Does your business take a nosedive in the summer months?

It can be tricky balancing the demands of clients and family, keeping on top of things, and still making money, not to mention dealing with clients who dump everything on you and disappear for 2 weeks.

Here are some tips for keeping your business running smoothly so you can take a break.

  • Manage Stop/Starts
    Over the summer months you might find you have a few long weekends here and there, plus a day trip or an event or two, all on top of your main holiday. Not to mention having to wait for a client to get back to you because they are on the beach this week. This can lead to a stop/start schedule that really slows you down.
    When you do finally get back to work it can be hard to remember what you need to do and find all the right files to pick up where you left off. A good way to manage this is to use the project management tool Asana. I have all my projects set up with their own task list ordered by date, so I can see where I’m at with each of them.
  • Scrap To Do Lists and Create Action Lists
    When a to do list is full of statements like Book Holiday, Book car service, your brain has to stop and decide what is the next action required.
    When a to do list - or task list - tells you what the precise next action is, eg Go to Travel Agent, Call Garage, your brain doesn’t have to stop and make a decision. This makes life a whole lot easier and Asana is great at keeping track of every project and every task.
    Often, it's not the task that slows you down, it's all the mental effort leading up to it. So if you can eliminate all the decisions such as precisely what needs to be done, who will do it (even if it's you!) and where to find the tools, files and phone numbers you need then the task is completed faster.
  • Set expectations
    Be realistic about what you can fit into the time you have to work this summer, then communicate this to everyone who needs to know. Make sure you leave time to tie up any loose ends before you go away and don't try to cram in client work at the last minute. If a client insists a piece of work absolutely must be done before you go away, stop and think if this is really true. Usually, it can wait.
    You don't want to be frantically working and packing your suitcase at midnight on the day before your holiday!
    Winding down over a period of days is much better for you and stops the likelihood of you getting ill when you switch off suddenly. The same applies to coming back. Try to organise things so that you get back into things gradually instead of switching from off to full speed overnight.
  • Get your emails to respond for you
    Don't lose those enquiries that come in while you're away. Here are some ways that email automation can do the work for you:
    • If you have an enquiry form on your website, set an automated email reply for any enquiries that you may receive while you’re away. How to do this will depend on the software you use 'behind' the enquiry form. If the enquiry drops into your email inbox as a standard email then a normal out of office email will take care of this for you. If it goes to your email marketing platform then you'll need to set up an automated email that's triggered when someone fills in your web form.
    • Can you do more with you our out-of-office email? Instead of a simple message explaining that you're away and the date you'll be back, you could also point the reader towards useful information such as your FAQs page so they can sort out simple problems themselves. Or an especially popular blog post. Or you could set up a booking service such as Calendly so they can book an appointment with you when you are back.
    • If you're using Gsuite you can set up automated out of office messages specific to the person who has emailed you. To do this, create a template then automate Gsuite so that when it receives an email from a specific person, the template email is sent automatically. Here's how to set that up - https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/9308990?hl=en
    • If you have a mailing list, why not schedule some emails for the time you are away to keep your leads warm for when you get back?
  • Automatically organise your emails
    If the thought of opening your inbox after two weeks away fills you with dread, you can set up folders for each of your clients or projects, then use rules so that your email software automatically files emails from those clients into the correct folders. You will still need to go through all the less important emails eventually, but this will collate the ones you need to action first when you get back. This works in both Outlook and Gsuite.
  • Schedule your social media posts
    Obviously, you need to be cautious about over-scheduling on social media, especially with the news changing as fast as it currently does. But you don't want to vanish for a couple of weeks either. So, load a social media scheduling tool such as Buffer with some evergreen, non-controversial posts just to keep yourself on people's radar while you're away. If these posts point them towards subscribing to your mailing list, you could even grow your list while you are sunning yourself. Depending on the platform you use, you could set up your blog to post automatically to social media for you, too.
  • Switch off and collate notifications
    Most notifications will go to your phone or your email inbox unless you set them up differently. Here are some ideas:
    • Switch off all of your smart phone notifications so you only look at those apps when you choose to instead of whenever they go ping.
    • You can set up automations so that the information in emails is collated somewhere more manageable than your inbox. For example, you could use Zapier, an app that connects 5,000+ other apps, to add emails with a specific term in the subject line to a row in an Excel spreadsheet. https://zapier.com/apps/excel/integrations/microsoft-outlook/541493/add-row-in-microsoft-excel-for-new-outlook-emails-with-specific-term-in-the-subject-line
    • Messages coming in from multiple social media platforms? You can collate them all in one place with the messaging app Franz 
  • Don't stop networking
    Can you carry on networking when you're not in the room? Well, up to a point! Networking is more than just going to events after all, the real magic is in the follow-up. So you can go through the guest list of events you missed and get in touch to discuss what you missed. It's easy to find out who attended Drive meetings in the discussions in our LinkedIn Group so give that a try and build some great connections.
  • Keep your pre-holiday feeling all year!
    When you’re preparing to go on holiday, you tie up all the loose ends, you update everyone, delegate everything and nothing is left outstanding.
    If you used this principle ALL THE TIME in your business, you’d always have a relaxed pre-holiday feeling.
    As part of your pre-holiday tidy up you’ll no doubt carry out a project review for everything that’s going on. You’ll note down what the next step is for each project/client so why not send this information to each of your clients? Upon your return they’ll know what the next steps are, what the deadlines are and with whom the action rests.
    This saves a whole world of catch up when you get back.
  • Get help! 

If you'd like help with any productivity tips or anything mentioned in this post get in touch with Helen Lindop and check out lots of free resources at Speedy Digital


How uncomfortable do we need to be to grow?

Do we need discomfort to grow?

Coaches are fond of telling us that we need to get out of our comfort zone but it's not always clear why.

At the end of the pandemic Drive Member, Annabel Harper, challenged herself to an extreme physical test of huskie sledding in Svalbard, one of the world’s northernmost inhabited areas, in temperatures of -25 with 24 hour daylight.

It was an extraordinary thing to do, (especially as most of her business is done in the heat of Dubai) and we had many questions about why she’d put herself through this.

There is a theory that we need discomfort to grow but coming out of a pandemic that created more discomfort than most of us have experienced in our lifetimes there was quite a reaction to the idea that we might need to seek out more!

For Annabel it was a very personal challenge to get fit and put into practice the leadership lessons she uses with her clients.

  • Team work was essential as the small group of people and dogs could only live and move together.
  • The group could only move at the pace of the slowest.
  • No-one could be left behind as each one relied on the others.
  • There was no opting out. A particularly difficult challenge of traversing a glacier had to be achieved quite literally by putting one foot in front of the other, one step at a time.
  • Sharing a tiny, flimsy tent with strangers in temperatures of minus 25 puts all thoughts of status into perspective!

Annabel also mentioned that spending long periods of time skimming over the ice alone on the sled with only the sound of the dog harness for company gave lots of time for inner reflection while the beauty of the landscape and the immense never darkening sky gave everything a new perspective as she repeatedly asked herself why she was doing it!

Arriving home with painfully blistered feet took away nothing from the sense of achievement and, as Annabel says, its the sort of experience that will take a long time to absorb but she is, quite rightly, immensely proud of herself for doing it.

It took me  a long time to find my comfort zone and I’m not leaving it for anyone.

This seems like a fair statement! Not everyone is drawn to physical challenges, especially if they're facing other sorts of discomforts. We all have a courageous side and a cowardly side, a side that does the hard thing and a side that prefers the easy way. The question is, which one is in charge?

When we challenge ourselves to become the kind of person that can do it – whatever it is - we develop confidence and trust that we will be able to step forward when the stakes are high. If we can do the hard thing even when no-one is watching, we can do it all the time.

Whether its dog sledding in the Arctic Circle or surviving a pandemic largely unscathed, proving we can do it is important and something worth celebrating!

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Annabel Harper has an MA in Middle Eastern Studies and her research explored women and leadership in the United Arab Emirates.

Her book “Shujaa’ah: Bold Leadership for Women of the Middle East” was a finalist in the Business Book Awards 2021.

Previously a radio and TV journalist, Annabel worked for more than 25 years for ITN, Channel Four News and the BBC. After moving into management at the BBC, she became involved with coaching, mentoring and training, before leaving to set up her own coaching business Change Connections  in 2007.

Follow Annabel on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/annabelharper/ 


How to develop a conscious, positive relationship with money.

Many people struggle to talk about money, which can be a big disadvantage in business!

We asked some of our members what they remember of how money was talked about in their family as they grew up and the answers explain why we all have such a different attitude to this tricky topic!

    • If your dad was a vicar and the family had no mortgage and free access to private schooling, you’d have a very different attitude towards money to someone who grew up being told: “Don’t kick stones, we can’t afford new shoes!”
    • If your mum kept the family stable by running a school and your Dad was a gigging musician who turned up with pockets full of cash and took everyone out for treats, you might think that money was for enjoying, not for saving.
    • If your parents got your family through the ‘80s with soaring interest rates you might decide to save as much as possible and never take on debt because you didn’t ever want to be in that position.
    • If your parents made money, but constantly talked about being happier when they were poor, you might decide that accumulating wealth is pointless.
    • If you grew up being told that money was the root of all evil and rich people were greedy, you might find yourself under-pricing your services and self-sabotaging.
    • If you grew up being told that ‘you can’t take it with you’ and ‘shrouds have no pockets’, you might not bother to save anything.

But none of these beliefs are truths – they're just things we hear growing up that help other people make sense of their world. (And begs the question, what are you passing on about your beliefs?!)

Because we don’t talk about it, we understand very little about why another person's approach to money might be so different to ours.

So, we have this thing that’s central to our lives, that nobody shows us how to manage, that we misunderstand but don’t talk about, that’s wired to our emotions and feelings of self-worth and when we make mistakes we end up with a lot of anxiety, guilt, shame and regret. 

Not knowing how to manage our finances is totally understandable.

Dennis Harhalakis of Cambridge Money Coaching explains it this way:

We’re taught that if we don’t understand something, there must something wrong with us.
No wonder we’re in such a mess!

Just because money has numbers doesn’t mean that money discussions are numeric discussions. It’s not about maths, it’s all about emotions. How we feel affects how we spend which affects how we feel.

Money is too often tied into our feelings of self-worth.
If we have debt or no savings, if we feel guilt from earning “too much”, if we find it hard to spend money or hard to save money, this is normal.
Our brains are wired for short-term gratification. If there’s something we want, its hard to fight the feeling that the best to time have it is now. We also try and push discomfort into the future. What’s the best time to start that training programme, get on that diet, sort out those finances, chase that client for money ……? So if we're uncomfortable facing our money issues we keep putting it off.
Add to this that finance has become very complex and all this complexity makes us anxious. The biggest stressors for humans are uncertainty and lack of control and when it comes to their finances, most people have some amount of both.

It's possible to develop a conscious, positive relationship with money

Firstly, we all have money issues, and that’s ok.
Secondly, there is no ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ way to manage money. There are things that make the future easier, behaviours that are taking us towards the person we want to be, and there are things we do that have the opposite effect and make the future more difficult. And that’s all normal.
So, if there are things about money – how you feel about it, how it makes you feel – that cause you discomfort, take a moment to reflect on where these beliefs or feelings come from. Ask yourself if they are helpful to you. Are they taking you where you want to go, or are they getting in the way. Try not to judge your own feelings - remember you probably acquired them before you understood what was happening.
This process isn't easy – we worry about being judged by others and we judge ourselves too. It can be scary to look into things you've avoided for a long time. But it can be done, and it’s a lot easier if you can find someone who can hold a safe space for you while you explore your thoughts and feelings.

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Dennis Harhalakis is the founder of Cambridge Money Coaching and a Certified Money Coach (CMC)®. Money Coaching deals with the unconscious patterns, beliefs and behaviours around money that we all have. Understanding these behaviours and patterns is the key to achieving true financial independence and success. Dennis is a regular speaker at schools and is particularly interested in helping parents talk to their children about money.

Find out more at https://cambridgemoneycoaching.uk/


Why reflection makes us more effective

"Reflection is a mode of inquiry: a deliberate way of systematically recalling and examining experiences."

You put the phone down from a call, hop into a meeting, come out of that and crack on with the next job, meet someone for lunch, report back to a client, check your cashflow, chase some invoices, go home and catch up with your family, make dinner, watch some TV, go to bed, wake up and do it all again.

  • When do you look at what you've done and figure out what's working, what's not and if you're enjoying any of it?
  • When do you say "no more" or "I could have done better"?
  • When do you tell yourself "well done"?

Why Should We Practice Self-Reflection?

One one level we can evaluate our responses to particular circumstances and events or people and get better at handling them and on another level we can evaluate the overall trajectory of our lives. We can see where we're headed, if we're happy with that and make adjustments as necessary.

When Should We Practice Self-Reflection?

It can be useful to do it for a few minutes each day or each week. Think about what has been on your mind, what is taking up your headspace and write it down.

It can also be helpful to do an end of month and end of year review looking back over your notes to see what you've learned.

“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” Anaïs Nin

Jo Twiselton of Twist Consultants Ltd. has practiced self-reflection for many years.

She is an avid note-taker and uses her reflections in her own personal and business development as well as with her clients who are often managing complex change projects in large organisations.

Jo led a discussion with our members Gill Robinson, Nicola Smith, Andy Boothman, Helen Lindop, Nathan Whitbread, Anne-Marie Miller, David Brown, Vicky Bland, Dr Melissa Sedmak, and Andy Bargery on the benefits of reflecting on our behaviors, thoughts, attitudes, motivations, and desires.

 

These are some of the takeaways from the discussion:

✨ Getting into a routine of reflecting on each day at the same time is a powerful thing to do for both personal and business development.

✨ Asking yourself the same set of questions: what you did well and what you could do better or differently or what you will start, continue and stop and writing down the answers provides lots of learning.

✨ Thor A Rain explained how booking a regular appointment with "me, myself and I" as an end of year exercise and using the same book for notes means that its easy to check back on previous thoughts. This can be in a favourite coffee shop with favourite treats as an added incentive!

✨ Consistency is key – the more you build reflection in, the easier it gets and the more regularly you’re likely to do it.

✨ We need a ‘ingestion’ period to reflect on what we learn so looking back at the notes for a week or month can sometimes reveal deeper insights.

✨ Having a strong ‘why bother’ reason for running our business that goes beyond earning money can help us focus on the things that really matter.

✨ Keeping a file of nice things that clients say is particularly useful as a reminder of our value when things get a bit tough.

✨ Following an action plan, the Drive Quest or the 12-week year process all offer opportunities for reflection on things we've learned during a specific period of time.

✨ If you think you need to improve on something, e.g get better at finishing things, writing down everything you finish as you finish it gives an insight into how good you really are - a tip from Susie Tobias.

✨ Having an accountability buddy helps to get us into a routine and thinking out loud is a great way to answer our own questions.

Jo says her big takeaway from the discussion is that everyone knows the value reflection can bring as learning but it’s about making sure we make the time for it not waiting until we find the time.

Jo shares three takeaways from her reflections every week on LinkedIn so look out for her posts and get inspired!

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Jo Twiselton helps leaders deliver healthy & sustainable change in their organisations, minimising disruption and maximising engagement. She is a certified practitioner of the WRAW (Wellbeing & Resilience at Work) psychometric, the world’s first tool & survey to measure resilience and its impact on wellbeing at work. https://www.twistconsultants.co.uk/ 

Challenges of networking and neurodiversity

How do people with neurodiverse conditions cope with networking?

There used to be a joke that you know when an introvert is networking because they look at your shoes instead of their own.  Introversion isn't a neurodiverse/neurodivergent condition which typically includes ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia and Tourette syndrome but I mention it because so many people find networking challenging that being aware of this helps us find ways to give more people the chance to connect and build great relationships.

Nathan Whitbread is a Neurodivergent Coach and offers some great insights into the challenges people with neurodiverse conditions face when networking. I think they're challenges that a great many of us face and his ideas can be applied equally to neurotypical people. See what you think: 

Walking into a room full of strangers that you are supposed to be interacting with can be incredibly daunting. Add on top of this anxiety around who you are and how you communicate and suddenly there is a bit of a recipe for potential problems. Welcome to neurodiversity and networking.

As a neurodivergent person, I have always found networking a little bit challenging as it seems everyone else knows exactly what they are doing. So here are some things that I feel can help make what is a tricky area into something far more manageable and something you can achieve at.

Being ready to talk

The best spontaneous conversations are well practised!

This may sound like a completely bizarre statement, but the truth is if you want to be spontaneous and have something to say you need to practice. This could be as simple as practising engaging with strangers in conversation or just being ready to start more conversations with your friends about topics that you think they may be interested in.

Asking questions that make connections

With networking the key thing is finding out what the other person wants, not telling them what you want. I would encourage you to start conversations by asking questions about how you can help. For example, you might want to ask:

  • why someone is there?
  • or what challenges they are experiencing, that you could help with?

Telling real punchy stories

Think about your own stories, the things you have done, the people you have met and how they can be relevant to the people you are talking to now. No one can resist a story, especially when they help them solve problems. When telling stories it’s important that they are punchy and to the point and that while you’re telling them you are seeking feedback to make sure they are relevant to the person you’re talking to. (if their eyes glaze over or their face changes make sure you ask them if this is useful – if in doubt ask!)

For example, you might have a story about a recent client (you do not have to use the client’s name) or a problem that you solved as part of your work.

I would always recommend using stories as they illustrate not only the benefits and strengths that you can bring, but they also bring you alive as a person.

Being ok with who you are

Believe it or not, you are the very best person at being you, and there is no one else quite like you. Do not try and be someone else, be yourself that’s why people want to get to know you. It is important to celebrate who you are as well in terms of your attitude towards yourself. I can assure you that you have value, things to offer, you do things other people cannot do and you are the very best at being you. – Be yourself!

It takes a village to successfully network

What I mean by this is that contacts you already have will provide you with information that allows you to connect with others. This will help you engage in conversations and communicate better with new connections. No person is an island, utilise people you know, learn from them, and ask for feedback.

Drive, the Partnership Network has been this place for me.

What can hold you back

Mindset is key, when getting involved in networking start with what you want to achieve then ask others what they want and see if there is space to build something. People never stop talking about what they need. If you can tap into that you will network effectively because you will be able to help them find solutions for their problems.

Do not be the limit to your network

Research shows that we love to talk to people like us but unfortunately there is only a subset of the human population that are anything like us. If you are looking to network the chances are your skills and experience are going to be more useful to people that are nothing like you. Don’t be afraid because people are different they still breathe and have a pulse just like you.

Be proactive

You are not an impostor you have every right to share what you are doing and mix with others to find common ground. You need to accept no one knows what you know the way you know it, and no one will ever know it unless you interact and have real conversations with them. Also do not be afraid to ask for help there are a lot of people out there in a similar position who want to help and see you succeed.

Find allies and champions

Allies and champions are vital especially if you have got questions about things like, what is the value you bring?

These people will often know you best and can help you cement this value. They will also be the people that open doors for you and invite you to new places, and you will be able to support them. This is not an awkward thing to do, it just starts with a conversation

So do not be afraid to ask!

What do you think?

Do Nathan's tips apply to you? Do we all have our own quirks and insecurities around networking? What's your favourite tip?

If you would like some help please get in touch with Nathan.

This post was originally published on The Neurodivergent Coach blog.


Making a difference with carbon offsetting

How can you "make a difference" with carbon offsetting?

Many of our members prefer to work with clients whose businesses are trying to make the world a better place and actively avoid those who treat the planet and its inhabitants badly.

But how can you tell who is really making a difference?

Lots of businesses claim to be "doing good" by offsetting their carbon footprint and sometimes its hard to tell if they're having a real impact or if they're just greenwashing.

What is greenwashing?

Mia Bazo,  the innovative self-service platform that helps frequent travellers manage their climate impact as well as immigration, tax, security and other essential services, explains the problem:

There are two ways to combat climate change that is due to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. First, change your activities so you create less carbon dioxide (CO2). Next, undertake activities that decrease the amount of CO2 that’s already in the air.

We believe individuals and businesses should do both, through changing our activities and carbon offsetting. This is where the controversy comes in. If you’re purchasing carbon offset, are you really helping the planet, or is it greenwashing – simply giving the appearance that you’re helping mitigate climate change?

They give an example of organisations that donate water filters to people in areas where clean water is not available. The idea is that less wood burned is burned to boil and purify the water, resulting in less CO2 .

Is this really offsetting carbon?

Nope, says Mia Bazo they’re just contributing a bit to the situation not getting worse. If they’re not also taking positive steps to reduce the carbon footprint of their offices and manufacturing processes, that’s greenwashing.

What about tree planting, one of the most popular carbon offsetting schemes?

Mia Bazo says: Tree planting does a little good but if this is all a company does to decrease their carbon footprint, it still has a whiff of greenwashing. When a company examines every process, property, vehicle and employee travel for opportunities to reduce their carbon footprint, and then purchases valid carbon offset to reduce their balance to zero, that company is truly green.

Unless a company accurately measures their carbon footprint, how do they know how much they need to offset to make a real impact?

For more on Greenwashing and carbon offsetting see Mia Bazo's post Isn't Carbon Offset just Greenwashing?

Want to get involved?

You can sign up for a free Climate Impact Calculator Tool account to calculate, publish, offset and reduce your carbon footprint.


Effective email marketing

We all know that we should be getting our prospects and customers on a mailing list.

What’s the best way to set that all up… and what happens next?
There’s a bewildering range of tools out there to help you collect and automate your marketing emails, so let Helen take you through:
  • The two main types of list you need, and how to plan out your subscriber journey for both
  • How to give your subscribers a more personal experience, so they don’t feel like a number in a database
  • How to use digital tools to build a relationship with your audience and get repeat sales, on a tight budget and without it taking up too much of your time
  • Confused by landing pages, automated emails vs broadcasts and tagging? Should you use pop ups and lead magnets? Helen will give you a quick guide so you can decide what you actually need now, and what you might choose to do later.

Helen LindopHelen Lindop works with small business to streamline their sales and marketing using tech such as email marketing, marketing automation, client databases and online training.

 

Slides :

For more information on the plumbings of email marketing there are lots of helpful hints and how to videos on Helen's Website

www.helenlindop.com and Speedy Digital


Money Coaching for Small Businesses

How do you feel about money?

Most of us have a relationship with money that we don’t fully understand.

It runs through our lives, yet it’s a taboo subject and our feelings about it are rarely discussed.

Instead, we go through life with a set of subconscious beliefs and behaviours about ourselves and money that we inherited from the people around us and the broader cultural environment.

In this workshop, Dennis Harhalakis founder of Cambridge Money Coaching helps us to explore our money relationships, patterns, beliefs, and behaviours and how understanding these can give us a different perspective on handling money issues in our businesses.

Get inspired, motivated and focused to make the most of opportunities and build your business.

Books and resources mentioned in presentation are:

Open Up - Alex Holder, Sheconomics - Karen Pine & Simonne Gnessen, Money Magic - Deborah Price. Podcast is called Squanderlust - Martha Lawton & Alex Lemon.

There are also many useful articles on the Cambridge Money Coaching website.


Make your life a little bit brighter!

Who would have thought that your greatest guide in life could be a puppet?

When we're running a business, we can sometimes get stuck in a certain way of thinking.
A light hearted and playful approach can often get through negative barriers and encourage new ways of thinking.
When we're asked to predict what plans we have, options to take and decisions to make, we need to use our imagination.

 

Jo Bryant and The Hands On Company transform lives through creative puppetry and Jo has adapted the way she works to make this on-line workshop.

Please download the workbook and use the Sock Puppet or Origami Puppet instructions (or borrow a soft toy with a face) to enjoy the full effect of the workshop!

Make Your Life a little Brighter Workbook
Sock Puppet ideas
Origami Puppet instructions

Get inspired, motivated and focused to make the most of opportunities and build your business.