Tom Chapman Funds 1st Solo Album for Heather Cairncross
Headline News: This week we got the great news that my brilliant “singing sister” as Heather Cairncross is affectionately known, has been offered funding by her new “patron” Tom Chapman to record and launch her first solo album. Guess who gets to do the marketing / product launch? How exciting is that?!! Check Heather out online singing ”What The World Needs Now” with Dave Newton & Chris Hill at the Peace In OUR Lifetime concert ….
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve made the big decision to move the Business Diary over from my NicolaCairncross.com website to the TBSF website. I’ve done that because I really want to focus on building up the traffic to TBSF by the main routes available to me THAT I ENJOY.
Those are writing, speaking, using Twitter and Facebook and if I just focus on those then it will happen. So I can measure the results of this strategy, my current traffic is around 2500 unique visitors a month, my TBSFBrighton Twitter followers are around 67 while NicolaCairnX is at 2530. Facebook followers for TBSF is a paltry 68 as I’ve largely concentrated on just accepting friends, I can’t quite get to grips with using Facebook as a page…
This decision comes in the wake of Google closing another of my accounts just opened for Adwords – they seem to have totally irrevocably decided that I’m a “get rich quick” merchant – O the irony! No matter which account I use or which website I’m working on, they just won’t let me advertise my books, videos or anything at all really.
However, if I build my Twitter and Facebook presences and concentrate on delivering value by blogging, then the traffic WILL build and the more unique content I have the better, so it makes no sense to keep blogging over at NicolaCairncross.com which is, after all, just my personal / speaking site and the one that the Money Gym traffic goes to, largely, nowadays.
I had a moment of uncertainty as I’m not sure how clever it is to talk about my own business strategy on the site where most of my future corporate clients will be hanging out and where my competitors can freely roam (not that I’ve got any actual competitors, largely swimming in the Blue Ocean) but I realised that this is just scarcity thinking. It “serves me not” and moves me away from my goals and not towards! So I’m just going to get on with it because it feels right and not worry about it.
The last couple of weeks started out brilliantly on a work front with my brand new client telling me that just one idea I had accidentally given him had already turned into a new busness that is already turning over an extra £12,500 a month for him from signups in that first week alone.
This astounding news came out of a conversation we had about the fact he’s already a mega-dynamo in a national company supplying one specific marketing service to business owners and corporates, and I was asking him if he was getting value out of our conversations so far because they were feeling a bit like nice chats to me and I just wanted to make sure we were on track for him. So I think the answer was a resounding YES!
Just today another mentoring client told me that he has secured his first “Local Business Marketing” client so that’s another thrill - I get so much pleasure out of mentoring clients taking action and doing well.
Personally in my business I’m still on my strategic planning quest, with my biggest challenge at the moment being the feeling that I need a traditional sales process in the real world, including creating a local database of prospects and some telephone follow up.
I downloaded the ScanBizCards app to my iPhone which enables you to scan, edit and upload each new card you get to your database in the sky and I also spent a day bulk scanning the cards I’ve collected over the last year which was a bit boring, but ok on a Sunday morning watching cooking programmes and Grand Designs catchup on tv.
My ex-husband Irving, with whom I’m on surprisingly good terms, has been following up all my new contacts for me, sending them a nice email offering them a copy of our Special Report “How To Market Any Business Online” and sending them a special link to download it. Then he’s calling people to see what they thought of it, what their biggest challenges are around marketing themselves online and if we can help, setting up a Google Page or a Facebook Page perhaps. The whole goal is to get a dialogue going and establish a relationship so they know where they are if they need us.
To that end, I have re-jigged the website slightly to make finding our Services & Fees page easier, and the listings of those clearer. I’ve also changed the Special Report distribution from name and email only, to full free product, so that we can get more info and follow up enquiries properly.
It occurred to me that it might be nice for him to be able to pop a copy of the Special Report in the post, after talking to people, so I’ve asked one of my fellow Chamber members for quotes on spiral bound versions and also printed booklet versions (which are about half the price). Still not absolutely convinced about that but I think it’s got to be worth an experiment surely?
I’ve been to a monthly Worthing & Adur Chamber website working group meeting which are always lively events, there are lots of changes afoot which will make for exciting times. Then I went to the Shoreham Hub networking event which is held once a month at Shoreham Airport, which are always buzzing and full of local businesses, but the attendees change each month which means there is always someone new to talk to.
Straight from there onto my accountant, Mark Nicolson’s launch party for his new business AYP Advisory, where I found some Chamber stalwarts and a few poker buddies, surprisingly enough which was very cool. Mark and Mel have a lovely garden in Findon Valley and the weather was good last week so we were all outside.
Then over to Shoreham to spend the weekend with my kids – my daughter P is still having a great time at her new job. She wants to know how to stop herself spending all her earnings, so I’ve suggested she gets into the habit of saving 10% of everything she earns, and putting it in a 30-day notice account, so she can’t get at it in the spur of the moment. To get a savings account, we had to set up her security number (by phone, what a palaver!) then her internet banking. Once you sign up for internet banking you have to wait for loads of stuff to come by POST – how archaic is that?!!
Tuesday saw me attending one of the new Business MOT’s offered by the Chamber to new and renewing members, at the Chatsworth Hotel in Worthing, which is one of a range of courses offered by Northbrook College to local business owners. Billed as 4 hours of strategic planning, it was very good although didn’t contain any new content for me (as I’m coached by the worlds best strategic coach, Rich Schefren, and I read a LOT of business books) but I joined in the fun.
What it really did remind me of is how bloody good I am at delivering workshops and training – no, this is not a time for false modesty, sorry, I AM good. I haven’t done any since the Money Gym days, so I determined to put some workshops together to offer the Chamber about online marketing, social media etc. Did that the moment I got home and fired it off to Tina to get some feedback on whether the Chamber members would be interested or not.
Tuesday night I had a VERY VERY late night after the Brunwick Jazz Jam. Several of us decided to go to the Bee’s Mouth which I’ve never been to, but got waylaid to a private party in a very large Hove flat where there was a Steinway grand piano so that was fun seeing people who I’m used to playing drums and stuff, playing all sorts of music on the piano and singing too.
Wednesday morning I was suffering a bit (staying up till 4.30 and only getting 6 hours sleep obviously doesn’t agree with me as much as it used to!) then into my usual Wednesday webinars for mentoring students.
Unusually empty afternoon diary-wise, so I went with sister Heather who was singing and playing the guitar for her friend Bearnadean who has the most beautiful house in Steyning and who was hosting an Open Garden in aid of charity.
A soft rain was falling most of the afternoon but we were under cover and the teas and homemade cakes were delicious. Tom Chapman, who the previous evening had announced he wanted to fund Heather’s first solo album, turned up with his gardener and after a turn or two around the beautiful grounds, came to sit down and talk the project over. I’m going to blog the project from a product launch / marketing perspective and Heather’s going to blog the project from a musical one, so I won’t go into too much details now but watch this space.
At 6pm we moved onto the Worthing & Adur Chamber Summer Bar-B-Q at Highdown Towers in Worthing where we were treated to some soul singing by Terry Carvey aka “Terry’s All Gold” while drinking award winning wines and munching our way through organic sausages, chicken and salad – yum! I’ve not been to enough bar-b-q’s yet this year – and this week I’m not likely to!
This morning I was fully recovered from my all-nighter and at 10am I was up bright and early to conduct one of my Webinar interviews with Worthing & Adur Chamber members about being an entrepreneur. This week it was Mark Landon from Pep4Print, a second generation family firm of printers who have successfully moved into the 21st Century with digital print and website design. I’ve now got two interviews and a couple of videos to edit so I’d better get those done as it’s not something I can outsource.
My VA Kelly is chasing for the ezine content, and as I’ve missed a couple of weeks, I thought I had better knock that out first then she can get that together and I can get on with my editing with no guilt!
