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Yep – I’m a Joiner!
A to Z meme (because we do personal stuff on this blog too!)
I was tagged for this meme by Patty of Time is of the Es-Cents.
A- Attached or Single? Attached like Super Glue!
B- Best Friend: My best friend is my hubby.
C- Cake or Pie: Pie – I love cake from Creative Cakes!
D- Drink of Choice: Coffee, Iced Tea, or Lemonade
E- Essential Item: Computer
F- Favorite Color: That spring green that’s SO in style right now.
G- Gummi Bears or Worms? Gummi Worms!
H- Hometown: What is a hometown? Is that where you were born (Hammond, IN), where you spent the first six years of your life (Lansing, IL) or where you spent most of your childhood (Roubidoux, CA) – let me know LOL
I- Indulgence: Tiramisu
J- January or February: January – My anniversary and both the kids birthdays are in Jan.
K- Kids: 2 daughters, one is 2 and one is 1 and I’m insane.
L- Life is incomplete without: Books waiting to be read.
M- Marriage Date: January 1, 2003
N- Number of Siblings: 2 – 1 sister – 1 brother
O- Oranges or Apples? Oranges
P- Phobias/Fears: Crowds.
Q- Favorite Quote: Ecclesiastes 1:9-14 – Or Salvador Dali “If you’re going through Hell…keep going…”
R- Reasons to smile: Everything – family, friends, life
S- Season: I love fall.
T- Tag Three: Amanda, Tammy, and Wendy
U- Unknown Fact About Me: You mean there’s something you DON’T already know? Stop! You’re killin’ me!
V – Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animals? Yes.
W- Worst Habit: Working until 2am.
X – X-rays or Ultrasounds? I don’t understand the basis of this decision. I’ve had both done.
Y- Your Favorite Foods: Steak and baked potato
Z- Zodiac: Cancer. The Crab. Sexy, isn’t it?
AVA Podcast #2
Summary: Use Squidoo as part of your portfolio | Airing your dirty laundry in public | Who Wants to be a Superhero? | Other Jen-Type randomness!
Please Help!
I know, I know, that was too dramatic for my own good. I get that.
But I really do need your help. You’ve been listening to me talk about Squidoo forever and a day now. You know I’m a huge supporter, and you may even have seen my last post about my Dream Job being an Online Community Organizer.
Well, it looks like Squidoo is looking for an Online Community Organizer.
I’ll let you all take a moment as you picture me freaking out when I read that this morning. Because you KNOW I did. I completely went over the moon with excitement, and I made a lens about it (duh!)
So if you could do the following things, I will give you a favor in return because I’m all about the win-win situation.
- Visit my brand-spankin-new Community Organizer lens and sign the guestbook. Please, be honest. Feel free to write whatever you want, but if you’re one of those “I don’t know what to say in your Squidoo guestbook types…I’m looking either for testimonials about how many times you’ve heard me tell you to put up a Squidoo lens to help your business…or if you think I’d be a good Community Organizer…or suggestions for what you think I should do to the lens to improve my chances of being the next Squidoo Community Organizer.
- If you already have a Squidoo lens (and I hope you do!) please consider joining my group Community Organizer Jen to show solidarity for my actual chances of getting this gig.
- Here’s the win-win for you. Email or skype (atypicalva) or call (contact page) me and let me know what your questions are about having a Squidoo lens and how this can help you with social networking or any other question you have and I’ll answer it for you. You vote, you comment, you join…you get free advice. Beat that with a stick! (Ok, don’t really, it would break your monitor!)
Thanks so much for taking the time to read this. I’m completely GEEKED about this opportunity. Oh. Feel free to blog about this to help me out. You can use the graphic from my server. the link to put it in your blog post or wherever you want to put it is
<a href=”http://www.squidoo.com/communityorganizer”><img src=”http://www.atypicalva.com/images/Squidoo_Group.gif” /></a>
you can copy and paste that into your blog and it will put the image with a link back to the Squidoo page.Thanks again!
My Dream Job
Seth Godin posted a great blog post about jobs of the future and the first one listed is Online Community Organizer.
Two things happened simultaneously:
- My left eyebrow cocked (it does that when I get intrigued).
- I immediately began scanning for information on the company looking for help.
It took about 20 seconds to realize that this was a regular blog post, and not an off the wall job opportunity disguised as a blog post.
But wow – what a perfect job that would be! Not for just anyone, but for me!
I generally try to only post things that I think you’ll find interesting. I try very hard to care more about the reader here rather than just what Jen wants to blah blah about today. (Which is why you don’t hear me telling you about walking the dogs or what I had for lunch or just reposting articles.)
Today we deviate from the norm. Sorry if this is boring, but I just cannot resist!
The reasons I would be a fantastic Online Community Organizer:
- I’m friendly. Genuinely friendly – not that “blow smoke up your butt and stab you in the back when you blink” friendly!
- I’m smart. Yes, I know, everyone thinks they’re smart or we wouldn’t own businesses, would we? But my ability to apply knowledge that I am able to learn faster than any normal human being makes me a stunner when it comes to picking up and teaching others how to use new systems.
- Relationship marketing is “my thing” – I love it, I believe in it, and I practice it every day. The understanding of relationship marketing is critical to any online community’s success.
- I’m a wicked good sales trainer. Keeping people referring, keeping affiliates excited, and giving people new ways to ask the same questions all come in VERY handy when trying to spread the word about a new online community…or revitalizing an existing community that needs to “kick it up a notch.”
- I don’t believe that selling is “icky” – My personality does not have a “no” button when it comes to sharing information that might benefit another person. I believe it never hurts to ask, and to be friendly and smile and say “ok” when people say “no” – most people say no, and then think it over and call back later…if you don’t pressure, and don’t try to force it…those callbacks will happen more often.
- I love to be on the cutting edge of the online world. I don’t have a talent for coding, or for coming up with original ideas to create things from scratch. My gifts are making existing ideas better, and showing those ideas to others.
So if you’re looking for an Online Community Organizer – I’m SO your woman!
Thank you to everyone else if you got to the end of this post. I hate being self-serving in my blog…but since most people are every day, I figure once in a while won’t kill any of us. Thanks again, you rock.
Everyone Sells!
Harry Joiner at MarketingProfs did a great post on how one company interviews its salespeople. I think this is a great exercise, and something that every business owner should do on their own to learn strengths and weaknesses they may not know are in their sales presentation.
What was that? You don’t sell? Surely you jest!
I’m having a sense of deja vu.
Just last night I was on the phone with a friend of mine who was lamenting that she was “bad at sales” and that made her sad because “people who sell make money” – I’ve always been of the opinion…okay, not ALWAYS of the opinion…hold on, let’s start over….
My great-grandmother (the one who raised me) worked her way from a mailroom clerk to the VP of a company in downtown Chicago. She believes in hard work and late hours to pay your bills and be a good person.
She has, to the best of my knowledge ALWAYS hated salespeople.
In the store, she ignored them (she was very polite at all other times, but to her, salespeople didn’t even exist) when she went to buy a car she would talk to customer service or sales to get the information she required. If a child at the door was selling candy/wrapping paper/whatever she would glower at them disdainfully while handing over a dollar, or buying a box of cookies. (Kids trumped salespeople, but barely, that’s why she purchased…but with that “I just tasted something icky” look on her face.)
I remember asking her why she hated salespeople so much. Her basic response was that she had zero respect for people who made money without doing any real work. In her opinion, sales was about lies, big smiles, and fast money. She felt that our great country was caught in a horrible catch-22 with sales. If you wanted to be wealthy you had to sell something, but no self-respecting person would sell anything.
As much as I’m trying to keep politics out of this post, I think that what she supports is probably obscenely obvious from the post thus far. It’s also what all of her friends and family believed as well. Heck, it’s what a VAST MAJORITY of the country believes. (I can’t speak for the world, I don’t know them.)
So, of course, I’ve always been utterly fascinated by salespeople and what makes them tick. I regarded them as a species that was totally unlike my own. I was an Office Manager, you see. Most definately NOT a salesperson. Ok, I’d upsell them home insurance when they called for auto insurance…but that was because they’d get a discount…it was in their best interest…that makes it NOT sales… (you see the issue here, right?)
It wasn’t until I started a business that I really started to understand that sales isn’t a task or calling or event…so much as one huge grey area. PR is sales. Marketing is sales. Advertising is sales. Upselling and suggestive selling are (duh!) sales. Being a cashier is sales if there’s a promotion or even those paper things you write your name on and donate a dollar to charity. It’s ALL sales.
The difference, once I started to actively try and figure this out, is that there are two types of people:
- Those that accept sales exists in all things and utilize that knowledge
- People that say “I can’t sell” or “I hate selling”
- People that sell reluctantly, or only have a half formed notion of why offering everyone fries with that makes them feel a little sleazy.
You’ve probably been there at some point in your life. Whatever version of “do you want fries with that” your company was having you do. You didn’t want to say it, you thought people would be mad at you for saying it. Yet, had you gone into that very same store, and heard someone else say it to you…would you really have minded all that much? Probably not.
But when it’s you doing it – you become chicken little and the sales sky is going to fall on your head!
The key to sales is this…not only do people not mind being sold to, if it’s something they want, they’ll APPRECIATE being sold to. The only way to find out if someone wants what you have to sell is to ask.
As a service-based business, I’m selling myself. My personality, my skills, my work ethic.
It’s probably the first product I’ve ever sold that I believe in 100% – and that, to me, makes all the difference.
Atypical VA Podcast #1
I’m restarting fresh. Going to do this weekly. Hopefully it will be good times!
Tea Time with Shannon: Proof of Bias in the Media
Shannon Cherry receives a racist email from a reporter.
read more | digg story
A Better Explanation Than Mine!
Over at Seth’s Blog he has the most amazing “quickie” explanation of marketing-to-scale.
It’s about doing what you can with what you have. With online marketing, the most money DOESN’T win by default. Throwing money at things is fine…but you don’t win the hearts of your customers (and potential customers) by throwing money at them.
Scratch that. If you threw actual money at them it might be just as effective.
But it still wouldn’t be as long lasting and have the potential for “stickyness” that good marketing with a “one person at a time” mentality and message ever will.
