Women Grow Business

Great news for one Women Grow Business blogger, one apple pie baker, and tons of small business owners seeking more about content sharing (…more in this fun conversation below).

The skinny:
I met Mayra at DC’s local Channel 8 studio for her live interview with the Washington Business Report (just search for Mayra Ruiz to find her archived interview!). A long-time Women Grow Business blogger, Mayra has also submitted a recent blog post to Grow Smart Business about making a sale and creating loyal fans (sparked by a farmer’s market apple pie baker, no doubt). And it’s that timely and apt post that launched the above video chat about content sharing for small business (and Mayra’s great feature on Channel 8).

Guest post from Mayra Ruiz-McPherson, regular guest contributor to Women Grow Business. Mayra works as an independent marketing strategist and social media enthusiast. With over 14 years of marketing and communications experience, Mayra helps businesses and non-profits with all aspects of their brand identity, outreach communications, and competitive positioning. She produces the blog Marketing Misfit and can be reached at www.twitter.com/marketingMisfit.

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Question:
What’s the fastest way to kill your blog?

Answer:
Go on a vacation!

Are you planning any kind of getaway these next few weeks of summer? If so, beware.

Too much joy, peace and reflection during your vacation may result in blog death.

Some background
Earlier this June, I took a brief working vacation to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and was able to sneak in pockets of family time whenever possible. Who knew that these snippets of non-work time would have unexpectedly resulted in the death of my digital marketing blog upon my return home?

A blogger’s scenario
For quite some time prior to my working vacation, I had been blogging multiple times a week; usually no less than three times a week … and usually more than that. Each blog post requires insight, time and some creative or visual aspect.

Many times I would start thinking small but before I knew it, five paragraphs later, I was knee deep in a lengthy post — much lengthier than I had initially expected to author.

A rewarding yet confusing chore (and the Twitter issue)
While I found blogging about social media and digital marking to be fun and rewarding in many ways, in the last few months blogging regularly and avidly was becoming quite the confusing chore.

Confusing because…
The lines between being resourceful, timely, and redundant were becoming very blurred for me. Timely or time-sensitive information these days is usually shared on Twitter because of its immediacy and reach. If I shared the information on Twitter and expanded on the topic via a blog post, was it overkill? Was it duplicative?

Some times, I wasn’t sure.

Chore because…
Folks reading a “real” blog post (“real” meaning authentic insight and commentary often including research and relevant references) don’t always realize how much time was invested in creating an original thought. There are way too many blog posts out there that are all saying the exact same thing and, therefore, saying something different and unique isn’t usually a 3-minute writing gig. Thought-provoking posts require some expenditure of time, period.

Too niche, too much, helpful enough?!
Actually, I have a far more extensive, detailed laundry list of more confusing thoughts and chore-like findings beyond what I’ve shared above. But for the sake of brevity, let’s just say that before long, I began to question the usefulness of the information I was sharing. Was it helpful? Was it targeted enough? Was it too niche? Was it too much or too little?

You get the idea … I clearly got “lost” in a myriad of thoughts that I just couldn’t seem to answer for myself.

Then the vacation happened
The working vacation couldn’t have happened at a better time. It forced me to get away from the blog for a few days. During the time away, I realized I needed more time to sort through my confusion and concerns regarding not just the blog but my overall brand and market position.

Symptom to a larger concern
I think the blog was a symptom of a much bigger problem. While sipping a wonderful piña colada and chilling out on a comfy lounge chair which faced the ocean shore, I realized that I had grown professionally and personally since I launched the blog over a year or so ago. In my time away from the blog, I learned I needed to shift my entire approach and marketing direction to better align the blog with where I am at today.

So what’s next?
The answer: a lot.

I am happy to report that I’ve sorted through my marketing closet and have gotten rid of various skeletons since my taste buds happily wallowed in piña colada glory. I’m excited about where I’m headed but I know I still have a ways to go to launch it all. Still, it feels great to have retreated from the blog to refresh my perspective.

And is my blog dead?
Well, the answer to this is “yes” but only metaphorically speaking. In whatever way I may choose to blog again in the very near future, it will be different because my approach, my mindset and my direction are different. Therefore, technically, what once was will be gone…but something new and fresh will take its place.

Conclusions for blogging business owners
Vacationers! If you actively blog about any topic, then don’t say I didn’t warn you! Seriously, who knew a working vacation would result in my blog’s death yet breathe new energy into my marketing life? Hmm..more to come.

Question to you
What’s been your experience with blogging and maintaining fresh perspectives as your business emerged, changed, and grew? Please share in the comments.

More from:

• Mayra Ruiz McPherson and her digital marketing series at Women Grow Business;
• Fresh Influence and 6 ways Twitter affects your business brand;
• Left The Box and different ways social media can change marketing for your business.

Guest post from Mayra Ruiz-McPherson, regular guest contributor to Women Grow Business. Mayra works as an independent marketing strategist and social media enthusiast. With over 14 years of marketing and communications experience, Mayra helps businesses and non-profits with all aspects of their brand identity, outreach communications, and competitive positioning. She produces the blog Marketing Misfit and can be reached at www.twitter.com/marketingMisfit.

(image New Directions by Light Knight, Creative Commons)

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From the moment my eyelids flutter open
As a marketing, PR and communications consultant, my days are full of the act of promotion for my clients. From the moment my eyelids flutter open in the morning until I drag myself back to bed late at night, I spend many hours promoting client products, services, outreach efforts, programs, events and the like. Everything I write, everything I design, every hyperlink I click and every stroke of my keyboard is dedicated to promoting my clients, period.

This is what I do.
These acts of promotion are what allow me to bring home the bacon. It’s how I even get out of some (yet hardly all) household chores,

-Often telling my husband, “Would you have me use an hour of my time cleaning the kitchen or doing billable work for a client?” (wink wink!)

Forgotten? marketing the marketer
But all the while, amidst every promotional and marketing effort I exert for everyone else, it seems that there’s just never, ever enough time to promote myself. I daydream sometimes about cloning my DNA and envision having one ‘Mayra me’ promote for the clients and the other ‘Mayra me’ promote exclusively all for myself. Yup, I know. It’s silly but honest.

I take so much pride in what I do for those who retain my services.
I go all out and then some — to get them the exposure they want, need and deserve. Yet, as I’m in the thick of marketing activity on their behalf, a part of me feels envy that I wish I could do all the things I do for my clients for myself, too.

Too close to my vest
Yeah, you can outsource accounting and billing and you can outsource some administrative tasks. But on the marketing front, this is just something too close to my vest to outsource to anyone. Besides, I often wonder, if I am a marketing professional, then shouldn’t I be demonstrating how it’s done well by doing it for myself? It’s like a professional Web services firm claiming they can do all these great Web things for your site but behind the scenes, they themselves don’t do any of their own Web work. I’m not saying this is entirely bad. Many folks outsource tasks, functions and support.

Perhaps I’m too hard on myself, I’m not sure. I guess I just believe that some things, particularly the very area I claim to possess the expertise in, cannot and should not be outsourced.

And so I continue my marketing life, promoting for others but not much for myself.
I do what I can and pour most of my marketing effort onto my blog. My professional and personal life commitments leave me little time to do a lot of face-to-face networking so I have to strongly lean on digital marketing venues to promote my services. Establishing a strong presence online through my blog, through my email newsletter and through social utilities has really helped but I know I could – and perhaps should – be doing so much more.

Always ready ‘to deal’
In the end, my mom always says we are never given a load that’s too great for us to bear. So I grin and press on knowing that my grass, although not as plush as I’d like, is still pretty green [image All's Well Katarina2353 by Creative Commons]. Perhaps one day soon I’ll have the opportunity to do more marketing for myself. For now, however, my marketing needs and wants are going back on the shelf.

My client and their brands are waiting …

More from:

• Solutions Are Power and Steve Fisher’s marketing plan series;
• Branding and Marketing blog and (4) inexpensive ways to marketing your own shop;
• Marketing Profs and 10 daily un-marketing tips for Twitter users and their business.

Guest post from Mayra Ruiz-McPherson, regular guest contributor to Women Grow Business. Mayra works as an independent marketing strategist and social media enthusiast. With over 14 years of marketing and communications experience, Mayra helps businesses and non-profits with all aspects of their brand identity, outreach communications, and competitive positioning. She produces the blog Marketing Misfit and can be reached at www.twitter.com/marketingMisfit.

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Guest post from Mayra Ruiz-McPherson, regular guest contributor to Women Grow Business. Mayra works as an independent marketing strategist and social media enthusiast. With over 14 years of marketing and communications experience, Mayra helps businesses and non-profits with all aspects of their brand identity, outreach communications, and competitive positioning. She produces the blog Marketing Misfit and can be reached at www.twitter.com/marketingMisfit.

The old ways of ‘PR speak’ are gone
As Sawhorse Media CEO Greg Galant wrote recently:

Top executives for decades have delegated the essential task of communicating to PR professionals. I don’t know if it’s the fault of the PR people, the lawyers, or the management, but the voice of many corporations has lost its humanity. Few people respond well to the carefully-crafted and jargon-packed messages they receive from corporations, especially during a time like this when once seemingly stable brands can collapse overnight.

And how true this is.

The new and improved PR voice of today is far more human than its distant cousin — a.k.a. PR b.s. Telling a story in corporate jargon will get companies nowhere these days. But if your tone is earthier, friendlier, and more “common” than formal, your outreach efforts will be more well received than not. Why? Simply, people want simplicity. They want the truth. And they don’t want to sort through all the fluff and stuff PR people tend to dish out.

Some examples:
Galant has a great PR B.S. example in his recent PRWeek article How Twitter saved public relations from PR. What follows below is a blurb he lifted directly from the General Electric (GE) web site:

GE has a strong set of global businesses in infrastructure, finance and media aligned to meet today’s needs, including the demand for global infrastructure; growing and changing demographics that need access to healthcare, finance, and information and entertainment; and environmental technologies.

Now seriously, folks, who really talks like this?
Galant poses the same question. It’s PR B.S. alphabet soup. The words are so fluffy, all one can do is wonder about the beef (hint: there is none). Clearly, the substance GE meant to convey here is lost. Period. Sadly, GE is far from alone in its use of this type of PR lingo. Countless of other companies do the PR babble dance like it’s nobody’s business. The end result? Nobody can understand what said business is trying to communicate.

In stark contrast to GE’s PR jargon, we have 12seconds.tv — a web site which allows users to provide video updates of themselves within 12 seconds of video clip per update. 12seconds’ site content provides us with quite the effective contrast to GE’s PR jargon approach. Here’s a small snippet of copy from their About Us page:

Who is 12seconds?
12seconds was conceived and developed by a small team of nerds mostly from Santa Cruz, CA. 12seconds is a side project and is funded by burritos.
Email us anytime. We love you. info@12seconds.tv For press or media inquiries please contact our buddy: david@stagetwoconsulting.com.
Get some 12seconds gear! All proceeds go to burritos and bandwidth. Thanks!

OK, I know what you are thinking.
Who talks like this, right?!? Well, what if I told you more people would respond to this kind of PR ‘voice’ than the GE babble? I don’t think most people would be surprised. No matter if you find this kind of informality to be appropriate or not, it seems to resonate more than not [with consumers].
Some senior management folks understandably may not feel too comfortable with such a way of communicating but the reality is stark and clear:

PR babble is disconnected and ineffective.

Referring to Galant again:

The human touch is needed again in business to build trust with customers and shareholders.

I couldn’t agree more.

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Guest post from Mayra Ruiz-McPherson, regular guest contributor to Women Grow Business. Mayra works as an independent marketing strategist, social media enthusiast, and blogger. With over 14 years of marketing, PR, and communications experience, Mayra helps businesses and non-profits with all aspects of their brand identity, outreach communications, and competitive positioning.

On the fence about growing my business ( … or not)
I had a very insightful conversation with a beloved former colleague today and our talk has left me with much on my mind. I had shared with my peer that business lately has significantly picked up and I was at a point where I could and possibly should, at some point real soon, stop taking on new clients.

I also explained that not taking on new clients is something I didn’t want to do; I didn’t want to turn business away but at the same time, I can’t clone myself, right?!? And there are only so many hours in the day. I added if I did continue to take on more projects, I would have to get help. And that’s where I feel I’m on the fence about. To grow or not to grow, that is the question.

Not just work, it’s family too

As I was chewing on this situation and its many challenges and possibilities I knew I couldn’t be alone in feeling the pressures of being a woman in business for herself, attempting to balance work and family day in and day out.

In fact, as you read this (assuming more than likely that you are a woman in business with family obligations as well) then you’ll know I’m absolutely preaching to the choir here, right?

It’s a constant tug of war to balance all the demands placed upon you as a woman in business. But when you throw in the entrepreneurial nature of being a woman in business – when the work schedule is far from 8-5 and you are on a conference call in between dinner prep and piles of endless laundry – trust me, life can get pretty hairy rather quickly.

So what to do?
Ah my friends, if I had that answer, perhaps I would not be writing this blog post here. I wish I knew.

I never envisioned growing to have a more “structured” marketing and PR agency but maybe that is where this is all headed??

Perhaps I was naïve to think I could stay a one-(wo)man army forever. My trusted friend tells me all my fear means I must be afraid of making money. Damn! That was deep. But really, it’s not about that. Still, he pushed back in our conversation and said:

You need to start finding talented, trusted folks that you can farm work out to, manage the quality of the work, and continue to grow.

See — that is just so much easier said than done.

I had tried that almost 10 years ago in my first marketing/PR agency attempt. What I discovered was that, you know, when you sub things out, you lose some quality, some control. Plus there’s always the headached possibility that the sub-contractor will, for whatever reason(s), not meet deadlines or be as committed to the account.

Back to square one
Well, square one may be too far back in this story. How about square one and a half? Because the deal is this: … do I want to turn down new business? No, I do not. But am I fearful of not being able to find reliable help? Yes, I am. So where does this put me?

The answer:
It puts me in a place where I know I have to get some help but I think I will approach this very carefully and perhaps, start outsourcing a lot of the smaller stuff that can often be overwhelming despite its apparent simplicity.

For example, I absolutely have to get my contact database organized into BatchBook. I have contacts in Outlook, Yahoo!, Gmail, GoDaddy web mail and a stack of business cards. And I just don’t have time to get this vital information all integrated into one single space. Other stuff I’ll have to farm out is data entry and research because these “little things” can guzzle up humongo chunks of time.

I’m facing it: Superwoman I am not
So what I’ve learned in the past 24 hours is that despite my thinking that oh, yeah … I can do it all … is that perhaps, I simply can’t.

Does that amount to failure?
Well of course I’m gonna tell you here that no, it does not. Secretly, though, I know I’ll have to work on some of that “failure” feeling to let that go. I realize I can’t be all things to all people. And God only gave us 24 hours per day of which allegedly (8) are supposed to be used for sleeping. Therefore, I have to face the facts and take off my red [Superwomen] cape.

I think this is all part of growing pains and adjustments are needed to help support myself in this time of increasing demand and needed transition.

More Mayra adventures soon.
…until then, be well and keep succeeding in your business!

(image, Direction Sign, by Chris Devers)

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Mayra Ruiz-McPherson

Guest post from Mayra Ruiz-McPherson, regular guest contributor to Women Grow Business. Mayra works as an independent marketing strategist, social media enthusiast, and blogger. With over 14 years of marketing, PR, and communications experience, Mayra helps businesses and non-profits with all aspects of their brand identity, outreach communications, and competitive positioning.

She produces the marketing thought leadership blog Marketing Misfit and can be reached there or at www.twitter.com/marketingMisfit.

Another day at the Emmys
I was speaking at the NATAS Ohio Emmys this past weekend presenting a topic on digital marketing to a bunch of broadcasting and media professionals. During my second session, lo’ and behold, a vivacious young lady sitting near the front row seemed really engrossed with the topic and the presentation.

Brand-a-holic dogmas unite
After a full day of professional development seminars, award ceremonies and networking luncheon, I happened to bump into the very same young woman again while walking out of the reception hall. Who knew that this second run-in would have boomed into an incredibly fortuitous exchange of like-mindedness ideas, brand-a-holic dogma and kindred marketing and communications spirits?

Nichole Imperi

Helping entrepreneurs help themselves
Turns out this fab femme is Nichole Imperi, owner of Cincinnati-based brand agency Doth Brands. She specializes in helping small businesses in branding and design.

The Cincinnati native, once hesitant about making her own entrepreneurial move, says the demand for her services have steadily grown, alleviating her initial concerns.

I was afraid that if I did brand and design work full-time [for myself], I wouldn’t love it. But I’ve got so much work (now) I’m not even considering doing it part-time.

Imperi lives in a city with the highest concentration of branding and identity firms than anywhere else in the country.

Imperi says:
I attribute this phenomenon (in Cincinnati) to P&G (Proctor & Gamble) and the many P&Gers who quit and started their own businesses.

Might this high concentration present a problem for Doth Brands? Well …yes, but not how you think. Imperi explains. The problem with branding is that there’s no real way to be ‘accredited’ or ‘qualified.’ It’s also hard to differentiate yourself. This is especially a problem in Cincinnati.

Many of our clients and potential clients have been duped into working with completely unqualified people with [only] a laptop and software.

It’s all about the 80/20 baby!
So what makes Imperi’s Doth Brands unique?

She elaborates:
We base our designs off of color and spatial theory, as well as research and, of course, the competition. I like to follow the 80-20 rule i.e. 80% fact, 20% feeling. I believe you have to have some ‘feeling’ in design, but I also believe that factual information is what will allow your designs to stand the test of time.

On fees: the flatter, the better
About charging brand and design fees, Imperi likes to say…:
We charge a flat fee (rarely do hourly) for our branding packages and 90% of the time our complete packages are less than $10,000.

Keeping costs competitive
Our costs are so competitive because we’re based out of my home (creative people like to freelance and work out of their homes) and we do much of our work over the internet, which saves on shipping and printing costs.

Beyond the brands, there are “golden shoes”
Golden Shoes is an organization dedicated to supporting women who have Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and their support networks. I was diagnosed with PCOS just a few months after I got married and it absolutely changed my life.

The website for Golden Shoes launched last week.

In the works: films & jewels
In addition to branding projects and “golden shoes,” Imperi is assisting her husband by promoting his first film produced by his production company, Pile of Sand Productions.

As if that weren’t enough to keep one quite the busy bee, Imperi brands and helps design a jewelry line — all while selling children’s illustrations online as well.

The word ‘busy’ can hardly describe Imperi’s rich and over-full plate(s), but that suits her just fine.

I love it. If you’re happy, everything works.

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