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Monthly Archives: February 2025

How Do You Put Jigsaw Puzzles Together?

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Have you ever made a jigsaw puzzle? I did many while growing up. There was often one “in process” on a card table set up in the den, waiting for anyone with 10 minutes or more to try their hand at putting all the pieces together!

My first puzzles were taken on by choosing a piece, any piece, and then looking for a fit to it from another piece. It wasn’t long before the realization hit that this approach could take forever!! And it might find the puzzle just going back into the box, never to be completed!

Think about this as it relates to taking on your business goals … be it a marketing goal, product development goal, a scheduling goal, etc. Where do you begin? Do you jump into the heart of the goal or into any specific part of accomplishing the goal and build from there? Maybe you look up a “how to” that addresses a piece of what you need to do, but not all of it?

Going back to jigsaw puzzles, my success came when I applied a natural innate common sense process used by many:

Look at the goal – the picture of the completed puzzle.

Identify the pieces that must be connected for achieving this goal and all their demographics – shapes, colors, edges. etc

Identify the location of these pieces. (place the different types of pieces into like piles).

Create a mapping of the pieces and flow of connectivity. For example, work on the straight edges first , places the colors in respective areas inside the boundaries, as related to the puzzle picture/goal, and find matches by the types of edges.

What will keep the energy going, i.e. which areas within the puzzles might be easier to complete first and keep the interest alive.

What will be the best way to deliver the finish product to all who participate? Photo & back in the box? Laminate and place on the wall? A stack of finished puzzled on the book case?

The plan is in place, GO!
It’s a pretty simple and natural process and a fun one! It keeps the eye on the goal And it’s a process behind pretty much if not all the How To’s we use in business. It just gets hidden with added complexities!!!

It’s a process I bring awareness to for our use in achieving business goals. I have labeled it T.H.E., a 7 step process, directive, for making the achievement of business goals simpler AND more efficient & successful.

Stop putting goals you might have, back in the box before they are achieved. Reach out to know more … I welcome complimentary conversations,

Let’s successfully complete all the puzzles on your desk!

Here’s to your communications success!

#communicationsstrong

margie

Communications! Communications! Communications!

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Your content here...

COMMUNICATIONS! COMMUNICATIONS! COMMUNICATIONS! ... It's the new "Location! Location! Location!" cry for success!.

Have you noticed that everywhere you look quality communications is the prescription for making everything better and positioned for success! It is the newly recognized "glue."

By "communications" I mean, engaging and going deeper into conversations than just surface chit chat ... exploring the why's, how's and what's that are behind and/or beneath what is being shared and discussed in engaging communications. You might call it "tending" to the topic at hand ... giving whatever is being discussed, attention and care ..."tending" to the elements within our conversations with others - both written and verbal!

Communicating is the "newly" prescribed cure for:

- Seller to buyer success

- Leadership success

- Team and peer-to-peer success

- Management success especially with hybrid office situations

- Family success

- Relationship success

- Self-confidence success, our conversations with ourselves!

WHERE & HOW to begin?

  1. Be aware! Look for the needs & opportunities: Where are your weak links with people? Where are your weak links with yourself? What needs to be strengthened? What needs to be "tended" to?
  2. Begin engaging with what you have in common with the other person: What do you share? What is a common denominator between your lives? The ideas can be many especially depending upon what you are trying to improve. Maybe its: - how you both ended up working at the same company? - a currently shared success? - how the drive in the pouring rain was that AM? - liking of what one is wearing & story behind it? - what made you fall in love? ...again.. something you have in common where there "is" strength"
  3. Lead the conversation from the strength to the weakness and then ask questions to get agreement on the weakness. DO NOT ACCUSE anyone of weakness. The mindset is that "A SITUATION" is not working.
  4. Explore and encourage a sharing of thoughts, feelings, ideas for improving,"the situation" i.e. develop a feeling of camaraderie and fellowship ... remembering that both and/or all participants are respected and valuable.
  5. Tend to the deeper elements of the weakness. Really nurture shared ideas and thoughts within your communications so that all discussed will be remembered and given attention after the immediate communications are over. Go deep. Go beyond surface chit chat which will accomplish nothing.
  6. Enjoy a strengthened "situation" and/or an elimination of a problem! But keep your eye on it as it solidifies... .managing its twists and turns as all progresses into the next "situation" that needs tending to!

Can these 6 steps be applied to written communications, marketing communications, all business communications? Absolutely, YES, the same process.is used as you develop your communications strategies. Apply it to simple conversations, marketing campaigns, selling .... where ever you need strengthening and/or a sale!!

Let me know how I might be of assistance. Giving guidance and direction on this is what I do.

Here's to your communications success!

#communicationsstrong

margie

Be Curious! It Changes Everything!

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Hi There ... This week my message is "Be Curious!" There is no better message for making all your marketing activity be joyful than “be curious!” It is a magic ticket to opening new doors, new contacts, new opportunities and new business!!!
Toddlers are wonderful at being curious. Is there anything purer? When we are young, we are in such awe of the simplest things… taking in each new experience, item, taste, sound 200% …with such a wholeness as we connect to each new experience. Then something happens ... I don’t know when, but at some point we decide we know the answers … no more exploring… no more curiosity. And it gets worse when we decide we know the answers & outcomes to FUTURE events and happenings. And then we wonder why we might feel old???? How dare we!

Pull out your curiosity as you travel through 2025. Wipe your mind clean of all pre-conceived notions and take on each day with “curiosity!” Take a walk and look around as if you were a toddler….. see what you discover of interest. Why is that tree different? How was that door designed? What is the most popular car in your neighborhood? Just start asking questions of all you see! Bet you discover some items you’ve never noticed before.

Another way to exercise curiosity is to realize that “everything” is a miracle. Take that thought and look around. The pencil on your desk at one point in time was a miracle! Who thought of this idea? The streetlights were at one time a miracle! Who designed the first streetlight and what is the story behind it? So many things around us that we just take for granted and yet, I bet, have fascinating stories to discover and know.

Be curious with each other!! Show interest. Ask questions. Inquire about one’s day or week! Is there anyone who doesn’t feel a bit better when someone they know shows an interest in what they’ve got going on? Cares about how they are doing? It just takes some curiosity and a question or two to make someone’s day and therefore, your day will be made as well!

And how many times have I heard business professionals say they don’t know what to say at networking events and/or online with messaging, etc. Just be curious! Go up to someone and simply ask how did you happen to come to this event? Be curious!! Online & offline, be curious about your prospects. Ask questions! Be interested! Explore! It's not about you ... it's all about them. Be curious!!

Curiosity can also help you out when there is an uncomfortable emotional situation that needs to be managed but you don’t know how? Ask caring questions such as can I help you sort this out? Or can we talk about what brought you to this point? Be curious but again, also caring .... with sensitivity to your timing.

And last, but hardly least, in business, there is no need to sell your prospects. Simply be curious and ask them questions! Find the needs they have that match your solutions and discover how you and your prospect are a win/win!!! Also be interested in the industry you share with them … the industry that seeds the needs for which you have solutions. Inquire about how they arrived in this industry, what their role involves. Share your own interest and participation in this industry and how it might relate to them. Be curious!!! Uncover all the nuances that will lead your clients to you because ... as you show interest, they in turn will be interested in you!

Curiosity will open doors - create new relationships - develop new business -
build trust, credibility, and loyalty!

Again, take on 2025 with curiosity!!!


margie

How Do I Open Conversations?

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Have you noticed how the first step of "anything" always seems to be most difficult? Heading down a black diamond ski run, starting your list of Saturday "to do's, taking the first bite of never tasted before food, letting your sixteen year old take the car, and so on!

Applying this thought to communications, taking the first step in "opening" conversations is a pretty consistent challenge for many. What to say when I call? What to say when going up to a stranger? What to day to my employee? and the list goes on. The fact is there is plenty to say quite naturally once the conversation gets started!! It's the getting started that stumps us!

So let's take this challenge on! First let's talk a bit about how business communications and all communications is about matching -- the better the match, the better the communication! And applying what I call "The Matching Game" is the answer to the questions:

  • What do I say FIRST?
  • How do I BEGIN the conversation?

The game is played by identifying the immediate matches (what we have immediately in common) between us and who we wish to engage. Here are some examples:

NEW MARKETING CONVERSATIONS: The "match" is what is immediately being shared. For example:

  1. Networking Meetings - the meeting is the immediate "match" so begin one's conversations by sharing what brought each of you to the meeting ... asking how they heard of it? what brought them to the meeting? sharing how you heard about it, etc.
  2. Connection Requests On Social Media - why you want to connect is the immediate "match." What about them is a match for why you are requesting they connect. Talk about them and how they relate to you!
  3. Opening Follow-Up Conversations with LinkedIn Connections & Facebook Friends - the use of the resource can be the immediate "match" if there is nothing else fo follow up on from when first connecting. . For example, afr an initial "just a quick hello, staying in touch --- simply share that you are checking in with your fellow (name of network) friends to see how they are currently using the resource! What is working, what isn't?

MANAGER/EMPLOYEE CONVERSATIONS: The "match" is the position being held by the employee and for which the manager has the responsibility. The conversation can open with how the employee feels about their role and a sharing of the value of what they are doing in terms of the company and the manager's interests. It can expand from there .... lead to any specific topics that need discussion.

PEER TO PEER AT WORK CONVERSATIONS: The "match" is the company that you both work at. Open up with what brought each of you to the company. What are the stories that brought each of you to this now "shared" story! It will expand from there in whatever direction you want to take it.

TEAM CONVERSATIONS: The "match" is the company, organization, school, city, etc that their team represents. Each member sharing how they got there.Again what are the stories behind the individual members that got them all in this shared experience.

So let the "matching game" begin! This works for all your communications. Take the time to stop and pay attention to what the most immediate "match" is between you and who you want to engage with. Once you open with the match steer the conversation in the direction you want to go. Give it a try!!

Here's to your communications success in 2025!

#strongcommunications

margie