Kibbe on Marketing: Keep On Keepin’ On

A few weeks ago I wrote about the power positive thinking could have on your business and your life. I know it sure has impacted mine for the better. Several opportunities have opened up allowing me to get paid for doing what I love – writing!

But there is a very seductive specter out there just waiting to put the brakes on my progress. It’s called complacency. It’s very easy to forget to keep your affirmations and positive outlook going when a few good things happen. We’ve all been there – we’ve worked very hard getting to a certain point, now we want to coast a bit.

Don’t do it!

In fact, now’s the time when you should be extra vigilant for opportunities because good things are often exponential.

Sure, I’m exhausted from the work of manifesting and even a little frightened by how “easily” the career blessings that came into my life, but who isn’t? If you think about it, positive thinking to grow your career is nothing more than believing in the marketing of your own business, whether that’s a company or yourself.

Good opportunities are everywhere. I even sent some of my new business cards to my mother who lives halfway across the country from me. You never know who she’ll meet in her grocery store.




Cindy Kibbe is owner of Cindy Kibbe Creative Communications, a writing services firm based in New England. She was an editor for a regional business publication for nearly a decade. She can be reached at cindy@kibbecreative.com.

Kibbe on Marketing: Hiring by Pin the Tail on the Donkey

There is an egregious amount of information out there about what prospective job candidates can do to make themselves more attractive to potential employers. From writing strong resumes to networking as if one’s life depended on it to the proper handshake, the list goes on. There is, however, precious little on what due diligence a company should do to present itself as great place to work.

We all know that it’s a buyer’s market out there, but too often it seems as though companies don’t take the time to figure out what they’re really looking for. Job applicants take skills and compatibility tests to learn what kind of work they’re best suited for, but do companies perform the same amount of introspection when crafting a job position?

Company staffs have never been more overworked. From the administrative assistant to the CEO and everyone in between, all are wearing many, many hats. Too many, really. Combine that with the incredible amount of talent available, there is a quiet perception that companies don’t have the time and don’t really care about creating solid and detailed job descriptions. It seems sometimes like they’re just continuously plugging square pegs into round holes in the hopes one might actually fit. Just get the job filled so we don’t have to think about this anymore. Then because of the murky job description, the new hire has to fumble his or her way around, no one to show direction. In frustration, the new hire leaves, and the cycle repeats. I previously talked about marketing by pin the tail on the donkey. Well, this is hiring by pin the tail on the donkey.

Certainly, the hiring process is as much as, if not more, an art as a science. By its very nature, hiring is difficult for all involved. Turnover is a huge cost in and of itself. But desperate, or worse, lazy hiring practices because overworked staff don’t have the time or information to create detailed and specific job descriptions and are ready to provide some minor oversight and training to the new hire only serves to hurt the company in the long run.

Just as damaging is the complete lack of management development, whereby supervisors learn how to actually hire a new employee. How many of you mid-level directors out there received any training by your company on how to be a director? You work your butt off, get a promotion, then what? Congratulations! Here’s the key to executive bathroom, now go hire a team.

Huh?

If managers aren’t given the skills to create good job descriptions and find the talent that really will be a long-term asset to the company, how does the company expect to flourish?

They next time you or your company is considering hiring an employee, invest in your firm by training your managers, figuring out exactly what and who you want to add, taking the time to create concrete job descriptions, and setting aside side time to also train the new employee. Your candidates – and your bottom line – will thank you.


Cindy Kibbe is owner of Cindy Kibbe Creative Communications, a writing services firm based in New England. She was an editor for a regional business publication for nearly a decade. She can be reached at cindy@kibbecreative.com.

Kibbe on Marketing: The Stuart Smalley Effect

When was the last time you thought positively about your business and your talents as a business owner – and spoke it aloud to yourself? When was the last time you dared to think that you are actually in the midst of turning your dream into a reality? Have you noticed that the times you have done this, great things actually happened?

Some of you out there may remember Stuart Smalley, the hilariously sensitive man portrayed by “Saturday Night Live” alum Al Franken. This gentle soul sought each week to buck himself up with affirmations that coming from anyone else would have sounded grotesquely pretentious. His iconic “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me” has been spoofed innumerable times over the years. But there’s a reason why he –and more famously, Norman Vincent Peale and his “The Power of Positive Thinking” – are so, well, famous. Positive thinking works.

A colleague of mine told me about a wonderful book by Chellie Campbell entitled, “The Wealthy Spirit.” Similar to other positive affirmation books, this too is based on the power of positive thinking, but is more specific to careers, income and broader definitions of wealth beyond the financial. It contains 365 steps, affirmations and points to ponder – one for each day of the year – that may help you on your path achieving your goals.

Finding myself an entrepreneur of late has been as terrifying as it has been exhilarating. While I love the excitement of tackling new projects with a large amount of creative control, the prospect of insufficient and sporadic income during what are supposed to be my peak earning years is deeply troubling. After the first page, “The Wealthy Spirit” restored my hope that I’m not doomed to be eating cat food out of a Maytag box when I’m 70.

I realized my passion for writing has, is and will provide for me. I struggled with the fact that I didn’t want people, including myself, to think of me as some as beret-wearing "La Boehme"-type whiner who refused to get her hands dirty doing an honest day’s work. (For the record, I do have a beret – and I look darn cute in it, too – but these hands saved lives in the hospital as much as they’ve strung together an entertaining subject and predicate and paid the mortgage.)

 I crafted a concrete statement about what I wanted for my career and my life, adding a faith component because that’s important to me and my beliefs. I began saying it daily. You know what – it is working! Not one, but two opportunities presented themselves in a matter of days.

There is a big difference between wishful thinking and rehearsing a desire for yourself. Affirmations are not pearls spewed from some cosmic wishing well. If you’re 60, you know you can’t affirm your way to actually being 20 again – but you can regain the joy, discovery and exuberance of life you had when you were.

I also learned that affirmations are present tense. “Will” means “someday,” implying you currently don’t have and maybe never will have what you’re trying to accomplish. If you think that sounds a bit like lying to yourself –pretending you’ve already accomplished your dream when you haven’t yet – I thought the same thing until I realized the point is to start thinking of yourself in positive terms. Saying the affirmation simply makes you more confident and more aware of the opportunities around you that will help you reach your goal.

Don’t worry if others don’t agree with you personal definition of success. Your goal, your dream, your affirmation is genuinely and uniquely yours.  If you haven’t already created one, you should start. Today.

Why?

Because you’re good enough, you’re smart enough, and doggone it, people like you.



Cindy Kibbe is owner of Cindy Kibbe Creative Communications, a writing services firm based in New England. She was an editor for a regional business publication for nearly a decade. She can be reached at cindy@kibbecreative.com.

Kibbe on Marketing: Of the CWBA and the NFL

I had the pleasure of attending the grand opening reception of the Center for Women’s Business Advancement at Southern New Hampshire University on Feb. 3.

The transformation of the Women’s Business Center into the Center for Women’s Business Advancement is an exciting step forward in building entrepreneurship in New Hampshire.

When the old WBC closed in 2010, a huge void was left in the Granite State. Few other organizations did more to work with the smallest of small businesses and help women – and a few men – launch healthy and successful businesses.

The new CWBA, like its predecessor, is funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration, but this new iteration has found a new home – and new support – from SNHU. I believe the affiliation has resulted in a firm foundation from which the CWBA will flourish.

MaryAnn Manoogian, CWBA’s executive director, deserves much credit for taking on such a role at a time when many worthwhile programs can no longer be sustained due to economic belt-tightening.

I am really looking forward to see the exciting things MaryAnn, CWBA, its clients, and all its stakeholders create in the years to come. As MaryAnn herself said at the event, “We plan to be here for a long, long time.”

And I know a certain new entrepreneur that needs some serious hand-holding in preparing her business plan…

For more information on the CWBA, call 603-629-4697 or visit cwbanh.com.

*****

I couldn’t let the opportunity go by without saying a few words about the Super Bowl commercials. The game – not so much.

I have to tell you, I really wasn’t all that impressed with the commercials this year. Speaking as a consumer, none really engaged me. In fact, most I had to research which commercial went with which product. One or two were just plain weird. (What was the Elton John thing with the voice dubbing all about anyway?)

I’m not a drum-banging feminist, but Go Daddy’s ads, particularly the ones they run during Super Bowls, thoroughly repulse me and have me so turned off from the company, I will never do business with them and I encourage others to shun them, too.

The “Ferris Bueller” parody with Matthew Broderick for Honda was hugely hyped, but I thought it fell flat. I liked the gravitas of the Clint Eastwood spot. Its juxtaposition with all the comedic ads played well, but again, I had to look up after the fact that it was for Chrysler Group.  Now you can’t even do that, as the NFL has made the carmaker take the spot off the Internet.

Jerry Seinfeld’s commercial for Acura and Volkswagen’s Star Wars cantina were by far the most entertaining.

The Pepsi/Doritos Grandma and Baby spot was cute and was perhaps the most effective for me as far as remembering that it was selling Doritos. The rest were largely forgettable, and none inspired me to learn more about a product let alone go and actually buy it.

Like the New England Patriots, better luck next year, Super Bowl Advertisers.

Cindy Kibbe is owner of Cindy Kibbe Creative Communications, a writing services firm based in New England. She was an editor for a regional business publication for nearly a decade. She can be reached at cindy@kibbecreative.com.