The Wax Blog

For a long time I swore my small business clients all had ADHD. They were impulsive, lost confidence quickly in marketing tactics, and were always looking for the next big thing. Luckily, I worked for several individuals with this kind of personality and I’ve always been able to take advantage of the “let’s boldly go where no man has gone before attitude” while keeping a plan on track. But it’s a struggle to get them to be patient to allow tactics to actually work.

Lately, research seems to be backing up my empirical observations regarding ADHD and entrepreneurs, particularly young entrepreneurs whom I believe can’t stomach the slow pace of corporate life. Intuitive.com reprinted a list of the best advantages entrepreneurs have with ADHD including hyper-focus, high energy, the ability to multi-task, and risk taking. An August, 2011 article in SmartMoney went so far as to call ADHD the entrepreneurs “superpower, ” reminding us that the founders of Kinko’s and JetBlue both have this learning “disability.”

I know I have several of the characteristics associated with ADHD and they were a total gift when I was a salesperson. (I also think it adds to sensitivity and intuition but that’s not backed up by anything other than my own opinion.) But when it comes to marketing strategy and tactics, those characteristics can be a total disaster.  Here’s why some characteristics, whether they’re labeled “ADHD” or not,  are both a strength and a weakness for entrepreneurs. (more…)

Don’t feel dumb if you ask this question. We took a few weeks in my masters program at WVU to dive into this very question. In marketing, almost everything is squishy and this is probably the squishiest part.

I bopped around my favorite sites and didn’t find anyone with a really concrete definition of “strategy” vs “tactic” (even the dictionary is pretty ambiguous) so let’s work with this one:  (more…)

This weekend I was having breakfast with a stockbroker friend of mine who told me he thought my job must be really stressful, and asked how I dealt with it. A broker in this economy and market thinks MY job is stressful? I brushed it off, telling him I used to be in IT and this was nothing compared to working with a bunch of left-brained gearheads. In fact, I only have one token friend in technology now, and that’s Gerard McClean. It’s all I can handle.

But he pressed me about it and so I told him. I meditate. I meditate all the time. No, I don’t get in a lotus position and chant “Om”. First of all, I have arthritis and these knees won’t bend anywhere close to that. And I’m not very good at it and I get distracted when I’m doing it. But I try to do it once a day at least. And the difference in my stress level is pretty incredible.

Years ago, I was in a horrible marriage and terribly depressed. The antidepressants they gave me literally made me crazy and I jumped out the window. Since it was the first floor, I was okay, but still had to find a way around the depression after I dusted the leaves off my butt. (I have a neighbor who thinks I’m absolutely nuts. I don’t blame him.)  I went on retreat and met a former Catholic nun turned Buddhist taught me how to meditate. And I’ve been doing it ever sense. Here’s how.  (more…)

This is a Filofax.

I’ve had a couple of experiences recently that have made really question whether information is really a competitive edge anymore. I’m not talking about proprietary recipes, or things that can be copyrighted. I’m talking about the kind of information that USED to be a gold mine and is now available to everyone if they look hard enough.  Information is no longer for selling…it’s for sharing. Collectively we can get better and make more money.

For example, when I was in sales 100 years ago we kept our client lists very secret. Those relationships and those names were to be guarded with our lives. A colleague of mine once left his Filofax at a bar after a networking event at a bar. Our manager almost fired him, sure that our competition had snapped it up and were busy calling his contacts. Even names of producers used to be sacrosanct…only to be known by those publicists in the “in” crowd.

I don’t think we can use information as a competitive edge anymore. Anybody can buy a subscription to Cision and find out who to pitch. HARO goes out multiple times daily with key information that used to be shared among only a select number of people. Company LinkedIn pages often list key managers. It’s all OUT there already. Why should we pay for it?  (more…)

Andy Boyd is works in the credit card industry. But you can still trust him. 

Do you own a small business? If so, there is a good chance you are facing an uphill battle when it comes to your marketing campaign. But as we all know, getting your message in front of the right people is essential to your long term success. The way that you do this depends on many factors including your industry, knowledge, and overall goals.

Why not take marketing cues from companies that are currently running successful campaigns? For example, credit card companies are well known for marketing their products with a high level of success. By taking the principles of what they are doing and combining with your current strategy, you can formulate a plan that will yield the results you have been searching for. Here are three ways that credit card companies market themselves. As a small business, you can learn from these strategies.

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