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Leadership and Management Skills

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Make your team proud

Make your team happy

 

Rewire your brain to focus on positive

 

Spend time above the line not below the line (

 

You can start the day with your intention. What are you going to get from it?

 

High growth model book – email to instructor

 

Prove – initial stage of business when you achieve constant ROI

Grow – leadership, team, implementing strategy, coming up with great strategy

 

High growth cycle – the team brought you to that place might not be the team that might take you to the next level

 

Valley of death

When you need to reinvent yourself to move to next stage

1m – 10m – 20m revenues – many companies fail to scale

 

4 people – 24 types of interpersonal relationships

Managing interpersonal relationships

 

Leadership management

Pareto – 20% of activities make up to 80% of results

 

1- personal leadership

2- communication

3- leadership and management skills

4- build and grow high performing teams

 

Tip of the iceberg – being doing

Below the surface – habits goals beliefs values passions

Environment around us

 

Passions – your purpose, an intense desire or enthusiasm

 

Values – represent your highest priorities and your deepest driving forces

What’s important to you?

 

Define your value rules

Put down how you express your values

Eg value: health, rules: anytime Ie exercise,

 

Beliefs: the lens that you see the world

Write down 5 beliefs about your company

 

Beliefs about your team

And your leadership skills

Are they empowering or holding you back

 

The power of written goals –

A class research only 3% had goals written down and they got 98% of wealth after 25 years

 

Beware the niagara falls syndrome

 

(Dissatisfaction x vision) + FirstSteps > Resistance

Why you got to change

 

Write down 3 goals you want to achieve this year

 

Communication is one of the best

Importance of empathy

3 tools of communication – body language 55%, voice 38%, words 7%

 

Modalities of communication

40% visual

20% Auditory

40% kinesthetic

 

Neuro linguistic programming NLP

Match and mirror

 

Do not stop meeting altogether

They get rid of miscommunication

Make them more effective

 

Every meeting ever https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7agjXFFQJU

 

Quarterly one day meeting strategy

Monthly 4 hours – priorities

Weekly 1 hour – big issues

Daily 5-15 mins – tactics

 

Best time for meetings 11am – 2pm

People are most productive in the morning

 

Types of meeting

Consensus decisions

Creative decision

Information sharing

 

3 roles

Moderator

Time keeper

Parking lot – take note of items to discuss in the future

 

Whoever attends meetings must have a voice

 

PERSUASION

 

Push method. I have an idea , proposing ideas, suggestions, recommendations, questions that suggest a proposal

Reasoning facts and logic in support or opposition argument against

 

Pull , asserting . stating expectations, needs, demands, standards, requirements

Evaluating, positive or negative judgement, reinforcement, criticism, personal and intuitive

Using Incentives and pressures: specifying the ways and means you control that meet others needs

 

Attracting

Finding common ground, highlighting common values, beliefs, ideas or agreement

Sharing visions

 

Bridging

Involving soliciting views ideas information from other encouraging participation

Listening summarizing reflecting feelings,

Disclosing admitting mistakes revealing uncertainty asking for help, making oneself vulnerable

 

LEADERSHIP VS MANAGEMENT

 

Vision and strategy

Creating value

Influence

Have followers

 

Behavior dynamics

Mindset – behaviour – results

 

Mindset – meditation, breathe box method (breathe in 4 seconds, wait 4, breathe out 4, wait 4)

Gratitude, journal

Water, eating healthy, sleep, exercise,

 

Physiology, posture, breathing, tone of voice

Language: words used to describe experience

 

  1. DIMINISHER VS MULTIPLIER

 

High growth leaders have the right questions not the right answers

 

  1. COACHING

 

10% build rapport

70% listen and ask questions

10% feedback and advice

10% decisions

 

Coaching – instead of instructing, ask questions. Let them think about solutions and answers.

 

  1. DELEGATION

 

How you can create more time in your life, stop doing something.

 

Management by Objectives

 

EMPOWER TEAM TO MAKE DECISIONS

 

Authority level Decision areas and specific
Discuss with manager, make joint decision
Bring signature stage, recommendation, manager sign off
Act and report through agreed process

 

Most valuable thing you have: TIME

 

Time management = Life management

 

10 WAYS OF DOUBLING YOUR PRODUCTIVITY

 

1- Make a list, get ideas out of your head,

2- Consequence: What are the consequences of not doing those?

3- Zero based thinking: If you started the day over, what would you do differently?

4- 20:80 pareto principle, how do you spend your 20% time to get 80% results

5- Time grid:

 

Not urgent but important – that is where growth happens

 

6- Focus. Follow one course until successful.

7- Stop procrastination,

 

Set clear goals

Break goals down to bite sized

Pick 1 task and start immediately

Do the most important thing first thing in the morning

 

8- Default diary

9- Plan

10- Leverage

 

BUILD A HIGH PERFORMING TEAM

 

Focus on culture

Winning cultures are difficult for competitors to copy

Employees seek more from their jobs than pay

 

Report card on leadership is culture.

How people talk to each other

 

Put big rocks into the bottle first. What are big rocks?

What are the 3 biggest goals?

 

  1. ALIGNMENT

 

What is your vision?

Does it describe how things will look like?

 

Lack of clarity will result in people coming back to the leader, asking every step.

 

  1. ACCOUNTABILITY

 

Assign clear expectations +owners agreement + personal reward = self ownership and high accountability

 

RACI

Responsible

Accountable

Consult

Inform

 

Find everybody’s roles up front

Well-being Strategy

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Creating a robust and effective well-being strategy designed to boost productivity, performance, and profit.

 

The amygdala (Latin, corpus amygdaloideum) is an almond-shape set of neurons located deep in the brain’s medial temporal lobe. Shown to play a key role in the processsing of emotions, the amygdala forms part of the limbic system.

 

AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM

 

Sympathetic nervous system

 

Fight or flight – stress response

 

Adrenaline, cortisol

 

The sympathetic nervous system directs the body’s rapid involuntary response to dangerous or stressful situations. A flash flood of hormones boosts the body’s alertness and heart rate, sending extra blood to the muscles

 

—

 

Parasympathetic nervous system

 

Rest and digest, feed and breed

 

Oxytocin, serotonin

 

The parasympathetic nervous system is one of three divisions of the autonomic nervous system. Sometimes called the rest and digest system, the parasympathetic system conserves energy as it slows the heart rate, increases intestinal and gland activity, and relaxes sphincter muscles in the gastrointestinal tract.

 

  • These two systems cannot be activated simultaneously.

 

2 FROGS

 

The boiling frog is a fable describing a frog being slowly boiled alive. The premise is that if a frog is put suddenly into boiling water, it will jump out, but if the frog is put in tepid water which is then brought to a boil slowly, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. The story is often used as a metaphor for the inability or unwillingness of people to react to or be aware of sinister threats that arise gradually rather than suddenly.

 

MANAGING PERSONAL STRESS

 

  • Symptoms
  • Cause
  • Prevention

 

STRESS MONITORING

 

What are you feeling when there is a trigger?

 

PRACTICAL APPROACH

 

  • Can you eliminate the source
  • Can you reduce your exposure?
  • Can you change how you deal with it?

 

SEE HEAR FEEL 54321

 

https://makingsenseoftrauma.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/5-4-3-2-1-Relaxation-technique.pdf

 

  • Be aware
  • Manage notifications
  • Manage expectations
  • Remove phone / tech from bedroom

 

CALMING MEDITATION

 

Meditation is a practice where an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state.

 

Mindfulness is the psychological process of purposely bringing one’s attention to experiences occurring in the present moment without judgment, which one can develop through the practice of meditation and through other training.

 

https://www.headspace.com/

 

https://www.calm.com/

 

20 MINUTE RULE

 

There is an easy trick that you can use in order to forge new goal habits to help you accomplish the goals behind the dreams that make up your ideal life: It’s called the 20 Minute Rule. The 20 Minute Rule is a simple three-step process. … Devote 20 minutes a day to that new goal habit.

 

  • Procrastination
  • Reduce exposure to stress
  • Manage large projects
  • Work ahead of time

 

SURVEY

 

JLD resilience and wellbeing survey report 2019

 

https://communities.lawsociety.org.uk/Uploads/x/c/u/resilience-wellbeing-survey-updated-infographic-2019.pdf

 

TANGIBLE AND INTANGIBLE COSTS THAT STRESS BRINGS IN TO YOUR BUSINESS

 

Stress is taking its toll on our society and costing the NHS over 165,000 bed days per year with a cost to the public of £71.1 million. The UK is facing a mental health crisis and it is largely due to our broken economic system.

 

INTANGIBLES

 

  • Absenteeism
  • Poor performance
  • Do the bare minimum
  • Rpocrastination
  • Reduced profitability
  • Lost productivity
  • Stiffle innovation
  • Lose best people
  • No job satisfaction

 

Rosch (2001) also estimated that stress costs the US economy US$300 billion annually, this figure being based on Albrecht’s (1979) conservative estimate of the annual cost of stress-related absence and staff turnover of US$150 billion.

 

Tangible Costs Intangible Costs
Hours lost Delays / missed deadlines
Company sick pay /SSP Lost productivity of others picking up slack
Temporary Cover Effect on team wellbeing
Lost productivity complaints
Admin goodwill
Return to work Effect on manager / you
Litigation Other

 

WELLBEING STRATEGY

 

  • Reduce sick days
  • Best performance
  • Enthusiasm and engagement
  • Increase profitability
  • Reduce recruitment costs

 

Deloitte 2017 UK research says wellbeing strategy ROI 400%

 

5 STEP FRAMEWORK

 

  • Accept
  • Understand

 

TIPS

 

  • Accept – treat stress like any other business issue
  • Provide for it in the same way as other human needs at work (such as water, food etc)
  • Understand
    • We need data, knowledge
    • Well being audit,
  • Set goals
    • Plan
      • Why are you implementing a wellness strategy?
      • Who will manage it, HR?
      • What is it you are going to focus on
      • How are you going to implement it?
      • Where, office workers vs warehouse employees?
      • When can we implement it?
  • Tactics
    • Empowerment to handle stress
    • Hydration 3-4% dehydration reduce work performance by 25-50%
    • Management styles and consistency
    • Communication
    • Expectations
    • Training / education
    • Support for stress
    • Culture / behaviours
    • Mission and values
    • Email, phone

 

REALITY CHECK (AVOID)

 

  • One-offs
  • Gimmicks
  • Activities that only a few will benefit from
  • Fashion (unless it adds real value)
  • One size fits all
  • Double standard
  • HR doing wellbeing
  • Giant leaps
  • Forced imposition
  • Increasing targets

Small Business Finance

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Money might not equal to success

Yes money is important and we are in business to earn money

 

What success is not:

  • Having large turnover
  • Business losing money
  • Being in debt

 

Bigger picture

  • 99% of UK businesses is small business
  • 40% is 5 year survival rate

 

Why businesses fail

  • Grow too fast: can’t meet the demand
  • Run out of cash
  • Poor management
  • No market demand
  • Risk not managed: 2 directors not getting on?

 

Financial basics

  • Have a business model that works,
    • profit or at least breakeven (people working are paid)
  • Enough cash
    • To pay taxes
    • Support owners
    • Money reserve
    • Invoicing, collection, book keeping

 

  • Sales
    • Cost of sales
    • Gross profit
    • Gross profit margin
  • Expenses / overhead
    • Net profit
    • Tax
    • Net profit after tax

 

  • VAT does not belong to business
  • Business are acting as agents of gov’t to collect VAT

 

Balance sheet

  • Stuff that have value (assets)
    • Cash
    • Debtors – accounts receivable (outstanding invoices)
    • Stock (money tied up)
    • Fixed assets (PC, plant, vans)
  • Liabilities
    • What you owe to others
    • Creditors / accounts payable (bills to pay)
    • Taxes (VAT, corp tax, PAYE etc)
    • Loans (incl. Directors’ loans)
      • You can charge interest for personal loan to company
  • Owner’s equity / capital
    • What is truly yours
    • Share capita
    • Net profit after tax less dividends OR
    • Net profit less drawings (if sole trade / partnership )

 

BUILD A FINANCIAL STRATEGY

  • Getting dividends is more tax efficient instead of wages
  • When you take on staff, your profits might decline because directors usually work very well for almost free
  • Sales, reach or exceed
  • Gross profit percentage, maintain and improve
  • overhead , do not exceed

 

  • Break Even point
    • How much sales you need to cover your overhead?

 

TOP TIPS FOR IMPROVING THE PROFIT

  • Increase sales – lots of resources
  • Increase gross profit % , stop giving stuff away for free, increase price, reduce cost of sales, increase efficiency
  • Little things, chip away
  • You can not erase all costs, you can not run business with nothing

 

  • Xero is better than Sage

 

  • If you had a very good year, Invest in capital to reduce tax (take advice and be business driven not  tax driven)

 

EXTRACTING MONEY FROM BUSINESS

  • Limited companies
    • Have some form of mng accounts, keep an eye on how your company is doing, then take dividends
    • Leave a bıt of money in the company
    • Wages, dividends, set aside money for self assessment tax

 

ROUTE TO FINANCIAL SUCCESS

  • Quality Record keeping
    • Raise invoices for the work
    • Capture all expenses
    • Reconcile your bank at least weekly
    • Use a cloud accounting package
  • Receipt processing
    • App xero, quickbooks etc

 

CASH MANAGEMENT

  • Cash is very different to profit
  • VAT is not your money. It was never your money
  • Cash mng is different than managing your business, profits etc
  • It is a daily job
  • Work estimated, work done, invoice issued, invoice chased, inv. Paid
    • Shorten this cycle
  • Get money in faster
  • Consider
    • Agreeing price upfront
    • Use of retainers
    • Invoice by instalment rather than on completion
    • Invoice the moment the work is done
    • Collect by direct debit
    • Automatic chaser emails
    • Do not give credit – your are not a bank!

 

BUFFER CASH

  • Build resilience – don’t drain your business
  • Aim for retained profit about 5%
  • 3-6 months of fixed costs

 

CASH MANAGEMENT

  • Save for tax
  • Consider opening a separate account for VAT
  • Or even separate account for corporation tax

 

MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION

  • Forecasts, quarterly, monthly accounts
  • Have a financial strategy, budget
  • Profit goal, sales goal, marketing plan
  • Know your monthly key numbers
  • Forecast monthly / quarterly and budget at the start of the year

Digital Marketing and Brexit

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DATA

 

Data protection – if you are gdpr compliant your are almost OK

Make sure you are able to get data from EU

Check your providers if they are EU based eg Ireland

 

IMPORT EXPORT

 

Customs declarations

 

HMRC APPROACH TO NO DEAL

 

Day one easements

  • Transitional simplified procedures
  • Intermediatetd liability
  • Guarantee relaxations
  • Entry summary declarations for imports

 

DAY ONE RO-RO LOCATIONS

 

Declerations to be prelogded

 

EORI

 

An EORI number – which stands for an Economic Operator Registration and Identification Number – is a unique ID code used to track and register customs information in the EU.

 

An EORI number is not the same as a VAT number. However, if you’re VAT registered, they are linked. When you apply for an EORI number as a VAT registered business HMRC will link all your imports to your VAT number.

 

Exit summary declaration

If an export declaration or a transit declaration containing safety and security data has not been submitted for goods exiting the EU, an electronic exit summary declaration (IE615) is to be submitted to Customs for the goods.

 

The responsibility for submitting an exit summary declaration lies with the transport company, which has drafted the transport agreement and which transports the goods out of the Union.

 

Safety and security data must be submitted for goods exiting the EU prior to their departure from the Union.

 

The declaration is submitted when goods physically exit the EU territory by road and by rail.

The declaration is submitted for goods exiting by air or sea when the goods are loaded on board a craft, which transports them outside the EU.

An exit summary declaration is required at a place of exit in Finland when goods are sent from Norway via Finland to a non-EU territory, for example Russia.

 

https://tulli.fi/en/businesses/arrival-and-exit/exit-summary-declaration

 

Export Control System

The Export Control System (ECS) is the EU system for the control of indirect exports, such as export consignments declared for export at a location in one member state that then exit the EU via another member state.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/export-control-system-ecs-supporting-guidance

 

UK to remain in Common Transit Convention after Brexit

Continued membership of the convention will ensure simplified cross-border trade for UK businesses exporting their goods.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-to-remain-in-common-transit-convention-after-brexit

 

Customs Special Procedures for the Union Customs Code

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/notice-3001-special-procedures-for-the-union-customs-code/notice-3001-special-procedures-for-the-union-customs-code

 

Paying VAT on imports, acquisitions and purchases from abroad

If you import, acquire or buy goods or services from abroad you may have to pay VAT or account for it under the reverse charge procedure.

 

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-imports-acquisitions-and-purchases-from-abroad

 

KEY ACTIONS

 

TRANSITIONAL SIMPLIFIED PROCEDURES – TSP

HMRC has today set out an extension of Transitional Simplified Procedures (TSP) which includes:

  • an extension of the date when the first supplementary customs declarations must be submitted, and any import duties must be paid, to 4 October 2019, with subsequent declarations submitted monthly.
  • making TSP available for any port or airport where goods are being brought in from the EU. HMRC will continue to work with stakeholders on TSP implementation, recognising that circumstances will be different from port to port.
  • giving importing businesses until 30 September 2019 to provide a guarantee that is required to cover any customs duties that they wish to defer. This will apply for all importers, not just those who have registered for TSP.

The full news article is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/hmrc-outlines-extension-of-transitional-simplified-procedures

Also published is further guidance on making declarations for TSP: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/making-declarations-using-transitional-simplified-procedures

 

https://www.bifa.org/news/articles/2019/mar/transitional-simplified-procedures-tsp

 

TRADE POLICY

 

Trade Barriers

 

Temporary tariff regime for no deal Brexit published

Government has published details of the UK’s temporary tariff regime for no deal, designed to minimise costs to business and consumers while protecting vulnerable industries.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/temporary-tariff-regime-for-no-deal-brexit-published

 

An update on existing trade agreements if the UK leaves the EU without a deal

An update on existing trade agreements if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/trade-agreement-continuity

 

Unilateral free trade simply means that one country reduces its import restrictions without any formal agreement for reciprocation from its trade partners.

 

The Agreement on Government Procurement is a plurilateral agreement under the auspices of the World Trade Organization which regulates the procurement of goods and services by the public authorities of the parties to the agreement, based on the principles of openness, transparency and non-discrimination.

 

The UK’s trade remedies investigations process

Trade remedies help protect UK businesses against unfair trading practices and unforeseen surges in imports. These usually take the form of additional duties on those imports.

The Trade Remedies Investigations Directorate (TRID) will investigate if new anti-dumping or anti-subsidy measures are needed to counteract unfair trading practices. TRID will also investigate if safeguard measures are needed to counteract unforeseen surges in imports which risk damaging UK businesses.

 

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/trade-remedies-investigating-dumped-or-subsidised-goods

 

Commodity code

https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/sections

 

Increase sales by Digital Marketing

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Do some marketing every day

 

SIMPLE AS ABC

 

Audience – Who are you selling to?

Demographics

 

Boast – What are you saying to them?

What are their problems

 

Channel – How are you getting that message across?

 

THE 3 W’S

 

Who – are you?

 

What – do you do?

 

Why – should I care?
(WIIFM) What’s In It For Me

WIIFM is the stuff that shows how or why what you have to sell or say matters to those who you are trying to sell or say it too. It’s the value proposition, the thing that makes them realize that what you’re offering is worth their money or their time.

 

HOW ARE YOU USING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA?

 

Are you consistent?

Are you useful?

Are your profiles complete?

Are you using hootsuite.com (or similar) ?

 

B2B is possible but difficult in FB

IN is best fit for B2B but IN is becoming like FB recently

 

COPY FORMULA

 

AIDA – Attention, Interest, Desire, Action

 

Speak to the client – use you

Get testimonials – lots of them

Capture data

Write blogs and case studies

Answer questions

Use social media (especially video)

Reviews

 

Don’t start with we, start with your audience

 

Make it easy for people to get in touch

 

FEATURES TO BENEFITS

 

Say what? So what?

WIIFM? How can you help me?

Tell me I’m special, please!

 

Don’t we all over your message!

 

Everyone buys something for a reason

Usually these reasons are hidden

 

A lot of people buy things for feelings

 

When is the last time you got a thank you card for purchasing something?

 

Go the extra mile

Do something extra, little things…

You just need to be a little better than your competitors.

 

PRICING

 

Never compete on price – race to bottom

Review your prices every 6 months

 

High price strategies

Do you have payment options?

Have you got a guarantee?

 

Price is not the issue

Value is key

 

Premium products?

Add instant profits

Upsells, upgrade

 

Payment options?

 

MARKETING PILLARS

 

Affiliate marketing

Affiliates

Articles in other magazines

Asking existing clients for referrals

Auto responders

Awards

Banner retargeting

Blogs

Blogs others

Brochures

Business cards

CRM / Database

Direct mail

Discussion groups

Email

Exhibitions

Facebook organic

Facebook ppc

Four square

Google PPC

Introducers

Leaflet drops

Letter campaigns

Linkedin organic

Linkedin ads

Local magazines

Local papers

Joint ventures

Networking

Newsletters printed

Newsletters email

Papers

Pinterest

Postcards

PR articles

Premium products

Promotional clothing

Promotional other cards, pens etc

Radio

Roller banners

Seminars

Speaking

Sponsorship

Squeeze pages

Strategic partners

Telemarketing

Telephone

Testimonials

Testimonials video

Text

TV

Twitter

Up-sells

Video

Walk-ins cold!

Webinars

Website

Yellow pages or similar

Youtube

 

THE MONEY IS IN THE LIST

 

Are you using a CRM?

And, if not, why not?

 

How often do you contact client and connections?

 

When you sell a business, it is the database that is worth the money

 

REFERRALS MADE SIMPLE

 

How to get a referral:

ASK FOR IT!

 

Or, offer an incentive

Give something back

 

LOOK AFTER YOU

 

Get good sleep

Eat properly

Exercise regularly

 

MARKETING ACTION PLAN

 

Every Day

  • Social media, TW, FB etc
  • List building or updating your database

 

Every week

  • Email writing, newsletter
  • Blog writing
  • Gather testimonials, talk to clients, get feedback

 

Every month

  • Planning marketing campaign, working out how to reach and contact your target market
  • Referral gathering, asking your clients for introductions into other clients

 

Every Quarter

  • Review success and failure over the last quarter
  • Adjust what didn’t work , do more of what did
  • Plan the next quarter, what markets, products are you going to target?

 

Recording short videos for ecommerce

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WHY VIDEO?

 

  • Communicates some things better
  • Preferred by some people over reading
  • Liked by google
  • Can be viewed on many devices including TV
  • Can be published on your site and many other platforms
  • Video is a persuasive medium

 

VIDEO FOR…?

 

  • Location
  • Process – timelapse
  • Brand story
  • Show the person/people
  • Show/demo the product
  • Event
  • Customer/product support
  • Testimonials
    • Social proof, reviews
    • Easy to buy fake reviews
    • How do we know its not fake? Video reviews
  • Promotional / advert

 

TIPS

 

  • Keep your hands close to your body for less shaking
  • Don’t jump into the video without thinking about it
  • You need to slow down
  • Tripod slows you down, frees your hands

 

SOUND

 

  • Half of the video is sound: microphone

 

VIDEO TYPES

 

  • Cut away
    • You can paste different videos on a main video (eg an interview)
    • You can also use photos as well. You can zoom in photos to give it a motion
    • You can cut away to photos

 

LENGTH

 

  • Brand story can be few minutes (someone interested would be viewing it)
  • Most other stuff 30-60 seconds
    • Most people won’t commit more than this duration

 

WHAT CAN BE IN VIDEO?

 

  • Camera video
  • Archive video (by you or someone else)
  • Stills
    • Photos, graphics, slides, diagrams, screenshots
    • You can do image search and filter it by image rights
    • License for reuse
  • Animation
    • Placeit
    • Keynote magic move
  • Screen recordings
    • Still capture
    • Or video capture Loom
  • Sound, voiceover, music

 

HOW TO BE BETTER THAN 99%

 

 

EQUIPMENT

 

  • Spaces and windows
  • Reflectors including mountboard
  • Tripods, including for phones and tablets
  • Microphone – Lavalier or “Lav” mike

 

STORYBOARDING

 

  • Even slight thinking before shooting, makes you better than 99% of videos

 

EDITING

 

  • Use a clap to sync multiple sound tracks and sync them
    • Like a Clapperboard

 

VIDEO FORMAT

 

  • Size 1920 x 1080 or 1080 square
  • File format: MP4 has become the modern standard
  • Compression format (or codec) H.264
  • Above combination suitable for all of FB, TW and IG
  • IG, TW – file size limits are 15 mb
  • IG 60 seconds, Google my business 30 sec
  • Use Youtube embed on website
    • Use rel=0 tag not to show related videos at the end

 

SERVING VIDEO

 

  • Video is large file size
  • Needs a host or content delivery network (CDN)
  • Some other website your video lives on
  • Eg Youtube, Vimeo, Wistia

 

MOVING THE CAMERA

 

  • By hand – with image stabilization
  • Optical image stabilisation is much superior – in 6S Plus, 7 onwards
  • Low cost dollies and gimbals for phones and tablets
  • Steadicam

 

WRAP UP

 

  • Everything takes too long
  • Throw almost all of what you shoot away
  • Less is more, cut before its gets slow
  • Rhythm, try to make your cuts regular
    • See music videos

 

Instructor:

https://www.davidjamesross.co.uk/

 

Digital Marketing, Branding and more

by

AGENDA

 

  • Your brand
  • Your story
  • Your customer persona
  • Your key messages
  • Your marketing channels
  • Your killer content
  • Your action plan

 

START WITH WHY

 

 

BRAND

 

  • Voice
  • Values
  • Identity
  • Message
  • Integrity
  • Recognition
    • Positioning
    • Logo
    • Colours
    • Style
    • Fonts
  • Culture
  • Slogans / taglines

 

B2D

 

  • WHY: Close the literacy gap for all children, enabling them to achieve their true potential.
  • HOW: Bulk purchases for lower prices and excellent delivery service
  • WHAT: Selling kids books at bargain prices

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/annaschaverien/2018/12/12/consumers-do-care-about-retailers-ethics-and-brand-purpose-accenture-research-finds/#3992018416f2

 

https://www.accenture.com/gb-en/company-news-release-strategy-gcpr-2018-uk

UK consumers are investing their time, money and attention in brands that have a genuine commitment to important principles that they care about.

 

HOW TO TELL YOUR STORY

 

  • Who you are
    • The business
    • People
  • Why you exist
    • History
    • Your why
  • What you do
    • Products
    • Services
  • Who you serve
    • Customers
  • What you can do for them
    • Outcomes
    • Evidence
    • Testimonials

 

STORY STRUCTURE

 

Beginning, middle, ending

Backstory, problem, solution, action

 

STORY THAT WILL RESONATE WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS

 

WHO IS YOUR CUSTOMER

 

  • Different personas
  • What do you know about them?
  • What problems do they have?
  • How do you solve them?
  • Give them a name

 

What Who What channel When Priority

 

Image of your persona
Name
Age
Job Title
Day to day jobs to be done Taking care of children really is a full-time job; in fact, it’s two and a half, according to research which has found that the time mothers spend on parent-related tasks equates to a 98-hour work week.
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/mother-equivalent-2-jobs-full-time-childcare-98-hours-work-mum-survey-a8258676.html
Work attitude
Family
Environment UK women ages 25 to 54 with children in their households spent most of their time online (59%) via smartphone
https://www.emarketer.com/Article/UK-Mothers-Its-All-About-Smartphones-Social-Media/1016039
Education
Social Status
Life Goal
Experience

 

B2D Persona

Lara, 40 years old, has 2 kids, employed

Does most of the household shopping

Tech-savvy, uses mobile for ecommerce

Value seeker, bargain hunter

Searching for air travel, new house and car so higher end of value seeker

Interested in cooking, travel, celebrity news

Motivated by the needs of her family and looking for ways to add value (find a bargain)

Don’t really have much time, quite busy with all the housework, kids and work.

They want a good deal, trusted seller, frictionless ecommerce experience.

 

Decision maker or influencer
Personality
Interests
Lifestyle
Personal and professional values
Concerns
Benefits wanted
Intent

 

DEVELOPING YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION AND KEY MESSAGES

 

NAME OF BUSINESS
HELPS Target audience
WHO NEED TO Value proposition / product / service
THROUGH Unique selling proposition
WHO
NOT LIKE

 

A unique selling proposition (USP, also seen as unique selling point) is a factor that differentiates a product from its competitors, such as the lowest cost, the highest quality or the first-ever product of its kind. A USP could be thought of as “what you have that competitors don’t.”

 

PRINT

 

  • Pros
    • Reaches those that don’t use the internet or social media
    • Not as common as it used to be so you can stand out
    • Gives something tangible
  • Cons
    • Can be expensive
    • Can go out of date quickly
    • Not as environmentally friendly as it could be

 

WEBSITE

 

  • Pros
    • Provides information for customers
    • Detailed information – offers value
    • Can be purchase point (ecommerce)
    • Cost-effective – hosting options
    • Plenty of people with skills
  • Cons
    • Many different options
    • Standing out requires effort
    • Innovation costly
    • Requires some tech skills
    • Copywriting important
    • Search is competitive

 

EMAIL

 

  • Pros
    • Easy to produce
    • Low cost / no cost
    • Everyone has email
    • You own the data
  • Cons
    • Open rates
    • Easy to unsubscribe
    • Messages can be vanilla or feel very salesy
  • Services
    • Mailchimp
      • Tend to have HTML heavy emails, can cause spam issues
    • Drip
    • Hubspot
    • Getresponse
    • Sendinblue
    • Aweber
    • Constantcontact
    • Convertkit
    • Activecampaign

 

When might legitimate interests be appropriate?

Legitimate interests is the most flexible of the six lawful bases. It is not focused on a particular purpose and therefore gives you more scope to potentially rely on it in many different circumstances.

 

It may be the most appropriate basis when:

 

the processing is not required by law but is of a clear benefit to you or others;

there’s a limited privacy impact on the individual;

the individual should reasonably expect you to use their data in that way; and

you cannot, or do not want to, give the individual full upfront control (ie consent) or bother them with disruptive consent requests when they are unlikely to object to the processing.

There may also be occasions when you have a compelling justification for the processing which may mean that a more intrusive impact on the individual can be warranted. However in such cases you need to ensure that you can demonstrate that any impact is justified.

 

The legitimate interests basis is likely to be most useful where there is either a minimal impact on the individual, or else a compelling justification for the processing.

 

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/legitimate-interests/when-can-we-rely-on-legitimate-interests/

 

SOCIAL MEDIA

 

  • Facebook
    • Older audiences
    • Large number of users
    • Limited organic reach
  • Instagram
    • Generation Z
    • Aspirational
    • Fast growing
    • Developing rapidly
  • Linkedin
    • 79% over 35
    • Professional
    • B2B
    • Big growth this year
  • Twitter
    • 32% 18-29
    • Topical
    • Fast moving
  • Pinterest
    • 80% women
    • Craft/fashion/health/decor
    • International
  • Snapchat
    • 76% millennials
    • Lifestyle
    • Closed network

 

EVENTS

 

  • Pros
    • Great for relationship building (face to face)
    • Chance to demonstrate what you do and for people to sample
    • Your audience are all in one place
  • Cons
    • Can be expensive (time and money)
    • It’s hard to stand out – what will attract people to you?
    • Less people go to events than they used to

 

Sales calling tips

by

How do you feel when someone phones you, someone tries to sell to you?

When you are browsing a shop, how do feel when you are approached by a member of the staff, how do you feel if you are being ignored?

How do you feel about using the phone?

Nervous, uncomfortable… but They don’t know you feel like this

 

Phones: We don’t use it for calling it much. It’s an office, bank… everything.

 

Email: quick, easy, not involving emotions but can be ineffective. We can’t see the response. The meaning, emphasis gets lots. Its very easy to ignore an email.

 

Customers are the most important thing in business (they pay our wages) but if we can’t allocate time to them.

 

What makes it difficult?

  • Getting through, gatekeepers
    • I wonder if you can help me out
    • Google before
  • Language barrier
  • Time zone
  • You don’t know them
  • How you or they will respond?
  • How we communicate
    • Body movements 55%
    • Pitch, pace, tone 38%
    • Words you are using 7%

 

PLAN FOR THE CALL

  • Research beforehand
  • We do not want to be sold to
    • We want to build relationships
  • Quality and quantity
    • Saves time , you should ring the right people

 

WHAT DOES A PLAN LOOK LIKE

  • Your call framework
    • Who are we calling
    • What do they know about us?
    • What do we know about them?
      • Linkedin and Google search + web browse
    • Why would they be interested in speaking to us?
      • We don’t sell products or services
      • We sell solutions to problems
      • We need to tap into the psyche of the person
      • What’s in it for me?
    • How will we break the ice?
      • How’s the week going?
      • Weather?
      • Keep it simple, don’t over do it
    • What can we do to make it easier?
    • How can we stand out from others calling them?
      • Authentic
      • Keep your word, follow up, do what you said you’d do
      • Don’t sell
      • Don’t talk industry jargon
        • Don’t assume that they know you are talking about
      • Don’t over talk

 

LANGUAGE

  • Using the language to get results
  • Toxic language
    • Does not add value
      • Fillers like basically, actually, obviously,
      • Ambiguous: probably, possibly, maybe, for sure, might
      • Any industry jargon
    • Calling everyone “guys”
  • People love their names the most
  • Lets focus on positive
    • Use open questions
      • Questions that can not be answered with a yes or no
      • What’s your biggest challenge this week?
      • Refer to news on website or linkedin posts?
      • What are your top [business/industry] priorities right now?
      • Are you having problems with [insert a couple of pain points] like some of our other clients?
      • Is your current solution not solving these as well as you would like?
      • What would it do for your overall revenue/workflow/pain benefit if you could handle these issues more effectively?
      • How does the decision making look for a solution like this?
      • What concerns do you have about switching/implementing a new solution?
      • At the end of that call will you give us a firm answer?
      • Who is the best person to speak to?
      • What do you think of the british summer?
      • https://www.rainsalestraining.com/blog/21-powerful-open-ended-sales-questions
      • 50 sales questions PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ogH8BdU1m_g7wU2AlsRJuL5NThOaOF8g/view?usp=sharing
    • What we can do?
    • How we’d like to help?
    • What would you like to happen next?
    • What would you like us to do?
    • Listen and reflect
    • What would be most helpful to them
    • Summarise at the end

 

PHASES

  • Introduction
  • Yes
    • Qualify them
    • When can we sell, today, next week, month, year?
  • No
    • If it is never going to work, getting a no sooner is better
  • Closing
    • You can send follow up email
    • Keep in touch with them
      • When will be the best time for them?
    • Agree on next step
    • Summarize
    • Thank them
    • Always check if they are OK with stuff

 

  • M otivation – why
  • A bility – budget
  • N eeds – want
  • U rgency – when

 

WHEN TO CALL

  • Think of your Perfect client
  • You might have several segments of clients
  • Morning?
  • Late afternoon can work, usually people don’t have late meetings
  • Part of your plan

 

SUMMARIZE

  • Plan
  • Prepare
  • Use your framework
  • Agree next action
  • Confirm it by email
  • Diarise
  • Do it!

 

Buying cycle

 

eCommerce Listing Pages

by

Product photos with white background

And lifestyle shots – Instagram style

 

High End fashion products – white background almost finished

 

Why does this matter?

  • We are asking people to buy a physical product but they don’t gave no direct experience of
  • More images is better – but not the same type, detailed photos, show the scale
  • Checklist of different
  • Ecommerce has a problem of tangibility
  • The more you show and tell, the more you sell

 

BURAK Can we update ugly Amazon photos with ours?

 

People started browsing products by browsing images, not just Instagram but google image search as well.

 

AGENDA

  • Putting together a shot list – types of images you may need
  • Deciding on aspect ratios – shape of the image, square or rectangle etc
  • Two approaches to controlling light
  • General shooting tips
  • Optimizing images
  • Image manipulation and software
  • Styling and lifestyle images
  • When to hire a professional

 

Types of images you may need

  • Flat, straight, plain background, product shot

 

Type Purpose Check Number
Product To show the product clearly against a white or plain background. Required by many marketplace platforms x 1
Product Angle To show a 3D product form various angles x 2
Product Detail To show detail of a product, – pattern, texture, finish, grain
With packaging shot To show the product with packaging – can include gift packaging – if packaging is part of the experience
Variants Show variants of the product, color, size, finish, customization
Scale To show the true size of the product by comparison to a known object 3
Related Products To show the product with other related products that complement it and are available
In context To show the product in the way in will be used or the space it will occupy 4
Lifestyle / Styled To show the product as desirable by association with a desired or attractive environment, occasion or collection of artefacts 5

 

ASPECT RATIOS

 

Square is the allrounder

Where will you else use them?

dSLR spec might not be OK

 

LIGHT APPROACHES

 

  • Diffuse natural light plus reflectors (or LEDs or bounce flash fill)
  • Light boxes
  • Anything small and flat, scan it
  • Rembrandt light

 

  • Natural light
    • You are seeking strong but diffuse light – a difficult combination
    • Natural light – north facing window is ideal
    • High cloud cover is good
    • Middle of the day is good
    • Fill in shadows with reflectors (or lights or flash)

 

  • Get rid of the shadow with reflector
  • If you get the lighting right, even iphone camera would be enough (with tripod and timer)
  • Light tents

 

GENERAL SHOOTING TIPS

  • Shoot to allow cropping
  • Perspective control – distance to shoot from
  • If you shoot up very close, closer edge might look bigger
  • Pay attention to horizontal and vertical
  • Take lots, reject most- bracketing
    • In photography, bracketing is the general technique of taking several shots of the same subject using different camera settings.
  • Professional photographers scrap 99% of their shots
  • Instructor does not prefer flash shots , difficult to work with

 

EQUIPMENT

 

  • Spaces and windows
  • Reflectors including mountboard
  • Tripods, including for phones and tablets

 

STEPS and PURPOSE

 

  • Aspect ratio
    • Choose best aspect ratio
  • Light source
    • Find a suitable diffuse light source
  • Fillers
    • Choose your tools to fill in the shadows
  • Platform
    • Support your camera with a stable platform – tripod or similar
  • Perspective
    • Choose a distance from the product that makes it look in natural proportion – not too close
  • Cropping
    • Leave enough space around the outside of the frame to allow cropping
  • Level
    • Use a grid to check your horizontal and vertical
  • Timer
    • Use your timer to keep your hands free for light control
  • Take many
    • Bracket by taking lots of little variations. Choose only the best

 

LEDS ARE THE FUTURE

 

  • Continuous light – see what you do
  • Run cool (very little heat)
  • Can use a wide range of diffusers
  • Can buy daylight, same colour temp as natural light
  • Use less energy and long lasting

 

OPTIMIZING IMAGES

 

  • Image manipulation – any changes to colour, contrast etc first
  • Crop to the aspect ratio
  • Resize to your largest need
  • Compress and optimise file size
  • Name your file

 

LEVELS

 

  • To make slight white background to 100% white – play around with Levels in photoshop

 

IMAGING SOFTWARE

 

  • Photos (free, apple)
  • Pixelmator apple only – pro not necessarily better
  • Serif affinity photo
  • Gimp
  • Adobe photoshop
  • Free trials
  • Apple aperture – not supported

 

STYLING IMAGES

 

  • Images can be styled to appeal to the desired lifestyle
  • Typically use:
    • A complementary colour palette
    •  Textures
    • Desirable backdrops
    • Cherished items
  • Lifestyle images can use filters or color grading to give a distinct “look”
  • This is very much like setting up a stage, eg much in a film

 

WHEN TO HIRE A PRO

 

  • Critical color management
  • Using studio flash
  • Hero images
  • If your time can be spent more profitability doing other things
  • Don’t listen, look for a portfolio in your category

 

PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS

 

  • People don’t read, they scan for the info
  • Use headings
  • Lists are easier to read
  • Availability
  • Copy format for scan reading: headings, lists, tables, symbols/icons, short sentences and paragraphs
  • https://readable.com/

 

CUSTOMER CONCERNS

 

  • Outcomes, what does the customer get?
    • Psychological objectives
  • People buy my products so they can ….
  • Features
    • Put them on the product page
    • Origins
      • Made where?
      • By whom?
      • Under what conditions?
      • Environmental impact
  • Variants, options, customizations
  • Availability
    • Limited?
    • How soon?
  • Warranty and risk
    • What if something goes wrong?
  • Longevity
  • Uniqueness
  • Social proof: Other people and this product
    • Customer reviews
    • Social media
  • Aftercare

 

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION STYLE GUIDE

 

  • Paragraph length
    • Keep paragraphs short – no more than about six lines
  • Sentence length
    • Keep sentences short to aid readability
  • Headings
    • Use headings and sub-headings to make text scan-readable
  • Lists
    • Use unordered (bulleted) and numbered lists
  • Tables
    • Use tables and diagrams where appropriate eg size charts
  • Symbols / icons
    • Use symbols and icons where appropriate eg. handmade, made in Britain
  • Internal links
    • Link to other related products

 

Multitasking and Productivity

by

To switch to something new takes time to reinvest your attention

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM4u-7Z5URk

 

Air traffic controllers take 15-30 min breaks every 2 hours

Context switching depletes your neuro biological resources

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Weinberg

When programmers are involved in more projects, time to finish increases rapidly.

 

https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-multi-tasking-myth/

 

Exercise 1: Draw a line

Start timer

Write multitasking is a thief on top

Write numbers 1 2 3 …. 21  below the line

Stop the timer

 

Exercise 2 : time again

This time write 1 letter and 1 number like M 1 U 2 … above and below the line.

 

Effects:

  1. Time
  2. Quality
  3. Stress

 

Any project longer than 90 days, is subject to procrastination

 

You need business objective for 3-5 years and link it to something tangible.

 

Toyota uses 4-5 different approach for 10-20 years and employs the most suitable one according to market needs.

 

hoshin kanri objective matrix

 

Fortune Magazine found that 80% of Fortune 500 companies use some sort of balanced performance metric approach to their strategy. But it also found that when a company fails, 70% of the time it wasn’t because of bad strategy—it was due to bad execution.

Hoshin planning can help mitigate that risk.

 

https://www.clearpointstrategy.com/hoshin-kanri-matrix-template/

 

Customer Avatar

 

Value proposition

 

Scrum element

 

Gaining clarity and focus

 

Each task has specific attributes:

 

Time

Money

People

Skills

 

Your key asset is your customer database

Especially for B2B

 

Meetings = big company disease

 

Time blocking for projects and priority task

 

Does Multitasking Kill Productivity | Why Multitasking Fails and How to Stop Doing It

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOmsRSwQ9rk