Make Your Move

Let’s Look at Self Limiting Beliefs…

What are self limiting beliefs?

We perceive them to be beliefs programmed into the Subconscious Mind (sometimes at a very young age) that limit a person's ability to act, think, or perceive a possibility in their life. This self limiting belief can hold someone back, prevent them from moving forward, or become an inner enemy of progress.

Let's imagine a few scenarios:

Scenario 1 – This person is a strong, highly paid, VP of Sales, who works day in and day out to achieve the sales numbers required of his department. He continues to break through the quotas until two consecutive quarters his sales revenue plateaus. Confused, he works harder…missing more time away from his family while stressing more. He tries to think about why he can't surpass his previous numbers – he's perplexed, frustrated, and disappointed.

Scenario 2 – A President of a highly successful software company comes to the tough realization that the product is currently out-dated and being surpassed by market competitors. Working with the programming team she encounters numerous roadblocks. The software VPs don't believe it's possible to program functionalities above and beyond what market competitors currently have. The President get's frustrated, annoyed, and considers finding new people. She realizes getting new staff will cost an incredible amount of money, not to mention ramp-up time.

What is common in both of these not-so-uncommon scenarios? Yes, you guessed it – SELF LIMITING BELIEFS! Without the tools to (a) remove self limiting beliefs, and (b) re-program new supporting beliefs, how do both of these companies continue to progress? More money, wasted time, and hard, very painful lessons learned.

We at Strategic Media Group are here to make sure companies don't make those mistakes again, that they can truly move past self-liming beliefs. Our training presents an easy way to re-program supporting beliefs and move beyond these roadblocks without difficulty. Sounds like crazy voo-doo… well it's not. In tough times, how far will you go to move beyond your challenge?

Oh we don't have the budget for this, thank you though!

Ah yes…my favorite thing to hear! We get this from time to time when talking with companies about programs, workshops, etc. This prompted a question, why DO we hear this?

I am sure we could chalk it up as a sales excuse and move on, but there are few reasons we thought we would explore.

1. Companies who say this are typically on the defense. They have been pestered and "sold" everything in the book. Being plagued by wasteful spending, they eventually reach a point where they assume that everything is just another budget cost and might not help them with anything related to their needs.

2. It's an excuse to get a salesperson to bark up another tree – which works great when they are selling heated toilet seats, not well with vital performance improvement tools.
3. They really DON'T have the budget. When it comes down to it, the rubber check satisfies no one. Our hearts go out to these organizations because they can't explore the very tools that can unlock the potential and increase the budget.

Our Challenge

Of course there has to be a catch right? Yup! We challenge executives to test a performance improvement mechanism at least once…by simply saying "no budget, thanks" can't help you raise your revenue numbers if you're facing a performance problem. Usually we watch these organizations experience budget cuts over and over simply because they can't solve the performance problem.

A Leaders Decision - Invest in Performance Improvement?

After working with many decision makers, leaders, executives, and employees, we have seen a few common traits and qualities we have come to admire. These traits, we believe, have been imperative to making a decision that performance improvement is a cultural MUST, and monitoring, consulting, and performance coaching, are vital.

Let us share these traits with you.

1. The absolute desire to hit the marks, and almost an obsession with achievement. This trait ranks number one because they never cut corners. If performance can be boosted, they don't waste time.

2. They understand the long-term consequences of sacrificing even a little positive performance in the present.

3. These leaders see the future, the visionary inside of them says, "Let's address performance issues now, before they directly injure us in the future".

4. They understand that their company is a collection of people, and the performance monitoring and improvement is key to each individual contributing to the companies' achievement.

5. They don't hold back on performance improvement investment – this does NOT mean they dump an insane amount of money for low-impact tools. Once they see that the investment creates a performance improvement they don't hold back.

6. Inefficiency is their nightmare.

So there you have it! Just a few traits we have found to be most common in leaders who make decisions to improve performance among their people.

Is the Economic News Hurting your Employees?

Our short answer - absolutely!

If you believe the economy is affecting your revenue, sales, or budget, and share that consensus with your employees, you create a huge self-limiting belief for them and your company's performance. The down-spiral of economic woes can be tracked back to the PR of the concern and worry. Fact it – there are many areas of the economy that are not currently in a downturn, but once people cut back and change their spending that industry get's sucked into the storm. Now, you DON'T have to be a part of this…as a leader you can choose to not participate in a recession, or even better: profit from one!

As leaders you have the ability to choose what path you take with your employees – do you choose to see a down economy as an opportunity or threat? Whatever decision you make will flood through the organization and plant either self-motivating or self-limiting beliefs. And trust me; you will see a difference on a revenue chart for months to follow.

Welcome Allison & John

We want to introduce two subject matter experts to our team:

Allison Taylor & John Nelson are experts in Subconscious Technology. Some of the largest, most successful companies in the world work to re-program and change their executives, teams, and employees self limiting beliefs with ease. Here is a little about Allison & John:

Allison Taylor - Allison Taylor is a Certified PER-K® Instructor and has a successful executive coaching practice with individuals and teams throughout the world.  Allison considers PER-K® (Performance Kinesiology) an invaluable tool which has produced remarkable outcomes both with clients and herself. 

Allison has also held numerous Executive positions in Marketing & Sales.  After experiencing "what doesn't work" over and over in the corporate world, she went back to her educational roots (psychology & physics) and partnered with numerous subject matter experts to develop methodologies that do work in generating sustainable results. 

John Nelson - an associate at Achievement Dynamics in Denver, Colorado.  John's background even before becoming involved with Achievement Dynamics was in the world of high performance coaching and change management. 

With experience in Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Ericksonian Hypnosis and other communication and change modalities he has been helping people and companies successfully create change for over 15 years.  Last February he began adding the skills of Performance Kinesiology to his repertoire. 

As John says about this field, "It turbo-charges anything and everything you want to do.  Of all my tools this is the fastest and most effective for creating real change—for myself and others."

Strategic Media Group is PROUD to work with these two experts and offer them to our clients through workshops, consulting, and on-going coaching.

Today’s New Communication Tactics

There’s no doubt that we’re living in a world that is ever changing, and with those changes come new forms of communication. There was a time in the not-so-distant past when newsletters, memos, and board postings were an efficient and effective way to communicate a message.

Today, though, consumers expect faster, more directed communication methods. They want to sign up for an RSS feed, and know the moment something new is going on. They want digital streaming and intranets to have all of the information at the fingertips. It’s a YouTube world, and businesses & organizations have to learn how to meet the demands and challenges of these new communication tactics.

A certain amount of up-front investment is required in order to join this new communication industry, but in most cases, the cost is not nearly as significant as some folks fear. Generally, the following technologies must be acquired to successfully communicate in today’s world, but in most cases the costs are not terribly significant:

Internet Streaming CDNs - Be sure to budget the monthly fees associated with Internet streaming CDNs, which guarantee quality performance and uptime.

Web platforms & programming - A well-designed platform is critical for success in communicating online

Consulting & advice - Unless you’re truly a master at all (and nobody is!), you’ll need to leave room in the budget for consulting work. Your consultants make sure that every aspect of your business is professional.

Messaging - This one is kind of a no-brainer. To communicate effectively, you’ll need to be able to, well, communicate. With messaging, real-time communication is no problem.

Using rich media and technology can help convey a faster and richer message that has more impact on the receiver. Holding true to old forms of communication and ignoring these trends can be devastating, and can put an organization’s bottom line at risk.

Video is Here!

For companies and organizations that want to reach a mass audience online - and capture & keep audience’s attention - video is a must-have. In fact, over 90% of all businesses have Internet access and can access streaming content.

Video is especially powerful because it utilizes three major communication methods, impacting the reader on visual, auditory, and kinesthetic levels.

By harnessing the power of video, your company will be able to use compelling means to have an impact on the person receiving that message.

Video invites the person watching to hear, see, and feel the message on the screen - and if that message is yours, it could mean the difference between success and failure. Few people want to take the time to read a lot of text, and pictures can only convey small bits of information powerfully.

Fortunately for you (and unfortunately for them), a large percentage of companies are holding out on streaming video, or are not sure how to start started. That means you have the opportunity to seize an edge over your competitors. When your site features videos and their site doesn’t, who do you think is more likely to garner attention, convert customers, and drive traffic?

There are some issues to be aware of, though. For one, simply having moving images and audible sound does not make a video that people necessarily want to watch. Make sure that your message is clearly conveyed using good video content. That means paying careful attention to the mood and image that the video, audio, and tone of the final product conveys.

Online video should be kept short and to the point, or you run the risk of losing the attention of the audience. Remember, most of your readers are not curled up on the couch. They’re sitting at a computer and they’ve got a million other things they could be doing online, not to mention phone calls, co-workers, and meetings. Get their attention, get your message across, and watch the results!

When customers and potential clients can actually see your message in action (unlike memos, articles, and other forms on text-based marketing) they will be more likely to take action themselves. And for your company, that can mean an increase in revenue!

Let Us Always Remember...

Jon is Our PR Expert!

One of our expert consultants & subject matter experts is Jon Pushkin. In case you missed it – here is a little about Jon!

Jon Pushkin is president of Pushkin Public Relations and one of Denver's most widely respected PR practitioners. He is the Immediate Past Chair of the Independent Practitioner's Alliance of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), a Past President of the Colorado Chapter of PRSA, a member of the Advisory Board of Facing History and Ourselves, and Accredited in Public Relations (APR) by PRSA. His work has been recognized with awards from PRSA, Colorado Healthcare Communicators and the American Marketing Association.

We are very honored to work with Jon and include him in PR & Corporate Communications workshops, education, and consulting.

Marketing Can be Incredibly Ineffective

Let’s face the sad reality: the assumed effectiveness of marketing is a widespread myth.   There may be a marketing department down the hall, but how does that department and the programs therein truly affect the scope and productivity of your company?

As an active Marketing CEO, I can attest to receiving payment from clients whose marketing techniques were failing to obtain results. Several of these companies expended their entire marketing budgets on innovative, highly intriguing strategies that failed to yield positive results. However, it was not the substance of those programs that elicited failure; it was their integration and execution.

 

Let’s start at the beginning –

Why does a company come to Strategic Media Group or any another marketing consultant/firm?  The theoretical answer would be that the company desires to attain predetermined goals and traceable results.  One would think so but our experiences point to the contrary…