What ever you do don’t be afraid to fail!

Don’t be afraid to try something new, because you’re scared that you aren’t going to be good at it. As Nike says “Just Do It”! People fail all the time and when they do they only become stronger.  It is because of the mistakes we make we learn what and what not to do moving forward. It goes off the phrase “you don’t know what you don’t know and you wont know until you try”  

Fear and insecurities are the single biggest threats when becoming successful. Fear it’s self can significantly paralyze you and your business growth.

Recently, everyone in the Atlanta office took a personality test. If you follow our blogs you can see that we have a very diverse group here in ATL! This helps keep us on our toes and gives us the unusual ability to see a problem from different angles for our clients. But enough about us, we know our personalities. What I want to know is - do you know the personality of your brand?

There are many important factors to consider when expanding a business. Growing a business isn't easy and I can't pretend to have too much experience in scaling up. I am still in the early stages of doing this with Marketing Eye, and there have been some challenges, but largely it's all about hard work, determination, and motivation to finish a job that you started.

Here is what you should know when expanding your business: 

Entrepreneurs beware!!!! Are you still sitting on your hands instead of making very important business decisions because you are so indecisive or you have no clue which way to go and are not prepared to take the risk?

So many entrepreneurs have amazing ideas. True. So many them never see them through. Fact.

It's a new year, well, at least we are almost a quarter of the way through 2016, and business people still trying to climb to the next level keep  on having these stops and starts that at the end of the only costs them time, money and an ability to be more successful.

Someone recently ask me… “how do you tell what kind of voice you use for each social media platform?”

The question really got me thinking. Each platform has a specific personality.  All postings should be based on your audience, but you have to think about how they want to hear your valuable information. Do they want to read an extensive study? Would they prefer a humorous anecdote. What are they looking for? An easy way to make that decision is: What kind of attire is your audience wearing when they read your post?”

Social media, a virtual world designed to share, to exchange information, or to notify all of your contacts of how photogenic your cat is. Many social media outlets have assertively established their importance in the marketing industry. However, as these platforms evolve, it is key that marketers take full advantage of them.

While all channels of social media aren’t applicable to every business, if used efficiently they can be a creative avenue to reach target audiences. Currently, snapchat is the new wave.

Snapchat is a mobile application that allows users to send and receive "self-destructing" photos and videos called snaps. Additionally, users can post snaps creating a montage like “story” for all their followers to view. Snapchat has successfully distinguished itself from other media platforms with their live, then disappearing content characteristics.

Okay, enough back story. What can Snapchat do for marketers? Oh, how the possibilities are endless with this one, so here’s a few.

With a growing business there are pains, and sometimes things happen that are out of our control.

Our Sydney office experiences an exponential inflow of leads every single day. We are completely irked as to why we receive so many Sydney based leads from our social media and website, and as such, we need to employ more people.

In the recruitment process, we have received a lot of applicants, but in fairness, we should have gone back to the original applications we received 6 months ago, who may not have re-applied this time around. The quality of applicants in June last year was much higher than the quality we are receiving today.

But with the pains of growing, we have to be strong delegators to various offices and make sure we are all super organised.

And that is exactly what Emily Ryan has done. Emily is a marketing manager in our Sydney office and the minute we identified that we needed more staff, and with one of our team leaders moving to Geelong, this need was urgent.

What I found in this situation it had a profound effect on my opinion of people.

Emily not only stood up and took control without any quarrels or even being asked to, she fixed any problems that had arisen and became this dynamic, unbelievably capable person who looked immediately to the future and ensured that every part of the business in the area of marketing was completely, utterly, under control.

It blew my mind.

I didn't know Emily very well as I don't travel to Sydney as much as I use to, but what I did know is that she comes from a really good, ethical family. Going back to my theory that the best hires come from good families that install manners, respect and integrity in their children, Emily epitomizes exactly the type of employee or team member more precisely, that is instrumental in taking a company to the next level.

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Both of her family members are Pharmacists and own a Pharmacy. They have seen as much as I have no doubt with employees who perhaps don't have the company's best interests at heart.

Her parents have taught her right from wrong. They installed the ethos of doing a good job and being the best you can be. She has zero sense of entitlement and works hard without any supervision. 

The work that Emily does with clients is all based on what is in their best interests and is in every respect ethical. I really cannot speak highly enough of her morals and loyalty, alongside a very apt marketing manager who one day will be a marketing director or CMO.

She has stood out and the respect I have for her right now is enormous. I am genial that we've had this hurdle in our business because through it, I got to know Emily much better and I am so proud to have her on our team.

I also want to give her family a hug. Through their impeccable parenting skills, they have brought up a young woman who outshines other millennials ten-fold. She gives me certainty that my theory on good parenting produces the best employees.

I am positive that there is more to come with my thoughts on the effect of parenting on the future employees in a company.

There are many reasons why companies should fire their marketing managers - you just have to work out what their value is to the organization and the cost to replace them.

Constant relentless improvement is always necessary. It is part of Marketing Eye's mandate. When Nina De La Cruz came to me in December with this newish technology platform that showcases viewing a business card and having an individual present what they do at the same time through a popup video - I was suitably impressed.