Get Naked With Tania

NO COST 1-on-1 Business Communications Analysis With Tania

Tania Usher — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:20:39 +0000

Since my email inviting you to share your thoughts on how we can best serve you, my website has been very busy calculating the massive response to our survey.

If you haven’t done so already click here to share your thoughts in our 2 minute survey.

Everyone completing the survey by midnight Friday 3 September will receive a 20 minute 1-on-1 Business Communications Analysis which will give you an overview of what’s working, what’s not and what will.

Over the coming weeks we’ll be sharing the findings of our online survey and rolling out our various online events, seminars and trainings based on your feedback.

© 2010 Tania Usher International
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: “Acclaimed success coach, speaker and writer Tania Usher strips back they hype and confusion to teach, support and empower entrepreneurs around the world grow sustainable and meaning businesses. If you’re looking for simple cost-effective ways to boost your business, register for Tania’s free weekly articles, advice and tools at ” www.TaniaUsherInternational.com”

About The Author

Tania Usher is an internationally renowned marketing communication strategist, business coach, author, speaker and adventurer. Her company Tania Usher International is dedicated to providing communication expertise and innovative solutions to accelerate results and positive transformation for entrepreneurs and businesses worldwide. Tania aims to touch as many lives as possible with her authentic and ‘from the heart’ get NAKED approach to business where she strips back the hype to expose raw and uncut strategies for life, business and success.

Go now to http://www.taniausherinternational.com

Are You Keeping Yourself Honest?

Tania Usher — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:30:31 +0000

Spending time alone with few distractions is a great way to get reacquainted with oneself. It can also be very confronting.

A strong sense of self includes the readiness to take responsibility for ALL your thoughts and actions…or non- actions! The opportunity to make excuses or procrastinate is often handed to you on a seemingly justifiable platter. When you share the stories of your latest challenges with others, you often gain permission to blame the circumstances for not getting started. Whew…you can let yourself off the hook.

Novelist, Joan Didion sums it up, “The willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life is the source from which self- respect springs.”

Life, in the larger sense, is all about lessons. And when you accept you are fully responsible for the life you have, you position yourself to benefit from all of life’s lessons and enhance your hold on your sense of self in the process.
Similarly, to blame others for everything that happens to you is to fail to learn from life and disempower yourself. For as surely as night follows the day the universe will keep sending these lessons your way. The moment you refuse to pass the buck is the moment you empower yourself and experience growth. This allows you to move to a new and higher level of understanding about yourself, one informed by the lessons you have learned. Your mistakes and frustrations, you now surmise, are the universe’s way of telling you to adjust your plans and fine-tune your strategies.

By taking responsibility for our actions and refusing to engage in the blame and excuse game we come to profit not just from our pronounced strengths but also from our not so well-known weaknesses. The basketball player who only makes 40% of her free throws knows quite well that only by working on that aspect of her play can she hope to dominate the court. By fully acknowledging your weaknesses and shortcomings you too would come to know what area of your life you need to work on to reach the goals you have set for yourself.

The willingness to take responsibility for the choices we make includes our readiness to acknowledge our part in the outcomes of our actions, the pleasant as well as the unpleasant.

It takes courage to be ruthlessly honest with yourself. It takes courage to give up all the excuses and eliminate all the reasons why you don’t take action NOW. It takes courage not to succumb to blaming outside circumstances.

“You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself,” John Rohn – American Business Philosopher.

Be careful not to let all the obstacles, challenges and excuses get in the way. Make an honest commitment to yourself and take action, no matter how little, NOW! And trust in yourself…you have the power to be the happy, successful person you know you are meant to be.

© 2010 Tania Usher International
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: “Acclaimed success coach, speaker and writer Tania Usher strips back they hype and confusion to teach, support and empower entrepreneurs around the world grow sustainable and meaning businesses. If you’re looking for simple cost-effective ways to boost your business, register for Tania’s free weekly articles, advice and tools at ” www.TaniaUsherInternational.com”

About The Author

Go now to http://www.taniausherinternational.com

Don’t risk it!

Tania Usher — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:30:23 +0000

If you’re not backing up your computer at LEAST daily your business, security and wellbeing are at great risk. Imagine losing all your photos, documents, videos, music and financial records. Studies have shown that it can take up to 5 years to recover from lost of data, never mind the heartbreak of losing all your photos and precious memories.

Don’t risk it!

There are a number of online backup solutions, I use Mozy. For just $4.95 per month your entire computer can be backed up. So in the unfortunate incident that you lose all your data, you’ll be up and running again in a matter of days, not years.

About The Author

Go now to http://www.taniausherinternational.com

Take Control of Your Life

Tania Usher — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:20:45 +0000

We live in a society that focuses on and reveres instant gratification and external appearances. Advertisements reveal a shiny new car and promote we can have it…NOW. So, with feelings of intoxication about looking good, caution is abandoned and finance sought, even when funds are low. Advertisers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars convincing consumers that this new "toy" will bring happiness, joy, peace and contentment. Of course it doesn’t.

Similarly, we’re often sold on the idea, primarily through the media, that we should look good to impress others. Our appearance will duly impress — even in the absence of having done any "inner work" to focus on who we are and what we want to be. All of this is beginning to leave people feeling empty, rootless, and searching for something "more."

The thing is, though, all of this "external" stuff, whether material items or striving to "look good" to impress others, is an empty pursuit. That doesn’t mean these things can’t be enjoyed for what they are, certainly, but they won’t give you the life you want. For that, you have to do some deep soul- searching, some "inner work," and get in touch with yourself so that you determine who you are now, and who you want to become.

Getting to know you first and foremost is key to starting this new path to fulfilment that has nothing to do with external gratification. Once you know who you are, you can set goals to becoming the very best of who you are. If you’ve been one of those "instant gratification" folks who think that shiny, new things can fill the void, take a look at why.

Chances are you’ve got some emotional emptiness that needs to be addressed and fulfilled. It doesn’t matter whether that emptiness comes from the present, or occurred in the past. You distract yourself from this emptiness by trying to buy more or to "look good." But of course nothing is going to fill that void. Nothing, that is, except YOU.

You’ve got to figure out what you’re lacking in your life and supply it for yourself. This is where you begin to construct your life, so that your values, actions and goals are commensurate with what YOU want, not what you think the world wants to see from you. Begin small, by sitting down and determining where you are now, and where you want to go. Write everything down so that you have something to refer to. Write down small goals that you can achieve on a week-by-week or month-by-month basis. Make sure those goals fit with your values, so that you’re not going against what you truly believe in.

As time goes by, you’ll clarify your goals so that you get clear about what you want and act with greater and greater integrity. This is tough for a lot of people to do, because so many people aren’t used to focusing on what they believe in and then acting in line with those beliefs. You can do this, though, with a little bit of effort and time. As you pay attention to your goals and make your actions match your values, you’ll see that your life begins to simply fall into place. When you’re at peace with yourself and what you’re doing, you’ll see how much better everything is!

© 2010 Tania Usher International
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: “Acclaimed success coach, speaker and writer Tania Usher strips back they hype and confusion to teach, support and empower entrepreneurs around the world grow sustainable and meaning businesses. If you’re looking for simple cost-effective ways to boost your business, register for Tania’s free weekly articles, advice and tools at ” www.TaniaUsherInternational.com”

About The Author

Go now to http://www.taniausherinternational.com

3 Secrets to Creating Great Buzz

Tania Usher — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:10:29 +0000

One of the keys to boosting your business is to unlock and unleash the secrets of creating great buzz. Buzz is that invaluable word-of-mouth promotion that spurs greater interest in your products or services. Buzz generates a strong interest for what you’re offering. Buzz ignites momentum that leads to fantastic results. If you want to leverage the power of buzz then you need to understand several communication strategies to help you succeed.

Creating buzz is all about connecting with your target audience creatively. Consumers are bombarded with thousands of messages each week. Statistics show that we are exposed to an average of 3000 messages a day! So if you fail to implement effective communication techniques it will be almost impossible for you and your business to stand out from the crowd.

Secret #1

The first proven communication strategy you need to utilize if you want to create buzz is to target the self interest of individuals. We’re all motivated by self interest, whether it’s seeking the respect of our peers, our financial wellbeing, satisfaction for helping others, being more productive…the possibilities are endless. If you embrace creativity, innovation and sincerity to appeal to the self interest of your target market, you’ll inspire them to take action.

Secret #2

The second secret for gaining attention and generating buzz is to time your efforts appropriately. Your new super insulated jacket liner will of course be of more relevance to people when the weather starts to turn frigid, and not when the sun is shining in the beginning of summer. This may appear simple and obvious, but many businesses fail to seize timing strategically. Timing your messages to coincide with existing events, holidays and celebrations enables you to leverage off existing buzz. The knock on effect is you support the media who are always looking for timely and relevant stories. Your story!

Secret #3

Secret three is very important for ALL your communication initiatives. You must hone in and target the right individuals. Do your research and find out who your real audience is. Not just who you think it is. Your audience is never “everyone”, "consumers" or "women". Perhaps it’s “mothers with children under 5 years” or “business owners with a college degree and disposable income". Once you know and understand your target audience, you can craft messages that are appeal to them.

Within every target audience there are also key individuals who you want to prioritize. These are referred to as the opinion leaders. Opinion leaders often have large social circles that command lots of influence. They hold much more credibility within their community than you or your company. So when you nurture strong relationships with these individuals, you’ll inadvertently be connecting with everybody they know as well. Find the opinion leaders and you’ll increase your success dramatically.

These are just a 3 Secrets you can start using today to help generate buzz for your products, services and your business. When you follow these strategies, you’ll be unleashing some tried and true communication strategies that will generate greater presence, more sales and increased profit.

About The Author

Go now to http://www.taniausherinternational.com

Winter Health Check: Will Your Business Survive?

Tania Usher — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 00:30:01 +0000

While some of my readers are enjoying the warmth of summer, here in the Southern Hemisphere the mercury has dropped and much of life has retreated indoors. Nature shows us that in winter activity often slows and if you have a business that’s seasonal in nature, you may find yourself lamenting your relative lack of income. When in fact, this winter slowdown is the perfect time to sit down and take stock of your business health.

When things are barrelling along and business is good, it’s very easy to overlook business health, simply because you’re busy managing day-to-day operations. However, if you experience slowdowns, especially on a semi regular basis, you can redirect your energy during this downtime to improve your overall business wellbeing.

Winter doldrums can be good for business
Although it may look like your bottom line takes a hit, this is the perfect time to check what’s working well, what’s not, what needs some added ‘vitamins’.

Mission Statement

A great place to start is to review your mission statement (or if you don’t have one, write one). Your mission statement is a succinct action statement of how you will achieve your business vision. Usually beginning with the word "to" your mission needs to be easy to understand and remember plus clearly state what you hope to accomplish.

Success Audit
Take a moment to reflect on what has worked well the last 12 months…and what hasn’t! It’s important to conduct an honest audit as this will provide you with an overview of what needs your immediate attention. As you jot down your notes, set priorities for what you can accomplish during this downtime.

Maybe it’s reorganizing inventory so that you bring in more of the "bestsellers." Maybe it’s getting on top of your books so that you have a clearer picture of your financial health. Where you can eliminate expenditure and where better to invest. Do you need more employees? Do you need fewer? Could you hire temporary help during flush times, and then scale back during lean times, so that you don’t have unnecessary staff overheads?

Business Goals
In addition to taking stock of the day-to-day needs of your business, inventory, staffing or finances, it’s also a good idea to reaffirm or clarify your business goals. Businesses change as they grow, so if you’re working off a Marketing Communication Strategy that’s more than a year old, it’s a good idea to review its relevance. Change anything you need to, including your original goals.

For example, maybe one of your original goals was to ramp up production and sales during slow winter months, but you can see now that the goal isn’t going to be supported by the marketplace. What can you do instead to keep yourself solvent during the winter months so that you’ll stay in business all year?

This is the perfect time to be creative. Maybe you need to expand your operations to include something that is not weather dependent. One great way to do this is to turn your expertise into online information products. This will ensure when your ‘hands on’ work slows, you’ll always have a steady stream of products available to service clients irrespective of the weather.

The thing is, although most businesses do experience downtimes from time to time "just because," if you’re having regular downtimes that are hurting your bottom line, it’s a good idea to use that time for a big wellness review and vitamin boost to ensure you are growing a healthy and productive business.

© 2010 Tania Usher International
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: “Acclaimed success coach, speaker and writer Tania Usher strips back they hype and confusion to teach, support and empower entrepreneurs around the world grow sustainable and meaning businesses. If you’re looking for simple cost-effective ways to boost your business, register for Tania’s free weekly articles, advice and tools at ” www.TaniaUsherInternational.com”

About The Author

Go now to http://www.taniausherinternational.com

Why It Pays To Be Controversial

Tania Usher — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 20:15:28 +0000

For professionals in the world of PR and promotion, the notion of controversy as a way to boost sales has long been embraced. The reason for this is varied and well worth exploring.

At the most basic level, controversy opens the door for attention to be called towards those that need to stand out a little more in an over-crowded and over-stimulated marketplace.

Traditional…or dare I say…dinosaur marketers may question the need for controversy when a large and targeted advertising campaign could yield the same result. The answer is that such results might only be possible provided you were willing to make enormous cost expenditures to raise awareness in the marketplace. For most entrepreneurs, this costly business building strategy is simply not a viable option. Spending tens of thousands of dollars in the hope of driving attention to your business venture would have a dire effect on precious cash flow.

Conversely, taking part in a lower budgeted promotional venture that yields controversy could draw a great deal of inexpensive awareness that can translate into marketing success.

It is necessary to point out that generating controversy does not mean that your goal is to generate offensiveness, demoralize others or promote ridicule. Far too often, people confuse being controversial with doing something outrageously offensive. While this may end up drawing attention, it will not be the type of attention you or your business will want to embody since this behaviour does not nurture long-term relationships. Offending, ridiculing and criticising others quashes trustworthy characteristics and while under certain circumstances this behaviour may deliver an effective result, the losses will outweigh any perceived gains. This is why this approach to controversy is best avoided.

The goal of controversy is to always make people want to take a closer look at what you have to say. In many ways, you create the potential for more people to learn what makes you tick because you have drawn them in with a promotional strategy that raises eyebrows.

One of the more interesting things about controversy is that it has the power to draw in the disinterested. Sometimes, such people could even have a proverbial "Road to Damascus" moment regarding your product or service. That is, they may be converted to actual customers if they see beyond the initial controversy and uncover the value of the product or service that you’re offering.

This does raise another helpful point: it is important to realize that the item you are selling is one of legitimate value. The reason for this is that no matter how much controversy surrounds a product or service, its sales will always be limited if quality is poor. Again, controversy works but it can only carry you so far. The quality of your underlying product or service MUST be integral to your promotion to truly achieve the desired benefit.

As such, it is wise to explore generating controversy as a sales technique. Injecting controversy profiles an entrepreneur’s perspective and character and has the power to significantly bolster success.

About The Author

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What Rock Stars Teach Us About Business Success

Tania Usher — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:33:28 +0000

we don’t tend to think of them as business building entrepreneurs. The traditional rock star image is one of a grunge guise designed to promote anti-authoritarianism. Well, this might very well be true. But, it is also true that rock stars are very successful and this means they prove an interesting model for business success.

Why? Well, it’s not easy to become a rock star. If you read every biography of famous rock stars, you would learn that most of them struggled for many years while working extremely hard to gain their fame. At the core of this, is a strong work ethic which would most definitely prove helpful to duplicate.

Additionally, successful rock stars are not known for being carbon copies of each other. They all have their own unique styles. This allows them to become noticed while also travelling their own path. Business people are advised to follow a similar path with certain understandings of the parameters of acceptable uniqueness in the business world.

There is also a certain attitude that makes rock stars outspoken. This is why they get noticed. And, while some of the more outspoken rock stars can be garish, many others have important and insightful messages to share. They don’t keep to themselves either and opt to keep a high profile. In the business world, a scaled back version of this assertive attitude could prove to be enormously successful.

Rock stars – for better or for worse – are known to endorse strong perspectives. This can sometimes come off as overbearing. But this type of attitude…providing it’s authentic…may prove to be a tremendous way of getting ahead of your peers who are playing it safe. Being safe is far too risky if you want to succeed in business.

There is also an often undisclosed selfless side to many rock stars. Specifically, they are known for their charity work which has long since proven to help those in need. Possessing an altruistic side can certainly be of great benefit for those entrepreneurs seeking to set their business apart from the competition.

Yes, there are many benefits to modelling rock stars when paving your pathway to success. While not always obvious on the surface, these benefits might reveal themselves upon closer inspection. So next time you’re listening to your favourite tune, go beyond the lyrics and look at your star’s business model…you might just see something that can help you fine tune your own rock star status.

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Every Business Needs The Power Of Free Media Exposure

Tania Usher — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 23:30:09 +0000

Every Business Needs The Power of Free Media Exposure

Whether you’re a small business launching a new service, a corporation closing a big joint venture, or a celebrity who just landed millions to make a new film, you need the support of the media to help spread your fabulous news, or risk that no one will know anything about it.

The value of exposure to the media is exponential. Mention the name Donald Trump and most people would know at least a little something about him or his billion dollar hotel empire. Without his years of exposure to the media he would not have become a virtual household name.

When you get noticed in the media you increase your credibility. This in turn leads to becoming known as an expert in your field and creating a loyal following.

Good exposure can take your company to new heights, for example, when businesses join forces to support a worthy cause. Readers and listeners often want to connect with such businesses and offer their support. When faced with a buying decision most people are drawn to organisations with strong ties to the community over ones that display little care for others. And the media is directly responsible for providing information of this calibre.

    Negative exposure, however, can make a significant dent in your credibility. Although a savvy communications expert with strong media relations can often weave their magic and turn potentially harmful coverage, into a positive story. But this is only successful for those businesses prepared to humble themselves and admit their mistakes. And when they do, the media can be a great vehicle to communicate ways they are righting wrongs.

    Exposure in the media will help your business garner a good reputation. But it’s important to remember that journalists need to be treated as an ally. Not someone to hound and harass about your latest new product. If you want to build your business using the power of free media exposure then you need to make life easier for journalists. One way of doing this is providing them with a steady stream of interesting news stories.

    Working hard to maintain a credible and constant media image is a must. You are going nowhere fast if your company is nothing but a constant tabloid pool.

The legacy of your business, whether bad or good, will directly affect your loved ones. So your goal is to attract positive attention so that people will look up to you and trust your business now and in the years to come.

The quality of your media exposure can help your company rise or fall, and it’s up to you to choose which it will be.

About The Author

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Why Is Social Media Essential for Nurturing Relationships?

Tania Usher — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 15:12:56 +0000

Why is Social Media Essential for Nurturing Relationships ?

When social media sites first started to appear on the public landscape, most people found the sites to be quaint little pursuits for those looking to kill some time on the internet. While that may have been how these sites started out they have now expanded far beyond their original intent.

Namely, many social media sites are being effectively employed to promote businesses and savvy entrepreneurs are rolling up their sleeves and getting involved. Social media sites offer cost-effective opportunities to promote your online (or brick and mortar) business in a more potent manner than traditional marketing methods.

The reason for this is that a social media site is designed for communications. Unlike other forms of online promotions, you can effectively employ a social media site to promote your business by communicating directly with your audience.

This paves the way for positive interactions and opens the door for learning exactly what your client wants and identifying what’s on their mind. This, in turn, allows you to adjust your business accordingly, which then has the obvious benefit of boosting your business profits.

Prior to social media, the most common method of getting to know your customer was to engage in expensive third party market research. While this was not an ineffective method for discovering what was on the mind of customers, it was a limited method. There was no interaction with you’re your potential target market. Social media changes all of that and this is certainly a positive development in the way marketing research is performed today.

First of all, quality online social media sites provide numerous ways of communicating with your audience. These include access to instant messaging, email, profile comments, blogging, and even voice operated systems. All of these advanced functions come with the potential to directly speak – and listen – to your customer base. This can allow you to tweak and adjust your communication strategies according to the needs and desires of your customer.

If you discovered an emerging trend among your customer base, you can easily tap into it based on the buzz surrounding the issue. Since the lines of communication will be open, authentic and honest (key values of strong sustainable businesses) you’ll have a clear insight into your customer. As long as you pay attention to what they are thinking, saying, and feeling, you will begin to learn exactly what’s on their mind. This will allow you to nurture your relationship with them since you will understand where they are coming from in terms of consumer perspective.

Nurturing experiences is not always easy, particularly in business. However, when you actively implement powerful communicative tools that social media sites provide, you can magnify your potential to succeed in business. It truly is a wonderful way to nurture relationships when approached properly.

About The Author

Go now to http://www.taniausherinternational.com