Motivation and Marketing

Participated in a conference call today hosted by Jack Canfield (of 'Chicken Soup for the Soul' fame). Wow. While he doesn't talk about anything that you don't already know, he reminds and challenges you to get back to the basics. His web site and monthly seminars are worth checking out: http://www.askjackcanfield.com/

Some background. Way back in a previous life when I was at a low point in my life personally and professionally, I attended a live seminar. At its conclusion I bought the set of books he was selling that night. Read them all in the process pulled myself out of the doldrums and got on with life once again. At the heart of the experience: setting goals. Writing them down. Lots of them. Then breaking them down into small steps and working daily to achieve them.

Some were long term, others more immediate. All painted a picture of life in the future.

To my surprise, as I kept at the daily discipline of reviewing them and working on 'baby steps', I actually started to accomplish them.

Then I lapsed. And now I find myself once again going back to the basics: setting and writing down my goals. And once again, the positive energy begins to flow as I get to work on creating my own future.

This is analagous to the business of marketing. I was taught a long time ago that you can basically break any business down into the following: Objectives, Strategies, Tactics. Essentially this is the business plan, the marketing plan, the communication plan, the advertising plan...even the operations plan. The objective is where you want to go, what you want to achieve. The strategies are how you want to get there. The tactics are the specific, 'baby step' things that you work on each day to get there.

And the motivation? Knowing that you are living each day working toward achieving your objectives.