Being introduced to new experiences can change your perspective on life. They can also change your perspective on how to run your business. Karen Post and the Oddpodz team experienced many new things this past week and we’re sure you’ll enjoy the take-away.

1 – Miracle Whip and Cate Blanchett. What do these two have in common? Differentiating you brand will help you succeed in the long run.
2 – Making history in Saudi and 5 lessons from the experience. Being introduced to global challenges can be very rewarding.
3 – Size can matter. 4 ideas to help your brand impact measure up. Increase your brand memory with objects bigger than life.
4 – Waiting patiently. An oxymoron and opportunity. Don’t wait for your competitors to measure up to you, start creating a masterpiece now.
5 – Have an AT&T iphone? Don’t expect service in NYC. You’ll be disappointed. How some technology can’t always keep up to speed.

If you missed last weeks wrap up, click here.

Also, be sure to check out:
What Jimmy Fallon taught me about marketing.
5 promotional ideas to earn serious visibility for your venture.
Facebook, I’m just not that into you.

I’m excited, anxious and very proud.

About a month ago, I got a call from a major Saudi company inviting me to address 300 of their team members on branding. They are the national airline; the Saudi Arabian Airlines. They learned about me through my Google ranking and were convinced I knew my stuff from my websites, videos and blogs.

I was surprised as Saudi still practices many gender divisions. And they selected me, a woman business expert on branding.

I had to immediately report to my contact – the VP of marketing and a member of the company for over 32 years. He was knowledgeable, kind and equally enthusiastic about the new business relationship.

We ironed out a deal, discussed their objectives and my program: Why brand? Which focuses on touch points, social media,  customer experiences, and all the details that go with it.

While I thought I was pretty worldly, I was really in the dark concerning this country and their culture. As many of you will have opportunities to do business around the globe, I’m pleased to share what I’ve learned in preparing for the trip so far and will blog regularly from abroad. After my trip to the Middle East I will head to NYC for 6 days and will share more insight from my journey there.

Marketing lessons.

• If you can do business abroad, make sure your web site reflects that.
• When a lead calls you, qualify them immediately. Discuss budget, objectives, terms.

Communication lessons.

• Even if your contact speaks great English, don’t assume they can read all your emails.
• Don’t use local slang, speak clearly and in a concise manner.
• Speak to others involved in the project. For me, it was the other speakers, John Tschohl,
  Steve Martin, James Belasco and Gerrie Smith with a UK firm called Honour that  has a history of working with the client. All provided so much valuable insight and they are now my new global friends.

Travel lessons.

• You must have a visa to enter Saudi. This takes some time. For a couple hundred dollars, I engaged a DC firm to facilitate the process. A1passport and Visa Express was great to work with. They handle everything. They take your documents to the embassy and secure the visa.
• Get to know military time.
• Pack your international electricity plugs for your computer.
• For limited over seas flights, don’t risk missing it, get to NYC a day early, just in case.

Cultural lessons.

• Do your homework. Understand and respect your client’s values and traditions
• Talk to others who have journeyed there. In this case, other women.
• Modify your content, so its effective, yet not offensive . Go light on US examples, include world case studies.
• Jump in their shoes. Be relevant.

More next week!

Check out our other marketing blogs too.

Every day I hear people complaining about their jobs. They don’t like what they do. They don’t like their boss. They don’t like the hours and schedules required of them and they don’t think they are paid enough.

Sure leaving this faux sense of security of being employed can seem scary. And oh yeah, being responsible and accountable for all your actions is a serious and sometimes not easy commitment.

Most of us live in America. The land of the free. No one has a gun next tot your head, who says you have to be employed. We can all make choices to break away from the employment muck zone to being an enterprising entrepreneur where you control your destiny.

If you hate your job or you know someone who does, there is one person to blame. YOU or THEM!!

Monday is Valentines Day. A holiday of celebrating love, admiration and passion. These are all available when you are an entrepreneur. If you are not entrepreneur yet, join us. If you are, then celebrate everyday the greatest place to be in the world.

21 reasons why I love being an entrepreneur!

1. My actions ans choices decide my paycheck
2. I can play tennis at 2PM
3. Or work until midnight
4. Or start at 9AM
5. I can wear sweats and tennis clothes everyday
6. I can’t get fired
7. I can try crazy ideas
8. I can invest in lifetime learning or anything for that matter
9. I can pick my support team
10. I can fire my support team
11. I can break rules
12. I can make rules
13. I can go to the movies at 4
14. I an eat pizza at 10 AM at my desk
15. I can give my self a raise
16. I can buy a new company car
17. I can change my mind
18. I can pick my clients
19. I can take vacations when I want
20. I can start a new business
21. I can work hard, or I can hardly work

View our set up your new business ta-do list to establish the best business structure for you!

It sure can. Research shows that people who are happy are healthier and wealthier. Think about how much more energy you have when you feel great, you got a big new client, you are in love, you accomplished something difficult, it’s better than two shots of B12. And happy people experience less stress and attract other happy people which create a domino effect of momentum.

Identity small things that make you happy and do them  often. You will see a difference in your business, your support team and your life.

Here are a few things that make me happy.

• Going to an awesome movie.
• Hearing one of my favorite songs.
• Feeling the sun.
• Endorphins from exercise.
• Winning a tennis match.
• Smelling garlic cooking.
• Completing a tough project.
• Getting a massage.

The cool thing is, I can make all of these happen.

What are some small things that make you happy?
Now go make them happen.

Also, be sure to check out: Celebrate love being an entrepreneur everyday.

Juggling. I don’t remember ever taking a class on this in high school or college. Yet, as an entrepreneur and small business owner, you must master the skill like a professional circus star. Here are two methods that work well for me that I’ve just figured out through experience.

1) The 90-day strict focus juggling act.
This week and for the next couple months, I’m in serious lock down mode. This means other than sleeping, eating,  an hour or so of daily tennis or some cardio and cranking out quality work and I’m not doing anything else. PERIOD. I don’t recommend this approach often, it’s intense and most of your friends will think you are very weird and may even refer to you as a cave person, but sometimes, this style of juggling is just plain required.

This is a choice I’ve made because the current list of balls in the air that are directly tied to my big life goals. I am very intentional and know clearly what I want based on my core values.

My #1 life goal is: to ensure freedom and independence which are derived from financial, creative and high happy factor success.

My current list of responsibilities: my consulting work, my new book, Brand Turnaround: How Brands Gone Bad  Return to Glory, McGraw-Hill (complete manuscript due by May 1st), my Oddpodz blogging, my speech and trip Saudi Arabia all require big time, deep problem solving and creative thinking. For me, this is what I call the highly-focused juggle act. You keep your eyes and thoughts on specific projects and nothing else. You say no to social stuff, volunteer duties and anything that needs brain cells or attention, unless it’s part of your focused juggling act or really an emergency. Fortunately, I have the luxury of being single and having no dependents, so I can pull this off, this may not be so easy for everyone.

From here, I map out a very clear working plan.
This includes: daily objectives and needed tasks, support team and a detailed time line to accomplish all.  From here, I schedule daily blocks of time (the night before) to work on each of the four balls, (sometimes I even use a food timer to limit how much I spend on any given ball) stay very discipline so I don’t break my train of focus with non emergency distractions – like taking non urgent calls, checking email etc. – and I make sure I give clear instructions and expectations to any team members who is supporting me. Plus, when I do this highly-focused juggle I also do my rituals, read my affirmation as I eat right, don’t drink too much and visit my master goal list daily, so I’m so clear on where I’m headed.

When time is not such a critical factor, I use this more balanced juggling act formula, which produces great results.

2) The 365-day juggling act.
Stay calm.
Be happy you have balls to juggle. It’s much better than the alternative. Don’t view the balls that you are juggling as scary time bombs, but as great opportunities. Try to limit the number you juggle to 7 to 10 max or you are headed for the loony house soon.

Embrace balance.
Mix up your work load with non work stuff. Enjoy life, since it’s not a dress rehearsal.

Work from plan.
Write out daily objectives and needed tasks, identify who you need to support you and a develop a detailed time line to accomplish all.

Celebrate your achievements and be grateful.
Hourly, daily  and often.

Have fun, juggling is not a root canal.

Don’t forget to check out: Torn between two lovers, no different than business priorities.

There are no coincidences or any layer luck with people who achieve a lot.

They take chances. They make choices. They are intentional.
These moves create the path to scoring what they want, their goals.

Practice these everyday and you will see a major shift in your results.

Goal-getters
Go get it! and make wise choices.

1) They have an absolute, clear plan filled with accountable goals.
It’s not vague pipe dreams, like I want to be rich and famous, but a very specific set of items they can see. For example, I will earn $300,000 in 12 months, write a best selling book published by a big house publisher and work 4 days a week. What exactly do you want?

2) They don’t surround themselves with people who have lower standards than they do.
Their buddies are hitting home runs too. Sure they help a few less fortunate folks with mentoring etc., but they do not waste time with time suckers, whiners and ‘I’m a victim’, don’t take responsibility, loser-types. You are the company you keep. Yes, this can be uncomfortable.

3) They focus on roaring, powerful rivers and not almost-empty puddles.
They are highly productive. They think about what they say yes to and what to pass on, because they know what will get them closer to their goals and what will be a costly detour. Are you spending time tooling on three blogs that no one reads, and hanging with people who can’t really influence massive pools of others or help you connect to someone extremely connected. Or could you be getting over your fear and pitching a major TV station on doing a story on your company that reaches millions.

4) Guilt is not an emotion they know.
Guilt is a useless, momentum busting waste. Most of us picked up this awful state of mind as a child. But successful people have learned to change the story. You are not responsible for saving the world. You do not need to help every living soul and you are worthy of happiness and success.

For more on reaching your goals, check out: 26 steps to reach any goal in your entrepreneurial marathon.

KEY STRATEGY- Better align all several companies, passions and goals.
Last year, I hosted a planning meeting with some of my top advisers to figure out how to make Oddpodz a profitable and sustainable venture.

Oddpodz has been a work in progress:
If we had a theme song, it would sound something like this.

Try, learn, fail.
Get clearer on who we are. Do it. Adjust.
Try more, learn, fail.
Try again, learn, make small progress forward.
Try again, learn, get clearer on what we need to be to. Do it.

(Repeat chorus) Try more, learn, fail. Keep at it. Improve everyday.

Like Seth Godin proclaims, Try stuff. Fail. Repeat. This is the fuel for success.

That day of planning lots of great ideas were generated. And we’ve implemented many of them, which have made us better, stronger and smarter.

However, the number one recommendation that day was to better align my core competencies (as the leader of the company and the Branding Diva®) with all of my interests, my speaking, my consulting and Oddpodz. I’ve done that this past year and it is working. I have more balance, peace and influence, and made more money in two of my other businesses, which is allowing me to fund Oddpodz long tail. Long tail is a term that was coined by Chris Anderson, founder of Wired. Long tail means: the distribution and inventory costs of businesses successfully applying this long tail strategy allows them to realize significant profit out of selling small volumes of hard-to-find items to many customers instead of only selling large volumes of a reduced number of popular items.

Oddpodz, the site, will remain a content rich series of blogs to help creative-minded entrepreneurs. Under the corporate entity we will are developing niche tools specific to segmented industries. This will be our long tail. The first one is for restaurants. I’ll be sharing more on this soon.

So what does alignment look like?

• Doing what you do best. For me, it’s writing. Oddpodz is a publishing model.
• Be a clear brand voice. Not watered down with a distractions. Oddpodz is an extension of ME.
• Help people with your expertise. Mine is branding, marketing, entrepreneurial expertise. Oddpodz focus is just that.
• Laser focus on highest margin revenue and brand opportunities first. Oddpodz is a long tail company, my other companies are not. That’s OK.
  
• Strategically leverage and streamline everything. As Oddpodz is getting older, we are simpler and a cross-promoted company with a known brand, MOI!

Are you an entrepreneur with several ventures, some doing well, and others challenged? Can better alignment with your core, your brand, be the answer?

It’s an idea.

For more on strategies, check out: 12 questions to ask yourself while planning your 2011 marketing strategies.

2010 was an amazing year for me. I had a killer year – revenues rocked, I grew my mental capacity, along with my waistline, and I learned a bunch of new skills.

All were positive as they added and challenged my adventure, bottom line and awareness journey. Here’s my recap and what I took away.

Most meaningful moments
1) When I witnessed the BP explosion flying to Baton Rouge, LA for a meeting.
Takeaway-Life is short and at any given moment it can change.

2) When my mom watched me play tennis for the first time and I won. I’ve been playing for ten years.
Takeaway-Even when you are 50, parent’s involvement still matter.

Proudest moments
1) When I discovered I was the #1 Google search for branding speaker.
Takeaway- Content writing has value.

2) When I lead the launch of a global green brand called Earthwise.
Takeaway-Branding, Twitter and hard work payoff.

3) The progress we made on Oddpodz.
Takeaway-If something is a long tail venture, do the best you can, keep pushing, keep learning and don’t give up.

4) I scored over 25 major media new stories (FOX over 10 times, NY Times, Forbes, Miami Herald).
Takeaway-You must be assertive, reach out to the media often, with newsworthy ideas, and then do an awesome job adding to their show, whether it’s print, TV, radio or online.

Best business changes
1) Hired my sister to manage my books.
Takeaway- How did I ever do it without her? This business relationship has strengthened our bond and drastically reduced my tax challenges.

2) Invested in expert coaching.
Takeaway-When you fly a company with a small, virtual team, you need professional, high-level paid sounding boards. Asking friends and business colleagues who like you will slow down your progress.

3) Getting rid of my big office.
Takeaway-I’m not an office girl. I’m most productive when I work in my cave, on the street and by my rules.

Biggest lessons
1) Email is not the best way to communicate.
Takeaway- If you put it in writing it can live on and bit you back.

2) Hiring great people takes time, testing and more testing.
Takeaway-Hiring great people takes time, testing and more testing.

Things I still don’t understand
1) How the Gap could have launched such as ugly, new logo.
Takeaway- Even big companies do really stupid things.

2) Why Brett Farve took so long to retire and is such a public cry baby.
Takeaway-There’s a lot I don’t know, especially about guys.

2) Why Tony Robbin’s Show got canceled and The Jersey Shore is breaking rating records.
Takeaway-A lot of people will buy things I would not.

Coolest things
1) Toking oxygen and drinking champagne at the St Regis Spa in Aspen.
Takeaway- Money is not the end all, but sure pays for some crazy fun.

2) Going to see Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in NYC and Second City in Chicago.
Takeaway-Comedy is as important as food, my bed and black shoes.

3)  Hanging out with a hot former Russian hockey player & slamming shots of horseradish-infused vodka  while enjoying crepes and caviar was quite the fun night. And best part of it is – I’m here and he’s way over there.
Takeaway-Simple, random and kind of crazy encounters with no expectations are pretty amazing moments in life. I’m keeping my eyes open for more.

NEXT YEAR I’ve got my eyes on a few new adventures too.

I’d like to attend the American Music Awards, Saturday Night Live or Fashion Week in NY.

I like to have a major new book under my belt.

And meet any of these inspiring folks and have a coffee, like Lady GaGA, Tony Robbins, Michael Phelps or Richard Branson.

I’d also like to be featured in the Wall Street Journal.

How was your year? And what’s next for you to step up your success?!

Don’t forget to check out: Leadership = the quality of your presence.

Whatever you celebrate or commemorate this holiday season, the Oddpodz team wishes you lots of joy and happiness, and a sense of humor to manage through any challenging parts to get you there.

December is an interesting month for business and entrepreneurs. For many the 12th month of the year represents the highest volume of sales, for others, things almost stop until January, either way it’s a month of reflection and the end of year and beginning of a new one.

For many of us, giving and receiving gifts is also part of the season. To show appreciation, love, friendship of maybe to just support Hallmark® and economies around the globe, giving is good.

I made an entrepreneurs’ holiday wish list. I hope you all receive a n abundance of these and can give them to others too.

1) Intention
Intention is a great gift. It cuts through the junk and clears the way to where you want to be. Run your business, live your life with full intention. You’ll be amazed at how many other gifts you’ll get. Be intentional.

2) Empathy
Empathy is an ultimate gift. To understand others point of view, their needs and expectations keeps relationships tight, customers loyal and new connections feeling welcome. Trust and value your opinions, but do respect others, even if you don’t agree with them. It takes all kinds to make our world go round. Be empathic.

3) Confidence
Confidence is a powerful gift. Confidence has turned around careers, businesses and lives. It’s the super human fuel that somethings is hard to explain. There’s not limit to the confidence you can own or the empowering support you can give others, so their confidence has no boundaries. Be confident.

Happy Holidays!

Be safe, stay warm and enjoy!

Don’t forget to check out: What Jimmy Fallon taught me about marketing.

Tiger Woods knows what this feels like. Sunday he was so close to turning the tide and winning again. He and fellow golfer Graeme McDowell were tied, in the hunt and Tiger failed again. He came up short. It’ been 378 days since Tiger experienced a major golf victory. That’s a long, frustrating dry spell.

The Carolina Panthers football team haven’t seen but one W since the 2010 season started and they have a whole team to help avoid the dreaded defeat zone. The list of athletes and entrepreneurs who experience being a loser every Monday is nothing new. Statistics indicate for every winner there are multiples of many losers. Being a Monday morning loser does not mean you are lazy, lacking talent, or don’t deserve to win, it does mean that you have work to do.

Whether you are an athlete or an entrepreneur, here are seven steps to changing the loosing story.

1) Shake it off, yesterday is history.
2) Review game film, the events, the processes in the activity and talk to others who witnessed it.
3) Re visit the equipment used, the uniform worm, and all the components that were part of the failing short.
4) Make adjustments, this could mean with the team, the routine behind the preparation, adding something, lessening something. Changing something.
5) Believe that you are a winner. Affirm there is no reason why you can’t be the victor.
6) Focus, focus. focus.
7) Don’t get discouraged. And don’t give up. If you do, you are are just guaranteeing your spot as a loser.

Tiger will taste victory again and so will the Carolina Panthers. And if you’ve felt defeat recently you will too.  Athletes are in business, entrepreneurs are athletes.

Stay competitive. Preparation is vital. See and feel the result, it’s up to you.

Don’t forget to check out: Forgive me, I’m using an excuse card tonight.