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Find Your Intersection for BIGG Success

Find Your Intersection to Stand Out

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Find Your Intersection for BIGG Success

Differentiation is so important in today’s marketing environment. Listen as George & Mary-Lynn help you find your intersection to enhance your brand. Click play to hear The BIGG Success Show Podcast (Duration 7:25)

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At BIGG Success, we help people live life on their own terms to achieve personal, professional, and financial freedom.

We do that with online and offline coaching and consulting, e-learning products, the Entreprenurturing Center, our blog, podcast, and radio show.

We’re in the top 1% of all business podcasts in iTunes with The BIGG Success Show. We also have a nationally syndicated radio show – a one-minute feature called BIGG Success in a Minute which will soon will be on over 1,000 radio streams with access to 50 million listeners.

We’ve worked with chambers of commerce, and community banks to help their small business customers on everything from finance to marketing.

As a result of our success in building a brand from scratch, one of our coaches suggested we help other people do the same. That was a great suggestion!

Now we’re focusing on helping people and businesses build a brand that sells.

We’re working with existing businesses and start ups – who are establishing a brand or re-branding. In fact, our branding program was added to our University’s Research Park, (ranked by Forbes as one of the top 10 in the country) to help businesses in their I-Start program.

How to Find Your Intersection

Differentiation is so important in today’s marketing environment, which is why it’s important to find your intersection to enhance your personal and professional brands.

An intersection is simply how your interests and what you do, gives you something that’s unique in the marketplace.

We’ll share our personal intersections, along with the intersection for BIGG Success. We encourage you to share yours too! Leave a comment below or email us.

[Mary-Lynn]

For 25 years, I had a brand: Radio DJ. I’ve worked on the air in Illinois in Lincoln, Bloomington, Peoria, Champaign, and Chicago. So when I first left the only profession I’d known back in 2007, I felt a bit lost. I didn’t know how to explain what I was now, and people still thought I was on the radio! I couldn’t escape my identity.

Then one day, when I was lamenting to George, about not being a broadcaster anymore…and it hit me. I was defining myself too narrowly. I was defining myself as a radio broadcaster. But through our blog, podcast, social media posts, business articles, newsletters and interviews…I was still broadcasting!

Once I broadened my definition, I was able embrace my past profession and see my intersection: radio broadcaster and social media entrepreneur. I have a unique understanding of both traditional media and new media. This enables me to help people learn how to broadcast their message in whatever format makes sense for them – and – broadcasting a good message is essential to having a successful business.

[George]

I don’t ever remember a time in my life when I didn’t want to own a business. In fact, some people introduce me as the man who’s never had a job! I’ve had my own businesses for years.

My intersection, I believe, has become that I have this combination of real-world experience along with actual academic teaching. I’ve done both of them for a long period of time…practicing in the real world while staying in touch with all the academic theories.

What’s fun about that is it helps me understand – with the businesses we work with and our own – how we connect strategy to everyting we do. How the money, the marketing, and everything has to flow to maximize your results.

[BIGG Success]

Our company is the intersection of life and entrepreneurship. We say that even if you don’t want to own your own business, you still have to think like an entrepreneur.

In work: between the great recession and global competition, everyone needs to be nimble and ready to shift towards opportunity. Entrepreneurs understand how to deal with uncertainty, so the ability to think like one is an advantage.

In life: To live life on your own terms, you have to know what those terms are, then do whatever it takes to make it happen. There’s sacrifice in any decision. Maybe you don’t take a promotion because you want more time at home. Maybe you do start a business to be able to work from home.

Think about your intersections. Those places where your interests and what you do meet. It’s important because:

  • It gives your brand meaning
  • It opens new doors
  • It gives you leverage
  • It puts you in touch with more people
  • It helps you stand out

It leads to BIGG Success!

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file | podcast:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/biggsuccess/00885-120313.mp3

Image in this post from stock.xchng

Lead By Example Leads to Bad Leadership

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lead by example to achieve BIGG Success

Lead by example is not a choice. George & Mary-Lynn tell you why on The BIGG Success Show Podcast. Press Play (Duration 4:28)

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“Lead by example” is bad advice which leads to bad leadership. It implies a choice which doesn’t exist.

Yet if there were such a thing as “The 10 Commandments for Leaders,” one of them would surely be “Lead by example.”

We say it. But we’ve realized we failed to make note of this problem…

It implies that you have a choice as a leader. You don’t.

You can’t choose whether or not you will lead by example. One way or another, you WILL lead by example – either a good one or a bad one.

Here’s why it’s important to realize that you don’t have a choice – your people will follow your lead. You can’t expect them to do otherwise.

If you default to a bad example, your people will do likewise. Let’s look at three ways this shows itself in the workplace.

What’s good for the leader is good for the led

If it’s good for you as the leader, it’s good for your people.

People are put off by people of privilege, people who act like there’s a different set of rules for them.

[George] I’ll never forget when I was in training for my first franchise. We learned about a store owner who went to the cash register every day, hit the “No Sale” button, grabbed some money and went to lunch.

He was surprised when one of his employees started doing the same thing!

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander!

“But I’m the owner! It’s my money. I’ve earned it.” This is what many entrepreneurs and business owners think.

Yes, you may be the owner, but there’s a way to take money out of your business and there’s a way not to. If you don’t want them to do it too, don’t do it yourself.

A leader who cares is a leader who’s cared for

If you don’t care about your people, don’t be surprised when your people don’t care.

This is when the ripples start turning to tidal waves.

They won’t care about you, so don’t expect any favors. Don’t expect them to put forth any extra effort. Don’t expect them to step up when you really need them.

But the ripple becomes a tidal wave – Don’t expect them to care for your customers any more than you care about them. Don’t expect them to look out for the company any more than you look out for them.

Can you see how serious this can get in an instant?

Can you see how costly it is to not understand that you can’t choose – you lead by example, for good or for bad?

The bottom line is a two-edged sword for leaders

If you’re all about money, your people will be about compensation.

The only loyalty they will have is to the person who pays them the most.

Think about the effect on your turnover. Think about the cost of recruiting and training new people:

  • People you have to pay while they climb up the learning curve.
  • People who are new to your team, so your whole team’s productivity suffers until they get to know each other and start working in sync.
  • People who don’t know your customers like the people you have now. They don’t know what your customers want or how they like to be treated. So you may potentially lose customers because your example made money the only issue.

So set a good example and your people will follow. It leads to BIGG success!

Do you think we’re on the right track here?

Image from stock.xchng

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file | podcast:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/biggsuccess/00879-092413.mp3

lessons from natures best hunters on making money

3 Lessons to Make More Money, More Dependably

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lessons from natures best hunters on making money

Listen to this post! Click a player to hear George & Mary-Lynn on The BIGG Success Show Podcast (Duration 5:30)

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If you’re a business owner, solopreneur, salesperson or other professional – you’re always thinking about finding customers so you create a steady stream of income.

What if you could generate income more predictably?

What if you didn’t have to work so hard to do it?

Sounds great, doesn’t it? Want to know the key? You just have to…

Think like a wild animal!

We say that because, as we were working over the weekend, we had Nat Geo Wild on in the background. We caught several of the Built for the Kill series. The shows we watched were all about Africa’s natural born killers.

It made us think about the hunt for customers. We hasten to add – we’re NOT suggesting that you look at customers as prey.

Unfortunately, plenty of people still do think like that. It’s the wrong attitude, especially today.

But we learned three lessons about putting food on the table, more dependably, with less effort by thinking like a wild animal:

Reduce risk by knowing where you rule.
Lions rule the land. Crocodiles rule the water. As long as they stick to their respective place, all is well.

But when a croc hunts on land or a lion chases prey into the water, they may quickly find themselves in immense danger. The scale quickly tips.

This serves as a reminder for all of us – stick to your niche unless you’re so hungry it’s worth the risk to stray outside of it.

Don’t be a cheetah. They work too hard.
Cheetahs are beautiful animals. We love seeing them run in slow motion. But slow they aren’t – they’re the fastest land mammal. But here’s something we didn’t know before:

Cheetahs expend so much energy chasing down their prey, they can’t even enjoy their dinner! They have to rest first.

And while they rest, they’re vulnerable. Other animals – like hyenas and lions – claim the cheetahs’ kill about 20% of the time.

So cheetahs often find themselves working to the point of exhaustion to put food on someone else’s table.

Yes, they have their niche. Yes, they do well. But they hunt alone. It costs them dearly.

The lesson for us? Don’t be a cheetah.

Go beyond collaboration. Form a team of teams.
Lions and hyenas are bitter rivals. We gained new respect for hyenas. Yes, they’re scavengers. We learned lions are too.

Most people find lions appealing. Hyenas are ugly.

But they feed well! And the real secret we learned from these shows was from the hyenas.

For every five times a lion pride makes a kill, hyenas know about four of them. And they feed on it three of those five times!

We found that statistic staggering. What’s their secret?

They don’t hunt alone. They hunt together. But so do lions. And if you put a certain number of hyenas up against the same number of lions, the lions win every time.

Hyenas are smart. They call in reinforcement – packs of packs you might say. When they have the numbers, they take on the lions.

We can do the same in our businesses. Collaboration is critical today – don’t be an independent business, become an interdependent one.

But don’t stop there – form a team of teams:

  • So you’re not alone.
  • So you can call in reinforcements when you need them.
  • So you don’t have to work so hard to put food on your table.
  • So you can make more money, more dependably and live life on your own terms. That’s BIGG success!

Let’s talk more about teams. Tell us about you. You can leave a comment below or e-mail us at BiggInfo[at]BiggSuccess[dot]com.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file | podcast:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/biggsuccess/00870-071713.mp3

Image in this post from stock.xchng

Reinvent yourself for BIGG Success

How To Reinvent Yourself in Today’s Fast Changing World

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Reinvent yourself for BIGG Success

Listen to this post! Click play to hear George & Mary-Lynn on The BIGG Success Show (Duration 6:22)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | More

We recently attended a party for a colleague who celebrated 35 years working for the same company. And during the event, even he said most people don’t experience work anniversaries like this anymore. And how many of us believe the work trends will take us back to that? Not many.

It used to be that you could settle on a career path, find a company you like, and work until retirement. But today, between the economy and disruptive technology, job security is a thing of the past. We have to be nimble, pay attention to industry trends, and be ready to shift.
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Sigining Time

How This Mom’s Mission Became a Booming Business

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Sigining Time

Listen to this post! Click play to hear George & Mary-Lynn on The BIGG Success Show Podcast (Duration 3:05)

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Imagine a playground full of kids playing. Now imagine your child standing all alone. No one will play with her, and she doesn’t understand why.

That’s exactly what happened to Rachel Coleman and she says she will never forget watching her daughter, Leah experience that. The reason the kids wouldn’t play with her wasn’t because they were being mean, it was because they didn’t know how to communicate with her. You see, Leah is deaf.

A mission was born for this mom: teach sign language to her community so that her daughter wouldn’t feel isolated. Rachel would go to churches and schools as often as she could to do that.

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