Hey Gorgeous-long travel, home, too much laundry to do, so while I catch up, enjoy this article from my friend Sandi which was posted on Entreprenuer.com
I started my first business online with faith being as much a
part of my success as a keyboard and Netscape. It was in the '90s, when
Overture was the biggest pay per click platform and AOL reminded me
hourly, "You've got mail!"
With no clue how to get back into Windows once I accidentally logged
out to DOS, asking for help was my normal mode of operation. It still is
today. It's my personal belief that faith stretches me to be more, do
more and live more than I ever could alone.
Writing PPC ads in Overture was a blast in the '90s. The rush of not knowing
who was competing with me was nearly addicting. OK, fine. It
was
addicting and it was the way I built my first business online. A
newsletter and PPC ads...and faith. I had believed that I could do this
and God would tell me how.
Many, many years later, millions in profits earned, I'm still bowing my head at my desk asking for help.
"What makes social media sing, God?"
"Show me how to write a headline that will grab their attention."
"Is there a target market I'm missing? Who am I not seeing?"
These are common questions running through my head as I
simultaneously manage the Facebook Ad Manager, the Twitter Ad Platform
and a few other link exchanges for some of the large brands I write for,
as well as the ads I do for my own company.
You'd think the business world would think I was crazy when I began
to teach small and large business owners to do the same. Reminding them
of good, old fashioned direct response marketing and psychographics,
we'd find target markets no one had ever even considered before and it
would convert -- sometimes to percentages they had no clue could be
their typical ROI. Then I'd pull out the "big guns." The "golden ticket'
if you will. No matter who they were I'd encourage them to just have
faith that they would reach the right people if serving became their
focus more than selling, if loving their customer became the path to
profits rather than obsessing about ROI. The highest ROI in this
generation is relationship, so I'd encourage them to dig deep. Then I'd
tell them to have faith.
"Have faith?" Corporate heads and bigwig executives ask me.
"Yes. Just ask for some help. What do you have to lose? Call me a
crackpot later if you think I'm a dork but just give it a try," I'd
reply.
And they would.
Ok, just think that one through.
Come on now, let me pull you out of shock, but let's go there. If you
were in dire situations and you needed medical help for a child, loved
one, relative or what have you, and all paths to solutions were dead
ends, what would you do? Yup. Some of you just said it out loud. You'd
do what you rarely do at work but what would seem very commonplace in an
ICU at a hospital or on a crashing plane as the front of the jet went
down. You would pray. You'd have faith.
So I ask my clients to do that. And the results have been amazing.
Large companies are now making connection with their clients. Company
leaders are actually having fun talking back on Facebook and Twitter.
"How did you find people who were so perfect for our company?" I'm
asked. Reminding them of the basics and then the "secret sauce" big guns
of faith, they laugh and smile, realizing it worked.
I recently got a Christmas card from a woman who told me her story.
She was a new widow. "Why didn't God take me?" she said she would often
cry out. "I don't want to go on without him" was her hourly struggle.
Then, something happened. It wasn't a white light streaming down from
heaven crashing through her house with a host of angels and a choir
singing, "You're going to make it!" and she lived happily ever after.
No, she saw my pink hair in a Facebook ad. Can you believe it? The ones I
was praying over.
The card went on to say, "You have been a light to me in a very dark
place in my life. I wanted to join my husband after he died. I wanted to
know why I was left here alone. Then one day when I was on Facebook, I
saw your ad. I was drawn to you and I went to your business page. I
started reading your posts. I thank you for your very uplifting
messages. You have made a positive impact on my life. I now look forward
to each day no matter what it brings. Thank you Sandi. You are truly a
blessing to me"
We have quadrupled our company profits in the last year. This one
thing I know -- prayer changes things and faith belongs in business.
Faith is not beating someone over the head with your beliefs and
trying to get them to convert to your way of thinking. Faith is
believing in the unseen and calling those things that are not, as though
they are.
I believe that faith works in the workplace. Taking the uncommon path
to profits and changing people's lives simultaneously has been my
business plan for many years. Faith works.
The author is an Entrepreneur contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.
Sandi Krakowski is a Digital Media Marketing Expert noted by
Forbes as a Top 20 Women Social Media Influencer and a Top 50 Social
Media Power Influencer. Sandi is known in the marketplace for living an
outrageous life, giving to many causes, writing, cooking and enjoying
her family while serving over 2 million clients. She has a historic
trackrecord of building an online social media presence with more than
600,000 clients connected to her in under 18 months. But the core of who
Sandi is is revealed in her powerful teaching on faith, belief and the
power to #BEMORE in all areas of life. You can find her at:
http://www.arealchange.com
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