Listen up! 11 ways to get your Business Celebrity OUT in 2011

Today I’m going to talk about eating out, not because I’m a big foodie–although I am, but because it teaches you a lot about good marketing. My example is taken from the realm of ‘tourist restaurants’ (or at least restaurants in a tourist destination).

with a new dawn and a new day you have new opportunities, but you don’t need a new Thing.

Your Thing is your Thing is your Thing.

If you are keen for a new Thing, I’d argue you’ve not found yours yet. If you’re just keen for ‘new’ then look at what needs to be new and what doesn’t.

Because there’s “shiny object” new, and there’s “Let’s just try something a little different, based on what we know already works” new. The latter new is a much better and more productive new.

The other night I went out for dinner with a group of people and experienced some serious magic. It wasn’t in fact the cooking (although my Pork Belly was very yummy) but proper “How the hell did he do that?!” close-up magic. The sort of magic where I was incredulously shaking my head shrieking “How is that possible?!” (yes, I was the one choosing the card that ended up in the wallet–in a zipped pocket, in a ticket case–when I had been holding the wallet in the palm of my hand AND it had my name written on it in my handwriting?!).

I am a huge fan of the Pareto Principle–and if you’ve worked with me for more than 5 minutes, you’ll know I’ll crowbar it into almost any situation!

This is where I like to hang out these days.

It’s a good place to be in your business (& your life actually) but for me it’s taking a bit of getting used to. I am very ‘busy’ person so it’s not always the natural address for me to be at!

Here’s how I am making the move.

Every time I have a new idea or I want to do something in the business I ask myself this question:

Yesterday, I got back from the first 2-day ‘Small Business Marketing Workshop’ run by the very smart Jonathan Jay in his new business venture Success Track.

The purpose of the 2-day workshop was for Jonathan to share his own experience in what does and doesn’t work in terms of marketing a business. Jonathan also offered a ‘marketing clinic’, where attendees could (perhaps crushingly honestly in some cases!) receive a critique of their current marketing materials and approach (note to anyone who attended here — you will of course get the irony of Jonathan describing this in his own words as “a clinic”!).