Alex Nottingham's blog

"The secret of business, especially these days, is to focus relentlessly on your unfair advantage - the thing you do that others don't." -- John Rollwagen, executive

This "unfair advantage" is another term for "competitive advantage."

A competitive advantage is something that you and your business excels in. It is not easily copied by competitors and the profit margin is very high.

Examples of a competitive advantage are Microsoft's operating systems, Apple's iPhone, & Google's search engine. Other companies compete, but are light years behind in function and marketing.

Ways to Determine You Unfair Advantage:

1. Ask yourself... [*]

What are my highest value activities?
What can my company do and only my company do if done well will make a real difference?
What is the most valuable use of my company's time?

2. Apply the 80/20 rule:

What are the 20% of activities that provide my company 80% of its results?

Once you locate your competitive advantage, you need to consistently exploit it! Talk about it, have your staff promote it, put it on all your marketing materials, and advertise.

Think back to a moment when you exceeded your expectations. Was it a game winning hit, an A on a test, an unexpected relationship, a raise or job promotion, or any accomplishment in life you value? How did it feel?

I'm sure it felt great! This is what we call that "winning feeling."

A winning feeling is not reserved to celebrities, athletes, and billionaires. Anyone can experience it and most people have. But, wouldn't it be nice to feel that more often?

Your body cannot tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined. The mind is what dictates reality. These are very important insights.

Biofeedback studies with athletes show us that they cannot differentiate a real game from an imagined one. When they visualize a movement, the same nerves fire as if it were real.

We all have experienced things that felt so real, but were in reality false. Some people fear failing a test, but end up getting A's. Others think no one likes them, but everyone does. This is a horrible existence.

Regardless of outcome, the key is the "feeling." Why do we strive for things? Answer: to feel good!

The amazing thing is that if you evoke the feeling of success or that "winning feeling," not only will you feel good, but you will start to attract people and circumstances to match that feeling. This is not mysticism, it is basic social interaction--people like to be around other people with good energy.

So, how do we get more of that winning feeling? Here is how.

The Six Steps to Creating That Winning Feeling are:

After Superman was recharged from visiting his Fortress of Solitude, he was more cunning and powerful in overcoming villians.

Here's how you can Create your Fortress of Solitude:

1. Pick a Place: It could be a place in your home, your car, a specified location, or a space you create in your mind.

2. Build & Fortify It: The more time you spend in your fortress, the more powerful and sacred it becomes. Your thoughts and time spent give life to it. Each time you enter, you reinforce its walls and energy.

3. Immerse Yourself: Create uninterrupted time throughout the day in 15 minute intervals to go into your fortress. Meditation is one form--where you sit quietly and allow your thoughts to come and go. This will help to create stillness and balance. Alternatively, you could use your fortress as a learning center. Listen to audio programs that inspire you and reprogram you. This can even be done while walking or in you car.

Like Superman, you too will become empowered after visiting your Fortress of Solitude. The stillness and learning received, will enable you to take on the world with greater peace and effectiveness. 

According to Dr. Maxwell Maltz, "it is no exaggeration to say that every human being is hypnotized to some extent, either by ideas ... uncritically accepted from others, or ideas ... repeated [and accepted as] true."

Psycho-Cybernetics

Dr. Maltz was a plastic surgeon that noticed that some patients did not feel better after a successful plastic surgery procedure.  He found that the issue was not the outside, but the inside.

He submits that self-image is the issue and that...

1. All your actions, feelings, behavior--even your abilities--are always consistent with this self-image.
2. The self-image CAN be changed.

Furthermore, "positive thinking" cannot help unless one's self-image is responsive to those affirmations, which is what hypnosis is all about.

Dr. Maltz developed Psycho-Cybernetics.  Cybernetics regards the human brain and body as a goal-seeking machine which steers its way to a target or goal by use of feedback data and stored information, automatically correcting course when necessary.  "YOU" operate the machine, and the more clearly your mind and direction are, the more accurately your body will respond to create the world you seek.

Psycho-Cybernetics is the precursor of much of today's motivational theory.

If you do not have or plan to have a website, you are way behind the eightball!

That said, just having a website is no longer enough.

Internet Marketing will become the number #1 marketing method with 10-20 years.  For many, it has already become so.  One of our clients, a cosmetic dentist, was facing very difficult financial problems five years ago.  Within two years of a strong Internet Marketing campaign coupled with strong conversion processes and improved personnel, the company doubled its revenue.  It went from facing bankruptcy to becoming one of the top cosmetic dental practices in the country!

If companies can only take a small portion of the lessens learned from this dental practice, the payoffs can be outstanding.

Here are the 7 Aspects of a Formidable Internet Marketing Campaign:

It is fairly obvious that some marketing activities produce more than others.  Some of your staff or sales members produce much more than others.  

Don't you wish you could emulate certain activities or people?  Well, you can!  It takes four steps: (1) identify those people or activities that are most profitable, (2) focus and develop them with most of your time & energy, (3) figure out how to emulate them, and (4) test, test, test.

Here is Rob Samson, one of our clients, training a young adult with special needs (autism). 

Social media is the new craze, so is it for real or is it a fad?

Social media is "media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques."  Wikipedia.

Social media is broad.  It includes blogs, microblogging, social networking, and events.  It also includes Wiki sites, multimedia (like YouTube & Picasa), review sites, entertainment, and branding sites.

Some of the most popular sites are Facebook, Twitter, & Myspace.

Whether you like social media or not, it would be wise to take it seriously.  Facebook, for example, has now exceeded "the great" Google as the most visited website on Earth.  Facebook has over 222 million users, which is bigger in population than most countries!

In five years, it is predicted that social media users will eclipse one billion!

The Benefits of Social Media are:

This is a phenomenal lecture by Dr. Randy Pausch, a Carnegie-Mellon University professor who gave his Last Lecture with only a couple of months to live.

Here is the short version on the Oprah Show:

Here is the link to the full version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

Here is a compilation of bloopers from several of our client's videos. Enjoy!