5 WAYS TO KEEP YOUR BUSINESS
About Relentless Aaron
RELEVANT
Voted "AUTHOR OF THE YEAR" 2007 at the 2007 Book Expo America (AfAm Pavilion), Relentless Aaron is an Award Winning Author; writer of more than 38 novels. He's achieved over 6 billion media impressions since 2003, including The New York Times, TIME MAGAZINE, The Daily News, NPR news, ABC World News, AOL Black Voices, VIBE, EBONY & KING magazines not to mention thousands of NYTimes partners as well as so many websites/web pages online.
A Study Guide from Relentless Aaron
More about Relentless hhtp://www.relenltessaaron.com About Dr. Sinclair N. Grey III
Dr. Sinclair Grey III is an ordained minister, accomplished author, speaker, motivator, business trainer, and life coach who has answered the call placed upon his life to impact and touch the lives of others. His no-nonsense approach to imparting words of wisdom both resonates with his audiences while at the same time inspiring them to think differently, act differently and above all--be different. More about Dr. Grey CLICK HERE
S TPLACE, IT’ E K R A M G EMERGIN CE BEGETS I N T O D A Y ’ S STAY RELEVANT. RELEVAN GROWTH . O IMPORTANT T OURCES HELP US TO GROW RESULTS. H ES RESOURCES. R IN ORDER TO ACCOMPLIS E FOR A K T IS IMPORTAN SHMENTS ARE WHAT MA HERE ARE LI . AND ACCOMP BUSINESS OR NO BUSINESS VANT. , FULFILLING LIFE KEEP YOUR BUSINESS RELE ELP 5 WAYS TO H East Atlanta Multimedia, Inc
CONTENTS
THE FIVE C’s
Keeping your business RELEVANT is no small task in this busy world of images, sounds and first-mover “grandfather” relationships. Together with all the various ways and means of sharing information, you can get lost when it comes to making and/or keeping your business relevant. This guide is a quick reference into what will eventually become a longer text; its the results of the interview I had with Dr. Sinclair N. Grey III, minister, radio host, entrepreneur & life coach. Enjoy. Comment. Share!
BE CONNECTED
BE CURRENT
God Speed Relentless Aaron
BE CERTAIN
BE CREATIVE Contact Dr. Sinclair N. Grey www.sinclairgrey.org
Contact Relentless Aaron
BE COMPELLING
www.relentlessaaron.net
5 Ways To Keep Your Business Relevant
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INTRODUCTION I’ve been in Atlanta for six years and have been able to study the landscape of what’s going on with the brick and mortars vs the at home and online businesses, local online businesses, global businesses etc. I’ve been working with businesses for many years. If you've researched me, you know of all these things that I did—I also had a magazine back in the late 80’s and early 90’s. That magazine was fueled by advertisement from local, regional and also national advertisers. Through that I got a chance to be in the beauty
salons, barber shops, and the fast food spots. When you go into these places, you see what works and what doesn’t work; what products they sell and what’s priced too high. You get a feel of what’s going on in the atmosphere... in the community. Basically that’s something that’s followed me lifelong, being in people’s faces and connecting with people. I’ve been an entrepreneur since—ever. 5 Ways To Keep Your Business Relevant
5 WAYS TO KEEP YOUR BUSINESS RELEVANT My grandmother had a gift card shop. My dad took that over and built a chain of delis. He pushed me up in there at age ten—from running the cash register, keeping shop when he went for errands. Next door he had a liquor store with a bulletproof partition. When the buzzer rang, I ran around thru the back door to serve a customer (maybe) a bottle of Wild Irish Rose or Seagram’s Gin through the portal. I’d take their money, give them change, and I’d run back around to the deli, keeping timing in my head/making sure nothing’s being stolen. From age ten, I’ve been blessed with this sense of knowing and meeting and dealing with people—with fulfilling a goal, whatever that was. In business, knowing about the liquor store and deli, and eventually the bar and club life—these are things that just sort of grew on me—it’s in my DNA, being an entrepreneur, a brand builder. Many of today’s business owners come into business haphazardly. They learned something, or their parents did something, or they pooled from their own resources. Folks, we are all resources. That is not
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BE CONNECTED just that we have resources, but the most successful of us, are resourceful. If you put me in a desert and you put Diddy in a desert, the only resources we have are what we know and what we are able to do there. So, while he’s dancing, I’m capitalizing on survival, and maybe being resourceful in terms of how we can all survive in the desert. We’re resourceful. How are we resourceful? What talents do we all have? What do you master? Where do your skills lie? The only way to share our resources today is through something physical, tangible—like a product, or a service—something that you’re doing for other people. Or, a message, like you share every day. So we have product, service or a message. Focus is really important, because focus is what allowed me to master COMEDY, MUSIC my craft—to write so many dozens of & COFFEE 4a CAUSE books, to read so much about Every 1st Saturday at branding, so that by design I made it to the STARBUCKS of front page of the New York Times Arts and CONYERS, GEORGIA Leisure Section. By design I made it Visit: onto ABC World News, the Michael www.CONYERSJAZZ.com Baisden Show, or any of these high-profile for more info media spots. It’s very important to realize that comes from a seed of thought. In my
5 Ways To Keep Your Business Relevant
5 WAYS TO KEEP YOUR BUSINESS RELEVANT messaging I decided I wanted to channel that through books. I mastered that. Dr. Dennis Kimbrough teaches us that if you do something and you do it well up to three years, you can be the best in your area. If you do it from 3-5 years you can be the best in your state. But if you do it from 5 years up to even 7-9 years, you can be the best in the world. That’s being the best at writing books. To speak to your point about staying connected, I brought resources: Five ways to keep your business relevant. This goes for new businesses, old businesses, anybody. 1. Stay Connected. You want to stay connected on different levels. How many times do you hear people say, “I don’t do that social media stuff. I don’t do Facebook.” That may because you’re not clear on how to use Facebook or how to use Twitter. You can go on YouTube and look up tutorials on how to use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or Linked-In. Don’t turn your back on technology that is further connecting us. If you have a message, product or service and you’re talking about sharing your service with the world, don’t cry to me that you don’t do the social media thing and then you’re not able to sustain your business. You must learn this thing. This is the new phonebook. And before the phonebook, this is the new Morse Code. Every bit of our past is about megatrends. We went from an agricultural age to industrial age, industrial age to information age, and now we’re into social media. This is how to spread the word. This is what smoke signals used to be. Definitely stay connected. Using social
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BE CURRENT
5 WAYS TO KEEP YOUR BUSINESS RELEVANT
media is not to denounce how we used to do business one to one—personal connectivity— meeting people in the coffee shop, library, supermarket. Don’t be afraid to approach. Learn how to approach before we approach. But definitely keep the personal connectivity because every brand that is built that is successful, is personality driven. You hear about the Oprahs and Jay Lenos and of course those are on television, but even brands that we know that are in clothing are personality driven. Finally on the stay connected tip, I want to say continue to use your texts and your phone righteously, but don’t overuse. I think I fell into that trap recently because I’ve been letting people know about the Wind Down Wednesdays at Starbucks and I’m starting to send out these mass text messages. But I’m realizing that when one person responds, everybody gets the message. So I don’t want to do that. I want to take my time and I want to reach out to my friends specifically and directly. I want to say, “Hey, I miss seeing you, come on through.” Or a phone call. I’m taking my own advice I reached out to one of the Bronners and I texted him and said “I really appreciate the investment you’ve made in me, bringing me a client a few years back that I wrote a book for.” And he engaged with me. “Yeah, I see you doing your thing on Facebook.” So it’s connectivity. Number
one, stay connected. It’s very important. What you don’t know, you can learn on YouTube.
5 Ways To Keep Your Business Relevant
2. Stay Current. What does that mean? That means watch the news. If you don’t watch the news, you shouldn’t be in business. If you don’t, you’re not part of the conversation and so then you can’t be part of the solution out there. There was a news story about a year ago. A young man in New York got arrested, 16 years old, coming out of a party. They threw him in jail, charged him with robbery, and he stayed in jail for three years. He tried to kill himself six times, they starved him, and all kinds of things. After three years, they came to him and said ‘Kalief if you plead guilty we’ll let you go.’ “But I didn’t do anything. I’m 16 years old with no record.” Five months later they let him go and dropped the charges. But guess what? Because I saw the news on Huffington Post and ABC News, I contacted the lawyer and said, “Hey, I’m Relentless Aaron, I’ve got a few dozen books, here’s my info look me up.” He did. They turned down five other authors and chose me for that contract. So now that’s a new contract that I have to write Kalief Browder’s story, but I wouldn’t have that if I had not been watching the East Atlanta Multimedia, Inc
BE CERTAIN news. I stay connected with the local news as well as global news. Everything that’s taking place on the other side of the planet, whether you believe it or not, affects us over here. Don’t cry about the gas prices over here going sky high and you’re not familiar with why they’re going sky high. You can’t cry about it if you don’t know about it. Part of staying current is staying on top of the news. There’s way to capture the news. You can go to NPR. That’s one of the valid news
5 WAYS TO KEEP YOUR BUSINESS RELEVANT sources out there. I also use FlipBoard on the social network. It allows me to flip through the news. These are some resources. Also, part of staying global is –those women being raped in the Congo, kids getting their arms taken off with machetes in other regions is just as important to us as our own people. We’re all important. We are one. If you don’t stay current, you’re disoriented, you’re not included.
3. Be Certain. I’m talking about confidence—the confidence that comes with experience and education. It keeps you better focused. It keeps you clear, crisp and cohesive in your commentary. And where are our commentaries today? On the blogs, in person when we speak to people. On the phone calls and text messages. We need to make sure that we are certain about what it is that we do. Our message, our purpose. That
5 Ways To Keep Your Business Relevant
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BE CREATIVE goes back to mastering our craft. There’s nothing anyone can tell me about the book business. Nothing anyone can tell me about writing books. You put me in a hotel room for a week and I’ll come out with a book, whether it’s writing your story or m y s t o r y. I ’ v e mastered this. So, if you do this, you will be certain about your walk in life, about the clients that are coming your way, about the greatness you deserve. It’s going to come your way because you’ve mastered your craft. That’s set in stone. Whether you’re in person or electronics, you need to be certain. So keep in mind when you’re texting, try to focus instead of being aloof.
5 WAYS TO KEEP YOUR BUSINESS RELEVANT creative in your follow-up? A lot of us don’t do that. A big industry today is funerals, so when folks have a funeral you think it’s final. But folks are pre-selling funerals for their future, so this is about the follow-up. If you sold a car, or a book, even a cup of coffee—If I was the manager at Starbucks, I would at random call a customer once a week. I would spend five minutes a week on the phone with a customer. I would make that my agenda. Why? That’s a connectivity that you have what your customer base. You put their names in for a raffle— make it fun. Then give them a free drink. That’s what I would
4. Be Creative. You might say you’re already creative—that’s why you have a business in the first place. But I’m talking about being more creative. Can you be more creative in your delivery? Can you be more creative in your presentation of your product or service or your intentions? Can you be more
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BE COMPELLING
5 WAYS TO KEEP YOUR BUSINESS RELEVANT because you’ve mastered your craft. You have to bring it. Be compelling. Be compelling in how you address folks, be compelling, be heard. If you’re going to these events and they ask if anyone has a product or a business, raise your hand. Raise it high—raise two hands. How many times have opportunities come upon us because we raised our hands? That’s the five—Stay Connected. Stay Current. Be Certain. Be Creative. Be Compelling.
do. I like to stay connected to my clients. Be creative in your product, your service, or your message. 5. Be Compelling. What do I mean by that? Right now I’m on the radio. I’m not speaking quietly or passively. In fact, you definitely need to nail your message. Don’t speak like you’re in the back of the room. I want to be in the front of the room in my message, in the product that I’m selling. That’s what I’m telling you as a business owner. You cannot just sit back and hope that things are going to happen to your business just
WINE DOWN WEDNESDAYS @STARBUCKSCONYERS www.conyersjazz.com
5 Ways To Keep Your Business Relevant
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