Monthly Archives: September 2022

Quest For Serendipity

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Serendipity is what happens when we make unexpected connections and create possibilities that never existed before.

For elite marketers it is not a matter of chance.

It consists of three components:

  1. Relevance
  2. Novelty
  3. Unexpectedness

Those can be combined in each and every piece of content and every behavior you exhibit in your business. The quality you need to strive for is to be both surprising and useful.

How to get to serendipity:

  • Follow the yellow brick road. Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Ozyou must be open to the possibilities. Take the road untaken, the path that may lead to connections. Go into your search with an open mind. Find the strengths in apparent weaknesses. Search for triggers. Find bridges that connect results.
  • Look for outcomes from combinations. Events may not be wholly beneficial taken individually but the unanticipated, unexpected and unsought can produce accidental discoveries that benefit you both short and long term.
  • Speak about your experience. The innovative value of your coincidental success needs to be shared. Incorporate the findings in a story.Let your passion spill over into the telling.

An example Christian Mickelsen offered food to his audience that had just returned from lunch. There were few takers. He then changed the offer to dessert. A few more showed interest.  Next he described the dessert as chocolate covered strawberries. Over 70% of the crowd was interested. Enthusiastically! He learned how the more specific an offer is the more powerful the connection with the audience. All of us can apply that serendipitious finding.

Look for fortunate strokes of Serendipity to move from  Credibility to Cash

And so it goes

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Jerry Fletcher is a sought-after International Speaker, founder and CEO of Z-axis Marketing, Inc. See Jerry’s speaker demo reel.

His consulting practice, founded in 1990, is known for on and off-line Trust-based Consultant Marketing advice that builds businesses, brands and lives of joy.

Credibility to Cash TM is his latest way to share experiences so you can take your business up a notch…or two.

Consulting: https://www.JerryFletcher.com
Speaking:  https://www.NetworkingNinja.com

Failure Is A Strategy

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Act.

Do something.

Measure the results.

You don’t have to be sure your marketing is going to work.

But if you don’t take action you will never know. That idea will always just rattle around in your mind. It will stagnate and die never having seen the light of day. It will be resigned to the scrap heap having never been tested. It will die, stillborn.

Action is better than inaction.

We learn from our mistakes. Even if we don’t have a process in place we absorb what works and what doesn’t. We understand what is effective versus what is not. We gather information to formulate new approaches and discover connections we had not perceived before.

Rules for Failure as a strategy:

  1. Take action. Don’t wait. Do it now or forever lose this chance.
  2. Note trial components. Write down the strategy and expected results. Reduce the test to as few elements as possible. Use multi-variant design if you can’t reduce things to A-B split testing.
  3. Analyze results. Look at what happened versus what you thought might. Do not wear your rose-colored glasses. Delve into the fundamentals and scan for hints of affirmative outcomes while quantifying both positive and negative consequences. Look for both strategic and tactical effects.
  4. Build a winners file. Make note of what works whether it is graphics, words, colors, sounds, video or animation. Look at the combinations that work and how changes in one of them impacts your outcome.
  5. Assemble your findings.  Build a check list or diagram or a process report that incorporates what you’ve learned. I’ve been doing this since I opened my consulting firm. When you sign up for my Credibility to Cash Newslog you get the benefit of what works by avoiding 25 years of failures.

The longer you wait the less you’ll learn.

Credibility to Cash is a shortcut to success.

And so it goes.

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Jerry Fletcher is a sought-after International Speaker, founder and CEO of Z-axis Marketing, Inc. See Jerry’s speaker demo reel.

His consulting practice, founded in 1990, is known for on and off-line Trust-based Consultant Marketing advice that builds businesses, brands and lives of joy.

Credibility to Cash TM is his latest way to share experiences so you can take your business up a notch…or two.

Consulting: https://www.JerryFletcher.com
Speaking:  https://www.NetworkingNinja.com

No Change, No Gain 

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There is not a lot I remember from my High-School French class.

One phrase is stuck in the little gray cells:

plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

That translates to “The more things change the more they stay the same.”

Kinda true!

When it comes to marketing, you need to adapt to the Normal particularly the New Normal.

You can’ keep doing the same thing and expecting a better result. That won’t work. (Some people say that is the definition of insanity!)

What has changed and what stays the same?

The ways of presenting your message, carving out a brand for yourself, your service or your product are increasing and morphing on a daily basis. Even the internet is enduring continuing change. Successful Marketing acknowledges and uses new technology (Pepsi is betting on Web3.0 and NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens)

BUT, human nature is slower to change than technology.

Today I read some research that shows the younger generation prefers face to face over on-line to build relationships. New technology comes at a premium in terms of money and time but since we humans are slow on the uptake, smaller firms can orient to the customer, stick with earlier technology and still compete.

Exploit the changes while maintaining client/customer Trust.

Watch the “big guys” as they experiment with Web 3.0. Learn from their mistakes but do not commit staff, funds or time until you can see a clear path to changing tactics that stays on the winning strategy to stay connected to your customer.

And so it goes.

Jerry Fletcher is an international speaker with clients from Singapore to Spain.

He guides elite individuals and organizations to become more memorable and more profitable.

New Normal Uncertainty

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The disruption is too great.

We will never get back to the Normal we knew before Covid.

The financial arena is in turmoil but the predicted inflation problem is the least we have to worry about. The growing separation of the wealthy and the poor is the real problem. When a tank of gas costs well over $50 your commute from the suburbs, the only place you could afford a home, gets more and more expensive. And if you are not a corporate officer parking will have to come out of the same pay check you are already stretching for food and education and medical care.

Millions of people are walking away from jobs each month.

When you can’t stay ahead of the cost of goods and you don’t see a way out with a current employer you go looking. You look for a better position. You look for a side hustle. Many become desperate.

Hope becomes the best marketing tactic.

Those anxious millions become reckless and impulsive. You will see deals with benefits that are unbelievable.

They are. At the con man level the Nigerian Prince hustle morphs to a perceived charity that selects you as a winner in a drawing. When your situation seems hopeless you are most prone to buy in to schemes cloaked in righteousness.

Trust becomes more valuable than ever.

When the economy is stripping away your lifestyle you begin to look for friends, people that you know really well, merchants that you like and brands that haven’t let you down.

Suppliers that know that Trust is important to you will do everything they can to not betray it. They will stay consistent, truthful and engaged with you. That is how you extend the life of your service and your company.

You can’t go back. You can only go forward.

Your business will have to cope with the disruptions. Your marketing will have to accept the changes and communicate that understanding to customers that are disheartened but yearning for words of shared beliefs.  Heed their words and their actions. The life of your company depends on it.

And so it goes.

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Jerry Fletcher is an international keynote speaker with clients from Singapore to Spain and across the Americas.

He guides consulting individuals and organizations to become more memorable and more profitable.

Don’t Hold Your Breathe About Web 3.0

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The advent of Web1.0 was about the time I opened the doors on my consulting business.

That was in 1990.

I built my first web site using something called Frames.

Don’t ask. All I can remember about it is the name.

Somewhere between 2004 and 2008 Web 2.0 cane to life.

It is the one we live with today. It is the reason that Google and Facebook and Linked In exist.

Web 3.0 will put artificial intelligence and blockchain technology to work doing what is now done by massive server farms controlled by the largest technology companies. Because it is distributed across many devices it is believed to be safer with regard to individual’s data.

Your old URl won’t connect to Web3.0.

Numerous blockchain domain name service (DNS) systems have emerged, including Ethereum Name Service (ENS), Unstoppable Domains, Decentraweb, and Handshake.

You will have to create a Web 3.0 web site.

Your current web pages can have a link added to get to the new site, but web 2.0 and 3.0 are not compatible. And, oh yes, you will have to set up your browser to access Web 3.0 domains.

You will have to create a wallet and funding to work in this Blockchain World.

That is after you learn how different this new world is and understand: Web3 domains are multi-utility NFTs (non-fungible tokens) or “digital certificates” that are publicly transparent on the blockchain. As unique assets, Web3 domains act as a gateway to decentralized websites and applications, alongside providing a convenient way to send and receive funds.

Unless you are a major corporation it is way too early to think about implementing 3.0.

Like I said, Don’t hold your breath.

And so it goes.

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Jerry Fletcher is an international professional speaker/

.His work with elite consultants from Singapore to Spain guides them to build their business, their brand and a life of Joy.

He helps individuals and organizations become more memorable and more profitable.