Playing to your Strengths to Succeed in your Business
Next week’s radio interview is with Tshombe Brown who coaches Real Estate agents.
Playing to Your Strengths to Succeed in your Business
This last week I just finished reading Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance by Marcus Higgins and was really inspired by the concepts in the book. I began thinking about my own strengths and whether or not I’d really played to them and if so, how I’d played to them. I did an exercise in the book where I listed a situation where I felt really empowered and another situation where I felt really weak.
Not surprisingly, I quickly saw that my strength involved an activity where I was innovating or creating or developing a system or process or helping a person develop his/her business. I feel strong when I do an activity like that. I like coaching for that very reason. It lets me play to my strengths as a developer and innovator, while also seeing people change.
Equally unsurprising, I saw that my weakness was doing administrative or bureaucratic work or writing step-by-step instructions, which is likely why I’ve never really liked technical writing even though I can do it well. I feel drained and exhausted after doing technical writing, because it forces me to put a lot more energy toward doing an activity I don’t find engaging.
When I work with clients, one of the first activities I ask them to do is to assess their strengths and weaknesses in their business model. I like to know what they feel strong in and where they feel they could improve their business model. At the same time, I do want to help them automate their business model, so sometimes when we look at their weaknesses, we aren’t necessarily trying to get them to changes those weaknesses, so much as change HOW they handle those weaknesses.
A business model which is focused on playing to your strengths recognizes that where you excel is where you will take off. It also recognizes that automating what you aren’t good with, by contracting it out to someone else, creating a process to handle the task systemically, or by using technology to cover that area of your business, can be an excellent strategy that reduces the stress in you’re life, while you focus on building your business by playing to those strengths.
Playing to your strengths isn’t hard, if you know what those strengths are, and know how to capitalize on them. I’ve learned a lot about my strengths. I am strong at:
- Public speaking and training
- Developing processes to automate businesses
- Networking with people on and offline
- Teaching people how to use technology
What are your strengths and how will you capitalize on them?
Upcoming Classes:
How to Use a Blog to Promote Your Business
When: Tuesday, April 14 2009 6-8:30pm
Where: 1562 Se Tacoma St. Portland or 97206
Cost: $75.00
You’ve heard of blogs, online journals where people write about different subjects and can sometimes use them to market your business, but how does it work? In this class, I’ll explain what a blog is, how it can promote your business and how you can automate it.
In this class you will learn:
- What a blog is
- How to set-up a wordpress or blogger blog
- How to use feedburner to automate your blogs
- What blog directory sites to get on to promote your blog
- How to get your blog entries onto Twitter
- How to use blog widgets with your blog
- How to let people subscribe to your blog by email
- How to make your blog professional and tasteful
How to use Linkedin and Biznik to promote your business
When: Tuesday April 21st 2009 6-8:30pm
Where: 1562 Se Tacoma St. Portland or 97206
Cost: $75.00
Linkedin and Biznik are two of the more popular social networking sites available to professionals and entrepreneurs, but often I hear that people aren’t sure how to use these sites or how they will get you clients. I was once even told that someone thought that Linkedin was just another job hunting site. In this class, I clear up the confusion about these sites and show you how to automate them.
You will learn:
- How to set up a profile on Linkedin and Biznik
- How to use the Status update on Linkedin
- How to use the Question and Answer forum on Linkedin
- How to use Biztalk on Biznik
- What the groups feature is and how to use it on Linkedin and Biznik
- Why the recommendation/compliment can be helpful for growing your business.
- Why writing an article/putting on an event can be useful for raising your visibility.
- The protocol for inviting people into your network
How to use Facebook and Twitter
When: Tuesday April 28th 2009 6-8:30pm
Where: 1562 Se Tacoma St. Portland or 97206
Cost: $75
Facebook and Twitter are two social networking sites which are increasingly becoming prominent in the social media world, but how can you use these sites to grow your business, and is it really worth your time? I’ll explain how to use and automate these sites, so you can grow your business and still have time to live your life. In this class you will learn:
- How to setup a profile on facebook and create a fan page for your business.
- How to create an event listing on facebook.
- How to balance between personal and professional on facebook.
- What twitter is and what tools to use to make twitter useful.
- How to set up an rss feed from your blog to twitter via twitter feed.
- How to automate your status updates to different websites so you only have to update through twitter.
- The etiquette for using Twitter
How to use Plaxo, MySpace, and i-list
When: Monday May 4, 2009: 6-8:30pm
Where: 1562 Se Tacoma St. Portland or 97206
Cost: $75
When people hear about MySpace, they may think of teenagers and rock bands, but did you know that Seniors and Baby Boomers are increasingly using it? Learn how to use MySpace to reach that part of your client base, while also learning about Plaxo and how you can automate your presence on it. I-list is a site which allows you to list events on Facebook, Twitter, and other sites, as well as promote those events to your contacts on your email. In this class you will learn:
- Learn how to set up a profile on Plaxo
- Learn how to automate Plaxo
- Learn how to set up a profile on Myspace
- Learn why MySpace is for more than just kids and why you may need to use it to grow your business.
- How to post a blog on MySpace
- How to use i-list to announce your events to craigslist, facebook, gmail, twitter, and other social media sites.
- How to set-up a profile on i-list.
RSVP Taylor at imagineyourreality@gmail.com or 
503-869-0163
to sign up for the class.
Cost per class is 75 USD. Total cost for all four classes = 300 USD. If you sign up for all the classes, when you first RSVP me, I’ll give you a special rate of 250 USD for all four classes.
Review: Go Put Your Strengths to Work by Marcus Higgins
I found this book useful from the very beginning. It helped me clarify and capture what both my strengths and weaknesses are professionally. I also think this model could be applied on a personal level, though the author mainly focused on careers. I liked the exercises in the book. They provided a useful way to implement the theories in the book, so that you could really grasp what your strengths and weaknesses are. I definitely felt like I had a much better grasp of what I can be doing as well as what I want to do…and how I can delegate my weaknesses to people who enjoy those activities more than I do. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to discover what his/her strengths are and start using them in his/her life.
5 out of 5 career gurus
Categories: marketing, Social Media
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Taylor you are producing classes that I would love to attend. I just don't have funds right now as I am paying wages without money really coming in yet:) If you create a card or brochure on this events, we can pass them around while we are out and about. I am a real believer in your skills and abilities. You are passing great info on for an affordable rate. Good for you! Hope to hear from you soon as to my offer!
Cheryl
Taylor you are producing classes that I would love to attend. I just don't have funds right now as I am paying wages without money really coming in yet:) If you create a card or brochure on this events, we can pass them around while we are out and about. I am a real believer in your skills and abilities. You are passing great info on for an affordable rate. Good for you! Hope to hear from you soon as to my offer!
Cheryl
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