Are you using celebrity endorsements to boost your sales?

A new ad campign with celebrity endorsement launched here in Australia last night. Hollywood star Al Pacino fronted the new campaign for Australian-owned coffee brand Vittoria which premiered during the broadcast of MasterChef.

My clients and closest friends will know I didn’t get to see it as I don’t watch television, however the marketer in me was fascinated to hear about the new ad and the use of a celebrity to endorse a product. It’s claimed this is the first time that Pacino, star of films such as The Godfather and Scarface, has agreed to endorse a product.

Vittoria is a 100% family owned Australian company, set up by two Sicilian brothers in 1947 who saw an opportunity for Italian food and beverage products in Australia. The ads were filmed in New York City in May, and aired for the first time in Australia last night.

Les Schirato, CEO of Vittoria Coffee, said: “We’re incredibly proud and honoured that Al Pacino has agreed to star in a commercial for Vittoria. What’s even more incredible is this is the first time the star of Godfather, Scent of a Woman and Scarface has agreed to endorse a product. The fact that Pacino is from an Italian migrant background – just like our family –makes him feel like a true ambassador for our brand.”

Levinson joined the project at the suggestion of Pacino, who worked with the director on the television drama You Don’t Know Jack, which recently aired in the United States.

“We are proud that as an Australian business, Vittoria coffee has been able to secure one of the world’s leading stars to endorse our brand,” added Schirato.

It isn’t the first time an Australian brand has used an American star to front its advertising. Recently the Greater Building Society surprised everyone with its deal for comedic star Jerry Seinfeld to front its ads.

In our celebrity-obsessed world, getting a celebrity to speak for a product or service is seen as an effective advertising method. But I want to encourage all business owners, before they search for a celebrity of their own to consider a few things.

Sure, it’s great to get a celeb to speak on you/ your product or company’s behalf, but the best method of advertising a product or service is the product or service itself. If your goods are good, they will sell themselves. In the career market - if you are good, your skills and expertise will sell itself.

How many times in your life have you used a product solely because of a celebrity endorsement?

Also you need to be realistic - unless you’re cashed up with lots of money you’re just not getting the big “A-List” stars. So what can you do? Try local celebrities like radio DJs. Many local radio personalities are expected to advertise for a certain number of sponsors.

Bus most importantly have an excellent product first. Remember, when a celebrity speaks on your behalf, you’re putting their reputation out there as well as your own. In the case of your career and having someone be your referree you want to be sure they are 100% happy to endorse you and will say only great things!

Heidi Alexandra Pollard - The Living Leaders Advocate

To your success

Have you got goal envy?

Did you spend time on 1 January this year setting goals for the year ahead? Have you reviewed them since then? How well have are you travelling against those goals? Are you happy with your progress or are you watching others zooming past on their trajectory with a tinge of envy?

Isn’t it interesting that we get caught in the habit of thinking everything always needs to move forward in a linear direction, a,b,c, 1,2,3, one step after the other. We fall into the trap of thinking that there is only one way to achieve our goals and therefore if we aren’t heading along a straight path we give up and think we’ve made no progress.

In fact, the goals that you set at the beginning of the year may now be quite different to the goals you want today.Don’t be afraid to make changes to your goals as needed. Being flexible and course correcting is a necessary part of success. Reviewing your goals regularly may be just what you need to move forward.

Imagine what goals you could achieve if you took this compound approach and continued on a steady path taking one small incremental step each day towards your intended outcome.Start today by setting up three new goals for yourself that you want to achieve in the next three months. Then add a diary reminder to review your progress and take one small step each and every day - you’ll be glad that you did!

How often does that happen in real life? When have you ever started out on a path and everything has gone along smoothly in a perfectly straight line?

span style=”font-size: 10pt; font-family: “Arial”,”sans-serif”;”>Isn’t it more likely to go up and down, side to side, weaving in and out? For me things often unfold as one step forward, two steps back and sometimes a sideways step.

You see it’s so easy to fall into the trap of thinking ‘it’s halfway through the year, I should be halfway through accomplishing my goals.’

Should you? Really?

Are you comparing your progress against someone else? Just because they appear to be that far ahead doesn’t mean it may be the right path for you.  And what if your progress was compounding steadily like compound interest?

A common example to illustrate this used in many wealth workshops is the example of the $1 million versus $1 cent gift. Would you rather accept Option A - a one off gift today of $1 million or would you rather be given Option B - one cent that is compounded daily for a month?

At the half way point - 15 days if you chose Option B you would have only $163.84, would you be kicking yourself that you should have taken the $1 million?

What about if you hung out until day 25? If you chose Option A you would still have $1 million (or whatever you hadn’t spend already) but if you chose Option B you would have $167,772.16? Would you still cut your losses and take Option A?

By day 30 the end of the month if you chose Option B - you would be very pleased that you were patient and persisted in adding one small compound improvement each day? Why? Because by day 30 your little bonus would be worth a whopping $5,368,709.12 that’s why!

The simple, slow and steady without quitting and without cashing in along the way really can win the race.

So don’t give up on your goals and dreams. Keep on making progress and moving forward, even if it is a sidestep or two steps backwards - that’s just part of the process.

Course correction better than perfection

One of the reasons that people hold back on their dreams is that they believe that they don’t know enough, they’re not smart enough or they don’t know what they need to know in order to reach their goals.

Many successful people in history have been accused of being uneducated

- of not being smart enough or knowing enough. And yet by most people’s standards, go on to be greatly successful.

Henry Ford is one such person and he rebutted the “uneducated” label by saying that he had a row of buttons on his desk that would summon an expert on any subject that he needed.

Rather than store loads of information and data about his factory away in his own head - Ford only needed to know who to ask and where to get the information. It certainly seemed to work for him at the time wouldn’t you agree?

Today in the modern world connected by the amazing world wide web - we have many of these buttons at our fingertips - on our keyboard. Touch a few letters into that amazing engine called Google and voila, you have the answer to almost any  question without leaving the comfort of your seat.

The key difference I believe that stood Ford and other successful people ahead of the rest is what they do with the information once gathered.  In Ford’s case, he would organize the thoughts, facts, data and information he found into a positive plan of action.

What do you do with the information at your fingertips? Do you read and read and read, analyse and analyse but never put that information into action? Or do you assimilate it quickly, try something new, try again, try something else, make a plan of action, start something, do anything and then course correct along the way?

If you really want to step up to a new level of success then this is the best tip I ever heard - “Course correction is always better than perfection.”

To your success and affirmative action

Heidi Alexandra Pollard

The Living Leaders Advocate

Are you a living leader?

According to ABS research around a quarter of all employed people go to work feeling unappreciated and considering leaving their employer. Why? Because they feel unappreciated or no longer valued and like they aren’t making a difference. Sobering facts huh. Even more concerning is the fact that depression occurs in 20% of all people over the course of a lifetime.  

Did you go to college or university and learn a profession or a trade? Studied hard, learnt the skills, took the tests and completed the assignments? Did anyone prepare you though for how to deal with overwhelm, how to set goals, how to cope through the rough patches and how to deal with the issues of depression and pressure of modern life? Perhaps, but probably my guess would be probably not.

The trap many people fall into is looking too critically at what they are rather than who they are being and who they are becoming.

What do you answer when you are asked the question “what do you do?” Do you say you are an engineer, a marketer, a physiotherapist, a teacher, an entrepreneur, a writer?

What would you answer if you were asked instead, “who are you being?”

Think about it. Would you say “I don’t know”? Would you say “myself”? Or would you answer without needing to think: a conduit, an enabler, a learner, a millionaire in the making, a storyteller, a delight, a friend, a creative spirit, an experience, a life adventurer, a protagonist, a free spirit, a vessel of information or perhaps a living leader?

If you are anything like many of my clients when they first come to me, you are probably fast approaching meltdown, overwhelmed with the pressures of the job or your business, drowning in the day to day demands of society, of family, of friends, life and commitments in general. You answer may well be “a mess”.

As the Living Leaders Advocate and a coach, my purpose is to be the holder of a space that enables things to come forth out of my clients – things that are far greater than me. My job is to help my client step outside of their overwhelm and step into the possibility of what they truly desire to become. To shine a light internally on their inner being and to investigate what they want to step into.

Like the conductor of an orchestra, as a coach I need not make a sound to help my clients make beautiful music. Like the conductor, my role is not about my ego. It is my job to bring out the best in my clients – a role I relish.

With encouragement my clients become possibility thinkers. With courage they articulate what being a living leader looks like for them. With persistence they plan and take action steps to grow into that vision.

“What’s a living leader?” I hear you ask?

My definition of a living leader is someone who serves a greater purpose than themselves. A living leader doesn’t wait until they are on their death bed to pass on their wisdom. Living leaders have a desire to continually learn and grow, to drink deeply from life and to serve others. The presence of living leaders inspires others to become freer, healthier, wealthier, wiser, more creative and courageous and inspired to pass on their enlightenment to others as well.  Living leaders light their own spark and ignite the spark in others.

Living leaders:

·         Practice gratitude, compassion and positive thinking

·         Invest in social connections

·         Focus on resilience

·         Live in the present

·         Commit to their goals

·         Take good care of themself – spiritually, mentally and physically

·         Identify and maximise their character strengths

·         Focus on being authentically  themselves

·         Practice optimism, compassion and empathy.

As a person growing into becoming a Living Leaders I work harder on myself than I do on my job – I am constantly reinventing myself, continually attending courses and seminars, reading a book a week, working with my coach mentor and  travelling to meet with my mastermind to learn new information, make more connections and discover new ways of being.

What are you doing to grow your knowledge and improve yourself?

What do you do to light the sparkle in your own eyes?

And if not ask yourself “Who am I being that my eyes aren’t sparkling?”

Living leaders enable other people: be the space instead of the hero. Create the conditions instead of controlling the outcome. Once you let go of controlling the outcome you will be amazed by the power and the passion that you ignite in people.

Live with passion

Love Heidi Alexandra Pollard - The Living Leaders Advocate

Fellow Mastermind members I highly recommend

I would like to introduce you to an incredibly talented group of entrepreneurs. We work together using social media strategies to push each other to the top of Google. We support each other and learn from one another on a daily basis.

We are the MPC Social Media Tribe!

Please visit a tribe member below…

	Jenny Amon Fenig Jenny Fenig Coaching Description: Jenny is a certified career/life coach, yoga teacher,  new mom support group leader, speaker, and student in the  fascinating journey called LIFE.
	Katherine CHE Life Blossoming Systems Description: Cultivator of Joy, Katherine C. H. E. is an author and expert on the Law of Attraction. She currently works with clients to help them improve any and all areas of their lives — from their health to all aspects of their well-being.
	Phil Dyer Total Business Transformation Phil is a speaker, writer, financial planner, strategic business coach  and recovering workaholic who is dedicated to helping lifestyle entrepreneurs transform their business to support their ideal life,  create conscious wealth and have fun!
	Jessica Eaves Mathews Business Brilliance Blog Description: Jessica is a seasoned business lawyer, advisor and coach for business owners and entrepreneurs. She is also a multi-passionate entrepreneur herself, having launched a number of successful ventures of her own throughout the past 15 years.
	Dr. Robert Fenell Repetitive Strain Injuries Description: Teaching chiropractors how to effectively treat  repetitive strain injuries of the extremities.
	Laura Hollick Soul Art Studio Description: Laura is a soul artist. She has developed a series of Soul Art processes that she teaches and share with others so they can connect with their spirits and transform their lives into the most exquisite version of themselves.
	Linda P. Jones Visionary Wealth Now Linda is CEO and Founder of the Global Institute of Visionary  Wealth and Visionary Wealth Now. She follows her passion for  investing and teaching others how to have investment success  and build wealth.
	Lisa Manyon Creative Writing Services Description: Lisa is a a marketing maniac and press release magician. She helps entrepreneurs take the business message in your head & craft an authentic marketing message to connect with your ideal customer.
	Ellen Marie Martin Conquer Chaos Now!™ Considered a leader in her field, Ellen Martin is a professional  organizer, productivity trainer, motivational speaker and efficiency  coach with a passion for changing lives.
	Christine McIvor Social Media Consultant Description: Christine is a social media junkie. She helps  entrepreneurs and business owners locally get to the top of  Google using simple low-cost marketing strategies.
	Pinky McKay Breastfeeding Simply International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC)  and a Certified Infant Massage Instructor, Pinky McKay is a  Melbourne based writer and editor specializing in health,  education and family issues.
	Debbie McNeill Assisting Stampin’ Up Demonstrators Description: Debbie assists Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators  with their computer and marketing needs
	Terry Monaghan Organizer of Life Description: Terry has built Organizing For Your Life on 25  years of business and entrepreneurial experience. From  corporate executives to solo-preneurs, she helps them get  the right things done, faster.
	Lynne Moore MLM Relationship Goals Coach Description: Coaching women of independent spirit to achieve their key relationship goals.
	Sue Painter Confident Marketer Description:Sue Painter is the President and founder of The Confident Marketer. Sue is passionate about helping solopreneurs create work that is satisfying and financially successful.
	Melody Park Shin Mommy Chick Join Melody as she explores conscious parenting, applying  Universal Principles, in life and business, and living a fabulously  creative life!
	Trudy Scott Overcome Anxiety Trudy helps women overcome anxiety and other mood problems  naturally (using nutrients and food) – and they love that they also  end up sleeping better, have more energy and less cravings.
	Patricia Selmo Women Spiritual Leaders The International Association of Women Spiritual Leaders was  founded to serve the needs of women who are leaders in their  spiritual communities, women who have independent spiritual  practices, and women who are aspiring to be “spiritual leaders”.
	Mitch Tublin Business Strategist Mitch is a Premier Business Strategist, with expertise in Brand Building and Internet Marketing.
	Anita Wheeler Law of Attraction Diva Author of the soon-to-be-released book “The Law of Attraction is NOT a Secret”. Anita trains and coaches “ENTREPRENEURS” how to  be more proactive in their own lives to develop what she refers to as POWER FLOW™.

Stand in your power

“Often the difference between a successful man and a failure is not one’s better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on his ideas, to take a calculated risk - and to act.” Maxwell Maltz

Do you allow your fear to paralyse you and hold you back from achieving all that you desire? Or do you acknowledge and accept your fear and then carry on with it and through it regardless?

One of the biggest mistakes people make is to allow fear to get in the way of their success. Analysis paralysis is the killer of innovation! Just because you are experiencing fear, doesn’t mean that you can’t do something… it just means that doing it is going to feel uncomfortable - so expect to feel that way. 

Take the time to pay attention to all the things that you think you can’t do, be or have. Identify the fear that you are empowering with this assumption and then carry on with and through it regardless.

Ask yourself what’s the worst thing that could happen? And what if in pushing through the fear you achieved what you truly desired? What are you waiting for?

Yours in prosperity, passion and purpose
Heidi Alexandra Pollard

Get more social to boost your career

I guarantee almost everyone has done some level of ego-surfing and googled their name to see what comes up. While it may sound like a trip down vanity lane googling yourself on a semi regular basis is a great way to track and measure your professional online presence.

Using quotation marks around your name eg: “Sarah Smith” is the cleanest form of searching and will ensure you just get results for your own name (as well as any others with the same name)

It’s a great way to track and measure your presence as well as get a feel for the topics and themes associated with you on the web. Why? Because I guarantee you many prospective employers these days are googling applicants names to confirm resume claims and get a feel for what others say about them as well as what they get up to on the weekend! Sound scary?

With Facebook leading the way and Twitter activity on the rise, Australians are rapidly increasing their participation in social media, content sharing and personal brand building. A recent study showed nearly four in five of Australia’s nine million social media users sent or shared a photo in the past year and nearly three quarters shared a link. The biggest increases in social media usage were reading and posting on Twitter and reading wikis.

Twitter’s audience levels grew by more than 400% in 2009 so if you’ve got something to say, that’s the space!

“The opportunities for brands and companies to tap into the social media phenomenon are really just beginning to emerge and to date we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg,” states Melanie Ingrey, Research Director for Nielsen’s online business.

Your personal brand is the most valuable asset you have - what are you doing to build your brand online?

Yours in prosperity

Heidi Alexandra Pollard
The Communicator’s Coach

Great companies grow their leaders

Is your brand as clear as Epsom salts?

My own coach from the US Therese Skelly recently posted the following article and I thought it had some great points of interest relevant to communicating your personal career brand. Enjoy and thanks Therese!

Is your brand as clear as Epsom salts?

This has got to get the award for the WORST marketing ever. Reading a bag of epsom salts (don’t ask!) I was surprised from a marketing perspective at what it said “Epsom Salt – Magnesium Sulfate U.S.P – Natural Mineral” (and here’s where it gets interesting….)

A soaking aid for minor sprains and bruises

A saline laxative for the short term relief of constipation

A plant nutrient for vigorous lawns, flowers, plants, vegetables and trees.

Now I don’t know about you, but I doubt even brilliant marketers like my friend Michele PW or the famous Dan Kennedy could come up with copy for a product that helps with bruises, constipation, and gardening! All the marketing messages I teach about having to have a unified message just get thrown out the window with this thing.

As I re-read this bag of Epsom salts, I had the fantasy that a bunch of marketers were sitting around brainstorming, and finally they said, “What the heck, let’s just throw it all in.  We can’t figure out what to say, so we’ll just list the uses and let it go from there.”

With epsom salts, you pretty much know what you use it for.  And unlike coaching or whatever business you are in, there’s only one variety.  There’s not mint flavored, low fat, west coast, designer salts.  You get one thing.  Where you put it is your own business!  But it makes it easy because there’s only ONE way it’s delivered.

But in your business you don’t have the ability to have a crappy marketing message because you can’t figure out if you work with business owners, or mom’s, or teens, or people in transition.

That’s what this article is about.  Just because Walgreen’s can get away with having a generic product with bad packaging, as a small business owner, you can’t.  Your only choice is to narrow your focus, get crystal clear about who you serve, and what they get, and then go about creating compelling language around that.

So where do you start?

The things you need to be able to clearly articulate are what you do (as in your unique expertise) who you do it for (target market) and what problems you solve for them.  Most people start out as generalists, but the goal is to refine your market, offering and services even tighter as you get more and more sophisticated.  If you are stuck here, grab a mastermind partner or survey some old clients to get more information about how they benefited from working with you.

Why is this important?  Success is about being seen as the foremost expert in your industry. 

Well I hope you enjoyed Therese’s article - something to ponder because unlike Epsom salts, there’s no one else like you!

All the best

Heidi Alexandra Pollard

The Communicator’s Coach

Personal Communication

Personal communication is one of the most common aspects of our human conversations. Personal conversations are an essential facet in almost every one of our relationships. And one might say that the quality of those relationships is dependent upon our abilities to verbally communicate.

I have discovered in the past few weeks through my own life  just how powerful interpersonal communication skills can be in shaping our personal relationships. Even as the “Communicator’s Coach” I don’t always get it right and lately I have had some doosies. So I thought I would go back to the basics and refresh for my own purposes my five key foundations for effectively building upon and improving your personal communication skills.

Foundation #1: Be interesting and interested - know what’s going on in the world around you, keep up to date with current events and trends, as well as your personal hobbies and other interests that you can share or ask questions about during personal conversations.

Foundation #2: Develop great listening skills and know when to speak and when to listen. As a rule I believe in the Pareto principle - speak for 20% of the time, listen for the other 80%.

Foundation #3: Be fully present - make and maintain eye contact with the other person while speaking and listening. Turn away from the computer, television or any distractions so you can be there 100% with the other person.

Foundation #4: Audience centric - use language in your conversation that is familiar to your listener, don’t use fancy words or terms just to show off! Learn some basic body language it will help you to read whether they are understanding and in rapport with you or not. 

Foundation #5: Be real - be genuine, show and express an interest in what the other person is saying. Try to turn down the little voice in your own head and instead focus your attention on the other person, rather than on yourself.

Personal communication skills are one of the most powerful and strategic assets you can possess. People with effective communication skills have a real strategic advantage for business, relationship and social success.

If you would like to learn more about becoming more effective in personal and business communications, please contact Heidi Alexandra Pollard, The Communicator’s Coach today through her website at http://www.leadingvalue.net or http://www.boostyourcareer.com.au or by email at heidi@leadingvalue.net