Ponderings From The Perch

Join Priscilla McKinney, Momma Bird at Little Bird Marketing as she talks with Dan Leadbetter about the importance of online reviews. She most certainly was not going to go to Medieval Times without doing her research. After Yelp!, Trip Advisor and Facebook reviews she decided she would probably live through the experience and not hate it - as long as Borat does not show up. But what can be said about online reviews and ratings. Do they provide instant legitimacy? Do they sway the potential client? Do they affect SEO rankings? How important are 3rd party ratings and personally written reviews? They discuss this, along with winning strategies business owners and marketing managers should consider to shore up the love from loyal clients. They also discuss how to handle negative ratings and keep focused on social proof that your company truly is amazing. She also gives a free Google Review instruction page which companies can send to their clients to request these valuable reviews at http://info.littlebirdmarket

Join Priscilla McKinney, Momma Bird at Little Bird Marketing as she talks with Nancy Milton about REAL communication and what it takes to set yourself up for total success in your personal and work relationships. These two fierce female entrepreneurs slide into a comfortable dialogue about designing alliances in order to engage wholeheartedly in any given instance. As a speaker and facilitator she inspires leaders and change-makers to use communication tools to increase effectiveness and satisfaction. Check out her work at http://nancymilton.ca/ and don't forget to check out her book THE HAPPY PLACE. With a deep commitment to living authentically, she challenges everyone to truly show up and live in the accountability of the words you speak and bed you make. Don't miss her explanation of the PLATINUM RULE and how that can change your life and relationships. Original theme music by Chris Stewart.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Priscilla McKinney, Momma Bird at Little Bird Marketing as she talks with Doug Sandler about his "Mr. Nice Guy" paradigm for success. They discuss the habits we form in business and how we can control our own behavior and always take the high road while still coming out ahead. With his 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur, his take on the importance of positivity as an important part of not only being kind to ourselves, but truly valuing others around us. While some may think his "just be nice" approach is perhaps sophomoric, he challenges you to find a better way to a successful and fulfilling career. His book, Nice Guys Finish First is a #1 ranked Amazon Best Seller and don't miss his podcast with Strickland Bonner at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-nice-guys-on-business/id966086057?mt=2. Original theme music by Chris Stewart.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Priscilla McKinney, Momma Bird at Little Bird Marketing as she talks with Dan Leadbetter about her ideal client. First of all they are "better than your average bear" but their marketing is not telling the truth. Her team is looking for clients who are great at what they do, but their marketing hasn't caught up yet and the peeps want to make up the gap. Dan knows she loves her job, but she shares the three things that she is thinking about when arriving to work each morning. It is what also makes Little Bird Marketing also be "better than your average bear." They discuss mules at length and agree that they don't need any more conversation starters. Original theme music by Chris Stewart.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Priscilla McKinney, Momma Bird at Little Bird Marketing as she talks with Dan Leadbetter about the WHY behind blogging. She gets a lot of questions about blogging, but she worries more about the people who are NOT asking her. They discuss how blogging is such an integral part of search engine optimization and how important it is in establishing one's expertise as a part of a company's strategic marketing platform. They discuss positioning and usefulness of blogs along with other creative aspects such as originality and proper voicing. Original theme music by Chris Stewart.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Priscilla McKinney, Momma Bird at Little Bird Marketing as she talks with Dan Leadbetter about how she keeps her mojo - even through a very demanding schedule and the pressure of growth. She talks about paying attention to your life and how you carve out a great balance by simply becoming awake and alive to what inspires you and what truly feeds you. She challenges listeners to think about separating out what makes you money and what makes you happy and making sure you know the difference. She starts her day with thinking about how she wants to feel in the end, and lets that be her guide. Also, in this episode Dan discovers that Oprah is no longer on TV. Original theme music by Chris Stewart.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Priscilla McKinney, Momma Bird at Little Bird Marketing as she talks with Dan Leadbetter about the do's and dont's for trade shows. Especially after the 2008 downturn in the economy many companies trimmed the budget and cut out trade shows. That was much to Priscilla's liking in what seems like the wasted time and effort at most trade shows. But trade shows done correctly can be AMAZING. Done poorly they are a TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY. She challenges the listeners to not only think about the desired outcomes, but in fact, lining out specific goals for the show - otherwise don't go! Original theme music by Chris Stewart.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Priscilla McKinney, Momma Bird at Little Bird Marketing as she talks with Dan Leadbetter about listening to your life in such a way as to lower the stress levels and get more done that is TRULY MEANINGFUL to you. She openly admits she loves goals and New Year's resolutions!!!! Really, she does, but she hates it when people make meaningless resolutions without thinking about meaning first. She focuses on how small habits can make radical changes in your life and encourages people to start with the development of a personal mission statement. End the year with gratitude and then carve out a wonderful new year! Original theme music by Chris Stewart.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Priscilla McKinney, Momma Bird at Little Bird Marketing as she talks with Brett Baker of Trustpoint Management. As her sales coach, he has brought infinite wisdom and deep personal growth at a critical time in her entrepreneurial journey. They talk about bringing your sales process in alignment with your values and how to respect yourself and others when faced with other personalities and methods for making decisions. They discuss the worst podcast episode ever http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/513/129-cars in which the traditional sales management approach literally makes your skin crawl. Brett's Sandler training is imperative to understanding why sales people chase their own tails and how you can cut through the bull and actually have real conversations you can count as a pipeline. They also discuss voicemail jail and email jail and why people insist on engaging in behaviors that don't help them meet their goals. If you are looking for solid, traditional, old-school sales training

Join Priscilla McKinney, Momma Bird at Little Bird Marketing as she talks with Dan Leadbetter about why understanding your ideal client makes a powerful impact on your marketing strategy. She talks about the "red flag" statements she hears from marketing managers and business owners which tell her that they are no longer considering their audience. With the insanely important need to create epic and relevant content for digital marketing, social media engagement and search engine optimization, she is convinced this can not be ignored. Check out http://info.littlebirdmarketing.com/a-little-bird-guide-to-personas for today's freebie guide which is a step-by-step guide to understanding and creating your personas to get your marketing plan back on track. Original theme music by Chris Stewart.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Priscilla McKinney, Momma Bird at Little Bird Marketing as she talks with Dan Leadbetter about how the reality of entrepreneurship and how hard it is to keep up with all you should know about business. Priscilla talks candidly about the shame that surrounds what we don't know about business and how few risk showing their vulnerability. Priscilla talks about how to listen to fear and use it to bring your true self to the table to grow through the process. They discuss the risk of entrepreneurship, why so many go for it, and how that life can be lonely. She points out, however, that EVERYONE is risking something, but few know what they are risking. She shares her personal story and gives practical advice about start up risks, social risks and financial risks. Before they even start the podcast content they digress into a discussion about "elusive on-hold music" from an episode of This American Life podcast which you can find at http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/516/stuck-in-the-middle.

Join Priscilla McKinney, Momma Bird at Little Bird Marketing as she talks with Chantal Pierrat, the amazing power behind Emerging Women. This movement was birthed out of a true transformation she experienced in her career as she emerged into owning her feminine power. They discuss what it means to walk through life with focused self reflection and how that can offer opportunities for total alignment with our true selves. They talk about finding support, the courage to be who we truly are, the power of personal transformation, why the feminine is at home in connection, what it means to truly lead with soul and why it is so important to build a tribe. Chantal created Emerging Women, a tribe of 48,000 brilliant women creating change in the world. They talk with anticipation about the upcoming thought leaders set to speak at Emerging Women Live 2015 coming in October. Original theme music by Chris Stewart.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Priscilla McKinney, Momma Bird at Little Bird Marketing as she talks with Dan Leadbetter about the meaning of generational differences. Popular business culture demands that management change their practices to accommodate specific generations, but Priscilla's entrepreneurial experience has left her to believe she should do no such thing. They discuss The Economist's article "Myths about Millennials" http://www.economist.com/news/business/21660110-businesses-should-beware-dubious-generalisations-about-younger-workers-myths-about which vindicates Priscilla's stance that most of the millennial touchstones are a myth. They discuss funny ironies found in the millennial generation and Billie Joel might have said it best when he sang, "You can't dress trashy 'til you spend lots of money." Original theme music by Chris Stewart.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Priscilla McKinney, Momma Bird at Little Bird Marketing as she talks with Dan Leadbetter about how the importance of asking for what you need. Key ingredient of asking for what you need is first knowing what you need. She points out that companies many times fail to craft a successful calls to action because they don't truly know what they need clients or potential clients to do. Perhaps that comes from a lack of understanding profit, or simply a lack of understanding the audience. They discuss personas as they pertain to helping write effective sales copy and the power of being CLEAR with people about their next step. Also, Priscilla would like to be called Prisca and Dan needs a nickname. Original theme music by Chris Stewart.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Priscilla McKinney, Momma Bird at Little Bird Marketing as she talks with Dan Leadbetter about how LinkedIn is NOT a dating site. They explore the mighty, mighty power of LinkedIn and the mighty, mighty fears people have about maintaining a presence online. However, as more than 300 million other professionals are using it to successfully connect and generate leads on a wide scale it is high time you created a profile. Priscilla likes to refer to her teachings on LinkedIn use as a primer on how to become six times more likely to exceed their sales quota. That is the reality of successful models of amazing uses for LinkedIn. Original theme music by Chris Stewart. Listen in for an amazing freebie she offers to podcast listeners!Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Priscilla McKinney, Momma Bird at Little Bird Marketing as she interviews Chris Stewart, who you might know as the musician behind the Ponderings from the Perch soundtrack. Priscilla has known Chris for more than two decades and has worked with him on multiple music projects for clients. They dive into the difficulty of marketing yourself as an artist, and making something as subjective as music for commercial purposes. They tried to keep the Spinal Tap references to a minimum but agree that D minor is truly the saddest of all keys. The best part is that after the podcast he and two other friends touring the Midwest performed an office party right at Little Bird Marketing. Original theme music by Chris Stewart. Check out Avery at averyhilltunes.com, Kelly Bosworth at kellybosworth.com and more from Chris at chrisstewart.net.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Priscilla McKinney, Momma Bird at Little Bird Marketing as she talks with Dan Leadbetter about dream jobs. Starting with an interesting list, they discuss the pros and cons of having some portion of your hobby become your job. If you love to cook, do you really want to have to do it as a J.O.B.? From cooks, to bed and breakfast owners to travel writers, they discuss the pros and cons of so many jobs people consider to be dream jobs. Just know that you can't be a Purveyor of Fine Cognac as Priscilla already wants that job! Original theme music by Chris Stewart.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Priscilla McKinney, Momma Bird at Little Bird Marketing as she talks with Dan Leadbetter about careers. They ruminate about the reality that so many viable careers did not even exist when they were in school, question their own career paths and are faced with how to explain to 4th and 5th graders what they actually do all day! They discuss the rate of technological change and try to imagine an advertising agency job without social media. Priscilla discusses digital marketing, platform building, and bizarre soft skills that are required for today's successful professional career. As they prepare to walk into a Career Day for 4th and 5th graders they talk about what they wish someone would have told them "back in the day". Original theme music by Chris Stewart.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Priscilla McKinney, Momma Bird here at Little Bird Marketing as she talks with Dan Leadbetter about art and collecting art. Priscilla discusses difficult conversations she has in her job every day as she critiques work of multiple graphic artists. She explains how a culture which protects people's self-worth creates an environment where they can be vulnerable, fail multiple times, learn from mistakes, grow as a designer and ultimately succeed in producing their very best work. She holds fast to her belief "we will succeed or fail in groups," which provides the underlying basis for her company culture. As an award-winning agency, they feel the pressure to continue to produce amazing work, and yet it is a semi-subjective industry. She explains how they work as a team to push each other in problem solving, process and time management and how often she feels like Heidi Klum. Auf Wiedersehen! Original theme music by Chris Stewart.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Priscilla McKinney, Momma Bird here at Little Bird Marketing as she has a morning conversation with fellow globetrotter, Helene Sheeler-Johnson. As they both work marketing and PR angles in the same small town in the Midwest they exchange several knowing glances. Yet they continue to work day in and day out to bring the marketing and PR aspects of their jobs into the same strategy. With Helene's massive experience with companies like Midway, Nike, Nestle and more, she gives real-world examples of the debacle that ensues when Marketing and PR Departments don't communicate. Although they discuss Helene's husband's Neanderthal origins, Helene also sheds light on tips for getting free press to advance strategic marketing goals. With a background in journalism, she talks about the full-court press that must be done to convince someone in the news to pick up your story. They end with a fun plug for a new product Helene has brought to market of her own creation, Back to Beauty Anti-Wrinkle Head Cradle which is