I’m Marcia Hoeck, and I guide small business owners like you through the maze of running a small business  — the stuff you didn’t learn in school.

I believe that most entrepreneurs and small business owners are different from “normal” people. The same qualities that can be powerful drivers of success — high levels of creativity, lots of energy, the ability to start several projects at the same time, and extreme drive — can also be the things that get in your way and keep you stuck.

That’s where I come in. Using proven business and marketing strategies, I’ll help you get focused, get out of overwhelm, unstuck, and attracting new customers. Together we’ll build your plan and systems for its foundation.

I’ll support you, up close and personal, and teach you how to create a business that will almost run without you, so you can get back to what you started your business for in the first place.

Follow me on Twitter!

Here ya go:

The E-Myth Revisited, by Michael Gerber

Now, Discover Your Strengths, by Marcus Buckingham & Donald O. Clifton

7 Secrets for Building a Business that Has Value, by Patricia Noel Drain

No B.S. Ruthless Management of People & Profits, by Dan Kennedy

Think & Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill

Think Big, Act Small, by Jason Jennings

Growing Great Employees, by Erika Anderson

A Whole New Mind, by Daniel Pink

HOW also recorded my presentation, so I hope to have information on where to get a copy of that soon, as well. I’ll keep you posted. And let me know how you’re doing with your reading!

300%! That’s a lot.

And because ADHD is under diagnosed in the adult population, there are probably many more entrepreneurs with ADHD who aren’t included in that percentage.

I had no idea how prevalent ADHD and ADHD tendencies were among entrepreneurs until Jacqueline Sinfield and I started comparing notes.

The more we talked, the more she noticed that a lot of her clients, adults with ADHD, are entrepreneurs. And the more I noticed that a lot of my clients, entrepreneurs growing their businesses, have ADHD tendencies.

So we decided to dig deeper into how we could help both of our client groups to work with their ADHD tendencies, not against them.

And we came up with the idea of a complimentary teleclass for entrepreneurs with ADHD and ADHD tendencies.

I love talking to Jacqui about this subject, because she understands not only the challenges adults with ADHD have, but she also knows what it’s like to be an entrepreneur (since she is one!) and the challenges that being a business owner represent. When the two of us start matching our strategies, we always find many similarities.

Being an entrepreneur is a very creative, yet solitary venture. We entrepreneurs are different from “normal” people, and we have our own quirks and funny stresses, just from the nature of the beast. Adults with ADHD also find themselves outside of the norm on many things — and when you put entrepreneurs + adults with ADHD or ADHD tendencies together, a lot of fascinating things happen. By focusing on the positive aspects of both and learning how to minimize the negative, entrepreneurs with ADHD actually have an advantage in growing strong businesses.

If this sounds like you, be sure to check out the class.

So these are some of mine — nothing fancy here, just some good old standbys plus a boost for my day*:

Google Adwords Keyword Tool Fascinating, and every time I use it I learn something new. I keep working at this and one day I’ll get it right. Connie has a great video on how to use it.

Google Analytics A must for tracking web statistics. I keep thinking if I check my stats more often, they’re bound to go up. Maybe a different tactic is in order?

InstantTeleseminar Love this service for broadcasting teleseminars. Participants like the fact that they can listen to the webcast as well as via telephone. Lots of ways to personalize, update, and share recordings.

Dictionary.com I have a shortcut to this page because I’m here so often. Dictionary and thesaurus from the same form, and I need ‘em. I’m a grammar and spelling weirdo.

Bit.ly Love this link shortener because it tracks and graphs my clicks.

AudioAcrobat For recording client coaching sessions and teleclasses. Couldn’t live without it.

Skype Love love love this for intercontinental communications — and it’s free. Also great for seeing what my grandkidlets are up to.

Google Alerts I’ve got one set on my name and my business name, so I can see when the search engines index my blog posts, when someone publishes one of my articles online, or when someone’s talking about me.

*Everyday Manifestations Fabulous way to start my day. Short (5 minutes or less) guided meditations with the business person in mind, delivered daily via email, by Bonnie Hutchinson.

Maybe there are more, but that’s all I can drum up for tonight.

1. I’ll be responsible for my own results.

It sounds so simple. You may think, “Of course I’m responsible for my own results.” Or do you really think the economy is responsible for your results, or your clients, or the government?

There is a huge shift in the US, where I live, away from truly being responsible for ourselves, and most of us are guilty of it to some degree.

We see it on the news all the time. Many in our country expect the government, their employers, their parents, and others to take care of them. This didn’t start until the Industrial Revolution when people started working for companies, and the companies started taking care of employees.

Before that, if you needed food and you lived in the US, you went out and plowed a field. If you needed money, you sold a horse, or did a project for a neighbor. This isn’t so different than what’s going on in other areas of the world, even today. But are some of us just a bit too willing to wait for an answer from someone else rather than to go out and plow the field like our great-grandparents did?

What does this have to do with business? A lot.

It’s tough in business now, for some of us. A lot of people, and companies, have tightened their buying. But you are in charge. You may just have to find a different field to plow, or a different tool to use.

I take responsibility for my own results.

2. I’ll make careful choices, and choose differently than others.

We make hundreds of choices every day, many of them unconscious. You brush your teeth without thinking about it, you choose what you’ll eat for breakfast. It’s easy to let life just pull you along — to just drift along on autopilot.

The same thing can happen with your business, and you just do the same things over and over. I’m committing to some new and different choices.

I won’t unconsciously follow the crowd, or just drift along, or keep doing the same things because I’ve always done them — because my decisions determine my results.

I’m going to make careful choices, and choose differently than others.

3. I’ll get out of my comfort zone.

We’re often told to be cautious. “Don’t reach too high, you may fail.” How many times have you heard that, or “You can’t do that, something may go wrong”? Usually it’s said by a well-meaning friend or relative, trying to keep us safe.

But anything I’ve ever done that was worth doing was out of my comfort zone. Learning how to catch a mooring point in very high winds after blowing out the main sail in the British Virgin Islands was out of my comfort zone. The first time I got up in front of a large group to give a branding presentation was out of my comfort zone. Starting my business in a city where I only knew a handful of people was definitely out of my comfort zone.

I remember my dad telling me that I could be anything I wanted to be, and I believed him — and I didn’t want to let him down. So I kept reaching. Now, if I don’t feel a little bit scared by something I’m doing, I figure I’m not growing.

I’m going to continue to do things that take me out of my comfort zone.

4. I’ll surround myself with people who are where I want to be.

We’ve all heard that we are the sum of the five people we hang around with the most. Well, your business can become the sum of the five companies you admire most if you study the way they do business.

Check out and comment on their blogs, follow them on Twitter, study their websites and print literature, read their press. Learn how businesses where you want to be do business, get under their skin, and their “business” will rub off on you.

I’m going to look for businesses that are where I want to be, and study the way they do business.

5. I’ll remember that not everyone will like what I do.

Your business has to be authentic to you — and you can’t please everyone. If you try to, your business will be very bland. It’s important to remember that not every customer is right for you — you need to find those who align with you, who are a good fit for you.

This has to a lot to do with positioning — when you choose a position, when you decide to put a stake in the ground, it naturally excludes some things and some people. With positioning, you’re saying “This is what I am,” or “This is what my organization is,” which in effect, also says “This is what I am not.” A lot of business owners have a problem with this — they don’t want to exclude anyone or any segment in their marketing.

You need to remember that when you do take a position, and you start to have success with it, there will be nay sayers, and detractors, who will criticize you. Expect it. It’s going to happen. Don’t let it sway you or make you second guess your direction — stick to your guns.

I’m going to remember that not everyone is going to like what I do or support my success.

That’s it. Those are my five commitments, my mindset shifts, in addition to my commitment to posting regularly in this blog. The idea is that by posting them here, they’ll stay more at the top of my mind, and I won’t slip back into my old habits and my comfy comfort zone.

And now that I’ve told you, you can help keep me honest.

During the average workday, most people spend more time goofing off than doing “real” work.

On average, 53% more time, in fact.

It gets worse.

When they are doing their “real” work, more often than not they are actually either:

a.  Only pretending to work

b.  Doing “busy work” with no value

… or …

c.  Caught up in repetitive task “work trances” that produce no real results

As entrepreneurs, our figures are probably better than that. (Those of you with employees, though, might want to take heed) – but still, you get the point. These activities are only purposeless on the surface – there’s almost always a deep intention to trick the world into thinking that we’re living up to our true potential, our fullest capacity.

Do something for me — think really honestly about this and then raise your hand if you genuinely think you’re living up to 100% of your true potential.

I’m looking, but I don’t see too many hands raised out there. Could it be that you also have an intention to trick the world into thinking you’re living up to your potential, even if you don’t believe it yourself?

You may not think that this pertains to you. But I challenge you to dig deep here – and unless absolutely everything in your life and your business is going exactly as you want it to, unless you have no failures along the way — it could be you.

I think it could be all of us.

That’s scary. So, why would we not live up to our own potential? Especially when we, as entrepreneurs, have so much control over what we do and how we do it?

Maybe we don’t live up to our true potential because we’re rewarded when we don’t. We get to avoid pain in the form of struggle, criticism, discomfort, possible humiliation, discouragement, gossip, not being understood, being different. If we do less than we’re capable of, we don’t run the risk. Rather than face the possibility of pain, we often don’t act at all. We don’t move towards success.

It’s kind of a trance we can get caught up in, a lie we tell ourselves. It isn’t true, and it isn’t necessary.

(You can sign up for the BizTips Teleclass Series and get access to the recording of that call.)

What Jacqui and I found is that there are many entrepreneurs with ADHD as well as many with ADHD tendencies, and lots of similarities between the two groups. We think we know why, and we think our combined expertise can help people in these groups to build stronger businesses. So we’re joining forces again.

Is this you?

If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re probably very creative. In fact, you probably have a note pad by your bed to write down the ideas that come to you as you fall asleep and the ones that wake you up in the middle of the night — you just can’t stop them from coming! And that’s probably also the main reason you started your own business, because you’re so full of ideas that a regular 9 to 5 job can’t contain you. Guess what? Ditto for adults with ADHD.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ve probably got “bright, shiny object syndrome” — meaning, of course, that every new and exciting thing that comes down the pike grabs your attention and can take you miles away from your current projects, sometimes causing you to abandon important projects altogether. It seems like nothing ever gets finished. Guess what? Ditto for adults with ADHD.

Many famous business people have ADHD.

Did you know that Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Airlines and several other mega-successful companies, is an adult with ADHD, as well as a fabulously accomplished entrepreneur? In his autobiography, Branson talks about never being able to master the art of reading and understanding contracts — and can you imagine the number of contracts that guy has to negotiate, with all of his business dealings? He, like many other idea-crazy business people, worked around that by ignoring the mumbo jumbo contract language and learning to read the body language of the people he made deals with, figuring he’d get a good take on who was sincere and trustworthy that way. Pretty creative, huh? And it seems to be working for him.

There are a lot more interesting similarities between entrepreneurs, like you, and adults with ADHD, and Jacqui and I want to share more about them. It’s so fascinating, and so helpful, too, because as an expert on ADHD (you can buy Jacqui’s book, Untapped Brilliance, How to Reach Your Full Potential as an Adult with ADHD, at Jacqui’s site or at Amazon.com), Jacqui brings practical, easy, and useful tips to the discussion. And I know lots about entrepreneurialism (take a look around this site) and how to build a strong company. Together, our goal is to help you, whether you have ADHD or just ADHD tendencies, to focus on the positive aspects of the way your brain works and to unload the negative — so you can be the best you can be for your business.

Sooooo, stay tuned for more information about our free teleclass at 2:00 pm Eastern on May 27. We don’t have a sign-up page even up yet, but if you want to make sure you’re on the advance list to be notified, sign up for the BizTips Teleclass list and you’ll be the first to get an invitation.

There are two main reasons that marketing and promotion efforts fail to capture attention:

1.) The message is unclear

2.) The message is inconsistent

In my last post, I talked about where we go wrong when we put out unclear messages, and some steps we can take to fix that. Now let’s look at the second reason, inconsistency.

Inconsistent messages

You sabotage yourself. Here’s a common mistake you may be making if you do your own marketing: you might get bored with your message and think your prospective clients are, too. So you think you have to constantly reinvent yourself, and liven things up.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Just about the time you’re getting tired of being The Marketing Guru or think your clients are bored with your customer service message, is about the time they’re finally getting used to it, and really hearing it. They’re just “getting it.” They don’t want you to change it, especially if your message is a good fit for you. Change it, and you risk losing the attention you just gained, and confusing their brains.

Only the deeply emotional or relentlessly repeated gets remembered by the brain.

Deeply emotional: If you live in the US, there’s a good chance you remember exactly where you were and who you were with the moment you heard about the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Why? Because it was deeply emotional for you, so it was seared into your brain.

Relentlessly repeated: Advertisers know this, and take good advantage of the fact that repetition helps the brain hold on to things. For instance, while there are a variety of stats available, some experts say that it takes a minimum of 7 to 9 impressions for direct mail to make an impact on you, and it can take up to 56 times for an ad to enter your conscious awareness.

And then there’s the Rule of 151, which politicians know so well, and it goes like this:

The first 50 times someone hears something, they don’t really hear it

The second 50 times someone hears something, they don’t believe it

The third 50 times someone hears something, they start to believe it, but they don’t act on it

And it’s not until the 151^st time that someone hears something that they’ll believe it and act on it.

The brain can’t pay attention to everything, so the inconsistent, not repeated, and emotionally flat messages will be lost.

The brain likes to group things. The brain assumes that objects having something in common go together. Your awareness may see a group of messages like this;

At the same time, your brain is trying to organize the information. It saves time and energy by processing things in groups, and is categorizing the messages like this;

This is a really good reason why you want to be consistent — so that your clients’ brains can recognize your repeated messages and put them in the right “container” in their brains. The messages build, and by their sheer volume, become more influential.

The brain likes to link things. The brain also links new information with existing knowledge it may have already stored, from the conscious to the subconscious, so it’s quick to pay attention to information it’s already used to, like the Nike logo (“There’s something familiar! I’ll let that enter my attention, and I’ll file that with my already large depository of Nike information.”) — which explains why so many companies spend so much on branding. Not being consistent with branding goes against how the brain works to store information. Is this starting to make sense?

People value consistency. People are looking for consistency to increase their comfort level. That’s why you always go back to the same restaurants, even if it’s not your favorite food. It’s because you know what you’ll get. That’s valuable.

Consistency also develops trust — you trust people who consistently behave in the manner you expect them to. You probably didn’t trust Uncle Eddie if he behaved erratically, picking you up after school some days and not on others. And your clients won’t trust you if your messages aren’t consistent, either.

It costs less to be consistent. Reinventing the wheel is expensive — just think how much money the big guys save by sticking with the Maytag Repair Man and Nationwide . . . On Your Side. And wouldn’t it be weird if they changed to some other marketing message?

Building meaningful consistency takes time, but it’s pretty easy to do. Combine it with clarity, and you’ve got a powerful one-two punch. Clarity and consistency can be two of your most important tools for capturing, and keeping, your clients’ attention.

There are two main reasons that marketing and promotion efforts fail to capture attention:

1.) The message is unclear

2.) The message is inconsistent

Let’s take a look at where we’re going wrong when we put out unclear messages, and some steps we can take to fix that.

Unclear messages

Help them see what you see. You might be using your own “me” filter when creating messages about your company, thinking that everyone sees things the way you do.

But they don’t.

People won’t “hear” you until they perceive what you perceive. So you’ve got to make your position really clear — help them to see what you see, using story, description, personal experiences, case histories, anything that will put the prospect in the right position to understand your message.

“What you see and hear depends a good deal on where you’re standing.”

— C. S. Lewis

Make it personal. When something becomes personal, it becomes important. Personally interesting or perceptually meaningful information can grab attention, bring clarity, and help it slip right into your prospective client’s awareness. You don’t have to do a lot of explaining to tell someone his house is on fire.

Use emotion. Emotion is also a great way to bring clarity to your business messages while making it personal. Emotion has the triple bonus of adding clarity, giving clients a reason to talk about you and your business, and triggering the circuits in the brain that activate behavior and decisions.

Don’t be cute, clever, or use insider language. You only have a few seconds to capture someone’s attention with your words and visuals, so don’t take chances with clever or cute, which is often lost on people. (Okay, the cat illustration I used in my last post on this very subject was cute, but it also made the very specific point I was talking about, so don’t tell me I took a chance with cute, because I don’t think I did, in that instance.) Don’t use inside jokes or industry terms, either (unless appropriate for narrow niche marketing). These tactics only tend to confuse audiences – and a confused mind does not pay attention.

I’ll be talking about the dangers of the second reason marketing and promotion efforts fail to capture attention — inconsistency — in tomorrow’s post, “Capturing Attention: Why Marketing Efforts Fail, Part 2.”