Disqus - Latest Comments for heatherrast

Re: How to Send Emails Your Customers Won’t Delete

heatherrast — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 15:50:39 -0000

Hi Ricky. Thanks for taking the time to read my post. I appreciate it, and am glad to have left you with an idea or two! - HR

Re: The Difference In Me and SME

heatherrast — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 13:02:36 -0000

Congratulations to Jason, Nichole, Kat, and everyone doing great stuff behind the scenes. Woot!

Re: How Solopreneur Parents Can Take Care of Business (Part 2 of 2)

heatherrast — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 17:26:39 -0000

Adam, thanks for sharing your tool. I'm going to check it out!

Re: The Curious and The Needy: Does Your Website Deliver?

heatherrast — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 20:13:45 -0000

Addition: Just noticed a recent post published by MarketingProfs that takes a contrasting point of view. Read:
http://www.marketingprofs.c...

Re: Why Remote Workers Are More (Yes, More) Engaged

heatherrast — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 22:20:09 -0000

Scott, I enjoyed your article. I plan to share it with fellow "work anywhere" professionals I know (#workshifting). For me, perhaps even beyond the value of your thoughts on remote work is your commitment to comment and follow up with commenters. I very much enjoy the HBR blog - the contributors are great. But I'm routinely disappointed when I read posts and the thoughtful observations of commenters go unrewarded, the authors unresponsive. Thank you for staying close! Heather

Re: The Curious and The Needy: Does Your Website Deliver?

heatherrast — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 12:48:01 -0000

Hey there, Ginny. Thanks for stopping by. We're all time-starved - the marketers and the audiences we aim to convert and cuddle. It can be a huge undertaking to allocate resources to address all the important touchpoints our brands have with customers and prospects. I think it's wise to take a big step back, to reassess which business objectives the website can support and the goals it can facilitate. Sometimes that work is harder for a company to take on than it is to agree to a social editorial calendar. Harder doesn't mean it shouldn't get done.

Re: Making Performance Reviews Better

heatherrast — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 08:41:55 -0000

Small Improvements ( https://www.small-improveme... could be a tool to take a look at. I've had some experience using it (in an employee role). It allows individual team members to establish quarterly objectives, track progress to completion, and perform self-assessments at the end of the period. A manager then performs their own assessment and the two assessments get paired together. Also, individual team members have a place to provide anecdotal comments and feedback about other employees, with various degrees of visibility to other users. To state the obvious (but I think it's important enough to mention), in order for the quarterly cycle to really work, the upcoming period's objectives have to be vetted and into the system before the start of the quarter. Kind of takes the value out if internal time-to-move gets in the way and objectives aren't in effect until one month of the quarter goes by.

Re: Create Content that Nurtures — and Nudges — Your Prospects

heatherrast — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 17:36:51 -0000

Thanks, Drew. Glad you found some value!

Re: Is Business As Usual Risky Business?

heatherrast — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 13:39:27 -0000

Hey, Taylor. Thanks for commenting. Glad you liked the piece.

Entrepreneurs - those in tech or "building stuff" as well as those wearing the shoes of a solo or small business consultant do take on an amazing amount of risk when they pursue their vision. I think those risks are as emotional as they are financial, and sometimes the overall complexity of how to get *there* from *here* with those risks creating fear keep people paralyzed.

I'll say that in my experience, there are indeed employees out there who willingly take the journey with peers and bosses who inspire them to blaze new trails. Certainly, there are "go-along" employees - we all know those folks that are content clock-punchers - but when the right leader places faith in a driven, passionate employee, well magic can happen.

Re: An inside view of the blogging process

heatherrast — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 14:42:19 -0000

Mark, I really appreciate you (and the other writers noted in the related posts) sharing your processes. There have been times when I've wondered, "Am I doing this right?" because the view from the outside led me to conclude that thinking, researching, and communicating useful ideas was quick or easy for some other writers. While I'm sure a few have natural gifts, its likely that most of us experience a detour, a block, or a challenge in our blogging. And honestly, the fact that on occasion you're concerned how readers might react to a post is both humbling and reassuring. If it were possible to hold equal amounts of confidence and doubt about writing, my hands would often be full.

A final note - your point about writing discipline is another important one for me, and an area I often fail myself. I've yet to adequately resolve how to consistently write for my own blog while contributing pieces to other outlets on schedule. Again, thank you for not only outlining the mechanics of your model, but the intangibles of producing creative work products.@heatherrast

Re: Social Media Lessons From Mad Men

heatherrast — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 10:25:15 -0000

You made several strong points here, and brilliantly contrasted the two pitch examples to underscore your message. In many ways, the "old days" of marketing and advertising were rooted in campaigns as units of measurement. We used campaign waves when we discussed budget and resources as often as when we used campaign waves to talk about impacting business change - then, the efforts were much more episodic. As you suggest, today marketing is much more about steady, sustained growth and relationship-building. Social media can help enable and support a strategy to create better 1:1 with customers, but the cultural philosophy - relentless service-mindedness underscored by empathy - is the cornerstone to actually achieving it.

Re: Rise of the Twitter Teenager

heatherrast — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:25:35 -0000

Cool post, Stephanie! Interesting to learn about the shifting tide in use patterns. My radar doesn't encompass teen/family issues the way yours does, but it did strike me noteworthy when my 9th grader told me each student in one of her classes (I forget which!) had to set up and maintain a Twitter account for the trimester.

Funny side note - I remember her commenting, "There are some stupid people that just tweet about going to bed or what they ate - what's the point in that? Tweet something I care about."

Re: 5 Ways To Improve Customer Intimacy

heatherrast — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:41:35 -0000

Sounds like great aspirations to have! Your comment made me think of an example - I often get packages at home via UPS and FedEx. I don't give a hoot about either carrier in most ways - but the UPS driver (Jimmy) is super friendly. He brings treats for my dogs and takes the initiative to creatively deliver packages when I'm not home so the mutts won't get into them. By contrast, the FedEx guy is rather grumpy and cold. He left a box of chocolate (marked as such) at my door one day when I wasn't home, even though my dogs (who are on electric collars) were clearly evident. It's the little extra effort from Jimmy that makes me prefer to ship via UPS when I can.

Re: 5 Ways To Improve Customer Intimacy

heatherrast — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:34:18 -0000

Chris, it seems the points I wanted to make rang true with you. That's great. I wish more enterprise-level companies tapped into the elements that originally made them successful - and I'm sure in most cases it had less to do with connecting the data dots to push an upsell, and more to do with genuine, sincere helpfulness in its many permutations. Thanks for your thoughts!

Re: Social Media: Career Boost or Time Suck?

heatherrast — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:21:30 -0000

Claire, your comment raises a good point I hope I touched on in the post. Tools and platforms are inert tactics/resources until activated by an ambitious, creative, and driven individual with a clear sense of objective.

Re: Social Media: Career Boost or Time Suck?

heatherrast — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:45:31 -0000

Thanks for weighing in, Bret. Your comment brings an important piece into focus - passion, subject matter knowledge, and commitment to actively pursue an objective. Social media can be one very useful way for driven, talented students to break through the barriers they face and provide empirical evidence of their skills and knowledge.

A point I hoped to impress in my post - social media on its own won't help a graduate land a job. Number of followers or breadth of network alone isn't valuable to employers. And technical prowess with the platforms does little to demonstrate potential outcomes. Your examples with Lisa and Kendra above show the young women were willing to "walk the walk."

Re: January Lets You “Re-do”

heatherrast — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 12:16:43 -0000

It's always great to see a responsive company truly interested in feedback - thanks, Brittany. Sounds like my use pre-dates the latest release and might alleviate one of the inconveniences I faced. Awesome to know about the improvement!

Re: January Lets You “Re-do”

heatherrast — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 12:14:22 -0000

Ashlee, I first came to work with my coach while a management-level employee at a software company. They saw it as an investment in my development, and a way to strengthen my ability to lead a team. That said, coaches of this sort can be costly (even while presenting a benefit) so were it not for my existing relationship (which afforded a rate discount), I wouldn't have this connection. As an indie 14 months into self-employment, I see tremendous advantages to an opportunity like Solo PR Pro's membership site (
http://soloprpro.com/become.... The forum is a great way to pull from a collective body of experience/knowledge, the Q&A call gives individualized support (like a coaching session), and the guides/resources can take a lot of guesswork out of setting up your biz. I'd say these things even if I weren't affiliated with Kellye. Now's the time to become a member - before the special intro pricing is gone!

Best of luck to you.

Re: January Lets You “Re-do”

heatherrast — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:36:49 -0000

Hi, Brittany. Thanks for being receptive to feedback - and my comments are purely my own, not Kellye's. I tried Sprout Social for - let me think - 4 months or so as a paid subscriber. I have a habit of using bookmarklets as a way to quickly wade through good stuff I read and want to share. I found the SS bookmarklet to be a little clunky, and the way it renders in the lower part of the window sometimes made it difficult to select options. Not sure if this is tied to my particular setup or what. Also the dashboard and screens didn't lend themselves to something I could keep open in the background (and thereby take advantage of reccos for new followers, etc.). So I didn't use it much...making $19.95 per month a larger expense than I wanted to bear.

There were definitely aspects about SS I liked, but some others that led me to under utilize it. Again, some of my perception is tied to my own use habits and maybe not a fair comment on the product itself.

Thanks again for stopping by!

Re: January Lets You “Re-do”

heatherrast — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:31:28 -0000

Ahh, great point Ashlee! Like you, I'm very happy to be part of this vibrant, smart community - I learn so much every day! I also have a person I trust as a business coach, and a strong network of professional peers I trust. I think the smartest consultants lean on one another to learn and grow. Thanks for stopping by!

Re: Where Does Social Media Fit With Brand Culture?

heatherrast — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:24:19 -0000

The leaders of orgs that think going through some motions equates to the kind of living, breathing culture that inspires passionate, loyal employees are really fooling no one. The disconnect is felt and seen, and factors into the perception of the brand.

Re: Where Does Social Media Fit With Brand Culture?

heatherrast — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 16:43:36 -0000

Social media may not be the issue. But it may be the catalyst when a company aspires to project an image or claim a position that its stakeholders aren't prepared to infuse through the entire organization. Peel off the channel, and there are still disconnects between philosophy and actions, policy and practice, attributes the customer would assign and those the company would say it holds.

Thanks much for your POV, Brittany!

Re: 7 Ways To Build Trust With Your Clients

heatherrast — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:02:32 -0000

It's like with any relationship - we're people, and our natural tendency to keep some level of trust in reserve is pretty intrinsic to basic survival and safety. Especially with new client relationships, it's invaluable to demonstrate all the reasons why you (the consultant) are a good fit - you'll validate the original decision to hire you and quickly break down barriers that could otherwise make even the most general communication exchanges static-y.

Re: New Business: Is There A Right Time To Say No?

heatherrast — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 11:53:26 -0000

And saying "yes" to yourself can, in certain situations, feel very self-indulgent, can't it? A lull in work can trigger feelings of desperation or self-preservation, so when a hard-to-please or uncoachable prospect comes along, ready to pay your fee (for a price), it can be hard to say, "Thank you, but I must decline." As Kellye has written more than once here, working to save some extra income cushion can help someone weather the storm. I believe both you and she are spot on - taking on that client of work (regardless of your instinct) only stresses you out and may even take you out of the game so when a "right" opportunity comes along, you miss it.

Thanks for stopping by, Daria - and glad you liked what I did with this post! ;-)

Re: New Business: Is There A Right Time To Say No?

heatherrast — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 11:48:47 -0000

Hi, Sue. Thanks for adding your thoughts. As you can probably tell, I agree with you - our intuition synthesizes a lot of subtle cues that when pulled together, can send a strong signal about any given situation. I'm guilty of ignoring that signal more than once as I tried to overcome what I thought were reservations tied to doing something that stretched me as a professional. Turned out it wasn't really stretching my skills, just the boundaries within which I prefer to work. One of the lessons I'm learning as an indie is to identify those boundaries and stick with them!