If you haven’t followed the story of Alvin Greene, you should. In essence, the story goes like this: Greene filed as a Democratic candidate for DeMint’s seat in the U.S. Senate. He bought no yard signs, he showed up on no TV commercials. He didn’t campaign, stump or otherwise even appear in public. (Although he apparently WAS doing some type of person-to-person meet and greets, thus his felony charge.)

Still, he beat his opponent with 59 percent of the vote.

What does this mean for you? Well, whether you are a large corporation or a small business, it should tell you one thing:

If you aren’t marketing yourself, and marketing yourself well, you could very easily be beat by a nobody.

Okay, so maybe “nobody” is a harsh term here, but the truth is that many businesses eschew a marketing and PR plan because “money’s tight” or “it’s the easiest thing to cut.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard those — and many other—excuses. Many companies think themselves so far ahead of competition, or maybe even exempt from it, that marketing is the first cut. Advertising? Gone. Strategy? Gone. Social media presence? Takes too much time. Website? We’ll do it later.

Well guess what? While you are fading off into the noise, the general public (who now doesn’t know you from the next guy) is not getting a Top-of-Mind *ping* on your company when they need your product. Nope, they are simply picking up the phone book and dialing the first name on the list.

So, unless your name starts with an “A”, I’d suggest you re-evaluate where you are going.

Thanks to Trey Pennington for enlightening us on how to change our perspective, and capitalize on our opportunities. And a huge thank you to Enterprise Launch for getting Launch Greenville in motion and making it the success it is today!

LAUNCH Greenville 2010 is underway, and we are so excited to be here (like, really excited!). We have three enticing keynote speakers this morning and then a marketing, sales, and business owner panel this afternoon! The Marketing Pro. The Sales Guru. The Small Business Fanatic. Key Business Connections….We have a lot of stuff to cover. Stick with us, and you’ll be quite amazed at what we’ll show you (And don’t forget to check us out on Twitter, Facebook, and ….)

2009 was tough, right? So how do we move from the struggle of the previous year to making a change in 2010? It’s about changing your perspective. The age of opportunity awaits us, and we have to be optimistic. When we learn that we are in control of our own destiny, then we can move to the next level.

In order to change our perspective, Trey offered these ideas:

1) Having a mentality of just letting things go. We have to natural tendency to build fences around and guard our assets rather than letting them go. Why not let your gurad down, take risks?

2) Maximizing Sales—Purposely giving things away. The purpose of business is to maximize shareholder wealth, not just making money.

3) Pursuing your passion—Be bold to start something, even if you don’t know the end. There’s wisdom in planning, but it restrains us from taking that first step.

4) Listen, and take the message in— What about listening, instead of getting your message out there? It’s transformative, and it could change the way you do business.

Barriers to changing your perspective: FEAR of the unknown—You have to be willing to make a choice that you’re ok with uncertainty, and that you’re ok with being totally responsible for the outcome. Pursue your passion, put yourself out there, and ignite those passions towards the goal.

Eight Be attitudes to seize these opportunities:
1. Be alert
2. Be quiet
3. Be available
4. Be responsive
5. Be visible
6. Be generous
7. Be helpful
8. Be quiet (humility).

At the end of the day, what’s that point? It’s about creating value for other people. We need to create value for our customer, and not worry about making a buck today. The joy we can obtain from creating joy for other people is endless. Choose to act.

Watch the full interviews of Upstate Trail Blazers:

People who are setting the stage for the next level of business. Developing a new software. A new product. Using business tools in a whole new way. Being a visionary thinker with the power to challenge “the way it’s always been done.” Meet six Upstate leaders doing all of the above, and taking our business culture – locally, nationally and globally – to a whole new level.

Watch the full interviews of Upstate Trail Blazers:

People who are setting the stage for the next level of business. Developing a new software. A new product. Using business tools in a whole new way. Being a visionary thinker with the power to challenge “the way it’s always been done.” Meet six Upstate leaders doing all of the above, and taking our business culture – locally, nationally and globally – to a whole new level.

Watch the full interviews of Upstate Trail Blazers:

People who are setting the stage for the next level of business. Developing a new software. A new product. Using business tools in a whole new way. Being a visionary thinker with the power to challenge “the way it’s always been done.” Meet six Upstate leaders doing all of the above, and taking our business culture – locally, nationally and globally – to a whole new level.

Watch the full interviews of Upstate Trail Blazers:

People who are setting the stage for the next level of business. Developing a new software. A new product. Using business tools in a whole new way. Being a visionary thinker with the power to challenge “the way it’s always been done.” Meet six Upstate leaders doing all of the above, and taking our business culture – locally, nationally and globally – to a whole new level.

Watch the full interviews of Upstate Trail Blazers:

People who are setting the stage for the next level of business. Developing a new software. A new product. Using business tools in a whole new way. Being a visionary thinker with the power to challenge “the way it’s always been done.” Meet six Upstate leaders doing all of the above, and taking our business culture – locally, nationally and globally – to a whole new level.

It’s a tough economy for so many businesses, and in times like this most spend their time watching cash flow, cutting expenses, and not a whole lot of time figuring out how to do things differently for new customer acquisition or repeat business from existing fans.

Sometimes, new ideas don’t involve cutting prices, changing your product, or anything having to do with your product or service, in fact. New innovative ideas are ones that solve a problem for your customer or speak THEIR language, meet a need in THEIR world, not yours.

Here’s a quick example that might get you thinking differently long enough to come up with something that works for you: I took my family, again, to a restaurant here in Greenville for breakfast that has become somewhat of a family tradition. Good food? Yup. Service? Average typically, and once-in-a-while great, like today. Bathrooms? Way too small. Cost? Overpriced ($50 w/tip, for 2 adults, 3 kids). So what’s the catch? Fish tanks. 2 massive fish tanks. My kids (3,4 and 7 yrs old) have named all the fish. Freddy the fish. Wally the white fish. Yippy the yellow fish. Bubba the blue fish. Goofy the green fish. Peppy the pink fish. Oscar the orange fish (buggy eyes, the goofiest of them all!). Bubba’s my favorite. He makes my youngest, Alana, laugh hysterically.

My point is this: Almost every Friday night when I tuck them in, after we pray and they kiss me good night, they say, “Daddy, can we go see da fishies in da morning?” They couldn’t care less about the food, quality, service, convenience, or price. But these 3 kids, for the breakfast restaurants in my city, are driving the purchasing decisions of a household for a market segment, based on 2 fish tanks.

Pause. Breathe. OK, now look at your customers’ lives, not your business offerings. What do your customers LOVE and value, and how can you incorporate it into your brand experience?

You’ve probably heard it said that seeds produce after their own kind. In other words, Apple seeds don’t produce cucumbers, they produce apples. Acorns produce oak trees. A seed produces what’s in it.

At the top of most organizations and/or divisions, there’s generally one of two types of leaders: Reproducers or Producers.

Reproducers, generally, are reproducers because they reproduce reproducers. It’s what they’re wired to do.

Producers, if given a leadership position, typically  produce producers.

Stick with me, and think about your current team, and who falls in which category: Recognizing what kind of leader you are (a reproducer or a producer), and recognizing what kind of leaders you have in your organization, can go a long way in eliminating frustration and setting realistic expectations. It will also really help you in determining who should be championing what, and why you should hand off responsibility of cultivating a leader to a reproducer, vs. handing off the responsibility of executing a project to a producer.

A reproducer is wired to reproduce reproducers, and gifted at spotting them quickly. In other words, inside him/her is the capacity to identify, develop and release other leaders who can reproduce, exponentially, other leaders so you as an organization can expand capacity, add other services and products, a lot quicker. A sign of an organization led by a reproducer is rapid horizontal growth. New division rollouts, more risk taken to penetrate new markets, etc.

Producers, however, if put in a leadership position, will typically raise up other producers. A producer in a leadership position can typically build a strong unit of production capacity, and continue to find opportunities for efficiency, savings, and increase output capacity. A sign of an organization with a producer at the helm tends to be laser-beam focused in a single discipline and vertically competitive (multiple layers of experience and depth within a single market space). However, don’t place a false expectation that out of that unit will come your organization’s next reproducers.

Every organization needs both. Just make sure the right one is in the right seat on the bus.

For businesses, churches, and most organizations, the challenge of finding target market people to share your message has always been challenging. In 2009, it’s a problem compounded by the fact that even when you find them, figuring out how to break through the clutter and the noise seems insurmountable. Between websites, blogs, texts, emails, FaceBook, Twitter, radio, TV, and over 200 other social media platforms, organizations are crying out for help…”Where do we even start?”

The good news is, your target audience is crying for help too! They’re not over-communicated, they’re over-messaged, over-noised, over-interrupted, and over-loaded.

Let me help you by comforting you with a premise that won’t steer you wrong, if your organization embraces it, and sticks to it as a foundational measuring stick for “should we buy that ad” or “should we jump on that social media tool.” In fact, it’s comforting to know that this premise has remained constant for about 2000 years, despite shifts in consumer spending, technology, and other 21st century changes. Here it is:

At their core, consumers are people. People want authentic relationships, and they want to connect, and they want to be led (not pushed, not coerced, not managed) towards a vision and a decision that makes their life better. I’ve taught this premise at workshops, as a definition of marketing you won’t find in textbooks at college, but that is reality:

Marketing = building an authentic relationship, connecting with people, and leading them to a decision. Whether it’s a relationship with God, wearing Nike’s, donating to the Red Cross, or watching Barney, the formula doesn’t change…”How can we build an authentic relationship with them, help them feel connected to me, and lead them to a decision and a vision for something better than their current circumstances and surroundings?”

Sounds too simple to be true, I know. It’s so easy to grasp, but so tempting to stray away from.