Brand Central Station

Editor’s Note: I subscribe to Seena Sharp’s email newsletter, “SharpInsights” and find it a quick and interesting read.  This latest edition (#51) provided insights into how the business of coaching has changed.  I thought I’d share it with you here …

SharpInsights #51: Going Coach Has a Whole New Meaning

The title “coach” used to be reserved for guys like Knute Rockne, Yogi Berra, and John Wooden-leaders who knew that winning took hard work, motivation and perseverance. Now, Americans are hiring coaches to lead them to different kinds of victory.

Letting Miss Daisy drive herself: The number of drivers who are 70 or older is growing and will top 30 million by 2020. Driving coaches prep seniors for their written and road tests, and research the most senior-friendly DMV offices.

Thinking outside the box: Death coaches help clients evaluate their myriad options including home funerals, green burials and low-cost alternatives.

Working 9 to 5 to 9: Career coaches edit resumes, conduct practice interviews, and advise job-seekers about everything from recruiters to social media.

Rewinding the gold watch: Retirement coaches help adults plan for the next phase in their lives which often involves a second career or new venture.

Name an activity, and there’s likely a coach ready to help you succeed. (Mediation coaches? Ohm…yes!) Can you leverage your company’s expertise by offering web-based or phone coaching?

Want more SharpInsights? Visit the archives at http://www.sharpmarket.com/sharpinsights/index.html

(Editor’s Note:  Joe Grant is a pragmatic agency consultant who helps them grow and strengthen existing client relationships.  I’ve always enjoyed his newsletters on agency practices and corporate leadership and found this one particularly insightful. – Mike)

The Focus of Success
by Joe Grant

Some say success in our business has a lot to do with luck. Or hard work. Or both.

Well here’s my little aphorism for success based on years of seeing ad agencies run by many well-meaning and ambitious types. It’s not a catchy cliché but you’ll find it easy to remember: You get what you focus on.

The agencies we’d call successful — steady growth, an ever-enlarging list of 1st-class clients, a talented and respected staff, moving into better quarters every few years — get that way because they know how to concentrate relentlessly on where they want to go.

Read more on Joe’s blog.

The noise from social media can be deafening.  But businesses have to find a way to make sense out of the confusion or risk the consequences.

This week, Brand Central Station has been publishing a list of dozens of web sites and social media outlets your business should connect to – and if you do, you’ll soon have Inboxes full of interesting (but not always useful) information that demands your attention.

You need to aggregate all that media and the information that streams through it so you can make sense of it all and get back to the business at hand.

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If you operate an advertising agency or a public relations firm, the following should be as unexpected as the news that we were in a recession: business development is getting tougher and 2009 looks to be even more of a challenge than 2008.

I can hear the groans already.

Thanks to Michael Gass and his 2008 New Business Survey (as reported on the New Business Hunter blog), we’re able to identify three key factors making ’09 look more daunting than ever:

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