The Monday Morning Marketing Podcast is brought to you byEsther of IPA Group, bringing premier online promotion to your business.
And Melanie of Stomp Social Media Training, who empowersbusiness owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves.
Hi, and welcome back to the Monday Morning MarketingPodcast. My name is Melanie, and my good friend Esther is here. Hiya.
Where did that accent come from?
I don't know. I'm giddy. It's Monday.
I'm totally giddy too many coffees already. So what are wetalking about today, Melanie?
Yes, today we're talking about GSD. Get stuff done. Well,not quite, actually, but it's actually it could mean get stuff done. It couldmean something else as well, but it actually means goals. SWAT and diary. Okay,so goals, don't they just suck to sort out? They do. They so suck out.
You've got people going, what are your goals for the nextfive years? Can I get five minutes first? Do I have to go long term and thencome back, or do I start short term and then go long?
With your goals, it's sorting out realistic steps to anaction that you want to happen in the future, whether it's distant or recent.Future, nearest future. Okay, we'll edit that out.
No, we won't. We have to be specific about our goals. Yes,they have to be measurable, smart. Yes, smart goals. Specific.
Measurable, attainable achievable. Achievable.
Same thing.
Achievable.
It's the same thing. R. I can't remember.
I know the T is timely.
Okay, right.
So it's SMAT answers on a postcard.
For what the R stands for in smart Goals. But yes, we needto figure it out. There's no point in saying work more, how much more? Earnmore money. How much more money? Be specific in what your targets are, whatyour goals are, what you want to achieve. And they'll be easier then you'll seethat you've actually achieved them. So that's the first bit of the GSD. Yourgoals. Now your SWAT. Your SWAT. No.
Now, I know this may sound awfully dated, okay, and Isuppose it is to a large extent. I mean, the majority of the people that I workwith, when I say, when was the last time you did a SWAT?
Look.
Oh, God, must have been school last time you did a SWAT.Because a lot of business owners do pestles before they do swaps. Yes, okay,and I totally get that. I think that's perfectly reasonable.
Okay, but you're talking in code here now, Melanie. Sosorry. Explain what are pestles?
Do you want to understand what pestles is now? Yeah. Okay.So for business owners, a pestle analysis excuse me, or sometimes referred toas a pest, just depends on what you're looking up.
It sounds like pest to me.
So that's political, economic, sociological, technological,and then a lot of people just stop there. But then you can also add on, which Ithink is more relevant, actually more in the last maybe decade, legal andenvironmental. Okay, so that's a very standard thing. Actually. Part of abusiness plan for a lot of people is the pestle, which makes a lot of sense.But the SWAT, which, as I'm sure listeners remember, stands for strength,weakness, opportunity and threat. And there's two ways you can do a personalSWAT and then a business SWAT. So you could have a number of staff, you couldhave a number of locations, so you can do swats for each one. When I firststarted, I did two swats.
You big swatch.
So I did a personal SWAT that helped me sort of ring mystrengths, my weaknesses and the opportunities that I could fulfil as Melanie.And then any threats. Like, I didn't have a particular knowledge in aparticular field, but I would know how to run a business or so when I was doinga SWAT for my business, then I would have good contacts, I found good networksto work in, do you know what I mean? There was slightly different areas. Icould do a SWAT and I would encourage everybody who's a startup or an earlybusiness to do two swats. One personal and one business.
Yeah, we did a swap the other day for the podcast.
Yeah, we did, actually. And it was hilarious how manystrengths we found, because normally that's one of the things that you strugglewith.
But I think that's what I was going to point out, actually,that because we were doing it together, I was pointing out your strengths andyou were pointing out my strengths. So when you're doing a swap analysis foryour company, or even for yourself, ask somebody who knows you really well,because we can be so Debbie Diners on ourselves that we don't see where ourmean strengths lie. And other people might have spotted it before you do. So doget other people involved in this. I think it's something that you should do ona regular basis. I'm not saying every month, but at.
Least I would encourage you to do a year or so every sixmonths. Every six months. And the reason why I encourage you to do a SWAT everysix months is there's the accountability, because the opportunities, if they'restill there six months from now, you haven't done them yet.
That's true, that's true. Plus the threats can change at anypoint.
Exactly. And you need to watch for other businesses comingup behind you who have similar ideas, similar branding, similar do you knowwhat I mean? And if you're not keeping an eye out, you could suddenly beovertaken by them. Yeah, so I actually diary my SWAT so that it automaticallyshows up every six months.
That's what you have to do. Yeah, that's a very sensible wayof doing it, because otherwise we'll go, sure, I only just did that last month.And then you realise it's three years later and you still haven't done.
What time will be you in?
Hey, remember, COVID we lost a good two years there.
That leaves us with the D, the diary. So we've done thegoals, we've done the SWAT, and now we do the diary. And this sounds soobvious, doesn't it? But one of the first things I do every single year is Iput in any birthdays, the kids days off, any closing days at the schools, thatsort of thing, so that I can get ahead of myself. If I know I've got a hospitalappointment or an operation or something like that coming up, I go straight inmy diary.
So then you can't be booked out for that day, you can't putsomething else into it.
Exactly. But I even book in my holidays now. I don't book myholidays, I don't book for November or anything, but I put in the week or thelong weekend I'm going to take off.
Yeah.
And it does, because if I don't, it won't happen.
Yeah. And most of the times, events give you a good three,four months beforehand, let you know, oh, we're having this event in March, inJune, in November.
Well, we've known about ATOMICON for a year and a half.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's in my diary, but, yeah, it's oneof those things that if other businesses, if events are well enough organised,that you can then put that into your diary and have that time booked off. Also,when you're doing your diary, if you have it connected to something likecalendar or booked like a boss or book, me and those not heard of.
That one before booked like a boss.
Yeah, there's loads of different ones. Okay, so mine issomething different.
It would be, wouldn't it?
It would be, yeah. I like to have different ones. But onceyou put it into your calendar, if it's connected to the calendar that peoplebook through, then it'll automatically block that day off and you'll not haveto go back in and do that again later or inadvertently have someone on thatday.
Cheque in your diary will also have what you've put down asyour goals as well. So you want your goals, you're smart. I remembered what itwas, by the way. It's relevant or realistic, depends on who you ask. So ifyou're going to have measurable goals, then you want your website copy done bya certain date in order to speak to the website developer so that can go inyour diary. Obviously, it will be short term, whereas all the other stuff we'vebeen discussing is long term. But, you know, the more you can get in yourdiary, the more accountability there is.
Yeah. And something that we've talked about before on theshow is that booking a slot or a time that you can blog, or a time melanie andI section off a time to podcast every week so that nobody else can book intothat slot is very important and the notifications are a great help.
And don't forget to diary at least once a week. At least anhour, once a week. Just to devote to business development, to look at youranalytics, to hone what you need to be getting done that week, to push yourselfforward. Have you got a marketing budget set aside? All these sort of thingsneed to be as part of your diary. Some of it will be weekly, some of it will bemonthly, and some of it may be quarterly or even annual.
But if it's there, if it's in your diary, then it's morelikely to get done.
Honestly. Yes. Especially the busier you get.
Yeah. So ni is the time. It's the start of the year. It'sthe start of a month. Whenever you're listening to us, NY is the time to get itdone. Yes.
Get stuff done.
GSD, goals, SWAT, Tirey. That's it for today, guys. We'reback next week with more Monday morning marketing. And until then, bye. Byebye.
Glad to see you're sitting in eleven minutes. We did that ineleven minutes. That's unheard of.
Well, you've just extended an eye. Yeah.
Nobody ever listens to any of this stuff, do they?
Well, I'm glad to see you're are sitting on your hands thistime and not waving.
Oh, shut up. You're going to get me in trouble.
Love you. Yeah.