Entrepreneur with Diane Moura

With the increasing availability of vaccines, I think we're all starting to see a glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe, it will soon be possible to once again connect with people in person. Hopefully, that will mean a return to more social happy hours with colleagues. But after working virtually for all this time, we'll likely end up with a hybrid model. Because I've been networki...

We just celebrated the 4th of July which is about our country’s independence and freedom.  As entrepreneurs, we celebrate freedom every day.  I know we tend to feel stressed and overworked a lot so it’s important to remember and appreciate why we chose this path.  Today I’d like to reflect on the many freedoms of an entrepreneur. Visit https://getmymarketingplan.com/?utm_source=podcast and schedul...

One of my favorite animated movies is “Up”. The distracted dog cracks me up! OK, the story is sweet too but I love the dog. He reminds me of shiny object syndrome, that entrepreneurial killer weakness of unfocused distraction from the core goal that can kill a business.  As I speak with other entrepreneurs, especially since the pandemic and every one going online, almost without exception they tal...

In our personal lives, many of us may have created vision boards by pasting torn-out magazine images onto a piece of cardboard representing our goals.  A picture is worth a thousand words, as the saying goes, and by seeing these images regularly, our hope is that they create a sort of program in our brains that will predispose us to adjusting our course in the direction we seek.  Some of us may re...

Three years ago, Tom Goodwin wrote an interesting book titled, “ Digital Darwinism:  Survival of the Fittest in the Age of Business Disruption ”.  A student of the digital impact across industries, Tom coined the now-famous quote, “ Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles.  Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content.  Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, ha...

The emergence of COVID-19 required many in-person teams to go remote. Going virtual means implementing new technologies and virtual processes, which comes with a large adjustment that can take time to fully streamline. If you have successfully transitioned your team to a virtual model, you might find that the next big challenge to tackle is employee motivation. Without a motivated team, overall pr...

Shawn Cole, MD has worked in multiple clinical settings, has become a leader in the virtual healthcare revolution, and even spent some time behind the scenes in New York when the pandemic first broke out.  In this interview, he discusses how he uses this experience, together with athletics, to coach other physicians on growing their practices while avoiding burnout and becoming the best versions o...

My grandmother and an aunt I was quite close to were born in the early 1900s.  When they were growing up, it was only ok for women to work until they got married, after which time they quit to take care of their husbands and ultimately raise a family.  I remember my aunt telling me that a working woman back then was viewed as taking a job away from a man.  My mom was born in the early 1930s. My da...

There are a lot of lakes around where I grew up in Ontario.  I had friends with family cottages on lakes, and one summer I worked as a camp counselor on a lake.  One thing I loved to do back in those days was swim the length of the lake. Naturally, since by now you know I’m a fan of metaphors, this made me think about parallels to running a successful business. Visit https://getmymarketingplan.com...

You probably know who your best clients are, and you certainly know the ones you’re not as fond of.  So how do you clone your best clients and grow your business around people more like them? Visit https://getmymarketingplan.com/?utm_source=podcast and schedule your call today. We want to get to know you, understand your goals, and help your business get found by the people searching for you. 

Just for fun, or perhaps to torture myself with the freedom of our past, I decided to listen to my old podcast episode from the first week of January, 2020.  In retrospect, it felt like the age of innocence, before all Hell broke loose.  I remember the excitement of a new decade, and how cool it felt to write the year 2020, as though anything could happen.  Some of you may remember the topic, it w...

For 26 years I worked in corporate consulting, helping Fortune 500 companies with customer segmentation, customer treatment strategies for marketing & operations, and how to improve their long term customer relationships.  What I learned is as applicable for the single entrepreneur as it is for the corporation seeking to improve its stock price. I read a great article in Forbes magazine on thi...

so I thought today I’d talk about a feelgood topic, and that is the subject of human connections.  As a marketer, I’m keenly aware of how much more we’re able to get through our day without making any human connections.  Over 20 years ago, when my husband and I were first dating and he lived in Brazil, we used to laugh about how Brazilians never needed maps.  Here’s how finding your way from Point...

While we may be getting into more of a rhythm, for many of us it’s becoming a lot.  While the introverts among us are having the time of their lives getting to focus on their computers without  anyone bugging them, those of us who are extroverts could really use a good happy hour with actual crowd noise in the background and finger foods to share.  Or at least sharing a tea with a new business con...

Today is part 3 of our 3-part series on using psychology to improve your marketing.  In part one, I talked about how to use psychology to get attention and  make a good first impression.  One component of getting attention is having a tagline that both catches attention and makes it clear what you do. Today we’ll zero in on creating a killer message. Visit https://getmymarketingplan.com/?utm_sourc...

I’m old enough to remember working before Microsoft Windows, before the Internet became popular, and before social media. When I was a teenager and wanted to talk to my friends, I had to pick up the phone and call them. Likely one of their parents would answer and would either bring them to the phone or I’d have to leave a message. Fast forward to my first full-time job in 1986. My first work comp...

I was scrolling through some TED talks the other day and came across a few interesting videos that covered various aspects of the science behind how we make decisions.  Since we all rely upon prospects making decisions to select our business over their other choices, I thought you might find this interesting. Visit https://getmymarketingplan.com/?utm_source=podcast and schedule your call today. We...

Our city is slowly starting to re-open, but life as we know it will be far from normal.  Reopening is somewhat disturbing since our infection curve is still high and according to the Yale School of Medicine, we are likely to see a rebound in cases the more social distancing measures are lifted. It kind of goes without saying but you can’t live through something like this and not remember.  A big e...

You may have noticed more emails in your inbox lately. But unlike pre-COVID days when you spent half your day fighting traffic, and you actually had a social life, if you’re like most people, you may have also noticed that you’re opening more emails lately. A couple of months ago, while procrastinating about something that had been on my to-do list for several days and mindlessly scanning through...

Fast forward to the year 2040. My grandchildren are sitting at my feet, begging me to tell them a story of the "olden days." I remember doing the same with my grandparents as they obliged me with stories of what it was like to live through the Great Depression. It was fascinating yet utterly unrelatable as we sat in our comfortable surroundings with no thought of where our next meal woul...

OK, I'll admit it. I took the online test, and I'm a Gryffindor. At Hogwarts, Gryffindors value courage, bravery, competitiveness, and nerve, which, when you think about it, are pretty much what it takes to be an entrepreneur these days. Inspired by none other than Harry Potter.  Here are some magical lessons to grow your business. I know that many small businesses hurt by the pandemic a...

When our face-to-face networking events became Zoom calls, several networking organizations coached members to reach out across geographic boundaries to join meetings they wouldn’t normally attend, and connect with people they wouldn’t normally meet. But our new virtual world has also unleashed an army of networking spammers.  Visit https://getmymarketingplan.com/?utm_source=podcast and schedule y...

his week one of my favorite authors, Simon Sinek posted a quote on LinkedIn that really caught my attention.   “True strength is the courage to ask for help.”  It’s an interesting statement that got me thinking, so I decided to do a little digging.  Not being the type of person who typically asks for help until I’m absolutely drowning, I thought I’d see if this is a common entrepreneurial trait. ...

This weekend, while enjoying our two-hour time slot at our condo pool, I listened to a podcast hosted by Stephen J. Dubner. In case you don’t remember Stephen, he’s the co-author of one of my favorite books, Freakonomics . Dubner and his co-author Steven Levitt managed to make economics cool. They did so by making interesting connections we may not have considered societal trends. Visit https://ge...

I shared some tips on improving your LinkedIn personal page, but as a business owner, you also need a LinkedIn business page, so let’s talk about that today. I’ll preface this by saying that the entire LinkedIn platform is built around the idea of professionals connecting with other professionals, so your personal page will always be your number one source of leads on LinkedIn. That said, you stil...