Structure and Order

Recently, at a Vancouver Consultants meet up, hosted by Ronald Lee from Man Meets Women, I had the pleasure of meeting Doug Anderson. Doug has a company called DA Top Talent and is a business coach to small-medium sized companies. He was the guest speaker and the subject was structure and order.

Based on Winslow's personality test the definition of structure is: meticulous, perfectionist, exactness. The definition of order is: organized, tidy, clean, methodical. Doug spoke about how adding more structure and order to your business and life could save you both time and money. By implementing simple systems, such as an excel spreadsheet to track and monitor business expenses, you will save money when it is time to do your taxes or see your accountant.

As some one high on the structure and order scale I know how these traits can help make your life easier. But Doug made a valid point in saying that some one who is high on these scales is also at risk of burning out from consuming too much energy on focus. So like everything else, the goal is to find balance. Balance can be achieved by setting reasonable goals.

Other good advice from Doug

• sit down and figure out what you really want from your life and business.
• analyze areas where you feel you are weak or need some extra help

So what do you do if you are not high on the structure and order scale? Ask some one you know who is for tips and advice and try to implement these tips into your daily life. In the end you will be more organized and feel more in control.

The Fall of Advertising & the rise of PR

I just finished reading The Fall of Advertising & the rise of PR by Al Ries and Laura Ries and I must say that I didnt really like it.Tthe thesis of the book is that Marketing Companies are doing it wrong trying to start a new brand by using Advertising, when they should be using PR. It went on to say that Advertising lacked credibility and that PR could be trusted.

My biggest issue with the book was that the same things were repeated over and over again... it like come on! Maybe repeating it to summarize would be ok but to talk about it again in a later chapter was just over kill.

Most of the book was examples of how the author thought companies failed or succeeded and really wasnt all that helpful.

Another part that sticks out in my mind is that he says that 3g phones werent going to become big. This was only in 2002! I was 16 and knew that they were going to be big.

Anyways, Im not going to say that the book was useless and that people shouldnt read it, because others might find it useful. I didnt.