It’s time….to move, to transition from a place of basic personal and professional development, to a position of true personal strength. It’s time to put YOU on the map!
I have a lot of fabulous info and tools to share with you— to get you in motion, to get you strong, to give you peace of mind, and to help you create a FULFILLING life, a THRIVING business, and SOLID relationships. This is fitness for the soul.
It’s time for ALL of us to finally just be ourselves and contribute meaningfully AND powerfully to the world through who we were meant to be and what we were meant to do. You don’t need a hook or a gimmick. You just need to be YOU, and be it full throttle! There is no other you, and THAT is where YOUR power lies!
It’s time to get EMPOWERED——to STOP the ridiculous game of trying to please everyone else, be something you are not, or do it someone else’s way.
You CAN have a great life, a great business, and great relationships, but it starts with getting real and getting to where you are comfortable flowing in YOUR personal power and YOUR area of influence—not someone else’s.
I am living my DREAM. My dream is to be a true encouragement and inspiration to others, to have control over the way I use my time and my resources, to fully enjoy the experience of life, to love my work and my contributions, to be blessed economically, and in doing so to know I am a success.
I will help you find YOUR voice, YOUR passion, and YOUR creativity! YES, you have all of that within you RIGHT NOW. I write with YOU in mind. My entire goal is to empower you to embrace your life and live it fully and exceptionally, while touching the lives of others, being and feeling like a TRUE success, and having loads of fun.
I’ll help you grow your business, connect with others, be a giver, be a better person, grow personally and professionally, increase profits, understand the New Media and New Marketing Mindset, and enjoy your life with more authenticity, more time for what matters most, and more energy. I want you to live YOUR dream.
Please stop by often for words of empowerment and substantial tools you can use to continuously keep you on the track of being YOU, living your life and running your business the only way it will succeed—by YOU embracing YOU, and giving the real YOU to others!
Creating a tribe and leading them is how you make sales that matter in big ways.
The main thing to know about forming and growing your tribe is that numbers do not matter! They are a side thought. What matters is the quality of interaction you have with the members.
If you are serious about wanting to go tribal, you have to lay aside what you THINK you know about marketing, and learn a new and better way.
Consider getting out there on the web, or in your local neighborhood instead of hanging out within your 4 (or 400) walls. Check out groups with members who may have a need, desire for, or interest in your products. Join groups and contribute to them. Start and reply to discussion posts and forum questions, give great information and content, and be super helpful, not simply in your areas of business, but also in topics that you may have experience with. If you do have valuable input to share on a topic related to what you do, give the info without a sales pitch of any kind. If it is a local group that meets face-to-face, show up monthly or whenever they meet. Offer a valuable contribution—and NO, do not herald the link to your website or pass out your flyers or promote your next ad (It amazes me that most flyer or email campaigns are nothing but “buy this” blasts. There is no value to the recipient in that kind of silliness).
Within local gatherings and online forums, there will be a place and time to share your business contact information, so don’t try to infuse it into the conversations. Become a valuable part of the tribe rather than someone who showed up with a motive to just market to the tribe. Trust that if you become a giver, people will naturally want to know what you do and they will at some point want to do business with you. Allow yourself the process of becoming the “expert” in your field to the tribe members, rather than being a “salesperson”. Never throw your sales pitch. It’s ugly, and it is like spam. This will require “letting go” on your part but people will appreciate it.
I am personally the type of sales professional who tries to just be myself and relate to people as if they were a friend coming in to see me. My focus in selling is always to make a friend and then take care of that friend through attentiveness, kindness (helpfulness), knowledge, and exceptional service (meaning doing everything I can to ensure that the customer has a good experience and receives value for what they invest) .
I realize many stores have a scripted greeting that their sales associates say to the customers who come in the door. I personally don’t like this approach, but I do like the greeting.
If you work for a company that insists you use a “canned” greeting (which is often much too wordy and unnatural) still try to be conversational, and try to be yourself as you say those words, and speak them with sincerity.
Let’s say you are a design-related sales professional. One suggestion for what you could say between the “official store greeting” and asking the visitor what their current home project is, could be something as simple as “so how has your day been going so far?” This gives opportunity for a little friendly dialog right off the bat. Another option is “so are you taking a little break in your day to have some fun browsing time?” This alludes to the fact that shopping is FUN, a BREAK, and not a chore. If your store manager wants you to keep it more “business-like”, or if you have been chatting for a minute or so, you could ask, “are you browsing with a particular project in mind this morning or are you just in the decorating mode?” Using the word “browsing” instead of “shopping” takes the pressure off the customer, as does talking about “decorating” instead of “buying”. This makes customers feel at ease, which can help them to more easily make purchases.
Think about how you like to be related to. Try to relax in the selling situation, focusing on making a new friend. If YOU stay relaxed, sincere, and approachable, your words will be taken as friendly, and the prospect is more likely to allow you to help them with their interior design needs.
Here is a Fabulous Opportunity for You: This is a gound breaking coaching service that Interior Decorators, Designers, and Life Coaches can offer to clients—to individuals and to homeowners.
This gives an awesome opportunity to design professionals and life coaches to become a Certified Interior Environment Coach (CIEC).
There is also an opportunity for you to get 12 weeks of total business support after the training! This way you can build your Interior Environment Coaching business right away—with total business and marketing support.
Let me know if you have any questions or if you want to be included. Margo@DeGangiGroup.com
Customer service is not a liability, but a very rich source of sales. Any time we have the opportunity to treat a customer well, solve a problem as quickly and professionally as we can, and connect with that customer, we increase the likelihood of making additional sales.
We all know that (in almost all industries) our most cost effective increases in sales comes from current customers. It is insane to me that a company would ditch those easy extra revenue streams by being rude, dismissive, or unhelpful to a current customer when they have a problem or issue (or anytime).
Getting new customers is way too expensive. Why not treat the ones you have wonderfully? PLUS, in this social media driven environment, an unhappy current customer communicates through digital word of mouth (by way of social media channels) that they are unhappy, warning others to beware and avoid the headaches. THAT is why not fully embracing customer concerns is business suicide! Customer service is an asset, never a liability.
What if employers gave employees a place for social interaction—- an area with pc’s set up for this purpose—- PC’s not connected to the internal network so security is not an issue?
What if employers allowed their team members 30 minutes a day PAID to play? What if the employer asked them if they wouldn’t mind mentioning the business here and there?
WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN?
Google gives their employees 8 out of 40 hrs per week to work on their own projects. The company benefits from giving people freedom and creative space!
Here is a Fabulous Opportunity for You: This is a groundbreaking coaching service that Interior Decorators and Life Coaches can offer to clients—to individuals and to homeowners
There is an awesome opportunity for design professionals and coaches in late March to become a Certified Interior Environment Coach. Only 50 people will become certified during the first session. These individuals will have the opportunity to build their Interior Environment coaching business for three months—with support— before another group of coaches are trained.
This coaching program is FABULOUS! GROUNDBREAKING! People today are hungry for meaning and they want their homes to be a springboard for life and personal development. This program shows you how to help them create lives of peak productivity from the way their homes are set up and designed. You can be a decorator and provide this service, or a life coach who sets the groundwork for the decorator, helping the homeowner to establish design, personal, and productivity goals for their interior environment.
Many of today’s Interior Design Professionals are seeking a more meaningful connection with clients and a deeper connection to their work. Couple that with the fact that today’s homeowner has a very different mentality about home design (they are looking for a deeper connection to the world and to their homes) and you have a recipe for an exciting and extremely profitable niche in decorating or life coaching. This is a new professional area that will give you a true competitive advantage while bringing you joy and meaning from your work. I will be sharing the details soon in a call.
Email me at Margo@DeGangiGroup.com to learn more about this new and groundbreaking coaching program that will be released nationwide on March 29th, and let me know if you want to be included on the call (the call will be in early March).
Last week, I was watching Project Runway (a show for upcoming fashion designers), and one of the judges, harshly criticizing one of the “bottom three” outfits, said she had a real problem with the color palette. Specifically she said, “I’m not sure blue and orange are that complimentary.”
Now this is where I have to LAUGH at the EXPERTS, who are JUDGES on NATIONAL TV. Where do these clowns come from?
So many people are thrown into positions that are far above their skill level, like the TV “designers” that still call draperies “curtains” (a real no-no in the industry, at least in America), or who refer to banding (a type of trim) as cording or welting, or who cannot properly name or identify basic fabrics and materials.
It is amazing that skill and knowledge are no longer job requirements. I guess there are a lot of producers and directors who have wanna-be designers in the family (their bedroom looked “cool” and they are under 29 years old, so give them a show). What happens when these “designers” try to tackle a “real” job off camera? I feel sorry for the workrooms that have to try and understand their work orders. Who will end up paying for the “re-make” when the job is fabricated incorrectly because of wrong specifying, confusing details, and incorrect terminology on the work order? (Oh, you didn’t know about work orders, you thought you just call someone and tell them what you want?) I’m just sayin’.
We can ensure that the integrity of an industry remains intact by not settling for such antics. Sure, everyone makes mistakes sometimes, even tried and true industry pro’s, but an expert (someone who calls themselves an expert) should definitely know basic industry terms, principles, and concepts.
Oh, if you missed the unspoken punch line, just get out your color wheel. Blue and orange are COMPLEMENTARY COLORS—straight across from one another on the color wheel (no, they haven’t changed position), and it matters not how much white, black, or brown have been added to the blue or orange, they are still complements.
Social marketing is very important in building a tribe or community. Getting out there on your favorite social media channels (and not necessarily on every channel) is key to your online world connections. Select a couple or three social media outlets you really like, and stick with them—no need to be on every one to build a solid online community.
Still, in your own local community (where you actually reside), there is work to be done, and you should be out there making local connections that will carry over into the online world. When the people in your town or city hear you speak at a local event, they will tweet about it (even if you don’t tweet), and when they go to one of your trunk shows, they will tell their Facebook friends (even if you use MySpace and not Facebook).
The point is, social media is great, but it’s not enough to post to your Facebook once a day or blog once a week. You must build a tribe and be involved with that tribe, using social media as well as ON SITE activities. The ON SITE, local community activities can really put you on the map. Read on.
Here is a little booklet for you to quickly breeze over. This little booklet has some basic marketing without money info I have always shared with new business owners and those trying to get more leads and sales. The principles STILL apply today, even with the explosion of the New Media and social marketing. As you read this little booklet, think about how everything you do face-to-face in your local community will be shared online, as your tribe members tell their friends how totally amazing you are. That will lead to additional online sales, but those REAL LIFE testimonials from your local community become online GOLD (if you do not have a local biz, but an online biz, the principles still apply—get out there through webinars, as a guest speaker, or with your videos).
I think people want to hear the voices and/or see the faces of the people they might just do business with. Don’t hide behind Facebook, Tumblr, Wordpress, and Twitter. Get out there in real life, and let others speak to the world about how great you really are!
I see people everyday who are tired, stressed, and trying to keep up with how “SIMPLE” the Internet has made life in the current millennium!
I think people need a break, and they need to know what to focus on so they can do it well.
I asked my virtual friend and mentor Seth Godin a few questions I thought many people today were struggling with. I told him I wanted to share the answers with my tribe. He gave me the simple, shoot straight from the hip answers (true to Seth style, which is why I love him so much) that will best help you in your life and business going forward.
Margo:Is it a good idea or bad idea to have more than one blog, since some people do 2 different things (2 blogs are time consuming and hard to promote, but they allow specific communication)?
Seth: Have one blog per big idea. Have as many big ideas as you can hit home runs on.
Margo: How does a business person deal with all of the online marketing and social networking options? How do we chose what to spend our time on (how do we edit out of our lives some of these online services)?
Seth: Pick a social media tool you love, and do it better than anyone else and ignore the rest.
Margo: In the simplest way, what does it take to be successful and get your name out in the universe today (by simple I do not mean lazy. I just mean focused on a few key marketing opportunities where you can spend your time well and with quality content without going bonkers)? Seth: Be passionate and persist and be consistent.
“And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” ~Abraham Lincoln
Today is my son’s 21st birthday. Ryan is a U.S. Marine serving as an Air Traffic Controller. He’s been in Japan for the last two years. He’ll be returning to Texas on February 23rd for a month. I can’t wait.
My son has a great sense of humor, and a keen understanding (usually) of how people with half a brain should behave out in the business world. So in honor of his birthday, here is a 21 “FUN” Salute, with business lessons from the light side of life and kids and stuff like that, and making fun of whatever I can.
So Here Goes:
1. When I was a kid, I used to think there were little plastic army guys inside the radio playing the music. Lesson: PERCEPTION is EVERYTHING, and it often helps to communicate a product, service, or idea as if the audience knew NOTHING about it.
2. When I went to wash my hands in the kitchen today, I noticed that my honey had watered down the dish soap (again). I told him, “stop watering down the soap or I’m gonna blog about you”. He said, “go ahead, and also tell them I’ve been doing it since I was knee-high to a grasshopper”. Lesson: If you do something ridiculous, people will blog about you.
3. I had three kids in four years. When I potty trained my youngest, Sarah, I would reward ALL three kids with a few M&M’s whenever she used the potty. Understandably, the other two encouraged her BIG TIME. My son even snuck in and pee’d in the potty for her a few times. Sarah was effortlessly trained in short order, with plenty of praise and approval from her brother and sister. Lesson: You’ll reach your goals faster by rallying the team. Everyone will feel important, and team members will connect better with one another.
4. After a year in Japan, my hormonal son was missing the familiar comfort of American girls. I put together a “HOT CHICK KIT” for him by going to the mall near the holidays, and recruited single young ladies who were willing to, 1) have their picture taken, 2) sign a little note card to my son on the spot—which I tied to a mini-chocolate bar and their photo, and 3) Give up their Facebook or Myspace address. The girls were flattered and more than willing to contribute. They wrote wonderful messages thanking my son for his service and asking him to stay in touch. My son was pleasantly annoyed when I sent him the kit. Lesson: Create a product or service where there is a need and desire, no matter how crazy it seems. It will likely be a huge hit.
5. Recently, my honey and I signed up for a taste-test for Schlotzsky’s Deli. They were testing a new whole-grain bread. We got a free lunch for doing so, a date together, plus a $25.00 gift certificate each. Lesson: Save gobs of research money by going right to the horse’s mouth. You’ll solidify loyalty by rewarding your customers for giving you important product and service information.
6. My sister-in-law and I got kicked out of Harrods in London for taking photos of their beautiful displays, AFTER they told us to stop taking photos of their beautiful displays. Lesson: Don’t get pissy about FREE publicity (and, don’t push your luck).
7. I have asked my husband (not my HONEY this time) for weeks to buy ROASTED SALSA from the grocery store (he does the shopping). Twice already, even after my numerous requests, he bought the regular kind instead. Lesson: Don’t assume your customers will stay if you continue to ignore them (even though I’m staying).
8. One time I delivered a custom home fashions order to a client. I installed all the items and politely requested final payment. The client asked if she could pay me later, as she was expecting company and in a hurry! Lesson: Collect the balance on the day of install or delivery, BEFORE the install (P.S. I did get full payment that day).
9. Another time (before I finally changed my payment policy) I delivered a custom order to a client. I installed the treatments and I asked for final payment. The client, who knew the installation date in advance, said she did not own a checkbook or credit card and she did not have cash (I think that’s amazingly funny)! Lesson: Drop the bottom 20 percent of your clientele.
10. Once when I was five, my aunt cut my sandwich into four triangles because I asked for “corner to corner”. I went ballistic, flailing and crying with intense protest, demanding “I said corner to corner, NOT corner to corner to corner to corner.” Lesson: Don’t ASSUME you know what the customer wants just because you “sort of” know.
11. A friend and I visited a run-of-the-mill, not at all inspiring (why even be in business?) variety store. I saw signs posted and repeated on every wall, informing me that “if you break it, you buy it” (no, if I break it, YOU have to clean it up), that my “kids must stay with an adult at all times” (you had to tell me that through a stupid sign? How about if I make the kid stay with you while I shop, you’re an adult, aren’t you?), and that “a $2.00 charge will be added to all credit card purchases” (isn’t that illegal? If not, it should be). I’ve seen many stores play the sign game. My favorite was on the entrance of a popular hobby store. It read “upon entering this store you agree that we have the right to check your purse”. I am not kidding! I went into the store just HOPING someone tried to look in my purse! (By the way, just because you post a sign that reads, “upon entering this store, you agree to give us your car” doesn’t make it so.) Lesson: Don’t talk to your customers through negative signage. It makes you look really foolish and it turns people off. Totally ditch the “you’re a bad girl and we don’t trust you, and we really don’t even like you all that much” types of signs and attitudes.
12. Not long ago, at an otherwise upscale establishment, I saw another sign that read, “$30 fee on all returned checks”. Lesson: Drop the ridiculous HOT CHECK FEE (because then you have to have a stupid sign). If you must have it, make it just a few bucks, not 30. Someone who writes a hot check on purpose won’t be stopped because of a fee threat, and they probably won’t be coming back anyway, and a valued customer who writes one accidentally should be shown mercy so they WILL come back. NEVER shame your customers, and NEVER post their check on a wall for all to see (I can’t believe people do this).
13. I recently saw a T.V. commercial for Proactive where Avril Lavigne said, “I literally tried EVERYTHING”. The poor girl must be completely exhausted. Lesson: Don’t publicize that you are an idiot (yes, grammatical mistakes happen all the time, but this choice of wording was scripted, planned, reviewed by a slew of people, and continues to air). HINT: look up the word literally.
14. I tried to return a ham (by the way, that’s the title of my next book). We’d just bought it, and when I opened it I saw the expiration date had long expired. My honey had thrown away the receipt. “So what” I said, “I’m taking it back, they should never have sold this”. At the store, I politely explained that I didn’t have a receipt, that we shop there every week, and that the ham was long expired the day we bought it. The clerk made a phone call sharing all the details (including that I had no receipt). The person on the other end O.K.’d the return with no problem. The clerk then snobbishly handed me a gift card for the amount of the ham, and proceeded to tell me, “The next time you return something like this, don’t throw away your receipt”. Well, no sh_ _ Sherlock (I kept that to myself), that’s why I told you from the beginning that I didn’t have a receipt. But, she just HAD to have power over SOMEBODY! Lesson: Don’t SCOLD or LECTURE your customers (especially not me. Don’t worry, I was nice)!
15. I love Triscuit crackers, but rarely buy them and wasn’t sure why. Then Nabisco came out with Triscuit Thin Crisps, a thinner triangle version of the original, with the same taste. Now we buy them to eat with everything from eggs to chicken salad. They’re like my new bread. I now realize the original crackers were tasty, but just too thick and filling. Lesson: Don’t throw the cracker out with the kitchen-sink water—don’t totally replace an idea. Simply TWEAK a product or service just a bit, and you could have tremendous success. See, I am now eating more Triscuits AND sharing the product with you, and THAT’s how it works!
16. When I was about 7, I bet my older brother $5.00 that he couldn’t ride down the stairs on his bicycle. He took the bait. He landed at the bottom with a bang, a bent up bike, and his handlebars shot into the wall. My parents came running only to scream and holler at him (that’s what they did in the old days). He later asked me for the money. I said, “No, ‘cause you didn’t do it right”. Lesson: Get it in writing.
17. I served on a national Board of Directors for several years (I’ve served on several boards so don’t try to figure it out), volunteering a lot of time and traveling long distances to many meetings and think sessions. The leadership did not value or capitalize on the diversity of exceptional thinkers they had at their disposal. They embraced only ideas that were in line with their repertoire’ of knowledge and their current way of doing things. They quickly denounced ideas that involved knowledge that was new to them (I think because it made them uncomfortable, and allowed someone else to have authority or influence in the meetings). They also quickly stopped any type of back-and-forth passionate discussions among the 12 board members (but they would throw a hissy-fit if you disagreed with THEM). They didn’t facilitate the negotiations and friendly hashing out of a group of innovative thinkers who were willing to synthesize concepts and ideas, and bring innovation to an entire industry. That organization is still in just about the same place they were two, five, and even ten years ago. Lesson: Diversity of thinking, controlled tension from different ideas, and strategic conflict are where growth, change, innovation, and incredible ideas and products come from.
18. Today my honey, who is quite generous and always kind (but who LOVES to save money), turned away two adorable girl scouts selling cookies from a wagon. When he told me, I gave him a four second mini-lecture on the importance of their efforts, and then I ran down the road after them. They returned, and Joe and I, standing side-by-side, proudly bought a box of Caramel DeLites (he paid, and later he actually thanked me). As they left, one little girl said to me “isn’t your husband the man who rides his bike around”? Lesson: Don’t be too quick to blow an opportunity to invest into the lives of others, besides, someone might recognize you and always remember your kindness.
19. I once worked on a joint venture with a particular feisty, NO-BULL East Coast woman (no, not me). When someone harshly voiced a problem or issue through email, she was swift to shoot off a reply blasting them right back. I quickly took over the emails so as not to tick people off. I was able to turn every one of the critics full-heartedly towards our efforts through first respectfully acknowledging their concerns, and then offering greater understanding or solutions that worked for them. Lesson: Take a deep breath, then take the high road when responding to email messages containing sharp or tactless complaints. Don’t put it out there if you don’t want it to come back at ya’. Kind replies to ill-communicated concerns can win the virtual hearts (and real cash) of customers for years to come.
20. Type into Google (O.K., O.K., Bing, too) any term that relates to “bad customer service”, “rude store”, or “great places to shop”, and see what the universe brings. Lesson: Today, the little guy has power, and the supposedly insignificant people of the world are talking and blogging, and maybe about YOU! Behind the screen, everyone’s voice has just about equal authority and volume. If the nerdy nobody from OklaNowhere shares her experience online, she can direct droves of customers towards or away from you. Lesson: Be amazing and always give your very best. Help make the conversation one you can be proud of.
21. Today is my son’s 21st birthday. It has gone by so very fast. I remember him when he was just one day old (pictured), and I called him “mommy’s salami” because he was all wrapped up in a meaty little bundle. I have enjoyed every moment and every year that he was my son, and I look forward to many more. Lesson: Put your time, your efforts, your priorities, and your business concerns into perspective. Celebrate your life, your kids, your loved ones, and enjoy every minute of it.
Il brilgue: les tôves libricilleux Se gyrent et frillant dans le guave, Enmîmés sont les gougebosquex, Et le mômerade horgrave.
Es brilig war. Die schlichte Toven Wirrten und wimmelten in Waben; Und aller-mumsige Burggoven Dir mohmen Rath ausgraben. -- Lewis Carrol, "Through the Looking Glass"
September 8, 2010 1157 King Richard I 1886 Siegfried Sassoon 1925 Peter Sellers 1932 Patsy Cline 1931 Jack Rosenthal 1933 Michael Frayn 1934 Sir Peter Maxwell Davies 1940 Frankie Avalon 1954 Ann Diamond
Designers' Camp
Twice-a-year online event for interior decorators and designers. Learn and network from your home or office. Save on travel. Improve your business.
Let's Talk About Decorating
Pre-made decorating seminars. Give customer presentations with ease. Gain clients fast. Script included.
Margo DeGange
Embrace your opportunities and live your dream. Resources and products to improve life and business.
Pre-Written Decorating Articles
Hate to write? We’ve done the work for you. Pre-written decorating articles. Use on websites, blogs, as handouts, and for flyers.
Pre-Written Decorating Newsletters
Need an E-newsletter, but hate to write? We do it all for you, and send them too, from YOUR email address! Exciting content, pictures, and tips. Gain MORE clients FAST.
The Deccorators Alliance of North America
Professional affiliation, industry certification, continuing education, and business support for the interior decorating and design trade.
Trunk Show Success System
Learn to do fabulous decorating trunk shows—put a trunk show system into place. Gain followers and see profits soar!
Thanks for joining!
It’s time for ALL of us to finally just be ourselves and contribute meaningfully AND powerfully to the world through who we were meant to be and what we were meant to do. You don’t need a hook or a gimmick. You just need to be YOU, and be it full throttle! There is no other you, and THAT is where YOUR power lies!
please everyone else, be something you are not, or do it someone else’s way.
I am living my DREAM. My dream is to be a true encouragement and inspiration to others, to have control over the way I use my time and my resources, to fully enjoy the experience of life, to love my work and my contributions, to be blessed economically, and in doing so to know I am a success.
TRUE success, and having loads of fun.
This gives an awesome opportunity to design professionals and life coaches to become a 
