As the Winter Olympics of 2010 came to a close in Vancouver Sunday night, I was reminded of how important it is to do one thing really, really well.

As a child, I was a great gymnast. In school, I was a great student. But I always wanted to be the absolute best at something.  It’s not an easy title to claim!

What one thing do you do really, really well?  What one thing does your company do really, really well?  Do your friends or your customers know what that is? Make sure you are effective at letting them know, because it will win you business. Everyone wants to align somehow with the best of the best.

The only thing better than being the best, is believing that you can be the best with hard work, focus and determination.

Our strategic goal at Fetching Communications is to show the pet industry world that we can Gold Medal in the marketing communications Olympics. We will do so by helping pet-focused companies achieve their sales goals by developing customized marketing solutions that are innovative, effective and measurable.

So, I guess you could say Fetching is in the medal race!  Like an Olympic athlete, a person or a company must train hard, and win championships along the way to the Olympics to earn their spot on the team.  We will work toward this end daily and look forward to helping existing and future clients win sales medals of their own.

From a business perspective, if you’re looking for inspiration on being the best, here’s an excerpt from Google’s corporate philosophy.

(One of the 10 things they know to be true)

(Google) We do search. With one of the world’s largest research groups focused exclusively on solving search problems, we know what we do well, and how we could do it better. Through continued iteration on difficult problems, we’ve been able to solve complex issues and provide continuous improvements to a service that already makes finding information a fast and seamless experience for millions of people. Our dedication to improving search helps us apply what we’ve learned to new products, like Gmail and Google Maps. Our hope is to bring the power of search to previously unexplored areas, and to help people access and use even more of the ever-expanding information in their lives.

Wisdom that applies to any arena of business or life:

I heard Jerry F. Smith, President and CEO of the JF Smith Group share what he learned in 10,000 days of fund-raising. If you’re marketing a product, idea or organization, his wisdom applies:

-There’s money out there. The number of people worldwide with $1+ million in assets passed 10 million for the first time
-Touch your donors (or audience) 5 times a year mixing calls, letters, hand-written notes and cards
-The word need is out. (I was told by a mentor decades ago that need or needs as a noun is an empty word – this applies across the board.) People give or respond to opportunities not needs.  Opportunities signify that a donor can make great things happen with their gift. Talk to your prospective donors about investing in the future of your organization.
-2% of the giving by individuals is online giving. The average gift was $116 in 2007 according to Giving USA. -Online giving will grow and you must be ready for this growth
-Make sure to include a handwritten P.S. In your letter. It’s the first thing people read. Tell your donors (customers) thank you, and that they are appreciated.
-Continue to acquire new donors no matter what
-Giving by individuals accounts for ¾ of contributions versus ¼ from corporations, foundations and charitable bequests combined
-The number one reason people give is because they believe in the mission of an organization

This fabulous wisdom was passed on to me by: Turbocharged Sell Copy http://promowriting.blogspot.com

Watch Monday’s Daytime Show, syndicated in 100 U.S. cities!

Warning, shameless plug to follow! Today Bissell launched their 3rd annual Bissell’s Most Valuable Pet Contest!  You see, I am Bissell’s spokesperson for their line of pet clean up products (which I couldn’t live without in my pet home)!  Sadly, my pets aren’t eligible for the contest, but YOURS are.

Winners receive some awesome prizes including your pet being featured on Bissell’s product packaging, a Bissell vacuum or deep cleaner designed for your type of pet, a $10,000 donation to a pet charity of your choice and a $500 shopping spree at Bissell for you and your pet!  Sweet!

Fur more de-tails visit Bissell.com. Good luck!

IDTAG.com's Rishi Gupta talks to his customers!

Resolution #1:Talk to your customers! As Katherine (our manager client services) quoted, “not marketing to your customers is like a guy winking at a girl in the dark. He knows what he’s doing but no one else does”.

You have some customers who stuck with you through the worst of times. Celebrate them! Treat them better than you’ve ever treated them before. Thank them effusively for their relationship with you. If you are able, offer them something that will ease their weary bottom line. If that isn’t possible (yet),  make the little things matter:

• Answer their calls quickly, and happily
• Send thank you notes along the way
• Do more than what is expected
• Help them make connections: refer customers to them whenever you can
• Treat the relationship for what it is – a relationship, rather than a transaction
• Say thank you. Again

Treat new customers the same way.  Sure, new customers are more exciting – like a shiny new toy gets the glory at Christmas – but remember that the more established relationships are what carried you through a dismal 2009.

Resolution #2: Employers – Remember that your employees are your number-one asset. They have been through the ringer, too.  Even if you were lucky enough to keep all of your employees, each one of them came to work in 2009 with a sense of dread. They watched their neighbors and friends lose work and wages; they suffered through months of tragic economic news and listened for the sound of their own shoe dropping. What to do? See tips under resolution #1.

Resolution #3: Employees – Curb the complaining, and celebrate your continued success. You think supporting your own family and financial obligations is daunting? Imagine supporting a whole company; its employees and the families that come with them. Few things weigh heavier on a business owner than the thought of sending someone home to tell their family they’ve been fired.  This year, when the toner is empty, the help-desk is busy and bonuses have been cut – take a breath and smile.  Things will continue to get better, and you’re still standing!  For more advice, see tips under resolution #1.
Blog post in part, courtesy of www.lynnespinoza.com.

Resolve to make 2010 a healthy, happy year for you and your pet!

We’re apparently “fostering” a baby Pygmy goat.  My husband Paul offered to foster her while the SPCA Tampa Bay investigates dozens of local citizens claiming to be her owner.

She’s super cute, 6-months old and stands about 10-12 inches high at her shoulder. She looks like a little goat-version of Clarice, from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!

If her real owner doesn’t come forward, she will become Paul’s Hanukkah present:)

I find that planning for next year’s growth is more about getting back to basics rather than trying to conjure up brilliant new strategies. As I ready my mindset to plan Fetching’s 2010 goals and growth plan, I harken back to an excerpt from Seth Godin’s blog, as he talks about ‘execution’ in the absence of attitude and approach. (Seth authored Purple Cow, Meatball Sundae, Tribes, and more…)

I think it looks like this:

1. Attitude
2. Approach
3. Goals
4. Strategy
5. Tactics
6. Execution

We spend all our time on execution. Use this word instead of that one. This web host. That color. This material or that frequency of mailing.

Big news: No one ever succeeded because of execution tactics learned from a Dummies book.

Tactics tell you what to execute. They’re important, but dwarfed by strategy. Strategy determines which tactics might work.

But what’s the point of a strategy if your goals aren’t clear, or contradict?

Which leads the first two, the two we almost never hear about.

Approach determines how you look at the project (or your career). Do you read a lot of books? Ask a lot of questions? Use science and testing or go with your hunches? Are you imperious? A lifehacker? When was the last time you admitted an error and made a dramatic course correction? Most everyone has a style, and if you pick the wrong one, then all the strategy, tactics and execution in the world won’t work nearly as well.

As far as I’m concerned, the most important of all, the top of the hierarchy is attitude. Why are you doing this at all? What’s your bias in dealing with people and problems?

Some more questions:

• How do you deal with failure?
• When will you quit?
• How do you treat competitors?
• What personality are you looking for in the people you hire?
• What’s it like to work for you? Why? Is that a deliberate choice?
• What sort of decisions do you you make when no one is looking?

Sure, you can start at the bottom by focusing on execution and credentials. Reading a typical blog (or going to a typical school for 16 years), it seems like that’s what you’re supposed to do. What a waste.

Isn’t it odd that these six questions are so important and yet we almost never talk or write about them?

If the top of the hierarchy is messed up, no amount of brilliant tactics or execution is going to help you at all.

Tank spends 21 hours a day on his Neko Bed!