7 Business (and Life) Lessons From Barbara Corcoran

You already know a bit about Barbara Corcoran if you watch ABC’s Shark Tank – “went from working as a waitress in Manhattan to building the city's preeminent real estate empire,” – but I gained a new respect for her spunky sass after reading a recent Fortune Magazine profile dedicated to her career. There aren’t many women that would openly admit to wearing “short skirts and bright colors to stand out” and give such advice as, If You Don’t Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons In Your Pigtails, which is the title of her first book.

Barbara’s an unapologetic, unstoppable force who knows how to play to her creative strengths, but doesn’t pretend to do it all when it comes to business — she freely admits to never knowing “what the revenue was” during the early years of The Corcoran Group.

Building her empire from the ground up has taught her a lot of lessons, many of which will come in handy as you build your own business. Take heed of the seven below.

5 Ways to Get More Fans and Followers (Spoiler: It's All About Networking)

My mantra is that relationships, not content, are king, but that doesn't stop people from asking me daily how they can get more fans and followers. While I whole heartedly understand the urgency to grow your audience as quickly as possible (I mean, you don't want to be talking to yourself out there, right?) your community is more than a number count on your computer screen. Your community can sense the ever-so-slightest scent of bullshit from a mile away and don't care to share, like, or comment on posts that add zero value to their lives. Harsh, I know — but it's the truth.



Growing a solid community online can't be achieved with shortcuts. It takes good old fashioned networking. Actually talking TO people, not AT them. Getting to know their likes and dislikes, and allowing others to get to know you, too. You know — effort. Face time. Commitment. Just like your Mamma used to do in the old days, but instead of standing awkwardly in a room full of strangers with a white wine spritzer, you're chatting with hundreds, even thousands from behind a computer screen. Let your (true) freak flag fly, my friends, because networking these days can get you followers and fans with the quickness, if you're doing it with heart.

Below, you'll find five ways you can network, build relationships, and grow your following online. As long as you stay true to yourself, share your wealth of knowledge, and come correct with a positive attitude, your following shouldn't be too far behind.

On Trust, Making Money and the Customer Experience

Trust.

It’s an intimidating, 10-foot-tall hairy giant of a word, but a necessary part of your vocabulary when it comes to your relationships; Relationships with your significant others, your parents, your friends and your mentors. But maybe most importantly for your business (and your wallet), trust is a key factor when it comes to your customers.

Your customers require you to show your trustworthiness by sharing accurate and valuable information; by proving you’re an expert in your field; by going beyond the cut-and-paste customer service responses and instead, exuding excitement for the opportunity to help them achieve their goals; by really giving a damn about what they’re thinking and feeling.



The question is, how do you foster this feeling of trust? A company blog or video series might be one way. A highly engaging and responsive social customer service presence might be another. If you’re feeling fancy (and ready to make the world your bitch) the trifecta of the three can totally kill it … if done right.

And that’s the hard part.

How do you start a blog, shoot video, and have a thriving social presence on a micro business budget and a workforce of one?

Guilt and the Solopreneur: How to Compromise and Kick Guilt to the Curb

Yapp CEO Maria Seidman recently was quoted as saying guilt is one of the hardest things for entrepreneurs to deal with. The guilt of not putting enough time and effort into your business. Of not giving enough attention to your family and friends. The guilt that you can't be everything to everyone.

How many of us can attest to that?

Guilt is a real bitch and everybody knows it. It's an emotion that keeps you on lock down and prevents you from learning, growing, and being productive. But guilt is also something that can be managed, even learned from.

Before guilt can be wrangled into submission, you must first figure out what's most important. Take a step back and ask yourself: what are the most valued moments in my life? Is it Sunday mornings with your family? Taking the kids to school? Landing a new client? Once you qualify those moments, you can begin to design your life around them — getting a later start so you can see the kids off, increasing your sales and marketing efforts so you can make those client connections, declaring Sunday a true no-work day.

Once you're committed to focusing on what's really valuable to you, you have permission — nay, the right — to sweep the legs of guilt, kick it in the guts, and move on without.


How do you handle guilt in your solopreneurial life?


Source: Flickr user Nick-K (Nikos Koutoulas)

Why Content Is NOT King (And What Should Be Instead)

The struggle for control of the internet has taken many forms. Moving from one hot attention grabbing tactic to another in order to get traffic — from SEO to guest blogging, social media, and now content marketing — it's reminiscent of Game of Thronesin a way. But without all the nasty beheadings.

Surely by now you've heard the term "Content is King." That it's one of, if not the most important item in your marketing arsenal, bringing people to your site and allowing you to prove your worth without piling on the slimy sales chain mail.

But I'd beg to differ. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's not even queen, like suggested by Under 30 CEO recently.

I'd say there's a few things that are more important for long-term content success. So what exactly is the current content marketing hierarchy? Let's take a look at the lay of the land from one point of view.

Relationships Are King

Whether it be a relationship with your customers, your link partners, guest blogging partners, or other small businesses, developing honest and solid relationships will take you farther than any content marketing, SEO, or PPC advertising strategy ever will. This means that customer service should live at the heart of your company, and customer service takes many forms:

• Going above and beyond to make things right when you've done wrong (unknowingly or otherwise).
• Focusing on using your skills and knowledge to help others.
• Having a conversation with customers and link partners online rather than blindly blasting your latest message.
• Lift up fellow bloggers or small businesses — there's plenty of room in the world for all of us so put those your brains together and come up with something unique and useful.

Are you building relationships or sequestering yourself to your own little island in an ocean of opportunity?

Get the rundown on the rest of the monarchy after the break!

How To Turn 2012 Failures Into 2013 Successes: A Guide For Making Your Resolutions Stick

I always prefer to look at the bright side of things, hunt down the silver linings, and uncover a sliver of positivity in every situation, no matter how dark and gloomy. Take unfulfilled goals for example. Didn't lose that 10 pounds I've been resolutioning for the past two years? Well, I've got 12 more months ahead to finally make it happen.

Didn't write that ebook I said I'd have in the can by years end? Good news is, I've learned so much in the past three months that I think I could write an even better ebook than I could have before.

Kept putting off the big website redesign and launching a consulting business? At least I can plan in even greater detail and come out swinging for the fences in Q1.

See? Things don't look that bad, right? Do me a favor - just nod and smile.

While my world may seem quite rosy through the glasses I'm perpetually wearing, the truth is, these are all goals that I committed to, but failed miserably at completing. That's nothing to brag about. That's a big 'ole "F" circled in bright red Sharpie on my own Commitment Test.

You might be in the same boat. You might be looking at your 2012 resolutions with dismay as they sit, unfulfilled on your vision board, or posted in your blog declaring for all to see the truth — you fell short.

Let's not make the same mistake twice.

Let's really stick to doing what we say we are going to do this year. Cause when we don't, we only hurt ourselves. Here's a few ideas, inspirational moves, and methods to keeping your goals alive until you red-line them as "done."

Making Your List

It's an annual pilgrimage we all make: sitting down at our desks, our big comfy chairs, our kitchen tables, and writing down our end of the year goals for the upcoming 12 months. This generally happens during the latter days of December when we start reflecting on the past 350-some-odd days, recall the things we've always wanted to see, do, hear, and touch, and make plans to turn dreams into reality. But how often do you actually accomplish them? Number three on your list may be "Make a million dollars," but how the hell are you going to accomplish that in 12 months? Or maybe it's a longer-term goal you plan on checking off your to-do list in three years. Even so, a million dollars won't just appear out of thin air.

This is the problem with New Year's Resolutions: all goals, no plans. We sit and cast our wishes, desires, and dreams on a sheet of paper, but make absolutely no effort to devise a plan on how to accomplish them as they die, hanging on a corkboard that eventually gets hidden behind shopping receipts, kid's artwork, grocery lists, and jury duty summonses.

See the rest after the break!