A Red Penguin

You know...

"For I have promises to keep,
and miles to go before I sleep."
.. was probably about a lot more than a trip in the snow.

I Read an Instagram Post on the Subject of "Letting Go" in Life

I replied to it with a metaphor I'd come up with long ago. And I figured I'd post it here as well because I'm going to need to be the face of something I'm building soon.

My business will have to do with people building their businesses. so I should be getting in the swing of addressing mindset, and how attitude allows effort, and awareness of cause and effect, and other such foundational blocks.

That said...

Letting Go is crucial to change and growth.

Some people spend their lives clinging to one trapeze swing with their knuckles turned purple from gripping. If pried lose they latch onto the first close swing and hold on again for dear life, never letting go by choice.

Some spend life in the air, launching themselves well repeatedly by picking out swings that best suit their arcs and aims.

And the great variety in between make up quite a mix, as always.

This Can be Valuable to be Aware of Because...

What we picture happening when we let go is conjecture. If we never let go, we never know.

What we experience when we let go is trial and error. If we find that we fall awhile and then latch on to a new swing and swing back higher, we may learn that it's okay to try and see where letting go will take us. If it's higher and further, and more fun and fulfilling, then we learn to recognize, respect and calculate risk-versus-reward.

Learned from experience: Having safety nets can be handy. Maintain sensible expenses. Savings. And strong networks. Soft landings, long-term, come from doing without in the short terms.

A Red Penguin updated their address.

If you use direct marketing for your or , you don't have time to attend every learning experience out there. At A Red Penguin, we meet with top performers at groups like DMAW to bring the best of their knowledge and experience to the table when we meet with you.

Call us in to see some of our most successful work and we'll bring along insights picked up at industry events like Production Day, above. Let's meet soon. We'll come prepared. Start a conversation now by clicking the link below.

https://aredpenguin.com/

A lot of people would have us believe that the success of our endeavors in life starts with our mindset. As in: Nothing means more than being able to stand up and proclaim, "I can do it!"

But actually, a lot more depends on knowing what "it" is.

🙂🐧

Learned from Working for Several of the
Largest Small Businesses in Individual Industries...
.. and with Like-Thinking Creatives and Strategists

The people who build and run exceptional small businesses struggle all the time, especially early on. And I don't mean financially, necessarily.

I mean that if you look up synonyms for "struggle," you find: cope, seek, strive, tackle and try; as well as compete, contend, battle and brawl.

That's to be expected when you set a goal off on the far horizon and have no certain way of knowing what the path there will be. And things get even more challenging when you realize that the guides who will lead you to where you want to be will be strangers with needs that you haven't met yet.

You haven't met the strangers. And you haven't met their needs.

Toss in the fact that advertising legend David Ogilvy said something to the effect of: Half the job of any creative person is self-promotion. Well, business builders are as creative as anyone, in their way. And the best tend to be craftsmen more than artists, because the things they put together function well. Serve users. Show the wear of use. Deliver lasting value.

And their makers: Meet a need, exceptionally; they let others know they meet the need, just as exceptionally; and they don't know exactly how to do either of those until satisfied strangers tell them they've done it.

That's a pretty good synopsis of what a rewarding struggle looks like. And it's why I see great strength in those who, in life, have hit walls and gone through, over and around them. I respect those who are openly more happy with less struggle. And I remain wary of, and ever quite happy to get past, those who paint their walls to look like blue skies, beaches, and ocean, put up a beach umbrella, and proclaim undying satisfaction with the appearance of things.

Get past them, and a person can go anywhere. And those who've learned that lead by example.

They hit the ground running. And every day, they find the way.

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE WILLING
AND ABLE TO HELP SMALL BUSINESSES?

The ability of any of us to help one another – individually or in teams – seems to come down to the two factors of attitude and aptitude.

"Are we willing?" and "Are we able?"

AT A RED PENGUIN, BEING "WILLING" COMES NATURALLY.

We've worked with and employed people from many walks of life, and our job, as small-business marketers, is to communicate opportunities and perceptions that make things happen.

When we're doing that, and doing it well, one thing sure to be happening is that we are learning to see and care about things through the eyes of others. The more we have done that, the more fair it has seemed to help many different organizations to present their own distinct offerings with clarity and conviction.

Our heart is in helping others to show where their hearts are and how they help.

AT A RED PENGUIN, BEING "ABLE" IS A CONSTANT EFFORT.

In the time that our launch team was developing the materials, methodologies and systems that make A Red Penguin different from other small-business marketing firms, we were also constantly researching the promise and possibilities of "internet marketing."

Wherever we found promises made, we searched and asked for case studies. In the situations where they actually existed, we could see that consistent value delivered to many people over time had created a continued need for the same.

Bloggers were making $100,000 a year after five years of methodically building an audience of readers who had received value from actionable information and original thinking. One Internet success wrote of spending $15,000 a month to promote webinars that led to $250,000 a month in sales. We learned a lot from a firm in Portland that had helped launch several startups. Each had spent significantly on paid search and pay per click, and seen sales returns of three to five times the investments.

The Portland input showed us that companies that had previously flourished doing Yellow Page advertising were moving to Google to be found, ASAP.

And all of that was as expected. The internet was definitely helping many consumers and executives to see and access real worth. Entrepreneurs with email lists of 45k subscribers had achieved audience reach and frequency similar to that of local or trade magazines. And they'd developed that advantage by attracting audience members with the value of their insight and information, post after post, week after week.

The reality was clear: The Internet had reduced the cost and increased the reach of communication as much or more than the printing press. But neither one had affected the worth and appeal of what a person could put on a screen or page.

A RED PENGUIN IS ALWAYS EAGER TO BE MORE ABLE.

Small businesses hear about great opportunities all the time, especially in times of greatly changing possibilities.

Our team at A Red Penguin hears it all and looks beyond, ever insistent on seeing the reality. We know well: The most accepted, obvious, popular and prevalent approaches inform the most common results, so…

.…if you want to achieve the uncommon, we'll need to have seen what's been behind the unusual.

We're eager to look. Willing to see. Able to offer new realities.

Does your small business provide standout solutions that aren't getting all the attention they deserve?

Well then we should talk, because at A Red Penguin, you'll find intuitive young creative talents who are mastering a (lost) art you need:

Showing the strong, natural appeal of a business like yours. On sight.

They're learning from the example of 30 years of case studies like the poster shown here. Then using their tech knowledge to streamline every aspect of market and competitor research, strategic thinking and creativity.

Plus efficient production in the most effective media possible.

The type of creative messaging that gets just a few leaders standing out in every market hasn't changed. It still comes down to speaking with ingenuity and authority, so people see significant promise in the offering.

You can really raise prospects' expectations by simply offering them more than they knew to imagine.

LYN GEIST

Last week, I mentioned that one the freelancers affiliated with A Red Penguin is getting busier and busier with interesting and challenging projects. That's good, because part of our long-term plan here is to help very promising natural talents to master creative marketing for small businesses... and that includes their own.
Here's the website that we put together at A Red Penguin to help Lyn Geist be distinct and visible to her best-fit prospects, worldwide and down the street.
The key is to present the impression that fulfills the potential. At the start. And at each point of desired growth.

https://www.lyngeist.com/

lyngeist.com

Looking to grow your small business in the Sacramento, CA area?

At ARP, we're helping skilled Sacramento marketing talent to help their hometown businesses grow.

Right now, our affiliated copywriter in the Sacramento, CA area, Lyn Geist, is completing an article for a top online university to run in the San Francisco Chronicle. She's found that since ARP did her website for her -- as part of its own team self-promotion -- she's "had prospects coming to me."

Today's top local talent is creating successful marketing campaigns worldwide, and their neighboring businesses need to know. In Sacramento, Lyn Geist is putting a whole world of proven tactics and expert talent in reach of the business community. And all with a friendly local face.

Small businesses can keep themselves small by not differentiating themselves in ways that will have them standing out to any particular target market(s).

Small businesses that present themselves as one of the crowd must content themselves with whatever prospects find them randomly... and then try to provide for the preferences and priorities of each arbitrarily established relationship.

In comparison, businesses that intentionally emphasize their strengths, as Fortune 500s and regional leaders do, attract and then more naturally retain buyers who are looking for those certain particular assets and approaches.

One can aggressively focus on growth and replicating proven successes. The others set themselves up to be continually readjusting and reinventing how they are seen and what they do... to try to make the best of the diverse, randomly arriving opportunities.

A Red Penguin

To see how any small business can employ the marketing and messaging precision of a Fortune 500 to achieve small- and mid-market dominance, visit www.aredpenguin.com and start reading.

You’ll find we’ve concentrated only the most essential thinking needed to focus your every marketing dollar on a precise message that will power you to small business leadership.

Give it a look today. It may be the start of 100 years of instinctive and natural business success.

aredpenguin.com Let's meet. We’ll come ready to help you see your offerings the way your current best customers see them... and introduce a process that can put you in their shoes.

A Red Penguin's cover photo

A Red Penguin