I’ve seen Tony Schwartz once, in 40 years (at a 20-year high school reunion), but I’ve been reading his work for more than 30. You might not recognize his name, but it probably sounds familiar. Just over 20 years ago, it was Tony who was the writer for Donald Trump’s “The Art of the Deal.”

Yes, THAT Tony Schwartz.

In 2004, Tony and business partner, Jim Loehr published: “The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal.”

For me, their research and writing obliterated the overdone topic of time management. The message was clear: Your mental and physical freshness determines that quality and productivity of your work. The book is peppered with profiles of people and their work-life balance issues. You see a little of yourself in many of these case studies.

Just recently, Tony published a follow up work, “The Way We’re Working, Isn’t Working: The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance.“

I pre-ordered it from Amazon.com, read it when it arrived, read it again, and read it, once more, on the plane from Las Vegas to Miami.

The basic message is uncomplicated: We are built to work in sprints, not marathons. Knowing it and doing it are, of course, two different things.

Since reading The Power of Full Engagement, I confess to being thrown out of rhythm. Life’s events can take a toll: The final illness, relocation, and death of my father being the first dramatic event. Concurrently, my illness and passing of my girlfriend’s father. Concurrently (yes, really), being diagnosed with Diabetes. My girlfriend’s car accident, the day following her dad’s funeral. The lightning fast passing of her closest friend, Elle, from a rare blood disease, only a couple of months later.

All in all, 2006 was a lousy year. We stopped counting the deaths after the number passed ten. The shocking part was losing friends as young as 36. For me, all of that was followed by two major surgeries. I’ll leave out the details.

Suffice it to say that the last year has been, mostly trouble free. And, despite some significant success and progress, since then, I’d be kidding you if I told you “I’ve fully gotten my groove back.”

The ongoing challenge is managing the effects of Diabetes. It is ALL about managing energy. It’s about diet, exercise, medication, stress, and pacing.

As I go the process of recapturing my rhythm, I will be rereading Tony’s latest work, until I can recite it from memory. I recommend it highly. We all have the same 24 hours in a day, but how we manage our energy determines our success and enjoyment of life.

Thanks, Tony!

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

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The purpose of this post is to remind, cajole, and perhaps nag you. This week, the calendar flips to July, and we begin to count down the days toward 2011… dare I say.

Among the hundred other things on my agenda, I’m reassessing my own marketing plan, accomplishments, sales, and the like. I figure, if I’m doing this for myself, I have to drag you this, too. The questions I’m asking are challenging. The answers are both positive and negative. The goal is this little exercise of self-evaluation is mid-course correction and, in some cases, celebration.

Some of the questions on my mind are these?

1. Have my sales through June met or exceeded expectations?
2. Are my sales projections for the balance of the year on track?
3. How do sales track with the past 2-3 years?
4. How does my business match up with my nearest competitors? This is hard to measure in sales, but one should consider visibility, name recognition, product offerings, etc.,.
5. Is my sales mix (types of jobs, and percentage of business) to my liking?
6. Am I disproportionately depend on the referrals of too small a group? If the answer is yes, your business health is quite vulnerable to a simple job change by one or two people.
7. Who are my Top 10 clients or contacts? What am I doing to honor those relationships and not take them for granted?
8. Am I consistently participating in my local associations and networking groups?
9. Have I built a blog?
10. If I have a blog, am I posting on a regular basis, such as 1-2 times per week?
11. Do I have a social media strategy or have I fallen in the trap of too many “ham sandwich posts” on Facebook and Twitter?
12. When was the last time I refreshed and updated content on my website?
13. Do I put down my cell phone and turned it off when I’m having lunch with a colleague or friend?
14. When was the last time I sent someone a handwritten thank you note.
15. Am I keeping up with continuing education in my field and in my role as a business owner/manager?
16. What industry-specific conferences am I committed to attending during the second half of this year?
17. What business worries are keeping my up at night, and what can I do to address them?
18. Am I taking sufficient time off, to recharge, or do I prefer to play the role of martyr?
19. When was my last vacation? (A vacation does not involved relatives. It does involve reading fiction, perhaps some sun, and consuming umbrella drinks).
20. Do I have a vacation planned for the second half of this year?
21. Do you have a written marketing plan?

What other questions are you asking (or should I be asking)?

Another reminder: Remember to breathe and eat lots of green leafy vegetables.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

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Publications are coming to iPad

Apple’s iPad is due for release in late March. As one might expect, there has been a steady stream of news regarding iPad versions of books and magazines, by various publishers .

Conde Nast announced the first magazines for which it will create iPad versions: Wired, GQ, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and Glamour.

GQ will have a tablet version of its April issue ready. Vanity Fair and Wired will follow with their June issues, and The New Yorker and Glamour will have iPad issues in the summer.

My marketing curiosity asks…

Which wedding magazines will jump on board with iPad editions.

Which will publish, first?

The Knot, Get Married, Brides, Martha Stewart Weddings…??? The list goes on…. I can hear the promo now.

The UPSCALE brides is reading OUR Magazine on her iPad.

I have no inside information on this. Just professional curiosity.

How about you? Are you curious?

Here’s a demo of Wired magazine on the iPad. THAT might fuel your curiosity.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

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OK, I admit it. This post is about one of my bad habits. Perhaps you have the same bad habit or a similar one.

Like 20-somethings, I rarely watch TV without a laptop in front of me. Unless I’m incredibly attracted to a movie, show or ballgame, I’m multitasking on the couch.

One of my favorite destinations is Wikipedia. If a somewhat unfamiliar name pops up in a newscast or entertainment show, zoom, I head for for their Wikipedia page to learn more.

Perhaps the most expensive habit, over time, has been my tendency to order music and books on Amazon.com. In a small personal rebellion, today, I crossed a task off my list that has been dogging me for a year. It took all of five minutes to accomplish it. I got myself a Las Vegas Library Card.

After putting the card in my wallet, I roamed the library halls and browsed the racks of books, CDs, DVDs, and magazines.  Wow! Lots to see. Perhaps I can become a little more restrained about my instant-ordering on Amazon.com, Unless I’m dead sure that a book will be destined for both reading and rereading.

Read or view once, and return. No cost. What a concept!! Productivity and frugality, in one stroke.

What habit do you have that would benefit from being changed, minimized, or completely eliminated?

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

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20 Great Authors, including Andy Ebon’s chapter: Building A Focused Social Media Strategy

More details in The Wedding Marketing Superstore!

Andy Ebon

The Wedding Marketing Authority

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Monday, November 16th – Beaches Resort, Turks & Caicos: Wedding planners, attending the Wedding Conference, were treated to an advance look at some of the inspirations and images from Sasha Souza’s upcoming book, Signature Sasha.

As a member of Modern Bride Magazines Top 25 Trendsetters, Sasha Souza is one of the premiere event designers and a top innovator in the wedding industry. She is one of only a handful of wedding designers who have been named a Master Bridal Consultant, the highest designation given by the Association of Bridal Consultants and she currently serves on the Modern Bride advisory panel.

Souza is the recipient of numerous awards including the Special Events Magazine Gala Award winner for Best Dining Tabletop Design, Event Solutions Magazine Designer of the Year and three ISES Westie Awards.

Souza is releasing her wedding design book Signature Sasha: Magnificent Weddings by Design (Beaufort Books) in January 2010. Signature Sasha: Magnificent Weddings by Design is a stunning, hard cover wedding design book featuring beautiful photography of all aspects of wedding design including never before seen Sasha Souza Events real weddings.

Attendees were entranced, not just by the images, but by the big-picture-view presented by Souza.

No photos are posted from the presentation, as they cannot be shared, prior to the January book release. Her book is now available, for pre-order, from Amazon.com

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

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Robin Jay

I’m very proud to have completely redeveloped RobinJay.com for speaker, author, and Queen of the Business Lunch, Robin Jay.

Her new site is a WordPress-driven website and blog. Its design is based on the Corporate Theme by StudioPress. By using the WordPress platform to encompass both Robin’s website and blog, she will be almost entirely independent of me (or anyone else) as a webmaster, going forward.

As the site owner, she will not only be able to blog, independently, but add, modify, or delete pages, as needed. The search-engine-friendly nature of WordPress is also a huge plus.

Robin is a Business Relationship Expert most best known for authoring the book, The Art of the Business Lunch. She is an outstanding public speaker on a variety of related topics.

For further information about Robin Jay, or just to check out her website/blog, please visit RobinJay.com

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

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Are people impressed? REALLY

I am no longer impressed with the number of years a person or company has been in business. I used to be. That’s because I confused ‘years in business’ with experience, growth and innovation. It’s not same.

Now, I ask the question: “Does that person/company have 25 years of experience or 1 year of experience, 25 times?”

In reality, people don’t generally stop learning or growing after their first year in business. Maybe it’s five years. Maybe seven. It’s different for different people, but it does happen.

The tunnel vision – “We’ve always done it this way” factor kicks in, at least temporarily, for many.

So as people are blaming their present woes on the economy, I suggest that the recession is not the whole story. The business climate simply exposes the weaknesses of companies, large and small.

Some things to ponder:

• Is your logo/business identity stuck in 1978?
• When was the last time you attended a local, regional or national conference, symposium or seminar on your industry specialty? (i.e. catering, balloon decor, DJ entertainment, etc.,)
• When was the last time you attend a conference or seminar, specifically to improve your business, marketing and sales skills? (If you attended Wedding MBA, you get bonus points).
• If you are an owner or senior manage, do you encourage and subsidize continuing education for your staff?
• Do you have a paid advisor or close confidants who will advise you in a truthful, useful, and helpful manner?
• Do you have time blocked out to construct a written wedding marketing plan for 2010?
• Does your company have specific goals for product or service changes, growth, size reduction, operations improvements or the like?

If you didn’t answer affirmatively to a majority of these, it’s entirely likely that you and your business are either stuck or drifting. Your business is running you. Not the other way around.

Christmas ads (let alone Halloween promos) are already visible. It will be 2010 before you know it.

“What, precisely are you going to do, so that 2010 is a better business year than 2009 or 2008?”

Please get back to me on that by posting a comment. The world wants to know. In fact, I’ll be posting some of my 2010 plans. I don’t want it to be, Do as I say, not as I do.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

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Mock up of the coming book

On the heels of his highly successful chapter contribution, Blogging Your Way To Business Success, in the Power of the Platform: Speakers on Success, Andy Ebon has been asked to participate in the sequel.

The Las Vegas Convention Speakers Bureau, publisher of the Power of the Platform series, has tabbed Andy to write a chapter for the Power of the Platform: Speakers on Purpose. Andy’s chapter title is: Building A Focused Social Media Strategy.

The chapter breaks down a total social media strategy, including: Blogging, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Power of the Platform: Speakers on Purpose is scheduled to be released in 4th quarter 2009.

Joe Fabitz
Contributing Writer
The Wedding Marketing Blog

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Lake Tahoe at Sunset

Maybe my recent speaking engagement in Lake Tahoe is the cause. Perhaps the 3-day holiday weekend has an effect. In either case, it’s Friday afternoon, and I’m thinking about the weekend.

Jessica and I are attending the Beatles – Cirque production, LOVE, tonight. Tomorrow, Jessica has two singing students performing as the opening act at Summer Jam 2009 in Henderson, Nevada. The headliner is Jesse McCartney. Her ‘girls’ Deanna and Alexa (D & A) had their first radio interview, this morning, on KLUC. Tomorrow’s concert is huge deal for them.

I’m sure we’ll take in a movie during the weekend. We’re overdue for Star Trek. And, no doubt there will be more music. Probably Santa Fe and the Fat City Horns at the Palace Station, Saturday night.

All that fun stuff, aside, I like 3-day weekends to catch up on projects around the house, take care of loose ends for clients, clean up the desk, and do some quiet reading. 

Not surfing the internet. Sitting down with a book or two, some quiet music, and just absorbing inspirational and motivational wisdom. Recently, I started reading a website called Zen Habits. Little did I know it is one of the Top 50 Blogs on the planet. Through reading it, I noticed that the publisher had authored a book,  The Power of Less.

The Power of Less

I ordered it online, from Amazon, and it arrived at my front door promptly. The essence: Do Less, Get More Done. 

I’ll be reading it in one day, if I know myself. It will probably remind me of many things I already know, and that’s OK. Hopefully, it will provide me with a couple of new techniques to take to heart.

If you’re overburdened and overwhelmed, you might check it out online. It’s also available as an audio book.

Then, later on, we can compare notes. If you’ve already read it, please post a comment.

Have a great weekend,

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

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