Lisa Hendrickson is the owner of Call That Girl. She is an Outlook Expert and Microsoft 365 Consultant.
Below is a picture of me sitting in front of a USWest/Qwest terminal. I was a 411 operator from 1988-1995. I look back at this picture and just laugh. The reason why I am holding up a little notepad with the word “jerk” on it was because one of my co-workers just bought a new camera and was taking pictures of everything. So I wrote that up and when he said he was taking my pic, I flashed the “jerk” sign. What is really more hilarious is the big ol green screen monitor working off a terminal system. Little did I know back then I would own a computer repair company 20 years later (eeks! 20 years flies by!)
The Qwest job by far was never one of my favorites, but I was making great money for a kid that age. I drove a sports car and took trips often. Ah, the good old days of having freedom and not caring about anything but where I was going out that night. I had to work many split shifts and weekends, but that was the life of a 411 operator. Times have changed now, we get the computerized 411 lady now–which I hate. As I build my business I have learned a few things…I will do the exact opposite of everyone else and NEVER ever, no matter how big my business gets, ever have a phone queue, “press 1 for this, press 2 for that”.
Call That Girl will always always always have a live person answering phones…unless of course, I’m out of the office:)
Happy Friday everyone!
Last night I was talking to a friend about email and how out control people let it get. I have a few concerns about email. My biggest is why it takes some people days to reply to a simple email. But then I thought about it and I do the same thing. I read it, but won’t reply right away. My biggest problem is that I have 5 ways to check my email and only one of them is where I actually “control” where the emails go. Aka…have folders to sort them in and run rules.
Here is my take on it…
Email Etiquette
Normally, when YOU email someone, you want something from them, have a question, need information or are sending them requested information. As the recipient receives the email, they read it but then mentally sort you into a “mental folder”…
Reply now! She’s important and I need her to communicate back right now!
Ah, I can reply later...This is not that important, but tomorrow I will have more time to reply properly.
oh crap, this again….This is far from important, but you should reply at in the next week or so.
the Dread….I seriously didn’t want this email and really…I don’t need to reply and I won’t. (((delete)))
Now what you should be doing is having folders set up and run some rules to organize all this email. I have about 50 folders for my Outlook in the office. I have rules running for many different topics. Example? All my Linkedin emails go to the “Linkedin” folder. I can see when I have new email and as Linkedin is important, my clients come first. I breeze the Linkedin folder as I see new items, but it’s usually not important.
What about the non-folder items? I read the email, then move each email to different folders.
“Stuff to do later” (which means I may get to it, maybe I won’t)
And then I have oodles of subcategories because not all these emails require a reply or did and I replied and it’s now in a folder for archiving.
My inbox is always clean when I leave the office at the end of the day.
Newsletter Etiquette
We all gets tons of “spam/junk”. What constitutes junk or spam? To me, getting a newsletter from someone I met at a networking event or via LinkedIn is not spam or junk. What is? Viagra and emails from Nigeria telling me I was willed $E100000. How do you handle the junk/spam from someone you know or met F2F or online? Here are my simple rules:
If they are giving information that has value, I keep it.
If they are pushing workshops or just info about themselves, I unsubscribe. I get way too much email a day and know who they are and how to contact them, so it’s just best to get off that list.
Yes, it may seem rude, but I have a huge database that I email a few times a month and see people unsubscribe to my newsletters and many are my clients. They aren’t interested in what I have to say about this and that, etc. I get it! I don’t care….so don’t think you are going to hurt someone’s feelings, business is business and email is alot of my workday.
Last tip! DO NOT have 100’s of unread email either! It only brings you down and you should clean that up and start fresh! I love helping clients clean up their emails….it feels refreshing for them and me. If you’re interested in having me help, I can do that remotely and over the phone.
Happy Wed!
Many of you know of me because of LinkedIn. It’s really the place to be for now and the next few years. Last night Rich Fiene came over to my place and we shared some refreshments and had a nice long discussion about LinkedIn. If you don’t know who Rich is, he’s currently the #1 LinkedIn guy for Minneapolis/St. Paul. I met Rich last summer while we were both attending a LinkedIn workshop held by Mike O’Neil from Integrated Alliances. If you don’t know who Mike is, he’s a LinkedIn rockstar! I don’t know his current stats with LI, but he was #41 in the world and does have 21,000 contacts at this point. If you think I’m a LinkedIn maniac, you should meet this guy.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeoneil (feel free to invite him!)
Rich and I discussed many topcis in regards to LinkedIn, how we got to our levels of expertise and where we want to see LinkedIn go. As the manager of LinkedMinnesota, I see many opportunities for LinkedIn to grow and help our group. Rich is also the Director of the Project: Link It Forward that I founded last December. We are in discussions for the 2nd round of PLIF to be called PLIF 2.0. Watch for details, this is an exciting project!
You can invite Rich at http://www.linkedin.com/in/richfiene
As the conversation flowed from one issue to another, Rich and I have learned that we both are well connected on LinkedIn and both are using it in 2 totally differents way. We also discussed how there are so many other folks out there that are in our positions doing it their own way too. It’s almost crazy to think of the value of LinkedIn, if you make it work for you! Not everyone can do it the same way, you have to figure that out for yourself and your comfort level.
While I was ending the evening, I got my 4th client call that day, he was the 3rd client from Linkedin. It’s working for me as an advertising and marketing tool, but it took well over a year to finally see weekly results. Using LinkedIn takes time and you have to put time into it.
Just sayin’ 🙂
Happy Tuesday everyone!
Thank God it’s Monday…my weekend was boring and I actually couldn’t wait to get back to work. I did work a smidge though, I had 2 clients so that helped a bit. I also did the big Ikea run on Saturday. Yeah, I am stupid. Going to Ikea on a Saturday is like going to Target on Black Friday. I survived and only had to be slighty irritating to one sales lady. I asked her “Do you know where the shelves are, the standing up ladder type ones that you decorate with”..(because I don’t know the real name for the desglinka??) and she said, “you know, I don’t think we sell those”.
Duh, yes you do! Ikea sells about everything in the world. So I said in a direct tone “Yes you do, I saw it online…you just don’t know what I’m talking about” and left her in the dust while I blazed to the “do it yourself” area. Then I found a smart sales person who knew exactly what I meant and pointed me right to the shelves. I kinda feared buying the “do it yourself”…I wasn’t interested in putting together shelves for 5 hours, but that’s how it goes with Ikea right?
Turns out I only had to spend about 30 minutes for both shelves, yay! I love the shelves too! Perfect for what I needed and I spent under $40 for both. Happiness for me over a boring weekend:)
Today I have a lunch appointment, then a client. I’m free before and after, so today should be a breeze. I have a monster to do list, so I hope I can chop away at that!
Have a great Monday! Lisa
For the past 8 weeks or so, Call That Girl has been a busy little bee. Seems that I had some good juju come my way when I moved into my new apt. The week after I moved in, I was slamming with 12-18 clients a week. This week has been my first break…I still had 10 clients, but wasn’t “slamming” on the road, back to backing and working furiously every night to keep up with communications.
A girl breathed!
What does this tell me? It tells me that universe is giving what I can handle. I saw the movie “The Secret” and loved it so much I took notes the 2nd time around. I first saw this movie during the first 5 months of being on my own with Call That Girl. Those days were tough with very few clients, hoping everyday I would get my big break….and wanting so bad for my business to flourish! I still have those notes from The Secret and read them on occasion. I read them again when I was slamming busy a few weeks and realized…the universe is testing me right now. How far can I go without needing help?
I attended an ewomen networking luncheon yesterday and the founder of ewomen, Sandra Yancey was the keynote speaker. I saw her last year too when she came to Minneapolis. Listening to her speak…is like living my past year and half. Not every person out there in business right now is killing themselves. Suffering the lowest of the lows and feeling the highest of the highs. Sandra has and I am too…all the time. Some days I come home and feel like I’m going to just pass out. But everyday I get up and do it all over again with fresh energy. I am building a million dollar business for sure. I decided that the first month I was out on my own and I think about it every single day. Every day that I am out driving to a client, everyday that I go to my office on Nicollet and everyday I take my puppy on walks. I live and breathe my business. It’s something that when you have it, you have it. It never leaves you.
To close, I enjoy those moments of exhaustion to be honest. I knew I put in a hard day and helped many folks. I am working on some personal goals right now to help me manage all of this as it’s only going to be crazier, but I am so looking forward to it!
Happy Friday folks!
The Truck
I put the bling on the truck right away when I put CTG into action, outside of referrals…it’s one of my top marketing ideas that work!
