As you may have read in previous articles on my blog, the primary goal I have when branding my clients and myself is to help them (us) reach top of mind status in their (our) niche. As you can imagine, very few business owners have truly taken the time to carve out a very specific niche, so that most often, is the first step we take. You cannot hold the top position in a niche if you have not first identified a niche. Once we have established your niche, we can get a clearer picture who your target market will be.  There are specific sets of strategies that I use in building my client’s “top of mind ladder” and typically at the beginning of the ladder, they are fairly new in business. When they are new in business, I recommend building a strong community presence however, once that is accomplished and they have made it up the ladder, the opposite must take place. This level of business owners are my target market, people who have made it the to middle of the ladder and need help getting to the top. Let’s look at this a little further:

1. Supply and Demand – You know the rules of supply and demand, the less available something is, the more in demand it becomes. Yes, you remember the Cabbage Patch Kids, we all do. If you (the entrepreneur) are always available for lunch, coffee, pick your brain sessions and at every community networking event or function, your brand will not have as high a perceived value. Most people that frequent networking events often are searching for new business and are on the road to reaching top of mind status. There is nothing wrong with that however again, one must have enough foresight to know when to put the breaks on. When a brand reaches top of mind status, “searching” for new business is not required much if at all as you have now become the first and best known choice in your particular niche. In other words, business finds you, you don’t need to find it.

2. Price and Value – If you are reading this blog, I trust that you are a wise follower who already understands the difference between price and value but here is the skinny – my skinny! Price is a transactional fee that you get paid for the work you do. Value is just that, the amount of value you provide your clients. When clients place a very high value on your work, price becomes less and less important. Those of you that are Apple users know what I mean. We place such a high value on Apple products that we will pay whatever price they ask us to AND they never discount. This is a very important strategy as you make it up the rungs on the ladder. Also remember, the higher the price of something, the higher its perceived value becomes. The more experience you gain and the more clients you help, the more testimonials and buzz you will accumulate – ultimately enabling you to double and triple your prices. Please note though, you can’t all of the sudden just raise your prices on a whim – it must be carefully thought out in your overall marketing and branding strategy and you must be ready to elevate to a new leadership level with your existing posse while still rewarding them as loyal followers as you add new members into the mix. Everyone wants to follow a great leader and trust me; your true members will celebrate your elevation and growth!

3. Unsocial is the New Social – There comes a point and time in your business/brand where you must spread your wings and reach far beyond your local radius. This was a place I came to about three years ago when I completely stepped out of the local social scene. I was committed to take my brand and business global and I knew I couldn’t accomplish that by spending lots of time attending local functions. Nor could I accomplish this by spending time in areas where my target market didn’t frequent. This was about the same time I set up my Facebook account. Although I wasn’t partaking in the social scene locally, I was virtually and my presence was becoming known throughout the world. Opportunities also began presenting themselves like never before. As a result, my influence has grown tenfold, my income has increased exponentially and my brand now ranks among the top in the industry. There is a new term called “social clout” and now there are websites that measure the amount of social clout you have. I highly recommend the site www.Klout.com to get your ranking based on a scale of 1-100. Currently I am ranking at around 67-70, which I am told is highly influential. My years of hard work have paid off.

There is so much to share on this topic but I will save it for a future audio download. I am committed to teaching these principles as often as I can so stay tuned for more. For now, I highly recommend that you snag yourself a copy of my free ebook “Building a Bankable Brand” on my website. In addition, take a strong look at your business, where it is and where you want it to be in the next three years. Decide in advance what your strategies will be to work your way up the ladder and pick the time NOW when you will begin to transition into the steps I have outlined here. I wish you the best in your journey and keep OWING YOUR WORLD!

I’m not skinny or slim. I don’t have an amazing figure or a flat stomach. I’m far from being considered a supermodel but, I’m me. I eat food, I have curves, I have more fat than I should, I have scars, I have a history. Some people love me, some like me, some hate me. I have done good, I have done bad and believe me I’ve been through it all. I love my PJ’s and I go without makeup and don’t do my hair perfect all the time. I’m real and I’m crazy, I don’t pretend to be someone I’m not. I am who I am, you can love me or hate me. I won’t change! And if I love you, I do it with my heart! I make no apologies for the way I am.

Contact: Kellie Kuecha
Kellie Kuecha World Enterprises LLC
561-416-1769
kellie@kelliekuecha.com
www.YouCanSucceedEvent.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

YOU Can Succeed Event Turns Tragedy to Triumph

Local branding strategist Kellie Kuecha says she was inspired by a “Message from God” to host a free women’s empowerment event in the face of several of her friends’ suicides

Boca Raton, FL (January 9^th, 2012) –  On Friday, January 13^th, 2012 from 8am to 5pm, over 300 women will be coming together at the Hilton Hotel in Deerfield Beach to celebrate life, be inspired and learn how to use their talents to create a successful and fulfilling business.

According to a study conducted by the CDC, suicide rates increase as the economy declines. Event Organizer Kellie Kuecha explains, “I had four friends commit suicide in the last year because they felt they had no better way out of the overwhelming despair that surrounds us.” Kuecha plans a remembrance ceremony for those who have decided to take their own lives. “A few days after my fourth friend passed, I was awakened in the middle of the night by a message from God telling me to host an event specifically for women in the beginning of January. The message called for me to share my business knowledge and recruit others to share theirs for free, in order to help give women hope and belief in their ability to succeed and prosper in ways they never imagined,” says Kuecha.

This first free community event offers keynotes by locally, nationally, and internationally famed speakers & experts Kuecha, Christina Rowe, Lisa Paolo, Barbara Theodosiou, Susan Somerset Webb, and Staci Garcia. The event also features a VIP Lunch & Learn, as well as a Mega MastHERmind with roundtable leaders such as WE tv show host Suzanne Kovi, Kimberly West, Jill Duggan, Nanette Saylor, Heather Lopez and many more! Attendees will be able to choose a MastHERmind from a wide array of topics such as marketing, health & fitness, social media, and financial management.

For more information about attending and to register, please visit the event website www.YouCanSucceedEvent.com or contact Kellie Kuecha via e-mail at kellie@kelliekuecha.com or via phone at 561-416-1769.

Kellie Kuecha is a marketing and branding expert specializing in women’s success. She is the CEO and Founder of The W.O.M.A.N. Club an online social network for women, Kellie Kuecha World Enterprises LLC where she leads events, seminars and trainings around the globe and KidsBiz Academy where she dedicates her time to growing our young entrepreneurs. You can connect with Kellie @ www.KellieKuecha.com

It is no secret that I love playing Blackjack.  There are a variety of reasons that the game fascinates me and I like to either play on my phone app the majority of the time but every now and again I will head over to the casino for a long night of playing!  You see, I grew up near Atlantic City, New Jersey and at the age of 19, I was entered into a pageant for the United Way by my then employer Lenox China.  The pageant and all of our practices took place at each of the various casinos and I must say, it was love at first sight the moment I walked through those doors!  The lights, the sounds, the excitement, the people – it all just swept me away.  Although I loved staying at the casinos, eating there often, attending concerts etc., It wouldn’t be until several years later that I would be asked to speak in Vegas that I began to get my Blackjack game on!  Since then, I have been hooked.  Not hooked on gambling but hooked on the overall experience and lessons learned.  Here are all of the lessons I have learned and I am much wiser as a result of them!

1. Be prepared to stay in it for the long haul – There is no such thing as getting rich quick or striking the jackpot in Blackjack.  The game takes time and strategic betting to get ahead.  You can’t plop down $50 and expect to do much with it.  Nor can you only give it 30 minutes to see what happens.  Tables have losing streaks and winning streaks but you have to be willing to ride the bad times to get to the good times!
2. People will come and go, but it’s OK – Most of my life it seemed everyone I got attached to eventually went away so I developed a fear of abandonment which spilled over into many areas of my life.  I have met some great people over the years at the table and some are there for a reason, some are there for a short season, some have stayed for a lifetime.  Either way, they have all served their purpose and it’s OK!
3. The greater the risk, the greater the reward – As with anything, whether you bet $5 or $50, the game doesn’t change.  All too often people fear betting high because they will lose more but they fail to remember that they will also gain more!
4. Choose your partners wisely, the better the dealer, the better the game - A good game is played when you feel aligned with the dealer.  If you are going to sit there for hours, you might as well make sure that you enjoy your partner.  Stand back and watch a while before jumping in head first.  Not all dealers are personable or helpful.  Bad partnerships can alter your attitude, therefore altering the game.
5. Teamwork makes the dream work – Some come to the table without any knowhow on how to play the game.  A good dealer will help the uneducated players make wise choices however the game is best played as a team.  When the entire table comes together as a unified front and helps each other, the odds of winning are greater!
6. Don’t look behind, only ahead – While it’s never fun losing, you have to set the intention going into the game that it’s just that, a game.  Spend money that you can afford to lose and have a good time.  When the game is over, chalk it up a fun experience and move on.
7. Take your winnings and reinvest – As I said earlier, strategic betting insures longevity in the game but also I find, increases your chances of winning.  As soon as you win a hand, you must re-invest the winnings into the next hand otherwise you will never get ahead.
8. If it’s not fun, don’t do it – I often play with very miserable people and sometimes it seems you can’t escape them.  For goodness sakes, life is meant to be fun and if it’s not, don’t do it! 
9. When the big wave comes, be ready to ride it – There are rare times throughout the game where you will get a chance to double down, split cards one or more times and add lots more money to your original bet.  This is where the money is made with the game however of you are not willing to seize those opportunities, you will very seldom find yourself in the winning side at the end of the day.
10. It’s important to set your rules and stick to them – Every game must be set with a strategic plan in advance and you MUST stick to it!  So often people play, lose and then reach into their pocket for more money.  Big mistake.  They have no plan.  She with the best plan gets the best results!
11. Don’t let peer pressure get the best of you – The odds of you playing with amateur players at the low cost tables are much greater so I avoid those tables.  I like to sharpen my saw with the big guys but I have a standard rule of not taking a card if my cards total 16.  (You are trying to beat the dealer’s 17) Other players want you to hit on 16 and sometimes will scream and yell if you don’t – but my rule is my rule and when I get my first 16 I let the dealer and table know I won’t be hitting on 16s.
12. The seat you choose has in impact on the outcome – I have always been a front seat girl so I like the seat front and center so that I can see the entire table, watch the dealers body language and get his attention when I need it.  However, the last chair to the left is known as the captain’s chair and you would think I would want that chair but I don’t. The captain’s chair first and foremost is squeezed into a corner and sees the table from an entirely different perspective.  The person in that chair has an important responsibility; he gets to make the final card choice, which will determine whether or not the deal wins or busts.  So pretty much they are running the ship.  This is one time when I will forgo being in control and leave it up to someone else but rest assured, it won’t go down without my adding my two cents when need be, which brings me to my next point.
13. Speak up when you feel the need to – As stated in points 5 and 11, it takes a team to carry off a successful win and with that being said, you must learn to speak up if you expect to win the game.  Your ability to speak up and influence the others will have a direct impact on the success of your game.
14. Don’t drink or smoke obsessively – Having played now for many years, you can imagine that I have run into a lot of drunk players in my time.  I play to win and I can’t imagine being able to make sound choices with an impaired mind.  Also being in such close proximity, you are inevitably invading each other’s personal space.  Lighting up and blowing smoke around the table just isn’t cool.  The likelihood of winning over your team is slim if you are doing things to annoy them!
15. Know when to walk away – As I stated earlier, you must be willing to stay in for the long haul as I have seen losing streaks go on as long as 5 hours.  The other night, I kept waiting for my table to turn over but it never did so I walked away and found another table, I won the first 5 hands at the table.  Know when to walk away but also know when you start at a new table, you are starting all over again and you must be prepared to ride it out!
16. It takes money to make money – For the players that are looking to come in a make a quick couple of hundred or thousand, they must understand that they need to stay away from the small chips and bet only with the large ones.   So often I see people slap down forty dollars and expect to do well.  Forty dollars will not keep you in for the long haul.  It takes money to make money AMEN!
17. Paying it forward always pays you back – Sitting at a Blackjack table is no different than sitting at a restaurant table, the dealers get paid on tips and I LOVE to tip!  I have found more often then not that when I pay it forward by adding a tip to my bet, I almost always win.  Law of attraction at its best!
18. Sometimes the cards you are dealt aren’t the best but you learn to make the best of what you have – At the end of the day, not every hand is going to be a good one so I make the best of it.  I make new friends by getting to know the dealer, I ask the other players about their life and most of all, I have fun.

All and all, I love the art of the game and all that goes with it – good and bad.  Now if all of these points listed could be combined at the same table at the exact same time, that would make for a great game but in the end, I realize only God knows the outcome and I can’t get attached to it.  I know in my heart that expectations create disappointment so I go into the game with my intention, my core values and beliefs intact and I play like it depends on me but pray like it depends on God.  I enjoy the fun of the game and the people I meet so the winning is an added bonus!  I have also eaten the best meals, attended the best concerts and enjoyed a lot of great perks as a result of playing and those are also icing on the cake!  All and all, it’s a fun and relaxing way to spend my time when I choose to!  Blackjack!

YOU get paid to do three things in business – ADD VALUE to others and MANAGE and MARKET your BRAND! Make sure you are firing on all three cylinders!

Karina Kuecha at Salvation Army

It wasn’t until about 8 years ago that I began taking notice to the concept of giving back.  I was new to the Florida business world and hadn’t yet experienced the awesome concept of “givers gain”, a concept that would go on to become one of the main cornerstones of my business.  Boca Raton seemed to me, to be the charity mecca of the world, which was something I wasn’t used to coming from a small farm town, but it didn’t take long for me to realize that the majority of business people in my community were affiliated with at least one charity, if not many. I wondered where I would ever begin.  Interestingly enough, it seemed as though their charity affiliation and work was more prominent in their brand than their profession itself.  With all of this being so new to me, I had a hard time trying to figure out how I too could both find a charity that I was passionate about and the time serve it while being a new mom and busy business owner.

Over the years I have given my time, talents and services to charitable organizations and to businesswomen who could not afford coaching and it truly makes my heart sing.  It has taken all of the last eight years to figure out however, what really motivates me and inspires me to take my heart for giving to an entirely new level.  Sometimes we have a desire to help, but we get stuck waiting for the right opportunity to come our way.   Other times we are in a profession where we get asked often to donate our services and for many, the struggle between giving back and going broke ends up causing more harm than good.  Here are some ways you can incorporate giving back into your business strategy without going broke:

1.  Set up an auto draft – I tend to pick charities that have to do with orphaned, adopted or abandoned children because I was adopted and charities that work in these fields are near and dear to my heart.  Because there are so many worthy causes, it’s difficult to help them all and orphanages are all located outside the US, so I have chosen a few that resonated with me and I donate directly on a monthly basis to an orphanage in South America and also a local homeless shelter in my area.  The auto draft option is great if you are a busy person and want to help out without trying to find new ways all the time.
2. Donate a pre-set percentage of time – This is a big one for small business owners!  Over the years, several times a month, we get the calls for my fiance’s DJ services to be donated for charity galas and parties.  While each and every request is a worthy one, we most certainly cannot donate to all of them.  In both of our business we set a standard amount of charity time we will donate each month.  Remember, time is also money.  For instance, in the DJ business, we donate our services to one charitable event monthly.  However in my coaching and event business, I offer 20% of all seats in our courses and conferences the form of scholarships.  Having a strategy such as these will help you in staying profitable while still serving with your heart.  I heard someone say a long time ago, “if you can’t pay your mortgage, you can’t help anyone else pay theirs” and it’s so true.  Decide at the beginning of the year what your give back strategy will be so you can avoid the struggle of second guessing yourself every time a request comes in!
3. Volunteering – This of course is my favorite strategy, one because I love to roll up my sleeves and help and two because we have four children that we believe need to be raised with giving hearts.  This is the one area of giving that we don’t have a set strategy on because we like to be open to helping whenever we can!  Over the years we have dedicated our time at Christmas to ringing the Salvation Army bells with the kids, we feed families, we serve on a variety of committees, donate raffle items, attend charity functions and so much more.  As a family we enjoy getting in the trenches and also doing the work behind the scenes that enable a charity to become more profitable. 

So as you can see, there are many different ways to give back without stressing yourself out and giving the farm away.  December is the time of year you will want to plan your give back strategies for the following year so that the commitment and intentions are set.

Next year my best friend Lisa and I, along with our mentor, will be kicking off the Girls Lead not for profit and we are so excited.  Lisa and I were both adopted and we have big plans to pool our talent to put on amazing breakthrough events for kids that were also adopted, orphaned, abandoned or displaced.  Keep a look out for some great events that will serve our youth and Happy Giving this holiday season!  

It wasn’t too long ago that many of us opened our business doors with a shiny new website, a beautiful new sign and glossy brochures heralding to the world that we in fact are in business!  We grabbed our pretty little business cards, mapped out our networking events for the month and we hit the streets in search of new business.  We believed our commercials and overzealous excitement would be enough to get our businesses booming, any for many it was.  However the entire game changed a few short years ago and unfortunately, very few have learned the new rules!  Hence the overwhelming amount of commercial buildings for rent, bankruptcies, foreclosures and complete desperation on the rise!  The good news is, you can win the game provided you know the rules and you are willing to play by them!  Here is what you need to know to prosper today! 

1.    Social Media is here to stay – It is no longer acceptable for business owners to use the excuse, I don’t have time, I don’t like to mix my personal life with my business, people who spend their time on social media don’t make money and many more.  Nonsense!  The amount of friends, fans and followers one has is most certainly a barometer used to measure business success and more importantly, whether or not someone is keeping up with current trends.  We cannot win the battle here by hiding in the corner and pretending like Facebook doesn’t exist!  If we are to be the CRO (Chief Relationship Officer) of our business, then we must make it our business to play where the big fish are playing!  You don’t gain friends, fans or followers however, without flipping the tables a bit!  Here is what I mean…

2.    USPs have now become UVPs – Come on, you were taught just like I was, that you must have a unique selling proposition in order to succeed.  A unique way of selling your “me too” business by spewing your uniquely crafted message about who you are and what you provide to anyone who was willing to listen!  Poof!  In the blink of an eye, those days are gone!  Unless you are selling from a unique VALUE proposition, you are likely not going to survive the next few years in business.  Here is what I mean when I say we must flip the tables; your entire game of promoting your business all day, every day, has flipped into NOT promoting your business at all.  Think about it this way, if every day you woke up and said, how can I add value today to my clients, community and world – and then set forth in your business and social world to do nothing but that, add value, I can assure you that you would never have to promote your business another day in your life and the clients will come – in droves!  I like to use this formula when pricing out any of my products or services which is; Price + 4 times the value, so in other words your $200 product should have $1,000 in value!  Sounds complicated, it’s not.  Read on…

3.    Your business is not unique, get over it – Think of the last time you went to a networking event, three quarters of the room was filled with insurance agents, bankers, MLMers, business and life coaches, financial planners, restaurant owners and so on, you get the idea.   First and foremost, the only true way to stand out from the herd of like businesses is to brand yourself, but we will save that for another time.  But the guaranteed way to build your tribe, brand ambassadors and loyal patrons is to out value your competition.  You see, while everyone else is handing out business cards and begging you to click on the link to see what they are offering, you my friend must leave the cards home, get rid of any temptation to solicit and flip the tables by adding more and more value each and every day.  

Have no fear, there is a strategy to this and you have no choice but to learn it if you intend on thriving while everyone else is just trying to survive!  Let’s take one step at a time.  You must first decide who you are, what lights your fire and carve your own little personal niche into society.  Once you do that, you marry your passion with your message and your offering and you set the course to out value the competition.  Remember, money is the scorecard for the amount of value you create, therefore, she who adds the most value will win every time!

I can remember back to my youngest years as a child when I would daydream in bed at night and get lost in creative thoughts in school during the day.  Very early on in life, I found ways to channel that creative energy into a variety of things such as hosting our church’s first Easter Egg Hunt at the age of 9 and starting the school newspaper at age 11 and at 15 opening up a full fledged craft show business where I would create items all week and then spend my weekends selling those items at craft fairs.

My life has never had a shortage of great ideas and to this day, it’s my creative mind that keeps me up late at night and gets me up early in the morning.  Clearly I am someone who thrives on creativity!  As an adult, I have found it beyond glorious that I have been able to make an incredible living with my ability to create new things all the time for both myself and my clients, but my over zealous creativity has also come with a price!

You see, someone who thrives on new ideas often spends most of their life in “idea mode.”  For some that can be detrimental depending on whether or not they are willing to take the next step – which is implementation.  Getting stuck in idea mode was never my problem.  I have always been the gal who goes from idea to implementation instantly.  When the vision comes, I run with it.  I guess you can say I am a “shoot first, ask questions later” kind of person.  However, while that has served me well for the most part,  I had to refine a few of my habits in order for my creativity to shine for me as a blessing rather than hold me back and become a curse! Here are a few of the things I had to look at and learn:

Each and every idea carries responsibility with it – Back in the early days, I would come up with an idea and then have an insatiable need to bring it to market quickly.  What I failed to realize was that each idea would require careful legal planning, trademarking, it’s own sales funnel, it’s own mission, vision and purpose,  it’s own marketing and branding, licensing, insurances, corporations, DBAs, and so much more.  See most of my ideas show up as business ideas and I had to learn the hard way that these things need to be done in a strategic, systematic, and of course, legal manner.

Too many ideas can destroy a brand – This was a lesson that probably took the longest to learn.  While being creative and an idea generator are awesome traits to have, too many ideas implemented without careful planning as to how they fit into the brand can cause brand confusion and we all know that the confused mind settles on nothing!  In my business today, every new idea that gets implemented must be carefully thought out as to how it’s going to fit into the overall mission and vision of the brand.  Is it congruent with the rest of my offerings and does it help to enhance the flow of my offerings without taking people off track?  These are all important questions to review prior to launching a new idea!

I will not keel over and die if I can’t bring an idea to fruition – Boy did this one take lots of mental reprogramming.  As I sat with a mentor one day, I mapped out a few of my projects for him and within the first few minutes of meeting with me he said, “I can clearly see that you are the kind of person that thrives on ideas but stops yourself short of big picture.”  Wow!  I had to be honest with myself in that moment and come to the realization that he got me to a T!  It was that day that I realized I had an addiction to the creation and implementation process but the lack of follow through and big picture vision was the part that was keeping me broke.  I had to first get my head around my limiting beliefs and why I wasn’t following through and then decide that it was ok to let ideas just be ideas.  That day “Matthew” the mentor, recommended that I create an “Idea File.”  It was a life-changing move for me.  I still use it today and refer to my file often and as my business evolves, I am able to choose ideas carefully by how they fit into my life and brand today.   It makes the process so much more enjoyable.  I have also tailored my career accordingly as well.  Rather than try to suppress the need to create new ideas, I now have a career doing just that for my clients and as a result, I am fulfilled and my clients are thrilled too!

So the next time you come up with what you feel is the next greatest invention or creation, take the time to carefully review this article and ponder the points presented.  I wish you the best in your endeavors!

Kellie Kuecha is a marketing and branding expert specializing in women’s success. She is the CEO and Founder of The W.O.M.A.N. Club an online social network for women, Kellie Kuecha World Enterprises LLC where she leads events, seminars and trainings around the globe and KidsBiz Academy where she dedicates her time to growing our young entrepreneurs. Her journey into entrepreneurship began at the ripe age of 12 and she has been building businesses ever since. She has defied all the odds both in life and in business and has mastered the ability to turn adversities into advantages. Kellie is the mother of two young girls, Kayla and Karina, and has two bonus children, Brandon and Jason, who are all under the age of 13. All four children have their own businesses and are learning great lessons about the value of money, hard work and persistence. You can connect with Kellie @ www.KellieKuecha.com

Several months ago I visited a restaurant while in the windy city of Chicago. I had traveled most of the night and spent countless hours in meetings when I had reached my melting point and all I wanted was to find a good deli that served great club sandwiches. After all, Chicago is known for their fabulous eateries. My associate recommended a new restaurant in town that she wanted to try called “The Pickle Barrel” and I gladly obliged. Being the huge pickle fan that I am, my mouth watered the entire taxi ride to the deli as I envisioned sinking my teeth into a savory pickle or two with my lunch. I mean heck, with a name like Pickle Barrel one should expect nothing less than just that, barrels of pickles with tantalizing flavors to choose from to accompany your deli creation. I couldn’t wait! Upon my arrival to the deli I noticed that the energy in the place seemed a bit dull. While the streets were swarming, the restaurant only had one couple eating at about 1pm in the afternoon. This was not a good sign. Strike ONE. So we sat down and were greeted with a small thin paper folded menu with poor graphics and a handful of sandwich selections. There was one sandwich that stuck out to me. It was their “Signature Sandwich” a loaded shrimp club. The price of the sandwich, around $18.

As I was scanning the scantly menu that boasted “NY Deli” on the cover, I looked around for the pickle barrels hoping I would get the opportunity to add a nice fat juicy Jewish pickle to my selection. Not a pickle barrel in sight in the restaurant that bared its name. Strike TWO. I was also looking for a deli case full of their creations and salads like the type you would see walking the streets of NY, didn’t find that either. Reluctantly I decided to try their signature sandwich as did my colleague – the shrimp creation. My fiancé Cliff (keeping congruent with his KISS philosophy) went for the good ole Rueben sandwich. As we waited we couldn’t help notice all of the pedestrians on the street scurrying by, not one stopping in for lunch or even looking in the window. Did they know something we didn’t?

When the sandwiches arrived at the table, my extra large club creation (placed atop an entire bag of spring mix lettuce) had zero condiments to go along with it. I look over to Cliff’s little $7 Rueben sandwich only to find that it was paired with a bag of chips, cole slaw and of course a PICKLE! STRIKE THREE!!!! The restaurant that calls themselves Pickle Barrel doesn’t serve a pickle with every dish and worse yet, slights the gal who invests $18 for their signature “NY Deli” sandwich by not even offering a sliver of a pickle on the side???? How can this be?? My colleague and I were not happy. To make matters worse, with a seafood sandwich as expensive as this one we would have both expected something other than Miracle Whip slathered in between the layers, perhaps a fancy roumelad mayonnaise but no, nothing special to truly set this “signature” sandwich apart. At least if I had had a wet pickle nearby I could have used some of the juice to moisten the dry bread. Needless to say the sandwich had no flavor. STRIKE FOUR!

Not I am not a culinary wizard by any means but I can make my way around the kitchen pretty well and I eat out most of the week so I know good food and this was simply unacceptable. Not to mention the lettuce on my plate was just that, a pound of lettuce with no dressing on the side to spruce it up or to even give me the ability to call it a salad. Had I felt it was a salad I would have at least felt better knowing I got two things for the price of one. I am now beginning to wonder where the owner of this place came to believe he had the qualifications to open up a deli in the middle of the busy downtown city of Chicago with virtually no concept of good food and zero experience in marketing. I don’t expect the chef to understand marketing but someone on his team darn well should.

At this point I can feel the beginnings of a major hot flash setting in so I grab one of the flimsy paper menus and start fanning myself down as I gaze between my sandwich and Cliff’s pickle. Cliff knew how much I wanted a pickle and so I started to cool off when he graciously placed his pickle on my plate. At this point I am a third of the way through my bland sandwich when I ask for a Root Beer and now have an insatiable need to devour Cliff’s chips and slaw in an effort to get some semblance of flavor flowing in my mouth. No such luck. At this point I am wondering how this experience could get any worse but it does. I proceed to grab a heaping fork full of the slaw on Cliff’s plate only to notice that it was a processed pile of non-homemade something or other. This was a total slap in the face. I have made my own cole slaw on many occasions and I know firsthand that it takes just a few ingredients and a few minutes to whip it up and it virtually costs the same as the pre-made stuff however it makes all the difference in the world in the overall presentation. What this said to me as the customer was that YOU, (Mr. Deli owner) are not willing to go the extra inch to create a quality memorable experience and that you will cut a corner whenever you see an opportunity to do so. Furthermore you take no pride in the creations (or lack thereof) that you send out of your kitchen – which translated into customer lingo means “you don’t care about me.” Cole slaw out of a carton is simply unacceptable. STRIKE FIVE!!!!

Now at this point I have yet to taste Cliff’s “pickle” from the good ole invisible “pickle barrel” but I am banking on the fact that I will get to end my meal with just one, ONE little nugget of flavor since that IS the name of this restaurant. (For the record, I typically like the crunch of a Claussen pickle and the flavor of Jewish pickle – both very different pickles but scrumptious in their own way) This pickle was neither a Claussen or a Jew. In fact there is no pickle category to describe what I bit into that day. It was so disgusting and soggy that I have virtually no brand to even compare it to, it was just simply horrible. STRIKE SIX!!!!

Needless to say, with our stomachs and taste buds in a complete uproar, we quickly finished up, paid the $47 bill and got out of there as quickly as we could but not without a few key lessons learned along the way:

1. Your Words are a PROMISE – If you are going to use a name, tagline or marketing that attaches your brand to an inherent expectation (like the pickle) you better source out the best pickle on the planet. Better yet, you best create the most memorable pickle experience anyone has ever had. Don’t just think outside the box here, create a new box, set a new standard! Every word that gets attached to your brand is a PROMISE that you are offering the BEST in that category! In addition, this eatery used the words “NY Deli” in its marketing which sets the great food expectation even higher. Living in Boca Raton I often see the words New York, Jersey and Philly used to describe sub shops, pizza joints and delis and I have yet to find one that has authentically lived up to their name. This clearly is a shallow marketing ploy used by many here to entice the Northerners like myself to visit the establishment. They say don’t mess with Texas, I say don’t mess with a Jersey girl on a mission to find a good sub! Bottom line – if you can’t live up to the words used in your brand promise, you will never keep your customers. The negative publicity that comes out of a bad experience will penetrate the market 5 times faster than the good publicity will so the choice is yours how you position your brand ambassadors.

2. Master ONE core competency and add on from there – And if you are a restaurant, don’t open you doors until you have perfected the entire menu. If you are going to call something your “signature” item, it darn well better be off the charts spectacular, that goes without say. However if you are going to add additional items or services to your repertoire, they better look, taste and feel as good as the signature sandwich that brought me in the door i.e.; the cole slaw. Don’t expand the menu if you are going to be forced to cut corners. In addition, don’t attempt to be all things to all people without first tweaking each recipe and making it your own. I could have forgiven the mediocre sandwich if the mayo was spiced up, I got a great dressing with my lettuce pile and I was offered a nice juicy pickle. You are better off leaving the cole slaw off the menu if it’s not going to enhance the experience and further set you apart from the competition. In this case it did far more damage than good!

3. Stay focused on providing value and a good experience over competing on price – I would have gladly paid $20 for my sandwich had I felt I had gotten the quality I was expecting and the pickle that I felt I was owed via the deceptive marketing. I felt somewhat slighted by the fact that my sandwich didn’t warrant the extra condiments that Cliff’s had even though the price of mine was double. Again, the price of the sandwich would have been a non issue if the value and quality were there but when they weren’t I felt duped on several fronts.

4. Times have changed and we are looking for a WOW – with South Florida and Chicago ranking as some of the top food meccas in the Country, I would say there is very little room for error when it comes to quality and customer experience. But this applies to your business also. Today’s consumer (you and me) have little tolerance for anything short of spectacular. Mediocrity has no place left in this world and with social media and our customers controlling our word of mouth publicity campaigns, bad press such as my pickle experience could put a business out of business overnight. Always put yourself in your potential customer’s shoes and ask yourself “is this the experience I would want to have if I was purchasing this product or service?” If it is, then move on to figure out how it can become a WOW experience that implants itself in the mind of your customer for many months and years to come.

While there are many more lessons I could point out here, I think you get the idea. Don’t get caught up in the flavor of the month and add items to your menu just because everyone else is, stick to what you are good and if and when you choose expand into cole slaw (other areas), do so only after you have mastered the recipe. Years ago I heard a saying “keep the main thing the main thing” and I believe that applies to this scenario as well. If you are not good at marketing, hire someone who is. The quality of your marketing message and the preciseness of your brand promise are just as important as the quality of your “food.” Your words are your bond and your brand, use each word wisely. Never make your customers the guinea pigs or use catch phrases just because they sound good – be prepared to live up to each and every word you use. Lastly, your offerings should have all the kinks worked out and have full market testing completed prior to being offered on your menu. Go far beyond the extra mile and place a very high value on providing the most valuable experience.

Kellie Kuecha is a Marketing and Branding Bombshell specializing in women’s success. She is the CEO and Founder of The W.O.M.A.N. Club, Women that Win, Flow and Grow RICH, KidsBiz Academy and Women’s Wellness Society. Her journey into entrepreneurship began at the ripe age of 12 and she has been building businesses ever since. She has defied all the odds both in life and in business and has mastered the ability to turn adversities into advantages. She travels the world sharing her message and inspiring women to win in all areas of life! She is the mother of two young girls, Kayla and Karina, and has two bonus children, Brandon and Jason, who are all under the age of 12. All four children have their own businesses and are learning great lessons about the value of money, hard work and persistence. Post you articles and blogs a www.thewomanclub.com You can find me a www.KellieKuecha.com, Twitter @kelliekuecha, www.facebook.com/kkuecha

One of the benefits of being an avid social media user is that I get to experience a vast variety of marketing messages scattered throughout the newsfeed on a daily basis. After a few years of viewing similar trends I have discovered a few common mistakes that people are making that are what I call Brand Killers! Here they are:

JV Crazy – Joint Venture partnerships can be very advantageous for a business once your brand is fully established but they must be chosen wisely. Oftentimes I see folks promoting a new JV partner sometimes as often as every week. How can your own message stand out among all of the rhetoric of everyone else’s? More importantly your brand will appear less prominent if your loyalty to partners is constantly changing. If you are going to JV, JV with folks who have larger lists, very different but complimentary credentials than yours and are further along in business than you are.

Marketing Message Muck – This is another one I see often. Many folks don’t have a specific target market that they have chosen to speak which is a problem in of itself but the bigger problem is those who have chosen their market and yet still try to be all things to all people. My target market has always been women between the ages of 30-55 and my marketing speaks specifically to that group. That does not mean that I don’t welcome women outside that age range, or even men when the opportunity arises but my marketing remains consistent to my target. I love the quote “If your brand stands for everything you stand for nothing!” It’s so very true. If you are a business that is marketing to women, stop trying to include men in the message. They will still show up occasionally and that is ok but the key is to keep your message specific to your target market.

Consistency Confusion – This is probably the biggest mistake of them all. Your branding is not carried consistently throughout all of your marketing materials, website, social media pages, etc. Your business cards look different from your website. Your cards look professional but your website looks homemade. You use different variations of your message and logo in different places. I just started working with a client that had 4 different variations of her logo and her company was described as one thing on her website, another on her fan page, and another on the door of her business. Not good. Consistency is the essence of greatness according to John Maxwell and I agree with that statement wholeheartedly!

Kellie Kuecha is a Marketing and Branding Bombshell specializing in women’s success. She is the CEO and Founder of The W.O.M.A.N. Club, Women that Win, KidsBiz Academy and Women’s Wellness Society. She is also co-owner of Pink Cow Media. Her journey into entrepreneurship began at the ripe age of 12 and she has been building businesses ever since. She has defied all the odds both in life and in business and has mastered the ability to turn adversities into advantages. She travels the world sharing her message and inspiring women to win in all areas of life! She is the mother of two young girls, Kayla and Karina, and has two bonus children, Brandon and Jason, who are all under the age of 12. All four children have their own businesses and are learning great lessons about the value of money, hard work and persistence. Post you articles and blogs a www.thewomanclub.com You can find me a www.KellieKuecha.com, Twitter @kelliekuecha, www.facebook.com/kkuecha