Create Fun in your Business – as if you were a Kid!

by Beth Woodward

Published on this site: December 7th, 2005 - See more articles from this month

My business is created around fun and yet I didn't realize that I was still holding back. I wasn't paying attention to those inner messages saying, "...really create this the way you want it," because I thought that's what I had done.

I finally got it one day after I figured out how to market my business and have fun at the same time. Here is an example from one part of my business. See if this rings true for you.

After creating my first exciting marketing program new ideas began springing up. I told a friend, I wanted to create additional "fun" programs but kept getting stuck. She said, "You like brainstorming, its part of everything you do, create a single program around that." So I did. I thoroughly enjoy having brainstorming groups, and have received some great results and feedback, but after a while I felt like something was missing—something I was ignoring. I discovered what I really wanted to do was take this monthly program and turn it into not just a quarterly program, but an event! Each event had to have an environment that really meant something to me. It might have been something I enjoyed as a kid or now as an adult.

What happens when you start paying attention to those wonderful times in your past or what you really enjoy today and integrate them into your business? You create magnificent, fun, inviting programs. If you've been following your business path, doing what you love, how can it get any better? By looking deeper inside and paying attention to those inner messages.

You begin like this. Simply start writing down those experiences or environments that bring warmth, giggles or excitement to your heart from childhood to now. Think back to what you really enjoyed as a kid. Maybe it was books, a love for animals, or those magnificent salt-water fish in your aquarium. What puts that smile on your face when you think of something you have enjoyed from your past or in the present? How exciting would it be to combine that special environment with a program you created?

Here are a few examples.

• Things I enjoyed as a kid: boating, riding the train to my grandparents
  
  
• Things I enjoy now: hot tea in the afternoon, high tea, and a cabin in the woods
  
  
• One of my programs is now integrating all of these things with separate events.
  
  
• One event will take to the rails on a train similar to the one I rode to my grandparent's house when I was a child. It will also be in my favorite time of year. I'm so excited I can barely stay focused on my daily routine and my energy feels like a giddy kid. Another event will combine with an afternoon tea.

Here's a bonus. By offering what you enjoy it becomes your brand. Do I want to be known as the Chief Executive Kid of business and marketing fun? you bet! How do you want to be known?

Beth Woodward, CPCC, is the creator of the popular Marketing On The Playground Program, and the "My Way" Marketing Plan. Find out more about how to market "your way" and sign up for monthly Marketing Tidbits at http://www.marketingontheplayground.com