First, an ad for the Ford Sportka out of the UK:

Here’s another funny ad, though not for the car this time. This one’s from Norway:

I witnessed a unique example of the product category cross-over phenomenon, sighted at a local public market. The product was initially developed for small children, however, in this version it is used for small animals.

Customer is king, so he can decide to use the product however he darn well pleases. I couldn’t help thinking though, if dogs weren’t meant to walk, how come they come with four feet?

PS: Do you think his shirt intentionally matches the dog carrier?!

Marketing can be highly positive where it’s used as a tool to educate people about important issues, like back when we found out that eating a medium size bag of movie popcorn and a soda is equivalent to eating three McDonald’s Quarter Pounders and 12 pats of butter. That’s a good thing to know and educating the movie-popcorn-buying public resulted in immediate changes in how movie popcorn was made. Hurrah marketing.

Or the recent Method cleaning products commercial that educated while making us laugh and squirm, just a little.

Sometimes advertising — mistakenly equated with marketing — IS plain dumb, I’ll give you that. And dumb ads give all advertising, even the clever ads, a bad name.

But sometimes marketing and advertising go way beyond dumb. Take Dace, a local fashion label. Their new anorexic paper doll campaign is sure to be a winner. You can go to their website, download an anorexic paper doll, and then download a set of three fashion plates for your emaciated, famine-ravaged doll to wear.

I’d like a moment with the brilliant minds who ran with this idea and encourage them to give their collective heads a shake. In fact, I sent them an email:

“I’m appalled at your recent anorexic paper doll promotional campaign. Here’s something you may not have considered when you made that choice. Paper dolls are for little girls. Little girls are inundated with images telling them normal size is too big. Little girls grow up into young women who carry those beliefs with them. Are you hoping to reinforce the message?”

Dace blew a really great opportunity to showcase beauty, rather than an impossible beauty standard. I’m pretty disappointed that they haven’t moved beyond that whole illusion and taken a more enlightened stance. Instead, they are using advertising to perpetuate outdated views about beauty.

Two thumbs down for Dace.

If you want to give Dace two thumbs down too, you can email them at info@dace.ca, tell them on Twitter @daceclothing, or let them know via Facebook under “dace clothing.” Oh, and then there’s the old fashioned phone: 1.604.694.2442.

1. There are some things you’ll learn by trial and error and there are some things you can learn from other people’s mistakes. This is good, it saves you time and heartache.
2. Knowledge comes in many different learning formats and flavours. Fantastic, variety is the spice of life.
3. The more you know about your subject matter, the better decisions you’ll be able to make. Excellent, we want to make good decisions, see item 1 above.

Yes, you’ll need to learn stuff. But it may surprise you to know that it doesn’t have to be painful. Here’s how you can make your “lessons” a lot more fun than your high school English teacher ever thought possible:

1. Choose to have a positive attitude and embrace that you don’t know. If you can let go of your (completely illogical) need for perfection and immediate competence, you might be able to lighten up and actually enjoy the process. Take a lesson from the way kids naturally learn when adults don’t get in the way. They explore, immerse themselves, and absorb knowledge while they play.
2. Embrace your inner Curious George. Remember him? The monkey that got into trouble all the time? Well, note to self: he always managed just fine in the end. Take another lesson from kids and embrace your sense of wonder, no matter what the subject matter. Keep asking Why?, Why?, Why? and How come? and watch your innate sense of curiosity begin to wake up and embrace the joy of learning.
3. Embrace the world as your classroom. In fact, get out of the classroom, your office, and the coffee shop altogether. For me, trips to my local farmers markets, artisan craft fairs, and cultural festivals are a great way to learn about consumer trends and see things from a new angle. I am always amazed, delighted, and inspired by the unending creativity I find there. Plus, I get to shop at “school”.
4. Tap into new ideas and perspectives that challenge your usual way of thinking. It’s easy to get stuck doing the same old, same old. But there’s more than one way to do anything. Seek out alternatives that offer you a fresh outlook and a broader perspective. Find a website, a blog, or an alternative magazine and be open to acknowledging if not fully accepting others’ points of view. (TED Talks are a great place to start.)

You can ignore or fight the need to learn but it’s you and your business that will suffer. Instead, embrace learning but do it your way, in the kind of classroom that works for you.

Learning more might be learning more about your customers, what they like, why they buy, and where they buy. (This is also known as market research.)

Learning more might be brushing up on your marketing knowledge and skills. (See other posts here on the Market Navigators blog.)

Learning more might be connecting to a group of like-minded business people who are willing to meet on a regular basis and share knowledge, resources and ideas. Creating a strong network of people you trust enough to refer to your friends, family and colleagues is also valuable as a resource to learn from and share with.

Learning more might mean taking a yoga or meditation class that allows you to stay more focused and be more effective at the office. It’ll reduce your stress level too, so those little bumps in your day stay molehills rather than becoming mountains.

Learning more is NOT about sitting in a classroom and having flashbacks to high school math or physics class. News flash: Learning can be fun! Expand your definition and embrace ongoing learning as a way of life that will have positive ripples into your business.

I’ve always said I want to learn from my mistakes, but I also want to learn from those of others. It’s time consuming to make all the mistakes myself! Why should I take the long route?

Let go my ego (not Eggo), and get thee to a seminar, workshop or course. One that will make you a better person, a better boss and/or a better business person. Knowledge is money.

Making a small business as well-respected as a larger business has a lot to do with how you think. Thinking big, instead of thinking small gets you in the right mindset to achieve big things.

How seriously you take your business is exactly how seriously others will take your business.

It starts with how you think, which translates into how you behave. And, how you think very subtly affects your body language, which others pick up and are influenced by, even if they aren’t consciously aware of it.

Ever see a small dog send a much larger dog running? Quit wasting time thinking small. BE big.

If you are running a small business you may not have an in-house team, but you can certainly create one.

Operations Team

Finding quality service providers to do work you aren’t good at — or simply don’t enjoy doing — is one way to become bigger than you are. Bookkeepers, tech support, and marketing specialists are all potential members of your business operations team. This makes you more efficient and able to do what you do best, service clients.

Business Development Team

Another way to build a team, one that makes your external reach greater, is to find colleagues you can work hand in hand with, to service larger projects and clients. It might be a wholesale food producer who partners with a delivery company, or a web developer who partners with a graphic designer, or a tech trainer who partners with a software reseller.

In each case, together these partners are able to provide a wider offering of services than each one can on their own. And, working together makes it easier for larger companies to do business with you. Rather then wrangling several suppliers to look after several facets of a project, they have only one point person to deal with.

Looking for ways to build your business development team to present a larger service offering allows you to grow the business, without having to grow the operations side of your business.

Often the next (unnecessary) step is to get all worked up about how to lead and worry about doing it “right”, thereby stopping yourself from ever getting out the gate. I mean, you can’t actually lead if you aren’t moving.

Lighten up!

I see it all the time. People are so worried about unrealistic standards of perfection, they never make it past the back gate. Note to self: all that worry is wasted energy!

First, if you actually believe you’ve created The Perfect Master Plan, it’s obsolete about 37.3 seconds after you launch it because you don’t control the forces that affect your world.

Second, I hate to break it to you but there is no such thing as The Perfect Master Plan. That’s because it is simply not possible to know everything you need to know before you start. Not ever.

Here’s a motto to live by instead: Perfection is the enemy of done.

I had a wise mentor years ago whose sage advice has guided me since I was in my early 20’s: “You make the best decision you can, based on the information you have. When you get new information, you can make new decisions.”

It’s far more important to trust your intuition, creativity and smarts to handle unseen challenges as they come up than it is to try for the perfect plan before you start moving.

Life is messy and the road is bumpy. Embrace your strengths, acknowledge your gaps, and trust yourself – believe that you’ll make the best decision at every turn, with the info you have on hand. Then don’t be afraid to adjust your course when you hit a snag.

THAT is something a top notch leader would do.

Or are you still on the fence, hemming and hawing about whether you’ll move forward and if you do, how you’ll do it. And when. Oh, and then contemplating where to start, instead of jumping in and getting the ball rolling?

I’ve been pondering this question a lot lately as I observe this common trait in entrepreneurs of all ages, from all walks of life. It makes me curious. What is that about?

I took part in a workshop recently and at one point was fascinated to observe some of the self-defeating habits we engage in: hesitating to state our wants and needs, second guessing our decisions, doubting our own value and worthiness, and diminishing ourselves and our strengths. It was pretty consistent, eye opening…and a little disheartening.

What will it take for us to step into the beauty of being ourselves and creating what we want? Sometimes I wonder if we’re living with a residual Cinderella complex – we secretly believe there’s a magical prince coming to our rescue. So we sit and wait for someone to hand us the answers, the directions, the keys.

Guess what? Not only is the prince not coming, there never was a prince!

If you’re tired of taking a back seat when the driver’s seat is sitting empty waiting for you to occupy it, here are a few things I’ve discovered along the way that may help you climb up front.

Procrastinator
If you prefer to stay stuck, the following are guaranteed to keep you right where you are:

• Believing you must be something other than who/what you are in order to succeed
• Not being clear in your intention, your goal
• Not stating clearly to yourself and your team, what you want
• Believing there is only ONE right way to accomplish a goal or activity
• Not starting until you think you have all the angles figured out (you never actually do)

Activator
If you want to give your venture — and your life — a shot at living up to your dreams, you must start playing by different rules:

• You are fully capable of realizing your dreams and potential
• You can’t reach a destination without identifying a destination and moving forward toward it
• There is no one right answer, there are many
• Make the best decision you can with the info you have, then tweak as you go
• Getting started is more important than doing things perfectly or in the perfect order
• The path isn’t straight and you can’t plan for everything. Get used to it!

What are you waiting for? Really, take a moment and ask yourself the question. If you want to live YOUR dreams, YOU are the only one who can take the lead in your life.