I’ve been involved in marketing, sales, and eCommerce for over 6 years now and, probably the most imporant thing I’ve learned is the power of confidence, belief and mindset. Nothing new - just true. Here are some of the things I’ve learned that help build self-confidence:

1. Identify your successes. “Small Success leads to Big Success!” Everyone is good at something; discover things you excel at, then focus on these strengths. Take pride in them. Take credit for your successes. Feeling sorry for yourself is a state of mind - you’ve declared yourself a victim. What good will this do you?
2. Be grateful. By acknowledging and appreciating what you do have, you can fight the feeling of being incomplete and unsatisfied.
3. Remember that nobody is perfect. Even the most confident people have insecurities. The reality is that we all have things we’re not going to completely understand. It’s important to focus on the positive.
4. Accentuate the positive (even if you don’t feel positive). Avoid self-pity, or the pity and sympathy of others. Don’t let others make you feel inferior. If you belittle yourself, others are going to do and believe likewise. Instead, speak positively about yourself, about your future, and about your progress. Don’t be afraid to share your strengths and qualities with others. By doing so, you reinforce those ideas in your mind and encourage your growth in a positive direction.
5. SMILE when you look in the mirror. The “facial feedback theory” says that expressions on your face can actually encourage your brain to register certain emotions. By looking in the mirror and smiling every day, you’ll feel happier with yourself and more confident in the long run.
6. Fake it ’til you make it! Acting confident, even if you don’t completely feel confident, can have great affects on your mindset. Pretend you’re completely confident; go through the motions and see how you feel.
7. Express yourself. Find something you enjoy. Everyone is born with talents and strengths. You can develop and excel in yours. Adding a variety of interests to your life will not only make you more confident, but it will increase your chances of meeting compatible friends!
8. Expect Success! Has this ever hurt anyone? When you go into something with a positive mindset, you can find good in any situation. Even when things don’t go as “planned”, the positive thinker can come out with something gained. The opposite is true as well: if you think it’s not going to work out, it probably won’t.

I guarantee, if you practice these things and really believe they will help, they will.  Now get out there and “getter done!”

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Some of my clients really like dogs. Thought they would get a kick out of this (I know my little boy Caleb thinks it’s funny!):

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Wow, just got back from a huge UCA West Coast National Cheer and Dance Competition in Hollywood, California at the Kodak Theater. It was a tiring, terribly energy draining, and a great marketing time! I had the chance to interview Lauri “Looie” Harris, the Universal Cheerleaders Association West Coast Regional Manager. We’ve worked with her now for 4 years doing customized videography and action photography.

Since becoming the Marketing Director for Highlight Sports about 2 years ago, it’s been fun to see the progress we’ve made. My partner and friend, Brett Eden, has been great to work with, always keeping the clients best interest in mind.

My role has been to acquire sponsors who not only help carry the costs of DVD and photography production to dance and cheer participants, but also give themselves unbelieveable targeted traffic to their businesses. Below shows the traffic to our website, www.HighlightSports.com, in the last 7 days. The event started on Saturday, March 3 and went through Sunday, March 4th. We handed out over 2,500 flyers and business cards to remind clients to pick up their “Free DVD and Pictures, brought to you in part by Capezio Dancewear, NuSkin, and Catch the Spirit.” Capezio created a great flyer with a 10% off coupon. On the back was a Scene Interactive ad with a tracking code (I’ll be interested to see how that works!). Here’s our current traffic stats:

I’m learning so much about effective and creative advertising:

1. There’s a huge difference between long term branding and short term ROI ad space.
2. If you want to know if advertising is working, you have to create a way to track it’s progress (stat tracking, landing pages, 800 numbers, special email ads, etc.)
3. The two marketing strategies are vitally important to the growth and prosperity of a business.
4. What Highlight Sports does, not only for the cheer and dance participants, but also for advertisers, is really hard to put a price value on - it’s unbelieveable.

Anyway, there’s my two cents! If you’re interested in direct, targeted traffic to a marketing demographic of primarily 12-24 year old girls and their super involved mothers of 30-55, this type of ad space could be for you. Email me at nate@highlightsports.com.

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