Build a Positive Outlook with Non-Traditional Resolutions

Ready for some resolutions?

(Or are you still reeling from roadblocks that wrecked 2020’s good intentions?)

Don’t get discouraged! We all hit speed bumps from time to time. And honestly, that’s ok. That’s real life.

Even if 2020 derailed your best-laid plans, it’s important to look ahead with hope. You only have one life to live, and time slips away faster each year. Having goals is essential to living intentionally, and this is even more crucial when routines are disrupted, and life gets messy.

So why not give that drawing board another go?

Exchanging Materialism for Practicality

2021 is definitely not business as usual.

Seven in 10 Americans say they are tossing their materialistic goals for resolutions that focus more on life skills or practical habits.

A recent survey found that 62 percent of people plan to save money for the future, and 50 percent want to learn a new skill. The survey also revealed 68 percent wanted to focus more on experiences, like spending more time with their family and traveling more. Nearly 6 in 10 respondents also said their 2021 resolution is to have a more positive outlook on life.

But the road to destruction is paved with good intentions. And a resolution without a plan is just wishful thinking! So, as you vision and dream for the next 365 days, it’s important to attach questions like these to your ideas:

–Who does my goal involve?

–What am I trying to accomplish (and why)?

–What deadline or mini-milestones can I employ, and how will these be part of my calendar and weekly routines?

–Who will help hold me accountable? Who can I partner with to make this dream a reality?

As you put pen to the page, brainstorm ways you would like to see progress in areas like:

• Career and Business
• Family and Relationships
• Finances
• Health and Fitness
• Spiritual Well-being
• Educational or Recreational
• Travel and Adventure

Get Specific 

Goals that are measurable, timebound, and targeted are the most motivating, so build specifics into your ideas to transform possibilities into REALITY. Here are a few examples to get you started:

–Stretch my capabilities through joining a professional network

–Deposit $500 a month into my child’s college savings account

–Follow up with six leads per month and book four new subscribers per quarter

–Book a summer vacation with my brother by February 1

–Volunteer once a month at the Emergency Food Pantry

–Subscribe to a local food co-op to include more healthy sides in our diet

–Sign up for a 5K in March and a 10K in October

–Sign up to speak at our entrepreneurs’ network by June 1

–Write in a gratitude journal every Sunday

Know Your “Why”

Finally, if you want to remain motivated as you work towards your goals, it’s essential to think about the “why.”

Why do you want to achieve that goal?

Self-growth experts explain that having a concrete reason for working on a specific goal allows you to remain motivated despite challenges and setbacks.

Tell a Beautiful Story with Five Design Principles

Did you know that 90% of the information processed by your brain is visual?

Design is powerful.

It takes only 13 milliseconds for the human brain to process an image, and 80% of people will remember the visuals they see. In today’s generation, audiences demand short, highly-visual content, and coordinating your design elements is the best way to tell a rich, compelling story.

Knowing this is one thing, but making it happen is another. As a design novice, watching a graphic artist work can be a mystifying experience. How do they know which colors to use? Why do those fonts look so good together? How are these images evoking such an emotional response?

While there are no right or wrong answers in design, basic principles can transform one person’s coloring page into another person’s masterpiece.

Check out principles like these to elevate your designs from good to GREAT.

1. Emphasis

The principle of emphasis demands you ask one question: what is the first piece of information I need people to know?

Like building without a blueprint, starting your publication without a clear idea of your message structure will bring a muddy result.

2. Proportion

Proportion helps you group your design in sections, like consolidating elements by size, amount, or numbers.

Whether it’s columns in a magazine, sidebars on a poster, or pull quotes in a newsletter, proportion communicates importance and helps the brain decode information.

3. Contrast

What do people mean when they say a design really “pops?”

Contrast refers to obvious differences on a page. Contrast attracts the eye, organizes information, and guides the reader. Contrast can be created with varying font pairings or line weights, extreme color differences, and graphics that display opposites. You can contrast a smooth texture with a rough texture, curves with sharp edges, a horizontal image with a vertical one, or widely spread lines with closely packed ones.

For contrast to be effective, it must be strong. Go big! (Think red sneakers with a black tuxedo.) If you are putting two elements on the page that are not the same, they should not be similar. If the items are not exactly the same, make them very different.

4. White Space

White space (or negative, empty space) is the only element that specifically deals with what you don’t add to a design.

Like one diamond set on a stone, white spaces give designs room to breathe and make mediocre images seem more luxurious.

5. Movement

Movement refers to the way an eye travels over a design.

Just like a musician reads notes on a staff, a reader should follow a visual journey through your design. For viewers to engage, they must have a path to follow, so try to tell a “visual story” with a beginning, middle, and end.

To move people through your piece, start with a focal point and then move eyes through the page with subheadings, text boxes, line patterns, etc. Use bright colors to grab attention, jagged lines to build excitement, curves to slow people down, or patterns to guide your viewers. 

First Impressions are Lasting Impressions

While there is no right or wrong design method, principles like these keep visuals stable and cohesive while allowing for movement, unity, and excitement.

Want your first impression to be your best impression? Through the planning, design, and review process, we’re here for you. Whether you’re creating a template or need start-to-finish graphic design, CCPRESS.NET is ready to consult, create, and help you bring your best ideas to life in print!

4 Ways to Lead a Team that Goes the Distance

A marathon isn’t enough anymore.

Around one million people took part in marathon races in 2018, but ultramarathons (ranging from 50 km to multi-day races) are one of running’s fastest-growing fashions. Ultramarathon participation is up more than 1,000 percent over the last two decades! 

While physical endurance is paramount to success, one of ultramarathoners’ outstanding qualities is mental endurance. To travel 100 miles by foot or run around a track for a continuous 24-hours, mental resilience is essential. These races are repetitive, involve hundreds of thousands of steps being taken, and are as much of a test of a person’s ability to push through monotony as they are a test of physical strength.

Record-setting US runner Camille Herron says a key to her success is to mentally “break up the race” and to find coping strategies to do so.

Maintaining Professional Momentum Over the Long Haul

Mentally motivating your team can involve a similar approach.

The work done by your team has a significant impact. But your team members cannot serve effectively if they’re under major stress; they will break down before they go the distance. This is especially true in the holiday season – and even more so during a global pandemic.

How can leaders help people succeed over the long haul? By cultivating the concept of relaxed concern. Though it may sound like a contradiction, teams cannot thrive if they don’t take mental breaks along the way. Although people must realize their work is important, they won’t last if they can’t take their foot off the accelerator.

When you want to encourage an attitude of relaxed concern in your team, here are a few habits that can help: 

1. Have realistic expectations

Don’t expect every person on your team to work at the same energy level all the time.

Everyone is different – some people are a racehorse, others are a snail, and many people fall somewhere in the middle. Set your focus on output, not on the process, and allow people to work at a realistic pace to their professional DNA.

2. Be aware of external drains on energy and compensate for them

When someone on your team experiences illness or personal crisis, realize it will drain their energy, and then compensate for it.

Reportedly, 80% of workers drag themselves into work during illness, and an alarming 37% of people say they do not get sufficient sleep. Physical struggles and personal stress increase errors and fuel conflicts at work. Do everything you can to encourage personal well-being in your team, and allow margin when people are struggling. By prioritizing people above results, your team will be better off in the long run.

3. Work smarter, not harder

If the ax is dull, a difficult chore becomes impossible.

To make the best use of energy, work smarter, not harder. You may have people on your team who are working harder than anyone else, but their productivity is low because they aren’t working smart. Encourage and support your staff as they look for ways to make their work easier. This not only increases productivity, but it frees people from frustration and weariness.

4. Make work fun 

The most successful people in life are those who get paid for doing what they like to do.

And that’s true for businesses as well. Close work friendships boost employee satisfaction by 50%, and companies with happy employees outperform the competition by 20%. Whether you host quarterly “feast days” or post a wacky wall of fame, investing in relationships is always worth the effort.

For your team to maximize potential, they need to stick around. Cultivate relaxed concern to build teams that go the distance!

Magnetic Marketing: Using Faces to Command Attention

Our faces reveal multitudes about who we are, what we are thinking, and our intentions toward others.

Lying right under your nose is an awesome landscape of skin, muscles, and features. The face is one of the most profound parts of our body, and it packs so much power! Check out these remarkable facial facts:

• Humans are capable of making 10,000 unique facial expressions.
• The face has the biggest range of muscle structure in the human body, and 43 of these muscles are directly linked to facial emotions.
• Humans regularly flash micro-expressions that last less than 1/25 of a second before they consciously or subconsciously neutralize them. These split-second displays can reveal more than a thousand words (or lies!) ever could.
• Genuine facial expressions are almost always symmetrical. From frowns to smiles, people typically reveal authentic feelings evenly on both sides of the face.

Faces Add Impact in Marketing

How does this play into marketing and print?

First, it’s important to recognize the impact of faces so we can prioritize them in design. Research by Catherine Mondloch showed that newborn babies less than an hour old prefer looking at something with facial features. Humans prefer humans, and people buy from people!

It would be careless to overlook these statistics while continually deferring to inanimate objects. When you’re looking to add that personal touch to your marketing mix, remember faces can help you to:

Connect with People

Large, faceless corporations feel cold and manipulative.

To humanize your brand, feature people, not products! Pictures of real people build empathy and trust among viewers. And eye-tracking studies show that the faces of babies and pretty women are two of the most effective subjects you can use.

Putting faces on your brand allows you to connect with your audience in a relatable way. As you position faces in your ads, remember eyes looking right at people will have the greatest emotional impact because the eyes are the most significant part of the face.

Create Curiosity

Humans have a natural tendency to follow the gaze of others, and we have been coached since birth to follow these visual cues about where we should be looking or going.

Want to build curiosity and engage your viewers? If a face on your poster is gazing toward a text box or a product in the margin, readers will track toward that area as well.

Emotions can also be carried from a subject to the viewer as you set a tone within your design. The emotion in the faces you display can draw people to linger longer before your designs or to be drawn deeper into the message itself.

Cultivate Trust

People react to a photo on a page faster than any other design element, and seeing the people behind a business can establish credibility very quickly.

You can use faces to cultivate trust by using staff profiles on a website, facial photos in welcome displays or high traffic areas, or brochures with testimonials and photos from real customers. If viewers can relate to the people enjoying your product, this will seamlessly build positive associations in their own minds.

When used properly, photos of faces can help you connect with people, create curiosity, and cultivate trust.  Bypass resistance and build connections through the magnetic power of people!

Use Themed Booklets as a Strategic Marketing Asset

When is the last time you enjoyed a good book? What about a good booklet?

Booklets are everywhere – from the magazine rack at the grocery store to the playbill at your local theater. They are typically smaller than a book (between four and 48 pages), and they are an extremely versatile print product thanks to their size, format, and ease of use.

From mini brochures to media kits, booklets might be a great option for you. Here are some creative ideas to share your message through booklets.

Look Books and Product Catalogs

Today’s consumers crave an experience, so catalogs and look books are a surefire way to reach customers directly and get them excited about your brand.

Gone are the days of dull directories! Today’s designers use the catalog format to feature artistic typography, zingy color, and striking photography. Whether your niche is food, fashion, or custom car parts, fun and fresh catalogs help viewers feel they are experiencing your product in person.

Square Brochures

Is it a brochure . . . a booklet . . . or both?

Booklets can come in all different shapes and sizes, and one trendy option is a square booklet. The compact shape offers a style as savvy as your business, from photography or art showcases to new product launches and tradeshow handouts.

Calendars or Planners

Calendars or handheld planners are practical for everyone, offering branded staying power while conveying your business goals in a way that’s customized to the interests of your audience.

And you can double your impact by combining deliberate calendar planning with irresistible product promotions. Every business has crazy seasons and slow seasons, and planning ahead can provide a strategic opportunity to offset these challenges. Do you traditionally see a slump or spike in your business during key months? Call these out in your calendar by placing special promotions in the calendar, or prepping team members with personalized perks or reminders within your calendar design.

Whether it’s the biggest sales day for local bakeries or the period when your shipping company frequently misses delivery guarantees, highlighting seasonal trends can set you up for success.

Portfolios

Businesses that are into creative work (like architecture, custom designs, or photography) often create portfolio books to showcase their best work.

Whether you provide personal care services or interior design consulting, a well-designed portfolio helps your prospects to get a fair idea of the type (and price range) of services you can offer.

Instruction Manuals

These booklets are also called owner’s manuals.

They contain important information regarding a particular product. Instruction manuals provide step-by-step instructions on how to assemble or install the product. They also contain warranty and guarantee details.

Reference Guides or Reports

Reference guides are like instruction manuals. However, they are usually brief and contain essential details about a product such as do’s and don’ts, features, benefits, and more.

Reports professionally document your company’s progress, financial growth, and mission in an accessible booklet for your shareholders. Data can be boring, so when you display your finances and various charts and graphics, make it pretty or clever (like these infographics, for example). Booklets are an excellent tool for presenting easy-to-read data visualizations!

Find the Best Product for Your Bottom Line

In times of fierce competition, booklets can go a long way toward elevating your message.

But, beyond design, they must be user friendly and durable. Want to turn heads and get the best product for your budget? When you’re ready to visit about paper stocks, binding, or other booklet questions, we’re here to help!

4 Must-Know Strategies for Hosting Virtual Events

How you choose to promote an event can have a direct impact on how successful that event is.

For brands that have established a rhythm for online events, promotion efforts don’t need to be particularly intense. But if you’re new to hosting online events, it can be difficult to build engagement.

The Milken Institute, a financial think tank that thrives on bringing people and ideas together through large events, had to postpone their live flagship annual event, the Global Conference, which convenes more than 4,000 executives and thought leaders from around the world. In its place, the Institute has started hosting regular virtual summits, including smaller local webinar gatherings called “The COVID-19 Conference Call Series.”

Here’s what Milken’s new business development director Ira Rosen said about this change:

“People have gotten creative with what they can now do online, but people are discovering that hosting events online isn’t necessarily easier than in-person events. If you’ve never held a digital event before, there are a few things you have to consider.”

Here are a few starter steps:

 
1. Create an Attention-Grabbing Event Page

This is the place where everyone goes to learn about your event.

Use a simple tool like Cvent Flex to make it stand out, and entice people to sign up by including eye-catching graphics, professional pictures, and engaging clips of keynote speakers, workshop leaders, and performers. Keep people from wandering away from your page by embedding all relevant videos, pictures, and other media, so they don’t have to find it elsewhere.

Finally, include all of the essential details so your event page is a one-stop-shop for information and attendee actions. This includes: 

• Time and date(s) of the event
• An agenda 
• Speaker bios 
• Sponsor information
• Registration links
• Secure payment options  

2. Ask Partners or Sponsors to Spread the Word

When your sponsors and partners promote your virtual event, it markets your program exponentially—this benefits all stakeholders.

Put yourself out there by directly asking others to promote your virtual event. Provide the affiliate link, printed publicity, and any hashtags or online videos that might make it easier to build momentum.

3. Keep Participants Engaged

Being confined behind a screen can make it harder for speakers to engage with the audience during the event, but there are ways to encourage interaction.

Research shows that 47% of people are more likely to ask a question at a virtual event, and 37% are more likely to speak to a person in a virtual booth than a real one. View virtual events as an opportunity to engage with your audience rather than an obstacle. Take time to conduct a poll, ask questions, or play a video in the middle of your presentation.”

Other ways to engage viewers include trivia segments, participant voting options for upcoming segments, or even “virtual booths” (like breakout rooms) participants can visit after the event’s conclusion.

4. Build Content that Promotes Your Event

No matter what kind of event you promote, planning it in a vacuum is never a good idea.

If regular content production is part of your marketing mix, these efforts should overlap with the event you’re promoting. From a weekly podcast or newsletter to printed inserts or your website, any platform you control can be used to build interest. 

Need an extra publicity boost? Contact Patti and Greg today to spread the word through print!

How Fantastic Managers Bring Out the Best in Each Person

Have you ever had a “bad” boss?

If you’ve ever led a team, you’ve probably encountered a life-sucking person, problem, or habit that’s restricting your potential. But a challenging situation doesn’t guarantee a poor outcome, especially if there’s a good manager in the mix!

Managers have the power to make or break their organization. Strong managers can lead teams, help them grow, and bring out the best in each person. These leaders don’t just produce great work; they inspire it. Why is that?

While effective managers are goal-oriented, they also have an innate ability to bring out the best in people.  And while these people come in many flavors, there is one quality that sets truly great managers apart from the rest: They discover what is unique about each person and then capitalize on it.

Marcus Buckingham, head of people and performance research at the ADP Research Institute, characterized it this way:

“Great managers know and value the unique abilities and even the eccentricities of their employees, and they learn how best to integrate them into a coordinated plan of attack. This is the exact opposite of what great leaders do. Great leaders discover what is universal and capitalize on it. Their job is to rally people toward a better future. Leaders can succeed in this only when they can cut through differences of race, sex, age, nationality, and personality and, using stories and celebrating heroes, tap into those very few needs we all share. The job of a manager, meanwhile, is to turn one person’s particular talent into performance. Managers will succeed only when they can identify and deploy the differences among people, challenging each employee to excel in his or her own way.”

Positioning People for Success

When you want to bring out the best in your team, here are some specific steps to consider:

1. Ask the Right Questions

To assess your team’s strengths and skills, try using questions like these:

• What do you like best about your work?
• What skills do you have that are being underused?
• What was the best day you had at work in the last three months? Why?
• What was the worst day you had at work in the last three months? What drains you?

2. Find Optimal Triggers

Everyone works for a purpose.

Some work for money. Some for the personal challenge. And still others for relational equity they build through personal and professional friendships.

Managers can bring out the best in people by finding unique ways to motivate people. One company that does this exceptionally well is HBSC, a London-based bank. Each year it presents its top individual consumer-lending performers with “Dream Awards.” Each winner receives a unique prize, precisely tailored to something especially motivational to each employee (though capped at $10,000 and redeemable in prize form only). At the end of the year, HBSC hosts a Dream Awards gala and shows a video about the winning employee and why this person selected a particular prize. From college tuition funds to dream vacation airline tickets, the celebration of individual dreams is a win for the entire company.

Beyond individual awards, other performance triggers may include financial incentives, ownership shares, public recognition, increased autonomy over key projects, workday perks, or even quality time with key leaders.

When you tailor perks to your team’s unique strengths, they will feel more motivated to give their best effort.

3. Invest in Training Opportunities

People are more likely to excel when they feel valued.

One simple way to invest in people is through training. Did you know an astonishing 87% of Millennials say that career development opportunities are very important to them? When you want to motivate and shape your people, look beyond daily tasks, and encourage people to grow their skills. And as you’re evaluating training opportunities, look for those that fit each person’s unique learning style, like analyzing, watching, or doing.

Great managers look to build and mobilize people. By investing in individual people, you will work with them, not above them. And that’s a win for everybody!

Helpful Phrases for Starting and Developing a Professional Letter

Are you looking to entice a new lead or persuade a big client?

Business letters are an especially persuasive medium, especially printed letters. In this era, when digital communication is so prevalent, people sometimes forget the power of a traditional letter. When you want to pitch a sale, resolve a dispute, or propose a new partnership, a letter shows you are serious and sincere.

In many transactions, a letter is an official record, but it can be challenging to strike the right tone in your correspondence. The way you start or end a letter can make all the difference in how you come across.

Need some ideas to get you started? Here are a few helpful phrases:

Salutations

• Dear Mr. Smith
• Dear Doctor Ernst
• Dear Sir or Madam
• Dear [Job Title Here] – e.g., Claims Adjustor, Recruiter, Account Supervisor
• To Whom It May Concern
• To our Valued ______
• Hello David
• Hello from Phoenix!

Inquiries and Introductory Phrases

• It is our pleasure to inform you that
• I am writing to confirm/request/inquire about . . .
• Having seen your advertisement in . . .
• I was recently reading about ______ and wanted to know _________
• I received your contact from ______ and I would like to ___________
• I recently heard ___________ and I was hoping to connect with you about ____________
• Have you ever wondered about/needed/wanted to know ______________?

Enclosures

• Please find enclosed  . . .
• In this letter I am including a ___________ (estimate, catalog, proposal, brochure)
• I would love to introduce you to ____, and I am including _____ for your review

Offering Future Assistance

• If you require more information, please let us know
• Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need any further assistance
• We would be happy to provide a consult on _____________
• I would love the opportunity to introduce you to _________

Referring to Future Contact

• I am looking forward to hearing from you soon!
• Thank you for your consideration!
• We would appreciate your reply at your earliest convenience
• I appreciate your immediate attention to this matter
• We are looking forward to meeting you on January 21 in ______________
• I will call on ______ to schedule a _________

Closers

• Sincerely Yours
• All the Best
• Kind Regards
• Respectfully
• Yours in _____ (refer to industry)
• We Appreciate Your Consideration
• Thank You for Your Time

Pro Tip: Whether your letter is casual or formal, all introductory or sales letters should follow the AIDA principle (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action). When you write a professional letter, your aim is to grab attention, compel people to keep reading, increase their desire to respond, and prompt them to action. 

Tell and Sale with This Winning Combination

If you want to grab attention with a powerful, relevant, engaging mailing, professionally printed enclosures can seal the deal.

There is an old saying in direct mail: the letter sells, but the brochure tells. In any direct mailing, combining a letter and brochure (or catalog) can be an especially potent combination.

Ready to get started? Save time and trouble by partnering with our experienced team! When it’s time to move forward, we’ll help you create stunning pieces that make your message shine. We’ll lighten your load by streamlining the entire process from initial formatting to direct mail packaging and delivery.

Contact Patti and Greg today for details!