Category Archives: Marketing

What a difference a year makes

About a year ago, I embarked on a new adventure.  No, not the Indiana Jones kind, not just yet. It was probably just as stressful, and perhaps as much of a roller coaster ride, though there were no life-threatening rolling boulders, just mortgage-threatening lines of credit.  One year later though, and I’m still alive and, most importantly, alive and kicking.

It has been such an educational experience, being an entrepreneur.  I feel I have grown so much in both mind and spirit (luckily, I kicked myself in the butt before I grew too much physically).  Circle met its targets for its first year and was exposed to hundreds of people by mail, phone and email, and hopefully thousands of people via internet.  Marketing became a new-found love for me, and I was able to bring all the skills I learned in the past right back into the present.  Networking became fun, meeting people became fun and drinking lots and lots of coffee continued to be fun.  I have met some great people who have given me great advice, both in business and in industry, and I feel like I’ve gained some mentors along the way.  Some of those mentors, I found, were right in my backyard.

I’m not going to do an Oscar speech and start listing people that I’d like to thank.  First of all, my successes are small; I measure them this way so that I strive for more.  Secondly, know that if you interacted with me this past year, you would be on this list.  I feel that everyone has provided me with a lesson.

And one of the greatest lessons I learned this year?  You can’t work all the time.  You must find time to play.  Play makes the world, especially work, a better place.

P.S. Why not come play with us in SVG?


On a new mission

I just finished reading Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.  If you aren’t aware, Zappos prides itself on its brand culture pipeline, and to sum it all up, all the people that work at Zappos WANT to be there and generally enjoy their job on a daily basis.  This has led Zappos to be a highly successful corporation, so much so that they have recently “married” Amazon with a dowry of about $1.2 billion.  As the proud owner of a start-up company, I like to read about things like this, to try to learn from other people’s mistakes and hear about the lessons they’ve learned along the way.  Hsieh’s book really got me thinking about core values and what our mission truly is.  I’ve always known that core values were essential to a company’s character and brand culture and that it was important to have a mission, but that was about it.  I’m thinking that perhaps I got it a bit wrong.  So over a frittata and a large cappuccino at The Vendome (vendomecafe.com – definitely worth a visit if you live in Calgary), I drafted a new mission, and tweaked our core values.

Old mission and core values: to provide clients with archaeological consulting services that centre around our core concepts: respect, safety, efficiency, open communication and teamwork, creating satisfaction for all those involved in the process… establishing strong, lasting relationships by exceeding client expectations, promoting both cultural preservation, as well as future development.

New mission: to help people understand, appreciate and plan ahead for heritage resources.

Change to core values: delete safety and respect.  Safety goes without saying – always be safe!  Respect must be earned – it isn’t automatic.  Add growth – it’s important to grow as people, w hich helps us to grow as a company.  Add humility – without it, you can’t grow.

Haven’t changed the website yet to reflect this… I think it can get even better.  Input?


Hello world!

I would say that archaeologists are not so tech-savvy, but I might just be speaking for myself.  I started Circle CRM Group in June of 2010 and got some great people to do my website, my logo, my branding (shout out to Charis Web and to James B!)… which helped me get started on my first marketing blitz.  Hurrah… but this world is moving quickly and it seems that the thing to do is tell everyone about your daily adventures.  What?  Wait, I sound like an old person.  Anyway…

This blog is meant to follow in the applicable footsteps of some really great companies, who have found success through great customer service, provided by great people.  The whole premise behind Circle is that strong and proper leadership will make for happy employees, who will provide the best service to our clients, who, in turn, will keep coming back for more.  A circle of happiness, if you will.  Yes, have a bite of cheese.  Tastes good, right?

This is our first WordPress blog entry, but we have been been blogging for a few months now.  We were just a bit ghetto – I said wasn’t tech savvy.  To see our old posts, please visit http://www.circleconsulting.ca/blog


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