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Posts Tagged ‘Personal Productivity’

What truly scares you about your business?

What obstacles are you afraid will interfere with your goals?

If you aren’t making the money you want, there is some type of fear that is coming into play. That fear factor is the one thing that can stand between you and your ultimate success. Until you face and overcome that fear and those obstacles once and for all, they will keep your vision from becoming reality.

First, figure out what you are afraid of.

Have you ever experienced any of these feelings:

Do you question whether you are enough of an expert in your area?

Do you panic at the prospect of speaking in front of an audience or conducting an interview over the telephone?

Are you terrified by the reality of marketing yourself?

All of these questions undermine your confidence in yourself. You need to address the underlying causes of your fears in order to move past them.

The answer to overcoming many of your fears lies with education. It’s common to fear the unknown, but as you educate yourself in those areas you aren’t familiar with, the unknown becomes far less mysterious. And much less scary.

Start by considering whether you have invested enough in yourself, in your education and training, to feel confident. If you can’t justify your expertise with education and experience, it’s time to get more of both. When you put the effort and energy into yourself, it will reflect in your confidence level, and help you to overcome that fear for good.

You may need to learn more about how to promote yourself, which is very different from promoting a company with a brand name. Investing in courses and training programs that offer strategies and techniques geared specifically toward small business owners will help to put that fear of rejection to rest. The same holds true for public speaking. The more you know about your subject and the more you learn how to do an effective presentation, the less you will fear public speaking.

This is all about you believing what you’re worth. You’ve earned the right to market your skills and abilities. Once you get out there and see the impact you can have on your clients, your fear will slowly evaporate.

Addressing your fears is both exciting and scary. You just have to face it – whatever it is. Whatever that thing is that makes you uncomfortable, that gives you pause and makes your heart and your head pound – just do it.

That’s how you’ll step up into the next phase of your business success. Once you do something that you were previously afraid to do, you can put it behind you. You can consider it part of your comfort zone because you did it and you survived it.

Getting over fear is one of the best feelings you can ever experience.

Step up to something, look it in the eye, learn what it takes to overcome it and then just take it on.

Bernadette Doyle created Client Magnets to help self-employed people solve one of their biggest business problems: attract a steady stream of clients. www.clientmagnets.com. Register FREE for instant access to her Stepping Up teleseminar series

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I’m a working mom with two kids and a million dollar business who works just three days a week. You may be in a completely different place in your life. You might be thinking that the dreams, strategies and tactics that I am talking about don’t really apply to you. The things that I am talking about achieving just seem so far removed from you current reality that you may be wondering is it even possible to get there?

I firmly believe that the only difference between where you are now and where you want to be is that at some point you have stopped yourself. Perhaps you stopped dreaming. Perhaps you stopped working at it.  It may be because of circumstances or because you had no support. It may be because of fear or because you feel that you don’t have the knowledge or the skills to reach your dreams. The point is still that you have stopped. If you have a dream, no matter how big it is: It is there to inspire you. To make you reach up to something that is bigger than yourself or your circumstances. There is a quote by Doreen Virtue that says: “God doesn’t give us our dreams without the ability to make them happen.” Somewhere inside of you a part of you that believes that the dream is possible. Otherwise you wouldn’t be dreaming about it. Sometimes all it takes is a step forward in the right direction, to step up and take on the challenge and discover what awaits you.

Some Ways to Find Inspiration

• Listen to that voice inside of you that is dreaming the big dreams. Dwell on the dreams, let them evolve and breathe life into them.

•  Ask yourself what may be stopping you from following your dreams. Often this can highlight areas in your life where you need to implement some changes.

• When you have highlighted areas in your life that are holding you back, do something about it. Make the changes or face up to the fears and get on the road to following your dreams.

•  Once you decide on a direction, don’t stop. You may pause to think through strategies but don’t stop or give up on the dream.

•  Find a mentor, coach or group that you can work with to help inspire you to go after your dreams.

Your dreams can become your reality. It really is as simple as that. You need to start believing in them. Don’t waste time sitting around wondering why you haven’t gotten there yet and all the reasons why you can’t get to where you want to be. Rather add fuel to the fire and get those dreams on the boil. Your dreams can be your inspiration and the things that lead you to discover a whole realm of amazing talents and capabilities that you may not even know you have. Step up and go after something that is bigger than your current reality. Start developing those dreams.

Bernadette Doyle created Client Magnets to help self-employed people solve one of their biggest business problems: attract a steady stream of clients.  Register FREE for instant access to her teleseminar series on How to Get New Clients.

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You know that creating products is a superb way for you to earn more revenue from your business. You may even have a good idea of what your product will offer and how you will present it.

But, you may have one particular problem that’s holding you back from getting that product to your clients. Maybe you feel that you just don’t have the time to create it.

You can’t magically create more time for yourself. Like the rest of the world, you have 24 hours in your day. You really don’t need more hours so much as you need a solid plan for getting your product done.   Let me share my formula for creating quality products the quickest way possible …

1.  Set a Date

The very first thing you need to do is set a date. Have a date that your products are going to be launched. There is nothing like giving yourself a deadline to get you moving.

2.  Get Paid To Create Your Products

Think about ways that you could get paid to create your products. If you did a live event, such as a workshop for example, you could record it, and use that recording to sell as your product. In that sense, you are getting paid to create your product.

I get paid to create my products when people pay to attend my workshops, and afterwards, the sales come in from the DVD recordings of that product.

If you don’t want to have a workshop, consider doing a teleseminar instead. A client in my mentoring group has just put together her own teleseminar series which she did once live, and is now selling as a boxed product. She has done the work once. She got paid to do the work, to create the product. And now, she’s going to be selling it over and over and over and over.

3.  Promote a Pre-Launch Offer

You might also consider doing a pre-launch offer. This is a tip I got from Michael Port.   He knew the only way he was going to get his first product done was to do a pre-launch offer. He emailed his list with a special offer for the audio he was putting together. “It will sell for $79, but if you order it now, you can have it for $59.”

He received a whole bunch of orders which lit a fire under him. He now had people who had paid him money and were waiting for this product to be released. He knew he had to get it done!

That knowledge made it easier for him to block out other things that might have generated revenue and focus on one single produce, since he knew the money was there. He had already been paid to create that product.

One of the challenges in getting a product finished – particularly your first product – is that it’s so easy to keep tweaking, refining and improving. You’re not earning any money whatsoever by doing that.

4.  Get Past Perfectionism

Remember that good is good enough. Just make sure that you’ve included all the elements that someone is going to need in your product. If they use it, and follow the advice that you’re telling them to follow in your product, they will get the results that you promised. Get past perfectionism. Good is good enough.

You are never going to have that two-week window that you think you need to get your products done. You’ve actually got to decide to get your product created in spite of your lack of time.

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Two business owners compete against one another in the same field.

Business Owner #1 has worked in his niche for 30 years; he has a massive list of contacts; his reputation is impeccable; his clients are among some of the most satisfied in the industry.  His expertise is unmatched.  Word of mouth has been a friend to his business, but his niche is very specialized, which means that his name doesn’t come up at many dinner parties.

Business Owner #2 is relatively new to the industry, also working in the same specialty niche.  She’s still in the process of building her contact list; her clients are largely satisfied, but the verbal buzz hasn’t elevated yet…she’s simply too new.

Which business owner do you think has realized the largest profit in the last 12 months?

Would you be surprised to learn that it’s Business Owner #2?

How could that be?

One word:  Marketing

Business Owner #2 invests whatever she can afford to lose in marketing campaigns, while Business Owner #1 simply can’t seem to get past the initial dollar amount of the marketing expenses, and so, simply doesn’t “get the word out”.

As a result, the first business remains steady, but stagnant.  The second soars.

Business Owner #2 possesses a Millionaire Mindset.  Here’s what’s going on inside her head:

• Marketing is an investment.  Even if one campaign costs $4,000 (which is a significant amount of money for her fledging business), she anticipates that just one resulting sale will pay for the ad.

• She views the campaign as an investment in her most valuable commodity – herself.  Because she has completed the research and knows that there’s a noted demand for her product, she purchases each new ad with a faith that can only come from believing in herself and her business.  She thinks, I’m the best investment I’m ever going to make.

• She never invests more than she can afford to lose.  Financially, she only invests what her business can survive without.  Emotionally, she only invests what she can lose and still hold on to a sense of hindsight without depression.

• She doesn’t ruminate over the dollar amount of each marketing endeavor.  Rather, she concentrates on its potential return.  She understands that she’ll realize direct returns, as well as future, residual ones.

• She knows that she’ll never reach millionaire status by pinching pennies.

• She understands that by pulling out her cash and throwing it against the wall of cash that has become frozen in this, a stagnant, economy, she’s multiplying her chances of getting a return.  Unless she spends money, the wall of cash will remain rigid, eliminating a large portion of potential profit.

• Though it was difficult for her to accept the idea of investment versus cost in the beginning, she becomes more willing to spend money with each profitable marketing campaign.  Because of this realization, she has committed to educate her clients about the benefits of marketing, which will contribute to the stimulation of the economy.

Investment and return will never be a chicken and egg debate.  Without investment, there can be no return.  The return will never come first…in fact, it simply won’t come at all.

If you want to find your own millionaire mindset, you must separate yourself from the competition’s aversion to marketing and getting your name out there.

You could spend your disposable income on a new car, or a summer home, or a vacation.  Or…you could invest that cash in a marketing campaign…so you can afford all three.

Bernadette Doyle created Client Magnets Ltd to help self-employed people solve one of their biggest business problems: attract a steady stream of clients. If you’d like to receive invaluable tips and advice on how to attract clients with ease, register at http://www.clientmagnets.com

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Have you ever hosted a free teleseminar (one in which you charge no participation fees), with the intent to sell a product, and you’ve gotten feedback like, “Great content,” or “I learned a lot,” or “You’re really knowledgeable in your field”?

Despite your blush at the flattery, were your sales numbers from the teleseminar lackluster?  Was your conversion rate uninspiring?

It’s not difficult to figure out what may have happened in this situation.  You’ve offered too much valuable information, and didn’t start your teleseminar with the end in mind:  the sale.

When conducting a free teleseminar your main concern should be with the quality of the content…the value of the information that you’re passing on.  But how do you balance sharing great content without giving too much away and losing the sale?

• No one who has registered for your free teleseminar has paid a dime (other than maybe the dial-in fee).  If you give them too much, they will walk away with your valuables, free of charge.  If you give them less information, but offer them an opportunity to learn more and to walk away with something that they’ve deemed valuable, even if there is a cost involved, you will have succeeded in your tele-endeavor.

• Your offer needs to be developed from your opening. Even though the attempt at sales will come at the end of the free teleseminar, you must keep your goal in mind when you utter your first sentence.

• Your sales pitch must seamlessly tie into the rest of the teleseminar.  Delivering a wealth of information and then tacking on a sales pitch at the end rarely works.  Your sales pitch should be less like a birthday surprise and more like the end result of a lengthy birthday celebration preparation.

• Don’t squeeze every bit of valuable information you can think of into your teleseminar.  Instead, work to weave education with sales presentation.  When this is done correctly, you’ll be priming your prospects to buy, but they will view it as free information.  In short, create a monologue that will make purchase seem like the next logical step to your listeners.

• Use your sense of responsibility to your participants to offer them something of value.  Whether your teleseminar is 30 or 60 minutes in length, there’s a good chance that you’ll never be able to cram everything they need to know about your topic into that timeframe.  In fact, if you do try to cram it in, you’ll likely be delivering an incomprehensible mess.  When you offer a chance for them to learn about the rest of the story at the end, you’re delivering value and offering a service.  Often, you can only make the biggest difference in the lives of your customers by offering more than you can give away for free.

The no-fee teleseminar can be a great selling tool.  When people invest 30 or 60 minutes of their time, they’ll naturally want to know about their next step.  When you give them that step, in the form of your product or service, after priming them to want more, they’ll be apt to buy.

So don’t view the free teleseminar as “the cost of doing business.”  Rather, view it as a valuable tool for garnishing your conversion rates, realizing your unique success, and balancing the teleseminar ledger.

Want to learn more about how to make money with your own events? Visit our Event Money Machine Blog. You’ll learn about an amazing Telesummit being held later this month. Tickets to this event are FREE – so join our priority notification list to be the first to know when they become available.

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Have you noticed when someone receives an award for an achievement, they usually thank someone else without whom that achievement would not have been possible?  When an actor receives an Oscar, they often say something like, “I owe it all to my wife (or whomever).” They thank their parents, spouses, and anyone who has given them the support and encouragement they needed to reach their goal.

When you set big goals that require you to stretch and grow, you owe it to yourself to have a good support system in place.

Finding a mentor is one of the best ways to get that support.

So, how do you find the right mentor? The person who will really make that positive impact on your business and life?  Ideally, your mentor should be someone who is experienced and has already produced the results you want. Look for someone who has been through and understands the process of change you’re going through because they are making constant positive changes in their own life. This is your best choice for a mentor.

What can your mentor do for you? Your mentor (if selected carefully) will help keep you on target as you step up to change. He or she can show you how to deal with distractions so you aren’t sidetracked on your path to reaching your goals.

A mentor who is on a fast track of growth can teach you the strategies that will help you during periods of massive change. Your mentor will be able to help you decide not only what you need to be doing, but what you need to stop doing as well.

When you undertake a massive change, what you have to stop doing is as important as what you need to start doing. A strong mentor can help in this area. For example, your mentor can help you to clearly see which things are not going to fit with the new you, and which projects will help you to achieve your goals. This means that you have to decide which projects to pursue and, even more importantly, which to ditch.

A good mentor has the ability to see you, and the you that you’re stepping into; their belief in you is stronger than their belief in the obstacles that challenge you. A mentor will guide you through the process of change as you take the steps to your new reality.

That’s exactly what happened for me.  Deciding to work with a mentor was one of the best decisions I ever made.  And I continue to invest in myself and work with a number of amazing mentors.  When I first took that step, I really took a leap forward and upwards in my business.  It made such a powerful difference in my life – how I viewed myself and how I viewed my business.

Most successful business people have had help throughout their careers, and most are willing to offer the same to others. Think about successful business owners you admire. Consider people you’ve met through your networking or training groups or other professional affiliations.

You deserve to have a mentor. Make the decision – take that step forward.  The right person is waiting to give you the support you need to achieve your goals.

Bernadette Doyle specializes in helping entrepreneurs attract a steady stream of ideal clients. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, sign up for her free weekly e-zine at http://www.clientmagnets.com

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One of the biggest things that most often holds us back from achieving our full potential is permission to succeed, or the feeling that we’re somehow not fully qualified to offer our advice and expertise to others. Have you ever felt that way?

Whether you’re thinking of starting a high-end coaching program, marketing a new product or putting together a conference, the most valuable thing you can do for yourself is to give yourself permission to succeed. The people who achieve the most in life aren’t stronger than you, or smarter than you; they succeed because they give themselves permission to try.

Self-Doubt is Common, and Deadly To Your Success
Self-doubt isn’t an unusual problem to face when we begin new projects, or undertake new endeavors. When we try something for the first time, there’s always the question of failure. Sometimes people even wonder if they have a right to try what they’re trying, as though only other people can undertake massive projects.

One of the best things you can do for yourself is give yourself permission to try the big things you want to try. Most people know a lot more than they think they know, and have a great position from which to strike forth and begin a new endeavor.

For example, if you’ve been in your business for ten years and have built your business from the ground up, you’re absolutely qualified to talk to people about how to build a business like yours, or how to operate in your niche. The accumulated experience of those years is your qualification. You don’t have to be a coach or a guru to offer something valuable; in many cases, your personal experience is the most valuable thing you can share.

Successful People are Ordinary People Too
It’s important to understand that successful people aren’t magical, or special in some way that you’re not. Successful people are ordinary people, too. Successful people typically have talent and know-how, but the key factor that sets them apart is a willingness to actually do the things they do; not a unique qualification or special asset that other people don’t possess.

For me, joining Yanik Silver’s mastermind group was extremely valuable, because it quickly became clear that Yanik, one of the most successful people in his field, is just an ordinary person. He’s got a lot of talent and know-how, but he’s still a flesh-and-blood human like the rest of us. Getting to know Yanik was the key to realizing that an ordinary person can do wildly successful things, such as starting a high-end coaching program or organizing huge events.

Don’t make excuses to avoid starting your new projects. Don’t wait until tomorrow, or next week; don’t wait until you’ve taken that class or landed that big client.

These are all excuses that self-doubt uses to prevent you from succeeding. Do yourself the biggest favor of all: give yourself permission to try the important things. It doesn’t matter if you’re just an ‘ordinary person.’ We’re all ordinary people. It’s time for you to really start creating your own success!

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Have you ever wondered what your clients are saying about your business? Would you love a direct line into your clients’ minds; to know what they really want and what they’re willing to buy?

Social media is a place where you can really get into the mind of your buyer.  You can dialogue with your clients and listen to what they are saying -  not only to you, but to each other.  It’s the perfect place for you to find out what your clients REALLY want.    And when you discover that, you can go to it – providing it to them!

Here’s my four step formula for using social media to “get into the mind” of your prospect…

1.  Identify “Hot Topics”
By listening and engaging in social media conversations, you will quickly identify the “hot topics”.

The key here is to listen and learn. What are your prospects asking? What do they need help with?
What topics are the most popular?

2.  Respond to Demand
Once you have the “hot topics” in mind, it’s time to showcase how you can help your prospects.  Use these hot topics to create the content for your blog and social media updates.   Give your prospects the answers they’re looking for.   Position yourself as someone who is in-the-know, who understands popular concerns. Demonstrate your expertise in a way that inspires people to use your business or services.   Give your prospects what they want, when they want it!

3.  Create a “BUZZ”
Social media gives you a ready-made channel to generate buzz about your new content and offerings.  With platforms like Twitter, you can use “hashtags” to incite and track conversations about specific subjects and groups.  There are also search tools available that will enable you to easily track what people are saying about you, your “hot topics” and your content and offerings.

4.  Track and Evaluate Market Response
Facebook, Twitter, Digg and other social media networks are ready-made tools to help you in the quest to get inside the mind of your buyers. By tuning into the various social media platforms you make it easy to evaluate the response to your new product, content and business presence.  You can use the information to review the effectiveness of your offerings and continue to craft better-tailored content in the future.  It’s also a way to determine what formats and delivery methods work best to reach your prospects and clients.

I encourage you TODAY to start “tuning in” to what your customers REALLY want!  If you listen to their conversations through the various social media platforms, they’ll tell you.  You can then use that information to give them what they want – and then everyone wins!

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I’m absolutely certain, that as a business owner you are emotionally invested in your business.  Perhaps starting and operating your business was a realization of a lifelong dream.   This amazing dream will certainly inspire and motivate you.  But, did you realize, if you are not prepared, then that same dream can also set you up for emotional injury that can cripple you and drain the life from your vocation.

There’s a good chance that you’ve already felt the downtrodden lows and the exuberant highs that come with being a business owner – but have you polished your ability to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and push forward after you stumble?  It’s the key to your business success.

I want to share the story of Ken, as a way to illustrate my point:

Ken is highly enthusiastic about his new business.  He’s dreamt of this since he was a boy, and he’s anxious to make his first significant paycheck, doing what he loves.

He rushes into a dynamic marketing campaign, following the leads of some other local businesses that he views as successful.  He sinks a boatload of money into it and waits.

But the marketing campaign is largely ineffective.  It turns out that his target audience isn’t looking where he’s advertising.  He immediately falls into a plummeting, emotional spiral as he dwells on the thousands of dollars that he’s lost.  His emotional low lasts for months.

The failed campaign didn’t hurt Ken financially (he still had plenty of capital with which to operate), but the taste of failure tainted his daily businesses dealings as he fell lower and lower into the emotional dump.

The campaign didn’t have to have the affect Ken assigned to it.  Business people everywhere have tried and failed, but the differences among them lie in their attitudes toward those setbacks. Did they allow the setbacks to attack their emotional wells, draining them of motivation?  Or did they consider the setbacks to be forms of inverted commerce…paid-for experiences in what-not-to-do?

Any failed attempt can be viewed in either of these two ways.  The right way, and the emotionally, financially, and successfully lucrative way to view setbacks is with a positive attitude.  Know that each one teaches you about something that isn’t right for you, or right for the situation in which you used it.  In retrospect, you’ll find that this kind of knowledge is, in fact, priceless (making the money you may have lost seem insignificant).

So, in summary, keep these points in mind when casting off on a new business adventure:

• Study your target audience, their needs, and your offering to make sure your product or service is in line with a definitive need.

• If possible, test your theory or idea first.  You’ll feel better about your effort, even if it fails, if you’ve prepared well.

• Don’t invest more money than your business can afford to lose.

• When you make your move, keep your expectations high, but don’t allow them to be so grandiose that a simple setback can bring your dream crashing down.

• Understand that great business people everywhere have tried and failed in the process of elimination.  You, too, can be great if you understand that not every attempt will be a stellar success.

• If you do experience a setback, get your heart out of it and insert some brainpower:  “How can I use this experience to increase my chances for success next time?”

Ken’s money wasn’t lost.  It was simply invested in a learning experience that would come back to him from a different direction.  But, unfortunately, because he couldn’t view his setback in this light, that money (and the experience) was lost forever.

Remember to set goals for yourself, but never give those goals the responsibility of holding up your entire business (or your emotional state).  Know that you will experience setbacks, but with emotional resilience, you’ll be able to view them for what they really are:  set-ups for success!

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Have you ever opted-in to receive a newsletter, or to establish an account on a website, and you receive an e-mail asking you to confirm your subscription or your request for a new account?  This is known as a double opt-in, and it’s law, according to the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.

This law is meant to protect consumers from deceptive marketing, unwanted pornography, and to give subscribers a clear path to opt-out of any subscription.  But what does it mean for you, the business owner at the other end of the law?  It means that if a potential client or subscriber shows intent to sign on for your offer, you must receive confirmation from them before you may proceed.

On the downside, this law whittles away at your opt-in list because many people will not respond to your email requesting them to click to confirm.  Often, they’re wary of emails asking them to click on an unknown (or forgotten) link, due to well-meaning, but fear-inducing, warnings about viruses, malware, spyware, and other internet predator ploys.

On the upside, those people who take the time to respond to your opt-in request are genuinely interested in your product or your service.  They will contribute to the overall high quality of your list with promising purchase potential.

So, how can you increase the number of people who respond to your request for confirmation?

• Offer an incentive that they can’t refuse when you send your double opt-in email. Offer a free bonus, a savings coupon, or a membership discount if they confirm their opt-in.

• If you have their phone number, contact the prospect to remind him or her to click and confirm.

• If you collected physical addresses at the time your prospects expressed interest (maybe you gathered business cards at a seminar or conference), use the physical addresses to send personal cards or notes reminding them to confirm their opt-in.  You can help to keep your correspondence out of the garbage by:

- Handwriting the address on the envelope:  it looks more personal, and much less like marketing material.  It works…just ask master direct mailing professionals.

- Using a real postage stamp:  not a metered stamp.

- Writing a personal note on the back that makes opening the envelope irresistible:  something like, “Here’s the information you requested,” should do the trick.

- Using a white or colored envelope instead of a manila one:  it has a greater chance of making it to a recipient’s read pile.

- Crafting your postal correspondence with the care that comes with believing that this will be your only chance to elicit a response:  Gary Halbert, a master copyrighter, would recommend that you treat each piece of written copy as if your life, and the life of your family, depended on a response to it.  You probably have only one chance to make a good impression.

Contacting prospects via standard post is more effective than it once was, simply because the definition of junk mail has moved from the mailbox to the inbox.  Spam has become a bigger pain than a mailbox full of confetti material, so a handwritten letter or card can seem like a breath of fresh mail – one worth opening.

Work to build your list of opted-in contacts, and you’ll multiply your revenue building opportunities.  But remember; be prepared to step outside of the email box to get those opt-ins.

In conclusion, do your absolute best to capture those subscription confirmations with incentives and a variety of contact methods that would please our friends at the FTC.  And once you build your list, know that you’ll have quality contacts who have raised their hands high, dubbing themselves as promising prospects with very deliberate purchasing intentions.

Bernadette Doyle specializes in helping entrepreneurs attract a steady stream of ideal clients. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, sign up for her free weekly e-zine at http://www.clientmagnets.com

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