Archive for December, 2008
Twitter in Plain English
Posted by: | CommentsWelcome to Solopreneur.biz - Making It Solo In The Business World. If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed.
Thanks to Don H. Morris of the New Coach Connection list for pointing me to this goodie. Twitter in Plain English is a must watch video for any service professional who is thinking about how to get more exposure. Twitter may be your answer and this video by Lee LeFever is explains it so even my granddaughter would get it. No wait, she is nine so she probably gets it somehow intuitively. Kids do seem born with technological understanding now.
For those of us older than my granddaughter, there is Common Craft. Twitter in Plain English is only one of many videos created by Common Craft. I am pretty excited about them as a new resource because these videos not only cover subjects we need to learn as entrepreneurs in the internet age, they are well done. Cruise through their collection after you watch the Twitter video and learn more about RSS, blogs, podcasts and even electing a President.
World’s Tallest Snowman is a Woman
Posted by: | CommentsThose that know me well know I am from Maine and that I love the state dearly although I have not lived there for almost 20 years. This website shows you one of the the things I love about the state. It’s a spirit, creativity and sense of fun paired with hard work that is rare. The town of Bethel, Maine for the sake of publicity for their town built a giant snowman in 1999 that became the world’s record for snowmen. Then they sat back to see who would break the record. No one did. Last winter they had record breaking snowfall and decided that was the incentive to break their own record. You gotta love those Mainiacs!
Thus was the beginning of Olympia, the world’s largest SnowWoman. Standing 122 feet tall and weighing an estimated 13 million pounds, she was the labor of love of an entire community. She was adorned with hat, scarf, necklace and 30 foot spruce trees for arms. You really need to see the pictures and check out the eyelashes. The builders had a nice sense of humor.
What I love about this story is how it shows the work ethic of the true Mainer – I don’t know too many places where people would be willing to stand inside a giant structure in order to shovel and pack snow. Hard work for sure. Another piece of this story that I love is that it is an example of someone thinking way outside the box and it working. The project was the brainchild of the local Chamber of Commerce and Olympia became a tourist attraction for the month’s of her life. The building process and the size of the project received press attention from all over the world and the Bethel area and its Chamber of Commerce benefited greatly. As you are doing your own business planning, take a cue from those crafty Mainiacs and take a calculated step out of the box.
Freebies for the Holidays
Posted by: | CommentsThere is a Holiday Giveaway going on over at Consistent Paying Clients that you may want to look into. You’ll find over a dozen gifts there designed to help you improve your life or improve your business. Tammy Landau is the originator of this Giveaway meant to be in the spirit of the holidays. You’ll see one of my special reports as one of the freebies you can receive – if you haven’t read “How to Think Like an Entrepreneur, you’ll want to get it.
There are items in the Holiday Giveaway about growing your list, organizing your office, understanding blogsites, and exploring your relationship with money. There are even items on living fearlessly, getting a 60 second boost and using antioxidants. A real fun mix of gifts. So celebrate with us and download your items today. Don’t delay, when the holidays end, the gifts disappear!
New Rules of Marketing
Posted by: | CommentsThe New Rules of Marketing was a session I attended at the ICF conference in Montreal last month. The presenter was Jan Marie Dore of Toronto who calls herself the Women Entrepreneurs Success Coach. She led a content laden discussion. Jan was correct in telling her audience that the world of marketing has changed. The old way was to be a generalist for the masses, to push your message out there and to deliver sales promotions. Today these strategies backfire.
Today’s marketing world is one of content, information and education. Successful marketers now must brand themselves as thought leaders. This means that you must niche and engage in two way conversations. The new marketing is attraction based marketing which requires you to educate and entertain those who have chosen to be in relationship with you.
So here are the rules as presented by Jan Marie -
1. You content is your most valuable asset.
2. You create your brand as a thought leader through the wise use of your content.
3. You launch your thought leadership campaign using the internet.
4. You leverage new media channels to take your story to market.
If this sounds overwhelming to you, it is helpful to remember that this is done strategically. When you create content, you use it in many ways. For example, you write an article then create a podcast of yourself reading the article. Later you turn this same content into a teleclass which you record and then use as a free gift for subscribers. Perhaps you hire a business coach to help you navigate through new media that you have not used before.
This ICF session was booked as a wisdom circle which meant that a large part of the session was audience discussion and the ideas were definately flowing. This was the first time I truly experienced the international flavor of the ICF. I was in a group of eight coaches for discussion and was the only US coach in the group. That was enlightening to say the least and one of the joys of the new rules of marketing is that technology brings us all together in one community.
Here’s your coaching question for today - What do you need to do to bring the new rules of marketing into your business? Please post your answers/comments here.
Intro to Shopping Cart Success
Posted by: | CommentsIntroduction to Shopping Cart Success is a call that you might want to hear if you are new to using shopping carts or autoresponders in your coaching business. More experienced coaches may get some new pointers as well. In my role as National Education Director for Practice Pay Solutions, I am interviewing Sharon Broughton tomorrow on the strategic uses of shopping carts for business development. Sharon is a talented Virtual Assistant who has been in business since 2002 and works with high level internet marketers as their technical/affiliate manager.
We will be covering selling products online, teleseminar registrations, sending ezines, discounts, list building, delivery of ebooks and more. If you attend the call you will get a trial shopping cart account for 30 days for $1. There is a lot of info packed into this call so don’t miss it if you need help in these areas. You can register for the call by clicking here and then going to support/business development. Be sure to scroll way down the page as this call is near the bottom.
Biz Tips – The Book…. Got One?
Posted by: | CommentsLast week was a big week in the Biz Tips world as the new ebook was launched. Biz Tips – The Book is a handy reference guide filled with tips to help you understand the business of coaching. If you are an entrepreneur, starting or running a coaching business, this is the ebook for you. The book is a tremendous value with more than 50 tips about marketing, techology, general business, and more.
If you are serious about your business and want to succeed beyond your wildest dreams, you need a good business foundation. Biz Tips – The Book will help you attain that foundation and skyrocket your business to success. Get all the details on the book and grab your copy here.
Brain Science and Your Business
Posted by: | CommentsSeveral days ago in the New York Times there was a fascinating article about neuroscience research on the brain in regards to fear. The most interesting parts of the article are the implications of how best to respond in hard economic times. What the researchers discovered is that our brain responds to anticipated pain or loss. There is an “endowment effect” which means that when this happens, we tend to hold onto what we have. When the fear center of the brain is active, exploratory activity and risk-taking are turned off. We tend to stay with what we have.
What does all this say about our businesses? We must turn off the fear center, stop listening to the dire predictions, don’t hang out with those negative types. If we do not, we will stay stagnant and fail. What we DO want to do is let go of the old . We aren’t going back to where we were, but we can go ahead to something new and better. Believing that we can retrieve “the way it was” is a symptom of the fear based endowment effect. Instead, start moving toward new opportunities. Take risks and expand into new areas. This is the scientific solution to the current situation.
Book Yourself Solid with Michael Port
Posted by: | CommentsI hosted a information-packed teleseminar today with Michael Port, marketing guru and author of Book Yourself Solid and several other powerful books. Michael talked about his system to get more clients than you can handle – a subject dear to the heart of most coaches.
Michael’s key point was that you absolutely must build a firm foundation for your coaching business. This foundation is built by following four steps -
1. Learn who your ideal client is – who inspires and energizes you – and work only with those people.
2. Understand why people buy what you are selling.
3. Develop a personal brand that is memorable and unique.
4. Talk memorably about what you do.
Only after you have finished that process can you successfully move on to building trust with clients. The trust process occurs through the use of standard credibility builders, understanding your sales cycle, using information products and being able to have simple sales conversations.
Michael has refined this entire process to a masterful level both in his book and in a periodic 15 week training program. I highly recommend Book Yourself Solid, my copy of the book is well worn. For more info check out Michael’s website.
Learning about Blog Carnivals
Posted by: | CommentsDo you know about Blog Carnivals? If you are a blogger yourself or if you are just looking for information to grow your coaching business, you will want to know this info – thanks to Ciara of Spotlight Blogger who clued me in. A blog carnival is a posting on a blog of a collection of information from many different blogs on a particular topic. Some people call them events, some call them communities, but in any case, blog carnivals are collections of the best of the best information on that subject. Each carnival has an author or editor who is reviewing posts from all over the blogosphere to compile the listings.
Why do you care? When you submit your blog to blog carnivals, you are increasing the potential for traffic to your blog. At the very least, the editor will be visiting to see what your blog is about. If approved and listed, your blog will get exposure along with other blogs. You may become associated with some very popular sites.
Spotlight Blogger says -
In a nutshell, blog carnivals build communities, bring people with similar interests together, build traffic for bloggers who submit posts, and boost blog rankings.
Darren Rowse of Problogger says -
Blog Carnivals are one way for bloggers to get their name out there and make connections with other bloggers.
Blog Carnival says -
If there is a carnival for a topic you are interested in, following that carnival is a great way to learn what bloggers are saying about that topic. If you are blogging on that topic, the carnival is the place to share your work with like-minded bloggers (and an audience of readers).
So get out there and check it out. Follow your favorite topics and get your own blog listed. This may be the best business development tip of the month for your coaching business!
Teleseminar on Public Speaking
Posted by: | CommentsPublic speaking has been one of the keys to my successful coaching business. I firmly believe that you must be able to present yourself effectively in order to thrive in the coaching world. Public speaking can lead to many leads, more clients, and accelerated business growth. As an entrepreneur in the coaching world, you owe it to yourself to explore the possibilities of public speaking.
Michelle Ulrich and Rick Cooper have joined forces to present a teleseminar that may be just what you need. Speaker Arvee Robinson will give tips and tricks for overcoming nervousness, get audience attention, avoid common mistakes and more. There is no charge for the call so this could be a great option for you if you are a small business owner or entrepreneur.
The call is being held on Tuesday, December 16th at 7-8pm ET. Sign up for this call here.
