I’ve been thinking about how the whole “follow your bliss” and “believe in your dreams” philosophies fit into the more left-brained business-minded world. There often seems to be a gap between that pristine, optimistic birds-eye-view of living a fulfilling, passion-fueled life and that other little matter of actually making enough money to afford some of life’s perks…like exotic vacations, or luxurious homes, or (depending on your financial goals, fears, or circumstances), toiletpaper.

Are “dreams” too impractical to monetize? Do financially successful people ultimately have to sell their souls, squelch their visions, and give up on a life of giddy authenticity in favor of a more practical and utterly PAINFUL path to a bounteous bank account?

In other words, does the call to revere and pay attention to your dreams have a place in “The Real World” of mortgages, stock portfolios, and investment funds?

According to the following quote by success guru and Think and Grow Rich author Napoleon Hill, they very well could hold the key to your purpose and ultimate prosperity:

“Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate accomplishments.”

(In case you don’t know Hill’s story, he spent 20+ years following a recommendation by legendary gazillionaire Andrew Carnegie, interviewing more than 500 of the wealthiest people in the world for the purpose of determining their “secrets” - what makes them tick, how they think, what they all have in common in terms of their approach in life and business.)

“Blueprints” are detailed plans, which determine actions, which produce results. The above quote takes the la-la-concept of dreams and suggests there’s actually a PRACTICAL use for them. So many overly serious professionals roll their eyes or snub their noses up in the air whenever they hear someone start yapping about “dreams” and “passion” instead of “profit & loss statements” and “bottom lines.”  

Dreams DO make money. As long as you don’t allow the dour dreamless to tell you otherwise.

Posted in Dances With Gurus, Entrepreneur Diaries | 1 Comment »

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 26th, 2007 at 2:46 pm and is filed under Dances With Gurus, Entrepreneur Diaries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

July is the new January for lifestyle entrepreneurs.

Think about it.

Cubicle-minded professionals start making plans, resolutions, and target objectives just moments after they’ve put away their December decorations.

By March, goal gusto diminishes significantly.

By the end of June, it’s all but non-existent. Why? Because everyone’s waiting until September to ramp up and maestro that last-quarter push to cash flow success. And by then, they’re lost in the stressed-out mix of everyone else desperately trying to make their numbers work miracles.

Please, don’t be a biz calendar lemming!

Use July and August to Review, Reward, Regroup, and Reinvent your path and plan, so you’ll be toasting to your amazing, breakthrough success come New Year’s Eve.

Here’s how.

1. Review. Block out time to check in on the progress you’ve made on your January goals. No taking or making phone calls, no sending or receiving emails. Don’t judge or sulk, just breathe in the summer vibe, evaluate with objectivity, and review the steps you’ve taken to achieve (or thwart) your goals so far.

2. REWARD! One of the things small business owners almost never do is stop to appreciate what they’ve already achieved. Well, what DID you accomplish during the first six months of the year? Identify five specific successes, and celebrate them by doing something nice for yourself and/or your business team.

3. Regroup. Okay, so you’re not in the exact place you thought or hoped you’d be way back in January. Who is? The question is, where ARE you? What’s working? What isn’t? Are you on (or near) the right track? Have your vision and priorities changed? Once you understand the reasons behind your progress or shortcomings, you’ll have a much easier time with the fourth and final step.

4. Reinvent. It’s time to course correct. Look at your successes, challenges, and other discoveries, and decide to either:

• Keep doing what you’ve been doing, because it’s working or you’re convinced it will if you give it more time.
• Make changes to your tactics, strategies, and methods, because you think the ideas are good, but the execution needs tweaking to make it effective.
• Abandon the goals altogether, because they’re hurting your business, or taking too much time away from things that are working well in your business, or because you’re just not getting the kind of results you hoped from them.

So after a long hot July day, take some time in the cooler evening to pour yourself an ice-cold drink, enjoy the late sunset, and reflect on what you’ve done so far this year. Allow yourself to be pleasantly surprised at how far you’ve come, and use the quiet space to decide how to make the rest of your year even more successful.

And by the time everyone else jumps on the second-wave goal wagon come September, you’ll be cruising with confidence on your new-and-improved path, enjoying the gifts of autumn as well as your well-deserved prosperity.

WANNA USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEBSITE?
Please do! Just kindly include this blurb with it:

Lani & Allen Voivod, aka ‘The Content Lovers,’ help budding entrepreneurs and small biz dynamos ‘A-Ha Themselves!’ in fun, innovative, and profitable ways. For FREE articles, tips, and strategies designed to catapult your content and electrify your business, sign up for their ezine, ‘The Inciter,’ at EpiphaniesInc.com!

Posted in Inciter Articles | 1 Comment »

This entry was posted on Monday, July 23rd, 2007 at 8:36 pm and is filed under Inciter Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

For a lot of small businesses, July is a slow season – the perfect time to reflect and course correct, so they can end the year deep in the black. “The Secret to Making Your Business “Go Nuts in 2007,” a free special report offered by a New Hampshire-based brand strategy firm and a Dignity Marketing company, offers seven tactics for these small businesses and service professionals to attract more clients, build trust, and boost profits. Download the free report at www.GoNutsIn2007.com.

Most business owners look at January as the perfect time to refresh their focus, correct past mistakes, and set a bold new course to improve their performance.

But with vendors and clients alike prioritizing beach days over business meetings, and so many professionals out on vacations with their families, July presents a promising opportunity to analyze, evaluate, and make powerful decisions that can improve a business’ bottom line come December 31st.

That’s why two creative companies - Acorn Creative and Epiphanies, Inc. – encourage businesses to rethink and recharge their success strategies with a free special report, “The Secret to Making Your Business Go Nuts in 2007,” available as a PDF download at www.GoNutsIn2007.com.

“Business owners and solo professionals can get overwhelmed when it comes to deciding how to spend their marketing dollars,” says Acorn Creative’s “Chief Nut” Kevin Skarritt. “So they spend out of desperation, instead of focusing on making a strong emotional connection with their target audience. This report explains how to do just that.”

Acorn Creative and Epiphanies, Inc. originally launched the report in December 2006. It attracted hundreds of entrepreneurs, marketing managers, and small business owners across the United States. By downloading the “Go Nuts Report,” they took advantage of thousands of dollars worth of branding knowledge and marketing insight, distilled into a brisk 18-page manifesto.

Both Acorn Creative and Epiphanies, Inc. work with clients to help them create emotional connections and long-term relationships with their target markets. The two businesses focus on different aspects of this goal: Acorn performs brand consulting, graphic design, and website development, while Epiphanies specializes in idea generation, information product creation, and Dignity Marketing strategies.

In addition to the secret they reveal in the Go Nuts Report, the creative allies also lay out the underlying strategy behind Acorn’s design process – a strategy that’s helped Acorn win “Best of the Web” honors from Forbes magazine for the last seven years. They also describe seven ways a business can put those ideas into action for themselves.

“July really is the new January,” says Lani Voivod, co-founder and “Content Lover” at Epiphanies, Inc., and contributor to The New Writer’s Handbook 2007: A Practical Anthology of Best Advice for Your Craft & Career. “Take action now, put the past six months behind you, and you still have a chance to be a magnet for the kind of success you wanted to create when you started out this year.”

“The Secret to Making Your Business Go Nuts in 2007” free special report is available online at www.GoNutsIn2007.com.

About Acorn Creative
Acorn Creative is a unique design firm specializing in brand identity. Their holistic approach to brand integrates innovative strategies with original design elements, creating powerful ideas and stories that connect clients with their target audiences in ways they never thought possible. To put their award-winning brand identity services, creative design, and website development to use in your own business, visit www.AcornCreative.com. GO NUTS!

About Epiphanies, Inc.
As the “Content Lovers” of Epiphanies Inc., Lani & Allen Voivod help lifestyle entrepreneurs “A-Ha Themselves” in fun and profitable ways. For free articles, marketing tips, and content strategies designed to fire up your passion and profit-ize your niche, sign up for their “Inciter” ezine at www.EpiphaniesInc.com.

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Posted in Press 'n Such | No Comments »

This entry was posted on Friday, July 20th, 2007 at 7:17 am and is filed under Press 'n Such. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

But first, the slightly-related bonus tip: This post was inspired by an email we wrote to a business asking about email campaigns. Here, with some modifications, it’s about to be re-purposed as a blog post. Later, it’ll be converted into an article we send out through AhaArticles.com (our link to the very fine article submission service we use). As a time-crunched entrepreneur, take every opportunity you can to re-purpose content for as many audiences as possible - like we’re about to do with this email campaign info!

So, you wanna use email as a marketing tool. Great! As part of your overall marketing mix, email can be great for:

• Maintaining regular contact with your audience

• Automating that contact for maximum effectiveness and use of your time

• Creating marketing pieces that can easily be shared with others

Now, if you’re like us, you get all fired up to start writing, and you wanna dive right into it.

And to that we have to say, “Whoa, Nelly!”

Because if you’re going to spend the time creating the campaign, wouldn’t you feel more confident about its potential if you stopped for a few minutes to make sure you get as much out of the effort as possible?

Yep. Thought so. Pleas, grab a pen and paper, or pop open a new Word doc, and consider these seven items:

1. Define the purpose of your campaign. For some, it’s outright sales. Others are meant for relationship-building. Your reason may be entirely different, but be clear on exactly what one thing you hope to achieve.

2. Identify your target audience. Is it your own in-house list? A specific subset of that list? A partner’s or affiliate’s list, or maybe one you’ve purchased? This lays the foundation for knowing the answers to the next questions, all of which are crucial to the success of your campaign.

3. Honor your audience’s expectations. Are they used to all sales emails from you, or do you mix it up with information-rich touches? Do they get text-based emails, HTML emails, or both? How often are they getting email from you already? Knowing the answers to these questions will help you craft a campaign that isn’t off-putting, confusing, or ignored by your audience.

4. Respect the Form/Function balance. Is this a one-shot email, or is it intended to be a series? This affects things like the structure and length of the email content, the level of aggressiveness in your sales pitch, and the call to action you put out to your audience.

5. Manage your expectations. Industry averages for “successful” campaigns can range from a .03% response rate (for a huge-yet-generic list) to well over 50% (for a highly-niched list with a highly-relevant offer). Look at the performance of previous emails the target audience has received. Be realistic about where you fall in that range. Email campaigns are truly designed to be tested, tweaked, and retested over and over again, so don’t expect to hit the ball out of the park with your first big “Send.”

6. Mind your ISP manners. How you send your emails matters a lot! Are you planning to send your marketing emails straight from Microsoft Outlook? Check your Internet Service Provider’s policies about bulk emailing. (You may have to send emails out in small batches, for example.) Personally, we use the email/newsletter/list management service provided with AhaCart.com, and it’s worked well for us so far. You don’t want to go to all the trouble of setting up any kind of email campaign only to have it blocked, spamified, or put into the dreaded junk filter.

7. And most importantly, make sure your campaign fits into your overall marketing strategy. Done right, this email campaign will be integrated with other marketing channels. (News releases, articles, and blogging are our faves.) And hopefully, it’ll be part of a regular Content Plan that lets your audience know you don’t just want them for their money.

Ideally, your email campaign will keep your audience engaged with you - regardless of whether they’re ready to buy at the moment you email dings into their inboxes. Because as we’ve been told time and again, people don’t buy when you’re ready to sell. People buy when they’re ready to buy.

And the simple trick to success is this: By implementing consistent, “Dignity Marketing” based communications, you’re bound to be there when the buying time comes.

For FREE articles, tips, and strategies designed to catapult your content and electrify your business, sign up for our ezine, “The Inciter,” at EpiphaniesInc.com!

Posted in Inciter Articles, Tools to "A-Ha Yourself!" | No Comments »

This entry was posted on Monday, July 16th, 2007 at 2:02 pm and is filed under Inciter Articles, Tools to "A-Ha Yourself!". You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One of the three A-Ha Yourself!/Dignity Marketing “Power Tools” we recommend to clients is article marketing.

Well, we recently received an email from fellow entrepreneur Richard Villasana (who we met at Adam Urbanski’s “Attract Clients Like Crazy” boot camp last year) about how his first experience with article marketing was a veritable home run.

Hey you two,

How’s everything going? How’s the family?

I would like to share an idea that could prove beneficial for your
business. We all read articles for news and education. One of
Adam’s PR recommendations is to call or email the author of
any article that we really enjoyed and provided us with great content.

I took this advice and contacted the author of an article on the
U.S. Hispanic market. The author was so pleased with my comments
that I offered to do a follow up piece. You can see the results in
the latest edition (June 2007) of CRM, Customer Relationship
Management Magazine. To read my article entitled “Lo Conseguimos”,
go to http://tinyurl.com/2vl5no. 

If you would like to access the audio version, go to
www.themexicoguru.com/crmaudio.html and then click on the
play button right above “Podcast”. If you want to hear more of my
audio articles, you can sign up at the bottom of the page.

There is so much PR and credibility you can develop with just one
article. I found this tip to be excellent and again I wanted to
share this with you. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you
have any questions or comments. I’d enjoy hearing how your
business is doing, how’s the family and whatever else comes to mind.
Sometimes it’s just nice hearing from people who are doing more in
life than just clocking in at work.
 
Have a great weekend.
 
Saludos,
 
Richard Villasana
The Mexico Guru
International Speaker
rvillasana@TheMexicoGuru.com
www.TheMexicoGuru.com

Easy, fast, effective. Nice job, Richard. Way to hit it out of the park on the first try.

Posted in All About Content, How do you "A-Ha Yourself"? | No Comments »

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 14th, 2007 at 1:53 pm and is filed under All About Content, How do you "A-Ha Yourself"?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Know a few things about your niche? Looking for a cost-effective way to get your name, business, products, and services out to fresh prospects and a wider (yet more targeted) audience?

Consider the humble article.

Articles are everywhere, yet annoy no one. They’re promotional, yet don’t reek of in-your-face advertising. The best ones are easy to read, deliver valuable information, and entertain as well as inform.

Marketing experts hail articles as one of the prime lead generation tools for small business owners limited by time, budgets, and resources.

This workhorse of a content vehicle:

1. BUILDS YOUR EXPERT REPUTATION. People see you as important because you’re out there. You’re viewed as the go-to guru in your field. And you’ve got a leg up on the non-published competition because of it.

2. INVITES TARGETED TRAFFIC. Your article isn’t a cold call or a sales pitch. It’s a low-risk, low-cost portal for those who read your articles to visit your site, learn more about your offerings, and ultimately, do business with you.

3. INCREASES INCOMING LINKS. Article marketing gives publishers and professionals in your industry an easy way to recommend you as a resource to their audience and clients. (More exposure, leads, and opportunities!)

4. PRE-QUALIFIES YOUR PROSPECTS. This is a great way to educate your audience. If readers connect with what you’re saying - your style, opinions, voice, vision, philosophies, knowledge, etc. - they’re more likely to want to work with you when they’re ready to move forward.

5. DELIVERS DIGNITY-RICH VALUE. Instead of feeling like they’re being sold to, your audience gets what they want to know when they want to know it. They’re grateful to you for sharing your niche information. They get to know, like, and trust you.

6. LEVERAGES YOUR TIME, KNOW-HOW, AND EXPERTISE. One online article can reach hundreds, thousands, even hundreds of thousands of prospects. And since it’s online, it can attract new readers year after year. What’s more, you can use these articles in your other marketing efforts - in emails to inquirers and current clients, on postcards, and as printouts at networking and speaking events, for example.

7. BOOSTS YOUR BUSINESS AND BOTTOM LINE! Online articles with exceptional resource boxes are organic, keyword-loaded traffic magnets that win the hearts of prospects and search engines alike!

Next time you have an hour or so to work on your business, why not give article marketing a whirl?

Jot down a few bullet points around a process. Answer a frequently-asked question in your area of expertise. Provide a how-to, share a case study, or launch a myth-busting rant.

Then submit your article to a online distribution service, industry publications, relevant media outlets, or all of the above. Post it on your website, send it to your current clients, and put it in your marketing arsenal for unlimited use.

That’s the humble article, at your service. This could be the beginning of a beautiful, profitable friendship!

WANNA USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEBSITE?
Please do! Just kindly include this blurb with it:

Lani & Allen Voivod, aka ‘The Content Lovers,’ help budding entrepreneurs and small biz dynamos ‘A-Ha Themselves!’ in fun, innovative, and profitable ways. For FREE articles, tips, and strategies designed to catapult your content and electrify your business, sign up for their ezine, ‘The Inciter,’ at EpiphaniesInc.com!

Posted in Inciter Articles | 3 Comments »

This entry was posted on Friday, July 13th, 2007 at 11:40 pm and is filed under Inciter Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

(A special thanks to MicroCredit-NH’s Tara Dolphin for writing such a wonderful news release for this event!) 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                       

Boost Business Sales with MicroCredit-NH Workshop
Franklin, NH, July 10, 2007 – Does your small business need a sales boost, but you’re not sure how to achieve it?  MicroCredit-NH will sponsor a “Creating Added Value” workshop in Franklin for small business owners and the self-employed.  It will be held on Friday, July 20th from 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM at the Franklin Public Library on 310 Central Street.

This hands-on session will focus on brainstorming fresh ideas to increase the revenues of small businesses.  Participants will also access effective goal-setting, prioritizing and planning strategies to make their ideas realities.  Lani and Allen Voivod, co-founders and ‘Content Lovers’ of Epiphanies, Inc., will lead the workshop and assist participants with analyzing their businesses in creative and new ways. 

“When the same old marketing and sales methods aren’t working, brainstorming can break through the barriers to change,” said Lani and Allen Voivod. “Done correctly, brainstorming incites new product lines, marketing tactics, and revenue streams for businesses.”

Registration for this event is required.  The workshop registration fee is $15 for MicroCredit-NH members and $20 for non-members.  To register, contact MicroCredit-NH at 1-800-769-3482. For more information about MicroCredit-NH and its statewide business development events, visit http://www.microcreditnh.org and click on “Calendar.” 

To accomplish its mission of increasing the income and economic stability of microbusinesses and the self-employed, MicroCredit-NH provides statewide business development programming, loan capital up to $15,000, and expanded marketing and networking opportunities.  MicroCredit-NH delivers its services through local Business Groups that are comprised of self-employed individuals and small business owners.  Since program inception, MicroCredit-NH has loaned more than $850,000 to New Hampshire’s entrepreneurs.  MicroCredit-NH is a program of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, Inc., a statewide non-profit charitable organization headquartered in Concord.  MicroCredit-NH is generously supported by Citizens Bank, NH Community Development Finance Authority, the Community Development Block Grant Program, among others, and is endorsed by all New Hampshire County Commissions.

# # #

Posted in Brainstorm Blitz, Press 'n Such | 1 Comment »

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 11th, 2007 at 5:54 am and is filed under Brainstorm Blitz, Press 'n Such. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

By now you’ve likely seen The Secret, that ambitious 90-minute info-tainment flick delivering a high-concept, high-energy overview of The Law of Attraction.*

I’m a fan of the movie and of creator Rhonda Byrne’s overall spunk and vision. I’m also a fan of their forward-thinking branding and content initiatives. A few of the highlights include:

• The fact that they made the movie available as a $5 download without a bunch of obnoxious hard up-selling, so cost has never been a barrier to getting the idea out to the masses on an international level. (BTW, the pink-spoon sampling approach has been integral to their overall sales success!)
• A robust and generous website that lets enthusiasts and knowledge seekers get into the story and spirit of it all, with membership areas, printable pdfs, visualization tools, and simple idea-enhancers, like this printable check from the universe.
• Consistent brand voice, energy, content quality, and visual integrity through and through. Not an easy endeavor, but wildly important for world domination.

The Secret is the fearless thrust of a bold idea into the ether — inspired by insight, stories, and optimistic thought leaders — built on the premise of 1000s of years of the world’s most enduring people and legends.

What’s more, the peeps behind The Secret haven taken this bold idea and leveraged today’s tools of technology (not to mention, TALENT POOL!) in fun, creative ways so their message gets out to as many people as possible.

Sure, they’re making a bunch of money, but the MESSAGE reigns supreme. That’s what makes it so very successful.  

An “A-Ha Yourself!” success story if there ever was one.

*A few people I’ve spoken with have read the book instead, but I think the movie is far more effective and efficient, quite frankly. It’s sleek, visual, captivating, and gets the concepts out through a diverse gathering of talking heads, from quantum physicists to authors to passionate idea evangelists. The book loses the multimedia wallop. The information’s there, but you don’t digest it the same way. I’m sure it’s a fine companion piece to the movie, but if you have to choose between either the movie OR the book, go with the movie, ok?

Posted in Brand Funk, How do you "A-Ha Yourself"? | 1 Comment »

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007 at 11:36 am and is filed under Brand Funk, How do you "A-Ha Yourself"?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.