Okay, so Allen and I have been proudly calling ourselves “The Content Lovers” of Epiphanies, Inc. for a couple of years now. Which is to say…

1. We love content (duh, right?)
2. We believe in the power of great content to build businesses and skyrocket profits
3. We champion its vital role in all marcom for ALL ventures - from the solo pro’s email signature or website to corporate white papers, CEO podcasts, social networking pages, tweets, text messages, YouTube clips…the works. 

Then this Joe Pulizzi dude of Junta42.com strolls into the picture, and all I want to do is build him a monument, declare him the King of Content, and bow down to his passion and commitment to everything content-related until the end of my days.

I can only imagine he’s got an army of brilliant content trolls working underground 24/7 to pull off what he’s been doing over the last year or so. Not only has he launched and declared a CONTENT REVOLUTION (and explained it in quick, rock-n-roll powered 2-minute videos!), but he’s created Junta42 Match – the eHarmony for Publishers and Content Providers — a place they can flirt, assess needs and expectations, and go all the way with their missions and visions, if that’s the way the relationship plays out.

Jeez, Joe. Do you sleep? How are you doing this all so well?

Here’s the quick YouTube vid, if you’d like to find out more about how you can use Junta42 Match to help take your message, mission, and vision to the next level. It’s a killer idea, and it sure looks like Joe has executed the idea like a rockstar. Hope you can use this resource to drive your profits and build your business with stellar content! (Which, of course, is a KILLER way to “A-Ha Yourself!”)

And, if you end up using Junta42 Match, please let us know how it goes for ya.

Posted in All About Content, How do you "A-Ha Yourself"?, Tools to "A-Ha Yourself!" | 1 Comment »

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 7:52 pm and is filed under All About Content, How do you "A-Ha Yourself"?, 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.

I’ve been listening to “Coach Deb,” aka Deborah Micek, in the second of a series of calls being hosted by Marketing Mentor Adam Urbanski on Social Media Networking. The third call, tomorrow, is about Facebook, and the fourth call, Thursday, is about creating an “Integrated Social Networking Strategy.” You can listen live to either or both of the last two calls, and get recordings/transcripts of all of them along with bonuses, at FromContactsToContracts.com.

Adam says that, with Twitter, he was able to make contacts and connections very rapidly - even with people after whom Adam had been chasing via phone and email without success. Deborah says that even if you aren’t ready to start using Twitter, grab your name on there without spaces and without underscores, either of which brands you as a latecomer or late adopter. Get your brand, company name, and products names, too!

Here’s a sample of the nuggets of information I gleaned from the call - some of this is paraphrased as best as I could catch it here while listening to the webcast:

Top 10 Reasons You Could/Should Be Using Twitter:

1. Enables you for quick, instant communication with your “tribe.” (You can even use a separate account to send messages to a private “tribe” to their cell phones.)

2. For brand recognition. You can tweet to other folks directly with the “@” sign attached to the beginning of your user name (without a space), and because you’re using a brand or company name as your user name…you get the idea.

3. Reputation management. If you don’t have a presence, you don’t know what people are saying about you, you can’t respond appropriately, and you can’t join the conversation.

4. Research and knowledge.

5. Trendspotting.

6. Being on the bleeding edge of what’s going on in the world (or your world).

7. Strengthen the bonds between friends, colleagues, and JV partners.

8. Attract new clients. (Not actively going after them - it’s more subtle than that.) And it’s purposely NOT the #1 reason you should be on Twitter.

9. To find and connect with influencers, and keep in touch.

10. SEO. It’s one of the top SEO options for online research. (Look at TweetScan.com for an example.)

Rules to Play By on Twitter:

1. Business is ALWAYS personal. Twitter gives you the ability to get personal with your audience. The watch words: Transparent and authentic.

2. Captivate, use influential language, and give people a reason to continue a conversation at your blog if you have more to say on a subject.

3. Have contests.

4. Think about (and ask about) what clients love about you, and let that shine through on Twitter.

5. Write as though you’re talking to one person.

6. Use a 1:8 ratio of tweets that are at all promotional, versus: Being a resource for people; talking to people and about people; sharing links, resources, and blog posts from other folks; connecting with people, etc.

7. Don’t send people to sales pages or landing pages - send them to your blog.

8. Every 10, 12, or 20 tweets, ask your followers a question.

9. Attract and connect on Twitter - convert on your own site/blog.

10. Give people the opportunity to be a resource to you - people naturally want to be helpful and valuable, and you don’t have to know everything.

Hope this is useful to you! Again, check out FromContactsToContracts.com to get more detailed, real-time access. And check out Deborah and Adam on Twitter as well.

Posted in Dances With Gurus, Fun With Marketing | 1 Comment »

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 at 2:55 pm and is filed under Dances With Gurus, Fun With Marketing. 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.

I just found out George Carlin died. #$%@.

Carlin, a #$%@*^’ primo example of how to “A-Ha Yourself!” because he grabbed hold of his authentic innards and threw ‘em out on the buffet table of life for all to feast and gorge, if they could handle his wicked, wonderful, wacked-out flavor. 

Muther-#$%@*^’ Carlin. One of the top 10 Content Anarchists of all time (and right now I have no idea who the other nine might be - everyone else I think of is paling in comparison).

George muther-#$%@*^’ Carlin. A fearless philosopher, thinker, commentator, observer, comedian, and truth sayer. Genius behind (and star of) 23 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, and three books. Showstealer of dozens of movies and TV shows. Five-time Grammy winner, nominated for four Emmys, and 2008 recipient of the 11th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which will be presented Nov. 10 in Washington and broadcast on PBS.

“I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.”

Thank you for doing your civic duty, Mr. Carlin — for crossing that line, over and over again, showing us how silly we all can be, and calling us all on our *#@$ %^&* whenever we needed it. Your scathing wit and infinite wisdom will be missed. Luckily, I know you’re not too torn up about your own demise, cuz you even riffed on the ridiculousness of death:

“I’m getting old. And it’s OK. Because thanks to our fear of death in this country I won’t have to die — I’ll ‘pass away.’ Or I’ll ‘expire,’ like a magazine subscription. If it happens in the hospital they’ll call it a ‘terminal episode.’ The insurance company will refer to it as ‘negative patient care outcome.’ And if it’s the result of malpractice they’ll say it was a ‘therapeutic misadventure.’”

Peace be with you, you ol’ %$&*#@%^*& you. And I mean that in the most loving, respectful, reverent way a nice girl can say it these days without being censored, fined, or dismissed as unprofessional.

(Maybe some day I’ll have the %^**@ you did to just come out with it, without worrying about the consequences.)

Posted in Dances With Gurus, How do you "A-Ha Yourself"? | No Comments »

This entry was posted on Monday, June 23rd, 2008 at 6:52 pm and is filed under Dances With Gurus, 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.

We’ve been watching the audition rounds of So You Think You Can Dance, and one of the most crazy-talented people they took to their second-level Las Vegas Round was Robert Muraine, a “popper” who can do absolutely mind-bending things with his body.

But one of the things all the contestants have to do is learn choreography - short rehearsed routines. Muraine was having a lot of difficulty with it, and was talking about leaving the show, rather than “mess up a partner” when he couldn’t perfom.

Well, word of that got to the judges, and they gave him an opportunity to do his solo routine first.

Someone posted what happened to YouTube, and it’ll just astound you. Watch how amazing he is. Watch how he gets a standing ovation from everyone. Watch how the judges do everything they can to encourage him to stay. And watch how so terribly, terribly powerful an enemy the fear is.

Posted in A-Has in the Ether, Lessons Learned | No Comments »

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 at 1:10 pm and is filed under A-Has in the Ether, Lessons Learned. 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.

Still think blogging isn’t powerful? Tell that to the 64 people who’ve been arrested since 2003 for blogging.

Yep. Arrested.

And it’s getting worse. The arrest rate has tripled from 2006 to 2007. We just read about this in a BBC news report, and you can read the whole report referenced in the news at the World Information Access site.

And here’s the sobering closing paragraph from the WIA’s own blog post about this:

After surveying our data, we predict that the number of blogger arrests will rise in 2008. The popularity of online blogs continues to grow and inspire more media coverage of arrest incidents. Countries are enforcing greater Internet regulation, which will only increase with the elections in China, Pakistan, Iran and the United States this year. Assuming a pattern similar to Egypt’s occurs, the number of political blogger arrests has nowhere to go but up. With already four incidents in January and February, we expect the number of arrests in 2008 will exceed that of 2007.

Take advantage of the power you have at your disposal with blogging.

And with that, I’m stepping down off my soapbox. 

Posted in Blog Bits | No Comments »

This entry was posted on Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 11:01 pm and is filed under Blog Bits. 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.

Social media. Social networking. Facebook. LinkedIn. MySpace. Ryze. Zaadz (or is it Gaia?). Twitter. Friends. Colleagues. Contacts. Invitations. Clubs. Connections. Communities. Networks. Events. Winks. Tags. Walls…

Anyone else confounded by the whole world of online networking hubs?

Wouldn’t it be nice to connect with real, live, breathing professionals who share similar goals and interests while still remembering to HAVE FUN?!!! (Cuz really, if you’re not having fun while you’re pursuing your passions, building your business, or creating your life, what’s the point?)

I’ve struggled to stay awake at various chambers of commerce meetings from DC to LA to Laconia, NH. I’ve noshed rubbery chicken and flavorless pasta dishes at networking events in and around Boston. I’ve been searching for “My Peeps” for a while now, and had pretty much given up the quest.

Until last month, when I hit the 1st anniversary celebration of Women Inspiring Women (WIW), a “networking and development” group that’s growing like gangbusters in membership and reputation throughout NH’s Lakes Region…and the state of NH, too.

Maybe it was as simple as the dozens of pink boas strewn around the tables and displays. (That alone made me giddy.) Or perhaps it was Powerhouse Consulting’s Kathleen Peterson and her keynote speech, “From 34B to 40D…One Woman’s Journey,” in which hard-won tips on personal branding were interspersed with tales from the menopause trenches and the pitfalls of wearing Spanx.

Or maybe, just maybe, it was the the fact that I was greeted with genuine warmth and enthusiasm by everyone, including FABULOUS founder and president Leslie Sturgeon, Career Sparks’ Michelle Whitenack, Edward Jones’ Katie Laux, and so many others.

No one assessed my nametag, shoved a business card in my face, and went off to the next victim…er, I mean, target. No one looked like they were being tortured, or like they overdosed on Lunesta. (Conversely, no one looked like Charo on the Love Boat, either, which can happen at some women-dominant events.)

It just felt like a fit. I kept thinking to myself, “I belong here.” That’s a good feeling, especially in this time of impersonal digital blast networking gone wild. (Thousands of friends? Really?)

This month’s meeting — a lunch soiree featuring Certified Image Consultant Susan Osborne of Be Image Consulting — hit all the right notes, too: Relevant, engaging, well-attended, useful, interesting, unstuffy, and FUN. I gave them my membership dues with gusto, and I’m already looking forward to the next inspired batch of panel discussions, socials, programs, and roundtables.

For a professional gal who’s short on time and always on the look out for personal and professional support and success strategies, I feel insanely lucky that Leslie Sturgeon decided to launch her brainchild up in our neck of the woods. Thanks, Leslie! I’m psyched to be on the WIW team, and can’t wait to learn, blossom, laugh, and grow with you and the rest of the pink boa-wearing power players.

***Hey — if you’re a chick doing biz or playing with your passions in NH, I highly encourage you to come join the party!***

P.S. Need a reminder of what networking’s all about? Check out this article, “The 1-2-3 of Successful Business Networking,” from Career-Resumes.com (for which my dear hubby serves as Chief Blogger).

Posted in Masterminding, Microenterprises R Us | 1 Comment »

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 14th, 2008 at 5:15 pm and is filed under Masterminding, Microenterprises R Us. 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.

Skyline Exhibits is one of the biggest providers of trade show booths, from pop-up styles to full-blown installations. And as a lead generation strategy, they’ve taken it upon themselves to help educate their target audience on how to get the most out of their trade show investment.

Isn’t that smart? An appearance at a trade show can be quite expensive - one client of ours spent close to $100,000 last year, for booth space and all the expenses that go along with it. And they rented a booth (not from Skyline) for about $15K, not including the production of the graphics for it.

If you’re gonna make that kind of investment, you’d better feel good about it. That’s what Skyline’s trying to do, by offering free seminars for people responsible for making trade show appearances count.

As of this writing, they’re currently promoting seminars in 26 states (including l’il ol’ New Hampshire!), plus a few in Canada and one in Australia. I went to the “Successful Trade Show Marketing Strategies” session yesterday with Katie Oddy, Karina Giordano, and Debbie Carbone from Acorn Creative (and had a very happy meeting with someone to whom I’d only spoken with over the phone while she was a client last year, Cynthia Mailhot of G.M. Roth).

In a two-hours-plus presentation, we did get a sales pitch of sorts, but it was about as light as you could expect - a slide show of different booth designs they’ve done, which lasted about 15 minutes. With the rest of the time, presenter Frank Leggio from Skyline North answered a bunch of audience questions, gave us a good overview of trade show marketing, and sent us home with multiple booklets of information, forms, checklists, and more good stuff.

This is Dignity Marketing™ in action. Skyline has a ton of experience with trade shows, and instead of making an outright sales pitch for their booths, graphics, and consulting services, they offer free information of tremendous value to their potential customers. (Customers who, as a result, don’t mind at all when Skyline shows a little slide show in exchange for the value Skyline delivered.)

Of course, Skyline’s big enough that they can offer sessions like these dozens of times all over the country. For lifestyle entrepreneurs, this may not be so easy. But you can probably do something similar, on a local scale. for example, another client of ours, ClosetPlace, invited a professional organizer to give a workshop in their showroom. Pretty neat-o, I’d say.

Give it some thought, and see what kind of educational opportunity you could offer!

Posted in Fun With Marketing | No Comments »

This entry was posted on Friday, June 13th, 2008 at 12:45 pm and is filed under Fun With Marketing. 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.

Time: 7 minutes, 28 seconds. (Roughly equal to 12 seconds of game time in an NBA Basketball broadcast.)

Featured Experts: Just the two of us this time

Summary: Hot on the heels of multiple failed attempts at helping a client get on the podcasting bandwagon, we explain what mistake we made, and answer the objections to podcasting by riffing on a few good ways to use them.

Teaser Quip: “Doing a regular podcast is almost like doing live radio in a sense, where anything can happen, people are going to screw up, and just like any sort of real-live sales conversation, you’re gonna have to deal with things on the fly.”

Idea Path: Basically, what is podcasting? >> Before “How-to, why-to” >> Need more time to think about what you say >> Record what you say all the time >> Intelligently leveraging your expertise >> Sounding like an idiot >> Sounding genuine, sounding polished >> Another reason for a sales touch >> How you connect with the way information is presented >> The way people search >> Roll with it! >> The time and place for passion and perfection >> Compared to live radio >> Deal with sales on the fly >> Set expectations for your podcast >> Reality web surfing >> What you want to hear, and how you want to hear it

Posted in ADD Info Summits | 1 Comment »

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 at 3:22 pm and is filed under ADD Info Summits. 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.

We took a deep breath, and jumped.

That’s the best way I can describe our leap into signing up for Melanie Benson Strick’s coaching program, the Fast Track to a 6 & 7 Figure Lifestyle Business.

We’ve just had our first mastermind call this evening, and we’re thrilled that we’ve reached the point in our business where we feel confident that investing in her coaching program is the next step for taking Epiphanies, Inc. to a new level of success.

It’s not our first time in a coaching program. We were in Adam Urbanski’s “Platinum VIP” marketing mastermind group from June 06-June07, and we were so green in our business, working with Adam really helped us to get started in the world of educational marketing. Adam, we would never have made it this far without you. 

We’ve gotten to the point now in our business where mindset, belief, and delegating to a team are probably the most critical challenges we’re facing, and Melanie’s the perfect person to help us in this area.

This first module we’re going through is designed to set the baseline, so to speak, with an eye on the areas of our business we’ll be working to improve over the next 5-6 months. It’s almost daunting to see how low we scored in the initial assessment, but heck, that means there’s nowhere to go but up, right?

Ultimately, our goal is threefold:

1. To continue to help our million-dollar-revenue clients implement the latest content development and marketing success strategies, to boost their reputation, visibility, and bottom lines.
2. To share what we learn, so we can help NH’s lifestyle micro-preneurs and adventurous small business owners to build their businesses powerfully, confidently, and strategically, through workshops, teleclasses, and other educational programs.
3. To own the “A-Ha!” (bold insight PLUS joy-filled action) once and for all.

This opportunity to shift and grow with other 6 & 7 figure business owners around the country is invaluable. We’ve re-jiggered our lives to make the time to work on our business, not just in it, overcome our fears, stop second-guessing ourselves, and turn concepts like the 80/20 Rule and the Law of Attraction into allies.

Are you interested in us sharing this journey with you on our blog? Please leave us a comment and let us know.

Posted in Dances With Gurus, Entrepreneur Diaries, Masterminding | No Comments »

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 at 8:20 pm and is filed under Dances With Gurus, Entrepreneur Diaries, Masterminding. 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.

On the right there is Anthony Theos. Anthony’s mother Joy is a lifelong friend of Lani’s, and as a couple we’re good friends with Joy and her hubby Tony. The photo is from 2003, not long after Anthony was born.

If you look close (it’s a small photo, after all), you can see the scar on his chest from where doctors at Children’s Hospital Boston had to open his chest up and operate. I’ll spare you the details - suffice it to say, the Theos family spent Anthony’s first months of life at Children’s Hospital Boston, and the odds of Anthony’s survival were not good at all.

Five years later, you look at Anthony and if you didn’t know it, you’d never be able to guess what he went through. [That's him on the right, with his younger brothers Dominic and baby Luca.] He has a perfect boy’s life, and it’s all because of the people at Children’s Hospital Boston, who took such good care of him.

This coming weekend is the annual NSTAR Walk for Children’s Hospital Boston, and Lani and I will be walking with the “Awesome Anthony” team to raise awareness and funds for this incredible institution. In the words of Joy and Tony:

As you know, Children’s Hospital Boston is a very special place to us! Each year as this fundraiser approaches, we reflect upon our time spent there. Living the first couple months of Anthony’s life within the walls of this hospital was unexpected and heartbreaking to say the least. Yet, as we look back on the experience so much more stands out in our minds. We are forever grateful to the brilliant doctors and nurses who saved his life while at the same time managed to support and show compassion to us as parents.

The dedicated people who work there continue to make a difference in our lives as Anthony continues with his treatment. His ongoing good health is due to their care! We are thankful to them every day and fundraise so they will be able to conquer the health challenges that we, along with other families, face.

And, our team is growing with each year! We are honored to walk with two other children, Delaney & Maddy, who have been patients at Children’s Hospital. Our three little angels will be walking (or riding) 7 miles to help other children who face challenges smaller and much, much larger than theirs.

Thank you for your ongoing support!

Help us help them, and Children’s Hospital Boston, with your contribution. Lani and I hope to raise $150 each to the cause. You can contribute under Lani’s name or my name, and please - even it’s just a couple of dollars, every little bit helps. Thank you.

[One more photo for you - that's our son Joe on the left, who'll be doing the Walk with us as well. Anthony's in the middle, Dominic's on the right.]

Posted in Agents of Karma, Mood Boosters | No Comments »

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 at 11:37 am and is filed under Agents of Karma, Mood Boosters. 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.