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Archive for October, 2008
October 31st, 2008 by Content Lover
NH business owner, programmer, and certified bookkeeper Richie OBrien of Mirror Lake Media took time out of her busy day to add her two cents about our recent “How to Recession-Proof Your Business” teleseminar series:
Lani & Allen,
I took your Tuesday teleseminars and really enjoyed them. I always consider these types of things a failure unless I can walk away with several new ways of viewing a challenge, or with several new concrete ways of handling tasks and I did both in all three seminars.
As a new small business owner with years in manufacturing the processes and accounting for a small business are not my challenges but marketing is. I appreciated that in the last seminar Lani stated several times that all of ideas and solutions you offered don’t have to be done now. Working at them over the course of the next year is fine as long as you have a plan in place. This was great to hear because I always feel like everything should be done now.
Thanks for interesting and thought provoking seminars,
 Richie OBrien
Mirror Lake Media
www.mirrorlakemedia.com
Mirror Lake Media has been providing broad-based web and print-design services — as well as a variety of custom programming and management services — for 14+ years. From doing simple site updates for clients to building shopping carts from scratch to installing, training, and supporting “Point of Sale” systems, Mirror Lake Media strives to meet and exceed client expectations.
Thank you, Richie, for sharing your compliments with us!!! We value your perspective.
Posted in Agents of Karma | No Comments »
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on Friday, October 31st, 2008 at 10:43 am and is filed under Agents of Karma.
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October 29th, 2008 by Allen Voivod
I came across this in an email newsletter:
“You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”
-Zig Ziglar
Makes me feel good about the teleseminar series we’re offering. 
Posted in Entrepreneur Diaries | No Comments »
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on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 at 10:49 am and is filed under Entrepreneur Diaries.
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October 28th, 2008 by Allen Voivod
After the final installment in our “How to Recession-Proof Your Business” teleseminar series, Claudia Needham - currently with the Mt. Washington Valley Arts Association, former Regional Manager with MicroCredit-NH and a B&B co-owner, sent us an email you could live off of for years:
You guys are truly amazing! What I admire and respect about you both is that you are walking your talk. You are living and breathing everything that you are teaching and are reaping positive, tangible results as a consequence! Your energy is infectious and highly inspirational. Your results are what is making me stop and listen to you; to try and absorb as much as I can…
I trust what you are sharing in each of these teleseminars. Your (collective) depth of knowledge is staggering and your clients, audiences, and listeners probably can’t even begin to appreciate what you know and how you apply and test it. So I not only applaud your courage and tenacity (I remember where you were three years ago around this time), but cherish who you both are as human beings and friends.
When we first changed our business model in 2006, Claudia was one of our guiding lights. She’s that rare combination of someone with down-to-earth, practical business advice and experience, who also understands, repsects, and puts into use the softer “Law of Attraction”-type lessons of life and business. She’s kept us grounded and uplifted our spirits, and we always seem to have new reasons to be grateful for her presence in our lives.
Thank you, Claudia!
Posted in Agents of Karma | No Comments »
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on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 3:01 pm and is filed under Agents of Karma.
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October 22nd, 2008 by Allen Voivod
 Back when my bro-in-law Fred had just moved back to NH, and was living with us while he worked for the state Marine Patrol, (that’s him on his patrol boat), we got him a poster-sized laminated map/chart of Lake Winnipesaukee from Bizer.
After he moved out and moved on from the Marine Patrol, he left the chart with us. It looks great as an art piece, and since it’s laminated, we put it on the wall in our upstairs bathroom.
Now, leave it to Fred never to mention something like this, and wait for us to find out on our own. One day I was looking at the map, and saw a slice of NH State Route 28 that was darker than the rest of the roadway depicted. I thought that was odd, and leaned in close. And written over the road in tiny letters was this:
“Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.”
The classic Groucho Marx line! But what the heck was it doing on this chart?!
I started studying the chart more closely, and other secret messages revealed themselves:
“Elvis, meet me in Las Vegas next Tuesday - Salman Rushdie”
“I used to work in a blanket factory, but it folded.”
“This space for rent”
Then I started to notice other things - like how the labeling of Rattlesnake Island was done in a curved format, or how Echo Island was labeled as such three times, each time in a smaller font.
I called Fred and asked him if he had noticed this. “Yeah, I used to stare at that chart for hours, looking for more of them,” he said.
Well, I’m ruining the surprise for you, then, by sharing the fact that Bizer is hiding secret messages in their charts. It’s reason enough to buy their charts, but they also claim to produce “the only boating map of Lake Winnipesaukee to meet U.S. government map accuracy standards.”
I’ve never heard of any other map or chart company doing something like this (have you?), and I love, love, LOVE it.
Posted in All About Content, Fun With Marketing | No Comments »
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on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 at 12:12 pm and is filed under All About Content, Fun With Marketing.
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October 21st, 2008 by Lani and Allen
Time: 10 minutes, 15 seconds. Give it a listen with the Audio Acrobat player below!
Featured Expert: Scott Cassano, Account Executive for Marketwire.
Summary: We just signed up with Marketwire, and before our account was officially activated, Scott called to introduce himself. So we decided to put him on the spot and ask him a few questions about the service, and how small business owners can get the biggest bang for their buck out of a press release service.
Teaser Quip: “You really want to think of your release as a web page as well as a press release.”
Idea Path: What differentiates Marketwire from free or more expensive services >> HTML distribution >> SEO >> social media press releases >> distributing within the social media community >> online only distributions >> AP circuits - public companies choosing these >> hyperlocal and global options >> consulting on press releases for biggest bang for the buck >> metadata and Google algorithms >> explosive changes >> keeping up with new information, and passing it on to their clients >> biggest mistake small businesses make with their releases >> what’s the goal of the release? >> strategizing >> adding enhancements to drive traffic >> writing PRs like web pages >> embedding photos and videos in social media releases >> tell the story >> traveling version of your press release >> adds visibility cost-effectively >> what can you do with a $300 budget? >> what’s a realistic budget and expectation? >> regional distribution, gets AP satellite network >> national with 1000 websites, trade publications >> adding metatags and enhancements to round it out
Posted in ADD Info Summits | No Comments »
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on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 at 2:58 pm and is filed under ADD Info Summits.
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October 21st, 2008 by Allen Voivod
It started simply enough, when I signed up for an account. Then I could tweet from their website.
And then I enabled my cell phone, and I started tweeting while waiting to pick up my son at the bus stop.
Then I added BeTwittered to my Google homepage, so I could tweet between headlines, weather, and stocks.
Then I got tired of looking at a terminally blank Facebook status box, so I subscribed to Ping.fm.
Supposedly, tweeting from there would have updated both my Facebook status and my Twitter page, but I haven’t seemed to get it to work very well. So I installed the Twitter application in Facebook, which lets me tweet from within Facebook.
And then I started wondering why I kept getting automatic replies from some folks I followed, which led me to TweetLater. Now, I not only have an autoresponder that thanks people when they follow me, I also have a way to pre-load and schedule the release of tweets - like pre-loading and post-dating updates to a blog.
Speaking of blogging, nothing else since has made getting your content, message, mission, and vision out to the world been so easy.
That is, until Twitter came along.
I hope the owners of Twitter figure out how to monetize it, because I’d be so sad to see it go away…
Posted in All About Content, Social Marketing | 1 Comment »
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 at 7:10 am and is filed under All About Content, Social Marketing.
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October 20th, 2008 by Lani Voivod
SARK ((Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy) has been a HUGE influence on who I am, my capacity for creative thinking, and my appreciation for living, nurturing, and tuning into a more “succulent, bodacious, juicy” life, to crib a few of her favorite words. SARK has been a transformative teacher and leader for over twenty-five years, has written and created 15 best-selling books (and hundreds of products!), and is the founder and CEO of Planet SARK, her company that creates products and services to support empowered living.
I just came across one of her posters on her Amazon blog about “How to Relax About Money.” She wrote and published this little inspiration message way back in 1990, and is sharing it now because of all the current wackiness with our economy. I thought it was good to share here, especially in light of the fact that Al and I are about to do Session 2 of our 3-part teleseminar series, “How to Recession-Proof Your Business,” tomorrow at 1pm.
Tomorrow’s session is “Desperate Times, Desperate Marketing?: 4 Bad Marketing Habits You Gotta Break Now, PLUS 4 Keys to Breaking Them.”
(Can you join us? To show up live or get all three of the MP3 recordings and “Cheat Sheets” to cruise ‘n peruse at your convenience, register here. To read the press release and learn more about the teleseminar event, go here.)
So, without further ado…click here to see Sark’s awesome poster and associated blog post. (I had the image below, but a kind assistant from Sark’s camp asked me to remove it, which of course I did immediately. Sorry, Planet Sark! Won’t happen again. I love you guys and am very embarrassed. My most sincere apologies.)
And RELAX. It’s all going to be OK. Really. It is.
Posted in Call in the Coach, Microenterprises R Us, Mood Boosters | 2 Comments »
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on Monday, October 20th, 2008 at 8:41 pm and is filed under Call in the Coach, Microenterprises R Us, Mood Boosters.
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October 20th, 2008 by Lani and Allen
The link to the release as featured on PR.com: http://www.pr.com/press-release/111773
Laconia, NH, October 20, 2008 –(PR.com)– Epiphanies, Inc., a social marketing and success strategy company, is conducting a teleseminar about identifying and fixing common marketing mistakes on Tuesday, October 21st, from 1:00pm to 2:00pm.
The teleseminar, “Desperate Times, Desperate Marketing?: 4 Bad Marketing Habits You Gotta Break Now, PLUS 4 Keys to Breaking Them,” is the second in a three-part series on “How to Recession-Proof Your Business.” Attendees receive the dial-in phone number and pass code to access the teleseminar once they register online for the call.
Regardless of whether they can make the live call, everyone who signs up receives access to the recorded session and “Cheat Sheets.” This allows people to review the information at their own convenience, multiple times if desired.
“We chose the teleseminar format to make it as inexpensive, convenient, and accessible for businesses as possible,” says Lani Voivod, co-owner of Epiphanies, Inc. “Because they call a phone number to attend, anyone across the country can join without paying travel costs, for example.”
The other two teleseminars in the series are “The New Rules of Shoestring Marketing: Free and Low-Cost Tips and Strategies to Get More Prospects, Clients, ‘n Dough ($$$) in the Door,” and “Slaying Self-Sabotage: 17 Mindset Mistakes You Can’t Afford to Make in a Downturn (and 5 Ways to Avoid Them All).”
The cost to attend is $47, which includes access to download and keep MP3 recordings of all three “How to Recession-Proof Your Business” teleseminars, plus all “Cheat Sheets” related to the teleseminar topics. To register, go to www.EpiphaniesInc.com/thrive.php. For more information, contact Lyn Toomey at Lyn@EpiphaniesInc.com.
###
Contact Information
Epiphanies, Inc.
Lani & Allen Voivod
603.524.5248
press@epiphaniesinc.com
www.EpiphaniesInc.com
Lyn Toomey, Marketing Manager
Lyn@EpiphaniesInc.com
Posted in Press 'n Such | No Comments »
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on Monday, October 20th, 2008 at 10:18 am and is filed under Press 'n Such.
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October 19th, 2008 by Lani Voivod
I shouldn’t be blogging right now.
For one thing, it’s 11:21pm on Sunday night, and the Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays are in Game 7 of the ALCS.
For another thing, I’m a 1/2 pitcher into a blendie margarita. (Woohoo!) Yum. Life is good.
But I have to come clean, because what’s happening right now — what Allen and I are doing as I type, on our living room couch, next to our dog, in front of the Sox game — is so ridiculous I might pee laughing.
We’re passing my laptop back and forth, tweeting and answering tweets, changing out usernames each time, and laughing all the way. What’s making us snortle?
- Allen just sent a Haiku to Timothy Ferriss (author of The 4-Hour Workweek — a definitive must-read for ANY lifestyle entrepreneur. Don’t walk, RUN to your nearest bookstore and get it!) at Tim’s request.
- We found out our biz coach, Melanie Benson Strick, liked our input on a recent coaching call she invited us to speak on.
- We discovered the mysterious deal w/ “hash tags” in a Twitter post, thanks to Kristine Wirth
- Brian Clark of www.CopyBlogger.com and a fellow www.Junta42.com lister unwittingly encouraged us to mix a new cocktail “afterhours”
- We found a guy who’s embarking on a quest to become the first “Earth Emperor”
- We marveled at the fact that Guy Kawasaki has more than 21,000 followers AND followees
- Allen schooled me on the whole “@ replies” thing, where suddenly you find out a bunch of people have responded to previous tweets, and you had NO idea whatsoever
Now, none of that stuff by itself seems very funny, or serves as a compelling reason to start tweeting yourself. Not only is it slightly imbecilic, but it takes us away from giving our full attention to the game, the present moment, and each other.
However…the simplicity behind Twitter — a “micro-blogging” site that allows you to write as many posts as you want — providing they’re EACH under 140 characters — is downright HOT.
You can pop over and scan and reply to and play with anyone and everyone w/o any real social expectation. You can make connections, and not lose a whole afternoon stressing about how you’re phrasing any part of your communications. You can be a VOYEUR into others’ lives, and indulge in the magic of inexplicable synchronicity. You never know who’s listening, who’s tweeting, who’s up, who’s active, who CARES. All you have to do is…well…WHATEVER YOU WANT. And it’s alllllllllll good.
It’s the best of all worlds — utterly silly, yet secretly POWERFUL, with tons of potential for your life and business. A line here, a comment there, a note, question, response, or insight here, there, and everywhere, and *BOOOYAA* suddenly you’ve made a bunch of really amazing connections, without any of the sweaty, icky effort.
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