You hear a lot of buzz words at events, but this one kind of snuck under the radar. Allen (with Lani behind the camera) drags a certain buzzword into the limelight, and shares its importance in three areas of your business. (from Day 1 of the CEO Factor Retreat.)

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This entry was posted on Saturday, April 4th, 2009 at 3:29 am and is filed under "A-Ha!" TV, Call in the Coach. 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.

Lani riffs on her Donny Deutsch-style “Top 3 Takeaways” from Day 1 of Melanie Benson Strick’s CEO Factor Retreat. Also starring Lani’s notebook (get a peek at her signature scribbles - no pun intended), a spectacular coastline view, and our veggie tray.

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This entry was posted on Friday, April 3rd, 2009 at 11:22 pm and is filed under "A-Ha!" TV, Call in the Coach. 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.

If you haven’t yet heard of Liz Marshall and AuthorTeleseminars.com, boy oh boy are you in for a treat. We first “virtually” met Liz when we had a couple of coaching sessions with her Contrarian Effect co-author Michael Port a couple of years ago, and physically met back in November at Ali Brown’s OSBW event. (That’s Liz on the left, us on the right, and friends Jayson Gaddis and Alicia Forest in between, at the hotel bar during the OSBW event.)

AuthorTeleseminars.com is a fabulous, FREE resource. Liz has put together a series of roundtable interviews with some incredible folks over the past year-plus, including David Meerman Scott, John Jantsch, Seth Godin, Andrea J. Lee, Chris Anderson, Tim Sanders, David Allen, and many, many more.

You could call them “virtual books tours” (as Liz does), but they’re much more - they offer a peek into the minds of some of the most relevant marketing and success professionals out there today.

We just got an email about the next upcoming event, and thought we’d share it with you.

Does your business have remarkable brand or just an average one?
Do you sell extraordinary products and services or just the
run-of-the mill kind? It does make a difference.  See, remarkable
brands mean that Orpah is calling, sales are through the roof and
that customers are coming back for more. But, an average brand
and average products deliver just that - average results.

Lynda Resnick is definitely not average.  She’s the marketing
genius behind three of the most successful brands in the world -
POM Wonderful, FIJI Water and Teleflora. In fact, Oprah has raved
about her pomegranate juice and her FIJI water sales increased
over 300% since 2004.

http://authorteleseminars.com/lyndaresnick1.html <- GET THE SCOOP

The good news? You don’t have to be average either.  In fact, you
can learn how to uncover the hidden gems in your business and
deliver the extraordinary value that customers most want.

This Thurs, Feb 19 at 2pm ET (11am PT), Elizabeth Marshall, host
of AuthorTeleseminars.com,is hosting a call with Lynda Resnick,
author of Rubies in the Orchard. On that call, you’ll not only
learn about Lynda’s new book, but you will discover the secrets
to creating the incredible value for your customers most want to
buy.

http://authorteleseminars.com/lyndaresnick1.html <- SAVE YOUR SEAT

In addition to Lynda and me, you will also hear from:

-> Dave Lakhani, bestselling author of Persuasion and Subliminal
Persuasion

-> Melanie Benson Strick, Million Dollar Success Coach and
founder, The CEO Factor

Go ahead and register for the call, even if you can’t make it
live.  Elizabeth, host and founder of AuthorTeleseminars.com,
will send you a recording of the call after it is over.

http://authorteleseminars.com/lyndaresnick1.html <– SIGN UP HERE

Questions? Please email Elizabeth directly, as she’s the one
hosting this call.  You can reach her here:

host@authorteleseminars.com

Enjoy the call!

Posted in Call in the Coach, Fun With Marketing, Tools to "A-Ha Yourself!" | No Comments »

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 at 1:25 pm and is filed under Call in the Coach, Fun With Marketing, 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.

For the record, Allen and I  like Michael Port. He’s authentic. He’s a good guy. He puts out quality information from a place of integrity. He’s passionate about helping and serving other micro-preneurs. Essentially, he’s a giver, a big thinker (founder of The Think Big Revolution, as a matter of fact!), and Allen and I worked with him a couple of years ago and were grateful for his feedback, experienced insight, and spirit.

Which is why we’re sharing his invitation to consider the Book Yourself Solid Certified Coaching Program as a possible pursuit to feed the budding entrepreneur within. 

I’m pasting his email below, in case you or anyone you know is tossing around new ideas about what’s possible to fuel your interests, play to your strengths, and boost your bank account. And even if it’s completely NOT of interest for you right now, reading Michael’s li’l rant about the benefits of being in charge of your own financial destiny — especially in this economy! — is just what the doctor ordered.

And PLEASE, by all means, let me know if this strikes a chord with you and you end up going for it!

Michael’s Subject Line: Let’s be real.

Many of us have found ourselves in a personal economic crisis. However, in today’s uncertain times, there’s no position I’d rather be in than that of the mico-preneur. Completely adaptable. I can change pricing, delivery, product mix and marketing on a dime. My success and financial responsibility rely solely on me.

 

Now, I know that can be scary. But as solo or mico-preneurs, we shape our future. We get to dream as big as we want. Success is in our hands. We aren’t susceptible to corporate restructurings, temperamental bosses, people who micromanage, limited earnings, stifled creativity or corporate misgivings. Ultimately, we are exempt from layoffs and the false sense of security that comes with a corporate paycheck.

 

Yes, revenues may go down, but you control your destiny.

 

The brilliance of the entrepreneurial spirit is, in part, what makes America great. And, it’s what makes you great. In the end, it is also what will lead to our economic recovery, both individually and collectively.

 

In the words of the CEO of the renowned Kaufman Foundation, “History has repeatedly demonstrated that new companies and entrepreneurship are the way to bolster a flagging economy. The American people understand this.” You understand this.

 

In fact, a recent article in the Los Angeles Times showed that “Every sector of the economy was losing jobs except two. One of those was education which increased by over 600%.” (That includes coaching and online education jobs.)

 

It’s a no brainer. Secure your future.

 

The ultimate freedom and success comes from working for yourself. Take control of your future and create a rock solid financial foundation for you and your family.

 

I know being an entrepreneur doesn’t come without risk. That’s why I sent this email - and more specifically created the Book Yourself Solid Certified Coaching Program.

 

Being a relentless Big Thinker and hard core corporate unemployable myself, I’m not about to leave any aspect of your business to chance. Everything I know and use to run my own business I turned into a highly-usable, income-generating, client-landing, turnkey system.

 

One that produces real results, financial freedom and unfaltering security.

 

Check into the most respected, highest integrity business building and coaching solution.

 

• 5-day live coach certification training, with me.
• New client leads funneled directly to you.
• Banner images, icons, and other web graphics.
• Pages and pages of professionally written promotional copy.
• List building and “copy and paste” auto-responder resources.
• Complete turnkey back office system.
• Global and remote server access to your entire business.
• Entry point marketing tools for prospective clients.
• A family of BYS Coaches who stand by your side and jump for joy when you succeed.
• Ongoing free training and coaching with me for the lifetime of your business.

 

The new price for the 2009 training was set to be $7,500. But with all that’s happening in our economy, let’s keep it at the 2008 price of $4995. Even more doable: split it into 5 lay-a-way installments.

 

More than ever, I hope I can make it possible for you to use this proven system to build your own business and feel secure about your future. We are all in this together.

 

Register today for the enhanced 2009 Book Yourself Sold Certified Coach Training (or at least learn more).

 

Please know that I did not drop the price because I need to fill the program. As of today, the course is 80% full of high-caliber people. I’m always up for doing my part. It doesn’t feel right to raise prices in stressful times, even if I can. That’s not how I do business.

 

Book Yourself Solid is hands-down the highest respected, integrity-based, sought after system for service professionals. Now, it’s yours to promote and profit from at last year’s prices.

 

There’s no better way to secure your future.

 

Scoop up all the tools you need to get yourself moving toward a prosperous and abundant financial future. In crunch times, entrepreneurs thrive. And…we get to kick it up a notch with all the creative liberty and life-style freedom we choose! Let’s do it together.

 

This will be the most the most remarkable coaching and business training you have experienced. I know because last year’s absolutely blew me away.

 

Be trained and get the entire system before you even lay down the second payment. Your approved application and deposit today secures your live training spot next month. Plus, receive free access to all Book Yourself Solid live workshops and 15-week tele-coaching programs forever. Your training with me doesn’t stop after March 15.

 

Grow your business with my ongoing support:

 

“As for my “return in investment”, I returned to my office, with a full system that I was confident I could immediately implement successfully. My confidence was not misplaced as I booked enough clients within the first ten days to re-pay my initial investment.” - Megan McKenzie, Book Yourself Solid® Certified Coach

 

Your passion and power combined with the Book Yourself Solid Certified Coaching System has the potential to bring you the financial success and security you’ve been wanting. It’s not going to instantly eliminate life’s big and little problems. But if you commit to it, I promise it will turn your life around. It’s already working for others.

 

I’m here to help you do big things in the world.

 

First and foremost, I want to help you secure a future for you and your family. Beyond that, I dream of supporting you in a way that will impact your family, community and clients. This certification was designed to do just that.

 

I hope you allow me to serve you. Will you take the next necessary step for us to work together? I’d like to be written into the next chapter of your life’s security, success and happiness.

 

I can’t wait to select and meet the final 6 coaches joining me March 11-15, 2009 in Philadelphia.

 

While you’re out and about doing big things, give your success an immediate plan of action of the highest integrity.

 

If you have ANY questions call me personally at 877-279-5220. If I’m on the other phone just leave a message and I’ll call you right back. Or feel free to email me at questions@michaelport.com.

 

Much love and support to you this fine day.

 

Think big,

 

mp

 

Michael Port
author of….
Book Yourself Solid
Beyond Booked Solid
The Contrarian Effect
The Think Big Manifesto (April 13th release)

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 12th, 2009 at 1:06 pm and is filed under Call in the Coach, Dances With Gurus. 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.

If you’re an entrepreneur who comes from a corporate background, and you want to improve your business, or if you’re planning to take the leap and want to start out on the right foot, here’s your chance to learn from the experiences (and mistakes!) of others just like you. It’s the Corporate Entrepreneurs Unplugged TeleSummit, taking place Tuesdays and Thursdays, February 10 - March 19, 10 am PST/1 pm EST.

It’s being thrown by Sherri Garrity and Marcia Hoeck, and they’ve got a fabulous roster lined up, including: Pamela Slim, Michael Gerber, Naomi Dunford, Michael Port, Marie Forleo, James Roche, Gina & Stephen Bell, Elizabeth Potts Weinstein, Melanie Benson Strick and Alicia Forest.

I joined the preview call they held earlier today, and what follows are my notes from the call!

Sherri and Marcia met at Ali Brown’s OSBW, and had an instant connection. They have similar businesses - corporate communications and marketing. Complementary specialties - change management, team building.

They say there’s a difference between lifelong entrepreneurs and peeps who escape corporate for the entrepreneurial lifestyle…and a complete mindshift that needs to happen in that latter set. Especially when it can seem like you escape the corporate world just to create another “job” for yourself. And coming straight out of academia to entrepreneurship creates its own set of issues.

The series is designed to provide positive role models of people who have left corporate and succeeded, and/or serve corporate escapees and do so with a business that doesn’t also work them to death.

Top three reasons why people leave their corporate positions:

• Control - because you have little or no control in a corporate position…
• Security - corporate provides a false sense of security…
• Money - there’s a cap on what you make in a corporate position, and none on your own business!

And here, the main focus of the preview call, are the seven biggest mistakes corporate people make when starting/working their own businesses.

1. Thinking that being good at what you do is the basis for a business. You have to have a market, and people looking for what you have to offer - who can pay for it! - before you can make a go of it. “Starving customers,” as James Roche put it once.

2. Thinking that you can do it all by yourself. You come out of corporate and think you want to ditch everyone, keep it simple, go it alone. And what happens is you plateua in your energy, your lifestyle, and your income, because you can’t leverage your specific abilities. You can have employees, a virtual team, contract for services…there’s more than one way to compound the math of the productivity.

3.Thinking that you can keep yourself on track. You’re so used to the structure of your organization that it feels like you’re throwing off the shackles. And while it can be thrilling to be free of that, it can also be difficult to know what to focus on, and support yourself when you’re the boss and have no pre-ordained structure to rely upon. Mastermind groups help here, too!

4. Thinking that you need to get people’s approval. Nothing is further from the truth. As an entrepreneur, nobody’s there to push you, to tell you what’s right or wrong. It can be very liberating or very lonely, or both at different times! Sometimes there’s an adjustment period to getting stuff OUT THERE without five levels of approval, and the stakes are higher when you represent yourself instead of someone else’s company. Also, even with a team, no one cares as passionately about it as you do. And friends and family aren’t the people to rely upon for advice necessarily, so you have to learn to trust yourself and put a good support system in place.

5. Not continuing to learn. In corporate, all you have to do is your job. If you need education for your job, the company sets it up, and you just show up. When you’re on your own, it’s easy to get caught up working in your business and not on it. You don’t break out of their routines to learn something new, and that’s true of successful AND not-so-successful businesses. And then you find yourself falling behind. Instead, you need to work on your business and yourself - and not just in your field. It’s also learning about marketing, leadership, self-improvement, you name it! In a survey of 200 Chief Marketing Officers, 6 of the top 10 things they’re looking for in new hires relates to knowledge of Web 2.0 and community-building strategies.

6. Not knowing what you really want. Especially if you do in your business what you did in your corporate career. If you don’t, you end up doing things that work well for other industries, or other business models, and it’s not on a path that YOU want to be on. The guests of this series saw their success take off when they tapped in to what they really wanted, found something that aligned with what their market wanted, and found a way to leverage it beyond working 1-on-1. Eight of the 10 interviewees in this unplugged series are women with kids at home, and four of them have kids under five years old.

7. Thinking it has to be “perfect.” Get out and try it, even if it isn’t “perfect” yet. You’ve got to move quickly and get things started, and that’s a better way anyway. The longer you wait, the more you worry, the more you second-guess, the more you let fear in and let fear breed even more fear. “It’s easier to direct the troops once they start moving.” –General Norman Schwartzkopf. The Zigzag Principle: Success never takes a straight line. - -James Roche. Jack Canfield gives the example of driving at night - you can only see a couple hundred yards ahead of you at any time with your headlights, but you can drive all the way across the country that way.

Please consider checking out this great event - it looks like it’ll be incredible, and Sherri and Marcia are donating a portion of the proceeds to Kiva.org, the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world. Their work, though international, is similar in mission to a group we’re members of, MicroCredit-NH. So we can totally get behind it. We’ve already signed up for the Telesummit, and hope you will, too!

Posted in Call in the Coach, Dances With Gurus, Entrepreneur Diaries, Microenterprises R Us | No Comments »

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 at 3:38 pm and is filed under Call in the Coach, Dances With Gurus, Entrepreneur Diaries, 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.

Just got a reminder notice in my inbox from Client Abundance Coach Alicia Forest, about this outstanding telesummit Allen and I already signed up for:

CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURS UNPLUGGED TELESUMMIT

* Tuesdays and Thursdays * February 10 - March 19 *

 * 10 am PST/1 pm EST *

The FREE PREVIEW call is today, at 1:00 pm EST, which means you still have time to sign up!

Access to the whole dang series is a piddly 37 bucks, by the way, and as you’ll see in Alicia’s note, you’ll get to hear the amazing stories of some very successful entrepreneurs. Personally, I think these kinds of educational opportunities through real-life success stories are the best types around. They remind us anything IS possible, and that just about everyone starts from humble beginnings, with nothing but a Big Idea and a BURNING DESIRE to realize it.

I want to share Alicia’s note with you because she did a bang-up job at summing up the value of this interview series. (Plus, let’s face it - sharing Alicia’s wonderful note saves me a bunch of time. :))

So let’s here it for Entre-mom and Entrepreneur Extraordinaire Alicia Forest! Woohoo!

Alicia Forest, Client Abundance Coach (www.ClientAbundance.com)

Please take 1 minute to read this if you’d like to get up close and personal with 12 extrordinary entrepreneurial role models for just $37.

 

I know many of you have left (or are dreaming about leaving) a corporate job for the world of self employment.  What starts off as a desire to be your own boss and control your own destiny can be a little overwhelming, and even scary when we think about our financial security and how to make more money.

I know - I’ve been there. On January 2, 2001, I left my very-stable-with-a-nice-paycheck JOB and jumped into fulltime entrepreneurship with exactly 1 client.

 

It was the best decision I ever made, and that’s why I’m excited to tell you about a speaker series I’m participating in starting this month.

 

What’s different about this series is the angle ~ the speakers have left the corporate world behind and have not only adapted, but have thrived in their own businesses, or have unique and valuable resources to help those who have gone from employee to entrepreneur.

 

We’ll share our personal stories, and give valuable information on topics like how to start a business, marketing, sales and relationships, finance, team building, and being the boss.

The lineup includes well known speakers like Michael Gerber of the E-Myth, Michael Port of Book Yourself Solid, Pamela Slim of Escape from Cubicle Nation, Naomi Dunford of IttyBiz and SEO School, yours truly, and many more.

This is your chance to go behind-the-scenes with highly successful entrepreneurs who know how to get more financial security and control than they ever had working in the corporate world ~ because they’ve done it.

 

And here’s the best part: The organizers are offering access to all 12 interviews for just $37 ~ AND they’re donating a portion of the proceeds from the event to give back to small business owners in other countries through KIVA, so it’s a win-win!

 

Go here to learn more about this powerful telesummit and to register for the f.r.e.e. preview call that’s happening TODAY! 

I hope to hear you on the line!

 

Cheers,

~ A

 

Alicia M Forest, MBA

Multiple Streams Queen & Coach
www.AliciaForest.com

 

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 at 1:05 pm and is filed under Call in the Coach, Dances With Gurus, Storytelling. 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.

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 »

This entry was posted on Monday, October 20th, 2008 at 8:41 pm and is filed under Call in the Coach, Microenterprises R Us, 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.

After yesterday’s post, which ended in a frustrated Catch-22, my lovely wife and business partner Lani gave me a challenge.

(Side note: She was at the 6th Annual MicroCredit-NH Artist Exchange yesterday, connecting with artisans and checking out presentations by Nancy Clark of Glen Group, Jim Horne of Beacon Business Advantage, and Linda Faranas of Millenium Advertising.)

Here’s the refresher: If you don’t have the budget for marketing, and you don’t want to learn marketing because A) it’s not your specialty and B) you know as a business owner you should leave marketing to someone who knows how to do it, then you’re stuck.

So Lani challenged me to answer the question: How do you get unstuck?

Whether you go the Michael Gerber, E-Myth Revisited, employee-based model for your business, or you go the Timothy Ferriss, 4-Hour Workweek, totally-outsourced model, the answer is the same.

You have to start by doing it yourself. Period.

That means you have to do your own learning, purchase educational material, hire a coach/consultant, join a mastermind group, or some combination of these. You have to commit to this.

One of our mentors, Adam Urbanski, says (and I’m paraphrasing a bit) that if you’re a solo professional who sells a product, then, stop saying “You’re in the [product] business,” because it’s not that simple. The reality is that you’re in the business of marketing your product.

Gerber’s business planning acknowledges that, when you’re starting out, you’re doing everything. So he advises you create complete job descriptions and manuals for an employee’s duties. That means you have to know your own marketing cold, so when you get big enough to hire in-house marketing help, you can hand off the duties and know the person will be successful. Why? Because you already did it, and you know it works, and you documented it.

Ferriss lays out the process for building the outsourced model, but you have to do the research to find the product, you have to do the testing to make sure it’s viable, and you have to be able to give the proper direction and guidance to outsourcing firms or freelancers you hire to do the work down the road.

Bottom line: If you are a one-person shop, whether you’re selling a product or service, you have to learn how to market and sell your product or service. YOU. No one else.

And if that means you have to pay to learn, or pay to get coached, then get a budget together, set your expectations, put your money where your passion is, and take the leap. Because you’re not really “paying” - you’re investing with an expectation of return on your investment.

Take advertising as an analogy. Are you spending $100 on an ad, or are you investing $100 with the expectation of getting $500 in new business? That’s the only smart way to look at any marketing expenditure.

Sure, there aren’t any guarantees with marketing. There aren’t any guarantees with business, or with life. What is there, then? Numbers that can be tracked, and campaigns tested and tweaked, until you get the results you’re looking for.

Again: It’s you, and ONLY you.

Take the leap.

Posted in Call in the Coach, Entrepreneur Diaries, Lessons Learned | No Comments »

This entry was posted on Friday, October 3rd, 2008 at 11:57 am and is filed under Call in the Coach, Entrepreneur Diaries, 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.

One of the bummers of being a 41-week pregnant mom, wife, and business owner is I can’t just fly off and attend all the cool content, online marketing, and creative business-building events that take place around this great nation of ours.

Luckily, I can live vicariously through those friends, colleagues, and blogging professionals who are out there in the field, partying with the big, bold ideas of today and tomorrow.

Success coach and info product creation expert Rob Shultz of AudaciousAudio.com is one of those lucky fellas.

Rob just got back from the annual Podcast and New Media Expo (PNME), and scooped the latest news ‘n views of the new media industry. In fact, on his Blogbuster Audio (and Video!) blog, he revealed “The Five Crucial Emerging Audio and Video Trends that can help you boost your profits and more fully leverage your content.”

We’re talking tips and resources for easy, abundant, and often FREE content creation - more proof that there’s never been a better time to be a lifestyle entrepreneur or small business owner.