January 18, 2012
Business Success
3 Comments
Many experts, authors, and gifted people around the world are starting new businesses with the start of the New Year. If this is your path, here are tips from my own 11-year journey as an entrepreneur to guide you to bigger success faster. My business anniversary is February 2, and boy oh boy, I’ve learned some hard lessons along the way. I hope by sharing mine, you can get to success faster.
- Dream bigger from the start. In the beginning, my focus was on serving clients in my own Puget Sound backyard, even though successful people who were familiar with my publicity expertise and storytelling gifts were telling me to think nationally or globally. If I had it to do over again, I would have put more emphasis on NATIONAL and GLOBAL REACH of my message right from the start.
- Feel the fear, and do it anyway. I felt fear about what could happen in my life and work if I stepped up big time, and everything I had to learn seemed daunting at the start. Small thinking stood in the way of me serving so many more people so they could welcome the credibility, visibility, and prosperity they have always wanted. If I had it to do over again, I would have stepped forward faster, in spite of the fear, so I could make more impact faster.
- Lead with juicier, higher value, and leveraged offerings first. When I was just starting out, I put a lot of emphasis on creating the absolute best $10 product about do-it-yourself publicity that I could create. Yes, the Media-Savvy-to-Go Publicity Tips Booklets have sold by the thousands since debuting in August of 2006. However, it is so much easier to make a bigger impact for more people and my own balance sheet by leading with a juicer, higher value, and leveraged offerings. Today, the Broadcast Your Brilliance Webinar Series and Bye-Bye Boring Bio PLUS! programs deliver great value for many around the nation and the world at price points that make it a whole lot easier for me to make a good living. Whether you create an entry level product or something much more, you still have to create all the systems to support those offerings. By leading with a deeper offering from the start, the rewards are greater for all.
- Get help. In the beginning, I struggled with the idea of investing in help to fill in the missing pieces in my skill set. That meant spending a lot of time doing tasks that were not in my zone of genius. I was stubborn in thinking that I could figure out everything that needed to get done, including web, shopping cart, affiliate programs, sales page copywriting, and all the rest. If I had to do it over again, I would have hired help sooner. Today my virtual assistant, webmaster, and other technical support team members allow me to do more of what I do best, while they work in their zones of genius for values that make good business sense.
- Invest in yourself. Working with a business coach has been a game changer for me. There is nothing quite like being told with great specificity and absolute candor where the missing pieces are in your mindset and business model so you can move forward faster. It’s not pretty most of the time, and my box of Kleenex gets plenty of use. But I keep on keeping on, and things continue to come together, step by step.
So there you have it. My top five things I would have done differently if I had known then what I know now.
Now it’s your turn. If you’ve been in business for five years or more and are still in business, share what YOU would have done differently to get to success faster. Your tips just might accelerate the success of a worthy business owner who needs your inspiration right now.
I close with a quote often shared by Oprah Winfrey which was shared first with her by Maya Angelou. “When you know better, you do better.” Amen to that.
January 14, 2012
Be Heard, Business Success
No Comments
My ezine from yesterday includes some timely tips that might turn your head. Read it and share your tips and comments in reply here.
January 1, 2012
Business Success
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Happy New Year, one and all.
Today I am sharing one of the articles I wrote in December of 2009 that is well worth repeating. It shares powerful do-it-yourself publicity lessons inspired by The Wizard of Oz to inspire business and success planning for the New Year. Enjoy and share with others who are ready to fly over the rainbow in 2012 to welcome the visibility, credibility, and profitability they dream of. The power to make it happen is well within our own control, so go forth and make it so.
- You don’t have to fly over the rainbow to get much of what you want. Most of the media coverage you seek to make a difference in your business can be found in your own backyard.
- Don’t let “blue bird envy” stand in your way. Wishing and hoping doesn’t get the job done. Get into action today to earn the attention you seek for your message.
- Big news always rings loud and clear – Ding Dong the Witch is Dead.
- Don’t be afraid to ask for help to get what you need. Good witches and mentors are everywhere — if you just ask the local munchkins for quality recommendations.
- Along your yellow brick road to success, don’t settle for Munchkin Land when the Land of Oz is what you really want. Think big about what you want to accomplish and the perfect media outlets where you most want your message to be heard.
- Celebrate new media. If the crystal ball isn’t delivering the solutions and information you need, find alternative ways learn what you need to know to carry your message forward.
- There will be forks in the road and different paths to take along your journey to DIY publicity success. Make a choice, put some spring in your step, and have some fun along the way.
- It takes brains, courage, and heart to make your message stand out.
- Frame your story as a horse of a different color so it stands apart.
- Choose local color to invite memorable and remarkable photo opportunities.
- You have to be willing to put up with things that get in your way, like angry apples, flying monkeys, wicked witches, and sleep-inducing poppies.
- Put your best dress on and your best face forward before you make your pitch.
- Collaborate with a quality team when making your approach.
- Never underestimate the power of a sassy pair of shoes to boost your confidence when pitching a story or doing anything that really matters in your life.
- Don’t easily surrender Dorothy. Be willing to fight for the coverage you want.
- “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” You have more power to make things happen in your business than you ever thought possible. You just have to look in your bag of tricks to find the right tools and resources to the get the mission accomplished. And you have to use them.
- There is no place like home. Start your media efforts close to home and grow from there.
- Earn loyal friends, fans and followers with every step you take. That will go a long way to lend strength and momentum to your buzz-building effort here and beyond, today and forever.
- As you make your own storytelling plans for the New Year, commit to learning new skills to make sure your message is heard, or add the right members to your winning team to bring an element of magic dust to your success equation.
- Set your course, make your plans, and journey forward with quality effort and the conviction to achieve the media recognition you seek.
- Just as Dorothy discovered, you can make a lot of magic happen if you just click your heels together and get to work.
December 30, 2011
Business Success
2 Comments
In March of 2011, I created a vision board, and I’ve been walking by it and looking at it every day since then. My vision board for 2011 showcased five big ideas from Lisa Sasevich that really spoke to me. She advised:
- Find the balance that works for you and live by it.
- Invest in yourself.
- Hire a virtual staff.
- You can sell without being “salesy.”
- Find your unique blessing and share it with the world.
I made big progress on points 2-5, which goes to show that what you focus on comes to pass. And I will confess — and I am sure it comes as no surprise — that I worked way too hard and allowed far too little time for fun in 2011. I declare that 2012 will be different. To make that happen, I will:
- Stay in the “joy zone” as much as possible because when I am doing those things that I am really good at, the light just shines. That is a big part of authentic visibility, and I plan to keep my focus there every single day.
- Keep my focus on the “big rocks” that have the potential to make the biggest impact in my business.
- Practice “sustainable generosity.” That means that I’ll be setting tighter boundaries on my time. If you have become accustomed to me responding to email questions at all hours of the day and night, this change is going to be a big one. Clients enrolled in my group training programs, those who engage my services, and joint venture partners will get my highest priority attention, and everyone else will have to wait.
- Calm the noise. That means being mindful about keeping my attention on relationships, initiatives, and projects that matter and ignoring a lot of the rest. This also is going to be hard, but step by step, I’ll make progress.
What will you be focusing on in 2012? I’d love to hear.
November 20, 2011
Business Success
No Comments
The free teleseminar is tomorrow, Monday, November 21 at 10 a.m. Pacific. You can register at this link to get the call-in instructions, and join us live at my Facebook Fan Page to engage during the call.
November 10, 2011
Business Success, Event Promotion
7 Comments
Alison Marks of 6 Figure Home Office interviews entrepreneurs about how they run their successful businesses, and she has a knack for getting at the tender underbelly about what folks do well and not so well. This is the kind of truth-telling that I find very refreshing. It’s part of my own “authentic visibility” brand to show up and speak my own truth. She is interviewing me at noon on November 15 to pull those kinds of nuggets from me. I’d love to have you listen in. Here is the link to opt-in so you can get the call-in details.
I’ll be giving way the gift of Bye-Bye Boring Bio PLUS! to those who post comments to this blog about the 11-15-11 interview, so please listen in and post a comment. You must post your comment by Friday, November 18 at midnight to qualify for the drawing. I’ll choose the winner randomly from those who post. Good luck!
November 2, 2011
Business Success
1 Comment
A year ago, I invested in a high-end coaching program to help me kick my business into a new and higher gear. I was scared beyond words to write that check because, to tell you the truth, I had never invested at that level in myself or my business EVER. My intentions were very clear, and I worked tirelessly and relentlessly to take action to achieve them. Today, I can say that it was a good investment. I learned what I needed to learn to take action on my biggest business initiatives to bring them to life. And I earned return on my investment. Better yet, I set up systems to support me and my business so future years will be even better.
- Was it a perfect experience? No.
- Can I take responsibility for my part in that? Absolutely.
- Were there blessings waiting? You bet.
The bounty of lessons to be learned by “bellying up to the bar” is there. The key is to “belly up the bar” to learn those lessons and act on them.
No high-end coaching program will do it for you. It’s what you do with what you learn that makes the difference.
September 7, 2011
Be Heard, Business Success
No Comments
This guest blog post is shared today by
Lisa Cherney
Juicy Marketing Expert
President, Conscious Marketing
I’ll be hosting Lisa on Tuesday, September 13 at 5 p.m. for a “Juicy” teleseminar that you won’t want to miss.
Stand Out & Be Juicy: Magnetize Your Marketing to Attract Your Ideal Clients. Click here to register.
A solid marketing foundation is key to a solid business. Even the big boys like Pepsi and Coke realize this! If they get comfortable and let their marketing efforts relax, then sales will suffer, and they’ll have to work twice as hard to get back their share of the market. You, as an entrepreneur and master of your own domain, have to be cognizant of where you spend your time and dollars. Just like a house, you need a strong foundation that you can build on that will stand the test of time. From this foundation, you’ll be able to add on and up as your business grows. So here are the first 2 key elements to a solid marketing foundation, the Juicy way.
- Your ideal client is the foundation of your house. I, like most entrepreneurs, didn’t know when I started my business that just having a “niche” was not accurate or precise enough to create the success that I was after. Let’s face it: your business is you, so you have to love all your clients. You are no longer employed by someone else, in a job where you have to do what your boss tells you and work with people that you don’t necessarily like. You’re the boss now, so you’ve got to love what you do and the people you work with. Picture your clients as the frame that your house is built around. The large bottom part is your target market – the concrete foundation that holds the house together. The walls are your niche that you most want to appeal to, but the roof is where it’s at. They are your ideal clients. So you have to figure out what those folks at the top want to hear from you. It’s not always about money for them, it’s about growth. Do you have what they want? Here’s a question to ask yourself: “Which clients are my favorites and why?” You’ll be making a huge mistake if you only focus on what you do. Focus on the values of your ideal clients, because it will tell you about your own values – and you’ll be speaking the words that they want to hear. It’s the foundation of your house, so make sure it’s solid!
- Always highlight your irresistible Juicy benefits. These are the shutters, the crown molding, the landscaping of your house. It’s curb appeal! It is your unique way of describing how you can change someone’s life. In the end, your credentials don’t matter as much as how their life is going to change once they give your their money. This is where you tell them the benefits of working with you. NOT how many years of experience you have, or the huge mega-companies you’ve worked with, or all the workshops, workbooks and CD’s that they’ll get with your program. These are features, not benefits. Spend the time, dig deep, and have a juicy benefit statement ready to go for every form of service that you provide. This is your opportunity for getting clarity so that your marketing can stand out. These statements help you to know your value so you can charge more. Find the words to say why you’re different than everyone else out there.
The best part about owning your own business is that you get to design your own “house”!
Lisa Cherney, a.k.a. the Juicy Marketing Expert, founded Conscious Marketing 12 years ago to help small business owners find their authentic marketing voice, attract their ideal clients and increase their sales. Following her own Stand Out & Be Juicy program, which centers on owning your unique self and laser-focus marketing, Lisa has tripled her income while working part-time. Prior to Conscious Marketing, Lisa worked with many Fortune 500 companies, including AT&T, Lipton, Nissan, Blue Cross and Equal. She is a highly sought after speaker and often shares the stage with experts such as Jack Assaraf (The Secret), Jack Canfield and Jill Lublin. Learn more about Lisa at www.consciousmarketing.com or call 887-771-0156.
July 3, 2011
Business Success, Measuring Results
7 Comments
Three years ago, my husband Steve and I bought a new house for our treasured family that includes our son Kyle and our golden retriever Shadow. Some would say that the timing was bad, and they would be right. Have the last three years been a challenge for us? You bet. But there is a beautiful silver lining that makes the journey so worthwhile.
It was a BIG leap to make the commitment to buy a new house. Once we stepped forward, there was no turning back. We had no Plan B. We made the commitment. We moved. And we did everything we could to navigate the demanding economy to serve our clients, earn enough money to pay the higher mortgage, and make our new house a home. This was no small feat, given the demands of the Great Recession.
Had we stayed in the other house, it would have been so much easier. We could have hidden out until the dust of the rocky economy cleared. We could have enjoyed more leisure time. We could have marched in place with a whole lot less worry and wonder.
But here’s the thing. Where I live is important to me. Living and working in a space that inspires me to be my best has compelled me to reach higher, go deeper, and find even more satisfying ways to contribute to my clients, bring rewards to them and to me through my work, and build a business that makes me and my family proud. All the reinventing over the last three years has been challenging to my growth as a business owner and in every other way. And that is an understatement to be quite candid with you. When I see photos of me and my son from our move-in date to yesterday — which was our three-year anniversary of moving in — the growth is unmistakable.
Reaching higher — or growing taller as the case may be — requires a great deal of care and feeding. We are all growing in ways that are obvious, subtle, and game-changing if we dare to think bigger for what is possible for our lives and work. Today I can say that I am a great deal happier than I was three years ago, and that is the most priceless reward for having made the move.
Taking a big leap, making a commitment, doing the work, and staying with it have paid off. These are the kinds of lessons my husband Steve and I model for our son, and he’s growing into a fine young man so far. And day by day we are each creating and growing businesses that make us proud. On this Independence Day weekend, that gives us even more reason to celebrate.
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