10 Years of Business Lessons–Chapter 3: How I Got People to My Live Events

February 13, 2017 By Leave a Comment

On February 27, 2017, I will celebrate the 10th-year anniversary of the launch of my second business, Inspired Leaders’ Academy. This is a series of excerpts that tells the story of these ten years to help you navigate these same waters more easily and faster!

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In the last chapter, I told you that my marketing strategy for launching my new business, which then centered around a proprietary public speaking signature program, was to lead a free live “teaser” event. This was educational and highly engaging, but also the opportunity for me to sell my public speaking training. Back then, this was a new strategy; now, of course, you see it online everywhere in webinars.

So, how did I get folks to attend the free teaser—and how is this relevant in today’s world, when so much of this is going on online?

Let me answer that question first. The world of online marketing is so saturated with free webinars, in many ways, they’re becoming invisible, wouldn’t you agree? Smart business owners are seeing the need to get back to basics and meet with people in person again—thus the rise of the MeetUp. In the ten years since I was doing free live events, I’ve seen the progression away from them, beginning in 2009 to back again in 2015. I encourage all new solopreneurs to lead live events, and MeetUp is helpful in that it promotes for you (on a very limited scale!), but my strategy from ten years ago is more valid today than it has been in years.

Essentially, I filled my teaser (i.e. “portal” event) by going to local networking events. My market was business owners and my thesis was that public speaking was–hands down–the best strategy for getting business, and my call to action was, come see how to be better than virtually all other speakers so you stand apart and get sales.

The most important key was providing them with a “ticket” to the event in the form of a colorful postcard with compelling copy.

I can’t find the February 2007 version, but here’s one from 2009.

On the back, I shared the value of the event in dollar terms ($49) and then said that “with this ticket, you attend for free.” I went to networking events constantly, but by May 2009, word of mouth was working for me.

Getting them in the room is 70% of the challenge—but the rest is what happens in the room. It has to be great or you will lose the sale. You and I have seen many, many, many really bad free talks (whether online or in person) and what’s sad is that the leader doesn’t understand that the content and delivery cost them dearly. Don’t make that mistake: thinking you’re delivery and material are compelling when they’re not!

In my event, I used the very brain-based-learning technology I was “teaching and teasing” and of course, this worked (because these techniques are highly experiential and compelling.) I asked lots of questions; invited people onto stage to be scribes, or to demonstrate. I had everyone verbalizing throughout the event because twice as much brain circuitry is activated when we talk versus just listen. It was fun and it was memorable.

But it was also new. I was teaching things no one had heard of before. This is the “thought leadership” I now focus on so precisely in my work: you need to illuminate what is wrong with current conditions (in this case, how most people give talks) and how an entirely new methodology (talking to the brains in their audiences) would get them far greater results.

And it called them into action in a very concrete way, as I described in detail in Chapter Two. This is a critical distinction, though, and worth repeating. If the rest of the challenge is what “happens in the room,” then it stands to reason that what happens must be effective. Making an offer in no uncertain terms is effective. Harv Eker said often to us, “Never, ever let warm bodies out of the room [without telling them what you have for them because it’s human nature that they will get distracted by the next day].”

When you host your own event, you can do this. I spent 20 minutes on the offer–after over an hour of teaching. And I gave them a heck of a deal. Remember, you are offering something extremely valuable (hopefully!) at a discounted rate that they couldn’t get if they weren’t in the room with you. This is a gift for them. They can choose to take it or not, but you are helping them by giving them a choice to improve their lives. Many don’t see it that way, but that’s only because they have internal conflicts around selling. (I know about this! As I said, I refused to sell for years and consequently hated anyone who tried to sell to me. The two are inextricably linked.) But the truth is, giving an opportunity for someone to achieve a better standard of living is always a gift.

So, there’s how I filled my free portal events and how I made them work for me by giving a high-value, stand-apart experience with an explicit offer.

This is a strategy you want to duplicate.(In subsequent chapters, I’ll tell you how I transitioned to doing this online.) But remember, people want to meet in person more and more now, so be sure that a live talk/seminar is part of your marketing strategy.

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To conceptualize and structure your next talk/event, download my proprietary design template, The Easy Plugin Design Model. Click here for it.

And today, I am offering 2, 90-minute sessions to help you duplicate my marketing strategy (free live event/talk) as well as conceptualize the content. Because this is my 10th year anniversary celebration, I’m offering my expertise at a discount, which I never do. Just fill out this form now that gets us on a quick free call to ensure you’re ready for this.Go ahead! I promise there’s nothing to lose!

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10 Years of Business Lessons–Chapter 1: When It’s Time to Change Direction

February 7, 2017 By Leave a Comment

Over the next 3 weeks, I will be commemorating my 10 years as an influential communication strategist in my second business–in the hopes that doing so will help you make more strategic decisions, avoid ditches and dead ends, move along much faster--and, overall, keep you inspired as you, too, traverse the winding and unpredictable road of self-employment.

It all began on February 27, 2007, when I launched Inspired Leadership Training with a 2-hour, free live event.

Well, no, I should back up.

It really began about 18 months earlier, when I attended The Millionaire Mind Intensive, then run by marketing and live event genius, T. Harv Eker. Over those 3 days, I fell in love with how I felt as an audience member, with how powerfully and effectively they engaged me and I wanted to learn how they did it!

That weekend, I enrolled in Eker’s Train the Trainer program—and once there, lost my heart to how they worked with audiences, through something called “accelerated learning.” A teacher deep down, I soaked up the many, many techniques educational science had developed on enthralling an audience and ensuring deep learning, then I registered for their higher-level certification course on the subject.

After five years of it, I was feeling uninspired working 1-1 as an empowerment coach, and tired of inconsistent sales, too, and so, it was right there at the certification course that I decided to change the trajectory of my career completely. Never mind that a non-fiction book I’d written was being considered by a trade publisher—I wanted nothing more now than to teach these techniques. I was done coaching. I wanted to educate and invoke the spirit of my minister father, a passionate and powerful orator.

As I considered my target market—something I’d failed to do with my coaching business—I considered the fact that the success I’d had as a coach had been due almost entirely to my public speaking. I knew that speaking was the most successful marketing strategy for any entrepreneur, and I decided that I wanted to help my fellow pack-leavers succeed at it.

I also knew that the accelerated learning techniques I was learning would set them apart from every other speaker out there. Not only were they effective, they were inspiring and empowering, something most presentations lack completely!

I quickly conceived the name of my new business: Inspired Leadership Training. Ten years later, it has only shifted slightly to Inspired Leaders’ Academy. I teach my clients now to choose a name that will last for years; mine has always stayed on-target, true to its purpose, and the tag line is as true today as ever: Revolutionizing the Way We Succeed.

So, I completed the certification course but I had a problem: I didn’t know why these accelerated learning techniques worked. Yes, K-12 educators had been implementing them successfully since the early 1970’s, but why? I went in search of answers and soon discovered “brain-based learning” and spent well over a year studying everything I could get my hands on about learning, memory and emotion in the brain.

By late 2006, I had developed my own curriculum for a live public speaking training centered around how the brain learns. The techniques were very similar to accelerated learning’s, but I was pleased to be able to call on hard neuroscience to explain why, for instance, an audience leader should ask constant questions, even rhetorical ones; have audiences verbalize rather than just listen—and why information must be delivered in a very particular sequence.

I named my proprietary formula—i.e. signature program--Secrets of Impact and Influence, and, modeling the way T. Harv Eker sold his trainings, I designed a free ‘teaser’ 2-hour live event to sell the for-sale, signature program.

Back then, this was a rare strategy, believe it or not! I had no idea when I began that within three years, free teleclasses would be all the rage on the internet, and a few years beyond that, free webinars. In February, 2007, this was a novel and successful strategy that I used for the next two years.

In the next installment, I’ll reveal how I marketed the 2-hour event and how the content was designed. Remember, it had to sell my (at the time) 1-day public speaking event. I had learned a lot from T. Harv Eker about selling from stage, and I brought those lessons to bear as I conceptualized my teaser event—the portal to my brand new business.

LESSONS: 

  1. Follow your intuition. If you fall in love with a new direction, follow it!
  2. Be smart: Choose a target audience and make sure there is a strong market for what you want to sell.
  3. Be creative: Make sure what you’re offering is unique in the marketplace! That it has a unique and proprietary ‘formula.’
  4. Be strategic: Conceive of a strategy for selling your proprietary formula (i.e. signature program)
  5. Choose a business name that suggests a theme or purpose and that you could be happy with for years. My work, though it has morphed over 10 years, is all about inspirational leadership. Another lesson: Don’t let an expert talk you out of your intuitive sense of your business name: I was told entrepreneurs don’t want to be leaders. Within 5years, everyone selling to entrepreneurs was encouraging them to be leaders. You may just be ahead of your time; trust your gut!
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Part 4 Business is Different for You: Rattle the Cages!

May 12, 2016 By Leave a Comment

So, in just three days of this series on how business is different for you, you have:

1.) Recognized that you’re hiding out in mediocrity and that it’s beneath you to continue doing so;

2.) Taken yourself onto the dry, cracked soil of your business and life and, fist raised to the skies, generated your own Scarlett O’Hara moment, declaring, “As God is my witness, I will never ___________ again!” You have decided to do things differently.

And 3.) Recognized that the reason to be different is so you can be seen and heard in this marketing-crazed world—but that you have been taking business advice not meant for you. You need to stand out in a way that is worthy of you and that works.

So, what works in this day and age?

Well, anything that appeals, attracts and stands out.

And what does that? Whatever lingers. Almost nothing lingers anymore.

So, what lingers?

Ideas and statements that interrupt long-held patterns and world-views. 

When something crashes through the ceiling of what we know, shattering what we believe with new insight, new information, it captures our brain’s attention.

The BRAIN attends immediately to 3 things—what is: relevant, novel and emotional.

BrainAttends

So, interrupting a pattern inserts something very new into your prospect’s environment. You’ve had the experience of a new and contrarian point of view coming out of left field. The brain cannot look away because the idea is novel.

And interrupting a pattern also evokes emotion. Often it upsets you. But sometimes it evokes awe, or excitement, or fear–but whatever it is, because it tapped an emotions, it burrows under your skin and you can’t get rid of it. Think of one right now. Maybe it was a new religious perspective you discovered when you were sixteen. Maybe it was a new scientific viewpoint you heard just last week that has uprooted everything you’ve believed to that point.

These new ideas that infiltrated your bubble of awareness interrupted a long-held pattern and world-view of yours and hit you emotionally–and so you remembered it. It lasted. Because the brain is wired to attend to what is emotional.

That’s lingering. And it’s rare.

New, provocative information that “breaks the schema”—the current understanding of your prospects–grabs their attention. It appeals, attracts and stands out–and literally lays down new pathways in their brains that were not there before your message.

I am going to say that again: Because you are activating the brain’s attention with relevancy, novelty and emotion—you are creating a hairline neuronal pathway in their brain.

That. Was. Not. There. Before. Your. Message.

How cool is THAT??

THAT is the power you can yield—in your marketing. In your branding.

And it is not some lofty goal. It is a requirement.

This is what I meant, at the end of yesterday’s post, when I said that leadership would differentiate you—not all of the typical and superficial branding solutions out there.

A leader has this kind of message; this kind of impact.

But you won’t be just any leader.

You need to be a thought leader, defined as:

Someone who wakes people out of denial, who breaks the ceiling of conditioned thinking, shakes people out of blind acceptance and ultimately, shatters paradigms.

It is the thought leader who interrupts long-held patterns; breaks “schemas.”

Thought leaders see what everyone else can’t—the myths and Kool-Aid peddlers—and as a visionary, they see new landscapes.

But just doing that is not enough. You cannot rattle cages and hope to influence. You must be able to inspire those within those cages to dare to fly.

That’s where the inspired leader comes in: Someone who, in words and deeds, causes others to aspire to something inspiregreater in themselves, and greater than themselves, than they ever imagined possible, igniting a change.

If your work is to empower people, I’ve said, you are a different breed of entrepreneur—and you are a natural inspired leader. Know that. Own that. But that’s not really enough, either.

To have a powerful impact on your prospects in your book, TED talk, 1-1 presentations, YouTube videos, blog posts (i.e. your marketing), you must be a blend of both a thought leader and an inspired leader.

Someone on public platforms who disrupts the status quo with a serious wake up call and a vision of a new vista—and then inspires folks to dare to travel there.

I ask my live audiences, are you an inspired thought leader?

Everyone raises their hands.

Then, I ask: Are you an inspired thought leader in your marketing?

The hands plummet.

And I tell them that they’re not alone; that almost no one is delivering this kind of message, this kind of leadership. That’s because most everyone crowds together in the middle-of-the-curve.

But not you.

Not you.

You can and must do it differently. To honor yourself, and the Impulse that brought you to this work of empowering humanity, it is required that you leave the pack and dare to shatter paradigms.

That’s what changes lives.

And that is an invaluable result in today’s world—and I dare say, what you were born for.

So, are you an Inspired Thought Leader?

In your marketing?

I’ve got you covered.

Click here to read the end of this series, where I explain the 5 pillars of an ITL message and what makes it so incredibly different from anything else out there–and from what you are doing now.  A change, it is a comin’!!

Disruption-without-interuption

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An Identity Crisis In Business? How to Break Out.

November 18, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Erik Erickson, a developmental psychologist from the sixties and seventies, famously coined the phrase, “identity crisis,” which has become such a part of our daily lexicon, it rarely carries with it anymore the depth of the psychological impact such confusion has on us.

But the truth is, an identity crisis hurts—and it is no less the case when the identity we’re in crisis over is our business. The American Heritage® Dictionary defines “identity crisis” as:

  1. 1. A period of uncertainty and confusion in which a person’s sense of identity becomes insecure, typically due to a change in their expected aims or role in society, often producing anxiety.
  4. 2.An analogous state of confusion occurring in a social structure, such as an institution or a corporation.

(…or any business.)

The American Heritage® Dictionary defines “identity” as:

  1. 1. The set of characteristics by which a thing is definitively recognizable or known.
  2. 2. The distinct personality of an individual regarded as a persisting entity; individuality.

Drawing from these definitions, then, when a business is undergoing an identity crisis, it experiences having “no definitively recognizable or known characteristics, and no persisting individuality.”

This is known either by direct results: very little business or the wrong clientele—or by a gnawing uneasiness.

Whether it is in the realm of the personal or business, an identity crisis is profoundly uncomfortable. We know something is off; we know we are not projecting our true selves, or the truest nature of the business. There is nothing definitively recognizable or known about the business; no individuality—and that feels bad.

I have professionals-turning-consultants, coaches, therapists, speakers and authors coming to me largely because they are having an identity crisis in business.

Even if they have not opened their doors yet, they have that troubled sense in the pit of their stomachs that their own ideas for their new business are too scattered, too vague, too boring. Not special enough.

Then there are those who’ve been in business a long while and have the same feeling of disorientation. I’ve changed! My business doesn’t reflect who I am today. I’m completely confused about what I want to do.

Identity crisis in business, especially for a sole proprietor, can be characterized by some or all of the following “symptoms”:

  1. 1. A persistent, gnawing sense that how you are describing your work doesn’t connect with others.
  2. 2. A persistent, gnawing sense that how you are portraying/presenting your work does not match your own values, vision, desires.
  3. 3. Lack of sales/clients.
  4. 4. Having no distinct imprint in your field. (I.E. looking like everyone else.)
  5. 5. Feeling website shame because what’s “out there” does not match what’s “in here.”
  6. 6. Hiding out from promoting your business because you don’t have a compelling way to define it, or the words that used to work no longer feel right.
  7. 7. Obsessively and frequently changing your offers, programs, pricing, landing pages, believing they are the culprit.
  8. 8. Spending a large percentage of your time watching free webinars and attending free events in search of the holy grail—that “one thing” that will settle the uneasiness in your gut.
  9. 9. Feeling uncomfortable increasing your rates/fees (because you’re not really sure what your value is, because you’re not really sure what you do.)
  10. 10. Having a slew of intellectual products, programs and free talks—and realizing they have no “set of characteristics that are definitively recognizable.” Lots of ‘things’ that have no single, unified message.

Which ones applies to you?

What causes an identity crisis in business? The following are key perpetrators; check off the ones that trigger a bell inside of you:

  1. 1. A market that is too broad.
  2. 2. A lack of deep, intimate knowledge of even a narrow market, so you don’t know their true pain, problems and urgent needs and so aren’t solving them.
  3. 3. Portraying your business as having more than one specialty.
  4. 4. Not trusting yourself or your own intuition. (Too many cooks in the kitchen.)
  5. 5. Not having a single-focused response to, “Why would they hire me?”
  6. 6. Not having a single, sling-shot solution that knocks them between the eyes with relevance and intrigue.
  7. 7. Noodling too many ideas, keeping yourself stuck in place because you don’t know which one is right.
  8. 8. Being out of touch with your deepest values, desires and visions.
  9. 9 Spending your time searching for the holy grail, hoping the apple of innovation will fall from the tree—rather than carving out focused inner-reflection and brand strategy time.
  10. 10. Having no articulation of the grounded and profound purpose for your business—what it is here to do that is bigger than you and your ego, and bigger than your market’s needs.

Which are the top two for you?’

So, what do you do when you’re feeling an identity crisis with your business? Since it’s an experience of great discomfort, we’ll speak about this in terms of “lessening the tension.” Until you have a brand identity that you truly love and that is highly marketable, you probably won’t experience elation and unshakable confidence—but you can feel much less anxiety by alleviating these three trouble-spots right away:

1. The first step to lightening up that tension is getting your target market right. This is a critical, delicate and challenging undertaking. Your market must be one with which you have great familiarity; with whom you have credibility; that has a truly urgent problem; has money to spend, and can be classified as a “group.”

The process of arriving at a market that meets all of these criteria can be hair-raising. I offer assistance with it in my free resource, The Perfect Buyer Workbook, or in my newer $12 resource, Inside the Secret Vault Swap Files, which offers 6 templates/worksheets I give only to clients and the first is on targeting your market.

2. Next, to greatly alleviate identity crisis tension, choose your area of specialty. I have all of my clients look at the 5 Areas of Life and choose the one that is the biggest issue for their market.The five areas of life are: Career, Physical Health, Romantic Relationship, Finances and Parenting/Family.

I always say that unless an individual is clinically depressed, humans don’t go around saying that every area in their life is a mess—so you shouldn’t be saying you help with every area of life. It’s human nature to complain about one or maybe two areas at a time. So, given who your market is (if you’re B to C, you should have them narrowed down to a decade range)—which of the 5 Areas of Life do they have their biggest complaints about?

You’ll need to sit down and really address this question—I doubt it will come just from reading this post—but do you see how identity crisis tension lessens enormously just from untangling these two issues?

3. For even greater relief, know what the complaint is that your market has in that area of life and how, specifically, you solve it. So, if your market is new moms ages 30-40, and your area of life is romantic relationships—you might know that their complaint is that they don’t feel sexy or desirous post-partum. Your solution might be to spark that desire through nutrition.

All of a sudden, with these 3 confusions off your plate, you have dramatically sharpened the outline of your identity. You’ll be able to articulate 1. whom you work with, 2. their worst problem in a specific area of life, and 3. your unique solution.

You may still sound and look like a lot of others out there at this point, but at least you have an identity!! That’s a lot more than you had before tackling these.

My strong position is that to rise above all the others who serve your same market, in the same area of life and who have a similar solution–you must be a “thought leader,” shaking up the status quo with an edgy, provocative message no one else is giving. To learn more about that, read about my branding program, The Powerhouse Method by clicking here, or its alternative, Made to Lead.

Nearly all of us experienced identity crises in middle school. It doesn’t take much to be transported back to how it felt to want the girl with the red hair but not feel we were special enough to get her. Or to be one of the last ones standing as the boys, one by one, picked their dance partners, or the captain picked his team in gym class. It hurts to feel that you have nothing definitively recognizable, no distinct personality—in life and in business.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, it cannot; you won’t survive! So, get working on getting those three areas of confusion sorted out–and reach out to me if you want a brand identity that reflects your true soul’s purpose, is highly marketable and shatters outdated paradigms!

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How Good Is Your “Funnel Vision”?

March 28, 2014 By Leave a Comment

I’m interested: how would you fill in this blank….

My business funnel consists of _______________; my marketing funnel consists of these sequential steps __________________; my sales funnel for my Signature Program consists of these steps______________.

These terms are bandied about so inconsistently, they’ve become meaningless–and maybe I’m only adding to the mix by creating yet more definitions, but I believe these will clear the cobwebs. I want you to be clear about what each of these does, and the fact that you need all of them in your business–done correctly.

Why am I so nutty about funnels lately? Because they are EVERYTHING! You don’t have a business without a business funnel; you won’t be seen without a marketing funnel, and no one will buy from you without a sales funnel (properly sequenced.)

I’m going to explain the differences today, but on April 16th, I’m leading a brand new BIZLIBS fill-in-the-blank game–“Funnel Vision”—that is going to be insanely educational—and fun!

 To get you ready, let me explore the differences in these funnels.

Think of these funnels on increasing camera zoom lenses. So, metaphorically, your business funnel zooms in on a “state”; your marketing funnel then zooms in on the “town,” and your sales funnel zooms in on a “house.”

          

I define a business funnel as your complete, progressive line-up of for-sale programs, which begins with the lowest time/lowest financial investment and gradually increases in both. I wrote a blog post in February outlining how to develop your business funnel; definitely make that weekend reading.

On BizLibs: Funnel Vision, you’ll be filling in blanks to develop or test this line-up or programs in your own business. Invaluable.

Just as your business funnel consists of sequential steps (that paying customers take,) your marketing funnel consists of sequential steps, as well—that prospects take. For the most part, marketing is a “front end job,” meaning that it focuses on getting people into your business, into the front end, namely your Signature Program. You do much less marketing, if any, for the backend. So, what does a typical marketing funnel look like? Here’s an image:

Picture6CROPPED

(1) You use social media, blog and other writing, speaking and JV partnerships to move people to (2) your opt-in page to get something for free. I always advise a written gift and also (3) a free event, which I call a “portal event.” Once there, they learn about the (4) Signature Program (and we move into the business funnel).

On BizLibs: Funnel Vision, you’ll be filling in blanks to help you create your marketing funnel. So easy and very instructive.

So, then, what is a sales funnel? Like the other funnels, it too is a sequence, but we’re now zoomed in on the “house,” so-to-speak. Concretely, this means that a sales funnel is the micro-sequence used to sell a product or program. People’s education on this is very minimal because not a lot of people are out there teaching it well. But let’s face it, you must go through a very selective series of steps on your “free portal event” to get people to actually buy your Signature Program. You must go through a very selective series of steps on your sales page to get people to buy your product. The same is true when you offer free consulting calls: a very selective series of steps needs to be taken to get callers to actually buy. So, you need properly converting sales funnels for everything in your business funnel.

Make sense?

On BizLibs: Funnel Vision, you’ll be filling in blanks to help you think cogently about your sales funnels, too!

So, what can you do while you await word from me on the BizLibs game?

EXERCISE: Review each of these funnels and visually sketch out the sequential steps you’ve currently got. Then ask yourself if you’re happy with the conversions of each of the programs in your business funnel. If not, check out analytics and conversions of items in your marketing funnel and improve your social media; increase your speaking; befriend more JV partners, etc. Then, look at your sales funnels for each program/information product. This is where you may have difficulty seeing the trouble-spots. You probably think you’re selling properly and don’t realize that you’re not pricing things creatively, or asking the right question at the right time, or making a “no-brainer” offer (and on and on).

BIZLIBSCropped

On BizLibs: Funnel Vision, you’ll play the game and then I’ll be answering questions on all of this! Just as our endocrine, circulatory, and nervous systems are us, your funnels are your business—and can either be sick or healthy. We’ll get them healthy on this very special webinar. Click here to read more and register!

Filed Under: Business Development Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

How to Build Your Front-End/Back-End Business Funnel

February 5, 2014 By Leave a Comment

By now, and especially after the PDF I sent out recently, you know that you need a progressive line-up of programs with a low-time/low-LADDERinvestment “front end” that builds to a more-time/higher-investment “back end.” And you’ve heard the rule that “the profit’s in the back-end, ” which is true. You invest in customers at the front-end, but don’t need to continue getting new customers because they flow naturally into the back-end.

So, how do you develop this “ladder” of programs? (I call it the FE-BE ladder.)

Well, as Steven Covey is famous for saying, “You start with the end in mind.”

What is the end result your customer wants? (If you’re this far in strategic planning, I presume you have the foundation set: you know your market,  their greatest pain, what they’d kill to have, and your #1 solution.)

In my case, the experts I serve want a formidable, marketable, one-of-a-kind Inspired Leader business–ready-to-go, ready to change lives, ready to make money—fast and sans all the pitfalls.

So, what is the final result your customers want?

Next, you want to write down all of the typical mistakes they make on their way to that desired result.  Perhaps their final result is to be in a loving, long-term relationship–but your male customers tend to be too ego-centric,  too career-focused, date too many women at one time, stay distant so as not to be too emotionally intimate–and on and on.

This list now magically reveals the skills they need to learn/actions they need to take.

Man with pen and questionnaire. 3dYou write out that list, from start to completion: what they must learn first, second, third…thirty-fourth…fifty-sixth…until you’ve exhausted everything it will take for them to get to their desired result.

This is a good time to discuss an exception: I didn’t write my list of mistakes my market makes because frankly it’s so numerous, it would take up three paragraphs, but I will use myself as an example now to show you that you may not be teaching skills–as I don’t anymore. I get my clients their “entire business ready-to-make-money” by rolling up my sleeves and doing it with/for them. So, in this case, there are projects they must complete, not so much skills they must learn. If that’s the case for you, then you would write out everything that must be done to arrive at the final destination for your customer.

Now, you have a long list of skills they must learn/projects they must complete. This list becomes your FE-BE ladder! You break those skills/ projects into consumable chunks…i.e. programs. Your first set of skills will be the most-needed, “hot-button skills,” and will comprise your Signature Program.

The next set of needed skills becomes the next-in-the-line-up program. Voila! Easy-peasy. (Well, sort of.)

This is the mistake MOST experts make: Their programs are not progressive. They’re, at worst, a hodge-podge mess of disparate ideas–and at best, good concepts, worthy of a program–but that don’t bridge from the last program.

Why do you want them to bridge? So you don’t have to go out and get new clients! So, the person in Program A moves naturally to Program B, then on to Program C, etc. And you want them to feel compelled to go to the next program because it has the next-in-line skills they know they need to arrive at their desired destination.Picture8

My clients never want to leave my progression, because they know they need every project in my line-up: their one-of-a-kind brand identity and Inspired Thought Leader message…(that’s one consumable chunk, The Powerhouse Method(TM))…then they need to express that in tangible forms: develop their free product, paid product, Portal (free feeder) Program and Signature Program (the next consumable chunk)…then they need a full marketing strategy and the marketing copy, so those tangible items convert (the next consumable chunk), they need all of that tested and evaluated by me (the next consumable chunk) and finally, to deliver it all with dynamic power, they need to learn my system for being one of the most effective speakers/teachers in the world (next consumable chunk.)

In a successful business funnel, each program starts where the last one left off. This is how your Front-End/Back-End ladder should look…and I just gave you a super-fast way to create it. So, don’t waste a minute: go develop yours right now!

BIZLIBSCroppedOn April 16, you’re going to get the chance to evaluate ALL of your funnels: business, marketing and sales on the first-ever “Game-inar:” BizLibs: Funnel Vision. Remember MadLibs? It’s like that: you’re filling in blanks in a fast-paced, timed environment that will squeeze great ideas out of you and show you what you need to improve. You’ll walk out with a KILLER blueprint for exactly what you need to do to integrate your funnels. Just as our endocrine, circulatory, and nervous systems are us, your funnels are your business—and can either be sick or healthy. We’ll get them healthy on this very special webinar. Click here to read more and register!

Filed Under: Business Development Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Success Is in the Back End, Experts!

October 14, 2013 By Leave a Comment

This is probably the most important business “tip” responsible for my success. (It’s SO much more than a “tip.” It’s a life/business-changer. READY?)

See this? It’s a ladder. But in our case, not just any ladder. I call this your FE-BE ladder. The bottom left is the front end..and about mid-way up
starts your back-end. Thus, the name, “FE-BE ladder.”

Every single successful service business has a ladder like this, where customers are brought in at the Front End (FE) of the business…and then led deeper into the business, or Back End BE).

Why is this THE most vital understanding for being successful? And why will I be teaching it on my very special virtual event next week? (Which I invited you to the other day. Are you signed up?)

Because you will go broke and your business will fail without this. Period. I hope that got your attention.

The costliest and most time-consuming part of any business is GETTING the customer the first time. It actually costs 5x more to gain a new customer than it does to KEEP one you have. FIVE TIMES! The quickest way to FAIL in your business is to offer only one product to a bunch of new people.

The quickest way to succeed is to offer ever-newer products/programs to the customers you already have!

Did that really sink in?

So, all of your efforts on the FE part of the ladder are geared to getting the first-timers. And it’s going to cost you money. This is when you have to be REALLY okay with “loss leaders”–the programs/products you sell at ridiculously cheap prices, or whose profits you give away to a JV partner.

QUIZ: WHY are you TOTALLY okay with loss leaders, with the cheap products/programs at the FE?

Because you have done something REALLY strategic and REALLY smart. You have put a ton of your efforts toward the middle of your business (BE), into developing a PROGRESSIVE LINE-UP of products and services that you offer every customer once they’re in. So, you ostensibly have CUSTOMERS for LIFE.

The hard work is in the FE…

but the MONEY, %$firstname$%, is in the BE.

And figuring out EXACTLY what your FE-BE ladder looks like is what I do for my clients–and it’s what you need to do to start to shape yourself to be truly one-of-a kind. Your FE-BE ladder must look unlike anyone else’s!

So, what are your front-end products/programs? Are they “Brain-Sticky”: compelling, memorable, and ORIGINAL? How are you PROMOTING those programs, so you get the MOST folks in the door?

What is your first back-end program? (Hint: Your Signature Program.) How compelling, memorable and original is it??

And what comes after your Signature Program?

And after that?

If you don’t know–THAT explains probably most of your problems! (That and a very ho-hum brand identity.)

To be successful, you MUST get these right.

Why don’t you come learn more about this on my live virtual event this week? It’s based on the contents of my ebook, One of a Kind: The Powerhouse Strategy for Standing Out and Leading the Way with Your Business. Go read all about it and register here now! I promise you, it will be one-of-a-kind…this is content you won’t get anywhere else.

And until the call, start building your ladder!

Filed Under: Business Development

What No One’s Telling You About…

September 25, 2013 By Leave a Comment

 

Now, let me expand on what you just saw in the video.

The fastest, and truly most unique, way to fix your business in the minds and hearts of your prospects is with a story–a story they have never quite heard before that awakens a higher potential within them.

”Those who tell the stories rule the world.”—Plato

Ancient storytelling
Nothing separates you from your “competitors” the way a one-of-a-kind story does. Nothing moves you more authentically to the status of a leader than a story you have conceived that educates. And nothing establishes you more distinctly in the minds of the market. A story will peel you away from the pack faster and more satisfyingly than any other differentiation strategy.

But this particular story we’re talking about teaches. It puts forth a premise that is yours and yours alone, grown from your expertise, unique perspective, and wisdom.

So, rather than being differentiated on such typical ho-hummers as, “great customer service,” “attention to detail,” “really listening to a clients’ needs”—or the flash-in-the-pan fads, gimmicks and “attention-grabbing-bling”–YOU are known for a fresh, provocative idea that has substance.

And as someone here to help change the world—can it really be any other way?

Your Teaching Story offers dramatic tension like any good novel, and supports a strong thesis like any good non-fiction work. Done right, it masterfully satisfies your followers’ left brains with proof and facts, engages their right, holistic brain that senses, feels and creates—and, most important, provokes a paradigm shift in their understanding.

Remember, you are, more than anything else, a transformation artist and so your story, above all, must produce change in your audiences.

So, your story takes them deep inside a world they know, then it shows them how broken it is, and suggests the origins of the problem (every story needs a villain!), and then ushers them (as any good hero does) into a new world, one they’ve never seen before, complete with an original new possibility and solution.

And that new possibility and solution? That’s your brand. What you’re known for. Your Teaching Story is your brand, presented compellingly.

No one else is telling you about this…because no one else is doing it.

Come speak to me about your business…and how your very own Teaching Story is just weeks away. Click here to read more and talk to me.

Filed Under: Business Development Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Freedom to Lead Series 5: Freedom from “No Thanks.”

June 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment

This 10-day video series honors our Independence Day here in the States–July 4; honors the determination our forefathers had to be free by looking at the freedoms entrepreneurial thought leaders must claim in order to be successful in business and in changing the world.

In this fifth video, we look at the dreaded excuse we get from prospect, “No, thanks.” What can you do to be free of this??? Watch and find out!

[youtube width=”640″ height=”480″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haB9V7BOybs&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

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