Passing on Tips from Michael Port’s Mastermind

June 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Last week, June 16-18, twenty incredibly wonderful entrepreneurs gathered in the quaint town of Lambertville, NJ, in the conference center of the Lambertville Inn, with Michael Port, of BookYourselfSolid fame. For pictures, check out my facebook page.

A lot was covered, with everyone coming in at different levels, but I wanted to share with you some of the tid-bits from the weekend. Enjoy…and *consume* them!

1. Target market is EVERYTHING. (I tell my clients this ad nauseum.) As with my own clientele, 85% of the people in the room (out of 20) either had no target market, OR didn’t have a narrow enough one. NEW TIP: you can choose a target market around a common interest of theirs: 2 examples that came up—“golfers,” even if you do not sell anything for golfers, but it’s a strong hobby of yours; or “Christians”—even if you are not selling a Christian item. This is actually a brilliant way to instantly accelerate the “trust-factor”—because you will have an emotional bond with them that is stronger than anything else.

2. Imperative question: What kind of business do I want to be in? How do I really want to spend my day? Do I really want to be on the phone?? Do I really want to do group calls? You answer determines your business model.

3. Information Products—worry less about your price, and more about how many units you’re selling because that is the indicator of how many clients you’ll get.

Must help them “consume” your products with immediate and compelling follow-up.

4. How are you doing with your processes? Like, the steps you go through when doing anything for business? You should have them written down so that if something happens to you, someone else can step in, take over the steps, and know when and where to implement them. For instance—getting out your email newsletter involves a certain # of steps. Write each one down. Then do it for getting a blog post out, etc. TEDIOUS work, but essential.

5. Have you planned out your deliverables for the next 12 months? What you must produce, how much it will cost you, how much it will make you (for each one). Then, break that into 6 month and 3-month deliverables.

6. Look into “live support” software! A window pops up on your screen so you can see when anyone is on your website!! Then you can do and introduce yourself to them and ask if you can help. Cool, huh?! (Ask your web-designer about it.)

7. Put your opt-in box on the bottom of EVERY BLOG POST!

8. Getting lots of mysterious spam lately? It could be because you have your email address on your site with the @ sign. Change @ to this exactly: “at”

9. Some URL’s to check out:

            www.Gomockingbird.com—design the layout of your website with this cool tool, and then send it to your graphic designer!

           www.Basecamphq.com –manage all of your products. People swear by it. I’ve never used it.

           www.Backpackit.com—if you’ve got a team; this is great. People at the seminar were raving about it.  Or www.37signals.com that includes the 2 above, plus others.

            www.Highrisehq.com–a web-based CRM software that prepares you for your next call, meeting, pitch, follow-up, and sale.

            www.Uberview.com—plugin that pulls in all twitter mentions into your blog comments.

            www.Solid.ly—(One of Michael’s new businesses): Simple, sound and satisfying daily activities to build your network and get booked solid. It’s in beta right now, so you can sign up to be one of the first to try it!

What from this list stood out the most for you?

Filed Under: Business Strategizing, Sales and Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Movie For the Wayseer and StoryTeller

March 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment
If you’re in my circle, then you’re an “escaping the wannabees”
rebel and you *have* to see this movie!! It is everything, and
I mean everything, I wish I had made! Ever feel that way? It’s
made by Garret John LoPorto. You *must* go see this asap:
http://www.wayseermanifesto.com/.

And I’m reading Peter Guber’s book, “Tell To Win“ right now
and I really recommend it. Guber executive-produced Rain
Man, Batman, The Color Purple and more and was CEO
of Sony Pictures, Polygram Entertainment, etc. So, he knows
a thing or two about telling a story. His premise is that stories
must be woven into everything in business, and that as a CEO,
or entrepreneur, we must become very adept at story telling.
Will you share a book you’re reading here? (No self-promotion,
please) and any other media presentation you’re loving (song,
video, etc.)
Here’s to escaping the wannabees–Wayseer-style and with
GREAT story-telling!
Filed Under: A Little Inspiration, Escaping the wanna bees Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

How Seductive is Mediocrity in Your Business?

March 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Mediocrity is a form of madness, a dream embraced by the
masses because it makes just getting by an acceptable —
sometimes applauded — social art form.” ~Guy Finley

So, I love this quote. Love, love, love it.  This is what we are
escaping, when we’re escaping the wannabees: mediocrity.
The madness of accepting “just getting by” because so many
around us do. We’re all guilty of it, to greater and lesser degrees.
I think we shake ourselves out of banality only when 1) doing
so is somewhat easy for us; it’s an area we don’t resist too
strongly (like giving up chocolate for Lent), or 2) when it has
finally pushed us to a pain we can’t bear any longer. However,
that leaves us wallowing in (and comfortable in) mediocrity
if we’re somewhere in-between: not willing to leap into foreign
territory (giving up sex for Lent), but not yet burning in the fire
of our desperation. For most of us, this is in-between is our every
day.

And the consequence? Here’s another quote I love, shared by
David Hepburn, Jr. today on Facebook, “The place you want is
currently occupied by what you have settled for.” Virtually every
day, we’re giving up what we want, to allow what we’ve settled
for. That is insanity!

In business, this means that we’re willing to “leave the hive,”
Escape the Wannabees, only when doing so isn’t too risky—the
price of outsourcing is reasonable—or when we’re on the cusp
of bankruptcy. If something costs a bit too much for our comfort,
or failures aren’t too painful, we deepen the grooves of the hole
we’ve burrowed in and slip deeper into “mediocrity madness.”

I regularly plant explosives beneath the burrow of my clients,
catapulting them into new realms that terrify them. And I take
great pleasure in doing so! Some blame me, at the start, for
the immediate dishevelment of their burrow; it truly is a work
of art for them, no matter how undistinguished. Others applaud
the freedom! I’ve noticed, over the years, that the former type
slink back to their old ways when we’re done; the latter keeps
climbing to higher ground.

I am currently teaching a new course, Creating a Transform-
ational Signature Program, and on the call yesterday, one of
the participants said, “Wow, I just don’t think this way,” when
I was teaching them my proprietary “Transformational Arc”—
how to provide a paradigm shift for every audience they engage
with. It was totally new territory for her—and for all of them;
this is revolutionary stuff—but for her, “leaving the hive” this
way, where she has to get her audiences to feel, in order to
transform, thus breaking her away from the majority of
speakers and teachers who don’t know how to do this (and
are afraid to)—this was momentarily unsettling for her.

I also have them going out on a limb in this class, excavating
and crafting their “Meta Message”—an inspirational message
with a universal truth, that will inform the content of their
signature program; will be woven into the personal story they
tell when they deliver their program or a keynote speech; and
that they will infuse into their marketing. This is exhilarating
for all of my clients—they see that they are creating their
business to align with their deepest inspirational belief—and
they’re going to attract like-minded clients with this extremely
powerful message. But it’s not being done out there, so they
have to move out of their comfort zones to dare to lead with
this bold kind of message, vs. the typical marketing messages.
They have to leave what they’ve settled for in order to lead
others with this message of change.

I’m inviting them to step into their role as an “inspired leader,”
and there is nothing mediocre about going there, so–just as with
all of us who have pushed off what we’re called to do and want
to do because “settling” is so much easier—my clients hover
around the hive for a while before finally escaping it. But then,
they transform and end the madness. At least in that area.

I suppose as long as we live, there will be some “acceptance of
mediocrity” to uncover within ourselves…yes? Or no! What do you think?

Filed Under: A Little Inspiration, New Paradigm Leadership, public speaking Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Session 2 of 8 With Two Financial Coaches Who Want Clients

October 14, 2010 By

In the first session, M&M and I looked quite deeply at their
target market. What would be the natural next question?
How do you reach them? I call these your Touch Point 1
venues. Lucky for me, I didn’t have to convince M&M that
speaking is hands-down the best way to connect with a
market; they had already done some speaking.

So in this session, we delve deeply
into this subject, again gathering
data and building upon it. Where
have they spoken before? Where
could they speak that they’d never
thought of, and which are the three
most effective venues? We decide
that to attract couples, they would
reach out to churches, libraries,
Barnes & Noble (they could ostensibly
speak on Dave Ramsey’s book), and
local boards of education to see if they
promote workshops for parents.

From there, we begin to touch on content. What have they
spoken about in the past? Well, their previous topics have
been rather dry, focused on how to budget and reduce debt,
so I draw us into thinking about what would be most Brain-
Sticky. To determine that, we must know who would be in
the audience (target market), and what would get them there.
So we need to understand the Trigger Event (see yesterday’s
post) and their market’s most acute pain, and of course
M&M’s special solution.

I advised them that this time, they need to give more than
just an information-based seminar. In this day and age,
I told them, you want your audiences to be transformed
in some way, right away. And you do that by taking them
through what I call the “Transformation Arc”: this is a certain
trajectory that guarantees a powerful shift in thinking and
very often a shift in behavior.  This “arc” begins by getting
their market immediately into the ugly emotion they deal
with (even unconsciously) every day. I call it “getting
them into the  ick.”

The male “M” of M&M, who has done all the presenting in
the past, is unsure of this direction. He has always worked
with audiences in what I call the “Old Paradigm,” where
he hauls out a Power Point (aaaaggghh!) and didactically
transfers knowledge, without much engagement with those
in the room. I point out to him that in order for his audience
to be moved enough in this  free “portal” talk to then buy
a service package with M&M, they must FEEL—and you can-
not tell someone to feel; you must set the stage for them to
experience emotion themselves. This, and only this, creates
transformation in them, and a far stronger interest in
buying.

Next, we need to solidly determine what the “ick” is for their
particular market. What is the emotional sludge these
couples are wading through, as it pertains to their financial
struggle? Well, in the next session, three, we hit pay dirt!
Together we figure this out and with that knowledge, we begin
to sketch out the Brain-Sticky concept of their portal,
signature program…that could become the differentiation
for their entire business! Be sure to come back tomorrow to
see what it is!

As for you: is speaking on your list for strategies to get
more clients and build your list? What Touch Point 1 venues
will best reach your market? And what about the “ick” your
market stews in day in and day out—how can you have them
experience or come face to face with that “ick” in a talk you
give? Would love to hear your thoughts below! And feel free
to share this post so others can get eavesdrop, too!

Filed Under: Eavesdropping on Sessions, Sales and Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What’s Your Business’s “Brand Concept”?

October 5, 2010 By

The service entrepreneurs I work with—coaches, healers
nutritionists, consultants, therapists–love to perform their
services, but they also love to inform: so they speak
or give seminars. But often, what they’re speaking about
has no “through-line.” I just had coffee with a wonderful
new friend last week, who reminded me of this term.

 A “through-line” is a theater term that means, “the
theme that runs through the plot of a film or other
dramatic work.” I would say it’s fitting to consider
businesses “dramatic work,” and so we want a “theme
that runs through the plot of our businesses.” And when
we’re giving a seminar or even a single presentation,
we want to ensure that it is inside of the through-line,
promoting that theme, reinforcing it, growing it. But
again, too many presentations and seminars are “isolated
incidences” that have no roots to a larger theme.

I am one week into my intensive program, 12 Sentences:
Ultimate Business Creation and Articulation, and the
participants are soon going to be considering their
business’s theme, so that everything they do—from
the articles they write to the opt-in gifts they offer to
their blog content…to the presentations they give—
runs through the “spine” (another word for through-
line) of their business.

Next week, I’m going to be launching my first CD set!
SO excited about that! And as you will see in the videos
I’ll be releasing about it next Tuesday, one of the many
things I did with two financial coaches was help them
develop their “teaching concept” for the free seminar
they would be giving to attract more clients. By teaching
concept, I mean  the main premise of that signature
program. This teaching concept soon became their
“brand concept”—the premise or idea they were putting
forth not just in their free signature program, but the
premise or idea that supported their business and that
they would teach everywhere.

This teaching concept would be threaded through
the free report, ebook or video training for their opt-in;
it would be what they’d teach about in their articles,
and emphasize in their blog posts. It would be the subject
of radio interviews, local promotions and even a book,
should they choose to write one. I began referring to this
as their “brand concept.” The teaching concept “theme
running through the plot of their business.” It was created
as we developed the teaching premise of their signature
program, and then bloomed into the brand concept of their
entire business.

So, how do you know if you have a “brand concept”—or
even a teaching concept for your presentations? Well, let’s
start at the very beginning. Ask yourself this first, “Does
my presentation have a through-line, a theme that runs
through the plot of my business, or is it a tactical device,
a one-time talk I’m just ‘throwing together,’ with no strategic
roots”?

Next, “If I were to have a signature program—a free or
even paid event that people know me for—what is the
single concept I would teach in it?” (We won’t even consider
right now if it’s Brain-Sticky or not. Just consider the single
idea you would teach.)

And from there, ask yourself, “Could I teach this every-
where, in all of my marketing pieces, and feel that I was
teaching the most salient information out of everything
I could teach?” In other words, is this single idea the most
important and interesting I could put forth?

These are some ideas to get you started. But be sure to
register above in Blog Telecalls, for this week’s free
call at 1pm Thursday Oct. 7, where we’ll discuss this idea,
and I’ll share with you my signature program teaching concepts.

And stay tuned for the release of my 8-CD set next week,
the first in my Eavesdropping Series: How to Get Clients
with a Signature Program that Sells AND Transforms!

Filed Under: Business Articulation, public speaking, Sales and Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Get Your Heart On Straight

August 31, 2010 By

All of us are bombarded with “buy this!” messages, and as
business owners, I think we can sometimes drown in the
self-doubt these messages activate. “I should be doing that?!
I didn’t know that!” Furthermore, “inspired entrepreneurs”
—those wanting to change the world—can easily drown in
the constant quest to do it “right” because they feel a bit out
of sorts in the business arena, and so grab at countless promises,
praying they’ll be a life-line.

In other words, there’s a lot of fear that passes through the
hearts of coaches, wellness practitioners, authors and
speakers when it comes to business. And fear, as we know,
is entirely corrosive. It eats the healthy parts of us and all
too often kills our businesses all together.

Today, I’d like to make a suggestion: Get your heart on
straight. Take your head, in fact, and set it aside for a while
as you re-acquaint yourself with the meaning of your life.
Your mission. Your mission. You. You have one. One that
is independent of your business. Ask yourself, “What am I
here for? What am I very clear I am not here for? What is my
highest purpose on this earth?”

And put it on paper.

And ask yourself, “Am I living this?”

If you’re not, it is absolutely time to get your heart on straight.

Then, step your thoughts back into your business. What is its
highest purpose on earth? What is it to accomplish that will
move humanity forward? At the very pinnacle of its success,
what will it have achieved…that is important to our evolution?

Be called by something bigger than yourself and the marketing
messages you receive constantly will fall into two categories:
those that do not match your personal and business missions,
and those that do. This will be clear to you and you will be
far better equipped to say no to the wrong ones and yes to the
right. The fear and self-doubt these messages can invoke will also
fade as purpose–far greater than your little self and your little
business (not to be condescending, but just factual)–fills your
heart and transcends the minutiae of daily marketing messages.

Something must both anchor and emancipate you as you move
through the busy-ness of your business. Otherwise, you will be
swallowed up by the latest fads, trends and concepts—in the hope
that one will be your savior.

Your “savior” is connecting back to what you are here for. And
then ensuring that every action you take aligns with that–including
the business you offer and the way you offer it.

So, get back to the basics and get your heart on straight. Putting your
personal mission and your business mission into words—and then
sharing it with others—will ground you when you get unfocused,
and free you when you get tangled in fear and self-doubt. You are
here for a reason. When you do business from that realization,
nothing will stop you, and you will pull to you the right and perfect
guidance.

This is the first “Strategic Inquiry” we address in my upcoming 12
Sentences Business Creation & Articulation Course. More on that
soon.

Filed Under: A Little Inspiration, Business Articulation, Sales and Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Your Target Market *IS* Your Business: Choose Wisely!

July 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

 

Camp Brain-Sticky is open now, which means I’m
consulting privately with a few new clients. I thought
I’d give you a chance to eavesdrop on some of our
sessions. (Be sure to watch, btw, for my brand-new
”Eavesdropping Series” CD’s coming soon!).

So, there’s absolutely no where I can go with a client
until we determine who their target market is. I say to
every single client or student, “Your target market IS
your business. Switch target markets, and your programs
and information products change.” They must, because
they (services + products) must cater to the specific
needs, pains and desires of the market. In order, then,
to create or revamp those products and services, the
market must be clearly defined. This, believe it or not,
is much harder said than actually done.

There are 3 criteria through which every solo service
professional must pass their ideas for prospective target
markets: 1) Are you passionately interested in this market?
2) Are they hungry-to-starving for what you offer? 3)
Can they afford you?

If you cannot give an enthusiastic “two thumbs up” to
each one of these, you must go back to the drawing
board. Now, what does that mean?

Well, in many cases, it means that you scrap the market
you’ve been working with or considering. If you’re not
passionate about them, you won’t be able to sell them.
If they can take you or leave you (aren’t hungry), you
won’t be able to sell them. And if they don’t have money…
need I say more?

Here’s the process I took one client through yesterday:
I focused for quite a while on the first criteria: who is
she passionate about. I asked her these two questions:
1) What is the pain out there in the world that you would
most like to heal? She was aware enough to be able to
answer very quickly, and said, “Isolation.”

Next, I asked her, 2) “What section of the population
feels most isolated?” And to stimulate a strong answer,
I began taking her through human developmental stages
by “decades.” So, I said, “Are you interested in working
with children ages 1-20 on isolation issues?” She knew
she was not, so I moved to those in their twenties, and
because she had some interest, I asked her to answer on
a 1-10 scale. Then, to further refine things, I asked her
to discern whether she was most interested in working
with women or men in that decade. We quickly learned
that she wanted to work with women, so we continued
on through the decades, looking at her interest on a 1-10
scale, and ended the inquiry in the decade of the 70’s.

By doing this, we were covering the first two criteria
quite thoroughly. We began by my asking her the pain
she most wants to heal—which, in most cases, locates a
hungry market. If they’re in pain, they’re most likely hungry.
And then we addressed the gender question and the age-
range to see whom she is most interested in working with.

Her highest 1-10-scale score was for women in their fifties.
So, naturally from there, we dove into the precise nature
of their “isolation pain.” Every decade would have a unique
portrait of issues. We both felt that the pain for this decade
had everything to do with the “empty nest” syndrome, where
these women now feel isolated from their peers (no more
Booster Clubs to attend), have a recognition that they are
isolated from their husbands, now that the distraction of
kids has been removed. And they can very often come to
a realization that they are isolated from themselves: from
a knowledge of what they really want to do in the world.

Knowing the issues this group faces uniquely then enables
us to formulate the types of services and products this client
could offer. Do you see how different they would be if she
had chosen men in their thirties? Or women in their sixties?

The issues facing different markets is profound and it is
critical to ferret them out–in order to create programs that
are marketable; that will be bought.

After this work, I put this client in an incubation period of a
two days to determine if indeed this is the group she wants to
work with. If she sleeps on it and wakes up saying, “I just
don’t feel it”—then we have to go back to the drawing board.

If she does decide she wants to craft her programs around
this market, there is still more target-market work to be done:
diving deeply into the psychology of their wants and fears.
This information (which virtually no one explores) is crucial
to crafting not only the perfect program and product, but the
perfect marketing language that will pull that market out of
their reverie (i.e. denial) and into the program.

More on this later in the week!

Camp Brain-Sticky is still accepting applicants. Read
more here.

Filed Under: Business Articulation, Sales and Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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