How A New Program Drew 350 Registrations–the First Time Out

A client of mine, Teresa Aziam of The Aziam Center, led a telecall last night that interested 350 people in just a few days of promotion. She went to her list and asked two JV partners to promote for her—but out of the gate, with not a whole lot of promoting at all, this was a strong number.

Here’s what they were drawn to: There is a single formula that explains your lagging business success—and it’s the same (and only) formula you will ever need to get all the clients, sales, buzz and love you want!

That was the hook–and the essence of her “Teaching Story”—the story she unfolded on the call.

They may have been drawn to the title, too, but we didn’t measure that: Off-the-Charts: The Only Formula You Need for Breaking the Ceiling on Business and Life Success.

They stayed because—as one woman near the end of the call said, when asked how one of the exercises affected her, “I can’t even express it, it was so profound.”

 

This is Teresa’s “Portal Program,” as I call it–#3 on the diagram. It is the pre-event to her star-money-maker, Signature Program.

This diagram illustrates the strategic line-up of offerings I help my clients create. But it doesn’t just magically happen. Here’s how Teresa and I got to her “Teaching Story” hook above.

She came to me, knowing that her specialty was “mindset work.” First order of business is always determining target market.

 We went back and forth on that for a few sessions and finally she decided on “mom-preneurs” with kids under eight years of age. (I always have my clients, working with mothers, determine the age of their kids; it reveals yet another dimension of their problems/needs/desires that need to be addressed.)

The next order of business is determining that market’s “urgent problem.” I always say, “You must be urgently wanted (b/c you solve an urgent problem) or you will be an elective…and you can’t afford to be an elective.” So, we quickly determined that her market’s urgent problem (even though Teresa didn’t feel qualified at first to address it) was, “poor sales.”

“I don’t teach sales,” she said to me repeatedly, as she was trying to grasp that as her business future. She felt she wasn’t credible to solve that urgent need. (Can you relate? Then read on.)

“There are many solutions for someone, for example, who needs to lose weight,” I told her. “Someone can help nutritionally. Someone else can provide hypnosis treatment. Someone else, liposuction. Someone else, self-mastery techniques. The problem is the same, with many solutions. You can help that problem, as one of the solutions.”

That accomplished, we began to drill down into what she believed mom-preneurs needed to do to succeed. It wouldn’t be a sales technique, or strategy for attracting leads; it would be her answer, based on what she does well. After days of thrashing about in deep reflection (my questions tend to do that to people), she determined that above all, (that’s what I look for) her market needed to know their own self-worth to succeed. Without it, there can be no success.

And that began the very mysterious process that happens between me and a client in developing their Teaching Story. We sit on a see-saw, the two of us, and as she pushes off the ground in answer to a question of mine, it rolls down to me, and stimulates an idea, and back and forth we go, as my brain—always scanning for a Brain-Sticky concept—begins to think of what to teach to the market.

It’s completely non-linear and a process I cannot teach or I would make it a group program, but in no-time on that see-saw, keeping in mind a) her market; 2) what they most want; 3) what they need to know; 4) what she does best and 5) what they don’t know, I knew the hook: your sales are directly proportionate to your self perceived value. They will be low if your value of yourself (in any or all areas of life) is low; they will be high, if your self-perceived value is high. Teresa loved it because it was true. She said, “Yep. There is no exception. It can’t be any other way.”

I always test and test my clients’ convictions, and so I asked (as I’d asked it multiple ways before), “If they try any of the other solutions to boost their sales, will it work?” She was an emphatic, “No! This is THE answer!”

And so, I whipped the concept into a formula (which I don’t want to reveal here, for proprietary reasons, but you can go find out yourself!)

From there, I began to design the “arc” of the Teaching Story—how she would teach this to an audience. As you know, she gave it last night to a live audience, but even if she was never going to “be on stage” with it—having a Teaching Story Arc is a sweet, key way of developing an “idea” that no one else in the world has. No one else has the formula of her Teaching Story—and no one else has the teaching content we developed that teaches the formula, what do with it, and then presents a natural new problem to the audience.

Her Teaching Story was “urgently wanted” because it: addressed a nagging problem (low sales) with a irrefutably true concept (your sales are proportionate to your self-perceived value), spun in a unique way with a hook, (the formula), built with unique content (provocative exercises and data that taught the formula and the science behind it, in her case), delivered, using the unique curriculum design I’ve been teaching for years, which “teaches to the brain”—then resurrecting a new problem (how to effectively change self-perceived value forever to achieve off-the-charts sales and other business success), which is solved by the next event, the Signature Program.

And that is how 350 people came to register for the “only formula you need for breaking the ceiling on business and life success.” Congratulations, girl!! If you want to find out more about Teresa’s event, click here.

To do this work with me, email info (at) inspiredleadersacademy.com with “I want lots of people on my telecall, too!” in the subject line 🙂 or go read more at: www.inspiredleadersacademy.com/powerhousemethod2.

 

 

How I Came to My Senses After a Fainting Spell and 2 Shady Mechanics

So, I fainted in Target on Sunday. Out of the blue.
And no, it wasn’t because of the great sales. In fact,
they say it was dehydration, but whatever it was, it
was scary. I had the oddest symptoms for about an
hour before I crumpled in a heap somewhere between
kitchenware and bedding. I found out it was due to
loss of oxygen to my brain; apparently we traverse
weird territory without our requisite O2—and for
sure, I thought I was going crazy. Then, without
warning, boom, a man’s kneeling over me,
asking if I know why I fell.
“I didn’t even know
I DID fall,” I answer, groggily looking from left to
right. Soon, I was surrounded by paramedics, police
officers and Target managers bracing themselves for
a lawsuit. Because I hit my head very hard on (something;
no one knows because there were no witnesses—but,
man, does that bump still hurt!) I was escorted onto
a hard, orange plastic gurney and fit cozily with a

neck brace. Off we went, sirens wailing, to the hospital
for tests.

It turned out that every blasted test came back normal
—which is what one typically strives for, I know—but
when you’ve interrupted your family members’ lives,
not to  mention your own all-important shopping
spree, you want something to explain the hours in
the ER. But, alas, I was diagnosed with syncope
otherwise known as fainting—and released to my
own recognizance. Such as it is.

As I was reclining back at home, my ex and signifi-
cant other took my VW to the dealership to have
them resolve an odd sluggishness I’d been experi-
encing. After sleeping eleven hours that night, (and
not one of them on my left-hand side because of
the massive bulb on the side of my head), I headed
over to the dealership to await my car’s release. And
that’s when I got the female treatment. I’ll spare
you the details, but suffice it to say there was some
unmistakable shady activity going on. Ten minutes
after I declined a $400 additional service, I was told
that the issue had, remarkably, “disappeared.” All was
fine. Then, a moment later, they came back to say
that they had a used part in stock from another car

and could slip that in to replace my faulty one. Had
I gone ahead and accepted the $400 job, do you
think I would have been told of the free used
part
? Or that the issue had miraculously disappeared?

I’ve been feeling increasing disgust over the corruption
and secrets
so prevalent in our world today—not

just on Wall Street, and in government; Big Business,
“corporate media,” our religious institutions, etc.—
but also in “small business”: the shallow and greed-
based antics playing out in internet marketing
every da
y. Having my own mechanics try to shaft
me was a tipping point for me and I decided to make
some changes in my own business. I have always
been honest and trustworthy as a business owner,
but I was following many of the Internet Information
Gurus—and this week, I unsubscribed from a vast
majority of them
. I decided they’re too slick and
phony for me; they’re the “Internet Hollywood Scene.”
The few hours in the ER, not knowing what was wrong
with me, plus the massive knock to my head, brought
me to my senses:
I’m “leaving the pack,” “escaping
the wannabees
” once again, no longer aspiring to
rub elbows with them, proverbially “sleep with them”
to get to the next level, attend their parties or adapt
their business-building strategies. (Which are, on
another note, entirely cookie-cutter, have you noticed?)

I don’t want to make money by gouging other people
of their hard-earned money. (And I never have.) Isn’t
that what the banks do? I don’t want to make money
by hosting a seminar that’s really a pitch-fest. I believe
that’s called bait-and-switch. I don’t want to make
money from obscenely inflated home-study products
or memberships. And I don’t want to tell my daughter
I made money following. Inspired Leaders don’t
follow
, they lead through inspiration. I got seduced
by the glitter and glam—but now know that all that
glitters is not gold.

I have created a questionnaire over at Survey
Monkey
, to see if my own experience reflects the
“zeitgeist,” the energy in the culture right now, about
slick, internet information marketing. You know
–the guys and women making millions of dollars on
$20,000 – $100,000 yearly memberships, claiming
they can “teach” (ha!) and “coach” (ha!). Have
you had it, too? Do they feel like shallow, slick, plastic
Hollywood types? Do you want to learn from a different
type of leader? If so, what type?

I promise to share the comments from your
peers in an upcoming blog.

By the way, in case you’re wondering: I’m doing fine…
except for the nasty bump and the bruises on my
leg and knee. I’ll be going to a cardiologist for a
“table test,” just to ensure that I don’t have a
propensity for losing oxygen to the brain. But I expect
everything to come out normal. After all, I’m still
young! In fact, the best part of the whole experience
was my daughter grumbling to me as we sat in my
ER room: “Everyone’s asking me if you’re my
sister.

It was all worth it for that!

Please
click here to take my “Have You Had It With
The Internet
Hollywood Scene?” survey.

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

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
!

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