The Success Magnets with Cara Lumen

Follow Your Strengths to Success

There are seven marketing strategies I could use to promote my business Two I'm really, really good at, one I have the talent to be good at but I need to step up to the plate, The other four vary from medium to definitely less than medium and I feel a great resistance to pursue them.. My question is do I stay safe in the comfort zone of my strengths, do I push myself out of my comfort zone and broaden my spectrum, or do I bluff my way and do them all?

 

Let your strengths be your guide

 

There is a reason we tend to favor some activities over others, we love doing them and we are probably very good at them. I love to write, I love to teach and I've been doing them all my life. So I'm going to keep those at the core of what I am doing. Fortunately my strengths are in the most technical aspects of marketing: a strong Web Presence Strategy, a Writing Strategy that includes information products and a steady article writing campaign and Speaking and Demonstrating Strategywhich even with teleclasses, I'm not fully taking advantage of.  

 

But what about the other four marketing strategies I could use to promote my business? They are the ones everyone should be able to do. They are the "easy" ones. And they are not yet my strong points.

 

Check out your second best strength and develop it

 

But hey, I'm into growth – both personal and business. So I really ought to just pick one and strengthen it. But they are all about reaching out to others. They are all about connecting and relating and talking to others. So in the midst of my discomfort over these strategies I have to find what I am willing to do; how can I adjust how I view them and find my own unique ways to get the results these strategies produce?

 

Align with your passion and purpose

 

I love what I do and I love sharing it with people. I write an emagazine and a blog. But those are one-way conversations from me to them. It's not a two way exchange.

 

The Keep in Touch Strategy is one of the most important and effective of the seven strategies and would be within my comfort zone. I already know these people. This is just a matter of emailing a personal note, picking up the phone for a chat, or sending them a card. The point is to have an exchange, to reach out on a personal level and see how they are doing. I need to listen to what's going on for them.

 

I'm going to schedule an hour a week to reach out and acknowledge someone I know. There now, that's one strategy added.

 

Flex those muscles!

 

That leaves three strategies and I don't have to do them all. But being aware of them helps me notice when I do them organically. I activate the Referral Strategy when I connect my client who makes home-made gourmet dog treats with a client who wrote a wonderful book about a dog. I activate the Networking Strategy when I volunteer to help people connect with potential roommates for an upcoming training we are taking together. And the Direct Outreach Strategy may just be as simple as reaching out to someone I admire to explore some joint ventures.

 

Follow Your Strengths

 

I'm not going to beat myself up for what I can't do comfortably. I’m not just going to focus on the things I do easily either.  I'm going to stretch a bit. I'm going to flex my muscles and look for my personalized version of a strategy that gets the results I want. I'm going to pick my moments and move gently into expansion. I’m going to follow my strengths to success.

 

Skills and talents are two different things.  You can learn a skill like riding a bike, but it takes talent and passion to win a bicycle race.

 

Cherish your gifts.

 

When you look carefully you will see your talents. They are about what you love to do. They are what others always ask you to do for them. These are your strengths. Build them up. Bundle them creatively. Use them as your foundation.

 

Develop your own version

 

I'm a whiz at coaching. I'm a really good writer, but networking is not something I’m very comfortable with. So how can I create my version of networking that will be comfortable for me and still work?  I've decided to start interviewing people for my podcast. That gives me a reason to call them and get to know them. That's my version of networking and that will be fun.

 

Morph your fears into productivity

 

What business strategy do you need or want to put in place that is outside your comfort zone. Morph it. Tweak it, adapt it, and personalize it till it works, but don't fret over it.

 

Build your own strategy

 

Go with your natural talent. Partner with or hire people with the natural talents you don't have. 2+2 make a lot more than 4. Create your own version of the seven core marketing strategies. Nurture your natural abilities and follow your strengths to success.

 

Cara Lumen, The Vision Distiller, helps entrepreneurs touch lives all over the world. Her Magnetic Marketing Method helps you expand your vision, extend your reach and raise your attraction level to draw to you the perfect clients and customers. Find more articles like this in The Success Magnets Emagazine at www.caralumen.com

 

It's OK to Charge for Thinking….

It's really ok to charge for the time you spend thinking about and for your client, It took me a while to figure that out – until I realized that the time I spent studying the clients present material and position, letting the myriad of ideas that came to mind expand my vision for them, and then giving a lot of thought to the best direction for them to take was the most valuable aspect of my services.

And at one point I wasn't charging for that!

I expect to include 15 minutes before and after a coaching call with the price of the call. I use the first 15 minutes to study their Coaching Call Prep Form to see what they have accomplished and what they want to talk about. That form also lists their homework for the past week so it is easy for both of us to keep moving forward. The 15 minutes after the call is spent in condensing my notes into the Coaching Call Prep Form for the next session.

Humm, let me think. Knowing that I spend an hour and a half per coaching call makes me wonder - am I charging enough? Perhaps not.

But it was when I started tracking the other times I spent planning for a client that I began to build a Planning Time & Review Charge into my proposals.

For instance, when it comes to web design I partner with Judy Stewart of www.jstewartdesigns.com. She's the artist. I'm the content developer. But we may spend 30 minutes on the phone working out details of a design or copy placement for a client. Why should either one of us give that important time away for free.

Another client had a very complex site that he wanted to redo and I spent about an hour and a half studying his site, and figuring out the best site map navigation and plotting our strategy. I need to be certain I charge for that. It is after all, the core decision making process that will fuel our mutual success.

Don't sell your brain power short

I'm selling my brain power – my creativity, my intelligence, my vast spectrum of knowledge and experience. I'm selling my ability to see the client's vision and help her bring it into a tangible and profitable internet business. That's worth something. In fact that's worth a lot!

In your proposal build in special pricing for planning – your planning time. It takes time to read through a new client's web site and get a picture of who they are and what they want. It takes time to update and track the decisions and planned actions. I have a very strong Client Intake form that I ask my clients to fill out before we begin. It takes time for me to read that and pull out the strategy we should pursue.

Put a price on your thinking

I have two types of pricing. One is for a coaching session. The other is for the time I spend writing copy, strengthening copy, doing research and designing their marketing strategy. I charge by the quarter hour and I list on the invoice exactly what I was doing - created site map, wrote copy for home page, etc.

Don't give your ideas away for free

I also don't give a free consultation. I have too many great ideas that will make money for my clients to give them away. I do have a free initial exploratory conversation to discover their needs and how I might best serve them. Then I write a proposal – a Scope of Action. This gives me time to look at the notes I took while I talked to them and personalize my proposal and plan exactly how I'd like to proceed and what the client can expect to accomplish and by when. I also send them my Magnetic Marketing Method Client Intake Form which gives me powerful information upon which to build our sessions.

It's hard to predict how long we will work and I’m still working up the nerve to say "You need to work with me for six month." I know I have to have ten sessions minimum to bring the content for a complete web site into readiness. I probably ought to make it 12. People usually want boundaries – an end in sight – an estimate for their budget.

I have several packages of varying lengths for coaching but I always add a price for my thinking time in my proposal. No one has every objected. My intelligence and creativity is the most valuable thing I offer and it's worth every penny – or should I say every dollar!

It pays to get paid for thinking!

Cara Lumen, The Vision Distiller, helps proactive entrepreneurs translate their passion into a profitable presence on the internet with a minimum investment by using time, energy, information, and imagination. Through The Magnetic Marketing Method she offers innovative, inexpensive, and impactful ideas for internet marketing, content strategy, and signature product development. You can find more insightful articles like this in The Success Magnets Emagazine at www.caralumen.com

How to Effectively Position Yourself in Social Media

OK, we have this new opportunity going on that everyone is doing, but not everyone understands. I've joined Linkedin, FaceBook, and Squidoo. I blog and I podcast. I'm working up nerve to get on YouTube. But wait. What am I going to get for all this? How much time do I need to spend? Where does this fit into my marketing strategy?

There is no question but it's a happening thing

FaceBook is adding a million adults per week to their rosters.
YouTube gets over 50 million unique visitors per month.
FaceBook and MySpace have the equal daily traffic of Google and that's going to double!

So how do you get in touch with all those people? How do you make social media work for you?

Social Media is about collaboration

It is said you already know enough people to network out to any resource you need. Social Media is about becoming a strong link in that networking web in which information, resources, ideas, friendship and inspiration are shared.

Casual vs. Purposeful Interaction

The easiest two places to start are Linkedin, which is focused on business and job related networking, and FaceBook, which seems more animated with people sharing everything from Karma Links to Groups for specific causes. Posting on forums is both causal and purposeful. For these versions of Social Media you just have to show up and participate. It's all very casual and conversational.

It's the blogs and podcasts and wiki's that are more purposeful. They can be specifically targeted and used to actively build your business.

You need both the casual interaction and the purposeful content.

People are no longer willing to be sold

However, because there is so much hype, so many "buy now" urgent sales messages with "last-chance-to-buy" calls to action, we, as a buying public, are no longer listening to or being swayed by that approach. We are becoming immune. Internet readers want information from the internet. They don't want advertising or marketing or some sort of pitch.

Don't sell yourself - Be yourself

You know about the Law of Attraction, where your personal vibration attracts to you the essence of the energy you are emitting. Just be yourself and the perfect people will find you. Notice exactly how you are sharing. Are you helpful? Supportive? Friendly? Are you putting out the vibration that will attract the people you want as clients and customers? If not, get conscious about what you say, do, and write.

Hang out with your target market

Narrow your niche just as you have for your business. If you are in business go where business people hang out and relate to each other. If you are in health and fitness, join groups where people with that interest hang out, just as you would if you were joining a networking group in your area that you felt would lead you to new contacts.

Listen before you leap

Listen to what is going on in the social environment you choose to join before you start to post. Ease into the conversations. Keep your comments relevant. Offer suggestions and resources but do not promote yourself. Join forums that allow you to put your web site in your signature so people can get to know you more. Ask questions. Answer questions. Make friends. Build relationships. Keep listening for what other people in the social environment need to hear from you. Engage in conversation. This is not about you being a teacher or lecturer or even an expert. It is about engaging in a conversation. It is about building community. It is about establishing trust.

Get them to invest in your advice

So here's the plan. You go on these social media environments and start relating with others. You post short supportive messages to friends and acquaintances you haven't talked to in a long while. You post new discoveries you have made that others might like to know about. You share of yourself and your insights. And gradually you will establish yourself as a go-to person. And at some point, they will come to you to invest in your advice.

The bottom line is trust

Haven't we been taught over and over that we need to build trust with our prospects and clients in order to see them purchase from us? Every time I offer a new teleclass or ebook, it's the people who know me that purchase, the people from my list that I have been developing relationship with over the years. Sometimes they tell a friend but the major purchases come from people who trust me because we have built a relationship over time.

Don't say it till you mean it

I have found a weight loss program that I really like. It is multilevel marketing and my upline was eager for me to get two people under me so I could get my product free. But you know what? I wasn't ready. I was about ten days into the program and was getting results but I wasn't ready to talk to anyone about it yet. My upline urged me to tell my prospects about what other people had achieved. But the people I want to reach, the people who know and trust me, only want to hear my personal recommendation.

After a month on the program I had results I was eager to talk about and share. I could come from my own heart, my own conviction and my own experience and really listen to and address the needs and concerns of my friends who I think might benefit from having information on this product. Please notice, I'm not going to sell them anything, I'm going to give them information so they can make an informed decision for themselves.

As one friend said, "Your word is gold with me." What an honor. What trust. I want to always share from a place of personal integrity. I want everyone to know my word is gold with them.

Get yourself a platform for your passion

A blog can be up in five minutes. A podcast can be only 3-5 minutes long. Focus your content on something you care about, something you want to learn more about or help others do. Link that back to your web site where your services are listed.

Solve a problem

Look at your business. Look at your clients. What solution can you give them to a common problem that will bring immediate and noticeable results? Make a video with that solution and put it on YouTube, MySpace and FaceBook with links back to your main website.

Just having a blog and posting a video will help you establish more Web 2.0 presence than 90% of your competition. It's that easy.

Social Media as a marketing strategy

Engaging in social media is both an Outreach Strategy and a Keep In Touch Strategy. You make new friends, develop relationships and support each other with your goods and services. After all, what are friends for?!

© Cara Lumen 2008
www.caralumen.com

Cara Lumen, The Vision Distiller, helps proactive entrepreneurs translate their passion into a profitable presence on the internet Her Magnetic Marketing Method guides you through internet marketing, content strategy, and signature product development and helps you become a true Success Magnet. www.caralumen.com

The Psychology of Pricing - How to Position Your Products to Sell

In his article "Pricing tips for selling in a tough market" in the Wall Street Journal, Jonathan Clements presented pricing tips for the difficult housing marketing. Using this universal psychology of pricing I have translated his concepts to help you price your products to sell.

Make your first number count

Have you noticed how $4.99 looks like and feels like a lot less than $5.00? Manoj Thomas, a marketing professor at Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management explains, "We read from left to right so we anchor our judgment on the first thing we see. We make that judgment in a fraction of a second." A $99 home study course will look more affordable than a $100 one. A $124.75 teleclass series will feel like a better bargain than the same one at $125. Pay attention to number on the left. It's the one your prospect will remember.

Make effective price comparisons

One study of price comparisons found that, if the left digits are the same, buyers will focus on the right hand numbers. Thus an ebook at $12.75 feels a lot more expensive than one at $12.54. Have you ever been on Amazon ordering a book from an outside source? The prices vary by only one penny, but you inevitably go for the cheapest one. We love bargains.

It also turns out that buyers perceive the discount to be larger if those numbers on the right are declining from two to one rather than from nine to eight. Go figure.

Sometimes comparisons get out of hand. Have you ever been on a sales page that says you are getting $3,572 worth of bonuses? I personally don't need that much information, so it is a comparison that is not compelling to me. But if you tell me there is an Early Bird Special in which a $125 teleclass I'm considering is available for $99 I may jump on it. And you know what, that's a 20% savings. Which number did you respond to—the dollar amount or the percentage amount? I'm a dollar and cents type of person but it doesn't hurt to use both in your copy providing it’s a good percentage drop.

What is a reasonable price?

The best way to make a pricing decision has never been determined. There are guidelines, but no easy to apply rule. Obviously you want to be within the range your market dictates. When I priced my first ebook, a colleague said, "Oh well, you can always offer a discount." I knew then that I had priced it too high. You may not be able to sell an ebook for $29.95 since you are probably sitting there with a bookshelf full of very informative hard cover business books that average $12 each. It's very common to look at the amount of effort that went into creating your product and over price it.

Another decision is what your target market can afford. Eckhart Tolle prices his book A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose at $7.70. In doing so he made it available to anyone who wants it. He wants to get his message out. And it will be since he's an Oprah book club selection. Suze Orman felt so strongly about getting her message to women that for 24 hours she recently gave away a free PDF of her book Women and Money also through Oprah. If you have a book that you want to reach as many people as possible, keep it in a price range that will entice them.

Another consideration is that academics are used to paying more for a text book than the average reader. Research your market and stay within a reasonable price range for those you want to buy your product and services.

Do you want to convey quality or a bargain?

An interesting discovery about the psychology of pricing is that a round number will convey quality. A precise number will indicate a bargain. Vicki Morwitz, a marketing professor at New York University's Stern School of Business says that's because we associate precise numbers with lower-priced products. A precise number also indicates you have given a lot of thought to your pricing. Look at Amazon prices, the last two numbers are all sorts of un-rounded numbers – $14.37, $12. 64. It makes you feel like you are really getting a bargain because you assume they have arrived at those prices in order to be the lowest source for that product.

Make the discount easy to calculate

Make it easy for your buyer to relate to the price cut. If it is difficult to do the math, they will perceive the savings as small. A drop from $149.85 to $127.48 taxes anyone's math skills. But with a drop from $149.85 to $129.85 you can see a $20 savings. And in a drop from $150 to $130 the $20 savings is extremely clear.

Instead of cutting prices, add bonuses

In my coaching practice I have two ways for people to pay for my major package. They can pay in two payments, or if they pay in one payment, they get a bonus of four of my ebooks that are related to what they will be doing in our coaching sessions. My reasoning? Every time a prospect pulls out her credit card, she has the opportunity to reconsider the purchase. Fortunately my shopping cart can automatically charge monthly payments but my clients have an opportunity for some valuable bonuses if they pay in full. What kind of added value can you add to your bundles?

Don't stay married to your price

Price your product or service reasonably and if it doesn't sell lower your price. If it rushes out the door, consider raising your price. You could easily do some split testing by having identical sales pages with different prices and send half your list to one and half to the other and monitor the results.

Give it time

It takes prospects as many as nine exposures before they purchase. That's why building your list is vital to your success. An opt in list gives you permission to market. The prospects are willing to hear from you again. Through emagazines and special offer promotions, you will have time to speak to them often enough to build their trust and get ultimately them to purchase.

One last thought on information products

An information product is not your business, it is an adjunct to your business. It enhances your expert status, it lets people move up your marketing funnel. When people come to me for help in developing an information product, I make certain they have a strong name capturing system in place on a compelling web site with strong content that stimulates conversion. Laying that strong foundation is paramount to your success. Then you can create all the products you wish and use the psychology of pricing to position your products to sell.

Want to post this article in your emagazine? You may as long as the unedited article is printed in its entirety, and you include the copyright notice and the following statement:

Cara Lumen, The Vision Distiller, helps pro-active entrepreneurs translate their passion into a profitable presence on the internet with a minimum investment by using time, energy, information, and imagination. Through The Magnetic Marketing Method she offers innovative, inexpensive, and impactful ideas for internet marketing, content strategy, and signature product development. Her own information products are noted for their clarity and richness. Find more articles like this in The Success Magnets Emagazine at www.caralumen.com

Do you have what it takes to make money as an affiliate?

Too often people have the wrong idea about making money from affiliate marketing. The general impression is that all you have to do is sign up and the money will start pouring in. And it pops me right back to square one.

What are you passionate about?

The best businesses are built on our passion. When what we are passionate about is also something we are good at, that is a great way to make our income. We cannot just put up a sales page and expect things to happen. We cannot just choose a bunch of unrelated products and expect to sell them. Well, maybe some people can, but only a handful and that’s because they are already great marketers and simply like to sell.

You primarily sell to your list

New marketers seldom realize that you primarily sell to your list and if you don’t have a list, you’ll have a hard time selling anything. 80% of your sales will come from 20% of your prospects so a smart marketer spends the majority of her time attracting people to her list and cultivating a relationship with her present list and designing programs and services specifically for those prospects and their needs. These are people who know and trust you so that when you recommend a product or service, they can trust your word.

Are you a smart marketer?

You can’t be all things to all people; you’ll end up being nothing to everyone. You can’t write targeted copy, you can’t post on relevant blogs, you can’t even find your target audience unless you have identified them. And the smaller the better. Niches are riches. A smart marketer continues to identify and narrow her niche.

How affiliate marketing can work

My most lucrative affiliate associations are with products and services I use that would be helpful to my clients if they used them. For instance, because I coach people in content strategy for their web sites, I have an affiliate association with the shopping cart I recommend, the merchant account, the web hosting company, and the blog hosting company I use myself and can enthusiastically recommend. My clients come to me for internet marketing information. They do not expect or want me to try to sell them vitamins. Stick with what you yourself use. Stick with those programs that will bring value to your prospects Then you can genuinely share your enthusiasm and people will be attracted to what you have to offer. Keep your affiliate selections relevant to your target audience

Build your list

Back to square one. If you have a list, great. If you don’t, you need to build one. And it’s not just about having a list, it’s about having a pre-qualified list, people who see what you offer and give you permission to keep them posted on what you offer. That is done either through a web site with an opt in box or blog postings on a specific topic that builds your RSS feed list. Whichever you choose, you have to have one major topic and one target audience.

For instance, I can have a niche as a holistic health resource and find all sorts of affiliates to feature. I can have a niche as a marketing expert (I do) or a copy writer (I’m working on it) but each niche will draw a select audience and you want to be certain you focus your content and affiliate resources to their specific needs.

Have your own affiliate program

If you have active services and a number of products, it’s great to have your own affiliate program. However, like anything else in busyness, you need to support your affiliates with html banners and text links and suggested email copy and special promotions. You have to cultivate your relationship with your own affiliates just as you cultivate your prospects.

The resource page on my web site is filled with affiliate links. Sure I recommend things that don’t have an affiliate program, because I am in service to my web site visitors and want to give them as much value as I can. But when I can, it’s an affiliate link.

Follow your passion

I still think the desire to do something simply to earn money is a poor choice. People won’t buy just because you want to sell. They buy because they want it even more than they need it. They buy when you can get them caught up in your passion and excitement about the product or service they might purchase. Emotion sells. My suggestion for what it takes to earn money as an affiliate – follow your passion, stay in service and choose affiliate associates that fit your niche.

Cara Lumen, The Vision Distiller, helps you focus your passion and distill your vision into a specific and profitable course of action. Her specialty is internet marketing, content strategy, and signature product development. Through her Magnetic Marketing Method, Cara offers innovative, inexpensive, and impactful ideas for the pro-active entrepreneur. Learn how you can become a Success Magnet at www.caralumen.com

5 Ways to Tell If You Need a New Web Site

I just recently created my fifth website in ten years. Why? Because it was time. I have changed and needed a new reflection on the internet. A new website gives you the opportunity to rethink, re-choose, reposition and rebrand. Here are some of the signs that it’s time for a new one

You aren’t getting the results you want

The first clue that you need a new web site is that you are not getting the results you want. People are coming to your site but not opting in. Your conversion rate is minimal. Not a good sign of success. Look at your cpanel webstats and see the pattern of the past year. Chart your growth. I keep a chart of my web stats and mark on it what marketing strategies I put in place during a particular month so I can see how effective it was or was not as the case may be.

You may need a new opt in, a new design, stronger keywords, and new sales pages— pretty much everything in order to get the results you deserve. A new web site lets you start fresh.

Is your web site getting the conversion rate you want?

Are you attracting the number of visitors to your site that you need to be successful?

Your niche has tightened and needs rebranding

This niche-tightening is an on-going process. We start out wanting to serve the world and, after time and sometimes trial and error, we figure out the type of people who need and want our services. As we do, we need to change our copy content and our product offering.

Several years I created a portal web site, which means people coming to my site had to make a choice on which of two websites they wanted to visit. One side was filled with philosophical and inspirational messages and the other was focused on internet marketing which also had some philosophy and inspiration but was definitely targeted for the pro-active internet marketer. You can imagine how different the copy and content was for each of those two sites. It was amazing what that simple change made in how differently I could interact with the visitors to each side. I even had two separate emagazines going. Sometimes a portal site is a great answer and sometimes it simply divides the visitors who come.

However, I recently took a hard look at the productive and not-so-productive areas of my business and saw that even though the philosophical side was an area of service that was true to my heart, it was not at all lucrative. So, I took a deep breath, released the purely philosophical side that wasn’t profitable and designed a new website focused on the pro-active internet entrepreneur. The results were immediate as I focused my business in a much more targeted way.

Does your present web site address your most targeted niche?

Your services and products need repositioning

What do you want to offer? What do you no longer want to offer? List your income streams in lucrative order, then look at your web site and see if you are indeed promoting what people are seeking from you. I can’t tell you the number of times I added specialized coaching packages in my previous site and what a relief it was to narrow myself to a more clearly defined niche. My clients helped me reposition myself as The Vision Distiller because that is what they kept asking me to help them do.

I know I learn more every year, which means I organically have more to offer. Creating a new web site gave me time to rethink and re-choose. Once I narrowed my niche and dropped one of my websites, I also dropped some products from service. If I choose to promote them again I know now that I will have a separate website with a new name just for that target market.

What products or services are providing income and which ones are simply taking up space?

How can you promote the ones that are working in a more unique and innovative manner?

You are smarter and wiser now

Creating a new web site is about dressing properly for the occasion. You have changed since you designed your last site. What image do you want to project? Is it more professional? More casual? Harder sell? Softer sell?

Every new sales page I write is stronger and clearer than the one before. It’s because I keep learning how to make choices and define my offering. I know more and can put it to work for both me and my clients.

Another benefit of creating a new web site is that you have the opportunity to rethink your navigation, add that media page you are now ready for, change your content strategy and strengthen your copy. You get to re-package and re-position your products and services.

How have you changed since your last web site and what do you need to upgrade, clarify, release, or improve?

You have more to offer

As entrepreneurs we continually have great ideas and the more we act on them the more diversified we become. However, stop and see how your business would benefit from having more than one web site. For instance, I coach people in web site content, information product development and internet marketing skills. At the moment they are all on one site. What if I created an entire site only about information product development rather than just devoting one page on my present site? It would have different keywords, more targeted articles, and it would address different needs than people who come to my site for content development and internet marketing. Perhaps you want to think it terms of two websites. How can you combine or leverage or repositions your existing products and services on a new web site.

Take a long hard look

Get your stats out, look over your income streams; look in your heart to see what you love to do and what you are doing because you think you should. Make a list of what people are asking you to provide for them, in service and in products. Notice how your business has changed. Do you need a new shopping cart or opt in offering? How can you bundle your products for great effectiveness. How effective is your affiliate program? Do you even have one?

Then get professional help

Invest in some content strategy coaching to help you sort out and focus your site map and offerings. A professional can help you focus your vision into a profitable internet presence. Hire a professional web designer to capture your essence in design. And get a copy writing coach to help you create the most compelling copy you can manage. Make this next web site the best ever!

Cara Lumen, The Vision Distiller, helps you distill your vision into a specific and profitable course of action. Her specialty is internet marketing, content strategy, copy writing, and signature product development. Through her Magnetic Marketing Method, Cara offers innovative, inexpensive, and impactful ideas for the pro-active entrepreneur. Learn how you can become a Success Magnet at www.caralumen.com

Have You Left Out The Most Important Thing?

I’ve been working on my Magnetic Marketing Method series which is a collection of individually packaged marketing techniques that allows you pick the one you want to learn when you want to learn it. But I found one concept that has to be included in every marketing strategy we use that I think is easy to lose sight of as we immerse ourselves in the details.

Why are you in business?

No, it’s not about making a living. It’s not about making something, or selling something, or doing something. Those are surface things. What is underneath? What is driving you? What is the passion, the core need you must express that is being satisfied by your work? What makes your life better because you are doing it?

Kahlil Gibran says, “When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music.”

It takes the involvement of your heart to create your business. Gibran suggests, “It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit.”

Wow! I’m not certain I do that as well as I might.

Passion is your foundation

Why do you want to be in the business you are in? What do you love about it? How will your life change once you shape it the way you envision?

Sometimes it takes time for our true passion to become visible. Although I think that everything happens for a reason, it feels like I sort of fell into being an internet marketing coach. I kept studying and learning wonderful things about marketing myself on the internet and one day I thought, “Hey, I sure know a lot about this. I can help others understand it too.” So my business shifted into that niche. And I love it.

But I also love to learn. And then I get excited about sharing it with others. That makes me a teacher at my core. That is the passion that drives all I do. Can you see how simple designing your business becomes when you can identify your core passion?

Keep building on your passion

If you are like me, you have many things you love to do and you are good at them. So how do you choose? How do you keep building your business on your true passion?

By comparison. As each new idea presents itself, hold it up to your core passion. Is this as close to living my passion as I can get?  How can I change this idea to get even closer? For instance, I write. I love to write. And it is the most satisfying when I can use that writing skill to teach. Yes, I use it to write web content and sales pages, but my whole being is engaged when I create something that helps others learn. So now, one of the facets of my coaching is that people learn why they are making certain decisions and they can then go repeat what they have learned in other circumstances. I’m a teaching coach. I’ve brought my passion into my business.

List three reasons you are in business

Write down at least three reasons you are in business. Ignore the physical plane results. Go deep within. Look for the heart of your passion. That’s why you are in business. That’s why the hours you spend at work are like play. As Gibran says, “Work is love made visible.”

You passion is the power behind the success of your business. It’s what attracts people to you. Don’t leave it out. Make its presence known in every aspect of your business.

©2007 Cara Lumen

Cara Lumen, The Vision Distiller, helps you discover your infinite possibilities for success. She works with your deepest passion, your greatest skills, and your conscious choice to distill a purposeful path from a myriad of exciting ideas as she helps you focus your business into greater purpose and profitability. Her specialty is internet marketing and signature product development. Through her Magnetic Marketing Method she teaches you to create a profitable presence on the internet with a minimum investment by using time, energy, information, and imagination. Learn how you can become a Success Magnet at www.caralumen.com

The Umpteenth Business Plan - Why you can never do too many

I just did my umpteenth Business Plan and discovered some new insights. Every time I go through the process I add a dimension that had not been there before. It’s like slowly peeling back layers to get to my core passion, my core involvement, and my exact place to be in service.

Let your niche find you

If you niche is too broad, no one will find you. We put great effort into selecting and defining a niche. At the beginning of creating a business you mentally and emotionally search for and find your perfect target audience. But in the long run, you don’t find your niche, your niche finds you.

Here’s how. Notice the times you are in service that you feel the most successful. You may have effortlessly written an e-book, or brilliantly coached a client through their process into a great “ah-ha.” What organically comes up in your process of serving that people are asking you to provide? It may be a new skill you discover, it may be a new need you must meet. Let the needs of your current clients and customers define what you offer. This is how a niche finds you. It is a combination of what you love to do and what people love to receive from you.

Be patient with yourself. The discovery of your perfect niche may develop over time. Just remain aware of what continues to  show up in your business and your heart.

How long do you serve one customer?

One of the aspects I saw more clearly in creating this business plan was exactly how long I can serve one person. Do I coach them for 2 months, 6 months, 9 months? Then what happens? What do I have in place to continue to offer to those people I have worked with 1:1. If I don’t find something, I have to go find more clients. It’s much more economical to continue to build relationships with those who already know you and like what you are doing.

How long do you serve one customer and what can you do to extend that time?

How has your business changed?

I’m not the same person I was even a year ago. My business is not the same. My target audience has changed. That means my actions have to change. I need to reevaluate my products. I may have to revise or add to my services.

A huge shift came for me when I realized that basically I am a teacher. At the core of what I do is a love of learning and the joy of sharing it to others. That allowed me to make a business plan that schedules more teleclasses to be made into digital products. It allowed me to stop offering services that were pulling me off track. It helped me write stronger copy for my home page and my coaching pages.

And don’t forget to add passive income sources to your business plan. Create home study courses and e-books that can be purchased on line while you’re off doing something else.

Look for what your clients and customers need next and expand your business to accommodate them.

Who is your competition?

When the business plan asked me to list my competition I thought, “there is no such thing as competition, we are each unique.” But the form was asking me to find my uniqueness by looking at what other people in my field did, and write down what made me different, how I stood out, how my products and services were unique. It wanted me to identify what benefits I offered that others did not. With that information I can craft my copy and content to emphasize those unique benefits and appeal more to my target audience.

What makes you stand out from the crowd?

The Umpteenth Business Plan

Each time you complete a business plan it will elicit different answers based on where your awareness is at the time and what circumstances have come up in your business since the last time you wrote one. Sometimes, it’s as simple as finally being ready to hear or pay attention to one aspect that you were not ready for before. That new willingness will draw forth fresh responses from you.

A business plan also helps you expand your vision. Where do you want to be? What do you want your business to look like? How do you plan to get there? Some things in your business plan may not change, but each time you go through the process to complete one you with change your awareness, recommit to your vision and take a giant step forward.

Whether it’s your first, your fifth, or your umpteenth business plan, schedule time each year to see where you are and where you want to be. Then create and adjust for success.

Want to post this article on your website? You may as long as you include the following:

Cara Lumen, MA, The Vision Distiller, helps you explore your infinite possibilities for success and take your vision to the world. Using her Magnetic Marketing Method she teaches you to create a profitable presence on the internet with a minimum investment by using time, energy, information, and imagination. Learn how you can become a Success Magnet at www.caralumen.com

High Branding

I’ve coined a new phrase, “High Branding” because finding your high branding position makes everything fall easily into place. Let me explain.

As an entrepreneur I can do a lot of things, just like you. As an entrepreneur I have a hard time narrowing my niche to a small enough target audience to be effective. Just like you.

I had all sorts of labels within the structure of my business because I wanted people to know all that I did and I didn’t want to miss any income opportunities. Does this sound familiar? I had different names for my internet marketing coaching, for my copy writing services, for my web content strategy and design, for my expert status development program and for signature product development. As hard as I tried to make my offerings clear, my services page on my web site was a mess. It contained way too many choices for the potential client and it was still only me doing my thing – or my things, if you will.

But less is more. I knew that but I couldn’t find it.

Look without

I began to notice two things: what my clients were asking me to do for them, and what skills and talents I was using to answer their needs. I wanted my niche to find me.

For years I have kept an Acknowledgement List. It helps me see myself as others see me. I began to look over testimonials and acknowledgements people had sent me. I began to see what they saw in me that I might not be seeing in myself. That began to give me some ideas, but it was the conscious look within that helped me find my High Brand.

Look within

I have been gifted with the ability to cut to the core of a concept—to distill from a conversation what is at the heart of the sharing. I found that while I was listening to the myriad of ideas my clients had, I could effortlessly identify and pull forward the essence of their vision. Then I was able to offer them a zillion ideas to bring their vision to life. I began to label myself “The Vision Distiller.” And all that I was doing began to fall easily under that umbrella. It didn’t matter if we were creating web sites, or learning to write articles, or creating signature products, it was all about helping people bring their vision to life and take it out into the world.

What a relief! All my efforting fell away. All need to explain the details of what I do disappeared. My high intention, my overall purpose is to help people express their vision—whatever form it takes.

I created a new web site, changed my tag lines, and came to rest under the umbrella of a High Brand.

How can you find your High Brand? How can you get to the core of what you offer?

Be Patient

It took me three years to arrive at this new awareness, so first of all be patient. And allow it to emerge organically as you go about placing yourself in deep service.

Keep an Acknowledgement List

What started as an Acknowledgement List years ago is now my testimonial collection, but it also contains complimentary emails that people have sent me along the way. I use it regularly to find copy phrases for promoting my products and services. And they usually make me feel good too.

Redo your business plan on a regular basis

Every time I redo my business plan and have to redefine my target audience and describe the problem I solve and the benefits I offer them, my brand gets stronger. I discover new words and phrases that express how I currently feel about my work. Redo your business plan at least once a year as a checkup and an opportunity to reposition yourself. Notice how far you have come, be aware of how you have changed, see if you can narrow your target audience, and identify what your clients are asking for. Then pay attention to what you find and see how you can adjust your business to increase your effectiveness.

Write a Resource Box

A resource box is added when we submit articles, but the exercise of finding the most compelling words to capture the essence of your business in three lines or so is very revealing. I have about ten resource boxes that I have used along the line and I keep rearranging phrases as my own awareness grows. Keep honing and polishing the words and phrases you use to attract people to your offerings.

Look for the Umbrella

What title can you give yourself that says it all? I helped one of my clients brand herself as "The Unstoppable Confidence Coach" and another has become "The Marketing Mentor". One client has a product to help people increase their brain power. I suggested she might become "The Brain Coach." But when she told me her target market was boomers, my suggestion was she become “The Boomer Brain Coach.” That ought to get her some attention.

Look for a memorable title that incorporates who are and what you do. Look for the core service you give, what others continually ask you to provide, the highest benefit others receive and see what emerges. That’s how you discover your own High Branding.

©2007 Cara Lumen

Want to post this article on your website? You may as long as you include the following:

Cara Lumen, MA, The Vision Distiller, helps you explore your infinite possibilities for success and take your vision to the world. She teaches you to create a profitable presence on the internet with a minimum investment by using time, energy, information, and imagination. Learn how you can become a Success Magnet at www.caralumen.com

The Joy of Completing

The only reason I get to talk about the joy of completion is because I took over a year to do the final editing on some teleclasses I had recorded and it is now done and I AM JOYOUS!!!!

Isn't it amazing how long we can put off something that will give us as much joy and satisfaction as completion? I can't tell you how many half started (or is it half finished) e-books I have. And when I rediscover them I always find I'm a lot further along than I thought.

I wonder what made me stop. It was probably that something else popped to the top of my completion list, or I found something totally new and exciting to explore. And things pop to the top because they needed. So perhaps it's simply that their time has come.

But back to the joy of completion. When I finished my first CD cover, and had that jewel case sitting on my desk it was a thrill. When I complete an e-book and make the sales page and post it in my shopping cart I am ecstatic.

Why do we neglect completion? Why do we put it off when it feels so good?

You know, it doesn't have to be a very big completion in order to count. Hey, taking the notes that are all over my desk and putting them into my Quick List is a win. Listening to a downloaded teleclass I've been meaning to get to gives me satisfaction and new knowledge. Taking a moment to organize the files on my hard drive should be properly celebrated. And making a new mind map of my next steps demands a pat on the back.

Yes, I have a "To Do" list. I call it my "Quick List." It stays open on my computer and every idea I have goes on it. It has a section for article and e-book ideas, things to do to strengthen my web site, phrases I like, links to remember and next steps to take. It holds a calendar with the phone numbers of the teleclasses I plan to take, my coaching schedule and my "Do Today" list. So keeping track is not the problem. But sometimes completing is.

I think it's time for sticky notes. What if, at the end of each day, I acknowledged myself for something I had completed and write it down? Hopefully the number of sticky notes could become quite decorative. At the end of the week I would read them over and bask in the joy of completion. I would really take time to acknowledge myself and feel how good it is to have moved forward through completion. Then I would clear the decks and start fresh for the upcoming week.

My coaching clients are usually entrepreneurs with a lot of ideas. Part of my job is to get them to focus on one idea, complete it and then choose a next step. Often I meet with resistance. Not intentionally, just because they are excited about so many things and want to do them all. Do you know that feeling?

If you run around with a lot of half completed aspects of your business you will never feel like you are making any forward motion. On your calendar, schedule specific times to work your business. It may be to write articles or research potential radio interviews or it may be to invoice work you have completed. If you don't set aside time to work your business every week you will stay at exactly the place you are now. And if you don't complete a few steps each week you are simply dog paddling to stay afloat.

Completion is tied into commitment. And commitment works wonders. Commitment lines up all manner of magical gifts from the universe in the form of tools we need, people we need to speak to, and circumstances that offer new opportunities.

Sometimes I don't complete because what's left to do is not very interesting. It's much more fun to create something new than edit something you've already done, or write the thank you page for your web site, or set up a new product in your shopping cart. But it is tying up those final ends that is the icing on the cake. Don't let a project go uncompleted because of three things on your "To Do" list that will take you 20 minutes to complete. You are robbing yourself of the great pleasure of completion.

I know that part of my non-completion is because of bumping other things to the top of the list. And maybe they do need to be bumped up. Maybe they are more of a priority. Perhaps I can focus on celebrating what I do complete rather than what remains to be done.

What we focus on we attract more of. If I focus on completion, and if I celebrate each success, I know that I will find myself completing more and more…..and more.