Get More Business Show – Cindy Greenway – Virtually Successful

Today I had a very delightful conversation with Cindy Greenway, author of Virtually Successful. I turned the tables and had her discuss with me how coaches, speakers and authors can expand their business by working with a Virtual Assistant and Online Business Manager.

 

Important points that came up in the conversation were

• if you – as a coach, speaker or author - are not focusing on and spending time on what you do – coaching, speaking and writing books – then you’re not building your business,  you’re merely maintaining it.
• it’s vitally important to communicate your coaching message and help you VA to understand who your ideal coaching client or customer / prospect is for your VA to be effective.
• regular communication is absolutely vital to your coach / VA relationship.
• hiring a VA is not the same as hiring a full time employee. You can hire for a specific # of hours per month or by the project.

Cindy offered lots of really great insight since she herself has been a VA for 3+ years. Her focus now is training VA’s how to get clients and keep clients – which is the topic of her book, Virtually Successful.

Listen in to the recorded show on Get More Business Show – During the show she gives a web address where you can download a free report – 101 ways to Boost your Business with a VA.

If you’re not using a VA you might be wasting your valuable coaching time and money – Seriously!

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Systems and Software for Better Blogging

Yesterday Krista over at Red Box Studio Blog wrote a post that I thought had a great message and mentioned a piece of software that I just happened to be looking for.  First I’ll show you the software in this quick 5 minute video. You can download the free software at FastStone. 

Click on the play icon the video in the image below. When the video begins to play hover your cursor over the image, you’ll see the tool bar across the bottom. To the far right of the video tool bar you will see an image that looks like a TV screen – click on that and enlarge to full screen to be able to see the image at it’s best resolution.

Like Krista mentioned on her post, many of my clients still say they don’t have time to post on their blog – but it is essential to getting their coaching message out to their prospects.  Here are a few of my own tips for more consistent blogging.

1.  Schedule an appointment with yourself for creating blog posts.

Many people don’t like to be tied to a daily commitment of posting on their blog but would like to deliver a daily dose of your coaching message. What I recommend is that you set aside a day a week to sit down and write the blog posts for the week, or for the month.  Many people think they should write long information rich posts, but really in most cases it’s easier to deliver your message in smaller doses. Write a post about a single, simple piece of information – keep it short and to the point with a punch of useful information.

2. Keep a running list of topics that you want to communicate to your audience.

I keep a notepad next to me when I am coaching to jot notes of topics that I find myself coaching about. I try to observe if a question or situation has universal application that I can share in my blog.  If you create a running list of ideas to blog about when you site down to write you have lots of ideas to pull from. For example, I wrote a post about before spending time and possibly money in driving traffic to your website or blog it’s important to be sure certain things are in place to “convert” the traffic and create a relationship such as having an email capture on your site.

3. Read blogs that relate to your coaching message.

This is an idea from Krista’s blog. Krista makes the point that it’s not possible to write compelling posts “in a vacuum”. I agree, and find that I get many good ideas from other bloggers. Most of the time it’s not in duplicating the information over on my blog, but it’s in adding my blog post as part of the virtual conversation.

4. Use a template.

This idea is a carry over from what I’ve learned about article marketing. A template gives me a roadmap for information delivery. For example if I write a “Seven Tips” blog post it’s easy to start by first writing 7 tips in 7 single sentences. Each of these single sentences become a numbered sub-head. Then I write a couple of sentences that elaborate on the single sentence to give more understanding to my reader. It’s hardly any effort to come up with 200-300 words and a great blog post.

5. Find a question to answer from a forum or discussion group related to your ideal target client.

For example, if you are a parenting coach spend some time browsing a parenting group or mom’s forum. Look for questions that get lots of views and comments. Answer the question on your blog. The fact that you are answering a question asked by a prospect helps you to create relevancy in your message.

6. Prepare your images ahead of time.

Sometimes just finding and resizing the photos is tedious and time consuming. Using the Faststone Photo Resizer software allows you to make batch changes to many photos at once – a huge time saver.

Thanks Krista for a great post idea! And, I think I will create an article out of this information also.

What is your better blogging system tip? Leave a comment and share what you do.
 

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Article Marketing Teleseminar Club – January’s Quest

At the beginning of the year I started with the  resolve to go deeper with my knowledge of Internet Marketing. I chose 5 Internet Marketers to learn more from to accomplish this resolution.

One of the Internet Marketers that I chose to learn from is Jeff Herring, The Internet Article Marketing Guy. I joined Jeff’s Article Marketing Teleseminar Club in January with the intention of taking one thing that I was not currently doing, and implement it, and then brag about it on this blog.

I have been learning so much! In fact, just today I received a lovely pink mp4 player that I purchased on ebay for the sole purpose of loading it with Internet Marketing Teleseminars so I could listen on the go. Immediately when I pulled the media player out of it’s package ,I hooked it up to my laptop and loaded all of January’s Teleseminars from Jeff Herring. I spent several hours re-listening to the teleseminars from January. There are so many things that I have begun to implement for myself and my clients, and can see a difference in traffic and conversion already.

The one significant change that I made is to stop sending visitors and readers of my articles to my blog with a link in the resource box.  I have rewritten the resource box and have only one link directly to a single action landing page that offers my free 6 week ecourse that lays out a simple plan to harness the power of Internet Marketing to build a coaching business, create passive streams of income, book more speaking events, and sell more books.  I am definitely seeing more sign ups with this change. I am also seeing the Coaches Community begin to grow because I think the new people that are signing up are more targeted for my message and thus more responsive.

My single option landing page is www.BuildingMyCoachingPractice.com is specifically written to attract coaches who are looking to build their business to sign up for a 6 week eCourse. If the visitor is not a coach or already feels they know how to build their practice they’re not going to sign up. This means that the people that do sign up are mostly likely my ideal client.

In the 6 week ecourse I invite the reader to visit me over at Coaches Community to join us in a 100 Day Challenge and enjoy the support of other coaches doing the same thing – creating their own challenge to take significant action to build their coaching business.

I have other really cool ideas that I am working on from Jeff’s teleseminar. Just tonight I got a completely new idea that I never thought of before – actually as Jeff was talking about Repurposing Articles he voiced what I was thinking saying that it was an original idea that he just thought of as he was doing the teleseminar.

Each month I will implement one idea or concept from each of the Internet Marketing Mentors that I have selected to learn more form. I have several more I can hardly wait to tell you about with how to implement them for your coaching practice.

I’d love to have you sign up for the 6 week eCourse so you can hear some of these ideas in depth, along with exercises for you to use to challenge yourself to take action. Or, ask Jeff Herring says,  “It takes GUTS – Go Use This Stuff!”

Watch for a  post about a great tool that caused me to think differently about one of my most powerful marketing strategies, that I learned from Perry Marshall.

Tell me if you use a single action or single option landing page for your article marketing and list building, how’s that working for you?

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Life Coaching Business: Join the 100 Day Challenge to Build Your Coaching Business

We are starting a new 100 Day Challenge on Monday, March 2, 2009 ending on May 9, 2009.

What is a 100 Day Challenge? It’s anything you want to challenge yourself to do for your business in 100 days. The important thing about this challenge is accountability! By doing this as a group and meeting once a week to discuss our progress you can inspire and be inspired to stay on track.

Here are some ideas:

• 100 articles in 100 days
• 100 blog posts in 100 days
• 15 Internet radio shows or podcasts (weekly) in 100 days
• 100 pieces of content with your coaching message – any combination of the above items.
• Whatever you feel you can commit to and grow by doing

Join us at Coaches Community for more information about the live teleconference every Thursday during the 100 Day Challenge at 9 am Pacific / Noon Eastern. The calls will be 60 minutes and will be recorded. You will get the most out of it if you join us live.

Create a member profile at no charge at Coaches Community. Visit the discussion forum for all the details.

I “triple dog dare ya” to join us!

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Get More Business Show – Kevin O’Malley 3 Keys to Effective Promotional & Print Marketing

Kevin O’Malley of My Promo Expert coaches business owners how to build & sustain business relationships with customers using effective print & promotional strategies. Kevin knows about small business needs. He started his first business at the age of just 23 and sold it 10 years later for over $3 million dollars to a Fortune 500 company. With a success record like this – I can’t wait for you to hear what he had to share with us today!

Kevin shared some really great print and promotional product ideas with us on the show. One of the ideas was that if you serve different audiences such as a parenting coach who works with parents of kids in a range from toddler to teens could print cards aimed at parents of different age groups by printing a different message on the back of cards with different call to action for each age group. For example different message on back for parents of toddlers,  grade school and middle school parents and finally high school. By doing this your message is more targeted with a specific message to each group.

Kevin promised to make a white paper with case histories or different projects available for ideas of print and promotional marketing. He can be contacted through his website at www.MyPromoExpert.com – Tell him The Small Business Guru sent you!

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Twittering for Business: Developing a Follow Strategy for Relevant Connections on your Twitter List

Many Social Media Experts, as well as successful Internet marketers and coaches have come the conclusion that  Twittering for Business can no longer be ignored. In fact, it is being touted as a social media revolution.

I absolutely love and hate Twitter.

I hate it for the amount of time using it has the potential to waste. It is so easy for me to lose focus and just tweet my day away. It’s bad enough to be an mental illness if I didn’t have a Twitter Strategy.

The Small Business Guru Twitter Strategy

Twitter is my give zone. My strategy is to be sure that every tweet some how gives something of value to my community of twitter following. Following is a list of how I give

• Inspiring quotes
• Retweets of helpful information, posts, articles and quotes from the amazing people in my circle of influence
• Connections. If someone that I follow has a need that I cannot fill I tweet it to those that follow me to see if they can help make a connection for someone in my community.
• Encouragement. When someone is having a bad day and the tweet about, I look for ways to help or encourage in 140 characters or less.
• Virtual Applause – When someone in my following has acheived something they’re proud of I help them to celebrate with a tweet  and share the news with my followers.

The Small Business Guru – Who Do I Follow Strategy

First of all I do not follow everybody that follows me. No offense, but I am seriously applying a thought out plan for who is a part of my Twitter Community.  And, I do block followers that hi-jack “celebrity” names and tweet spam.

Oh, and if you follow me but have protected tweets…I might block you unless your Twitter page and profile are intensly of interest to me. Twitter is not meant to be a private instant messaging system, but a public stream of conversation.

Okay, so who do I typically follow and why:

1. Masters: The group that I call masters are people that I consider to have something substantial about their message that I want to learn – They know much about their topic and have lots of experience. An example of would be @ProBlogger, @JoelComm, or @DuctTapeMarketing - there are too many more for me to put in this post. And my masters might be very different from your masters.
2. Peers: These are people that I perceive to be about where I am on the learning curve of using the Internet and social media. I learn a lot from this group in observing how they communicate to their followers. I also watch who they follow, I read the posts in their public stream not only to read what they are saying but who they are saying it to. I find some really wonderful connections this way.
3. Prospects: These are people that have a need for my services and are in the right kind of business that I believe I am suited to provide solutions. Really important, although I follow possible prospects I don’t use Twitter to initiate a conversation about what I have to offer. There are subtle approaches to providing them with my coaching message without a direct sales approach.
4. Providers: Just like what it sounds. These are people that I have evaluated as being a great provider of product, services or information that I need directly or might be needed by my Twitter Community. What I learn from the Providers helps me become more valuable my Twitter Community.

These four categories and my give strategy helps me to stay focused on why I am using Twitter for business. That and I do have to watch the clock just to make sure I don’t stay on Tweetdeck all day!

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What is “Viral Marketing”?

I was invited by the show producer to view the brand new Shama TV. Shama Hyder, online marketing and social networking expert started video-casting just this month. Shama is knowledgeable and shares quite a bit of wisdom in just just a few minutes time.

I think I enjoyed her 2nd Video post the best, entitled, “Why Products and Services Don’t Go Viral” it’s a short video with a thought worth considering.

 

I would agree with Shama with one addition – Yes, Shama, it is the idea that goes viral, but not just a simple idea. The idea must be something that emotionally engages and includes the audience. They have to “see” themselves using, enjoying, benefiting or some how identifying and engaging with the idea.

Ideas are powerful. Ideas that move us emotionally are…viral – shareable. If we identify with the idea represented in the product or service presented we’re likely to share it because by sharing the idea it gives us the power to emotionally touch or move our circle of influence.

Shama TV has great potential. Wonderful idea. Video-logging is a great way to engage your audience, to build a relationship and give your viewers a chance to get to know you better. I am looking forward to getting to know you more through your videos.

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Why You Don’t Need to Increase Web Traffic to Your Website or Blog

You don’t need more traffic to your website or blog…UNLESS you have a way to convert your traffic (well okay, more than one way – but let’s just start with this one).

Coaches, you are wasting your time building a beautiful website and posting regularly on your blog unless you capture some information about your visitor.

Not everyone that comes to your website will come back. It takes a lot of work with link building, SEO, social networking, writing and publishing articles – that’s a big investment of time and money just to get people to click through from your search engine listing or an article to show up at your site.

But, what if when they get to your site they say to themselves, “You know, someday I should hire a coach to help me with…” and then they leave to search for their favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe or how to get rid of fleas on their dog. That visitor may never, ever visit your website again. All that work and NOTHING happened that will benefit you and your coaching business. What a horrid waste of time and effort!

I don’t care how much site traffic you’re getting to your website and blog – it’s a pitiful waste if you’re not giving your website visitors a way to stay connected with you and your coaching message.

In fact, did you know that you could actually eliminate everything on your website – yes, even your blog – and reduce it to one single page about how your coaching message will solve the visitors biggest problems and meet their most demanding needs. One single page of compelling copy about what your coaching message will do for your visitor and a simple invitation…and perhaps a gift…if the visitor would like to know more or stay connected with you.

That one single page and invitation to connect is THE most important part of your website and blog.

Now, don’t get me wrong I am not saying you should get rid of your website or blog (but I do think you would be served just as well by combining the two). It’s just that your invitation to connect with your visitor is so important that it could stand alone without the rest of your wonderful information – yet I have lost count of the number of websites that I visit that have no invitation and incentive to connect.

Let me further clarify that I am NOT talking about simply connecting on Twitter or Facebook - although I think you should do that as well.

Let me show you what I am talking about. Do you see that “Free eCourse” sign up in my sidebar? That’s my invitation to stay connected with me and my coaching message.  

If  I’ve done my job and attracted you  – if you’re a coach, speaker and author who wants to take your message to an International Marketplace and you would like to get a basic overview of what to do to make that happen – then please accept my invitation to stay connected. We’ll start with a 6 week eCourse of information you can use immediately.

Now, go look at your website. Have you made a compeling invitation to your website visitors to stay connected? Go ahead, share your coaching message with them. Write a special report with your top 10 tips to whatever your coaching message is about. Now add an irresistable title so your visitor won’t leave your website without giving you their name and email address.

Now you need targeted website traffic!

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Get More Business Show – Craig Elias – Trigger Sales

Join me today on Blog Talk Radio.  Call-in Number: (3…

Today we’re gonna talk about that “dirty little five letter word” that most of coaches would abhor to use – sales! Coaches do not sell! Right?

Well as a coach you absolutely MUST know how to sell or you will be out of the coaching business real quick!

Just before the call Craig Elias sent me an article that he thought would be appropriate for my audience of coaches, speakers & authors – I agree it’s perfect. Here is the article by Craig Elais that was discussed in detail on the Get More Business Show.

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2) Be THE expert in what you teach – Specialize, speak, and write. I specialize in just one thing timing: repeatedly getting to the right person at EXACTLY the right time. I have written a number of articles, and done several webinars. As a result I now have a publishing agreement signed and a book due out in April next year: “SHiFT! OUTSELL YOUR COMPETITION by Leveraging Trigger Events”, and having a book makes you the ultimate expert.

3) Create a market – Creating my own terminology means that when people check the web for any of the major components to what I teach – “Window of Dissatisfaction”, “Trigger Event Selling”, “Won Sales Analysis”, “Emotional Favourite”, “Trigger Event Referrals”, “First Call Effectiveness” I dominate the top 10, 20, and in some cases even the top 50 Google search results.

4) Protect your market – I own 192 domains names related to what I teach. This makes it easy for people to find me and makes it harder for a copycat to market themselves. E.g. TriggerEventSeling.com, TriggerSelling.com, Trigger-Event-Selling.com, WindowOfDissatisfaction.com, WonSalesAnalysis.com, EmotionalFavourite.com, FirstCallEffectiveness.com. I tried the Trademark route but found that there were so many different classifications a competitor could use to copy Trigger Event Selling and because I would have to Trademark in so many different countries, I would spend 20 times as much money doing trademarks vs. leveraging a large number of domain names.

5) STATE YOUR POSITION – Polarize your audience. If you believe that the best sales people make the best sales managers, SAY IT OUT LOUD. You will create a loyal following that believes in the same things you do and you will get some extra exposure by being provocative. For instance I say that timing is THE SILVER BULLET IN SALES. Some people may disagree but even if they do disagree they remember who I am and that makes it more likely they will notice me in the press and at some point they’ll come around because of what is called the “Lemming Effect” if a large group starts, or is perceived to have started, doing something others follow because they fear being left behind if they don’t. E.g. I recently did a webinar that had over 1,400 registrants. Mentioning that when I speak and write – notice I am mentioning it here – will have others wanting to know what they are missing out on. If you want to know what you’re missing out on, you can get access to the recording and the handout by downloading the preview chapter of my book at www.TriggerEventBook.com.

6) Get exposure – This year my goal was to get 24 pieces of exposure (be interviewed, have a story written, be part of a podcast, etc.) and of last week I had my 24th piece of exposure. Having and stating your position will help you get in the more exposure. Ten pieces of exposure on smaller sites or niche outlets is as, if not more, effective than one piece of exposure in one major outlet. Check out HARO – Help a Reporter Out. It comes out three times a day and so far it alone has resulted in 5 interviews in the last few months. Getting all the exposure also helps me to increase the “Lemming Effect” that I mentioned in #5 above. P.S. I also own the domain names LemmingEffect.com and TheLemmingEffect.com…are you beginning to get the picture ?

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Thanks Craig! Great Message! Wonderful Interview.

You’ve heard there is no “magic formula” to sales. But there is. It is called timing – getting in front of the right person at EXACTLY the right time.

When you have the right timing the sale  (or your prospect hiring you) almost happens by itself - No challenges getting to the customer, understanding their dissatisfaction, presenting a solution, or closing the sale. Research shows that the average sales person is five times more likely to make a sale when they have the right timing.

Today on the Get More Business Show, guest, Craig Elias help listeners how to identify and use events that trigger the buying process–Triggered Events–take someone who never would have bought from you yesterday, and turns them into someone highly likely to buy from you today.

Learn how to discover your prospects window of dissatisfaction and present the solution of your coaching message perfectly timed to when they are the most likely to hire you.

You can go to Craig’s website and download a form that will help you analize your “Won Sales” to discover your trigger event that causes prospects to hire you on the spot.

Craig Elias is the creator of Trigger Event Selling™, and contributing author to the #1 Selling Book on both Amazon and The Wall Street Journal “Masters of Sales”. Craig has, for almost 20 years, used Trigger Event strategies to be a top sales performer at EVERY company he has worked for. He has received coverage on NBC news, in The New York Times, The Nikkei Marketing Journal, Sales and Marketing magazine and won a $1,000,000 prize in a billion dollar idea competition.

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Developing a Stronger Coaching Message to Attract More Clients

The stronger your coaching message — the more focused your message is on the real live needs of your prospects – the more prospects you’ll convert to paying coaching clients.

I’ve said it myself, in the beginning when I first started coaching, “I can coach anyone about anything.” But you know what, that’s just not accurate. Because of my unique background and training there are clients that I am more suited for coaching.

I’ve discovered that the more I coach or deliver my coaching message in some fashion – such as writing blog posts, article marketing or interviewing brilliant guests on my Get More Business Radio Show – the stronger, more developed, and much more effective my coaching message is when it comes time to deliver during a coaching session.

Not only do all these strategies of blogging, writing articles and Internet radio help me to promote and broadcast my message, but refines and perfects my message; and my clients benefit from it.

Whenever I work with new coaches, I encourage them to just keep coaching – even if it is what I call “gratitude coaching”. Gratitude coaching is when the client does not pay for a session because the coach is “giving back” by assisting someone who is unable to pay them back. It’s a way of putting out good vibes  into the Universe by giving thanks – sometimes in advance of ever having received anything. Besides sowing good vibes the new coach is also developing a more accurate picture of their own coaching message.

The important message to the new life coach is to develop a strong coaching message by coaching within their area of expertise – and keep coaching – keep delivering the coaching message often.

• Write articles daily or weekly
• Post regularly on a blog
• Start your own Internet radio or video broadcast with a regular schedule

Establish a perspective that delivering your coaching message as often as you can is your business – don’t wait until you have “coaching clients”.  Even after you begin to build your coaching practice – create additional avenues where your coaching message continues to promote for you automatically and continuously – even while you sleep.  Everything you publish on the Internet remains to carry your message to your ideal prospect for as long as it’s published. The more messages you create and publish, the more your coaching message will be promoted -  and the stronger you delivery will become in the making of each post, or article.

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