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Health · Wealth · Freedom in a Modern World

Power of Expectation – High Five!

October 21st, 2011

What is the usual outcome when someone someone complements you on a job well done? When you accomplish something good? When you achieve something that you’ve been working on for a long period of time? When you even do something simple that keeps you focused on your goals?

Is it, “Oh, it was nothing.” or “Just doing my job.” or “It’s no big deal.” ? That’s what most do. Or they do nothing. They diminish their own success. They feel somewhat embarrassed and try and change the subject quickly.

How you handle successes, even small ones, are just as important as what you do with your failures.

Now there is no question that we learn best by infusing information via several mediums, visual, auditory, reading, and even physical, and by repeating them over a 28 day period, have the ability to reprogram ones thinking.

So try this out for 28 days. For each and every little success you have starting with getting out of bed, clench your fist, pull it, and say “YES!”. If there are others around, do a high five with them. Do a fist bump. Something physical that gives you a feeling of accomplishment, raises your attentiveness, and otherwise makes you feel good. Go ahead and try it right now. Don’t you feel better? Careful with belly bucking and head butts!

Another thing to do after having your mini-celebration is to tell yourself that you earned this, that you deserved this, because you were prepared. Take ownership of the success.

Then use that feeling to tell yourself that this is just the beginning. Your starting the day off right? Use this first success to launch your day, your week, your month, your life.

So if you make a call to someone with the goal of setting an appointment and you achieve those results, high five! Someone calls you and gives you a referral, high five! You close a deal, high five!

What happens is you will have a aura of expectation and will come to expect good things to happen. This will provide you energy beyond belief and others will feel this energy emanate from you. The world will as well. Going to the mall? Go to the front row, there will be a parking place waiting for you. Need to get a hold of someone? They will call you. Closing a sale? No problemo.

Your business can be great. Your marriage can be great. Your life can be great. High Five!

Vision To Live By – Part One

May 3rd, 2011

I had recently got an email from a colleague and in it was contained the phrase:

Teach people how to opt out of the soul sucking grind that robs people’s time, their creative efforts, and keeps them away from their kids, their spouses, their friends, and makes them feel like their lives are dictated by cultural forces that minimize their potential.

Wow, that’s a mouthful. I only wish I would have heard that 30 years ago. So let’s examine this and give it some meaning and some actions items you can do to both escape these chronic conditions and eventually contribute to your brethren by helping them overcome them as well.

This may all sound a bit conspiratorial but consider the terminology that has slopped into our language and you’ll find parallels. The terms “rat race’, “Monday blues”, “living for the weekend”, all come to mind. I’m sure there are many more. Back prior to the industrial revolution of the 1890′s or so, most people either were farmers and lived off the land. The ones living in cities were entrepreneurs and provided products and services to others. Most were also not schooled by the government. They were home schooled and in a turnaround in the 1890′s, government started teaching. The early adopters of modern day government schools were laboratories of mind control training, habits, and attitudes, including consumerism. In the new system, schools were gradually re-formed to meet the pressing need of big businesses to have standardized customers and employees, standardized because such people are predictable in certain crucial ways by mathematical formula. Business (and government) can only be efficient if human beings are redesigned to meet simplified specifications.

As the century wore on, school spaces themselves were opened bit by bit to commercialization. Then mass schooling arenas slowly became impersonal places where children were viewed as HUMAN RESOURCES. Whenever you hear this term, you are certain to be in the presence of employees of the fourth purpose, however unwitting. Human resource children are to be molded and shaped for something called “The Workplace,” even though for most of American history American children were reared to expect to create their own workplaces.

In the new workplace, most Americans were slated to work for large corporations or large government agencies, if they worked at all. This revolution in the composition of the American dream produced some unpleasant byproducts. Since systematic forms of employment demand that employees specialize their efforts in one or another function of systematic production, then clear thinking warns us that incomplete people make the best corporate and government employees.

This was only exacerbated by the advent of banks issuing credit. So we have consumerism being fueled by easy credit, keeping up with the Jones (or at least appearing to), being told to go to college, ($40-$80 dollars more debt), get a good education, work for 40 years to pay back debt, go into more debt with a mortgage ($150-300 dollars more debt), and at the end of it all, retire broke. That’s the plan folks. Most people when they reach the age of 65 have little or no savings and live the rest of their lives subsisting on government. This is hardly the American dream we so much hear about. It is only going to get worse. We have a wave of seniors retiring at a rate of one every 7 seconds for the next 20 years. There simply will not be enough people to support this population. I’m not counting on social security, nor should you.

So many if not most people end up having to change jobs due to many circumstances. To stave off bankruptcy they end up taking jobs they don’t like or enjoy. But they stick with it year after year after year. They get emotionally drained. It is no wonder that depression is growing tremendously. It has been long ingrained into them that they have to continue, pull up their bootstraps, and have a good time whether they like it or not. Of course this isn’t true for everyone. There are rewarding professions, but the consumer debt, taxes, college educations, and cost of living all rise. While they may like their profession, their finances are going to hell. There has to be a better way.

Next time Part Two.

10 Things You Can Do Right Now to Increase Sales

March 10th, 2011

1. Use the current economic times to motivate you. There are people who need your products or services. Your products or services will help other businesses generate more leads, save time, consolidate services, or become more efficient. Make it a habit of making sure your prospects know this. Sell the benefit, not the feature.

2. Take things one day at a time – Focus on today. As the band Fleetwood Mac said, “Yesterdays Gone”. There is nothing that can be changed. Use it as a rudder but deal with today, now.

3. Focus on opportunity, not fear, worry, or panic. We are living in an opportune time to help individuals and businesses become streamlined, healthy, more productive. Focus on that and your fear, worry, or panic will go out the door.

4. Optimize your business. Tasks that can be done by others that cost less than your time should be outsourced. Not everything needs to go oversees or anything. Use fiverr.com or hire your high school or college students.

5. Expand your comfort zone. Flex your braveness. There really is nothing to fear. The worse thing anyone can do is say no.

6. Track your results daily. Set daily goals. Maybe even hourly. Track them.

7. Plan you day on paper before the day starts. Know what you are going to do and when. Then do them.

8. Complete your scripts. Know what you are going to say for each situation. People are predictable. Use it to your advantage.

9. Focus on revenue producing activities. For most of us that is going to be prospecting. That should be 80% of what you do.

10. Play at a level 7+ each day. Know what you are going to do, don’t be timid, act like Donald Trump and take no hostages.

Your business will love you for it.

Inspiration, Change, and Happiness

December 12th, 2010

Leo Babauta of zenhabits has an interesting quip in a post called “Get Inspired” about someone enthralled in their passion professing out load on the street corners of San Francisco. He then asks:

How many of us can claim to be that excited about anything we do? If you don’t get excited by what you do, why not? Is it something we can change?

I know Gary Vanerchuck certainly is. I tend to think more like Gary than Leo with this. If it’s something we have to manufacture it isn’t from the heart.

What do you think? (Psst… Great video there as well)
________

Jeremy Day has a post called “Why Is Change So Hard” that everyone knows about but is always hesitant to do anything about. I think most people fear change because they are addicted to their habits and fear change. It would expose their vulnerabilities and embarrass them. This isn’t something they are consciously doing. It has been ingrained into them over their lifetime and and most stems from when they were young. Jeremy has some some sound advise on planning which controls expectations and can help curtail the anticipated apprehensions. I think that examining your past, going through an affirmation program of some type, will also work just as well.

What say you?
________

Finally, I invite you over to read Tina Su’s blog “Think Simple Now” Tina was recently voted one of the “Top 50 Most Influential Female Bloggers”. Her goal when she started blogging was to bring more happiness in the world. Lofty yes. Did she do it? Head on over and check the site out. She opens up and shares her joys and experiences in life. You’ll like it.

Prospecting by Sorting and Asking

October 13th, 2010

Good day everyone. I want to talk today about prospecting. I’ve often heard it refereed to as sorting. When it comes down to it, most beginning entrepreneurs expect a much higher rate of closing, especially MLM opportunities. The reality, is it’s probably around 2-3%. So unless your finding 100 leads a month and talking with them specifically about your opportunity you will be hard pressed on closing anybody. Most can’t consistently speak with 100 people a month anyway. Finding qualified leads is no easy task. It is something that you are going to have to learn if you want to succeed.

The one thing that limits people is when they start getting some leads and start talking with people, most will say “No”. You have to have a strong desire and mindset in order to hear “No” that many times. It’s hard. Entrepreneurship is not forgiving. As a beginner, you could go 30-40-50 or more before you find a yes. The key is that you need to recognize that it’s a numbers game and most will say “No”. So in a way, what you really need to do, is determine as fast as possible whether you have a winner or not in the shortest time possible, and not take anything personal if they say “No”.

What’s the shortest time to determine whether your prospect has potential? Ask them of course. What’s the worse thing that could happen? They say “No”. There are ways to increase the percentage. They will be in the way you build rapport with them. You will need to break the ice with them, get them dreaming about their future, have a common interest to small talk about, and otherwise get them using their right brain to think. The right brain is the creative side that will help people to dream and get emotional. Most people buy for reasons found in their right brain thinking.

After building some rapport, ask them what kind of income would they like to earn, what they would do if money and time were no object, where they would like to travel and visit, or what kind of luxury home they would like. When they answer then ask the question. You want to sort out the serious from the curious and qualify them. Say I’m expanding my business and am looking for some exceptional people who are motivated and want to ramp up their income. Is that you? When do you want to start? Do you have your credit card handy? Are there any last few questions I can answer before you start? You goal always is to collect decisions.

You need to sort out the prospects from the pretenders by asking questions. You won’t close if you don’t ask. The worse thing to happen will be they say “No” and then you go on to the next. So the short recipe is:

Build rapport.
Qualify (trial close).
Ask. (close).
Go forward or cut your loses.
Do it again.

This should be 65% of all the time you have committed you your enterprise. It’s the one thing that will increase your income.

Getting the seal of approval

September 8th, 2010

To get the seal of approval from your visitors, there are many ways you can improve your trust ranking with them, and make your blog more user friendly. The first thing to do is publish a picture of yourself, even with your family, on your blog. This allows people to put a face to words, and should be a golden rule. All too often, you will see a website that is clinical and not in the least bit persona; to the author. If you are willing to go out on a limb and show the world your face, then that speaks volumes. Another golden rule is video. You should use multimedia on your site if you can, and learning how to use simple software like Camtasia, or even software like Cam Studio (which is open source), is not too difficult.

Once you have put your face and your voice out there, you may as well go the whole hog and give people your telephone number. This is one of those situations when you may wish you had thought it through a bit better – but adding a telephone number to your site can really make people feel at ease. Whilst they may email you with any questions, or use Skype, they will rarely call you anyway. But giving people that option is awesome, and will reap rewards in the long term. You do not have to be a salesman, just a person.

Besides the above methods, one amazing concept that some bloggers forget about, is a newsletter system. Newsletters enable you to contact the people that are putting money in your pocket, so it is always worthwhile having. You can give people anything for free so that they decide to sign up to your newsletter, just make sure they sign up! One of the oldest sayings in the IM industry is “the money is in the list!”. It is a saying for a reason…

Are You Going Mobile ?

May 4th, 2010

There is one thing I’m sure most Bloggers are not doing yet and that is making their Blogs readable to mobile phones, including the I-Phone. More and more people are using their phones to Twitter and read Facebook, why not make your available in a format that makes it easy to navigate? If you get out their early and the average Blog, no matter how old and established it may be doesn’t, you have the advantage.

While most phones allow you to read existing Blogs remember they now have grown larger and larger in their footprint and it will require much more bandwidth to even open them. This is because most Blogs have a slew of plugins. So what is the answer?

Leadership With Michelangelo

April 7th, 2010

The Person Not the Job
There is no future in any job or single product. The future lies in the person who holds the job or sells the product. This steadfast principal is a cornerstone of Personal Branding. Given a similar product or opportunity by two individuals, who do you buy from? You buy from the person who has offered the most value to you. The person who has answered your questions. The person went beyond the simple answers. The person who made themselves available to you. The person who appears to be a leader. Did you read that last sentence? “The person who appears to be a leader.”

Discover How To Create Irresistible and Tempting Titles

September 25th, 2009

I had a few questions about titles this weekend. I’ll bring this old post out front and center once again in case you missed it.

What’s in a title?
How you title things make a tremendous impact on whether people will read or consider reading content. In this context, content is in the form of emails, blog posts, tweets, Ezine articles, and other forms of communication that you want others to read. In all cases the main goal is to get people to open, click, or otherwise save or bookmark for reading later. Let’s examine some of the forms of communication.

Email Subjects
The title is contained as what in email parlance as the subject. Subjects are treated a little bit differently based on who the email is coming from. The difference is based on one thing. That is trust. If the email is coming from someone they trust, friends and family for sure, they will open. But there is also information that was requested and comes in the form of newsletters, RSS feeds, and other aggregations of information. If someone doesn’t recognize the senders name they are typically going to look at the subject and make a determination as to what they are going to do. What the subject contains will determine the reader’s next actions. If it’s from you, you want to have as an inviting subject as possible.

Blog Post Titles
A blog post title works in the same way as a subject line in an email. Your objective is to get people to read your post. Hopefully, when your blog post is syndicated throughout the Internet via Twitter tweets, Facebook notes, blog backlinks, email bodies, and other forms of electronic communication it will compel people to open and read it. Another factor that has to be considered in blog post titles is the SEO factor. Your title should both contain a keyword or two and also be relevant to the content that is contained in it. If you have a title about cars, your content better not be about plants. I’ll talk about some of the psychological factors below.

Ezine Articles
Titles should work the same way as blog post titles but should probably have more of an emphasis on keywords than actions or questions contained in the title. Most people simply do not search Ezines. They use Google and Google recommends the Ezine articles to them. The more SEO friendly the title, the better the ranking and higher it’s possibility to be towards the top of the search. I also recommend your resource box contain a link to your blog.

Twitter Tweets
Now tweets per se don’t have the concept of a title but it should be contained some where in the 140 characters. Having important attention grabbing phrases that are contained in the actual article with the title in your tweets will help people feel compelled to click them and follow the link over to the source. Using certain psychological keywords will raise the probability of the tweet being opened. They will grab the attention of the readers.

In all these examples, if you understand underlying psychological impulses and urges you can use them to your advantage. So if we ask the question, what do people want?, what do people respond to?, what do people have an interest in?, and are people interested in?, this should provide us with some clues to help formulate a title. Here are some different types of titles that you should strive for?

Types of Titles

Tell them something true about them and then tell them to take action.
Create compelling curiosity.
Make claims that are almost unbelievable. (Be able to back them up)
Create something of high interest to target direct interests.
Use humor. If you can make them laugh they will click.
Inspire and motivate them. If they feel good about themselves and they will act.
Make them mysterious. People like mysteries.
Appeal to their logic. Restate something they believe strongly.

So these are the categories or types of possible titles or subjects that can be used. Now that we know what it is we need to formulate what words can we use that will compel people to act. We need to use words that influence, persuade, and motivate people to act, (click, read, signup, etc…). This can be accomplished by using words that can help people image something. They are words that describe things in ways that make them bigger than life. They are words that evoke emotion. Here are some words that will practically compel people to their natural predispositions to investigate things that are curious, humorous, mysterious, logical, interesting, and bold. This of course is not an exhaustible list. They contain:

Words to Use

irresistible	untold	boggle	double
triple	quadruple	unstoppable	potent
banned	phenomenal	willing	calculated
psychological	seduce	spell binding	unable
magnet	effortless	insatiable	secret
record-breaking	amazing	cutting edge	incalculable
absolute	thrilled	legendary	boost
enhance	improve	benefits	enjoy
reduce	release	loosen	combat
discover	achieve	counter	increase
how-to	discover	master	create
generate	optimize	enliven	improve
advanced	cultivate	progress	revamp
refine	upgrade	align	balance
cheerful	enthusiastic	inclined	zealous
attract	allure	induce	invite
tempting	follow	substitute	uncomplicated
simple	agile	knowing	powerful
able	clever	straightforward	intricate

Conclusion

The list could go on and on. Using these words in your titles and subjects along with a keyword will work wonders for your traffic. Take the time to craft titles that will draw people into your world, get them to click it, and then read it. Spend more time on this aspect of your writing and you will be guaranteed to see results.

What other words do you like to use?
What are some titles that you’ve used that have worked for you?

If you enjoyed this article I would appreciate if you click the link below to tweet this post. I’ll use these concepts as examples to craft the tweets for this post.

CLICK HERE PLEASE TO TWEET WITH A CUSTOM MESSAGE

Thank you.

Contributing to the Conversation On Your Own Blog…

August 15th, 2009

Over on a different forum related to marketing and blogging that I am a member of, there was a question that was posed that asked, “Is it poor form to comment on your own blog?” This is very important so I’d thought I’d share it here as well. This is how I responded.

As marketers one of our main goals is to attract people to our sites to have them potentially sign up for more information about potential products or services we may have. I use the word potential because the best way to have someone click the big X on your tab is first appear as if you are trying to sell something. If you are pitching, touting, overtly recommending to buy or sign up, people will do one thing, Run away! This is not to say that you can not recommend things and ask them to buy, but that should only come after they have earned your TRUST.

So how do they earn your trust? Firstly, by not pitching. Secondly, by offering value in the form of insights, education, thoughts, perspectives, interests, and humor. To do this, it will involve interaction. Certainly the number one ice breaker in the whole world is the weather followed by concerns of how things are going. There are psychological underpinnings in this small talk and it is usually a way two people determine whether (pun intended) each other want to continue in a dialog. What’s the best way to do this? It is to engage people in dialog by responding to people in your blog just as Julia suggested. People love it when you engage them and consider their questions, ideas, or concerns important. They even love it more when you ask THEM what they think about something. This isn’t something that we have to be phony about. It’s just having genuine and concerned thoughts and ideas that will resonate with people.

So NO there is nothing wrong with commenting on your own blog posts. In fact I encourage it. I encourage it on all the social media you use. Engaging people and building relationships is something that will differentiate you from all the other spammers using social media as nothing more than an advertising bill board. In all your interactions with new people you meet should end with a question. This is the whole concept behind ATTRACTION marketing.

I’d like to hear your opinions…

Photo Credit McAzadi


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