• Coaching,  Communication,  Entrepreneurs,  Implementation,  Marketing,  Survey Tips & Techniques

    The “Oprah Factor” and how you can create your own “ X Factor”

    In last week’s blog post I shared with you how Meredith and I were so very fortunate enough to attend a taping of one of Oprah Winfrey’s last shows. (Here’s the link: Are you giving your customers/clients and Oprah experience?) It was so exciting to be a part of that experience. I also talked last week about why Oprah is so phenomenally successful and popular.  It is because she focuses on giving her audience what they want.  She goes out of her way to create an experience that will get her audience excited and make them feel good. Oprah as an entrepreneur is worth billions and she continues to operate…

  • Coaching,  Communication,  Entrepreneurs,  Implementation

    Oprah’s Not the Only One Who Can Have Fun While Working…

    It’s true you know, Oprah’s not the only one who can have fun while working.  You can too!  Yes, I know, I know, it wouldn’t be called work if it was fun and all the other dreary sayings.  Listen, you have a choice when it comes to work.  The choice is in your attitude and how you view it.  Yes, for some work is simply the thing we dread that we must do in order to make money, pay the bills and live. Sounds dreary and boring yet as I said earlier, it can be fun, it’s your choice.  In my last blog, which I got a ton of great…

  • Coaching,  Communication,  Entrepreneurs,  Implementation,  Marketing

    How Firing a Client Will Set You Free…

    This blog may be a bit unorthodox and I might even get some negative comments about my headline… However this subject has come up in conversations, no lie, with at least 5 people in just the past 3 days!  What’s going on here?  I think what’s happening in this “new economy” business owners, coaches and consultants alike are just incredibly thankful to have work and have clients that they are just taking anyone who shows up.  Now I’m not saying this is a bad strategy, in fact I did this when I first started out. It actually helped me develop and shape my business into what it is today.  By just saying…

  • Coaching,  Communication,  Entrepreneurs,  Marketing

    How to Turn Your Contacts Into True Connections

    What’s the one word you ALWAYS hear when you ask someone, “How do I get more clients? More Business?”  That word is – NETWORKING. I think this word has gotten a bad rap over the years, and I’m wondering if it’s because the MLM (Multi Level Marketing) industry has used and abused this word to the nth degree.  It doesn’t really matter; what does matter is this is not a bad word at all. In fact, what I want to do in today’s blog is give you some amazing tips on how you can turn the people and contacts you meet into terrific connections. The real key, I think, is…

  • Coaching,  Communication,  Entrepreneurs,  Implementation,  Marketing

    What’s your plan to build profitable relationships this Year?

    I remember back in January  2011, it was so darn cold, winter was surely coming in like a lion!  And we’d already gotten almost two feet of snow and I was torn on whether to travel or not the next two months, because itwas proving to be a bit of a challenge fly out of the New York/New Jersey area.  And I wrote this from writing from sunny and warm Phoenix, Arizona where I had just attended Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Manager (PM) Mastermind meeting. I almost didn’t make it because it snowed the morning I was supposed to leave and I was about 3 hours late to the meeting.  And…

  • Communication,  Entrepreneurs,  Marketing

    Here’s the 1 Thing That Will Help You Get More Clients…

    Searching for the magic bullet can sometimes be an elusive struggle. However, I think I’ve found just 1 thing above all others that I’ve done in my business that’s helped me create an endless stream of new clients. I know because I’ve used it over and over again and guess what – it works! So what is it?  It’s sending out a PRINTED newsletter every month to my clients, prospects and colleagues. I’ve been doing it for the past 4 years and it’s the one thing that over and over again has proved its worth in getting many new clients. The key here is that I’m connecting and communicating with…

  • Coaching,  Communication

    Make Every Minute Count

    These past few weeks have been as crazy busy as ever for me and I’m trying to figure out why. It’s August, shouldn’t everyone be on vacation?! Of course, I won’t ever figure out the Universe and how it works, but I have given myself permission to stop and make every minute count – something that was a powerful lesson when I decided to take a last minute trip to New Orleans to visit my Dad. I wasn’t expecting to write about this week, and because I’ve been SO busy, I haven’t posted a blog in a long while…so as I’m sitting here trying to figure out what to write, this…

  • Coaching,  Communication,  Entrepreneurs,  Marketing

    How to Leverage Your Relationships With New Influential People You Meet

    In the past 6 months, I’ve met over 150 people, or probably more than that, simply because I traveled to some conferences and workshops where like-minded entrepreneurs gather.  At those meetings, I simply meet a lot of people and give away a lot of cards, and I also get my share of cards.  The real question here is how you leverage those new folks you meet.  How can you turn them into more influential and helpful relationships? I’ve created some step-by-step guidelines that I’ve used over the past years that have helped me cultivate these relationships.  This is what I do when I go to a conference or workshop and…

  • Coaching,  Communication,  Dog Marketing,  Entrepreneurs,  Marketing,  Taking risks

    Product Launch Disasters, Delayed Planes & Flat Tires

    What do you think these three things have in common?  Well besides the obvious, that we wouldn’t want any of these to happen to us, or wish them upon anyone else… The commonality in these three things, is each of them has happened to me… Thankfully only two of them have happened in one week, the other one occurred many moons ago.  So the two I had happen to me this week are the flat tire and the delayed plane. The ironic part about the delayed plane is not once in my 7 trips I’ve taken this year was I ever delayed or have any issues flying.  So the one…

  • Coaching,  Communication,  Entrepreneurs,  Marketing

    Missed Product Launch Opportunities or Creating Money-Making Products….

    Hmm, as I sit here in my comfortable laid back office, enjoying this amazing spring type weather in June in Jersey, the dog is sleeping at my feet, and I’m having twinges of second thoughts for having to cancel my trip this week to Jeff Walker’s Platinum Product Launch Mastermind Group. I know, I know, I made my decision and it’s all said and done, but it doesn’t stop those thoughts, you know the ones that just pop in your head to mess you up. Those thoughts driven by the ego to stop you in your tracks… Thank goodness I can recognize them right away now and not pay them…

  • Coaching,  Communication,  Entrepreneurs,  Marketing

    Your Singing Frog Won’t Make You Rich If Nobody Sees It!

    There’s an old cartoon that taught me an interesting lesson. Odds are, you might have seen it a thousand times, but I bet you’ve never watched it as a learning tool for your business! In the cartoon, a man is down and out on his luck. Then, one eventful day, he finds a frog. But this is no ordinary frog… it can sing and dance! The man immediately sees dollar signs and realizes this little green guy will make him rich! So he rents out a theater and puts a sign in front of the building, saying “SINGING FROG!” Well, nobody comes to watch it. So he thinks for a…

  • Coaching,  Communication,  Entrepreneurs,  Marketing

    The Process of Getting New Clients…

    I wrote this while I was sitting in the President’s Club in Cleveland, on Sunday, waiting for my plane back home to New Jersey.  I was going over all my notes I took from Dan Kennedy & AWAI’s Business of Copywriting Workshop.  As I was looking over my many pages, it struck me that this might make for a good blog this week. The focus of his workshop was on the BUSINESS of Copywriting.  I was at this conference because Dan had asked me to speak.  He thought my story of how I’ve used his principles to grow a really nice direct response marketing, coaching, and consulting business might help…

  • Coaching,  Communication,  Entrepreneurs,  Marketing

    Do You Truly Connect With Your Clients & Prospects?

    One of the biggest mistakes I see in marketing is the idea that advertising is purely a numbers and branding game. If you can get enough people to see your name or your product, you’ll eventually get the sale, right? Wrong. Many companies waste millions of dollars on marketing because they ignore a vital part of the process: Truly Connecting with your clients on a deeper level. I’ll let you in on another one of those marketing secrets that aren’t really a secret… Getting other people to talk about you is much more powerful than anything you can say about yourself. That’s the reason people research a product before they…

  • Coaching,  Communication,  Entrepreneurs

    What Mark Twain, Cats, and Bad Dining Experiences Can Teach Us About Our Business

    Part of growing up in the south (I grew up in New Orleans) is many people spout quotes from great southern writers like Mark Twain.  My recent travels and experiences have led me to share with you one of my favorite quotes from him (cat lovers will appreciate this) – “If you hold a cat by the tail you learn things you cannot learn any other way.” I love this quote because it sums up a very important fact of life: Education and training is important, but experience can be the best teacher you’ll ever have! In one of my earlier blogs, I talk about how seeing rain beating against…

  • Coaching,  Communication,  Entrepreneurs,  Marketing

    5 Tips to Maximize Attending Your Next Event

    One way I’ve really been able to boost my business and get more new clients is by attending the same 3 conferences each year. Obviously, there are many other benefits of attending conferences, which I will soon reveal to you.  The real key is that conferences are a great tool for networking and finding new business.  Don’t be afraid to introduce yourself to people around you. It is always hard to take that first step but if you are like me, there is always someone that catches my attention and I really would like to talk to that person and ask them a question or two so just do it!…