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The Productivity Secret That Will Change Your Life

One of the things I’m constantly struggling with: my plate is incredibly full. I just have way TOO many things on that proverbial plate and it’s constantly weighing me down.

I’m a Strategic Marketer & Product Launch Manager, I help people get things done, and here I am, revealing to you my own challenges with getting things done. 

Well, I’ve actually invested good money with experts to help me “organize” my office, my computer, and my life, as well as I got a new desk, bookshelves, and on an on. The interesting thing is after that expert gave me this “system” it wasn’t mine. So I had great difficulty in trying to use it and came across all sorts of obstacles that just reared their ugly heads a few weeks ago.

Before I tell you what happened, I actually would liken it to someone who’s trying to lose weight and just puts the weight back on—it’s because they’re not aligned somewhere with the process, or something just isn’t right.

Well that’s what I felt like, something with my new system just wasn’t jelling with me, it just wasn’t right. And unfortunately I didn’t really see that until the crap hit the fan last week and a few balls I was juggling just crashed—yikes—how did that happen?!

The cool thing is that I did ultimately find a solution, albeit painful to have to do so much learning—As Alex Mandossian has taught me—“You’re either winning or you’re learning!” No such thing as losing or making mistakes—my new lingo is “I’m learning.”

After the balls crashed last week, my wonderful client and mentor Alex Mandossian, pulled me aside and saw that I was obviously having some trouble.  He got to the root of it very quickly and explained to me about the benefits of “The Ivy Lee 6.”

In the early 1900’s consultant Ivy Lee approached Charles Schwab, President of Bethlehem Steel (not the investment company) and asked what it’d be worth to him if he could raise the productivity of his managers by at least 20%. Schwab didn’t have an answer but was definitely interested. This is where the “Ivy Lee 6” comes into play.  Ivy Lee taught him and his managers this proven technique.

Here’s THE productivity secret that will change your life:

Before you leave your office for the night, write down the 6 most important things to be done the next day and number them in order of importance. Prioritize.

Do the tasks from the most important to least important. I write these on index cards with the date at the top.  So have the card on your desk for the next day, and once you’ve finished one, take a highlighter (I like green) and highlight through it so that’s your sign it’s complete. Any unfinished tasks are rolled over to the next day.

It may sound incredibly simple, yet for me it was amazingly effective.  After my first week was done—oh my gosh, I had a stack of cards on my desks with lots of green on them. Just being able to visibly “see” what I’d done that week was psychologically empowering. I left my office Friday on a huge high.

The key is picking the 6 things that will give you the most results for the day, and write them down very clearly. For example— Don’t say— “Call several people to connect with them about our product launch.”  This is better— “Call Susie to tell her about our product launch” or “Call 3 key people who will promote our product launch…”

Using the “Ivy Lee 6” also utilizes the power of prioritization and requires you to number your tasks in order of importance with your most important tasks done first.

Don’t wait, try this now— I know you will be amazed at how this works and leave me a comment and let me know how I can support you to be more productive.

And if you’ve made it all the way down here to the bottom, thanks for reading, and here’s a gift for you. I want to give you 60 minutes of my time for free, with my compliments.   Maybe you’re:

  • Stuck in your business and not being able to increase your profits fast enough
  • Frustrated your launch didn’t go as well as you planned
  • In need of some help and guidance with your launch
  • Finally ready to create your online marketing funnel and don’t know where to turn
  • Searching simply for some strategic online marketing help, and hand-holding from an expert who’s got proven experience and helped thousands already….

Well, here’s the deal, you’re in the right place. I can help you!  Just click here and check out how I can help you and schedule a free 60 minute call with me. I’d love to see how I can help you create the business you so deserve and helping you help thousands more people.

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5 Goals to Achieve This Year

If you’re up for it — I am going to push the envelope a little today and actually give you five goals to try to achieve by the end of the year.

Remember you are never going to know if you are capable of something if you don’t take that first step.

1. Go small

This may be a big one to start with but here goes-Downsize.  Look at all aspects of your business whether that includes employees, vendors or service providers.  If you find that there is a way for ONE provider to handle multiple jobs than cut back.  This may sound strange but sometimes less is more when it comes to project management as well as financial costs.

2. Take Time to Invest Fully

Make this the year that you completely focus on not only getting to know your customers but also their specific needs.  Once you make this commitment, find the best way to communicate.  Whether that is through a blog, social media, QR codes, or even a weekly newsletter; find out which option works for them.  There is no use in spending quality time and content on an area your customers do not even use.

3. Refresh your website

Take the time and really go through your website.  Analyze and make notes as you look over what you have currently.  Then, go on the Internet and find your biggest competitor.  Look at their website and make notes on what things stand out the most.  Once you do that, write a plan on what to change and a timeline to get it done.

4. Real Life Social Networking

Put some effort into networking by signing up for an industry conference or seeking out a local meet-up group. These are invaluable ways to develop relationships and share advice with fellow entrepreneurs and small business owners.

5. Put time for you on the calendar

It’s up to you to keep yourself motivated and inspired.  Be sure to reward yourself for specific milestones like a big client win, meeting a tough deadline, or working “overtime” for multiple nights on end.

Sticking to all of these 5 goals is a lofty for anyone. Follow the tips that ring true for your situation, and adjust as needed. Do you have other goals for your business this year?

 

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Here’s How to Get a HUGE Jump on Creating an Amazing Year in Your Business…

At any time of the year, it’s important for one to stop and take a look and access your year: where you are or aren’t in your business? Do you like what you see? What issues are raising your anxiety level? How is your bottom line? Have you achieved all the goals you set in January? If not, then why?

Now these questions can cause a lot of emotional pain and angst but they don’t have to. Why not see them as opportunities instead? And as an opportunity these exact issues could bring you more money in the bank. And who doesn’t need this?

So how can you turn these issues into opportunities and get a huge jump on the year? By one simple thing: Send out a Survey to your list. Don’t wait for another year to get back on the right track. Do it now,  create a survey and send it out to your clients and prospects. It’s actually THE best way to find out what your clients think about products, services, newsletter, website, membership, etc.  Also it’s a terrific way to see what they like, what they don’t and what they’d like to see more of from you.

I gave up trying to guess what my clients and prospects needs were years ago. And in my business and in the clients I’ve worked with, we’ve found whenever we had challenges and were not sure in what direction to go in I suggested, “Let’s do a survey.” And believe it or not every time we would do one we got amazing results which were just the answers we needed.

It’s really simple to do a survey.  The quick and easy method is to:

  1. Be clear on your goals for the survey – what’s the info you absolutely need to find out.
  2. Figure out who you want to send it to – is it best to send out to your whole list, or maybe just your customers? Or maybe it’s customers of a certain product (or service) that they purchased from you.
  3. Create your 4 – 5 simple questions. Check out this last post to get my BEST questions to ask-
  4. Get a Survey Monkey or Survey Gizmo online survey account and put your questions in there.
  5. Create a few emails and send out your survey to your list.
  6. Close the survey within 7 days or when you’ve had enough responses
  7. Analyze your results and use them in your business.  This is the HUGE part that will help create your 2011. Your results will help shape your business, your products, services, etc., depending upon what you’ve asked in your survey.

Don’t downplay doing a survey in your business. It really is THE most simple and easy way to ensure you’re creating products, services and really meeting the needs of your clients and prospects on your list.

If you want to know more about creating and implementing surveys in your business, get instant free access to this video: “17 Clever Ways That You Will Never Have To Guess Again What Your Prospects & Customers Want”.  I promise, this will be REALLY helpful for you. Hope to see you soon!

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How to Take Bigger Risks This Year

Something fascinating happened to me a few years ago that was worth repeating. I had this experience that totally changed my perspective on how I would think and do things in my business and my personal life.

Here’s what happened—

I had decided to go to the DMV, yes everyone’s favorite place to make jokes about.  I had been putting it off for almost a year and I had to finally deal with getting a new title. I actually wanted to cross if off my to-do list!  (I had paid off my car loan—yeah, and needed to get the lien holder name off my car title.)

I had a phone meeting that day with a colleague and as we were wrapping up I said that I had to head out to the DMV. It was 11am on December 30 and she thought I was crazy and said good luck; it will probably take a few hours.

Well, I had positive thoughts running through my head as I was driving over there that I’d be in and out in 30 minutes.  As I got into the parking lot it was NOT looking good. I found one of the last parking spots.  And at this lot, there are no meters you have to go to a central machine to pay for your parking. Now this was a HUGE lot and there was a doubly huge line just WAITING to pay for parking.

Here’s the part of the story to take note of—something just switched on in my brain when I saw that long line.  My brain went into high gear calculating how best  leverage this situation.  And at that split second, I decided to count the number of people in line to pay the machine for parking—there were over 15 people. AND the kicker is as I waited in this line to pay for parking— I thought ALL of these people WILL be ahead of me in the DMV.  So I made a mental note of the person in front of me—a young guy with a red hat (this will be important later.)  And that’s when I made the rash, big risk decision to leave the line and make a run for the DMV.

When I got into the DMV, there were only 2 people in front of me at the desk—double yeah!  The bigger risk I took was I bet big that I would NOT get a ticket because I’d be in and out of the DMV before I would have even reached the head of the line at the parking machine to pay for parking.

Guess what—my taking a bigger risk PAID OFF! I WAS in and OUT of the DMV in 10 minutes, and it was FREE to change my title! I had two options—pay $60 and wait to get a new one issued, or for FREE, they’d make a copy of my title, cross off the lien holder and put it in my file.  So of course, I chose the FREE one. No need to get a new title until I sell my car, which won’t be for a long time!  The important thing for the DMW was that there was no lien on the title and that I owned the car.

As I walked by the parking machine line, the young guy with the red hat who was in front of me was now #4 in line to pay. So the important lesson is I would have STILL been in line if I had stayed and now I was done and was able to hop in my car and go home! The only thing it cost was gas to get there and 30 minutes of my time!  Seriously I was home by 11:30 am.  So by me taking a bigger risk, risking getting a parking ticket because I bet I could be in and out of there before I’d even get the chance to pay for parking.  AND—looking at that line thinking how would a policeman even be able to tell or bother giving a ticket with SO MANY PEOPLE still in line.

The lesson I’d love for you to take away— is —To Take Bigger Risk’s, think BIGGER for yourself, your life, your business. Don’t be stuck in your old ways. Look for ways to save time, money, and leverage yourself, your time and your people who work with you.

What I want for you is to have an amazing year every year. I keep doubling my business — And I am even more thrilled and I will take even bigger risks moving forward, and the goal is to triple it. And I know I will do it by thinking bigger and taking bigger risks.

Here’s to monetizing yourself and your business and making your business outstanding!

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What My Chestnut Chasing Dog Taught Me About Implementation & Getting More Done!

It’s fall here in Virginia and I know that not only because there’s a little chill in the air, and … I know because now when I got to hiking with my rescue dog Lily, she chases after all the chestnuts falling from the trees.  The whole scene is actually quite comical, albeit sometimes a little frustrating.  We get a pretty good pace going, then all of sudden we come across this huge patch of several hundred chestnuts on the ground and more falling. (In fact, I have to be careful and often dodge those falling from the trees or they get me right on the old noggin.) As soon as Lily sees them, she chases after them and dive bombs the chestnut, picks one right up and starts to eat it.  Ok, she doesn’t swallow them anymore because let’s just say she and chestnuts don’t get along. Yet, she still loves to chase and pick them up and there are a lot of them now, and chew them and then lets them drop. 

For those who aIMG_4037re visual, like me, I actually took my camera with me to take some snap shots of her. The only bummer was she was too quick to get this on video,  maybe tomorrow!  So I only have some choice shots of my chestnut chasing dog…

So what does her chestnut chasing antics have to do with teaching me how to be a better implementer and get more done.  Simply put, watching Lily chase after EVERY chestnut on the ground, reminded me of myself over a year ago, where I would basically chase after that next “shiny” object. Some of you entrepreneurs out there who work at home, know EXACTLY what I mean.  Being at home, there’s always something that will get my attention and it usually isn’t the something that will bring me in lots of money or help improve my business.IMG_4054

So I got down to brass tacks when I started noticing how my days were not as productive as I’d like.  The real crux was reading a few good books on time management (there are many!), getting Eben Pagan’s course on Wake-Up Productive, and having a mastermind group, belonging to two of them really helps keep me on track.  The real trick to not going after EVERY “shiny” object that comes across my path is having a big detailed plan of what I want to accomplish.  I mean really details, like what I will outsource, what skills I need for certain tasks, date it will be completed, etc.  The  more detailed the merrier. Plus at the start of each day and as I go through my day I’m always asking myself “Is this task going to get me closer to reaching my goal?” “Is this task going to help me create more income?” If the answer is no, then guess what, I’m not doing that task.

One more tip I can leave you with is the object isn’t to “do more.” The object is to be more productive with “what” you are doing and ensure you’re doing the tasks that will create greater income and help you reach the goals you so deserve!

So when you get the urge to go after that next “shiny” object, as yourself the telling questions, will this help me get and reach my goals? Then have the courage to change your course, if need be and stick to the things that will help you reach and accomplish your goals.

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Five Strategies to Make Your Products Stick

Having worked with lots of entrepreneurs to help them create their information products, I’ve discovered this easy way to increase your stick rate.  If you don’t know what that means, it’s how to have someone who bought your product keep it so they don’t return it.

Here are 5 proven ways that you can use one or more of them to increase your products stick rate and get more of your customers hanging onto the product they bought.

Strategy #1-  Create a Quick Start Video—This is huge— create a video and walk them through step-by-step exactly what’s in the product and HOW to use it.  What do they do first, second, etc.  This really works and will get them to understand the product and to consume it more easily.

Strategy #2- Create a Quick Start Guide—This is a printed guide that you create. The way I did this was I created the video script first, then I created the PDF guide.  Again, walk them through the product, all the pieces they have.  Next, tell them where to start.  I sometimes create two tracks- one for beginners and one for advanced.   I tell them how to consume and go through the product depending upon if they’re a beginner or advanced.  Then you can also give them some additional resources to help them, like links to software, tools, or websites.

Strategy #3- Create a Checklist—  This is a terrific tool that can either be a stand alone, or include it in your Quick Start Video or Guide.  An example would be for my survey product, I give them a checklist of all the things they need to do in order to create a survey.

Strategy #4- Create a Mindmap—If you don’t know what a mindmap is- check out this website– www.mindjet.com  I LOVE mindmaps and use them for product creation and for product launch’s. Again, I put this in my Quick start Video and Guide.

Strategy #5- Create a Flow Chart– These are along the same lines as a mindmap, people love flow charts and love to see how everything fits together.  Here’s an example of a flowchart- (Again, I put this in my Quick start Video and Guide.)

Take one or two or use all of them like I have in my product and all these will go a long way in helping you increase your stick rate AND help your customers use your product as well!

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The Real “How” to Create Your Own Info Products

One of the things I’ve discovered is that there’s tons and I mean tons of information out there on how to create products and how to market them… Yet, the one thing I saw that was missing was something that was really clear and simple about “how” to do it…

So I came up with some basic principles that will help folks on how to do it—

  1. You have to survey your audience and find out what they want and how to they want it delivered and howto ot price it, which you can get that info from this blog— http://marketingimplementer.wordpress.com/2012/06/14/first-steps-you-must-take-to-creating-your-information-products
  2. Once you know which product to create- then you need to do research and find out about your competition- you can search on Google or go on Amazon.com and look up books with similar information and research their table of contents.
  3. Create your course outline with all the information you want to include in its, at this point you could do another survey, or send one out with this info to get some answers from the folks who will buy from you
  4. Decide how you will publish it—will it be an online course or a printed course, or will you create one from a webinar or teleseminar- lots of decisions here.  Don’t forget to ask questions about this to your list.
  5. Add Bonuses- don’t forget bonuses are good and often times sell your product for you
  6. Increase your stick rate—do this by adding a quick start guide to all your products

This gives you a quick and easy way to start you off on creating your next product.  Follow these steps and I know you will be incredibly successful. Don’t forget to ask some questions to your list- because you always want to give them EXACTLY what they want.

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What’s Holding You Back From the Success You Deserve?

This question I’ve been asked countless of times from coach’s, mentors, therapists, and many an event speaker. In fact, I just got back from listening to Larry Winget speak at the Glazer Kennedy Super Conference in Dallas and his approach was more like a baseball bat to the forehead, but I think it worked.  I know I GOT it- what he was saying… let me explain…

If you don’t know Larry he has several best-selling books out there- one called- Shut Up, Stop Whining & Get a Life, my other favorite is- You’re Broke Because You Want To Be. He has an interesting no holds bar approach to success and creating a better life for yourself. His approach for me was very refreshing and different from other personal development type folks out there.

The real thing that’s holding you back from your success is honestly, well— YOU!  I know that, I’ve known that about myself for a while.  If I don’t like my life, I have no one to blame but myself, I’ve created it. And I KNOW I will get a lot of people who won’t like this post, but guess what I’m ok with that.  I want people to either love me or not. I’m not crazy enough to want everyone to like me, I know that’s not possible, and I’m really ok with that.

So if you’re still reading—here’s a transformative exercise you can do right now to kick your success in high gear— Take about 20 mins and get out 3 sheets of paper.

  1. First piece of paper-  Write down where you are in your life right now—in specific areas like finance, physical, spiritual, relationships, business, etc.
  2. Next, write down where you WANT to be
  3. Last, write down what you have to GIVE UP in order get to where you want to be—

The real key here is STEP 3—Writing down what you will GIVE UP.  Most people create a plan of HOW they will get there, not realizing that they may need to give up some things in order to get where they want to go. This is how you will reach true success—giving up whatever is making your broke, unsuccessful, unhealthy, and whatever is keeping you from being financially successful.  This is huge.  Don’t want, do this exercise now and let me know your thoughts and how you do.  The last key is you have to really want success bad enough to do WHATEVER it takes to get there. Come join me, let’s do that in 2012 together!

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It’s All About the Questions

There is a quote by Albert Einstein that says “If you can’t explain it simply, then you don’t understand it well enough.”

This quote says it all when it comes to the topic of this week’s blog.

It’s ALL About the Questions!

This is actually STEP 2 – AFTER you figure out your goals and outcomes of what you want from doing your survey. Creating questions for your survey products is incredibly important because it will shape the answers you will receive and ULTIMATELY what you will be able to do with that information.  Through this questioning process you will step closer to finding success in your business.

Step # 2 –It’s ALL About the Questions!

When you are coming up with questions, there are SO MANY types of questions to choose from. So let’s start with this— phrase:

“Short, Sweet & to the Point”

One way to keep questions “Short, Sweet & to the Point” is to use open-ended ones. These are the questions that will bare the most fruit for you in your surveys.  A lot of researchers and statisticians don’t particularly like open ended questions because they are the most difficult to measure because each answer is unique, so when sifting through 10k open ended answers, it can be overwhelming in going through all of them. So I highly recommend using open ended questions when you:

1.  Want detailed information in the respondent’s voice

2.  Don’t have good solid answers to create a multiple-choice—because a lot of times you can miss an answer because you didn’t give them one they would have chose. (When you create multiple-choice you’re forcing them to answer your answers that you’ve created.)

The real key to using open ended questions is they can really help not only shape your business, products, etc.; they can also shape YOUR MARKETING.  They write the answers in their voice and will give you key words and key phrases that you can use when you market to them.

Here are some guidelines for you to keep in mind as you create your questions.

1.  Are you questions short or wordy?

  • Simple and concise words are the best to use

2.  5th Grade is your target when it comes to the understanding level.

  • Do not make assumptions
  • Everyone needs to understand them

3.  Stay Away From Complicated.

  • Complication will lead to people not wanting to participate in your survey

4.  Keep your goal and the main thing you want to achieve in mind.

Next week, I am going to take you deeper into how to create those easy and inviting questions that will give you the answers to help shape your business.

PLUS– FREE 60 Minute One On One Call with ME!

If you’ve made it all the way down here to the bottom, thanks for reading, and here’s a gift for you. I want to give you 60 minutes of my time for free, with my compliments.   Maybe you’re:

  • Stuck in your business and not being able to increase your profits fast enough
  • Frustrated your launch didn’t go as well as you planned
  • In need of some help and guidance with your launch
  • Finally ready to create your online marketing funnel and don’t know where to turn
  • Searching simply for some strategic online marketing help, and hand-holding from an expert who’s got proven experience and helped thousands already….
  • problem or issue isn’t listed here… I know I can help….

Well, here’s the deal, you’re in the right place. I can help you!  Just click here. I want to give you a  FREE 60 minute call with me. I’d love to see how I can help you create the business you so deserve and helping you help thousands more people.

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Are You Hard Wired To Fail?

Do you ever set important goals and then find yourself really struggling and not being able to meet them?

I used to have MANY sleepless nights when I first started my business. I would freak out about where my next dollar was going to come from or how I’d finish a project or what to do about x, y and z, it was endless. Worry was taking over my life.  Until I was able to read some terrific books on worry and learn about ways that really helped stop me in my tracks and enabled me to push past my worry and fears to create more success for myself.  The thing is there was definitely something stopping me and a lot of times I had NO clue what it was.

Have you ever felt like something was stopping you? You may be right: your subconscious mind can influence in you subtle ways to keep you from achieving your goals!

Here’s how it works: when you experienced a challenging event as a child – even something as seemingly small as your third-grade teacher yelling at you for asking a question in class – your subconscious downloads the details of that moment and marks the memory with a trigger. It’s like there’s a trigger in your mind saying, “There’s trouble here!”

If a new event activates that trigger, the creative problem solving part of your brain shuts down – stripping you of all the resources and capabilities you should have. So you stop moving forward. And you may not even understand why you stopped because it isn’t a conscious decision. Your subconscious is the one that decided to shut you down.

Want more information about how past events affect current performance, even without you being aware of it? Join my friends and colleagues Jack Canfield (America’s Number One Success Coach and “Chicken Soup for the Soul” author) and Pamela Bruner (Business Success Coach and EFT tapping expert) for a free video, “Are you Hard-Wired You To Fail: What’s Stopping You From Succeeding.” Details here: http://tinyurl.com/6o3d3u3